Samuel Z. Arkoff first became enamored with Hollywood when he bought a copy of Variety magazine when he was a kid. Despite his girth, and high blood pressure, Sam got into the Air Force during World War II and was a cryptographer. At this time he met Hilda, his wife to be for the next fifty-five years. After the war, Sam used the GI Bill to become a lawyer. He felt this gave him the best chance to get involved in the workings of showbiz.

Alex Gordon had worked his way from Great Britain after the war to booking agent for Jack H. Harris and publicity man for Gene Autry. Gordon wanted to make his own pictures and got involved with Ed Wood in a western called The Outlaw Marshall.

Wood was the production manager and drastically underestimated the film’s budget. Most of the funding for the film came from a group of Mormons. The film was completed but they couldn’t pay the lab fees for the film processing. The film sat in bank lien limbo and the Mormons wanted their money back. Gordon needed a lawyer and a friend recommended Arkoff.

Arkoff took the case on a pro-bono basis, he saw in Gordon a way to get into the production and distribution business. It took almost two years of finagling but The Outlaw Marshall finally got released. Arkoff convinced the Mormons, and the film lab, that the only chance they’d ever get any money was to allow the movie to be released and get reimbursed with ticket sales. It worked.

Fate, Ed Wood and Alex Gordon weren’t done with Sam Arkoff yet.

Gordon was livid. Arkoff didn’t think they had a case but he’d see what he could do. They went to RealArt’s offices and met with Broder. Broder called in one of his assistants, idea man Jim Nicholson, and asked if he remembered the script. Jim said no. Sam managed to bluff and bull his way to $500 settlement.

Nicholson was impressed that Arkoff was able to pry any money out of Broder. Nicholson wanted to get into the production and distribution business, too. They hit it off, became partners and formed the American Releasing Corporation. The rest would be history as soon as they found a film to distribute.

Enter young filmmaker Roger Corman. Corman and Wyott Ordung had just completed Monster from the Ocean Floor. Ordung new Nicholson from his RealArt days so he set up a meeting with him at the Cock-n-Bull restaurant. Corman wanted a quicker return on his investment and sold the film to Robert Lippert instead.

Corman’s next project was The Fast and the Furious. Several distributors were interested but it would take six months before any real money was made. Corman wanted a quicker return on the sale and gave ARC a chance to make a better deal.

Sam and Jim managed to sell the film to distributors and took the advance money for that film and used it to finance their next film. Corman agreed and the rest is history. It took a while, there were a few trying moments during the birthing process, and a name change, but American International Pictures was on the map and it was here to stay.

Arkoff and Nicholson were considered crazy for even trying to start a new production company. Studios were in big trouble. Theaters were closing down. The major studios were in a panic caused by a new piece of furniture known as the television set. Older folks were staying at home to watch the tube. AIP realized this and while the big guns tried to lure back the adults with Cinerama and Vistavision they went after the forgotten demographic - teenagers.

Nicholson was the idea man. Arkoff was the money man. Nicholson was the nurturer. Arkoff was the hatchet man. Nicholson was the good cop. Arkoff was the bad cop.

They couldn’t afford to make an "A" picture so they sold the distributors two "B" pictures as a double feature. They started by making westerns like Apache Woman and The Gunslinger then zero-budgeted sci-fi epics with It Conquered the World and The She Creature and juvenile delinquency pictures like Hot Rod Girl and Runaway Girls.

The company came into it’s own and gained the most notoriety with I Was A Teenage Werewolf. The story goes that Sam walked into the office one day and Nicholson bounced the title off him. Sam answered it was a guaranteed moneymaker. The sensationalistic title brought a much appreciated media buzz and the film became their biggest moneymaker to date and spawned a slew of spin-offs like Teenage Frankenstein and Blood of Dracula.

The success of the Poe pictures brought about another classic Arkoff confrontation. Pathe Laboratories, a film developing and print making lab, wanted to get into the picture business too. They contacted Roger Corman to direct The Premature Burial for them.

Vincent Price was under contract with AIP so this one starred Ray Milland. Sam got wind of it and threatened to pull all of AIP’s business away from Pathe unless they pulled the plug. Instead they turned the rights of the film over for a small buy out and AIP finished the production. Sam’s reputation as "creative financier" also prevented Robert Clarke from letting AIP distribute The Hideous Sun Demon.

Arkoff never liked the way Hollywood portrayed teenagers. He used to screen his pictures for his own kids and asked their advice. They were constantly under attack for promoting and causing juvenile delinquency. They fired right back pointing the finger at the breakdown of the nuclear family. 

AIP's next string of hits came with the Beach Party series Beach Party and Bikini Beach. Arkoff butted heads with Walt Disney for using former Mousketeer Annette Funicello in the films. Sam urged Walt to let her grow up but promised she wouldn’t be shown in a bikini. She never did but she never worked for Disney again either.

But the times were a changing and so did AIP. Out went Frankie and Annette and in came Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. AIP began churning out films about bikers and the growing drug culture like The Wild Angels and The Trip. They even had a few protest pictures Wild in the Streets and Riot on Sunset Strip.

Jim and Sam both agreed that they were making exploitation pictures and made no excuses for it. They weren’t in it for the art but were in it for the money. AIP on more than one occasion came under fire for their films and stood firm but that began to crack in the late '60s. They changed the endings to some pictures to prevent a backlash causing some friction with their filmmakers and after tampering with Gas-s-s-s! Roger Corman severed ties with AIP and formed his own company.

The friction was nothing new though. Eddie Cahn (Invasion of the Saucer Men), Bert I. Gordon (Amazing Colossal Man), and Herman Cohen (Teenage Werewolf) all left AIP because of Sam’s "creative financing" and felt they were being cheated. The heads of AIP were also accused of making promises and then relenting on them like in the case of Paul Blaisdell. 

It didn’t matter what talent they lost because AIP also had an eye for good young talent looking for a chance to break into the business, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and John Milius top that list. They also get credit for discovering Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern and Robert De Niro but also deserve a nod for giving work to discarded stars like Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Peter Lorre and Ray Milland. Heck, they survived on Vincent Price in the early '60s.

Nicholson’s role continued to shrink at AIP so he left and signed a six-picture deal with Fox studios. He only produced one more picture, The Legend of Hell House. That's because, tragically, one night, at a restaurant, Nicholson became disoriented and incoherent. He was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and died shortly thereafter.

Arkoff lost a friend and a partner but AIP kept going. Sam tapped into another ignored market, the African American community and the blaxploitation genre exploded with Blacula, Slaughter and Sugar Hill. On the other end of the spectrum were odes to rednecks and hillbillies, truckers and backwater sheriffs in Breaker Breaker, Macon County Line and High Ballin'.

AIP also entered the sexploitation market with Savage Sisters, Black Mama White Mama and Prison Girls to keep up with the changing Drive-In market. Sam also returned to AIP’s glory days with a string of monster movies including Empire of the Ants, Squirm and Frogs and brought Vincent Price back for a couple of Dr. Phibes films but it was getting harder and harder to compete.

AIP did make a few mistakes and blunders. With the success of Born Losers, they green-lighted Tom Laughlin for the sequel Billy Jack. The tumultuous story of the creation of Billy Jack would take way too long to tell but AIP pulled out early, got sued, and eventually lost out on the films surprising success. They also lost on Easy Rider when they wouldn't let Dennis Hopper direct it. 

Sam teamed up with AIP alum Larry Cohen on Q-The Winged Serpent that led to his infamous dreck encounter with Rex Reed in Cannes, France. He then co-produced Up the Creek with his son Louis. After that, Arkoff International Pictures remained depressingly quiet but the legend of AIP and Sam Arkoff continued to grow.

Arkoff resurfaced recently with a deal with HBO Productions for a series of remakes of old AIP science fiction "classics" How to Make a Monster, Earth vs. The Spider and Teenage Caveman. The films are currently in production and will air eventually on Cinemax.

There is no question of the talent they cultivated but, make no mistake about it, they didn’t see themselves as great artists but competent craftsmen that could finish things on time and on budget allowing them to turn a profit and keep the company going.