Associated Artists Productions: Difference between revisions
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a.a.p. was founded in 1953 and headed by [[Elliott Hyman]]. [[Lon Chesler]] purchased interest in the company in 1956.<ref>{{Cite journal | authorlink = | title = Tycoons: A Fast $70 Million | journal = [[Time (magazine)|]] | volume = | pages = | date = March 30, 1959}}</ref> The same year, a.a.p. purchased the pre-1950<ref name="ymrt">''You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story'' (2008), p. 255.</ref> [[Warner Bros.]] film library, which included every feature film and most short subjects the studio released prior to that year.<ref name="ymrt"/> |
a.a.p. was founded in 1953 and headed by [[Elliott Hyman]]. [[Lon Chesler]] purchased interest in the company in 1956.<ref>{{Cite journal | authorlink = | title = Tycoons: A Fast $70 Million | journal = [[Time (magazine)|]] | volume = | pages = | date = March 30, 1959}}</ref> The same year, a.a.p. purchased the pre-1950<ref name="ymrt">''You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story'' (2008), p. 255.</ref> [[Warner Bros.]] film library, which included every feature film and most short subjects the studio released prior to that year.<ref name="ymrt"/> |
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The material a.a.p. bought from Warner Bros. Pictures included all of its features produced and distributed by Warners prior to 1950 (Warner retained the rights to two 1949 films it only distributed |
The material a.a.p. bought from Warner Bros. Pictures included all of its features produced and distributed by Warners prior to 1950 (Warner retained the rights to two 1949 films it only distributed<!--which two?-->) and all of its live action short subjects released prior to September 1, 1948. Also included was the 1956 Warners film ''[[Moby Dick (1956 film)|Moby Dick]]''. |
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The cartoon library included every color ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' and ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' short released prior to August 1, 1948, and all of the ''Merrie Melodies'' produced by [[Harman-Ising]] Pictures from 1931 to 1933, except ''[[Lady, Play Your Mandolin!]]''. The remaining black and white ''Merrie Melodies'' were not part of this package, and the black-and-white ''Looney Tunes'' (along with the Schlesinger-produced B&W ''Merrie Melodies'') were already sold to [[Sunset Productions]].<ref>http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/miscelooneyous/tvtitles/guild.html</ref> Former Warner cartoon director [[Bob Clampett]] was hired to catalog the Warner cartoon library.<ref>http://www.toontracker.com/matty/matty.htm</ref> |
The cartoon library included every color ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' and ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' short released prior to August 1, 1948, and all of the ''Merrie Melodies'' produced by [[Harman-Ising]] Pictures from 1931 to 1933, except ''[[Lady, Play Your Mandolin!]]''. The remaining black and white ''Merrie Melodies'' were not part of this package, and the black-and-white ''Looney Tunes'' (along with the Schlesinger-produced B&W ''Merrie Melodies'') were already sold to [[Sunset Productions]].<ref>http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/miscelooneyous/tvtitles/guild.html</ref> Former Warner cartoon director [[Bob Clampett]] was hired to catalog the Warner cartoon library.<ref>http://www.toontracker.com/matty/matty.htm</ref> |
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Revision as of 16:51, 27 August 2011
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2010) |
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Television syndication |
| Founded | 1953 |
| Founder | Elliott Hyman |
| Defunct | 1958 |
| Fate | Folded into United Artists |
| Successor | United Artists Associated |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | Television packages of feature films and theatrical short subjects and cartoons |
| Divisions | United Telefilms Limited Dominant Pictures Corporation |
Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) [1][2] was a distributor of theatrical feature films and short subjects for television. It existed from 1953 to 1958. It was later folded into United Artists. The former a.a.p. library was later owned by MGM/UA Entertainment and then Turner Entertainment. Turner (in conjunction with Warner Bros. Television) continues to own the former a.a.p. library as part of the Time Warner conglomerate.
