VLADIMIR ZVORYKIN
ALEKSEY BRODOVICH
VLADIMIR YURKEVICH
THE SCHENCK BROTHERS
THE BIG BREAKTHROUGH THEORY
[Viktor] Caviar
[Viktor] Nesting dolls
[Viktor] Vodka
[Viktor] Balalaika
[Viktor] Typical symbols of Russia for any foreigner
[Viktor] In recent decades, oil and gas got added to the list
[Viktor] It would make a great meme!
[Viktor] If you're Russian, you must sit on a gas pipe,
play the balalaika, and drink vodka from a nesting doll
[Viktor] Get it to the gift shop!
[Viktor] That's enough!
[Viktor] No more stereotypes!
[Viktor] We'll show you another Russia!
[VO] In July 1969, the American moon landing was seen on television.
[VO] Nestled in front of the screen,
a gentleman in his autumn years was closely following the story.
[VO] He was the man the American media dubbed 'the father of television.'
[Viktor] What did TV's creator think about?
[Viktor] Perhaps about the first experimental TV transmission
in New York many years ago
[Viktor] Or maybe, that no one had bothered to mention his name at the time
[Viktor] It was too hard for foreigners to say his Russian name, 'Zvorykin'
[Viktor] Or...
of home, his native Murom, where, as a small child,
he'd tried to work out how machines and mechanisms worked on his own
[VO] How did Vladimir Zvorykin realize his dream?
[VO] And how did television begin?
[GEO] MUROM, WESTERN RUSSIA
[Viktor] This is the house where the founder of television, Vladimir Zvorykin,
was born in 1888
[Viktor] He wrote this about his childhood:
'The house I was born in had been in our family for generations,
but even that three-storey building was too big for our extensive family
[Viktor] We only used the 2nd floor, the rest of the house was empty
[Viktor] We, kids, had plenty of room to play hide-and-seek'
[VO] But little Volodya wasn't only drawn to children's antics.
[VO] From a very young age, he was interested in, as his father used to put it, 'wires.'
[Maksim Sychyov, PhD, Professor, Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology]
[Sychyov] At his home in Murom, he was busy making electric bells
[Sychyov] It was trendy!
[Sychyov] You're in a room, press a button, and a bell rings in another room
[Sychyov] Interesting stuff!
[Sychyov] He was actively engaged in such things and very interested in physics
[VO] But did the merchant's son have any chance of exceeding his destiny?
[Elena Subbotina, Chief Research Fellow, Murom History and Art Museum]
[Subbotina] His father, Kozma Zvorykin, was a very pragmatic man,
and of course, he wanted his youngest son to succeed him
[VO] Volodya took little interest in the his father's shipping company’s dull ledgers.
[GEO] ST. PETERSBURG
[VO] In 1906, young Vladimir decided to go to the Saint Petersburg Institute of Technology.
[Viktor] It was here that he fatefully met with Professor Boris Rozing,
who had a profound influence on Zvorykin's scientific career
[Sychyov] At the time, Boris Rozing happened to be working on no less than...
a television system, that is...
a way to make an image in one place, turn it into an electrical signal,
send it by wire to another place, and display it there
[Viktor] In 1907,
he invented a receiver and a cathode-ray tube to send the signal
but Zvorykin, his student, took it even further
[Viktor] He invented television, in the modern sense of the word,
and wrote his name in history
[VO] But World War I broke out in 1914, bringing drastic changes for Zvorykin.
[VO] He had to put his research on hold,
and went to teach at a radio school for officers
[VO] A year later, after failing to score a decisive success on the Russian front
Germany's command temporarily shifted the theatre of war to the west
[VO] By then, young Zvorykin had also experienced a major change in his personal life:
he’d met a young dental student, Tatyana Vasilyeva.
[Subbotina] They fell in love and got married
[Subbotina] In his memoirs, Vladimir wrote that
they only broke the news to his father and mother after the wedding
[VO] But the marriage did not last - only three years.
[VO] Perhaps their feelings had waned amid the country’s deteriorating situation
[VO] It was beginning to turn into a powder keg.
[VO] The February Revolution first began in 1917
that was followed by the October Revolution.
[VO] The old Russia was gone.
[VO] In 1918, Tatyana moved to Berlin
and Vladimir had an urgent call from Murom, where his father was dying.
[VO] After the funeral, Zvorykin returned to the Petrograd.
[Subbotina] One day, after work, he was on his way home,
and a truck pulled up beside him
[Subbotina] The driver turned out to be an acquaintance, who warned him...
that a warrant had been issued for his arrest because he...
an officer in the Russian, meaning 'White' Guard...
had failed to properly inform the military authorities about himself,
and so, he was about to be arrested
[VO] Under those conditions, it was pointless to keep working on vacuum tubes and cathode rays.
