X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Sol Lesser


¡Que viva México!

Through Sinclair, the Mexican Film Trust attempted to arouse interest from a major American motion picture concern to finish the film, but after months of failure to find among them anyone interested in the property, finally contracted with independent producer-distributor Sol Lesser to produce two short features and a short subject culled from the footage, Thunder Over Mexico, Eisenstein in Mexico, and Death Day all released in 1934.

Sol Lesser

In 1933 Lesser succeeded in buying screen rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan character.

His productions usually had higher budgets than the usual independent features; Lesser was able to produce entire series with name stars like Bela Lugosi, George O'Brien, and Bobby Breen.

Lesser's new Tarzan films were produced for RKO and starred Johnny Weissmuller and later Lex Barker and Gordon Scott, and Lesser devoted himself to these jungle adventures for the rest of his career.

Sol Lesser signed Jackie Coogan to a movie contract in 1922, establishing both as major Hollywood names.


Riverside Fox Theater

The theater was part of a chain of West Coast theaters built by Abe and Mike Gore, Adolph Ramish, and Sol Lesser.

Tarzan Finds a Son!

Independent producer Sol Lesser obtained the rights to make five Tarzan movies, but the first of these, Tarzan's Revenge, proved to be a flop.


see also

The New Adventures of Tarzan

(Sol Lesser had acquired options for five Tarzan productions from a defunct company, the first of which he used to make Tarzan the Fearless in direct competition with MGM's films.) MGM paid Lesser $500,000 for his options and paid Burroughs $25–50,000 per film.