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Lewis J. Selznick (born Laiser Zeleznick, May 2, 1870 – January 25, 1933) was an American producer in the early years of the film industry.
Biography
Lewis J. Selznick was born Laiser Zeleznick in 1870 in Grinkiškis, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania), to Ida (Ringer) and Joseph Seleznik. He grew up in Kiev and emigrated to the United States at age 18.
Arriving in the United States in 1888, Louis J. Seleznick became a naturalized citizen September 29, 1894. He settled in Pittsburgh and built up a successful jewelry retail business. In 1896 or 1897, he married Florence (Flossie) Sachs. They had three sons: Howard Selznick (1897–1980), who suffered some undiagnosed mental disability; Myron Selznick (1898–1944), who would work as a producer and studio executive until establishing a successful talent agency; and David O. Selznick (1902–1965), a notable Hollywood filmmaker who produced Gone with the Wind (1939). A daughter, Ruth, was born in 1899 or 1900 but died before the age of two.
Retaining his jewelry stores in the Pittsburgh area, Selznick moved his family to Brooklyn in 1903. He opened a large jewelry store, the Knickerbocker, at Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street in Manhattan, but by 1907 he had left the business. The family surname changed from Seleznick to Selznick sometime in 1908 or 1909. In 1910 or 1911 the family moved to Manhattan, where Selznick worked as a patent promoter and sold electrical supplies.
Through an old acquaintance from Pittsburgh, Selznick became involved with the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in 1913. In February 1914 he and Chicago mail-order magnate Arthur Spiegel organized the World Film Corporation, a distributor of independently produced films located in Fort Lee, New Jersey, with general offices in New York City. Company directors included Jules Brulatour, Briton N. Busch (secretary and treasurer), Van Horn Ely (president), Lee Shubert, and Selznick (vice president and general manager). Film historian David Thomson describes World Film as "a loose gathering of companies and interests engaged in producing films, with a nationwide system of exchanges and theaters where they could be shown". Within a year the company showed a profit of $329,000 — more than $7.7 million today.
Selznick had been dabbling in theatrical production, and his company put popular plays on film. World Films releases in 1915 included Lew Fields in Old Dutch, Alice Brady and Holbrook Blinn in The Boss, Wilton Lackaye and Clara Kimball Young in Trilby, and Lillian Russell and Lionel Barrymore in Wildfire.
He soon merged with the Peerless Pictures Studios and the Shubert Brothers, Shubert Pictures Co. Selznick's company became very successful, in 1915 hiring Sidney Olcott away from Kalem Studios plus the French director Maurice Tourneur away from the American arm of the giant, Pathé. By 1916, personality conflicts with his partners saw him ousted from the firm by the Board of Directors.
Selznick continued in film on the East Coast until 1920 when he moved to Hollywood, California where he teamed up with Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky. However, within a few years his company, Lewis J. Selznick Productions, Inc., experienced severe financial difficulties and went bankrupt in 1925. He retired from the business.
Selznick died January 25, 1933, at his home in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and sons at his bedside. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Legacy
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Lewis J. Selznick was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame February 8, 1960. His star is located at 6412 Hollywood Blvd.
Poster for War Brides (1916)
Advertisement for By Right of Purchase (1918)
Robert Ellis and Olive Thomas in The Spite Bride (1919)
Poster for The Country Cousin (1919)
Olive Thomas in Upstairs and Down (1919)
Lobby card for The Woman God Sent (1920)
Lobby card for Everybody's Sweetheart (1920)
Poster for The Miracle of Manhattan (1921)
Poster for Lobbygow (1923)
Lobby card for Rupert of Hentzau (1923)
