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The Southern Israelite
The FNfapoleon of the TTCovies
The Story of Jesse L. Lasky, the Movie Magnate
An Exclusive Interview
By GRACE JAFFE
Several weeks ago Jesse L. Lasky, First
Vice-President in charge of production of
the Paramount-Publix Corporation, cele
brated his fiftieth anniversary. On this
occasion Miss Jaffe, staff writer of the
Seven Arts and The Southern Israelite,
interviewed the master-mind of the
American movies and obtained from him
the story of his climb to success, in his
own simple words. Full of hitherto un
known facts and information is this story
which narrates one of the “Believe It or
Not“ business romances of modern
America. —THE EDITOR.
“If I had had a better lip I might still he a cornet
player,” smilingly remarked Jesse L. Lasky, First Vice-
President of the Paramount-Publix Corporation, known
to movieland as the master-mind of the huge Paramount
enterprises—when 1 interviewed him recently.
This modest way of looking at his phenomenal climb
to the greatest heights in the motion picture industry is
typical of Jesse L. Lasky the man. Success has not
turned his head. He views his own career with detached
eyes not devoid of a sense of humor.
Jesse L. Lasky was horn at San Francisco, son of
Isaac Lasky, a Jewish merchant of San Jose, near the
Golden Gate City. After finishing public school he at
tended and graduated from the Santa Clara High
School there. Just as the ambitious lad was preparing
to enter Sanford University at Palo Alto his father
died; and, contrary to the accepted legend that all
Jewish merchants make money, the family was left in
none too comfortable circumstances. So young Lasky,
whose hobby and passion had been music knd who
dreamed of becoming another John Philip Sousa, looked
h around for a job as a musician. He was a proficient
"pianist and cornetist, and without too much trouble
secured a position with a San Francisco theatre
orchestra.
From the first day of his entry into the battle of life
Lasky revealed a restless quality. He did not care to
settle down in the routine tracks of whatever occupa
tion he happened to be engaged in. After his first
experience with the San Francisco theatre orchestra he
embarked, one fine day, for the Hawaiian Islands, then
heralded as the land of well-paid entertainment.
Hawaiian prosperity, however, proved a mirage, and
soon Lasky faced great difficulties. The theatre in
which he was a pianist closed after a few weeks and
left him stranded. But after a short time he elbowed
his way into the position of cornet soloist of the Royal
Hawaiian Band. “I was the only white man there,
except for the leader,” Mr. Lasky told me with a remi
niscent smile, “and I can recall people staring at me and
whispering: ‘Why, he’s a white man, isn’t lie?’”
“One thing I can say,” the Paramount executive
continued, “I never wrote home for money. I simply
carried on till I had saved up enough to pay for niv
passage back to the mainland. Once back in my birth
place I deserted music and turned—please don’t laugh ;
I was a rather naive boy then—to the newspaper field.
I became a cub reporter on the Evening Post. I en
joyed the work all right, but it was not particularly
remunerative, and it looked to me like a long apprentice
ship with no great goal in view. During the few months
that I w'as one of the gentlemen of the press, however,
I learned a good deal about human nature, gained a lot
of experience and came in contact with all sorts of
people.
“At that time the Alaskan boom developed. Cape
Nome and the riches of the Far North were con
tinually exploited in the press. Everybody was talking
Alaska and gold. It was almost a replica of the ‘forty-
nine days in California’; so I decided to try my luck.
“I put all my eggs in one basket; that is, I turned
everything negotiable into cash and purchased placer
Jesse L. Lasky
mining machinery and other supplies. I was one of the
first hundred men to reach Nome in the days when
Jack London, Rex Beach and others became identified
with the gold rush in the North. I remember the first
Fourth of July parade in Nome city, where I met
London as we stood side by side watching the proces
sion which featured the first white child horn in the
town.”
Jesse Lasky penetrated to the interior and worked
like a beaver on the creeks, with varying success. He
dug in like any other prospector, worked, perspired or
froze till his hack ached and his hands grew blistered.
At Dutch Harbor he found a way of earning some
money on the side; lie rented a rowboat and took
passengers ashore from the vessels which came to
anchor there. The future movie king carried freight,
later buying a push-cart worth ten or fifteen dollars
hut for which he had to pay a hundred; for several
weeks he transported baggage at what he laughingly
describes as “Alaskan prices”—ten or twenty dollars a
load. He earned about fifteen hundred dollar-
way, and then transported his own mining
to his beach claim. But the claims did not |
“There was always color, but not enough." l.a- ex
plained. “And finally, after all this sweating
ing, I found myself flat broke.”
True to form, he refused to give up. He som
other claims and did locate one from which h
wash out forty or fifty dollars a day. “You see." hr
observed whimsically, “it all comes out in tin wash
Soon I had enough gold to square my various debts and
pay my passage back to Frisco, where I arrived
and a wiser man.”
His dreams to emulate Sousa came back. He <
his sister, who in his absence had developed a talent for
music, and the two formed a combine, a sort of juvenile
team giving vocal and instrumental musical entertain
ment. They appeared with success at several large
benefits, and finally a vaudeville agent came t<> them
with an offer of sixty dollars a w’eek.
“That was a lot of money in those days, and we
accepted it,” said Mr. Lasky. “Our bookings
East for the first time. The possibilities of vaudeville
began to be revealed to me. This is what actually-
started me on my career in the entertainment field
Within the limits of a newspaper article one can
only touch upon the highlights in Jesse Lasky’s ‘ He
lieve It or Not” adventure, which brought him to tin
very top of the entertainment industry. The fact that
so much action has to be crowded into a brief narrative
may make Lasky’s rise read like a sober, very pros,
tale. But if you sit facing this quinquegenarian whn
looks hardly forty, if you listen to his frank remi
niscences you realize that even if his lips had been per
feet cornetist’s lips he would have climbed to the dizzy
heights he occupies today. There is an element ot
undeniable, irresistible push and vitality in Jesse l.asky
a self-confidence that overcomes obstacles and d
culties with a smile.
Once he was in the vaudeville business things began
to ‘happen. From a performer in Leon Herrmann >
(Continued on Page 19)
**/ do not believe in you shall
you must’. I do believe in enlisting the
intelligent co-operation of those in tyour
employ.
“/ believe in the one hundred pei <■
square deal. I have negotiated with
dreds of artists and authors and at
time have I endeavored to get the
of a deal’. At the same time / do
think I have ever gotten mu>.
worst of it.
“Put your cards on the table a
beginning of negotiations and th<.
will be cleaner and better for a.,
cerned. A few disillusionments
disturb my faith in humanity.
—Jesse L. Las
