Lew Grade

At the age of 15, Grade became an agent for a clothing company, and shortly afterwards started his own business. In 1926, he was declared Charleston Champion of the World at a dancing competition at the Royal Albert Hall.[3] Fred Astaire was one of the judges.[2] Grade subsequently became a professional dancer going by the name Louis Grad; he changed this name to Lew Grade, which came from a Paris reporter's typing error that Grade liked and decided to keep.[7] He was signed as a dancer by Joe Collins (father of Jackie and Joan Collins) in 1931.[8] Decades later, the then octogenarian Lord Grade once danced the Charleston at a party Arthur Ochs Sulzberger gave in New York.[9]

In 1954, Grade was contacted by the manager of singer Jo Stafford, Mike Nidorf,[13] who notified him of an advertisement in The Times inviting franchise bids for the new, commercial ITV network.

Assembling a consortium that included impresarios Val Parnell and Prince Littler, the Incorporated Television Programme Company (ITP), which soon changed its name to Incorporated Television Company (ITC; also known as ITC Entertainment), was formed. ITC's bid to the Independent Television Authority (ITA) was rejected on the grounds of its conflict of interest from its prominence and involvement in artist management.

The Associated Broadcasting Development Company (ABD) had gained ITA approval for both the London weekend and Midlands weekday contracts, but was undercapitalised; Grade's consortium joined with the ABD to form what became Associated Television (ATV). Reflecting his background in variety, Grade's favourite show[14] and a success for the new company was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (1955–1967, 1973–1974), one of the most popular programmes on British television in its day. Grade did not avoid the other end of the cultural spectrum, and from 1958 Sir Kenneth Clark began to talk about the history of art on television.[15]

Meanwhile, Grade committed the funds for what would become the first trans-Atlantic success of the ITP subsidiary: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1960), commissioned by UK-based American producer Hannah Weinstein. ITC became a wholly owned ATV subsidiary in 1957,[16] That same year ATV established a music publishing division with ATV Music and gained a half interest in Pye Records in 1959,[17] later Pye became a wholly owned subsidiary.

Grade was deputy managing director of ATV under Val Parnell until 1962, when he became managing director having contrived to have the board oust Parnell.[11] Grade soon decided that the Midlands deserved its own regular soap opera as a rival to Coronation Street. Crossroads, much derided but ultimately a serious challenge to Granada's series in the ratings, began its initial quarter century run in November 1964.[18]

ITC's success continued and had many internationally successful TV series, leading Howard Thomas, managing director of the Associated British Corporation (ABC), to complain that Grade distributed programming for "Birmingham, Alabama, rather than Birmingham, England".[19] These series included The Saint (1962–1969), which was sold to over 80 countries,[20] and two featuring Patrick McGoohan: Danger Man (1960–1968) and The Prisoner (1967–1968). These series, exclusively thrillers, were normally used as summer replacements for American-made programmes until the mid-1960s.[21] While many of Grade's series used American actors in lead roles (The Baron and Man in a Suitcase, for example) it was those series which used an exclusively British cast, such as The Saint (and The Avengers, made by another ITV contractor), which were more successful in the United States.[22]

In 1962, AP Films became a subsidiary of ITC. Co-founded by Gerry Anderson, AP Films produced two marionette puppet ("Supermarionation") series for children during the 1960s: Thunderbirds (1965–1966) and (as Century 21) Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967–1968). After a screening of the pilot for Thunderbirds ("Trapped in the Sky", 1964), Grade insisted that the episodes be lengthened to fill a one-hour slot.[23] Unusually for children's television series, these colour programmes were generously budgeted for the time (Grade paid £22,000 per episode), and were successfully repeated internationally.[24]

In 1966, Grade's companies were re-organised again to form the Associated Communications Corporation (ACC). That year, The Sunday Times investigated the interconnected nature of the companies controlled by Grade and his two brothers, Bernard Delfont and Leslie Grade. Their firms, effectively amounting to a "cartel", were agents for most of the major talents in acting as well as entertainment and controlled theatres in both London and the rest of the UK and ATV was a major provider of televised entertainment.[14]

The following year, ATV lost its London franchise to what would become London Weekend Television (LWT);[25] at the same time, however, ATV's Midlands franchise was expanded to run throughout the week from July 1968. Through ATV Music, Grade acquired Northern Songs, gaining control of the Lennon–McCartney song catalogue.[26]

Foreign sales remained strong for a time (valued at $30 million in 1970)[27] and the ACC received the Queen's Awards for Export in both 1967 and 1969.

