Joe Pasternak: Difference between revisions

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He was born to a Jewish family in Szilágysomlyó, [[Austria-Hungary]] (now [[Șimleu Silvaniei]], [[Romania]]). His father was a town clerk and Pasternak was one of eleven11 children.

In 1920, he emigrated to the USU.S. as a teenager and stayed with an uncle in Philadelphia. He worked in a factory, punching holes in leather belts, and did a variety of other jobs. He also studied acting in New York.<ref name="cinderella">{{cite news|author=L. N. |date=Feb 18, 1940|title=Joe Pasternak, former busboy, creates american cinderellas|newspaper=The Washington Post|id={{ProQuest|151243589}}}}</ref><ref name="move">{{cite news|author=Staff Writer |date=Feb 27, 1936|title=Former waiter coming here as film producer|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|164536040}}}}</ref>

===Assistant Directordirector===

In 1922, Pasternak gained a job as a busboy at [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]]'s [[Kaufman Astoria Studios|Astoria studio]] in Queens, New York City at $8 a week; after a year, he was head waiter and making $120 aper week, including tips.<ref name="move"/> He quit in 1923 to become an assistant for director [[Allan Dwan]] and worked his way up from fourth assistant at $16 aper week to first assistant at $75 aper week.<ref name="cinderella"/><ref name="phil"/>

Pasternak soon discovered another talented soprano, [[Gloria Jean]], who began her own series in 1939, starting with ''[[The Under-Pup]]'' (1939). He produced Durbin again in ''[[First Love (1939 film)|First Love]]'' (1939). He had a large hit with the comedy Western ''[[Destry Rides Again]]'' (1939), starring [[Marlene Dietrich]] and [[James Stewart]], which helped revitalise Dietrich's career.

Pasternak alternated betweenamong the three female stars. – withWith Durbin, he did ''[[It's a Date]]'' (1940), ''[[Spring Parade]]'' (1940) (a remake of his 1934 film), ''[[Nice Girl?]]'' (1940) and ''[[It Started with Eve]]'' (1941). With Jean, he did ''[[A Little Bit of Heaven (1940 film)|A Little Bit of Heaven]]'' (1940), a sort of sequel to ''The Under-Pup''. Finally, withWith Dietrich, he did ''[[Seven Sinners (1940 film)|Seven Sinners]]'' (1940) (with [[John Wayne]]) and ''[[The Flame of New Orleans]]'' (1941).

In June 1941, after finishing ''Eve'', Pasterrnak left Universal. Although he still had two years to run on his contract, he had "differences of opinion" with the studio's management, and by mutual consent, the parties elected to terminate the contract.<ref name="leave" />

In June 1941, Pasternak announced he had joined [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] as a producer for a reported $3,500 aper week. Several studios had been interested in placing him under contract, but [[Louis B. Mayer]] wanted Pasternak and allowed the producer several concessions. Mayer assigned young soprano [[Kathryn Grayson]], who had only made one film for MGM, to Pasternak's unit so that he might make her into a star like Durbin.<ref>{{cite news|author=Douglas W. Churchill |date=Jun 20, 1941|title=Pasternak will join metro production staff – 'out of the fog' opens today at strand|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest|105541796}}}}</ref> Pasternak later sat on the executive committee<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Jid5xNh89wgC&pg=PA363 Scott Eyman: ''Lion of Hollywood – The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer'', p.363] Linked 2014-01-28</ref> and came to be regarded as one of the three most important persons in the company, alongside [[Louis B. Mayer]] and Vice President Sam Katz.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=HvC3WaGZF3UC&pg=PA312 Larry Ceplair, Steven Englun: ''The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930–1960'', p.312] Linked 2014-01-28</ref>

At MGM, he continued to produce operetta films, starting with ''[[Seven Sweethearts]]'' (1942) starring Grayson, and ''[[Presenting Lily Mars]]'' (1943) starring [[Judy Garland]]. Both films were successful at the box-office.<ref name="Mannix">{{Citation | title = The Eddie Mannix Ledger | publisher = Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study | place = Los Angeles}}.</ref> Pasternak followed these with ''[[Thousands Cheer]]'' (1943) with Grayson and [[Gene Kelly]], which was a huge hit; ''[[Song of Russia]]'' (1944), a musical which later became problematic because of its pro-Russian viewpoint; ''[[Two Girls and a Sailor]]'' (1944) with [[June Allyson]], [[Van Johnson]] and [[Gloria DeHaven]], and ''[[Music for Millions]]'' (1944) with Allyson and [[Margaret O'Brien]]. All these films were hits.

Pasternak was responsible for [[Esther Williams]]' first proper vehicle, ''[[Thrill of a Romance]]'' (1945), co-starring [[Van Johnson]]; it made over $3 million in profits.<ref>{{cite news|author=Edwin Schallert |date=July 16, 1944|title=Crown as Hollywood's Zip Girl of 1944 Goes to Esther Williams: Bathing Beauty Possessed of More Than Pulchritude|work=Los Angeles Times|page=Section C1}}</ref> Similarly well received by audiences was ''[[Anchors Aweigh (film)|Anchors Aweigh]]'' (1945) with Grayson, [[Gene Kelly]] and [[Frank Sinatra]]. Pasternak also made several non-musical romantic comedy hits, including ''[[Her Highness and the Bellboy]]'' (1945) with [[Hedy Lamarr]] and [[Robert Walker (actor, born 1918)|Robert Walker]], and ''[[No Leave, No Love]]'' (1946) with Johnson.<ref name="Mannix"/> However, around this time Pasternak mostly specialized in musicals: ''[[Two Sisters from Boston]]'' (1946) with Grayson and Allyson was a box-office success, as was, ''[[Holiday in Mexico]]'' (1946) with [[Walter Pidgeon]] and [[Jane Powell]] in her debut for MGM. However, ''[[The Unfinished Dance]]'' (1947) with O'Brien and [[Cyd Charisse]] lost over a million dollars – the first Pasternak MGM film to do so.<ref name="Mannix"/> ''[[This Time for Keeps]]'' (1947) with Esther Williams, was profitable.

In 1948, Pasternak had very mixed results. ''[[Three Daring Daughters]]'' in 1948 with Powell and [[Jeanette MacDonald]], while popular, lost money. Pasternak also tried his first drama in the U.S. with ''[[Big City (1948 film)|Big City]]'' (1948), starring O'Brien, which was a big money loser. More popular were the 1948 musicals ''[[On an Island with You]]'' with Williams; ''[[A Date with Judy (film)|A Date with Judy]]'' with Jane Powell, [[Wallace Beery]] and [[Elizabeth Taylor]]; and ''[[Luxury Liner (1948 film)|Luxury Liner]]'' again with Powell. Pasternak unfortunately had a big flop with the Sinatra-Grayson musical ''[[The Kissing Bandit (film)|The Kissing Bandit]]'' that same year, which lost MGM over $2 million.<ref>''Variety'' says that it earned $1.8 million; {{cite news|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety173-1949–01#page/n45/mode/1up |date=Jan 5, 1949|title=Top Grossers of 1948|work=Variety|page=46}}</ref><ref name="top">{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety177-1950–01#page/n58/mode/1up|title=Top Grossers of 1949|magazine=Variety|date=4 January 1950|page=59}}</ref>

More typicalTypical was ''[[Skirts Ahoy!]]'' (1952) with Esther Williams; ''[[The Merry Widow (1952 film)|The Merry Widow]]'' (1952) with [[Lana Turner]] and [[Fernando Lamas]]; and ''[[Because You're Mine]]'' (1952) with Lanza. ''[[Small Town Girl (1953 film)|Small Town Girl]]'' (1953) with Powell lost money, as did ''[[Latin Lovers (1953 film)|Latin Lovers]]'' (1953) with Turner and [[Ricardo Montalbán]], but ''[[Easy to Love (1953 film)|Easy to Love]]'' (1953) with Williams and Johnson was another hit.

The industry was changing, and musicals were becoming increasingly unprofitable for MGM. Conversely, a tough biopic Pasternak produced about [[Ruth Etting]], ''[[Love Me or Leave Me (film)|Love Me or Leave Me]]'' (1955), starring [[Doris Day]] and [[James Cagney]], was a hit. In 1956, Pasternak published his memoir, ''Easy the Hard Way''.<ref>{{cite news|author=R. L. Coe. |date=Apr 15, 1956|title=Horatio Alger had Pasternak in mind|work=The Washington Post and Times-Herald|id={{ProQuest|148819771}}}}</ref> Pasternak had two big flop musicals, ''[[The Opposite Sex]]'' (1956), a remake of ''The Women'' with Allyson, and ''[[Ten Thousand Bedrooms]]'' (1957) with [[Dean Martin]]. Also unsuccessful was the [[Jean Simmons]] comedy ''[[This Could Be the Night (film)|This Could Be the Night]]'' (also 1957). It was then time for a change.

In the 1960s, Pasternak produced a mix of hits and misses. He reunited Hutton and Prentiss in ''[[The Horizontal Lieutenant]]'' (1962), but it was not as popular as ''Boys''. Then he had a failure with ''[[Billy Rose's Jumbo]]'' (1962) starring Day, which lost almost $4 million.<ref name="Mannix"/> However, Pasternak responded with a comedy starring [[Glenn Ford]], ''[[The Courtship of Eddie's Father (film)|The Courtship of Eddie's Father]]'' (1963) that was a hit; the film featured Ronny Howard (later known as [[Ron Howard]]), showing the producer still retained an ability to discover young performers. Less successful was ''[[A Ticklish Affair]]'' (1963) with [[Shirley Jones]] and ''[[Looking for Love (film)|Looking for Love]]'' (1964) with Francis and Hutton. He did a poorly-received musical with [[Ann-Margret]] (in a part turned down by Doris Day), ''[[Made in Paris]]'' (1966), then made two [[Elvis Presley]] films co-starring [[Shelley Fabares]], ''[[Girl Happy]]'' (1965) and ''[[Spinout (film)|Spinout]]'' (1966), both of which made money. He also did a [[Natalie Wood]] comedy ''[[Penelope (1966 film)|Penelope]]'' (1966), which was a box-office disappointment.

Pasternak also authoredwrote a cookbook entitledtitled ''Cooking with Love and Paprika'', published by [[Bernard Geis Associates]] in 1966. The book is peppered withincludes stories of dinner parties, entertaining tips, his life history, and Hungarian recipes.

[[Category:NeurologicalDeaths diseasefrom deathsParkinson's disease in California]]