September Issue - PLSN.com

Olesen Theatrical
Supply
Enters Second
Century
By KevinM.Mitchell
How bad can
things get?
Imagine that a stellar century-old company’s
image would be so tarnished that the
new owners seriously considered scrapping
the name.
“We went through a severe debate internally
about it,” sighs Mark Rosenthal. “Do we
even keep the name? There had been a considerable
amount of negativism associated
with it… but then again, it was such a wellknown
brand we felt with the right people,
the right relationships, we could make up for
the two years” when the company struggled.
“We did have a bad reputation,” Kelly
Koskella adds. “Our product wasn’t maintained,
personnel weren’t well-trained, and
there wasn’t good leadership.”
But now everything old is new again.
Today, with new owners George and Mark
Rosenthal (of Raleigh Enterprises, the nation’s
largest private studio company) and
Olesen’s new executive vice president Koskella
running things, the organization has
turned around—and the new team wants
everyone to know it.
Rise and Fall…
Otto K. Olesen took the
“go west young man” axiom to
heart and went to Hollywood
in 1905 when the town had
a mere 500 people. There he
founded the company that
serviced the growing motion picture industry.
The town, the industry and Olesen
grew dramatically, and soon it was one of
the biggest and best-known rental houses
and manufacturers of lighting and related
equipment in the Los Angeles area. Eventually
it relocated to Burbank and at its
height it maintained an inventory of over
130,000 items.
A staple of movie premieres in the 1930s
and beyond, it was also the first company
to light the Hollywood Bowl, says Koskella,
who has gotten to look through the nearly
100 year-old photos of the company’s history.
“They did a huge lighting ceremony at
the Coliseum, and the L.A. court building,
and lit all of Hollywood Boulevard for a military
event,” Koskella tells. “They were one of
the first to create lighting, generator trucks
and skylights.”
Another Olesen legacy is that there
were many who left and went out to form
other great companies. ELS, Premiere, Illumination
Dynamics and others all have
founders who have roots with Olesen.
In 1997, Olesen became a subsidiary of
“Problems included deferred
maintenance, a high turnover rate, and
most alarming, a spotty reputation.”
Hollywood Rentals and by the end of that
decade mismanagement, failure to keep
up with a changing market and a series of
ill-advised decisions, like moving from Burbank
to Northridge, had taken its toll on the
company. Hollywood Rentals/Olesen filed
for bankruptcy in 2000.
In January 2001, Raleigh Enterprises
became an investor in the group that purchased
Hollywood Rentals/Olesen out of
bankruptcy. However, management difficulties
continued to plague the company,
resulting in continued loss of market share
and staff. Then minority holders George and
Mark Rosenthal took a big risk: they bought
out the other owners, and brought it out of
bankruptcy in April 2004.
“At that point, Olesen didn’t have much
of an identity from Hollywood Rentals,” Raleigh
President Mark Rosenthal says. There
were many concerns and the father and son
team were well aware of the risk they were
taking. “The company had just moved to
Northridge, which was not a great location.”
Other problems include deferred maintenance,
a high turnover rate (“the exact
opposite of what we have with our other
companies”) and perhaps most alarming, a
spotty reputation.
They turned to Koskella, who had an onagain
off-again relationship with the company,
leaving twice and returning twice. Koskella
started out in Hollywood as an actor
in 1976 doing commercials and guest spots
in a few TV series and feature films. In the
early 1980s, a shoulder injury sidelined him,
so on the advice of a buddy at Acey Decy
Theatrical he took a job there and never
looked back. He started at the very bottom,
taking orders and working the floor, and in
1986 he went to J&L Service. He was there
when Hollywood Rentals bought it out in
1993. Shortly thereafter he left, tried other
jobs and traveled.
“But I kept talking about the business,
and finally my wife pointed out that I was
always happy there, so I came back.”
Meanwhile, the Rosenthals had tried to
lure Koskella back when they were still minority
holders in the company. It took three
sit-downs with Koskella, and he turned them
down a couple of times. “It wasn’t about the
money, and they had the right vision. But
their partners….” Almost as a dare, Koskella
34 PLSN SEPTEMBER 2006
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