Original subtitles

tonight the best picture of the year

becomes one of the Immortals it is by

their art that we know the people of the

past people associated Sangha of quality

absolute lack of fears not in any way

failure artistically motivated or

bouquet was the most important thing in

who moved with great grace when he would

walk thousands of miles down to reach

his destination his whole life from then

on was a gamble a gambler is not usually

a survivor so impatient

he was so bright watching his cheating

they hate you lately will fall in the

Medal of Freedom mr. Sam Davis and he

was getting the honor that he deserved

he was the most sensitive time was kinda

too porous and unusual producer that

I've ever where he was an overlord

golden had that eye for female beauty

but he was very covert about his name

meant a great deal to him and his name

was all over the place of course he

wasn't exactly a role model I said you

know Sam what's the matter with you as

you think your country there you have

the essential golden part truth part

fiction this is Sam Goldwyn I've been at

it for 47 years it's a contribution I'd

like to make to make fewer pictures and

make better pictures that the public

will enjoy when they go into the theater

[Applause]

[Music]

when he was in his 90s and incapacitated

by a stroke Samuel Goldwyn insisted each

day that his nurse bring him downstairs

for meals one afternoon he was having

great difficulty eating a bowl of soup

when the nurse reached for a spoon to

feed him Goldwyn became indignant but

mr. Goldwyn the nurse said you need some

help help he cried how the hell do you

think I got out of Poland

[Music]

although Samuel Goldwyn would later

claim August 27th 1882 as the date of

his birth it was as made-up as his name

Shmuel gyal fish was born the Hasidic

Jews in Warsaw in July 1879 arendelle

fish sickly and a bit of a dreamer

barely made a living selling secondhand

furniture his wife Hana was a malcontent

with a violent temper oh I was floored

she was a battle-axe she really was

extraordinary looking horrifying small

and his five siblings grew up in a

crowded Jewish ghetto a filth hunger and

disease at the age of 42 their father

died of an intestinal illness his

premature death turned Shmuel into a

lifelong hypochondria

he had a dim picture of him in a way he

felt a certain scorn because he wasn't a

survivor miserable at home

young Shmuel dreamed of a new life in

America in the fall of 1895 he began his

500 mile journey across Europe alone and

on foot

Shmuel spent two years in England

working a series of hard labor jobs

relatives their anglicized his name -

Samuel goldfish and encouraged him to

downplay his Jewish heritage he boarded

the Labrador at the Port of Liverpool on

November 26 1898 the cheapest one-way

ticket cost fifteen dollars and he stood

on the dock crying and a kindly

gentleman came by and said there there

young man what is the problem and he

said I'll have to get to an American I

don't have any money and it's terrible

and so this kindly gentleman gave him

some money to get on the boat

well cut that's my father's story

Francis's story is quite different he

stole it I always liked that it was a

little more colorful and I thought a

little more possible

tears would come to the eyes of Samuel

Goldwyn whenever he described his

arrival into New York Harbor but that

too was a fabrication most immigrants

had heard that dockside clerks had the

power to send them back home so taking

no chances goldfish disembarked at the

Labradors first stop Halifax Nova Scotia

from there he trudged 500 miles with the

worst snowfall to hit the eastern

seaboard in 30 years arriving in New

York City in January of 1899

[Music]

there Sam found no streets paved in gold

but he hadn't journeyed this far to

settle for ghettos a squalid as those he

left behind in Warsaw after just two

months he gambled again travelling

upstate to Gloversville were a thriving

industry needed labor gold fish started

at $3 a week sweeping floors and soon

making gloves he embraced the elite

glove company's motto make fewer better

a fellow worker describe Sam bull fish

as a young man in a hurry it didn't help

that he struggled with the language of

his new homeland one he would never

master and as a result of that I think

it was extremely frustrating him because

he was full of energy he was an

extremely emotional man and he couldn't

really express himself all the time and

I think as a result of that that brought

out a lot of hostility within him while

he was working in the glove factory so

people really didn't have a sense of who

he was they just felt he was this rather

hostile loner with endless Drive in a

kind of desperate charm goldfish had in

just four years

crew persuasive enough to become the

elite glove company's vice president of

sales he moved to New York City by then

earning $20,000 a year brimming with

confidence he actively pursued the

social life developing a crush on his

boss's niece Bessie Ginsberg the feeling

was not mutual my mother would have

would have looked down on Goldwyn

because he was a semi-literate and

uncultured besides Bessie had plans to

marry vaudevillian Jesse Lasky who

performed a bugle act with his sister

Blanche goldfish became friendly with

her and after years of rejection he had

at last found someone who didn't say no

Blanche was tired of show business and

she wanted to settle down with a solid

businessman and she thought that that

Sam would be the one my father couldn't

dissuade her but he must have known that

he wasn't marriage material for his

beloved sister

and he went asking around to see if

anybody knew anything about this glove

salesman Sam goldfish who had sort of

taken the New England territory by storm

well as it turns out Louie be mayor

former junk dealer who was getting

involved in the movie business in New

England he had heard of Sam goldfish he

had even encountered Sam goldfish and he

said to Jessie there's no way you must

do everything in your powers to keep

your sister from marrying this man on

May 10th

1910 Blanche Lasky Wed Samuel goldfish

in New York City they promptly settled

into a marriage of inconvenience my

mother did practically from the word go

made motions about getting away from him

and now whether she even knew enough to

snot have a baby I don't know but she

certainly had sex because I don't think

my father would have been around if she

had

On January 25th 1912

Blanche gave birth to a daughter named

Ruth

but neither wife nor child ever found a

place in Sam's heart within three years

Blanche was divorcing her husband on

grounds of adultery demanding custody of

their daughter with each passing year

Sam saw less and less of Ruth until he

stopped seeing her altogether

it was his custom on even hot days to

walk the 50 blocks between his office

and his Upper West Side apartment 1

August afternoon in 1913 goldfish

decided to break up the trip by stopping

at the Herald Square Theatre on 34th

Street the first images Sam goldfish

ever saw on a motion picture screen were

a Bronco Billy Anderson the movies first

cowboy hero mesmerised the glove

salesman left The Herald Square Theatre

his head spinning with ideas they follow

their instincts Sam goldfish went

straight to his brother-in-law and

suggested they become partners in the

movie business but Jesse Lasky was in no

mood to invest in a glove salesman's

harebrained scheme

he relented when Sam suggested the

enterprise be named the Jessie Alaska

feature play company

between them the two men had energy and

connections what they needed was someone

who knew how to make a movie

Jesse Lasky and I had become very close

friends and they through his work in

vaudeville I had written a number of

one-act plays for him they were very

successful and that build up friendship

Sessler admitted that he'd never seen a

picture before and didn't know what was

all about I said don't let that worry

you cessful I will arrange for you to go

up to the Edison studio and stay there

for a week and you'll see exactly how

it's done

sessile did go up there but he stayed

only one day at night he formed me he

said Sam if this is how they do it of

the United in one year goldfishes latest

gamble quickly exhausted his life

savings he had announced that the

company's first production both a

Western and a love story would be shot

in five western states but economics

demanded one location

in 1883 real-estate developer horace

wilcox bought a parcel of ranch land in

the northwest corner of los angeles his

goal was to create a vice for utopia of

christian values

he offered free land to any denomination

willing to erect a house of worship

his wife named the area after a friend's

farm in Ohio Hollywood

[Music]

upon his arrival DeMille signed a four

month lease on farmer Jacob Stern's barn

turned production facility located at

the corner of Selma and Vine streets in

Hollywood on December 29th 1913 the day

production began on the first feature

film ever shot in Hollywood cast and

crew posed for a group picture four

weeks later DeMille wired Lasky and

goldfish telling them to double the

original $23,000 budget his life savings

gone Sam

boldly announced that he was pre selling

state distribution rights for the Squaw

Man as part of an upcoming slate of 12

pictures distributors and 14 states

bought into the scheme and goldfish at

the money to finish production on the

first

in late January 1914 the mill screened

the squaw man for cast and crew at the

barn what they saw threw them into a

panic while we were looking at the

picture

Jesse turned to me and said Sam I guess

this is the end of our motion picture

career well I did not give up hope a

height of a man at the name of Lubin who

had a studio in Philadelphia I went

there and took the picture with me he

said leave the picture with me and I'll

see what we can do the mill admitted

that in order to save money he had

purchased a used British made machine to

punch sprocket holes along the sides of

the film unaware that American equipment

was calibrated differently the squaw man

was rescued by retouching holes to

proper specifications

three months after the success of his

first feature goldfish received a large

cash advance from a start-up distributor

willing to stake its future on him he

eagerly acquired the rights to dozens of

stories

speaking of stories I think that mr.

Goldwyn did as much for the industry

along those lines as anyone because he

always has signed up the most important

writers and famous authors well as

Shakespeare says the slays Ling but

after three years building a business

Sam began to resent that few in the

industry knew the name goldfish

demel was the famous director-general

jesse was it was Lasky future play

company and Sam was nowhere to be seen

on any roll of film he hardly was

written up at all grandfather said he

certainly understood his unhappiness as

the cost of stories and stars kept

rising

goldfish proposed to producer a doff

Sucher a merger of their two companies

in 1916 the famous players-lasky

corporation was born and goldfish became

its chairman but secretly zuker had

bought up enough stock to control their

distributor paramount zou kurz biggest

star shared her boss's distrust and

dislike of Sam goldfish so I told him I

didn't want any of the Lasky people

around me I didn't like the Lasky people

they I thought they were high hat and

snooty I don't mean mr. Lasky or access

all but the eastern people and they sort

of thought we were inferior there was a

lot of jealousy between the two

companies at that time Sam was very good

at at making undiplomatic remarks and

saying don't let zuker butt in on this

picture we've always made better

pictures than zuker and that was enough

for Zhu Kragh to say make up your mind

I'll give you 24 hours either he goes or

I go and DeMille came to him and said

Sam these people are gonna get rid of

you unless you can deal something with

this and he said but sessile they're

wrong he said Sam I'm just telling you

what's gonna happen

eight weeks after the merger Lasky voted

against his ex brother-in-law the very

man who had pushed him into the film

business

goldfish resigned as chairman of a

company which would soon be renamed

Paramount Pictures and Jessie allowed

that to happen Sam never forgave him for

it the three of them were were the best

of friends and started this together and

Jessie allowed that to happen

he had seen the vision of what that

company could be and he was excited

about it he was not a rich man he did

not die a rich man really compared to

what other people in this business had

made but he always said I would have

been a rich man if I had had paramount

within two months goldfish had latched

on to new partners the brothers edgert

in our chable Selwyn were successful

Broadway producers and Sam saw them as a

pipeline for quality material this time

he would not make the same mistake twice

in fact he decided to form a corporate

name based on their two names goldfish

and sell Wynn and he came up with

Goldwyn pictures it was that or selfish

pictures which people to this day think

is the more apt name

always refining his identity goldfish

went to court to name himself after his

company later when this was challenged a

judge ruled that a self-made man was

entitled to a self-made name Goldman

pictures established headquarters on

Fifth Avenue across the street from the

New York Public Library

goldwyn went on a shopping spree for his

own famous players in plays he scored a

coup signing films preeminent comedian

Mabel Normand she was full of emotion

full of whimsy and a guy like Sam who's

so calculated who so you know

manipulative in the salesmen way I could

see how you go nuts for this creature of

delight

Mabel laughed at Goldman's clumsy

attempts at romance but it was Sam who

sent her monthly checks long after her

addiction to drugs had crushed both her

career and any erotic feeling he had for

her Mabel died at 38 and when her hearse

left for the burial only DW Griffith

Mack Sennett and Sam Goldwyn looked on

[Music]

desperate to catch up to the men who'd

entered the business before he had

Goldwyn bought his own Dream Factory in

Culver City California complete with 42

buildings

he continued to spend more than he made

so to keep his rapidly expanding

enterprise stable he sometimes had to

make hasty deals one was with Frank

Castle a cigar smoking smooth talker he

seduced Goldwyn with his chain of

theaters and a 5 million dollar line of

credit Frank also was tapping into

DuPont money and what could be better

than that for a young immigrant who

suddenly a partner of the DuPont's one

of the most famous names in the world in

business this was very exciting for Sam

Goldwyn and it seemed very safe because

other producers had all the big-name

talent under contract golden was forced

to be unconventional he often had to

take chances on bizarre material

including the penalty starring future

legend lon Cheney

[Music]

with the belief that art and commerce

were not mutually exclusive Goldwyn

became the u.s. distributor for the

cabinet of dr. Caligari mr. Goldwyn you

see was an incredible man he if he saw a

talent he used it and paid for it and

all his films show that I mean they are

less his films and that was probably his

greatest attribute as a big producer

later regarded as a masterpiece the film

fared poorly with American audiences

prompting Frank God so to tell Goldwyn

we want pictures to make good not be

good what he didn't realize is pirate

though Sam Goldwyn was mr. ghazal was an

even bigger pirate and in fact when Sam

Goldwyn wasn't looking he took the

company away from them and there was Sam

Goldwyn out on the street again right

away

Sam's ex-partner Frank God's old sought

a buyer for Goldwyn Pictures

[Music]

theater chain owner Marcus Lowe already

owned metro pictures of production

company once run by lui be mayor in a

grand stroke Lowe bought out Frank got

soul giving him control the Metro

Goldwyn corporation

he put mayor in charge of the

consolidated studio and included his

name in the company's title mayor chose

to retain the Goldwyn company logo the

man named Goldwyn was powerless to do

anything about it and until the day he

died

hated the marriage of their two names

he always referred to as the metro

goldwyn company he would never use the

name mayor but he said he'd used the

Goldwyn name as part of it and if they

get confused and it was to his advantage

he used it so whatever was at hand he

used it

realizing he had lost more than just a

company Goldwyn spent almost a year

convincing himself he was dying but his

self-pity gave way to self invention and

he plotted his return to the movie

business he would trade his flashy

clothes for tailored suits reemerging as

an independent producer with no business

partners Goldwyn didn't want them they

didn't want Goldwyn the thing about Sam

Goldwyn to me that's interesting is that

he figured out very early on that the

key to his survival was his identity and

you know if you look at certain

individuals in American business who've

had to work their way through big sea

changes and competition and people kind

of devouring their companies and you

know if they stood for something and

they had a signature and they had an

identity and that identity was

attractive in some way it gave them the

ability to survive

Sam must have royal blood something must

have gone on with his mother and Poland

that we don't know about because if he

dropped something

he expected somebody to pick it up you

know most people if they drop it they

say oh dear and go gold you fetch it not

Sam no Sam you just stand there

to launch his new business Goldwyn

turned to his friend Cecil DeMille who

sat on the loan approval Board of what

became the Bank of America DeMille

signed off on a two hundred fifty

thousand dollar line of credit to Samuel

Goldwyn incorporated much to the dismay

of Bank founder AP Giannini Giannini was

furious said this man has no assets the

mail said if you consider property

assets he has no assets but Sam has the

best assets in the world he has talent

and integrity on that I loaned him this

money and it's been approved ap Jian and

he thought about it for a moment and

said okay sessile but don't do that too

often for his first release as sole

owner of his company Goldwyn hit pay

dirt with material he understood

firsthand a comedy about bickering

partners Goldwyn 's fledgling business

prospered since he first became a

success in the glove business Sam had

sent monthly checks to his mother in

Warsaw in 1925 ha Niguel fish died of a

weak heart

from then on Goldwyn rarely spoke about

his mother but when he did he had

nothing nice to say

plenty of mothers are evil selfish and

are not to be respected not to be

emulated but there's such a mythology

around motherhood and my father

certainly subscribed to it as a result

of all these twisted feelings he always

had very conflicted feelings about

motherhood in general and love in

general and I think he felt he was a man

who had never received it and therefore

it was hard for him to give one month

before his mother's death Goldwyn had

attended a Manhattan dinner dance where

he focused on a 21 year old red-haired

actress who had already made her way

into New York society the next night he

asked Francis Howard to become his wife

Francis Howard McLaughlin was born in

Omaha on June 4th 1903 to Charles and

Bonnie McLaughlin she and her siblings

had a privileged and strict Catholic

upbringing until alcohol got the best of

their father killing his business and

then him at the age of 47 Bonnie

McLaughlin who had lived comfortably her

entire life

snapped becoming an abusive eccentric

she called Jews Christ killers in fact

she didn't call them Jews she rather

polite that called them Orientals

she thought that was more genteel in

fact that was her way of being nice to

the Jews and Francis was taught she was

raised in her in a convent school where

they literally used to strap her breasts

down she was given one bath a week I

mean this is out of Jane Eyre or

something plagued with insecurities for

the rest of her life Francis became the

family breadwinner at 16 she modeled for

photographer Edward Steichen she landed

a small part in a Broadway play and when

the show went on the road to Syracuse

Francis befriended stage manager George

Cukor later as a film director he would

guide the performances of Hollywood's

most successful actresses

he thought she was really this

unpolished gem and she really had all

the facets there they just needed a

little buffing that was all and he

really took her under wing and I dare

say the two of them did fall in love

with each other but both knew his

homosexuality made a complete union

impossible

shortly before she met Sam Goldwyn

Francis Howard signed a contract at

Paramount and appeared in her first film

about a young woman being groomed to

marry a prince my mother wasn't very

good in this picture more importantly it

wasn't the same woman and the camera

which you cannot lie to unfortunately

gave me somebody frightened insecure

Francis told George Cukor about Goldwyn

proposal seeking his advice aware of her

limited acting abilities he told her

marry him Francis you'll never get a

better part for Francis Howard security

meant more than true love but it was the

kind of thing that you might as well

know I've got a cash register where my

heart ought to be and I sort of laughed

politely and then I felt what a thing to

say about yourself Samuel Goldwyn and

Francis Howard signed their marriage

contract at the Jersey City courthouse

April 23rd 1925

there was the story which people swear

is true he and Francis got married

outside of New York and coming back he

said to her that she was a beautiful

bride

but he wished she'd had a vetting whale

he always got a mixed up the v's in the

W

his marriage to Francis Howard provided

a final touch to the carefully crafted

self-portrait of Samuel Goldwyn

independent producer on their wedding

night mr. and mrs. Goldwyn boarded a

train bound for their new home in life

in Hollywood

[Music]

from the moment he arrived in California

Goldwyn distinguished himself as the man

who made fewer better he distributed his

films through United Artists the company

founded by Chaplin Pickford Fairbanks

and Griffith to support independent

producers

[Music]

for his first release with you a Goldwyn

adapted the best-selling tearjerker

Stella Dallas it seemed a strange choice

for a man most of Hollywood already

considered a heartless businessman but

Goldman's passion for the movies went

beyond his pocketbook he was a fan first

attracted to material that moved him

then I produce a picture

I don't usually worry how it's going to

be a box-office success or not because

the minute anyone starts making a

picture and things of the box-office

they're 90% of failure before they start

Stella Dallas is a woman from the wrong

side of the tracks who sacrifices

everything so her child can have a

better life the film spoke directly to

at least one runaway from Warsaw who

felt unloved by his mother

he cared about making money but he

really did care more about making a good

film he really did care about the he

good film I love this statement is one

of the best producer statements in the

world about I don't care if this picture

makes a dime as long as every man woman

and child in America sees it

the film ends with Stella on the outside

gratefully looking in on a world where

her daughter but not she belongs

Sam Goldwyn watched those scenes over

and over in his lifetime and tears would

gun pouring from his eyes all these

things are very closely related in Sam

Goldwyn life in so many ways his work

and his life are bound together for his

next project the Jewish immigrant got to

erect his own town in the American West

he spared no expense for authenticity

right down to drilling a well for its

water he paired his leading man Ronald

Coleman with his latest discovery a

beauty from Budapest named Vilma Banky

for supporting role goldwyn secretary

lobbied for a real cowboy

do you know that boy I raped you about

Gary Cooper will I rate so much about

him too mr. Goldwyn mrs. Goldwyn and

Frances Marion

that mr. golden finally wired to camp

and asked our manager to sign him up

under five year contract Harry Cooper

could do a scene you could watch him

doing the scene and you think nothing's

happening you see it the next day on

that in the projection room and

everything was happening in Hollywood

less than a year Samuel Goldwyn had

found a place as both a prime exemplar

and purveyor of the American dream but

like the other Jewish moguls he

considered it a business decision to

conceal his Jewish heritage lest anyone

question his patriotism to America and

certainly you could have hardly got more

Gentile than Francis Howard and indeed

as an extension of that theory having a

child by that Gentile wife would start

to in a sense purify bleach out the

Jewishness out of your children and I

think this was something a lot of the

Jewish moguls really wanted I believe it

was something in the back of Samuel

Goldwyn mind

[Music]

on September 7th 1926 Francis gave birth

to an 8 pound son Jewish tradition held

that naming a child after the living was

bad luck but that didn't stop the naming

of Jack Warner jr. Jesse Lasky jr. or

Samuel Goldwyn jr. according to

Francis's prenuptial request Sammy would

be raised a Catholic I once said who's

he talking on the telephone to and my

father said I've been talking to the

Easter Bunny and he said and he's gonna

be here and I said when and he said I'm

just making the arrangement he was

talking about her and I said to my

mother how does he know the Easter Bunny

and he said your father's a very

important man well even Louis Bimmer had

to answer to a parent company Samuel

Goldwyn reported to no one financing

each picture with his own money it

seemed only blue skies lay ahead but new

technology was about to change the

movies forever and Goldwyn soon found

himself in another struggle for survival

in May of 1927 audiences packed local

movie houses to see and hear Charles

Lindbergh takeoff into history it was

the first news event widely seen with

synchronized sound on film seven months

later possessing started the revolution

[Music]

yeah this concern about timing used to

talk a lot about the timing for an

independent in other words you had to be

riding a crest when when the wave was

going down that was the time for you to

go in when the wave was going up it was

dangerous for you

[Music]

Goldwyn stayed competitive by assembling

of superior roster of talent to ensure

his successful transition to sound he

engaged a daring young producer from the

New York theater arthur horn blows ooh

near for his chief screenwriter he hired

one of america's most honored

playwrights Sidney Howard well he yes he

he wanted talent and he was willing to

pay a little more than the next studio

and other producers and therefore he did

engage people of of talent whenever he

had a respect that great respect for

talent assistant cameraman Gregg Toland

who would proceed to shoot 40 Goldwyn

Films loud he would not let the

restrictions of sound keep him from

trying new ways of telling stories with

pictures it was a year and a half after

the jazz singer before Goldwyn premiered

Bulldog Drummond the subject of its

opening scene was sound itself

the eternal teen in this club is an

ultra you're perfectly right colonel we

ought to complain do you know that the

third spoon I heard doctors none moons

my head

somebody had to throw a bomb and wake

the place up Ronald Coleman became the

first silent star who proved himself

even more popular in talking pictures

Bulldog Drummond earned more money for

Goldwyn than had all his silent films

combined

the same could not be said for Vilma

Banky 'he's first talking picture this

is heaven proved a hellish experience

for the nearly unintelligible hungarian

and that really crushed sam he did he

did care for although he told me that

she was the dumbest woman that ever

lived another bra

[Music]

I'm making whoopee at a time when the

public began rejecting Hollywood's

poorly produced musicals Sam Goldwyn

made his first adapting Florence

Ziegfeld 's Broadway hit it quickly

turned Eddie Cantor into America's

number one movie star the major studios

had all passed on the vaudevillian

believing that audiences would not

accept his Jewish Schumer white man

paying $40 for two article origami such

of words before T dollars $40 you've got

Chuck's Gemini bite the husband is up

now and you before $40 to articles like

that correlation I don't need your

business would you do me a favor yes go

some other place go ahead all right look

look look look you can't take a joke

[Laughter]

insistent that each of us productions be

state-of-the-art golden shot Whoopi in a

still experimental process known as

Technicolor for his choreographer he

introduced to Hollywood the

kaleidoscopic talents of a Boy Wonder

named buzz Bieber

I think of Sam Goldwyn as a ringmaster

at a three-ring circus and you've got

man eating animals and you've got

jugglers and you've got tightrope

walkers and you've got clowns and some

guy has got to be in the middle cracking

the whip and announcing what act comes

on next the trademark of every Zig Feld

production was his chorus of Ziegfeld

girls but in Sam's production of Zig

Feld's whoopee they would be renamed

gold windows

he steals an idea someone once said of

Goldwyn then believes he thought of it

himself that ruthlessness extended to

his favorite pastime playing cards every

Sunday afternoon industry titans

gathered at Goldman's for high state

games of poker and gin rummy Sam a

notorious cheater could win or lose as

much as a hundred and fifty thousand

dollars in one city we had to give

checks to different people and some of

those people old old mr. Goldwyn and

Buster I had a cliff they didn't send

that check in within a month

or if it was a big amount I had to call

up the secretary and tell him look we

want this check they owe mr. Goldwyn X

amount of dollars oh yeah he gambled all

the time because every time he made a

picture was a gamble where there was

gonna be a success her husband's vice

even more than a failed picture

terrified Frances who could never shake

her fear of losing everything a gambler

is not usually a survivor and she was

frightened of the gambling instinct in

him and the fact that he gambled often

when he was in trouble

they had an unfailing sense of

showmanship and they were gamblers they

took risks they didn't play safe all the

time and that is what made that whole

period so productive and so interesting

Sam made sure nobody would ever have

more control of a picture than he roles

were clearly defined he used to play

such hell about directors writing and

rewriting and so forth and I got angry

and I wrote a story and sold it to a

magazine just to show him I was a writer

after each picture I put a I put a note

in my draw desk drawers so every time I

open the top drawer it said no more

Goldwyn pictures has just I suffered too

much as America plunged into the

depression and most of Hollywood served

up escapist fare Golden scored major

successes with socially conscious dramas

he took a chance on a promising young

director John Ford and earned his first

Academy Award nomination for producing

the year's best picture but Goldwyn lost

to his archrival Louie B Meyer an MGM

production of Grand Hotel

[Music]

each of the major studios put its

leading ladies in as many as five

pictures a year Goldwyn rarely produced

more than two films annually in the race

for actors he kept scavenging for a

hidden treasure the majors had either

rejected or neglected idea you can be a

sensation or you can be a failure at

Dyea failure he was always looking to

create in his mind some kind of an

idealized woman I think that related to

the mother to the relationship with the

mother

russian-born Aniston spoke no English

when Goldwyn signed her to a four-year

contract he spared no expense putting

her through leading lady bootcamp and in

the end the publicity department did not

exaggerate when it hailed her as gold

wins $1,000,000 discovery all your life

you've tried to be what you are not what

I am that's what I say look at me I

belong to George and you would crucify

him because he has what you have never

known I never wished a woman like you

you have I have not you have never you

liar Aniston's debut was a flop Goldwyn

tried her in two more pictures even

casting her opposite Hollywood's number

one star let me go you haven't told me a

thing about yourself but I'm learning an

awful lot don't you do some what about

me the wedding night would become known

as gold wounds lasts 10

during his long career the producer

would never create a major female star

of his own

so to attract attention to his movies

Goldwyn had to improvise creating

publicity around stars from other fields

one notable thinker did turn down gold

ones offer to write a screen romance who

knows more about love the producer

argued than Sigmund Freud be sure and

get your man the thirty years Sam filled

with a chorus of Goldwyn girls to appear

in his films and go on publicity tours a

few ham picked chlorines left him for

bigger careers including a platinum

blonde named Lucy others girl Sam said I

have always insisted they look as though

they had stepped out of a bathtub

god forbid anybody make a pass at any of

us girls they'd be fired he was very

strict about there but I think he just

enjoyed seeing the girls around and

feeling like he was doing something for

them while Sam invested profits into his

business

Francis found her sense of security by

building a home of her own

she located a property in Beverly Hills

and worked with an architect designing

the house construction at 1200 Laurel

Lane moved at a pace determined by the

success or failure of Sam's latest film

to cut corners Richard de goldman's art

director on 36 films executed the

interior design I just got the

impression that that Laurel Lane was her

life that that was her kingdom she was

in charge there and Sam was happy

wherever he was as long as things worked

so it was her responsibility to make

things work entertaining as often as

four times a week Frances became

Hollywood's premier hostess all part of

her job as mrs. Samuel Goldwyn by part

of her nature was she knew how to talk

to people she could talk to anybody she

would talk to the cop at the gate and do

it just as gracefully as she would talk

to mrs. Astor and Frances was a

brilliant woman

I think her life was pretty well

consumed was the welfare of Samuel

Goldwyn one friend of mine once said

Frances don't you ever have anybody to

your house except for business reasons

and she said what else

[Music]

George Cukor and Frances Goldwyn

remained best of friends for the rest of

their lives but one day George Cukor did

tell me and it was hard for him to tell

me he said Frances loved that boy but

she was a terrible terrible mother and

after a few years he said she lost

interest in the boy and never really

wanted to take care of him she really

didn't have that much affection to go

around for both of these men in her life

so with her I think it must have been a

choice one or the other and Sam Sam

senior was a very demanding guy and that

was part of the pact

oh the screaming drove me crazy his wild

emotion was very difficult to deal with

and then rages and anger you know he

would fly in his rages of anger

my father was a very difficult man my

mother was a very possession for woman

and I was often in the middle of this

[Applause]

[Music]

Sam saw me in the picture called la

bataille a French picture where I played

a Japanese girl and I've always thought

it was very clever of Sam to see me as a

little English girl for Dark Angel in

spite of the eyes pulled up after the

Aniston disaster left golden without

even a glimmer of a female star

he enjoyed some modest success with

indian-born beauty merle oberon it was a

wonderful feeling for me to have to work

with Sam because I trusted him so

completely and he was so much more fussy

than I could ever have been so I never

went to the rushes I let him tell me

what and and where you found a thing do

you think well he's a sort of a funny

chap but I think I did have a soft spot

for Sam the dark angel also marked Owens

first collaboration with the promising

playwright named Lillian Hellman he

signed her to a long-term contract he

had what I suppose is called respect for

writers and I was very stubborn and I

think he recognized it early and I had

an easy time usually an easy time with

him I think he liked me and within

limits I liked him

I jumped at the opportunity to

particularly to work with Lillian

Hellman and also for Sam Goldwyn because

his standard I could just come from

Universal in fact making sort of

second-class kind of pictures in Colvin

was making first-class pictures so it

was a good it was a good step for me and

that was the beginning of the gold would

wire relationship no one in Hollywood

had touched Hellmann's play originally

called The Children's Hour because the

plot hinged on the suggestion of the

lesbian affair but the writer convinced

Goldwyn that the bigger theme was the

power of a lie in the mouth of a child

why'd you lie to us so often I'm not

lying

if you have to do things come and tell

us about it we try to understand we try

to help you but this kind of lying is so

bad for everybody

William Wilder knew he was on trial and

protected himself by shooting take after

take nevertheless he and Goldwyn fought

constantly but never about money Willy

was one of the few people that Sam had

much respect for will he stood up to Sam

Sam was dictatorial and his sole

approach to everything I mean he was an

overlord

Goldman easily identified with the

subject of his next project

Sam dodsworth a self-made success with a

passion for life he adapted the Sinclair

Lewis bestseller a sophisticated marital

story he had once refused at the price

of $20,000 but then writer Sidney Howard

turned dodsworth into a Broadway hit

finally Goldman bought the play for a

hundred and fifty thousand he said to

Goldwyn see you could have bought it for

twenty he said I bought a successful

play for a hundred and fifty which is

very good thinking you know who's trying

to put a tactfully you and I can't make

a goal things any longer and this is the

man that I've loved for 20 misses the

man who's loved you you had another

thing you have another single think

Ramon our sorrows and I've landed myself

you really wanted to come back to me I

tried it and I could not have known

you'd be just the same I did know it you

know gave me another chance take another

chance because I am flew finished on

that split marry her I'm going back to

doing thing do you think you'll never

get me out of your block maybe not but

love has got to stop someplace short of

suicide

dodsworth epitomized what his press

department promoted as the Goldwyn touch

an unsurpassed quality and all phases of

production the film received seven

Academy Award nominations including

Goldwyn second for Best Picture once

again he lost to Louie B Meyer an MGM

production of the great Ziegfeld

[Music]

he was very very very very conscious of

the fact that Hollywood did not

recognize him and I think that one of

the reasons that he and Walt Disney

became friends was that they both shared

this thing about being feeling they were

Outsiders in the Hollywood system

[Music]

the year he made dodsworth Goldwyn took

his family on Sammy's first trip to

Europe Francis spent much of the

Atlantic crossing locked in the bathroom

crying worried that the good times

couldn't last

[Applause]

on the voyage home Sam took to his bed

in severe pain doctors in New York

removed his appendix and gallbladder

Frances kept his illness a secret

fearing that if the bank found out it

would take her heavily mortgaged house

from her Sam recovered and the couple

spent a quiet month in Idaho but the

illness left him preoccupied with his

own demise and he often told a story

about one day she said I'm sick and

tired of you lying in that bed now get

out of the bed get off your ass and go

to work and that was the only time in

this life they ever made four pictures

in one year that was a relationship

[Music]

Sam rebounded with a rare special

effects film spending four hundred

thousand dollars to stage the hurricanes

20 minutes storm sequence

another film that year was a

controversial Broadway hit which

provided the kind of prestige Gowon

liked though having spent most of his

life trying to forget about slums he

didn't like the setting

[Music]

spend my life dreaming about tearing

these places down well I found out today

I saw myself in these rotten holes we

live in through somebody else's eyes I

want to tear them down with my fingers

William Wyler wanted to shoot dead end

on location in New York but Goldwyn

insisted that designer Richard day could

create a slum better than the original

even on a soundstage the site of

make-believe squalor compelled the

producer to pick up trash on the set

this offended God when he didn't liked

it so he cut up with while owed regular

but removing all the dirt and garbage

cans and while I argued with him for a

long time and then he announced one day

that he was gonna fire while I

tempers calmed and variety called

William Wyler's direction of dead end

faultless Goldwyn had banished to borrow

from Warner Brothers a promising

newcomer Humphrey Bogart it's me it's me

I only had my face fixed ain't you glad

to see me that's how glad I am Sam

Goldwyn 'he's conflicted feelings about

motherhood would continue to influence

what films he made you're here with

mummy and nobody in the whole world is

ever going to take you away

nobody in 1937 Goldwyn remade the

classic dearest to his heart

critics and fans alike regard barbara

stanwyck performance as the finest of

her career the same scene still brought

sand to tears

Sam and Frances Goldwyn each had

abbreviated childhoods parenting did not

come naturally when Sammy reached

adolescence they had no idea how to

handle his rebellious spirit until

Francis met handwriting expert Hilda

Burrell at a cocktail party I started

going to this woman more or less as I

guess somebody today would go to a

therapist or thing and first thing she

said you've got to understand both of

your parents are terrified of what they

feel of being ill-equipped to raise a

child and in Hollywood and I said well

that's not my fault

Sam's daughter Ruth considered herself

more alaskey than a Goldwyn he hadn't

seen her in more than a decade and had

never met his first grandchild

handwriting analyst Hilda Burrell

prompted a reunion

I really had a few hives that night was

awful can you imagine not having seen

him since I was a child oh I can

remember being nauseated and

Thanksgiving in Christmas when we would

all four gather and he would make a

toast

and it was the joys of fatherhood and

his wonderful family business associates

were just like family members subject to

the whims of the same King Sam's

terrible temper often left everyone

running in fear or frustration the

agents would have it already a fix what

they were gonna go in and ask mr. Gould

and you'd hear all this noise oh my gosh

you'd hear Wow you just hit all man and

when they came out who do you think got

what he wanted

father mr. Goldwyn

not always

during production of the Goldwyn Follies

Sam became obsessed with dancer Vera

zorina Francis was convinced he was

having an affair but neither he nor she

knew Zarina only had eyes for her

choreographer George Balanchine who she

later married adding to the hurt gold

wounds ripoff of the Ziegfeld Follies

was a critical and financial disaster

setting the producer back 1 million

dollars when he asked me to do one of

these things I refused and finally we

got some story we could agree on and it

would make that

[Music]

at first Goldman wanted nothing to do

with weather in Heights a script Ben

Hecht and Charles MacArthur had been

shopping around Hollywood for years I

don't think he read it him say that

somebody read it found out it ended in a

death of the two lovers he said no he

was not gonna make tragedies and I went

back to Goldwyn sent Warner's is gonna

buy this for Betty Davis well that sort

of stopped him now he now he looked into

it and he's asked one question he said

can merle oberon plate I said yes

because he needed a picture she was on

the contract to him he needed a picture

for her he said okay he went and he

bought it it enables me to be superior

to myself they're used to they used to

be great arguments between Willie and

Sam and Sam's voice would raise a pitch

and level and Willie not to be

intimidated would go one octave higher

and one decibel louder

pretty soon would be a screaming match

cinematographer Greg Tolin envisioned

watering Heights as moody and full of

shadows gold would never fail to trust

tollens artistic judgment nor to support

his daring experiments in photography by

paying for special equipment

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Kathie's theme became Sam's favorite

piece of music Alfred Newlin who had

scored 23 golden features had just been

hired to run 20th Century Fox's music

department

he turned weathering Heights into his

most haunting golden score

he could make the world stop right here

make everything stop and stand still and

never move again make the more has never

changed you and I never change more than

I will ever change

don't you Cathy I can't I can't no

matter what I ever do or say here this

is me now standing on this hill with you

this is me forever during the time he

made the picture he said I don't know

this picture will be a success but it's

the picture I want to be remembered by

and he always felt it was his favorite

picture because it like Stella della

said something very personally to him I

think he had a kind of a love for a

so-called kind of an unobtainable woman

and that's the reason that character

sometimes appears in the movies that's

kind of what whether he Heights is about

to him Cathy it was can you understand

that

I'm somebody else I'm another man's wife

and he loves me and I love him if he

loved you with all the part of his soul

for the whole lifetime he couldn't love

you as much as I do in a single day not

he not the world

not even you Cathy can come between us

at the outset of filming Laurence

Olivier developed a case of athletes

foot so severe he couldn't wear shoes he

trudged through the picture and thought

that would impress Goldwyn science of

limped towards him as but as I was able

to him there and sure enough he did put

his hand on my shoulder and he turned to

me in the turntable he said Willie

if this active cause I'm playing the way

he is I closed up the picture will you

look at that act as earthly face is

dirty he's acting staged he and his

hammy and it's awful and I'm not having

my picture in the longer tell him to

wake up around

[Music]

Goldin felt his early instincts had been

confirmed when a preview audience found

weathering Heights unpleasantly tragic

anyway it was sad but very romantic but

Goldwyn said I don't like to see look at

dead people at the end of a picture so

he wanted me to shoot a scene if the two

of them walking through the clouds

because both were dead walking hand in

hand or arm in arm I said I such the

spoon do it well he had somebody else do

it and that shot is still in the picture

he said it's awful shot but I never

heard any complaints I've seem to be the

only one complaining about it

[Music]

after a string of flops and negative

rumors about the film both Sam and

Francis feared weathering heights could

mark their financial ruin the film was

an artistic triumph but a decade would

pass before it turned a profit at the

Academy Awards Goldwyn lost again to

Louie B Meyer and MGM's release of Gone

with the Wind

[Music]

watering Heights was Gollum's 46 film

released through United Artists with the

careers of its founders and decline

Sam's product had kept UA in business

nevertheless the partners had grown

tired of Goldman's temper and were ready

to part company but Sam shocked them and

the industry one day by unilaterally

renaming the you a property ordering the

switchboard to answer the telephone

Samuel Goldwyn studios its unfathomable

to anybody in the movie business today

to imagine going to a bank and saying

I'm gonna make a movie I'm gonna put my

house up I'm gonna put this up I'm gonna

put that up and basically gonna leverage

everything I'm gonna mortgage everything

to make this movie that takes incredible

conviction and a sense of belief in

yourself you know that that is that's

just it's almost superhuman in late 1940

that belief was tested when Goldwyn

joined 50 industry heavyweights for a

private lunch at Warner Brothers the

featured speaker was former ambassador

to Great Britain

Joseph P Kennedy Nazis were just

beginning to creep into scripts and

films as being villainous he said don't

do that

because you don't want movies to be

perceived as Jewish he took a few of

these men aside Goldwyn among them and

said you've got to take these Jewish

names off the films and I think for most

of them were terrified the most was the

jig is up

the game is over and especially for

Goldwyn who was always the outsider

still I mean he was a one-man band

pretending he was he was a whole studio

and I think he figured he would be the

first one to go

but nobody dictated terms to Goldwyn and

in rejecting Kennedy's suggestion he

gradually lost his European markets

meantime Frances Goldwyn devised a plan

to protect her son should the Nazis

invade America she would fake a drowning

death by having Sammy's clothes wash up

near their Santa Monica beach house she

would establish a second identity for

him in Mexico where money would be

waiting she was frightened she was a

woman had a son who was half Jewish and

a husband who was Jewish and was

absolutely convinced that you know she

was one of those people that believed

that Hitler had a chance here it took

more than a year before Sam's legal

battles with United Artists came to an

end he got to retain the studio but lost

a distributor not since his early days

in the business did he have so few

stories and stars to his name at 61

Samuel Goldwyn faced the option of

retiring or reinventing himself again

when things were absolutely there bottom

he was a champion just don't let things

get too good and then he could become

quite difficult even awfully monster ish

Baldwin bounced back now distributing

his films through RKO he pulled off the

impossible getting Betty Davis on loan

from Warner Brothers by forgiving a huge

gambling debt of Studio Chief Jack

Warner Baldwin forever called Lillian

Hellman's drama of genteel greed the

three little foxes Davis plays an aging

southern belle with an invalid husband I

hope you die I hope you die soon I'll be

waiting for you to die cinematographer

Greg Tolin had by then perfected the art

of deep focus by which action in the

foreground and the background remained

clear his ingenuity enhanced the film's

climax

the other bottle please upstairs in my

room in the draw

the main thing in the scene is not the

man trying to go upstairs to get the

medicine

it's Betty Davis sitting on a couch and

it's all going on behind her and her

being completely still

[Music]

Eddi

any quick

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

well of course that's one of the most

colossal shots out of a dramatic moment

that will ever be I think in my opinion

whether I was in it or not the way he

shot it was it was just genius the

little fox has returned Sam Goldwyn to

form earning nine Academy Award

nominations but again

no trophies

[Music]

years before America's formal

declaration of war the Hollywood Jewish

community had waged its own battle

against Adolf Hitler Goldwyn was among

the first to give generously and

conspicuously encouraging use of his

name to raise more money was only the

present delivered John Dean now and that

now when our help must be given and for

that hungry United Jewish appeal need

food clothing shelter last time at bat

from this world series Hollywood also

contributed to the war effort by

boosting morale Goldwyn you nothing

about baseball and he had never heard of

Lou Gehrig the New York Yankees first

baseman who had recently died of a

neurological disorder but when Goldman

saw newsreels of Gehrig's farewell

tribute he broke down and sobbed in

Yankee Stadium touched to tears by the

tribute Gehrig made his last public

appearance I consider myself

in the face of the earth

[Applause]

a love story as much as a baseball story

the pride of the Yankees became

Goldman's most successful film to date

it earned eight Academy Award

nominations including Best Picture Best

Actor and Best Actress Teresa Wright did

win an Oscar that year for Best

Supporting Actress in MGM's Pro Ally

film mrs. Miniver after nominations for

two Goldwyn Pictures William Wyler won

his first Oscar for directing mrs.

Miniver and Goldwyn lost the big prize

again to his lifelong memory with such

writers who had a grand idea for such

direction and with such stars and

supporting cast anybody could have done

it

in 1942 along Hollywood release nearly

300 wartime dramas Goldwyn got people to

pay attention by endorsing the need for

a few laughs

hiya boys whoo I am back from the wars

in a deal only he could make gold one

secured the talents of Paramount's

number one comedy star whatever Sam

Goldwyn wanted at that moment in life

whether it's a better report card an

actor a writer that's the most important

left and all the rules are off until you

get it take your stand at the mainmast

mainmast until the main master with

felony

a second Bob Hope comedy was just a

silly and just as successful the star

returned to paramount but Goldwyn had

the last laugh

stick around son something older may

show up for you how do you like that I

knocked my brains out for nine reels and

a bit player from paramount comes over

and gets the girl this is the last

picture I do for Goldwyn pardon me

desperate for a funny man of his own

golden took a chance on a Jewish

comedian no studio had signed because he

photographed badly it looks like Paula

nari mafiosos it strikes without warning

you'll be coming to your office one day

and then suddenly you'll be all right

and then thank you the first three

things Sam Goldwyn said about me in a

group of people was we have to be very

careful how we handle this boy

because he's not good-looking he can't

act and he has no sex appeal

[Music]

Francis Goldwyn came up with the idea of

dying Kay's hair blonde and softening

his sharp features with makeup

Kay's wife wrote specialty material to

showcase her husband's talents in his

debut film now you know the name of the

picked and who wrote it and you'd still

like to see but no direction think of

Puffin theory is Minerva but photography

Alonso Tek recorded sound has needle

back upholstery by zachary knick-knacker

ii by hackery particularly by the korean

jacory but he used to say about me he

said that you know him he's a very

talented kid he used to say we're gonna

do a lot of nice things with him and he

really tried every picture that we made

he labored over the script he hadn't

changed as to do one picture a year one

his wartime comedies made Sam Goldwyn a

very rich man his bigger than life

personality made him a household name

his reputation for mangling the English

language turned him into the number one

but of Hollywood jokes his expressive

misuses were the real or imagined became

known as Goldwyn isms he was on the

first flight of the constellation and

apparently was a rough trip coming in

and he came in he said oh he said I just

flew in on the costs consternation he

introduced me to a very good-looking

girl a writer and said I want you two to

cohabit very closely Sam Goldwyn he he

was not the most articulate man he

managed to make himself understood

somebody had done something for him that

was wrong you know and he said well the

next time I send a damn fool I'll go

myself and it was awfully hard not to

laugh out loud the thing about his

Scullin isms is that the word he used

was much better than the original word

it just it somehow I mean there was an

art to it this was way back in the

pirate era and slaves like walks in in

this Elizabethan cost him with the

scholar and everything else and Goldman

looks at me since mr. sleazy

you look very periodical what he said in

front of me right

like include me out in this sort of

thing it was never funny to me because I

know exactly what he meant

he just didn't bother to find the right

words for what he meant you know what he

meant I was fired and go and then do a

story editor made a line that has since

become I think famous he said that man

will never work for me again

unless I need him throw out all the

funny stories an oral contract does not

work the papers written on stuff in all

that junk I think he did a lot of it to

get publicity I mean anybody who goes to

a psychiatrist should have his head

examined

you can't do better than that that's

just great tell me this is it true what

I hear in Hollywood that your wife makes

more contribution to these pictures in

the general development than anyone else

my wife is the best man I had

[Music]

in a 1944 edition of Time magazine

Frances Goldwyn showed her husband an

article that had moved her to tears

about a group of Marines home from the

war on a 30-day furlough without

crediting his wife Sam commissioned

author McKinley Kanter to write an

outline based on the plight of returning

vets instead Cantor wrote a novel and

blank verse Goldwyn hope playwright

Robert Sherwood might translate the book

into a screenplay but the three-time

Pulitzer Prize winner expressed his fear

that Americans wanted to put the war in

the past and he said I can't lick this

somebody else you can I'll give you the

money back Sam said I don't want the

money I want you to write the screenplay

so he said well I can't do it he said

well I'll tell you what I'll do you can

keep the money you come and live at my

house and all I ask is that you work

four hours a day and come what may well

I'll take what it is he was never

jealous of writers because that was not

his domain you know they didn't seem to

infringe on his work as a producer the

way a director could and the way some

critics would would single out directors

for their work well I think that did sit

right with gold

are you ever embarrassed mr. Galvan when

the artistic success of your films is

ascribed not the director or the author

of the star but two of you yourself who

really haven't taken an active creative

role in the picture there are two kinds

of producers one is as mr. Kenan said an

organizer and the other really is a

producer I do agree many things myself

that others leave to the director and

the chances are I may be wrong but there

nevertheless I've been here for 46 years

and I'm still working and still doing

all right

Lieutenant Colonel William Wyler had

served overseas making documentaries

Memphis Belle chronicled the Flying

Fortress during its bombing runs over

Germany while filming one mission he

lost his hearing in one ear leaving him

partially deaf for the rest of his life

[Music]

and I said this I want to do because

it's about returning veterans and the

problems they had getting adjusted to

civilian life people who were not hurt

physically but were mentally disturbed

to some extent

[Music]

it's alright food go back to sleep go

back to sleep

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

there's nothing to be afraid of

all you have to do is

[Music]

Colonel Wyler remembered an army

documentary aimed at helping amputees

adjust to their disabilities the film

subject was a soldier named Harold

Russell who had lost both hands in a

stateside explosion during his basic

training there was never any really

sense of how anybody survived in a

modern world without hands and

disability at that time was something

that was talked about it whispers it was

never talked about openly we could have

had an actor doing hiding his hands but

then it would have been acting we

preferred to have somebody who was not

an actor but it had really lost his

hands and here was an opportunity use

this boy this is when I know I'm

helpless my hands are down there on the

bed I can't put them on again without

calling to somebody for help I can't

smoke a cigarette or read a book that

door should blow shut I can't open it

and get out of this room

mr. pennant as a baby that doesn't know

how to get anything except cry father oh

we are coming out of the Russians and

I'd had a pretty good scene and he

turned to me and said you're doing a

wonderful job

he said just keep up the good work it's

excellent and it was the guy cleaning

the lawn behind him who looked at going

to then look at me and go and got in

this kinda guy said you know I've known

that son of a bitch for 10 years and

that's the first time I ever heard him

said he nice about anybody

although the screenplay was twice the

usual length Goldwyn promised Sherwood

that not a single line would be cut or

changed everything has always been so

perfect for you you loved each other and

you got married in a big church and you

had a honeymoon in the South of France

and you never had any trouble of any

kind so how can you possibly understand

how it is with Fred and me we never had

any trouble how many times have I told

you I hated you and believed it in my

heart how many times have you said you

were sick and tired of me that we were

all washed up

how many times have we had to fall in

love all over

how many times if I said I hated you and

mend it how many times and so on I can't

I can't discuss it without without

feeling the emotion that he had in that

scene Wyler staged the first meeting of

Al and Millie Stevenson after his own

reunion with his wife the scene became

one of the most memorable ever filmed

crystallizing a decade of emotions into

a single moment

[Music]

Peggy

[Music]

[Applause]

it was a it was a dramatic it was the

thing that was happening all over the

country and the picture told on several

levels what was going on it was it was

Universal in its in its significance

[Music]

the first cut of the film ran two hours

and 40 minutes a length that would

affect box office by limiting the number

of daily screenings but Goldwyn stood

behind the version crafted by his

longtime editor danny mandel in its

initial release the best years of our

lives grossed 10 million dollars

second only to the first year

performance of Gone with the Wind

Goldwyn received his seventh Oscar

nomination for Best Picture joining a

field that included two other

independent productions but all three

were considered long shots against the

major studio nominees

and I think Goldwyn with his small

company knew he could never never beat

the the big studios he could never round

up as many votes no matter how

qualitative a picture he might make no

matter how deserving he might be and I

think he was starting to think this

might be the one part of that dream that

was always going to elude him good

evening ladies and gentlemen thousands

are here in the world's largest theatre

the Shrine Auditorium 6,700 to be exact

for the sky overhead being stabbed with

million candlepower searchlights let's

get to the opening of the 19th annual

Academy Awards Harold Russell receives

an honorary Oscar for bringing hope to

his fellow veterans later he became the

only performer to receive two Oscars for

a single role when he won for Best

Supporting Actor

the film's other winners included Robert

Sherwood for Best Screenplay and William

Wyler for Best Director

it is in that spirit that the Academy

presents its award for the best picture

of the year and I will announce it as

the best years of our lives after

producing 67 films and receiving 6

nominations without a victory Samuel

Goldwyn danced up the aisle to accept

his trophy

[Music]

he also received that night the tenth

Irving Thalberg award for career

achievement

I am deeply grateful for this award you

could not give me any greater honor and

give me this award tonight and I thank

you from the bottom of my heart when he

got it he just couldn't couldn't believe

it he just couldn't say anything

practically and he took it home and he

said and he looked at it and he started

to cry I believe that

as I knew how much it meant to him very

conscious that he never really made it

in this town now that's interesting

because when they talk about Sam gold

when they talk about a legend and yet he

was very conscious of being outside her

hair

these are going your studio won many

Academy Awards this year and I thought

maybe you'd like to win them again next

year

I certainly would what is your

suggestion well have you ever thought of

making a picture starring Jack Benny no

let me help you up mr. gold

no let me rest here Oh I'm Anatole the

face I must design I'm just like I go

through your goldwyn had two other films

in production at the time he was making

the best years of our lives the secret

life of walter mitty became one of the

producers most successful and beloved

films as Danny Kaye daydreamed his way

into a number of fantastic identities

with the Bishop's wife Goldwyn earned

his second consecutive Best Picture

nomination it's message of living life

to the fullest was not lost on a

producer nearing the age of 70 just

thinking the world changes but two

things remain constant

youth and beauty now there really wasn't

the same thing

the trouble is people grow not everybody

the only people who grow old were born

old to begin with you were born young

you'll remain that way

despite his successes Sam Goldwyn would

often say the higher you climb the

farther you fall

paralyzed by his good fortune he let

nine months pass before putting another

film in production the honor Goldwyn had

spent most of his career trying to

capture became his curse

he moved his Oscar for the best years of

our lives to the basement he wanted it

he got it but don't go back and that

again was the way he thought about

things interesting and he often talked

about it I know when people would do an

interview he'd say don't bring up that

subject it was the worst thing that ever

happened to me

at 44 Francis Goldwyn was feeling her

best years had passed although her

marriage contract provided the financial

security she craved it sometimes felt

more like a devil's pact

it wounded her deeply that her husband

never publicly acknowledged her role in

the conception of his most honored film

playing the part of mrs. Samuel Goldwyn

began to take its toll

Arthur had told me that she once been

famously beautiful but that over the

years and living with Sam had kind of

worn her down but I could see the minute

I looked at her where the bridge had

wonderful bones in her face wonderful

bones

they she had lovely dinner parties kept

a beautiful home but it must have been

torture for her to keep it up

she was very self-conscious it was like

someday someone's going to all take it

away or they gonna find out I'm a fraud

it was no picnic being mrs. Samuel

Goldwyn and there was very little praise

there was certainly very little love

expressed and I think this was very hard

for her a woman who had been looking for

love most of her life and indeed she has

this one great friendship with George

Cukor but indeed that could only be so

satisfying and I think drank numbed a

lot of her pain you know I I know what

went on with her and if somebody drank

maybe they dragged

I can't criticize her

this is where a producer lives not just

any producer but one of the most famous

of Maul Samuel Goldwyn high up on one of

Beverly's hills good morning well here

is mr. and mrs. Samuel Goldwyn and do

you mind if I call you Francis not very

much Sam I understand why you're the

boss in the studio that there's a yes is

the boss here it's her house isn't it

every bit of it then how long have you

lived here oh it's so long 25 26 years

Sam how did you happen to pick this

hilltop site out because of the view she

picked it up and you bought he liked it

the idea is to have her like it's all

it's necessary for me thank you

I have never objected to your

investigating Hollywood I told you told

you that we welcomed it and we sincerely

do as quickly as Hollywood came together

during the war it now shattered apart as

many in America believe the latest

threat to the nation was coming from

within from communist infiltration of

the film business a string of famous

faces agreed others felt the House

Committee on unamerican activities

wasn't after communists but Jews the

band of Eastern European immigrants who

ran Hollywood had once again to prove

their patriotism this time by compiling

black lists ideological termites have

burrowed into many American industries

organizations and societies wherever

they may be I say let us dig them out

and get rid of them I joined with this

committee in every determination to save

God the precious freedom and Trust it to

us Samuel Goldwyn received a subpoena

but the committee afraid of what he

might say never called on him to testify

indignant over being told whom he could

hire the maverick producer took to the

airwaves on his own calling the behavior

of the House Committee on American

we all have the right to be free from

the interference of petty small-minded

singletrack greats neighbors who feel

that they have to justify their official

existence the motion picture industry is

often faced by pressures from narrow

ignorant individuals and groups some of

them may have the best intention in the

world but it's a mistake to take that

pressures lying down that was something

I really was proud of he did speak up he

was nobody that wanted to be out in

front or anything like that but he'd be

damned that he wouldn't

spurred back into action Goldwyn

produced a streak of pictures between

1948 and 1951 all bad my father managed

to have four flops in a row

boom-boom boom-boom-boom and a

tremendous depression set in and he got

afraid that he was going to have a

breakdown and he worked with a

psychiatrist worked it through and

realized that he was out of touch with a

certain world and that was the problem I

don't believe in anything anymore

God or the Holy Ghost Goldwyn hit rock

bottom with edge of doom in which a

young man attempts to redeem his soul

after killing a priest

Sam had grown so unsure of his instincts

he made the picture on the strength of

Francis's convictions

it was absolutely stupid to think they

could make a movie out of his junk it

was nothing it was nothing but you know

she was Catholic and this

I don't know got to her some oh I don't

know how

well what they didn't realize is that

they were growing older while the public

was growing younger in numbers if you

know what I mean their tastes no longer

coincided with the public tastes so

these men who were in a position to

approve or disapprove any project were

approving or disapproving the wrong

projects as they had no idea what this

new generation was about one day through

television the entire world will stream

into our living rooms with a velocity of

light as Goldwyn suffered through the

worst slump of his career yet another

enemy invaded Hollywood by 1950

television had already seized 20% of the

motion-picture audience how do you see

the future of the movie industry I see

the great pictures doing greater than

ever

I do see less pictures being made here

as we cannot continue to make the

quality and get the quality believe the

quantity to television well do you

seriously think that people will go out

to see movies when they can send it home

and see them on television and for free

they have crooks at home and they go out

to dine

the competition posed by television

reaffirmed to Goldwyn his philosophy

from the glove business make fewer

better and better and though you would

figure a shoe can top if you listen

close to this weekend's completely Dolan

spared no expense in his return to

producing Technicolor extravaganzas I

think before this pictures finished of

course about four million down your own

money no one else's no no banks no

stockholders I have my wife and myself

by the mid-1950s a new generation of

Hollywood filmmakers emerged with

naturalistic dramas contemporary stories

about real life but Goldwyn still

believed that old-fashioned spectacles

were the way to attract an audience

when you see a guy reached for stars in

the sky you can bet that he's doing it

for some dog when you spot a giant

waiting out in the rain chances are he's

insane as only a John can be for a Jay

when you meet a gent pay in all kinds of

rent for a foot that could flatten

detach maja call it sad call it funny

but it's better than even money that the

guy is only doing it for sometime

[Music]

Guys and Dolls became the top grossing

film of the year

burning 13 million dollars but critics

said Goldwyn / produced the film

betraying the spirit of the original

stage hit they also accused the producer

of miss casting Hollywood's hottest star

well I understand Marlon Brando sings

because she sees I've always wanted this

thing Adam and I was very grateful mr.

Goldwyn he wanted me to sing after I was

ready to throw in the towel during the

rehearsal a lady wouldn't flirt with

strangers she had ever heard she never

sold a lady what make little snake eyes

at me

my life on this road so let's keep the

party polite why don't you shoot

doughnuts never get out of my sight

stick with me baby and the fella you

came in with must be a lady

[Music]

and he turned to the sound guy and he

said you can do a better job than that

and he said mr. Goldwyn I can do a

better job of that but can marlon brando

all the propaganda that he heard as a

kid in Poland that America's streets

were paved with gold he sure as hell

found that gold when he got to Los

Angeles but he also continued walking

when he did that every day on most I

believe and his chauffeur driven car

behind him the croquette thing was

something else because you had to let

mr. goal win you had to let him win and

I saw him take his foot and push the

ball right into the jaws of the wicked

and I went her to George Sun and I said

George I just think I just saw mr. :

push his ball in the middle of the

wicked sit in that modest sense of humor

he said how do you think he got his his

Studios

[Music]

and he used to say Sam's a monster - no

question about that but he's above the

other monsters because he's the only

monster who can laugh and he had the

most marvelous laugh in October of 1957

Louie be Mayer died of leukemia that

very year he had attempted to reclaim

control of MGM from which he had been

fired six years prior

hearing of mayor's plan Sam Goldwyn had

bought up MGM stock telling his son here

are ten thousand votes against Louie

through the years Goldwyn saw little of

Jesse Lasky by 1957 his former

brother-in-law and partner had fallen on

hard times and was deep in debt to the

Bureau of Internal Revenue

Jesse came to grandfather's office and

grandfather called Sam and got them on

the phone and he said they talked about

old times they talked about their

friendship and I think at that moment a

lot of hurt was healed which was very

good because three days later Jesse

suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack

a year after the passing of Jesse Lasky

sessile B DeMille died of heart failure

Sam never forgot that it was his

longtime friend who secured the original

loan for Samuel Goldwyn incorporated

he looked so old and so tired I think

the weight of his friends death took a

terrible toll on him but Samuel Goldwyn

had his 80th film to produce that meant

coercing a reluctant star and attempting

with Dorothy Dandridge to create a

female star of his own yet again but on

July 2nd 1958 a fire destroyed stage 8

at Goldwyn studios consuming 2 million

dollars worth of new sets

Sam was advised to cut his losses and

cease production Francis told him to

take the insurance money and run to no

one's surprise her husband promptly

ordered the stage and sets rebuilt six

weeks later Gollum began shooting the

Gershwin classic he had wanted to film

since he saw it on stage in 1932 he

would advertise it as his biggest

picture ever

[Music]

is my warm on

Oh years you hissed and you must laugh

and sing and dance 14

although porgy and bess won three

Academy Awards racial protests and an

ill-conceived production kept the film

from earning even half its 7 million

dollar cost

he struggled to find new material but

Samuel Goldwyn had made his last motion

picture

on August 26 1962 1200 guests attended

what was billed as Samuel Goldwyn 80th

birthday party he had really turned 83

in July now an old age the producer

often turned reflective as only Sam

Goldwyn could none of us can hit the

hundred percent and that applies to

every writer every director reproducer

best years of our lives of going with

the wind or any of the outstanding

pictures will live great things live and

the bad things die it's the same

American woman that bad health there

died on March 7th 1969 Goldwyn visited

his doctor and received a clean bill of

health

two days later Sammy and sons John and

Tony were playing tennis when Frances

screamed for their help from upstairs in

the house he came rushing up and his

father was on the floor he'd had the

stroke and picked him up in his arms and

carried him to bed this was a very

emotional moment to suddenly be carrying

his father in his arms and to become the

father

I noticed him trembling and I stopped

that I was singing like grandpa you okay

and his knuckles were white and he was

shaking right and I realized what he was

trying to do was get himself out of the

chair and he was trying to get up and

stand up and he couldn't he was defeated

and tears started to stream down his

face I had went over to when I put my

arms around them and I said grandpa

take a breath as it you know you've

spent your whole life achieving the most

amazing things and being soand dominant

but you've earned the right to just sit

back and relax and let people take care

of you

he started producing movies the year

before I was born in the year 1912 and

when I think of an enormous contribution

he has made to the motion picture

industry to entertainment in America and

in the world I can think of no man who

more deserves the medal of freedom than

mr. Sam Goldwyn and pretty soon I saw

him start to pull on the president's

sleeve and Nixon knew something was

wrong

my father said you're gonna have to do

better than that if you expect to carry

the state of California and Nixon's eyes

just did this and I never saw anybody

closes they uh any kind of a press

conference down faster I felt for him

you know I couldn't say I felt vast

devotion or love because it was

impossible but I wanted to be nice and I

wanted to show even things that I didn't

necessarily feel and I was his daughter

it was hard to say goodbye to him we

knew it was a real goodbye and Arthur

said this is the first time I've been

here that Sam hasn't come to see what

kind of a car I was driving he always

liked to look at the cars and at that

moment the the front door opened again

the butler came out and said just wait

one minute

the nurses bringing this to gold went

out he wants to see the car and so we

were pleased we were pleased

around two o'clock the morning of

January 31st 1974 Samuel Goldwyn died in

his sleep at home the former Shmuel kelp

fish was 94 years old my mother said

when she called me and the phone that

night that well it's happened I went

over the house and the doctor was there

and she she said well first thing she

said we mustn't let anybody know the

doctor said mrs. go and it's gonna be in

the newspapers tomorrow your husband

can't die without a lot of people

knowing it when when mr. Goldwyn died

they closed the gates oh and boy I'm

telling you I was on that phone I really

took a beating from a lot of people

Blake could endure somebody couldn't go

to the funeral they got very angry at me

and I couldn't help it

she went downhill so fast after grandpa

died

and emotionally they have lost her

tether I think the more and more

obsessed on goldwyn in the Goldman name

and all these things that she'd never

really she talked about somewhat but but

she was very concerned that the the ship

was going down and she wanted to make

sure that the survivors told the story

Samuel Goldwyn is buried at Forest Lawn

Memorial Park in Glendale California

beside his wife

honoring her wish for privacy the

headstone of a man who spent a lifetime

building a name for himself remains

unmarked

goldwyn maybe a myth to the world really

cherished his name Jekyll Hyde

personality he's a great gentleman

uncultured his charming and gentle and

semi-literate very clever man that gave

himself definition the kind of

distinction he would he screams quiet

mr. Goldman I never give the final word

to anyone but the gold rim and I shall

continue to do that and when the day

comes when I Kenneth get away with it

I'm gonna stop taking pictures

[Music]

you

[Music]