{{Short description|American businessman and politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Mitchell Wolfson | image = Mitchell Wolfson.jpg | alt = Mitchell Wolfson smiling, posing with and holding a portrait of himself standing behind a Miami-Dade County Community College building. | caption = Wolfson in 1980 | office = Mayor of Miami Beach | term_start = 1943 | term_end = 1944 | order = 12th | birth_name = | birth_date = 1900 | birth_place = Key West, Florida, U.S. | death_date = January 28, {{death year and age|1983|1900}} | death_place = Miami, Florida, U.S. | education = B.A. Columbia University | other_names = | known_for = Founder of Wometco Enterprises and WTVJ | occupation = Theatre owner <br> Politician | spouse = Frances Meyer | children = Mitchell Wolfson Jr. <br> Louis Wolfson II | parents = | family = | branch = United States Army | service_years = 1944-1945<ref>{{cite news |title=Wolfson returns |url=http://www.herald.com |access-date=16 June 2024 |publisher=Miami Herald |date=17 Oct 1945}}</ref> | rank = Lt Colonel | battles = WWII | mawards = 25px 25px }}
'''Mitchell Wolfson Sr.''' (1900 – January 28, 1983) was an American businessman, theatre owner, politician, and founder of Wometco Enterprises.
==Biography== Wolfson was born in 1900 in Key West, Florida.<ref name=Magic>{{Cite web|title= The Capitol Theatre, Wometco and WTVJ |website=The Magic City - Miami History|date=3 October 2015|url= http://miami-history.com/the-capitol-theatre-wometco-and-wtvj/ |access-date=July 26, 2020}}</ref><ref name=UPI>{{Cite news|title= Mitchell Wolfson, who built a downtown Miami movie theater |newspaper=United Press International|date=January 29, 1983 |url= https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/01/29/Mitchell-Wolfson-who-built-a-downtown-Miami-movie-theater/9016412664400/ }}</ref> He went to school in Key West and at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York, and then graduated from Columbia University.<ref name=Magic/> After school, he went to work for the East Coast Wholesale Corp in Miami, founded by his father in 1884.<ref name=Magic/>
In 1925, he partnered with his brother-in-law, Sidney Meyer, forming the '''Wo'''lfson-'''Me'''yer '''T'''heater '''Co'''mpany and began construction on a state of the art theater in downtown Miami.<ref>Parks, Arva Moore. ''Miami: The Magic City''. Tulsa, OK: Continental Heritage Press, 1981. p.211 {{ISBN|0-932986-17-X}}</ref><ref name=Magic/> The Capital Theatre was completed in 1926 at the cost of $300,000 and featured an early form of air conditioning.<ref name=Magic/> They built the company into a business conglomerate using the portmanteau, Wometco Enterprises.<ref name=UPI/> In 1949, Wometco founded the first television station in Miami, WTVJ.<ref name=Magic/> Wometco went on to own and operate the largest chain of movie theaters in South Florida, six television stations, a cable television company, a soft drink bottling franchise, and tourist attractions including the Miami Seaquarium.<ref name=UPI/> At the time of his death, Wometco had over $500 million in sales.<ref name=UPI/>
Wolfson served two terms as city councilman in Miami Beach, Florida, before being elected its first Jewish mayor in 1943.<ref name=UPI/><ref>{{Cite web|first= Mandy|last=Baca |title= Shtetl by the Sea |website=The New Tropic |date= November 3, 2015|url= https://thenewtropic.com/miami-jewish-history/ |quote=Abe Aronovitz serves as the only Jewish mayor of Miami, while Mitchell Wolfson served as the first Jewish mayor of Miami Beach}}</ref> He resigned after one term to fight Nazi Germany in World War II.<ref>{{Cite news|title= A Call to Serve: Florida Jews and the U.S. Military |newspaper=WLRN|url=https://www.wlrn.org/post/call-serve-florida-jews-and-us-military#stream/0 |access-date=July 20, 2020}}</ref>
As a founder and for his later philanthropy towards Miami-Dade College, the downtown campus was named the Wolfson Campus in his honor.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.mdc.edu/about/history.aspx | title=History of MDC | Miami Dade College }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://communitynewspapers.com/biscayne-bay/the-wolfson-family-receives-united-ways-highest-honor/ | title=The Wolfson Family receives United Way's highest honor | Biscayne Bay Tribune# | date=24 April 2023 }}</ref>
==Personal life== He was married to Frances Meyer (December 16, 1906 – May 9, 1980); they had two sons, Mitchell Wolfson Jr. and Louis Wolfson II. Wolfson died on January 28, 1983, at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.<ref name=UPI/>
==See also== * Mayors of Miami Beach
==References== {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfson, Mitchell}} Category:1983 deaths Category:1900 births Mitchell Category:American theatre managers and producers Category:People from Key West, Florida Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Erasmus Hall High School alumni Category:Mayors of Miami Beach, Florida Category:Jewish American mayors Category:20th-century American Jews