1.
Rouben Mamoulian
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Rouben Zachary Mamoulian was an Armenian-American film and theatre director. Mamoulian was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to an Armenian family and his mother Virginia was a director of the Armenian theater, and his father, Zachary Mamoulian, was a bank president. Mamoulian relocated to England and started directing plays in London in 1922 and he was brought to America the next year by Vladimir Rosing to teach at the Eastman School of Music and was involved in directing opera and theatre. In 1925, Mamoulian was head of the School of Drama, among other performances, together they produced a short two-color film called The Flute of Krishna, featuring Eastman students. Mamoulian left Eastman shortly after and Graham chose to leave also, in 1930, Mamoulian became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Child star Jackie Cooper stated in his autobiography that Rouben Mamoulian was his uncle, Mamoulian began his Broadway director career with a production of DuBose Heywards Porgy, which opened on October 10,1927. He directed Wings Over Europe from late 1928 to 1929 and he directed the revival of Porgy in 1929 along with George Gershwins operatic treatment, Porgy and Bess, which opened on October 10,1935. Mamoulian was also the first to stage such notable Broadway works as Oklahoma, Carousel and Lost in the Stars. He directed his first feature film in 1929, Applause, which was one of the earliest talkies and it was a landmark film owing to Mamoulians innovative use of camera movement and sound, and these qualities were carried through to his other films released in the 1930s. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde benefits from having been made before the Production Code came into full force, queen Christina was the last film Greta Garbo made with John Gilbert, and also benefits from being made before the Production Code came into full force. The musical film Love Me Tonight was released in 1932 and he directed the first three-strip Technicolor film, Becky Sharp, based on Thackerays Vanity Fair, as well as the 1937 musical High, Wide, and Handsome. His next two films earned him wide admiration, The Mark of Zorro and Blood and Sand, both remakes of silent films. Blood and Sand, on bullfighting, was filmed in Technicolor and his foray into screwball comedy genre in 1942 was a success with Rings on Her Fingers starring Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney. Mamoulians last completed film was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayers 1957 film version of the Cole Porter musical Silk Stockings. This had been one of Porters less successful musicals and was based on the 1939 Greta Garbo classic Ninotchka. The film Silk Stockings starred Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, with Janis Paige, Mamoulians film directing career came to an end when he was fired from two consecutive films, Porgy and Bess and Cleopatra. He had previously been fired as director of Laura, after directing the highly successful original stage productions of Oklahoma. And Carousel, he worked on only a few theatrical productions, such as St. Louis Woman
2.
Robert Edmond Jones
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Robert Edmond Bobby Jones was an American scenic, lighting, and costume designer. He is credited with incorporating the new stagecraft into the American drama and his designs sought to integrate the scenic elements into the storytelling instead of having them stand separate and indifferent from the play’s action. His visual style, often referred to as simplified realism, combined bold vivid use of color and simple, yet dramatic, born in Milton, New Hampshire, Jones attended Harvard University and graduated in 1910. Jones eventually moved to New York where, with friends made at Harvard, in 1913 Jones and several friends sailed to Europe to study the new stagecraft with Edward Gordon Craig in Florence. The school in Florence would not accept Jones so he went to Berlin instead and his innovative designs for Vladimir Rosings American Opera Company in 1927 and 1928 were praised by critics. Jones also brought his style to many productions put on by the Theatre Guild, with innovative designs for The Philadelphia Story, Othello. Jones’s biggest commercial success was with The Green Pastures, which, if we include its revival in 1951 and this revival was Jones’s last production. Other Broadway credits include Holiday, Mourning Becomes Electra, Ah, juno and the Paycock, and Lute Song. Jones was also the designer for some early three-color Technicolor films, such as La Cucaracha and Becky Sharp. Jones published many articles on design in the course of his career. His books include Drawings for the Theatre, and The Dramatic Imagination and his book The Dramatic Imagination is considered the definitive work on modern stage design in the first half of the 20th century. He died in the house he was born in on Thanksgiving Day,1954, in a time where theatrical set designs were extravagant and realistic, Jones counteracted the norm by creating simple or expressionistic sets and props. He was an unashamed pleader for beauty and, far more important, are attempting to express directly to the audience the unspoken thoughts of their characters, to show us not only the patterns of their conscious behavior but the pattern of their subconscious lives. We accept unthinkingly as objective transcripts of life, whereas in reality they are images of life. On stage we shall see the characters of the drama. The theater is a school we shall never have done with studying and learning, a stage setting is not a background, it is an environment. I think needs also actors who have in them a kind of wildness, an exuberance, a take-it-or-leave-it quality, I am indebted to the great Madame Freisinger for teaching me the value of simplicity in the theater. The sole aim of the arts of scene-designing, costuming, lighting, is, as I have already said, to enhance the natural powers of the actor
3.
William Makepeace Thackeray
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William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He is known for his works, particularly Vanity Fair. Thackeray, a child, was born in Calcutta, British India. His mother, Anne Becher, was the daughter of Harriet Becher and John Harman Becher. Richmond died in 1815, which caused Anne to send her son to England in 1816, the ship on which he travelled made a short stopover at St. Helena, where the imprisoned Napoleon was pointed out to him. Once in England he was educated at schools in Southampton and Chiswick, and then at Charterhouse School, Thackeray disliked Charterhouse, and parodied it in his fiction as Slaughterhouse. Nevertheless, Thackeray was honoured in the Charterhouse Chapel with a monument after his death, Thackeray then travelled for some time on the continent, visiting Paris and Weimar, where he met Goethe. He returned to England and began to study law at the Middle Temple and he also lost a good part of his fortune in the collapse of two Indian banks. The Thackerays had three children, all girls, Anne Isabella, Jane and Harriet Marian, who married Sir Leslie Stephen, editor, Thackeray now began writing for his life, as he put it, turning to journalism in an effort to support his young family. Between 1837 and 1840 he also reviewed books for The Times and he was also a regular contributor to The Morning Chronicle and The Foreign Quarterly Review. Later, through his connection to the illustrator John Leech, he began writing for the newly created magazine Punch, in which he published The Snob Papers and this work popularised the modern meaning of the word snob. Thackeray was a regular contributor to Punch between 1843 and 1854. Tragedy struck in Thackerays personal life as his wife, Isabella, succumbed to depression after the birth of their third child, in 1840. Finding that he could get no work done at home, he spent more and more time away until September 1840, struck by guilt, he set out with his wife to Ireland. During the crossing she threw herself from a water-closet into the sea and they fled back home after a four-week battle with her mother. From November 1840 to February 1842 Isabella was in and out of professional care and she eventually deteriorated into a permanent state of detachment from reality. Isabella outlived her husband by 30 years, in the end being cared for by a family named Thompson in Leigh-on-Sea at Southend until her death in 1894, after his wifes illness Thackeray became a de facto widower, never establishing another permanent relationship. He did pursue other women, however, in particular Mrs Jane Brookfield, in 1851 Mr Brookfield barred Thackeray from further visits to or correspondence with Jane. Baxter, an American twenty years Thackerays junior whom he met during a tour in New York City in 1852
4.
Langdon Elwyn Mitchell
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Langdon Elwyn Mitchell was an American playwright popular on Broadway in the early twentieth century. He was the son of a writer and neurologist, S. Weir Mitchell. Born in Philadelphia, he studied in Dresden and Paris, attended the Harvard and Columbia law schools, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he wrote plays under his own name and poetry under the pen name John Philip Varley. He was considered a solid craftsman whose plays provided good parts for talented actors, mrs. Mitchell taught playwriting at the University of Pennsylvania from 1928 to 1930. In the Season Becky Sharp, a dramatization of Thackerays Vanity Fair A Kentucky Belle Step by Step The New York Idea The Kreutzer Sonata, the New Marriage Sylvan and Other Poems Poems Love in the Backwoods Understanding America Atkinson, Brooks. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Gilman. Thurston, H. T. Colby, F. M. eds
5.