[VO] So Zvorykin decided to leave all the turmoil behind.
[VO] His departure was like a chapter in an adventure novel.
[Subbotina] After travelling through Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, Omsk,
across the Arctic Ocean, through Arkhangelsk,
across the Scandinavian fiords,
via Denmark...
and Great Britain, he got to America
[VO] But how, after moving abroad, could he continue the work they started in Russia?
[Subbotina] He only began to learn English after arriving in America
[Subbotina] But he was fluent in the French and German languages,
which he had learnt at school in his native town
[VO] He applied to a radio electronics firm. And was hired.
[Viktor] Of course, when it came to realising his TV broadcasting ideas
at the Westinghouse laboratory, Zvorykin couldn't do it at once
[Viktor] It took several years of hard work
before he created a fully electronic television system
which was patented towards the end of 1938
[GEO] MOSCOW
[VO] This Zvorykin's invention became the prototype of the future television system.
[Sychyov] Zvorykin managed to make it so
that sufficient signal strength, resolution, and so on...
that the whole process could be arranged solely
by using electrical signals
[Sychyov] You take a signal, transmit it by wire, or transmit it using an antenna
[Sychyov] A second antenna received it and showed it on a TV
[Sychyov] From that moment, the explosive growth in TV's popularity began
[Viktor] Clearly, given where television is now,
that invention may seem like a child's toy
[Viktor] After all, image quality was very low
[Viktor] But importantly, Zvorykin devised an entirely new way to transmit signals
[Viktor] Something nobody had been able to do before
[Sychyov] Of course, it was blurry, not sharp...
and poor resolution, meaning very few dots-per-inch
[Sychyov] And the executives at Westinghouse...
believed that devices of that quality...
would interest no one
[Sychyov] They didn't look ahead, and didn't see it as a breakthrough
[Sychyov] It needed a little more work, money and time
to improve the product and make it marketable
[VO] The inventor found another investor - businessman David Sarnoff,
president of the Radio Corporation in America
[Subbotina] Sarnoff asked Zvorykin how much he needed to implement his project
[Subbotina] After some thought, he replied,
'Well, somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000'
[Subbotina] Sarnoff heard that and responded, 'In reality...
realising it...
will cost $50 million'
[Subbotina] And it didn't take a few months, as Zvorykin estimated, but ten years
[Viktor] Zvorykin's inventions were recognised by all, all over the world
[Viktor] The US scientific community
sees him as a great American inventor and the 'father of television'
[Viktor] These are facts you can't argue with
[Viktor] But!
[Viktor] How was Zvorykin's invention seen in his homeland?
[Viktor] Was the Soviet Union ready to turn a blind eye
to Zvorykin first collaborating with the Whites, then going to America?
[Viktor] Interestingly...
[Viktor] Zvorykin wasn't only asked to give talks but invited to become...
a Soviet citizen
[Subbotina] Of course, he asked relatives for advice. They said...
'You're an American citizen now.' He'd received US citizenship in 1924,
'So you are treated with reverence, with respect...
as a citizen of another country
[Subbotina] Once you cross that line...
and become a Soviet citizen, there's no telling how you'll be treated'
[Subbotina] Vladimir did not choose to obtain Soviet citizenship
[Subbotina] He remained...
a US citizen...
and continued with his research activities
[VO] But there were still much that tied Zvorykin to Russia
his siblings, colleagues, and friends were still alive.
[VO] And he still cherished unforgettable childhood memories.
[VO] And as soon as he had the opportunity to travel to the Soviet Union on business
he began to gather all the permits he needed
[Sychyov] And the American Foreign Ministry informed him
that once he was in the Soviet Union,
the USA would bear no responsibility for him and couldn't get him out
[Sychyov] So, he'd go at his own risk. But he wasn't scared
[VO] Despite the dire warnings from American officials,
Zvorykin did travelled to the Soviet Union in 1933 to lecture at the University.
[Subbotina] At that time, in the 1930s,
while talking with colleagues and fellow scientists from the USSR,
he spoke interestingly about the situation, 'Today, I come to teach you
[Subbotina] Tomorrow, I will come, and we'll speak the same language,
and when I come for the third time, just like in a fairy tale,
it will be you teaching me'
[VO] Zvorykin would return to his homeland again many times.
[VO] He would even help to develop Soviet television.
[VO] The first Soviet TV set was made to his designs.
