TLA Entertainment Group
TLA Entertainment Group is a privately held corporation based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1981.
Originally formed to operate a repertory movie theater, the company subsequently moved into catalog and online sales, retail stores, film festivals and film distribution. The catalog began as a pornographic mail order business and grew to include also gay and lesbian non-pornographic films and books and mainstream films.[1]
History
TLA stands for
In 1981, the founding partners of TLA Entertainment Group (Raymond Murray, Claire Brown-Kohler, Alex Roberts and Roman Czenchtuch) met and subsequently ran the theater. For the next six years the TLA was a repertory art movie theater. In addition, for four of those six years, the partners ran a small, first-run art house, the Roxy Screening Room, also located in Center City Philadelphia.[2]
The
On January 30, 2014 Sterling Genesis International of New York City acquired the company. G. Sterling Zinsmeyer became chairman of the group.[3]
In 2015 the company launched the Dekkoo video streaming service.[4]
Video stores
In 1985, the first video store was opened next door to
Online sales
TLA Entertainment Group launched the TLAvideo website in 1997. The site sells gay and lesbian, American independent, international, Hollywood and pornographic DVDs and books.
Film festivals
In 1994, TLA Entertainment Group President Raymond Murray started the
In 2001, TLA Entertainment Group assumed management of the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, now called The Philadelphia Film Festival. The two-week festival shows over 100 feature films from around the world. In order to better fund these events, in August 2001 TLA Entertainment Group spun them off and created the non-profit Philadelphia Film Society.
Film distribution
TLA Releasing is the licensing division of TLA Entertainment. It is focused on the acquisition of distribution rights of international, independent, and gay and lesbian films to theaters and on DVD and VHS. TLA Releasing releases two films a month for the home entertainment market. The catalog of films is available online.
Bibliography
TLA Entertainment Group has published two books:
- Bleiler, David A (2004). TLA Video & DVD Guide 2005: The Discerning Film Lover's Guide. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-31690-7.
- Murray, Raymond (1996). Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video (2nd rev ed.). Plume. ISBN 978-0-452-27627-7.
References
- ^ a b Kim, Annie. "TLA'S unconventional titles hit homes". The Wharton Journal. Archived from the original on 2007-03-12. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
- ^ a b "About us: TLA Entertainment Group". Retrieved 2007-11-04.
- ^ "Gay entertainment company sold". 6 February 2014.
- ^ Gray, Ellen (2017-06-17). "Philly-based streaming service's niche: serving the G in LGBT". Inquirer.com. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
- ^ South Street TLA Video Closes
- ^ "TLA Video still holding on in Bryn Mawr". 2011-10-11. Retrieved 2019-12-30.