Kroger Babb
Encyclopedia
Howard W. "Kroger" Babb (December 30, 1906 – January 28, 1980) was an American
film
and television
producer
and showman
. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine-show
tradition. Self-described as "America's Fearless Young Showman," he is best known for his presentation of the 1945 exploitation film
Mom and Dad
, which was added to the National Film Registry
of the Library of Congress
in 2005.
Babb was involved in the production and marketing of many films and television shows, promoting each according to his favorite marketing motto
: "You gotta tell 'em to sell 'em." His films ranged from sex education–style dramas to "documentaries
" on foreign cultures, intended to titillate audiences rather than to educate them, maximizing profits via marketing gimmicks.
, Ohio
, USA (near Wilmington
). He earned the nickname "Kroger" either from his childhood job at the grocer of the same name
or from his father's preference for B. H. Kroger coffee. Babb held a number of jobs during his youth, gaining a mention in Ripley's Believe It Or Not for referee
ing a record number of youth sports games. He started out with jobs in sportswriting
and reporting at a local newspaper in his 20s, and even showed signs of his later work while showcasing "Digger" O'Dell, the "living corpse," but first achieved success after his promotion to publicity manager for the Chakeres-Warners movie theater
s, where he would create different kinds of stunts to lure audiences – for example, giving two bags of groceries to ticket holders in the theaters. These experiences led him to the exploitation film business.
In the early 1940s, Babb joined Cox and Underwood
, a company that obtained the rights to poorly shot or unmarketable films of material that was potentially controversial or shocking. It would often remove entire sections of these films and add material such as medical reel
s that lent itself to sensational promotion. Babb went on the road with a Cox and Underwood concoction titled Dust to Dust, a reworking of High School Girl with a childbirth
scene added to the end. Its profits allowed Cox and Underwood to retire from the business, leaving Babb to start his own company, Hygienic Productions
. He opened it near his childhood home in Wilmington, Ohio, and hired booking agents and advance salesmen along with out-of-work actors and comedians to present repackaged films and new features.
Babb is best known for his presentation of exploitation film
s, a term many in the business would embrace. According to The Hollywood Reporter
, his success came from picking topics that would be easily sensationalized, such as religion
and sex. His expenses were estimated at 5% for selling, and his distribution overhead near 7%, resulting in some of the largest per-dollar returns in the film industry.
Babb's biggest success was Mom and Dad, which he conceived and produced and which William Beaudine
directed
in six days. Babb headed the promotion of this film following its premiere in early 1945
, often going on the road with it himself. The film, a morality tale about a young girl who becomes pregnant and struggles to find someone to turn to, cost $
62,000 and was presented via over 300 prints, and the presenter would stir up his own controversy in the weeks preceding the film's arrival by writing protest letters to local churches and newspapers and fabricating letters from the mayor
s of nearby cities about young women encouraged by it to discuss similar predicaments.
The third highest grossing film of its decade, Mom and Dad was claimed by Babb to have made $63,000 for every $1,000 the original investors contributed, and the Los Angeles Times
estimated that it grossed anywhere between $40 million and $100 million. Its success spawned a number of imitations, such as Street Corner
and The Story of Bob and Sally, that eventually flooded the market, but it was still being shown around the world decades later and ultimately was added to the National Film Registry in 2005
.
The success of Mom and Dad was mostly due to Babb's marketing strategy of overwhelming a small town with ads and generating controversy. Eric Schaefer explains:
The film became so ubiquitous that Time
said its presentation "left only the livestock unaware of the chance to learn the facts of life." Babb also made sure that each showing of the film followed a similar format: adults-only screenings segregated by gender, and live lectures by "Fearless Hygiene Commentator Elliot Forbes" during an intermission. At any one time, hundreds of Elliot Forbeses would be giving a lecture at the same time in a variety of locations. (In some predominantly African-American
areas, Olympic
gold medal
ist Jesse Owens
appeared instead, a trend he'd continue with films like "She Shoulda Said 'No'!") According to entertainer Card Mondor
, an Elliot Forbes in the 1940s who later purchased the Australian and New Zealand rights for Mom and Dad, the Forbeses were "mostly local men (from Wilmington, Ohio) who were trained to give the lecture...[I]t was a cross-section of the male population, mostly clean-cut young guys. ...The whole concept would have never worked with a trashy look."
During the intermission and after the showing, books relevant to the subject of the film were sold. Mom and Dad's distributor Modern Film Distributors
sold over forty-five thousand copies of Man and Boy and Woman and Girl, written by Babb's wife, netting an estimated $31,000. According to Babb, these cost about eight cents
to produce, and were sold for $1 apiece. While Modern Film was able to sell forty-five thousand on its own, Babb estimates sales of 40 million, citing "IRS
figures." This sort of companion selling would become common practice for Babb: with the religious film The Prince of Peace, he would sell Bible
s and other spiritual literature; and with his fidelity film Why Men Leave Home, books featuring beauty tips.
With other films, Babb would try different approaches. For "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", an anti-marijuana film of the 1950s, he highlighted the sexual scenes and arranged "one-time-only" midnight showings, claiming that his company was working with the United States Treasury Department
to release the film "in as many towns and cities as possible in the shortest possible length of time" as a public service. David F. Friedman
, another successful exploitation filmmaker of the era, has attributed the "one-time-only" distribution to a quality so low that Babb wanted to cash in and move to his next stop as fast as possible. At each showing of a film, a singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" was also required.
As well as being at the forefront of the battles over censorship
and the motion picture censorship system
, the exploitation genre faced numerous challenges during the 1940s and 1950s. It was estimated that Babb was sued
over 400 times just for Mom and Dad (Babb himself claimed 428). He would often use the supposed educational value of the films as a defense, also recommending it to theater owners; in his pressbook
for Karamoja
, he wrote, "When a stupid jerk tries to outsmart proven facts, he should be in an asylum, not a theater."
Despite the criticism that Babb drew for Mom and Dad, in 1951 he received the first annual Sid Grauman
Showmanship Award, presented by the Hollywood Rotary Club
in honor of his accomplishments over the years.
Babb cheaply acquired the rights to what would become "She Shoulda Said No!
" shortly after Robert Mitchum
and Lila Leeds
were arrested for marijuana use. Its original producer had struggled to get it distributed as Wild Weed, and Babb quickly presented it as The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket, hoping that the title would draw audiences. When it failed to stir up much interest, Babb instead focused on the one scene of female nudity, using a photo of Leeds in a showgirl
outfit, and retitled it "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", with tagline
s such as "How Bad Can a Good Girl Get...without losing her virtue or respect???" According to Friedman, Babb's midnight presentation of the film twice a week made more money than any other film at the same theater would earn over a full run; Friedman proceeded to use the film in his own roadshow double features.
Babb's associates agreed with his belief that "Nothing's hopeless if it's advertised right", stating that he "could take any piece of junk and sell it." One film Babb presented in the 1950s was a passion play
and the story behind putting it on, filmed in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma
. Initially called The Lawton Story and filmed in Cinecolor
, the quality of the film was considered so poor that telephone poles could be seen behind the crucifix
and upon release, it was described as "the only film that had to be dubbed from English to English." He recut and redubbed
this, retitling it as The Prince of Peace; it was so successful that the New York Daily News
called it "the Miracle of Broadway
."
Another film, Karamoja
, was marketed as a shocking portrayal of a tribe from Uganda
who wore "only the wind and live[d] on blood and beer." Scenes included "the bleeding of cattle and drinking of the warm blood, and self-mutilation as a form of ornamentation," as well as a full-color circumcision
scene. Karamoja proved less controversial than many of Babb's other films and grossed less.
Babb never repeated the overwhelming success of Mom and Dad, and he followed much of the exploitation industry in turning to burlesque
features in an attempt to make more money. One notorious attempt was his acquisition of the American theatrical rights for Ingmar Bergman
's Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika
). About one third of the film was cut, and the remaining sixty-two minutes emphasized nudity by retaining a skinny-dipping
scene; the result was titled Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl. Suggestive advertising art, including promotional postcards, portrayed the nude rear of Harriet Andersson
.
Babb's final film was his presentation of a European version of Harriet Beecher Stowe
's book Uncle Tom's Cabin
. This was described by Friedman as one of the most "unintentionally funny exploitation films ever made," filled with "second rate Italian actors who could barely speak English."
magazine as "An Expose of Gambling in the Parish Halls" and described as a comedy with an anti-gambling
message about a corrupt priest
who runs a "controlled" bingo night at his parish
. Babb called it "the best 'snow-job' of my life," and it has been speculated that he never intended to make it, despite the trade ads that appeared for years.
Babb was involved with many film production companies along with his own, including Southwestern Productions. On the strength of his past successes, Babb joined John Miller's film production company, Miller-Consolidated Pictures
, as vice president
and general manager
in 1959. Babb advocated the use of the hard-selling
technique he had perfected as a presenter: "selling the sizzle instead of the steak", according to an interview. He wrote a column for BoxOffice at the same time. His personal anecdotes provided advice for selling films, such as writing off expenses as tax deduction
s, and using women's clubs to expand advertising and revenues cheaply. He noted that there were "over 30,000 women's clubs," and that "practically every women's club has a 16mm
projector
."
In 1963, Babb formed another distribution company, Studio 10,001
. Operating in Beverly Hills
(and claiming representation in Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), it used similar roadshow techniques to market television programs such as The Ern Westmore Show
. Babb also acted as a showman for hire, promoting others' films when not working on his own. Among them was a nudie-cutie picture titled Kipling's Women, a peep show
, and Five Minutes to Love, a reworking of a Rue McClanahan
film.
Babb began creating promotion kits in an attempt to teach his craft to would-be presenters. Marketing himself as "MR. PIHSNAMWOHS" ("showmanship" backwards), he advertised in BoxOffice. He also dabbled in other areas, writing tirades against pay television and creating a pyramid scheme
titled "The Idea Factory." One of his schemes was the "Astounding Swedish Ice Cream Diet": overweight throughout his life, Babb claimed to have eaten ice cream
three times a day, yet to have lost one hundred pounds in forty-five days.
in 1944 during a showing of Dust to Dust in Indianapolis
, where she was working as a movie critic
; her review of the film called it a "cheap, mislabeled morality play
," but the two struck up a conversation about it. They stayed together in a common-law marriage
; Horn wrote a number of Babb's screenplays, including Mom and Dad, as well as companion books.
In November 1953, Babb was arrested on a drunk-driving charge after running a red traffic light
and refusing a sobriety test. His $250 bail was continued
, and he was not convicted, although this mishap to the recent creator of the anti-alcohol film One Too Many was widely covered in the press.
Babb had tax troubles in the years after his success with Mom and Dad. He suggested to the Press-Enterprise that his operation was so diffuse that sales of his one-dollar sex education pamphlet
s were too difficult to track accurately. Babb eventually sold the rights to Mom and Dad and his stake in Modern Film Distributors to Erwin Joseph and Floyd Lewis — former partners in Modern Film who would continue to showcase Mom and Dad across the United States.
Babb suffered from various ailments toward the end of his life, including a stroke
. He retired in 1977, at 70, and died of heart failure (due to complications from diabetes) on January 29, 1980, in Palm Springs, California
. He was survived by his wife, a son, and five grandchildren. Babb is buried in Centerville, Ohio. His gravestone reads, "His many trips around and all over the world began in Centerville and end here in Lees Creek."
Howard W. "Kroger" Babb (December 30, 1906 – January 28, 1980) was an American
film
and television
producer
and showman
. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine-show
tradition. Self-described as "America's Fearless Young Showman,"Eric Schaefer
, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999; ISBN 0-8223-2374-5). he is best known for his presentation of the 1945 exploitation film
Mom and Dad
, which was added to the National Film Registry
of the Library of Congress
in 2005.
Babb was involved in the production and marketing of many films and television shows, promoting each according to his favorite marketing motto
: "You gotta tell 'em to sell 'em."David F. Friedman, A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1990; ISBN 0-87975-608-X). His films ranged from sex education–style dramas to "documentaries
" on foreign cultures, intended to titillate audiences rather than to educate them, maximizing profits via marketing gimmicks.
, Ohio
, USAKenneth Turan, "Kroger Babb: Superhuckster", Los Angeles Times; reprinted in The Washington Post, November 11, 1977, p.23. (near Wilmington
). He earned the nickname "Kroger" either from his childhood job at the grocer of the same name
Joe Bob Briggs
, Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History! (New York: Universe Publishing, 2003; ISBN 0-7893-0844-4). or from his father's preference for B. H. Kroger coffee. Babb held a number of jobs during his youth, gaining a mention in Ripley's Believe It Or Not for referee
ing a record number of youth sports games. He started out with jobs in sportswriting
and reporting at a local newspaper in his 20s, and even showed signs of his later work while showcasing "Digger" O'Dell, the "living corpse," but first achieved success after his promotion to publicity manager for the Chakeres-Warners movie theater
s, where he would create different kinds of stunts to lure audiences – for example, giving two bags of groceries to ticket holders in the theaters. These experiences led him to the exploitation film business.
In the early 1940s, Babb joined Cox and Underwood
, a company that obtained the rights to poorly shot or unmarketable films of material that was potentially controversial or shocking. It would often remove entire sections of these films and add material such as medical reel
s that lent itself to sensational promotion. Babb went on the road with a Cox and Underwood concoction titled Dust to Dust, a reworking of High School Girl with a childbirth
scene added to the end. Its profits allowed Cox and Underwood to retire from the business, leaving Babb to start his own company, Hygienic Productions
. He opened it near his childhood home in Wilmington, Ohio, and hired booking agents and advance salesmen along with out-of-work actors and comedians to present repackaged films and new features.
Babb is best known for his presentation of exploitation film
s, a term many in the business would embrace. According to The Hollywood Reporter
, his success came from picking topics that would be easily sensationalized, such as religion
and sex. His expenses were estimated at 5% for selling, and his distribution overhead near 7%, resulting in some of the largest per-dollar returns in the film industry.Hollywood Reporter, August 20, 1951.
Babb's biggest success was Mom and Dad, which he conceived and produced and which William Beaudine
directed
in six days. Babb headed the promotion of this film following its premiere in early 1945
, often going on the road with it himself. The film, a morality tale about a young girl who becomes pregnant and struggles to find someone to turn to, cost $
62,000 and was presented via over 300 prints,National Film Registry 2005 Press Release, Library of Congress (URL accessed August 27, 2006). and the presenter would stir up his own controversy in the weeks preceding the film's arrival by writing protest letters to local churches and newspapers and fabricating letters from the mayor
s of nearby cities about young women encouraged by it to discuss similar predicaments.
