Movie fans will notice that the signage throughout the museum can be sparse and overly basic-almost as if everything has been written as an introduction to film history rather than a deep dive for amateur scholars. In this room, you can see that first 1929 Oscar for Sunrise, the statue handed to Sidney Poitier when he broke the Best Actor color barrier for Lilies of the Field (1963), and Harold Russell's acting award for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), one of two Oscars he took home that night. Historic awards statuettes are collected in Stories of Cinema-and it's a top-flight collection. With equal parts wonder and shame, curators address both the magic and the misery the industry has wrought-and that makes for a riveting visit. Exhibits don't shy from either side of the industry's split personality of craft and callousness. The true history of Hollywood is dramatic and fantastical, to be sure-but the place also has an ugly side that's usually kept hidden.īut not at this museum. So to review: The studio's mistake caused the accident and then the studio distributed footage of the accident to sell movie tickets. Yet the Fox studio decided not to waste the footage, including images of the accident and even the devastated reactions of Locklear's costar, Viola Dana, in the final film. Consequently, Locklear failed to pull out of a dive and perished in a fiery crash. In August 1920, while filming the final stunt of The Skywayman during a night shoot, Locklear became disoriented at his controls, thanks to a careless error made by the lighting crew. Ormer Locklear was a dashing daredevil aviator who parlayed his piloting skills into a movie career. The museum is the international tourist attraction dedicated to the movies that Los Angeles has always craved but never had-until now.ĭeMille Field (pictured above), where Piano's opus now stands, was the site of an infamous accident in film history. The former May Company store has been painstakingly augmented and converted into a cutting-edge gathering place to learn about film history and methods, see precious artifacts, and watch screenings of material both popular and rare. The Academy hollowed out the store, stripped it to its prewar bones, and filled it with 250,000 square feet of lighting-controlled gallery space. The location: a stately Los Angeles department store, built five stories tall in the Streamline Moderne style in 1939, a year considered by many the apotheosis in American film. It took almost a century, but the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures finally arrived in 2021. The organization is central to a long tradition of collaboration for the sake of an industry.įounded in 1927, at the tail end of the silent era, the Academy advocated for a motion picture museum right from the start, around the same time the group started handing out awards (with little fanfare at first). Within Hollywood's mighty film business, though, the Academy is Mount Olympus, where more than 10,000 members, all gods of moviemaking, are invited to gather so they may preserve, honor, and share the heritage of motion pictures throughout the world. Photos by Iwan Baan/©Iwan Baan Studios, Courtesy Academy Museum FoundationĪcademy Museum of Motion Pictures.To most people, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is known, if it's known at all, as the stuffy group behind the Oscars. Extensive supports and birdcage scaffolding held the structure in place until the final piece of glass was locked together like the keystone of an arch.Īcademy Museum of Motion Pictures. Perched atop the sphere, a glass-enclosed terrace and exhibition space invites the public to enjoy spectacular panoramic views, providing a unique and memorable visitor experience. Tethered to the museum by three bridges, a 60,000 sqft precast concrete and glass sphere houses the state-of-the-art, 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater that floats above an active plaza on a series of base isolator piers. The interior of the building was retrofitted, and a glass curtain wall replaced the north façade of the Saban Building. Keeping the original character of the former department store’s Wilshire façade, the team sourced new limestone from where the original stone was quarried, as well as rehabilitated the black granite, gold tile and bronze doors. The team restored and transformed the historical 1939 May Company Building, renamed the Saban Building, which encompasses more than 50,000 sqft of gallery and exhibition space, event venues, restaurant and retail space, education labs, offices, conservation facilities, and the 300 seat Ted Mann Theater. Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Gensler, The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is the world’s premier institution dedicated to the art and science of filmmaking.
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