Gary a Smith

American International Pictures: the Golden Years Gary a Smith

In the mid-Fifties, American International Pictures was the self-proclaimed "Infant of the Industry" and, as such, was not perceived as a serious threat to the major studios of the time. AIP soon proved themselves very worthy opponents as their youth-oriented double features began raking in big bucks that rivaled and sometimes surpassed the profits of their competitors. The company's founders were James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff and during the years they worked together as a team AIP turned out their most imaginative movies, including I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Beach Party, and the Roger Corman/Vincent Price Poe films. This is the story of those years told mainly using the material gathered by AIPs New York publicist.