Videoage International October 2019

48 October 2019 V I D E O A G E M any international film-TV executives would be startled to learn that what contributed to the media fortunes of two Greek families — the Kouroglou clan and the Triantafyllis tribe — was Nudist Paradise , a 1959 English pseudo-exploitation sex film that the British Film Institute (BFI) now classifies as a “drama.” This “Hall of Fame” story also checks in with each of the two families’ sons, both of whom fol- lowed in their fathers’ footsteps. Theo Kouroglou spent his formative years in Germany, while John Triantafyllis grew up in the U.S. The 72-minute Nudist Paradise — which was released in the U.S. as Nature’s Paradise , and which was directed by Charles Saunders — was about an American man who fell in love with a British nudist. Here’s how international TV executive Theodoros (Theo) Kouroglou recalled it: “In 1963, my father, John, rented a 193-seat movie theater in downtown Athens, the Cine Averov, then a four-year-old establishment, from the Baron Michael Tositsas Establishment. In 1967, John Michael Triantafyllis, the founder of the JT TV Film company, asked my father if he was interested in showing Nudist Paradise , a movie he had just bought and subtitled in Greek.” At that time the movie rights-holder paid the theater owner 25 to 45 percent of the gross ticket sales. Triantafyllis (1910-1982) was a Greek actor/pro- ducer who in 1929 produced, directed, and star- red in Four Greeks From America , a locally-produ- ced Western movie. He founded JT Film in 1939 to acquire movies for the Greek market, as well as to produce and direct several domestic movies that he also distributed overseas. The company was renamed JT TV Film when Triantafyllis en- tered the TV business by distributing ITC titles. His son, John Michael Triantafyllis the seventh, took over JT TV Film— which he still runs today — in 1976 (at age 26), when he returned to Greece after a nine-year residence in the U.S. “However,” Theo continued, “the 10 major theaters in Athens also demanded a minimum ticket sales guarantee from the movie rights- holder, and after the minimum was reached, the theaters would keep up to 45 percent of ticket sales.” If the agreed minimum wasn’t reached, the movie owner ended up paying the theater the difference between the sales total and the guarantee. In addition, cinema tickets in Greece were heavily taxed (with five different taxes). “My father gave Triantafyllis a better trial deal, and Nudist Paradise filled the theater’s seats for 17 straight weeks with 14 sold-out showings per day, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., until it was eventually shot downby [themilitarygovernment’s] censors.”This was despite the fact that the original 72-minute film had already been cut down to 45 minutes in Greece, and was promoted as a documentary. Triantafyllis disputed this account, stating that his father owned seven cinemas in and around Athens, therefore he didn’t need Kouroglou’s Cine Averov. However, Triantafyllis declined to provide further information. When Theo was made aware of the dispute, he commented: “I suppose Triantafyllis’ seven cinema theaters came at a later time. Nudist Paradise was not a blockbuster and Averov cinema was not a premium class theater. Triantafyllis Senior never expected Nudist Paradise to be something more than a movie of second class.” He then added: “The strange thing about that story is that a low-quality and a low-budget movie shown in a second-class theater (that usually sold 150- 300 tickets per day) sold the unbelievably huge number of 1,900 tickets on just the premiere day, something that no one could have imagined, not even in a dream.” Considering the country’s sensitivity toward nudity, it is ironic then, that in 1931, it was Greece that had produced Daphnis and Chloe (from director Orestis Laskos), which was the first romantic film in Europe to contain nude scenes. The Cine Averov, where Nudist Paradise was shown, also presents some interesting family links: The cinema’s owner, Baron Michael Tositsas (1885–1950) — also known as Baron Michael Tossizza due to the extensive amount of time he spent in Italy — was the grandson of Konstantinos Tositsas, who hadmoved to Livorno, Italy, at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1831, Konstantinos and his descendants were awarded the title of Baron by the local Duke. Baron Michael Tossizza studied in Italy and France and then worked for the family’s banking business in Paris. The Baron adopted Evangelos Averof- Tositsas (1910-1990), who founded Cine Averov, which is still run by Theo’s brother Chris today. Averof, a Greek politician and author, also ran the Foundation of Baron Michael Tositsas, and was involved in a political controversy that was documented in the book, A Man , by Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci. Theo’s father, John, had entered the movie business in 1958 at the age of 40 when he co- founded Acropolis Film with Nick Groumbas, who booked films for theaters in Athens. Before that, John had been in the food business. But he decided to enter the film biz instead following a number of disputes with his partners. When Groumbas died in 1966 at age 45, the By Dom Serafini Movies in Greece Were Theo Kouroglou’s Life Until He “Moved” To the TV Biz Int’ l TV Distribut ion Hal l of Fame (Continued on Page 50) The only picture remaining of JT Film’s JohnMichael Triantafyllis the fifth (left). All the pictures (and other documentation) were destroyed in a 2008 fire at the house of his son JohnMichael Triantafyllis the seventh (right) (The late JohnMichael Triantafyllis the sixth was his older brother.) At the San Sebastian Film Festival in 1974 (l. to r.): Max Tsochatzpoulos Roman, a Greek actor; Fernando Sanchez (1920-1982), a Spanish actor who appeared in more than 100 Spaghetti Western films; Theodoros Kouroglou Theo, who entered the film business in 1959 at the rather young age of 11, recalled that those years were the golden era of film in Greece, with 120 winter cinemas (open from September to April) and 250 open-air summer cinemas (open from April to September) in Attica (the region in and around Athens).