Cousin Otto Was Interested in Cameras
2003 Boaz Rauchwerger
His middle name was Ludwig. He was born in Vienna in 1906. My father was born in Vienna in 1914. Ludwig's mother and my grandmother were cousins.
Starting at a young age, Ludwig showed intense interest in cameras – how they worked, what they could interpret. It's interesting what can happen when we focus on something and pursue it one step at a time. Be careful what you're focusing on. You may just get it.
The Jewish son of the attorney general of the Austrian Empire, Ludwig earned a law degree from the University of Vienna in 1928. He had, at the same time, pursued a career in theatre. During the later 1920s, Ludwig studied acting with the legendary Max Reinhardt. He then opened his own stock companies.
It was in 1935 that he immigrated to the United States. After producing his first Broadway play, Libel, in that year, he traveled to Hollywood at the invitation of Joseph Schenck, chairman of the board of Twentieth Century Fox. There he learned Hollywood filmmaking techniques, directing two minor movies. From 1938 to 1941 he taught stage direction at Yale University.
Ludwig was asked to appear in the film version of Margin for Error in 1943. It was on that project that he negotiated a deal to be named director of that film as well. The success of that film lead to a contract as actor, director, and producer – the last one an unusual arrangement for studios at the time. It was the movie Laura, in 1944 that established Ludwig's reputation as a talented but tough director.
Ludwig subsequently directed a series of films through the late 70s, working with many of the biggest stars in Hollywood. In 1953 he starred, with William Holden, in Stalag 17. In 1955 he directed The Man With the Golden Arm, starring Frank Sinatra. He directed James Stewart in the 1959 classic, Anatomy of a Murder. In 1965, Ludwig produced and directed John Wayne and Kirk Douglas in the World War II feature called In Harm's Way.
Due to the fact that I was born in Israel a year before it became a country, my favorite Ludwig film premiered in 1960. It was Exodus. This was a lavish, star-studded epic based on the Leon Uris novel. The cast included Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Peter Lawford, Sal Mineo, Lee J. Cobb and John Derek.
The sound track of that movie, and particularly the main theme, still easily reverberate in my mind. The fact that Ludwig produced and directed this feature made it doubly special. The time period it covers is right after World War II, when Jews who survived the Nazi Holocaust attempted, by ship, to travel across the Mediterranean Sea to the new Jewish homeland. The British, who had a mandate over Palestine at the time, refused to let one particular ship of refugees dock at Israel's port of Haifa. The refugees names that ship "The Exodus."
The reason I'm telling you so much about my relative Ludwig is to show you how many amazing things can happen when we focus on something that is meaningful in our lives. Making movies was an obsession for Ludwig. He played with cameras when he was a child in Vienna. He continued to play with cameras when he became a director in Hollywood.
So let's focus in on your future. I suggest you take a few minutes to write a description of Your Perfect Life. Describe the house you would live in, the type of vehicle you would drive, the people with whom you would associate, the type of work you would do, your leisure activities. The more time you take for this exercise, the more likely it is that you could turn such dreams into reality.
Describe your Perfect Life in great detail. Clarify. Clarify. Clarify. Most people's dreams are out of focus. When I ask people in my seminars what they want for their future, many tell me that "they want to be successful." The subconscious mind has no clue what that means. To a hobo, success is finding a dry place under a bridge on a rainy night. To someone else, it's spending time with their family in a beautiful home in a nice part of town. There is a big difference between these two extremes of success.
Thus, without clarity, people end up getting what they don't necessarily want. Be specific in your description of Your Perfect Life. Then get pictures that exemplify that life. Get pictures of the perfect house you'd purchase if you were buying it today, the perfect vehicle, the perfect vacation, the perfect career. Look at those pictures every day, take small steps on a regular basis and watch what develops. Magic!
By the way, you may know my relative Ludwig by the rest of his name – Otto Ludwig Preminger.
A Daily Focus Affirmation
I'm now identifying "My Perfect Life" and I am excited!
Article reproduced with permission from Boaz Rauchwerger. You may reprint any of these articles in any publication or Web site so long as you credit Boaz Rauchwerger as the author and include this Web site address, www.Boazpower.com.