Goldwyn, Samuel (1879-1974)

One of the most successful of the early independent film producers, Samuel Goldwyn will be remembered for many of his classic films, for his uncultured style, and for his misuse of the English language—so-called Goldwynisms such as "a verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on." Goldwyn was one of a pioneering group of immigrant men who came to America and helped shape the Hollywood studio system.

He was born Samuel Gelbfisz in Minsk, Poland. At 16, he emigrated to London and then New York state to make his fortune. Once in America, Goldfish, as he was now called, obtained work at Louis Meyers and Son as a glovemaker and by age 18 was one of the top glove salesmen in the world and a partner in the Elite Glove Company. When the woman he was trying to court married Jesse Lasky instead, Goldfish was introduced to Lasky's sister, Blanche. They married in 1910 and had a daughter, Ruth.

In 1913 Goldfish became interested in a career in the motion picture industry. From his initial idea of owning movie theaters he progressed to a desire to be a motion picture producer. Eventually he persuaded his brother-in-law to join him, and together they formed the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company with Goldfish managing sales for the company. In 1914 the company had its first release with Cecil B. DeMille's successful The Squaw Man, one of the first feature-length films made in Hollywood. In 1916 the Goldfishes divorced, and it was only a matter of time before Goldfish had a falling out with his Lasky. The company's partners overthrew him, but when the company merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players to form Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, Zukor named Goldfish chairman of the board. By the end of 1916, however, Goldfish had managed to sabotage his position there and was forced to resign.

In November 1916 Goldfish formed a partnership with the Selwyn brothers and formed Goldwyn Pictures. The company selected the original Leo the Lion as its company logo, and eventually Goldfish changed his last name to Goldwyn. He broke away from Goldwyn Pictures in 1922 after a contract dispute and was therefore only a stockholder when it merged to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He immediately formed a new Goldwyn Pictures Company and produced projects independently through United Artists. His first success as an independent producer, The Dark Angel starring Ronald Colman, was released in 1925, the same year he married Frances Howard. The couple later had a son, Samuel, Jr.

While his output could not match the major studios, Goldwyn produced several successful movies. Colman, the only star he had under contract, starred in several of these: Bulldog Drummond (1929), Stella Dallas (1929), and Dodsworth (1936). In the early 1930s Goldwyn had what was probably his greatest failure. He discovered a Swedish actress named Anna Sten and was convinced he had found a star who would be greater than Greta Garbo. Unfortunately, Sten had a problem with the English language and did not show much talent. It took Goldwyn several years and several bad films before he admitted his mistake and released her from her contract.

The year 1939 is considered special for the number of classic films it produced. One of these was the Goldwyn film Wuthering Heights, starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. That same year James Roosevelt, son of the U.S. president, was selected as president of United Artists. By 1940, Goldwyn and United Artists were calling it quits, and Goldwyn thereafter distributed his work through RKO Studios. Goldwyn continued producing films that would become classics, such as The Little Foxes (1941) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), generally considered his finest. Its unflinching look at veterans returning home after World War II won nine Academy Awards.

In 1954 Goldwyn paid $1 million plus 10 percent of profits for the film rights to the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls —the largest sum paid to that time. While that film in 1955 and Goldwyn's final film, Porgy and Bess, in 1959 were minor successes, Goldwyn's time had passed, and he knew it. The golden era of Hollywood was over, and many of his contemporaries were dead. Goldwyn would survive until 1974, but his career was finished.

—Jill A. Gregg

Further Reading:

Berg, A. Scott. Goldwyn: A Biography. New York, Knopf, 1989.

Easton, Carol. The Search for Sam Goldwyn; A Biography. New York, Morrow, 1976.

Marx, Arthur. Goldwyn: A Biography of the Man behind the Myth. New York, Norton, 1976.