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thehorrorboy wrote:

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Why were some Universals to which Realart had the reissue rights distributed by Film Classics and Eagle-Lion? Why did the ads for these Film Classics and Eagle-Lion releases call the titles Realart pictures?

Don't know for sure, but a good guess is that Broder was just starting out & had no contracts with local ("states rights") distribution offices, so he agented his first titles over to Film Classics. When that company tanked, it was bought up by Eagle-Lion, so they "inherited" whatever contract Broder had signed with Film Classics. Meanwhile, Eagle-Lion, which was renaming itself Eagle-Lion-Classics in honor its new acquisition, wasn't doing so hot either. So at some point, Broder decided to just do his distributing direct, got his own contracts with local distributors, and cut out the middle-man. When Eagle-Lion Classics finally folded (it was absorbed by United Artists after a year or two), the distribution rights for the stuff he was reissuing reverted to Realart, which added additional reissue material from Universal and others. Under Broder's management, it became sort of the "premier" reissue distributor, investing more in paper advertising (posters, i.e.) than any of its competitors - Favorite Films, Astor, etc. - and having a superior primary source for reissue product. Some titles were even placed in first-run houses. At least one former Film Classics-handled film, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, got a whole new reissue campaign, and I suspect others did too: that would make it a re-reissue. Broder also got into producing some of his own stuff, and handled a few imports: oddly, although these were also distributed thru Realart's contract exchanges, the Realart name didn't show on the ads and, possibly, not on the original screen prints. Broder had a separate logo for "Jack Broder Productions" and yet another for "Jack Broder Presents" (the imports/pickups) titles. Broder either eventually owned, or at least had exclusive contracts signed with some of the local distributors, which actually changed their names to "Realart Pictures of (insert name of state/territory of location". After Broder stopped operating on a national level, he stayed in the distribution game with some of these local exchanges, and especially handled American-International Pictures' product from the beginning. In fact, if you look up the "distributor" (actually listed as only the "exchange") in the New York State Archives' censor's office records site, you'll find all the ARC/AIP stuff listed as being handled by Realart thru 1964, when the censor closed down. So Broder was making a tidy living between his last Universal reissue and his "break-out" productions of WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET and NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS in 1966. As to why the Realart name was used on the Film Classics/Eagle-Lion distributed reissues, it was surely a contract agreement. Realart, holding the reissue rights, was as entitled to credit as the company doing the actual distribution. This is actually fairly common in the indie film business of the times, to have an intermediary "release agent" to market finished films (original or reissue) to an established indie distributor. Also in the foreign film markets, where importers frequently handed over product, after subtitling or dubbing, to another company. RKO Teleradio released THE MYSTERIANS thru MGM, for instance; and Edward Kingsley's Kingsley-International art films were all actually distributed by Union Films, with Kingsley International taking the credit. The 50s U-I stuff reissued in and around 1964 - the genre stuff at least - was reissued by U-I and they took full advertising and screen credit, but national distribution activities were handled by Ultra Pictures which, I was shocked - shocked, I say - rather recently to learn was a Sherman Krellberg outfit!!