The third highest grossing film of its decade, Mom and Dad was claimed by Babb to have made $63,000 for every $1,000 the original investors contributed,Kroger Babb obituary, Variety, January 30, 1980. and the Los Angeles Times
estimated that it grossed anywhere between $40 million and $100 million. Its success spawned a number of imitations, such as Street Corner
and The Story of Bob and Sally, that eventually flooded the market, but it was still being shown around the world decades later* Dennis McDougal, "Filmmaker Babb let promotion offset low budgets." The Press-Enterprise, (Riverside, CA), unknown date. and ultimately was added to the National Film Registry in 2005
.
The success of Mom and Dad was mostly due to Babb's marketing strategy of overwhelming a small town with ads and generating controversy. Eric Schaefer explains:
The film became so ubiquitous that Time
said its presentation "left only the livestock unaware of the chance to learn the facts of life." Babb also made sure that each showing of the film followed a similar format: adults-only screenings segregated by gender, and live lectures by "Fearless Hygiene Commentator Elliot Forbes" during an intermission. At any one time, hundreds of Elliot Forbeses would be giving a lecture at the same time in a variety of locations. (In some predominantly African-American
areas, Olympic
gold medal
ist Jesse Owens
appeared instead, a trend he'd continue with films like "She Shoulda Said 'No'!"Mike Quarles, Down and Dirty: Hollywood's Exploitation Filmmakers and Their Movies (Jefferson, North Carolina
, McFarland
, 2001; ISBN 0-7864-1142-2). p56.) According to entertainer Card Mondor
, an Elliot Forbes in the 1940s who later purchased the Australian and New Zealand rights for Mom and Dad, the Forbeses were "mostly local men (from Wilmington, Ohio) who were trained to give the lecture...[I]t was a cross-section of the male population, mostly clean-cut young guys. ...The whole concept would have never worked with a trashy look."Card Mondor, letter to Michael Zengel, February 5, 1994 (available from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives).
During the intermission and after the showing, books relevant to the subject of the film were sold. Mom and Dad's distributor Modern Film Distributors
sold over forty-five thousand copies of Man and Boy and Woman and Girl, written by Babb's wife, netting an estimated $31,000. According to Babb, these cost about eight cents
to produce, and were sold for $1 apiece. While Modern Film was able to sell forty-five thousand on its own, Babb estimates sales of 40 million, citing "IRS
figures." This sort of companion selling would become common practice for Babb: with the religious film The Prince of Peace, he would sell Bible
s and other spiritual literature; and with his fidelity film Why Men Leave Home, books featuring beauty tips.
With other films, Babb would try different approaches. For "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", an anti-marijuana film of the 1950s, he highlighted the sexual scenes and arranged "one-time-only" midnight showings, claiming that his company was working with the United States Treasury Department
to release the film "in as many towns and cities as possible in the shortest possible length of time" as a public service. David F. Friedman
, another successful exploitation filmmaker of the era, has attributed the "one-time-only" distribution to a quality so low that Babb wanted to cash in and move to his next stop as fast as possible. At each showing of a film, a singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" was also required.John Windsor, "Shot in glorious sexploitation." The Guardian, September 11, 2005. URL accessed January 11, 2006.
As well as being at the forefront of the battles over censorship
and the motion picture censorship system
, the exploitation genre faced numerous challenges during the 1940s and 1950s. It was estimated that Babb was sued
over 400 times just for Mom and Dad (Babb himself claimed 428). He would often use the supposed educational value of the films as a defense, also recommending it to theater owners; in his pressbook
for Karamoja
, he wrote, "When a stupid jerk tries to outsmart proven facts, he should be in an asylum, not a theater."
Despite the criticism that Babb drew for Mom and Dad, in 1951 he received the first annual Sid Grauman
Showmanship Award, presented by the Hollywood Rotary Club
in honor of his accomplishments over the years."Kroger Babb to Get Showmanship Award," The Hollywood Reporter, January 31, 1951.
Babb cheaply acquired the rights to what would become "She Shoulda Said No!
" shortly after Robert Mitchum
and Lila Leeds
were arrested for marijuana use. Its original producer had struggled to get it distributed as Wild Weed, and Babb quickly presented it as The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket, hoping that the title would draw audiences. When it failed to stir up much interest, Babb instead focused on the one scene of female nudity, using a photo of Leeds in a showgirl
outfit, and retitled it "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", with tagline
s such as "How Bad Can a Good Girl Get...without losing her virtue or respect???" According to Friedman, Babb's midnight presentation of the film twice a week made more money than any other film at the same theater would earn over a full run; Friedman proceeded to use the film in his own roadshow double features.
Babb's associates agreed with his belief that "Nothing's hopeless if it's advertised right", stating that he "could take any piece of junk and sell it." One film Babb presented in the 1950s was a passion play
and the story behind putting it on, filmed in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma
. Initially called The Lawton Story and filmed in Cinecolor
, the quality of the film was considered so poor that telephone poles could be seen behind the crucifix
and upon release, it was described as "the only film that had to be dubbed from English to English." He recut and redubbed
this, retitling it as The Prince of Peace; it was so successful that the New York Daily News
called it "the Miracle of Broadway
."
Another film, Karamoja
, was marketed as a shocking portrayal of a tribe from Uganda
who wore "only the wind and live[d] on blood and beer." Scenes included "the bleeding of cattle and drinking of the warm blood, and self-mutilation as a form of ornamentation," as well as a full-color circumcision
scene. Karamoja proved less controversial than many of Babb's other films and grossed less.
Babb never repeated the overwhelming success of Mom and Dad, and he followed much of the exploitation industry in turning to burlesque
features in an attempt to make more money. One notorious attempt was his acquisition of the American theatrical rights for Ingmar Bergman
's Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika
). About one third of the film was cut, and the remaining sixty-two minutes emphasized nudity by retaining a skinny-dipping
scene; the result was titled Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl. Suggestive advertising art, including promotional postcards, portrayed the nude rear of Harriet Andersson
.
Babb's final film was his presentation of a European version of Harriet Beecher Stowe
's book Uncle Tom's Cabin
. This was described by Friedman as one of the most "unintentionally funny exploitation films ever made," filled with "second rate Italian actors who could barely speak English."
magazine as "An Expose of Gambling in the Parish Halls" and described as a comedy with an anti-gambling
message about a corrupt priest
who runs a "controlled" bingo night at his parish
. Babb called it "the best 'snow-job' of my life," and it has been speculated that he never intended to make it, despite the trade ads that appeared for years.
Babb was involved with many film production companies along with his own, including Southwestern Productions.Virginia Kelley. Leading With My Heart. Simon & Schuster, 1984. On the strength of his past successes, Babb joined John Miller's film production company, Miller-Consolidated Pictures
, as vice president
and general manager
in 1959. Babb advocated the use of the hard-selling
technique he had perfected as a presenter: "selling the sizzle instead of the steak", according to an interview."$1 million Movie I.Q. Contest Tops MCP Exploitation Plan," BoxOffice, November 9, 1959, pp.28–29, 180. He wrote a column for BoxOffice at the same time. His personal anecdotes provided advice for selling films, such as writing off expenses as tax deduction
s, and using women's clubs to expand advertising and revenues cheaply. He noted that there were "over 30,000 women's clubs," and that "practically every women's club has a 16mm
projector
."
In 1963, Babb formed another distribution company, Studio 10,001
. Operating in Beverly Hills
(and claiming representation in Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand"Kroger Babb Forms New Distributing Co," BoxOffice, July 24, 1963.), it used similar roadshow techniques to market television programs such as The Ern Westmore Show
.Variety and Daily Variety Television Reviews, vol. 18, 1993–1994 (New York: Garland, 1996; ISBN 0-8240-3797-9). Babb also acted as a showman for hire, promoting others' films when not working on his own. Among them was a nudie-cutie picture titled Kipling's Women, a peep show
, and Five Minutes to Love, a reworking of a Rue McClanahan
film.
Babb began creating promotion kits in an attempt to teach his craft to would-be presenters. Marketing himself as "MR. PIHSNAMWOHS" ("showmanship" backwards), he advertised in BoxOffice. He also dabbled in other areas, writing tirades against pay television and creating a pyramid scheme
titled "The Idea Factory." One of his schemes was the "Astounding Swedish Ice Cream Diet": overweight throughout his life, Babb claimed to have eaten ice cream
three times a day, yet to have lost one hundred pounds in forty-five days.
in 1944"Mildred Horn", Internet Movie Database
(URL accessed October 16, 2006). during a showing of Dust to Dust in Indianapolis
, where she was working as a movie critic
; her review of the film called it a "cheap, mislabeled morality play
," but the two struck up a conversation about it. They stayed together in a common-law marriage
; Horn wrote a number of Babb's screenplays, including Mom and Dad, as well as companion books.
In November 1953, Babb was arrested on a drunk-driving charge after running a red traffic light
and refusing a sobriety test. His $250 bail was continued
, and he was not convicted, although this mishap to the recent creator of the anti-alcohol film One Too Many was widely covered in the press."Producer of Film One Too Many Denies Being Tipsy," Los Angeles Examiner, 30 November 1953; "TV Producer Arrested in Drunk Driving Case," Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1953; "Producer Arrested on Drunk Charge," Citizen News, November 30, 1953.
Babb had tax troubles in the years after his success with Mom and Dad. He suggested to the Press-Enterprise that his operation was so diffuse that sales of his one-dollar sex education pamphlet
s were too difficult to track accurately. Babb eventually sold the rights to Mom and Dad and his stake in Modern Film Distributors to Erwin Joseph and Floyd Lewis — former partners in Modern Film who would continue to showcase Mom and Dad across the United States.Mildred A. Babb, letter in Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1986.
Babb suffered from various ailments toward the end of his life, including a stroke
. He retired in 1977, at 70,"Death: Kroger Babb," Hollywood Gazette, January 30, 1980. and died of heart failure (due to complications from diabetes) on January 29, 1980, in Palm Springs, California
. He was survived by his wife, a son, and five grandchildren. Babb is buried in Centerville, Ohio. His gravestone reads, "His many trips around and all over the world began in Centerville and end here in Lees Creek."
Howard W. "Kroger" Babb (December 30, 1906 – January 28, 1980) was an American
film
and television
producer
and showman
. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine-show
tradition. Self-described as "America's Fearless Young Showman,"Eric Schaefer
, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999; ISBN 0-8223-2374-5). he is best known for his presentation of the 1945 exploitation film
Mom and Dad
, which was added to the National Film Registry
of the Library of Congress
in 2005.
Babb was involved in the production and marketing of many films and television shows, promoting each according to his favorite marketing motto
: "You gotta tell 'em to sell 'em."David F. Friedman, A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1990; ISBN 0-87975-608-X). His films ranged from sex education–style dramas to "documentaries
" on foreign cultures, intended to titillate audiences rather than to educate them, maximizing profits via marketing gimmicks.
, Ohio
, USAKenneth Turan, "Kroger Babb: Superhuckster", Los Angeles Times; reprinted in The Washington Post, November 11, 1977, p.23. (near Wilmington
). He earned the nickname "Kroger" either from his childhood job at the grocer of the same name
Joe Bob Briggs
, Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History! (New York: Universe Publishing, 2003; ISBN 0-7893-0844-4). or from his father's preference for B. H. Kroger coffee. Babb held a number of jobs during his youth, gaining a mention in Ripley's Believe It Or Not for referee
ing a record number of youth sports games. He started out with jobs in sportswriting
and reporting at a local newspaper in his 20s, and even showed signs of his later work while showcasing "Digger" O'Dell, the "living corpse," but first achieved success after his promotion to publicity manager for the Chakeres-Warners movie theater
s, where he would create different kinds of stunts to lure audiences – for example, giving two bags of groceries to ticket holders in the theaters. These experiences led him to the exploitation film business.
In the early 1940s, Babb joined Cox and Underwood
, a company that obtained the rights to poorly shot or unmarketable films of material that was potentially controversial or shocking. It would often remove entire sections of these films and add material such as medical reel
s that lent itself to sensational promotion. Babb went on the road with a Cox and Underwood concoction titled Dust to Dust, a reworking of High School Girl with a childbirth
scene added to the end. Its profits allowed Cox and Underwood to retire from the business, leaving Babb to start his own company, Hygienic Productions
. He opened it near his childhood home in Wilmington, Ohio, and hired booking agents and advance salesmen along with out-of-work actors and comedians to present repackaged films and new features.
Babb is best known for his presentation of exploitation film
s, a term many in the business would embrace. According to The Hollywood Reporter
, his success came from picking topics that would be easily sensationalized, such as religion
and sex. His expenses were estimated at 5% for selling, and his distribution overhead near 7%, resulting in some of the largest per-dollar returns in the film industry.Hollywood Reporter, August 20, 1951.
Babb's biggest success was Mom and Dad, which he conceived and produced and which William Beaudine
directed
in six days. Babb headed the promotion of this film following its premiere in early 1945
, often going on the road with it himself. The film, a morality tale about a young girl who becomes pregnant and struggles to find someone to turn to, cost $
62,000 and was presented via over 300 prints,National Film Registry 2005 Press Release, Library of Congress (URL accessed August 27, 2006). and the presenter would stir up his own controversy in the weeks preceding the film's arrival by writing protest letters to local churches and newspapers and fabricating letters from the mayor
s of nearby cities about young women encouraged by it to discuss similar predicaments.
The third highest grossing film of its decade, Mom and Dad was claimed by Babb to have made $63,000 for every $1,000 the original investors contributed,Kroger Babb obituary, Variety, January 30, 1980. and the Los Angeles Times
estimated that it grossed anywhere between $40 million and $100 million. Its success spawned a number of imitations, such as Street Corner
and The Story of Bob and Sally, that eventually flooded the market, but it was still being shown around the world decades later* Dennis McDougal, "Filmmaker Babb let promotion offset low budgets." The Press-Enterprise, (Riverside, CA), unknown date. and ultimately was added to the National Film Registry in 2005
.
