Spyros Skouras

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Spyros P. Skouras (born March 28, 1893 – August 16, 1971) was an American movie executive who was the chairman of the Twentieth Century Fox from 1942 to 1962. He resigned June 27, 1962 effective September 30. An immigrant to America from Greece, his accent was so pronounced that Bob Hope would joke "Spyros has been here twenty years but he still sounds as if he's coming next week." Spyros oversaw the production of such epics as "Cleopatra" with Elizabeth Taylor, as well as the creation of Century City.

[edit] Biography

Born in Skourohorion, Greece, Skouras along with his brothers Charles Skouras and George Skouras arrived in St. Louis from Greece, the sons of a poor sheep herder rose to become top movie executives in some of Hollywood's biggest studios.

Living frugally on wages as busboys and bartenders in downtown hotels, the brothers pooled their savings of $3500 in 1914. In partnership with two other Greeks, the Skourases constructed a modest nickelodeon at 1420 Market Street on the site of today's Kiel Opera House. This initial property was named the Olympia, was quickly followed by the acquisition of other theaters.

The Skouras Brothers Co. of St. Louis dream of building a world-class movie palace in downtown St. Louis was grandly realized in 1926 when the $5.5 million Ambassador Theatre Building opened. This theatre opened in 1939 as the New Fox Theatre. They incorporated with $400,000 capital stock with more than thirty local theaters belonged to the Skouras empire by 1924. Five years later, the triumvirate sold out to Warner Brothers and moved east to claim top executive places in the industry.

In 1932, the Skouras Brothers (Spyros, George and Charles) took over the management of over 500 Fox-West Coast theaters. Spyros helped merge Fox with 20th Century films in the 1930's and he served as president from 1942 to 1962. During Spyros' tenure there he worked to rescue the faltering movie industry from television's lure. 20th Century Fox's famous advertising slogan, Movies are Better than Ever, gained credibility in 1953 when Spyros introduced Cinemascope in the studio's groundbreaking feature film The Robe. With the introduced of Cinemascope, Spyros did much to save the movie industry from its newly invented competitor -- television..[1][2]