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57-524: Valley West Mall opened August 30, 1973, as the first major shopping center in the city of Glendale; the Montgomery Ward anchor store, the fourth in the Valley, had already opened for business on July 11. The mall was originally owned by Valley West Shopping Center, Inc.; the design by Edward M. Cohon and Associates featured Spanish architectural elements. Developed by two companies from Minneapolis ,

114-481: A charter tenant and anchor, closed after 22 years. IRT sold the ailing mall to Louis Darwish, owner of shopping centers in Glendale and Mesa , in 1996. Just four stores remained: Outlet World, Heilig-Meyers, and two inline tenants. Darwish announced plans to renovate the exterior and mall entrances and rename the center Manistee Town Center, to connect with the redevelopment of the former Manistee Ranch , adjacent to

171-716: A closed store in Panorama City , California, 2010 demolished In November 2024 /gallery> By the 1990s even its rivals began to lose ground to low-price competition from the likes of Target and Walmart , which eroded even more of Montgomery Ward's traditional customer base. In 1997, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy , emerging from protection by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 1999 as

228-445: A loft above a livery stable on Kinzie Street, between Rush and State Streets. In 1883, the company's catalog had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. In 1896, Ward encountered its first serious competition in the mail order business, when Richard Warren Sears introduced his first general catalog. In 1900, Ward had total sales of $ 8.7 million, compared to $ 10 million for Sears , and both companies struggled for dominance during much of

285-403: A new president, Sewell Avery , who cut staff levels and stores, changed lines, hired store rather than catalog managers, and refurbished stores. These actions caused the company to become profitable before the end of the 1930s. Ward was very successful in its retail business. "Green awning" stores dotted hundreds of small towns across the country. Larger stores were built in the major cities. By

342-415: A newer and larger store in the mall; their previous location was sold to J. C. Penney , which relocated from a smaller store in downtown Glendale. The mall continued to hold its own for 20 years, even as new shopping options including Metrocenter and Westridge Mall opened on the west side. IRT Property Co. of Atlanta invested $ 3 million in interior and exterior improvements in the early 1990s, and

399-464: A number of key new management people, including Edward Donnell, former manager of Sears' Los Angeles stores. The new management team achieved the turnaround reducing the number of suppliers from 15,000 to 7,000 and the number of brands being carried dropped from 168 to 16. Ward's private brands were given 95 percent of the volume compared with 40 percent in 1960. The results of these changes were lower handling costs and higher quality standards. Buying

456-486: A presence at the mall, Montgomery Ward opened an "Outlet World" store, the third of its kind for the chain, as a replacement at Valley West. The Outlet World store joined the Boston Store and Bealls Outlet as the remaining anchors. The center lost out in its attempts to attract anchors that left Maryvale Mall , another dying center, when those retailers opted to locate at the larger Westridge. The next year, McMahan's

513-409: A set is painted, the set dresser furnishes it with everything that the set designer , under the direction of the art director , has selected for the interior. On a sound stage, the camera may be placed exactly where the director wants it. Achieving the desired lighting is easier because each stage has a metal framework with catwalks and lights suspended from the ceiling . This makes it easier for

570-488: A sound stage entails an expensive process, but working on a sound stage saves time when setting up for production as long as access to all of the necessary technical equipment, personnel, and supplies is readily available. As all the scenes can be filmed on the sets inside the sound stage, using it also eliminates having to move the production from location to location. With the use of bluescreen or greenscreen techniques (whereby backgrounds are inserted electronically behind

627-403: A typical green/blue screen for chroma keying by displaying the solid color behind the performers. Having a physical space where actors can see their environment and inform their performances accordingly is something that most greenscreen sets lack. The controlled visual environment also allows directors and cinematographers the ability to better create mise-en-scène , with greater control over

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684-561: A wholly owned subsidiary of GE Capital , which was by then its largest shareholder. As part of a last-ditch effort to remain competitive, the company closed over 100 retail locations in 30 U.S. states, abandoned the specialty store strategy, rebranded the chain as simply Wards , and spent millions of dollars to renovate its remaining outlets to be flashier and more consumer-friendly. GE Capital reneged on promises of further financial support of Montgomery Ward's restructuring plans. On December 28, 2000, after lower-than-expected sales during

