Sam Wood — Biographical Sketch (1927) 🇺🇸
Sam Wood has had much more success prospecting for motion picture stars than he had with the opening of the Reno, Nev., gold rush around 1900. He was among the thousands who hit the trail for Reno, and he spent a year there prospecting, but he was not among the lucky ones. He did strike a couple of rich veins, however, when he launched Gloria Swanson and Jackie Coogan on their starring careers.
Wood directed Jackie in Peck’s Bad Boy, which started the youth on the road to fame and fortune, and he directed Miss Swanson in The Great Moment, the Elinor Glyn story that made a star of that popular player. The Paramount Junior Stars were also started on their screen careers when Wood directed them in Fascinating Youth.
It was with the idea of becoming an investment broker that Wood went to Los Angeles. There was a great boom on there at that time, as there was in Reno in 1900, and he saw a chance to profit through it. It was not long, of course, before he became interested in pictures. He started in the film industry as an actor in “A Gentleman of Leisure,” produced by Famous Players-Lasky. He felt qualified in that direction, as he had participated in amateur theatricals earlier in life.
From acting he branched out into directing, and he has had more than his share of success ever since. He has made pictures for the leading companies, including Famous Players, M-G-M and First National, and they have been good pictures.
There are few directors who can boast such an array of pictures as Rookies, The Fair Co-Ed, One Minute to Play, Fascinating Youth, “What’s Your Hurry?”, Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, Peck’s Bad Boy, Prodigal Daughters, and The Great Moment. Out of these successes he prides more the direction of Rookies than any other, though, being a rabid football enthusiast, he likes to look back, too, upon the direction of One Minute to Play, in which he showed Red Grange just how it should be done.
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Sam Wood — Now Directing for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Recent Releases
Thanks to Al. Boasberg for his story and comedy suggestions in both Rookies and The Fair Co-Ed.
Collection: Motion Picture News, October 1927 (Booking Guide and Studio Directory)