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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1981|12|28|1885|4|3}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1981|12|28|1885|4|3}}
| death_place = [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], United States
| death_place = [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], United States
| spouse = [[Pauline Bush (actress)|Pauline Bush]] (1915–1919)<br/>Marie Shelton (1927–1949)
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Pauline Bush (actress)|Pauline Bush]]|1915|1919|end=divorce}}<br/>{{marriage|Marie Shelton|1927|1949|end=divorce}}
| occupation = Film director<br />Film producer<br />Screenwriter
| occupation = Film director<br />Film producer<br />Screenwriter
| years_active = 1911–1961
| years_active = 1911–1961; 1980
}}
}}
'''Allan Dwan''' (born '''Joseph Aloysius Dwan'''; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.
'''Allan Dwan''' (born '''Joseph Aloysius Dwan'''; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.


==Early life==
==Early life==
Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in [[Toronto]], Ontario, Canada, Dwan, was the younger son of commercial traveler of woolen clothing Joseph Michael Dwan (1857–1917) and his wife Mary Jane Dwan, née Hunt. The family moved to the United States when he was seven years old on December 4, 1892 by ferry from Windsor to Detroit, according to his naturalization petition of August 1939. His elder brother, Leo Garnet Dwan (1883–1964), became a physician.
Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in [[Toronto]], Ontario, Canada, Dwan was the younger son of commercial traveler of woolen clothing Joseph Michael Dwan (1857–1917) and his wife Mary Jane Dwan (née Hunt). The family moved to the United States when he was seven years old on December 4, 1892, by ferry from Windsor to Detroit, according to his naturalization petition of August 1939. His elder brother, Leo Garnet Dwan (1883–1964), became a physician.


Allan Dwan studied engineering at the University of Notre Dame and then worked for a lighting company in Chicago. He had a strong interest in the fledgling motion picture industry, and when [[Essanay Studios]] offered him the opportunity to become a scriptwriter, he took the job.<ref name="Kevin Brownlow 1968">{{cite book|author=Brownlow, Kevin|author-link=Kevin Brownlow|title=The Parade's Gone By...|publisher=[[Ballantine Books|Ballantine Books, Inc.]]|location=New York|year=1969|page=111}}</ref> At that time, some of the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]] movie makers began to spend winters in California where the climate allowed them to continue productions requiring warm weather. Soon, a number of movie companies worked there year-round, and in 1911, Dwan began working part-time in Hollywood. While still in New York, in 1917 he was the founding president of the East Coast chapter of the [[Motion Picture Directors Association]].<ref name="frankenstein">{{cite news|last=Fournier|first=Pierre|url=http://io9.gizmodo.com/5706057/the-first-frankenstein-of-the-movies|title=The first Frankenstein of the movies|work=[[io9]]|date=December 4, 2010|access-date=April 28, 2016}}</ref>
Allan Dwan studied engineering at the University of Notre Dame and then worked for a lighting company in Chicago. He had a strong interest in the fledgling motion picture industry, and when [[Essanay Studios]] offered him the opportunity to become a scriptwriter, he took the job.<ref name="Kevin Brownlow 1968">{{cite book|author=Brownlow, Kevin|author-link=Kevin Brownlow|title=The Parade's Gone By...|publisher=[[Ballantine Books|Ballantine Books, Inc.]]|location=New York|year=1969|page=111}}</ref> At that time, some of the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]] movie makers began to spend winters in California where the climate allowed them to continue productions requiring warm weather. Soon, a number of movie companies worked there year-round, and in 1911, Dwan began working part-time in Hollywood. While still in New York, in 1917 he was the founding president of the East Coast chapter of the [[Motion Picture Directors Association]].<ref name="frankenstein">{{cite news|last=Fournier|first=Pierre|url=http://io9.gizmodo.com/5706057/the-first-frankenstein-of-the-movies|title=The first Frankenstein of the movies|work=[[io9]]|date=December 4, 2010|access-date=April 28, 2016}}</ref>


==Career==
==Career==
Dwan started his directing career by accident in 1911, when he was sent by his employers to California, in order to locate a company that had vanished. Dwan managed to track the company down, and learned that they were waiting for the film's director (who was an alcoholic) to return from a binge (and allowing them to return to work). Dwan wired back to his employers in Chicago, informing them of the situation, and suggested that they disband the company. They wired back, instructing Dwan to direct the film. When Dwan informed the company of the situation, and that their jobs were on the line, they responded: "You're the best damn director we ever saw".<ref name="HollywoodDoc">{{cite episode |title=The Man with the Megaphone |series=[[Hollywood (1980 TV series)|Hollywood]] |date=March 11, 1980 |number=10}}</ref>
⚫
Dwan operated [[Flying A Studios]] in [[La Mesa, California]] from August 1911 to July 1912.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/6833|title=La mesa to honor its tinseltown roots aug. 12–13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://lamesa.patch.com/articles/100-simple-melodramas-were-made-in-la-mesa-100-years-ago|title=Proto-Hollywood: 100 Melodramas Were Made In La Mesa 100 Years Ago|date=August 10, 2011}}</ref> Flying A was one of the first motion pictures studios in California history. On August 12, 2011, a plaque was unveiled on the Wolff building at Third Avenue and La Mesa Boulevard commemorating Dwan and the [[Flying A Studios]] origins in [[La Mesa, California]].

