B. P. Schulberg Biography

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B.P. Schulberg (January 19, 1892 - February 25, 1957) was a pioneer film producer and movie studio executive.

Born Benjamin Percival Schulberg in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he worked in the fledgling film industry in New York City until 1919 when he moved to Hollywood, California where he operated "Preferred Pictures" and was responsible for making Clara Bow a star. He joined Louis B. Mayer to form "Mayer-Schulberg Studio" but after Mayer became part of MGM, Schulberg would join with Adolph Zukor and became the head of Paramount Pictures.

In an era when the film industry was filled with conservative studio executives, B.P. Schulberg was a "New Deal" liberal, described by Moving Pictures magazine as "a political liberal in the reactionary world of Mayer and Hearst." His wife Adeline Jafee-Schulberg, the sister of producer/talent agent Sam Jafee, spent little time with Hollywood society women, instead working for charities that aided the poor and promoting socialism. They were the parents of renowned novelist and screenwriter, Budd Schulberg.

In a power struggle at Paramount, Schulberg left the studio in 1937 and remained out of the business until 1940 when he began producing for Columbia Pictures. He produced six films for Columbia in three years until he retired in 1943.

B.P. Schulberg died at his home in Key Biscayne, Florida in 1957.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, B.P. Schulberg has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street.

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