Robert L. Lippert
Encyclopedia
Robert L. Lippert was a prolific film producer and cinema owner who eventually owned a chain of 118 theatres
, 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.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.
western called Wildfire, made in Cinecolor
. Screen Guild also re-released many older B picture westerns and made 22 pictures under its own name.
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.
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 film
s 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. 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.
Beginning with Stagecoach to Fury (1956), Regal produced 180 pictures. 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. In 1959 Lippert renamed Regal as Associated Producers Incorporated (API) to make more low-budget films for double bills (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.
Lippert maintained and expanded his chain of 118 theatres until his death. His son, Robert L. Lippert, Jr., followed his father into producing.
Biography
Born in Alameda, CaliforniaAlameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
, 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
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
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.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.
Screen Guild Productions and Lippert Pictures
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 SteeleBob Steele (actor)
Bob Steele was an American actor. He was born Robert Adrian Bradbury in Portland, Oregon, into a vaudeville family. After years of touring, the family settled down in Hollywood in the late 1910s, where his father, Robert N...
western called Wildfire, made in Cinecolor
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...
. Screen Guild also re-released many older B picture westerns and made 22 pictures under its own name.
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.
- Lippert read a Life magazine article about a proposed trip to and landing on the moon that he rushed into production, though his film Rocketship X-MRocketship X-MRocketship X-M was the second of the American science fiction feature films of the space adventure genre begun in the post-war era, in 1950...
(1950) had to change its destination to MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
to avoid copying George PalGeorge PálGeorge Pal , born György Pál Marczincsak, was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre...
's Destination MoonDestination Moon (film)Destination Moon is an American science fiction feature film produced by George Pal, who later produced When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine. Pal commissioned the script by James O'Hanlon and Rip Van Ronkel...
, though it was first into the cinemas.
- Ron OrmondRon OrmondRon Ormond was an American author, showman, screenwriter, film producer, and film director of Western, musical, and exploitation films. Following his survival of a 1968 plane crash, Ormond began making Christian films.-Films:...
produced and directed several films for Lippert, including many westerns with Lash LaRue.
- Lippert had a reciprocal agreement with the British company Hammer Films to distribute each other's films in their own countries.
- When screenwriterScreenwriterScreenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
Samuel FullerSamuel FullerSamuel Michael Fuller was an American screenwriter, novelist, and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes.-Personal life:...
wanted to become a director, he agreed to direct the three films he had been contracted to write for Lippert--I Shot Jesse JamesI Shot Jesse JamesI Shot Jesse James is a film directed by Samuel Fuller about the murder of Jesse James by Robert Ford and Robert Ford's life afterwards...
, The Baron of ArizonaThe Baron of ArizonaThe Baron of Arizona is a 1950 film by Samuel Fuller and starring Vincent Price. Ed Wood was a stunt double in the film.The film concerns a master forger's attempted use of false documents to lay claim to the territory of Arizona late in the 19th century, and is based on the case of James Reavis,...
and The Steel HelmetThe Steel HelmetThe Steel Helmet is a war film directed by Samuel Fuller and produced by Lippert Studios during the Korean War. It was the first film about the war, and the first of several war films by producer-director-writer Fuller.-Plot:...
--for no extra money.
- Sid MeltonSid MeltonSid Melton was an American actor known for his roles as incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe in the CBS sitcom Green Acres and as Uncle Charlie Halper, proprietor of the Copa Club, in Make Room for Daddy and its spin-offs.Born as Sidney Meltzer in Brooklyn, New York, he was the brother of screenwriter...
was a contract actor for Lippert, for whom he made such films as The Lost ContinentLost Continent (1951 film)The Lost Continent is an American science fiction film, starring Cesar Romero and Hillary Brooke directed by Sam Newfield and produced by his brother Sigmund Neufeld. This low budget independent film was shot in eleven days. The footage on the plateau where the dinosaurs lived was printed with...
. Both the final reels of that film (green) and Rocketship X-M (red) used film tintingFilm tintingFilm tinting is the process of adding color to black-and-white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion...
.
20th Century Fox, Regal Pictures and API
When Darryl F. ZanuckDarryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
announced his Cinemascope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
process, he faced hostility from many theatre owners who had gone to great expense to convert their theatres to show 3-D film
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
s 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. 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.
Beginning with Stagecoach to Fury (1956), Regal produced 180 pictures. 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. In 1959 Lippert renamed Regal as Associated Producers Incorporated (API) to make more low-budget films for double bills (API having similar initials to exploitation specialist American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
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.
Lippert maintained and expanded his chain of 118 theatres until his death. His son, Robert L. Lippert, Jr., followed his father into producing.