The sun., 1912-08-11
MAGNATE OF MOVING PICTURES ONCE A NEWSBOY
Saw His Opportunity When 1t Came,
and introduced New Features
Into Amusement World

for wo years when Loew bough, IT t,u..
ing almost to the limit of his credi, ,o
ihe bargain through.
For years he had been fighting alor,
with the other moving picture men in
prove that cheap amusements need po,
be vicious or even degrading. But tn,
battle was not won yet and the old Cow
Corner with its evil associations looked
like II hopeless handicap.
But I.oew drove ahead with II n.
spent hundreds for paint and carpenter
WORK, toning up the appearance Of the
old Theatre, and then he spent thousand.
in toni e up its reputation. He hired
Antonia Moria. the italian tragediau. n
appear there in repertoire Of Shake
speare and other classical plays Of IN.
questioned worth. an he was tireless in
dragging school teachers and other rep.
utable citizens to the place to see hin
performances and praise the revival Of
dramatic art which had burst upon
Brooklyn.
The name Of the theatre he had changed
Of course. and he washed out it's reputation
by four months Of tragedy. But II wasex
pensive laundry work. Moris had Two
companies supporting him. one playing
in English, the other In italian. and while
salaries were not high. neither were ths
box Office receipts. At q time when he
needed every dollar Loew lost 5000 on
his tragedy season. and he counted the
money we'll spent. When he finally opened
the house with pictures and vaudeville
at 10 cents for every seat. the first large
theatre Of the kind in America. his hrst
day e receipts were 10 cents. Business
picRel up. however. and lie netted q
prof, Of something over $4,000 for his
first year in the house.
That gave him the cue for the develop.
ment of q new amusement system. and
he began adding to his list Of large theatres
and selling OFT his small store shows
The rejuvenatel theatre in Brooklynhe
opened in 1908. and in the same year he
too over Blaney's Lincoln Square
Theatre. which hal failed aud closed
Then he took the oil Harlem Casino.
remodelled it in freproof construction
and opened it on his new plan.
/ He WAS steadily increasing the scale OF
his vaudeville acts and when he took over
the Majestic he adopted q now scale Of
prices from 10 to so cents. which he made
general in his houses. Then he began tn
build. first his million dollar house"
' the National in The Bronx; then the
Greeley Square, then the Delancey street
and TWO more are now under construc-
ton one at Fifth street an Avenue B.
and oe at Eighty-seventh street and
Third avenue. Also he took over ths
tir le Theatre. the Ora ID. the York vile.
the Plaza and the American in Manhattan
and scvei Brooklyn houses. besides .
nomber of out Of town places. His book
ing Office soon became important. and
since his coalition with tn , William Morris
interests it has grown nightly. All told
Loew's amusement enterprises have q
capital OF about nine millions.
For one who has made a fortune in
theatres Marcus Loew is man OF singu-
larry simple tastes. He lives in an apart +
ment uptown with his wife and
Two sons. Once he had the luxury OF a
house in Edgemerc but he was so wound
up with work that he found trouble in
going down there and the family moved
back TO town.
All Broadway knows him. a big mus
ta"hed. precipitate little figure usually
( charged with an air of catching trains
which cuts kitty cornerwise across the
traffic aud never quite gets run down.
But living as he does hall the time IN his
Forty-second stree, Offices up to his neck
in the twinA!ng Broadway nigh. life,
hp still keeps his steady and unpretentious
way with him. And all Broadway knows
his soitncss of heart. II is said that his
collection Of hare. luck stories is the most
complete in America.
He il griazled and short and round
faced. rapid and rather abrupt in speech
and quite incorrigible in his habit Of
. coming straight to the point as he secs
| il. Delay and diplomatic indirection are
not among his business weapons. For
years he was beyond his depth in his
! theatrical ventures and he owned it
blithely to the men he was borrowing
from. His frankness has that quality.
rather rare after all, of convincing one OF
its genuineness.
Ne goes with his pockets bulging with
cigars OF a pet and particular brand
chosen especially to allay the vexation Of
people he has kept waiting. His pictures
| do him an injustice. for in real life there
is nothing pompous or self-important
about him. And his greatest regret just
now is that in his prosperity he has never
/ been able to find Tommy Nolan. with
whom he used to take in the melodramas
in the old National on the Bowery.