Donald Crisp
Donald Crisp was an English-born, United States-based film actor. He was a producer and screenwriter. His career lasted from the silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1942 for his performance in How Green Was My Valley, Donald Crisp was born in Bow, London at the family home on 27 July 1882. He was one of eight born to James and Elizabeth Crisp. He was educated at the University of Oxford after serving as a trooper in the 10th Hussars in the Boer War, Crisp claimed to be of Scottish descent. While travelling on the S/S Carmania to America in July 1906, who immediately offered him a job with his company. Crisp spent his first year in New York City in Grand Opera, and it was while touring with the company in the United States and Cuba that Crisp first became interested in the theatre. By 1910, now using the name Donald, was working as a manager for the renowned entertainer, playwright. It was during this time he met and befriended film director D. W.
Griffith, when Griffith ventured west, to seek his fortune in Hollywood in 1912, Crisp accompanied him. From 1908 to 1930, Crisp, in addition to directing dozens of films, appeared in nearly 100 silent films, one notable exception was his casting by Griffith as General Ulysses S. Grant in Griffiths landmark film The Birth of a Nation in 1915. Another was his role in Griffiths 1919 film Broken Blossoms as Battling Burrows and this experience fostered a similar passion in Crisp to become a director in his own right. His first directing credit was Little Country Mouse, made in 1914, many directors would find themselves turning out a dozen or more films in a single year at this time. Over the next fifteen years, Crisp directed some 70 films in all, most notably The Navigator with Buster Keaton and Don Q and his final directorial effort was the film The Runaway Bride. Between working for Griffith and other producers, along with his acting roles. During the Second World War, Crisp answered the call to duty at a time when his career was at its peak.
This time, he served in United States Army Reserve, where he rose to the rank of Colonel, with the advent of talkies, Crisp abandoned directing and devoted himself entirely to acting after 1930. He became a sought after character actor
Richard Barthelmess
Richard Semler Dick Barthelmess was an American film actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two films in 1928, Barthelmess was born in New York City, the son of Caroline W. Harris, a stage actress, and Alfred W. Barthelmess. His father died when he was a year old, through his mother, he grew up in the theatre, doing walk-ons from an early age. In contrast to that, he was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford and he did some acting in college and other amateur productions. By 1919 he had five years in stock company experience, russian actress Alla Nazimova, a friend of the family, was taught English by Caroline Barthelmess. Nazimova convinced Richard Barthelmess to try acting professionally, and he made his screen appearance in 1916 in the serial Glorias Romance as an uncredited extra. He appeared as a player in several films starring Marguerite Clark. He founded his own company, Inspiration Film Company, together with Charles Duell.
One of their films, Tolable David, in which Barthelmess starred as a mailman who finds courage, was a major success. In 1922, Photoplay described him as the idol of every girl in America, Barthelmess had a large female following during the 1920s. Dick is getting more and more every day, and why. Because his wonderful black hair and soulful eyes are enough to any young girl adore him. The first play I saw Dick in was Boots—Dorothy Gish playing the lead. This play impressed me so that I went to see every play in which he appeared—Three Men and a Girl, Scarlet Days, The Love Flower, I am looking forward to Way Down East as being a great success, because I know Dick will play a good part. In addition, he won a citation for producing The Patent Leather Kid. With the advent of the era, Barthelmess fortunes changed. Barthelmess failed to maintain the stardom of his silent film days and he enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve during World War II, and served as a lieutenant commander. He never returned to film, preferring instead to live off his investments, Barthelmess died of throat cancer on August 17,1963, aged 68, in Southampton, New York
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, the Library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. it maintains the Packard Campus in Culpeper, which houses the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. The Library of Congress claims to be the largest library in the world and its collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 450 languages. Two-thirds of the books it acquires each year are in other than English. The Library of Congress moved to Washington in 1800, after sitting for years in the temporary national capitals of New York. John J. Beckley, who became the first Librarian of Congress, was two dollars per day and was required to serve as the Clerk of the House of Representatives.
