Teaching creative thinking through American film is a worthy idea, and this educational resource from the Annenberg Media group is quite a find. Produced by the New York Center for Visual History along with KCET/Los Angeles and the BBC, this thirteen-part series contains 10 one-hour and 3 half-hour video programs. Visitors will need to register to watch the programs, but after doing so they can...

The sheer volume of "top" and "best" lists should never be viewed as indicative that an inordinate amount of so-called "objective" research has been done to arrive at a logical hierarchy that will effectively squelch debate on any given topic. Released earlier this week, the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotes (as voted on by 1,500 persons in the entertainment industry) will...

Designed by the student chapter of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, this site offers a clear, informative timeline of film sound history. Breaking the century down by decades, the site discusses the main sound innovations of each period, and these brief histories link to related film history sites. The site also features a graph showing the specifications and capability of...

Created and maintained by Hyde Flippo, this Web site pays homage to the long-standing connection between the Germanic world and the bright lights of Hollywood and the film industry. As Flippo contends in a brief introduction to the site, "No other single influence on American cinema has been greater than that from the German-speaking world." Given the preponderance of such Hollywood legends like...

This latest addition to the Library of Congress American memory site (last described in the January 8, 1998 Scout Report) highlights Thomas Edison's entertainment inventions. Included in the 1,093 patents Edison received in his lifetime were the phonograph, the Kinetograph (a motion picture camera), and the Kinetoscope (a motion picture viewer). A large number of movies and recordings made by...

From the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin comes the digital exhibition Producing Gone with the Wind. This meticulously researched exhibition takes its visitors behind the scenes of the beloved 1939 film to learn how it came to be. Based heavily on archival material from the Ransom Center's David O. Selznick Collection, this exhibition begins by exploring director David O....

The Wizard of Oz is probably one of the most enduring American stories, having been translated into numerous movies, recordings, stage productions, and hundreds of written versions. This online exhibit from the Library of Congress showcases some of the many products and ephemera related to this integral piece of American culture. Many of the objects originated from the Library's voluminous...

Maintained and developed by Debbie Dunlap, a devoted fan, this site pays homage to Cary Grant (whose real name was the slightly less marquee-friendly, Archibald Leach), one of Hollywood's leading men during the 20th century. The site provides a host of material about Grant, his films, and his life, including a filmography, movie reviews, a photo gallery, a sound gallery, and links to old radio...