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The elder Skouras emigrated from Greece in 1910, parlayed a string of theaters into eventual control of one of the biggest film studios. It was Spyros the younger who decided that the family's business future is on the high seas rather than on the Hollywood film lots. He is a model of the well-modulated executive. His father, by contrast, still broadcasts endless orders and advice in his own peculiar Greco-American, calling businessmen and most other people "big sots"—his way of saying big shots. He remains chairman of 20th Century-Fox, but the post is largely honorific. Having sold or given away much of the $6,000,000 interest that the Skourases had in Fox, he laments that "I'm in debt up to my neck because of this shipping business." Translation: he revels in his new role as a maritime big sot.