Word: cowdin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...regime of benign, gnome-like little "Uncle Carl" Laemmle, corpses were so prevalent in Universal productions that they became practically the company's trademark, and every sound stage on the lot was a makeshift torture chamber. Under its new board of directors, headed by saturnine Banker J. Cheever Cowdin, Universal has completely reversed its trend. Instead of Boris Karloff, today its top star is Deanna Durbin. Instead of morbid criminology its forte is a peculiarly blithe brand of girlish comedy of which Service de Luxe is the latest sample...
...About Music (Universal). Greatest asset of deficit-ridden Universal Pictures Co. Inc. is wholesome, rich-voiced, 16-year-old Deanna Durbin. When her first featured picture, Three Smart Girls, was started in 1936, Universal, newly taken over from Carl Laemmle Sr. by a syndicate headed by Banker John Cheever Cowdin, was $1,835,419.07 in the red as of Oct. 30. Three Smart Girls cost about $300,000, has thus far grossed almost $2,000,000. Six months ago Deanna's second film, 100 Men and a Girl, was released and immediately justified the added expenditure allowed...
...Girl (Universal). Year ago when Universal Pictures Corp. was on bankruptcy's brink, "Uncle Carl" Laemmle sold it to a group of Manhattan bankers headed by John Cheever Cowdin, who knew as much about the cinema as "Uncle Carl" knew about banking. But their first production, Three Smart Girls (TIME, Dec. 21), was a box-ofifice hit, introducing Deanna Durbin, most promising cinema songstress in years. Last week in her second picture, her first starring role, Songstress Durbin underlined the fact that in her Universal had found its most valuable property and an A-1 box-office attraction...
Three Smart Girls (Universal). Under Carl Laemmle Sr., Universal Pictures Corp. made a specialty of horror pictures. Last spring when benign old "Uncle Carl," who had generously padded his staff with relatives, sold the company he had founded, Banker John Cheever Cowdin and his associates, who bought it, promised profound changes. As an example of what to expect from an alert group of hard-boiled banker-showmen, Three Smart Girls should interest exhibitors. Universal's most ballyhooed 1936 release is the daintiest, quaintest, most hygienic little musicomedy of the season, written, directed and performed with such evident sincerity that...
...story with Screenwriter Gene Fowler. In 1935 Universal made overtures to Charles Laughton to play the lead, but Laughton went to MGM for Mutiny on the Bounty. By last autumn Edward Arnold was signed to play the lead, but by that time there was a shortage of cash. Cheever Cowdin's option on the Universal studio supplied the funds. Production finally got under way in November...