Saturday, January 20, 2018

The Man Who Made The Movies: The Meteoric Rise And Tragic Fall Of William Fox, Vanda Krefft, c. 2017

Prologue: "The Biggest Deal in Motion Picture History"

Part I: Beginnings, 1879 -1903

Part II: The Greatest Adventure, 1904 - 1925

Part III: The One Great Independent, 1925 - 1929

Part IV: Despair, 1930 - 1943

Part V: Acceptance, 1943 - 1952

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Prologue

February 29, 1929

Fox buys Loew's, M-G-M

Fox Film: Hollywood's third-largest movie studio had secretly acquired a controlling interest in Loew's, Inc, a 175-house national theater chain that was also the parent company of M-G-M, Hollywood's second-most-successful studio.

Movie industry growing explosively.

M-G-M: owned entirely by Loew's; M-G-M second only to Paramount

Paramount
M-G-M
Fox Film

Loew died in 1927; family started selling a bloc of stock. Michael Fox jumped.

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Chapter 1: Promises

Michael Fox emigrated from Hungary, immigrating through New York's Castle Garden immigration station

Hungary

Explains why so many successful Jews came out of Hungary: 1782 Edict of Tolerance issued by Emperor Joseph II of Austria (which had ruled Hungary since the late 17th century)

By the latter half of the 19th century, Hungarian Jews doing very, very well

Michael Fuchs (Fox) marries Anna Fried, 16 years old, 1877

German: the language of Hungary
Latin: the language of the Church
Hungarian: the language of the peasants

Short synopsis of the history of Hungary, page 14

1526: Ottoman Empire, Suleiman 1 the Magnificent, slaughtered 15,000 Hungarians; controlled Hungary until ..
late 17th century, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and the Austrian House of Habsburg took over
Hungarian revolution, 1848 (French Revolution, 1789 - 1799), crushed by Austria with help from Russians; from then ....
1867: a partnership of Austria-Hungary; fell short of national self-determination

Hungary never evolved as the rest of Europe did

1850s: the exodus began

1.9 million Hungarians emigrated to America between 1871 and 1913

1879: Michael sails for America; a few months later, wife Anna and first child Wilhelm follow

trip: by wagon to Hamburg;

Michael, Anna, Wilhelm settle in tenement housing on Lower East Side; frightful poverty, disease, crime

between 1800 and 1880 (the year after the Fox family arrived), NY population explodes, from 60,000 to 1.2 million making NYC the first US city with more than a million residents

Density of Lower East Side, worse than China: 290,000 per square mile

Jewish quarter: on Stanton Street between Columbia and Sheriff; nearby the fetid East River; as bad as Lower East Side was, Jewtown (as it was called) was even worse

Michael easily found work was a machinist: post-Civil War blaze of industrialization

Michael, resigned to failure

Anna lost seven of her 13 children

Wilhelm, two boys, and three girls survived (six altogether)

9-year-old Wilhelm saves the family financially by selling lozenges (candy) on the wharf, at the foot of nearby Third Street

disfigured and useless left arm

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Chapter 2: Destiny

A great description, pages 21 - 23, of The Gilded Age, the title of an 1873 Mark Twain novel

This is a must-read chapter, to learn how NYC developed during this period

First real job, age 10: at a small clothing firm, D. Cohen and Sons at 25 Lispenard Street, about two miles from the family's home on the Lower East Side

Short synopsis of growth of NYC clothing industry

Worked there until age 15

Earnings allowed the family to move to a six-room railroad apt on Rivington Street, still on the Lower East Side

His first savings account at Dry Dock Savings Bank; he sentimentally kept open even as a multimillionaire

Turned to religion; became "the greatest part of his life"

Began to question capitalism and for three years became a socialist; this apostate period began in 1892; he was 13 years old

That summer, 1892, one of the bloodiest episodes in American labor history; Homestead, PA, about eight miles south of Pittsburgh; andrew Carnegie's Homestead Steel Works

That led Fox to socialism

But by age 16, through with socialism

Started reading Shakespeare; thinking about entertainment industry; aspired to become successful vaudeville actor

Failed as an actor

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Chapter 3: Eva

Quick marital history of other famous filmmakers

Then the story of faithful Wilhem, and Eva Leo

Mentions again the family's railroad apt above the butter-and-egg store on Rivington Street, p. 37

Childhood friends

Great picture of the poor Jewish situation at that time in NYC.

