The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry

Anthony Slide

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135925611
• Print ISBN:
  9781579580568
• Edition: 1

The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry is a completely revised and updated edition of Anthony Slide's The American Film Industry, originally published in 1986 and recipient of the American Library Association's Outstanding Reference Book award for that year. More than 200 new entries have been added, and all original entries have been updated; each entry is followed by a short bibliography. As its predecessor, the new dictionary is unique in that it is not a who's who of the industry, but rather a what's what: a dictionary of producing and releasing companies, technical innovations, industry terms, studios, genres, color systems, institutions and organizations, etc. More than 800 entries include everything from Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to Zoom Lens, from Astoria Studios to Zoetrope. Outstanding Reference Source - American Library Association

A

A BAND APART PRODUCTIONS was founded in 1991 by Quentin Tarantino (born 1963) and producer Lawrence Bender, and named after the 1964 French feature film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Its first production was Pulp Fiction (1994). A subsidiary, A Band Apart Commercials, was created in 1995.

ABC MOTION PICTURES, INC. Formed in May 1979 by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC Motion Pictures, Inc., was the network’s second attempt to become involved in feature film production. Under Brandon Stoddard’s presidency, the company waited almost two years before commencing production on its first feature, Young Doctors in Love (1982). The best known of ABC Motion Pictures’ productions, all of which were released by 20th Century-Fox*, is Silkwood (1983). The division closed in October 1985.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kilday, Gregg. “ABC Motion Pictures Comes of Age.” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, July 16, 1982, p. D4.

ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES. The concept for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was first discussed at a dinner hosted in January 1927 by M-G-M* production head Louis B. Mayer. On January 11, 1927, a meeting was held at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was officially formed. Among its founders were Louis B. Mayer, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks (who became the first president), Frank Lloyd, Joseph M. Schenck, Fred Niblo, and Cedric Gibbons. It was granted a charter as a nonprofit California organization on May 4, 1927, and an organizational banquet was held at the Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, on May 11, 1927.

The Academy was formed to fend off attacks against the industry, to promote unity among the various groups of workers within the industry, to advance the power and influence of the motion picture, and - for what it is best known-to “encourage the improvement and advancement of the arts and sciences of the profession by the interchange of constructive ideas and by awards of merit for distinctive achievement.”

To this end the Academy gives annual awards of merit-first presented at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May 16, 1929, for the year August 1, 1927-July 31, 1928-which became known by the late thirties as “Oscars.” The Oscar statuette, which has never changed (except for the height of its base) stands 13.5 inches tall and weighs 8.5 pounds. It is manufactured from Britannium and is gold-plated. Conrad Nagel, one of the Academy’s founders, urged that the award be a “symbol of continuing progress-militant, dynamic.” Art director Cedric Gibbons sketched a knight, holding a crusader’s sword and standing on a reel of film, and the figure was molded by sculptor George Stanley. The name “Oscar,” according to the Academy, was given to the statuette by the organization’s first librarian, Margaret Herrick (then Margaret Gledhill), who claimed it looked like her Uncle Oscar. Other stories have the name originating with Bette Davis.

Awards for Best Actor, Actress, Art Direction, Picture, Cinematography, Directing, and Writing have been given since the first year. Special Awards-from 1950 onward called Honorary Awards - have also been part of the Academy Awards ceremony since its conception. Sound was added to the Awards schedule in 1929/1930; Scientific or Technical Awards were added in 1930/1931; Short Subjects were added in 1931/1932; Assistant Director Awards were given from 193211933 to 1937; Music and Film Editing were added in 1934; Dance Direction was given from 1935 to 1937; Best Supporting Actor and Actress were introduced in 1936; the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award was introduced in 1937; Special Effects was first given an Award in 1939; Documentary Awards were first given in 1942; Costume Design was added in 1948, and that same year the Foreign Language Film Award was given as a Special Award-it did not become a regular category until 1956; the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was introduced in 1956.

