Samuel Goldwyn Theater

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The Samuel Goldwyn Theater is a movie theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills , California / USA. It is integrated into the seven-story main building of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is used all year round for various AMPAS events, public screenings and film premieres, and it can also be rented by external parties. Best known, however, is the traditional annual live television broadcast of the Oscar nominations in January (the Academy Awards ceremony is held at the Dolby Theater - until February 2012 called the Kodak Theater). The cinema is named after the film producer Samuel Goldwyn .

Design and execution

The building and integrated cinema was constructed in 1975 by Buckeye Construction Company, Inc. of Los Angeles. The architect was Maxwell Starkman (1921-2004), who himself lived in Beverly Hills ; he later designed, among other things, the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The acoustic planning comes from Paul S. Veneklasen ( Veneklasen Associates ). Former technical director of the sound department at Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Gordon Sawyer , member of the AMPAS science and technology committee , acted as technical advisor . The consultants for the interior design of the movie theater were the production designer Robert "Bob" Boyle and his colleague, the set designer Walter Scott (Dale Mickelson and Associates from Los Angeles designed the interior of the AMPAS main building).

Furnishing

The Samuel Goldwyn Theater auditorium is 28.5 meters (93.5 feet ) wide and 37.8 meters (124 feet) deep. It offers 1012 seats, the arrangement of which in the room has been calculated to ensure optimal acoustics and visibility. The seating, like the floor covering and the projection wall curtain, is held in a wine-red color.

At the suggestion of the acoustician, no ceiling was put in over the auditorium. Instead, the space, which in principle extends to the roof structure of the building, is demarcated at the top by black sheets of cloth suspended horizontally below the roof. Sound-absorbing elements are attached between these fabric sheets and the roof structure (which is also painted black on the inside). Further soundproofing elements are attached to the walls. These measures result in a very high sound fidelity of the presentations.

The stage in front of the projection screen is just under 20 meters (65 feet) wide and just under 5 meters (16 feet) deep. Orchestras can also be placed, for example for live background music to silent films . The stage is flanked left and right by a monumental, gold-colored Oscar statue on black plinths.

The projection screen is curved backwards towards the center to enable certain three-dimensional film projection techniques. It has a maximum width of about 16.5 meters (54 feet) and a height of 6.70 meters (22 feet). All formats of the Oscar-winning films from the 1920s onwards can be shown.

The projection and sound reproduction technology has always been kept up to date from the beginning (today digital 3D ). This is why AMPAS describes the cinema as “world-class theater”.

Film premieres

The Samuel Goldwyn Theater premiered the following films: Raju Chacha (2000), Gladiator (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001), AI - Artificial Intelligence (2001), Moulin Rouge (2001 ), Narc (2002), Wimbledon (2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), 127 Hours (2010), The Descendants (US premiere, 2011).

literature

  • Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: building dedication, December 1975, Beverly Hills, California. Beverly Hills 1975.
  • Robert Osborne : 80 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards . Abbeville Press, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-7892-0992-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Mirisch : I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History . The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2008, ISBN 0-299-22640-9 , Chapter 20: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , here p. 178 (parts of it can be viewed in digital form at Google Books). Mirisch was President of AMPAS at the time.
  2. ^ Bob Thomas / Associated Press: Oscars Have New Seven-Story Tower . In: Sarasota Journal, September 23, 1975 ( digitized from Google news ) and almost identical in other newspapers.
  3. ^ The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Formally Opens Its Magnificent New Headquarters . In: American Cinematographer, vol. 57, February 1976.
  4. ↑ "Raju Chacha" Star Struck in Hollywood ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / smashits.com
  5. ↑ Seeing Stars: Hollywood Landmarks: The Academy buildings
  6. ↑ World Premiere of Narc Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Beverly Hills, CA 12/17/02 , imagecollect.com
  7. ^ World Premiere of "Wimbledon" , seeing-stars.com, September 13, 2004
  8. ↑ [1]
  9. ↑ Film Buzzscene: '127 Hours' Red Carpet Premiere: James Franco, Danny Boyle, Juliette Lewis & More - Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Hollywood ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , November 4, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.buzzinefilm.com
  10. ↑ 'The Descendants' Premiere Red Carpet Arrivals , hollywoodreporter.com, November 16, 2011
  11. ^ Bibliographical data in the OCLC

Coordinates: 34 ° 4 '2.6 "  N , 118 ° 23' 14.4"  W.