Gregory La Cava
Encyclopedia
Gregory La Cava was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 best known for his films of the 1930s, including My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava. The screenplay was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on "1101 Park Avenue", a short story by Eric Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her...

and Stage Door
Stage Door
Stage Door is a RKO film, adapted from the play by the same name, that tells the story of several would-be actresses who live together in a boarding house at 158 West 58th Street in New York City. The film stars Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier,...

.

He was born in Towanda, Pennsylvania
Towanda, Pennsylvania
Towanda is a borough in and the county seat of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, United States, northwest of Wilkes Barre, on the Susquehanna River. The name means "burial ground" in the Algonquian language...

 and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...

 and the Art Students' League
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...

.

Around 1913, he started doing odd jobs at the studio of Raoul Barré
Raoul Barré
Raoul Barré was a Canadian and American cartoonist, animator of the silent film era, and artist.Barré was born in Montreal, Quebec, the only artistic child of an importer of communion wine...

. By 1915, he was an animator
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 on the Animated Grouch Chasers series.

Towards the end of 1915, William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...

 decided to create an animation studio to promote the comic strips printed in his newspapers. He called the new company International Film Service
International Film Service
International Film Service was an American animation studio created to exploit the popularity of the comic strips controlled by William Randolph Hearst.- History :...

, and he hired La Cava to run it (for double what he was making with Barré). La Cava's first employee was his co-worker at the Barré Studio, Frank Moser. Another was his fellow student in Chicago, Grim Natwick
Grim Natwick
Myron "Grim" Natwick was an American artist, animator and film director. Natwick is best known for drawing the Fleischer Studio's most popular character, Betty Boop.-Background:...

 (later to achieve fame at Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

). As he developed more and more of Hearst's comics into cartoon series, he came to put semi-independent units in charge of each, leading to the growth of individual styles.

La Cava also had the significant advantage over other studios of an unlimited budget: Hearst's business sense completely broke down when it came to his Hearst-Vitagraph News Pictorial
Hearst-Vitagraph News Pictorial
The Hearst-Vitagraph News Pictorial was a short-lived company producing newsreels which were coupled with animated cartoons. It was established on 29 October 1915 by Vitagraph Studios and the Hearst Corporation, and produced its first reel in February 1916, but folded in 1916...

 and the "living comic strips" they contained. La Cava's main fault as a producer and director was that his cartoons were too clearly animated comic strips, hampered by speech balloons when rival Bray Studio was creating more effective series with original characters. He was apparently aware of this fault, and he had his animators study Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

 films to improve their timing and characterization. But he didn't have time to achieve very much, because in July 1918, Hearst's bankers caught up with him and International Film Service was shut down.

Hearst still wanted his characters animated, so he licensed various studios to continue the IFS series. La Cava and most of the IFS staff got jobs with John Terry's studio (not surprising since John Terry himself was an IFS alumnus). This only lasted a few months before Terry's studio went out of business. The animators were immediately hired by Goldwyn-Bray (as the Bray Studio was now known), but La Cava was not, since Goldwyn-Bray had several producers of its own and La Cava was not interested in starting over. Instead, he moved west to Hollywood.

By 1922, La Cava had become a live-action director of two-reel comedies, the direct competitor to animated films. Among the actors he directed in the silent era are:
  • Bebe Daniels
    Bebe Daniels
    Bebe Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, became a star in musicals like 42nd Street, and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain...

     (Feel My Pulse
    Feel My Pulse
    Feel My Pulse is a 1928 silent film about a wealthy hypochondriac, played by Bebe Daniels, who inherits a sanatorium and finds love and adventure...

    , 1928)
  • Richard Dix
    Richard Dix
    Richard Dix was an American motion picture actor who achieved popularity in both silent and sound film. His standard on-screen image was that of the rugged and stalwart hero.-Early life:...

  • W. C. Fields
    W. C. Fields
    William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...

     (So's Your Old Man, 1926 and Running Wild
    Running Wild (1927 film)
    Running Wild a 1927 silent comedy film featuring W. C. Fields in a film built around his unique talents. The well preserved film was directed by Gregory La Cava and is preserved at the Library of Congress. It also received, along with several other Paramount titles, wide distribution on VHS tape in...

