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The distinguished film director Anatole Litvak was born in the Ukrainian city of Kiev, the son of Jewish parents. His very first job was as a stage hand. In 1915, he became an actor, performing at a little-known experimental theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. As a teenager, he witnessed the 1917 Russian Revolution and the consequent nationalization of all theaters and drama schools. It was at this time Litvak decided to quit the stage and join the burgeoning Soviet film industry. He was given a job at the Leningrad Nordkino studio as a set designer, but, before long, he worked his way up to directing short features, notably Tatiana (1925), a film about children.

In 1925, he left the Soviet Union for Berlin and was hired by the renowned director Georg Wilhelm Pabst to edit The Joyless Street (1925) starring Greta Garbo. He then began directing numerous short films for Ufa, and, eventually, moved on to full-length features. The most important of these was the romantic comedy Dolly macht Karriere (1930). Litvak's stay in Germany was cut short by the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. Litvak moved to France, and directed Mayerling (1936), starring Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux. This production was the turning point in Litvak's career, being a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic. He received effusive praise from critic Frank S. Nugent of the New York Times, who commented on the director's "superb assembling of scenes" and the "matchless performances" of the stars (September 14,1937). Hollywood soon beckoned, and, from 1937 to 1941, Litvak became a contract director for Warner Brothers. His first film was The Woman I Love (1937), which starred his future wife Miriam Hopkins. His experience with diverse aspects of stagecraft, as well as his fluency in four languages (Russian, German, French and English), enabled him to competently tackle a wide variety of subjects: from sophisticated continental comedy (Tovarich (1937)) to historical drama (Anastasia (1956)) and romance (All This, and Heaven Too (1940)).

Litvak was at his best directing taut, suspenseful crime dramas, such as The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) with Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart, hailed by Variety as "an unquestionable winner"; and two tough action films starring John Garfield: Castle on the Hudson (1940) and Out of the Fog (1941). Having become an American citizen in 1940, Litvak enlisted in the US army and collaborated with Frank Capra on the wartime "Why we Fight" series of documentaries. At war's end he left the army with the rank of colonel and returned to Hollywood to direct the classic thriller Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) with Barbara Stanwyck. Arguably his best film was the superb psychological drama The Snake Pit (1948), Hollywood's first attempt to seriously examine the treatment of mental illness. Indeed, the film was so influential that it precipitated changes in the American mental health system. Litvak was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director, but lost out to John Huston for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).

In 1949, the director -- who had once described Hollywood as a "Mecca" -- returned to Europe and settled in Paris, working only infrequently. He undertook several projects under contract to 20th Century Fox (in 1951, and from 1955 to 1956). Notable among his later efforts are two contrasting films with Ingrid Bergman: the lavishly produced Anastasia (1956), about a woman claiming to be the Romanoff dynasty's last living direct descendant; and the moody, introspective romantic drama Goodbye Again (1961), shot on location in Paris. In stark thematic contrast to these, he also directed the suspenseful wartime thriller The Night of the Generals (1967), starring Peter O'Toole.

Anatole Litvak died in a hospital in Neuilly, Paris, in December 1974 at the age of 72.

Born in Russian Empire to a Ukrainian father and a Swedish mother, Anna Sten studied at the Russian Film Academy and joined the Moscow Art Theater. Strikingly beautiful, she went on to appear in a number of Russian silent films, but it was in the German film Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931) that Anna gained notice. Samuel Goldwyn saw a picture of Anna in the paper and rushed to view the film. After the first reel he sent word to sign her, hoping to develop her into a star of the magnitude of Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich. His agent signed Anna to a contract but forgot to mention the fact that she didn't speak a word of English, which made her appearance in sound pictures questionable. She spent a year studying English every day and working out makeup and acting. Goldwyn publicity called her "The Passionate Peasant" and sold her image to papers all over America. However, her first American picture, Nana (1934), even though almost completely rewritten and re-shot from the original, didn't bring audiences into the theaters. While Anna was looked great, the script and picture were average. Her second film, We Live Again (1934), marginally better suited to her style, also died within weeks at the box office. After her third film for Goldwyn, The Wedding Night (1935), also flopped, she and Goldwyn parted company after it became known around Hollywood as "Goldwyn's Last Sten." Anna made a few more movies, but by the end of the decade she was forgotten.

Mayer was born Lazar Meir in the Ukraine and grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after his parents fled Russian oppression in 1886. He had a brutal childhood, raised in poverty and suffering physical and emotional abuse from his nearly-illiterate peddler father. In the early 1890s, he changed his name to Louis and fudged his birth date to reflect the more "patriotic" date of July 4, 1885. He moved to Boston in 1904 and struggled as a scrap-metal dealer until he was able to purchase a burlesque house. Although he made large sums by showing films (he made a sizable fortune off The Birth of a Nation (1915)), his early business ventures favored legitimate theater in New England. As his theater empire expanded, he had acquired and refurbished enough small movie theaters that he was able to move his business to Los Angeles and venture into movie production in 1918. Along with Samuel Goldwyn and Marcus Loew of Metro Pictures, he formed a new company called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Over the next 25 years, MGM was "the Tiffany of the studios," producing more films and movie stars than any other studio in the world. Mayer became the prime creator of the enduring Hollywood of myth, home to stars like Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Jean Harlow. Mayer became the highest-paid man in America, one of the country's most successful horse breeders, a political force and Hollywood's leading spokesman. Both he and MGM reached their peaks at the end of World War II, and Mayer was forced out in 1951. He died of leukemia in 1957.

Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Kiev Province, now the Ukraine, to Polish parents Apollo Korzeniowski and Ewa Bobrowska. His father was a political activist and he and his family were exiled after he was suspected of involvement with revolutionary activities. Conrad had no friends as a child and rarely associated with boys or girls. His mother had always been a sickly person and died of tuberculosis in 1865. Conrad's father sent him to live with his uncle and pursue his education in France. Conrad's father died in 1869, also of tuberculosis. Conrad became an officer on British ships and spent two decades on various ships. Conrad was inspired to write "Heart of Darkness" after voyaging to Congo in 1890. In 1894, Conrad published his first novel and in 1896 he married Jessie George, an on-again off-again girlfriend. Conrad had few friends in adulthood, mainly fellow authors such as Stephen Crane and Henry James. Conrad died of a heart attack in 1924.

Mikhail A. Bulgakov was a Russian writer and medical doctor known for big screen adaptations of his books, such as Beg (1971) and Master i Margarita (2006).

He was born Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov on May 15, 1891, in Kiev, Russia (now Kiev, Ukraine). He was the first of six children in the family of a theology professor. His family belonged to the intellectual elite of Kiev. Bulgakov with his brothers took part in the demonstration commemorating the death of Lev Tolstoy. Bulgakov graduated with honors from the Medical School of Kiev University in 1915. He married his classmate Tatiana Lippa, who became his assistant at surgeries and in his Doctor's office. He practiced medicine, specializing in venereal and other infectious diseases from 1915 to 1919.

Bulgakov wrote about his experiences as a doctor in his early works "Notes of a Young Doctor." In 1917-1919, he suffered from an infection that caused him an unbearable painful itch requiring him to take morphine; which he became addicted to, but he managed to overcome the dependency and quit. He joined the anti-communist White Army in the Russian Civil War. After the Civil War, he tried to emigrate from Russia, to reunite with his brother in Paris. But he became trapped in Soviet Russia. Several times he was almost killed by opposing forces on both sides of the Russian Civil War, but soldiers needed doctors, so Bulgakov was left alive. He provided medical help to the Chehchens, Caucasians, Cossacs, Russians, the Whites, the Reds... Bulgakov was the Doctor to all the sick people.

In 1921, Bulgakov moved to Moscow. There he became a writer and made friends with Valentin Kataev, Yuriy Olesha, Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov, and Konstantin Paustovsky. Later, he met Mikhail Zoshchenko, Anna Akhmatova, Viktor Ardov, Sergey Mikhalkov, and Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy. Bulgakov's plays at the Moscow Art Theatre were directed by Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. "Days of the Turbins," about the demise of the White Army, was performed more than 200 times at the Moscow Art Theatre, and also at other Soviet theatres until it was banned.

The play was later restored to the repertoire and at least fifteen performances of this play were attended by Joseph Stalin. Stalin liked the play and later, in his official speeches, he used some of the well-written lines that were spoken from the stage by the Bulgakov's characters. In 1941, after the Nazi invasion in Russia during the Second World War, Joseph Stalin started his first radio address to the people of the Soviet Union with Bulgakov's words from the play, "Brothers and Sisters..."

Bulgakov's political independence was expressed in his article on the death of the first Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin, "He killed a river of people..." wrote Bulgakov in 1924.

Bugakov's own way of life and his witty criticism of the ugly realities of life in the Soviet Union caused him much trouble. In 1925 he released 'Heart of a Dog', a bitter satire about the loss of civilized values in Russia under the Soviet system. Soon after, Bulgakov was interrogated by the Soviet secret service, OGPU. After interrogations, his personal diary and several unfinished works were confiscated by the secret service.

His plays were banned in all theaters, which terminated his income. Being financially broke, he wrote to his brother in Paris about his terrible life and poverty in Moscow. Bulgakov distanced himself from the Proletariat Writer's Union because he refused to write about the peasants and proletariat. He made adaptation of the "Dead Souls" by Nikolay Gogol for the stage; it became a success but was abruptly banned.

He took a risk and wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin with an ultimatum: "Let me out of the Soviet Union, or restore my work at the theaters." On the 18th of April of 1930, Bulgakov received a telephone call from Joseph Stalin. The dictator told the writer to fill an employment application at the Moscow Art Theater. Gradually, Bulgakov's plays were back in the repertoire of the Moscow Art Theatre. But most other theatres were in fear and did not stage any of the Bulgakov's plays for many years.

Joseph Stalin, who was increasingly paranoid, ordered massive extermination of intellectuals during the repressions known as the "Great Terror" (aka.. Great Purge). Many of Bulgakov's friends and colleagues, like Vladimir Mayakovsky, Osip Mandelstam, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Zoshchenko and many others were censored, banned, prosecuted, exiled, imprisoned, executed, found dead, or just disappeared without a trace.

At that time Bulgakov started his masterpiece - "Master and Margarita." It was slowly evolving from the series of chapters, initially titled "The Black Magician" in 1929. That was changed to "The Prince of Darkness" in 1930. Then it was changed again to "The Great Chancellor" in 1934. Finally, the novel was titled as "Master and Margarita" in 1934 and was rewritten and updated constantly until the writer's death in 1940.

While writing the novel, Bulgakov met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, who became his wife. She was, in part, the model for Margarita in the novel. Secret service agents were spying on Bulgakov and learned about his new novel. Bulgakov was interrogated again and was ordered to destroy the manuscript under the threat from the government agents. He had to be very cautious. Bulgakov split the manuscript in two parts and destroyed one half in a fire.

