Early life Levine was born in a slum in
Boston, Massachusetts, on September 9, 1905. The youngest of six children of a
Russian-Jewish immigrant tailor, Joe did whatever work he could to help support his mother, a widow who had remarried only to have her second husband abandon her. This led Joe (in his later years) to tell an interviewer that he had known (in his words) "not one happy day" growing up. At 14 years of age he was hired for full-time work in a dress factory and left school, never to re-enroll. In the 1920s, in partnership with two of his older brothers, Joe opened a basement dress shop, whose stock the Levine brothers obtained on consignment. He had multiple other jobs and operated the Cafe Wonderbar in Boston's
Back Bay during this period and during the early and mid-1930s. One of Levine's most unusual successes was
Body Beautiful, a sex-hygiene film which he saw drawing a line of prospective ticket-buyers who were braving a snowstorm to that end. He later remembered buying it to show in his theaters because "it made me sick." He was also a representative for
Burstyn-
Mayer distributing Italian films such as
Roberto Rossellini's
Rome, Open City (1945) and
Paisà (1946), and
Vittorio De Sica's
Bicycle Thieves (1948). Levine discovered that double features with overlapping cast members or similar titles generated higher box-office revenue; he began the practice of screening two films with similar titles on one bill. In the 1960s he built two cinemas on 57th Street in New York City – the Lincoln Art Theatre and the Festival Theatre. Following the deal, Levine paid best-selling author
Harold Robbins $900,000 for the rights to three books, which were filmed:
The Carpetbaggers (1964),
Where Love Has Gone (1964) and
Nevada Smith (1966).
Carroll Baker, then a contract player for
Paramount Pictures, portrayed a hedonistic widow in
The Carpetbaggers. After the film became a huge hit, Levine made Baker his personal
protege, actively promoting her career and attempting to refashion her image, which caused the actress to be denigrated as Levine's "blonde bomb sell" (a play on "
bombshell"). For
The Carpetbaggers Baker had shot a
nude scene that was edited out of the US release; however, the scene was the subject of wide-spread publicity. A 1964
New York Times article quoted Baker defending the scene. Speaking of her character, she said: “She is alone in front of her dressing table. She has just stepped out of the bath and she is the kind of character to whom it would not occur to put on a robe. Doing the scene in the nude was my idea and I think it was a mistake not to show it.” Levine cast Baker in the
potboiler Sylvia, in which she again appeared nude. He then cast Baker in the
title role of the ill-fated actress, and
Hollywood's original blonde bombshell,
Jean Harlow in the biopic
Harlow (1965).
Sylvia received negative reviews and did poorly at the box office, while
Harlow, also a critical failure and released against a rival
Harlow movie starring
Carol Lynley, flopped despite significant pre-publicity. The
Harlow publicity campaign even had Baker featured in an advertisement for
Foster Grant sunglasses in
LIFE Magazine with stills from the movie. Relations between Baker and Levine deteriorated. In a 1965 interview, Baker sardonically commented: "I'll say this about Joe Levine: I admire his taste in leading ladies", which led the press to suspect a rift between the actress and producer. Baker sued Levine in 1966 over her contract with Paramount, and she was soon fired by the studio and had her paychecks from
Harlow frozen amid the contentious legal dispute. Baker went hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt, though eventually she was awarded $1 million in compensation.
The Lion in Winter (1968), Levine's favorite of his films, won an
Academy Award for lead actress
Katharine Hepburn. Directed and choreographed by
Herbert Ross, the musical began previews at the
Broadhurst Theatre on February 1, 1965, and opened (and closed) on February 6 after seven previews and one performance, becoming one of the biggest flops in Broadway history.
Trademarks Levine became famous in the industry for his massive advertising campaigns, starting with
Hercules in 1959. Levine had hired Terry Turner, who had been a former
RKO Pictures exploitation expert of the late 1920s and 1930s, where he had exploited
King Kong amongst other films. Levine's and Turner's exploitation campaigns were designed to appeal both to the general public and to the film industry and exhibitors.
Honors In 1964, Levine received the
Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award from the
Hollywood Foreign Press Association in recognition of his lifetime achievement in motion pictures.
Death Levine was hospitalized on June 21, 1987, and died the following month on July 31 in
Greenwich, Connecticut, at the age of 81. His known survivors, in addition to his widow Rosalie, included his son Richard, his daughter Tricia, and two grandchildren. == Quotes ==