Jay Samuelz - Freak

Jay Samuelz - Freak

The main reason for the reduction in cinema attendances in the early 1950s was perceived to be television, the one-eyed monster proliferating throughout the United States. As Sam Goldwyn commented, "Why should people go out and pay money to see bad films when they can stay home and see bad TV for nothing?" In contrast, the film producer Samuel Z Arkoff, who has died aged 83, shrewdly realised that teenagers would prefer to go to see trashy movies with catchy titles such as I Was A Teenage Werewolf, How To Stuff A Wild Bikini and Attack Of The Crab Monsters than sit at home with their parents and watch bland TV.samuelz With this in mind, the short, portly cigar-smoking Arkoff and the tall, thin James H Nicholson set up the American Releasing Corporation in 1954 with a borrowed $3,000. A year later, the company became American International Pictures (AIP), renowned for "Z" pictures. The gospel according to Arkoff was: "Thou shalt not put too much money into any one picture. And with the money you do spend, put it on the screen; don't waste it on the egos of actors or on nonsense that might appeal to some highbrow critics." The films were aimed at the drive-in-movie youth market with its taste for science- fiction horror, biker pictures and rock 'n' roll, and who enjoyed the tatty special effects, cut-price monsters and unfamiliar casts. AIP, with Arkoff as executive producer, had nothing to lose by taking a chance on young unknowns.Among those who owe the poverty-row studio their later fame were actors Jack Nicholson (The Cry Baby Killer), Charles Bronson (Machine Gun Kelly), Bruce Dern (The Wild Angels), Sally Kellerman (Reform School Girl) and Robert De Niro (Bloody Mama), and directors Martin Scorsese (Boxcar Bertha), Francis Ford Coppola (Dementia 13) and John Milius (Dillinger). But it was Roger Corman who was the main creative force behind AIP, churning out more than 50 films as producer and director.