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1-50 of 1,026
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
William V. Ranous was born on 12 March 1857 in New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Treasure Island (1913), Othello (1908) and Julius Caesar (1908). He was married to Doris Thompson. He died on 1 April 1915 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Malcolm Strong was born in 1883 in New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Best Man's Bride (1916), Father's Lucky Escape (1915) and Father's Helping Hand (1915). He died on 3 May 1916 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Clinton Stagg was born in November 1888 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was a writer, known for The Race (1916), A Gutter Magdalene (1916) and High Speed (1920). He died on 3 May 1916 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Joe Moore was born on 22 November 1894 in County Meath, Ireland. He was an actor, known for The Golden Web (1926), Goat Getter (1925) and Love's Battle (1920). He was married to Grace Cunard. He died on 22 August 1926 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Einar Hanson was born on 16 June 1899 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. He was an actor, known for Barbed Wire (1927), Livet på landet (1924) and Skeppargatan 40 (1925). He died on 3 June 1927 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Hughie Mack was born on 26 November 1884 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Bringing Up Father (1915), C.O.D. (1914) and As You Like It (1912). He was married to Mary Agnes McGowan. He died on 13 October 1927 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Walt Whitman was born on 25 April 1859 in Lyon, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Three Musketeers (1921), The Mark of Zorro (1920) and The Three Musketeers (1916). He was married to Miriam Shelby. He died on 27 March 1928 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Director
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Kenneth Hawks, younger brother of director Howard Hawks by two years, and producer William Hawks by one year, was born in 1898 in Goshen, Indiana.
A veteran of World War I in the United States Army Air Service and, later, graduating from Yale University, he began directing films for Fox Film Corporation in 1929, three years after older brother Howard began his directorial career.
Kenneth Hawks married actress and future Oscar-winner Mary Astor in 1928. Astor was widowed upon his death.
On January 2, 1930, with two films to his credit, Hawks and nine other crew members died in the collision of two camera planes over the Pacific Ocean off Southern California while he was directing the film Such Men are Dangerous.- Cinematographer
George Eastman was born on 6 June 1900 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for The Sin Sister (1929) and Cameo Kirby (1930). He died on 2 January 1930 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Cinematographer
Born Abraham Fried in 1900, he was a cinematographer in early Hollywood specializing in outdoor and early western cinema. He died tragically along with 9 others while filming Such Men Are Dangerous (1930) off the coast near Santa Monica, the plane he was filming on collided with another plane. Both planes burst into flames before crashing into the ocean. Among the dead were the director, Kenneth Hawks and three other cameramen George Eastman, Otho Jordan, Ben Frankel and Max Gold, the Assistant Director, two property men and the two pilots.- Actor
- Stunts
Ross Cooke was born on 4 September 1898 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor. He died on 2 January 1930 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
Max Gold was born on 18 December 1898 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Officer of the Day (1926), Hello Lafayette (1927) and Neptune's Stepdaughter (1925). He was married to Rosa Lee Mayer. He died on 2 January 1930 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- George B. Williams was born in 1863 in Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for The Winner (1926), The Silent Flyer (1926) and Captain Blood (1924). He died on 17 November 1931 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Make-Up Department
Hepner was born in 1866. Hepner is known for The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908). Hepner died on 18 January 1932 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Paul Nicholson was born on 23 March 1875 in Orange, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for As Man Desires (1925), The Smart Set (1928) and The Brute (1927). He died on 2 February 1935 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Eddie Boland was born on 27 December 1885 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Sunrise (1927), Oliver Twist (1922) and The Lightning Flyer (1931). He was married to Jean Hope. He died on 3 February 1935 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Al Cooke was born on 26 September 1880 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Defenders of the Law (1931), One Minute to Play (1926) and A Small Town Idol (1921). He died on 6 July 1935 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Actress
Margo Early was born on 31 July 1918 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. She was an actress. She died on 12 January 1936 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Nick Cogley was born on 4 May 1869 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Only a Farmer's Daughter (1915), Monte Cristo (1912) and The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924). He died on 20 May 1936 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Camera and Electrical Department
- Cinematographer
- Special Effects
Henry N. Kohler was born in 1890. Henry N. was a cinematographer, known for For Heaven's Sake (1926), Speedy (1928) and Girl Shy (1924). Henry N. died on 6 August 1936 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Producer
- Writer
Irving Grant Thalberg was born in New York City, to Henrietta (Haymann) and William Thalberg, who were of German Jewish descent. He had a bad heart, having contracted rheumatic fever as a teenager and was plagued with other ailments all of his life. He was quite intelligent with a thirst for knowledge but, convinced that he would never see thirty, he skipped college and became, at 21, a high-level executive at Carl Laemmle's Universal Studios, then the largest motion picture studio in the world.
After hitting a career impasse at Universal (partly as a result of a failed romance with Laemmle's daughter), Thalberg jumped ship and enlisted with the relatively obscure Louis B. Mayer Productions overseeing its typically turgid yet profitable melodramas. While the two men shared a common vision for their company, they approached their responsibilities from radically different angles. Mayer was a macro-manager; like a chess master, he would typically engineer business moves far in advance. Given the opportunity, Mayer could've succeeded as CEO of any multi-national corporation. Thalberg was at heart, all about movies, literally pouring his life into his work, largely leaving the managerial duties of the studio to Mayer. Modest, he disavowed screen credit during his lifetime, decrying any credit that one gives themselves as worthless. This working partnership would keep Louis B. Mayer Productions consistently profitable and would extend into their heydays as masters of MGM but would lead to an acrimonious later relationship.
By 1923 theater mogul Marcus Loew had a big problem. In an effort to secure an adequate number of quality films for his theatrical empire, he had merged Metro Pictures with his latest acquisition, Goldwyn Pictures only to discover his new super-studio had inherited a handful of projects (the Italian-based Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) and Greed (1924)) that had spun wildly out of control. He soon discovered that his problems were magnified by inheriting an incompetent management team. He instructed his attorney to conduct a headhunting expedition with instructions to investigate Louis B. Mayer Productions --- which Loew had previously visited on one of his trips west. Mayer's east Los Angeles studio actually had few tangible assets --- most of his equipment was rented. Loew ended up paying a pittance for Mayer's company but offered both men (after initially rejecting Thalberg!) huge salaries and even more generous profit participation allowances. Answering to New York-based Loew's Inc., Mayer and Thalberg moved into the then-state-of-the-art Goldwyn lot in Culver City and, with Loew's deep pockets, set about creating the most enviable film studio in Hollywood, quickly eclipsing Thalberg's former employer, Universal. Greed was largely scrapped (Thalberg recognizing director Erich von Stroheim's vision of a 7-hour film was unmarketable, had it extensively edited) and written off after a truncated release, with Ben Hur being called home and re-shot with a new director. Saddled with an unfavorable contract and millions in the red, the film would ultimately benefit the new company from prestige more than net profit, despite drawing huge crowds.
Mayer and Thalberg quickly moved past these inherited nightmares and created their dream studio. From 1925 through the mid-1940s there was MGM and then everyone else. It's roster of stars, directors and technicians were unmatched by any other studio. Indeed, to work for MGM meant that you had reached the top of your profession, whether it was front of or behind the cameras. Under Mayer and Thalberg, the studio refined the mechanics of assembly-line film production --- even their B-pictures would outclass the other major's principal productions (arguably MGM's only weakness was comedy). Their formula for quality made MGM the only major studio to remain profitable throughout the Great Depression (although a lesser studio, Columbia also did so, it achieved "major" studio status after 1934, ironically assisted by loaned out stars from MGM).
Thalberg himself was a workaholic and his health, which was never good, suffered. In his position as production supervisor, Thalberg had no qualms about expensive retakes or even extensively re-working a picture after it had completed principal photography --- one such case was with King Vidor's The Big Parade (1925), where he recognized the modest $200,000 WWI drama was lacking the war itself and could be turned into a true spectacle with a few epic battle scenes added. These few additional shots cost $45,000 and turned the film into MGM's first major home-grown hit (and its biggest hit of the silent era), grossing nearly $5 million. If he micro-managed productions there was no one in Hollywood who did it more effectively. Thalberg fell into a deep depression after the mysterious death of his friend and assistant Paul Bern (the two had worked extensively together on the hit Grand Hotel (1932)) and he demanded a one-year sabbatical. Loew's Inc. head Nicholas Schenck (Marcus Loew had died in late 1926) responded by throwing more money at him --- more than Mayer himself was scheduled to earn for the year, alienating Mayer. This, to his ostensible boss was an insufferable insult, one that would drastically alter their relationship. Thalberg remained on the job but suffered a heart attack following a 1932 Christmas party. Mayer quickly engineered a coup of sorts, recruiting a new inner circle of producers (including David O. Selznick and Walter Wanger) to replace him. Thalberg recuperated in Europe with his wife Norma Shearer and returned to MGM in August, 1933 resuming his somewhat reduced duties as a unit production head. He continued to score hits, supervising The Merry Widow (1934), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), the rousing, definitive version of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and the lavish Marie Antoinette (1938) (released after his death).
Thalberg also sought to rectify the studio's poor record in comedy films, signing the Marx Brothers, who had just been released from their contract at Paramount after string of flops. He felt the brilliant comedy team had been seriously mismanaged and ordered their MGM films to be shot in sequence and after their routines had been well tested on stage. The Thalberg-produced A Night at the Opera (1935) was a big hit but he wasn't infallible, stumbling with the critically well-received production of Romeo and Juliet (1936), which went on the books as a $1 million loss. Over Mayer's objections, he delved into the film adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth (1937) but died of pneumonia on September 14, 1936 at age 37. The Good Earth (1937) was released soon afterward, MGM honoring him by providing him his only screen credit (Thalberg had always eschewed a producer's credit on his films).
He was survived by his widow Norma and their two children; Irving, Jr. and Katherine. After his death the Motion Picture Academy created the Irving Thalberg Award, given for excellence in production.- Began working in films from 1916, becoming a a star within five years of his debut. His frequent co-star was was Marguerite de la Motte, whom he later married. The advent of sound effectively ended his career. Shortly after attending a party, the distraught 50-year-old Bowers committed suicide by rowing into the Pacific Ocean and drowning himself. It is commonly believed that his demise was the inspiration for the similar death of fictional film star Norman Maine in both the 1937 and 1954 versions of "A Star is Born."
- Actress
Fay Webb was born on 21 October 1907 in Santa Monica, California, USA. She was an actress. She was married to Rudy Vallee. She died on 18 November 1936 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Arthur Edmund Carewe was born on 30 December 1884 in Trapzon (Trebizond), Turkey. He was an actor, known for Doctor X (1932), The Cat and the Canary (1927) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). He was married to Irene Pavlowska. He died on 22 April 1937 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Mary Blackford was born on 22 July 1914 in Bristol, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi (1933), Merrily Yours (1933) and Love Time (1934). She died on 25 September 1937 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Additional Crew
Allan K. Foster was born on 14 January 1879 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Allan K. is known for Main Street Follies (1935), Syncopated City (1934) and The Love Department (1935). Allan K. died on 2 November 1937 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Actress
- Writer
Mrs. Leslie Carter was born on 10 June 1862 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for DuBarry (1915), The Heart of Maryland (1915) and The Lifeguardsman (1916). She was married to Louis Payne and Leslie Carter. She died on 13 November 1937 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Writer
- Additional Crew
E.C. Segar was born on 8 December 1894 in Chester, Illinois, USA. He was a writer, known for Popeye (1980), Untitled Popeye Live-action movie and Popeye and Friends: Vol. 1 (1937). He was married to Myrtle Annie Johnson. He died on 13 October 1938 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Too short to be a leading lady, Beryl Mercer had a very active and productive career playing motherly characters. She played opposite great leading men, such as Colin Clive, Robert Montgomery, James Cagney, Gary Cooper, Leslie Howard, Spencer Tracy, and Randolph Scott. She also played Queen Victoria in The Little Princess (1939) and The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939).
She and Holmes Herbert had a daughter, Joan. - Aggie Herring was born on 4 February 1876 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Oliver Twist (1922), A Blind Bargain (1922) and Pampered Youth (1925). She was married to Jess Herring. She died on 28 October 1939 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Douglas Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado, to Ella Adelaide (nee Marsh) and Hezekiah Charles Ullman, an attorney and native of Pennsylvania, who was a captain for the Union forces during the Civil War. Fairbanks' paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants, while his mother, a Southerner with roots in Louisiana and Georgia, was of British Isles descent. From the age of five he was raised by his mother due to her husband's abandonment. She changed her sons' surnames to Fairbanks (her former husband's surname) and covered up their paternal Jewish ancestry.
He began amateur theater at age 12 and continued while attending the Colorado School of Mines. In 1900 they moved to New York. He attended Harvard, traveled to Europe, worked on a cattle freighter, in a hardware store and as a clerk on Wall Street. He made his Broadway debut in 1902 and five years later left theater to marry an industrialist's daughter.
He returned when his father-in-law went broke the next year. In 1915, he went to Hollywood and worked under a reluctant D.W. Griffith. The following year he formed his own production company. During a Liberty Bond tour with Charles Chaplin he fell in love with Mary Pickford with whom he, Chaplin and Griffith had formed United Artists in 1919. He made very successful early social comedies, then highly popular swashbucklers during the 'twenties. The owners of Hollywood's Pickfair Mansion separated in 1933 and divorced in 1936. In March 1936, he married and retired from acting.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Francis Powers was born on 4 June 1865 in Marner, Virginia, USA. He was a director and writer, known for As No Man Has Loved (1925), Hearts of Oak (1924) and From Headquarters (1929). He died on 10 May 1940 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
First of all, the cross-eyed comedian of silent days was not born that way. Supposedly his right eye slipped out of alignment while playing the role of the similarly afflicted Happy Hooligan in vaudeville and it never adjusted. Ironically, it was this disability that would enhance his comic value and make him a top name.
Ben Turpin was born in New Orleans in 1869, the son of a French-born confectionery store owner. When 7 years old, his father moved to New York's lower East Side. A wanderlust fellow by nature, Turpin lived the life of a hobo in his early adult years. He started up his career by chance while bumming in Chicago where he drew laughs at parties. An ad in a newspaper looking for comedy acts caught his eye and he successfully booked shows along with a partner. Going solo, he performed on the burlesque circuit as well as under circus tents and invariably entertained his audiences by doing tricks, vigorous pratfalls and, of course, crossing his eyes. One of his more familiar sight gags was a backwards tumble he called the "108." He happened upon the Happy Hooligan persona while playing on the road and kept the hapless character as part of routine for 17 years.
He started in films at age 38 in 1907, joining Essanay Studios shortly after the company began operating in Chicago. He also became their resident janitor for a spell. He stayed with the company for two years but remained on the edges of obscurity. Appearing sporadically in silent comedy shorts, he typically played dorky characters who always did something wrong. His big break came when he returned to Essanay and was introduced to Charles Chaplin, who immediately took to him and set him up with Mack Sennett. By 1917 Sennett had turned Turpin into a top comedy draw. With his trademark crossed eyes and thick mustache, he made scores of slapstick films alongside the likes of Mabel Normand and 'Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle', among others. Most notable were his films that parodied hit movies of the day such as his The Shriek of Araby (1923), in which his character lampooned Rudolph Valentino. Turpin's true forte was impersonating the most dashingly romantic and sophisticated stars of the day and turning them into clumsy oafs.
Turpin retired from full time acting in 1924 to care for his ailing wife Canadian comedy actress Carrie Turpin (nee LeMieux). After her death the following year he returned but his marquee value had slipped drastically. The advent of sound pretty much marked the end to his special brand of physical comedy. He was only glimpsed from then on, mostly in comic cameos for other top stars such as a bit as a plumber with Laurel & Hardy in Saps at Sea (1940), his last. He died of heart disease that same year.- Gene Morgan was born on 12 March 1892 in Racine, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Tangled Destinies (1932), Blonde Venus (1932) and Anybody's Blonde (1931). He was married to Rachel Laretta Hart. He died on 15 August 1940 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- John O'Connor was born on 21 May 1874 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Cassidy (1917). He died on 10 September 1941 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Writer
- Producer
- Script and Continuity Department
Jack Cunningham was born on 1 April 1882 in Ionia, Iowa, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Avenging Arrow (1921), Daredevil Jack (1920) and The Black Pirate (1926). He was married to Ruth Cunningham (1895-1984). He died on 4 October 1941 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Charles Edler was born on 13 August 1864 in New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for The Yankee Way (1917), Sink or Swim (1920) and The Battle of Gettysburg (1913). He died on 29 March 1942 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Helen Troy was born on 23 December 1903 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Between Two Women (1937), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) and Human Cargo (1936). She was married to Alton Edward. Horton. She died on 1 November 1942 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Lillian Langdon was born on 25 November 1860 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Intolerance (1916), Daddy-Long-Legs (1919) and The Millionaire Pirate (1919). She was married to Mr. Bolles. She died on 8 February 1943 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Lynne Overman was born on 19 September 1887 in Maryville, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Union Pacific (1939), Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and She Loves Me Not (1934). He was married to Emily Helen Drange and Sylvia Antoinette Hazette. He died on 19 February 1943 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
- Soundtrack
Edgar Allan Woolf was an American playwright and screenwriter. He is mostly remembered as a co-writer of the fantasy film "The Wizard of Oz" (1939).
Woolf was born in New York City to inventor Albert E. Woolf and his wife Rosamond Wimpfheimer. His father was an inventor of electrical devices.
Woolf was educated in both the City College of New York and Columbia University. He graduated from Columbia in 1901, at the age of 20. He had begun writing plays during his college years. In his senior year, he wrote "The Mischief Maker", produced as Columbia's annual varsity show.
Following his graduation, Woolf sought an acting career. He joined the Murray Hill Stock Company as an actor, performing in New York City for several years. He eventually started writers sketches and plays for vaudeville performers, transitioning from an actor to a writer. He wrote for ,among others, Mrs Patrick Campbell (1865-1940), Pat Rooney (1880-1962), and Mitzi Hajos (1889-1970).
In 1906, Woolf wrote the book for the musical revue "Mam'zelle Champagne". The play became famous not for its content, but a murder occurring at its opening night in the theater. The millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw (1871-1947) murdered the famous architect Stanford White (1853-1906). The publicity of the event helped attract attention to the revue, which had a run of 60 performances.
In the 1930s, Woolf moved from New York City to Los Angeles. He was hired as a screenwriter for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His most frequent collaborator there was Florence Ryerson. The two co-wrote "The Wizard of Oz", and co-created the character of Professor Marvel.
He entertained fellow writers and directors as a host of dinner parties, and personally cooked for his guests.
In 1943, Woolf took daily walks with his pet dog,. In December of that year, he apparently tripped on the dog's leash while walking down the stairs at his Beverly Hill residence. He fell down the stairs, and suffered a fatal skull fracture. His servants transported him to a hospital in Santa Monica, where he died. He was 62-years-old.- Additional Crew
- Producer
The motion picture producer Myron Selznick, who was the head of his father's Lewis J. Selznick Pictures in the early 1920s, is most famous for being the first great talent agent in Hollywood and the brother of David O. Selznick. Movie stars for which Selznick received his ten percent included Constance Bennett, W.C. Fields, Paulette Goddard, Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Carole Lombard, and Laurence Olivier. Selznick also represented directors, including George Cukor, Alfred Hitchcock (whom he was instrumental in bringing to the United States), and Rouben Mamoulian.
Myron was born on October 5, 1898, the eldest of the two sons of Lewis J. Selznick, one of the pioneers of studio film production. Born Lewis Zeleznik in Kiev, Ukraine in the Russian Empire into a poor Jewish family of eighteen, Selznick migrated to London at the age of twelve, and then to the United States, eventually winding up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he made his living as a jeweler. His shop was located near the nickelodeon opened by John P. Harris in 1905, which Pennsylvania officials claim was the country's first dedicated movie theater. Selznick and another merchant with a shop near Harris' nickelodeon, Harry Warner, were intrigued by Harris' business, and both would go on to be the founders of film studios.
After becoming the general manager of the East Coast Universal Film Exchange, Lewis J. Selznick started Equitable Pictures, raiding Vitagraph for Clara Kimball Young, a superstar of the silent screen. Selznick was one of the investors who created World Pictures in 1914 to import foreign feature films and to distribute the movies of several newly-established feature-film companies, including Equitable. Eventually, Selznick merged his company with Shubert Pictures and Peerless Pictures and took effective control of World.
World Pictures, whose corporate motto was "Quality Not Quantity," released movies produced by Equitable, Peerless, Shubert Pictures, and various independent companies, with production centered in Fort Lee, New Jersey. World Pictures wound up dominating the companies whose movies it distributed. When World Film Corp. was incorporated in February 1915, Selznick was appointed its vice president and general manager.
A financial innovator, Lewis Selznick inaugurated a new age of Wall Street investment in the film industry. World Film was a large feature film company with a market capitalization of $2 million (75% of which was outstanding stock), earning a net profit of $329,000 for a return of a little over 20% on the outstanding stock for the fiscal year ending June 27, 1915.
Lewis Selznick was ousted as general manager of World Film in 1916. He left World, taking with him the movie star Clara Kimball Young (who likely was his mistress), and forming his own production company, the Clara Kimball Young Film Corp. Selznick's new company also released movies produced by the Schenck brothers, Joseph and Nicholas, who were partners with theater-owner Marcus Lowe in his chain of movie houses.
In the early years of the film industry, there was a constant series of mergers and acquisitions among studios as individual moguls jockeyed for position. In 1917, Selznick merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Pictures, creating Select Pictures, later reorganized as the Selznick Film Co. He eventually bought out Zukor and merged the two companies into Selznick-Select, then acquired World Pictures' film exchanges, which he renamed Republic Distributing Corp. He shifted his operation to California, completing the move in 1920, where he again linked up with Zukor and Jesse Lasky's Paramount-Artcraft, the successor to Famous Players-Lasky.
The slogan "Selznick Pictures Make Happy Hours" was, by the end of the second decade of the new 20th Century, the best-known slogan in the entertainment industry. Colorful and flamboyant, a quote of Selznick's became one of the most famous aphorisms about the motion picture industry: "There's no business in the world in which a man needs so little brains as in the movies."
Personally, Selznick was a spendthrift, living in a high and imperious style, which shocked the more puritanical and abstentious Louis B. Mayer. Unlike most of the other moguls who lusted for legitimacy for their new industry and themselves, Lewis J. Selznick didn't take the movie business too seriously. Other movie magnates were outraged by his cavalier attitude toward the industry and to the moguls themselves.
Among the immigrant businessmen who created Hollywood and the American motion picture industry, many of whom were barely literate when they entered what would become known almost a century later as the "communications industry," it was the cultured and introspective ones who failed. Selznick had a self-deprecating cynicism that eventually diluted his ambition. It was said that in the early 20s, Selznick would rather stay at home surrounded by his ojects d'art than make the rounds of Hollywood. Apparently, he eschewed schmoozing with other industry insiders at their favorite haunts. Lacking their tastes and world view, Selznick wound up distrusted by the other movie magnates.
Lewis Selznick thoroughly grounded his two sons in the movie industry, an industry in which nepotism is taken for granted. Myron attended Columbia University, but he dropped out and then went to work for his father's movie company as a film examiner, an entry-level position, to "earn his bones" in the industry. He became the youngest producer in Hollywood by the time he was 20, and was producer-in-chief of Selznick Pictures by the time he was 21. By 1920, he had been appointed president of the company, a post he held until the company's failure in 1923, when Adolph Zukor bested his old rival, Lewis J. Selznick.
One of Lewis J. and Myron Selnick's protégés was former Follies girl (and courtesan) Olive Thomas, who was billed as "the world's most beautiful girl." She starred in Upstairs and Down (1919), the first film produced by Myron Selznick, and the first film released by the new Selznick Pictures Corp. She also appeared in "The Flapper" (1920), helping give wide currency to the word which helped define the new, modern, liberated woman of what became known as "The Roaring Twenties," and it was Myron who was considered to have made her a star. Married to Mary Pickford's brother Jack, Thomas died under mysterious circumstances on her "second honeymoon" in Paris in 1920, at the height of her youthful fame. Ruled an accidental suicide by French authorities, she perished after ingesting the contents of a full bottle of mercury bi-chloride pills, a common remedy for syphilis at the time, which her husband said she had mistaken for a bottle of aspirin, never explaining why she had downed its entire contents.
The 1920 edition of "Who's Who on the Screen" hailed Myron as being "recognized by all concerned as one of the most thorough and efficient men connected with the industry. Being in absolute charge of the purchasing of all stories and supervising productions for all the Selznick stars, young Mr. Selznick is indeed a busy executive. When the wonderful new Selznick Studio building is formally opened in Long Island City, Myron Selznick will assume command and Studio Managers, Casting Directors, and Film Editors will work under the youthful executive's wing. He is still in his early twenties and from all indications will become one of the great leaders of the fourth industry of the United States."
That prophecy was never to be realized. When Lewis J. Selznick Production, Inc., became financially troubled during a cyclical downturn that hit the industry in 1923, Lewis J. had no one to turn to. His company went bankrupt in 1923 due to over-expansion, done in by the machinations of a vengeful Zukor, who had bought up stock behind his back and forced the company into bankruptcy.
Lewis J. Selznick never produced another movie. He died on January 25, 1933, in Los Angeles, California. It was said that the professional lives of Myron and his younger brother David O. Selznick thereafter were lived to vindicate the Selznick name. David also learned the ropes as a young man at Lewis J. Selznick Production, and as an independent producer for his own Selznick International, David would win back-to-back Best Picture Oscars for "Gone With the Wind" (1939) and "Rebecca" (1940).
After his father went bankrupt, David O. Selznick quit Columbia University like his brother Myron had before him and moved to California to get back into the industry. Without any help from his father, he got a proofreaders job at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He worked his way up to become an assistant producer in Harry Rapf's unit, then got engaged to Irene Mayer, daughter of Louis B. Mayer, a match strongly disapproved by the M.G.M. boss, who despised David's father.
Lewis J. Selznick had tried to horn in on M.G.M,'s original 1925 production of "Ben-Hur," claiming he had rights to the stage play. David apologized to Mayer for his father, admitting it wasn't right for his father to have pulled such a con, and the two healed their rift. To avoid charges of nepotism, David eventually quit M.G.M. for Paramount, then became production boss at R.K.O. before returning to M.G.M. in 1933 after the heart attack of central producer Irving Thalberg. (The news of the elevation of David O. Selznick to supervising producer at M.G.M. was the source of the famous newspaper headline "The Son-in-Law Also Rises.") After quitting M.G.M. a second time in 1935, he went on to become arguably the greatest independent producer ever, responsible for "Gone With the Wind (1939), the most popular motion picture in cinematic history.
After the collapse of Lewis J. Selznick Production, Myron Selznick tried but failed to establish himself as an independent producer. In 1927, he produced the B-Western The Arizona Whirlwind (1927) with Bill Cody. Two years later, he established himself as a talent agent, creating Myron Selznick & Co., which eventually had offices in Hollywood, New York, and London. His brilliance as an agent made him a millionaire many times over. Selznick became so well-known and such a power in the industry by the early 1940s, that he was mentioned by name in Budd Schulberg's seminal Hollywood novel, "What Makes Sammy Run" (1941).
According to a September 1, 1952 "Time" Magazine cover story on Katharine Hepburn, when she first arrived in Hollywood from Broadway, Myron Selznick, her agent, was appalled at her looks, including her casual way of dressing. He said, "My God, are we sticking them $1,500 a week for this?!?" "Them" was R.K.O., where his brother David was production chief. But Myron's eye for talent was keen, and Hepburn quickly established herself as a star.
Myron built up his agency by signing movie personnel at a time where the studios were cavalier about their employees. In 1930, Myron hired Warner Bros. producer-in-chief Darryl F. Zanuck's former secretary, Marcella Rabwin, to be part of his agency. She had left Zanuck due to sexual harassment, and Rabwin herself had approached Selznick, offering him a proposition; if hired, she'd go back to Warner Bros. and sign up writers and directors, none of whom were under contract. Rabwin's proposition was accepted and proved successful for both her and Myron. Soon she was making more money than anyone else in Selznick's agency. Rabwin quit when Myron asked her to take a pay cut so she'd make less than his male agents. She went back to secretarial work, hired by R.K.O. at $35 per week, and eventually she became David O. Selznick's secretary, moving with him to Selznick International Pictures as his executive assistant.
The actress Marjorie Daw had appeared in England in the silent film with The Passionate Adventure (1924), co-starring Alice Joyce, Clive Brook and Victor McLaglen, a movie co-written by a young Alfred Hitchcock. Daw divorced her husband A. Edward Sutherland to become the wife of Myron Selznick, whose Lewis J. Selznick Enterprises released the film in 1924 in the U.S. Eventually, Myron was the one who "discovered" Histchcock, the director, and brought him to the attention of his brother, Davd O. Selznick, who in turn, brought Hitchcock to Hollywood to direct "Rebecca," the younger Selznick's second consecutive Best Picture Oscar winner.
Myron was no stranger to dealing with his brother as an agent. Earlier, he had represented director-writer William A. Wellman when he was making "A Star is Born" for David, who as a producer, was a notorious control-freak. Behind his director-writer's back, David hired Dorothy Parker and her husband Alan Campbell to rewrite Wellman's dialog. He also hired fellow mogul's son Budd Schulberg and future Hollywood 10 member Ring Lardner, Jr. to help rewrite to the screenplay. When Wellman had had enough of David's meddling, he had Myron threaten to sue his own brother on Wellman's behalf. The meddling stopped.
In 1938, Selznick had a memorable run-in with 20th Century-Fox chief executive Joseph M. Schenck, a former business partner of his father's. He demanded that Loretta Young's salary be doubled to approximately $70,000 a picture and also demanded also that the studio give her the right to work for other studios. Schenck, who had recently been appointed the new president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, was so incensed by Myron's demands, he ordered Selznick off of the 20th Century-Fox lot.
Despite Schenck's intransigence and influence with other studio executives, the Selznick Agency continued to flourish, and Myron's luck remained good. That year, Myron's horse "Can't Wait" finished third at the Kentucky Derby, a fortuitous augury in a company town mad for horse raising. Before Lew Wasserman assumed the late Myron Selznick's mantle as agent extraordinaire around 1950, Selznick had pioneered the production of motion pictures by the stars he represented.
Perhaps Myron Selznick's most famous exploit in Hollywood was his role in the casting of Vivien Leigh as Scarlet O'Hara in his brother's "Gone With the Wind (1939). Then representing Laurence Olivier, Myron took on as a client Olivier's lover Leigh, who had only appeared in English motion pictures. In December 1938, he invited the couple to attend the filming of the burning of Atlanta sequence on the old R.K.O. back-lot, now owned by his brother's Selznick International Pictures. When they arrived that night for the filming of the sequence, the action was being performed by stunt doubles, as would be expected on any picture. But for this, the most hyped movie of its time, it was absolutely necessary as David O. Selznick had yet to cast his leading lady despite a well-publicized talent search over the past year and the fact that he had actually begun production of the movie that very night.
