Sol Lesser

Sol Lesser
Sol Lesser ca. 1920
Born	(1890-02-17)February 17, 1890 Spokane, Washington, U.S.
Died	September 19, 1980(1980-09-19) (aged 90) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Resting place	Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, California
Occupation	Film producer
Years active	1913–1958
Spouse	Fay Grunauer Lesser (1913–?) (2 children)[1]
Children	Julian Lesser (1915–2005)[2] Marjorie Lesser Fasman

Sol Lesser (February 17, 1890 – September 19, 1980) was an American film producer. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1961.

Biography

In 1913, while living in San Francisco, Sol Lesser learned that the authorities were about to clean out the Barbary Coast district, a raucous area of gambling houses, saloons and brothels. He grabbed a camera and a friend, future Hollywood cameraman Hal Mohr, and roamed the area, especially the parts that were best-known before the area was shut down. (The Barbary Coast was not actually closed down until 1917.) This film is now considered a lost film.

The resulting film was The Last Night of the Barbary Coast, an early example of an exploitation film that was sold directly to movie theater owners by Lesser. With the profits from the film, he bought several theaters, and soon owned a cinema chain.

Sol Lesser signed Jackie Coogan to a movie contract in 1922, establishing both as major Hollywood names. The Coogan-Lesser hits included Oliver Twist and Peck's Bad Boy. Lesser made a successful transition to sound films, with his own Principal Pictures company; he would either distribute his productions himself under the Principal name, or arrange for a major studio to release them under their own trademarks. In 1933, Lesser produced Thunder Over Mexico a compilation film made from Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico! with the permission of Upton Sinclair, who had commissioned the Soviet film maker, and his wife.

His productions usually had higher budgets than the usual independent features; Lesser was able to produce entire series with name stars like Bela Lugosi, George O'Brien, and Bobby Breen.

In 1933 Lesser succeeded in buying screen rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan character. A Tarzan the Fearless serial with screen newcomer Buster Crabbe resulted, but Burroughs, deciding to make his own Tarzan films, refused to renegotiate with Lesser. Burroughs's movie enterprises were short-lived, and the rights passed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Burroughs sold Lesser options on all his Tarzan novels for seven years with Lesser producing one Tarzan film a year for 20th Century Fox. Only one Tarzan film Tarzan's Revenge featuring athletes Glenn Morris and Eleanor Holm was produced; Lesser sold the rights back to MGM.^[3] He returned to the Tarzan property in 1943, after MGM relinquished the rights. Lesser's new Tarzan films were produced for RKO and starred Johnny Weissmuller and later Lex Barker and Gordon Scott, and Lesser devoted himself to these jungle adventures for the rest of his career.

Later films include Our Town (1940) and the all-star wartime revue Stage Door Canteen (1943) that featured a cameo by Johnny Weissmuller. Toward the end of his life he was actively involved in restoring many of his early productions.

Lesser retired in 1958, selling the Tarzan rights to producer Sy Weintraub.^[4] "I had reached the age that one either finishes on top or far below. I decided I would end on top, and I was satisfied," he said.

Lesser was buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

Accolades

Sol Lesser was the recipient of The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1960. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Filmography

Ad for What Women Love (1920)

Poster for My Boy (1922)

Lobby card for Ferocious Pal (1934)

Lobby card for Hawaii Calls (1938)

William Holden and Martha Scott in Our Town (1940)

Merle Oberon and Melvyn Douglas in That Uncertain Feeling (1941)

Poster for Stage Door Canteen (1943)

Lon McCallister, Allene Roberts, Edward G. Robinson and Judith Anderson in The Red House (1947)

