The Man Who Made the Movies

by Vanda Krefft

  70 Gotham, on East 125th Street: Grau, Business Man, 131.

  70 combined annual rental of $90,000: William Fox statement, ECC-USKF, at 5.

  70 by July 15 . . . payments totaling $50,000: William Fox answer, ECC-USKF, at 2.

  70 Rogers . . . an ally of Big Tim: “Senator Sullivan’s Bowery Meeting,” NYT, Nov. 4, 1900, 12.

  70 district leader . . . assistant corporation counsel: “Gustavus A. Rogers Is Found a Suicide,” NYT, Mar. 20, 1944, 19.

  71 corresponding secretary and legal counsel: Ibid.; “Morgan Summoned to Court,” NYT, Oct. 25, 1903, 2.

  71 ten-year contract: “Kraus’ New York Houses,” 7.

  71 eight years left: “Gives Up Kraus Fight,” Variety, Sept. 5, 1908, 6.

  71 pay damages: “Westerners Mending the Fence,” Variety, July 18, 1908, 6.

  71 August 10, 1918: William Fox statement, ECC-USKF, at 18.

  71 sued Fox and Sullivan & Kraus: “Western Wheel Fighting Sullivan-Kraus In Court,” Variety, Aug. 22, 1908, 6.

  71 Fox had no intention: House, Grossman & Vorhaus to Empire Circuit, July 17, 1908, ECC-USKF.

  71 dropped the lawsuit: “Gives Up Kraus Fight,” 6.

  71 into a panic: William Fox statement, ECC-USKF, at 17.

  71 repeated demands from the Fire Department: “Charges Building Fraud,” NYT, Mar. 16, 1913, 3.

  71 fraudulently finagled licenses: Ibid. Big Tim got a permit for the Dewey in 1898 by stating that it would be used only as a concert hall and not as a theater (William Miller, letter to the editor, “Senator Sullivan and the Law,” NYT, Nov. 3, 1901, 15).

  71 sprinkler system: Dewey and Gotham lease, ECC-USKF.

  71 fire exits required: “Fighting to Reopen Old Dewey Theatre,” NYT, July 13, 1915, 8.

  71 lease had explicitly stated: Dewey and Gotham lease, ECC-USKF.

  71 Although Fox already had . . . “cheat you”: Transcript, 217–18.

  72 “I never employed” . . . couldn’t swim: Ibid., 218.

  72 “I took it as a joke” . . . “You knew he was working”: Ibid., 218–20.

  73 “the most terrible secret”: Simmons, “Passing of the Sullivan Dynasty,” 415.

  73 tossing a coin: “Timothy D. Sullivan,” LAT, June 12, 1910, VII-9.

  73 squandering twice as much: Harlow, Old Bowery Days, 512.

  73 “about half a pound”: “‘Big Tim’s’ ‘Half-a-Pound,’” Variety, May 11, 1907, 4.

  73 race to dominate . . . escalating furiously: “Loew After Opposition With Big Capacity House,” Variety, Dec. 9, 1911, 13.

  73 Health Department . . . Tenement House: “Motion Picture Theaters,” Moving Picture News, Apr. 1, 1911, 8.

  73 Joe Leo as the manager: “Dewey Theatre,” Variety, Dec. 19, 1908, 13.

  73 combined bill . . . ten cents: “$3,000 Show in Academy,” Variety, May 14, 1910, 4.

  73 more than twice those of a nearby competitor: “2,000 Daily for Expenses,” Variety, Aug. 8, 1908, 10.

  73 fifty employees . . . two projectionists: “Dewey Theatre,” 13.

  74 without a frame showing their title: “A Good Idea,” MPW, Dec. 5, 1908, 443.

  74 card boy . . . music conductors’ stands: “Dewey Theatre,” 13.

  74 using strip tickets: Ibid.

  74 $1,200 . . . theater record: “$1,200 in One Day,” Variety, Dec. 12, 1908, 12.

  74 “Dewey comes close to being”: “Dewey Theatre,” 13.

  74 hound Mayor McClellan: “Moving Pictures Hearing,” NYT, Dec. 21, 1908, 2.

  74 five-hour public meeting . . . irate clergymen: “Say Picture Shows Corrupt Children,” NYT, Dec. 24, 1908, 4.

