Nicholas Schenck
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Nicholas M. Schenck (born 14 November 1881, Rybinsk, Russia - died 4 March 1969, Florida) was a motion picture mogul and impresario.
One of seven children, Schenck was born in Rybinsk, a Volga River village in Tsarist Russia. He and his family, including his older brother Joseph Schenck, emigrated to the United States in 1893, whereupon they settled in a tenement on New York's Lower East Side. Subsequently they relocated to Harlem, the population of which at that time consisted primarily of Jewish and Italian immigrants. Upon their arrival in the United States, Joe and Nick, as they came to be known, worked as a team hawking newspapers and subsequently in a drugstore. Within two years' time, they had saved up enough money to buy out the drugstore's owner and begin casting about for other business ventures.
One summer day, the Schencks took a trolley ride to Fort George, in uptown Manhattan, and noticed that thousands of people were milling around idly waiting for the return trains. The brothers rented a beer concession and also provided some vaudeville entertainment. It was at this time that the Schencks made the acquaintance of Marcus Loew, a theater operator. Loew, having noted the brothers' success, advanced them capital, permitting them to establish a large amusement park in Bergen County, New Jersey, directly across the river from Manhattan, in 1908. Called Palisades Amusement Park, it remained in operation until 1971, although the brothers sold their interest in it in 1934.
Subsequently, Nicholas Schenck and his brother worked with Loew in the theater business. Between approximately 1907 and 1919, they reinvested in real estate for nickelodeons, vaudeville, and eventually motion pictures. In 1919, Loew acquired a movie studio. At this time, Nicholas Schenck was spending more time with Loew's, Inc., so it was Joseph who relocated to Hollywood, eventually becoming president of United Artists Corporation.
However, in 1927, Marcus Loew died suddenly, leaving control of MGM to Schenck. In 1929, William Fox, head of rival studio Fox Film Corporation, arranged to buy controlling interest from Schenck. Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg were outraged -- they were in charge of MGM but had no say in the deal. Mayer went to the Justice Department and, through his political connections, got the department to file antitrust charges against Fox. The fact that Fox was seriously injured in the summer of 1929 in a car accident -- and the stock market crash took place in the fall of 1929 -- meant the Loews-Fox deal was doomed, even if the Justice Department had given its blessing.
By 1932, Schenck was running an entertainment empire that consisted of a thriving theater circuit and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer--a production combination of Metro Pictures Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures (founded by Samuel Goldwyn) and the Louis B. Mayer Company. The conglomerate, which Schenck continued to manage closely from New York City, employed 12,000 people. Schenck, by demanding a tight production schedule, created tension with Mayer and the Thalberg, who was production chief until his untimely death in 1935. Nonetheless, thanks to Schenck's stringent management, MGM was successful, becoming the only film company that continued to pay dividends during the Great Depression.
Under Schenck's leadership, the studio produced a great quantity of films, and the studio system allowed it to retain a wide array of talent under its roof: Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Garland, the Jeannette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy team and countless others. Schenck's adroit business sense made him a wealthy man. In 1927, he and Joseph were reported to be worth about $20 million (approximately 500 million in today's money, possibly more), with a combined yearly income of at least a million. By some estimates, Nicholas Schenck was the eighth richest individual in the United States during the 1930s.
Although Schenck's power and prestige were at their peak after World War II, times were changing, as television loomed on the horizon. Like many in the motion picture industry, Schenck, however, adamantly refused to get involved with the new medium. In 1951, Louis B. Mayer had a falling out with Schenck over Dore Schary and Mayer was forced out of MGM.
By the middle of the decade, the price of MGM shares were sagging and stockholders were growing restive. On December 14, 1955, Arthur M. Loew, the son of Marcus Loew, succeeded Nicholas Schenck as the company's president, although Schenck remained Chairman of the Board. The following year, when Arthur Loew resigned for health reasons, Schenck defied the other directors in the efforts to secure a new president. When Joseph R. Vogel became president, Schenck was named honorary chairman, but retired altogether later that same year.
Nicholas Schenck divided his last years between his estates at Sands Point, Long Island, and Miami Beach. The former, which had purchased in 1942, consisted of a 20 acre (81,000 m²) property with a main house of 30 rooms, luxuriously appointed. It included a private movie theater and a 200-foot dock. Schenck's first marriage ended in divorce. He was survived by his second wife, Pansy Wilcox. The Schencks had three daughters.
