The Man Who Made the Movies

by Vanda Krefft

  SDK-FFC

  Susie Dryden Kuser v. Fox Film Corporation, 1930, E51-369. United States District Court, Southern District of New York. NARA-NYC

  SEPH

  Stock Exchange Practices Hearings, U.S. Senate 1932–1933, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/87

  SFC

  San Francisco Chronicle

  SMM

  Meeting Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Stockholders of Fox Film Corporation, March 5–6, 1930. File 15, Box 25, Sinclair MSS Series III, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington

  SMWP

  Sol M. Wurtzel Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Beverly Hills, CA

  SUP

  Samuel Untermyer Papers, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, OH

  TAEP

  Thomas A. Edison Papers, Microfilm Edition, Rutgers University Library, New Brunswick, NJ

  Transcript

  Transcript of William Fox interview with Upton Sinclair, Box 24, Sinclair MSS, Series III, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington

  US-DK

  United States v. J. Warren Davis and Morgan S. Kaufman, No. 8969, 1941, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. National Archives and Records Administration, Philadelphia, PA

  US-DKF

  United States v. J. Warren Davis, Morgan S. Kaufman, and William Fox, 1941, No. 8969, 1941, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. National Archives and Records Administration, Philadelphia, PA

  US-MSS

  Sinclair Manuscripts, Manuscripts Collections, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington

  USA-MPPC

  United States of America v. Motion Picture Patents Co. et al., Record, Volume I, http://archive.org/stream/indistrictcourto01moti#page/n5/mode/2up; Volume II, http://archive.org/stream/indistrictcourto02moti#page/n7/mode/2up

  USPWF

  Upton Sinclair, Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox (Los Angeles: Upton Sinclair, 1933)

  VMSP

  Victor Mansfield Shapiro Papers, UCLA Special Collections, Los Angeles

  WBA

  Warner Bros. Archives, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

  WF-SMW

  Lillian Wurtzel Semenov and Carla Winter, eds., William Fox, Sol M. Wurtzel, and the Early Fox Film Corporation: Letters 1917–1923 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2001)

  WHP

  Will Hays Papers, Cinema History Microfilm Series, Douglas Gomery, ed. (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1986)

  WP

  Washington Post

  WSJ

  Wall Street Journal

  PROLOGUE: “THE BIGGEST DEAL IN MOTION PICTURE HISTORY”

  1 sunny, unusually warm: “Warm Day Fills Resorts,” NYT, Mar. 4, 1929, 23.

  1 Roxy Theatre: “Fox Crowns Self Film King, Admits Acquiring Loew’s,” New York World, Mar. 4, 1929, 17.

  1 Fiftieth Street and Seventh Avenue: Mordaunt Hall, “New Roxy Theatre Has Gala Opening,” NYT, Mar. 12, 1927, 1.

  1 “Cathedral of the Motion Picture”: “New Roxy Theatre Purchased by Fox,” NYT, Mar. 26, 1927, 1.

  1 5,920 seats: Bill Savoy, who had architectural plans for the Roxy, says that the original seat count was 6,214, but that the plans were revised. Because publicity had already gone out, Roxy promoters still cited a figure above 6,000, and rationalized that there were that many seats if one counted furniture in the lounges and public spaces. Bill Savoy e-mail to author, Dec. 8, 2013.

  1 city of twenty-five thousand: Maurice Kann, “A House Built on Merit,” Film Daily–Roxy Section, Mar. 13, 1927, 26.

  1 fifth floor . . . grand piano: Edwin C. Hill, “William Fox Reminisces,” American Hebrew, Mar. 15, 1929, 648.

  1 private screening room: Bill Savoy e-mail to the author, Mar. 9, 2017.

  2 hats and coats . . . refreshments: Peter Vischer, “Broadway,” Exhibitors Herald-World, Mar. 16, 1929, 28.

  2 “Fox Buys Loew’s”: “Fox Buys Loew’s, M-G-M,” FD, Feb. 28, 1929, 1.

  2 175-house: “175 Loew Houses in 21 States Swell Fox Holdings Up to 800,” FD, Feb. 28, 1929, 1.

  2 $109 million and annual profits of $8.6 million: “New Moves Seen Forthcoming to Adjust Balance of Power,” FD, Mar. 5, 1929, 10.

  2 Class-A, high-capacity: “Year in Pictures,” Variety, Jan. 4, 1928, 7.

  2 first-run: “Fox’s Loew Buy A Talk Riot,” Variety, Mar. 6, 1929, 5.

  2 Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford: “Great Array of Talent United by Fox Deal,” FD, Mar. 1, 1929, 2.

