The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox

I have been given a copy of this book by Harper Collins in exchange for an honest review.

Today's post is on The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox by Vanda Krefft. It is 944 pages including notes and other research resources and it is published by Harper Collins.  The cover is a picture of William Fox. The intended reader is someone who likes forgotten history and old Hollywood. There is mild foul language, no sex. and, no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- A riveting story of ambition, greed, and genius unfolding at the dawn of modern America. This landmark biography brings into focus a fascinating brilliant entrepreneur—like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney, a true American visionary—who risked everything to realize his bold dream of a Hollywood empire.
Although a major Hollywood studio still bears William Fox’s name, the man himself has mostly been forgotten by history, even written off as a failure. Now, in this fascinating biography, Vanda Krefft corrects the record, explaining why Fox’s legacy is central to the history of Hollywood.
At the heart of William Fox’s life was the myth of the American Dream. His story intertwines the fate of the nineteenth-century immigrants who flooded into New York, the city’s vibrant and ruthless gilded age history, and the birth of America’s movie industry amid the dawn of the modern era. Drawing on a decade of original research, The Man Who Made the Movies offers a rich, compelling look at a complex man emblematic of his time, one of the most fascinating and formative eras in American history. 
Growing up in Lower East Side tenements, the eldest son of impoverished Hungarian immigrants, Fox began selling candy on the street. That entrepreneurial ambition eventually grew one small Brooklyn theater into a $300 million empire of deluxe studios and theaters that rivaled those of Adolph Zukor, Marcus Loew, and the Warner brothers, and launched stars such as Theda Bara. Amid the euphoric roaring twenties, the early movie moguls waged a fierce battle for control of their industry. A fearless risk-taker, Fox won and was hailed as a genius—until a confluence of circumstances, culminating with the 1929 stock market crash, led to his ruin.

Review- A fascinating biography about a man who helped movies become the cultural phenomenon that they are today. Krefft did excellent research for this biography and she pours all of her heart into this book; it shows. She helps us understand what drove William Fox and how it led to his downfall. William Fox was pushed into the role of provider for his whole family from the age of ten and that influenced the rest of his life.  He believed in his dream that the pictures could reach and help people to forget their troubles for a little while. Fox was driven to succeed and do just about anything to do so but he was an honorable man who loved and respected the law and justice. That was a major point in his movies. It was up-lifting to read about his successes but when the fall came it was truly tragic to read about. He  reached for everything and in the end he paid for it with everything. If old Hollywood and tragic lives are interesting to you then you should read this book.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars.