He dedicated the last six months of his life to completing a film about his fellow Jewish American infantrymen who he discovered had died in Nazi slave labor camps. BERGA: SOLDIERS OF ANOTHER WAR is a film about an unknown and overlooked event in the history of World War II, in which for the first time the story of the American GI intersects with the tragedy of the Holocaust.
Mr. Guggenheim's career spanned half a century. He made over 100 documentaries, was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won four times. Guggenheim also received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for Saturday at the Zoo. He is considered by many to be one of the central figures in the founding and evolution of the American documentary. He was described by film critic Hollis Albert as "probably the most accomplished maker of documentary films in the country."
He was also one of the first to create television media for American political campaigns using the documentary style in groundbreaking ways. Starting with the Presidential campaigns of Adlai Stevenson, Robert Kennedy, and George McGovern, Guggenheim went on to shape the campaigns of many of the most prominent senatorial and gubernatorial democratic candidates in the 1960s and 70s. Unlike the "slash and burn" techniques used in many of today's media campaigns, Guggenheim simple sought to reveal the character of his candidates in an affirmative way and let the issues speak for themselves. In a speech before Congress, Mr. Guggenheim explained why in the early 1980s he had quit the business of political advertising. He is known for saying, "If you play the piano in a house of ill repute, it doesn't make a difference how well you play the piano." Even years after leaving political advertising he often spoke passionately about his hopes that the system would reclaim itself.
Guggenheim established his first production company in St. Louis, Missouri in 1954 where he produced the seminal film about the construction of the St. Louis Arch, MONUMENT TO THE DREAM. This film won the Venice Film Festival's XI Gold Mercury Award, marking the first time in the Festival's history that the award was given to an American.
It was in St. Louis that Guggenheim won his first Academy Award for the film NINE FROM LITTLE ROCK, which tells the story of the Arkansas school integration crisis. He later moved to Washington, DC to work with George Stevens Jr. who headed the United States Information Agency (USIA), under Edward R. Murrow.
His second Academy Award came from one of the most tragic and profound moments in his life and career. Robert Kennedy Remembered, a film biography, was made in a remarkable six weeks after the senator's assassination, in time for the 1968 Democratic Convention. After the film was shown, in prime time to a packed convention hall in Chicago, the floor was brought to a standstill for more than an hour while the delegates mournfully demonstrated their sorrow and affection for RFK.
The third Academy Award went to THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD, a film commemorating the 100th anniversary of the famous disaster.
His most recent Academy Award was received in 1995 for A TIME FOR JUSTICE, a film about the civil rights movement.
Guggenheim's films about architecture which include MONUMENT TO THE DREAM, depicting the building of the St. Louis Arch; THE MAKING OF LIBERTY, the story of the birth and restoration of the Statue of Liberty; and A PLACE TO BE, documenting the design and construction of the National Gallery of Art, won him the 1987 Institute Honor from the American Institute of Architects.
Guggenheim produced two feature films including THE GREAT ST. LOUIS BANK ROBBERY (1959) featuring the young unknown actor Steve McQueen and feature editor Dede Allen.
He was commissioned by three presidential libraries to produce the film biographies of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Truman. They are on permanent exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts; Austin, Texas; and Independence, Missouri.
Despite all of Guggenheim's acclaim, he pursued his work with a quiet, intense, almost private single-mindedness. He developed an unadorned style in his films that seemed to be a reflection of his own personality. In his more recent films, such as the Academy Award nominated D-DAY REMEBERED, Guggenheim began to explore history from the singular point of view of the individuals who experienced it. The struggle and humanity of a few individuals thrown into harrowing circumstances beyond their control was a story that interested Guggenheim the most. This was a theme that would lead him towards his most personal film of all and his last.
BERGA: SOLDIERS OF ANOTHER WAR, will be the first film, in fifty years of directing and producing, which Guggenheim included himself in the telling of the story. The American soldiers who were sent over to fight in the Battle of the Bulge were sent from his 106th Infinatry Division. And he could have shared their fate if he were not injured in basic training. In his narration he remembers quietly, "They went overseas, and I didn't. And some of them didn't come back. And I've been thinking about it for fifty years, wondering why it didn't happen to me. And that's why I had to tell this story."
Guggenheim's cancer subjected him to a prolonged and debilitating suffering. His struggle to complete the film after he had been diagnosed with cancer was monumental and he exhibited the same dignity as the men he had revered.
No matter what the subject of Guggenheim's films, be it an important monument, historical event or social issue, at the heart of every story lies the heroic struggle of everymanÐand Guggenheim's belief that there is dignity in that struggle.
Guggenheim was a guest lecturer at Harvard's Loeb Fellowship in Advanced Environmental Studies, as well as a fellow at both Harvard and Yale Universities. He was a member of the faculty at Harvard's Salzburg (Austria) Seminar in American Studies and received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and from American University in Washington, DC.
Guggenheim served as President of the Foundation for the National Archives and was a trustee of the Danforth Foundation and the White House Historical Association. He was a member of Writers Guild of America and the Academy Motion Picture Association of America.
In 1954, Charles Guggenheim, a 29-year-old television producer and director, founded his own small film production studio in St. Louis, Missouri. Nearly 50 years later, Guggenheim Productions, Inc., is now located in Washington, DC, and has completed over 500 titles. Their completed works range from full length feature films to campaign biographies, political spots, industrials and more than 100 social, political, and historical documentaries. Guggenheim has been honored and recieved a Peabody, to 4 Academy Awards, and a historic record of 12 Academy nominations.
His daughter Grace came to work with Charles in 1986 and has produced more than 20 of Guggenheim Productions' most current titles.
In addition to continuing to make documentaries, the company is broadening the aftermarket and availability of its current films. Considering the widespread crisis in American education today, their intent is to make available to the public as many film titles from the collection as possible. The primary mission will be to widen the distribution to educators and museums around the world to inspire and celebrate our American heritage. The company's goal is through a clearer understanding of our American journey make the world a better place.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Archives will work with Guggenheim Productions on preserving critical titles from our holdings in conjunction with The Charles Guggenheim Center for the Documentary at the National Archives. The downtown state-of-the-art theater is currently under construction and will open in the year 2005. The center will not only offer annual celebration of the work of Charles Guggenheim and the vast holdings within the Archives, but it will also develop and integrate year-round programs that celebrate other accomplished documentarians, past and present.
