1.
Mort Drucker
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Mort Drucker is an American caricaturist and comics artist best known as a contributor for over five decades in Mad, where he specialized in satires on the leading feature films and television series. Some sources list his date as March 22 and others as March 29. In a 1985 Tonight Show appearance, when Johnny Carson asked Michael J. Fox, Fox replied, When Mort Drucker drew my head. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Drucker attended Brooklyns Erasmus Hall High School, there he met his future wife Barbara, whom he married shortly after her graduation. The couple moved to Long Island, living in Woodbury, where brought up two daughters, Laurie and Melanie, their family eventually expanded with three grandchildren. Drucker entered the field by assisting Bert Whitman on the newspaper comic strip Debbie Dean in 1947 when he was 18. He then joined the staff of National Periodical Publications, where he worked as a retoucher, while at DC, Drucker also ghosted The Mountain Boys, Paul Webbs regular gag panel for Esquire Magazine. In the fall of 1956, shortly after the departure of Mads founding editor Harvey Kurtzman, capricious though Druckers alleged audition process may have been, it made for a good anecdote. Years later, Gaines unsurprisingly confessed, We would have hired him anyway, by the time he wound down his Mad career 55 years later, Drucker held the longest uninterrupted tenure of any Mad artist. Drucker has the most bylined articles by any Mad artist who does not also write his own material, though this work was unlike the likenesses and continuities he would become best known for, the Mad staff reacted favorably. The first to review Druckers portfolio was Mad associate editor Nick Meglin, but then, he wasnt that great then. Drucker himself says that he just wanted to be an artist, to get paid for drawing anything, and only started focusing on caricature work because he started getting more and more of those assignments. Thats when I realized Id found my calling, said Drucker, at the time of Druckers arrival, Mad did not regularly feature TV and movie satires, editor Al Feldstein credited Druckers style and ability for the decision to start featuring them in every issue. Meglin called Drucker number one in a field of one, charles Schulz wrote, Frankly, I dont know how he does it, and I stand in a long list of admirers. I think he draws everything the way we would all like to draw, in 2012, referring to Druckers splash page for Mads parody of The Godfather, the Comics Reporters Tom Spurgeon wrote, The way he draws James Caans eyebrow is worth some folks entire careers. In 2012, Drucker discussed his art style, and how he applied it to his Mad assignments, Ive always considered a caricature to be the complete person, not just a likeness. Hands in particular have always been a focus for me as they can be as expressive of character as the exaggerations and distortions a caricaturist searches for. I try to capture the essence of the person, not just facial features, Ive discovered through years of working at capturing a humorous likeness that its not about the features themselves as much as the space between the features
2.
George Lucas
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George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the founder of Lucasfilm and he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm, before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Upon graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas wrote and directed THX1138, based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth, THX1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was the film, American Graffiti, inspired by his teen years in early 1960s Modesto, California, the film was critically and commercially successful, and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Following the first Star Wars film, Lucas produced and co-wrote the following installments in the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, along with Steven Spielberg, Lucas co-created and wrote the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. Lucas also produced and/or wrote a variety of films through Lucasfilm in the 1980s and 1990s, Lucas also returned to directing with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. He later collaborated on the story for the Indiana Jones sequel Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, five of Lucass seven features are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is one of the American film industrys most financially successful filmmakers, Lucas is considered a significant figure in the New Hollywood era. Lucas was born and raised in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore Lucas and George Walton Lucas and he is of German, Swiss-German, English, Scottish, and distant Dutch and French descent. Growing up, Lucas had a passion for cars and motor racing, on June 12,1962, while driving his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina, another driver broadsided him, flipping over his car, nearly killing him, causing him to lose interest in racing as a career. He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology, sociology and he also began shooting with an 8 mm camera, including filming car races. At this time, Lucas and his friend John Plummer became interested in Canyon Cinema, screenings of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner. Lucas and Plummer also saw classic European films of the time, including Jean-Luc Godards Breathless, François Truffauts Jules et Jim, thats when George really started exploring, Plummer said. Through his interest in racing, Lucas met renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, another race enthusiast. Wexler, later to work with Lucas on several occasions, was impressed by Lucas talent, George had a very good eye, and he thought visually, he recalled. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, Lucas shared a room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood, and John Milius and he also became good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg
3.
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
4.
Richard Dreyfuss
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Dreyfuss won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1977 for The Goodbye Girl, and was nominated in 1995 for Mr. Hollands Opus. Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Geraldine Dreyfus, a peace activist, and Norman Dreyfus, an attorney and restaurateur and he has commented that he grew up thinking that Alfred Dreyfus and are from the same family. His father disliked New York, and moved the family first to Europe, and later to Los Angeles, California, Dreyfuss attended Beverly Hills High School. Dreyfuss began acting in his youth, at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills Arts Center and he debuted in the TV production In Mamas House, when he was fifteen. During this time, he acted in a few small TV roles on shows, Peyton Place, Gidget, That Girl, Bewitched, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he also performed on stage on Broadway, Off-Broadway, repertory, and improvisational theater. Dreyfuss appeared in the play The Time of Your Life, which was revived on March 17,1972 at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles, dreyfusss first film role was a small, uncredited appearance in The Graduate. He had one line, Shall I get the cops and he was also briefly seen as a stage hand in Valley of the Dolls, in which he had a few lines. In 1973 he starred in the CBS pilot Catch-22 and he appeared in the subsequent Dillinger, and landed a role in the 1973 hit American Graffiti, acting with other future stars such as Harrison Ford and Ron Howard. Dreyfuss played his first lead role in the Canadian film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, receiving positive reviews, Dreyfuss went on to star in the box office blockbusters Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, both directed by Steven Spielberg. This record stood for 25 years until it was broken in 2003 by Adrien Brody and he entered rehabilitation and eventually made a Hollywood comeback with the films Down And Out In Beverly Hills in 1986 and Stakeout the following year. Dreyfuss also starred in the Rob Reiner movie, Stand by Me, Dreyfuss plays the elder Gordie Lachance, who narrates the film. In 1988, he reunited with director Paul Mazursky to star in the political farce Moon Over Parador, in 1989, Dreyfuss reunited with Spielberg on Always, a remake of A Guy Named Joe in which he co-starred with Holly Hunter. He had a role opposite Bill Murray in the 1991 comedy What About Bob. as a psychiatrist who goes crazy while trying to cope with a particularly obsessive new patient. That same year, Dreyfuss produced and starred as Georges Picquart in Prisoner of Honor and he recited Kaddish as part of a performance of Leonard Bernsteins Third Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Gilbert Levine. Dreyfuss was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his performance as Glenn Holland in Mr. Hollands Opus, since then, he has continued working in the movies, television and the stage. In 2001/2002, he played Max Bickford in the television drama The Education of Max Bickford, in April 2004, he appeared in the revival of Sly Fox on Broadway. Dreyfuss recorded the voiceover to the Apple, Inc. then Apple Computer, think Different ad campaign in 1997. In November 2004, he was scheduled to appear in The Producers in London, both he and his assistant for the production stated that Dreyfuss was accumulating injuries that required him to wear physical therapy supports during rehearsals
5.
