1.
War of the Worlds (2005 film)
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It stars Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto and Tim Robbins, with narration by Morgan Freeman. The film was shot in 73 days, using five different sound stages as well as locations in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, the film was surrounded by a secrecy campaign so few details would be leaked before its release. Tie-in promotions were made with several companies, including Hitachi, the film was released in the United States on June 29 and in United Kingdom on July 1. War of the Worlds was a box office success, and became 2005s fourth most successful film both domestically, with $234 million in North America, and $591 million overall, at the time of release, it was the highest-grossing film starring Tom Cruise. A narrator explains how humans were unaware that a race of extraterrestrials was making plans to occupy Earth, Ray Ferrier is a divorced crane operator longshoreman who works at a dock in Brooklyn, New York and lives in Bayonne, New Jersey. Ray is estranged from his children and his former wife, Mary Ann, later drops off the children, 10-year-old daughter Rachel and teenage son Robbie, at Rays house on her way to visit her parents in Boston. Unexplained changes in the occur, including lightning that strikes multiple times in the middle of an intersection. Ray collects his children, steals a car and drives to Mary Anns home in suburban New Jersey to take refuge, the next morning, he discovers that a Boeing 747 has crashed in the street. They also explain that the lightning was how the aliens were able to enter the Tripods, Ray decides to take the kids to Boston to be with their mother. The three are forced to abandon the car after a mob takes it by force. They later survive a Tripod attack which causes a Hudson River ferry to sink, during a desperate battle between U. S. Marines and the aliens, Ray is forced to choose between being separated from Rachel and preventing Robbie from joining the fight, he lets Robbie go with the Marines, who are overwhelmed. The three remain undetected for two days, even as a probe and a group of the aliens themselves explore the basement, the next morning, Ogilvy suffers a mental breakdown while witnessing a Tripod harvesting human blood and tissue to fertilize an alien vegetation. The tripods inject a tube into the humans and drain out their blood, convinced that Ogilvys mad shouting jeopardizes his daughters life, Ray reluctantly kills him. The basement hideout is exposed when a second probe catches them sleeping, Rachel is soon abducted by a nearby Tripod, Ray immediately allows himself to be abducted, being placed in the same cage with Rachel and other prisoners. As the aliens select him for harvesting, Ray takes a belt of grenades into the machine, the Tripod is destroyed and releases the cage, with Ray and Rachel, and a number of other prisoners, making it out alive. Ray and Rachel arrive in a devastated Boston, where the vegetation is dying, Ray notices birds landing on an active Tripod, indicating that its shields are off. Ray alerts the soldiers escorting his refugee group and they shoot it down, as the soldiers advance on the downed Tripod, a hatch opens releasing a liquid, a sickly alien struggles halfway out, and then dies immediately
2.
Television program
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It may be a single production, or more commonly, a series of related productions. A limited number of episodes of a show may be called a miniseries or a serial or limited series. Television series are without a fixed length and are divided into seasons or series. While there is no defined length, U. S. industry practice has traditionally favored longer television seasons than those of other countries, a one-time broadcast may be called a special, or particularly in the UK a special episode. A television film is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video, a program can be either recorded, as on video tape, other various electronic media forms, played with an on-demand player or viewed on live television. Television programs may be fictional, or non-fictional and it may be topical, or historical. They could be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy, a drama program usually features a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures, except for soap opera-type serials, many shows especially before the 1980s, remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little. If some change happened to the characters lives during the episode, because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order. Since the 1980s, there are series that feature progressive change to the plot. For instance, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time television series to have this kind of dramatic structure. While the later series, Babylon 5 is an example of such production that had a predetermined story running over its intended five-season run. In 2012, it was reported that television was growing into a component of major media companies revenues than film. Some also noted the increase in quality of television programs. When a person or company decides to create a new series, they develop the elements, consisting of the concept, the characters, the crew. Then they offer it to the networks in an attempt to find one interested enough to order a prototype first episode of the series. They want very much to get the word out on what types of shows they’re looking for, to create the pilot, the structure and team of the whole series must be put together. If the network likes the pilot, they pick up the show to air it the next season, sometimes they save it for mid-season, or request rewrites and further review
3.
American frontier
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Frontier refers to a contrasting region at the edge of a European-American line of settlement. American historians cover multiple frontiers but the folklore is focused primarily on the 19th century west of the Mississippi River. As defined by Hine and Faragher, frontier history tells the story of the creation and defense of communities, the use of the land, the development of markets, and the formation of states. They explain, It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, thus, Turners Frontier Thesis proclaimed the westward frontier as the defining process of American history. As the American frontier passed into history, the myths of the West in fiction and film took firm hold in the imagination of Americans, America is exceptional in choosing its iconic self-image. David Murdoch has said, No other nation has taken a time and place from its past, the frontier line was the outer line of European-American settlement. It moved steadily westward from the 1630s to the 1880s, Turner favored the Census Bureau definition of the frontier line as a settlement density of two people per square mile. The West was the settled area near that boundary. Thus, parts of the Midwest and American South, though no longer considered western, have a frontier heritage along with the western states. In the 21st century, however, the term American West is most often used for the area west of the Mississippi River, in the colonial era, before 1776, the west was of high priority for settlers and politicians. The American frontier began when Jamestown, Virginia was settled by the English in 1607, English, French, Spanish and Dutch patterns of expansion and settlement were quite different. Although French fur traders ranged widely through the Great Lakes and mid-west region they settled down. French settlement was limited to a few small villages such as Kaskaskia. They created a rural settlement in upstate New York. Areas in the north that were in the stage by 1700 generally had poor transportation facilities. The wealthy speculator, if one was involved, usually remained at home, the class of landless poor was small. Few artisans settled on the frontier except for those who practiced a trade to supplement their primary occupation of farming, there might be a storekeeper, a minister, and perhaps a doctor, and there were a number of landless laborers. However frontier areas of 1700 that had good river connections were transformed into plantation agriculture
4.
Victorian architecture
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Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. Victorian refers to the reign of Queen Victoria, called the Victorian era, however, many elements of what is typically termed Victorian architecture did not become popular until later in Victorias reign. The styles often included interpretations and eclectic revivals of historic styles mixed with the introduction of middle east, the name represents the British and French custom of naming architectural styles for a reigning monarch. Within this naming and classification scheme, it follows Georgian architecture and later Regency architecture, during the early 19th century, the romantic medieval Gothic revival style was developed as a reaction to the symmetry of Palladianism, and such buildings as Fonthill Abbey were built. Paxton also continued to build houses as Mentmore Towers, in the still popular English Renaissance styles. In this era of prosperity new methods of construction were developed, other notable Scottish architects of this period are Archibald Simpson and Alexander Marshall Mackenzie whose stylistically varied work can be seen in the architecture of Aberdeen. Victorian architecture usually has many intricate window frames inspired by the famous architect Elliot Rae, some chose the United States, and others went to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Normally, they applied architectural styles that were fashionable when they left England, thus, the influence of English architecture spread across the world. Several prominent architects produced English-derived designs around the world, including William Butterfield, the Victorian period flourished in Australia and is generally recognised as being from 1840 to 1890, which saw a gold rush and population boom during the 1880s in the state of Victoria. There were fifteen styles that predominated, The Arts and Crafts style and Queen Anne style are considered to be part of the Federation Period, during the British colonial period of British Ceylon, Sri Lanka Law College, Sri Lanka College of Technology and the Galle Face Hotel. In the United States, Victorian architecture generally describes styles that were most popular between 1860 and 1900, a list of these styles most commonly includes Second Empire, Stick-Eastlake, Folk Victorian, Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque, and Shingle. As in the United Kingdom, examples of Gothic Revival and Italianate continued to be constructed during this period, some historians classify the later years of Gothic Revival as a distinctive Victorian style named High Victorian Gothic. Stick-Eastlake, a manner of geometric, machine-cut decorating derived from Stick, on the other hand, terms such as Painted Ladies or gingerbread may be used to describe certain Victorian buildings, but do not constitute a specific style. The names of architectural styles varied between countries, many homes combined the elements of several different styles and are not easily distinguishable as one particular style or another. San Francisco is well known for its extensive Victorian architecture, particularly in the Haight-Ashbury, Lower Haight, Alamo Square, Noe Valley, Castro, Nob Hill, the extent to which any one is the largest surviving example is debated, with numerous qualifications. The Distillery District in Toronto, Ontario contains the largest and best preserved collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America, cabbagetown is the largest and most continuous Victorian residential area in North America. Other Toronto Victorian neighbourhoods include The Annex, Parkdale, and Rosedale, in the USA, the South End of Boston is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest and largest Victorian neighborhood in the country. Old Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky also claims to be the nations largest Victorian neighborhood, richmond, Virginia is home to several large Victorian neighborhoods, the most prominent being The Fan
5.