1899: 20-year-old Fox married 15-year-old Eva; Chrystie Street Synagogue, Manhattan

First home: 1055 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, just doors down from Fox's parents, at 1063 Myrtle

Employer refused to give Fox a raise. Fox quit and went into business for himself; related to garment industry.

Pretty much failed due to things beyond his control.

Eva remained steadfast.

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Chapter 4: The Dark Side of the Dream

Pan American Exposition. Pan American Buffalo on frying pan. Woolworth's.

Enter, stage left: Leon Czolgosz

Fox saw McKinley assassinated by Czolgosz

A very interesting chapter.

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Part II
The Greatest Adventure, 1904 - 1925

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Chapter 5: 700 Broadway

Fox realized the garment industry was not for him.

Tried real estate. He became a landlord.

His wife would not collect the rent of tenants could not afford to pay (LOL).

Sold the property at a loss.

Next idea: noted the Automatic Vaudeville Company (owned by Adolph Zukor, later founder of Paramount; and, Marcus Loew, later founder of Loew's theater chain and M-G-M).

Cheated by J. Stuart Blackton. His $1,666 investment represented almost his entire savings.

They now had two children, new daughter, Belle, born 1904. (First daughter was named Mona)

Desperate, he decided to try motion pictures. Wow, page 55.

Eden Musee, a Madame Tussauds-style wax museum on Twenty-Third Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Had begun showing motion pictures in December 1896.

The story of the early motion picture business.

The story of his first 146-seat theater.

Re-opened "700 Broadway" on October 14, 1904.

Money flowed in. He had gotten it right.

Acquired the 1600-seat former Unique Theater at 194 Grand Street in Brooklyn.

Renamed it the Comedy Theater, opened April, 1908.

Public turned on theaters; NYC Sunday law, p. 63.

Through 1907, struggle between NYC police and movie theaters.

Fox helped organize the 110-member Moving Picture Association (MPA) with himself as chairman of the executive committee.

Fox/lawyer Rogers won their case.

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Chapter 6: Necessary Expenses

Wow, Tammany Hall: Fourteenth Street between Irving Place and Third Avenue.

The story of Timothy ("Big Tim") D. Sullivan; again, raised on the Lower East Side.

1908: Fox could see the motion picture industry change; nickelodeons were out; larger theaters/bigger chains were in

Fox links withe the devil, "Big Tim" in late 1908

Rogers, mentioned earlier, was the link, the connecting dot


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Chapter 7: "The Next Napoleon of the Theatre"

Two more huge projects.

City Theatre Company

2500-seat theater on Fourteenth Street, next to Luchow's restaurant between Third and Fourth Avenues

Phoenix Amusement Company

1800-seat Washington Theater in Washington Heights, northeast corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 149th Street

Fledgling architect Thomas W. Lamb, Scottish born -- becamse one of the world's premier movie palace designers

Theatrical book company William Morris mentioned


Family Theatre on 125th Street; just down the street from Fox's Gotham movie theater

the Star Theatre at Lexington and 107th Street
the Nemo Theatre, an 1,100-seat former cafe and music hall on the southeast corner of 110th and Broadway
the New York Roof Theatre, on Broadway between Forty-Fourth and Forty-Fifth Streets
the 2,000-seat Folly Theatre, on DebevoiseStreet in Brooklyn
the 3,000-seat Academy of Music on Fourteenth Street at Irving Place

1911, began building the 1,800-seat Riverside Theater on the northwest corner of Boradway and Ninety-Sixth Street

Next door, two more theaters: the Riviera, at ground level, and stacked on top of that, the Japanese Gardens

Simultaneously, in early 1912, began his most daring project, the Audubon Theater, an immense entertainment complex on Broadway between 165th and 166th Streets

American League baseball park was across the street and a subway station two blocks away; middle class moving into Washington Heights

Further north, in the Bronx, the 2,500-seat Crotona Theater on Tremont Avenue between Park and Washington

Then, Newark, New Jersey, and then New England

Now the family of four living at 272 East 200th Street in a then-fashionable section of the Bronx

Tombs prison, NYC, p. 83

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Chapter 8: The Wizard of Menlo Park

[1867: Menlo Park, Raritan Township, New Jersey: Edison established his laboratory there]

Thomas Edison: The wizard of Menlo Park.