741-406: Is a stage that is surrounded (in varying degrees) by screens that extend the set. These screens, most commonly large arrays of LEDs , show a version of the set that was constructed in 3D (using software such as Unreal Engine ) that tracks its motion in real time with camera movement. A static display can function similarly for a still camera, given there is no parallax . However, these volumes allow

798-680: The CyberVision 2001 in 1978, developed by the Authorship Resource, Inc., of Franklin, Ohio , and primarily manufactured by United Chem-Con. However, mounting competition from other computer companies as well as manufacturing problems compelled the three companies to pull the plug on the CyberVision product by the early 1980s. By 1980, Mobil realized that the Montgomery Ward stores were doing poorly in comparison to

855-600: The War Labor Disputes Act as well as his power under the Constitution as commander-in-chief . In 1945, Truman ended the seizure and the Supreme Court dismissed the pending appeal as moot. After World War II, Sewell Avery believed the country would fall back into a recession or even a depression. He decided to not open any new stores, and did not even permit expenditure for paint to freshen

912-411: The cinematographer to have the grips position each flag or bounce and the lighting technicians to position each light to get exactly the correct lighting for every shot. Television production generally uses multiple cameras, and cinema production generally uses a single camera. This is not universally true because the choice varies very much on what the director is trying to achieve. Rental of

969-515: The intellectual property assets of the former Wards, including the "Montgomery Ward" and "Wards" trademarks, for an undisclosed amount. DMSI applied the brand to a new online and catalog-based retailing operation, with no physical stores, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa . DMSI then began operating under the Montgomery Ward branding in June 2004, selling many of the same kinds of products as

1026-471: The 1970s. In 1973, its 102nd year in business, it purchased a small discount store chain, the Miami -based Jefferson Stores, renaming these locations Jefferson Ward. Mobil , flush with cash from the recent rise in oil prices and looking to diversify, bought a controlling share of MARCOR in 1974, only to acquire the company outright in 1976. The company was an early entrant in the home computer market with

1083-502: The 20th century. By 1904, Ward had expanded such that it mailed three million catalogs, weighing 4 lb (1.8 kg) each, to customers. In 1908, the company opened a 1.25-million-square-foot (116,000 m ) building stretching along nearly one-quarter mile of the Chicago River , north of downtown Chicago. The building, known as the Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House , served as the company headquarters until 1974, when

1140-623: The Christmas season, the company announced it would cease operating, close its remaining 250 retail outlets, and lay off its 37,000 employees. At its height, the original Montgomery Ward was one of the biggest retailers in the United States. After its demise, the familiarity of its brand meant its name, corporate logo, and advertising were considered valuable intangible assets. In 2004, catalog marketer Direct Marketing Services Inc. (DMSI), an Iowa direct marketing company, purchased much of

1197-464: The Jefferson Ward model. The burden of servicing the new stores fell to the tiny Jefferson staff, who were overwhelmed by the increased store count, had no experience in dealing with some of the product lines they now carried, and were unfamiliar with buying for northern markets. Almost immediately, Jefferson had turned from a small moneymaker into a large drain on profits. The company sold

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1254-532: The Jefferson stores, and decided that high quality discount units, along the lines of Dayton Hudson Company's Target stores, would be the retailer's future. Within 18 months, management quintupled the size of the operation, now called Jefferson Ward, to more than 40 units in the Delaware Valley and Richmond metropolitan areas, and planned to convert one-third of Montgomery Ward's existing stores to

1311-548: The actors in the finished film) and a sound stage, extensive control of the production process is achieved. In audio recording , the term soundstage refers to the depth and richness of the recording, and usually relates to the playback process. According to audiophiles , the quality of the playback is very much dependent upon how one is able to pick out different instruments, voices, vocal parts, and such exactly where they are located on an imaginary, two- or three-dimensional field. The quality of this soundstage can enhance not only

1368-462: The advent of electric lights, enclosed stages were built in Hollywood and rapidly converted to sound stages with many mattresses placed on the walls. With the coming of the talkies in the late 1920s, it became necessary to enclose and fully soundproof these stages to eliminate noise and distractions from outside, including limiting access. The ceilings and walls of the building containing

1425-400: The adverse effect on the delivery of goods in wartime. Avery had refused to comply with a War Labor Board order to recognize the unions and institute the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. Eight months later, with Montgomery Ward continuing to refuse to recognize the unions, President Roosevelt issued an executive order seizing all of Montgomery Ward's property nationwide, citing

1482-461: The audio recording equipment. A sound stage traditionally has a large red light above or next to each exterior door. When the light starts blinking, it means shooting is in progress . Anyone who opens the door at that point will introduce external sound and light and ruin the take in progress. When a studio is home to multiple sound stages, they tend to all look alike from the outside: giant beige box-shaped buildings. Sound stages are marked on

1539-541: The building for training exercises before the remaining section was torn down, allowing the Ellman Northern Crossing power center to be built. The anchor stores of Northern Crossing, first announced in 2003, are Lowe's and Walmart . The rest of the center opened in 2005 and is managed by Colliers International. Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co.

1596-536: The chain's 18-store northern division to Bradlees , a division of Stop & Shop , in 1985. The remaining stores closed. In 1985, the company closed its catalog business after 113 years and began an aggressive policy of renovating its remaining stores. It restructured many of the store layouts in the downtown areas of larger cities and affluent neighborhoods into boutique -like specialty stores, as these were drawing business from traditional department stores. In 1986, fellow MARCOR firm, Container Corporation of America,

1653-708: The company in the near future. In March 1988, the company management undertook a successful $ 3.8 billion (~$ 8.45 billion in 2023) leveraged buyout , making Montgomery Ward a privately held company. <gallery> File:Montgomery Ward Bluefield, WV.jpg|A Montgomery Ward Building in Bluefield, West Virginia File:Abandoned Montgomery Ward.jpg|A vacant Montgomery Ward store, Regency Mall , Augusta, Georgia File:Vacant Montgomery Ward Huntington Beach.JPG|A former Montgomery Ward store, Huntington Center , Huntington Beach, California , demolished in 2010 File:Electric Ave Logo - Montgomery Wards.JPG|An "Electric Avenue" logo on

1710-428: The dialogue and other sounds are recorded as a separate operation. This separate operation usually involves the principal actors doing synchronized dialogue replacement voice recordings over a working cut of the film, specialized language actors doing a secondary language dubbing or for the filming of special effects. A sound stage, unlike a silent stage, requires caution to avoid making noise anywhere within range of

1767-475: The end of the 1930s, Montgomery Ward had become the country's largest retailer, and Sewell Avery became the company's chief executive officer. In April 1944, four months into a nationwide strike by the company's 12,000 workers, U.S. Army troops seized the company's Chicago offices. The action was ordered due to Avery's refusal to settle the strike as requested by the Roosevelt administration, concerned about

Northern Crossing (shopping mall) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1824-449: The existing stores. His plan was to bank profits to preserve liquidity when the recession or depression he anticipated hit, and then buy up his retail competition. Without new stores or any investment back into the business, Montgomery Ward declined in sales volume compared to Sears. Many have blamed the conservative decisions of Avery, who seemed not to understand the postwar years' changing economy. As new shopping centers were built after

1881-425: The exterior with large numbers to help distinguish them. An enclosed stage makes it easier for the crew of a production to design and build the sets to exact specifications, precise scale, and detail. The art director of a production makes an architectural plan and carpenters build it. On a film, the head electrician is credited as the gaffer and the assistant as the best boy , regardless of gender. After

1938-536: The following month. On August 5, 2008, the catalog retailer Swiss Colony purchased DMSI. Swiss Colony—which changed its name to Colony Brands Inc. June 1, 2010—kept Montgomery Ward alive and relaunched the Wards website September 10, 2008, with new catalogs mailing in February 2009. A month before the catalog's launch, Swiss Colony President John Baumann told United Press International the retailer might also resurrect

1995-555: The largest industrial structures in their respective locations. The Baltimore Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. In 1926, the company broke with its mail-order-only tradition when it opened its first retail outlet store in Plymouth, Indiana . It continued to operate its catalog business while pursuing an aggressive campaign to build retail outlets in

2052-641: The late 1920s. In 1928, two years after opening its first outlet, it had opened 244 stores. By 1929, it had more than doubled its number of outlets to 531. Its flagship retail store in Chicago was located on Michigan Avenue between Madison and Washington streets. In 1930, the company declined a merger offer from rival chain Sears. Losing money during the Great Depression , Ward alarmed its major investors, including J. P. Morgan, Jr . In 1931, Morgan hired

2109-407: The listener's involvement in the recording, but also their overall perception of the stage. The latest technology and software can render basic previsualisation effects into scenes in real time while recording, before post-production , with the use of sensors detecting the position of actors and elements, in the staging of the frame. The director during filming can view what the composition of

2166-529: The main difference between the two is that sound stages are used for dialogue scenes, but silent stages are not. An alternative to production sound is to record additional dialogue during post-production (known as dubbing ). Structures of this type were in use in the motion picture industry before the advent of sound recording . Early stages for silent movies were built, either as a three-wall open-roof set, or with large skylights, until electric lighting became powerful enough to expose film adequately. With

2223-636: The mall property was turned down in 1998, the relationship between Darwish and the city of Glendale soured. This culminated in a lawsuit filed on December 31, 1998, claiming the city interfered in his efforts to attract tenants and retain a charter school, Maya High School , that was leasing space in the mall; Maya held classes in a former arcade and used a former auto parts store as office space. Several larger tenants, including General Factory and World Market Place, closed in 1999. The final anchor, Heilig-Meyers, closed its doors in 2000 as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and shuttering of 302 locations. The mall

2280-483: The mall site, into housing. For several years under Darwish, the health of the mall improved, attracting several new tenants and reopening the mall's movie theater. In 1997, General Factory opened in the former Boston Store anchor, but the Outlet World closed, along with the Wards auto center, which had remained in operation after the banner conversion. After an effort by Darwish to relocate county justice courts to

2337-497: The mall was 92 percent leased in early 1993. However, Valley West suffered the loss of two critical anchor tenants when Arrowhead Towne Center opened as the premier mall in the West Valley later that year. JCPenney and Montgomery Ward—occupying 55,000 sq ft (5,100 m) and 130,000 sq ft (12,000 m), respectively—defected to the new shopping center. After intense pressure from community groups to maintain

Northern Crossing (shopping mall) - Misplaced Pages Continue

2394-545: The mall was headlined by Montgomery Ward, the Boston Store , Bostrom's, and McMahan's Furniture , with 50 other stores. One of those companies, Ericson Development, went on to start construction on a similar shopping center to be built in Tempe and also anchored by Ward and the Boston Store; they stopped work on the mall due to cost overruns. Bostrom's, a housewares retailer, went bankrupt in 1975. In 1976, Boston Store built

2451-555: The offices moved across the street to a new tower designed by Minoru Yamasaki . The catalog house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and a Chicago historic landmark in May 2000. In the decades before 1930, Montgomery Ward built a network of large distribution centers across the country in Baltimore , Fort Worth , Kansas City , Oakland , Portland , and St. Paul . In most cases, these reinforced concrete structures were

2508-450: The original Montgomery Ward's Signature and Powr-Kraft store brands . Among the new store brands Wards started under Colony was a home and kitchen brand called Chef Tested. By 2020, some Chef Tested and Montgomery Ward–brand home and kitchen items were being sold on Amazon.com . Sound stage A sound stage (also written soundstage ) is a large, soundproof structure, building or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for

2565-582: The original company. The new company does not honor its predecessor's obligations, such as gift cards and items sold with a lifetime guarantee. David Milgrom, then president of the DMSI-owned firm, told the Associated Press , "We're rebuilding the brand, and we want to do it right." Four years later, in July 2008, DMSI announced it was on the auction block, with the sale of its assets scheduled for

2622-404: The picture is with basic digital objects and surfaces included and how it appears, assisting the creative process. A newer form of set being used in both the production of films and television shows is the virtual production "volume". Different from the volume of a conventional motion capture stage (where often no physical image is being recorded for the final product), a virtual production volume

2679-409: The production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or television studio property. Compared to a silent stage , a sound stage is sound-proofed so that sound can be recorded along with the images. The recordings are known as production sound . Because most sound in movies, other than dialogue, is added in post-production, this generally means that

2736-483: The scenery to adaptively move and distort according to how the camera ought to see it if it were moving in a real environment. Benefits of such a setup include total control of a scene; dusk and dawn can last all day. Not only can time of day or number of light sources be manipulated at will, but portions of the volume off-screen can be turned completely white to add fill lighting from a given direction, or they can be turned off to darken that area. They can also function as

2793-408: The set, and the ability to see the final image as they are creating it. Where these volumes are especially beneficial is in having light behave perfectly realistically on transparent, translucent, and very reflective materials. These types of objects, such as eyeglasses, glassware, and shiny armor, are often very difficult to deal with in a conventional chroma key work flow. This technique also minimizes

2850-446: The sound stage must be heavily soundproofed, so the structure must be sturdy and capable of accepting such additional features and loads, or a new building specifically designed with the features and to bear the loads is required, which often is the less expensive alternative to retrofitting an existing structure because of engineering issues. Buildings without soundproofing still are referred to as silent stages and may be used where

2907-607: The war, Sears was perceived to have better locations than Ward. Nonetheless, for many years Ward was still the nation's third-largest department store chain. In 1955, investor Louis Wolfson waged a high-profile proxy fight to obtain control of the board of Montgomery Ward. The new board forced the resignation of Avery. This fight led to a state court decision that Illinois corporations were not entitled to stagger elections of board members." In 1961, company president John Barr hired Robert Elton Brooker to lead Montgomery Ward as president in its turnaround. Brooker brought with him

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2964-426: Was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The current Montgomery Ward Inc. is an online shopping and mail-order catalog retailer that started several years after the original Montgomery Ward shut down. Aaron Montgomery Ward started his business in Chicago; conflicting reports place his first office either in a single room at 825 North Clark Street or in

3021-413: Was acquired by the national Heilig-Meyers furniture chain. The Arrowhead opening and loss of anchors sent Valley West into a tailspin. The mall only had 43 stores of a capacity of 75 by January 1995 and just 17 by October. Retail experts told the city of Glendale that the mall was "functionally obsolete" and that a "pinpointed earthquake" might be useful at the mall site. That September, the Boston Store,

3078-426: Was centralized but store operations were decentralized, under a new territory system modeled after Sears. In 1966, Ed Donnell was named company president. Brooker continued as chairman and chief executive officer until 1976. In 1968, Brooker helped engineer a friendly merger with Container Corporation of America , the new parent company being named MARCOR. Despite the merger, the company continued to struggle into

3135-620: Was completed, studies were undertaken on potential future uses for the Manistee Town Center site. The city of Glendale acquired the mall for $ 11 million in May 2001. This helped facilitate part of a redevelopment agreement with The Ellman Companies, a condition of the same deal that brought the Phoenix Coyotes to Glendale. The mall was then mostly demolished in 2002, except for the portion used by Maya High School; after it moved out in May, police and federal agents used

3192-613: Was divested by Mobil. This effectively dissolved the MARCOR division and left Montgomery Ward as a direct subsidiary of Mobil. Analysts saw the CCA sale as an effort to go back on their diversification efforts, as the debts incurred since MARCOR’s acquisition began to weigh the oil giant down, and many predicted Montgomery Ward was next to be sold. These theories were confirmed in January 1987, when Mobil stated they would be looking into spinning off

3249-570: Was left with two churches, the high school, and a Maricopa County job center. The mall made one last notable appearance when shooting of the movie Arac Attack —released in 2002 as Eight Legged Freaks —used the deserted shopping center in February 2001, with the former Montgomery Ward converted into a sound stage . Renamed the Prosperity Mall, the site was convenient for the film, which had also shot scenes in Superior . After filming

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