In the mid-1950s, American International Pictures (AIP) was the self-proclaimed "Infant of the Industry," and as such, was not perceived as a serious threat to the major studios of the time. AIP soon proved themselves worthy opponents, when their youth-oriented double features began raking in big bucks that rivaled and sometimes surpassed the profits of their competitors.

The company's founders were James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff, and during the years they worked together as a team, AIP turned out their most imaginative movies, including I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Beach Party, and the Roger Corman/Vincent Price/Edgar Allen Poe films. This is the story of those years told mainly using the material gathered by AIPs New York publicist.