History
Formative years
a.a.p. was founded in 1953 and headed by Elliott Hyman. Lon Chesler purchased interest in the company in 1956.[3] The same year, a.a.p. purchased the pre-1950[4] Warner Bros. film library, which included every feature film and most short subjects the studio released prior to that year.[4]
The material a.a.p. bought from Warner Bros. Pictures included all of its features produced and distributed by Warners prior to 1950 (Warner retained the rights to two 1949 films it only distributed) and all of its live action short subjects released prior to September 1, 1948. Also included was the 1956 Warners film Moby Dick.
The cartoon library included every color Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short released prior to August 1, 1948, and all of the Merrie Melodies produced by Harman-Ising Pictures from 1931 to 1933, except Lady, Play Your Mandolin!. The remaining black and white Merrie Melodies were not part of this package, and the black-and-white Looney Tunes (along with the Schlesinger-produced B&W Merrie Melodies) were already sold to Sunset Productions.[5] Former Warner cartoon director Bob Clampett was hired to catalog the Warner cartoon library.[6]
a.a.p. also purchased the Popeye cartoons from Paramount Pictures, which had been produced by Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios. This purchase and the Warner Bros. cartoon package combined gave a.a.p. a library of over 568 theatrical cartoon shorts, which would be staples of children's television for decades.
For the Warner Bros. productions, a.a.p. simply inserted their logo at the beginning of the film (the logo used specifically for the cartoons featured various WB characters arranged around the company name).
For the Popeye cartoons, a.a.p. removed all logos and mentions of Paramount from the Popeye prints they distributed, since Paramount did not want to be associated with television at the time (the original copyright line remained, as Paramount held theatrical rights until 1967 - at which point they reverted to UA, who, unlike Paramount, never actually reissued Popeye cartoons theatrically).[7]
Later years
Ownership of properties
The company was acquired by United Artists in 1958. The resulting division was named United Artists Associated (a division of United Artists Television, or UATV for short), and, by 1968, United Artists Television Distribution. In 1981, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased United Artists, along with its film library.
The rights to Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film Rope, originally distributed by Warner Bros., reverted to Alfred Hitchcock (and later his estate). Distribution rights were later sold to Universal Pictures in 1983, although UA continues to hold the film's copyright.
Turner Entertainment took over the library in 1986 after Ted Turner's short-lived acquisition of MGM/UA. When Turner sold back the MGM/UA production unit, he kept the MGM library, including the former a.a.p. properties, for his own company. Not included in this purchase was the feature Moby Dick, which UA (via MGM) continues to own today (although the worldwide rights are currently held by StudioCanal).
The Warner Bros. film libraries were reunited when the studio's parent company Time Warner bought Turner in 1996. Turner retains the rights to the former a.a.p. properties, while Warner handles their distribution.
UA originally leased video rights to their library (including the a.a.p. library) to Magnetic Video, the first home video company. Magnetic Video was sold to 20th Century Fox in 1981, becoming 20th Century Fox Video. In 1982, Fox and CBS formed CBS/Fox Video, which continued to distribute the UA/a.a.p. library under license from MGM/UA Home Video until the rights reverted back to MGM/UA. After Turner's purchase of the MGM/UA library, MGM/UA Home Video continued to distribute the films on video under license until 1999, when the rights were transferred to Warner Home Video.
Recent television screenings and video releases
Neither a.a.p. nor its successor companies had any access to the original Warner negatives. All television prints of a.a.p.-owned films were made on 16 mm film. For color films, the colors faded over time as the material used was inferior to what was used for theatrical prints. These same prints would be the ones used on pre-1999 VHS and laserdisc releases of former a.a.p.-owned films. The a.a.p. versions of these films were also later used for cable television broadcasts (even as recently as March 2011, a.a.p. prints of WB cartoons have been seen on TV). Early video releases of WB films released between 1928-1931 bore an a.a.p. copyright renewal notice, since these renewals came before the UA purchase.[8]
In the 1990s, Turner began removing the a.a.p. logos from many of the films (although this process was somewhat started before that by both UA and local television stations). One hundred twenty-three of the Warner Bros. cartoons purchased by a.a.p. were restored from their original negatives for inclusion in Warner Home Video's series of six Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD box sets (with the color cartoons looking very vibrant, as to attempt to create an experience similar to when the cartoons were first released in theaters).
