1.
Culver City, California
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Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California. The city was named after its founder, Harry Culver, as of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, over the years, it has annexed more than 40 pieces of adjoining land and now comprises about five square miles. Since the 1920s, Culver City has been a center for motion picture and later television production, from 1932 to 1985, it was the headquarters for the Hughes Aircraft Company. National Public Radio West and Sony Pictures Entertainment have headquarters in the city, the NFL Network studio is also based in Culver City. Archaeological evidence suggests a human presence in the area of present-day Culver City since at least 8,000 BC, the region was the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieliño Native Americans, who held a presence in the region for over 8,000 years. The city was founded primarily on the lands of the former Rancho La Ballona, Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes, and Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera. In 1861, during the American Civil War, Camp Latham was established by the 1st California Infantry under Col. James H. Carleton and the 1st California Cavalry under Lt. Col. Benjamin F. Davis. Named for California Senator Milton S. Latham, the camp was the first staging area for the training of Union troops and their operations in Southern California. It was located on land of the Rancho La Ballona, on the South side of Ballona Creek, near what is now the intersection of Jefferson, the post was later moved to Camp Drum, which became the Drum Barracks. Harry Culver first attempted to establish Culver City in 1913, the city was incorporated on September 20,1917, the city was one of many all-white planned communities started in the Los Angeles area around this time. The first film studio in Culver City was built by Thomas Ince in 1918, in 1919, silent film comedy producer Hal Roach built his studios there, and Metro Goldwyn Mayer in the 20s. During Prohibition, speakeasies and nightclubs such as the Cotton Club lined Washington Boulevard, Culver Center, one of Southern Californias first shopping malls, was completed in 1950 on Venice Boulevard near the Overland Avenue intersection. Today, it has retail stores, a supermarket, a Rite Aid department store, Best Buy. Hughes Aircraft opened its Culver City plant in July 1941, there the company built the H-4 Hercules transport. Hughes was also a subcontractor in World War II. It developed and patented a flexible feed chute for faster loading of machine guns on B-17 bombers, Hughes produced more ammunition belts than any other American manufacturer, and built 5,576 wings and 6,370 rear fuselage sections for Vultee BT-13 trainers. Hughes grew after the war, and in 1953 Howard Hughes donated all of his stock in the company to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, after he died in 1976, the institute sold the company, which made it the second-best-endowed medical research foundation in the world
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Columbia Pictures
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The studio was founded in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jacks best friend Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924, and went public two years later and its name is derived from Columbia, a national personification of the United States, which is used as the studios logo. In its early years, it was a player in Hollywood. With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s, Columbias major contract stars were Jean Arthur, in the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studios premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden also became major stars at the studio, in 1982, the studio was purchased by The Coca-Cola Company, and launched TriStar Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola spun off Columbia, which was sold to Tri-Star, after a brief period of independence with Coca-Cola maintaining a financial interest, the combined studio was acquired by Sony in 1989. It is one of the film studios in the world. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, Brandt was president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales, marketing and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood. The studios early productions were short subjects, Screen Snapshots, the Hall Room Boys. The start-up CBC leased space in a Poverty Row studio on Hollywoods famously low-rent Gower Street, among Hollywoods elite, the studios small-time reputation led some to joke that CBC stood for Corned Beef and Cabbage. Brandt eventually tired of dealing with the Cohn brothers, and sold his stake to Harry Cohn. In an effort to improve its image, the Cohn brothers renamed the company Columbia Pictures Corporation on January 10,1924, Cohn remained head of production as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He would run Columbia for the next 34 years, the second-longest tenure of any studio chief, even in an industry rife with nepotism, Columbia was particularly notorious for having a number of Harry and Jacks relatives in high positions. Humorist Robert Benchley called it the Pine Tree Studio, because it has so many Cohns, Columbias product line consisted mostly of moderately budgeted features and short subjects including comedies, sports films, various serials, and cartoons. Columbia gradually moved into the production of higher-budget fare, eventually joining the tier of Hollywood studios along with United Artists. Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia was an integrated company. It controlled production and distribution, it did not own any theaters, helping Columbias climb was the arrival of an ambitious director, Frank Capra
4.
TriStar Pictures
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TriStar Pictures is an American film production/distribution studio of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, owned by the Sony subsidiary Sony Pictures Entertainment. On May 16,1983, it was given the name Tri-Star Pictures and it was the first new major Hollywood studio to be established since RKO Pictures was founded in 1928. The studios first produced film in 1984 was The Natural starring Robert Redford, during this venture, many of Tri-Stars releases were released on VHS by either RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, CBS/Fox Video, or HBO Video. In addition, HBO would gain exclusive distribution rights to these films. CBS dropped out of the venture in 1985, though still distributed some of TriStars films on home video until at least 1992. In 1986, HBO dropped out of the Tri-Star venture as well, the same year, Tri-Star entered into the television business as Tri-Star Television. It was formed when the studio joined forces with Stephen J. Cannell Productions and Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, both studios continued to produce and distribute films under their separate names. On April 13,1988, CPE spun off Tri-Star Pictures, in 1989, all of Cokes entertainment holdings were acquired by Sony Corporation of Japan, who merged Columbia and Tri-Star, but continued to use the separate labels. On July 11,1990, Tri-Star Pictures dissolved and sold its venture in TeleVentures to Stephen J. Cannell Productions, most of the series and the Tri-Star film packages that were distributed by TeleVentures were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. The Tri-Star film packages were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution, both studios continued to operate separately until TriStar folded in 1999 and CPT in 2001. In addition to its own slate, TriStar was the distributor for many films produced by Carolco Pictures. TriStar also theatrically distributed some FilmDistrict movies, TriStar was relaunched on May 13,2004 as a marketing and acquisitions unit that had a particular emphasis on genre films. Screen Gems executive vice president Valerie Van Galder was tapped to run the studio after being dormant. However, the release of its 2013 film Elysium represents the labels first big-budget release since The Mask of Zorro in 1998, the same year, former 20th Century Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman joined Sony Pictures and created TriStar Productions as a joint venture with existing Sony Pictures executives. The new TriStar will develop, finance and produce up to four films per year, as well as programming and acquisitions. Sonys TriStar Pictures unit will be retained for other product, including titles from Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, TriStars logo of Pegasus, introduced in 1984, has become something of a cultural icon. The idea came about because of executive Victor Kaufman and his familys interest in riding horses, the original logo was created with the assistance of Sydney Pollack, who was an adviser at Tri-Star. The horse in that logo was the one used in Pollacks film The Electric Horseman
5.
Screen Gems
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The label currently specializes in genre films, namely horror. The name was used in 1933, when Columbia Pictures acquired a stake in Charles Mintzs animation studio. The name was derived from an early Columbia Pictures slogan, Gems of the Screen, itself a takeoff on the song Columbia, for an entire decade, Charles Mintz distributed his Krazy Kat, Scrappy, and Color Rhapsody animated film shorts through Columbia Pictures. When Mintz became indebted to Columbia in 1939, he ended up selling his studio to them, Mintzs production manager became the studio head, but was shortly replaced by Mintzs brother-in-law, George Winkler. Columbia then decided to house by ousting the bulk of the staff. After Tashlins short stay came Dave Fleischer, formerly of the Fleischer Studios, animators, directors, and writers at the series included people such as Art Davis, Sid Marcus, Bob Wickersham, and during its latter period, Bob Clampett. Like most studios, the Screen Gems studio had several established characters on their roster and these included Flippity and Flop, Willoughby Wren, and Tito and His Burrito. However, the most successful characters the studio had were The Fox and the Crow, a duo of a refined Fox. Screen Gems was, in an attempt to keep costs low, the final black-and-white Screen Gems shorts appeared in 1946, over three years after the second-longest holdouts. During that same year, the studio shut its doors for good, the Screen Gems cartoons were only moderately successful in comparison to those of Disney, Warner Bros. and MGM. Pioneer was later reorganized as Screen Gems, the studio started its new business in New York on April 15,1949. By 1951, Screen Gems became a television studio by producing and syndicating several popular shows. By 1952, the studio had produced a series of about 100 film-record coordinated releases for television under the brand TV Disk Jockey Toons in which the films synchronize perfectly with the records. On December 10,1956, Screen Gems expanded into television syndication by acquiring Hygo Television Films and its affiliated company United Television Films, Hygo Television Films was founded in 1951 by Jerome Hyams, who also acquired United Television Films in 1955 that was founded by Archie Mayers. Earlier on August 2,1957, they acquired syndication rights to Shock. A package of Universal horror films, which was successful in reviving that genre. The name Screen Gems, at the time, was used to hide the fact that the studio was entering television production and distribution. Many film studios saw television as a threat to their business, however, Columbia was one of a few studios who branched out to television under a pseudonym to conceal the true ownership of the television arm
6.
Sony Pictures
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Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American entertainment company that produces, acquires and distributes filmed entertainment through multiple platforms. It operates as a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc. which is the parent company for both the music and motion picture businesses of Sony Corporation, based in Culver City, California, it encompasses Sonys motion picture, television production and distribution units. Its group sales in the fiscal year 2015 has been reported to be of $8.3 billion, Sony Pictures film franchises include Spider-Man, Men in Black, Underworld, Resident Evil, and Robert Langdon. Sony Pictures is one of Hollywoods major film studios and a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, on September 1,1987, The Coca-Cola Company announced plans to spin-off its assets of Columbia Pictures, which it had owned since 1982. Under this arrangement, Coca-Cola would sell its entertainment assets to TriStar Pictures, Tri-Star would be renamed to Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. with Coca-Cola owning 49%, its shareholders owning 31%, and Tri-Stars shareholders owning 20%. A new company was formed in early 1988 with the Tri-Star name to take over the studios operations, on September 28,1989, Sony obtained an option to purchase all of The Coca-Cola Companys stock in CPE for $27 per share. This was all led by Norio Ohga, who was the president, the hiring of Guber and Peters by Sony to run Columbia was conflicted by a previous contract the producers had signed at Warner Bros. Time Warners chairman, Steve Ross, threatened Sony with a lawsuit for breach of contract, the lawsuit would be subsequently dropped when Sony sold half-interest in Columbia House and cable distribution rights to Columbias feature films, TV movies, and miniseries to Warner Bros. Said agreement also saw Columbia sell its 35% interest in the Burbank Studios, on November 8,1989, Sony completed the acquisition by a short-form merger of its wholly owned subsidiary Sony Columbia Acquisition Corporation into CPE under Delaware law. Sony also completed a tender offer for shares of stock of the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company on November 6,1989. The acquisition cost Sony $4.9 billion and was backed by five major Japanese banks Mitsui, Tokyo, Fuji, Mitsubishi, the company was renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment on August 7,1991. On June 4,2008, SPEs wholly owned group 2JS Productions B. V. acquired Dutch production company 2waytraffic N. V. famous for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. and You Are What You Eat for £114.3 million. In 2011, the Sony Pictures computer network was breached and approximately one million user accounts associated with the SonyPictures. com website were leaked. On November 21,2013, SPE and Sony Entertainments CEO Michael Lynton announced that SPE will shift emphasis from movies to television by cutting its 2014 film slate, on January 22,2014, SPE folded its technology unit into its various cores of its businesses. On February 6,2014, Sony Pictures Entertainment, through their legal name Columbia TriStar Warner Filmes de Portugal Ltda. announced that they close their offices in Portugal on March 31. On November 20,2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they will release Ultra HD Blu-ray releases, the first set will be in early 2016 and will include film and television content. In November 2014, the Sony Pictures computer network was compromised by a group of hackers named Guardians of Peace, disabling many computers. Later the same week, five of Sony Pictures movies were leaked, including some not yet released, as well as confidential data about 47,000 current and former Sony employees
7.
