Harry Saltzman

Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Herschel "Harry" Saltzman (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Birth date – Template:Death date) was a Canadian theatre and film producer. He is best remembered for co-producing the first nine of the James Bond film series with Albert R. Broccoli. Apart from a ten-year stint living in St. Petersburg, Florida, he lived most of his life in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England.

Early life

Saltzman was born in a hospital in Sherbrooke, Quebec,<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" /> the son of Jewish immigrants Abraham Saltzman and Dora Horstein.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His father was a horticulturalist and immigrated to the US in 1905 from Kozienice, Poland (then Congress Poland within the Russian Empire). His parents married in 1909. The couple moved to Canada in 1910<ref>Canadian Census, 1911</ref> where their four oldest children (Minnie, Florence, Herschel and Isadore) were born. In 1922, the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" /> where their youngest son, David, was born. Saltzman was raised in Saint John, New Brunswick for the first seven years of his life. Harry ran away from home at the age of 15.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> Saltzman was 30 when he learned where he had actually been born.<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" />

Career

At about age 17, Saltzman joined a circus and travelled with them for some years.Template:Citation needed

In 1932, Saltzman moved to Paris to study political science and economics. However within a year, he was "hand-picking talent for 40 two-a-day vaudeville houses all over Europe."<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" /> Saltzman claimed that he had worked as an assistant for French film director René Clair, who came to the United States in 1940 to make the film The Flame of New Orleans.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1942, Saltzman signed a booking contract with Fanchon & Marco Enterprises. Saltzman went to the West Coast to sign big picture names. Saltzman sought the Ritz Brothers, but due to film commitments, they could not sign.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 1943, Saltzman was managing The Gilbert Brothers' Combined Circus. According to an advert, the 1943 season began 26 May in Clifton, New Jersey, and was booked solid through the Eastern American states until mid-October.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Shortly after World War II began, he enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Vancouver.<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" /> He received a medical discharge in Trenton, Ontario in 1943, and joined the U.S. Psychological Warfare Bureau, because he wanted to get back to Europe.<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" /> Saltzman was initially stationed at the North African theatre in 1943 before being reassigned to London.

In 1945, Saltzman helped Lin Yutang establish UNESCO's film division,<ref>UNESCO Archives AtoM Catalogue. "Building peace in the minds of men and women"</ref> which was initially focused on trying to mediate the Chinese Civil War between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. He eventually quit due to "east-west differences" which to him seemed "so hopeless".<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" /> Saltzman spent a year with the French government's Ministry of Reconstruction. At that point, he decided he wanted back in show business.<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" />

After the war, in Paris, Saltzman became part of the writer Colette's entourage.Template:Sfn He worked as a talent scout for European productions on stage, television and in film, but gradually became more successful producing stage plays. He moved to the United States in the 1950s. In the late 1950s, Saltzman and Rhea Fink formed the Mountie Enterprises Corporation, to operate coin-operated hobby horses. The first hobby horses appeared in department stores, on floors where children's goods are sold.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> By February 1951 Mountie Enterprises Corporation and Saltzman's new company Rider Amusement Corporation reported brisk business, as both companies got contracts to install coin-operated hobby horses in major department stores in numerous American cities. Saltzman claimed to earn Template:USD a day per hobby horse.(equivalent to $413.30 in 2023)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

He became production supervisor on Robert Montgomery Presents and produced Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion.

He moved, what was by then his family of four, to the UK in the mid-1950s, where he again produced theatre. He entered the film business by producing The Iron Petticoat (1956), a play adaptation. Saltzman started Woodfall Film Productions with Tony Richardson and John Osborne, and produced other acclaimed social realism dramas such as 1959's Look Back in Anger and 1960's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Film director Anthony Mann noted the dichotomy in Saltzman's career: "Harry used to make great pictures; now he makes very successful ones. After all, you can't be an artist all your life."<ref name="Sheffy (1966)">Template:Cite news</ref>

In early 1961, excited by reading the James Bond novel Goldfinger, he made a bid to land the film rights to the character. Saltzman co-founded Danjaq, S.A. with Albert R. Broccoli in 1962. It was a holding company responsible for the copyright and trademarks of James Bond on screen, and the parent company of Eon Productions, which they also set up as a film production company for the Bond films. The moniker Danjaq is a combination of the names of Broccoli's third wife and Saltzman's second (Dana and Jacqueline, respectively).

In 1958, he had set up the production company Lowndes Productions,<ref name=Dudedil>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but he did not use it for film production until 1965, and used it for eight productions thereafter, among them his three Harry Palmer films with Michael Caine: The Ipcress File (1965), Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967). The company's last production came out in 1988, and it was dissolved in 1992.<ref name=Dudedil/>

Saltzman produced other films between the James Bond and Harry Palmer productions. These include his World War II pet project Battle of Britain (1969), and Call Me Bwana (1963), one of only three films to be produced by Eon Productions outside of the James Bond franchiseTemplate:Citation needed. Saltzman also attempted to make a film about Canadian Métis leader Cuthbert Grant.<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" />

