A Brief History Of Katharine Hepburn

Born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, CT Katharina Houghton Hepburn was the best of the best actresses that Hollywood has seen. She was born to a highly respectable family, the mother being a feminist and a suffragist. He father was a doctor who led a struggle against the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. Both her parents endorsed the birth control. Katharine owes her life to her parents for her upbringing that gave her enough freedom to be adventurous in life. She had 5 siblings one elder to her and four younger than her. One of the traumatic experiences of life was when her elder brother Tom died hanging by her aunt's attic. The incident had left an indelible trauma, which haunted her for years.

Hepburn went to Bryn Mawr College and she graduated in 1928 from there. She happened to meet Ludlow Smith in the college and she married him the same year she graduated. But the marriage didn't last too long and they got divorced in 1934. During her student days at the college she took active participation in theatre arts and she even appeared in 2 theatrical productions after her senior year in Baltimore, MD. Then she moved to New York and began training as an actor. She got her first break in theater in her first New York Production "The Big Pond". But that didn't go well and she was discontinued from the show only after one showing. But there was no dearth of work for her and she regularly worked in Broadway shows.

The turning point in her life came when she did a Broadway show in 1932 called "The Warrior's Husband" in which her performance was greatly appreciated and thus led her to many screen tests. She eventually ended up getting a role in the film "A Bill of Divorcement" released in 1932. She won rave reviews for her role in the film and there was no looking back for her after that. Many production houses lined up at her home to cast them in their movies. She had an excellent run of movies in 1930's which included her first Academy Award winning movie "Morning Glory" in 1933 for which she won the award for best actress. What better start can an actor get, being only a year old and winning an Oscar.

In the same year i.e. 1933 she again returned to New York Theater and worked in the Broadway Production "The Lake". The show didn't do many wonders to her career in fact the show was rejected by both the audience and the critics. She returned to Hollywood again in 1935 but with little success. Until the year 1938 she only had two successes, one in "Alice Adams" released in 1935 and other in "Stage Door" released in 1937, which also gave her second Oscar nomination. But then this period included more flops than hits so much so that everybody started calling her "box office poison". She was no more an actress in demand and was deemed as a commercial failure, which led her to return to Broadway again. She starred in "The Philadelphia Story" in 1938, which rehabilitated her career again. She gained the film rights of the show and made a movie by the same name and story in 1940 and that was a box office hit and also won her third Oscar nomination. She was back in business one more time. Her next movie was "Woman o f the year", her first with Spencer Tracy. This was just a beginning of the long association they had there after which lasted for 8 more movies and twenty-five years of romantic love affair. She was once again nominated for the best actress award for this movie.

She continued to appear in movies in 1940's and 1950's which resulted in her winning seven Oscar nominations and two Oscars awards for best actress for movies "Guess who's coming" and "The Lion in Winter". She also worked in Shakespeare plays from 1955 to 1960. In 1970's she started making television movies and also appeared in several of them. She even won an Emmy for her role "Among the Ruins" in 1975 with Laurence Olivier. She was befittingly awarded with Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. She won another Oscar Award for best actress for her role in "On Golden Pond" released in 1982. Her last film was "Love Affair" in 1994 in which she had a guest appearance. Although she was romantically linked with many men but she didn't marry any of them. The only longest romance was with Spencer Tracy, which Hepburn admitted. Hepburn became less and less social in her last years of life and she remained home mostly. Katharine Hepburn passed away on June 29, 2003 at her home giving the world glorious 96 years she lived.

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Tip For Getting Into Show Business

Many people have the dream of breaking into Show Business one day in their life. While many have the inborn talent to make it big some may have to work hard to polish it. But irrespective of whatever everybody has to plan and take a right approach to get a break in Showbiz. But remember success doesn't come overnight; you have to work hard and even harder to make it big in the Show business. So the first lesson to learn is stay away from agents who promise you to make a big star overnight.

The first and foremost thing to know before entering the Show Business is that you should analyze yourself whether you have it in you to break into Show Business. Somebody can teach you acting but cannot make you an actor unless you have it in you called the desire. Question yourself whether you will be able face the challenges like different work environment, different style of living, new people, new places and many more that might come in your way and the tough competition ahead. A lot depends on how flexible and adaptable you are. If you have a rigid personality then forget about getting a break as this industry demands you to work with people having different kinds of personalities and the possibility of differences creeping in cannot be ruled out.

Once you analyze yourself and you are confident you must be willing to pack your bags and get started. But a piece of advise here, do not quit your job or even if you quit your job to move to a different place keep working part time to keep yourself financially supported. Do not wait until the time you are broke. Many big actors kept working until they made it big. Find a job which is flexible and doesn't come in the way of your auditions or plan things in such a way that you get to attend at least one audition a day.

Talking about auditions, do not go to the auditions unprepared. Best thing to do is join some classes which offer training in whatever area of Showbiz you want to get into. One of the benefits of joining the classes is that they will help you polish your skills according to the needs of the market you are intending to work in. Further they will help you market yourself better by making your resume work to the modern day requirements. The marketing part is important because you cannot do anything with all the talent you have unless you know how to market your talent and skills. You should be prepared for the interviews and also to give confident answers to the questions. Attend workshops organized by many artists. Be prepared to meet new people and socialize with the people who are in this business. Social networking is very important in this industry for the people to take note of your talents. Make it a point to attend events related to what you are pursuing.

The best thing to break into Show Business is to start with local market and then move to the big market. So find a good agent who knows the local market very well. Do not get into the trap of fraudulent agents. Good agents never ask for money upfront instead they work on commission i.e. they get money only when you are hired and start earning. You should research the market well to find a good agent if possible try to audit the agent and call his/her previous customers. Make a good portfolio and have some good photographs in it. It is important that you style you hair according to the demands of the market you will be going to work, so spend your money on getting a good hair stylist. A person who gets all these things right and with a right attitude would have nobody stopping him/her on the way to making it big in Show Business.

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How To Write Your First Screenplay

Introduction to the story, characters, location and time frame should usually be the start of the screenplay. Setup is an important part as the audiences have knowledge about the movie or the performance. It's better to start with a picture rather than an unknown voice on a blank screen as that will be good to absorb the audience into the story. The image can be of anyone, either that of the actor who plays the central role, or any place like his hometown, whatever conveys the theme? Like in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a snake is shown crawling which later gets killed by Potter in order to save himself and the students.

Starting with characters interaction is also a good idea as the audience concentrate on them for a while to decide whether they want to pursue them or not and also keep them wondering about the plot of the story. But it's very important that whatever is portrayed in the first few scenes or the first ten minutes should be directly related to the story. If any irrelevant stuff is being displayed it will simply confuse the audience and can also make them lose interest.

After gaining audience's interest the next ten pages should explain about the unfolding of the story and at the same time holding the suspense of the story. Most of the characters can be introduced, environment can be created, past events can be enacted and the villain can also be introduced but that isn't a must. To build the suspense the villain can be pictured as a good guy but his reality comes to light after a bad incident or when he caught red handed by another character. But this shouldn't take long to test the patience of the viewers.

Next is the catalyst or the inciting incident which creates a twist in the movie. The normal flow of the story should be disrupted. The audience should be kept on their toes so as to retain their interest in the story. Questions like what do the characters want and what is obstructing them should be answered here. After these questions are answered the next question will be very important, that whether the evil-doer will win in his plan. Until this question isn't answered the audience waits for something to happen, they wait for some action or they wait for the climax of the movie. If the antagonist doesn't win the story will have a happy ending and the characters will live happily ever after. But if he does win, then the story will have a tragic end and sometimes will result in the death of the main character. This is known as the first act of the movie.

The catalyst or the inciting incident can be depicted as small scenes which when linked creates a mystery or with the receiving of vital information by some character or as a clash between the good and the bad characters. In the movie "Disturbia" the hero watches reports on the television about missing girls and were later found murdered. In another scene, the hero hears a scream of a girl from his neighbor's house, who is also the antagonist of the movie.

Plot point one is the climax of the movie. It occurs after the first act. They are usually meant to surprise the audience with something unexpected with the occurrence of a pivotal event. The main lead takes a risk and faces his opponent. And if it's a happy ending kind of a movie, the main lead gains victory over the villain by either killing him or making him learn a lesson. And if the story is supposed to have a sad ending, the villain gets away by causing harm to the good character. The last page should give an idea about what the future will be for all the characters and if it's a sequel, it should keep the audience guessing about the future.