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
8.
Triangle Film Corporation
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Triangle Film Corporation was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in July 1915 in Culver City, California. The studio was founded in July 1915 by Harry and Roy Aitken, Harry was also D. W. Griffiths partner at Reliance-Majestic Studios, both parted with the Mutual Film Corporation in the wake of The Birth of a Nations unexpected success that year. Triangle was envisioned as a studio based on the producing abilities of filmmakers D. W. Griffith, Thomas Ince. On November 23,1915, the Triangle Film Corporation opened a state-of-the-art motion picture theater in Massillon, the Lincoln Theater is still an operational movie theater owned and operated by the Massillon Lions Club. The theater has been restored and is host to a film festival dedicated to the films of Dorothy. Eventually, the studio suffered from bloat, by 1917, producer Adolph Zukor had taken control of all of the studios assets. In June 1917, Thomas H. Ince and Mack Sennett left the company, Triangle continued to produce films until 1919 when it ceased operations. Films using the Triangle name were released to the general public until 1923. With the exception of Oh, Mabel Behave, all of Triangles films were released between 1915 and 1919, most films were made on the West Coast, but some of Triangles production took place in Fort Lee, New Jersey. La Triangle - Cinéma, Archives, research and history at the Cinémathèque française Strategic failure of the Triangle - Marc Vernet
9.
Thomas H. Ince
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Thomas Harper Ince was an American silent film producer, director, screenwriter, and actor. Ince was known as the Father of the Western and was responsible for making over 800 films and he revolutionized the motion picture industry by creating the first major Hollywood studio facility and invented movie production by introducing the assembly line system of filmmaking. He was the first mogul to build his own film studio dubbed Inceville in Palisades Highlands, Ince was also instrumental in developing the role of the producer in motion pictures. Two of his films, The Italian, for which he wrote the screenplay, and Civilization and he later partnered with D. W. Griffith and Mack Sennett to form the Triangle Motion Picture Company whose studios are the present-day site of Sony Pictures. He then built a new studio about a mile from Triangle which is now the site of Culver Studios. Thomas Harper Ince was born on November 16,1880 in Newport, Rhode Island and his father was born in Wigan, Lancashire, England, in 1841, and was the youngest of nine boys who enlisted in the British Navy as a powder monkey. He later disembarked at San Francisco, and found work as a reporter, around 1887, when Ince was about seven, the family moved to Manhattan to pursue theater work. Inces father worked as both an actor and musical agent and his mother, Ince himself, sister Bertha and brothers, John, Ince made his Broadway debut at 15 in a small role of a revival 1893 play, Shore Acres by James A. Herne. He appeared with several companies as a child and was later an office boy for theatrical manager Daniel Frohman. Later he would form an unsuccessful Vaudeville company known as Thomas H. Ince and His Comedians in Atlantic Highlands, in 1907, Ince met actress Elinor Kershaw and they were married on October 19 of that year. They had three children, William T, richard Kershaw and Thomas H. Jr. Inces directing career began in 1910 through a chance encounter in New York City with an employee from his old acting troupe, William S. Hart. Ince found his first film work as an actor for the Biograph Company, directed by his future partner, Griffith was impressed enough with Ince to hire him as a Production coordinator at Biograph. This led to work coordinating productions at Carl Laemmles Independent Motion Pictures Co. And, although he tackled many different subjects, he was drawn to Westerns. Clashes between the trust and independent films became exacerbated, so Ince moved to California to escape these pressures and he hoped to achieve the effects accomplished with minimal facilities like Griffith, which he believed, could only be accomplished in Hollywood. After only a year with IMP, Ince quit, the offer came as a distinct shock, but I kept cool and concealed my excitement. I tried to convey the impression that he would have to raise the ante a trifle if he wanted me and that also worked, and I signed a contract for three months at $150 a week. Very soon after that, with Mrs. Ince, my cameraman, property man and Ethel Grandin, my leading woman, together with his young wife and a small entourage, Ince moved to Bison Studios to begin work immediately
10.
Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles
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The area currently has about 27,000 residents. It is primarily an area, with a mixture of large private homes, small houses, condominiums. The district also includes some large parklands and many hiking trails, in 1911, film director Thomas Ince created his Western film factory, Inceville, which at its peak employed nearly 600 people. Believers snapped up choice lots and lived in tents during construction, by 1925, the Palisades had 100 homes. In one subdivision, streets were named for Methodist missionaries, the tents eventually were replaced by cabins, then by bungalows, and ultimately by multimillion-dollar homes. The climate of the area was a big selling point, temperatures are much cooler than inland Los Angeles during summer, but usually sunnier and less foggy than areas south along the coast. Adorno, Vicki Baum, Oskar Homolka and Emil Ludwig, Villa Aurora on Paseo Miramar, the Spanish colonial home of Feuchtwanger and his wife, Marta, became the focal point of the expatriate community, which was nicknamed Weimar by the Sea. For many decades there was a ban on drinking alcohol in the district. The Methodist Church created a Chautauqua Conference Grounds in Temescal Canyon, the Village is the Pacific Palisades central business district, centered at Sunset Boulevard and Via de la Paz. The Via Mesa and The Huntington Palisades are the neighborhoods that border the village proper to the south of Sunset Boulevard, both of these neighborhoods are easy walking distance to The Village and sit upon high bluffs that look out over the Pacific Ocean. Many of the homes in neighborhoods are accordingly afforded beautiful ocean views. The El Medio Mesa is located south of Sunset Boulevard beginning about a mile west of The Village. The El Medio Mesa extends for a distance from Temescal Canyon all the way to where Sunset Boulevard meets the Pacific Coast Highway. Castellammare is located along the Pacific Coast Highway on small bluffs much closer to sea-level and this is the home of the Getty Villa and the narrow, winding streets in this neighborhood have Italian names and ocean breezes. Palisades Highlands is a community near the end of Sunset Blvd, bordering Topanga, about five minutes away from the center of Pacific Palisades. The Highlands could almost be considered its own separate community high up the hill overlooking the ocean, Rustic Canyon is the neighborhood east of Chautauqua Boulevard that dips into Santa Monica Canyon and includes the Will Rogers State Historic Park. The neighborhood features post-war homes located on the polo field of The Uplifters, the original site of The Uplifters clubhouse. This area is known as Uplifters Ranch
11.
Ballona Creek
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It heads in the historical Rancho Las Cienegas and flows through Culver City and the Del Rey district before emptying into Santa Monica Bay between Marina del Rey and the Playa del Rey district. During the Pre-Columbian era, Tongva people existed as hunters and gatherers in small villages throughout the Ballona Creek watershed, native American culture and land management practice was disrupted by the arrival of Spanish explorers. In 1769, the Tongva met their first Europeans when Portola expedition came through on its way north, researchers identified the place as the headwaters of Ballona Creek. The explorers made camp nearby on August 3, Ballona Creek and Lagoon are named for the Ballona or Paseo de las Carretas land grant, dated November 27,1839. The Machado and Talamantes families, co-grantees of the rancho, heralded from Baiona in northern Spain, after the land grant claims were lost, the area then experienced rapid growth, with open land being transformed into agricultural use. The Ballona Creek watershed totals about 130 square miles and its land use consists of 64% residential, 8% commercial, 4% industrial, and 17% open space. At the time of Spanish settlement, the Los Angeles River turned to the west just south of present-day Bunker Hill, however, during a major flood in 1825, the Los Angeles Rivers course changed to its present channel, and Ballona Creek became a completely distinct waterway. Ballona Creek Watershed climate can be characterized as Mediterranean with average rainfall of approximately 15 inches per year over most of the developed portions of the watershed. The flow rate in the Creek varies considerably from a flow of about 14 cubic feet per second during dry weather to 71,400 cubic feet per second during a 50-year storm event. Ballona Wetlands and Del Rey Lagoon are connected to the Ballona Estuary through tide gates, although much of it was drained and developed, much of it is now protected. The State of California owns 600 acres of the wetlands, the CDFG owns 540 acres. Much of these lands are designated as the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve and despite historic degradation. Wetland flora includes pickleweed, marsh heather, saltgrass, arrowgrass and glasswort, and a variety of upland and exotic species including brome, iceplant, oxalis, and ryegrass. Bird species of special interest observed in the reserve include nesting pairs of Belding’s Savannah sparrow, the urbanization of the watershed, and associated with it the pollution of urban runoff and stormwater, has degraded the water quality in Ballona Creek and its Estuary. Ballona Creek is listed by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board impaired for fecal coliform, heavy metals, dry weather urban runoff and storm water, both conveyed by storm drains, are the primary sources of pollutions in the Creek. Many national, historical, archeological and cultural landmarks, tourist attractions, educational institutions, with year-round Mediterranean climate, the area attracts immigrants and visitors from all over the world making Ballona Creek Watershed a vibrant melting pot of culture. A bike path that extends almost seven miles from National Boulevard in Culver City to the end of Ballona Creek Estuary provides opportunities for recreation in the area, Ballona Creek Estuary and Ballona Wetlands provide habitat to many species of waterfowls, shorebirds, and waders
12.
