American comics: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Fox Films, Century City, west of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

After a period of preparation, William Fox recently publicly admitted that he had sold Fox Films, which caused quite a stir in Hollywood.

"The capital tycoon from New York has come to Hollywood!"

This was the headline on the front page of the Los Angeles Times on the first day the news came out.

Colin Looper, as the owner of the largest newspaper in New York, is not only a newspaper tycoon, but also the creator of Superman, a TV manufacturer, and a friend of the president. None of these should be underestimated.

Such a tycoon with huge capital acquires a film company, and no one thinks that he just does it casually.

Especially as Wall Street reported that Colin had contact with Otto Kahn before acquiring Fox and expressed his desire to acquire Paramount. It makes people think that this New York newspaper tycoon has long had ambitions for Hollywood, so after failing to acquire Paramount, he turned to Fox and eventually became the new owner of Fox Films.

Later, as more people confirmed, the relationship between Colin and Howard Hughes, the investment in Disney and the scene of the previous Hollywood dinner further proved this point.

This newspaper tycoon actually started to lay out Hollywood a long time ago. Many directors had the experience of talking with him at the dinner that day.

The current rumors from within Hollywood cannot be said to be wrong. Colin did have ideas about Hollywood a long time ago. The earliest can even be traced back to when he first came to Los Angeles and met Howard Hughes. At that time, he learned from Luo Yin that Paramount was on the verge of bankruptcy, and this idea came to his mind.

However, unlike the major film studios in Hollywood, Colin's purpose of acquiring a film company is not to maintain a huge ambition for Hollywood, or to create a film empire of his own like William Fox, the former owner of Fox Film Company.

His purpose of acquiring the studio was very simple, just to be able to use it to produce a series of superhero movies around "Superman". Even under this premise, he allowed the movie to incur a certain degree of loss in box office revenue, as long as he could collect more [Faith].

As mentioned before, Colin is not a filmmaker, and he has never thought of becoming a so-called filmmaker.

The film studio is a tool for him, a medium for him to obtain [Faith] and upgrade [Golden Seal].

He has tried newspaper serials, comic magazines, radio stations broadcasting radio dramas and producing television sets to play TV animations, so he naturally doesn't mind another movie production.

…

"Is it coming?"

The rumors in Hollywood also affected the employees of Fox Film Company. Everyone was a little uneasy about the new boss who was about to take over.

Although the new President Roosevelt had come to power, the Great Depression did not dissipate with it, and the unemployment rate in Los Angeles remained high.

Even without Colin's acquisition, the current financial situation of Fox Film Company was quite bad.

Under the influence of the general environment, Fox has not produced a hit movie for several months in a row, and even the film studio in Beverly Hills has been shut down for a long time.

It is precisely because of these reasons that most employees are pessimistic about Colin's arrival. Even though the Fox Film Company under William Fox has not paid enough wages for some time, a decent job is still the only difference between most people and homeless people during this period.

Once fired by the company, most of them can only take off their suits and join the ranks of homeless people.

Such a mood of worrying about gains and losses exists not only in the bottom employees of Fox, but also in the middle and senior management.

After all, there are many middle-class and even wealthy people who went bankrupt during the Great Depression. Not to mention the former boss of Fox Film Company, William Fox, because his assets were severely hit during the Great Depression, he was even forced to go to jail because of debt, otherwise he would not have sold his film company and the entire industrial chain to Colin.

It is precisely for this reason that when the new boss was coming to Los Angeles, the entire Fox Film Company was so nervous.

In this way, in the midst of everyone's uneasiness, the person in charge of Fox Films appeared.

Unexpectedly, this person was not the expected newspaper tycoon - Colin Looper.

"Huh~"

Louise Walton, who got off the car in a professional suit jacket, looked at the Fox Films in front of her with a complicated expression on her face.

She had never thought that one day she would return to Los Angeles and Hollywood in this way.

"Ms. Louise Walton?"

From the previous contact, the person in charge of the film company already knew Louise's identity, but looking at the empty figure behind her, the person in charge couldn't help showing a look of surprise in his eyes, and asked carefully: "Excuse me, where is Mr. Colin Looper?"

"Mr. Colin Looper has gone to the production department of Fox."

After coming back to her senses during the person in charge's inquiry, Louise informed the Fox staff of Colin's whereabouts.

As the saying goes, even a rotten ship still has three-inch nails. Under the impact of the Great Depression, although the entire Hollywood film market has experienced an unprecedented slump, and the situation of Fox Films has become extremely precarious, it was once one of the top studios in Hollywood. Both its production department and cinema industry are still relatively intact, and there is no serious loss.

Of course, this is also closely related to the sluggish market of the entire cinema. The cinemas in Times Square, New York need to survive by showing erotic films 24 hours a day. The situation of major cinemas in Los Angeles is not much better.

During the entire Great Depression, more than 100 cinemas were closed. Except for MGM, almost all studios suffered serious losses. Even if Washington has changed its new owner, it still has not changed this situation.