Ron Howard
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Ronald William Ron Howard is an American actor and filmmaker. Howard is best known for playing two roles in television sitcoms in his youth and directing a number of successful feature films later in his career. Howard first came to prominence playing young Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, in 1980, Howard left Happy Days to focus on directing. His films include, the science-fiction/fantasy film Cocoon, the historical docudrama Apollo 13, the biographical drama A Beautiful Mind, in 2002, Howard narrated the Fox comedy series, Arrested Development, on which he would also serve as producer and play a semi-fictionalized version of himself. In 2003, Howard was awarded the National Medal of Arts, asteroid 12561 Howard is named after him. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013, Howard has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions in the television and motion pictures industries. Howard was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, the son of Jean Speegle Howard, an actress, and Rance Howard, a director, a writer. He has German, English, Scottish, Irish, and Dutch ancestry and his father was born with the surname Beckenholdt, and had taken the stage name Howard by 1948, for his acting career. Rance Howard was serving three years in the United States Air Force at the time of Rons birth, the family moved to Hollywood in 1958, the year before the birth of his younger brother, Clint Howard. They rented a house on the south of the Desilu Studios. They lived in Hollywood for at least three years, before moving to Burbank, Howard was tutored at Desilu Studios in his younger years, and graduated from John Burroughs High School. He later attended the University of Southern Californias School of Cinematic Arts, Howard has said he knew from a young age he might want to go into directing thanks to his early experience as an actor. In 1959, Howard had his first credited role, in The Journey. Howard played Timmy in Counterfeit Gun, Season 4, Episode 2 of the TV series, in 1960, Howard was cast as Opie Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show. Credited as Ronny Howard, he portrayed the son of the character for all eight seasons of the show. He and Griffith remained close until Griffiths death nearly 45 years later, in the 1962 film version of The Music Man, Howard played Winthrop Paroo, the child with the lisp, the film starred Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. He also starred in the 1963 film The Courtship of Eddies Father and he appeared as Barry Stewart on The Eleventh Hour, in the episode Is Mr. Martian Coming Back. In the 1970s, he appeared in at least one episode of The Bold Ones, Howard appeared on the 1969 Disneyland Records album The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion
6.
Charles Martin Smith
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Charles Martin Smith is an American film actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his roles in American Graffiti, The Buddy Holly Story, Never Cry Wolf, Starman, The Untouchables, Deep Cover, Speechless and he is further known for directing the films The Snow Walker, Dolphin Tale and Dolphin Tale 2. Smith was born in Van Nuys, California and his father, Frank Smith, was a film cartoonist and animator, while his uncle Paul J. Smith was an animator as well as a director for the Walter Lantz Studios. Smith spent three years of his youth in Paris, where his father managed the English-language branch of a French animation studio and he received his high school diploma from Grover Cleveland High School, Reseda, California. He attended California State University, Northridge and was awarded a B. A. in Theatre, Smith was discovered by a talent agent while acting in a school play, Man of La Mancha. In 1973, he and American Graffiti co-star Cindy Williams appeared together in an episode of Love, American Style titled Love and the Time Machine. In 1974 he starred with Ron Howard again in The Spikes Gang, filmed in Spain, along with Lee Marvin and Gary Grimes, and in 1978 he earned a starring role in Cotton Candy, directed by Howard. Smith played one of Buddy Hollys bandmates in The Buddy Holly Story, a car driver in Disneys Herbie Goes Bananas. His work in Starman, as Mark Shermin, a SETI member sympathetic to the characters plight, was also lauded. In 1979 Smith was cast alongside Barney Martin as the lead in Norman Lears last TV series concept, McGurk, A Dogs Life, one of his other starring roles was in Banshee, an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater that costarred Peter OToole and Jennifer Dale. He also appeared in the episode Boys, raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar. One of his starring roles was in The Beacon, an episode of The New Twilight Zone where he starred with Martin Landau. He received good reviews for his work in The Untouchables, after this he co-starred in The Hot Spot and Deep Cover, and in the mid-1990s he appeared in films such as Speechless, I Love Trouble, and Perfect Alibi. Smith played a role in the controversial HBO film And the Band Played On. He also appeared in The Beast in 1996 and in a role in the big budget Deep Impact in 1998. He played a character in the made-for-television movie Blackout Effect. More recently he has appeared in such as P. T. Barnum, Kingdom Hospital and The Triangle as well as the feature film Lucky You directed by Curtis Hanson, in 2009 he played a featured role, Sheriff Golightly, in the second episode of the TV series Fringe
7.
Candy Clark
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She reprised the role in the sequel More American Graffiti. Born in Norman, Oklahoma, to Ella and Thomas Clark and she attended Green B. Trimble Technical High School. Clark was a model in New York where she moved at age 18. Clarks first acting role was the character of Faye in John Hustons film, Fat City, Clark starred or acted in such films as, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Big Sleep, Blue Thunder, Amityville 3-D, Cats Eye and At Close Range. Clark played the role of Francine Hewitt in The Blob, Clark appeared in the 2009 film The Informant. as the mother of Mark Whitacre, played by Matt Damon. In 2011, Clark went to Berlin to work on the play Images of Louise Brooks directed by Sven Mundt and she has also made guest appearances on television series including Dating Game, Magnum, P. I. Banacek, Simon & Simon, Matlock, Baywatch Nights and Criminal Minds and she dated Jeff Bridges for several years after they met on the set of Fat City in 1972. She was married to Marjoe Gortner from 1978 to 1979 and she married Jeff Wald in 1987, and divorced him in 1988. As of 2007, she attended many hot rod shows, and enjoys gardening, collecting antiques, Clark appeared on Ken Reids TV Guidance Counselor podcast on January 20,2017. Candy Clark at the Internet Movie Database AllMovie. com
8.
Mackenzie Phillips
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Born in Alexandria, Virginia, she is the daughter of John Phillips, singer in The Mamas & the Papas, and his first wife, Susan Adams. She is the sister of Jeffrey Phillips and a half-sister of Tamerlane Phillips, actress Bijou Phillips, Phillips attended Highland Hall Waldorf School in Northridge, California. At age 12, Phillips formed a band with three of her classmates and was spotted by an agent during one of their performances. She was given an audition for a role in the 1973 hit film American Graffiti, Phillips was 12 years old during the filming of American Graffiti, and 13 when the movie was released. She was cast as Carol Morrison, a young girl accidentally picked up by hot rodding teenager John Milner, because of California state law, producer Gary Kurtz became Phillips legal guardian for the duration of the filming. Phillips gained stardom in the 1970s, when she played boy-crazy teenager Julie Cooper on the television show One Day at a Time. During the shows third season in 1977, Phillips was arrested for disorderly conduct, because of her drug and alcohol abuse, Phillips began arriving late and was even incoherent for rehearsals. The producers ordered her to take a break to overcome her addiction but were ultimately forced to fire her in 1980. After two near-fatal overdoses, Phillips voluntarily entered Fair Oaks Hospital to undergo treatment, after she completed treatment in 1981, the producers of One Day at a Time invited her back to the show. However, in 1982, Phillips resumed her cocaine use and the following year, when she refused to take a drug test, she was fired again, and this time for good. Her character was out of the series. In 1992, she entered a drug rehabilitation program and underwent intensive treatment for nine months. From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, Phillips performed with a version of The Mamas & the Papas, known as The New Mamas. In 1999, Phillips co-starred with Cara DeLizia in the Disney Channel series So Weird and she sang original songs written by show producers Jon Cooksey and Ann Marie Montade. In 2002, she appeared in the Disney Channel original movie Double Teamed, Phillips guest-starred on episodes of ER, Without a Trace, 7th Heaven, and Cold Case. While in Toronto, she was interviewed on Canada Am, ET Canada and she currently works at the Breathe Life Healing Center in West Hollywood, California, as a drug rehab counselor. Phillips has been married twice, first to rock group manager Jeffrey Sessler, son of Freddie Sessler and she has one child, son Shane Barakan, a musician. Phillips has had a troubled by drug abuse
9.
Cindy Williams
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Williams was born in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, to Francesca and Beachard Williams. She has one sibling, a sister, Carol Ann and she graduated from Birmingham High School in 1965. Her classmates included financier Michael Milken, actress Sally Field, and she attended Los Angeles City College. After college, Williams began her career by landing national commercials. Her first roles in television, among others, were on Room 222, Nanny and she auditioned for Lucass next project, Star Wars, but lost the role of Princess Leia to Carrie Fisher. In 1975, Williams was cast as a brewery worker, Shirley Feeney, in an episode of Happy Days, alongside Penny Marshall. Williams continued her role on the very successful Laverne & Shirley from 1976 until 1982, although praised for her portrayal of Shirley, Williams left the show after the second episode of the shows eighth and final season, after she became pregnant with her first child. Williams and co-star Marshall had also been feuding for quite some time, and they would reconcile a few years later. The success of the Garry Marshall series led to a Saturday morning animated series Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour and she has guest starred on several television shows, including two episodes of 8 Simple Rules. Williams has performed onstage in the tours of Grease, Deathtrap and Moon Over Buffalo. She reunited with her Laverne & Shirley co-star Eddie Mekka in a November 2008 regional production of the Renée Taylor-Joseph Bologna comedy play It Had to Be You. She made her Broadway debut as daffy Mrs. Tottendale in The Drowsy Chaperone at the Marquis Theatre on December 11,2007, Williams reunited with her Laverne & Shirley co-star Penny Marshall on Sam & Cat, in the episode #SalmonCat. In 2015, her memoir Shirley, I Jest. was published, in an interview in the 1990s, Ron Howard, by then a highly praised director, was asked if he would ever like to act again. He answered, Only if I could work with Cindy again, Williams was married to Bill Hudson of the musical trio Hudson Brothers in 1982. The marriage ended in divorce in 2000, together they have two children, a daughter, Emily and a son, Zachary. In January 2000, an article in the Washington Post critical of military pay raises was written by another Cindy Williams who was working as a research fellow at MIT. It had been attributed improperly to the actress, Cindy Williams at the Internet Movie Database Cindy Williams interview video at the Archive of American Television Video Discussion with Actress Cindy Williams at New York Film Academy
10.
Wolfman Jack
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Robert Weston Smith, known as Wolfman Jack was an American disc jockey. Famous for his voice, he credited it for his success, saying, Its kept meat. A couple of shots of whiskey helps it, ive got that nice raspy sound. His parents divorced while he was a child, jive, the Moon Dog from Cleveland, Alan Freed, and Nashvilles John R. Richbourg, who later became his mentor. After selling encyclopedias and Fuller brushes door-to-door, Smith attended the National Academy of Broadcasting in Washington, graduating in 1960, he began working as Daddy Jules at WYOU in Newport News, Virginia. When the station changed to beautiful music, Smith became known as Roger Gordon. In 1962, he moved to music station KCIJ/1050 in Shreveport, Louisiana as the station manager and morning disc jockey. He married Lucy Lou Lamb in 1961, and they had two children, Freed both adopted this name and used a recorded howl to give his early broadcasts a unique character. Smiths adaptation of the Moondog theme was to call himself Wolfman Jack, the character was based in part on the manner and style of bluesman Howlin Wolf. It was at KCIJ in Shreveport, Louisiana that he first began to develop his famous alter ego Wolfman Jack, according to author Philip A. Lieberman, Smiths Wolfman persona derived from Smiths love of horror flicks and his shenanigans as a wolfman with his two young nephews. The Jack was added as a part of the lingo of the 1950s, as in take a page from my book, Jack, or the more popular, hit the road. In an interview with writer Tom Miller, Smith described the reach of the XERF signal, birds dropped dead when they flew too close to the tower. A car driving from New York to L. A. would never lose the station and it was at XERF that Smith developed his signature style and widespread fame. The border stations made money by renting time to Pentecostal preachers and psychics, the Wolfman did pitches for dog food, weight-loss pills, weight-gain pills, rose bushes, and baby chicks. There was even a pill called Florex, which was supposed to enhance ones sex drive, some zing for your ling nuts, the Wolfman would say. That sales pitch was typical of Wolfman Jacks growling, exuberant on-air style, in the spirit of his character name, he would punctuate his banter with howls, while urging his listeners to get naked or lay your hands on the radio and squeeze my knobs. XERB was the call sign for the border blaster station in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. The station boasted 50,000 watts of Boss Soul Power and that station continues to broadcast today with the call sign XEPRS-AM
11.
Lucasfilm Ltd.
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LLC is an American film and television production company based in the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The studio is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound and computer animation for film. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California, the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 at a valuation of $4.06 billion. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971, and incorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. on September 12,1977, on July 8,2005, Lucasfilms marketing, online, and licensing units moved into the new Letterman Digital Arts Center located in the Presidio in San Francisco. It shares the complex with Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm had planned an expansion at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, but shelved the plan in 2012 due to opposition from neighbors. However, it plans to expand elsewhere. Skywalker Sound remains the only Lucasfilm division based at Skywalker Ranch, in January 2012, Lucas announced his retirement from producing large-scale blockbuster films and instead re-focusing his career on smaller, independently budgeted features. She would in June 2013 and is now chairperson of Lucasfilm, on September 5,2012, Micheline Chau, who served as president and COO of Lucasfilm for two decades, announced that she was retiring. With her departure, senior executives for each of the Lucasfilm divisions will report directly to Kathleen Kennedy, Chau was credited with keeping the Lucasfilm and Star Wars brands strong, especially through animation spin-offs and licensing initiatives. Lucas told Iger he was considering retirement and planned to sell the company, on October 30,2012, Disney announced a deal to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, with approximately half in cash and half in shares of Disney stock. Kathleen Kennedy, co-chairman of Lucasfilm, became president of Lucasfilm, additionally she serves as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disneys global lines of business to build, further integrate, and maximize the value of this global franchise. Kennedy serves as producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas originally announced as serving as creative consultant, the company also announced the future release of new Star Wars films, starting with Star Wars, The Force Awakens in 2015. Disney also acquired Lucasfilms portfolio of entertainment technologies, the intent was for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations. Star Wars merchandising would begin under Disney in the fiscal year 2014, starting with Star Wars Rebels, certain products will be co-branded with the Disney brand, akin to what Disney has done with Pixar. On December 4,2012, the Disney-Lucasfilm merger was approved by the Federal Trade Commission, on December 18,2012, Lucasfilm Ltd. was reincorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, and on December 21,2012, the deal was announced to be completed, in April 2013, the development arm of the LucasArts division was closed down and most of its staff was laid off. However, LucasArts remained open with a staff of fewer than ten employees so it could retain its function as a video game licensor. On May 6,2013, Disney announced a deal with Electronic Arts to produce Star Wars games for the core gaming market
12.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
13.
