Seven Arts

If you've seen any movies from Warner Bros. that were made in the late 1960s, such as Bullitt, you've probably seen that they were actually produced by "Warner Bros.-Seven Arts", and have an odd logo that combines a W and a 7. There's an interesting blog post I think I linked to once before detailing the histories of the logos of many of the major Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros.

So it was with a bit of surprise when I tuned into Two For the Seesaw this morning and saw that it was a Seven Arts production (in conjunction with the Mirisch brothers) distributed by United Artists. And then I did a bit of research into Seven Arts, which revealed an interesting story to say the least. Seven Arts started out in the late 1950s as an independent production company producing pictures for various studios, only to buy out Jack Warner, the last of the Warner brothers, in 1967, which is where we get the "Warner Bros.-Seven Arts" logo. What I didn't realize is that this company was then bought out by a company called "Kinney National", which got its start as a Mob-owned parking lot operator! It wouldn't be the first connection between the Mafia and Hollywood, as George Raft could tell you.