Harry Culver
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Harry Hazel Culver was a real estate developer and promoter. He was born in Milford, Nebraska, the child of five of Jacob H. and Ada L. Culver. At age 18, he enlisted in the Spanish–American War and served as a corporal, after attending liberal arts college Doane College for a year, Culver studied business at the University of Nebraska for 3 years. From 1901 to about 1904, he worked in the Philippines in the business and as a reporter for the Manila Times. While in Manila he was married to Miss Eunice Richardson of Lincoln and he began working in real estate in Southern California in 1910 for Isaac Newton Van Nuys. In 1913, in a speech at the California Club in Los Angeles Culver announced his plans for what was to become Culver City, local voters rejected the lands annexation to LA in 1914, whereupon Culver founded the Culver Investment Company. Supported by a 59-0 vote, Culver City became incorporated on September 20,1917 with a population of 530, once the president of the California Association of Realtors, Culver served as president of the National Association of Realtors in 1923. The following year, he moved his offices to the floor of Hotel Hunt, now named the Culver Hotel. Culver served locally in elected office and promoted the city with picnics, leading tours with box lunches, Culver served locally in elected office before his death in Hollywood, California. With Culvers encouragement, Thomas Ince moved his operations to what is now Culver City. After a disagreement with partners D. W. Griffith and Mack Sennett that led to his selling out, Hal Roach, prevented from expanding his facilities by downtown Los Angeless zoning, purchased the property on 8822 Washington Blvd. for the Hal Roach Studios from Culver. Thus Culver played a role in the development of all three of The Heart of Screenlands major movies studios. Culver enjoyed horseback riding, swimming, and playing ice hockey, in June 1916, he married actress Lillian Roberts, who died in 1999 at the age of 103. Their daughter and only child, Patricia, was born on August 11,1917, as Harry gave about 600 speeches a year, the Culver family traveled broadly and often. In honor of his father, Culver founded the Pacific Military Academy, Patricia Culver Battle remained connected to Culver City until her death in 2001. Culver has two grandsons, Dr. John Battle living in Tacoma, Washington and Chris Wilde in North Hollywood, the artwork, titled A Moment in Time, is part of the citys Art in Public Places program. Culvers grandson, Dr. John Battle, and his family participated in the dedication ceremony, Harry H. Culver contributed to a book called The Realty Blue Book of California. Good advertising sells the greatest amount of merchandise, or property, in actual practice it is almost impossible to trace directly the results of any given, or individual advertisement, although in many cases a large number of sales are made in this way
13.
Colonnade
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In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curved, the space enclosed may be covered or open. In St. Peters Square in Rome, Berninis great colonnade encloses a vast open elliptical space, when in front of a building, screening the door, it is called a portico, when enclosing an open court, a peristyle. A portico may be more than one rank of columns deep, colonnades have been built since ancient times and interpretations of the classical model have continued through to modern times, and Neoclassical styles remained popular for centuries. At the British Museum, for example, porticos are continued along the front as a colonnade, the porch of columns that surrounds the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. can be termed a colonnade. The longest colonnade in the United States, with 36 Corinthian columns, is the New York State Education Building in Albany, New York
14.
D. W. Griffith
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David Wark D. W. Griffith was an American director, writer, and producer who pioneered modern filmmaking techniques. Griffith is best remembered for The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, the Birth of a Nation made use of advanced camera and narrative techniques, and its popularity set the stage for the dominance of the feature-length film in the United States. Today, it is noted for its radical technique and condemned for its inherently racist philosophy. The film was subject to boycotts by the NAACP and, after screenings of the film had caused riots at several theaters, Intolerance, his next film, was, in part, an answer to his critics. By the time of his feature, The Struggle, he had made roughly 500 films. Griffith is one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and he is credited with popularizing the use of the close-up shot. Griffith was born on a farm in Oldham County, Kentucky, Jacob was a Confederate Army colonel in the American Civil War and was elected as a Kentucky state legislator. He attended a one-room schoolhouse where he was taught by his older sister, after his father died when he was ten, the family struggled with poverty. When Griffith was 14, his mother abandoned the farm and moved the family to Louisville, Griffith then left high school to help support the family, taking a job in a dry goods store and later in a bookstore. Griffith began his career as an actor in touring companies. Meanwhile, he was learning how to become a playwright, but had little success—only one of his plays was accepted for a performance, Griffith then decided to become an actor, and appeared in many films as an extra. Griffith began making films in 1908, and released his first feature film, Judith of Bethulia. A few years earlier, in 1907, Griffith, still struggling as a playwright, Porter rejected Griffiths script, but gave him an acting part in Rescued from an Eagles Nest instead. Finding this attractive, Griffith began to explore a career as an actor in the picture business. At Biograph, Griffiths career in the industry would change forever. In 1908, Biographs main director Wallace McCutcheon grew ill, and his son, Wallace McCutcheon, McCutcheon, Jr. however, was not able to bring the studio any success. As a result, Biograph co-founder, Henry Harry Marvin, decided to give Griffith the position, Griffith would end up directing forty-eight shorts for the company that year. His short In Old California was the first film shot in Hollywood, four years later he produced and directed his first feature film Judith of Bethulia, one of the earliest to be produced in the United States
15.
Mack Sennett
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Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and actor and was known as an innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the King of Comedy and his short Wrestling Swordfish was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1932 and he earned an Academy Honorary Award in 1937. Born Michael Sinnott in Richmond Ste-Bibiane Parish, Quebec, Canada, he was the son of Irish Catholic John Sinnott and Catherine Foy, the newlyweds moved the same year to Richmond, where John Sinnott was hired as a laborer. By 1883, when Michaels brother George was born, John Sinnott was working in Richmond as an innkeeper, John Sinnott and Catherine Foy had all their children and raised their family in Richmond, then a small Eastern Townships village. At that time, Michaels grandparents were living in Danville, Québec, Michael Sinnott moved to Connecticut when he was 17 years old. He lived for a while in Northampton, Massachusetts, where, according to his autobiography and he claimed that the most respected lawyer in town, Northampton mayor Calvin Coolidge, as well as Sennetts own mother, tried to talk him out of his musical ambitions. In New York City, Sennett became an actor, singer, dancer, clown, set designer, a major distinction in his acting career, often overlooked, is the fact that Sennett played Sherlock Holmes eleven times, albeit as a parody, between 1911 and 1913. With financial backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman of the New York Motion Picture Company, Michael Mack Sennett founded Keystone Studios in Edendale, the original main building which was the first totally enclosed film stage and studio ever constructed, is still there today. Mack Sennetts slapstick comedies were noted for their wild car chases, additionally, Sennetts first female comedian was Mabel Normand, who became a major star under his direction and with whom he embarked on a tumultuous romantic relationship. Sennett also developed the Kid Comedies, a forerunner of the Our Gang films, two of those often named as Bathing Beauties do not belong on the list, Mabel Normand and Gloria Swanson. Mabel Normand was a player, and her 1912 8-minute film The Water Nymph may have been the direct inspiration for the Bathing Beauties. Although Gloria Swanson worked for Sennett in 1916 and was photographed in a suit, she was also a star. Not individually featured or named, many of young women ascended to significant careers of their own. They included Juanita Hansen, Claire Anderson, Marie Prevost, Phyllis Haver, in the 1920s Sennetts Bathing Beauties remained popular enough to provoke imitators like the Christie Studios Bathing Beauties and Fox Film Corporations Sunshine Girls. The Sennett Bathing Beauties would continue to appear through 1928, in 1917, Sennett gave up the Keystone trademark and organized his own company, Mack Sennett Comedies Corporation. Sennett went on to more ambitious comedy short films and a few feature-length films. During the 1920s, his subjects were in much demand, featuring stars like Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Harry Gribbon, Vernon Dent, Alice Day, Ralph Graves, Charlie Murray. He produced several features with his brightest stars such as Ben Turpin, many of Sennetts films of the early 1920s were inherited by Warner Bros
16.
Culver Studios
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The Culver Studios is a movie studio located at 9336 West Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California. Originally created by silent movie pioneer Thomas H. Ince, many classics from Hollywoods Golden Age were filmed there, including Gone with the Wind, A Star is Born, Intermezzo and it is currently owned by Hackman Capital Partners. The Culver Studios was also used for shows such as The Andy Griffith Show, Lassie, Batman, The Nanny and, more recently, Scrubs, Arrested Development. The lot has had multiple owners over the decades from wealthy individuals to business conglomerates, eccentric businessman Howard Hughes once had a stake in the studio as well as filmmakers Cecil B. The Culver Studios was built by Thomas H. Ince in 1918 after he acquired it from landowner Harry Culver, the silent movie actor, director and producer had grand ambitions to create his own studio unique from all the others. The first building to go up on the lot was The Mansion - a picturesque Colonial-styled administrative building with a white facade and it was modeled after George Washingtons home on Mount Vernon. The original studio was named the Thomas H. Ince studios, Ince operated it until his early death in 1924 and the following year his widow sold the property to Cecil B. DeMille who renamed it DeMille Studios, despite a couple of major box office hits, DeMille failed to make the studio financially sustainable and merged his company with Pathé Exchange Inc. in 1928. DeMille signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the lot remained under the ownership of a conglomerate of companies. Another merger took place In 1932, when RKO Pictures bought Pathé, to distinguish it from their Hollywood property, they operated under the name RKO-Pathé studios. Further improvements took place and stars Bette Davis, Robert Mitchum, Cary Grant, sets were also used in the original version of King Kong RKO rented out the lot for virtually the entirety of its ownership and seldom used the space to shoot their own productions. From 1935 to 1946, the site was leased to Selznick International Studios, owned by David O. Selznick, Selznick is best remembered for being the producer of Gone With the Wind and entire abandoned sets on the backlot were set ablaze to recreate the burning of Atlanta scenes. After 1946, RKO-Pathé resumed operation of the site and leased the space to David O. Selznicks new Vanguard Films Inc. as well as a variety of independent production companies. Tycoon and movie producer Howard Hughes bought the studio in 1950, Desilu Productions, owned by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, purchased the lot from General Tire in 1956 and television soon became the primary business conducted on site. Perfect Film purchased Desilu Studios in 1968 only to sell it to OSF Industries in 1969, in 1970, Desilu Studios was renamed The Culver City Studios. In 1977, the studio was rename Laird International Studios, a rental facility, in its 1986 Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the studio was purchased by GTG Entertainment, a joint venture of Grant Tinker and Gannett Company. GTG remodeled the studio and renamed the lot to The Culver Studios, Culver was acquired by Sony Pictures in 1991. The Culver Studios was bought by an investment group Studio City Los Angeles in April 2004 for $125 million
17.