[Sychyov] To start producing the first Soviet TV,
they bought a patent and, using American specifications,
made it at the Leningrad Kozitsky Plant
[Aleksandr Nosik, Actor, TV Presenter] A TV was very expensive, but also...
hard to get, as back then, you had a long wait for anything
[Nosik] So, if that marvel of technology was in a home or communal flat,
it was a big draw for neighbours and friends
[Nosik] Everyone gathered around the TV, it was small, very small at first,
even with a magnifying glass, to watch a favourite film or show
[Anna Nevskaya, Theatre and Film Actress] In the early days of television, to give the image more contrast,
they used special red filters,
and women presenters had to use not the usual red lipstick, but green
[Viktor] His first wife, who followed him from Russia
and had two children... Zvorykin left her early in his American career
[Viktor] From then, he lived only for work, and dreamed...
of visiting Russia...
and seeing his native Murom
[Viktor] But the city was closed to foreigners
[Viktor] However, Zvorykin still believed that one day, he'd go back
to his home town
[Subbotina] In 1967, Zvorykin arrived to take part in a scientific conference
[Subbotina] He was accompanied by his second wife, Ekaterina Andreevna
[Subbotina] They had an incredibly happy 30 years of married life together
[Viktor] In 1951...
Vladimir married again, to a Russian immigrant, Ekaterina,
who he'd known for almost 20 years
[Viktor] All that time, Ekaterina was married, so Zvorykin stayed away
[Viktor] But one day, she was widowed,
and Vladimir immediately proposed
[Viktor] Even though he was 60 years old
[VO] It was with Elena that the scientist would at last realise his long-held dream.
[VO] At a scientific conference, Zvorykin met a young specialist,
Aleksandr Galkin, and told him all about his vision.
[Subbotina] And he told Vladimir Zvorykin to buy an 'Intourist' trip to Vladimir and Suzdal
'And on one day, say you won't need a tour guide...
take a taxi...
and go to Murom'
[VO] Zvorykin was very worried: what if his ancestral home had been torn down
and the graves of his ancestors destroyed in the hectic the Civil War years?
[VO] But he was delighted to see with how much care
had been devoted to maintained everything.
[Viktor] In 2013, in Moscow, near the Television Centre,
a statue of Vladimir Zvorykin, the inventor of TV, was put up
[Viktor] Here, by Ostankino Pond, opposite the TV tower
[Viktor] And now you can literally touch history here
[Viktor] Or take a selfie
[Viktor] Of course...
Zvorykin's cathode ray was replaced long ago by ultra-thin HD TVs
[Viktor] But it's quite clear to see...
without the Murom dreamer and designer, Zvorykin,
20th-century history and the whole modern world
would have been very different!
THE BIG BREAKTHROUGH THEORY
[Viktor] The very first art director in global glossy media also had Russian roots
[Viktor] He had a very difficult character
[Viktor] Aleksey Brodovich
[Viktor] A graphic design genius and fashion and advertising photography pioneer
[Viktor] His notable students included Richard Avedon and Irving Penn
[Viktor] Both complained that not once in his life did the master offer any praise
[Viktor] Indeed, Brodovich never did have that habit
[Viktor] His students only ever heard one phrase...
'Well,
Surprise me!'
[VO] But what was Aleksey Brodovich’s unique gift
to have revolutionised the world of gloss in the West?
[Anna Nevskaya, Theatre and Film Actress] A few years ago, we visited 2 Brodovich exhibitions
[Nevskaya] Surprisingly, his works are still relevant today
'WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHY? I CAN'T SAY. IT'S TIED TO TIME.
WHAT’S GOOD TODAY, MAY BECOME A CLICHÉ TOMORROW...
THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S GOAL IS TO INVENT THEIR OWN UNIQUE LANGUAGE, A VISUAL ALPHABET’
[Yulia Kudryavtseva, Journalist, Beauty Director, 'Harper's Bazaar Russia' Magazine, 2009–2022]
[Yulia] He was the first to introduce spreads, in which pictures could be cropped in
completely different ways
[Yulia] He didn't care who the photographer was
[Yulia] He cropped arms, heads and stuff pitilessly
[Yulia] He threw the rule book out of the window
[VO] So, where did this unique visual language come from?
[VO] Maybe it was formed in his childhood:
from those pictures that little Aleksey painted,
observing life from the windows of his father's house in Ogolichi village?
[Yulia] Aleksey's mother was a painter
[Yulia] She hoped he would enter the Academy of Arts
[GEO] ST. PETERSBURG
[VO] Or maybe Aleksey learned his visual alphabet at Tenishev's famous school?
[Viktor] The school was his sole stepping stone
to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts
[Viktor] Aleksey was clearly obsessed by art
[Viktor] After the start of WWI, he had to abandon his dreams of the Academy
[Viktor] Aleksey went to the front twice to kill Germans
[Viktor] He was sent home but wasn't discouraged from defending
his Motherland
[Viktor] He was sent to the Page Corps. Then he joined the army
and served as a Cornet in the 12th Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment
[VO] Brodovich did not accept the proletarian 1917 Revolution.
[VO] He joined the Volunteer Army and was badly wounded fighting against the Bolsheviks.
[VO] He, like many White Army officers, was hospitalised in Kislovodsk.
where he met his future wife, Nina.
[VO] Together they emigrated through Turkey to France.
[GEO] PARIS
[VO] In Paris, Nina worked as a seamstress, and Aleksey as a decorator.
[VO] That was the fate of many emigrants from Russia.
[VO] But how did Brodovich break free from this circle?
[VO] In the evenings, after work,
he went to Maria Vasilyeva's Free Russian Academy
[Nosik] Vasilyeva was an artist. In 1912, she opened an Academy
[Nosik] All were welcome. The principle was free work without training
[Nosik] Musical soirées, art talks and lectures were held there
[VO] It was here that Brodovich became friends with fellow countryman
Marc Chagall and many other artists.
[Nevskaya] Montmartre was then home to outstanding French artists,
who went down in the history of French and world art:
Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, André Derain
[VO] The famous entrepreneur Sergey Dyagilev noticed Brodovich.
and invited him to design the sets for his 'Russian Seasons.'
[Yulia] Diaghilev supported emigrants. He gave jobs to many who needed work
[Yulia] He was famous for that
[VO] But Brodovich felt confined by the set designer role,
and went on to become the troupe‘s official photographer
[VO] In 1924, Nina and Aleksey had a son, Nikita.
[VO] In the same year, Brodovich took his first steps in the advertisement business.
[VO] By the 1930s, he was the first graphic designer in history to have his own studio.
[VO] And once again, he begins to feel uncomfortable within the structures of advertising.
[VO] How do you find your own visual language when bound hand and foot by the client’s wills?
[VO] That’s when Brodovich and his family moved to America.
[Viktor] By the way, Brodovich borrowed the phrase 'Surprise me!' from Diaghilev
[Viktor] It's how the organiser of the 'Russian Seasons' in Paris
once greeted him
[Viktor] The self-taught designer opened a school in New York, and the phrase
became his byword
[Viktor] Not surprising! Brodovich sometimes referred to himself as an 'opener'
[Viktor] He literally forced students to open themselves,
to develop their own style
[Viktor] But the master was hard to surprise
[Viktor] He'd done it all himself and knew his subject well
[Yulia] In fact, in Paris, he was offered a job in America
[Yulia] John Jackson, father of a young lady Brodovich had introduced
to Paris' artistic circles,
was so impressed by his talent and vision
that he offered him the job of heading
the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art's Advertising Design Department
[VO] Of course, the university framework was too small for him.
[VO] And very soon he’d get to know Carmel Snow,
and discover the world of gloss.
[Yulia] They met in 1934 at an exhibition designed by Aleksey
at the Rockefeller Centre. Carmel approached him, and rumour has it,
[Yulia] 10 minutes later, she offered him the job of art director of 'Harper's Bazaar'
[Yulia] Her vision of what she wanted for the magazine -
she was the new editor-in-chief - was identical to Aleksey's
[Nevskaya] He turned the magazine into a work of art
[Nevskaya] His photographs are in museums around the world
[Nevskaya] For instance, the image of two girls bursting out of a newspaper
[Nosik] During his 24-year tenure, the likes of Dali, Chagall, and Cocteau
contributed cover designs:
the greatest artists of the time, at the pinnacle of their fame
[VO] Brodovich was literally overwhelmed by world-wide fame.
[VO]It only in his homeland that no one had heard of him.
[VO] In the media back home, the very mention of White Guard emigrants was taboo.
[VO] At the same time, Brodovich never allowed himself a single word against Soviet Russia.
[VO] During World War II, he designed posters for the Red Cross Society,
which collected donations for the Soviet Union,
the US ally in the fight against the Hitler's coalition.
[Viktor] In 1959, Aleksey Brodovich was designing the 'Observations' album
by his student, and now very popular photographer Richard Avedon
[Viktor] The famous writer, Truman Capote, wrote the album's text
[Viktor] Many successful Hollywood films were based on his books,
including 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'
[Viktor] Brodovich's influence was so high that the famous writer obeyed him
without question: he wrote all the text exactly as the great designer desired
[VO] Brodovich basically invented and created the world of glamour and consumer design that we know today.
[VO] But did he ever find his own visual language?
[VO] Did he manage to surprise himself?
[VO] A good picture should be a completely distinct expression
that intrigues the viewer and makes them think.
[Nosik] Brodovich expressed his creative credo in his magazine 'Portfolio':
art for the sake of art, or rather, design for design's sake
[VO] The three issues published in the 1950s became absolute glossy magazines classics
[Viktor] Throughout his life, Brodovich remained a one-woman man
[Viktor] After the death of his wife, Nina, he never re-married,
despite being surrounded by the world's most beautiful women:
[Viktor] Monroe, Hepburn, and many others
[Viktor] Aleksey felt the same way about Russia
[Viktor] Even though he never returned to his homeland,
deep inside, he remained a true Russian
THE BIG BREAKTHROUGH THEORY
[Viktor] It's pointless to talk about the delights of cruising
[Viktor] You must experience it:
that first 'wow' moment when you see a huge cruiser in port,
when you wake up in a new country,
and drink your first cup of coffee on deck with a view of...
the endless ocean...
then you will realise everything you've heard about cruise ships was true!
[Viktor] But only part of it. And Russians also left their mark here
[VO] On October 29, 1932, France rejoiced as the world's largest passenger liner was launched, the 'Normandie'
[Viktor] Those who created the 'Normandie' received the highest state awards
[Viktor] Reporters interviewed the shipyard's management,
virtually calling them national heroes
[Viktor] Champagne corks were popping, with shouts of 'Bravo!' heard in the crowd
[Viktor] All eyes were on the liner
[Viktor] So no one paid attention to a middle-aged man,
modestly standing to one side:
the creator of the unprecedented vessel, Vladimir Ivanovich Yurkevich
[VO] Yurkevich looked admiringly at his creation
[VO] Never before had the world seen a ship quite like the 'Normandie'
[Evgeny Guslyarov, Member, Union of Writers of Russia, Author of 'Russian Fathers of America'] The 'Normandie' was 338 metres long
[Guslyarov] Just imagine - a third of a kilometre!
[Guslyarov] Journalists joked that if you stood the ship on its end,
it would be higher than the Eiffel Tower!
[VO] When regular trans-Atlantic voyages began,
Soviet writers Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov were among the Normandie’s passengers.
[VO] They shared their impressions in the book 'One-storey America',
devoting an whole chapter to the 'Normandie.'
[Nevskaya] 'Crowds swarmed on the pier. The 'Normandie' was still a novelty
[Nevskaya] Each of the transatlantic titan's voyages drew riveted attention'
[Nosik] 'The 'Normandie' is a masterpiece of French design:
its speed, fire-fighting system, radio station,
and the bold, elegant lines of its hull are admirable'
[VO] The unprecedented luxury was also striking:
tennis courts, a bird garden, a huge swimming pool,
a garage for a hundred cars... even a chapel.
[VO] The ship was a real 'floating super-city.'
[Valery Klimov, Head, Museum of the History, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University]
[Klimov] Almost all newspapers wrote about the 'Normandie',
about its super build quality. It's a shame they rarely cited its creator
[Klimov] Yurkevich's name was almost never mentioned
[Viktor] Yurkevich was born in Moscow, into a noble family
[Viktor] His father, a founding member of the Russian Geographical Society,
taught geography at a prestigious school
[Viktor] Hardly surprising the boy dreamed of ships and the sea!
[Klimov] He recalled his childhood
[Klimov] All boys make paper boats and launch them...
in a stream, especially in spring. But his kept capsizing
[Klimov] Little Vova Yurkevich tried making the sails smaller
[Klimov] He tweaked the hull, and succeeded in making his paper boat float
[Klimov] This might seem a small detail from his childhood,
but it would play a huge role later in his life
[Viktor] He also loved drawing and was fond of mathematics
[Viktor] After distinguishing himself at school, he moved to the River Neva
and studied shipbuilding at St. Petersburg's Polytechnic University
[Klimov] The atmosphere in the shipbuilding department was extraordinary
[Klimov] There weren’t many students, and the professors knew each student
by name, surname, and handwriting
[Klimov] That is to say, the students were treated as family
[Klimov] This atmosphere was created by the department's first dean,
Konstantin Baklevsky
[VO] Under Baklevsky's supervision,
Yurkevich began to develop his own ideas on how to reduce the water resistance on a ship's motion.
[VO] The formula he developed would become a classic
that would forever change seafaring, and not just for the Russian Navy.
[Guslyarov] Without this, you can't build a good fleet,
because without formulas and Yurkevich's bulbous bow,
modern fleets just wouldn't exist
[VO] Most of Yurkevich's developments were many years ahead of world shipbuilding.
[VO] But it was all destroyed in an instant.
[Viktor] The events in Russia in 1917 divided his life into 'before' and 'after'
[Viktor] Yurkevich rejected the revolution. Archives indicate his move
was initiated by his first wife, Nadezhda Evgenyevna Bekman,
who he later divorced in Paris in 1931
[Viktor] But the choice had already been made
[VO] In France, this outstanding engineer
was for a long time forced to work odd jobs
[Guslyarov] All the Russian emigrants loved Paris,
thinking manna from heaven would fall on them
[Guslyarov] Of course, it wasn't like that
[VO] His only consolation in emigration was a new acquaintance,
which, as time would show, was no accident.
[VO] He lived the rest of his life with Olga Krestovskaya.
[Nevskaya] Olga Krestovskaya describes how she met Yurkevich:
'He was such a spiritual person
that he'd simply never dream of treating people badly
[Nevskaya] It was against his rules, his moral code'
[VO] Yurkevich's road to glory turned out to be long and winding.
[VO] Six years later, he finally managed to get a job
as a junior engineer in the major 'Penhoët' shipbuilding company
[Nosik] From Yurkevich's memoirs:
'I was surprised by my evaluation of the best ships
[Nosik] I noted that none fulfilled the potential they could have
if they'd been designed according to my methods'
[VO] And four years later, he received an order to build the largest cruise liner the 'Normandie.'
[VO] And his talent for design was revealed in all its glory!
[Viktor] Only the Paris newspaper La Russie, for emigrants, wrote...
[Viktor] 'If the French can take pride in the 'Normandie', a French ship,
then we Russians can be doubly proud because this French triumph
was created by a Russian engineer'
[Viktor] It's no surprise that Yurkevich moved to the US in 1937,
on the promise of more favourable conditions,
and participation in large-scale projects
[Viktor] He fervently hoped that he'd be invited to create the fastest ocean liner,
surpassing all others with its characteristics
[Klimov] It seemed the right decision to move with his family to the US
[Klimov] Later, he would say: 'My decision was absolutely wrong'
[Klimov] He said he should have stayed in Europe instead
[VO] The company's management foreplanned to build America’s largest liner
the SS United States,
didn't even consider including Yurkevich in the project.
[Viktor] Yurkevich recognised what was going on:
it was apparent that the blueprint for the 'SS United States'
was his 'Normandie'
[Viktor] But in 1946, Yurkevich's patent expired
[Viktor] Rights to his formulas and developments
no longer held legal sway. So anyone could use them
[Viktor] Brought up on vastly different concepts of honour,
[Viktor] Yurkevich wrote a bitter and harsh article,
in which he expressed disappointment with the shipbuilders' moral values
[Viktor] However, the Americans pretended not to notice
the great designer's resentment
[VO] Around the same time, an unexpected event:
by a fateful coincidence, the Normandy, confiscated from France,
ended up in an American port
to be converted into a floating military hospital.
[VO] But fire broke out on the vessel while welding was underway
[Klimov] Several ships were sent to extinguish the Normandie
[Klimov] Yurkevich himself arrived and provided good advice
[Klimov] He knew how the Normandie was built, what partitions it had inside…
[Klimov] But, unfortunately, no one listened,
and one side of the ship was doused more than the other
[Klimov] The Normandie began to heel over due to the imbalance in water flow
and eventually capsized
[VO] With the outbreak of World War 2,
Yurkevichs weren’t indifferent to their homeland’s fate
[Guslyarov] They were passionate patriots till the end of their days
[Guslyarov] They even appealed to the president
about opening a second front
[Guslyarov] Using their considerable reputational weight,
they wanted to reach out to the president somehow
to convince him to open the second front sooner
[Klimov] During the Great Patriotic War, the Second World War,
Yurkevich prepared lend-lease vessels that were brought here,
to the Soviet Union
[Klimov] It was the very equipment we lacked
[Klimov] So, as an emigrant, he differed from everyone else
[Viktor] Another fact speaks to Yurkevich's attitude towards his Motherland
[Viktor] In 1964, after the brilliant designer's death,
someone from Columbia University approached his wife, Olga,
to get her to sell her husband's archives
[Viktor] But she honoured her husband's wishes and refused
[Viktor] Soon after, all of Yurkevich's blueprints were transferred
to the Central State Archive of the National Economy of the USSR,
free of charge
[Viktor] And this is deeply symbolic
[Viktor] Yurkevich gave everything he created in his life back to his Motherland,
which itself had first made him a design engineer
THE BIG BREAKTHROUGH THEORY
[VO] On November 20, 1927, on Lenin Hills,
now known as Sparrow Hills,
a solemn ceremony was held
to commemorate the founding of name of Mosfilm's.
[Viktor] During the meeting, the Soviet and US colleagues
communicated exclusively via an interpreter
[Viktor] Then, one of the American delegates
suddenly burst out in enthusiasm in pure Russian,
shocking the Soviet film-makers
[VO] Legend has it that Sergey Eisenstein,
who was in the crowd, winked cheerfully at his friend
Grigory Aleksandrov and said:
'That sly fox! Even here, he managed to make a splash!'
