They always said the movies are a gamble...

[Aaron Gerow]

On Oct 16, 2008, at 9:49 AM, Kirsten Cather wrote:

> Somewhat along these lines, I was curious if anyone could tell me  
> about or point me to
> a good source on the less shady diversification of the film  
> industry in the 1970s. I was
> reading somewhere about the Toho Flyers (I think?), which I gather  
> was a baseball team,
> and about studios getting into the bowling business, but couldn't  
> find much more about
> it. Any information or references would be much appreciated.


These are actually different phenomena from different periods. Since  
movies were the kings of entertainment in the 1950s, many of the  
major studios owned their own professional baseball teams at that  
time. They are thus a manifestation of the industry's riches. Here  
are some of them:

Toei Flyers (now the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters)
Shochiku Robins (one of the ancestors of the Yokohama Bay Stars)
Daiei Unions (one of the ancestors of Chiba Lotte Marines)

Toho didn't have its own baseball team, but I think that's because  
its parent company, Hankyu, already did (the Hankyu Braves).

The phenomenon of bowling alleys happens later around 1970 when the  
industry is in decline and needs to find ways to reuse the land on  
which unprofitable theaters sat.

For a lot of basic information, you can just consult the company  
histories of these studios. Especially the recent ones (like  
Chronicle Toei or the Shochiku 110 nenshi) do a decent job of  
covering their non-film businesses.


Aaron Gerow
Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
site: www.aarongerow.com