  74 revoking and annulling the licenses of all of the city’s 551: “Licenses of All Moving Picture Shows Revoked,” New York World, Dec. 25, 1908; “Picture Shows All Put Out of Business,” NYT, Dec. 25, 1908, 1. McClellan’s order applied only to “common show” theaters with fewer than three hundred seats and not to the larger theaters that were licensed by the police commissioner rather than the mayor’s office.

  74 personally had visited . . . “public calamity”: “Licenses of All Moving Picture Shows Revoked”; “Picture Shows All Put Out of Business,” 1.

  74 twelve thousand blazes . . . $7.6 million: F. W. Fitzpatrick, “Fire—An American Extravagance,” McClure’s Magazine, Nov. 1908, 100.

  74 January 13, 1908: “Boyertown Dead Now Number 170,” NYT, Jan. 16, 1908, 7.

  74 Rhoads Opera House: “The Verdict of the Coroner’s Jury,” MPW, Feb. 8, 1908, 96.

  75 town of twenty-five hundred . . . northwest of Philadelphia: “Boyertown Small Town of 2,500,” NYT, Jan. 14, 1908, 2.

  75 suddenly exploded . . . roaring flames: “Stories of Survivors,” NYT, Jan. 14, 1908, 2. Several theater employees disputed that account and said that the sound of escaping gas from a movie projector tank, although quickly stopped, had alarmed the audience and that, in the ensuing panic, the fire started when either footlight oil lamps were overturned or an usher kicked over a music lamp (“The Daily Press and Moving Pictures,” MPW, Jan. 25, 1908, 55). However, audience members reported hearing an explosion from the movie projector and then being surrounded by smoke and flames (“Stories of Survivors,” 2). A coroner’s jury determined that incompetent operation of the projector caused the fire (“Verdict of the Coroner’s Jury,” 96).

  75 crowd of about 400: “Stories of Survivors,” 2.

  75 169 people died: “Verdict of the Coroner’s Jury,” 96.

  75 burned by the fire . . . crushed underfoot: “100 Dead in Theatre Fire,” NYT, Jan. 14, 1908, 1.

  75 mayor had no right to close: William Fox Amusement Company, Plaintiff, v. George B. McClellan, as Mayor of the City of New York, and Francis U. S. Oliver, as Chief of the Bureau of Licenses, Defendants, and three other actions: Supreme Court of New York, Special Term, Kings County, Jan. 1909; Supreme Court of New York, Special Term, Kings County, Opinion by J. Blackmar, 62 Misc, 100, 14 N.Y.S. 594; 1909 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 495.

  CHAPTER 7: “THE NEXT NAPOLEON OF THE THEATRE”

  76 City Theatre Company . . . twenty-five-hundred-seat theater: “Welcome New City Theatre,” NYT, Apr. 19, 1910, 9.

  76 next to Luchow’s restaurant: “Sullivan-Kraus Theatre,” Variety, Dec. 26, 1908, 4.

  76 eighteen-hundred-seat . . . Washington Theatre: “Heights Provided For” Variety, Apr. 23, 1910, 8.

  76 northeast corner . . . 149th Street: “Theatre for Washington Heights,” NYT, Apr. 8, 1910, 15.

  76 Bank president Alexander Walker: “Alex. Walker, 81, Banker, Is Dead,” NYT, Feb. 14, 1934, 19.

  77 “Walker pushed a bell . . . whole possible career”: Transcript, 52–53.

  77 Mahoney materialized . . . didn’t protest: Ibid., 53.

  77 twenty-five-foot-square . . . Versailles gardens: “City Theatre Opens April 18,” NYT, Apr. 14, 1910, 11.

  77 leave room for a projection booth: Ben M. Hall, The Best Remaining Seats: The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1961), 105.

  77 April 18, 1910: “Welcome New City Theatre.” In conversation with Upton Sinclair, Fox incorrectly recalled the first show as Ziegfield Follies of 1910, starring Eva Tanguay (Transcript, 53). Follies was the second show (“City Theatre Housewarming,” NYTR, Apr. 16, 1910, 7; “Follies Extends Season,” Variety, Apr. 9, 1910, 4).

  77 Miss Innocence: “City Theatre Housewarming,” 7.

  77 “It was a loss”: Transcript, 53–54.

