Industry | Film scenery |
---|---|
Founded | 1962 |
Founder | John Harold Coakley John Gary Coakley |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Lynne Coakley (president) |
Website | https://www.jcbackings.com/ |
J. C. Backings Corporation is a scenic backdrop rental company based in Culver City, California. It was established in 1962 by John Harold Coakley and his son, John Gary Coakley, who realized there was a need for custom painted backings and backdrop rentals for American film and television companies. [1] [2] In 1970, the company purchased over 2,000 backdrops from the storage facility of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. [3]
Backings were expanded via photographic alternatives (known as translites) and digital print vinyl backings with the company's third generation, headed by Gary Coakley's children Lynne and Tod. [1] As of 2020, painted backdrops made up around one-third of the company's rentals. [4]
Tod Coakley died in 2006, aged 44. [5] Pierre Steele, Lynne's husband, joined the company at that point. [1]
After 46 years at Sony Pictures Studios, in 2017 the company relocated its digital print and photograph backing facility to another section of Culver City, while custom paints and touch-ups to painted backings take place in Gardena. [6] During the move, over 250 backings were donated to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as to schools and colleges and the Art Directors Guild Backdrop Recovery Project. [7] Some of these backings were used on films such as Ben-Hur , The Sound of Music , [8] North by Northwest (including the Mount Rushmore backdrop) [4] [9] and Meet Me in Las Vegas . [1] [10]
Lynne Coakley is the company's president. [11]
Two backings from the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997):
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop and classical arrangements with futuristic iconography. After Wood's departure in 1972, Lynne became the band's sole leader, arranging and producing every album while writing nearly all of their original material. From this point until their first break-up in 1986, Lynne, Bevan, and keyboardist Richard Tandy were the group's only consistent members.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began production on the original Star Wars, now the fourth episode of the Skywalker Saga.
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American comedy children's television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's popular stage show and the TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more adult humor.
Gary Alan Sinise is an American actor of stage and screen, as well as a director, producer, musician, and humanitarian. Among other awards, he has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he has been nominated for an Academy Award. Sinise has also received numerous awards and honors for his extensive humanitarian work and involvement with charitable organizations. He is a supporter of various veterans' organizations and founded the Lt. Dan Band, which plays at military bases around the world.
20th Century Home Entertainment is a home video brand label of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment that distributes films produced by 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Animation, and television series by 20th Television, Searchlight Television, 20th Television Animation, and FX Productions in home entertainment formats.
Mark Machado, better known as Mr. Cartoon or more commonly just Cartoon or Toon, is an American tattoo artist and graffiti artist based in Los Angeles, California. Growing up in the Harbor area of Los Angeles County, young Cartoon began doing illustrations and graffiti then going on to airbrushing clothing and lowrider custom cars. Machado then moved on to working in the music industry doing album covers, tour merchandise, and later tattooing recording artists and other celebrities.
Austin Cedric Gibbons was an American art director for the film industry. He also made a significant contribution to motion picture theater architecture from the 1930s to 1950s. Gibbons designed the Oscar statuette in 1928, but tasked the sculpting to George Stanley, a Los Angeles artist. He was nominated 39 times for the Academy Award for Best Production Design and won the Oscar 11 times, both of which are records.
The Fox is the fifteenth studio album by English musician Elton John, released in 1981. The album was produced by John, Clive Franks, and, for the first time, Chris Thomas, who would produce many more albums with John through most of the 1980s and 1990s.
The Art Directors Guild is a labor union and local of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) representing 3,278 motion picture and television professionals in the United States and Canada.
Tod's S.p.A. is an Italian luxury fashion house specialized in footwear, apparel, and related accessories headquartered in Marche, Italy. Its core branding includes an oval nameplate and roaring lion, with signature brown and orange packaging. The company is an influencer in the Sprezzatura fashion movement. Its highest-selling products are pebble-sole “Gommino” driving shoes, leather (suede) loafers, boots, sneakers, and handbags.
The Culver Studios is a film studio in Culver City, California. Originally created by silent movie pioneer Thomas H. Ince, classics from Hollywood's Golden Age were filmed there. It was purchased, in 2014, by Hackman Capital Partners, which completely modernized the lot over the next four years, while preserving the site's historic structures. The studios have operated under a multitude of names: Ince Studio (1918-1925), De Mille Studios (1925–1928), Pathé Studios (1928–1931), RKO-Pathé Studios (1931–1935), Selznick International Pictures (1935–1956), Desilu-Culver Studios (1956–1970), Culver City Studios (1970–1977), and Laird International Studios (1977–1986). Through all these name changes, the site was also commonly called "40 Acres" by entertainment industry insiders, although it was never actually 40 acres in size.
The Screen Guild Theater is a radio anthology series broadcast from 1939 until 1952 during the Golden Age of Radio. Leading Hollywood stars performed adaptations of popular motion pictures. Originating on CBS Radio, it aired under several different titles including The Gulf Screen Guild Show, The Gulf Screen Guild Theater, The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theater and The Camel Screen Guild Players. Fees that would ordinarily have been paid to the stars and studios were instead donated to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, and were used for the construction and maintenance of the Motion Picture Country House.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a 1997 American mystery thriller film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood and starring John Cusack and Kevin Spacey. The screenplay by John Lee Hancock was based on John Berendt's 1994 book of the same name and follows the story of antiques dealer Jim Williams, on trial for the killing of a male prostitute who was his lover. The multiple trials depicted in Berendt's book are combined into one trial for the film.
Wayne Fitzgerald was an American film title designer. Over a career that spanned 55 years, he designed close to five hundred motion picture and television main and end title sequences for top directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, John Huston, Mike Nichols, Robert Redford, Roman Polanski, Arthur Penn, Michael Cimino, Warren Beatty, Herbert Ross, John Hughes, and Quentin Tarantino.
Robert King is an American film and television writer and producer. He is married to Michelle King, who is also his writing partner. The couple created the legal drama series The Good Wife (2009–16), which earned them a Writers Guild of America Award; its spin-off The Good Fight (2017–2022); the comedy-drama BrainDead (2016); the supernatural drama Evil (2019–present); and the police drama Elsbeth (2024–present).
Charles Alvin Lisanby Jr. was an American production designer who helped define scenic design in early color television. Charles was in a variety of commercials, including for Dr. Pepper and Panasonic VCR. During his career, he was nominated for sixteen Emmys and won three. In January 2010, Charles was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame at the nineteenth annual ceremony alongside Don Pardo, the Smothers Brothers, Bob Stewart, and Gene Roddenberry. Aside from his success in the entertainment industry, Charles is known for his friendship with the artist Andy Warhol.
Jan Spencer Scott was an American production designer and art director. She won 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, more than any woman in the history of television and more than any other production designers. Scott was nominated for Emmy Awards a record total of 29 times. She was also a president of the Society of Motion Picture Art Directors and also served as a vice-president, second vice-president and governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Ben Carré (1883–1978) was a French art director and painter who settled in the United States. He designed sets for dozens of Hollywood films including The Blue Bird, The Phantom of the Opera, Don Juan, The Jazz Singer, and A Night at the Opera. He was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Vertigo Entertainment is an American film and television production company based in Los Angeles, founded in 2001 by Roy Lee and Doug Davison.