Saul Swimmer

{{Infobox person | name = Saul Swimmer | image = Saul-Swimmer.jpg | alt = | caption = Swimmer in MobileVision promotional image | birth_date = {{Birth date|1936|4|25}} | birth_place = [[Uniontown, Pennsylvania|Uniontown]], [[Pennsylvania]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|2007|3|3|1936|4|25}} | death_place = [[Miami, Florida|Miami]], [[Florida]] | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = ''[[The Concert for Bangladesh (film)|The Concert for Bangladesh]]''<br/>''[[The Boy Who Owned a Melephant]]'' | occupation = Documentarian, director, producer }} '''Saul Swimmer''' (April 25, 1936 – March 3, 2007)<ref name=ssdi>[https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V3B4-XML Saul Swimmer] at the [[Social Security Death Index]] via FamilySearch.org. Retrieved on January 1, 2013.</ref><ref name=nyt>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/movies/22swimmer.html?ref=obituaries |title=Saul Swimmer, 70, Film Documentarian, Dies|agency= [[Associated Press]] |newspaper= [[The New York Times]]|date= March 22, 2007|access-date=January 22, 2018|archive-date= January 30, 2013| archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130121936/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/movies/22swimmer.html?ref=obituaries&_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref> was an American [[Documentary film|documentary]] [[film director]] and [[film producer|producer]] best known for the movie ''[[The Concert for Bangladesh (film)|The Concert for Bangladesh]]'' (1972), the [[George Harrison]]-led [[Madison Square Garden]] show that was one of the first all-star benefits in [[rock music]]. He was also a co-producer of [[The Beatles]]' 1970 documentary ''[[Let It Be (1970 film)|Let It Be]]''.

==Biography== ===Early life and career=== Born to a [[Uniontown, Pennsylvania|Uniontown]], [[Pennsylvania]], family that included a sister, Esther, and three brothers, Wolford and Alvin, and Herbert,<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/movies/22swimmer.html?ref=obituaries |title=Saul Swimmer, 70, Film Documentarian, Dies|agency=[[Associated Press]] |work= [[The New York Times]]|date= March 22, 2007}}</ref> Swimmer earned a [[bachelor's degree]] from [[Carnegie Mellon University]] in nearby [[Pittsburgh]].<ref name=variety>{{cite journal|url= https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117961416|title=Director Swimmer Dies at 70|journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=March 19, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102193000/http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117961416|archive-date=January 2, 2014|url-status=live}} Note: Erroneously gives death date as March 7; the [[Social Security Death Index]] gives March 3.</ref> He began directing in his early twenties, gaining attention for his half-hour children's short ''[[The Boy Who Owned a Melephant]]'' (1959), narrated by actress [[Tallulah Bankhead]]<ref>Oliver, Phillip, [http://home.hiwaay.net/~oliver/tbmelephant.htm Tallulah: A Passionate Life] (website) ([https://web.archive.org/web/20110515071543/http://home.hiwaay.net/~oliver/tbmelephant.htm WebCitation archive])</ref><ref>Carrier, Jeffrey L., ''Tallulah Bankhead: A Bio-Bibliography'' (Greenwood Press, 1991; {{ISBN|0-313-27452-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-313-27452-7}}, p. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0313274525/ref=sr_1_1?p=S00H&keywords=The+Boy+Who+Owned+a+Melephant&ie=UTF8&qid=1335279982 146]).</ref> and produced with Peter Gayle and [[Tony Anthony (actor)|Tony Anthony]], who would become his frequent collaborators.<ref>{{cite news|first=Dorothy| last = Kilgallen|author-link=Dorothy Kilgallen| title=Voice of Broadway|publisher= (Syndicated column) via the [[Schenectady Gazette]]|date=September 13, 1960 | page = [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19600913&id=OWgtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=44kFAAAAIBAJ&pg=572,1878053 16] | quote=The youngest film producers in the United States — 22-year-old Peter Gayle, Saul Swimmer and Tony Anthony — are negotiating for the film rights to [[Arthur Miller]]'s '[[A Memory of Two Mondays|[A] Memory of Two Mondays]]'.}}</ref> Swimmer's biography at his company's website states the film won a Gold Leaf award at the [[Venice Film Festival]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mobilevisionusa.com/bio_saul.htm |title=Saul Swimmer: Director-Producer|publisher= MobileVisionUSA.com|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714105132/http://www.mobilevisionusa.com/bio_saul.htm |url-status=dead | archivedate=July 14, 2011}}</ref> a claim that subsequently appears in many accounts, but that festival has no such award; in actuality, this award was from the Venice International Children's Film Festival.<ref>Carrier, p. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0313274525/ref=sr_1_1?p=S00H&keywords=The+Boy+Who+Owned+a+Melephant&ie=UTF8&qid=1335279982 146]</ref>

Following that short, Swimmer directed and, with Anthony, co-wrote the [[independent film|independent features]] ''[[Force of Impulse]]'' (1961), a [[Romeo and Juliet]] story about a [[high school football]] player who turns to robbery, filmed in [[Miami Beach, Florida]], and ''Without Each Other'' (1962). The film was co-produced by [[Allen Klein]] and Peter Gayle with the film financed by Gayle's family's business.<ref>pp. 31-32 Goodman, Fred ''Allen Klein: The Man Who Bailed Out the Beatles, Made the Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll'' HMH, 23 Jun 2015</ref>

===Music and film=== Following these dramas, Swimmer directed the [[pop music|pop]]-[[musical comedy]] ''[[Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (film)|Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter]]'' (1968), starring the [[United Kingdom|British]] pop group [[Herman's Hermits]].<ref name=nyt /> The movie was one of a handful of similar films released in the wake of the Beatles' [[mockumentary]]-style band feature ''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|A Hard Day's Night]]'' (1964) and the comic adventure ''[[Help! (film)|Help!]]'' (1965).

