1.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
2.
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
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Film
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A film, also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession, the process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. The word cinema, short for cinematography, is used to refer to the industry of films. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film through a photochemical process, the adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the process of production, distribution. Films recorded in a form traditionally included an analogous optical soundtrack. It runs along a portion of the film exclusively reserved for it and is not projected, Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures. They reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them, Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful medium for educating—or indoctrinating—citizens. The visual basis of film gives it a power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles to translate the dialog into the language of the viewer, some have criticized the film industrys glorification of violence and its potentially negative treatment of women. The individual images that make up a film are called frames, the perception of motion is due to a psychological effect called phi phenomenon. The name film originates from the fact that film has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for a motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay. The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field, in general, include the big screen, the screen, the movies, and cinema. In early years, the sheet was sometimes used instead of screen. Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film, scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scène. Owing to the lack of any technology for doing so, the moving images, the magic lantern, probably created by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s, could be used to project animation, which was achieved by various types of mechanical slides
4.
History of cinema in the United States
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This article delineates the history of cinema in the United States. The earliest documented account of an exhibition of projected motion pictures in the United States was in June 1894 in Richmond, Jenkins used his Phantoscope to project his film before an audience of family, friends and reporters. The film featured a vaudeville dancer performing a Butterfly Dance, Jenkins and his new partner Thomas Armat modified the Phantoscope for exhibitions in temporary theaters at the Cotton States Exposition in the fall of 1895. The Phantoscope was later sold to Thomas Edison, who changed the name of the projector to Edisons Vitascope, with the Vitascope, Edison began public showings of his films at Koster and Bials Music Hall on 34th Street in New York City on April 23,1896. A crucial factor was Edisons decision to sell a number of Vitascope projectors as a business venture in April–May 1896. This 72-seat plush theater was designed from scratch solely to show motion pictures, terry Ramseye, in his book, A Million and One Nights, notes that this was one of the earliest permanently located and exclusively motion-picture exhibitions. According to the Buffalo News, There were seats for about 90 persons, feeble, flickering films of travel scenes were the usual fare. The theater remained open for two years, making it the first permanent movie theater in the world, the State Theater in Washington, Iowa is the oldest continuously operating movie theater in the United States. It showed its first films in 1897, and is still in operation as of April 21,2016, the first permanent motion picture theater in the state of California was Tallys Electric Theater, completed in 1902 in Los Angeles. Tallys theater was in a storefront in a larger building, the Great Train Robbery, which was 12 minutes in length, would also give the film industry a boost. By 1908 there were thousands of storefront Nickelodeons, Gems and Bijous across North America, a few theaters from the nickelodeon era are still showing films today. In 2008, the owners of the Korsør Biograf Teater in Korsør, Denmark and they were accepted by Guinness World Records as the oldest still-operating movie theater in the world. In 1912, the Picture House, in Clevedon, England, opened with a charity performance to raise funds for the victims of the Titanic disaster. The 1913 opening of the Regent Theater in New York City signaled a new respectability for the medium, the million dollar Mark Strand Theatre at 47th Street and Broadway in New York City opened in 1914 by Mitchell Mark was the archetypical movie palace. Ringling Theatre was built in Baraboo, WI by Al Ringling, circus, for the then-incredible sum of $100,000.00. Los Angeles showman Sid Grauman continued the trend of theater-as-destination with his ornate Million Dollar Theater and it opened on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles in 1918. In the next ten years, as movie revenues exploded, independent promoters and movie studios raced to build the most lavish, elaborate, attractive theaters. The movie chains were also among the first industries to install air conditioning systems which gave the theaters an additional lure of comfort in the summer period
5.
White House
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The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D. C. It has been the residence of every U. S. president since John Adams in 1800, the term White House is often used to refer to actions of the president and his advisers, as in The White House announced that. The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style, construction took place between 1792 and 1800 using Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he added low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior, reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semi-circular South portico in 1824, because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, in the main mansion, the third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as an area for social events. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space, by 1948, the houses load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the rooms were completely dismantled. Once this work was completed, the rooms were rebuilt. The Executive Residence is made up of six stories—the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, the property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the Presidents Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of Americas Favorite Architecture, in May 1790, New York began construction of Government House for his official residence, but he never occupied it. The national capital moved to Philadelphia in December 1790, the July 1790 Residence Act named Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the temporary national capital for a 10-year period while the Federal City was under construction. The City of Philadelphia rented Robert Morriss city house at 190 High Street for Washingtons presidential residence, the first president occupied the Market Street mansion from November 1790 to March 1797, and altered it in ways that may have influenced the design of the White House. As part of an effort to have Philadelphia named the permanent national capital, Pennsylvania built a much grander presidential mansion several blocks away. President John Adams also occupied the Market Street mansion from March 1797 to May 1800, on Saturday, November 1,1800, he became the first president to occupy the White House. The Presidents House in Philadelphia became a hotel and was demolished in 1832, the Presidents House was a major feature of Pierre Charles LEnfants plan for the newly established federal city, Washington, D. C
6.
