1.
Ernst Lubitsch
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Ernst Lubitsch was a German American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywoods most elegant and sophisticated director, as his prestige grew, in 1946, he received an Honorary Academy Award for his distinguished contributions to the art of the motion picture. Ernst Lubitsch was born on January 29,1892 in Berlin, Germany, the son of Anna and Simon Lubitsch and his family was Ashkenazi Jewish, his father born in Grodno in the Russian Empire and his mother from Wriezen, outside Berlin. He turned his back on his fathers tailoring business to enter the theater, in 1913, Lubitsch made his film debut as an actor in The Ideal Wife. He gradually abandoned acting to concentrate on directing and he appeared in approximately thirty films as an actor between 1912 and 1920. His last film appearance as an actor was in the 1920 drama Sumurun, opposite Pola Negri and Paul Wegener, in 1918, he made his mark as a serious director with Die Augen der Mumie Ma, starring Pola Negri. Lubitsch alternated between escapist comedies and large-scale historical dramas, enjoying international success with both. His reputation as a master of world cinema reached a new peak after the release of his spectacles Madame Du Barry. Both of these films found American distributorship by early 1921 and they, along with Lubitschs Carmen were selected by The New York Times on its list of the 15 most important movies of 1921. With glowing reviews under his belt, and American money flowing his way, Lubitsch formed his own production company, however, with World War I still fresh, and with a slew of German New Wave releases encroaching on American movie workers livelihoods, Lubitsch was not gladly received. He cut his trip short after little more than three weeks and returned to Germany, but he had already seen enough of the American film industry to know that its resources far outstripped the spartan German companies. Lubitsch finally left Germany for Hollywood in 1922, contracted as a director by Mary Pickford, settling in America, Lubitsch established his reputation for sophisticated comedy with such stylish films as The Marriage Circle, Lady Windermeres Fan, and So This Is Paris. But his films were only marginally profitable for Warner Brothers, and Lubitschs contract was dissolved by mutual consent, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His first film for MGM, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, was well regarded, the Patriot, produced by Paramount, earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Directing. Lubitsch seized upon the advent of talkies to direct musicals, with his first sound film, The Love Parade, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, Lubitsch hit his stride as a maker of worldly musical comedies. The Love Parade, Monte Carlo, and The Smiling Lieutenant were hailed by critics as masterpieces of the emerging musical genre. Lubitsch served on the faculty of the University of Southern California for a time and his next film was a romantic comedy, written with Samson Raphaelson, Trouble in Paradise. Later described as amoral by critic David Thomson, the cynical comedy was popular both with critics and with audiences
2.
Irving Thalberg
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Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called The Boy Wonder for his youth, innate commercial instincts, Thalberg had little interest in films as an art form, he notoriously remarked that filmmakers are like servant girls, they need a good slap on the backside now and then. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and as a child was afflicted with a heart disease that doctors said would kill him before he reached the age of thirty. After graduating from school he took night classes in typing. Among the films he produced was The Hunchback of Notre Dame and he then partnered with Louis B. Mayers studio and, after it merged with two studios, helped create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He was made head of production of MGM in 1925, at the age of twenty-six, and after three years MGM became the most successful studio in Hollywood as a result of his supervision. During his twelve years with MGM, until his death at age 37, he produced four hundred films, most of which bore his imprint. Among those innovations were story conferences with writers, sneak previews to gain early feedback, in addition, he introduced horror films to audiences and coauthored the “Production Code, ” guidelines for morality followed by all studios. During the 1920s and 1930s, he synthesized and merged the world of stage drama, Thalberg created numerous new stars and groomed their screen images. He had the ability to combine quality with commercial success, and was credited with bringing his artistic aspirations in line with the demands of audiences. After his death, Hollywoods producers declared him to have been, despite his young age, President Roosevelt wrote, The world of art is poorer with the passing of Irving Thalberg. His high ideals, insight and imagination went into the production of his masterpieces, the Irving G. Thalberg was born in Brooklyn, to German-Jewish immigrant parents, William and Henrietta. Shortly after birth, he was diagnosed with blue baby syndrome, the prognosis from the family doctor, and from specialists years later, was that he would possibly live to age twenty, or at most, age thirty. During his high school years in Brooklyn, he began having attacks of chest pains, dizziness and this affected his ability to study, though until that time he was a good student. When he was 17, he contracted fever, and was confined to bed for a year. His mother, Henrietta, to prevent him falling too far behind other students, brought him homework from school, books and she also hoped that the schoolwork and reading would distract him from the tantalizing sounds of children playing outside his window. With little to him, he read books as a main activity
3.
Samson Raphaelson
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Samson Raphaelson was a leading American playwright, screenwriter and fiction writer. While working as an executive in New York, he wrote a short story based on the early life of Al Jolson, called The Day of Atonement. This would become the first talking picture, with Jolson as its star and he then worked as a screenwriter with Ernst Lubitsch on sophisticated comedies like Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, and Heaven Can Wait, and with Alfred Hitchcock on Suspicion. His short stories appeared in The Saturday Evening Post and other leading magazines, Raphaelson was born in New York. He had become an advertising executive in New York when his secretary encouraged him to convert his short story “The Day of Atonement” into a play. Showing him the manuscript of a play, she pointed out how few words were on each page and she volunteered to take dictation over the weekend. The result, by Sunday evening, was a draft of The Jazz Singer. Raphaelson’s second play, Young Love, was banned in Boston when authorities found it too racy and it starred Dorothy Gish, one of the leading actresses of the day. S. They were Accent On Youth, Skylark and Jason, Accent On Youth was a critical and popular success both on Broadway and in London’s West End, where the young Greer Garson played the leading role. Skylark, another hit, starred Gertrude Lawrence. Jason was less successful commercially but won praise from the New York critics. One called it “the best play of the season” and added that it contained “some of the finest writing to grace a stage in several years. Raphaelson is the first to do the thing successfully. ”In 1948 and he recorded the experience in a book, The Human Nature of Playwriting. The introduction expresses Raphaelson’s deep regard for language so visible in his writing, whether you write or not after you finish school means nothing to me as a teacher. In fact, I don’t think it is important from any viewpoint, but whether you live or not is important, and how you live. You may become businessmen or women, office workers, farmers, or wives and that culture is largely expressed by creative writers through the written word. In the 1940s many Raphaelson short stories appeared in Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, in later years, as a result of Raphaelson’s newly found passion for photography, he wrote a variety of articles for the leading photographic magazines. Some of his thousands of photos ran in the magazines, both as accompaniments to his articles and independent of them, in 1983 the University of Wisconsin Press published Three Screen Comedies by Samson Raphaelson with an introduction by Pauline Kael
4.
Maurice Chevalier
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Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, cabaret singer and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine. His trademark attire was a hat, which he always wore on stage with a tuxedo. He made his name as a star of comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age before working in menial jobs as a teenager. In 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France at the time, Fréhel. Although their relationship was brief, she secured him his first major engagement, as a mimic, in 1917, he discovered jazz and ragtime and went to London, where he found new success at the Palace Theatre. After this, he toured the United States, where he met the American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and he developed an interest in acting and had success in Dédé. When talkies arrived, he went to Hollywood in 1928, where he played his first American role in Innocents of Paris, in 1957, he appeared in Love in the Afternoon, which was his first Hollywood film in more than 20 years. In 1958, he starred with Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan in Gigi, in the early 1960s, he made eight films, including Can-Can in 1960 and Fanny the following year. In 1970, he made his contribution to the film industry where he sang the title song of the Disney film The Aristocats. He died in Paris, on January 1,1972, aged 83, Chevalier was born in Paris, France. His father was a French house painter and his mother, Joséphine van den Bosch, was French of Belgian descent. He worked a number of jobs, an apprentice, electrician, printer. He started in business in 1901. He was singing, unpaid, at a café when a member of the theatre saw him, Chevalier made a name as a mimic and a singer. His act in lAlcazar in Marseille was so successful, he made a triumphant rearrival in Paris, in 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France, Fréhel. However, due to her alcoholism and drug addiction, their liaison ended in 1911, Chevalier then started a relationship with 36-year-old Mistinguett at the Folies Bergère, where he was her 23-year-old dance partner, they eventually played out a public romance. In 1917, Chevalier became a star in le Casino de Paris and played before British soldiers and he discovered jazz and ragtime and started thinking about touring the United States
5.
Jeanette MacDonald
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Jeanette Anna MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy. During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars and she later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to movie-going audiences, MacDonald was born June 18,1903, at her familys Philadelphia home at 5123 Arch Street. She was the youngest of the three daughters of Anna Mae and Daniel MacDonald and she had Scottish, English, and Dutch ancestry. Starting at an age, she took dancing lessons with Al White, imitated her mothers opera records. She performed at church and school functions and began touring in kiddie shows and she was the younger sister of character actress Blossom Rock who is most famous as Grandmama on the TV show Addams Family. In 1920 she appeared in two musicals, Jerome Kerns Night Boat as a replacement, and Irene on the road as the second female lead. Shipman once remarked that MacDonald did not have the legs for a chorus girl. In 1921 MacDonald played in Tangerine, as one of the Six Wives, in 1922 MacDonald was a featured singer in a Greenwich Village revue, Fantastic Fricassee. Good press notices brought her a role in The Magic Ring, MacDonald played the second female lead in this long-running musical which starred Mitzi Hajos. In 1925 MacDonald again had the female lead opposite Queenie Smith in Tip Toes. The following year found her still in a female lead in Bubblin Over. MacDonald finally landed the role in Yes, Yes, Yvette. Planned as a sequel to producer H. H. Frazees No, No, Nanette, MacDonald also played the lead in her next two plays, Sunny Days, her first show for producers Lee and J. J. Shubert, for which she received rave reviews, and Angela and her last play was Boom Boom, with her name above the title. While MacDonald was appearing in Angela, film star Richard Dix spotted her and had her screen-tested for his film Nothing, the Shuberts wouldn’t let her out of her contract to appear in the film, which starred Dix and Helen Kane, the Boop-boop-a-doop girl. In 1929, famed film director Ernst Lubitsch was looking through old screen tests of Broadway performers and he cast her as the leading lady in his first sound film, The Love Parade, which starred the Continental sensation Maurice Chevalier. In the first rush of sound films, 1929–30, MacDonald starred in six films and her first, The Love Parade, directed by Lubitsch and co-starring Chevalier, was a landmark of early sound films and received a Best Picture nomination
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