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Ted E.C. Bulthaup III d.o.b. June 1st, 1957
Bulthaup attended both Northern Illinois University for Biology and then DePaul
University for Business Administration for a total of 4 years, all on scholarships. Early
education included being named to the National Honor Society and chosen President
of the Senior Class at Downers Grove South High School, which is still the only
graduating class to leave a surplus in the treasury. Bulthaup managed to hire the band
‘Styx’ to perform at the high schoolthe same month their song “Lady” hit “Number 1”
on the national charts.
Interested in many things, especiallyscience and history, Ted still holds the record for
the most 1st Place Science Awards in the State of Illinois and, among other awards,
won the International Science & Engineering First Prize for Zoologyfor his work on the
biologyof bats. He first worked with captive Vampire Bats at Brookfield Zoo in 7th
grade and later had laboratory space and equipmentat Argonne National Lab’s
BiologyBuilding donated for use in his work during his junior and senior years of High
School.
Between the ages of 12 and 21, Bulthaup gained a national reputation for this work,
was a guest lecturer at various high schools,collegesand even the US Naval
ResearchCenter in San Diego. Bulthaup was widely covered in local and national
media. The first television was with Frank Reynolds on the NBC evening news, and
later in “Real People” with Sarah Purcell; also the Associated Press,Chicago Tribune,
National Enquirer, etc., and was asked to write an article about his work for National
Geographic at age 18, and to locate at the Panama ResearchStation on Barro
Colorado Island for a summerof field work.
Bulthaup was influential in inducing ComEd to donate a 212 acre tract of land to the
State of Illinois for protectionas a bat preserve, as it was the location of a long
abandoned limestone mine that sheltered approximately 30,000 hibernating bats of six
species,two of which was endangered and one is the only surviving colony of this
animal in Illinois. It is now the Pecumsaugan Creek Nature Preserve.
It may be worth mentioning Bulthaup had contracted rheumatic fever at age six, just
after starting elementary school,was hospitalized and then confined to bed,not being
allowed to walk for almost a year, home studying from bed so as not to be left behind.
Ted established his first business,Caribou Productions,in Chicago while still attending
DePaul. Caribou promoted various live performance artists at various venues
throughout the central United States. Examples were such artists as Cheap Trick,
Atlanta Rhythm Section, Doobie Brothers,Genesis,Supertramp, Bruce Springsteen,
Jackson Brown, Beach Boys, Yes, Charlie Daniels, etc. Bulthaup also consulted on
various historic renovations of pre-depressionera movie palaces, restoring and

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converting them to live performance venues and testified before the House Ways &
Means Committee on tax incentives and historic preservation of architecture (theaters).
Bulthaup interrupted the normal course of business for several years, leaving Chicago
to take care of aging relatives in Indianapolis until their death. His Grandparents were
too old to live on their own, but too healthy for a nursing home. During this period
Bulthaup continued efforts with old dilapidated movie palaces into live performance
venues. That conceptwas modified to what became this country’s first full service
dinner and movie theater, “Hollywood Bar & Filmworks” in a 130 year old warehouse in
downtown Indy, next to Union Station.
Upon opening in 1991, the new theater underwent a series of trials and tribulations.
Hollywood was located in dilapidated and largely vacant downtown district, at a time
when Indianapolis suburbanites did not want to travel downtown; with a hybrid
conceptso differentthat nobodyunderstood it, with an offering of only sub –run films
(shortly before video), and with a mountain of short term debt. It was the first new
movie theater in downtown in over 60 years and the first one to operate downtown in
over two decades. Hollywood quickly became a leading regional destination point and
received recognitionover the years for excellence,consistentlywinning state, local &
national entertainment and restaurant “Bestof” awards in various local reader’s polls,
including Downtown Indy’s Best New Addition, Indy’s Best Movie Theater, Indy’s Best
Kept Secret,and as having Indy’s BestService, BestMovie Popcornand 2nd
Best
Pizza. The Restaurant & Hospitality Associationof Indiana awarded Hollywood with a
“Good NeighborAward” and Hollywood was selectedas having the State of Indiana’s
“BestMenu”. The National Associationof Theater Owners and the Hollywood
Reporternamed the theater as Bestin Community Service & Marketing in the country.
Indianapolis Monthly called the theater one of Indy’s “Crown Jewels” and also listed it
as the third bestplace to take out-of-towners (after the 500 Mile Race and the
Children’s Museum).
Bulthaup received both CEO Magazine’s “Service Excellence Award” and Mass
Mutual’s/U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “Blue Chip Enterprise Award” for
Entrepreneurship.
Bulthaup was the founding Presidentof the Downtown Restaurant & Hospitality
Associationof Indianapolis and served terms on the Board of Directors of both that
organization and the Theater Owners of Indiana.
Through a variety of tactics, Hollywood challenged the way films were distributed in
this country, causing some fundamental industry changes including, the status of
intermediate run and first-run move-overtheaters and eliminating the release barrier
for theaters wanting to provide expanded food and beverage selections with to-your-

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seat service. Hollywood in Indianapolis paved the way for this end of the industry and
was generally recognized as the nation’s leading high-amenity theater.
Among those efforts was bringing and winning an anti-trust suit against MGM. After
that experience,Bulthaup became a resource for the US Department of Justice on
industry anti-trust issues and the 1949 Paramount Consent Decree,mostrecently
testifying before the legal committee on the merger of Chicago based Show Place
Cinemas and AMC; after which AMC was ordered to divest several Chicago area
theaters (which they sold to Regal). (In the last decade,Bulthaup testified by request
of the State Illinois on their behalf in front of several standing State Committees,from
both the House and Senate, and the US Treasury Department.)
The Indianapolis operation had always enjoyed a great reputation for excellence.
Disney approached Bulthaup about building a theater like the Filmworks at Epcot.If
imitation is the sincerestform of flattery, General Cinema’s experimented with a
copycat operation and several second rate imitators spawned following Indy’s success.
Hollywood Indy was the only local recommendationas a great place to visit named in
USA Today during the Final Four Conference in Indianapolis. MS*NBC focusedon
Filmworks not only as a unique theater, but what great value it delivers compared to
New York City cinema’s. LA Sports talk radio broadcasted live from the theater
“Hollywood to Hollywood” when the Pacers were in the NBA playoffs against the
Lakers. Warner Bros offered Bulthaup a job as National Director of SpecialProjects
(Marketing) if he would sell the Indy location and move to LA.
During this period Bulthaup’s house burned down early Thanksgiving morning, almost
taking the life of several children who Ted pulled out of the flaming house. Trapped by
the flames he threw one child through the burning kitchen into a clear area near the
front door. Running back upstairs he kicked out a second floorwindow; went out on
the roof, swinging the last child into a bush before jumping himself. Ted asked a friend
who was the human interest reporteron the local CBS affiliate to tour the burnt out
hulk as the aftermaths of house fires are seldom covered by media. The segments
were later nominated for a local Emmy. Bulthaup later filmed a PSA to run before
children’s movies at the theater. NATO recognized the Hollywood’s Kids Fire Safety
Program for a special “Community Service Award”.
Indianapolis created a huge downtown mess starting with the long construction of the
Circle Centre Mall; followed by the negative affect of a new professionalbasketball
arena being developedin the heart of downtown. The subsequenthyper-inflation of
neighborhood parking rates during specialevents became a severe challenge to all
downtown restaurant and entertainment operations. Suddenly, after Hollywood
enjoyed years of success,downtown parking rates inflated by 735% on over 100 event
nights per year due to the close proximity of the ConsecoFieldhouse. Of the
businesses that signed a petition to the Mayor, two thirds were soon driven out of

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business citing the new parking dynamic as the number one problem. The local Mayor
continued to embrace anti-small business practices and even doubled already harmful
business taxes, and so on the Hollywood Bar & Filmworks 15th
Anniversary, Bulthaup
voluntarily closed the Indianapolis location.
All local loans and debts of any kind were voluntarily paid in full to all, secured and
unsecured creditors alike, and the assets were moved to Illinois for later use in one of
Hollywood Blvd Cinema’s expansions. Even so, in the last year of operation,
Hollywood Bar & Filmworks was listed in the Indianapolis Business Journal as the 8th
fasted growing company in Indy.
This wreckage was all due to local governments reckless and uncaring actions, public
lies, mostly about this issue; which later cost the Mayor his Office and later also his
cronies their office forthe next three consecutive terms. Bulthaup also saved the City
some $55 million dollars by disclosing the facts of his theaters and the other
businesses closures,and showing the local NBA team was just the opposite of the
economic powerhouse forthe City it pretended to be, and that was it unworthy of
further public subsidy. Regardless,his Indianapolis business was a total loss to
Bulthaup and his family. It was a very family oriented business and one young
employee even committed suicide due to losing her family to the closure of that
business.
The Indianapolis City Council passed a “Posthumous” resolution the day after the
theaters closure, saying the theater was one of the city’s greatest assets and even
called Bulthaup one of the “iron men” and “visionaries” of downtown’s resurgence. A
2015 news article listed the top ten things that are missed in Indianapolis and the likes
of which will never be seenagain. Hollywood was on the list.
Hollywood Blvd Cinema opened in Woodridge,Illinois on March 2nd
of 2003 as the exit
strategy from Indianapolis, but also under trying circumstances. Afterconstruction was
three/fourths complete,building inspectors forthe first time demanded that the entire
facility be brought up to code,not just the new construction as the code reads. This
necessitated a three month delay, postponing the Grand Opening and causing the
heavy Christmas movie going season to be missed. The rescheduled Grand Opening
coincided with the declaration of war on Iraq which focusedthe nation’s attention,
especiallythe media, on their small screentelevisions. With the additional demanded
upgrades and due to these circumstances,there was an immediate cash shortfall of
about one million dollars.
Hollywood Blvd was named by Chicago Magazine as “BestCinema” in its first year of
operation, beating out the new $30,000,000 AMC/Imaxdowntown. Hollywood Blvd
was the only theater to receive an “A+” rating by the Chicago Sun Times and was also
named as one of the nation’s top ten new concepts by Restaurant Business Magazine.

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The operation received recognition as the nation’s best marketed theater several times
by the Hollywood Reporterwith National Associationof Theater Owners, and has also
received Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards from Business LedgerMagazine. First
year sales were about $2,000,000,and increased an average of $2,000,000per year
afterward.
The new operation still had positive cash flow after several months, brought venders
current and was on normal terms after fourteenmonths. A venture capital company
loan of $200,000plus interest at 14% was paid in full and all the investors recouped
their money after just two years. A new LLC was formed which bought the assets of
the previous operation, Hollywood Bar & Filmworks and Hollywood Blvd Cinema both,
and took over operating the Woodridgelocation. Sales continued to grow every year
until 2010 and by many statistics the theater still outperformed the industry in general
and neighboring cinemas in particular.
In those first seven years of operation ending in 2010,there were 5 major expansions
at Blvd, the mostrecent of which was completed in December2010 and which brought
the screencount up from the original 4 to 10, the lobby tripled in size including a large
glass atrium, the box officewas expanded to twice its space, washroom capacity
increased, a private party room and even a Hollywood museum were added. The
museum has an extensive collectionof historic Hollywood items, some owned and
others on loan. A full size Blues Mobile with statues of the Blues Brothers was added
over the new entrance and roof top searchlights now beam across the night sky. Also
as part of that expansion a casual sit down Chinese restaurant was added,the new
“FormosaCafé” was a truly spectacular restaurant that received rave reviews and
terrific repeat business, but road construction in 2011 & 2012 was catastrophic.
Formosarent was temporarily cut in half, Bulthaup reduced payroll by 1/3 and sales
were up an average of 30% in 2013,but it was not enough.
More people typically attended movies at the Woodridge theater in a year than
attended Soldier Field to see the Chicago Bears play.
In September2009 Bulthaup opened the seven screenHollywood Palms, A Cinema,
Bar & Eatery in Naperville in the midst of the worst economic chaos since the Great
Depression. Yet, within nine short months of opening, sales were being generated at a
rate that was not accomplished atHollywood Blvd until after 3 years of operation and
was cash flowing almost immediately.
Partial 3D technology was added to each of these operations in May 2010 and the
digital transition was completed in the summerof 2013 (which was a must, since the
studios soon stopped the release of movies on film).
One of the highlights for Hollywood Blvd Cinema was when Bulthaup arranged for

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his little friends “The Munchkins” to receive a Star on the sidewalk of the other
Hollywood Blvd, (the street in LA). At that time, Hollywood Blvd had the highest
attended screenings of “The Wizard of Oz” in the world and had always brought in
the remaining seven Munchkin actors in for those screenings. Bulthaup’s first
nomination of the Munchkins for the honor was rejected (22 honorees being
selected from over 600 nominations). Bulthaup started calling friends in the industry
to help lobby for the cause with Steven Spielberg,George Lucas,Ted Turner, Roger
Ebert, Hugh Hefner, Tippi Hedren, Harvey Weinstein,Mickey Rooney,Jane Russell,
AFI,Leonard Maltin, TCM as well as every major Hollywood studio including Warner
Bros, Universal, MGM, Sony, Disney, Paramount and others all wrote letters or
made personals appeals to the Mayor of Hollywood. The Munchkins were given
their Star in November2007. The successfulcampaign and the ceremonyitself was
a 15 minute specialfeature on the 70th
Anniversary Oz DVD and was covered on an
unprecedented 575 televisionnews shows in the USA alone, including Good
Morning America, the Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, AccessHollywood and
even Hardball with Chris Mathews took note. Around the world event coverage
included NPR, BBC,Reuters and all the news wire services,stories ran all over
Europe, China, India, Japan, and the Middle East – Bulthaup was even mentioned
in the Istanbul newspaper as Cinesman Sahib Ted Bulthaup.
Bulthaup used the occasion of the Munchkin’s Star ceremonyto host a Wizard of Oz
event at Grauman’s Chinese Theater; in front of which the Munchkins were getting
their Star placed the next morning and which was the venue where “The Wizard of
Oz” had premiered 68 years before and at which some of the attending Munchkins
were actually present. Over $30,000was raised for historic preservation of
Hollywood landmarks.
One of the special hallmarks of Bulthaup’s operations is when show business friends
or connections were asked to bring Hollywood Stars to the theaters to meet
audiences and sign autographs. People like Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Rita
Moreno, Burt Reynolds Tony Curtis, Teri Garr, Richard Dreyfus,William Shatner,
David Carradine, Shirley Jones,Leslie Nielsen, Karen Allen, Peter Falk, Debbie
Reynolds,Mickey Rooney,Paris Hilton, Ernest Borgnine, Channing Tatum, Michael
Madsen, Martin Landau, Penny Marshall, Malcolm McDowell, Verne Troyer, Tippi
Hedren, PeterFonda, Elliot Gould, Robert Englund, and many, many others came to
town.
Several “Harry Potter” actors came to the theaters for the openings of their films,
including the Phelps (Weasley) Twins, and for the last installment of the Potter
movies, Tom Felton, who played ‘Draco Malfoy’. Paramount had Johnny Knoxville
come in for the opening weekend of the last “Jack Ass” movie. Jennifer Hudson
was there for the opening of “Dreamgirls”. David Arquette hosted exclusive

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screenings of the first film he produced, wrote, directed and starred in with several
other cast members. Eight actors from the “Twilight” films including Ashley Green &
Kellan Lutz have hosted opening weekends of that series;with Peter Facinelli
hosting the opening weekend of the last installment of Twilight. Zach Gordon who
plays the title role of the “WimpyKid” in the movie series of the same name spent
the opening weekends hosting the film. Virginia Madsen was in for the opening
weekend of the exclusive Chicagoland run of “The Miracle of Belle Island” (in which
she co-starred with Morgan Freeman). The week before Christmas, Hollywood
hosted Bailee Madison & JoshRush for the Chicagoland Premier of “Parental
Guidance”, which later opened on Christmas Day and in which they co-stared with
Billy Crystal & Bette Midler. Hollywood has also beenthe host for cast appearances
or cast reunions such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Hannah Montana, The Wizard of
Oz, Animal House, WestSide Story, Rocky Horror, The PoseidonAdventure, High
SchoolMusical, Back to the Future, Oliver, Star Wars,Willie Wonka & others.
RogerEbert had ‘Tweeted” that Hollywood Blvd and Palms was his favorite
theaters.
The amount of recognitionon the national, state, and local levels with various,
marketing, community service and achievement awards that Bulthaup’s businesses
have beenhonored with are too numerous to list here, but inlcude two more marketing
awards from the National Associationof Theater Owners and nine ‘best’ awards for
publicity from the Chicago Publicity Club.
Over the years Bulthaup was an occasional guest lecturer to students on marketing
and entrepreneurship. He and the theaters are frequentsubjects of national and
worldwide news stories including a ‘go to’ resource for CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Reuters,
the Food Network and others.
Based on column inches, broadcastminutes, and website hits, the value of generated
publicity annually approached $15,000,000which is more than the entire tourism
advertising budgetfor the City of Chicago and the State of Indiana. The cinema’s
website receives at least 5000 hits per week and approximately 160,000 people
subscribed to the movie guide which is distributed by email every week. This is a great
boon for the cities in which the theaters were located.
Bulthaup has always interacted with the community and charitable organizations.
Due to the cost of giving away tickets, which is not allowed by the studios and the
theaters are charged the full costof admission,most other cinemas do not donate
tickets. Bulthaup donated admissions to many causes at his own expense. This
included regular LifeSource blooddrives at the cinemas, (get a free ticket when you
give blood) and those two theaters were the largest private source of blood for
DuPage County. Other highlights included the Easter Seals where entire facilities

