Dore Schary: Writer Rose to Become Production Chief of Hollywood's Most Storied Studio

Dore Schary was one of the most interesting players in Hollywood history, flourishing as both a creative collaborator in the Hollywood studio system as a screenwriter, and as a producer and studio boss. He resembled former Warner Bros. production chief and 20th Century-Fox boss Darryl F. Zanuck in both his career (Zanuck started out as a screenwriter) and as a liberal who wanted to make socially conscious films; unlike Zanuck, Schary returned to the creative world after his ouster as studio boss, and achieved even greater success as an artist.

Schary started out his Hollywood odyssey as a writer on a one-year contract at Columbia Studios, eventually winding up as chief of production at Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, while copping an Oscar for the classic film Boys Town along the way. As M-G-M. production chief, Dore tried to steer the venerable studio away from musicals and fluff towards making movies with social content. Eventually, Dore would be sacked at M-G-M, cast in the role of fall-guy for the reversal of fortunes bedeviling the movie industry in the new television era. He went back to writing and soon resurrected himself as a Tony Award-winning playwright and Broadway producer. Schary, a great-hearted liberal who believed in the didactic purpose of art, is one of the most interesting figures to grace American popular culture in the 20^th Century.

According to the Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia, the future Oscar- and Tony Award-winner and studio boss was born Isadore Schary in Newark, New Jersey on August 31, 1905, to immigrants Herman Hugo Schary and the former Belle Drachler. His parents ran a catering business and also were involved in the hospitality trade. When he was 14, Schary quit high school to seek his fortune, but eventually, he was forced to return to school to get his diploma after a series of dead-end jobs. The young Isadore wanted to be part of show business, and he inherently understood that literacy was to be his forte.