Jesse L. Lasky

1910 Goldwyn married Blanche Lasky, who divorced him in 1915. She was a sister of Jesse Lasky, then a leading producer of vaudeville acts. In 1912, Lasky toyed with the idea of making films. He listened to Arthur S. Friend, a young New York lawyer, who had a prophetic sense of the future of pictures. Friend wanted Lasky to produce long films that unfolded romantic stories from the beginning to the end, even if they occupied the screen for an hour. Lasky was the man to do it, according to Friend, because Lasky knew vaudeville; a man who understood the mind of the vaudeville audience would understand the mind of the future film audience. The project was presented to Lasky at the wrong time, however. Lasky had just lost $100,000 in a new venture, the Folies-Bergere theaterrestaurant in New York. It made him conservative. He wanted to stick to his own field—vaudeville. Friend then talked to Goldwyn, who was likewise cold. Sam had plans for starting a glove business of his own.

Alva Johnston. The Great Goldwyn (Kindle Locations 309-315). New York, Random House.