Polish-born American film producer Samuel Goldwyn (born 1882) was notable among Holly wood executives for his belief that artistic aspirations need not conflict with commercial success.
Samuel Goldwyn (original surname, Goldfish) was born in Warsaw on Aug. 17, 1882, ran away from home at the age of 9, and arrived in the United States 4 years later. He learned English in night school, supporting himself as a glove salesman.
In 1913 Goldwyn joined vaudeville producer Jesse L. Lasky and theatrical director Cecil B. DeMille in forming the first feature motion picture company on the West Coast. Their initial production, The Squaw Man (1913), was an instant success, as was Carmen (1915). When Lasky and DeMille merged with another film producer in 1916, Goldwyn became an independent producer and distributor. In 1919 he was instrumental in importing the European masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which, despite its box office failure, helped establish Goldwyn's reputation.
Among Goldwyn's early films were Jubilo (1919), a drama about farm life; The Penalty (1922), a story of drug addiction; Stella Dallas (1925), a mature domestic drama; and The Winning of Barbara Worth (1927), the western that introduced Gary Cooper. Goldwyn was credited with making Cooper - and later Laurence Olivier and Danny Kaye - a movie star.
Goldwyn met the challenge of talking pictures by seeking writers who could furnish literate dialogue. Such literary figures as Lillian Hellman, Ben Hecht, Robert E. Sherwood, and Sidney Howard wrote scripts worthy of the talented directors Goldwyn chose. Goldwyn's first talking picture, Bulldog Drummond (1929), was a witty satire by Howard. Arrowsmith (1931), adapted from Sinclair Lewis's novel, was directed by John Ford. The Wedding Night (1935), about a strife-torn New England family, was powerfully directed by King Vidor.
With the highly acclaimed film of Lewis's Dodsworth (1936), Goldwyn began his long association with director William Wyler, collaborating on such excellent films as These Three (1936); Lillian Hellman's adaptation of her controversial play The Children's Hour; Wuthering Heights (1939), brilliantly acted by Laurence Olivier; The Little Foxes (1941), also written by Hellman; and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), which won nine Academy Awards.
Other important Goldwyn productions included The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), and Guys and Dolls. His last film was Porgy and Bess (1959). His impact and influence on the movie industry was significant.
Goldwyn was also known for his quick wit and humor. He was reported to have commented, "Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union." When asked about his autobiography, Goldwyn reportedly replied, "I don't think anybody should write his autobiography until after he's dead."
Further Reading
Goldwyn's Behind the Screen (1923) gives historical and autobiographical information. A well-written and entertaining biography is Alva Johnston, The Great Goldwyn (1937). Background information is in Richard Griffith and Arthur Mayer, The Movies: The Sixty-year Story of the World of Hollywood and Its Effect on America (1957), and Richard Schickel, Movies: The History of an Art and an Institution (1964). Arthur Marx chronicles the life of the famed film producer in Goldwyn: the Man Behind the Myth (1976).
(born July 1879, Warsaw, Pol. — died Jan. 31, 1974, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) U.S. film producer. He emigrated alone at age 13 from Poland to New York, where he worked in a glove factory and became a salesman. He formed a film company with his brother-in-law, Jesse L. Lasky (1880 – 1958), and Cecil B. DeMille in 1913. In 1917 he left the company and with Edgar Selwyn established Goldwyn Pictures Corp. By the time that company merged into MGM (1924), he had become an independent producer. He employed top screenwriters, directors, and actors to produce films of high quality, including Wuthering Heights (1939), The Little Foxes (1941), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Guys and Dolls (1955), and Porgy and Bess (1959).
Goldwyn, Samuel (gōl'dwĭn), 1882-1974, American film producer, b. Warsaw, Poland. Goldwyn arrived in the United States in 1896, and with Jesse L. Lasky and Cecil B. De Mille he organized the Jesse Lasky Feature Photoplay Company, coproducing The Squaw Man (1913). In 1916 he formed the Goldwyn Pictures Corp., which later merged with Metro Pictures and the company organized by Louis B. Mayer to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. To promote superior screenwriting he founded Eminent Authors Pictures, Inc. (1919). Goldwyn later produced many major films independently, including Wuthering Heights (1939), Guys and Dolls (1955), and Porgy and Bess (1959). He won an Academy Award for The Best Years of Our Lives (1947).
