Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2023 i Cobblestone American History and Current Events for Kids and Children

Patented means applied for and granted the sole right to make, use, and sell an invention for a set time period. A monopoly is exclusive control of the production and sale of a product or a service. Shot means filmed with a motion-picture camera. Today, the word “Hollywood” brings to mind an internationally famous and glamorous film industry. But in the early 1900s, the place that became Hollywood was just a small town in Southern California. It had a population of about 500 people. Fruit trees outnumbered celebrities. So how did an obscure district of Los Angeles become the birthplace of the modern movie industry? The story of motion pictures begins on the other side of the country, in West Orange, New Jersey. Thomas A. Edison had set up his…

Cutthroat is cruel and merciless. A genre is a category of artistic composition marked by a distinctive style. A furrier is someone who deals with animal furs. In the early days of Hollywood, getting a movie studio up and running was challenging. The filmmaking industry was cutthroat. The men who succeeded were tough. Many of them were immigrants, who were willing to work hard and to take risks. They also made the geographic shift from starting out in cities on the East Coast to building major studios in California. Driving Ambition Carl Laemmle immigrated to the United States from Germany as a teenager. In 1906, he started a company that rented films to theater owners. Later, he began creating his own movies. In 1912, his filmmaking company merged with several…

Special effects are the special ingredients that make movies magical. They create scenes that otherwise would be impossible to capture. Consider any of the 31 (and counting) Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. The Avengers transform from civilians into superheroes. They leap from and into moving spaceships. They engage in epic battles against alien armies. Thanks to special effects, those fictional scenes look real. Special effects can be practical or visual. Practical effects are actual objects or elements that filmmakers manipulate or that actors interact with in real time while filming. Many practical effects have been used since the beginning of motion pictures. They include props, models, puppets, makeup, prostheses (artificial features that temporarily change a face or body part), animatronics (lifelike robots), and pyrotechnics (fireworks or explosions). Practical effects can enhance…

Can you solve this crossword puzzle about Hollywood? All the answers can be found in this issue. The solution is on page 49. ACROSS 2. Glamorous actress _____ Monroe’s given name was Norma Jeane Mortenson. 7. In the filmmaking process, the _____ is responsible for all the big decisions. 8. Famous today for the magical theme parks and the television channel that bear his name, Walt _____’s legacy began with animated films. 9. Carl Laemmle became one of the first successful studio owners after he founded _____ Pictures in 1912. 10. Inventors Thomas A. Edison and William Kennedy Laurie Dickson created the _____, the first moving-picture machine. 13. Charlie _____ was one of Hollywood’s first major stars. 14. This character began as a puppet but was completely computer generated by…

Written into scripts and uttered by actors, some lines from movies have been immortalized to stand on their own. In fact, some people may have forgotten that these famous quotes began as movie lines. Here are a few well-known lines from the last century of filmmaking. "What a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” The Jazz Singer, 1927 “After all, tomorrow is another day!” Gone With the Wind, 1939 “Here’s looking at you, kid.” Casablanca, 1942 “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” Sunset Blvd., 1950 “May the Force be with you.” Star Wars, 1977 “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” Cool Hand Luke, 1967 “I’ll be back!” The Terminator, 1984 “You can’t handle the truth!” A Few Good Men, 1992 “With…

Wrapped means finished. Have you ever watched film credits roll up a screen and wondered why it took so many people to make a movie? Here’s a who’s who of people “behind the scenes” of Hollywood. A PRODUCER is the head decision-maker in the filmmaking process. He or she oversees decisions about the film’s script, direction, and budget. After filming is complete, the producer also supervises post-production and distribution of a film. A DIRECTOR is in charge of the creative vision of a film. He or she auditions actors and approves costumes and sets. The director has control over everything from how an actor plays a part to the camera angles. The director also works with the producer, editor, and music composer to complete the movie after filming has wrapped.…

