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The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox
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.
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.
965 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
March 30, 2018
I had roughly two dozen library books checked out across paper and electronic lending and I had never heard, specifically, of William Fox, so why this massive biography caught my eye enough for me to haul it home is a mystery. Why I read it, however, isn't. Krefft has an engaging subject in the Horatio-Alger-turned-Charles-Kane-but-with-Hollywood-history Fox and, even more crucially for a biography, a light touch. She's sympathetic to Fox but not adulatory of him--his faults and mistakes receive their fair airing here--and she's great at explaining his historical, cultural, and even financial contexts. (It's not her fault I still can't understand the stock market.)
William Fox had an interesting life. (Hey, someone should write a book about this!) He grew up dirt-poor with a mother he idolized and a father who hardly ever lifted a finger to keep his family from starving; young Fox supported his family from an early age, working in the garment district and then going home and cleaning the steps so his mother would be able to rest. Step by step--and with, inevitably, a few unsavory connections, given that this was the heyday of Tammany Hall--he started owning movie theaters. One of the real delights of this biography is tracing the development of the movie industry. We start with films screened on a sheet or a wall when it was a technology so new you had to hire sword-swallowers, carnival-style, to attract traffic inside; we eventually get to Murnau's Sunrise and the talkies. The road there is paved with heated battles over film rental licenses and patents, and Fox was influential as an outspoken and successful early campaigner against a Thomas Edison-driven monopoly that was restricting the industry's growth. Later, he'd fight his own patent battles, and, crucially, his own monopoly battle, from the other side.
Fox Pictures became known for their sensationalism, from the brand name sex symbol Theda Bara, one of cinema's earliest vamps, to cowboy stuntwork. Fox was gentlemanly to a fault in his private life, but his movies pushed whatever would get people into the theater, with a bias towards sex and spectacle and sentimentality. For the most part, it worked. With Fox's sometimes overbearing guidance, the production company grew and grew. With it, Fox grew more autocratic--I've seldom felt sorrier for anyone than I did for Sol Wurtzel, his poor subordinate in Hollywood, whom he effectively bullied into having a nervous breakdown--and even more ambitious. In a cliched turn worthy of an early Fox movie, that ambition led to his downfall. In the end, he created too many enemies and accumulated too much power to last, a situation which paradoxically led to his company falling apart even as it enjoyed unprecedented success.
The end of his career tarnished his reputation, and it casts its shadow over the biography, as well, as we spend a lot of time exploring not only the technical details of Fox's fall--the stock inflation, the battles with AT&T, the threat of receivership, the voting trust, and so on--but also the personal animosity that went with them. Towards the end of his reign, as everything was falling part, Fox acted bitterly and irrationally. And his wife threatened to throw acid in someone's face. Coming after all the genuine likability and entrepreneurial spirit of the beginning, it's hard for all this not to have a huge impact on the reader's perception of Fox. Though, complex to the end, he continued donating to charity, being a loyal husband, quietly working, and playing one-handed golf.
John Ford's career, sex symbols, movie theaters, movie production, sound-on-film: none of it would be the same without him. This is a fitting tribute to the specificity of those things, to their range, and to the man who changed them forever.
William Fox had an interesting life. (Hey, someone should write a book about this!) He grew up dirt-poor with a mother he idolized and a father who hardly ever lifted a finger to keep his family from starving; young Fox supported his family from an early age, working in the garment district and then going home and cleaning the steps so his mother would be able to rest. Step by step--and with, inevitably, a few unsavory connections, given that this was the heyday of Tammany Hall--he started owning movie theaters. One of the real delights of this biography is tracing the development of the movie industry. We start with films screened on a sheet or a wall when it was a technology so new you had to hire sword-swallowers, carnival-style, to attract traffic inside; we eventually get to Murnau's Sunrise and the talkies. The road there is paved with heated battles over film rental licenses and patents, and Fox was influential as an outspoken and successful early campaigner against a Thomas Edison-driven monopoly that was restricting the industry's growth. Later, he'd fight his own patent battles, and, crucially, his own monopoly battle, from the other side.
Fox Pictures became known for their sensationalism, from the brand name sex symbol Theda Bara, one of cinema's earliest vamps, to cowboy stuntwork. Fox was gentlemanly to a fault in his private life, but his movies pushed whatever would get people into the theater, with a bias towards sex and spectacle and sentimentality. For the most part, it worked. With Fox's sometimes overbearing guidance, the production company grew and grew. With it, Fox grew more autocratic--I've seldom felt sorrier for anyone than I did for Sol Wurtzel, his poor subordinate in Hollywood, whom he effectively bullied into having a nervous breakdown--and even more ambitious. In a cliched turn worthy of an early Fox movie, that ambition led to his downfall. In the end, he created too many enemies and accumulated too much power to last, a situation which paradoxically led to his company falling apart even as it enjoyed unprecedented success.
The end of his career tarnished his reputation, and it casts its shadow over the biography, as well, as we spend a lot of time exploring not only the technical details of Fox's fall--the stock inflation, the battles with AT&T, the threat of receivership, the voting trust, and so on--but also the personal animosity that went with them. Towards the end of his reign, as everything was falling part, Fox acted bitterly and irrationally. And his wife threatened to throw acid in someone's face. Coming after all the genuine likability and entrepreneurial spirit of the beginning, it's hard for all this not to have a huge impact on the reader's perception of Fox. Though, complex to the end, he continued donating to charity, being a loyal husband, quietly working, and playing one-handed golf.
John Ford's career, sex symbols, movie theaters, movie production, sound-on-film: none of it would be the same without him. This is a fitting tribute to the specificity of those things, to their range, and to the man who changed them forever.
August 15, 2017
The Man Who Made the Movies is more than a biography. It is an important literary achievement that uniquely sets a new standard for what is considered a book of quality. It’s not just the clarity of the writing and the extensive research and thought placed into each chapter and sentence, but this biography of William Fox extends beyond the simple history of a man. The book forces the reader to consider the ramifications of each moment of his/her own life through reflection of William Fox’s life. It is a study of a man who is neither a knight in shining armor nor personified evil, but a man struggling to make his life meaningful and at the same time to shape society. It makes us consider the nature of ourselves and our place and possibilities in history. Fantastic job, Vanda Krefft.
July 11, 2020
Tragic but interesting
A neat book for those who love history and how the movies came to be. Was a treat to read and pour through.
A neat book for those who love history and how the movies came to be. Was a treat to read and pour through.
August 4, 2017
Much of the book relates to Fox’s dealings with finance and lawyers, topics which I generally try to avoid; however, there is no question that it is well written and extensively researched, and that it provides an interesting look into the early history of motion pictures.
January 13, 2018
Vanda Krefft's fascinating and massive biography of silent film pioneer William Fox, THE MAN WHO MADE THE MOVIES, resurrects the memory of the long-forgotten film mogul who started Fox Film Corporation. Krefft also rehabilitates his battered reputation. While most film buffs remember scrappy pioneer movie studio heads like Harry Cohn at Columbia, Carl Laemmle at Universal and Louis B. Mayer at MGM, among others, Fox has been largely forgotten because he lost his movie empire in 1930 (five years before it became 20th Century Fox).
A Jewish Hungarian emigrant, Fox entered the film business in 1904 when he purchased and built numerous theaters, and bought films from other studios to play in them. By 1914, he leveraged his investments to form Fox Film Corp. and started making his own films. Fox's top stars were screen vamp Theda Bara, cowboy star Tom Mix and leading man William Farnum. In 1927, Fox spent $1.2 million producing F.W. Munau's SUNRISE. While the film never made back its cost, it won three Oscars at the first Academy Awards ceremony, including Best Picture. Fox's world began to fall apart when he tried to finance a merger with MGM; he was sued for violating antitrust laws, went bankrupt during the stock market crash, lost control of his studio during a hostile takeover and ended up in prison.
At more than 900 pages, this is an enormous, well-researched, entertaining and valuable contribution to preserving and correcting film history.
Vanda Krefft's massive and entertaining biography repairs the reputation of pioneer movie studio founder William Fox who lost his studio in 1930 and ended up in prison.
