Academy Kicks Off 75th Anniversary

Beverly Hills, CA - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences kicked off its 75th 
Anniversary Celebration last night (Wednesday, 5/8) with a gala invitation-only party, during 
which its Center for Motion Picture Study was renamed in honor of one of the Academy's founders 
and its first president, Douglas Fairbanks.

The Center for Motion Picture Study at La Cienega and Olympic boulevards, which houses the 
Margaret Herrick Library and its Roddy MacDowall Photograph Archive, will be known as the 
Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study.

New signage incorporating the new Fairbanks Center name was unveiled during the party.

The donation of the senior Fairbanks' career papers to the Margaret Herrick Library by Vera 
Fairbanks, widow of Douglas Fairbanks Jr., was announced during the event.

"The kick-off to our 75th anniversary celebration seemed a most appropriate occasion to add Mr. 
Fairbanks' name to this building," Academy President Frank Pierson said. "He was not only the 
Academy's first president, but his civic leadership actually helped get this magnificent 
building erected back in 1927."

Fairbanks, who was active in Beverly Hills civic affairs, was instrumental in the implementation
and design of Water Plant No. 1, the structure that now houses the Fairbanks Center.

Among the 800 persons invited to the kick-off party were past Academy presidents, members of 
the Board of Governors, members of the Academy's standing committees, major donors, senior 
staff and Beverly Hills civic officials.

The Academy was founded on May 11, 1927. Its 75th Anniversary Celebration will continue through 
2003 and will include the 75th Annual Academy Awards to be held at the Kodak Theatre at 
Hollywood & Highland on March 23, 2003.

Pins featuring the Academy's 75th logo have been distributed to the Academy's 6,400 members. 
The logo, designed by the Los Angeles design firm Deaf Eye, will be used on stationery and other 
printed materials during the anniversary celebration, as well as in a trailer preceding 
screenings of anniversary-related films.

Scheduled as part of the 75th Anniversary Celebration are a number of public events:

A screening series featuring each of the 75 films which have won the Oscar for Best Picture, 
which will begin Monday (May 13) in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. A 75-film screening 
pass is available from the Academy for $75. "A buck a picture," Pierson said. "It's the best 
movie bargain in the country!"

A musical evening Friday, September 20, at the Hollywood Bowl with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra 
playing music from Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning films accompanied by appropriate film 
sequences.

An October screening of a restored print of Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus."

A display of 75 Oscars featuring one from each year they have been given.

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