Joe Pasternak, Film Producer Whose Musicals Made Millions

HOLLYWOOD - Joe Pasternak, the masterful producer of film musicals whose 105 pictures reflected his own Old Country taste and optimism, has died at his Beverly Hills home.

His son, Peter, said that his father was six days short of his 90th birthday when he died Friday.

In a career that spanned 40 years, Mr. Pasternak developed such performers as Judy Garland, June Allyson, Deanna Durbin, Kathryn Grayson and Gloria DeHaven. The 10 films he made with Durbin were credited with saving financially ailing Universal Pictures, while his casting of Marlene Dietrich as a dance-hall temptress in "Destry Rides Again" rescued her faltering career.

His picture credits read like a lexicon of melodic and comedic classics: "Destry Rides Again," "The Flame of New Orleans," "Thousands Cheer," "Anchors Aweigh," "That Midnight Kiss," "The Toast of New Orleans," "The Merry Widow," "The Great Caruso," "The Student Prince," "Love Me or Leave Me," "Hit the Deck," "Where the Boys Are," "Jumbo" and "The Courtship of Eddie's Father."

Until Parkinson's disease ended his career, his films had earned $400 million in an era when admission to most movie theaters was well under $1 and there were no video residuals.

"Keep the people nice," was his motto. "I have produced 105 movies, and not a one was for adults only," he would say when critics complained of his often saccharine films.

Mr. Pasternak, born in Hungary, said that his boyhood dream was to "have my own bathroom." He came to the United States while in his teens, worked in a factory in Philadelphia and then studied acting in New York. By 1923, he was a fourth assistant director at Paramount's Long Island studios, and three years later moved to Universal, which sent him back to Europe as an associate producer in the company's Berlin operations. There he began to produce the musical films that became his signature.

He returned to the United States in the mid-'30s, but instead of being asked to make lavish pictures, was told to take a routine B script and return it as an inexpensive production.

The script was "Three Smart Girls," and it made a star of 15-year-old soprano Deanna Durbin and helped to replenish the Universal coffers.

In 1941, Mr. Pasternak moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where his string of musical magic began in earnest.

He teamed Frank Sinatra with Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson in "Anchors Aweigh," Van Johnson with June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven in "Two Girls and a Sailor." Mario Lanza became an overnight screen sensation with "That Midnight Kiss," and Elizabeth Taylor moved into her late teens in "A Date With Judy."

He carried his interest in teen films into the 1960s, when he made "Where the Boys Are," a Fort Lauderdale beach adventure that generated a multitude of imitators.

Survivors include his wife, Dorothy; three sons; a brother; and two sisters.