Townhouse
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A townhouse, or town house as used in North America, Asia, Australia, South Africa and parts of Europe, is a type of terraced housing. A modern town house is one with a small footprint on multiple floors. The term originally referred in British usage to the city residence of someone whose main or largest residence was a country house. Historically, a house was the city residence of a noble or wealthy family. From the 18th century, landowners and their servants would move to a townhouse during the social season, in the United Kingdom most townhouses were terraced. Only a small minority of them, generally the largest, were detached, for example, the Duke of Norfolk owned Arundel Castle in the country, while his London house, Norfolk House, was a terraced house in St Jamess Square over 100 feet wide. In the United States and Canada, a townhouse has two connotations, the older predates the automobile and denotes a house on a small footprint in a city, but because of its multiple floors, it has a large living space, often with servants quarters. The small footprint of the townhouse allows it to be walking or mass-transit distance of business. Townhouses are expensive where detached single-family houses are uncommon, such as in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. A townhouse is where there is a roof and foundation and a single wall divides adjacent townhouses. A rowhouse will generally be smaller and less luxurious than a called a townhouse. The name townhouse or townhome was later used to describe non-uniform units in areas that are designed to mimic detached or semi-detached homes. Today, the term, townhouse, is used to describe units mimicking a detached home that are attached in a multi-unit complex, such homes have multiple units vertically, normally each with its own private entrance from the street or at least from the outside. They can be side by side in a row of three or more, in case they are sometimes referred to as rowhouses. A townhouse in a group of two could be referred to as a townhouse, but in Canada and the US, it is called a semi-detached home and in some areas of western Canada. Freehold, where one owns exclusively the land and the dwelling without any condominium aspects and these may share the foundation as well but have narrow air spaces between and still referred to as a townhouse. Condominium townhouses, just like condominium apartments, are referred to as condos. All types of dwellings can be condos, and this is true of townhouses
6.
RKO Forty Acres
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RKO Forty Acres was a film studio backlot owned by RKO Pictures and later Desilu Productions located in Culver City, California. Best known as Forty Acres, or the forty, it had other names such as Desilu Culver. The property was a parcel of land that measured 28 1⁄2 acres. It was bounded by Higuera Street to the north, West Jefferson Boulevard, Ballona Creek and Culver City Park to the south, in 1976 it was razed for re-development and is known today as the southern expansion of the Hayden Industrial Tract. A number of the buildings in the park have been converted to television studios. One of the produced at the park is Hells Kitchen. The property on which the backlot was located was intended to be a lease for Cecil B. DeMille’s production of the 1927 film The King of Kings, on it he constructed the historical City of Jerusalem, which remained for the RKO production of King Kong in 1933. By then it was known as Forty Acres and owned by RKO Pictures, in 1935, David O. Selznick leased the property from RKO for his new studio, Selznick International Pictures. For his 1939 production of Gone with the Wind, the plantation Tara, the Atlanta Depot, from 1943 to 1958, a separate part of the 28. Following years of turnovers by several owners, including Howard Hughes and it was purchased in 1957 by Desilu with the intention of filming for the burgeoning television industry. Forty Acres is best remembered for providing the backdrop for the town of Mayberry on the television series The Andy Griffith Show. Many of the scenes and buildings on the backlot were seen regularly on television screens across America. It was also used on Star Trek in four episodes entitled Miri, The Return of the Archons, sharp-eyed television viewers could note many visual cues that crossed over from one series to the next, including the structures themselves or signs on doors and windows. An added feature was the fact that some portions of the backlot were occupied by fields and scrub and provided the ideal conditions for filming a western. The Tara set, which sat on a rise at the north western corner of the property, was torn down in 1959 to eventually become the Stalag 13 set for Hogans Heroes. Most of the sets, which included Camp Henderson on Gomer Pyle, were situated primarily in the center, south and west end of the property. The narrower east end was the site of a town set at one time
7.
