Born to a Jewish family in Wishek, North Dakota, Mann started off in the movie business as an usher around the time he attended the University of Minnesota in the 1930s.
[1][2] He rented the Selby Theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota, for $100 a month running it as a one-man shop serving as ticket seller and projectionist.
He didn't stay out of the theater business for long, and purchased the troubled 276-screen National General Theatre chain in 1973.
Mann soon expanded the chain to 360 screens, but again sold off his theaters in 1986, this time to Gulf+Western, which later renamed itself to Paramount Communications (which itself became part of Viacom).
[6] He married actress Rhonda Fleming in 1977, and they remained together until Mann died at age 84 in Los Angeles of complications from a stroke.