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were donated for the use to hold private pre-release events for each of the Harry
Potter series of films. Funds were used in the fight against childhood leukemia and
eventually about $200,000was raised. Total admissions of over $50,000fora
weekend of “Back to the Future” screenings were donated to the Michael J. Fox
Foundation when four of the films actors, including Christopher Lloyd made an in-
theater personal appearance. When Terri Garr hosted screenings of “Young
Frankenstein” approximately $30,000 was raised in one evening for the fight against
MS (which she suffers from). The annual Oscar Night big screenevent raised
money for the Variety Children’s Charity, exceeding the amounts raised from
Richard Roeper’sdowntown Oscar events. The theaters received national awards
for the efforts from Easter Seals, Variety Clubs Children’s Charities, National
Associationof Theater Owners, LifeSourceand too many various local recognitions
to count; including from schools,little leagues, scouts, suicide prevention, wildlife
rescue and various other causes. Whenever the remaining Munchkins visited the
theaters for the annual screenings of “The Wizard of Oz”; Bulthaup would take
several to an area hospital and visit the children’s ward, or hold large “Meet a
Munchkin” events in the hospital cafeterias.
Two free tickets were awarded for every toy donated to one of the theaters during
the Christmas holidays, which were in turn donated to the WGNtoy drive. Karolyn
Grimes who played ZuZu in “It’s a WonderfulLife” made 15 annual paid personal
appearances hosting screenings of the iconic film at the theaters. Bulthaup would
always have her lead the processionof full toy laden vehicles to the studios,hosting
on air segments forthe toy drives final day and filming ‘promo spots’for the
following year.
Bulthaup also occasionally lectured to students about marketing and entrepreneurship.
He or the theaters have frequently beenthe subject of national and worldwide news
stories including even CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Reuters, the Network Food and others.
Bulthaup was a go to source for the media on industry issues,such as CNN & ABC
after Colorado shootings.
Bulthaup has been in the entertainment industry for 40 years, originated the dinner and
a movie conceptand has been successfulin that business for 25 years; easily the
most experienced personin the nation on this aspectof the industry.
Ted is a native Texan, born on an US Air Force base in Lubbockwhere his father was
a fighter pilot. He was a memberof St’ Johns UCC while in Indianapolis (with which his
family was affiliated for 4 generations) and now attends Willow Creek Community
Church in suburban Chicago. Married with 3 step children and four grandchildren.
Also 3 dogs (willing to let you have one certain dog), sponsored Tony Curtis’ horse
rescue ranch ‘Shiloh’ and sponsors a tiger at TippiHedren’s wildlife rescue,
‘Shambala’. Ted has also maintained his deep childhood interest in American history,

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especiallythe Texas Revolution and the Civil War period,Abraham Lincoln, Theodore
Roosevelt, the Hollywood movie history and bat conservation.
GO TO “Blackball Mines- Pictures for Bio” Best Copy

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Downtown theater owner
wins settlement from MGM
Hollywood Bar & Filmworks owner Ted
Bulthaup said he traded the right to show a movie
about a psychopathic cannibal for a six-figure
settlement.
Hours after filing a federal lawsuit, Bulthaup
and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio reached an
out-of-court settlement over the rights to show
the movie Hannibal in Downtown Indianapolis.
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court,
Bulthaup claimed his theater had a contract to be
the exclusive Downtown venue for the sequel to
the 1991 blockbuster Silence of the Lambs. The
movie opens Friday. The studio broke that deal,
Bulthaup claims, by sending the film to United
Artists theater at Circle Centre. “Just last week I
was cleaning popcorn off the floor wishing I had
a nickel for every kernel I have swept up over the
years, and now I do”, Bulthaup said.
Bulthaup wanted an order barring UA Circle
Centre from showing the film. But he and
MGM’s attorney Thomas Satron confirmed the
suit was settled in time to avoid the 3:00p.m.
hearing before U.S. District Judge Larry J.
McKinney.
“They paid us a lot of money,” Bulthaup said,
declining to be specific. Then, stealing a quote
from the movies, he said, “They made us an offer
I couldn’t refuse”.
Courtesy of the Indianapolis Star
Thursday February 8th, 2001