Bibliography
See his Behind the Screen (1923); A. S. Berg, Goldwyn (1989); C. Easton, The Search for Samuel Goldwyn (1989).
Career Highlights: The Best Years of Our Lives, Greed, Wuthering Heights
First Major Screen Credit: The Penalty (1920)
Biography
One of the most distinguished of the old Hollywood movie moguls, Samuel Goldwyn probably rose the farthest of them all from the humblest of beginnings. Born Schmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw, Poland, in 1879 (some sources say 1882), he grew up in a life of dire poverty. At age 16, he left home on foot, headed west, and ended up in England, where he lived for two years. He adopted the name Samuel Goldfish, worked, begged, and perhaps also stole to survive, and then got passage on a ship to Nova Scotia. He headed south to New York, again on foot, in 1898. He arrived without a penny to his name and got a job sweeping floors at a glove company, later becoming a glove maker's apprentice and also attending night school to further his education. Goldfish became a salesman for the company and was good enough to earn a five-figure annual income at the opening of the 20th century, extraordinary for a working man. [Note: Goldwyn's background with the glove company was referred to obliquely in a sight gag in one 1930s Max Fleischer cartoon, in which part of an underwater tableau includes a goldfish with a pushcart selling gloves]. In the process of living a middle-class American life, he developed one special cultural love and fixation -- the movies, which were just becoming a vehicle for serious entertainment. In 1913, Goldfish and his brother-in-law, the vaudeville producer Jesse L. Lasky, went into business together, forming the Jesse Lasky Feature Photoplay Company; their debut release, The Squaw Man (1914), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, was an enormous hit. Their company had a good three years before it merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players studio, thus forming the nucleus of what became Paramount Pictures. Soon after, Goldfish went into partnership with Edgar Selwyn in a company called the Goldwyn Pictures Corp., which took its name from the first syllable of Goldfish's name and the last one of Selwyn's -- Samuel Goldfish himself soon adopted Goldwyn as his own legal name.
The original Goldwyn company merged with Metro Studios and Louis B. Mayer's production company in the early '20s to form Metro Goldwyn Mayer, but Samuel Goldwyn wasn't long in that partnership. He exited in 1923, leaving the Goldwyn corporate name as part of MGM -- a fact that would cause him some mild distress in later years, owing to the public's confusion -- and formed Samuel Goldwyn Productions, the company that he was to run for the next four decades. Goldwyn's philosophy, in contrast to that of the other major studios, was to make one picture at a time, but make it very well, sparing no expense in bringing the best actors, directors, designers, composers, and writers together to create only the finest in feature films -- Goldwyn never made B-pictures, and every Samuel Goldwyn production was an important film, getting the full devotion of its producer's resources and attention. In its heyday, at any given moment the company had one film at the pre-production stage, one movie in the process of being completed, and one film in release.
The company came into its own with the arrival of sound. The thriller Bulldog Drummond (1929), the searing adaptation of Elmer Rice's stage drama Street Scene (1931), and Arrowsmith, adapted by John Ford from Sinclair Lewis' book, were all huge successes in their time, and Street Scene, in particular, still holds up today. Goldwyn also exerted a profound influence on the development of movie music during the sound era through his hiring of Alfred Newman, a young New York-based conductor and arranger, to work as music director on the 1930 Eddie Cantor musical Whoopee! -- Newman proved to be an inspired choice for that film (one of the earliest genuinely watchable and entertaining movie musicals by modern standards) and went on (beginning with Goldwyn's Street Scene) to become one of the most influential composers of movie music over the next 35 years. Goldwyn's one-film-at-a-time approach proved completely competitive with the more factory-like methods of production utilized by his ex-partners at MGM and Paramount, and he became one of Hollywood's great success stories -- indeed, to this day, more than a quarter century after his death and four decades since his last new film went into release, Samuel Goldwyn is the most successful independent producer in the history of Hollywood. Included in the Goldwyn company's illustrious talent pool at various times were Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper, Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Eddie Cantor, Danny Kaye, David Niven, Will Rogers, Walter Huston, Susan Hayward, and Joel McCrea; director William Wyler; the composers Alfred Newman and George and Ira Gershwin; choreographer Busby Berkeley; and the authors Lillian Hellman, Sinclair Lewis, and Robert Sherwood. Goldwyn's films, whether serious dramas like These Three (1936) (a partly censored version of Hellman's play The Children's Hour), Dodsworth (1936), Wuthering Heights (1939), and The Little Foxes (1941), or comedies like Ball of Fire (1941), were all quality entertainment -- indeed, his family films such as Hans Christian Andersen (1952) rivaled the best live-action movies that Disney created, while his musicals, from the early Eddie Cantor vehicles (Whoopee! [1930], Palmy Days [1931], and Roman Scandals [1933]) up through Guys and Dolls (1955), starring Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, were more than a match for any contemporary releases by Warner Bros. or MGM.
