1.
Barry Levinson
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Barry Levinson is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor. Levinsons best-known works are comedy-drama and drama such as Diner, The Natural, Good Morning, Vietnam, Rain Man, Bugsy. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for his work on Rain Man, Levinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Violet Vi and Irvin Levinson, who worked in the furniture and appliance business. His family was of Russian Jewish descent, Levinsons first writing work was for variety shows such as The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, The Lohman and Barkley Show, The Tim Conway Show, and The Carol Burnett Show. Diner was the first of a series of set in the Baltimore of Levinsons youth. The others were Tin Men, a story of aluminum-siding salesmen in the 1960s starring Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito, the immigrant family saga Avalon and his biggest hit, both critically and financially, was Rain Man, a sibling drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director and it also won the Golden Bear at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival. Another of his films is the popular period baseball drama The Natural. Redford would later direct Quiz Show and cast Levinson as television personality Dave Garroway, Levinson also directed the classic war comedy Good Morning, Vietnam, starring Robin Williams, with whom he later collaborated on the fantasy Toys and the political comedy Man of the Year. Levinson also directed the critically acclaimed crime drama Bugsy, which starred Warren Beatty and was nominated for ten Academy Awards. He directed Dustin Hoffman again in Wag the Dog, a political comedy co-starring Robert De Niro about a war staged in a film studio, the film won the Silver Bear – Special Jury Prize at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival. Levinson partnered with producer Mark Johnson to form the production company Baltimore Pictures. The two parted ways in 1994 and he has a television production company with Tom Fontana and served as executive producer for a number of series, including Homicide, Life on the Street and the HBO prison drama Oz. Levinson also played a main role as a judge in the short-lived TV series The Jury. Levinson published his first novel, Sixty-Six, in 2003, like several of his films, it is semi-autobiographical and set in Baltimore in the 1960s. He directed two webisodes of the American Express ads The Adventures of Seinfeld and Superman, in 2004, Levinson was the recipient of the Austin Film Festivals Distinguished Screenwriter Award. Levinson directed a documentary PoliWood about the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, the documentary, produced by Tim Daly, Robin Bronk and Robert E. Baruc, had its premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. Levinson is in production on a film based on Whitey Bulger, in September 2013, Levinson was set to direct the film titled Rock the Kasbah, written by Mitch Glazer
2.
Mark Johnson (producer)
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Mark Johnson is an American film producer. Johnson won the Best Picture Academy Award for producing the 1988 drama movie Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman, the film, winner of four Oscars, also captured a Golden Globe for Best Picture. Johnson was born in Washington, D. C. the son of Dorothy, a realtor, and Emery Johnson and he graduated from the University of Virginia in 1971. Johnson first became involved in business in 1965, as an actor playing the sheriffs deputy in the Spanish spaghetti western Brandy. He spent ten years of his youth in Spain, where he worked as an extra in films such as Franklin Schaffners Nicholas and Alexandra. His early experiences led to acting roles in the European western Ride and Kill. After earning an degree in Drama from the University of Virginia. There he entered the Directors Guild training program, one of his first projects was Paul Mazurskys autobiographical drama Next Stop, Greenwich Village. As part of Baltimore Pictures, his partnership with Levinson, Johnson produced all of the films from 1982–1994. Bugsy also captured a Best Picture Golden Globe Award, under his new banner, Johnson produced the comedy Home Fries, starring Drew Barrymore, and the dramatic thriller Donnie Brasco, starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. He also served as producer for CBS-TVs L. A. Doctors and Falcone, and for the hit drama The Guardian, in recent years Johnson produced Nick Cassavetess drama The Notebook, The Wendell Baker Story, which marked the directorial debuts of brothers Luke and Andrew Wilson, and How to Eat Fried Worms. He is working with Guillermo del Toro to produce the movie adaption of David Moodys novel Hater, in 2005 Johnson produced The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, directed by Andrew Adamson and starring Tilda Swinton. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards and three BAFTAs, winning one of each, in 2008 he produced a sequel, Prince Caspian. The third film in the Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and he produced 2015s thriller Secret in Their Eyes. Johnson was a producer on AMCs Emmy Award-winning series Breaking Bad. He is also a producer on the Sundance Channel original series Rectify. Johnson is a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, Mark Johnson Biography – Yahoo Movies Mark Johnson at the Internet Movie Database
3.
Warren Beatty
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Henry Warren Beatty, better known as Warren Beatty, is an American actor and filmmaker. In 1999, he was awarded the Academys highest honor, the Irving G. Thalberg Award, Beatty has been nominated for eighteen Golden Globe Awards, winning six, including the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, which he was honored with in 2007, among his Golden Globe-nominated films are Splendor in the Grass, his screen debut, and Bonnie and Clyde, Shampoo, Dick Tracy, Bugsy, Bulworth and Rules Dont Apply, all of which he also produced. Arthur Penn, who directed Bonnie and Clyde, described Beatty as the producer, adding. Warren stays with a picture editing, mixing and scoring. He plain works harder than anyone else I have ever seen, Henry Warren Beaty was born in Richmond, Virginia. His mother, Kathlyn Corinne, was Canadian and a teacher from Nova Scotia and his father, Ira Owens Beaty, had a PhD in educational psychology and worked as a public school administrator, in addition to dealing in real estate. In 1945, the family moved from Richmond to Arlington, Virginia, during the 1950s, the family resided in the Dominion Hills section of Arlington. Beattys elder sister is the actress, dancer and writer Shirley MacLaine and his uncle, by marriage, was Canadian politician A. A. MacLeod. Beatty became interested in movies before his teens, when he accompanied his sister to theaters. One film that had an important early influence on him was The Philadelphia Story and he noticed a strong resemblance between its star, Katharine Hepburn, and his mother, in both appearance and personality, saying that they symbolized perpetual integrity. Another film that had an impact on him was Love Affair and he found it deeply moving, and recalls that This is a movie I always wanted to make. He did remake Love Affair in 1994, in which he starred alongside Annette Bening, among his favorite TV shows in the 1950s was the Texaco Star Theatre, and he began to mimic one if its regular host comedians, Milton Berle. Beatty learned to do an imitation of Berle and his routine, said a friend. His sister saw Beatty close off emotionally from his father, among her lasting memories of her brother during this period was seeing him withdrawn and spending time alone reading books by Eugene ONeill or singing along to Al Jolson records. In Rules Dont Apply, Beatty plays Howard Hughes, who is talking about. He has to have control over everything, and I used to say that I supposed I did. Beatty was a football player at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington
4.
James Toback
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James Lee Toback is an American screenwriter and film director, as well as non-fiction writer, and essayist. Toback was born in New York City and his mother, Selma Judith, was a president of The League of Women Voters and a moderator of political debates on NBC. His father, Irwin Lionel Toback, was a stockbroker and former president of Dreyfus & Company. He graduated from The Fieldston School in 1963 and from Harvard College, magna cum laude, while attending Harvard College, Toback took, what he claims to be half-seriously, the largest single dose of LSD of all time. He remained under the influence of the drug for eight days before being administered an antidote by neuropsychiatrist Max Rinkel, according to Toback, he lost all fear of death due to this experience. After graduating from Harvard, Toback worked as a journalist and it was after Toback grew tired of his hedonistic lifestyle in Browns house that he came to the decision to make movies for a living. Toback wrote a book about his experiences with Brown entitled Jim, in the early 1970s Toback taught creative writing at the City College of New York. He drew on this experience when he wrote the screenplay for The Gambler, in 1974, Tobacks screenplay The Gambler was produced. Much of the film was shot at City College and his directorial début was the 1978 film Fingers, remade 28 years later by Jacques Audiard as The Beat That My Heart Skipped. Toback followed Fingers with Love and Money in 1982, Toback wrote and directed Exposed in 1983, and in 1989, Toback directed the documentary The Big Bang. Toback wrote the screenplay for Bugsy, which won the Golden Globe for Best Picture and was nominated for ten Academy Awards. Toback won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Original Screenplay, in 1997, Toback wrote and directed the comedy Two Girls and a Guy, and in 1999, he wrote and directed Black and White in collaboration with members of Wu-Tang Clan. He then wrote and directed Harvard Man starring Adrian Grenier in 2001, in 2004, Toback wrote and directed When Will I Be Loved and in 2008, Toback directed Tyson, a documentary about boxer Mike Tyson. In an August 2011 interview, Toback gave the story of the background and development of The Gambler. Toback teamed with Alec Baldwin in 2013 to create and release a movie called Seduced and Abandoned. Toback refers to the documentary film as a cinematic romp. The HBO film shows Toback and Baldwin at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival searching for funding for a movie, in 2015 Toback confirmed that his next film would be entitled Circle of Deceit, and would star James Franco, Sienna Miller, and Bobby Cannavale. Toback was married to Consuelo Sarah Churchill Vanderbilt Russell, the granddaughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough and he is currently married to Stephanie Kempf, with whom he has one son
5.
Annette Bening
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Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. She began her career on stage with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival company in 1980 and she was nominated for the 1987 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her Broadway debut in Coastal Disturbances. She is a four-time Academy Award nominee, for the films The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia, in 2006, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After her film debut in the 1988 film The Great Outdoors, she starred in Valmont, Bugsy, The American President, The Siege, Open Range, Bening was born in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Shirley Katherine and Arnett Grant Bening. Her mother was a singer and soloist, and her father was a sales training consultant. Her parents, natives of Iowa, were practicing Episcopalians and conservative Republicans and she is of mostly German and English descent. Bening has one sister, Jane, and two brothers, Bradley and Byron, the family moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1959, where she spent her early childhood. In 1965, her father took a job with a company in San Diego, California and she began acting in junior high school, playing the lead in The Sound of Music. She graduated in 1975 from Patrick Henry High School, where she studied drama and she then spent a year working as a cook on a charter boat taking fishing parties out on the Pacific Ocean, and scuba diving for recreation. Bening attended San Diego Mesa College, then completed a degree in theatre arts at San Francisco State University. Bening began her career on stage with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival company in 1980 and she was a member of the acting company at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco while studying acting as part of the Advanced Theatre Training Program. There, she starred in productions as Shakespeares Macbeth as Lady Macbeth. Bening also starred in productions of Pygmalion and The Cherry Orchard at the Denver Center Theatre Company during the 1985–86 season and she made her Broadway debut in 1987, garnering a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in Coastal Disturbances. Bening made her debut in The Great Outdoors. Her second film appearance was as the Marquise de Merteuil in Valmont and her breakthrough role was in The Grifters, which starred John Cusack and Anjelica Huston, and earned Bening a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 1991, she portrayed Virginia Hill in Barry Levinsons biopic Bugsy, later, she appeared in Regarding Henry with Harrison Ford. In 1994, Bening and Beatty starred in Love Affair, which also featured Katharine Hepburn, in 1995, Bening appeared in The American President, followed by Tim Burtons sci-fi spoof Mars Attacks. In 1998, she co-starred with Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis in The Siege, the biggest critical and commercial success of her career thus far was the 1999 film American Beauty, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and was directed by Sam Mendes
6.