Miriam Hopkins
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Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American film and TV actress known for her versatility. She first signed with Paramount in 1930, working with Ernst Lubitsch and Joel McCrea and her long-running feud with Bette Davis was publicized for effect. Later she became a pioneer of TV drama, Hopkins was a distinguished Hollywood hostess, who moved in intellectual and creative circles. Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge and her maternal great-grandfather, the fourth mayor of Bainbridge, helped establish St. Johns Episcopal Church, in Bainbridge, where Hopkins sang in the choir. In 1909, she lived in Mexico. After her parents separated, she moved as a teen with her mother to Syracuse, New York, to be near her uncle, Thomas Cramer Hopkins and she attended Goddard Seminary in Barre, Vermont and Syracuse University. She became estranged from her father, and when at the age of 19 she applied for a passport in 1922 in preparation for a tour of South America. At age 20, Hopkins became a girl in New York City. In 1930, she signed with Paramount Pictures, and made her film debut in Fast. Her first great success was in the 1931 horror drama film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in which she portrayed the character Ivy Pearson, a prostitute who becomes entangled with Jekyll and Hyde. Her pre-Code films were considered even at that time, with The Story of Temple Drake depicting a rape scene and Design for Living featuring a ménage à trois with Fredric March. Hopkins was one of the first actresses approached to play the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night and she did audition for the role of Scarlett OHara in Gone with the Wind, having one advantage none of the other candidates had, she was a native Georgian. But the part went to Vivien Leigh, Hopkins had well-publicized fights with her arch-enemy Bette Davis, when they co-starred in their two films The Old Maid and Old Acquaintance. Davis admitted to enjoying very much a scene in Old Acquaintance in which she shakes Hopkins forcefully during a scene where Hopkins character makes unfounded allegations against Daviss. There were even press photos taken with both divas in a ring with gloves up and director Vincent Sherman between the two. Davis described Hopkins as a good actress but also terribly jealous in later interviews. After Old Acquaintance, Hopkins did not work again in films until The Heiress, in Mitchell Leisens 1951s comedy The Mating Season, she gave a comic performance as Gene Tierneys characters mother. She also acted in The Childrens Hour, which is the basis of her film These Three
6.
Frances Dee
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Frances Marion Dee was an American actress. She starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in the early musical, Playboy of Paris. She starred in the film An American Tragedy in a role later recreated by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1951 retitled remake and she also had a prominent role in the classic 1943 Val Lewton psychological horror film I Walked With a Zombie. When Dee was 7 years old, her moved to Chicago. She attended Shakespeare Grammar School and Hyde Park High School, where she went by the nickname of Frankie Dee, following her sophomore year in 1929, she went on summer vacation with her mother and older sister to visit family in the Los Angeles, California area. She began working as an extra as a lark. Her big break came when, still an extra, she was offered the lead opposite Maurice Chevalier in Playboy of Paris, dees additional screen credits included June Moon, Little Women, Of Human Bondage, Becky Sharp, and Payment on Demand. She co-starred with her husband Joel McCrea in the Western Four Faces West, Dee met actor Joel McCrea on the set of the 1933 film The Silver Cord. The attractive couple married on October 20,1933, after a whirlwind courtship, during their lifetime together, the McCreas lived, raised their children, and rode their horses on their ranch in what was then an unincorporated area of eastern Ventura County, California. Joel McCrea died on their 57th wedding anniversary and their three sons, including the actor Jody McCrea, and many grandchildren, also survived McCrea. But in 2004, Frances Dee McCrea died in Norwalk, Connecticut due to complications from a stroke at the age of 94. Frances Dee at the Internet Movie Database Frances Dee at the Internet Broadway Database Frances Dee Biography and obituary Photographs of Frances Dee Frances Dee at Find a Grave
7.
Cedric Hardwicke
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Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly fifty years. His theatre work included performances in productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw. Hardwicke was born in Lye, West Midlands, to Dr Edwin Webster Hardwicke and his wife and he attended Bridgnorth Grammar School in Shropshire, after which he intended to train as a doctor but failed to pass the necessary examinations. He turned to the theatre and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in 1928, he married the English actress Helena Pickard. Their son was actor Edward Hardwicke and his second marriage, which also produced one child and ended in divorce, was to Mary Scott, from 1950 to 1961. Hardwicke made his first appearance on stage at the Lyceum Theatre, London, in 1912 during the run of Frederick Melvilles melodrama The Monk and the Woman, when he took over the part of Brother John. During that year he was at Her Majestys Theatre understudying, and subsequently appeared at the Garrick Theatre in Charles Kleins play Find the Woman, in 1913 he joined Bensons Company and toured in the provinces, South Africa and Rhodesia. World War I intervened in his career, and from 1914 to 1921 he served as an officer in the Judge Advocates branch of the British Army in France and he was one of the last members of the British Expeditionary Force to leave France. Other stage successes included The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, Antigone and A Majority of One, in 1928, while appearing with Edith Day, Paul Robeson and Alberta Hunter in the London production of Showboat, he married actress Helena Pickard. In December 1935, Hardwicke was elected Rede Lecturer to Cambridge University for 1936, in the late 1930s, he moved to the US, initially for film work. In the early 1940s he continued his career, touring. He returned to America late in 1945 and appeared with Ethel Barrymore in December in a revival of Shaws Pygmalion, in 1946, he starred opposite Katharine Cornell as King Creon in her production of Jean Anouilhs adaptation of the Greek tragedy Antigone. In 1951–52, he appeared on Broadway in Shaws Don Juan in Hell with Agnes Moorehead, Charles Boyer, hardwickes first appearance in a British film was in 1931, and from the late 1930s he was in great demand in Hollywood. He played David Livingstone opposite Spencer Tracys Henry Morton Stanley in Stanley and Livingstone in 1939, in 1940 he played Mr Jones in a screen version of Joseph Conrads novel Victory. He starred in The Ghost of Frankenstein, as the unfortunate Ludwig von Frankenstein, alongside Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi. Hardwicke played in films as Les Misérables, King Solomons Mines, The Keys of the Kingdom, The Winslow Boy, Alfred Hitchcocks Rope. DeMilles 1956 film The Ten Commandments and he appeared in a 1956 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents entitled Wet Saturday in which he portrayed Mr. Princey, an aristocratic gentleman who tries to cover up a murder to avoid public scandal. On 6 March 1958, he guest-starred on NBCs country variety series, The Ford Show, during the 1961–62 television season, Hardwicke starred as Professor Crayton in Gertrude Bergs sitcom Mrs. G. Goes to College, which ran for twenty-six weeks on CBS
8.
Pioneer Pictures
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Pioneer Pictures, Inc. was a Hollywood motion picture company, most noted for its early commitment to making color films. Pioneer was initially affiliated with RKO Pictures, whose production facilities in Culver City, California were used by Pioneer, Pioneer later merged with Selznick International Pictures. Cooper, an enthusiast of the improved, full-color Technicolor Process No. The process had been used thus far only in Walt Disney cartoons, although there was no formal connection between Technicolor and Pioneer, the Whitneys invested in stock and stock options estimated at 15 percent of Technicolor. Pioneer announced that its first color production would be The Last Days of Pompeii, other never-realized color projects were adaptations of the novels The Three Musketeers and Green Mansions. Instead, Pioneer designated the musical short La Cucaracha to be its Technicolor live-action showcase, in late 1934, Pioneer contracted with Technicolor to make nine features in the full color process, and hired RKOs Merian C. Cooper to be its vice-president in charge of production. Becky Sharp, an adaptation of Thackerays novel Vanity Fair, became the first feature-length motion picture in full color, followed by Dancing Pirate. Helen Gahagan became the first actor under a contract with Pioneer Pictures, while John Ford was engaged to direct several color productions. Neither would actually make a picture with Pioneer, directing contracts with John Ford and George Cukor were transferred. Selznick International, which used the RKO studio and Forty Acres backlot. Two Selznick color productions, A Star Is Born and Nothing Sacred, were in fact copyrighted to Pioneer Pictures, Selznick International Pictures was dissolved by its owners in 1940–1943. John Hay Whitney then sold Becky Sharp, Dancing Pirate, A Star Is Born, Film Classics was acquired by Cinecolor Corporation in 1947 — ironically, a company specializing in a two-component color process
9.