The black and white Popeye cartoons (and the three Color Specials) were also restored from their original negatives for a series of three Popeye the Sailor DVD sets [9] (a production error on Volume 2, later corrected, resulted in the accidental usage of prints with a.a.p. titles on two cartoons, though the Paramount logos were still seen).[10] The Famous-produced color Popeye cartoons will be released in later years, though no dates have been set. Prior to 2007, no official video releases of the Popeye cartoons were available due to licensing issues with King Features (MGM/UA had attempted to release some cartoons in the 1980s, but KFS blocked their attempt).
Public domain
Some of the films and short subjects bought by a.a.p. fell into the public domain, and are available on various low-budget video releases, although the owners of the original film elements also gave some of this material official releases as well. These include:
- 34 Popeye cartoons
- The Color Specials
- 6 B&W Fleischer cartoons
- The Famous B&W cartoon Me Musical Nephews
- Several ranges (by release date) of 1950's Famous cartoons
- Shuteye Popeye to Ancient Fistory
- Floor Flusher to Cookin' With Gags
- Popeye for President to Spooky Swabs
- 61 WB cartoons
- All Merrie Melodies from Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! through The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives
- 40 color cartoons released between 1936-44
- 2 cartoons from 1947
- Several WB features, such as Santa Fe Trail and Life with Father
Censored Eleven
11 a.a.p.-owned cartoons were pulled from circulation by UA in 1968, at the height of the Civil Rights movement. These cartoons, banned because they were based around African American stereotypes, included:
- Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land
- Sunday Go to Meetin' Time
- Clean Pastures
- Uncle Tom's Bungalow
- Jungle Jitters
- The Isle of Pingo Pongo
- All This and Rabbit Stew
- Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
- Tin Pan Alley Cats
- Angel Puss
- Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears
The ban would be upheld even by the later owners of the a.a.p. library, including MGM, Turner, and now Warner Bros. themselves. However, the cartoons are available online and on many unauthorized collections of mainly-public domain cartoons on VHS and DVD, despite eight of the cartoons remaining under copyright.
Subsidiaries
a.a.p. Records, Inc.
a.a.p. Records, Inc. was a music arm of a.a.p., which has distributed inter alia Official Popeye TV Album.
United Telefilms Limited
United Telefilms Limited was the Canadian division of a.a.p., which existed around the same time. Live action films used a variation of the main a.a.p. logo, but the initials "UTL" would be spelled out, and a notice at the bottom said "Distributed in Canada by United Telefilms Limited".
United Telefilm Records, Inc.
It was a music label of United Telefilms.
UT Records
UT Records was a subsidiary of United Telefilm Records.
Warwick Records
It was also a subsidiary of United Telefilm Records.
Dominant Pictures Corporation
Dominant Pictures Corporation was a subsidiary of a.a.p. which distributed the features that the company purchased to theaters. It re-released a number of films from the pre-1950[4] WB library, as well as a number of British films which a.a.p. bought the rights to.
The subsidiary was later folded into UA's main theatrical distribution arm after the company was sold to UA.
Cultural References
The company is referenced by Julian Cope in The Teardrop Explodes song "Sleeping Gas".
Notes
- ^ Alcott v. Hyman, 208 A.2d 501 (1965).
- ^ Fleischer v. Phillips, 264 F.2d 515 (1959).
- ^ "Tycoons: A Fast $70 Million". [[Time (magazine)|]]. March 30, 1959.
- ^ a b c You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story (2008), p. 255.
- ^ http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/miscelooneyous/tvtitles/guild.html
- ^ http://www.toontracker.com/matty/matty.htm
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]