Harry Cohn
Encyclopedia
Harry Cohn was the American president and production director of Columbia Pictures
.
-Jewish family in New York City
. In later years, he appears to have disparaged his heritage. After working for a time as a streetcar conductor, and then as a promoter for a sheet music
printer, he got a job with Universal Pictures
, where his brother, Jack Cohn, was already employed. In 1919, Cohn joined with his brother and Joe Brandt to found CBC Film Sales Corporation. The initials officially stood for Cohn, Brandt, and Cohn, but Hollywood wags noted the company's low-budget, low-class efforts and nicknamed CBC "Corned Beef and Cabbage." Harry Cohn managed the company's film production in Hollywood, while his brother managed its finances from New York. The relationship between the two brothers was not always good, and Brandt, finding the partnership stressful, eventually sold his third of the company to Harry Cohn, who took over as president. The firm was now known as Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Most of Columbia's early work was action fare starring rock-jawed leading man Jack Holt
. Columbia was unable to shake off its stigma as a Poverty Row
studio until 1934, when director Frank Capra
's Columbia comedy It Happened One Night
swept the Academy Awards
. Exhibitors who formerly wouldn't touch Columbia product became steady customers. As a horizontally integrated
company that only controlled production and distribution, Columbia had previously been at the mercy of theater owners. Columbia expanded its scope to offer moviegoers a regular program of economically made features, short subjects, serials, travelogues, sports reels, and cartoons. Columbia would release a few "class" productions each year (Lost Horizon, Holiday
, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
,The Jolson Story
, Gilda
, All the King's Men
, etc.), but depended on its popular "budget" productions to keep the company solvent. During Cohn's tenure, the studio always turned a profit.
Cohn did not build a stable of movie stars like other studios. Instead, he generally signed actors who usually worked for more expensive studios (Wheeler & Woolsey
, Cary Grant
, Katharine Hepburn
, Mae West
, Humphrey Bogart
, Dorothy Lamour
, Mickey Rooney
, Chester Morris
, Warren William
, Warner Baxter
, Sabu
, Gloria Jean
, Margaret O'Brien
, etc.) to attract a pre-sold audience. Columbia's own stars generally rose from the ranks of small-part actors and featured players (Rita Hayworth
, Larry Parks
, Julie Bishop
, Lloyd Bridges
, Bruce Bennett
, Jock Mahoney
, etc.). Some of Columbia's producers and directors also graduated from lesser positions as actors, writers, musicians and assistant directors.
Cohn was known for his autocratic and intimidating management style. When he took over as Columbia's president, he remained production chief as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He respected talent above any personal attribute, but he made sure his employees knew who was boss. Writer Ben Hecht
referred to him as "White Fang
." An employee of Columbia called him "as absolute a monarch as Hollywood ever knew," and described him as running his studio "like a private police state". It was said "he had listening devices on all sound stages and could tune in any conversation on the set, then boom in over a loudspeaker if he heard anything that displeased him." Throughout his tenure, his most popular moniker was "King Cohn."
Cohn was known to scream and curse at actors and directors in his office all afternoon, and greet them cordially at a dinner party that evening. Moe Howard
of the Three Stooges, who worked for Cohn for 23 years, accurately recalled that Cohn was "a real Jekyll-and-Hyde-type guy... socially, he could be very charming." There is some suggestion that Cohn deliberately cultivated his reputation as a tyrant, either to motivate his employees or simply because it increased his control of the studio. Cohn is said to have kept a signed photograph of Benito Mussolini
, whom he met in Italy
in 1933, on his desk until the beginning of World War II
. (Columbia produced the documentary Mussolini Speaks in 1933, narrated by Lowell Thomas
.) Cohn also had a number of ties to organized crime
. He had a long-standing friendship with Chicago mobster John Roselli
, and New Jersey mob boss Abner Zwillman
was the source of the loan that allowed Cohn to buy out his partner Brandt. Cohn's brash, loud, intimidating style has become Hollywood legend and rumored to have been portrayed in various movies. The roles played by Broderick Crawford in All The King's Men
and Born Yesterday
, both Columbia pictures, are supposedly based on Cohn. Also, the character of Jack Woltz
, a movie mogul who appeared in The Godfather
, is supposedly modeled on Cohn.
