Sol M. Wurtzel

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Sol M. Wurtzel (September 12, 1881 – April 9, 1958) was an American motion picture producer.

Born in New York City, New York, Sol M. Wurtzel worked as an executive assistant to William Fox, founding owner of the Fox Film Corporation. In 1917, Fox sent him to California to oversee the studio's West Coast productions. An incredible passion for work and detail he often did the job of three men. He developed the formula for creating consistently money making "B" rated movies that are heralded today. (source-Early Fox Film Corporation-letters)

Wurtzel,eventually became involved in production and between 1932 and 1949 he produced more than one hundred and fifty-nine films including a large number of both the Charlie Chan and Mr Moto series as well as other successes such as Bright Eyes in 1934, starring Shirley Temple and featuring her enduring trademark song: "On The Good Ship Lollipop".

He discovered a brilliant young director named "John Ford" who later went on to earn 4 academy awards. He discovered and made a star of that famous cowboy Will Rogers. (source: Early Fox Film Company- letters

He put sultry dancer Rita Cansino in his 1935 production Dante's Inferno. The star that became Rita Hayworth was born

He gave an unknown Norma Jean Baker her first walk-on in his 1947 production of Dangerous Years appearing as Marilyn Monroe

He produced several successful (post-Hal Roach) Laurel and Hardy, comedies in the 1940's such as Great Guns,(1941) A-Haunting We Will Go,(1942) Jitterbugs,(1943) and The Big Noise, (1944)

On his passing in 1958, Wurtzel, was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Much of Wurtzel's family continued to work at Fox Studios until around the 1980s.

[edit] External links

  • "William Fox, Sol M. Wurtzel and the Early Fox Film Corporation" McFarland and Company, February 2001 ISBN 0-7864-0857-X
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