Albert Gran
Albert Gran was a Norwegian-born American stage and film actor. He is most associated with his appearance in drama and light comedy films. Albert Gran was born in Norway, he was the son of Albert Nicolai Auguste Schwarting. He emigrated to the United States during 1914. Gran launched his screen career in 1916, he appeared as a character actor in 44 films between 1916 and 1933. He was seen as Duke Travina with Marion Davies in Beverly of Graustark, as Paul Boul with Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven, as B. Bickering Brown with Joan Crawford in Our Modern Maidens. Albert Gran died in Los Angeles, California in an automobile accident at the age of 70 prior to the release of his final film. Out of the Drifts Caprice of the Mountains Civilian Clothes Tarnish Graustark Beverly of Graustark Early to Wed More Pay, Less Work Honesty – The Best Policy Seventh Heaven Breakfast at Sunrise The Blue Danube Mother Knows Best Fox's first full talkie Dry Martini Geraldine Gold Diggers of Broadway Our Modern Maidens Tanned Legs The Little Accident The Brat Command Performance Beauty Parlor Employees' Entrance Albert Gran on IMDb Albert Gran at the Internet Broadway Database
Carthay Circle Theatre
The Carthay Circle Theatre was one of the most famous movie palaces of Hollywood's Golden Age. It opened at 6316 San Vicente Boulevard in 1926 and was considered developer J. Harvey McCarthy's most successful monument, a stroke of shrewd thinking that made a famous name of the newly developed Carthay residential district in the Mid-City West district of Los Angeles, California; the Carthay Circle Theater provided the "circle". The auditorium itself was shaped in the form of a perfect circle, extended vertically into a cylinder, set inside a square that fleshed out the remainder of the building. McCarthy's development was called Carthay—an anglicized version of his last name; the theater was called the Circle Theater for its unique floorplan. Developed by Fox, it was called the Fox Carthay Circle Theater; the theater became better known than the development in which it was located, this has led to confusion in the name of the area. The theater's name meant "the Circle Theater, by Fox, located in Carthay", but became incorrectly interpreted as "The Fox Theater, located in Carthay Circle."
The misinterpretation has stuck, now the region is more or less known as Carthay Circle as its theater namesake has been gone for 50 years. The exterior design was in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, with whitewashed concrete trimmed in blue, with a high bell tower and neon sign that could be seen for miles; the architects were Dwight Gibbs. The iconic octagonal tower was placed in the front corner spandrel space left between the circle and the square; the auditorium's cylinder-shaped wall was raised up above the roof line, to create a parapet visible from the outside that resembled a circus tent. "Simple and dignified, the building stands out for its intrinsic beauty," raved The Architect and Engineer. Pacific Coast Architect wrote that it was a theatre "masked as a cathedral". There was a drop curtain that featured an homage to the pioneer Donner Party, which perished crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Bronze busts of Native American leaders and photographs of Lillie Langtry and other 19th century actors adorned the lounges and lobbies.
Murals of historic scenes forty feet tall graced the walls, painted by Pasadena artist Alson S. Clark; the theatre hosted the official premieres of The Life of Emile Zola and Juliet, Walt Disney's first animated feature length film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Gone with the Wind, among many other notable films. For Disney's Fantasia, the most elaborate audio system in use at the time, Fantasound, a pioneering stereophonic process, was installed at this theatre. For the glamorous world premiere of MGM's Marie Antoinette, with Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power, the gardens around the theater were restructured and enhanced to resemble the landscaping of the Palace of Versailles. In the 1930s and'40s, props from the sets of such premiered films as The Great Ziegfeld, The Good Earth, Captains Courageous and Gone with the Wind were displayed on the grassy median of McCarthy Vista, from Wilshire Boulevard south to San Vicente Boulevard; the premieres were red-carpet events, with the stars of the motion picture arriving in limousines at the entrance to the covered walkway to the theater south from San Vicente and cheered by hundreds of fans in bleachers there, accompanied by searchlights scanning the sky.
Only Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood had such elaborate premieres in that era. In 1951 the first PATSY Award ceremony was held at the Carthay Circle. Presented by the American Humane Association, the event was hosted by Ronald Reagan, honored Francis the Talking Mule as the first recipient of the award that honored animal actors. Although the Carthay Circle Theater had hosted the first-run "roadshow", reserved-seat engagements of a great many esthetically- and economically-important films, by the 1960s the "roadshow" concept, indeed, the Carthay Circle Theater itself, was considered an anachronism, overshadowed by modern multi-screen cinemas, its customer base had been sapped by suburbanization, many other economic factors, as film print runs increased exponentially from a few, high-quality, high-resolution prints, to thousands, or several thousands of average-quality, lower-resolution prints. The theater was demolished in 1969 by its owner, NAFI Corporation, which erected its headquarters and main computer operations center in its place.
In July 1994, a smaller-scale pastiche of the facade of the theatre was opened as the "Once Upon a Time" gift shop on the Sunset Boulevard section in Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The store now sells clothing items for women. In June 2012, a fanciful larger-scale replica of the theater building was opened in the Buena Vista Street section of Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Although this replica is larger than the Orlando version, it is still smaller than the 1926 original, has a modified exterior footprint and interior floorplan. While there is no actual theatre inside, the building houses the "Carthay Circle Lounge" and the members-only "Club 1901" on the first floor, with the "Carthay Circle Restaurant" on the second floor; this structure is located on a circular plaza known as Carthay Circle, giving the impression that the theater is named for its location on a circular plaza. The original's signature circular floorplan is absent from the replica building, the circular parapet is squared off from the outside.
These fac
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won more than any other newspaper; the Times is ranked 17th in the world by circulation and 2nd in the U. S; the paper is owned by The New York Times Company, publicly traded and is controlled by the Sulzberger family through a dual-class share structure. It has been owned by the family since 1896. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher, his father, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. the company's chairman, are the fourth and fifth generation of the family to helm the paper. Nicknamed "The Gray Lady", the Times has long been regarded within the industry as a national "newspaper of record"; the paper's motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print", appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. Since the mid-1970s, The New York Times has expanded its layout and organization, adding special weekly sections on various topics supplementing the regular news, editorials and features.
Since 2008, the Times has been organized into the following sections: News, Editorials/Opinions-Columns/Op-Ed, New York, Sports of The Times, Science, Home and other features. On Sunday, the Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T: The New York Times Style Magazine; the Times stayed with the broadsheet full-page set-up and an eight-column format for several years after most papers switched to six, was one of the last newspapers to adopt color photography on the front page. The New York Times was founded as the New-York Daily Times on September 18, 1851. Founded by journalist and politician Henry Jarvis Raymond and former banker George Jones, the Times was published by Raymond, Jones & Company. Early investors in the company included Edwin B. Morgan, Christopher Morgan, Edward B. Wesley. Sold for a penny, the inaugural edition attempted to address various speculations on its purpose and positions that preceded its release: We shall be Conservative, in all cases where we think Conservatism essential to the public good.
We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or wrong. In 1852, the newspaper started a western division, The Times of California, which arrived whenever a mail boat from New York docked in California. However, the effort failed. On September 14, 1857, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times. On April 21, 1861, The New York Times began publishing a Sunday edition to offer daily coverage of the Civil War. One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials in the Times alone; the main office of The New York Times was attacked during the New York City Draft Riots. The riots, sparked by the beginning of drafting for the Union Army, began on July 13, 1863. On "Newspaper Row", across from City Hall, Henry Raymond stopped the rioters with Gatling guns, early machine guns, one of which he manned himself; the mob diverted, instead attacking the headquarters of abolitionist publisher Horace Greeley's New York Tribune until being forced to flee by the Brooklyn City Police, who had crossed the East River to help the Manhattan authorities.
In 1869, Henry Raymond died, George Jones took over as publisher. The newspaper's influence grew in 1870 and 1871, when it published a series of exposés on William Tweed, leader of the city's Democratic Party—popularly known as "Tammany Hall" —that led to the end of the Tweed Ring's domination of New York's City Hall. Tweed had offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story. In the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned from supporting Republican Party candidates in its editorials to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign. While this move cost The New York Times a portion of its readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper regained most of its lost ground within a few years. After George Jones died in 1891, Charles Ransom Miller and other New York Times editors raised $1 million dollars to buy the Times, printing it under the New York Times Publishing Company.
However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, by 1896, the newspaper had a circulation of less than 9,000, was losing $1,000 a day. That year, Adolph Ochs, the publisher of the Chattanooga Times, gained a controlling interest in the company for $75,000. Shortly after assuming control of the paper, Ochs coined the paper's slogan, "All The News That's Fit To Print"; the slogan has appeared in the paper since September 1896, has been printed in a box in the upper left hand corner of the front page since early 1897. The slogan was a jab at competing papers, such as Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, which were known for a lurid and inaccurate reporting of facts and opinions, described by the end of the century as "yellow journalism". Under Ochs' guidance, aided by Carr
Helen Menken
Helen Menken was an American actress. Menken was born Helen Meinken in New York City, to a German-French father, Frederick Meinken, an Irish-born mother, Mary Madden, her parents were deaf, her early communication came via sign language. She did not begin talking until age 4. A teenage actress who made her Broadway theatre debut in Parlor and Bath in 1917, her greatest stage triumphs were Seventh Heaven in 1922–1924. Bette Davis would play Menken's role as the spinster with a secret in the 1939 film version. Menken's final Broadway appearance was in an unsuccessful play named The Laughing Woman, which ran for less than a month in 1937, her performance as Irene De Montcel in the first English-language production of The Captive, Edouard Bourdet's lesbian-themed drama, led to her arrest on February 9, 1927. This arrest, reflecting 1920s attitudes about homosexuality, contributed to her lack of a film career and to her divorce from Bogart. Menken was a major presence behind the scenes in the theater world at the American Theatre Wing.
She served as its chairman during World War II and began serving as president of the group in 1957. Menken was active on radio in the 1940s. Menken made a short film in New York City in 1925 for Lee DeForest, filmed in the short-lived DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process; the film is preserved in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress. Menken received a special Tony Award posthumously in 1966 "for a lifetime of devotion and dedicated service to the Broadway theatre." The first of her four husbands was actor Humphrey Bogart. She was Bogart's first wife, they were married at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City on May 20, 1926, she divorced him November 18, 1927. She married Dr. Henry T. Smith on July 12, 1932 and divorced him in 1947 in October 1948 married George N. Richard who survived her. Menken died of a heart attack at a party at The Lambs on March 27, 1966, at the age of 64. Helen Menken at the Internet Broadway Database Helen Menken on IMDb
Street Angel (1928 film)
Street Angel is a 1928 American silent drama film with a Movietone soundtrack, directed by Frank Borzage, adapted by Harry H. Caldwell, Katherine Hilliker, Philip Klein, Marion Orth and Henry Roberts Symonds from the play Lady Cristilinda by Monckton Hoffe; as one of the early, transitional sound film releases, it did not include recorded dialogue, but used intertitles along with recorded sound effects and musical selections. Street Angel was one of three movies for which Janet Gaynor received an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929. Street Angel was nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography; the acting award was given in 1929 and the other two in 1930, which accords the movie the distinction of being one of only two films to receive an Oscar nomination in two different years, not a foreign language film. The other was The Quiet One nominated in 1949 for Documentary Feature and 1950 for Story and Screenplay. A spirited young woman tries to prostitute herself and, failing in that, to steal money, to pay for her ill mother's medicine.
She is caught in the act and convicted but escapes from her guards, only to find her mother dead. Fleeing the pursuing police, she joins a traveling carnival, where she meets a vagabond painter. Though they fall in love, her past will not leave her alone. Janet Gaynor as Angela Charles Farrell as Gino Natalie Kingston as Lisetta Henry Armetta as Mascetto Guido Trento as Neri, Sergeant of Police Alberto Rabagliati as A Policeman Demetrius Alexis as Museum Waiter Jennie Bruno as Landlady Gino Conti as Policeman Milton Dickinson as Bimbo Helena Herman as Andrea Dave Kashner as The Strong Man Louis Liggett as Beppo Hector Sarno as Spaghetti Cook The film was thought lost for years, but it is now part of a 12 film collection by Fox, released in 2008. Street Angel on IMDb Synopsis at AllMovie Street Angel at Virtual History Still at UCLA Film and Television Archive
Roxy Theatre (New York City)
The Roxy Theatre was a 5,920 seat movie theater located at 153 West 50th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, just off Times Square in New York City. It opened on March 11, 1927 with the silent film The Love of Sunya, produced by and starring Gloria Swanson; the huge movie palace was a leading Broadway film showcase through the 1950s and was noted for its lavish stage shows. It closed and was demolished in 1960; the Roxy Theatre was conceived by film producer Herbert Lubin in mid-1925 as the world's largest and finest motion picture palace. To realize his dream, Lubin brought in the successful and innovative theater operator Samuel L. Rothafel, aka "Roxy", to bring it to fruition, enticing him with a large salary, percentage of the profits, stock options and offering to name the theatre after him, it was intended to be the first of six planned Roxy Theatres in the New York area. Roxy determined to make his theater the summit of his career and in it realize all of his theatrical design and production ideas.
He worked with Chicago architect Walter W. Ahlschlager and decorator Harold Rambusch of Rambusch Decorating Company on every aspect of the theater's design and furnishings. Roxy's lavish ideas and his many changes ran up costs dramatically. Shortly after the theater's opening, $2.5 million over budget and near bankruptcy, sold his controlling interest a week before the theater opened to movie mogul and theater owner William Fox for $5 million. The final cost of the theater was $12 million. With Lubin's exit, Roxy's dreams of his own theater circuit ended. Only one of the projected Roxy chain was built, the planned Roxy Midway Theatre on Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan designed by Ahlschlager; the nearly complete theater was sold to Warner Bros. who opened it as Warner's Beacon in 1929. Known as the "Cathedral of the Motion Picture", the Roxy's design by Ahlschlager featured a soaring golden, Spanish-inspired auditorium, its main lobby was a large columned rotunda called the "Grand Foyer", which featured "the world's largest oval rug", manufactured by Mohawk Carpets in Amsterdam, New York, plus its own pipe organ on the mezzanine.
Off the rotunda was a long entrance lobby that led through the building of the adjacent Manger Hotel to the theater's main entrance at the corner of Seventh Avenue and W. 50th Street. The hotel was built at the same time as the theater. Ahlschlager succeeded in creating an efficient plan for the Roxy's irregular plot of land, which utilized every bit of space by featuring a diagonal auditorium plan with the stage in one corner of the lot; the design maximized the auditorium's size and seating capacity but compromised the function of its triangular stage. The Roxy's stage, while wide, was not deep and had limited space off stage. Despite the stage limitations, the theater boasted lavish support facilities including two stories of private dressing rooms, three floors of chorus dressing rooms, huge rehearsal rooms, a costume department, staff dry-cleaning and laundry rooms, a barber shop and hairdresser, a equipped infirmary, dining room, a menagerie for show animals. There were myriad offices, a private screening room seating 100, massive engine rooms for the electrical and heating machinery.
The Roxy's large staff enjoyed a cafeteria, billiard room, nap room and showers. The theater's stage innovations included a rising orchestra pit which could accommodate an orchestra of 110 and a Kimball theater pipe organ with three consoles which could be played simultaneously; the film projection booth was recessed into the front of the balcony to prevent film distortion caused by the usual angled projection from the top rear wall of a theater. This enabled the Roxy to have the sharpest film image for its time. Courteous service to the patron was a key part of the Roxy formula; the theater's uniformed corps of male ushers were known for their polite manner and military bearing. They went through rigorous training, daily inspections and drill, overseen by a retired Marine officer; the ushers' crisp attire was favorably mentioned by Cole Porter in a stanza of the song "You're the Top" in 1932. The Roxy presented major Hollywood films in programs that included a 110-member symphony orchestra, a solo theater pipe organ, a male chorus, a ballet company and a famous line of female precision dancers, the "Roxyettes".
Elaborate stage spectacles were created each week to accompany the feature film, all under the supervision of Rothafel. The theater's orchestra and performers were featured in an NBC Radio program with Roxy himself as host; the Roxy Hour, was broadcast live weekly from the theater's own radio studio. Thanks to Roxy's radio popularity, his theater was known to radio listeners nationwide. In spite of the theater's fame and success, the financial problems of its majority owner, the Fox Film Corporation, after the stock market crash of 1929 destabilized the Roxy's operations and it was saddled with inferior films. In 1932, Rothafel left the theater named for him for Rockefeller Center where he opened the new Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy theaters. Most of the Roxy's performers and artistic staff moved with him to the Music Hall, including producer Leon Leonidoff, choreographer Russell Markert, conductor Erno Rapee; the Roxyettes went on to greater fame at the Music Hall, becoming the Rockettes in 1935.
After Rothafel's departure, the Roxy Theatre never quite regained its former glory but it remained a leading New York showcase for film and stage variety shows. In 1942, A. J
