Uncle Carl Laemmle/Had a very large family
When most people today say “Universal Studios” they probably mean the theme parks in Florida, California, and possibly facilities in Spain, Japan and Singapore. Before the theme parks, however, Universal Studios was a power in the motion picture for more than a century. At the beginning of the 20th century, German immigrant Carl Laemmle decided to get out of the dry goods business and buy up the nickelodeons that were attracting increasing audiences by showing the first motion pictures. When Thomas Edison, inventor of the motion picture, attempted to collect fees from exhibitors for each picture that they showed, Laemmle resolved to produce pictures himself, and in 1912 founded the Universal Film Manufacturing Company with seven partners.
Month: September 2015
Times Square
From Great Kill to Center of the Universe
Times Square, the five-block section of central Manhattan in which Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue, calls itself “the crossroads of New York” and “the center of the universe”. It is clearly the most-visited tourist attraction in the United States and perhaps in the world; on average, half a million people pass through Times Square every day, and on special occasions like V-J day at the end of World War II or the changing of the millennium on New Year’s Eve in 1999 as many as two million people have filled the two connected triangles that form Times Square.
Boston Harbor
From the Pilgrims to the Tea Party
The city of Boston became America’s first metropolis and one of the country’s chief ports because of its natural harbor, which was discovered in 1614 by Captain John Smith. Smith, who was in charge of the first English settlements in Virginia and is linked in legend and literature today to the Indian princess Pocohontas, also discovered the Cape Ann and the Charles River, and published a map in 1616 that was the first to use the term “New England”.