1.
Reefer Madness
–
The film was directed by Louis Gasnier and featured a cast of mainly little known actors. Originally financed by a group under the title Tell Your Children. The film was rediscovered in the early 1970s and gained new life as an unintentional satire among advocates of cannabis policy reform, critics, however, have panned it as one of the worst films ever made. Today, it is in the domain in the United States. Mae Coleman and Jack Perry are a couple living together. Mae prefers to sell marijuana to customers her own age, whereas the unscrupulous Jack sells it to teenagers, Ralph Wiley, a psychotic ex-college student turned fellow dealer, and Blanche help Jack sell cannabis to students. Young students Bill Harper and Jimmy Lane are invited to Mae and Jacks apartment by Blanche, Jimmy takes Bill to the party. There, Jack runs out of reefer, Jimmy, who has a car, drives him to pick up some more. Arriving at Jacks boss headquarters, he gets out and Jimmy asks him for a cigarette, later, when Jack comes back down and gets into the car, Jimmy drives off dangerously, along the way running over a pedestrian with his car. A few days later, Jack tells Jimmy that the pedestrian died of his injuries, Jack agrees to keep Jimmys name out of the case, providing he agrees to forget he was ever in Maes apartment. Jimmy does indeed escape the consequences of his crime—a rare occurrence in the film, Bill begins an affair with Blanche. Mary, Jimmys sister and Bills girlfriend, goes to Maes apartment looking for Jimmy and accepts a joint from Ralph, when she refuses Ralphs advances, he tries to rape her. Bill comes out of the bedroom after having sex with Blanche, as the two are fighting, Jack tries to break it up by hitting Bill with the butt of his gun. The gun goes off and Mary is fatally shot, Jack puts the gun in the hand of an unconscious Bill and wakes him up. Bill sees the gun in his hand and is led to believe that he has killed Mary, the group of dealers lies low for a while in Blanches apartment while Bills trial takes place. Ralph loses his mind and wants to tell the police who is responsible for Marys death. The film attributes Ralphs insanity to marijuana use, seeking advice from his boss, Jack is told to shoot Ralph so he keeps his mouth shut. Meanwhile, at the apartment, Blanche offers to some piano music for Ralph to keep his mind off things
2.
Big Spring, Texas
–
Big Spring is a city in and the county seat of Howard County, Texas, United States, at the crossroads of U. S. Highway 87 and Interstate 20. With a population of 27,291 at the 2010 census, it is the largest city between Midland to the west, Abilene to the east, Lubbock to the north, and San Angelo to the south. Big Spring was established as the county seat of Howard County in 1882, the city got its name from the single, large spring that issued into a small gorge between the base of Scenic Mountain and a neighboring hill in the southwestern part of the city limits. Although the name is sometimes still mistakenly pluralized, it is officially singular, there is also a small community named Big Springs, Texas, located in Rusk County in East Texas. United States Army Captain Randolph B, marcys expedition was the first United States expedition to explore and map the area in 1849. Marcy marked the spring as a campsite on the Overland Trail to California, the site began to collect inhabitants and by the late 1870s, a settlement had sprung up to support buffalo hunters who frequented the area. The original settlement consisted largely of hide huts and saloons, ranching quickly became a major industry in the area, early ranchers included F. G. One notable early rancher was Briton Joseph Heneage Finch, the Seventh Earl of Aylesford, Finch purchased 37,000 acres of ranch land in the area in 1883, and is credited with building Big Springs first permanent structure, a butchers shop. More important in the history was the discovery of oil in the region during the 1920s. The early discoveries in the area marked the beginning of the oil industry in the Permian Basin area of West Texas, the oil industry in Big Spring reached its peak during the oil boom of the 1950s. Another major part of Big Springs economy and life during the 1950s, 1960s and it initially opened during World War II as the Big Spring Bombardier School. Following the war, it was converted to a US Air Force training base and was named for James Webb, Webb Air Force Base was active until 1977, when the base facilities were deeded to the city. Big Spring was also featured in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy, the opening scenes featuring Voight, then a relatively unknown actor, playing the character Joe Buck were filmed in Big Spring and the neighboring city of Stanton. In 1980, Hollywood returned to Big Spring with the filming of Hangar 18 and it was a low-budget sci-fi movie about a space shuttles collision with an alien spacecraft and the ensuing government cover-up. It starred such big names as Gary Collins, James Hampton, Robert Vaughn, Darrin McGavin and a host of other B-list actors, including Stuart Pankin, the film received low marks, both in critics reviews and box-office earnings. Despite its poor performance, it became an instant cult classic, appearing on television under a different title, several local residents were used as on-screen extras. Big Spring is the location for the scene of the Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk Till Dawn. In 1999 a New York energy company erected the first 80 meter tower for one of North Americas largest wind turbines for that time at Big Spring, the FAI World Hang Gliding Championship was hosted by Big Spring in August 2007
3.
