Patrick Ciccone wrote:

> were figures
> like Ford or von Sternberg or Lubitsch, all famous at the time,
> celebrated and understood in a similar way to late auteurist
> understanding of the same figures? Were figures like Hawks or Cukor
> or likewise recognized as artists at all? I am ignorant.
>
Don't know about Cukor. But Hawks was virtually an independent producer
in the 30s (as were most of our "auteurs," by the way). I don't have
references handy, but if you dig up what was published about the other
names in the 30s, you'll be impressed by it. In Ford's case, the two
most noted ones are: Howard Sharpe, The Star Creators of Hollywood,
Photoplay, October 1936; reprinted in Richard Griffith, ed, *The
Talkies*, Dover 1971. and Emmanuel Eisenberg, in New Theater, April 1936.