Page "Howard Hawks" Paragraph 6

Beginning in the early 1920, Hawks lived in rented houses in Hollywood with the group of friends he was accumulating.

This rawdy group of mostly macho, risk-taking men included his brother Kenneth Hawks, Victor Fleming, Jack Conway, Harold Rosson, Richard Rosson, Arthur Rosson and Eddie Sutherland.

During this time period Hawks first met Irving Thalberg, the frail and sickly vice-President in charge of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Eventually many of the young men in this group would become successful at MGM under Thalberg, and Hawks admired his intelligence and sense of story.

At the same time, Hawks was becoming friends with barn stormers and pioneer aviators at Rogers Airport in Los Angeles, getting to know men like Moye Stephens.

In 1923, Famous Players-Lasky president Jesse Lasky was looking for a new Production Editor in the Story department of his studio, and Thalberg suggested the Ivy-League Hawks.

Hawks accepted and was immediately put in charge of over forty productions, including many literary acquisitions that included works by Joseph Conrad, Jack London and Zane Grey.

Hawks worked on the scripts for all of the films produced, but had his first official screenplay credit in 1924 on Tiger Love.

Hawks was the Story Editor at Famous Players ( later Paramount Pictures ) almost two years, and occasionally edited such films as Heritage of the Desert.

Although Hawks signed a new one-year contract with Famous-Players in the fall of 1924, he broke his contract to become a story editor for Thalberg at MGM with the promise that Thalberg would make him a director in a year.

But in 1925 when Thalberg hesitated to follow through on his promise, Hawks broke his contract at MGM.