McCarey graduated from the University of Southern California law school and besides the law tried mining, boxing, and songwriting before becoming an assistant director to Tod Browning in 1919. It was McCarey's boyhood friend, the actor and future fellow director David Butler, who referred him to Browning.Jacques Lourcelles, Anthologie Du Cinema, 1973 Browning convinced McCarey, despite his photogenic looks, to work on the creative side as a writer rather than as an actor. McCarey then honed his skills at the Hal Roach Studios. Roach had hired him as a gagman in 1923, after McCarey had impressed him with his sense of humor following a handball game at a sports club.
McCarey graduated from the University of Southern California law school and besides the law tried mining, boxing, and songwriting before becoming an assistant director to Tod Browning in 1919. It was McCarey's boyhood friend, the actor and future fellow director David Butler, who referred him to Browning.Jacques Lourcelles, Anthologie Du Cinema, 1973 Browning convinced McCarey, despite his photogenic looks to work on the creative side as a writer rather than as an actor. McCarey then honed his skills at the Hal Roach Studios Roach had hired him as a gagman in 1923, after McCarey had impressed him with his sense of humor following a handball game at a sports club.