The Automatic Vaudeville Company was a short-lived American entertainment business founded in 1903 by
Adolph Zukor
Adolph Zukor (; hu, Zukor Adolf; January 7, 1873 – June 10, 1976) was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'' (June 16, 1976), p. 76. He produ ...
,
David Warfield
David Warfield (November 28, 1866 – June 27, 1951) was an American stage actor.
Life and career
Warfield was born David Wohlfeld in San Francisco, California, to German-Jewish parents, Louise and Sigmund Wohlfeld. His first connection wit ...
and
Marcus Loew
Marcus Loew (May 7, 1870 - September 5, 1927) was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loew's Theatres and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio (MGM).
Life and career
Loew was born in New York City, ...
, which owned a chain of
penny arcade
''Penny Arcade'' is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website ''loonygames.com''. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have establish ...
s.
The company opened its first store in
Union Square, Manhattan
Union Square is a historic intersection and surrounding neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century. Its name denotes ...
. It was very successful, earning $20,000 in its first year and expanded to other outlets including in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
. However the owners rapidly had a falling out, and dissolved the company in 1904 dividing up the assets. Both elements of the business provided the basis for the formation of
major film studios
Major film studios are production and distribution companies that release a substantial number of films annually and consistently command a significant share of box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, th ...
, as the owners switched from amusement arcades to the rapidly growing movie market. Loew and Warfield's share formed the basis of
Loews Incorporated, backer of
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
, while Zukor went on to consolidate
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
. The conflict between the two men dating back to their early years reportedly continued for many years.
Another future Hollywood mogul
William Fox, the later founder of
Fox Film
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...
, was inspired by the company's success ito acquiring a penny arcade of his own. He eventually converted it into a
nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
and built up a chain into his own film empire.
[Krefft p.53-55]
References
{{Reflist
Bibliography
* Balio, Tino. ''The American Film Industry''. University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
* Krefft, Vanda. ''The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox''. HarperCollins, 2017.
* Ingham, John N. ''Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, Volume 1''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1983.
Entertainment companies established in 1903
Companies disestablished in 1904