The Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile and a half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's east border with Hollywood at Marmont Lane to its west border with Beverly Hills at Phyllis street. The Strip is probably the best known portion of Sunset, embracing a premier collection of boutiques, restaurants, rock clubs, and nightclubs that are on the cutting edge of the entertainment business. It is also known for its trademark array of huge, colorful billboards.
Glamour and glitz defined the Strip in the 1930s and the 1940s, with its renowned restaurants and clubs, which became a playground for the rich and famous. There were movie legends and power brokers, and everyone who was anyone danced into stardom at such legendary clubs as Ciro's, the Mocambo and the Trocadero. And some of its expensive nightclubs and restaurants were said to be owned by gangsters like Mickey Cohen. Other spots on the strip associated with Hollywood include the Garden of Allah apartments and Schwab's Drugstore.
By the early 1960s, the Strip lost favor with the majority of movie people. But its restaurants, bars and clubs, continued to be an attraction for locals and out-of-town tourists. In the mid-1960s and the 1970s, it became a major gathering-place for the counterculture -- and the scene of the notorious police riot against crowds of hippies in the summer of 1966 which inspired the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth". Go-Go dancers did their thing at such spots as the famous Whisky a Go Go. Bands like The Doors, The Byrds, Love, The Seeds, Frank Zappa, Martha and the Vandellas, Metallica, Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses, Poison and many others played at clubs like the Roxy, Pandora's Box and the London Fog. As the Strip became a haven for musical artists in the 1960s and 1970s, the Hyatt West Hollywood, as it is known today, became a hotel of legend. Many musicians lived here and stayed here for the easy access to the live music venues on Sunset Boulevard. This is how the hotel became known by names such as the "Riot Hyatt" and the "Riot House".
The Strip continued to be a major focus for punk rock and New Wave during the late 1970s, and it became the center of the colorful glam metal scene throughout the 1980s. The 1979 Donna Summer song 'Sunset People' from the album Bad Girls, was about the nightlife on Sunset Boulevard. With the increase in rents in the area during the 1980s, however, and the decline of the glam metal scene in the early 1990s, the Sunset Strip ceased to be a major area for up and coming rock bands without industry sponsorship. The adoption of "pay to play" tactics, in which bands were charged a fee to play at clubs like the Roxy, the Whisky and Gazzari's (now the Key Club) also diminished the appeal to rock bands other than as an industry showcase. The music industry dominates clubs on the Strip such as those mentioned above, and only major acts perform at the House of Blues. Thus, during the 1990s, the center of more alternative music activity in Los Angeles shifted further east to areas like Silverlake, Los Feliz and Echo Park. The "Riot Hyatt", still continues to be a favourite with bands today, such as Justin Timberlake, Breaking Point, and Timbaland, for it's continual easy access to live music venues, including The Whisky, Roxy, and House of Blues
In November 1984, voters in West Hollywood passed a proposal on the ballot to incorporate and the area became an independent city. Increasingly, the western end of the Strip is occupied by office buildings, mostly catering to the entertainment industry, and expensive hotels. This area seems to have become an adjunct of Beverly Hills only with more nightlife activity, much of it upscale.
In the evening, the Strip is a vibrant slash of neon, a virtual traffic jam of young cruisers on weekends and a mecca for people-watchers and celebrity wannabes.
However, in the 21st Century the rate of new club openings on the Strip has declined due to traffic congestion while Hollywood Boulevard with less parking restrictions and easy access to the Hollywood Freeway has seen an increase in new openings.
Celebrities
Many celebrities can still be seen on the Strip, especially on its western end, and quite a few live in the area, particularly the nearby Hollywood Hills and Laurel Canyon.
Today the Strip contains some of the most exclusive condominium complexes on the West Coast with "name" buildings such as Shorham Towers, Sierra Towers, and on the exclusive cul de sac Alta Loma Road, the popular buildings known as The Empire West and The Park Wellington. These four buildings are ofter referred to in the media as the "Sunset Strip Condos" that are the security guarded homes of the Hollywood elite.
Alta Loma Road is also home to the low-key hotel celebrity haunt "The Sunset Marquis" with its famous 45-person Whisky Bar and a recording studio that has been the home to many hits including songs by U2. Alta Loma Road was one of the main locations for the film Perfect but it was also the home a tragedy. In the 1970s, it was the street on which Sal Mineo lived and died.
Also, it is a little-known fact that the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, was named "the Strip" after the Sunset Strip.
77 Sunset Strip, a successful 1958-1964 TV series, was set on the Strip between La Cienega Boulevard and Alta Loma Road.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is a behind-the-scenes television drama of a late-night comedy sketch show performed at a fictional theater on the Strip.
Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard is a boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, beginning at Sunset Boulevard in the east and running northwest to Vermont Avenue, where it straightens out and runs due west to Laurel Canyon Boulevard. West of Laurel Canyon it continues as a small residential street in the hills, finally ending at Sunset Plaza Drive. On the East side of Hollywood Boulevard it passes through the neighborhoods of Little Armenia and Thai Town.
The famous street was named Prospect Avenue from 1887 to 1910, when the town of Hollywood was annexed to the City of Los Angeles. After annexation, the street numbers changed from 100 Prospect Avenue, at Vermont Avenue, to 6400 Hollywood Boulevard.
In 1958, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which runs from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue, was created. The first star was placed in 1960 as a tribute to artists working in the entertainment industry. (The walk was later extended onto Vine Street.)
The Hollywood extension of the Metro Red Line subway was opened in June 1999. Running from Downtown to the Valley, it has stops on Hollywood Boulevard at Western Avenue, at Vine Street and at Highland Avenue.
In recent years efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001. With housing and lofts conversions and a future entertainment complex on the corner of Hollywood and Vine owned by W Hotels. Also various nightclubs have opened up with many celebrities and Hollywood Starletts coming in to party such as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Jamie Foxx. The street remains one of the major tourist draws in Los Angeles.
Another Hollywood Boulevard exists in both Hollywood, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Trivia
The Famous Hollywood Christmas Parade pases down Hollywood Boulevard every saturday after Thanksgiving.
In 1946 Gene Autry rode his horse in the Hollywood Christmas parade and was inspired by the children yelling "Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus," to write the song "Here Comes Santa Claus" along with Oaklely Haldeman. Then, the boulevard was nicknamed "Santa Clause Lane".
The Kinks' song "Celluloid Heroes" is about Hollywood Boulevard and the personalities engraved therein. A number of landmarks are referred to.
It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time.
An anti-cruising ordinance prohibits driving on part of the boulevard more than twice in four hours.
In the film, "Pretty Woman", Richard Gere "picked up" Julia Roberts on Hollywood Boulevard.
The System of a Down song Lost In Hollywood references Hollywood Boulevard and the unscrupulous nature of Hollywood itself.
Landmarks include
Bob Hope Square (Hollywood and Vine)
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre
El Capitan Theatre
Frederick's of Hollywood
Hollywood and Highland
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Wax Museum
Janes House
Kodak Theatre
Masonic Temple
Musso & Frank Grill
Pantages Theatre
Pig 'n Whistle
Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Odditorium
The Hollywood Christmas Parade takes place every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving in Hollywood community in Los Angeles, California, United States. The parade's 3.2 mile route travels along Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard and has many celebrities among its participants.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce created the Hollywood Christmas Parade in 1928 to boost shopping. Originally called the Santa Claus Lane Parade, the parade featured only Santa Claus and the actress Jeanette Loff.
The parade continued to grow with the help of local businesses and the community. In 1931 Santa Claus rode a truck-pulled float instead of the reindeer-pulled carriage of previous years. American Legion Post 43 marched with a color guard, drum line and bugle corps.
The Parade was suspended from 1942 to 1944 due to World War II, but the parade reopened in 1945 with record attendance.
In 1946 Gene Autry rode his horse in the parade and was inspired by the children yelling "Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus," to write the song "Here Comes Santa Claus" along with Oaklely Haldeman.
The parade continued to grow through 1950s, '60s, and '70s, adding floats, animals, bands, and celebrities.
In 1978 the parade was renamed to the Hollywood Christmas Parade to attract more celebrities and the parade was broadcast locally on KTLA with the help of Johnny Grant.
Frederick's of Hollywood
Frederick's of Hollywood is a well known retailer of lingerie in the United States, with stores in many modern shopping malls across the USA.
