Irving Reis
Irving Reis (May 7, 1906 in New York City – July 3, 1953 in Woodland Hills, California) was a radio program producer and director, and a film director.
Irving Reis

RKO · eBay card · Public domain
- Name
- Irving Reis
- Born
- 7 May 1906
- Birthplace
- New York City
- Died
- 3 July 1953
- Place of death
- Woodland Hills, California
- Spouse
- Meta Arenson Vanessa Idu
- Occupation
- radio program producer & director film director
- Nationality
- United States
- Honours
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Languages
- English
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Documentary connections
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q3154622 · wikipedia · Irving Reis
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Irving Reis • Born — 7 May 1906 • Birthplace — New York City • Died — 3 July 1953 • Place of death — Woodland Hills, California • Spouse — Meta Arenson Vanessa Idu • Children — 3 • Occupation — radio program producer & director film director
Biography
Biography
Irving Reis was born into a Jewish family. Reis began his career as a motion picture photographer. The most notable of his screen efforts was being one of the photographers for The Hollywood Revue of 1929. A 1931 notice in Variety declared that he was transitioning into a playwright. By 1933, Variety took notice of his radio play St. Louis Blues. His radio play Meridian 7-1212 first broadcast on January 24, 1935, received an "above par" comment from Variety. Observing that he wrote and produced the play, the unnamed reviewer noted the numerous radio effects, and that compared to his two previous radio plays, this was the best. Reis was the creator of Columbia Workshop, the experimental anthology program on the radio, and its initial broadcast took place on July 18, 1936. Reis departed for Hollywood on January 1, 1938, where he became a scriptwriter for Paramount Pictures. In November 1939, Variety announced that Reis would be taking 10 weeks off from his script writing at Paramount to study film direction. In February 1940, Variety announced that Reis had left Paramount to begin directing at RKO Pictures. Among his motion picture credits are Enchantment, Roseanna McCoy, The Big Street, and the screen adaptation of Arthur Miller's play All My Sons (1948). Reis also directed the movie The Four Poster, based on Jan de Hartog's play The Fourposter.
Personal
Personal
Reis married writer Meta Arenson in Tijuana on August 10, 1938. He died of cancer, leaving his wife and three children. Reis is buried in the Jewish Cemetery Hillside Memorial Park.
Selected filmography
Selected filmography
• Too Much Business (1922) • The Ladder Jinx (1922) • Breaking Into Society (1923) • The Business of Love (1925) • Trout Fishing (1932, short) • One Crowded Night (1940) • I'm Still Alive (1940) • Footlight Fever (1941) • The Gay Falcon (1941) • Weekend for Three (1941) • A Date with the Falcon (1942) • The Falcon Takes Over (1942) • The Big Street (1942) • Crack-Up (1946) • The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) • All My Sons (1948) • Enchantment (1948) • Roseanna McCoy (1949) • Dancing in the Dark (1949) • Of Men and Music (1951, documentary) • Three Husbands (1951) • New Mexico (1951) • The Four Poster (1952)
Identity
Identity
Irving Reis is recorded with the occupation film director. Recorded as screenwriter, cinematographer, actor and director.

Theatrical release poster for "The Gay Falcon" (1941).
RKO Radio Pictures
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1906
Irving Reis born at New York City.
1953
Irving Reis died at Woodland Hills.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
New York City.
Birth place
Woodland Hills.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q3154622: Irving Reis
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Irving Reis”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Reis, Irving (1906-1953), radio and film director, American National Biography Online, 2000
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2000
authority file
- VIAF cluster 76516047 for Irving Reis, aggregating national library name authorities.
General reference · OCLC
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Irving Reis, revision 1369379033 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Distinguished Residents of Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary.
- 2.Reis, Irving, Internet Movie Database (accessed December 28, 2015).
- 3."Times Square: Chatter-Broadway," Variety (February 18, 1931), p. 49.
- 4."Irving Reis, CBS," Broadcasting (October 1, 1933), p. 54.
- 5."Radio Reports: Meridian 7-1212," Variety (Jan. 29, 1935), p. 44.
- 6.Director Irving Reis Dies, Victim Of Cancer. Sarasota Herald. 21. July 5, 1953.
- 7."Irving Reis of CBS to Enter Film Business," Variety (November 3, 1937), p. 31.
- 8."Reis Learns Directing on Own Time at Par," Variety (November 15, 1939), p. 5.
- 9."Reis Directs at RKO," Variety (February 21, 1940), p. 16.
- 10."Marriages," Variety (August 3, 1938), p. 54.
- 11."Irving Reis, Director, Dies," Boxoffice (July 11, 1953), p. 35.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Reis, Irving (1906-1953), radio and film director, American National Biography Online, 2000Crossref registry
Institutional witnessauthority file
Secondary witnessreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q3154622: Irving ReisWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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