J.K. McEldowney, 97; Florist Made Movie After Wife Dared Him

J. Kenneth McEldowney, 97, an innovative florist and real estate agent who took his wife’s dare to produce a better movie, creating a classic called “The River,” died Jan. 5 in his home in Burbank after a long illness.

Born in Chicago, McEldowney moved to Los Angeles as a child, studied business administration at UCLA, and created a chain of four florist shops. He built a drive-through florist shop and provided flowers for such Hollywood events as the first Academy Awards in 1929 and Jean Harlow’s funeral.

When McEldowney complained to his wife, an MGM publicist, about one of her studio’s films, she dared him to do better. So he sold their home and floral shops and, from 1947 to 1951, labored to produce a motion picture from British author Rumer Godden’s romantic autobiographical novel set in colonial India. “The River” became the first Technicolor movie made in India.

Although McEldowney employed amateur or little-known actors, he could rely on Godden as screenwriter and legendary director Jean Renoir, son of the French impressionist painter. McEldowney’s publicist wife landed magazine coverage in Life, the Saturday Evening Post and others.

The movie opened in New York with a record 34-week run at reserved-seat prices and was on several 10-best-movie lists in 1951.

McEldowney told The Times years later that his film, seen around the world, quickly made more than $16 million. But he turned to real estate and never made another movie because, he said, “I did it once. I proved my point.”