The business was started by Frederick Mellinger (inventor of the push-up bra) in 1946. The original flagship store was a landmark on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. In September 2005, after 59 years, the store moved to a larger, more modern, and tastefully designed space a few blocks away, near the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.
Here, in addition to the selection of bras and panties, there are corsets, including their famous "Hollywood Dream" corset, bedroom slippers, a vast array of hosiery, bridal lingerie, beautiful special occasion lingerie, and even more high-end seduction pieces. The store no longer houses The Lingerie Museum featuring The Celebrity Lingerie Hall of Fame which exhibited a collection of underwear worn by Hollywood movie stars, such as one of Madonna's pointy-breasted corsets. However, this flagship Hollywood store does display corsets and bras designed by celebrities for charity.
Some of the lingerie worn by the 1950s pin-up and bondage model Bettie Page was from Frederick's of Hollywood.
The Kodak Theatre
The Kodak Theatre is a live theatre in the Hollywood and Highland entertainment complex on Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles.
Since its opening on November 9, 2001, the theatre has been the home of the annual Academy Awards Ceremonies ("The Oscars"), which were first held there in March 2002, and is the first permanent home for the awards.
The theatre was designed specifically with the Oscars in mind. It has a seating capacity for up to 3,400 people and the stage is one of the largest in the United States, measuring 113 feet wide by 60 feet deep. The theatre was sponsored by the Kodak company, which paid $75 million to have its name associated with the building. It is owned by CIM Group and rented to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar night.
The entrance hall to the Kodak Theatre is flanked by columns displaying winners of the Academy Awards for Best Picture since 1927-1928, with blank spaces left for future Best Picture winners well into the 21st century.
The rest of the year, there are live concerts with various artists, including Céline Dion, the Dixie Chicks, Elvis Costello, Vanilla Ice, Barry Manilow, and Prince, Ian Anderson, David Gilmour, Broadway musicals, dance shows, symphony performances and opera. Other events have included the AFI Life Achievement Award to Tom Hanks, the ESPY Awards for excellence in sports performance yearly, the BET Awards and American Idol finales. In 2005, Nintendo appeared at the Kodak Theatre to promote their latest console, the Wii, before E3 began. It was again rented out to Nintendo in 2006 for their pre-E3 conference. In April 2006, it was home to the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards.
The Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheatre at 2301 North Highland Avenue in Hollywood, California, USA, that is used primarily for music performances. The "bowl" in this context is the natural cavity in the earth into which the amphitheatre is built, rather than the shape of the band shell as described in the next paragraph. It officially opened in 1922 on the site of a natural amphitheatre formerly known as the Daisy Dell, and has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since then. The Bowl is also home to a second resident ensemble, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
The Hollywood Bowl is well known for its band shell, a distinctive set of concentric arches that has graced the site since 1929. Popular entertainers including Cher, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, the Who, Nine Inch Nails, Def Leppard, Ben Harper, Willie Nelson, Queens of the Stone Age, Gwen Stefani, The Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Flaming Lips, Coldplay, Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Ryan Adams, Sigur Ros, Ozomatli, the Doors, Patsy Cline, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Monty Python, Judy Garland, Daniel Rodriguez and Johnny Cash have given famous or noteworthy performances under the shell. Cartoon buffs may see a resemblance between the concentric arches of the shell and Porky Pig's backdrop in Th-th-that's all, Folks; it is debatable whether it was intentional (however, the Bowl did make appearances in various Warner Brothers cartoon shorts, at least one DePatie-Freleng Pink Panther cartoon, and a Tom and Jerry cartoon). It is the scene of Bette Midler's concert at the beginning and end of the 1988 movie Beaches. Adding to the atmosphere of the Bowl, the famous Hollywood Sign, several miles away, is visible from the Bowl site, to the north-northeast, behind and to the right of it from the spectators' viewpoint.
Shortly after the end of the 2003 summer season, the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County, which owns the Hollywood Bowl (seating capacity 17,416), replaced the 1929 shell with a new, somewhat larger, acoustically improved shell, which had its debut in the 2004 summer season. Preservationists fiercely opposed the demolition for many years, citing the shell's storied history. However, even when it was built it was (at least acoustically) only the third-best shell in the Bowl's history, behind its two immediate predecessors (which were designed by Lloyd Wright, the son of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright). By the late 1970s the Hollywood Bowl became an acoustic liability because of continued hardening of its transite skin. The new shell incorporates design elements of not only the 1929 shell, but of both the Lloyd Wright shells. During the 2004 summer season, the sound steadily improved, as engineers learned to work with its live acoustics.
Shells
At first, the Bowl was very close to its natural state, with only makeshift wooden benches for the audience, and eventually a simple awning over the stage. In 1926, a group known as the Allied Architects was contracted to regrade the Bowl, providing permanent seating and a shell. These improvements did provide increased capacity (the all-time record for attendance was set in 1936, when 26,410 people crowded into the Bowl to hear opera singer Lily Pons), but were otherwise disappointing, as the regrading noticeably degraded the natural acoustics, and the original shell was deemed acoustically unsatisfactory (as well as visually unfashionable, with its murals of sailing ships).
For the 1927 season, Lloyd Wright built a pyramidal shell, with a vaguely Southwestern look, out of left-over lumber from a production of Robin Hood. This was generally regarded as the best shell the Bowl ever had from an acoustic standpoint; unfortunately, its appearance was deemed too avant-garde, and it was demolished at the end of the season. It did, however, get Wright a second chance, this time with the stipulation that the shell was to have an arch shape.
For the 1928 season, Wright built a fiberglass shell in the shape of concentric 120-degree arches, with movable panels inside that could be used to tune the acoustics. It was designed to be easily dismantled and stored between concert seasons; apparently for political reasons, this was not done, and it did not survive the winter.
For the 1929 season, the Allied Architects built the shell that stood until 2003, using a transite skin over a metal frame. Its acoustics, though not nearly as good as those of the Lloyd Wright shells, were deemed satisfactory at first, and its clean lines and white, almost-semicircular arches were copied for music shells elsewhere. As the acoustics deteriorated, various measures were used to mitigate the problems, starting with an inner shell made from large cardboard tubes (of the sort used as forms for round concrete pillars) in the 1970s, which were replaced by the early 1980s with the large fiberglass spheres (designed by Frank Gehry) that remained until 2003. These dampened out the unfavorable acoustics, but required massive use of electronic amplification to reach the full audience, particularly since the background noise level had risen sharply since the 1920s. The appearance underwent other, purely visual, changes as well, including the addition of a broad outer arch (forming a proscenium) where it had once had only a narrow rim.
The 2004 shell incorporates the prominent front arch, flared at the base and forming a proscenium, of the 1926 shell, the broad profile of the 1928 shell, and the unadorned white finish (and most of the general lines) of the 1929 shell. In addition, the ring-shaped structure hung within the shell, supporting lights and acoustic clouds, echoes a somewhat similar structure hung within the 1927 shell. During the 2004 season, because the back wall was not yet finished, a white curtain was hung at the back; beginning with the 2005 season, the curtain was removed to reveal a finished back wall.
In addition, the new shell is wired for video cameras, with two large screens on either side, and two more atop the rearmost lighting towers; during most concerts, three remotely-operated cameras in the shell, and a fourth, manually-operated camera among the box seats, provide the audience with close-up views of the musicians, usually alternating between a view of the conductor, and a view of whichever musician(s) have "the melody."
The Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign is a famous landmark in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, spelling out the name of the area in 50-foot (15.2 m) high white letters. It was created as an advertisement in 1923, but garnered increased notoriety after its initial purpose had been fulfilled. The sign is a frequent target of pranks and vandalism, and has undergone periodic restoration over the years. The sign is now a registered trademark and cannot be used without the permission of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which also manages the Walk of Fame.
The sign originally read "HOLLYWOODLAND," and its purpose was to advertise a new housing development in the hills above the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. H.J. Whitley had already used a sign to advertise his development Whitley Heights, which was located between Highland Avenue and Vine. He suggested to his friend Harry Chandler, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, that a land syndicate he was involved in make a similar sign to advertise their land. Real estate developers Woodruff and Shoults called their development "Hollywoodland" and advertised it as a "superb environment without excessive cost on the Hollywood side of the hills."
They contracted the Crescent Sign Company to erect thirteen letters on the hillside, each facing south. The sign company owner, Thomas Fisk Goff (1890-1984) designed the sign. Each letter of the sign was 30 feet (9 m) wide and 50 feet (15 m) high, and was studded with light bulbs. The sign was officially dedicated on July 13, 1923. It was not intended to be permanent. Some sources say its expected life was to be about a year and a half. In September of 1932, actress Peg Entwistle committed suicide by jumping to her death from the letter "H."
Official maintenance of the sign ended in 1939 and it rapidly began to deteriorate.
According to the summer 2006 edition of "The Beachwood Voice," during the early 1940´s, Albert Kothe (the sign´s official caretaker) caused an accident that destroyed the letter "H," as seen in many historical pictures. This established a contrary notion to the story that the consonant was beaten down by the weather. On page 10, it was published that Kothe, on a drunk night, was driving his car up to the top of Mount Lee, when he lost control of the vehicle and stumbled off the cliff behind the "H." While Kothe had no injuries, the 1928 Ford Model A was destroyed, as was the "H."
In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in, offering to remove the last four letters and to repair the rest. Because the city dictated that all subsequent illumination would be at the cost of the Chamber, it opted not to replace the light bulbs. The 1949 effort gave it new life, but the wooden and sheet metal sign continued to deteriorate in the open air of the Hollywood Hills. Eventually a trailing "O" splintered and broke off, resembling a lowercase "u." The object was becoming somewhat of an eyesore.
In 1978, the Chamber set out to replace the intensely deteriorated sign with a more permanent structure. Nine donors, including actor Gene Autry, publisher Hugh Hefner, singer Andy Williams, and rock star Alice Cooper, gave $27,700 apiece to sponsor replacement letters made of Australian steel, guaranteed to last for many years. These new letters were each 45 feet (13.7 m) high and ranged from 31 to 39 feet (9.3 to 11.8 m) wide. The new version of the sign was unveiled on Hollywood's 75th anniversary, November 14, 1978, before a live television audience of 60 million people.
Refurbishment began again in November 2005, as workers stripped the letters back to their metal base and repainted them white. Also in 2005, parts of the 1923 sign were being auctioned on eBay, with a starting bid of $300,000.
The sign is located on the southern side of Mount Lee in Griffith Park, north of the Mulholland Highway. A good viewpoint within 100 yards (90 m) of the sign can be reached by driving north up Gower Street from Hollywood Boulevard and then north along Beachwood Drive.
Paramount Studios
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. It has become the longest-lived American movie studio ever, in existence for 95 years. Paramount is owned by media conglomerate Viacom.
Paramount Pictures Inc. can trace its beginnings to the creation in May, 1912, of the Famous Players Film Company. Founder Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success.
Paramount's successful run of lightweight pictures extended into the 1980s and 1990s, generating hits like Flashdance, the Friday the 13th slasher series; Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels; Beverly Hills Cop and a string of films starring comedian Eddie Murphy; and the Star Trek features. While the emphasis was decidedly on the commercial, there were occasional quality efforts like Atlantic City and Forrest Gump. During this period responsibility for running the studio passed from Eisner and Katzenberg to Don Simpson to Stanley Jaffe and Sherry Lansing, then in 1994 to Jonathan Dolgen who ran the studio for ten years. The Dolgen/Lansing partnership was the longrest running Paramount administration since the '30s. Late in 2005 Sumner Redstone appointed Brad Grey to run Paramount.
With the influx of cash from the sale of G+W's industrial properties in the mid-1980s, Paramount bought a string of television stations and KECO Entertainment's theme park operations, renaming them Paramount Parks. In 1993, Sumner Redstone's entertainment conglomerate Viacom made a bid for Paramount; this quickly escalated into a bidding war with Barry Diller. But Viacom prevailed, ultimately paying $10 billion for the Paramount holdings. In 1995, Dolgen negotiated a partnership with Chris-Craft Industries' United Television to launch the United Paramount Network (UPN), succeeding where Diller had failed in the '70s to create a Paramount network. In 1999 Dolgen negotiated a buyout of United Television's interests. Following the merger with CBS, Viacom re-assigned responsibility for the fledgling network to CBS, the larger broadcaster with more efficiencies and synergies.
Reflecting in part the troubles of the broadcasting business, and the failures of Viacom's then CEO, CBS' Mel Karamazin, Viacom announced early in 2005 that it would split itself in two. The split was completed in January 2006. The CBS television and radio networks, the Infinity radio-station chain (now called CBS Radio), the Paramount Television production unit (now called CBS Paramount Television) and UPN (replaced by The CW Television Network co-owned with rival Time Warner's Warner Bros.) are part of CBS Corporation. Paramount Pictures is now lumped in with MTV, BET, and the New Viacom's other highly profitable cable channels.
Through a series of mergers and acquistitions, many of Paramount's early cartoons, shorts, and feature films are owned by numerous entities. The cartoons and shorts that were sold to U.M.&M. in 1956 have been reacquired by Paramount Pictures, following Viacom's purchase of Republic Pictures. EMKA/NBC Universal owns 750 of Paramount's pre-1948 sound features, except for a few feature films that either ended up in U.M.&M./NTA's possession, or had been retained by Paramount due to other rights issues (such as The Miracle of Morgan's Creek). The Popeye cartoons and Superman cartoons are owned by Time Warner's subsidiaries, Turner Entertainment and DC Comics (respectively). The rest of the cartoons that were sold to Harvey Comics from 1951-1962 are owned by Classic Media. As for distribution of the material Paramount itself still owns, it has been split in half, with Paramount themselves owning theatrical rights, while what became CBS Paramount Television handles television distribution (under the CBS license). This unprecedented experiment is regarded as a mistake by most industry oberservers and will undoubtedly lead to a further fragmentation of the Paramount legacy film library.
Paramount is the last major film studio located in Hollywood proper. When Paramount moved to its present home in 1927, it was in the heart of the film community. Since then, former next-door neighbor RKO closed up shop in 1957; Warner Brothers (whose old Sunset Boulevard studio was sold to Paramount in 1949 as a home for KTLA) moved to Burbank in 1930; Columbia joined Warners in Burbank in 1973 then moved again to Culver City in 1989; and the Pickford-Fairbanks-Goldwyn-United Artists lot, after a lively history, has been turned into a post-production and music-scoring facility for Warners, known simply as "The Lot". For a time the semi-industrial neighborhood around Paramount was in decline, but has now come back. The recently refurbished studio has come to symbolize Hollywood for many visitors, and its studio tour is a popular attraction.
The most successful period for Paramount in recent times was the administration of Jonathan Dolgen, chairman and Sherry Lansing, president. Under Dolgen and Lansing the studio had an almost ten year unbroken track record of success including 6 of Paramount's ten highest grossing films ever and the higest grossing film of all time, Titanic. Dolgen and Lansing won Best Picture Academy Awards for Titanic, Braveheart and Forrest Gump, while also releasing such films as Saving Private Ryan and the hugely successful Mission Impossible series of films. During their administration Paramount tripled the size of its TV library through the acquisitions of Spelling TV, Republic and Worldvision; they doubled the profits of their music pubishing division Famous Music, expanded the international theater group UCI to 13 foreign countries and took the Famous Players theater circuit in Canada from 25% to 53% market share. Dolgen and Lansing also introduced the DVD, led the formation of the Digital Cinema Initiative standards group for the future of digital film and launched the first ever online movie distribution company, Movielink. Dolgen is credited with pioneering the use of off-balance sheet financing for movies while at Columbia Pictures and at Paramount his team secured over $4 billion in financings this way. Dolgen and Lansing were replaced by Brad Grey and Gail Berman (former TV executives) in 2004 when the decision was made to split Viacom into two companies which led to a dismantling of the Paramount Studio/Paramount TV infrastructure. Paramount today at Viacom consists only of the movie studio and does not include these other businesses or the TV catalog and production.
