The Silver Screen &
The Boob Tube
By LIZ GOFF & RICHARD
FASANELLA
Excerpt from the
Queens Tribune online edition article:
However, to truly understand the
film industry means looking at early American cinema as it was produced in New
York City. One of the most significant pioneering studios was Lasky and
Zukor’s Famous Players Film Company which officially opened its studios in
September of 1920 at Pierce and Sixth Streets, now known as 35th Street and 35th
Avenue in Astoria. With the creation of these studios, the area quickly became
the movie-making capital of the East Coast.
Famous Players-Lasky was formed
when Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players Film Company merged with the Jesse Lasky
Feature Play Company. By 1920, the company had studios across the country with
the Astoria location at the center of its film production projects.
Indeed, the studio would thrive
in its Queens location. Many east coast writers and producers reacted negatively
to the mass exodus that many film executives made to Hollywood.
Famous stars from the silent
movie era like Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson found Astoria to be a
perfect haven from the overbearing Hollywood lifestyle.
Later, the studios proved to be a
convenient location for Broadway writers and actors who wanted to moonlight in
the motion picture industry.
After two decades of making
movies, then 30 years of turning out instructional films as the U.S. Army
Pictorial Center (1942-72), the buildings fell into disuse and were badly
vandalized until a coalition of Queens officials and motion-picture labor unions
organized a restoration project in 1976.
Since reverting back to the City
and becoming a studio again, "The Glass Menagerie," Woody Allen’s
"Radio Days," a TV version of "Death of a Salesman" with
Dustin Hoffman and the "Cosby Show" are among the productions that
have gone before the cameras.
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