Carl Laemmle Sr. to Paul Kohner (17 Aug. 1932): "You have more tough luck connected with your activities than any young man I have ever met in my entire career...I told you repeatedly as far as Doomed Battalion in America is concerned it is an absolute failure. Not only will we make no money with it, but I doubt very much if we will get our money back. That is one more failure to your credit."
Jack Ross to Max Friedland, Feb. 2, 1945: "My work with Paul Kohner is almost along the same lines I enjoyed with your late Uncle Carl. Paul has so many habits like Laemmle had that I almost feel at home again."
After eighteen years working in publicity, as a casting agent, and producer for Carl Laemmle's Universal Studio, Paul Kohner needed to reinvent himself. With his work as the chief producer at Universal's German subsidiary, he had reached the pinnacle of success with quite successful German language movies, but the Nazis took over in Germany, Universal Studios fell into near bankruptcy, and he moved to Columbia Pictures and MGM with little to show for his work in those two studios.
With startup capital from friends William Wyler and Joseph Pasternak, in 1938 Kohner founded what would eventually become one of the most famous talent agencies in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard. In the same year, he helped found the European Film Fund and helped save hundreds of Jewish lives by providing jobs and affidavits in spite of the State Department's reluctance to let persecuted Jews into the US. In the first few years, Paul Kohner, Inc. was as much a refugee immigration-affidavit service as it was a talent agency.
This presentation examines Kohner's story of intermittent setbacks on his crooked and undesired path toward entrepreneurship. It examines the importance of sometimes difficult mentorship and "pull" (Laemmle Sr.), the importance of networks both inside and outside the studio system, and the lifelong friendship of close colleagues and friends that enabled this new venture. Kohner's agency acted as a translocal portal and safe haven for newly immigrated writers, actors, directors and producers from Europe, many of whom helped to reinvent Hollywood.