Note 8: Gregory la Cava was born in Towanda, Pennsylvania, in 1892. He probably began his career as a cartoonist and animation supervisor at Barré-Bowers Studios in New York around 1914-15. Then became a newspaper cartoonist for W.R.Hearst, and then this one - perhaps at la Cava's initiative and invitation? - in 1916 set up the International Film Service with the aim of turning some of the comic cartoons that ran in Hearst's newspapers and magazines into cartoons, la Cava was appointed artistic director of the company.

About the cartoons that la Cava produced and in some cases also directed, it was said that they had "the la Cava touch". His cartoons were also full of humor and witty, visual gags.

After the closure of the International Film Service in 1918, la Cava followed over to Bray Productions, Inc., where he reportedly largely continued work on the same series as at Hearst. It is not known how long la Cava was employed by Bray, but in the early 1920s he switched to live-action feature films. Here his sense of slapstick comedy benefited the films he directed. E.g. some farces with the legendary comedian W. C. Fields (1897-1946), including Running Wild (1927).

He later directed film comedies such as The Half-Naked Truth and Gabriel over the White Horse (1932), What Every Woman Knows (1934), Private Worlds and She Married Her Boss (1935), My Man Godfrey (1936), Stage Door (1937), The Primrose Path (1940), Unfinished Business (1941), Lady in a Jam (1942), Living in a Big Way (1947), m.fl.

Gregory la Cava's favorite actresses were Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn.

On Gregory la Cava, see Maurice Horn, cited work, p. 347. - Roger Manvell: The International Encyclopaedia of Film, p. 325.