Jesse Lasky on the cover of “We’ve Had a Lovely Time, So Long, Good Bye,” Courtesy of Mary Mallory.
Best known as one of Hollywood’s early motion picture moguls, native Californian Jesse L. Lasky also excelled at radio and theatrical production during his long career. A natural born performer and optimist, Lasky developed much of the material for the shows he produced, performed on stage by talented actors he discovered, thanks to his wide experience working in entertainment himself.
Lasky himself began performing at a young age, playing the cornet and dreaming of playing in the great John Phillip Sousa band. He points out in his biography, “I Blow My Own Horn,” that he served as solo cornetist in the San Jose Juvenile Band, later playing in tent shows. After his father’s death, he played in tent shows, the Bella Union Hotel, and music halls before landing a job playing in the orchestra at Keith’s Union Square Theatre, per Filmplay Journal in April 1922. The adventurous young man took off on tour to far away places like Hawaii playing his cornet, eventually returning to California to work as a newspaper reporter. Wanderlust captured him again, and he set off to Alaska to prospect for gold.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
