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Vanda Krefft
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Vanda Krefft
Author of The Man Who Made the Movies (HarperCollins), biography of 20th Century Fox founder William Fox
Hollywood
History
Biography
Film
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Substack
Book a 1:1 with Vanda Krefft
Hi!

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Talk soon,
Sam

Hello, and welcome

On my mind

I love history, especially 20th century American cultural history, and learning about forgotten people who made a difference. Right now, I'm working on a book about the Katharine Gibbs School, which trained women as executive secretaries and equipped them with strategies to advance to leadership positions--so many fascinating stories that quietly revolutionized the working world and set the stage for today's career women. Film history also remains a strong interest and I'm planning future books in that field.

Why I'm excited to talk with readers

Connecting with readers is inspiring and energizing--I want to write about what you want to know. It's also rewarding to be able to share behind-the-scenes information and/or stories that didn't make it onto the page.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Vanda

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My latest
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 by 
Vanda Krefft
Where I've written

The Man Who Made the Movies

The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox

More than anyone else in film history, Twentieth Century Fox founder William Fox deserves the title: the man who made the movies. His pivotal contributions to the industry’s art, technology, and business have never been matched.

Raised in the fetid slums of Lower East Side New York, with only a third grade education, Fox produced hundreds of feature films. He created the screen’s first brand name sex symbol, legendary vamp Theda Bara, and gave crucial early career breaks to directors John Ford, William Wellman, Howard Hawks, and Frank Borzage. Fox brought the great German director F. W. Murnau to Hollywood and gave him carte blanche to make Sunrise (1927), now widely considered one of the best movies ever made.

In 1929 William Fox was the most powerful person in the worldwide motion picture industry. Then, suddenly, he lost his whole empire. Struggling to get it back, he ended up in federal prison.

The Man Who Made the Movies…does make a strong case for Fox’s crucial contribution to how the movies as we know them happened, along the way revealing a life of amazing accomplishment that moved inexorably into the realm of tragedy…brilliantly researched.”

Robert Gottlieb, former editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, The New York Review of Books

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