Spring must be on its way! When I arrived at work this morning the snow had melted to reveal a carpet of sweet Winter aconites! Thanks to the Museum Photographer for recording the first sign of spring 2010 at George Eastman House.
George Eastman and Kodak, the company he founded, have had a long history with motion pictures as well as the Academy Awards®.
In this 1928 publicity photo, George Eastman, left, and Thomas Edison assume their positions in motion picture history — Eastman with his film and Edison with his camera. This photo hangs in the George Eastman Green Room at Kodak Theatre.
Eastman is known to the world as the father of popular photography, yet he is also the father of motion picture film. Eastman and his Kodak engineers adapted the film from the 1888 Kodak camera for Thomas Edison’s movie machines, thus giving birth to the motion picture industry. Folklore has it, when Edison received the first film sample from Eastman, he shouted to his workers, “Gentlemen, now we have it. Work like hell!”
George Eastman at age 36, when he began collaborating with Thomas Edison on motion pictures.
And Kodak film continued to be perfected. The original film was made on glass tables and had a maximum length of 200 feet. In 1902, Eastman’s engineers created a machine that made it possible to manufacture continuous lengths of film — and movies, in their current form, were born.
The late 1920s were important years for Kodak’s involvement in the entertainment industry. As Hollywood was adding sound to movies, Eastman was already demonstrating motion picture film in full color. And, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was being established, Kodak was establishing its own operations in Hollywood.
Eastman was named an honorary member of the Academy in 1930 in recognition of his “fundamental contributions to the arts and sciences of the motion picture.” To this day, Eastman and Edison are the only two people ever named honorary members of the Academy.
Also in 1930, Eastman spoke before the Society of Motion Picture Engineers – the only recording in existence of Eastman’s voice. In that speech he said, “During the past 50 years I have witnessed with the greatest interest and satisfaction the growth of the motion picture industry. Of recent years that industry has demanded to an increasing extent the application of scientific and technical knowledge and it will be far more dependent upon the work of the engineers in the future as it has in the past.”
Through the years, working with the entertainment industry, Kodak innovations in sound, color, and quality have earned numerous Oscars®, and have made it possible to tell more creative and compelling stories in motion. And from the beginning, the vast majority of motion pictures presented with Oscars® have been made on Kodak film .
George Eastman received his first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1961. A second was unveiled in 2002 in front of Kodak Theatre.
There are two stars honoring George Eastman on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The first was unveiled in 1961, bearing a symbol of a movie camera, located on Hollywood Boulevard near the intersection of Highland Avenue. A second was installed in 2002, facing the entrance to the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards® where the best motion pictures are honored — and named for the company Eastman founded and the entertainment-imaging legacy he created.
Inside the Kodak Theatre you will find the George Eastman Green Room, in which hangs a large portrait of Eastman alongside Edison at the Kodacolor Party of 1928, on the Eastman estate in Rochester, N.Y. In the famous publicity pose, the two men assume their place in history: Eastman with his motion picture film and Edison with a motion picture camera. This was their last public appearance together, with Edison passing two years later and Eastman within four years.
At the Kodacolor party, Eastman introduced amateur color motion pictures to the world. He invited national press and Hollywood executives to his home for the product launch. After dinner, he showed his guests themselves in moving color, for the first time in their lives. Eastman had his guests filmed earlier in the day and rushed the processing, his announcement to be that much more dramatic. He made headlines around the world. A marketing genius and innovator till the end …
’Tis the season for deciding your Oscar party fashions for the red carpet … not only in Hollywood but at the 14th annual party celebrating the Academy Awards® this Sunday, March 7, at George Eastman House — the home of the father of motion picture film.
To create this dramatic event, the staff teams with the Eastman Young Professionals, a group of volunteers who assist on all levels, from decorations to the silent auction. This popular party is the Eastman House’s largest annual fundraiser.
While not a black-tie affair, the event is a night for toasting the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. “Dress to Impress” is the Eastman House-recommended attire for the Academy Awards® party.
Well, you may ask, what does that mean exactly?
John Vander Brook, a stylist from Adrian Jules Custom Clothiers, helps us explain.
“It’s a night of nights and it’s all about you,” he said. “The Oscars®! When you Dress to Impress, anticipate everyone at this event is going to be doing the same. Pull out all the stops — the glamour, flair, and sophistication.”
Vander Brook will be joined at the Eastman House by two fellow Adrian Jules stylists as the evening’s Red Carpet Hosts, discussing fashions with the guests.
In defining “Dress to Impress,” Vander Brook noted the gentlemen should “think classic elegance,” and named Clark Gable, Cary Grant, and The Rat Pack.
For the women, he referenced Sophia Lauren and Natalie Wood, noting, “Ladies, it’s all about the drama … you will speak millions without saying a word, if you let your elegance do the talking.”
At past Eastman House Oscar® parties, the fashions has been as varied as cocktail dresses to gowns and sport coats to tuxedos.
“This is not an evening to be taken lightly,” Vander Brook said. “It only comes once a year and you are the star of the show. Timeless elegance is a virtue. Don’t we all like to look timeless?”
For more on the Party, visit academyawardsparty.eastmanhouse.org
To view silent auction items including a hockey stick signed by MVP Olympian Ryan Miller visit the auction online.
Howard Bingham has been the influence of my photography and film making over the last ten years or more. As a child, due to the influence of education from both parents and extended family, I found history and news to be an interest and strength of mine in school. When my father placed me in a shutterbug class at Glendale Community College in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona at the age of 10, I began using the camera as a way of telling historical stories.
