Oral Histories

Interview of Raymond A. Klune

Production manager for Selznick International Pictures and Twentieth Century-Fox. Vice president of RKO and general manager at MGM.
Subtitle:
Recollections of Raymond Klune
Series:
Oral History of the Motion Picture in America
Topic:
Film and Television
Biographical Note:
Production manager for Selznick International Pictures and Twentieth Century-Fox. Vice president of RKO and general manager at MGM.
Interviewer:
Dorr, John H.
Interviewee:
Klune, Raymond A.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Length:
6 hrs.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Interviewee Retained Copyright
Series Statement:
These interviews with prominent individuals in the motion picture industry were completed under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Film Institute to the UCLA Department of Theater Arts. The project was directed by Howard Suber, UCLA Department of Theater Arts. The UCLA Oral History Program provided technical advice but was not involved in respondent selection, research participation, research preparation, interviewing, editing, or transcript preparation.
Abstract:
Office boy for Griffith Studios, Mamaroneck, New York, 1920; B.S. in business administration, New York University, 1927; work with D. W. Griffith in all departments until 1932; move to California, 1936; production manager, Selznick International Pictures, 1936-43; executive production manager, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1943-55; vice president, RKO, 1956-58; general manager, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1958-69; lessons learned from Griffith; importance of enthusiasm; David O. Selznick and problems making Gone With the Wind; ultimate control of filmmaking; Darryl Zanuck's strengths as executive; third act of Pinky; The Snakepit; Griffith and The Struggle written by Anita Loos and John Emerson; Griffith at Paramount Pictures and United Artists; Stephen Vincent Benét, Walter Huston, and Abraham Lincoln; impact of advertising on Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Way Down East; cinematographers Billy Bitzer and Karl Struss; hurricane in One Exciting Night; film preservation programs; problems of early sound films; The Garden of Allah, Gone With the Wind, Rebecca, Intermezzo; Lee Zavitz and special effects; burning Atlanta in Culver City; Leslie Howard; Zanuck's executive style; Cinemascope; Spyros Skouras; Marilyn Monroe; Samuel Fuller; Nunnally Johnson and The Three Faces of Eve; Ernst Lubitsch; Elia Kazan; censorship of movies.