Culver City, California
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Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California. The city was named after its founder, Harry Culver, as of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, over the years, it has annexed more than 40 pieces of adjoining land and now comprises about five square miles. Since the 1920s, Culver City has been a center for motion picture and later television production, from 1932 to 1985, it was the headquarters for the Hughes Aircraft Company. National Public Radio West and Sony Pictures Entertainment have headquarters in the city, the NFL Network studio is also based in Culver City. Archaeological evidence suggests a human presence in the area of present-day Culver City since at least 8,000 BC, the region was the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieliño Native Americans, who held a presence in the region for over 8,000 years. The city was founded primarily on the lands of the former Rancho La Ballona, Rancho Rincon de los Bueyes, and Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera. In 1861, during the American Civil War, Camp Latham was established by the 1st California Infantry under Col. James H. Carleton and the 1st California Cavalry under Lt. Col. Benjamin F. Davis. Named for California Senator Milton S. Latham, the camp was the first staging area for the training of Union troops and their operations in Southern California. It was located on land of the Rancho La Ballona, on the South side of Ballona Creek, near what is now the intersection of Jefferson, the post was later moved to Camp Drum, which became the Drum Barracks. Harry Culver first attempted to establish Culver City in 1913, the city was incorporated on September 20,1917, the city was one of many all-white planned communities started in the Los Angeles area around this time. The first film studio in Culver City was built by Thomas Ince in 1918, in 1919, silent film comedy producer Hal Roach built his studios there, and Metro Goldwyn Mayer in the 20s. During Prohibition, speakeasies and nightclubs such as the Cotton Club lined Washington Boulevard, Culver Center, one of Southern Californias first shopping malls, was completed in 1950 on Venice Boulevard near the Overland Avenue intersection. Today, it has retail stores, a supermarket, a Rite Aid department store, Best Buy. Hughes Aircraft opened its Culver City plant in July 1941, there the company built the H-4 Hercules transport. Hughes was also a subcontractor in World War II. It developed and patented a flexible feed chute for faster loading of machine guns on B-17 bombers, Hughes produced more ammunition belts than any other American manufacturer, and built 5,576 wings and 6,370 rear fuselage sections for Vultee BT-13 trainers. Hughes grew after the war, and in 1953 Howard Hughes donated all of his stock in the company to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, after he died in 1976, the institute sold the company, which made it the second-best-endowed medical research foundation in the world
8.
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
9.
Alfred Hitchcock
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Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE was an English film director and producer, at times referred to as The Master of Suspense. He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres and he had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as Englands best director. Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939, and became a US citizen in 1955 and he also fashioned for himself a recognisable directorial style. Hitchcocks stylistic trademarks include the use of movement that mimics a persons gaze. In addition, he framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy and his work often features fugitives on the run alongside icy blonde female characters. Prior to 1980, there had long been talk of Hitchcock being knighted for his contribution to film, Hitchcock later received his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Year Honours. Hitchcock directed more than fifty films in a career spanning six decades and is often regarded as one of the most influential directors in cinematic history. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else, Hitchcocks first thriller, The Lodger, A Story of the London Fog, helped shape the thriller genre in film. His 1929 film, Blackmail, is cited as the first British sound feature film, while Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest. Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone and he was the second son and the youngest of three children of William Hitchcock, a greengrocer and poulterer, and Emma Jane Hitchcock. He was named after his fathers brother, Hitchcock was raised as a Roman Catholic, and sent to Salesian College, Battersea, and the Jesuit grammar school St Ignatius College in Stamford Hill, London. His parents were both of half-English and half-Irish ancestry and he often described a lonely and sheltered childhood that was worsened by his obesity. Around age five, Hitchcock recalled that to him for behaving badly. This incident implanted a lifelong fear of policemen in Hitchcock, and such harsh treatment, sources vary on Hitchcocks performance in school. Gene Adair reports that by most accounts, Alfred was only an average, or slightly above-average, however, McGilligan writes that Hitchcock certainly excelled academically. When Hitchcock was 15, his father died, in that same year, he left St. Ignatius to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London. After leaving, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a company called Henleys. Hitchcock joined a regiment of the Royal Engineers in 1917
10.
