Cinemagnification

When William Fox, cinema magnate, magnifies his business, as he again did last week by the purchase of 356 theatres, he enjoys the luxury of reminiscence. Tul-chva, Hungarian village, was his start; the cinema-gorged gulches at Los Angeles his end. On the way was childhood immigration to the U. S.; adult work in Manhattan cutting cloth to cloak & suit patterns for $17 a week; saving of $1,600 and purchase of a Brooklyn ''hole in the wall" for exhibition of what passed for moving pictures in 1904; investment, speculation, expansion as an exhibitor, producer, distributor of films. Last March he bought the Roxy Theatre in Manhattan for "more than $15,000,000" two weeks after it opened. Seating 6,200 people it has been called the "largest theatre in the world," has been entirely filled at practically every performance, to his great profit. For him it is a world of amusement in itself. But that world and a baker's dozen of cinema display houses in Manhattan were not enough for him. He looked westward. Along the Pacific Coast -- in California, Oregon and Washington -- and in Nevada and Montana, the West Coast circuit owned 250 theatres. In Wisconsin was the Saxe circuit with 50 houses, and in Chicago the Ascher circuit's seven. Their proper ties combined were worth $100,000,000. The Paramount -Famous -Lasky group wanted them, as did the First National and the Metro-Goldwyn. Mr. Fox bid highest, won. With more than 300 houses in his circuit he has assured display for the films his three California studios produce. Only Paramount - Famous -Lasky. who control Publix Theatres, outstring him in the cinema field.*

*The Keith-Albee & Orpheum vaudeville circuits, now merged (TIME, Dec. 19), control 700 theatres.