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Stanley H. Durwood Entrepreneurial Achievement Award |
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The Eighth Rung Foundation, Inc. is pleased to present the 2008 Stanley H. Durwood, Entrepreneurial Achievement Award, to Maria Gabriela Rossi for her work in managerial studies in the Master of Business Administration program at Park University. This is the inaugural of the award, given to an outstanding graduate student in the Kansas City area.
Originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Ms. Rossi received her bachelor’s degree in business from Park University in 2004. She will receive her MBA, with a concentration in Entrepreneurship, from Park in December 2008. She is currently a graduate assistant in the Office of International Programs at the University.
The award is named in honor of Durwood, an entertainment industry executive who is credited with inventing the multiplex movie theater. A Kansas City native, educated at Harvard, he served as a navigator in the Army Air Forces during World War II. He returned home in 1945 and joined the family business. After his father's death in 1960, he drove the company toward the pursuit of international growth. In 1968 he changed the company's name to American Multi-Cinema, which is now AMC Entertainment. Mr. Durwood died of cancer in 1999 at the age of 78.
Mr. Durwood’s innovations have been credited with helping to rescue the motion picture industry from the growth of cable television and video recording. In 1993, the Foundation of Motion Picture Pioneers honored Durwood as the Pioneer of the Year, an honor which had previously gone to Hollywood names such as Darryl F. Zanuck and Cecil B. De Mille.
In addition to the multiplex, Durwood is also credited with inventing the arm-rest cup holder, whose introduction reflected his resolve to make a night at the movies an experience that would draw the audience away from their television sets and back into theaters.
In recent years the multiple-screen theater concept has been used as a catalyst to bring people back from the suburbs and into the urban core. AMC was a pioneer in the development of large scale theater entertainment centers in rundown urban neighborhoods, such as Times Square in New York and Burbank in California, as well as the Power and Light District in Kansas City. |
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The Eighth Rung Foundation, Inc. 616 East 63rd Street Kansas City, MO 64110 |
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Advancing Sustainable Business in the Kansas City Urban Core |
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The Eighth Rung Foundation, Inc. |
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Stan Durwood |