- Ted Mann
Ted Mann (
April 16 ,1916 –January 15 ,2001 ) was an Americanbusinessman , involved in thefilm industry, and head ofMann Theatres . He famously changed the name ofGrauman's Chinese Theater to Mann's Chinese Theater when he purchased the National General Theatre chain that owned it in 1973. Born inWishek, North Dakota , Mann started off in the movie business as an usher around the time he attended theUniversity of Minnesota in the 1930s. He rented the Selby Theatre inSaint Paul, Minnesota for $100 a month and began to build his own company. He ran the theater almost completely by himself, expanding to 25 venues within a few years.Fact|date=December 2007Mann sold the theaters to
General Cinema Corporation in 1970 and moved toCalifornia . The first production to his credit was 1969's "The Illustrated Man ", based on aRay Bradbury book . He didn't stay out of the theater business for long, and purchased the troubled 276-screen National General Theatre chain in 1973. Mann soon expanded the chain to 360 screens, but again sold off his theaters in 1986, this time toGulf and Western , later to become part ofParamount Communications . Grauman's Theater eventually regained its original name in late 2001.Both the Orpheum and Pantages venues of today's
Hennepin Theatre District in Minneapolis were once owned by Mann. He eventually owned at least six theaters in the city'sdowntown region. TheTed Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis is named for him. He marriedactress Rhonda Fleming in 1977, and they remained together until Mann died at age 84 in Los Angeles of complications from astroke .External links
*imdb name|id=0542992
References
*Jason Buchanan. [http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800080183&cf=biog&intl=us Ted Mann Biography.]
Yahoo! /Allmovie .
*(January 17, 2001). [http://slick.org/deathwatch/mailarchive/msg00185.html Theater entrepreneur Ted Mann dead at 84.]Associated Press /CNN (archived version on Celebrity Deathwatch mailing list).
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