Carl Laemmle

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This article is about the founder of Universal Pictures. For his son, see Carl Laemmle Jr.

Carl Laemmle
Portrait, Exhibitors' Times, 1913
Born
Karl Lämmle

(1867-01-17)January 17, 1867
Laupheim, Kingdom of Württemberg (now Germany)
DiedSeptember 24, 1939(1939-09-24) (aged 72)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeHome of Peace Cemetery, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active1909–1939
SpouseRecha Stern
ChildrenRosabelle Laemmle Bergerman (1903–1965)
Carl Laemmle Jr. (1908–1979)
FamilyStanley Bergerman (son-in-law)
Carla Laemmle (niece)
Signature
Birthplace of Carl Laemmle in Laupheim

Carl Laemmle (/ˈlɛmli/ ⓘ; born Karl Lämmle; January 17, 1867 – September 24, 1939) was a German-American film producer and the co-founder and, until 1934, owner of Universal Pictures. He produced or worked on over 400 films.

Regarded as one of the most important of the early film pioneers, Laemmle was born in what is now

Universal Film Manufacturing Company
, and later still renamed Universal Pictures Company.

Early life and education

Karl Lämmle was born in 1867 to Julius Baruch Lämmle and Rebekka Lämmle, a

Jewish couple in the Radstrasse, a street in the Jewish quarter of Laupheim, in the Kingdom of Württemberg.[1] His father was a cattle merchant, also involved in land transactions. The family struggled financially and lived in poverty: Of his eleven siblings only 3 reached adulthood.[2] He was one of the youngest children, and close to his mother, who enrolled him in a Jewish school. When he was 13, she arranged a three-year apprenticeship for him in Ichenhausen, a nearby village, where he learned accounting and sales, and worked to support his family.[3]

Career

After his mother died in 1883, Laemmle decided to emigrate to the US for a better life, also following his thirteen-year-older brother Joseph. For his 17th birthday, his father had given him the tickets for an Atlantic crossing on the steamboat SS Neckar plus fifty dollars. He left Bremerhaven on January 28, 1884, and arrived in New York on February 14, 1884.[2] He settled in Chicago. Here he lived for about twenty years as a bookkeeper and office manager.[4] In 1889, he became a naturalized American citizen.[3] Laemmle worked a variety of jobs, but by 1894 he was the bookkeeper of the Continental Clothing Company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he introduced a bolder advertising style.[3]

In 1906, at the age of 39, Laemmle quit his job. He initially wanted to open a network of cheap retail stores, but changed his mind after entering a

Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890.[3] As part of his offensive against Edison's company, Laemmle began advertising individual "stars," such as Mary Pickford and Florence Lawrence, thus increasing their individual earning power, and thus their willingness to side with the "Independents."[3]

After moving to New York,[

America's first motion picture industry were based.[7][8][9][10]

On March 15, 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal Studios Hollywood, on a 230-acre (0.9-km2) converted farm in the San Fernando Valley, just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood.[11]

Universal maintained two East Coast offices: The first was located at 1600 Broadway, New York City. This building, initially known as the

Studebaker Building, was razed around 2004 or 2005. The second location to house Universal's executive offices was at 730 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Many years later, 445 Park Avenue was the location of Universal's executive offices. In 1916, Laemmle sponsored the $3,000 three-foot-tall solid silver Universal Trophy for the winner of the annual Universal race at the Uniontown Speedway board track in southwestern Pennsylvania. Universal filmed each race from 1916 to 1922.[citation needed
]

In 1936, Laemmle and his son were removed from the company he founded by a hostile takeover. He briefly resumed distribution with a partner, Michael Mindlin, specializing in foreign films as CL Imports, in the mid-1930s, but for the most part remained in secluded retirement until his death.[citation needed]

Personal life

In 1898, Laemmle married Recha Stern, the niece of Sam Stern, his employer at Continental Clothing Company. Recha gave birth to Rosabelle in 1903 and Julius Laemmle (Carl Laemmle Jr.) in 1908. Rosabelle Laemmle Bergerman was later married to Stanley Bergerman.

After moving to California, Laemmle purchased as a residence for his family the former home of film pioneer

Beverly Hills
, a house which was razed in the early 1940s. Laemmle also maintained a large apartment for himself and his two children at 465 West End Avenue, New York City, one block off Riverside Drive near the Hudson River.