Edison had perfected the Kinetograph motion picture camera in 1889

Edison: music, phonograph (p. 85 -- when I read that line, I immediately thought of Steve Jobs)

People afraid of innovation -- p. 86

MMPC: Edison, Motion Picture Patents Company

Carl Laemmle, future head of Universal Pictures; the most visible and vocal leader; a German immigrant whose previous career had included farming in the Dakotas, clerking at a Chicago wholesale jewelry house, and managing a clothing store in Oshkosh, WI -- page 91

Fox took on MMPC which had driven most other competitors out of business; Fox still relatively small but a huge irritant to MMPC

Fox gave up; seeling his rental agency to the GFC for $90,000, December, 1911

But he didn't; he had set a trap -- page 94.

Fox sued MMPC.

President Taft, anti-trust.

Thomas Edison (MMPC) was furious. He detested the Sherman Antitrust Law.

Fox celebrated, but disaster had struck.

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Chapter 9: Madness and Murder

Big Tim goes crazy; becomes paranoid. Possibly tertiary syphilis. Symptoms began in 1912, but his fall began in 1909.

Dreamland, now the site of NYC Aquarium

Wow, great story regarding Fox' banker, pp 102 - 103. Great, great story.

Big Tim likely murdered, p. 103 - 104.

Writer summarizes Fox' experience with Big Tim (Sullivan) -- changed Fox from an idealist to a realist.

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Chapter 10: Justice

Family history of Gilbert Grosvenor -- great example of connections on the East Coast.

Lawsuit between Fox and MMPC/GFC. The latter backed down. This was the first step toward an open market for the motion picture industry.

Antitrust case still only in pre-trail; not yet at trial.

1914: case finally goes to trial.

1911 Supreme Court landmark ruling against Standard Oil: footnote on bottom of page 113; "rule of reason" -- restrained trade (does Amazon restrain trade?)

Trial lasted four (4) days; government won. MMPC/GFC lost.

Fox filed a "triple damages" lawsuit against MMPC

Fox settled before lawsuit went to court. He would have easily won so this was a huge monetary mistake by Fox

Fox dismantled MMPC; Fox never given much credit for this; credit was given to government and to Grosvenor

The end of the MPPC opened a new chapter in film history; now, anyone in the US who wished to make movies could do so legally; thanks largely to Fox, the foundation has been laid for the American movie studio system

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Chapter 11: Independence

Fox took this experience to go rogue

December, 1914, Fox started the Box Office Attraction Company as a combined independent distribution and production company

Foreign films: all junk; Fox stopped showing foreign films

Fox realized he had to start making movies himself.

No one knew much about making movies at the time

Carl Laemmle now changed his company's name frm IMP to Universal Films was still producing only short films

Warner brothers, hq in same building as Fox at 130 West Forty-Sixth Street, had made their first movie, Peril of the Plains, in 1912

Sam Goldfish, later changed his name to Goldwyn in December 1918; had begun filming Hollywood's first feature film, the six-reel The Squaw Man, December, 2013

Adolph Zukor had founded Famous Players Film Company in 1912

Fox, age 35; knew little about film-making; his second-in-command, BOA general manager Winfield R. Sheehan, knew even less

Sheehan: a very "sketchy" past; probably a gangster; criminal;

If neither Fox nor Sheehan knew much about film making, they needed someone who did. They hired 46-y/o J. Gordon Edwards -- page 121 for his history and background

Note in footnote on page 121 Gordon Edwards' relationship to Blake Edwards, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Days of Wine and Roses, and the Pin Panther series

