Henry Saperstein

Henry Gahagen "Hank" Saperstein (born in Chicago June 2, 1918, died Beverly Hills, California June 24, 1998) was a U.S. film producer and distributor.

The son of Aaron Saperstein and Beatrice Pearl Saperstein, Henry's father owned five independent cinemas in Chicago. Henry was educated at the University of Chicago where he majored in mathematics. When Henry was 20 his father died that led Henry to drop out of school to run the cinemas. With the wartime boom in cinema going, Henry bought some more cinemas in 1943.

Sensing the demise of cinema attendance and the rise of television, Saperstein acquired the rights to several Westerns featuring Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy and Walter Lantz cartoons for his Chicago based Hollywood Toy Television Corporation a toy electric television that showed six minute cartoons or sequences from films.

He moved to Hollywood in 1955 as the president of Television Personalities Inc that specialised in tie-in merchandising business for television characters such as The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, The Lone Ranger, Lassie and The Roy Rogers Show. He worked with Col. Tom Parker as Elvis Presley's licensing agent as well as creating and selling licensed merchandise for other stars such as Debbie Reynolds, Rosemary Clooney, Chubby Checker and the Three Stooges.

Henry Saperstein produced syndicated television sports shows such as Championship Bowling (1958–60) and All Star Golf (1958-62) as well as the children's television show Ding Dong School that began in Chicago.

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