Marcus Loewe Left £8,000,000

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 246, 7 January 1928, Page 21

Marcus Loewe Left £8,000,000

M-G-M “Chief” Was Unspoilt By Wealth ROMANCE OF FILMDOM

Marcus Loewe was quite unspoilt by his sudden rise to wealth. This shrewd little man of affairs, who could not tell you offhand, within a hundred or two, how many theatres he owned, or was interested in financially—it was something between 400 and 600—inspired a genuine feeling of liking in all who met him. Before his first connections with films in 1908, at the age of 37, Marcus Loewe had made many business experiments. He began to earn money by selling newspapers out of school hours, when he was six years old. Before he was out of his teens he had a small paper of his own, the “East Side Advertiser,” which he sold, and then transferred his attention to dealing in furs. He failed, paid his creditors in full, and started again; failed a second time, paid once more, and then began to manufacture caps, at w’hich he made enough money to start dabbling in real estate. He was 23 by this time. His next-door neighbour in New York was David Warfield, the actor. The two became fast friends. In 1902 Warfield, acting at the time in Pittsburg, telegraphed to his friend in New York to “come and look at something.” The “something” was an arcade full of penny-in -the-slot machines, which was very successful. There was as yet nothing of the kind in New York, so Loewe, Warfield and two other friends, Adolph Zukor and Mitchell Mark, determined to supply the deficiency. Their

arcade cost them £12,000, but it brought back twice that sum before 12 months were over. Four other arcades quickly followed. Then, in 1908, a Cincinnati friend this time, called Loewe’s attention to a moving picture show in a small private house, by which the tenant was making £6 a day. Before the end of the week Marcus Loewe had fitted up a room with chairs and a projector and was taking £SO a day. A few years ago the number of visittors to the Loewe theatres in a year exceeded 70,000,000, and the receipts were over £5,000,000 for the same period. Marcus Loewe was the close associate in Britain of Sir William Jury, the doyen of the industry, for he has been connected with it for 29 years. Marcus Loewe remained himself an enthusiastic admirer of moving pictures.

THE fortune left by the late Marcus Loewe amounts, it is believed, to about £8,000,000. The estate and house at Glen Cove are alone estimated to be worth at least £1,000,000.

' T\OUBTLESB there will "be unprecedented mental confusion if one of these husband-call-ing contests is ever held in Hollywood.—“ Detroit Netcs.”