The Man Who Made the Movies

by Vanda Krefft

  237 five handsome Allied soldiers: Fox Film ad, 18 to 45, MPN, Sept. 21, 1918, 1792.

  238 “People certainly do not want”: “Cut Out the Sobs, Exhibitors Say,” Motography, Mar. 2, 1918, 393.

  238 Renowned Pictures Corporation: Jolo, review of The Kaiser, Variety, Mar. 15, 1918, 45.

  238 terrorizing the world: The Kaiser, The Beast of Berlin review, Motography, Mar. 30, 1918, 628; Jolo, review of The Kaiser, 45.

  238 “treated with dramatic license”: Jolo, review of The Kaiser, 45.

  238 substantial purchases . . . and personally subscribing for $400,000: “Fox Invests $400,000 in Bonds,” MPW, Nov. 17, 1917, 1025.

  238 “much to the annoyance of our patrons”: Transcript, 187.

  238 in war zones: Grace Kingsley, “Our Films For Action,” LAT, July 8, 1917, III-1; “Many Fox Pictures at Front,” Motography, June 29, 1918, 1225.

  238 messengers on motorcycles: “Trench Warriors See Fox Films,” MPN, June 29, 1918, 3900.

  238 under the supervision of: “Many Fox Pictures at Front,” 1225.

  238 far outnumbered: “Trench Warriors See Fox Films,” 3900.

  238 four Home Guard companies: “Fox on War Footing,” LAT, Apr. 22, 1917, III-1.

  238 uniforms from the Western Costume Company: J. C. Jessen, “In and Out of West Coast Studios,” May 5, 1917, 2852.

  238 Every night . . . firing range: “Fox on War Footing,” III-1.

  238 a fifty-one-foot boat: Ibid.

  239 guaranteed . . . their jobs: “Fox Holds 400 Jobs Open,” MO, Dec. 10, 1918, 14.

  239 “100 percent American” . . . thoroughly investigated: “William Fox Will Dismiss Pro-Germans,” MPW, June 29, 1918, 1859.

  239 Biltmore Hotel in New York: “Fox Convention Brings All Managers,” MPN, June 22, 1918, 3681.

  239 spoke German fluently: Transcript, 208; Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  239 began to fire German and Austrian workers: “Rush of Teutonic Applications For Citizenship Likely to Continue,” New York Herald, Feb. 12, 1917, 11.

  239 apply for U.S. citizenship: Ibid.

  239 Columbia University sacked two professors: “Columbia Refuses Pension to Cattell,” NYT, May 19, 1918, 27.

  240 “happily completed in time”: The Spirit of ’76 ad, MPN, Mar. 24, 1917, 1877.

  240 stabbing a baby . . . by the hair: G. P. Harleman, “Goldstein Is Found Guilty,” May 11, 1918, 865.

  240 May 7, 1917: Jas. S. McQuade, “Chicago News Letter,” MPW, May 19, 1917, 1130.

  240 banned after a few performances: Harleman, “Goldstein Is Found Guilty,” 865.

  240 November 27, 1917: Ibid.

  240 officials seized the film: “War-of-Revolution Film Seized By Government,” LAT, Nov. 30, 1917, II-1; “Spirit of ’76 Confiscated by Government,” MPW, Dec. 22, 1917, 1786.

  240 arrested Goldstein . . . Los Angeles County Jail: Harleman, “Goldstein Is Found Guilty,” 865.

  240 unable to make the $10,000 bail: Harleman, “Goldstein Is Sentenced to Ten Years,” MPW, May 25, 1918, 1145.

  240 two counts of treason: Harleman, “Goldstein Is Found Guilty,” 865.

  240 visibly shaking . . . ten years in prison: Harleman, “Goldstein Is Sentenced to Ten Years,” 1145.

  240 wife divorced him: “Mrs. Goldstein Secures Divorce,” Variety, Aug. 2, 1918, 42.

  240 nonessential industry: “Booming the Red Cross,” Wid’s Daily, May 17, 1918.

  241 same chemicals . . . repair film projectors: “Entire Industry Declared Essential,” Wid’s Daily, Aug. 26, 1918, 1.

  241 less than a month’s service . . . Wilson: Walsh, Each Man in His Time, 123.

  241 “the proper move”: William Fox, “An Open Letter to Exhibitors” ad, MPN, June 30, 1917, 3987.

  241 one cent on each ten cents: “U.S. Issues Order On Admission Signs,” Motography, May 18, 1918, 928.

  241 producers and distributors . . . expected to pay: “Exhibitors Lining Up Forces Against 15-Cent Tax Levy,” Variety, Nov. 16, 1917, 57.

  241 “War is hell”: Ibid.

  241 classified as an essential industry: “Entire Industry Declared Essential,” 1.

  241 August 23, 1918: “Industry Is Declared Essential,” MPW, Sept. 7, 1918, 1386.

  241 to obtain raw materials: “Entire Industry Declared Essential,” 1.

  241 industry had to promise: “Industry Is Declared Essential,” 1386.

  241 Millions of dollars: “Fox to Increase Admissions This Fall,” MPW, Aug. 10, 1918, 847.

  241 ample amounts to the average worker: Ibid.

  242 “everybody jingles cash”: Ibid.

  242 “the flower and the youth”: Transcript, 700.

  242 “murdering and slaughtering”: Ibid.

  242 “William Fox has no desire to forget”: Press release, “Just What William Fox’s Million Dollar Kellermann Picture Is,” May 27, 1916. “Exhibits” folder, FFC-HBFC.

  242 to an amusement arcade . . . “can shoot”: “Actors! Never Quarrel With Mr. William Fox,” New York Morning Telegraph, May 12, 1916, 12.

  242 Between 1916: “Ex-Alderman John J. White,” NYT, Jan. 16, 1920, 9.

  242 “confidential man” . . . Sullivan: “John J. White Found Dead,” NYTR, Jan. 16, 1920, 6.

  242 MacBride . . . Civil Service Commission: “J. E. MacBride Quits Civil Service Board,” NYTR, June 8, 1918, 11.

  242 longtime close friend: “M’Bride Gets Out of Mayor’s Cabinet,” NYT, June 8, 1918, 8.

  242 assistant to . . . Sheehan: “Fox Film—Personnel and Its Policy,” MPN, Aug. 10, 1918, 866.

  242 1918 Democratic nomination for governor: “Bill’s Political Bug,” Wid’s Daily, May 13, 1918.

  243 gave a dinner . . . subject of Albany: Ibid.

  243 “put a spoke in the wheel”: Ibid.

  243 “Out in Woodmere”: “He Forgets to Sleep; William Fox’s Nights Spent Viewing Films,” Salt Lake Telegram, Sept. 12, 1916, 15.,

  243 “he will be as merry”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 17: “THE FINEST IN ENTERTAINMENT THE WORLD OVER”

  244 France, which had led the field: Victoria de Grazia, “Mass Culture and Sovereignty: The American Challenge to European Cinemas, 1920–1960,” Journal of Modern History 61, no. 1 (Mar. 1989): 63.

  244 stopped production immediately: W. Stephen Bush, “Opportunity,” MPW, Sept. 26, 1914, 1751.

  244 resumed on only a limited basis in 1915: James Chapman, Cinemas of the World (London, England: Reaktion Books, 2003), 77.

  244 Spain also shuttered: Bush, “Opportunity,” 1751.

  244 Italy . . . surged briefly: Robert Sklar, Film, An International History of the Medium (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993), 75.

  244 severely curtailed production: Chapman, Cinemas of the World, 77.

  244 50 to 60 percent of movies shown there were American: Kerry Segrave, American Films Abroad: Hollywood’s Domination of the World’s Movie Screens from the 1890s to the Present (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1997), 4.

  244 increasing from fewer than 30 to 250 . . . 1919: Frederick W. Ott, The Great German Films (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1986), 19.

  245 shipping films through Spain: “American Films Kill German Propaganda,” MPW, June 29, 1918, 1822.

  245 “the Japanese don’t know how”: Homer Croy, “Movie Fans in China,” Apr. 8, 1916, 23.

