From its origins as an experimental live theatre, to its life as a hippie repertory cinema, then recreating itself into alternative video stores and now, most recently, becoming an online seller of DVDs and a film distributor specializing in gay film, TLA has morphed many times these past forty-plus years. Think of TLA as kind of the Zelig of the entertainment business.
The current owners of TLA (now officially, TLA Entertainment Group) took over in 1981 and this year we celebrate our 30th anniversary. For those interested, I would like to offer some detailed information on our company and its roots.
It all began at a long-shuttered cinema named -- at various times since the 1930s -- the Crystal Palace or New Palace Theatre, on a run-down street (slated to be torn down to make way for a cross-town expressway) where a group of Philadelphians got together to renovate the building and then form The Theatre of the Living Arts, a non-profit arts organization with a mission to bring avant-garde and innovative theatre to the city. Its first artistic director was Andre Gregory (My Dinner with Andre) and its resident troupe included such luminaries as Danny DeVito, Judd Hirsch, Lois Smith, Sally Kirkland, Morgan Freeman, Anne Ramsey and Ron Liebman. Things were great for a few years and the board even made plans to build a new theatre in Center City. But artistic differences and money matters forced Gregory out in 1968 (prompting Gregory to call the board of TLA, the “Main Line Mafia”). The theatre continued for a few more years, but financial difficulties eventually forced the organization to fold and the theatre to close its doors.
"If the present production of Sheridan's "The Critic" is typical of the quality maintained by the Theatre of the Living Arts, then this company in the Philadelphia slums is serving its audience and its art - extremely well. At the Theatre of the Living Arts, the actors seem to share very largely the same level of artistic attainment - and that level is gratifyingly high." - The Seattle Times
"In Philadelphia, at the Theatre of the Living Arts, I saw a production by André Gregory of Anouilh's "Poor Bitos" which was infinitely more interesting than the productions in London and New York." - The New York Times
With South Street (made famous with the hit single, "South Street" by the Orlons) still slated to be bull-dozed for a highway, the longtime Jewish merchants who operated business on the street soon fled and, lured by cheap rent, hippies began to occupy the storefronts, reinvigorating the area. In this environment, Al Malmfelt, manager of the New York City repertory cinema the Elgin (now the Joyce Theater), along with his wife Brenda, took over the now shuttered building and converted it to a full time cinema. The programs – double features, matinees, midnight screenings – were a hit and brought thousand to the now thriving street. Films like Pink Flamingos, The King of Hearts and Harold and Maude, I Am a Dancer, "Porno Chic" favorites Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones and hundreds of others were screened but none so infamous and long-lasting as The Rocky Horror Picture Show which premiered in 1976 and ran for over 15 years. But not everyone loved the place: Philadelphia Magazine, then the bastion of Nixonianism, annually put it as the worst cinema in the city and once infamously called it, "The reupholstered sewer on South Street." But fuck them! The hippie place, punk hangout and the art house cinema soon became synonymous with a prancing, cross-dressing, hunk-making scientist and his horny troupe of followers. And all was good.
That is, until persistent money problems caused Malmfelt to close the cinema in 1980. For a short time, another operator, Stephen Starr (now famous in Philadelphia and New York for his theme restaurants) took over with the intent to turn it into a live rock venue. He changed the name to the Palace and ran films, all the while, waiting for a liquor license... a license that was eventually denied.
After TLA Cinema closed, the employees went their separate ways, but eventually got together and formed a company, Repertory Cinema Inc. They rented the cavernous Tower Theater in suburban Philadelphia and positioned themselves as a "cinema in Exile," calling the summer series, TLA at the Tower. It opened May 16, 1981 with Paul McCarthy’s Rockshow with various rock, comedy and cult films screening throughout the summer. When Starr's liquor license was denied, the building formally called the TLA became available again and the group eventually secured a lease (and in 1982 bought it) and returned the venue's name to The Theatre of the Living Arts. Raymond Murray, Claire Kohler, Eric Moore, Roman Czenstuch, Patrick Murray and others soon focused on making the TLA a nationally recognized leader in repertory cinema with its oddball mix of art house films, punk documentaries, cult, Hollywood Classics and even first-run international films. Unusual film stars: Holly Woodlawn, John Waters, Divine, Tim Curry and many others appeared before many a stoned-out crowd. Things were going well, but the threatening cloud of VHS and home-viewing was on the horizon.
