Best known today as the producer of Columbia Pictures' Blondie series, former stock company manager Burt Kelly had entered the film industry as a booking agent for the Paramount Publix theater chain. He later functioned as an executive with Educational, a purveyor of comedy two-reelers, and Tiffany, a Poverty Row company with aspirations. Along with Sam Bischoff and William Saal, Kelly founded KBS Productions Inc. in 1932 (he was the "K"), which in effect took over Tiffany's production facilities and continued to produce low-rent Ken Maynard Westerns and such items as The Death Kiss (1933), with Bela Lugosi, and the Sherlock Holmes mystery A Study in Scarlet (1933). KBS, which for a time was known as Admiral Productions, survived until late 1933 and Kelly later joined Republic Pictures as an associate producer. He was with Universal in the early '40s and ended his screen career with Blondie's Secret in 1948.
by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