Soon, he restored the missing part from memory and continued writing the novel. He was writing the novel in secrecy, hiding its manuscript for many years until his death in 1940. The main character in the novel, Voland, alludes to Stalin, or Beria, or any dictator who plays a semi-god. Voland was modeled after Satan in "Faust" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The novel has many parallels with the Bible and the "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. The characters and events in "Master and Margarita" are alluding to Bulgakov's experiences in Moscow under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin.

Five days before his death, Bulgakov accepted an unusual promise from his loving wife. She swore to live a humble life and wait as long as it would take for Bulgakov's masterpiece to be published. The original manuscript of "The Master and Margarita" was preserved by Bulgakov's wife, Elena Sergeevna, until its first publication in 1966. It is a Menippean satire, a cross-genre comedy, drama, and fantasy, regarded by many as the best of the 20th century Russian novels.

Mikhail Bulgakov died of a kidney failure, on March 10, 1940, in Moscow. He was laid to rest in the Novodevichy Monastery Cemetery, next to other Russian cultural luminaries.

Real name Harry/Herschel Goldberg. Born in Russia in 1901, son of Israel and Celia Goldberg, emigrated to USA in 1905. Dropped out from schooling at grade 7. Brother of Hyman Goldberg, a syndicated columnist and food critic for the New York Post and author of several books including "Our Man in the Kitchen", a compilation of recipes from his column as "Prudence Penny".

In 1912 Harry's father, Israel, became seriously ill and had to be taken to hospital for an operation. During his stay there Celia began cooking meals for men in the neighborhood who were saving money to bring their families to America from Europe. When Israel came out of hospital he found that Celia had a flourishing business and Israel started a restaurant. All the children helped out.

In 1932 Harry married Mildred Becker, a College graduate and had three children, Beverle, Harvey and Simeon. After being hospitalized by an accident in his fifties, Harry decided to write about life in the twenties and thirties and the syndicates that controlled businesses in New York.

To protect himself and his family he changed the family name to Grey. He authored several best sellers, among them, "Call Me Duke", "Portrait of a Mobster" and "The Hoods", all translated into foreign languages and successes at home and abroad.

"Portrait of a Mobster", depicting the life story of Dutch Schultz, became a successful motion picture. "The Hoods" became the epic movie, "Once Upon A Time In America", starring Robert DeNiro, playing loosely Harry's life as "Noodles". The stellar cast included James Woods, Joe Pesci and Tuesday Weld.

Harry died in October 1980 shortly before filming of "Once Upon A Time in America" began.

Grigori Mikhailovich Kozintsev was born on March 22, 1905, in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Kiev, Ukraine). His father, named Mikhail Kozintsev, was a medical doctor. Young Kozintsev studied at the Kiev Gymnazium. There, in 1919, he organized experimental theatre "Arlekin" together with his fellow students Sergei Yutkevich and Aleksei Kapler. During 1919 and 1920 Kozintsev studied art at the Kiev School of Art under the tutelage of Alexandra Exter.

Experiments. In 1920 Kozintsev moved to Petrograd (Leningrad or St. Petersburg). There he studied art at the "VKHUTEMAS" at the Academy of Fine Arts for two years. In 1921 Kozintsev with Sergei Yutkevich, Leonid Trauberg, and Leonid Kryzhitsky organized and led the Factory of Excentric Actors (FEKS). There Kozintsev directed radically avant-garde staging of plays "Zhenitba" (Marriage 1922) by Nikolay Gogol and "Vneshtorg na Eifelevoi Bashne" (Foreign trade on Eiffel Tower 1923). They were based in the former Eliseev Mansion on Gagarinskaya street No. 1 in St. Petersburg. Kozintsev and FEKS collaborated with writer Yuri Tynyanov, cinematographer Andrey Moskvin, young actor-director Sergey Gerasimov, artist Igor Vuskovich, and young composer Dmitri Shostakovich among others. Initially FEKS was the main platform for experimental actors, directors and artists, and was strongly influenced by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Artistic position. In 1924 Kozintsev and Trauberg came to "SevZapKino" Studios (now Lenfilm Studios). There Kozintsev continued his FEKS experiments in his first eccentric comedy 'Pokhozhdenie Oktyabriny' (1924). Kozintsev's early films were strongly criticized by official Soviet critics. His film 'Shinel' (1926) was compared to German Expressionism and accused of distortion of the original classic story by Nikolay Gogol. Kozintsev strongly argued against such comparisons with German expressionism; he was unhappy until the end of his life about such criticism of his early experimental works. Kozintsev insisted that his cheerful experiments were essential in the city of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) after the Russian Revolution of 1917, which brought destruction, depression, crime, and degradation of culture.

Early films. Kozintsev made twelve films together with Leonid Trauberg. Their collaboration began in 1921, in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). Their film-trilogy about Russian revolutionary hero Maxim was made from 1935-1941, when people in the Soviet Russia were terrorized under the most brutal dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. In departure from experimental youthfulness and freedom of their FEKS years, the Maxim trilogy was a trade-off blend of experiment and Soviet propaganda. It was still a powerful work and was even banned by censorship in the United States from the 1930s-1950s. For that work Kozintsev and Trauberg were awarded the Stalin's State Prize in 1941. After the Second World War Kozintsev and Trauberg made their last film together: 'Prostye Lyudi (Plain People 1946), which was censored and remained unreleased until 1958, when "Nikita Khrushchev' lifted the ban imposed by Stalin's censorship.

Highlights. Grigori Kozintsev ascended to his best works after the death of Stalin. Then Nikita Khrushchev initiated the "Thaw" which played a role in some liberation of individual creativity in the Soviet film industry. Kozintsev's adaptations of classical literature combined some experimental elements of his earlier silent films with the approach of a mature master. His Don Quixote (1957), King Lear (1969) and especially Hamlet (1963) were recognized worldwide as his highest achievements. In _Korol Lir (1969)_ Kozintsev made a brilliant decision to cast actors from the Baltic States as the Lear's family. Jüri Järvet, Regimantas Adomaitis, Donatas Banionis, Juozas Budraitis, and Elza Radzina together with Oleg Dal, Galina Volchek, Aleksey Petrenko made a powerful acting ensemble.

Hamlet and King Lear. Kozintsev first staged Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and 'King Lear" in 1941. His collaboration with Boris Pasternak began in 1940, when Pasternak was working on his Russian translation of the Shakespeare's originals. Both plays were prepared for stage under direction of Kozintsev. King Lear was staged in 1941, but further work was interrupted because of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Hamlet was staged in 1954. At the same time Kozintsev continued developing the idea of filming _Gamlet (1964)_, until everything came together in his legendary film. The adaptation by Boris Pasternak, the music by Dmitri Shostakovich, the direction by Kozintsev, and the acting talent of Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy produced special creative synergy. Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy was praised as the best Hamlet by Sir Laurence Olivier.

Legacy. In the 1920s Kozintsev taught at the Leningrad School of Acting. From 1944-1964 Kozintsev led his master-class for film directors at the Soviet State Film Institute (VGIK). Among his students were many prominent Russian directors and actors such as Sergey Gerasimov and others. Kozintsev was the head of master-class for film directors at Lenfilm Studios from 1964-1971. He wrote essays on William Shakespeare, Sergei Eisenstein, Charles Chaplin, and Vsevolod Meyerhold and published theoretical works on film direction. Grigori Kozintsev lived near Lenfilm Stidios in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) for the most part of his life. His work and presence was essential to the status of Lenfilm Studios as well as to the film community in Leningrad during the political and economic domination of Moscow as the Soviet capital. From his early works of the 1920s to his masterpiece _Gamlet (1964)_, Kozintsev was faithful to creative experimental approach.

Kozintsev was designated the People's Artist of the USSR. He was awarded the State Lenin's Prize of the USSR (1965), and received other awards and nominations. He died in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on May 11, 1973, and was laid to rest in the Necropolis of the Masters of Art in St. Aleksandr Nevsky Convent in St. Petersburg, Russia.

She initially grew up in Pinsk. However, due to the anti-Jewish riots in Russia, the family emigrated to the USA in 1906, where they set up a small business in Milwaukee (Wisconsin). At the age of 14, Mabovitch ran away from home to live with her older sister in Denver. There in 1915 she came into contact with a socialist wing of the Zionist movement, which called the "Poale Zion" movement in the USA and advocated the establishment of an equal Jewish society in Palestine. In 1917 she married Morris Meyerson, whose name was Hebraized to "Meir" in 1956. In 1921 the couple emigrated to Palestine, where they joined Kibbutz Merhavia. In 1922 they moved to Jerusalem, where their first child, Menachem, was born a year later.

In 1928, Meir was appointed secretary of the Workers' Council of Histradut, the Jewish Workers' Union of Palestine. From 1932 to 1934 she worked as a representative of the women's organization in the USA. During this time she separated from her husband, who died in 1951. After her return, Meir was accepted into the Histadrut's executive committee in 1934 and made head of the political department. During the Second World War she was a member of the War Economic Advisory Board set up by the British Mandate Government for Palestine. In the last years of the British mandate after the war, Meir was the most important representative of the Jewish cause in Palestine. In 1947/48 she was actively involved in the preparations for the founding of the State of Israel. She was one of the 25 signatories of the Declaration of Independence of May 14, 1948, which is considered Israel's founding act.

As the first Israeli ambassador to the Soviet Union, Meir was sent to Moscow in 1948, where she soon began to initiate the emigration of numerous Jews to Israel and the West. In 1949, Meir returned to Israel, where she worked as a member of the Labor Party (Mapai) in the Knesset until 1974 and also in numerous government functions. As Minister of Labor from 1949 to 1955, she made outstanding progress in building a social system and creating jobs for the masses of immigrants. In the decade 1955 to 1965, Meir made a recognized name for herself at the international level as Israel's Foreign Minister. In this role, she primarily built a comprehensive development program for African states with which Israel had worked closely for a long time.

In 1965, Meir was promoted to general secretary of the Labor Party, as which she subsequently contributed to the unification of the three Labor parties to form the Israel Labor Party. On March 7, 1969, Meir was appointed Prime Minister of Israel, succeeding the late Eshkol. As head of government, the politician advocated negotiations and a peace solution with the Arab world. At the same time, however, it rejected talks with the PLO under Yasser Arafat because it viewed it as a terrorist organization. Meir was the first Jewish head of government to meet with Pope Paul VI at the beginning of 1973. together. In the fall it had to overcome a serious foreign policy crisis with the Yom Kippur War. In the general election of December 1973 the Labor Party was confirmed in government.

However, in 1974, Meir resigned from her position as head of government in connection with a parliamentary investigation into the military events during the Yom Kippur War. As a result, Meir continued to appear in public and in the press as an advocate for the Israeli cause.

Golda Meir died on December 8, 1978 in Jerusalem (Israel).

Jack Chefe was born on 1 April 1894 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for I Love Lucy (1951), Spy Hunt (1950) and The Mad Martindales (1942). He died on 1 December 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

She was born in 1903 into a Ukrainian Jewish family, and emigrated to Paris as a young woman. She wrote nine books between 1929 and 1937, one of which was made into a movie ("David Golder", 1930). She became well-known in France, but did not become a French citizen. She converted to Catholicism in 1939, but could not escape the rise of anti-Semitism. After the Nazis invaded France, she was arrested in 1942 as "a stateless person of Jewish descent" and deported to Auschwitz, where she and her husband both died.

Viktor Tourjansky was a Russian film director who emigrated after the communist revolution of 1917, and worked in France, Germany, USA, UK, and Italy.

He was born Viacheslav Konstantinovich Turzhanski on March 4, 1891, in Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire (now Kiyiv, Ukraine). Studied painting and art history. In 1911 he moved to Moscow and studied acting under Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. In 1912-1914, Tourjansky worked for Aleksandr Khanzhonkov. He made his film debut as an actor in 'Tragedia pereproizvodstva' (1912), and co-starred in 'Brothers' (1913) by director Pyotr Chardynin, and in several other silent films. From 1914-1919 he worked in Yalta for Joseph N. Ermolieff, owner of one of the most successful Russian silent-film companies. At that time Tourjansky directed over twenty silent films in Russia.

Tourjansky suffered terribly from the loss of his property after the Communist Revolution of 1917. However, he continued working in Yalta with Ermolieff until the end of 1919. But when the Red Army advanced in Crimea and reached Yalta, he joined the White Russians and fled the communist Russia at the end of the Civil War. Tourjansky managed to save a few rolls of his silent films, which he took aboard the Greek steamer "Pantera" in February of 1920. He left Russia together with his film partners from the Ermolieff film company, actors Ivan Mozzhukhin, Nicolas Koline and Nicolas Rimsky, actress Nathalie Lissenko, his wife Nathalie Kovanko, cinematographer Nikolai Toporkoff and producer Joseph N. Ermolieff. They emigrated together to Paris, France, and started a Russian-French film company.

In Paris, Tourjansky changed his first name to Viktor (Victor) and continued his collaboration with Russian producers Alexandre Kamenka and Joseph N. Ermolieff. During 1920s and 1930s he also collaborated with producer Gregor Rabinovitch and directed films for various French, British, and German studios. Tourjansky often filmed his wife, Russian actress Nathalie Kovanko. She starred in fourteen of his films made in Russia and Europe. Eventually Tourjansky separated from Nathalie Kovanko, and later she returned to the Soviet Union.

Bethween WWI and WWII, Tourjansky directed over thirty French, British, American, and Franco-German films. He collaborated with director Abel Gance on the innovative film Napoleon (1927). In 1927 Tourjansky came to Hollywood. There, from 1927 - 1930, he worked at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios where he re-united with his former teacher, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, who visited from Russia. Tourjansky was co-director of the Academy Award-winning film Tempest (1928), albeit he was uncredited. In Hollywood Tourjansky was hired to direct After Midnight (1927), but he questioned the talent of Norma Shearer, mentioning that the "Queen of MGM" had a cross-eyed stare, without knowing that she was about to marry Irving Thalberg, the powerful MGM producer. Tourjansky was fired from the project, and was sent to co-direct a western, The Adventurer (1927), on location in the inhospitable Mohave Desert. After he suffered for several weeks working in the sandy, windy, and hot desert, and dealing with nerve-wrecking logistical problems, Tourjansky did not achieve the result he wanted for the film. He became disillusioned and dissatisfied, and never wanted to direct another Hollywood film.

Back in Paris, Tourjansky opened his own office and re-established himself among the French-Russian film community. He was tirelessly wooing investors for his new projects, networking among intellectuals and businessmen of all backgrounds, including famous Russian émigrés in Paris, such as Aleksandr Kuprin and Yevgeni Zamyatin, as well as French, German, and British producers. Eventually his persistence and determination produced successful results. In 1931, Tourjansky spotted then unknown 21-year-old Simone Simon on the terrace of the Café de la Paix. He made her a famous actress after their first film together, The Unknown Singer (1931) (The Unknown Singer 1931). Tourjansky and Simon worked together again in Les yeux noirs (1935).

In 1936 he was hired by UFA-Film and moved to Potsdam-Babelsberg, then to Munich, Bavaria. There he worked for the rest of his life as film director and producer. Tourjansky made success with The Blue Fox (1938) (The Blue Fox 1938), a comedy starring Swedish actress Zarah Leander, who was rumoured to be a Soviet-controlled agent and a mistress of Adolf Hitler. Tourjansky himself had several personal meetings with the Reichskanzler during the late 1930s, and was summoned to make several propaganda films, such as Enemies (1940). As a consequence his reputation among the cosmopolitan film community had suffered.

After the Second World War, he lived in Munich, and worked for various film studios with various results. His last film made in the Nazi Germany, a criminal drama Orient-Express (1944), was released after the war. In 1950, he directed Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte (1950) (The Man Who Wanted to Live Twice 1950), a film starring the famous Russian émigré actress Olga Tschechowa. Later Tourjansky directed period epic films, such as Herod the Great (1959), Prisoner of the Volga (1959), The Cossacks (1960), and The Pharaohs' Woman (1960), some of which were considered among his better works. During the 1950s and 1960s he was wintering in Italy and worked there as producer and writer under the artistic name Arnaldo Genoino. Viktor Tourjansky died on August 13, 1976, in Munich, Germany.

Oscar-nominated Hollywood screenwriter Jo Swerling, who also was a Tony Award-winning Broadway writer and lyricist, was born in Berdichev, Ukraine in what was then the Russian Empire. His family emigrated from Czarist Russia and he grew up on the Lower East Side in New York City.

