Intermountain Jewish news., 1925-10-15
Film Director Originally
Trained for Rabbiuate
BY GEO. LANDY

rcctor--is one Of the salient ex-
amples Of the films remorseless ae-
QUESTION of ability. His father was
= Rabbi of Oklahoma City and, in ad-
dition to sending his son to the public
schools, he had little Albert educated
in the Hebrew classics and gave him
special instruction at home, in expec-
tation that the son would follow in
the fathers footsteps and turn to the
Rabbinate.
Instead of becoming n Rabbi, Al
took liking to the wild, wild West
Oklahoma wasn't West enough. So
he started for the Pacific Coast and
on his travels he learned the West
from Oklahoma to Oregon. His
learning was not the mere glance
which the traveller gets from q Pull
man car window but the actual, go
out and d-mix-with-it contact which 4
young man gets with the rough and
tumble West. Out Of this early first
hand contact with the West have
come many Of the screen stories
which Rogell has written, scenaroized
and then directed to big artistic and
box Office successes. Out of it has
come the knowinG-how to take un-
known actors and to make them stars
with few pictures.
When Roeell reached Oregon in his
Western travels, he had to stop or
change direction. He elected to go
North and stopped in Washington,
where he matricuiated at the State
University. Near the campus was a
motion picture studio, where Larry
Trimble was director and Phil Rosen,
cincmatograthcr. The activities at
the studio were more to the young
students liking than those at the Uni
versity and he began to spend his
spare time at the film plant, where
the life of the wild, wild West was
being put into pictures. 1t was the
life that Rogell knew all about and
the picture making crowded out all
desire for study. So he just natur-
ally drifted into job as assistant
to everybody-from the director down
to the property boy. Then the fac
ulty of the university decided that
Rogcll was not satisfactory student
end cancelled his registration. This
was all right with AL.
Hollywood Debut
Switching to Hollywood, AL met
George Loane Tucker, who recognized
Rogell's possibilities at glance, so
the youth of Oklahoma helped to
make "The Miracle Man." the master
piece which was the marvel of its
day.
From fuckers studio, Rogell went
| to A. J. Callahan and turned the
camera crank for a series of pictures
in which Bessie Love starred. Then
he became assistant director and tech
nical man. In 1922, Rogell produced
his first picture, 1.-THE Queen OF
Hearts," and it was all his! Rogel
wrote the story and the adaptation
directed the production, photographed
it, cut and titled it and then went tt
New York and sold it. This estab
lisi,ed Rogell in the film industry as
one who had the all-round ability tt
insure his own success. He ther
wrote, directed and produced series
of two and tive-reel Westerns which
proved big box-office attractions, ais,
displaying his versatility by making
"The Greatest Menace" story OF
the drug evil.
4 Cats Production Costs
The next step in Rogell's cinema
career proved big one. He took
Fred Thompson, then an unknown
actor, and, with seven pictures, made
him star with big box-office fol
lowing. Each picture brought in 8
gross income of more than ten time:
its cost and, in reports from 40,0W
exhibitors on this series, there was
not one adverse criticism! The
Thompson pictures established Rogel
as "mascot" director and he livet
up to this reputation when he tool
Reed Howes and, with eight society
melodramas, elevated him to stardon
also.
Il Rogell now has a company of 81
from Universal in Deadwood Cit.
making Western productions, witt
Jack Hoxie as star. He took advan
L II