Keystone Studios
The company filmed in and around Glendale and Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California for several years, and its films were distributed by the Mutual Film Corporation between 1912 and 1915. The original main building, the first totally enclosed film stage and it is located at 1712 Glendale Blvd in Echo Park, Los Angeles. The studio is perhaps best remembered for the era under Mack Sennett when he created the slapstick antics of the Keystone Cops, from 1912, charles Chaplin got his start at Keystone when Sennett hired him fresh from his vaudeville career to make silent films. In 1915 Keystone Studios became a production unit of the Triangle Film Corporation with D. W. Griffith. In 1917 Sennett gave up the Keystone trademark and organized his own company, Sennett, by a celebrity, departed the studio in 1917 to produce his own independent films. Keystones business decreased after his departure, and finally closed after bankruptcy in 1935, much of the lighting and studio equipment from Keystone was bought by Reymond King - who started the Award Cinema Movie Equipment company in Venice, CA in November,1935.
Keystone Studios is the studio in the film Swimming With Sharks. A new legal entity named Keystone Studios began again during 2005. Keystone obtained its new trademark in 2006, the Keystone Studios lot was an explorable location, as well as a major plot element, in the 2011 video game L. A. Noire, published by Rockstar Games. Category, Keystone Studios films Lahue, Mack Sennetts Keystone, The man, the myth and the comedies, New York, Barnes, ISBN 978-0-498-07461-5 Neibaur, James L. Early Charlie Chaplin, The Artist as Apprentice at Keystone Studios, Lanham, MD, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 978-0-8108-8242-3 Walker, Mack Sennetts Fun Factory Jefferson, NC, McFarland, ISBN 978-0-7864-3610-1 Media related to Keystone Studios at Wikimedia Commons
The Great Dictator
The Great Dictator is a 1940 American political satire comedy-drama film written, produced, scored by and starring Charlie Chaplin, following the tradition of many of his other films. Having been the only Hollywood film-maker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, Chaplins film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, fascism and the Nazis. At the time of its first release, the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany, Chaplin plays both leading roles, a ruthless fascist dictator, and a persecuted Jewish barber. The Great Dictator was popular with audiences, becoming Chaplins most commercially successful film, modern critics have praised it as a historically significant film and an important work of satire. The Great Dictator was nominated for five Academy Awards - Outstanding Production, Best Actor, Best Writing, Best Supporting Actor for Jack Oakie, and Best Music. In his 1964 autobiography, Chaplin stated that he could not have made the film if he had known about the extent of the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at the time.
The action starts in 1918, with the defeat of the Tomainian army, a Jewish barber saves the life of a wounded pilot, but loses his own memory through concussion. Twenty years later, still suffering from amnesia, the barber escapes from his care-home to return to the ghetto. The ghetto is now governed by Schultz, who has promoted in the Tomainian regime under the ruthless dictator Adenoid Hynkel. The barber falls in love with a neighbors daughter Hannah, the storm troopers capture the barber and are about to hang him, but Schultz remembers that the barber had saved his life during the war, and restrains them. Hynkel tries to finance his military forces by borrowing money from a Jewish banker, Hynkel orders a purge of the Jews. Schultz protests this inhumane policy, and is removed from office and he escapes and hides in the ghetto with the barber. Schultz tries to persuade the Jewish family to mount an attempt against Hynkel. Stormtroopers search the ghetto, arresting Schultz and the barber and they are sent to a concentration camp.
Hannah and her family flee to freedom in the country of Osterlich. Hynkel has a dispute with the dictator of the nation of Bacteria, after signing a treaty with Napaloni, Hynkel invades Osterlich. The Jewish family is trapped by the invading force, escaping from the camp in stolen uniforms and the barber, dressed as Hynkel, arrive at the Osterlich frontier, where a huge victory-parade is waiting to be addressed by Hynkel. The real Hynkel is mistaken for the barber while out duck-shooting in civilian clothes, Schultz tells the barber to go up to the platform and impersonate Hynkel, as the only way to save their lives once they reach Osterlichs capital
This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life is an American reality documentary series broadcast on NBC radio from 1948 to 1952, and on NBC television from 1952 to 1961. It was originally hosted by its creator and producer Ralph Edwards, in the program, the host would surprise guests and take them through a retrospective of their lives in front of an audience, including appearances by colleagues and family. Edwards revived the show in 1971–1972, and Joseph Campanella hosted a version in 1983, Edwards returned for some specials in the late 1980s, before his death in 2005. The idea for This Is Your Life arose while Edwards was working on Truth or Consequences and he had been asked by the U. S. Army to do something for paraplegic soldiers at Birmingham General Hospital, a Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California Army rehabilitation hospital. Edwards received such positive feedback from the capsule narrative of the soldier he gave on Truth or Consequences that he developed This Is Your Life as a new radio show. In the show, Edwards would surprise each guest by narrating a biography of the subject, the show alternated in presenting the life stories of entertainment personalities and ordinary people who had contributed in some way to their communities.
