Australians in Hollywood : Biographical Notes

Ken G. Hall
Ken G. Hall (1901-1994), first visited Hollywood in 1925, while working for Sydney 's First National Pictures. In 1932 he made his first Cinesound feature, On Our Selection. Hall would make another 18 features for Cinesound, including such classics as Strike Me Lucky (1934) and Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938). In 1942 he shared Australia 's first Oscar as producer of Damien Parer's documentary Kokoda Front Line. Like the other great pioneer of Australian cinema, Charles Chauvel, Hall was an unapologetic student of Hollywood values and production methods. In 1946 N. P. Pery, the Head of Columbia Pictures' Australian office, commissioned Hall to make an Australian film for the international market. Ned Kelly and Nellie Melba were considered as possible subjects, but ultimately Hall made Smithy. Columbia 's American boss, the formidable Harry Cohn, didn't relish his lack of control over the project. He savagely recut the picture for its U.S. release; it flopped; and in 1947 he informed Hall that Columbia would make no further pictures in Australia. Smithy would prove to be Hall's last feature film. In 1956 he left Cinesound to run Frank Packer's newly-formed Nine network.

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