Recha Stern Laemmle contracted the Spanish flu and died from pneumonia on January 13, 1919, at age 43.[12]

Asked how to pronounce his surname, he told The

Literary Digest, "The name means little lamb, and is pronounced as if it were spelled 'lem-lee'."[13]

His niece, Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle, known professionally as Carla Laemmle, appeared in several films until her retirement from acting at the end of the 1930s. His great-nephew, Michael Laemmle, is a well-known resident of Darwin, California, and was featured in the 2011 documentary Darwin: No Services Ahead. His great-grandniece, Antonia Carlotta, talks about him at length in Universally Me, her web series about the history of Universal Studios.[14]

Poet Ogden Nash observed the following about Laemmle's habit of giving his son and nephews top executive positions in his studios:[15]

Uncle Carl Laemmle
Has a very large faemmle.

Family members involved in the film industry included Isadore Bernstein,[16] Joseph Stern, and Abe Stern, all brothers-in-law, and Ernst Laemmle, Edward Laemmle and Max and Kurt Laemmle. The great director William Wyler was his cousin.

Death

Laemmle died from cardiovascular disease on September 24, 1939, in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 72.[5] Laemmle was entombed in the Chapel Mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery.

Awards and honors

Legacy

Laemmle, although having made hundreds of films in his active years as a producer (1909–1934), is remembered for

Carl Jr.

Laemmle remained connected to his home town of Laupheim throughout his life, providing financial support to it. In the 1930s he sponsored hundreds of Jews from Laupheim and Württemberg to emigrate from Nazi Germany to the United States, paying both emigration and immigration fees,

Holocaust. To ensure and facilitate their immigration, Laemmle contacted American authorities, members of the House of Representatives and Secretary of State Cordell Hull. He also intervened to try to secure entry for the refugees on board the SS St. Louis, who were ultimately sent back from Havana to Europe in 1939, where many were murdered in the Holocaust.[19]

Carl Laemmle (seated far right) and Irving Leroy Ress (sitting, far left) at Laemmle's 70th birthday celebration (1937).

Representation in other media

See also

References

  1. ^ Sabine Maucher. "The Jewish Past of Laupheim". www.culturespace.de. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Cristina Stanca Mustea. "Carl Laemmle". Immigrant Entrepreneurship. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Stanca Mustea, Cristina. "Carl Laemmle." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 4, edited by Jeffrey Fear. German Historical Institute. Last modified June 19, 2012.
  4. ^ "Film History". Taylor & Francis. August 31, 1989 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b "Carl Laemmle Sr., Film Pioneer, Dies. Man Who Ran $3,600 Invested in Nickelodeon Into Millions Stricken in Hollywood. Formed First Exchange. Organized Independent Movie Companies Into Universal, With Its Vast Studio". The New York Times. Associated Press. September 24, 1939. Carl Laemmle Sr., pioneer motion-picture producer, died in his home here today at the age of 72. Mr. Laemmle had been ill for some time. Death resulted from a heart attack, which came as he lay in bed. He had suffered two other attacks earlier in the day. ...
  6. ISBN 9780813120164
    .
  7. ^ Rose, Liza (April 29, 2012), "100 years ago, Fort Lee was the first town to bask in movie magic", The Star-Ledger, retrieved November 11, 2012
  8. ISBN 0-86196-653-8
  9. ^ "Studios and Films". Fort Lee Film Commission. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  10. ISBN 0-7385-4501-5
  11. ^ "Making moving pictures" The National Magazine, 42: 409–417. Boston: Chapple Publishing, 1915.
  12. ^ "Mrs. Carl Laemmle Dies of Pneumonia". lantern.mediahist.org. January 25, 1919. p. 531. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  13. ^ Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.
  14. ^ Hilb, Rosemary. "The New Generation". The Official Laemmle Family Website. Archived from the original on May 19, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  15. ^ "Carl Laemmle". Jewish Currents. Archived from the original on April 1, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
  16. OCLC 28336345
    .
  17. ^ Carl-Laemmle-Exhibit. "The Inventor of Hollywood". www.carl-laemmle-presents.de. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  18. ^ Geiger, Patricia (November 4, 2012), "Laemmles Bürgschaften retteten vielen das Leben", Schwäbische Zeitung (in German), retrieved November 7, 2012
  19. ^ "Jüdische Zeitung". Archived from the original on November 12, 2007. Retrieved December 11, 2007.
  20. ^ "Trailer MARLENE IN HOLLYWOOD - Theater Lindenhof". YouTube.
  21. ^ https://www.theater-lindenhof.de/wp content/uploads/2023/05/Programmheft_Marlene_Dietrich_in_Hollywood_web.pdf
  22. ^ "Marlene in Hollywood".

Further reading

External links

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