The host, consulting his red book, would narrate while presenting the subject with family members, friends, by the 1950s, the show was aired live before a theater audience. The guests were surprised by Ralph Edwards and confronted by the microphone, planning for the broadcast meant that some would find out in advance that they would be featured. For example, Carl Reiner admitted that he knew beforehand about his appearance, stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy was angered by being tricked into what would be the teams only American television appearance, on December 1,1954. Laurel said, Oliver Hardy and I were always planning to do something on TV, but we never dreamed that we would make our television debut on an unrehearsed network program. I was damned if I was going to put on a free show for them. Lowell Thomas displayed obvious anger and embarrassment, when host Ralph Edwards tried to assure him that he would enjoy what was to come, Thomas replied, in 1993, Angie Dickinson refused to appear on a retrospective show.
One of the subjects was Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. During the episode Edwards introduced Tanimoto to Robert A. Lewis, the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, hanna Bloch Kohner, a Holocaust survivor, was a subject on May 27,1953. Roths story became the basis of her 1954 autobiography and 1955 film adaption, Ill Cry Tomorrow, farmer commented on her hospitalization by saying If someone is treated like a patient, theyre likely to act like one. Johnny Cash was caught off guard while filming a 1971 episode of The Johnny Cash Show. He had finished welcoming the audience to the stage when his wife, June Carter Cash, walked onstage and introduced Ralph Edwards, the taping thereafter turned into an episode of This is Your Life. He tried to keep his composure, but was seen to be nervous. It fared well in the ratings during the 1950s, finishing at #11 in 1953–19954, #12 in 1954–1955, #26 in 1955–1956, #19 in 1957–1958, the episode on Hahn was cited as an example of the limited research that the show was doing on its guests
Greed (film)
Greed is a 1924 American silent film and directed by Erich von Stroheim and based on the 1899 Frank Norris novel McTeague. It stars Gibson Gowland as Dr. John McTeague, ZaSu Pitts as his wife Trina Sieppe and Jean Hersholt as McTeagues friend, the film tells the story of McTeague, a San Francisco dentist, who marries his best friend Schoulers girlfriend Trina. Shortly after their engagement, Trina wins a prize of $5,000. Schouler jealously informs the authorities that McTeague had been practicing dentistry without a license, while living in squalor, McTeague becomes a violent alcoholic and Trina becomes greedily obsessed with her winnings, refusing to spend any of them, despite how poor she and her husband have become. Eventually McTeague murders Trina for the money and flees to Death Valley, Schouler catches up with him there for a final confrontation. Stroheim shot more than 85 hours of footage and obsessed over accuracy during the filming, Two months were spent shooting in Death Valley for the films final sequence and many of the cast and crew became ill.
Greed was one of the few films of its time to be entirely on location. Stroheim used sophisticated filming techniques such as deep-focus cinematography and montage editing and he considered Greed to be a Greek tragedy, in which environment and heredity controlled the characters fates and reduced them to primitive bête humaines. During the making of Greed, the company merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Thalberg had fired Stroheim a few years earlier at Universal Pictures, originally almost eight hours long, Greed was edited against Stroheims wishes to about two-and-a-half hours. Only twelve people saw the full-length 42-reel version, now lost, Stroheim called Greed his most fully realized work and was hurt both professionally and personally by the studios re-editing of it. The uncut version has been called the holy grail for film archivists, in 1999 Turner Entertainment created a four-hour version of Greed that used existing stills of cut scenes to reconstruct the film. John McTeague is a miner working in Placer County, California, a traveling dentist calling himself Dr.
Painless Potter visits the town, and McTeagues mother begs Potter to take her son on as an apprentice. Potter agrees and McTeague eventually becomes a dentist, practicing on Polk Street in San Francisco, Marcus Schouler brings Trina Sieppe, his cousin and intended fiancée, into McTeagues office for dental work. Schouler and McTeague are friends and McTeague gladly agrees to examine her, as they wait for an opening, Trina buys a lottery ticket. McTeague becomes enamored with Trina and begs Schouler for permission to court Trina, after seeing McTeagues conviction, Schouler agrees. Trina eventually agrees to marry McTeague and shortly afterwards her lottery ticket wins her $5,000, Schouler bitterly claims that the money should have been his, causing a rift between McTeague and Schouler. After McTeague and Trina wed, they continue to live in their apartment with Trina refusing to spend her $5,000
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA.
It incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters.
Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio based in Hollywood, that has been a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor contracted 22 actors and actresses and these fortunate few would become the first movie stars. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, followed by the Nordisk Film company. It is the last major film studio headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company, hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time.
By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success and its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, the Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film. Hodkinson and actor, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies, Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor, until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation, in 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged the three companies into one, with only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business.
It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, the driving force behind Paramounts rise was Zukor. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg and they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, three years later, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. In 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps, animated cartoons produced by Max, the Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957, Paramount was one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies, and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris
Las Vegas
The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for its gambling, fine dining, entertainment and it is the leading financial and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World and it is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the worlds most visited tourist destinations. The citys tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, television programs, Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century, population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85. 2%.
Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to a 2013 estimate, perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago, a young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, the area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for the meadows, as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers. The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C, frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street is named after him, eleven years members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward, the remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue.
Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres of adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city,1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks and this year witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935, in 1941, the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School was established. Currently known as Nellis Air Force Base, it is home to the team called the Thunderbirds
First National Pictures
First National Pictures is a defunct American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors Circuit, Inc. an association of independent theater owners in the United States, and became the countrys largest theater chain. Expanding from exhibiting movies to distributing them, the company reincorporated in 1919 as Associated First National Theatres, Inc. and Associated First National Pictures, Inc. In 1924 it expanded to become a motion picture production company as First National Pictures, Inc. in September 1928, control of First National passed to Warner Bros. into which it was completely absorbed on November 4,1929. A number of Warner Bros. films were thereafter branded First National Pictures until 1936, the First National Exhibitors Circuit was founded in 1917 by the merger of 26 of the biggest first-run cinema chains in the United States. It eventually controlled over 600 cinemas, more than 200 of them first-run houses, First National was the brainchild of Thomas L.
Tally, who was reacting to the overwhelming influence of Paramount Pictures, which dominated the market. In 1912, he thought that a conglomerate of theaters throughout the nation could buy or produce, in 1917 Tally and J. D. Williams formed First National Exhibitors Circuit. The first film released through First National was the 1916 British film, between 1917 and 1918, the company made contracts with Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin, the first million-dollar deals in the history of film. Chaplins contract allowed him to produce his films without a set release schedule, the production of the feature film The Kid ran so long that the company started to complain. That patience was rewarded when The Kid became a major critical. First Nationals distribution of films by independent producers is credited with launching careers including that of Louis B, adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures was threatened by First Nationals financial power and its control over the lucrative first-run theaters, and decided to enter the cinema business as well.
With a $10 million investment, Paramount built its own chain of movie theaters after a secret plan to merge with First National failed. In the early 1920s, Paramount attempted a takeover, buying several of First Nationals member firms. Associated First National Pictures expanded from only distributing films to producing them in 1924 and changed its name to First National Pictures. It built its 62-acre studio lot in Burbank in 1926, the financial success of The Jazz Singer and The Singing Fool enabled Warner Bros. to purchase a majority interest in First National in September 1928. Warner Bros. held 42,000 shares of common stock out of 72,000 outstanding shares while Fox Pictures held 21,000 shares,12,000 shares were publicly held. Warner Bros. acquired access to First Nationals affiliated chain of theaters, Warner Bros. and First National continued to operate as separate entities. On November 4,1929, Fox sold its interest in First National to Warner Bros. for $10 million, the First National studio in Burbank became the official home of Warner Bros.
–First National Pictures
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American form of entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of skits, variety acts, dancing. The shows were performed by people in make-up or blackface for the purpose of playing the role of black people. There were some African-American performers and all-black minstrel groups that formed and toured, Minstrel shows lampooned black people as dim-witted, buffoonish and happy-go-lucky. Minstrel shows emerged as brief burlesques and comic entractes in the early 1830s and were developed into full-fledged form in the next decade, by 1848, blackface minstrel shows were the national artform, translating formal art such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. By the turn of the 20th century, the show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity. The form survived as professional entertainment until about 1910, amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools, the genre has had a lasting legacy and influence and was featured in a television series as recently as the late 1970s.
Generally, as the civil rights movement progressed and gained acceptance, the typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. The troupe first danced onto stage exchanged wisecracks and sang songs, the second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech. The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or a send-up of a popular play, Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters, most popularly the slave and the dandy. These were further divided into such as the mammy, her counterpart the old darky, the provocative mulatto wench. Minstrels claimed that their songs and dances were authentically black, although the extent of the black influence remains debated, spirituals entered the repertoire in the 1870s, marking the first undeniably black music to be used in minstrelsy. Blackface minstrelsy was the first theatrical form that was distinctly American, during the 1830s and 1840s at the height of its popularity, it was at the epicenter of the American music industry.
For several decades it provided the means through which American whites viewed black people, on the one hand, it had strong racist aspects, on the other, it afforded white Americans a singular and broad awareness of what some whites considered significant aspects of black culture in America. Although the minstrel shows were popular, being consistently packed with families from all walks of life and every ethnic group. Although white theatrical portrayals of black characters date back to as early as 1604, by the late 18th century, blackface characters began appearing on the American stage, usually as servant types whose roles did little more than provide some element of comic relief. Eventually, similar performers appeared in entractes in New York theaters and other such as taverns. Author Constance Rourke even claimed that Forrests impression was so good he could fool blacks when he mingled with them in the streets, Thomas Dartmouth Rices successful song-and-dance number, Jump Jim Crow, brought blackface performance to a new level of prominence in the early 1830s
Venice, Los Angeles
Venice is a residential and recreational beachfront neighborhood on the Westside of the Californian city of Los Angeles. Venice was founded in 1905 as a resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it merged with Los Angeles, Venice is known for its canals and the circus-like Ocean Front Walk, a two-and-a-half-mile pedestrian-only promenade that features performers, mystics and vendors. Venice, originally called Venice of America, was founded by tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a resort town,14 miles west of Los Angeles. He and his partner Francis Ryan had bought two miles of oceanfront property south of Santa Monica in 1891 and they built a resort town on the north end of the property, called Ocean Park, which was soon annexed to Santa Monica. After Ryan died and his new partners continued building south of Navy Street, mostly arriving on the Red Cars of the Pacific Electric Railway from Los Angeles and Santa Monica, rode the Venice Miniature Railway and gondolas to tour the town.
But the biggest attraction was Venices mile-long gently sloping beach and housekeeping tents were available for rent. The population soon exceeded 10,000, the town drew 50,000 to 150,000 tourists on weekends. Attractions on the Kinney Pier became more amusement-oriented by 1910, when a Venice Miniature Railway, Virginia Reel, Racing Derby, and other rides and game booths were added. Since the business district was allotted only three streets, and the City Hall was more than a mile away, other competing business districts developed. Unfortunately, this created a political climate. Kinney, governed with a hand and kept things in check. When he died in November 1920, Venice became harder to govern, with the amusement pier burning six weeks in December 1920, and Prohibition, the towns tax revenue was severely affected. The Kinney family rebuilt their amusement pier quickly to compete with Ocean Parks Pickering Pleasure Pier, when it opened it had two roller coasters, a new Racing Derby, a Noahs Ark, a Mill Chutes, and many other rides.
By 1925 with the addition of a coaster, a tall Dragon Slide, Fun House. Several hundred thousand tourists visited on weekends, in 1923 Charles Lick built the Lick Pier at Navy Street in Venice, adjacent to the Ocean Park Pier at Pier Avenue in Ocean Park. Another pier was planned for Venice in 1925 at Leona Street, for the amusement of the public, Kinney hired aviators to do aerial stunts over the beach. One of them, movie aviator and Venice airport owner B. H. DeLay and he initiated the first aerial police in the nation, after a marine rescue attempt was thwarted
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Charlie Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor and composer who rose to fame during the era of silent film. Chaplin became an icon through his screen persona the Tramp and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, Chaplins childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. As his father was absent and his mother struggled financially, he was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine, when he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an age, touring music halls and working as a stage actor. At 19 he was signed to the prestigious Fred Karno company, Chaplin was scouted for the film industry, and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and formed a fan base. Chaplin directed his own films from a stage, and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual.
By 1918, he was one of the best known figures in the world, in 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length was The Kid, followed by A Woman of Paris, The Gold Rush and he refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights and Modern Times without dialogue. Chaplin became increasingly political, and his film, The Great Dictator. The 1940s were a decade marked with controversy for Chaplin, and he was accused of communist sympathies, while his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women caused scandal. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and he abandoned the Tramp in his films, which include Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight, A King in New York, and A Countess from Hong Kong. Chaplin wrote, produced, starred in and he was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture.
His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramps struggles against adversity, many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. In 1972, as part of an appreciation for his work. He continues to be held in regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times. Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin, there is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London
St. Louis
St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism.
This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste.
In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area
