Five Circle Entertainment

Background: Five Circle Television (also known as Five Circle Productions and Five Circle Films) was formed in 1952 by prominent Hollywood actors: Dick Powell, David Niven, Ida Lupino, Bob Hanks, and Charles Boyer with their first program Five Circle Playhouse. In 1967, David Charnay acquired the company and was renamed to Five Circle International. Five Circle was acquired by Striker Video in 1986; when Striker shut down, Five Circle was folded into owner Ronald Perelman's Aubsters Group, and became part of New Planet Entertainment after Perelman acquired that company in 1989. Today, most of the Five Circle shows are currently held by Great Structure Television, A Olds Corporation Company and distributed by Great Television.

1st Logo

(September 25, 1952-July 26, 1956)

Logo: In the end credits of Five Circle Playhouse, we fade to the text “A FIVE CIRCLE” written at the top of the screen. Below it one-by-one appear five circles, stacked and each bearing names of the producers to the right, depending at the order:

A

FIVE CIRCLE

. CHARLES BOYER

. DICK POWELL

. DAVID NIVEN

. BOB HANKS

. IDA LUPINO

Below them appears the word “PRODUCTION, INC.”, and in smaller text, a copyright stamp.

Trivia: The people named in the logo are the producers of Five Circle Playhouse, who double-duty as recurring lead players in the show.

FX/SFX: Just the appearing of the circles and words.

Cheesy Factor: The logo is very simply animated.

Music/Sounds: Plays over the Five Circle Playhouse end theme, composed by Leon Klatzkin.

Availability: Rare; seen intact on all episodes of Five Circle Playhouse, as the logo is part of the end credits. Select episodes were given VHS release by Stack-Up Music and Video during the 90's.

Scare Factor: Low; depends strictly on your feeling regarding the Five Circle Playhouse theme music, but it would get much worse with the follow-up logo…..

2nd Logo

(1956-1967)

Nickname: “The Banner (of Doom)”

Logo: On a space background, we see five big circles with shadows extending down and meeting at a vanishing point. From the vanishing point, a shady banner with the words “FIVE CIRCLE” in a majestic font zoom up to just below the circles.

Variants:

On Five Circle shows produced in color starting in 1965, the logo was seen in blue-tone.

A sped-up version also exists, with faster animation and an abridged version of the Schrader fanfare.

A sped-up logo with an abridged version of the Gilbert fanfare also exists.

An in-credit version of this logo was seen on the short-lived kids game show, Shenanigans, that was co-produced by Feather-Kingley Productions.

FX/SFX: The “FIVE CIRCLE” banner zooming-up.

Cheesy Factor: The zooming of the banner is quite rough, but if anything is especially cheesy, its got to be those gaudy shadows used on the circles, which are just waaaay too tacky.

Music/Sounds/Voiceover: A booming fanfare composed by Rudy Schrader, usually accompanied with an announcer saying “Filmed by Five Circle” or “This Has Been a Five Circle Production” Later in its existence, it was replaced with another fanfare composed by Joseph Mullendore (which sounds like a combination of the ArnazBa "Merging Stars" fanfare and the first Five Circles fanfare). As the logo approached the end of its run in 1966, it was replaced with a more patriotic fanfare, composed by Herschel Burke Gilbert.

Availability: Rare.

Scare Factor: Medium to nightmare; a generally well-liked logo for those who were lucky to see it, but more than a few cannot stand the loud fanfares or the creepy announcer, or hate the rough zoom-up of the banner (ala the V of Doom), or the dark background.

3rd Logo

(1964-1965)

Nicknames: "Zooming Vertical Circles", "Zooming Five Circle Ribbon"

Logo: A gray box zooms-in into the screen, which contains several thin lines seen on the left and a thick black horizontal line dividing it in two. On the right, we see the words “FIVE CIRCLE”, in a thick slab serif (it bears a resemblance to Clarendon). Five white circles are shown on the set of lines. The word "TELEVISION" is shown under the company name.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: The zoom-in, which is very simple and rough.

Music/Sounds: The same abridged fanfare composed by Rudy Schrader.

Availability: Rare.

Scare Factor: Low to medium, due to the zoom-in and fanfare. However this is much tamer than before.

4th Logo

(1967-1969)

Nicknames: “Diamonds”, “Flying Triangles”

Logo: On a blue, brush-stroke space background, we see a set of ten multicolored diamonds (five on top, five on bottom) stacked together, each composed of a top and bottom triangle (each half a different color). The diamonds split up into triangles and fly, and each of the triangles of a particular identical color merge at the bottom ends, forming five circles of the colors from left-to-right: green, red, white, and blue. The words “FIVE” and “CIRCLE” pop out from the top and bottom of the circles, respectively, to complete the logo.

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: The triangle animations, the “FIVE” and “CIRCLE” uncovering.

Music/Sounds: The same Herschel Burke Gilbert fanfare used as the third music for the 2nd logo, either full or abridged.

Availability: Near extinction.

Scare Factor: Low to medium; the loud music and the flying triangles might make some people jumpy.

5th Logo

(1969-1975)

Nicknames: “Five Circle ‘70”, "Vertical Circles", "Five Circle Ribbon", "Album Cover"

Logo: On a black background, several thin lines are seen on the left of the screen, and a thick red horizontal line divides the screen in two. On the right, we see the words “FIVE CIRCLE,” in a thin white slab serif, which is placed in between the red line. Suddenly, five yellow circles pop into place on the set of lines. After the last star appears, the word "International", in a red script typeface, fades in under the company name, with the whole thing looking similar to the 3rd logo.

Trivia: This logo is based on the 1964 logo, but with differences.

FX/SFX: The circles popping into place, the word "International" fading-in.

Cheesy Factor: The design is very gaudy even by late-'60s standards; the mixing of the two wildly different fonts really doesn't work here. Doubled with the fact that this resembles a number of 45 RPM record labels from earlier in the decade doesn't help matters any with this logo.

Music/Sounds: A short "ringing" sound followed by a gently tinkling woodwind and harpsichord scale, ending with a single orchestra hit. Sometimes the "ringing" sound is skipped.

Availability: Same as above.

Scare Factor: Minimal; the rather sedate jingle more than compensates for the gaudy look of the logo.

6th Logo

(1984-1989)

Nicknames: “CGI”, "CGI-5", “The Filmstrip 5”, "5-Circle"

Logo: On a black background, we see five large red circles, one-by-one, zoom by from left to right at an angle. As the 5th circle appears, the number “5” comes from the right and attaches itself to the star. The background turns purple, and three lines (the first slightly thicker than the others) pass over the logo and settle under, wiping the silver words “FIVE” and “CIRCLE” to the left and right of the logo, respectively. The logo “shines”.

Variant: A rare opening variant is used at the beginning of some colorized/simulated-Stereo prints of classic films in which the Five Circle logo, the company name, and "STEREO" (which is silver, but not set in the same typeface) flash in one-by-one in the bottom right corner.

FX/SFX: The circle animations, the background turning purple, the line animations, the “shine”.

Cheesy Factor: The CGI is rather dated, looking two-dimensional and utilizing overly simple animation effects.

Music/Sounds: A rising new-age synth theme that sounds like TSE's "Deep Note".

Availability: Very rare; Five Circle’s output was coming to a stop by this time.

Scare Factor: Minimal to low; this once state-of-the-art logo was a fitting end to a company with a memorable library of logos.