1.
Jack L. Warner
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Jack Leonard J. L. Warner, born Jacob Warner, in London, Ontario, was a Canadian-American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Warners career spanned some forty-five years, its duration surpassing that of any other of the seminal Hollywood studio moguls, as co-head of production at Warner Bros. Studios, he worked with his brother, Sam Warner, to procure the technology for the industrys first talking picture. After Sams death, Jack clashed with his older brothers, Harry. Although Warner was feared by many of his employees and inspired ridicule with his attempts at humor, he earned respect for his shrewd instincts. He recruited many of Warner Bros. top stars and promoted the social dramas for which the studio became known. Given to decisiveness, Warner once commented, If Im right fifty-one percent of the time, Throughout his career, he was viewed as a contradictory and enigmatic figure. Although he was a staunch Republican, Warner encouraged film projects that promoted the agenda of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal and he opposed European fascism and criticized Nazi Germany well before Americas involvement in World War II. Despite his controversial image, Warner remained a force in the motion picture industry until his retirement in the early 1970s. Jack Warner was born in London, Ontario, in 1892 and his parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland who spoke mainly Yiddish. Jack was the surviving son of Benjamin Warner a cobbler from Krasnosielc, Poland, and his wife. Following their marriage in 1876, the couple had three children in Poland, one of whom died at a young age, one of the surviving children was Jacks eldest brother, Hirsch. The Warner family had occupied a hostile world, where the night-riding of cossacks, the burning of houses, and the raping of women were part of lifes burden for the Jews of the shtetl. In 1888, in search of a future for his family and himself, Benjamin made his way to Hamburg, Germany. Pearl Warner and the two children joined him in Baltimore, Maryland, less than a year later. In Baltimore, the couple had five children, including Abraham and Sam Warner. Benjamin Warners decision to move to Canada in the early 1890s was inspired by a friends advice that he could make an excellent living bartering tin wares with trappers in exchange for furs and their sons Jack and David were born in Ontario. After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin and Pearl Warner returned to Baltimore, bringing along their growing family, two more children, Sadie and Milton, were added to the household there
2.
Fredric March
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Fredric March was a distinguished stage actor and one of Hollywoods most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 40s. March is the actor to have won both the Academy Award and the Tony Award twice. March was born in Racine, Wisconsin, the son of Cora Brown Marcher, a schoolteacher, and John F. Bickel, March attended the Winslow Elementary School, Racine High School, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi. He appeared on Broadway in 1926, and by the end of the decade, March served in the United States Army during World War I as an artillery lieutenant. March received an Oscar nomination for the 4th Academy Awards in 1930 for The Royal Family of Broadway and he returned to Broadway after a ten-year absence in 1937 with a notable flop Yr. Obedient Husband, but after the success of Thornton Wilders The Skin of Our Teeth he focused as much on Broadway theatre as Hollywood. He also had successes in A Bell for Adano in 1944 and Gideon in 1961. He also starred in films as I Married a Witch and Another Part of the Forest during this period. On March 25,1954, March co-hosted the 26th Annual Academy Awards ceremony from New York City, marchs neighbor in Connecticut, playwright Arthur Miller, was thought to favor March to inaugurate the part of Willy Loman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman. In 1957, March was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. March co-starred with Spencer Tracy in the 1960 Stanley Kramer film Inherit the Wind, in which he played a version of famous orator. Marchs Bible-thumping character provided a rival for Tracys Clarence Darrow-inspired character, the recordings were narrated by Charles Collingwood, with March and his wife Florence Eldridge performing dramatic readings from historical documents and literature. Following surgery for cancer in 1970, it seemed his career was over, yet he managed to give one last performance in The Iceman Cometh, as the complicated Irish saloon keeper. March was married to actress Florence Eldridge from 1927 until his death in 1975 and he died from prostate cancer, at age 77, in Los Angeles, California, he was buried at his estate in New Milford, Connecticut. Throughout his life, he and his wife were supporters of the Democratic Party, biographies of March include Fredric March, Craftsman First, Star Second by Deborah C. Peterson, and Fredric March, A Consummate Actor by Charles Tranberg, Fredric March at the Internet Movie Database Fredric March at the Internet Broadway Database Photographs of Fredric March
3.
