Review-O-Sphere

  To see part 1, click here . Broadway Melody Ballet~Gene Kelly and the MGM Orchestra - Singin' in the Rain The 25th Academy Awards marked the quarter-century anniversary of this ceremony so they decided to provide a couple updates to adapt to changing times. This was the first ceremony to be broadcast on television as well as the first ceremony to be held in New York City and Hollywood simultaneously, a trend that would continue until 1957. How do you host an Academy Awards ceremony on opposite sides of the country simultaneously? It was done using the television to bridge the gap between the parties in the editing booth. The master of ceremonies would speak to the audience directly and then, depending on the award, they would cut to either the New York arena where the host (Fredric March this year) would read off the nominees and winners or cut to the LA arena where that city’s host (Bob Hope) would do the same. Credit where it’s due, this is a pretty innovative way to embrac...

    Prelude March~Victor Young - The Greatest Show on Earth Cecil B. DeMille is one of the most fascinating figures in movie history, whose life spanned the full gamut of the Golden Age of Hollywood. DeMille was born in 1881, early enough that his playwright father was part of the Golden Age of American Theater, being on a first-name basis with Edwin Booth. (For context on why this is a big deal, Edwin Booth was considered the greatest actor of the American theater in the 19th century (though he, ironically, now exists in the historical shadow of his pathetic baby brother, John Wilkes, whose biggest accomplishment in life was shooting someone and then getting set on fire).) As DeMille grew up, he became involved in the theater world, eventually grew bored and joined forces with a couple of other East Coast businessmen to go out West and get involved in those new-fangled movies that everyone was making. DeMille made his directorial debut in The Squaw Man (1914), the movie t...