Box Office Attractions, first movie, under Gordon Edwards: Life's Shop Window; the movie flopped

Fox resolved never to make that mistake again -- would never "moralize" a novel again; would stick to the novel; viewers were often readers and knew the story

Second movie: The Walls of Jericho

Gertie the Dinosaur; a national treasure

WWI; summer of 1914

Fox financially going under

Investment banker support, Eisele & King, Newark, NJ; BOA took new name: Fox Film Corporation born -- p. 126

Fox guaranteed virtual control of Fox Film

The Prudential Life Insurance and Fidelity Trust scandal probably responsible for the risky venture - p. 126 - 127

Fox had allied himself with the most corrupt political machine in American history, a general manager who had helped run a multimillion-dollar police graft scheme and who was probably involved in a murder plot, seed moey from corporate stock manipulators -- these were the people who launched the Fox Film Corporation -- for the next 15 years he worked to scrub away those stains

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Chapter 12: "William Fox Presents"

At the beginning of every movie: a "William Fox Presents" placard

In many ways, these were the best years, the mid- to late 1910s

Fox Film hq: the Leavitt Building, at 130 West Forty-Sixth Street

When he needed advice, he turned to Eva

Their two daughters were adolescents

Eva read at least one book a day

She read every scenario but no one, except Fox, knew

Initially, most observers shrugged; new production companies popping up all the time

No uniformity regarding movies; lengths for example; most were short

1912, Adolph Zucker, imported Queen Elizabeth, starring Sarah Berhardt; a 90-minute European film; admission: $2

Fox did not want to change America; he loved America as it was

One of his brightest hopes: Betty Nansen, the top female star at the Theatre Royal of Copenhagen; longtime muse of the late Henrik Ibsen, for whom he had originated the role of Hedda Gabler onstage; considered a sort of second Sarah Bernhardt;

Origin of "vamp" -- page 132; 1915

The story of Theodosia Goodman (Theda Bara), page 133

The story of the crazy success of A Fool There Was; first feature film to make $1 million in profits

By June 1915, Fox had eight of the industry's most capable directors under contract

Despite huge budgets, etc., all of Betty Nansen's films were flops

Nansen departed

Theda Bara became the screen's first brand-name sex symbol

Theda Bara's image "began to tilt more and more toward the occult, the arcane, and the just plain weird." -- p. 141

As her movies became increasingly lurid, Fox virtually assaulted the market with them, releasing eighteen (18) Theda features by the end of 1916.

By the end of 1915, Theda had become a major star; drew an estimated daily audience of about 800,000 -- page 145

1916: her popularity rivaled Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin (and yet, until today, I had never heard of her)

Now the story of William Farnum -- begins page 149

California became inevitable, but Fox did not want to shoot in California; 5-day train ride away

Three studios operated exclusively in Los Angeles, those of Universal City, 1,000-acre; Thomas H Ince and D. W. Griffith

Less than 7 months in business, Fox Film released a feature a week; on par with industry leader Famous Players-Lasky

Unfortunately very few pre-1932 Fox Film movies survive; many fires; any that survived were finally destroyed in huge warehouse fire in Little Ferry, NJ, 1937

Fox Film was the fastest arrival the motion picture industry had ever seen (p. 157) and also the most disruptive (which he had never intended to do).

Faced the censors.

Mary Pickford: contract with Adolph Zuckor, Famous Players - Lasky (p. 158)

National Board of Censors

The Nigger -- p. 162

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Chapter 13: A Daughter of the Gods (1916)

Michael Fox by this time considered a sex merchant, a corrupter of morals, and a danger to small children

Wanted to make "better" movies

Timing benefited Fox: America wanted "big" movies

1915: first great American blockbuster -- D W Griffith's three-hour The Birth of a Nation

A Daughter of the Gods -- never heard of it; Fox and Herbert Brenon; starred Annette Kellermann

Filming wrapped up in April, 1916

Premier: October 17, 1916

Huge crowds, but reviews were uneven.

