Monogram Pictures Producer
Walter Mirisch began at
Monogram Pictures after World War II as assistant to studio head Samuel "Steve" Broidy. He convinced Broidy that the days of low-budget films were ending, and in 1946, Monogram created a new unit, Allied Artists Productions, to make costlier films. At a time when the average Hollywood picture cost about $800,000 (and the average Monogram picture cost about $90,000), Allied Artists' first release,
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), cost more than $1,200,000. Subsequent Allied Artists releases were more economical but did have enhanced production value, with many being filmed in color. In July 1948 Monogram reported a loss of $978,000. The following year the loss was $850,000, although Broidy thought the company would go into profit the following year. The studio's new policy permitted what Mirisch called "B-plus" pictures, which were released along with Monogram's established line of B fare. In September 1952, Monogram announced that henceforth it would only produce films bearing the Allied Artists name. The studio ceased making movies under the Monogram brand name in 1953 (although it was reactivated by AAI by the millennium). The parent company became Allied Artists, with Monogram Pictures becoming an operating division.
Allied Artists Pictures '' poster '' poster Allied Artists did retain a few vestiges of its Monogram identity, continuing its popular
Stanley Clements action series (through 1953), its B-Westerns (through 1954), its
Bomba, the Jungle Boy adventures (through 1955), and especially its breadwinning comedy series with
The Bowery Boys (through 1957 with Clements replacing
Leo Gorcey). For the most part, however, Allied Artists was heading in new, ambitious directions under Mirisch. Between 1951 and 1952, Broidy announced
Walter Mirisch would be head of productions and would make 45 films. For a time in the mid-1950s the Mirisch family had great influence at Allied Artists, with Walter as executive producer, his brother Marvin as head of sales, and brother Harold as corporate treasurer. They pushed the studio into big-budget filmmaking, signing contracts with
William Wyler,
John Huston,
Billy Wilder and
Gary Cooper. But when their first big-name productions, Wyler's
Friendly Persuasion and Wilder's
Love in the Afternoon were box-office flops in 1956–57, studio-head Broidy retreated into the kind of pictures Monogram had always favored: low-budget action and thrillers. Mirisch Productions then had success releasing their films through
United Artists. Allied Artists paused productions in 1966 and became a distributor of foreign films, but restarted productions with the 1972 release of
Cabaret and followed it the next year with
Papillon. Both were critical and commercial successes, but high production and financing costs meant they were not big money makers for Allied. In 1975 Allied distributed the French import film version of
Story of O but spent much of its earnings defending itself from obscenity charges.
French New Wave pioneer
Jean-Luc Godard dedicated his 1960 film
Breathless to Monogram, citing the studio's films as a major influence. Allied Artists Pictures became insolvent in 1979 as a result of runaway inflation and high production costs, forcing it to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Allied Artists Records, which was an unaffected wholly owned subsidiary of Allied Artists Pictures, acquired many of the bankrupt entity's trademark related intellectual property assets and sought to expand its trademark and service mark rights to include all forms of entertainment, including those properties previously held by Allied Artists Pictures. A select grouping of the post August 17, 1946 Monogram/Allied Artists library was bought by television producer
Lorimar Productions. Today, a majority of the Lorimar library, including those acquired from Allied Artists Pictures, belongs to
Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Allied Artists Records Prior to 1971, soundtracks were informally released under the "Allied Artists Records" or "Allied Artists Music" names. Allied Artists Records was officially formed by Allied Artists Pictures in 1971 to become the motion picture soundtrack releasing vehicle for its distributed motion pictures. By 1988, Allied Artists Records laid historical claim to recording artists such as
Elvis Presley,
Lionel Richie,
Lawrence Welk,
Bob Seger, and
Ted Nugent. Allied Artists Records' historical roster and catalog includes
Exodus,
Coolio,
Luis Cardenas,
David Hasselhoff and
Renegade. In 2000, it was announced that Allied Artists Records would issue a Spanish-language recording by David Hasselhoff. As the anchor AAMG label, Allied Artists Records, takes its name and history from the original motion picture soundtrack label by the same name, established by Allied Artists Pictures in 1971. Today, Allied Artists Records remains as a mainstream anchor imprint, together with its wholly autonomous target market imprints, Allied Artists Music Co., Monogram Records, Brimstone Records and Vista Records. Shortly thereafter, Allied Artists Records formally consolidated each of its imprint labels into "Allied Artists Music Group" in a cost-cutting measure designed to maximize distribution strength. Today, all music and home video offerings are distributed by way of the AAMVD global distribution network. ==References==