The success of Mom and Dad was mostly due to Babb's marketing strategy of overwhelming a small town with ads and generating controversy. Eric Schaefer explains:
The film became so ubiquitous that Time
said its presentation "left only the livestock unaware of the chance to learn the facts of life." Babb also made sure that each showing of the film followed a similar format: adults-only screenings segregated by gender, and live lectures by "Fearless Hygiene Commentator Elliot Forbes" during an intermission. At any one time, hundreds of Elliot Forbeses would be giving a lecture at the same time in a variety of locations. (In some predominantly African-American
areas, Olympic
gold medal
ist Jesse Owens
appeared instead, a trend he'd continue with films like "She Shoulda Said 'No'!"Mike Quarles, Down and Dirty: Hollywood's Exploitation Filmmakers and Their Movies (Jefferson, North Carolina
, McFarland
, 2001; ISBN 0-7864-1142-2). p56.) According to entertainer Card Mondor
, an Elliot Forbes in the 1940s who later purchased the Australian and New Zealand rights for Mom and Dad, the Forbeses were "mostly local men (from Wilmington, Ohio) who were trained to give the lecture...[I]t was a cross-section of the male population, mostly clean-cut young guys. ...The whole concept would have never worked with a trashy look."Card Mondor, letter to Michael Zengel, February 5, 1994 (available from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives).
During the intermission and after the showing, books relevant to the subject of the film were sold. Mom and Dad's distributor Modern Film Distributors
sold over forty-five thousand copies of Man and Boy and Woman and Girl, written by Babb's wife, netting an estimated $31,000. According to Babb, these cost about eight cents
to produce, and were sold for $1 apiece. While Modern Film was able to sell forty-five thousand on its own, Babb estimates sales of 40 million, citing "IRS
figures." This sort of companion selling would become common practice for Babb: with the religious film The Prince of Peace, he would sell Bible
s and other spiritual literature; and with his fidelity film Why Men Leave Home, books featuring beauty tips.
With other films, Babb would try different approaches. For "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", an anti-marijuana film of the 1950s, he highlighted the sexual scenes and arranged "one-time-only" midnight showings, claiming that his company was working with the United States Treasury Department
to release the film "in as many towns and cities as possible in the shortest possible length of time" as a public service. David F. Friedman
, another successful exploitation filmmaker of the era, has attributed the "one-time-only" distribution to a quality so low that Babb wanted to cash in and move to his next stop as fast as possible. At each showing of a film, a singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" was also required.John Windsor, "Shot in glorious sexploitation." The Guardian, September 11, 2005. URL accessed January 11, 2006.
As well as being at the forefront of the battles over censorship
and the motion picture censorship system
, the exploitation genre faced numerous challenges during the 1940s and 1950s. It was estimated that Babb was sued
over 400 times just for Mom and Dad (Babb himself claimed 428). He would often use the supposed educational value of the films as a defense, also recommending it to theater owners; in his pressbook
for Karamoja
, he wrote, "When a stupid jerk tries to outsmart proven facts, he should be in an asylum, not a theater."
Despite the criticism that Babb drew for Mom and Dad, in 1951 he received the first annual Sid Grauman
Showmanship Award, presented by the Hollywood Rotary Club
in honor of his accomplishments over the years."Kroger Babb to Get Showmanship Award," The Hollywood Reporter, January 31, 1951.
Babb cheaply acquired the rights to what would become "She Shoulda Said No!
" shortly after Robert Mitchum
and Lila Leeds
were arrested for marijuana use. Its original producer had struggled to get it distributed as Wild Weed, and Babb quickly presented it as The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket, hoping that the title would draw audiences. When it failed to stir up much interest, Babb instead focused on the one scene of female nudity, using a photo of Leeds in a showgirl
outfit, and retitled it "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", with tagline
s such as "How Bad Can a Good Girl Get...without losing her virtue or respect???" According to Friedman, Babb's midnight presentation of the film twice a week made more money than any other film at the same theater would earn over a full run; Friedman proceeded to use the film in his own roadshow double features.
Babb's associates agreed with his belief that "Nothing's hopeless if it's advertised right", stating that he "could take any piece of junk and sell it." One film Babb presented in the 1950s was a passion play
and the story behind putting it on, filmed in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma
. Initially called The Lawton Story and filmed in Cinecolor
, the quality of the film was considered so poor that telephone poles could be seen behind the crucifix
and upon release, it was described as "the only film that had to be dubbed from English to English." He recut and redubbed
this, retitling it as The Prince of Peace; it was so successful that the New York Daily News
called it "the Miracle of Broadway
."
Another film, Karamoja
, was marketed as a shocking portrayal of a tribe from Uganda
who wore "only the wind and live[d] on blood and beer." Scenes included "the bleeding of cattle and drinking of the warm blood, and self-mutilation as a form of ornamentation," as well as a full-color circumcision
scene. Karamoja proved less controversial than many of Babb's other films and grossed less.
Babb never repeated the overwhelming success of Mom and Dad, and he followed much of the exploitation industry in turning to burlesque
features in an attempt to make more money. One notorious attempt was his acquisition of the American theatrical rights for Ingmar Bergman
's Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika
). About one third of the film was cut, and the remaining sixty-two minutes emphasized nudity by retaining a skinny-dipping
scene; the result was titled Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl. Suggestive advertising art, including promotional postcards, portrayed the nude rear of Harriet Andersson
.
Babb's final film was his presentation of a European version of Harriet Beecher Stowe
's book Uncle Tom's Cabin
. This was described by Friedman as one of the most "unintentionally funny exploitation films ever made," filled with "second rate Italian actors who could barely speak English."
magazine as "An Expose of Gambling in the Parish Halls" and described as a comedy with an anti-gambling
message about a corrupt priest
who runs a "controlled" bingo night at his parish
. Babb called it "the best 'snow-job' of my life," and it has been speculated that he never intended to make it, despite the trade ads that appeared for years.
Babb was involved with many film production companies along with his own, including Southwestern Productions.Virginia Kelley. Leading With My Heart. Simon & Schuster, 1984. On the strength of his past successes, Babb joined John Miller's film production company, Miller-Consolidated Pictures
, as vice president
and general manager
in 1959. Babb advocated the use of the hard-selling
technique he had perfected as a presenter: "selling the sizzle instead of the steak", according to an interview."$1 million Movie I.Q. Contest Tops MCP Exploitation Plan," BoxOffice, November 9, 1959, pp.28–29, 180. He wrote a column for BoxOffice at the same time. His personal anecdotes provided advice for selling films, such as writing off expenses as tax deduction
s, and using women's clubs to expand advertising and revenues cheaply. He noted that there were "over 30,000 women's clubs," and that "practically every women's club has a 16mm
projector
."
In 1963, Babb formed another distribution company, Studio 10,001
. Operating in Beverly Hills
(and claiming representation in Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand"Kroger Babb Forms New Distributing Co," BoxOffice, July 24, 1963.), it used similar roadshow techniques to market television programs such as The Ern Westmore Show
.Variety and Daily Variety Television Reviews, vol. 18, 1993–1994 (New York: Garland, 1996; ISBN 0-8240-3797-9). Babb also acted as a showman for hire, promoting others' films when not working on his own. Among them was a nudie-cutie picture titled Kipling's Women, a peep show
, and Five Minutes to Love, a reworking of a Rue McClanahan
film.
Babb began creating promotion kits in an attempt to teach his craft to would-be presenters. Marketing himself as "MR. PIHSNAMWOHS" ("showmanship" backwards), he advertised in BoxOffice. He also dabbled in other areas, writing tirades against pay television and creating a pyramid scheme
titled "The Idea Factory." One of his schemes was the "Astounding Swedish Ice Cream Diet": overweight throughout his life, Babb claimed to have eaten ice cream
three times a day, yet to have lost one hundred pounds in forty-five days.
in 1944"Mildred Horn", Internet Movie Database
(URL accessed October 16, 2006). during a showing of Dust to Dust in Indianapolis
, where she was working as a movie critic
; her review of the film called it a "cheap, mislabeled morality play
," but the two struck up a conversation about it. They stayed together in a common-law marriage
; Horn wrote a number of Babb's screenplays, including Mom and Dad, as well as companion books.
In November 1953, Babb was arrested on a drunk-driving charge after running a red traffic light
and refusing a sobriety test. His $250 bail was continued
, and he was not convicted, although this mishap to the recent creator of the anti-alcohol film One Too Many was widely covered in the press."Producer of Film One Too Many Denies Being Tipsy," Los Angeles Examiner, 30 November 1953; "TV Producer Arrested in Drunk Driving Case," Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1953; "Producer Arrested on Drunk Charge," Citizen News, November 30, 1953.
Babb had tax troubles in the years after his success with Mom and Dad. He suggested to the Press-Enterprise that his operation was so diffuse that sales of his one-dollar sex education pamphlet
s were too difficult to track accurately. Babb eventually sold the rights to Mom and Dad and his stake in Modern Film Distributors to Erwin Joseph and Floyd Lewis — former partners in Modern Film who would continue to showcase Mom and Dad across the United States.Mildred A. Babb, letter in Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1986.
Babb suffered from various ailments toward the end of his life, including a stroke
. He retired in 1977, at 70,"Death: Kroger Babb," Hollywood Gazette, January 30, 1980. and died of heart failure (due to complications from diabetes) on January 29, 1980, in Palm Springs, California
. He was survived by his wife, a son, and five grandchildren. Babb is buried in Centerville, Ohio. His gravestone reads, "His many trips around and all over the world began in Centerville and end here in Lees Creek."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
and television
Television in the United States
Television is one of the major mass media of the United States. Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one...
producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and showman
Showman
Showman can have a variety of meanings, usually by context and depending on the country.- Australia :Travelling showmen are people who run amusement and side show equipment at regional shows, state capital shows, events and festivals throughout Australia...
. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine-show
Medicine show
Medicine shows were traveling horse and wagon teams which peddled "miracle cure" medications and other products between various entertainment acts. Their precise origins unknown, medicine shows were common in the 19th century United States...
tradition. Self-described as "America's Fearless Young Showman," he is best known for his presentation of the 1945 exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad is a feature-length 1945 film directed by William Beaudine, and largely produced by the exploitation filmmaker and presenter Kroger Babb. Mom and Dad is considered the most successful film within its genre of "sex hygiene" films...
, which was added to the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in 2005.
Babb was involved in the production and marketing of many films and television shows, promoting each according to his favorite marketing motto
Motto
A motto is a phrase meant to formally summarize the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used. The local language is usual in the mottoes of governments...
: "You gotta tell 'em to sell 'em." His films ranged from sex education–style dramas to "documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
" on foreign cultures, intended to titillate audiences rather than to educate them, maximizing profits via marketing gimmicks.
Youth
Babb was born in 1906 in Lees CreekLees Creek, Ohio
Lees Creek, also known as Centerville, is an unincorporated community in central Wayne Township, Clinton County, Ohio, United States. It lies at the intersection of State Route 729 with Cox Road, 6 miles south of Sabina and 12 miles southeast of Wilmington, the county seat of Clinton County...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, USA (near Wilmington
Wilmington, Ohio
Wilmington is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 12,520 at the 2010 census. At city entrances from state routes, county roads, and U.S. highways, the city slogan of "We Honor Our Champions" is seen, accompanied by signs that highlight various...
). He earned the nickname "Kroger" either from his childhood job at the grocer of the same name
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
or from his father's preference for B. H. Kroger coffee. Babb held a number of jobs during his youth, gaining a mention in Ripley's Believe It Or Not for referee
Referee
A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...
ing a record number of youth sports games. He started out with jobs in sportswriting
Sports journalism
Sports journalism is a form of journalism that reports on sports topics and events.While the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports...
and reporting at a local newspaper in his 20s, and even showed signs of his later work while showcasing "Digger" O'Dell, the "living corpse," but first achieved success after his promotion to publicity manager for the Chakeres-Warners movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
s, where he would create different kinds of stunts to lure audiences – for example, giving two bags of groceries to ticket holders in the theaters. These experiences led him to the exploitation film business.
In the early 1940s, Babb joined Cox and Underwood
Cox and Underwood
Cox and Underwood was the name of an exploitation film travelling road show and production company from the 1930s run by Howard Russell Cox and Howard Underwood...
, a company that obtained the rights to poorly shot or unmarketable films of material that was potentially controversial or shocking. It would often remove entire sections of these films and add material such as medical reel
Medical education
Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, either the initial training to become a doctor or additional training thereafter ....
s that lent itself to sensational promotion. Babb went on the road with a Cox and Underwood concoction titled Dust to Dust, a reworking of High School Girl with a childbirth
Childbirth
Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
scene added to the end. Its profits allowed Cox and Underwood to retire from the business, leaving Babb to start his own company, Hygienic Productions
Hygienic Productions
Hygienic Productions was a film production company based out of Wilmington, Ohio. Formed by exploitation film producer Kroger Babb, the company was in charge of promotion and production for a number of Babb's films, including the infamous Mom and Dad....
. He opened it near his childhood home in Wilmington, Ohio, and hired booking agents and advance salesmen along with out-of-work actors and comedians to present repackaged films and new features.
Film promotion
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
s, a term many in the business would embrace. According to The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, his success came from picking topics that would be easily sensationalized, such as religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and sex. His expenses were estimated at 5% for selling, and his distribution overhead near 7%, resulting in some of the largest per-dollar returns in the film industry.
Babb's biggest success was Mom and Dad, which he conceived and produced and which William Beaudine
William Beaudine
William Beaudine was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres.-Early life and career:...
directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
in six days. Babb headed the promotion of this film following its premiere in early 1945
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
, often going on the road with it himself. The film, a morality tale about a young girl who becomes pregnant and struggles to find someone to turn to, cost $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
62,000 and was presented via over 300 prints, and the presenter would stir up his own controversy in the weeks preceding the film's arrival by writing protest letters to local churches and newspapers and fabricating letters from the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
s of nearby cities about young women encouraged by it to discuss similar predicaments.
The third highest grossing film of its decade, Mom and Dad was claimed by Babb to have made $63,000 for every $1,000 the original investors contributed, and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
estimated that it grossed anywhere between $40 million and $100 million. Its success spawned a number of imitations, such as Street Corner
Street Corner (1948 film)
Street Corner is an exploitation film directed by Albert H. Kelley, and featuring Johnny Duncan, Eddie Gribbon, Marcia Mae Jones, and Milton Ross..-Plot:...
and The Story of Bob and Sally, that eventually flooded the market, but it was still being shown around the world decades later and ultimately was added to the National Film Registry in 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
.