In his own way, Harry Cohn was sentimental about certain professional matters. He remembered the valuable contributions of Jack Holt during Columbia's struggling years, and kept him under contract until 1941. Cohn hired the Three Stooges in 1934 and, according to Stooge Larry Fine
, "he thought we brought him luck." Cohn kept the Stooges on his payroll until the end of 1957. Cohn was always fond of "those lousy little B pictures" and kept making them, along with two-reel comedies
and serials, after other studios had abandoned them; Columbia not shutting down its short subject unit until early 1958. However, he also forced Curly Howard
to keep working after suffering a series of minor strokes, which led to a further deterioration of his health and his eventual retirement.
was fraught with aggravation. In Hayworth's biography If This Was Happiness, she described how she refused to sleep with Cohn and how this angered him. However, because Hayworth was such a valuable property Cohn kept her on, making money. For the years they worked together, each did their best to irritate the other despite their lengthy work relationship, which produced good results. At one point Cohn wanted to groom Mary Castle
as Hayworth's successor. Kim Novak
was another Columbia star who had to endure similar treatment from Cohn. When Joan Crawford
became subject to Cohn's advances after signing a three picture contract with Columbia, she quickly stopped him by saying, "keep it in your pants, Harry. I'm having lunch with Joan and the boys (Cohn's wife and children) tomorrow."
Cohn was married to Rose Barker from 1923 to 1941, and to actress Joan Perry (1911–1996) from July 1941 until his death in 1958. Perry later married actor Laurence Harvey
. His niece was Leonore "Lee" Cohn Annenberg
, the wife of billionaire publishing magnate Walter Annenberg
of Philadelphia. Her father was Maxwell Cohn, brother of Harry and Jack Cohn.
in February 1958 that he suffered at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel
in Phoenix, Arizona
, shortly after having finished dinner. He died in an ambulance en route to St. Joseph's Hospital.
Cohn and his funeral were the subject of the famous quote from Red Skelton
, who remarked of Cohn's well-attended funeral, "It proves what Harry always said: Give the public what they want and they'll come out for it." Harry Cohn was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
in Hollywood, California.
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
.
Career
Cohn was born to a working-class GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-Jewish family in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In later years, he appears to have disparaged his heritage. After working for a time as a streetcar conductor, and then as a promoter for a sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
printer, he got a job with Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
, where his brother, Jack Cohn, was already employed. In 1919, Cohn joined with his brother and Joe Brandt to found CBC Film Sales Corporation. The initials officially stood for Cohn, Brandt, and Cohn, but Hollywood wags noted the company's low-budget, low-class efforts and nicknamed CBC "Corned Beef and Cabbage." Harry Cohn managed the company's film production in Hollywood, while his brother managed its finances from New York. The relationship between the two brothers was not always good, and Brandt, finding the partnership stressful, eventually sold his third of the company to Harry Cohn, who took over as president. The firm was now known as Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Most of Columbia's early work was action fare starring rock-jawed leading man Jack Holt
Jack Holt (actor)
Jack Holt was an American motion picture actor. He was a leading man of silent and sound films, and was known for his many roles in Westerns.-Early life:...
. Columbia was unable to shake off its stigma as a Poverty Row
Poverty Row
Poverty Row is a slang term used in Hollywood from the late silent period through the mid-fifties to refer to a variety of small and mostly short-lived B movie studios...
studio until 1934, when director Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
's Columbia comedy It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night is a 1934 American romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and falls in love with a roguish reporter . The plot was based on the story Night Bus by Samuel...
swept the Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
. Exhibitors who formerly wouldn't touch Columbia product became steady customers. As a horizontally integrated
Horizontal integration
In microeconomics and strategic management, the term horizontal integration describes a type of ownership and control. It is a strategy used by a business or corporation that seeks to sell a type of product in numerous markets...
company that only controlled production and distribution, Columbia had previously been at the mercy of theater owners. Columbia expanded its scope to offer moviegoers a regular program of economically made features, short subjects, serials, travelogues, sports reels, and cartoons. Columbia would release a few "class" productions each year (Lost Horizon, Holiday
Holiday (1938 film)
Holiday is a 1938 is a film directed by George Cukor, a remake of the 1930 film of the same name. The film is a romantic comedy which tells the story of a man who has risen from humble beginnings only to be torn between his free-thinking lifestyle and the tradition of his wealthy fiancée's family...
, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...
,The Jolson Story
The Jolson Story
The Jolson Story is a 1946 musical biography which purports to tell the life story of singer Al Jolson. It stars Larry Parks as Jolson, Evelyn Keyes as "Julie Benson" , William Demarest as his manager, Ludwig Donath and Tamara Shayne as his parents, and Scotty Beckett as the young Jolson.The...
, Gilda
Gilda
Gilda is a 1946 American black-and-white film noir directed by Charles Vidor. It stars Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth in her signature role as the ultimate femme fatale. The film was noted for cinematographer Rudolph Mate's lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis' wardrobe for Hayworth , and...
, All the King's Men
All the King's Men
All the King's Men is a novel by Robert Penn Warren first published in 1946. Its title is drawn from the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. In 1947 Warren won the Pulitzer Prize for All the King's Men....
