Named for the late legendary founding father of the AICP, the Jay B. Eisenstat Award—instituted in 1990—recognizes outstanding contributions and service to the commercial production industry. While two recipients have passed away—Benson Green and Frank Tuttle, who were honorees in ’92 and ’94, respectively—their legacy and Eisenstat’s continue to live on.
Perhaps exemplifying this best is a remembrance of Green, the first national president of the AICP and a principal in the former N. Lee Lacy Associates. The recollection came from a past AICP/West chapter president, Patrick Collins, who currently is general manager of BBS/Pacific, the Los Angeles operation of Westport, Conn.-headquartered production consultancy firm Bird Bonette Stauderman.
"I remember Benson saying early on in the AICP’s existence that the group should put on an awards show—which would become the pre-eminent in the industry, reflecting values that outdistanced any of the major competitions of the time," related Collins, admitting that at the time he thought Green was way off base, particularly given the clout of the Clios back then. "But clearly," continued Collins, armed with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight nearly a quarter of a century later, "Benson’s vision has come to pass with the prestige of the AICP Show."
Vision is synonymous with Eisenstat—the person and the award. In ’72, Jay Eisenstat recognized that in unity there was strength, and that if the commercial production industry were to grow and prosper, a forum must be created in which information and ideas could be exchanged and the relationship among clients and agencies, production companies and suppliers, could be strengthened. Eisenstat—who was named the first AICP president when it was a fledgling group in New York—and a handful of visionary colleagues met and formed an organization that went on to become an articulate voice and a driving force in the commercialmaking industry.
One of those founding fathers was Dick Hall, who served as an AICP national president from ’84 to ’85, and again in ’88. An Eisenstat Award recipient in ’90, Hall was a leading commercial production house executive, best known for his tenure at now defunct Horn/Griner, and then at such since-closed shops as Griner/Cuesta and Griner/Cuesta & Schrom, New York.
Hall recalled that a catalyst for the AICP’s formation in the early ’70s was the diversification of still photographers into commercials. "Myself [at Horn/ Griner], Herman Gerber [who represented New York shop Gomes Lowe] and Jay Eisenstat [who became a partner with Sid Myers in Myers and Eisenstat, New York] began to organize. The cameramen’s union entered the picture, telling our still guys—like Steve Horn and Norm Griner, who started to establish themselves as commercial directors/cameramen—that they didn’t have union cards and would at least have to be put on standby status. Other companies were having the same problem, and soon we had a terrific core of people like Barney Melsky [of Alton Melsky and later Lovinger Tardio Melsky, and then Melsky Zander; Melsky was an Eisenstat Award winner in ’90]. We had people who were willing to go to the wall to get what we thought was fair. Some guys, like Steve [Horn] and Norm [Griner], became members of the camera union.
"But we found that we had a lot more to deal with than the unions," continued Hall. "The agencies needed to have a greater understanding of what we did. I remember a New York agency guy tossing off the AICP as a pimple on somebody’s ass … But we provided information that benefited everyone—like the first real cost-plus data, which smaller agencies accepted and larger agencies explored and modified. This was not a one-sided affair. We were helping the overall industry. We built momentum and earned respect, and this is continuing today. It’s a very well run and well regarded entity, with Matt Miler doing a terrific job as president [and CEO]."
Dick Kerns, an Eisenstat Award recipient in ’94, served as national president of the AICP in the early ’80s. He described the hiring of Miller as vital, observing that a full-time officer—not a production house principal who’s running a business round the clock while trying to volunteer his or her time to the AICP—was sorely needed to fill a leadership role.
Kerns broke into the business in the ’50s at Los Angeles-based Universal, which formed a commercial division that gave impetus to the development of a spot production house community in Los Angeles. After MCA bought Universal and pulled it out of spot production, Kerns headed up what was then Columbia’s EUE/Screen Gems, from ’59 to ’78, before becoming a founding partner in now defunct HISK, a satellite of the former FilmFair, Studio City, Calif. (The HISK initials stood for directors Stu Hagmann, David Impastato and John Stephens, and executive producer Kerns. Producer Sandy Martin was also a partner.) Kerns retired from the business upon HISK’s closure in ’92, only to later return to the industry as a cost consultant.
