American Film Studio Executive and Businessman. He was a Russian Jewish immigrant; his family, including his older brother Joseph Schenck, immigrated to the United States in 1893 settling in a tenement on the Lower East Side of New York City before relocating to Harlem. His father was Haïm Scheincker. He and his brother Joe sold newspapers and worked at the local drugstore. Within two years, the brothers had saved enough money to purchase their own drugstore. Then the two brothers opened a beer stand with entertainment for commuters waiting at a train station. In 1905, he became a naturalized United States citizen. At this point, the brothers met another adventurous businessman, Marcus Loew. In 1909, Loew lent the two brothers enough capital to purchase Palisade Amusement Park in New Jersey, which they sold by 1935 for $450,000. Then they joined with Loew in various theater businesses and grained enough capital to invest in even more entertainment businesses. In 1919, Loew purchased his first movie studio. At this point, the Schenck brothers decided to separate with Nicholas staying in New York with Loew, and Joe going to Hollywood and later becoming the President of United Artist Corporation. Loew purchased more studios including Metro Pictures and Goldwyn Pictures. Nicholas Schenck was considered Loew’s “right-hand-man” and for his loyalty, he was rewarded by 1920 with the presidency of Loew's Incorporated. In 1924, Loew purchased another studio managed by an independent producer Louis B. Mayer; these studios merged, with Mayer as studio chief, into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM Studios. In 1927, Loew died suddenly; Mayer did not own stock in MGM, thus leaving control of the studio to Schenck with Loew’s sons in minor positions. There were hard feelings between the two before Loew’s death, but when William Fox of Fox Film Corporation made a deal to purchase MGM Studios in 1929, the situation exacerbated. This transaction with Fox never happened since Mayer encouraged a federal antitrust investigation; Fox was seriously injured in an auto accident, and by October 1929 the Stock Market crashed. Even with the tremendous loss of money in Stock Market crashing, Schenck’s stringent management of MGM was successful, becoming the only film company that continued to pay dividends during the Great Depression. He employed over 12,000 persons in his film industry conglomerate which he managed from New York. By 1932, his successful entertainment empire consisted of a thriving circuit of over 200 theaters and MGM Studios. Some sources state that he was the eighth richest man in the United States during the 1930’s. By the late-1940’s, the entertainment industry was changing as the small screen television was keeping the audience at home and out of the theaters. Stubbornly, Schenck did not want to change his thinking about the movie industry and firmly disagreeing with Mayer about what course the business should take. By 1951, Mayer was no longer with MGM Studios. The business started to fail in the 1950’s, the stockholders were angry and on December 14, 1955, Arthur M. Loew, the son of Loew, succeeded Schenck as the company's president. He remained Chairman of the Board, but the following year he was named honorary chairman with really no power; he retired that year at the age of 75. He divided his last years between his estates at Sand Point, Long Island, New York and his Florida 30- room mansion on Miami Beach enjoying his family. Once he was asked to name the three things he really loved; “Movies and racehorses….and family”, was his answer. His first marriage to Annie ended in divorce. His second wife was a beautiful show girl, Pansy Wilcox; they had three daughters. Started in 1948 and still in existence today, “The Nicholas and Pansy Schenck Foundation” is a very successful charity organization awarding gifts, grants and scholarships. Nicholas M. Schenk had a huge moral impact on the American society in that he decided which films were being viewed in his theaters 52-weeks-a-year from 1920 to the mid-1950’s. He was called the “General” and described as being a cold, hard-nose, often humiliating his employees; he was a man that people feared instead of respected. Without stating details, at times his business dealings were on the fine line between lawful and unlawful; in the 1950’s, the Supreme Court's anti-trust decision required theatrical divestment, which caused major problems with Loew's, Incorporated as it owned both the movie studio and the chain of theaters showing the movies.