 This is the SF Productions podcast network Let's give a fanfare for Fox's finale From the pop culture bunker, I'm Mindy and I'm Mark you can check out our audio podcast How I got my wife to read comics on iTunes or on our website SF podcast network comm We're starting a new set of episodes covering the history of the film studios And we're starting with one that is about to be consumed by the mouse house that being 20th century Fox AKA Fox As you might suspect with such a portmanteau 20th century Fox was the result of a merger Fox Film Corporation was named for its founder William Fox Who first got involved in the movie biz back when that involved Nickelodeon's the hand-cranked Periscope like Fox's as opposed to the cable network He went from buying films from studios to distributing them which became an issue when the studios tried to monopolize that business in 1908 he fought the monopoly in court and got a large settlement which he parlayed into buying the films of a small film studio called The Balboa Amusement Producing Company Fox finally decided it made more sense just to make the films himself rather than distribute them So he bought the facilities of the Eclair studio in New Jersey Renaming it box office attractions company Keep in mind that the East Coast was the film Mecca at the time California was mostly an agricultural center Fox decided to move the studio out to California Precisely because land was cheap It was at this point that the studio was renamed box films Fox would go on to buy patents That allowed a music and effects track to be added to film That is not synchronized which resulted in movie tone newsreels that ran for decades Fox attempted to purchase Lowe's incorporated in 1927 which included 500 theaters and the MGM studio MGM studio boss Louie B. Mayer fought the merger via the Justice Department Two crashes one involving a car and William Fox Plus the 1929 stock market crash killed off the merger by 1930 William Fox had lost his empire and was in jail for bribery charges his studio went into receivership and in 1935 new president Sydney Kent started negotiations with 20th century pictures a newly minted studio in 1933 formed by two ex-studio execs Joseph shank formerly the head of United Artists and Daryl F. Zanuck recently at Warner Brothers the studio was financed by Shnanks brother the president of Lowe's and by Louie B. Mayer who wanted a position for his son-in-law But didn't want to hire him himself 20th century hit the ground running with only one of their first 18 films Not being a financial success. They also had two Oscar nominated films the house of Rothschild in 1934 and lay Mizorab in 1935 after an attempt by Zanuck to buy his way into the United Artists board failed He began discussions with other distributors and Fox Studios came along 20th century Fox was officially formed in 1935 the hyphen would disappear 50 years later Zanuck quickly snapped up young talent to contracts including Tyrone Power, Carmen Miranda, Don Amici, Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney and Betty Grable They also got a contract with a seven-year-old Shirley Temple a star that carried the studio through the 30s a new president Spiros Scurus brought a new seriousness to the studio in the 1940s Although online entertainment with stars like Betty Grable had taken Fox to the third position in profits by that time films such as Gentleman's agreement about Antisemitism and the snake pit about insane asylums became the rule of the day Although Fox still did musicals, especially those of Rogers and Hammerstein The tides turned after World War two for Fox made worse after the courts forced them to divest themselves of the Lowe's Theater chain, which were renamed Fox National and the advent of television giving people free entertainment at home in 1953 Fox's movie attendance was down by half Forcing them to embrace gimmicks such as 3d and widescreen Cinemascope neither of which could be replicated in the home the letter involved $25,000 of refits to each theater which Fox helped cover and an agreement that Cinemascope would be made available to the other studios the box office numbers of the first two Cinemascope films the robe and how to marry a millionaire made the other studios jump at the chance to use it But it was only a temporary boost two remakes brought Fox to the brink of destruction Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton quickly balloons from 10 million to 40 million in production costs Partly due to poor productions and also due to the resulting Taylor Burton romance Something's got to give pair Dean Martin with Marilyn Monroe Fox's biggest star of the time Monroe's personal issues caused massive delays and she was eventually fired and was dead two months later The film later renamed move over darling with James Garner and Doris Day would go on to be a hit Fox was forced to sell their back lot now called Century City to raise cash in 1961 and release most of their contracted stars in 1962 Xanaq forced score us out and installed himself as chairman with his son Richard as president Cleopatra was rushed to Completion the studio operation was shut down and the staff laid off Fox was saved by Rodgers and Hammerstein in the form of the sound of music a box office hit and winner of Five Oscars the studio moved into sci-fi in the late 60s with fantastic voyage Which was the final cinema scope film and Planet of the apes by the 70s Xanaq was forced out and the company diversified into everything from resort properties to soft drink botlars After was learned that both Fox and Warner had rights to similar stories about skyscraper disasters They co-produced the towering Inferno kicking off an era of disaster films with all-star casts And eventually the airplane franchise then Fox took a chance on a sci-fi film that the other studios had passed on a little film Called Star Wars Fox's stock went from six dollars a share in 1976 to twenty seven dollars after the film's release with revenues going from 195 million to 301 million the franchise would more than keep Fox afloat for decades by 1981 as part of a wave of investor takeovers mark rich and Marvin Davis bought out Fox Rich later became a fugitive for tax evasion and Davis bought him out And then he turned around and sold Fox to Rupert Murdoch in 1985 a plan to buy the old Metro media TV stations turned into the start of the Fox TV network and eventually Fox news We've covered Fox as a TV entity previously, so we'll skip that we will note However that as part of the TV station deal Murdoch had to be a US citizen which Ronald Reagan fast-tracked for him Fox studios move more into distribution deals as the 20th century ended and became the 21st They teamed with CBS for CBS Fox video as in videotapes They became the international distributor for MGM United Artists releases and they distributed Dreamworks animated films by 2012 Newscorps the overall owner of Fox could be split into two companies newscorp Fox news and Fox sports and 20th century Fox the studio film and TV production and the Fox TV network And of course, we know that Disney began the process to buy out Fox in 2017 You can check out episode 153 for details on that by the way The Fox searchlight logo goes back to the 20th century pictures with Fox replacing pictures when the 1935 merger occurred. This was also when the famous fanfare was introduced Which I'm hoping will survive the Disney takeover and we'll get to more studio histories down the line because there's a lot of them Yes, while you're waiting for that, you can check out our audio podcast how I got my wife treat comics on iTunes or on our website SFpodcastnetwork.com from the pop culture bunker. I'm Mindy and I'm Mark. Thanks for watching