Jack Cummings

Who was Jack Cummings?

Jack Cummings was an American film producer and director. He was the second husband of Betty Kern, daughter of Jerome Kern.

Cummings spent most of his career at his uncle Louis B. Mayer's studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he began work in the early 1920s. Mayer started his nephew out as an office boy and expected him to work his way up through the ranks.

Cummings became a staff producer at MGM in 1934, where he worked in the B-feature unit for two years. In 1936, he produced the extravagant Cole Porter musical Born to Dance, which established his reputation as a respected editor.

Cummings remained at the studio even after his uncle was fired from the studio in 1951, working with talent such as the Marx Brothers, Red Skelton, Esther Williams, and Fred Astaire and producing some of the era's best-known musicals, including 1953's Kiss Me, Kate and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in 1954, for which he received an Oscar. He retired from MGM in 1964 just after completion of the Elvis Presley musical Viva Las Vegas. Other credits included Easy to Wed, It Happened in Brooklyn, Three Little Words, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Interrupted Melody, and The Teahouse of the August Moon.