1.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
2.
Comedian
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A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, a comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comic. Since the 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy, has grown in popularity with its more offbeat and this normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting, e. g. Alexei Sayle, Daniel Tosh, Louis C. K. and Malcolm Hardee. Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Edinburgh Fringe, often a comics career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, however, a comics stand-up success does not guarantee a films critical or box office success. Comedians can be dated back to 425 BC, when Aristophanes and he wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive and are still being performed. Aristophanes comedy style took the form of satyr plays, the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare wrote many comedies. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has an ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeares other plays. Charles Chaplin was the most popular comedian of the first half of the 20th century. He wrote comedic silent films such as Modern Times and The Kid and his films still have a major impact on comedy in films today. One of the most popular forms of comedy is stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy is a monologue performed by one or more people standing on a stage. Bob Hope was the most popular comedian of the 20th century. Other noted stand-up comedians include George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Louis CK, another popular form of modern-day comedy is talk shows where comedians make fun of current news or popular topics. Such comedians include Jay Leno, Conan OBrien, Daniel Tosh, Chris Hardwick, Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, a third form of modern-day comedy is television programs in which many comedians band together to make skits, such as Saturday Night Live. These shows often receive high ratings, likely because many comedians band together to create jokes, one of the most successful comedians is Ellen Degeneres, who has parlayed her comic career into film, television shows, and hosting major media events. In 1986, Ellen DeGeneres appeared for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson since she began gaining popularity as a comic in the 1980s. Johnny Carson, who launched many contemporary comics careers, would invite them to join him on the couch for one-on-one conversation after their set
3.
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
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The film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. Notable for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score and it was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind. It did win in two categories, including Best Original Song for Over the Rainbow and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. However, the film was a box office disappointment on its release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget. It was MGMs most expensive production at that time, and did not completely recoup the studios investment and turn a profit until theatrical re-releases starting in 1949. The film was named the most-viewed motion picture on television syndication by the Library of Congress, designation on the registry calls for efforts to preserve it for being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant. It is also one of the few films on UNESCOs Memory of the World Register, the Wizard of Oz is often ranked on best-movie lists in critics and public polls. It is the source of many quotes referenced in popular culture. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming, noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but uncredited contributions were made by others. The songs were written by Edgar Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, the musical score and the incidental music were composed by Stothart. The film begins in Kansas, which is depicted in a sepia tone, Dorothy Gale lives with her dog Toto on the farm of her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Dorothys dog gets in trouble with a neighbor, Miss Almira Gulch. However, Dorothys family and the farmhands are all too busy to pay attention to her, Miss Gulch arrives with permission from the sheriff to have Toto euthanized. She takes him away, but he escapes and returns to Dorothy and they meet Professor Marvel, a phony but kindly fortune teller, who realizes Dorothy has run away and tricks her via his crystal ball into believing that Aunt Em is ill so that she must return home. She races home just as a tornado strikes. Unable to get into her familys storm cellar, she seeks safety in her bedroom, a wind-blown window sash hits her in the head, knocking her out. The house is picked up and sent spinning in the air by the twister, the farmhouse crashes in Munchkinland in the Land of Oz, where the film changes to Technicolor. Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins welcome her as their heroine, as the house has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East, leaving only her stocking feet exposed
4.
Vaudeville
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Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, a typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a vaudevillian, Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called the heart of American show business, vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades, the origin of this term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the French expression voix de ville. A second speculation is that it comes from the songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin. Some, however, preferred the term variety to what manager Tony Pastor called its sissy. Thus, vaudeville was marketed as variety well into the 20th century, with its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment. The form gradually evolved from the saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as Polite Vaudeville, in the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere, in the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found a number of ways to be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns, a significant influence also came from Dutch minstrels and comedians. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in Americas growing urban hubs, pastors experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit. B. F. Keith took the step, starting in Boston. Later, E. F. Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudevilles greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years, Albee also gave national prominence to vaudevilles trumpeting polite entertainment, a commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men, women and children. Acts that violated this ethos were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the remaining performances or were canceled altogether
5.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
6.
History of the Jews in Germany
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Jewish settlers founded the Ashkenazi Jewish community in the Early and High Middle Ages. The community survived under Charlemagne, but suffered during the Crusades, accusations of well poisoning during the Black Death led to mass slaughter of German Jews, and they fled in large numbers to Poland. The Jewish communities of the cities of Mainz, Speyer, and this was a golden age as area bishops protected the Jews resulting in increased trade and prosperity. The First Crusade began an era of persecution of Jews in Germany, Entire communities, like those of Trier, Worms, Mainz, and Cologne, were murdered. The war upon the Hussite heretics became the signal for renewed persecution of Jews, the end of the 15th century was a period of religious hatred that ascribed to Jews all possible evils. The atrocities during the Khmelnytsky Uprising committed by Khmelnytskyis Cossacks drove the Polish Jews back into western Germany, with Napoleons fall in 1815, growing nationalism resulted in increasing repression. From August to October 1819, pogroms that came to be known as the Hep-Hep riots took place throughout Germany, during this time, many German states stripped Jews of their civil rights. As a result, many German Jews began to emigrate, from the time of Moses Mendelssohn until the 20th century, the community gradually achieved emancipation, and then prospered. In January 1933, some 522,000 Jews lived in Germany, however, following the growth of Nazism and its antisemitic ideology and policies, the Jewish community was severely persecuted. Over half emigrated during the first six years of the Nazi dictatorship, in 1933, persecution of the Jews became an active Nazi policy. In 1935 and 1936, the pace of persecution of the Jews increased, in 1936, Jews were banned from all professional jobs, effectively preventing them from exerting any influence in education, politics, higher education, and industry. The SS ordered the Night of Broken Glass to be carried out the night of November 9–10,1938, the storefronts of Jewish shops and offices were smashed and vandalized, and many synagogues were destroyed by fire. Increasing antisemitism prompted a wave of a Jewish mass emigration from Germany throughout the 1930s, only roughly 214,000 Jews were left in Germany proper on the eve of World War II. Beginning in late 1941, the community was subjected to systematic deportations to ghettos. In May 1943, Germany was declared judenrein, by the end of the war, an estimated 160,000 to 180,000 German Jews had been killed under the Nazi regime, by the Germans and their collaborators. A total of about 6 million European Jews were murdered under the direction of the Nazis, after the war, the Jewish community in Germany started to slowly grow again. Currently in Germany, denial of the Holocaust or that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust is a criminal act, violations can be punished with up to five years of prison. In 2007, the Interior Minister of Germany, Wolfgang Schäuble, pointed out the policy of Germany, We will not tolerate any form of extremism, xenophobia
7.
Yorkville, Manhattan
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Yorkville is a neighborhood in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Its southern boundary is East 79th Street, its northern East 96th Street, its western Third Avenue, the neighborhood, in Manhattan Community Board 8, is among the most affluent in the city. The Continentals disciplined northerly retreat led to the successful Battle of Harlem Heights in September 1776, in 1815, the Upper East Side was a farmland and market garden district. The Boston Post Road traversed the Upper East Side, locally called the Eastern Post Road, milepost 6 was near the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 81st Street. From 1833 to 1837 the New York and Harlem Railroad, one of the earliest railway systems in the United States, was extended through the Upper East Side along Fourth Avenue. A hamlet grew near the 86th Street station, becoming the Yorkville neighborhood as gradual yet steady commercial development occurred, the current street grid was laid-out between 1839 and 1844 as part of the Commissioners Plan of 1811, so the Eastern Post Road was abandoned. The community had been referred to as Yorkville before 1867, by 1850, a significant proportion of the inhabitants of the area were the Germans and the Irish that helped build the Croton Aqueduct. The area was included in the 19th administrative district whose boundaries were 40th and 86th Street, in 1858, trams were built along Second and Third Avenues. After the American Civil War, mansions replaced slums in Yorkville, on December 30,1878, the IRT Third Avenue Line opened, followed by the IRT Second Avenue Line in August 1879. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Yorkville was a middle- to working-class neighborhood, inhabited by people of Czech, Slovak, Irish, Polish, German, Hungarian. The area was a mostly German enclave, though, from 1880, Yorkville became a destination for German-born immigrants. However, by the 1900s, many German residents moved to Yorkville, the ship caught fire in the East River just off the shores of Yorkville, leading family members to move closer to the site of the incident. Most of the passengers on the ship were German, in addition, the general trend towards moving to the suburbs reduced the German population in Manhattan, by 1930, most German New Yorkers lived in Queens. On 86th Street, in the portion of Yorkville, there were many German shops, restaurants. Yorkville became the melting pot of populations arriving from various regions of the Prussian-dominated German Empire and its colonies, where many cultures spoke German. In the 1930s, the neighborhood was the base of Fritz Julius Kuhns German American Bund, the most notorious pro-Nazi group in 1930s America. Yorkville was a haven for refugees from fascist Germany in the 1940s, the neighborhood is the site of the annual Steuben Parade, a large German-American celebration. The largest non-German group were the Irish, Irish mostly lived in an area bounded by 81st and 85th Streets, and Lexington and Fifth Avenues
8.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
9.
Columbia Amusement Company
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The burlesque companies would travel in succession round a wheel of theaters, ensuring steady employment for performers and a steady supply of new shows for the participating theaters. For much of its history the Columbia Wheel advertised relatively clean variety shows featuring pretty girls, eventually the wheel was forced out of business due to competition from cinemas and from the cruder stock burlesque companies. The Theatrical Syndicate was formed in 1896 by the managers or booking agents Charles Frohman, Al Hayman, A. L. Erlanger, Marc Klaw, Samuel F. Nirdlinger. The syndicate soon dominated legitimate theater, deciding what would be shown, the Vaudeville Managers Association was founded soon after, with similar goals, and the United Booking Office was founded to provide a single place where performers could seek engagements. In 1898 the burlesque producers and theater managers attempted to organize in a way with the Travelling Variety Managers Association. The idea was that shows would progress from one theater to another in succession. The vaudeville and burlesque producer Gus Hill claimed credit for the concept, the theaters would not have to compete for shows, and the burlesque companies would have guaranteed work. The TVMA soon split into two wheels, one in the west and the other in the east, sixteen managers and producers incorporated the Columbia Amusement Company on 12 July 1902. They had left the TVMA to set up a stable operation. The lead was taken by Sam A. Scribner, other principals were William S. Campbell, William S. Drew, Gus Hill, John Herbert Mack, Harry Morris, L. Lawrence Weber and A. H. Woodhill. The circuit had headquarter in New York and included the cities east of the Missouri and north of the Ohio such as Philadelphia. It included Montreal and Toronto in Canada, and Boston in the east, since the theaters were in the east, the Columbia Wheel was also called the Eastern Wheel. Another circuit was formed in the west, called the Empire Circuit or Western Wheel, the Columbia organizers at first aimed to provide affordable shows that were acceptable to women and men. They advertised clean or refined burlesque and they included lines of chorus girls and slightly risqué comedians, but did not go so far as to give offense. The Columbia Wheels refined burlesque shows had multi-act vaudeville-style programs that included farces, comedians, skits, in August 1905 Will Rogers signed up with Scribner for five one-week shows in Brooklyn, New York, Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburg. Although the wheel made the industry more stable, the shows became standardized. New costumes and acts were expensive, and when performers became better known they often left for legitimate theater, performers who started in burlesque included Weber & Fields, Bert Lahr, W. C. Fields, Red Skelton, Sophie Tucker and Fanny Brice, all of them moved into musical comedy or vaudeville as soon as they could
10.
