Carl Laemmle

• See Wikipedia...
• See article in The New York Times...
• See video 100 Years of Universal: The Carl Laemmle Era

Carl Laemmle (January 17, 1867 in Laupheim, Germany – September 24, 1939 in Los Angeles, California) was a pioneer in American film making and a founder of one of the original major Hollywood movie studios – Universal. Laemmle produced or was otherwise involved in over four hundred films. Regarded as one of the most important of the early film pioneers, Laemmle was born on the Radstrasse just outside the former Jewish quarter of Laupheim. He emigrated to the US in 1884, working in Chicago as a bookkeeper or office manager for 20 years. He began buying nickelodeons, eventually expanding into a film distribution service, the Laemmle Film Service.

On April 30, 1912, in New York, Carl Laemmle of IMP, Pat Powers of Powers Motion Picture Company, Mark Dintenfass of Champion Film Company, William Swanson of Rex Motion Picture Company, David Horsley of Nestor Film Company and Charles Baumann and Adam Kessel of the New York Motion Picture Company merged their studios and the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated. They founded the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company in 1912, with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey where many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th century.[In 1915, the studio moved to 235 acres (0.95 km2) of land in the San Fernando Valley, California..

Universal maintained two East Coast offices: The first was located at 1600 Broadway, New York City. This building, initially known as The Studebaker building, was razed around 2004-5. The second location to house Universal's executive offices was located at 730 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

Many years later, 445 Park Avenue was where Universal's executives would hang their hats. Laemmle purchased the home of film pioneer Thomas Ince on Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills, California. The house was razed in the early 1940s. Laemmle also maintained a large apartment for himself and his two children, Rosabelle Laemmle (later Bergerman) and Carl Jr., at 465 West End Avenue, New York City – one block off Riverside Drive and the Hudson River.

In 1916, Laemmle sponsored the $3,000.00, 3 foot tall, solid silver Universal Trophy for the winner of the annual Universal race at theUniontown Speedway board track in southwestern Pennsylvania. Universal filmed each race from 1916 to 1922.

In the early and mid-1930s, Laemmle's son, Carl Laemmle, Jr., produced a series of expensive and commercially unsuccessful films for the studio, although there were occasional successes such as 1932's Back Street, 1936's Show Boat, and Universal's famous collection of 1930s horror classics. Carl and Carl Jr. were forced out of the company in 1936.

Laemmle remained connected to his home town of Laupheim throughout his life, by financial support and also by sponsoring hundreds of Jews from Laupheim and Württemberg to emigrate from Nazi Germany to the U.S. (which meant paying both emigration and immigration fees), thus saving them from the Holocaust. In order to ensure and facilitate their immigration, Laemmle contacted American authorities, members of the House of Representatives and Secretary of State Cordell Hull. He also intervened in the fate of the refugees on board the SS St. Louis who were ultimately sent back from Havana to Europe in 1939.

Following his death from cardiovascular disease on September 24, 1939, in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 72, Laemmle was entombed in the Chapel Mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery. Asked how to pronounce his name, he told The Literary Digest, "The name means little lamb, and is pronounced as if it were spelled 'lem-lee'."

The poet Ogden Nash observed the following about Laemmle's habit of giving his son and nephews the top executive positions in his studios: "Uncle Carl Laemmle Has a very large faemmle."

The main character in the 1949 novel The Dream Merchants by Harold Robbins, a former Universal Studios employee, is based upon Carl Laemmle. His niece, Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle, known professionally as Carla Laemmle, appeared in several films until her retirement from acting at the end of the 1930s. Laemmle was used as a character in The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Laemmle

===============================

An excellent article about Laemmle's assistance to Jews trying to escape from Hitler can be found at http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/124664/hollywood-unkno... It turns out he was America's most important Holocaust rescuer after Varian Fry. (by Wendy Hoechstetter, Feb.20, 2013)

