ST—Racing Yachts and Pre-Code movies

[Robin Landseadel]

Having a brainstorm. Or freeze, your choice.
 
Multi-millionaire into racing yachts and pre-code movies?
 
Check and Double-Check (see pages 8, 97 and 103 of ST)
 
The impression I get from reading a lot of old New York Times posts is that George M. Pynchon
got rich as an investment broker—very rich—socialized with the likes of the Roosevelts, at least
early on, and was best known as a yacht racer. Had no hesitation in spending money on yachts.
Wonder what someone would do with a speedy boat in the 1920s with a total range of 4000
miles before refueling and easy access via open waters to Canada?
 
Also, plunged a lot of P & C money into Fox Films.
 
". . . The last years of the Roaring Twenties were a Wild West in Hollywood. Studios jockeyed
for position, looking for an edge in a booming business. Marcus Loew (of Loew’s MGM) died in
1927, Warner Bros. had secured the imagination of the industry’s future with Vitaphone Sound
on Disk technology that same year, while William Fox secured the sound-on-film MovieTone
technology to become industry standard. The synchronized sound arms race was only rivaled
by the question of who would take over the head of the largest film studio on the planet.
 
Having got into moving pictures during its New Jersey infancy alongside Thomas Edison, Fox
was in a powerful position to make a move for MGM. Fox was successful coast to coast, with
successful films and stars like “The Vamp” Theda Bara and Western mainstay Tom Mix. Fox
also brought German auteur F.W. Murnau to Hollywood, though the director’s life would also
soon find tragedy.
 
Merging Fox and MGM would save $17 million a year by streamlining sound era production and
exhibition. A bidding war began between Fox and Warner Bros., though Warners didn’t have the
capital to pull it off and would soon instead purchase First National. Fox was in a strong
position, having survived the onslaught of legal intimidation in New York by Edison’s Motion
Picture Patents Corporation and survived forced dealings with the Tammany Hall political
machine. Fox was also balancing his investments with an ability to regularly issue new stocks
that fueled exponential growth.
 
As Fox biographer Vanda Krefft wrote in The Man Who Made the Movies, “in his bid for Loew’s,
Fox was beginning to look dangerously like a monopolist.” The Justice Department was keeping
an eye on the movie industry, and Fox met with William J. Donovan of the U.S. antitrust division
to argue that Fox and MGM would have competing theater chains in the same towns (where
Fox would rake in profits from both, of course). Without pushback on antitrust, the deal was
nearly done by June 1929. Fox began investing heavily in expansion just before tragedy struck . . . "
 
When Fox Made the Wrong Bets — and Wound Up In a Hostile Takeover https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/william-fox-mgm-hollywood-mergers-1236302771/
 
Just remember that Pynchon & Company over-invested in Fox Films, leading to their collapse.
 
Ted Turner had better luck than William Fox in acquiring MGM:

. . .  After a failed attempt to acquire CBS, Turner instead purchased the film studio MGM/UA
Entertainment Co. from Kirk Kerkorian in 1986 for $1.5 billion. Following the acquisition, Turner
had amassed enormous debt and sold parts of the acquisition; Kerkorian bought back MGM/UA
Entertainment. The MGM/UA Studio lot in Culver City was sold to Lorimar/Telepictures. Turner
kept MGM's pre-May 1986 and pre-merger film and television library. Turner Entertainment
Co.was established in August 1986 to oversee film and television properties owned by Turner in
a deal with Kerkorian. . . . 

Ted Turner - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Turner
 
Speaking of racing yachts:

Ted Turner: The Icon, The Champion And Captain Outrageous https://www.sailingworld.com/racing/ted-turner-the-icon-the-champion-and-captain-outrageous/
 
“At the end of the day we must monetize our assets.”
“Weird Al" Yankovich, "Mission Statement”
 
Turner Classic Movies - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner_Classic_Movies
 
Timing is everything:
 
Pre-Code Essentials by Kim Luperi & Danny Reid & Candace Fitzgerald | Hachette Book Group https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-luperi/pre-code-essentials/9781668652404/
 
Copyright: October 2025.
 
Ted Turner died just two days ago, crazy.

“There must be a pony in here somewhere.”