Harvey Keitel
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Harvey Keitel is an American actor and producer. Along with actors Al Pacino and Ellen Burstyn, he is the current co-president of the Actors Studio, Keitel was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the son of Miriam and Harry Keitel, Jewish immigrants from Romania and Poland, respectively. His parents owned and ran a luncheonette and his also worked as a hat maker. Keitel grew up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, with his sister, Renee and he attended Abraham Lincoln High School. At the age of sixteen, he decided to join the United States Marine Corps, after his return to the United States, he was a court reporter for several years and was able to support himself before beginning his acting career. Keitel studied under both Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg and at the HB Studio, eventually landing roles in some Off-Broadway productions. During this time, Keitel auditioned for filmmaker Martin Scorsese and gained a role as J. R. in Scorseses first feature film. Since then, Scorsese and Keitel have worked together on several projects, Keitel had the starring role in Scorseses Mean Streets, which also proved to be Robert De Niros breakthrough film. In 1978, Keitel starred in the directorial debuts of Paul Schrader, Ridley Scott, cast as Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppolas Apocalypse Now, Keitel was involved with the first week of principal photography in the Philippines. Coppola was not happy with Keitels take on Willard, stating that the found it difficult to play him a passive onlooker. After viewing the first weeks footage, Coppola replaced Keitel with a casting session favorite, Keitel drifted into obscurity through most of the 1980s. He continued to do work on stage and screen, but usually in the stereotypical role of a thug. Keitel played Judas in Martin Scorseses controversial The Last Temptation of Christ and co-starred with Jack Nicholson in the Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes, the following year, Keitel played another mobster in the Whoopi Goldberg-starring comedy Sister Act. Keitel starred in Quentin Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs in 1992, where his performance as Mr. White took his career to a different level, since then, Keitel has chosen his roles with care, seeking to change his image and show a broader acting range. One of those roles was the character in Bad Lieutenant, about a self-loathing. He co-starred in the movie The Piano in 1993, and played an efficient clean-up expert, Keitel starred as a police detective in Spike Lees Clockers. In 1999, Keitel was replaced by Sydney Pollack on the set of Stanley Kubricks Eyes Wide Shut, due to shooting conflicts, Keitel also re-teamed with Jane Campion for Holy Smoke. He also appeared in the Steinlager Pure commercials in New Zealand in 2007, unlike many American male actors, Keitel has appeared nude in several films, including full frontal nudity in Bad Lieutenant and The Piano
7.
Ben Kingsley
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Sir Ben Kingsley is an English actor with a career spanning over 40 years. He has won an Oscar, Grammy, BAFTA, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award and he is known for his starring role as Mohandas Gandhi in the 1982 film Gandhi, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He is also known for his performances in the films Schindlers List, Twelfth Night, Sexy Beast, Lucky Number Slevin, Shutter Island, Prince of Persia, The Sands of Time, Hugo, and Iron Man 3. Kingsley was made a Knight Bachelor at Buckingham Palace in 2002 for services to the British film industry, in 2010, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2013, he received the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment, Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji in Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire. He is the son of Anna Lyna Mary, an actress and model who appeared in films in the 1920s and 1930s, and Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, Kingsleys father, born in Kenya, was of Gujarati Indian descent. Kingsleys paternal grandfather was an extremely successful spice trader who had moved from India to Zanzibar, Kingsleys mother was British, she was born out of wedlock, and was loath to speak of her background. Kingsley stated in 1994, Im not Jewish, and though there might be some Russian-Jewish heritage way back on my mothers side, the thread is so fine theres no real evidence. Kingsley grew up in Pendlebury, near Manchester and he was educated at Manchester Grammar School, where one of his classmates was the actor Robert Powell. Kingsley studied at the University of Salford and at Pendleton College, while at college he became involved in amateur dramatics in Manchester, making his professional stage debut on graduation, aged 23. In 1967, he made his London West End theatre debut at the Aldwych Theatre, devoting himself almost exclusively to stage work for the next 15 years, he made his Broadway debut in 1971 with the RSC. Kingsley played Mosca in Peter Halls 1977 production of Ben Jonsons Volpone for the Royal National Theatre, at about this time, he changed his name to Ben Kingsley, fearing that a foreign name would hamper his career. He took his name from his fathers nickname of Benji. He also starred in the role of Willy Loman in a 1982 Sydney production of Death of a Salesman opposite Mel Gibson, Kingsley made the transition to film roles early on, with his first role coming in Fear Is the Key, released in 1972. In 1975, he starred as Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the BBCs historical drama The Love School and he found fame only years later, starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the Academy Award-winning film Gandhi in 1982. The film was a critical and financial success, and Kingsley won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, Kingsley has since appeared in a variety of roles. He won a Crystal Globe award for outstanding contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2001. In 1997, he provided voice talent for the video game Ceremony of Innocence, in 1998, he was the head of the jury at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival
8.
Joe Mantegna
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Joseph Anthony Joe Mantegna, Jr. is an American actor, producer, writer, director, and voice actor. Mantegna began his career on the stage in 1969 with the musical Hair, expanding to film and television, Mantegna is best known for his roles in box office hits including Three Amigos, The Godfather Part III, Forget Paris and Up Close & Personal. As of the 2015–2016 TV season, he stars in the CBS television series Criminal Minds as FBI Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi. Since the 1991 episode Bart the Murderer, Mantegna has had a role on the animated series The Simpsons as mob boss Fat Tony. Mantegna has starred in the series First Monday and Joan of Arcadia and he earned Emmy Award nominations for his roles in three different miniseries, The Last Don, The Rat Pack, and The Starter Wife. He has also served as producer for various movies and television movies, including Corduroy, Hoods. Parkers fictional detective Spenser in three movies between 1999 and 2001, and has narrated several audiobook readings of the Spenser novels. An avid firearm enthusiast, he is the host of MidwayUSAs Gun Stories on the cable television Outdoor Channel and his daughter Gia Mantegna is also an actor. Mantegna was raised Catholic and attended J. Sterling Morton High School East in Cicero and he studied acting at the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University from 1967 to 1969. While still a man in Chicago, he played bass in a band called The Apocryphals, which later played with another local group, The Missing Links. Mantegna is still close to the original members of Chicago. Mantegna made his debut in the 1969 stage production of Hair. He co-wrote Bleacher Bums, a play which was first performed at Chicagos Organic Theater Company. In the movie Xanadu, he had a role which was cut, although since his name is in the films credits. Mantegna won a Tony award for his portrayal of Richard Roma in David Mamets play Glengarry Glen Ross and he has had a long and successful association with Mamet, appearing in a number of his works. Mantegna made his film debut in Medusa Challenger. He played womanizing dentist Bruce Fleckstein in Compromising Positions and he starred in an episode of The Twilight Zone in 1985 called Shelter Skelter. His other early roles were supporting performances in The Money Pit, Weeds
9.
Ennio Morricone
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Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI is an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and former trumpet player. He composes a wide range of styles, making him one of the most versatile, experimental and influential composers of all time. Since 1946 Morricone has composed over 500 scores for cinema and television, after playing the trumpet in jazz bands in the 1940s, he became a studio arranger for RCA Victor and in 1955 started ghost writing for film and theatre. Throughout his career, he has composed music for such as Paul Anka, Mina, Milva, Zucchero. From 1960 to 1975, Morricone gained international fame for composing music for westerns and his score to 1966s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is considered one of the most influential soundtracks in history and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. With an estimated 10 million copies sold, Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling scores worldwide and he also scored seven westerns for Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessaris Ringo duology and Sergio Sollimas The Big Gundown and Face to Face. Morricone worked extensively for other genres with directors such as Mauro Bolognini, Giuliano Montaldo, Roland Joffé, Roman Polanski. His acclaimed soundtrack for The Mission was certified gold in the United States, the album Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone stayed 105 weeks on the Billboard Top Classical Albums. Morricones best-known compositions include The Ecstasy of Gold, Se Telefonando, Man with a Harmonica, Heres to You and he functioned during the period 1966–1980 as a main member of Il Gruppo, one of the first experimental composers collectives. In 1969, he co-founded Forum Music Village, a recording studio. In 1977, he composed the theme for the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He continued to compose music for European productions, such as Marco Polo, La Piovra, Nostromo, Fateless, Karol and En mai, fais ce quil te plait. Morricones music has been reused in television series, including The Simpsons and The Sopranos, as of 2013, Ennio Morricone has sold over 70 million records worldwide. In 1971, he received a Targa dOro for the sales of 22 million. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award for his magnificent and he has been nominated for a further six Oscars. In 2016, Morricone received his first Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantinos film The Hateful Eight, Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera Ridolfi and Mario Morricone, a musician. His family came from Arpino, near Frosinone, Morricone, who had four siblings, Adriana, Aldo, Maria and Franca, lived in Trastevere, in the centre of Rome, with his parents. Mario was a player who worked professionally in different light-music orchestras
10.