He broke into documentary filmmaking with the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] [[television special]] ''Around the World of Mike Todd'' (1968), about the movie producer [[Mike Todd]].<ref name=nyt />

After serving as co-producer of the [[Neil Aspinall]]-[[Mal Evans]]-produced Beatles documentary ''Let It Be'' (1970),<ref name=nyt /> Swimmer and his indie-movie colleague Tony Anthony co-wrote and co-directed the surrealistic US-[[Italy]] [[road movie]] ''[[Come Together (film)|Come Together]]'' (1971), produced by Beatle [[Ringo Starr]] and inspired by the Beatles song "[[Come Together]]"; and produced a [[Spaghetti Western]] about a blind but deadly gunfighter, ''[[Blindman]]'' (1971; also known as ''Il Ciceo'' and ''Il Pistolero Ciceo''), starring Anthony and Starr.

The following year, Swimmer directed ''[[The Concert for Bangladesh (film)|The Concert for Bangladesh]]'', organized by Beatle [[George Harrison]] with [[Ravi Shankar]]. They along with Starr, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and others performed to raise money for the charity [[UNICEF]], earmarked to aid refugees from the newly independent nation of [[Bangladesh]], the former East Pakistan, who had relocated to [[India]].<ref name=nyt />

In 1977, Swimmer directed the U.S.-[[Spain]] co-production ''[[The Black Pearl (novel)|The Black Pearl]]'' (a.k.a. ''La Perla Negra''), adapted from a [[Scott O'Dell]] children's [[novel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://victormiller.com/autobiography/index.html| title=<nowiki>[Victor Miller]</nowiki> Autobiography| publisher= Victor Miller (official site)| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20081202005510/http://www.victormiller.com/autobiography/index.html |url-status=dead| archivedate= December 2, 2008}}</ref> He produced and directed the [[direct-to-video]] [[rockumentary|rock documentary]] ''[[We Will Rock You (video)|We Will Rock You: Queen Live in Concert]]'' (1982), the record of a 1981 [[Montreal, Quebec]], Canada show.

===Later career=== Swimmer developed the MobileVision Projection System, a pre-[[IMAX]] giant-screen technology for projecting movies on a 60x80-foot screen. Swimmer said that after the 1991 death of [[Queen (band)|Queen]] lead singer [[Freddie Mercury]], MovileVision distributed ''We Will Rock You'' in 20 countries.<ref name=miami />

His final work was the documentary ''[[Bob Marley]] & Friends'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.miamifilmfestival.com/2006/detail.asp?filmid=F06-067 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627060348/http://www.miamifilmfestival.com/2006/detail.asp?filmid=F06-067 |publisher=Miami International Film Festival |title=''Bob Marley & Friends'' |archive-date=June 27, 2007 |access-date=August 30, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> completed in 2005 and distributed beginning in 2006 after Swimmer worked on it for more than five years, using footage of the 1977 Rainbow concert in [[London, England]] that had been discovered in a London storage vault bombed by the [[Irish Republican Army]].<ref name=miami>{{cite news|last=Smiley|first=David| title=Saul Swimmer, 70: Television, Rockumentary, Movie Director|work=[[The Miami Herald]] | date=March 19, 2007|quote=Swimmer, who worked on the documentary for more than five years, used rare footage of a Marley performance that was found in a London storage vault that had been bombed by the Irish Republican Army, he told ''The Miami Herald'' last year.}}</ref> 2007.

===Death=== Swimmer, who moved to the Miami-area [[Key Biscayne, Florida]], in the 1980s and to nearby [[Coral Gables, Florida]] in the 1990s, died of [[heart failure]] at [[Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute|Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami]] on March 3, 2007.<ref name=ssdi /><ref name=nyt />

==References== {{Reflist | 2}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|id=0842664|name=Saul Swimmer}} *{{cite magazine | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944505,00.html | title=Cinema: Sweet Sounds: ''The Concert for Bangladesh'', directed by Saul Swimmer | magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date= April 17, 1972 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110524004539/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944505,00.html?promoid=googlep | archive-date= May 24, 2011 | url-status=dead}} *{{cite web | url = http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews2/queen.html | title = ''Queen: We Will Rock You'' | first=Greg | last=Suarez | publisher = TheDigitalBits.com | date = December 12, 2001 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20020606194307/http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews2/queen.html | archivedate= June 6, 2002}} *{{cite magazine | last = Fricke | first = David | url = https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/8652068/harrison_show_revisited | title = Harrison Show Revisited | magazine = [[Rolling Stone]] | date = October 23, 2005 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071002110009/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/8652068/harrison_show_revisited | archive-date = October 2, 2007 | access-date = August 22, 2017 | url-status = dead }} *{{cite web | url= http://www.campcrystallake.com/interviews/ronmillkie.htm | title= 13 Questions with Ron Millkie | publisher= CampCrystalLake.com | access-date= 2014-01-01 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071219144459/http://www.campcrystallake.com/interviews/ronmillkie.htm | archive-date= December 19, 2007 | url-status= live }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimmer, Saul}} [[Category:American documentary filmmakers]] [[Category:1936 births]] [[Category:2007 deaths]] [[Category:People from Coral Gables, Florida]] [[Category:People from Uniontown, Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Film directors from Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Film directors from Florida]]