A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : ROLL CREDITS : Well, They Were the Good Old Hollywood Days

Years ago in Hollywood, it wasn’t uncommon to find studio heads like 20th Century Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck or MGM’s Dore Schary putting their names on the opening credits of a film. In recent years, though, the practice disappeared as studio presidents and chairmen opted for anonymity, giving the credit to the actual producer of the movie.

Not so for Frank Price. The former Columbia Pictures chairman has added his name as producer alongside Steve Roth’s on Columbia’s “Gladiators,” which arrives in theaters March 6.

The film, billed as a Price Entertainment/Steve Roth production, is a drama set in the world of underground amateur boxing, directed by Rowdy Harrington and starring James Marshall, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Robert Loggia.

According to sources, Price’s move has irked current Columbia Chairman Mark Canton, who replaced Price, and Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Peter Guber, in addition to Roth himself.

“This is a man who was running the studio while the film was in production, never visited the set and didn’t produce the movie,” one source said. “So why should he get a producing credit? Most everybody thinks it’s embarrassing and laughable that Frank stuck his name on the movie.”

Price, who resigned as chairman of Columbia in October, 1991, says he has been developing the project since it was brought to him by Roth in 1982 and defends putting his name on the credits as producer. “I’ve been very involved with the development of this project for many years and I think I’ve been instrumental in getting it made,” Price says.

But another industry source says, “Producing a movie is different than developing a movie. As chairman of the studio, he was paid to develop a lot of material. Does he deserve a producing credit for all the films he developed? I don’t think so.”

In 1983, Price left Columbia and became chairman of the Motion Picture Group at Universal and took the “Gladiators” project with him. He left Universal in 1986 and started his own company, Price Entertainment, which had its headquarters at TriStar. Once again, Price took the project with him and continued developing it. He rejoined Columbia as chairman in 1990.

By the time “Gladiators” went into production, Price was running Columbia and Steve Roth was the film’s producer. It was after he left Columbia last fall that he suddenly decided to take a producer’s credit--and this is what seems to make everybody so mad.

Some see the arrangement as part of the deal under which he left Columbia. “Because he had the good fortune to settle his contract with the studio in a way that gave him a lot of leverage, he managed to stick his name on the credits,” says the industry source.

Price says he deserves the credit and that he was involved with the production of the film. “I stayed right on top of everything,” he says. “I was involved with the script, the casting, direction, post-production, everything.” This is disputed by sources connected with the film, who contend that Price only saw one day’s worth of dailies and wasn’t permitted to see the film until it was almost completed.

Other industry sources speculate that Price decided to put his name on as producer after the studio started conducting test screenings and the research results were favorable. “Believe me,” says the source, “if the test results had been bad, he wouldn’t have taken a credit.”

Executives at Columbia declined to comment on the matter. Publicly, Roth says, “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a non-issue.”

Another industry source says he hopes Price’s action doesn’t start a trend. “Every producer in Hollywood gets a little nervous about seeing something like this,” he says. “It’s a scary precedent.’