Born to a Jewish immigrant family from Imperial Russia, Samuel R. Brodsky (also known as Samuel R. Bradley) started his career on vaudeville in Cleveland. As an actor, he worked under the tutelage of playwright and impresario Robert McLaughlin. From the theater, he moved into filmmaking and supervised the Plain Dealer Screen Magazine beginning in 1917. In 1919, he moved into directing features when he adapted one of McLaughlin's plays to the screen (The House Without Children (1919)). After the success of this film, he converted the Samuel Andrews mansion on Cleveland's Euclid Ave. into a motion picture studio, producing several features in the early 1920s, with McLaughlin serving as story supervisor. In 1922, Brodsky returned to work on the Plain Dealer Screen Magazine, which continued until 1924. He directed only one more feature (After Dark (1923)) in collaboration with The Plain Dealer and the Hippodrome Theater.

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Samuel R. Brodsky

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