, etc.), but depended on its popular "budget" productions to keep the company solvent. During Cohn's tenure, the studio always turned a profit.
Cohn did not build a stable of movie stars like other studios. Instead, he generally signed actors who usually worked for more expensive studios (Wheeler & Woolsey
Wheeler & Woolsey
Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were a famous American film comedy team of the 1930s....
, Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
, Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
, Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
, Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope .-Early life:Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise Dorothy...
, Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
, Chester Morris
Chester Morris
Chester Morris was an American actor, who starred in the Boston Blackie detective series of the 1940s.-Career:...
, Warren William
Warren William
Warren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...
, Warner Baxter
Warner Baxter
Warner Leroy Baxter was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona , for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1928–1929 Academy Awards. Warner Baxter started his movie career in silent movies...
, Sabu
Sabu Dastagir
Sabu Dastagir was a film actor of Indian origin—although he later took American citizenship. He was normally credited only by his first name, Sabu, and is primarily known for his work in film during the 1930s-40s in Britain and America.-Early life:Born in 1924 in Karapur, Mysore, Kingdom of...
, Gloria Jean
Gloria Jean
Gloria Jean is an American singer and actress who starred or co-starred in 26 feature films between 1939 and 1959. She also made radio, television, stage, and nightclub appearances.-Career:...
, Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history...
, etc.) to attract a pre-sold audience. Columbia's own stars generally rose from the ranks of small-part actors and featured players (Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
, Larry Parks
Larry Parks
Larry Parks was an American stage and movie actor. He was born Samuel Klausman Lawrence Parks. His career was virtually ended when he admitted to having once been a member of a Communist party cell, which led to his blacklisting by all Hollywood studios.-Background:Parks grew up in Joliet,...
, Julie Bishop
Julie Bishop (actress)
Julie Bishop was an American film and television actress. She appeared in over 80 films between 1923 and 1957....
, Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, the most-popular syndicated American TV series in 1958...
, Bruce Bennett
Bruce Bennett
Bruce Bennett was an American actor and Olympic silver medalist shot putter. During the 1930s, he went by his real name, Herman Brix .-Early life and Olympics:...
, Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney
Jock Mahoney was an American actor and stuntman of Irish, French, and Cherokee ancestry. Born Jacques O'Mahoney, he was credited variously as Jock Mahoney, Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney. He starred in two television series, both westerns...
, etc.). Some of Columbia's producers and directors also graduated from lesser positions as actors, writers, musicians and assistant directors.
Cohn was known for his autocratic and intimidating management style. When he took over as Columbia's president, he remained production chief as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He respected talent above any personal attribute, but he made sure his employees knew who was boss. Writer Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
referred to him as "White Fang
White Fang
White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906. The story takes place in Yukon Territory, Canada, during the Klondike Gold Rush at the end of the 19th-century, and details a wild wolfdog's journey to domestication...
." An employee of Columbia called him "as absolute a monarch as Hollywood ever knew," and described him as running his studio "like a private police state". It was said "he had listening devices on all sound stages and could tune in any conversation on the set, then boom in over a loudspeaker if he heard anything that displeased him." Throughout his tenure, his most popular moniker was "King Cohn."
Cohn was known to scream and curse at actors and directors in his office all afternoon, and greet them cordially at a dinner party that evening. Moe Howard
Moe Howard
Moses Harry Horwitz , known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades...
of the Three Stooges, who worked for Cohn for 23 years, accurately recalled that Cohn was "a real Jekyll-and-Hyde-type guy... socially, he could be very charming." There is some suggestion that Cohn deliberately cultivated his reputation as a tyrant, either to motivate his employees or simply because it increased his control of the studio. Cohn is said to have kept a signed photograph of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
, whom he met in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in 1933, on his desk until the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. (Columbia produced the documentary Mussolini Speaks in 1933, narrated by Lowell Thomas
Lowell Thomas
Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...
.) Cohn also had a number of ties to organized crime
National Crime Syndicate
The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to a loosely-organized multi-ethnic organized crime syndicate. Its origins are uncertain....
. He had a long-standing friendship with Chicago mobster John Roselli
John Roselli
John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli , sometimes spelled John Rosselli, was an influential mobster for the Chicago Outfit who helped them control Hollywood and the Las Vegas Strip. Roselli was also involved with the Central Intelligence Agency plot to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the early 1960s...
