Joseph Rosenberg
Joseph H. Rosenberg (1881-1971) was a bank executive credited with financing most of the Hollywood movie industry in its early days. Rosenberg, who served as an executive of Bank of America and Lehman Brothers, had a 61-year career in banking.
Early years
Joseph Rosenberg was born in Hungary, immigrated to the US (Cleveland, Ohio), age six. After studying engineering at Case School of Applied Science and graduating from Yale University (class of 1903), he was a surveyor of an ill-fated Mexican railroad construction venture, attempted a mining career in Arizona, and rode a horse 275 miles from Goldfield, Nevada, to Chloride, Arizona, in search of a job. This lone open-country ride, in which Indians ferried him across the Colorado River while the horse swam at the end of a rope, took two weeks. The trip was prolonged for two days because he was asked to stay by a family he met in his travels, who had not seen anyone for three months.[1] After seven unsuccessful years of engineering, Rosenberg was hired by the Arizona Central Bank (Kingman, Arizona with a branch in Chloride) in 1910.[2] In 1926 he joined Los Angeles Merchants National Bank. When Merchants was absorbed by Bank of America, Rosenberg became a vice president. With most banks skeptical about the movie industry as it tried to become big business, Bank of America financed many studio loans. The job of evaluating producers and movies fell to Rosenberg, who had total responsibility for approving movie lending.[3][4]
Walt Disney
Midway through making Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney, after spending $1.25 million, needed another $250,000 to complete the film. Disney ran a rough cut for Rosenberg, who sat impassively during the showing. Then Rosenberg turned to the worried Disney and said, “Walt, that thing is going to make a hatful of money” and approved the loan.[5] In April 1941, work on The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad had begun as animators and writers had come off from Bambi, which was nearly complete.[6] When the Disney animators' strike was finished in October 1941, Rosenberg issued an ultimatum in which he would permit an absolute loan limit of $3.5 million, and in return, he ordered the studio to restrict itself to producing animation shorts and to finish features already in production—Dumbo, Bambi, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad—but no other feature film would begin work until they had been released and earned back their costs. In response, the studio's feature film production, including early versions of Alice in Wonderland and Lady and the Tramp, were heavily scaled back while The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was kept in production as animation work had already begun.[7] However, after reviewing the animation footage, Disney decided to shelve the project deciding that "the quality was too far below the standard necessary to be successful on the market."[8]
Similarly, Rosenberg would later urge Walter Lantz, creator of Woody Woodpecker, to temporarily close his studio in 1949 due to Lantz's financial struggles with distributor United Artists. Once Lantz's loans were reduced, his studio would reopen in 1950.
Trial of Joseph Schenck
On 18 March 1941, Rosenberg described in court a $100,000 loan made to
Later years
At the age of 65 in 1946, the bank forced Rosenberg to retire, and he started a second career. He joined Lehman Brothers as a senior partner and opened their Los Angeles office a month after leaving Bank of America.[10] Even at the age of 89 he was still working when he became ill. He died at Good Samaritan Hospital (Los Angeles) and is interred in Home of Peace Cemetery (East Los Angeles). In later years he often criticized companies for forcing managers to retire at 65. He called it a waste of the country's most productive resource. Rosenberg outlived his three brothers, who managed Milwaukee woolen mills in which Rosenberg held an interest.[11] Three nieces who lived in Milwaukee survived him.[12]
Philanthropy
In 1968, the
References
- ^ Rosenberg succumbs at 89. Western Pioneer. B'nai B'rith Messenger. 9 July 1971
- ^ JH Rosenberg to take management Arizona Central Bank. Mohave County Miner and Our Mineral Wealth (Kingman, Arizona) 15 May 1920
- ^ Rites set for banker, Joseph H. Rosenberg. LA Times, 1 July 1971
- ^ JH Rosenberg, Banker, 89, dies. NY Times. July 1, 1971
- ^ Bob Thomas. Walt Disney: An American Original. Simon & Schuster, 1976
- ^ "James Bodero Interview". michaelbarrier.com (Interview). Interviewed by Milton Gray. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
- ^ Gabler 2006, p. 376.
- ^ Barrier 1999, p. 309.
- ^ Banker tells about Schenck’s $100,000 in brown paper bag. LA Times, 19 Mar 1941
- ^ Lehman office to open here. Daily News. Los Angeles 29 Aug 1946
- ^ Returns from trip to middle west. Mohave County Miner and Our Mineral Wealth (Kingman, Arizona) 20 Oct 1922
- ^ Joseph H. Rosenberg, former Milwaukeean, dies. Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle 9 July 1971
- ^ School to collect Jewish Documents. Citizen News. Los Angeles, 14 Aug 1968
- ^ Jews in US data compiled for archives. Valley News (Van Nuys, Calif) 6 Oct 1974 p34
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-19-802079-0.
- Gabler, Neal (2006). Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-679-75747-4.