Even before the AICP established itself on the West Coast, Kerns was active on the industry organizational front as a member of the Commercial Film Producers Association (CFPA), a Los Angeles-area predecessor to the AICP. He recalled that the CFPA garnered the first agreement covering commercials, with the International Alliance of Theatrical & Stage Employees (IATSE); but after that accomplishment, production company interest tapered off. The AICP helped to resurrect that interest, building a firm foothold on the West Coast in the mid-’70s.
Attorney Howard Fabrick of the Century City, Calif.-based law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, won the Eisenstat Award last year, along with AICP legal counsel Stephen Steinbrecher of Kane Kessler, New York. Fabrick, who served as legal counsel to the AICP’s west coast chapter, was brought into the organization by Kerns. During the late ’60s, Fabrick was director of labor relations and personnel at Columbia Pictures. At that time, he recollected, he was unaware that Columbia was involved in anything other than TV and features. One day he got a call from Kerns, who then headed EUE Screen Gems on the West Coast; that operation was based at Columbia’s ranch in Burbank, Calif.
"Kerns said he wanted me to come out and see his operation," recounted Fabrick. "He told me he ran the commercial division. I said, ‘What’s the commercial division?’ He said, ‘That’s the problem: No one at the studio knows what the hell we do.’ "
Fabrick then made an effort to become expert in the commercial industry—and learned, among other things, that most of the major Hollywood studios had commercial production units. "All [the units] were laboring under the same burden: They were all trying to make [spots] under the same union agreements [that governed] feature films, and it was a totally different business. Kerns convinced me of the need to try to negotiate on behalf of commercial producers [to obtain] a contract with the craft unions that was particularly crafted to the commercial industry’s needs."
In ’69, Fabrick negotiated the earlier-alluded-to first supplement to the IATSE standard motion picture/TV agreement. The supplement was the first step in addressing the specific operational differences that distinguished commercial producers from their longform counterparts. This development led to the creation of the CFPA.
Recalled Fabrick, "By the time I came back to private practice in ’75, that Commercial Film Producers Association had become the west coast chapter of the AICP." Two years later, he continued, a group of Chicago producers added its numbers to the organization. Today, the AICP’s members account for 80 to 85 percent of all nationally broadcast TV comercials. The AICP has some 300 general (production company) members and 300 associate members in its ranks. The organization maintains national offices in New York and Los Angeles, and regional offices around the country.
In addition to increasing participation within the industry it serves, the AICP has grown both in stature and influence over the years. It negotiates industry-related matters with the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Teamsters Union, as well as with the east and west coast locals of IATSE. "I think what created the [AICP] organization was initially labor relations issues," opined Fabrick. For AICP to obtain recognition in "a totally separate, stand-alone commercial agreement with the IATSE for the West Coast. … was, in and of itself, a great accomplishment. The AICP is now recognized as an effective voice in governmental affairs that affect the activities of our members." These include such issues as taxation and filming on public lands.
The aforementioned Steinbrecher has been a mainstay of the AICP from its very inception. He currently serves as its national secretary. Steinbrecher was one of the dozen attendees at the first gathering of commercial producers, which took place over lean pastrami sandwiches in the New York offices of Myers & Eisenstat, in ’70. Helping to galvanize commercial producers to band together, he recalled, was the formation of in-house production units by advertising agencies.
Last year when he received the Eisenstat Award, Steinbrecher said of the initial meeting in ’70, "Then, there were around eighty to a hundred independent commercial production companies, and they saw [agency in-house production units] as a peril to their existence." To voice their objection to the idea, a contingent—including Gerber, Hall, Melsky and Bill Gillette (Dick Miller Films)—took out an ad on the back page of Back Stage (which included what is now SHOOT), listing prominent directors who had agreed to work only through independent production houses.
The strategy was effective and the threat receded. The producers, buoyed by their success, agreed to continue meeting to discuss issues of mutual concern. During these initial meetings, Steinbrecher suggested that the producers form a trade association, which ultimately led to the formal creation of the AICP in ’72.