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https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4540
Motion Picture Pioneer. Founder of Universal Studios. Born in Laupheim, Germany, he left school at 13 and arrived in Chicago in 1884 to seek his fortune. He studied accounting and became manager of a clothing store in Oshkosh, Nebraska, before returning to Chicago in 1905 to set up a retail shop. While looking for a suitable location, Laemmle grew intrigued by the crowds he saw lining up outside the city's many storefront nickelodeons. He opened his own Chicago cinema, the White Front Theatre, in 1906, and a second one two months later. As his theatre chain grew he expanded into distribution and within a few years the Laemmle Film Service was among the largest exchanges in the United States and Canada. In 1909, Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) began its quest to monopolize the infant movie industry and attempted to force Laemmle out of business by refusing to supply his exchange. He courageously fought back, filing anti-trust action against the MPPC and announcing he would go into film production himself. He formed the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP) in Manhattan and shot its debut film, the one-reel "Hiawatha" (1909), in the wilds of New Jersey. Other IMP crews were sent to California and Cuba to evade Edison's spies. At a time when the dominant Patents studios refused to give actors screen credit, fearing increased salary demands, Laemmle pioneered in publicizing his performers by name. His most famous exploit involved his acquisition of the Biograph Company's most popular performer, Florence Lawrence, in 1910. Laemmle planted a report in the newspapers that "The Biograph Girl" had been killed in a streetcar accident; the following day he took out an ad in the trades denouncing the story as a hoax and stating that Lawrence, now "The IMP Girl", was scheduled to make a personal appearance in St. Louis. Upon her arrival the actress was mobbed by hysterical fans. This successful stunt marked the birth of the Star System in American movies. In 1912 Laemmle won his suit against the MPPC and merged his IMP with several smaller producers to create the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, later shortened to Universal. Its initial feature, "Traffic in Souls" (1913), proved there was big money to be made in sexploitation; it cost $7500 to make and grossed over half a million. Laemmle used the profits to build the world's largest film studio, the 230-acre Universal City near Hollywood. The guest of honor at its 1915 Grand Opening was Laemmle's former enemy, Thomas Edison. He pioneered again in 1916 by launching the first Universal Studios Tour, where for 25 cents visitors could wander the backlots, inspect the working dairy farm (where eggs and milk could be purchased), and watch movies being made. In the 1920s, with the rise of megastudios like MGM and Paramount, Universal settled into a niche as a B studio, producing an occasional A film for prestige. The latter included Erich von Stroheim's "Foolish Wives" (1922) and the Lon Chaney classics "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923) and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925). The eccentric Laemmle was jokingly called "Uncle Carl" for his rampant nepotism. At one time he had over 70 relatives on his payroll and he lost the services of Irving Thalberg, his brilliant young production chief, when Thalberg refused to marry his daughter. His son, Carl Laemmle, Jr., became head of production at 21 in 1929. But Junior's lavish spending, along with Depression-era setbacks, drove the studio into severe financial difficulties. In 1936 Laemmle was forced to sell Universal to the British investment firm Standard Capital for a little over $5 million; he and his entire family were ousted from the empire he had built from scratch. His few remaining years were spent in wealthy retirement in Beverly Hills. Universal Studios is still a major force in Hollywood and its tour is one of America's most popular tourist attractions. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)

"Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N7WK-BQX : 26 December 2014), Carl Laemonle and Recha Stern, 28 Aug 1898; citing Chicago, Cook, Illinois, , Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,030,288.

קארל למל

''''''(באנגלית - Carl Laemmle;‏ 17 בינואר 1867 - 24 בספטמבר 1939) היה מפיק סרטים יהודי-אמריקאי יליד גרמניה, מחלוצי תעשיית הקולנוע האמריקאית ומייסד חברת סרטי יוניברסל.

חייו נולד למשפחה יהודית ברובע היהודי של העיר לאופהיים שבדרום גרמניה.

בשנת 1884 היגר לארצות הברית, והשתקע בשיקגו. בשנת 1912 עבר לניו יורק, ובה ייסד את חברת הקולנוע סרטי יוניברסל. בהמשך, עבר לבוורלי הילס שבלוס אנג'לס, וניהל משם את החברה.

לאחר עלייתה לשלטון של המפלגה הנאצית בגרמניה, סייע ליהודים מעיר הולדתו לאופהיים בהגירה לארצות הברית, וכן ניסה לפעול לאישור כניסתה של הספינה סנט לואיס לארצות הברית.

