Hunt Stromberg—Producer

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19623, 5 May 1938, Page 8

Hunt Stromberg—Producer

CO one of the greatest qualifications of a director is to know when not to direct! But, important as the director is. he himself has to be directed. Above him stands the producer, who, in the last analysis, is responsible for the whole picture; and associated with him are other important and many not-quite-so-important, but nevertheless indispensable, coadjutors.

Apart from the director, there is the art director, there is the casting, there is the dress-designing; and there are the lighting, the photography, the editor of "Behind the Scheen" says he lias the authority of no less a person than Mr. Louis B. Mayer, for putting the number of professions, vocations, and crafts required in the making of a film at 117. Mr. Mayer administers the work of 5000 employees in 49 separate and distinct departments, ranging from "protective research" to "international censorship." The writer of the first chapter in the book —"The Producer"—is Mr. Hunt Strombcrg. He began life as a newspaper man in Kentucky, then turned to the advertising and publicity side of the film business. And then he turned producer. In that capacity he has been associated with many of the most notable productions of Hollywood, including "Naughty Marietta," "The Thin Man," "Eose Marie," "Ah, Wilderness" and "The Great Zeigfield." The demand, he says, is for '"something new, something fresh, something different." It is not enough (hat a picture shall be good—it must be outstanding, there must be something special about it that will attract the public.