1.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
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Originally known as Graumans Chinese Theatre, it was renamed Manns Chinese Theatre in 1973, the name lasted until 2001, after which it reverted to its original name. On January 11,2013, Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL Corporation officially purchased the naming rights. The original Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Graumans Egyptian Theatre, built by a partnership headed by Sid Grauman over 18 months starting in January 1926, the theatre opened May 18,1927, with the premiere of Cecil B. DeMilles film The King of Kings and it has since been home to many premieres, including the 1977 launch of George Lucas Star Wars, as well as birthday parties, corporate junkets, and three Academy Awards ceremonies. In 2013 the Chinese Theatre partnered with IMAX Corporation to convert the house into a custom designed IMAX theater, the newly renovated theater seats 932 people and features one of the largest movie screens in North America. After his success with the Egyptian Theatre, Sid Grauman turned to Charles E. Toberman to secure a lease on property at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. Toberman contracted the firm of Meyer & Holler, designer of the Egyptian, Grauman financed and owned a one-third interest in the Chinese Theatre, his partners—Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Howard Schenck—owned the remainder. The principal architect of the Chinese Theatre was Raymond M. Kennedy, during construction, Grauman hired Jean Klossner to formulate an extremely hard concrete for the forecourt of the theatre. Klossner later became known as Mr. Footprint, performing the footprint ceremonies from 1927 through 1957, many stories exist to explain the origins of the footprints. The theatres official account in its books and souvenir programs credit Norma Talmadge as having inspired the tradition when she stepped into the wet concrete. While we were building the theatre, I accidentally happened to step in some soft concrete, so, I went to Mary Pickford immediately. Mary put her foot into it and his autograph and handprint, dated 1927, remain today. The theatres third founding partner, Douglas Fairbanks, was the celebrity, after Talmadge. In 1929, Sid Grauman decided to retire and sell his share to William Foxs Fox Theatres chain, Grauman remained as the theatres managing director for the entire run of Hells Angels, retiring once again after its run finished. But, unsatisfied with retirement, Grauman returned to the theatre as managing director on Christmas Day 1931, one of the highlights of the Chinese Theatre has always been its grandeur and décor. In 1952, John Tartaglia, the artist of nearby Saint Sophia Cathedral and he would later continue the work of Jean Klossner, by recommendation of J. Walter Bantau, for the Hollywood Footprint Ceremonies. Tartaglia performed his first ceremony as a Master Mason for Jean Simmons in 1953, for the premiere of The Robe, the Chinese Theatre was declared a historic and cultural landmark in 1968, and has undergone various restoration projects in the years since then. Ted Mann, owner of the Mann Theatres chain and husband of actress Rhonda Fleming, from then until 2001 it was known as Manns Chinese Theatre
2.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
3.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
James Stewart
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James Maitland Stewart, also known as Jimmy Stewart, was an American actor and military officer who is among the most honored and popular stars in film history. A major Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player, Stewart was known for his distinctive drawl and down-to-earth persona, many of the films he starred in have become enduring classics. Stewart was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition for The Philadelphia Story, in 1999, Stewart was named the third greatest male screen legend of the Golden Age of Hollywood by the American Film Institute, behind Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant. The American Film Institute has also named five of Stewarts films to its list of the 100 best American films ever made. Stewart was born on May 20,1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the son of Elizabeth Ruth Jackson and Alexander Maitland Stewart, Stewart was mainly of Scottish ancestry and was raised as a Presbyterian. He was descended from veterans of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the eldest of three children, he was expected to continue his fathers business, which had been in the family for three generations. His mother was an excellent pianist but his father discouraged Stewarts request for lessons, when his father accepted a gift of an accordion from a guest, young Stewart quickly learned to play the instrument, which became a fixture offstage during his acting career. As the family grew, music continued to be an important part of family life, Stewart attended Mercersburg Academy prep school, graduating in 1928. He was active in a variety of activities and he played on the football and track teams, was art editor of the KARUX yearbook, and a member of the choir club, glee club, and John Marshall Literary Society. Over the following two summers, he took a job as an assistant with a professional magician and he made his first appearance onstage at Mercersburg, as Buquet in the play The Wolves. A shy child, Stewart spent much of his time in the basement working on model airplanes, mechanical drawing. However, he abandoned visions of being a pilot when his father insisted that instead of the United States Naval Academy he attend Princeton University, Stewart enrolled at Princeton in 1928 as a member of the class of 1932. His acting and accordion talents at Princeton led him to be invited to the University Players, the company had been organized in 1928 and would run until 1932, with Joshua Logan, Bretaigne Windust and Charles Leatherbee as directors. Stewart performed in bit parts in the Players productions in Cape Cod during the summer of 1932, the troupe had previously included Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan. Stewart and Fonda became close friends over the summer of 1932 when they shared an apartment with Joshua Logan, the New Yorker commented, Mr. James Stewarts chauffeur. Comes on for three minutes and walks off to a round of spontaneous applause, the play was a moderate success, but times were hard. Many Broadway theaters had been converted to houses and the Depression was reaching bottom. From 1932 through 1934, Stewart later recalled, Id only worked three months, every play I got into folded
5.
Bob Hope
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Bob Hope KBE, KC*SG, KSS was an American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, athlete, centenarian and author. With a career spanning nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in over 70 feature films and short films, in addition to hosting the Academy Awards 19 times, he appeared in many stage productions and television roles and was the author of 14 books. The song Thanks for the Memory is widely regarded as Hopes signature tune, born in Eltham, Kent, Hope arrived in America with his family at the age of four and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He began his career in business in the early 1920s, initially on stage. He was praised for his timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes. He also appeared in numerous specials for NBC television, starting in 1950, Hope participated in the sports of golf and boxing and owned a small stake in his hometown baseball team, the Cleveland Indians. He died at age 100 at his home in Toluca Lake, Hope was born in Eltham, Kent the fifth of seven sons. They married in April 1891 and lived at 12 Greenwood Street in Barry, before moving to Whitehall, Bristol, and then St George, Bristol. In 1908, the family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia and passed through Ellis Island on March 30,1908, before moving to Cleveland, from age 12, Hope earned pocket money by busking, singing, dancing, and performing comedy. He entered many dancing and amateur talent contests and won a prize in 1915 for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin, for a time, he attended the Boys Industrial School in Lancaster, Ohio. As an adult, he donated sizable sums of money to the institution, Hope had a brief career as a boxer in 1919, fighting under the name Packy East. He had three wins and one loss and participated in a few staged charity bouts later in life, Hope worked as a butchers assistant and a lineman in his teens and early twenties. Hope also had a stint at Chandler Motor Car Company. Deciding on a business career, he and his girlfriend signed up for dancing lessons. Encouraged after they performed in an engagement at a club, Hope formed a partnership with Lloyd Durbin. Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw them perform in 1925 and found work with a touring troupe called Hurleys Jolly Follies. Within a year, Hope had formed an act called the Dancemedians with George Byrne, Hope and Byrne had an act as a pair of Siamese twins as well and danced and sang while wearing blackface before friends advised Hope that he was funnier as himself. In 1929, Hope informally changed his first name to Bob, in one version of the story, he named himself after racecar driver Bob Burman
6.
The Lost Weekend (film)
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The Lost Weekend is a 1945 American film noir directed by Billy Wilder and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman. The film was based on Charles R. Jacksons 1944 novel of the name about an alcoholic writer. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Writing. It also shared the Grand Prix at the first Cannes Film Festival, in 2011, The Lost Weekend was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Thursday - An alcoholic New York writer, Don Birnam, is packing for a vacation with his brother Wick. When Don’s girlfriend Helen comes to see them off, she mentions in passing that she has two tickets for a concert, to which Don urges Wick to accompany her. Don heads for Nat’s Bar, deliberately missing his train, and then back into the flat to drink some cheap whisky he has bought. Friday - Back at the bar, the owner, Nat, criticizes Don for treating Helen so badly and it was due to a mix-up of cloakroom tickets at the opera-house, where he had to wait for the person who had been given his coat-check in error. This was Helen, with whom he strikes up a romance, when he is due to meet her parents for lunch at a hotel, he loses his nerve and phones a message to her, crying off. Presently he confesses to her that he is two people ‘Don the writer’, whose fear of failure causes him to drink, and ‘Don the drunk’ who always has to be bailed out by his brother, Still, Helen devotes herself to helping him in his plight. Back in the present day, Don has moved on to another bar, where he is stealing money from a womans purse to pay his bill. In the flat, he finds a bottle he had stashed the previous night, saturday - Don is broke and all the pawnshops are closed for Yom Kippur. At Nat’s Bar, he is refused service, in desperation for money, he visits a girl who has had a long held crush on him, but stood her up during this latest binge. Leaving her flat, he falls down the stairs and is knocked unconscious, sunday - Don wakes up in an alcoholics’ ward where Bim Nolan, a cynical male nurse, mocks him and other guests at ‘Hangover Plaza’, but offers to help cure his delirium. Don refuses help, and succeeds in escaping from the ward while the staff are occupied with a violent patient, monday - Still broke, Don steals a bottle of whisky from a store, and spends the day drinking and hallucinating. Helen returns, alerted by a call from Dons landlady who can hear his screams, finding him in a delirious state, she vows to look after him and spends the night on his couch. Tuesday - Don slips out and pawns Helen’s coat - the thing which had first brought them together - in order to buy a gun and she trails him to the pawn shop and finds out from the pawnbroker that he traded the coat for a gun he had pawned earlier. She races to Dons apartment and catches him just before he is about to shoot himself in the bathroom and he tells her their relationship is over, and she glimpses the gun which he has hidden in the bathroom
7.
