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Roach, Hal
ROACH, HalProducer and Director. Nationality: American. Born: Elmira, New York, 14 January 1892. Military Service: Made propaganda and training films during World War II: colonel. Family: Son: the producer Hal Roach, Jr.; daughter: Margaret. Career: 1910—muleskinner and gold rusher in Alaska; 1912—arrived in Hollywood, entered films as stuntman and actor for Universal; 1914—formed Rolin Film Company: "Willie Work" series with Harold Lloyd, followed by popular "Lonesome Luke" series; then produced (and often directed and wrote) many short comedy films with Harry Pollard, Will Rogers, Charlie Chase, Edgar Kennedy, Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts, and others; TV producer, with his son, after World War II: company finally dissolved, 1962. Awards: Academy Award for Bored of Education, 1936; Special Academy Award, 1983. Died: 2 November 1992. Films as Producer (Shorts):
Films as Producer and Director (Shorts):
Films as Producer (Features):
Films as Producer and Director (Features):
PublicationsBy ROACH: articles—"The Gag's the Thing," in Popular Mechanics (Chicago), May 1935. "Living with Laughter," in Films and Filming (London), October 1964. The Silent Picture (London), Spring 1970. In Hollywood Speaks! An Oral History, by Mike Steen, New York, 1974. "Golden Silents," in Time Out (London), 20 November 1991. On ROACH: book—Everson, William K., The Films of Hal Roach, New York, 1970. On ROACH: articles—Sight and Sound (London), Autumn 1964. Rosenberg, Bernard, and Harry Silverstein, in The Real Tinsel, New York, 1970. "Hal Roach on Laurel & Hardy," in Pratfall, no. 1, 1972. Classic Images (Indiana, Pennsylvania), July 1983. "Hal Roach Studios," in Pratfall, no. 2, 1985. Bann, R.H., "Hal Roach: A Legendary Producer's Beverly Hills Estate," in Architectural Digest (Los Angeles), April 1990. Facts on File, 5 November 1992. Obituary in The New York Times, 3 November 1992. Obituary in Variety (New York), 9 November 1992. Obituary in Sight and Sound (London), February 1993. "Hal Roach," in Films in Review (New York), September-October and November-December 1993. Hogue, P., "Charley with a Y," in Film Comment, March/April 1995. "10 Years Ago," in Forbes, 10 February 1997. * * * Hal Roach was a producer and motion picture executive best remembered for two things. First, he helped create one of the great comedy factories of all time. In the 1920s his studio launched the careers of Laurel and Hardy, and fostered the talents of Harold Lloyd, one of the serious rivals to Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton. The Roach comedy factory produced many of the best-remembered short subjects of the 1930s, including the Our Gang comedies which continue to grind away on television some 60 years after their creation. By the 1920s Hal Roach had become an established producer, and his comedies had begun to rival the then "King of Comedy," Mack Sennett. Roach smoothly survived the transition to sound, but Sennett did not. Thus, by the mid-1930s it was Roach, distributing through the then dominant major studio, MGM, who could properly be labeled the "King of Comedy." The Our Gang series, the teaming of Laurel and Hardy, and the comedies of Charlie Chase made Roach into a powerful, respected producer of comedy shorts. But Roach did not neglect the talent behind the camera. Indeed his studio helped foster the careers of George Stevens and Leo McCarey, both of whom would move on to become major directors. The Great Depression served as the Golden Age for the Roach comedy factory. Unfortunately the studio could not develop any stars to rival "Our Gang" and Laurel and Hardy. By 1935 the Roach studio was on the decline as the major studios squeezed them out by creating more and more double features and less and less non-animated shorts subjects. In 1938 Roach sold "Our Gang" to MGM and moved on to try independent feature filmmaking with United Artists. Roach did as well as any producer at United Artists in the late 1930s and 1940s. It was hard to lose money during the Second World War boom era. Between 1938 and 1941 Roach tendered 14 films through United Artists, including Topper Takes a Trip starring Constance Bennett and Billie Burke, Of Mice and Men starring Lon Chaney, Jr. and Burgess Meredith, and Saps at Sea starring an aging Laurel and Hardy. But a military career creating training films ended what success he had with these low-budget films. In a less well-known, but equally important contribution, Roach pushed the film industry into the television production business. For example, he set up an early series called Screen Director's Playhouse on which such talents as Leo McCarey, John Ford, and Tay Garnett worked. Unfortunately little came of its efforts in long-term monetary gain. Thus though Fireside Theatre was turned out in quickie fashion at Roach studio for NBC in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Roaches, Senior and Junior, could not create a permanent relationship with the network. Their greatest success came with a comedy show Roach Junior did with Gale Storm called My Little Margie which aired from 1952 to 1955 and many more years in syndication. Hal Roach, Sr. pioneered with television but not well enough to prevent his studio from going bankrupt in 1959 and providing him with an ungraceful retirement. —Douglas Gomery |
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Cite this article
"Roach, Hal." International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Roach, Hal." International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406802558.html "Roach, Hal." International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. 2001. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406802558.html |
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Roach, Hal
