Woolner Brothers

The Woolner Brothers were an American film releasing company formed in 1955 made up of Lawrence (born 22 April 1912 St. Louis, Missouri died 21 July 1985 Las Vegas, Nevada), Bernard (born 9 June 1910 died 21 February 1977), and David Woolner. After US Army service in World War II Lawrence started a New Orleans drive-in theatre in 1948. His brother Bernard had previously opened the first drive in theatre in Memphis ["Variety" obituary ] .

Like other drive in owners, the Woolners advanced money to low budget B picture producers to finance their product. [ p.43 Holmlund, Chris & Wyatt, Justin "Contemporary American Independent Film: From the Margins to the Mainstream" Routledge 2004] Their first release was Roger Corman's "Swamp Women" followed by Corman's "Teenage Doll" both released through Allied Artists. The Woolner's directly financed films made in Italy, and though they released several of Mario Bava's films in America, Bava turned down a contract to make films directly for them in 1965 [ [http://bavabook.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html Bava Book Update: January 2007 ] ] .

Lawrence became a partner in Corman's New World Pictures in 1970 as President in charge of Sales and Distribution but left with two other members of New World to form Dimension Pictures in 1971. [ibid]

Woolner Bros. releases

* 1961 "Hercules Conquers Atlantis/"Hercules and the Captive Women"
"Hercules in the Haunted World"
(both starring Reg Park)
"Flight of the Lost Balloon"
* 1964 "Castle of the Living Dead"
"Castle of Blood"
* 1965 "The Human Duplicators"
"Mutiny in Outer Space"
* 1966 "The Las Vegas Hillbillys"
* 1967 "Lightning Bolt (film)"
"Red Dragon" (1965 film)
"Hillbillys in a Haunted House"
* 1969 "The Sin of Adam and Eve"

References

External links

Woolner Bros at IMDB http://www.imdb.com/company/co0064720/