William Fox Wilhem Fuchs

William Fox first built his fortune off of the early purchase and establishment of a movie theater chain around the turn of the 20th Century. This became essential for the creation of Fox Film Corporation, which thrived in the silent film industry. In the mid-20s, the company began consolidating various competing sound-on-film systems, and upon the discovery of Ted Case’s system, the Movietone system was developed and debuted in 1927. The system contributed directly to the obsolescence of the sound-on-disc system and by the 1930s, sound-on-film was the norm, with Movietone remaining in place for Fox’s news operations into World War II.

In an attempt to dominate the film industry, the death of Marcus Loew in 1927 (head of MGM) led to Fox’s intended purchasing of the film giant. The combination of a lawsuit under antitrust laws, a car crash, and the Great Depression put an end to this attempt, and in 1930 Fox lost control of the company. In 1935, Fox Film Corporation merged with 20th Century Pictures to create 20th Century Fox, which remained the name of the company until its purchase in 2019. Fox fought legal battles for the rest of his life and died relatively quietly, with no recognition from the film industry in the early 1950s.