Sol Lesser

In 1913, while living in San Francisco, Sol Lesser learned that the authorities were about to clean out the Barbary Coast district, a raucous area of gambling houses, saloons and brothels. He grabbed a camera and a friend, future Hollywood cameraman Hal Mohr, and roamed the area, especially the parts that were best-known before the area was shut down. (The Barbary Coast was not actually closed down until 1917.) This film is now considered a lost film.

The resulting film was The Last Night of the Barbary Coast, an early example of an exploitation film that was sold directly to movie theater owners by Lesser. With the profits from the film, he bought several theaters, and soon owned a cinema chain.

Sol Lesser signed Jackie Coogan to a movie contract in 1922, establishing both as major Hollywood names. The Coogan-Lesser hits included Oliver Twist and Peck's Bad Boy. Lesser made a successful transition to sound films, with his own Principal Pictures company; he would either distribute his productions himself under the Principal name, or arrange for a major studio to release them under their own trademarks (as with his Buck Jones westerns and his 1938 novelty western The Terror of Tiny Town, all released by Columbia). In 1933, Lesser produced Thunder Over Mexico a compilation film made from Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico! with the permission of Upton Sinclair, who had commissioned the Soviet film maker, and his wife.

His productions usually had higher budgets than the usual independent features; Lesser was able to produce entire series with name stars like George O'Brien and Bobby Breen. He also produced serials in 1933 and 1934. Lesser was very successful as an independent producer, later releasing through United Artists. notably with the films Our Town (1940) and the all-star wartime revue Stage Door Canteen (1943).

In 1933 Lesser succeeded in buying screen rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan character. A Tarzan the Fearless serial with screen newcomer Buster Crabbe resulted, but Burroughs, deciding to make his own Tarzan films, refused to renegotiate with Lesser. Burroughs's own movie enterprises were short-lived, and the rights passed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Burroughs sold Lesser options on all his Tarzan novels for seven years, with Lesser producing one Tarzan film a year for 20th Century-Fox. Only one Tarzan film was produced under this arrangement: Tarzan's Revenge (1938) featuring athletes Glenn Morris and Eleanor Holm. MGM objected to Lesser competing with its own Tarzan series, and Lesser agreed to sell the rights back to MGM. When MGM relinquished the rights in 1942, Lesser regained the Tarzan property. Lesser's new Tarzan films were produced for RKO and starred Johnny Weissmuller and later Lex Barker and Gordon Scott, and Lesser devoted himself to these jungle adventures for the rest of his career. Lesser sold the Tarzan rights to producer Sy Weintraub in 1958, and retired. "I had reached the age that one either finishes on top or far below. I decided I would end on top, and I was satisfied," he said.

Toward the end of his life he was actively involved in restoring many of his early productions, often in association with film preservationists at Blackhawk Films. Blackhawk reprinted many of Lesser's silent and sound films for the home-movie market.

Sol Lesser died in 1980, and was buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

Sol Lesser was the recipient of The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1960. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.