On December 11, 2005, Paramount announced that it had purchased DreamWorks SKG in a deal worth $1.6 billion. The announcement was made by Brad Grey, chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, who noted that enhancing Paramount's pipeline of pictures is a "key strategic objective in restoring Paramounts stature as a leader in filmed entertainment." The agreement does not include DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the most profitable part of the company that went public last year. Under the deal, Paramount is required to distribute the Dreamworks animated films for a small fee that covers Paramount's out of pocket costs, including the Shrek franchise. The deal closed on February 6, 2006. This acquisition was seen at the time as a stopgap measure as Brad Grey had been unsuccessful in assembling sufficient films for production and distribution and the Dreamworks films would fill the gap. In January 2007 Grey fired his production chief, Gail Berman. As of January 2007, the Dreamworks "pipeline of films" have enjoyed scant success and the acquisition is now regarded as a mistake.
The Logo
The distinctively pyramidal Paramount mountain has been the company's logo since its inception and is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo. Legend has it that the mountain is based on a doodle made by W. W. Hodkinson during a meeting with Adolph Zukor. It is said to be based on the memories of his childhood in Utah. Some claim that Utah's Ben Lomond is the mountain Hodkinson doodled, and that Peru's Artesonraju is the mountain in the live-action logo.
The logo began as a charcoal rendering of the mountain ringed with twenty-four superimposed stars. In 1953, the logo was redesigned as a matte painting. In the 1970s the logo was simplified and the number of stars was changed to twenty-two. The logo was replaced in 1987, Paramount's 75th Anniversary, by a version created by Apogee, Inc. with a computer generated lake and stars. For Paramount's 90th anniversary in 2002, a new, completely computer-generated logo was created.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a sidewalk along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, which is embedded with more than 2,000 five-pointed stars featuring the names of celebrities honored by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for their contributions to the entertainment industry.
The first star, awarded on February 9, 1960, went to Joanne Woodward. On January 8th, 2007, Hilary Swank was honored, and hers became the 2,325th star on the walk.
The Walk of Fame runs east to west on Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue, and north to south on Vine Street between Yucca Street and Sunset Boulevard. Locations of specific stars are permanent, except when occasionally relocated for nearby construction or other reasons.
Each star consists of a terrazzo comprising a pink five-pointed star rimmed with bronze and inlaid into a charcoal square. Inside the pink star is the name of the honoree inlaid in bronze, below which is a round bronze emblem indicating the category for which the honoree received the star. The emblems are:
motion picture camera for contribution to the film industry;
television set for contribution to the broadcast television industry;
phonograph record for contribution to the recording industry;
radio microphone for contribution to the broadcast radio industry; and,
twin comedy/tragedy masks for contribution to live theater.
However, Disneyland's star has an emblem of a building.
Nominations are submitted annually by May 31, and the Walk of Fame committee meets the following month to pick the next year's group of honorees. Star ceremonies are open to the public and are led by Johnny Grant, Hollywood's Honorary Mayor.
The Walk of Fame was created in 1958 by southern Californian artist Oliver Weismuller, who was hired by the city to give Hollywood a "face lift". Many honorees received multiple stars during the initial phase of installation for contributions to separate categories; however, the practice in recent decades has been to honor individuals not yet represented, with only a handful of previous honorees being awarded additional stars. In 1978, the City of Los Angeles designated the Walk of Fame as a Cultural/Historic Landmark.
The Walk of Fame began with 2,500 blank stars. A total of 1,558 stars were awarded during its first sixteen months. Since then, about two stars have been added per month. By 1994, more than 2,000 of the original stars were filled, and additional stars extended the Walk west past Sycamore to La Brea Avenue, where it now ends at the Silver Four Ladies of Hollywood Gazebo, (with stars honoring The Beatles and Elvis Presley).
The Walk of Fame is maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. In order for a person to get a star on the Walk of Fame, he or she must agree to attend a presentation ceremony within five years of selection, and a $15,000 fee must be paid to the Trust for costs such as security at the star ceremony; a 2003 FOX News story noted that the fee is typically paid by sponsors such as movie studios and record companies, as part of the publicity for a release with which the honoree is involved. On other occasions, the fee is paid by a fan club or the nominating person or organization.
However, controversy and mystery surrounds the way the "Stars" are nominated and approved, as discussed in a 2001 ABC News story that interviewed honorary Hollywood mayor Johnny Grant.
Stolen stars
Four stars have been stolen from the Walk of Fame. Those of Jimmy Stewart and Kirk Douglas, which had been removed during a construction project, were stolen from the site on Vine Street. The culprit was a contractor who was later caught with the two stars, damaged and unusable, but not until after they had been replaced. One of Gene Autry's stars was also taken from another construction project. It was later found in Iowa. On November 27, 2005, thieves sawed Gregory Peck's star out of the sidewalk near Gower; the star has been replaced as of September 2006 but the thieves have not been caught.
Cameras are being placed in the walk district to catch thieves.
Trivia
Gene Autry is the only person to have been honored with all five possible stars, for his contribution in each of the five categories. The motion picture star is located on 6644 Hollywood Blvd., the radio star is located on 6520 Hollywood Blvd., the recording star is located on 6384 Hollywood Blvd., the TV star is located on 6667 Hollywood Blvd. and the live theater star is located on 7000 Hollywood Blvd.
At Hollywood and Vine, a special "round star" on each of the four corners commemorates the Apollo 11 astronauts. Each astronaut (Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin) has a star and there's a joint star for NASA's entire Apollo 11 mission team.
In 2005, companies became eligible for Walk-of-Fame-type stars; the first recipient was Disneyland, in honor of its 50th anniversary. Company awards are on private property near the Walk, and not part of the Walk itself. Companies must have a strong Hollywood presence and be at least fifty years old to qualify for this award. Entertainment industry publications Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are among the planned recipients.
There are two film actors named Harrison Ford with stars. The first Harrison Ford was a silent film actor in the 1910s-20s, whose star is in front of the Musso & Frank restaurant at 6665 Hollywood Blvd. The second is the present-day Harrison Ford, whose star can be found in front of the Kodak Theater at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.
Fictional characters that have stars include Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse,Woody Woodpecker, Winnie the Pooh, Donald Duck, Godzilla, Kermit the Frog, Lassie, The Rugrats, The Simpsons and Snow White.
Of the entire cast of the original Star Trek TV series, only Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov) does not have a star along the Walk of Fame.
Dan Haggerty who starred in The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams is the only person to have his star removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was actually meant to honor another actor, the late Don Haggerty but the committee made an error in spelling. Eventually Dan received a legitimate star, now located in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Pat Sajak, the host of Wheel of Fortune, has an incorrect star. He is involved in television, yet he has a film star.
When Dick Van Dyke received his star on February 25, 1993, there was a typo in his name. Workers installing the star mistakenly spelled his surname "Vandyke" with no space. Emcee Johnny Grant saved the situation by producing a Sharpie pen and a line was drawn directly on the star between "Van" and "dyke." The wording on the star was later corrected.
Grauman's Chinese Theater
Grauman's Chinese Theater is a world-famous movie theater located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Built in 1927 by a partnership headed by Sid Grauman, the Chinese was intended to be the world's greatest. It has since become one of Southern California's most recognizable and visited landmarks and is steeped in Hollywood history, having been home to numerous premieres and two Academy Awards ceremonies. Among the theater's most famous traits are the autographed cement blocks that reside in the forecourt, which bear the signatures and markings of many of Hollywood's most revered stars and starlets.
From 1973 through 2001, the theater was known as Mann's Chinese Theater, owing to its acquisition by Mann Theaters in 1973. In the wake of Mann's bankruptcy, the Chinese, along with the other Mann properties, was sold in 2000 to a partnership comprising Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, who also acquired the Mann brand name. In 2002 the original name was restored to the cinema palace.
Grauman's Chinese Theater was built by a showman, Sid Grauman, who owned a one-third interest with his partners: Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Howard Schenck. This theater was built near the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, as well as the Million Dollar Theater on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. The principal architect of the Chinese Theater was Raymond M. Kennedy, of the firm Meyer and Holler, along with Jean Klossner, Foreman, who later became known as "Mr. Footprint," performing the footprint ceremonies from 1927 thru 1962.
The exterior of the movie theater supposedly resembles a giant, red Chinese pagoda. The architecture features a huge Chinese dragon across the front, two stone lion-dogs guarding the main entrance, and the silhouettes of tiny dragons up and down the sides of the copper roof.
