The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox
By Vanda Krefft
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About this ebook
A riveting story of ambition, greed, and genius unfolding at the dawn of modern America. This landmark biography brings into focus a fascinating brilliant entrepreneur—like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney, a true American visionary—who risked everything to realize his bold dream of a Hollywood empire.
Although a major Hollywood studio still bears William Fox’s name, the man himself has mostly been forgotten by history, even written off as a failure. Now, in this fascinating biography, Vanda Krefft corrects the record, explaining why Fox’s legacy is central to the history of Hollywood.
At the heart of William Fox’s life was the myth of the American Dream. His story intertwines the fate of the nineteenth-century immigrants who flooded into New York, the city’s vibrant and ruthless gilded age history, and the birth of America’s movie industry amid the dawn of the modern era. Drawing on a decade of original research, The Man Who Made the Movies offers a rich, compelling look at a complex man emblematic of his time, one of the most fascinating and formative eras in American history.
Growing up in Lower East Side tenements, the eldest son of impoverished Hungarian immigrants, Fox began selling candy on the street. That entrepreneurial ambition eventually grew one small Brooklyn theater into a $300 million empire of deluxe studios and theaters that rivaled those of Adolph Zukor, Marcus Loew, and the Warner brothers, and launched stars such as Theda Bara. Amid the euphoric roaring twenties, the early movie moguls waged a fierce battle for control of their industry. A fearless risk-taker, Fox won and was hailed as a genius—until a confluence of circumstances, culminating with the 1929 stock market crash, led to his ruin.
Editor's Note
Must-read for movie buffs…
A timely read in light of Disney’s proposed plans to acquire 21st Century Fox. While you probably have heard much about Walt Disney and his legacy, you probably don’t know much about William Fox, founder of 20th Century Fox. A biography any movie buff must read.
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Reviews for The Man Who Made the Movies
9 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I very well written and interesting read about an interesting and flawed individual. The author seems to gloss over a bit of his difficult side, but you certainly get the personality of Mr. Fox and are able to draw conclusions about why he did the things he did and the consequences of those actions. I really enjoyed this.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Long overdue biography of William Fox, the founder of the Fox Film Corporation (forerunner of 20th Century Fox). The biography is well-balanced, in that while it has a good deal of sympathy for the subject, it doesn't shy away from the character flaws the man had, nor does it flinch from describing the actions that got him into legal trouble later. The "fall," as the book's subtitle notes, was indeed tragic, and has resulted in the man virtually vanishing from film history. No small wonder, since a large portion of Fox's production during the 1915-1930 period was destroyed in a 1937 vault fire. Well-edited and well-researched; it does seem obvious that a number of contemporary sources were carefully reviewed. Warmly recommended.