B. P. Schulberg

Presenting the Concluding Interview of the Series Concerning Motion Picture Personages

JIM TULLY

BP. SCHULBERG is one of the youngest film executives in America. He is, in my opinion, the greatest. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, January 19, 1892.

When B. P. Schulberg was eight years of age his family moved to New York. In that city he went to public school No. 1, later to High School and the College of the City of New York.

Among his childhood friends were many who were later to become successful: A1 Smith, Governor of New York, William Travers Jerome, "Big Tim" Sullivan and his brother "Little Tim", George McManus and Eddie Cantor.

Schulberg did not have enough money to continue his college education. Latin was his favourite subject. Through the intervention of his Latin teacher he secured work as a reporter on the New York Evening Mail.

Schulberg, like all dominant men, is a great sentimentalist. He is hard as only a sentimental man can be. Schulberg makes decisions instantly. He answers questions suddenly with —yes or no.

He is never without a heavy cigar. His voice is deep and resonant. He listens patiently, even sympathetically to hordes of third rate people.

There is in the man a vast and turbulent pity for life. It is also vastly—under control. His sense of humour is keen. He reads the works of profound writers. He knows there is none such in Hollywood.

A FEW years ago Schulberg was one of the organizers of the "Grant Street Club". A group of sentimentalists wished to preserve early memories and friendships.

He is tall and slightly stooped. He has the agility of a panther in movement. His expression in repose would lead the unwary of life to pity him. It would be wasted pity. He asks no odds, gives none. He has terrific tenacity and unyielding courage. There is something of Nietzsche in the man. One can see, during business hours, and on matters pertaining to the films, that sympathy is not a good Latin word.

The future film producer himself suggested his first assignment on the Evening Mail. The managing editor asked him what he wanted to do. It was the week of Christmas. Schulberg suggested that there was a human interest story in the many letters that New York children were sending to Santa Claus.

It was the young reporter's idea that the myth should either be exposed or inculcated more deeply into the hearts of the children.

The managing editor became enthusiastic over the idea of making the myth more practical. The first "newspaper Christmas benefit" was organized. The idea has since spread all over the Christian world.

B. P. Schulberg, the man who conceived the idea, is a Jew.

He remained with the Evening Mail for two years. He left to become the associate editor of a magazine called Film Reports. It was published in the interests of producers and exhibitors of the then youthful picture industry.

Having early learned the fundamentals of politics in his Grant Street neighbourhood, Schulberg used them to discreet advantage as associate editor. He made friendships and contacts. Some time later this enabled him to select a producer with whom he affiliated in the making of a film.

He accepted a dual post as Publicity Director and Scenario Writer with the Rex Pictures Corporation.

A year later Adolph Zukor launched the Famous Players Company. Schulberg joined him. This was in 1912.

He had charge of exploiting the first "big name" film sold in America. It was Queen Elizabeth. Sarah Bernhardt played the title role. It was a French film which Mr. Zukor purchased for distribution in America.

The next venture was a feature length production called The Prisoner of Zenda.

In 1915 the Famous Players Company combined with the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company.

Schulberg retained his double post as Publicity Director and Scenario Writer. At this time he made a survey of the United States, in which he visited every city of more than 20,000 inhabitants in the nation.

It brought information of incalculable value to the new Paramount Company and gave it a leadership in the cinema field which has seldom been disputed.

During this period of his career Schulberg made one of the greatest "discoveries" the film industry has ever known.

During a lonely hour in a western city he went to see a film called Down to the Sea in Ships. Playing a very minor role was a little girl who attracted his attention.

A short time afterward the girl was given a long term contract by Schulberg.

She has since become one of the greatest "box office attractions" in the world. Her name is Clara Bow.

Growing ambitious, Schulberg left the organization and became a producer. It ended in failure. Citizens of Hollywood nodded their unwise heads and said: "Schulberg is through".

But Schulberg again joined forces with Paramount in 1925.

He has made his present reputation in the films since that time. He came to the organization a bankrupt. He assumed a position of tremendous responsibility, as executive in charge of all production in the West Coast Studios.

FOR the first time he had no worry concerning finances. The Paramount organization had slumped. A rival firm had, in the language of Hollywood, "taken the play away from them."