TriStar Pictures
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TriStar Pictures is an American film production/distribution studio of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, owned by the Sony subsidiary Sony Pictures Entertainment. On May 16,1983, it was given the name Tri-Star Pictures and it was the first new major Hollywood studio to be established since RKO Pictures was founded in 1928. The studios first produced film in 1984 was The Natural starring Robert Redford, during this venture, many of Tri-Stars releases were released on VHS by either RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, CBS/Fox Video, or HBO Video. In addition, HBO would gain exclusive distribution rights to these films. CBS dropped out of the venture in 1985, though still distributed some of TriStars films on home video until at least 1992. In 1986, HBO dropped out of the Tri-Star venture as well, the same year, Tri-Star entered into the television business as Tri-Star Television. It was formed when the studio joined forces with Stephen J. Cannell Productions and Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, both studios continued to produce and distribute films under their separate names. On April 13,1988, CPE spun off Tri-Star Pictures, in 1989, all of Cokes entertainment holdings were acquired by Sony Corporation of Japan, who merged Columbia and Tri-Star, but continued to use the separate labels. On July 11,1990, Tri-Star Pictures dissolved and sold its venture in TeleVentures to Stephen J. Cannell Productions, most of the series and the Tri-Star film packages that were distributed by TeleVentures were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. The Tri-Star film packages were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution, both studios continued to operate separately until TriStar folded in 1999 and CPT in 2001. In addition to its own slate, TriStar was the distributor for many films produced by Carolco Pictures. TriStar also theatrically distributed some FilmDistrict movies, TriStar was relaunched on May 13,2004 as a marketing and acquisitions unit that had a particular emphasis on genre films. Screen Gems executive vice president Valerie Van Galder was tapped to run the studio after being dormant. However, the release of its 2013 film Elysium represents the labels first big-budget release since The Mask of Zorro in 1998, the same year, former 20th Century Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman joined Sony Pictures and created TriStar Productions as a joint venture with existing Sony Pictures executives. The new TriStar will develop, finance and produce up to four films per year, as well as programming and acquisitions. Sonys TriStar Pictures unit will be retained for other product, including titles from Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, TriStars logo of Pegasus, introduced in 1984, has become something of a cultural icon. The idea came about because of executive Victor Kaufman and his familys interest in riding horses, the original logo was created with the assistance of Sydney Pollack, who was an adviser at Tri-Star. The horse in that logo was the one used in Pollacks film The Electric Horseman
11.
Crime film
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Crime films are a genre of film that focus on crime. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, films dealing with crime and its detection are often based on plays rather than novels. Agatha Christies stage play Witness for the Prosecution was adapted for the big screen by director Billy Wilder in 1957, the film starred Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton and is a classic example of a courtroom drama. In a courtroom drama, a charge is brought against one of the main characters, another major part is played by the lawyer representing the defendant in court and battling with the public prosecutor. He or she may enlist the services of an investigator to find out what really happened. However, in most cases it is not clear at all whether the accused is guilty of the crime or not—this is how suspense is created. Often, the private investigator storms into the courtroom at the very last minute in order to bring a new and this type of literature lends itself to the literary genre of drama focused more on dialogue and little or no necessity for a shift in scenery. The auditorium of the theatre becomes an extension of the courtroom, in Witness for the Prosecution, Leonard Vole, a young American living in England, is accused of murdering a middle-aged lady he met in the street while shopping. His wife hires the best lawyer available because she is convinced, or rather she knows, another classic courtroom drama is U. S. playwright Reginald Roses Twelve Angry Men, which is set in the jury deliberation room of a New York Court of Law. Eleven members of the jury, aiming at a verdict of guilty. The popularity of TV brought about the emergence of TV series featuring detectives, investigators, special agents, lawyers, in Britain, The Avengers about the adventures of gentleman agent John Steed and his partner, Emma Peel, achieved cult status. In Germany, Derrick became a household word, breaking Bad character Walter White is a methamphetamine drug manufacturer, this offered a different approach whereby the protagonist is the criminal instead of being the detective. Crime films may fall under several different subgenres and these include, Crime comedy - A hybrid of crime and comedy films. Mafia comedy looks at organized crime from a comical standpoint, humor comes from the incompetence of the criminals and/or black comedy. Examples include Analyze This, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, In Bruges, tower Heist and Pain & Gain. Crime drama - A combination of crime and dramatic films, examples include such films as Straight Time and Badlands. Crime thriller - A thriller in which the characters are involved in crime, either in its investigation, as the perpetrator or, less commonly. While some action films could be labelled as such for merely having criminality and thrills, the emphasis in this genre is the drama, examples include Untraceable, Silence of the Lambs, Heat, Seven, Witness, Memories of Murder, The Call, and Running Scared
12.
Bugsy Siegel
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Benjamin Bugsy Siegel was a Jewish American mobster. Siegel was known as one of the most infamous and feared gangsters of his day, described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters. He was also a force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was one of the founders and leaders of Murder, Inc. after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, he turned to gambling. In 1936, he left New York and moved to California and his time as a mobster was mainly as a hitman and muscle, as he was noted for his prowess with guns and violence. In 1939, Siegel was tried for the murder of fellow mobster Harry Greenberg, Siegel traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he handled and financed some of the original casinos. He assisted developer William Wilkersons Flamingo Hotel after Wilkerson ran out of funds, Siegel took over the project and managed the final stages of construction. The Flamingo opened on December 26,1946, to poor reception and soon closed and it reopened in March 1947 with a finished hotel. Three months later, on June 20,1947, Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. Benjamin Siegel was born on February 28,1906 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to a poor Jewish family from Letychiv, Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire, however, other sources state that his family came from Austria. His parents, Jennie and Max Siegel, constantly worked for meager wages, Siegel, the second of five children, vowed that he would rise above that life. As a boy, Siegel dropped out of school and joined a gang on Lafayette Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and he committed mainly thefts, until he met Moe Sedway. With Sedway, Siegel developed a protection racket where pushcart merchants were forced to pay him a dollar or he would incinerate their merchandise, Siegel had a criminal record that included armed robbery, rape and murder dating back to his teenage years. During adolescence, Siegel befriended Meyer Lansky, who formed a small mob whose activities expanded to gambling and car theft. Lansky, who had already had a run-in with Salvatore Lucania, saw a need for the Jewish boys of his Brooklyn neighborhood to organize in the manner as the Italians. The first person he recruited for his gang was Ben Siegel, Siegel became a bootlegger and was involved in bootlegging within several major East Coast cities. He also worked as the hitman, whom Lansky would hire out to other crime families. The two formed the Bugs and Meyer Mob, which handled contracts for the various bootleg gangs operating in New York and New Jersey – doing so almost a decade before Murder, the gang kept themselves busy hijacking the liquor cargoes of rival outfits
13.
Virginia Hill
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Virginia Hill was an American organized crime figure. A courier, she was famous for being the girlfriend of mobster Bugsy Siegel, Virginia Hill was born on August 26,1916 in Lipscomb, Alabama. She claimed to have neither worn nor owned a pair of shoes until the age of seventeen and she was used to pass messages to mobsters. One contemporary commentator explained Hill as. more than just another set of curves and she became the lover of acting boss and capo Joe Adonis of the Genovese family, then the Frank Costello crime family. Even law enforcement eventually concluded that she was a clearing house for intelligence on organized crime. She built up an entourage of hangers-on and Latin gigolos hanging out on Broadway Avenue, four days before her lover, mobster Bugsy Siegel, was assassinated at her home in California, she took an unscheduled flight to Paris, France. There were rumors that she and Siegel secretly got married in Mexico after Siegel divorced his wife Esta in 1946, but there has not been any evidence to prove the theory. Organized crime king Lucky Luciano wrote in his memoir that Siegel once owned an interest in the Hialeah Park Race Track, the Flamingo name was given to the project at its inception by original resort financier Billy Wilkerson. In 1950 she married Hans Hauser, an Austrian skier, after she was indicted for income tax evasion in 1954, she moved to Europe, where she lived for the rest of her life with her only child, Peter Hauser. She died of an overdose of sleeping pills in Koppl, near Salzburg, Hill is buried in Aigen Cemetery in Salzburg. According to Andy Edmonds biography Bugsys Baby, The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill, Hill was the subject of a 1974 television movie, in which she was portrayed by Dyan Cannon. She was played by Annette Bening in the 1991 film Bugsy, Bugsys Baby, The Secret Life of Mob Queen Virginia Hill. Secaucus, New Jersey, Carol Publishing Group,1993, ISBN 1-55972-164-2 Virginia Hill at the Internet Movie Database Excerpt of testimony
14.
Elliott Gould
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Elliott Gould is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s, more recently, he has gained recognition for his recurring supporting roles as Jack Geller on Friends, as Reuben Tishkoff in the Oceans Trilogy, and as Ezra Goldman in Ray Donovan. Until its cancellation, he had a role in the TV series Doubt. Gould was born in Brooklyn, New York and his mother, Lucille, sold artificial flowers to beauty shops, and his father, Bernard Goldstein, worked in the garment business as a textiles buyer. His family was Jewish, and his grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine, Poland and he graduated from the Professional Childrens School. Gould began acting in the Broadway theatre in the late 1950s, other credits include Irma La Douce, Say, Darling, Drat. He purchased the rights to Little Murders, and in addition to acting in the film version. As a film actor, Goulds performance in Paul Mazurskys 1969 comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice proved to be his breakout role, indeed, he earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Trapper John in Robert Altmans satirical 1970 film MASH, time magazine placed him on one of its covers in 1970, when he was at the brief height of his long career, calling him a star for an uptight age. Gould played the detective Philip Marlowe in Altmans 1973 film noir The Long Goodbye and he soon collaborated with Altman again, as a gambling addict alongside George Segal in California Split. He later cameoed as himself in the Altman films Nashville and The Player, also in 1980, Gould filmed two movies for Disney studios, The Last Flight of Noahs Ark and The Devil and Max Devlin, in which he co-starred with Bill Cosby. Other notable roles during this time include performances in A Bridge Too Far, Capricorn One, and he starred in a sitcom called E/R in 1984–1985, and had a notable recurring guest role on Friends as Jack Geller, the father of Monica and Ross Geller. More recently he has had a prominent recurring role on Ray Donovan and had a role in the sitcom Mulaney. Gould received critical praise for his performances as a mobster in Warren Beattys 1991 film Bugsy. He also co-starred as Reuben Tishkoff in the caper film Oceans Eleven and its sequels, Oceans Twelve. Other recent films roles include supporting turns in Contagion and Ruby Sparks and he has also loaned his voice to several animated series, most notable among them, the Disney Channel animated series Kim Possible and the 2006 video game Scarface, The World Is Yours. Gould currently serves on the Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors, Gould has said that he has a very deep Jewish identity. He has been married three times, twice to the woman, Barbra Streisand Jennifer Bogart
15.
Roger Ebert
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Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic and historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the two verbally sparred and traded humorous barbs while discussing films. They created and trademarked the phrase Two Thumbs Up, used when both hosts gave the film a positive review. After Siskel died in 1999, Ebert continued hosting the show with various co-hosts and then, starting in 2000, Ebert lived with cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands from 2002. This required treatments necessitating the removal of his jaw, which cost him the ability to speak or eat normally. His ability to write remained unimpaired, however, and he continued to publish frequently both online and in print until his death on April 4,2013. Roger Joseph Ebert was born in Urbana, Illinois, the child of Annabel, a bookkeeper, and Walter Harry Ebert. He was raised Roman Catholic, attending St. Marys elementary school and his paternal grandparents were German immigrants and his maternal ancestry was Irish and Dutch. In his senior year, he was president and editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper. In 1958, he won the Illinois High School Association state speech championship in radio speaking, regarding his early influences in film criticism, Ebert wrote in the 1998 parody collection Mad About the Movies, I learned to be a movie critic by reading Mad magazine. Mads parodies made me aware of the machine inside the skin – of the way a movie might look original on the outside, I did not read the magazine, I plundered it for clues to the universe. Pauline Kael lost it at the movies, I lost it at Mad magazine, Ebert began taking classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an early-entrance student, completing his high-school courses while also taking his first university class. After graduating from Urbana High School in 1960, Ebert then attended and received his degree in 1964. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, One of the first movie reviews he ever wrote was a review of La Dolce Vita, published in The Daily Illini in October 1961. Ebert spent a semester as a student in the department of English there before attending the University of Cape Town on a Rotary fellowship for a year. He returned from Cape Town to his studies at Illinois for two more semesters and then, after being accepted as a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. Instead Kogan referred Ebert to the city editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Hoge and he attended doctoral classes at the University of Chicago while working as a general reporter at the Sun-Times for a year
16.
Academy Award
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
17.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Walter Brennan was the first winner of award for his role in Come. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 72 actors. Brennan has received the most awards in this category with three awards, Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, and Claude Rains were nominated on four occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Mahershala Ali is the most recent winner in category for his role as Juan in Moonlight. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com Complete Downloadable List of Academy Award Nominees
18.
Luciano crime family
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The Genovese crime family is one of the Five Families that dominate organized crime activities in New York City as part of the Mafia. The Genovese crime family has been nicknamed the Ivy League and Rolls Royce of organized crime and they are rivaled in size only by the Gambino crime family and are unmatched in terms of power. They have generally maintained a degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia, Patriarca. The Genovese crime family is the largest of the Five Families, finding new ways to make money in the 21st century, the Genovese family took advantage of lax due diligence by banks during the housing spike with a wave of mortgage frauds. Prosecutors say loan shark victims obtained home equity loans to pay off debts to their mob bankers, the family found ways to use new technology to improve on illegal gambling, with customers placing bets through offshore sites via the Internet. It is the oldest of the Five Families, with going back to the Morello crime family. The current family was founded by Charles Lucky Luciano, and was known as the Luciano crime family from 1931 to 1957, when it was renamed after boss Vito Genovese. Although the leadership of the Genovese family seemed to have been in limbo after the death of Gigante in 2005, they appear to be the most organized family, unique in todays Mafia, the family has benefited greatly from members following the code of Omertà. While many mobsters from across the country have testified against their families since the 1980s. The Genovese crime family originated from the Morello gang of East Harlem, in 1892, Giuseppe Morello arrived in New York from the village of Corleone, Sicily. Morellos half brothers Nicholas, Vincenzo, Ciro and the rest of his family joined him in New York the following year, the Morello brothers formed the 107th Street Mob and began dominating the Italian neighborhood of East Harlem, parts of Manhattan, and the Bronx. One of Giuseppe Morellos strongest allies was Ignazio the Wolf Lupo, in 1903, Lupo married Morellos half sister, uniting both organizations. New York City Police detective Joseph Petrosino began investigating the Morello familys counterfeiting operation, the barrel murders, on November 15,1909 Giuseppe Morello, Ignazio Lupo and others were arrested on counterfeiting charges. In February 1910, Morello and Lupo were sentenced to 30 years in prison, as the Morello family increased in power and influence, bloody territorial conflicts arose with other Italian criminal gangs in New York. The Morellos had an alliance with Giosue Gallucci, a prominent East Harlem businessman, the fight over Galluccis rackets became known as the Mafia-Camorra War. After months of fighting, Camorra boss Morano offered a truce to end the fighting, a meeting was arranged at a Navy Street cafe owned by Alessandro Vollero. On September 7,1916 upon arriving, Nicholas Nick Morello and his bodyguard Charles Ubriaco were ambushed by five members of the Brooklyn Camorra group, in 1917, Morano was charged with Morellos murder after Camorrista Ralph Daniello implicated him in the murder. By 1918, law enforcement had sent many Camorra gang members to prison, decimating the Camorra in New York, many of the remaining Brooklyn Camorra gang members joined the Morello family
19.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
20.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
21.
George Raft
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George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. His parents were married on November 17,1895, in Manhattan, georges elder sister, Eva, known as Katie, was born on April 18,1896. On the 1910 census, he is listed as being eight years old, a boyhood friend of gangsters Owney Madden and Bugsy Siegel, Raft acknowledged having narrowly avoided a life of crime. Raft became part of the act of flamboyant speakeasy hostess Texas Guinan, and his success led him to Broadway. He later made a film called Broadway about this period in which he plays himself. He had a success as a dancer in London in 1926. Fred Astaire, in his autobiography Steps in Time, says Raft was a lightning-fast dancer, vi Kearney, later a dancer in shows for Charles B. Cochran and André Charlot, was quoted as saying, Oh yes and we were in a big show together. Sometimes, to eke out our miserable pay, wed do an act after the show at a club. Hed tell me how he was going to be a big one day. I just laughed and said, Come on, Georgie, stop dreaming, were both in the chorus and you know it. But by that time Id decided to marry, how many times do I have to tell you. chorus girls dont go out with chorus boys. In 1929, Raft relocated to Hollywood and took small roles, in Taxi. starring James Cagney and Loretta Young, Raft has a colorful unbilled dancing role as Cagneys competitor in a dance contest, who wins only to be knocked down by Cagney. His big break came later that year as the nickel-flipping second lead alongside Paul Muni in Scarface. Rafts convincing portrayal and his friendships with Owney Madden, Bugsy Siegel. When Gary Coopers romantic escapades put him on one gangsters hit list and he was one of the three most popular gangster actors of the 1930s, with James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, Raft ranked far above Humphrey Bogart in fame and box-office clout throughout the decade. Raft memorably dances into the picture in his opening scene wearing a derby, although Raft received third billing in Manpower, he played the lead. The years 1940 and 1941 proved to be Rafts career peak, Raft chose Raoul Walshs Manpower over The Maltese Falcon because the Falcons director, John Huston, had never directed before and a racier pre-Code version of the film already existed
22.
Beverly Hills
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Beverly Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood. By 2013, its population had grown to 34,658, sometimes referred to as 90210, one of its primary ZIP codes, it was home to many actors and celebrities throughout the 20th century. The city includes the Rodeo Drive shopping district and the Beverly Hills Oil Field, gaspar de Portolá arrived in the area that would later become Beverly Hills on August 3,1769, travelling along native trails which followed the present-day route of Wilshire Boulevard. The area was settled by Maria Rita Quinteros de Valdez and her husband in 1828 and they called their 4,500 acres of property the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. in 1854, she sold the ranch to Benjamin Davis Wilson and Henry Hancock. By the 1880s, the ranch had been subdivided into parcels of 75 acres and was being bought up by anglos from Los Angeles. Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker acquired most of it, at this point, the area was known as the Hammel and Denker Ranch. By 1888, Denker and Hammel were planning to build a town called Morocco on their holdings and they did not find enough to exploit commercially by the standards of the time, though. In 1906, therefore, they reorganized as the Rodeo Land and Water Company, renamed the property Beverly Hills, subdivided it, the development was named Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts and because of the hills in the area. The first house in the subdivision was built in 1907, although sales remained slow, Beverly Hills was one of many all-white planned communities started in the Los Angeles area around this time. Restrictive covenants prohibited non-whites from owning or renting property unless they were employed as servants by white residents and it was also forbidden to sell or rent property to Jews in Beverly Hills. Burton Green began construction on The Beverly Hills Hotel in 1911, the hotel was finished in 1912. The visitors drawn by the hotel were inclined to purchase land in Beverly Hills and that same year, the Rodeo Land and Water Company decided to separate its water business from its real estate business. The Beverly Hills Utility Commission was split off from the company and incorporated in September 1914, buying all of the utilities-related assets from the Rodeo Land. In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford bought land on Summit Drive and built a mansion, finished in 1921, the glamor associated with Fairbanks and Pickford as well as other movie stars who built mansions in the city contributed to its growing appeal. By the early 1920s the population of Beverly Hills had grown enough to make the water supply a political issue, in 1923 the usual solution, annexation to the city of Los Angeles, was proposed. There was considerable opposition to annexation among such famous residents as Pickford, Fairbanks, Will Rogers, the Beverly Hills Utility Commission, opposed to annexation as well, managed to force the city into a special election and the plan was defeated 337 to 507. In 1925, Beverly Hills approved an issue to buy 385 acres for a new campus for UCLA. The cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Venice also issued bonds to pay for the new campus
23.
Lawrence Tibbett
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Lawrence Mervil Tibbett was a famous American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera in New York more than 600 times from 1923 to 1950 and he performed diverse musical theatre roles, including Captain Hook in Peter Pan in a touring show. Lawrence Tibbett was born Lawrence Mervil Tibbet on November 16,1896 in Bakersfield and his father was a part-time deputy sheriff, killed in a shootout with desperado Jim McKinney in 1903. Tibbett grew up in Los Angeles, earning money by singing in church choirs and he graduated from Manual Arts High School in 1915. A year later, he met his wife, Grace Mackay Smith. During World War I he served in the Merchant Marine, after which he found employment singing as prologue to silent movies at the Grauman Million Dollar Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Tibbett studied in New York City with Frank La Forge and in 1923 at the age of 26, he signed his first contract, for $60 per week, with the New York Metropolitan Opera, using the name Tibbett. Over the ensuing years, with the Met, he built a successful career, displaying an outstanding voice, immaculate musicianship. He recorded exclusively for the Victor Talking Machine Company/RCA Victor throughout his career and his Met roles included Valentin in Charles Gounods Faust, Silvio, and later, Tonio, in Ruggiero Leoncavallos Pagliacci and the Kings Herald in Richard Wagners Lohengrin. He first achieved national recognition playing Ford in Giuseppe Verdis Falstaff, during the 1930s, Tibbett toured Europe and Australia, performing on stage or giving recitals in London, Paris, Prague and Vienna as well as in Sydney and Melbourne. Tibbett made his first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1926, in the early 1930s, Tibbett also appeared in movies. Soon afterward, he starred in another MGM musical film, New Moon, opposite Grace Moore and The Cuban Love Song, with the Mexican Spitfire, in 1935, he made Metropolitan for 20th Century Fox. This film is notable for its extensive segments of Tibbett performing operatic arias in a stage setting and his final film was Under Your Spell in 1936. Also during the 1930s, Tibbett had a radio program sponsored by the Packard Motor Car Company of America on which he sang formal music. The company chose him to announce the Packard 120 to the world on air, when the firm wanted to sell less expensive cars, they persuaded him to add popular tunes to his repertoire in order to boost sales. He also appeared on Your Hit Parade, together with violinist Jascha Heifetz, in 1936 he founded the American Guild of Musical Artists, the most important labor union for solo performing artists. He was the Guilds proactive president for 17 years and his forceful and articulate advocacy of artistic causes was unique in its day. After his operatic career concluded, in the early 1950s, Tibbett performed in musicals, most notably, Tibbett took over the Italian operatic bass Ezio Pinzas role in Fanny during its original Broadway run
24.