Samuel Goldwyn
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Samuel Goldwyn, also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Jewish Polish American film producer. He was most well known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood and his awards include the 1973 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1947, Goldwyn was born Szmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire, to a Hasidic, Polish Jewish family. His parents were Aaron Dawid Gelbfisz, a peddler, and his wife, at an early age, he left Warsaw on foot and penniless. He made his way to Birmingham, United Kingdom, where he remained with relatives for a few years using the name Samuel Goldfish and he was 16 when his father died. In 1898, he emigrated to the United States, but fearing refusal of entry, he got off the boat in Nova Scotia, Canada and he found work in upstate Gloversville, New York, in the bustling garment business. Soon his innate marketing skills made him a successful salesman at the Elite Glove Company. After four years, as vice-president of sales, he moved back to New York City, in 1913, Goldfish along with his brother-in-law Jesse L. Lasky, Cecil B. DeMille, and Arthur Friend formed a partnership, The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, film rights for the stage play, The Squaw Man were purchased for $4,000 and Dustin Farnum was hired for the leading role. Shooting for the first feature made in Hollywood began on December 29,1913. In 1914, Paramount was an exchange and exhibition corporation headed by W. W. Hodkinson. Looking for more movies to distribute, Paramount signed a contract with the Lasky Company on June 1,1914 to supply 36 films per year, one of Paramounts other suppliers was Adolph Zukors Famous Players Company. The two companies merged on June 28,1916 forming The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, Zukor had been quietly buying Paramount stock, and two weeks prior to the merger, became president of Paramount Pictures Corporation and had Hodkinson replaced with Hiram Abrams, a Zukor associate. With the merger, Zukor became president of both Paramount and Famous Players-Lasky, with Goldfish being named chairman of the board of Famous Players-Lasky, and Jesse Lasky first vice-president. After a series of conflicts with Zukor, Goldfish resigned as chairman of the board, Goldfish was out as an active member of management, although he still owned stock and was a member of the board of directors. Famous Players-Lasky would later part of Paramount Pictures Corporation. In 1916, Goldfish partnered with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, seeing an opportunity, he then had his name legally changed to Samuel Goldwyn, which he used for the rest of his life. Goldwyn Pictures proved successful but it is their Leo the Lion trademark for which the organization is most famous, on April 10,1924, Goldwyn Pictures was acquired by Marcus Loew and merged into his Metro Pictures Corporation
18.
Loews Cineplex Entertainment
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From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. The Loews name is used by AMC in many markets. Its slogan was Thank you for coming to Loews, sit back and relax, which was used in the chains theater policy ads from the 1980s through the 1990s, when Sony rebranded the chain. The company was originally called Loews, after the founder, Marcus Loew, in 1969, when the Tisch brothers acquired the company, it became known as Loews. Loews Theatres Incorporated was founded in 1904 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Loew founded a chain of nickelodeon theaters which showed short silent films in storefront locations. Soon the successful enterprise grew to include deluxe vaudeville houses and finally lavish movie palaces, Loews theaters were found in cities from coast-to-coast, but primarily in East Coast and Midwest states. To provide quality films for his theaters, Loew founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures in 1924, by merging the earlier firms Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions. Loews Incorporated served as distribution arm and parent company for the studio until the two were forced to separate by the 1948 U. S. Supreme Court ruling United States v. Paramount Pictures, the two companies officially split in 1959. Loews Corporation by this time was a company owned by brothers Robert. CBS left Tri-Star in 1985, and HBO left the venture and Tri-Star merged with Columbia Pictures in 1987, upon the full acquisition of Tri-Star by Columbia Pictures, and when Columbia was bought from Coca-Cola by Sony in 1989, Sony inherited the theaters as well. For a while, Loews operated under the Sony Theaters banner, in 1994, Sony partnered with Magic Johnson to form Magic Johnson Theaters, a mini-chain of theaters specifically geared toward the inner cities, particularly in Los Angeles. A year before, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound was installed in theaters since the parent company used it to promote Sonys cinema sound division. In 1998, Cineplex Odeon Corporation merged with Loews Theaters to form Loews Cineplex Entertainment, the combined company was one of the largest movie exhibitors in the world, with theaters in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Spain. In 2001, though, the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in 2002, Onex Corporation and Oaktree Capital Management acquired Loews Cineplex. In 2004, they sold Loews to a group of investors which included the Carlyle Group. Onex retained the Canadian Loews Cineplex to form Cineplex Galaxy LP, in 2005, AMC Theatres announced that it would merge with Loews Cineplex Entertainment and that the merged company would adopt the AMC name. The Loews name is used in many markets. At the time of the merger, Loews operated 198 theaters with 2,235 screens, Loews Wonder Theaters United States v. Loews Inc
19.
Marcus Loew
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Marcus Loew was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loews Theatres and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio. Loew was born in New York City, into a poor Jewish family and he was forced by circumstances to work at a very young age and had little formal education. Nevertheless, beginning with an investment from money saved from menial jobs. By 1905, Marcus Loew was on his own and his success eventually necessitated that he secure a steady flow of product for his theaters, in 1904, he founded the Peoples Vaudeville Company, a theater chain which showcased one-reel films as well as live variety shows. In 1910, the company had expanded and was renamed Loews Consolidated Enterprises. His associates included Adolph Zukor, Joseph Schenck, and Nicholas Schenck, other Loew-operated theaters were the Delancey St. Theatre, Greeley Sq. Theatre, Herald Square Theatre, Liberty Theatre, Brooklyn, Lincoln Sq, Theatre, National Theatre, Plaza Theatre, 7th Ave. Theatre, Shubert Theatre, Brooklyn, and the Yorkville Theatre. Outside of New York, he managed the Columbia Theatre Columbia Theatre, Loew found himself faced with a serious dilemma, his merged companies lacked a central managerial command structure. Loew preferred to remain in New York overseeing the growing chain of Loews Theatres, film production had been gravitating toward southern California since 1913. By 1917 he oversaw a number of enterprises, Borough Theatre Co, Loews Consolidated Enterprise, Loews Theatrical Enterprises, Mascot Amusement Co. In 1919, Loew reorganized the company under the name Loews, in 1920, Loew purchased Metro Pictures Corporation. A few years later, he acquired a controlling interest in the financially troubled Goldwyn Picture Corporation which at that point was controlled by theater impresario Lee Shubert, Goldwyn Pictures owned the Leo the Lion trademark and studio property in Culver City, California. But without its founder Samuel Goldwyn, the Goldwyn studio lacked strong management, Loew recalled meeting a film producer named Louis B. Mayer who had been operating a successful, if modest, studio in east Los Angeles. Mayer had been making low budget melodramas for a number of years, Nicholas Schenck was dispatched to finalize the deal that ultimately resulted in the formation of Metro-Goldwyn Pictures in April 1924 with Mayer as the studio head and Thalberg chief of production. Mayer would eventually be rewarded by having his name added to the company, Loews Inc. would act as MGMs financier and retain controlling interest for decades. While immediately successful, Loew didnt live to see the powerhouse that MGM was to become and he died three years later in 1927 of a heart attack at the age of 57 in Glen Cove, New York. He was interred in the Maimonides Cemetery in Brooklyn, for his very significant contribution to the development of the motion picture industry, Marcus Loew has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1617 Vine Street. To this day, the Loew name is synonymous with movie theaters and his son Arthur Loew, married Mildred Zukor, daughter of Adolph Zukor
20.
Merger
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Mergers and acquisitions are transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations or their operating units are transferred or combined. As an aspect of management, M&A can allow enterprises to grow, shrink. An acquisition or takeover is the purchase of one business or company by company or other business entity. Specific acquisition targets can be identified through a myriad of avenues including market research, trade expos, or sent up from internal business units, such purchase may be of 100%, or nearly 100%, of the assets or ownership equity of the acquired entity. Consolidation occurs when two companies combine to form a new enterprise altogether, and neither of the previous companies remains independently, Acquisitions are divided into private and public acquisitions, depending on whether the acquiree or merging company is or is not listed on a public stock market. Some public companies rely on acquisitions as an important value creation strategy, an additional dimension or categorization consists of whether an acquisition is friendly or hostile. Achieving acquisition success has proven to be difficult, while various studies have shown that 50% of acquisitions were unsuccessful. Serial acquirers appear to be successful with M&A than companies who only make an acquisition occasionally. It is normal for M&A deal communications to take place in a so-called confidentiality bubble wherein the flow of information is restricted pursuant to confidentiality agreements. Hostile acquisitions can, and often do, ultimately become friendly and this usually requires an improvement in the terms of the offer and/or through negotiation. Acquisition usually refers to a purchase of a firm by a larger one. Sometimes, however, a firm will acquire management control of a larger and/or longer-established company. This is known as a reverse takeover, another type of acquisition is the reverse merger, a form of transaction that enables a private company to be publicly listed in a relatively short time frame. A reverse merger occurs when a privately held company buys a publicly listed company, usually one with no business. The overall net effect of M&A transactions appears to be positive, almost all studies report positive returns for the investors in the combined buyer and this implies that M&A creates economic value, presumably by transferring assets to management teams that operate them more efficiently. The buyer buys the assets of the target company, the cash the target receives from the sell-off is paid back to its shareholders by dividend or through liquidation. This type of leaves the target company as an empty shell. A buyer often structures the transaction as a purchase to cherry-pick the assets that it wants and leave out the assets
21.
Golden Age of Hollywood
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The studio system is a method of film production and distribution dominated by a small number of major studios in Hollywood. e. The ownership or effective control of distributors and exhibition, guaranteeing additional sales of films through manipulative booking techniques such as block booking. By 1954, with television competing for audience and the last of the links between a major production studio and theater chain broken, the historic era of the studio system was over. The period stretching from the introduction of sound to the beginning of the demise of the studio system, during the so-called Golden Age, eight companies constituted the major studios that promulgated the Hollywood studio system. Two majors—Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures—were similarly organized, though they never owned more than small theater circuits, the years 1927 and 1928 are generally seen as the beginning of Hollywoods Golden Age and the final major steps in establishing studio system control of the American film business. The success of 1927s The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length talkie gave a big boost to the then midsized Warner Bros. studio, just as significant were a number of offscreen developments. Warner Bros. now flush with income, acquired the extensive Stanley theater chain in September 1928, one month later, it purchased a controlling interest in the First National production company, more prominent than Warners itself not long before. With the First National acquisition came not only a 135-acre studio and backlot, Warners had hit the big time. The last of the Big Five Hollywood conglomerates of the Golden Age emerged in 1928, the Radio Corporation of America, led by David Sarnoff, was looking for ways to exploit the cinema sound patents, newly trademarked RCA Photophone, owned by its parent company, General Electric. As the leading production companies were all preparing to sign exclusive agreements with Western Electric for their technology. With RKO and Warner Bros. joining Fox, Paramount, and Loews/MGM as major players, the Big Five that would remain for thirty years were now in place. Although RKO was an exception, the heads of studios on the west coast, adolph Zukor at Paramount, Darryl F. Zanuck, Carl Laemmle at Universal, and Harry Cohn at Columbia. The ranking of the Big Five in terms of profitability was largely consistent during the Golden Age, MGM was number one eleven years running, 1931–41. Paramount, the most profitable studio of the sound era, faded for the better part of the subsequent decade. Paramount began a climb in 1940, finally edging past MGM two years later, from then until its reorganization in 1949 it was again the most financially successful of the Big Five. Of the smaller majors, the Little Three, United Artists reliably held up the rear, with Columbia strongest in the 1930s, Hollywoods success grew during the Great Depression, possibly because films helped audiences escape their personal difficulties. By 1939 there were 15,000 movie theaters in the United States, more than banks, the cinema industry was larger than that for office machines or supermarkets. While only the 14th largest by revenue, it was second in the percentage of profits that its executives received, top stars like Bing Crosby and Claudette Colbert were paid more than $400,000 a year
22.