Hal RoachAmerican filmmaker Hal Roach (1892-1992) was one of the top comedy producers in the early years of Hollywood. Responsible for giving the world such comedic luminaries as Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, and the Our Gang series of short films, his impact was enormous and long-lived. Nor was it limited to movies, as Roach was pioneering in the nascent television industry as well. Intrepid Youth Roach was born Harold Eugene Roach on January 14, 1892, in Elmira, New York. His parents were Irish immigrants. His father, Charles H., was an insurance and real estate broker, while his mother, Mabel (Bailey), ran a boardinghouse out of the family home. Young Roach was not particularly cut out for formal schooling, leading to his dismissal from “most every school in Elmira,” according to the Famous People of the Finger Lakes Web site. But he did have a knack for fun, with swimming and playing football among his early passions. He also had the good fortune to witness famed magician Harry Houdini perform at Elmira's Chemung River and, perhaps more notably, cultivate a friendship with eminent author and summer resident Mark Twain. Despite such pleasant distractions, however, the small town charms of his hometown were not sufficient to hold Roach's attention for long. Roach left school and Elmira while still a teenager. He made his way west, working in a variety of jobs, beginning with selling ice cream. Winding up in Alaska for a time, his resume expanded to include such colorful occupations as gold prospector, mule skinner, trucker, and saloon gambler. Wanderlust eventually propelled him to Seattle, Washington, and finally to Los Angeles, California, in 1912. Roach was just 20 years old then, but he had already experienced adventures of which most people only dream. And he still had 80 productive years ahead of him. Young, barrel-chested, and possessed of genuine cowboy credentials, which is to say that he could competently ride a horse, Roach soon found work in Hollywood at Universal Pictures as a cowboy extra in silent movies for $25 a week. He struck up a friendship with another extra named Harold Lloyd. The film industry was in its infancy at the time, and the newfound pals were fascinated by the burgeoning new field. Lloyd was content enough as an actor, but Roach aspired to become a producer. Happily, Roach's coming into a small inheritance put both men on track to realize their goals. Early Studio YearsArmed with a $3,000 legacy, Roach founded a small production company, which came to be known as the Hal Roach Studios, in 1914. Lloyd came onboard as the company's star comedian for three dollars a day, and Roach began making short films for approximately $350 each. This initial foray into the movie business, however, suffered from a lack of distributors, and Roach took a brief hiatus to work as a director at the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. A deal with distributor the Pathe Exchange had him back on his own lot by 1916, and history was soon in the making. Almost from the onset, Roach's studio was known as the “Lot of Fun.” Performers, directors, writers, and stagehands alike were given nearly free rein to do their respective jobs. This management style resulted in a relaxed, congenial atmosphere that employees, naturally, enjoyed immensely. Not incidentally, the studio also started to earn money. Lloyd was integral to the new studio's increasing success. Mildly popular with his derivative characters of “Willie Work” and “Lonesome Luke,” his popularity skyrocketed with the introduction of his “Glasses Character” in 1917. Lloyd gave the previously untouchable Charlie Chaplin some stiff competition, and Roach's studio was established as a formidable presence in Hollywood. As his studio prospered, Roach was able to do things he could not do before. Some were personal, such as bringing his parents out to the West Coast and putting his father to work for him. Others were business, such as building up his talent roster to include such stars as Snub Pollard, Will Rogers, and “Sunshine” Sammy Morrison. He scored another coup in 1922 when he released the first of the Our Gang series. Comedies based on the trials and triumphs of regular children, the series was hugely successful. It became one of the most enduring of all short subject series (produced by Roach from 1922 to 1938 and MGM from 1938 to 1944), and spawned an equally beloved syndicated television program called The Little Rascals. But Roach had even greater contributions to offer. Laurel and HardyLloyd left the Hal Roach Studios in 1924 to try his hand at setting up his own production firm. While his departure did not bring the studio to a grinding halt, it did leave Roach casting about for a new comedy star. He briefly attempted to make do with animals, but quickly returned to humankind to get audiences chuckling. The Our Gang series was still going strong, of course, and writer/director Charley Chase successfully lent his comedic acting skills to the cause, but a more general jumpstart remained just out of reach. Then inspiration struck. In 1926 Stan Laurel was working as a comedian/ director and Oliver Hardy was a supporting actor and vaudeville comedian. Not unlike Roach, Hardy was large and full of life. Laurel, on the other hand, was small and fastidious. Both men, however, were funny, and when Roach hit upon the idea of selling them as a team, he created pure magic. Part of what set Roach's comedies apart, especially from those of arch rival Mack Sennett, was his attention to story and character in addition to sight gags and slapstick humor. Laurel and Hardy were fine examples of that focus, managing to be distinctly human and indisputably hilarious at the same time. Their inaugural outing together, in Roach's The Battle of the Century (1927), set the world's record for custard pie throwing and became one of the most noted comedy short films of all time. Audiences adored the duo, and they were bona fide stars within the year. The Laurel and Hardy/Roach alliance was to last until 1940, and it survived the perilous transitions from silent films to talkies, and from shorts to feature films. This was particularly significant in that it illustrated Roach's willingness to explore new technologies and keep pace with the changing times, traits not necessarily shared by other independent studio bosses. From shorts such as 1932's The Music Box, to features such as 1937's Way Out West, to their final effort together in 1940's Saps at Sea, Roach and his endearing team created a string of ageless classics still admired and enjoyed in the twenty-first century. More ChangesAlthough Laurel and Hardy were the bread and butter of Roach's studio throughout the 1930s, there were other winning performers as well. Chase stayed with Roach until 1936, for instance, starring in his own series of shorts. ZaSu Pitts, Patsy Kelly, Thelma Todd, and Billy Gilbert had their own star turns at the studio, and actors including Jean Harlow, Boris Karloff, Fay Wray, and Janet Gaynor also appeared in Roach vehicles over the years. Short films became steadily less profitable to produce during the 1930s, as double features began to take center stage. Roach's very last short was 1938's Hide and Seek, an Our Gang title produced just before he sold the series to MGM. But he had not been ignoring features. He released such popular and disparate movies as 1937's Topper (and its sequels), the 1939 drama Of Mice and Men, and 1940's One Million B.C. But the diminished output necessitated by the time demands of feature films resulted in financial strain on the studio. And World War II left its mark, as Roach received a colonel's commission and made training films for the military in other locales. His studio, dubbed “Fort Roach,” was also used for such purposes, employing actors such as Ronald Reagan and Alan Ladd. After the war, though, Roach was once again looking to land on his feet. Television and BeyondThe aftermath of World War II found Roach scrambling to regain his place in Hollywood. During his absence movie funding had become more difficult to procure, so he set his sights on a new media sensation called television. He was, characteristically, one of the first major film producers to realize the potential of that fledgling industry and, just as true to form, set about to conquer it. Roach founded the Hal Roach Television Corporation in 1948. Together with his son, Hal Roach Jr., he embarked upon yet another adventure. Father and son produced such programs as Screen Director's Playhouse, The Stu IrwinShow, The Gale Storm Show, and My Little Margie. They also rented their facilities for the production of TV series that included The George Raft Show, Blondie, Amos 'n Andy, The Lone Ranger, Groucho Marx, The Abbott and Costello Show, Racket Squad, and The Life of Riley. For a while, it worked. By 1951 the studio was producing 1,500 hours of television programming, and four years later it had become the biggest producer of filmed television shows. The pioneering and winning streak did not go on forever, however. Roach sold his studio to his son and retired in 1955. It had descended into bankruptcy by the early 1960s, and the entire lot was torn down in 1963. Although one might reasonably argue that Roach's heyday had passed by the 1950s, his life and times were far from finished. He remained active and productive for decades beyond his official retirement, overseeing distribution of his films, becoming a vital participant on the talk show circuit, and even producing an occasional project. He served, for example, as associate producer of 1966's One Million Years B.C., as well as executive producer of television's The Little Kidnappers and Lantern Hill (both 1990). Roach was honored with an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1983, and again by the Academy with a tribute to his work at the 1992 awards ceremony. By that time Roach had reached his one hundredth birthday, an accomplishment for which he was feted from Elmira to Los Angeles to London. Still mentally acute and physically hale as he attained the centenarian rank, his typical irreverence was also intact. Asked about his remarkable longevity by the Albany Times Union, Roach said, “I started smoking at the age of 11 and quit two years ago because of a cough. I eat anything I want, whenever I want.” Time finally caught up with Roach on November 2, 1992, when he died in Los Angeles. He was predeceased by his wives, Margaret Nichols (1940) and Lucille Prin (1981), and two of his children, Hal Jr. (1972) and Margaret (1963). What lived on was a legacy of warmth and laughter that would delight many generations to come. BooksScribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 3: 1991-1993, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. PeriodicalsAlbany Times Union, January 12, 1992. Times (London, England), January 9, 1992; November 4, 1992. Online“Hal Roach,” Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1197402894498 (December 11, 2007). “Hal Roach,” All Movie Guide, http://wm06.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:108408∼T1 (December 3, 2007). “Hal Roach,” Film Reference, http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Po-Ro/Roach-Hal.html (December 3, 2007). “Hal Roach,” Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0730018/ (December 3, 2007). “Hal Roach,” Laurel and Hardy Central, http://laurelandhardycentral.com/roach2.htm (December 3, 2007). “Harold Eugene ‘Hal’ Roach, Sr. (1892-1992),” Famous People of the Finger Lakes, http://www.ilovethefingerlakes.com/history/famous-people-roach.htm (December 3, 2007). |
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Cite this article
"Roach, Hal." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Roach, Hal." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2506300138.html "Roach, Hal." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2008. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2506300138.html |
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Roach, Hal
Roach, Hal (1892–1992) US film producer. He is best remembered for his silent comedy shorts. Co-founder of The Rolin Film Company in 1915, he encouraged Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, and Will Rogers. In 1984 he received an honorary Academy Award.
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Cite this article
"Roach, Hal." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Roach, Hal." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-RoachHal.html "Roach, Hal." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-RoachHal.html |
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