handedly responsible for the original films  financial success) had suddenly quit, and they had done it during a  press conference at the National Association of Theater Owners  convention in Atlanta, the biggest event of the year for the  nations theater owners. The reason they had quit, they announced,  was that Laughlin had changed the deal and was now refusing to give  distributors the picture without a cash advance. Laughlin regarded  it as an outright lie. With this development, Laughlin and wife  Delores Taylor knew that their film would be denied exhibition in  each of the 1,200 theaters that agreed to show it. The problem was  resolved and the film went on to become one of the top money