After undergoing military training, he became a stage assistant in Chicago in 1918, then returned to New York and was a stage manager on Broadway the following year. In the early 1920s, he directed a summer stock company in Rochester, New York, in which Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery began their careers. From 1926 to 1929, Cukor became a successful Broadway director of plays such as
The Great Gatsby. In a 1969 interview, Cukor said, "I was very lucky because, when I was young, I didn't know what the hell a director was and I wanted to be a director. I'm a great believer in work and character and all that, but unless you have the gift, it's a sad thing." Cukor possessed both the desire and the gift. In 1929, when the motion picture industry entered the sound age, Cukor relocated to Hollywood. There, he worked as a dialogue director on the World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930.
Cukor co-directed three films for Paramount Pictures before making his solo debut in 1931 with The Tarnished Lady, a melodrama which featured British theatrical star Tallulah Bankhead. That was followed the same year by Girls About Town, a comedy about women looking for men with money who find true love instead.
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