Forgotten Hollywood

Manny P. here…

   Southern California is celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of Tinsel Town’s most iconic  film landmarks: The Cinerama Dome, a geodesic structure boasting a screen of 32 x 86 with a 146 degree curve. Opened on November 7th, 1963, the Dome was designed to show movies in the Cinerama process, known for its ultra-realistic projection, and is currently one of only three theaters of the kind left in the world.

   For this extended event, the locale is screening modern classics in The Dome featuring Q&As with such industry luminaries as Oliver tone, Michael York, Mickey Rooney, Marvin Kaplan, and Barrie Chase, and Steven Spielberg with more to come. 3D fine art prints with proceeds going to AFI will be available. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.

Screenings include:

~ 10/22 – RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK @6p

~ 10/25 – AMERICAN BEAUTY @ 7:30p

~ 10/27 – IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD @ 5p

~ 10/29 – LOGAN’S RUN @ 7:30p

   This is a must-stop for visitors of Hollywood…

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Disney’s paper stock certificates with images of Walt Disney surrounded by Mickey Mouse, Dumbo, Donald Duck, Bambi, Winnie the Pooh, Pinocchio, and Tinker Bell on them, have long been collector’s items, and a fixture in many children’s bedrooms. They remain a popular gift among parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts who want to teach children about the stock market.

   But, The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday it will stop issuing the paper stock certificates to shareholders on October 16th. It’s sad news for collectors who covet everything Disney. It’s not shocking to those that watch the stock market. US companies have been switching to electronic stocks from paper for years in order to cut costs. Bank of America Corp. stopped offering paper stocks in August to cut costs. There are few child-friendly paper stocks left that parents can still buy. Paper stock of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the animation studio, has a drawing of Shrek.

    GiveAShare sells the stock in a black frame for $146. A Disney share on the New York Stock Exchange was worth nearly $64 on Wednesday. Disney announced instead of the stock certificate, they are offering shareholders certificates of acquisition. But, they’ll hold no value. After Disney stock vanishes, they are expected to become collectibles.

   The certificates have stamps and engravings on them to prevent fraud, and the paper is thicker. That can get expensive. Fixing a typo or transferring ownership of the stock also adds to costs.When the Pixar animation studio was bought by Disney in 2006, collectors rushed to buy Pixar’s printed stock certificate. It had drawings of its famous characters on it, including Woody and Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise of movies. Today, Scripophily.com is selling a Pixar stock certificate for nearly $600. (Pixar shares were trading near $60 before Disney bought it.) The certificate has gotten more valuable because it has the signature of Pixar’s CEO at the time, Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011.

   By next week, Disney’s stock on paper will become, shall we say, Grim Grinning Ghosts!  And, so it goes.

ASSCOCIATED PRESS CONTRIBUTED TO THE STORY

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Rudyard Kipling was one of the popular English writers, in both prose and verse, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He’s chiefly remembered for his fictionalized accounts of exploits by British soldiers in India and popular tales for children. His literary reputation, based on the long-standing right-of-passage that grew during the Victorian Age, has tarnished since Great Britain would lose esteem as a global power after World War II.

   In honor of his connections to Vermont, a group of scholars known as the Kipling Society is holding its symposium outside the United Kingdom for the first time. They’ll be touring a home the author built in the shape of a ship, high on a hill overlooking the Connecticut River. The scribe named the house Naulakha. It still stands on Kipling Road, three miles north of Brattleboro. And, during the four years he lived there, one of the greatest chroniclers of 19th-century British imperialism snowshoed in winter, went to barn dances, and made friends with his neighbors. This was a wonderful time in his life, with the birth of his first child Josephine; the joyous retirement of his father; and visitors from such notables as Arthur Conan Doyle. Kipling even took up golf. RUDYARD KIPLING (in NAULAKHA)–>

   His seclusion in Vermont kept Rudyard both inventive and prolific. He lived in Dummerston from 1892 to 1896 when he first wrote the children’s classic Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. He also wrote iconic stories, including The Jungle Book  and Captains Courageous. His fine collection of Barrack-Room Ballads was issued in March 1892, first published individually in 1890, and containing his poetic masterpieces of imagination, Mandalay and Gunga Din. Kipling’s work translated well to cinema, especially during Hollywood’s Studio Era.

