Joseph Vogel (executive)

Joseph Richard Vogel (September 7, 1895 – March 1, 1969) was an American executive best known for his stint at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including a reign as president from 1956 to 1963.

Vogel was born in New York and attended Townsend Harris High School. He started working part-time as an usher at the Loew's Palace Theatre in Brownsville, Brooklyn and at age 18 was appointed manager of the Fulton Theatre for Loew's.^[1] He became the manager of Loew's State Theatre in New York City when it opened in August 1921.^[2] He worked his way up Loew's Theatres and by 1934 was in charge of all their theatres outside New York. In 1939 he became a director of Loew's Inc. and by 1945 became director for all their theatres.^[1]

In 1954 following a government decree separating Loew's production and distribution actives from the exhibition company, Vogel was elected president of Loew's Theatres Inc.^[3][1]

In October 1956 Vogel replaced Arthur M. Loew, son of founder Marcus Loew, as president of Loew's Inc., which was renamed MGM Inc.^[4][5][1]

MGM had been loss-making and had to deal with a significant corporate turmoil, including a takeover attempt in 1957 from former president Louis B. Mayer in association with two board members, Stanley Meyer and Joseph Tomlinson. Mayer attacked Vogel calling him a "fool" and not "capable of filling the post – no more capable of filling it than you would be fighting the heavyweight champion."^[6] However Vogel managed to fight off the takeover attempt and Mayer died of leukemia in 1957.^[7]

Vogel and his head of production Sol Siegel initially enjoyed a number of successful years at MGM, green lighting such movies as Gigi (1958), North by Northwest (1959), King of Kings (1961) and most notably Ben-Hur (1959).^[8] Gigi and Ben-Hur won the Academy Award for Best Picture back-to-back.^[1] Ben-Hur, which Vogel had insisted be made against the will of the board, was the second highest-grossing film of all time behind the studio's Gone With the Wind and helped make the company profitable again.^[5] He also made the costly How the West Was Won (1962) against the will of the board, but it was also a hit.^[5]

However he also oversaw a number of expensive flops, such as the remakes of Cimarron (1960), Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1961), and especially Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), which ultimately caused millions in losses.^[5]

Vogel was forced to resign in January 1963, replaced by Robert O'Brien and was moved upstairs to the role of chairman.^[1] Four months later he retired to Palm Beach, Florida.^[1] He had surgery for brain cancer and died at Palm Beach hospital on March 1, 1969, of a heart attack.^[3][1][5] He was survived by a wife Lena and son Richard.^[1] He was the brother of cinematographer Paul C. Vogel.

In 1959 he was made Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic following completion of Ben-Hur.^[5]

• The Reluctant Debutante (1958)
• Imitation General (1958)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
• Torpedo Run (1958)
• The Badlanders
• The Tunnel of Love (1958)
• Some Came Running (1959)
• Green Mansions (1959)
• North by Northwest (1959)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• Never So Few (1959)
• The Last Voyage (1960)
• Home from the Hill (1960)
• Bells Are Ringing (1960)
• BUtterfield 8 (1960)
• Where the Boys Are (1960)
• Cimarron (1960)
• The Honeymoon Machine (1961)
• King of Kings (1961)
• Bridge to the Sun (1961)
• Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962)
• Light in the Piazza (1962)
• Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
• Lolita (1962)
• Ride the High Country (1961)
• The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
• Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
• How the West Was Won (1962)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
• Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962)

• MGM at IMDb