The Media Mogul Behind the Scenes

By Tom Morrow

Around the globe William Fox’ name can be seen everywhere, but few have every heard or read about who he was. Today the multi-media entities of Fox News, Fox Network, Fox Business, Fox Sports, and, of course on the big screen, 20th Century Fox films all carry his name.
Fox was born Wilhem Fuchs in Tolcsva, Hungary. His family immigrated to New York when William was nine months old. As a youth, Fox sold candy in Central Park, worked as a newsboy on the streets of New York, and worked in the fur and garment industry.
In 1900, Fox purchased his first nickelodeon, a coin-operated machine showing early short films, the forerunner of what would soon be put on a theater’s big screen. Always more of an entrepreneur than a showman, Fox concentrated on acquiring and building some of the nation’s big movie theaters.

Fox created a chain of movie theaters and purchased film prints from major movie companies. He managed to successfully lease the New York Academy of Music and convert it into a movie theater. Based in New Jersey, Fox bought films outright from Long Beach, California’s Balboa Amusement for distribution in his theaters as well as rental to other theaters across the nation. In 1915, he formed the Fox Film Corporation. The company’s first film studio was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where many other early film studios were based. Fox had the money to acquire facilities and expand his production capacity. Between 1915 and 1919, he would rake in millions of dollars through movies which featured Fox Film’s first breakout star Theda Bara. She was known as “The Vamp,” for her performance in “A Fool There Was” (1915).
In 1925, Fox purchased the U.S. rights to Tri-Ergon, a sound-on-film system, with which he created Fox Movietone News. It became the film news standard. Competing sound-on-disc technologies, such as Warner Bros.’ Vitaphone, became obsolete. From 1928 to 1964, Fox’ weekly “Movietone News” was one of the major theater newsreel series in the U.S., along with” The March of Time” (1935-1951) and “Universal Newsreel” (1929-1967).
Despite the fact his film studio was moved and based in Hollywood, Fox opted to remain in New York where he was more familiar with financiers than with either his movie makers or actors. Prominent Fox Film Corporation’s Oscar-winning actress Janet Gaynor (A Star Is Born) once acknowledged she barely knew William Fox, stating “I only met him to say ‘… how do you do.’” Gaynor said Fox would rarely visit the Hollywood studio. His films were managed by his production company.
Following the 1927 death of Marcus Loew, who was head of rival Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Fox saw an opportunity to expand his empire, so he in 1929bought the MGM holdings from the Loew family. MGM studio bosses Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg were outraged because, despite their high management position at MGM, the two moguls were not shareholders and had no corporate control. However, Mayer used his strong political connections to persuade the U.S. Justice Department to sue Fox for violating federal antitrust laws.
In mid-1929, Fox was badly hurt in an automobile accident and by the time he recovered, the stock market crash that October wiped out nearly all of his fortune, ending any chance of the Loews-Fox merger going through … even if the Justice Department had approved it.
The next year, during a hostile takeover, Fox lost control of his organization. In 1935, Fox Film Corporation merged with 20th Century Pictures becoming 20th Century Fox.
Fox never had any involvement with the newly formed the film studio that famously bears his name. A combination of the stock market crash, Fox’s car accident injuries, and government antitrust action, forced him into a protracted seven-year legal battle to stave off bankruptcy.
In 1936, during his bankruptcy hearing, Fox attempted to bribe judge John Warren Davis and committed perjury. Fox served a five-month sentence on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice and defraud the U.S. government in connection with his bankruptcy. Years after his prison release, President Harry Truman granted him a Presidential pardon.
During the height of his career the mogul personally oversaw the construction of many Fox Theatres in American cities including Atlanta, Detroit, Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego. Today, the plush San Diego theater is the concert hall for the city’s symphony orchestra.
At the end of his life, Fox’ companies had an estimated value of $300 million. He personally owned 53 percent of Fox Film and 93 percent of the Fox Theaters. His death in 1952 at the age of 73 went largely unnoticed by the film industry. No one from Hollywood attended his funeral. Fox is interred at Salem Fields Cemetery in Brooklyn. Fox was married and had two daughters.
Today, his name can be seen everywhere in the television news, entertainment and sports networks as well as motion pictures, but few know where the “Fox” name came from. Now you know.