    , 1927) He became a good friend and drinking companion of Fields.


La Cava worked his way up to feature films in the silent era, but it is for his work in sound films of the 1930s—especially comedies—that he is best known today. And though he did not always get credit, he also often had a hand in creating the screenplays for his films. Among the sound films he directed are:
  • The Half Naked Truth (1932)
  • The Age of Consent (1932) for RKO, which starred Richard Cromwell
    Richard Cromwell (actor)
    Richard Cromwell, born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh , was an American actor. His family and friends called him Roy, though he was also professionally known and signed autographs as Dick Cromwell. Cromwell's career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda and again...

    , Eric Linden
    Eric Linden
    Eric Linden was an American actor. He began his film career in 1931, appearing in over 30 movies, including a minor role in Gone with the Wind.-Biography:...

    , and Dorothy Wilson
    Dorothy Wilson (actress)
    Dorothy Wilson was an American film actress of the 1930s.Wilson was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, moving to Los Angeles, California after her high school graduation. Ironically, she had no interest in acting, and had moved to Los Angeles due to an urge to travel...

    .
  • Bed of Roses
    Bed of Roses (1933 film)
    Bed of Roses is a Pre-Code comedy film featuring Constance Bennett and Pert Kelton as a pair of rollickingly wanton prostitutes who occasionally get hapless male pursuers drunk before robbing them, at least until the girls are caught and thrown back into jail...

    (1932) with Constance Bennett
    Constance Bennett
    -Early life:She was born in New York City, the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison , a wealthy performer of English and Spanish ancestry...

     and Pert Kelton
    Pert Kelton
    Pert Kelton was an American vaudeville, movie, radio and television actress. She was the first actress who played Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and was a prominent comedic supporting film actress in the 1930s...

  • Gabriel Over the White House
    Gabriel Over the White House
    Gabriel Over the White House is a 1933 American Pre-Code film variously described as a "bizarre political fantasy" or a "comedy drama" that "is surprisingly socialist in tone " and which "posits a favorable view of fascism."The film stars Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, C. Henry Gordon,...

    (1933) with Walter Huston
    Walter Huston
    Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:...

  • What Every Woman Knows
    What Every Woman Knows (film)
    What Every Woman Knows is a American comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne, and Madge Evans. The film was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is based on the play What Every Woman Knows by J. M. Barrie. It was filmed by Paramount back in...

    (1934) with Helen Hayes
    Helen Hayes
    Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...

  • Private Worlds
    Private Worlds
    Private Worlds is a drama film which tells the story of the staff and patients at a mental hospital, and the chief of the hospital who has problems dealing with a female psychiatrist. It stars Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea, Joan Bennett, and Helen Vinson.The movie was written by...

    (1935)
  • She Married Her Boss
    She Married Her Boss
    She Married Her Boss is a 1935 film directed by Gregory La Cava, and starring Claudette Colbert and Melvyn Douglas.-Plot:It tells the story of a secretary who married with her boss, however she has a hard time living up to him.-Cast:...

    (1935) with Claudette Colbert
    Claudette Colbert
    Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...

  • My Man Godfrey
    My Man Godfrey
    My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava. The screenplay was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on "1101 Park Avenue", a short story by Eric Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her...

    (1936, nominated for the Best Director Academy Award
    Academy Award for Directing
    The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...

    ) with William Powell
    William Powell
    William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...

     and Carole Lombard
    Carole Lombard
    Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...

  • Stage Door (1937, also nominated for Best Director) with 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...

     as well as his first of three consecutive film with Ginger Rogers
    Ginger Rogers
    Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....

  • Fifth Avenue Girl (1939)
  • Primrose Path
    Primrose Path (film)
    Primrose Path is a 1940 film about a young woman determined not to follow the profession of her mother and grandmother, prostitution. It stars Ginger Rogers and Joel McCrea. The film was based on the play of the same name by Robert L...

    (1940)


His output dropped severely in the 1940s, and he only officially directed one film after 1942, Living in a Big Way
Living in a Big Way
Living in a Big Way is an American musical comedy film starring Gene Kelly and Marie McDonald as a couple who marry during World War II after only knowing each other a short time.- Synopsis :...

(1947).

