Perhaps one of the greatest if not the greatest director/producer in the history of American cinema is Steven Allan Spielberg. Spielberg has won three Oscars and is the highest-grossing director of all time; his films have grossed nearly $8 billion internationally. In 2006, Premiere listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the film industry. TIME magazine named him among the "100 Greatest People of the Century." At the end of the 20th century LIFE named him the most influential person of his generation. In a career spanning nearly four decades, Spielberg's films have touched on many themes and genres. During the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, three of his films, Jaws, ET, and Jurassic Park, became the highest-grossing films of the time. During his early years as a director, his science fiction and adventure films were often seen as the archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster cinema. In recent years, he has addressed emotionally powerful issues such as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Leah Adler, a restaurateur and pianist, and Arnold Spielberg, a computer engineer. During his early teens, Spielberg made amateur 8mm "adventure" films with his friends, the first of which he shot in a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona. He charged admission (25 cents) to his home movies (which involved wrecks he staged with his Lionel train) while his sister sold popcorn. Spielberg became a Boy Scout and in 1958, he met the requirements for a photographic merit badge by making a 9-minute, 8mm film titled The Last Gunfight. At the age of 13, Spielberg won an award for a 40-minute war film called Escape to Nowhere. At 16, he wrote and directed his first independent film, a 140-minute science fiction adventure called Firelight. The film, which had a budget of $400, was shown in the local cinema and generated a profit of $100. A writer for the local Phoenix press wrote that he could expect big things to come. He attended California State University, Long Beach, to avoid the draft for the Vietnam War. His career proper began when he returned to Universal studios as an unpaid, three-day-a-week intern and guest on the editing floor. As an intern and host at Universal Studios, Spielberg made his first short film for theatrical release, the 24-minute feature Amblin' in 1968. After Sidney Sheinberg, then vice president of production for Universal's TV division, saw the film , Spielberg became the youngest director ever to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio.