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It's Mogul Monday! Every so often, we'll feature a different mogul from the Hollywood silent film industry.
Now, for the real question: WHAT'S A MOGUL?!
The word mogul has many (weird) definitions - but only one applies here:
a mogul is an important and/or powerful person, usually in the entertainment industry.
And this Monday's mogul? Jesse L. Lasky. For all you IMDb fanatics, yes he has one: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0489690/
1880 - 1958
Jesse L. Lasky was born in 1880, and had an adventurous spirit from day one. Even before being involved in cinema, he always lived life to the fullest. As a teenager, he went to Alaska to find gold. By all accounts, a miniscule amount was all he ever found...sorry. After coming home to California, he got a temporary job in Hawaii as a cornet player - and eventually became the only white guy in the Royal Hawaiian Band. When he returned, he and his sister Blanche joined their musical talents and formed a vaudeville act. Vaudeville was basically the TV of it's time - a variety of performances that traveled from city to city. The pair toured the US, along with their widowed mother/costumer/manager/booker/promoter, Sarah. < Sarah. The supermom. A one-woman powerhouse. Respect.
The Lasky siblings on stage
After a few years of performing during the turn of the century, Jesse and Blanche began managing a well-known magician friend of theirs. There was much more profit in managing vaudeville acts, and both were growing tired of performing - so they happily retired from the stage and switched to managing and producing their own acts, while living in New York City. The mighty Sarah was their key supervisor, as usual. They created many acts that toured the vaudeville circuit and were very successful. After visiting Europe, Jesse even opened a prestigious, Paris-inspired theater. Which was a flop...oh, Jesse.
Jesse and his new wife, Bessie (1909)
At the ripe old age of 20, Jesse was quickly becoming one of the biggest producers of new, original vaudeville shows - on any continent. He eventually met and married his wife Bessie Ginzberg, who later was called Bess. Because come on, people - "Jesse and Bessie"...?! Sarah and Blanche were less than thrilled about this newcomer disrupting their family business dynamic, and had the newlyweds move into their large New York City apartment. Yeah, that'll go well.. Life was good - at least for Jesse, and he had everything he wanted...
But Jesse's new brother-in-law (Blanche's husband) Sam Goldfish, kept pestering him to get involved in the growing business of "moving pictures". At first, Jesse was not a fan of the idea. His vaudeville production company was what he wanted to do, not "movies". But! It just so happened that Jesse's best friend and co-writer Cecil DeMille was getting bored with writing musicals, and he wanted to do something adventurous - like going to Mexico during a revolution. Yes, really. The man was extra to a fault. Jesse didn't want his business partner and friend to go far away for an adventure (and get killed!), so he quickly brought up the idea of making a movie instead. Cecil instantly agreed, and the 3 men were in business. Simple. Just... shake hands and make a movie. Boom.
In late 1913, The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company went West and shot The Squaw Man - the first feature-length film ever made in Hollywood! At the time, long movies weren't the norm, so it was a risk. They released it in 1914 and it was a hit. This paved the way for more feature-length movies to be made in the (then) small, one-horse farm town of Hollywood, CA. Their first studio? A barn. But as humble as their beginnings were, their company eventually merged with a powerful New York production company called Famous Players (run by Adolph Zukor), and their mutual distributor, Paramount Pictures. Jesse wasn't thrilled with the name. "Paramount" just didn't have a ring to it. But...it worked! The movie mill started to grind...stars were made, and cinema became respectable - and lucrative.
Jesse was head of production at Paramount Pictures until 1933. From there he went into producing films as an independent producer, and made many successful "talkies" (movies with sound) for several major studios including Warner Brothers and Fox. He and his wife Bess raised 3 children: Jesse Jr., Billy and Betty, all of whom became notable writers. Jesse received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a Milestone Award in 1951 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy is still giving out awards today...ever hear of the Oscars? Sadly, he passed away suddenly in 1958 due to a heart attack, but left an everlasting legacy in his wake.
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