Kid Star Discoveries Sol Lesser’s Specialty (1936) 🇺🇸
Hollywood, Dec. 22. — From the very first day when Sol Lesser, a seventeen-year-old boy, started in the motion picture business, his entire life has been wrapped up in the industry.
Presented by David J. Hanna
It wasn’t easy in those pioneer days of 1907 to visualize any future for the flickery shadows called “moving pictures,” but young Sol, even as today, had dreams and imagination, but unlike so many of us he also had the courage and determination to make his dreams become realities. And so through an enviable career as a distributor, circuit owner, associate producer, we meet Sol Lesser today as he closes his books on his most successful season as an Independent producer, and embarks on his twentieth year in the motion picture industry.
Two decades have not dimmed his interest, nor lessened his enthusiasm, because like those two other great showmen, Barnum and Ziegfeld, developing and introducing new personalities is to Sol Lesser what champagne and caviar are to the gourmet. And so when the fickle public tires of a face, Lesser merely rolls up his coat and pulls another from his sleeve.
His greatest success has possibly been with “child” stars. Baby Peggy, Jackie Coogan, Jackie Cooper all served their apprenticeships with Sol Lesser. Only last year he introduced what he considers the greatest of them all, the eight-year-old Bobby Breen.
Breen is the pride and joy of the Principle lot. Little else is discussed. His first picture, “Let’s Sing Again,” was an enormous success, and his second, “Rainbow on the River,” judging from the preview reaction, is expected to make an even better showing.
“Two pictures will be made starring Bobby Breen next year,” Mr. Lesser informed us. “The first, of course, is ‘Boy Blue,’ which goes into production in March for a September release. As you know, I am leaving for Europe the latter part of this month to sign Oscar Strauss to do the score. The second? Well, just now that’s a matter for speculation, since at present we haven’t even reached the writing stage.
“To complete our program for 20th Century-Fox release, we will produce three outdoor pictures starring Richard Arlen. The first, ‘Secret Valley,’ will hit the cameras the first of February.”
One question we had marked on our cuff to ask Mr. Lesser was whether or not Lou Gehrig would actually play the title role in the contemplated Tarzan picture on next year’s program.
It brought a slight smile from Mr. Lesser, since it is not long since the battle royal was waged between him and Burroughs-Tarzan regarding the ownership of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books.
“That’s a hard one to answer,” he replied, “perhaps Gehrig might be an ideal Tarzan. At any rate, that’s one of my jobs in New York. We intend to test the ball player then. But whether or not Gehrig plays the role, a Tarzan picture will be made. By no means a ‘quickie,’ it will be one of the specials of the season. One deviation we expect to make from the usual run of jungle stories is that this will have a circus background and will be produced on a circus scale.”
Not long ago, Sol Lesser handed the buxom colored actress, Louise Beavers, a five-year contract. It was believed that this was the first term agreement ever made with a colored artist. Also understood was that Lesser intended starring her in a series of pictures.
“Starring Louise Beavers,” he said, “would kill her popularity. As she is now, she is a most valuable player. But with so few stories suitable to an actress of her type, it would be impossible to expect her to carry the burden of a starring role. When she returns from her personal appearance tour, she will be cast as Aunt Jemima in a story based on the life of the pancake queen. But even in this production, she will play only a featured role.”
Sol Lesser has often been called the John Golden of the screen. Never once during his career of picture making has the Hays office, nor for that matter, any body of censors ever deleted or suggested a change of scene in his films.
“Possibly the chief reason for this,” he said, “is that always I have tried to direct my appeal to the middle classes. Like this,” as he reached for a pencil and drew a diamond on a sheet of paper:
“Here at the top you have your high brows, sophisticates, then comes the white collar class, mothers, wives, business men. In the middle the enormous school-going population. Just below the youngsters, and finally your illiterates and alleged morons. We strive for the center, and if you see this diagram you can visualize just how far we can go on either side without losing touch with the representative American audience. They want clean and wholesome entertainment, yet without the adolescent touch that constitutes ‘children’s pictures.’ Even in making pictures with child stars, I have tried to appeal to this class, rather than just to youngsters.”
Briefly this sums up the theme of Sol Lesser’s Principle Studio. Although each year of its existence has brought forth more pictures, the organization remains small. Only three players are under contract, Bobby Breen, Louise Beavers and Richard Arlen. Supporting casts are found in the free lance field or borrowed from other studios. Earle Snell and Paul Gerard Smith do the writing. The director’s list numbers two, Kirt Newman [Kurt Neumann] who directs Breen, and Howard Bretherton in charge of the outdoor pictures. Edward Gross is the associate producer and is running the studio during Lesser’s absence. Responsible for publicity and exploitation is Paul Snell, whose campaign for Breen is one of the niftiest bits of ballyhoo we’ve seen this year.
Thus Sol Lesser begins the new year. With his small, compact organization behind him he expects once more to be in at the finish with a list of box-office winners. And while it’s hard to make predictions, still if we can rely on past performances, it is safe to presage that into each of Sol Lesser’s productions will go that one quality, culled from his many years of experience, entertainment.
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Collection: Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin, December 1936