Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1925)

18 MOVING PICTURE WORLD January 3, 1925 A Courageous and Clear Sighted Organizer of Success, Free from Illusions and Sentiment By W, STEPHEN BUSH IN any story of the builders, William Fox will always furnish the rarest chapter, for none other has built like he has. His style has always been distinctive, a revelation of the Fox character, which is composed of independence and originality. Fox is a born leader, disdaining the well-worn path, even when it seems to assure popular success. Courage, I think, is the other outstanding component in the make-up of William Fox — courage in the attack, and courage in meeting the slightest trespass on his rights. The story of Fox, the builder, begins some years prior to his joining the ranks of the producer. The service that Fox rendered to the industry when he stood like a rock against the old trust, with all its power and all its ruthless despotisms, deserves an illuminated page in our history. Like a warrior who had stepped out of the pages of Homer he stood defying incredible odds, matching his wit and strength against the combined resources of a combination eager to destroy him and not too scrupulous about its means and methods. The bravery of the man called forth the unanimous but whispered admiration of every man outside the monopolistic circle. But even the most optimistic feared for the final fate of Fox. They little knew the man. He had just begun to fight. He at once advanced to the counter attack and actually charged on the barbed wire entauiglements of the enemy with nothing stronger than a brand new Federal statute which might be overturned by the very first judge to whom it might be referred for internretation. In the end he g2uned a complete victory. At all the hearings and all the sessions the Fox lawyers were right at the elbow of the government’s officials! The first judgment ordered the defendants to pay damages to Fox in the hundreds of thousands of dolkiVs. The terms on which the last private settlement was made are known only to the parties in the action. There is a story, perhaps a bit legendary, but scarcely without some good foundation of fact, that the victor, somewhat in the style of Monte Cristo, staged a little meeting with the men who had tried to blot him from the map. Rumor has it that the enemies were summoned to. assemble in a hotel not too far from Times Square. They obeyed the summons. They may not have been penitent, but they were careful ; and it would have been madness to defy a judgment creditor whose claims against them ran into seven figures. It is not difficult to guess the frame of mind in which the victor came to that memorable meeting. He was the owner of theatres all over the country and films were as necessary to him as his daily bread and butter. The men he was about to confront had denied him films because he had refused to bend the knee. Most reluctantly, and only for fear of the courts, they had given him a scanty supply. It had been forced from them by all kinds of judicial writs and proceedings. All had anticipated final victory, and the cry, “Woe to the conquered,” w'as on their tongues. Perhaps they expected to do a little penance. 1 hey were not disappointed. It is related that the victor castigated them severally and collectively. Each was called by name; a register of his sins duly recited, and the culprit excoriated in the vernacular. The spirit of Chesterfield did not hover over that meeting. Starts Production With the old enemy now a discarded relic. Fox started on his career as a producer. His very first effort showed boldness and originality, and proved a great box-office attraction. It was based on a piece of light, but popular, fiction and bore the title, “Life’s Shop Window.” J. Gordon Edwards made his debut as a director in producing it. There had been a lot of talk (much of it proceeding from the ranks of self WILLIAM FOX