[VO] But who were the famous Soviet film director mean?
[Viktor] For many decades, nearly all actors, directors, and producers
dreamed of conquering the most important cinematic peak – Hollywood
[Viktor] But few people know the American 'star factory'
might not even exist today
if two poor lads from the provincial Russian city of Rybinsk
hadn't gone to New York in 1893 with the sole purpose of making a living
[Viktor] They were destined to become the 'bigwigs' of the American film industry,
and the world knows them as the brothers
Joseph and Nicholas Schenck
[GEO] RYBINSK, WESTERN RUSSIA
[VO] In Russia, the 'kinship' between Rybinsk and Hollywood didn’t become widely known until the 90s.
[Igor Ryaboy, Local Historian]
[Ryaboy] The first person in Russia to talk about these Hollywood founders
was a local Rybinsk historian, Vadim Nefyodov, who, as a military attaché,
had read about his fellow countrymen from Rybinsk
in an American encyclopaedia
[Ryaboy] He got us interested, so we began to scour the archives
[VO] In the Rybinsk city records, local historians found
that in 1878 a son, Joseph, was born to clerk Mikhail Schenker’s family
and another, Nisa, two years later
[Ryaboy] The Schenck brothers' father was named Haim,
or 'Mikhail', as his colleagues dubbed him while he was living here
[VO] They say that the Schenker family house still stands in Rybinsk.
[VO] Is that true? Let's find out!
[Viktor] So, this is the building where the Schenck brothers were born?
[Krein] Well, you can read this on the memorial plaque...
[Viktor] It says: 'Here was born the founders of Hollywood,
the American Film Academy, and the Oscars,
the Schenck brothers'
[Krein] Although this is wrong, they lived on the next block
[Viktor] Will you show me? [Krein] Yes, let's go
[Viktor] So, where's 'Hollywood's birthplace'?
[Boris Krein, Film Critic] Well, you could consider it to be here
[Krein] In any case, the Schenkers lived in Garin's house,
and this house belonged to the Garins in the 19th century
[Krein] They rented housing here,
as they didn't have the right to permanent residency
or to own real estate
[VO] So what forced the brothers to go to a foreign land?
[VO] One theory is that their father's documents were filled in incorrectly.
[Ryaboy] The father turned up at city hall as a glover,
but, by law, Jews couldn't change profession
[Ryaboy] Later, he got a job with a shipping company owned by Ilya Averbakh,
the great-granddad of another famous director
[Ryaboy] The authorities wouldn't pardon this and warned him that,
if he didn't return to his original profession,
they'd send him off to the Pale of Settlement
[Ryaboy] This is why they decided to leave the country
[VO] Another theory suggests a different reason
[Ryaboy] The father personally organised and performed
an illegal circumcision ceremony
[Ryaboy] He couldn't do this, as he wasn't a rabbi
[Ryaboy] This can be considered one of the main reasons why
the Schenkers left Russia
[VO] Either way, the Schenkers crossed the Atlantic.
[VO] As it was a big family with little money for tickets,
the brothers spent the voyage in the ship's hold.
[VO] They paid in kind for their passage
by cleaning aboard ship.
[GEO] NEW YORK
[VO] After settling in New York,
the Schenkers shortened their surname to the more laconic 'Schenck,'
and adapted their names to appeal more to the American ear,
becoming Joseph and Nicholas.
[Nosik] Famous composer Irving Berlin, who was friends with the brothers, said,
when they lived in Brooklyn, they lived with Julius Hammer,
son of the businessman and communist Armand Hammer,
a friend of Lenin's
[Nosik] Julius sympathised with the Bolsheviks and proletariat,
so he offered the lads shelter, but not for free
[Nosik] They worked as the pharmacy's messengers and cleaners,
and slept on its floor
[VO] After working at the pharmacy, the brothers sold newspapers.
[VO] Later, they secured positions at the Palisades Amusement Park which proved a success
[VO] And in 1905, they were able to buy the park for themselves.
[Viktor] To call it an 'amusement park' is exaggerating
[Viktor] In fact, there were two pubs, several shooting galleries,
and an abandoned photo booth
[Viktor] But the brothers realised,
to provide real entertainment, they needed more of a Russian angle
[Viktor] They say this is how rollercoasters were born,
which we, in Russia, call 'American Mountains'
[Viktor] The younger brother, Nicholas, tested the first ride for safety himself
[Viktor] After that, there was no shortage of people
wanting to ride in a cart along a huge loop at breakneck speed
[Viktor] So, the Schencks made good money, but they wanted something more
[VO] Fate favoured the brothers.
[VO] Meeting financier Marcus Loews radically changed their future.
