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Film poster
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A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and they normally contain an image with text. Todays posters often feature photographs of the main actors, prior to the 1990s, illustrations instead of photos were far more common. The text on film posters usually contains the title in large lettering. It may also include a tagline, the name of the director, names of characters, film posters are displayed inside and on the outside of movie theaters, and elsewhere on the street or in shops. The same images appear in the film exhibitors pressbook and may also be used on websites, DVD packaging, flyers, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, film posters have been used since the earliest public exhibitions of film. They began as outside placards listing the programme of films to be shown inside the hall or movie theater, by the early 1900s, they began to feature illustrations of a film scene or an array of overlaid images from several scenes. Other posters have used artistic interpretations of a scene or even the theme of the film, as an economy measure, the NSS regularly recycled posters that were returned, sending them back out to be used again at another theater. During this time, a film could stay in circulation for several years and those posters which were not returned were often thrown away by the theater owner, but some found their way into the hands of collectors. Today there is a thriving market in film posters, some have become very valuable. The record price for a poster was set on November 15,2005 when $690,000 was paid for a poster of Fritz Langs 1927 film Metropolis from the Reel Poster Gallery in London. The 1931 Frankenstein six-sheet poster, of only one copy is known to exist, is considered to be the most valuable film poster in the world. Over the years, old Bollywood posters, especially with hand-painted art, have become collectors items, occasionally, rare film posters have been found being used as insulation in attics and walls. In 2011,33 film posters, including a Dracula Style F one-sheet, from 1930-1931 were discovered in an attic in Berwick, Pennsylvania, as a result of market demand, some of the more popular older film posters have been reproduced either under license or illegally. Although the artwork on reproductions is the same as originals, reproductions can often be distinguished by size, printing quality, several websites on the Internet offer authentication tests to distinguish originals from reproductions. Original film posters distributed to theaters and other venues by the movie studios are never sold directly to the public. However, most modern posters are produced in quantities and often become available for purchase by collectors indirectly through various secondary markets such as eBay. Accordingly, most modern posters are not as valuable, however some recent posters, such as the recalled Pulp Fiction Lucky Strike U. S. one sheet poster, are quite rare
2.
Ralph Nelson
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Ralph Nelson was an American film and television director, producer, writer, and actor. Nelson was born in Long Island City, New York and he served in the Army Air Corps as a flight instructor in World War II. Nelson directed the acclaimed episode A World of His Own of The Twilight Zone and he also directed both the television and film versions of Rod Serlings Requiem for a Heavyweight. tick. tick. tick. Christmas Lilies of the Field, The Wilby Conspiracy, and Soldier Blue, the starring role in Lilies led to Sidney Poitier winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. He both directed, and briefly appeared in, Duel at Diablo, starring James Garner and Sidney Poitier, nelsons other credits include several episodes of TVs Starsky & Hutch, the 70s camp horror classic Embryo, and A Hero Aint Nothin But A Sandwich. A television drama about mounting the show of Requiem for a Heavyweight called The Man in the Funny Suit was made in 1960. Nelson, Serling, Red Skelton, Keenan Wynn and Ed Wynn appeared in it as themselves and he returned to TV in the late 1970s with a string of TV movies, including a sequel to Lillies of the Field which starred Billy Dee Williams. He died in 1987 in Santa Monica, California at the age of 71, film Lilies of the Field Soldier in the Rain Fate Is the Hunter Father Goose Once a Thief Duel at Diablo Counterpoint Charly. tick. tick. tick
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James Garner
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James Garner was an American actor, producer, and voice artist. Garner was born in Norman, Oklahoma on April 7,1928 and he was the youngest of three sons of Weldon Warren Bumgarner and Mildred Scott. His older brothers were Jack Garner and Charles Bumgarner, an administrator who died in 1984. His mother died when he was 5 years old, after their mothers death, Garner and his brothers were sent to live with relatives. Garner was reunited with his family in 1934, when Weldon remarried, Garner came to hate one of his stepmothers, Wilma, who beat all three boys. He said that his stepmother also punished him by forcing him to wear a dress in public, when he was 14 years old, he fought with her, knocking her down and choking her to keep her from killing him in retaliation. She left the family and never returned