⚫
Dwan operated [[Flying A Studios]] in [[La Mesa, California]], from August 1911 to July 1912.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/6833|title=La mesa to honor its tinseltown roots aug. 12–13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://lamesa.patch.com/articles/100-simple-melodramas-were-made-in-la-mesa-100-years-ago|title=Proto-Hollywood: 100 Melodramas Were Made In La Mesa 100 Years Ago|date=August 10, 2011}}</ref> Flying A was one of the first motion pictures studios in California history. On August 12, 2011, a plaque was unveiled on the Wolff building at Third Avenue and La Mesa Boulevard commemorating Dwan and the [[Flying A Studios]] origins in [[La Mesa, California]].


After making a series of westerns and comedies, Dwan directed fellow Canadian-American [[Mary Pickford]] in several very successful movies as well as her husband, [[Douglas Fairbanks]], notably in the acclaimed 1922 ''[[Robin Hood (1922 film)|Robin Hood]]''. Dwan directed [[Gloria Swanson]] in eight feature films, and one short film made in the short-lived sound-on-film process [[Phonofilm]]. This short, also featuring [[Thomas Meighan]] and [[Henri de la Falaise]], was produced as a joke, for the April 26, 1925 "Lambs' Gambol" for [[The Lambs]], with the film showing Swanson crashing the all-male club.
After making a series of westerns and comedies, Dwan directed fellow Canadian-American [[Mary Pickford]] in several very successful movies as well as her husband, [[Douglas Fairbanks]], notably in the acclaimed 1922 ''[[Robin Hood (1922 film)|Robin Hood]]''. Dwan directed [[Gloria Swanson]] in eight feature films, and one short film made in the short-lived sound-on-film process [[Phonofilm]]. This short, also featuring [[Thomas Meighan]] and [[Henri de la Falaise]], was produced as a joke, for the April 26, 1925 "Lambs' Gambol" for [[The Lambs]], with the film showing Swanson crashing the all-male club.
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Dwan helped launch the career of two other successful Hollywood directors, [[Victor Fleming]], who went on to direct ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' and ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone With the Wind]]'', and [[Marshall Neilan]], who became an actor, director, writer and producer. Over a long career spanning almost 50 years, Dwan directed 125 motion pictures, some of which were highly acclaimed, such as the 1949 box office hit, ''[[Sands of Iwo Jima]]''. He directed his last movie in 1961.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/SearchResult.aspx?s=&retailCheck=&Type=PN&CatID=DATABIN_DIRECTOR&ID=11207&AN_ID=&searchedFor=Allan_Dwan_|publisher=[[American Film Institute]]|title=Allan Dwan, Filmography|access-date=December 27, 2015}}</ref>
Dwan helped launch the career of two other successful Hollywood directors, [[Victor Fleming]], who went on to direct ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' and ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone With the Wind]]'', and [[Marshall Neilan]], who became an actor, director, writer and producer. Over a long career spanning almost 50 years, Dwan directed 125 motion pictures, some of which were highly acclaimed, such as the 1949 box office hit, ''[[Sands of Iwo Jima]]''. He directed his last movie in 1961.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/SearchResult.aspx?s=&retailCheck=&Type=PN&CatID=DATABIN_DIRECTOR&ID=11207&AN_ID=&searchedFor=Allan_Dwan_|publisher=[[American Film Institute]]|title=Allan Dwan, Filmography|access-date=December 27, 2015}}</ref>

Being one of the last surviving pioneers of the cinema, he was interviewed at length for the 1980 documentary series ''[[Hollywood (British TV series)|Hollywood]]''.<ref name="HollywoodDoc"/>


