Jack White (film producer)
Encyclopedia
Jack White was an American film producer, director and writer. His career with film began in the late 1910s and continued until the early 1960s. White produced over 300 films; directed more than 60 of these, and wrote more than 50. He directed some of his sound comedies under the pseudonym "Preston Black."

Early life

During Jack's childhood his family lived in Hollywood, California. A nearby stable was used to engage in the new business of motion pictures. Jack and his three brothers, Jules, Sam, and Ben rode horses as extras in outdoor westerns. This started the movie careers for the three White brothers; they became directors and/or producers. A fourth brother, Ben White, became a cameraman.

Career

While still a teenager, Jack White became the leading producer for Educational Pictures
Educational Pictures
Educational Pictures was a film distribution company founded in 1919 by Earle Hammons . Educational primarily distributed short subjects, and today is probably best known for its series of 1930s comedies starring Buster Keaton, as well as for a series of one-reel comedies featuring Shirley...

, making very popular comedy shorts with Lloyd Hamilton
Lloyd Hamilton
Lloyd Vernon Hamilton was a major silent film star. Hamilton is best remembered as the stocky half of silent comedy's "Ham and Bud" , and later, his own series of short comedies...

, Lupino Lane
Lupino Lane
Lupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...

, Lige Conley
Lige Conley
Lige Conley , was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 140 films between 1915 and 1938....

, and Al St. John. In 1926 Jack White hired one of his younger brothers, Jules White
Jules White
Jules White born Julius Weiss was a film director and producer best known for his short-subject comedies starring the Three Stooges.-Early years:...

, as a film editor. By the 1930s Jules had eclipsed Jack as a leading producer of comedy short subjects, notably with the Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...

. In 1935 Jules hired Jack as a writer and director. Jack's first Stooges film was Ants in the Pantry
Ants in the Pantry
Ants in the Pantry is the 12th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

; he worked in Columbia's shorts department through 1937. He rejoined the unit briefly in the early 1940s before serving in the military, then returned to Columbia for good in 1951.

During the 1950s, rising production costs forced Columbia to economize, and reuse sequences from older pictures. Jules White called upon Jack White to write new scripts that plausibly incorporated scenes from some other movie. Jack's biggest challenge was probably the Stooge short Scheming Schemers
Scheming Schemers
Scheming Schemers is the 173rd short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

(released 1956), for which he not only had to insert old scenes from three older Stooge shorts, but he had to write around the absence of co-star Shemp Howard, who had died in 1955. Jack's creative ideas cleverly hid the patchwork; according to Columbia director Edward Bernds
Edward Bernds
Edward Bernds was an American screenwriter and director, born in Chicago, Illinois.-Career:While in his junior year in Lake View High School, he and several friends formed a small radio clique and obtained amateur licenses...

, neither audiences nor exhibitors ever noticed the old footage in the new comedies. White worked at Columbia until the comedy shorts unit closed on December 20, 1957.

Personal life

Jack White was married to silent-film actress Pauline Starke
Pauline Starke
Pauline Starke was an American silent-film actress born in Joplin, Missouri.She made her acting debut appearing as a dance extra in D.W. Griffith's film Intolerance...

; the marriage was unhappy and they divorced in the mid-1930s. Starke's lawyers pressured White, prompting White to adopt the "Preston Black" pseudonym to avoid further harassment.

White died on April 10, 1984.

External links

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