Schulberg had one valuable aide, to whom not enough credit has ever been given— Walter Wanger. It was the latter who poured writers and stories into the film mill. Within a year the Paramount firm justified its name. Its present success can be traced to the efforts of Schulberg and Wanger.

Schulberg never worries. Certain problems concern him more deeply than others, but they never cause him mental anguish.

He does not believe that stories, players, and directors are most important in the making of motion pictures. Certain combinations insure success and inversely, the lack of those combinations brings failure. He would not assign a certain director to make a film that he felt was outside the sphere of that director's ability. He recognizes the worth of daring in selecting stories, players and directors, for it is out of such enterprise that motion pictures owe their greatest development, but he does not believe in gambling—at the studio.

He says of the great success Wings—

"It was not an accident. It was deliberately planned to fill a definite place in the audience mind. Past experiences made it a certainty that a picture depicting the war in the air would be an overwhelming success. No one had ever made a similar picture before, but years of film-making made it apparent that the air picture had all the qualities of drama, suspense, thrills and humanness so essential to screen entertainment—plus a spectacle that no other picture had ever had.

"No motion picture star can be greater than the vision of the producer. Stellar material lies in every studio. Oftentimes it is dormant for years and then breaks forth in electric lights throughout the country. This is not brought about by some miraculous transmogrification; it is accomplished solely by the studio. It is a matter of placing the player in suitable roles and lending proper support. The player has very little to do with it.

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"An important part of a studio head's work lies in determining what type of star and featured player will meet with public favour two or three years hence. With stories one seldom has to estimate further ahead than six or eight months, but with players it is necessary to begin a grooming process that takes several years. For this reason it is oftentimes necessary to keep players under contract over a long period in order to have them available as star material at some future date.

"Present photoplays are too long. Most of them could be told in two or three reels. In the next ten years there will be very few long multi-reel productions made, for the 'padding' material will all have been exhausted by that time. Talking pictures will curb the length of pictures, for one line of spoken dialogue can effectively replace an entire sequence of silent action.

"One of the greatest dangers that motion pictures and their makers have to face is success. The greatest work is usually done when one is struggling. It is only in rare instances that one achieves fine things after he has arrived. Most of the people in motion pictures, from the executives down, are successful and prosperous. It is difficult to find an incentive to accomplish great things under these conditions."

Mr. Schulberg has no illusions about his work. He likens himself to the city editor of a metropolitan newspaper and carries out that parallel when he says: "It is a matter of deciding which of the stories will appeal to the public as news and which of the people of the staff are best equipped to handle the stories. Any city editor knows how to play up his news. It is an intuition and comes of long experience. It is the same way with picture making. Judge picture and plot values as an editor judges news values and you will be able to give the right pictures to the public at the time the public wants them."

He considers a good story the first requirement for a good picture and is reputed to be the keenest judge of a film tale in the industry. His method is to call in a writer, assign him to a certain vehicle, outline to him the way the plot should be developed and then set a date, maybe a month ahead, for the writer to come in with an acceptable treatment. If the writer, at that time, has failed to incorporate some point that Schulberg requested in his first interview, there has to be an excellent reason why, for Schulberg (according to the writers of the staff) has never been known to forget even the smallest detail.

Schulberg's office is draped and furnished like a Belasco set. In justice to him—it was not of his choosing.

A large desk is in the centre. It is covered with papers, scripts, story treatments, cast billings and third-rate novels. A box of cigars is always near his elbow. He thinks faster than the late General Grant and smokes even more.

It was apparently written for Babbitts many years ago that if a gentleman called with the idea of borrowing a million dollars —a light shining in his face would discomfit him so much that he would only succeed in borrowing half that amount. This scheme is carried out in the Schulberg office. The lights from the window shine in the eyes of the caller. But on the other hand, no man is more loyal to those who have been loyal to him.

When Schulberg went to the Paramount position he took all the office force that had remained loyal during the lean days. He has the finest sense of loyalty ever devised in a world where men have ever sold their brothers for a mess of pottage, and their sisters for far, far less. He stands by those who have stood by him.

A product of his early environment, he has strong likes and dislikes. Being deeply human, he is swayed by them. His chief advantage as an executive is —he can inspire devotion in every two out of three people with whom he comes in contact.

At thirty-six he is cautious and wealthy. It is his seventeenth year in pictures. He has gone far and learned much. He still believes in Santa Claus.