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| Company type | Film company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Motion pictures |
| Founded | September 11, 1950; 75 years ago (1950-09-11) |
| Defunct | November 15, 2005 (2005-11-15) |
| Fate | Ceased operations |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Key people | Harry Novak |
Boxoffice International Pictures, Inc. was afilm distributor owned byHarry Novak, who later used the alternate nameHarry Novak Productions. It ceased operations in 2005.
Harry Novak was born in Chicago in 1928, and began working forRKO Pictures when he was a teenager. He started out by distributing posters and lobby cards to film exhibitors. He then enlisted in the Army, and after leaving the service, he returned to the company, which was now controlled byHoward Hughes. In his new position, he advanced to booking and selling films and designing ads.[1][2]
In the 1960s, he started Boxoffice International Pictures. His films were mostly soft-core sexploitation, and featured rural settings and cornpone humor. He recycled the old stereotypes like the traveling salesman and the farmer's daughter; the city girl who goes wild after her first taste of moonshine; into sex comedies that "pandered to bumpkin clichés". The simulated sex portrayed in his films was poorly staged and photographed. In 1964, he used the pseudonym Seymour Tuchus and made the film "Dr Breedlove", a spoof ofThe Bride of Frankenstein andDr Strangelove. The movie was a quick turnaround, he shot it in just six days. To avoid a lawsuit fromStanley Kubrick, he was forced to quickly rename it toKiss Me Quick!.[1][2]
When I was a kid, my daddy told me, 'There's a buyer for everything,' and I lived to find out that he was right.[2]