Harry S. Webb

Biography

Harry S. Webb was one of the early jack-of-all-trades in silent Hollywood, although his work was confined mostly to the "wrong side of the tracks" called Poverty Row. Born in 1896 (some sources claim 1892), Webb broke into movies as an actor, working at what was then the largest studio on earth, "Uncle" Carl Laemmle's Universal Pictures. After a few turns in front of the camera, Webb moved into production and, like many of Laemmle's relatively few unrelated employees, left for what he felt were greener pastures. In 1926 he hooked up with legendary serial producer Nat Levine to make the serial The Silent Flyer (1926) (ultimately sold and distributed by his old studio, Universal) just prior to the formation of Levine's Mascot Pictures. As half of Webb-Douglas Productions, he continued at Mascot for about a year, directing the first three of the newly formed company's cliffhanger serials. Webb-Douglas moved out from behind Mascot, continuing to produce serials and low-budget westerns. In 1933, with Bernard B. Ray (who also worked as a director under the pseudonym "Raymond Samuels"), Webb formed Reliable Pictures, which lasted until 1937. Metropolitan Pictures, another Webb production company, briefly rose out of the ashes of Reliable. Ray soon went to work at lowly Producers Releasing Corp. (PRC), while Webb signed on with Monogram Pictures. His movie career petered out by 1941 and he spent the war working at a defense plant. Webb retired from pictures, save for a brief assistant director's credit on Columbia's The Parson and the Outlaw (1957). He was married to Rose Gordon and is the father of producer Gordon A. Webb and director Robert Webb. Their grandsons Mark Webb and Gordon Webb are also in the film business.