Marcus loews biography

Loew found himself faced with a serious dilemma: his merged companies lacked a central managerial command structure. Film production had been gravitating toward southern California sincewhile he himself was loath to relocate west. He also wisely recognized his limitations; he was not a hands on movie mogul, rather he was a theater owner and took immense pride in owning the largest chain of the grandest movie palaces in the United States.

Loew's new conglomeration of companies had mired themselves in several costly troubled productions among them, Ben-Hurand tangled contractual dealings with Erich von Stroheim, whose cost overruns doomed any production he was associated with that threatened to bring the entire venture to its knees. Loew recalled meeting a film producer named Louis B.

Mayer and through due diligence, learned that he had been operating a successful, if modest, studio in east Los Angeles. Mayer had been making low budget turgid 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.

What Loew didn't fully realize is that a tremendous amount of Mayer's success was due to his Chief of Production, a former Universal Pictures executive, Irving Thalberg. Nicholas Schenck was dispatched to cut a deal that, incredibly didn't include Thalberg.

Marcus loews biography: Born as Max Loew in

But it appears Loew had a knack for persuasion even at a young age because he soon became associated with a young man who owned a hand-printing press. Together, the two did well enough printing odd jobs that they soon bought a larger press and put out a weekly paper called the East Side Advertiser. In the division of labor between the two, Loew marketed the advertising to local shopkeepers.

Kennedy, the organizer of the lecture series and father of the future U. Unfortunately, the fur market soon took a serious downtown. At age 19, Loew went bankrupt. He had overextended himself and failed to take into account the usual cyclical fluctuations or seasonal fashion changes encountered in the fur trade. It was around this time that Loew fell in love with Caroline Rosenheim, and they were married on March 4, Again his business luck ran out; the fur business in general was a victim of the panic ofwhich lasted until mid He took another job as a salesman for Herman Baehr, a German immigrant who knew how to buy, cut, and manufacture furs.

In Loew, still young at twenty-seven years old, had been in the fur business for fifteen years, but he began to look for other business opportunities.

Marcus loews biography: › Money › Biographies › Business

He and Caroline were now parents of twin boys, David and Arthur, and desired more financial security and greater income. By Loew and Baehr had made some modest real estate investments and while inspecting one of their buildings on West th Street, Loew met and befriended David Warfield, a noted stage actor. Warfield and Loew remained lifelong friends and business associates.

If anything, the ambitious Zukor was even more eager than Loew to get out of the fur industry. When this proved successful, they decided to expand to other cities. Zukor offered Loew the opportunity to invest in Automatic Vaudeville. The following year, after their investment proved successful, Loew started his own penny arcade business. The arcade business was new enough, and New York City big enough, that Loew and Zukor could remain friends and business competitors.

Their relationship continued as such even as each moved into the more lucrative aspects of the film industry. Loew tried to convince Baehr and Warfield to invest in his new company. Baehr was unsure of its viability but nevertheless put in a small amount. Loew also raised additional money from his widowed mother-in-law, who owned a furniture store, and from a friend, Morris Drucker, who was a Manhattan merchant.

Marcus loews biography: Marcus Loew (born May 7,

Loew leased a vacant store at East 23rd Street and opened it as a penny arcade in January As one of the founders, he received a share of the profits in the form of company stock. He opened a fourth arcade uptown by the end of the year at th Street and Lenox Avenue. Two key advisors came on board during this time. New York City would always remain the core base of operations for Loew, but he soon expanded his growing arcade business to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Loew was impressed with the nickelodeon and decided to try the same at his Cincinnati arcade the following Sunday. He rented a number of short films, including a French comedy, Hot Chestnuts original title: Chaud les Marronsand set up a projector and chairs in a room above his arcade. The first day the nickelodeon attracted nearly 5, customers.

The following week, Loew and his manager added more chairs and drew more than 10, customers. It involved a room decorated to look like a railroad car interior, while films of natural wonders were shown on a screen. To add to the train ride illusion, the seats swayed and a phonograph played train noises. Loew took a liking to the brothers and lent them money to expand their concessions, adding rides and turning an area of the park into a separate enclave called Paradise Park.

Marcus loews biography: Marcus Loew was an

By the time the Schencks came on board, Loew had already begun to expand his horizons marcus loews biography the store shows. This allowed him to charge less than he would for strictly vaudeville entertainment and more than the customary five-cent admission for a nickelodeon. In Loew signed a contract with Lee and Jacob J. Shubert, brothers and theatrical producers, to operate two of their New York City theaters with his own programming.

By the end of that year he was presenting five acts of vaudeville and various films in each of the theaters. At that time, the Polish-immigrant Shuberts were busy creating their own empire of legitimate theaters and would eventually own the largest theater circuit in the United States in the twentieth century. 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 with Mayer as the studio head and Thalberg chief of production. Stahland up-and-coming actress Norma Shearerlater married to Thalberg. Mayer would eventually be rewarded by having his name added to the company.

Loews Inc. Loew died in 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". 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 Vine Street.

He and his wife, Carrie Loew, had twin sons, David L. Loew — and Arthur Marcus Loew Sr — Their son, Arthur Loew Jr. Elias Moses Loew —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. Contents move to sidebar hide.

Loew, unrelated theater operator. Article Talk. Loew sold newspapers and lemons on the street, worked like a dog in an industrial printing plant, and began and failed at several business ventures - a print shop, furniture store and a fur factory - going bankrupt before he was It's a testimonial to his personality and self-assurance that he picked himself up from these early marcuses loews biography and persevered.

A second stab at the fur business brought him in contact with Adolph Zukor who became a friend and partner. Loew bought into a Zukor's penny arcade business and set about expanding it around the country. While opening up a new arcade in Cincinnati he was told of a competitor who was scoring bigger money with motion pictures than his mechanical machines.

Back in New York, Loew bought a Brooklyn burlesque house and converted it into the Royal, a first class house mixing the vaudeville bill with movies. The success of the Royal convinced him to convert his penny arcades into movie houses. Loew struck up a fateful business deal with brothers Joseph M. Over the next decade Loew worked a slow being a relative term in the businessmethodical plan for theatrical dominance.

By Armistice Day he owned theaters that continued to offer a mix of vaudeville and movies. Joe Schenck ventured away from the company to become a movie producer. By Loew was the dominant movie theater owner in New York and had recently expanded into Canada. With this expansion he faced increasing problems obtaining a reliable supply of quality films, especially problematic since audiences were pushing vaudeville acts off his stages.

Marcus Loew understood the value of his theatrical empire but felt that movie production was too huge a gamble to personally manage.