Epic film
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Epic film is a style of filmmaking with large scale, sweeping scope, and spectacle. The usage of the term has shifted over time, sometimes designating a film genre, like epics in the classical literary sense it is often focused on a heroic character. An epics ambitious nature helps to set it apart from other types of such as the period piece or adventure film. The most common subjects of epic films are royalty, and important figures from various periods in world history, the term epic originally came from the poetic genre exemplified by such works as the Iliad, Epic of Gilgamesh, or the Odyssey. In classical literature, epics are considered works focused on deeds or journeys of heroes upon which the fate of a number of people depend. Similarly, films described as epic typically take a historical character, common subjects of epics are royalty, gladiators, great military leaders, or leading personalities from various periods in world history. Such films usually have a setting, although fantasy or science fiction settings have become common in recent decades. The central conflict of the film is seen as having far-reaching effects. The main characters actions are often central to the resolution of the societal conflict, in its classification of films by genre, the American Film Institute limits the genre to historical films such as Ben-Hur. However, film scholars such as Constantine Santas are willing to extend the label to science-fiction films such as 2001, A Space Odyssey and Star Wars. Stylistically, films classed as epic usually employ spectacular settings and specially designed costumes, often accompanied by a musical score. Epics are usually among the most expensive of films to produce and they often use on-location filming, authentic period costumes, and action scenes on a massive scale. Biographical films may be less lavish versions of this genre, many writers may refer to any film that is long as an epic, making the definition epic a matter of dispute, and raise questions as to whether it is a genre at all. As Roger Ebert put it, in his Great Movies article on Lawrence of Arabia, what you realize watching Lawrence of Arabia is that the word epic refers not to the cost or the elaborate production, but to the size of the ideas and vision. Werner Herzogs Aguirre, The Wrath of God didnt cost as much as the catering in Pearl Harbor, but it is an epic, the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail had the joking tagline Makes Ben Hur look like an epic. This boom period of international co-productions is generally considered to have ended with Cleopatra, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Epic films continue to be produced, although since the development of CGI they typically use computer effects instead of an actual cast of thousands. Since the 1950s, such films have regularly been shot with an aspect ratio for a more immersive. Epic films were recognized in a montage at the 2006 Academy Awards, War epics are generally focused on specific battles in a war, P. O. W camps or the personal consequences of living in an invaded/occupied country
23.
Ben-Hur (1959 film)
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Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic historical drama film, directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Charlton Heston as the title character. A remake of the 1925 silent film with the name, Ben-Hur was adapted from Lew Wallaces 1880 novel Ben-Hur. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, Ben-Hur had the largest budget as well as the largest sets built of any film produced at the time. Filming commenced on May 18,1958, and wrapped on January 7,1959, with shooting lasting for 12 to 14 hours a day, pre-production began in Italy at Cinecittà around October 1957, and post-production took six months. Under cinematographer Robert L. Surtees, MGM executives made the decision to film the picture in a widescreen format, more than 200 camels and 2,500 horses were used in the shooting of the film, with some 10,000 extras. The sea battle was filmed using miniatures in a tank on the back lot at the MGM Studios in Culver City. Following a $14.7 million marketing effort, Ben-Hur premiered at Loews State Theatre in New York City on November 18,1959. It was the fastest-grossing as well as the film of 1959. Ben-Hur also won three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Stephen Boyd. In AD26, Judah Ben-Hur is a prince and merchant in Jerusalem. Esther loves Judah but is committed to another, Judahs childhood friend, the Roman citizen Messala, is now a tribune. After several years away from Jerusalem, Messala returns as the new commander of the Roman garrison, Messala believes in the glory of Rome and its imperial power, while Judah is devoted to his faith and the freedom of the Jewish people. This difference causes tension between the friends, and results in their split after Messala issues an ultimatum to Judah, during the parade for the new governor of Judea, Valerius Gratus, loose tiles fall from the roof of Judahs house. Gratus is thrown from his horse and nearly killed. Although Messala knows this was an accident, he condemns Judah to the galleys and imprisons Miriam, by punishing a known friend and prominent citizen, he hopes to intimidate the Jewish populace. After three years as a slave, Judah is assigned to the flagship of the Roman Consul Quintus Arrius. Arrius admires Judahs determination and self-discipline and offers to him as a gladiator or charioteer. Judah declines the offer, declaring that God will aid him in his quest for vengeance, when the Roman fleet encounters the Macedonians, Arrius orders all the rowers except Judah to be chained to their oars
24.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film)
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The film retells the 1789 real-life mutiny aboard HMAV Bounty led by Fletcher Christian against the ships captain, William Bligh. It is the second American film to be made from the novel and it was directed by Lewis Milestone, who replaced Carol Reed early in the production schedule, and it turned out to be Milestones final film. The screenplay was written by Charles Lederer, the score was composed by Bronisław Kaper. Mutiny on the Bounty was filmed in the Ultra Panavision 70 widescreen process and it was partly shot on location in the South Pacific. The film was panned, and was considered a box office bomb. A replica of the Bounty was constructed for the film, fifty years after the release of the film, the vessel sank in Hurricane Sandy with loss of life. In the year 1787, the Bounty sets sail from England for Tahiti under the command of captain William Bligh and her mission is to transport breadfruit to Jamaica, where hopefully it will thrive and provide a cheap source of food for the slaves. The difficult voyage gets off to a start with the discovery that some cheese is missing. The tone for the months to come is summarized by Blighs ominous pronouncement that cruelty with a purpose is not cruelty, aristocrat Christian is deeply offended by his ambitious captain. Bligh attempts to reach Tahiti sooner by attempting the shorter route around Cape Horn. The strategy fails and the Bounty backtracks east, costing the mission much time, singleminded Bligh attempts to make up the lost time by pushing the crew harder and cutting their rations. When the Bounty reaches her destination, the crew revels in the life of the tropical paradise —. Christian himself is smitten with Maimiti, daughter of the Tahitian king, Blighs agitation is further fueled by a dormancy period of the breadfruit, more months of delay until the plants can be transplanted. As departure day nears, three men, including seaman Mills, attempt to desert but are caught by Christian and clapped in irons by Bligh. On the return voyage, Bligh attempts to bring back twice the number of plants to atone for his tardiness. One member of the falls from the rigging to his death while attempting to retrieve the drinking ladle. Another assaults Bligh over conditions on the ship and is fatally keelhauled, Mills taunts Christian after each death, trying to egg him on to challenge Bligh. When a crewman becomes gravely ill from drinking seawater, Christian attempts to give him water in violation of the Captains orders
25.
Dinner at Eight (film)
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Dinner at Eight is a 1933 American Pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor. Dinner at Eight continues to be acclaimed by critics, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 100% approval among 17 critics, Millicent fusses about finding an extra man for her single female guest, former stage star Carlotta Vance, who resides in Europe. Meanwhile, Oliver faces distressing news about his business, which has been struck hard by the Depression. Carlotta, a retired actress and former lover of Oliver, visits Oliver at his office and asks him to buy her stock in the company. Dan Packard, a magnate, stops by long enough for Oliver to ask him to buy some company stock. Dan agrees only to consider the proposition, he brags to his wife Kitty that he will take the shipping business through deceit. Unknown to Dan, Oliver has convinced Millicent to invite the Packards to her dinner with the hopes that it will increase Dans wish to buy the stock, Dans young trophy-wife, the ill-mannered but socially ambitious Kitty, eagerly has accepted. Also unknown to Dan, one of Millicents other guests, Dr. Wayne Talbot, has been having an affair with Kitty while pretending to be tending to her feigned illnesses. At Paulas urging, Larry, a three-time divorcé and hardened alcoholic, accepts the invitation, after Paula stubbornly refuses to take Larrys admonitions seriously, she is seen leaving his room by Carlotta, who is residing at the same hotel. Later that evening, Larry is visited by his agent, Max Kane, Max breaks the news to Larry that the plays new producer, Jo Stengel, wants another actor in the lead but is willing to consider him in a bit part. Talbot then is rushed to see Oliver, who has come to the office with severe chest pains. Although Talbot tries to hide his prognosis of terminal thrombosis of the heart, although anxious to tell Millicent about Larry, Paula, too, is turned away by her upset mother and faces the prospect of facing Ernest alone. At the Packards, meanwhile, Kitty reveals to Dan in a fit of anger that she is having an affair, just before he is to leave for the dinner, Larry is visited by Max and Jo Stengel and drunkenly berates Stengel for insulting him with his paltry offer. After a frustrated Max denounces him for ruining his last career chance, at the ill-fated dinner, Carlotta confides in private with Paula, who is just about to break her engagement with Ernest, about Larrys demise and counsels the young woman to stay with her fiancé. At the same time, Millicent learns from Talbot about Olivers illness, finally awakened to her selfishness, Millicent announces to Oliver that she is ready to make sacrifices for the family and be a more attentive wife. Then, as the guests are about to go in to dinner, Dan, with prodding from Kitty. In 2000, American Film Institute included the film in the list AFIs 100 Years.100 Laughs, come to Dinner,22 minutes in length, is a 1934 Broadway Brevity parody of Dinner at Eight using look-alike actors. It is included in the 2005 Warner Video DVD of Dinner at Eight
26.
Anna Karenina
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Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Tolstoy clashed with editor Mikhail Katkov over political issues that arose in the installment, therefore. Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel, after he came to consider War, fyodor Dostoyevsky declared it flawless as a work of art. His opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who admired the flawless magic of Tolstoys style, and by William Faulkner. The novel remains popular, as demonstrated by a 2007 Time poll of 125 contemporary authors in which Anna Karenina was voted the greatest book ever written, Princess Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, Stepan Oblonskys sister, Karenins wife and Vronskys lover. Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, Lover of Anna, a cavalry officer Prince Stepan Stiva Arkadyevich Oblonsky, a servant and Annas brother. His nickname is a Russianized form of Steve, Princess Darya Dolly Alexandrovna Oblonskaya, Stepans wife,33 Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior statesman and Annas husband, twenty years her senior. Konstantin Kostya Dmitrievich Lëvin/Lyovin, Kittys suitor, old friend of Stiva, Nikolai Dmitrievich Lëvin/Lyovin, Konstantins elder brother, an impoverished alcoholic. Sergej Ivanovich Koznyshev, Konstantins half-brother, a writer,40. Princess Ekaterina Kitty Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya, Dollys younger sister and later Levins wife,18, although Vronsky and Anna go to Italy, where they can be together, they have trouble making friends. Back in Russia, she is shunned, becoming isolated and anxious. Despite Vronskys reassurances, she grows increasingly possessive and paranoid about his imagined infidelity, a parallel story within the novel is that of Konstantin Levin, a wealthy country landowner who wants to marry Princess Kitty, sister to Dolly and sister-in-law to Annas brother Oblonsky. Konstantin has to propose twice before Kitty accepts, the novel details Konstantins difficulties managing his estate, his eventual marriage, and his personal issues, until the birth of his first child. The novel explores a range of topics throughout its approximately one thousand pages. The novel is divided into eight parts and its epigraph is Vengeance is mine, I will repay, from Romans 12,19, which in turn quotes from Deuteronomy 32,35. Dolly has discovered his affair with the governess, and the household. Stiva informs the household that his sister, Princess Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, is coming to visit from Saint Petersburg. Meanwhile, Stivas childhood friend, Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin, arrives in Moscow with the aim of proposing to Dollys youngest sister, Levin is a passionate, restless, but shy aristocratic landowner who, unlike his Moscow friends, chooses to live in the country on his large estate
27.
Technicolor
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Technicolor is the name applied to a series of color motion picture processes, the first version dating from 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. It was the major color process, after Britains Kinemacolor. As the technology matured it was used for less spectacular dramas. Occasionally, even a film noir—such as Leave Her to Heaven or Niagara —was filmed in Technicolor, Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color motion picture processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, now a division of the French company Technicolor SA. The Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation was founded in Boston in 1914 by Herbert Kalmus, Daniel Frost Comstock, the Tech in the companys name was inspired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where both Kalmus and Comstock received their undergraduate degrees and were later instructors. Technicolor, Inc. was chartered in Delaware in 1921, most of Technicolors early patents were taken out by Comstock and Wescott, while Kalmus served primarily as the companys president and chief executive officer. The term Technicolor historically has been used to describe at least five concepts, Technicolor, Technicolor process or format, several custom image origination systems used in film production, culminating in the three-strip process in 1932. Technicolor IB printing, a process for making color motion picture prints that allows the use of dyes which are more stable, originally used for printing from color separation negatives photographed on black-and-white film in a special Technicolor camera. This meaning of the name applies to nearly all Wikipedia articles about films made from 1954 onward in which Technicolor is named in the credits, Technicolor originally existed in a two-color system. Because two frames were being exposed at the time, the film had to be photographed and projected at twice the normal speed. Exhibition required a special projector with two apertures, two lenses, and a prism that aligned the two images on the screen. The results were first demonstrated to members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in New York on February 21,1917, the near-constant need for a technician to adjust the projection alignment doomed this additive color process. Only a few frames of The Gulf Between, showing star Grace Darmond, are known to exist today, convinced that there was no future in additive color processes, Comstock, Wescott, and Kalmus focused their attention on subtractive color processes. This culminated in what would eventually be known as Process 2, the difference was that the two-component negative was now used to produce a subtractive color print. Because the colors were present in the print, no special projection equipment was required. The frames exposed behind the filter were printed on one strip of black-and-white film. After development, each print was toned to a color nearly complementary to that of the filter, orange-red for the green-filtered images, the two prints, made on film stock half the thickness of regular film, were then cemented together back to back to create a projection print. The Toll of the Sea, which debuted on November 26,1922, the second all-color feature in Process 2 Technicolor, Wanderer of the Wasteland, was released in 1924
28.
Musical film
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The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline. The musical film was a development of the stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater, performers often treat their song, in a sense, the viewer becomes the diegetic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. The 1930s through the early 1950s are considered to be the age of the musical film. Musical short films were made by Lee de Forest in 1923–24, beginning in 1926, thousands of Vitaphone shorts were made, many featuring bands, vocalists and dancers. The Jazz Singer, released in 1927 by Warner Brothers, was the first to include a track including non-diegetic music and diegetic music. This feature-length film was also a musical, featuring Al Jolson singing Dirty Hands, Dirty Face, Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Blue Skies and My Mammy. Historian Scott Eyman wrote, As the film ended and applause grew with the houselights and she saw terror in all their faces, she said, as if they knew that the game they had been playing for years was finally over. Still, only isolated sequences featured live sound, most of the film had only a musical score. In 1928, Warner Brothers followed this up with another Jolson part-talkie, The Singing Fool, theaters scrambled to install the new sound equipment and to hire Broadway composers to write musicals for the screen. The first all-talking feature, Lights of New York, included a sequence in a night club. The enthusiasm of audiences was so great that in less than an all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively. The Broadway Melody had a plot about two sisters competing for a charming song-and-dance man. Advertised by MGM as the first All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing feature film, it was a hit, there was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed versions of Broadway hits. The Love Parade starred Maurice Chevalier and newcomer Jeanette MacDonald, written by Broadway veteran Guy Bolton, Warner Brothers produced the first screen operetta, The Desert Song in 1929. They spared no expense and photographed a large percentage of the film in Technicolor and this was followed by the first all-color, all-talking musical feature which was entitled On with the Show
29.
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
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The film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. Notable for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score and it was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind. It did win in two categories, including Best Original Song for Over the Rainbow and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. However, the film was a box office disappointment on its release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget. It was MGMs most expensive production at that time, and did not completely recoup the studios investment and turn a profit until theatrical re-releases starting in 1949. The film was named the most-viewed motion picture on television syndication by the Library of Congress, designation on the registry calls for efforts to preserve it for being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant. It is also one of the few films on UNESCOs Memory of the World Register, the Wizard of Oz is often ranked on best-movie lists in critics and public polls. It is the source of many quotes referenced in popular culture. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming, noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but uncredited contributions were made by others. The songs were written by Edgar Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, the musical score and the incidental music were composed by Stothart. The film begins in Kansas, which is depicted in a sepia tone, Dorothy Gale lives with her dog Toto on the farm of her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Dorothys dog gets in trouble with a neighbor, Miss Almira Gulch. However, Dorothys family and the farmhands are all too busy to pay attention to her, Miss Gulch arrives with permission from the sheriff to have Toto euthanized. She takes him away, but he escapes and returns to Dorothy and they meet Professor Marvel, a phony but kindly fortune teller, who realizes Dorothy has run away and tricks her via his crystal ball into believing that Aunt Em is ill so that she must return home. She races home just as a tornado strikes. Unable to get into her familys storm cellar, she seeks safety in her bedroom, a wind-blown window sash hits her in the head, knocking her out. The house is picked up and sent spinning in the air by the twister, the farmhouse crashes in Munchkinland in the Land of Oz, where the film changes to Technicolor. Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins welcome her as their heroine, as the house has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East, leaving only her stocking feet exposed
30.
Singin' in the Rain
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Singin in the Rain is a 1952 American musical comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald OConnor, and Debbie Reynolds. It offers a depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s. The film was only a modest hit when first released and it topped the AFIs Greatest Movie Musicals list and is ranked as the fifth-greatest American motion picture of all time in its updated list of the greatest American films in 2007. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, Don Lockwood is a popular silent film star with humble roots as a singer, dancer, and stuntman. Don barely tolerates his vain, cunning, and shallow leading lady, Lina Lamont, though their studio, Monumental Pictures, Lina is convinced they are in love, despite Dons protestations otherwise. At the premiere of his newest film, The Royal Rascal, Don tells the crowd an exaggerated version of his life story, including his motto, Dignity. His words are humorously contradicted by flashbacks showing him alongside his best friend Cosmo Brown, to escape from his fans after the premiere, Don jumps into a passing car driven by Kathy Selden. She drops him off, but not before claiming to be a stage actress, later, at a party, the head of Dons studio, R. F. Simpson, shows a short demonstration of a picture. To Dons amusement, Kathy pops out of a mock cake right in front of him, furious at Dons teasing, she throws a real cake at him, only to hit Lina right in the face. Don is smitten with Kathy and searches for her for weeks, while filming a love scene, Lina tells him that she had Kathy fired. Don finally finds Kathy working in another Monumental Pictures production and she confesses to having been a fan of his all along. The production is beset with difficulties, including Linas grating voice, an exasperated diction coach tries to teach her how to speak properly, but to no avail. Don, Kathy and Cosmo come up with the idea to turn The Duelling Cavalier into a musical called The Dancing Cavalier, Cosmo, inspired by a scene in The Duelling Cavalier where Linas voice was out of sync, suggests that they dub Linas voice with Kathys. R. F. approves the idea but tells them not to inform Lina about the dubbing, when Lina finds out, she is infuriated. She becomes even angrier when she discovers that R. F. intends to give Kathy a screen credit, Lina threatens to sue R. F. unless he orders Kathy to continue working uncredited as Linas voice. R. F. reluctantly agrees to her demands, as a clause in her states that she can sue whenever denied a role of her choosing. The premiere of The Dancing Cavalier is a tremendous success, when the audience clamors for Lina to sing live, Don, Cosmo, and R. F. tell her to lip sync into the microphone while Kathy, hidden behind the curtain, sings into a second one
31.
Gigi (1958 film)
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Gigi is a 1958 American musical-romance film directed by Vincente Minnelli processed using MGMs Metrocolor. The screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner is based on the 1944 novella of the name by Colette. The film features songs with lyrics by Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, in 1991, Gigi was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The American Film Institute ranked it #35 in AFIs 100 Years.100 Passions, set in turn-of-the-20th century Paris, the film opens with Honoré Lachaille who is surrounded by members of high society in the Bois de Boulogne. Being a charming old roué, he remarks that in Paris, marriage is not the option for wealthy young bon vivants like his nephew Gaston. The one thing Gaston truly enjoys is spending time with Madame Alvarez, whom he calls Mamita, and especially her granddaughter, following the family tradition, Madame Alvarez sends Gigi to her Great Aunt Alicia, to be groomed as a courtesan to learn etiquette and charm. To Alicia, love is an art, and a necessary accomplishment for Gigis social, but Gigi shows disdain for such trivial love that a man and his mistress usually have. Remaining true to her girlish, yet charming personality, she finds herself having the most fun when she is with Gaston, like his uncle, Gaston is known as a wealthy womanizer. The whole of Paris watches his every move, and Parisian high society shows unrestrained judgment towards him, Gastons latest mistress attempts to run off with her ice skating instructor. As a response, he humiliates her, resulting in her attempted suicide. After this ordeal, Gaston wishes to retreat to the country, Gigi makes a wager during a card match with Gaston, suggesting that if he loses, he has to take her and her grandmother to the sea with him when he goes on vacation. Gaston agrees, and they all travel to the country, while Gaston and Gigi spend countless hours having fun together, Honoré and Madame Alvarez reveal their once-passionate relationship. Once Gigi and her return to Paris, Gaston goes to Monte Carlo for some time. During this time, Gigis aunt and grandmother discuss the possibility of Gigi becoming Gastons mistress, Madame Alvarez, though dubious at first, agrees to let Gigi train around the clock to prepare for Gastons return. Gigi accepts this as a necessary evil, when Gaston returns, he is surprised and discomfited when Gigi appears in her new, adult dress. Gaston stammers out that she looks like a giraffe and that he misses her old outfits and he storms out, realises his folly, and rushes back to apologize. He tells her that she looks lovely, and says that he prove it to her by taking her to tea at the Reservoir. Gigis grandmother refuses and tells Gaston that this may ruin her reputation to be seen unchaperoned with Gaston before her reputation has even begun, Gaston, angered, storms out once again
32.
