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Which jobs did W.S. Van Dyke do before becoming a film director?

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W.S. Van Dyke W.S. Van Dyke (standing, right) directing Myrna Loy and William Powell during the filming of *The Thin Man* (1934); cinematographer James Wong Howe is on the left.

Before establishing himself as a film director, W.S. Van Dyke held a variety of jobs. Having begun his career as a child performer at age three, he spent his youth alternating vaudeville and music-hall appearances with several manual and commercial roles, including:

Miner
Lumberjack
Door-to-door salesman

He eventually transitioned into the film industry by working as an uncredited assistant director on D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation in 1915 before beginning his own directing career in 1917.1