Locarno Festival
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The Locarno Festival is an international film festival held annually in August in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. Locarno is a film festival accredited by the FIAPF, the main feature of the festival is the open-air screening area at the Piazza Grande with room for over 8,000 spectators, having one of the largest open-air screens in the world. The top prize of the Festival is the Golden Leopard awarded to the best film in the international competition, other awards include the Leopard of Honour for outstanding career achievements, and the Prix du Public UBS, the public choice award. The Locarno Film Festival is well known worldwide as a festival of discovery, throughout its history the festival has discovered new trends and launched the careers of numerous directors and actors. The Festival del film Locarno kicked off on 23 August 1946, Grand Prize of the festival, awarded by the city and region of Locarno, for the best film in the concorso internazionale, that is shared equally between the director and the producer. Prize, awarded by cities of Ascona and Losone, for the second best film in the concorso internazionale, Prize, awarded by the city and region of Locarno, for the best directed film in the concorso internazionale. Prize awarded by a jury of critics to the first works presented in the sections concorso internazionale, concorso Cineasti del presente, Fuori concorso, Signs of Life. Prize awarded to the best film of competition, which is dedicated to first or second features. Ciné+ Special Jury Prize – Cineasti del presente, the French television channel Ciné+ Club offers the broadcast rights to the winning film and guarantees the broadcast on their channel. Pardo per il miglior regista emergente, Prize for the best new director, pardo per la migliore opera prima. Prize which has been awarded fro 2006 to 2009 to the best first work screened in the concorso internazionale or concorso Cineasti del presente. Pardino doro for the Best International Short Film – SRG SSR Prize, Prize awarded to the best short film in the international short film competition Pardi di domani. Pardino doro for the Best Swiss Short Film – Swiss Life Prize, Prize awarded to the best short film in the national short film competition Pardi di domani. Pardino dargento SSR SRG for the international competition, Prize awarded to a film in the international competition Pardi di domani. Pardino dargento Swiss Life for the national competition, Prize awarded to a film in the national competition Pardi di domani. Locarno short film nominee for the European Film Awards – Pianifica Prize, the prize, which is offered by the studio Pianifica, goes to a short film made by a European director, presented in one of the two competitions. The award includes an automatic nomination in the film category of the European Film Awards. The prize provides equipment offered by Cinegrell, Visuals SA, Freestudios SA, the winning film will be subtitled in three central European languages
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Comedy
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In a modern sense, comedy refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece, in the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a Society of Youth and a Society of the Old, a revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Similarly scatological humour, sexual humour, and race humour create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways, a comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society and uses humor to parody or satirize the behaviour and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms. The adjective comic, which means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage. Of this, the word came into usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time. The Greeks and Romans confined their use of the comedy to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average, however, the characters portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only insofar as they are Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others, the mask, for instance, in the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the title of his poem, as time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter. During the Middle Ages, the comedy became synonymous with satire. They disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms and they viewed comedy as simply the art of reprehension, and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term gained a more general meaning in medieval literature. Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes, a playwright and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the satyr plays
15.
Harrison Ford
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Harrison Ford is an American actor and film producer. He gained worldwide fame for his roles as Han Solo in the Star Wars film series. Six of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry, American Graffiti, The Conversation, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Blade Runner. In 1997, Ford was ranked No.1 in Empires The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list. As of 2016, the U. S. domestic box-office grosses of Fords films total over US$4.7 billion, with worldwide grosses surpassing $6 billion, Ford is married to actress Calista Flockhart. Ford was born at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, Illinois to Christopher Ford, an executive and former actor, and Dorothy. A younger brother, Terence, was born in 1945, Fords paternal grandparents, John Fitzgerald Ford and Florence Veronica Niehaus, were of Irish Catholic and German descent, respectively. Fords maternal grandparents, Harry Nidelman and Anna Lifschutz, were Jewish immigrants from Minsk, when asked in which religion he and his brother were raised, Ford jokingly responded, Democrat, to be liberals of every stripe. Ford was active in the Boy Scouts of America, and achieved its second-highest rank and he worked at Napowan Adventure Base Scout camp as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge. Because of this, he and director Steven Spielberg later decided to depict the young Indiana Jones as a Life Scout in the film Indiana Jones, in 1960, Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His was the first student voice broadcast on his high schools new radio station, WMTH and he attended Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. He took a class in the final quarter of his senior year to get over his shyness. Ford, a late bloomer, became fascinated with acting. In 1964, after a season of stock with the Belfry Players in Wisconsin. He did not get it, but stayed in California and eventually signed a contract with Columbia Pictures New Talent program. His first known role was a role as a bellhop in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round. There is little record of his roles in film. Ford was at the bottom of the hiring list, having offended producer Jerry Tokovsky after he played a bellboy in the feature
16.
Bo Hopkins
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William Hopkins, known as Bo Hopkins, is an American actor of stage, television and film. Bo Hopkins first major role in a film was in White Lightning, Bo Hopkins played Roy Boone, Gator McCluskys sidekick during much of the film. Jerry Reed played Bama McCall in the sequel to White Lightning called Gator, jerry Reed and Bo Hopkins bore a striking resemblance to one another, hence they played brothers Joe Hawkins and Tom Hawkins in the film What Comes Around. In 1981, he appeared in the first season of the prime-time drama Dynasty as Matthew Blaisdel, king, The Fall Guy, Crazy Like a Fox and Murder, She Wrote and Doc Elliot. Hopkins has a role in the video game Nuclear Strike and he plays Colonel LeMonde, a mercenary who steals a nuclear weapon. The Strike team tracks him through Southeast Asia, William Hopkins was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1942. At the age of nine months he was adopted by a couple who were unable to conceive their own, growing up, he was called Billy. His adoptive father worked in a mill in Taylors, South Carolina, when his father was 39, Billy was present with his mother when he died of a heart attack on the porch of the familys home. Unable to remain in their house, a month later the two of them moved to a new residence in nearby Ware Shoals, where his grandfather and his mother eventually remarried to a man whose last name was Davis. Hopkins did not get along with his new stepfather and the two got into arguments, some serious. At age 12, he met his mother for the first time, who lived in a South Carolina mill town called Lockhart, and also his half-sisters. Billy led a life as a youngster, with numerous instances of truancy, minor crimes. He dropped out of school at 16 just before his 17th birthday and joined the United States Army and he was based at Fort Jackson, Fort Gordon and Fort Pope, before being shipped off to Korea, where he served for nine months. After his military service, William Billy Hopkins began dating a girl named Norma, whom he married at about age 18, Hopkins became interested in pursuing an acting career, which his wife disapproved of, and she left him, taking their daughter with her. After appearing in some plays, he received a scholarship to study acting and stage production at the Pioneer Playhouse in Kentucky. While there he began dating a girl who was a Miss Mississippi, from Kentucky, he made his way to New York City to act in more stage plays. After New York, he moved to Hollywood with his cousins boyfriend, in Hollywood, he earned a living parking cars while studying at the Actors Studio, where one of his classmates was future Oscar winner Martin Landau. Explaining in a 2012 magazine interview how he got his first name Bo, he said, Billy when I was growing up
17.
Suzanne Somers
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Somers later became the author of a series of best-selling self-help books, including Ageless, The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones, about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. She has released two autobiographies, four books, and a book of poetry. She has been criticized for her views on medical subjects and her advocacy of the Wiley Protocol. Her promotion of cancer treatments has received praise from naturopathic health practitioners. Born Suzanne Marie Mahoney in San Bruno, California, Somers was the third of four children in an Irish-American Catholic family and her mother, Marion Elizabeth, was a medical secretary, and her father, Francis Mahoney, was a laborer and gardener. She attended Capuchino High School and was accepted at San Francisco College for Women, after a brief marriage to the father of her first child, Bruce Somers, she became a prize model on Anniversary Game. There she met host Alan Hamel, they have married since 1977. On January 9,2007, the Associated Press reported that a wildfire in Southern California had destroyed Somers Malibu home, Somers began acting in small roles during the late 1960s and early 1970s. She also appeared in The Rockford Files and had a role as a topless pool girl in Magnum Force. She also had a role on The Six Million Dollar Man. She later landed her most famous role of the ditzy blonde Chrissy Snow on the ABC sitcom Threes Company in 1977, also that year, she was a celebrity panelist on Match Game, and appeared with husband Alan Hamel on Tattletales. Somers was cast in the ABC sitcom Threes Company in January 1977 and she portrayed Chrissy Snow, a stereotypical dumb blonde, who was employed as an office secretary. It was an instant success in the ratings, eventually spawning a short-lived spin-off series, Somers was an audience favorite, leading the media to proclaim her the shows breakout star, and she was generally credited for making the show a worldwide phenomenon. Somers role made her a sex symbol of that era, at the beginning of the fifth season in 1980, Somers demanded a hefty salary raise from $30,000 to $150,000 an episode and 10 percent ownership of the shows profit. Those close to the situation suggested that Somers rebellion was due to husband Hamels influences, when ABC denied her request, she boycotted the second and fourth shows of the season, due to excuses such as a broken rib. She finished the season on her contract, but her role was decreased to 60 seconds per episode. After her contract was terminated, she sued ABC for $2 million and it went to an arbitrator who decided she was owed only $30,000, due to a single missed episode for which she had not been paid. Somers claims she was fired for asking to be paid as much as male television stars of the day such as Alan Alda, before the feud with Threes Company producers and ABC ended, rival network CBS knew that Somers was ultimately going to be available
18.
Modesto, California
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Modesto /məˈdɛstoʊ/, officially the City of Modesto, is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of approximately 201,165 at the 2010 census, it is the 18th largest city in the state of California, the Modesto Census County Division, which includes the cities of Ceres and Riverbank, had a population of 312,842 as of 2010. Modesto has been honored as a Tree City USA numerous times and it is surrounded by rich farmland, Stanislaus County ranks sixth among California counties in farm production. Led by milk, almonds, chickens, walnuts, and corn silage, the farm-to-table movement plays a central role in Modesto living as in the Central Valley. The citys annual Architectural Festival honors Modestos history as a ground for mid-century modern architecture during the 1940s and 50s. Modestos mid-century buildings have been featured four times in Museum of Modern Art publications, in December 2009, Forbes ranked Modesto 48th out of 100 among Best Bang-for-the-Buck Cities. In this ranking, Modesto ranked 8th in housing affordability and travel time, Modesto is the home of Gallo Family Winery, the largest privately owned winery in the world. Modesto was originally a stop on the railroad connecting Sacramento to Los Angeles, at its founding in 1870, it was to be named Ralston after financier William C. Ralstons modesty prompted him to ask that another name be found, Modesto was incorporated in 1884 with a population of over 1,000. With fields of grain, a river for grain barges, and railroad traffic. Irrigation water came from dams installed in the foothills, and irrigated fields of vegetables and fruit, by 1900, Modestos population was over 4,500. During World War II, the area provided canned goods, powdered milk, for the next few decades, Modestos population grew about two percent per year to over 100,000 in 1980, and over 200,000 in 2001. The citys official motto, Water Wealth Contentment Health, is emblazoned on the downtown Modesto Arch, the motto was selected in a contest held in 1911. Modestos motto is sometimes spoofed as The land gets the water, the bankers get the wealth, the cows get contentment, Modesto is known for the following tourist attractions and historical sites. McHenry Mansion – Built in the early 1880s by Robert McHenry, the mansion is included on the National Register of Historic Places. McHenry Museum – Across the street from the McHenry Mansion, filled with tidbits from Modestos history George Lucas Plaza – American Graffiti-inspired bronze statue made in honor of Modesto filmmaker George Lucas, located at Five Points. Gallo Center for the Arts – Center for the performing arts opened in 2007 and is located in downtown Modesto at 1000 I Street, Downtown Modesto – Known for having a variety of restaurants and night life. It also hosts a multi-venue Art Walk year around on the third Thursday of the month, the State Theatre – Dating back to the 1920s, it was recently renovated and serves as a local performance arts center and as a theater specializing in independent and foreign films
19.
Rock and roll
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While elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s. For the purpose of differentiation, this deals with the first definition. The beat is essentially a blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars, a double bass or string bass or an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. Beyond simply a style, rock and roll, as seen in movies and on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes. In addition, rock and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and white American teens enjoyed the music and it went on to spawn various genres, often without the initially characteristic backbeat, that are now more commonly called simply rock music or rock. The term rock and roll now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Encyclopædia Britannica, on the hand, regards it as the music that originated in the mid-1950s. In 1934, the song Rock and Roll by the Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round, in 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term rock-and-roll to describe upbeat recordings such as Rock Me by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. By 1943, the Rock and Roll Inn in South Merchantville, in 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it. The origins of rock and roll have been debated by commentators. The migration of former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such as St. The immediate roots of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues, then called race music, particularly significant influences were jazz, blues, gospel, country, and folk. The 1940s saw the use of blaring horns, shouted lyrics. In the same period, particularly on the West Coast and in the Midwest, similarly, country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll. Rock and roll arrived at a time of technological change, soon after the development of the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone. It was the realization that relatively affluent white teenagers were listening to music that led to the development of what was to be defined as rock. Because the development of rock and roll was a process, no single record can be identified as unambiguously the first rock. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
20.
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
21.
20th Century Fox
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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, the studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2015, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 80th anniversary as a studio. Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, the studios biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn, at first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called Fox-20th Century, even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, the new company, 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31,1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985. Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President, Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Foxs longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan. The company established a training school. The contracts included an option for renewal for as long as seven years. For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The companys films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their credits as well as its opening fanfare. Also on the Fox payroll he found two players who he built up into the studios leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple, favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox overtook RKO, while Zanuck went off for eighteen months war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by going for light entertainment. The studios—indeed the industrys—biggest star was creamy blonde Betty Grable, in 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Foxs output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razors Edge, Wilson, Gentlemans Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and they also made the 1958 film version of South Pacific
22.
Columbia Pictures
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The studio was founded in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jacks best friend Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924, and went public two years later and its name is derived from Columbia, a national personification of the United States, which is used as the studios logo. In its early years, it was a player in Hollywood. With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s, Columbias major contract stars were Jean Arthur, in the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studios premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden also became major stars at the studio, in 1982, the studio was purchased by The Coca-Cola Company, and launched TriStar Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola spun off Columbia, which was sold to Tri-Star, after a brief period of independence with Coca-Cola maintaining a financial interest, the combined studio was acquired by Sony in 1989. It is one of the film studios in the world. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, Brandt was president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales, marketing and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood. The studios early productions were short subjects, Screen Snapshots, the Hall Room Boys. The start-up CBC leased space in a Poverty Row studio on Hollywoods famously low-rent Gower Street, among Hollywoods elite, the studios small-time reputation led some to joke that CBC stood for Corned Beef and Cabbage. Brandt eventually tired of dealing with the Cohn brothers, and sold his stake to Harry Cohn. In an effort to improve its image, the Cohn brothers renamed the company Columbia Pictures Corporation on January 10,1924, Cohn remained head of production as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He would run Columbia for the next 34 years, the second-longest tenure of any studio chief, even in an industry rife with nepotism, Columbia was particularly notorious for having a number of Harry and Jacks relatives in high positions. Humorist Robert Benchley called it the Pine Tree Studio, because it has so many Cohns, Columbias product line consisted mostly of moderately budgeted features and short subjects including comedies, sports films, various serials, and cartoons. Columbia gradually moved into the production of higher-budget fare, eventually joining the tier of Hollywood studios along with United Artists. Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia was an integrated company. It controlled production and distribution, it did not own any theaters, helping Columbias climb was the arrival of an ambitious director, Frank Capra
23.
