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Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Harry Cohn | |
|---|---|
 Cohn c. 1938 | |
| Born | July 23, 1891 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | February 27, 1958 (aged 66) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
Resting place | Hollywood Forever Cemetery |
| Occupations | Film producer and president of Columbia Pictures Corporation |
| Years active | 1919–1958 |
| Spouses | |
| Relatives | Jack Cohn (brother) Leonore Annenberg (niece) |
Harry Cohn (July 23, 1891 – February 27, 1958) was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation.[1]
Cohn was born to a working-class Jewish family in New York City.[2] His father, Joseph Cohn, was a tailor from Germany, and his mother, Bella Joseph, was from the Pale of Settlement, Russian Empire.[3][4] He left school early and had a variety of jobs, including chorus boy, fur salesman, pool hustler, shipping clerk, streetcar conductor and song plugger for a sheet music printer.[5][6] He also appeared in a vaudeville act with Harry Ruby.[6]
He entered the film industry when he got a job with Independent Moving Pictures (which had recently merged to become part of Universal Film Manufacturing Company), where his elder brother, Jack Cohn, was already employed. The brothers made their first film there, Traffic in Souls.[7] Cohn became personal secretary to Universal president, Carl Laemmle.[6]
In 1919, Cohn joined his brother and fellow IMP employee Joe Brandt, to found CBC Film Sales Corporation.[7] 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, who took over as president, by which time the firm had been renamed 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 products became steady customers. As a horizontally integrated company that only controlled production and distribution, Columbia had 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 released 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 (Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth, Larry Parks, Jacqueline Wells, 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.
Harry 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." 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."
Moe Howard of the Three Stooges recalled that Cohn was "a real Jekyll-and-Hyde-type guy... socially, he could be very charming." 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. 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 was reportedly portrayed in various movies. The characters played by Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men (1949) and Born Yesterday (1950), both Columbia pictures, are allegedly based on Cohn, as is Jack Woltz, a movie mogul who appears in The Godfather (1972) as well as Rod Steiger in The Big Knife.
In his own way, Harry Cohn was sentimental about certain professional matters. During his early years as a producer he had signed comedian Billy West to star in a series of comedies, but both the series and the company were underfunded. Only four films were completed before Cohn had to suspend production, and thus Cohn failed to fulfill West's contract. Twelve years later, when West was a struggling bit player, Cohn not only kept him working as an actor but made him an assistant director. He then asked Mr. and Mrs. West to operate the Columbia Grill, a restaurant concession on the studio premises,[8] and then allowed West to take short absences to direct three feature films for minor-league Monogram Pictures. Cohn 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." Although Columbia discontinued almost all of its short-subject series in 1956, Cohn kept the Stooges on his payroll until the end of 1957. Cohn was fond of what he termed "those lousy little 'B' pictures", and kept making them, along with two-reel comedies and serials, after other studios had abandoned them. Perhaps Harry Cohn was most nostalgic about the Screen Snapshots series because it had put Columbia on the map: it was the oldest film series still in production, going back to 1920 and the dawn of the studio. The last film in the series was released four months after Cohn's death; had he lived longer, Screen Snapshots would almost certainly have continued.
Cohn could also hold grudges. He was responsible for the abrupt end to Hazel Scott's film career after Scott protested the degrading costumes black women were scripted to wear on Mae West's 1943 film The Heat's On. Cohn eventually relented, but made good on his vow that Hazel Scott would never set foot on a Hollywood studio lot as long as he lived.[9] After David Niven playfully sent Cohn a lawyer's letter claiming Cohn's yacht as salvage, Cohn failed to see the joke and barred Niven from the Columbia lot; Niven would be hired by Columbia only after Harry Cohn's death.[10] Cohn also resented Loretta Young having a dress redesigned expensively, which he regarded as overcharging him for her wardrobe, and wouldn't speak to her for many years until she apologized to him in person.[11]
According to biographer Michael Fleming, Cohn forced Curly Howard of the Stooges to keep working after suffering a series of minor strokes, which coincided with a further deterioration of Howard's health and his eventual retirement.[12]
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.
