1.
Buster Keaton
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Joseph Frank Buster Keaton was an American actor, director, producer, writer, and stunt performer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a stoic, deadpan expression. His career declined afterward with a loss of his artistic independence when he was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He recovered in the 1940s, remarried, and revived his career to a degree as a comic performer for the rest of his life. Many of Keatons films from the 1920s, such as Sherlock Jr, the General, and The Cameraman, remain highly regarded, with the second of these three widely viewed as his masterpiece. Among its strongest admirers was Orson Welles, who stated that The General was cinemas highest achievement in comedy, Keaton was recognized as the seventh-greatest film director by Entertainment Weekly, and in 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 21st greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. Keaton was born into a family in Piqua, Kansas. He was named Joseph to continue a tradition on his fathers side and Frank for his maternal grandfather, later, Keaton changed his middle name to Francis. His father was Joseph Hallie Joe Keaton, who owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, according to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton acquired the nickname Buster at about 18 months of age. Keaton told interviewer Fletcher Markle that Houdini was present one day when the young Keaton took a tumble down a flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Houdini remarked, according to Keaton, in those days, the word buster was used to refer to a spill or a fall that had the potential to produce injury. After this, it was Keatons father who began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster, Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including a 1964 interview with the CBCs Telescope. At the age of three, Keaton began performing with his parents in The Three Keatons and he first appeared on stage in 1899 in Wilmington, Delaware. The act was mainly a comedy sketch, Myra played the saxophone to one side, while Joe and Buster performed on center stage. The young Keaton would goad his father by disobeying him, a suitcase handle was sewn into Keatons clothing to aid with the constant tossing. The act evolved as Keaton learned to take trick falls safely and this knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of child abuse, and occasionally, arrest. However, Buster Keaton was always able to show the authorities that he had no bruises or broken bones. He was eventually billed as The Little Boy Who Cant Be Damaged, decades later, Keaton said that he was never hurt by his father and that the falls and physical comedy were a matter of proper technical execution
2.
Groucho Marx
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Julius Henry Marx, known professionally as Groucho Marx, was an American comedian, stage, film and television star. He was known as a master of quick wit and is considered one of the best comedians of the modern era. His rapid-fire, often impromptu delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers and imitators and he made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a solo career, most notably as the host of the radio. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included such as an exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigar. Julius Marx was born on October 2,1890, in Manhattan, New York City. Marx stated that he was born in a room above a shop on East 78th Street in Manhattan, New York City, Between Lexington & 3rd. The Marx children grew up on East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. The turn-of-the-century building that his brother Harpo called the first real home they ever knew was populated with European immigrants, just across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people such as the well-connected Loew Brothers and William Orth. The Marx family lived at this location for about 14 years, Grouchos mother was Miene Minnie Schoenberg, whose family came from Dornum in northern Germany when she was 16 years old. His father was Simon Sam Marx, who changed his name from Marrix, minnies brother was Al Schoenberg, who shortened his name to Al Shean when he went into show business as half of Gallagher and Shean, a noted vaudeville act of the early 20th century. According to Groucho, when Shean visited he would throw the local waifs a few coins so that when he knocked at the door he would be surrounded by adoring fans, Marx and his brothers respected his opinions and asked him on several occasions to write some material for them. Minnie Marx did not have an entertainment industry career but had ambition for her sons to go on the stage like their uncle. While pushing her eldest son Leonard in piano lessons she found that Julius had a pleasant soprano voice, juliuss early career goal was to become a doctor, but the familys need for income forced him out of school at the age of twelve. By that time young Julius had become a reader, particularly fond of Horatio Alger. Marx would continue to overcome his lack of education by becoming very well-read. Marx reputedly claimed that he was hopelessly average as a vaudevillian, by 1909 Minnie Marx had assembled her sons into a forgettable-quality vaudeville singing group billed as The Four Nightingales. The brothers Julius, Milton and Arthur and another boy singer, Lou Levy, after exhausting their prospects in the East the family moved to La Grange, Illinois, to play the Midwest
3.
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
4.
