Band of Brothers

Nassers Pioneer TV at HCS

James Nasser and his six brothers were the sons of a Lebanese immigrant who opened one of San Francisco's first nickelodeons in 1909. The boys extended their father's business, establishing a chain of theaters across northern California including the landmark, art deco movie palaces the Castro and the Alameda. But the Nasser Brothers weren't content to show movies, they wanted to make them.

Their chance arrived in 1947, when James and three of his brothers bought General Services Studios (now Hollywood Center Studios) for the then princely sum of $2.5 million. (A subsequent effort by the Nassers to buy United Artists fell apart at the last minute.)The Nassers planned to produce a string of films and compete with the majors by returning to "adventure, romance, comedy." "Hollywood has gotten away from the type of motion pictures that made them popular –yarns with a simple, believable premise—and gone in for distasteful stuff," James told the Los Angeles Times. "I never will."

The Nasser's first film, An Innocent Affair , starring Fred MacMurray and Madeline Carroll, appeared in 1948. It was, at best, a modest success, and the Nassers produced only one more feature. However, success soon arrived in a wholly unexpected form: television.Fearing the small screen would destroy the movie business, the major studios banned television production from their lots. That created an opportunity for the Nassers.

General Services Studios became home to the first television shows produced on the West Coast, including the hits I Love Lucy and Burns and Allen. Despite a fire that ravaged the studio in 1954, the Nassers rode the rising tide of television through its Golden Age in the 1960s when such shows as The Beverly Hillbillies, The Lone Ranger, Petticoat Junction and Mr. Ed were produced on the lot.

In 1976, the Nassers sold the studio to businessman George Speidel. Television production declined shortly thereafter and Speidel was forced to look to resell the property just three years later. He worked out an agreement with director Francis Ford Coppola, then riding the crest of the success of the first two Godfather movies, but James Nasser, who continued to hold a lien on the property, felt it was a bad deal. He took Speidel and Coppola to court and won. The sale went through but on terms more favorable to Nasser.Since that time, the Nassers have returned to their roots. The family bought back the original Castro Theatre in 2001 and refurbished it, restoring it to its original splendor. It currently hosts both live events and film screenings. One of Hollywood's great if little known success stories, the Nassers will celebrate their 100th year in the movie business in 2009.