Samuel Goldwyn | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Goldwyn in 1949 | |
| Born | Szmuel Gelbfisz July 1879[a] or August 1882 |
| Died | January 31, 1974(1974-01-31) (aged 94) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park,Glendale, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Samuel Goldfish |
| Years active | 1917–1959 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2, includingSamuel Jr. |
| Relatives |
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| Signature | |
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Samuel Goldwyn (/ˈɡoʊldwɪn/GOHLD-win; bornSzmuel Gelbfisz;Yiddish:שמואל געלבפֿיש; July 1879[a] – January 31, 1974) was a Polish-born Americanfilm producer and pioneer in theAmerican film industry, who produced the United States's first major motion picture. He was best known for being the founding contributor andexecutive of severalmotion picture studios.[1] He was awarded theGolden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award (1973),[2] theIrving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1947), and theJean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1958).
Goldwyn was likely born in July 1879, although he claimed his birthday to be August 27, 1882. At the time, most Jewsfabricated their ages to prevent future conscription for theRussian Empire.[3] He was born as Szmuel Gelbfisz inWarsaw toHasidic Jewish parents, Aaron Dawid Gelbfisz,[4] a peddler, and Hanna Frymet (née Fiszhaut).[5]
He left Warsaw penniless after his father's death and made his way toHamburg. There he stayed with acquaintances of his family where he trained as a glove maker. On November 26, 1898, Gelbfisz left Hamburg forBirmingham,England, where he remained with relatives for six weeks under the nameSamuel Goldfish. On January 4, 1899, he sailed fromLiverpool, arrived inPhiladelphia on January 19, and went toNew York. He found workupstate inGloversville, New York in the bustling glove business. Soon, his marketing skills made him a very successful salesman at the Elite Glove Company. After four years as vice-president of sales, he moved toNew York City and settled at 10 West 61st Street.[6]
In 1913, Goldwyn, along with his brother-in-lawJesse L. Lasky,Cecil B. DeMille, and Arthur Friend formed a partnership, The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, to produce feature-length motion pictures. Film rights for astage play,The Squaw Man, were purchased for $4,000 andDustin Farnum was hired for theleading role. Shooting for thefirst feature film made inHollywood began on December 29, 1913.[7]
In 1914,Paramount was a film exchange andexhibition corporation headed byW. W. Hodkinson. Looking for more movies to distribute, Paramount signed a contract with the Lasky Company on 1 June 1914 to supply 36 films per year. One of Paramount's other suppliers wasAdolph Zukor'sFamous Players Company. The two companiesmerged on 28 June 1916, forming theFamous Players–Lasky Corporation. Zukor had been quietly buying Paramountstock, and two weeks before the merger, becamepresident of Paramount Pictures Corporation and had Hodkinson replaced withHiram Abrams, a Zukor associate.[8]
With the merger, Zukor became president of Paramount and Famous Players–Lasky, Goldwyn was named chairman of the board of Famous Players–Lasky, and Jesse Lasky was the first vice-president. After a series of conflicts with Zukor, Goldwyn resigned as chairman, and as a member of theexecutive committee on September 14, 1916. Goldwyn was no longer an active member ofmanagement, although he still owned stock and was a member of the board of directors. Famous Players–Lasky later became part of Paramount Pictures Corporation, and Paramount became one of Hollywood's major studios.[9]
In 1916, Goldwyn partnered withBroadway producersEdgar andArchibald Selwyn,[10] using a combination of both names to call their film-making enterpriseGoldwyn Pictures. Seeing an opportunity, he had hisname legally changed to Samuel Goldwyn in December 1918[6] and used this name for the rest of his life. Goldwyn Pictures proved successful, but it is their "Leo the Lion" trademark for which the company is remembered today.
After personality clashes, Samuel Goldwyn left the company in 1922. Godsol became chairman of the board and President of Goldwyn Pictures in 1922.[11] On April 10, 1924, Goldwyn Pictures was acquired byMarcus Loew and merged into hisMetro Pictures Corporation, becomingMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Despite including his name, Samuel Goldwyn was never connected with ownership, management, or production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Before the sale and merger of Goldwyn Pictures in April 1924, Goldwyn had establishedSamuel Goldwyn Productions in 1923 as aproduction-only operation (with no distribution arm). Their first feature wasPotash and Perlmutter, released in September 1923 throughFirst National Pictures. Some of the early productions bear the name "Howard Productions", named for Goldwyn's wife,Frances.[citation needed]
For 35 years, Goldwyn built a reputation infilmmaking and developed an eye for finding the talent for making films.William Wyler directed many of his most celebrated productions, and he hired writers such asBen Hecht,Sidney Howard,Dorothy Parker, andLillian Hellman. (According to legend, at a heated story conference, Goldwyn scolded someone—in most accounts, Mrs. Parker, who recalled he had once been a glove maker—who responded to him, "Don't you point that finger at me. I knew it when it had a thimble on it!"[12])
Goldwyn made numerous films during that time and reigned as Hollywood's most successfulindependent producer. Many of his films were forgettable; his collaboration withJohn Ford, however, resulted in aBest PictureOscar nomination forArrowsmith (1931). Goldwyn and Ford had another successful collaboration six years later withThe Hurricane (1937).William Wyler was responsible for most of Goldwyn's highly lauded films, with Best PictureOscar nominations forDodsworth (1936),Dead End (1937),Wuthering Heights (1939),The Little Foxes (1941) andThe Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Leading actors in several Goldwyn films, especially those directed by Wyler, were alsoOscar-nominated for their performances. Throughout the 1930s, Goldwyn released all his films throughUnited Artists; beginning in 1941 and continuing nearly to the end of his career, Goldwyn's films were distributed byRKO Pictures.
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In 1946, the year he was honored by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with theIrving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, Goldwyn'sdrama,The Best Years of Our Lives, starringMyrna Loy,Fredric March,Teresa Wright andDana Andrews, won theAcademy Award for Best Picture.[13] In the 1950s, Samuel Goldwyn turned to make severalmusicals includingHans Christian Andersen (1952), his last withDanny Kaye, with whom he had made many others, andGuys and Dolls (1955) starringMarlon Brando,Jean Simmons,Frank Sinatra, andVivian Blaine, which was based on the successfulBroadwaymusical. This was the only independent film that Goldwyn released throughMGM.
In his final film, Samuel Goldwyn brought together African-American actorsSidney Poitier,Dorothy Dandridge,Sammy Davis Jr. andPearl Bailey in afilm rendition of theGeorge Gershwin opera,Porgy and Bess (1959). Released byColumbia Pictures, the film was nominated for three Oscars but won only one forBest Original Score. It was also acritical and financial failure, and the Gershwin family reportedly disliked the film and eventually pulled it from distribution. The film turned theopera into anoperetta with spoken dialogue in between the musical numbers. Its reception was a major disappointment for Goldwyn, who, according to biographerArthur Marx, saw it as his crowning glory and had wanted to filmPorgy and Bess since he first saw it onstage in 1935.
Goldwyn's house at1200 Laurel Lane in Beverly Hills was completed in 1934, designed byDouglas Honnold andGeorge Vernon Russell. The Goldwyns hosted frequent social events at the house.[14]
In 1910, Goldwyn married Blanche Lasky, a sister ofJesse L. Lasky. The marriage produced a daughter. The couple divorced in 1915. In 1925, he married actressFrances Howard, to whom he remained married for the rest of his life. Their son,Samuel Goldwyn Jr., eventually joined his father in the business.[16]
Despite his marriages, Samuel Goldwyn was known as a ladies' man in social circles. Goldwyn Girl Jean Howard was quoted saying, "Sam Goldwyn was not a fellow to make a pass in public; he had too much taste for that," but his dalliances were many, even as his wife Frances Howard turned a blind eye.[17]
Goldwyn died ofheart failure at his home in Los Angeles in 1974. In the 1980s, theSamuel Goldwyn Studio was sold toWarner Bros. There is atheater named after him in Beverly Hills and he received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 1631Vine Street for his contributions to motion pictures on February 8, 1960.[18][19]
Samuel Goldwyn's grandchildren include:
Goldwyn's relatives include Fred Lebensold, an award-winning architect (best known as the designer of multiple concert halls in Canada and the United States). Fred was the son of Manya Lebensold, Sam's younger sister, who was murdered in theHolocaust, despite the best efforts of her brothers Sam and Ben in 1939–40 to extricate her from theWarsaw Ghetto.
Samuel Goldwyn's will created a multimillion-dollarcharitable foundation in his name. Among other endeavors, the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation funds theSamuel Goldwyn Writing Awards, provides construction funds for theFrances Howard Goldwyn Hollywood Regional Library, and provides ongoing funding for theMotion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.
Several years after the senior Goldwyn's death, his son, Samuel Jr., initiated an independent film and television distribution company dedicated to preserving the integrity of Goldwyn's ambitions and work. The company's assets were later acquired byOrion Pictures, and in 1997, passed on to Orion's parent company,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Several years later, the Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Family Trust andWarner Bros. acquired the rights to all the Goldwyn-produced films exceptThe Hurricane, which was returned to the MGM subsidiaryUnited Artists.
Goldwyn was also known for hismalapropisms,paradoxes, and otherspeech errors called 'Goldwynisms' ("a humorous statement or phrase resulting from the use of incongruous or contradictory words, situations, idioms, etc.") and was frequently quoted. For example, he was reported to have said, "I don't think anybody should write his autobiography until after he's dead."[22] and "Include me out." Some famous Goldwyn quotations are misattributions. For example, the statement attributed to Goldwyn that "a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on" is a well-documented misreporting of an actual quote praising the trustworthiness of a colleague: "His verbal contract is worth more than the paper it's written on". The identity of the colleague is variously reported asJoseph M. Schenck[23] orJoseph L. Mankiewicz.[24] Goldwyn himself was reportedly aware of—and pleased by—the misattribution.
Upon being told that a book he had purchased for filming,The Well of Loneliness, couldn't be filmed because it was aboutlesbians, he reportedly replied: "That's all right, we'll make themHungarians." The same story was told about the 1934 rights toThe Children's Hour with the response "That's okay; we'll turn them intoArmenians."[25]
In theGrateful Dead's "Scarlet Begonias", the line "I ain't often right, but I've never been wrong" appears in thebridge. This is similar to Goldwyn's "I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong."[26]
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Quotations from Wikiquote