Olivia de Havilland
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Olivia Mary de Havilland is a retired American actress whose career spanned from 1935 to 1990. She appeared in 49 feature films, and was one of the movie stars during the golden age of Classical Hollywood. Born in Tokyo to British parents, de Havilland and her younger sister Joan moved to California in 1919 and they were brought up by their mother Lilian, a former stage actress who taught them dramatic art, music, and elocution. De Havilland made her debut in amateur theatre in Alice in Wonderland. Olivia de Havilland made her debut in Reinhardts A Midsummer Nights Dream in 1935. She began her career playing demure ingénues opposite popular leading men, including Errol Flynn and they became one of Hollywoods most popular romantic on-screen pairings. She achieved her initial popularity in romantic films, such as The Great Garrick. Her natural beauty and refined acting style made her particularly effective in historical dramas, such as Anthony Adverse. In her later career, she was most successful in films, such as Light in the Piazza. In addition to her career, de Havilland continued her work in the theatre. For her contributions to the picture industry, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After romantic relationships with Howard Hughes, James Stewart, and John Huston, de Havilland married author Marcus Goodrich, with whom she had a son, Benjamin. Following her divorce from Goodrich in 1953, she moved to Paris and married Pierre Galante, in 1962, she published Every Frenchman Has One, an account of her life in France. De Havilland and Joan Fontaine are the siblings to have won Academy Awards in a lead acting category. A lifelong rivalry between the two resulted in an estrangement that lasted over three decades. She has lived in Paris since 1956, and celebrated her 100th birthday on July 1,2016, De Havilland was born on July 1,1916, in Tokyo, Japan, to English parents. Her father, Walter de Havilland, served as an English professor at the Imperial University in Tokyo before becoming a patent attorney and her mother, Lilian Fontaine, was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a stage actress. Lilian also sang with the Master of the Kings Music, Sir Walter Parratt, Olivias paternal cousin was Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, an aircraft designer and founder of the de Havilland aircraft company
4.
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
5.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
6.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Gale Sondergaard was the first winner of award for her role in Anthony Adverse. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 78 actresses. Dianne Wiest and Shelley Winters have received the most awards in this category with two awards each, despite winning no awards, Thelma Ritter was nominated on six occasions, more than any other actress. As of the 2017 ceremony, Viola Davis is the most recent winner in category for her role as Rose Maxson in Fences. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, inside Oscar, The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York, United States, Ballantine Books, oscars. org Oscar. com The Academy Awards Database
7.
Anita Louise
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She was named as a WAMPAS Baby Star, and frequently described as one of the cinemas most fashionable and stylish women. Anita Louise was born Anita Louise Fremault on January 9,1915 in New York City and she made her acting debut on Broadway at the age of six, and within a year was appearing regularly in Hollywood films. By her late teens she was being cast in leading and supporting roles in major productions, as her stature in Hollywood grew, she was named as a WAMPAS Baby Star, and was frequently described as one of cinemas most fashionable and stylish women. By the 1940s, she was reduced to secondary roles. Some of her films during this time are Casanova Brown, Nine Girls, The Bandit of Sherwood Forest, Blondies Big Moment and her last appearance on big screen in the 1952 war film Retreat, Hell. Other shows Anita hosted include The United States Steel Hour and Playhouse 90 and her last television appearance was in 1970 was in an episode of the Mod Squad. Louise virtually retired after My Friend Flicka, which was rebroadcast thereafter for a generation and her husband of twenty years, the film producer Buddy Adler, died in 1960. She married Henry Berger in 1962, Louise died of a stroke on April 25,1970 in West Los Angeles, California. She was buried next to Berger at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Louise has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of her contribution to Motion Pictures at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard. Anita Louise at the Internet Movie Database Anita Louise at AllMovie Anita Louise at the TCM Movie Database Photographs and literature
8.
Claude Rains
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William Claude Rains was an English film and stage actor whose career spanned 46 years. He was a Tony Award winning actor and was a nominee for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. Rains was considered to be one of the great character stars with an extraordinary voice who was, according to the All-Movie Guide. During his lengthy career he was admired by many of his contemporaries such as Bette Davis, Vincent Sherman, Ronald Neame. Rains also inspired many younger actors such as John Gielgud, Charles Laughton, William Claude Rains was born on 10 November 1889 in Camberwell, London. His parents were Emily Eliza and the stage actor Frederick William Rains and he lived in the slums of London and in his own words on the wrong side of the river Thames Rains was one of twelve children, all but three dying of malnutrition when still infants. His mother took in boarders in order to support the family, according to his daughter, he grew up with a very serious Cockney accent and a speech impediment which took the form of a stutter, which caused him to call himself Willie Wains. His native accent was so strong that his daughter couldnt understand a word he said when he used it to sing old Cockney songs to her or purposely use it to annoy her. Rains left school after the grade to sell papers so that he could bring the pennies and halfpennies home for his mother. He sang in the Palm Street Church choir which also him a few pence to take home. Due to his father being an actor the young Rains would spend time in theatres and surrounded by actors and it was here where he could watch actors up close as well as the day to day running of a theatre. Rains made his debut at the age of 10 in the play Sweet Nell of Old Drury at the Haymarket Theatre. At one time, he was involved in a gas attack which resulted in his losing 90 percent of the vision in his eye for the rest of his life. By the end of the war, he had risen from the rank of Private to that of Captain, after the war had ended Rains remained in England, where he continued to develop his acting talents. These talents were recognised by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, the founder of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and his daughter, Jessica, when describing her fathers voice said The interesting thing to me was that he became a different person. He became an elegant man, with a really extraordinary Mid-Atlantic accent. It was his voice, nobody else spoke like that, half American, half English, soon after he became recognised as one of the leading stage actors in London. Aged 29, he played the role of Clarkis in his one silent film which was a British film titled, during his early years, Rains also taught at RADA, where John Gielgud and Charles Laughton were some of his students
9.
