United Artists, Volume 2, 1951–1978: The Company That Changed the Film Industry

Five.The Studio without Walls

C HAP T E R F I V E The Studio without Walls The stated objective of the Mirisch organization was to "find the best filmmakers and provide them with the very best story material and the most talented associates-enable the filmmaker to do the thing he most wants to do-concentrate completely on the films, on what appears on the screen and let a small, effective organization handle all the other complex matters that are part of making a movie, ranging from negotiating contracts and financing, to persuading actors to work under the Mirisch banner, to arranging pre-production logistics, and, perhaps most important, taking the completed film and supervising its merchandising on a coordinated, world-wide basis." 1 The Mirisches organized essentially an "umbrella" company. If a director wanted to make a picture, he didn't have to put together all the pieces-the Mirisches provided a ready-made format. The Mirisches entered into joint ventures with talent and in return received a management fee and a share of the profits. As Business Week noted, "They are, in fact, managers in the sense that the old major studios were managers, which leaves the creative producers time to create. Unlike the majors, the Mirisches don't burden themselves with bricks and 161 162 The Studio without Walls mortar. They rent office space by the week and sound stages by the day. The overhead stays low."2 Since the organization attracted talent that might otherwise not have become aligned with VA, Krim considered the organization a second West Coast production office. As Krim said, "there was nobody better than Harold Mirisch at building relationships with talent who were aspiring to have a certain amount of creative freedom and to have a share of the fruits of their own labor, and who were not lusting to be the owners or in control of their pictures. They were happy to have the administrative support, the in-house support of the Mirisches."3 The Mirisches produced sixty-seven pictures for VA in about a decade and a half. They were in every size and style and consistently won Hollywood's top honors including three Oscars for best picture-The Apartment, West Side Story, and In the Heat of the Night. Pictures from the Mirisches kept VA's pipeline full with quality product. The other majors hit dry spells in terms of numbers and quality, the result, in part ofchanges in management, financial difficulties, and infighting. The Mirisches alleviated this problem for VA. As Herb Schottenfeld said, "VA was able to assure the exhibitor that the company was in there for the long run and could supply a steady diet of top filmsfilms that regularly captured Academy Award honors."4 PRELUDE AT ALLIED ARTISTS "I remember Harold Mirisch coming over to my office at the Goldwyn studio and opening up a whole new relationship," said Krim. "The association with Allied Artists was not working out. He knew our objectives and thought we could have a good marriage together. He wanted to build a company that would provide a stake for himself and his brothers. He wanted a home, a multiple-picture home for big directors whom he could attract by working out deals similar to those he had for them at Allied Artists. As so often happened in those years at VA, I didn't let him out of the office until we had shaken hands on a deal." 5 Harold Mirisch, the pater familias of the company, was the half brother of Walter and MalVin Mirisch. Starting out as an office boy for Warner Brothers, Harold managed Warner's Midwest theater circuit, based in Milwaukee. In 1942, he joined RKO and returned to New York to become chief film buyer for the entire chain. In 1948, he went to work for Steve Broidy's Monogram Pictures as vice president in charge of distribution and played an integral role in upgrading the studio. 163 The Studio without Walls Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, and the Mirisch brothers: Marvin, Walter, and Harold Walter Mirisch went to work for Monogram in 1945 after graduating from the University of Wisconsin and the Harvard Business School. Beginning as Broidy's assistant, Walter moved into production and introduced a new series to Monogram's lineup called Bomba the Jungle Boy, starring Johnny Sheffield, who played Johnny Weissmuller's son, Boy, in the Tarzan series. Walter produced two...