  77 in about two months: Ibid., 53; “Rejoins the Follies,” Variety, Apr. 23, 1910, 5.

  77 companies such as William Morris: “Leases City for $75,000,” Variety, Dec. 3, 1910, 6.

  77 late November 1910: “Fox Leases the City Theatre,” Billboard, Dec. 12, 1910, 26.

  77 $75,000 a year: Transcript, 54.

  77 Ben Leo, as its manager: “Fox Managers Move,” Variety, Dec. 27, 1912, 8. Ben Leo resigned in December 1912 for health reasons and was replaced by Sam Fried, who was probabl
y one of Fox’s cousins.

  77 $42,000 and $45,000: Transcript, 54.

  77 theater impresario: “Overdose of Drug Kills Robert Grau,” NYT, Aug. 10, 1916, 18.

  77 “next Napoleon of the Theatre”: Grau, Business Man, 131.

  78 eighteen minutes . . . five-cent movie theater: “Fox Had to Buy,” Variety, Feb. 6, 1909, 12.

  78 Star Theater at Lexington and 107th Street: “Moving Pictures at Star,” Variety, Nov. 21, 1908, 7.

  78 Nemo Theatre, an 1,100-seat: “Fox’s Nemo Open,” Variety, Oct. 1, 1910, 10.

  78 former café and music hall: “Mrs. Del Drago Sells Harlem Plot,” NYT, Oct. 8, 1911, 7.

  78 110th and Broadway: “Fox Building Another One Up in the Tremont Section,” Variety, Apr. 6, 1912, 12.

  78 1911 for just under $500,000: “Mrs. Del Drago Sells Harlem Plot,” 7. Fox had been renting the Nemo for the previous year, presenting movies and vaudeville.

  78 New York Roof Theatre: “Vaudeville Leaves Roof,” Variety, Jan. 13, 1912, 13.

  78 Broadway between Forty-Fourth and Forty-Fifth Streets: “Plan 22-Story for Times Square,” NYT, Aug. 9, 1911, 5.

  78 2,000-seat Folly Theatre: Transcript, 48.

  78 ten-year lease at $35,000: Ibid., 47–48.

  78 3,000-plus: William Fox testimony, USA-MPPC, Vol. II, at 698. Fox estimated the Academy’s seating capacity to be between 3,000 and 3,300.

  78 Fourteenth Street at Irving Place: “Academy of Music Leased,” NYT, Feb. 13, 1910, 11.

  78 Berlin Opera House: “Opening of the Academy of Music,” NYT, Oct. 3, 1854, 9.

  78 “half-demolished”: “The Property Man’s Woes,” NYT, Oct. 16, 1910, X2.

  78 Marcus Loew was close: “After Academy of Music,” Variety, Nov. 6, 1909, 4.

  78 Big Tim intervened: “Famous ‘Daly’s Theatre’ May Play Moving Pictures,” Variety, Dec. 18, 1909, 3.

  79 ten-year, $100,000-a-year . . . in cash: Transcript, 74.

  79 total of $380,000: Ibid.

  79 $118,000 renovation: “Academy of Music to Have a New Face,” NYT, Nov. 6, 1911, 8.

  79 exceeded his lease payment: Transcript, 75.

  79 1,800-seat Riverside: William Fox testimony, USA-MPPC, Vol. II, at 698.

  79 northwest corner of Broadway and Ninety-Sixth: “Fox’s Block of Vaudeville Represents About $2,000,000,” Variety, June 22, 1912, 13.

  79 $900,000 on land and construction: William Fox testimony, USA-MPPC, Vol. II, at 698.

  79 opening day in December 1911: “Riverside,” Variety, Dec. 16, 1911, 10.

  71 “Rain or shine they jam”: “Riverside,” Variety, Oct. 25, 1912, 22.

  79 Broadway and Ninety-Seventh Street: “Upper Broadway Lease,” NYT, Mar. 16, 1920, 16.

  79 entire city block . . . $2 million: “Fox’s Block of Vaudeville,” 13.

  79 in February 1912, Fox began: “Million Dollar Hippodrome for Washington Heights,” NYT, Mar. 3, 1912, XX2.

  79 shabby frame houses . . . “bordering on insanity”: “Review of Week’s Important Deals,” NYT, Dec. 22, 1912, XX2.