, and New Jersey mob boss Abner Zwillman
Abner Zwillman
Abner "Longie" Zwillman , known as the "Al Capone of New Jersey," was an early Prohibition gangster, founding member of the "Big Seven" Ruling Commission and a member of the National Crime Syndicate, who was also associated with Murder Incorporated.-Biography:According to the Social Security Death...
was the source of the loan that allowed Cohn to buy out his partner Brandt. Cohn's brash, loud, intimidating style has become Hollywood legend and rumored to have been portrayed in various movies. The roles played by Broderick Crawford in All The King's Men
All the King's Men
All the King's Men is a novel by Robert Penn Warren first published in 1946. Its title is drawn from the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. In 1947 Warren won the Pulitzer Prize for All the King's Men....
and Born Yesterday
Born Yesterday
Born Yesterday is a play written by Garson Kanin which premiered on Broadway in 1946, starring Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn. The play was adapted intoa successful 1950 film of the same name.- Plot :...
, both Columbia pictures, are supposedly based on Cohn. Also, the character of Jack Woltz
Jack Woltz
Jack Woltz is a fictional character from the Mario Puzo novel The Godfather and the 1972 film adaptation. In the film, he is portrayed by John Marley.-In the film:...
, a movie mogul who appeared in The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, is supposedly modeled on Cohn.
In his own way, Harry Cohn was sentimental about certain professional matters. He remembered the valuable contributions of Jack Holt during Columbia's struggling years, and kept him under contract until 1941. Cohn hired the Three Stooges in 1934 and, according to Stooge Larry Fine
Larry Fine
Louis Feinberg , known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American comedian and actor, who is best known as a member of the comedy act The Three Stooges.-Early life:...
, "he thought we brought him luck." Cohn kept the Stooges on his payroll until the end of 1957. Cohn was always fond of "those lousy little B pictures" and kept making them, along with two-reel comedies
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
and serials, after other studios had abandoned them; Columbia not shutting down its short subject unit until early 1958. However, he also forced Curly Howard
Curly Howard
Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine...
to keep working after suffering a series of minor strokes, which led to a further deterioration of his health and his eventual retirement.
Personal life
Other claims made about Cohn include the rumor that he demanded sex from female stars in exchange for employment, although similar stories were connected to many producers in Hollywood at the time. Harry Cohn's relationship with Rita HayworthRita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
was fraught with aggravation. In Hayworth's biography If This Was Happiness, she described how she refused to sleep with Cohn and how this angered him. However, because Hayworth was such a valuable property Cohn kept her on, making money. For the years they worked together, each did their best to irritate the other despite their lengthy work relationship, which produced good results. At one point Cohn wanted to groom Mary Castle
Mary Castle
Mary Ann Castle was an American actress of early film and television whose personal problems destroyed her once burgeoning career. Her best known role was as female detective Frankie Adams in the syndicated western series, Stories of the Century, which aired from 1954 to 1955.-Early years:Castle...
as Hayworth's successor. Kim Novak
Kim Novak
Kim Novak is an American film and television actress. She began her career with her roles in Pushover and Phffft! but achieved greater prominence in the 1955 film Picnic...
was another Columbia star who had to endure similar treatment from Cohn. When Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
became subject to Cohn's advances after signing a three picture contract with Columbia, she quickly stopped him by saying, "keep it in your pants, Harry. I'm having lunch with Joan and the boys (Cohn's wife and children) tomorrow."
Cohn was married to Rose Barker from 1923 to 1941, and to actress Joan Perry (1911–1996) from July 1941 until his death in 1958. Perry later married actor Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...
. His niece was Leonore "Lee" Cohn Annenberg
Leonore Annenberg
Leonore Cohn Annenberg , also known as Lee Annenberg, was an American businesswoman, government official, and philanthropist. She is former Chief of Protocol of the United States . Annenberg was married to Walter Annenberg, who was an Ambassador to the United Kingdom and a prominent businessman...
, the wife of billionaire publishing magnate Walter Annenberg
Walter Annenberg
Walter Hubert Annenberg was an American publisher, philanthropist, and diplomat.-Early life:Walter Annenberg was born to a Jewish family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 13, 1908. He was the son of Sarah and Moses "Moe" Annenberg, who published The Daily Racing Form and purchased The Philadelphia...
of Philadelphia. Her father was Maxwell Cohn, brother of Harry and Jack Cohn.
Death
Cohn died of a sudden heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in February 1958 that he suffered at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel
Arizona Biltmore Hotel
The Arizona Biltmore Hotel is a resort located in Phoenix near 24th Street and Camelback Road. It recently joined the Hilton Hotels' luxury collection The Waldorf-Astoria Collection and was also featured on the Travel Channel show Great Hotels....
in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, shortly after having finished dinner. He died in an ambulance en route to St. Joseph's Hospital.
Cohn and his funeral were the subject of the famous quote from Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
, who remarked of Cohn's well-attended funeral, "It proves what Harry always said: Give the public what they want and they'll come out for it." Harry Cohn was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
in Hollywood, California.