  245 Mexico, South America, and Asia: Bush, “Opportunity,” 1751; “Moving Pictures Everywhere,” reprinted from Toledo, OH, Blade in Moving Picture News, Sept. 6, 1913, 31.

  245 shuffled their feet and shouted: Croy, “Movie Fans in China,” 26.

  245 upper-class women: “Chinese Like Pictures,” MPW, Feb. 6, 1915, 859.

  245 estimated fifty million people worldwide: “Film-making Means Millions to Los Angeles,” LAT, Jan. 1, 1916, III-66.

  245 in 1916 the State Department instructed U.S. consuls: Segrave, American Films Abroad, 9.

  246 maintained some seventy branches: Burton I. Kau
fman, “United States Trade and Latin America: The Wilson Years,” The Journal of American History 58, no. 2 (Sept. 1971): 345.

  246 prohibited from establishing: Ibid., 346.

  246 registering trademarks: “Fox Ambassador Returns from Abroad,” MPW, Jan. 20, 1917, 347.

  246 refused to guarantee: “Fox Gets Encouraging Reports,” MPW, Dec. 15, 1017, 1663.

  246 “great heart interest”: Fox Film ad, “Fox Films,” MPW, Jan. 11, 1919, 168-169.

  246 “the gospel of . . . other half lives”: “William Fox, Wonder Worker,” Exhibitor’s Bulletin, undated. (NYPL, New York Sun newspaper morgue files 1900–1950, William Fox clipping file.)

  246 forty-three-year-old: “Joseph Darling, Adventurer, 85,” NYT, Sept. 7, 1957, 14.

  246 “representative at large”: “Sun Never Sets on Fox Service,” MPN, Nov. 15, 1919, 3598.

  246 Jamaican orange industry . . . South American oil fields: “Joseph Darling, Adventurer, 85,” 14.

  247 “Federal Interstate Trade Commission”: Darling, Darling on Trusts, 19.

  247 twenty-eight thousand miles: “Fox Ambassador Returns from Abroad,” 347.

  247 1,200 to 1,500 movie theaters: “Film in South America,” Variety, Feb. 18, 1916, 24.

  247 French, Italian: O. R. Geyer, “Winning Foreign Film Markets,” Scientific American, Aug. 20, 1921, 140.

  247 told Darling to go home: “Fox Ambassador Returns from Abroad,” 347.

  247 wasn’t a single theater: “Fox Now Enters South American Picture Market,” New York Morning Telegraph, Apr. 16, 1916, 13.

  247 arcade down the center: Ibid.

  247 separate projection room: Ibid.

  247 three-day minimum: Ibid.

  247 nine types of taxes: Ibid.

  247 ran movies in restaurants: Ibid.

  247 very few film: “Comment and Suggestion,” New York Dramatic Mirror, May 6, 1916, 23.

  247 show them the movies: “Fox Ambassador Returns from Abroad,” 347.

  247 first in Rio de Janeiro: “Fox Pushing Foreign Business,” MPW, Apr. 27, 1918, 547.

  247 São Paulo and Buenos Aires: “Fox Now Enters,” 13; “Fox Ambassador Returns from Abroad,” 347.

  247 Theda Bara’s movies especially popular: “Fox Gets Encouraging Reports,” 1663.

  247 in every South American country: “William Fox Invades More South American Territory,” MPW, Feb. 22, 1919, 1055.

  248 Sydney, Melbourne, and Wellington: Fox Film ad, “Fox Covers the World,” MPN, June 2, 1917, 3377.

  248 Fiji Islands: “Fox Pictures Vogue World Wide,” MPW, June 2, 1917, 1476.

  248 Samoa, Tahiti: “Fox Endeavors to Put Films All Over World,” MPN, Apr. 7, 1917, 2148.

  248 post station of Alice Springs: “William Fox, Wonder Worker.”

  248 early spring 1916: “William Fox Makes Entry into British Markets,” MPN, Apr. 1, 1916, 1880.

  248 new money in their hands: “Fox Ambassador Returns from Abroad,” 347.

