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Automatic Vaudeville Company
The Automatic Vaudeville Company was a short-lived American entertainment business founded in 1903 by Adolph Zukor, David Warfield and Marcus Loew, which owned a chain of penny arcades. The company opened its first store in Union Square, Manhattan. It was very successful, earning $20,000 in its first year and expanded to other outlets including in Cincinnati. However the owners rapidly had a falling out, and dissolved the company in 1904 dividing up the assets. Both elements of the business provided the basis for the formation of major film studios, as the owners switched from amusement arcades to the rapidly growing movie market. Loew and Warfield's share formed the basis of Loews Incorporated, backer of MGM, while Zukor went on to consolidate Paramount Pictures. The conflict between the two men dating back to their early years reportedly continued for many years. Another future Hollywood mogul William Fox, the later founder of Fox Film, was inspired by the company's success it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adolph Zukor
Adolph Zukor (; hu, Zukor Adolf; January 7, 1873 – June 10, 1976) was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'' (June 16, 1976), p. 76. He produced one of America's first Feature film, feature-length films, ''The Prisoner of Zenda (1913 film), The Prisoner of Zenda'', in 1913. Early life Zukor was born to an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Ricse, in the Kingdom of Hungary in January 1873, which was then a part of the Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, Jacob, who operated a general store, died when he was a year old, while his mother, Hannah Liebermann, died when he was 7. Adolph and his brother Arthur moved in with Kalman Liebermann, their uncle. Liebermann, a rabbi, expected his nephews to become rabbis, but instead Adolph served a three-year apprenticeship in the dry goods store of family friends. When he was 16, he decided to emigrate to the U.S. He sailed fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Warfield
David Warfield (November 28, 1866 – June 27, 1951) was an American stage actor. Life and career Warfield was born David Wohlfeld in San Francisco, California, to German-Jewish parents, Louise and Sigmund Wohlfeld. His first connection with the theatre was as an usher. He made his first stage appearance in 1888 in '' The Ticket-of-Leave Man''. Two years later he went to New York City, where he appeared at the Casino Theatre and at Weber and Field's Music Hall. In 1901, he was discovered and promoted by David Belasco who starred him in '' The Auctioneer'', in which he played 1,400 times, including a revival that extended over several seasons. He remained under the Belasco management. Although he appeared in many productions, his fortune and success in theater centered on his playing four major roles over a 25-year period: Simon Levi in The Auctioneer (1901), Anton von Barwig in The Music Master (1904), Wes Bigelow in A Grand Army Man (1907) and the title role in The Retu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Loew
Marcus Loew (May 7, 1870 - September 5, 1927) was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loew's Theatres and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio (MGM). Life and career Loew was born in New York City, into a poor Jewish family, who had emigrated to New York City a few years previously from Austria and Germany. He was forced by circumstances to work at a very young age and had little formal education. Nevertheless, beginning with a small investment of money saved from menial jobs, he bought into the penny arcade business. Shortly after, in partnership with Adolph Zukor and others, he founded the successful but short-lived Automatic Vaudeville Company which established a chain of arcades across several cities. After the company dissolved in 1904 Loew converted his share of the business into nickelodeons and over time he turned Loew's Theatres into a leading chain of vaudeville and movie theaters in the United States. By 1905, Marcus Loew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penny Arcade
''Penny Arcade'' is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website ''loonygames.com''. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have established their own site, which is typically updated with a new comic strip each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The comics are accompanied by regular updates on the site's blog. ''Penny Arcade'' has been among the most popular and longest running webcomics currently online, listed in 2010 as having 3.5 million readers. Holkins and Krahulik were among the first webcomic creators successful enough to make a living from their work.MacDonald, Heidi (December 19, 2005). "Web Comics: Page Clickers to Page Turners; It's like manga five or six years ago". ''Publishers Weekly'', p. 24. In addition to the comic, Holkins and Krahulik also created Child's Play, a children's charity; PAX, a gaming convention; Penny Arcade TV, a YouTube channel; Pinny Arcade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union Square, Manhattan
Union Square is a historic intersection and surrounding neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century. Its name denotes that "here was the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island". The current Union Square Park is bounded by 14th Street on the south, 17th Street on the north, and Union Square West and Union Square East to the west and east respectively. 17th Street links together Broadway and Park Avenue South on the north end of the park, while Union Square East connects Park Avenue South to Fourth Avenue and the continuation of Broadway on the park's south side. The park is maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Adjacent neighborhoods are the Flatiron District to the north, Chelsea to the west, Greenwich Village to the southwest, East Village to the southeast, and Gramercy Park to the east. Many buildings of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line with Kentucky. The city is the economic and cultural hub of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. With an estimated population of 2,256,884, it is Ohio's largest metropolitan area and the nation's 30th-largest, and with a city population of 309,317, Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and 64th in the United States. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was among the top 10 U.S. cities by population, surpassed only by New Orleans and the older, established settlements of the United States eastern seaboard, as well as being the sixth-most populous city from 1840 until 1860. As a rivertown crossroads at the junction of the North, South, East, and West, Cincinnati developed with fewer immigrants and less influence from Europe than Ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major Studios