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The Story Of Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation owned by media conglomerate Viacom was founded in the year 1912. The founder Adolph Zukor of Famous Players Film Company decided to make feature films that would fulfill the demands of immigrants. By the mid of next year he made five successful films. In the same year Jesse L. Lasky founded Lasky Feature Play Company and hired Cecil B. DeMille for his first movie "The Squaw Man". Both these production companies sought help of Paramount Pictures to release their movies. Paramount Pictures was a new company at that time and was a merger of many small firms by W. W. Hokinson. The idea was appreciated and the new company, Famous Players-Lasky, got a good start. Lasky and his brother-in-law, Goldfish became in charge of the production, along with DeMille. Hiram Abrams was responsible for the distribution where as Zukor made plans for the development of the company. The company soon touched great heights. In 1916, Zukor decided to talk about the merging of the three companies with Las ky and Hodkinson. Public can take guided tour into the Paramount Studios situated in Hollywood, California.

Zukor made the first slogan of the company "Famous Players in Famous Plays". He was the man behind successful actors like Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Wallace Reid and Gloria Swanson. Paramount Pictures were the first to introduce the concept of block booking; this meant that if a particular firm wanted to buy the rights of a particular actor, they were also required to buy the other productions of Paramount Productions for that year. This concept proved to be a huge success and boosted the company's sale.

Under the leadership of Zukor, Paramount had huge success. He was responsible for building number of theaters which had nearly two thousand screens altogether. He also had big investments in radio and in 1926 he gained control over the Balaban & Katz chain. Barney Balaban became the president and Sam Katz handled the Paramount Publix theater chain. The company's name, Famous Players-Lasky was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation, in 1927. Due to the success of Publix theater chain the name was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation in 1930.

By 1932 Zukon left all his old partners behind as the company was facing bankruptcy due to the enormous expansion projects. A bank reorganization team, consisting of Otto Kahn and John Hertz took over the company but kept Zukon in the company. After dealing with bankruptcy, the company was named Paramount Pictures, Inc. and Barney Balaban became the chairman. Many actors and singers were roped in and on a yearly basis; the company was producing nearly seventy movies a year. They also tried their hand at cartoon and the two characters, Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop became an instant hit.

The government was having problems with the block booking, so the company decided to end it in 1940, after which the company's production went down to twenty movies a year. While the company was making an effort to attract audience during the World War II, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department reopened the case, U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures and the Supreme Court ordered the split of the company into two. Due to the loss of theater chains, the position of Paramount Pictures was very unstable and the company was sold to Gulf and Western Industries.

Paramount collaborated with Universal Studios to form Cinema International Corporation in 1970. They began producing for television. After the realease of movies "Grease" and "Saturday Night Fever", the interest in movies were back again. Paramount Pictures began making albums when they purchased rights for Paramount Records. Cinema International Corporation became United International Pictures, in 1981, which was renamed as Paramount Communications in 1989. Paramount became a prominent name in Hollywood once again and gave tough competition to its rivals. Some survived by moving to another place like Warner Bros. and some closed down like for instance RKO.

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The Story of MGM Studios

Although MGM was originally found in 1915 as Triangle Pictures located in Culver City which was 7 miles south west of Hollywood. Thomas Ince, D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett then owned the Studio. Samuel Goldwyn then acquired the studio in 1918 and the name was changed to Goldwyn Studios. It is then when it got its Leo the Lion logo. It merged with Metro Pictures and Mayer Pictures in 1924 and the studio went onto become the greatest studio in the history of Hollywood by the name Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) on April 16, 1924. The inauguration took place with a grand ceremony attended by Former President both President Calvin Coolidge and famous performer Will Rogers. This is how the legendary MGM Studios was born.

MGM became the powerhouse of cinema pretty soon and was renowned for its lavish sets, stylish films and unmatched array of Film stars in their productions. It was a dream for many new actors to work for MGM. Within a year of its formation MGM took over Universal Studios as the biggest producer of movies in the year 1925 and retained this distinction for next quarter of the century. The studio also inherited the classic silent movie Ben-Hur that was under production when the studio was formed. The movie was the most expensive silent movie ever made with the cost of production of over $5 million. The movie was also a blockbuster hit.

The Studio was city in itself having its own police, fire, telegraph and post departments. It had everything that a city has so that a complete movie can be shot inside the studio without ever going to different places. With the advent of talkies in the late twenties the Studio attracted best of the talent of that era with big names like Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor etc. the list goes on.

During the peak years MGM churned as many as fifty films a year and it has as many as five thousand employees. The studio once bragged that there are more stars in MGM than sky. The studio acquired one more building for administration in 1938, which was named after Irving Thalberg who was the head of production. Then Louis B. Mayer took over the reins until 1951 when he lost power to Dore Schary. The golden age of the studio was from its inception to the Second World War during which it gave memorable movies like 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Gone with the wind', 'The Tarzan Adventures', 'The Thinman Series' and many Marx Brothers comedies. 'Gone with the wind' is still the highest earning movie till date if you adjust for inflation. MGM movies created many more records with Ben-Hur made in 1959 bagging 11 Oscars which was a record until recently when it was equaled by 'Titanic' and 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'.

The golden era of MGM ended after the Second World War when it became expensive to produce large number of movies and the when viewers attention was diverting towards the television. The 1950's and 1960's saw one of the worst periods in the history of the studio with company making loses for the first ever time. To offset these loses and to get into the television market slowly they sold the rights of their movie 'The Wizard of Oz' to CBS which made a lot of money back then. But even as the company tried to come out of the financial turmoil it sank further deep each year. The studio was ultimately sold to Edgar Bronfman, Sr., a Canadian Investor. When he too was not able to manage the studio he sold it to Nevada millionaire Kirk Kerkorian who was more interested in it as a real estate property than a studio. He sold the vast collection of Studio's props, furnishings and memorabilia; the lot was used for a huge real estate project.

The company almost stopped producing movies in 1970's and 1980's. The company acquired United Artists in 1981 and in 1986 Ted Turner bought it. It again changed many owners in 1990's. In 2004 there was a cat race to buy MGM with Turner, Sony and many other big companies bidding to acquire it. But the highest bidder proved to be Sony with the support of other firms like Comcast and venture capital bankers Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners. MGM ventured into theatrical distribution in 2006 releasing over fourteen films in the year. The studio also restructured itself and is once again back in business and keeping with the modern day demands by announcing in 2007 that all MGM movies can be downloaded through Apple's iTunes. With the company molding itself to the needs of the digital world we only hope that the company regains its lost reputation once again.

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A Brief History Of Charlie Chaplin

What could be said about this great and prolific actor? An article isn't sufficient to describe the life of this immortal legend. A library of books written on him may still fall short of portraying the life of this never to be forgotten hero of Hollywood who gave innumerable memorable movies to us. Though he rose to fame mostly due to his silent movies but he conveyed so many things that many actors couldn't do through speech. Charles Spencer Chaplin popularly known as Charlie Chaplin was born in Walworth, London, U.K. on April 16, 1889. The people had given him nick names like Charlie, Charlot and The Little Tramp.

Charlie Chaplin was born in the family of entertainers. His parents Charles and Hannah Chaplin were musical entertainers. No wonder why he took to stage so early. He was only five years old when he had to sing a song on his mother's behalf as she became ill. There was no stopping this boy who toured in a musical called "The Eight Lancaster Lads" at the age of eight. The wonder kid continued his marvelous work appearing in "Giddy Ostende" at London's Hippodrome. After that he worked with Fred Karno who had an English Vaudeville Troupe until the age of twenty-four. The troupe also brought him to New York in 1921 at the age of twenty one. He got his first break in December 1913 with Mack Sennet of Keystone. He moved to Hollywood, California the every next month to begin his long carrier both as actor and director. Charlie Chaplin's first movie was "Making a Living" which released in February 1914. He acted and directed about thirty-five films with Keytone before moving to Essanay in 1915 where he did another fou rteen films. Then he signed up with Mutual in 1916 and did another 12 films. He worked with Mutual until 1917. Then again next year he joined First National, which was later, acquired by Warner Bros. After a year i.e. in the year 1919 Charlie Chaplin formed United Artists collaborating with Mary Pickford, D.W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks. Then he gave his first ever full-length movie "The Kid" in 1921 produced under the banner of United Artists which was directed by him.