Mooring (watercraft)
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A mooring refers to any permanent structure to which a vessel may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, a ship is secured to a mooring to forestall free movement of the ship on the water. An anchor mooring fixes a vessels position relative to a point on the bottom of a waterway connecting the vessel to shore. As a verb, mooring refers to the act of attaching a vessel to a mooring, the term likely stems from the Dutch verb meren, used in English since the end of the 15th century. These moorings are used instead of temporary anchors because they have considerably more holding power, cause damage to the marine environment. They are also used to hold floating docks in place. There are several kinds of moorings, Swing moorings also known as simple or single-point moorings, are the simplest and most common kind of mooring, a swing mooring consists of a single anchor at the bottom of a waterway with a rode running to a float on the surface. The float allows a vessel to find the rode and connect to the anchor and these anchors are known as swing moorings because a vessel attached to this kind of mooring swings in a circle when the direction of wind or tide changes. The heavy weight should be a dense material, old rail wagon wheels are used in some places for this purpose. In some harbours, very heavy chain may be placed in a pattern on the sea bed to ensure orderly positioning of moorings. Ropes should be non floating to reduce likelihood of a boats prop being fouled by one, pile moorings are poles driven into the bottom of the waterway with their tops above the water. Vessels then tie mooring lines to two or four piles to fix their position between those piles, pile moorings are common in New Zealand but rare elsewhere. While many mooring buoys are privately owned, some are available for public use, for example, on the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast, a vast number of public moorings are set out in popular areas where boats can moor. This is to avoid the damage that would be caused by many vessels anchoring. There are four types of permanent anchors used in moorings. They are generally made as a concrete block with a rode attached which resists movement with sheer weight. In New Zealand old railway wheels are sometimes used, the advantages are that they are simple and cheap. A dead weight mooring that drags in a storm still holds well in its new position, such moorings are better suited to rocky bottoms where other mooring systems do not hold well
5.
Lohengrin (opera)
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Lohengrin, WWV75, is a Romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. It is part of the Knight of the Swan tradition, the opera has inspired other works of art. King Ludwig II of Bavaria named his fairy-tale castle New Swan Castle, or Neuschwanstein and it was King Ludwigs patronage that later gave Wagner the means and opportunity to compose, build a theatre for, and stage his epic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. The most popular and recognizable part of the opera is the Bridal Chorus, better known as Here Comes the Bride, the literary figure of Lohengrin first appeared as a supporting character in the final chapter of the middle-age epic poem Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach. The Grail Knight Lohengrin, son of the Grail King Parzival, is sent to the duchess of Brabant to defend her and his protection comes under the condition that she must never ask his name. If she violates this requirement, he will be forced to leave her, Wagner attempted at the same time to weave elements of Greek tragedy into the plot. He wrote the following in Mitteilungen an meine Freunde about his Lohengrin plans, Who doesnt know Zeus, the god is in love with a human woman and approaches her in human form. The lover finds that she cannot recognize the god in this form, Zeus knows that she would be destroyed by the sight of his real self. He suffers in this awareness, suffers knowing that he must fulfill this demand and he will seal his own doom when the gleam of his godly form destroys his lover. Is the man who craves for God not destroyed, in composing Lohengrin Wagner created a new form of opera, the through-composed music drama. The composition is not divided into numbers, but is played from act to act without any interruption. This style of composition contrasts with that of the conventional number opera, which is divided into arias, recitatives, Lohengrin still contains lengthy performances—for example, Elsas Alone in dark days and Lohengrins Grail aria—which harken back to the classical solo aria form. Wagner made extensive use of leitmotives in his composition and these motives allowed Wagner to precisely narrate the inner thoughts of the characters on stage, even without speech. The first production of Lohengrin was in Weimar, Germany, on 28 August 1850 at the Staatskapelle Weimar under the direction of Franz Liszt, Liszt chose the date in honour of Weimars most famous citizen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was born on 28 August 1749. Despite the inadequacies of the lead tenor Karl Beck, it was a popular success. Wagner himself was unable to attend the first performance, having been exiled because of his part in the 1849 May Uprising in Dresden. Although he conducted various extracts in concert in Zurich, London, Paris and Brussels, the operas first performance outside German-speaking lands was in Riga on 5 February 1855. The Austrian premiere took place in Vienna at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 19 August 1858, the work was produced in Munich for the first time at the National Theatre on 16 June 1867, with Heinrich Vogl in the title role and Mathilde Mallinger as Elsa
6.