Major film studios are production and distribution companies that release a substantial number of films annually and consistently command a significant share of box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, the major film studios, often known simply as the majors or the Big Five studios, are commonly regarded as the five diversified media conglomerates whose various film production and distribution subsidiaries collectively command approximately 80 to 85% of U.S. box office revenue. The term may also be applied more specifically to the primary motion picture business subsidiary of each respective conglomerate. Since the dawn of filmmaking, the U.S. major film studios have dominated both American cinema and the global film industry. U.S. studios have benefited from a strong first-mover advantage in that they were the first to industrialize filmmaking and master the art of mass-producing and distributing high-quality films with broad cross-cultu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loews Cineplex Entertainment
Loews Cineplex Entertainment, also known as Loews Incorporated, is an American theater chain operating in North America. From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM). The company was originally called "Loew's," after the founder, Marcus Loew. In 1969, when the Tisch brothers acquired the company, it became known as "Loews." The company merged with Canadian-based Cineplex Odeon Corporation in 1998, only to become bankrupt in 2001. The company merged with AMC Theatres on January 26, 2006, while the Canadian operations merged with Cineplex Galaxy in 2003. The Loews Theatres name was used until 2017 when AMC simplified their branding to focus on three main lines: AMC, AMC Classic and AMC Dine-In after their purchase of Carmike Cinemas. Prior to the discontinuation, Loews Cineplex operated its theatres under the Loews Theatres, Cineplex Odeon, Star Theatres and Magic Johnson Theatres brands. Its corporate offices were located in New Yor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures), and the sole member of the Major film studio, "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, Motion Picture Associ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Fox (producer)
Wilhelm Fried Fuchs ( hu, Fried Vilmos; January 1, 1879 – May 8, 1952), commonly and better known as William Fox, was a Hungarian-American film industry executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s. Although he lost control of his film businesses in 1930, his name was used by 20th Century Fox (now ''20th Century Studios'') and continues to be used in the trademarks of the present-day Fox Corporation, including the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News, Fox Sports and Foxtel. Early life Fox was born in Tolcsva, Hungary, and originally named Wilhelm Fried Fuchs. His parents, Michael Fuchs and Anna Fried, were both Hungarian Jews. The family immigrated to the United States when William was nine months old and settled in New York City, where they had twelve more children, of whom only six survived. With his family largely destitute, William found himself as a youth forced to sell candy in Central Park, work as a newsboy, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fox Film
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film Company (founded 1913). The company's first film studios were set up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, but in 1917, William Fox sent Sol M. Wurtzel to Hollywood, California to oversee the studio's new West Coast production facilities, where the climate was more hospitable for filmmaking. On July 23, 1926, the company bought the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film. After the Wall Street crash of 1929, William Fox lost control of the company in 1930, during a hostile takeover. Under new president Sidney Kent, the new owners began conversations of a fusion with Twentieth Century Pictures, under founders Joseph M. Schenck and his friend Darryl Zanuck. Schenck, Zanuck, and Spyros Skouras merged the Fox Studios with Twen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nickelodeon (movie Theater)
The Nickelodeon was the first type of indoor exhibition space dedicated to showing projected motion pictures in the United States and Canada. Usually set up in converted storefronts, these small, simple theaters charged five cents for admission and flourished from about 1905 to 1915. Etymology "Nickelodeon" was concocted from ''nickel'', the name of the U.S. five-cent coin, and the ancient Greek word ''odeion'', a roofed-over theater, the latter indirectly by way of the '' Odéon'' in Paris, emblematic of a very large and luxurious theater, much as the '' Ritz'' was of a grand hotel. In spite of this derivation, the word has also been used since at least 1925 to refer to coin-operated player pianos and jukeboxes. One later instance of this use is the 1949 popular song "Music! Music! Music!" ("Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon…"). History The earliest films had been shown in "peep show" machines or projected in vaudeville theaters as one of the otherwise live acts. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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