- Acknowledging that his films were unknown quantities, Babb advocated a "100% saturation campaign." In his sample situation — The Deadwood Theater in Movie-hater, Missouri, with a potential audience base of twenty-four thousand — Babb suggested sending tabloid heralds to all seven thousand homes in the area at a cost of $196, spending $65 for newspaper ads, $50 on radio, plus an additional $65 for three hundred window cards, hand-out teaser cards, pennants, and posters. The total came to almost $400, or the same amount the theater owner would normally spend on advertising in the course of an entire month. Babb always claimed that with his formula the profit would outweigh the investment...
The film became so ubiquitous that Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
said its presentation "left only the livestock unaware of the chance to learn the facts of life." Babb also made sure that each showing of the film followed a similar format: adults-only screenings segregated by gender, and live lectures by "Fearless Hygiene Commentator Elliot Forbes" during an intermission. At any one time, hundreds of Elliot Forbeses would be giving a lecture at the same time in a variety of locations. (In some predominantly African-American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
areas, Olympic
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
ist Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the...
appeared instead, a trend he'd continue with films like "She Shoulda Said 'No'!") According to entertainer Card Mondor
Card Mondor
Card Mondor was an Australian magician and stage performer. A one time assistant for the Great Virgil , he gained fame as a performer in the United States, most notably for entertaining troops during World War II. He was featured on the cover of Genii in April 1947...
, an Elliot Forbes in the 1940s who later purchased the Australian and New Zealand rights for Mom and Dad, the Forbeses were "mostly local men (from Wilmington, Ohio) who were trained to give the lecture...[I]t was a cross-section of the male population, mostly clean-cut young guys. ...The whole concept would have never worked with a trashy look."
During the intermission and after the showing, books relevant to the subject of the film were sold. Mom and Dad
Modern Film Distributors
Modern Film Distributors was the name of a film distribution organization cartel formed by filmmakers in the 1940s. Following the success of the exploitation film Mom and Dad, the four leading presenters of the time agreed to work together to book each others' films in...
sold over forty-five thousand copies of Man and Boy and Woman and Girl, written by Babb's wife, netting an estimated $31,000. According to Babb, these cost about eight cents
Cent (currency)
In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word "centum" meaning hundred. Cent also refers to a coin which is worth one cent....
to produce, and were sold for $1 apiece. While Modern Film was able to sell forty-five thousand on its own, Babb estimates sales of 40 million, citing "IRS
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
figures." This sort of companion selling would become common practice for Babb: with the religious film The Prince of Peace, he would sell Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
s and other spiritual literature; and with his fidelity film Why Men Leave Home, books featuring beauty tips.
With other films, Babb would try different approaches. For "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", an anti-marijuana film of the 1950s, he highlighted the sexual scenes and arranged "one-time-only" midnight showings, claiming that his company was working with the United States Treasury Department
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
to release the film "in as many towns and cities as possible in the shortest possible length of time" as a public service. David F. Friedman
David F. Friedman
David Frank Friedman was an American filmmaker and film producer.-Life and career:Friedman first became interested in entertainment after spending part of his childhood in Birmingham and Anniston, Alabama, traveling carnival sites. He met exploitation film pioneer Kroger Babb during his stay in...
, another successful exploitation filmmaker of the era, has attributed the "one-time-only" distribution to a quality so low that Babb wanted to cash in and move to his next stop as fast as possible. At each showing of a film, a singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" was also required.
As well as being at the forefront of the battles over censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and the motion picture censorship system
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
, the exploitation genre faced numerous challenges during the 1940s and 1950s. It was estimated that Babb was sued
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
over 400 times just for Mom and Dad (Babb himself claimed 428). He would often use the supposed educational value of the films as a defense, also recommending it to theater owners; in his pressbook
Pressbook
In cinema a pressbook may be a piece of promotional material created and distributed by film producers in order to market their films. Prior to 1980, most film companies did their own promotion, and the pressbooks would be given to exhibitors....
for Karamoja
Karamoja (film)
Karamoja was a 1954 film produced by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. A documentary of a native tribe from Uganda, the film was marketed by Babb to focus on the imagery that would be shocking to an American audience, including advertising which claimed that the tribe wore "only the wind and...
, he wrote, "When a stupid jerk tries to outsmart proven facts, he should be in an asylum, not a theater."
Despite the criticism that Babb drew for Mom and Dad, in 1951 he received the first annual Sid Grauman
Sid Grauman
Sidney Patrick Grauman was an American showman who created one of Southern California's most recognizable and visited landmarks, Grauman's Chinese Theater. He was the son of David Grauman who died in 1921 in Los Angeles, California and Rosa Goldsmith...
Showmanship Award, presented by the Hollywood Rotary Club
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
in honor of his accomplishments over the years.
Later films
Following the success of Mom and Dad, Babb renamed his company Hallmark Productions, continuing the marketing approaches of Hygienic Productions while going beyond health and sex education films. He would later set up a larger distribution company, named Hallmark's Big-6.Babb cheaply acquired the rights to what would become "She Shoulda Said No!
She Shoulda Said No!
"She Shoulda Said 'No'!" is a 1949 exploitation film that follows in the spirit of morality tales such as the 1936 films Reefer Madness and Marihuana...
" shortly after Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
and Lila Leeds
Lila Leeds
-Early life and career:Born Lila Lee Wilkinson in Iola, Kansas, Leeds ran away from home as a teen. She worked as a dancer in St. Louis before moving to Los Angeles. While working as a hatcheck girl at Ciro's, she met and married actor, composer, singer and conductor Jack Little. The marriage was...
were arrested for marijuana use. Its original producer had struggled to get it distributed as Wild Weed, and Babb quickly presented it as The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket, hoping that the title would draw audiences. When it failed to stir up much interest, Babb instead focused on the one scene of female nudity, using a photo of Leeds in a showgirl
Showgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
outfit, and retitled it "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", with tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
s such as "How Bad Can a Good Girl Get...without losing her virtue or respect???" According to Friedman, Babb's midnight presentation of the film twice a week made more money than any other film at the same theater would earn over a full run; Friedman proceeded to use the film in his own roadshow double features.
Babb's associates agreed with his belief that "Nothing's hopeless if it's advertised right", stating that he "could take any piece of junk and sell it." One film Babb presented in the 1950s was a passion play
Passion play
A Passion play is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition....
and the story behind putting it on, filmed in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma
Lawton, Oklahoma
The city of Lawton is the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in the southwestern region of Oklahoma approximately southwest of Oklahoma City, it is the principal city of the Lawton Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. Initially called The Lawton Story and filmed in Cinecolor
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...
, the quality of the film was considered so poor that telephone poles could be seen behind the crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
and upon release, it was described as "the only film that had to be dubbed from English to English." He recut and redubbed
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
this, retitling it as The Prince of Peace; it was so successful that the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
called it "the Miracle of Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
."
Another film, Karamoja
Karamoja (film)
Karamoja was a 1954 film produced by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. A documentary of a native tribe from Uganda, the film was marketed by Babb to focus on the imagery that would be shocking to an American audience, including advertising which claimed that the tribe wore "only the wind and...
, was marketed as a shocking portrayal of a tribe from Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
who wore "only the wind and live[d] on blood and beer." Scenes included "the bleeding of cattle and drinking of the warm blood, and self-mutilation as a form of ornamentation," as well as a full-color circumcision
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
scene. Karamoja proved less controversial than many of Babb's other films and grossed less.
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
features in an attempt to make more money. One notorious attempt was his acquisition of the American theatrical rights for Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika
Summer with Monika
Summer with Monika is a 1953 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It sparked controversy abroad for its frank depiction of nudity, and along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it started the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated...
). About one third of the film was cut, and the remaining sixty-two minutes emphasized nudity by retaining a skinny-dipping
Skinny dipping
Nude swimming, colloquially called skinny dipping, is a term used to describe swimming naked.-Etymology:The term skinny dip, first recorded in English in the 1950s, includes the somewhat archaic word skinny, known since 1573, meaning "having to do with skin", as it exposed the naked...
scene; the result was titled Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl. Suggestive advertising art, including promotional postcards, portrayed the nude rear of Harriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson is a Swedish actress, known outside Sweden for being part of one of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company....
.
Babb's final film was his presentation of a European version of Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
's book Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
. This was described by Friedman as one of the most "unintentionally funny exploitation films ever made," filled with "second rate Italian actors who could barely speak English."
Other ventures
After the success of Mom and Dad, Babb talked of an "unrealized" project called Father Bingo, which he advertised in BoxOfficeBoxoffice (magazine)
Boxoffice is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by Boxoffice Media LP. It started in 1920 as The Reel Journal, taking its current name in 1931 and still publishes today, with an intended audience of theatre owners and film professionals.Boxoffice is the...
magazine as "An Expose of Gambling in the Parish Halls" and described as a comedy with an anti-gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
message about a corrupt priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
who runs a "controlled" bingo night at his parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
. Babb called it "the best 'snow-job' of my life," and it has been speculated that he never intended to make it, despite the trade ads that appeared for years.
Babb was involved with many film production companies along with his own, including Southwestern Productions. On the strength of his past successes, Babb joined John Miller's film production company, Miller-Consolidated Pictures
Miller-Consolidated Pictures
Miller-Consolidated Pictures was a film production company. Formed by John Miller in 1959, the company specialized in low-budget films. The company also had many known names on its board, including exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb, who was in charge of marketing.-Selected filmography:*...
, as vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
and general manager
General manager
General manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, most commonly in the hospitality industry.-Generic usage:...
in 1959. Babb advocated the use of the hard-selling
Soft sell
In advertising, a soft sell is an advertisement or campaign that uses a more subtle, casual, or friendly sales message. This approach works in opposition to a hard sell....
technique he had perfected as a presenter: "selling the sizzle instead of the steak", according to an interview. He wrote a column for BoxOffice at the same time. His personal anecdotes provided advice for selling films, such as writing off expenses as tax deduction
Tax deduction
Income tax systems generally allow a tax deduction, i.e., a reduction of the income subject to tax, for various items, especially expenses incurred to produce income. Often these deductions are subject to limitations or conditions...
s, and using women's clubs to expand advertising and revenues cheaply. He noted that there were "over 30,000 women's clubs," and that "practically every women's club has a 16mm
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
projector
Movie projector
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
."
In 1963, Babb formed another distribution company, Studio 10,001
Studio 10,001 Inc.
Studio 10,001 was an international film studio formed in 1963 by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. With a headquarters in Beverly Hills, California, it had a presence in the United States, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia and presented such films as Kipling's Women and the Rue McClanahan film...
. Operating in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
(and claiming representation in Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), it used similar roadshow techniques to market television programs such as The Ern Westmore Show
Ern Westmore
Ern Westmore , born Ernest Henry Westmore, was a Hollywood make-up artist and sometimes actor, the third child in Frank Westmore's famed Westmore family tree...
. Babb also acted as a showman for hire, promoting others' films when not working on his own. Among them was a nudie-cutie picture titled Kipling's Women, a peep show
Peep show
A peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures, objects or people viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. Though historically a peep show was a form of entertainment provided by wandering showmen, nowadays it more commonly refers a presentation of a sex show or pornographic film...
, and Five Minutes to Love, a reworking of a Rue McClanahan
Rue McClanahan
Rue McClanahan was an American actress, best known for her roles on television as Vivian Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family, and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1987.-Early life:McClanahan was born Eddie Rue...
film.
Babb began creating promotion kits in an attempt to teach his craft to would-be presenters. Marketing himself as "MR. PIHSNAMWOHS" ("showmanship" backwards), he advertised in BoxOffice. He also dabbled in other areas, writing tirades against pay television and creating a pyramid scheme
Pyramid scheme
A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public...
titled "The Idea Factory." One of his schemes was the "Astounding Swedish Ice Cream Diet": overweight throughout his life, Babb claimed to have eaten ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
three times a day, yet to have lost one hundred pounds in forty-five days.
Personal life
Babb met Mildred HornMildred Horn
Mildred Horn was a film critic and screenwriter, best known for her work on the Kroger Babb exploitation film Mom and Dad.Horn was born in Erie, Pennsylvania and studied at Academy High School...
in 1944 during a showing of Dust to Dust in Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, where she was working as a movie critic
Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
; her review of the film called it a "cheap, mislabeled morality play
Morality play
The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of...
," but the two struck up a conversation about it. They stayed together in a common-law marriage
Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, sometimes called sui juris marriage, informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute, is a form of interpersonal status that is legally recognized in limited jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage...
; Horn wrote a number of Babb's screenplays, including Mom and Dad, as well as companion books.
In November 1953, Babb was arrested on a drunk-driving charge after running a red traffic light
Traffic light
Traffic lights, which may also be known as stoplights, traffic lamps, traffic signals, signal lights, robots or semaphore, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings and other locations to control competing flows of traffic...
and refusing a sobriety test. His $250 bail was continued
Continuance
In American procedural law, a continuance is the postponement of a hearing, trial, or other scheduled court proceeding at the request of either or both parties in the dispute, or by the judge sua sponte. In response to delays in bringing cases to trial, some states have adopted "fast-track" rules...
, and he was not convicted, although this mishap to the recent creator of the anti-alcohol film One Too Many was widely covered in the press.
Babb had tax troubles in the years after his success with Mom and Dad. He suggested to the Press-Enterprise that his operation was so diffuse that sales of his one-dollar sex education pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
s were too difficult to track accurately. Babb eventually sold the rights to Mom and Dad and his stake in Modern Film Distributors to Erwin Joseph and Floyd Lewis — former partners in Modern Film who would continue to showcase Mom and Dad across the United States.
Babb suffered from various ailments toward the end of his life, including a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
. He retired in 1977, at 70, and died of heart failure (due to complications from diabetes) on January 29, 1980, in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
. He was survived by his wife, a son, and five grandchildren. Babb is buried in Centerville, Ohio. His gravestone reads, "His many trips around and all over the world began in Centerville and end here in Lees Creek."
Works
Babb worked in various areas of the entertainment industry, in both traditional and exploitation genres. He claimed to have made twenty films, and produced for television, radio, and even the stage. This is an incomplete collection of works owing to the nature of the exploitation genre. The titles are as they were finally presented by Babb, with earlier titles noted in parentheses.As film producer
- Dust to DustChild BrideChild Bride, also known as Child Brides , is a 1938 film directed by Harry Revier. Set in a remote town in the Ozarks, it claims to be an attempt to draw attention to the lack of laws banning child marriage in many states...
(previously Child Bride) (1938) - Mom and DadMom and DadMom and Dad is a feature-length 1945 film directed by William Beaudine, and largely produced by the exploitation filmmaker and presenter Kroger Babb. Mom and Dad is considered the most successful film within its genre of "sex hygiene" films...
