Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1507937
small company town. Its social events evolved around evenings at Hollywood's restaurants and weekly boxing matches at the old American Legion Hall. Ben said, "You could find anyone you were looking for there." Raiding a competitor's crew was a common practice and there were spies on the lookout everywhere. News traveled fast, no sooner had Ben entered the company's production office when he received a phone call from director Marshall "Micky" Neilan, another Fort Lee acquaintance, offering Ben a new job. The typist in Tourneur's office was the wife of Neilan's manager, so when she heard the news of Ben's resignation, she instantly called her husband. As Ben would say, "Tourneur was being watched!" Transitions 1920s Ironically, Ben's resignation happened on the same day that another of his friends from Fort Lee, Goldwyn's Supervising Art Director Hugo Ballin, reached out to Ben about a another new job possibility. Hugo Ballin had a successful New York career as a muralist and designer for Broadway. He had been a pioneer Art Director working at Thomas Edison's Studio in Bedford, New York, and later the Goldwyn Studios in Fort Lee. Hugo told Ben that he was leaving his position with Goldwyn to pursue directing. He suggested that his current job could be Ben's. Ever the independent freelancer, Ben was not interested in managing a studio Art Department. Instead, the new job went to Hugo's assistant from Fort Lee, Cedric Gibbons. No longer a department store window dresser, Cedric assumed his new position at Goldwyn Studios which would soon be reorganized and become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). As they say, the rest is history! Next, part three. Ben becomes a leader among his equals within the first bona fide generation of Hollywood Art Directors. Ultimately becoming frustrated and disenchanted with Art Direction in the studio system, Ben returns to his first love, the art of scenic painting backdrops. ADG A. TRADE MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT, THE LIFE LINE (1919). FAMOUS PLAYERS LASKY PRODUCTION, MAURICE TOURNEUR, DIRECTOR; BEN CARRÉ, ART DIRECTOR. CARRÉ'S FINAL FILM WITH TOURNEUR. B. CEDRIC GIBBONS (CIRCA 1919–1922). FUTURE SUPERVISING ART DIRECTOR FOR MGM. C. METRO-GOLDWYN- MAYER STUDIOS (1925). B C A