Psycho (1960 film)
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When originally made, Psycho was seen as a departure from Hitchcocks previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcocks best films and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics. After Hitchcocks death in 1980, Universal Studios began producing follow-ups, in 1992, the US Library of Congress deemed the film culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. During a lunchtime tryst in Phoenix, Arizona, a real estate secretary named Marion Crane discusses with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, after lunch, Marion returns to work, where a client drops off a $40,000 cash payment on a property. Her boss asks her to deposit the money in the bank, returning home, she begins to pack for an unplanned trip, deciding to steal the money and give it to Sam in Fairvale, California. She is seen by her boss on her way out of town, during the trip, she pulls over on the side of the road and falls asleep, only to be awakened by a state patrol officer. He is suspicious about her nervous behavior but allows her to drive on, shaken by the encounter, Marion stops at an automobile dealership and trades in her Ford Mainline, with its Arizona license plates, for a Ford Custom 300 that has California tags. Her transaction is all for naught—the highway patrolman sees her at the car dealership, driving on, Marion encounters a sudden rainstorm and decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, the proprietor, Norman Bates, invites her to a light dinner after she checks in. She accepts, but then hears an argument between Norman and his mother about bringing a woman into her house. They eat in the parlor, where he tells her about his hobby of taxidermy and his life with his mother. Returning to her room, Marion decides to go back to Phoenix to return the stolen money and she prepares to take a shower, unaware that Norman is spying on her. As she is showering, a female figure suddenly comes in. A week later, Marions sister Lila arrives in Fairvale and confronts Sam about the whereabouts of her sister, a private investigator named Arbogast approaches them and confirms that Marion is wanted for stealing the $40,000 from her employer. He eventually comes across the Bates Motel, where Normans behavior arouses his suspicions, after hearing that Marion had met with Normans mother, he asks to speak with her, but Norman refuses. Arbogast calls Lila and Sam, informing them of what he has discovered and he goes to the Bates home in search of her, as he reaches the top of the stairs, Mrs. Bates suddenly appears from the bedroom and murders him. When Lila and Sam do not hear from Arbogast, they go to the local sheriff, concerned, Lila and Sam make their way to the motel. Norman takes his mother from her room, telling her he needs to hide her for a while in the fruit cellar. At the motel, Lila and Sam meet Norman, Sam distracts him by striking up a conversation while Lila sneaks up to the house
11.
Mel Brooks
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Melvin Brooks is an American filmmaker, comedian, actor, composer, and songwriter. He is known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies, Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows. He became well known as part of the duo with Carl Reiner in the comedy skit The 2000 Year Old Man. He also created, with Buck Henry, the hit comedy series Get Smart. In middle age, Brooks became one of the most successful directors of the 1970s. His best-known films include The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World, Part I, Spaceballs and Robin Hood, Men in Tights. A musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers, ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007, in 2001, having previously won an Emmy, a Grammy and an Oscar, he joined a small list of EGOT winners with his Tony award for The Producers. Brooks was married to Oscar-winning actress Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005, Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28,1926, in Brooklyn, New York, to James and Kate Kaminsky, and grew up in Williamsburg. His fathers family were German Jews of Polish descent from the Free City of Danzig, his mothers family were Jews from Kiev and he had three older brothers, Irving, Lenny, and Bernie. Brooks father died of disease at 34 when Brooks was two years old. He has said of his fathers death, Theres an outrage there, I may be angry at God, or at the world, for that. And Im sure a lot of my comedy is based on anger, growing up in Williamsburg, I learned to clothe it in comedy to spare myself problems—like a punch in the face. Brooks was a small, sickly boy who often was bullied and teased by his classmates and he was taught by Buddy Rich how to play the drums and started earning money at it when he was 14. After the war, Brooks started working in various Borscht Belt resorts and nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains as a drummer, around this time, he changed his professional name to Mel Brooks after being confused with the Borscht Belt trumpet player Max Kaminsky. After a regular comic at one of the nightclubs was too sick to perform one night, Brooks started working as a comic, telling jokes. He also began acting in stock in Red Bank, New Jersey. He eventually worked his way up to the comically aggressive job of Tummler at Grossingers, Brooks found more rewarding work behind the scenes, becoming a comedy writer for television. In 1949 his friend Sid Caesar hired Brooks to write jokes for the NBC series The Admiral Broadway Revue, paying him $50 a week
12.
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
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