Director, producer and screenwriter
Outfoxed "Beat" authors Jack Kerouac ("On the Road") and John Clellon Holmes ("Go") to lay claim to the term "The Beat Generation". In the early 1950s Kerouac was disturbed that his friend Holmes managed to get his "Beat Generation" novel "Go" into print before his own was published ("Go", in which Kerouac is a main character, was published in 1952, while "On the Road" was not published until 1957). Kerouac was worried that Holmes was plagiarizing him, although Holmes was careful to credit Kerouac with creating the term "Beat" for their generation, and much of the material was common amongst them and other writers of their circle, such as Allen Ginsberg. Ironically, Zugsmith outfoxed Kerouac by copyrighting the term "The Beat Generation", which he used as the title of his egregious eponymous exploitation film ( The Beat Generation ), which was released by MGM in 1959. A year later the studio released a film of Kerouacs novel "The Subterraneans" ( The Subterraneans ), made by with top talent. It proved to be a major disappointment, as it grossly misrepresented the scene (as well as Kerouacs novel). Ironically, "The Subterraneans" probably is the premier contemporary movie about the Beats, as so few "Beat" movies were made ("On the Road" has never been filmed), the phenomenon occurring during a time of strict screen censorship in the US. By the time censorship was lifted in 1967, the Beats had been supplanted by the Hippies.
Served as the first lawyer for "Superman" creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. They sough greater creative and financial control from National (DC) Comics in regards to licensing, general comic book profits and creative credit. Zugsmiths career then turned to film production. As it turned out, he wasnt able to get Siegel and Schuster what they wanted.
A genial, multi-faceted entrepreneur already in his teens. Founded the Atlantic City (NJ) newspaper "Daily World" in 1935, also acting as its publisher and editor. Subsequently active as consultant to newspapers, radio and television stations. As an attorney, represented Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in their 1948 lawsuit against DC Comics. First in Hollywood as a band publicist, later returned as producer of prestige films directed by Orson Welles and Douglas Sirk at Universal. Subsequently headed his own independent production company, turning out cheaply made exploitation films. Best of these, and accorded cult status, is Confessions of an Opium Eater , starring Vincent Price.
Al had a daughter, Patty Zugsmith, who was born around 1942 and went to Van Nuys High School in the San Fernando Valley,(Los Angeles) during the late 1950s.