Lyndon B. Johnson
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A Democrat from Texas, he previously served as a United States Representative from 1937 to 1949 and then as a United States Senator from 1949 to 1961. He spent six years as Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader, and two more as Senate Majority Whip, Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1960 presidential election. Although unsuccessful, he was chosen by then-Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts to be his running mate and they went on to win a close election over Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Johnson was sworn in as Vice President on January 20,1961. Two years and ten months later, on November 22,1963 and he successfully ran for a full term in the 1964 election, winning by a landslide over Republican opponent Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. He is one of four people who have served as President, Vice President, Senator. Johnson was renowned for his personality and the Johnson treatment. Assisted in part by an economy, the War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during his administration. With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Johnson escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted Johnson the power to use force in Southeast Asia without having to ask for an official declaration of war. The number of American military personnel in Vietnam increased dramatically, from 16,000 advisors in non-combat roles in 1963 to 550,000 in early 1968, American casualties soared and the peace process bogged down. Growing unease with the war stimulated a large, angry antiwar movement based especially on university campuses in the U. S. and abroad. Johnson faced further troubles when summer riots broke out in most major cities after 1965, while he began his presidency with widespread approval, support for Johnson declined as the public became upset with both the war and the growing violence at home. In 1968, the Democratic Party factionalized as antiwar elements denounced Johnson, Republican Richard Nixon was elected to succeed him, as the New Deal coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years collapsed. After he left office in January 1969, Johnson returned to his Texas ranch, historians argue that Johnsons presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States after the New Deal era. Johnson is ranked favorably by some historians because of his policies and the passage of many major laws, affecting civil rights, gun control, wilderness preservation. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27,1908, near Stonewall, Texas, in a farmhouse on the Pedernales River. Johnson had one brother, Sam Houston Johnson, and three sisters, Rebekah, Josefa, and Lucia, the nearby small town of Johnson City, Texas, was named after LBJs cousin, James Polk Johnson, whose forebears had moved west from Oglethorpe County, Georgia. Johnson had English, German, and Ulster Scots ancestry and he was maternally descended from pioneer Baptist clergyman George Washington Baines, who pastored eight churches in Texas, as well as others in Arkansas and Louisiana
7.
Cinema of the United States
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The cinema of the United States, often metonymously referred to as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. The dominant style of American cinema is Classical Hollywood Cinema, which developed from 1917-1960, while the French Lumière Brothers are generally credited with the birth of modern cinema, it is American cinema that soon became the most dominant force in an emerging industry. Since the 1920s, the American film industry has grossed more money every year than that of any other country, in 1878, Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated the power of photography to capture motion. In 1894, the worlds first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City, the United States was in the forefront of sound film development in the following decades. Since the early 20th century, the U. S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, Los Angeles, director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar. Orson Welless Citizen Kane is frequently cited in critics polls as the greatest film of all time. T, the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Titanic, Avatar, The Avengers, Furious 7, Jurassic World, and Star Wars, The Force Awakens. Today, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies every year, muybridges accomplishment led inventors everywhere to attempt to make similar devices that would capture such motion. In the United States, Thomas Edison was among the first to produce such a device, the history of cinema in the United States can trace its roots to the East Coast where, at one time, Fort Lee, New Jersey was the motion picture capital of America. The industry got its start at the end of the 19th century with the construction of Thomas Edisons Black Maria, in 1909, a forerunner of Universal Studios, the Champion Film Company, built the first studio. They were quickly followed by others who either built new studios or who leased facilities in Fort Lee, such notables as Mary Pickford got their start at Biograph Studios. In New York, the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, was built during the silent film era, was used by the Marx Brothers, the Edison Studios were located in the Bronx. Chelsea, Manhattan was also frequently used, other major centers of film production also included Chicago, Florida, Texas, California, and Cuba. The film patents wars of the early 20th century led to the spread of film companies across the U. S and they started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. While there, the decided to explore new territories, traveling several miles north to Hollywood. Griffith then filmed the first movie shot in Hollywood, In Old California, a Biograph melodrama about California in the 19th century. Griffith stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York, after hearing about Griffiths success in Hollywood, in 1913, many movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Thomas Edison, who owned patents on the movie-making process. Nestor Studios of Bayonne, New Jersey, built the first studio in Hollywood in 1911, Californias more hospitable and cost-effective climate led to the eventual shift of virtually all filmmaking to the West Coast by the 1930s. In Los Angeles, the studios and Hollywood grew, before World War I, movies were made in several U. S. cities, but filmmakers gravitated to southern California as the industry developed
8.
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
9.
Sidney Poitier
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Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE, is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author and diplomat. In 1964, Poitier became the first Bahamian and first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role in Lilies of the Field. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of classic Hollywood cinema, from 1997 to 2007, he served as the non-resident Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12,2009, Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2016, he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding lifetime achievement in film. Sidney Poitiers parents were Evelyn and Reginald James Poitier, Bahamian farmers who owned a farm on Cat Island and traveled to Miami to sell tomatoes, Reginald worked as a cab driver in Nassau, Bahamas. Poitier was born in Miami while his parents were visiting and his birth was two months premature and he was not expected to survive, but his parents remained in Miami for three months to nurse him to health. Poitier grew up in the Bahamas, then a British Crown colony, because of his birth in the United States, he automatically received American citizenship. He mentions that the surname Poitier is a French name, Poitier lived with his family on Cat Island until he was 10, when they moved to Nassau. He was raised a Roman Catholic but, later became an agnostic with views closer to deism, at the age of 15, he was sent to Miami to live with his brother. At the age of 16, he moved to New York City, a waiter sat with him every night for several weeks helping him learn to read the newspaper. He lied about his age and enlisted in the Army during World War II in 1943, Poitier joined the North American Negro Theatre, but was rejected by audiences. Contrary to what was expected of African American actors at the time, determined to refine his acting skills and rid himself of his noticeable Bahamian accent, he spent the next six months dedicating himself to achieving theatrical success. By the end of 1949, he had to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out, Poitiers breakout role was as a member of an incorrigible high school class in Blackboard Jungle. Poitier was the first male actor of African descent to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award and he was also the first actor of African descent to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Poitier worked relatively little over the year, he remained the only major actor of African descent. He acted in the first production of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959 and he also gave memorable performances in The Bedford Incident, and A Patch of Blue co-starring Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters. In 1967, he was the most successful draw at the box office, Poitier was aware of this pattern himself, but was conflicted on the matter. For instance, in 1966, he turned down an opportunity to play the lead in an NBC production of Othello with that spirit in mind, in 2002, Poitier received the 2001 Honorary Academy Award for his overall contribution to American cinema
10.
Francis Ford Coppola
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Francis Ford Coppola, also credited as Francis Coppola, is a semi-retired American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered to have been a figure of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. After directing The Rain People, he co-wrote the 1970 film Patton and he followed with The Godfather Part II in 1974, which became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Conversation, which he directed, produced and wrote, was released same year. He next directed 1979s Apocalypse Now, while notorious for its lengthy and strenuous production, the film was widely acclaimed for its vivid and stark depiction of the Vietnam War, winning the Palme dOr at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. Coppola is one of only eight filmmakers to win two Palme dOr awards, while a number of Coppolas ventures in the 1980s and 1990s were critically lauded, he has never quite achieved the same commercial success with films as in the 1970s. His most well-known films released since the start of the 1980s are the dramas The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, the crime-drama The Cotton Club, and his movies The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now are often ranked among the greatest films of all time. Coppola was born in Detroit, Michigan, to father Carmine Coppola, a flautist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Coppola is the second of three children, his older brother was August Coppola, his younger sister is actress Talia Shire. Born into a family of Italian immigrant ancestry, his grandparents came to the United States from Bernalda. His maternal grandfather, popular Italian composer Francesco Pennino, immigrated from Naples, Coppola received his middle name in honor of Henry Ford, not only because he was born in the Henry Ford Hospital but also because of his musician-fathers association with the automobile manufacturer. Contracting polio as a boy, Coppola was bedridden for periods of his childhood. Reading A Streetcar Named Desire at age 15 was instrumental in developing his interest in theater, eager to be involved in film-craft, he created 8mm features edited from home movies with such titles as The Rich Millionaire and The Lost Wallet. As a child, Coppola was a student, but he was so interested in technology. Trained initially for a career in music, he became proficient on the tuba, overall, Coppola attended 23 other schools before he eventually graduated from the Great Neck North High School. He entered Hofstra College in 1955 with a major in theater arts, there he was awarded a scholarship in playwriting. This furthered his interest in directing theater despite the disapproval of his father, Coppola was profoundly impressed after seeing Sergei Eisensteins October, Ten Days That Shook the World, especially with the movies quality of editing. It was at this time Coppola decided he would go into cinema rather than theater, Coppola also gives credit to the work of Elia Kazan and for its influence on him as a director. Amongst Coppolas classmates at Hofstra were James Caan, Lainie Kazan and he later cast Lainie Kazan in One from the Heart and Caan in The Rain People and The Godfather
11.
Jack Valenti
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Jack Joseph Valenti was a longtime president of the Motion Picture Association of America. During his 38-year tenure in the MPAA, he created the MPAA film rating system, Valenti was born on September 5,1921 in Houston, Texas, the son of Italian immigrants. During World War II, he was a first lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force, Valenti flew 51 combat missions as the pilot-commander of a B-25 medium bomber and received four decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal. Valenti graduated from the University of Houston in 1946 with a BBA, during his time there, he worked on the staff of the university newspaper, The Daily Cougar, and was president of the universitys student government. Valenti would later serve on the board of regents. In 1952, he and a partner named Weldon Weekley founded Weekley & Valenti, in 1956, Valenti met then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson. Weekley & Valenti branched out into political consulting and added Representative Albert Thomas, in 1960, Valentis firm assisted in the Kennedy-Johnson presidential campaign. Following the assassination of President Kennedy, Valenti was present in the photograph of Lyndon Johnsons swearing in aboard Air Force One. He then became the first special assistant to Johnsons White House, Valenti later called Johnson the most single dominating human being that Ive ever been in contact with and the single most intelligent man Ive ever known. In a speech before the American Advertising Federation in 1965, Valenti said, I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my president. Valenti later attacked film director Oliver Stone for the 1991 movie JFK. Valenti called the movie a monstrous charade and said, I could not live with myself if I stood by mutely and let some filmmaker soil his memory. With Valentis arrival in Hollywood, the pair were lifelong allies, mr Valenti was a consummate salesman, who like all great salesmen. Worked himself up into believing the truth of his clients message, was a great actor working on the stage of Washington DC on behalf of an industry that appreciated his craft, but that never let him forget that the message was theirs and not his. In 1968, Valenti created the MPAA film rating system, the system initially comprised four distinct ratings, G, M, R, and X. The M rating would soon be replaced by GP, which was changed to PG. The X rating immediately proved troublesome, since it was not trademarked and therefore was used freely by the pornography industry, Films such as Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange were assumed to be pornographic because they carried the X rating. In 1990 the NC-17 rating was introduced as an adults only replacement for the non-trademarked X-rating. The PG-13 rating was added in 1984 to provide a range of distinction for audiences
12.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
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The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D. C. The Center, which opened September 8,1971, is a multi-dimensional facility, both an enduring memorial to John F. Now in its 45th season, the Center presents the greatest examples of music, dance and theater, supports artists in the creation of new work and it is both the nations public memorial to President John F. Kennedy and the national center for the performing arts. Its activities include educational and outreach initiatives, almost entirely funded through sales and gifts from individuals, corporations. The building, designed by architect Edward Durell Stone, was constructed by Philadelphia contractor John McShain and it receives annual federal funding to pay for its maintenance and operation. The Library of Congress added an auditorium, but it had restrictions on its use. A congressional resolution in 1938 called for construction of a building which shall be known as the National Cultural Center near Judiciary Square. In 1950, the idea for a national theater resurfaced when U. S, representative Arthur George Klein of New York introduced a bill to authorize funds to plan and build a cultural center. The bill included provisions that the center would prohibit any discrimination of cast or audience, in 1955, the Stanford Research Institute was commissioned to select a site and provide design suggestions for the center. From 1955 to 1958, Congress debated the idea amid much controversy and this was the first time in history that the federal government helped finance a structure dedicated to the performing arts. The legislation required a portion of the costs, estimated at $10–25 million, Edward Durell Stone was selected as architect for the project in June 1959. He presented preliminary designs to the Presidents Music Committee in October 1959, along with estimated costs of $50 million, by November 1959, estimated costs had escalated to $61 million. The National Cultural Center was renamed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1964, the National Cultural Center Board of Trustees, a group Eisenhower established January 29,1959, led fundraising. Fundraising efforts were not successful, with only $13,425 raised in the first three years, President John F. Kennedy was interested in bringing culture to the nations capital, and provided leadership and support for the project. In 1961, President Kennedy asked Roger L. Stevens to help develop the National Cultural Center, Stevens recruited First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy as Honorary Chairman of the Center, and former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower as co-chairman. The total cost of construction was $70 million, Congress allocated $43 million for construction costs, including $23 million as an outright grant and the other $20 million in bonds. Donations also comprised a significant portion of funding, including $5 million from the Ford Foundation, other major donors included J. Willard Marriott, Marjorie Merriweather Post, John D. Rockefeller III, and Robert W. Woodruff, as well as many corporate donors. Foreign countries provided gifts to the Kennedy Center, including a gift of 3,700 tons of Carrara marble from Italy from the Italian government, President Lyndon B. Johnson dug the ceremonial first-shovel of earth at the groundbreaking for the Kennedy Center December 2,1964
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