The Dinosaur Club – Lamont Johnson
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: May 17, 2012
In his 80s he still had that amazing voice…
One of the members of our “club” was Lamont Johnson (1922-2010)(1)(2), who used his dynamic bass radio voice on network radio while still in his teens. He enjoyed a long and successful career as an actor (radio, stage, screen, television) and director (I can’t begin to list all of his credits).
One time we were talking about overcoming difficult situations, and he gave me three examples he experienced, one serious, and two humorous:
Lamont Johnson was a sickly and painfully shy child who was an invalid until age 10 because of suffering TB of his leg. He said his voice helped him get good parts in school plays, and that plus years of psychoanalysis, brought him out of his shell.
Lamont played Tarzan in “Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle”(3) on Mutual Radio in the early 1950s, which was sponsored by Post Cereals. On one occasion Post asked him to perform the Tarzan yell while saying the words “P-o-s-t R-a-i-s-i-n B-r-a-n,” a difficult job to do under any circumstances, but he had to do it live, and with only an hour to rehearse. He succeeded, and gave me a spot-on rendition 50 years after the fact…muted so as not to disturb the other restaurant patrons!
Lamont’s first feature film as a director was “A Covenant with Death” (1967)(4). The famous Mexican actor Emilio Fernández(5), notorious as a loose cannon on the set (and everywhere else), played the role of Ignacio. The evening before the first day of shooting Lamont was up late obsessing about his first effort for the big screen. Around 2:00 AM he got a phone call from the local police…Emilio was in jail; he got into a bar fight and knifed someone! Lamont rushed to the jail, where Emilio, still woozy, was in tears, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, Mr. Johnson, for causing you this trouble!” Much to Lamont’s relief, the police brought the remorseful actor to the set in handcuffs, let him play his scenes. They put the cuffs on him and brought him back to jail…a scenario repeated until the filming ended.
Lamont was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, and throughout his life aligned himself with progressive causes. He told me he worked extensively as a director of made for television movies, because that medium, rather than the big screen, was much more receptive to portraying controversial subjects. Lamont wrote the screenplay as well as directed what he told me was his favorite TV movie, “The Execution of Private Slovik” (1974)(6), the story of the only American soldier executed (since the Civil War) for desertion during World War II.
Into his 80s he never tired of answering my questions, and especially articulating his ideas for future movies dealing with social causes.
With that booming voice of his I would have been happy to listen if he simply read from the phone book.
(1) http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=johnsonlamo
(2) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0425593/
(3) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071477/
(4) http://www.erbzine.com/mag23/2337.html
(5) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061525/
(6) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0273477/
Contact kit@kitparker.com
Buy Kit Parker Films DVD’s: http://www.kitparker.com/buy.php
Kit Parker Films @40 – Part 7
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: May 6, 2012
I saw my first DVD and knew it was all over…
The former Kit Parker Films building in Sand City,CA
Kit Parker Films continued humming along throughout the 1990s. Videotape shut down most of the non-theatrical distributors, but we held steady because the majority of our customers demanded the clarity that film provided…and from day one we were Ninja about print quality. The acquisition of the “The Classic Collection” (a joint venture between Films Incorporated and Janus Films) helped, because this added many international classics to our library. But by that time, our theatrical division was our mainstay…However, starting in 1997, we started losing our studio contracts…not because they weren’t happy with our work, it was…corporate politics.
We had just completed a successful revival of classic 1970s blaxploitation movies called “Blaxploitation, Baby,” that helped Orion sell tens of thousands of VHS tapes of the individual movies. Then we got the word that MGM/UA bought Orion Pictures, and they wanted their own “classics” division, which meant taking all of the prints back from us. In addition, they placed someone in charge who knew nothing about classics distribution.
The writing was on the wall…
In the mid-1980s some very savvy executives took over and turned the floundering Republic Pictures into a very successful Home Video company. However, in 1994, Aaron Spelling purchased the company, and Republic’s former brain trust left, and a new regime was put in charge who wasn’t in the league of the former management. (An exception was a lawyer by the name of Margie Pacacha, who was both smart and decent…someone destined for much bigger things.) We grew concerned because KPF had the entire Republic library on an exclusive basis for both theatrical and non-theatrical use. I knew from experience that when a successful company changes hands it often meant trouble for me, and we certainly didn’t want to lose evergreen titles like “High Noon,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and “Johnny Guitar.” Fortunately life moved along on a fairly even keel (we had released a very successful compilation of Max Fleischer cartoons, called “Betty Boop Confidential”). Then in 1999 Viacom (Paramount) bought Spelling Entertainment, and it was all over for us. As with MGM/UA, the studio decided they’d distribute the films themselves, so we sent all of the films to Paramount, and once again the library was under the control of a studio’s so-called classic division.
Right on the heels of that loss, we took our final blow. I went to Warner Bros. to meet with distribution executive Jeff Goldstein to hopefully make a deal to acquire theatrical rights to “The Wizard of Oz,” which had been recently restored and had a brief theatrical run after which there were hundreds of unused prints I could certainly put to good use. Warner Bros. was by far my most important client, and Jeff told me that everyone at Warner Bros. Distribution, knew I was doing a great job, but they had to take their pictures back. I was never told straight-up, but it was whispered by others in the company that the decision was political; by then WB had acquired Ted Turner’s library of classics, which included all of the pre-1986 MGM, and pre-1948 Warner Bros. titles, as well, and no one wanted to take the chance of getting on Ted Turner’s bad side for fear he would go to Warner’s CEO and say, “Why is someone else distributing my films, when we have our own distribution company?”
Of course, the logical answer would have been that not only would they have made much more money with me doing it with no effort whatsoever on their part. Jeff made it clear that even if I distributed their films for free, they still would have taken them back. Once again, a studio hired someone with no experience to handle their classics. Jeff was a good guy, as were Barry Reardon and Dan Fellman above him.…they even bought the bookings I had already taken…something they were under no obligation to do. The Warner Bros. people were always good to me.
However, I was reeling after that disappointment, and although we were still profitable, I was wondering what I would be doing for the years to come. It was not a good feeling.