Goldwyn's focus on quality allowed him to transcend his own limitations. The perfect example is The Pride of the Yankees (1942), which is generally regarded as the best movie biography of a sports figure ever done, despite the fact that neither Goldwyn nor the film's star, Gary Cooper, knew anything about baseball; the film was also a last fond look back at the pre-WWII American persona, which may make it representative of Goldwyn's true gift. As an immigrant with an uncommonly perceptive mind where people were concerned (which may also explain his success as a salesman), Goldwyn appreciated the United States and its people, and their most noble and benevolent characteristics in ways that native-born citizens usually take for granted and often overlook; but he also recognized the need and had the in-born aesthetic skills (despite his seeming lack of education) to find the best writers, artists, and technicians to capture that vision onscreen. In that regard, he succeeded equally well with comedy and drama. During WWII, his film output was weighted decidedly toward comedy and he delighted audiences by the millions with a pair of films, Up in Arms (1944) and Wonder Man (1945) (the latter with some reassuring notions about life-after-death, which audiences seemed to respond to as the war wound down), both showcasing a new comic discovery, Danny Kaye; and he generated one of the funniest spoofs ever to come out of Hollywood in the form of The Princess and the Pirate (1944), starring Bob Hope and Virginia Mayo. Goldwyn reached his peak as a producer, however, with his best and most serious film -- The Best Years of Our Lives, a 181-minute drama about returning servicemen and their families that not only won eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director for William Wyler), but has endured as perhaps the best and most watchable of all of Hollywood's old-style dramatic epics.
The man also had his flaws and quirks, to be sure. Goldwyn was known for a mean temper -- only the verbal intervention of his wife prevented him from pursuing a costly, purposeless lawsuit against his English co-producers over the troubled production of The Elusive Pimpernel. And he could also be miserly at what seemed like inappropriate moments -- Billy Wilder and his writing partner Charles Brackett's were cheated out of modest bonuses promised them by Goldwyn for their work on Ball of Fire, which was one of his biggest hits, for no other reason then that he decided not to pay them what he had promised. Apart from his success as a producer, by the same token, he was also celebrated for his turn of a phrase, often referred to as "Goldwynisms." These were partly an outgrowth of his limited education and skills with English, but also reflected a cleverness that was unique among his class, and which added new wrinkles to the English language. Among the most famous of the phrases attributed to him are: "Gentlemen, include me out"; "Never make forecasts, especially about the future"; "Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day"; "They stayed away in droves"; "An oral contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on"; and the observation that "anybody who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined."
Like many of the other moguls, Goldwyn's judgment and business fortunes faltered in the years after WWII, as audiences and American popular culture began changing rapidly. He had a hit with the fantasy film The Bishop's Wife (1947), but the romantic drama Enchantment (1948) was a failure, and his Technicolor, musicalized remake of Ball of Fire, A Song Is Born (1948), was only a modest success and never as highly regarded as the original, despite the presence of Benny Goodman, Mel Powell, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, and Charlie Barnet in its cast; My Foolish Heart (1949), a rather sappy romantic drama adapted from J.D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut," was a fair box-office success, but so outraged Salinger that he never permitted another one of his works to be licensed for filming. The costume swashbuckler The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) was an unabashed flop, and Goldwyn's attempts at capturing a vision of slice-of-life America with the dramas Our Very Own (1950) and I Want You (1951) weren't received nearly as well as The Best Years of Our Lives had been. Hans Christian Andersen (1952) and Guys and Dolls (1955) were major hits, but Goldwyn's film of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1959), plagued by production problems (including a fire that destroyed its expensive sets), was a failure despite winning three Oscars. To add insult to injury in the movie's star-crossed history, the George Gershwin estate disliked Porgy And Bess sufficiently to withdraw it from circulation as soon as the term of Goldwyn's license on the original operatic work had expired and hasn't permitted it to be shown since the 1970s, apart from allowing clips of co-star Sammy Davis Jr. to be used in broadcast obituaries on the occasion of the actor's death.
As a man who arrived in America during the 1890s and whose entertainment sensibilities were formed in vaudeville, Goldwyn seemed unable to cope with a fast-paced postwar world fueled by television and rock & roll as major cultural forces. There were opportunities that he missed as events seemed to outpace him -- for instance, Goldwyn, as easily as Mort Briskin and United Artists, could have made The Jackie Robinson Story, a tale every bit as compelling (and compellingly American) as Lou Gehrig's story, but he didn't make it and they did; as the 1940s drifted into the 1950s, he lost touch with the tastes of the American people. He ceased production in 1959 following the release of Porgy and Bess, the first time since 1913 that Goldwyn had been out of the movie business. Because his company owned virtually every picture it ever produced, however, Goldwyn's films continued to enjoy prestige presentations on television and in theatrical presentation well past his retirement, and Samuel Goldwyn was still a well-known, beloved name in moviemaking when he died 15 years after retiring. His movies have continued to be shown only in the best broadcast and cable venues, and to receive the most respectful home video treatment in the decades since. Indeed, the Samuel Goldwyn Company, run by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., experienced a major expansion of its own in the 1980s when it bought the American distribution rights to the library of Alexander Korda's London Film Productions, and also financed a reissue of Tony Richardson's 1963 hit Tom Jones. The combined Goldwyn and Korda libraries reached a new high point of presentation when they were licensed by HBO Home Video in the early '90s, which invested money heavily in the remastering and upgrading of their film materials and shot excellent supplementary wrap-around and commentaries for the laser disc releases of movies such as The Best Years of Our Lives (which was available for a time at the end of the 1990s on DVD from HBO with those extra materials). Additionally, Samuel Goldwyn's knack for finding or approving properties with enduring appeal to the public was borne out in 1996, 22 years after his death, when The Bishop's Wife was remade successfully by Penny Marshall as The Preacher's Wife. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Goldwyn was born Schmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire to a Polish Jewish family. At an early age he left Warsaw on foot and penniless. 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, Canada, 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 for sales, he moved back to New York City.
Gelbfisz 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 Gelbfisz 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 Gelbfisz left after a few years but their company evolved to later become Paramount Pictures. Shortly before this, he also divorced his first wife, Blanche Lasky, with whom he had a daughter, Ruth.
Goldwyn Pictures
In 1916 Samuel Gelbfisz 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 Gelbfisz then had his name legally changed to Samuel Goldwyn, which he used for the rest of his life. 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 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Goldwyn was married to Blanche Lasky from 1910 to 1915. In 1925, he married actress Frances Howard to whom he remained married for the rest of his life. Their son, Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., would eventually join his father in the business.
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 in filmmaking and an eye for finding the talent for making films, although, contrary to some erroneous claims, he did not discover actor Gary Cooper. He used director William Wyler for many of his productions and hired writers such as Ben Hecht, Sidney Howard, Dorothy Parker, and Lillian 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 and retorted: "Don't you point that finger at me. I knew it when it had a thimble on it!" Another time, when he demanded a script that ended on a happy note, she said: "I know this will come as a shock to you, Mr. Goldwyn, but in all history, which has held billions and billions of human beings, not a single one ever had a happy ending."[2])
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.
Throughout the 1930s, Goldwyn released all his films through United Artists, but beginning in 1941, and continuing almost through the end of his career, Goldwyn released his films through RKO Radio Pictures.
Samuel Goldwyn's grandsons include Francis Goldwyn, founder of the Manhattan Toy Company and Managing Member of Quorum Associates LLC, actor Tony Goldwyn and film producer John Goldwyn. His granddaughter, Catherine Goldwyn, created Sound Art, a non-profit organization that teaches popular music all over Los Angeles. His other granddaughter, Liz Goldwyn, has a film on HBO called Pretty Things, featuring interviews with queens from the heyday of burlesque. Her book, an extension of the documentary titled, Pretty Things: The Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens, was published in October 2006 by HarperCollins.
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.
Goldwynisms
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Samuel Goldwyn was also known for malapropisms, paradoxes, and other speech errors called 'Goldwynisms' ("A humorous statement or phrase resulting from the use of incongruous or contradictory words, situations, idioms, etc.") being frequently quoted, such as:
“A bachelor’s life is no life for a single man.”
“A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”
“Anyone who would go to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined!”
“Can she sing? She’s practically a Florence Nightingale.”
“Color television! Bah, I won’t believe it until I see it in black and white.”
“Don’t worry about the war. It’s all over but the shooting.”
“Every director bites the hand that lays the golden egg.”
“Flashbacks are a thing of the past.”
“For your information, just answer me one question!”
“Gentlemen, include me out.”
“Gentlemen, listen to me slowly.”
“Give me a couple of years, and I’ll make that actress an overnight success.”
“God makes stars. I just produce them.”
“He treats me like the dirt under my feet.”
“I don’t care if it doesn’t make a nickel. I just want every man, woman, and child in America to see it.”
“I don’t think anyone should write his autobiography until after he’s dead.”
“I had a great idea this morning, but I didn’t like it.”
“I paid too much for it, but it’s worth it.”
“I read part of it all the way through.”
“If I look confused it’s because I’m thinking.”
“In two words: im-possible.”
“I’m willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong.”
“Keep a stiff upper chin.”
“Let’s have some new clichés.”
“Modern dancing is old fashioned.”
“Our comedies are not to be laughed at.”
“Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union.”
“Tell them to stand closer apart.”
“That’s our strongest weak point.”
“That’s the kind of ad I like, facts, facts, facts.”
“The next time I send a damn fool for something, I go myself.”
“There is a statue of limitation.”
“They stayed away in droves.”
“We have that Indian scene. We can get the Indians from the reservoir.”
“Why did you name him Sam? Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Sam!”
“Why should people go out and pay to see bad movies when they can stay home and see bad television for nothing.”
“You fail to overlook the crucial point.”
“You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.”
“How come you did what I told you to do, when you know I don't know what I'm talking about." [Original source: Sherman Dreyer, originator/producer of CBS Radio's “University of Chicago Round Table", quoting Goldwyn while Dreyer was later producing a syndicated T.V. show titled “Communism, R.M.E." ]
"I don't want to be surrounded by 'yes men'. I want people who'll disagree with me, even if it costs them their jobs."
"Do you know why so many people went to Jack Warner's funeral? They wanted to make sure he was really dead."
"I want to go where the hand of man has never set foot."
"The A-bomb is dynamite."
"Destroy the old files, but make copies first."
Upon being told that a book he had purchased for filming, The Well of Loneliness, couldn't be filmed because it was about lesbians, he replied: "That's all right, we'll make them Hungarians."
Upon being told that a dictionary had included the word "Goldwynism" as synonym for malapropism, he raged: "Goldwynisms! They should talk to Jesse Lasky!"
Having many writers in his employ, Goldwyn may not have come up with all of these on his own. In fact Charlie Chaplin took credit for penning the 'im-possible' line on him; and the "damn fool...I go myself" quote has also been attributed to Michael Curtiz.
These led to the reference in the Cole Porter song Anything Goes:
"When Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction instruct Anna Sten in diction, then Anna shows, Anything goes!"
^ Berg, A. Scott. Goldwyn: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf (1989)
^Silverstein, Stuart Y., ed. (1996, paperback 2001). Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker. New York: Scribner. p. 42, n. 75. ISBN0743211480 (paperback).
Color television! Bah, I won't believe it until I see it in black and white.