Some of the 1970s distributions performed poorly: these included The Julie Andrews Hour (1972–73), which aired for only one season on the ABC Television Network in the United States. This received positive reviews and seven Emmy Awards, including the title of 'Best Variety Series'. The action series The Protectors (1972–74) and The Persuaders! (1971–72),[16] were not especially successful. Gerry Anderson moved to live action science fiction shows UFO (1969–71) and Space: 1999 (1975–77). After Space: 1999, Anderson made no new series for ITC, but maintained a connection with Grade until Grade lost control of his companies in 1982.

In the mid-1970s, Grade approached American puppeteer Jim Henson, who was in need of assistance for his latest television project. Henson wanted to create a new variety show starring his Muppet characters, but had been dismissed by American networks on account of his contributions to children's programmes such as Sesame Street (1969–present). CBS came close to agreeing to broadcast The Muppet Show, but only if it was during a syndicated block of its programming. After watching one of Henson's pilots and recalling a special made in one of his studios, Grade allowed Henson to realise his project in Britain (the series was recorded at ATV's Borehamwood studio; later bought by the BBC, primarily used for EastEnders, and confusingly named BBC Elstree, easily causing confusion with the other Elstree Studios) and distributed internationally by ITC. Grade's action was instrumental in bringing The Muppet Show to the screen in 1976 and ensuring its success; it ran until 1981.

Grade's other accomplishments in television included the mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977), which was successfully sold to the American market and secured a record-breaking $12 million in revenue. Several years in preparation, the deal with the Italian broadcaster RAI and director Franco Zeffirelli had been announced three years previously.[28]

Grade approached Blake Edwards to revive the Pink Panther franchise as a TV series, an option Edwards was not keen on,[29] but he did work on developing scripts. Eventually, he persuaded Grade to finance the property as a feature film project with he and Peter Sellers waiving their fees in return for a profit-sharing arrangement.[30] Both men's careers had not been prospering for a few years.[31] Only Grade's second big budget feature,[11] ITC produced the eventual film The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), while United Artists (UA), who had earlier rejected the project themselves, gained distribution rights and a 5% share of the profits.[32] Distribution in other countries was undertaken by ITC. The Return of the Pink Panther was a commercially successful release.[11]

It also prompted Grade to move into the film industry, where he had success with Farewell My Lovely (1975).[33] Other films of the period made with Grade's involvement include the co-releases The Boys From Brazil (1978) with 20th Century Fox and Movie Movie (also 1978) with Warner Bros.. He was a producer on the Ingmar Bergman films Autumn Sonata (1978) and From the Life of the Marionettes (1980). Grade was executive producer of The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981); Orson Welles portrayed a studio executive named "Lew Lord" in the first film. One domestic British film made by the ITC subsidiary Black Lion Films, The Long Good Friday (1980) was purchased and released by HandMade Films after Grade and his company had effectively disowned it for, in Grade's reputed opinion, seeming to be sympathetic to the IRA.[34]

Grade's backing of an expensive "all-star" flop was to prove decisive. Of Raise the Titanic (1980), an adaptation of the novel by Clive Cussler, Grade himself observed that "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic".[3][16] The film was panned by critics and, after costing $36 million, returned only $8 million in rentals.[5] This and other expensive box office failures – including Saturn 3 (1980) and The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981) – marked the end of Grade's involvement in major film production. Despite this, several of the most critically acclaimed films produced by Grade were released after the failure of Raise the Titanic: these included On Golden Pond (1981) and Sophie's Choice (1982), both winners of Academy Awards, as well as The Dark Crystal (1982), which was Jim Henson's final project created in association with ITC.[35]

In 1980, Grade's standing in the mass media industry was damaged by two events: the poor reception to Raise the Titanic, and a decision that, effective from 1 January 1982, ATV Midlands would be permitted to keep its licence only on the condition that it terminate its association with Grade and ITC (ultimately leading to its re-branding as Central Television). Grade resigned his position in the company while it underwent a series of partnerships and mergers. In 1982, he lost control of ACC to Robert Holmes à Court, who dismissed him and all his staff.[2]

Grade was brought in by American producer Norman Lear in June 1982 to head the London division of Embassy Communications International involved in the production and distribution of films and television programmes.[36] Subsequently, he became a producer of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Starlight Express.[37] After Coca-Cola had bought Embassy, he became the head of a new venture, the Grade Company, in 1985, and was elected a vice-president of the Loews Group chain of cinemas in the United States.[3][38] The Grade Company produced adaptations for television of works by novelist Dame Barbara Cartland; he owned the rights to 450 of her romances.[5]

By the early to mid-1990s, Grade had returned to ITC to head the company one final time until his death in 1998. Grade was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford.