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Jerry Wald | |
|---|---|
 Jerry Wald (facing away from camera) during rehearsals for the 1958 Academy Awards, withJohn Wayne,Maurice Chevalier andAnthony Quinn | |
| Born | Jerome Irving Wald (1911-09-16)September 16, 1911 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 13, 1962(1962-07-13) (aged 50) |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter; motion picture/radio program producer |
| Years active | 1932–1962 |
| Spouse(s) | Constance M. Polan (1941–1962; his death; 2 children) |
Jerome Irving Wald (September 16, 1911 – July 13, 1962[citation needed]) was an American screenwriter and a producer offilms andradio programs.[1][2]
Born to a Jewish family[3] inBrooklyn, New York, he had a brother and sons who were active in show business. He attended James Madison High School.[citation needed]
He began writing a radio column for theNew York Evening Graphic, while studying journalism atNew York University. This led to him producing severalRambling 'Round Radio Row featurettes forVitaphone,Warner Brothers' short subject division (1932–33).[citation needed]
Wald's first feature credit was for the Warners movieTwenty Million Sweethearts (1934); he provided the story along withPaul Finder Moss at Warners. Wald provided the story (along withPhilip Epstein) for Universal'sGift of Gab (1934).
Wald then signed with Warners where would be based for many years. He worked on the script forMaybe It's Love (1935) and theRudy Vallée musicalSweet Music (1935).
Wald worked on a series of scripts withJulius J. Epstein: the dramaLiving on Velvet (1935);In Caliente (1935);Broadway Gondolier (1935) (both uncredited);Little Big Shot (1935);Stars Over Broadway (1935);I Live for Love (1935); andSons o' Guns (1936) withJoe E. Brown.
Other writers with whom Wald regularly worked wereSig Herzig andWarren Duff who were both onSing Me a Love Song (1937).
Wald worked onReady, Willing and Able (1937) based on a story byRichard Macaulay. Wald, Macaulay, Duff and Herzig worked onVarsity Show (1937). Wald did some work onEver Since Eve (1937).
Wald and Macaulay collaborated on scripts forHollywood Hotel (1937);The Gay Impostors (1938) for Vallée;Garden of the Moon (1938);Brother Rat (1938), based on the hit play; andHard to Get (1938) withDick Powell.
Wald and Herzig were among the writers onGoing Places (1938) with Powell. He and Macaulay worked onThe Kid from Kokomo (1939), from a story byDalton Trumbo;Naughty But Nice (1939) for Powell; andOn Your Toes (1939).
Wald and Macaulay had both mostly worked on musicals but they had a big hit with the gangster filmThe Roaring Twenties (1939), withJames Cagney andHumphrey Bogart, co-written withRobert Rossen.
They worked onBrother Rat and a Baby (1939) (uncredited);3 Cheers for the Irish (1940), a comedy;Torrid Zone (1940), with Cagney andAnn Sheridan;Flight Angels (1940);Brother Orchid (1940);They Drive by Night (1940) withGeorge Raft and Bogart;Million Dollar Baby (1941), a comedy co written withCasey Robinson;Out of the Fog (1941) with Lupino, working with Rossen;Manpower (1941) with Raft,Edward G Robinson andMarlene Dietrich.
Wald was promoted to producer at the recommendation ofMark Hellinger. His first credit wasNavy Blues (1941), which he also wrote with Macaulay.[1]
Wald was associate producer onThe Man Who Came to Dinner (1941), adapted by the Epsteins;All Through the Night (1942), with Bogart;Larceny, Inc. (1942) with Robinson; andJuke Girl (1942) with Sheridan andRonald Reagan.
Wald was promoted to full producer, and soon established himself as one of the leading filmmakers on the lot:Across the Pacific (1942), with Bogart and directorJohn Huston, written by Macaulay;George Washington Slept Here (1942) andThe Hard Way (1943); he also contributed to the story of the latter, but had effectively given up writing.
Wald went on to produceAction in the North Atlantic (1943) with Bogart;Background to Danger (1943) with Raft;Destination Tokyo (1943) withCary Grant and directed byDelmer Daves;In Our Time (1944) with Lupino;The Very Thought of You (1944) withDennis Morgan andEleanor Parker;Objective, Burma! (1945) withErrol Flynn; andPride of the Marines (1945) withJohn Garfield.
Wald producedJoan Crawford's first film at Warners,Mildred Pierce (1945) which won her an Oscar and earned Wald an Oscar Nomination for Best Picture. He did her next film,Humoresque (1946), written byClifford Odets and directed byJean Negulesco.
Wald producedThe Unfaithful (1947) withAnn Sheridan and director Vincent Sherman;Possessed (1947) with Crawford;Dark Passage (1947) with Bogart andLauren Bacall for Daves; andTo the Victor (1948) with Morgan and Dves.
He produced a series of classic films:Key Largo (1948) with Bogart, Bacall andEdward G. Robinson;Johnny Belinda (1948), which won an Oscar for starJane Wyman; andAdventures of Don Juan (1948) with Flynn.
Wald's credits then includedOne Sunday Afternoon (1949), with Morgan;John Loves Mary (1949) withRonald Reagan;Flamingo Road (1949) with Crawford; Daves'Task Force (1949) withGary Cooper;Always Leave Them Laughing (1949) withMilton Berle; andThe Inspector General (1949) withDanny Kaye.
Wald producedYoung Man with a Horn (1950) withKirk Douglas;Perfect Strangers (1950) with Morgan andGinger Rogers; Sherman'sThe Damned Don't Cry (1950) with Crawford;Caged (1950), withEleanor Parker; the first adaptation ofThe Glass Menagerie (1950);The Breaking Point (1950), from a Hemingway novel, with Garfield; andStorm Warning (1951), an anti-Ku Klux Klan film with Rogers, Reagan andDoris Day.
His story, Hot Air shot asTwenty Million Sweethearts (1934), was filmed as the Doris Day musicalMy Dream Is Yours (1949).
Wald andNorman Krasna formed Wald/Krasna Productions to release films throughRKO Radio Pictures.Howard Hughes reportedly paid Warners $150,000 to release Wald from his contract with them. They were to make 12 films a year for five years with a budget of $50 million.[1]
Their movies together includedTwo Tickets to Broadway (1951), a musical;The Blue Veil (1951), with Jane Wyman;Behave Yourself! (1952), a comedy withShelley Winters;The Lusty Men (1952), a rodeo drama withRobert Mitchum; andClash by Night (1953), from a play byClifford Odets. Wald did some uncredited producing onMacao (1952) with Robert Mitchum.
Krasna and Wald dissolved their partnership because of interference fromHoward Hughes, then head of RKO, in their productions.
Wald went to Columbia in 1952 as vice president in charge of production.[1]
At Columbia he producedMiss Sadie Thompson (1953) starringRita Hayworth;Queen Bee (1955) with Crawford, directed byRanald MacDougall;The Harder They Fall (1956), Bogart's last movie; andThe Eddy Duchin Story (1957), a biopic withTyrone Power andKim Novak.
Wald signed a contract with20th Century Fox where he established Jerry Wald Productions. He had a solid hit withAn Affair to Remember (1957) starring Grant andDeborah Kerr, and some minor ones withNo Down Payment (1957) directed byMartin Ritt, andKiss Them for Me (1957) with Grant. Wald had one of the biggest successes of his career withPeyton Place (1957), directed by Mark Robson.[4]
Wald also producedThe Long, Hot Summer (1958) with Paul Newman andJoanne Woodward from the novel byWilliam Faulkner for Ritt;In Love and War (1958), a war film withRobert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter directed byPhilip Dunne;Mardi Gras (1958) a musical withPat Boone; andThe Sound and the Fury (1959), more Faulkner from Ritt with Woodward andYul Brynner.[5]
During this time Wald told the press that a filmmaker's motto should be "Don't offend the innocent but don't frustrate the intelligent."[6]
Wald producedThe Best of Everything (1959) with Crawford, directed by Negulesco;Hound-Dog Man (1959), an attempt to make a film star ofFabian Forte;Beloved Infidel (1959) with Kerr andGregory Peck;The Story on Page One (1959), written and directed by Odets, starring Hayworth.
Wald spent a period in England to makeSons and Lovers (1960). Back in Hollywood he producedLet's Make Love (also 1960), Marilyn Monroe's penultimate film;Return to Peyton Place (1961);Wild in the Country (1961), anElvis Presley film written by Odets and directed by Dunne;Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962) starringJames Stewart and Fabian;Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962) for Ritt withRichard Beymer;The Stripper (1963) with Woodward and Beymer.
He also produced theAcademy Awards telecast twice, the ceremonies for 1957 and 1958.[citation needed]
In July 1961 Wald's contract with Fox was expanded from ten films over three years to 18 films over three years, starting in September. Films announced includedAdventures of A Young Man,Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation,The Enemy Within,Lost Girl,Ulysses, the remake ofOf ‘Human Bondage,Let It Come Down,Sextette,Pink Tights andHigh Wind in Jamaica.[7]
Among the films Wald was working on at the time of his death were adaptations ofThe Enemy Within,[8]Ulysses andA High Wind in Jamaica.[1]
He received four Academy Award nominations as producer of the followingnominees for Best Picture:Mildred Pierce,Johnny Belinda,Peyton Place andSons and Lovers.[9] Although he never won a competitive Academy Award, he was awarded theIrving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1949.[10]
Wald is often cited as the real-life inspiration for the character Sammy Glick in the novelWhat Makes Sammy Run byBudd Schulberg although Schulberg himself denied this.[11]
Jerry Wald, was a close friend of Joan Crawford in the forties, offering her many parts including the title role inMildred Pierce, which he produced. He convinced directorMichael Curtiz that she would succeed in the role, which brought her the Oscar for Best Actress in 1946. Jerry Wald not only producedMildred Pierce, but alsoHumoresque (1946), considered one of the best performances of Crawford's career,Across the Pacific (1942),The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942),Possessed (1947),Flamingo Road (1949),The Damned Don't Cry (1950). After her career at Warner's fizzled out slowly even though she wished to remain with Warner's, after years of reinventing herself, she bought out her contract.[citation needed]
He is alleged to have responded, when asked why he attendedHarry Cohn's funeral, “Just to be sure the bastard was dead”[12]
Wald married his wife Constance Emily "Connie" Polan (née Polan) on Christmas Day 1941; the couple had two sons. She became a California socialite and hostess whose dinner parties, frequented by her friendAudrey Hepburn, continued after her husband died.[13][14]
Wald had been ill for the last few years of his life, suffering three heart attacks. He died, aged 50, at his home inBeverly Hills, California from a heart attack.[citation needed][15][16]
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