Who Am I? December 2023
II was born at home in Vienna towards the end of the 19th century. My dad, Benno, was originally from Prussian Silesia, now a part of Poland, and my mom, Johanna, was from Prague. Dad worked as a milliner and owned a shop.
It seemed I was always aspiring to be something I was not. I was born and raised Jewish but it Vienna at that time it was advantageous to be Catholic. Years later, when it was convenient, I was a Protestant. Anyway, Vienna, pre-1914 and the Great War, was a magical place, culturally and intellectually. I admit I was never a great student when I attended a business high school called Grazer Handelsakademie. I admired the military with their ornate uniforms and all the pageantry. At that time, the army was also as a ticket to advancement in Viennese Society. I actually did serve for 5 months in supply and transport for the Royal and Imperial Training Regiment 1 and advanced to the rank of corporal.
For awhile I worked in the family business; however, at age 24 I set out for the U.S. and totally reinvented myself. Upon my arrival at Ellis Island, though indigent, I passed myself off as a scion of Austrian nobility. I got a job as a traveling salesman for a fashion house and I ended up on the west coast living in both San Francisco and Hollywood. In ‘tinsel town’ I found jobs as a stuntman and as a bit player. In 1912 I was uncredited in a short film made by the Biograph Company in Fort Lee, N.J. with the Gish Sisters, Lillian and Dorothy. Later, I got a chance to work as an assistant to iconic director D.W. Griffith. When the Great War broke out I found roles as sadistic German villains. Those types of roles, along with my cropped hair and monocle earned me a special sobriquet.
In Hollywood I further embellished my curriculum vitae by promoting myself as being a part of the Austrian aristocracy and a former cavalry officer in the Austro-Hungarian Imperial army. I kicked around for a little bit and finally graduated to script writing and directing. I developed a reputation as a tyrant, a perfectionist and a stickler for detail on the set along with having a yen for extravagance. My magnum opus was an 8-10 hour film based on a novel by Frank Norris. The studio cut my masterpiece down to 2.5 hours and fired me for exploding their budget. I described the final result of their evisceration of my epic film “like seeing a corpse in a graveyard.”
I spent time in France before and after WWII. I starred in a classic movie there directed by Renoir in 1937. Along with Jerry Lewis and Mickey Rourke I am greatly admired in France. After WWII I did come back to the U.S. at the request of another Viennese born director to take a role as the valet of Norma Desmond. That role earned me a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. That’s me in the photo below.
(1a)Who Am I? (1b) What was the street address in Vienna where I was born? (1c)What was the name of my dad’s millinery business? (2a)What was the name of that Frank Norris novel that was the basis of my magnum opus? (2b) What movie title of mine was based on that same Norris novel? (3a)What phrase was my Hollywood sobriquet? (3b)What famous film was I in directed by Renoir? (4a)What was the name of that 1932 movie within a movie I made for that other Viennese director where I played a valet? (4b) What was the irony of screening that particular movie within a movie? (5a) What was my nickname for my son Josef? (5b)What organization did Josef donate my archive to?
