Benny Thau

Benny Thau
Benny Thau in 1954
Born	Benjamin Thau 15 December 1898
Died	5 July 1983 (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	MGM Casting Director

Benny Thau (born Benjamin Thau, 15 December 1898 – 5 July 1983) was an American businessman who became vice-president of the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of the Loew's theater chain. From 1928 he was in charge of casting, in the business of discovering and developing talented performers. He was known for his quiet and calming influence with often temperamental stars. Towards the end of his career he was studio boss for a short period.

Casting director

Thau started his career as a vaudeville booking agent for Loew's. In 1928 he was hired by Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, as casting director. Thau had a pleasant nature and was regarded with affection by many of the workers at MGM, but wielded considerable power.^[1] Thau belonged to Mayer's executive team, called "the college of cardinals", along with Eddie Mannix, Lawrence Weingarten and Hunt Stromberg.^[2] Thau managed the pool of talent, called by the publicity department "more stars than there are in heaven."^[3]

In 1938 Thau, along with other executives, agreed to produce a film version of Erich Maria Remarque's classic novel Three Comrades, but watered down the script to avoid anything that could offend Germany's Nazi government.^[4]

George Sidney described Thau as "a very quiet man, a gentle man." He would be brought in to calm down the performers when they got upset. He said, "Benny spoke very quietly. You could almost never quite hear what he said. But he would talk to this one and that one and had the ability to calm things down.^[5] A Vanity Fair article by Bob Colacello described Thau in 1949 as a "short, heavyset man with thinning hair", and quoted the biographer Charles Higham as saying "Thau's casting couch was the busiest in Hollywood".^[6]

Relationships with the stars

Benny Thau was trusted by the stars. For example, Greta Garbo never had a formal contract with MGM. The director and producer Gottfried Reinhardt recalled that at one time Thau explained to Garbo that if she accepted a sizable salary reduction she would move into a lower tax bracket and receive the same net pay. She understood the logic and agreed to the cut on a handshake.^[7] When MGM first approached Rosalind Russell for a screen test in the early 1930s she was not enthusiastic, remembering poor treatment at her audition for Universal. When she met MGM's Benny Thau and Ben Piazza she was surprised, as they were "the soul of understanding."^[8]

Greer Garson was Thau's mistress during her first years at MGM

During her first years at MGM Greer Garson was Thau's mistress.^[1] Thau was a strong supporter of Garson, who received an Oscar nomination in 1941 for Blossoms in the Dust. Joan Crawford, a more established star, was angry that she had not received any recognition, and blamed Thau.^[9] She left the studio. However, in 1953 she was surprised to get a call from Thau offering her a starring role in Torch Song (1953).^[10]

Elizabeth Taylor was given a role by MGM in Lassie Come Home, and was offered a long-term contract at the beginning of 1943.^[11] She chose MGM because "the people there had been nicer to her when she went to audition", Taylor recalled.^[12] Benny Thau was to remain the "only MGM executive" she fully trusted during subsequent years, because, according to Alexander Walker, "he had, out of kindly habit, made the gesture that showed her she was loved".^[12] He played a key role in Taylor's career, managing her contracts and helping her get what she wanted on each of her films.^[2] She said she saw Thau as her surrogate father, and went to him "for help and advice".^[13] Thau remembered her as a "little dark-haired beauty ... [with] those strange and lovely eyes that gave the face its central focus, oddly powerful in someone so young."^[14]

Thau said of Nancy Davis, the future wife of Ronald Reagan, "I always recommended Nancy for parts. She was sweet and appealing – one of the most popular girls on the lot.^[15] Thau escorted Nancy Davis, to many events in Hollywood. This caused gossip about the relationship between the two.^[6] Kitty Kelley described Thau as "Nancy Davis's boyfriend", saying he paved the way for her Hollywood career, in her 1991 Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography.^[16]

Studio head

In 1956 Thau replaced Dore Schary, who had been studio head at MGM from 1951.^[17] Thau took charge of MGM at a point when the studio was in decline.^[18] He inherited poorly conceived projects from Schary. Of the 20 films produced in house in 1956–57, 19 lost money, but Thau managed to turn around a loss of almost $500,000 in 1957 into a profit of $5 million the next year.^[19] He was studio boss for a short time before being replaced by Sol C. Siegel in 1958.^[17][20] Jailhouse Rock was Elvis Presley's third film and his first for MGM.^[21] The producer, Pandro S. Berman, had his attention centered on another of his productions The Brothers Karamazov. He let Benny Thau, then head of the studio, and Abe Lastfogel, president of the William Morris Agency, decide the cast.^[22]

Benny Thau died on July 1983 in Los Angeles.

References

Citations

1. Eyman 2008, p. 131.
2. Mann 2009, p. 88.
3. Lee & Gifford 1998, p. 68.
4. Eyman 2008, p. 276.
5. Davis 2005, p. 72.
6. Colacello 2004.
7. Reinhardt 1986.
8. Sullivan 1939, p. 27.
9. Quirk & Schoell 2013, p. 114.
10. Quirk & Schoell 2013, p. 169.
11. Coyle 2011.
12. Walker 2001, p. 32.
13. Mann 2009, p. 95.
14. Walker 2001, p. 34.
15. McDaniel 1980.
16. Dowd 1991.
17. Eyman 2008, p. 485.
18. Lerner 1978, p. 141.
19. Lev 2003, p. 198.
20. Sol C. Siegel Dead.
21. Victor 2008, p. 269.
22. Dundy 2004, p. 286.

Sources

• Colacello, Bob (August 2004). "Ronnie & Nancy". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2013-12-25.
• Coyle, Jake (24 March 2011). "Quintessential star Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79". Associated Press.
• Davis, Ronald L. (January 2005). Just Making Movies: Company Directors on the Studio System. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-61703-364-3. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
• Dowd, Maureen (7 April 1991). "All That Glitters Is Not Real, Book on Nancy Reagan Says". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
• Dundy, Elaine (2004). Elvis and Gladys. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-634-6.
• Eyman, Scott (2008-06-23). Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-0791-1. Retrieved 2013-12-25.
• Lee, Lawrence; Gifford, Barry (1998). Saroyan: A Biography. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21399-9. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
• Lerner, Alan Jay (1978). The Street where I Live. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80602-5. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
• Lev, Peter (2003). Transforming the Screen, 1950–1959. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24966-0. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
• Mann, William J. (2009). How to be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-547-13464-2. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
• McDaniel, Wanda (2 December 1980). "Meet Nancy, first lady-elect". The Bryan Times. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
• Quirk, Lawrence J.; Schoell, William (2013-04-13). Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-4411-6.
• Reinhardt, Gottfried (17 August 1986). "When Mgm Ranked At The Head Of The Class". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
• "SOL C. SIEGEL DEAD; HEADED PRODUCTION OF FILMS AT M-G-M". The New York Times. December 31, 1982.
• Sullivan, Ed (14 July 1939). "Take the Stand, Rosalind Russell". Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
• Victor, Adam (2008-10-28). The Elvis encyclopedia. Overlook Duckworth. ISBN 978-1-58567-598-2. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
• Walker, Alexander (2001). Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor. Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-3769-2. Retrieved 2013-12-26.

External links

• Benny Thau at the Internet Movie Database