Hungarian-born film producer Joe Pasternak came to the US as a teenager. Always fascinated by show business, he obtained several menial jobs at the Paramount Studios commissary, absorbing the trade talk of the stars, techicians and executives. Pasternak wangled a job as second assistant director at Paramount in 1923; within three years, he was manager of Universal Studio's Berlin operations, a position he acquired in a roundabout fashion after directing an El Brendel two-reeler. In the early '30s, Pasternak made a name for himself producing German, Austrian and Hungarian musicals. He returned to the US at the request of the new Universal Studios management, which was hoping to reorganize the near-bankrupt company into a successful entity. Drawing on his musical comedy knowhow, Pasternak decided to promote the talents of 13-year-old soprano Deanna Durbin, whom Universal had recently acquired from MGM. Carefully nurturing a screen image for Durbin as a down-to-earth tomboy with a beautiful singing voice, Pasternak produced her first vehicle, Three Smart Girls (1936). The film was an enormous hit, literally rescuing Universal from receivership and assuring Pasternak a near-permanent position supervising Durbin's subseqeunt films. A 1938 effort by Pasternak to create a winsome image for French film star Danielle Darrieux was less successful, though the Darrieux's A Scandal in Paris made money. One year later, Pasternak rescued the flagging film career of…  » Read more