Z as in Zzzz, or Zowie

The old team of Bunkum & Ballyhoo isn't dead. The fact is, they're working in Hollywood making what is known as Z pictures.

Bunkum is fast-talking James Nicholson, 50; Ballyhoo is fast-talking Samuel Arkoff, 48. They are the president and chairman of American International Pictures. Since 1954, they have reeled out 130 lowbudget, lowbrow features, grossed about $250 million, and built A.I.P. into the nation's largest independent film company.

For adults, the Z picture stands for zzzz, but for teenagers, it's strictly zowie. It goes with such titles as The Brain Eaters, The Bucket of Blood and Little Shop of Horrors (which was filmed in a record two days on a starvation budget of $37,000). A.I.P.'s classic horror title was I Was a Teenage Werewolf, which caused traffic jams at drive-in theaters and earned $2,000,000. Similarly, A.I.P. has made quick killings on bargain-basement Biblicals (Goliath and the Barbarians, Goliath and the Sins of Babylon), on way-outer spaces (Angry Red Planet, Battle Beyond the Sun) and teen-age topicals (Dragstrip Riot, Reform School Girl).

Pure Escapism. Nicholson, a former usher who graduated to theater owner, first met his partner in 1952 when, on behalf of a client, Attorney Arkoff threatened suit for title infringement. Impressed with each other's skill at infighting, they decided to join forces, borrowed $3,000 and turned out their first production, The Beast with 1,000,000 Eyes. To shave expenses, they reduced the monster's role to something resembling an oversexed vaporizer, but Beast was a screaming success, owing almost entirely to the pull of the title and the practice of "saturation booking" --showing the feature simultaneously in every available theater in a locality, then moving on before any damaging word of mouth could circulate.

A.I.P.'s cinemologists are sharply aware that kids are the big movie market nowadays. And, "explains Arkoff, they don't want message pictures. They want "pure escapism, a never-never land without parents, without adults, without authorities. Kids get lectures from their parents all the time. They don't want to hear them from us."

From 28 offices in the U.S., A.I.P. gets reports on the latest in teen mores. Thus, when surfing became the thing, A.I.P. flooded the market with surf films which, aside from a few sight gags, were one long round of beach bunnies undulating to rock 'n' roll. Beach Party begat Muscle Beach Party, which begat Beach Blanket Bingo, which begat How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and they were billed as BARE-AS-YOU-DARE exposes about WHAT HAPPENS WHEN 10,000 KIDS MEET ON 5,000 BEACH BLANKETS!

Ma & Pa. Nothing really does happen. The come-ons are put-ons; there is no smoking or drinking onscreen, and the promised love play is usually limited to an innocent kiss behind a surfboard. Frankie Avalon and ex-TV Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, the romantic leads who trip through their scenes with mindless abandon, come across as the Ma and Pa Kettle of the teeny-bopper set. Explains an A.I.P. market researcher: "Kids realize that sex play exists, but they don't like movies to get involved with it. A boy watching a movie and sitting next to a girl with whom he's necking will be embarrassed."

Last year Arkoff and Nicholson felt it was time to turn A.I.P. into a kind of cinematic newswire by "reflecting the exciting social changes, crises, rationalizations and adjustments of society in our time." Their first "protest film" was The Wild Angels, a blunt, crude, synthetic look at life among the motorcycle cultists (TIME, Sept. 9). It was a blowout with the critics, but thanks in part to the marquee name of Peter Fonda, it has so far revved up earnings of $6,000,000, making it the most successful picture in A.I.P. history.

This year the company is releasing 21 features, including Riot on Sunset Strip (MEET THE HIPPIES . . . THE TEENY-BOPPERS WITH THEIR TOO-TIGHT CAPRIES!). Thunder Alley (DAYS OF WHEELS . . . NIGHTS OF PLEASURE!) and Devil's Angels (THEIR GOD is VIOLENCE . . . AND LIKE RABID DOGS, LUST IS THE LAW LIVE BY!). LSD will get its due in The Trip, drugs in The , End, birth-control pills in something tentatively called The Baby Factory. Says A.I. P. Sales Director Leon Blender: "We'd to make nice family pictures, but we're in this for the money. If the kids it's a good picture and the adults don't, that's all right. Seventy-five percent of the drive-in audiences are under 25, and 70% of our gross comes drive-in theaters. God bless the whole 5,000 of them." On the other hand, it could be that A.I.P.'s success in the drive-ins is misleading. Those under-25 audiences are often so busy with other matters that they are oblivious to action on the screen.

Still, Arkoff and Nicholson prefer to think that they are reflecting the times.

"Burning issues is what we're after," exclaims Arkoff. "How else are we going to get the young people?" What about a Viet Nam picture? "Too controversial," says Arkoff. "Besides, if peace breaks out, you're dead."

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