By 1934, Jules White was a veteran in the comedy field, but like so many of his contemporaries, he had a difficult time finding work. Educational Pictures was no longer the prosperous studio it had been in the 20s, although it still produced a lot of two-reelers. White's golden opportunity came when Harry Cohn hired him to head the newly-formed short-subject department at Columbia Pictures, which had been able to expand physically and artistically after the success of such pictures as IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT.
White's first step was to hire experts to work for him. One of his first directors was James Horne, a veteran of Hal Roach and Universal comedies; his brother Jack came to work for him, using the pseudonym "Preston Black." Among his first stars were Andy Clyde and Leon Errol. While directing at MGM in the early 30s, White had worked with Ted Healy and his Stooges. He decided to star the Three Stooges in their own short subjects, and thus began one of the longest-running comedy series of all time. He starred the fading Harry Langdon in a new series of shorts as well. And when he found one of Mack Sennett's greatest directors selling used cars, he hired him immediately. The man was Del Lord, who was responsible for the large majority of the great comedies that Columbia made for the next fifteen years.
Before long, Columbia became the mecca for experienced comedy creators who needed work. Clyde Bruckman, on of the all-time great comedy writers, who had been responsible for many of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd's greatest hits, and later worked with W. C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy as a director, joined Columbia in the mid-30s. When Hal Roach fired Charley Chase, Bruckman came to Columbia and functioned as a comic, writer, director and associate producer. Buster Keaton spent several years at Columbia with his own starring series, happily reunited with Clyde Bruckman. Veteran Sennett director Harry Edwards joined Columbia, and worked with Harry Langdon, whom he had directed when Langdon first came to Hollywood in the 1920s. Veterans Polly Moran, Charlie Murray and George Sidney, Smith and Dale, Tom Kennedy, and Monty Collins ass made comedy shorts for Columbia in the 1930s.
The shorts were also a proving ground for untried talent. Lucille Ball, Walter Brennan, Bruce Bennett, Lloyd Bridges, Linda Winters (later Dorothy Comingore), and many others got their start in Columbia shorts. Cameraman Lucien Ballard found it invaluable experience photographing the two-reelers. There was also the fine stock company of supporting players, headed by Bud Jamison and Vernon Dent, who added so much to the comedies.
The comedy unit hit its stride in the late 1930s and early 1940s. There was abundant use of location shooting at this time; the gags were ingenious, the performers fresh, and the pace unexcelled. White split his producing chores in the late 1930s with Hugh McCollum, a former secretary to Harry Cohn. The two men operated separate units throughout the 1940s. This left White more time to direct films himself, and McCollum followed suit in the late 1940s. But unfortunately, as the decade wore on, economic factors began to erode the quality of the Columbia shorts. Less time was available for each short's production, and the former leisurely pace was tightened so each short would be completed in three to four days' time. This left less time for experimentation and forced the comedies to become a bit more studied and less improvisational. There was more and more borrowing from the past; Shemp Howard remade most of Charley Chase's shorts in the mid-1940s, for example.
There was also a heavy reliance on stock footage, but one can only marvel at the ingenious way it was used. In IN THE SWEET PIE AND PIE (1941), the Three Stooges are ex-convicts married to society debutantes. At one point they are told to go for their dance lesson. The picture fades and we see Geneva Mitchell giving them their instructions -- from a 1935 film, HOI POLLOI. Such chicanery became more intricate as the years went by. For a 1952 Andy Clyde comedy, A BLISSFUL BLUNDER, Columbia reconstructed a set and rehired actor Fred Kelsey so they could match up scenes for Clyde's 1940 endeavor A BUNDLE OF BLISS without anyone noticing. By 1958 Jules White was able to film one day's worth of new footage and create a new two-reeler, using older stock shots.
The 1940s also saw new faces in Columbia comedies. Hugh Herbert and El Brendel both had long-running series; each had been top-name supporting actors in the 1930s. Radio stars Vera Vague and Harry Von Zell starred in two-reelers, and many actors came to the department for brief stays between more prestigious assignments: Roscoe Karns, Alan Mowbray, Una Merkel, Sterling Holloway, Billie Burke, etcetera. Many of their comedies were simply remakes of earlier shorts which had starred other Columbia contractees.
Jules White did the largest number of comedies at this time. Del Lord curtailed his activities as the decade progressed. White said of his style, "I had a theory: make 'em move so fast, if they're not funny, no one will have time to realize it or get bored." White's tendency to have a loose shooting script and make up ideas on the spot, under pressure, made for a lot of protracted and unfunny sequences, often excessively violent in nature.
By the 1950s, most other studios had dropped their comedy short subjects, but Columbia's continued. One reason was Jules White's relationship with his boss. "I am one man who liked Harry Cohn," he said. "We got along because I was not afraid of him, didn't try to fool him, and always made money for Columbia. He was a character, but knew his business. I learned much from him. He never interfered with me or the shorts department. I did exactly as I chose from the day I started to the day I quit. When he died I was so wrought up I didn't want to stay at Columbia. In fact, I just wanted to quit the business. Why wait to drop dead in your harness? For years I had begged him to quit."
White and coproducer McCollum had frequent clashes throughout the 1940s, but by the early 1950s they became so violent that a showdown was inevitable. When it occurred, McCollum was fired and White continued as sole head of the short-subject unit. At that point, he made the operation a family affair. His brother Jack wrote many scripts, Jules produced and directed virtually every one (the number was cut from 25 a year to 15), and his son Harold White edited them. In 1959 he left Columbia, where he had spent the last 25 years, and the short-subjects department closed. White could have gone with Columbia's television department, Screen Gems, and worked on new series ideas, but after one brush with TV (a series with the Wiere Brothers called "Oh, Those Bells") he retired, saying, "Who needs such a rat race?"
Nominated for Short Subjects (Comedy) 1934: MEN IN BLACK - Producer
Nominated for Short Subjects (Two-reel) 1945: THE JURY GOES ROUND 'N' ROUND - Producer
Nominated for Short Subjects (Two-reel) 1946: HISS AND YELL - Producer
3 nominations