The Picture Show Annual (1960)

SAM GOLDWYN: Quality Always Comes First Tt was a sudden whim that took Samuel Goldwyn into * a tiny picture house in New York one humid afternoon in August 1913. Sam, a dedicated and success- ful seller of gloves, had the afternoon free and he was looking for a little relaxation. “ I could have just as easily wandered into a park,” he says, looking back on the occasion. Instead he went to see the new flickering phenomenon and came out determined to produce films. With Jesse Lasky and Arthur S. Friend he formed the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Co. On a slim budget they launched their first production. They called it The Squaw Man. To direct it a young playwright was hired. Name of Cecil B. DeMille. The Squaw Man was one of the first full-length films to be made in the States and it was an enormous success. The new company quickly followed it with another hit; Brewster's Millions. Three years later Goldwyn sold his interest in the company for nearly a million dollars. In 1917, with Arch and Edgar Selwyn, Goldwyn formed Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. To break his rivals’ virtual monopoly of the top screen stars, Goldwyn persuaded some of the leading celebrities of the legitimate stage and opera to appear in his pictures. And he per- suaded them with—for those times—fantastic salaries, paying something in the region of £4,000 a week. He also employed well-known artists and scenic designers to create the settings for his films. But Goldwyn had never been happy working for amalgamations. Always a man of independent thought he hated the idea of being shackled by directors and shareholders. In 1924 when the Goldwyn company merged with Metro and became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer he sold out and from,, that day has been an independent producer, backing his choice of pictures with his own money. Although Goldwyn opted out of the merger, M-G-M retained his name as testimony to his part in its creation. Much has been written of Sam Goldwyn’s gags ... of his quaint English. The following are alleged Gold- wynisms : (1) " My wife has such beautiful hands . . . I’m going to have a bust made of them.” (2) ” I can give you my answer in two words : im-possible.” (3) At lunch he tells his friends that he has signed a great new artist; a musician better than Stokowski. “ Who is this genius ? ” ask his friends. " I can’t tell you," hedges Sam. ” Go on, Sam. Anyway, tell us his initials.” “ Very well," says Goldwyn (a deep breath), “ Jascha Heifitz.” Sam Goldwyn does not admit to the authorship of any of the hundred or so sayings attributed to him. But he doesn’t mind—if they are funny. " If they make people laugh why should I be angry ? ” However over the less funny ones he can be a bit touchy. Goldwyn Pictures have figured in every election since the beginning of the Academy Awards, winning twenty- seven awards in one category or another. In 1947 Goldwyn won one of the prized statuettes himself for his production of The Best Years Of Our Lives. In 1953 he was paid a unique home town tribute by the mayor of Beverly Hills who declared “ A Samuel Goldwyn Day ” and gave him a medal in commemoration of his many cultural and charitable activities. There have been many memorable moments in the Goldwyn life but there is one he treasures above all the others ; the day in 1925 when he went to a party and met a beautiful actress. They married shortly after and now, thirty-four years later, still qualify as one of Hollywood’s perfect couples. Goldwyn claims that his only failures have resulted from neglecting her advice. Sam Goldwyn, who is seventy-five, has just completed his sixty-ninth picture. It is also his most ambitious. For years he wanted to put Porgy and Bess, the George Gershwin/DuBose Heyward classic, on film. So had numerous other important producers. But there were always obstacles which prevented full agreement on the part of the Gershwin estate, the widow of DuBose Heyward and the American Theatre Guild. Eventually all obstacles were overcome and Sam Goldwyn was given the go-ahead to make the picture. Goldwyn says : “ Porgy and Bess with all its eloquence, its poetry, its portrayal of universal emotions, its magni- ficent music, has always appealed to me. But I am only one. It has moved the hearts and souls of millions. It is the greatest classic of the American Theatre, with an appeal for all peoples everywhere.” For Samuel Goldwyn, who arrived in the United States a poor Polish youth with scant knowledge of English, the making of the American classic is a dream come true. But having seen the dream become reality he will not relax and wallow in the nostalgia of past successes. His eyes are firmly fixed on tomorrow. And that seventieth picture.