1895-1960
Director Benjamin W. Stoloff was born on this day in Philadelphia. Though born on the east coast, he obtained his higher education on the west coast, earning a degree from UCLA. He promptly went into film, which he broke into with Play Ball with Babe Ruth, a short film in which he paired up with future successful Hollywood screenwriter Lou Breslow, in 1920. A full three years later, he became a director of one of my favorite actors of the time Al St. John, after the downfall of St. John's famous uncle Roscoe Arbuckle some two years prior. His first outing directing St. John was in Full Speed Ahead, which was a Fox short comedy released in September of 1923. Continuing to work with St. John, he stayed at Fox as director (or co-directing) short comedies. He would remain at the studio for the rest of the decade. By 1925 he was still working in this capacity, but had expanded to other Fox "gag" actors like Sidney Smith and the very short and funny Barbara Luddy, as Al had moved on to work again with uncle, albeit anonymously. In 1926, Fox hired him to head up the Tom Mix film The Canyon of Light, it would be his first feature. He then took a break from directing Mix to move back into familiar comedy territory with the now lost to us World War One farce The Gay Retreat (1927), but returned to Mix and Tony the Horse immediately after. His first film with sound was the Fox partial silent farce Plastered in Paris released in September of 1928. While his first full sound film followed with The Bath Between, with Mind Your Business following closely on--both were a return to the comedy short. Without a doubt, his most well known film--again despite it's lost status--is the 1929 Fox sports drama Speakeasy, only because of the presence of John Wayne as an extra (it's enough to make the film "famously lost" in some circles, despite The Duke's diminutive role). All three of the remaining films that he directed for the decade were full mono talkies. The last of these was the shot on location(s) latinx tinged crime film The Girl From Havana. He was promptly put in charge of Fox's next chapter of their Movietone Follies in 1930: New Movietone Follies of 1930, and was one of the longest films that he had directed to date (it was released, with some modern color sequences, on the 4th of May). In the 1930's he added regular producer to his portfolio, having made his producer "debut" in 1928 with Horsemen of the Plains (additionally, he already had two writing credits from 1924 to his name: Highly Recommended & Be Yourself, both Al St. John films). Again, with some of the other names I've chosen to feature this month, the reason for choosing Stoloff is his slide into b-movie territory, particularly in the production side of the business. And, we all know, that where there are b-films in the 1940's and 1950's...there are horror films. This being spooktober I'd like to highlight a few of them. Stoloff began his journey into horror as a director on the 1933 Bela Lugosi old dark house feature Night of Terror. He also directed The Hidden Hand in 1942. As a producer his horror credits include Zombies on Broadway (1945) and The Amazing Mr. X [aka The Spiritualist] (1948)--he was also an associate producer on a comedic b-grade take on the invisible man theme in The Body Disappears (1941). Stoloff finished his career by directing some television. He was the sole director of all 26 episodes of the series "Home Run Derby"--really more of a game show, than scripted TV. His career was cut short by his death, which occurred on the 8th of September, 1960. He was almost 65 years old. There is currently no information on his burial or cremation.