Alps
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The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc, Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,810 m is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4000 metres, the altitude and size of the range affects the climate in Europe, in the mountains precipitation levels vary greatly and climatic conditions consist of distinct zones. Wildlife such as live in the higher peaks to elevations of 3,400 m. Evidence of human habitation in the Alps goes back to the Palaeolithic era, a mummified man, determined to be 5,000 years old, was discovered on a glacier at the Austrian–Italian border in 1991. By the 6th century BC, the Celtic La Tène culture was well established, Hannibal famously crossed the Alps with a herd of elephants, and the Romans had settlements in the region. In 1800 Napoleon crossed one of the passes with an army of 40,000. The 18th and 19th centuries saw an influx of naturalists, writers, in World War II, Adolf Hitler kept a base of operation in the Bavarian Alps throughout the war. The Alpine region has a cultural identity. The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted in the Swiss, French, at present, the region is home to 14 million people and has 120 million annual visitors. The English word Alps derives from the Latin Alpes, maurus Servius Honoratus, an ancient commentator of Virgil, says in his commentary that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts. The term may be common to Italo-Celtic, because the Celtic languages have terms for high mountains derived from alp and this may be consistent with the theory that in Greek Alpes is a name of non-Indo-European origin. According to the Old English Dictionary, the Latin Alpes might possibly derive from a pre-Indo-European word *alb hill, Albania, a name not native to the region known as the country of Albania, has been used as a name for a number of mountainous areas across Europe. In Roman times, Albania was a name for the eastern Caucasus, in modern languages the term alp, alm, albe or alpe refers to a grazing pastures in the alpine regions below the glaciers, not the peaks. An alp refers to a mountain pasture where cows are taken to be grazed during the summer months and where hay barns can be found. The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in a 800 km arc from east to west and is 200 km in width, the mean height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km. The range stretches from the Mediterranean Sea north above the Po basin, extending through France from Grenoble, the range continues onward toward Vienna, Austria, and east to the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia. To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the border of Bavaria in Germany
10.
Baby hatch
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A baby hatch or baby box is a place where people can bring babies, usually newborn, and abandon them anonymously in a safe place to be found and cared for. This kind of arrangement was common in the Middle Ages and in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the device was known as a foundling wheel. The hatches are usually in hospitals, social centres, or churches, sensors in the bed nowadays alert carers when a baby has been put in it so that they can come and take care of the child. In Germany, babies are first looked after for eight weeks during which the mother can return, if this does not happen, after eight weeks the child is put up for adoption. Baby hatches have existed in one form or another for centuries, the system was quite common in medieval times. A foundling wheel was a cylinder set upright in the wall of the building. Mothers placed the child in the cylinder, turned it around so that the baby was inside the church, and then rang a bell to alert caretakers. One example of type which can still be seen today is in the Santo Spirito hospital at the Vatican City. In Hamburg, Germany, a Dutch merchant set up a wheel in an orphanage in 1709 and it closed after only five years in 1714 as the number of babies left there was too high for the orphanage to cope with financially. Other wheels are known to have existed in Kassel and Mainz, in France, foundling wheels were introduced by Saint Vincent de Paul who built the first foundling home in 1638 in Paris. Foundling wheels were legalised in a decree of January 19,1811. They were in such as the Hôpital des Enfants-Trouvés in Paris. The tours dabandon were officially abolished in a law of June 27,1904, today in France, women are allowed to give birth anonymously in hospitals and leave their baby there. In Brazil and Portugal, foundling wheels were used after Queen Mary I proclaimed on May 24,1783 that all towns should have a foundling hospital. One example was the wheel installed at the Santa Casa de Misericordia hospital in São Paulo on July 2,1825 and this was taken out of use on June 5,1949, declared incompatible with the modern social system after five years debate. A Brazilian film on this subject, Roda Dos Expostos, directed by Maria Emília de Azevedo, in Britain and Ireland, foundlings were brought up in orphanages financed by the Poor Tax. The foundling wheel in Dublin was taken out of use in 1826 when the Dublin hospital was closed because of the death rate of children there. The first modern baby hatch was in South Africa in July 1999 and was installed by Door of Hope Childrens Mission at a mission church in Berea in Johannesburg
11.
