Hands Across the Sea

Two movie tycoons, representing, in effect, the U.S. and British movie industries, last week reached an important decision. Instead of fighting each other in world markets -- wherein Hollywood now has a virtual monopoly and the British have high hopes -- they agreed henceforth to lend each other a helping hand. This was top-rank international business news.

For all practical purposes, the British industry is mainly Cinemagnate J. Arthur Rank (TIME, Dec. 20). Among the new crop of Hollywood tycoons, perhaps the most up-&-coming is the boss of Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., Spyros Panajotis Skouras, 51. Three months ago muscular Tycoon Skouras flew to England to see Tycoon Rank. With him Spyros Skouras carried the worries of Hollywood about Cinemagnate Rank. Was Mr. Rank willing to come to terms, or was he getting ready for a knockdown, drag-out fight for a chunk of Hollywood's world monopoly? Last week persuasive Mr. Skouras clippered back to Manhattan. In his pocket was the deal with Rank.

In a statement full of hands-across-the sea, Skouras said: "The arrangements which we have concluded will prove very beneficial not only to Twentieth Century but to the British and American motion-picture industries as a whole. . . . Our industry has acquired a strong and permanent business ally in the United Kingdom."

The deal:* 1) gave Twentieth Century producing facilities in Britain which it lacked; 2) granted Rank a plum he has long sought--distributing facilities in the U.S., through Twentieth Century, for his British films. In addition, Twentieth Century and Rank will team up on two to four big-budget pictures this year (cost: $1,000,000 each) and will boost this to eight after war's end.

The Brothers Skouras. Tycoon Skouras is used to speaking of the movie industry as "our industry." With his equally famed brother, Charles, 56, boss of National Theaters, one of the three biggest U.S. chains, and George, 49, head of Skouras Theaters Corp. (85 houses), he controls a large chunk of it. The Skouras brothers climbed together. All were born in Skouro-chorion, Greece (meaning: Skourasville). Charlie came to the U.S. first. As a newsboy, dishwasher and bartender, he soon earned enough to send for the others. He settled Spyros into a job as bus boy in St. Louis' Planters' Hotel. They soon saved enough to buy a nickelodeon and a second-hand wrestling mat. They made money running the movie nights and kept fit by wrestling in the mornings. Charlie shucked off persistent film salesmen with the challenge: "I'll rassle you three minutes, and if I don't make you unconscious I'll buy the film."

Stormy Weather. With Spyros handling the finances, the brothers expanded. They combined shrewd showmanship with outrageous customer pampering. If a picture was so bad they didn't dare advertise its name, they advertised "Take-A-Chance Week." They taught ushers to salute customers, mind children, run their errands.

By 1926 Spyros and his brothers controlled some 37 theaters in St. Louis, had branched out to Indianapolis and Kansas City. They sold out to Warner Brothers, who hired Spyros as general manager at a reported salary of $3,500 weekly. Shortly before the Warner chain felt the depression, Spyros went into partnership with Paramount (salary: $156,000 a year). As boss of its Fox Metropolitan Theaters in Manhattan, he turned a $1,000,000 annual loss into a $200,000 profit. From there he went to manage Wesco Corp., the holding company for all Fox theaters. Gradually Wesco expanded, changed its name to National Theaters. Two years ago, Spyros moved into his present job, and Wendell Willkie became board chairman. Charlie moved up to boss National Theaters.

Muscle Building. A round-the-clock worker, Spyros sometimes, puts in as many as 20 hours a day in his paneled Manhattan office. To keep in shape he exercises in the morning with company underlings in his private office gym, talks over business while being rubbed down. On weekends he fills his home at Mamaroneck, N.Y. with people, treats his guests to movies in his private theater. The shortest private Skouras show on record: two full-length features and eight shorts.

Sometimes guests take even heavier punishment. Once, on the way home with Broadway Producer Jed Harris, Spyros decided to stop off at a Greek wedding in Philadelphia and do a few other errands. Before they reached Mamaroneck some 16 hours later they had driven and flown 1,000 miles. Intensely proud of anything Greek, Spyros has named his five children Daphne, 21, Diana, 18, Dionysia, 17, Spyros Jr., 19, and Plato, 14.

More For Spyros. For his explosive energy, Twentieth Century pays Spyros $254,000 a year. From National Theaters Corp., which has been a Twentieth Century subsidiary for a year, Charlie collects $315,000. From Skouras Theaters the three brothers collect $52,000 each. Their salaries go into a common pot. From it Spyros and Charlie take 37 1/2% , George 25%.

Twentieth Century now has a plan afoot --devised by Spyros--which may boost his income substantially. Fortnight ago Twentieth Century stockholders by a vote of 1,569,000 to 100,000 shares (largest vote in company history) approved a plan to give Spyros and 19 other company executives options to buy 140,000 shares of Twentieth Century stock in the next eight years at 24- 1/4:. As president, Skouras can buy 70,000 shares. The rest will be split among 19 officials, down to an assistant sales manager (salary $15,000 a year).

Twentieth Century officials readily admit that the stock options are a move to 1) give Skouras a bonus; 2) hog-tie him to the company by inducing him to acquire a sizable stock interest (see below).

By week's end, with Twentieth Century stock up to 24 1/2, Skouras could already count on a small paper profit, barring unforeseen legal complications, if he took up his option. As far as Twentieth Century was concerned, this was all to the good. Said one official: "The company wants to keep him for the next ten, 15 or 20 years. They want to tie him up."

*Variety reported in January that the Justice Department's Antitrust Division was investigating pending Rank deals "in the belief that the first world cartel" in motion pictures "may be in the making." Last week the Antitrust Division denied that any such investigation was under way.

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