| Harry Cohn |
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Information AboutHarry Cohn |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT HARRY COHN | |
| 1891 births | |
| cohn, harry | |
| 1958 deaths | |
| american film studio executives | |
| people from new york city | |
| burials at hollywood forever cemetery | |
| jewish businesspeople | |
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Cohn was born to a working-class conductor, and then as a promoter for a Sheet Music printer, he got a job with Universal Pictures , where his brother, Jack Cohn , was already employed. In 1924 , Cohn joined with his brother and Joe Brandt to found CBC Film Sales Corporation, later renamed Columbia. 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 Cohn. Under Cohn, Columbia Pictures was quite successful — initially, it produced mainly B-movie s, but later, directors such as Frank Capra and stars such as Jean Arthur , The Three Stooges , Rita Hayworth , William Holden , and Kim Novak gave it credibility. It is said in the industry that while Harry Cohn ruled Columbia Pictures, the studio never ended a production year in the red. Cohn was known for his Autocrat ic and intimidating management style. An employee of Columbia called him "as absolute a monarch as Hollywood ever knew", and described him as running his studio "like a private police state". 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". There is some suggestion that Cohn deliberately cultivated his reputation as a tyrant, either to maximally 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 the Mafia — he had a long-standing friendship with the John Roselli , and mob boss Abner Zwillman was the source of the loan that allowed Cohn to buy out his partner Brandt. Other claims made about Cohn include the rumor that he demanded sex from female stars in exchange for employment, although similar stories were connected to many producers in Hollywood at the time. Lucille Ball regarded Cohn as her nemesis and vice versa. For the 1934 film '' to play the lead role. ''Chronicle of the Cinema, 100 Years of the Movies''. London: Dorling Kindersley, 1995, p. 252. ISBN 0-7513-3001-9. Harry Cohn's relationship with Rita Hayworth , was also fraught with aggravation. In Hayworth's biography "If This Was Happiness," she described how she refused to sleep with Cohn and how this angered him. However, because Hayworth was such a valuable property Cohn kept her on, making money. For the years they worked together, each did their best to irritate each other despite their lengthy work relationship, which produced good results. 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. Perry later married actor Laurence Harvey . His niece is Leonore "Lee" Cohn Annenberg the widow of Walter Annenberg of Philadephia. Her father was Maxwell Cohn the brother of Harry and Jack Cohn. Cohn died in added, "You had to stand in line to hate him." Harry Cohn was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California . NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS
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