Carl Laemmle

“A heartfelt tribute to one of the great Jews of early Hollywood.” - Atlanta Jewish Times

A German Jewish immigrant, Carl Laemmle was one of the great creative minds behind the modern motion picture business. After establishing Universal Pictures in 1912, Laemmle would go on to give many Hollywood legends their starts, including Walt Disney, John Ford and Irving Thalberg. He also hired many female directors and made Lois Weber the highest paid director on his lot. Under Laemmle’s leadership, Universal would become known for its classic monster movies, mostly notably The Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein and Dracula. After selling the studio in 1936, Laemmle would go on to battle Adolf Hitler’s government and a notoriously anti-Semitic US State Department, and ultimately rescue over 300 Jewish refugee families from Nazi Germany.