Ted Mann

Ted Mann (April 16, 1916 – January 15, 2001) was an American businessman, involved in the film industry, and head of Mann Theatres. He famously changed the name of Grauman's Chinese Theater to Mann's Chinese Theater when he purchased the National General Theatre chain that owned it in 1973. Born in Wishek, North Dakota, Mann started off in the movie business as an usher around the time he attended the University of Minnesota in the 1930s. He rented the Selby Theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota for $100 a month and began to build his own company. He ran the theater almost completely by himself, expanding to 25 venues within a few years.

Mann sold the theaters to General Cinema Corporation in 1970 and moved to California. The first production to his credit was 1969's The Illustrated Man, based on a Ray Bradbury book. He didn't stay out of the theater business for long, and purchased the troubled 276-screen National General Theatre chain in 1973. Mann soon expanded the chain to 360 screens, but again sold off his theaters in 1986, this time to Gulf+Western, which later renamed itself to Paramount Communications (which itself became part of Viacom). Grauman's Theater eventually regained its original name in late 2001.

Ted Mann (writer)

Ted Mann is a Canadian born television writer and producer. He has worked in both capacities on the series NYPD Blue, Deadwood and Crash. In 1995 he won the Emmy award for Best Drama Series for his work on the second season of NYPD Blue.

Career

1970s

Mann was an editor of National Lampoon. He began working in the television industry with National Lampoon and HBO as a writer on the short film Disco Beaver from Outer Space in 1978. In 1979 he worked as a writer on Delta House – a short lived television variation on Lampoon's film Animal House.

1980s

In 1980 he worked as a writer on the animated series Drawing Power. He was the writer for O.C. and Stiggs a theatrical film based on characters he created with Tod Carrol for National Lampoon and directed by Robert Altman.

Mann worked as a writer on the crime drama The Street, Universal TV's innovative half-hour syndicated faux verite cop show, as well as Stephen J. Cannell's Wiseguy, Miami Vice, and a Saturday morning animated cartoon entitled Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters (1980).

Ted Mann (disambiguation)

Ted Mann can refer to: