Frank Capra
18th May, 1897 was the birth date of Frank Capra, the Italian-American film director whose films include "It Happened One Night", which won an Oscar in 1934, "You Can't Take it With You" (1938) and the now much loved "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946).
Born in Bisacquino, Sicily he emigrated with his family to the United States in 1903, where he lived a pretty poor existence in the ghettos of Los Angeles east side.
He graduated from college with a degree in chemical engineering, but was called up soon afterward to serve in the Great War.
After being medically discharged, he spent much of his youth flitting around America, lacking goals, before finally at the age of 25 years old, he managed to talk the founder of a new movie studio in San Francisco into letting him direct a one-reel silent film.
Frank Capra had gotten a taste for movies and directing, and he began looking in earnest for jobs to help him work his way to the top, and as luck would have it, he landed a role working for Henry Cohn's studio.
He became a master, working in many different roles at the studios, film cutter, assistant director, even writing scripts and gags, until the whole industry was turned on its head with the introduction of 'sound' to the movies!
With his education being centered around engineering, Frank took to it like a duck to water, and returned to work with Henry Cohn's studio, now called Columbia Pictures. He later credited Henry Cohn's as the reason for his career being successful, for taking a chance on him.
His first major breakthrough was in 1934 with the movie It Happened One Night, and at the Academy Awards it stole the show, being the first movie to win all five top Oscars; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay.
The next Best Director award came from the movie, Mr Deeds Goes To Town in 1936, followed by another Best Director award in 1938 for You Can't Take It With You.
In the years following, he directed several more critically acclaimed hits, but when news broke of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he immediately quit his career and enlisted as a major in the United States Army. He was 44 years old.
Over the next four years, he worked with the U.S. Army on a series of films called Why We Fight, which were powerful messages to the troops of why it was necessary for the U.S. to fight in the war. The films were rolled out across theaters throughout the US, and even in the UK - and are still used today as a teaching aid.
In April 1945, Frank Capra founded Liberty Films, along with fellow directors William Wyler and George Stevens, and released the movie It's A Wonderful Life, which, despite being voted these days as one of the 100 best American films ever made, was surprisingly a box office disappointment in 1946!
With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, Frank tried to enlist but was rejected due to his age, and so continued in Hollywood until his last movie in 1964, after which he retired from Hollywood to produce educational films on science topics. He passed away in his sleep in 1991 aged 94 years old.
During the golden age of Hollywood, Frank Capra's feel good movies made him one of the most famous and successful directors in the world - indeed of all time - and you can listen to the radio adaptations of all of these movies on RUSC.
Happy listening my friends,
