Matthew M. Fox

Matthew M. Fox (February 4, 1911 – June 2, 1964) was an American film and television executive.

Early life Fox was born on February 4, 1911, in Racine, Wisconsin. In his youth, he worked as an usher and doorman at the Rialto Theater in Racine.

Entrepreneur By this time Matty Fox had cultivated a reputation as a brilliant, trail-blazing executive, noted for swinging many big-business deals. He pioneered syndicating films to television; his Motion Pictures for Television (MPTV) company was very successful, bringing hundreds of 1930s/1940s features to local TV stations. In 1955 Fox sold his MPTV interests to Reub Kaufman's Guild Films, another prominent syndicator, in preparation of Fox's greatest coup.

In December 1955, in a bold move that stunned the entertainment industry, Matty Fox negotiated the purchase of the entire film backlog of RKO Radio Pictures, comprising 740 feature films and more than 1,000 short subjects. As president of C & C Television Corp., Fox made the RKO library available to local TV stations, selling 16mm film prints to the stations and granting them the right to broadcast the films in perpetuity. Some stations continue to show C & C prints today. The "C & C" stood for Cantrell and Cochrane, soft-drink manufacturers intent on advertising its C & C Cola during broadcasts of the C & C films.

Fox also introduced pay television in the United States, via his Skiatron of America company. Undaunted, Fox revived his plans for pay-TV baseball in 1963 with a new firm, Subscription Television, Inc. Film Bulletin commented at the time, "Matty Fox is a hard man to keep down. [His] dream of harnessing the airwaves has not been suppressed, and he is back again with a new pay-TV plan [with two baseball teams] to have 20,000 paying customers in each city by July 1, 1964." Fox would not live to see his latest enterprise come to fruition.

Personal life In 1954, Fox married Yolande Betbeze, an opera singer and Miss America 1951. They had one daughter, Yolande "Dolly" Fox.

On June 2, 1964, Fox died from a heart attack at his Park Avenue home. A graveside service conducted by Rabbi Hyman Cohen of Beth-Israel Sinai Temple was held on June 4, 1964, in Racine.