Jesse Louis Lasky (September 13, 1880 – January 13, 1958) was an American pioneer motion picture producer who was a key founder of what was to become

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 ...

, and father of screenwriter

Jesse L. Lasky Jr. Jesse Louis Lasky Jr. (September 19, 1910 – April 11, 1988) was an American screenwriter, novelist, playwright and poet. Early life He was the son of film producer Jesse Lasky Sr. and his wife, Bessie Ida Ginsberg. Lasky was born on Broadwa ...

Early life

Born in to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, Lasky worked at a variety of jobs but began his entertainment career as a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

performer, playing the cornet in a duo act with his sister Blanche.

Career

In 1911, Lasky was the producer of two Broadway musicals: ''Hello, Paris'' and ''A La Broadway''.

Beatrice deMille Matilda Beatrice deMille (January 30, 1853 – October 8, 1923) (born Matilda Beatrice Samuel; also known as ''Beatrice C. deMille, Agnes Graham, Tillie Samuel, Mrs. Henry deMille)'' was an English-American play broker, screenwriter, playwright, ...

was also producing plays on Broadway and she introduced him to her son Cecil B. DeMille.

Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company

In 1913 Lasky and his sister Blanche's husband,

Samuel Goldwyn Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor an ...

, teamed with DeMille and Oscar Apfel to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, with Lasky as president. With limited funds, they rented a barn near Los Angeles where they made Hollywood's first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

, DeMille's '' The Squaw Man'', which was a success. Known today as the Lasky-DeMille Barn, it is home to the Hollywood Heritage Museum. Other films produced by the studio include the original version of ''

Brewster's Millions ''Brewster's Millions'' is a comedic novel written by George Barr McCutcheon in 1902, originally under the pseudonym of Richard Greaves. The plot concerns a young man whose grandfather leaves him $1 million in a will, but a competing will from a ...

'', '' The Call of the North'', '' Cameo Kirby'', '' The Circus Man'', '' The Ghost Breaker'', '' The Making of Bobby Burnit'', '' The Man from Home'', '' The Man on the Box'', '' The Master Mind'', '' The Only Son'', '' The Virginian'' (all 1914), '' The Cheat'', ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the ...

'', '' Kindling'' (all 1915), '' The Blacklist'' (1916) and ''

The Bottle Imp "The Bottle Imp" is an 1891 short story by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson usually found in the short story collection '' Island Nights' Entertainments''. It was first published in the '' New York Herald'' (February–March 1891) an ...

'' (1917).

Famous Players-Lasky

In 1916, Lasky's company merged with

Adolph Zukor Adolph Zukor (; hu, Zukor Adolf; January 7, 1873 – June 10, 1976) was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.Obituary '' Variety'' (June 16, 1976), p. 76. He produced one of America' ...

's rival company Famous Players Film Company to create

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and t ...

, with Zukor as president and Lasky as vice-president in charge of production. In 1920, Famous Players-Lasky built a large studio facility in

Astoria, New York Astoria is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens. Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City to the southwest, Sunnyside to the southeast, ...

, now known as the

Kaufman Astoria Studios The Kaufman Astoria Studios is a film studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens. The studio was constructed for Famous Players-Lasky in 1920, since it was close to Manhattan's Broadway theater district. The p ...

. Films produced by Lasky include '' What Every Woman Knows'' (1921), '' The Covered Wagon'' (1923), '' A Kiss for Cinderella'' (1925), ''

Beau Geste ''Beau Geste'' is an adventure novel by British writer P. C. Wren, which details the adventures of three English brothers who enlist separately in the French Foreign Legion following the theft of a valuable jewel from the country house of a re ...

'' (1926), '' Wings'' (1927). In September 1927, Famous Players-Lasky was reorganized under the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, later becoming the

Corporation. In 1927, Lasky was one of the 36 people who founded 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 motion ...

. His ''Wings'' was the first film to win the

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards 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 and is the only categ ...

. Financial problems arose within the industry as a result of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and Lasky resigned in 1932 after personally losing $12 million. Famous Players-Lasky went into receivership in 1933 and was folded into Paramount.

Other producing roles

He became an independent film producer and in 1935 formed a partnership with

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 ...

to produce films but within a few years she dissolved their business relationship. He went on to produce a radio talent show. Lasky then found work as an associate producer at

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

before becoming a producer at Warner Bros. until 1945 when he formed his own production company. At Warners he produced ''

Sergeant York Alvin Cullum York (December 13, 1887 – September 2, 1964), also known as Sergeant York, was one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machi ...

'' (1941), '' The Adventures of Mark Twain'' (1944) and '' Rhapsody in Blue'' (1945). His last film was ''

The Great Caruso ''The Great Caruso'' is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Mario Lanza as Enrico Caruso. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer from a screenpla ...

'' (1951). He became in debt to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and was preparing another production with Paramount, ''The Brass Band'', to help pay off the debt but died before production started.

Personal life and death

Jesse L. Lasky died from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, aged 77. He is interred in

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a full-service cemetery, funeral home, crematory, and cultural events center which regularly hosts community events such as live music and summer movie screenings. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angel ...

, adjacent to Paramount Studios, in Hollywood. He and his wife Bessie had three children Jesse L. Jr.,

Betty Betty or Bettie is a name, a common diminutive for the names Bethany and Elizabeth. In Latin America, it is also a common diminutive for the given name Beatriz, the Spanish and Portuguese form of the Latin name Beatrix and the English name Beat ...

and Billy. In 1957 he published his autobiography, ''I Blow My Own Horn''.

Legacy

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Lasky has a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Calif ...

at 6433 Hollywood Boulevard. Lasky Drive in

was named in his honor.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lasky, Jesse Louis American film producers American film studio executives American film production company founders Film producers from California 1880 births 1958 deaths Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences founders Paramount Pictures executives Vaudeville performers American Jews Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery People from San Francisco