Carl Laemmle

   Has no ancestors but 2 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Carl Laemmle
  Gender	Male
  Person ID	I331579	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	2 Apr 2002

  
  

  Children	1. Carl Laemmle,   b. 28 Apr 1908, Chicago, Illinois, USA d. 24 Sep 1970, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (Age 62 years)   2. Rosabelle Laemmle   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F147739	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	2 Apr 2002

  
  

• Notes

  The father of Universal Pictures, was reputedly the most good-natured and least neurotic of the studio bosses. After immigrating to America in 1884, spent the next decade at a series of dead-end jobs, mostly in Chicago, then worked for another twelve years at a dry-goods store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. A salary dispute led Laemmle to quit; he returned to Chicago with hopes of acquiring a store of his own, but he bought a nickelodeon instead. Soon Laemmle had also established a film distribution business that became one of the largest in America. In 1909, he produced his first picture, a 15-minute version of Longfellow's "Hiawatha". By this time Laemmle had become a leader of the "Independents, " producers and distributors who defied the would-be monopolists of Edison's Patents Company . In the late 1910s, Laemmle's company, Universal, was the country's leading film producer; its California facility, Universal City, was built in 1915. Although Laemmle made a handful of prestige productions, such as Blind Husbands (1919) and Foolish Wives (1922), his output consisted mostly of low-budget westerns and melodramas, churned out in a process designed to resemble a factory.