$6.7-MILLION CHECK IN SPOTLIGHT : Inclusion in Bond Program Recognizes Educational Stature of AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies and Gives It a Better Loan Repayment Rate

‘And there it is!” exclaimed American Film Institute Director Jean Firstenberg with a flourish as she pointed to State of California Check No. 421-887925. Although Gregory Peck and State Treasurer Jesse Unruh were right beside her, the $6.7-million check--dated Dec. 21, 1984--was clearly the star.

As Firstenberg noted at the combination press conference-ceremonial event Monday morning, the check has allowed the American Film Institute to pay off its creditor, Union Bank, for the purchase and renovation of its eight-acre site, formerly the campus of Immaculate Heart College at 2021 N. Western Ave.

With that check, AFI becomes the first arts institute to participate in the California Educational Facilities Authority (CEFA) Pooled Bond Program. Along with a dozen other colleges and universities that include Stanford, USC, Harvey Mudd of the Claremont Colleges and various church-affiliated colleges and universities, AFI shares in a Triple-A insured $60,935,000 tax-exempt bond issue.

As AFI officials noted with pride, AFI’s inclusion has a double impact: It recognizes the educational stature of AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies and gives it a better loan repayment rate than conventional loans. Interest on the 15-year loan is 9.93%. Because investors purchased the pooled CEFA bonds when they became available between Nov. 20 and Dec. 21, 1984, investors may purchase them now only on the secondary bond market.

Asked why announcement of the AFI share was being made now instead of last December, Unruh replied with deft flip: “Seemed like we would get a little better press coverage this way.”

To enhance the event, Mayor Tom Bradley had proclaimed Monday American Film Institute Day.

Peck, in pinstripes and green-tinted glasses, opened the 25-minute ceremony by recalling that AFI grew out of Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 arts and humanities legislation, which created the National Endowment for the Arts. “And out of that beginning came AFI,” the actor said. Working with George Stevens Sr. and architect William Pereira, Peck began to “lay the foundation stones.”

There were troubles at first, he recalled. “We were determined that all the film community in the country would be represented, would have a voice in AFI. That led us to visits to universities, to avant-garde film makers, Hollywood film makers. . . .”

When he approached one avant- garde film maker, Peck said, he was told by the producer that the proposed institute would enhance commercial film making and that “he didn’t want any part in it. Then again I remember visiting the head of MGM at the time, the smiling cobra, Jim Aubrey. He said, ‘I don’t want anything to do with that, because it will not turn out commercial film makers. . . .’

“Over the years we’ve developed,” Peck concluded simply.

Unruh noted that the film industry is the fourth largest in the state, employing 80,000 persons, contributing more than $1 billion to the economy and “well over $100 million in state and local taxes.”

But there was humor intermixed with the numbers. Looking out over a sea of cameras, some of them from AFI itself, Unruh quipped: “I’m proud to be here today in front of so much equipment that I financed.”