From a youthful job peddling newspapers, he worked his way up to becoming a journalist, working on newspapers and magazines in the 1920s, including the prestigious "Vanity Fair". He became a playwright, like other famous journalists of the era (most notably Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of The Front Page (1931) fame). Swerling wrote the stage show "Street Cinderella" for the The Marx Brothers and the screenplay for their first film, the 1921 comedy short Humor Risk (1921), starring Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo. Groucho supposedly hated it so much, he burned the negative. The movie was never released.

Swerling's first legitimate production on the Great White Way was the musical-revue "The New Yorkers", which ran for a then-respectable 52 performances in March and April 1927. Swerling wrote the book and the lyrics for the songs. His next foray on Broadway was the more successful "Kibitzer", an original comedy he co-wrote with Edward G. Robinson (who also co-starred in the show). It ran for 120 performances in February through June 1929.

Wall Street famously laid an egg in October 1929, and Swerling would not be back on Broadway for 21 years. Hollywood beckoned.

In 1929, Universal adapted his play "The Understander" into the movie Melody Lane (1929) while Paramount released The Kibitzer (1930) the following year (without the participation of Edward G. Robinson). Columbia Pictures, the premier studio on Hollywood's "Poverty Row", hired Swerling, and his first screen credit was for the screenplay for Frank Capra's Ladies of Leisure (1930). He would received screen credit on Capra's next five films in the period 1930-32, before Capra turned to Robert Riskin as his main collaborator. (Jo would work on the screenplay for Capra's classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946), providing additional scenes.)

Swerling worked on scores of films before he received his last screen credit for King of the Roaring 20's: The Story of Arnold Rothstein (1961) in 1961. He received his sole Oscar nomination for The Pride of the Yankees (1942). He was one of the many screenwriters, including Ben Hecht, who worked uncredited on the Oscar-winning Gone with the Wind (1939) screenplay (won by Sidney Howard).

Swerling's greatest professional success came when he returned to Broadway, co-writing the book for the classic musical Guys and Dolls (1955) with Abe Burrows, for which he shared the Tony and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best Musical. The show was a smash, running from November 1950 to November 1953 for a total of 1,200 performances. The screenplay for the 1955 movie adaptation was written by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, whose brother Herman J. Mankiewicz shared an Oscar nod for Best Screenplay in 1943 with Swerling.

Jo Swerling died in Los Angeles, California on October 23, 1964. He was 71 years old.

Sholom Aleichem (translated from Hebrew as a greeting "Peace be with you") was the pseudonym of Sholom Yakov Rabinovitz. He was born on February 18, 1859, in Pereyaslav near Kiev, Ukraine, in the Russian Empire. His father was a religious scholar and the family was trilingual. After his mother died of cholera, when he was only 12 years of age, his father encouraged his writing, even through the hard times. Young Sholom Aleichem attended a Russian secular high school, but never attended university. He was drafted into the Russian Army and upon being discharged became a rabineer for 3 years. Throughout his entire lifetime, he was not wealthy. He had a humble, modest disposition, a quiet voice, and was described by many as a man of great wisdom and wit. It was the humbling experience of his life in Russia under the Czars that led to his special style of "laughing through tears" humor.

Sholom Aleichem began serious writing in the 1880's. He was instrumental in the foundation of "di Yidishe folks bibliotek" (the popular Yiddish library) in 1888. At the same time during the 1880's Jews in Russia came under attack (known as "pogrom"); they suffered loss of property and of lives. In 1905 Sholom Aleichem fled from Russia. He lived in several countries of Europe until WWI. Large numbers of Jews were dislocated because their communities, known as "shetls, were destroyed. With the suffering came an increased cultural awakening of Jews, expressed in literature written in Yiddish. Yiddish was the every day language of European Jews, derived from Hogh German with enrichment from Hebrew, Russian, Polish, and English (among other languages). Sholom Aleichem wrote in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian; he was also fluent in Polish, Ukrainian and other languages.

From 1883 to 1916, Sholom Aleichem wrote about 40 volumes of stories, novels, and plays ; he became the leading writer in Yiddish, and one of the most prolific writers ever. He also wrote scholarly works in Hebrew and secular works in Russian, the only acceptable language of official publishers in the Russian Empire. His works about the life of Jews in traditional communities were based on real life stories and were published throughout Europe and in the United States. His best known work is "Tevye the Milkman" ("Tevye der milkhiker" in Yiddish). It describes the Russian Jewish milkman, who deals with the complex world with humor, pain, optimism, and wisdom. It was adapted for stage production as the play 'Fiddler on the Roof' which became a Broadway success. The eponymous film, starring 'Haim Topol', won three Oscars. A successful staging of the 'Fiddler on the Roof' was done at the Moscow Lenkom Theatre by director Mark Zakharov, starring Evgeniy Leonov and later Vladimir Steklov in the title role.

The dangers of WWI forced Sholom Aleichem to emigrate to America. He settled in the Bronx. The tragedy of separation from his son Misha, who suffered from tuberculosis, was unbearable. After Misha's death in 1915, Sholom Aleichem followed him on May 13, 1916 in Bronx. His funeral was attended by tens of thousands.

The great value of his works is in the meticulous literary preservation of the traditional life of a shtetl, before it disappeared in the tragic abyss of history. "You can take a Jew out of a shtetl, but you cannot take a shtetl out of a Jew", wrote Sholom Aleichem.

