It’s impossible to imagine American pop culture without Spider-Man. Or the Hulk. Or, thanks to a decade’s worth of mega-blockbuster films, Iron Man, Thor, Dr. Strange, and Ant-Man. These stories—all co-creations of Marvel Comics impresario Stan Lee, who died on November 12, 2018 ...read more
In 1984, Wes Craven introduced the world to one of the most iconic horror films of all time: A Nightmare on Elm Street. His creation of Freddy Krueger as a demon who kills teens in their dreams was heinous, terrifying and literally ripped from the headlines. Craven found ...read more
Frank Sinatra was many things: A crooner who could make bobby-soxers faint, an Academy Award-winning actor, the elder statesman of the Rat Pack. At the height of his career, it was rumored that “every woman wants to have him; every man wants to be him.” But his fans and ...read more
Since its publication in 1962, A Wrinkle in Time has become one of the mostfrequently banned or challenged books, for multiple reasons. People have argued that it’s too complicated for children, and earlier critics disapproved of its plucky female protagonist. Among conservative ...read more
It’s become cliche for actors, writers, and directors to say that they don’t care about winning an Academy Award, even if they do. But in the 90-year history of the Oscars, there have been very few people who won a golden knight statuette and then told the Academy of Motion ...read more
MGM’s 1937 sales convention was an affair to remember. There were celebrity meet-and-greets, marching bands, an escort of motorcycle cops. There was a private rail car and plenty of booze and conversation. And, on the night of May 5, 1937, there was a big party, complete with ...read more
History Reads is a weekly series featuring work from Team History, a group of experts and influencers, exploring history’s most fascinating questions. In 2006 I walked into a dim and dusty backroom of an old courthouse in upstate New York and my heart stopped. Before me stood a ...read more
It seemed so easy: Arrive in Hollywood with a suitcase and a pretty face. Get discovered by an agent or, better yet, a movie exec. Next step: stardom. This seemingly simple formula was the dream of many aspiring Hollywood starlets—and the myth of Hollywood’s Golden Age. For a ...read more
Few movie icons, besides Godzilla, have graced the screen as frequently as super spy James Bond. Some 50 years after Sean Connery first took on the role, fans continue to obsess over who might play him next (for now it’s still Daniel Craig) and what the upcoming film will be ...read more
1. Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin: From Boom to Bust When one of the most successful teams in comedy history called it quits in 1956 after a 10-year run, their fans were shocked. Together, Martin and Lewis had made 16 films, starred in a highly-rated television variety program and ...read more
1. A veteran of World War II, Gene Roddenberry created a show about fighting another world war—this time in space. After piloting a B-17 bomber in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, Roddenberry served in the Los Angeles Police Department before he began writing for ...read more
1. Dalton Trumbo The blacklist era kicked off in 1947, when famed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and several other filmmakers known as the “Hollywood Ten” were called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and asked a now-famous question: “Are you now or have you ever ...read more
Manhattan residents who skimmed the New York Times on December 19, 1909, could be forgiven if they thought the apocalypse had descended upon a small borough on the opposite bank of the Hudson River. “The native population has become accustomed to bands of Indians yelling and ...read more
1. Ben Kingsley – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in “Gandhi” (1982) The son of an Indian father and a British mother, Krishna Pandit Bhanji combined his father’s nickname (Benji) and his grandfather’s (King Clove) to come up with his now-famous stage name: Ben Kingsley. After ...read more
When George Lucas developed the storyline for “Star Wars” and crafted his heroes and villains, he tapped into elements of theology, mysticism and mythology as well as his knowledge of classic films. And befitting a story set a “long time ago,” real-life history also played a ...read more
The first movie star was born into the acting business. The daughter of a vaudeville actress known professionally as Lotta Lawrence, young Florence Bridgwood toured with her mother, made her stage debut at age three as part of a song-and-dance routine and soon gained billing as ...read more
1. Before he was famous, Baum worked as a poultry breeder, actor and traveling salesman. Baum was 44 when “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was published and by then he’d tried his hand at a variety of jobs. As a young man in upstate New York, he bred prize-winning chickens, ...read more
1. Gone With the Wind (1939) Before it became one of the most profitable films of all time, the Civil War opus “Gone With the Wind” was the subject of extensive backroom negotiations between Hollywood censors and its producers. The filmmakers were told to soften the story’s war ...read more
1. The von Trapps only had to cross the railroad tracks behind their villa—not the Alps—to escape the Nazis. In the climactic scene of “The Sound of Music,” the von Trapps flee Salzburg, Austria, under the cover of night and hike across the surrounding mountains to safety in ...read more
1. Disney came from humble beginnings. Born in Chicago on December 5, 1901, Walt Disney, the fourth of five children, moved with his family to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, when he was four. It was in Marceline—a small-town community Disney remembered as an adult as having been ...read more
As recognizable as any Hollywood celebrity, the golden Oscar statuette has been around since the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929. The iconic trophy depicts a knight holding a sword and standing on a film reel with five spokes, each representing one of the Academy of Motion ...read more
“King Kong,” the 1933 film re-released in 1952, and “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” (1953) were among the Hollywood movies that inspired Tomoyuki Tanaka of Toho Studios to make a monster movie of his own. But in order to create the fearsome Gojira, the filmmakers also drew from ...read more
In 1923 a great Egyptian civilization arose like a mirage from a sandy stretch of the central California coastline. On the windswept dunes near the small farming village of Guadalupe a double line of 21 sphinxes flanked a grand boulevard that led to an imposing entrance gate, 109 ...read more
After his father, Antoine, a well-known portrait painter turned photographer, opened a small business in photographic plates based in Lyons, Louis Lumière began experimenting with the equipment his father was manufacturing. In 1881, 17-year-old Louis invented a new “dry plate” ...read more