Background

Schenck was born in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, to Jewish parents. He and his family including younger brother Nicholas emigrated to New York City in 1893; he and Nicholas eventually got into the entertainment business, operating concessions at New York's Fort George Amusement Park. Recognizing the potential, in 1909 the Schenck brothers purchased Palisades Amusement Park and afterward became participants in the fledgling motion picture industry in partnership with Marcus Loew, operating a chain of movie theaters.

Education

A native of Rybinsk, Russia, Schenck went to the United States in early childhood. He began his career as an errand boy, later progressing to ownership of drugstores in partnership with his brother Nicholas (destined to be president of Loew’s/MGM for nearly thirty years).

Career

In the early 1920s he founded Loew’s exhibition company together with Marcus Loew. Schenck married the film star Norma Talmadge in 1916, the year before he left Loew’s to become an independent producer. Among the stars for whom Schenck produced were his wife, her sister Constance Talmadge, the comedian Fatty Arbuckle, and Buster Keaton, who was married to the third Talmadge sister, Natalie. It was the freedom provided by his contract with Schenck that enabled Keaton to produce his finest work between 1920 and 1928.

In 1924 Schenck was offered the position of chairman of the board of United Artists, a company five years old and in financial difficulty. Schenck attracted much new talent, including Gloria Swanson, in addition to his own stars Buster Keaton and William S. Hart. Within four years United Artists had become profitable. Following the death of its president, Hiram Abrams, Schenck assumed his position. Other important names who became associated with its during Schenck’s tenure were Samuel Goldwyn, Walt Disney, and Alexander Korda.

In 1933, together with ex-Warner Brothers executive Darryl F. Zanuck, Schenck founded Twentieth Century Pictures and two years later, merged the company with Fox and resigned from United Artists. Schenck, the power behind Zanuck’s throne at Twentieth Century-Fox, was forced to resign as president in 1941, the year in which he served four months of a one-year prison sentence for tax offenses (for which he was later pardoned). He returned as an executive producer in 1944, finally leaving in 1952. The same year he was awarded a special Academy Award and founded his last company. This was Magna, set up with producer Michael Todd to exploit Todd’s new widescreen process, Todd-AO.

Schenck retired in 1957 and shortly afterward suffered a stroke, from which he never fully recovered. He died in Los Angeles in 1961 at the age of 82, and was interred in Maimonides Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Achievements

• One of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in 1952 he was given a special Academy Award in recognition of his contribution to the development of the film industry. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6757 Hollywood Blvd.

Works

More photos

• book

  • COFFEE IN THE MORNING AND KISSES IN THE NIGHT JOSEPH M. SCHENCK PRESENTS A DARRYL F. ZANUCK PRODUCTION CONSTANCE BENNETT IN Moulin Rouge sheet music

    (Scarce movie sheet music with light cover wear (mild surf...)

• film

  • Lottery Bride 1930

Connections

In 1916, through his involvement in the film business, Joseph Schenck met and married Norma Talmadge, a top young star with Vitagraph Studios. He would be the first of her three husbands, but she was his only wife. Schenck supervised, controlled and nurtured her career in alliance with her mother. In 1917 the couple formed the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation, which became a lucrative enterprise. They divorced in 1934; Schenck then built a home in Palm Springs, California.

Spouse:

Norma Talmadge

Brother:

Nicholas Schenck

colleague:

Darryl Zanuck

References

• The moguls
  1969