Robert L. Lippert (31 March 1909 - 10 November 1976) was a prolific film producer and cinema owner who eventually owned a chain of 118 theatres [1]
Contents |
Born in Alameda, California, and adopted by the owner of a hardware store, Robert Lippert became fascinated by the cinema at an early age. As a youngster he worked a variety of jobs in local theaters, including projectionist and assistant manager. As a manager of a cinema during the Depression Lippert encouraged regular attendance with promotions such as "Dish Night" and "Book Night"
Lippert went from cinema manager to owning a chain of cinemas in California in 1942, during the peak years of theatre attendance.[2]Lippert's theatres in Los Angeles often screened older films for a continuous 24 hours with an admission price of 25 cents. Not only did his theatres attract shift workers and late-night revellers, but servicemen on leave who could not find cheap accommodation would sleep in the cinema. [3]
Dissatisfied with what he believed to be exorbitant rental fees charged by major studios, Lippert formed Screen Guild Productions in 1945, its first release being a Bob Steele western called Wildfire, made in Cinecolor.[4] Screen Guild also re-released many older B picture westerns and made 22 pictures under its own name.[4]
Screen Guild became Lippert Pictures, Inc. in 1948, utilising rental stages and the movie ranch known as Corriganville to its films--130 features were released between 1948 and 1955.
When Darryl F. Zanuck announced his Cinemascope process, he faced hostility from many theatre owners who had gone to great expense to convert their theatres to show 3-D films that Hollywood had stopped making. Zanuck assured the owners that they could have a large supply of CinemaScope product because Fox would make CinemaScope lenses available to other film companies and start a production unit, led by Lippert, called Regal Pictures in 1956 to produce B pictures in that process. Lippert's company was contracted to make 20 pictures a year for seven years; each picture was shot in seven days for no more than $100,000. Due to Lippert's problems with the film unions over not paying residuals to actors and writers of his films when they were sold to television, Ed Baumgarten was officially appointed the head of Regal, but Lippert had overall control.[6] Regal Pictures filmed its movies with CinemaScope lenses, but due to 20th Century-Fox insisting that only its "A" films would be labelled CinemaScope, Regal's product used the term "Regalscope" in its films' credits.[7]
Beginning with Stagecoach to Fury (1956), Regal produced 180 pictures.[4] Impressed by the unit's profits, Fox extended Regal's contract by a further 16 films with an "exploitation angle" that would be approved by Fox.[8] In 1959 Lippert renamed Regal as Associated Producers Incorporated (API) to make more low-budget films for double bills[9] (API having similar initials to exploitation specialist American International Pictures may have been coincidental).
Faced with increasing production costs in Hollywood, Lippert announced in 1962 that he would be making films in England, Italy (The Last Man on Earth) and the Philippines. Fox ended Regal/API when its own production schedule had declined and it didn't have enough "A" features to support the "B" pictures.[10]
Lippert maintained and expanded his chain of 118 theatres until his death. His son, Robert L. Lippert, Jr., followed his father into producing.