J. K. McEldowney, Florist Made Movie After Wife Dared Him, 97
DGH
J. Kenneth McEldowney, an innovative florist and real estate agent who
took his wife's dare to produce a better movie, creating a classic
called "The River," died January 5, 2004, in his home in Burbank,
California, after a long illness, at the age of 97.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, McEldowney moved to Los Angeles,
California, as a child, studied business administration at UCLA, and
created a chain of four florist shops. He built a drive-through
florist shop and provided flowers for such Hollywood events as the
first Academy Awards in 1929 and Jean Harlow's funeral.
When McEldowney complained to his wife, an MGM publicist, about one of
her studio's films, she dared him to do better. So he sold their home
and floral shops and, from 1947 to 1951, labored to produce a motion
picture from British author Rumer Godden's romantic autobiographical
novel set in colonial India. "The River" became the first Technicolor
movie made in India.
Although McEldowney employed amateur or little-known actors, he could
rely on Godden as screenwriter and legendary director Jean Renoir, son
of the French impressionist painter. McEldowney's publicist wife
landed magazine coverage in Life, the Saturday Evening Post and
others.
The movie opened in New York, new York, with a record 34-week run at
reserved-seat prices and was on several 10-best-movie lists in 1951.
McEldowney told The Times years later that his film, seen around the
world, quickly made more than $16 million. But he turned to real
estate and never made another movie because, he said, "I did it once.
I proved my point."
DGH
This is the first thread in alt.obituaries to contain the name "McEldowney".