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B-movie

B-movie

The term B-movie originally referred to a Hollywood motion picture designed to be distributed as the "lower half" of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters, or horror. In the days of the major film studios, this was official terminology that also gave rise to the practice of referring to "A-list" or "B-list" stars. (For example, Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, made a career out of acting in B-movies.) The major studios had "B-units" that made their B-movies, but there were also small studios—such as Republic Pictures and Monogram Pictures—which specialized in making B-movies. "B-movie" has gradually come to refer to any low-budget movie with lesser-known (and generally considered inferior) actors (B-actors). Usually the films are formulaic and campy, with cheap special effects, uninspired dialogue, and gratuitous nudity, sexuality, and/or violence. B-movies of the horror movie genre are especially popular. B-movies today are often not even released in theaters, instead going direct-to-video. In the 1980s, with the advent of cable television, B-movies were used as a source for a type of late night television programming in some major cities where they are shown back-to-back until the early hours of the morning. The 1990s television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 used B-movies in its episodes, where they were shown in total (although often edited for time) while being subjected to sarcastic commentary by the program's stars. David A. Prior and Mario Bava are prominent figures in the B-movie industry, and Ed Wood has been credited by some as a master of the form (although the term better applicable to his work would be "Z-movies"). Roger Corman specialized in producing and/or directing the kind of films which typify B-movies of the 1950s. Currently, certain production companies such as Troma specialize in producing large quantities of low quality B-movies. One of the classic producers of these films was the U.S. company American International Pictures (AIP), founded in 1956 by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Its films include works by Roger Corman, Vincent Price, Herman Cohen and the early efforts of then-unknown figures such as Francis Ford Coppola, Jennifer Aniston, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson. In the 1970s, such houses as Independent-International Pictures, Film Ventures International, Charles Band Productions, Cannon Films, New Line Cinema, Golan-Globus, and others leapt up to create a new generation of B-movies; most of these films died away as budgets soared in the early 1980s and even a comparatively low-budget, low-quality picture would cost millions of dollars given the public's expectations of color filmstock, original music scores, and contemporary special effects techniques. Outside of the so-called "adult" film marketplace, B-movie techniques and characteristics became largely confined to direct-to-video outfits.

See also


- B-Movie Film Festival
- Cult film
- Drive-in theater
- Hammer horror
- Mystery Science Theater 3000
- Poverty Row
- Slasher film
- Z-movie

External links


- [http://www.badmovies.org/movies/ Bad Movies] B-movie reviews, each with screenshots, sound clips, and a video clip
- [http://www.nanarland.com/ Nanarland] French website that hosts reviews and several media/information on B-movies and other bad movies
- [http://www.b-masters.com/ B-Masters Cabal] A confederation of movie review sites specializing in B- and cult movies.
- [http://www.stomptokyo.com/ Stomp Tokyo] B-movie reviews with an emphasis on monster movies.
- [http://www.bmonster.com/ The Astounding B-Monster] A compendium of b-movie articles and interviews, mostly of historical nature
- [http://www.movie-monsters.co.uk/ Movie Monsters] Everything you could want to know about the best and worst monsters from the silver screen. Category:Film Category:Mystery Science Theater 3000 ja:B級映画

HollywooD

:For the American film industry, see Cinema of the United States. Cinema of the United States Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., situated northwest of Downtown. Due to its fame and identity as the historical center of movie studios and stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used colloquially to refer to the American film 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. Several 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 [http://www.laalmanac.com/geography/ge30secession_hollywood.htm 2002 secession movement] and the current [http://www.allncs.org/hollywoodmap.htm Neighborhood Council boundaries] can serve as guides. Generally, Hollywood's southern border follows Melrose Avenue from Vermont Avenue west to La Brea Avenue. From there the boundary continues north on La Brea, wrapping west around the city of West Hollywood 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 goes 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 is estimated to be about 300,000. Hollywood does not have its own government, but an appointed official serves as "honorary mayor" for ceremonial purposes. Currently, the mayor is Johnny Grant.

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. Accounts of the name, Hollywood, coming from imported English holly then growing in the area are incorrect. The name in fact was coined by Daeida Wilcox. On a train trip to the east, Wilcox met a woman who spoke of her country home in Ohio named after a Dutch settlement called "Hollywood." Daeida liked the sound of it and upon returning to Southern California, bestowed the name to the family ranch. A locally popular (though inaccurate) etymology is that the name Hollywood traces to the ample stands of native Toyon, or "California Holly," that cover the hillsides. Harvey Wilcox soon drew up a grid map for a town, which he filed with the county recorder's office on February 1, 1887, the first official appearance of the name Hollywood. With his wife as a constant advisor, he carved out Prospect Avenue (later Hollywood Boulevard) for the main street, lining it and the other wide dirt avenues with pepper trees, and began selling lots. Daeida raised money to build two churches, a school and a library. They imported some English holly because of the name Hollywood, but the bushes did not last. By 1900, Hollywood 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, lay seven miles (11 km) east through the citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from the city, 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 a subdivider 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 the city drastically. In 1910, because of an ongoing struggle to secure an adequate water supply, the townsmen voted for Hollywood to be annexed to 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 the city's sewer system. With annexation, the name of Prospect Avenue was changed to Hollywood Boulevard and all the street numbers in the new district changed; 100 Prospect Avenue, at Vermont Avenue, became 6400 Hollywood Boulevard; and 100 Cahuenga Boulevard, at Hollywood Boulevard, changed to 1700 Cahuenga Boulevard.

