Vanda Krefft - The Man Who Made the Movies (San Francisco)

In conversation with Anita Monga

A riveting story of ambition, greed, and genius unfolding with the dawn of modern America, this landmark biography of William Fox brings into focus a fascinating, brilliant entrepreneur—like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney, a true American visionary—who risked everything to realize his bold dream of a Hollywood empire.

A major studio still bears William Fox’s name, though the man himself has mostly been forgotten by history, even written off as a failure. Now, Vanda Krefft corrects the record, explaining why Fox’s legacy is central to the history of Hollywood.

William Fox’s life story encapsulates the American Dream—intertwining with the fate of the nineteenth-century immigrants who flooded into New York; with the city’s vibrant and ruthless Gilded Age history; and with the birth of America’s movie industry. Drawing on a decade of original research, The Man Who Made the Movies is a rich, compelling look at a multi-dimensional character emblematic of his time, one of the most fascinating and formative eras in American history.

Growing up in Lower East Side tenements, the eldest son of impoverished Hungarian immigrants, William Fox began selling candy on the street—and that entreprenurial ambition eventually grew one small Brooklyn theater into a $300 million empire of deluxe studios and theaters that rivaled those of the legendary Adolph Zukor, Marcus Loew, and Warner brothers, and launched stars like Theda Bara. Amid the euphoric Roaring Twenties, these moguls waged a fierce battle for control of their industry. A fearless risk taker, Fox won. He was hailed as a genius—until a confluence of circumstances, culminating with the 1929 crash, led to his ruin.

The Man Who Made the Movies includes two 8-page black-and-white photo inserts.

Vanda Krefft is a former magazine and newspaper journalist who has covered the entertainment industry for publications such as Elle and the Los Angeles Times. She lives in Santa Monica, California. This is her first book.
 

Location: 

1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94105
The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox By Vanda Krefft Cover Image
for information about purchasing this book, please contact orders@bookpassage.com
ISBN: 9780061136061
Published: Harper - November 28th, 2017