A Jewish Hungarian emigrant, Fox entered the film business in 1904 when he purchased and built numerous theaters, and bought films from other studios to play in them. By 1914, he leveraged his investments to form Fox Film Corp. and started making his own films. Fox's top stars were screen vamp Theda Bara, cowboy star Tom Mix and leading man William Farnum. In 1927, Fox spent $1.2 million producing F.W. Munau's SUNRISE. While the film never made back its cost, it won three Oscars at the first Academy Awards ceremony, including Best Picture. Fox's world began to fall apart when he tried to finance a merger with MGM; he was sued for violating antitrust laws, went bankrupt during the stock market crash, lost control of his studio during a hostile takeover and ended up in prison.
At more than 900 pages, this is an enormous, well-researched, entertaining and valuable contribution to preserving and correcting film history.
Vanda Krefft's massive and entertaining biography repairs the reputation of pioneer movie studio founder William Fox who lost his studio in 1930 and ended up in prison.
December 17, 2017
"The Man Who Made the Movies" -- the story of William Fox and the studio he created is a remarkable and unique book. Having been in the film industry myself, I find most books about "movies" either superficial, sensationalized or outright fiction. By contrast, this extremely well-written and authoritative book, manages to tell a real story, about a fascinating character that holds your interest all the way through, and yet goes deeply into a real personality and a real studio.
Sure, there's plenty about the stars, glamour, etc., but there's also Fox's endless struggle to maintain control, deal with everyone and everything from the actors and directors to the bankers and the shareholders. This book makes you appreciate the complexity, not to mention, the anxiety making a movie involves. You can almost see Fox tormenting himself: Is this movie good? Will I lose the studio if I spend the money? Will people like the movie and most importantly, will it make money?
Great anecdotes (making a silent film on Staten Island!), who knew, to corporate intrigue, court battles, personal and professional struggles are all here. A great read and as I said at the open, a real story that anyone can enjoy and appreciate. The author has done a brilliant job!
Sure, there's plenty about the stars, glamour, etc., but there's also Fox's endless struggle to maintain control, deal with everyone and everything from the actors and directors to the bankers and the shareholders. This book makes you appreciate the complexity, not to mention, the anxiety making a movie involves. You can almost see Fox tormenting himself: Is this movie good? Will I lose the studio if I spend the money? Will people like the movie and most importantly, will it make money?
Great anecdotes (making a silent film on Staten Island!), who knew, to corporate intrigue, court battles, personal and professional struggles are all here. A great read and as I said at the open, a real story that anyone can enjoy and appreciate. The author has done a brilliant job!
May 26, 2018
He never intended to shake up the movie industry. At heart, he was and would always be a social conservative who wanted to change nothing except his own status from outsider to insider. William Fox's life might have turned out to be like many marginalized, unassimilated immigrant sons driven to derangement by their disappointment in America, but his energy, ambition, and hope didn't allow it. "He loved America, its values, its processes, its definition of culture. Consequently, in starting Fox Film, he aimed to create a respectable image by translating high-minded literary and stage plays into motion pictures...". "I was put down as the craziest man in the city," Fox recalled, "...a nut who thinks he can delude us into believing that pictures can be made into movies." They used to say the same about Walt Disney and look at the contribution these path-breakers gave to the evolution of a medium from new technology to a modern and original art form. Not to mention the monumental importance of a public social experience that helped millions of Americans and immigrants throughout decades of unsettling cultural, social, and political turmoil.
A deeply exhaustive and meticulous portrait of an era, its most emblematic industry, and one of its most fascinating figures.
A deeply exhaustive and meticulous portrait of an era, its most emblematic industry, and one of its most fascinating figures.
December 7, 2019
Impressive! This biography of William Fox, one of the early pioneers in the movie industry, was an extremely interesting read. The result of a decade of original research into his life, as well as the convoluted business side of the Fox companies, it sets the record straight on this nearly-forgotten man. He rose from poverty to become the head of a huge film-making studio, only to be ousted from his own company. A combination of over-extending himself and the stock market crash led to his downfall. He later filed for a false bankruptcy and served a short term in prison. Worst of all, nearly all the silent films made by William Fox were destroyed in a fire in 1937. A terrible loss. Vanda Krefft has written an amazingly complete history of the man and his times. Well done!
