Francesco Rosario Capra was born in a village in Sicily, and emigrated to the United States at the age of five. He graduated from CalTech with a degree in chemical engineering, and went on to serve in the Army during WWI as a mathematics teacher to soldiers in San Francisco, but was medically discharged after contracting the Spanish Flu. During his discharge, Capra suffered from depression and abdominal pains, as a result of feeling like a failure and an undiagnosed burst appendix, respectively. After recovering, he began to work odd jobs to support himself, eventually becoming a book seller by the age of 25. Yet, despite his more than rocky start, Capra would eventually become one of the most famous directors in all of Hollywood.
While working as a book seller, Capra heard about a new movie studio opening in San Francisco. Claiming that he had moved from Hollywood with film experience, Capra contacted the studio, and got offered $75 to direct a silent film (over $900 today). Capra began to find more jobs in the film industry, working for various directors and producers in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. he eventually got hired as a full-time writer for comedian Harry Langdon, who would come to achieve the same level of fame as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Langdon and Capra split after two years due to a disagreement, and Capra was soon hired by First National, a Hollywood movie studio, to direct full-length pictures.
His first film at First National was considered a failure, and so Capra moved to Columbia Pictures, a small studio run by a former coworker and friend of Capra. At Colombia Pictures, his career really began to take off, with the release of his first big hit, The Younger Generation (1929). Soon came It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and Meet John Doe (1941), which, although some faced controversy and criticism, made Capra into a well-known and well-respected director.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Capra almost immediately quit his directing job to enlist in the army. While he was on the older side at 44 years old and would not have been required to enlist, Capra believed it was his moral obligation. He believed that "In [his] films [he] championed the cause of the gentle, the poor, the downtrodden. Yet [he] had begun to live like the Aga Khan. The curse of Hollywood is big money. It comes so fast it breeds and imposes its own mores, not of wealth, but of ostentation and phony status." And so, to relieve his guilty conscience over this matter, Capra enlisted just 4 days after the attack.
Capra was placed in charge of a section devoted to promoting morale, and to explain to soldiers why they were fighting. He worked directly under the most senior officer of the Army, George Marshall, and was given the task of filming Why We Fight series that was mentioned in the reading in class today. His documentary series was so successful in the US that it was immediately translated into several languages, and was even ordered to be shown in all British public theaters by Churchill. In addition to Why We Fight, Capra also directed several other films related to wartime propaganda, including those focused on the Axis powers, such as Know Your Enemy: Japan (1945) and Here Is Germany (1945). Additionally, Capra created The Negro Soldier (1944), which was used as propaganda to inspire African Americans to enlist and fight in the US army.
A year after the end of WWII, Capra released what is probably his most famous film of all time: It's a Wonderful Life (1946). While initially seen as controversial and received poorly by audiences in '46, it has come to be known as one of the greatest American films of all time. In all, Capra's story is often considered the epitome of the American dream; he rose from little, worked his way up, and eventually achieved fame and stardom, having his name live on even decades after his death.
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