Then I got a call from Peter Becker of Janus Films/The Criterion Collection, who asked me to reissue the restored version of “Gimme Shelter,” originally released in 1970. Their goal was to generate publicity for Criterion’s subsequent DVD release of the classic rock movie…a job all of us at KPF were well equipped to do. (We had worked with them earlier on “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and “The Last Wave,” to good success.)
I declined, as by then I was tired of all of the work that went into distributing a multi-city reissue. But, Peter, and my long-time friend at Janus, Jonathan Turell, persisted…so it was one more reissue for Kit Parker Films! Janus Films, I might add, was and is the epitome of class. Becker and Turell were happy with the job we did on distribution/marketing because it generated ink in major city, and national press. After my work was done, a package arrived with a note in it, “Thank you. Peter.” It was a DVD player…the first I’d ever seen. I tried it out that night…took one look at the beautiful image, and had mixed emotions because I knew film would be dead in a few years, and that was sad for a life-long “film guy,” but the quality of the DVD suggested that maybe there was something in it for me to pursue.
The next day, 29 years after forming my company, I announced the closing of our film distribution business…it took a year to wrap things up because we had to honor all of the future bookings. It was heartbreaking to see the KPF team go, but it was time to reinvent myself…
Contact: kit@kitparker.com
DVD’s: www.vcient.com
Highway to Hollywood – the hard way (free ebook)
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: May 4, 2012
“Today we are engaged in a great Civil ‘Wah’”
– Maury Dexter, from the 3 Stooges short, “Uncivil Warriors” (1946)
Maury Dexter(1)(2) is one of the most interesting individuals I’ve ever seen in the motion picture industry, and he’s put his amazing rags to riches life into words in a well-written, page-turning, autobiography, “Road to Hollywood – the hard way.”
Maury was born into dirt-poor poverty during the Depression in Paris, Arkansas. Early on, he developed a love of acting, which he parlayed into a successful career as an actor, producer, director of feature films and television programs and, of particular interest to me, head of production for Robert L. Lippert’s Associated Producers, Inc.
Without the thought of having it published, Maury Dexter wrote his life story to fulfill a personal goal of putting his life story on paper. Tom Weaver, who interviewed Maury in his book, “I Talked With a Zombie” (McFarland, 2008)(3), couldn’t persuade the usual movie book publishers to take it because they felt their readers might find fault with the first part of the book which covers Maury’s life before becoming involved in the motion picture business. I suggested to Maury that he release it as an ebook, and after explaining what “email,” “Internet,” and “downloads” meant (He’s just fine with knowing absolutely nothing about computers), he agreed, but didn’t want to make money on it.
Hat’s off to one of my favorite movie bloggers, Toby Roan, who produced the ebook, and Jim Briggs for designing it. Here’s the link to Toby’s terrific blog, which includes the link to Maury’s autobiography.
http://fiftieswesterns.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/maury-dexter-hollywood-the-hard-way/
P.S. As I write this I’m laughing to myself about Maury’s challenges of producing movies on the meager budgets demanded by his penurious boss, Robert L. Lippert…and especially about how he once achieved the goal of producing two low budget westerns for the price of one. Then there’s the story about how Samuel Fuller who shot the windows out of….
(1) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0223317/
(2) http://billcappello.blogspot.com/2010/11/maury-dexter.html
(3) http://www.amazon.com/Talked-Zombie-Interviews-Veterans-Television/dp/0786441186/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336102379&sr=1-1
Contact: kit@kitparker.com
DVD’s: www.vcient.com
Kit Parker Films @40 Part 6 – The Competition Thins
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: April 20, 2012
“The 16mm non-theatrical business is just a pimple on the ass of the motion picture industry.”
One of the top executives in the 16mm non-theatrical business told me that in the early 1990s, when the industry was pretty well gutted by the encroachment of VHS tape, and expanded cable and satellite channels…the coming of DVDs destroyed it. Everyone has seen “for home use only” pronouncements on tapes and DVD’s, and technically a school or institution was required to get a license from a non-theatrical distributor to show a movie, but it proved largely unworkable to enforce…and one-by-one the film libraries started closing.
Let’s go back 20 years before that, when 1971 Kit Parker Films began as a 16mm non-theatrical film distributor. There were film libraries all across the country, and the players in 1971 were Films Incorporated, Audio-Brandon Films (Audio had previously acquired the foreign/art film distributor, Brandon Films), Modern Sound Pictures, Twyman Films, Swank Motion Pictures, Clem Williams Films, Budget Films, and United Films (which morphed into today’s DVD classic film company, VCI Entertainment.) Most of the foreign/art films were distributed by Audio-Brandon and Contemporary Films. There were many other libraries, but these were the major players.
Films Inc. was by far the biggest, and most important of all; it controlled the exclusive rights to the 20th Century-Fox, Paramount, RKO Radio Pictures and MGM; they also had the Walt Disney library on a non-exclusive basis. The company became even bigger when it acquired Audio-Brandon (by then known as Macmillan Audio Brandon, when acquired by Macmillan Publishers). Warner Bros., Disney, and Columbia Pictures were shared among the rest of the distributors on a non-exclusive basis.
When VHS came out in the late 1970s, the 16mm business started a precipitous decline, and in the 1980s Kit Parker Films acquired the libraries of Wholesome Film Center of Boston, Clem Williams Films of Pittsburgh, Twyman Films of Dayton, Ohio, Cinema V of New York City, and last but not least, the former “Tiffany” of 16mm distributors, Films Inc. based in Chicago.
In 1997, the Films Inc. library had lost rights to the major studios, and ended up comprised mainly of what they touted as “The Classic Collection,” a joint venture with prestigious art film distributor, Janus Films. There were many international classics, and other interesting movies, but, the drawback was the poor condition of the prints. We had to scrap so many prints if we weren’t lucky enough to cannibalize multiple prints in order to make copies that passed our quality standards.
Footnote: Swank Motion Pictures vs. Films Incorporated, and the end of competition
(Swank Motion Pictures’ humble beginnings as a “portable projection service”)
Swank Motion Pictures(1) was a family run business that began in the 1930s by P. Ray Swank, a very savvy businessman who made his first fortune by renting AV equipment around the country, at premium rates, through exclusive deals with convention hotels around the country. Ray liked me, and would say I knew more about the history of the 16mm rental business than anyone…except him!
The last time I saw him in the late 1990’s he was in his late 80s, and he had no intention of slowing down…always thinking ahead. Anyway, Ray began a systematic approach to monopolize the non-theatrical business, which by then included various forms of video. The person who ran his film library was Jack Lusk, smart, diplomatic, and personable; he had the people skills to endear himself to the distribution heads at studios, all the while Ray chipped away at Films Inc.’s exclusive deals. Swank is a family owned business, and as big as it became, Ray always told me that renting AV equipment was where he made the most money, in fact the AV division of Swank was sold for around $35 million after Ray’s death at age 95…he was a brilliant, but ruthless. Thank goodness I never had to tangle with him.
(A Canadian non-theatrical distributor, Criterion Pictures, subsequently obtained rights to 20th Century-Fox and New Line Cinema, which kept Swank from a battle with Federal regulators over monopolistic practices.)
Encyclopedia Britannica Films(2) was created in 1943 by a larger than life individual, William Benton(3). Films Inc. was a division of EBF, and in 1966 it was acquired by his son, Charles Benton(4). Charles was a cultured, Ivy League, philanthropic individual, and was, and is, the CEO of the Benton Foundation(5), and worked tirelessly for the arts and liberal causes. The only time I really got to spend any time with him was an evening in 1987 when he and his wife, Marjorie, invited my wife, Donna, and I for dinner and a movie at their beautiful winter home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The movie was “My Favorite Laundrette” (1985), which was a decidedly left-leaning drama with an unflattering portrait of Margaret Thatcher…grist for Benton’s mill. It was an enjoyable evening…spent with world-class patrons of the arts.
(Charles and Marjorie Benton)
As I said, Swank was brilliant, but ruthless. Charles Benton was refined, but no pushover; however, Benton played by the Marquis of Queensbury rules, and Swank did not. One by one, Films Inc. lost its exclusive studio contracts to Swank/Movie Licensing USA, and eventually went out of the non-theatrical business. I made a deal with the Benton family, which at that time was run by his daughter Adrienne Benton Furniss(4), to take over what was left of their film business, which by then was comprised of art and international film classics. Adrienne continued the Benton Family appreciation of the arts through art and classic film DVD distributor, Home Vision Cinema, to which she eventually became CEO before selling out in 2005.
How Kit Parker Films fared during the decline will be the subject of “Kit Parker Films @40 – Part 7″
(1) http://swank.com/about.html
(2) http://www.kaye.com/miscellany/EBFhx.htm
(3) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61209/William-Benton
(4) http://americanassembly.org/people/trustee/charles-benton
(5) www.benton.org
(6) http://www.ncfp.org/who_we_are/meet_our_board/adrianne-furniss-bio
Lippert Pictures – The First Incarnation 1946 – 1955 (re-post)
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: March 11, 2012
Before Roger Corman there was Robert L. Lippert
Producer/Exhibitor Robert L. Lippert’s low-budget productions are sometimes called Grade “C.” Personally, I’ve never seen one below “B-,” and in fairness, he did put out some “B+,” “nervous A,” and who can call “The Fly” (1957) anything but an “A”?
Lippert felt there was an unmet demand for “B” product for his circuit of theatres, so in 1945 he and John L. Jones formed a production company, Action Pictures, and distribution company, Screen Guild Productions. The first and sole release for 1945 was “Wildfire – The Story of a Horse,” in Cinecolor, starring Bob Steele. Regular releases followed, and in 1949 Screen Guild became “Lippert Pictures,” and in the final count, cranked out over 125 low budget movies, and released many more acquisitions and reissues. He produced many more films for release by 20th Century-Fox…more about the Fox deal later…
The early Lippert productions were unremarkable B movies (okay, there may have been some C’s), with a few notable exceptions. Things changed in 1949 when he rolled the dice and took a chance on a feisty independent newspaper reporter by the name of Samuel Fuller. Lippert gave Fuller, who had no movie experience, virtual free-reign, and his name above the title, to create a film about Jesse James’ assassin, Bob Ford. It was released as “I Shot Jesse James” (1949), and became a critical and box office success, and today it is considered a classic, notable, among other things, for its extensive use of close ups. Soon after, Fuller directed his second film, “The Baron of Arizona” (1950), a true story about a swindler who seized much of Arizona by forging Spanish land grants. Vincent Price played the “Baron,” and many years later claimed it was one of his very favorite roles. Truly, the Lippert/Fuller magna opus was the classic Korean War drama, “The Steel Helmet” (1951), which garnered first-run dates at prestigious theatres. The three Fuller films are out on DVD from the Criterion Collection.
Lippert’s cause célèbre was to produce films as cheaply as possible, and still offer at least some entertainment value, particularly for the more unsophisticated movie patrons. No Lippert movies were allowed to go over budget. Not negotiable…even for Fuller. Despite the puny budgets, minor classics resulted, including “Little Big Horn” (1951) and “The Tall Texan” (1953), both starring Lloyd Bridges.
Robert L. Lippert, Jr. told me a story about filming of the climactic ending of “The Steel Helmet,” where a Korean temple is to be destroyed, and it almost didn’t come to be… Fuller had shot all but the ending, and production was about to go into overtime. Lippert came on the set and literally pulled the power switch to shut down production. Fortunately, after he left the set, Fuller turned the power on and filmed the finale.
In 1950, Lippert gave himself a challenge…produce a series of six Jimmy “Shamrock” Ellison-Russell “Lucky” Hayden westerns, all at the same time, using the same casts, sets, crew, and so on. In one movie an actor may play a bad guy and a bartender in another. A camera was be set up in the saloon, for example, and the saloon scenes for each movie would be shot sequentially, with actors rushing about changing costumes between each roll of the camera. It must have been a nightmare for the script girl! Robert L. Lippert, Jr. told me it was his father’s proudest achievement! VCI released this series as a set under the “Big Iron Collection” banner.