Renowned photographer Howard Bingham is a George Eastman House Board of Trustees member.
Howard Bingham, born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1939 where his father was a minister and Pullman car porter for the railroad, moved the family to south central Los Angeles in 1943 in search for a better life. After graduating from Centennial High School in Compton, California in 1956, Bingham attended Compton Junior College, initially as music major, while also showing an interest in photography. Due to substandard grades in a photography courses, Bingham was subsequently forced out of school.
His interest in photography was not over. Bingham’s interest grew once he noticed his neighbors, the Hodsons, were involved in the photographic arts. Bingham states, “I would see many beautiful women going in and out of the house and that’s what really sparked my love for photography.” Bingham soon began working for a weekly community newspaper. In 1962, young Howard met a young boxer around the same age named Cassius Clay, (soon changing his name to Muhammed Ali) while on assignment. Upon their meeting, Bingham took Ali on a tour around Los Angeles, which turned into a lifelong friendship.
With Bingham becoming Ali’s personal photographer, the two traveled around the world supported by great entourages with Bingham documenting Ali’s life successes and failures. The two have been close friends now thirty-eight years. Anyone who knows these two as well as they know themselves would say they were brothers.
As time passed, Bingham’s photographic and film opportunities grew. Howard met Bill Cosby for the first time during the filming of the prime time show I Spy with Ali leading to camera guild as a still photographer in 1969. The guild created opportunities for work on such films as The Candidate, All the Presidents Men, The Electric Horsemen and Ghost Dad and Ali. Bingham also became an essential photographer for magazines as Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated People, Ebony and other international magazines. His work also is recognized by the several years he spent documenting significant people such as the Beatles and many other legends; and events, not to exclude moments in history surrounding the civil rights movement.
Bingham has also published books; Muhammed Ali: A Thirty Year Journey which chronicles Ali’s life and career, and the book Howard Bingham’s Black Panthers, 1968. Bingham is also quite a humanitarian, having a scholarship named after him at the Rochester Institute of Technology for minority photographers as well as a media center soon to be named after him in Watts, California for young people living in south Los Angeles to learn photography.
Although Bingham has obtained the highest of heights within the forty-six years of when he first picked up the camera, he remains the icon and model for countless aspiring photographers and filmmakers worldwide.
At 70, Bingham is still active as being on the board of trustees at Eastman House in Rochester, New York, traveling from coast to coast while simultaneously juggling numerous projects.
No matter what keeps him busy Bingham still manages to accommodate time to leave Los Angeles to go visit his life long best friend Muhammed Ali in Scottsdale, Arizona. Bingham is “The Greatest” and I don’t think Ali would dispute that title.
Next Sunday, as the Best Actress nominees are announced, it is expected Meryl Streep will graciously smile, yet again, as her name is announced.
For her flamboyant portrayal of colorful chef Julia Childs in the film Julie and Julia, she has earned her 16th Oscar nomination. In 2003 she surpassed record-holder Katharine Hepburn – who received 12 nominations – and Streep now extends her reign as the most nominated performer in Academy history with her 16th nod.
Meryl Streep on the Dryden Theatre stage in October 1999, to receive the George Eastman Award. (Photo by Ken A. Huth)
On her crowded mantel of awards, however, is the George Eastman Award, which she was given in October 1999 in front of hundreds at the Dryden Theatre. That cheering crowd included her parents, who traveled to Rochester for the event.
When a staff member noted to her mother, “You must be very proud of Meryl,” her mom smiled and said, “We are proud of all of our children.” It was clear from whom Meryl inherited her graciousness, poise, and “realness.”
Meryl Streep, with her mother at her side, talks with then-Kodak CEO George Fisher, at a dinner in her honor before the award ceremony. (Photo by Ken A. Huth)
The George Eastman Award has been given by the Museum since 1955, for distinguished contribution to the art of film. A long list of past George Eastman Award honorees include Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, Lillian Gish, Frank Capra, Joan Crawford, Jimmy Stewart, Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck (who was given his award by surprise guest Audrey Hepburn), and Martin Scorsese.
While at Eastman House, Meryl Streep was kind and fun and humble – the same persona that comes through when she takes part in interviews and shares sheer delight during acceptance speeches.
The Eastman House screened a video tribute, featuring highlights from her film career, prior to the award ceremony. Taking the stage immediately following, the then 50-year-old Streep told the audience, laughingly, “Gee, it was so nice to watch myself age before your eyes on a big screen.”
During the visit she toured the motion picture vaults and witnessed some of the film-preservation work conducted on site.
Meryl Streep talks with the media during a a press conference at Eastman House. (Photo by Ken A. Huth)
“We are at risk of losing our cultural history and also our documentary history,” Streep said, during a press conference the next day at the Museum. “Eastman House is in a pre-eminent position to be in the vanguard. I don’t think other museums have caught up to the idea that that’s what’s coming. There must be this care given, to preserving film of all kinds.”
After viewing 1945 film footage of the liberation movement of Auschwitz preserved in the Eastman House archive, Streep noted, “This was an amazing document. But we live in a little window of time where that document is verifiable. Next century, somebody might say, ‘Well, they put that together. That’s not true. They can do anything to that film.’
“And so the people who can really verify and give credibility to visual work will be these ‘DNA experts’ of the future,” Streep continued. “And they’re all working and being trained here at Eastman House.”