The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox

Krefft, Vanda

ISBN 10: 0061136069 / ISBN 13: 9780061136061

Published by Harper, 2017

About this Item

927 pg. Sewn binding. Faux cloth over boards. Book is straight with strong binding and clean text. Inside front dust jacket flap creased. Inscribed and signed on title page by Vanda Krefft. First Edition, First Print 2017. Seller Inventory # ABE-1718822715566

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric ...

Publisher: Harper

Publication Date: 2017

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Near Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Signed: Signed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

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.

About the Author:

Vanda Krefft is a former magazine and newspaper journalist who has covered the entertainment industry for publications such as Elle, Redbook, Woman’s Day, and the Los Angeles Times. She has a BA in English and an MA in Communication, both from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.