1.
Waterbury, Connecticut
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Waterbury is a city in the U. S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River,33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City. Waterbury is in New Haven County, Connecticut and it was noted for the manufacture of watches and clocks. The city is along Interstate 84 and Route 8 and has a Metro-North railroad station with connections to Grand Central Terminal, the original settlement of Waterbury in 1674 was in the area now known as the Town Plot section. In 1675, the turbulence of King Philips War caused the new settlement to be vacated until the resumption of peace in 1677, the original Algonquin inhabitants called the area Matetacoke meaning the interval lands. Thus, the name was Anglicised to Mattatuck in 1673. At that time, it included all or parts of what became the towns of Watertown, Plymouth, Wolcott, Prospect, Naugatuck, Thomaston. Growth was slow during Waterburys first hundred years, the lack of land due to the constant flooding of the Naugatuck River in particular. Furthermore, the residents suffered through a flood in 1691. After a century, Waterburys population numbered just 5,000, the new brass industry attracted many immigrant laborers from all over the world, leading to an influx of diverse nationalities. Waterbury was incorporated as a city in 1853 and, as the Brass Capital of the World, Brass and copper supplied by Waterbury was notably used in Nevadas Boulder Dam and found myriad applications across the United States, as well. Another famous Waterbury product of the century was Robert H. Ingersolls one-dollar pocket watch. After this, the industry became as important as Waterburys famed brass industry. Evidence of these two important industries can still be seen in Waterbury, as numerous clocktowers and old factories have become landmarks of the city. In June 1920, labor unrest occurred in the town, with striking workers fighting with police on the street, over 30 were arrested, mostly Lithuanians, Russians, Poles, and Italians. The strikers numbered some 15,000, with most being employed at Scovill, Chase Rolling Mill, one striker was shot to death by police. At its peak during World War II,10,000 people worked at the Scovill Manufacturing Co, the citys metal manufacturing mills occupied more than 2 million square feet and more than 90 buildings. Michael J. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Connecticut, though the first councils were all in Connecticut, the Order spread throughout the United States in the following years. Established in 1894, St. Josephs Church holds the distinction of being the first Lithuanian worshiping community in Connecticut, the first Unico Club was founded in Waterbury in 1922
2.
Beverly Hills, California
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Beverly Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood. By 2013, its population had grown to 34,658, sometimes referred to as 90210, one of its primary ZIP codes, it was home to many actors and celebrities throughout the 20th century. The city includes the Rodeo Drive shopping district and the Beverly Hills Oil Field, gaspar de Portolá arrived in the area that would later become Beverly Hills on August 3,1769, travelling along native trails which followed the present-day route of Wilshire Boulevard. The area was settled by Maria Rita Quinteros de Valdez and her husband in 1828 and they called their 4,500 acres of property the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. in 1854, she sold the ranch to Benjamin Davis Wilson and Henry Hancock. By the 1880s, the ranch had been subdivided into parcels of 75 acres and was being bought up by anglos from Los Angeles. Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker acquired most of it, at this point, the area was known as the Hammel and Denker Ranch. By 1888, Denker and Hammel were planning to build a town called Morocco on their holdings and they did not find enough to exploit commercially by the standards of the time, though. In 1906, therefore, they reorganized as the Rodeo Land and Water Company, renamed the property Beverly Hills, subdivided it, the development was named Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts and because of the hills in the area. The first house in the subdivision was built in 1907, although sales remained slow, Beverly Hills was one of many all-white planned communities started in the Los Angeles area around this time. Restrictive covenants prohibited non-whites from owning or renting property unless they were employed as servants by white residents and it was also forbidden to sell or rent property to Jews in Beverly Hills. Burton Green began construction on The Beverly Hills Hotel in 1911, the hotel was finished in 1912. The visitors drawn by the hotel were inclined to purchase land in Beverly Hills and that same year, the Rodeo Land and Water Company decided to separate its water business from its real estate business. The Beverly Hills Utility Commission was split off from the company and incorporated in September 1914, buying all of the utilities-related assets from the Rodeo Land. In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford bought land on Summit Drive and built a mansion, finished in 1921, the glamor associated with Fairbanks and Pickford as well as other movie stars who built mansions in the city contributed to its growing appeal. By the early 1920s the population of Beverly Hills had grown enough to make the water supply a political issue, in 1923 the usual solution, annexation to the city of Los Angeles, was proposed. There was considerable opposition to annexation among such famous residents as Pickford, Fairbanks, Will Rogers, the Beverly Hills Utility Commission, opposed to annexation as well, managed to force the city into a special election and the plan was defeated 337 to 507. In 1925, Beverly Hills approved an issue to buy 385 acres for a new campus for UCLA. The cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Venice also issued bonds to pay for the new campus
3.
