King Brothers Productions
| Industry | Film production |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1941 |
| Defunct | Late 1960s |
| Products | Films |
King Brothers Productions was a film production company active from 1941 to the late 1960s. It was founded by the Kozinsky brothers, Frank (1 April 1913 - 12 February 1989), Maurice (Maury) (13 September 1914 - 2 September 1977), and Herman (4 July 1916 - 20 July 1992), who later changed their surname to "King". They had notable collaborations with such filmmakers as Philip Yordan and William Castle and are particularly remembered today for employing a number of blacklisted writers during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s. Some of their films include Dillinger (1945), Suspense (1946), Gun Crazy (1949), Carnival Story (1954), The Brave One (1956—which earned writer Dalton Trumbo a Best Screenplay Academy Award), Gorgo (1961), Captain Sindbad (1963), and Heaven With a Gun (1968).
Joseph Kozinsky (d 1950) was a New York fruit merchant who fathered five children, the brothers Frank, Maurice and Herman, and two sisters. The family moved to Los Angeles in the 1920s.
The brothers did various odd jobs including selling newspapers and shining shoes before getting into slot machines. They borrowed $250 and built an empire up to 19,000 machines. They also branched into race horses.
In 1940 they, along with their sister Nettie Segal, were charged with tax evasion.
The same year, Morris Kozinsky looked at getting into slot machine movies. They formed Hollywood Quality Pictures Incorporated to develop slot machine projectors and met with Cecil B. De Mille to source films. Morris later recalled:
De Mille, he has an inferior complex. It takes two weeks to get into see him. Well, we didn't like that. We're just plain businessmen. We finally told him we had to get some pictures. He said he was going to get Sally Rand to make some. Then he said he had a deal with some trapeze artists. Well, you know yourself, you're out with a gal relaxing in a bar, you don't want to see no bubble dancer or acrobat. You want to hear some good music. You want something with class. You want to see Bing Crosby maybe. That was the trouble. De Mille might make big epics but for us he didn't have no class.
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