   Part of the draw for the 60 scholars visiting this week from the United Kingdom and the US will be today’s tour of Naulakha. They are also viewing some of the Kipling holdings, such as the contents of a safe deposit box discovered untouched in the early 1990s after almost a century in a bank in Brattleboro. Among the items in it were a copy of his marriage license, a will, and other personal documents. Organizers hope the meeting will serve to revive Kipling’s reputation.

   The noted symposium ends later today at Vermont’s Marlboro College.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Readers’ Favorite has announced the results of their literary competition through a premium press release which will be placed into RSS feeds with more than 250,000 subscribers including bloggers, journalists, and consumers. The release will also be sent to more than 35,000 opt-in journalists, including the Associated Press, and top US newspapers like USA Today, as well as, search engines like Yahoo and Google, and popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter (1.1 million followers strong)! Results through a professional, high distribution press release is articulated in the visual diagram (below):

   In addition to the external press release dispersed today, Readers’ Favorite is also sending an internal mailing to their membership base, which contains thousands of authors, agents, and publishers who use the website services. As a result, Readers’ Favorite should see a dramatic rise in traffic over the next 30-60 days, both to the contest winner’s pages, and to the review pages of all authors.

   Over 250 scribes are planning to attend the 2013 Awards Ceremony from as far away as Pakistan, Singapore, Australia, United Kingdom, and India! Your friendly blogger from Cypress, California will be at this star-studded  afternoon of fun. The event will run in conjunction with the Miami Book Fair International. The Readers’ Favorite participation at the festival’s Street Faire takes place on November 22nd-24th. My honored paperback,  Son of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History, the recent Gold Medal recipient, will proudly be displayed at their booth.

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<——– A.C. Lyles was a movie producer for Paramount Pictures, who’s best known for producing a variety of low budget Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s. His formidable fingerprints can be found in Golden Age cinematic faire, including The Mountain (starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner); Short Cut to Hell (directed by James Cagney); and the epic Korean War film, The Young and the Brave.

   A.C. became the studio’s longest-serving Paramount employee during a tenure that lasted more than three-quarters of a century. The outgoing Lyles became friendly with most of the major stars of the era, including Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Ronald Reagan, and William Holden. He persuaded friends such as Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, Jane Russell, Pat O’Brien and Dana Andrews to appear in his films. Lyles was a consulting and associate producer for such small screen efforts as Rawhide, and most recently, the HBO series – Deadwood.

   As Paramount’s ambassador of goodwill, Lyles appeared regularly in his later years at film festivals, colleges, and nostalgia conventions to talk about the studio’s legacy and its current product. He also welcomed visiting notables to the studio, and conducted tours of the studio lot, which he knew intimately. He served on the White House Advisory Council on Private Sector Initiatives when Reagan was president. According to a passage written by Gary Lycan, the late Orange County Register radio columnist, who wrote the wonderful Introduction to Son of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History:

“Lyles was the go-to person for any great stories about Hollywood history”

   A.C. Lyles was 95.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   If your television is set to Turner Classic Movies, here’s a contest for you with some nifty prizes at stake. The cable network is about to celebrate its 20th year as the leading small-screen authority in classic films, and to honor this anniversary, its launching TCM’s Ultimate Fan Contest.

 

Manny P. here…

   Tom Clancy was an author best known for his technically detailed espionage and his military science storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War. His modern thrillers were seen through the eyes of a character he developed named Jack Ryan.  TOM CLANCY ———>

   Clancy’s literary career began with The Hunt for Red October in 1985, which he sold for publishing to the Naval Institute Press for $5,000. After publication, the book received praise from President Reagan, which boosted sales of the book. Critics praised the work for its technical accuracy. His extreme attention to technical detail earned him respect inside the intelligence community and beyond, and helped to make Clancy a widely read and influential military novelist of his time; one who seemed to capture a shift in the country’s mood away from the CIA misdeeds that came out in the 1970s.

   Several of his novels, including The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears, were later made into blockbuster motion pictures, with another, Jack Ryan, set for release on Christmas. Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck, and Harrison Ford were among the actors who played CIA analyst Jack Ryan on screen. The upcoming movie stars Chris Pine, with Kenneth Branagh directing. Keira Knightly will play his wife, and Kevin Costner, his mentor at the CIA.

   He also ventured into video games, including the best-selling Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, ‘Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent. A native of Maryland, he was Vice Chairman of Community Activities and Public Affairs, as well as a part-owner, of the Baltimore Orioles.

   Tom Clancy was 66.

Until next time>                               “never forget”