In 1969, Saltzman borrowed 70 million Swiss francs (Template:USD) from the Union Bank of Switzerland.<ref name="Reuter-1 (1978)" /> In 1970, Saltzman won control of the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation from chairman Patrick Frawley in a proxy fight.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, by 1972 Saltzman sold off 370,500 shares of Technicolor stock for $7.6M to repay his loan from the Union Bank of Switzerland.<ref>Spokane Daily Chronicle 7 Jul 1972</ref> Film Bulletin also claimed that some of Saltzman's former allies in the 1970 proxy had forced Saltzman to sell the stocks — which they purchased — and were seeking to oust him from the Technicolor board. Saltzman filed several lawsuits against Technicolor executive board members, claiming conspiracy "seeking to retain his positions in the firm."<ref name="Film Bulletin (1972)">Template:Cite journal</ref> Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz claims Technicolor was selling at $30 per share, when Saltzman took control of the company in 1970; it was selling at $8 a share by 1972, at the time Saltzman was ousted.Template:Sfn At some point, Saltzman defaulted on the interest payments to the Swiss Bank.<ref name="Reuter-1 (1978)" />

According to a 1978 court decision, Saltzman and Broccoli had allegedly agreed to dissolve Danjaq, S.A. in 1972, but Broccoli later allegedly refused to honour the agreement.<ref name="Reuter (1978)" /> Saltzman unsuccessfully attempted to have the Swiss courts dissolve the company.<ref name="Reuter (1978)" /> By autumn that year, Saltzman's financial situation was desperate.<ref name="Reuter (1978)" /> In March 1974, the Los Angeles Times reported that Saltzman was attempting to sell Paramount Pictures his 50% share of the Bond film franchise.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On April 24, 1978, Sir Patrick O'Connor of the British High Court ordered Saltzman to pay an American law firm Template:GBP (Template:USD) plus Template:GBP (Template:USD) in post-judgment interest and court costs.<ref name="Reuter-1 (1978)">Template:Cite news</ref> Saltzman had retained the firm to resolve his financial difficulties.<ref name="Reuter (1978)">Template:Cite news</ref>

Saltzman's productions in the 1970s also proved problematic. A science fiction musical, Toomorrow starring Olivia Newton-John, was withdrawn from release and resulted in several lawsuits. Also in 1970, Saltzman cancelled a planned film, several weeks before shooting was to begin, about the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, starring Rudolf Nureyev. Director Tony Richardson believed that Saltzman had overextended himself, and did not have the funds to make the film.Template:Sfn Throughout the 1970s, Saltzman struggled to make a film of The Micronauts — a "shrunken man", which was a science fiction story to have starred Gregory Peck and Lee Remick — investing much money into the doomed project, that was finally shelved in the late 1970s.Template:Sfn Due to numerous financial difficulties, Saltzman sold his 50% stake in Danjaq to United Artists Corporation in 1975. Subsequently, his health also declined and he became depressed.Template:Citation needed

In 1980, Saltzman purchased the theatrical production company H.M. Tennent Ltd., becoming its chairman.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Saltzman all but retired from the movie business thereafter. He had long desired to produce a film on the life of Vaslav Nijinsky, based on biographies, the rights to which he had acquired in the 1960s. He has an executive producer credit on the film Nijinsky in 1980, and the 1988 British-Italian-Yugoslavian co-production Time of the Gypsies.

In 1992, Saltzman dissolved H.M. Tennant.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life

Saltzman was married three times. He had four children;<ref name="merry-HR"/> one with his first wife and three with his second.

He was briefly married in California.<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" /> His first wife Tanya "helped in an amazing way to enlighten his work and contribution to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force and in the U.S. secret service OSS," Hollywood Reporter noted. Saltzman's first child, Merry, was born in 1946. As a child, she played with the likes of Ian Fleming, Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Michael Caine and Cary Grant.<ref name="merry-HR">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On October 30, 2024 at the age of 77, she died at her home in San Jose, California following a brief battle with cancer.

Judith Krantz claims that she and Saltzman briefly dated. Krantz's father liked Saltzman and found him an entertaining conversationalist. Krantz claims that Saltzman proposed to her. She declined, saying that he was not her physical type, which she regretted because she thought he was "a wonderful companion, with a fantastic imagination."Template:Sfn

After World War II, Saltzman was in Paris, where he met Jacqueline Colin, a refugee from Romania, whom he subsequently married. Harry and Jacqueline Saltzman had three children: Hilary, Steven and Christopher. Hilary and Christopher attended the private Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg, Florida during the late 1970s and early 1980s.<ref name="Jacqueline obituary (1980)" />

In the early 1970s, Saltzman's wife Jacqueline was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In 1972, the Saltzmans relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida, where Jacqueline's sister lived.<ref name="Caffery (1977)" /> In March 1977, Saltzman sold his English country mansion and moved full-time to St. Petersburg.<ref name="Caffery (1977)">Template:Cite news</ref> Jacqueline Saltzman died of cancer on January 31, 1980.<ref name="Jacqueline obituary (1980)">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1982, Saltzman sold his 15-room Venetian Isles, St. Petersburg, Florida home, and moved back to London. His two oldest children with Jacqueline were out of school, and his youngest was studying in Switzerland.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Harry Saltzman subsequently married Adriana Ghinsberg.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He died of a heart attack on September 28, 1994, while visiting Paris.<ref name="Sheffy (1966)" />

Sources

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External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0759162

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