Howard Hawks
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Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him the greatest American director who is not a household name, Hawks was a versatile director whose career included comedies, dramas, gangster films, science fiction, film noir, and westerns. His most popular films include Scarface, Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Red River, The Thing from Another World, and Rio Bravo. His frequent portrayals of strong, tough-talking female characters came to define a type—the Hawksian woman and his work has influenced some of the most popular and respected directors such as Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, John Carpenter, and Quentin Tarantino. Howard Winchester Hawks was born in Goshen, Indiana, the child of Frank W. Hawks, a wealthy paper manufacturer, and his wife, Helen. Hawkss family on his fathers side were American pioneers and his ancestor John Hawks had emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1630. The family eventually settled in Goshen and by the 1890s was one of the wealthiest families in the Midwest, Hawkss maternal grandfather, C. W. Howard, had homesteaded in Neenah, Wisconsin in 1862 at age 17. Within 15 years he had made his fortune in the paper mill. Frank Hawks and Helen Howard met in the early 1890s and married in 1895, Howard Hawks was the eldest of five children and his birth was followed by Kenneth Neil Hawks, William Bellinger Hawks, Grace Louise Hawks and Helen Bernice Hawks. In 1898, the moved to Neenah, Wisconsin where Frank Hawks began working for his father-in-laws Howard Paper Company. Between 1906 and 1909, the Hawks family began to more time in Pasadena. Gradually they began to only their summers in Wisconsin before permanently moving to Pasadena in 1910. The family settled in a house down the street from Throop Polytechnic Institute, Hawks was an average student at school and did not excel in sports, but by 1910 had discovered coaster racing, an early form of soapbox racing. In 1911, Hawkss youngest sibling Helen died suddenly of food poisoning, from 1910 to 1912, Hawks attended Pasadena High School. But in 1912, the Hawks family moved to nearby Glendora, California, while in New England, Hawks often attended the theaters in nearby Boston. In 1914, Hawks returned to Glendora and graduated from Pasadena High School that year and that same year, Hawks was accepted to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he majored in mechanical engineering and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. In 1916, Hawkss grandfather, C. W. Howard, bought him a Mercer race car and it was at this time that Hawks first met Victor Fleming, allegedly when the two men raced on a dirt track and caused an accident. Fleming had been an auto mechanic and early aviator when his old friend Marshall Neilan recommended him to film director Allan Dwan as a good mechanic
4.
Academy Award for Best Actress
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The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Janet Gaynor receiving the award for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actresses were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actress is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, one actress has been nominated posthumously, Jeanne Eagels. Only three film characters have been nominated more than once in this category, elizabeth I of England, Leslie Crosbie in The Letter, and Esther Blodgett in A Star is Born. Six women on the list have received an Honorary Academy Award for their acting, they are Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Pickford, Deborah Kerr, Gena Rowlands, since its inception, the award has been given to 74 actresses. Katharine Hepburn has won the most awards in this category, with four Oscars, meryl Streep, who has a total of 20 Oscar nominations, has been nominated in this category on 16 occasions, resulting in two awards. As of the 2017 ceremony, Emma Stone is the most recent winner in category for her role as Mia Dolan in La La Land. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933
5.
Irish Americans
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Irish Americans are an ethnic group comprising Americans who have full or partial ancestry from Ireland, especially those who identify with that ancestry, along with their cultural characteristics. About 33.3 million Americans—10. 5% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2013 American Community Survey conducted by the U. S. Census Bureau and this compares with a population of 6.4 million on the island of Ireland. Three million people identified as Scots-Irish, whose ancestors were Ulster Scots who emigrated from Ireland to the United States. An estimated 250,000 migrated to the United States during the colonial era, only 20,000 immigrants of these immigrants from Ireland were Catholics—English, Irish or a few Germans. Catholics numbered 40,000 or 1. 6% of the population of 2.5 million in 1775. The Scots-Irish settled mainly in the back country of the Appalachian Mountain region. Irish Americans signed the documents of the United States—the Declaration of Independence. The early Ulster immigrants and their descendants at first usually referred to simply as Irish. However, most descendants of the Scots-Irish continued to consider themselves Irish or American rather than Scots-Irish, however, beginning in the early 19th century, many Irish migrated individually to the interior for work on large-scale infrastructure projects such as canals and, later in the century, railroads. During the colonial period, Scots-Irish settled in the southern Appalachian backcountry, by the 19th century, through intermarriage with settlers of English and German ancestry, the descendants of the Scots-Irish lost their identification with Ireland. This generation of pioneers. was a generation of Americans, not of Englishmen or Germans or Scots-Irish, in 1820 Irish-born John England became the first Catholic bishop in the mainly Protestant city of Charleston, South Carolina. During the 1820s and 30s, Bishop England defended the Catholic minority against Protestant prejudices, in 1831 and 1835, he established free schools for free African American children. Inflamed by the propaganda of the American Anti-Slavery Society, a mob raided the Charleston post office in 1835, England led Charlestons Irish Volunteers to defend the school. Soon after this, however, all schools for blacks were closed in Charleston. The Irish Catholics concentrated in a few medium-sized cities, where they were visible, especially in Charleston, Savannah. After secession in 1861, the Irish Catholic community supported the Confederacy and 20,000 served in the Confederate Army, civilian leaders of the Irish and the South did embrace the Confederate national project and most became advocates of a hard-war policy. Although most began as unskilled laborers, Irish Catholics in the South achieved average or above average economic status by 1900, the large Erie Canal project was one such example where Irishmen were many of the laborers. Small but tight communities developed in growing such as Philadelphia, Boston, New York
6.
Tarrytown, New York
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Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the bank of the Hudson River, about 25 miles north of midtown Manhattan in New York City. To the north of Tarrytown is the village of Sleepy Hollow, to the south the village of Irvington, the Tappan Zee Bridge crosses the Hudson at Tarrytown, carrying the New York State Thruway to South Nyack, Rockland County and points in Upstate New York. The population was 11,277 at the 2010 census, the Native American Weckquaesgeek tribe, who were closely related to the Wappinger Confederacy and further related to the Mohicans, lived in the area prior to European settlement. They fished the Hudson River for shad, oysters and other shellfish, the first European settlers of Tarrytown were Dutch farmers, fur trappers, and fishermen. Records show that the first Dutch residence in Tarrytown was built in 1645, however, Tarrytown sits within the lands of the former Dutch Colony of New Netherland which became English territory in 1674 with the signing of the Treaty of Westminster. The Dutch called the area Terwe Town, the soil was light and ideal for growing cereal grains like wheat, mispronunciations led to the current name of Tarrytown. In 1780, in a famous Revolutionary War incident, Major John André was arrested as a spy in Tarrytown, André, a British army officer, was traveling south through the village on the Albany Post Road when he was stopped and searched by three local militiamen. When suspicious papers were found in his boot, he was arrested as a spy, Tarrytown was described in 1820 by the writer Washington Irving in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small town or rural port which by some is called Greenburgh. The Underground Railroad ran through Tarrytown prior to the end of the U. S. Civil War, Tarrytown later became a favorite residence for many rich New Yorkers, including John D. Rockefeller, who first moved to Tarrytown in 1893. Kykuit, Rockefellers elaborate mansion, was completed in 1906, in 1914, Kykuit became the site of numerous labor protests by radical anarchists, which were broken up by police in a series of violent clashes. Kykuit was the target of at least two bombing attacks planned by anarchists associated with the radical journalists Alexander Berkman and Luigi Galleani. On November 19,1915, a dynamite bomb was discovered at Cedar Cliff. Police theorized the bomb was planted by anarchists and Industrial Workers of the World radicals as a protest against the execution of IWW member Joe Hill in Salt Lake City. The bomb was discovered by a gardener, John Walquist, who found four sticks of dynamite, weighing a pound each, the bomb was later defused by police. Lyndhurst and Sunnyside are listed as National Historic Landmarks, the General Motors car manufacturing plant North Tarrytown Assembly was located in North Tarrytown until 1996. Todays Metro-North Railroads Hudson Line runs through the abandoned property, the two villages have shared a school district for 55 years
7.
Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
8.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
9.
