In Remembrance: Julian “Bud” Lesser

     Julian “Bud” Lesser, film producer, has passed away in Rancho Mirage, California on March 22, 2005. He was 90.

     Born on January 18, 1915 in San Francisco, California to Sol Lesser, producer of the Tarzan series of films at RKO Pictures, Julian Lesser graduated Stanford University in 1936. His first producing job was as an assistant producer on 1948’s Tarzan And The Mermaids.

     Lesser would go on to produce six more films at various low-budget studios. For Monogram Pictures, he produced the drama Michael O’Halloran (1948).

     His next project was a 1949 remake of When A Man’s A Man, originally produced by his father and based on the novel by Harold Bell Wright. However, script changes to allow the production to shoot on the same western fort set built for John Ford’s Fort Apache (1948) and a reworked ending took the story too far away from its source material, resulting in the film’s name being changed to Massacre River. The film was distributed by Allied Artists, a distribution arm of Monogram.

     Returning to RKO, Lesser produced the mystery Whispering Smith Hits London (1951) and the documentary Jungle Headhunters (1951). He also worked for Hammer Films producing the 1952 crime picture Death Of An Angel.

     Lesser’s last film was 1953’s The Saint’s Girl Friday (aka The Saint’s Return), the last film in the long running mystery series for RKO. He also produced the Bold Journey television travelogue series from 1956 to 1959.

     Lesser also penned several articles for Stanford University Historical Society’s publication Sandstone & Tile. In 1988 he published the book The Rescue of Que viva Mexico, which focused on the reconstructive efforts applied to Sergei Eisenstein’s abandoned 1932 film. In 2004 he co-authored the book Tarzan And Hollywood: From Johnny Weismueller To Gordon Scott, The Tarzan Films Of Sol Lesser with Reiner Boller. The book has been published in Germany.