Pandro Samuel Berman (March 28, 1905July 13, 1996), also known as Pan Berman, was an American film producer.

Early life

Berman was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

in 1905. His father Henry was general manager of

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

during Hollywood's formative years.

Career

Berman was an

assistant director The role of an assistant director (AD) on a film includes tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set. They also have ...

during the 1920s under Mal St. Clair and

Ralph Ince Ralph Waldo Ince (January 16, 1887 – April 10, 1937) was an American pioneer film actor, director and screenwriter whose career began near the dawn of the silent film, silent film era. Ralph Ince was the brother of John Ince (actor), John E. I ...

. In 1930, he was hired as a

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

, then became an assistant producer. When RKO supervising producer Henry Hobart walked out during production of the ill-fated '' The Gay Diplomat'' (1931), Berman took over Hobart's responsibilities and remained in the post until 1939. When

David O. Selznick David O. Selznick (born David Selznick; May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca (1940 film), Rebecca'' (1 ...

became chief of production at RKO in October 1931, Berman managed to survive Selznick's firing of most of the staff. Selznick named him producer for the adaptation of Fannie Hurst's short story ''Night Bell'', a tale of a Jewish doctor's rise out of the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

ghetto to become a Park Avenue physician, which Selznick personally retitled '' Symphony of Six Million''. He ordered Berman to have references to ethnic life in the Jewish ghetto restored. The movie was a box-office and critical success, and Selznick and Berman were proud of it. Berman later said it was the "first good movie" he produced. The

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

musicals were in production during the Berman regime,

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...

rose to prominence, and such RKO classics as '' The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' and '' Gunga Din'' (both 1939) were completed. Berman's brother Henry, a film editor, became his assistant at RKO.

MGM

Upset when an RKO power-play diminished his authority, Berman left for

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

in 1940, where he oversaw such productions as '' Ziegfeld Girl'' (1941), '' National Velvet'' (1944), ''

The Bribe ''The Bribe'' is a 1949 American film noir directed by Robert Z. Leonard and written by Marguerite Roberts, based on a story written by Frederick Nebel. The film stars Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, and Vincent Price. Plot I ...

'' (1949), '' Father of the Bride'' (1950), ''

Blackboard Jungle ''Blackboard Jungle'' is a 1955 American social drama film about an English teacher in an interracial inner-city school, based on the 1954 novel ''The Blackboard Jungle'' by Evan Hunter and adapted for the screen and directed by Richard Brook ...

'' (1955) and ''

BUtterfield 8 ''BUtterfield 8'' is a 1960 American drama film directed by Daniel Mann, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey. Taylor won her first Academy Award for her performance in a leading role. The film was based on a 1935 novel of the same ...

'' (1960). His brother Henry also moved to MGM to continue to work with him. He had a partnership with the director

Richard Thorpe Richard Thorpe (born Rollo Smolt Thorpe; February 24, 1896 – May 1, 1991) was an American film director best known for his long career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His obituary called him "a capable and versatile director willing to take on any ass ...

in the 1950s, with whom he made several films, including ''

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' ( ) by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in December 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. It marked a shift away from Scott's prior practice of setting stories in Scotland and in the more ...

'' (1952), '' The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1952), ''

Knights of the Round Table The Knights of the Round Table (, , ) are the legendary knights of the fellowship of King Arthur that first appeared in the Matter of Britain literature in the mid-12th century. The Knights are a chivalric order dedicated to ensuring the peace ...

'' (1953), '' All the Brothers Were Valiant'' (1953) and '' The Adventures of Quentin Durward'' (1955). In 1957 he and Lawrence Weingarten formed a company Avon Productions that released through MGM. He survived several executive shake-ups at MGM and remained there until 1963, then went into independent production, closing out his career with the unsuccessful ''

Move Move or The Move may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Move (company), an American online real estate company * Move (electronics store), a defunct Australian electronics retailer * Daihatsu Move, a Japanese car * PlayStation Move, a motion ...

'' (1970).

Awards

Berman was the winner of the 1976 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. Six of his films were nominated for

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film a ...

: '' The Gay Divorcee'' (1934), '' Alice Adams'' and ''

Top Hat A top hat (also called a high hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally made of black silk or ...

'' (both 1935), ''

Stage Door ''Stage Door'' is a 1937 American Tragicomedy, tragicomedy film directed by Gregory La Cava, and starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier, Andrea Leeds, Samuel S. Hinds, and Lucille Ball. Adapt ...

'' (1937), ''Father of the Bride'' (1950), and ''

'' (1952).

Personal life and death

In 1937, Berman and his wife, Viola, hired architect Roland Coate to design a house for them in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...

. The sixteen-room, Cape Cod-inspired mansion cost $50,000 to build and included a screening room. Berman had three children with his first wife Viola - Susan Berman Moshay, Cynthia Berman Schaffel, and Michael Berman. His marriage to Viola ended in divorce. In 1960, Berman married Kathryn Hereford. Berman died of congestive heart failure on July 13, 1996, in his Beverly Hills home, aged 91.

Selected filmography

* '' Stocks and Blondes'' (1928) * '' Phantom of the Range'' (1928) * '' Fangs of the Wild'' (1928) * '' The Texas Tornado'' (1928) * '' Symphony of Six Million'' (1932) * ''

Morning Glory Morning glory (also written as morning-glory) is the common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose taxonomy and systematics remain in flux. These species are distributed across numerous genus, gene ...

'' (1933) * '' One Man's Journey'' (1933) * '' The Little Minister'' (1934) * '' The Gay Divorcee'' (1934) * '' Where Sinners Meet'' (1934) * '' Wednesday's Child'' (1934) * '' Of Human Bondage'' (1934) * '' Alice Adams'' (1935) * ''

'' (1935) * '' Roberta'' (1935) * '' Swing Time'' (1936) * '' Mary of Scotland'' (1936) * '' Shall We Dance?'' (1937; uncredited) * ''

'' (1937) * '' The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1939) * '' Ziegfeld Girl'' (1941) * '' Rio Rita'' (1942) * '' Dragon Seed'' (1944) * '' National Velvet'' (1944) * '' Song of Russia'' (1944; uncredited) * ''

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American period ...

'' (1945) * '' If Winter Comes'' (1947) * ''

The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' () is a French historical adventure novel written and published in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is the first of the author's three d'Artagnan Romances. As with some of his other works, he wrote it in col ...

'' (1948) * ''

'' (1949) * ''

Madame Bovary ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' (; ), commonly known as simply ''Madame Bovary'', is the début novel by France, French writer Gustave Flaubert, originally published in 1856 and 1857. The eponymous character, Emma Bovary, lives beyond he ...

'' (1949) * '' Father of the Bride'' (1950) * ''

'' (1952) * '' The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1952) * ''

'' (1953) * '' The Long, Long Trailer'' (1954) * ''

'' (1955) * '' Bhowani Junction'' (1956) * '' Tea and Sympathy'' (1956) * '' Jailhouse Rock'' (1957) * '' The Brothers Karamazov'' (1958) * '' The Reluctant Debutante'' (1958) * ''

'' (1960) * '' Sweet Bird of Youth'' (1962) * ''

A Patch of Blue ''A Patch of Blue'' is a 1965 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed and written by Guy Green (filmmaker), Guy Green about the friendship between an educated black man (played by Sidney Poitier) and an illiterate, blind, white ...

'' (1965)

References

External links

*
Pandro S. Berman Papers
at the

Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, th ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berman, Pandro S. 1905 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American Jews American film editors American film production company founders Burials at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery Businesspeople from Beverly Hills, California Businesspeople from Pittsburgh Deaths from organ failure Film people from Beverly Hills, California Film producers from California Film producers from Pennsylvania Jewish American film people Jews from California Jews from Pennsylvania Mass media people from Pittsburgh