First movie to ever be reviewed by the London Times

Overall, considered a triumph -- but again, I have never heard of it

Lewis J Selznick -- mentioned on page 185

Brenon ultimately failed; Fox won

Alexander Beyfuss: mentioned, page 189; suicide at age 35

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Chapter 14: "The Greatest Showman on Earth"

Fox wanted a film museum; idea rejected by everyone and Fox ended plans

Not until 1935, would we see New York's Museum of Modern Art found its Film Library

1917: Fox Film enters its third year of business

Occupies four full floors of the Leavitt Building on Forty-Sixth Street; 23 sales offices across US and Canada

California location growing; in the center of Hollywood on both sides of Western Avenue just below Sunset Boulevard

Would increase production from 52 to 70 feature films

Two biggest stars: Theda Bara and William Farnum would appear only in "super de luxe" productions costing between $100K and $300K

Theda Bara's Cleopatra (1917)

Kellermann got greedy: turned down Fox's offer of a five-picture deal; she went on to make only one more Fox movie, the unremarkable Queen of the Sea (1918)

Director: J. Gordon Edwards

Instead of going overseas; filmed in Hollywood

WWI concerns

Fox takes first trip to California; in fact it was his first trip west of Buffalo, NY

5-day train trip; stayed in southern California for eight weeks

Premiered October 14, 1917; three days before one-year anniversary of A Daughter of the Gods

Chicago problems; lawsuits

Fox exaggerated, but still, Cleopatra was wildly successful

Today, presumed lost, Cleopatra (1917) is a tragic ghost of the silent era.  Managed to survive for two decades; in museum at 1935, but fires burned that copy as well as all other copies -- again, notes the studio's disastrous 1937 Little Ferry, New Jersey, fire

Cleopatra: the American Film Institute lists it as one of its nine "Most Wanted Lost Films." Some feet of the film still exists, but is in private hands.

Next, Salome.

Opened August 19, 1918.

Salome may have out-earned Cleopatra (1917).


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Chapter 15: Mirror of the Movies

This chapter seems to be on Fox's other star, William Farnum

Fox was trying to figure out what it took to become a great man in America

First "super de luxe" movie with William Farnum, The Price of Silence (1917)

Child labor; in 1916 President Wilson signed into law first federal child labor legislation, the Keating-Owen Act.

Several major films mentioned

Women's issues; much of the movie audience was female

Touched many issues but refused to touch the issue of racism; he had been burned before

His masterpieces up to this time: Cleopatra, Salome, A Tale of Two Cities, and, Les Miserables

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Chapter 16: "All His Secret Ambition" 

Sort of an early Jay Gatsby

Quotes Fitzgerald

Fox ahead of Jay Gatsby by about 20 years

Neal Gabler talking about early American motion picture studio founders: "these Hollywood Jews constructed Southern California social life as an accessible alternative to the eastern Protestant establishment."

Stereotypical.

Fox was not a Hollywood Jew. He was a New Yorker.

He never owned a home in California; he never socialized with the "Hollywood Jews" except in connection with business.

Fox and family have now moved from Mount Hope in the Bronx to a town house at 316 West Ninety-First Street, on Manhattan's fashionable Upper West Side. (I don't recall reading where his previous house at Mount Hope was; I will have to go back and see if the author mentions that.)

Recently, Long Island Rail Road completed; between 1910 and 1918, some 325 houses with 25 or more rooms were built on Long Island.

Getting ready for the Great Gatsby era.

The richest of the rich headed for the "Gold Coast," Long Island's North Shore: the Morgans, Chryslers, Vanderbilts, Guggenheims, William Randolph Heart, Nelson Doubleday, Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Comfort Tiffany

Fox was not yet in that league

By 1916, he had rented a mansion at the corner of Pond Lane and Woodmere Boulevard in Woodmere, his "country home" -- on the other side of the "Gold Coast"

Took up golf; recently taken up by presidents Taft and Wilson; due to left arm injury had to golf with one arm

Continued to take care of his family

Philanthropy

Once the most demonized industrialists of the Gilded Age, Carnegie and Rockefeller were transforming themselves into saintly public benefactors

