Bill Murray
William James Murray is an American actor and writer. He first gained exposure on Saturday Night Live, a series of performances that earned him his first Emmy Award, starred in comedy films—including Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, What About Bob?, Groundhog Day. He co-directed Quick Change. Murray garnered additional critical acclaim in his career, starring in Lost in Translation, which earned him a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, for collaborating with director Wes Anderson, he received Golden Globe nominations for his roles in Ghostbusters, Hyde Park on Hudson, St. Vincent, the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge, for which he won his second Primetime Emmy Award. Murray received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2016, his comedy is known for its deadpan delivery. Murray was born on September 21, 1950, in Evanston, Illinois, to Lucille, a mail-room clerk, Edward Joseph Murray II, a lumber salesman, he was raised in a northern suburb of Chicago.
Murray and his eight siblings were raised in a Roman Catholic Irish-American family. Three of his siblings, John Murray, Joel Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, are actors. A sister, Nancy, is an Adrian Dominican nun in Michigan, who has traveled the United States in a one-woman program, portraying St. Catherine of Siena, their father died in 1967 at the age of 46 from complications of diabetes when Bill was 17 years old. As a youth, Murray read children's biographies of American heroes like Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok, Davy Crockett, he attended Loyola Academy. During his teen years, he worked as a golf caddy to fund his education at the Jesuit high school. One of his sisters had polio and his mother suffered several miscarriages. During his teen years he was the lead singer of a rock band called the Dutch Masters and took part in high school and community theater. After graduating, Murray attended Regis University in Denver, taking pre-medical courses, he dropped out, returning to Illinois. Decades in 2007, Regis awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.
On September 21, 1970, his 20th birthday, the police arrested Murray at Chicago's O'Hare Airport for trying to smuggle 10 lb of cannabis, which he had intended to sell. The drugs were discovered after Murray joked to the passenger next to him that he had packed a bomb in his luggage. Murray was sentenced to probation. With an invitation from his older brother, Murray got his start at The Second City in Chicago, an improvisational comedy troupe, studying under Del Close. In 1974, he moved to New York City and was recruited by John Belushi as a featured player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour. In 1975, an Off-Broadway version of a Lampoon show led to his first television role as a cast member of the ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell; that same season, another variety show titled. Cosell's show lasted just one season, canceled in early 1976. After working in Los Angeles with the "guerrilla video" commune TVTV on several projects, Murray rose to prominence in 1976, he joined the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live for the show's second season, following the departure of Chevy Chase.
Murray was with SNL for three seasons from 1977 to 1980. A Rutland Weekend Television sketch Eric Idle brought for his appearance on SNL developed into the 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash with Murray appearing as "Bill Murray the K", a send-up of New York radio host Murray the K, in a segment of the film, a parody of the Maysles Brothers's documentary The Beatles: The First U. S. Visit. During the first few seasons of SNL, Murray engaged in a romantic relationship with fellow cast member Gilda Radner. Murray landed his first starring role with the film Meatballs in 1979, he followed. In the early 1980s, he starred in a string of box-office hits, including Caddyshack and Tootsie. Murray was the first guest on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman on February 1, 1982, he appeared on the first episode of the Late Show with David Letterman on August 30, 1993, when the show moved to CBS. On January 31, 2012 – 30 years after his first appearance with Letterman – Murray appeared again on his talk show.
He appeared as Letterman's final guest when the host retired on May 20, 2015. Murray began work on a film adaptation of the novel The Razor's Edge; the film, which Murray co-wrote, was his first starring role in a dramatic film. He agreed with Columbia Pictures to star in Ghostbusters—in a role written for John Belushi—to get financing for The Razor's Edge. Ghostbusters became the highest-grossing comedy of all-time; the Razor's Edge, filmed before Ghostbusters but not released until after, was a box-office flop. Frustrated over the failure of The Razor's Edge, Murray retired from acting for four years to study philosophy and history at Sorbonne University, frequent the Cinémathèque in Paris, spend time with his family in their Hudson River Valley home. During that time, his second son, was born. With the exception of a cameo appearance in the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors, he did not make any appearances in films, though he did participate in several public readings in Manhattan organized by playwright/director Timothy Mayer and in a stage production of Bertolt Brecht's A Man's a
Christine Ebersole
Christine Ebersole is an American actress and singer. She has appeared in film, on stage, she appeared on Broadway in the musical 42nd Street, winning a Tony Award, appeared both Off-Broadway and on Broadway in the musical Grey Gardens, winning her second Tony Award. She has co-starred on the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son, where she played Carol Walsh, earned an Emmy Award nomination for her work in One Life to Live. Ebersole appeared in the critically maligned 1988 cult film Mac and Me. Ebersole was born in Winnetka, the daughter of Marian Esther and Robert "Bob" Ebersole, her father was the president of a steel company in Wisconsin. She has Irish ancestry. Ebersole graduated from New Trier High School in 1971, she attended MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Class of 1975, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She met Marc Shaiman when he was the musical director of her first club act, she appeared in two different parts on Ryan's Hope in 1977 and 1980, was a cast member of Saturday Night Live during 1981-82, the first full season under new producer Dick Ebersol, acting as Weekend Update co-anchor with Brian Doyle-Murray and at times impersonating Mary Travers, Cheryl Tiegs, Barbara Mandrell, Princess of Wales and Rona Barrett.
Following SNL, she appeared in One Life to Live as daffy Maxie Valerie. She co-starred with Barnard Hughes on the sitcom The Cavanaughs, played the title role in the short-lived sitcom Rachel Gunn, R. N. and guest-starred on Will & Grace, The Nanny, Dolly!, Just Shoot Me, Murphy Brown, Ally McBeal, Samantha Who, Boston Legal, The Colbert Report and Royal Pains. In 1991 she appeared as the titular Miss Jones in a pilot for an ABC series about a single mother, but the series was not taken up, she appeared in the 1993 television movie adaptation of Gypsy starring Bette Midler, in the 2000 ABC-TV movie Mary and Rhoda starring Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper. In 2011, she had a recurring role on the TV Land sitcom Retired at 35. In 2014, she played Carol Walsh on the TBS sitcom Son, she has a recurring role on the USA Network television show Royal Pains as Ms. Newberg. Ebersole's films have included Tootsie, Three Men and a Baby, Mac and Me, My Girl 2, Richie Rich, Black Sheep, My Favorite Martian.
Ebersole has found considerable success on stage. She appeared in a musical by David Zippel and Jeremy Shaeffer, she was in the chorus in 1983 with Jerry Mitchell. They were both excited about the possibility of going to Broadway, she was featured in Paper Moon by Larry Grossman and Ellen Fitzhugh and Carol Hall, which ran at the Paper Mill Playhouse in September 1993. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in Three Sisters and Talking Heads, her Broadway credits include On the Twentieth Century, the 1979 revival of Oklahoma!, the 1980 revival of Camelot and the 2000 revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man. In 2001 she appeared in the Broadway revival of 42nd Street as Dorothy Brock, for which she won her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, She next appeared in the 2002 Broadway revival of Dinner at Eight as Millicent Jordan for which she was nominated for the Tony Award, Featured Actress in a Play. In 2005 she played M'Lynn in the Broadway production of Steel Magnolias. In 2006, Ebersole took the dual roles of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and Edith Bouvier Beale in Grey Gardens, a musical based upon the film of the same name.
After a sold-out Off-Broadway run, Ebersole remained with the roles when the production moved to Broadway in November 2006, remained with the show through its closing in July 2007. For this role, she won her second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, she appeared as Elvira in the 2009 Broadway revival of the Noël Coward comedy Blithe Spirit. She appeared in the new musical War Paint which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on June 28, 2016 for a run through August 2016; the show began previews at the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway on March 7, 2017, opened on April 6, 2017. It closed on November 5, 2017, she played the role of Elizabeth Arden, opposite Patti LuPone as Helena Rubinstein. The musical had a book by Doug Wright with the music composed by Michael Korie. In December 2011, for their annual birthday celebration to "The Master", The Noel Coward Society invited Ebersole as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the 112th birthday of Sir Noel.
