Mike Gore

Executive Born Michael Gore on July 6, 1878

Mike Gore was a theater owner and motion picture pioneer who played a key role in the rapid spread of motion picture theaters in the 1920s.

Gore came to the United States from Russia as a child, settling first in Chicago where he later was in the cigar-manufacturing business. He came to Los Angeles in 1906, when the movie industry was in its early days.

Gore was an early player in Los Angeles' burgeoning motion picture theater business, growing his chain to 485 show houses.

As the president and cofounder of West Coast Theaters, Gore appropriated more than $5,000,000 in 1924 for the immediate construction of 28 new neighborhood theaters in Los Angeles. This was done to keep pace with the area's tremendous growth.

He later initiated a $250,000,000 theatrical merger, which involved more than 300 theaters along the Pacific Slope. This merger was said to be the greatest in the theatrical history of the West, and included brands such as Fox, Metro-Golden-Mayer and Loews. As a result of the merger, West Coast Theaters became the largest single-state theater corporation in the world.

Gore also was the original franchise holder of the old First National Pictures Co., later known as Warner Bros. He was a charter member of the Beverly Hills B'nai B'rith chapter.

Until his death, he operated a film exchange and distribution center and also was vice president of the Ocean Park Amusement Pier Co.

— Los Angeles Times Aug. 12, 1924, April 28, 1927 and Aug. 17, 1953