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Twentieth Century Fox TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX This is the first scholarly history of Fox from its origins in 1904 to the present. It builds upon research and histories of individual periods to describe how one company responded to a century-long evolution of the audience, nationally and globally. In the beginning, William Fox grabbed a once-in-a-millennium opportunity to build a business based on a genuinely new art form. This study explores the enduring legacy of F.W. Murnau, Will Rogers, Shirley Temple, John Ford, Spyros Skouras, George Lucas, James Cameron, and many others, offering dis- cussion of those behind and in front of the camera, delving deeply into the his- tory and evolution of the studio. Key films covered include The Iron Horse, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, Forever Amber, All About Eve, Cleo- patra, The Sound of Music, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Titanic, and Fight Club, providing an extensive look at the successes and flops that shaped not only Twentieth Century Fox, but the entire Hollywood landscape. Through a chronological study, the book charts the studio’s impact right up to the present day, providing a framework to allow us to look to the future of movie- making and film consumption. Lively and fresh in its approach, this book is a comprehensive study of the studio for scholars, students, and enthusiasts of Hollywood cinema, film history, and media industries. Frederick Wasser is a professor in the Department of Television, Radio and Emerging Media at Brooklyn College in the City University of New York. He is the author of numerous chapters and articles on American media. His books include Veni, Vidi, Video and Steven Spielberg’s America. ROUTLEDGE HOLLYWOOD CENTENARY Series Editors: Yannis Tzioumakis and Gary Needham The eleven-year period 2012‒2023 marks the centennial anniversary of all seven Hollywood major studios: Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. Columbia, Disney, and MGM. Originally self-run organizations operating within a clearly defined film industry, from the 1960s onwards these companies have become divisions of various conglomerates during a long period of corporate con- solidation and, more recently, of media convergence driven by the advent of digital technology and changes in distribution and consumption. The Routledge Holly- wood Centenary book series provides a detailed and authoritative history of these long-standing organizations, aiming to chart their hundred-year development and their transition from film studios to divisions of global entertainment conglomerates. Each individual volume examines in detail the evolution of the major Hollywood players over the course of a hundred-year period. With some of the studios having been divisions of conglomerates for more than fifty years, and as they have continued to evolve under changing corporate ownership and increasing media convergence, the Routledge Hollywood Centenary volumes assess how this evolution, and its period- ization, impacts our understanding of Hollywood film history. From the ‘studio’ to the ‘post-studio’ era, from ‘Classical Hollywood’ to ‘Conglomerate Hollywood,’ through changes in ownership and management regimes, and through collaborations with ever changing clusters of talent each Hollywood studio has been a major con- tributor to the ways in which American cinema acquired a particular identity at differ- ent historical junctures. The Routledge Hollywood Centenary series volumes examine in detail how each studio has put an indelible stamp on American cinema and beyond. MGM Tino Balio United Artists Peter Krämer, Gary Needham, Yannis Tzioumakis and Tino Balio Twentieth Century Fox Frederick Wasser For more information about the series, please visit: www.routledge.com/The- Routledge-Hollywood-Centenary-Series/book-series/RHC TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX Frederick Wasser First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Frederick Wasser The right of Frederick Wasser to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wasser, Frederick, author. Title: Twentieth Century Fox / Frederick Wasser. Description: London ; New York : Routledge, 2020. | Series: Routledge Hollywood centenary | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020005251 (print) | LCCN 2020005252 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138921252 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138921269 (paperback) | ISBN 9781315686486 