Samuel J. Briskin (February 8, 1896 – November 14, 1968) was one of the foremost producers of Hollywood's Golden Age, and head of production during his career at three of the "Big 8" major film studios: Columbia Pictures (twice), Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures. In the late 1950s, he was briefly on the board of directors of another major, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. During World War II, Briskin served in the army's Signal Corps as a film producer, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he co-founded Liberty Films with Frank Capra. They were later joined by William Wyler and George Stevens. The studio only produced two films, but both are now considered classics: It's a Wonderful Life and State of the Union. All three of his brothers were also film producers, as well as one of his sons, and his sister was married to the eventual Chairman of Columbia, where Briskin spent the last decade of his life as a vice-president and head of production until his death in 1968 from a heart attack.
Early life Briskin was born on February 8, 1896, in either Riga, Russia, or New York City. His parents were Benjamin and Rose Briskin. Two of his brothers, Irving and Murray, also became film producers, while his sister, Ida, married a film studio executive. Briskin also had one other brother, Barnett (Barney), who was also in the film industry as a theater manager and in sales capacities. While some sources have his birthplace is Riga, Russia, others indicate that he was born in New York, after his parents immigrated there. Briskin was a product of the public school system. He obtained his college degree in accounting from the College of the City of New York.
Career
Silent era After graduating college, Briskin worked as an accountant. Briskin entered the film industry as an accountant at Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales in 1920. In 1924, when the Cohn brothers incorporated CBC as Columbia Pictures, he left the studio and created an independent production company with George H. Davis named Banner Productions. The company was scheduled to produce 8 films, four on the east coast and four in California. The company was incorporated in May 1924, and produced over 20 films between 1925 and 1927. Briskin gave his brother, Irving, his start in the film industry, as an auditor for Banner. Irving would go on to be a film producer in his own right. The company's first film was The Truth About Women, a 1924 melodrama directed by Burton King, and starring Hope Hampton and Lowell Sherman. The picture was filmed at the Whitman Bennett Studios near Yonkers, New York. The next film Briskin would produce was The Man Without a Heart, again directed by King and filmed at the Bennett Studios, this time starring Kenneth Harlan and Jane Novak. In addition to producing the films, Briskin would also travel around the country making sales deals for the company's films. In 1925 Briskin would produce the melodrama, The Phantom Express, starring Ethel Shannon and George Periolat. This was followed in 1926 by the film Brooding Eyes, starring the legendary Lionel Barrymore.
1926 saw Briskin take a film crew on location to Sonora, Mexico, shooting for Whispering Canyon, starring Jane Novak and Robert Ellis. Late in 1926 Briskin's sister, Ida Briskin, was wed to Abe Schneider, an exec at Columbia Pictures. Late in 1926, George Davis died suddenly, and Briskin dissolved Banner.
The advent of sound and Columbia Pictures After Banner, Briskin returned to work at Columbia Pictures, where he began producing for them in 1926, and in 1928 he was given control over 18 of their productions. By 1929, Briskin had risen to be a top executive at the studio, sharing honors with studio head Harry Cohn, in giving the closing address at Columbia's annual sales meeting in July 1929. By the end of 1929, Briskin was the assistant general manager of Columbia, and on a visit to New York City signed several Broadway playwrights to long-term contracts with the studio, including Elmer Harris, Jo Swerling, and Paul Hervey Fox. Not only was Briskin active in the production office at Columbia, but he also played on Columbia's baseball team, which competed in the Motion Picture Baseball League. It was while working at Columbia that Briskin met Frank Capra. In 1930, Briskin's brother Irving, who he had employed while at Banner, joined him as a producer at Columbia.
By the early 1930s, Briskin had gained a reputation of being a very thrifty producer. However, he was also known for putting the quality of the product over saving money. Joseph Walker, the cinematographer for the 1931 film Dirigible, directed by Frank Capra, explained why the film had not used stock footage of blimps, which would have been much less expensive: [Briskin], the studio's general manager, who personally supervised the making of the picture, and who is perhaps more keenly exacting in the matter of getting a full dollar's worth of production for every dollar spent than any other executive in the business, was wise enough to see that an otherwise superlative production would fall flat if such scenes were made "merely adequate". Therefore he spared no expense in assuring absolute authenticity in every detail of the production.
In 1931 Harry Cohn became the first studio head to implement the new unit production system, wherein producers were given specific responsibility over individual films, rather than supervising dozens of pictures in a given year. Briskin was one of the first four of this new class of producer selected by Cohn, while still maintaining his assistant general manager status. In 1932 Briskin went from assistant general manager, to general manager at Columbia, the announcement being made by in early June by Sam Cohn.
In February 1933, Briskin's home was burglarized, the thieves absconding with $24,000 (in 1933 dollars) in jewels. Also in 1933, Briskin was appointed as the studios' representative for the producers-actors code committee. In February 1934 Briskin was named as the chairman of the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The following month Briskin was also appointed to the finance committee overseeing the Research Council. By 1934, Briskin's brother, Irving, was one of the Columbia's unit producers.
In 1934 Briskin was selected to be one of the personnel representing the film studios in their negotiations with the Motion Picture Theater Owners of America. Among the others representing the producers included Louis B. Mayer, Hal Roach, Jack L. Warner, B. B. Kahane, and Harold Lloyd. By this point, Briskin was considered one of the most important studio executives in the industry, being included a group called by some "the brain trust", which also included Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner, B. B. Kahane, Harold Lloyd, Hal Roach, and Irving Thalberg. In June 1934 Briskin, acting as a representative for 8 major studios, met with representatives from film camera manufacturers, in an attempt to reach an agreement between the two sides to pool their resources in order to develop a silent film camera. In September 1934, Briskin signed a new contract with Columbia, after having been courted by Paramount. Later that month, he was elected to the producers branch of AMPAS, as well as being appointed a member of the executive committee. When the 1932 agreement between studios and freelance screenwriters expired in 1935, Briskin was selected as one of five producers, the others being Sol Wurtzel, Irving Thalberg, Hal Wallis, and Henry Herzbrun, to represent the studios in the negotiations. In addition to representing the producers in their negotiations with the writers, Briskin was also selected as one of six producers to negotiate the new contract with the actors' guild. In August 1935 Briskin was renegotiating his contract with Columbia. Speculation began that he was being approached by other studios, including MGM.
RKO years
In September 1935, after seven years, Briskin resigned from Columbia, failing to reach an agreement with Harry Cohn over stock options. For years, many in the film industry knew that Briskin was responsible for many of the successes at Columbia, even though studio head Harry Cohn was taking the credit. Shortly after, reports began to circulate that he was headed to 20th Century-Fox. Shortly after that report, he was offered a front-office position at MGM, but turned it down because he wanted to be more actively involved in film production, which was followed by a denial from Fox that he was headed to that studio. One of the rumors which circulated was that Briskin was part of a group aligned with Consolidated Film Industries, which was attempting a takeover of Universal. By year's end, Briskin had agreed to a deal with Warner Bros. to produce 12 films, however that deal never reached fruition and Briskin ended up agreeing to a deal with RKO to join the studio as their vice-president in charge of production. The position was newly created especially for Briskin. B. B. Kahane remained as the overall head of RKO Studios, running all aspects other than production, but there was concern that Briskin would have conflict with long-term RKO producer, Pandro S. Berman. Conflict was averted when Berman received a one-year extension on his contract, wherein he had sole authority over his productions, answering only directly to Kahane.