When Myron, Olivier, and the beautiful Vivien Leigh joined the group watching the filming, Myron introduced his client to David with the immortal line, "Hey genius. Meet your Scarlett O'Hara."
The rest, as they say, was history. "God With the Wind" (1939), with Leigh in an Oscar-wining turn as Scarlett, went on to become the most popular motion picture in history, for over half-a-century touted as the greatest American commercial movie ever made.
Myron, at five-and-a-half feet tall, was quite a contrast with his taller brother David, whom according to David's ex-wife Irene Mayer Selznick, he adored and was extremely proud of. Irene Selznick, in her memoir, comments that Myron was frustrated by the agent business as it did not fully engage his extraordinary intelligence and talents. He let David remain the sole producer in the family, although towards the end of his life, he was involved in the setting up of a production company for another major independent producer, Hunt Stromberg.
A long-time M.G.M. producer, Stromberg was involved in a contract dispute with Louis B. Mayer in 1941. On December 13th, after 18 years with the studio, Stomberg resigned, though he had three years to go on his contract. Mayer released him from his obligations, and Stromberg officially left the studio on February 10, 1942. Hollywood expected Stromberg to join United Artists, or to hook up with Myron's brother David O. Selznick. There were other rumors that he would form a partnership with former United Artists executive Murray Silverstone, who had left his studio. Instead, with the help of Myron Selznick, Stromberg revived his independent production company that had lain dormant for 20 years. Stromberg signed up executives from David O.'s old Selznick International team, including Kay Brown, who had bird-dogged "Gone With the Wind" when the novel was in galleys. Already one of the primary investors in Hunt Stromberg Productions, Inc., it was Myron who negotiated a lucrative five-year distribution deal with United Artists.
Myron Selznick never returned to movie production. He died on Mrch 23, 1944, at the age of 45 years old. According to Irene Selznick, the death of Myron was a tragedy for David as only he and David's former producing partner and best friend, John Hay "Jock" Whitney, had had an ameliorating effect on David's megalomaniacal behavior. Jock was off to military service during World War II when Myron died and when Jock returned to the States after being held as a prisoner of war, he abandoned the movie industry for Wall Street. Without his brother and his best friend, the producer David O. Selznick became reckless and eventually became a shell of himself after engaging in the flamboyantly destructive behavior that had brought his own father to ruin.
Myron Selznick was buried at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery (now the Hollywood Forever Cemetery) in Hollywood near the Paramount and R.K.O. studios. The pallbearers at his funeral included Walter Wanger and William Powell, who read the funeral oration. In the fall of 1944, he was disinterred and buried in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, where he was later joined by his beloved brother David.- Best remembered as Valentino's mother in "Blood and Sand," Rosanova began her career on Broadway and later played several immigrant women on the screen. In the film "Lucky Boy" (1929), George Jessell sang 'My Mother's Eyes' to her just like Al Jolson sang to Eugenie Besserer in "The Jazz Singer." With the advent of sound, her career came to an end.
- Betty Blake Rogers was born on 9 September 1879 in Monte Ne, Arkansas, USA. She was a writer, known for The Story of Will Rogers (1952). She was married to Will Rogers. She died on 21 June 1944 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
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- Director
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George Holt was born on 30 September 1878 in Fall River, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and director, known for In the West (1923), The White Masks (1921) and Trouble Trail (1924). He died on 18 July 1944 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Production Manager
Jean Lévy-Strauss was born on 20 February 1898 in France. Jean was a production manager, known for Youth in Revolt (1938), Life Dances On (1937) and The Phantom Wagon (1939). Jean died on 30 December 1944 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Charles E. Evans was born on 6 September 1856 in Rochester, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Happy Days (1929), The Working Man (1933) and The Man Who Played God (1932). He was married to Helena Phillips Evans. He died on 16 April 1945 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Joseph Manning was born on 4 June 1870 in New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Screaming Shadow (1920), The Man Who Disappeared (1914) and Little Pal (1915). He died on 31 July 1946 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Dallas Welford was born on 23 May 1872 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Wedding Bells (1921), Count Macaroni (1915) and His Life for His Emperor (1913). He died on 28 September 1946 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Clyde Fillmore was born on 25 October 1876 in McConnelsville, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Shanghai Gesture (1941), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942) and The Fire Flingers (1919). He died on 19 December 1946 in Santa Monica, California, USA.