20th Century Fox

"At six feet four and weighing more than three hundred pounds, Marvin Davis qualified as a big man… except in terms of honesty and integrity. He claimed to all that he *owned* 20th Century Fox. That’s the title he took for himself: owner. As if he had put up all the money. In fact, he put up only $25 million, got the fugitive Marc Rich, on the run from an indictment on charges of tax evasion, racketeering, and wire fraud, to secretly put up another $25 million, and borrowed the rest of the purchase price. He fashioned himself as a Denver oilman, but he wasn’t the kind of westerner you’d imagine an oilman to be: he was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in the Bronx."

"My eyes zeroed in on the last call—it was from another Davis, Marvin Davis, no relation to Martin. This Davis was the Denver oil tycoon who had recently bought 20th Century Fox. Marvin Davis had never before called me. But I knew, just intuitively knew, when I saw that name that this was going to be the key to my getting out of Paramount with more than my tail intact. I’m not conflating the timing of events here. It happened just this way: deciding once and for all that I had to leave and getting that phone call five minutes later. Somehow the gods must have decreed that I deserved a savior from *Martin* Davis, and he would be named *Marvin* Davis. In a lifetime filled with inexplicably serendipitous moments, this one topped them all."