Ebersole appears in concerts and cabaret engagements at venues such as the Cinegrill and Cafe Carlyle. She won the 2010 Nightlife Award for Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist in a Major Engagement for her 2009 Café Carlyle cabaret. In 2009 she performed with Michael Feinstein at his club, Feinstein's at Loews Regency, in a cabaret titled "Good Friends", she was one of the performers on the Playbill Cruise in September 2011. In November 2011, she performed for two sold-out nights at Birdland in New York City with jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein and his trio. In 2015, Ebersole toured her show Big Noise from Winnetka which included the 1938 jazz song Big Noise from Winnetka and a stop in Illinois, she has appeared on several albums. She was featured on Big City concept album, she released an album of Noël Coward songs after browsing through them for scene change music for Blithe Spirit. Ebersole has been married twice: to actor Peter Bergman from 1976 though 1981, to Bill Moloney, wi
New York City
The City of New York called either New York City or New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles, New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural and media capital of the world, exerts a significant impact upon commerce, research, education, tourism, art and sports; the city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of, a separate county of the State of New York. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898; the city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. New York City is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the United States, the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world. In 2017, the New York metropolitan area produced a gross metropolitan product of US$1.73 trillion. If greater New York City were a sovereign state, it would have the 12th highest GDP in the world. New York is home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world. New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan.
The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790, it has been the country's largest city since 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the U. S. by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is an international symbol of the U. S. and its ideals of liberty and peace. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance, environmental sustainability, as a symbol of freedom and cultural diversity. Many districts and landmarks in New York City are well known, with the city having three of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013 and receiving a record 62.8 million tourists in 2017. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world. Times Square, iconic as the world's "heart" and its "Crossroads", is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, a major center of the world's entertainment industry.
The names of many of the city's landmarks and parks are known around the world. Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world. New York is home to the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is the largest single-operator rapid transit system worldwide, with 472 rail stations. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, Rockefeller University, which have been ranked among the top universities in the world. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, the city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. In 1664, the city was named in honor of the Duke of York.
James's older brother, King Charles II, had appointed the Duke proprietor of the former territory of New Netherland, including the city of New Amsterdam, which England had seized from the Dutch. During the Wisconsinan glaciation, 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth; the erosive forward movement of the ice contributed to the separation of what is now Long Island and Staten Island. That action left bedrock at a shallow depth, providing a solid foundation for most of Manhattan's skyscrapers. In the precolonial era, the area of present-day New York City was inhabited by Algonquian Native Americans, including the Lenape, whose homeland, known as Lenapehoking, included Staten Island; the first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown. He named it Nouvelle Angoulême. A Spanish expedition led by captain Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River, which he named Río de San Antonio.
The Padrón Rea
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director and actor. Pollack directed more than 20 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 movies or shows and produced over 44 films, his 1985 film Out of Africa won him Academy Awards for producing. He was nominated for Best Director Oscars for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and Tootsie in which he appeared. Some of his other best known works include Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor and Absence of Malice, his subsequent films included Havana, The Firm, The Interpreter, he produced and acted in Michael Clayton. Pollack is best known to television viewers for his recurring role playing Will Truman's father on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. Sydney Pollack was born in Lafayette, Indiana, to a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants, the son of Rebecca and David Pollack, a semi-professional boxer and pharmacist; the family relocated to South Bend and his parents divorced. His mother, who suffered from alcoholism and emotional problems, died at the age of 37 while Pollack was a student.
