The New Moguls
The men who rose to control the new media were theater owners and film distributors (and usually both).
Louis B. Mayer (1884-1957) was born in Minsk, Belarus. He was a scrap metal dealer who bought and renovated a 600 seat burlesque house outside Boston.
Adolph Zukor (1873-1976) was born in Ricse, Hungary. He was a furrier in Chicago who invested first in penny arcades and then in nickelodeon theaters.
Carl Laemmle (1867-1939) was born in Laupheim, Germany. He was a bookkeeper who began buying nickelodeons and started a film distribution service.
Harry Warner (1881-1958) was born in Krasnosielc, Poland. He sold his Youngstown Ohio bicycle shop to join his brothers showing The Great Train Robbery at carnivals in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
William Fox (1879-19a52) was born in Tolcsva, Hungary. He was a furrier who started a film rental company and renovated a Nickelodeon.
And these people became...
Head of M-G-M: Louis B. Mayer
Head of Paramount: Adolph Zukor
Head of Universal: Carl Laemmle
The Warner Brothers: Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack.
Head of 20th Century Fox: William Fox.
None of these had any formal education. Mayer left school at age 11, Zukor left when he was 12 but was apprenticed to a shopkeeper for two or three more years and went to night school twice a week. Laemmle left school for an apprenticeship in sales when he was 13. Harry Warner seems to have left school about age 13 or 14. His brother Jack had a 4th grade education. Fox left school at age 11.
