After World War II
Although Schenck's power and prestige were at their peak after World War II, times were changing, as television loomed on the horizon. Like many in the motion picture industry, Schenck, however, adamantly refused to get involved with the new medium. In 1951, Louis B. Mayer had a falling out with Schenck over Dore Schary and Mayer was forced out of MGM.
By the middle of the decade, the price of MGM shares were sagging and stockholders were growing restive. On December 14, 1955, Arthur M. Loew, the son of Marcus Loew, succeeded Nicholas Schenck as the company's president, although Schenck remained Chairman of the Board. The following year, when Arthur Loew resigned for health reasons, Schenck defied the other directors in the efforts to secure a new president. When Joseph R. Vogel became president, Schenck was named honorary chairman, but retired altogether later that same year.
Nicholas Schenck divided his last years between his estates at Sands Point, Long Island, and Miami Beach. The former, which had purchased in 1942, consisted of a 20 acre (81,000 m²) property with a main house of 30 rooms, luxuriously appointed. It included a private movie theater and a 200-foot dock.
Read more about this topic: Nicholas Schenck
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
““If she belongs to any besides the present, it is to the next world which artists want to see, when paganism will come again and we can give a divinity to every waterfall.””
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“The war shook down the Tsardom, an unspeakable abomination, and made an end of the new German Empire and the old Apostolic Austrian one. It ... gave votes and seats in Parliament to women.... But if society can be reformed only by the accidental results of horrible catastrophes ... what hope is there for mankind in them? The war was a horror and everybody is the worse for it.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)