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To persons outside the cinema industry, Zanuck is a new name. Within the industry he is celebrated. William R. Wilkerson's Hollywood Reporter, Talmud of the cinema industry, lavishly called him last week "the greatest piece of motion picture property living today. . . ." Born at Wahoo, Neb. of U. S.-Swiss parentage, he ran away from home at 15, enlisted in the Army, chased Pancho Villa in Mexico, went to Los Angeles penniless after the 1918 Armistice. He worked in a box factory, in a shipyard, in the Baker Iron Works, wrote advertising cards for drug store windows, tried being a prizefighter for two fights. He held 18 jobs, lost them all without losing his ambition to become a writer for the cinema. Friends told him the way to do it was to write a book. He wrote a book of short stories in two weeks, paid to have it printed, waved it in producers' faces when asking for a job. He and Director Malcolm St. Clair managed famed Police Dog Rin Tin Tin. They got work with Warner Brothers by acting out their stories, taking turns impersonating Rin Tin Tin. Small, sharp-faced Zanuck quickly progressed to a successful series of boxing stories; in three years he was studio dictator. When Warner Brothers merged with First National, Darryl Zanuck was placed in complete control of both studios. He has proved his ability by keeping average production costs for Warner pictures down to $250,000, producing such hits as The Jazz Singer, Disraeli, Doorway to Hell (which started the gangster cycle), Forty-Second Street (currently reviving the vogue for musical films).
Producer Zanuck is fond of telephones that fall apart, flypaper seats, and of "ribbing" his friends in a high rasping voice. Once at a Hollywood party he was found trying to write a story under a rug. His friend and immediate superior, Vice President Jack Warner, opposed Zanuck's resignation last week. Outsiders wondered whether President Harry Warner, ready to cut off his nose to spite his face, had cut off his head instead. Zanuck plans to produce 12 pictures a year with his new company. He will be paid $4,500 a week, 50% of the profits of his pictures and a $100,000 bonus before he starts work. Supervisor Ray Griffith, Story Editor Howard Smith, Personnel Director William Dover, all from the Warner lot, had already agreed to work with him last week. Backers of the new company were not named.