November 15, 2017
I have been given a copy of this book by Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review.
Today's post is on The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox by Vanda Krefft. It is 944 pages including notes and other research resources and it is published by Harper Collins. The cover is a picture of William Fox. The intended reader is someone who likes forgotten history and old Hollywood. There is mild foul language, no sex. and, no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- 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.
Review- A fascinating biography about a man who helped movies become the cultural phenomenon that they are today. Krefft did excellent research for this biography and she pours all of her heart into this book; it shows. She helps us understand what drove William Fox and how it led to his downfall. William Fox was pushed into the role of provider for his whole family from the age of ten and that influenced the rest of his life. He believed in his dream that the pictures could reach and help people to forget their troubles for a little while. Fox was driven to succeed and do just about anything to do so but he was an honorable man who loved and respected the law and justice. That was a major point in his movies. It was up-lifting to read about his successes but when the fall came it was truly tragic to read about. He reached for everything and in the end he paid for it with everything. If old Hollywood and tragic lives are interesting to you then you should read this book.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars.
Today's post is on The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox by Vanda Krefft. It is 944 pages including notes and other research resources and it is published by Harper Collins. The cover is a picture of William Fox. The intended reader is someone who likes forgotten history and old Hollywood. There is mild foul language, no sex. and, no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- 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.
Review- A fascinating biography about a man who helped movies become the cultural phenomenon that they are today. Krefft did excellent research for this biography and she pours all of her heart into this book; it shows. She helps us understand what drove William Fox and how it led to his downfall. William Fox was pushed into the role of provider for his whole family from the age of ten and that influenced the rest of his life. He believed in his dream that the pictures could reach and help people to forget their troubles for a little while. Fox was driven to succeed and do just about anything to do so but he was an honorable man who loved and respected the law and justice. That was a major point in his movies. It was up-lifting to read about his successes but when the fall came it was truly tragic to read about. He reached for everything and in the end he paid for it with everything. If old Hollywood and tragic lives are interesting to you then you should read this book.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars.
September 1, 2018
I am too exhausted to write much regarding this magisterial work. This is far more information and raw facts that just aren’t commensurate with my interest on the subject. If you are a fan of early film history and the associated economics and intimate details this is a book you will love. Fox is a man who gets his due and all things related to him are explored. Kudos to the author’s ambition, but she is not a Robert Caro.
February 26, 2018
This was an amazingly researched and complete view of William Fox that has set a new standard for biographies of any historical person.
How often do you read a bio and know their basic story, yet not feel as if you really know the man or women that it was about? Most of the time. By the end of this, I felt like I could have guessed his next move, feeling that Krefft allowed me to know him that well. It was outstanding.
This outstandingness (yes, I'm allowed to make up a word) comes at a price though. It is intense and at 944 pages, is going to be too much to go through unless you are really interested in the beginning of film history and the man himself. It was intense and I'm surprised my Kindle didn't freak out with all of the highlights I was making.
While I consider myself a classic film buff, I soon realized that Fox had been just a name to me and I had no idea what his contributions or life was about. It's a personal blinder I think that I tend to gravitate more to the stars than the actual "men you made the movies" happen in the first place. I'm grateful that Krefft finally started me on the road to remedying that flaw or part that I've missed.
What he added to the industry and then what was taken away from him is an epic story of a self-made man from the slums that rose to heights no one will ever be able to reach today and then the useless crash as people that had no business being in the movies other than greed and ignorance pulled out from under him.
As a person, he was loyal to a fault, understated, and actual happy family man that even looked out for his extended family for all of his life from the day that he quit school in third grade to support his family because his dad wasn't until and after the day that he died. He was a real mensch, so much so that the word could have been created for him.
His downfall and near-constant breakdown in the years after his companies were taken away from him were heartbreaking and his constant psychic struggle to combine what he was, what he thought he should be, and what he was left with was painful if so insightful. He never stopped fighting, even when it was crazy, useless, and literally painful for himself and his family.
I've never read such a complete picture of another human being, I'm not even sure that I know myself or loved ones as well as I now know him. I hope that Krefft allows herself a break and then picks another person to take on just as deeply and well. I've never read a treatment of biography like it and not only am I sure that it took a lot out of her personally, I can't wait to see her next work.
How often do you read a bio and know their basic story, yet not feel as if you really know the man or women that it was about? Most of the time. By the end of this, I felt like I could have guessed his next move, feeling that Krefft allowed me to know him that well. It was outstanding.
This outstandingness (yes, I'm allowed to make up a word) comes at a price though. It is intense and at 944 pages, is going to be too much to go through unless you are really interested in the beginning of film history and the man himself. It was intense and I'm surprised my Kindle didn't freak out with all of the highlights I was making.
While I consider myself a classic film buff, I soon realized that Fox had been just a name to me and I had no idea what his contributions or life was about. It's a personal blinder I think that I tend to gravitate more to the stars than the actual "men you made the movies" happen in the first place. I'm grateful that Krefft finally started me on the road to remedying that flaw or part that I've missed.
What he added to the industry and then what was taken away from him is an epic story of a self-made man from the slums that rose to heights no one will ever be able to reach today and then the useless crash as people that had no business being in the movies other than greed and ignorance pulled out from under him.
As a person, he was loyal to a fault, understated, and actual happy family man that even looked out for his extended family for all of his life from the day that he quit school in third grade to support his family because his dad wasn't until and after the day that he died. He was a real mensch, so much so that the word could have been created for him.
His downfall and near-constant breakdown in the years after his companies were taken away from him were heartbreaking and his constant psychic struggle to combine what he was, what he thought he should be, and what he was left with was painful if so insightful. He never stopped fighting, even when it was crazy, useless, and literally painful for himself and his family.
I've never read such a complete picture of another human being, I'm not even sure that I know myself or loved ones as well as I now know him. I hope that Krefft allows herself a break and then picks another person to take on just as deeply and well. I've never read a treatment of biography like it and not only am I sure that it took a lot out of her personally, I can't wait to see her next work.
January 7, 2018
One of the most important biographies related to cinema history. Vanda Krefft has done an amazing job of uncovering the somewhat enigmatic William Fox, the forgotten founder of the Fox Film Studio. Through extensive research and superb writing Vanda has detailed Fox's rise from a poor Hungarian immigrant from NYC, to one of the wealthiest and most powerful movie studio heads of the silent and early sound era, and to his Shakespearean fall from grace due to circumstances both beyond and in his control. As a Nickelodeon owner and exhibitor, he lead the fight against the monopoly of the Edison Motion Picture Patents Company which in turn led to the establishment of his own studio that helped set the standards of modern films. The people and contemporary events which helped shape Fox's world are also discussed in detail that makes the reader understand why Fox made the decisions which led to great triumph and great shame. This biography paints the most complete portrait of William Fox, the man and the movie mogul.
September 9, 2017
This is a brilliantly researched book. I'm not a movie history fan but Krefft tells the story of William Fox in a way that makes me want to see every film he ever made, and also paints a fascinating portrait of New York City and America at the turn of the century. It's about more than movies or movie-making. It's about our world. Don't miss this book!
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August 25, 2019This was a very informative book, and the writing style was well presented. The author would on occasion present William Fox in perhaps a little better light than was warranted, but all of the facts were there to let the reader make up his/her own mind. I am glad I read this book and would recommend it to a friend.
July 24, 2020
Inspired title.
Another book that should be made into a movie. A complex hero, a supporting cast that includes the likes of Theda Bara, and glam locations galore.
Another book that should be made into a movie. A complex hero, a supporting cast that includes the likes of Theda Bara, and glam locations galore.
January 12, 2021
I did it! I had wanted to read this book for a long time, but its length was intimidating and, let's be real, I didn't know anything about Fox except my thought, "Hey, is he part of Twentieth Century Fox?" (Yes, he is...but it's a looooong story.)
In summary, I thought this was a really interesting tale. Fox isn't a hero, nor is he truly a villain either. As the son of immigrants (and an immigrant himself, at a very young age), he truly had a rags to riches story and he seems to have had a huge influence in the motion picture industry as it was just starting. But he also had a cataclysmic destruction of his career as well. Some of it was his fault, a lot of the initial stuff wasn't, but here we are.
