Embassy Films Associates

Background
Embassy Pictures was founded by film producer Joseph E. Levine in 1942 as a foreign film distributor. Levine distributed such films as Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Hercules (the 1958 Steve Reeves version) and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

In 1967, Levine sold the company to Avco Corporation, an aviation equipment and financial services company, reincorporating it as "Avco Embassy Pictures Corporation". In 1976, Avco Embassy sold their broadcasting division to Multimedia, Inc., which renamed it to Multimedia Entertainment.

In January 1982, when Norman Lear and Jerry Perenchio acquired the studio, the film division changed accordingly, reverting to the previous Embassy Pictures by dropping off "Avco". In 1984, the film division was renamed "Embassy Film Associates". Lord Lew Grade (who had just stepped down as head of ITC Entertainment) was brought in to run the international unit until Lear and Perenchio sold Embassy to The Coca-Cola Company on June 18, 1985. In late 1985, Coca-Cola sold the Embassy Pictures division to Dino de Laurentiis, who folded Embassy Films Associates into his own De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. However, Coca-Cola continued to own the television division, by now renamed to ELP Communications (standing for Embassy Limited Partnership, Embassy Lear Perenchio, or Embassy Lear Pictures, depending on the source), which subsequently served as as an in-name only unit of Columbia Pictures Television. Coca-Cola then sold Embassy Home Entertainment to Nelson Holdings International which formed Nelson Entertainment in 1986. In 1988, DEG went bankrupt and its library assets were sold to Parafrance International, a firm eventually purchased by StudioCanal, which merged the DEG library with that of Carolco Pictures when it itself went bankrupt (Carolco owned DEG's Wilmington studio and the rights to several features that were in production at the time of the DEG bankruptcy).

Currently, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer owns American home media rights to most of the Embassy film library after they acquired the rights to the pre-March 31, 1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library, which also included the Nelson library. Sony Pictures Television owns television rights to the film library as successor-in-interest to Embassy Communications. Sony also owns the Embassy logo, names and trademarks through ELP Communications. Lionsgate Films owns American streaming rights to select titles in the Embassy library, and home media rights to at least some of the same, by agreement with StudioCanal.

(February 19, 1982-May 2, 1986)
Logo: Over a background, 2 large white pieces, consisting of a large white E with a triangle cote-out, and a strange-looking "C" zoom out while rotating clockwise. They slowly move together during this, in which they meet up to form the Embassy logo, a boldface "E" in Futura Medium Bold BT extended to feature a star cut-out. The text "EMBASSYPICTURES" in the same font as the logo, fades in underneath, as well as a registered trademark symbol under it.

Trivia: This logo was designed by Chermayeff & Geismar Associates of New York, who also designed the 1984 PBS logo.

Variants:
 * Starting in 1984, the logo appears without the "EMBASSY PICTURES" text and the registered trademark symbol is shifted to the logo. This is when the film division was referred to as "Embassy Films Associates".
 * Depending on the film, the color of the blue background may differ, and the "☆E" may be gray.
 * Some films lack the registered trademark symbol.
 * Current prints of This is Spinal Tap have the colors highly saturated, making it resemble the Embassy Television logo.

Technique: Motion-controlled animation, done by R/Greenberg Associates.

Music/Sounds: None, or the film's opening score.

Availability: Rare.
 * Embassy's library is shared in various forms by StudioCanal (copyright and most international rights), MGM (domestic home media rights), SPT (television rights) and Lionsgate (domestic internet streaming rights under license from StudioCanal) with any of their logos preceding this logo.
 * It is more common than the Embassy Television logos and can still be seen on This is Spinal Tap and The Sure Thing.
 * The version without the text can be seen on the 2013 Shout! Factory DVD and Blu-ray releases of Crimewave, the 2014 Kino Lorber Blu-ray of The Emerald Forest, the trailer for A Chorus Line and the VHS release of The Sure Thing (along with some television airings). However, the 2004 MGM DVD release and Encore airings of the latter use the standard version instead. It was also seen on the MGM Movie Time VHS of Eddie and the Cruisers.
 * This might have appeared on theatrical prints of Zapped and Parasite (1982), but home media releases show no evidence.