1.
Frank Capra
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Frank Russell Capra was an Italian-American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, during World War II, Capra served in the U. S. Army Signal Corps and produced propaganda films, such as the Why We Fight series. After World War II, Capras career declined as his films such as Its a Wonderful Life. In succeeding decades, however, these films have been favorably reassessed, outside of directing, Capra was active in the film industry, engaging in various political and social issues. He served as President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, worked alongside the Screenwriters Guild, Capra was born Francesco Rosario Capra in Bisacquino, Sicily, a village near Palermo. He was the youngest of seven children of Salvatore Capra, a grower. The name Capra, notes Capras biographer Joseph McBride, represents his familys closeness to the land, and means goat. For Capra, the journey, which took 13 days, remained in his mind for the rest of his life as one of his worst experiences, very few people have trunks or anything that takes up space. They have just what they can carry in their hands or in a bag, theres no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. Its the most degrading place you could ever be, Capra remembers the ships arrival in New York Harbor, where he saw a statue of a great lady, taller than a church steeple, holding a torch above the land we were about to enter. He recalls his fathers exclamation at the sight, Ciccio, look, thats the greatest light since the star of Bethlehem. The family settled in Los Angeless East Side which Capra described in his autobiography as an Italian ghetto, Capras father worked as a fruit picker and young Capra sold newspapers after school for 10 years, until he graduated from high school. Instead of working after graduating, as his parents wanted, he enrolled in college and he studied chemical engineering and graduated in the spring of 1918. Capra later wrote that his education had changed his whole viewpoint on life from the viewpoint of an alley rat to the viewpoint of a cultured person. Soon after graduating college, Capra was commissioned in the US Army as a second lieutenant, in the Army, he taught mathematics to artillerymen at Fort Point, San Francisco. His father died during the war in an accident, in the Army, Capra contracted Spanish flu and was medically discharged to return home to live with his mother. He became a naturalized U. S. citizen in 1920, living at home with his siblings and mother, Capra was the only family member with a college education, yet he was the only one who remained chronically unemployed. After recovering at home, Capra moved out and spent the few years living in flophouses in San Francisco and hopping freight trains
2.
Anatole Litvak
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Anatole Litvak was a Russian-born American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in various countries and languages. He began his training at age 13 in Leningrad. Litvak was notable for directing little-known foreign actors to early fame, in 1936 he directed Mayerling, a film which made Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux international stars. He returned Swedish star Ingrid Bergman to popularity with American audiences in 1956 with Anastasia and he directed Olivia de Havilland to an Academy Award nomination for The Snake Pit in 1948. He also directed Jean Gabin in his debut, and directed Elia Kazan in his earliest acting role. Litvak directed Confessions of a Nazi Spy in 1939 starring Edward G. Robinson, as a refugee from Nazi Germany, Litvak was among the few directors who tried to open Hollywoods eyes to the threat Germany posed to Europe and the world. During World War II, he enlisted and co-directed documentaries with Frank Capra and his solo-directed, The Battle of Russia, in 1943, won numerous awards and was nominated for an Oscar. Because of Litvaks ability to speak Russian, German, and French and he also filmed aerial warfare with the U. S. For his volunteer efforts, he ended the war as a full colonel, receiving special awards from the governments of France, Britain. Born Mikhail Anatol Litvak in Kiev, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire, as a teenager, he worked at a theater in St. Petersburg and took acting lessons at the state drama school. Litvak worked with Leningrads Nordkino Studios where he was assistant director for nine silent films, for political and ideological reasons, and especially because Russian theaters were nationalized in the 1920s, he fled Russia for Berlin in 1925. In Germany, Litvak made his first few films at the beginning of the 1930s before the rise of the Nazis and he later fled to France prior to the Nazi invasions of World War II. According to film historian Ronald Bowers, Litvak became skilled in using location shooting and he also became known in the industry for emphasizing sound effects over dialogue in sound films as well as preferring to keep the camera running with tracking shots and pans. His preference for achieving motion in camerawork often saw him using crane shots, max Ophüls, who worked as Litvaks assistant in France, would later become a recognized director. American writer Lincoln Kirstein claimed the film became a kind of standard for the film in an historical setting. The worldwide success of Mayerling brought Litvak invitations from Hollywood, including being offered a contract by Warner Brothers. Accepting the contract, Litvak became one of Hollywoods leading directors by the late 1930s and he directed such films as Tovarich, a comedy celebrating outmoded values of the ruined Russian aristocracy. Also with Warners, he directed Confessions of a Nazi Spy, among the techniques he used in the film to achieve realism was the inclusion of actual newsreel footage from U. S. Nazi rallies
3.
