Mamoulian's oeuvre includes sixteen films (four of which are musicals) and seventeen Broadway productions, six of which are musicals. He was responsible for the acclaimed original stagings of Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945), as well as the first production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1935).[3][4]
Mamoulian was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire (now Tbilisi, Georgia), to a family of Armenian descent.[9][10][11] His mother, Virginie (née Kalantarian), from a family of wealthy landowners and financiers, served as a director of the Armenian theatre. His father, Zachary Mamoulian, was a bank president.[12]: 8 [13][14][15] They raised Mamoulian and his younger sister, Svetlana, in the Armenian Apostolic faith.[16]
By the time he was six, Mamouliam was fluent in Russian, Armenian, and Georgian. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1905, ethnic violence arose in Tiflis, and the family moved to Paris for three years, where Mamouliam became fluent in French. [17][18] In 1915, his father enrolled him at the Imperial Moscow University to study law, but Mamoulian turned to literary pursuits and student stage productions.[19][20][21] The Mamoulian family, sympathetic to the Czarist regime, fled Russia during the turmoil of the 1917 revolution and the ensuing civil war.[22]
In 1925, Mamoulian was head of the Eastman School's School of Dance and Dramatic Action, where Martha Graham taught for one year (1925–26).[25] Among other performances, together they produced a short, two-color film titled The Flute of Krishna, featuring Eastman students. Mamoulian left Eastman shortly after (1926),[25][29][30] Mamoulian recalled:
I was already seeking a truly dramatic theater, a theater that would combine all the elements of movement, dancing, acting, music, singing, decor, lighting and colour and so on."[31]
In 1930, Mamoulian became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Mamoulian directed Applause, his first feature film in 1929, which was one of the early efforts in "talkies". It was a landmark film owing to Mamoulian's innovative use of camera movement and sound.[35][36][37]
Mamoulian's film directing career came to an end when he was fired or resigned from two consecutive films: Porgy and Bess (1959)[50] Mamoulian had written a complete shooting script when the Goldwyn studios set burned to the ground. When production resumed, director Mamoulian had disagreements with producer Samuel Goldwyn, and was "fired".[51][52] and Cleopatra (1963).[53][54]
He previously had been fired as director of Laura (1944).[55][56][57]
After directing the highly successful original stage productions of Oklahoma! and Carousel, he worked on only a few other theatrical productions, such as St. Louis Woman, which introduced Pearl Bailey to Broadway audiences.[58][59]
He personally was recruited by Directors Guild of America (DGA) co-founder King Vidor in 1936 to help unionize fellow movie directors.[60][61] Mamoulian's lifelong allegiance to the DGA, and more so his general unwillingness to compromise, contributed to his being targeted in the Hollywood blacklisting of the 1950s.[62] From 1961, at age 64, until his death in 1987 at age 90, Mamoulian did not work professionally.[63]
On February 8, 1960, for his contribution to the motion picture industry, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1709 Vine Street.[65][66]
He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.[67][68] In 1982 Mamoulian received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America.[69]
^Spergel, 1993 p. vii–viii: Foreword by Tom Milne. And: p. 2: Mamoulian "known as a technical innovator..."
^Jensen, 2024 p. 4: "Mamoulian's work can be seen as its own genre."
^Jensen, 2024 p. 5: "Mamoulian's reputation rests on his first six films."
^Spergel, 1993 pp. 88–89: "Mamoulian had his longest and artistically most successful tenure at Paramount Pictures...The Mamoulian style and sophistication appealed to the aspirations of the Paramount studio bosses."
^Spergel, 1993 p. 9: "Mamoulian said very little about his early life" and when did discuss it, revealed "very little".
^Jensen, 2024 pp. 11–12: "...wealthy landowners..." Virginie, (1876–1972), married at age 16 to Zachary (1866–1966). The couple "honeymooned in Paris". And: his sister, Svetlana, born 1899.
^Spergel, 1993 p. 9: "...his mother was the head of the Armenian theater in Tiflis..." And: p. 237: Lifespan of his parents here.
^Jensen, 2024 p. 8: "Raised in the Armenian Apostolic faith, he was comfortable with Christian themes and imagery."
^Spergel, 1993 p. 10: See here for Moscow University and growing interest in theater production.
^Spergel, 1993 p. 10: Spergel reports that Mamoulian gave the "impression" in interviews that he had not witnessed the outbreak of the Russian revolution and during interviews "had no comment to make on the subject".