Grauman's is also famous for the collection of handprints, footprints, and autographs that nearly 200 Hollywood celebrities have imprinted in the cement of the theater's forecourt over the years. According to legend, this tradition was started one day in 1927, when Sid Grauman was standing on Hollywood Boulevard supervising the construction of the theater. As he watched a group of workmen who were working on top of the theater's Chinese pagoda, Grauman took a step back to get a better view. In doing so, he accidentally stepped into an area of wet cement, where other workers were paving the sidewalk outside the theater. Looking down, Grauman saw that he had left his footprints in the cement. This gave him the idea to have movie stars place their footprints in cement outside the theater entrance.
Variations of this honored tradition are imprints of the eyeglasses of Harold Lloyd, the cigars of Groucho Marx and George Burns, the legs of Betty Grable, the fist of John Wayne, the knees of Al Jolson, the ice skating blades of Sonja Henie and the noses of Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope.
Western stars William S. Hart and Roy Rogers left imprints of their guns. The hoofprints of "Tony," the horse of Tom Mix, "Champion," the horse of Gene Autry, and "Trigger," the horse of Rogers, were left in the cement beside the prints of the stars who rode them in the movies.
The only person not associated with the movie industry to have a signature and hand print in front of the theater was Grauman's mother.
The theater opened May 18, 1927 to huge fanfare with the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings, after a well-publicized construction. The Chinese had cost more to build than any other theater to date.
Sid Grauman sold his share to William Fox's Fox West Coast Theaters in 1929 but remained as the theater's Managing Director until his death in 1950.
In 1968 it was declared a historic and cultural landmark, and has undergone restoration projects in the years since then. The theater was purchased in 1973 by Ted Mann, owner of the Mann Theaters chain and husband of actress Rhonda Fleming, who renamed it Mann's Chinese Theater. As of November 9, 2001, the original name was returned to the front of the theater. To the dismay of many fans of historic architecture, the free-standing ticket booth was removed, making the plaza more stark and open to the street.
Grauman's Chinese Theater continues as a first-run movie theater where, for the price of a ticket, a visitor can see a film in the fully renovated and restored auditorium.
Many film premieres are held at the Chinese Theater, often attended by large throngs of celebrities.
The theater was home to the Academy Awards between 1944 and 1946 and is adjacent to the Kodak Theater, the current home of the Awards.
In the 1974 comedy spoof Blazing Saddles, a gunfight between the characters played by Cleavon Little and Harvey Korman takes place outside the theater, which is depicted as screening the finished film.
The theater is featured in a flashback of the title character's disastrous family vacation to Los Angeles in the 1995 movie Stuart Saves His Family. The children in the scene mention seeing the imprints of stars such as Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe, and Sophia Loren.
In a classic episode of I Love Lucy, Lucy and Ethel visit the theater and discover that the cement block that shows John Wayne's footprints is loose, and attempt to steal the block to take home as a souvenir. In the next episode, they meet John Wayne and try to get it replaced.
On the Simpsons episode "Beyond Blunderdome", they pass Mann's Chinese Theater. It is next to Chinese Man's Theater, which is noticeably more dilapidated.
In the Futurama episode, "That's Lobstertainment," the theater appears in the 31st century as "Loew's Gaddafi's Mann's Grauman's Chinese Theater."
A re-creation of the theater is a central attraction at the Walt Disney World theme park, Disney-MGM Studios. The building houses The Great Movie Ride, an attraction that takes visitors through animatronic recreations of classic films.
In Kelly Rowland's song "Stole," the theater is mentioned in the chorus along with Marilyn Monroe.
In 1997, the song "Mann's Chinese" was released by the alternative band Naked. The song highlights some events at the Chinese, such as the premiere of Batman Returns, in addition to an underlying criticism about the shallow and vain Hollywood culture. The song was a moderate radio hit and also appeared in an episode of the television show Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Up and coming recording artist, Jacob Bellworthy, sings of a 'Mann's Chinese Theater Party' in his hit song 'Chinatown'.
Grauman's Chinese Theater is also featured on the Hollywood level of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland.
The song "Walter Reed" from the album Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 by Michael Penn contains the lyrics, "I've had my fill of palm trees and lighting up Grauman's Chinese. Tell me now what more do you need, take me to Walter Reed tonight" The contrast presented by these lines suggests that the song title refers not to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but instead to the Walter Reade Theater in New York City.
On Will Smith's 1997 album Big Willie Style, Keith B. Real mentions being outside "some Chinese Man's Theater" to see Will Smith.
In an episode of the TV show The Beverly Hillbillies the hillbillies perform the "public service" of filling in the footprints, handprints, writing, and even legprints that various "vandals" put in the sidewalk outside the theater.
In the recent novel Three Days to Never by Tim Powers, the footprint slab made by Charlie Chaplin in 1928 forms part of a time machine built by Albert Einstein and his daughter. In fact, as in the novel, the Chaplin slab was removed from in front of the theater in the 1950s, when accusations of communism turned much public opinion against the actor, and has since been lost.
In the Robert Zemeckis film Forrest Gump, the Chinese Theatre can be seen during Jenny's hippie days, playing the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which, in real life, is Tom Hanks' favorite film.
In the animated movie Cats Don't Dance, the theater is featured on Danny's arrival in Hollywood.
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city in the western part of Los Angeles County, California. Beverly Hills and the City of West Hollywood are together entirely surrounded by the City of Los Angeles, It is part of the so-called "Golden Triangle" of Beverly Hills, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Bel-Air and Holmby Hills.
It is bordered on the north by the Santa Monica Mountains, on the east by West Hollywood and the Fairfax District of the Los Angeles, on the south by Los Angeles and on the west by Westwood Village and Century City, which are Los Angeles neighborhoods and not separate cities. While Beverly Hills is its own city it is culturally very much a part of Los Angeles.
In 1900, the land was purchased by the Amalgamated Oil Company. They drilled several wells, only to have their drill bits gather dust above and below ground. And by 1906, the property passed into the hands of the Rodeo Land and Water Company, with Burton E. Green as head of the development company.
Green and the new corporation hired a landscape architect, Wilbur D. Cook, who designed a town with large lots for homes and wide curving streets, to be lined with palm, eucalyptus, acacia and other variety of trees. Cook also created a three block long, eighty-feet wide greensward along the north side of Santa Monica Boulevard called Santa Monica Park. When trying to decide on a name for the town they were about to build, Burton Green happened to read a newspaper article that mentioned Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, and as he read, it struck him that Beverly was a pretty name. He suggested the name Beverly Hills to his associates and it was accepted.
The names of the streets, Crescent, Cañon, Beverly, Rodeo, Camden, Bedford, Roxbury and Linden Drives, Carmelita, Elevado and Lomitas Avenues, and Burton Way, appeared on a map for the first time on January 23, 1907, when the subdivision of Beverly Hills was filed at the County Recorder's Office. On November 15, two lots on Crescent Drive were sold to Henry C. Clarke and he built a home. During 1910, after the financial panic of 1907-1908 had blown over, land sales were in full bloom and houses began to dot the landscape.
The Beverly Hills Hotel was built in 1912 and immediately became the center of social life in the area. Church was held in the hotel on Sunday; all formal social affairs were conducted in the grand ballroom; brides had to be married in the hotel; and the only motion picture theater was located there. Mrs. Margaret Anderson, well known in Los Angeles hotel circles, was brought in from the Hollywood Hotel as manager.
Contemporary Beverly Hills
By the 1950s, few vacant lots remained and developers cropped whole mountains to ease the housing shortage. The Trousdale Estates area was eventually annexed and an expensive housing development began to take shape in the hills above the city. Beverly Hills marketed itself as one of the most glamorous places in the world to shop. The Golden Triangle, with Rodeo Drive at its center, was marketed as the apex of chic shopping and fashion.
The Via Rodeo, the first new street in Beverly Hills in seventy-six years, was completed in 1990. The Spanish cobblestone street leads to 2 Rodeo, a "mini-mall". In 1992, the Beverly Hills Civic Center was opened. Designed by architect Charles Moore, it links the new public library, fire and police departments with the historic City Hall. The exterior of the old public library, which had featured a mosaic resembling books on a shelf, appeared in stock shots in The Brady Bunch as Mike Brady's office building.
A little known fact about the center divider that runs from North Santa Monica to Sunset in the middle of Rodeo Drive is a trolley once ran from downtown Beverly Hills to the Beverly Hills Hotel along that route.
