National Lampoon Finds an ‘Animal’ in Its House

One of the wild beasts of “Animal House” is foraging in National Lampoon’s corporate cafeteria.

Tim Matheson, who played Otter in the 1978 hit movie, is part of an investor alliance that has served notice that it may seek control of struggling National Lampoon Inc.

Two years ago the New York-based magazine and film company was the subject of a bidding war. However, the winner--an investment group led by Los Angeles lawyer George A. Vandeman--could not arrange financing, and the $12.6-million sale agreement fell apart.

Grodnik/Matheson Co., a Los Angeles independent production firm, is part of the new alliance that is said to represent about 20% of the shares of publicly traded National Lampoon.

‘Management Is Excellent’

According to documents filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission by one of the investors, a Nebraska entity, the group recently agreed to vote together to acquire “power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of National Lampoon Inc. by virtue of a majority of the directors” designated by Grodnik/Matheson.

However, National Lampoon Chairman Matty Simmons said at his Los Angeles office Wednesday that Matheson, Daniel Grodnik and an unidentified third individual told him in a meeting Tuesday that they do not intend to “move in” and seek control “if we are amenable” to giving them representation on the board.

“This is what they’re telling me,” said Simmons, the magazine’s editor in chief. “They think management is excellent. They realize we’ve had some difficult problems. It seems we’ve solved most of them. They would just like to be part of the team--they would just like to have representation on the board.”

He said that management “will think it out and make a response at the appropriate time.”

Matheson said late Wednesday that his company is filing its own SEC report today and that, meanwhile, he could not comment on the situation.

Subscriber List Cut

Simmons said he owns 9% of the firm’s 1.6 million shares, but added that he and his family, along with National Lampoon employees, together represent more than 20% of the shares.

The executive said National Lampoon was one of the victims of a campaign several years ago by fundamentalist religious groups and the Justice Department’s Commission on Pornography--the so-called Meese Commission--against publications including Playboy and Penthouse magazines. “Being the smallest, we were hurt the most,” Simmons said.

The loss of national advertising forced his magazine to pare its list of 500,000 subscribers by half. Simmons said the magazine has been enjoying “an enormous comeback after four years of being up the creek.” He said national advertising is up 31% this year and is expected to increase another 50% in 1989.

This week’s SEC filing was by Parsow Partnership Ltd. of Elkhart, Neb., which said it holds 98,200 shares or 6.33% of National Lampoon. The general partner is Alan S. Parsow, who said that he has been a stockholder of Lampoon since 1986. In the last 60 days, the partnership bought 5,500 shares more of National Lampoon at a price of $2.92 per share and sold 3,700 shares at $4.125. The stock has traded recently at a bid price of $4 in the over-the-counter market.