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
24.
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
25.
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
26.
San Rafael, California
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San Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, as of the 2010 census the citys population is 57,713. What is now San Rafael was once the site of several Coast Miwok villages, Awani-wi, near downtown San Rafael, Ewu, near Terra Linda,14,1817, four years before Mexico gained independence from Spain. Mission San Rafael Arcángel was located a donkeys day walk to the mission below it, the mission and the city are named after the Archangel Raphael, the Angel of Healing. The mission was planned as a hospital site for Central Valley American Indians who had become ill at the cold San Francisco Mission Dolores. Father Luis Gil, who spoke several Native American languages, was put in charge of the facility, in part because of its ideal weather, San Rafael was later upgraded to full mission status in 1822. The mission had 300 converts within its first year, and 1,140 converts by 1828, the Mexican government took over the California missions in 1834, and Mission San Rafael was abandoned in 1844, eventually falling into ruin. The current mission was built in 1949 in the style of the original, the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad reached San Rafael in 1879 and was linked to the national rail network in 1888. The United States Navy operated a San Pablo Bay degaussing range from San Rafael through World War II, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 22.4 square miles. 16.5 square miles of it is land and 6.0 square miles of it is water, south of the county is San Francisco. Peacock Gap Golf Course which is open to the public, there are several public parks in the city. The San Rafael shoreline has been filled to a considerable extent to accommodate land development. At certain locations such as Murphys Point, the sandstone or shale rock outcrops through the mud, San Rafael has a wide diversity of natural habitats from forests at the higher elevations to marshland and estuarine settings. Its marshes are home to the endangered species Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, there are also riparian areas including the San Rafael Creek and Miller Creek corridors. San Rafael has a Mediterranean climate, with winter lows seldom reaching the freezing mark. The National Weather Service reports that August is usually the warmest month with a high of 80. 1°, December, the coldest month, has an average high of 55. 1° and an average low of 41. 0°. The highest temperature on record is 110°, recorded in June 1961, the highest temperature in recent years, 108°, occurred on July 23,2006. The record lowest temperature was 20° on December 22,1990, there are an average of 17.9 days annually with a high of 90° or more and 1.2 days with a high of 100° or more
27.
Library of Congress
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The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, the Library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. it also maintains the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, which houses the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. The Library of Congress claims to be the largest library in the world and its collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 450 languages. Two-thirds of the books it acquires each year are in other than English. The Library of Congress moved to Washington in 1800, after sitting for years in the temporary national capitals of New York. John J. Beckley, who became the first Librarian of Congress, was two dollars per day and was required to also serve as the Clerk of the House of Representatives. The small Congressional Library was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century until the early 1890s, most of the original collection had been destroyed by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812. To restore its collection in 1815, the bought from former president Thomas Jefferson his entire personal collection of 6,487 books. After a period of growth, another fire struck the Library in its Capitol chambers in 1851, again destroying a large amount of the collection. The Library received the right of transference of all copyrighted works to have two copies deposited of books, maps, illustrations and diagrams printed in the United States. It also began to build its collections of British and other European works and it included several stories built underground of steel and cast iron stacks. Although the Library is open to the public, only high-ranking government officials may check out books, the Library promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book, and Poet Laureate. James Madison is credited with the idea for creating a congressional library, part of the legislation appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress. And for fitting up an apartment for containing them. Books were ordered from London and the collection, consisting of 740 books and 3 maps, was housed in the new Capitol, as president, Thomas Jefferson played an important role in establishing the structure of the Library of Congress. The new law also extended to the president and vice president the ability to borrow books and these volumes had been left in the Senate wing of the Capitol. One of the only congressional volumes to have survived was a government account book of receipts and it was taken as a souvenir by a British Commander whose family later returned it to the United States government in 1940. Within a month, former president Jefferson offered to sell his library as a replacement
28.
National Film Registry
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The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Boards selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The NFPB, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992,1996,2005, and again in October 2008. The NFPBs mission, to which the NFR contributes, is to ensure the survival, conservation, the 1996 law also created the non-profit National Film Preservation Foundation which, although affiliated with the NFPB, raises money from the private sector. To be eligible for inclusion, a film must be at least ten years old, for the first selection in 1989, the public nominated almost 1,000 films for consideration. Members of the NFPB then developed individual ballots of possible films for inclusion, the ballots were tabulated into a list of 25 films which was then modified by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and his staff at the Library for the final selection. Since 1997, members of the public have been able to nominate up to 50 films a year for the NFPB, the NFR includes films ranging from Hollywood classics to orphan films. A film is not required to be feature-length, nor is it required to have been released in the traditional sense. As of the 2016 listing, there are 700 films preserved in the Registry, currently, the earliest listed film is Newark Athlete, and the most recent is 13 Lakes. Counting the 11 multi-year serials in the NFR once each by year of completion, the years with the most films selected are 1928,1939, the time between a films debut and its selection varies greatly. The longest span is 119 years, Newark Athlete was originally released in 1891, the shortest span is the minimum 10 years, this distinction is shared by Raging Bull, Do the Right Thing, Goodfellas, Toy Story, Fargo and 13 Lakes. For purposes of this list, multi-year serials are counted once by year of completion
29.
More American Graffiti
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More American Graffiti is a 1979 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Bill L. Norton. It is the sequel to the 1973 film American Graffiti, whereas the first film followed a group of friends during the summer evening before they set off for college, this film shows where the characters from the first film end up a few years later. Richard Dreyfuss was the principal cast member from the original film not to appear in the sequel. It was the final film in which Ron Howard would play a credited, named character. The film, set over the course of four consecutive New Years Eves from 1964 to 1967, depicts scenes from each of these years, the audience is protected from confusion by the use of a distinct cinematic style for each section. One character burned his card, showing a younger audience what so many Americans had done on the television news ten years before the movies release. The listed fates of the characters at the ending sequence of American Graffiti were updated again at the end of this sequel. After disappearing over a hill, neither his taillights nor the approaching cars headlights are seen again. The anniversary of Johns death is mentioned in both the 1965 and 1966 sequences, Terry is believed to be dead by his superiors in 1965 and by his friends – Debbie in 1966 and Steve and Laurie in 1967. Joe Young, Toads war partner, vividly meets his death with a bullet to the chest in one scene after having promised to make Terry a Pharaoh once they get back from Vietnam. The relationship of Steve and Laurie is strained by Lauries insistence that she start her own career, Wolfman Jack briefly reprised his role, but in voice only. The drag racing scenes for More American Graffiti were filmed at the Fremont Raceway, later Baylands Raceway Park, in Fremont, Norton who was picked by Lucas as being suitable due to his California upbringing and experience with comedy. The film also featured a 33-track soundtrack entitled More American Graffiti, the soundtrack, originally released in 1979 as MCA 2-11006, is long out of print, and has never been released on CD. A fictional band called Electric Haze featuring Doug Sahm appears in the film, an earlier album, also entitled More American Graffiti, was an official album sequel to the first soundtrack to American Graffiti. The album was released in 1975, four years before the sequel of the same name was released. While only one of the songs in this album was used in the 1973 motion picture. In 1976 MCA Records released a third and final Various Artists double album set entitled, unike the first two albums, American Graffiti Vol. III does not include Wolfman Jack dialogue. More American Graffiti opened on August 3,1979, the Numbers cites the gross at $8.1 million, and Box Office Mojo at $15 million
30.
