Kenneth Macgowan
Encyclopedia
Kenneth Macgowan was an American film producer. He won an Academy Award for Best Color Short Film for La Cucaracha
(1934), the first live-action short film made in the three-color Technicolor
process.
Born on November 30, 1888 in Winthrop, Massachusetts
, Macgowan began his career as a drama critic. He wrote many books on the modern theater including The Theatre of Tomorrow (1921), Continental Stagecraft (1922) with Robert Edmond Jones
, Masks and Demons (1923) with Herman Rosse
, and Footlights Across America (1929). In 1922, he ran the Provincetown Playhouse
as its producer, with Eugene O'Neill
and Robert Edmond Jones as business partners. His close relationship with O'Neill lasted their lifetimes.
In 1928 he moved to Hollywood, California to become a story editor
for the newly formed RKO Radio Pictures and quickly became an assistant producer. By 1932, Macgowan had become a film producer
for RKO, including Little Women
(1933), starring Katharine Hepburn
, Joan Bennett
, Frances Dee
and Jean Parker
as the March sisters.
Macgowan produced many films between 1932 and 1947, not only at RKO, but also for 20th Century Fox
and Paramount Pictures
. He produced the first feature film
made in the three color Technicolor process, Becky Sharp
(1935). He also produced Young Mr. Lincoln
(1939) with Henry Fonda
, Fritz Lang
's Man Hunt
(1941) and Alfred Hitchcock
's Lifeboat
(1944).
Other films produced by Macgowan include The Penguin Pool Murder
(1932), Double Harness
(1933), Rafter Romance
(1933), Murder on the Blackboard
(1934), Murder on a Honeymoon
(1935), Lloyd's of London
(1936), Stanley and Livingstone
(1939), The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
(1939), and Jane Eyre
(1944).
In 1947, he left the movie industry to become the first chair of the Department of Theater Arts at UCLA. The theater building on the school's campus is named in his honor. Throughout his life, he wrote books on a number of subjects including drama and film, most notably Behind the Screen, a history of cinema published in 1965 after his death.
He died on April 27, 1963, in West Los Angeles, California, aged 74.
La Cucaracha (1934 film)
La Cucaracha is a 1934 short musical film directed by Lloyd Corrigan. It was designed by Pioneer Pictures to display the new full-color Technicolor Process No. 4 , which had been used since 1932 mainly in Walt Disney cartoons. Jock Whitney and his cousin C. V. Whitney, the owners of Pioneer, were...
(1934), the first live-action short film made in the three-color Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
process.
Born on November 30, 1888 in Winthrop, Massachusetts
Winthrop, Massachusetts
The Town of Winthrop is a municipality in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population of Winthrop was 17,497 at the 2010 U.S. Census. It is an oceanside suburban community in Greater Boston situated at the north entrance to Boston Harbor and is very close to Logan International...
, Macgowan began his career as a drama critic. He wrote many books on the modern theater including The Theatre of Tomorrow (1921), Continental Stagecraft (1922) with Robert Edmond Jones
Robert Edmond Jones
Robert Edmond Jones was an American scenic, lighting, and costume designer. He is credited with incorporating the new stagecraft into the American drama. His designs sought to integrate the scenic elements into the storytelling instead of having them stand separate and indifferent from the play’s...
, Masks and Demons (1923) with Herman Rosse
Herman Rosse
Hermann Rosse was a Dutch-born American art director. He won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for the film King of Jazz....
, and Footlights Across America (1929). In 1922, he ran the Provincetown Playhouse
Provincetown Playhouse
The Provincetown Playhouse is a theater in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. It is named for the Provincetown Players, who converted the former bottling plant into a theater in 1918. Much of the original building was torn down in 2009 as New York University School of Law planned a new building on the...
as its producer, with Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
and Robert Edmond Jones as business partners. His close relationship with O'Neill lasted their lifetimes.
In 1928 he moved to Hollywood, California to become a story editor
Story editor
Story editor is a job title in motion picture and television production, also sometimes called "supervising producer". A story editor is a member of the screenwriting staff who edits stories for screenplays....
for the newly formed RKO Radio Pictures and quickly became an assistant producer. By 1932, Macgowan had become a film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
for RKO, including Little Women
Little Women (1933 film)
Little Women is a 1933 American drama film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman is based on the classic novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott...
(1933), starring 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...
, Joan Bennett
Joan Bennett
Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film and television actress. Besides acting on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 motion pictures from the era of silent movies well into the sound era...
, Frances Dee
Frances Dee
Frances Marion Dee was an American actress. She starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in the early talkie musical, The Playboy of Paris...
and Jean Parker
Jean Parker
-Career:Born as Lois Mae Green in Deer Lodge, Montana, she appeared in 70 movies from 1932 through 1966. She was discovered by Ida Koverman, secretary to MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, after she saw a poster featuring Parker portraying Father Time. She attended Pasadena schools and graduated from John...
as the March sisters.
Macgowan produced many films between 1932 and 1947, not only at RKO, but also for 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
and Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. He produced the first feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
made in the three color Technicolor process, Becky Sharp
Becky Sharp (film)
Becky Sharp is a 1935 film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Miriam Hopkins. Other supporting cast were Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, and Alan Mowbray. It is based on the play of the same name by Langdon Mitchell, which in turn is based on...
(1935). He also produced Young Mr. Lincoln
Young Mr. Lincoln
Young Mr. Lincoln is a 1939 partly fictionalized biography about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to the point where Ford destroyed unwanted takes for fear the studio...
(1939) with Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
's Man Hunt
Man Hunt (1941 film)
Man Hunt is a 1941 American thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Walter Pidgeon and Joan Bennett. It is based on the 1939 novel Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household and is set just prior to the Second World War. A Jewish liberal, Lang had fled Germany into exile in the mid 1930s - this was...
(1941) and Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Lifeboat
Lifeboat (film)
Lifeboat is an American war film directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a story written by John Steinbeck. The film stars Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn and Canada Lee, and is set entirely on a lifeboat.The film is...
(1944).
Other films produced by Macgowan include The Penguin Pool Murder
Penguin Pool Murder
Penguin Pool Murder is a comedy/mystery film starring Edna May Oliver as Hildegarde Withers, a witness in a murder case at the New York Aquarium, James Gleason as the police inspector in charge of the case, who investigates with her unwanted help, and Robert Armstrong as an attorney representing...
(1932), Double Harness
Double Harness
Double Harness is a film starring Ann Harding and William Powell. It was based on the play of the same name by Edward Poor Montgomery. A young woman maneuvers a lazy playboy into marrying her....
(1933), Rafter Romance
Rafter Romance
Rafter Romance is a 1933 RKO romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter. The film, which was based on the novel of the same name by John Wells, stars Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster and features George Sidney, Laura Hope Crews, Guinn Williams and Robert Benchley.-Plot:Mary Carroll is a...
(1933), Murder on the Blackboard
Murder on the Blackboard
Murder on the Blackboard is a mystery film starring Edna May Oliver as schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers and James Gleason as Police Inspector Oscar Piper. Together, they investigate a murder at Withers' school...
(1934), Murder on a Honeymoon
Murder on a Honeymoon
Murder on a Honeymoon is a mystery film starring Edna May Oliver and James Gleason. This was the third and last time Oliver portrayed astute schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers, who in this film witnesses the death of an airplane passenger...
(1935), Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's of London (film)
Lloyd's of London is a 1936 American drama film directed by Henry King. It stars Tyrone Power, Madeleine Carroll, and Guy Standing. The supporting cast includes Freddie Bartholomew, George Sanders, Virginia Field, and C. Aubrey Smith. Loosely based on history, the film follows the dealings of a man...
(1936), Stanley and Livingstone
Stanley and Livingstone
Stanley and Livingstone is a movie about reporter Sir Henry M. Stanley's quest for Dr. David Livingstone, a missionary presumed lost in Africa. Spencer Tracy played Stanley, Sir Cedric Hardwicke portrayed Livingstone, and other cast members included Nancy Kelly, Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn,...
(1939), The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell is a somewhat fictionalized 1939 screen biography of the famous inventor of the telephone. It was filmed in black-and-white and released by Twentieth Century-Fox. The film stars Don Ameche as Bell and Loretta Young as Mabel, his wife, who contracted scarlet fever...
(1939), and Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre (1944 film)
Jane Eyre is a classic film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name, made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by William Goetz, Kenneth Macgowan, and Orson Welles . The screenplay was by John Houseman, Aldous Huxley, Henry Koster, and Robert...
(1944).
In 1947, he left the movie industry to become the first chair of the Department of Theater Arts at UCLA. The theater building on the school's campus is named in his honor. Throughout his life, he wrote books on a number of subjects including drama and film, most notably Behind the Screen, a history of cinema published in 1965 after his death.
He died on April 27, 1963, in West Los Angeles, California, aged 74.