There was also a distinctive film noir series filmed in Great Britain starting in 1953 when Lippert formed a production alliance with his British distributor, Exclusive Films, soon known as Hammer Film Productions. Under the arrangement, Lippert would provide an American “star,” on the way down, but who still had some name value, plus cash to pay for part of the production. Exclusive/Hammer and Lippert divided up the distribution territories. The result was a series of good thrillers, supported by solid English casts, and many directed by Terence Fisher, in his pre-horror film days. The Lippert-Hammers are all available as part of the “Hammer Noir” collections released by VCI Entertainment.
Lippert, like Roger Corman after him, was able to gather together producers, directors, screenwriters, composers, and, of course, actors, willing to work on tight schedules for minimal pay. There were stars who had lost their major studio contracts (Paulette Goddard, George Raft) or who had problems with the House on Un-American Activities (Lloyd Bridges, Lee J. Cobb). Even Clint Eastwood and Jack Nicolson had roles in later Lippert productions.
Lippert was a master marketer. When producer George Pal set out to mount a big budget Technicolor production of “Destination Moon” (1950), based on the science-fiction book by Robert A. Heinlein, Lippert saw an opportunity. He capitalized on Pal’s media campaign by throwing together his own low (of course) budget “moon” picture, “Rocketship X-M” (1950). It beat Pal’s movie into the theatres, stealing a good deal of the Technicolor epic’s thunder. I’m told Mr. Pal was not amused.
Trouble, and opportunities, lay ahead for Lippert. To be continued…
Wildfire – Story of a Horse
http://vcientertainment.com/darn-good-westerns-p-558.html
I Shot Jesse James, The Baron of Arizona, and The Steel Helmet
http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/499-eclipse-series-5-the-first-films-of-samuel-fuller
Little Big Horn
http://vcientertainment.com/western-film-noir-double-feature-p-512.html
The Tall Texan
http://vcientertainment.com/tall-texan-p-493.html
The Big Iron Collection
http://vcientertainment.com/iron-collection-p-559.html
Hammer Noir
Rocketship X-M
Destination Moon
The Dinosaur Club – Ralph Senensky
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: March 6, 2012
Burgess Meredith in “Printer’s Devil”
I met Ralph Senensky through a mutual friend who knew we both collected movie posters. During our first meeting we talked mostly about posters although I knew Ralph directed television shows. That is until I remembered he directed my all-time favorite “Twilight Zone,” (“Printer’s Devil” (1963), starring Burgess Meredith) that episode really had an affect on me; still does. At that point I asked him to share his credits, and what a long list of classic shows from every conceivable genre; “Route 66” to “Star Trek”, “The Fugitive” to “The Bill Cosby Show,” “The Paper Chase” to “The Waltons,” and so many more.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0784198/filmoseries#tt0060028
Ralph Senensky at home in Carmel, California
I found Ralph to be a friendly, unpretentious, gentleman with a sense of humor and a memory as sharp as a tack. He answered my endless questions, like how he was able to produce such polished looking work under the budget and time constraints of TV, and which stars were easy (or hard) to work with.
I especially found exciting his stories when he was in his early 30s and working in various capacities at CBS during the last half of the 1950s, the Golden Era of live television…the nights of programs like “Playhouse 90,” when there were no retakes…everything went out over the air as-is.
As our friendship developed we talked about all kinds of things, not just about showbiz.
The good news is that Ralph created an incredible blog. He talks about directing, writing, and everything connected with making prime-time television shows, often using film clips to illustrate his points. I especially found interesting pages of his marked up scripts with last minute changes that changed a scene from good to great.
One day Ralph mentioned three friends who had retired in the Monterey area, silent film actor and radio and film legend, True Boardman, stage and radio actor; director, Lamont Johnson; and prolific character actor, Don Hanmer. I suggested we all get together and have lunch and knew they would tell great show business stories…and I was certainly right! The five of us agreed to meet for lunch every other week, and I was in heaven…what a nice group of guys who checked their ego’s at the door. Our lunches lasted for a few years, and it is hard for me to describe how much I enjoyed them. Ralph referred to our group as “Hollywood expatriates,” but my wife called us, “The Dinosaur Club.”
I’ll tell some stories about the other members of our “club” in future blogs.
Complete List of Ralph Senensky’s Theatre and Television credits:
Television:
1955-1961
At the beginning of his television career Ralph worked at CBS in various production staff positions by day, and directed theatrical productions at night.
ARREST AND TRIAL (Ben Gazzara, Chuck Connors)
My Name Is Martin Burnham (James Whitmore, Nina Foch)
Funny Man with a Monkey (Mickey Rooney, Mary Murphy)
BANYON (Robert Forster, Joan Blondell, Richard Jaeckel)
Dead End
The Decent Thing to Do (Peter White)
