WHERE DIRECTORS COME FROM

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 159, 2 April 1937, Page 16

WHERE DIRECTORS COME FROM

the fourteen directors at

Universal Studios, now editing and filming pictures or waiting to swing into camera work, are men who were welfare workers, animal imitators, cartoonists, newspapermen, song-hit composers, roustabouts and actors before reaching their present posts. Edward Buzzell, who directed Jane Wyatt and Jamis Hayward in “The Luckiest Girl in the World,” recently released, was a famous Broadway stage comedian before he became a movie actor, and thence moved on to his present occupation. Murray Roth, director of Judith Barrett, William Gargan and William Hall in “Flying Hostess,” started by composing song hits. Then he transferred to writing for the screen before taking up the megaphone. Henry Koster, who directs Deanna Durbin, sensational 13-year-old radio .soprano, in her first film “Three Smart Girls,” was originally a Berlin newspaper man. Before his first directorial work for Germany’s U.F.A. studio, he wrote scripts for them. But his earliest fame came from his animal sound impersonations. He can still do them to amuse friends; his rooster erow is a scream in every sense of the word, guaranteed to thrill the most blase hen.

Arthur Lubin, who guided James Dunn and Jean Rogers through "Mysterious Crossings,” was a welfare worker and stage actor previous to entering films. Acting on the legitimate stage, and then serving a term as assistant to Harry Pollard on the movie lots, prepared Lewis Collins for his job as director of “Treve.” Of the two directors of Cesar Romero and Tala Birrell in “She’s Dangerous.” Lewis R. Foster began as a writer. Milton Carruth as a film cutter. Director Hal Mohr, of “Class Prophecy,” was a famous cameraman. | James Whale, who is preparing “The Road Buck.” sequel to "All Quiet on I the Western Front.” was a newspaper cartoonist to begin with, and learned I about acting and direction in a GerI man war prison. Lewis Milestone, who |’did “All Quiet,” first worked as a roustabout upon reaching America. Ralph Murphy and Walter Lang are former stage players, and Murphy wrote musicals in college before entering upon his theatre and screen career, H. Bruce Humberstone broke into pictures as a script clerk and worked as assistant to 30 different directors. Gregory La Cava was a cartoonist on the old “New York World” before his film days. He started in pictures as a cartoon animator and then went on to directing.