Andrew J. Kuehn

Andrew J. Kuehn (September 24, 1937 – January 29, 2004) was an American film producer notable for revolutionizing the American film trailer in the early 1960s and for producing and directing featurette films for television such as, Lights, Camera, Annie! Getting in Shape for the "Main Event", and Behind the Scenes: Beyond the Poseidon Adventure as well as documentaries and feature-length motion pictures including D.O.A., Get Bruce, and Terror in the Aisles.

Early life Andrew J. Kuehn was raised on the South side of Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Miami, produced a local radio show and worked as a floor manager for a local sports television show. In 1961, Kuehn started working with National Screen Service, which was the predominant, if not singular, provider of motion picture trailers to Hollywood. At the time, their trailers typically featured a great deal of copy, slowly paced editing, bold graphic treatment of titles and cast information, and a presentational style borrowed from circus pitchmen and carnival barkers.

Move to Hollywood Tapped by MGM to come to Hollywood, he contributed to the success of such important films such as Doctor Zhivago, and Blowup, and in 1964, Kuehn distributed his independently produced trailer for Night of the Iguana, using stark, high-contrast photography, fast-paced editing and a provocative narration by a young James Earl Jones. His format was so successful, he began producing this new form of trailer with partner Dan Davis.

Kuehn opened the West Coast office of Kaleidoscope Films in 1968 and Kuehn and his company became a major player in the trailer industry for the next three decades. As Hollywood began to produce bigger blockbuster films and invest more money in marketing them, directors like Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone and Barbra Streisand began to depend on Kuehn and Kaleidoscope for their ability to create the best trailers theater-goers could see. Kuehn alumni include leading trailer makers and marketing creatives.

Kuehn developed trailers for films including the original Jaws, the Indiana Jones trilogy, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler's List, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, The French Connection, The Sting, Funny Girl, Aliens, Top Gun, Back to the Future, JFK, and Witness.

In a trade interview, Kuehn said, "A trailer has but one goal: to draw audiences out of their houses and into a theater. To do that you have to set up a sense of urgency. In the process of arriving at that forced pace, we advanced the style of editing. We really pushed the envelope in terms of what audiences would accept."

"...Over the years, they worked on so many of the films that I directed or produced, and I remember not just with ET or Schindler´s list, but also the times when the campaigns may have even been better than some the films I produced, and that´s as much a salute to Andy´s talent as his long list of tremendously successful pictures. Andy did it by building relationship with filmmakers, he did it by setting high standards of creativity, and he did it because he had good taste. And although he´s now no longer in the cutting room, there are so many people who have learned from him and worked with him, that his legacy of coming attractions goes on and on and on." - Steven Spielberg

In 1994, Kuehn was honored by the Cannes Lions with a lifetime achievement award.

As well as making trailers, Kuehn co-produced the feature films Coming Apart and D.O.A., directed Flush and produced and directed the documentaries Terror in the Aisles (a thriller- horror anthology hosted by Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen), Get Bruce and The Great American Songbook (a PBS television study of American popular music, in 2003.

On March 15, 2006, the Andrew J. Kuehn Foundation released Coming Attractions: The History of Movie Trailers, which he inspired, financed and guided through development. As mandated by the Andrew J. Kuehn, Jr. Foundation, "Coming Attractions" is to be freely distributed to film schools, film archives and film-related institutions nationally and worldwide. Produced, written and shot by long-term collaborators of his, "Coming Attractions" features rare archival footage and interviews with the top creative and executive talent in the industry, as well as the insights and discoveries of leading academics, archivists and collectors. The Academy Film Archive houses the Andrew J. Kuehn, Jr. Foundation collection, which includes footage used to make Coming Attractions and the completed documentary.