Year	Title	Notes
1920	What Women Love	[5]
1921	One Man in a Million	[6]
1922	My Boy	[5]
1922	The World's a Stage
1922	Oliver Twist	[5]
1922	Trouble	[5]
1922	Bing Bang Boom	[6]
1923	Circus Days	[5]
1923	Daddy	[5]
1923	The Drug Traffic	[5]
1924	Captain January	[5]
1924	Helen's Babies	[5]
1924	The Mine with the Iron Door	[6]
1924	When a Man's a Man	[5]
1925	The Re-Creation of Brian Kent	[5]
1925	Balto's Race to Nome	[5]
1930	The Eyes of the World	[5]
1932	South Sea Adventures	[5]
1932	With Williamson Beneath the Sea	[5]
1932	The Amazon Head Hunters	[5]
1933	Jaws of Justice	[5]
1933	Matto-Grosso	[5]
1933	Thunder Over Mexico	[5]
1933	Tarzan the Fearless	Serial[6]
1933	The Return of Chandu	Serial[6]
1934	Peck's Bad Boy	[5]
1934	Ferocious Pal	[6]
1934	Fighting to Live	[5]
1934	Chandu on the Magic Isle	[5]
1934	The Dude Ranger	[5]
1935	Hard Rock Harrigan	[5]
1935	Thunder Mountain	[5]
1935	Whispering Smith Speaks	[5]
1935	When a Man's a Man	[5]
1935	The Cowboy Millionaire	[5]
1935	The Calling of Dan Matthews	[5]
1936	Let's Sing Again	[5]
1936	Rainbow on the River	[5]
1936	O'Malley of the Mounted	[5]
1937	The Californian	[5]
1937	Make a Wish	[5]
1937	Western Gold	[5]
1937	Roll Along, Cowboy	[5]
1937	Secret Valley	[5]
1937	It Happened Out West	[5]
1938	Breaking the Ice	[5]
1938	Hawaii Calls	[5]
1938	Rawhide	[5]
1938	Tarzan's Revenge	[5]
1938	Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus	[5]
1938	Panamint's Bad Man	[5]
1938	Hawaiian Buckaroo	[5]
1939	Fisherman's Wharf	[5]
1939	Way Down South	[5]
1939	Everything's on Ice	[5]
1939	Escape to Paradise	[5]
1940	Our Town	[5]
1941	That Uncertain Feeling	[5]
1942	The Tuttles of Tahiti	[5]
1943	Stage Door Canteen	[5]
1943	Tarzan's Desert Mystery	[5]
1943	Tarzan Triumphs	[5]
1944	Three Is a Family	[5]
1945	Tarzan and the Amazons	[5]
1947	Tarzan and the Leopard Woman	[5]
1947	The Red House	[5]
1947	Tarzan and the Huntress	[5]
1948	Tarzan and the Mermaids	[5]
1949	Tarzan's Magic Fountain	[5]
1950	Tarzan and the Slave Girl	[5]
1950	Kon-Tiki	Academy Award, Best Documentary Feature[5]
1951	Tarzan's Peril	[5]
1952	Tarzan's Savage Fury	[5]
1952	Under the Red Sea	[5]
1952	Without Warning!	[5]
1953	Tarzan and the She-Devil	[5]
1953	Vice Squad	[5]
1953	The 3D Follies	[5]
1955	Quest for the Lost City	[5]
1955	Tarzan's Hidden Jungle	[5]
1957	Man on the Prowl	[5]
1957	X the Unknown	[5]
1958	Tarzan's Fight for Life	[5]
1958	Tarzan and the Trappers	TV pilot

References

1. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~npmelton/laless.htm ^{[user-generated source]}
2. "Julian "Bud" Lesser Obituary (2005) Los Angeles Times". Legacy.com.
3. p. 297 Taliaferro, John Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs the Creator of Tarzan Scribner Book Company 15 January 2002
4. p. 213 Fleming, E.J. Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites: Seventeen Driving Tours with Directions and the Full Stor yMcFarland; Second edition 30 September 2015
5. "Sol Lesser". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
6. "Sol Lesser Productions, Inc". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved February 5, 2016.

External links

• Works by or about Sol Lesser at the Internet Archive
• Sol Lesser at IMDb