10 Facts About Jules White

Jules White appears in a small role as a Confederate soldier in the landmark silent feature The Birth of a Nation.

Jules White became a director in 1926, specializing in comedies such as The Battling Kangaroo.

In 1933, Jules White was appointed head of Columbia Pictures' short-subject division, which became the most prolific comedy factory in Hollywood.

Jules White began directing the Columbia shorts in 1938 and would become the department's most prolific director.

Jules White directed his sound films as though they were silent comedies: he paced the visual action very fast, and he coached his actors to gesture broadly and react painfully, even demonstrating the movements and grimaces he wanted.

Jules White's style is most evident in his string of two-reelers starring comics Wally Vernon and Eddie Quillan.

Jules White capitalized on this by staging the kind of rough-and-tumble slapstick not seen since silent-movie days, with the stars and supporting players doing pratfalls, crossing their eyes, getting hit with messy projectiles, having barehanded fistfights and being knocked "cuckoo" in film after film.

In 1956, after other studios had abandoned short-subject production, Jules White had the field to himself and experimented with new ideas.

Jules White even launched a new series, "Girlie Whirls," as musical-comedy vehicles for plump comedian Muriel Landers; only one film was made before Jules White reassigned her to one of the Stooge comedies.

Jules White decided to retire at the end of 1957, and closed Columbia's comedy-shorts department.