(previously A Family Story) (1945) - The Prince of PeaceThe Prince of PeaceThe Prince of Peace, also known as The Lawton Story, was a film that later made the exploitation rounds under the production of Kroger Babb. The film was based on a passion play created in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma. Filmed in Cinecolor, it was presented in various forms in the years following its...
(previously The Lawton Story) (1949) - One Too ManyOne Too ManyOne Too Many, also known as Killer With a Label, Mixed-Up Women, and The Important Story of Alcoholism, was an exploitation film produced by Kroger Babb in 1950...
(previously Mixed-Up Women, Killer With a Label, The Important Story of Alcoholism) (1950) - Why Men Leave HomeWhy Men Leave HomeWhy Men Leave Home is a 1924 silent film comedy-drama produced by Louis B. Mayer and released through First National Pictures, then known as Associated First National. It is based on a 1922 Broadway play by Avery Hopwood. The film was released in Germany in 1925 by UFA. John M. Stahl directed and...
(previously Secrets of Beauty) (1951) - Halfway to Hell (1954)
- Walk the WalkWalk the WalkWalk the Walk is a 1970 exploitation film produced by Kroger Babb. Released by Babb's Hallmark Productions company, it was written and directed by Jac Zacha and told the story of a young African-American man battling addiction to alcohol and heroin....
(1970)
As film distributor
- "She Shoulda Said 'No'!" (previously Marijuana, the Devil's Weed, The Devil's Weed, Wild Weed, The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket) (1949)
- Monika, the Story of a Bad GirlSummer with MonikaSummer with Monika is a 1953 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It sparked controversy abroad for its frank depiction of nudity, and along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it started the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated...
(original title Sommaren med Monika, later re-issued by others in full as Summer with Monika) (1949) - Delinquent Angels (1951)
- The Best is Yet to ComeThe Best Is Yet to Come (film)The Best is Yet to Come was a film distributed by exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb in 1951. Babb promoted the film as "all there is to know about cancer".-References:* New York Times: Specialist. 18 March 1951....
(1951) - Halfway to Hell (1954)
- KaramojaKaramoja (film)Karamoja was a 1954 film produced by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. A documentary of a native tribe from Uganda, the film was marketed by Babb to focus on the imagery that would be shocking to an American audience, including advertising which claimed that the tribe wore "only the wind and...
(1954) - Kipling's Women (1961)
- KwaheriKwaheriKwaheri, also known as Kwaheri: Vanishing Africa or Kwaheri: The Forbidden, is a 1964 mondo film directed by David Chudnow and Thor Brooks. The film was a pseudo-documentary about vanishing native tribes in Africa...
(1961) - Five Minutes to LoveFive Minutes to LoveFive Minutes to Love is a 1963 American drama film directed by John Hayes and starring Rue McClanahan as Poochie, a woman who lives in a junkyard...
(previously The Rotten Apple, It Only Takes Five Minutes) (1963) - Uncle Tom's CabinOnkel Toms HütteUncle Tom's Cabin is a 1965 German film directed by Géza von Radványi.-Cast:*John Kitzmiller ... Uncle Tom*Herbert Lom ... Simon Legree*Olive Moorefield ... Cassy*O.W. Fischer ... Saint-Claire*Catana Cayetano ... Eliza...
(1970) originally released in Europe in 1965 - Redheads vs. Blondes (undated)
Television
- The Ern Westmore Hollywood Glamour ShowThe Ern Westmore Hollywood Glamour ShowThe Ern Westmore Hollywood Glamour Show was a short-lived 1953 television show. Produced by Kroger Babb, the show was hosted by Hollywood make-up artist Ern Westmore, who would explain various beauty tips to viewers as well as give makeovers to a member of the studio audience, who would then be...
Howard W. "Kroger" Babb (December 30, 1906 – January 28, 1980) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
and television
Television in the United States
Television is one of the major mass media of the United States. Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one...
producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and showman
Showman
Showman can have a variety of meanings, usually by context and depending on the country.- Australia :Travelling showmen are people who run amusement and side show equipment at regional shows, state capital shows, events and festivals throughout Australia...
. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine-show
Medicine show
Medicine shows were traveling horse and wagon teams which peddled "miracle cure" medications and other products between various entertainment acts. Their precise origins unknown, medicine shows were common in the 19th century United States...
tradition. Self-described as "America's Fearless Young Showman,"Eric Schaefer
Eric Schaefer
Eric Schaefer, Ph.D., is a professor and film historian. He is an associate professor at Emerson College and interim chair of the visual and media arts department. He has a B.A. from Webster University, and an M.A. and Ph.D...
, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999; ISBN 0-8223-2374-5). he is best known for his presentation of the 1945 exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad is a feature-length 1945 film directed by William Beaudine, and largely produced by the exploitation filmmaker and presenter Kroger Babb. Mom and Dad is considered the most successful film within its genre of "sex hygiene" films...
, which was added to the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in 2005.
Babb was involved in the production and marketing of many films and television shows, promoting each according to his favorite marketing motto
Motto
A motto is a phrase meant to formally summarize the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used. The local language is usual in the mottoes of governments...
: "You gotta tell 'em to sell 'em."David F. Friedman, A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1990; ISBN 0-87975-608-X). His films ranged from sex education–style dramas to "documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
" on foreign cultures, intended to titillate audiences rather than to educate them, maximizing profits via marketing gimmicks.
Youth
Babb was born in 1906 in Lees CreekLees Creek, Ohio
Lees Creek, also known as Centerville, is an unincorporated community in central Wayne Township, Clinton County, Ohio, United States. It lies at the intersection of State Route 729 with Cox Road, 6 miles south of Sabina and 12 miles southeast of Wilmington, the county seat of Clinton County...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, USAKenneth Turan, "Kroger Babb: Superhuckster", Los Angeles Times; reprinted in The Washington Post, November 11, 1977, p.23. (near Wilmington
Wilmington, Ohio
Wilmington is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 12,520 at the 2010 census. At city entrances from state routes, county roads, and U.S. highways, the city slogan of "We Honor Our Champions" is seen, accompanied by signs that highlight various...
). He earned the nickname "Kroger" either from his childhood job at the grocer of the same name
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
Joe Bob Briggs
Joe Bob Briggs
John Irving Bloom , who uses the pseudonym Joe Bob Briggs, is a syndicated American film critic, writer and comic performer.-Early years:...
, Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History! (New York: Universe Publishing, 2003; ISBN 0-7893-0844-4). or from his father's preference for B. H. Kroger coffee. Babb held a number of jobs during his youth, gaining a mention in Ripley's Believe It Or Not for referee
Referee
A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...
ing a record number of youth sports games. He started out with jobs in sportswriting
Sports journalism
Sports journalism is a form of journalism that reports on sports topics and events.While the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports...
and reporting at a local newspaper in his 20s, and even showed signs of his later work while showcasing "Digger" O'Dell, the "living corpse," but first achieved success after his promotion to publicity manager for the Chakeres-Warners movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
s, where he would create different kinds of stunts to lure audiences – for example, giving two bags of groceries to ticket holders in the theaters. These experiences led him to the exploitation film business.
In the early 1940s, Babb joined Cox and Underwood
Cox and Underwood
Cox and Underwood was the name of an exploitation film travelling road show and production company from the 1930s run by Howard Russell Cox and Howard Underwood...
, a company that obtained the rights to poorly shot or unmarketable films of material that was potentially controversial or shocking. It would often remove entire sections of these films and add material such as medical reel
Medical education
Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, either the initial training to become a doctor or additional training thereafter ....
s that lent itself to sensational promotion. Babb went on the road with a Cox and Underwood concoction titled Dust to Dust, a reworking of High School Girl with a childbirth
Childbirth
Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
scene added to the end. Its profits allowed Cox and Underwood to retire from the business, leaving Babb to start his own company, Hygienic Productions
Hygienic Productions
Hygienic Productions was a film production company based out of Wilmington, Ohio. Formed by exploitation film producer Kroger Babb, the company was in charge of promotion and production for a number of Babb's films, including the infamous Mom and Dad....
. He opened it near his childhood home in Wilmington, Ohio, and hired booking agents and advance salesmen along with out-of-work actors and comedians to present repackaged films and new features.
Film promotion
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
s, a term many in the business would embrace. According to The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, his success came from picking topics that would be easily sensationalized, such as religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and sex. His expenses were estimated at 5% for selling, and his distribution overhead near 7%, resulting in some of the largest per-dollar returns in the film industry.Hollywood Reporter, August 20, 1951.
Babb's biggest success was Mom and Dad, which he conceived and produced and which William Beaudine
William Beaudine
William Beaudine was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres.-Early life and career:...
directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
in six days. Babb headed the promotion of this film following its premiere in early 1945
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
, often going on the road with it himself. The film, a morality tale about a young girl who becomes pregnant and struggles to find someone to turn to, cost $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
62,000 and was presented via over 300 prints,National Film Registry 2005 Press Release, Library of Congress (URL accessed August 27, 2006). and the presenter would stir up his own controversy in the weeks preceding the film's arrival by writing protest letters to local churches and newspapers and fabricating letters from the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
s of nearby cities about young women encouraged by it to discuss similar predicaments.
The third highest grossing film of its decade, Mom and Dad was claimed by Babb to have made $63,000 for every $1,000 the original investors contributed,Kroger Babb obituary, Variety, January 30, 1980. and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
estimated that it grossed anywhere between $40 million and $100 million. Its success spawned a number of imitations, such as Street Corner
Street Corner (1948 film)
Street Corner is an exploitation film directed by Albert H. Kelley, and featuring Johnny Duncan, Eddie Gribbon, Marcia Mae Jones, and Milton Ross..-Plot:...
and The Story of Bob and Sally, that eventually flooded the market, but it was still being shown around the world decades later* Dennis McDougal, "Filmmaker Babb let promotion offset low budgets." The Press-Enterprise, (Riverside, CA), unknown date. and ultimately was added to the National Film Registry in 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
.
- Acknowledging that his films were unknown quantities, Babb advocated a "100% saturation campaign." In his sample situation — The Deadwood Theater in Movie-hater, Missouri, with a potential audience base of twenty-four thousand — Babb suggested sending tabloid heralds to all seven thousand homes in the area at a cost of $196, spending $65 for newspaper ads, $50 on radio, plus an additional $65 for three hundred window cards, hand-out teaser cards, pennants, and posters. The total came to almost $400, or the same amount the theater owner would normally spend on advertising in the course of an entire month. Babb always claimed that with his formula the profit would outweigh the investment...
The film became so ubiquitous that Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
said its presentation "left only the livestock unaware of the chance to learn the facts of life." Babb also made sure that each showing of the film followed a similar format: adults-only screenings segregated by gender, and live lectures by "Fearless Hygiene Commentator Elliot Forbes" during an intermission. At any one time, hundreds of Elliot Forbeses would be giving a lecture at the same time in a variety of locations. (In some predominantly African-American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
areas, Olympic
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
ist Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the...
appeared instead, a trend he'd continue with films like "She Shoulda Said 'No'!"Mike Quarles, Down and Dirty: Hollywood's Exploitation Filmmakers and Their Movies (Jefferson, North Carolina
Jefferson, North Carolina
Jefferson is a town in Ashe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,422 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Ashe County.-History:...
, McFarland
McFarland & Company
McFarland & Company, Inc. is a book publisher of primarily academic and adult nonfiction based in Jefferson, North Carolina. Its president and editor-in-chief is Robert Franklin, who began the enterprise in 1979...
, 2001; ISBN 0-7864-1142-2). p56.) According to entertainer Card Mondor
Card Mondor
Card Mondor was an Australian magician and stage performer. A one time assistant for the Great Virgil , he gained fame as a performer in the United States, most notably for entertaining troops during World War II. He was featured on the cover of Genii in April 1947...
, an Elliot Forbes in the 1940s who later purchased the Australian and New Zealand rights for Mom and Dad, the Forbeses were "mostly local men (from Wilmington, Ohio) who were trained to give the lecture...[I]t was a cross-section of the male population, mostly clean-cut young guys. ...The whole concept would have never worked with a trashy look."Card Mondor, letter to Michael Zengel, February 5, 1994 (available from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives).
During the intermission and after the showing, books relevant to the subject of the film were sold. Mom and Dad
Modern Film Distributors
Modern Film Distributors was the name of a film distribution organization cartel formed by filmmakers in the 1940s. Following the success of the exploitation film Mom and Dad, the four leading presenters of the time agreed to work together to book each others' films in...
sold over forty-five thousand copies of Man and Boy and Woman and Girl, written by Babb's wife, netting an estimated $31,000. According to Babb, these cost about eight cents
Cent (currency)
In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word "centum" meaning hundred. Cent also refers to a coin which is worth one cent....
to produce, and were sold for $1 apiece. While Modern Film was able to sell forty-five thousand on its own, Babb estimates sales of 40 million, citing "IRS
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
figures." This sort of companion selling would become common practice for Babb: with the religious film The Prince of Peace, he would sell Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
s and other spiritual literature; and with his fidelity film Why Men Leave Home, books featuring beauty tips.
With other films, Babb would try different approaches. For "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", an anti-marijuana film of the 1950s, he highlighted the sexual scenes and arranged "one-time-only" midnight showings, claiming that his company was working with the United States Treasury Department
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
to release the film "in as many towns and cities as possible in the shortest possible length of time" as a public service. David F. Friedman
David F. Friedman
David Frank Friedman was an American filmmaker and film producer.-Life and career:Friedman first became interested in entertainment after spending part of his childhood in Birmingham and Anniston, Alabama, traveling carnival sites. He met exploitation film pioneer Kroger Babb during his stay in...
, another successful exploitation filmmaker of the era, has attributed the "one-time-only" distribution to a quality so low that Babb wanted to cash in and move to his next stop as fast as possible. At each showing of a film, a singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" was also required.John Windsor, "Shot in glorious sexploitation." The Guardian, September 11, 2005. URL accessed January 11, 2006.
As well as being at the forefront of the battles over censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and the motion picture censorship system
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
, the exploitation genre faced numerous challenges during the 1940s and 1950s. It was estimated that Babb was sued
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
over 400 times just for Mom and Dad (Babb himself claimed 428). He would often use the supposed educational value of the films as a defense, also recommending it to theater owners; in his pressbook
Pressbook
In cinema a pressbook may be a piece of promotional material created and distributed by film producers in order to market their films. Prior to 1980, most film companies did their own promotion, and the pressbooks would be given to exhibitors....
for Karamoja
Karamoja (film)
Karamoja was a 1954 film produced by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. A documentary of a native tribe from Uganda, the film was marketed by Babb to focus on the imagery that would be shocking to an American audience, including advertising which claimed that the tribe wore "only the wind and...
