Marvin Davis

"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."

"By now, I had zero relationship with Marvin Davis and began to play by the strictest interpretation of the joint venture. I disliked the way Marvin had mixed his personal life with the business of Fox, so I called him up and said now that the company was a joint venture, he would no longer be able to dictate or authorize any expenditure on his own. He couldn’t have his Carousel Ball charity dinner paid for by Fox, or have his children officed at the studio, or any of the myriad nonbusiness items he’d been charging to the studio. He said, “I’ll do what I want.” I told him, “I want to be very clear—listen carefully. You own fifty percent of the equity of this company, and you have fifty percent rights with the other owner, News Corp. I’m the chief executive officer, and I have all operating powers. All you have is your half vote, so you can literally do nothing in the conduct of the business other than vote your shares, which unless you have the vote of Murdoch means you can’t do squat.” Fox wasn’t going to be any more fun for Marvin Davis. I was finally learning how to play by big-boy rules."

"Rupert and I met secretly at Hillcrest Country Club across the street from Fox, where Davis was a member. It was just the two of us. Rupert is gifted with great charm whenever he is after a goose, and it was on full display. He wanted to know what my plans for the company were. As I told him, he was completely enthusiastic, and the hot bath of Rupert Murdoch’s enthusiasm is something quite extraordinary. The only issue that worried him about buying into Fox was my agreement with Davis. He said he’d be very uncomfortable if by contract he could talk to me only once a year and couldn’t speak to any Fox executives. I said that was a purely defensive move on my part toward Marvin Davis, and that I thought with him I’d enjoy more collaboration."

"A few weeks later, while I was preparing for litigation, Marvin Davis called me—without any preamble, no hello, no reference to our last conversation—and said with brio, “I’ve sold half the company to Rupert Murdoch.” Now, that was a stunner. I guess I did get his attention. At that time, all Murdoch owned in the United States was the *New York Post* and a few other papers and magazines. I had met him socially, but didn’t know much about him. Davis said that before Murdoch would agree to the deal, he wanted to meet me."

"I returned his call within minutes. He said, “I’d like to get together with you.” I told him, “Sure, when I next get to L.A.” He said, “No, I’d like it soon and privately if possible.” We arranged to have lunch the next week at my L.A. house. I asked my cook to prepare a big lunch for the big man. Nevertheless, I had never seen anyone eat like that. I later found out that Marvin Davis kept an immense number of ties in reserve, because food would be all over him within two minutes of beginning a meal. He ate a huge amount of roast beef at this lunch, and between mouthfuls he announced, “Twentieth Century Fox is a disaster. I’ve owned it for two years, and they make terrible movie after terrible movie.”"

"Marvin Davis was still a 50 percent partner when all this happened, so we had no choice but to tell him about this opportunity. He said, “Okay, I’m in, but I don’t know enough about the broadcast business, so I’ll just take an option until I know more.” Typical Davis bullshit, but I didn’t care, because at least it got us going."