The way this is written, you can pretty easily get pulled into trying to understand Fox as a person. He's definitely a character, but not in the way you'd expect a Hollywood exec to be. He shunned personal attention. He gave large amounts of money to charities. But all of that has to balance with his ambition and his inability to reconcile with his childhood. It all plays out in a way that makes you respect him while also sometimes wanting to punch him.
Also, about the writing, it sometimes does feel like it gets a little bogged down on semi-frivolous things. There's a huge chunk of the story that focuses on the plots, actors, and directors of Fox's early movies. And it was interesting, to a point. Perhaps since this was only slow for me because it wasn't why I was reading it. I just eventually got tired of reading about Theda Bara playing the same role over and over. (As I'm sure she got tired of playing it, to be fair.)
Still, I thought this was an interesting look at a specific moment in history that I didn't know much about and I appreciate that.
In summary, I thought this was a really interesting tale. Fox isn't a hero, nor is he truly a villain either. As the son of immigrants (and an immigrant himself, at a very young age), he truly had a rags to riches story and he seems to have had a huge influence in the motion picture industry as it was just starting. But he also had a cataclysmic destruction of his career as well. Some of it was his fault, a lot of the initial stuff wasn't, but here we are.
The way this is written, you can pretty easily get pulled into trying to understand Fox as a person. He's definitely a character, but not in the way you'd expect a Hollywood exec to be. He shunned personal attention. He gave large amounts of money to charities. But all of that has to balance with his ambition and his inability to reconcile with his childhood. It all plays out in a way that makes you respect him while also sometimes wanting to punch him.
Also, about the writing, it sometimes does feel like it gets a little bogged down on semi-frivolous things. There's a huge chunk of the story that focuses on the plots, actors, and directors of Fox's early movies. And it was interesting, to a point. Perhaps since this was only slow for me because it wasn't why I was reading it. I just eventually got tired of reading about Theda Bara playing the same role over and over. (As I'm sure she got tired of playing it, to be fair.)
Still, I thought this was an interesting look at a specific moment in history that I didn't know much about and I appreciate that.
April 22, 2018
From Motion Picture Mogul and Industry Disputer to disgraced criminal...this extremely detailed book tells the story of William Fox's rise as an innovator, to leveraging himself to the point of disaster right before the stock market crash of 1929.
The first half of the book details his motion picture efforts and personal life. His entrance into production, his making of stars, his foray into sound production and even a widescreen process that could-have-been 20 years before CinemaScope. The second takes a more devastating turn outlining a series of financial misfires that completely disengage him with the companies that touted the name of Fox, only to see a larger studio come out of it that he had nothing to do with (Twentieth Century Fox). After months of back dealings, stock manipulations, begging and borrowing, and corporate politics, Fox basically lost what he cared most about, his companies and ended up going to prison over a bribe to a bankruptcy judge. What makes it most interesting to read is from the place of knowing what is about to happen when the people involved do not - in this case, the stock market crash and great depression that followed. Seeing Fox leverage all he had in 1928, with it all coming due in 1930 and knowing that October 1929 lies in between adds an element of tension to Fox's impending doom.
Dense, but never boring, worth reading for those interested in not only Hollywood History, but the financial markets and business politics as well.
The first half of the book details his motion picture efforts and personal life. His entrance into production, his making of stars, his foray into sound production and even a widescreen process that could-have-been 20 years before CinemaScope. The second takes a more devastating turn outlining a series of financial misfires that completely disengage him with the companies that touted the name of Fox, only to see a larger studio come out of it that he had nothing to do with (Twentieth Century Fox). After months of back dealings, stock manipulations, begging and borrowing, and corporate politics, Fox basically lost what he cared most about, his companies and ended up going to prison over a bribe to a bankruptcy judge. What makes it most interesting to read is from the place of knowing what is about to happen when the people involved do not - in this case, the stock market crash and great depression that followed. Seeing Fox leverage all he had in 1928, with it all coming due in 1930 and knowing that October 1929 lies in between adds an element of tension to Fox's impending doom.