Livorno
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Livorno is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 159,431 residents in February 2015 and it has traditionally been known in English as Leghorn, pronounced /lɛˈɡɔːrn/ leg-AWRN, or /ˈlɛɡhɔːrn/ LEG-hawrn. The construction of the Via Aurelia coincided with the occupation of the region by the Romans, the natural cove called Liburna, later transformed in Livorna then in Livorno, is a reference to the type of ship, the liburna, used by Roman navy. Others ancient toponyms include, Salviano, Antignano which was the place situated before Ardenza where were the beacons for the ships directed to Porto Pisano. The name Livorna is mentioned for the first time in 1017 as a coastal village, the port. In 1077 a tower was built by Matilda of Tuscany, the Republic of Pisa possessed Livorno from 1103 and built there a quadrangular Fort called Quadratura dei Pisani in defence of the port. Porto Pisano was destroyed after the defeat of the Pisan fleet in the Battle of Meloria in 1284. Livorno was bought in 1399 by the Visconti of Milan, then was sold to the Republic of Genoa in 1405, between 1427 and 1429, the census was held. According to the results of the census, there were 118 families in Livorno, monks, Jews, military personnel, and the homeless were not included in the census. In 1551 the population was 1562 residents, in 1745 it had risen to 32,534, the only remainder of medieval Livorno is a fragment of two towers and a wall, located inside the Fortezza Vecchia. Livorno was designed as an Ideal town during the Italian Renaissance, the Porto Mediceo was overlooked and defended by towers and fortresses leading to the town centre. In the late 1580s, Ferdinando I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, declared Livorno a free port, to regulate this trade, in 1593 the Dukes administration established the Leggi Livornine. These laws were in force until 1603, until the beginning of the Counter-Reformation, the laws established a well-regulated market, protecting merchant activities from crime and racketeering, and instituted laws regarding international trade. Additionally, expanding Christian tolerance, the offered the right of public freedom of religion. Livorno became an enlightened European city and one of the most important ports of the entire Mediterranean Basin, many European foreigners moved to Livorno. These included Christian Protestant reformers who supported such leaders as Martin Luther, John Calvin, French, Dutch, and English arrived, along with Orthodox Greeks. Meanwhile, Jews continued to trade under their previous treaties with the Grand Duke, on 19 March 1606, Ferdinando I de Medici elevated Livorno to the rank of city, the ceremony was held in the Fortezza Vecchia Chapel of Francis of Assisi. The Counter-Reformation increased tensions among Christians, dissidents to the Papacy were targeted by various Catholic absolute rulers, livornos tolerance fell victim to the European wars of religion
12.
Anthony the Great
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Saint Anthony or Antony was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from other saints named Anthony by various epithets, Anthony the Great, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, and Anthony of Thebes. For his importance among the Desert Fathers and to all later Christian monasticism and his feast day is celebrated on January 17 among the Orthodox and Catholic churches and on Tobi 22 in the Egyptian calendar used by the Coptic Church. The biography of Anthonys life by Athanasius of Alexandria helped to spread the concept of Christian monasticism and he is often erroneously considered the first Christian monk, but as his biography and other sources make clear, there were many ascetics before him. Anthony was, however, the first to go into the wilderness, Anthony is appealed to against infectious diseases, particularly skin diseases. In the past, many afflictions, including ergotism, erysipelas. Anthony was born in Coma in Lower Egypt in AD251 to wealthy landowner parents, when he was about 18 years old, his parents died and left him with the care of his unmarried sister. Shortly thereafter, he decided to follow the Evangelical counsel of Jesus which reads, If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Anthony gave away some of his familys lands to his neighbors, sold the remaining property and he then left to live an ascetic life, placing his sister with a group of Christian virgins, a sort of proto-convent. For the next fifteen years, Anthony remained in the area, there are various legends associating Anthony with pigs, one is that he worked as a swineherd during this period. Anthony is sometimes considered the first monk, and the first to initiate solitary desertification, philo opined that this class of persons may be met with in many places, for both Greece and barbarian countries want to enjoy whatever is perfectly good. Christian ascetics such as Thecla had likewise retreated to isolated locations at the outskirts of cities, Anthony is notable for having decided to surpass this tradition and headed out into the desert proper. He left for the alkaline Nitrian Desert on the edge of the Western Desert about 95 km west of Alexandria and he remained there for 13 years. According to Athanasius, the devil fought Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women, after that, he moved to a tomb, where he resided and closed the door on himself, depending on some local villagers who brought him food. When the devil perceived his ascetic life and his worship, he was envious and beat him mercilessly. When his friends from the village came to visit him and found him in this condition. After he recovered, he made an effort and went back into the desert to a farther mountain by the Nile called Pispir. There he lived strictly enclosed in an old abandoned Roman fort for some 20 years, according to Athanasius, the devil again resumed his war against Anthony, only this time the phantoms were in the form of wild beasts, wolves, lions, snakes, and scorpions