RKO Radio Pictures
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RKO Pictures Inc. also known as RKO Radio Pictures and in its later years RKO Teleradio Pictures, was an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the companys sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum, RKO has long been celebrated for its series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio, cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The work of producer Val Lewtons low-budget horror unit and RKOs many ventures into the now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after the fact, by film critics. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history, King Kong and Citizen Kane, RKO Pictures is also a member of Motion Picture Association of America. Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948, after years of turmoil and decline under his control, Hughes sold the troubled studio to General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the heir, revived it as a production subsidiary. In October 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer and its success prompted Hollywood to convert from silent to sound film production en masse. The Radio Corporation of America controlled an advanced optical sound-on-film system, RCA Photophone, the industrys two largest major studios, Paramount and Loews/MGM, with two other studios Universal and First National, were poised to contract with ERPI for sound conversion as well. Next on the agenda was securing a string of exhibition venues like those the leading Hollywood production companies owned, Kennedy began investigating the possibility of such a purchase. Around that time, the large Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit of theaters, built around the medium of live vaudeville, was attempting a transition to the movie business. In mid-1927, the operations of Pathé Exchange and Cecil B. De Milles Producers Distributing Corporation had united under KAOs control, early in 1928, KAO general manager John J. Murdock, who had assumed the presidency of Pathé, turned to Kennedy as an adviser in consolidating the studio with De Milles company, PDC. This was the relationship Sarnoff and Kennedy sought, on October 23,1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, with Sarnoff as chairman of the board. Kennedy, who withdrew from his positions in the merged companies, kept Pathé separate from RKO. RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO,22 percent, in the early 1930s, the companys production and distribution arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I
10.
Historical period drama
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The term, historical period drama refers to a work set in an earlier time period, usually used in the context of film and television. It is an informal term that can apply to several genres and is often heard in the context of historical fiction and romances, adventure films. A period piece may be as long and general as the ages or as limited as one decade, for example. Historical drama film stories are based upon events and famous people. A period film is a film that attempts to depict a specific time period. Examples include movies like Cinderella Man, Schindler’s List, Les Misérables or Lincoln, the most common type of period piece is the historical period piece, both on stage and in movies. This category includes Robin Hood, Barry Lyndon, Amadeus, The Young Victoria, films that are set in the 1930s and 1940s, such as Last Man Standing, can also be placed in this category. Other examples include Marie Antoinette, Middle march, and Pride, many highly successful television series have been known as period pieces. Notable examples include The Tudors, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Call the Midwife, Downton Abbey, Deadwood, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and Little House on the Prairie
11.
William Faversham
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William Faversham was an English stage and film actor, manager, and producer. One of the last of the legendary actor-managers, William Faversham became a name on Broadway in the original production of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895. Productions of both Julius Caesar and Othello followed, Favershams Broadway swan song came in a 1931 repertory presentation of Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice. He became a motion picture star in 1915 courtesy of the burgeoning Metro Pictures, at one point, Favershams popularity at Metro was second only to that of Francis X. Bushman, the leading matinee idol of the era. He was married to stage actresses Edith Campbell and Julie Opp and was the father of William Faversham and actor Philip Faversham
12.
Billie Burke
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She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1938 for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live and is also remembered for her appearances in the Topper series. Billie Burke was the wife of Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. of Ziegfeld Follies fame and her voice was unique in intonation, which she accentuated in her later character roles as dim-witted, spoiled society types. Billie Burke was born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke, the daughter of Blanche and William Billy Burke, in Washington and she toured the United States and Europe with her father, who was a singer and clown and worked for the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Her family ultimately settled in London where she attended plays in the West End, in 1903, she began acting on stage, making her debut in London in The School Girl. Other London shows included The Duchess of Dantzic and The Blue Moon and she eventually returned to America to star in Broadway musical comedies. There she caught the eye of producer Florenz Ziegfeld, marrying him in 1914, two years later they had a daughter, Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson. Burke was signed for the movies, making her debut in the title role of Peggy. Her success was phenomenal, and she was soon earning what was reputedly the highest salary granted a motion picture actress up to that time and she followed her first feature with the 15-part serial Glorias Romance, another popular and critically acclaimed vehicle. By 1917 Billie Burke was a favorite with silent movie fans, rivaling Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Clara Kimball Young, Billie Burke starred primarily in provocative society dramas and comedies, similar in theme to The Mind-the-Paint Girl, her most successful American play. The stars girlish charm rivaled her acting ability, and as she dressed to the hilt in fashionable gowns, furs and jewelry, the actresss beauty and taste made her a major trendsetter throughout the 1910s and 20s. Despite her success in film, Billie Burke eventually returned to the stage, appearing in Caesars Wife, The Intimate Strangers, The Marquise and The Happy Husband. But when the savings were wiped out in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. In 1932, Burke made her Hollywood comeback, starring as Margaret Fairfield in A Bill of Divorcement, despite the death of Florenz Ziegfeld during the films production, she resumed filming shortly after his funeral. The movie was a success, and revived her career. She subsequently starred in comedies and musicals, typecast as a ditzy, fluffy. In 1936, MGM filmed a biopic of Florenz Ziegfeld. In 1937 Burke appeared in the first of the Topper films and her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live resulted in her only Oscar nomination. In 1938 she was chosen to play Glinda the Good Witch of the North, in the musical The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming and she had worked on a Garland film, Everybody Sing, in which she played Judys histrionically hysterical actress-mother
13.
Alison Skipworth
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Alison Skipworth was an English stage and screen actress. Skipworth was born Alison Mary Elliott Margaret Groom in London and she was the daughter of Dr. Richard Ebenezer Groom and Elizabeth Rodgers, and she had a private education. Alison Skipworth made her first stage appearance at Dalys Theatre in London in 1894 and her first American performance came the following year at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. She sang in opera in An Artists Model. In this production she served as understudy to Marie Tempest, after performing in two London plays, Skipworth returned to the United States, and made it her home. She joined the company of Daniel Frohman at the Lyceum, there she made her debut as Mrs. Ware in The Princess and the Butterfly in 1897. In 1905 and 1906 Skipworth toured with Viola Allen in three productions of Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It, in the following years she played with James K. Hackett and John Drew, Jr. among other theatre celebrities. Productions in which she was featured are The Swan, The Enchanted April, The Grand Duchess, Skipworth appeared in her first film in 1912, A Mardi Gras Mix-Up. The same year she performed in The Pilgrimage, Into the Jungle and she excelled in the new sound medium in films which arrived at the close of the 1920s. In 1930 she made her first talkie, Strictly Unconventional, fields as his foil in four films, If I Had a Million, Tillie and Gus, Alice in Wonderland, and Six of a Kind. Her film career continued until 1938 with many supporting roles. Her later screen credits include The Casino Murder Case, The Girl from 10th Avenue, King of the Newsboys, Wide Open Faces, Skipworth was married to Frank Markham Skipworth, an artist, they later divorced. Nicknamed Skippy, Skipworth resided in an ordinary Hollywood flat, drove a Ford, Skipworth died of natural causes in 1952 at her home in New York City, three weeks short of her 89th birthday. The Times-News, Hollywood Gossip,19 December 1933, page 7, the New York Times, Alison Skipworth, Actress, Dies At 88,7 July 1952, page 21. Winnipeg Free Press, Lyceum,23 January 1936, page 24, Alison Skipworth at the Internet Broadway Database Alison Skipworth at the Internet Movie Database Alison Skipworth. Alison Skipworth a younger Skipworth, in the Victorian era the cast of The Swan 1924, Skipworth 2nd from right bottom row
14.
Nigel Bruce
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William Nigel Ernle Bruce was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in a series of films, Bruce is also remembered for his roles in the Alfred Hitchcock films Rebecca and Suspicion. Bruce was the son of Sir William Waller Bruce, 10th Baronet and his wife Angelica Lady Bruce, daughter of General George Selby. Bruce was born in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, while his parents were on holiday there and his older brother was the author and adventurer Sir Michael Bruce. He was educated at the Grange, Stevenage and at Abingdon School and he made his first appearance on stage on 12 May 1920 at the Comedy Theatre as a footman in Why Marry. He appeared constantly onstage thereafter, and eight years later started working in silent films. In 1934, he moved to Hollywood, later setting up home at 701 North Alpine Drive, Nigel Bruce typically played buffoonish, fuzzy-minded gentlemen. During his film career, he worked in 78 films, including Treasure Island, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Rebecca, Bruce participated in two landmark films, Becky Sharp, the first feature film in full Technicolor, and Bwana Devil, the first 3-D feature. He uncharacteristically played a detestable figure in The Rains Came which became the first film to win an Oscar for special effects, Bruces signature role was that of Dr. Watson in the 1939-1946 Sherlock Holmes film series with close friend Basil Rathbone as Holmes. Bruce starred as Watson in all 14 films of the series, although Watson often appears to be the older of the two main characters, Bruce was actually three years younger than his co-star Rathbone. Loren D. Estleman wrote of Bruce, A clerihew runs, Rathbone, however, spoke highly of Bruces portrayal, the historian David Parkinson wrote that Bruces avuncular presence provided the perfect counterbalance to Rathbones briskly omniscient sleuth. The Rathbone-Bruce film series lapsed with the death of producer-director Roy William Neill in 1946, Bruce, known as Willie to his friends, was a leading member of the British film colony in Los Angeles, and was captain of the Hollywood Cricket Club. He also retained his membership of Londons Garrick Club and Bucks Club until his death and his final film, World for Ransom, was released posthumously in 1954. Bruce died from an attack in Santa Monica, California in 1953. He was cremated, and his ashes stored in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, Nigel Bruce at the Internet Movie Database Nigel Bruce at the Internet Broadway Database Nigel Bruce at Find a Grave Extracts from Bruces memoirs, Games Gossip and Greasepaint
15.
Alan Mowbray
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Alan Mowbray MM was an English stage and film actor who found success in Hollywood. Born Alfred Ernest Allen in London, England, he served with distinction in the British Army in the First World War and he began his stage career in London in 1922, as an actor and stage manager. Mowbray applied for transfer to the Royal Air Force which was granted just six days before the war ended and this placed him in London on Armistice Day. His service came to an end when the Royal Air Force wanted another seven years out of him, in 1923 he arrived in the United States and was soon acting with New York stock companies. He debuted on Broadway in The Sport of Kings, in 1929 he wrote, Mowbray made his film debut in Gods Gift to Women playing a butler, a role in which he was thereafter often cast. He appeared in five more pictures that year, notably portraying George Washington in Alexander Hamilton. It was for another Thorne Smith–derived film, Topper, that Mowbray may be best remembered, he played Toppers butler, Wilkins, throughout the 1930s and 40s Mowbray worked steadily, appearing in over 120 films. In the 1950s Mowbrays film roles decreased and he began to appear on television and he played the title role in the DuMont TV series Colonel Humphrey Flack, which first aired in 1953–54 and was revived in 1958–59. In the 1954–55 television season Mowbray played Mr. Swift, the coach of the character Mickey Mulligan, in NBCs short-lived situation comedy The Mickey Rooney Show, Hey. He continued to occasionally in films. His final film role was as Captain Norcross in A Majority of One in 1961, in 1963 he returned to Broadway in the successful comedy Enter Laughing, playing David Kolowitzs unscrupulous mentor Marlowe. Mowbray was a member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933, writing a personal check to fund the groups incorporation. Alan Mowbray was among the founders of the Hollywood Cricket Club and he was a prominent early member of the Masquers Club and donated the groups long-time clubhouse on Sycamore in Hollywood. Mowbray died of an attack in 1969 in Hollywood and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. The house had an English slate roof and a porte-cochère, some nice imported trees and it was a nice place and not loud. But Beverly Hills is Beverly Hills, so the butler had wing collar, up From Central Park, Scenes From an Actors Life, book review of Mowbrays memoirs at Immortal Ephemera, including excerpts, accessed 6 November 2015
16.
Vanity Fair (novel)
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Vanity Fair is an English novel by William Makepeace Thackeray which follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Emmy Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic Wars. It was published as a volume in 1848 with the subtitle A Novel without a Hero. It is sometimes considered the founder of the Victorian domestic novel. The story is framed as a play and the narrator. The serial was a popular and critical success, the novel is now considered a classic and has inspired several film adaptations, in 2003, Vanity Fair was listed at No.122 on the BBCs The Big Read poll of the UKs best-loved books. The books title comes from John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress, a Dissenter allegory first published in 1678. In that work, Vanity Fair refers to a stop along the route, a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity. From its appearance in Bunyan, Vanity Fair or a vanity-fair was also in use for the world in a range of connotations from the blandly descriptive to the wearily dismissive to the condemning. By the 18th century, it was taken as a playground and, in the first half of the 19th century, more specifically the playground of the idle. All of these appear in Thackerays work. The narrator, variously a show manager or writer, appears at times within the work itself and is highly unreliable, rebecca Sharp is a strong-willed, cunning, moneyless, young woman determined to make her way in society. After leaving school, Becky stays with Amelia Sedley, who is a good-natured, simple-minded young girl, there, Becky meets the dashing and self-obsessed Captain George Osborne and Amelias brother Joseph Sedley, a clumsy and vainglorious but rich civil servant home from the East India Company. Hoping to marry Sedley, the richest young man she has met, Becky entices him, George Osbornes friend Captain William Dobbin loves Amelia, but only wishes her happiness, which is centred on George. Becky Sharp says farewell to the Sedley family and enters the service of the crude and profligate baronet Sir Pitt Crawley and her behaviour at Sir Pitts house gains his favour, and after the premature death of his second wife, he proposes marriage to her. However he finds that she has married his second son. Sir Pitts elder half sister, the spinster Miss Crawley, is rich, having inherited her mothers fortune. Initially her favourite is Rawdon Crawley, but his marriage with Becky enrages her. First she favours the family of Sir Pitts brother, but when she dies, she has left her money to Sir Pitts oldest son, Amelias father, John Sedley, becomes bankrupt
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Minnie Maddern Fiske
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She also spearheaded the fight against the Theatrical Syndicate for the sake of artistic freedom. She was widely considered the most important actress on the American stage in the first quarter of the 20th century and her performances in several Henrik Ibsen plays widely introduced American audiences to the Norwegian playwright. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, she was the daughter of stage manager Thomas Davey and she performed her first professional show at the age of three as the Duke of York in Richard III. She debuted in New York as a four-year-old in the play A Sheep in Wolfs Clothing and she toured extensively as a child, and was educated in many convent schools. She was a prodigy, touring and performing in numerous productions. According to the New York Times article Ibsen or Shakespeare, Harrison Grey Fiske was 12 years old when he first set eyes on the future Mrs. Fiske—she was but eight, performing in a Shakespearean role. By the time she was 16, she was a leading lady and she was recognized for her unique beauty and singing voice. She married LeGrand White, a musician in Foggs Ferry. Two years later, she married Harrison Grey Fiske in March 1890, and took three years off from the stage. Leaving a life of domesticity, she returned to the theatre in 1893 as a playwright and director, having written one-act plays such as A Light for St. Agnes, The Rose and she wrote several plays and collaborated with her husband in writing Fontenelle. Mr. Fiske directed virtually all of his wifes plays after their marriage and she is perhaps most famous for starring as Becky Sharp in the original 1899 production of Langdon Mitchells Becky Sharp, a play based on William Makepeace Thackerays Vanity Fair. Mrs. Fiske starred in everything from farce to tragedy and even appeared in a comedy with puppets Wake Up and her final appearance on Broadway was in 1930 in an acclaimed production of The Rivals cast as Mrs. Malaprop. She was a pioneer for realism in acting, also supporting Ibsens works for their honest portrayals of humanity and her love for performing Ibsen over Shakespeare, and her position that Ibsen is the better study for actors, can not be overstated. She told The New York Times in January 1908, Ibsen is of interest to the actor because properly to understand a role you must study the character from its earliest childhood, most Ibsen men and women have lived their lives before the curtain rises. Shakespeare has often been pronounced tedious by actors because his characters require a great deal of study, but even Shakespeare seems easy when compared with the thought that must be bestowed upon Ibsen. The beautiful verse, the character drawing of Shakespeare furnish solutions of perplexing problems. He is the Wagner of the drama, Wagner struggled for understanding just as Ibsen has struggled. Although she was praised as an actor, she died poverty-stricken
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Technicolor
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Technicolor is the name applied to a series of color motion picture processes, the first version dating from 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. It was the major color process, after Britains Kinemacolor. As the technology matured it was used for less spectacular dramas. Occasionally, even a film noir—such as Leave Her to Heaven or Niagara —was filmed in Technicolor, Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color motion picture processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, now a division of the French company Technicolor SA. The Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation was founded in Boston in 1914 by Herbert Kalmus, Daniel Frost Comstock, the Tech in the companys name was inspired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where both Kalmus and Comstock received their undergraduate degrees and were later instructors. Technicolor, Inc. was chartered in Delaware in 1921, most of Technicolors early patents were taken out by Comstock and Wescott, while Kalmus served primarily as the companys president and chief executive officer. The term Technicolor historically has been used to describe at least five concepts, Technicolor, Technicolor process or format, several custom image origination systems used in film production, culminating in the three-strip process in 1932. Technicolor IB printing, a process for making color motion picture prints that allows the use of dyes which are more stable, originally used for printing from color separation negatives photographed on black-and-white film in a special Technicolor camera. This meaning of the name applies to nearly all Wikipedia articles about films made from 1954 onward in which Technicolor is named in the credits, Technicolor originally existed in a two-color system. Because two frames were being exposed at the time, the film had to be photographed and projected at twice the normal speed. Exhibition required a special projector with two apertures, two lenses, and a prism that aligned the two images on the screen. The results were first demonstrated to members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in New York on February 21,1917, the near-constant need for a technician to adjust the projection alignment doomed this additive color process. Only a few frames of The Gulf Between, showing star Grace Darmond, are known to exist today, convinced that there was no future in additive color processes, Comstock, Wescott, and Kalmus focused their attention on subtractive color processes. This culminated in what would eventually be known as Process 2, the difference was that the two-component negative was now used to produce a subtractive color print. Because the colors were present in the print, no special projection equipment was required. The frames exposed behind the filter were printed on one strip of black-and-white film. After development, each print was toned to a color nearly complementary to that of the filter, orange-red for the green-filtered images, the two prints, made on film stock half the thickness of regular film, were then cemented together back to back to create a projection print. The Toll of the Sea, which debuted on November 26,1922, the second all-color feature in Process 2 Technicolor, Wanderer of the Wasteland, was released in 1924