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation–History. | Motion picture studios–California–Los Angeles–History. | Motion picture industry–United States–History. Classification: LCC PN1999.T8 W37 2020 (print) | LCC PN1999.T8 (ebook) | DDC 384/.80979494–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005251 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005252 ISBN: 978-1-138-92125-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-92126-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-68648-6 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Swales & Willis, Exeter, Devon, UK CONTENTS List of figures vii List of tables x Acknowledgements xi Series editors’ preface xii Introduction 1 1 William Fox and the beginnings (1904–1924) 9 2 Fox goes for broke and is broken (1924–1935) 37 3 A new company finds itself during a Depression (1935–1941) 65 4 Social problems, mature women, and musicals (1942–1952) 96 5 Trying to get it right: from TV to Cleopatra (1953–1964) 127 6 The Sound of Music and ‘the sixties’ (1965–1975) 154 7 From Stanfill to Murdoch and featuring George Lucas (1975–1984) 182 vi Contents 8 Twentieth Century Fox as Murdoch’s global conglomerate (1984–1997) 209 9 Fox outlasts the twentieth century by 20 years (1998–2019) 236 Bibliography 254 General index 264 Index of titles 278 FIGURES 1.1 William Fox 10 1.2 Winfield Sheehan, circa 1930 20 1.3 ‘But Theda is Bara’ 22 1.4 Tom Mix and his favorite horse, circa 1927 28 1.5 The William Fox Studio in California, circa 1929 30 2.1 The Iron Horse featured title cards linking the film to the nativism of the times and the production of Americana 41 2.2 Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau on the set of Sunrise (1927) 44 2.3a Janet Gaynor is frightened by George O’Brien’s violent gestures in Sunrise (1927) 45 2.3b Murnau’s sets in Sunrise (1927) create a dynamic space in which the couple learn to trust each other 45 2.4 Warner Baxter in In Old Arizona (1928), the first Fox film to have location sound 51 3.1 Stepin Fetchit and Will Rogers in Judge Priest (1934) 68 3.2 Young Darryl Zanuck, circa 1937 70 3.3 Shirley Temple in Stand Up and Cheer (1934) is the incarnation of the new optimism of the Roosevelt administration 76 3.4 Shirley Temple in her famous stair dance number with Bill Robinson in The Little Colonel (1935). She resolves problems while also provid- ing entertainment 77 3.5 Alexander (Tyrone Power) re-makes Stella Kirby’s (Alice Faye) image to be more up-market in Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938) 82 3.6 Tyrone Power, circa mid-1930s 83 3.7 Arthur Miller shooting The Razor’s Edge (1946) with Gene Tierney sitting. Visual style in Fox films of the period did not become as insti- tutionalized as in other studios 86 3.8 Sol Wurtzel 87 viii Figures 3.9 Lee Chan (Keye Luke) is an easy target for his father Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) in Charlie Chan in Paris (1935) 89 3.10 John Ford in 1938 91 3.11 Abraham Lincoln, portrayed as part of a frontier iconography in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) 92 3.12 The village set from How Green Was My Valley (1941) 94 4.1a Jennifer Jones views her vision in The Song of Bernadette (1943) 100 4.1b Jennifer Jones’s vision (Linda Darnell, uncredited) in The Song of Ber- nadette (1943) 101 4.2 Alfred Newman, composing the score for The Song of Bernadette (1943) 102 4.3 Peggy Ann Garner and James Dunn in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) 107 4.4 Poster for Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) 109 4.5 Dana Andrews in Laura (1944) 111 4.6 Otto Preminger directing Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews in Laura (1944) 112 4.7 A star in the making: Jeanne Crain singing out of the window in State Fair (1945) 116 4.8 Linda Darnell, Kirk Douglas, and Paul Douglas in A Letter to Three Wives (1949) 119 4.9 Ann Baxter, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, and George Sanders in All About Eve (1950) 120 4.10 Not obscuring his homosexuality Clifton Webb found stardom in Hollywood following his debut in Laura (1944) 122 5.1 Spyros Skouras, 20th Century-Fox chairman (1942–62), committed the company to CinemaScope 130 5.2 ‘The composition has been vastly improved over previous material’– Zanuck’s memo on How to Marry a Millionaire when he saw the film’s projection on CinemaScope 137 5.3 Juliette Greco and Darryl Zanuck, circa 1958 139 5.4 Harry Belafonte sings ‘calypso’ in two major set pieces in Island in the Sun (1957) 141 5.5 Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason
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