A Few Thousand Stars One cannot blame pedestrians walking along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street for being distracted. Beneath their feet, the sidewalks are full of stars honoring their favorite entertainers. The idea for the Walk of Fame originated in 1953 with E.M. Stuart. As the president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, he hoped to preserve the “glamour and excitement” of the city’s major industry. The first of eight stars was placed in the walk in 1960. Almost a decade passed before more stars were added. Today, about 30 stars are added each year, and more than 2,700 stars line the sidewalks. Stars are awarded in six categories: motion pictures, recording, live theatre/performance, radio, sports entertainment, and television. A Famous Sign The famous “Hollywood” sign is easily visible high…

The Oregon Trail The Wright Brothers Frederick Douglass Draw a picture or write a poem or a short essay that connects to one of the above COBBLESTONE themes on which we currently are working. All contributions must be your original work. Include a note from a parent or a legal guardian clearly stating: “This is my child’s original work, and COBBLESTONE has permission to publish it with my child’s name, age, and hometown, in print and online.” We will include as many as we can in an upcoming issue. Mail your submission to the address shown here, or email it to cobblestone@cricketmedia.com.…

When people around the world hear the word “Hollywood,” they think of amazing movies and talented stars. But some of the industry’s famous performers weren’t human. This month’s mystery hero may be the best known animal to appear in a movie during Hollywood’s Golden Age. (Yes, animals can be heroes, too!) Our hero was a black terrier named Terry. Her owner and trainer, Carl Spitz, was quite proud of his small dog’s performing abilities. Over her 11 years in the business, Terry appeared in 23 films. But one specific role in 1939 made her a household name in the United States. In that now-classic movie, Terry’s character is a cheerful and problem-solving canine companion. Our hero shared a lot of screen time with a character named Dorothy. During filming, our…

Monologues are long speeches made by one person. Honky-tonks are cheap, noisy bars or dance halls. Dives are rundown bars or nightclubs. Crude means lacking refinement or taste. People today have a variety of ways to catch a show: radio, movies, television, and personal computers. From the 1880s to the 1920s, however, live stage performances were the most popular forms of entertainment in the United States. Known as vaudeville, the traveling shows featured 10 or more acts and lasted for hours. They offered something for everybody. They included comedy, magic, song and dance, animal tricks, acrobatic acts, and dramatic monologues. The shows also were a training ground for performers who eventually became some of Hollywood’s first stars. Vaudeville’s roots began in variety shows. Variety shows also offered different acts…

Swashbuckling means a sword-wielding adventure. Early motion pictures, with their short stories and their silence, could be enjoyed by almost anyone, anywhere. It didn’t matter what country you lived in or what language you spoke. The physical beauty of early film actors and actresses drew large and adoring fans. As the fictional silent film star in the classic movie Sunset Boulevard (1950) says, “We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces.” Douglas Fairbanks (1883–1939) began acting at age 12 and touring at 15. He reached the Broadway stage in 1902 and broke into films just as Hollywood began its rapid growth. He starred in all-American roles that had a comedic touch. Today, Fairbanks is remembered for his swashbuckling action films such as The Mark of Zorro (1920) and Robin Hood (1922).…

The earliest references to a camera date to ancient Greece. The philosopher Aristotle observed that the sun shining through a pinhole projected a smaller, upside-down image. The concept of the camera obscura, as it came to be known, was described in the 1500s. Camera obscura is Latin for “dark chamber” or “darkened chamber.” Thomas A. Edison’s first studio was a black tarpaper room. It was built on a rotating platform to allow sunlight in through a large hole in the ceiling. The studio was cramped and stuffy. Edison’s employees called it the Black Maria (pronounced “mah-RYE-ah”). In the late 1800s, black police vans used to haul away troublemakers were known as Black Marias. Many well-known silent-screen stars could not get work once talkies became popular in Hollywood. They had heavy…

Nitrocellulose is a cottonlike compound derived from plant starch that has been treated with sulfuric and nitric acids and is used in the making of explosives. Decomposed means broke down. Spontaneously combust means burst into flames without an outside heat source. When George Eastman died in 1932, he left his 50-room home in Rochester, New York, to the University of Rochester. But the school found the estate too large to use effectively. So a decade later, when the state of New York decided to create a museum of photography in Eastman’s memory, the university donated the mansion and grounds to house it. Today, it seems fitting that the estate of one of the earliest pioneers in photography has become famous as the George Eastman Museum. It holds several million objects…