Scarsdale
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Scarsdale is a town and village in Westchester County, New York. It is an suburb of New York City. As of the 2010 census, Scarsdales population was 17,166, according to a 2016 Fundera study, Scarsdale ranked as the 2nd best city in New York for small business. Caleb Heathcote purchased the land that would become Scarsdale at the end of the 17th century and and he named the lands after his ancestral home in Derbyshire, England. The first local census of 1712 counted twelve inhabitants, including seven African slaves, when Caleb died in 1721, his daughters inherited the property. The estate was broken up in 1774, and the town was founded on March 7,1788. The town saw fighting during the American Revolution when the Continental and British armies clashed briefly at what is now the junction of Garden Road, the British commander, Sir William Howe, lodged at a farmhouse on Garden Road that remains standing. Scarsdales wartime history formed the basis for James Fenimore Coopers novel, The Spy, according to the first federal census in 1790, the towns population was 281. By 1840, that number had declined to 255—the vast majority farmers, in 1846, the New York and Harlem Railroad connected Scarsdale to New York City, leading to an influx of commuters. The Arthur Suburban Home Company purchased a 150-acre farm in 1891 and converted it into a subdevelopment of one-family dwellings, civil institutions soon appeared, the Heathcote Association, the Town Club, the Scarsdale Womans Club and the Scarsdale League of Women Voters. Scarsdale High School and Greenacres Elementary School were built in 1912, the first store in Scarsdale opened on the corner of Popham Road and Garth Road in 1912. By 1915, the population approached 3000, by 1930, that number approached 10,000. He was subsequently deported for pursuing activities unfriendly to the United States, Scarsdale became the subject of national controversy in the 1950s when a Committee of Ten led by Otto Dohrenwend alleged Communist infiltration in the public schools. A thorough investigation by the town rejected these claims and it was the clubs policy, at the time, to prohibit Jews from the premises. In response, the Rev. George French Kempsell of the Church of Saint James the Less announced that he would ban any supporters of the decision from receiving holy communion. The event marked a point toward the decline of anti-Semitism in the town. Scarsdales public library, which had been housed in historic Wayside Cottage since 1928, the driving force behind the library was New York City publisher S. Spencer Scott, who raised $100,000 for the project after the village rejected a bond issue to fund the building in 1938, the new library opened with 27,000 books and Sylvia C
25.
Meyer Lansky
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Lansky developed a gambling empire that stretched across the world. He was said to own points in casinos in Las Vegas, Cuba, The Bahamas, although a member of the Jewish Mob, Lansky undoubtedly had strong influence with the Italian Mafia and played a large role in the consolidation of the criminal underworld. Despite nearly fifty years as a member-participant in organized crime, Lansky was never guilty of anything more serious than illegal gambling. He has a legacy of being one of the most financially successful gangsters in American history, before Meyer Lansky fled Cuba, he was said to be worth an estimated $20 million. However when he died in 1983, his family was shocked that his estate was less than $10,000. Lansky was born Meier Suchowlański in Grodno, in the Russian Empire to a Polish-Jewish family who experienced antisemitic pogroms. He was born in the lands of Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, which were under Russian rule. Lansky met Bugsy Siegel when they were children and they became lifelong friends, as well as partners in the bootlegging trade, and together managed the Bugs and Meyer Mob with its reputation as one of the most violent Prohibition gangs. Lansky was also friends with Lucky Luciano, the two met as teenagers when Luciano attempted to extort Lansky for protection money on his walk home from school. Luciano respected the younger boys defiant responses to his threats, Lansky was instrumental in Lucianos rise to power by reportedly organizing the 1931 murders of Mafia bosses Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. Lanskys brother, Jacob Jake or Jack Lansky, in 1959 managed the Nacional Hotel in Havana, by 1936, Lansky had established gambling operations in Florida, New Orleans, and Cuba. Second, mob connections were used to ensure legal and physical security of their establishments from other crime figures, there was also an absolute rule of integrity concerning the games and wagers made within their establishments. Lanskys carpet joints in Florida and elsewhere were never clip-joints where gamblers were unsure of whether or not the games were rigged against them, Lansky ensured that the staff actually consisted of men of high integrity. In 1936, Lanskys partner Luciano was sent to prison, in 1946 Lansky convinced the Mafia to place Siegel in charge of Las Vegas, and became a major investor in Siegels Flamingo Hotel. After Al Capones 1931 conviction for tax evasion and prostitution, Lansky saw that he too was vulnerable to a similar prosecution. To protect himself, he transferred the illegal earnings from his growing casino empire to a Swiss numbered bank account, Lansky eventually even bought an offshore bank in Switzerland, which he used to launder money through a network of shell and holding companies. In the 1930s, Meyer Lansky and his gang claimed to have stepped outside their usual criminal activities to break up rallies held by the pro-Nazi German-American Bund, there were only fifteen of us, but we went into action. We threw some of out the windows
26.
Lucky Luciano
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Charles Lucky Luciano was an Italian-American mobster and Crime Boss. Luciano is considered the father of organized crime in the United States for the establishment of the first Commission. He was the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family and he was, along with his associates instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate in the United States. Luciano was tried and successfully convicted for prostitution in 1936 after years of investigation by District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Salvatore Lucania was born on November 24,1897 in Lercara Friddi, Lucianos parents, Antonio and Rosalia Lucania, had four other children, Bartolomeo, Giuseppe, Filippa, and Concetta. Lucianos father worked in a mine in Sicily. In 1907, when Luciano was nine years old, the family immigrated to the United States and they settled in New York City in the borough of Manhattan on its Lower East Side, a popular destination for Italian immigrants. At age 14, Luciano dropped out of school and started a job delivering hats, however, after winning $244 in a dice game, Luciano quit his job and went to earning money on the street. That same year, Lucianos parents sent him to the Brooklyn Truant School, as a teenager, Luciano started his own gang and was a member of the old Five Points Gang. Unlike other street gangs whose business was petty crime, Luciano offered protection to Jewish youngsters from Italian and he was also learning the pimping trade in the years around World War I. Around this time, Luciano also met Meyer Lansky, his business partner. It is not clear how Luciano earned the nickname Lucky and it may have come from surviving a severe beating by three men in the 1920s, as well as a throat slashing. This was because Luciano refused to work for mob boss. From 1916 to 1936, Luciano was arrested 25 times on charges including assault, illegal gambling, blackmail and robbery, the name Lucky may have also been a mispronunciation of Lucianos surname Lucania. On January 17,1920, the Eighteenth Amendment to the U. S, constitution was ratified, and Prohibition lasted until the amendment was repealed in 1933. The Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages, as there was still a substantial demand for alcohol, this provided criminals with an added source of income. By 1920, Luciano had met many future Mafia leaders, including Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, his longtime friend, the same year, Lower Manhattan gang boss Joe Masseria recruited Luciano as one of his gunmen. Around that same time, Luciano and his associates started working for gambler Arnold The Brain Rothstein
27.
Jack Dragna
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Jack Ignatius Dragna was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 20th century. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States, in 1931, he succeeded Joseph Ardizzone as the boss of the Los Angeles crime family after Ardizzones mysterious disappearance and death in 1931. Both James Ragen and Earl Warren dubbed Dragna the Capone of Los Angeles, Dragna remained the boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1931 until his death in 1956. Dragna was born Ignazio Dragna to Francesco Paolo Dragna and Anna Dragna in Corleone, Sicily, on November 18,1898, Dragna came to America on the S. S. Alsatia with his mother, older sister Giuseppa, and older brother Gaetano. They stayed in Brooklyn with Antonio Rizzottos family, also from Corleone and it is unknown when Dragnas father arrived in the United States. Dragna stayed in New York for ten years before returning to Sicily, as a young man, he joined the Italian Army and later the Sicilian Mafia. In 1914, Dragna returned to America and he appears to have had a relationship with Gaetano Reina, who eventually would lead his own crime family in Manhattan and the Bronx. That same year, Dragna was a suspect in the murder of Jewish poultry dealer Barnet Baff, after the killing, Dragna fled to California and assumed the name Charles Dragna. Dragna was extradited to New York, but never went on trial, in 1915, Dragna was arrested for Black Hand extortion of a Long Beach man and served three years in prison. At the time of his extortion arrest, Dragna was using the alias Ignazio Rizzoto, during the Prohibition Era, Dragna and his brother Gaetano ran extortion and illegal liquor distillation operations. Ignazio Dragna now became Jack Ignatius Dragna, in 1922, Dragna married Francesca Rizzotto. After his prison stint he worked closely with Joseph Ardizzone, a prominent mobster in Los Angeles, in 1931, Dragna succeeded Joseph Ardizzone as boss of the Los Angeles crime family. It was rumored that Dragna participated in Ardizzones disappearance/death, the American Mafia wanted to make inroads in California, and supported Dragna, as opposed to the Mustache Pete Ardizzone. As boss, Dragnas chief source of income came from extorting local bookmakers for protection money, other businesses including running gambling ships, a heroin smuggling operation, and collecting extortion money. His close supporters included Girolamo Momo Adamo and John Roselli, Roselli had been a member of the Chicago Outfit, but left for California and worked with Dragna in gambling. In the 1950s, Roselli left California and became the Mafias main representative in Las Vegas, an old bootlegging associate of Dragnas, Anthony Cornero ran gambling ships off the coast of California. Tommy Lucchese, of the Lucchese crime family, was Dragnas main contact in New York, Dragna also controlled unions in the laundromat business and dress importing companies. As boss, Dragna often had to do business with representatives from the more powerful Cosa Nostra families in New York, Siegel brought in much more income for the Los Angeles family and generated a great deal of respect, which Dragna resented
28.
Mickey Cohen
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Meyer Harris Mickey Cohen was an American gangster based in Los Angeles and boss of the Cohen crime family. He also had ties to the Italian American Mafia from the 1930s through 1960s. Mickey Cohen was born on September 4,1913, into an Orthodox Jewish family living in the Jewish Brownsville section of Brooklyn and his mother Fanny, who had become widowed in September 1914, had emigrated from Kiev, Ukraine. At age 6, Mickey was selling newspapers on the street, one of his brothers, Louie or Harry, would drop him off at his corner, Soho. Soon, however, Fanny moved her family to the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, in 1922, petty crime landed Mickey in reform school there. As a teenager, Cohen began boxing in illegal prizefights in Los Angeles, in 1929, the 15-year-old moved from Los Angeles to Cleveland, Ohio, to train as a professional boxer. His first professional boxing match was on April 8,1930 and it was one of the preliminary fights on the card for the Paul Pirrone/Jimmy Goodrich feature bout. On April 11,1933, Cohen fought against Chalky Wright in Los Angeles, Wright won the match, and Mickey was incorrectly identified as Mickey Cohen from Denver, Colorado in the Los Angeles Times sports page report. His last fight was on May 14,1933, against Baby Arizmendi in Tijuana, on June 12,1931, Cohen fought and lost a match against World Featherweight Champion Tommy Paul, having been knocked out cold after 2,20 into the first round. It was during this round he earned the moniker Gangster Mickey Cohen, in Cleveland, Cohen met Lou Rothkopf, an associate of Moe Dalitzs. Cohen later moved to New York, where he became an associate of labor racketeer Johnny Dios brother, Tommy Dioguardi, finally, Cohen went to Chicago, where he ran a gambling operation for the Chicago Outfit, Al Capones powerful criminal organization. During Prohibition, Cohen moved to Chicago and became involved in organized crime, working as an enforcer for the Chicago Outfit, during this period Cohen was arrested for his role in the deaths of several gangsters in a card game that went wrong. After a brief time in prison, Cohen was released and began running card games and he later became an associate of Capones younger brother, Mattie Capone. While working for Jake Guzik, Cohen was forced to flee Chicago after an argument with a rival gambler, in Cleveland, Cohen again worked for Lou Rothkopf, an associate of Meyer Lansky and Benjamin Bugsy Siegels. However, there was little work available for Cohen in Cleveland, so Lansky, in 1939, Cohen arrived in Los Angeles to work under Bugsy Siegel. During their association, Mickey helped set up the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and he also was instrumental in setting up the race wire, which was essential to Vegas betting. In 1947, the crime families ordered the murder of Siegel due to his mismanagement of the Flamingo Hotel, according to one account which does not appear in newspapers, Cohen reacted violently to Siegels murder. However, no one appeared, and Cohen was forced to flee when the police arrived, Cohens violent methods came to the attention of state and federal authorities investigating Jack Dragnas operations
29.
Gene Krupa
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Eugene Bertram Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer, band leader, actor, and composer. Known for his energetic, flamboyant style and for his showmanship, Krupa is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time. He is also known for defining the standard drum kit used today in collaboration with brands Slingerland, Krupa is considered the founding father of modern drumset by Modern Drummer magazine. Gene Krupa was born in Chicago, the youngest of Anna, Bartłomiej was an immigrant from Poland. Anna was born in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, also of Polish descent and his parents were very religious Roman Catholics and had groomed Gene for the priesthood. He spent his school days at various parochial schools. Upon graduation he attended Saint Josephs College for a year, Krupa studied with Sanford A. Moeller and began playing drums professionally in the mid-1920s with bands in Wisconsin. The Playboys were the band at The Golden Pumpkin nightclub in Chicago. Krupa made his first recordings in 1927, with a band under the leadership of Red McKenzie, along with other recordings by musicians from the Chicago jazz scene such as Bix Beiderbecke, these recordings are examples of Chicago style jazz. The numbers recorded at that session were China Boy, Sugar, Nobodys Sweetheart, the McKenzie-Condon recordings are notable for being early examples of the use of a bass drum and snare drum/cymbals on recordings, at least for the studio where these recordings were made. Some of Krupas big influences during this time were Father Ildefonse Rapp, later, there were cylinder recordings of African drumming that Gene intensely studied. Drummers such as Tubby Hall, Zutty Singleton and Baby Dodds contributed to Genes developing his own sound, Gene absorbed every bit of what he heard and formulated his own style very early in his career, pulling from hundreds of different sources. There were many other drummers whose work influenced Genes approach to drumming and other instrumentalists, Krupa also appeared on six recordings made by the Thelma Terry band in 1928. In December 1934, he joined Benny Goodmans band, where his featured drum work made him a national celebrity and his tom-tom interludes on their hit Sing, Sing, Sing were the first extended drum solos to be recorded commercially. However, artistic and personal disputes with Goodman prompted Krupa to leave the group and form his own orchestra, shortly after the famous Carnegie Hall concert in January 1938. He appeared in the 1941 film Ball of Fire, in which he and his band perform a version of the hit Drum Boogie, sung by Barbara Stanwyck. As an encore to this piece, he plays a version of the same song using matchsticks as drumsticks and a matchbox as a drum, while Stanwyck. In 1943, his arrest for possession of marijuana forced the breakup of his own orchestra, as the 1940s ended, large orchestras fell by the wayside, Count Basie closed his large band and Woody Herman reduced his to an octet
30.
Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel Casino
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Flamingo Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corporation, the property includes a 77, 000-square-foot casino along with 3,626 hotel rooms. The 15-acre sites architectural theme is reminiscent of the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne style of Miami and South Beach and it was the third resort to open on the Strip, and it is the oldest resort on the Strip still in operation today. The Flamingo has a Las Vegas Monorail station, the Flamingo/Caesars Palace station, after opening in 1946, it has undergone a number of ownership changes. The Flamingo site occupies 40 acres originally owned by one of Las Vegas first settlers, Squires paid $8.75 an acre for the land. In 1944, Margaret Folsom bought the tract for $7,500 from Squires, Wilkerson was the owner of The Hollywood Reporter as well as some very popular nightclubs in the Sunset Strip, Cafe Trocadero, Ciros and La Rues. La Rue Restaurants Sunset Blvd. RN-086-41949 In 1945, Wilkerson purchased 33 acres on the east side of U. S. Route 91, Wilkerson then hired George Vernon Russell to design a hotel that was more in the European style and something other than the sawdust joints on Fremont Street. He planned a hotel with rooms, a spa, health club, showroom, golf course, nightclub, an upscale restaurant. Due to high wartime materials costs, Wilkerson ran into financial problems almost at once, finding himself $400,000 short and hunting for new financing. In late 1945, mobster Bugsy Siegel and his partners came to Las Vegas, after the resort city piqued Siegels interest due to its legalized gambling. Siegel at the time held a large interest in Trans America Wire, Siegel began by purchasing the El Cortez on Fremont Street for $600,000. His expansion plans were hampered by unfriendly city officials aware of his criminal background, hearing that Wilkerson was seeking extra funding, Siegel and his partners, posing as businessmen, approached him and bought a two-thirds stake in the project. Siegel took over the final phases of construction and convinced more of his associates to invest in the project. Siegel lost patience with the costs, and his notorious outbursts unnerved his construction foreman. Reportedly, Siegel told him, Dont worry — we only kill each other, Siegel had also built a secret ladder in the Presidential Suite to escape if necessary. The ladder led down to a garage where a chauffeured limo was also waiting. Siegel finally opened The Flamingo Hotel & Casino at a total cost of $6 million on December 26,1946, Wilkerson project, with Del Webb Construction as the prime contractor and Richard R. Stadelman the architect. Lore has it that Siegel named the resort after his girlfriend Virginia Hill, who loved to gamble and whose nickname was Flamingo, a nickname Siegel gave her due to her long, skinny legs
31.
Las Vegas Valley
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The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area located in the southern part of the U. S. state of Nevada. The largest urban agglomeration in the state, it is the heart of the Las Vegas–Paradise-Henderson, the Valley is largely defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a 600 sq mi basin area surrounded by mountains to the north, south, east and west of the metropolitan area. The Valley is home to the three largest incorporated cities in Nevada, Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, six unincorporated towns governed by the Clark County government are part of the Las Vegas Township and constitute the largest community in the state of Nevada. Since the 1990s the Las Vegas Valley has seen exponential growth, in 2014, a record breaking 41 million visited the Las Vegas area, producing a gross metropolitan product of more than $100 billion. The first reported non-Native American visitor to the Las Vegas Valley was the Mexican scout Rafael Rivera in 1829. Las Vegas was named by Mexicans in the Antonio Armijo party, including Rivera, in the 19th century, areas of the valley contained artesian wells that supported extensive green areas, or meadows, hence the name Las Vegas. The area was settled by Mormon farmers in 1854 and later became the site of a United States Army fort in 1864. Since the 1930s, Las Vegas has generally been identified as a center as well as a resort destination. Nellis Air Force Base is located in the northeast corner of the valley, the ranges that the Nellis pilots use and various other land areas used by various federal agencies, limit growth of the valley in terms of geographic area. Businessman Howard Hughes arrived in the late 1960s and purchased many casino hotels, as well as television, legitimate corporations began to purchase casino hotels as well, and the mob was run out by the federal government over the next several years. The constant stream of tourist dollars from the hotels and casinos was augmented by a new source of money from the establishment of what is now Nellis Air Force Base. The influx of personnel and casino job-hunters helped start a land building boom which is now leveling off. The Las Vegas area remains one of the top entertainment destinations. The valley is contained in the Las Vegas Valley landform and this includes the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson, and the unincorporated towns of Paradise, Spring Valley, Sunrise Manor, Enterprise, Winchester, and Whitney. The valley is located within the larger metropolitan area, as the metropolitan area covers all of Clark County -including parts that do not fall within the valley. The government of Clark County has an Urban Planning Area of Las Vegas and this definition is a roughly rectangular area, about 20 mi from east to west and 30 miles from north to south. Notable exclusions from the Urban Planning Area include Red Rock, Blue Diamond, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is the largest police department in the valley and the state and exercises jurisdiction in the entire county. The department does not exercise jurisdiction in areas with separate police forces such as North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, Nellis Air Force Base
32.
Nevada
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Nevada is a state in the Western, Mountain West, and Southwestern regions of the United States of America. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 34th most populous, nearly three-quarters of Nevadas people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area where three of the states four largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada is officially known as the Silver State because of the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the Battle Born State, because it achieved statehood during the Civil War, as the Sage-brush State, for the plant of the same name. Nevada borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, Nevada is largely desert and semi-arid, much of it located within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are located within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe, about 86% of the states land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U. S. federal government, both civilian and military. Before European contact, Native Americans of the Paiute, Shoshone, the first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish. They called the region Nevada because of the snow covered the mountains in winter. The area formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the United States annexed the area in 1848 after its victory in the Mexican–American War, and it was incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31,1864, as the second of two added to the Union during the Civil War. Nevada has a reputation for its libertarian laws, in 1940, with a population of just over 110,000 people, Nevada was by far the least-populated state, with less than half the population of the next least-populated state. However, legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce laws transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination in the 20th century, Nevada is the only U. S. state where prostitution is legal, though it is illegal in Clark County, Washoe County and Carson City. The tourism industry remains Nevadas largest employer, with mining continuing as a sector of the economy. The name Nevada comes from the Spanish nevada, meaning snow-covered, most Nevadans pronounce the second syllable of their state name using the vowel of trap. Many from outside the Western United States pronounce it with the vowel of father, although the latter pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation, it is not the pronunciation preferred by most Nevadans. State Assemblyman Harry Mortenson proposed a bill to recognize the alternate pronunciation of Nevada, though the bill was not supported by most legislators, the Nevadan pronunciation is the de facto official one, since it is the one used by the state legislature. Nevada is almost entirely within the Basin and Range Province, and is broken up by many mountain ranges
33.
Bebe Neuwirth
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Beatrice Bebe Neuwirth is an American actress, singer and dancer. On television, she is known for her portrayal of Dr. Lilith Sternin, Dr. Frasier Cranes wife, the role won her two Emmy Awards. On stage, she is known for her Tony Award winning roles of Nickie in the revival of Sweet Charity, other Broadway musical roles include Morticia Addams in The Addams Family. Since 2014, she has starred as Nadine Tolliver in the CBS drama Madam Secretary, Neuwirth was born in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Sydney Anne Neuwirth, a painter, and Lee Paul Neuwirth, a mathematician. She has an older brother Peter, an actuary, Neuwirth made her Broadway debut in the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line in 1980. She later appeared in revivals of Little Me Sweet Charity, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical,1996 saw her play Velma Kelly in the Broadway revival of Chicago. That role brought her her greatest stage recognition to date, and several including the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award. Neuwirth would later return to the revival of Chicago in 2006. The show ran from May 7 through October 3,2004, here Lies Jenny was also presented by Neuwirth in San Francisco in 2005. In 2009, Neuwirth toured a cabaret show with pianist Scott Cady. The cabaret included music by Kurt Weill, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, John Kander, in 2010, she returned to Broadway to create the role of Morticia Addams in the original production of The Addams Family opposite Nathan Lane. Her screen credits include Green Card, Bugsy, Say Anything, jumanji, Summer of Sam, Liberty Heights, Tadpole, The Associate, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Malice, The Big Bounce, The Faculty and Woody Allens Celebrity. On television, from 1986 to 1993 Neuwirth played Dr. Lilith Sternin, from the fourth to the seventh season, Neuwirth portrayed Lilith in a regular recurring role, and she appeared on the show as a main star from season eight to the final season, season eleven. She auditioned for this role with her arm in a sling, following a fall a week earlier and she won two Emmy Awards for the role, in 1990 and 1991. She appeared as herself in episodes of Will and Grace, Strangers with Candy, in 2009, she co-starred as Ms. Kraft in the remake of Fame. She recently had a role as Caroline, the literary editor of Jonathan Ames. She is currently a member of the cast in Madam Secretary on CBS, in 1996, Neuwirth starred in a pilot for a TV series called Dear Diary for ABC which was not picked up. The producers had it edited slightly and put into a theater for a single weekend in November 1996
34.
Bill Graham (promoter)
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Bill Graham was a German-American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death in 1991 in a helicopter crash. On July 4,1939 he was sent from Germany to France to escape the Holocaust, at age 10 he settled in a foster home in the Bronx, New York. Graham graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and from City College with a business degree, in the early 1960s, he moved to San Francisco, and, in 1965, began to manage the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He had teamed up with local Haight Ashbury promoter Chet Helms and Family Dog and this eventually turned into a profitable full-time career and he assembled a talented staff. Graham had a profound influence around the world, sponsoring the musical renaissance of the 60s from the epicenter, San Francisco. Graham was born in Berlin, the youngest child and only son of lower middle-class parents, Frieda and Jacob Yankel Grajonca and his father died two days after his sons birth. Graham was nicknamed Wolfgang by his family early in life, Grahams older sisters Sonja and Ester stayed behind with their mother. After the fall of France, Graham was among a group of Jewish orphans spirited out of France, but a majority, including Tolla Grajonca, did not survive the difficult journey. He was one of the One Thousand Children, those mainly Jewish children who managed to flee Hitler and Europe, and come directly to North America, nearly all these OTC parents were killed by the Reich. Graham had five sisters, Rita, Evelyn, Sonia, Ester and Tolla, Rita and Ester moved to the United States and were close to Graham in his later life. Evelyn and Sonia escaped the Holocaust, first to Shanghai, and later, after the war, once in the United States, Graham was placed in a foster home in The Bronx in New York City. After being taunted as an immigrant and being called a Nazi because of his German-accented English, Graham worked on his accent and he changed his name to sound more American. Graham graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and then obtained a degree from City College. He was later quoted as describing his training as that of an efficiency expert, Graham was drafted into the United States Army in 1951, and served in the Korean War, where he was awarded both the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Upon his return to the States he worked as a d in Catskill Mountain resorts in upstate New York during their heyday. He was quoted saying that his experience as a maître d, tito Puente, who played some of these resorts, went on record saying that Graham was avid to learn Spanish from him, but only cared about the curse words. Graham moved from New York to San Francisco in the early 1960s to be closer to his sister Rita. He was invited to attend a concert in Golden Gate Park, produced by Chet Helms and the Diggers, where he made contact with the San Francisco Mime Troupe
35.
Joe Adonis
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Joe Adonis, also known as Joey A, Joe Adone, Joe Arosa, James Arosa, and Joe DiMeo, was a New York mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families. Adonis was born Giuseppe Antonio Doto in the town of Montemarano, Italy, near Naples, to Michele. In the early 1920s, Doto started calling himself Joe Adonis and it is uncertain as to what inspired his nickname. One story states that Adonis received this nickname from a Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl who was dating him, another story says that Adonis adopted the name after reading a magazine article on Greek mythology. Extremely vain, Adonis spent a deal of time in personal grooming. On one occasion, Lucky Luciano saw Adonis combing his thick, dark hair in front of a mirror and asked him, Who do you think you are, Adonis replied, For looks, that guys a bum. Adonis and his wife Joan had four children, Joseph A. Doto Jr. Dolores Maria Olmo, Anna Arrieta, Adonis was a cousin of Luciano crime family capo Alan Bono, who supervised Adoniss operations in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. In 1909, Adonis and his family entered the United States at New York City, as a young man, Adonis supported himself by stealing and picking pockets. While working on the streets, Adonis became friends with future mob boss Charles Lucky Luciano and mobster Settimo Accardi, Adonis developed a loyalty to Luciano that would last for decades. At the beginning of Prohibition, Luciano, Adonis, Meyer Lansky and this operation soon began supplying large amounts of alcohol to the show business community along Broadway in Manhattan. Doto soon assumed the role of a bootlegger, socializing with the theater elite. During the 1920s, Adonis became an enforcer for Frankie Yale, while working for Yale, Adonis briefly met future Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone, who was also working for Yale. Meanwhile, Luciano became an enforcer for Giuseppe Joe the Boss Masseria, after the 1928 assassination of Yale, Masseria took over Yales criminal organization. Masseria soon became embroiled in the vicious Castellammarese War with his arch rival, Maranzano represented the Sicilian clans, most of which came from Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily. As the war progressed, both bosses started recruiting more soldiers, by 1930, Adonis had joined the Masseria faction. As the war turned against Masseria, Luciano secretly contacted Maranzano about switching sides, when Masseria heard about Lucianos betrayal, he approached Adonis about killing Luciano. However, Adonis instead warned Luciano about the murder plot, on April 15,1931, Adonis allegedly participated in Masserias murder. Luciano had lured Masseria to a meeting at a Coney Island, during their meal, Luciano excused himself to go to the restroom
36.
Wendy Phillips
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Other television series in which she has been a featured player have included A Year in the Life, Homefront and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Among her movie works, there is a role in Airplane II, The Sequel, Phillips was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Wendell Phillips and Jean Shelton, both of whom are actors and acting teachers. Wendy Phillips at the Internet Movie Database Wendy Phillips at AllMovie
37.
Reds (film)
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Reds is a 1981 American epic drama film co-written, produced and directed by Warren Beatty. The picture centers on the life and career of John Reed, Beatty stars in the lead role alongside Diane Keaton as Louise Bryant and Jack Nicholson as Eugene ONeill. The supporting cast includes Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski, Paul Sorvino, Maureen Stapleton, Gene Hackman, Ramon Bieri, Nicolas Coster, Beatty was awarded the Academy Award for Best Director and the film was nominated for Best Picture, but lost to Chariots of Fire. Beatty, Keaton, Nicholson and Stapleton were nominated for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, Stapleton was the only one of the four to win. Beatty was also nominated, along with co-writer Trevor Griffiths, for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Beatty became the third person to be nominated for Academy Awards in the categories Best Actor, Director and Original Screenplay for a film nominated for Best Picture. In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its Ten Top Ten – the best ten films in ten classic American film genres – after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community, Reds was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the epic genre. In 1915, married socialite Louise Bryant encounters the radical journalist John Reed for the first time at a lecture in Portland, Oregon, and she is intrigued with his idealism. Upon meeting him for an interview on international politics which lasts over the course of a night, later, they move to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to concentrate on their writing, becoming involved in the local theatre scene. Through her writing, Bryant becomes a feminist and radical in her own right, Reed becomes involved in labor strikes with the Reds of the Communist Labor Party of America. Obsessed with changing the world, he grows restless and heads for St. Louis to cover the 1916 Democratic Convention, during Reeds absence, Bryant falls into a complicated affair with ONeill. Upon his return, Reed discovers the truth about the affair, the two marry secretly and make a home together in Croton-on-Hudson, north of New York City, but still have conflicting desires. When Reed admits to his own infidelities, Bryant takes a ship to Europe to work as a war correspondent, after a flare-up of a kidney disorder, Reed is warned to avoid excessive travel or stress, but he decides to take the same path. Reunited as professionals, the two find their passion rekindled as they are swept up in the fall of Russias Czarist regime, the second part of the film takes place shortly after the publication of Ten Days that Shook the World. While attempting to leave Europe, he is imprisoned and interrogated in Finland. He returns to Russia and is reunited with Bryant at the station in Moscow. By this point, Reed is growing weaker as a result of his kidney disorder. Bryant helps nurse the ailing Reed, who eventually dies, Beatty came across the story of John Reed in the mid-1960s and executive producer and film editor Dede Allen remembers Beattys mentioning making a film about Reeds life as early as 1966. Originally titled Comrades, the first script was written by Beatty in 1969, in 1976, Beatty found a suitable collaborator in Trevor Griffiths who began work but was delayed when his wife died in a plane crash
38.
Howard Hughes
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Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was an American businessman, investor, pilot, film director, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most financially successful individuals in the world. He first made a name for himself as a film producer, later in life, he became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle, oddities that were caused in part by a worsening obsessive–compulsive disorder and chronic pain from a plane crash. As a maverick film tycoon, Hughes gained prominence in Hollywood beginning in the late 1920s, when he made big-budget and often controversial films like The Racket, Hells Angels, later he controlled the RKO film studio. Hughes formed the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932, hiring numerous engineers and designers and he spent the rest of the 1930s setting multiple world air speed records and building the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 Hercules. He acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines and later acquired Air West, Hughes was included in Flying Magazines list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation, ranked at No.25. Today, his legacy is maintained through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the birthplace of Howard Hughes is recorded as either Humble or Houston, Texas. The date remains uncertain due to conflicting dates from various sources and he repeatedly claimed that his birthday was on Christmas Eve. A1941 affidavit birth certificate of Hughes that was signed by his aunt Annette Gano Lummis and Estelle Boughton Sharp states that he was born on December 24,1905, in Harris County, Texas. Hughes was the son of Allene Stone Gano and Howard R. Hughes Sr. a successful inventor and he was of English, and some French Huguenot, ancestry, and was a descendant of John Gano, a minister who allegedly baptized George Washington. His father had patented the two-cone roller bit, which allowed rotary drilling for petroleum in previously inaccessible places, the senior Hughes made the shrewd and lucrative decision to commercialize the invention by leasing the bits instead of selling them, and founded the Hughes Tool Company in 1909. Hughes uncle was the famed novelist, screenwriter, and film director Rupert Hughes, at a young age, Hughes demonstrated interest in science and technology. In particular, he had great engineering aptitude and built Houstons first wireless radio transmitter at age 11 and he went on to be one of the first licensed ham radio operators in Houston, having the assigned callsign W5CY. At 12, Hughes was photographed in the newspaper, identified as being the first boy in Houston to have a motorized bicycle. He was an indifferent student, with a liking for mathematics, flying and he took his first flying lesson at 14, and later attended math and aeronautical engineering courses at Caltech. The red brick house where Hughes lived as a teenager at 3921 Yoakum St. Houston today serves as the headquarters of the Theology Department of the University of St. Thomas and his mother Allene died in March 1922 from complications of an ectopic pregnancy. Howard Hughes Sr. died of an attack in 1924. Their deaths apparently inspired Hughes to include the creation of a research laboratory in the will that he signed in 1925 at age 19. Howard Sr. s will had not been updated since Allenes death, on his 19th birthday, Hughes was declared an emancipated minor, enabling him to take full control of his life
39.
Clyde Barrow
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Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow a. k. a. Clyde Champion Barrow were American criminals who traveled the central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, robbing people and killing when cornered or confronted. At times, the gang included his older brother Buck Barrow and his wife Blanche, Raymond Hamilton, W. D. Jones, Joe Palmer, Ralph Fults and their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the Public Enemy Era, between 1931 and 1935. Though known today for their bank robberies, the two preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. The gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers, the couple were eventually ambushed and killed by law officers near the town of Sailes, in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Their reputation was revived and cemented in American pop folklore by Arthur Penns 1967 film Bonnie, even during their lifetimes, their depiction in the press was at considerable odds with the hardscrabble reality of their life on the road, especially for Bonnie Parker. Gang member W. D. Jones later testified he could not recall ever having seen her shoot at a law officer, Bonnies reputation as a cigar-smoking gun moll grew out of a playful snapshot police found at an abandoned hideout. It was released to the press and published nationwide, while Parker did chain smoke Camel cigarettes, she never smoked cigars. According to historian Jeff Guinn, the photos led to Parkers glamorization. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were wild and young, and undoubtedly slept together, Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. Her father, Charles Robert Parker, was a bricklayer who died when Bonnie was four and her mother, Emma Parker moved her family to her parents home in Cement City, an industrial suburb now known as West Dallas, where she worked as a seamstress. As an adult, Bonnie found expression writing poems such as The Story of Suicide Sal, in her second year in high school, Parker met Roy Thornton. They dropped out of school and were married on September 25,1926 and their marriage, marked by his frequent absences and brushes with the law, was short-lived. After January 1929, their paths never crossed again, however, they never divorced, and Bonnie was wearing Thorntons wedding ring when she died. Thornton was still in prison when he heard of her death and he commented, Im glad they went out like they did. Its much better than being caught, in 1929, after the breakdown of her marriage, Parker lived with her mother and worked as a waitress in Dallas. One of her customers in the café was postal worker Ted Hinton. As a posse member in 1934, he would participate in her ambush, in the diary she kept briefly early in 1929, Parker wrote of her loneliness, her impatience with life in provincial Dallas, and her love of talking pictures
40.
Bonnie and Clyde (film)
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Bonnie and Clyde is a 1967 American biographical crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the title characters Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. The film features Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, and Estelle Parsons, with Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor, Gene Wilder, Evans Evans, the screenplay was written by David Newman and Robert Benton. Robert Towne and Beatty provided uncredited contributions to the script, Beatty also produced the film, the soundtrack was composed by Charles Strouse. Bonnie and Clyde is considered a film, and is regarded as one of the first films of the New Hollywood era. For some members of the counterculture, the film was considered to be a rallying cry and its success prompted other filmmakers to be more open in presenting sex and violence in their films. The films ending also became iconic as one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history, the film received Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Cinematography. It was among the first 100 films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, in the middle of the Great Depression, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker meet when Clyde tries to steal Bonnies mothers car. Bonnie, who is bored by her job as a waitress, is intrigued by Clyde and they pull off some holdups, but their amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative. The duos crime spree shifts into high gear once they hook up with a gas station attendant, C. W. Moss, then with Clydes older brother Buck and his wife, Blanche. Bonnie and Clyde turn from pulling small-time heists to robbing banks and their exploits also become more violent. When C. W. botches a robbery by parallel parking the getaway car. The gang is pursued by law enforcement, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, a raid later catches the outlaws off guard, mortally wounding Buck with a gruesome shot to his head and injuring Blanche. Bonnie, Clyde and C. W. barely escape with their lives, with Blanche sightless and in police custody, Hamer tricks her into revealing C. W. s name, who was up until now still only an unidentified suspect. Hamer locates Bonnie, Clyde and C. W. hiding at the house of C. W. s father Ivan Moss, the elder Moss strikes a bargain with Hamer, in exchange for leniency for the boy, he helps set a trap for the outlaws. When Bonnie and Clyde stop on the side of the road to help Mr. Moss fix a flat tire, Hamer and his posse then come out of hiding, looking pensively at the couples bodies. Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker Michael J. Pollard as C. W and his girlfriend Velma Davis was played by Evans Evans, who was the wife of film director John Frankenheimer. The family gathering scene was filmed in Red Oak, Texas, several local residents gathered to watch the film being shot. When the filmmakers noticed Mabel Cavitt, a school teacher, among the people gathered
41.
John Reed (journalist)
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John Silas Jack Reed was an American journalist, poet, and socialist activist, best remembered for his first-hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution, Ten Days That Shook the World. He was married to writer and feminist Louise Bryant, John Reed was born on October 22,1887, in his maternal grandmothers mansion in Portland, Oregon, with Chinese servants in todays Goose Hollow neighborhood. He wrote of paying a nickel to a Goose Hollowite to keep from being beaten up, a memorial bench overlooks the site of Reeds birthplace in Washington Park. Johns father, Charles Jerome Reed, was the representative of a machinery manufacturer who had come to town from the East. With his ready wit, he won acceptance in Portland’s business community. The familys wealth came from the Green side, not the Eastern-transplanted Reed side and his parents were married in 1886. A sickly child, young Jack grew up surrounded by nurses and servants and his brother, Harry, was two years younger. Jack and his brother were sent to the recently established Portland Academy, Jack was bright enough to pass his courses but could not be bothered to work for top marks, as he found school dry and tedious. In September 1904, Jack was sent to Morristown School in New Jersey to prepare for college as his father, at this prep school, Jack continued his track record of poor classroom performance, although he did make the football team and showed literary promise. Reed failed in his first attempt on the exam but passed on his second try. Tall, handsome, and light-hearted, he threw himself into all manner of student activities and he was a member of the cheerleading team, the swimming team, and the dramatic club. He served on the boards of the Lampoon and The Harvard Monthly. In 1910 he held the position of κροκόδιλος in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and also wrote music, Reed failed to make the Harvard teams for football and crew, but excelled in other sports of lesser prestige, swimming and water polo. He was also made Ivy orator and poet in his year of college. Reed also attended meetings of the Socialist Club, over which his friend Walter Lippmann presided, still, the club left its impact on his psyche. Reed later recalled, All this made no difference in the look of Harvard society, and probably the club-men and the athletes. Reed chose to work for his fare to Europe on a cattle boat, Reeds traveling was encouraged by his favorite professor, Charles Townsend Copeland or Copey, who told him he must see life if he wanted to successfully write about it. John Reed had determined to become a journalist and he set out to make his mark in the big city in which industry was based
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