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
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He also produced the musical Show Boat. He was known as the glorifier of the American girl, Ziegfeld is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. was born on March 21,1867, in Chicago and his mother, Rosalie, who was born in Belgium, was the grandniece of General Count Étienne Maurice Gérard. His father, Florenz Ziegfeld, Sr. was a German immigrant whose father was the mayor of Jever in Friesland, Ziegfeld was baptized in his mothers Roman Catholic church. As a child Ziegfeld witnessed first-hand the Chicago fire of 1871 and his father ran the Chicago Musical College and later opened a nightclub, the Trocadero, to obtain business from the 1893 Worlds Fair. To help his fathers nightclub succeed, Ziegfeld hired and managed the strongman, during a trip to Europe, Ziegfeld came across a young Polish-French singer by the name of Anna Held. His promotion of Anna Held in America brought about her rise to national fame. It was Held who first suggested an American imitation of the Parisian Follies to Ziegfeld and her success in a series of his Broadway shows, especially The Parisian Model, was a major reason for his starting a series of lavish revues in 1907. Much of Helds popularity was due to Ziegfelds creation of publicity stunts, Ziegfelds stage spectaculars, known as the Ziegfeld Follies, began with Follies of 1907, which opened on July 7,1907, and were produced annually until 1931. The Ziegfeld Follies featured the famous Ziegfeld Girls, female dancers who wore elaborate costumes. The Follies featured many performers who, though known from previous work in other theatrical genres, achieved unique financial success. Included among these are Nora Bayes, Fanny Brice, Ruth Etting, fields, Eddie Cantor, Marilyn Miller, Will Rogers, Bert Williams and Ann Pennington. Ziegfeld married Held in 1897, but she divorced him in 1913, Held and Ziegfeld were never formally married, in 1897 they had announced to friends that they were husband and wife, eliminating any questions about their marital status. But by 1912 they had lived long enough to establish a common-law marriage. Held served Ziegfeld with divorce papers on April 14,1912, Held had submitted testimony about Ziegfelds relationship with another woman. He remained in love with Lorraine for the rest of his life, however, Ziegfeld and actress Billie Burke were married April 11,1914, after meeting at a party on New Years Eve. They had one child, Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, the family lived on his estate in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and in Palm Beach, Florida. At a cost of $2.5 million, Ziegfeld built the 1600-seat Ziegfeld Theatre on the west side of Sixth Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets, designed by Joseph Urban and Thomas W. Lamb, the auditorium was egg-shaped with the stage at the narrow end
11.
Ethel Merman
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Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her voice and roles in theatre, she has been called the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage. The Irving Berlin song Theres No Business Like Show Business, written for the musical Annie Get Your Gun, became Mermans signature song. Merman was born in her grandmothers house located at 359 4th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, in New York City in 1908. Her father, Edward Zimmermann, was an accountant with James H. Dunham & Company, a Manhattan wholesale dry-goods company, Edward Zimmermann had been raised in the Dutch Reformed Church and his wife was Presbyterian. Shortly after they married, they joined the Episcopal congregation at Church of the Redeemer and her family was of German and Scottish ancestry. 4 and William Cullen Bryant High School, where she pursued a course that offered secretarial training. At home she tried to emulate their singing styles, but her own voice was difficult to disguise. After graduating from Bryant High School in 1924, – Merman was hired as a stenographer by the Boyce-Ite Company, during this period, Merman also began appearing in nightclubs, first hired by Jimmy Durantes partner Lou Clayton. At this time, she decided the name Ethel Zimmermann was too long for a theater marquee and she considered combining Ethel with Gardner or Hunter, which was her grandmothers maiden name. These considerations got her fathers German ire worked up, finally, she abbreviated Zimmermann to Merman to appease her father. He offered her an exclusive contract, starting at $125 per week. She finally urged Irwin to try to cancel her agreement with Mayo, instead, Merman was hired as a torch singer at Les Ambassadeurs, where the headliner was Jimmy Durante, and the two became lifelong friends. She caught the attention of such as Walter Winchell and Mark Hellinger. Soon after, Merman underwent a tonsillectomy she feared might damage her voice, while performing on the prestigious Keith Circuit, Merman was signed to replace Ruth Etting in the Paramount film Follow the Leader, starring Ed Wynn and Ginger Rogers. Following a successful run at the Brooklyn Paramount, she was signed to perform at the Palace for $500 per week. Upon hearing her sing I Got Rhythm, the Gershwins immediately cast her, Girl Crazy opened on October 14,1930, at the Alvin Theatre, where it ran for 272 performances. The New York Times noted Merman sang with dash, authority, good voice, Merman was fairly blasé about her notices, prompting George Gershwin to ask her mother, Have you ever seen a person so unconcerned as Ethel
12.
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