, he wrote, "When a stupid jerk tries to outsmart proven facts, he should be in an asylum, not a theater."
Despite the criticism that Babb drew for Mom and Dad, in 1951 he received the first annual Sid Grauman
Sid Grauman
Sidney Patrick Grauman was an American showman who created one of Southern California's most recognizable and visited landmarks, Grauman's Chinese Theater. He was the son of David Grauman who died in 1921 in Los Angeles, California and Rosa Goldsmith...
Showmanship Award, presented by the Hollywood Rotary Club
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
in honor of his accomplishments over the years."Kroger Babb to Get Showmanship Award," The Hollywood Reporter, January 31, 1951.
Later films
Following the success of Mom and Dad, Babb renamed his company Hallmark Productions, continuing the marketing approaches of Hygienic Productions while going beyond health and sex education films. He would later set up a larger distribution company, named Hallmark's Big-6."Babb, 5 Others Form New Indie Distribution Outfit," Variety, 23 May issue, year unknown (c. 1960).Babb cheaply acquired the rights to what would become "She Shoulda Said No!
She Shoulda Said No!
"She Shoulda Said 'No'!" is a 1949 exploitation film that follows in the spirit of morality tales such as the 1936 films Reefer Madness and Marihuana...
" shortly after Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
and Lila Leeds
Lila Leeds
-Early life and career:Born Lila Lee Wilkinson in Iola, Kansas, Leeds ran away from home as a teen. She worked as a dancer in St. Louis before moving to Los Angeles. While working as a hatcheck girl at Ciro's, she met and married actor, composer, singer and conductor Jack Little. The marriage was...
were arrested for marijuana use. Its original producer had struggled to get it distributed as Wild Weed, and Babb quickly presented it as The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket, hoping that the title would draw audiences. When it failed to stir up much interest, Babb instead focused on the one scene of female nudity, using a photo of Leeds in a showgirl
Showgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
outfit, and retitled it "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", with tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
s such as "How Bad Can a Good Girl Get...without losing her virtue or respect???" According to Friedman, Babb's midnight presentation of the film twice a week made more money than any other film at the same theater would earn over a full run; Friedman proceeded to use the film in his own roadshow double features.
Babb's associates agreed with his belief that "Nothing's hopeless if it's advertised right", stating that he "could take any piece of junk and sell it." One film Babb presented in the 1950s was a passion play
Passion play
A Passion play is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition....
and the story behind putting it on, filmed in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma
Lawton, Oklahoma
The city of Lawton is the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in the southwestern region of Oklahoma approximately southwest of Oklahoma City, it is the principal city of the Lawton Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. Initially called The Lawton Story and filmed in Cinecolor
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...
, the quality of the film was considered so poor that telephone poles could be seen behind the crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
and upon release, it was described as "the only film that had to be dubbed from English to English." He recut and redubbed
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
this, retitling it as The Prince of Peace; it was so successful that the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
called it "the Miracle of Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
."
Another film, Karamoja
Karamoja (film)
Karamoja was a 1954 film produced by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. A documentary of a native tribe from Uganda, the film was marketed by Babb to focus on the imagery that would be shocking to an American audience, including advertising which claimed that the tribe wore "only the wind and...
, was marketed as a shocking portrayal of a tribe from Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
who wore "only the wind and live[d] on blood and beer." Scenes included "the bleeding of cattle and drinking of the warm blood, and self-mutilation as a form of ornamentation," as well as a full-color circumcision
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
scene. Karamoja proved less controversial than many of Babb's other films and grossed less.
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
features in an attempt to make more money. One notorious attempt was his acquisition of the American theatrical rights for Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika
Summer with Monika
Summer with Monika is a 1953 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It sparked controversy abroad for its frank depiction of nudity, and along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it started the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated...
). About one third of the film was cut, and the remaining sixty-two minutes emphasized nudity by retaining a skinny-dipping
Skinny dipping
Nude swimming, colloquially called skinny dipping, is a term used to describe swimming naked.-Etymology:The term skinny dip, first recorded in English in the 1950s, includes the somewhat archaic word skinny, known since 1573, meaning "having to do with skin", as it exposed the naked...
scene; the result was titled Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl. Suggestive advertising art, including promotional postcards, portrayed the nude rear of Harriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson is a Swedish actress, known outside Sweden for being part of one of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company....
.
Babb's final film was his presentation of a European version of Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
's book Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
. This was described by Friedman as one of the most "unintentionally funny exploitation films ever made," filled with "second rate Italian actors who could barely speak English."
Other ventures
After the success of Mom and Dad, Babb talked of an "unrealized" project called Father Bingo, which he advertised in BoxOfficeBoxoffice (magazine)
Boxoffice is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by Boxoffice Media LP. It started in 1920 as The Reel Journal, taking its current name in 1931 and still publishes today, with an intended audience of theatre owners and film professionals.Boxoffice is the...
magazine as "An Expose of Gambling in the Parish Halls" and described as a comedy with an anti-gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
message about a corrupt priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
who runs a "controlled" bingo night at his parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
. Babb called it "the best 'snow-job' of my life," and it has been speculated that he never intended to make it, despite the trade ads that appeared for years.
Babb was involved with many film production companies along with his own, including Southwestern Productions.Virginia Kelley. Leading With My Heart. Simon & Schuster, 1984. On the strength of his past successes, Babb joined John Miller's film production company, Miller-Consolidated Pictures
Miller-Consolidated Pictures
Miller-Consolidated Pictures was a film production company. Formed by John Miller in 1959, the company specialized in low-budget films. The company also had many known names on its board, including exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb, who was in charge of marketing.-Selected filmography:*...
, as vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
and general manager
General manager
General manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, most commonly in the hospitality industry.-Generic usage:...
in 1959. Babb advocated the use of the hard-selling
Soft sell
In advertising, a soft sell is an advertisement or campaign that uses a more subtle, casual, or friendly sales message. This approach works in opposition to a hard sell....
technique he had perfected as a presenter: "selling the sizzle instead of the steak", according to an interview."$1 million Movie I.Q. Contest Tops MCP Exploitation Plan," BoxOffice, November 9, 1959, pp.28–29, 180. He wrote a column for BoxOffice at the same time. His personal anecdotes provided advice for selling films, such as writing off expenses as tax deduction
Tax deduction
Income tax systems generally allow a tax deduction, i.e., a reduction of the income subject to tax, for various items, especially expenses incurred to produce income. Often these deductions are subject to limitations or conditions...
s, and using women's clubs to expand advertising and revenues cheaply. He noted that there were "over 30,000 women's clubs," and that "practically every women's club has a 16mm
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
projector
Movie projector
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
."
In 1963, Babb formed another distribution company, Studio 10,001
Studio 10,001 Inc.
Studio 10,001 was an international film studio formed in 1963 by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. With a headquarters in Beverly Hills, California, it had a presence in the United States, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia and presented such films as Kipling's Women and the Rue McClanahan film...
. Operating in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
(and claiming representation in Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand"Kroger Babb Forms New Distributing Co," BoxOffice, July 24, 1963.), it used similar roadshow techniques to market television programs such as The Ern Westmore Show
Ern Westmore
Ern Westmore , born Ernest Henry Westmore, was a Hollywood make-up artist and sometimes actor, the third child in Frank Westmore's famed Westmore family tree...
.Variety and Daily Variety Television Reviews, vol. 18, 1993–1994 (New York: Garland, 1996; ISBN 0-8240-3797-9). Babb also acted as a showman for hire, promoting others' films when not working on his own. Among them was a nudie-cutie picture titled Kipling's Women, a peep show
Peep show
A peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures, objects or people viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. Though historically a peep show was a form of entertainment provided by wandering showmen, nowadays it more commonly refers a presentation of a sex show or pornographic film...
, and Five Minutes to Love, a reworking of a Rue McClanahan
Rue McClanahan
Rue McClanahan was an American actress, best known for her roles on television as Vivian Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family, and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1987.-Early life:McClanahan was born Eddie Rue...
film.
Babb began creating promotion kits in an attempt to teach his craft to would-be presenters. Marketing himself as "MR. PIHSNAMWOHS" ("showmanship" backwards), he advertised in BoxOffice. He also dabbled in other areas, writing tirades against pay television and creating a pyramid scheme
Pyramid scheme
A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public...
titled "The Idea Factory." One of his schemes was the "Astounding Swedish Ice Cream Diet": overweight throughout his life, Babb claimed to have eaten ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
three times a day, yet to have lost one hundred pounds in forty-five days.
Personal life
Babb met Mildred HornMildred Horn
Mildred Horn was a film critic and screenwriter, best known for her work on the Kroger Babb exploitation film Mom and Dad.Horn was born in Erie, Pennsylvania and studied at Academy High School...
in 1944"Mildred Horn", Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
(URL accessed October 16, 2006). during a showing of Dust to Dust in Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, where she was working as a movie critic
Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
; her review of the film called it a "cheap, mislabeled morality play
Morality play
The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of...
," but the two struck up a conversation about it. They stayed together in a common-law marriage
Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, sometimes called sui juris marriage, informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute, is a form of interpersonal status that is legally recognized in limited jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage...
; Horn wrote a number of Babb's screenplays, including Mom and Dad, as well as companion books.
In November 1953, Babb was arrested on a drunk-driving charge after running a red traffic light
Traffic light
Traffic lights, which may also be known as stoplights, traffic lamps, traffic signals, signal lights, robots or semaphore, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings and other locations to control competing flows of traffic...
and refusing a sobriety test. His $250 bail was continued
Continuance
In American procedural law, a continuance is the postponement of a hearing, trial, or other scheduled court proceeding at the request of either or both parties in the dispute, or by the judge sua sponte. In response to delays in bringing cases to trial, some states have adopted "fast-track" rules...
, and he was not convicted, although this mishap to the recent creator of the anti-alcohol film One Too Many was widely covered in the press."Producer of Film One Too Many Denies Being Tipsy," Los Angeles Examiner, 30 November 1953; "TV Producer Arrested in Drunk Driving Case," Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1953; "Producer Arrested on Drunk Charge," Citizen News, November 30, 1953.
Babb had tax troubles in the years after his success with Mom and Dad. He suggested to the Press-Enterprise that his operation was so diffuse that sales of his one-dollar sex education pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
s were too difficult to track accurately. Babb eventually sold the rights to Mom and Dad and his stake in Modern Film Distributors to Erwin Joseph and Floyd Lewis — former partners in Modern Film who would continue to showcase Mom and Dad across the United States.Mildred A. Babb, letter in Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1986.
Babb suffered from various ailments toward the end of his life, including a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
. He retired in 1977, at 70,"Death: Kroger Babb," Hollywood Gazette, January 30, 1980. and died of heart failure (due to complications from diabetes) on January 29, 1980, in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
. He was survived by his wife, a son, and five grandchildren. Babb is buried in Centerville, Ohio. His gravestone reads, "His many trips around and all over the world began in Centerville and end here in Lees Creek."
Works
Babb worked in various areas of the entertainment industry, in both traditional and exploitation genres. He claimed to have made twenty films, and produced for television,"Better Read That TV Script a Leetle Closer, Mr. Babb," Mirror, November 30, 1953. radio,"Specialist", The New York Times, March 18, 1951. and even the stage.Copy of talk by Kroger Babb, introducing himself to Hollywood producers (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library). This is an incomplete collection of works owing to the nature of the exploitation genre. The titles are as they were finally presented by Babb, with earlier titles noted in parentheses."Kroger Babb," Internet Movie Database (URL accessed September 30, 2006)."Kroger Babb to Handle Kwaheri in 11 States," BoxOffice, April 26, 1965.As film producer
- Dust to DustChild BrideChild Bride, also known as Child Brides , is a 1938 film directed by Harry Revier. Set in a remote town in the Ozarks, it claims to be an attempt to draw attention to the lack of laws banning child marriage in many states...
(previously Child Bride) (1938) - Mom and DadMom and DadMom and Dad is a feature-length 1945 film directed by William Beaudine, and largely produced by the exploitation filmmaker and presenter Kroger Babb. Mom and Dad is considered the most successful film within its genre of "sex hygiene" films...
(previously A Family Story) (1945) - The Prince of PeaceThe Prince of PeaceThe Prince of Peace, also known as The Lawton Story, was a film that later made the exploitation rounds under the production of Kroger Babb. The film was based on a passion play created in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma. Filmed in Cinecolor, it was presented in various forms in the years following its...
(previously The Lawton Story) (1949) - One Too ManyOne Too ManyOne Too Many, also known as Killer With a Label, Mixed-Up Women, and The Important Story of Alcoholism, was an exploitation film produced by Kroger Babb in 1950...
(previously Mixed-Up Women, Killer With a Label, The Important Story of Alcoholism) (1950) - Why Men Leave HomeWhy Men Leave HomeWhy Men Leave Home is a 1924 silent film comedy-drama produced by Louis B. Mayer and released through First National Pictures, then known as Associated First National. It is based on a 1922 Broadway play by Avery Hopwood. The film was released in Germany in 1925 by UFA. John M. Stahl directed and...
(previously Secrets of Beauty) (1951) - Halfway to Hell (1954)
- Walk the WalkWalk the WalkWalk the Walk is a 1970 exploitation film produced by Kroger Babb. Released by Babb's Hallmark Productions company, it was written and directed by Jac Zacha and told the story of a young African-American man battling addiction to alcohol and heroin....
(1970)
As film distributor
- "She Shoulda Said 'No'!" (previously Marijuana, the Devil's Weed, The Devil's Weed, Wild Weed, The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket) (1949)
- Monika, the Story of a Bad GirlSummer with MonikaSummer with Monika is a 1953 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It sparked controversy abroad for its frank depiction of nudity, and along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it started the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated...
(original title Sommaren med Monika, later re-issued by others in full as Summer with Monika) (1949) - Delinquent Angels (1951)
- The Best is Yet to ComeThe Best Is Yet to Come (film)The Best is Yet to Come was a film distributed by exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb in 1951. Babb promoted the film as "all there is to know about cancer".-References:* New York Times: Specialist. 18 March 1951....
(1951) - Halfway to Hell (1954)
- KaramojaKaramoja (film)Karamoja was a 1954 film produced by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. A documentary of a native tribe from Uganda, the film was marketed by Babb to focus on the imagery that would be shocking to an American audience, including advertising which claimed that the tribe wore "only the wind and...
