Joseph M. Schenck

Joseph M. Schenck was well-liked by many, and those who knew him and his brother Nicholas Schenck often remarked on their contrasting personalities. He arrived in New York in 1893 and, together with his younger brother, established a drugstore business. They later invested some profits into amusement parks, which proved more lucrative. Marcus Loew acquired one of their parks in 1907 and, in 1912, made the Schencks partners in Consolidated Enterprises, Loew's theater and movie house chain. The brothers differed greatly in temperament; Joe was affable and adept at maintaining business relationships by finding common ground between often-conflicting associates. In contrast, Nick was a cold, driven, and hard-nosed businessman who enjoyed keeping people under tight control. As a result, people were drawn to Joe and feared Nick. Joe was responsible for booking films, which allowed him to meet movie stars, including Norma Talmadge, whom he married in 1916. He was fascinated by Hollywood and wanted to be involved in film production, while Nick quietly managed Loew's expanding theatrical empire. Joe was more enamored with the Hollywood lifestyle and wished to take a more active role in production than in high finance. He found an opportunity in 1917 to produce films by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, and later D.W. Griffith. From this point, the brothers' lives diverged; Joe left Consolidated while Nick stayed and soon became Marcus Loew's second-in-command, helping him pursue the merger of Metro Pictures and Goldwyn Pictures to supply the theater chain with a steady stream of quality films. This merger would later evolve into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) after the addition of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg in 1924. Nick eventually became president of Loew's Incorporated, MGM's parent company, after Marcus Loew's sudden death in late 1926, quietly becoming one of the most powerful figures in the motion picture industry. Joe became chairman of United Artists in 1924 and its president in 1927. In 1933, he helped Darryl F. Zanuck establish 20th Century Pictures, which merged with the struggling Fox Film Corp. in 1935, with Schenck serving as chairman of the newly named 20th Century-Fox. Organized crime had long sought influence in Hollywood but was kept at bay by the Los Angeles Police Department's "hat squad," which effectively prevented Mafia infiltration. The studios' vulnerability came through the unions, whose memberships spanned multiple states. In 1936, Willie Morris Bioff, a Chicago mobster from the remnants of the Al Capone gang who controlled the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees & Moving Picture Machine Operators, offered the studios $2 million to avoid strikes, work slowdowns, and theater fires. All studios agreed to pay, but Schenck used a personal check for one of the payments, which caught the attention of U.S. Internal Revenue Service agents. The resulting paper trail led to Schenck's indictment for income tax evasion. After some pressure and introspection, he testified against Bioff and the union's president, George E. Browne, in 1941 as part of a plea bargain. In 1946, he began a one-year prison sentence for tax irregularities and bribery of union officials but was pardoned by President Harry Truman after serving just four months. Upon his release, he immediately returned to Fox as head of production. Marilyn Monroe became close to him in 1947 and referred to him as one of her "girlfriends," though she described the relationship as platonic. Regardless, he supported her career, securing her a small role in Fox's *Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!* (1948) and persuading Harry Cohn at Columbia to offer her a contract after Fox released her. In 1952, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Schenck a special Oscar for his contributions to the film industry. In 1953, he co-founded Magna Corp. with Mike Todd to market the Todd-AO wide-screen system, which proved highly profitable and remains influential in the movie industry. Shortly after retiring in 1957, Schenck suffered a stroke and never fully recovered.