Howard Hawks - Early Film Career

Early Film Career

After the War, Hawks was eager to return to Hollywood. After having also served in the Air Force, his brother Kenneth Hawks graduated from Yale University in 1919 and the brothers moved to Hollywood together to pursue their careers. They quickly made friends with Hollywood insider (and fellow Ivy Leaguer) Allan Dwan, but Hawks landed his first important job when he used his family's wealth to loan money to studio head Jack Warner. Warner quickly paid the loan back and hired Hawks as a producer to "oversee" the making of a new series of one-reel comedies starring the Italian comedian Monty Banks. Hawks stated that he personally directed "three or four" of the shorts, however no documentation exists to confirm this. The films were profitable, but Hawks soon left the series and proceeded to form his own production company using his family wealth and connections to secure financing. The company was named Associated Producers and was a joint venture between Hawks, Allan Dwan, Marshall Neilan and director Allen Holubar, with a distribution deal through First National. The company made fourteen films between 1920 and 1923, with eight directed by Neilan, three by Dwan and three by Holubar. More of a "boy's club" than a production company, the four men gradually drifted apart and went their separate ways by 1923, at which time Hawks decided that he wanted to direct instead of produce.

Beginning in the early 1920, Hawks lived in rented houses in Hollywood with the group of friends he was accumulating. This rawdy group of mostly macho, risk-taking men included his brother Kenneth Hawks, Victor Fleming, Jack Conway, Harold Rosson, Richard Rosson, Arthur Rosson and Eddie Sutherland. During this time period Hawks first met Irving Thalberg, the frail and sickly vice-President in charge of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Eventually many of the young men in this group would become successful at MGM under Thalberg, and Hawks admired his intelligence and sense of story. At the same time, Hawks was becoming friends with barn stormers and pioneer aviators at Rogers Airport in Los Angeles, getting to know men like Moye Stephens. In 1923, Famous Players-Lasky president Jesse Lasky was looking for a new Production Editor in the Story department of his studio, and Thalberg suggested the Ivy-League Hawks. Hawks accepted and was immediately put in charge of over forty productions, including many literary acquisitions that included works by Joseph Conrad, Jack London and Zane Grey. Hawks worked on the scripts for all of the films produced, but had his first official screenplay credit in 1924 on Tiger Love. Hawks was the Story Editor at Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) almost two years, and occasionally edited such films as Heritage of the Desert. Although Hawks signed a new one-year contract with Famous-Players in the fall of 1924, he broke his contract to become a story editor for Thalberg at MGM with the promise that Thalberg would make him a director in a year. But in 1925 when Thalberg hesitated to follow through on his promise, Hawks broke his contract at MGM.