Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (
Warsaw, Poland, July,
1882 –
January 31,
1974,
Los Angeles, California) was a widely known motion picture producer and founding contributor of several motion picture studios.
Born
Schmuel Gelbfisz to a
Polish Jewish family, at an early age he left his native Warsaw penniless and on foot. He made his way to
Birmingham, England, where he remained with relatives for a few years using the anglicized name Samuel Goldfish. In 1898, he emigrated to the
United States, but fearing refusal of entry, he got off the boat in
Nova Scotia before moving on to
New York in January 1899. He found work in upstate
Gloversville, New York in the bustling garment business. Soon his innate marketing skills made him a very successful salesman. After four years, as vice-president of sales, he moved back to
New York City.
Paramount
Main article: Paramount Pictures
Samuel Goldfish became a
naturalized citizen of the United States in
1902. At the time, the fledgling film industry was expanding rapidly and in his spare time, an enraptured Goldfish went to see as many movies as possible. Before long, he went into the business with
Vaudeville performer
Jesse L. Lasky, his brother-in-law at the time, and
Adolph Zukor, a theater owner. Together, the three produced their first film, using an ambitious young director named
Cecil B. DeMille. Disputes arose between the partners and Goldfish left after a few years but their company evolved to later become
Paramount Pictures. Shortly before this, he also divorced his first wife, with whom he had a daughter, Ruth.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Main article: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
In 1916 Samuel Goldfish partnered with
Broadway producers
Edgar and
Archibald Selwyn, using a combination of both names to call their movie-making enterprise the
Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. Seeing an opportunity, Samuel Goldfish then had his surname legally changed to the less comical-sounding Goldwyn. The Goldwyn Company proved moderately successful but it is their "Leo the Lion" trademark for which the organization is most famous. Eventually the company was acquired by
Marcus Loew and his
Metro Pictures Corporation but by then Samuel Goldwyn had already been forced out by his partners and was never a part of the new studio that became .
In 1925, he married actress Frances Howard with whom he remained for the rest of his life. Their son,
Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. would eventually join his father in the business.
Samuel Goldwyn Studio
Main article: Samuel Goldwyn Studio
After his departure from Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, he established Samuel Goldwyn Inc., eventually opening
Samuel Goldwyn Studio on Santa Monica Blvd. in
West Hollywood. For 35 years, Goldwyn built a reputation for excellence in filmmaking and an eye for finding the talent for making films. He discovered actor
Gary Cooper, used director
William Wyler for many of his productions and hired writers such as
Ben Hecht,
Sidney Howard and
Lillian Hellman. For more than three decades, Goldwyn made numerous successful films and received Best Picture
Oscar nominations for
Arrowsmith (1931),
Dodsworth (1936),
Dead End (1937),
Wuthering Heights (1939), and
The Little Foxes (1941). The leading actors in several of Goldwyn films were also Oscar-nominated for their performances. The hallmark of his films was excellence.
Oscar
See also: Academy AwardsIn 1946, the year he was honored by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, Goldwyn's drama
The Best Years of Our Lives won the
Academy Award for Best Picture. In the 1950s Samuel Goldwyn turned to making a number of
musicals including the 1955 hit
Guys and Dolls starring
Marlon Brando. (Goldwyn had previously made several musicals starring
Danny Kaye, as well as a 1938 disaster entitled
The Goldwyn Follies.) Two years later, in 1957, he was awarded
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes.
In his final film made in 1959, Samuel Goldwyn brought together
African-American actors
Sidney Poitier,
Dorothy Dandridge,
Sammy Davis, Jr. and singer
Pearl Bailey in a film rendition of the
George Gershwin opera,
Porgy and Bess. The film was nominated for three Oscars, but won only one. It was also a critical and financial failure, and the Gershwin family reportedly disliked the film and eventually pulled it from distribution. The reception of the film was a huge disappointment to Goldwyn.
Samuel Goldwyn died at his home in Los Angeles in 1974 from natural causes at the age of 94. He was interred in the
Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in
Glendale, California. In the 1980s,
Samuel Goldwyn Studio was sold to
Warner Bros.. There is a theater named for him in
Beverly Hills and he has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1631 Vine Street.
Goldwyn is remembered as a ruthless businessman who lacked formal education and his sometimes crude manners added to an explosive temper that left him with few close friends. He nevertheless was a film genius who believed in quality and who not only survived, but prospered in an extremely competitive business. On the passing of former partner and arch rival
Louis B. Mayer, he is quoted as saying: "The reason so many people turned up at his funeral is that they wanted to make sure he was dead."
Samuel Goldwyn's will created a multi-million dollar charitable foundation in his name. Among other endeavors, the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation funds the
Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards, provided construction funds for the
Frances Howard Goldwyn Hollywood Regional Library, and provides ongoing funding for the
Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.
Main article: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Several years after the Sr. Goldwyn's death, his son, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., initiated an independent film and television distribution company dedicated to preserving the integrity of Goldwyn's ambitions and work. The rights to the classic Goldwyn library (among other pre-1996 Goldwyn company holdings) are now held by
MGM.
Actor
Tony Goldwyn and film producer
John Goldwyn are Samuel Goldwyn's grandsons.
Samuel Goldwyn's inferior English language skills led to many of his
malapropisms being frequently quoted such as:
* "Keep a stiff upper chin."
* "In two words, im possible."
* "Don't improve it into a flop!"
* "Gentlemen, include me out."
* "They stayed away in droves."
* "Let's have some new clichés."
* "There is a statue of limitation."
* "Tell them to stand closer apart."
* "Gentlemen, listen to me slowly."
* "That's our strongest weak point."
* "A hospital is no place to be sick."
* "Modern dancing is old fashioned."
* "The harder I work the luckier I get."
* "I read part of it all the way through."
* "Flashbacks are a thing of the past."
* "You fail to overlook the crucial point."
* "I paid too much for it, but it's worth it."
* "I have been laid up with intentional flu."
* "God makes stars. I just produce them."
* "Our comedies are not to be laughed at."
* "He treats me like the dirt under my feet."
* "You've got to take the bitter with the sour."
* "A bachelor's life is no life for a single man."
* "If I look confused it's because I'm thinking."
* "That's the kind of ad I like, facts, facts, facts."
* "What we need now is some new, fresh clichés."
* "This makes me so sore it gets my dandruff up."
* "What nerve. Not even a modicum of originality."
* "You've got to take the bull between your teeth."
* "I had a great idea this morning, but I didn't like it."
* "It's absolutely impossible, but it has possibilities."
* "Never make forecasts, especially about the future."
* "A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad."
* "For your information, just answer me one question!"
* "For your information, I would like to ask a question."
* "Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day."
* "A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on."
* "Every director bites the hand that lays the golden egg."
* "Plenty of room for a tiny brain and a huge ego, though."
* "Don't worry about the war. It's all over but the shooting."
* "Can she sing? She's practically a Florence Nightingale."
* "Go see it and see for yourself why you shouldn't go see it."
* "If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive."
* "The trouble with this business is the dearth of bad pictures."
* "Don't pay any attention to the critics â€" don't even ignore them."
* "Any man who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head read."
* "Put it out of your mind. In no time, it will be a forgotten memory."
* "I'll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty."
* "I never put on a pair of shoes until I've worn them at least five years."
* "Color television! Bah, I won't believe it until I see it in black and white."
* "We have that Indian scene. We can get the Indians from the reservoir."
* "Let's bring it up to date with some snappy nineteenth century dialogue."
* "I don't think anyone should write his autobiography until after he's dead."
* "I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong."
* "Anyone who would go to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined!"
* "Why did you name him Sam? Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Sam!"
* "Give me a couple of years, and I'll make that actress an overnight success."
* "If I were in this business only for the business, I wouldn't be in this business."
* "Go see that turkey for yourself, and see for yourself why you shouldn't see it."
* "Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union."
* "When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy."
* "That would doubtless be a dank and dark and a desolate and dreary place to dwell."
* "From success you get a lot of things, but not that great inside thing that love brings you."
* "I hate a man who always says yes to me. When I say no I like a man who also says no."
* "That's the way with these directors, they're always biting the hand that lays the golden egg."
* "I don't want yes-men around me. I want everyone to tell the truth, even if it costs them their jobs."
* "I don't care if it doesn't make a nickel. I just want every man, woman, and child in America to see it."
* "Why should people go out and pay to see bad movies when they can stay home and see bad television for nothing."
* "True, I've been a long time making up my mind, but now I'm giving you a definite answer. I won't say yes, and I won't say no â€" but I'm giving you a definite maybe."
Having many writers in his employ, some think Goldwyn may not have come up with all of these on his own.
*
American Masters: Sam Goldwyn
