Marcus Loew
Marcus Loew (born May 7, 1870 in New York City , † September 5, 1927 in Glen Cove , Long Island ) was an American businessman and pioneer in the film industry who founded Loew's, Inc. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
The son of a poor Jewish New York family from Austria , circumstances forced him to work early and drop out of school at the age of nine, leaving him with little formal education. Nevertheless, he got into the Penny Arcade business with a small investment, saved up through simple activities, for example as a newspaper seller and as a worker in the fur manufacture . Loew soon bought a Nickelodeon movie theater in partnership with others, one of whom was Adolph Zukor , and over time made Loew's Theaters the largest cinema chain in the United States .
In 1920 he bought the Metro Pictures Corporation and in 1924 the Goldwyn Picture Corporation and merged them to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Although immediately successful, Marcus Loew never saw what MGM became; he died of a heart attack three years later at the age of 57 in Glen Cove, Long Island . He was buried in Maimonides Cemetery in Brooklyn .
For his significant contribution to the development of the film industry, Marcus Loew received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . To this day, his name is synonymous with movie theater in the United States.
literature
- Joel W. Finler: The Hollywood Story , New York (Crown Publishers Inc.) 1988, ISBN 0-517-56576-5 (English)
- Robert Sobel The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Business Tradition (Weybright & Talley), 1974, Chapter 7, Marcus Loew: An Artist in Spite of Himself , ISBN 0-679-40064-8 (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Loew, Marcus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American businessman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 7, 1870 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 5, 1927 |
| Place of death | Glen Cove , Long Island |