Axelbank, Herman, 1900-1979,

Background

Herman Axelbank (1900-1979) devoted his energies for over fifty years to compiling a motion picture film chronicle of the last years of Imperial Russia, the Russian revolutions, and the new government which emerged from the upheaval. He was born in the village of Novo-Konstantinov, in the Russian Empire, on May 30, 1900; his family moved to New York in 1909. Fascinated with film-making from childhood, Axelbank got a job, in 1916, as an office boy for Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn) at Goldwyn Pictures on Forty-second Street. The news of the February Revolution in Russia captured the young Axelbank's imagination. "Wish I could take moving pictures over there; we don't have any of our own [American Revolution] in 1775," he remembered remarking to a co-worker.

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