Konstantin Kalser facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Konstantin Kalser
|
|
|---|---|
Kalser accepting the Oscar for Crashing the Water Barrier, 1957
|
|
| Born | 4 September 1920 Munich, Germany
|
| Died | 30 July 1994 (aged 73) |
| Citizenship |
|
| Occupation |
|
|
Notable work
|
Crashing the Water Barrier (1956) |
| Awards | Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film (1957) |
Konstantin Kalser (born September 4, 1920 – died July 30, 1994) was a talented film producer and advertising expert. He was born in Germany and later became an American citizen. He is famous for winning an Oscar in 1957. He won it for his short film called Crashing the Water Barrier.
Contents
Konstantin Kalser: Film Producer
Early Life and Moving to America
Konstantin Kalser was born in Munich, Germany, on September 4, 1920. His father, Erwin Kalser, was an actor. His mother, Irma von Cube, was an actress and also wrote screenplays.
Konstantin went to school in Switzerland. Later, he studied at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1937, he moved to the United States. He joined his mother, who was already working in the entertainment business there.
During World War II, Konstantin served in the United States Air Force. After the war, he worked as a photographer. He took pictures for the famous magazine Life.
Starting a Film Company
In 1948, Konstantin Kalser started his own film company. It was called Marathon International Productions. At Marathon, he began making some of the first newsreels for television. Newsreels were short films that showed news events.
He also filmed the 1948 Winter Olympics for the DuMont Television Network. This was the first time the Winter Olympics were shown on American television!
Over time, Marathon International Productions changed. It started as a newsreel company. Then, in the 1950s and 1960s, it became an advertising company. Kalser saw his company as making "documentary" films. He believed his advertisements were subtle and still artistic.
Winning an Oscar!
During the 1950s and 1960s, Kalser produced many short films through Marathon. The most famous one was Crashing the Water Barrier. This film won an Oscar!
Crashing the Water Barrier was a short documentary. It was about a British speedboat racer named Donald Campbell. The film showed his successful attempt to break a speed record on water.
The film won the award for "Best Short Subject, One-reel" at the 1957 Academy Awards. The next year, the awards for short films were combined into one category. In 1966, Kalser shared that Crashing the Water Barrier was actually an advertisement for an oil company.
More Films and TV Shows
After his Oscar win, Kalser kept making short films. Many of these were a type of native advertising. This means they were ads that looked like regular films.
For example, in 1966, he made The Way of a Ship for Volkswagen. This film was a documentary about how cars are shipped around the world. It focused on 64 ships that delivered Volkswagen cars. Kalser hoped this film would win another Oscar.
He also produced For Years to Come for Chrysler. This film was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Kalser and Marathon also made films that were not advertisements. One important work was The Unknown War. This was a TV series about the Eastern Front of World War II. It showed the conflict between the Axis powers and the Soviet Union.
Later Life
In 1957, Kalser had a funny experience. He was driving in New York. He was going 40 miles per hour (about 64 km/h) in a 35 miles per hour (about 56 km/h) zone. He had to pay a fine.
After paying, he showed the judge a film he had made. In the film, his wife was driving the same speed. Other cars were speeding past her. Some even stopped to tell her she was driving too slowly! The judge was very impressed by Kalser's cleverness.
Konstantin Kalser passed away on July 30, 1994, at age 73. He was living in Amagansett, New York. He was survived by his wife, Martha Kalser, his two children, and two stepchildren.
