Louis de rochemont biography

Louis de Rochemont in Hollywood NH

HISTORY MATTERS

He was, by many accounts, a tough guy to work with. His single Academy Award was for a 1944 documentary, but he longed to produce dramas ripped from the headlines. Fiercely independent, he produced a romance, a cartoon, travel and experimental films, docu0drams, film n’oire and the incredible March of Time. 

The (as yet) unwritten biography

There is an unwritten book about Louis de Rochemont rattling inside my brain. Portsmouth’s maverick filmmaker has no biographer, perhaps for good reason. Although financially successful, he never achieved the fame or critical acclaim he desired. Today his movies are not as much classics, as footnotes in the history of American film. Yet the extraordinary range, risk, and raw entrepreneurial energy of his many movie projects are compelling when seen as a whole. I have been pitching the book idea for years, but so far, no takers.

He has been hailed as "the father of the docu-drama", although mostly by me. Louis de Rochemont (1899-1978) had a passion for reconstructin

Archives West Finding Aid

Sub-series 1. General

BoxFolders55-8

Twentieth Century Fox

1943-1947Folder9

De Rochemont Companies – Agreements and Memos,

1941-1963BoxFolders61-5

De Rochemont Companies – Correspondence

1947-1973Folder6

De Rochemont Companies – Correspondence – Promotional,

1952-19677

De Rochemont Companies – Correspondence – Reis,

1943-19508

De Rochemont Companies – Invitations Declined,

1949-1954Folders9-10

De Rochemont Companies – Proposals

1945-1954Folder11

De Rochemont Companies – Prospects

1965-196712

De Rochemont Companies – Prospectus

1961BoxFolder71

De Rochemont Companies – Publicity

1950-1967Folders2-4

De Rochemont Companies – RD-DR Corp.

1945-1953

Sub-series 2. Individual Projects

BoxFolder399

13 Rue Madeleine - Sy Bartlett Material

1945-1946Folders75-7

13 Rue Madeleine – Correspondence

1945-1947Folder8

13 Rue Madeleine – Outlines

1945BoxFolder

de Rochemont, Louis



Producer. Nationality: American. Born: Louis Clark de Rochemont in Chelsea, Massachusetts, 13 January 1899. Education: Attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Naval Aviation School; Harvard Naval Cadet School. Military Service: British Military Intelligence, 1916–17; officer in U.S. Navy, 1917–23. Family: Married Virginia Shaler, 1929, son: the filmmaker Louis de Rochemont III, daughter: Virginia. Career: 1923–29—cameraman for International and for Pathé News; director of short-film program, 20th Century-Fox (Adventures of a Newsreel Cameraman and Magic Carpets of Movietone series); 1933—created (with Roy E. Larsen) The March of Time series of newsreels; 1940—first feature; 1943–46—producer, 20th Century-Fox; then founder, Louis de Rochemont Associates: producer of The Earth and Its Peoples educational series, and made films in Cinerama and other wide-screen processes. Awards: Special Academy Award, for The March of Time, 1936. Died: 23 December 1978.


Films as Producer:

1933–43

The March of Time (series

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