His brothers all worked at Columbia. As well as co-founder Jack, the eldest brother Maxwell was a shorts subject producer and Nathan was the New York division manager.[13] Cohn's nephew, Ralph, one of Jack Cohn's three sons, founded Screen Gems.[14] Another of Jack's sons, Robert, was also a Columbia executive.[15] Maxwell's daughter was Leonore "Lee" Cohn Annenberg, the wife of billionaire publishing magnate Walter Annenberg of Philadelphia.
Various accounts have claimed that Cohn asked for and expected sex from female stars in exchange for employment.[16][17] According to writer Joseph McBride, Jean Arthur quit the film industry when her Columbia Pictures contract expired in 1944 because Cohn was known to harass actresses.[18] When Joan Crawford was subjected 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 [his wife] and the boys [his children] tomorrow."[19]
Rita Hayworth's relationship with Cohn was fraught with aggravation. Her biography, If This Was Happiness, describes how Cohn was angered when she refused his demands to have sex with him. However, he kept her under contract because she made him money. During these Columbia years, each did their best to irritate the other despite their successful working relationship. Cohn tried to groom Mary Castle as Hayworth's successor.[20]
Cohn has been accused of having ties with organized crime. In 1957, mobsters threatened Sammy Davis Jr. with violence because the performer was involved with actress Kim Novak, who was under contract with Columbia Pictures. There are several accounts of what happened, but most agree that the organized crime figures who threatened Davis were close to Cohn; according to these accounts, as Novak was white, Cohn was worried a backlash against the interracial relationship would hurt the studio.[21] According to one account, Cohn called racketeer John Roselli, who was told to inform Davis that he must stop seeing Novak. To try to scare Davis, Roselli had him kidnapped for a few hours.[22] Another account relates that the threat was conveyed to Davis's father by mobster Mickey Cohen.[21]
The threat message to Davis was "leave Novak and marry a Black woman, or you’ll lose your other eye".[23] In response, Davis sought the protection of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana, who said that he could protect him in Chicago and Las Vegas but not California.[24][21][25] Cohn was one of the inspirations (as well as Louis B. Mayer) for the character of studio boss Jack Woltz in the 1972 crime film The Godfather.[26]
Cohn had been suffering from an enlarged heart when he had a heart attack while flying back from New York in December 1957. He was told to slow down.[1] In February 1958, he suffered another heart attack at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, shortly after he had finished dinner. Cohn died in an ambulance en route to St. Joseph's Hospital.
Practically the entire Hollywood community attended Cohn's extravagant funeral on stage 12 at the Columbia studios [1] where Red Skelton made the famous (possibly apocryphal) quote: "It proves what Harry always said: Give the public what they want and they'll come out for it."[27] Cohn is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood.
Cohn was portrayed by Michael Lerner in the 1983 TV film Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess, Linal Haft in The Three Stooges bio drama in 2000, and Eric Roberts in the 2018 film Frank & Ava.[28][29]
Novak even managed to evade Cohn's casting couch—considered the most notorious in Hollywood.
As the head of Columbia Pictures from 1919 to 1958, Cohn expected sex in exchange for a chance at stardom. And as one of the most influential figures in Tinseltown, he usually got it.
According to Ms. Leaming, Harry Cohn... 'developed an obsession' with the beautiful young woman. But in a rare, explicit show of strength, Hayworth refused her husband's order to sleep with 'the notoriously crude movie mogul.'