United States Office of War Information
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OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, the office also established several overseas branches, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad. The Foreign Information Service, a division of the Office of the Coordinator of Information, at the onset of World War II, the American public was in the dark regarding wartime information. Further, the American public confessed a lack of understanding as to why the world was at war, President Roosevelt established the OWI to both meet the demands for news and less confusion, as well as resolve American apathy towards the war. The OWI’s creation was not without controversy, the American public, and the United States Congress in particular, were wary of propaganda for several reasons. First, the press feared a centralized agency as the distributor of wartime information. Second, Congress feared an American propaganda machine that could resemble Joseph Goebbels’ operation in Nazi Germany, third, previous attempts at propaganda under the Committee on Public Information/Creel Committee during WWI were viewed as a failure. And fourth, America was experiencing endemic isolationism and was hesitant to become involved in a propaganda campaign. The OWI’s operations were divided between the Domestic and Overseas Branches. In 1942 OWI established the Voice of America, which remains in service as of 2015 as the government broadcasting service of the United States. The VOA initially borrowed transmitters from the commercial networks, the programs OWI produced included those provided by the Labor Short Wave Bureau, whose material came from the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. In conjunction with the War Relocation Authority, the OWI produced a series of films related to the internment of Japanese Americans. The OWI also worked with camp newspapers to disseminate information to internees, in addition, the OWI produced a series of 267 newsreels in 16 mm film, The United Newsreel which were shown overseas and to US audiences. These newsreels incorporated U. S. military footage, for examples see this Google list. The OWI Bureau of Motion Pictures worked with Hollywood to produce films that advanced American war aims, successful films depicted the Allied armed forces as valiant Freedom fighters, and advocated for civilian participation, such as conserving fuel or donating food to troops. By July 1942 OWI administrators realized that the best way to reach American audiences was to present war films in conjunction with feature films, OWIs presence in Hollywood deepened throughout World War II, and by 1943 every Hollywood studio allowed OWI to examine all movie scripts. OWI evaluated whether each film would promote the honor of the Allies mission, the Overseas Branch enjoyed greater success and less controversy than the Domestic Branch. Abroad, the OWI operated a Psychological Warfare Branch, which used propaganda to enemy forces in combat zones
4.
Julius J. Epstein
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It was adapted from an unpublished play, Everybody Comes to Ricks, written by Murray Bennett and Joan Alison. His identical twin died in 1952, a loss that he felt for the rest of his life and he continued writing, receiving two more Oscar nominations. In 1998, he received a Los Angeles Film Critics Association career achievement award and his credits included Four Daughters for which he received his first Oscar nomination, The Bride Came C. O. D. The Man Who Came to Dinner, Mr. Skeffington, The Tender Trap, Light in the Piazza, Send Me No Flowers, Pete n Tillie, and Reuben, Reuben. Epstein was born Julius Epstein as a twin to his brother Philip on August 22,1909 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City and their parents owned a livery stable at a time when horses were widely used in the city. He and Philip both graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 1931, where they were champions in boxing and he graduated with a BA in Arts and Letters. He maintained close ties with Penn State throughout his life, at his request, he was buried in a Penn State polo shirt. After college, the Epsteins went to Hollywood, hoping to work in the movies and they became successful screenwriters and began collaborating in 1939. They were noted for their Academy Award-winning Casablanca, written together with Howard Koch, jack L. Warner, head of Warner Brothers, had a tortuous relationship with the Epstein twins. While he could not argue with their commercial acumen, he deplored their pranks, their work habits, in 1952, Warner gave their names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. They never testified before the committee, but on a HUAC questionnaire, Epstein married the actress Frances Sage and they had two children, James and Elizabeth. Epstein married Ann and they had a son Philip, who died in 2000 and he died on December 30,2000 in Los Angeles, California. Epstein shared an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of Four Daughters, written with Thyra Samter Winslow as an adaptation from Frances Hursts novel, in 1944, the Epstein brothers attempted their first film in the capacity of both writers and producers with Mr. Skeffington. The picture was a success and won both Bette Davis and Claude Rains Oscar nominations. About writing under the system of the 1930s and 40s, Epstein said in a 1984 interview. Movies in those days were prevented from reality, every leading man had to be a great sexual athlete. Every boy and girl had to meet cute, and the girl had to dislike the hero when they met, if a woman committed adultery, she had to die. Now the woman who commits adultery is your heroine, Four Daughters, for which he received his first Oscar nomination for an adapted screenplay
5.
Walter Huston
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Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor and singer. Huston won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Huston was born in Toronto, Ontario, where he attended Winchester Street Public School. He was the son of Elizabeth and Robert Moore Houghston, a farmer who founded a construction company. He was of Scottish and Irish descent and he had a brother and two sisters, one of whom was the theatrical voice coach Margaret Carrington. His family moved, before his birth, from Orangeville, Ontario where they were farmers, as a young man, he worked in construction and in his spare time attended the Shaw School of Acting. He made his debut in 1902. He went on to tour in In Convict Stripes, a play by Hal Reid, father of Wallace Reid and he again toured in another play The Sign of the Cross. In 1904, he married Rhea Gore and gave up acting to work as a manager of power stations in Nevada. He maintained these jobs until 1909, in 1909, his marriage foundering, he appeared with an older actress named Bayonne Whipple. They were billed as Whipple and Huston and, in 1915, vaudeville was their livelihood into the 1920s. Huston began his Broadway career on January 22,1924 and he appeared in a play, Mr. Pitt. Several more Broadway plays solidified his fame, e. g. Desire Under the Elms, Kongo, The Barker, Elmer the Great, once talkies began in Hollywood, he achieved fame in both character roles and as a leading man. His first major role was portraying the villainous Trampas in the western The Virginian with Gary Cooper and he starred as the title character in the Broadway theatrical adaptation of Sinclair Lewiss novel Dodsworth in 1934 and the plays film version two years later. For his role as Sam Dodsworth, Huston won the New York Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award, Huston remained busy throughout the 1930s and 1940s, both on stage and screen. He performed September Song in the original Broadway production of Knickerbocker Holiday in 1938, in 1941, Walter Huston portrayed the part of the ships captain, who is shot while delivering the black bird to Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon. Walters son, John Huston, directed the picture, John Huston, as a practical joke, had his father enter the scene and die over 10 different takes. In 1948, he played Howard in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, travens novel, which told the story of three gold diggers in 1920s post-revolution Mexico. In the 1950 release of the entitled, September Affair, starring Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten
6.
Robert J. Flaherty
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Robert Joseph Flaherty, FRGS was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, Nanook of the North. He is considered the father of both the documentary and the ethnographic film, Flaherty was married to writer Frances H. Flaherty from 1914 until his death in 1951. Frances worked on several of her husbands films, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story for Louisiana Story, Flaherty was one of seven children born to prospector Robert Henry Flaherty and Susan Klockner. He was sent to Upper Canada College in Toronto for his education, Flaherty began his career as a prospector in the Hudson Bay region of Canada, working for a railroad company. Flaherty wrote for the Geographical Review, in 1909 he shared stories about information he was told by an Inuk man named Wetallok. Flaherty said he met Wetalltok while visiting the Hudson Bay in search of iron ore, in his story, Flaherty published a detailed map of the Inuit region and shared information about the bay that Wetallok had told him. His writing about Wetallok would go on to be published in his book, My Eskimo Friends, in 1913, on Flahertys expedition to prospect the Belcher Islands, his boss, Sir William Mackenzie, suggested that he take a motion picture camera along. He brought a Bell and Howell hand cranked motion picture camera and he was particularly intrigued by the life of the Inuit people, and spent so much time filming them that he had begun to neglect his real work. When Flaherty returned to Toronto with 30,000 feet of film and his film was destroyed and his hands were burned. Although his editing print was saved and shown several times, Flaherty wasnt satisfied with the results and it was utterly inept, simply a scene of this or that, no relation, no thread of story or continuity whatever, and it must have bored the audience to distraction. Flaherty was determined to make a new film, one following a life of a typical Inuk, in 1920, he secured funds from Revillon Frères, a French fur trade company to shoot what was to become Nanook of the North. On 15 August 1920, Flaherty arrived in Port Harrison, Quebec to shoot his film and he brought two Akeley motion-picture cameras which the Inuit referred to as the aggie. He also brought full developing, printing, and projection equipment to show the Inuit his film and he lived in an attached cabin to the Revillon Frères trading post. In making Nanook, Flaherty cast various locals in parts in the film, the half-igloo had been built beforehand, with a side cut away for light so that Flahertys camera could get a good shot. Flaherty insisted that the Inuit not use rifles to hunt, though their use had by that time become common and he also pretended at one point that he could not hear the hunters pleas for help, instead continuing to film their struggle and putting them in greater danger. Melanie McGrath writes that, while living in Northern Quebec for the year of filming Nanook, Flaherty had an affair with his lead actress, a few months after he left, she gave birth to his son, Josephie, whom he never acknowledged. Josephie was one of the Inuit who were relocated in the 1950s to very difficult living conditions in Resolute and Grise Fiord, according to McGrath, Flaherty knew of his sons difficulties, but took no action. Corroboration of McGraths account is not readily available and Flaherty himself never discussed the matter, Nanook began a series of films that Flaherty was to make on the same theme of humanity against the elements
7.
20th Century Fox
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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, the studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2015, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 80th anniversary as a studio. Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, the studios biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn, at first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called Fox-20th Century, even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, the new company, 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31,1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985. Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President, Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Foxs longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan. The company established a training school. The contracts included an option for renewal for as long as seven years. For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The companys films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their credits as well as its opening fanfare. Also on the Fox payroll he found two players who he built up into the studios leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple, favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox overtook RKO, while Zanuck went off for eighteen months war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by going for light entertainment. The studios—indeed the industrys—biggest star was creamy blonde Betty Grable, in 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Foxs output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razors Edge, Wilson, Gentlemans Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and they also made the 1958 film version of South Pacific