Industry activist Morty Dubin, a past AICP/East president who now chairs the New York Production Alliance (NYPA), received the Eisenstat Award in ’95. To this day, he is deeply gratified by the honor. "It represents recognition from your peers that you’ve done good in—and for—the industry," he related. "It’s a wonderful reaffirmation and gives you the impetus to continue." Indeed, Dubin continues to try to encourage and nurture filmmaking business—his latest endeavor being the NYPA’s successful lobbying of an amendment to taxation laws in New York (SHOOT, 5/24, p. 1).
Jordan Kalfus, an Eisenstat Award honoree in ’90, is particularly gratified by the success of the AICP Show. Like Green, he was a major early proponent of what seemed like a pipe dream many years ago: an AICP-led show that would truly recognize the art and technique of commercialmaking. Fast forward to June ’92, with Kalfus serving as chairman of the inaugural AICP Show. At the time, he headed up the New York office of now defunct Harmony Pictures.
Kalfus, now retired from the industry, recalled that the Show represented a great accomplishment personally and professionally. He credited others, including Jon Kamen, now co-proprietor of bicoastal/international @radical.media. Kamen was AICP president when the Show became a reality, and was instrumental in bringing the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, into the picture. From the start, the curators in MoMA’s film department were enthusiastic. Recounted Kalfus, "They said this was exactly the type of archive that they wanted to build: a documentation of the visual culture of our society."
Frank Tuttle received the Eisenstat Award in ’94 posthumously, just several months after his death. He was the second national president in the AICP’s history, serving from ’80 to ’81. During his presidency, he was with the venerable, now defunct Wakeford Orloff, which is generally credited as being the first Los Angeles-based independent firm to make the jump from boutique company to giant bicoastal operation. Tuttle went on to become a principal in The Film Tree, and served as a mentor to many in the business. In SHOOT’s 40th Anniversary Issue (11/3/00), for example, Tuttle was remembered as a mentor by Chuck Sloan, president/partner of Santa Monica-based Plum Productions. Sloan said succinctly, "Frank taught me that personal and professional integrity was the key to success and longevity in this business."
Tuttle was a big believer in the AICP, and in its role in opening up meaningful dialogue with agencies and advertisers. He was a unifying force within the production house community—and in helping to bring that community together with agencies, clients and suppliers. He also served as president of the West Coast chapter, and his work behind the scenes helped the industry successfully defeat, in the early ’80s, a proposed California sales tax. Tuttle has also been credited with completing, in ’79, what proved to be the first AICP survey of member companies, documenting the economic impact of the commercial production industry.
SHOOT phone calls to the two remaining Eisenstat Award-winning individuals—Ted Goetz, who’s retired from the business, and Kay Lorraine—had not been returned at press time. Lorraine was away on vacation.
Goetz is well known for his long tenure as executive producer at FilmFair, a company that enjoyed a 32-year run in spotmaking before closing its doors in ’92. He played an integral role in developing the AICP on the West Coast. Goetz won the Eisenstat Award in ’92, and said he was highly honored when asked to accept the award two years later on behalf of Tuttle.
Lorraine is the lone woman recipient of the Eisenstat honor, having also garnered it in ’94. She served as first national VP of the AICP, president of the AICP/ Midwest chapter, and as the chapter’s secretary/treasurer. At the time she was named an Eisenstat Award recipient, Lorraine was president/executive producer/partner in now defunct Major League Productions, Chicago. Lorraine later helped set the stage for the formation of an AICP chapter in Hawaii. She currently runs Organization Headquarters, a Honolulu-based shop that specializes in managing day-to-day business affairs for associations, organizations and events. Lorraine continues to freelance as a first assistant director and production coordinator on spots.
One more honoree has graced the field of those holding Eisenstats—the only recipient that is not an individual. In ’96, the Eisenstat Award was given to the Eastman Kodak Company for its role as "a champion of the industry," perennially supporting the overall commercialmaking community, as well as endeavors of the AICP.