He died in Los Angeles at the age of 96, and is interred in the [[San Fernando Mission Cemetery]], [[Mission Hills, Los Angeles|Mission Hills, California]].
He died in Los Angeles at the age of 96, and is interred in the [[San Fernando Mission Cemetery]], [[Mission Hills, Los Angeles|Mission Hills, California]].
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==Partial filmography as director==
==Partial filmography as director==
{{div col|colwidth=25em}}
{{div col|colwidth=25em}}
*''[[The Gold Lust]]'' (1911)
*''[[The Picket Guard]]'' (1913)
*''[[The Restless Spirit]]'' (1913)
*''[[The Restless Spirit]]'' (1913)
*''[[Back to Life (1913 film)|Back to Life]]'' (1913)
*''[[Back to Life (1913 film)|Back to Life]]'' (1913)
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*''[[The Forbidden Room (1914 film)|The Forbidden Room]]'' (1914)
*''[[The Forbidden Room (1914 film)|The Forbidden Room]]'' (1914)
*''[[The Hopes of Blind Alley]]'' (1914)
*''[[The Hopes of Blind Alley]]'' (1914)
*''[[Richelieu (film)|Richelieu]]'' (1914)
*''[[Richelieu (1914 film)|Richelieu]]'' (1914)
* ''[[Wildflower (1914 film)|Wildflower]]'' (1914)
* ''[[Wildflower (1914 film)|Wildflower]]'' (1914)
*''[[A Small Town Girl]]'' (1915)
*''[[A Small Town Girl]]'' (1915)
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*''[[The Pretty Sister of Jose (1915 film)|The Pretty Sister of Jose]]'' (1915)
*''[[The Pretty Sister of Jose (1915 film)|The Pretty Sister of Jose]]'' (1915)
* ''[[Jordan Is a Hard Road]]'' (1915)
* ''[[Jordan Is a Hard Road]]'' (1915)
*''[[Betty of Graystone]]'' (1916)
*''[[The Habit of Happiness]]'' (1916)
*''[[The Habit of Happiness]]'' (1916)
*''[[The Good Bad Man]]'' (1916)
*''[[The Good Bad Man]]'' (1916)
Line 96: Line 97:
*''[[Night Life of New York]]'' (1925)
*''[[Night Life of New York]]'' (1925)
*''[[Stage Struck (1925 film)|Stage Struck]]'' (1925)
*''[[Stage Struck (1925 film)|Stage Struck]]'' (1925)
*''[[Gloria Swanson Dialogue]]'' (1925) short film made in [[Phonofilm]] for [[The Lambs]] annual "Gambol" held at [[Metropolitan Opera House (39th Street)|Metropolitan Opera House]]
*''[[Padlocked]]'' (1926)
*''[[Padlocked]]'' (1926)
*''[[Sea Horses]]'' (1926)
*''[[Sea Horses (film)|Sea Horses]]'' (1926)
*''[[Summer Bachelors]]'' (1926)
*''[[Summer Bachelors]]'' (1926)
*''[[Tin Gods]]'' (1926)
*''[[Tin Gods]]'' (1926)
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*''[[What a Widow!]]'' (1930)
*''[[What a Widow!]]'' (1930)
*''[[Man to Man (1930 film)|Man to Man]]'' (1930)
*''[[Man to Man (1930 film)|Man to Man]]'' (1930)
*''[[Chances (1931 film)|Chances]]'' (1931)
*''[[Wicked (1931 film)|Wicked]]'' (1931)
*''[[Wicked (1931 film)|Wicked]]'' (1931)
*''[[While Paris Sleeps (1932 film)|While Paris Sleeps]]'' (1932)
*''[[While Paris Sleeps (1932 film)|While Paris Sleeps]]'' (1932)
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*''[[Up in Mabel's Room (1944 film)|Up in Mabel's Room]]'' (1944)
*''[[Up in Mabel's Room (1944 film)|Up in Mabel's Room]]'' (1944)
*''[[Abroad with Two Yanks]]'' (1944)
*''[[Abroad with Two Yanks]]'' (1944)
*''[[Getting Gertie's Garter]]'' (1945) also screenwriter
*''[[Getting Gertie's Garter (1945 film)|Getting Gertie's Garter]]'' (1945) also screenwriter
*''[[Brewster's Millions (1945 film)|Brewster's Millions]]'' (1945)
*''[[Brewster's Millions (1945 film)|Brewster's Millions]]'' (1945)
*''[[Rendezvous with Annie]]'' (1946)
*''[[Rendezvous with Annie]]'' (1946)
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[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American screenwriters]]
[[Category:20th-century American screenwriters]]
[[Category:American film directors]]
[[Category:Film directors from Los Angeles]]
[[Category:American film producers]]
[[Category:Film producers from Los Angeles]]
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]
[[Category:Burials at San Fernando Mission Cemetery]]
[[Category:Burials at San Fernando Mission Cemetery]]
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[[Category:Film directors from Toronto]]
[[Category:Film directors from Toronto]]
[[Category:Western (genre) film directors]]
[[Category:Western (genre) film directors]]
[[Category:Writers from Toronto]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from Toronto]]
[[Category:People from La Mesa, California]]
[[Category:Writers from San Diego]]

Revision as of 13:34, 21 August 2024

Allan Dwan
Dwan in 1920
Born
Joseph Aloysius Dwan

(1885-04-03)April 3, 1885
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedDecember 28, 1981(1981-12-28) (aged 96)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation(s)Film director
Film producer
Screenwriter
Years active1911–1961; 1980
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1915; div. 1919)​

Marie Shelton
​
​
(m. 1927; div. 1949)​

Allan Dwan (born Joseph Aloysius Dwan; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.

