Louis Weiss - Biography

Louis Weiss (born December 21, 1890; died December 14, 1963, Los Angeles (age 72)) was a low budget independent producer of the Frank Buck serial Jungle Menace (1937).

Early Films

The brothers Max, Louis, and Adolph Weiss entered film production in the early 1920s with money earned from a New York lamp-and-fixture store, phonograph sales, and ownership of a theater that developed into a small chain. Operating under such monikers as Superior Talking Films, Stage and Screen Productions, Artcraft Productions, Exploitation Pictures, Consolidated Pictures, and International Pictures Corporation, the brothers produced a variety of low budget films. Most were never reviewed or copyrighted, apparently deliberately avoiding press attention. The only record of their existence is found in an occasional release chart, a few advertisements, and surviving prints. Though most Poverty Row producers averaged a six-reel length, or about sixty minutes, Weiss continually tried to pare that down to five reels, lasting just over fifty minutes.

The first Weiss film was The Revenge of Tarzan (1920). By the time Louis Weiss came to produce Jungle Menace for Columbia Pictures, he had had considerable experience making silent jungle films, as well as westerns with plenty of action.

Jungle Menace

Unlike Universal Studios, in the early 1930s Columbia could not offer exhibitors a complete package including serials and newsreels. However, with the disappearance of such independent serial producers as Mascot Pictures Corporation and smaller companies, Columbia decided in 1937 to enter the serial field with Jungle Menace, competing primarily with Universal and Republic Pictures. Columbia was already a mainstay of the Saturday afternoon audience through its Westerns, and the steady profitability of these films may have convinced studio boss Harry Cohn to expand his participation in this market to include serials. To produce Jungle Menace, Columbia contracted with Louis Weiss and hired Frank Buck for his first dramatic starring role. Jungle Menace was very successful, attracting more than the typical number of juvenile audiences for its fifteen weekly chapters. Exhibitors were immediately convinced that Columbia was a viable entry into the serial field, where it would remain active through the mid-1950s and the death of the form.

Louis Weiss went on to produce more successful serials, both for theaters and television. He was the father of producer Adrian Weiss, who worked with him on Jungle Menace.

Bibliography

External links

• Louis Weiss on the Internet Movie Database
• video: Frank Buck in Jungle Menace
• video: Frank Buck recaptures an escaped leopard in Jungle Menace
• video: Frank Buck saves Dorothy (Charlotte Henry) from a snake in Jungle Menace
• Review of Jungle Menace