Louis B. Mayer
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Louis Burt Mayer was an Belarusian-Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1924. Mayer was skilled at developing star actors, including actors, then placing them in consistently slick productions, such as musicals or comedies. Under Mayers management, MGM became the most prestigious film studio and he renovated and expanded several other theaters in the Boston area catering to higher end audiences. After expanding and moving to Los Angeles, he teamed up with Irving Thalberg, Mayer handled the business part of running the studio, such as setting budgets and approving new productions, while Thalberg, still in his twenties, ran all MGM productions. During his reign at MGM, after Thalbergs early death in 1936, some stars did not appreciate his control over their lives, while others saw him as a father figure, important in their lives. He believed in wholesome entertainment and went to lengths to discover new actors. Actors working under Mayer would generally portray an idealized vision of men and women, family life, virtue and he believed that movies should not be a mere reflection of life, but be an entertaining escape from life. Because of his gift for understanding the nature of stardom and the needs of the audience and he was forced to resign MGM as its vice president in 1951, when the studios parent company, Loews, Inc. wanted to improve MGMs declining profits. Mayer was a conservative, at one time the chairman of Californias Republican party. In 1927 he was one of the founders of AMPAS, famous for its annual Academy Awards, Mayer was born Lazar Meir to a Jewish family in Minsk, Russian Empire. Probably his date of birth was July 12,1884 and his parents were Jacob Meir and Sarah Meltzer, and he had two sisters—Yetta, born in 1878, and Ida, born in 1883. Mayer first moved with his family to Rhode Island, where lived from 1887 to 1892. Then, they moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada where Mayer attended school and his father started a scrap metal business, J. Mayer & Son. An immigrant unskilled in any trade, he struggled to earn a living, young Louis quit school at age twelve to work with his father and help support his family. He roamed the streets with a cart that said Junk Dealer, wilson remembered that he was impressed with the boys good manners and bright personality. Whenever Mayer visited Saint John in later years, he placed flowers on Wilsons grave and it was a crappy childhood, said Mayers nephew Gerald. His family was poor, and Mayers father spoke little English and had no valuable skills and it thereby became young Mayers ambition and drive which supported the family. With his family speaking mostly Yiddish at home, his goal of self-education when he quit school was more difficult
7.
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
8.
Orangutan
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The orangutans are the two exclusively Asian species of extant great apes. Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are found in only the rainforests of Borneo. Classified in the genus Pongo, orangutans were considered to be one species, since 1996, they have been divided into two species, the Bornean orangutan and the Sumatran orangutan. In addition, the Bornean species is divided three subspecies. Based on genome sequencing, the two extant orangutan species evidently diverged around 400,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Ponginae subfamily split from the main ape line in Africa 16 to 19 million years ago and spread into Asia. Orangutans are the most arboreal of the apes and spend most of their time in trees. Their hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of chimpanzees, males and females differ in size and appearance. Dominant adult males have distinctive cheek pads and produce long calls that attract females, younger males do not have these characteristics and resemble adult females. Orangutans are the most solitary of the apes, with social bonds occurring primarily between mothers and their dependent offspring, who stay together for the first two years. Fruit is the most important component of a diet, however. They can live over 30 years in both the wild and captivity, orangutans are among the most intelligent primates, they use a variety of sophisticated tools and construct elaborate sleeping nests each night from branches and foliage. The apes have been studied for their learning abilities. There may even be distinctive cultures within populations, field studies of the apes were pioneered by primatologist Birutė Galdikas. Both orangutan species are considered to be critically endangered, human activities have caused severe declines in the populations and ranges of both species. Threats to wild populations include poaching, habitat destruction. Several conservation and rehabilitation organisations are dedicated to the survival of orangutans in the wild, the name orangutan is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words orang meaning person and hutan meaning forest, thus person of the forest. Orang Hutan was originally not used to refer to apes, the Malay words used to refer specifically to the ape are maias and mawas, but it is unclear if those words refer to just orangutans, or to all apes in general. The word appeared in several German-language descriptions of Indonesian zoology in the 17th century, the likely origin of the word comes specifically from the Banjarese variety of Malay
9.
Bankruptcy
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Bankruptcy is a legal status of a person or other entity that cannot repay the debts it owes to creditors. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, Bankruptcy is not the only legal status that an insolvent person may have, and the term bankruptcy is therefore not a synonym for insolvency. In some countries, including the United Kingdom, bankruptcy is limited to individuals, in the United States, bankruptcy is applied more broadly to formal insolvency proceedings. In France, the cognate French word banqueroute is used solely for cases of fraudulent bankruptcy, in Ancient Greece, bankruptcy did not exist. If a man owed and he could not pay, he and his wife, children or servants were forced into debt slavery, until the creditor recouped losses through their physical labour. Many city-states in ancient Greece limited debt slavery to a period of five years, debt slaves had protection of life and limb, which regular slaves did not enjoy. However, servants of the debtor could be retained beyond that deadline by the creditor and were forced to serve their new lord for a lifetime. An exception to rule was Athens, which by the laws of Solon forbade enslavement for debt, as a consequence. The Statute of Bankrupts of 1542 was the first statute under English law dealing with bankruptcy or insolvency, Bankruptcy is also documented in East Asia. According to al-Maqrizi, the Yassa of Genghis Khan contained a provision that mandated the death penalty for anyone who became bankrupt three times, a failure of a nation to meet bond repayments has been seen on many occasions. Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557,1560,1575 and 1596, at the edge of Europe, Egypt, Russia, and Turkey have histories of chronic default as well. For private households, it is argued to be insufficient to merely dismiss debts after a certain period and it is important to assess the underlying problems and to minimize the risk of financial distress to re-occur. In most EU Member States, debt discharge is conditioned by a partial payment obligation, in the United States, discharge is conditioned to a lesser extent. The spectrum is broad in the EU, with the UK coming closest to the US system, the Other Member States do not provide the option of a debt discharge. It is almost impossible to discharge student loan debt by filing bankruptcy, unlike most other debtors, the individual with student debt must give a series of reasons and tests to prove that the debtor could not pay the debt. If the person were to file bankruptcy, he or she is encouraged to do so under Chapter 13. In order to avoid bankruptcy, one could negotiate with the lender to lower monthly payments, student loan bankruptcy is considered a last resort. However, some find themselves being forced to file bankruptcy, as the lender refused to lower payments
10.
Chico Marx
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Leonard Marx, known professionally as Chico Marx, was an American comedian, musician, bandleader, actor and film star. He was a member of the Marx Brothers and his persona in the act was that of a charming, dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat. In virtually every film that includes the trio of the Marx Brothers, Chico is seen working with Harpo Marx. Leonard was the oldest of the Marx Brothers to live past early childhood, in addition to his work as a performer, he played an important role in the management and development of the act in its early years. He was born on March 22,1887 in Manhattan, New York City, billing himself as Chico, he used an Italian persona for his onstage character, stereotyped ethnic characters were common with vaudevillians. His non-Italian-ness was specifically referred to three times on film, in Duck Soup, when Chico impersonates Groucho but retains his accent, Margaret Dumont asks what happened to his voice. Chico replies, Well, maybe sometime I go to Italy, to which Dumont replies, Your dialect is perfect. Fiorello, Well, I wouldnt know about that, Im a stranger here myself. Quentin Quayle, Can you talk Indian. Joe Panello, I was born in Indianapolis, hammer asks him if he knew what an auction was, in which he responds I come from Italy on the Atlantic Auction. He originally started playing only his right hand and fake playing with his left. Chico eventually acquired a better teacher and learned to play the piano correctly, as a young boy, he gained jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family. Sometimes Chico even worked playing in two places at the same time and he would acquire the first job with his piano-playing skills, work for a few nights, and then substitute Harpo on one of the jobs. In the brothers last film, Love Happy, Chico plays a piano, Lyons plays some ornate riffs on the violin, Chico comments, Look-a, Mister Lyons, I know you wanna make a good impression, but please dont-a play better than me. In a record album about the Marx Brothers, narrator Gary Owens stated that although Chicos technique was limited, the opposite was true of Harpo, who reportedly could play only two tunes on the piano, which typically thwarted Chicos scam and resulted in both brothers being fired. Groucho Marx once said that Chico never practiced the pieces he played, instead, before performances he soaked his fingers in hot water. He was known for shooting the keys of the piano and he played passages with his thumb up and index finger straight, like a gun, as part of the act. Chico became the manager of the Marx Brothers after their mother, Minnie. As manager, he cut a deal to get the brothers a percentage of a films gross receipts—the first of its kind in Hollywood, for a while in the 1930s and 1940s, Chico led a big band. Singer Mel Tormé began his career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra