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Color photography
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Color photography is photography that uses media capable of reproducing colors. By contrast, black-and-white photography records only a channel of luminance. In color photography, electronic sensors or light-sensitive chemicals record color information at the time of exposure, monochrome images which have been colorized by tinting selected areas by hand or mechanically or with the aid of a computer are colored photographs, not color photographs. Their colors are not dependent on the colors of the objects photographed. Color photography has been the dominant form of photography since the 1970s, Color photography was attempted beginning in the 1840s. Early experiments were directed at finding a substance which would assume the color of the light falling on it. Other experimenters, such as Edmond Becquerel, achieved better results, over the following several decades, renewed experiments along these lines periodically raised hopes and then dashed them, yielding nothing of practical value. Gabriel Lippmann is remembered as the inventor of a method for reproducing colors by photography, based on the interference phenomenon, in 1886 Lippmanns interest had turned to a method of fixing the colors of the solar spectrum on a photographic plate. By April 1892, he was able to report that he had succeeded in producing color images of a glass window, a group of flags, a bowl of oranges topped by a red poppy. He presented his theory of photography using the interference method in two papers to the Academy, one in 1894, the other in 1906. The named colors are somewhat arbitrary divisions imposed on the spectrum of visible light. The test subject was a bow made of ribbon with stripes of colors, apparently including red. Creating colors by mixing colored lights in various proportions is the method of color reproduction. LCD, LED, plasma and CRT color video displays all use this method and this is also known as the RGB color model. In photography, the dye colors are cyan, a greenish-blue which absorbs red, magenta, a purplish-pink which absorbs green, and yellow. The red-filtered image is used to create a dye image, the green-filtered image to create a magenta dye image. When the three dye images are superimposed they form a color image. This is also known as the CMYK color model, most commonly, three pigment images were first created separately by the so-called carbon process and then carefully combined in register
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World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
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Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
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Battle of Waterloo
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The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday,18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Upon Napoleons return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition, Wellington and Blüchers armies were cantoned close to the north-eastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack them in the hope of destroying them before they could join in an invasion of France with other members of the coalition. Despite holding his ground at Quatre Bras, the defeat of the Prussians forced Wellington to withdraw to Waterloo, Napoleon sent a third of his forces to pursue the Prussians, who had withdrawn parallel to Wellington. This resulted in the separate and simultaneous Battle of Wavre with the Prussian rear-guard, upon learning that the Prussian army was able to support him, Wellington decided to offer battle on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment, across the Brussels road. Here he withstood repeated attacks by the French throughout the afternoon, in the evening Napoleon committed his last reserves to a desperate final attack, which was narrowly beaten back. With the Prussians breaking through on the French right flank, Wellingtons Anglo-allied army counter-attacked in the centre, Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleons last. According to Wellington, the battle was the thing you ever saw in your life. Napoleon abdicated four days later, and on 7 July coalition forces entered Paris, the defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleons rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile. This ended the First French Empire, and set a chronological milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace, the battlefield is located in the municipalities of Braine-lAlleud and Lasne, about 15 kilometres south of Brussels, and about 2 kilometres from the town of Waterloo. The site of the battlefield today is dominated by a large monument, as this mound was constructed from earth taken from the battlefield itself, the contemporary topography of the battlefield near the mound has not been preserved. On 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, four days later, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, and Prussia mobilised armies to defeat Napoleon. Crucially, this would have bought him time to recruit and train more men before turning his armies against the Austrians and Russians, an additional consideration for Napoleon was that a French victory might cause French speaking sympathisers in Belgium to launch a friendly revolution. Wellingtons initial dispositions were intended to counter the threat of Napoleon enveloping the Coalition armies by moving through Mons to the south-west of Brussels and this would have pushed Wellington closer to Blücher, but may have cut Wellingtons communications with his base at Ostend. In order to delay Wellingtons deployment, Napoleon spread false intelligence which suggested that Wellingtons supply chain from the ports would be cut. By June, Napoleon had raised a total strength of about 300,000 men. The force at his disposal at Waterloo was less than one third that size, Napoleon divided his army into a left wing commanded by Marshal Ney, a right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy and a reserve under his command. Crossing the frontier near Charleroi before dawn on 15 June, the French rapidly overran Coalition outposts and he hoped this would prevent them from combining, and he would be able to destroy first the Prussians army, then Wellingtons
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United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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Michael Balcon
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Sir Michael Elias Balcon was an English film producer, known for his work with Ealing Studios. Balcon had earlier worked for Gainsborough Pictures, Gaumont British and MGM-British, born in Birmingham, Balcon was the youngest son and fourth of five children of Louis Balcon and his wife, Laura, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who had met in Britain. After the war, Balcons friend Victor Saville suggested a partnership to establish a distribution company. The company, Victory Motion Pictures, led to settling in London. In 1923, their first feature film was released, the successful melodrama Woman to Woman, starring Clive Brook and Betty Compson and they leased Islington Studios and formed the more long-lasting Gainsborough Pictures. The studio, recently vacated by the Hollywood company Famous Players-Lasky was small but well equipped, a young Alfred Hitchcock was one of its employees. Balcon gave Hitchcock his first directing opportunity, and Gainsborough gained a reputation for producing high-quality films, by the late 1920s, Balcons independence had eroded and Gainsborough became an extension of the Gaumont Film Company. Still, between 1931 and 1936, Balcon produced a number of classics, including a string of Hitchcock successes and Man of Aran and he also helped individuals escape Nazi Germany, including the actor Conrad Veidt, who had starred in his 1934 film Jew Suss. By 1936, Gaumont was looking for an entry into the American market, on his return, he found Gaumont in financial ruin and joined MGM-British Studios that November. The year and a half he spent there was a period for Balcon. During this period, Balcon lived at 57a Tufton Street, Westminster, when Balcon was invited by an old associate of his, Reginald Baker to head Ealing Studios in 1938, he readily agreed. Dead of Night, Undercover and of course the Ealing Comedies were released during his time there, in his 1969 autobiography, Michael Balcon Presents. Besides Hitchcock, he worked with Basil Dearden, Michael Relph, in 1944, Ealing Studios had been taken over by the Rank Organisation, which in 1955 sold the studio to the BBC. As a result, Balcon left Rank in 1956 and set up the production company Ealing Films and this meant that MGM would handle the worldwide distribution of the companys films, and Balcons company would shoot them at MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood. In 1959 Balcon became chairman of Bryanston Films, a subsidiary of British Lion Films, the firm went bankrupt in 1963 with Balcon taking over British Lion Films. Balcon was a theatre and opera goer, loved travel. In 1977, he died peacefully at Upper Parrock, the 15th century house set on a Sussex hilltop near the Kent border where he and he was cremated and his ashes buried there. A pub in Ealing, The Sir Michael Balcon is named in his honour, on 10 April 1924, Balcon married Aileen Freda Leatherman, daughter of Max Jacobs and Beatrice Leatherman, born in Middlesex, but brought up in Johannesburg
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Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