Despite earlier plans to attend college and medical school, Pollack left Indiana for New York City soon after finishing high school at age 17. Pollack studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre from 1952–54, working on a lumber truck between terms. After two years army service, ending in 1958, he returned to the Playhouse at Meisner’s invitation to become his assistant. In 1960, John Frankenheimer, a friend of Pollack, asked him to come to Los Angeles in order to work as a dialogue coach for the child actors on Frankenheimer's first big picture, The Young Savages, it was during this time that Pollack met Burt Lancaster who encouraged the young actor to try directing. Pollack played a director in The Twilight Zone episode "The Trouble with Templeton" in 1961, but he found his real success in television in the 1960s by directing episodes of series, such as The Fugitive and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. After doing TV he made the jump into film with a string of movies.
His film-directing debut was The Slender Thread. Over time, Pollack's films received a total of 48 Academy Award nominations, his first Oscar nomination was for his 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, his second in 1982 for Tootsie. For his 1985 film Out of Africa starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, Pollack won Academy Awards for directing and producing. During his career, he directed 12 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Jane Fonda, Gig Young, Susannah York, Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman, Melinda Dillon, Jessica Lange, Dustin Hoffman, Teri Garr, Meryl Streep, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Holly Hunter. Young and Lange won Oscars for their performances in Pollack's films, his disputes with Hoffman during the filming of Tootsie became well known. Hoffman began pushing the idea that Pollack play the role of his agent and Pollack reluctantly agreed despite not having any film roles in 20 years, their off-screen relationship added authenticity to their scenes in the movie, most of which feature them arguing.
Pollack subsequently took on more acting roles in addition to directing. He appeared as himself in the documentary One Six Right, describing his joy in owning and piloting his Cessna Citation X jet aircraft. One of a select group of non- and/or former actors awarded membership in The Actors Studio, Pollack resumed acting in the 1990s with appearances in such films as The Player and Eyes Wide Shut playing corrupt or morally conflicted power figures; as a character actor, Pollack appeared in films such as A Civil Action, Changing Lanes, as well as his own, including Random Hearts and The Interpreter. He appeared in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives as a New York lawyer undergoing a midlife crisis, in Robert Zemeckis's Death Becomes Her as an emergency room doctor, his last role was as Patrick Dempsey's father in the 2008 romantic comedy Made of Honor, playing in theaters at the time of his death. He was a recurring guest star on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, playing Will Truman's unfaithful but loving father, George Truman.
In addition to earlier appearances on NBC's Just Shoot Me and Mad About You, in 2007, Pollack made guest appearances on the HBO TV series The Sopranos and Entourage. Pollack received the first annual Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking award from the Austin Film Festival on October 21, 2006; as a producer he helped to guide many films that were successful with both critics and movie audiences, such as The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Michael Clayton, a film in which he starred opposite George Clooney and for which he received his sixth Academy Award nomination, in the Best Picture category, he formed a production company called Mirage Enterprises' with the English director Anthony Minghella. The last film they produced together, The Reader, earned them both posthumous Oscar nominations for Best Picture. Besides his many feature film laurels, Pollack was nominated for five Primetime Emmys, earning two: one for directing in 1966 and another for producing, given four months after his death in 2008.
The moving image collection of Sydney Pollack is housed at the Academy Film Archive. In the 2002 Sight and Sound Directors' Poll, Pollack revealed his top ten films: Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Conformist, The Godfather Part II, Grand Illusion, The Leopard, Once Upon a Time in America, Raging Bull, The Seventh Seal, Sunset Boulevard. Pollack's brother, Bernie, is a costume desig
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper, published in Los Angeles, since 1881. It has the fourth-largest circulation among United States newspapers, is the largest U. S. newspaper not headquartered on the East Coast. The paper is known for its coverage of issues salient to the U. S. West Coast, such as immigration trends and natural disasters, it has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of other issues. As of June 18, 2018, ownership of the paper is controlled by Patrick Soon-Shiong, the executive editor is Norman Pearlstine. In the nineteenth century, the paper was known for its civic boosterism and opposition to unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910; the paper's profile grew in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades, the paper's readership has declined and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize, in July 2018 the paper moved out of its historic downtown headquarters to a facility near Los Angeles International Airport.