Nicholas Saunders was born on 2 June 1914 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Bananas (1971), Daniel (1983) and The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre (1948). He was married to Gedda Petry. He died on 16 August 2006 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Aleksander Ford was born on 24 November 1908 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for Five from Barska Street (1954), Knights of the Teutonic Order (1960) and The Eighth Day of the Week (1958). He was married to Eleanor Griswold, Olga Minska and Janina Wieczerzynska. He died on 4 April 1980 in Naples, Florida, USA.

Borrah Minevitch was born on 5 November 1902 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor and director, known for Rascals (1938), Love Under Fire (1937) and Tramp, Tramp, Tramp! (1942). He was married to Lucille Little Taylor and Betty B. Henry. He died on 26 June 1955 in Paris, France.

Olga Valéry was born on 28 January 1903 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. She was an actress, known for Love in the Afternoon (1957), Bang Bang (1967) and The Parisian (1931). She died on 20 April 2002 in Sarcelles, Val-d'Oise, France.

Lewis J. Selznick, one of the pioneers of studio film production and the father of Oscar-winning Gone with the Wind (1939) producer David O. Selznick, was born Lewis Zeleznik in Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire, into a poor Jewish family with 18 children. Selznick migrated to London at the age of 12, and then to the US, eventually winding up as a small-time jeweler in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Fate intervened in Selznick's life in the guise of John P. Harris, who opened up the first dedicated cinema in Pittsburgh in 1905 (Pennsylvania officials claim that Harris' nickelodeon was the country's first, but there were dedicated theaters in the US for at least three years before Harris' theater--a dedicated cinema had opened in Los Angeles in 1902). Harris called his new theater, which he opened with a 20-minute, one-reel film from Lumiere, a "nickel-odeon," even though his admission price was ten cents ("odeon" is the Greek word for "theater," and "melodeon" had been a name given to music halls), which raises doubts over his claim to have invented the word, as well as the concept. Before the nickelodeon, movies had been shown in makeshift auditoriums and between variety acts in vaudeville houses as "chasers"--they were shown in order to chase lingering patrons out of the theaters to make room for paying customers for the next show. Two merchants with shops near Harris' nickelodeon became intrigued with the potential of the new industry--Harry Warner and Selznick. Both would go on to be the founders of major studios.

"Time" magazine, in a story about his son David in its July 1, 1935 issue, claimed that Lewis became a producer by walking into the headquarters of Universal Film Manufacturing in 1917, commandeering an abandoned desk and putting a sign labeled "General Manager" over it. The truth may be more mundane, but it is nonetheless fascinating and elucidates the evolution of the motion picture industry.

Selznick became general manager of the East Coast Universal Film Exchange, and eventually started Equitable Pictures with financial backing from Chicago mail-order magnate Arthur Spiegel and a Wall Street investment firm. In a familiar pattern of that time, Selznick created Equitable with the aim of raiding Vitagraph for Clara Kimball Young, a huge draw at the box office. Selznick was one of the investors behind World Pictures, headquartered in Ft. Lee, NJ, the first American movie capital. World had been created in 1914 to import foreign-made features and to distribute the movies of several newly established feature-film companies, including Selznick's Equitable Pictures. Selznick then merged his company with Shubert Pictures, which was the movie production arm of Shubert Theatrical Co., and Peerless Pictures, the movie production company created by motion picture raw film stock magnate Jules Brulatour.

World Pictures, now under the effective control of Selznick, released movies produced by Equitable, Peerless and Shubert Pictures, as well as those produced by independent companies, including the California Motion Picture Corp. of San Francisco. Movie production was centered at the Peerless Studio in Fort Lee, which had been built by Brulatour in 1914, and at the Paragon Studio, which was built in 1916. Gradually World Pictures began to dominate the companies whose movies it distributed. World Film Corp. was incorporated in February 1915, with Arthur Spiegel as president and Selznick as vice president and general manager.

"Photoplay" Magazine reported in 1915 that World Film was a large feature film company, both producing and distributing movies through its own exchanges. Its market capitalization totaled $2 million in stock--with a per-share value of $5.00--of which approximately $1.5 million was outstanding. For the fiscal year ending June 27, 1915, World Film reported a net profit of $329,000, equivalent to return of a little over 20% on the outstanding stock. At the time of the Photoplay article World Film had yet to pay a dividend, and its stock was active on the New York Curb Market at prices both above and below its par value.

World Film's market staples were traditional romances, comedies and dramas, starring the likes of Lillian Russell, Alice Brady, Marie Dressler and Lew Fields. Maurice Tourneur, who came over from Éclair America, proved to be World's top filmmaker. Other World Film employees who went on to greater careers included Josef von Sternberg, who worked as a film cutter, and Frances Marion, the future Oscar-winning screenwriter. Famed Broadway caricaturist Al Hirschfeld was appointed head of the art department by Selznick when he was still in his teens.

Lewis Selznick was ousted as general manager of World Film in 1916. Three years later he left World, taking Clara Kimball Young with him, and formed his own production company, the Clara Kimball Young Film Corp. The company leased studios from the Solax Co., which had been founded in Fort Lee by 'Alice Guy Blache' and her husband, Herbert Blaché (Alice Blanche was not only one of the first women movie executives but one of the first women directors as well). Selznick's company also released movies produced by the Schenck brothers, Joseph M. Schenck and Nicholas Schenck, who were partners with theater-owner Marcus Loew in his chain of movie houses, as well as in the Palisades Amusement Park in the Fort Lee/Cliffside Park area.

