Gregory La Cava Explained

Gregory La Cava
Birth Date:March 10, 1892
Birth Place:Towanda, Pennsylvania
Death Place:Malibu, California
Occupation:Film director

Gregory La Cava (March 10, 1892 – March 1, 1952) was an American film director of Italian descent best known for his films of the 1930s, including My Man Godfrey and Stage Door, which earned him nominations for Academy Award for Best Director.

Career

La Cava was born in Towanda, Pennsylvania. His father was a shoemaker, and the family moved to Rochester, New York. La Cava reported for the Rochester Evening News and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a member of the Art Students' League.[1]

Animator

Around 1913, he started doing odd jobs at the Barré Studio. By 1915, he was an animator on the Animated Grouch Chasers series.Towards the end of 1915, William Randolph Hearst decided to create an animation studio to promote the comic strips printed in his newspapers. He called the new company International Film Service, and he hired La Cava to run it (for double what he was making with Barré). La Cava's first employee was his co-worker at the Barré Studio, Frank Moser. Another was his fellow student in Chicago, Grim Natwick (later to achieve fame at Disney). As he developed more and more of Hearst's comics into cartoon series, he came to put semi-independent units in charge of each, leading to the growth of individual styles.

La Cava also had the significant advantage over other studios of an unlimited budget: Hearst's business sense completely broke down when it came to his Hearst-Vitagraph News Pictorial and the "living comic strips" they contained. La Cava's main fault as a producer and director was that his cartoons were too clearly animated comic strips, hampered by speech balloons when rival Bray Studio was creating more effective series with original characters. He was apparently aware of this fault, and he had his animators study Charlie Chaplin films to improve their timing and characterization. But he didn't have time to achieve very much, because in July 1918, Hearst's bankers caught up with him and International Film Service was shut down.

Hearst still wanted his characters animated, so he licensed various studios to continue the IFS series. La Cava and most of the IFS staff got jobs with John Terry's studio (not surprising since John Terry himself was an IFS alumnus). This only lasted a few months before Terry's studio went out of business. The animators were immediately hired by Goldwyn-Bray (as Bray Productions was now known), but La Cava was not, since Goldwyn-Bray had several producers of its own and La Cava was not interested in starting over. Instead, he moved west to Hollywood.

Live action reels and features

By 1922, La Cava had become a live-action director of two-reel comedies, the direct competitor to animated films. Among the actors he directed in the silent era are:

La Cava worked his way up to feature films in the silent era, but it is for his work in sound films of the 1930s—especially comedies—that he is best known today. And though he did not always get credit, he also often had a hand in creating the screenplays for his films. Among the sound films he directed are:

During the 1940s, his career floundered[2] when his output dropped severely. He only officially directed one film after 1942, Living in a Big Way (1947).

Personal life and death

La Cava and his first wife, Beryl, had a son. They were divorced in 1937. On December 2, 1940, La Cava married Mrs. Grace O. Garland, widow of William J. Garland.[3] He died on March 1, 1952, in his sleep in his home.[4] His remains were buried at Chapel of the Pines Crematory.

Filmography

YearFilmAcademy Award NominationsAcademy Award Wins
1921His Nibs
1923The Life of Reilly
Beware of the Dog
1924Restless Wives
The New School Teacher
1925Womanhandled
1926Let's Get Married
Say It Again
So's Your Old Man
1927Paradise for Two
Running Wild
Tell It to Sweeney
The Gay Defender
1928Half a Bride
Feel My Pulse
1929Saturday's Children
Big News
His First Command
1931Laugh and Get Rich
Smart Woman
1932Symphony of Six Million
The Age of Consent
The Half-Naked Truth
1933Gabriel Over the White House
Bed of Roses
Gallant Lady
1934The Affairs of Cellini40
What Every Woman Knows
1935Private Worlds10
She Married Her Boss
1936My Man Godfrey60
1937Stage Door40
1939Fifth Avenue Girl
1940Primrose Path10
1941Unfinished Business
1942Lady in a Jam
1947Living in a Big Way
1948One Touch of Venus

References

Notes and References

  1. Nemeth . Michael . December 2022 . 6–12 . Gregory La Cava: The Road Less Traveled . Classic Images.
  2. Book: 501 Movie Directors. Steven Jay. Schneider. Cassell Illustrated. London. 2007. 62. 9781844035731. 1347156402.
  3. News: Gregory La Cava Married . December 22, 2022 . The New York Times . Associated Press . April 12, 1941 . 13. subscription.
  4. News: Gregory La Cava, director, 59, dead . December 22, 2022 . The New York Times . United Press . March 2, 1952 . 92. subscription.