Summary

= Milan Herzog =

//A précis of his life//


Milan was born in Vrbovec, Croatia, on August 23 or 24, 1908. Why two birth dates? Well, he was born almost at the stroke of midnight and the local parish office records the first date and the registry office the second. Milan at the time didn’t take notice of the clock, and he accepts both dates.

While many friends knew Milan through his film activities, he had an exceptionally rich and varied life long before becoming involved in film.

As a young man, he studied French and visited Paris twice. While studying at the University of Zagreb, an opportunity arose to go to Paris and he left for three years to attend the Sorbonne where he received both a law degree and a degree in journalism. Returning to Zagreb he gained a second law degree.

At law school in Zagreb Milan worked with prominent lawyers in developing a unified legal code for the newly created country of Yugoslavia. After law school, Milan was appointed a judge in Kragujevac, the second largest city in Serbia. He served as a judge for a short time, but then resigned to become a foreign correspondent for a local Yugoslavian newspaper. While working as a journalist he interviewed many famous and infamous personalities such as Leni Riefenstahl, the controversial German filmmaker who made the Nazi propaganda films, //Triumph of the Will// and //Olympia//, and the 1935 Nobel Prize prize winners Irene Curie-Joliot (daughter of Marie Curie) and Frederic Joliot, as well as many other well known politicians and artists of the time. One of his exclusive ‘scoops’ was an interview with Count Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law and Italy’s minister of Foreign Affairs.

As a child, Milan had always dreamed of travelling to America, but as he grew older he found life in Belgrade too exciting to leave. However, when in 1940 the war came close to his doorstep he was forced to leave with his family. In April, 1940, he and his wife, Roni, and their one year old son, Sadja, secured passage on the last peace time ship sailing out of Europe. Aboard the boat he found himself among many other refugees. Because Milan spoke fluent English he was able to act as a translator and help many with their paperwork.

In the US he began a new life managing a movie theatre in Oakland, California. Then he went to Los Angeles where his first job was as a waiter at a private Thanksgiving party hosted by Jack Benny. He secured the job because he owned a tailcoat. Milan says this is one of the few times he ever used the tailcoat, which, by the way, still hangs in his closet.

His next job which was short lived was loading trucks at a freight warehouse. He then became a shipping clerk at another company, and while he was there, he received a phone call from the U.S. State Department asking him to come to Washington D.C to help set up a Yugoslav Government in Exile. He felt that he was not the right person to lead the organization, but he agreed to come back and served for six months, working alongside exiles from the Yugoslavian government. Later he joined the Office of War Information in New York where, as head of the Yugoslav desk, he made daily broadcasts to Yugoslavia throughout the war.

Milan spoke four languages fluently: Serbo-Croatian, German, French and English. His German and French were learned in school, but his English came about as a challenge from the editor of a local newspaper for which Milan wrote articles while still a teenager. The editor wanted him to translate into Serbo-Croatian, the Jack London story, //To Build a Fire//. He told Milan if he could learn English and complete the translation in six months, he could go to the European athletic games as the paper’s sports reporter. With the help of an English neighbor and a friend, Milan triumphed and was given the promised assignment.

Milan became a citizen of the United States in the early 1940s. In April, 1947, his family expanded with the birth of a daughter, Tanja. Just before that in 1945, at the end of the war, Milan started his educational film career at Encyclopedia Britannica Films as a staff producer. Over the years, he produced nearly four hundred titles, probably more than anyone else in the world.

Highlights of his producing career included an extensive series of foreign language instruction films, //La Familia Fernández// and //Je Parle Français//, and over sixty films on humanities subjects.

Milan could boast several "firsts". His Medieval films from the early 1950s were among the first academic, historical films to use costumed actors, and his //Christmas Rhapsody// (1955) was the first film with a musical score provided by a children's orchestra and chorus. During the ‘50s and ‘60s Milan spent a lot of time in France producing the Medieval films and the series on Je Parle Francais. Both these series were produced with the help of Andre Tadie of Tadie Films. Andre and Milan became very close friends and thought of each other as brothers. The Medieval films won the prestigious //“Prie de Parie”//--- the Prize of Paris.

In 1958-1959, Milan served as an advisor to the renowned Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC), and produced a film for them. He co-founded the North Shore Community Theatre in Evanston, Illinois, wrote a three-act play, and served on the board of Charles Benton’s company, Films Incorporated.

In 1973, he retired as Vice President of Encyclopedia Britannica Films, but continued to produce educational programs as an independent filmmaker. In 1987 he went to Europe to produce a series of films on France and Spain with his second wife, Shanta, who was his co-producer. Shanta continued her interest in filmmaking, and from 1990 till 2004, Milan and Shanta produced together a video series on early childhood development for Magna Systems. These are still being used today in early childhood training programs.

Milan’s life and interests spanned virtually the complete history of cinema. In his life story [//also on this website//] he recounted how around the age of five his first interest in films was sparked by a traveling theatre company coming to his village and showing flickering images of the Titanic on a “magic lantern.” Since then he participated personally in the evolution of film, learning about and utilizing each development as it came along. Milan always wanted to learn about what is new in film, television and other kinds of visual technology, including the internet. His appetite for learning and interest in what is new prompted him to say that during his life he enjoyed his work too much to feel that he was really working.