  2 well liked and admired: Hanford C. Judson, “Marcus Loew, a Real Showman” MPW, Oct. 6, 1917, 78; “Marcus Loew Dies Suddenly In Sleep at Glen Cove Estate,” MPN, Sept. 16, 1927, 837; Issue dedication to Marcus Loew, Variety, Oct. 19, 1927, 2.

  2 knocking aside Paramount: “Loew’s Control Passes to Fox,” WSJ, Mar. 4, 1929, 1; “New Moves Seen Forthcoming to Adjust Balance of Power,” FD, Mar. 5, 1929, 10.

  2 eight hundred U.S. houses: “175 Loew Houses in 21 States,” FD, Feb. 28, 1929, 1; “William Fox Buys Control of Loew’s,” WP, Mar. 3, 1929, M8.

  2 surpassing Paramount-Publix: A. Raymond Gallo, “William Fox Has Largest Circuit,” Exhibitors Herald-World, Mar. 16, 1929, 48.

  2 largest movie theater circuit: Hill, “William Fox Reminisces,” 648.

  2 “no interest in acquiring”: “‘Lies’ Is Comment of William Fox On Reported Loew’s-M-G-M Deal,” FD, Dec. 11, 1928, 1; “History of Fox-Loew-M-G-M Deal,” FD, Feb. 28, 1929, 30.

  2 rumors of his interest: KANN, “It’s Like This,” FD, Dec. 10, 1928, 1. The article refers to blind rumors about Fox’s intended purchase of Loew’s being printed in Film Daily on Nov. 22, 1928, and with Fox being named in the Nov. 25 issue. “Fox Buys Loew MGM Stock, Gains Control,” New York American, Feb. 28, 1929, 1; “A Clean Beat,” FD, Mar. 4, 1929, 1.

  3 including the New York Times: “Fox-Loew Merger Rumor,” NYT, Feb. 28, 1929, 42.

  3 “William Fox will make”: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  3 He hated to be interviewed: “William Fox Delights In Battles He Fights,” Daily Boston Globe, July 21, 1929, A46.

  3 front-runner: “Warner-Loew,” Variety, Feb. 27, 1929, 71; “Fox Move Surprises Coast as Warners Were Believed Set,” FD, Mar. 1, 1929, 1; “Fox’s Loew Buy A Talk Riot,” 5.

  3 $200 million holding company: “Fox’s Loew Buy A Talk Riot,” 10.

  3 by late February, the Warners: “Fox Buys Loew MGM Stock, Gains Control,” 1.

  3 bought heavily: “Fox’s Loew Buy A Talk Riot,” 10.

  3 $1,666 saved from garment industry: Hill, “William Fox Reminisces,” 648.

  4 “The lone eagle”: Maurice Kann, “Career Started on Way With Capital of $1,666,” FD, Feb. 28, 1929, 30.

  4 sixth floor Roxy Theatre office: Bill Savoy e-mail to the author, Mar. 9, 2017.

  4 At five foot seven: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  4 1,334,453 outstanding shares: “William Fox Buys Control of Loew’s, Inc.,” NEN, Mar. 2, 1929.

  5 On February 27: Richard V. Oulahan, “Hoover Expected to Name W. D. Mitchell, A Democrat, As His Attorney General,” NYT, Feb. 27, 1929, 1.

  5 market price of $84: “Financial,” FD, Mar. 1, 1929, 2.

  6 “a nut”: “Called a ‘Nut’ When He Bought First House, Fox Shows ’Em How,” EH-W, Mar. 9, 1929, 19.

  6 “remedy for every ill”: Greater N. Y. Film Rental Co. ad, MPW, May 18, 1907, 161.

  6 2:00 p.m. . . . easy chairs “Fox’s Loew Buy A Talk Riot,” 10; Hill, “William Fox Reminisces,” 648. In his book, The Greatest Fox of Them All (New York: Lyle Stuart, Inc., 1969), former Fox Film publicist Glendon Allvine says the press conference took place at 4:00 p.m. Articles published days after the event agree on 2:00 p.m.

  6 “I am William Fox”: Hill, “William Fox Reminisces,” 648.

  6 “compelling force”: Anzia Yezierska, Red Ribbon on a White Horse (New York: Charles Scribner’s S
ons, 1950), 86.

  6 Bernstein, considered a financial genius: Judson, “Marcus Loew, a Real Showman,” 79.

  6 with Loew’s since its beginning: Ibid.

  6 “All my savings . . . police reserves”: Hill, “William Fox Reminisces,” 648.

  7 one-page, six paragraph: “Fox’s Loew Buy A Talk Riot,” 10.

