William Goetz
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William Goetz
William B. Goetz (March 24, 1903 – August 15, 1969) was an American film producer and studio executive. Goetz was one of the founders of Twentieth Century Pictures, and later served as vice president of 20th Century Fox after the merger with the Fox Film Company. At Universal-International, he was the head of production from 1946. Early life Born to a Jewish working-class family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Goetz was the youngest of eight children. His mother died when he was ten years old and shortly thereafter his father abandoned the family. Raised by older brothers, at the age of twenty-one he followed some of his brothers to Hollywood where he found work as a crew hand at one of the large studios. After a few years, he gained production responsibilities and, in 1930, was made an associate producer at the Fox Company. Career In 1932, Goetz received the financial support necessary from his new father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer, to become a minor partner with Joseph Schenck, ...
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Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ...
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Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities. It also diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs and photocopiers (as one of the owners of Rank Xerox). The company name lasted until February 1996, when the name and some of the remaining assets were absorbed into the newly structured Rank Group plc. The company itself became a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox and was renamed XRO Limited in 1997. The company logo, the Gongman, first used in 1935 by the group's distribution company General Film DistributorsThe Independent July 16, 19 ...
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Song Without End
''Song Without End'', subtitled ''The Story of Franz Liszt'', is a 1960 biographical film romance made by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Charles Vidor, who died during the shooting of the film and was replaced by George Cukor. It was produced by William Goetz from a screenplay by Oscar Millard, revised (uncredited) by Walter Bernstein and based on screenwriter Oscar Saul's original 1952 script (uncredited).Turner Classic Movies Website accessed March 31, 2009 The music score was by Morris Stoloff and Harry Sukman with music by Franz Liszt, and the cinematography by James Wong Howe and Charles Lang (uncredited). The film also features music of those contemporaries of Liszt whom he unselfishly championed by featuring them in his numerous performances (e.g., Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, among others).Abram Chasins, "Song Without End", Colpix Records, 1960,(LP), Liner notes. The film stars Dirk Bogarde as Liszt, Capucine (in her acting debut) as Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-W ...
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The Mountain Road
''The Mountain Road'' is a 1960 war film starring James Stewart and directed by Daniel Mann. Set in China and based on the 1958 novel of the same name by journalist-historian Theodore H. White, the film follows the attempts of a U.S. Army major to destroy bridges and roads potentially useful to the Japanese during World War II. White's time covering China for ''Time'' magazine during the war led to an interview with former OSS Major Frank Gleason Jr., who served as head of a demolition crew that inspired the story and film. Gleason was later hired as an uncredited technical consultant for the film. The film is a rather somber treatment of World War II and includes themes that were taboo for Hollywood during the war years, such as tensions between allies and racism among American troops. The protagonist is a frustrated and morally conflicted U.S. officer unsure about the value of his mission. For these reasons, ''The Mountain Road'' is often labeled as anti-war, but it was made ...
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They Came To Cordura
''They Came to Cordura'' is a 1959 American Western film co-written and directed by Robert Rossen and starring Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin and Tab Hunter. It was based on a 1958 novel by Glendon Swarthout. Plot In 1916, as U.S. soldiers chase after Pancho Villa, Army Major Thomas Thorn (Gary Cooper) is assigned to be a battlefield observer and reward heroism. He has been suggested for this duty by a Colonel Rogers ( Robert Keith), who is 63 years old and impatiently yearning to be promoted to general before mandatory retirement a few months hence. Rogers leads his regiment in an old-fashioned but poorly planned Cavalry charge on Ojos Azules, a villa owned by Adelaide Geary (Rita Hayworth) where Villa's men withdrew after a victory over Mexican government troops, enjoying her hospitality. Thorn, excused from the fighting, observes through his binoculars various acts of heroism by Lt. Fowler (Tab Hunter), Sgt. Chawk (Van Heflin), Cpl. Trubee (Richard Conte) and Pvt. Re ...
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Me And The Colonel
''Me and the Colonel'' is a 1958 American comedy film based on the play ''Jacobowsky und der Oberst'' by Franz Werfel. It was directed by Peter Glenville and stars Danny Kaye, Curd Jürgens and Nicole Maurey. Kaye won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his portrayal. The writers won a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Comedy. Plot In Paris during the World War II invasion of France by Nazi Germany, Jewish refugee S. L. Jacobowsky (Danny Kaye) seeks to leave the country before it falls. Meanwhile, Polish diplomat Dr. Szicki (Ludwig Stössel) gives antisemitic, autocratic Polish Colonel Prokoszny (Curt Jürgens) secret information that must be delivered to London by a certain date. The resourceful Jacobowsky, who has had to flee from the Nazis several times previously, manages to "buy" an automobile from the absent Baron Rothschild's chauffeur. Prokoszny peremptorily requisitions the car, but finds he must accept an unwelc ...
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Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony. On June 19, 1918, brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and their business partner Joe Brandt founded Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation, which would eventually become Columbia Pictures. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name on January 10, 1924 (operating as Columbia Pictures Corporation until December 23, 1968) went public two years later and eventually began to use the image of Columbia, the female personification of the United States, as its logo. In its early years, Columbia was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. With Capra and others such as the most successful two reel comedy series The Three Stooges, Co ...
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Sayonara
''Sayonara'' is a 1957 American Technicolor drama film starring Marlon Brando in Technirama. It tells the story of an American Air Force fighter pilot during the Korean War who falls in love with a famous Japanese dancer. The picture won four Academy Awards, including acting honors for co-stars Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki. The supporting cast also features Patricia Owens, James Garner, Martha Scott, Ricardo Montalbán, and Miiko Taka. The screenplay was adapted by Paul Osborn from the 1954 novel of the same name by James Michener, and was directed by Joshua Logan and produced by William Goetz. Unlike most 1950s romantic dramas, it deals squarely with racism and prejudice. Plot Fighter ace Major Lloyd "Ace" Gruver, of the United States Air Force, the son of a U.S. Army general, is stationed at Itami Air Force Base near Kobe, Japan. He has been reassigned from combat duties in Korea by General Webster, the father of his fiancée, Eileen. While Ace and Eileen have been togethe ...
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Edward Muhl
Edward Ellsworth Muhl (February 17, 1907 - April 22, 2001) was an American businessman and executive best known for being head of production for Universal Pictures from 1953 until his retirement in 1973. According to one writer, he played key roles in some of the studio's most important decisions. Muhl's contributions range from the technical (he was instrumental in persuading studio heads to shoot most of their films in Technicolor rather than the cheaper black-and-white) to the purely business (he made the deal that allowed MCA to purchase Universal in the early 1960s). Career Muhl began his career at Universal in 1927 in the cost accounting department. He became studio business manager and remained in the role until 1934 when he became head of the legal department, despite not being a lawyer. He moved into production in 1936. When William Goetz and Leo Spitz's International Pictures merged with Universal to form Universal-International in 1947, Muhl was appointed general m ...
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Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. In 1937, anticipating Nazi Germany, Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca and the link between the U.K. and U.S. Decca labels was broken for several decades. The British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre. Both wings are now part of the Universal Music Group. The U.S. Decca label was the foundation company that evolved into UMG (Universal Music Group). Label name The name dates back to a portable phonograph, gramophone called the "Decca Dulcephone" patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons. The name "Decca" was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the w ...
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James Stewart
James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality he portrayed both on and off the screen, he epitomized the "American ideal" in the mid-twentieth century. In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked him third on its list of the greatest American male actors. Born and raised in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Stewart started acting while at Princeton University. After graduating in 1932, he began a career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway and in summer stock productions. In 1935, he landed his first supporting role in a movie and in 1938 he had his breakthrough in Frank Capra's ensemble comedy '' You Can't Take It with You''. The following year, Stewart garnered his first of five Academy Award nominations for his portrayal of an idealized and virtuous man who becomes a senator in Cap ...
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Lew Wasserman
Lewis Robert Wasserman (March 22, 1913 – June 3, 2002) was an American talent agent and studio executive, described as "the last of the legendary movie moguls" and "arguably the most powerful and influential Hollywood titan in the four decades after World War II." His career spanned the nine decades from the 1920s to the 2000s; he started working as a cinema usher before dropping out of high school, rose to become the president of MCA and led its takeover of Universal Pictures, during which time Wasserman “brought about changes in virtually every aspect of show business.” In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. Several years later, he spoke of his ongoing work at Universal to ''Variety'', saying, "I am under contract here for the rest of my life, and I don't think they would throw me out of my office - my name is on the building." Career Early life Wasserman was born to a Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Isaac Wasser ...
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