Walton C. Ament

Last updated

Walton C. Ament
Waltonament.jpg
BornJanuary 7, 1907
DiedJanuary 23, 1968
NationalityAmerican
Occupation attorney, film producer
Known forwork with Frank Buck
Spouse(s)Mary Alicia Nickerson (1937–1968, his death)
Awardsplaque from War Activities Committee, 1946, for voluntary war services

Walton C. Ament (January 7, 1907 - January 23, 1968) was an attorney and film executive who produced Frank Buck's film Jungle Cavalcade . [1] Ament was an outspoken champion of newsreels. "The newsreel has not lost its vitality. It is not obsolescent. Never has it been more important," he wrote in 1944. [2] In 1946 Ament received a plaque from the War Activities Committee for voluntary war services. [3]

Contents

Early years

Walton C. Ament was the son of James McKeag Ament, listed on the 1920 US census as a chauffeur, and Ida May Campbell Ament. Walton graduated from Pennsylvania State College and Harvard Law School. He worked for the law firm Donovan, Leisure, Newton, and Lumbard in New York.

Film career

In 1939 Ament was appointed an editor at Pathé News. He was subsequently vice president, then vice president and general manager. [4] During his tenure, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for producing Spills and Chills, Sports News Review Series. He also produced Frank Buck's film Jungle Cavalcade.

Personal life and death

Walton C. Ament was married to Mary Alicia Nickerson, the daughter of investment banker John Nickerson. The couple had three daughters. Walton Ament died in Washington, DC after a long illness.

Related Research Articles

Buster Crabbe American swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, actor (1908–1983)

Clarence Linden Crabbe II, known professionally as Buster Crabbe, was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimming event, which launched his career on the silver screen and later television. He starred in a variety of popular feature films and movie serials released between 1933 and the 1950s, portraying the top three syndicated comic-strip heroes of the 1930s: Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers.

Bonita Granville American actress and producer

Bonita Gloria Granville Wrather was an American actress and producer.

Sam Katzman American film producer and director

Sam Katzman was an American film producer and director. Katzman produced low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers.

Eugene Hoffman Nickerson was the Democratic county executive of Nassau County, New York, from 1962 until 1970. Nickerson was the only Democrat to be elected county executive in Nassau County until 2001. Later, as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, he presided over a challenge to the Pentagon's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuality and the notorious Abner Louima police brutality case in New York.

George Melford American actor and director (1877–1961)

George H. Melford was an American stage and film actor and director. Often taken for granted as a director today, the stalwart Melford's name by the 1920s was, like Cecil B. DeMille's, appearing in big bold letters above the title of his films.

Screen Gems Film studio of the United States of America

Screen Gems, Inc. is an American film production and distribution studio that is a division of Sony Pictures' Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation, initially as a cartoon studio, then a television studio, and later on as a film studio. The label currently specializes in genre films, mainly horror.

<i>Cavalcade</i> (1933 film) 1933 film

Cavalcade is a 1933 American epic pre-Code drama film directed by Frank Lloyd. The screenplay by Reginald Berkeley and Sonya Levien is based on the 1931 play of the same title by Noël Coward. The film stars Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook.

Robert Youngson was a film producer, director, and screenwriter, specializing in reviving antique silent films.

Frank Buck (animal collector) American hunter, animal collector, actor and author (1884–1950)

Frank Howard Buck was an American hunter, animal collector, and author, as well as a film actor, director, and producer. Beginning in the 1910s he made many expeditions into Asia for the purpose of hunting and collecting exotic animals, bringing over 100,000 live specimens back to the United States and elsewhere for zoos and circuses and earning a reputation as an adventurer. He co-authored seven books chronicling or based on his expeditions, beginning with 1930's Bring 'Em Back Alive, which became a bestseller. Between 1932 and 1943 he starred in seven adventure films based on his exploits, most of which featured staged "fights to the death" with various wild beasts. He was also briefly a director of the San Diego Zoo, displayed wild animals at the 1933–34 Century of Progress exhibition and 1939 New York World's Fair, toured with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and co-authored an autobiography, 1941's All in a Lifetime. The Frank Buck Zoo in Buck's hometown of Gainesville, Texas, is named after him.

Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine was an American white-shoe law firm, located in New York. It was founded in 1929 by General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, who was often referenced as the Father of the CIA. The firm dissolved in 1998. Its notable antitrust cases include a series of lawsuits involving American Cyanamid in the 1960s and Kodak. The firm closed its doors after "[a]bout 40 of the firm's 60 lawyers were hired. .. by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a large California law firm that [was] expanding aggressively in Manhattan."

Harry Fraser (director) American film director

Harry L. Fraser was an American film director and screenplay writer.

Charles E. Ford American film director

Charles E. Ford was a newsreel and film producer and the director of Frank Buck's jungle movie Jacaré (1942).

Jules Levey American film producer

Jules Levey was an American film producer.

Leroy G. Phelps American cinematographer

Leroy Garfield Phelps was a cinematographer who filmed Frank Buck’s second movie, Wild Cargo.

William Jay Bonafield was a producer who edited Frank Buck's film Jungle Cavalcade.

Ira H. Morgan American cinematographer

Ira Harry Morgan was an American cinematographer. He successfully transitioned from silent movies to sound films. He filmed famed animal-trainer Frank Buck’s film Tiger Fangs (1943).

Sam B. Jacobson was the editor of Frank Buck’s second film, Wild Cargo.

Herman Fuchs American violinist

Herman Samuel Fuchs was a violinist who provided music for the Frank Buck movie Jungle Cavalcade.

Tremlet C. Carr was an American film producer, closely associated with the low-budget filmmaking of Poverty Row. In 1931 he co-founded Monogram Pictures, which developed into one of the leading specialist producers of B pictures in Hollywood.

Courtland Smith was an American film executive who also served as Assistant Postmaster General of the United States and president of the American Press Association which was founded by his father in 1882.

References

  1. Lehrer, Steven (2006). Bring 'Em Back Alive: The Best of Frank Buck. Texas Tech University press. pp. x–xi. ISBN   0-89672-582-0.
  2. Walton C. Ament. Championing Newsreels. New York Times. July 30, 1944
  3. Film men get plaques. New York Times. January 31, 1946
  4. Walton Ament. New York Times. January 25, 1968