Seven Arts Productions

Did You Know?

• Seven Arts invested in real estate in the Bahamas.
• The company helped finance a Broadway musical adaptation of Gone with the Wind.

Formation

Seven Arts Productions was founded in December 1957, growing out of Associated Artists Productions (AAP), a company run by Ray Stark and Eliot Hyman that bought old films to sell to television. Stark and Hyman wanted to make their own films, but AAP’s main shareholder, Louis Chesler, disagreed, so they created Seven Arts. Stark said the new company planned to remake older Warner Bros. movies or turn filmed stories into stage plays. Hyman stayed on as AAP’s president and worked as a private partner in Seven Arts, while his son Kenneth Hyman served as a link between the two firms. David Stillman became Seven Arts’ president. Through a chain of corporate changes, Donnell & Mudge Ltd.—which became United Telefilms Ltd. and later Creative Telefilms & Artists Ltd.—bought Stark and Hyman’s Seven Arts studio and changed its own name to Seven Arts Productions Ltd. on August 12, 1960. Around that time, a U.S. television distribution arm, Seven Arts Associated Corp., was set up in Delaware.

United Artists era

Seven Arts Productions kicked off its film slate with The Gun Runners, distributed by United Artists, and even before that movie hit theaters, Variety noted the company had already earned a reputation as a major independent player. Its second feature, Ten Seconds to Hell, was a co-production with Hammer Films shot in Germany. Behind the scenes, Seven Arts quietly helped bankroll several of Hammer’s early horror classics, including The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula. On Broadway, the company scored an early win by backing The World of Suzie Wong. In late 1958, Seven Arts signed actor Jacques Bergerac to a five-year deal and struck a three-picture agreement with director John Huston for projects titled Freud, Montezuma, and Lysistrata; the first Huston film they actually produced was The Misfits (1961), also through United Artists. By September 1960, Seven Arts planned to pour $17.5 million into 13 to 15 films, with a total budget around $30 million, covering titles like The Misfits, West Side Story, Two for the Seesaw, and By Love Possessed. They also held rights to films such as The Nun’s Story and Anatomy of a Murder, and were involved with 18 Hammer productions in the UK. A falling-out with United Artists ended their partnership, and three key properties—West Side Story, By Love Possessed, and Two for the Seesaw—ended up being made by the Mirisch Corporation. In February 1961, Kenneth Hyman moved to London to run Seven Arts’ European operations.

Expansion

In July 1962, Seven Arts announced plans to produce twenty films for MGM, describing the agreement as the largest single pact ever negotiated with a major distributor by an independent producing company. It also entered deals with 20th Century Fox (four pictures), Warner Bros. Pictures (three pictures), and Columbia Pictures (two pictures), in addition to its existing arrangement with the Mirisch Corporation for United Artists. The MGM deal included titles such as Lolita, The Night of the Iguana, Sunday in New York, and Of Human Bondage. The 20th Century Fox agreement covered Gigot and The Disenchanted; the Warner Bros. slate included The Count of Monte Cristo and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; Columbia's agreement involved The Enchantress with Robert Mitchum and Assault on a Queen. Seven Arts also announced investments in projects including The Anatolian Smile, Dr. Strangelove, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and adaptations of Reflections in a Golden Eye and Oh Dad, Poor Dad. Not all projects were realized; some were produced by other studios. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? was commercially successful. In May 1963, the Los Angeles Times described Seven Arts as a deep, dark mystery in Hollywood. At that time, the company had contract actors including Nancy Kwan, Sue Lyon, Keir Dullea, Victor Buono, Alain Delon, and Sandy Dennis.

Merger with Warner Bros.

In November 1966, Seven Arts Productions bought a majority stake in Warner Bros. Pictures from Jack L. Warner for $32 million. The two companies officially merged on July 15, 1967, becoming Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, which was later renamed Warner Bros. Inc. after Kinney National Company bought it in 1969. Ray Stark, in his last year as production head, said he disliked ten of the eleven films he oversaw, liking only Arrivederci Baby. He called Eliot Hyman the smartest TV man in the business and a financial genius.