and his brother Jack later commented, She was a damn no-good woman. Garners last stepmother was Grace, whom he said he loved and called Mama Grace, after the war, Garner joined his father in Los Angeles and enrolled at Hollywood High School, where he was voted the most popular student. A high school gym teacher recommended him for a job modeling Jantzen bathing suits and it paid well, but in his first interview for the Archives of American Television, he said he hated modeling, he soon quit and returned to Norman. He played football and basketball at Norman High School), and competed on the track, however, he dropped out in his senior year. In a 1976 Good Housekeeping magazine interview, he admitted, I was a student and I never actually graduated from high school. Shortly after his fathers marriage to Wilma broke up, his father moved to Los Angeles, leaving Garner, after working at several jobs he disliked, Garner joined the United States Merchant Marine at age 16 near the end of World War II. He liked the work and his shipmates, but he suffered from chronic seasickness, Garner enlisted in the California Army National Guard, serving his first 7 months in California. He then went to Korea for 14 months, as a rifleman in the 5th Regimental Combat Team during the Korean War, Garner received the Purple Heart in Korea for the first wound. He qualified for a second Purple Heart, but he did not actually receive it until 1983,32 years after the event, Garner was a self-described scrounger for his company in Korea, a role he later played in The Great Escape and The Americanization of Emily. During the week of Garners death, TCM broadcast most of his movies, introduced by Robert Osborne, Garner subsequently moved to television commercials and eventually to television roles. His first film appearances were in The Girl He Left Behind, Boyne, a librarian from 1997, and involved a 1997 Almanac that was mistakenly left in the past by Boyne and found by Johnny in a bookstore. He changed his last name from Bumgarner to Garner after the studio had credited him as James Garner without permission and he then legally changed it upon the birth of his first child, when he decided she had too many names
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Sidney Poitier
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Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE, is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author and diplomat. In 1964, Poitier became the first Bahamian and first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role in Lilies of the Field. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of classic Hollywood cinema, from 1997 to 2007, he served as the non-resident Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12,2009, Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2016, he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding lifetime achievement in film. Sidney Poitiers parents were Evelyn and Reginald James Poitier, Bahamian farmers who owned a farm on Cat Island and traveled to Miami to sell tomatoes, Reginald worked as a cab driver in Nassau, Bahamas. Poitier was born in Miami while his parents were visiting and his birth was two months premature and he was not expected to survive, but his parents remained in Miami for three months to nurse him to health. Poitier grew up in the Bahamas, then a British Crown colony, because of his birth in the United States, he automatically received American citizenship. He mentions that the surname Poitier is a French name, Poitier lived with his family on Cat Island until he was 10, when they moved to Nassau. He was raised a Roman Catholic but, later became an agnostic with views closer to deism, at the age of 15, he was sent to Miami to live with his brother. At the age of 16, he moved to New York City, a waiter sat with him every night for several weeks helping him learn to read the newspaper. He lied about his age and enlisted in the Army during World War II in 1943, Poitier joined the North American Negro Theatre, but was rejected by audiences. Contrary to what was expected of African American actors at the time, determined to refine his acting skills and rid himself of his noticeable Bahamian accent, he spent the next six months dedicating himself to achieving theatrical success. By the end of 1949, he had to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out, Poitiers breakout role was as a member of an incorrigible high school class in Blackboard Jungle. Poitier was the first male actor of African descent to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award and he was also the first actor of African descent to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Poitier worked relatively little over the year, he remained the only major actor of African descent. He acted in the first production of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959 and he also gave memorable performances in The Bedford Incident, and A Patch of Blue co-starring Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters. In 1967, he was the most successful draw at the box office, Poitier was aware of this pattern himself, but was conflicted on the matter. For instance, in 1966, he turned down an opportunity to play the lead in an NBC production of Othello with that spirit in mind, in 2002, Poitier received the 2001 Honorary Academy Award for his overall contribution to American cinema