Hollywood and the motion picture industry

In the early 1900s, motion picture production companies from New York and New Jersey started moving to California because of the reliable weather and longer days. Although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately expose film; the best source of illumination for movie production was natural sunlight. Besides the moderate, dry climate, they were also drawn to the state because of its open spaces and wide variety of natural scenery. Another factor in Hollywood's development was its great distance from New Jersey, which made it more difficult for Thomas Edison to enforce his motion picture patents. At the time, Edison owned almost all the patents relevant to motion picture production and, in the East, movie producers acting independently of Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company were often sued or enjoined by Edison and his agents. Thus, movie makers working on the West Coast could work independent of Edison's control. If he sent agents to California, word would usually reach Los Angeles before the agents did and the movie makers could escape to nearby Mexico. 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". D. W. Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood called "In Old California (1910)" a Biograph melodrama about Latino/Mexican occupied California in the 1800's. Biograph stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York. After hearing about this wonderdful place, in 1913 many movie-makers headed west. With this film, the movie industry was born in "Hollywood" which soon becoame the movie capital of the world. The first motion picture studio in the region was built in 1909 by the Selig Polyscope Company. The Selig studio was located in Edendale, just east of Hollywood. The first studio in Hollywood proper was Nestor Studios, founded in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley in an old building on the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. In the same year, another fifteen Independents settled in Hollywood. Creators of dreams began arriving by the thousands; cameras cranked away, capturing images of custard pies, bathing beauties, comedy and tragedy, villains leering, heroines with long curls and heroes to save the day; and they built a new world to replace the lemon groves. Thus, the fame of Hollywood came from its identity with the movies and movie stars; and the word "Hollywood," a word that, when spoken in any country on Earth, evokes worlds, even galaxies of memories, came to be colloquially used to refer to the motion picture industry. In 1913, Cecil B. DeMille, in association with Jesse Lasky, leased a barn with studio facilities on the southeast corner of Selma and Vine Streets from the Burns and Revier Studio and Laboratory, which had been established there. DeMille then began production of The Squaw Man (1914). It became known as the Lasky-DeMille Barn and is currently the location of the Hollywood Heritage Museum. The Charlie Chaplin Studios, on the northeast corner of La Brea and De Longpre Avenues just south of Sunset Boulevard, was built in 1917. It has had many owners after 1953, including Kling Studios, who produced the Superman TV series with George Reeves; Red Skelton, who used the sound stages for his CBS TV variety show; and CBS, who filmed the TV series Perry Mason with Raymond Burr there. It has also been owned by Herb Alpert's A&M Records and Tijuana Brass Enterprises. It is currently The Jim Henson Company, home of the Muppets. In 1969, The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board named the studio a historical cultural monument. 1969 The famous Hollywood Sign originally read "Hollywoodland". It was erected in 1923 to advertise a new housing development in the hills above Hollywood. For several years the sign was left to deteriorate. In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in and offered to remove the last four letters and repair the rest. The sign, located near the top of Mount Lee, is now a registered trademark and cannot be used without the permission of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which also manages the venerable Walk of Fame. Walk of Fame The first Academy Awards presentation ceremony took place on May 16, 1929 during a banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. Tickets were USD $10.00 and there were 250 people in attendance. Hollywood and the movie industry of the 1930s are described in P. G. Wodehouse's novel Laughing Gas (1936) and in Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run? (1941), and is parodied in Terry Pratchett's novel Moving Pictures (1990), which is a takeoff of Singin' In The Rain. From about 1930, five major "Hollywood" movie studios from all over the Los Angeles area, Paramount, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros., owned large, grand theaters throughout the country for the exhibition of their movies. The period between the years 1927 (the effective end of the silent era) to 1948 is considered the age of the "Hollywood studio system", or, in a more common term, the Golden Age of Hollywood. In a landmark 1948 court decision, the Supreme Court ruled that movie studios could not own theaters and play only the movies of their studio and movie stars, thus an era of Hollywood history had unofficially ended. By the mid-1950s, when television proved a profitable enterprise that was here to stay, movie studios started also being used for the production of programming in that medium, which is still the norm today.

Modern Hollywood

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 Los Angeles, primarily to Burbank, California. A lot of the movie industry remained in the area, although the district's outward appearance changed. 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 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 seeing to it 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 Metro Red Line subway opened, running from Downtown Los Angeles to the Valley, with stops on Hollywood Boulevard at Western Avenue, at Vine Street and at 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. Motion picture production still occurs within the Hollywood district, although most major studios are actually located elsewhere in the Los Angeles region. Paramount Studios is the only major studio physically located within Hollywood. Other studios in the district include the aforementioned Jim Henson (formerly Chaplin) Studios, and Raleigh Studios. Several major local broadcasters such as KTLA also maintain studios here, while ABC still has a studio facility on Hollywood's east side although most of the network's programming is now produced out of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. In 2002, a number of Hollywood citizens began a campaign for the district to secede from Los Angeles and become its own incorporated city. Secession supporters argued that the needs of their community were being ignored by the leaders of Los Angeles. In June, 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 from all over Los Angeles. In the November election, the referendums failed to receive the required percentage of votes by a wide margin. Modern day Hollywood is a diverse, vital, and active community striving to preserve the elegant buildings from its past.

Runaways

A serious problem for Hollywood since the 1960s has been its attractiveness for desperate runaways. Every year, hundreds of runaway adolescents flee broken homes across North America and flock to Hollywood hoping to become movie stars, as portrayed by the lyrics of the Burt Bacharach song Do You Know the Way to San Jose "All the stars /That never were /Are parking cars / And pumping gas." They soon discover they have extremely slim chances of competing against professionally trained actors and end up sinking into homelessness, which is a severe problem in general in Hollywood for adults as well as youth. Some go home; some stay in Hollywood and join the prostitutes and panhandlers lining its boulevards; others go to Skid Row in Downtown; and some end up in the seamy underside of the entertainment business–the large pornography industry in the San Fernando Valley. This grim side of Hollywood was portayed in Jackson Browne's song, Boulevard, whose lyrics include reference to a notorious hustler hangout of the 1970s, "Down at the Golden Cup/They set the young ones up/Under the neon lights/Selling day for night", and in the books of Charles Bukowski.

Hollywood area neighborhoods


- Beechwood Canyon
- Franklin Hills
- Hollywood
- East Hollywood
- Hollywood Hills
- Laurel Canyon
- Little Armenia
- Los Feliz
- Melrose District
- Mount Olympus
- Sierra Vista
- Sunset Strip
- Spaulding Square
- Thai Town
- Yucca Corridor

Education

Pupils who live in Hollywood are zoned to Gardner Elementary, Valley View Elementary School, Cherimoya Grammar School, Bancroft Middle, La Conte Middle and Hollywood High School.

Landmarks and interesting spots

Hollywood High School
- ABC Television Center
- Amoeba Music
- Blessed Sacrament Church
- Bob Hope Square (Hollywood and Vine)
- Capitol Records
- CBS Columbia Square
- Charlie Chaplin Studios
- Cinerama Dome
- Crossroads of the World
- Grauman's Egyptian Theater
- El Capitan Theatre
- FOX Television Center
- Frederick's of Hollywood
- Frolic Room
- Gower Gulch
- Grauman's Chinese Theater
- Griffith Observatory
- Griffith Park
- Hollywood Athletic Club
- Hollywood Bowl
- Hollywood Forever Cemetery
- Hollywood and Highland
- Hollywood Heritage Museum
- Hollywood High School
- Hollywood Palace Theatre
- Hollywood Palladium
- Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
- Hollywood Sign
- Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Hollywood Wax Museum
- Janes House
- John Anson Ford Theatre
- KABC-TV
- KCBS-TV
- KCET
- Knickerbocker Hotel
- KNBC
- Kodak Theatre
- KTLA-TV
- KTTV
- Lake Hollywood
- Lasky-DeMille Barn
- The Magic Castle
- Masonic Temple
- Max Factor Building
- Musso & Frank's Grill
- NBC Radio City Studios
- Pantages Theatre
- Paramount Studios
- Pig 'N Whistle
- Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Odditorium
- Rock 'n' Roll Ralphs
- Rock Walk
- Sunset and Vine apartment complex
- Sunset Gower Studios
- William S. Hart Park
- Yamishiro Restaurant

See also


- Casting couch
- History of cinema
- Hollywood-inspired names
- List of movie-related topics
- List of Hollywood novels
- List of movies set in Los Angeles
- List of television shows set in Los Angeles
- West Hollywood, California
- :Category:Cemeteries in Los Angeles (Most Hollywood celebrities are buried locally).

External links


- [http://www.hollywoodsign.org/webcams/index.html Hollywood Sign Panasonic Webcams – Live 24 Hours A Day]
- [http://www.hollywoodknolls.org/hollywood_reservoir.htm Lake Hollywood Reservoir (DWP) with maps and photos]
- [http://www.ulwaf.com/LA-1900s/05.02.html February 1905: "Hollywood's Bright Future" – from the L.A. Times – with photos]
- [http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=showcat&catid=31 Hollywood News, Interviews & Reviews]
- [http://hollywoodbid.org/hist/historic_sites.html Hollywood Historic Sites]
- [http://www.hollywoodmuseum.com/home/home_main.html Hollywood Entertainment Museum]
- [http://www.fabuloustravel.com/ww/haunthollywood/haunthollywood.html Hollywood's Most Famous Ghosts]
- [http://www.nrbooks.com/hollywoodtour.htm The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book]
- [http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com Hollywood Photographs]
- [http://www.talkingpix.co.uk/Article_Hollywood,critics.html Hooray For Hollywood article by Nigel Watson]
- [http://www.biographcompany.com Biograph Company] Category:Hollywood history and culture Category:Los Angeles neighborhoods Category:U.S. Highway 66 ja:ハリウッド



Film Genres

Some common film genres are so widespread that they are often broken down into sub-genres. The most widely used terms encompassing a broad range of films (and some examples of their sub-genres) are:
- Action film
  - Comic Book film-superhero
  - Martial arts film
  - Wu Xia film
- Art film
  - Independent film
- Comedy film
  - Black comedy
  - Gross-out film
  - Mo lei tau
  - Romantic comedy film
  - Screwball comedy film
  - Stoner film
  - Wacky Comedy film
- Drama film
  - Courtroom drama film
  - Romance film
  - Romantic Drama film
  - History film
  - Docudrama
- Exploitation film
  - Blaxploitation
  - Cult film
  - Disaster film
- Fantasy film
  - Film fantastique
- Film Noir
- Heimatfilm
- Horror film
  - Slasher film
  - Snuff film
  - Splatter film
- Science fiction film
- Sports film
  - Baseball film
- Thriller
  - Gangster film
  - Giallo
  - Heist film
  - Spy film
- War film
  - Submarine film
- Western film
  - Spaghetti western Genres ja:映画のジャンル

President of the United States

The President of the United States (unofficially abbreviated "POTUS") is the head of state of the United States. Under the U.S. Constitution, the President is also the chief executive of the federal government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The full title is President of the United States of America. Because of the superpower status of the United States, the American President is widely considered to be the most powerful person on Earth, and is usually one of the world's best-known public figures. During the Cold War, the President was sometimes referred to as "the leader of the free world," a phrase that is still invoked today. The United States was the first nation to create the office of President as the head of state in a modern republic. Today the office is widely emulated all over the world in nations with a presidential system of government. Many countries with a parliamentary system also have an office named "president", but the roles of this office vary widely, and the President in such systems usually has far more limited powers than the Prime Minister. The 43rd and current President of the United States is George W. Bush. His first term ran from January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2005; his second term began on January 20, 2005 and ends on January 20, 2009; and President Bush is constitutionally barred from a third term.

Requirements to hold office

Section One of Article II of the U.S. Constitution establishes the requirements one must meet in order to become President. The president must be a natural-born citizen of the United States (or a citizen of the United States at the time the U.S. Constitution was adopted), be at least 35 years old, and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years. The natural-born citizenship requirement has been the subject of controversy. Critics argue that this requirement arbitrarily excludes some highly qualified candidates for the Presidency. They also charge that supporters fail to appreciate the contributions made by immigrants to American society. Proponents of the requirement argue that the requirement helps to ensure that the President fully understands and is a part of the American people and their outlook. Proponents also argue that the clause helps protect the country from foreign interference—another country could send an emigrant to the United States and through subterfuge get them elected. Many prominent public officials, such as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA; born in Austria) and Governor Jennifer Granholm (D-MI; born in Canada), are barred from the presidency because they were not natural-born citizens. Constitutional amendments are occasionally proposed to remove or modify this requirement, but none have been successful.

Election

Presidential elections are held every four years. Presidents are elected indirectly, through the Electoral College. The President and the Vice President are the only two nationally elected officials in the United States. (Legislators are elected on a state-by-state basis; other executive officers and judges are appointed.)

Old system

Originally, each elector voted for two people for President. The votes were tallied and the person receiving the greatest number of votes (provided that such a number was a majority of electors) became President, while the individual who was in second place became Vice President.

Current system

The Amendment XII in 1804 changed the electoral process by directing the electors to use separate ballots to vote for the President and Vice President. To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes, or if no candidate receives a majority, the President and Vice President are chosen by the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively, as necessary.

Campaign

The modern Presidential election process begins with the primary elections, during which the major parties (currently the Democrats and the Republicans) each select a nominee to unite behind; the nominee in turn selects a running mate to join him on the ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. The two major candidates then face off in the general election, usually participating in nationally televised debates before Election Day and campaigning across the country to explain their views and plans to the voters. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states, through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.

Inauguration and oath of office

mass media Since 1933, with the ratification of Amendment XX, a newly elected President, or a re-elected incumbent, is sworn into office on January 20 of the year following the election, an event called Inauguration Day. Although the Chief Justice of the United States usually administers the presidential oath of office, the Constitution does not specify any requirements; thus, anyone with the legal authority to administer oaths can perform the duty. In accordance with Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 8 of the Constitution, upon entering office, the President must take the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Only presidents Franklin Pierce and Herbert Hoover have chosen to affirm rather than swear. The oath is traditionally ended with, "So help me God," although for religious reasons some Presidents have said, "So help me", or "and thus I swear." On Inauguration Day, following the oath of office, the President customarily delivers an inaugural address which sets the tone for his administration. These addresses can reach the level of high oratory, from such stand-alone lines as Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," to entire speeches, such as Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.

Term(s) of office

Under the Constitution, the President serves a four-year term. Amendment XXII (which took effect in 1951 and was first applied to Dwight D. Eisenhower starting in 1953) limits the president to either two four-year terms or a maximum of ten years in office should he have succeeded to the Presidency previously and served two years at most completing his predecessor's term. Since then, three presidents have served two full terms: Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Incumbent President George W. Bush would become the fourth if he completes his current (and second) term in 2009. (Richard Nixon was elected to a second term but resigned before completing it.)

Succession

The United States presidential line of succession is a detailed list of government officials to serve or act as President upon a vacancy in the office due to death, resignation, or removal from office (by impeachment and conviction). impeachment, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy]] The line of 17 begins with the Vice President and ends with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Legislation to add the Secretary of Homeland Security to the line of succession is pending in Congress. The Constitution provided that, if a President were to die, resign, or be removed from office, the "powers and duties" of the office would devolve upon the Vice President, Article II, Section 1 (which seems to imply the position of acting president), and that he [Vice President] shall "exercise the office of President of the United States," Article I, Section 2 (which seems to imply actual assumption of the presidency itself). People did not agree as to the exact meaning and intention of the text, and whether the Vice President would succeed to the office of President or merely act as President. After the death of William Henry Harrison, however, Vice President John Tyler asserted that he had become the President, not merely Acting President, and this precedent was followed in all subsequent cases. The 25th amendment eliminated this ambiguity by confirming that the Vice President fully becomes President, not Acting President, if the presidency becomes vacant. It sets the Vice President first in the line of succession and spells out a process for him to serve as Acting President should the President become temporarily disabled. A provision of the United States Code () establishes the rest of the succession line. To date, no officer other than the Vice President has been called upon to act as President.

Powers

The President, according to the Constitution, must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." To carry out this responsibility, the president presides over the executive branch of the federal government; a vast organization of about 4 million people, including 1 million active-duty military personnel. A President-elect will make as many as 6,000 appointments to government positions, including appointments to the federal judiciary. The Senate must consent to all judicial appointments as well as the appointments of all principal officers. The President may veto laws made by the United States Congress but cannot personally initiate laws. Congress can overturn the veto with a two-thirds majority in both houses. He is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The President may make treaties, but the Senate must ratify them by a two-thirds supermajority. The political scientist Richard Neustadt said, "Presidential power is the power to persuade and the power to persuade is the ability to bargain". He was commenting on the fact that the President's domestically constitutional power is limited, despite the modern expectation of Presidents to have a legislative program, and successful bargaining with Congress is usually essential to Presidential success.

Presidential salary and benefits

Salary

The First U.S. Congress voted to pay George Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a significant sum in 1789. (Washington, already a successful man, refused to accept his salary.) Traditionally, the President is the highest-paid government employee. Consequently, the President's salary serves as a traditional cap for all other federal officials, such as the Chief Justice. A raise for 2001 was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 because other officials who receive annual cost-of-living increases had salaries approaching the President's. Consequently, to raise the salaries of the other federal employees, the President's salary had to be raised as well. While far higher than the median wage in the United States, in modern times the President's salary is paltry compared to the Chief Executive Officers of many publicly-listed companies, and indeed modern Presidents have typically earned far more in the corporate world after the end of their term than they did as President.

Residences

Chief Executive Officer Among the many non-salary benefits are living and working in the White House mansion in Washington, DC The President's principal workplace and official residence is the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in Washington, DC. His official vacation or weekend residence is Camp David in Maryland. Many presidents have also had their own homes.

Travelling

While travelling, the President is able to conduct all the functions of the office aboard several specially built Boeing 747s, known as Air Force One. The President travels around Washington in an armored Cadillac limousine, often referred to informally as "Cadillac One," equipped with bullet-proof windows and tires and a self-contained ventilation system in the event of a biological or chemical attack. When traveling longer distances around the Washington area or on presidential trips, the President travels aboard the presidential helicopter, Marine One. The President also has the use of: Army One, Coast Guard One, Executive One, and Navy One. Additionally, the President has full use of Camp David in Maryland, a retreat which is occasionally used as a casual setting for hosting foreign dignitaries.

Secret Service

The President and his family are always protected by a Secret Service detail. Until 1997, all former Presidents and their families were protected by the Secret Service until the President's death. The last President to have lifetime Secret Service protection is Bill Clinton; George W. Bush and all subsequent Presidents will be protected by the Secret Service for a maximum of 10 years after leaving office.

Benefits after Presidency

Presidents continue to enjoy other benefits after leaving office such as free mailing privileges, free office space, the right to hold a diplomatic passport and budgets for office help and staff assistance. However, it was not until after Harry S. Truman (1958) that Presidents received a pension after they left office. Additionally, since the presidency of Herbert Hoover, Presidents receive funding from the National Archives and Records Administration upon leaving office to establish their own presidential library. These are not traditional libraries, but rather repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, and other historical materials for each President since Herbert Hoover.

Officeholders

: See: List of Presidents of the United States.

Timeline


- Martin Van Buren, born December 5, 1782, was the first president born after the Declaration of Independence and was thus arguably the first president who was not born a British subject. Interestingly, he is also the first president not of Anglo-Celtic origin.
- John Tyler, born March 29, 1790, was the first president born after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. All presidents born before him were eligible to be president because they were citizens at the time the Constitution was adopted. (Zachary Taylor was born on November 24, 1784, before the Constitution was adopted).
- Franklin Pierce, born November 23, 1804, was the first president born in the 19th century. (Millard Fillmore was born January 7, 1800, the last year of the 18th century.)
- Warren Harding, born November 2, 1865, was the first president born after the American Civil War. Robert E. Lee surrendered April 9, 1865.
- John F. Kennedy, born May 29, 1917, was the first person born in the 20th century to become president (1961).
  - Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, was born on August 27, 1908. Three other Presidents who followed Johnson in office were also born before Kennedy (in order of birth, Reagan, Nixon, and Ford).
- Jimmy Carter, born October 1, 1924, was the first person born after World War I to become president.
  - George H. W. Bush, who succeeded Carter's successor, was born on June 12, 1924.
- Bill Clinton, born August 19, 1946, was the first person born after World War II to become president.
  - Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, was born July 6, 1946.

Life after the Presidency

1946, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and their wives at the funeral of President Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994.]] After a president of the U.S. leaves office, the title "President" continues to be applied to that person the rest of his life. Former presidents continue to be important national figures, and in some cases go on to successful post-presidential careers:
- John Quincy Adams enjoyed a prosperous career in the House of Representatives after his term in the White House.
- Andrew Johnson was elected to the same Senate that tried his impeachment, although he died before he could take office.
- Theodore Roosevelt wrote many books, went on safari, toured Europe, ran again for President in 1912, went on an expedition into the Brazilian jungle where he discovered the Rio Roosevelt, and was widely believed to be the front-runner for the 1920 presidential elecion when he died in 1919.
- William Howard Taft became Chief Justice of the United States.
- Jimmy Carter has been a global human rights campaigner and best-selling writer.
- George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton teamed together to appeal for donations from Americans after the Asian tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As of 2005, there are four living former presidents: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The most recently deceased President is Ronald Reagan, who died in June 2004. There have never been more than five former presidents alive at any given time in American history. There have been three periods during which five former presidents were alive:
- From March 4, 1861 to January 18, 1862, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan were living (during the Lincoln Administration, until the death of Tyler).
- From January 20, 1993 to April 22, 1994, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush were living (during the Clinton Administration, until the death of Nixon).
- From January 20, 2001 to June 5, 2004, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton were living (during the G.W. Bush Administration, until the death of Reagan). There have been six periods in American history during which no former presidents were alive:
- (beginning of time) – March 3, 1797: until the first President left office, there could be no former presidents, alive or otherwise.
- December 14, 1799 – March 3, 1801: from the death of former President George Washington until incumbent President John Adams left office (no former president would die until Adams and his successor, Thomas Jefferson, both did so on July 4 1826).
- July 31, 1875 – March 3, 1877: from the death of former President Andrew Johnson until incumbent President Ulysses Grant left office (no former president would die until Grant did so in 1885 although incumbent President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881).
- June 24, 1908 – March 3, 1909: from the death of former President Grover Cleveland until incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt left office (no former president would die until Roosevelt did so in 1919).
- January 5, 1933 – March 3, 1933: from the death of former President Calvin Coolidge until incumbent President Herbert Hoover left office (no former president would die until Hoover did so in 1964 although incumbent President Franklin Roosevelt died in office in 1945 and incumbent President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963).
- January 22, 1973 – August 9, 1974: from the death of former President Lyndon Johnson until incumbent President Richard Nixon resigned (no former president would die until Nixon did so in 1994). Herbert Hoover had the longest post-presidency, 31 years. He left office in 1933 and died in 1964. Still alive today is Gerald Ford, who has been an ex-president for 28 years, as of 2005. James K. Polk had the shortest post-presidency. He died on June 15, 1849, a mere three months after the expiration of his term. Between the birth of George Washington in 1732 and the birth of Bill Clinton in 1946, future presidents have been born in every decade except two: the 1810s and the 1930s. Between the death of George Washington in 1799 and the present, presidents or ex-presidents have died in every decade except four: the 1800s, 1810s, 1950s, and 1980s.

Presidential facts

Transition events


- Four U.S. Presidents have been assassinated while in office:
  - Abraham Lincoln in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth
  - James Garfield in 1881 by Charles J. Guiteau (Guiteau shot him but Garfield arguably died due to subsequent incorrect medical care)
  - William McKinley in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz
  - John F. Kennedy in 1963, officially by Lee Harvey Oswald alone[http://www.archives.gov/research_room/jfk/warren_commission/warren_commission_report_chapter1.html] although many theories suggest additional gunmen or a different person altogether. [http://www.archives.gov/research_room/jfk/house_select_committee/committee_report_gunmen.html]
- Four others died in office of natural causes:
  - William Henry Harrison, died of pneumonia in 1841
  - Zachary Taylor, died of "acute indigestion" in 1850. Taylor's body was exhumed in 1991 to test if he had died of arsenic poisoning. It was determined he did not.
  - Warren G. Harding, died of heart attack in 1923. There has been speculation that [http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1374.html Harding was poisoned]—in particular, Gaston Means had a book ghost-written that spread that notion—but that theory appears to be baseless.
  - Franklin D. Roosevelt, died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1945
- One President resigned from office:
  - Richard Nixon in 1974
- Two Presidents have been impeached, though neither was subsequently convicted:
  - Andrew Johnson in 1868
  - Bill Clinton in 1999
- Four Presidents have been elected without a plurality of popular votes:
  - John Quincy Adams - trailed Andrew Jackson by 44,804 votes in the 1824 election
    - However, in six of the then twenty-four states in 1824, the electors were chosen by the state legislature, with no popular vote.
  - Rutherford B. Hayes - trailed Samuel J. Tilden by 264,292 votes in the 1876 election
  - Benjamin Harrison - trailed Grover Cleveland 95,713 votes in the 1888 election
  - George W. Bush - trailed Al Gore by 543,895 votes in the 2000 election (http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/2000presgeresults.htm)
  - A possible addition to this list is John F. Kennedy, who may have trailed Richard Nixon in the 1960 election. The precise gap in votes is difficult to determine because voters in Alabama were not given Kennedy as an option on their ballot - they could only vote "Democratic", without choosing a candidate. So, when the Democrats won Alabama, half of the state's electoral votes were pledged to Kennedy, and the other half were not pledged at all, and those votes all went to Harry F. Byrd. So it is impossible to know how many of those voters meant to vote for Kennedy, or for Byrd. The margin between Kennedy and Nixon was smaller than the number of Democratic votes in Alabama. The official figure from the U.S. government states includes the Alabama votes in Kennedy's total, giving Kennedy the popular plurality.
- Eleven Presidents have been elected fourteen times without a majority of popular votes (but with a plurality of popular votes):
  - James K. Polk - 49.3% of the popular vote in the 1844 election
  - Zachary Taylor - 47.3% of the popular vote in the 1848 election
  - James Buchanan - 45.3% of the popular vote in the 1856 election
  - Abraham Lincoln - 39.9% of the popular vote in the 1860 election
  - James A. Garfield - 48.3% of the popular vote in the 1880 election
  - Grover Cleveland - 48.8% of the popular vote in the 1884 election
  - Grover Cleveland - 46.0% of the popular vote in the 1892 election
  - Woodrow Wilson - 41.8% of the popular vote in the 1912 election
  - Woodrow Wilson - 49.3% of the popular vote in the 1916 election
  - Harry S. Truman - 49.7% of the popular vote in the 1948 election
  - John F. Kennedy - 49.7% of the popular vote in the 1960 election
  - Richard Nixon - 43.2% of the popular vote in the 1968 election
  - Bill Clinton - 42.9% of the popular vote in the 1992 election
  - Bill Clinton - 49.2% of the popular vote in the 1996 election
- Two Presidents have been elected without a majority of electoral votes, and were chosen by the House of Representatives:
  - Thomas Jefferson - finished with same number of electoral votes as Aaron Burr in the 1800 election
  - John Quincy Adams - trailed Andrew Jackson by 15 electoral votes in the 1824 election
- Eight Presidents took office without being elected to the Presidency, having been elected as Vice President and then promoted from that position. In all eight cases, they succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of the incumbent:
  - Four of them were never elected in their own right:
    - John Tyler - Succeeded William Henry Harrison
    - Millard Fillmore - Succeeded Zachary Taylor
      - Fillmore did run for President in the 1856 election as a Know Nothing Party candidate and received 873,053 votes (21.6%), finishing third
    - Andrew Johnson - Succeeded Abraham Lincoln
    - Chester A. Arthur - Succeeded James Garfield
  - The other four were all elected in their own right for the immediately succeeding presidential term:
    - Theodore Roosevelt - Succeeded William McKinley, elected as president in the 1904 election
    - Calvin Coolidge - Succeeded Warren G. Harding, elected as president in the 1924 election
    - Harry S. Truman - Succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected as president in the 1948 election
    - Lyndon B. Johnson - Succeeded John F. Kennedy, elected as president in the 1964 election
- One President, Gerald Ford, was appointed Vice President by Richard Nixon (with approval from Congress) upon the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, succeeded to the Presidency after Nixon's resignation, and was defeated in the 1976 election by Jimmy Carter. He remains the only President who was not elected as either President or Vice President.
- An urban legend claims that David Rice Atchison was the 11½th president of the United States for one day on March 4, 1849 in between the terms of James K. Polk (whose term expired at noon on March 4) and Zachary Taylor (who chose not to be sworn in until March 5). However, the logic of this is contradictory. If one does not consider Taylor to have officially become President until the administration of his Oath of Office, then the same logic precludes any person from having automatically succeeded before likewise having taken the same Oath. In fact, Taylor, as President-elect, automatically acceded to the Office of President upon the expiration of Polk's term, even if he did not yet enter into the execution of that Office until the Oath was administered. This fact was confirmed by Congress when it certified his election, as it defined the beginning of the administration as the instant Polk left office. Even if supposing, for the sake of argument, the rather odd interpretation that only Presidents-elect are required to take the Oath before officially occupying the Office, whilst officials in the Presidential Line of Succession occupy the Presidency ipso facto, then there would be a long list of dozens of additional "Presidents" who only held the office for a matter of hours or minutes.
- There were seven presidents whose oaths of office were administered by someone other than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court :
  - Robert Livingston, as Chancellor of the State of New York, administered the oath of office to George Washington at his first inauguration; William Cushing, an associate justice of the Supreme Court, administered the second
  - Calvin Coolidge's father, a notary public, administered the oath to his son after the death of Warren Harding
  - United States District Court Judge Sarah T. Hughes administered the oath to Lyndon Johnson after the assassination of John F. Kennedy
  - John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Chester Arthur, and Theodore Roosevelt's initial oaths reflected the unexpected nature of their taking office.

Other facts

Theodore Roosevelt]]
- Grover Cleveland had two non-consecutive terms as President, and is counted twice, both as the 22nd and the 24th President. Consequently, the "25th President" is actually the 24th person to be President, the "26th President" is actually the 25th person to be President, and so on—e.g., George W. Bush, 43rd President, is actually the 42nd person to be President.
- Since the federal government started operations under the Constitution on March 4, 1789, there has been only one period of time in which the office was vacant. The First Congress did not meet to count the electoral vote until April 6, 1789 and thus George Washington did not accede to the office until then.
- A presidential term is normally 1461 days. There have been three presidential terms which were shorter:
  - Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term began March 4, 1933, but the twentieth amendment changed the start of the next term to noon on January 20, 1937, giving Roosevelt a first term of 1418.5 days.
  - Due to the vagaries of the Gregorian calendar, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, so John Adams' term and William McKinley's first term were shortened to 1460 days.
- Five Presidents had never held any prior elected office:
  - Zachary Taylor
  - Ulysses S. Grant
  - Herbert Hoover
  - Dwight D. Eisenhower
  - William Howard Taft
- All presidents have been white males and nominally Christian (mostly Protestant). Most presidents have been of substantially British descent, but there have been a few who came from a different background:
  - Predominantly Dutch: Martin Van Buren
    - Although Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt had Dutch names, neither was predominantly Dutch; each had only one Dutch grandfather. Theodore's other three grandparents were all British; Franklin's other three grandparents were of Puritan stock.
  - Predominantly German: Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower
  - Predominantly Irish:William McKinley, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton
    - Kennedy was also America's only Roman Catholic president.
- Only one president, James Buchanan, remained a bachelor. Bachelor Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom while in office, while both John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson became widowers and remarried while in office.
- Historical rankings of U.S. Presidents by academic historians usually regard three Presidents — in chronological order, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt — to be the three most successful presidents by a wide margin.
- The Secret Service and some agencies in the government use acronyms as jargon. Since the Truman Administration the President of the United States has been called POTUS, pronounced "poh-tuss". The wife of the President, traditionally referred to as the First Lady is called FLOTUS, pronounced "flo-tuss". The Vice President of the United States is often abbreviated to VPOTUS, pronounced "vee-poh-tuss".
- The President is known to be able to affect trends in popular culture. An endorsement of a book or a movie by a president can easily launch the career of a author or a filmmaker. For example, Ronald Reagan's admiration of The Hunt For Red October may have helped to cause Tom Clancy to become a nationally acclaimed bestselling author, something that may never have happened had it not been for Reagan's endorsement.

Lists


See also


- President of the Continental Congress
- Presidential reputation
- Presidential Service Badge
- Executive branch
- Executive privilege
- Air Force One
- Tecumseh's curse
- Fiction regarding United States presidential succession
- List of actors who played President of the United States
- Alternative pop music band The Presidents of the United States of America (band)
- Imperial Presidency

Further reading


- Leonard Leo, James Taranto, and William J. Bennett. Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House. Simon and Schuster, June, 2004, hardcover, 304 pages, ISBN 0743254333
- Waldman, Michael, and George Stephanopoulos, My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of America's Presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush. Sourcebooks Trade. September 2003. ISBN 1402200277
- Couch, Ernie, Presidential Trivia. Rutledge Hill Press. 1 March 1996. ISBN 1558534121
- Lang, J. Stephen, The Complete Book of Presidential Trivia. Pelican Publishing. September 2001. ISBN 1565548779

Notes

# Kamen, Al. "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55411-2004Nov16.html If You're Available Jan. 20 . . .]" Washington Post, 17 November 2004. # Library of Congress. "[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pioaths.html Presidential Inaugrations: Presidential Oaths of Office.]" # [http://www.historicvermont.org/coolidge/oathrm.html Excerpt from Coolidge's autobiography.]

External links

Official


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Presidential histories


- - A collection of over 52,000 Presidential documents
- - Brief biographies, election results, cabinet members, notable events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents.
- - A companion website for the C-SPAN television series: American Presidents: Life Portraits
-

Speeches


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Miscellaneous


- - Brief histories of the Masonic careers of Presidents who were members of the Freemasons.
- - A resource for educators teaching the American Presidency
- - The author of this blog posts links to sites relating to the American Presidency or specific American Presidents
- [http://www.quotesandpoem.com/quotes/listquotes/subject/American_Presidential_Quotes Collection of Quotes by American Presidents]
- - Listing of the cabinet members for each Presidential Administration
- - Opinion poll of how great each President is believed to be. Category:Executive Branch of the United States Government Category:Executive heads of state United States, President Category:Presidency of the United States ko:미국의 대통령 ja:アメリカ合衆国大統領 simple:President (United States) th:ประธานาธิบดีแห่งสหรัฐอเมริกา

Monogram Pictures

.]] Monogram Pictures Corporation was a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to collectively as Poverty Row. The idea behind the studio was that when the Monogram logo appeared on the screen, everyone knew they were in for action and adventure.

History

Monogram was created in the early 1930s from two earlier companies, W. Ray Johnston's Ray-Art Productions and Trem Carr's SonoArt Pictures. Both specialized in low budget features, and as Monogram Pictures, continued that policy until 1935, with Carr in charge of production. Another independent, Paul Malvern, released his Lone Star western productions through Monogram. The backbone of the studio in those early days was a father-and-son combination: Robert N. Bradbury, writer and director, and Bob Steele, cowboy actor, were on their roster. Bradbury wrote almost all of the early Monogram and Lone Star westerns. While budgets and production values were lean Monogram offered a balanced program, including action melodramas, classics and mysteries. In 1935, Johnston and Carr were wooed by Herbert Yates of Consolidated Film Industries; Yates planned to merge Monogram with several other smaller independent companies to form Republic Pictures. But after a short time in this new venture, Johnston and Carr left, Carr to produce at Universal and Johnston to restart Monogram in 1937.

Allied Artists

Producer Walter Mirisch began at Monogram after World War II as assistant to studio-head Steve Broidy. He convinced Broidy that the days of low-budget films were ending, and in 1946, Monogram created a new unit, Allied Artists Productions, to make costlier films. At a time when the average Hollywood picture cost about $800,000, Allied Artists' top expenditure of $250,000 was still small-time. But, Mirisch said later, it allowed them to make 'B-plus' pictures. By 1953, Mirisch's prediction about the end of the low budget had come true thanks to television, and Monogram, giving in to a changing business, became Allied Artists Pictures Corp. For a time in the mid-1950s the Mirisch family had great influence at Allied Artists, with Walter as executive producer, his brother Marvin as head of sales, and brother Harold as corporate treasurer. They pushed the studio into big-budget filmmaking, signing contracts with William Wyler, John Huston, Billy Wilder and Gary Cooper. But when their first big-name productions, Wyler's Friendly Persuasion and Wilder's Love in the Afternoon were box-office flops in 1956-57, studio-head Broidy retreated into the kind of pictures Monogram had always favored: low-budget action and thrillers. Monogram/Allied Artists survived by finding a niche and serving it well. The company lasted until 1979, when runaway inflation and high production costs pushed it into bankruptcy. The Monogram/Allied Artists library was bought by television producer Lorimar. Probably the best-known tribute paid to Monogram came from French New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard, who dedicated his 1959 film Breathless to Monogram, citing their films as a major influence.

Future Stars

Some early Monogram stars went on to greater fame, among them Preston Foster (star of Sensation Hunters, (1933)), Randolph Scott (appeared in Broken Dreams (1933)), Lionel Atwill (The Sphinx (1933)), and John Wayne. Mainly Monogram was the home of the motion picture series, producing Charlie Chan, Trail Blazers, Range Busters, Rough Riders, The Cisco Kid, Bomba the Jungle Boy, Joe Palooka (based on the then-popular comic strip), and The East Side Kids, later the Bowery Boys. Category: Hollywood movie studios

Camp (style)

The term camp—normally used as an adjective, even though earliest recorded uses employed it mainly as a verb—refers to the deliberate and sophisticated use of kitsch, mawkish or corny themes and styles in art, clothing or conversation. A part of the anti-academic defense of popular culture in the sixties, camp came to academic prominence in the eighties with the widespread adoption of the Postmodern views on art and culture. Today, camp falls into two distinct categories: intentional camp and uninitentional camp. Intentional camp, as the name suggests, constitutes the deliberate use of camp for humour. Unintentional camp arises from naïveté or poor tastes. Unitentional camp can thus be considered "true camp." A hipster may appreciate something for its camp value, while a person with unrefined tastes may perceive the same thing to be inherently cool. Much like the closely related notion of kitsch, camp has traditionally been viewed as hard to define. The terms "camp" and "kitsch" are often used interchangeably, but the term "kitsch" refers spefically to art, music or literature, while "camp" is a much broader term. All things kitsch are also camp, but not all things camp are kitsch. It is easier to grasp the concept of camp through the use of examples than through a definition. Thus, one who is unfamilar with the concept of camp may wish to skip to the numerous examples of camp cited later in this article, before reading about the history of camp and the academic theories concenerning camp found towards the beginning of this article. Camp appears to be most prevelant in societies where disposable income has grown at a much faster pace than the general level of sophistication and education. The United States of the 1950s is a classic example of this phenomenon and 1950s America is probably the most camp time period in human history. During the 1950s, the standard of living and disposable income of the American people exploded, as the post-war economy boomed. Yet at the same time, most people were incredibly naïve and sheltered, and only a small minority of people had attended college. In essence, people had money to spend, but often exercised poor tastes due to their lack of sophistication. As the Japanese economy began to boom in the 1970s and 1980s, Japan became a major producer of camp. As in America of the 1950s, Japanese disposable income had outpaced the general level of sophistication within Japanese society. One of the first people to give the concept of camp an academic treatment was the American intellectual Susan Sontag. In her famous 1964 essay "Notes on 'Camp' ", Sontag emphasised artifice, frivolity, naïve middle-class pretentiousness and shocking excess as key elements of camp. Most of the popular culture references in Sontag's essay are fairly obscure and would be lost on most of today's readers. Less obscure examples cited by Sontag included Carmen Miranda's tutti frutti hats and low-budget science fiction movies of the 1950s and 1960s. The first use of the word in print, marginally mentioned in the Sontag essay, may be Christopher Isherwood's 1954 novel The World in the Evening, where he comments: "You can't camp about something you don't take seriously. You're not making fun of it; you're making fun out of it. You're expressing what's basically serious to you in terms of fun and artifice and elegance."

Origins and development

The OED gives 1909 as the first citation of "camp" in print, with the sense of "ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical; effeminate or homosexual; pertaining to or characteristic of homosexuals. So as n., ‘camp’ behaviour, mannerisms, etc. (see quot. 1909); a man exhibiting such behaviour." According to the OED, this sense of the word is "etymologically obscure." Though the rise of Postmodernism has made camp a common take on aesthetics, not identified with any specific group , the attitude was originally a distinctive factor in pre-Stonewall gay male communities, where it was the dominant cultural pattern (Altman 1982, 154-155). Altman (ibid) argues that it originated from the acceptance of gayness as effeminacy. Two key components of camp were originally feminine performances: swish and drag (Newton 1972, 34-37; West 1977; Cory 1951). With swish featuring extensive use of superlatives, and drag being (often outrageous) female impersonation, camp became extended to all things "over the top", including female female impersonators, as in the exaggerated Hollywood version of Carmen Miranda (Levine, 1998). It was this version of the concept that was adopted by literary and art critics and became a part of the conceptual array of sixties culture. Moe Meyer (1994, p.1) still defines camp as "queer parody." As part of camp, drag meant (Newton, 1972, 34-36; Read 1980) "womanly apparel, ranging from slight makeup and a few feminine garments, typically hats, gloves, or high heels, to a total getup, complete with wigs, gowns, jewelry, and full makeup" (Levine, 1998, p.22). Also camp were feminine interests such as fashion (Henry, 1955; West, 1977), decoration (Fischer, 1972, 69; White, 1980; Henry, 1955, 304) "with fancy frills, froufrou, bric-a-brac and au courant kitsch," opera and theater (Karlen 1971; Hooker 1956; Altman 1982, 154), bitchy humor (Read 1980, 105-8), old movies (Dyer 1977), and celebrity worship (Tipmore 1975). (Levine 1998, p.23-4) Another part of camp was dishing, a conversational style including, "bitchy retorts, vicious putdowns, and malicious gossip," (Levine 1998, p.72) associated with the entertainment industry (Leznoff and Westley 1956; Hooker 1956; Hoffman 1968; Read 1980) and also called "fag talk" or "chit chat" (Read 1980, p.106-8). Clones adapted dish, often keeping the feminine pronouns, expanding it to dirt, gossip and rumors, bitchiness and viciousness. (Levine 1998, p.72) Camp has been from the start an ironic attitude, embraced by anti-Academic theorists for its explicit defense of clearly subordinate forms. As such, its claims to legitimacy are dependent on its opposition to current views of normality; camp has no aspiration to timelessness, but rather lives parasitically on the strength of dominant culture. It does not want to present basic values, but precisely to confront culture with its waste, to show how any norm is historical. This rebellious utilisation of critical concepts originally formulated by modernist art theorists such as Theodor Adorno, who were radically opposed to the kind of popular culture that camp endorses, can be understood as a deeply reflexive problematisation of the problematisation of taste itself that modernism represented. As a cultural challenge, camp can also receive a political meaning, when minorities appropriate and ridicule the images of the dominant group, the kind of activism associated with multiculturalism and the New Left. The best known instance of this is of course the gay liberation movement, which used camp to confront society with its own preconceptions and their historicity. Female camp actresses such as Bette Davis also had an important influence on the development of feminist consciousness: by exaggerating certain stereotyped features of femininity, such as fragility or moodiness, they undermined the credibility of those preconceptions. The multiculturalist stance in cultural studies therefore presents camp as political and critical.

Academic appropriation or proliferation of camp

While the success of postmodernism granted camp a place in mainstream art and literature analysis, as well as a certain weight in contemporary social theory, it also meant that its extended sphere of influence was likely to affect the use of the concept. As a part of its adoption by the mainstream, camp has undergone a softening of its original subversive tone, and is often little more than the condescending recognition that popular culture can also be enjoyed by a sophisticated sensibility. Comic books and Westerns, for example, have become standard subjects for academic analysis. This is not, however, the kind of seriousness that Sontag advocated for camp, to which exaggeration and outlandishness was essential. This uncomfortable situation—the normalisation of the outrageous, common to many Vanguardist movements—has led some to believe that the notion has lost its usefulness for critical art discourse. In the UK, camp is an adjective to describe naughty seaside-postcard sense of humour combined with sharp wit, and is often associated with a stereotypical view of feminine</