TLA Entertainment Group
Encyclopedia
TLA Entertainment Group is a privately held corporation based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. It was founded in 1981.
Originally formed to operate a repertory movie theater, the company has expanded to catalogs, retail stores and licensing businesses. The catalog began as an adult mail order business and grew to include gay and lesbian non-adult films and is now supplemented by the website TLAvideo.com.
. Now a concert venue, it was originally founded as an experimental theater group in the 1960s under the direction of Andre Gregory
(of My Dinner with Andre fame).
The group included Danny DeVito
, Judd Hirsch
, Sally Kirkland
and Ron Leibman
who performed exclusively in the Theater of the Living Arts
on South Street
in Philadelphia.
By the mid- to late-60s, funding for the Theater was running out and the theater was converted to a movie house showing an eclectic mix of classic and foreign films.
In 1981, the founding partners of TLA Entertainment Group met and subsequently ran the theater. For the next six years the TLA was a leading repertory art movie theater. In addition, for four of those six years, the partners ran a small, first-run art house, the Roxy Screening Room, also located in Center City Philadelphia.
and today, there are three TLA Video locations in or near Philadelphia: one in Bryn Mawr
, one in Chestnut Hill
, and one in Rittenhouse Square
. TLA's oldest store, on South Street in Society Hill
, closed on October 19, 2009.
TLA Video stores are known locally for their knowledgeable staff and varied selection of obscure, independent, foreign, and adult films in addition to mainstream titles. The most obscure titles are arranged by genre, actor, director, and country to provide the personalized feel of a neighborhood store as opposed to the more sterile environments found in larger nationwide chains.
A few of the store policies include encouraging customers to put advance reserves on titles that are either out of stock or pending release to ensure that the store will have what the customer wants when they come in and DVD trade-ins for store credit. They maintain a varied stock of VHS
tapes, DVD
, and Blu-ray discs to cover titles that may not have been released in other formats.
TLA maintains a relationship with The Criterion Collection
that sees them stocking many Criterion titles for both rental and purchase. The retail section is, for the most part, as varied as the rental section, and the staff also encourages customers to special order titles from the distributor.
The chain also regularly features monthly sale and rental specials throughout the year in addition to a permanent 3-for-2 rental special that applies to everything in the store. Cash, credit, debit, and check are accepted forms of payment, and rentals can be put on an account balance to be paid at a later date. In addition to standard cash rentals, the store also offers blocks of rentals (referred to as 'punches') and 'sub-plans' that allow customers to rent as many movies as they want over a period of a month without late fees, as long as they have only two or three films out at a time, depending on the type of plan purchased. Similar plans also exist specifically for video games.
TLA keeps an unusual schedule of 10 a.m. to midnight 365 days a year, depending on the store.
. The 12-day festival is the third largest gay–lesbian film festival in the country.
In 2001, TLA Entertainment Group assumed management of the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, now called The Philadelphia Film Festival
. The two-week festival shows over 100 feature films from around the world. In order to better fund these events, in August 2001 TLA Entertainment Group spun them off and created the non-profit Philadelphia Film Society. In 2002, with a larger staff and more venues, the Philadelphia Film Festival had over 45,000 attendees, up from 17,000 in 2000.
is the licensing division of TLA Entertainment. It is focused on the acquisition of distribution rights of international, independent, and gay and lesbian films to theaters and on DVD/VHS. TLA Releasing currently releases two films a month for the home entertainment market and has several films playing in theaters. The catalog of films is available online.
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. It was founded in 1981.
Originally formed to operate a repertory movie theater, the company has expanded to catalogs, retail stores and licensing businesses. The catalog began as an adult mail order business and grew to include gay and lesbian non-adult films and is now supplemented by the website TLAvideo.com.
History
TLA stands for Theater of the Living ArtsTheater of the Living Arts
The TLA, also known as The Fillmore at the Theatre of Living Arts or Theater of Living Arts, is a music venue located at 334 South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a venue converted from an old single-screen movie theater. It has a capacity of 1000 and is used for smaller concerts...
. Now a concert venue, it was originally founded as an experimental theater group in the 1960s under the direction of Andre Gregory
Andre Gregory
Andre William Gregory is an American theatre director, writer and actor.Gregory studied at Harvard University.During the 1960s and 1970s, Gregory directed a number of avant-garde productions developed through ensemble collaboration, the most famous of which was Alice In Wonderland , based on Lewis...
(of My Dinner with Andre fame).
The group included Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...
, Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...
, Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Kirkland was named after her mother, fashion editor Sally Kirkland, who was a fashion editor at Vogue and LIFE magazines, and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Frederic McMichael Kirkland, worked in the scrap...
and Ron Leibman
Ron Leibman
-Career:Leibman was a member of the Compass Players in the late 1950s. He has appeared in many films such as Phar Lap; Where's Poppa?; The Hot Rock; Slaughterhouse-Five; The Super Cops; Up the Academy; Norma Rae; Romantic Comedy; Zorro, The Gay Blade; Garden State; and Rhinestone...
who performed exclusively in the Theater of the Living Arts
Theater of the Living Arts
The TLA, also known as The Fillmore at the Theatre of Living Arts or Theater of Living Arts, is a music venue located at 334 South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a venue converted from an old single-screen movie theater. It has a capacity of 1000 and is used for smaller concerts...
on South Street
South Street
South Street may refer to one of the following:*South Street Seaport, a shopping complex overlooking the East River in Manhattan Island.*South Street , United States of America*South Street , United States of America...
in Philadelphia.
