Empire Picture Corporation, a joint venture of Will Lyman's Whitethroat Productions, and Jerri Sher's Jerri Productions, is currently offering for broadcast SOUL OF AN EMPIRE, a 54 minute story about the largest urban redevelopment project in history which transformed legendary 42nd Street in New York City from flophouse to theme park.

The fabled strip between Times Square and Eighth Avenue, known as "The Deuce," was slated for destruction, to be rebuilt as highrise corporate offices. But, through the determination of a few who remembered what 42nd Street once was and, ultimately, through a fateful twist of economic fate, the famous theater row was preserved as an entertainment district.

Narrated by Robert Guillaume (BENSON), SOUL OF AN EMPIRE tells the story of America's lingering love affair with a street that, by 1980, had become a public nuisance. The plans to obliterate the icon by turning it into a business and financial center galvanized the public and made clear how reluctant we are to let go of the past. The largely corporate entertainment center that exists on the site today is a city's attempt to rediscover the gritty exuberance of a street that was always "slightly out of control." The New 42nd Street houses nearly fifty movie screens and embraces three magnificently restored theaters as legitimate stages.

The Empire Theater on the move.

Powered by Abbott and Costello.

"Who's on first" spoofed that night on Jay Leno.

The New York Times spells it out.

Co-producers Will Lyman and Jerri Sher worked for three years with veteran cinematographer Jeri Sopanen (MY DINNER WITH ANDRE), to create an unusually lush image of the two billion dollar makeover. The film also includes remarkable and unique six-camera, time-lapse footage of the moving of the Empire Theater. The original score was written by Billy Novick.

For more information, please call Jerri Sher at (800) 244-8044.