Jules Brulatour
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Jules Brulatour | |
---|---|
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. | |
Died | October 26, 1946 New York City, New York, U.S. | (aged 76)
Spouse(s) | Clara Isabelle Blouin (m. 1894; div. 1915) Dorothy Gibson (m. 1917; div. 1919) Hope Hampton (m. 1923) |
Children | 3 |
Pierre Ernest Jules Brulatour (April 7, 1870 – October 26, 1946) was a pioneering executive figure in American
Early life
Pierre Ernest Jules Brulatour was born in New Orleans on 7 April 1870 to Thomas and Marie Mossy Brulatour. His grandfather Pierre Ernest Brulatour was a wine importer from Bordeaux.[2]
Early career
Jules Brulatour moved to New York City in 1898 to work for the Manhattan Optical Co. based in Creskill as a sales representative of photographic paper, cameras and lenses. In 1907, he became sales chief for Lumiere North American Co.[3]
Through the Sales Company, the growing number of independent filmmakers were able to obtain raw stock from Lumiere, for which Jules Brulatour remained sole US distributor, thereby cutting into profits for
In addition to his position with Kodak and his presidency of the Sales Company, Jules Brulatour also launched the Animated Weekly newsreel series and co-founded
Dorothy Gibson
In fact, its first leading lady, Dorothy Gibson, already well known as a model for leading illustrator Harrison Fisher, not only became a big star in Eclair vehicles but she landed the married Brulatour as a boyfriend.
His mistress proved herself a marketable screen personality, especially as a comedian in such popular one-reelers as Miss Masquerader (1911) and Love Finds a Way (1912). But her best-known role was that of herself in the drama
After the success of Saved From the Titanic, Dorothy Gibson retired from Eclair, choosing to study opera which Brulatour encouraged and financed. In 1913 her new career was interrupted when she was involved in a car accident in which a pedestrian was killed. The resulting lawsuit revealed that the car driven by Dorothy was owned by Jules Brulatour and that she was his lover.[9] Although he was already separated from his wife, Clara Isabelle Blouin Brulatour, the court scandal prompted her to initiate a divorce which was finalized in 1915.[10] With Clara he had three children, Claude, Yvonne, and Ruth.
Film production and Universal Film
Meantime, Brulatour had teamed up again with Carl Laemmle to form the
In 1914 Brulatour funded the construction of larger studios for Peerless Pictures at Fort Lee as well as the rebuilding of Eclair's processing laboratory, storage vault and offices, which had burned, destroying negatives for almost all the firm's films made over the last three years.
Throughout 1915–1916, while his girlfriend appeared with moderate success in Metropolitan Opera House productions, Brulatour was promoted to the presidency of the Eastman Kodak Company. He also helped form another studio at Fort Lee, Paragon Films, for which he built a large facility specifically for the on-site production of Eastman stock.
Political influence
By 1917 Jules Brulatour was a very rich man, reportedly worth several million dollars, and he was increasingly powerful politically.[12] That year he was appointed to the executive committee of the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry. Brulatour chiefly conferred with the group's War Cooperation Subcommittee, which networked with the US government for the promotion of public welfare and propaganda films.[13]
It is believed that his sudden high profile in Washington, D.C. determined him to legitimize his relationship with Dorothy Gibson, whom he finally married on July 6, 1917, a week before his first conference with President
The next year Jules Brulatour was invited to join the film division of President Wilson's Committee on Public Information, but this appointment was less fruitful. Arguments and financial troubles arose almost immediately, and allegations flew of undue influence from media baron William Randolph Hearst and even of bribes from Brulatour; nothing was proven but he resigned under pressure.
Privately, Brulatour's life was also unraveling. His marriage to Dorothy infuriated his first wife, who started proceedings against him, claiming the union was illegal since he had obtained a divorce in Kentucky instead of New York, the state of his residency. This was a drawn-out, complicated affair, and the stress ruined his second marriage, which was finally dissolved as an invalid contract in 1919, a humiliated Dorothy Gibson leaving New York shortly thereafter to live in relative peace and anonymity in Paris. She was allotted alimony and permitted the use of the Brulatour name.
In 1926, after a three-year investigation of Kodak by the Federal Trade Commission, Brulatour was severely fined, along with George Eastman, for "conspiracy to hinder and restrain commercial competition."[14]
Hope Hampton and declining career
Jules Brulatour married a third time in 1923. His new wife was starlet Hope Hampton, a Texas-born beauty queen who was just beginning in movies. Though still head of Kodak, Brulatour was increasingly interested in his new bride's career, which he personally managed. Like Dorothy before her, Hope's film work was short-lived, and she took another page from her predecessor's book when she decided to go into opera, urged on and funded by Brulatour.
The last 20 years of his life were largely uneventful. He and Hope were opening night regulars on Broadway; she especially was a magnet for press attention.
But there were a few odd episodes, such as an unsolved shooting incident in 1939, in which Brulatour was wounded by a would-be assassin whom he refused to identify.
Jules Brulatour died on 26 October 1946 in Mount Sinai Hospital after an illness that lasted several weeks.[18]
Distinctions
- 1930: French Legion of Honor for his services to the motion picture industry during World War I.[19]
Personal life
With his first wife Clara Isabelle, he had a son and two daughters.[3]
References
- Ackerman, Carl V. George Eastman.
- Brady, Frank (1989). Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles. ISBN 0-684-18982-8.
- Creel, George. How We Advertised America.
- Bowser, Eileen (May 4, 1994). The Transformation of Cinema, 1907–1915. ISBN 0-520-08534-5.
- de Bauche, Leslie Midkiff (1997). Reel Patriotism. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-15404-1.
- Koszarski, Richard (2004). Fort Lee: The Film Town, 1904–2004. ISBN 086196652X.
Footnotes
- ^ New York Times, October 27, 1946; Moving Picture World, September 25, 1909, p. 411; Nickelodeon, December 15, 1910, p. 349
- ^ Hémard, Ned (2007). "New Orleans Nostalgia "Universal Acclaim"" (PDF). Neworleansbar.org. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
- ^ a b "JULES BRULATOUR DIES AT 76 IN NEW YORK; PIONEER OF FILM BIZ". Encyclopedia Titanica. December 11, 2003. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
- ^ Carl V. Ackerman, George Eastman (1930), p. 226.
- ^ Billboard, April 6, 1912, p. 15; Motography, December 5, 1914, p. 766.
- ^ Moving Picture World, October 7, 1911, p. 25; and November 11, 1911, p. 482; Moving Picture News, August 10, 1911, p. 17; Richard Koszarski, Fort Lee: The Film Town (2004), pp. 100, 116.
- ^ Moving Picture News, May 4, 1912, p. 27.
- ^ Moving Picture News, May 4, 1912, p. 26.
- ^ New York Times, May 22, 1913.
- ^ New York Times, April 23, 1915.
- ^ Moving Picture World, July 13, 1912, p. 129.
- ^ New York Clipper, June 19, 1918, p. 13; Moving Picture News, April 20, 1918, p. 2353; George Creel, How We Advertised America (1920), p. 274.
- ^ Billboard, September 9, 1916, p. 59; New York Dramatic Mirror, April 3, 1917, p. 14.
- ^ New York Times, April 30, 1923; April 21, 1924; May 19, 1925; and May 8, 1926.
- ^ New York Post, February 14, 1946; New York Sun, May 16, 1946.
- ^ New York Post, January 25, 1939.
- ^ Randy Bryan Bigham, Finding Dorothy (2012), pp. 99-100.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
- ^ New York Times, July 27, 1930.