Clarence Brown, later to become an internationally acclaimed movie producer and director, graduated from the university with dual degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering in 1910. (He had been given special permission to enroll at the university when he graduated from Knoxville High School at the age of 15.)
At UT he was called Brownie and was a member of the Philomathesian Society. His senior thesis, “Economy and Power Distribution of Plant No. 2, Brookside Mills,” suggested improvements in the plant in which his father worked. Following graduation he became an automobile mechanic and salesman in Birmingham. In 1915 he obtained a job at the Peerless Studios at Fort Lee, New Jersey.
In 1917 he had a child, Adrienne Brown. The identity of Adrienne’s mother, and whether Brown was married to her, is not known. Also not known is what became of the little girl who sometimes went with him on movie sets in the 1920s.
In 1920 Brown codirected The Last of the Mohicans with his mentor, French-film director Maurice Tourneur. In 1925, while working for Universal, he directed The Eagle, starring Rudolph Valentino. In 1926 Brown signed with MGM Studios, through which he worked for the rest of his career. In 1926 he made Greta Garbo’s first starring film in America, Flesh and the Devil. He directed seven Garbo films, including Anna Christie (her first talking picture), Flesh and the Devil, and Anna Karenina. Among the 54 films he directed are National Velvet (Elizabeth Taylor’s first movie), Ah Wilderness (for which he used his 1905 senior class picture at Knoxville High School as guide for costumes of the period), Intruder in the Dust (which had a Memphis world premiere), The Yearling (in which he discovered Nashvillian Claude Jarman Jr.), Angels in the Outfield (a favorite of President Dwight D. Eisenhower), and The White Cliffs of Dover. Brown retired in 1952. His last film was Never Let Me Go, starring Clark Gable.
He was nominated for an Oscar for best director six times, and his films won eight Oscars out of 38 total nominations. His 1949 film version of William Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust won a British Academy’s award for best picture.
In 1932 Brown chose the Volunteer Beauties for the 1932 Volunteer. He attended homecoming in 1939 (and was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. E. J. McMillan.) During that trip, he divulged that until recently he had had a fine pack of foxhounds and was currently the owner of the dog star of the picture Voice of Bugle Ann.
In 1968 Brown made an initial contribution of $50,000 to UT for construction of a theatre that would permit students to perform in major dramatic productions. Later contributions from Brown totaling $500,000, and funds from other sources, resulted in building the theatre named by the trustees for Brown. In 1968 he was the grand marshal of the homecoming parade. He attended the 1973 Clarence Brown Film Festival.
At his death, he left the university a bequest (to be received following the death of his wife, Marion) that totaled more than $12 million. His papers and professional memorabilia are housed in Special Collections at the University Libraries. He was inducted into the Academic Hall of Fame in 1994.