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
***********************************
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.
******************
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
**************************
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
**********************************
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.
*******************************
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.
*****************************
Part II
The Greatest Adventure, 1904 - 1925
**************************
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.
********************************
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
************************************
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
**********************
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.
*********************************
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.
*********************************
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
****************************
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
****************************
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
******************************
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
************************************
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).
*************************************
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
********************************************
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
*****************************
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
***********************************
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)
***********************************
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
***********************************
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
***************************************
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
***************************************
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
***************************************
Chapter 23: Eclipse
1921; appears to be making a comeback
***************************************
Chapter 24: "Humanity if Everything"
The Fox family at this time
***************************************
Chapter 25: The Iron Horse (1924)
By late 1923, back on his feet; huge cash reserve
***************************************
Part III: The One Great Independent
1925 - 1929
The roaring 20's
***************************************
Chapter 26: Renewal
Buoyed by the success of The Iron Horse, Fox began a radical transformation of Fox Film
***************************************
Chapter 27: "The Wonder-Thing"
Fox movies really did improve during 1925 and 1926
***************************************
Chapter 28: Talking Pictures
The history of talking pictures
1924: the breakthrough -- AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories ....
***************************************
Chapter 29: All For Fox Films
Still, 1925 and 1926
***************************************
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
***************************************
Chapter 31: Sunrise (1927)
Would become Fox Film's single greatest achievement
Long, long chapter
***************************************
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.
***************************************
Chapter 33: The One Great Independent
1927: Fox Film entered a golden age commercially and artistically
***************************************
Chapter 34: Storm Signals
***************************************
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
***************************************
Chapter 36: Big Money
1927 - 1929 -- growing bigger and bigger
***************************************
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...
***************************************
Chapter 38: Fate
Still working the Loew's deal; July 17, 1929
***************************************
Chapter 39: Recovery
July 28, 1929
***************************************
Chapter 40: Disaster: October 1929
A relatively short chapter, considering
***************************************
Chapter 41: Siege
Financial crisis; a longer chapter, as expected
***************************************
Chapter 42: War
Begins with family; another long chapter. Still fighting to financially survive.
***************************************
Chapter 43: "We Want You, Mr Fox"
1930 -- survives; new chapter.
***************************************
Chapter 44: Defeat
The end began on march 28, 1930
***************************************
Chapter 45: the End of the Dream
Begins on April 2, 1930
******************************
Part IV
Despair
1930 - 1943
***************************************
Chapter 46: Sorrow and Rage
Begins on April 7, 1930.
***************************************
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."
***************************************
Chapter 48: Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox
1931; empty hours on his hands.
***************************************
Chapter 49: Nobody
1933; tries to make a comeback.
***************************************
Chapter 50: Alone
1935
***************************************
Chapter 51: Revenge
56 years old. Broke down psychologically.
***************************************
Chapter 52: Confession
Judge J Warren Davis story.
1939.
***************************************
Chapter 53: Prison
Fox: Lewisburg federal penitentiary on November 20, 1942.
***************************************
Part V: Acceptance
1943 - 1952
***************************************
Chapter 54: Exile
Back home at Fox Hall with Eva, their two daughters, and two grandsons; age 64.
***************************************
Chapter 55: Fade To Black
1951: suffers a stroke; most of the next year in hospital.
***************************************
Acknowledgments
*************************
Notes
**********************
Bibliography
No comments:
Post a Comment