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Astor Pictures was a motion picture distribution service in operation from 1930 to 1963, founded by Robert M. Savini (29 August 1886 - 29 April 1956). Astor, located at 130 West 46th Street in New York City, initially acquired the rights to other motion pictures for profitable re-release. A ''Billboard'' magazine article of 8 Jun 1946 stated Astor had 26 offices in the United States. In 1947, the motion picture periodical ''Boxoffice'' reported that the number of reissued films for that year were four times that of the previous year.〔p.72 Wilinsky, Barbara ''Sure Seaters-The Emergence of Art House'' University of Minnesota Press 2001〕 Many smaller cinemas wished to show double features to attract audiences with a reissued film being the cheapest type of release. == Types of Astor releases == Astor Pictures-- * Acquired the film library of the defunct Grand National Pictures films after their liquidation for cinema re-release.〔Balio, Tino ''Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise 1930–1939'' University of California Press 1996〕 * Acquired the re-release rights of many films originally released by United Artists and RKO Radio Pictures. * Acquired the re-release rights of Educational Pictures short subjects such as the Baby Burlesks. * In addition to showing many of Bing Crosby's short subjects made for Educational Pictures, put several of them together and released it as a feature called ''The Road to Hollywood'' to compete with Paramount Pictures's ''Road to'' series. Astor also packaged three 1930s RKO Pictures Betty Grable shorts as ''Hollywood Bound'' (1947). * Re-released William S. Hart's ''Tumbleweeds'' (1925) in 1939 with music and sound effects and Hart speaking a famous prologue, in his only sound appearance on film- "Oh, the thrill of it all!" * Distributed many race films but only produced one, Louis Jordan's ''Beware!'' (1946).〔McGilligan, Patrick ''Oscar Micheaux The Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker'' Harper 2007〕 * Obtained the rights to many of Sam Katzman's Monogram ''East Side Kids'' pictures for re-release at the same time Monogram Pictures was releasing ''Bowery Boys'' films * Distributed Sunset Carson's post Republic Pictures Westerns. * Distributed many of the early Hammer Films in the USA by an arrangement with Hammer's parent company Exclusive Films. * Released many science fiction films of dubious quality such as ''Cat-Women of the Moon'' and its remake ''Missile to the Moon'' in the 1950s.〔http://www.bmonster.com/cult20.html〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Astor Pictures」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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