The Fox Film Corporation, 1915–1935: A History and Filmography Aubrey Solomon. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011. Twentieth Century‐Fox: The Zanuck‐Skouras Years, 1935–1965 Peter Lev. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013.

The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935: A History and Filmography Aubrey Solomon. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011.Twentieth Century-Fox: The Zanuck-Skouras Years, 1935-1965 Peter Lev. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013.Known as the "lone eagle of the industry" (9), William Fox (1879-1952) entered film production in 1914, established the Fox Film Corporation in February 1915, and is considered to be one of the pioneers of the film industry. During the decade of the 1910s, he challenged the Motion Picture Patents Company, which, in January 1909, had announced that its partners "exclusively owned all rights to photograph, develop, print and exhibit motion pictures" (12). Under the Sherman Antitrust Act, Fox sued the General Film Company, which had been established by Motion Picture Patents Company, and the suit was later settled out of court. As a result, in 1913 the Motion Picture Patents Company's stranglehold on the film industry was broken.During the 1920s, William Fox developed interests in sound pictures, color film, radio, and television. He held patents to the new sound-on-film process called Fox Movietone which became the "predominant method of re-producing sound" (7) and was used successfully in the company's newsreels, which were known as Movietone News. He also experimented with a color process called Fox Nature Color film and almost entered the medium of radio when he considered acquiring a network of thirty radio stations in the West and Midwest. Fox also recognized the potential of television. During the late 1920s he "became a leading proponent of a wide-film system, whose patents he co-owned, called Grandeur" (123). Fox thought this wide-film system would make it possible for motion pictures to compete with television.Aubrey Solomon, coauthor of The Films of 20th Century-Fox: A Pictorial History (1979, revised 1985) and author of Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (1988), notes that William Fox "saw the expansion of Fox Films from a small exhibition set-up with six exchanges to a massive integrated corporate structure with a reputed value of $300 million in 1930" (7). He built movie palaces and acquired theater chains until he had an "international distribution and exhibition empire that was the envy of every other studio" (7). In February 1929, Fox purchased a controlling interest in Loew's, Inc., the parent company of MGM. As a result of the stock market crash on October 29,1929, he suffered severe financial losses that impacted the value of his companies and "his ability to raise further cash to cover the interest payments on his debts" (127).In November 1929, US Attorney General William D. Mitchell requested that Fox, in accordance with the Clayton Antitrust Act, divest himself of his Loew's holdings (128). With the Fox Film Corporation in financial trouble, a long and complicated court battle ensued over the control of the company, and William Fox was ousted from company management in April 1930. The company then had several ineffectual presidents until Sidney Kent was named President of the Fox Film Corporation in May 1932.Kent was head of Fox when, in May 1935, the company merged with Twentieth Century Pictures, a production company that had been established in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck. (207) The companies merged because Fox had theaters, thousands of employees, and studio facilities, and Twentieth Century Pictures had Zanuck, who had experience running a production department. Before the merger, Fox's production system had been unprofitable. After the merger, it was agreed that Kent would remain as president, Zanuck would be made vice-president in charge of production, and Schenck would serve as chairman of the board.Solomon has written the most comprehensive and objective history of William Fox and the Fox Film Corporation, from its founding through the merger with Twentieth Century Pictures. Prior to the publication of this book, titles that had been written about William Fox include Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox (1933), Glendon Allvine's The Greatest Fox of Them All (1969), and William Fox: A Story of Early Hollywood, 1915-1930 (2006) which was coauthored by his great-granddaughter Susan Fox and Donald G. …