La Cava died nine days before his 60th birthday on March 1, 1952 in Malibu, California. His remains were buried at Chapel of the Pines Crematory
Chapel of the Pines Crematory
Chapel of the Pines Crematory is a crematory and columbarium located at 1605 South Catalina Street Los Angeles, California, in the historic West Adams District a short distance southwest of Downtown...

.

Filmography

Year Film Academy Award Nominations Academy Award Wins
1921
1921 in film
-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1921:U.S.A. unless stated*$10,000 Under a Pillow, silent film directed by Frank Moser*The Ace of Hearts, silent film directed by Wallace Worsley*Across the Divide, silent film directed by John Holloway...

His Nibs
His Nibs (film)
-Story:The Slippery Elm Picture Palace screens the film ‘’He Fooled ‘em All’’ as various rural characters watch. The owner, operator and projectionist is “His Nibs.” He tells the audience that he has cut the titles from the film but will explain the action...

1923
1923 in film
-Events:*April 15 - Lee De Forest demonstrates the Phonofilm sound-on-film system at the Rivoli Theater in New York with a series of short musical films featuring vaudeville performers.-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1923:U.S.A...

The Life of Reilly
Beware of the Dog
1924
1924 in film
-Events:* Entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...

Restless Wives
Restless Wives
Restless Wives is a 1924 silent melodrama, directed by Gregory La Cava.-Plot:Polly, is a wealthy wife neglected by her husband James Benson. When a business engagement causes James to miss their wedding anniversary, Polly goes with admirer Curtis Wilbur to a cabaret, and later she decides to go...

The New School Teacher
1925
1925 in film
-Events:*November 5: The Big Parade holds its Grand Premier*December 30: premier of Ben-Hur the most expensive silent film ever made costing 4-6 million dollars -Top grossing films :...

Womanhandled
Womanhandled
Womanhandled is a 1925 silent film comedy, produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. It is based on a short story by Arthur Stringer and stars Richard Dix and Esther Ralston.-Cast:*Richard Dix - Bill Dana...

1926
1926 in film
-Events:*August - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system used multiple 33⅓ rpm disc records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back audio synchronized with film....

Let's Get Married
Let's Get Married (1926 film)
Let's Get Married is a 1926 silent film comedy produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It's directed by Gregory La Cava and stars Richard Dix and Lois Wilson. The film is based on an 1897 play The Man from Mexico by Henry A. Du Souchet performed by William Collier, Sr....

Say It Again
So's Your Old Man
So's Your Old Man
So's Your Old Man is a 1926 silent film comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring W.C. Fields and Alice Joyce. It was written by J. Clarkson Miller based on the story "Mr. Bisbee's Princess" by Julian Leonard Street as adapted by Howard Emmett Rogers. It was filmed at Astoria Studios...

1927
1927 in film
-Events:*January 10 - Fritz Lang's science-fiction fantasy Metropolis premieres in Germany.*April 7 - Abel Gance's Napoleon often considered his best known and greatest masterpiece, premiers at the Paris Opéra and would demonstrate techniques and equipment that would not be used for years to...

Paradise for Two
Paradise for Two
Paradise for Two is a 1937 British comedy film directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Jack Hulbert, Patricia Ellis and Arthur Riscoe. It is also known by the alternative title Gaiety Girls...

Running Wild
Running Wild (1927 film)
Running Wild a 1927 silent comedy film featuring W. C. Fields in a film built around his unique talents. The well preserved film was directed by Gregory La Cava and is preserved at the Library of Congress. It also received, along with several other Paramount titles, wide distribution on VHS tape in...

Tell It to Sweeney
The Gay Defender
1928
1928 in film
-Events:Although some movies released in 1928 had sound, most were still silent.* July 28 - Lights of New York is released by Warner Brothers. It is the first "100% Talkie" feature film, in that dialog is spoken throughout the film...

Half a Bride
Feel My Pulse
Feel My Pulse
Feel My Pulse is a 1928 silent film about a wealthy hypochondriac, played by Bebe Daniels, who inherits a sanatorium and finds love and adventure...

1929
1929 in film
-Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....

Saturday's Children
Saturday's Children
Saturday's Children is a 1940 American drama film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring John Garfield, Anne Shirley, and Claude Rains. It is a third-time remake of the original Maxwell Anderson play.-Plot:...

Big News
Big News (1929 film)
-Cast:*Robert Armstrong as Steve Banks*Carole Lombard as Margaret Banks*Louis Payne as Hensel*Wade Boteler as O'Neill*Charles Sellon as Addison*Sam Hardy as Reno*Tom Kennedy as Ryan*Warner Richmond as District Attorney Phelps...

His First Command
1931
1931 in film
-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...

Laugh and Get Rich
Smart Woman
1932
1932 in film
-Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....

Symphony of Six Million
The Age of Consent
The Half-Naked Truth
The Half-Naked Truth
The Half-Naked Truth is a pre-Hayes Code comedy directed by Gregory LaCava and featuring Lee Tracy as a carnival pitchman who finagles his girlfriend, a fiery hoochie dancer played by Lupe Vélez, into a major Broadway revue under the auspices of an impresario portrayed by Frank...

1933
1933 in film
-Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded....

Gabriel Over the White House
Gabriel Over the White House
Gabriel Over the White House is a 1933 American Pre-Code film variously described as a "bizarre political fantasy" or a "comedy drama" that "is surprisingly socialist in tone " and which "posits a favorable view of fascism."The film stars Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, C. Henry Gordon,...

Bed of Roses
Bed of Roses (1933 film)
Bed of Roses is a Pre-Code comedy film featuring Constance Bennett and Pert Kelton as a pair of rollickingly wanton prostitutes who occasionally get hapless male pursuers drunk before robbing them, at least until the girls are caught and thrown back into jail...

Gallant Lady
1934
1934 in film
-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...

The Affairs of Cellini
The Affairs of Cellini
The Affairs of Cellini is a comedy film set in Florence over 400 years ago. This 1934 movie was adapted by Bess Meredyth from the play The Firebrand of Florence by Edwin Justus Mayer. It was directed by Gregory La Cava.-Plot:...

4 0
What Every Woman Knows
What Every Woman Knows (film)
What Every Woman Knows is a American comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne, and Madge Evans. The film was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is based on the play What Every Woman Knows by J. M. Barrie. It was filmed by Paramount back in...

1935
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...

Private Worlds
Private Worlds
Private Worlds is a drama film which tells the story of the staff and patients at a mental hospital, and the chief of the hospital who has problems dealing with a female psychiatrist. It stars Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea, Joan Bennett, and Helen Vinson.The movie was written by...

1 0
She Married Her Boss
She Married Her Boss
She Married Her Boss is a 1935 film directed by Gregory La Cava, and starring Claudette Colbert and Melvyn Douglas.-Plot:It tells the story of a secretary who married with her boss, however she has a hard time living up to him.-Cast:...

1936
1936 in film
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...

My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey
My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava. The screenplay was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on "1101 Park Avenue", a short story by Eric Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her...

6 0
1937
1937 in film
The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....

Stage Door
Stage Door
Stage Door is a RKO film, adapted from the play by the same name, that tells the story of several would-be actresses who live together in a boarding house at 158 West 58th Street in New York City. The film stars Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier,...

4 0
1939
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...

5th Ave Girl
5th Ave Girl
5th Ave Girl is a 1939 comedy film about a millionaire who feels neglected by his family, so he hires a young woman to stir things up. It stars Ginger Rogers and Walter Connolly.-Plot:...

1940
1940 in film
The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....

Primrose Path
Primrose Path (film)
Primrose Path is a 1940 film about a young woman determined not to follow the profession of her mother and grandmother, prostitution. It stars Ginger Rogers and Joel McCrea. The film was based on the play of the same name by Robert L...

1 0
1941
1941 in film
The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...

Unfinished Business
1942
1942 in film
The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...

Lady in a Jam
1947
1947 in film
The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25...

Living in a Big Way
Living in a Big Way
Living in a Big Way is an American musical comedy film starring Gene Kelly and Marie McDonald as a couple who marry during World War II after only knowing each other a short time.- Synopsis :...

1948
1948 in film
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...

One Touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus (film)
One Touch of Venus is a film directed by William A. Seiter, starring Robert Walker and Ava Gardner, released by Universal Studios, and based on the Broadway musical of the same name, book written by S. J. Perelman and Ogden Nash, with music composed by Kurt Weill...


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