Jules Greenbaum

Jules Greenbaum
Born 15 January 1867
Berlin
Prussia
Died 1 November 1924 (aged 57)
Berlin
Germany
Other names Julius Grünbaum
Occupation producer
Years active 1899 - 1921

Jules Greenbaum (5 January 1867 – 1 November 1924) was a German pioneering film producer. He founded the production companies Deutsche Bioscope, Vitascope and Greenbaum-Film[1] and was a dominant figure in German cinema in the years before the First World War. He is also known for his early experiments with sound films around twenty years before the success of The Jazz Singer made them a more established feature of cinema.

Pioneer

Greenbaum was born in Berlin in 1867 as Julius Grünbaum. He married Emma Karstein in c1887 and moved to Chicago in the United States, where his first son Georg was born 1 November 1889.[2] He originally worked in the textile industry, but on his return to Berlin in 1895 Greenbaum moved into the newly established film business and founded Deutsche Bioscope in 1899.[3] Greenbaum acquired a camera in Amsterdam, and a cameraman, Georg Furkel. Furkel worked as his technical director until 1912, along with another Dutch cameraman, Martin Knoop.[2]

Deutsche Bioscope's first independent film was the 60-metre 1899 newsreel picture Spring Parade featuring Kaiser Wilhelm II, and his firm released more newsreels in 1901-2, importing US & French features and manufacturing cinema equipment.[2]

Deutsche Bioscope GmbH, Berlin, was incorporated on 18 June 1902 with a capital of 20,000 marks [4] The main offices were as 131d Friedrichstrasse, where the firm supplied equipment (including the American Biograph camera), and an 8-hour guaranteed film copying service. Bioscope's cameramen were sent to Vienna, Munich, Leipzig, Halle, Nuremberg, Kiel, Hamburg, Poznan, Lviv and Riga in search of Vaudeville/variety acts to film.[2]

Studios at 123 Chausseestraße
123 Chauseestraße, Berlin

Vitascope built new offices in 1906 at 123 de:Chausseestraße, in the east of Berlin; a glasshouse studio was erected in the large courtyard at the rear of the Jugendstil building, where Continental-Kunstfilm would later film In Nacht und Eis in 1912.[5] Greenbaum began acquiring cinemas, opening a Vitascope cinema at 10 Friedrichstrasse, and in March 1907 registered Vitascope Theater-GmbH as a limited company. Its partners were Louis Rosenfeld and Otto Heinemann.[2] This established a vertically integrated network with Vitascope handling the distribution for Bioscope films.

Sale of Deutsche Bioscope

As his business increased, Greenbaum made a deal with the chemist Carl Moritz Schleussner of the photochemicals firm Schleussner AG in Frankfurt/Main. Carl Schleussner had been involved since 1896 in producing negative film stock for Röntgen photography soon after its discovery.[6] In February 1908 Carl Schleussner bought Deutsche Bioscop as a manufacturing, copying and sales operation, for a 2/3 share of 140,000 marks, with 1/3 provided by Jules & his brother Max.[7]

Greenbaum registered a new cinema company, Bioscope-Theater GmbH, on 24 Feb 1908. The directors were Jules' brother, Max Greenbaum (an experienced banker), and Erich Zeiske. In October 1908, Greenbaum opened the Rollkrug Vitascope cinema, a showpiece 500-seat movie theatre on Herrmannplatz, 1-2 Berliner Straße 1-2.

Sound

Synchroscope

Greenbaum's firm invented and used Synchroscope, which synchronised the visual picture of films with phonograph records to create a working sound and vision system. Greenbaum produced a number of these sound shorts of vocal classical music, and in 1908 entered into contracts to supply the machinery to Carl Laemmle's Movie Service Company in Chicago and to another American, Charles Urban, in Britain.[2] Carl Laemmle installed the system in a number of American cinemas, mostly in German-speaking communities.[8] Synchroscope largely petered out because not enough sound films were made to meet demand and because it could only last for two or three reels while the standard length of films was increasingly four or five reels long.[9] Costs had soared by the end of 1908 (the Synchroscope was originally priced at $750 (around $20,000 in 2015);[10] and Schleussner AG bought out Greenbaum's share of Deutsche Bioscope to free up his operations.[2]

Deutsche Vitascope

On 8 September 1909 Vitascope-Theater GmbH changed its name to Deutsche Vitascope GmbH, with Greenbaum the owner and managing director, and headquarters at 20 Friedrichstrasse. The firm's chief objective was the production of sound pictures on continuous film so that all the reels could be shown without interruptions.[2] The 1910 Vitascope catalogue advertised a flicker-free camera, Vitaphone soundfilms, arc lamps, used original Vitascope films and 100,000 meters of used vaudeville/variety act movies, for 20-40 pfennigs/meter.[2]

Studios at 32-34 Lindenstraße

In 1910 Vitascope opened main offices and a film copying facility at 32-34 Lindenstrasse, with a glasshouse studio on the roof. Greenbaum moved to new recording rooms for sound production at 105 Große Frankfurter Strasse, where Vitascope produced short films of about 120 feet (60m) synchronised with phonograph recordings of vocal numbers, opera arias and dance pieces. The sound films were directed by Franz Porten and starred his daughter Henny Porten. One notable film was of Mignon Act I by Ambroise Thomas with the Royal Court Orchestra & Choir and the Royal Ballet.[2]

Greenbaum also had a 'normal' silent film studio at 94 Markgrafenstrasse. Vitascope's first film of 1910 was Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes produced and directed by Viggo Larsen who joined in 1909 from Nordisk. Larsen remained with Vitascope for two years, then founded his own company with star Wanda Treumann. Walter Schmidthässler also joined in 1910, working as director and lead actor for Vitascope.[2] In 1911 Max Mack was engaged as scriptwriter, soon debuting as actor and director, with Gehirnflexe (Brain Reflex?) and three others with Albert Bassermann, notably Der Andere.[1] Die Blaue Maus showed at the new Marmorhaus cinema.

Vitascope opened a studio at Friedrichstr. 16 in 1911, and finally in October 1912 Greenbaum vacated 123 Chauseestrasse and moved everything to 32-34 Lindenstrasse (including manufacture, developing and copying equipment). The fine red sandstone building at 123 Chauseestrasse was taken over by Walter Schmidthassler and his recently formed Continental-Kunstfilm.[11][12][2]

Studios in Weissensee

Needing to expand even further, Greenbaum acquired land at 5-7 Franz-Josef Strasse, Weißensee, and in 1913 built a double glasshouse studio along with the largest film processing lab in the country (capable of an advertised 100,000 meters daily capacity.) Showrooms remained in 32/34 Lindenstrasse, and the entire production of films moved to Weissensee on 1 October 1913, along with the manufacturing, drying and copying equipment.[12][2]

Mergers

In January 1914 Greenbaum merged his Vitascope firm with PAGU (Projektions-Aktiengesellschaft 'Union'), owned by his rival Paul Davidson, in order to compete with the larger French studios who were flooding the German market with their films.[1] PAGU combined the resources of 800 employees, with main offices in Zimmerstrasse & Lindenstr., 20 "Union" cinemas, glasshouse studios in Tempelhof and in Weissensee, with its duplicating lab. Both companies continued to produce films under their own name & logos. From January 1914 Richard Oswald was artistic & advertising director at Vitascope. Oswald made the "Baskerville" detective series.[2]

Still seeking further distribution outlets, Greenbaum and Davidson closed a deal with Pathé Frères to distribute PAGU films.[1] Pathé bought the Weissensee studios at 5-7 Franz Josef Strasse in July 1914. However, with the outbreak of the First World War, foreign films were barred from Germany allowing domestic production to boom. Pathé & PAGU broke off relationships; the admin offices & studios belonging to Pathé were placed into receivership, and reverted to Greenbaum.[2]

Freed by the war from the foreign competition, Greenbaum broke with Davidson and founded [Greenbaum-Film out of Vitascope.[3] On 12 January 1915 Greenbaum-Film was incorporated with 10,000 marks and started production again in 5-7 Franz Josef Strasse, Weissensee, with office & sales at Friedrichstr. 235. An article in Lichtbild-Bühne for 3 June 1915 announced: "Dr. Hans Oberländer, Richard Löwenbein, Richard Oswald, Greenbaum-Film GmbH - the biggest film factory in Germany." Oswald made five films in a few months and then separated financially from Greenbaum-Film, becoming a self-employed producer and director.[2]

In 1916 Greenbaum closed a deal with Albert Bassermann, who starred in seventeen films for Greenbaum-Film by 1920. The director [Adolf Gärtner] (who worked on Joe May's Stuart Webbs series) also moved to Greenbaum-Film and directed nine films in Weißensee. Greenbaum took out a 5-year lease on the Weißensee premises from 4 January 1917-1922. In 1919 Joe May rented the double glasshouse studios from Greenbaum for 600,000 marks. The Weissensee studio and copying lab were later acquired by May-Film (becoming known as the May-Atelier) and finally by Ufa.[2]

In 1919 Greenbaum affiliated with UFA, which the State had secretly established as the giant of German film industry during the war,[13] but the deal led to a series of legal disputes and the virtual bankruptcy of Greenbaum-Film. Greenbaum had a monopoly contract with Ufa to supply films to Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Despite the political events in the Balkans, Ufa claimed millions from Greenbaum for lost sales and the dispute escalated through the courts. Ufa's interests were represented by Hemann Fellner, Greenbaum's former business partner.[2]

Greenbaum lost the factory and everything else, and died in a mental hospital aged 57. After his death in 1924, the company was revived by his two sons and continued producing films until 1932.[1]

During his life Greenbaum launched the career of a number of leading German directors and actors including Max Mack, Richard Oswald and Maria Orska. His son Mutz Greenbaum became a leading cinematographer.

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Bock & Bergfelder 2009, pp. 166-7.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 Hampicke 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bock & Bergfelder 2009, pp. 166.
  4. ↑ Entry in the Commercial Register {Handelsregister} 23 June 1902 (Hampicke 2015).
  5. ↑ "Bioscope-Atelier". CineGraph - Lexikon zum deutschsprachigen Film. (in German). Cinegraph.de. 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  6. ↑ Eisenbach, Ulrich, (2007).Schleussner in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 23 , pp. 68-69 [Online edition (in German).
  7. ↑ Deutsche Bioscop was registered 27 February 1908 (Hampicke 2015).
  8. ↑ Eyman p.29
  9. ↑ Eyman p.29
  10. ↑ Eyman p.29
  11. ↑ "Vitascope-Atelier". CineGraph - Lexikon zum deutschsprachigen Film. (in German). Cinegraph.de. 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "May-Atelier". CineGraph - Lexikon zum deutschsprachigen Film. (in German). Cinegraph.de. 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  13. ↑ Nowell-Smith 1996, p. 92.

Bibliography

External links