(1954) - Kipling's Women (1961)
- KwaheriKwaheriKwaheri, also known as Kwaheri: Vanishing Africa or Kwaheri: The Forbidden, is a 1964 mondo film directed by David Chudnow and Thor Brooks. The film was a pseudo-documentary about vanishing native tribes in Africa...
(1961) - Five Minutes to LoveFive Minutes to LoveFive Minutes to Love is a 1963 American drama film directed by John Hayes and starring Rue McClanahan as Poochie, a woman who lives in a junkyard...
(previously The Rotten Apple, It Only Takes Five Minutes) (1963) - Uncle Tom's CabinOnkel Toms HütteUncle Tom's Cabin is a 1965 German film directed by Géza von Radványi.-Cast:*John Kitzmiller ... Uncle Tom*Herbert Lom ... Simon Legree*Olive Moorefield ... Cassy*O.W. Fischer ... Saint-Claire*Catana Cayetano ... Eliza...
(1970) originally released in Europe in 1965 - Redheads vs. Blondes (undated)
Television
- The Ern Westmore Hollywood Glamour ShowThe Ern Westmore Hollywood Glamour ShowThe Ern Westmore Hollywood Glamour Show was a short-lived 1953 television show. Produced by Kroger Babb, the show was hosted by Hollywood make-up artist Ern Westmore, who would explain various beauty tips to viewers as well as give makeovers to a member of the studio audience, who would then be...
Howard W. "Kroger" Babb (December 30, 1906 – January 28, 1980) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
and television
Television in the United States
Television is one of the major mass media of the United States. Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one...
producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and showman
Showman
Showman can have a variety of meanings, usually by context and depending on the country.- Australia :Travelling showmen are people who run amusement and side show equipment at regional shows, state capital shows, events and festivals throughout Australia...
. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine-show
Medicine show
Medicine shows were traveling horse and wagon teams which peddled "miracle cure" medications and other products between various entertainment acts. Their precise origins unknown, medicine shows were common in the 19th century United States...
tradition. Self-described as "America's Fearless Young Showman,"Eric Schaefer
Eric Schaefer
Eric Schaefer, Ph.D., is a professor and film historian. He is an associate professor at Emerson College and interim chair of the visual and media arts department. He has a B.A. from Webster University, and an M.A. and Ph.D...
, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!: A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999; ISBN 0-8223-2374-5). he is best known for his presentation of the 1945 exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad is a feature-length 1945 film directed by William Beaudine, and largely produced by the exploitation filmmaker and presenter Kroger Babb. Mom and Dad is considered the most successful film within its genre of "sex hygiene" films...
, which was added to the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in 2005.
Babb was involved in the production and marketing of many films and television shows, promoting each according to his favorite marketing motto
Motto
A motto is a phrase meant to formally summarize the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used. The local language is usual in the mottoes of governments...
: "You gotta tell 'em to sell 'em."David F. Friedman, A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1990; ISBN 0-87975-608-X). His films ranged from sex education–style dramas to "documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
" on foreign cultures, intended to titillate audiences rather than to educate them, maximizing profits via marketing gimmicks.
Youth
Babb was born in 1906 in Lees CreekLees Creek, Ohio
Lees Creek, also known as Centerville, is an unincorporated community in central Wayne Township, Clinton County, Ohio, United States. It lies at the intersection of State Route 729 with Cox Road, 6 miles south of Sabina and 12 miles southeast of Wilmington, the county seat of Clinton County...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, USAKenneth Turan, "Kroger Babb: Superhuckster", Los Angeles Times; reprinted in The Washington Post, November 11, 1977, p.23. (near Wilmington
Wilmington, Ohio
Wilmington is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 12,520 at the 2010 census. At city entrances from state routes, county roads, and U.S. highways, the city slogan of "We Honor Our Champions" is seen, accompanied by signs that highlight various...
). He earned the nickname "Kroger" either from his childhood job at the grocer of the same name
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
Joe Bob Briggs
Joe Bob Briggs
John Irving Bloom , who uses the pseudonym Joe Bob Briggs, is a syndicated American film critic, writer and comic performer.-Early years:...
, Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History! (New York: Universe Publishing, 2003; ISBN 0-7893-0844-4). or from his father's preference for B. H. Kroger coffee. Babb held a number of jobs during his youth, gaining a mention in Ripley's Believe It Or Not for referee
Referee
A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...
ing a record number of youth sports games. He started out with jobs in sportswriting
Sports journalism
Sports journalism is a form of journalism that reports on sports topics and events.While the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports...
and reporting at a local newspaper in his 20s, and even showed signs of his later work while showcasing "Digger" O'Dell, the "living corpse," but first achieved success after his promotion to publicity manager for the Chakeres-Warners movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
s, where he would create different kinds of stunts to lure audiences – for example, giving two bags of groceries to ticket holders in the theaters. These experiences led him to the exploitation film business.
In the early 1940s, Babb joined Cox and Underwood
Cox and Underwood
Cox and Underwood was the name of an exploitation film travelling road show and production company from the 1930s run by Howard Russell Cox and Howard Underwood...
, a company that obtained the rights to poorly shot or unmarketable films of material that was potentially controversial or shocking. It would often remove entire sections of these films and add material such as medical reel
Medical education
Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, either the initial training to become a doctor or additional training thereafter ....
s that lent itself to sensational promotion. Babb went on the road with a Cox and Underwood concoction titled Dust to Dust, a reworking of High School Girl with a childbirth
Childbirth
Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
scene added to the end. Its profits allowed Cox and Underwood to retire from the business, leaving Babb to start his own company, Hygienic Productions
Hygienic Productions
Hygienic Productions was a film production company based out of Wilmington, Ohio. Formed by exploitation film producer Kroger Babb, the company was in charge of promotion and production for a number of Babb's films, including the infamous Mom and Dad....
. He opened it near his childhood home in Wilmington, Ohio, and hired booking agents and advance salesmen along with out-of-work actors and comedians to present repackaged films and new features.
Film promotion
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
s, a term many in the business would embrace. According to The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, his success came from picking topics that would be easily sensationalized, such as religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and sex. His expenses were estimated at 5% for selling, and his distribution overhead near 7%, resulting in some of the largest per-dollar returns in the film industry.Hollywood Reporter, August 20, 1951.
Babb's biggest success was Mom and Dad, which he conceived and produced and which William Beaudine
William Beaudine
William Beaudine was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres.-Early life and career:...
directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
in six days. Babb headed the promotion of this film following its premiere in early 1945
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
, often going on the road with it himself. The film, a morality tale about a young girl who becomes pregnant and struggles to find someone to turn to, cost $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
62,000 and was presented via over 300 prints,National Film Registry 2005 Press Release, Library of Congress (URL accessed August 27, 2006). and the presenter would stir up his own controversy in the weeks preceding the film's arrival by writing protest letters to local churches and newspapers and fabricating letters from the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
s of nearby cities about young women encouraged by it to discuss similar predicaments.
The third highest grossing film of its decade, Mom and Dad was claimed by Babb to have made $63,000 for every $1,000 the original investors contributed,Kroger Babb obituary, Variety, January 30, 1980. and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
estimated that it grossed anywhere between $40 million and $100 million. Its success spawned a number of imitations, such as Street Corner
Street Corner (1948 film)
Street Corner is an exploitation film directed by Albert H. Kelley, and featuring Johnny Duncan, Eddie Gribbon, Marcia Mae Jones, and Milton Ross..-Plot:...
and The Story of Bob and Sally, that eventually flooded the market, but it was still being shown around the world decades later* Dennis McDougal, "Filmmaker Babb let promotion offset low budgets." The Press-Enterprise, (Riverside, CA), unknown date. and ultimately was added to the National Film Registry in 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
.
- Acknowledging that his films were unknown quantities, Babb advocated a "100% saturation campaign." In his sample situation — The Deadwood Theater in Movie-hater, Missouri, with a potential audience base of twenty-four thousand — Babb suggested sending tabloid heralds to all seven thousand homes in the area at a cost of $196, spending $65 for newspaper ads, $50 on radio, plus an additional $65 for three hundred window cards, hand-out teaser cards, pennants, and posters. The total came to almost $400, or the same amount the theater owner would normally spend on advertising in the course of an entire month. Babb always claimed that with his formula the profit would outweigh the investment...
The film became so ubiquitous that Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
said its presentation "left only the livestock unaware of the chance to learn the facts of life." Babb also made sure that each showing of the film followed a similar format: adults-only screenings segregated by gender, and live lectures by "Fearless Hygiene Commentator Elliot Forbes" during an intermission. At any one time, hundreds of Elliot Forbeses would be giving a lecture at the same time in a variety of locations. (In some predominantly African-American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
areas, Olympic
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
ist Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the...
appeared instead, a trend he'd continue with films like "She Shoulda Said 'No'!"Mike Quarles, Down and Dirty: Hollywood's Exploitation Filmmakers and Their Movies (Jefferson, North Carolina
Jefferson, North Carolina
Jefferson is a town in Ashe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,422 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Ashe County.-History:...
, McFarland
McFarland & Company
McFarland & Company, Inc. is a book publisher of primarily academic and adult nonfiction based in Jefferson, North Carolina. Its president and editor-in-chief is Robert Franklin, who began the enterprise in 1979...
, 2001; ISBN 0-7864-1142-2). p56.) According to entertainer Card Mondor
Card Mondor
Card Mondor was an Australian magician and stage performer. A one time assistant for the Great Virgil , he gained fame as a performer in the United States, most notably for entertaining troops during World War II. He was featured on the cover of Genii in April 1947...
, an Elliot Forbes in the 1940s who later purchased the Australian and New Zealand rights for Mom and Dad, the Forbeses were "mostly local men (from Wilmington, Ohio) who were trained to give the lecture...[I]t was a cross-section of the male population, mostly clean-cut young guys. ...The whole concept would have never worked with a trashy look."Card Mondor, letter to Michael Zengel, February 5, 1994 (available from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives).
During the intermission and after the showing, books relevant to the subject of the film were sold. Mom and Dad
Modern Film Distributors
Modern Film Distributors was the name of a film distribution organization cartel formed by filmmakers in the 1940s. Following the success of the exploitation film Mom and Dad, the four leading presenters of the time agreed to work together to book each others' films in...
sold over forty-five thousand copies of Man and Boy and Woman and Girl, written by Babb's wife, netting an estimated $31,000. According to Babb, these cost about eight cents
Cent (currency)
In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word "centum" meaning hundred. Cent also refers to a coin which is worth one cent....
to produce, and were sold for $1 apiece. While Modern Film was able to sell forty-five thousand on its own, Babb estimates sales of 40 million, citing "IRS
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
figures." This sort of companion selling would become common practice for Babb: with the religious film The Prince of Peace, he would sell Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
s and other spiritual literature; and with his fidelity film Why Men Leave Home, books featuring beauty tips.
With other films, Babb would try different approaches. For "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", an anti-marijuana film of the 1950s, he highlighted the sexual scenes and arranged "one-time-only" midnight showings, claiming that his company was working with the United States Treasury Department
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
to release the film "in as many towns and cities as possible in the shortest possible length of time" as a public service. David F. Friedman
David F. Friedman
David Frank Friedman was an American filmmaker and film producer.-Life and career:Friedman first became interested in entertainment after spending part of his childhood in Birmingham and Anniston, Alabama, traveling carnival sites. He met exploitation film pioneer Kroger Babb during his stay in...
, another successful exploitation filmmaker of the era, has attributed the "one-time-only" distribution to a quality so low that Babb wanted to cash in and move to his next stop as fast as possible. At each showing of a film, a singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" was also required.John Windsor, "Shot in glorious sexploitation." The Guardian, September 11, 2005. URL accessed January 11, 2006.
As well as being at the forefront of the battles over censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and the motion picture censorship system
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
, the exploitation genre faced numerous challenges during the 1940s and 1950s. It was estimated that Babb was sued
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
over 400 times just for Mom and Dad (Babb himself claimed 428). He would often use the supposed educational value of the films as a defense, also recommending it to theater owners; in his pressbook
Pressbook
In cinema a pressbook may be a piece of promotional material created and distributed by film producers in order to market their films. Prior to 1980, most film companies did their own promotion, and the pressbooks would be given to exhibitors....
for Karamoja
Karamoja (film)
Karamoja was a 1954 film produced by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. A documentary of a native tribe from Uganda, the film was marketed by Babb to focus on the imagery that would be shocking to an American audience, including advertising which claimed that the tribe wore "only the wind and...
, he wrote, "When a stupid jerk tries to outsmart proven facts, he should be in an asylum, not a theater."
Despite the criticism that Babb drew for Mom and Dad, in 1951 he received the first annual Sid Grauman
Sid Grauman
Sidney Patrick Grauman was an American showman who created one of Southern California's most recognizable and visited landmarks, Grauman's Chinese Theater. He was the son of David Grauman who died in 1921 in Los Angeles, California and Rosa Goldsmith...
Showmanship Award, presented by the Hollywood Rotary Club
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
in honor of his accomplishments over the years."Kroger Babb to Get Showmanship Award," The Hollywood Reporter, January 31, 1951.
Later films
Following the success of Mom and Dad, Babb renamed his company Hallmark Productions, continuing the marketing approaches of Hygienic Productions while going beyond health and sex education films. He would later set up a larger distribution company, named Hallmark's Big-6."Babb, 5 Others Form New Indie Distribution Outfit," Variety, 23 May issue, year unknown (c. 1960).Babb cheaply acquired the rights to what would become "She Shoulda Said No!
She Shoulda Said No!
"She Shoulda Said 'No'!" is a 1949 exploitation film that follows in the spirit of morality tales such as the 1936 films Reefer Madness and Marihuana...
" shortly after Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
and Lila Leeds
Lila Leeds
-Early life and career:Born Lila Lee Wilkinson in Iola, Kansas, Leeds ran away from home as a teen. She worked as a dancer in St. Louis before moving to Los Angeles. While working as a hatcheck girl at Ciro's, she met and married actor, composer, singer and conductor Jack Little. The marriage was...
were arrested for marijuana use. Its original producer had struggled to get it distributed as Wild Weed, and Babb quickly presented it as The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket, hoping that the title would draw audiences. When it failed to stir up much interest, Babb instead focused on the one scene of female nudity, using a photo of Leeds in a showgirl
Showgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
outfit, and retitled it "She Shoulda Said 'No'!", with tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
s such as "How Bad Can a Good Girl Get...without losing her virtue or respect???" According to Friedman, Babb's midnight presentation of the film twice a week made more money than any other film at the same theater would earn over a full run; Friedman proceeded to use the film in his own roadshow double features.
Babb's associates agreed with his belief that "Nothing's hopeless if it's advertised right", stating that he "could take any piece of junk and sell it." One film Babb presented in the 1950s was a passion play
Passion play
A Passion play is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition....
and the story behind putting it on, filmed in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma
Lawton, Oklahoma
The city of Lawton is the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in the southwestern region of Oklahoma approximately southwest of Oklahoma City, it is the principal city of the Lawton Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. Initially called The Lawton Story and filmed in Cinecolor
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...
, the quality of the film was considered so poor that telephone poles could be seen behind the crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
and upon release, it was described as "the only film that had to be dubbed from English to English." He recut and redubbed
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
this, retitling it as The Prince of Peace; it was so successful that the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
called it "the Miracle of Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
."
Another film, Karamoja
Karamoja (film)
Karamoja was a 1954 film produced by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. A documentary of a native tribe from Uganda, the film was marketed by Babb to focus on the imagery that would be shocking to an American audience, including advertising which claimed that the tribe wore "only the wind and...
, was marketed as a shocking portrayal of a tribe from Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
who wore "only the wind and live[d] on blood and beer." Scenes included "the bleeding of cattle and drinking of the warm blood, and self-mutilation as a form of ornamentation," as well as a full-color circumcision
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
scene. Karamoja proved less controversial than many of Babb's other films and grossed less.
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
features in an attempt to make more money. One notorious attempt was his acquisition of the American theatrical rights for Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's Sommaren med Monika (Summer with Monika
Summer with Monika
Summer with Monika is a 1953 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It sparked controversy abroad for its frank depiction of nudity, and along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it started the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated...
). About one third of the film was cut, and the remaining sixty-two minutes emphasized nudity by retaining a skinny-dipping
Skinny dipping
Nude swimming, colloquially called skinny dipping, is a term used to describe swimming naked.-Etymology:The term skinny dip, first recorded in English in the 1950s, includes the somewhat archaic word skinny, known since 1573, meaning "having to do with skin", as it exposed the naked...
scene; the result was titled Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl. Suggestive advertising art, including promotional postcards, portrayed the nude rear of Harriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson is a Swedish actress, known outside Sweden for being part of one of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company....
.
Babb's final film was his presentation of a European version of Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
's book Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
. This was described by Friedman as one of the most "unintentionally funny exploitation films ever made," filled with "second rate Italian actors who could barely speak English."
Other ventures
After the success of Mom and Dad, Babb talked of an "unrealized" project called Father Bingo, which he advertised in BoxOfficeBoxoffice (magazine)
Boxoffice is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by Boxoffice Media LP. It started in 1920 as The Reel Journal, taking its current name in 1931 and still publishes today, with an intended audience of theatre owners and film professionals.Boxoffice is the...
magazine as "An Expose of Gambling in the Parish Halls" and described as a comedy with an anti-gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
message about a corrupt priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
who runs a "controlled" bingo night at his parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
. Babb called it "the best 'snow-job' of my life," and it has been speculated that he never intended to make it, despite the trade ads that appeared for years.
Babb was involved with many film production companies along with his own, including Southwestern Productions.Virginia Kelley. Leading With My Heart. Simon & Schuster, 1984. On the strength of his past successes, Babb joined John Miller's film production company, Miller-Consolidated Pictures
Miller-Consolidated Pictures
Miller-Consolidated Pictures was a film production company. Formed by John Miller in 1959, the company specialized in low-budget films. The company also had many known names on its board, including exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb, who was in charge of marketing.-Selected filmography:*...
, as vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
and general manager
General manager
General manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, most commonly in the hospitality industry.-Generic usage:...
in 1959. Babb advocated the use of the hard-selling
Soft sell
In advertising, a soft sell is an advertisement or campaign that uses a more subtle, casual, or friendly sales message. This approach works in opposition to a hard sell....
technique he had perfected as a presenter: "selling the sizzle instead of the steak", according to an interview."$1 million Movie I.Q. Contest Tops MCP Exploitation Plan," BoxOffice, November 9, 1959, pp.28–29, 180. He wrote a column for BoxOffice at the same time. His personal anecdotes provided advice for selling films, such as writing off expenses as tax deduction
Tax deduction
Income tax systems generally allow a tax deduction, i.e., a reduction of the income subject to tax, for various items, especially expenses incurred to produce income. Often these deductions are subject to limitations or conditions...
s, and using women's clubs to expand advertising and revenues cheaply. He noted that there were "over 30,000 women's clubs," and that "practically every women's club has a 16mm
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
projector
Movie projector
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
."
In 1963, Babb formed another distribution company, Studio 10,001
Studio 10,001 Inc.
Studio 10,001 was an international film studio formed in 1963 by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. With a headquarters in Beverly Hills, California, it had a presence in the United States, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia and presented such films as Kipling's Women and the Rue McClanahan film...
. Operating in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
(and claiming representation in Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand"Kroger Babb Forms New Distributing Co," BoxOffice, July 24, 1963.), it used similar roadshow techniques to market television programs such as The Ern Westmore Show
Ern Westmore
Ern Westmore , born Ernest Henry Westmore, was a Hollywood make-up artist and sometimes actor, the third child in Frank Westmore's famed Westmore family tree...
.Variety and Daily Variety Television Reviews, vol. 18, 1993–1994 (New York: Garland, 1996; ISBN 0-8240-3797-9). Babb also acted as a showman for hire, promoting others' films when not working on his own. Among them was a nudie-cutie picture titled Kipling's Women, a peep show
Peep show
A peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures, objects or people viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. Though historically a peep show was a form of entertainment provided by wandering showmen, nowadays it more commonly refers a presentation of a sex show or pornographic film...
, and Five Minutes to Love, a reworking of a Rue McClanahan
Rue McClanahan
Rue McClanahan was an American actress, best known for her roles on television as Vivian Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family, and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1987.-Early life:McClanahan was born Eddie Rue...
film.
Babb began creating promotion kits in an attempt to teach his craft to would-be presenters. Marketing himself as "MR. PIHSNAMWOHS" ("showmanship" backwards), he advertised in BoxOffice. He also dabbled in other areas, writing tirades against pay television and creating a pyramid scheme
Pyramid scheme
A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public...
titled "The Idea Factory." One of his schemes was the "Astounding Swedish Ice Cream Diet": overweight throughout his life, Babb claimed to have eaten ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
three times a day, yet to have lost one hundred pounds in forty-five days.
Personal life
Babb met Mildred HornMildred Horn
Mildred Horn was a film critic and screenwriter, best known for her work on the Kroger Babb exploitation film Mom and Dad.Horn was born in Erie, Pennsylvania and studied at Academy High School...
in 1944"Mildred Horn", Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
(URL accessed October 16, 2006). during a showing of Dust to Dust in Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, where she was working as a movie critic
Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
; her review of the film called it a "cheap, mislabeled morality play
Morality play
The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of...
," but the two struck up a conversation about it. They stayed together in a common-law marriage
Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, sometimes called sui juris marriage, informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute, is a form of interpersonal status that is legally recognized in limited jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage...
; Horn wrote a number of Babb's screenplays, including Mom and Dad, as well as companion books.
In November 1953, Babb was arrested on a drunk-driving charge after running a red traffic light
Traffic light
Traffic lights, which may also be known as stoplights, traffic lamps, traffic signals, signal lights, robots or semaphore, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings and other locations to control competing flows of traffic...
and refusing a sobriety test. His $250 bail was continued
Continuance
In American procedural law, a continuance is the postponement of a hearing, trial, or other scheduled court proceeding at the request of either or both parties in the dispute, or by the judge sua sponte. In response to delays in bringing cases to trial, some states have adopted "fast-track" rules...
, and he was not convicted, although this mishap to the recent creator of the anti-alcohol film One Too Many was widely covered in the press."Producer of Film One Too Many Denies Being Tipsy," Los Angeles Examiner, 30 November 1953; "TV Producer Arrested in Drunk Driving Case," Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1953; "Producer Arrested on Drunk Charge," Citizen News, November 30, 1953.
Babb had tax troubles in the years after his success with Mom and Dad. He suggested to the Press-Enterprise that his operation was so diffuse that sales of his one-dollar sex education pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
s were too difficult to track accurately. Babb eventually sold the rights to Mom and Dad and his stake in Modern Film Distributors to Erwin Joseph and Floyd Lewis — former partners in Modern Film who would continue to showcase Mom and Dad across the United States.Mildred A. Babb, letter in Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1986.
Babb suffered from various ailments toward the end of his life, including a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
. He retired in 1977, at 70,"Death: Kroger Babb," Hollywood Gazette, January 30, 1980. and died of heart failure (due to complications from diabetes) on January 29, 1980, in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
. He was survived by his wife, a son, and five grandchildren. Babb is buried in Centerville, Ohio. His gravestone reads, "His many trips around and all over the world began in Centerville and end here in Lees Creek."
Works
Babb worked in various areas of the entertainment industry, in both traditional and exploitation genres. He claimed to have made twenty films, and produced for television,"Better Read That TV Script a Leetle Closer, Mr. Babb," Mirror, November 30, 1953. radio,"Specialist", The New York Times, March 18, 1951. and even the stage.Copy of talk by Kroger Babb, introducing himself to Hollywood producers (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library). This is an incomplete collection of works owing to the nature of the exploitation genre. The titles are as they were finally presented by Babb, with earlier titles noted in parentheses."Kroger Babb," Internet Movie Database (URL accessed September 30, 2006)."Kroger Babb to Handle Kwaheri in 11 States," BoxOffice, April 26, 1965.As film producer
- Dust to DustChild BrideChild Bride, also known as Child Brides , is a 1938 film directed by Harry Revier. Set in a remote town in the Ozarks, it claims to be an attempt to draw attention to the lack of laws banning child marriage in many states...
(previously Child Bride) (1938) - Mom and DadMom and DadMom and Dad is a feature-length 1945 film directed by William Beaudine, and largely produced by the exploitation filmmaker and presenter Kroger Babb. Mom and Dad is considered the most successful film within its genre of "sex hygiene" films...
(previously A Family Story) (1945) - The Prince of PeaceThe Prince of PeaceThe Prince of Peace, also known as The Lawton Story, was a film that later made the exploitation rounds under the production of Kroger Babb. The film was based on a passion play created in 1948 in Lawton, Oklahoma. Filmed in Cinecolor, it was presented in various forms in the years following its...
(previously The Lawton Story) (1949) - One Too ManyOne Too ManyOne Too Many, also known as Killer With a Label, Mixed-Up Women, and The Important Story of Alcoholism, was an exploitation film produced by Kroger Babb in 1950...
(previously Mixed-Up Women, Killer With a Label, The Important Story of Alcoholism) (1950) - Why Men Leave HomeWhy Men Leave HomeWhy Men Leave Home is a 1924 silent film comedy-drama produced by Louis B. Mayer and released through First National Pictures, then known as Associated First National. It is based on a 1922 Broadway play by Avery Hopwood. The film was released in Germany in 1925 by UFA. John M. Stahl directed and...
(previously Secrets of Beauty) (1951) - Halfway to Hell (1954)
- Walk the WalkWalk the WalkWalk the Walk is a 1970 exploitation film produced by Kroger Babb. Released by Babb's Hallmark Productions company, it was written and directed by Jac Zacha and told the story of a young African-American man battling addiction to alcohol and heroin....
(1970)
As film distributor
- "She Shoulda Said 'No'!" (previously Marijuana, the Devil's Weed, The Devil's Weed, Wild Weed, The Story of Lila Leeds and Her Exposé of the Marijuana Racket) (1949)
- Monika, the Story of a Bad GirlSummer with MonikaSummer with Monika is a 1953 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It sparked controversy abroad for its frank depiction of nudity, and along with the film One Summer of Happiness from the year before, directed by Arne Mattsson, it started the reputation of Sweden as a sexually liberated...
(original title Sommaren med Monika, later re-issued by others in full as Summer with Monika) (1949) - Delinquent Angels (1951)
- The Best is Yet to ComeThe Best Is Yet to Come (film)The Best is Yet to Come was a film distributed by exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb in 1951. Babb promoted the film as "all there is to know about cancer".-References:* New York Times: Specialist. 18 March 1951....
(1951) - Halfway to Hell (1954)
- KaramojaKaramoja (film)Karamoja was a 1954 film produced by exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb. A documentary of a native tribe from Uganda, the film was marketed by Babb to focus on the imagery that would be shocking to an American audience, including advertising which claimed that the tribe wore "only the wind and...
(1954) - Kipling's Women (1961)
- KwaheriKwaheriKwaheri, also known as Kwaheri: Vanishing Africa or Kwaheri: The Forbidden, is a 1964 mondo film directed by David Chudnow and Thor Brooks. The film was a pseudo-documentary about vanishing native tribes in Africa...
(1961) - Five Minutes to LoveFive Minutes to LoveFive Minutes to Love is a 1963 American drama film directed by John Hayes and starring Rue McClanahan as Poochie, a woman who lives in a junkyard...
(previously The Rotten Apple, It Only Takes Five Minutes) (1963) - Uncle Tom's CabinOnkel Toms HütteUncle Tom's Cabin is a 1965 German film directed by Géza von Radványi.-Cast:*John Kitzmiller ... Uncle Tom*Herbert Lom ... Simon Legree*Olive Moorefield ... Cassy*O.W. Fischer ... Saint-Claire*Catana Cayetano ... Eliza...
(1970) originally released in Europe in 1965 - Redheads vs. Blondes (undated)
Television
- The Ern Westmore Hollywood Glamour ShowThe Ern Westmore Hollywood Glamour ShowThe Ern Westmore Hollywood Glamour Show was a short-lived 1953 television show. Produced by Kroger Babb, the show was hosted by Hollywood make-up artist Ern Westmore, who would explain various beauty tips to viewers as well as give makeovers to a member of the studio audience, who would then be...
Frank Westmore and Muriel Davidson. The Westmores of Hollywood. J. B. Lippincott, New York City, 1976., producer (1953) - Your Show of ShowsYour Show of ShowsYour Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that appeared weekly in the United States on NBC , from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca....
, producer (1963)
External links
- Briggs, Joe Bob. "Kroger Babb's Roadshow." ReasonReason (magazine)Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
, November 2003.