While the city derives its unique personality from being favored by show business people; and it is true that many actors, writers, directors and producers live in the city and take part in civic life; many professionals, doctors and lawyers, have homes and offices in the city also. The Beverly Hills Unified School District, with its four K-8 schools and the Beverly Hills High School, boasts particularly high academic achievement.
The city's image has been enhanced by being featured in television shows and movies set in Beverly Hills, including the The Jack Benny Program (1950 to 1954), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962 to 1971), the Beverly Hills Cop movies, and Beverly Hills 90210 (1990 to 2000). There's a worldwide hit animation series Totally Spies based in Beverly Hills, as three teen girls attend fictional Beverly High School are part-time undercover spies.
Rodeo, Beverly, and Canon Drives all recently underwent construction to widen the sidewalks and beautify the streets. New construction has also just been completed that added more parking for visitors to the famed shopping area.
90210 is a ZIP code in Beverly Hills, made one of the most famous ZIP codes in the world by the television series Beverly Hills 90210. (West Beverly Hills High School is a fictional high school.) The real Beverly Hills High School is actually located in 90212. Beverly Hills also has two additional ZIP codes based on the general area. These ZIP codes are 90211 and 90212. In 1983, the local monthly magazine "Beverly Hills 213" debuted by the concept, but with a telephone area code for Los Angeles (it made headlines in 1991). When 310 took effect in 1993, the magazine changed its' title to "Beverly Hills 310", and reverted to the original title, when overlay area codes are planned for the Western Los Angeles area.
Dr. 90210 is a reality television series focusing on plastic surgery in the wealthy suburb of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, California. The series began its run in 2004. Dr. 90210 gets its name from the zip code of the core of Beverly Hills, familiar to most viewers because of the former popular television series Beverly Hills 90210.
The show is produced by E!, but is broadcast on several other basic cable network channels, such as the Style Network. Each episode is appoximately one hour long. The show stands out from other programs of this sort in that it also examines the lives of the doctors featured in its lineup.
The show features interviews with the patients, semi-graphic footage of the surgeries, and before and after footage of the patients.
The show began by focusing on the life and practice of Dr. Robert Rey, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. The show's lineup has expanded to include other practices such as that of Dr. Gary Alter, Dr. Jason Diamond, Dr. Linda Li and brothers Dr. Julian Omidi and Dr. Michael Omidi.
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States and most watched awards ceremony in the world.
Academy Awards are granted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a professional honorary organization, which as of 2003 had a voting membership of 5,816. Actors (with a membership of 1,311) make up the largest voting bloc. The votes have been tabulated and certified by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers for 72 years, since close to the awards' inception. They are intended for the films and persons the Academy believes have the top achievements of the year.
The 78th Academy Awards was the most recent ceremony, and the next ceremony, the 79th Academy Awards, will take place on February 25, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, produced by Laura Ziskin and will be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The nominees will be announced on January 23, 2007, 5:30 a.m. PST (1:30 p.m. UTC), at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The annual Oscar presentation has been held since 1929.
The Oscar
The official name of the Oscar statuette is the Academy Award of Merit. Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 inches (34 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes, signifying the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers and Technicians. MGM’s art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on scroll. Then sculptor George Stanley sculpted Gibbons' design in clay, and Alex Smith cast the statue in tin and copper and then gold-plated it over a composition of 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper (Levy 2003). The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base (Levy 2003).
The root of the name "Oscar" is contested. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, bandleader Harmon Oscar Nelson. Another claimed origin is that of the Academy’s Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, who first saw the award in 1931 and made reference of the statuette reminding her of her Uncle Oscar (Levy 2003). Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick’s naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'" (Levy 2003).
However it came to be, both Oscar and Academy Award are registered trademarks of the Academy, and are fiercely protected by the Academy through litigation and threats thereof. The Academy's domain name is oscars.org and the official Web site for the Awards is at oscar.com.
Since 1950 the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for $1. If a winner refuses to agree to this then the Academy keeps the statuette. Academy Awards not protected by this agreement have been sold in public auctions and private deals for six figure sums (Levy 2003).
Membership
Academy membership may be obtained by a competitive nomination (however, the nominee must be invited to join) or a member may submit a name. The Academy does not publicly disclose its membership, although past press releases have announced the names of those who have been invited to join. If a person not yet a member is nominated in more than one category in a single year, he/she must choose which branch to join when he/she accepts membership.
Nominations
Today, according to Rules 2 and 3 of the official Academy Awards Rules, a film has to open in the previous calendar year (from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31) in Los Angeles County, California, to qualify. Rule 2 states that a film must be "feature-length" (defined as at least 40 minutes) to qualify for an award (except for Short Subject awards, of course). It must also exist either on a 35mm or 70mm film print OR on a 24fps or 48fps progressive scan digital film print with a native resolution no lower than 1280x720.
The members of the various branches nominate those in their respective fields (actors are nominated by the actors' branch, etc.) while all members may submit nominees for Best Picture. The winners are then determined by a second round of voting in which all members are then allowed to vote in all categories.
Awards night
The major awards are given out at a live televised ceremony, most commonly in March following the relevant calendar year, and six weeks after the announcement of the nominees. This is an elaborate extravaganza, with the invited guests walking up the red carpet in the creations of the most prominent fashion designers of the day. Black tie dress is normally required for men, although fashion may dictate not wearing a bowtie, and musical performers typically don't adhere to this (nominees for Best Original Song quite often perform those songs live at the awards ceremony, and the fact that they are performing is often used to promote the television broadcast). It is estimated that over one billion people watch the Academy Awards either live or recorded each year (Levy 2003). If this is true, few other events outside of the Olympics and FIFA World Cup draw a higher global audience. Like the Super Bowl, this means that the broadcast event itself draws attention, and counter programming, and the TV commercials broadcast during breaks is notable in the ad industry.
The Awards show was first televised on NBC in 1953. NBC broadcast them until 1960 when the ABC Network took over the broadcasting job until 1971 when NBC reassumed the broadcast. ABC again took over broadcast duties in 1976 and is under contract to do so through the year 2014.
After more than fifty years of being held in late March or early April, the ceremonies were moved up to late February or early March starting in 2004 to help disrupt and shorten the intense lobbying and ad campaigns associated with Oscar season in the film industry. The earlier date is also of advantage to ABC, as it usually occurs during the highly profitable and important February sweeps period.
The awards event itself is a National Special Security Event by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
Movie studios are strictly prohibited from advertising movies during the broadcast.
The Kodak Theatre
The Kodak Theatre has been the home of the Academy Awards since 2002, and is the first permanent home of the awards.
The Kodak Theatre is connected to the Hollywood Highland Center, which contains 640,000 square feet of space including retail, restaurants, nightclubs, other establishments and a six-screen movie theatre.
Several prominent directors (such as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese) have never won the Best Director award.
The Academy Awards have also often been criticised for being too conservative. Critics have noted that many Best Picture Academy Award winners in the past have not stood the test of time. Several of these films, such as Around the World in 80 Days and Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth are often considered to have aged poorly and have little of the impact they did on their initial release.
Several films that currently have wide critical approval were not named Best Picture; the most obvious example is Citizen Kane (nominated for nine Oscars but winner of only one, Best Original Screenplay) which has since come to be regarded by many as one of the greatest films of all time.
It has been suggested that actors are at a disadvantage in comedic roles, as few acting awards have been given for performances in films that could be considered primarily comedic.
It has been suggested that actors occasionally win awards that are given more in commemoration of a career or past parts than for the role the actor is nominated for; one example is Judi Dench's relatively brief appearance in Shakespeare in Love, for which she won the Best Supporting Actress award, the year after she was unsuccessful in the Best Actress category for Mrs Brown. Denzel Washington's award for Training Day is frequently cited as an example of this phenomenon.
Studios also lobby heavily for their films to be considered, leading to the complaint that nominations and awards may be largely a result of this lobbying rather than the quality of the material.
The Academy's voting process has also been cited for many flaws, including the fact that assistants to Academy Members often vote on the official Oscar ballots.
The 'New Hollywood' and Post-Classical Cinema
'Post-classical cinema' is a term used to describe the changing methods of storytelling in the New Hollywood. It has been argued that new approaches to drama and characterization played upon audience expectations acquired in the classical period: chronology may be scrambled, storylines may feature "twist endings", and lines between the antagonist and protagonist may be blurred. The roots of post-classical storytelling may be seen in film noir, in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and in Hitchcock's storyline-shattering Psycho.
