» On 3/19/2023 08:55:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
Citroën & the Eiffel Tower. 

André Citroën established his automobile company in 1919, one year after World War I, and promoted it tirelessly. He hired an airplane in 1922 to write 'Citroën' in the Paris skies. Three years later, he rented three sides of the Eiffel Tower and partnered with Fernand Jacopozzi to create a spectacular light show advertising his company, which was based at a factory just along the Seine. This colorful illumination was part of the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts, which had turned Paris into a vast and stylish Art Deco landscape, with major buildings lit up at night. Citroën's vertical billboard (later enshrined in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest ad) debuted on July 4, 1925, incorporating 250,000 bulbs and 370 miles of wiring. The electrically-lit letters were each 92 feet high and were visible for 25 miles.

An eyewitness wrote: "At first the tower is outlined in luminous lines and then a certain number of small stars and five or six bigger ones with the tail of a comet are seen. At the same time, bright flames shooting skyward appear at the top of the tower. As the tails of the comets gradually lengthen to form letters making up the word 'Citroën,' two signs, red and blue in colour, bearing the dates 1889-1925, the former the date of the tower's creation, become luminous, and are almost immediately replaced by the double chevrons which are the Citroën trademark." [0:47 video]

Charles Lindbergh, the first aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic nonstop, reportedly used the dazzling sign in 1927 to locate Le Bourget Airport, his landing site. The display remained on the iconic landmark until 1934, when the Citroën company went bankrupt (partly due to enormous electic bills) and was taken over by its largest creditor, the Michelin tire company. André Citroën died the following year, at the age of 57.

Other images: A, B, C, D, E, F G.

 
» On 3/01/2023 01:00:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
2023 Oscar-nominated screenplays w/trailers. UPDATE: WINNERS MARKED IN RED!

Original Screenplay
The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh


WINNER! Everything Everywhere All at Once - 11/20/22 'Evelyn' shooting draft by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert ("Daniels")
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 12/18/17 'Jackie Chan' draft


The Fabelmans by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner


Tár by Todd Field


Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund


Adapted Screenplay
All Quiet on the Western Front by Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell; based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque


Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery by Rian Johnson; based on a character created by Rian Johnson


Living by Kazuo Ishiguro; based a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni


Top Gun: Maverick by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks; based on characters created by Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr.


WINNER! Women Talking by Sarah Polley; based on a book by Miriam Toews