Happy Birthday, Lloyd Bacon! Born today in 1889 as Lloyd Francis Bacon, this American vaudeville, stage and screen actor, screenwriter and film director, as a filmmaker, made features in virtually all genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, and crime dramas.
Born into an American theatrical family in San Jose, California, Lloyd was the son of Frank Bacon, the actor who made the stage play Lightnin' virtually his life's work. His parents had enlisted all of the Bacon children onto the stage.
Despite having a strong interest in law as a student at Santa Clara College, Bacon had opted for an acting career after appearing in a student production of "The Passion Play."
In 1911, he joined David Belasco's Los Angeles Stock Company (with American actor Lewis Stone), touring the country and gaining good notices in a Broadway run of the hit "Cinderella Man", and gaining further experience during a season of vaudeville.
Although Bacon pursued the family business early in life, (appearing in stock companies and touring shows), this was before he entered films as a small-part player at Essanay Studios.
It was there where he worked with American actor, writer, film director, and film producer Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson. Bacon worked on Anderson's shorts and also pulled double duty as a stunt man.
Another Essanay player, Charlie Chaplin, continued employing Bacon as an actor and production assistant long after both had moved to other studios.
Never comfortable as a performer, Bacon followed Chaplin's lead by becoming a director himself.
With America's entry into World War I in 1917, Bacon enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to the Photo Department. This began a lifelong admiration for the service and might explain the U.S. Navy being a favorite recurring theme in many of his films.
After the war's end, Bacon moved from Mutual (Charles Chaplin's studio at the time) to Triangle as a comedy actor. I
It was at this point that he got his first taste of directing-- he had let everyone at the studio know he had an interest in helming a picture.
However, when the director of a now forgotten comedy short starring American film comedian Lloyd Hamilton fell ill, Bacon was given his chance.
Constantly moving, he joined Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head Mack Sennett (known as the 'King of Comedy') as a gag writer.
By early 1921, Sennett, sensing a bargain, happily accommodated Bacon's desire to become a full-time director.
The Sennett studio was already in an irreversible decline during Bacon's tenure there but it allowed the novice director to gain a wealth of experience.
He later apprenticed for Sennett until joining Warner Brothers in 1925, an association that would last a remarkable eighteen years and begin when the working-man's studio was building a strong stable of contract directors.
These included Michael Curtiz ('Captain Blood', 'The Adventures of Robin Hood', 'Angels with Dirty Faces', 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', 'Casablanca', 'Mildred Pierce'), Mervyn LeRoy ('Little Caesar', 'I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang'), Alan Crosland ('The Jazz Singer') and American silent film director, actor, and screenwriter John G. Adolfi.
Bacon's first directorial assignment in 1926 inaugurated his long association with Warner Bros., where over the next two decades he would direct such notables as James Cagney, Bette Davis, Edward G. Robinson, John Barrymore, Joe E. Brown, Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan.
Although Bacon never became known for a particular style other than a well-placed close up, his ability to bring in an entertaining film on time and within budget earned him such enormous respect from the five Warner Bros. that he was soon handed control over important projects.
This included 'The Singing Fool' (1928), Al Jolson's follow-up to 'The Jazz Singer' (1927), which grossed an unheard-of (for Warner Bros., at least) $4,000,000 ($59,000,000 today) in domestic receipts alone-- the studio's number one hit for 1928.
Bacon was later one of the directors at Warner Bros. in the 1930s who helped give that studio its reputation for gritty, fast-paced "torn from the headlines" action films.
Bacon was rewarded by becoming the highest paid director on the studio lot, earning over $200,000 a year throughout the Great Depression.
He was later called upon to direct the studio's big-budget production of 'Moby Dick' (1930), which garnered good notices, but it's a version that's barely remembered today.
The height of Bacon's career hit during the the Great Depression. Though known for directing 'Marked Woman' (1937) and 'It Happens Every Spring' (1949), Bacon is best known for directing (and co-directing) two films released in the early 1930s.
These were the 1933 American pre-Code black and white musical/comedy film '42nd Street' and the 1933 American pre-Code black and white musical/comedy film 'Footlight Parade'.
'42nd Street' was based from the prolific American novelist and screenwriter Bradford Ropes' 1932 novel of the same name.