  7 “Fox Theatres Corporation . . . screen entertainment”: Ibid.

  7 barrage of questions: “Fox Announces Loew Deal,” FD, Mar. 4, 1929, 1.

  7 head of a $300 million: “Fox Attacks Sheehan,” New York Telegram, Mar. 24, 1930, 1; “Fox Out of Films,” NYT, Apr. 8, 1930, 1. Estimates of the combined worth of Fox Film, Fox Theatres, and Loew’s varied wildly, from $225 million (“Loew Merger Gives Fox 450 Theatres,” NYT, Mar. 4, 1929, 23) to $400 million (George Gerhard, “Fox Acquires Loew’s, Becomes Leader of Movie Industry; $400,000, Is Involved,” New York Evening World, Mar. 4, 1929), but the figure eventually settled at $300 million. Amid the frenzied industrial growth of the late 1920s, it was difficult to tell what a company was worth.

  7 $15–$20 million: “Loew’s Control Passes to Fox Theatres,” Barron’s, Mar. 11, 1929, 11.

  7 most powerful person: Nelson B. Bell, “The Master Buyer Places Fifty Million on the Line,” WP, Mar. 10, 1929, A2.

  7 “vision,” “energy,” and “consummate courage” . . . “close at heart”: “One Bold Stroke,” EH-W, Mar. 9, 1929, 16.

  CHAPTER 1: PROMISES

  11 “You son of a bitch”: Angela Fox Dunn interview with author.

  11 Fuchses: Transcript, 2.

  11 name was changed: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  12 general merchandise store: Transcript, 1.

  12 allowed Jewish children . . . clothing distinctions: Charles H. O’Brien, “Ideas of Religious Toleration at the Time of Joseph II,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 59, no. 7 (1969): 29–30.

  12 “swift, and, to all appearances”: Robert A. Kann, “Hungarian Jewry during Austria-Hungary’s Constitutional Period (1867–1918),” Jewish Social Studies 7, no. 4 (Oct. 1945): 375.

  12 “infinitely more favorable”: Ibid.

  12 Jacob, had been a money broker: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  12 hat cocked . . . walking stick: Ibid.

  12 as a dentist: Transcript, 1.

  12 “The patient would”: Ibid.

  12 good-humored girl: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  13 less than five jochs: Emil Lengyel, Americans from Hungary (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1974), 101.

  13 only 22 percent: Ibid., 101.

  13 no land at all: Ibid., 102.

  13 Known for . . . to accept: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  13 Europe’s tent pole economy: John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920), 16.

  13 second language, Latin: Paul Lendvai, The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat, trans. Ann Major (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), 174.

  13 carrying a huge basket of fruit: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  14 As a young girl: Ibid.

  14 The birth of their first child, Wilhelm: Fox claimed he was born on Jan. 1, 1879; however, Jewish birth records for Tolcsva indicate a son born to Michael and Hani (later Americanized as “Anna”) Fuchs on Jan. 5, 1879. These records also recorded the child’s name as “Wolf,” possibly an error due to haste.

  14 try to find his brother: Transcript, 2.

  14 around 896: Lendvai, The Hungarians, 1.

  14 Mongol invasion: Ibid., 2.

  14 slaughtered fifteen thousand Hungarian troops: Ibid., 91. These were mainly foreign mercenaries, because the ruling powers feared the oppressed peasantry too much to maintain a well-trained, well-equipped army.

  14 Hungarian nationalists . . . crush the upstarts: Stephen Sisa, The Spirit of Hungary (Morristown, NJ: Vista Books, 1990), 146–56.

  15 only they could hold office: Lendvai, The Hungarians, 192.

  15 owning four-fifths . . . paying no taxes: Ibid., 192–93.

  15 next to impossible: Lengyel, Americans from Hungary, 102.

  15 system of entailed land: Ibid., 101, 102–3.

  15 “from blind darkness”: Ibid., 103.

  15 55 percent . . . only 7 percent: Lendvai, The Hungarians, 193.

  15 “I can read the stars”: Sisa, The Spirit of Hungary, 134.

  16 “most forsaken of all peoples”: Lendvai, The Hungarians, 2.

  16 an estimated 1.9 million: Lengyel, Americans from Hungary, 124.

  16 entire villages: Ibid., 103.

  16 stayed up all night: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  16 wagon or train trip . . . Hamburg, Germany: Robert Perlman, Bridging Three Worlds: Hungarian-Jewish Americans, 1848–1914 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1991), 123.

  16 Sentimental ties: Lengyel, Americans from Hungary, 95.

  16 left Anna the general store: Transcript, 2.

  17 60,515 to 1.2 million: www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab03.txt; www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab11.txt

  17 smaller and smaller quarters: Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (New York: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1996), 63.

  17 “most densely populated district”: Ibid., 65.

  17 Stanton Street: Transcript, 2; USPWF, 15.

  17 carry water up in buckets: Ibid.

  17 pump in the yard: Transcript, 27.

  17 small two-room . . . six boarders: Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 129.

  17 six or seven stories compared to the average of five: Ibid., 129.

  17 as a machinist: Ibid., 2.

  17 stove-blackening polish: Ibid., 3.

  17 Will (as his mother called him): Transcript, 28. Fox’s father called him Bill.

  18 never exceeded a thousand dollars . . . Ibid., 2.

  18 “When I came home”: USPWF, 18–19.

  18 Michael never found him . . . “gave it up”: Transcript, 2.

  18 “The Eastern European”: Lengyel, Americans from Hungary, 13.

  18 journalist and historian: https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/4078360.

  19 series of extramarital affairs: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  19 “All I remember of those early years”: Ibid.

  19 Typhus and smallpox ran rampant: Riis, How the Other Half Lives, 131.

  19 hospitalized as a charity case: “Col. Wm. Fox Honored at Dinner,” MPW, Mar. 9, 1918, 1348; “Friends Banquet William Fox,” MPN, Mar. 9, 1918, 1418.

  19 sewing slippers: Transcript, 6.

  19 “did the worrying”: Ibid., 19.

  19 the Great Blizzard thwarted: Ibid., 3.

  19 “Lozengers,” the sweets . . . as long as the police: Transcript, 3–4; USPWF, 4, 15–16.

  20 ten to twelve dollars a week: Transcript, 4.

  20 “I do not remember”: Ibid., 3.

  20 At age eight: Ibid., 146.

  20 he fell off . . . entire elbow joint: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  20 vertical pocket openings: Mark Nichols, letter to the editor, LAT, June 5, 1978.

  20 “really hated his father”: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  CHAPTER 2: DESTINY

  21 Between 1860 and 1884: Oscar Theodore Barck Jr. and Nelson Manfred Blake, Since 1900: A History of the United States in Our Times (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1974), 6.

  21 In 1860, some 83 percent: Ibid., 4.

  22 mileage multiplied more than fivefold: William F. Micarelli, “Evolution of the United States Economic Censuses: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” Government Information Quarterly 15, no. 3 (1998) 342.

  22 Jay Gould, who by 1882 . . . rational levels: Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 104
2.

  22 “That is, ‘it’s business’ has”: Ida M. Tarbell, The History of the Standard Oil Company, Volume Two (New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904), 287.

  22 Panic of 1873 launched five and a half years: Rendigs Fels, “American Business Cycles, 1865–79,” American Economic Review 41, no. 3 (June 1951): 344.

  22 the Long Depression: Samuel Bernstein, “American Labor in the Long Depression, 1873–1878,” Science & Society 20, no. 1 (Winter 1956): 61.

  22 half of the nation’s railway companies: Bernstein, “American Labor,” 61; Nicolas Barreyre, “The Politics of Economic Crises: The Panic of 1873, the End of Reconstruction, and the Realignment of American Politics,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 10, no. 4 (Oct. 2011): 408.

  22 54,000 U.S. businesses . . . $1.3 billion: Bernstein, “American Labor,” 61.

  22 unemployment estimates . . . three million: Ibid., 81.

  22 “tramp” and “bum” entered the American vernacular: Scott Nelson Reynolds, “A Storm of Cheap Goods: New American Commodities and the Panic of 1873,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 10, no. 4 (Oct. 2011): 450. The words had previously been used to refer indirectly to ex-soldiers.

  23 “the millionaires’ club”: Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle, Ruling America: A History of Wealth and Power in a Democracy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 140; Gustavus Myers, History of the Great American Fortunes (New York: Modern Library, 1937), 250.

  23 lenient enforcement, narrow interpretation by judges: Barck Jr. and Blake, Since 1900, 11.

  23 slap-on-the-wrist penalties: Myers, History of the Great American Fortunes, 697.

  23 90 percent of the U.S. cigarette business: Ibid., 705.

  23 In 1891, the American Sugar: “Sugar Trust Reorganized,” NYT, Jan. 11, 1891.

  23 American Sugar Refining . . . Sugar Trust: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 1046.

  23 captured 95 percent: Richard Zerbe, “The American Sugar Refinery Company, 1887–1914: The Story of a Monopoly,” The Journal of Law & Economics 12, no. 2 (Oct. 1969): 357.

  23 aggregate capitalization of $4 billion: Myers, History of the Great American Fortunes, 700.