American International Television (AiTV) Feature and Television Films for the 1980s

Los Angeles: American International Television, 1979. Vintage oversize American International Television (AiTV) "Films for the 80s" press kit, featuring two oversize booklets, each with 25 color, full-page film promotions, all housed in a white AiTV "Films for the 80s" folder. An impressively illustrated oversize prospectus, with each page (except the first page and verso of the last page) featuring a full page promotion for an American International Pictures (AIP) film, with a full-color graphic, often different from that of the cinematic release, a film synopsis, and film credits. The only other copy we have been able to locate is in the Samuel Z. Arkoff Papers at the William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University.

The films in the press kit represent the wide array of AIP feature and television films they were known for, low and mid-budget science fiction, horror, as well as some prestige films, and feature often unique artwork whose aesthetic is a harbinger to the home video packaging of the 1980s. The vast majority of films represented are from the mid 1970s, with a few of the films dating from the 1960s. Among the films represented are, "Futureworld" (1976), "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" (1976), "Empire of Ants" (1977), "Walking Tall Part II" (1975), "Macon County Line" (1974), "Sisters" (1972), and "The Premature Burial" (1962). A full list of represented films available upon request.

AIP created its own television division, American International Television (also known as American International Productions Television or AIP-TV) in 1964 to distribute AIP films and develop television shows and television movies. By 1979, the time of the press kit offered here, AIP was in financial straits, and was sold to Filmways, Inc., and was renamed Filmways Pictures in 1980, at which time AIP-TV (or AiTV) was absorbed as the program syndication arm of Filmways Television. Filmways, Inc. was bought by Orion Pictures in 1982.

Booklets, 11 x 17 inches, side-stapled in illustrated card wrappers, one blue, one purple. Very Good plus, with light edgewear and creasing at the spinefolds.

Folder, 11.5 x 17.5 inches. Very Good plus, with creasing at the extremities and light edgewear.

[Book #157325]