Archibald Selwyn

Archibald Selwyn (also Arch or Archie Selwyn; November 3, 1877 – June 21, 1959) was a Canadian-American play broker, theater owner and stage producer who had many Broadway successes.

He and his brother Edgar Selwyn were partners.

They were among the founders of Goldwyn Pictures, later to be merged into MGM.

Archibald Selwyn was born in Canada on November 3, 1877.

The family name was Simon, later changed to Selwyn.

Archibald and his family lived in Toronto, Ontario, then moved to Selma, Alabama, where his parents died.

Archibald's brother Edgar Selwyn, an actor, moved to New York City.

Archibald followed.

His brother found a job for Archibald in the box office of the Herald Square Theatre.

The brothers moved into the business of brokering tickets and then created the American Play Company in partnership with Elisabeth Marbury and John Ramsay.

This was a play brokerage enterprise.

The Selwyns partnered with producer Crosby Gaige (1882–1949), with whom they produced the hits Within the Law (1912) and Why Marry? (1917).

Upton Sinclair worked with Margaret Mayo in the summer of 1906 on a dramatization of The Jungle, which flopped after a six-week run.

The Selwyn brothers, then acting as play brokers, met him at that time.

Sinclair had lunch with Arch Selwyn and described The Metropolis, a novel that he was writing.

Selwyn was enthusiastic about the project, and jokingly suggested that Sinclair find work with a rich family so he could learn about how these people lived.

The next day a story appeared in the New York Morning Telegraph saying Sinclair was obtaining the material for his book by spying on the rich.

Sinclair wrote the paper an indignant letter of denial, but the legend was established.

Edgar Selwyn, a prolific playwright as well as an actor, married Margaret Mayo.

The film was based on the 1907 play of the same name by Margaret Mayo.

Goldwyn made all of its films in Fort Lee, New Jersey, in the first two years, first at the Solax studio and then at Universal.

The two were co-authors of The Wall Street Girl (1912), in which Will Rogers had a role.

The brother started to collaborate on producing plays.

Where Edgar had a grounding in acting and writing plays, and understood what would appeal to the public, Archibald was a businessman.

The All-Star Feature Company was formed around 1913 to make feature films from famous plays.

The playwright Augustus Thomas directed "the world's greatest plays enacted by distinguished stage celebrities."

Archibald Selwyn and Philip Klein joined the company.

Between 1913 and 1915 All-Star created Arizona, In Mizzoura, Colorado, Alabama and The Witching Hour, all written by Thomas, as well as Paid in Full (Eugene Walter) and Shore Acres (James A. Herne).

The company also made The Arab, The Country Boy and Pierre of the Plains by Edgar Selwyn.

In these films Edgar Selwyn repeated his stage performances.

Other pre-war plays and musicals produced by the Selwyn brothers included Under Cover (1914) and Fair and Warmer (1915).

In 1914 Archibald Selwyn was one of the producers of the film The Jungle, based on the Upton Sinclair novel.

His sister-in-law Margaret Mayo wrote the script.

Sam Goldfish joined Edgar and Archibald Selwyn in 1916 to form Goldwyn Pictures.

The company name was formed by combining the first part of "Goldfish" with the last part of "Selwyn".

They co-produced Lilac Time (1917) with Gaige, which also starred Jane Cowl.

Gaige later broke with them and had a successful career on his own.

In September 1917 the company released its first film, Polly of the Circus starring Mae Marsh.

In a press release dated April 14, 1917, in which Goldwyn Pictures announced the move from Solax to Universal the company stated that "Samuel Goldfish, Edgar and Archibald Selwyn and Arthur Hopkins are determined to make good the promise of twelve completed pictures by September 1..."

The filmed plays were not profitable, but the studio kept going with popular films that featured Lon Chaney and Will Rogers.