Movies still disreputable aura: Fox Film's continuing emphasis on sex and violence

Jewish War Relief campaign

Fox now publicly honored by entertainment industry, February 24, 1918

But also raised money for Catholic servicemen; Red Cross;

The story of Fox's admiration for Rockefeller

US declares war in April, 1917

Positive ending to the chapter

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Chapter 17: "The Finest In Entertainment The World Over"

During the way, movie supply shortage overseas; opportunity existed

Russia

Behind the scenes, Fox helped Trotsky

Trotsky had been hired to work as an electrician at Fox Film even though Trotsky claimed to be only a journalist; the Brits were spying on and keeping tabs of Trotsky because they thought he was being paid by the Germans

There are also reports that Trotsky also appeared an an extra in Fox movies and had a Fox Film identification card.

Plausible: Trotsky needed the money and loved movies

Stories that Fox helped pay for Trotsky's return to Russia on the SS Kristianiafjord on March 27, 1917, twelve days after the czar's abdication

Lost: what happened to Fox Film after Lenin seized power; rumors that Lenin wanted to meet Fox and had Fox make educational films for Russia

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Chapter 18: "The Making of Me" 

Leadership abilities in the beginning

California / Hollywood operations

The story of Jewel Carmen, page 258

Fox' children films were not successful; Fox never had a childhood and therefore did not understand children at all

Finds a potentially new star, 17-y/o Massachusetts high school student Helen Elizabeth Lawson (family name, Larsen, daughter ot a Norwegian immigrant; though Larsen suggests Swedish); Fox changed her stage name to June Caprice; despite all that help, she failed

The story of Max Steiner; ultimately a winner of 26 Academy Awards; arrived in NYC in 1914, broke and a nobody

Steiner had come from a distinguished Viennese theatrical family; he had studied at the Imperial Academy of Music and with Gustav Mahler

Stein puts together a 110-piece symphony orchestra form the ten-member bands at the various Fox theaters

Another that succeeded under Fox: Hettie Gray Baker (a woman in early Hollywood)

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Chapter 19: The End of Theda

1919: biggest Fox Film jolt in its history so far -- Theda quit

4.5 years; 40 features; she was exhausted

She wanted to return to her first love, the theater

Theda had put Fox Film on the map

1921, age 36, married director Charles Brabin; no children

Tried to become a star again; failed

Forest Lawn Memorial Park: cremated remains; the plaque, "Theda Bara Brabin 1955" -- Brabin and 1955 in smaller type

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Chapter 20: Exodus

Theda Bara had left; now, January, 1919, second-string vamp Virginia Pearson also left to start her own company

Jane and Katherine Lee, "kiddie pictures" also left

Frank Lloyd went to Goldwyn Pictures

Fox fired director Henry Lehrman, thinking he had stolen one of Fox' pictures

William Farnum, aging

Tom Mix becomes a Western hit

Unable to lure Douglas Fairbanks over from Paramount-Artcraft

Fairbanks wanted to become founding partner of United Artists, along with Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith

Fox failed to lure Buster Keaton in 1919

Mentions the story of Evelyn Nesbit -- interesting

Fox Film had only one top-drawer director left: J. Gordon Edwards

The war ending in 1918 surprised him; he thought it would end in 1919

Spanish influenza outbreak took its toll, also

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Chapter 21: Everything Changes

Regardless of internal changes at Fox, the big changes were external with regard to the movie industry

We are now entering the age of the Roaring 20's and the end of WWI

The bankers enter

Of all the changes occurring, none understood them better than Adolph Zukor, who would become Fox' chief rival. Zukor: Famous Players-Lasky would become Paramount Pictures

Zukor: six years older than Fox; born in the town of Risce in the same Tokay grape district of Hungary as Fox's Tolcsva -- truly amazing

Zukor partnered with Marcus Lowe in a chain of nickelodeons

April, 1912: Zukor formed Famous Players to import Sarah Bernhardt's Queen Elizabeth; later Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, and soon-to-be Fox star William Farnum

Now the story of how fast Zukor rose

Famous Players-Lasky (FPL), by 1917: Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, John Barrymore, Dorothy Gish, directors D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille

By mid-1919: FPL was by far the largest American movie studio

With the help of JP Morgan, Marcus Loew took his firm public, 1919

1919 - 1920: Fox plodded on. Were his best days behind him?