Mel's Drive-In
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Mel’s Drive-In is an American restaurant chain founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California. It is closely associated with the film American Graffiti, there are a number of “Mel’s” located in Northern California that share the same general American Graffiti nostalgia theme and the similarly styled Mel’s logo. These restaurants are called “Original Mels” and their locations are not listed on the official Mel’s Drive-In website, although an article from the Sacramento Business Journal shows that they are related. A family rift caused the Weisses to part ways and form two chains, the elder Weiss in 1994 sold his company to Larry Spergel, who formed a group of about 50 stockholders that now owns the chain. The Walnut Creek, California, location features a history of the original San Francisco Mels, some Mel’s Drive-In locations are not actually drive-ins, but rather diners. For example, while founded in San Francisco, none of the locations in the city currently serve food to patrons’ cars, signage and menus on the original Mel’s Diners did not have a possessive apostrophe in the name, as would be expected. More than 100 protesters were arrested, the picketing ended when Harold Dobbs, a San Francisco City Supervisor who had run for Mayor and lost, settled with the protesters and began to allow black workers up front. In 1972, the restaurant was selected as a location by George Lucas for his 1973 film American Graffiti. The Mels used was located at 140 South Van Ness in San Francisco and it serves as the setting for the opening scene of the film as well as the backdrop for the opening credits, accompanied on the soundtrack by Bill Haleys Rock Around The Clock. The prominent play given to the location has been credited with having saved the company from going out of business. Signage and artwork from the Mels chain is used in marketing for the film. Universal Studios built a replica of “Mel’s Drive-In” on its lot, prior to American Graffiti, Mel’s was used as a location in the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are out for a drive and Tracy pulls into Mel’s and orders Oregon Boysenberry ice cream, the Mel’s was located in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy never actually visited the location, Mel’s restaurants have since been featured in other media, such as Melrose Place, Doonesbury comics, and the book The American Drive-in by Mike Witzel. Original Mels official website Mels Drive-In official website Original Mels and Mels Drive-in Article Mels Drive-in, The True Story of the Worlds Most Famous Drive-in Pt.1 Article
31.
Northeastern United States
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The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The Census Bureau-defined region has an area of 181,324 sq mi with 162,257 square miles of that being land mass. Though lacking a unified identity, the Northeastern region is the nations most economically developed, densely populated. Of the nations four census regions, the Northeast is the second most urban, with 85 percent of its residing in urban areas. The region is subdivided into New England and the Mid-Atlantic States and this definition has been essentially unchanged since 1880 and is widely used as a standard for data tabulation. C. Similarly, the Geological Society of America defines the Northeast as these same states but with the addition of Maryland, the narrowest definitions include only the states of New England. Other more restrictive definitions include New England and New York as part of the Northeast United States, States beyond the Census Bureau definition that other entities include in the Northeast United States are, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D. C. Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D. C. and West Virginia Delaware, Maryland, Washington, most did not settle in North America until the 17th century. Among the many tribes that inhabited this area were those made up the Iroquois nations. In the United States of the 21st century,18 federally recognized tribes reside in the Northeast, the two cultural and geographic regions that form parts of the Northeastern region have distinct histories. The first Europeans to settle New England were Pilgrims from England, the Pilgrims arrived by the Mayflower ship and founded Plymouth Colony so they could practice religion freely. Ten years later, a group of Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston to form Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1636, colonists established Connecticut Colony and Providence Plantations, Providence was founded by Roger Williams, who was banished by Massachusetts for his beliefs in freedom of religion, and it was the first colony to guarantee all citizens freedom of worship. Anne Hutchinson, who was banished by Massachusetts, formed the town of Portsmouth. Providence, Portsmouth, and two towns consolidated to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Although the first settlers of New England were motivated by religion, in recent history. In a 2009 Gallup survey, less than half of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts reported religion as an important part of their daily life. In a 2010 Gallup survey, less than 30% of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New England played a prominent role in early American education
32.
Loyal Order of Moose
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The Loyal Order of Moose is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888, with nearly 1 million men in roughly 2,400 Lodges, in all 50 U. S. It is headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois, also, Moose Lodges and Chapters conduct approximately $75 million worth of community service annually. The Loyal Order of Moose was founded in Louisville, Kentucky, originally intended purely as a mens social club, lodges were soon founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri and Crawfordsville and Frankfort, Indiana. The early order was not prosperous, Dr. Wilson himself was dissatisfied and left the order of the Moose before the turn of the century. When Albert C. Stevens was compiling his Cyclopedia of Fraternities in the late 1890s, in the fall of 1906 the Order had only the two Indiana lodges remaining. On October 27 of that year James J. Davis became the 247th member of the Order, Davis was a Welsh immigrant who had come to the US as a youth and worked as an iron puddler in the steel mills of Pennsylvania, and an active labor organizer. He saw the Order as a way to provide a safety net for a working class membership. After giving an address to the seven delegates of the 1906 Moose national convention. Davis and a group of organizers set out to members and establish lodges throughout the US. He was quite successful and the Order grew to half a million members in 1,000 lodges by 1912. For months offers came in and a number of meetings were held regarding the project and it was eventually agreed that the center should be located somewhere near the center of population, adjacent to both rail and river transportation and within a days travel to a major city. On December 14,1912 the leaders of the decided to purchase the 750-acre Brookline Farm. Brookline was a farm near Batavia, Illinois. It was close to the Fox River, two lines and the Lincoln Highway. The leadership also wished to buy real estate to the west. Negotiations for the purchases were held in January and February 1913, Mooseheart was dedicated on July 27,1913. Vice President Thomas R. Marshall gave a speech for the occasion, while Mooseheart began as a school, it soon grew to become a small incorporated village and hub of the organization, housing the headquarters of the LOOM, as well as the Women of the Moose. The population of Mooseheart would grow to 1,000 by 1920, reach a peak of 1,300 during the Great Depression and go down to approximately 500, in addition to Mooseheart, the LOOM also runs a retirement center, Moosehaven, located in Orange Park Florida
33.
Chevrolet Impala
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The Chevrolet Impala is a full-size car built by Chevrolet for model years 1958 to 1985,1994 to 1996, and 2000 to present. The Chevrolet Impala derived its name from the African antelope of the same name, the Impala was Chevrolets most expensive passenger model through 1965, and had become the best-selling automobile in the United States. For its debut in 1958, the Impala was distinguished from other models by its symmetrical triple taillights, the Impala continued as Chevrolets most popular full-size model through the mid-1980s. Between 1994 and 1996, the Impala was revised as a 5. 7-liter V8–powered version of the Caprice Classic sedan, in 2000, the Impala was re-introduced again as a mainstream front-wheel drive Hi-Mid sedan. As of February 2014, the 2014 Impala ranked number one among Affordable Large Cars in U. S. News & World Reports rankings. When the current tenth generation of the Impala was introduced for the 2014 model year, the ninth generation was rebadged as the Impala Limited and sold only to fleet customers through 2016. As of the 2015 model year, both versions are sold in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with the current-generation Impala also sold in the Middle East, the Philippines, and South Korea. The Impala name was first used for the full-sized 1956 General Motors Motorama show car that bore Corvette-like design cues, painted emerald green metallic, with a white interior, the Impala featured hardtop styling. Clare MacKichans design team, along with designers from Pontiac, started to establish basic packaging, the first styling sketch that would directly influence the finished Chevrolet automobile was seen by General Motors Styling vice president Harley Earl in October. Seven months later, the design was developed. The Impala was introduced for the 1958 model year as top of the line Bel Air hardtops, from the windshield pillar rearward, the 1958 Bel Air Impala differed structurally from the lower-priced Chevrolet models. Hardtops had a slightly shorter greenhouse and longer rear deck, the wheelbase of the Impala was longer than the lower priced models, although the overall length was identical. Interiors held a two-spoke steering wheel and color-keyed door panels with brushed aluminum trim, no other series included a convertible. The 1958 models were longer, lower, and wider than its predecessors, the tailfins of the 1957 were replaced by deeply sculptured rear fenders. Impalas had three taillights each side, while lesser models had two and wagons just one, crossed-flag insignias were attached above the side moldings, as well as bright rocker moldings and dummy rear-fender scoops. 1958 was the first year of dual headlamps, for 1958, GM was promoting their fiftieth year of production, and introduced anniversary models for each brand, Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Chevrolet. This was a step between traditional construction and the later fully unitized body/chassis, the body structure was strengthened in the rocker panels. However, this frame was not as effective in protecting the structure in a side impact crash
34.
First day of school
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The first day of school is the first day of an academic year. The timing varies between different areas around the world because of the differences in weather, climate, season, law and it is most common in Canada, and parts of the US to start school the day after Labor Day. The first day of school in Argentina is on the last Monday of February or the first Monday of March, high school usually begins one week later than South Colombia elementary school. The first day of school is on the week of September. The school year usually begins during February and as late as March for some universities and its usual to have a 2–3 weeks recess by the mid of the year and an ending by mid December. The first day of school, in most provinces, is on the Tuesday after the first Monday in September, but varies based on the individual school boards. In some areas, including Newfoundland and Labrador, school begins for faculty and staff on the day after Labour Day, in Quebec, CEGEP students typically start school the third week of August. University students start school between the first and the week of September. Elementary and high school students start back the last week of August, anywhere from Tuesday - Thursday and on the occasion will start after Labour Day. In Edmonton, three specific Catholic schools start at the week of August. The rest of schools will start at the week of September, and on rare occasions. The first day of school in Chile is on March 1, or the first Monday following if March 1 is a Friday, Saturday, the first day of school in Costa Rica is in early February. The Education Ministry changes the date every year to ensure 200 effective days are in the school calendar, the first day of school in Guatemala begins on the second Monday in January. The first day of school in Mexico begins on the second to last Monday in August and it is hard to generalize the first day of school for the United States because there are 50 different states each with many districts which all start school on different days. When the first day of school is and what happens on the first day of school usually vary by region, school tends to start a few weeks earlier in the west than the east. The first day of school for school districts in various states is on the day after Labor Day. On that day, public transportation services increase and start the rush hour earlier, in some other school districts, school begins in mid- to late August. For instance, the Denver, Colorado metro area schools go back in mid-August and schools in the Cleveland, schools in Arkansas usually start around the fifteenth of August
35.
Sock hop
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A sock hop or sox hop, often also called a record hop or just a hop, was an informal sponsored dance event for teenagers in mid-20th-century North America, featuring popular music. Sock hops were held early as 1944 by the American Junior Red Cross to raise funds during World War II and they then became a fad among American teenagers in 1948. Sock hops were held at high schools and other educational institutions. The term came about because dancers were required to remove their shoes to protect the varnished floor of the gymnasium. The music at a hop was usually played from vinyl records. Occasionally there were also live bands, the popularity of sock hops coined the phrase Bobby soxer, which described the fans of Traditional pop music. In later years, hops became strongly associated with the 1950s and early rock, danny and the Juniors sang At the Hop in 1957, which named many popular dances and otherwise documented what happened at a hop. In subsequent decades, with the popularity of sneakers and other types of indoors-only shoes. The term then came to be applied generally to any informal dance for teenagers. The term caught on in England in the late 1980s during a British rockabilly revival, life Begins at the Hop, a song celebrating sock hops, became the first charting single for XTC. The Mindset List of the Obscure,74 Famously Forgotten Icons from A to Z. ISBN9781402293474
36.
Ford Thunderbird
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The Ford Thunderbird is a rear wheel drive automobile which was manufactured by Ford in the United States over eleven model generations from 1955 through 2005. The Thunderbird created a niche that eventually became known as the personal luxury car. The Thunderbird entered production for the 1955 model year as a sporty two-seat convertible, unlike the Chevrolet Corvette, it was not marketed as a sports car. Ford positioned the Thunderbird as a model and is credited in developing a new market segment. In 1958, the Thunderbird gained a second row of seats, succeeding generations became larger until the line was downsized in 1977, again in 1980, and once again in 1983. Sales were good until the 1990s, when large 2-door coupes became unpopular, in 2002 production of the Thunderbird started again, a revived 2-seat model was launched, which was available through the end of the 2005 model year. From its introduction in 1955 to its phaseout in 2005, Ford produced over 4.4 million Thunderbirds, the Second to Fourth Generation Thunderbird convertibles were similar in design to the Lincoln convertible of the time and borrowed from earlier Ford hardtop/convertible designs. While these Thunderbird models had a convertible soft top, the top was lowered to stow in the forward trunk area. This design reduced available space when the top was down. The trunk lid was rear-hinged, raised and lowered via hydraulic cylinders during the top raising or lowering cycle, the forward end of the trunk lid contained a metal plate that extended upward to cover the area that the top is stowed in. With the top down and the trunk lid lowered, there is no sight of the soft top, the overall appearance was a sleek look with no trace of a convertible top at all. However, this design could present a challenge to one who is troubleshooting a convertible top malfunction, the system consists of a spiderweb of solenoids, relays, limit switches, electric motors, a hydraulic pump/reservoir, hydraulic directional valves and cylinders. While the hydraulics are not often a cause for trouble, the relays are known to fail. Failure of any of the relays, motors or limit switches will prevent the system from completing the cycle. Unlike hardtop models that utilized a conventional key-secured, forward hinged design, as a result of this design, the trunks of convertible models were notorious for leaking. A smaller two-seater sports roadster was created at the behest of Henry Ford II in 1953 called the Vega, the completed one-off generated interest at the time, but had meager power, European looks, and a correspondingly high cost, so it never proceeded to production. The Thunderbird was similar in concept, but would be more American in style, more luxurious, the men and their teams generally credited with the creation of the original Thunderbird are, Lewis D. Boyer was lead stylist on the original 1955 two-seater Thunderbird and also had a hand in designing the series of Thunderbirds including the 30th Anniversary Edition
