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JAMES H. NICHOLSON

      James Hartford Nicholson was working as a general sales manager for Realart Pictures, under Jack Broder. They re-released the old Universal features (like FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA as a double feature), but Nicholson wanted to make and release his own movies. It took awhile, but after meeting Samuel Z. Arkoff (see below), that dream would come true. They began a company named American Releasing Corporation and the first picture they distributed was Roger Corman's THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, a western. It wasn't long before they decided to get into motion picture production, so they changed the name of the company to American International. They knew that to stay alive they had to make pictures that attracted the teenagers to the local theaters or drive-ins. So they started to produce movies about teenagers. In addition to the teenage horror films, they turned out low-budget juvenile delinquent double features with titles like MOTORCYCLE GANG, HOT ROD GIRL, RUNAWAY DAUGHTERS and REFORM SCHOOL GIRL. They all made money and enabled AIP to use that money to finance their next projects.
      James Nicholson was the man who was in charge of the creative part of the business. He often came up with titles (some say he came up with the I WAS A to go long with the TEENAGE part.) When most studios were hurting financially with TV becoming a larger part of the American family's way of life in the 1950's, only AIP flourished because they decided to cater to the teenage market. Nicholson passed away in December 1972 of a brain tumor.

SAMUEL Z. ARKOFF

      In Mark Thomas McGee's excellent book on American International, "Fast And Furious" (published by McFarland Books), he explains that Samuel Zachary Arkoff, "during a visit to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair" at the age of 15, he "saw his first copy of 'Variety'." Although his family was against him getting involved with the motion picture business, Arkoff decided to become a lawyer after World War Two and enrolled at Loyola, which offered an accelerated course for veterans. After graduating, Sam took up residency at the Lawyer's Building on Selma Avenue. It is here where he met James Nicholson, and eventually they became partners in what was to become American International Pictures. While Nicholson was the man behind the more creative aspects of filmmaking: advertising and coming up with the titles of the pictures, Arkoff (considered the 'man in the black car" type to Nicholson"s "man in the white car") took care of the legal and money matters. After Nicholson's death in 1972, Arkoff was in charge and finally decided to sell AIP to Orion Pictures. Sam's son Louis continues the tradition by remaking AIP movies for cable TV. Arkoff passed away September 16, 2001 of natural causes. For more on Samuel Z. Arkoff, there is an entertaining book called "Flying Through Hollywood By The Seat Of My Pants" by Sam Arkoff and Richard Trubo.

HERMAN COHEN

      Herman Cohen started out as a go-fer in Detroit at the age of ten. Always fascinated about the theater, he worked as an usher before (at the age of 16), he was managing the Dexter Theater. He even booked movies after moving up from go-fer to usher to doorman to manager. Herman went into the military at 18, and after his tour of duty, ended up learning about distribution with Columbia Pictures in their branch office in Detroit. He moved to the West Coast and worked for Lou Smith in the publicity department at Columbia. Herman Cohen heard about Jack Broder, who was looking for an assistant, and got the job. That is how he got into production. After making a few pictures with Jack Broder, Herman finally made his first independant movie, TARGET EARTH. During a meeting with Jim Nicholson, Herman told him about his idea for a Teenage Werewolf movie. Herman picked Gene Fowler Jr. to direct his first feature, and after selecting Michael Landon over Scott Marlowe, Jack Nicholson, and others who tried out for the role, the teenage horror craze was on. Herman also did little "walk-on's" similar to what Hitchcock did in all his movies. With the success of I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, and with a group of drive-in theater owners in Texas needing some pictures for Thanksgiving time, a deal was made and Herman made I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN and BLOOD OF DRACULA. The last of his official teenage horror flicks was HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, although HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM had a sort of Teenage Jekyll and Hyde character, and KONGA was originally going to be called I WAS A TEENAGE GORILLA. Mr. Cohen is still involved in making movies. Cohen died of throat cancer on June 2, 2002 at the age of 76. (This information was gathered from articles appearing in some horror genre magazines published a few years ago.)

GENE FOWLER JR.