במהלך הקריירה שלו היה אחראי להוצאתם לאקרנים של כ- 400 סרטי קולנוע.

בנו, קארל למל הבן, המשיך את דרכו בתעשיית הקולנוע האמריקאית, וניהל את אולפני יוניברסל משנת 1928 עד שנת 1936.

אחייניתו, קרלה למל, הייתה שחקנית קולנוע, וגילמה תפקידים במספר סרטי אימה שהופקו באולפני יוניברסל.

קישורים חיצוניים ויקישיתוף מדיה וקבצים בנושא קארל למל בוויקישיתוף IMDB Logo 2016.svg קארל למל , במסד הנתונים הקולנועיים IMDb (באנגלית) Allmovie Logo.png קארל למל , באתר AllMovie (באנגלית) קארל למל , באתר "Find a Grave" (באנגלית) https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A7%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%9C_%D7%9C%D7%9E...

----------------------------------------------

• See Wikipedia...
• See article in The New York Times...
• See video 100 Years of Universal: The Carl Laemmle Era

Carl Laemmle (January 17, 1867 in Laupheim, Germany – September 24, 1939 in Los Angeles, California) was a pioneer in American film making and a founder of one of the original major Hollywood movie studios – Universal. Laemmle produced or was otherwise involved in over four hundred films. Regarded as one of the most important of the early film pioneers, Laemmle was born on the Radstrasse just outside the former Jewish quarter of Laupheim. He emigrated to the US in 1884, working in Chicago as a bookkeeper or office manager for 20 years. He began buying nickelodeons, eventually expanding into a film distribution service, the Laemmle Film Service.

On April 30, 1912, in New York, Carl Laemmle of IMP, Pat Powers of Powers Motion Picture Company, Mark Dintenfass of Champion Film Company, William Swanson of Rex Motion Picture Company, David Horsley of Nestor Film Company and Charles Baumann and Adam Kessel of the New York Motion Picture Company merged their studios and the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated. They founded the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company in 1912, with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey where many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th century.[In 1915, the studio moved to 235 acres (0.95 km2) of land in the San Fernando Valley, California..

Universal maintained two East Coast offices: The first was located at 1600 Broadway, New York City. This building, initially known as The Studebaker building, was razed around 2004-5. The second location to house Universal's executive offices was located at 730 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

Many years later, 445 Park Avenue was where Universal's executives would hang their hats. Laemmle purchased the home of film pioneer Thomas Ince on Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills, California. The house was razed in the early 1940s. Laemmle also maintained a large apartment for himself and his two children, Rosabelle Laemmle (later Bergerman) and Carl Jr., at 465 West End Avenue, New York City – one block off Riverside Drive and the Hudson River.

In 1916, Laemmle sponsored the $3,000.00, 3 foot tall, solid silver Universal Trophy for the winner of the annual Universal race at theUniontown Speedway board track in southwestern Pennsylvania. Universal filmed each race from 1916 to 1922.

In the early and mid-1930s, Laemmle's son, Carl Laemmle, Jr., produced a series of expensive and commercially unsuccessful films for the studio, although there were occasional successes such as 1932's Back Street, 1936's Show Boat, and Universal's famous collection of 1930s horror classics. Carl and Carl Jr. were forced out of the company in 1936.

Laemmle remained connected to his home town of Laupheim throughout his life, by financial support and also by sponsoring hundreds of Jews from Laupheim and Württemberg to emigrate from Nazi Germany to the U.S. (which meant paying both emigration and immigration fees), thus saving them from the Holocaust. In order to ensure and facilitate their immigration, Laemmle contacted American authorities, members of the House of Representatives and Secretary of State Cordell Hull. He also intervened in the fate of the refugees on board the SS St. Louis who were ultimately sent back from Havana to Europe in 1939.

Following his death from cardiovascular disease on September 24, 1939, in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 72, Laemmle was entombed in the Chapel Mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery. Asked how to pronounce his name, he told The Literary Digest, "The name means little lamb, and is pronounced as if it were spelled 'lem-lee'."

