Showing posts with label producer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label producer. Show all posts

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Salieri’s leaf - Fahrid Murray Abraham

Manufacturer of underwear "Fruit of the Loom" is recognizable by its trademark - familiar logo with the apple, leaves, green grapes, currants, and purple grapes.

For their first television ad, in 1975, they had hired actors who were costumed as huge fruits.
 



Not many people know that Fahrid Murray Abraham, winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role of Antonio Salieri in Miloš Forman’s “Amadeus”, starred as the "Leaf" in the original lineup of their advertisement.

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Friday, September 16, 2011

Friendly producer - Fred W. Friendly

As soon as he became the president of CBS News, Fred W. Friendly (1915-1998) decided to get rid of his main opponent, journalist Don Hewitt (1922-2009) who was an executive producer of the CBS Evening News.

Fred invited Don into his office and told him:

Buddy, the Evening News are no longer for a man of your caliber. I am removing you from the position of executive producer but I intend to form a special unit with a camera crew, tape editors and whenever there’s a big story in the world, you will be able you to go on the scene and do a report.

Hewitt was so exited with this decision and he immediately went to visit his friend CBS Vice President Bill Leonard to share with him the “good” news. When he told him about it, Bill Leonard said:

Why are you so happy Don? You just got fired!

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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Interrupted kiss – Alfred Hitchcock

At the time when Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) was making  the movie "Notorious", and that was in 1946, the Motion Picture Production Code (in other words - censorship), popularly known as Hays Code (after Hollywood's chief censor of the time, Will H. Hays) prohibited scenes of a kiss longer than three seconds.

However, Hitchcock wanted for the kissing scene of the main characters in this film, actress Ingrid Bergman and actor Cary Grant, to go into the history as the most beautiful movie kiss, and also the longest movie kiss, so he decided to extend that kiss with any means possible.

Finally, cunning Hitchcock edited that kiss like this: Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman are kissing for three seconds, then they are saying something to each other for a few seconds, then they are kissing again for three seconds, then they break away for just a second, then kissing again for three seconds, then they are whispering something to each other on the ear, and then again kissing for three seconds, and so on…

Their kiss lasted for two-and-a-half minutes, and it is perhaps the most intimate and erotic movie kiss ever.


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Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Fear – Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes (1905-1976), famous American film producer and aviator, was known for his fear of infection and bacteria. That fear separated him from people, and because of it, he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1958.

From then and on, Hughes lived in a little house, in the desert near Las Vegas. His only friends were Mormons who lived next door and whose job was to protect him from infections.

Fearing that in his house were too many bacteria (curious tourists were constantly trying to have a look at that place), Howard Hughes began to move from one hotel to another. He had a habit to request a new room late at night, and in some hotels, several times in one night. The first thing he always did when he entered the hotel room was sealing doors and windows with plastic. He fed almost exclusively with chocolates.

When the owner of Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas, where Hughes lived in 1966, asked him to leave the hotel and to avoid further conflicts, Hughes bought it.

The hotel's eighth floor became the nerve center of his empire and the ninth-floor penthouse became Hughes' personal residence.
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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Blue Blood – Alexander Korda

Alexander Korda (1893-1956), renowned British director and producer of Hungarian-Jewish origin, was knighted in 1942 because of his contribution to British cinema.

Shortly after that, Korda, who was a passionate gambler, won $10,000 playing poker with the famous American film producer Samuel Goldwyn. The next day Goldwyn sent a check to Korda, written in red ink, and a letter in which he wrote:

- Bloodsucker, I signed this check with my own blood!

Shortly afterwards, Korda played again poker with Goldwyn. This time the British director lost approximately the same amount of money that he previously won. The next day he sent a check to Goldwyn written with ordinary, blue ink, with a note:

"Bloodsucker, this check is signed in my blood to. Knight Korda.”
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