      I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF was the first movie directed by Gene Fowler Jr. who had been one of the best film editors in the business. While in the cutting room working on editing a movie, Gene was approached by Herman Cohen. Herman knew that Fowler wanted to direct a movie and decided that he would be the right one to direct his werewolf film. When Gene learned of the title, he didn't want to direct it because he thought it was a ridiculous title. The script wasn't that bad, so with his wife telling him that no one would probably see the picture anyway, he decided to do it. Little did he know the success it would be. A year later he directed a science fiction movie with a similar confession-style title, I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE (which was recently remade as a TV movie.) Both movies have become quite popular cult pictures. Gene stopped directing movies soon after because of typical Hollywood back-stabbing (Filmfax Magazine has the story in issue number 22 by Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas and David Everitt). Mr. Fowler died on May 11, 1998.

HERBERT L. STROCK

      Born January 13, 1918 in Boston, Massachusetts, Herbert L. Strock became a professor of cinema at USC while working as a film editor. He had been working for Ivan Tors who asked him to direct a couple of science fiction features, THE MAGNETIC MONSTER and GOG. He then found himself working on TV series like Highway Patrol, Maverick and Cheyenne. Tired of doing police shows and westerns, he returned to directing genre films lke I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD OF DRACULA and HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER.

EDWARD L. CAHN

      Edward Cahn was working as a night cutter at Universal during his days as a student at the University of California. Whe the studio ordered him to cut out all the scenes of Zasu Pitts from ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and replace her wth Beryl Mercer, he did so while traveling on the train from Los Angeles to New York so the movie could open on time.
      Eddie was a big man and always smoked a pipe, which usually made it hard to understand him. He loved to have the old-time actors in his films. For this reason, it was not difficult for him to get actors who were past their prime, would cost less, but who knew their craft. The first movie he did for AIP was GIRLS IN PRISON wich was followed by 1956's THE SHE-CREATURE. His contribution to teenage horror movies was INVASION OF THE SAUCER-MEN.

ROGER CORMAN

      What can one say about Roger Corman that hasn't already been said? I don't plan to say too much here as two books about Roger's career have been published that are very enjoyable reading. "The Films Of Roger Corman" gives a pretty thorough look at his output with a generous collecton of stills. His contribution to Teenage horror movies is actually quite small. TEENAGE CAVEMAN is actually a science fiction film about the future that was going to be titled PREHISTORIC WORLD, but because the teenage monster cycle was still going on, the title was changed to attract the youngsters. Roger is still producing movies, but most of them appear on the cable networks or straight to video. His last directing job was on FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND.

ABEN KANDEL

      There is not a lot of background information on Aben Kandel. He did begin his career in Hollywood in 1934 working on screenplays for movies like WEREWOLF OF LONDON and SHE GETS HER MAN. He wrote a novel and turned it into the movie CITY FOR CONQUEST starring James Cagney. In the 1950's he collaborated with Herman Cohen on screenplays for the teenage horror movies, but they used a pseudonym or two, (Ralph Thornton and Kenneth Langtry) at first not wanting to put their names on movies with such titles in case they would be ridiculed for them. Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel are responsible for I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEN, BLOOD OF DRACULA, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, THE HEADLESS GHOST, BLACK ZOO, HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM and KONGA. For a lot of us teenagers in the nineeen fifties. we thank them for making these movies for our generation back then.

PAUL BLAISDELL

      Cinefantastique's May 1990 issue has a very good article on Paul Blaisdell by writer Randy Palmer that covers in detail Paul's work in films and the reasons why most movie-goers don't even know his name. Sadly, Paul was never given his due while he was alive and died at the age of 53 on July 10, 1983. But his work lives on as model kits by Billiken, the videos and cable TV showings of his films like INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, THE SHE CREATURE, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES and IT, THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, and the hearts of young monster-makers who want to go into the motion picture busness.

PHILIP SCHEER

      As far as I'm concerned, Philip Scheer is one of the unsung make-up artists in Hollywood. His designs for the Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein were truly original. I know many people like to knock his frankenstein make-up, but I know relatves and friends who truly couldn't stand to look at it because it's so grotesque. It took me a while to get used to it. With a limited budget, he made the most out of his ideas. I know very little about his background so I hope someone can fill me in on that. I would also like to find out if there are any sketches or hear stories about how he came up with these teenage monster make-ups. Some of his other movie credits include REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES, DAVY CROCKETT AND THE RIVER PIRATES, ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE, RIOT IN JUVENILE PRISON and CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS.
      .....Of course there were other people who worked on these movies: in wardrobe, editing, sound, music, etc. I personlly would like to thank them all for contributing to the making of these films. I know very little about them, but appreciate all their hard work.

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