National Telefilm Associates

Background
National Telefilm Associates, Inc. (commonly known by its initials, "NTA") was a distribution company established by Ely A. Landau and Oliver A. Unger in 1954 as the successor of Ely Landau, Inc. It owned the libraries from U.M.&M. Television Corporation, Republic Pictures, and NBC Films, and distributed the library of 20th Century Fox. Later in 1956, NTA launched a syndication arm known as "NTA Film Network" to distribute the film and live programs to television stations not affiliated with main broadcasters, especially with ABC, CBS, and NBC, closing the unit in 1961. After NTA bought the name and trademarks of the old Republic Pictures studio, this company renamed itself as "Republic Pictures Corporation" in 1986 (later renamed to "Republic Entertainment, Inc."). Republic was then made an in-name-only unit of Paramount, a unit of Viacom; however, until after the 75th Anniversary of Republic Pictures, Viacom folded Republic Pictures into Paramount Pictures and created a new holding company called "Melange Pictures, LLC" as the holder of the Republic film library. While, most of its television library is currently held by CBS Corporation through CBS Television Distribution and Spelling Television Inc., all of them controlled by National Amusements, Inc., and most of the pre-1949 Fox films were reacquired by TCF and is syndicated by 20th Television. Some have fallen into the public domain.

1st Logo (1955-1957?)
NTA, Black and White versionNational Telefilm Associates (1955)National Telefilm Associates (1956)

Nickname: "The Filmreel"

Logo: Three frames of film are in a row, with the letters "NTA" individually placed inside the frames. Behind the frames is a reel of film, with a portion of the film out of the reel and curling down the screen. Also there are wavy lines as a background. The words "NATIONAL TELEFILM ASSOCIATES, INC." are in all capital letters, with the "N", "T", and "A", in larger letters and the texts "An" and "Release" (or "Presentation") above and below in italics respectively.

Trivia: These logos were also used for cartoon re-releases for television distribution. Click here for the description. There is also a variant for movie re-releases. Click here for the description.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: The opening and closing themes of the show or movie. In exceptional cases, a generic theme was used.

Availability: Extremely rare. Appeared on NTA's prints of pre-1948 20th Century-Fox films, on which the '30s-'50s Fox logo cross-faded into the NTA logo halfway through. When NTA's syndication rights to the library ended, the films returned to Fox, who either made new prints from the original materials or "reverse-plastered" the classic Fox logo over the Fox/NTA combo. (for example, the fade-out of the NTA logo is briefly glimpsed after the Fox logo on the current print of Laura.) The Fox/NTA combo has been sighted intact on the current print of Les Mesribeles (1935), FXM's print of The Gay Deception, and at the end of Phantom From 10,000 Leagues; it is currently unknown if it appears on any old Fox films released by Magnetic Video Corporation.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (1956-1966?)
National Telefilm Associates (1956)National Telefilm Associates -How To Marry A Millionaire- (1957)NTA ReleaseNTA Release (US Marshall)National Telefilm Associates (1958)

Logo: This is basically in-credit text that reads:

An-- NTA --Release

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show.

Availability: Rare. Seen on TV reincarnations of some theatrical movies such as How to Marry a Millionaire and The Third Man.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (1957-195?)
National Telefilm Associates (1957)

Nicknames: "The TV Tube and Filmstrip", "NTA on TV"

Logo: On a black & white gradient background, we see a filmstrip. The filmstrip has the letters "NTA" vertically arranged on them. Next to the letters, we see that they stand for "National Telefilm Associates". Above this is the letter "A," and the word "RELEASE." All text is seen inside a white TV tube-like shape with a black border.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show.

Availability: Extinct.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (1966?-196?)
NTA Films (????)

Nickname: "The NTA Ellipses"

Logo: On a black & white background with filmstrips, we see three ellipses appearing and moving to the center of the screen: the topmost ellipse moves in from the top of the screen, the middle ellipse moves from the left of the screen, and the bottom ellipse moves from the right of the screen. After the ellipses move, the vertically arranged text "An NTA RELEASE" appears one-by-one, with "NTA" arranged vertically on the ellipses.

Variant: It has been said that there is a variant of this logo having the map from the 5th logo instead the filmstrips on the background. Probably there is a color version too, since the colors of the ellipses are different.

FX/SFX: The ellipses appearing and moving to the center of the screen, the vertically-arranged text appearing one by one.

Music/Sounds: An ominious orchestral beat. Sometimes, it uses the opening or closing theme of the show or movie.

Availability: Rare. Seen on some public domain video releases of Gammera the Invincible, and surprisingly seen on TV prints of Lone Star movies, most notably Texas Terror, plastering their logo.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (1970s?-1984?)
NTA ReleaseNational Telefilm AssociatesNTA (B&W) (1960s)

Nickname: "The NTA Mapamundi Displayer"

Logo: It's almost the same as the Commonwealth United logo, except once completed, the screen freezes, and the styled text "nta" zooms-out of the screen instead. Then "RELEASE" appears under the "NTA" lettering.

Variants: There is a still variant for mid-60s prints of classic Paramount cartoons. A B&W variant exists for films in said colors NTA distributed.

FX/SFX: The spots appearing, wiping... and the NTA lettering zooming out, or none.

Music/Sounds: An abridged version of the Commonwealth United Entertainment jingle. In most cases, the opening and closing themes, a generic theme, or none.

Availability: Extremely rare.

Editor's Note: The continents are drawn poorly, and the NTA zooming out is cheesy.

6th Logo (1984-1986)
Nickname: "Outlines"

Logo: It's basically the same as the NTA Home Entertainment logo, except when all zoom out, the logo freezes. Then the word "presents" flies from the bottom of the logo NTA Presentsand sets place under the NTA letters.

FX/SFX: Same as the NTA Home Entertainment logo…

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extinct. Shown on some movies and TV shows syndicated by NTA on the mid-'80s on TV.

Editor's Note: Same as the NTA Home Entertainment logo.