  80 $1.2 million for the land and construction: William Fox testimony, USA-MPPC, Vol. II, at 698.

  80 “as bright and shiny”: “Audubon,” Variety, Dec. 6, 1926, 26.

  80 Audubon . . . 3,000-seat theater: William Fox testimony, USA-MPPC, Vol. II, at 698.

  80 $12,000 oil painting: “New Audubon Theatre Open,” NYT, Nov. 28, 1912, 10.

  80 Danse D’Hiver ballroom: “Cabarets,” Variety, Mar. 20, 1914, 15.

  80 twenty-five stores: “Vaudeville in Fox’s New Audubon,” NYT, Nov. 26, 1912, 15.

  80 “started off like a race horse”: “January to See Several Small Timers Commence,” Variety, Jan. 17, 1913, 5.

  80 opened on November 27, 1912: “New Audubon Theatre Open,” 10.

  80 2,500-seat . . . Park and Washington: “Fox Building Another One Up in the Tremont Section,” 12.

  80 $650,000 L-shaped: Ibid.

  80 Bijou Dream, renaming it the Washington: “Fox’s New England Invasion?” Variety, Sept. 30, 1911, 11.

  80 Grand Opera House . . . and the Nelson: “Fox in New Haven,” Variety, Jan. 20, 1912, 12; “Fox Starts Nelson,” Variety, Nov. 8, 1912, 6.

  80 and the Gilmore: “Fox’s New England Invasion?” 11.

  80 renaming each one “Fox’s Theatre”: Ad for the Fox Agency, Variety, Mar. 21, 1913, 37.

  80 fourteen movie theaters: William Fox testimony, Feb. 13, 1913, USA-MPPC, Vol. II, at 696.

  80 lived at 272 East Two Hundredth Street: U.S. Census, 1910, www.ancestry.com.

  80 Marcus Loew showed up . . . John Considine: “Wealthy Show People,” Variety, Dec. 20, 1912, 6.

  81 ten-to-fifty cent range: William Fox testimony, USA-MPPC, Vol. II, at 697–98.

  81 members of the American Federation of Labor: “Fox Circuit Strike Still On; No Action Yet by the Actors,” Variety, Dec. 9, 1911, 5.

  81 had gone on strike . . . working on Sundays: “Strike in Four Theatres,” NYT, Nov. 27, 1911, 7.

  81 ignored letters from the musicians’ union: Ibid.

  81 to replace the striking workers: “Fox Circuit Strike Still On,” 5.

  81 filed five libel lawsuits: “Expects Sullivan’s Help,” Variety, Dec. 16, 1911, 8.

  81 employees . . . walked out: “Another Fox Strike,” Variety, May 18, 1912, 12.

  82 served on the twenty-five-member board: “Vaudeville Managers’ Protective Association,” Variety, Apr. 22, 1911, 9.

  82 $200-per-head tax . . . refused to accept: “Sunday Shows Threatened,” Variety, 3.

  82 didn’t need the money: Ibid.

  82 “but no cash”: Transcript, 50.

  82 “doors of the great”: Simmons, “Passing of the Sullivan Dynasty,” 415.

  82 $500 million . . . for bribery: “Hyde Indicted for Accepting $13,800 Bribe,” NYT, May 2, 1911, 1.

  82 $500,000 bribery fund . . . anti-racetrack gambling bill . . . state legislature: “Hyde to Testify on Graft,” NYT, Dec. 12, 1910, 6; “Would Subpoena Mr. Hyde,” NYT, Dec. 28, 1910, 1.

  82 among “all of the boys”: “He Had Accused Police Secretary,” New York Herald, July 18, 1912, 4.

  82 thirty-five-foot: “William Fox Proud of New Motor Boat,” New York Telegraph, May 13, 1912.

  82 the Stop-a-While: “Stop-a-While Sold,” NYT, July 1, 1912, 1; “Who Is ‘Winnie’ Sheehan, Secretary of Waldo?” New York American, July 18, 1912.

  82 convicted by a jury . . . in state prison: “Hyde Wins Appeal in Bribery Case,” NYT, May 9, 1913, 1.

  83 three-room suite: “Grand Jury Feel Hyde is Pampered,” NYT, Dec. 8, 1912, 4.

  83 let Hyde out: “Two Years for Hyde; Let Out On Bail,” NYT, Dec. 12, 1912, 5.

  83 repainted, redecorated: “Stop-a-While Sold,” 1.

  83 helped each other with bookings: “Interbooking Only,” Variety, Jan. 3, 1913, 3.

  83 opposition . . . Moss and Brill Circuit: “Big ‘Small Time’ Combine in Sight by August 1, Next,” Variety, July 19, 1912, 3.

  84 false rumor circulated: “Fox Denies Combine,” Variety, June 8, 1912, 10.

  84 One evening . . . “go forward”: “One Million-Dollar Photoplay to Be Masterpiece Made by William A. (sic) Fox,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Dec. 5, 1915, 56.

  84 he would tell the story: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 8: THE WIZARD OF MENLO PARK

  85 invented the modern motion picture: Thomas A. Edison, letter to the editor, NYT, June 9, 1921, 10.

  85 in the summer of 1889 . . . waited two years: Frank L. Dyer, “Edison’s Place in the Moving Picture Art,” MPW, Dec. 21, 1907, 680.

  85 “carelessly neglected”: Edison, The Diary and Sundry Observations, 78.

  85 “He is always in control”: Henry Ford, Edison as I Know Him, with Samuel Crowther (New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corp., 1931), 64.

  86 first public exhibition . . . Music Hall: James P. Cunningham, “Asides and Interludes,” MPH, Apr. 16, 1938, 29.

>   86 site of Macy’s: “Phil M. Daly,” “Along the Rialto,” FD, Oct. 3, 1938, 4.

  86 “the money end of the movies”: Edison, The Diary and Sundry Observations, 63.

  86 “The experiments of a laboratory”: Ibid., 74.

  86 five to seven years to complete: Ibid., 169.

  86 never solved their problems: Ibid.

  86 “Society is never prepared”: Ibid., 179.

  86 more than seven years to persuade . . . the phonograph: W. Stephen Bush, “A Chat with Thomas A. Edison,” MPW, July 11, 1914, 180.

  86 “strange to me in their isolation”: Paul Israel, Edison: A Life of Invention (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998), 444.

  86 “terrible examples”: Ibid.

  86 “almost supernatural”: Ibid., 445.

  86 “too great an advantage”: Ibid., 444.

  86 “our enterprising Hebrew citizens”: Bush, “A Chat with Thomas A. Edison,” 180.

  86 thirty-three federal . . . lawsuits: Candace Jones, “Co-evolution of Entrepreneurial Careers, Institutional Rules and Competitive Dynamics in American Film, 1895-1920,” Organization Studies 22, no. 6 (Nov. 2001): 923.

  87 March 6, 1907, infringed on the Edison: “Moving Picture Men Hit,” NYT, Mar. 9, 1907, 2.

  87 American Mutoscope and Biograph Company: “Moving Picture War Over,” Variety, Dec. 26, 1908, 8.

  87 Sixty-year-old Edison: Edison was born on Feb. 11, 1847.

  87 After assigning . . . Edison Manufacturing Company: “Suits to Protect F.S.A.,” Views and Films Index, Mar. 21, 1908, 3.

  87 best suited for women and children: “‘A Square Deal for All’ is Thomas Edison’s Promise,” Variety, June 20, 1908, 12.

  87 managed Edison’s phonograph business: “Film Renters Meet in Convention,” Variety, Feb. 15, 1908, 10.

  87 Biograph had wanted . . . pay royalties to Edison: “American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. and the Recent Manufacturers’ Combine,” MPW, Feb. 22, 1908, 139.

  87 Gilmore refused: Ibid.

  87 rival group of manufacturers: “Biograph Co. Licenses Three Manufacturers,” Variety, Feb. 22, 1908, 10.

  87 hurled patent infringement lawsuits: “Biograph Company Opens Fire on Edison Concern,” Variety, Feb. 29, 1908, 10; “Edison Licensees All Sued,” Variety, May 30, 1908, 11; “Statement Given Out by the Edison Company,” Variety, Mar. 14, 1908, 13; “F.S.A. Executive Committee Meets,” Variety, Mar. 28, 1908, 13; “Suits to Protect F.S.A.,” Views and Films Index, Mar. 21, 1908, 3.