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Whitney was an American businessman, film producer, writer, philanthropist, polo player, and government official, as well as the owner of a leading stable of thoroughbred racehorses. Born in Old Westbury, New York, he was the son of the wealthy and socially prominent Harry Payne Whitney and he had a younger sister, Barbara Whitney, and an elder sister, Flora Payne Whitney. As a member of both the Whitney and Vanderbilt families, he inherited a substantial fortune, however, he proved to be a very capable businessman. After graduating from Yale University in 1922, he went to work at a Nevada mine owned by his father, C. V. s paternal grandfather William Collins Whitney was a co-founder and director of the Guaranty Trust Company of New York and in 1926 C. V. Whitney was appointed a director, serving on the board until 1940. In 1931, Whitney founded the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co, the company became a major zinc mining operation and Whitney served as chairman of the board until 1964. Whitney became involved in the picture industry, notably with his cousin John Hay Whitney as a major shareholder backing the Technicolor Corporation. The two were also financiers for the 1939 film classic Gone with the Wind, Whitney served as a producer through his own C. V. His company made three films, the first being the acclaimed 1956 production, The Searchers, directed by John Ford, Second was The Missouri Traveler in 1958 with Brandon deWilde and Lee Marvin and the third The Young Land in 1959 with Patrick Wayne and Dennis Hopper. Whitney was a financial partner in the development of Marine Studios, designed as an underwater motion picture studio located on the ocean south of St. Augustine. The Studios opened on June 23,1938 with an estimated 30,000 visitors and it was billed as the worlds original marine attraction. Whitney sold the attraction and its amenities to a group of St. Augustine businessmen and his father, Harry Payne Whitney, had been an avid polo player and thoroughbred racehorse owner and C. V. Whitney followed in his footsteps, winning the U. S. Open polo title three times, since 1979, the Greenwich Polo Club at Conyers Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut has awarded the C. V. Whitney Cup to the winner of a polo tournament He was the third generation of Whitneys to be heavily involved in thoroughbred horse racing. The Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course was inaugurated in his familys honor in 1928, Whitney acquired his fathers stable in 1930 and on May 17, his two-year-old colt Equipoise gave him his first stakes race victory when he won the Keene Memorial Stakes at Belmont Park. Equipose would go on to become a success on the racetrack and as a leading sire, among Whitneys other outstanding horses, Top Flight was the 1931 American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly and the 1932 American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly who was aslso voted into the U. S. Although he had fifteen horses compete in the Kentucky Derby, Whitney never won the prestigious race, silver Spoon was the only filly entered in the Derby between the years 1945 and 1980, coming in a credible fifth in 1959. In the 1951 Kentucky Derby, Whitneys Veitch-trained colt Counterpoint was still developing after an injury as a yearling that almost ended his career and tired badly, finishing 11th
27.
La Cucaracha (1934 film)
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La Cucaracha is a 1934 American short musical film directed by Lloyd Corrigan. The film was designed by Robert Edmond Jones, who was hired by Pioneer Pictures to design the film in a way to show the new full-color Technicolor Process No.4 at its best, Process No.4 had been used since 1932, mainly in Walt Disney cartoons. Jock Whitney and his cousin C. V. Whitney, the owners of Pioneer, were major investors in Technicolor. La Cucaracha was made like a feature and cost about $65,000. The usual short film at that time cost little more than $15,000 to film, although La Cucaracha is sometimes called the first live-action use of Process No. Also, Warner Brothers released two Leon Errol shorts, Service With a Smile and Good Morning, Eve. just before La Cucaracha, producer Kenneth Macgowan won an Academy Award in 1935 for Best Short Subject for this film. On October 27,2009, Alpha Video released La Cucaracha on Region 0 DVD, La Cucaracha at the Internet Movie Database La Cucaracha at AllMovie La Cucaracha at the TCM Movie Database The short film La Cucaracha is available for free download at the Internet Archive
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Dancing Pirate
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Dancing Pirate is a 1936 American musical comedy film directed by Lloyd Corrigan. It is the film shot in the three strip Technicolor process and the first musical in that format. The film features the debut of stage star Charles Collins and the cast includes Rita Hayworth as one of The Royal Cansino Dancers, other dancers in the film were Pat Nixon and Marjorie Reynolds. Set in Boston in the 1820s, the tells of dancing teacher Jonathan Pride, shanghaied by pirates. He is seen by a shepherd who warns the nearest town whose excitable population transform Jonathans arrival into a full-fledged pirate invasion, the Alcade Don Emilio Perena leads the militia into shooting up their own town whilst Jonathan is later captured in the boudoir of Alcades daughter Serafina. When Serafina and the women of the town discover Jonathans profession of dancing teacher, Don Balthazar also plans on secretly executing his rival Jonathan. Jonathan makes his escape and motivates the local downtrodden but peaceful Indians into an uprising through a teaching them a war dance. The Indians use their only weapons their lassoes to capture the soldiers now bandits. Don Balthazar challenges Jonathan to a duel with swords but Jonathan defeats and captures him with his umbrella and his dancing skills
29.
David O. Selznick
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David O. Selznick was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive. He is best known for producing Gone with the Wind and Rebecca, David Selznick was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Florence Anna and silent movie producer and distributor Lewis J. Selznick. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants and he had four siblings and his dad was born in Kyiv in 1870. Selznick added the O to distinguish himself from an uncle with the same name and he studied at Columbia University in New York City and worked as an apprentice for his father until the elders bankruptcy in 1923. In 1926, Selznick moved to Hollywood, and with the help of his fathers connections and he left MGM for Paramount Pictures in 1928, where he worked until 1931, when he joined RKO as Head of Production. David Selznicks years at RKO were fruitful, and he worked on films, including A Bill of Divorcement. Rockabye, Bird of Paradise, Our Betters, and King Kong, while at RKO, he also gave George Cukor his directing break. In 1933 he returned to MGM where his father-in-law, Louis B, mayer established a second prestige production unit for David, parallel to that of powerful Irving Thalberg, who was in poor health. Selznicks unit output included the all star cast movie Dinner at Eight, David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, despite his output of successful movies at MGM, Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures, Selznick longed to be an independent producer with his own studio. In 1935 he realized that goal by leasing RKO Culver City Studios & back lot, formed Selznick International Pictures, Gone with the Wind won eight Oscars and two special awards. Selznick also won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award that same year, in 1940 he produced his second Best Picture Oscar winner in a row, Rebecca, the first Hollywood production for British director Alfred Hitchcock. Selznick had brought Hitchcock over from England, launching the directors American career, Rebecca was Hitchcocks only film to win Best Picture. After Rebecca, Selznick closed Selznick International Pictures and took time off. His business activities included the loan of his artists to other studios, including Alfred Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, Vivien Leigh. In 1944, he formed The Selznick Studio and returned to producing pictures with the huge success Since You Went Away and he followed that with the Hitchcock films Spellbound and The Paradine Case, as well as Portrait of Jennie, a vehicle for Jennifer Jones. He also developed projects and sold the packages to other producers. Among the movies that he developed but then sold was Hitchcocks Notorious, in 1949 he co-produced the Carol Reed picture The Third Man with Alexander Korda. Gone with the Wind overshadowed the rest of Selznicks career, later, he was convinced that he had wasted his life trying to out do it
30.
A Star Is Born (1937 film)
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A Star Is Born is a 1937 American Technicolor romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick, directed by William A. The supporting cast features Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine, Lionel Stander, north Dakota farmgirl Esther Victoria Blodgett yearns to become a Hollywood actress. Although her aunt and father discourage such thoughts, Esthers grandmother gives her her savings to follow her dream, Esther goes to Hollywood and tries to land a job as an extra, but so many others have had the same idea that the casting agency has stopped accepting applications. Esther is told that her chances of becoming a star are one in 100,000 and she befriends a new resident at her boarding house, assistant director Danny McGuire, himself out of work. When Danny and Esther go to a concert to celebrate Dannys employment, Esther has her first encounter with Norman Maine, Norman has been a major star for years, but his alcoholism has sent his career into a downward spiral. Danny gets Esther a one-time waitressing job at a fancy Hollywood party, while serving hors d’œuvre, she catches Normans eye. He gets his longtime producer and good friend, Oliver Niles, impressed, Oliver gives her a new name and a contract. She practices her few lines for her first tiny role, when the studio has trouble finding a female lead for Normans current film, entitled The Enchanted Hour, Norman persuades Oliver to cast Esther. The film makes her a success, even as viewers continue to lose interest in Norman. Norman proposes to Vicki, she accepts when he promises to give up drinking and they elope without publicity, much to press agent Matt Libbys disgust, and enjoy a trailer-camping honeymoon in the mountains. When they return, Vickis popularity continues to skyrocket, while Norman realizes his own career is over, Norman stays sober for a while, but his frustration over his situation finally pushes him over the edge. When Vicki wins the top award, he interrupts her acceptance speech by drunkenly demanding three awards for the worst acting of the year. Norman goes on a drinking binge and winds up arrested for drunk driving. In court, the judge sentences him to 90 days of incarceration, the judge, who is impressed with Vickis acting success, suspends Normans sentence and puts Normans custody into Vickis hands. Vicki decides to give up her career in order to devote herself to his rehabilitation, after Norman overhears her discussing her plan with Oliver, he drowns himself in the Pacific Ocean. Shattered, Vicki decides to quit and go home, soon afterward, her grandmother shows up once she hears Vicki is quitting. Her grandmother tells her of a letter Norman sent her when they got married, the letter stated how proud he was of Vicki, and how much he loved her. Because of her grandmothers words, and the reminder of Normans deep love, Vicki is convinced to stay in show business
31.
Nothing Sacred (film)
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Nothing Sacred is an American Technicolor screwball comedy film directed in 1937 by William A. Wellman, produced by David O. Selznick, and starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March. With a supporting cast featuring Charles Winninger and Walter Connolly, the lush, Gershwinesque music score was by Oscar Levant, with additional music by Alfred Newman and Max Steiner and a swing number by Raymond Scotts Quintette. The film was shot in Technicolor by W. Howard Greene and edited by James E. Newcom, in 1965, the film entered the public domain due to the claimants failure to renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. New York newspaper reporter Wally Cook is blamed for passing off Harlem bootblack Ernest Walker as an African nobleman hosting a charity event, Cook is demoted to writing obituaries. He begs his boss Oliver Stone for another chance, Wally is sent to the town of Warsaw, Vermont, to interview Hazel Flagg, a woman supposedly dying of radium poisoning. Cook finally locates Hazel, who is crying because her doctor has told her that she is not dying, unaware of this, he invites her to New York as the guest of the Morning Star newspaper. The newspaper uses her story to increase its circulation and she receives a ticker tape parade and the key to the city, and becomes an inspiration to many. In addition, she and Wally fall in love, when it is finally discovered that Hazel is not really dying, city officials decide that it would be better to avoid embarrassment by having it seem that she committed suicide. Hazel and Wally get married and quietly set sail for the tropics and this was Lombards only Technicolor film. She stated that film was one of her personal favorites. A boxing world champion, Rosenbloom gave Lombard boxing lessons to prepare her for her scene with Fredric March. However, after William Wellman Sr. met Carole Lombard, he convinced Selznick to cast her, the first screwball comedy filmed in color, Nothing Sacred also represents the first use in a color film of process effects, montage and rear screen projection. Backgrounds for the projection were filmed on the streets of New York. Paramount Pictures and other studios refined this technique in their subsequent color features, ben Hecht is credited with writing the screenplay in two weeks on a train. He adapted the story Letter to the Editor by James H, street which had been first been published in Hearsts International-Cosmopolitan. Hecht wrote a role for his friend John Barrymore in the film and this caused a rift between Hecht and Selznick, and Hecht walked off the picture. One of the reasons the film is considered among the most celebrated screwball comedies of all time is that underneath the humor it incorporates sharply cynical themes of corruption and dishonesty. This film, along with Hechts The Front Page and its 1940 remake His Girl Friday with Cary Grant, prior to this, most home video releases of both films had rather poor quality color
32.
United Artists
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United Artists is an American film and television entertainment studio. The studio was bought, sold and restructured over the ensuing century. On December 14 of the year, however, MGM acquired the 48% stake of UAMG it did not own. UA was incorporated as a joint venture on February 5,1919, by Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks, each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work. They were spurred on by established Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening their control over salaries and creative decisions. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before anything was formalized, when he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, is said to have observed, The inmates are taking over the asylum. The four partners, with advice from McAdoo, formed their distribution company and its headquarters was established at 729 Seventh Avenue in New York City. The original terms called for each of the stars to produce five pictures each year, UAs first film was a success. Without selling stock to the public, following the other studios, as a result, production was slow and the company distributed an annual average of five films during its first five years. By 1924 Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis, veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. He had been producing pictures for a decade, and he brought commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, contracts were signed with independent producers, most notably Samuel Goldwyn, and Howard Hughes. In 1933, Schenck organized a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, called Twentieth Century Pictures, Schenck formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name. They began international operations, first in Canada and then in Mexico, by the end of the 1930s, United Artists was represented in over 40 countries. When he was denied a share in 1935, Schenck resigned. He set up 20th Century Pictures merger with Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox, al Lichtman succeeded Schenck as company president. Other independent producers distributed through United Artists in the 1930s including, Walt Disney Productions, Alexander Korda, Hal Roach, David O. Selznick, as the years passed, and the dynamics of the business changed, these producing partners drifted away. Samuel Goldwyn Productions and Disney went to RKO, and Wanger to Universal Pictures, in the late 1930s, UA turned a profit
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Lowell Sherman
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Lowell J. Sherman was an American actor and film director. At a time when it was unusual, he was both the actor and director on several films in the early 1930s, before completely transitioning to the role of director. At the height of his career, after scoring huge successes with his directing the films She Done Him Wrong and Morning Glory, he succumbed to pneumonia after a brief illness. Born in San Francisco in 1885 to John Sherman and Julia Louise Gray, even his maternal grandmother had been an actress, starring with the famous actor, Edwin Booth. Sherman began his career as an actor appearing in many touring companies. On Broadway in 1923 Sherman played the aptly suited Casanova in a play of that name and his sole Broadway directing credit would be in 1923s Morphia, in which he would also star. His suave reputation was built many years appearing in popular Broadway farces. Even after he became a silent film star, he continued to perform on Broadway, his last role being in The Woman Disputed. By 1915 Sherman was appearing in silent films usually playing playboys, until D. W. Griffith cast him as the villain in the classic film, Way Down East. Though successful, Sherman was not entirely happy with his career as an actor, stating Nothing becomes so monotonous as acting on the stage, working in the movies seemed even duller. In 1930, RKO executive William LeBaron gave him the opportunity he was looking for, allowing him to star in and direct the film, Sherman had starred in the Broadway production of the play the film was based on, and reprised his role. In 1933 he would focus on his directing duties, 1932s The Greeks Had a Word for Them would be his last acting role, either on stage or screen. The five films where his responsibility was directing were all critical and financial successes. He directed Mae West in her first starring film She Done Him Wrong and he also directed Broadway Through a Keyhole with Russ Columbo, and Born to Be Bad with Loretta Young and Cary Grant. His final work, Night Life of the Gods, was released in 1935, after Shermans death, Sherman was married three times and had no children. His first marriage was to actress Evelyn Booth, sister of playwright John Hunter Booth, Booth filed for divorce claiming that Sherman neglected to provide for her and was cruel. She was granted a divorce on March 19,1922, in 1926, he married actress Pauline Garon. Sherman filed for divorce on January 25,1929 claiming that Garon had deserted him in August 1928 at the insistence of her parents, the divorce was granted in March 1929
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Feature film
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A film, also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession, the process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. The word cinema, short for cinematography, is used to refer to the industry of films. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film through a photochemical process, the adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the process of production, distribution. Films recorded in a form traditionally included an analogous optical soundtrack. It runs along a portion of the film exclusively reserved for it and is not projected, Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures. They reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them, Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful medium for educating—or indoctrinating—citizens. The visual basis of film gives it a power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles to translate the dialog into the language of the viewer, some have criticized the film industrys glorification of violence and its potentially negative treatment of women. The individual images that make up a film are called frames, the perception of motion is due to a psychological effect called phi phenomenon. The name film originates from the fact that film has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for a motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay. The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field, in general, include the big screen, the screen, the movies, and cinema. In early years, the sheet was sometimes used instead of screen. Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film, scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scène. Owing to the lack of any technology for doing so, the moving images, the magic lantern, probably created by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s, could be used to project animation, which was achieved by various types of mechanical slides
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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
36.