The partners, sensing that VHS was a game-changer for independent cinemas, opened up a small, but eclectic, video store in what were TLA’s second floor offices. The cramped and packed store was an instant hit and soon began to out-gross the theater in revenue. So in 1987, the partners reluctantly sold the building to Electric Factory Concerts (to this day the Theater of Living Arts -- slightly different name -- exists as a popular concert venue) took the money from the sale of the building and opened other video stores, eventually having six large outlets in Philadelphia and New York City. Sort of like a book store but one that carried most of the Hollywood hits as well as off-beat and international finds, the stores thrived in the VHS/DVD era. But inevitably, new technologies -- in the form of satellite, cable, VOD and Netflix -- have eroded the appeal of neighborhood videos stores. Currently there are still two TLA Video stores operating in the Philadelphia area.
In the mid-nineties with the video store business thriving, the TLA partners began to look at new technologies to reach a larger market. And that came in 1995 with a modest launch of www.tlavideo.com, a web site that featured all of the film reviews culled from all of the reviews that were published for the cinema program guides. Initially “art film” heavy, the site expanded and began to offer opinionated reviews for all kinds of films including cult, horror, gay and lesbian and even adult films. The website soon became TLA’s main business, taking the organization from a small concern of a few employees into a significantly larger venture, one that included almost 200 employees.
Over the years, TLA launched several additional film sites: www.tlaraw.com, www.tlamovies.com and www.tlagay.com. But the core beliefs of the partners remain – to find and promote a diverse selection of movies with a special emphasis on gay film.
Today, the sites sell a vast variety of DVDs and offer an increasing number of films on VOD and hope to remain a fixture in the business for years to come.
It began in the 1970s when Boys in the Band, Killing Sister George, Satyricon, Saturday Night at the Baths and other films screened at the cinema and attracted appreciative gay and lesbian crowds. Spurred by that success, TLA began to offer mini-film festivals of gay titles in the 1980s with such diverse selections as You Are Not Alone, Victor/Victoria and Sebastiane. But it was not until 1995 that TLA organized a full-scale international gay/lesbian film festival. Called the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film festival (shortened in 2009 to Philadelphia QFest), the festival was a hit from the start with over 7800 patrons attending its maiden year. Over the past 16 years,the festival has championed hundreds of film, mostly low budget and/or independent films. It has also invited and honored many people in the film industry who are either gay or lesbian or have worked in gay film. They include Clive Barker, Quentin Crisp, Farley Granger, Kelly McGillis, RuPaul, Bruce Vilanch, Jane Lynch, Mink Stole, Leslie Jordan, Camille Paglia, Chad Allen, Sandra Bernhard, Alan Cumming and directors John Waters, Joel Schumacher and Lee Daniels.
The festival, the largest queer film festival on the East Coast, continues to be a major draw and a prominent launching pad for many independent films.
When TLA president Ray Murray was programming films for the gay film festival and later when he became Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Film Festival, he realized that many of his favorite movies never secured distribution in the United States. With that as our incentive, TLA launched a releasing division in the USA and Canada (and later expanded it to the UK). The initial offerings were international "art" movies but their sales paled in comparison to gay themed movies so over a few years, TLA Releasing became one of the largest distributors for gay films in the country – distributing theatrically, on DVD and now VOD, the division’s biggest hits have been Another Gay Move, Latter Days, Death of a Dynasty, Suicide Club, The Trip, Adam and Steve, Naked Boys Singing and Boy Culture. In 2011, TLA Acquisitions Director Derek Curl bought a 75% stake in the division with the goal to distribute even more specialty films in the future.
From a rag tag group of unemployed cinema workers to a multi-national corporation focused on delivering movie entertainment in all format, TLA has grown and changed dramatically over the past thirty years. But what has remained a constant is our collective love of movies and the joy of spreading those films to our enthusiastic audiences. Thanks for being a part of TLA’s past and hopefully, its future.