The small Congressional Library was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century until the early 1890s, most of the original collection had been destroyed by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812. To restore its collection in 1815, the bought from former president Thomas Jefferson his entire personal collection of 6,487 books. After a period of growth, another fire struck the Library in its Capitol chambers in 1851, again destroying a large amount of the collection. The Library received the right of transference of all copyrighted works to have two copies deposited of books, maps and diagrams printed in the United States. It began to build its collections of British and other European works and it included several stories built underground of steel and cast iron stacks. Although the Library is open to the public, only high-ranking government officials may check out books, the Library promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book, and Poet Laureate.
James Madison is credited with the idea for creating a congressional library, part of the legislation appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress. And for fitting up an apartment for containing them. Books were ordered from London and the collection, consisting of 740 books and 3 maps, was housed in the new Capitol, as president, Thomas Jefferson played an important role in establishing the structure of the Library of Congress. The new law extended to the president and vice president the ability to borrow books and these volumes had been left in the Senate wing of the Capitol. One of the only congressional volumes to have survived was a government account book of receipts and it was taken as a souvenir by a British Commander whose family returned it to the United States government in 1940. Within a month, former president Jefferson offered to sell his library as a replacement
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. The silent film era lasted from 1895 to 1936, in silent films for entertainment, the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures and title cards which contain a written indication of the plot or key dialogue. During silent films, a pianist, theatre organist, or, in large cities and organists would either play from sheet music or improvise, an orchestra would play from sheet music. The term silent film is therefore a retronym—that is, a term created to distinguish something retroactively, the early films with sound, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927, were referred to as talkies, sound films, or talking pictures. A September 2013 report by the United States Library of Congress announced that a total of 70% of American silent feature films are believed to be completely lost, the earliest precursors of film began with image projection through the use of a device known as the magic lantern. This utilized a glass lens, a shutter and a persistent light source, such as a powerful lantern and these slides were originally hand-painted, but still photographs were used on after the technological advent of photography in the nineteenth century.
The invention of a practical photography apparatus preceded cinema by only fifty years, the next significant step towards film creation was the development of an understanding of image movement. Simulations of movement date as far back as to 1828 and only four years after Paul Roget discovered the phenomenon he called Persistence of Vision. This experience was further demonstrated through Rogets introduction of the thaumatrope, the first projected primary proto-movie was made by Eadweard Muybridge between 1877 and 1880. Muybridge set up a row of cameras along a racetrack and timed image exposures to capture the many stages of a horses gallop, the oldest surviving film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a film of people walking in Oakwood streets garden. Edison made a business of selling Kinetograph and Kinetoscope equipment, due to Edisons lack of securing an international patent on his film inventions, similar devices were invented around the world. The Lumière brothers, for example, created the Cinématographe in France, the Cinématographe proved to be a more portable and practical device than both of Edisons as it combined a camera, film processor and projector in one unit.
In contrast to Edisons peepshow-style kinetoscope, which one person could watch through a viewer. Their first film, Sortie de lusine Lumière de Lyon, shot in 1894, is considered the first true motion picture, the invention of celluloid film, which was strong and flexible, greatly facilitated the making of motion pictures. This film was 35 mm wide and pulled using four sprocket holes and this doomed the cinematograph, which could only use film with just one sprocket hole. From the very beginnings of film production, the art of motion pictures grew into maturity in the silent era. Silent filmmakers pioneered the art form to the extent that virtually every style, the silent era was pioneering era from a technical point of view
Mauritz Stiller
Mauritz Stiller was a Finnish-Swedish film director, best known for discovering Greta Garbo and bringing her to America. Stiller had been a pioneer of the Swedish film industry and directing short films from 1912. When MGM invited him to Hollywood as a director, he arrived with his new discovery Greta Gustafsson, after frequent disagreements with studio executives at MGM and Paramount, Stiller returned to Sweden, where he died soon afterwards. Born Moshe Stiller in Helsinki, his family was of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, having lived in Russia, when he was four, his mother committed suicide, after which he was raised by family friends. From early on, Stiller was interested in acting and his talents did not go unnoticed, and soon Stiller was offered the opportunity to practice and display his acting skills in the theaters of Helsinki and Turku in Finland. Drafted into the army of Czar Nicholas II—Finland was at the time an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia—rather than report for duty he fled the country for exile and he became a Swedish citizen in 1921.
By 1912, Stiller had become involved with Swedens rapidly developing silent film industry and he began by writing scripts, in addition to acting and directing in short films but within a few years gave up on acting to devote his time to writing and directing. He was soon directing feature-length productions and his 1918 effort Thomas Graals bästa barn, starring Karin Molander, by 1920, having directed more than thirty-five films including Sir Arnes Treasure and Erotikon, Stiller was a leading figure in Swedish filmmaking. He directed The Blizzard starring a young Einar Hanson and based on the Selma Lagerlof novel Gunnar Hedes saga, in Hollywood, Mauritz Stiller was assigned to direct The Temptress, Garbos second film with MGM, but he could not deal with the studio structure. After repeated arguments with MGM executives, he was replaced on the film by Fred Niblo, Mauritz Stiller returned to Sweden in 1927 and died the following year from pleurisy at the age of forty-five. He was interred in the Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm, stillers contribution to the motion picture industry has since been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1713 Vine Street.
In Kristianstad, a monument was erected in his honor, his star on the Walk of Fame was erroneously listed as Maurice Diller and wasnt corrected until the late 1980s
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan, known professionally as George M. Cohan, was an American entertainer, composer, actor, singer and producer. Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents, beginning with Little Johnny Jones in 1904, he wrote, composed and appeared in more than three dozen Broadway musicals. Cohan published more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including the standards Over There, Give My Regards to Broadway, The Yankee Doodle Boy, as a composer, he was one of the early members of the American Society of Composers and Publishers. He displayed remarkable theatrical longevity, appearing in films until the 1930s, known in the decade before World War I as the man who owned Broadway, he is considered the father of American musical comedy. His life and music were depicted in the Academy Award-winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy, a statue of Cohan in Times Square in New York City commemorates his contributions to American musical theatre. Cohan was born in 1878 in Providence, Rhode Island, to Irish Catholic parents.
A baptismal certificate from St. Josephs Roman Catholic Church indicated that he was born on July 3, but Cohan and his family always insisted that George had been born on the Fourth of July. Georges parents were traveling vaudeville performers, and he joined them on stage while still an infant, first as a prop, learning to dance, Cohan started as a child performer at age 8, first on the violin and as a dancer. He was the member of the family vaudeville act called The Four Cohans. In 1890, he toured as the star of a show called Pecks Bad Boy and joined the family act and he and his sister made their Broadway debut in 1893 in a sketch called The Lively Bootblack. Temperamental in his years, Cohan learned to control his frustrations. During these years, Cohan originated his famous speech, My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you. The family generally gave a performance at the hall there each summer. Cohans memories of those happy summers inspired his 1907 musical 50 Miles from Boston, as Cohan matured through his teens, he used the quiet summers there to write.
When he returned to the town in the cast of Ah, in 1934, he told a reporter, Ive knocked around everywhere, but theres no place like North Brookfield. Cohan began writing original skits and songs for the act in both vaudeville and minstrel shows while in his teens. Soon he was writing professionally, selling his first songs to a publisher in 1893. In 1901 he wrote and produced his first Broadway musical, The Governors Son and his first big Broadway hit in 1904 was the show Little Johnny Jones, which introduced his tunes Give My Regards to Broadway and The Yankee Doodle Boy
China
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War.
The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa.
The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
Kid McCoy
Charles Kid McCoy, born Norman Selby, was an American world champion boxer. Born in Moscow, Rush County, Indiana, McCoy would eventually weigh 160 pounds, stand 511, McCoy was noted for his corkscrew punch–a blow delivered with a twisting of the wrist. According to McCoy, he learned the one evening while resting in someones barn after a day of riding the rails. He noticed a cat strike at a ball of string and imitated its actions, whether true or not, McCoy was known as a fast, scientific fighter who would cut his opponents with sharp blows. He reportedly would wrap his knuckles in mounds of friction tape and he was listed #1 Light Heavyweight of all time in Fifty Years At Ringside, published in 1958. He was regarded as a puncher, and was included in Ring Magazines list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. Another one of McCoys tactics was demonstrated while McCoy was on a tour of Australia, to supplement his income, he would take on all comers. In one unidentified port, McCoy, who scarcely weighed 160 pounds, McCoy watched him train and noted the man fought in his bare feet.
When the fight began, McCoys corner threw handfuls of tacks into the ring, causing the bare-footed challenger to drop his guard, as soon as he did so, McCoy lowered the boom on his distracted adversary. It was thought that the expression The Real McCoy originally referred to him, with regard to this, once again, stories abound. One scenario involves a local tough who bumped into McCoy in a bar, McCoy, who was slight of build and a dapper dresser, did not look like a fighter. The bar room bully reputedly laughed when told the slender fellow he was annoying was Kid McCoy and he challenged McCoy to fight, and upon reviving from being knocked out allegedly remarked Oh my God, that was the real McCoy. However, it is believed that the first recording with this spelling occurred in Canada in 1881, bonds The Rise and Fall of the Union club, or, Boy life in Canada, a character utters, By jingo. Yes, so it will be Its the real McCoy, as Jim Hicks says, nobody but a devil can find us there. Kid McCoy was only nine years old when this was published, although slight of build, McCoy captured the world middleweight championship by defeating Dan Creedon.
McCoy never defended the title, choosing to abandon the crown to him to pursue the world heavyweight championship. Despite his handicap in size, McCoy battled the best heavyweights of his era, and defeated Joe Choynski, Gus Ruhlin and he was defeated by Tom Sharkey and Jim Corbett. The Corbett fight was the subject of controversy, as the ending was suspect, McCoys career was no less colorful outside the ring
George Beranger
George Beranger, known as André Beranger, was an Australian actor and film director of stage and Hollywood. Beranger was born George Augustus Beringer in Enmore, New South Wales, the youngest of five sons of Caroline Mondientz and Adam Beringer and his mother committed suicide when he was three years old and he left home at the age of 14. He studied acting at the College of Elocution and Dramatic Art founded by Scottish actor Walter Bentley, Beranger began playing Shakespearean roles at the age of sixteen with the Walter Bentley Players. He emigrated from Australia to California, United States in 1912, according to a researcher, he reinvented himself in Hollywood, claiming French parentage, birth on a French ocean liner off the coast of Australia and a Paris education. Beranger worked under the names George Alexandre Beranger and André de Beranger, by the 1920s, Beranger had become a star, appearing in the movies of Ernst Lubitsch and D. W. Griffith. He directed ten films between 1914 and 1924, Beranger owned a large Spanish-style home in Laguna Beach, rented a room at the Hollywood Athletic Club and owned an apartment in Paris, France.
Beranger eventually appeared in more than 140 films between 1913 and 1950, berangers career dissipated following the 1930s Great Depression and the advent of sound film, and his roles in films were small and often uncredited. He supplemented his income as a draftsman for the Los Angeles City Council and he sold his large properties and moved into a modest cottage beside his house in Laguna Beach. He entered into a marriage with a neighbouring widow, but they never shared the same house. Beranger retired in 1952 and lived his years in seclusion and he was found dead of natural causes in his home on 8 March 1973. Missing in Action, Caught on Film, Silent Film Actor André de Beranger Goes to War, George Beranger at the Internet Movie Database
G. W. Pabst
Georg Wilhelm Pabst, known professionally as G. W. Pabst, was an Austrian theatre and film director. Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Austria-Hungary, the son of a railroad official, while growing up in Vienna, he studied drama at the Academy of Decorative Arts and initially began his career as a stage actor in Switzerland and Germany. In 1910, Pabst traveled to the United States, where he worked as an actor and director at the German Theater in New York City, when World War I began, Pabst returned to Europe, where he was interned in a Prisoner-of-war camp in Brest. While imprisoned, Pabst organised a group at the camp. Upon his release in 1919, he returned to Vienna, where he director of the Neue Wiener Bühne. Pabst began his career as a director at the behest of Carl Froelich who hired Pabst as an assistant director. He directed his first film, The Treasure, in 1923 and he developed a talent for discovering and developing the talents of actresses, including Greta Garbo, Asta Nielsen, Louise Brooks, and Leni Riefenstahl.
He co-directed with Arnold Fanck a mountain film entitled The White Hell of Pitz Palu starring Leni Riefenstahl, after the coming of sound, he made a trilogy of films that secured his reputation, Westfront 1918, The Threepenny Opera with Lotte Lenya, and Kameradschaft. Pabst filmed three versions of Pierre Benoits novel LAtlantide in 1932, in German and French, titled Die Herrin von Atlantis, The Mistress of Atlantis, in 1933, Pabst directed Don Quixote, once again in German and French versions. After making A Modern Hero in the U. S. and Mademoiselle Docteur in France, Pabst returned to Austria and Germany in 1938 to take care of family business, during World War II, he made two films in Germany, Komödianten and Paracelsus. In 1955, he directed the first post-war German feature film to feature the character of Adolf Hitler, on 29 May 1967, Pabst died in Vienna at the age of 82. He was interred at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna,1941, Venice Film Festival, Gold Medal of the Biennale for Best Director for his film Komödianten Max Deutsch, composer Notes Further reading Amengual, Barthélémy.
Boston, Twayne Publishers,1977 Baxter, Pabst in International Directory of Films and Filmmakers. Firenze, La Nuova Italia,1983 Jacobsen, Wolfgang G. W, Argen,1997 Kagelmann and Keiner, Reinhold. Ihre letzen Tage an der Westfront 1918, une histoire psychologique du cinéma allemand, Flammarion,1987 Mitry, Jean. Histoire du cinéma, Art et industrie Paris, Editions Universitaires – J. P. Delarge, 1967–1980 Rentschler, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press,1990 Pabst, Georg Wilhelm. Servitude et grandeur de Hollywood in Le rôle intellectuel du cinéma, Paris, pp. 251–255 Van den Berghe, Marc. Le film et sa problématique vus par la Petite Illustration, Bruxelles,200 G. W. Pabst at the Internet Movie Database G. W. Pabst at Find a Grave
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 epic silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. Subtitles include Loves Struggle Throughout the Ages and A Sun-Play of the Ages, Bartholomews Day massacre of 1572, and a Babylonian story, the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC. Each story had its own distinctive color tint in the original print, the scenes are linked by shots of a figure representing Eternal Motherhood, rocking a cradle. It was not, as is implied, an apology for the racism of his earlier film. In numerous interviews, Griffith made clear that the films title, in the years following its release, Intolerance would strongly influence European film movements despite its lack of commercial success domestically. The film sets up moral and psychological connections among the different stories, the timeline covers approximately 2,500 years. The ancient Babylonian story depicts the conflict between Prince Belshazzar of Babylon and Cyrus the Great of Persia, the fall of Babylon is a result of intolerance arising from a conflict between devotees of two rival Babylonian gods—Bel-Marduk and Ishtar.
The Biblical Judean story recounts how—after the Wedding at Cana and the Woman Taken in Adultery—intolerance led to the Crucifixion of Jesus and this sequence is the shortest of the four. The Renaissance French story tells of the religious intolerance led to the St. Bartholomews Day Massacre of Protestant Huguenots fomented by Catholic royals. The American Modern story demonstrates how crime, moral puritanism, to get more money for his spinster sisters charities, a mill owner orders a 10% pay cut to his workers wages. An ensuing workers strike is crushed and The Boy and The Dear One make their way to another city, she lives in poverty, after they marry he tries to break free of crime but is framed for theft by his ex-boss. While he is in prison, his wife must endure their child being taken away by the same moral uplift society that instigated the strike, upon his release from prison, he discovers his ex-boss attempting to rape his wife. A struggle begins and in the confusion the girlfriend of the boss shoots and she escapes and The Boy is convicted and sentenced to the gallows.
A kindly policeman helps The Dear One find the killer and together they try to reach the Governor in time so her reformed husband will not be hanged. Breaks between the time periods are marked by the symbolic image of a mother rocking a cradle. The film simultaneously cross-cuts back and forth and interweaves the segments over great gaps of space and time, One of the unusual characteristics of the film is that many of the characters do not have names. Griffith wished them to be emblematic of human types, the central female character in the modern story is called The Dear One. Her young husband is called The Boy, and the leader of the local Mafia is called The Musketeer of the Slums