Santa Catalina Island (California)
–
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U. S. state of California in the Gulf of Santa Catalina. The island is 22 miles long and 8 miles across at its greatest width, the island is located about 22 miles south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is 2,097 feet Mt. Orizaba, Santa Catalina is part of the Channel Islands of California archipelago and lies within Los Angeles County. Catalina was originally settled by Native Americans who called the island Pimugna or Pimu, the first Europeans to arrive on Catalina claimed it for the Spanish Empire. Over the years, territorial claims to the transferred to Mexico. Since the 1970s, most of the island has been administered by the Catalina Island Conservancy and its total population in the 2010 census was 4,096 people,90 percent of whom live in the islands only incorporated city, Avalon. The second center of population is the village of Two Harbors at the islands isthmus. Development occurs also at the settlements of Rancho Escondido and Middle Ranch. The remaining population is scattered over the island between the two population centers, the Tongva called the island Pimu or Pimugna and referred to themselves as the Pimugnans or Pimuvit. Archeological evidence shows Pimugnan settlement beginning in 7000 BC, the Pimugnans had settlements all over the island at one time or another, with their biggest villages being at the Isthmus and at present-day Avalon, Shark/Little Harbor, and Emerald Bay. The Pimugnans were renowned for their mining, working and trade of soapstone which was found in quantities and varieties on the island. This material was in demand and was traded along the California coast. The first European to set foot on the island was the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, on October 7,1542, he claimed the island for Spain and christened it San Salvador after his ship. Over half a century later, another Spanish explorer, Sebastián Vizcaíno, vizcaino renamed the island in the saints honor. The colonization of California by the Spanish coincided with the decline of the Pimugnans because of diseases brought by them from Europe. By the 1830s, the entire native population had migrated to the mainland to work in the missions or as ranch hands for the many private land owners. Franciscan friars considered building a mission on Catalina, but abandoned the idea because of the lack of water on the island. While Spain maintained its claim on Catalina Island, foreigners were forbidden to trade with colonies, russian hunters from the Aleutian Islands, and America set up camps on Santa Catalina and the surrounding Channel Islands to hunt otters and seals around the island for their pelts
4.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Film
–
A film, also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession, the process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. The word cinema, short for cinematography, is used to refer to the industry of films. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film through a photochemical process, the adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the process of production, distribution. Films recorded in a form traditionally included an analogous optical soundtrack. It runs along a portion of the film exclusively reserved for it and is not projected, Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures. They reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them, Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful medium for educating—or indoctrinating—citizens. The visual basis of film gives it a power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles to translate the dialog into the language of the viewer, some have criticized the film industrys glorification of violence and its potentially negative treatment of women. The individual images that make up a film are called frames, the perception of motion is due to a psychological effect called phi phenomenon. The name film originates from the fact that film has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for a motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay. The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field, in general, include the big screen, the screen, the movies, and cinema. In early years, the sheet was sometimes used instead of screen. Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film, scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scène. Owing to the lack of any technology for doing so, the moving images, the magic lantern, probably created by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s, could be used to project animation, which was achieved by various types of mechanical slides
6.
Actor
–
An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
7.
Film director
–
A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a films artistic and dramatic aspects, the director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film, the film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions, there are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors or actors, other film directors have attended a film school. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors dialogue, while others control every aspect. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners, some directors edit or appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films. Film directors create a vision through which a film eventually becomes realized/noticed. Realizing this vision includes overseeing the artistic and technical elements of production, as well as directing the shooting timetable. This entails organizing the crew in such a way as to achieve their vision of the film. This requires skills of leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in the stressful. Moreover, it is necessary to have an eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, thus. Thus the director ensures that all involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges he or she has to tackle has been described as a jigsaw puzzle with egos. It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when, omnipresent are the boundaries of the films budget. Additionally, the director may also have to ensure an intended age rating, thus, the position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. It has been said that 20-hour days are not unusual, under European Union law, the film director is considered the author or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory. Auteur theory is a film criticism concept that holds that a directors film reflects the directors personal creative vision
8.
