James H. Nicholson Video | Clips from Films Produced and Interviews

James Harvey Nicholson (September 14, 1916 – December 10, 1972) was an American film producer. He is best known as the co-founder, with Samuel Z. Arkoff, of American International Pictures. As a child, Nicholson developed a love of movies, especially fantasy and science fiction films. While in high school, he joined a science fiction fan club, where he met Forrest J Ackerman. The two produced a fantasy fanzine together. Years later, Ackerman’s magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland would heavily promote AIP’s movies. Nicholson’s first work in the film industry was as the manager of... MORE

James Harvey Nicholson (September 14, 1916 – December 10, 1972) was an American film producer. He is best known as the co-founder, with Samuel Z. Arkoff, of American International Pictures. As a child, Nicholson developed a love of movies, especially fantasy and science fiction films. While in high school, he joined a science fiction fan club, where he met Forrest J Ackerman. The two produced a fantasy fanzine together. Years later, Ackerman’s magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland would heavily promote AIP’s movies. Nicholson’s first work in the film industry was as the manager of two theaters in Omaha, Nebraska. The chain that owned the theaters soon went out business and Nicholson found himself unemployed. He drifted through a series of short-lived jobs, including running four revival movie theaters in Los Angeles. Nicholson was eventually hired by Realart Pictures in their advertising department; his job was to devise new campaigns for the old movies that Realart re-released, which often included retitling the films. A threat of a lawsuit from Alex Gordon, regarding a title similarity between one of Realart’s reissues and a screenplay Gordon had written with Ed Wood with exactly LESS