The early days of the film studios saw a constant spate of mergers and acquisitions as the industry underwent consolidation, and individual moguls jockeyed for position. Samuel Goldfish was ousted from two companies he co-founded in the 1910s, Famous Players-Lasky and Goldwyn Pictures (from which he took his name, being forever known as independent producer Samuel Goldwyn). Selznick merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Pictures in 1917, creating Select Pictures, later reorganized as Selznick Film Co. Selzlnick eventually bought out Zukor and merged his two companies into Selznick-Select, then acquired World Pictures' film exchanges, which he renamed Republic Distributing Corp. He shifted his operation to California, completing the move in 1920, where he again linked up with Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky's Paramount-Artcraft, the successor to Famous Players-Lasky.

Colorful and flamboyant, a quote of Selznick's became one of the most famous aphorisms about the motion picture industry: "There's no business in the world in which a man needs so little brains as in the movies." He also showed a wicked sense of humor. As a Jew growing up in Czarist Russia, a land famous for its anti-Semitic pogroms, Selznick suffered persecution before he emigrated to England. When Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, Selznick sent a cable to him: "When I was a poor boy in Kiev some of your policemen were not kind to me and my people stop I came to America and prospered stop Now hear with regret you are out of a job over there stop Feel no ill will what your policemen did so if you will come New York can give you fine position acting in pictures stop Salary no object stop Reply my expense stop Regards you and family".

Unlike most of the other moguls, Lewis J. Selznick didn't take the movie business too seriously. The other magnates were outraged by his cavalier attitude toward the industry and the moguls themselves. Among the immigrant businessmen who created Hollywood and the American motion picture industry, it was the cultured and introspective ones who failed. Selznick had a self-deprecating cynicism that eventually diluted his ambition. It was said in the early 1920s that Selznick would rather stay at home surrounded by his ojects d'art. Apparently, he eschewed schmoozing with other industry insiders at their favorite haunts, the track, the polo grounds, the skeet range, and the speakeasies. Lacking their tastes and world view, Selznick wound up distrusted by the other movie magnates.

When Lewis J. Selznick Production, Inc., became financially troubled during the production glut of 1923 that roiled the industry, he had no one to turn to. His company went bankrupt in 1923 due to overexpansion, done in by the machinations of a vengeful Zukor. He never produced another movie, or as he'd prefer it, his days as a "presenter" were through (Lewis J. Selznick Productions' pictures were opened with a title card that read: "Selznick Presents." The slogan "Selznick Pictures Make Happy Hours" was, by the end of the second decade of the new 20th century, the best-known slogan in the entertainment industry).

His son David learned the ropes as a young man at Lewis J. Selznick Productions. As an independent producer, David later surpassed Lewis J., winning back-to-back Oscars for "Gone with the Wind" and Rebecca (1940). After his father went bankrupt, David quit Columbia and moved to California to get back into the industry without any help from his father. getting a proofreader's job at MGM. Famous for his facility with words and his writing ability, David quickly worked his way up to story editor, then became an assistant producer in producer Harry Rapf's unit. He began a secret romance with Irene Mayer, daughter of MGM boss Louis B. Mayer, and he eventually decided to quit and take a lower-paying job with better prospects at Paramount.

When he became betrothed to Irene L.B. was skeptical due to Selznick's being a "traitor" by leaving MGM. Actually, he respected David for striking out on his own and avoiding charges of nepotism. Mayer's real objection, it seemed, was rooted in his hatred of David's dad, a renegade who had tried to horn in on the original Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), claiming he had rights to the stage play. David apologized for his father, admitting it wasn't right for Lewis to have pulled such a con, and the two healed their rift, with David eventually working for his father-in-law after the death of Mayer's right-hand man Irving Thalberg (the news of the elevation of David to supervising producer at MGM was the source of the famous newspaper headline, "The Son-in-Law Also Rises.")

Lewis J. Selznick died on January 25, 1933, in Los Angeles, California. World Film and Lewis J. Selznick Productions Inc. no longer exist, and many of the films he produced are lost or forgotten, so his son David's output of great motion pictures remains Lewis J.'s Hollywood legacy. For it was at World Film Corp. that the banner "Quality Not Quantity" had first been unfurled.

Boleslaw Plotnicki was born on 17 June 1913 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Kiev, Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Cien (1956), Haslo Korn (1968) and Zaczarowany rower (1955). He was married to Klaus, Anna. He died on 7 September 1988 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.

Alex Melesh was born on 21 October 1890 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for The Big Broadcast (1932), The Adventurer (1927) and The 3 Wise Guys (1936). He was married to Marie Melesh. He died on 5 March 1949 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Lyubov Dobrzhanskaya was born on 24 December 1908 in Kiev, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kyiv, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine]. She was an actress, known for V chetverg i bolshe nikogda (1978), Uchitel tantsev (1952) and Watch Out for the Automobile (1966). She died on 3 November 1980 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].

Sam Ross was born on 10 March 1911 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. Sam was a writer, known for He Ran All the Way (1951), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) and Rescue 8 (1958). Sam died on 30 March 1998 in Mercer Island, Washington, USA.

Diana Karenne was born in 1888 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. She was an actress and director, known for Redenzione (1919), Marie Antoinette - Das Leben einer Königin (1922) and Rasputins Liebesabenteuer (1928). She died on 14 October 1940 in Aachen, Germany.

Anatole Kirsanoff was born on 2 September 1911 in Kiev, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a director and assistant director, known for Fantastic Voyage (1968), The Adventures of Batman (1968) and The Adventures of Superboy (1966). He died on 2 May 1973 in Burbank, California, USA.

Dmitriy Kapka was born on 7 November 1898 in Kiev, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kyiv, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine]. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Bountiful Summer (1951), Zvyozdy na krylyakh (1955) and Viy (1967). He died on 25 October 1977 in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine].