Billy Wilder, his life before Hollywood

One of Billy Wilder's first films

Where did Billy Wilder, the director of Some like it hot, The apartment and Irma la douce, begin his career ? In Hollywood ? No, in Berlin. 
 

He was born in Galicia under Austrian rule, in 1906, as Samuel Wilder. In 1926 he came to Berlin, where, before achieving success as a writer, he allegedly worked as a « taxi dancer », at Hotel Eden. 
 

After writing crime and sports stories as a stringer for local newspapers, he was eventually offered a regular job at a Berlin tabloid, where he writes articles but also short stories and feuilletons, often about crime. His research bring him into contact with various circles and different people and lead him to become familiar with a variety of sets and characters that are found later in his films.

 

Developing an interest in film, he began as a screenwriter. He collaborated with several other newcomers (like Fred Zinnemann and Robert Siodmak) on the 1929 feature People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag). He wrote the screenplay for the 1931 film adaptation of a novel by Erich Kästner, Emil and the Detectives.
 

He makes a good living and begins to collect works of contemporary art, notably furniture signed Mies van der Rohe.

After the rise of Hitler in 1933, Wilder, who was a Jew, left for Paris, then Hollywood, where he, over the years, became one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers, winning several Oscars.

You can watch the film Menschen am Sonntag here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D9W2zfZPps