Twentieth Century-Fox: The Zanuck-Skouras Years, 1935–1965

Notes

Notes Introduction 1. In this book I use “Fox” to refer to “Twentieth Century-Fox.” I use “Fox Film Corporation ” to refer to the predecessor company that merged with Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935. 2. Ross, Picture; Eyman, Lion of Hollywood. 3. Allvine, The Greatest Fox of Them All, p. 206. 4. Schatz, The Genius of the System and Boom and Bust; Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System; Bordwell, Staiger, and Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema. 5. Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox and The Fox Film Corporation, 1915–1935; Allvine, The Greatest Fox of Them All; John Gregory Dunne, The Studio; Silverman, The Fox That Got Away. 6. Gussow, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking; Custen, Twentieth Century’s Fox; Zanuck, Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck. 7. Curti, Skouras, King of Fox Studios. Chapter One 1. Kaufmann, Fox: The Last Word, pp. 91, 119. 2. Eyman, Lion of Hollywood, pp. 140–146. 3. Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox, p. 13. 4. Sinclair, Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox. 5. Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox, p. 13. 6. Kent, “Distributing the Product,” pp. 203–232. 7. Sinclair, Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox, p. 316. 8.“CinemaTreasures: MissouriTheatre,” http://cinematreasures.org/theater/3209/, consulted 24 May 2005. 9. “The Ambassador Theatre Building,” St. Louis Building Arts Foundation, http://build ingmuseum.org/recovery/project_ambassador.asp, consulted 24 May 2005. 10. Aubrey Solomon, The Fox Film Corporation, 1915–1935, pp. 44–45. 11. Much of the information on Skouras Brothers’ involvement in First National Pictures comes from two unpublished memoirs by Spyros Skouras in the Skouras Collection,“Biography of Spyros P. Skouras,” dated 2 April 1953, and “Notes of Spyros Skouras,” no date given (but probably from about the same period). “Notes of Spyros Skouras” was transcribed and edited by Andrew Sarris, who was later to become a famous film critic. 12. Skouras, “Biography of Spyros P. Skouras,” p. 14. 13. Ibid., pp. 14–15, and “Notes of Spyros Skouras,” p. 26A. 14. “Former Usher Heads New Film Company Financed by Pathé,” Wall Street Journal, 278 notes to pages 13–36 18 April 1936, pp. 1–2. See also Howard Thompson, “After 50 Years, Skouras Leaves Films,” New York Times, 13 March 1969, p. 50; Silverman, The Fox That Got Away, p. 296. 15. Skouras, “Biography of Spyros P. Skouras,” pp. 15–17, and “Notes of Spyros Skouras,” pp. 27A–34A. 16. Skouras, “Notes of Spyros Skouras,” pp. 30A–31A, 36A. 17. “Theatre Sales Planned,” Wall Street Journal, 22 December 1931, p. 6; “Skouras Brothers Withdraw as Managers of Warner Brothers’ Picture Operations,” New YorkTimes, 25 January 1931, p. N9. 18. Gene Arneel, “The Film Biz in Flashback,” Variety, 4 January 1956, p. 84; Skouras, “Biography of Spyros P. Skouras,” pp. 20–21. 19. “Fox West Coast Unit Obtains a Receiver,” New York Times, 28 February 1933. 20. Hall, The Best Remaining Seats, p. 77. 21. Savoy, “Introductory Notes” to a special issue on the Roxy Theatre; “Twentieth Century -Fox Gets Roxy Theatre,” New York Times, 3 September 1937. 22. Douglas W. Churchill, “Alarums and Excursions in the Film City:The Fox-Twentieth Century Merger—“The Drunkard”—Garbo Broods,” New York Times, 2 June 1935, p. X3. 23. Greco, Jujube, p. 199. 24.The list comes from Campbell,“The Ideology of the Social Consciousness Movie,” pp. 50–51. 25. Johnston, “The Wahoo Boy,” p. 25. 26. On Joseph Schenck’s career at United Artists, see Balio, United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars, pp. 52–126. 27. Eyman, Lion of Hollywood, pp. 172–173. 28. Churchill, “Alarums and Excursions,” p. X3. 29. “Sheehan Resigns as Fox Film Chief,” New York Times, 18 July 1935, p. 15. 30. Douglas Gomery says that Schenck “and his brother Nicholas, longtime head of Loew’s . . . operated behind the scenes. Yet little happened in the movie business between 1920 and 1955 without their approval.” See Gomery, “Joseph Schenck,” p. 385. 31. Pastos, Pinup, p. 99. 32. Eyman, Lion of Hollywood, pp. 240–241. 33. These rankings are far from precise, but they do give a general sense of audience interest . See International Motion Picture Almanac, 1963, ed. Charles S. Aaronson, p. 745. 34. Philip Dunne, Take Two, pp. 54–55. 35. Ameche, “Oral History,” p. 15. 36. Parish, The Fox Girls, p. 221. 37. Frank Nugent, “The Screen,” New York Times, 22 January 1938, p. 19, and 10 September 1938, p. 20. 38. Custen, Twentieth Century’s Fox, pp. 223–224. 39. Dan Navarro, “The Beautiful Brat,” p...