Barney Balaban was the president of Paramount Pictures from 1936 to 1964 and innovator in the cinema industry.
Background
He was born on July 4, 1839 in Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany and came America with his father, Edward Balbach, Sr. , in 1850. The elder Balbach was forty-four when he came to America to seek an opportunity for applying his knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy. Having decided on Newark, the center of extensive jewelry manufacturing, as a favorable location, he returned to Germany and brought his eleven-year-old son over. In 1852 he erected a building and started a business for the treatment of jewelers' sweepings, which formerly had been sent to Europe.
Education
After attendance at the Newark public schools, young Balbach at the age of fourteen began to help in the growing business and soon showed that he had inherited his father's technical ability.
Career
The business grew, not only in jewelry sweepings but also in the general metallurgy of silver-lead ores, some of which began coming to the Balbach plant from Mexico as early as 1861. The Balbach plant became a leader in lead smelting and refining, and later in copper refining by electrolysis. The Parkes process for the desilverization of lead bullion was first introduced into this country by the Balbachs at the close of the Civil War, and for many years their plant was one of the few sources of refined lead in the United States. The desilverization is accomplished by the addition to the molten bullion of zinc, about sixty percent of which is recovered by distilling the silver-zinc-lead amalgam in a graphite retort, the zinc vapors being reduced to metal in a condenser attached to the Balbach-Thum desilverizing process. The desilverization is accomplished by the addition to the molten bullion of zinc, about sixty percent of which is recovered by distilling the silver-zinc-lead amalgam in a graphite retort, the zinc vapors being reduced to metal in a condenser attached to the Balbach-Thum desilverizing process. This invention is typical of Balbach's work. It provides an apparatus that is simpler, easier to operate, and more efficient than the rival Moebius process but is somewhat costlier.
The older Balbach died in 1890, after which the firm of Edward Balbach & Son was reorganized as the Balbach Smelting & Refining Company, with Edward Balbach, Jr. , as president. The company expanded and prospered. In later years he maintained a country house at Bernardsville and spent his winters at Palm Beach where he made valuable investments in property.
Achievements
Edward Balbach recieved a reputation of a prosperous businessman and innovator.
Personality
The younger Balbach was less German in appearance than his father and more typically an American business man. He was tall and energetic, and had an unusually attractive personality.
Connections
He was married to Julia Anna Nenninger on January 21, 1869.
