The Exit of a Famous Founder
The picture was directed by Vincent Minnelli who also
directed "Gigi" and "Meet Me In St. Louis." The screenplay
is credited to Alan Jay Lerner with music and lyrics by
George and Ira Gershwin.
At the time of "An American In Paris" release, the founding
father of MGM, Louis B. Mayer, had been given the gate
and Dore Schary was in charge. But Mayer has to be given
some credit for this film, certainly more than Schary.
He Was Under the Influence
Mayer loved musicals. Anne Carre, widow of Art Director
Ben Carre, told me that Ida Koverman (Mayer’s personal
secretary) influenced Mayer’s taste in music and probably
advanced a few careers behind the scenes. In 1939,
Mayer made songwriter Arthur Freed the Associate Producer
on "The Wizard of Oz," and then promoted Freed to Unit
Producer, moving him into an office next to his in the Thalberg
Building.
"The Freed Unit," as it was known, produced such classic
musicals as "Meet Me In St. Lous," "The Pirate," "Easter Parade,"
"Singin’ In The Rain," "The Band Wagon," and "Gigi."
I was only twelve years old when I first saw "An American In Paris" at the Rosemary Theater in Ocean Park. At the time my parents were about to get divorced, and my grandparents’ home was about to be stolen by the state to make way for the San Diego Freeway. It was a depressing time and the movies were my escape from the harsh realities of the real world. I got caught up in this film, and particularly enjoyed the eighteen-minute ballet at the end that depicts many of Paris’ famed landmarks, using the styles of various French Painters.
Cedric Gibbons is credited as the art director for "An
American In Paris," but according to Anne Carre, that authentic
look really was the work of Preston Ames and her late
husband Ben.
The Story of Carre
Ben Carre, who died in 1978 at the age of ninety-four, has been called "the first true visual artist of the American film." He was born in
Paris in 1883. His father, an artist, died when he was six. He
left school at age thirteen and became an apprentice housepainting estimator. Later he became an assistant scene painter at the famous Amable Studios in Paris where he helped paint a huge reproduction of the Paris World Fair. Soon he was designing and painting backdrops for the Paris Opera House and Convent Garden.
It was Carre’s knowledge of the Paris Opera House that enabled
him to storyboard the famous sequence from "Phantom of
The Opera" where the the disfigured phantom abducts the
prima donna from the Paris Opera House to his lair in the sewers
below. Carre was able to recreate the moat that was under
the opera house. His widow, Anne told me that Ben was given
credit for the scenic design in the Andrew Lloyd Webber
musical version. When it had its world premiere in London,
she was flown to London and was given a box seat.
The First Meeting
I met Anne Carre in 1994 through my associate Mark Morris.
He had grown up next door to Anne and Ben. She was
utterly charming, full of recollections about the early
days of the motion picture industry.
Ben Carre came to America in 1912. For a time, he worked
as art director at historic Fort Lee in New Jersey. He
worked on several films with Mary Pickford , including
"Poor Little Rich Girl" and "Pride of The Clan," for which he
created an entire Scottish Village off the Coast of Maine.
At the invitation of his friend Maurice Tournier, he came to Culver
City in 1919 and rode a streetcar to the Goldwyn Studios.
In his memoirs, translated by Anne, he recalled:
"My first visit to the studio was by the Venice Short Line, which I boarded at the depot downtown. When I had been riding for twenty minutes, I saw that we were going over a bridge. I looked out and saw swamps as far as the hills that had the ‘57’ sign."
The Sound of Difference
Carre would work off and on as an art director at MGM from
1919 until 1936. He also was art director on Warner Bros.’
first two sound films, "The Life of Don Juan," starring his good
friend John Barrymore, and "The Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson .
It was while he was working on "The Jazz Singer" he began to
realize that sound would industrialize the motion picture
business. Where he once did everything himself, whole
departments were being created to do the same work.
In 1935, after working as art director on "Night At The Opera"
with the Marx Brothers, Ben went to his old friend Cedric Gibbons.
He had known Gibbons since he had been a chorus boy in
musicals and was the only person on the MGM lot who
dared to call him "Gibby.” He asked him for a permanent job
in the scenic design shop. He stayed there for thirty years,
until his retirement in 1965 at age eighty-two. He helped create
the Scenic Design Shop and painted backdrops for such
classic films as "The Wizard Of Oz," "Julius Caesar" and "North
by Northwest."
Art Imitating Life
When I went to Paris in 1965 as a member of the U.S.
Air Force, I walked the streets of Paris and thought I was on the
actual set of the film itself. It wasn’t until I interviewed Anne
that I discovered that the sets were recreated on the backlot
and sound stages at MGM. She was particularly proud of the
painting of the bank of the River Seine set where Leslie Caron performs "Our Love Is here To Stay" with co-star Kelly.
One interesting footnote; the role of Leslie Caron’s fiance
was originally offered to Maurice Chevalier. He declined
the role because he didn’t get the girl.