| Industry | Film distributor |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1930 |
| Defunct | 1963 |
| Fate | Went out of business |
| Successor | Library: Paramount Pictures (through Melange Pictures) |
| Headquarters | New York City |
Key people | Robert M. Savini (1886–1956) |
Astor Pictures was a motion picture distribution company in the United States from 1930 to 1963. It was founded by Robert M. Savini (29 August 1886 – 29 April 1956). Astor specialized in film re-releases. It later released independently made productions, including some of its own films made during the 1950s.
Savini had worked in the film industry, including his own Savini Films in Atlanta, Georgia, that his brother took over. He worked in film exhibition for Columbia Pictures, then Sono Art-World Wide Pictures, then the KBS Film Company (Burt Kelly, Samuel Bischoff and William Saal) with World Wide handling the releases, then Tiffany Pictures. Savini teamed with Saal to form Amity Pictures in May 1933 that released films by Tiffany and other Poverty Row studios as well as producing their own films. In October 1933 Savini left the position of sales manager with Amity to start Astor Pictures.[1]
During its first decade, Astor, located at 130 West 46th Street in New York City, primarily invested in other companies' films to acquire capital, and became parent company to Savini's first business, Atlantic Pictures, a film distribution exchange system located throughout the Southern United States. In 1939, Savini acquired the rights to other companies' motion pictures for profitable national re-release and put these out under the Astor name and logo. Among the first titles were revised sound versions of "Wings" and "Tumbleweeds" which Astor prepared, along with the complete library of Educational Pictures short subjects, Poverty Row westerns of the 1930s, and a number of Grand National Pictures' non-western product.
Subsequently, Astor began limited production of a variety of B-films, including a few race films, and co-financing other films produced by others, including some British B-mysteries, along with continued select reissues. The company focused on distribution to rural, small-town, and neighborhood theatres, not setting its sights too high, and thereby remained solvent throughout the Second World War years. A Billboard magazine article of 8 Jun 1946 stated Astor had 26 branch offices in the United States. In the 1950s, Astor created a subsidiary, Atlantic Television Corporation, for TV syndication of much of its earlier product, while continuing to engage in making new pictures, such as Cat-Women of the Moon, and picking up others for distribution, like Robot Monster.
In the late 1950s, however, Astor's fortunes began to fail, along with those of other companies like Republic Pictures and RKO Radio Pictures. Astor attempted to survive by distributing art films, such as La Dolce Vita and Peeping Tom but could not overcome the financial realities of the American motion picture industry at that time, nor its reputation for only marketing lesser films. By 1963, Astor was out of business.
After Savini's death, Astor and Atlantic Television were acquired by George F. Foley, Jr. and Franklin Bruder, who released European films in the US. It is probably here the Astor name is best remembered, for in three years they brought several cinematic classics to theaters in the early 1960s. Astor's biggest success was undoubtedly Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960), which was a huge box-office hit for the company, and allowed it to continue to release foreign films such as Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960), François Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad (1961), and Orson Welles' The Trial (1962). However, despite its success with such important films, Astor went bankrupt in 1963.[6]