The Graveyard Vote (Pat O’Brien, Tom Bosley)
BARNABY JONES (Buddy Ebsen, Lee Merriwether)
The Murdering Class (Geraldine Brooks, Jerry Houser)
To Denise with Love and Murder (Bill Bixby)
Murder Once Removed (Pamela Franklin, Robert Pine)
THE BIG VALLEY (Barbara Stanwyck, Linda Evans, Richard Long, Lee Majors, Peter Breck)
By Fires Unseen (Diane Baker)
BIG BEND COUNTRY (James Keach)
(One Hour Pilot)
THE BILL COSBY SHOW (Bill Cosby)
Growing, Growing, Grown
Brotherly Love
Blind Date (Cicely Tyson)
Christmas Ballad (Rex Ingram)
THE BLUE KNIGHT (George Kennedy)
Triple Threat (Michael O’Keefe)
BLUE SKIES (Season Hubley, Tom Wopat, Pat Hingle, Alyson Croft, Kim Hauser, Danny Gerard)
The Visitor (Shawn Modrell)
THE BREAKING POINT (Paul Richards, Edward Franz)
The Bull Roarer (Ralph Meeker, Lou Antonio, Mariette Hartley)
Shadows of a Starless Night (Bradford Dillman)
Never Trouble Trouble Till Trouble Troubles You (Diana Sands, Rex Ingram)
CASABLANCA (David Soul, Scatman Crothers, Hector Elizondo, Ray Liotta)
Who Am I Killing? (John Van Dalen)
The Cashier and the Belly Dancer
CHANNING (Henry Jones)
A Hallful Of Strangers
CHECKMATE (Sebastian Cabot, Doug McClure)
Down The Gardenia Path (Susan Kohner, Don Dubbins)
CHRYSLER THEATRE
Perilous Times (Peter Falk, Diane Baker)
CITY OF ANGELS (Wayne Rogers)
Match Point
COURTSHIP OF EDDIE’S FATHER (Bill Bixby, Miyoshi Umecki)
Guess Who’s Coming To Lunch (Cicely Tyson)
The Library Card
An F for Mrs. L
Bully for You (Jodie Foster)
Gentleman Friend
They’re Either Too Young or Too Old
The Mod Couple
The Road to You Know Where Is Paved With You Know What
The Promise
DAN AUGUST (Burt Reynolds)
The Law (Walter Pidgeon, Larry Hagman, Lee Merriwether)
Death Chain (Jan Michael Vincent, Chris Robinson)
Dead Witness to A Killing (Martin Sheen, Monte Markham, Laurence Luckinbill)
Bullet for a Hero (Meg Foster, Peter White)
Days of Rage (Diana Hyland)
DEATH CRUISE (Richard Long, Polly Bergen, Celeste Holm, Tom Bosley, Kate Jackson, Michael Constantine, Edward Albert, Cesar Danova)
DR. KILDARE (Richard Chamberlain, Raymond Massey)
Johnny Temple (Doug Lambert)
The Mask Makers (Carolyn Jones)
Hasting’s Farewell (Harry Guardino, Beverly Garland)
Maybe Love Will Save My Apartment House (Barry Nelson, Suzy Parker)
A Journey toSunrise
A DREAM FOR CHRISTMAS (Hari Rhodes, Lynn Hamilton, Beah Richards)
DYNASTY (John Forsythe, Linda Evans, Bo Hopkins, Pamela
Bellwood, Pamela Sue Martin, Al Corley, John James)
(Three Hour Pilot and Episode #5)
EIGHT IS ENOUGH (Dick Van Patten)
Hit and Run (Peter Coffield)
EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE (George C. Scott, Cicely Tyson)
Age Of Consent (Carroll O’Connor, Penny Fuller, Robert Drivas)
FAMILY (James Broderick, Kristy McNichol, Gary Frank, Sada Thompson)
Lovers and Strangers (Elizabeth Ashley)
FAMILY HOLVAK, THE (Glenn Ford, Julie Harris, Lance Kerwin)
A Stranger in a Strange Land
Remembrance of a Guest (Arlene Golonka)
FAMILY KOVACK, THE (Andrew Robinson, James Sloyan)
FAMILY NOBODY WANTED, THE (Shirley Jones, James Olsen)
FBI (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.)
Special Delivery (Earl Holliman, Barbara Luna)
The Man Who Went Mad By Mistake (J.D. Cannon)
The Plunderers (Ralph Meeker, Albert Salmi)
The Escape (Roy Thinnes, Marlyn Mason)
The Assassin (William Windom, Dean Jagger, Tom Skerritt)
The Death Wind (Ralph Bellamy)
Ordeal (Gerald O’Loughlin)
Anatomy of a Prison Break (Joe Campanella, James Broderick, Carol Rossen)
The Courier (Ruth Roman, Gene Hackman, Phyllis Love)
The Raid (Ralph Meeker)
A Question of Guilt (Andrew Duggan, Larry Gates)
The Game of Terror (Richard Thomas, Jerry Houser)
End of a Hero (Ed Nelson, Lee Merriwether)
A Second Life (Martin Sheen, Meg Foster)
Arrangement with Terror (Diana Hyland, Roger Perry)
The Deadly Species (Penny Fuller, Tom Skerritt)
FUGITIVE, THE (David Janssen)
When The Bough Breaks (Diana Hyland)
Detour on A Road Going Nowhere (Phyllis Thaxter)
An Apple A Day (Sheree North, Kim Darby, Arthur O’Connell)
When The Wind Blows (Georgann Johnson)
GETTING TOGETHER (Bobby Sherman)
Cathy’s Clown
Those Oldies but Goodies Remind Me of You (Rob Reiner)
Where Are You, Little Star?
GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (Jack Palance, Stuart Erwin)
Leaves in the Wind (Nina Foch)
HART TO HART (Robert Wagner, Stefanie Power, Lionel Stander)
Cop Out
A Question of Innocence (Jameson Parker, Jeanette Nolan)
Sixth Sense (Peter Coffield)
Highland Fling (Mitchell Ryan, Albert Salmi)
The Dog Who Knew Too Much
Slam Dunk (Fred Dryer, Kevin Bash, David Wallace)
Always Elizabeth (June Allyson, Joe Pantoliano)
HIGH CHAPARRAL
The Terrorist
HOLLYWOOD TELEVISION THEATRE
Winesburg,Ohio(Jean Peters, Albert Salmi, William Windom, Joseph Bottoms
HOW THE WEST WAS WON (James Arness)
The Scavengers (John Beck)
INSIGHT
The Whole Damned Human Race…And One More (Jack Albertson)
The Death of Simon Jackson
The Poker Game (BeauBridges, Ed Asner, Bill Bixby)
A Prince in the Apple Towns (Jane Wyman, Gene Raymond)
The Seven Minute Life of James Houseworthy (EdmondO’Brien)
Cry of Terror (Peter Mark Richman, Andrew Prine)
Old King Cole (Martin Sheen)
The System (Richard Jaeckel, Arlene Golonka)
The Man Who Went Blue Sky
Welcome Home (Dick Van Patten, Jerry Houser)
Out Of the Depths (Cliff deYoung, John Astin)
I Want To Die (Grant Goodeve, Jeanne Cooper)
Plus Time Served (James Farentino, Don Stroud)
Unfinished Business (Bill Quinn)
