He was born Wilhelm Fried, January 1, 1879, in Tulchva, Hungary. His parents were German Jewish and taught him very early in life the value of a dollar. He was a very energetic and eager kid and by the time he was 8, already holding jobs. He had a dream. He had a vision - and by the age of 12, he was putting it into play. He wanted to come to America .....
He immegrated to America in at the age of 19. He worked as a newsboy and for the fur and garment industry before starting his own company in 1900. He sold it in 1904 to invest in a Brooklyn nickelodeon. This did not prove as lucrative an enterprise as Fox expected, so he moved to California and began to form a production company. It was called the Wm. Fox Film Company. Fox had the idea he would make his own-top-quality films. By 1915 Fox had a monopoly over film production and was starting to dominate the film industry. This was such a beautiful monopoly because Fox Fim Company made the films, and they were only viewed in Fox-owned theaters. Later in 1915 the Wm. Fox Film Corporation, merged with another film company called 20th Century Films, to become 20th Century Fox. Little did Fox know what was ahead for his company ....
20th Century Fox, took off like a rocket. Producing hit film after hit film. Fox introduced organ accompaniment to the silent films shown in his theatres and pioneered in designing theatres for the comfort of the patrons. Through an massive use of publicity, he developed Theda Bara into the first screen vamp and a star. He was also famous for the 1927 news series Movietone News, the first commercially successful sound film. Fox was most successful because he was a visionary. He saw a place for sound in the movies when other producers and production companies did not, and would not. Even during the Great Depression, Fox oufitted over a thousand theaters with equipment to make it possible. Fox's domination of the movie industry could not remain long before it attracted attention, jealousy, and a desire to make 20th Century Fox crumble, and it almost did ....
Because of the expense of converting 1,100 theatres to sound equipment and the economic crisis brought about by the Great Depression, Fox declared bankruptcy in 1936. He could not tolerate such failure, and tried bribing a judge during the liquidation of his holdings in bankruptcy proceedings. He was sentenced to prison.
Upon his release from prison he retired to Long Island, New York. He lived a quiet life there until he died on May 8, 1952. R.I.P. William! Your vision still lives on today!! He was creamated...ashes given to a friend. Leave him a note here.
TRIVIA:
Fox with an actor in 1935.
FOX Studios today. |