Initially the Academy was heavily involved in labor relations and disputes within the industry. Because it was quickly branded as a producers’ tool, it lost much of its membership, and the March 5, 1936, Awards Banquet was boycotted by the majority of filmmakers; at that ceremony Dudley Nichols became the first man to refuse an Oscar-for Best Screenplay. The following year, the Academy completely removed itself from the area of labor relations responsibilities and, today, has no concern with either economic or political matters.

Another area in which the Academy immediately became involved was that of technical research, about which it remained concerned until its Research Council went under the aegis of the Association of Motion Picture Producers in January 1948.

It has always been concerned with educational and cultural matters, cosponsoring, with the University of Southern California, a 1928 course on “Introduction to the Photo-play.” On January 31, 1944, the Academy Foundation was incorporated, and under its aegis the Academy has presented major retrospective film screenings and tributes, as well as lectures and seminars. Its Student Film Awards have been an annual event since 1973. It provides scholarships and grants and regularly sends members to talk on college campuses. The Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, named for its first librarian and one-time executive director (1943–1970), is considered one of the finest film-related research libraries in the country, with access by mail available through the National Film Information Service.

Through the Screen Achievement Records Bulletin, first published in 1933, the Academy provides valuable documentation on screen credits. The Academy Players Directory, first published as the Players Directory Bulletin in 1937, is considered the casting director’s bible, with its photographs of players, broken down by category, and with the agents’ names and telephone numbers.

During the Second World War, the Academy administered a War Film Library, securing prints of documentaries produced by the Allies and making them available to studios and for nontheatrical screenings. The Academy has also maintained a film archives, which, in 1994, announced a new policy of preserving and safeguarding documentaries.

In the fall of 1975, the Academy moved to a new seven-story office building (8949 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90211), in which is housed its Samuel Goldwyn Theatre. The library and film archives are housed in the Center for Motion Picture Study (333 South La Cienega, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90211), which opened in January 1992.

The activities of the Academy are almost exclusively funded by membership subscriptions-membership is by invitation only and remains constant at around 4,000-and through revenues from the Academy Awards presentations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Holden, Anthony. Behind the Oscars: The Secret History of the Academy Awards. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

Levy, Emanuel. And the Winner Is … The History and Politics of the Oscar Awards. New York: Ungar, 1987.

Mason, Wiley, and Damien Bora. Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.

Sands, Pierre Norman. A Historical Study of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. New York: Arno Press, 1973.

Shale, Richard. The Academy Awards Index. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.

ACETATE FILM. Although it is really a misnomer, as film today is generally triacetate, acetate film is the term used to describe safety or noninflammable filmstock, which has an estimated life span of 200 years or more. Eastman Kodak* first introduced acetate film in 1908, and, although it was crucial in the development of 16mm and 8mm film, it was not generally used for 35mm film production by the industry. However, in the late forties, Eastman Kodak introduced an improved safety-base motion picture film - for which in 1949 the company received a Class I (Oscar statuette) Scientific or Technical Award; this new safety film superseded nitrate film*, and from 1950/1951 all film has been shot and processed on safety stock.

ACME VIDEOTAPE AND FILM LABORATORIES. See CONSOLIDATED FILM INDUSTRIES

ACTOPHONE COMPANY, formed in New York by Mark Dintenfass, produced one-reel comedies and dramas on a weekly basis, beginning with The Third Degree, released on February 23, 1910. It ceased production after being sued by the Motion Picture Patents Company*, and its last film, Love’s Great Tragedy, was released on May 25, 1910. Dintenfass subsequently formed the Champion Film Company, whose first film, Abernathy Kids to the Rescue, was released on July 13, 1910, and which became part of Universal* in 1912.

“THE ACTOR’S BIBLE” was an early nickname for Variety (first published December 16, 1905). It was perhaps used before 1905 in reference to another trade paper, the New York Clipper.

THE ACTORS STUDIO, INC. The home of a style known as “method acting,” which had its origins in the Russian theatre at the tum of the century and in the work of Constantin Stanislavski, the Actors Studio, Inc., was opened in September 1947 by Cheryl Crawford and Elia Kazan, with classes taught by Kazan and Robert Lewis. A “workshop for professional actors,” the Studio includes among its graduates Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Karl Malden, Lee Grant, Kim Hunter, and Marlon Brando. Lee Strasberg became involved with the Studio in 1949, and, in 1952, was named its artistic director, a title he held until his death in 1982. Al Pacino and Ellen Burstyn were named co-artistic directors in 1982; Pacino resigned in 1984 and Burstyn in 1988. Since 1987, the Actors Studio has been plagued with financial problems, and in 1994, it became allied with the New School. A West Coast operation, Actors Studio West, was formed in Los Angeles in 1966.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Garfield, David. A Player’s Place: The Story of the Actors Studio. New York: Macmillan, 1980.

Hethman, Robert H., ed. Strasberg at the Actors Studio. New York: Viking Press, 1965.

Hirsch, Foster. A Method in Their Madness. New York: W. W. Norton, 1984.

Kaufman, Joanne. “Studio System.” Vanity Fair, November 1992, pp. 230–39, 273.

THE ADULT FILM ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA was founded in Kansas City on January 14, 1969, as a nonprofit corporation set up to protect and promote the interests of its member producers, distributors, and exhibitors, all of whom were involved in what they described as “sexually explicit” films. On July 14, 1977, the Association presented the first annual Erotic Film Awards, and from 1971–1986, it published The AFAA Bulletin. The name was changed to the Adult Film and Video Association of America, Inc., in July 1986; it is now defunct.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Friedman, David. “A History of the AFAA.” Boxoffice, March 1982, pp. 20, 22, 24, 26.

Knight, Arthur. “Adult Film Group in Quest to Gain Respect.” Los Angeles Times Calendar, February 17, 1984, pp. 14, 17.

ADIRONDACKS. See ARTIC FILM STUDIOS

AFFILIATED DISTRIBUTORS’ CORPORATION, incorporated in May 1918, was formed to serve exhibitors as a national clearinghouse to ensure that the various exhibitor booking associations in different states would get a consistent supply of high-quality films. The exhibitor-controlled organization was led by Frank Rembusch, Sydney Cohen, and general counsel Charles C. Pettijohn. In November 1918, Affiliated acquired 51 percent of the Mutual Film Corporation*. With headquarters established in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the exhibitors planned to divide the country into five sections and cooperatively book films directly from the producer to the exhibitor. The plan took effect on November 20, 1918, when the Robertson-Cole Company* made a longterm contract to furnish all films for the new organization, which had changed its name to Exhibitors’ Mutual Distributing Corporation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Affiliated Distributors Are Incorporated.” The Moving Picture World. May 11, 1918, p. 1003.

“Affiliated Takes Over Mutual Film.” The Moving Picture World. November 23, 1918, p. 809.

AGENTS. William Morris* is the oldest surviving and most famous of the entertainment-oriented agents. Abe Lastfogel (1898–1984) joined William Morris in 1912, and came out to Hollywood in 1932 to expand its involvement in the representation of film talent; Lastfogel became president of William Morris in 1952 and its chairman of the board in 1969. Another top agent at William Morris was Stan Kamen (1926–1986), who joined the company in 1950. Michael Ovitz (born 1946) was an agent with William Morris from 1965 to 1975, before co-founding Creative Artists Agency*. Music Corporation of America, founded in Chicago in 1924 by Jules Stein (1896–1981) as a booking agency for dance bands eventually became the parent company of Universal*. The best known name associated with it is Lew Wasserman (born 1913), who joined MCA in 1936. Irving “Swifty” Lazar began his show business career as an attorney with MCA, also in 1936. Nicknamed “Swifty” by Humphrey Bogart because of the speed with which he put together deals, Lazar was a prominent independent agent from the 1940s onward, noted in later years for the star-studded Oscar night parties that he hosted, beginning in the 1970s at the Bistro Garden in Beverly Hills, and continuing in the 1980s through 1993 at Spago.

The brother of David O. Selznick, Myron Selznick (1898–1944) became an agent in the twenties, initially in partnership with Felix Young and later Frank Joyce. The first top female agent was Sue Mengers, who came to Hollywood in 1968, working with Inter...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Entries
• Resource Libraries and Institutions
• Index
• About the Author