Historic Hollywood

SOL LEONARD
LESSER
❖
Above: Sol Lesser and Jackie Coogan
in 1922.
Below: Sol and Fay Lesser, at his
Principal Pictures Studio on Santa
Monica Boulevard, west of Fairbanks-
Pickford Studio in 1924.
In the pantheon of motion picture pioneers,
producer Sol Leonard Lesser is revered for his
service to the Hollywood community. The
Spokane, Washington, native was an infant
when his family moved to San Francisco. Lesser
would later become one of few Californians to
help establish the motion picture industry.
Among his many milestones, Lesser produced
over 150 films and made more Tarzan films (17)
than any other producer.
As a teenager, Lesser operated a projector in
his father’s nickelodeon. He learned to patch
damaged films and used this skill to edit junked
reels into saleable subjects. For his sales, he also
hired a cameraman to shoot the disastrous 1906
San Francisco earthquake and fire. In 1907, to
finance his expanding trade, Lesser became
the first film entrepreneur in America to
receive a bank loan. He opened a distribution
business called All Star Features Exchange for
which he shot the film Last Night of the Barbary
Coast (1915).
In 1913, Lesser married Fay Grunauer and
the couple had two children: a son, Julian and a
daughter, Marjorie. After his successful
distribution of Eyes of the World in 1917, Lesser
moved his family to Los Angeles to become a
Hollywood producer. His first Hollywood film
was the 1921 smash hit Oliver Twist, starring
Jackie Coogan and Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lesser was also a distinguished business leader,
seen by many as wise, ethical and stunningly
likeable. He enjoyed an unparalleled fifty-year run
independently producing successful movies,
surviving four wars, the Great Depression and
major technological changes in movie making.
Lesser was instrumental in devising the plan
to finance the Motion Picture Relief Fund for the
welfare of studio employees, whereby they
could designate a portion of their paychecks for
62 ✦ HISTORIC HOLLYWOOD