Irv Holender was responsible for founding ZIV International in 1971. He had previously earned the spot as the vice president of Licensing in 1966. Holender became the CEO of ZIV International and was the executive producer for many anime shows and live-action films. According to Multicom's website, the company managed to put out worldwide distribution for over 1700 films and accumulated over 3000 licenses from various companies during their stay. 

ZIV International’s practices of speedy acquiring of numerous shows and properties carries over to his current state with Multicom. Darrin Holender, his son, describes this process as the “importance of being patient during shifts in distribution trends, and to own as much of your own content as you can.”

Irv Holender with a young Darrin Holender

Only over a decade of its initial founding, Irv Holender sold ZIV International to Lorimar in 1982. He held the role as COO of ZIV/Lorimar until 1986, pursuing different companies in his career. That same year, Lorimar sold its library of ZIV content to Coral Pictures. 

Because of their business practices and handling with many anime titles, those that were in their library have become obscure and hard to find. Quite a number of their shows only had a few physical releases along with limited vinyl record issues. 

The only way to get your hands on ZIV International’s anime selection for the longest time was through buying their old tapes from the 70’s and 80’s. Thankfully, some of their material has surfaced online through sites like the Internet Archive and YouTube. Of course, not all of it has been found yet. 

ZIV International stands today as one of the more obscure companies that licensed and distributed anime before it became popular in the West. 

CONTINUE THE STORY HERE

SOURCES

Text Sources:1) Serafini, Dom. “The Holenders: A Tale of Two Generations.” Videoage 21 Oct, 2015https://www.videoageinternational.net/2015/10/21/hall-of-fame/the-holenders-a-tale-of-two-generations/
2) Sevakis, Travis. “Why Were TV Series Cut Into "Movies" For The US?” Anime News Network 29 Jan, 2018https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2018-01-29/.127050
3) “Coral Pictures Buys ZIV Library.” 24 Nov, 1986https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/86-OCR/BC-1986-11-24-OCR-Page-0105.pdf
4) “Meet the Team.” Multicom http://www.multicom.tv/about/
Image Sources:1) Irv Holender with a young Darrin Holender: https://www.videoageinternational.net/2015/10/21/hall-of-fame/the-holenders-a-tale-of-two-generations/