The Bells of St. Mary's
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The Bells of St. Marys is a 1945 American drama film produced and directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Written by Dudley Nichols based on a story by Leo McCarey, the film is about a priest, the character of Father OMalley had been previously portrayed by Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way, for which Crosby had won the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was produced by Leo McCareys production company, Rainbow Productions, the unconventional Father Charles Chuck OMalley is assigned to St. Marys parish, which includes a run-down inner-city school building on the verge of being condemned. OMalley is to recommend whether or not the school should be closed and the children sent to school with modern facilities. They put their hopes in Horace P. Bogardus, a businessman who has built a building next door to the school which they hope he will donate to them. Father OMalley and the dedicated but stubborn Sister Superior, Mary Benedict, one disagreement involves a student who is being bullied by another. A more serious one regards the promotion of a student, Patsy. She assumes the transfer is because of her disagreements with OMalley, right before Sister Benedict departs, Father OMalley reveals the true reason for her temporary transfer. Harrisons Reports wrote, As in Going My Way, which he wrote, produced. The acting of the entire cast is excellent, Crosby delights one with his ease and natural charm, and Miss Bergman will undoubtedly rise to new heights of popularity because of the effective way in which she portrays her role. John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote derisively that Mr. Everything, of course, turns out quite happily, except, perhaps, the Bells of St. Marys placed fourth on Film Dailys year-end nationwide poll of 559 critics naming the best films of 1946. The film was popular, earning receipts of $8 million in North America during its initial run. It made a profit of $3,715,000, making it the most profitable film in the history of RKO, adjusted for inflation, it is considered the 50th highest-grossing film of all time. “Arent You Glad Youre You” was in the Billboard charts for nine weeks with a position of #8. In the Land of Beginning Again and The Bells of St. Marys both charted briefly also, crosbys songs were also included in the Bings Hollywood series. There were two radio adaptations of The Bells of St. Marys on The Screen Guild Theater radio program, both starred Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. They were broadcast on August 26,1946 and October 6,1947. The Bells of St. Marys at the Internet Movie Database The Bells of St. Marys at AllMovie The Bells of St. Marys at the TCM Movie Database The Bells of St. Marys at the American Film Institute Catalog
8.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
9.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
10.
Billy Wilder
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Billy Wilder was a Austrian-born Jewish American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist and journalist, whose career spanned more than fifty years and sixty films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywoods golden age, with The Apartment, Wilder became the first person to win Academy Awards as producer, director and screenwriter for the same film. Wilder became a screenwriter in the late 1920s while living in Berlin, after the rise of the Nazi Party, Wilder, who was Jewish, left for Paris, where he made his directorial debut. He moved to Hollywood in 1933, and in 1939 he had a hit when he co-wrote the screenplay for the romantic comedy Ninotchka, Wilder established his directorial reputation with an adaption of James M. Cains Double Indemnity, a film noir. Wilder co-wrote the screenplay with crime novelist Raymond Chandler, Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of a Charles R. Jackson story The Lost Weekend, about alcoholism. In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard, from the mid-1950s on, Wilder made mostly comedies. Among the classics Wilder created in this period are the farces The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot and he directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances. Wilder was recognized with the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1986, in 1988, Wilder was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts, born Samuel Wilder to a Polish-Jewish family in Sucha Beskidzka, Austria-Hungary, to Max and Eugenia Wilder, he was nicknamed Billie by his mother. He had a brother, William Lee Wilder, who also became a screenwriter, film producer. His parents had a successful and well-known cake shop in Sucha Beskidzkas train station, soon the family moved to Vienna, where Wilder attended school. Instead of attending the University of Vienna, Wilder became a journalist, to advance his career Wilder decided to move to Berlin, where, before achieving success as a writer, he allegedly worked as a taxi dancer. After writing crime and sports stories as a stringer for local newspapers, developing an interest in film, he began working as a screenwriter. He collaborated with several other tyros on the 1929 feature People on Sunday and he wrote the screenplay for the 1931 film adaptation of a novel by Erich Kästner, Emil and the Detectives. After the rise of Adolf Hitler, Wilder, Jewish, left for Paris and he relocated to Hollywood prior to its release. Wilders mother, grandmother and stepfather all perished in the Holocaust, after arriving in Hollywood in 1933, Wilder continued his career as a screenwriter. He became a citizen of the United States in 1934. Wilders first significant success was Ninotchka in 1939, a collaboration with fellow German immigrant Ernst Lubitsch and this romantic comedy starred Greta Garbo, and was popularly and critically acclaimed
11.
Palme d'Or
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The Palme dOr is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee, from 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film. In 1964, it was replaced again by the Grand Prix du Festival before being reintroduced in 1974 as the Palme dOr again. In 1954, the Jury of the Festival de Cannes suggested giving an award titled the Grand Prix of the International Film Festival with a new design each year from a contemporary artist. At the end of 1954, the Festivals Board of Directors invited several jewellers to submit designs for a palm, in tribute to the coat of arms of the City of Cannes. The original design by the jeweller Lucienne Lazon had the lower extremity of the stalk forming a heart. In 1955, the first Palme dOr was awarded to Delbert Mann for Marty, and it remained the highest award until 1964, as of 2015, Jane Campion is the only female director to have won the Palme dOr, for The Piano. These choices were due to a Cannes policy that forbids the Palme dOr-winning film from receiving any additional awards, according to Spielberg, Had the casting been 3% wrong, it wouldnt have worked like it did for us. Since its reintroduction, the prize has been redesigned several times, at the beginning of the 1980s, the rounded shape of the pedestal, bearing the palm, gradually transformed to become pyramidal in 1984. In 1992 Thierry de Bourqueney redesigned the Palme and its pedestal in hand-cut crystal, the current design, first presented in 1997, is by Caroline Scheufele from Chopard. A single piece of cut crystal forms a cushion for the 24-carat gold palm, the winner of the 2014 Palme dOr, Winter Sleep—a Turkish film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan—occurred during the same year as the 100th anniversary of Turkish cinema. Note, The Palme dOr for Union Pacific was awarded in retrospect at the 2002 festival, the festivals debut was to take place in 1939, but it was cancelled due to World War II. The organisers of the 2002 festival presented part of the original 1939 selection to a jury of six members. The films were, Goodbye Mr. Chips, La Piste du Nord, Lenin in 1918, The Four Feathers, The Wizard of Oz, Union Pacific, and Boefje. In 2011 the festival announced that the award would be given out annually, however plans for this fell through, american director Woody Allen was the inaugural recipient while pioneering French filmmaker Agnès Varda was the first woman to receive the award in 2015. In 2016 Jean-Pierre Léaud became the first person to be awarded solely for acting. com Cannes Film Festival IMDB
12.
Joan Crawford
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Joan Crawford was an American film and television actress who began her career as a dancer and stage showgirl. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Crawford tenth on its list of the greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Beginning her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies, before debuting as a girl on Broadway. In the 1930s, Crawfords fame rivaled, and later outlasted, MGM colleagues Norma Shearer, Crawford often played hard-working young women who find romance and success. These stories were received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. But her career gradually improved in the early 1940s, and she made a comeback in 1945 by starring in Mildred Pierce. She would go on to receive Best Actress nominations for Possessed, in 1955, Crawford became involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company through her marriage to company Chairman Alfred Steele. After his death in 1959, Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors, following a public appearance in 1974, after which unflattering photographs were published, Crawford withdrew from public life and became increasingly reclusive until her death in 1977. Her first three ended in divorce, the last ended with the death of husband Alfred Steele. She adopted five children, one of whom was reclaimed by his birth mother, Crawfords relationships with her two older children, Christina and Christopher, were acrimonious. Crawford disinherited the two, and, after Crawfords death, Christina wrote a well-known tell-all memoir titled Mommie Dearest, Crawfords remains are interred at the Ferncliff Cemetery, in Hartsdale, New York. Born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, on March 23, Crawfords birth year is disputed, with 1904,1905 and she was the youngest and third child of father Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry laborer, and mother Anna Bell Johnson. Johnson was of English, French Huguenot, Swedish, and Irish ancestry, Crawfords elder siblings were sister Daisy LeSueur, who died before Lucilles birth, and brother Hal LeSueur. Crawfords father abandoned the family a few months before her birth, reappearing later in 1930 in Abilene, Texas, following LeSueurs departure from the family home, Crawfords mother married Henry J. Cassin. The marriage is listed in the census as Crawfords mothers first marriage, Crawford lived with her mother, stepfather, and siblings in Lawton, Oklahoma. There, Cassin, an impresario, ran the Ramsey Opera House and managed to book diverse. At that time, Crawford was reportedly unaware that Cassin, whom she called daddy, was not her father until her brother Hal told her the truth. Crawford preferred the nickname Billie as a child and enjoyed watching vaudeville acts perform on the stage of her stepfathers theatre, because the familys instability negatively affected Crawfords childhood, her schooling never formally progressed beyond elementary school
13.
Academy Award for Best Actress
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The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Janet Gaynor receiving the award for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actresses were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actress is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, one actress has been nominated posthumously, Jeanne Eagels. Only three film characters have been nominated more than once in this category, elizabeth I of England, Leslie Crosbie in The Letter, and Esther Blodgett in A Star is Born. Six women on the list have received an Honorary Academy Award for their acting, they are Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Pickford, Deborah Kerr, Gena Rowlands, since its inception, the award has been given to 74 actresses. Katharine Hepburn has won the most awards in this category, with four Oscars, meryl Streep, who has a total of 20 Oscar nominations, has been nominated in this category on 16 occasions, resulting in two awards. As of the 2017 ceremony, Emma Stone is the most recent winner in category for her role as Mia Dolan in La La Land. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933
14.
Mildred Pierce (film)
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Mildred Pierce is a 1945 American film noir directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson and Zachary Scott, also featuring Eve Arden, Ann Blyth and Bruce Bennett. Based on a novel by James M. Cain, this was Crawfords first starring film for Warner Bros. after leaving MGM, and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1996, Mildred Pierce was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, while the novel is told by a third-person narrator in strict chronological order, the film uses voice-over narration. The story is framed by Mildreds interrogation by police after they discover the body of her second husband, the film, in noir fashion, opens with Beragon having been shot. He murmurs the name Mildred before he dies, the police tell Mildred that they believe the murderer is her first husband, Bert Pierce. Bert has already been interrogated and has confessed to the crime, Mildred protests that he is too kind and gentle to commit murder, and goes on to relate her life story in flashback. Mildred was married to Bert Pierce, who is presently unemployed, Bert had been a real estate partner of Wally Fay. Mildred has been supporting her family by baking and selling pies and cakes, Bert accuses Mildred of caring more about their daughters, and making them her priority instead of her husband. Mildred admits this, and the two decide to separate, Wally propositions Mildred the moment he learns that she and Bert separated. Mildred retained custody of her two daughters, the 16-year-old Veda, a bratty social climber and aspiring pianist, and 10-year-old Kay, Mildreds principal goal is to provide for Veda, who longs for possessions that her mother cant afford, and social status above that of her family. She is ashamed of her mothers work as a baker, Mildred searches for a job, but is hampered by her lack of employable skills. She has never worked outside her home except for her small baking business, the best she can find is as a waitress – a fact she hides from Veda. One day, Veda gives their maid, Lottie, Mildreds waitress uniform, Mildred confronts Veda and is forced to admit she is a waitress. Veda treats her with derision and makes it clear that she is ashamed of her mother, Bert arrives to take his daughters for his weekend visit. Kay contracts pneumonia on the trip and dies, Mildred channels her grief into work and throws herself into opening a new restaurant. With the help of her new friend and former supervisor, Ida, Wally helps Mildred buy the property, and she expands into a chain of Mildreds throughout Southern California. Mildred continues to smother Veda in affection and worldly goods, Veda, despite her mothers love and lavish gifts, remains spoiled, selfish, disrespectful and expresses her scorn of Mildreds common background and choice of profession. Vedas obsession with money and materialistic possessions only increases, Veda secretly marries a well-to-do young man for his money and position, but expresses unhappiness about her marriage
15.
Academy Award for Best Director
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The Academy Award for Best Director is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of a director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the film industry. However, these categories were merged for all subsequent ceremonies, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the directors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. For the first eleven years of the Academy Awards, directors were allowed to be nominated for multiple films in the same year, the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture have been very closely linked throughout their history. Of the 89 films that have been awarded Best Picture,63 have also been awarded Best Director, since its inception, the award has been given to 69 directors or directing teams. John Ford has received the most awards in this category with four, william Wyler was nominated on twelve occasions, more than any other individual. As of the 2017 ceremony, Damien Chazelle is the most recent winner in category for his work on La La Land. Chazelle also became the youngest director in history to receive this award, two directing teams have shared the award, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story in 1961 and Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men in 2007. The Coen brothers are the siblings to have won the award. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full calendar year from January 1 to December 31. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com
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Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio based in Hollywood, California, that has been a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor contracted 22 actors and actresses and these fortunate few would become the first movie stars. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, followed by the Nordisk Film company. It is the last major film studio headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company, hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success and its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, the Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies, Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor, until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation, in 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged the three companies into one, with only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, the driving force behind Paramounts rise was Zukor. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg and they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, three years later, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. In 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps, animated cartoons produced by Max, the Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957, Paramount was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies, and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris
17.
Joe Pasternak
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Joseph Herman Joe Pasternak was an Hungarian-born American film producer in Hollywood. Born to a Jewish family in Szilágysomlyó, Austria-Hungary, Pasternak was a film producer in Germany. He worked for Universal Pictures in Europe, where he made German-language musicals for the international market and he hit upon a successful formula, building light musical comedies around an adolescent soprano. Following the establishment of the Nazi regime, Pasternak emigrated to the United States, at Universals Hollywood studio in 1936. Pasternak cast 14-year-old Canadian singer Deanna Durbin in Three Smart Girls, the film became a huge hit and reputedly saved Universal from bankruptcy. Pasternak produced a string of Durbin musicals, and soon discovered another talented soprano, who began her own series in 1939. Pasternak proved to be an asset for the studio, generating a number of popular films, including Destry Rides Again. His career as a film producer spanned 40 years and earned him two Oscar nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations and he retired in 1968, having produced more than ninety feature-length films as well as three Academy Award shows. Pasternak is the father of Michael Joseph Pasternak, the disk jockey known as Emperor Rosko, Jeff Pasternak, a playwright and songwriter, and Peter Pasternak. Joe Pasternak died in Beverly Hills, California from complications arising from Parkinsons disease six days shy of his 90th birthday and he is interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. For his contribution to the picture industry, Joe Pasternak has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1541 N. Joe Pasternak at the Internet Movie Database Joe Pasternak at Find a Grave
18.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
19.
Anchors Aweigh (film)
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In addition to a live-action Kelly dancing with Jerry Mouse the cartoon mouse, the movie also features José Iturbi, Pamela Britton, Dean Stockwell, and Sharon McManus. Joe Brady and Clarence Doolittle are Navy sailors who have a four-day leave in Hollywood, Joe has his heart set on spending time with his girl, the unseen Lola. Clarence, the shy choir boy turned sailor, asks Joe to teach him how to get girls, Donald, a little boy who wants to join the navy, is found wandering around the boulevard by a cop, who takes him to the police station. Clarence and Joe end up being picked up by the cops to help convince Donald to go home, after the two sailors wait at home and entertain Donald, Donalds Aunt Susie arrives. Clarence is smitten with her from the beginning, Susan goes on to tell them that she has been trying to find work in music, and longs to perform with José Iturbi. Trying to make Susan impressed with Clarence, Joe tells her that Clarence is a friend of Iturbi. That night, they go out to a cafe, where Clarence meets a girl from Brooklyn, and they hit it off. The next day, Joe visits Donalds school, and tells the kids the story of how he got his medal, and how he brought happiness to a lonesome king, meanwhile, Clarence has been trying to get into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios to find Iturbi with no luck. After many failed attempts to find Iturbi, all hope is lost for Joe and Clarence, on Clarence and Joes last day of leave, Susan runs into Iturbi at a café, who has no idea of the audition. Susan begins to call Joe, whom by now she has fallen in love with, Iturbi stops her and agrees to get her a screen test, which turns out to be very successful. The movie ends as Iturbi conducts the choir in singing Anchors Aweigh, and Joe, Susan, Clarence and the girl from Brooklyn kiss. It was the first of three buddy pictures teaming the cocky dancing Kelly with the shy singing Sinatra, followed by Take Me Out To The Ball Game and On the Town, both in 1949. The production tried to mix some of the successful story elements and set-pieces from earlier MGM musical hits. The movie is famous for a number where Gene Kelly dances seamlessly with the animated Jerry Mouse. Tom Cat appears briefly as a butler in the sequence supervised by William Hanna, the animation was entirely done by veterans Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson and Ed Barge. Originally, the wanted to use Mickey Mouse for this segment. Some sources claim Walt Disney initially agreed to loan out Mickey, according to Bob Thomass book on Roy Disney, the studio was in debt after World War II and they were focusing on trying to get their own films out on time. According to Roy, they had no business making cartoons for other people, in the audition scene with Iturbi, Grayson sings a special arrangement by Earl Brent for coloratura soprano and orchestra of the waltz from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys Serenade for Strings
20.
Leo McCarey
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Thomas Leo McCarey was a three-time Academy Award winning American film director, screenwriter and producer. He was involved in nearly 200 movies, the most well known today being Duck Soup, Make Way for Tomorrow, The Awful Truth, Going My Way, McCarey was one of the most popular and established comedy directors of the pre-World War II era. Born in Los Angeles, California, McCarey attended St. Joseph’s Catholic school and his father was Thomas J. McCarey, whom the Los Angeles Times called the greatest fight promoter in the world. Leo McCarey would later make a comedy with Harold Lloyd called The Milky Way. Leo McCarey graduated from the University of Southern California law school and besides the law tried mining, boxing and it was McCareys boyhood friend, the actor and future fellow director David Butler, who referred him to Browning. Browning convinced McCarey, despite his looks, to work on the creative side as a writer rather than as an actor. McCarey then honed his skills at the Hal Roach Studios, Roach had hired him as a gagman in 1923, after McCarey had impressed him with his sense of humor, following a game of handball together at a sports club. McCarey initially wrote gags for the Our Gang series and other stars, then produced and directed shorts. Chase would in fact become McCareys mentor, upon the comedians death in 1940, McCarey was quoted as saying, Whatever success I have had or may have, I owe to his help because he taught me all I know. The two men were especially compatible, as they enjoyed a hobby on the side trying to write popular songs. He only officially appeared as director of the duos shorts We Faw Down, Liberty and Wrong Again, by 1929, he was vice-president of production for the studio. Less well known from this period are the shorts he directed with Max Davidson when Roach put together the Irish-American McCarey with the Jewish-American actor for a series of dialect comedies. These shorts such as Pass The Gravy have been rediscovered in recent years, Pass The Gravy was added to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress in 1999. In the sound era McCarey focused on feature-film direction, working with many of the biggest stars of the era, including Gloria Swanson, Eddie Cantor, a series of six films at Paramount came to a crashing halt with his production of Make Way for Tomorrow in 1937. Nonetheless the film was recognized early on for its importance by being selected for the permanent collection of the recently formed Museum Of Modern Art in New York City. In later years it became canonical, and even considered by some as McCareys masterpiece, due to champions such as Bertrand Tavernier, Charles Silver. Along with the similarity in their names, McCarey and Cary Grant shared a physical resemblance. As writer/director Peter Bogdanovich notes, After The Awful Truth, when it came to light comedy, there was Cary Grant, McCarey was a devout Roman Catholic and deeply concerned with social issues
21.
RKO Radio Pictures
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RKO Pictures Inc. also known as RKO Radio Pictures and in its later years RKO Teleradio Pictures, was an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the companys sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum, RKO has long been celebrated for its series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio, cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The work of producer Val Lewtons low-budget horror unit and RKOs many ventures into the now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after the fact, by film critics. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history, King Kong and Citizen Kane, RKO Pictures is also a member of Motion Picture Association of America. Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948, after years of turmoil and decline under his control, Hughes sold the troubled studio to General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the heir, revived it as a production subsidiary. In October 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer and its success prompted Hollywood to convert from silent to sound film production en masse. The Radio Corporation of America controlled an advanced optical sound-on-film system, RCA Photophone, the industrys two largest major studios, Paramount and Loews/MGM, with two other studios Universal and First National, were poised to contract with ERPI for sound conversion as well. Next on the agenda was securing a string of exhibition venues like those the leading Hollywood production companies owned, Kennedy began investigating the possibility of such a purchase. Around that time, the large Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit of theaters, built around the medium of live vaudeville, was attempting a transition to the movie business. In mid-1927, the operations of Pathé Exchange and Cecil B. De Milles Producers Distributing Corporation had united under KAOs control, early in 1928, KAO general manager John J. Murdock, who had assumed the presidency of Pathé, turned to Kennedy as an adviser in consolidating the studio with De Milles company, PDC. This was the relationship Sarnoff and Kennedy sought, on October 23,1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, with Sarnoff as chairman of the board. Kennedy, who withdrew from his positions in the merged companies, kept Pathé separate from RKO. RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO,22 percent, in the early 1930s, the companys production and distribution arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I
22.
Jerry Wald
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Jerry Wald was an American screenwriter and a producer of films and radio programs. Born Jerome Irving Wald to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, he had a brother and he began writing a radio column for the New York Evening Graphic, while studying at New York University. The Lusty Men, and Clash by Night, krasna and Wald dissolved their partnership because of interference from Howard Hughes, then head of RKO, in their productions. Wald went on to produce Peyton Place, An Affair to Remember, In Love and War, The Sound and the Fury, Sons and Lovers, Return to Peyton Place and he also produced the Academy Awards telecast twice, the ceremonies for 1957 and 1958. He received four Academy Award nominations as producer of the nominees for Best Picture, Mildred Pierce, Johnny Belinda, Peyton Place and Sons. Although he never won a competitive Academy Award, he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1949, Wald is often cited as the real-life inspiration for the character Sammy Glick in the novel What Makes Sammy Run by Budd Schulberg. Jerry Wald, was a close friend to Joan Crawford in the forties, offering her many parts often considered to be the of career including Mildred Pierce. He convinced director Michael Curtis that she could do the picture and that she would succeed in the role, after her career at Warners fizzled out slowly even though she wished to remain with Warners, after years of reinventing herself, she bought out her contract. Afterwards, she bought the rights to a screenplay called Sudden Fear which brought her a third Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 1953. Jerry Wald remains as a producer and after the movies he made with Joan Crawford. Wald married Constance Emily Connie Polan on December 25,1941, Wald died, aged 50, at his home in Beverly Hills, California from a heart attack. His widow, Connie Wald, was a California socialite and hostess, Jerry Wald at the Internet Movie Database Jerry Wald at Find a Grave
23.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
24.
David O. Selznick
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David O. Selznick was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive. He is best known for producing Gone with the Wind and Rebecca, David Selznick was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Florence Anna and silent movie producer and distributor Lewis J. Selznick. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants and he had four siblings and his dad was born in Kyiv in 1870. Selznick added the O to distinguish himself from an uncle with the same name and he studied at Columbia University in New York City and worked as an apprentice for his father until the elders bankruptcy in 1923. In 1926, Selznick moved to Hollywood, and with the help of his fathers connections and he left MGM for Paramount Pictures in 1928, where he worked until 1931, when he joined RKO as Head of Production. David Selznicks years at RKO were fruitful, and he worked on films, including A Bill of Divorcement. Rockabye, Bird of Paradise, Our Betters, and King Kong, while at RKO, he also gave George Cukor his directing break. In 1933 he returned to MGM where his father-in-law, Louis B, mayer established a second prestige production unit for David, parallel to that of powerful Irving Thalberg, who was in poor health. Selznicks unit output included the all star cast movie Dinner at Eight, David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, despite his output of successful movies at MGM, Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures, Selznick longed to be an independent producer with his own studio. In 1935 he realized that goal by leasing RKO Culver City Studios & back lot, formed Selznick International Pictures, Gone with the Wind won eight Oscars and two special awards. Selznick also won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award that same year, in 1940 he produced his second Best Picture Oscar winner in a row, Rebecca, the first Hollywood production for British director Alfred Hitchcock. Selznick had brought Hitchcock over from England, launching the directors American career, Rebecca was Hitchcocks only film to win Best Picture. After Rebecca, Selznick closed Selznick International Pictures and took time off. His business activities included the loan of his artists to other studios, including Alfred Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, Vivien Leigh. In 1944, he formed The Selznick Studio and returned to producing pictures with the huge success Since You Went Away and he followed that with the Hitchcock films Spellbound and The Paradine Case, as well as Portrait of Jennie, a vehicle for Jennifer Jones. He also developed projects and sold the packages to other producers. Among the movies that he developed but then sold was Hitchcocks Notorious, in 1949 he co-produced the Carol Reed picture The Third Man with Alexander Korda. Gone with the Wind overshadowed the rest of Selznicks career, later, he was convinced that he had wasted his life trying to out do it
25.
United Artists
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United Artists is an American film and television entertainment studio. The studio was bought, sold and restructured over the ensuing century. On December 14 of the year, however, MGM acquired the 48% stake of UAMG it did not own. UA was incorporated as a joint venture on February 5,1919, by Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks, each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work. They were spurred on by established Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening their control over salaries and creative decisions. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before anything was formalized, when he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, is said to have observed, The inmates are taking over the asylum. The four partners, with advice from McAdoo, formed their distribution company and its headquarters was established at 729 Seventh Avenue in New York City. The original terms called for each of the stars to produce five pictures each year, UAs first film was a success. Without selling stock to the public, following the other studios, as a result, production was slow and the company distributed an annual average of five films during its first five years. By 1924 Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis, veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. He had been producing pictures for a decade, and he brought commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, contracts were signed with independent producers, most notably Samuel Goldwyn, and Howard Hughes. In 1933, Schenck organized a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, called Twentieth Century Pictures, Schenck formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name. They began international operations, first in Canada and then in Mexico, by the end of the 1930s, United Artists was represented in over 40 countries. When he was denied a share in 1935, Schenck resigned. He set up 20th Century Pictures merger with Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox, al Lichtman succeeded Schenck as company president. Other independent producers distributed through United Artists in the 1930s including, Walt Disney Productions, Alexander Korda, Hal Roach, David O. Selznick, as the years passed, and the dynamics of the business changed, these producing partners drifted away. Samuel Goldwyn Productions and Disney went to RKO, and Wanger to Universal Pictures, in the late 1930s, UA turned a profit
26.
Spellbound (1945 film)
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Spellbound is a 1945 American film noir psychological mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It tells the story of the new head of a mental asylum who turns out not to be what he claims, the film stars Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov and Leo G. Carroll. It is an adaptation by Angus MacPhail and Ben Hecht of the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Hilary Saint George Saunders, Dr. Constance Petersen is a psychoanalyst at Green Manors, a mental hospital in Vermont. She is perceived by the doctors as detached and emotionless. The director of the hospital, Dr. Murchison, is being forced into retirement and his replacement is Dr. Anthony Edwardes, who turns out to be surprisingly young. Dr. Petersen notices that Dr. Edwardes has a phobia about sets of parallel lines against a white background. She also soon realizes, by comparing handwriting, that man is an impostor. He confides to her that he killed Dr. Edwardes and took his place and he suffers from massive amnesia and does not know who he is. Dr. Petersen believes he is innocent and suffering from a guilt complex and he disappears overnight, leaving a note for her. At the same time, it becomes public knowledge that Dr. Edwardes is an impostor, Dr. Petersen manages to track him down, and starts to use her psychoanalytic training to break his amnesia and find out what really happened. Pursued by the police, Dr. Petersen and the travel by train to Rochester, New York where they stay with Dr. Brulov. The two doctors analyze a dream that John Brown had and they deduce that Brown and Edwardes had been on a ski trip together, and that Edwardes had somehow died there. Dr. Petersen and Brown go to the Gabriel Valley ski resort, near the bottom of the hill, Browns memory suddenly returns. He recalls that there is a precipice in front of them and he stops them just in time. He also remembers a traumatic event from his childhood – he slid down a rail with his brother at the bottom, accidentally knocking him onto sharp-pointed railings. This incident had caused him to develop a guilt complex and he also remembers that his real name is John Ballantyne. All is understood now, and Ballantyne is about to be exonerated, Ballantyne is convicted of murder and sent to prison. A heartbroken Dr. Petersen returns to her position at the hospital, Murchison lets slip that he had known Edwardes slightly, and didnt like him, contradicting his earlier claims
27.
Clarence Brown
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Clarence Leon Brown was an American film director. Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, to a manufacturer, Brown moved to Tennessee when he was 11 years old. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of 19 with two degrees in engineering. An early fascination in automobiles led Brown to a job with the Stevens-Duryea Company and he later abandoned the car dealership after developing an interest in motion pictures around 1913. He was hired by the Peerless Studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey, after serving in World War I, Brown was given his first co-directing credit for The Great Redeemer. Later that year, he directed a portion of The Last of the Mohicans after Tourneur was injured in a fall. Brown moved to Universal in 1924, and then to MGM, at MGM he was one of the main directors of their female stars, he directed Joan Crawford six times and Greta Garbo seven. He was nominated five times for the Academy Award as a director and once as a producer, however, he won Best Foreign Film for Anna Karenina, starring Garbo at the 1935 Venice International Film Festival. Browns films gained a total of 38 Academy Award nominations and earned nine Oscars, Brown himself received six Academy Award nominations and in 1949, he won the British Academy Award for the film version of William Faulkners Intruder in the Dust. In 1957, Brown was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. Brown retired a wealthy man due to his real estate investments, the Clarence Brown Theater, on the campus of the University of Tennessee, is named in his honor. He is tied with Robert Altman and Alfred Hitchcock for the most Academy Award nominations for best director without a single win, Brown died from kidney failure on August 17,1987, at the age of 97. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, As allowed by the award rules for this year, a single nomination could honor work in one or more films. Clarence Brown in The Parades Gone By New York, Knopf Estrin, the Hollywood Professionals, Vol.6, Frank Capra, George Cukor, Clarence Brown, AS Barnes Bastarache, A. J. An Extraordinary Town, How one of Americas smallest towns shaped the world - A Historical Marketing Book by A. J. Bastarache, Clarence Brown, From Knoxville to Hollywood and Back. Journal of East Tennessee History, pp. 53-73 Young, Gwenda, star Maker, The Career of Clarence Brown, bfi. org. uk Neely, Jack
28.
National Velvet (film)
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National Velvet is a 1944 American Technicolor sports film directed by Clarence Brown and based on the novel of the same name by Enid Bagnold, published in 1935. It stars Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, and a young Elizabeth Taylor, in 2003, National Velvet was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. She is aided by a young drifter named Mi Taylor, who found Mrs. Browns name and address among his late fathers effects. Hoping to gain money from the association, Mi stays at the Browns home. Nevertheless she convinces her husband to hire Mi over his better judgment and it is revealed that Mi had been a jockey in Manchester, but his career ended in a collision which resulted in the death of another jockey. Since then Mi has not held a job, and he has come to hate horses, Velvet decides to call the horse The Pie after his owner, Mr. Ede, calls him a pirate. The man decides to be rid of The Pie, and offers him up in a raffle, Velvet wins The Pie, and on realizing the extent of the horses natural talent, she pleads with Mi to train the horse for the Grand National. He believes it a fools errand, not because of the horse and he makes his case to Mrs. Brown, but she consents to Velvets desire to train the horse. Velvet and Mi train the horse and enter him into the race, an experienced jockey is hired to ride him. The night before the race Velvet senses that the jockey hired to ride The Pie has no faith in him, Velvet convinces Mi to fire the jockey, leaving them without a rider. That night Mi determines to overcome his fears and ride The Pie himself, instead, he discovers that Velvet has slipped on the jockeys colors, and intends to ride the horse in the race herself. Aware of the dangers of such a race, Mi tries to reason with Velvet, as the race unfolds Velvet and The Pie avoid a number of falls, clear all the hurdles and win the race. Elated by their win, Velvet faints and falls off her mount at the finish, as she is revived the race doctor realizes she is not a young man, but a young woman. As she dismounted before getting the back to the paddock, she and The Pie are disqualified. Velvet becomes a sensation, declining an offer of £5,000 to travel to Hollywood with The Pie to be filmed. She ran The Pie at the Grand National because he deserved to have a chance and he wasnt an oddity to be stared at. Velvet tearfully refuses the offer claiming that The Pie wouldnt like being stared at, Velvet chooses to have a normal life with The Pie. At the close of the film Mi takes his leave, Velvet rides off to catch up with Mi and tell him that his father had been Mrs. Browns coach when she won the prize as the first woman to swim the English Channel, many years before
29.
Jean Renoir
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Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made and he was ranked by the BFIs Sight & Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time. Among numerous honors accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975 for his contribution to the picture industry. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Renoir was born in the Montmartre district of Paris, France. He was the son of Aline Renoir and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His elder brother was Pierre Renoir, a French stage and film actor, Renoir was also the uncle of Claude Renoir, the son of Pierre, a cinematographer who worked with Jean Renoir on several of his films. Renoir was largely raised by Gabrielle Renard, his nanny and his mothers cousin, shortly before his birth, she had come to live with the Renoir family. She introduced the boy to the Guignol puppet shows in Montmartre. He wrote in his 1974 memoirs My Life and My Films, She taught me to see the face behind the mask and she taught me to detest the cliché. Gabrielle was also fascinated by the new invention, and when Renoir was only a few years old she took him to see his first film. As a child, Renoir moved to the south of France with his family and he and the rest of the Renoir family were the subjects of many of his fathers paintings. His fathers financial success ensured that the young Renoir was educated at boarding schools, from which, as he later wrote. At the outbreak of World War I, Renoir was serving in the French cavalry, later, after receiving a bullet in his leg, he served as a reconnaissance pilot. After the war, Renoir followed his fathers suggestion and tried his hand at making ceramics and he was particularly inspired by Erich von Stroheims work. In 1924, Renoir directed Une Vie Sans Joie or Catherine and she was also his fathers last model. At this stage, his films did not produce a return, Renoir gradually sold paintings inherited from his father to finance them. During the 1930s Renoir enjoyed great success as a filmmaker, in 1931 he directed his first sound films, On purge bébé and La Chienne
30.
The Southerner (film)
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The Southerner is a 1945 American film directed by Jean Renoir, based on the 1941 novel Hold Autumn in Your Hand by George Sessions Perry. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Director, Original Music Score, Renoir was named Best Director by the National Board of Review, which also named the film the third best of 1945. Future director Robert Aldrich was an assistant director on this film, filming location for flood is below the site where Millerton Lake is located today. The flood was created by releases from the recently completed Friant Dam. Sam Tucker is a cotton picker in Texas who decides to start his own farm and he and wife Nona, Granny and children Jot and Daisy set out with nothing but two mules and a bit of seed. The land they lease has no working well, so neighbor Henry Devers reluctantly lets the Tuckers share his water supply and they nearly starve and freeze during a hard winter. Come spring, the child Jot falls ill with Spring Sickness and desperately needs milk and vegetables to survive, Sams friend Tim offers to help find him a city job in a factory. Sam remains determined to make the work, and Harmie answers the familys prayers with the gift of a cow. Cotton blooms and a garden is planted. The bitter Devers and his nephew Finley conspire to ruin the Tuckers, though, after a fight, Devers comes armed with a gun, only to find Sam about to catch a catfish that Devers has been after for years. In return for the fish and bragging rights that he caught it, Harmie ends up marrying Sams mother and life seems fruitful at last, only to have a terrible thunderstorm ruin their crop and ravage the Tuckers home. They must start once more. The film is in the public domain, wins National Board of Review, NBR Award, Best Director, Jean Renoir, also Top Ten Film,1945
31.
Alfred Hitchcock
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Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE was an English film director and producer, at times referred to as The Master of Suspense. He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres and he had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as Englands best director. Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939, and became a US citizen in 1955 and he also fashioned for himself a recognisable directorial style. Hitchcocks stylistic trademarks include the use of movement that mimics a persons gaze. In addition, he framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy and his work often features fugitives on the run alongside icy blonde female characters. Prior to 1980, there had long been talk of Hitchcock being knighted for his contribution to film, Hitchcock later received his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Year Honours. Hitchcock directed more than fifty films in a career spanning six decades and is often regarded as one of the most influential directors in cinematic history. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else, Hitchcocks first thriller, The Lodger, A Story of the London Fog, helped shape the thriller genre in film. His 1929 film, Blackmail, is cited as the first British sound feature film, while Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest. Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone and he was the second son and the youngest of three children of William Hitchcock, a greengrocer and poulterer, and Emma Jane Hitchcock. He was named after his fathers brother, Hitchcock was raised as a Roman Catholic, and sent to Salesian College, Battersea, and the Jesuit grammar school St Ignatius College in Stamford Hill, London. His parents were both of half-English and half-Irish ancestry and he often described a lonely and sheltered childhood that was worsened by his obesity. Around age five, Hitchcock recalled that to him for behaving badly. This incident implanted a lifelong fear of policemen in Hitchcock, and such harsh treatment, sources vary on Hitchcocks performance in school. Gene Adair reports that by most accounts, Alfred was only an average, or slightly above-average, however, McGilligan writes that Hitchcock certainly excelled academically. When Hitchcock was 15, his father died, in that same year, he left St. Ignatius to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London. After leaving, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a company called Henleys. Hitchcock joined a regiment of the Royal Engineers in 1917
32.
Academy Award for Best Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Emil Jannings receiving the award for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actor is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, since its inception, the award has been given to 79 actors. Daniel Day-Lewis has received the most awards in this category with three Oscars, spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated on nine occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Casey Affleck is the most recent winner in category for his role as Lee Chandler in Manchester by the Sea. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933
33.
Ray Milland
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Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. Before becoming an actor, Milland served in the Household Cavalry of the British Army, becoming a proficient marksman, horse-rider and aeroplane pilot. He left the army to follow a career in acting and appeared as an extra in several British productions before getting his first major role in The Flying Scotsman. This led to a contract with MGM and he moved to the United States where he appeared as a stock actor. After being released by MGM, he was picked up by Paramount and he was loaned out to Universal for a film called Three Smart Girls, and its success saw Milland given a lead role in The Jungle Princess alongside new starlet Dorothy Lamour. The film was a big success and catapulted both to stardom, after leaving Paramount, he began directing and ended his career moving into television. Milland was born Alfred Reginald Jones on 3 January 1907 in Neath, Wales, the son of Elizabeth Annie and Alfred Jones, of his parents, Milland wrote in his autobiography Wide-Eyed in Babylon, My father was not a cruel or harsh man. I think he was a romantic and consequently a little afraid of his emotions. He had been a young hussar in the Boer War and had been present at the relief of Mafeking and he never held long conversations with anyone, except perhaps with me, possibly because I was the only other male in our family. The household consisted of my mother, a flighty and coquettish woman much concerned with propriety. He was educated independently before attending the private Kings College School in Cardiff and he worked at his uncles horse-breeding farm before leaving home at the age of 21. Before becoming an actor, Milland served in the Household Cavalry, an expert shot, he became a member of his companys rifle team, winning many prestigious competitions, including the Bisley Match in England. While stationed in London, Milland met dancer Margot St. Leger, Brody queried Millands commitment to an army career, which led to Milland buying himself out of the forces in 1928 in the hope of becoming an actor. His first appearance on film was as an extra on the E. A. After some unproductive extra work, which never reached the screen, while he was working on The Informer he was asked to test for a production being shot on a neighbouring stage. Milland made an impression on director Castleton Knight and was hired for his first acting role as Jim Edwards. Milland, in his autobiography, recalls that it was on film that it was suggested he adopt a stage name. His work on The Flying Scotsman had impressed enough for him to be given a six-month contract, believing that his acting was poor, and that he had won his film roles through his looks alone, Milland decided to gain some stage work to improve his art
34.
Bing Crosby
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Harry Lillis Bing Crosby, Jr. was an American singer and actor. The first multimedia star, from 1931 to 1954 Crosby was a leader in sales, radio ratings. His early career coincided with technical recording innovations such as the microphone and this allowed him to develop a laid-back, intimate singing style that influenced many of the popular male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dick Haymes, and Dean Martin. Also in 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music, in 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award. He is one of only 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the categories of motion pictures, radio, Crosby influenced the development of the postwar recording industry. He became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape. In addition to his work with early tape recording, he helped to finance the development of videotape, bought television stations, bred racehorses, Crosby died at the age of 74 on October 14,1977, from a sudden heart attack in Alcobendas, Spain. Crosby was born on May 2,1903 in Tacoma, Washington, in 1906, Crosbys family moved to Spokane, and in 1913, Crosbys father built a house at 508 E. Sharp Avenue. The house now sits on the campus of Crosbys alma mater Gonzaga University and he was the fourth of seven children, brothers Larry, Everett, Ted, and Bob, and two sisters, Catherine and Mary Rose. His parents were Harry Lowe Crosby, Sr. a bookkeeper, Crosbys mother was a second generation Irish-American. In 1910, seven-year-old Harry Crosby Jr. was forever renamed, the Sunday edition of the Spokesman-Review published a feature called The Bingville Bugle. Written by humorist Newton Newkirk, The Bingville Bugle was a parody of a hillbilly newsletter filled with gossipy tidbits, minstrel quips, creative spelling, and mock ads. A neighbor, 15-year-old Valentine Hobart, shared Crosbys enthusiasm for The Bugle, and noting Crosbys laugh, took a liking to him, eventually, the last vowel was dropped and the nickname stuck. Crosby later described Jolsons delivery as electric, Crosby graduated from Gonzaga High School in 1920 and enrolled at Gonzaga University. He attended Gonzaga for three years, but did not earn a bachelors degree, as a freshman, he played on the universitys baseball team. The university granted him a doctorate in 1937. In 1923, Crosby was invited to join a new band composed of school students a few years younger than himself. Al Rinker, Miles Rinker, James Heaton, Claire Pritchard and Robert Pritchard, along with drummer Crosby, formed the Musicaladers, the group performed on Spokane radio station KHQ, but disbanded after two years
35.
Gene Kelly
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Eugene Curran Gene Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director, producer and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his looks. Best known today for his performances in such as An American in Paris, Anchors Aweigh. He starred in musical films throughout the 1940s, including For Me and My Gal, Du Barry Was a Lady, Thousands Cheer, The Three Musketeers. In his later career, he starred in two films outside the genre, Inherit the Wind and What a Way to Go. Throughout his career, he directed films, most notably the 1969 film Hello. His many innovations transformed the Hollywood musical and he is credited with almost single-handedly making the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences, Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements. He later received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors, in 1999, the American Film Institute also numbered him 15th in their Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood cinema list. Kelly was born in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh and he was the third son of James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman, and his wife Harriet Catherine Curran. His father was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, to an Irish-Canadian family and his maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Derry, Ireland, and his maternal grandmother was of German ancestry. When he was eight, Kellys mother enrolled him and his brother James in dance classes and they both rebelled, as recalled by Kelly, We didnt like it much and were continually involved in fistfights with the neighborhood boys who called us sissies. I didnt dance again until I was fifteen, at one time his childhood dream was to play shortstop for the hometown Pittsburgh Pirates. By the time he decided to dance, he was an accomplished sportsman and he attended St. Raphael Elementary School in the Morningside neighborhood of Pittsburgh and graduated from Peabody High School at age sixteen. He entered Pennsylvania State College as a major, but the 1929 crash forced him to work to help his family. He created dance routines with his younger brother Fred to earn money in local talent contests. They also performed in local nightclubs, in 1931, Kelly enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to study economics, joining the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. He became involved in the universitys Cap and Gown Club, which staged original musical productions, after graduating in 1933, he continued to be active with the Cap and Gown Club, serving as the director from 1934 to 1938. Kelly was admitted to the University of Pittsburgh Law School and his family opened a dance studio in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh
36.
Gregory Peck
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Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor who was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck continued to major film roles until the late 1980s. His performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor and he had also been nominated for an Oscar for the same category for The Keys of the Kingdom, The Yearling, Gentlemans Agreement and Twelve OClock High. Other notable films he appeared in include Spellbound, Roman Holiday, Moby Dick, The Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear, How the West Was Won, The Omen, President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood cinema and he was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1983. His father was of English and Irish heritage and his mother of English and she converted to her husbands religion, Roman Catholicism, when she married his father, and Peck was raised as a Catholic. Pecks parents divorced when he was five and he was brought up by his maternal grandmother, at the age of 10 he was sent to a Catholic military school, St. Johns Military Academy in Los Angeles. While he was a student there, his grandmother died, at 14, he moved back to San Diego to live with his father, attended San Diego High School, and after graduating enrolled for one year at San Diego State Teachers College. While there he joined the team, took his first theatre and public-speaking courses. Peck however had ambitions to be a doctor and the following year gained admission to the University of California, Berkeley, as an English major, standing 6 ft 3 in, he rowed on the university crew. Although his tuition fee was only $26 per year, Peck still struggled to pay, at Berkeley, encouraged by the acting coach, who saw in him perfect material for university theatre, Peck became more and more interested in acting. He was recruited by Edwin Duerr, director of the universitys Little Theater, Peck would later say about Berkeley that, it was a very special experience for me and three of the greatest years of my life. It woke me up and made me a human being, in 1997, Peck donated $25,000 to the Berkeley rowing crew in honor of his coach, the renowned Ky Ebright. He was often broke and sometimes slept in Central Park and he worked at the 1939 Worlds Fair and as a tour guide for NBCs television broadcasting. In 1940, Peck learned more of the craft, working in exchange for food, at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, appearing in five plays including Family Portrait. His stage career began in 1941 when he played the secretary in a Katharine Cornell production of George Bernard Shaws play The Doctors Dilemma, unfortunately, the play opened in San Francisco just one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He made his Broadway debut as the lead in Emlyn Williams The Morning Star in 1942 and his second Broadway performance that year was in The Willow and I with Edward Pawley. Twentieth Century Fox claimed he had injured his back while rowing at university, ive been trying to straighten out that story for years
37.
The Keys of the Kingdom (film)
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The Keys of the Kingdom is a 1944 American film based on the 1941 novel The Keys of the Kingdom by A. J. Cronin. The film was adapted by Nunnally Johnson, directed by John M. Stahl and it stars Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, and Vincent Price, and tells the story of the trials and tribulations of a Catholic priest who goes to China to evangelize. Father Francis Chisholm is visited in his old age by Monsignor Sleeth at his parish in Tweedside, the Monsignor informs Father Francis that the Bishop thinks it would be better if he retires, as Father Francis somewhat unorthodox recent teachings have become a distraction. The Monsignor retires to his room in the rectory, and finds Father Francis diary that recounts his story from 1878, as the Monsignor begins to read the diary, a flashback begins. One night during his childhood, Francis father was beaten by a mob during a rainstorm. As his mother attempts to lead her husband to safety, they die in a bridge collapse, leaving young Francis an orphan. He is raised by his aunt, and the next we see of Francis, he is leaving for the seminary with his childhood friend, Francis studies at seminary for a year, but is unsure about all of the Churchs teachings. He still finds himself in love with Nora, a girl from his home, however, he finds out that after he left, Nora had a child out of wedlock with another man, and she dies before Francis can return to see her. This prompts him to go back to seminary and follow through with his studies, Francis first two assignments as a priest are unfulfilling to him, so the Bishop asks Francis to be a volunteer missionary to China. Francis readily accepts the position, even though that means it would take him far from home as well as far from Judy, because the Church hadnt given the mission money for rice in over a year, the faith left them when the rice gave out. Francis rents a room in the city to evangelize, but because he has no money or influence. A young pilgrim named Joseph finds Francis in town, ] and restores his faith in his mission by offering to rebuild the church out of Christian duty. Francis then receives medical supplies from his childhood friend Dr. Willie Tulloch, Francis is summoned to the home of local official, Mr. Chia, to heal Chias only son of his infection. Joseph is apprehensive because if Chias son dies, Francis will be in danger and he saves the boy, but Chia and his household are ungrateful because Francis methods and faith were so contrary to the local tradition. A few weeks later, Chia comes to Francis in order to convert to Christianity, instead, Chia thanks Francis by giving the mission many acres of land and all of Chias workers in order to build a thriving mission. Two years later, the buildings are almost done, but the nuns arrive a day earlier than planned, Francis relationship with the Reverend Mother Maria-Veronica is tense, but they put aside personal differences when the town is the scene of a battle between republic and imperial troops. Willie visits from Scotland and is able to create a makeshift hospital, Willie is then shot, and eventually dies. The imperial general then gives Francis a choice, either all food and money from the mission are given to the general or the mission and everyone inside of it is destroyed
38.
Cornel Wilde
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Cornel Wilde was a Hungarian-American actor and film director. Wildes acting career began in 1935, when he made his debut on Broadway, in 1936, he began making small, uncredited appearances in films. By the 1940s, he had signed a contract with 20th Century Fox and he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in 1945s A Song to Remember. In the 1950s, he moved to writing, producing and directing films, kornél Lajos Weisz was born in 1912 in Prievidza, Hungary, although his year and place of birth are usually and inaccurately given as 1915 in New York City. His Hungarian Jewish parents were Vojtech Weisz and Renée Mary Vid and he was named for his paternal grandfather, and upon arrival in the U. S. at age 7 in 1920, his name was Americanized to Cornelius Louis Wilde. A talented linguist and a mimic, he had an ear for languages which became apparent later in his acting career. He qualified for the United States fencing team prior to the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, in preparation for an acting career, he and his new wife Marjory Heinzen shaved years off their ages, three for him and five for her. As a result, most publicity records and subsequent sources wrongly indicate a 1915 birth for Wilde, after study at Theodora Irvines Studio of the Theatre, Wilde began appearing in plays in stock and in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1935 in Moon Over Mulberry Street and he wrote a fencing play, Touché, under the pseudonym Clark Wales in 1937. Wilde was hired as a teacher by Laurence Olivier for his 1940 Broadway production of Romeo. His performance in this role netted him a Hollywood film contract and he had several small film roles until he played the role of Frédéric Chopin in 1945s A Song to Remember, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor. In 1945 he also starred in A Thousand and One Nights with Evelyn Keyes, in 1946 he was voted the 18th most popular star in the US, and in 1947 – 25th. In the 1950s, Wilde created his own production company that was named after Theodora Irvine. Wilde played the lead alongside his second wife Jean Wallace. That same year, he appeared in an episode of I Love Lucy as himself, in 1957, he guest-starred on an episode of Father Knows Best as himself. Also in 1957, he played the role of the 13th century Persian poet Omar Khayyám in the film Omar Khayyam, the original script for The Naked Prey was largely based on a true historical incident about a trapper named John Colter being pursued by Blackfeet Indians in Wyoming. Lower shooting costs, tax breaks, and material and logistical assistance offered by Rhodesia persuaded Wilde, Wildes other notable directing efforts include Beach Red and No Blade of Grass. During the early 1970s, Wilde took a break from motion pictures and he appeared as an unethical surgeon in the 1971 Night Gallery episode Deliveries in the Rear and portrayed an anthropologist in the 1972 TV movie Gargoyles
39.
A Song to Remember
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A Song to Remember is a 1945 Columbia Pictures Technicolor biographical film which tells a fictionalised life story of Polish pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin. Directed by Charles Vidor, the film starred Cornel Wilde, Merle Oberon, Paul Muni, Stephen Bekassy, Chopin, played by Cornel Wilde, is first presented to the audience as a child prodigy playing a piece by Mozart. He suddenly starts to bang on the keys when he notices out the window that Polish people are being taken prisoners by the Russian authorities. Years later, Chopin takes part in meetings to work on saving Poland with his young friends. Director Vidor depicts patriotism as a motive for Chopin playing the piano. Despite his familys apprehension, Chopin is egged on in his political activities by his devoted piano teacher. He attends a secret meeting instead of showing up on time for an important concert in front of a count, when he finally performs at the concert, he stops playing when he sees the Russian Governor of Poland enter the room. Chopin stands up and announces, I do not perform for Czarist butchers and he storms out of the room as his famous Revolutionary Étude starts in the background. The resulting scandal forces Chopin to flee to France, along with Professor Eisner, before leaving for Paris, Chopin clutches Polish earth in his hands. When he arrives in Paris, he says, I’m thinking of my people back home and you see, there was a purpose in coming to Paris. Eisner struggles to gain venues for his student, who he is certain is a genius, just before the night of his crucial debut, Chopin is informed of the murder of his revolutionary friends in Poland by Russian police. The first work of Chopins that is heard in Paris is his Heroic Polonaise, a few musicians, including Franz Liszt, recognize his genius, but the concert does not secure his reputation in France, as Eisner had hoped. The appearance of George Sand, played by Merle Oberon, alters Chopins life, an important and influential writer as well as a minor aristocrat, she has the money and connections to promote his fame. But instead of promoting Chopin as a concert pianist, Sand wants Chopin to remain alone with her, coddled at her estate, during this period, Chopin writes his most famous works. Vidor portrays George Sand as a selfish, manipulative and domineering figure in Chopins life, while under her influence, Chopin snubs his old friend Eisner, who patiently waits for him to remember his duty to his people. A young woman who Chopin knew in Poland arrives in Paris and presents Chopin with a bag of Polish earth. By the end of the film, Chopin has finally reunited with Eisner and his playing is so passionate that in one of his concerts, Chopin starts bleeding. Finally, the strain of the tour destroys his fragile health and Chopin begs from his deathbed to see Sand once more, though Chopin was a true Polish patriot, Vidor highly romanticizes Chopins patriotism in the film, which was produced during World War II
40.
Ingrid Bergman
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Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is best remembered for her roles as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca and as Alicia Huberman in Notorious, before becoming a star in American films, Bergman had been a leading actress in Swedish films. Her introduction to American audiences came with her role in the English-language remake of Intermezzo. Selznicks financial problems meant that Bergman was often loaned to other studios, apart from Casablanca, her performances from this period include Victor Flemings remake of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Gaslight, and The Bells of St. Marys. Her last films for Selznick were Alfred Hitchcocks Spellbound and Notorious and her final film for Hitchcock was Under Capricorn. After a decade in American films, she starred in Roberto Rossellinis Stromboli, many of her personal and film documents can be seen in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives. According to the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Bergman quickly became the ideal of American womanhood, in 2007, the American Film Institute ranked Bergman as the fourth-greatest female screen legend of classic American cinema. Bergman, named after Princess Ingrid of Sweden, was born on 29 August 1915 in Stockholm, to a Swedish father, Justus Bergman, when she was two years old, her mother died. Her father, who was an artist and photographer, died when she was 13, in the years before he died, he wanted her to become an opera star, and had her take voice lessons for three years. But she always knew from the beginning that she wanted to be an actress, sometimes wearing her mothers clothes and her father documented all her birthdays with a borrowed camera. After his death, she was sent to live with an aunt and she then moved in with her Aunt Hulda and Uncle Otto, who had five children. Another aunt she visited, Elsa Adler, first told Ingrid, when she was 11, that her mother may have had some Jewish blood, but her aunt also cautioned her about telling others about her possible ancestry as there might be some difficult times coming. Biographer Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm, however, notes that the claim of Jewish blood was likely an embellishment, after being forced to do an in-depth genealogical investigation, Bergmans maternal cousin found there to be no Jewish ancestry on Bergmans mothers side. Later, she received a scholarship to the state-sponsored Royal Dramatic Theatre School, after several months she was given a part in a new play, Ett Brott, written by Sigfrid Siwertz. Chandler notes that this was totally against procedure at the school, during her first summer break, she was also hired by a Swedish film studio, which led to her leaving the Royal Dramatic Theatre after just one year, to work in films full-time. Her first film role after leaving the Royal Dramatic Theatre was a part in 1935s Munkbrogreven. She went on to act in a films in Sweden, including En kvinnas ansikte, which was later remade as A Womans Face with Joan Crawford
41.
Greer Garson
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A major star at MGM during the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award nominations, including a record five consecutive nominations, winning the Best Actress award for Mrs. Miniver. Greer Garson was born on 29 September 1904 in Manor Park, East Ham, London and, the child of Nina and George Garson. Her father was born in London, to Scottish parents, and her mother was from Drumaloor, Casar, County Down, the name Greer is a contraction of MacGregor, another family name. David Greer lived in a detached house built on the lower part of what was known as Pig Street or known locally as the Back Way near Shillidays builders yard. The house was called Claremount and today the street is named Claremount Avenue and it was often reported that Garson was born in this house. She had intended to become a teacher, but instead began working with an advertising agency, Greer Garsons early professional appearances were on stage, starting at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in January 1932. She appeared on television during its earliest years, most notably starring in a 30-minute production of an excerpt of Twelfth Night in May 1937, with Dorothy Black. These live transmissions were part of the BBCs experimental service from Alexandra Palace, louis B. Mayer discovered Garson while he was in London looking for new talent. Garson was signed to a contract with MGM in late 1937 and she received her first Oscar nomination for the role, but lost to Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind. She received critical acclaim the next year for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1940 film, Pride, Garson won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1942 for her role as a strong British wife and mother in the middle of World War II in Mrs. Miniver. She was also nominated for Madame Curie, Mrs. Parkington, Garson was partnered with Clark Gable, after his return from war service, in Adventure. The film was advertised with the catch-phrase Gables back and Garsons got him, Gable argued for He put the Arson in Garson, she countered She put the Able in Gable. Thereafter, the catchphrase was selected. Garsons popularity declined somewhat in the late 1940s, but she remained a prominent film star until the mid-1950s, in 1951, she became a naturalised citizen of the United States. She made only a few films after her MGM contract expired in 1954, in 1958, she received a warm reception on Broadway in Auntie Mame, replacing Rosalind Russell, who had gone to Hollywood to make the film version. In 1960, Garson received her seventh and final Oscar nomination for Sunrise at Campobello, in which she played Eleanor Roosevelt, Greer was special guest on an episode of the TV series Father Knows Best, playing herself. On 4 October 1956, Garson appeared with Reginald Gardiner as the first two guest stars of the series, in the premiere of NBCs The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. Garson appeared as a mystery guest on Whats My Line on 25 October 1953 and she was a panelist on the 12 May 1957 episode
42.
The Valley of Decision
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The Valley of Decision is a film set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA in the late 19th century. It tells the story of a young Irish house maid who falls in love with the son of her employer, the romance between Paul and Mary is endangered when Marys family and friends, all steel mill workers, go on strike against Pauls father. The movie stars Greer Garson as Mary Rafferty, Gregory Peck as Paul Scott, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore, Preston Foster, Marsha Hunt, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Owen, Dan Duryea and Jessica Tandy. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and this was Garsons sixth nomination and her fifth consecutive, a record for most consecutive Best Actress nominations that still stands as of today. The movie was adapted by Sonya Levien and John Meehan from the novel by Marcia Davenport, the film was directed by Tay Garnett. Besides being a romance, the film has messages about social issues surrounding Pittsburgh at the time, early in the film, the steel industry is being bought up by big names, but the Scott family refuses to sell their mill. Paul, the son who cares about the steel mill. Later in the film, there are rumors that the union is calling for violence, the scene ends as rocks are thrown through the window and hit Paul. In the next scene, Mary goes to talk to her family, Mary, Paul, William Scott Sr. Marys father and the union leader try to come to an agreement, but Will Scott Jr. may have taken steps that could ruin all agreements and commitments. The railroad station is misspelled Alleghany City, the Valley of Decision at the Internet Movie Database
43.
Jennifer Jones
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Jennifer Jones, also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress during the Hollywood golden years. Jones, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette, was also Academy Award-nominated for her performances in four other films and she was married three times, most notably to film producer David O. Selznick. Jones starred in more than 20 films over a 30-year career, in 1980, she founded the Jennifer Jones Simon Foundation For Mental Health and Education after her daughters suicide. In later life, Jones withdrew from life to live in quiet retirement with her son and his family in Malibu. Jones was born Phylis Lee Isley in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae, an only child, she was raised Roman Catholic. Her parents toured the Midwest in a tent show that they owned and operated. It was there that she met and fell in love with fellow acting student Robert Walker, the couple married on January 2,1939. Isley and Walker returned to Tulsa for a 13-week radio program, arranged by her father, Isley landed two small roles, first in a 1939 John Wayne western titled New Frontier, followed by a serial entitled Dick Tracys G-Men. She failed a screen test for Paramount Pictures and decided to return to New York City, while Walker found steady work in radio programs, Isley worked part-time modeling hats for the Powers Agency while looking for possible acting jobs. Selznick, however, had overheard her audition and was impressed enough to have his secretary call her back, following an interview, she was signed to a seven-year contract. She was carefully groomed for stardom and given a new name, director Henry King was impressed by her screen test as Bernadette Soubirous for The Song of Bernadette and she won the coveted role over hundreds of applicants. Jones apologized to Bergman, who replied, No, Jennifer, Jones presented the Best Actress Oscar the following year to Bergman for Gaslight. Over the next two decades, Jones appeared in a range of roles selected by Selznick. Her dark beauty and sensitive nature appealed to audiences and she projected a variable range, the portrait of Jones for the film Portrait of Jennie was painted by Robert Brackman. Her last big-screen appearance came in the disaster film The Towering Inferno. Her performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress, early scenes in the film showed paintings lent to the production by the art gallery of Jones husband, Norton Simon. Jones had two sons from her first marriage, Robert Walker, Jr. and Michael Walker, Robert was the only child of Jones three children who would not predecease her. Jones had an affair with film producer David O. Selznick and she separated from Walker in November 1943, co-starred with him in Since You Went Away, and divorced him in June 1945
44.
Love Letters (1945 film)
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Love Letters is a 1945 film adapted by Ayn Rand from the novel Pity My Simplicity by Christopher Massie. It was directed by William Dieterle and stars Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway, Gladys Cooper, the plot tells the story of a man falling in love with an amnesiac woman with two personalities who killed his soldier friend. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including a Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination for Jones. Alan Quinton, an American soldier in Italy during World War II, has been writing letters for his friend, Roger Morland, a man who admits he never had any standards, manners or taste. Alan has never met Victoria Remington, but regards her as a girl of the spirit. He realizes that Victoria has fallen in love with the letters and is concerned that she will be disappointed by the real Roger, however, Roger abruptly leaves for paratrooper training in England. Alan is subsequently injured on the Italian front and finds out that Roger is dead and he is having trouble readjusting to civilian life and spending time with his fiancée, Helen Wentworth. He decides to live for a while at his aunts farm in Essex, in London, his brother takes him to a party at which he meets Dilly Carson and Singleton. He drunkenly tells them the story about falling in love with a woman hes never met and she tells Alan that a murder was committed and the letters were somehow involved. Alan and his fiancée realize they arent in love and part amicably before he moves to the farm, while in Essex, Alan visits Longreach — the road to which he addressed all the letters — and finds out that Victoria died over a year ago. He also learns that Roger was murdered by his wife, back in London, Dilly informs him that Singleton is suffering from amnesia and is actually the real Victoria. She begs him not to tell Singleton that he was the one who wrote the letters because Victoria fell in love with Roger through the letters and married him solely based on them. After a trial during which she cannot remember anything, she is sent to a psychiatric hospital for a year. Victoria never regained her memory, and continues to now live as Singleton, Singleton realizes that Alan is in love with Victoria, but does not realize Victoria is actually herself. Regardless, Alan and Singleton marry after he gets permission from her adopted mother, however, their marriage is constantly scarred by Alans love of the other woman. Roger confesses that he is not the one who wrote the letters, Beatrice takes a knife and is the one to stab him to death as Victoria attempts to save the letters he had thrown into the fireplace. As Alan arrives at the house, Victoria recalls her true identity, Rands screenplay of Massies book converted his story into an adaptation of Edmond Rostands famous play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rand had admired the work since reading it in the original French in her youth, in Rands version, a dimension of psychological mystery is added, and the heroine discovers the identity of the true author in time for the protagonists to experience a happy ending
45.
Gene Tierney
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Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as a beauty, she became established as a leading lady. Tierney was born on November 19,1920 in Brooklyn, New York, the family owned a brownstone at 900 St. Marks Avenue, which was at the time a fashionable street in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. She was named after an uncle, who died young. She had a brother, Howard Sherwood “Butch” Tierney, Jr. Their father was an insurance broker of Irish descent, their mother a former physical education instructor. Tierney attended St. Margarets School in Waterbury, Connecticut, and she published her first poem, entitled Night, in the school magazine and wrote poetry occasionally throughout her life. Tierney played Jo in a student production of Little Women, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, Tierney spent two years in Europe, attending Brillantmont International School in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she learned to speak fluent French. She returned to the U. S. in 1938 and attended Miss Porters School in Farmington, on a family trip to the West Coast, she visited Warner Bros. studios, where a cousin worked as a producer of historical short films. Director Anatole Litvak, taken by the 17-year-old’s beauty, told her that she should become an actress. Warner Bros. wanted to sign her to a contract, but her parents advised against it because of the low salary. Tierneys society debut occurred on September 24,1938, when she was 17 years old, soon bored with society life, she decided to pursue an acting career. Her father said, “If Gene is to be an actress and she became a protégée of Broadway producer-director George Abbott. In Tierneys first role on Broadway, she carried a bucket of water across the stage in What a Life, a Variety magazine critic declared, Miss Tierney is certainly the most beautiful water carrier Ive ever seen. She also worked as an understudy in The Primrose Path, the following year, she appeared in the role of Molly ODay in the Broadway production Mrs. OBrien Entertains. The New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote, As an Irish maiden fresh from the old country, Gene Tierney in her first stage performance is very pretty and that same year, Tierney appeared as Peggy Carr in Ring Two to favorable reviews. Theater critic Richard Watts, Jr. of the New York Herald Tribune wrote, I see no reason why Miss Tierney should not have a theatrical career – that is
