My journey ends here...
SCHENCK Joseph Michael
Date of birth : December 25, 1878, Rybinsk, Russia.
Date of death : October 22, 1961, Beverly Hills, California.
Place of living : Holmby Hills.
Practise : co-founder of the Fox; head of the production.
He ran the Fox in 1947.
Portrait
,
Story
Native to Russia. He was born in Rybinsk, a village on the Volga river.
His father was a firewood merchant.
His family emigrated to the USA in 1891; ha was then aged 13.
Marcus Loew later became one of the founder of the MGM.
While his brother Nicholas got on working with Loew, Joe Schenck went into the cinema production, since 1917.
He was president of the executive committee of United
Artists in the 20's.
He won several sensational success thanks to his wife, Norma Talmadge, his brother-in-law Buster Keaton
(husband of Natalie Talmadge 
) and Roscoe
(Fatty) Arbuckle, another famous comic actor of silent film.
From 1917 to 1926 he was married with Norma
Talmadge, a silent film siren.
In 1933 he founded the Twentieth Century Productions with Darryl Zanuck; then he was in jail for 4 months, at the Danbury Federal Correction Institute, in Connecticut.
He had been sentenced for perjury, after having been convicted of having bribed 2 racketters (Willie Bioff and George Browne) at the beginning of the 40's.
He was acquitted by president Harry Truman.
Schenck then became president of the board of directors.
Link with Marilyn
Three versions exist about their meeting :
- end of 1947
or 1948 he noticed Marilyn while he was crossing the lands of the studio in a limo.
He asked his chauffeur to stop and invited Marilyn to have dinner at his home.
-
Pat De
Cicco, icecream tycoon and acquaintance of Marilyn, would have taken
her, one Saturday, to one Schenck's poker game night, where he
noticed her.
- she was invited to one of the outdoor lunch he regularly organized on Sundays.
In 1948,
he still belonged to the most influential personalities of the capital
of cinema. Former president of United Artists, ex-boss of
the Twentieth Century, then of the Fox, he still exerted a significant influence on the major studios.
Used to be obeyed at his beck and call, the old Fox tycoon could show himself magnanimous or quick-tempered, according to his mood of the moment.
Marilyn soon became a regular, one of those pretty girls that columnist Sheila Graham qualified as "gin rummy girls", who offered cigars and served beverages, while Schenck, Zanuck and other movie tycoons were playing cards (Johnny Roselli, Bugsy Siegel, Harry Cohn).
With David Mark Griffith
With Darryl Zanuck
;
;
With Spyros Skouras
Although she publicly denied that there couldn't have been anything sexual in this friendship, she was regularly invited for 18 months, and some says she moved in a cottage located on Schenck castle lands, on 141 South
Carolwood Drive, Beverly Hills:
.
Many biographers claimed that it's unlikely he had appreciated Marilyn's company for her "original personality".
He made use of his connections to put Marilyn's career back on the rails. He contracted his poker partner, Harry Cohn, head of the Columbia, and convinced him to sign a 6 months contract to Marilyn.
This year, for her 24th birthday, he offered her a chihuahua she named Josefa, on his honor.
In 1951 when she resigned with the Fox, he kept a watchful eye on her progress :
On May 13, 1953, he attended the birthday party of Walter Winchell :
,
,
,
,
,
In 1957 he was struck by a cerebral debilitating attack and died 4 years later. Marilyn kept in touch with him
and visited him shortly before he died (telegram 
).
Website
Wikipedia
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