Pete Smith (film producer)

Pete Smith
Smith in a 1918 issue of The Moving Picture World
Born	Peter Schmidt (1892-09-04)September 4, 1892 New York City, U.S.
Died	January 12, 1979(1979-01-12) (aged 86) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Producer and narrator of short subjects, Publicist
Years active	1931–1955
Known for	Pete Smith Specialties
Spouses	Marjorie Ganss ​ ​ (m. 1918; died 1957)​ Anne Dunster ​ (m. 1962⁠–⁠1979)​
Children	1
Awards	Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film (1938, 1941) Academy Honorary Award (1953)

Peter Schmidt (September 4, 1892 – January 12, 1979^[1]), Americanized to Pete Smith, was a stenographer, a magazine editor, press agent, critic, actor and film producer based in Hollywood, California. He produced short films. He hailed from New York New York. He was respected by the entertainment industry, and was honored by the Academy several times, garnering in total three Oscars.^[2][3]

During the roaring twenties, Mr. Smith began working as a publicist. This was primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM studios). Well known for the Pete Smith Specialties, film serials which were produced from the 1930s to the 1950s, some of which earned Academy Awards. These, more than 150 short movies, earned two Academy Awards. By 1953, he additionally was awarded an Academy Honorary Award.

In 1979, admitted to a Santa Monica, California convalescent home due to his ill health. In January 1979, he jumped to his death from the roof of the home.

In 1892, Mr. Smith was born, during the horse and buggy era of New York City.^[3] He was an aide for a vaudeville performers union. Smith then worked as an editor and critic for a trade magazine. He then was a press agent.^[3][4] During the dawn of moving pictures, 1915, he was doing movie publicity for Bosworth, Inc., Oliver Morosco Photoplay Co., Artcraft Pictures Corporation, and Famous Players–Lasky.^[2] He was one of the founding members of the Associated Motion Picture Advertisers.^[5] Mr. Smith was the manager of publicity for Louis B. Mayer of MGM studios by 1925.^[4] Years later, when talkies came about, as a narrator he provided sports newsreel commentary. As a lark, embellishment of the action by running certain scenes in reverse added humor, adding his own commentary. He narrated the actions of trained dogs for the Dogville Comedies.

Because of Smith's flair for comedy, he produced his own series, Pete Smith Specialties; he produced and narrated 150 short movie subjects for MGM from the 1930s to 1955. His distinctive tenor voice and nasal tone were recognized as a trademark of the series.

Most of Smith's movies were one reel (9 to 11 minutes long). Short-movie subjects were shown before a feature film in movie houses and theaters. The diverse subject matter Smith featured in these shorts were Emily Post-style household hints, insect life seen through a microscope, military training and hardware (during World War II), and dancing lessons. There were even several "series-within-the-series", such as general-knowledge quizzes, professional-football news, features concerning different kinds of animals (Donkey Baseball and Social Sea Lions), and "Goofy Movies"^[6][7] (playing antique silent dramas humorously). During the war effort, Mr. Smith narrated a patriotic short movie for the U.S. Government, The Tree In a Test Tube (1943), filmed in color, featuring Laurel and Hardy in a demonstration of household wood products, with Smith explaining the various exhibits for the viewer.

Dave O'Brien became the primary actor of Pete Smith Specialties during the 1940s. The hapless O'Brien would personify everyday nuisances: dealing with pests at the movies, demonstrating pet peeves, tackling hazardous home-improvement projects, and other problems with which the audience could identify. O'Brien's scenes were silent, compelling O'Brien to express his satisfaction or frustration entirely in visual terms as narrator Smith offered commentary. O'Brien knew the format so well that he also directed many of the short movies, using the name "David Barclay". He staged many of the sight gags himself, taking stupendous pratfalls for the camera.

Smith produced and narrated more than 150 short movies which earned him fourteen Academy Award nominations and two Best Live Action Short Film Academy Awards.^[8] At the 26th Academy Awards, Smith was awarded an Academy Honorary Award "for his witty and pungent observations on the American scene in his series of Pete Smith Specialties."^[9]

Smith announced his retirement in 1954. The MGM unit that produced the Pete Smith Specialties was terminated the next year, a casualty of short movies' decreasing popularity at the time.^[10]

Smith, under his birth name "Peter J. Schmidt", married – on February 6, 1919, in Manhattan – Marjorie Ganss. They had one son, Douglas Mosely Schmidt (1919–1984), who later became a technician for RKO.^[11] Smith and Ganss remained married until her death in 1958. Smith's second marriage was to his secretary, Anne Dunston, whom he married in Las Vegas in October 1962.^[12]

Smith spent his later years in poor health at a convalescent home in Santa Monica, California.^[3] On January 12, 1979, he committed suicide by leaping off the building's roof.^[13] He was survived by his second wife, Anne, and his son Douglas.^[14]

For his contribution to the movie industry, Smith received a star symbol on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1621 Vine Street.^[1]

Pete Smith’s short films are included as extras on DVDs of many classic Warner Home Video films of the era. These include:

• Menu - Morning Glory (1933)
• Goofy Movies, #1 - Midnight Mary (1933)
• Goofy Movies, #2 - Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
• Goofy Movies, #3 - Evelyn Prentice (1934)
• Goofy Movies, #4 - Sadie McKee (1934)
• Penny Wisdom - The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
• Romance of Radium - Madame Curie (1943)
• Quicker 'n a Wink - Go West (1940)
• Wedding Bills - Strike Up the Band (1940)
• Flicker Memories - The Big Store (1941)
• How to Hold Your Husband - Back - Babes on Broadway (1941)
• Marines in the Making - Random Harvest (1942)
• Studio Visit - Cabin in the Sky (1943)
• Hollywood Daredevils - Girl Crazy (1943)
• Fala - The President's Dog - Lassie Come Home (1943)
• Seeing Hands - DuBarry Was a Lady (1943)
• Movie Pests - Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
• Football Thrills of 1944 - Blu-Ray release of Anchors Aweigh (1945)
• Hollywood Scout - The Clock (1945)
• Sure Cures - Easy to Wed (1946)
• I Love My Husband, But! - Without Reservations (1946)
• Now You See It - This Time for Keeps (1947)
• Fala at Hyde Park - Hills of Home (1948)
• You Can't Win! - The Pirate (1948)
• Let's Cogitate! - Battleground (1949)
• Those Good Old Days - Madame Bovary (1949)
• Water Trix - Neptune's Daughter (1949)
• Sports Oddities - That Midnight Kiss (1949)
• Pest Control - The Stratton Story (1949)
• Crashing the Movies - Two Weeks with Love (1950)
• Did'ja Know? - Summer Stock (1950)
• Wrong Way Butch - Nancy Goes to Rio (1950)
• Curious Contests - Pagan Love Song (1950)
• Musiquiz - The Belle of New York (1952)
• Reducing - Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)
• This is a Living? - Dangerous When Wet (1953)
• Things We Can Do Without - The Naked Spur (1953)
• Ain't It Aggravatin'? - The Long, Long Trailer (1954)
• Out for Fun - Executive Suite (1954)
• The Fall Guy - Hit the Deck (1955)

• Pete Smith at IMDb
• Pete Smith at the TCM Movie Database