Happy Birthday, Lowell Sherman! Born today in 1888 as Lowell J. Sherman, this American actor and film director, in an unusual practice for the time, served as both actor and director on several films in the early 1930s. He later turned exclusively to directing.
Lowell's parents were John W. Sherman, a theatrical producer, and Julia Louise Gray, an American actress and daughter of American actress Kate Gray.
For a time, Sherman was a brother-in-law to John Barrymore, with whom he starred in the 1929 American pre-Code black and white historical costume melodrama action/adventure film 'General Crack' (with Technicolor sequences).
Sherman was also later married to his wife, American stage and film actress of the silent era Helene Costello. This was Sherman's third wife. Costello's older sister, Dolores Costello, was married to Barrymore.
In 1905, Sherman embarked on his first real stage work in New York and his first film work took place in 1914. Over time, Sherman became a prominent Broadway actor.
By 1915 Sherman was appearing in silent films usually playing playboys. Five years later, Sherman made his film debut.
This was in D.W. Griffith's 1920 American silent black and white romance/drama film 'Way Down East'. Sherman was credited as Lennox Sanderson, a handsome man-about-town.
From the start, Sherman proved to be a respected actor who played the roles of both the playboy and villain very well.
The following year, Sherman attended the extravagant 1921 party at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, California. However, this was the event that scandalously ended the career of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.
Sherman was in an adjoining room with madam Maude Delmont when Arbuckle was with American model and silent film actress Virginia Rappe. Rappe died four days afterwards.
After the incident, lurid allegations circulated that Arbuckle had raped her at the party and inflicted injuries which directly caused her death.
Arbuckle was later arrested for murder (later downgraded to manslaughter), and Sherman had to testify during the ensuing trial.
Although Arbuckle may or may not have raped the young intoxicated woman, the jury acquitted Arbuckle of murder, but Paramount dropped him and his career was ruined.
As for Sherman, his career did not significantly suffer from the fallout of his attendance at the party. He went on to portray slick ladies' men and lascivious villains in a score of silent films.
Sherman eventually exploited his knack for comedy and bedroom politics when he began directing in the early 1930s.
During this time, Sherman directed the film of which he is best known. This was the 1933 American pre-Code black and white crime/comedy musical film 'She Done Him Wrong'. This was Mae West's first starring film role.
Burlesque barroom singer Lady Lou (West) knows everyone in town, especially the men.
Unfortunately, her convict ex-boyfriend Chick Clark (Owen Moore) is the jealous type and vows violence against her if she behaves unfaithfully while he's in prison.
To make matters worse, Lou's boss, Gus Jordan (Noah Beery Sr.), secretly runs a prostitution and counterfeiting ring, and the director of the city mission next door is actually federal agent Captain Cummings (Cary Grant). What's a girl to do?
The film had been adapted from West's successful 1928 Broadway play Diamond Lil.
However, the Hays Code declared the play banned from the screen and repeatedly demanded changes to remove associations with or elements from the play, including suggested titles with the word "diamond".
Eventually, the adaption was finally allowed under the condition that the play not be referred to in publicity or advertising.
Upon release, ‘She Done Him Wrong' was a box-office success, grossing $2.2 million domestically with a budget of $200,000.
However, Variety's "Bige" gave the film a negative review stating that Paramount was attempting to rush Mae West to stardom by giving her her own film and top billing, and that the film was not very good without known actors and an entertaining story.
This was despite the presence of extremely well-known actors, including American actors Noah Beery Sr. and Owen Moore, not to mention up-and-comer Cary Grant.
The following year, ‘She Done Him Wrong’ was nominated an Oscar for Outstanding Production, now known as Best Picture. At sixty-six minutes, it is the shortest film ever to be so honored.
However, it didn’t win. This occurred at the 6th Academy Awards in mid-March 1934.
Afterwards, Sherman had directed early films for Greta Garbo and Katharine Hepburn.
Later in 1933, Sherman directed Hepburn in an Oscar-winning performance for the 1933 American Pre-Code black and white drama/melodrama film 'Morning Glory'.
Sherman was at the height of his career when he passed after a brief illness of double pneumonia in Los Angeles, California on December 28, 1934. He was 46.
He had died during the shooting of the 1935 American black and white historical drama/meldorama film 'Becky Sharp', of which Georgian-born Armenian-American film and theatre Rouben Mamoulian ('Love Me Tonight', 'Queen Christina') completed from scratch.
Even after he became ill, Sherman continued to work on the project, and was twenty-five days into the production.
When brought in to finish 'Becky Sharp', Mamoulian did not use any of the footage shot by Sherman, choosing instead to reshoot the entire feature.
Later on, American movie columnist and screenwriter Louella Parsons broke the news of Sherman's death on her Hollywood Hotel radio broadcast, treating it as a scoop.
Listeners immediately called in to protest her unsympathetic handling of the news. She was temporarily suspended by the J. Wallis Armstrong Agency, which represented the sponsor of the show, the Campbell Soup Company.
In 1996, ‘She Done Him Wrong’ was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
• 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated
• 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #75
• 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
• "Frankie and Johnny" – Nominated
• 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
• Lady Lou: "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" – #26
• 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated
'She Done Him Wrong' is famous for West's many double entendres and quips, including her best-known (and frequently misquoted), "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"
According to Sherman's personal life, he was married three times and had no children.
His first wife was Evelyn Booth, and his second wife was Canadian American silent film, feature film and stage actress Pauline Garon.
Sherman had been active from 1904–1934.
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