Charles Chaplin won a special award in 1929 Oscar Awards for his excellence in Writing, Producing, Directing and Acting for the movie "The Circus" which was released in 1928. Charlie Chaplin has the premiere of his 1931 movie "City Lights" in London where he stayed until 1932 and then returned to U.S. Chaplin's next movie was five years called "Modern Times which was released in 1936. The movie was one of the biggest all time hits. He made another movie after four years by name "The Great Dictator" in 1940 in which he portrayed as Hitler, which was criticized by many. But the film created a stir at the box office and also won many awards. He made Monsieur Verdouz in 1947 and released a talkie in 1952 called "Limelight" which is still remembered as his best talkie.

Chaplin had his share of controversies too. The U.S. Authorities accused him of spreading communism through his movies. After being devastated by these allegations he left for Switzerland. While being outside U.S. he produced two more films "A King in New York" in 1957 and his last film "A Countess from Hong Kong" in 1967. It saw a bad end to this wonderful artist's works when it flopped on the box office, which was the only failure that the great actor had in his professional career. He tried his hands at new scores in 1969 including "The Kid" and "The Circus". Academy Award honored him for his contribution to the film industry in 1972. Queen Elizabeth II knighted Charlie Chaplin in 1975. Charlie Chaplin ascended to peace on Christmas Day of 1977 while in his sleep leaving an era of artistic brilliance behind him and cherished memories to the avid viewers of his movies.

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Choosing The Right Agent?

You may have the talent and skills to make it big in the show business but the attempts to break into the industry are futile without an agent and to be precise a right agent. A good agent is critical to the success of your efforts to get into show business. There are many agents who advertize to get candidates, some look out for them on the roads and malls promising a bright future to the prospective actors. But beware of these agents. Reputed agents never advertize to get actors. They already have a bee-line at their door and thus would never be required to advertize, their hands are always full with aspiring actors willing to get a break in this fantastic industry.

But before working with an agent question yourself what you are looking for in an agent. Decide whether you want a union or a non-union agent. Also important is to do a self check of your desires, your talents and decide what type of agent you need at this juncture of your career. It is well understood fact that though not impossible but actors seldom sticks with one agent during their career. Also many a times agents provide only extra work to the aspiring actors instead of principal roles due to their limited reach to the well known directors. Also look out to see if the agent has a big list of names or only few. The fewer the clients he may have the lesser the demand or popularity of that agent.

But how do you find a good agent? Locating a good agent is not so easy. While few out of business may advertize but the fact is majority of the agents do not advertize and are thus very difficult to locate even on yellow or white pages and the fact is good agents do not need to advertize. One of the legitimate places to find a right talent agent is actingland.com which is a very popular website for online acting community where you can find many talent agents and their contact details. It has the list of all the agents affiliated to Screen Actors Guild and also American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. These agents are also called acting union affiliated agents as they follow the code of conduct putt forth by these two unions and stay away from non-scrupulous practices. All major cities have agents affiliated with these unions which are also called franchised agents. The reason why franchised agents are important to the success of aspiring actors is they put their client’s interest above their own and go that extra mile to ensure their success. Not only that they also work towards better pay for their actors and help make actors smart decisions.

You can also contact Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to get the names and addresses of their affiliated agents. Once you get a list of talent agents you should start mailing them your resume and headshot copies. If you live or plan to work in a big city you can start out with few at a time and then continue on likewise. One of the other ways to find a good agent is to get noticed by working in plays in your area and never forget to have a copy of your resume and headshot handy when you travel. Also social networking helps a lot in finding a right agent. Attend local events and make friends with other aspirants to broaden your knowledge about the industry and its current affairs. One of the key to finding an agent is to be patient as you may not find a good agent at the first go but in fact it may take several meetings with the agents until you find a right one. Once you find a right agent your problem is nearly half solved.

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