Film pioneer, owner of Loew's/M-G-M
Marcus Loew
|
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Loew in 1924
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Born
| (
1870-05-07
)
May 7, 1870
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Died
| September 5, 1927
(1927-09-05)
(aged 57)
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Nationality
| Austrian-American
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Occupation
| Film exhibitor
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Known for
| Founder of
Loews Inc.
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Title
| President
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Successor
| Nicholas Schenck
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Spouse
| Carrie Loew
|
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Children
| 2, including
David
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Family
| Arthur Loew Jr.
(grandson)
Adolph Zukor
(son’s father-in-law)
|
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Marcus Loew
(
;
[1]
May 7, 1870 ? September 5, 1927)
[2]
was an American
business magnate
and a pioneer of the
motion picture
industry who formed
Loew's Theatres
and the
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
film studio (MGM).
Life and career
[
edit
]
Loew was born in
New York City
, into a poor
Jewish
family, who had emigrated to New York City a few years previously from Austria and Germany.
[3]
He was forced by circumstances to work at a very young age and had little formal education. Beginning with a small amount of money saved from menial jobs, he invested in the
penny arcade
business. Shortly after, in partnership with
Adolph Zukor
and others, he founded the successful but short-lived
Automatic Vaudeville Company
which established a chain of arcades across several cities. After the company dissolved in 1904 Loew converted his share of the business into
nickelodeons
and over time he turned Loew's Theatres into a leading chain of vaudeville and
movie theaters
in the United States.
By 1905, Marcus Loew was on his own and his success eventually meant that he needed a steady flow of films for his theaters. In 1904, he founded the People's Vaudeville Company, a theater chain showcasing one-reel films and live variety shows. In 1910, the company had considerably expanded and was renamed Loew's Consolidated Enterprises. His associates included
Adolph Zukor
,
Joseph Schenck
, and
Nicholas Schenck
. In addition to theaters, Loew and the Schencks expanded the
Fort George Amusement Park
in upper Manhattan.
By 1913, Loew operated a large number of theaters in New York City including the
American Music Hall
, Avenue A Theatre, Avenue B Theatre,
Broadway Theatre
(41st St.), Circle Theatre, and the Columbia Theatre in Brooklyn. Other Loew-operated theaters were the Delancey St. Theatre, Greeley Sq. Theatre,
Herald Square Theatre
, Liberty Theatre, Brooklyn, Lincoln Sq. Theatre, National Theatre (149th St.), Plaza Theatre, 7th Ave. Theatre (124th St.), Shubert Theatre, Brooklyn, and the Yorkville Theatre.
[4]
Outside of New York, he managed the Columbia Theatres of both
Washington, D.C.
,
[5]
[6]
and
Boston
and Philadelphia’s
Metropolitan Opera House
.
[4]
Loew found himself faced with a serious dilemma: his merged companies lacked a central managerial command structure. Loew preferred to remain in New York overseeing the growing chain of Loew's Theatres. Film production had been gravitating toward southern California since 1913. By 1917 he oversaw a number of enterprises: Borough Theatre Co., Empress Amusement Corp., Fort George Amusement Co., Glendive Amusement Corp., Greeley Square Amusement Co., Loew's Consolidated Enterprise, Loew's Theatrical Enterprises, Mascot Amusement Co., Natonia Amusement Co., People's Vaudeville Co.
[7]
In 1919, Loew reorganized the company under the name Loew's, Inc.
[8]
In 1920, Loew purchased
Metro Pictures Corporation
. A few years later, he acquired a controlling interest in the financially troubled
Goldwyn Picture Corporation
which at that point was controlled by theater impresario
Lee Shubert
. Goldwyn Pictures owned the "
Leo the Lion
" trademark and studio property in
Culver City, California
. But without its founder
Samuel Goldwyn
, the Goldwyn studio lacked strong management. With Loew's vice president
Nicholas Schenck
needed in New York City to help manage the large
East Coast
movie theater operations, Loew had to find a qualified executive to take charge of this new
Los Angeles
entity.
Loew recalled meeting a film producer named
Louis B. Mayer
who had been operating a successful, modest studio in east Los Angeles. Mayer had been making low budget melodramas for a number of years, marketing them primarily to women. Since he rented most of his equipment and hired most of his stars on a per-picture basis, Loew wasn't after Mayer's brick and mortar business; he wanted Mayer and his Chief of Production, the former
Universal Pictures
executive,
Irving Thalberg
. Nicholas Schenck was dispatched to finalize the deal that ultimately resulted in the formation of Metro-Goldwyn Pictures in April 1924 with Mayer as the studio head and Thalberg chief of production.
Mayer's company folded into Metro Goldwyn with two notable additions: Mayer Pictures' contracts with key
directors
such as
Fred Niblo
and
John M. Stahl
, and up-and-coming actress
Norma Shearer
, later married to Thalberg. Mayer would eventually be rewarded by having his name added to the company. Loews Inc. would act as MGM's financier and retain controlling interest for decades.
Though MGM was immediately successful, Loew died in 1927 of a
heart attack
at the age of 57 at his country home in
Glen Cove, New York
. Reporting his death,
Variety
called him "the most beloved man of all show business of all time".
[9]
He was interred in the Maimonides Cemetery in
Brooklyn
.
[10]
For his very significant contribution to the development of the motion picture industry, Marcus Loew has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 1617 Vine Street.
Personal life
[
edit
]
He and his wife, Carrie Loew, had twin sons,
David L. Loew
(1897?1973) and Arthur Marcus Loew Sr (1897?1977).
[9]
Arthur married Mildred Zukor, daughter of
Adolph Zukor
[11]
and became president of MGM. Their son,
Arthur Loew Jr.
(1925?1995), was an actor, producer and writer.
[12]
E. M. Loew, unrelated theater operator
[
edit
]
E. M. (Elias Moses) Loew (1897?1984), also a major theater operator, to a lesser degree, and race track owner, is often assumed to be related to Marcus Loew. They weren't even distantly related. Among other things, E. M. Loew was, with
Lou Walters
(father of
Barbara Walters
), co-owner of the
Latin Quarter
night clubs in Boston, New York, and
Miami Beach
.
[13]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Sarnoff"
.
Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
.
- ^
"Marcus Loew, Film Magnate, Dies in Sleep",
Milwaukee Sentinel
, September 6, 1927, p1
- ^
Caso, Frank.
"Marcus Loew."
In
Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present
, vol. 4, edited by Jeffrey Fear. German Historical Institute. Last modified January 28, 2014.
- ^
a
b
Cahn-Leighton Theatrical Guide, 1913-1914
- ^
Headley, Robert K. (1999).
Motion Picture Exhibition in Washington, D.C
. Jefferson: McFarland & Co. p. 250.
ISBN
1-4766-0851-2
.
... as he began to expand his movie empire. In October 1919, Loew and Walter Brownley of Washington purchased the Columbia and two buildings on 12th Street for half a million dollars. The Columbia was one of the big moneymakers among ...
- ^
"Loew's Columbia Theatre in Washington, DC - Cinema Treasures"
.
- ^
Directory of Directors in the City of New York
(15th ed.). 1916?1917. p. 437.
- Via Google Books
. (
Harvard Library
).
- Via HathiTrust
. (
Harvard Library
). Audit Co. 1979.
- ^
Poor's and Moody's manual, 1921
- ^
a
b
"Marcus Loew Wept For"
.
Variety
. September 7, 1927. p. 1
. Retrieved
May 26,
2018
.
- ^
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
- ^
Ingham, John N. (1983).
Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, Volume 4
. Greenwood. p. 1702.
ISBN
978-0313239106
.
- ^
Arthur Loew Jr.
at
IMDb
- ^
Theatre Organ
. Journal of the
American Theatre Organ Society
– via
University of Oklahoma Libraries
.
LCCN
98-641840
;
ISSN
0040-5531
,
ISSN
2832-0441
;
OCLC
4046918 (all editions)
&
OCLC
32098816 (all editions)
.
-
-
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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Artists
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Other
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