Marvin Schenck; MGM Executive

Marvin Schenck, film industry executive at Loews and MGM for more than half a century, has died at the age of 96.

Schenck, a New York native who moved to Hollywood in 1946, died Sunday in Los Angeles.

He began his career at the age of 15 as an office boy for the New York-based Marcus Loew Vaudeville Booking Agency.

After serving in the Navy during World War I, Schenck worked his way up to operating the Loew Theatres in New York and New Jersey. When theater owners and film companies separated, Schenck became a representative for MGM Studios in New York.

During World War II, Schenck chaired committees that staged a Navy relief show with Walter Winchell in Radio City Music Hall and another that produced an Army relief show with Ed Sullivan at Madison Square Garden. For more than a dozen years, he headed United Jewish Welfare’s annual “Night of Stars” benefit at Madison Square Garden.

Transferring to MGM’s Culver City studios, Schenck was credited with recruiting such stars as Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Ava Gardner, June Allyson, Esther Williams and Pearl Bailey.

Schenck retired from MGM as vice president in 1961.