Everything about Spyros Skouras totally explained
Spyros P. Skouras (
March 28,
1893 –
August 16,
1971) was an American movie executive who was the chairman of the
Twentieth Century Fox from
1942 to
1962. He resigned
June 27,
1962 effective
September 30. An immigrant to America from
Greece, his accent was so pronounced that
Bob Hope would joke "Spyros has been here twenty years but he still sounds as if he's coming next week." Skouras oversaw the production of such epics as "
Cleopatra" with
Elizabeth Taylor, as well as the creation of
Century City.
Biography
Born in Skourohorion,
Greece, Skouras along with his brothers
Charles Skouras and
George Skouras arrived in St. Louis from Greece, the sons of a poor sheep herder rose to become top movie executives in some of
Hollywood's biggest studios.
Living frugally on wages as busboys and bartenders in downtown hotels, the brothers pooled their savings of $3500 in
1914. In partnership with two other
Greeks, the Skourases constructed a modest nickelodeon at 1420 Market Street on the site of today's
Kiel Opera House. This initial property was named the Olympia, was quickly followed by the acquisition of other theaters.
The Skouras Brothers Co. of
St. Louis dream of building a world-class movie palace in downtown St. Louis was grandly realized in
1926 when the $5.5 million
Ambassador Theatre Building opened. This theatre opened in 1939 as the New
Fox Theatre. They incorporated with $400,000 capital stock with more than thirty local theaters belonged to the Skouras empire by
1924. Five years later, the triumvirate sold out to
Warner Brothers and moved east to claim top executive places in the industry.
In
1932, the Skouras Brothers (Spyros, George and Charles) took over the management of over 500 Fox-West Coast theaters. Spyros helped merge Fox with 20th Century films in the
1930's and he served as president from
1942 to
1962. During Skouras' tenure he worked to rescue the faltering movie industry from television's lure.
20th Century Fox's famous advertising slogan,
Movies are Better than Ever, gained credibility in
1953 when Spyros introduced
Cinemascope in the studio's groundbreaking feature film
The Robe. With his introduction of
Cinemascope, Skouras did much to save the movie industry from its newly invented competitor -- television..
(External Link
)(External Link)
And yet, like many movie tycoons since, Skouras was brought low by the excesses on such films as "Cleopatra," where cost overruns set in motion a shareholder revolt that dethroned him.
Skouras died from a
heart attack at the age of 78.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Spyros Skouras'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://spyros_skouras.totallyexplained.com">Spyros Skouras Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
