Allan Dwan

His story as mentioned in the book ‘Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios’ by Frederic Lombardi, was released in New York accompanied by a screening of Allan’s directorial works.

He died in his woodland hills home in Los Angeles, California. The burial ceremony was held at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California

Joseph Aloysius Dwan was born in Ontario, Canada on April 3rd 1885. He was renamed Allan Dwan later, since he was teased in his school for having a girlish name. The family then migrated from Canada to America when he was barely eight years old.

He then attended the prestigious ‘University of Notre Dame’ located in Indiana, United States to pursue a degree in engineering.

Allan started his career as an engineer with a lighting company in Chicago. The production house ‘Essanay Studios’ was a client of the company he was working with, and during one of his assignments to inspect the lights installation in the studio, he came across movie producer George Spoor. Thus began his tryst with Hollywood, when he submitted his written works to the latter’s studio and was offered a job as the scriptwriter in 1909.

The story of how he turned a director is hilarious. This man initially worked as a scriptwriter for a movie production firm named ‘Flying A Studios’ in La Mesa, California. In August 1911, during the filming activity of one of the banner’s movies, he was asked to trace the whereabouts of the director.

It was later discovered that this director had fled town after one of his drinking episodes, and the responsibility to direct the movie passed on to Allan.

He then went on to work with the production company ‘Flying A Studios’ till 1913, directing as many as fifty Westerns starring the new-comer Pauline Bush. He later went on to marry her.

He next worked at the ‘Universal Pictures’ from 1913-1915, where he apparently directed twenty films including flicks like ‘A Girl of Yesterday’, which starred Mary Pickford.

His movies ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Iron Mask’ starring Douglas Fairbanks were a big success at the box office. ‘Robin Hood’ established him in the industry as a major film maker.

The war movie ‘The Sands of Iwo Jima’, which came out in 1949 was also a block buster and earned Oscar nominations. The movie is a prized collection of the Republic Pictures Library.