"Poverty Row"
Independent Distributors: The Indy Studios of Old Hollywood
- Monogram
- Allied Artists
- Also: the Rise of the Mirisch Company
Excerpt from Hollywood Renegades by J. A. Aberdeen
Monogram Becomes Allied Artists
Some of the old Poverty Row distributors tried to use the independent
movement to launch their studios into the majors. B-movie company Monogram
formed a subsidiary in 1945 called Allied Artists Pictures Corporation, which
sounded not-so-coincidentally like the United Artists tradename that was already
synonymous with prestige filmmaking.
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The
Monogram Studios of Hollywood's "Poverty Row" independent
distributors.
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Steve Broidy
The president of Allied Artists was Steve Broidy who headed IMPPA, the
Independent Motion Picture Producers Association—the organization that served
as the independent-distributor equivalent of SIMPP. (IMPPA older than SIMPP, and
with a confusingly-similar name, lacked the clout of SIMPP since it was mostly
an organization of low-budget studios which concentrated on Westerns and
"action dramas." But the 35-member independent distributor association
still had a deal of influence in the industry in the 1930s and 1940s.)
Allied had an auspicious beginning as an A-movie producer-distributor, but
like the other Poverty Row studios, was unable to make the conversion into the
ranks of the majors. William Wyler produced and directed his classic Friendly
Persuasion (1956) at Allied Artists. Walter
Wanger, who signed with them
1951, praised the structure of Allied which had studio administration and
filmmakers on the same coast. Without the split authority between east-coast
executives and west-coast talent, filmmaking was less cumbersome and studio
overhead decreased.
The Mirisch Company
Allied Artists also spawned one of the most important independent production
companies of the post-SIMPP era—the Mirisch Company, formed in August 1957 by
the three brothers Harold, Marvin, and Walter Mirisch. The Mirisches controlled
production at Allied for many years before going independent. They took some of
the important Allied talent with them, promising their directors creative
freedom in addition to liberal profit participation.
They envisioned the Mirisch Company as a haven for independent filmmakers who
did not wish to deal with the business duties of an independent production
company. Many actors, directors, and even other producers found stability and
creative autonomy under the umbrella structure of the company. The brothers
signed a 12-picture deal with United Artists in 1957, which was extended to 20
films two years later. The Mirisch Company moved to the Samuel Goldwyn Studios
where they became the largest tenant, creating such films as Some Like It Hot
(1959), The Magnificent Seven (1960), West Side Story (1961), and The
Pink Panther (1964).
SOURCES:
Wanger at Allied Artists: "William R. Weaver,
"Wanger's Allied Artists Deal Excites Interest," MPH, August 4,
1951.
IMPPA: Fred Stanley, "More About the Hollywood
Scene," NYT, August 27, 1944, sec. II, p. 3.
See Bibliography.
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