West side of the 1600 block of Vine Street
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Samuel Goldwyn
Born Schmuel Gelbfisz on
Aug. 22, 1882
in Warsaw, Poland
Died
Jan. 31, 1974
in Beverly Hills, CA
When he died in 1974, Samuel Goldwyn was the last survivor of the triumvirate that helped make Los Angeles the world's film capital. It was his foresight that led to the filming of "The Squaw Man" (1914) in a Hollywood lemon grove. Like most of Hollywood's founding fathers, Goldwyn was an untutored immigrant who came to movies after apprenticing in more mundane businesses: He was a glove merchant in upstate New York before starting a picture company with industry pioneers Jesse Lasky — whose sister was his first wife — and Cecil B. DeMille. To understand Goldwyn, all you need to know is that he wept easily. The irrepressible Hollywood mogul cried when he won an Oscar for producing "The Best Years of Our Lives." He cried every time he watched the ending of "Stella Dallas," a movie he liked so much he made it twice, first as a 1925 silent film, then as a 1937 talkie with Barbara Stanwyck. And the Polish-born mogul cried when he told the story of arriving in New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty on his way to Ellis Island, the fabled arrival point of generations of immigrants to America. His emotions were real, but the story was a fabrication. Having heard that dockside clerks could send immigrants back home, Goldwyn had actually disembarked in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and walked the 500-odd miles to New York City in the dead of winter. His life was a reinvention, one script polish after another, starting with his name: He was born Schmuel Gelbfisz, changed his name to Goldfish when he came to America and then to Goldwyn, naming himself after the studio he'd created, which gives you a pretty good idea of where his priorities in life lay.
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Points of interest
Academy Awards
| Year | Category | Work | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1938 | Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award | Nomination | |
| 1946 | Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award | Win | |
| 1957 | Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award | Win |
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One thought about Samuel Goldwyn
It gives me great pleasure to comment upon this giant of the development of the movie industry.I recommend the autobiography of this great man by A Scott Berg(1989) title GOLDWYN that I have read and re read since I bought it in a book store in Pearl Ridge Mall in Hawaii some years ago. His story covering ovr 90 years from his Birth in Warsaw in 1882 and his trek across Europe to Gloversville New York state via Birmingham England and his intro to the movies in partnership with,his then brother in law,Jessy Lasky and Cecil B De Mille shows the determination and initiative that was to be his approach and 'trademark' to producing some of the greatest films ever and introducing the great actors,directors,writers, camera operators,scenic creators etc. He gave us Eddie Cantor, Danny Kaye, Gary Cooper, Ronald Colman, Vilma Banky, Wiliam Wyler etc. He had a sense of style bearing in mind the poverty that was his lot up to the time he left home in the 1920s. There is another part of his character that has given us Goldwynisms that were regularly mentioned in after dinner speeches of the time especially, the book informs us, by no less a person than Charles Chaplin! I commend the book to those who admire enterprise, vision, creative talents, excellence, risk taking and a major historical period in the development of the film industry. It would be remiss of all of us who love films to forget this great man and his invaluable and outstanding contribution that continues today by members of his family. He deserves several stars! Good reading.
Randall Bevan Ipswich UK
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