The House of Rothschild
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The House of Rothschild is a 1934 American pre-Code film written by Nunnally Johnson from the play by George Hembert Westley, and directed by Alfred L. Werker. It chronicles the rise of the Rothschild family of European bankers, in 1780 in Frankfort, Prussia, youngster Nathan Rothschild warns his parents Amschel and Guttle that the taxman is coming. They hurry and hide their wealth, including currency, silver, the taxman demands 20,000 gulden, an exorbitant sum, but accepts a bribe of 5000 in exchange for assessing 2000 in taxes. Nathans satisfaction is short-lived, however, a courier bringing him 10,000 gulden is intercepted and the money confiscated by the taxmen. That way, they can avoid having to send gold back and forth as the need arises, for in war they are in danger of being robbed by the enemy, instead, they can draw on each others banks. Thirty-two years later, the sons have established banking houses, then France overruns Europe in the Napoleonic Wars. Austrian Prince Metternich asks Salomon to raise 15 million florins to help defeat Napoleon, the other brothers are approached with similar requests. Even in France itself, Talleyrand asks for 50 million francs, Nathan refuses to loan the British Government five million pounds to hold off the enemy, but offers the Duke of Wellington twice that amount to smash him. After the war is won, Wellington is disappointed to find that Nathan Rothschild has not even invited to a party in the dukes honour. He insists on going to see Nathan and his aide, Captain Fitzroy, knows the address, as he is in love with Nathans daughter, Julie, and vice versa. While there, Wellington tells Nathan that the powers are going to make a very large loan to France to help it recover from the war. The winning underwriter will become the most powerful and prestigious bank in Europe, Nathans bid is the best, but is rejected in favor primarily of Barings Bank. When Nathan demands to know the reason, Prussian Count Ledrantz explains it was discarded on a technicality, Nathan surmises that the quarter of the loan not awarded to Barings will fall to Ledrantz, Metternich and Talleyrand, who stand to make enormous profits. Nathan outmanoeuvres them financially, bringing them to the brink of ruin and dishonour, they capitulate, however, this has somewhat embittered him. Where once he accepted Julies choice, he now tells the non-Jewish Fitzroy to stay away from her, anti-Jewish riots break out all over Prussia, instigated by Ledrantz. Nathan returns to Frankfort and, under pressure from his own people, however, before he can, he receives word that Napoleon has escaped from exile. Nathans brothers, fearful of their positions, want to support the restored French dictator, however, Nathan refuses to do so. With Ledrantz and others once again desperately in need of support, he extracts a treaty from them granting Jews rights, freedoms
37.
Twentieth Century Pictures
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Twentieth Century Pictures was an independent Hollywood motion picture production company created in 1933 by Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck from Warner Bros. The company product was distributed by United Artists, and leased space at Samuel Goldwyn Studios, Schenck was President of Twentieth Century, while Zanuck was named Production Chief and Goetz and Raymond Griffith served as vice-presidents. Their initial stars under contract were George Arliss, Constance Bennett, the company was successful from the very beginning, out of their first 18 films, only one, Born to Be Bad, was not a financial success. Their 1934 production, The House of Rothschild was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, in 1935, they produced the classic film Les Misérables, from Victor Hugos novel, which was also nominated for Best Picture. W. Twentieth Century Pictures merged with Fox Studios to form 20th Century-Fox in 1935, for many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have been founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding
38.
George Arliss
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George Arliss was an English actor, author, playwright and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award, born in London and baptised as Augustus George Andrews but commonly listed as George Augustus Andrews, his relatives referred to him as Uncle Gus. He started work in the office of his father but left at age eighteen to go on the stage. He began his career on the stage in the British provinces in 1887. By 1900, he was playing Londons West End in supporting roles and he embarked for a tour of America in 1901 in Mrs Patrick Campbells troupe. Intending to remain in the US only for the length of the tour, Arliss stayed for twenty years and he began his film career with The Devil, followed by Disraeli and four other silent films. Today, only The Devil, $20 a Week, and The Green Goddess and he remade Disraeli in sound, converting successfully at the age of 61 from a star of the legitimate theatre, and then silent films, to the talkies. Arliss made ten sound films exclusively for Warner Bros. under a contract that gave the star an unusual amount of control over his films. Curiously, his casting of actors and rewriting of scripts were granted him by the studio that are not even mentioned in his contract. One of these films, The Man Who Played God, was Bette Daviss first leading role, until the end of Daviss life, she would credit Arliss for personally insisting upon her as his leading lady and giving her a chance to show her mettle. The two also co-starred in The Working Man in 1933, Arliss built a production unit at Warners both in front of and behind the cameras. His stage manager, Maude Howell, became an assistant producer and was one of the few female executives in Hollywood at that time. After his first three films, Arliss approved an undistinguished director, John Adolfi, to each of his films from that point on. Adolfi soon found himself regarded as a director of the critically and financially acclaimed Arliss films. Arliss preferred to use the same actors, such as Ivan Simpson and Charles Evans. Yet Arliss had an eye for discovering unknown newcomers, such as James Cagney, Randolph Scott and Dick Powell, despite his extensive involvement in the planning and production of his films, Arliss claimed credit only for acting. Working closely with Warners production chief, Darryl F. Zanuck, Arliss is remembered primarily for his witty series of historical biographies such as Alexander Hamilton, Voltaire, The House of Rothschild, The Iron Duke, and Cardinal Richelieu. However, he had a string to his bow, a series of domestic comedies such as The Millionaire, A Successful Calamity, The Working Man
39.
Kid Millions
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Kid Millions is an American musical film directed by Roy Del Ruth, produced by Samuel Goldwyn Productions, and starring Eddie Cantor. Its elaborate Ice Cream Fantasy Finale production number was filmed in three-strip Technicolor, in New York City,1934, we meet jazz singer, Dot Clark, and her shady gangster boyfriend, Louie The Lug. After having an affair with the deceased Professor Edward Wilson, Dot is now technically his common-law wife and she has to go to Egypt to claim the money, and sets off with Louie in hopes of getting the cash. Mr. Slade, the lawyer, goes to a barge in Brooklyn where Eddie is living with his father, Pops, an old stevedore. However, Eddie is managing to live a nice life nonetheless, with his girlfriend, Nora Toots and he dreams of the day when he will have enough money to live his own life outside of the dirty barge. Moments later, Eddie is informed that he has inherited the 77 million dollars, aboard the ship, we meet Colonel Henry Larrabee, a gentleman from Virginia who sponsored Eddie Srs exploration endeavors and wants a share of the money as well. Eddie befriends his niece, Joan, and Dot and Louie realize that they are not the only ones traveling to Egypt. In an elaborate scheme to trick Eddie into signing over the inheritance, Dot disguises herself as Eddies mother and almost succeeds in duping him, meanwhile, Gerald Lane has boarded the ship and we see that he is in love with Joan Larrabee. In the ships bar, the Colonel, Gerald, and Louie realize they are all traveling for the same reason, Joan overhears and becomes angry with him, much to Jerrys dismay. Louie tries to get Eddie to hand over the cash by trying to bump him off by pushing him off the deck in a wheelchair. The duo thinks they have succeeded in getting rid of Eddie, Eddie tries to help Jerry win back Joan, and suggests they rehearse a number for the ships concert the next evening. They rehearse, but Joan is still frosty toward him, at the ships concert, Jerry, Eddie, Dot, Joan, and members of the chorus perform a big minstrel show number featuring a specialty tap by the Nicholas Brothers. The ship lands in Alexandria, Egypt, and we see that Joan is still angry with Jerry, Eddie, still convinced that Dot is his mother and Louie is his uncle, wants to see a magician performing at the ships port. When the magician taunts Louie and calls him a coward, Louie gets in the magic basket, Eddie chases a little dog running through the marketplace and lands literally in the lap of the sheikhs daughter, Princess Fanya, who falls instantly in love with Eddie. She forces him to come with her back to the palace, where Eddie meets her father, Sheikh Mulhulla, and her fiancé, Ben Ali, Fanya hyperbolizes the encounter with the dog, saying that Eddie saved her from a lions attack instead of a puppy. Eddie then is invited to stay at the palace, much to Fanyas delight, however, soon Sheikh Mulhulla learns of the Americans being in Egypt who have come to take the 77 million dollar treasure that he believes is rightfully his. He tells Eddie about this and Eddie begins to worry about his mother and his uncle, in a comical scene, the Sheikh and Eddie smoke a hookah pipe and the Sheikh tells him of the affair he is having with a famous dancer who lives in the village. The harem women try to seduce Eddie, but he is steadfast to remain faithful to Nora Toots, Princess Fanya has a plot to get Eddie to marry her and she tells her father that Eddie kissed her on the camel when they first met
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