The White Star Garage (Elisha Cook, Jr., Peter White, Fausto Bara)
INTERNES (Michael Farrell, Stephen Brooks)
Eyes of the Beholder (Meg Foster)
IRONSIDES (Raymond Burr, Don Galloway)
Girl in the Night (Susan St. James)
Return of the Hero (Gary Collins)
I SPY (Robert Culp, Bill Cosby)
This Guy Smith (Diana Muldaur)
JAMES AT 15 (Lance Kerwin)
Champions
JEREMIAH OF JACOB’S NECK (Keenan Wynn, Ron Masak, Arlene Golonka, Brandon Cruz)
(One Hour Pilot)
JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE (Carl Betz)
The Money Farm (James Whitmore)
LONG HOT SUMMER (Edmond O’Brien, Roy Thinnes, Ruth Roman)
The Homecoming
LOU GRANT (Ed Asner)
Indians
MANNIX (Mike Connors)
Another Final Exit (Larry Storch)
MATT LINCOLN (Vince Edwards)
Charles (Martin Sheen)
MEDICAL STORY
An Air Full Of Death (Cliff Gorman)
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE (Steven Hill, Martin Landau)
The Train (William Windom, Rhys Williams)
NAKED CITY (Paul Burke, Harry Bellaver)
Alive and Still A Second Lieutenant (Robert Sterling, Jon Voight)
No Naked Ladies In Front Of Giovanni’s House (Harry Guardino)
Color Schemes Like Never Before (Lou Antonio, Carol Rossen)
NAME OF THE GAME (Robert Stack)
Ordeal (Jessica Walters, Farley Granger)
NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR (Juliette Mills, Richard Long)
From Butch with Love
The Humanization of Herbert T. Peabody
TheIndiaQueen
Back To Nature
E. S. Putt
Professor Pygmalion
NEW ADVENTURES OF HEIDI, THE (Burl Ives, Katy Kurtzman)
NIGHT GALLERY
The Miracle at Camafeo (Harry Guardino, Julie Adams)
The Ghost ofSorworth Place(Richard Kiley, Jill Ireland)
NURSES
Ordeal (Brandon deWilde)
The Interne Syndrome
PAPER CHASE, THE (John Houseman, James Stephens, Lainie Kazan, Tom Fitzsimmons, Michael Tucci, Diana Douglas)
The Choice (Annabella Price)
Decisions (Two Hour)
The Day Kingsfield Missed Class
The Big “D” (Herb Edelman, Walter Brooke)
A Wounded Hart
Graduation (Two Hour)
PAPER DOLLS (Lloyd Bridges, Morgan Fairchild, Dack Rambo)
Episode #2
Episode #4
Episode #6
PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE (Shirley Jones)
When Mother Gets Married (John McMartin)
To Play or Not To Play
Partridge up A Pear Tree (Harvey Lembeck, Michael Lembeck)
The Forty Year Itch (Ray Bolger, Rosemary DeCamp)
Dora, Dora, Dora
Guess Who’s Coming To Drive
The Undergraduate
PLANET OF THE APES (Roddy McDowell)
The Tyrant
ROOKIES, THE (Kate Jackson, Michael Ontkean)
To Taste Of Terror (Andrew Robinson)
The Snow Job (Martin Sheen, Don Dubbins)
ROUTE 66 (Martin Milner)
In the Closing of a Trunk (Ed Begley, Ruth Roman, Don Dubbins)
Narcissus on an Old Red Fire Engine (Glenn Corbett, Anne Helm)
SEARCH (Tony Franciosa, Burgess Meredith)
Ends of the Earth
SLATTERY’S PEOPLE (Richard Crenna)
What Can You Do With A Wounded Tiger?
STAR TREK (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy)
This Side ofParadise (Jill Ireland)
Metamorphosis (Glenn Corbett)
Bread and Circuses
Obsession (Stephen Brooks)
Return to Tomorrow (Diana Muldaur)
Is There In Truth No Beauty (Diana Muldaur)
The Tholian Web
SUSPENSE THEATRE
A Hero for Our Times (Lloyd Bridges, Geraldine Brooks)
The Jack Is High (Pat O’Brien, Henry Jones, Edd Byrnes)
The Easter Breach (Richard Beymer)
THEN CAME BRONSON (Michael Parks)
Sybil
THREE FOR THE ROAD
Prisoner in Sneakers
Albatross (Meg Foster)
TRAPPER JOHN, M.D. (Pernell Roberts, Gregory Harrison)
What Are Friends For?
TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH (Robert Lansing)
To Heinie, With Love (Keir Dullea)
The Trap (Hermione Baddeley)
The Threat
The Hero (James Whitmore)
TWILIGHT ZONE
Printer’s Devil (Burgess Meredith, Robert Sterling, Pat Crowley)
WALTONS, THE (Richard Thomas, Will Geer, Michael Learned, Ralph Waite, Ellen Corby)
The Chicken Thief
The Gift (Ron Howard)
The Cradle
The Conflict (Beulah Bondi, Richard Hatch) (Two Hour)
TheMarathon
The Beguiled (Darlene Carr)
The Fire Storm (John Ritter)
The Pony Cart (Beulah Bondi)
The Grandchild (Two Hour)
The Warrior
Grandma Comes Home
The Portrait (Jared Martin)
WESTSIDE MEDICAL (James Sloyan, Ernest Thompson)
The Sound Of Sunlight (Season Hubley)
WILD WILD WEST (Robert Conrad, Ross Martin)
The Night of the Druid’s Blood (Don Rickles)
The Night of the Big Blast (Ida Lupino, Mala Powers, Patsy Kelly)
YOUNG MAVERICK (Charles Frank)
Makin’ Tracks (Victor Jory)
LIVE THEATRE
1949-1952
Mason City Community Theatre,Mason City,Iowa- Artistic Director
Productions Directed:
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
A STRIPED SACK FOR PENNY CANDY
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE
YEARS AGO
NIGHT MUST FALL
THE WOMEN
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES
CLAUDIA
COME BACK, LITTLESHEBA
THE ADDING MACHINE
BLITHE SPIRIT
LIGHT UP THE SKY
1952
Chevy Chase Summer Theatre,Wheeling, Illinois- Assistant Director
1953
Hollywood-By-The-Sea Playhouse,Hollywood,Florida-
Resident Director
Productions Directed:
HARVEY (Bert Wheeler)
PERSONAL APPEARANCE (VeronicaLake)
1953-54
Des MoinesPlayhouse,Des Moines,Iowa– Artistic Director
Productions Directed:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
THE SHRIKE
JOHN LOVES MARY
TEN LITTLE INDIANS
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
THE MOON IS BLUE
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
At this point Ralph began working at CBS in various production staff positions by day, and directed theatrical productions at night.
MY THREE ANGELS (Players Ring Theatre)
THE IMMORALIST (Horseshoe Stage)
ALL SUMMER LONG (Horseshoe Stage)
THE CRUCIBLE (Horseshoe Stage)
DEATH OF A SALESMAN (MorganTheatre)
THE INNOCENTS (MorganTheatre)
THE INTERVIEW (Gilmor Brown’s Playbox Theatre)
MEASURE FOR MEASURE (co-director Gilmor Brown’s Playbox)
ENGAGED (Gilmor Brown’s Playbox)
BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE (Gilmor Brown’s Playbox)
THE ICEMAN COMETH (Gilmor Brown’s Playbox)
MORNING’S AT SEVEN (Equity Library Theatre West)
GOLDEN BOY (Equity Library Theatre West)
THE CIRCLE (Starring Estelle Winwood -PasadenaPlayhouse Main Stage)
THE GOLDEN FLEECING (PasadenaPlayhouse Main Stage)
THE ICEMAN COMETH (co-directed with John Houseman -
The Theatre Group)
1985-88
YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
WATCH ON THE RHINE
SHIVAREE
Kit Parker Films @40 Part 5 – Orion Pictures
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: February 13, 2012
We had high hopes for this constellation…
In the early 1990s Orion Pictures declared bankruptcy. Soon after, I negotiated a deal with Orion’s head of distribution, the late Jay Peckos, a personable who granted me theatrical distribution rights to the entire Orion film library, including Orion Classics, Filmways , and what they referred to as the Samuel Goldwyn “Trust” movies” (produced by the Senior Goldwyn, including “The Best Days of Their Lives” and “Guys and Dolls.”) Orion also had a distribution deal with Alexander Korda’s London Films (“The Thief of Bagdad”, “Things to Come,” etc.) I thought I had another breakthrough with a major studio.
Orion Pictures was founded in 1978 by the former top brass of United Artists. Using their considerable clout, they signed class “A” talent like Francis Ford Coppola, Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen and many others. But Orion turned out to be an up-and-down company, with some genuine hits like “Amadeus,” “Silence of the Lambs,” and “Platoon,” and “Dances with Wolves,” but a lot of also-rans. Orion Classics was a subsidiary, and for a time was the de rigueur specialty distributor of its day, releasing films like “Ran,” and “Babette’s Feast.”
But, by the late 1980s Orion was in big trouble. Billy Crystal said it best at the 1992 Academy Awards ceremony, “’Awakenings’” is a film about people coming out of a coma; ‘Reversal of Fortune” is about someone going into a coma; and ‘Dances with Wolves’ was made by a studio in a coma.”
Included in the Orion library was Filmways, Inc., a failing minor-league studio acquired largely to obtain its television library (“Mr. Ed,” and Cagney and Lacey” to name but two), and the 500 title American International Pictures library, which Filmways purchased in 1976 from AIP’s co-founder Samuel Z. Arkoff. (Arkoff later told me it was the worst decision of his life.)
Jay Peckos gave me a printout of the entire Orion library, looked like a phone book. Despite the sheer volume of titles, my customers pretty much took a “who cares” attitude, and the performance of the Orion library was only lackluster. The Goldwyn and AIP libraries, turned out to be useless because it was too difficult to obtain prints on them.
Our one and only Orion hit was a festival of 33 movies coined “Blaxploitation, Baby!” by the maestro of revival film exhibitors, Bruce Goldstein, programmer of New York’s Film Forum theatre. Most of the films came from us; titles such as “Shaft!” and “Superfly,” but the most notable were the ones owned by Orion which were originally produced by American International Pictures, especially Pam Grier hits like, “Foxy Brown,” and “Coffy,” to which we were able to strike new prints. The series was a big success and played around the country.
In my previous blog I spoke about how studios would occasionally take pictures back from me in order to release them in-house to promote forthcoming home video releases. Fortunately, Orion never took anything back, and frankly their home video division really didn’t know one old AIP movie from another, but when they saw the big publicity our series generated all across the country, they immediately put those titles out on VHS, and made a lot of money…with zero marketing costs.
The Silent Treatment
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: February 5, 2012
Today it seems that young people have no interest in old movies, and don’t even know that films from the silent era exist. But, there are exceptions to the rule, and I had the pleasure of meeting one such young woman.
In March 2007, Brandee Cox came up with the idea of publishing a bi-monthly newsletter about silent films. She shared that idea with graphic designer/film buff, Steven K. Hill, and The Silent Treatment (www.tstnews.net) was born. Their partnership in TST continues…much to the benefit of silent film buffs around the world.
I met Brandee Cox in 1999 when she sought an internship at Kit Parker Films while finishing her degree in Cinema Studies: History, Theory, and Analysis from San Francisco State University.
Although I was told in advance Brandee was a film buff, I certainly wasn’t expecting a young woman from the millennial generation to be so knowledgeable about old movies, especially silents. Even more surprising was her interest in the physical aspects of motion picture film.
In those days Kit Parker Films was a distributor of motion pictures servicing the film libraries of major studios and independent producers. We had thousands of 16mm and 35mm prints stored at ourSandCity (Monterey area), CA film exchange, and employed film inspectors whose job it was to carefully check each print for damage, color fading, and other blemishes. This was the perfect job for Brandee given her interest in film archiving, and I hired her on the spot and she was with us for six months.
With her intern credit going towards her degree from SFSU, she took the next logical next step, film archiving post-graduate work at George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. After finishing her studies there she got and still has the perfect job, archiving films at the Academy Film Archive, a division of the Academyof Motion Picture Artsand Sciences that archives, preserves, and restores motion pictures. Now she was, and is, able to work with all of the motion pictures she wants…and gives us The Silent Treatment.
I founded Kit Parker Films over 40 years ago, made old movies my vocation, and have been surrounded by old movies ever since. It’s a pleasant surprise knowing there are young people who have that same passion and are making it their vocations as well.
As for Brandee, she and I are just big kids in a candy shop.
Free subscription to The Silent Treatment:
Also check out the George Eastman House Sneak-Peek:
http://dryden.eastmanhouse.org/sneak-peek/
Silent movies from Kit Parker Films on DVD:
http://store.vcientertainment.com/product/weiss-o-rama/521
http://store.vcientertainment.com/product/yesterday_and_today/640
Kit Parker Films @40 Part 4 – Theatrical Revivals
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: January 25, 2012
Distributing revivals of classic films is an art in and of itself; an art in which we excelled.
Periodically studios would take back a classic or specialty film from us so they could do their own reissue. Their plan was to generate publicity to launch a home video release, with the hope of also making money at the box-office.
Sometimes they got the publicity they wanted, but the small fortune they spent on marketing doomed any possibility of making money selling tickets.
CBS is not a company associated with feature films, but they had a motion picture division in the 1970s, Cinema Center Films, that released 30 feature films including “A Man Called Horse,” was by far the most well known. In the late 1980s we obtained both theatrical and non-theatrical rights to all 30, and theatrical rights to their crown jewel, “My Fair Lady.”
CBS funded the original Broadway show and licensed motion picture rights to Warner Bros. for $5 million enabling them to produce and release a film, with all rights to be transferred to CBS 7 years after its theatrical release. (An incredible deal for CBS)
In 1993 we were working on reissuing MFL with new prints in a roll-out commencing at our best premiere venue, Film Forum, in New York City. However, unbeknownst to us, CBS was restoring the movie and had a deal to release it theatrically by 20th Century-Fox in both 35mm and 70mm. Naturally this caused friction because we had been assigned the theatrical rights and were working on our own release. However, we worked out a fair deal and Fox was allowed to release it, with rights reverting to us after 60 days.
Fox was a master of distributing and marketing first run movies and, as with all the major studios, had no idea how to reissue classics. Consequently MFL played at inappropriate theatres for that type of picture. Box-office was, at best lackluster despite very hefty marketing expenses. One exception was at New York City’s mighty Ziegfeld Theatre were it did very good business ($75,000 for the first weekend as I recall) which may sound like a lot of money, but after extremely high marketing costs, and theatre, expenses were deducted, the engagement became awash in a sea of red.
When we got the picture back it had already played in major cities for weeks, but we went right back and placed the show in those same cities at what we knew from experience to be the right venues in the right part of town. In virtually every case we out-grossed the theatres where it previously played first-run with Fox.
The best example is in San Francisco where Fox opened MFL at a good first-run upscale house and supported it with another big ad campaign. I believe their gross was under $10,000 for the first week and, of course, declined the subsequent 2 weeks. Two months later we opened it at the ideal venue for that type of picture, The Castro, and grossed $50,000+ in one week, with virtually no advertising costs and, again, after the movie had played for weeks at the other theatre.
I’m not casting dispersions on Fox or CBS, as they may well have been thrilled with the publicity, and be damned with associated costs (called a “bought gross” in motion picture distribution parlay), but rather to point out that no matter how much money is thrown into marketing a revival, selling tickets is predicated upon placing the show at the right venue which we were masters at.
Most of the theatres we played didn’t pay for advertising, but put the word out using their in-house efforts such as printed calendars and close relationships with the press. The maestro of marketing is Bruce Goldstein of NYC’s Film Forum. He could (and can) be depended upon to garner more exposure in the media than any deep pocketed studio could ever hope to with their older films.
I’m proud of my past record/history in exposing classic films to movie lovers in the way they were meant to be shown…in 35mm.
The Gang That Shot Up Hollywood
Posted by: Kit Parker Films on: December 27, 2011
Four Guys From Oakland Part 4 –
I was disappointed when it was announced that Bob Wilkins was leaving Oakland’s KTVU after having been Channel 2’s host of “Creature Features” from 1971 – 1978.
John Stanley was to be Bob’s replacement, and the only “John Stanley” I knew was an entertainment writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. It turned out he was one and the same, and I was pleasantly surprised that he was a worthy successor to Bob.
John knew how to conduct an interview, and I always looked forward to reading them in the Chronicle. Apparently I wasn’t the only one; John’s tenure at the Chronicle lasted 33 years!
He interviewed Clint Eastwood on the set of “Rawhide,” James Stewart, Lauren Bacall, Ida Lupino, Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Russell, even Arnold Schwarzenegger, and …I couldn’t begin to remember them all.
“Creature Features” gave John an opportunity once again to interview science-fiction and horror stalwarts; this time on camera: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Ray Harryhausen, Roger Corman…again, too many to recall.
John Stanley’s latest book, “The Gang That Shot Up Hollywood” is loaded with re-worked interviews/observations/reflections (and over 750 photographs) of many of the famous entertainers he’s interviewed through the years at the Chronicle. My favorite is the section on Samuel Fuller. John knew Joe Rosenthal, photographer of the famed Iwo Jima flag-raising, and there is a very interesting piece on him, too.
You can buy the book from Amazon, but if you get it through John’s site, www.stanleybooks.net, he’ll autograph a copy for you. Even if you don’t buy the book, be sure to check out his site and “click” every option as there are more cool books including, “The Creature Features Movie Guide” and his autobiographical, “I Was a TV Horror Host,” and various “Creature Feature” DVDs as well.
John Stanley’s efforts too often fall under the radar…don’t let him fall under yours.
Search
- Robert L. Lippert
- The Dinosaur Club - Ralph Senensky
- Four Guys from Oakland Part 1
- Robert L. Lippert, Jr. 1928 - 2011
- Yesterday and Today (United Artists/1953)
- Kit Parker Films @40 Part 5 - Orion Pictures
- Lippert Pictures -- The First Incarnation (1945-1956)
- Lippert Filmography: Responses
- THE LIPPERT FILMOGRAPHY (re-posted)
- Eugenia Bizzaro: R.I.P. Mr. Robert L. Lippert Sr., I managed the Country Squire Theatre and the Fig Garden Cinemas in Fresno, California for you in the '70's. I have
- Kit Parker Films: Thanks, Bob. I thought you might like to read this comment from Bill Gilbert who worked with Dick through the years. I was saddened to learn of the
- Bob Blair: Well done old friend, and may he rest in peace. Bob Blair
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