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COHN Harry

Date of birth : July 23, 1891, New York City.

Date of death : February 27, 1958, Phoenix, Arizona.

Portrait :

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Practise : director of the Columbia Studios.

 

Story

Son of a German tailor, he was first streetcar driver, then music hall driver.

At the beginning of the 20's, he created with Joe Brandt and his brother Jack, a film studio which was named Columbia in 1924.
After fierce inner fights, he managed to take the complete control of the studio and became the most powerful tycoon of Hollywood.

Usally he was hated because of his rigidity and his rudeness, but he has mastered the art of discovering new talents and using them to make the Columbi one of the most powerful studios in Hollywood.

The Columbia had the reputation to produce many B movies but its level grew up when Cohn gave his chance to Franck Capra, in the 30's.

Well-known as heartless, hated by his circle, Cohn at least deserves the fact to have discovered a dancer named Margarita Cansino, to make her a beauty queen called Rita Hayworth :
 

In the 40's, she was their main attraction.

During the 50's, he worked with the greatest directors and boosted the careers of Kim Novak, Judy Holliday
(), Jack Lemmon and others.

 

 

Link with Marilyn :

Joe Schenck from the Fox Studios, friend and poker partner of Cohn, introduced him to Marilyn; thanks to Schenck, Marilyn signed a 6 months contract, with 125$ a week, since March 9, 1948.

Before hiring her for the movie "Ladies of the Chorus" in 1948, he auditionned her singer talents in his office with Fred Karger playing piano. Marilyn obtained the part but Cohn, not convinced by her way of acting didn't re-establish her contract.

The majority of the biographers assert that her walkout had nothing to do with her actress talents but was linked to the fact that she had turned down Cohn's invitation one-to-one on his yacht, anchored offshore Catalina Island, for a week-end. Marilyn would have answered that she'd accept the invitation if Cohn's wife went with them.

Several years after, Marilyn reminded him the incident with humor, by sending him a signed picture of the movie "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) on which she had written : "To my great benefactor, Hary Cohn".

His character inspired several movies : "All the King's Men" (1949), "Born Yesterday" (1950), "The Big Knife" (1955), "The Godfather" (1972).

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