Fox News, idea came in summer of 1919

Fox was starting to lose it. He began taking time off twice a year to rest at a sanatorium

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Chapter 22: A Visit From Royalty

Fox was now 40 years old

25-year-old Prince of Wales, Edward Albert would visit the US

Fox invited him to visit

Fox was thrilled how it turned out


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Chapter 23: Eclipse

1921; appears to be making a comeback

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Chapter 24: "Humanity if Everything"

The Fox family at this time



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Chapter 25: The Iron Horse (1924)

By late 1923, back on his feet; huge cash reserve


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Part III: The One Great Independent
1925 - 1929
The roaring 20's

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Chapter 26: Renewal

Buoyed by the success of The Iron Horse, Fox began a radical transformation of Fox Film

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Chapter 27: "The Wonder-Thing"

Fox movies really did improve during 1925 and 1926

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Chapter 28: Talking Pictures

The history of talking pictures

1924: the breakthrough -- AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories ....

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Chapter 29: All For Fox Films

Still, 1925 and 1926

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Chapter30: The Roxy

The story of the Roxy; bought in 1927 by Fox; a $10 million, 5,920-seat theater; 7th Avenue and 50th Street

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Chapter 31: Sunrise (1927)

Would become Fox Film's single greatest achievement

Long, long chapter

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Chapter 32: The Triumph of Movietone

1928.

All the major studios chose to adopt Fox's Movietone sound-on-film system instead of Warner Bros.' Vitaphone sound-on-disk or RXA Photophone's sound-on-film.

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Chapter 33: The One Great Independent

1927: Fox Film entered a golden age commercially and artistically

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Chapter 34: Storm Signals


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Chapter 35: Lone Master of the Movies

One more step upward remained: to ascend into the elite tier of American industrialists and to dominate his industry the way that Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan had dominated theirs.

Acquiring Loew's

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Chapter 36: Big Money

1927 - 1929 -- growing bigger and bigger

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Chapter 37: Trouble

Two main pressures bore down on Fox during the spring and summer of 1929: first, antitrust clearance for Loew's buy-out; and, second, he had to arrange permanent financing for the $50 million he had spent...

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Chapter 38: Fate

Still working the Loew's deal; July 17, 1929

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Chapter 39: Recovery

July 28, 1929

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Chapter 40: Disaster: October 1929

A relatively short chapter, considering

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Chapter 41: Siege

Financial crisis; a longer chapter, as expected

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Chapter 42: War

Begins with family; another long chapter. Still fighting to financially survive.

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Chapter 43: "We Want You, Mr Fox"

1930 -- survives; new chapter.

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Chapter 44: Defeat

The end began on march 28, 1930

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Chapter 45: the End of the Dream

Begins on April 2, 1930


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Part IV
Despair
1930 - 1943

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Chapter 46: Sorrow and Rage

Begins on April 7, 1930.


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Chapter 47: The Meter Reader and the Banker

April, 1930.

It begins: "Fox's vision of ruin came to pass more swiftly than he expected."




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Chapter 48: Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox

1931; empty hours on his hands.

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Chapter 49: Nobody

1933; tries to make a comeback.

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Chapter 50: Alone

1935

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Chapter 51: Revenge

56 years old. Broke down psychologically.

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Chapter 52: Confession

Judge J Warren Davis story.

1939.

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Chapter 53: Prison

Fox: Lewisburg federal penitentiary on November 20, 1942.

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Part V: Acceptance
1943 - 1952



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Chapter 54: Exile

Back home at Fox Hall with Eva, their two daughters, and two grandsons; age 64.

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Chapter 55: Fade To Black

1951: suffers a stroke; most of the next year in hospital.

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Acknowledgments

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Notes

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Bibliography










































































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