By the mid- to late-60s, funding for the Theater was running out and the theater was converted to a movie house showing an eclectic mix of classic and foreign films.
In 1981, the founding partners of TLA Entertainment Group met and subsequently ran the theater. For the next six years the TLA was a leading repertory art movie theater. In addition, for four of those six years, the partners ran a small, first-run art house, the Roxy Screening Room, also located in Center City Philadelphia.
Video stores
In 1985, the first video store was opened next door to Theater of the Living ArtsTheater of the Living Arts
The TLA, also known as The Fillmore at the Theatre of Living Arts or Theater of Living Arts, is a music venue located at 334 South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a venue converted from an old single-screen movie theater. It has a capacity of 1000 and is used for smaller concerts...
and today, there are three TLA Video locations in or near Philadelphia: one in Bryn Mawr
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Bryn Mawr from Welsh for "big hill") is a census-designated place in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia along Lancaster Avenue and the border with Delaware County...
, one in Chestnut Hill
Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Chestnut Hill is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Boundaries:Chestnut Hill is bounded as follows:...
, and one in Rittenhouse Square
Rittenhouse Square
Rittenhouse Square is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme during the late 17th century in central Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The park cuts off 19th Street at Walnut Street and also at a half block above Manning Street. Its boundaries are...
. TLA's oldest store, on South Street in Society Hill
Society Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Society Hill is a neighborhood in the Center City section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The neighborhood, loosely defined as bounded by Walnut, Lombard, Front and 7th Streets, contains the largest concentration of original 18th- and early 19th-century architecture of any place in...
, closed on October 19, 2009.
TLA Video stores are known locally for their knowledgeable staff and varied selection of obscure, independent, foreign, and adult films in addition to mainstream titles. The most obscure titles are arranged by genre, actor, director, and country to provide the personalized feel of a neighborhood store as opposed to the more sterile environments found in larger nationwide chains.
A few of the store policies include encouraging customers to put advance reserves on titles that are either out of stock or pending release to ensure that the store will have what the customer wants when they come in and DVD trade-ins for store credit. They maintain a varied stock of VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
tapes, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, and Blu-ray discs to cover titles that may not have been released in other formats.
TLA maintains a relationship with The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
that sees them stocking many Criterion titles for both rental and purchase. The retail section is, for the most part, as varied as the rental section, and the staff also encourages customers to special order titles from the distributor.
The chain also regularly features monthly sale and rental specials throughout the year in addition to a permanent 3-for-2 rental special that applies to everything in the store. Cash, credit, debit, and check are accepted forms of payment, and rentals can be put on an account balance to be paid at a later date. In addition to standard cash rentals, the store also offers blocks of rentals (referred to as 'punches') and 'sub-plans' that allow customers to rent as many movies as they want over a period of a month without late fees, as long as they have only two or three films out at a time, depending on the type of plan purchased. Similar plans also exist specifically for video games.
TLA keeps an unusual schedule of 10 a.m. to midnight 365 days a year, depending on the store.
TLAvideo.com
TLA Entertainment Group launched TLAvideo.com in 1997. This is one of the largest video websites in the US, and one of the world's leading retailers of Gay & Lesbian films. It also offers American Independent, International, Hollywood Hits and Adult DVDs. It also offers gay and lesbian books on TLAbooks.com.Film festivals
In 1994, TLA Entertainment Group President Raymond Murray decided to begin the Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film FestivalPhiladelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
The Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by TLA Entertainment Group in 1995. The event is the third largest of its kind in the US, and the largest on the East Coast....
. The 12-day festival is the third largest gay–lesbian film festival in the country.
In 2001, TLA Entertainment Group assumed management of the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, now called The Philadelphia Film Festival
Philadelphia Film Festival
The Philadelphia Film Festival is held annually in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Until 2009 it was generally held during the first weeks of April....
. The two-week festival shows over 100 feature films from around the world. In order to better fund these events, in August 2001 TLA Entertainment Group spun them off and created the non-profit Philadelphia Film Society. In 2002, with a larger staff and more venues, the Philadelphia Film Festival had over 45,000 attendees, up from 17,000 in 2000.
Film distribution
TLA ReleasingTLA Releasing
TLA Releasing is a US film distribution company owned by TLA Entertainment Group. In March 2011, a new LLC was formed for the operation. Its primary output is LGBT-related films from all over the world under the "TLA Releasing" label, as well as horror films under the label "Danger After Dark"...
is the licensing division of TLA Entertainment. It is focused on the acquisition of distribution rights of international, independent, and gay and lesbian films to theaters and on DVD/VHS. TLA Releasing currently releases two films a month for the home entertainment market and has several films playing in theaters. The catalog of films is available online.