Dense, but never boring, worth reading for those interested in not only Hollywood History, but the financial markets and business politics as well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2018
If you're looking for a biography that's very film focused, this isn't it. Though Fox ran his film companies for years, and though there are definitely some great film stories in this book about the earliest days of film (I especially loved the Theda Bara stories), this is a biography of a businessman. If you're not interested in corporate law and finance, this book will probably be a letdown. It has chapter upon chapter of information on corporate financing, securities, corporate management, patents, and lawsuits stemming from all of those things. And since Fox mostly stayed an East Coaster, there's not much Hollywood in this book, either. I have some background in corporate law and securities, so I found some of that stuff fascinating, but it will be pretty dry to those who don't have an interest or background in it.
All of that said, this is a comprehensive biography, meticulously researched, showing the rise and fall of an early titan in the film industry and the business world in general. It's also a pretty good lens for the crash of 1929, and the Great Depression that followed.
(Also, this book is about 755 pages long, not 944. The last 200 or so pages are notes and index.)
All of that said, this is a comprehensive biography, meticulously researched, showing the rise and fall of an early titan in the film industry and the business world in general. It's also a pretty good lens for the crash of 1929, and the Great Depression that followed.
(Also, this book is about 755 pages long, not 944. The last 200 or so pages are notes and index.)
May 31, 2020
Didn't finish. Well documented book about one of the early movie moguls, William Fox. I eventually bogged down about half way through.
Two issues: William Fox is not a nice person. And so after a while I grew bored with the latest mean or casually cruel thing he'd done. That wouldn't a show stopper, necessarily. But the second issue is the level of detail included. I actually finally stopped during a multipage description of the financing of a particular stock deal. This included descriptions of all the financiers and companies involved, how they structured the money being moved around, and the background of many of the participants. The level of detailed had been provided for all the dealings Fox engaged in. Since I'm primarily interested in movie making history, this eventually bored me.
Two issues: William Fox is not a nice person. And so after a while I grew bored with the latest mean or casually cruel thing he'd done. That wouldn't a show stopper, necessarily. But the second issue is the level of detail included. I actually finally stopped during a multipage description of the financing of a particular stock deal. This included descriptions of all the financiers and companies involved, how they structured the money being moved around, and the background of many of the participants. The level of detailed had been provided for all the dealings Fox engaged in. Since I'm primarily interested in movie making history, this eventually bored me.
January 19, 2020
If you like your books to be dry, cold, and filled with facts and figures then this book is for you. It took everything to get through this snooze fest of a book. It could be to the fault of William Fox who was a dull man, despite his keen business sense. I was hoping for a deeper dive into the people and relationships in his life rather than the detailed timing and amounts of each of his business transactions. Boring!
August 5, 2019
This is not just another Hollywood story. This book goes back to the very beginning to tell the untold story of how it all began via the life story of the man who created it. It's a fascinating tale of one man's wondrous ups and downs, and how the film world was created by his hand, all magnificently researched and told by Krefft.
January 31, 2021
My friend’s mom gave me this book and wasn’t sure if I was going to be into it. I’ve never heard of William Fox and this is very long. Surprise, surprise I loved it. This man is fascinating. So many themes of the book connect to the present day. If you are at all considering reading this book I recommend you go for it.
April 27, 2021
Then: Open multiple accounts at multiple offices using multiple aliases and separately form a syndicate with other people all using aliases so no one can see what you're doing.
Now: "Hey everyone, let's all buy Gamestop!"
Now: "Hey everyone, let's all buy Gamestop!"
October 6, 2023
Exhaustive account of the man and his studio. Much focus goes to the actors and movies made at the studio during the 1910s before covering his contributions to sound and his downfall during the depression.
November 17, 2017
This was so beautifully researched and written, but all of the mind-boggling financial details dragged me down--especially in a 750-page monster of a book.
September 18, 2019
Gevalt. Such tsouris. Talk about the mighty brought low.
November 24, 2019
The book was written okay, but I guess I had a hard time liking this book because. Fox is a complicated individual, you never are quite sure if he was a nice guy or not.
August 4, 2020
A fascinating story of the rise of William Fox and the risks he took, challenges he faced . Very well written and fascinating read.
January 25, 2021
I wrote this review
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