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Harry Cohn (July 23, 1891 – February 27, 1958) was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Cohn is a Jewish surname (related to the last name Cohen). Notable people and characters with the surname include: Al Cohn (1925–1988), American jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer Alan D. Cohn, American government official Alfred A. Cohn (1880–1951), American screenwriter Alice Cohn (1914–2000), German graphic artist Art Cohn (1909–1958), American sportswriter, screenwriter and author Arthur Cohn (1927–2025), Swiss film producer Arthur Cohn (rabbi) (1862–1926), Swiss Orthodox rabbi Arthur Cohn (1894–1940), mathematician known for Cohn's irreducibility criterion Avern Cohn (1924–2022), United States District Court judge Bernard Cohn (anthropologist) (1928–2003), anthropologist and scholar of British colonialism in India Bernard Cohn (politician) (1835–1889), American businessman and politician in Los Angeles Craig Cohn (b. 1983), birth name of American professional wrestler Craig Classic Clementine Cohn (born 1861), German writer Daniel Cohn-Bendit (b. 1945), French-German politician Dan Cohn-Sherbock (b. 1945), Jewish theologian David Cohn (b. 1995), American-Israeli player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League Edwin Joseph Cohn (1892–1953), American scientist Emil Cohn (1854–1944), German physicist Erich Cohn (1884–1918), German chess master Ernst Max Cohn (1920–2004), American philatelic researcher and expert Falk Cohn (1833–1901), German rabbi Ferdinand Cohn (1828–1898), German biologist Gary Cohn (b. 1960), American investment banker Gary Cohn (comics) (b. 1952), American comic book writer Gary Cohn (journalist) (1952–2024), American journalist Gertrud Cohn (1876–1942), German victim of the Nazi regime Gretta Cohn, American cellist and podcast producer, CEO of Pushkin Industries Gustav Cohn (1840–1919), German economist Harry Cohn (1891–1958), American co-founder of Columbia Pictures Corporation Harvey Cohn (1884–1965), American track and field athlete James Cohn (1928–2021), American composer Joan Cohn (née Joan Perry), the widow of Harry Cohn Joseph Judson Cohn (d. 1996), MGM producer, founder of J.J. Cohn Estate Lawrence H. Cohn (1937–2016), American cardiac surgeon and researcher Leonie Cohn (1917–2009), German-born BBC Radio producer Leopold Cohn (author) (1856–1915), German author and philologist Leopold Cohn (Christian clergyman) (1862–1937), Hungarian-American minister and evangelist Linda Cohn (b. 1959), American sportscaster Marc Cohn (b. 1959), American singer-songwriter Mariano Cohn (b. 1975), Argentine TV and film director Marthe Cohn (1920–2025), French author, nurse, spy and Holocaust survivor Mathilda Cohn (1798–1877), birth name of Finnish and Swedish concert singer Mathilda Berwald Mindy Cohn (b. 1966), American actress, comedian and singer Nate Cohn, American journalist Nik Cohn (b. 1946), British rock journalist Norman Cohn (1915–2007), British historian Norman Cohn (1907–1972), birth name of American saber fencer Norman C. Armitage Oskar Cohn (1869–1934), German politician Paul Cohn (1924–2006), British mathematician Priscilla Cohn (1933–2019), American philosopher and animal rights activist Rebecca Cohn (b. 1954), American politician Robert Cohn (b. 1949), Canadian business executive, founder of Octel Communications Robert Cohn, a character in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises Ronald Cohn (1943–2022), American zoologist, co-founder of The Gorilla Foundation Roy Cohn (1927–1986), American lawyer Ruth Cohn (1912–2010), German-born psychotherapist, educator, and poet Waldo Cohn (1910–1999), American biochemist
Lost Horizon (re-released in 1942 as The Lost Horizon of Shangri-La) is a 1937 American adventure drama fantasy film directed by Frank Capra. The screenplay by Robert Riskin is based on the 1933 novel of the same name by James Hilton. The film exceeded its original budget by more than $776,000 and took five years to earn back its cost. The serious financial crisis it created for Columbia Pictures damaged the partnership between Capra and studio head Harry Cohn as well as the friendship between Capra and Riskin. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
More to Be Pitied Than Scorned is a lost 1922 silent film melodrama starring Alice Lake and Rosemary Theby. It was directed by Edward LeSaint and produced by Harry Cohn. It was the first feature film from CBC Film Sales Corporation, which was reorganized as Columbia Pictures, by brothers Harry and Jack Cohn and best friend Joe Brandt on January 10, 1924.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Shirley Chisholm, elected in 1968.
