M.C. Levee (January 18, 1891, Chicago – May 24, 1972,

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

) was born Michael C. Levee. Beginning his career as a

prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...

man, Levee worked his way up to an executive at several different

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

s, including

First National Pictures First National Pictures was an American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., an association of independent theatre owners in the United States, and became the count ...

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

Studios, and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. Levee was one of the original 36 founding members of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

(AMPAS) and served as its third president from 1931 to 1932. Levee was also one of Hollywood's top agents until his retirement in 1956, working with such stars as

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

and

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...

Personal life

Levee was one of six children growing up in Chicago. He had four brothers named Louis, George, Eddie and Sidney and a sister named Rose Levee. He was married to Rose (Mimi) Levee and had 2 sons. His oldest son, Michael Levee Jr., served as Vice-President of Radnite-Mattel Productions. His youngest son,

John Levee John Levee (April 10, 1924 – January 18, 2017) was an American abstract expressionist painter who had worked in Paris since 1949. His father was M. C. Levee. Background John Harrison Levee received a master's degree in philosophy from U ...

, was a painter who lived in Paris. M. C. Levee's second marriage was to Trudy Levee. He died at the age of 81 from cancer in Palm Springs, California.

Career

Levee began his career in the film industry by working as a prop man at

Fox Film Corporation The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film ...

in 1917, earning $20 a week working on ''A Tale of Two Cities''. Within a year, Levee became the assistant to Abe Carles, the General Superintendent at Fox. Levee left Fox in 1920 in order to become a business man at Robert Brunton Studios with Robert Brunton. In 1920, Levee organized United Studios, serving as President. While working at United Studios, Levee produced '' The Isle of Lost Ships'' (1923), ''The White Moth'' (1924), starring

Barbara La Marr Barbara La Marr (born Reatha Dale Watson; July 28, 1896 – January 30, 1926) was an American film actress and screenwriter who appeared in twenty-seven films during her career between 1920 and 1926. La Marr was also noted by the medi ...

, and ''Sweet Daddies'' (1926). In April 1926, Levee sold United Studios to

. Levee then joined First National, also known as

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, in order to build more studio facilities in Burbank. Levee joined

Nicholas Schenck Nicholas M. Schenck (14 November 1880, Rybinsk, Russia – 4 March 1969, Florida) was a Russian-American film studio executive and businessman. Biography Early life One of seven children, Schenck was born to a Jewish household in Rybinsk, ...

as General Studio and Business Manager until 1929, when he left to become Executive Manager at Paramount. In 1932, Levee was let go by

Sam Jaffe Shalom "Sam" Jaffe (March 10, 1891 – March 24, 1984) was an American actor, teacher, musician, and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in '' The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950) and ap ...

, the General Production Manager, who believed he could cover both jobs. Levee was also the founder and first President of Artists Management Guild. In the 1930s Levee started the M.C. Levee Agency directly after working at

. He ran a one-man business with no staff or organization. He had several important clients, most of which were from Warner Brothers. Most agents do not stick to one studio, it was simply a coincidence that Levee's client base were all working under Warner Brothers. Because he had several large clients, Levee was very well off. Some of Levee's star clients included

, Merle Oberson,

Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...

, Paul Muni,

Jeanette MacDonald Jeanette Anna MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American singer and Actor, actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (''The Love Parade'', ''Love Me Tonight'', ''The Merry Widow (1934 ...

Leslie Howard Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer.Obituary ''Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and '' Vanity Fair'' and was one ...

Greer Garson Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson (29 September 1904 – 6 April 1996) was an English-American actress and singer. She was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who became popular during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the hom ...

, Claude Rains, Dick Powell, and

Franchot Tone Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor, producer, and director of stage, film and television. He was a leading man in the 1930s and early 1940s, and at the height of his career was known ...

. He was also the agent of creators

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

Frank Borzage Frank Borzage (; April 23, 1894 – June 19, 1962) was an Academy Award-winning American film director and actor, known for directing '' 7th Heaven'' (1927), '' Street Angel'' (1928), '' Bad Girl'' (1931), '' A Farewell to Arms'' (1932), ''Man's ...

, and

Mervyn LeRoy Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. In his youth he played juvenile roles in vaudeville and silent film comedies. During the 1930s, LeRoy was one of the two great practitioners of ...

. Robert Cowan referred to Levee as being a fair and reliable agent.

Founding the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

In 1927, the

was founded in order to improve the media industry without receiving government help. The founders knew they could create a stronger industry by establishing unity between all groups such as writers, directors, and technicians. With such exponential growth in American film, the industry also desperately needed a standardization of equipment and techniques. The founders saw that gathering a group of professionals together could create a positive response to the issues facing the industry and so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was born. Levee was considered one of the fathers of the Academy alongside

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including '' The Thie ...

Conrad Nagel John Conrad Nagel (March 16, 1897 – February 24, 1970) was an American film, stage, television and radio actor. He was considered a famous matinée idol and leading man of the 1920s and 1930s. He was given an Academy Honorary Award in 1940 and ...

Milton Sills Milton George Gustavus Sills (January 12, 1882 – September 15, 1930) was an American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century. Biography Sills was born in Chicago, Illinois, into a wealthy family. He was the son of William Henr ...

, William C. deMille and Thalberg. Much of the work Levee did for the Academy was for little or no pay, working simply for the good of the Academy. Levee, along with the other 35 founding members had great hope for what the Academy could become for the film industry. They hoped to establish a professional society which might work toward the betterment of the motion picture industry. M.C. Levee believed in the objectives of the academy. Levee served as treasurer of the Academy for 12 years. He was the founder and President of the Permanent Charities Committee of the film industry, one of the many different organizations created within AMPAS in order to get the view on all sides. In early March 1933, Levee resigned from the Board of Directors of the Academy as a statement that the business was being run into the ground by the studio executives and

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

bankers who ran the industry.

Awards

*Honorary Life Member of Artists Management Guild (1958)''Daily Variety''. 8 August 1958.

References

Books: *Bergan, Ronald. (1986) ''The United Artists Story''. New York: Crown Publishers. *Bell, Douglas. (1997) ''An Oral History with Eugene Zukor''. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Oral History Program. *Hall, Barbara. (1995) ''An Oral History with Robert Cowan''. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Oral History Program. *Hall, Barbara. (1992) ''An Oral History with Sam Jaffe''. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Oral History Program. *Kennedy, Joseph P. (1927) ''The Story of Films''. New York: A.W. Shaw Company, p. 5. *Sands, Piere N. (1973) ''A Historical Study of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1927–1947)''. New York: Arno Press. Periodicals: *Baily, Tom. ''Introduction for M.C. Levee to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences''. Paramount. *Beverly Hills, California: Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Fairbanks Motion Picture Research Center, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. *Gillette, Don C. ''Hollywood Reporter''. 19 Jan. 1966. *''Hollywood Reporter''. 26 May 1972. Online: *Nicholas M. Schenck. Accessed 20 Nov. 2008.

External links

Credit

Supported by an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program grant from the University of Notre Dame, Institute for Scholarship in the Humanities. {{DEFAULTSORT:Levee, Michael C 1891 births 1972 deaths Businesspeople from Baltimore American film producers Presidents of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 20th-century American businesspeople