Elias M. Loew (1898-1984) came to the U.S. from Austria in 1911. Alone and penniless, he worked in various jobs before opening his first cinema at the age of 18. He eventually became the largest theatre owner in New England with 70 movie theatres and 17 drive-ins. He also owned the Bay State Raceway in Foxborough, a chain of hotels, and with Lou Walters, the Latin Quarter Night Club which operated in Boston, New York, and Miami. E. M., who was no relation to Marcus Loew, the country's largest exhibitor, had his headquarters in the Gayety Theatre on Washington Street, and a large estate on Brush Hill Road in Milton. The Brush Hill Road estate was torn down in the 1990s to make way for 30 luxury homes while the Gayety, after a long preservation fight, was demolished at the beginning of 2005. The site, on the edge of Chinatown, will soon be the home of a high-rise apartment building.