^Whiteley, Chris. "Rouben Mamoulian". Hollywood's Golden Age. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
^"Rouben Mamoulian". Hollywood Walk of Fame. October 25, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
^ abcLenti, Vincent A. For the Enrichment of Community Life: George Eastman and the Founding of the Eastman School of Music. Rochester, New York: Meliora Press, 2004.
^Milne, 1969 p. 17: "...a real eye-opener" to contemporary audiences. And "...the elliptically swift, scene setting opening, which was to become almost a Mamoulian trademark".
^Spergel, 1993 p. 111: Though a box office "failure", the "critics hailed Applause for its technical innovations and artistry".
^Jensen, 2024 p. 59: "...sensational reviews" and "Executive suite enthusiasm" for the film.
^Spergel, 1993 pp. 125–126: The 1941 MGM remake "lacks the explicit sexuality of the Mamoulian film and its artistry...most viewers only know the miscast and unimaginatively directed version starring Spencer Tracy..."
^Jensen, 2024 p. 75: "...fans prefer the Mamoulian's version" to MGM's 1941 remake with Spencer Tracy.
^Milne, 1969 pp. 49–50: "Structurally, thematically and psychologically, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is masterly and superbly executed..."
^Spergel, 1993, p. 150: The year the film was released marked the onset of "severe tightening of censorship by the Hays office" And p. 151: A number of "sexual and religious references" resulted in the film having a limited distribution in "different geographical regions".
^Milne, 1969 p. 50: "...Mamoulian's first flawless masterpiece..." And p. 162: Filmography
^Milne, 1969 p. 91: "...first feature in the new three-color Technicolor process".
^Spergel, 1993 pp. 114–115: Based on the Thackeray novel Vanity Fair. And p. 155
^Jensen, 2024 p. 160: The Mark of Zorro "a new version of the Douglas Fairbanks classic..." and p. 162: Blood and Sand "a remake of the 1922 Rudolph Valentino silent" film.
^Spergel, 1993 p. 179: "Mamoulian drew on classic Spanish painting to stylize his cinematographic presentation." And: Mamoulian: Velasquez, "the master of light and shadow..."
^Jensen, 2024 pp. 171–172: Screwball: "a slight madcap comedy".
^Spergel, 1993 pp. 216–217: "Based on the 1939 Ernst Lubitsch film Ninotchka, which starred Greta Garbo..." And: The Broadway production of Silk Stockings "was not one of Porter's greatest critical successes..."
^Spergel, 1993 p. 221: Spergel, based on the Arthur Marx biography on Sam Goldwyn, suggests that Mamoulian was "fired" because he failed to establish a good rapport with the film's black cast members.
^Jensen, 2024 p. 270: Goldwyn "replaced" Mamoulian with Preminger. And p. 196: His "...replacement on Porgy and Bess..."
^Milne, 1969 p. 174: "Mamoulian resigned" from the picture and 10 minutes of his material was incorporated into the final version.
^Spergel, 1993 p. 89: "...the 1963 film Cleopatra, Mamoulian's final project, from which he officially resigned". And: p. 232: Leading lady Elizabeth Taylor had previously asked producer Spyros Skouras to replace his with Joseph L Mankiewicz.
^Milne 1969 p. 173: "Disagreements arose" between director Mamoulian and producer Otto Preminger. Mamoulian "resigned", and Preminger finished the film using Mamoulian's script and footage already shot.
^Spergel, 1993 p. 194: "...the first of several features from which he was fired or resigned".
^Jensen, 2024 pp. 193–196: On Mamoulian's "replacement" by Darryl F. Zanuck with Preminger.
^Spergel, 1993 pp. 201–202: Pearl Bailey's "Broadway debut" in the production.
^Spergel, 1993 p. 168: Mamoulian was seated on the SGA board of directors from 1936 to 1939, but was only intermittently active thereafter. His association was largely based on this personal friendship with Vidor. And: "Mamoulian was not well-liked by most Hollywood directors."
^Jensen, 2024 pp. 135–136: See here for Mamoulian's support for blacklisted director Irving Pichel, among the first to join the DGA.
^Jensen, 2024 pp. 305–307: See here for Mamoulian's final days, mental, physical condition, finances. Transferred from home to MP&TCHH on December 2, 1987, died two days later.
Jensen, Kurt (2024). Peerless – Rouben Mamoulian, Hollywood, and Broadway. Wisconsin Film Studies. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN978-0-299-34820-5.
Milne, Tom. 1969. Rouben Mamoulian. The Cinema One Series, Thames & Hudson, London. Catalog No. 500-47012 X
Horowitz, Joseph (July 29, 2013). 'On My Way': The Untold Story of Rouben Mamoulian, George Gershwin, and Porgy and Bess. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN978-0-393-24013-9.