He succeeded Marcus Loew as head of Loew's Inc. and its Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film production subsidiary, later division. Based in New York, he was the superior of Louis B. Mayer, MGM's Hollywood-based first vice president, who he ultimately fired in the 1950s.
His Who's Who in America entry boasted that he headed over 100 corporations and received a larger salary than any other theatrical manager in the world.
His brother Joseph Schenck was president of United Artists and later president of Twentieth Century Films and then chairman of 20th Century Fox.