- Born
- Died
- Birth nameSchmuel Gelbfisz
- Nicknames
- Mister Malaprop
- Samuel Goldfish
- Famed for his relentless ambition, bad temper and genius for publicity,
Samuel Goldwyn became Hollywood's leading "independent" producer --
largely because none of his partners could tolerate him for long. Born
Shmuel (or Schmuel) Gelbfisz, probably in 1879, in the Jewish section
of Warsaw, he was the eldest of six children of a struggling
used-furniture dealer. In 1895 he made his way to England, where
relatives Anglicized his name to Samuel Goldfish. There he begged (or
stole) enough money for a ticket in steerage across the Atlantic. He
reached the US, probably via Canada, in 1898. He gravitated to
Gloversville, New York, in the Adirondack foothills, which was then the
capital of the US leather glove industry; he became one of the
country's most successful glove salesmen. After moving his base of
operations to Manhattan and marrying the sister of
Jesse L. Lasky, who was then a theatrical
producer, Goldfish convinced Lasky and
Cecil B. DeMille to go into film
production. The new company's first film,
The Squaw Man (1914), was one of
the first features made in Hollywood; the company later became the
nucleus of what would later become Paramount Pictures. As his marriage
fell apart, Goldfish dissolved his partnership with Lasky. His next
enterprise was the Goldwyn Co., founded in 1916 and named for himself
and his partners, brothers Edgar Selwyn and
Archibald Selwyn--Goldfish liked the
name so much he took it for his own. The Goldwyn
Co.'s stars included
Mabel Normand,
Madge Kennedy and
Will Rogers, but its most famous
legacy was its "Leo the Lion" trademark, which was adopted by its
successor company, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Goldwyn himself was
ousted from his own company before the merger, which was why his name
became part of MGM even though he himself had nothing to do with the
company. After his firing Goldwyn would have nothing to do with
partners and went into independent production on his own, and for 35
years was the boss and sole proprietor of his own production company, a
mini-studio specializing in expensive "quality" films, distributed
initially by United Artists and later by RKO. His contract actors at
various times included Vilma Bánky,
Ronald Colman,
Eddie Cantor,
Gary Cooper,
David Niven and
Danny Kaye. In some cases, Goldwyn collected
substantial fees for "lending" his stars to other producers. Touted by
publicists for his "Goldwyn touch" and loathed by many of his hirelings
for his habit of ordering films recast, rewritten and recut, Goldwyn is
best remembered for his films that teamed director
William Wyler and cinematographer
Gregg Toland.- IMDb Mini Biography By: David S. Smith
- SpousesFrances Howard(April 23, 1925 - January 31, 1974) (his death, 1 child)Blanche Lasky(May 8, 1910 - September 23, 1915) (divorced, 1 child)
- RelativesTony Goldwyn(Grandchild)
- In 1917 he merged his production company with All-Star Feature Films
Corp., owned by brothers Edgar Selwyn and
Archibald Selwyn, creating the Goldwyn Pictures Corp. The symbol
of the new company was a reclining lion, surrounded by a banner made
from a strip of celluloid film with the words "Ars Gratia Artis"
("Art for Art's Sake") at the top, which was designed by Howard Dietz. The
trademark adorned the front gate of the studio's Culver City,
CA, production facilities, which ranked with the finest in
Hollywood (the inspiration for the original "Leo the Lion" likely were
the stone lions at the New York Public Library on 44th St., which was
across from the All-Star Feature Corp.'s offices). Goldfish liked the
name of the new studio so much that he renamed himself Samuel Goldwyn. He
was forced out of the company in 1922. It was merged with Loew's Inc.'s
Metro Pictures in 1924 through a stock swap, creating Metro-Goldwyn,
which subsequently merged with Louis B. Mayer Productions, and
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was born--even though Goldwyn himself had nothing to do with the company that bore his name (he tried legal action to prevent the new company from using it, but lost). Goldwyn, who had also been ousted from an
earlier company he had owned, did not get along well with partners and
remained an independent producer for the rest of his career. - In the 1930s and 1940s the Hollywood studio system was dominated by a
handful of men who ran their domains largely by themselves, and with an
iron hand: Louis B. Mayer (MGM), Adolph Zukor
(Paramount), Harry Cohn (Columbia), Carl Laemmle
(Universal), Jack L. Warner (Warner Bros.), Herbert J. Yates (Republic), Darryl F. Zanuck (Warners in the 1930s and 20th Century-Fox in
the 1940s) and Goldwyn and David O. Selznick as independent
producers. By 1959 all of these men--with the exception of Warner--had either died, retired or been forced out of their own
companies. - His sayings, sometimes known as "Goldwynisms," were famous for their
unintentional wit, which was partially as a result of his somewhat limited
understanding of the English language that surfaced when he tried to
comment on certain situations. There are many examples of this, such as
"Include me out" or "a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's
written on.". - At one time he was scheduled to appear as the "Mystery Guest" on
the TV game show What's My Line? (1950), in which panelists are
blindfolded and have to guess who the Mystery Guest is. The show's
rules required that panelists who found out the Mystery Guest's identity before he or she appeared on the show had to disqualify themselves. A few
days before his scheduled appearance, Goldwyn ran into panelist
Dorothy Kilgallen in a restaurant and said, "Guess what,
Dorothy? I'm going to be on your show Sunday night!" She told him that
since she now knew he would be the Mystery Guest, she'd have to
disqualify herself. A few days later Goldwyn ran into
Bennett Cerf, also a panelist on the show, and said, "Guess
what, Bennett? I did a really dumb thing the other day and told Dorothy
that I'm going to be on your show Sunday night!" Cerf also was forced
to disqualify himself, resulting in the only double disqualification in
the show's history.
- Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by
Western Union. - A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
- In two words: im-possible.
- My wife's hands are very beautiful. I'm going to have a bust made of
them. - Include me out.
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