William Fox
Starting at the age 8 he had a series of jobs before starting his own business in 1900, which was sold to buy a Brooklyn nickelodeon in 1904. As the new owner with an empty house, Fox hired a coin manipulator and a barker to attract patrons into the dark 146-seat theatre. Once audiences adequately understood what moving pictures were, live acts were dispensed with. More nickelodeons were opened and he became a successful film exhibitor. He then won a long legal battle against Thomas Edison's Motion Pictures Patent Company, ending the film trust and allowing him to start his own production company in 1913. Operations were consolidated into the Fox Film Corporation in 1915. Theda Bara and Tom Mix starred in successful pictures made at the Fox Hollywood studios and the profits from them, and from the 1000 house Fox theatre chain, paid for "artistic" projects like Sunrise (1926), for awards and critical acclaim. In 1927, Fox acquired the American patent rights to the sound-on-film process developed by a Swiss firm. Fox pioneered the widescreen film with The Big Trail (1930). Poised for the future of talkies, he attempted to buy MGM just in time for 1929s stock market crash. In 1930 Fox was forced out of his company after a federal anti-trust investigation. His version is told in 1933 Upton Sinclair's book, 'Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox.' In 1936, a year after Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Pictures merged with Fox Films, Fox bribed a judge during the liquidation of his holdings in bankruptcy proceedings. His sentence, a year in prison, began in 1941. Paroled in 1943, he was a pariah in Hollywood. Though secure from his many patent holdings, the industry for which he had been so visionary was closed to him. A virtual pariah at the time of his death, no industry representative came to eulogize at his funeral.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
(Producer)
His Noisy Still
(Executive Producer)
The Loves of Carmen
(Presenter)
The Shadow of the East
(Presenter)
Gold Heels
(Presenter)
Flames of Desire
(Presenter)
Up the River
(Producer)
Monte Cristo
(Producer)
Lucky Star
(Producer)
Hoodman Blind
(Presenter)
East Side, West Side
(Producer)
Cradle Snatchers
(Writer)
The Black Watch
(Presenter)
Common Clay
(Executive Producer)
A Daughter of the Gods
(Producer)
Disorderly Conduct
(Producer)
Just Pals
(Producer)
Caravane
(Executive Producer)
The Big Trail
(Producer)
Salome
(Producer)
High Society Blues
(Producer)
The Strongest
(Presenter)
The Painted Woman
(Producer)
Upstream
(Producer)
Annabelle's Affairs
(Executive Producer)
Love Letters
(Presenter)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(Producer)
The Eternal Sapho
(Producer)
Cleopatra
(Producer)
Quick Millions
(Producer)
Six Cylinder Love
(Producer)
She Wanted a Millionaire
(Producer)
Young America
(Producer)
7th Heaven
(Producer)
Street Angel
(Producer)
They Had to See Paris
(Executive Producer)
The River
(Producer)
Tumbling River
(Presenter)
If Winter Comes
(Producer)
Little Miss Smiles
(Presenter)
Jackie
(Producer)
Jackie
(Presenter)
Fazil
(Producer)
The Valiant
(Presenter)
A Girl in Every Port
(Producer)
Not Quite Decent
(Presenter)
Ladies Must Dress
(Presenter)
Society Girl
(Producer)
South of Tahiti
(Sound Technical Supervisor)
Jungle Pals
(Executive Producer)
Step Lively, Please
(Executive Producer)
Strong Boy
(Presenter)
The Fighting Heart
(Presenter)
Hearts of Oak
(Presenter)
The Honor System
(Producer)
Is Zat So?
(Producer)
Wild Girl
(Presenter)
A Fool There Was
(Producer)
East Lynne
(Producer)
Mother Knows Best
(Producer)
The Darling of Paris
(Producer)
Happy Days
(Producer)
Oh, for a Man!
(Executive Producer)
Rackety Rax
(Presenter)
Honor First
(Presenter)
Honor First
(Producer)
The Face on the Barroom Floor
(Producer)
The Play Girl
(Presenter)
The Far Call
(Producer)
Regeneration
(Presenter)
Wings of Youth
(Presenter)
The Big Party
(Presenter)
Silk Hat Kid
(Producer)
Gentle Julia
(Producer)
From the Valley of the Missing
(Presenter)
Fig Leaves
(Presenter)
Unreal News Reel
(Executive Producer)
Anna Karenina
(Producer)
City Girl
(Producer)
Hoopla
(Presenter)
Such Men Are Dangerous
(Presenter)
It's Great to Be Alive
(Presenter)
Romance of the Underworld
(Presenter)
Slaves of Fashion
(Producer)
Do You Know Your Wife?
(Producer)
Law of the Harem
(Producer)
You Have to Marry the Prince
(Producer)
There Were Thirteen
(Producer)
Rough Romance
(Presenter)
A Self-Made Man
(Presenter)
A Self-Made Man
(Producer)
More Pay - Less Work
(Producer)
Fleetwing
(Presenter)
Big Town Ideas
(Producer)
Why I Would Not Marry
(Presenter)
A Man's Mate
(Producer)
The Gay Retreat
(Presenter)
The Wonderful Adventure
(Presenter)
The Tiger's Cub
(Producer)
The Tiger's Cub
(Presenter)
The Woman and the Law
(Producer)
The Woman and the Law
(Presenter)
A Woman's Resurrection
(Presenter)
Should a Mother Tell
(Presenter)
The Song of Hate
(Presenter)
Kreutzer Sonata
(Presenter)
The Galley Slave
(Producer)
The Galley Slave
(Presenter)
Daughters of the Night
(Presenter)
Two Girls Wanted
(Presenter)
Pawn Ticket 210
(Presenter)
Snowdrift
(Presenter)
The Face at Your Window
(Presenter)
Without Fear
(Presenter)
Know Your Men
(Presenter)
His Greatest Sacrifice
(Presenter)
Early to Wed
(Presenter)
Shirley of the Circus
(Presenter)
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
(Presenter)
The Spy
(Producer)