The poet Ogden Nash observed the following about Laemmle's habit of giving his son and nephews the top executive positions in his studios: "Uncle Carl Laemmle Has a very large faemmle."

The main character in the 1949 novel The Dream Merchants by Harold Robbins, a former Universal Studios employee, is based upon Carl Laemmle. His niece, Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle, known professionally as Carla Laemmle, appeared in several films until her retirement from acting at the end of the 1930s. Laemmle was used as a character in The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Laemmle

===============================

An excellent article about Laemmle's assistance to Jews trying to escape from Hitler can be found at http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/124664/hollywood-unkno... It turns out he was America's most important Holocaust rescuer after Varian Fry. (by Wendy Hoechstetter, Feb.20, 2013)

---

https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=4540
Motion Picture Pioneer. Founder of Universal Studios. Born in Laupheim, Germany, he left school at 13 and arrived in Chicago in 1884 to seek his fortune. He studied accounting and became manager of a clothing store in Oshkosh, Nebraska, before returning to Chicago in 1905 to set up a retail shop. While looking for a suitable location, Laemmle grew intrigued by the crowds he saw lining up outside the city's many storefront nickelodeons. He opened his own Chicago cinema, the White Front Theatre, in 1906, and a second one two months later. As his theatre chain grew he expanded into distribution and within a few years the Laemmle Film Service was among the largest exchanges in the United States and Canada. In 1909, Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) began its quest to monopolize the infant movie industry and attempted to force Laemmle out of business by refusing to supply his exchange. He courageously fought back, filing anti-trust action against the MPPC and announcing he would go into film production himself. He formed the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP) in Manhattan and shot its debut film, the one-reel "Hiawatha" (1909), in the wilds of New Jersey. Other IMP crews were sent to California and Cuba to evade Edison's spies. At a time when the dominant Patents studios refused to give actors screen credit, fearing increased salary demands, Laemmle pioneered in publicizing his performers by name. His most famous exploit involved his acquisition of the Biograph Company's most popular performer, Florence Lawrence, in 1910. Laemmle planted a report in the newspapers that "The Biograph Girl" had been killed in a streetcar accident; the following day he took out an ad in the trades denouncing the story as a hoax and stating that Lawrence, now "The IMP Girl", was scheduled to make a personal appearance in St. Louis. Upon her arrival the actress was mobbed by hysterical fans. This successful stunt marked the birth of the Star System in American movies. In 1912 Laemmle won his suit against the MPPC and merged his IMP with several smaller producers to create the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, later shortened to Universal. Its initial feature, "Traffic in Souls" (1913), proved there was big money to be made in sexploitation; it cost $7500 to make and grossed over half a million. Laemmle used the profits to build the world's largest film studio, the 230-acre Universal City near Hollywood. The guest of honor at its 1915 Grand Opening was Laemmle's former enemy, Thomas Edison. He pioneered again in 1916 by launching the first Universal Studios Tour, where for 25 cents visitors could wander the backlots, inspect the working dairy farm (where eggs and milk could be purchased), and watch movies being made. In the 1920s, with the rise of megastudios like MGM and Paramount, Universal settled into a niche as a B studio, producing an occasional A film for prestige. The latter included Erich von Stroheim's "Foolish Wives" (1922) and the Lon Chaney classics "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923) and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925). The eccentric Laemmle was jokingly called "Uncle Carl" for his rampant nepotism. At one time he had over 70 relatives on his payroll and he lost the services of Irving Thalberg, his brilliant young production chief, when Thalberg refused to marry his daughter. His son, Carl Laemmle, Jr., became head of production at 21 in 1929. But Junior's lavish spending, along with Depression-era setbacks, drove the studio into severe financial difficulties. In 1936 Laemmle was forced to sell Universal to the British investment firm Standard Capital for a little over $5 million; he and his entire family were ousted from the empire he had built from scratch. His few remaining years were spent in wealthy retirement in Beverly Hills. Universal Studios is still a major force in Hollywood and its tour is one of America's most popular tourist attractions. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)

"Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N7WK-BQX : 26 December 2014), Carl Laemonle and Recha Stern, 28 Aug 1898; citing Chicago, Cook, Illinois, , Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,030,288.