For 'Footlight Parade', Bacon co-directed with American film director and musical choreographer Busby Berkeley ('Gold Diggers of 1933', 'Babes in Arms').
However, these two films were both overshadowed to Bacon's directing by Berkeley's trademark of dazzling, surrealistic and complexly geometric choreographies.
By directing '42nd Street', Bacon eventually joined the film's song-and-dance-number, headed by Berkeley, in contributing to "an instant and enduring classic [that] transformed the musical genre."
The 1930s saw Bacon assigned to the assembly line; aside from the Berkeley-choreographed films, Bacon directed many of James Cagney's crowd-pleasing two-week wonders.
This included 'Picture Snatcher' (1933) (Cagney once remarked that the schedule on that picture was very tight.
At one time, Bacon and the cast had rehearsed a particular scene, when Cagney said, "OK, Lloyd, are you ready to shoot?" Bacon grinned and said, "I just did!"). This also included Cagney starring in 'The Irish in Us' (1935).
As a reward, Bacon was occasionally afforded more time and money on productions such as 'Here Comes the Navy' (1934) and 'Devil Dogs of the Air '(1935).
Bacon had also directed Cagney's return effort after his ill-advised move to cheapjack Grand National Pictures after one of his periodic salary disputes with studio head Jack L. Warner-- the badly miscast if frenetic 'Boy Meets Girl' (1938).
This was one of Cagney's least critically acclaimed Warner Bros. films of the 1930s, but a smash hit for the studio.
Bacon continued to turn out profitable films for the studio until moving to 20th Century-Fox in 1944 (a logical move, since the recently discharged American film producer and studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck knew Bacon from his early days at Warner Bros.).
However, Bacon stayed at Fox until 1949, then bounced among Columbia Pictures, Fox, Universal Studios and finally the chaotically-run RKO Pictures in 1954.
During his years at Warner Bros., Bacon gained a reputation as a clothes horse, the dapper director arriving on the set dressed to the nines.
He wore expensive hats that he would hurl around the set when expressing his dissatisfaction (he ruined a lot of hats) at an actor's performance or missed cue.
Most of Bacon's assignments came his way not because he was uniquely talented but because he was quick and efficient.
While many stars welcomed this businesslike approach, others were unhappy that the Bacon technique left no time to properly "develop" a performance or to experiment with new ideas.
But since producers and not actors make the final decisions, and since producers like to have craftsmen around who save time and money, Bacon worked steadily throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
Just before his death, Bacon directed a pair of Howard Hughes-produced comedies for RKO. Bacon passed from a cerebral hemorrhage in Burbank, California on November 15, 1955. He was 65.
At the time of his death, Bacon was survived by his two ex-wives, son, Frank (1937–2009) and daughter, Betsey.
Throughout his career, Bacon had directed over one hundred films. For his contributions to the film industry, he was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star in 1960. Hid star is located at 7011 Hollywood Boulevard.
In 1992, 'Footlight Parade' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 1997, 'Knute Rockne: All American' was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
In 1998, '42nd Street' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 2005, on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Quotes list, the line "Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" ranked it at #87.
Also, the line "Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper." ranked it at #89.
In 2006, '42nd Street' ranked 13th on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals. It had previously been adapted into a stage musical of the same name in 1980.
Among his credits, Bacon is also known for directing (and co-directing) 'Wonder Bar' (1934), 'A Slight Case of Murder' (1938), 'Knute Rockne: All American' (1940), 'Action in the North Atlantic' (1943), and 'The Fighting Sullivans' (1944).
Bacon was one of Warner Brothers reliable contract men for a number of years; some of his best and most fondly remembered films include the Busby Berkeley musicals.
These also included films ranging from uproarious black comedies to the potent melodramas.
Bacon didn't have a career as loaded with classic films as many of his more famous contemporaries.
What few "classics" he had his hand in ('42nd Street', 'Footlight Parade') are so overshadowed by the dazzling surrealistic choreography of Berkeley that casual film buffs today often forget they were actually directed by Bacon.
While his résumé lacks the drama of failed productions and tales of an unbridled ego, Bacon consistently enriched the studio's coffers, directing a handful of its biggest hits of the late 1920s and 1930s.
His career amounted to that of a competent--and at times brilliant--director who did the best with the material handed to him in assembly-line fashion.
Bacon had been active from 1914–1955.
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