AIP vice-president Samuel Z. Arkoff credits Nicholson with being the idea man at the
company. He would come up with a great title and a campaign would be
built around it. When that was all settled, they would get around to
actually making the film.
When he divorced his first wife Sylvia, her settlement included a
portion of his stock in American-International Pictures. This reduced
his status as an equal partner with Samuel Z. Arkoff.
Before teaming up with Samuel Z. Arkoff, Nicholson was the sales manager at
Realart Pictures. Realart was a company that bought the distribution
rights to older films from other studios for a set period of time and
re-released them.