There are some odd circumstances in the formation of 20th
Century Pictures. I wanted to present some of the set up to their formation.
In 1927, when Marcus Loew died, William Fox, who was
doing EXTREMELY well with the oncoming of sound, approached the Loew family
and proposed to buy the family holdings for approximately $44,000,000 which
included over 200 theaters and MGM Studios. The merger was announced early
1929.
Rumors are that MGM head Louis B. Mayer was furious
that he was left out of the merger and helped instigate a government investigation
into the merger. In addition, another unhappy executive was Nicholas Schenck
who had managed the Loews theater empire.
Unfortunately, Foxs' luck had run out, he had a serious
car crash which hospitalized him and by the time he had recouperated, the
Stock Market crash of 1929 had almost bankrupted him. The merger fell apart
and the banks and courts stepped in and stripped him of his holdings which
included over 500 theaters and the Fox Studio.
In April 1932, Sidney Kent became the company president
and continued with the scheduled films in process..... BUT an unusual chain
of events came about... Here's the oddity..
William Goetz, who became an associate producer for
Fox Films in 1930, had also married Edith Mayer in 1930. Edith Mayer was
the daughter of Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM..
In 1932, as all of the changing of power was going
on at Fox, Louis B. Mayer financed his son-in-law, William Goetz, to become
a partner with Joseph Schenck, the former head of United Artists (AND
BROTHER of Nicholas Schenck), AND Darryl
Zanuck, from Warner Brothers, to create 20th Century Pictures. Zanuck became
president and Goetz became vice-president.
We have on file 19
films that were produced by 20th Century Pictures during the period
of 1933-1935. Our file shows 20 because one film was cut twice, once with
an English cast and once with a French cast.
In 1935, 20th Century Pictures bought the troubled
Fox Films to form 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation. A popular joke was
formed which was the mouse buying and controlling the elephant.
See Fox Film Corp.
See 20th Century
Fox
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20th Century Production Still Analysis