[VO] Loews invited them to join him in developing his chain of Nickelodeons -
- the predecessors to modern cinema
[Nevskaya] Do you know why it's called that?
[Nevskaya] A film ticket back then cost 5 cents, a coin the Americans call a 'nickel'
[Nevskaya] Hence, the name 'Nickelodeon'
[Ryaboy] These were the first cinemas
[Ryaboy] The chain grew and, in fact, the 3 were partners for a while
[Ryaboy] It was thanks to Marcus Loew that the brothers came to Hollywood
[VO] In 1917, the brothers parted for a while.
[VO] The elder Joseph married silent film star Norma Talmadge and flew to Hollywood.
[Nosik] Joseph Schenck organised a production company in Hollywood
called Comique Film Corporation,
which made low-budget and experimental films,
now called 'auteur cinema'
[Viktor] Nicholas stayed in New York
and continued working with Marcus Loew as his right-hand man
[Viktor] Nicholas now ran a large chain of cinemas in the US and Canada
[Viktor] But he didn't want to just distribute films, but also produce them
[Viktor] So, on Nicholas's advice, Loew bought 3 smaller film companies
and combined them for greater efficiency
[Viktor] And so, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer corporation was born in April of 1924
[VO] Meanwhile, Joseph had firmly established himself in Hollywood.
[Nevskaya] Famous actors David Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Mary Pickford
made Joseph Schenck producer of a film company they'd created:
United Artists
[Nosik] Chaplin wrote that
Joseph Schenck was called 'Honest Joe' behind his back
[Viktor] Then, Joseph's younger brother, Nicholas, appeared in Hollywood
with another offer -
to merge United Artists and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
[Viktor] It seemed to be the deal of the century!
[Viktor] But the merger never went through
[Viktor] Everyone signed off except Charlie Chaplin,
who took some time to think,
perhaps because he'd been very critical of 'Honest Joe' from the start
[Viktor] What did it all lead to?
[Viktor] The Schenсk brothers' MGM company took the leading position
in the US film industry,
replacing United Artists on top of the podium
[VO] The brothers had little time to sort things out with Chaplin –
there were enough problems in the industry.
[Nosik] If you read American newspapers from that period,
an interesting plot emerges
[Nosik] Mafia bosses made all Hollywood bosses pay for 'protection',
like in Russia at one point
[Nosik] It was the lion's share of their income - no one escaped
[Nosik] And the Schenсk brothers also became ensnared
[Nosik] No one could avoid the yoke of mafia 'protection'
[Viktor] But how did Joseph avoid paying off the mafia?
[Viktor] One legend has it that
he personally signed a cheque for a gangster who'd come to collect tribute
[Viktor] But when they tried to cash it,
the mafia bosses were arrested along with Schenсk himself
[Nosik] Seems Joseph set this trap to get rid of the mafia
[Nosik] He served 4 years, was pardoned, and ardently went back to filmmaking
[VO] They lit up quite a few stars.
[VO] Including one of the XX century greatest film legends
[VO] One day, Joseph met an aspiring actress, Norma Jeane.
[VO] Trusting in her talent, he helped the girl get her first film contract,
from which the actress woke up famous.
[VO] That's how the world discovered Marilyn Monroe.
[Ryaboy] How close their relations were is still unclear
[Ryaboy] Monroe was embarrassed about this connection
and didn't openly admit to it
[Ryaboy] After Joseph's death, journalists asked Monroe how close they'd been
[Ryaboy] Monroe stated that their relationship was purely platonic
[VO] According to Monroe, Joseph often amused her by imitating the voices of Rybinsk boatmen.
[Ryaboy] The brothers never forgot their roots, primarily thanks to their mother,
who introduced her sons to Russian culture,
and attracted them to both Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy
[VO] Joseph and Nicholas sometimes liked to talk in a way that was incomprehensible to everyone else.
[VO] Especially when they wanted no one to understand them.
[Ryaboy] As for everyday conversation,
the brothers spoke Russian with each other and their parents too
[Ryaboy] They didn't forget their native language
[VO] The Schencks never forgot Russia.
[VO] And they weren't shy about their origins
[VO] Therefore, in all American reference books,
the brothers' birthplace is recorded as the Russian Empire,
Rybinsk city, Yaroslavl Province.
[VO] And they called their Rybinsk house nothing less than the 'Hollywood Maternity Ward.'
[Viktor] If they hadn't left their homeland,
what might these people have achieved?
[Viktor] What would have been their fate?
[Viktor] But, as we know, history knows no 'ifs'
[Viktor] Yes, all their lives ended far away from our country,
but only due to experience and knowledge acquired in Russia
were they able to achieve world-class success
[Viktor] In conclusion, I'm sure you'll see many things in a different light
after watching our film