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Neal Hefti
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Neal Paul Hefti was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, songwriter, and arranger. He composed the music for the Batman television series of the 1960s, and scored the 1968 film The Odd Couple. He began arranging professionally in his teens, when he wrote charts for Nat Towles, after leaving Hermans band in 1946, Hefti concentrated on arranging and composing, although he occasionally led his own bands. He is especially known for his charts for Count Basie such as Lil Darlin, Neal Paul Hefti was born October 29,1922, to an impoverished family in Hastings, Nebraska. As a young child, he remembered his family relying on charity during the holidays and he started playing the trumpet in school at the age of eleven, and by high school was spending his summer vacations playing in local territory bands to help his family make ends meet. Growing up in, and near, a big city like Omaha, Hefti was exposed to some of the great bands and he also was able to see some of the virtuoso jazz musicians from New York that came through Omaha on tour. His early influences all came from the North Omaha scene and he said, Wed see Basie in town, and I was impressed by Harry Edison and Buck Clayton, being a trumpet player. And I would say I was impressed by Dizzy Gillespie when he was with Cab Calloway, I was impressed by those three trumpet players of the people I saw in person. I thought Harry Edison and Dizzy Gillespie were the most unique of the trumpet players I heard. In 1939, while still a junior at North High in Omaha, he got his start in the industry by writing arrangements of vocal ballads for local Mickey Mouse bands. Harold Johnson recalled that Heftis first scores for that band were Swingin On Lennox Avenue and More Than You Know, some material that he penned in high school also was used by the Earl Hines band. Two days before his high school graduation ceremony in 1941, he got an offer to go on tour with the Dick Barry band and he quickly was fired from the band after two gigs because he couldnt sight-read music well enough. Stranded in New Jersey because he didnt have money to get home to Nebraska. Shelly Manne, drummer with Bob Astor at the time, recalled that even then Heftis writing skills were quite impressive, and at night we didnt have nothing to do, and we were up at this place — Budd Lake. He said, What are we going to do tonight, I said, Why dont you write a chart for tomorrow. Neal was so great that hed just take out the paper, no score, — trumpet part, — trumpet part, — trombone part. I never forget, I couldnt believe it, Hefti wouldnt focus on arranging seriously for a few more years. As a member of Astors band, he concentrated on playing trumpet, after an injury forced him to leave Bob Astor, he stayed a while in New York
6.
United Artists
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United Artists is an American film and television entertainment studio. The studio was bought, sold and restructured over the ensuing century. On December 14 of the year, however, MGM acquired the 48% stake of UAMG it did not own. UA was incorporated as a joint venture on February 5,1919, by Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks, each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work. They were spurred on by established Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening their control over salaries and creative decisions. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before anything was formalized, when he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, is said to have observed, The inmates are taking over the asylum. The four partners, with advice from McAdoo, formed their distribution company and its headquarters was established at 729 Seventh Avenue in New York City. The original terms called for each of the stars to produce five pictures each year, UAs first film was a success. Without selling stock to the public, following the other studios, as a result, production was slow and the company distributed an annual average of five films during its first five years. By 1924 Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis, veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. He had been producing pictures for a decade, and he brought commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, contracts were signed with independent producers, most notably Samuel Goldwyn, and Howard Hughes. In 1933, Schenck organized a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, called Twentieth Century Pictures, Schenck formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name. They began international operations, first in Canada and then in Mexico, by the end of the 1930s, United Artists was represented in over 40 countries. When he was denied a share in 1935, Schenck resigned. He set up 20th Century Pictures merger with Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox, al Lichtman succeeded Schenck as company president. Other independent producers distributed through United Artists in the 1930s including, Walt Disney Productions, Alexander Korda, Hal Roach, David O. Selznick, as the years passed, and the dynamics of the business changed, these producing partners drifted away. Samuel Goldwyn Productions and Disney went to RKO, and Wanger to Universal Pictures, in the late 1930s, UA turned a profit