The Times was first published on December 4, 1881, as the Los Angeles Daily Times under the direction of Nathan Cole Jr. and Thomas Gardiner. It was first printed at the Mirror printing plant, owned by Jesse Yarnell and T. J. Caystile. Unable to pay the printing bill and Gardiner turned the paper over to the Mirror Company. In the meantime, S. J. Mathes had joined the firm, it was at his insistence that the Times continued publication. In July 1882, Harrison Gray Otis moved from Santa Barbara to become the paper's editor. Otis made the Times a financial success. Historian Kevin Starr wrote that Otis was a businessman "capable of manipulating the entire apparatus of politics and public opinion for his own enrichment". Otis's editorial policy was based on civic boosterism, extolling the virtues of Los Angeles and promoting its growth. Toward those ends, the paper supported efforts to expand the city's water supply by acquiring the rights to the water supply of the distant Owens Valley; the efforts of the Times to fight local unions led to the October 1, 1910 bombing of its headquarters, killing twenty-one people.
Two union leaders and Joseph McNamara, were charged. The American Federation of Labor hired noted trial attorney Clarence Darrow to represent the brothers, who pleaded guilty. Otis fastened a bronze eagle on top of a high frieze of the new Times headquarters building designed by Gordon Kaufmann, proclaiming anew the credo written by his wife, Eliza: "Stand Fast, Stand Firm, Stand Sure, Stand True." Upon Otis's death in 1917, his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, took control as publisher of the Times. Harry Chandler was succeeded in 1944 by his son, Norman Chandler, who ran the paper during the rapid growth of post-war Los Angeles. Norman's wife, Dorothy Buffum Chandler, became active in civic affairs and led the effort to build the Los Angeles Music Center, whose main concert hall was named the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in her honor. Family members are buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery near Paramount Studios; the site includes a memorial to the Times Building bombing victims. The fourth generation of family publishers, Otis Chandler, held that position from 1960 to 1980.
Otis Chandler sought legitimacy and recognition for his family's paper forgotten in the power centers of the Northeastern United States due to its geographic and cultural distance. He sought to remake the paper in the model of the nation's most respected newspapers, notably The New York Times and The Washington Post. Believing that the newsroom was "the heartbeat of the business", Otis Chandler increased the size and pay of the reporting staff and expanded its national and international reporting. In 1962, the paper joined with The Washington Post to form the Los Angeles Times–Washington Post News Service to syndicate articles from both papers for other news organizations, he toned down the unyielding conservatism that had characterized the paper over the years, adopting a much more centrist editorial stance. During the 1960s, the paper won four Pulitzer Prizes, more than its previous nine decades combined. Writing in 2013 about the pattern of newspaper ownership by founding families, Times reporter Michael Hiltzik said that: The first generations bought or founded their local paper for profits and social and political influence.
Their children enjoyed both profits and influence, but as the families grew larger, the generations found that only one or two branches got the power, everyone else got a share of the money. The coupon-clipping branches realized that they could make more money investing in something other than newspapers. Under their pressure the companies split apart, or disappeared. That's the pattern followed over more than a century by the Los Angeles Times under the Chandler family; the paper's early history and subsequent transformation was chronicled in an unauthorized history Thinking Big, was one of four organizations profiled by David Halberstam in The Powers That Be. It has been the whole or partial subject of nearly thirty dissertations in communications or social science in the past four decades; the Los Angeles Times began a decline with Los Angeles itself with the decline in military production at the end of the Cold War. It faced hiring freezes in 1991-1992. Another major decision at the same time was to cut the range of circulation.
They cut circulation in California's Central Valley, Nevada and the San Diego ed
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film studio, production company and film distributor, a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures subsidiary of the Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony Corporation. What would become Columbia Pictures, CBC Film Sales Corporation, was founded on June 19, 1918 by Harry Cohn, his brother Jack Cohn, Joe Brandt, it went public two years later. In its early years, it was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the primary homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s, Columbia's major contract stars were Cary Grant. In the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studio's premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, William Holden became major stars at the studio, it is one of the leading film studios in the world and is a member of the "Big Five" major American film studios.
It was one of the so-called "Little Three" among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. Today, it has become the world's fifth largest major film studio; the studio was founded on June 19, 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jack's best friend Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. Brandt was president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood; the studio's early productions were low-budget short subjects: "Screen Snapshots", the "Hall Room Boys", the Chaplin imitator Billy West. The start-up CBC leased space in a Poverty Row studio on Hollywood's famously low-rent Gower Street. Among Hollywood's elite, the studio's small-time reputation led some to joke that "CBC" stood for "Corned Beef and Cabbage". Brandt tired of dealing with the Cohn brothers, in 1932 sold his one-third stake to Harry Cohn, who took over as president. 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. He would run one of the longest tenures of any studio chief. In an industry rife with nepotism, Columbia was notorious for having a number of Harry and Jack's relatives in high positions. Humorist Robert Benchley called it the Pine Tree Studio, "because it has so many Cohns". Columbia's product line consisted of moderately budgeted features and short subjects including comedies, sports films, various serials, cartoons. Columbia moved into the production of higher-budget fare joining the second tier of Hollywood studios along with United Artists and Universal. Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia was a horizontally integrated company, it controlled distribution. Helping Columbia's climb was the arrival of Frank Capra. Between 1927 and 1939, Capra pushed Cohn for better material and bigger budgets. A string of hits he directed in the early and mid 1930s solidified Columbia's status as a major studio. In particular, It Happened; until Columbia's existence had depended on theater owners willing to take its films, since as mentioned above it didn't have a theater network of its own.
Other Capra-directed hits followed, including the original version of Lost Horizon, with Ronald Colman, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which made James Stewart a major star. In 1933, Columbia hired Robert Kalloch to be women's costume designer, he was the first contract costume designer hired by the studio, he established the studio's wardrobe department. Kalloch's employment, in turn, convinced leading actresses that Columbia Pictures intended to invest in their careers. In 1938, the addition of B. B. Kahane as Vice President would produce Charles Vidor's Those High Gray Walls, The Lady in Question, the first joint film of Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. Kahane would become the President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1959, until his death a year later. Columbia could not afford to keep a huge roster of contract stars, so Cohn borrowed them from other studios. At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the industry's most prestigious studio, Columbia was nicknamed "Siberia", as Louis B. Mayer would use the loan out to Columbia as a way to punish his less-obedient signings.
In the 1930s, Columbia signed Jean Arthur to a long-term contract, after The Whole Town's Talking, Arthur became a major comedy star. Ann Sothern's career was launched when Columbia signed her to a contract in 1936. Cary Grant signed a contract in 1937 and soon after it was altered to a non-exclusive contract shared with RKO. Many theaters relied on westerns to attract big weekend audiences, Columbia always recognized this market, its first cowboy star was Buck Jones, who signed with Columbia in 1930 for a fraction of his former big-studio salary. Over the next two decades Columbia released scores of outdoor adventures with Jones, Tim McCoy, Ken Maynard, Jack Luden, Bob Allen, Russell Hayden, Tex Ritter, Ken Curtis, Gene Autry. Columbia's most popular cowboy was Charles Starrett, who signed with Columbia in 193
Dave Grusin
Robert David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. He has composed many scores for feature films and television, has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards, he has had a prolific recording career as an artist, arranger and executive producer. He is the co-founder of GRP Records. Born in Littleton, Colorado, he studied music at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was awarded his degree in 1956, he produced his first single, "Subways Are for Sleeping", in 1962 and his first film score for Divorce American Style. Other scores followed, including Winning, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Midnight Man, Three Days of the Condor. In the late 1970s, he started GRP Records with his business partner, Larry Rosen, began to create some of the first commercial digital recordings, he was the composer for The Graduate, On Golden Pond and The Goonies. In 1988, he won the Oscar for best original score for The Milagro Beanfield War, He composed the musical scores for the 1984 TriStar Pictures and the 1993 Columbia Pictures Television logos.