'Post-classical cinema' is a term used to describe the period following the decline of the studio system in the '50s and '60s and the end of the production code. It is defined by a greater tendency to dramatize such things as sexuality and violence.
'New Hollywood' is a term used to describe the emergence of a new generation of film school-trained directors who had absorbed the techniques developed in Europe in the 1960s. Filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian de Palma, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg came to produce fare that paid homage to the history of film, and developed upon existing genres and techniques. In the early 1970s, their films were often both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. While the early New Hollywood films like Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider had been relatively low-budget affairs with amoral heroes and increased sexuality and violence, the enormous success enjoyed by Coppola, Spielberg and Lucas with The Godfather, Jaws, and Star Wars, respectively helped to give rise to the modern "blockbuster", and induced studios to focus ever more heavily on trying to produce enormous hits.
Blockbusters
The drive to produce spectacle on the movie screen has largely shaped American cinema ever since. Spectacular epics which took advantage of new widescreen processes had been increasingly popular from the 1950s onwards. Since then, American films have become increasingly divided into two categories: blockbusters and independent films. Studios have focused on relying on a handful of extremely expensive releases every year in order to remain profitable. Such blockbusters emphasize spectacle, star power, and high production value, all of which entail an enormous budget. Blockbusters typically rely upon star power and massive advertising to attract a huge audience. A successful blockbuster will attract an audience large enough to offset production costs and reap considerable profits. Such productions carry a substantial risk of failure, and most studios release blockbusters that both over- and underperform in a year.
Independent film
Studios supplement these movies with independent productions, made with small budgets and often independently of the studio corporation. Movies made in this manner typically emphasize high professional quality in terms of acting, directing, screenwriting, and other elements associated with production, and also upon creativity and innovation. These movies usually rely upon critical praise or niche marketing to garner an audience. Because of an independent film's low budgets, a successful independent film can have a high profit-to-cost ratio, while a failure will incur minimal losses, allowing for studios to sponsor dozens of such productions in addition to their high-stakes releases.
American independent cinema was revitalized in the late 1980s and early 1990s when another new generation of moviemakers, including Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino made movies like, respectively, Do the Right Thing, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Clerks., and Reservoir Dogs. In terms of directing, screenwriting, editing, and other elements, these movies were innovative and often irreverent, playing with and contradicting the conventions of Hollywood movies. Furthermore, their considerable financial successes and crossover into popular culture reestablished the commercial viability of independent film. Since then, the independent film industry has become more clearly defined and more influential in American cinema. Many of the major studios have capitalised on this by developing subsidiaries to produce similar films; for example Fox Searchlight Pictures.
To a lesser degree in the 2000s, film types that were previously considered to have only a minor presence in the mainstream movie market began to arise as more potent American box office draws. These include foreign-language films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero and documentary films such as Super Size Me, March of the Penguins, and Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11.
Rise of the home video market
The 1980s and 1990s saw another significant development. The full acceptance of home video by studios opened a vast new business to exploit. Films such as The Secret of NIMH and The Shawshank Redemption, which performed poorly in their theatrical run, were now able to find success in the video market. It also saw the first generation of film makers with access to video tapes emerge. Directors such as Quentin Tarantino and P.T. Anderson had been able to view thousands of films and produced films with vast numbers of references and connections to previous works. This, along with the explosion of independent film and ever-decreasing costs for filmmaking, changed the landscape of American movie-making once again, and led a renaissance of filmmaking among Hollywood's lower and middle-classes—those without access to studio financial resources.
The rise of the DVD in the 21st century has quickly become even more profitable to studios and has led to an explosion of packaging extra scenes, extended versions, and commentary tracks with the films.
Golden Age of Hollywood
During the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, which lasted from the virtual end of the silent era in the late 1920s to towards the end of the 1940s, movies issued from the Hollywood studios like the cars rolling off Henry Ford's assembly lines. No two movies were exactly the same, but most followed a formula: Western, slapstick comedy, film noir, musical, animated cartoon, biopic (biographical picture), etc, and the same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio - for instance, Cedric Gibbons and Herbert Stothart always worked on MGM films, Alfred Newman worked at Twentieth Century Fox for twenty years, Cecil B. De Mille's films were almost all made at Paramount, director Henry King's films were mostly made for Twentieth-Century Fox, etc. And one could usually guess which studio made which film, largely because of the actors who appeared in it. Each studio had its own style and characteristic touches which made it possible to know this - a trait that does not exist today. Yet each movie was a little different, and, unlike the craftsmen who made cars, many of the people who made movies were artists. For example, To Have and Have Not (1944) is famous not only for the first pairing of actors Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) and Lauren Bacall (1924- ) but also for being written by two future winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), author of the novel on which the script was nominally based, and William Faulkner (1897-1962), who worked on the screen adaptation.
Moviemaking was still a business, however, and motion picture companies made money by operating under the studio system. The major studios kept thousands of people on salary--actors, producers, directors, writers, stuntmen, craftspersons, and technicians. And they owned hundreds of theaters in cities and towns across the nation--theaters that showed their films and that were always in need of fresh material.
Many film historians have remarked upon the many great works of cinema that emerged from this period of highly regimented filmmaking. One reason this was possible is that, with so many movies being made, not every one had to be a big hit. A studio could gamble on a medium-budget feature with a good script and relatively unknown actors: Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles (1915-1985) and widely regarded as the greatest movie of all time, fits that description. In other cases, strong-willed directors like Howard Hawks (1896-1977) and Frank Capra (1897-1991) battled the studios in order to achieve their artistic visions. The apogee of the studio system may have been the year 1939, which saw the release of such classics as The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Only Angels Have Wings, Ninotchka, and Midnight. Among the other films in the Golden Age period that remain classics to the present day: Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, the original King Kong, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Cinema of the United States - Early Development
Much like American popular music, American cinema has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent era, Classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period (after 1980).
Early development
The first recorded instance of photographs capturing and reproducing motion was Eadweard Muybridge's series of photographs of a running horse, which he captured in Palo Alto, California, using a set of still cameras placed in a row. Muybridge's accomplishment led inventors everywhere to attempt forming devices that would similarly capture such motion. In the United States, Thomas Alva Edison was among the first to produce such a device, the kinetoscope, whose heavy-handed patent enforcement caused early filmmakers to look for alternatives.
In the United States, the first exhibitions of films for large audiences typically followed the intermissions in vaudeville shows. Entrepreneurs began travelling to exhibit their films, bringing to the world the first forays into dramatic filmmaking. The first huge success of American cinema, as well as the largest experimental achievement to its point, was The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter.
Rise of Hollywood
In early 1910, director D.W. Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the west coast with his acting troop consisting of actors Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and others. They started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. The company decided while there to explore new territories and travelled several miles north to a little village that was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. This place was called "Hollywood". Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, In Old California, a Biograph melodrama about California in the 1800s, while it belonged to Mexico. Biograph stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York. After hearing about this wonderful place, in 1913 many movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Thomas Edison, who owned patents on the movie-making process. In Los Angeles, California, the studios and Hollywood grew. Before World War I, movies were made in several U.S. cities, but filmmakers gravitated to southern California as the industry developed. They were attracted by the mild climate and reliable sunlight, which made it possible to film movies outdoors year-round, and by the varied scenery that was available. There are several starting points for American cinema, but it was Griffith's Birth of a Nation that pioneered the filmic vocabulary that still dominates celluoid to this day.
Hollywood and the Motion Picture Industry
In early 1910, director D. W. Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the west coast with his acting troop consisting of actors Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and others. They started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The Company decided to explore new territories and traveled several miles north to a little village that was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. This place was called "Hollywood". D. W. Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood called In Old California, a Biograph melodrama about Latino/Mexican-occupied California in the 1800s. Biograph stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York. After hearing about this wonderful place, in 1913 many movie-makers headed west. With this film, the movie industry was "born" in Hollywood which soon became the movie capital of the world.
On January 22, 1947, the first commercial TV station west of the Mississippi River, KTLA, began operating in Hollywood. In December of that year, the first Hollywood movie production was made for TV, The Public Prosecutor. And in the 1950s, music recording studios and offices began moving into Hollywood. Other businesses, however, continued to migrate to different parts of the Los Angeles area, primarily to Burbank. Much of the movie industry remained in Hollywood, although the district's outward appearance changed.
In 1952, CBS built CBS Television City on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard on the former site of Gilmore Stadium. CBS's expansion into the Fairfax District pushed the unofficial boundary of Hollywood further south than it had been. CBS's slogan for the shows taped there was "From Television City in Hollywood..."
The famous Capitol Records building on Vine Street just north of Hollywood Boulevard was built in 1956. It is a recording studio not open to the public, but its unique circular design looks like a stack of old 45rpm vinyl records.
The now derelict lot at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Serrano Avenue was once the site of the illustrious Hollywood Professional School whose alumni reads like a Hollywood who's who of household "names".
The Hollywood Walk of Fame was created in 1958 and the first star was placed in 1960 as a tribute to artists working in the entertainment industry. Honorees receive a star based on career and lifetime achievements in motion pictures, live theatre, radio, television, and/or music, as well as their charitable and civic contributions.
In 1985, the Hollywood Boulevard commercial and entertainment district was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places protecting important buildings and ensuring that the significance of Hollywood's past would always be a part of its future.
In June 1999, the long-awaited Hollywood extension of the Los Angeles County Metro Rail Red Line subway opened, running from Downtown Los Angeles to the Valley, with stops along Hollywood Boulevard at Western Avenue, Vine Street and Highland Avenue.
The Kodak Theatre, which opened in 2001 on Hollywood Boulevard at Highland Avenue, where the historic Hollywood Hotel once stood, has become the new home of the Oscars.
While motion picture production still occurs within the Hollywood district, most major studios are actually located elsewhere in the Los Angeles region. Paramount Studios is the only major studio still physically located within Hollywood. Other studios in the district include the aforementioned Jim Henson (formerly Chaplin) Studios, Sunset Gower Studios, and Raleigh Studios.
While Hollywood and the adjacent neighborhood of Los Feliz served as the initial homes for all of the early television stations in the Los Angeles market, most have now relocated to other locations within the metropolitan area. KNBC began this exodus in 1962 when it moved to from the former NBC Radio City Studios located at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street to NBC Studios in Burbank. KTTV pulled up stakes in 1996 from its former home at Metromedia Square in the 5700 block of Sunset Boulevard to relocate to the 20th Century Fox lot in Century City. KABC-TV moved from its original location at ABC Television Center (now branded The Prospect Studios) just east of Hollywood to Glendale in 2000. After being purchased by 20th Century Fox in 2001, KCOP left its former home in the 900 block of North La Brea Avenue to join KTTV on the Fox lot. The CBS Corporation owned duopoly of KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV is planning a move in the near future from its longtime home at CBS Columbia Square in the 6100 block of Sunset Boulevard to a new facility currently under construction at CBS Studio Center in Studio City. Once KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV make the exit to Studio City, KTLA located in the 5800 block of Sunset Boulevard and KCET in the 4400 block of Sunset Boulevard will be the last television stations with Hollywood addresses.
Additionally it has once served as the home of nearly every radio station in Los Angeles, all of which have later moved into other communities. KNX was the last station to broadcast from Hollywood when it left CBS Columbia Square for a studio in the Miracle Mile in 2005.
In 2002, a number of Hollywood citizens began a campaign for the district to secede from Los Angeles and become, as it had been a century earlier, its own incorporated municipality. Secession supporters argued that the needs of their community were being ignored by the leaders of Los Angeles. In June of that year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors placed secession referendums for both Hollywood and the Valley on the ballots for a "citywide election." To pass, they required the approval of a majority of voters in the proposed new municipality as well as a majority of voters in all of Los Angeles. In the November election, both referendums failed by wide margins in the citywide vote
Hollywood History
In 1853, one adobe hut stood on the site that became Hollywood. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished in the area with thriving crops. In the 1880s, Harvey Henderson Wilcox of Kansas, who made a fortune in real estate even though he had lost the use of his legs due to typhoid fever, and his wife, Daeida, moved to Los Angeles from Topeka. In 1886, Wilcox bought 160 acres (0.6 km²) of land in the countryside to the west of the city at the foothills and the Cahuenga Pass.
A locally popular etymology is that the name Hollywood traces to the ample stands of native Toyon, or "California Holly," that cover the hillsides with clusters of bright red berries each winter. But this and accounts of the name coming from imported English holly then growing in the area are incorrect. There is some disagreement as to who was the first to name the place Hollywood. One correct account says that the name in fact was coined by H.J. Whitley, the Father of Hollywood. He and his wife Gigi came up with the name in 1886 while on their honeymoon. Over the years Whitley had established more than 140 towns. (from Margaret Virginia Whitley's memoir). Another account is that Mrs. Wilcox -- while on a train she became acquainted with a wealthy lady who often spoke of her country home named after a settlement of Dutch immigrants from Zwolle called "Hollywood", and when she returned to Los Angles she so named her country place.
By 1900, the community called Cahuenga also had a post office, a newspaper, a hotel and two markets, along with a population of 500 people. Los Angeles, with a population of 100,000 people at the time, lay seven miles (11 km) east through the citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from Los Angeles, but service was infrequent and the trip took two hours. The old citrus fruit packing house would be converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood.
The first section of the famous Hollywood Hotel, the first major hotel in Hollywood, was opened in 1902 by H.J. Whitley, eager to sell residential lots among the lemon ranches then lining the foothills. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue. Still a dusty, unpaved road, it was regularly graded and graveled.
Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. Among the town ordinances was one prohibiting the sale of liquor except by pharmacists and one outlawing the driving of cattle through the streets in herds of more than two hundred. In 1904, a new trolley car track running from Los Angeles to Hollywood up Prospect Avenue was opened. The system was called "the Hollywood boulevard." It cut travel time to and from Los Angeles drastically.
By 1910, because of an ongoing struggle to secure an adequate water supply, the townsmen voted for Hollywood to be annexed into the City of Los Angeles, as the water system of the growing city had opened the Los Angeles Aqueduct and was piping water down from the Owens River in the Owens Valley. Another reason for the vote was that Hollywood could have access to drainage through Los Angeles' sewer system.
With annexation, the name of Prospect Avenue was changed to Hollywood Boulevard and all the street numbers in the new district changed. For example, 100 Prospect Avenue, at Vermont Avenue, became 6400 Hollywood Boulevard; and 100 Cahuenga Boulevard, at Hollywood Boulevard, changed to 1700 Cahuenga Boulevard.
Hollywood, LA, CA
Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., situated west-northwest of Downtown. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a metonym for the American film and television industry. Today much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as Burbank and the Westside, but significant ancillary industries (such as editing, effects, props, post-production, and lighting companies) remain in Hollywood.
Many historic Hollywood theaters are used as venues to premiere major theatrical releases, and host the Academy Awards. It is a popular destination for nightlife and tourism, and home to the Walk of Fame.
There is currently no official boundary of Hollywood (Los Angeles does not have official districts), but the 2002 secession movement and the current Neighborhood Council boundaries can serve as guides. There is a sign at the northeast corner of Fairfax Avenue and Melrose Avenue indicating that one is entering Hollywood. Generally, Hollywood's southern border follows Melrose Avenue from Vermont Avenue west to Fairfax Avenue. From there, the boundary continues north on Fairfax, wrapping east around the separate City of West Hollywood along Willoughby Avenue then wrapping around on La Brea Avenue and heads west along Fountain Avenue before turning north again on Laurel Canyon Boulevard into the Hollywood Hills. The eastern boundary follows Vermont Avenue north from Melrose past Hollywood Boulevard to Franklin Avenue. From there, the border travels west along Franklin to Western Avenue, and then north on Western into Griffith Park. Most of the hills between Laurel Canyon and Griffith Park are part of Hollywood. The commercial, cultural, and transportation center of Hollywood is the area where La Brea Avenue, Highland Avenue, Cahuenga Boulevard, and Vine Street intersect Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard. The population of the district as of the 2000 census was 167,664.
As a portion of the City of Los Angeles, Hollywood does not have its own municipal government, but does have an appointed official that serves as "honorary mayor" for ceremonial purposes only. Currently, the "mayor" is Johnny Grant.
No comments:
Post a Comment