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.
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United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. It would also change the way Hollywood movies were produced, distributed, the Court held in this case that the existing distribution scheme was in violation of the antitrust laws of the United States, which prohibit certain exclusive dealing arrangements. The case is important both in U. S. antitrust law and film history, in the former, it remains a landmark decision in vertical integration cases, in the latter, it is seen as the first nail in the coffin of the old Hollywood studio system. The legal issues originated in the silent era, when the Federal Trade Commission began investigating film companies for potential violations under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the major film studios owned the theaters where their motion pictures were shown, either in partnerships or outright and complete. Thus specific theater chains showed only the films produced by the studio that owned them, by 1945, the studios owned either partially or outright 17% of the theaters in the country, accounting for 45% of the film-rental revenue. Ultimately, this issue of the studios allegedly illegal trade practices led to all the movie studios being sued in 1938 by the U. S. Department of Justice. As the largest studio, Paramount was the defendant, but all of the other Big Five and Little Three were named. Separate cases were filed against large independent chains, including the 148-theater Schine. The federal governments case was settled with a consent decree in 1940, the studios did not fully implement the consent decree, and in 1942 with Allied Theatre Owners proposed an alternate Unity Plan. They proposed booking larger blocks of theatres with the caveat of allowing theaters to reject films, the government declined the Unity proposal and reinstated the 1943 lawsuit. The case went to trial on October 8,1945, one month, the case was decided in favor of the studios, and the government immediately appealed. The case reached the U. S. Supreme Court in 1948, their verdict went against the movie studios, forcing all of them to divest themselves of their movie theater chains. The Paramount decision is a bedrock of corporate antitrust law, the Court ruled 7-1 in the governments favor, affirming much of the consent decree. William O. Douglas delivered the Courts opinion, with Felix Frankfurter dissenting in part, arguing the Court should have all of the decree intact. Douglass opinion reiterated the facts and history of the case and reviewed the District Courts opinion, Douglas let stand the District Courts sevenfold test for when a clearance agreement was a restraint of trade, as he agreed they had a legitimate purpose. Pooling agreements and joint ownership, he agreed, were efforts to substitute monopoly for competition. Clearer restraints of trade we cannot imagine and he allowed, however, that courts could consider how an interest in an exhibitor was acquired and sent some other issues back to the District Court for further inquiry and resolution. He set aside the lower court findings on franchises so that they might be reconsidered from the perspective of allowing competitive bidding, the prohibitions on discrimination he let stand entirely
33.
Kirk Kerkorian
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Kerkor Kirk Kerkorian was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was the president and CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his holding company based in Beverly Hills. Kerkorian is known for having one of the important figures in the shaping of Las Vegas and, with architect Martin Stern. He built the worlds largest hotel in Las Vegas three times, the International Hotel, the MGM Grand Hotel and the MGM Grand and he purchased the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio in 1969. Of Armenian American origin, Kerkorian provided over $1 billion for charity in Armenia through his Lincy Foundation and it was established in 1989 and was particularly focused on helping to rebuild northern Armenia after the 1988 earthquake. In 2000 Time magazine named him the 10th largest donor in the US. Kerkorian was declared an honorary citizen of Armenia by President Robert Kocharyan in September 1998 and he was bestowed the title of National Hero of Armenia, the highest state award, by Kocharyan in May 2004. Kerkor Kerkorian was born on June 6,1917 in Fresno, California, Armenian was his first language and he didnt learn the English language until we hit the streets. His family moved to Los Angeles following the depression of 1920–21, Kirk Kerkorian also had a younger sister, Rose Kerkorian. In exchange for flying lessons from pioneer aviator Pancho Barnes, he agreed to milk, on gaining his commercial pilots certificate in six months, Kerkorian learned that the British Royal Air Force was ferrying Canadian-built de Havilland Mosquitos over the North Atlantic to Scotland. The Mosquitos fuel tank carried enough fuel for 1,400 miles, the fee was $1,000 per flight. While accounts claim the risk was that one in four failed to make it. In May 1944, Kerkorian and his Wing Commander John de Lacy Wooldridge rode the wave, Wooldridge got to Scotland in six hours,46 minutes, Kerkorian, in seven hours, nine minutes. In two and a half years with RAF Ferry Command, Kerkorian delivered 33 planes, logged thousands of hours, traveled to four continents, after the war, having saved most of his wages, Kerkorian spent $5,000 on a Cessna. He worked as an aviation pilot, and made his first visit to Las Vegas in 1944. He then bid on some war surplus bombers, using money on loan from the Seagram family. Gasoline, and especially airplane fuel, was in short supply at the time, so he sold the fuel from the tanks, paid off his loan. He operated the airline until 1968 when he sold it for $104 million to the Transamerica Corporation, in 1962, Kerkorian bought 80 acres in Las Vegas, across the Las Vegas Strip from the Flamingo, for $960,000. This purchase led to the building of Caesars Palace, which rented the land from Kerkorian, on November 21,1980, the original MGM Grand burned in a fire that was one of the worst disasters in Las Vegas history
34.
MGM Resorts International
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The company recently opened MGM National Harbor in Maryland and is developing MGM Springfield in Massachusetts. It has a majority interest in MGM China Holdings Limited, which owns the MGM Macau resort, MGM Resorts owns 50 percent of CityCenter in Las Vegas, which features ARIA Resort & Casino. It has a majority controlling interest in MGM Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust, the company began operations in 1987 as MGM Grand, Inc. and became MGM Mirage in 2000, after acquiring Mirage Resorts. City Centers development coincided with financial crisis, causing writedowns in its valuation. In June 2010, the changed to its present name, to reflect its latest strategy of expanding worldwide, including licensing its brand and expertise to develop non-gaming hotels. Following a one-billion-dollar stock offering by MGM Mirage amidst the global credit crunch, on June 15,2010, shareholders voted for MGM Mirage to change its name to MGM Resorts International, which emphasizes the brands global scope and increased non-gaming strategy. In 2013, MGM won state licenses to build a resort in National Harbor, Maryland. In May 2014, MGM broke ground on an arena on the Las Vegas Strip with sports. MGM Resorts is the majority owner of MGM Growth Properties LLC and it became a separate, publicly traded company in April 2016. Among the companys management ranks, more than 38 percent are minorities, FORTUNE magazine has named MGM Resorts one of the World’s Most Admired Companies. The companys background can be traced to 1969, when airline, when the Las Vegas Hilton, the casino he had built, subsequently became the most successful hotel in Las Vegas, Kerkorian was inspired to lead the studio into the gambling industry. It opened the original MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in 1973, the MGM Grand Reno followed in 1978. By 1979, the two hotel-casinos accounted for most of MGMs income, and the company announced a plan to split itself in two. The next year, the studio was spun off as a new company, while the original company. Kerkorian held a 47 percent stake in both companies, in 1985, Kerkorian began seeking a buyer for MGM Grand Hotels, to allow him to concentrate on running United Artists and on developing new properties under the MGM Grand name. A deal was reached for Bally Manufacturing to buy the company, the closed in April 1986. The company now known as MGM Resorts International was formed in 1986 as Grand Name Co. as a subsidiary of Kerkorians Tracinda Corporation and it was renamed the following year as MGM Grand, Inc. The companys first venture was MGM Grand Air, a luxury airline offering service between New York and Los Angeles, which launched in September 1987
35.
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
36.
Ted Turner
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Robert Edward Ted Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the Cable News Network, in addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television. As a philanthropist, he is known for his $1 billion gift to support the United Nations, which created the United Nations Foundation, Turner serves as Chairman of the United Nations Foundation board of directors. Additionally, in 2001, Turner co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative with US Senator Sam Nunn, NTI is a non-partisan organisation dedicated to reducing global reliance on, and preventing the proliferation of, nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. He currently serves as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors, Turners media empire began with his fathers billboard business, Turner Outdoor Advertising, which he took over in 1963 after his fathers suicide. His purchase of an Atlanta UHF station in 1970 began the Turner Broadcasting System, CNN revolutionized news media, covering the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Turner turned the Atlanta Braves baseball team into a popular franchise. Turners penchant for controversial statements earned him the nicknames The Mouth of the South, Turner has also devoted his assets to environmental causes. He was the largest private landowner in the United States until John C. Malone surpassed him in 2011 and he uses much of his land for ranches to re-popularize bison meat, amassing the largest herd in the world. He also created the animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Turner was born on November 19,1938 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Florence and Robert Edward Turner II, when he was nine, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia. He attended The McCallie School, a boys preparatory school in Chattanooga. Turner attended Brown University and was vice-president of the Brown Debating Union and he became a member of Kappa Sigma. Turners father wrote saying that his choice made him appalled, even horrified, Turner later changed his major to Economics, but before receiving a diploma, he was expelled for having a female student in his dormitory room. Turner was awarded an honorary B. A. from Brown University in November 1989 when he returned to campus to keynote the National Association of College Broadcasters second annual conference. After leaving Brown University, Turner returned to the South in late 1960 to become manager of the Macon. Following his fathers March 1963 suicide, Turner became president and chief executive of Turner Advertising Company when he was 24 and turned the firm into a global enterprise. He joined the Young Republicans, saying he felt at ease among these budding conservatives and was following in Ed Turners far-right footsteps
37.
Warner Communications
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Warner Communications Inc. was established in 1972 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets due to a financial scandal over its parking operations, and changed its name. It was the parent company for Warner Bros and it also owned DC Comics and Mad magazine. Warner made considerable profits with Atari, Inc. which it owned from 1976 to 1984, in 1979, Warner formed a joint venture with credit card company American Express, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which owned such cable channels as MTV, Nickelodeon, and The Movie Channel. Warner bought out American Expresss half in 1984, and sold the venture a year later to Viacom, in 1982, Warner purchased Popular Library from CBS Publications. In 1987, it was announced that Warner Communications and Time Inc. were to merge, before the merger closed in 1989, Warner purchased Lorimar-Telepictures. In early 1990, the companies were named Time Warner. The Warner Communications name was credited on releases from Elektra Records. The Warner Music Group continues to use the Big W logo, Kinney National Company Kinney Parking Company National Kinney Corporation Warner Bros. -Seven Arts
38.
Lorimar Television
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Lorimar, later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros. active from 1969 until 1993. It was founded by Irwin Molasky, Merv Adelson, and Lee Rich, who named the company by combining their initials - LR, IM, and MA. Inspired by Adelsons ex-wife, Lori, an O was added as was a final R, the company was founded on $185,000 loan Merv Adelson gave to Lee Rich. Prior to Lorimar, Rich had a reputation, first as an advertising executive at Benton & Bowles, then as a television producer. Lorimar initially started producing movies for the ABC Movie of the Week. Rich bought the script to an adaptation of Earl Hamner Jr. s novel The Homecoming and subsequently sold the rights to CBS. The Homecoming, A Christmas Story, airing during the 1971 holiday season, was a ratings success, throughout the 1970s, Lorimar produced several other shows, as well, including Eight is Enough, of these, the most popular by far was Dallas. In 1980, Lorimar purchased the bankrupt Allied Artists Pictures Corporation, in 1984-85, three of the top 10 shows in the United States were produced by Lorimar, Dallas, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest. In the mid-1980s, Lorimars output swung toward family-friendly sitcoms, among these were The Hogan Family, Perfect Strangers, and Full House, in 1985, Lorimar announced their intention to buy a 15% share in the then-troubled Warner Communications company. Around that same year, Rich left the company and moved to MGM, in 1988, Lorimar-Telepicturess production arm became Lorimar Television, however, the L-T distribution business remained until 1989. Lorimars distribution business was folded into Warner Bros, Television Distribution and became Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, since then, the Telepictures name has been resurrected as both a company, and once again as a syndication company. The former MGM studio lot was sold to Sony to house Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Lorimar continued as a production company until July 1993, when it was folded into Warner Bros. Television, for issues as a result of declining syndication sales. The last series to premiere under the Lorimar name was Time Trax, les Moonves was the president and CEO of Lorimar Television from 1990 to 1993. Moonves then became the chairman of Warner Bros, Television after the merger with Lorimar. Additionally, Lorimar has owned key components of the library of the defunct Allied Artists film studio, which includes Cabaret and Papillon. Animation-produced revival show aired on Cartoon Network for one season in 2011, Lorimar not only specialized in producing television programs, they also produced a number of theatrical motion pictures, most of which were originally distributed by other studios
39.
Sony
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Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation that is headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified business includes consumer and professional electronics, gaming, entertainment, the company is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony was ranked 116th on the 2015 list of Fortune Global 500 and these make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. The group consists of Sony Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Financial Holdings and others. Sony is among the Semiconductor sales leaders by year and as of 2013, the companys current slogan is BE MOVED. Their former slogans were make. believe, like. no. other, Sony has a weak tie to the SMFG keiretsu, the successor to the Mitsui keiretsu. Sony began in the wake of World War II, in 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in a department store building in Tokyo. The company had $530 in capital and a total of eight employees, in the following year he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo 東京通信工業. The company built Japans first tape recorder, called the Type-G, in 1958 the company changed its name to Sony. When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TTK, the company occasionally used the acronym Totsuko in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was Tokyo Teletech until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name, the name Sony was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word sonus, which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was sonny, a common slang term used in 1950s America to call a boy. In the 1950s Japan sonny boys, was a word into Japanese which connoted smart and presentable young men. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955, at the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition, TTKs principal bank at the time and they pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Banks chairman gave their approval, according to Schiffer, Sonys TR-63 radio cracked open the U. S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics
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Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
41.
Burbank, California
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Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States,12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The population at the 2010 census was 103,340, Entertainment, Nickelodeon Animation Studios, NBC, Cartoon Network Studios with the West Coast branch of Cartoon Network, and Insomniac Games. The city is home to Bob Hope Airport. Burbank consists of two areas, a downtown/foothill section, in the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains. Burbank is the easternmost city in the San Fernando Valley, Burbanks neighbor, Glendale, is the westernmost city in the San Gabriel Valley. The city was referred to as Beautiful Downtown Burbank on Laugh-In, the city was named after David Burbank, a New Hampshire-born dentist and entrepreneur who established a sheep ranch there in 1867. Historically, this area was the scene of a skirmish which resulted in the unseating of the Spanish Governor of California. Remnants of the battle reportedly were found many years later in the vicinity of Warner Bros. Studio when residents dug up cannonballs, by 1876, the San Fernando Valley became the largest wheat-raising area in Los Angeles County. But the droughts of the 1860s and 1870s underlined the need for water supplies. A professionally trained dentist, Dr. Burbank began his career in Waterville and he joined the great migration westward in the early 1850s and, by 1853 was living in San Francisco. At the time the American Civil War broke out he was well established in his profession as a dentist in Pueblo de Los Angeles. In 1867, he purchased Rancho La Providencia from David W. Alexander and Francis Mellus, Dr. Burbanks property reached nearly 9,200 acres at a cost of $9,000. Dr. Burbank wouldnt acquire full titles to both properties until after a decision known as the Great Partition was made in 1871 dissolving the Rancho San Rafael. Dr. Burbank also later owned the Burbank Theatre, which opened on November 27,1893, though the theater was intended to be an opera house, instead it staged plays and became known nationally. The theatre featured famous actors of the time including Fay Bainter and Marjorie Rambeau, when the area that became Burbank was settled in the 1870s and 1880s, the streets were aligned along what is now Olive Avenue, the road to the Cahuenga Pass and downtown Los Angeles. These were largely the roads the Indians traveled and the settlers took their produce down to Los Angeles to sell. At the time, the primary long-distance transportation methods available to San Fernando Valley residents were stagecoach, stagecoaching between Los Angeles and San Francisco through the Valley began in 1858
42.
The Goldbergs (2013 TV series)
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The Goldbergs is an American sitcom that premiered on Tuesday, September 24,2013 on ABC. The series was created by Adam F. Goldberg and stars Wendi McLendon-Covey, Jeff Garlin, Sean Giambrone, Troy Gentile, Hayley Orrantia, the show is produced by Goldberg, Seth Gordon, and Doug Robinson. It is loosely based on Goldbergs childhood and family in the 1980s, on May 8,2014, ABC announced the second season renewal of The Goldbergs. It was also announced that the show would move to Wednesdays at 8,30 pm ET, on May 7,2015, the show was renewed for a third season, which premiered on September 23,2015. The series was renewed for a season, on March 3,2016. The Goldbergs is set in the 1980s in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, the show is loosely based on the showrunners own childhood, during which he videotaped events, many of which are re-enacted throughout the program. It shows the reality of the 80s from a young boys eyes and gives a look into four aspiring writers. The series stars Jeff Garlin as patriarch Murray and Wendi McLendon-Covey as matriarch Beverly and their two older children are Erica and Barry. The youngest child, Adam, documents his life with his video camera. Beverlys father, Albert Pops Solomon, is frequently around to provide advice or to help out his grandchildren, the present-day Adult Adam narrates every episode as taking place in 1980-something. The narrator takes creative liberties with the time frame, many references to real-life Philadelphia-area businesses are made, including the Wawa Inc. convenience store chain, Willow Grove Park Mall and Kremps Florist of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Wendi McLendon-Covey as Beverly Goldberg, the matriarch of the Goldbergs. She frequently injects herself into her childrens lives, often to their embarrassment, Sean Giambrone as Adam Fredrick Goldberg, the pop-culture obsessed youngest child of the Goldbergs. Smart and geeky, he often films his familys activities on a VHS camcorder, patton Oswalt voices the adult Adam Goldberg, who narrates the show from the present day. Troy Gentile as Barry Norman Goldberg, the overconfident, slightly dim-witted middle child of the Goldbergs, though seemingly untalented in every way, he remains highly self-assured while trying to become popular in high school. Hayley Orrantia as Erica Dorothy Goldberg, the nonchalant oldest child of the Goldbergs, smart and musically gifted but rebellious, she is popular in school and dominant over her younger brothers. AJ Michalka as Lainey Lewis, Ericas best friend and one of the most popular girls at school, whom Barry has had a lifelong crush on. To the surprise of many, Lainey kisses Barry at a party in the first season finale, George Segal as Albert Pops Solomon, Beverlys laid back father
43.
Ray Donovan
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Ray Donovan is an American television crime drama series created by Ann Biderman for Showtime. The twelve-episode first season premiered on June 30,2013, the pilot episode broke records of viewership, becoming the biggest premiere of all time on Showtime. Showtime renewed the show for a season, which premiered on June 26,2016. On August 11,2016, Showtime renewed the show for a fifth season, the drama is set in Los Angeles, California, where Irish-American Ray Donovan, originally from South Boston, works for the powerful law firm Goldman & Drexler, representing the rich and famous. Donovan is a fixer, a person who arranges bribes, payoffs, threats, good at his job, and no common hood, Ray is normally a devoted family man as well. He experiences his own problems when his father, Mickey Donovan, is unexpectedly released from prison. Liev Schreiber as Raymond Ray Donovan, paula Malcomson as Abby Donovan, Rays wife. Eddie Marsan as Terrence Terry Donovan, Rays older brother, a former boxer, suffers from Parkinsons disease. Dash Mihok as Brendan Bunchy Donovan, Rays younger brother, identifies himself as an alcoholic and a sexual anorexic. Pooch Hall as Daryll Donovan, Rays younger half-brother, a professional boxer, trained by Terry, he also drives limos. Steven Bauer as Avi Rudin, Rays right-hand man, former IDF soldier and ex-Mossad agent. Katherine Moennig as Lena Barnum, Rays investigative assistant, kerris Dorsey as Bridget Donovan, Rays daughter. Devon Bagby as Conor Donovan, Rays son, Jon Voight as Mickey Donovan, Rays father. Ray Donovan has received reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the show has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 36 critics, tim Goodman, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, said that Showtime has another gem on their hands and the casting of Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight was gold. The first season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 10,2014, the second season was released on both media on May 26,2015. The third season was released on both media on December 29,2015, official website Ray Donovan at the Internet Movie Database Ray Donovan at TV. com Ray Donovan at Metacritic Ray Donovan at Rotten Tomatoes