From 2000-11, Grusin concentrated on composing classical and jazz compositions and recording with collaborators, including guitarist Lee Ritenour. Their album Harlequin won a Grammy Award in 1985, their classical crossover albums, Two Worlds and Amparo, were nominated for Grammys. Grusin's mother was a pianist and his father was a violinist from Riga, Latvia. He's half Jewish. An alumnus of the University of Colorado at Boulder, College of Music, he was awarded his bachelor's degree in 1956, his teachers included Cecil Effinger and Wayne Scott, pianist and professor of jazz. Grusin has a filmography of about 100 titles, his many awards include an Oscar for best original score for The Milagro Beanfield War, as well as Oscar nominations for The Champ, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Firm, Heaven Can Wait, On Golden Pond. He received a Best Original Song nomination for "It Might Be You" from the film Tootsie. Six of the fourteen cuts on the soundtrack from The Graduate are his. Other film scores he has composed include Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?, Three Days of the Condor, The Goonies, Tequila Sunrise, Hope Floats, Random Hearts, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Mulholland Falls and The Firm.
In addition, he composed the original opening fanfare for film studio TriStar Pictures. Grusin composed theme music for the TV programs It Takes a Thief, The Name of the Game, Dan August, The Sandy Duncan Show, Good Times, Baretta, St. Elsewhere, for Televisa in Mexico, Tres Generaciones, he composed music for individual episodes of each of those shows. His other TV credits include The Wild Wild West, The Girl from U. N. C. L. E. and Columbo: Prescription: Murder. He did the theme song for One Life to Live from 1984–92. Grusin and Larry Rosen founded GRP Records in 1978. In 1994, GRP was in charge of MCA's jazz operations. Founders Grusin and Rosen were replaced by Tommy LiPuma. In 1997, Grusin and Rosen founded N2K Encoded Music, renamed N-Coded Music, he received honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music in 1988 and University of Colorado, College of Music in 1989. Grusin was initiated into the Beta Chi Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at the University of Colorado in 1953. Grusin is married to Nan Newton.
He is the father of music editor Stuart Grusin, music editor and musician Scott Grusin, aerospace engineer Michael Grusin. He is the stepfather of artist Annie Vought and elder brother of keyboardist Don Grusin and sister Dee Grusin. Award, Best Original Score, The Milagro Beanfield War Nomination, Best Original Score: Heaven Can Wait, The Champ, On Golden Pond, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Firm Nomination, Best Original Song: "It Might Be You" Award, Best Arrangement on an Instrumental: "Early A. M. Attitude", "Suite" for The Milagro Beanfield War, "Bess You Is My Woman/I Loves You Porgy", "Mood Indigo", "Three Cowboy Songs" Award, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals: "My Funny Valentine" by Michelle Pfeiffer, "Mean Old Man" by James Taylor Award, Best Album Original Score Written for Motion Picture or Television: The Fabulous Baker Boys, Best Original Score: Selena Nomination, Best Original Score: The Milagro Beanfield War, The Fabulous Baker Boys, For the Boys Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, 1991 Subways Are for Sleeping Piano and Moonlight Kaleidoscope Divorce American Style The Graduate Candy Three Days of the Condor Discovered Again!
One of a Kind The Champ Mountain Dance The Electric Horseman Out of the Shadows Night Lines Dave Grusin and the NY-LA Dream Band Harlequin Lucas Cinemagic GRP Live in Session Sticks and Stones Migration The Fabulous Baker Boys The Bonfire of the Vanities Havana The Gershwin Connection GRP Super Live in Concert Homage to Duke The Firm Dave Grusin Presents GRP All-Stars Live! The Cure Two for the Road (
