Nicholas M. Schenck (Russian: Николай Михайлович Шейнкер) (November 14, 1880, Rybinsk, Russia – March 4, 1969, Florida, U.S.) was a Russian-American film studio executive and businessman.
Biography
Early life
One of seven children, Schenck was born to a Jewish household in Rybinsk, a town on the Volga River in the Yaroslavl Governorate of Tsarist Russia. With his parents, he and his brothers, George and Joseph, emigrated to the United States in 1892 It was the start of a testy relationship that would last for almost four decades.
In 1927, Marcus Loew died suddenly, leaving control of Loew's to Schenck. In 1929, William Fox, head of rival studio Fox Film Corporation, arranged to buy controlling interest from Schenck. When Mayer found out about the sale, he was outraged; although he was a Loew's vice president, he was not a shareholder and had no say in the deal. Mayer went to the Justice Department and, through his political connections, managed to get the deal stalled on antitrust grounds.
Shortly afterward, in the summer of 1929, Fox was seriously injured in a car accident. By the time he had recovered, the stock market crash had nearly wiped out his fortune. Schenck blamed Mayer for costing him millions, and this made an already icy relationship even worse.
However, due to the stock market crash, the Loew's–Fox deal would have been dead even if the Justice Department had given the deal its blessing.
By 1932, Schenck was running an entertainment empire that consisted of a thriving theater circuit and MGM. The conglomerate, which Schenck continued to manage closely from New York City, employed 12,000 people. Schenck, by demanding a tight production schedule, created tension with Mayer and Irving Thalberg, who was production chief until his early death in 1936. Nonetheless, thanks to Schenck's stringent management, MGM was successful, becoming the only film company that continued to pay dividends during the Great Depression.
Under Schenck's leadership, the studio produced a great quantity of films, and the studio system allowed it to retain a wide array of talent under its roof: Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Garland, Robert Taylor, the Jeanette MacDonald–Nelson Eddy team and many others. Schenck's adroit business sense made him a wealthy man. In 1927, he and Joseph were reported to be worth about $20 million (approximately $500 million in today's money, possibly more), with a combined yearly income of at least a million. By some estimates, Nicholas Schenck was the eighth richest individual in the United States during the 1930s.
After World War II
Although Schenck's power and prestige were at their peak after World War II, times were changing, as television loomed on the horizon. Like many in the motion picture industry, however, Schenck adamantly refused to get involved with the new medium. In 1951, Louis B. Mayer had a falling out with Schenck over Dore Schary's position at MGM and Mayer was forced out of the studio.
By the middle of the decade, the price of MGM shares was sagging and stockholders were growing restive. On December 14, 1955, Arthur M. Loew, the son of Marcus Loew, succeeded Nicholas Schenck as the company's president, although Schenck remained chairman of the board. The following year, when Arthur Loew resigned for health reasons, Schenck defied the other directors in the efforts to secure a new president. When Joseph R. Vogel became president, Schenck was named honorary chairman, but retired altogether later that same year.
Nicholas Schenck divided his last years between his estates at Sands Point, Long Island, and Miami Beach. The former, which he had purchased in 1942, consisted of a 20-acre (81,000 m<sup>2</sup>) property with a main house of 30 rooms, luxuriously appointed. It included a private movie theater and a 200-foot dock.
Personal life
Nicholas Schenck's first marriage ended in divorce. In 1927, he married socialite and former vaudeville entertainer Pansy Wilcox (1898–1987), whose brother was director Fred M. Wilcox. Her sister was actress Ruth Selwyn (1905–1954), wife of Edgar Selwyn.
Nicholas and Pansy had three daughters: Marti, who acted under the name Marti Stevens, Joanne (born August 1, 1932) and Nicola (born December 13, 1933, in New York). Nicola married actor Helmut Dantine; they had three children. She acted under the name Niki Dantine.
Schenck owned and raced Thoroughbred horses. His filly Cobul, who raced under his wife's name, won the 1958 Astoria Stakes.
Death
Schenck died following a stroke in Florida in 1969.