Kenneth Webb (director)

{{short description|American film director}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Kenneth Seymour Webb | honorific_suffix = | image = Fair Lady Fair Weather.jpg | image_size = 250px | alt = | caption = Kenneth Webb (center) on location in New Orleans filming ''Fair Lady'' in 1922, with Betty Blythe and Robert Elliott (extreme right) | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pronunciation = | birth_name = Kenneth Seymour Webb | birth_date = 16 October 1885 | birth_place = New York City | baptised =  | disappeared_date =  | disappeared_place = | disappeared_status = | death_date = {{Death date and age|1966|03|06|1885|10|16}} | death_place = Hollywood, California | death_cause = | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | burial_place =  | burial_coordinates =  | monuments = | nationality = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = Columbia University (BA) | alma_mater = | occupation = Stage & film director<br />Songwriter | years_active = 1910–1938 | era = | employer = | organization = | agent =  | known_for = | notable_works =  | style = | height =  | title =  | spouse = Lorraine Frost (maiden; 1897–1993) | children = | parents = | relatives = | family = | callsign = | awards = | module = | module2 = | module3 = | module4 = | module5 = | module6 = | signature = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | footnotes = }} '''Kenneth Seymour Webb''' (16 October 1885{{Source needed|date=March 2023}} New York City – 6 March 1966 Hollywood, California) was an American film director, screenwriter, and composer noted for directing a number of films in the early age of the American film industry. He helped write the ''Gay Divorce'' along with Samuel Hoffenstein.<ref name="ASCAP-Bios 1980 4th ed" />

== Selected songs == {{unreferenced section|date=March 2025}} * "You and Me and You" (1919) : Kenneth Webb (words) : Roy Webb (music)

== Career == {{unreferenced section|date=March 2025}} Webb, beginning around 1910, became a sketch writer and director for vaudeville stage. In 1913, he began writing scenarios for the Vitagraph Company. From 1918 to 1919, he was a writer and director for Vitagraph. From 1919 to 1938, Webb was a writer and director, first with the Famous Players Film Company, then with Whitman Bennett (a production company) and Associated First National Theatres, Inc. (Bennett's distributor), then Fox Film Corporation, then Whitman Bennett (production company) and United Artists (Bennett's distributor), then Burr & Company, then Pathe, then Lee de Forest, {{Interlanguage link|Inspiration Pictures|lt=Inspiration Pictures|fr|Inspiration Pictures}}, Tiffany Pictures, and then FitzPatrick Pictures. Webb wrote for legitimate stage since 1924. Since 1933, Webb was a radio writer and producer with Batten Barton Durstine & Osborn, Inc., and since 1953, was its Western editor.

From 1943 to 1943, Webb was a lecturer at New York University of radio writing and production.

== Partial filmography == {{unreferenced section|date=March 2025}} '''As director''' {{div col|colwidth=30em}} <ol type="1" start="1"> <li>''Marie, Ltd.'' (1919)</li>

<li>''Will You Be Staying for Supper?'' (1919)</li>

<li>''Sinners'' (1920)</li>

<li>''The Stolen Kiss'' (1920)</li>

<li>''The Master Mind'' (1920)</li>

<li>''The Devil's Garden'' (1920)</li>

<li>''The Truth About Husbands'' (it) (1920)</li>

<li>''The Fear Market'' (1920)<br /> Realart Pictures Corporation (producer and distributor)</li>

<li>''The Great Adventure'' (1921)<br /> Whitman Bennett (producer)<br /> Associated First National Pictures, Inc. (distributor)</li>

<li>''Jim the Penman'' (1921)</li>

<li>''Salvation Nell'' (1921)</li>

<li> ''How Women Love'' (1922)</li>

<li>''The Daring Years'' (1923)</li>

<li>''The Beautiful City'' (1925)</li>

<li>''Just Suppose'' (1926)</li></ol> {{div col end}}

== Education == Webb attended The Collegiate School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He went on to study at Columbia University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1906.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rhodes|first1=Gary D.|title=White Zombie: Anatomy of a Horror Film|date=2001|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=978-0-7864-2762-8|page=84|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHApAwAAQBAJ&q=kenneth+webb+collegiate+school&pg=PA84|accessdate=4 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/historyofcolumbi012462mbp|title=A History Of Columbia College On Morningside|date=1954|publisher=Columbia University Press|others=Universal Digital Library}}</ref>

== Professional and fraternal associations == {{unreferenced section|date=March 2025}} * Society of Cincinnati * The Lambs, joined 1913<ref name="LambsRoster">{{cite web |title= The Lambs |url= https://the-lambs.org/history/roster/ |at= (Member Roster) |publisher= The Lambs, Inc. |website= the-lambs.org |access-date= November 24, 2021 |archive-date= May 31, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220531032150/https://the-lambs.org/history/roster/ |url-status= dead }}</ref> * ASCAP, 1914 charter member * Songwriters Protective Association * Actors' Equity Association * Motion Picture Directors Association (Eastern President 1923–1925; member of council 1935–1950) * Radio Directors Guild * Alpha Chi Rho

== Family == Kenneth Webb was one of children born to the marriage of William Edward Webb (1844–1915) and Juliette Seymour Bell (1863–1930).<ref name="Whittemore 2001" /> Kenneth Webb married, on September 20, 1920, silent film actress Lorraine Frost (maiden; 1897–1993) in Manhattan, New York.<ref name="Webb-Frost-NYC-marriage-1920" /> His brother, Roy Webb, also composer and film director,<ref name="Hischak 2015" /> was one of his chief collaborators.

== References == {{Reflist|30em|refs= <ref name="ASCAP-Bios 1980 4th ed">''The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary'' (4th ed.), compiled for the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers – by Jacques Cattell Press, New York: R.R. Bowker Co. (1980)<div style="margin-left:2em">"Webb, Kenneth," pg. 532<br />{{OCLC|7065938|607901541|568030296}}<br />{{oclc|41386928|12259500|180504594}}<br />{{OCLC|723489684}}<br />[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/7065938.html (Search only] ''via'' HathiTrust)</div></ref>

<ref name="Hischak 2015">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Xz99CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA708&lpg=PA708 The Encyclopedia of Film Composers],'' by Thomas S. Hischak (born 1951), Rowman & Littlefield (2015); pps. 708–708; {{OCLC|934688063}}</ref>

<ref name="Whittemore 2001">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lxARAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162 The Heroes of the American Revolution and Their Descendants: Battle of Long Island],'' by Henry Whittemore, Genealogical Society of Utah (2001), pps. 161–162; {{OCLC|866036044}}</ref>

<ref name="Webb-Frost-NYC-marriage-1920">[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24W9-5HR "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829–1940"] (database), FamilySearch, March 20, 2015, "Kenneth Webb" and "Lorraine Frost", September 20, 1920; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York City Municipal Archives<div style="margin-left:2em">NYC Marriage Certificate No. 28772<br />FHL microfilm (GS No.) 1643956</div>Note: The FHL microfilm number was formerly known as a GS film number (GS = Genealogical Society of Utah) (registration/login for FamilySearch may be required, but is free)</ref>

}}

==External links== {{commons category|Kenneth Webb}} *{{IMDb name|0916177}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webb, Kenneth}} Category:1885 births Category:1966 deaths Category:American male screenwriters Category:20th-century American male composers Category:20th-century American composers Category:ASCAP composers and authors Category:Collegiate School (New York) alumni Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:Film directors from New York City Category:Screenwriters from New York (state) Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American screenwriters