S. S. Millard

Sam S. Millard (also known as Elid Stanch, [Feaster, 119.] ?? - 1950s [Schaefer, 326.] ) was a filmmaker of the 1920s through the 1950s and 1960s. Nicknamed "Steamship", he was one of the Forty Thieves of exploiters. [Friedman, 222.] Considered an early father of the roadshow-style exploitation film circuit, [Feaster, 52.] his film productions and presentations laid the groundwork for a number of later exploitation films.

Millard's actual date and place of birth is unknown, but it is believed he is of Romanian descent, and was once able to pass off as Romanian nobility to a former Romanian queen. [Friedman, 231.] While a financially successful individual, he often gave an appearance of a man who struggled to make ends meet. David F. Friedman, an exploitation filmmaker and presenter who worked with Millard in the 1940s and 1950s, described Millard's appearance at a meeting as someone who "did not project an aura of prosperity," with a wrinkled suit and dirty shirt. [Friedman, 230.] He gained a reputation for huckstering and making every last dollar he could from his distributors and film buyers, which gained him both respect and resentment from his peers. [Friedman, 232-235.]

Millard mainly dealt in what would now be called exploitation filmmaking. Like most of the genre's films of the time, Millard's movies were typically compilations of other controversial short films, stock footage, and medical reels. [Schaefer, 62.] Millard spent his professional career producing and presenting these films around the United States. In one of Millard's most noteworthy presentations, Millard was forced to retitle his film "Is Your Daughter Safe?" to "The Octopus" in order to meet the demands of San Diego city officials who found the title objectionable. [Schaefer, 59.] The film, which was a compilation of footage that was, in some cases, nearly fifteen years old, [Schaefer, 62.] included medical footage of venereal diseases and stock footage depicting white slavery. (It is believed that nearly all of Millard's films were compilations of this type. [Schaefer, 62.] ) The film was described by "Variety" as "possibly the strongest and most dangerous" film of its kind at that point, but it still passed the standards of a group coordinated by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America's Jason Joy, with the group initially stating that the movie taught "a very splendid lesson and that every girl over sixteen years of age ought to be compelled to see it." [Schaefer, 145.] The MPPDA, surprised at the lack of a condemnation, was eventually successful in gaining the condemnations from various women's groups and succeeded in withdrawing the film from a number of theaters in the northwestern United States, paving the way for further challenges to the genre. [Schaefer, 146-147.] Another story, which was passed along by Friedman, involved Millard shamelessly tricking fellow exploiter Isadore Lazarus into paying Millard $2500 for an unproduced print, and then charging nearly an extra thousand for the finished product. [Friedman, 230-233.]

Millard spent time in San Quentin State Prison, and also had a felony incarceration in Detroit, Michigan sometime during the 1920s, as reported in "Variety" in 1927 and 1928. The magazine, which was traditionally hostile against the exploitation circuit at the time, used the felony stories as well as the reveal of Millard's real name as evidence against him and his productions. [Feaster, 119.]

Millard's son, Nick, [Internet Movie Database - S. S. Millard.] is also a director, having produced a number of B-movies during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. [Internet Movie Database - Nick Millard.

List of films

Millard created and produced an unknown number of films. Most of them have been lost since the time they were distributed, and, often, the only record of the existence of the films is in the controversy they created. [Schaefer, 175.] Thus, the list below is incomplete.

*"Sex" (1920s) [Feaster, 119.]
*"Is Your Daughter Safe?", also known as "The Octopus". (1927) [Feaster, 52.]
*"Pitfalls of Passion" (1927) [Schaefer, 174.]
*"Scarlet Youth" (1928) [Schaefer, 174.]
*"Innocent" (1932) [Schaefer, 179.]
*"Wild Oats" (circa 1940s) [Friedman, 231.]

Works cited

*Felicia Feaster and Bret Wood, "Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Film" (Baltimore, Maryland: Midnight Marquee Press, 1999; ISBN 1887664246).
*David F. Friedman, "A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King" (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1990; ISBN 0-87975-608-X)
*Internet Movie Database: [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587741/ Nick Millard] . URL accessed 13 April 2007.
*Internet Movie Database: [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587748/ S. S. Millard] . URL accessed 13 April 2007.
*Eric Schaefer, "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959" (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999; ISBN 0822323745).

References