  248 76 Old Compton Street: “‘Fox Organization Ready for World Market’—Sheehan,” MPN, Oct. 14, 1916, 2353.

  248 seven other cities: Ibid., 2353.

  248 “the lame, the halt”: Ibid.

  248 Britain’s five thousand exhibitors: “Winnie Sheehan Comments,” Variety, Sept. 29, 1916, 21.

  248 “In Germany and Austria”: Evan Strong, “War’s Black Mark,” MPW, Sept. 12, 1914, 1515.

  248 Egypt, the Balkans, and North Africa: “‘Fox Organization Ready for World Market’—Sheehan,” 2354.

  248 In Spain and Portugal: “Wide Distribution of Fox Pictures in Line with Ideals,” MPN, June 2, 1917, 3446.

  248 Norway, Sweden, and Denmark: “W. R. Sheehan in Russia for Fox,” MPN, Aug. 19, 1916, 1081.

  249 under its own corporate title: “Fox Pushing Foreign Business,” 547.

  249 alliances with foreign companies: “Winnie Sheehan Comments,” 21.

  249 “You must remember”: “Wide Distribution Cause of Fox Particularity,” MPN, June 16, 1917, 3757.

  249 Moscow and . . . Petrograd: Fox Film Ad, “Fox Covers the World,” MPW, June 2, 1917, 1384–385.

  249 Nicholas abdicated . . . corruption and incompetence: “Revolution in Russia; Czar Abdicates; Michael Made Regent; Empress in Hiding; Pro-German Ministers Reported Slain,” NYT, Mar. 16, 1917, 1.

  249 last major European nation . . . to dismantle: “Democratic Russia As Our Ally,” Literary Digest, Mar. 31, 1917, 886.

  249 deliver power to the masses: “Russian Revolution Democratic Triumph, Is Belief in Washington; Outcome of Vital Concern Here,” New York Herald, Mar. 16, 1917, 9; “Revolution Greeted as Blessing to the World by Observers Here,” New York Herald, Mar. 17, 1917, 12.

  250 embraced the delusion: “Bankers Here See Big Gain to Russia by Change in Government,” New York Herald, Mar. 16, 1917, 12; “Changes in Russia Will Aid Business in America,” New York Herald, Mar. 17, 1917, 11.

  250 170 million: “More Trade With Russia,” The World’s Work, Apr. 1916, 598.

  250 102 million: U.S. Census, as of July 1, 1916.

  250 vast, untapped natural resources: David R. Francis, Russia from the American Embassy (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1921), 28–29.

  250 International Harvester: George Thomas Marye, Nearing the End in Imperial Russia (Philadelphia: Dorrance and Company, 1929), 476.

  250 factory in Podolsk: Mira Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 40.

  250 thirty-four thousand people . . . 80 percent: Marye, Nearing the End, 477.

  250 Sheehan to Russia: Untitled item, New York Herald, Aug. 3, 1916.

  250 three times the size: A. J. Sack, “Russia’s Undeveloped Riches,” The World’s Work, June 1917, 223.

  250 Moscow, Petrograd: M. Kartoschinsky, “The Motion Picture in Russia,” MPW, Sept. 4, 1915, 1660.

  250 almost every town: Ibid.

  250 ten movie studios: Ibid.

  250 usually preferred imports: Ibid.

  250 “too long, lacked action”: Ibid.

  250 watch army maneuvers: “W. R. Sheehan in Russia for Fox,” 1081.

  250 cover the whole country: “‘Fox Organization Ready for World Market’—Sheehan,” 2354.

  251 “Great democracy drama!”: Fox Film ad, The Firebrand, MPW, May 11, 1918, 802–803.

  251 mid-January 1917: “Expelled from Four Lands,” NYT, Jan. 15, 1917, 2.

  251 “saw him on the Lower East Side”: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  251 “I wouldn’t give you $11”: Angela Fox Dunn to Arnold Rogoff, Jan. 30, 1975, 5, AFD.

  251 receiving German money: Arthur Willert, The Road to Safety: A Study in Anglo-American Relations (London: Derek Verschoyle, 1952), 29.

  251 electrician at Fox Film: Ibid.

  251 Trotsky also appeared . . . identification card: Kingsley, “Christmas in the Colony,” LAT, Jan. 17, 1926, J5.

  251 paid poorly: “What Trotzky Did When in New York,” NYT, Jan. 20, 1918, 10.

  251 Russian-Jewish lunchroom: “Trotzky’s Old Janitor Says, ‘I Thought He Was Loose in His Head!’” Jonesboro Evening Sun (Jonesboro, AR), Feb. 1, 1918, 4.

  251 Fox gave Trotsky money: Angela Fox Dunn interview with the author.

  251 Kristianiafjord on March 27, 1917: “What Trotzky Did When in New York.”

  251 given Trotsky $20 million: Cholly Knickerbocker [pseud.], “The Smart Set,” New York Journal American, Feb. 3, 1949, 16.

  252 “swift and orderly transition” . . . complete: “Revolution in Russia; Czar Abdicates; Michael Made Regent; Empress in Hiding; Pro-German Ministers Reported Slain,” 1.

  252 “most cheerful” . . . tremendous opportunities: “Changes in Russia Will Aid Business in America,” 11.

  252 execution . . . on July 16–17, 1918: “Ex-Czar of Russia Killed By Order Of Ural Soviet,” NYT, July 21, 1918, 1; Helen Rappaport, The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg (New York: St. M
artin’s Griffin, 2010), ix.

  252 “a tremendous field” Grace Kingsley, “Flashes,” LAT, Dec. 28, 1918, II-3.

  252 branch offices in Russia: “Penny Arcade to Theatre Chain,” MPW, July 12, 1919, 233.

  252 shut down by Bolshevik agents: Chester Beecroft, “Beecroft’s Enlightening Views,” Wid’s Year Book 1919–1920.

  252 café in Paris . . . literacy rate: Angela Fox Dunn to Arnold Rogoff, Jan. 30, 1975, 5. AFD.

  252 During the first fifteen months: “Exporters Receive New Ruling to Govern Foreign Film Trade,” Wid’s Daily, July 13, 1918, 1; “Fox Shows Government 500,000 Feet of Film,” MPW, July 13, 1918, 186.

  252 imposed complicated new rules: “Exporters Receive New Ruling to Govern Foreign Film Trade,” 1.

  252 Treasury Department began to censor: “Fox Shows Government 500,000 Feet of Film,” 186.

  252 uncrate a ready-to-go shipment: Ibid.

  252 and Cuba: “Fox Havana Exchange Reports Big Business,” MPN, Nov. 9, 1918, 2857.

  253 accelerate their own industrial development: Simon Litman, “The Effects of the World War on Trade,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 127 (Sept. 1926): 25.

  253 increased their disposable income: Ibid.

  253 translators . . . rewrote intertitles: “Fox Seeks More Foreign Trade,” MPN, Apr. 27, 1918, 2530.

  253 32 million feet: “Flashes from Movieland,” NYT, July 22, 1917, 66.

  253 159 million feet: Ibid.

  245 world’s leading movie manufacturer: “Our Motion-Picture Films Encircling the Earth,” Literary Digest, Sept. 28, 1918, 78.

  253 would never regain: Gerben Bakker, “The Decline and Fall of the European Film Industry: Sunk Costs, Market Size, and Market Structure, 1890–1927,” The Economic History Review 58, no. 2 (May 2005): 313.

  253 increased its international business 400 percent: “Sun Never Sets on Fox Service,” 3598.

  253 seventy-six employees . . . take dictation: “Fox to Have Strong Foreign Policy,” MPW, Aug. 2, 1919, 671.

  253 “The creation and up-building”: “Sun Never Sets on Fox Service,” 3598.

  CHAPTER 18: “THE MAKING OF ME”

  254 walked all over him: William Fox to Sol Wurtzel, Dec. 27, 1917, WF-SMW, 28.

  254 “throw us into bankruptcy”: Ibid.

  254 steal three hundred thousand feet . . . film printing company: Sol Wurtzel to William Fox, telegram, Nov. 18, 1917, WF-SMW, 15.