Saranac Lake, New York
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Saranac Lake is a village in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,406, the village is named after Upper, Middle and Lower Saranac lakes, which are nearby. The village of Saranac Lake covers parts of three towns and two counties, the county line is within two blocks of the center of the village. At the 2010 census,3,897 village residents lived in Harrietstown,1,367 lived in North Elba, and 142 lived in St. Armand. The village boundaries do not touch the shores of any of the three Saranac Lakes, Lower Saranac Lake, the nearest, is a mile west of the village. The northern reaches of Lake Flower, which is a part of the Saranac River downstream from the three Saranac Lakes, lie within the village. The town of Saranac is a separate entity,33 miles down the Saranac River to the northeast. The village lies within the boundaries of the Adirondack Park,9 miles west of Lake Placid and these two villages, along with nearby Tupper Lake, comprise what is known as the Tri-Lakes region. Saranac Lake was named the best small town in New York State, in 1998, the National Civic League named Saranac Lake an All-America City, and in 2006 the village was named one of the Dozen Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 186 buildings in the village are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the area was first settled in 1819 by the Jacob Smith Moody family from Keene, New Hampshire. In 1827, settlers Pliny Miller and Alric Bushnell established a facility with a dam and sawmill. Martins would soon become a place for hunters, woodsmen. In 1876, Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau arrived from New York City to treat his own tuberculosis and he found the fresh air and alpine climate improved his health. In 1884, he founded his Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, starting with a cottage, called Little Red. Little Red, the first cure cottage, was built on a patch of land on the backside of Mount Pisgah. As more and more visited the region, including author Robert Louis Stevenson in 1887. Soon, the sanitarium had grown so that it was entitled to its own post office, the Trudeau Institute, an independent medical research center, evolved from Trudeaus work for the sanitarium. In 1964, the Trudeau Institute began researching the functions of the system and how it guards against many infectious diseases
10.
Hartford, Connecticut
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Hartford is the capital of the U. S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, as of the 2010 Census, Hartfords population was 124,775, making it Connecticuts third-largest city after the coastal cities of Bridgeport and New Haven. Census Bureau estimates since then have indicated Hartfords subsequent fall to fourth place statewide as a result of sustained growth in the coastal city of Stamford. Nicknamed the Insurance Capital of the World, Hartford houses many insurance company headquarters, founded in 1635, Hartford is among the oldest cities in the United States. In 1868, resident Mark Twain wrote, Of all the towns it has been my fortune to see this is the chief. Following the American Civil War, Hartford was the richest city in the United States for several decades, today, Hartford is one of the poorest cities in the nation with 3 out of every 10 families living below the poverty line. In sharp contrast, the Hartford metropolitan area is ranked 32nd of 318 metropolitan areas in total economic production, various tribes, all part of the loose Algonquin confederation, lived in or around present-day Hartford. The area was referred to as Suckiaug, meaning Black Fertile River-Enhanced Earth, the first Europeans known to have explored the area were the Dutch, under Adriaen Block, who sailed up the Connecticut in 1614. Dutch fur traders from New Amsterdam returned in 1623 with a mission to establish a trading post, the original site was located on the south bank of the Park River in the present-day Sheldon/Charter Oak neighborhood. This fort was called Fort Hoop, or the House of Hope, in 1633, Jacob Van Curler formally bought the land around Fort Hoop from the Pequot chief for a small sum. It was home to perhaps a couple families and a few dozen soldiers, the area today is known as Dutch Point, and the name of the Dutch fort, House of Hope, is reflected in the name of Huyshope Avenue. The fort was abandoned by 1654, but its neighborhood in Hartford is still known as Dutch Point, the Dutch outpost, and the tiny contingent of Dutch soldiers that were stationed there, did little to check the English migration. The Dutch soon realized they were vastly outnumbered, the House of Hope remained an outpost, but it was steadily swallowed up by waves of English settlers. The English began to arrive 1637, settling upstream from Fort Hoop near the present-day Downtown, the settlement was originally called Newtown, but was changed to Hartford in 1637 in honor of Stones hometown of Hertford, England. Hooker also created the town of Windsor. The etymology of Hartford is the ford where harts cross, the Seal of the City of Hartford features a male deer, which in full maturity was referred to by the medieval hunting term hart. The fledgling colony along the Connecticut River had issues with the authority by which it was to be governed because it was outside of the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colonys charter. Historians suggest that Hookers conception of self-rule embodied in the Fundamental Orders went on to inspire the Connecticut Constitution, today, one of Connecticuts nicknames is the Constitution State
11.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
12.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
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