Early life

Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan was the younger son of commercial traveler of woolen clothing Joseph Michael Dwan (1857–1917) and his wife Mary Jane Dwan (née Hunt). The family moved to the United States when he was seven years old on December 4, 1892, by ferry from Windsor to Detroit, according to his naturalization petition of August 1939. His elder brother, Leo Garnet Dwan (1883–1964), became a physician.

Allan Dwan studied engineering at the University of Notre Dame and then worked for a lighting company in Chicago. He had a strong interest in the fledgling motion picture industry, and when Essanay Studios offered him the opportunity to become a scriptwriter, he took the job.[1] At that time, some of the East Coast movie makers began to spend winters in California where the climate allowed them to continue productions requiring warm weather. Soon, a number of movie companies worked there year-round, and in 1911, Dwan began working part-time in Hollywood. While still in New York, in 1917 he was the founding president of the East Coast chapter of the Motion Picture Directors Association.[2]

Career

Dwan started his directing career by accident in 1911, when he was sent by his employers to California, in order to locate a company that had vanished. Dwan managed to track the company down, and learned that they were waiting for the film's director (who was an alcoholic) to return from a binge (and allowing them to return to work). Dwan wired back to his employers in Chicago, informing them of the situation, and suggested that they disband the company. They wired back, instructing Dwan to direct the film. When Dwan informed the company of the situation, and that their jobs were on the line, they responded: "You're the best damn director we ever saw".[3]

Dwan operated Flying A Studios in La Mesa, California, from August 1911 to July 1912.[4][5] Flying A was one of the first motion pictures studios in California history. On August 12, 2011, a plaque was unveiled on the Wolff building at Third Avenue and La Mesa Boulevard commemorating Dwan and the Flying A Studios origins in La Mesa, California.

After making a series of westerns and comedies, Dwan directed fellow Canadian-American Mary Pickford in several very successful movies as well as her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, notably in the acclaimed 1922 Robin Hood. Dwan directed Gloria Swanson in eight feature films, and one short film made in the short-lived sound-on-film process Phonofilm. This short, also featuring Thomas Meighan and Henri de la Falaise, was produced as a joke, for the April 26, 1925 "Lambs' Gambol" for The Lambs, with the film showing Swanson crashing the all-male club.

Following the introduction of the talkies, Dwan directed child-star Shirley Temple in Heidi (1937) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938).

Dwan helped launch the career of two other successful Hollywood directors, Victor Fleming, who went on to direct The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, and Marshall Neilan, who became an actor, director, writer and producer. Over a long career spanning almost 50 years, Dwan directed 125 motion pictures, some of which were highly acclaimed, such as the 1949 box office hit, Sands of Iwo Jima. He directed his last movie in 1961.[6]

Being one of the last surviving pioneers of the cinema, he was interviewed at length for the 1980 documentary series Hollywood.[3]

He died in Los Angeles at the age of 96, and is interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California.

Dwan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Boulevard.

Daniel Eagan of Film Journal International described Dwan as one of the early pioneers of cinema, stating that his style "is so basic as to seem invisible, but he treats his characters with uncommon sympathy and compassion."[7]

Partial filmography as director

See also

References

  1. ^ Brownlow, Kevin (1969). The Parade's Gone By... New York: Ballantine Books, Inc. p. 111.
  2. ^ Fournier, Pierre (December 4, 2010). "The first Frankenstein of the movies". io9. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "The Man with the Megaphone". Hollywood. Episode 10. March 11, 1980.
  4. ^ "La mesa to honor its tinseltown roots aug. 12–13".
  5. ^ "Proto-Hollywood: 100 Melodramas Were Made In La Mesa 100 Years Ago". August 10, 2011.
  6. ^ "Allan Dwan, Filmography". American Film Institute. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  7. ^ Eagan, Daniel (January 31, 2018). "MoMA's Republic Pictures series offers B-movie rediscoveries and restorations". Film Journal International. Prometheus Global Media, LLC. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved February 1, 2018.

Further reading

Print ISBN 978-0-7864-3485-5 E-book ISBN 978-0-7864-9040-0

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Allan Dwan.
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