"What, do you need me to arrange someone to meet Mr. Colin Looper..."

Hearing Louis's answer, the person in charge of Fox was surprised at first, and then quickly reacted and said hurriedly.

This is the company's new boss. If there is any problem in the production department, the whole Fox will not be able to bear it if he is offended.

"No need, Mr. Colin Luper hopes this is fine."

Shaking her head and rejecting the proposal of the person in charge, Louise remembered what Colin had told her before she came. She glanced at the person in charge who was still a little uneasy, and a trace of pity flashed in her heart, but she quickly extinguished this pity.

"Let's go in. Mr. Colin Luper has made arrangements for the future development of Fox."

Nodding to the lawyer behind her, Louise Walton then entered the interior of Fox Film Company under the guidance of the person in charge.

...

"It can be seen that William Fox once had great ambitions for the development of Fox, otherwise he would not have built such a huge studio here..."

In front of the 300-acre studio of Fox in Beverly Hills, Colin couldn't help shaking his head and said.

The entire huge studio was once the pride of William Fox, but it became the last straw that broke the camel's back during the Great Depression.

Building such a large-scale studio requires huge investment, which is not only William Fox's own money, but also the bank's money.

And all this has become a huge burden for William Fox with the occurrence of the Great Depression.

As his assets shrank, he was unable to pay the subsequent expenses of the studio, which was one of the main reasons why William Fox was finally imprisoned.

Colin also could not afford the expenses of this land and the huge and advanced studio on it, even though he had obtained a lot of working capital from the imported wine business. Fortunately, the choice of capital in business operations is not only real money. The existence of Superman not only gained him a lot of [faith], but also represented extremely huge benefits.

And this is enough. As long as Superman is in Colin's hands for one day, the bank believes that he has enough ability to repay Fox Studios.

Not to mention that in addition, he also controls the largest newspaper in New York and the production of the emerging industry of television.

After stopping at the door for a while, Colin then entered the studio.

At present, most departments in the entire Fox Studio are in a state of shutdown. After all, filming is a very expensive business, and Fox's current situation obviously does not have so much capital to continue.

Nowadays, some cinemas under Fox are showing old films in the past, and even some more remote cinemas have just been closed to reduce more unnecessary expenses.

After walking around the studio, Colin's purpose of this trip is certainly not to simply visit the industry he acquired. He is also thinking about the direction of the movies that Fox or simply put, the studio needs to shoot next.

There is no doubt that the main purpose of Colin's acquisition of Fox Film Company is to shoot the "Superman" movie.

Although, before that, he may cooperate with Howard Hughes to release "Titanic" first. After all, this is his first movie shot in the positive world anyway. Even if his purpose of "creating" the script was not pure at the beginning, Howard Hughes sank a big ship to shoot this movie. As a screenwriter, Colin has to express his opinion.

Especially now that he has acquired Fox Film Corporation, he also has a large number of cinemas. Instead of leaving them there to show old movies or closing them to gather dust, it is better to open them and show them. By the way, Colin can also take the opportunity to show "Titanic" to familiarize himself with the film process and lay the foundation for his own production and production of "Superman" movies.

Colin does not need to worry too much about the problems of "Titanic", Howard Hughes can handle it all.

At present, what Colin needs to think about is how to make the live-action version of "Superman".

It is not an easy thing to make a live-action superhero movie in this era. After all, if the normal historical development is followed, the earliest live-action TV related to Superman will not appear until 1948, and the movie will not appear on the big screen until 1978.

That is to say, Christopher Reeve, the first actor who played Superman known to the public, was not even born in this era, and even the existence of their parents at this moment is a question.

Obviously, it is not an easy thing to bring "Superman" to the big screen in this era.

As the appearance of the real-life version of Superman, Colin naturally does not want to make a hasty decision, which will not only affect his promotion of the Superman movie, but also hinder his collection of [belief].

It is for this reason that Colin needs to go to Fox's studio to see the situation here with his own eyes and make arrangements for the next filming plan of "Superman".

Compared with the problems of the "Superman" movie, the problems of Fox Film Company are not so important.

】

……

"……According to the request of Mr. Colin Luper, Fox Film Company will be officially renamed Messenger Film Company in the future."

Fox Film Company, no, it may be called Messenger Film Company in the future.

Louise first announced the first decision made by Colin. The staff of Fox Films did not react much to this opinion. This was a very normal practice. The acquisition of the company, the name change or the merger of two names, was completely in accordance with the idea of ​​the new boss.

Of course, many times, some companies would find it troublesome to change their names and simply not make changes.

This can also be seen in the acquisition of Fox Films in the original world. William Fox had been kicked out of Fox, but the company was still named after him.

"In addition, another thing Mr. Colin Luper told me was..."

In the meeting room, Louise's eyes swept over the people in Fox, stayed on them for a while, and then announced the second thing arranged by Colin.

"From now on, all employees of Fox Films are fired, which means that everyone present, no, all the staff of the entire Fox Films are no longer employees of the company."

"What?!"

"How could it be!"

"What happened..."