Screenwriter
–
One famous screenwriter is Jack Rosenthal, who has written for various TV shows over the years, including Londons Burning and Coronation Street. No education is required to become a screenwriter, just good storytelling abilities. Screenwriters are not hired employees, they are contracted freelancers, most, if not all, screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation, meaning they write without being hired or paid for it. If such a script is sold, it is called a spec script, what separates a professional screenwriter from an amateur screenwriter is that professional screenwriters are usually represented by a talent agency. Also, professional screenwriters do not often work for free, whereas amateur screenwriters will often work for free and are considered writers in training, spec scripts are usually penned by unknown professional screenwriters and amateur screenwriters. There are a legion of would-be screenwriters who attempt to enter the industry but it often takes years of trial-and-error, failure. In Writing Screenplays that Sell, Michael Hague writes Screenplays have become, for the last half of century, closet writers who used to dream of the glory of getting into print now dream of seeing their story on the big or small screen. Every screenplay and teleplay begins with a thought or idea, and screenwriters use those ideas to write scripts, with the intention of selling them and having them produced. In some cases, the script is based on a property, such as a book or persons life story. The majority of the time, a film project gets initiated by a screenwriter and because they initiated the project and these are referred to as exclusive assignments or pitched assignments. Screenwriters who often pitch new projects, whether original or an adaptation, when word is put out about a project a film studio, production company, or producer wants done, these are referred to as open assignments. In situations where screenwriters are competing for an assignment, more established writers will usually win these assignments. A screenwriter can also be approached and personally offered a writing assignment, many screenwriters also work as full or part-time script doctors, attempting to better a script to suit the desires of a director or studio. For instance, studio management may have a complaint that the motivations of the characters are unclear or that the dialogue is weak, script-doctoring can be quite lucrative, especially for the better known writers. David Mamet and John Sayles, for instance, fund the movies they direct themselves, usually from their own screenplays, by writing and doctoring scripts for others. In fact, some writers make very profitable careers out of being the ninth or tenth writer to work on a piece, in many cases, working on projects that never see exposure to an audience of any size. Many up and coming screenwriters also ghost write projects and allow more established screenwriters to take credit for the project to increase the chances of it getting picked up. After a screenwriter finishes a project, he or she pairs with a representative, such as a producer, director, literary agent, entertainment lawyer
9.
B movie
–
A B movie is a low-budget commercial movie, but one that is not an arthouse film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, although the U. S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continues to be used in the broader sense it maintains today. In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genre—the Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low-budget science-fiction, early B movies were often part of series in which the star repeatedly played the same character. Almost always shorter than the films they were paired with. The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more handsomely budgeted headliners, latter-day B movies still sometimes inspire multiple sequels, but series are less common. As the average running time of top-of-the-line films increased, so did that of B pictures, the term is also now used loosely to refer to some higher-budgeted, mainstream films with exploitation-style content, usually in genres traditionally associated with the B movie. From their beginnings to the present day, B movies have provided both for those coming up in the profession and others whose careers are waning. Celebrated filmmakers such as Anthony Mann and Jonathan Demme learned their craft in B movies and they are where actors such as John Wayne and Jack Nicholson first became established, and they have provided work for former A movie actors, such as Vincent Price and Karen Black. Some actors, such as Bela Lugosi, Eddie Constantine and Pam Grier, the term B actor is sometimes used to refer to a performer who finds work primarily or exclusively in B pictures. In 1927–28, at the end of the silent era, the production cost of a feature from a major Hollywood studio ranged from $190,000 at Fox to $275,000 at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. That average reflected both specials that might cost as much as $1 million and films made quickly for around $50,000. These cheaper films allowed the studios to derive value from facilities. Studios in the leagues of the industry, such as Columbia Pictures and Film Booking Offices of America. Their movies, with short running times, targeted theaters that had to economize on rental and operating costs, particularly small-town and urban neighborhood venues. A new programming scheme developed that would become standard practice, a newsreel, a short and/or serial. The second feature, which screened before the main event. The majors clearance rules favoring their affiliated theaters prevented the independents timely access to top-quality films, the low-budget picture of the 1920s thus evolved into the second feature, the B movie, of Hollywoods Golden Age. The major studios, at first resistant to the double feature, all established B units to provide films for the expanding second-feature market
10.
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 later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
11.
Pete Smith (film producer)
–
Pete Smith was an American publicist, short subject producer and narrator. A native of New York City, Smith began working as a publicist at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1920s and he later moved into film making. He is best known for his series of shorts, the Pete Smith Specialties, Smith produced and narrated over 150 shorts which earned him two Best Live Action Short Film Academy Awards. In 1953, he was awarded an Academy Honorary Award for his short films, Smiths later years were spent in a Santa Monica convalescent home due to ill health. In January 1979, Smith jumped to his death from the roof of the home, Smith was born Peter Schmidt in New York City. He began his career as an aide for a vaudeville performers union, Smith then worked as an editor and critic for a trade magazine before becoming a press agent. By 1915 he was doing publicity for Bosworth, Inc. followed by the Oliver Morosco Photoplay Co. Artcraft Pictures Corporation, and Famous Players-Lasky and he was one of the founding members of the Associated Motion Picture Advertisers. In 1925, Smith was hired as the head of publicity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by Louis B and he was later recruited to overdub the actions of trained dogs in the studios Dogville Comedies. Smith would go on to narrate the studios sports newsreels, he would embellish the action by running certain scenes in reverse and his distinctively sharp tenor voice and nasal tone were instantly recognizable and a trade-mark of the series. Most of Smiths films were documentaries, typically one reel. Short subjects in this era were part of the studios exhibition packages, along with serials, animated cartoons, newsreels, travel documentaries, etc. Among the diverse topics Smith covered in his films were Emily Post-style household hints, insect life seen through a microscope, military training and hardware. There were even several series-within-the-series, such as lighthearted general-knowledge quizzes, professional football highlights, quirky looks at many different kinds of animals, in the 1940s, movie stuntman and actor Dave OBrien became the primary focus of Pete Smith Specialties. OBriens scenes were shot silent, compelling OBrien to express his satisfaction or frustration entirely in terms as narrator Smith offered get-a-load-of-this commentary. OBrien knew the format so well that he directed many of the shorts. He staged many of the sight gags himself, taking stupendous pratfalls for the camera, many of the laughs generated by the highly ironic voice-over narration were delivered by Smith himself. His somewhat nasal, matter-of-fact vocal style was imitated and parodied, Smith produced and narrated over 150 shorts which earned him fourteen Academy Award nominations and two Best Live Action Short Film Academy Awards
12.
Bebe Daniels
–
Phyllis Virginia Daniels, known professionally as Bebe Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent film era as an actress, became a star in musicals such as 42nd Street. In a long career, Bebe Daniels appeared in 230 films, Daniels was born Phyllis Virginia Daniels in Dallas, Texas. Her father was a manager and her mother a stage actress. The family moved to Los Angeles, California in her childhood and that same year she also went on tour in a stage production of Shakespeares Richard III. The following year she participated in productions by Oliver Morosco and David Belasco, by the age of seven Daniels had her first starring role in film as the young heroine in A Common Enemy. At the age of nine she starred as Dorothy Gale in the 1910 short film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, at the age of fourteen she starred opposite film comedian Harold Lloyd in a series of two-reel comedies starting with the 1915 film Giving Them Fits. The two eventually developed a romantic relationship and were known in Hollywood as The Boy and The Girl. In 1919, she decided to move to greater dramatic roles, deMille, who gave her secondary roles in such films as Male and Female, Why Change Your Wife. and The Affairs of Anatol. In the 1920s, Daniels was under contract with Paramount Pictures and she made the transition from child star to adult in Hollywood by 1922 and by 1924 was playing opposite Rudolph Valentino in Monsieur Beaucaire. Following this she was cast in a number of popular films, namely Miss Bluebeard, The Manicure Girl. Paramount dropped her contract with the advent of talking pictures, Daniels was hired by Radio Pictures to star in one of their biggest productions of the year. She also starred in the 1929 talkie Rio Rita and it proved to be one of the most successful films of that year, and Bebe Daniels found herself a star and RCA Victor hired her to record several records for their catalog. Radio Pictures starred her in a number of musicals including Dixiana, toward the end of 1930, Bebe Daniels appeared in the musical comedy Reaching for the Moon. However, by this time musicals had gone out of fashion so that most of the numbers from the film had to be removed before it could be released. Daniels had become associated with musicals and so Radio Pictures did not renew her contract, Warner Bros. realized what a box office draw she was and offered her a contract which she accepted. During her years at Warner Bros, in 1932, she appeared in Silver Dollar and the successful Busby Berkeley choreographed musical comedy 42nd Street in which she sang once again. That same year she played opposite John Barrymore in Counsellor at Law and her last film for Warner Bros. was Registered Nurse
13.
Busby Berkeley
–
Busby Berkeley was a Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley devised elaborate musical numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeleys works used large numbers of showgirls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances, Berkeley was born in Los Angeles, California, to stage actress Gertrude Berkeley. Whether he was actually christened Busby Berkeley William Enos, or Berkeley William Enos, in addition to her stage work, Gertrude played mother roles in silent films while Berkeley was still a child. Berkeley made his stage début at five, acting in the company of his performing family, during World War I, Berkeley served as a field artillery lieutenant. Watching soldiers drill may have inspired his later complex choreography, during the 1920s, Berkeley was a dance director for nearly two dozen Broadway musicals, including such hits as A Connecticut Yankee. As a choreographer, Berkeley was less concerned with the skill of his chorus girls as he was with their ability to form themselves into attractive geometric patterns. His musical numbers were among the largest and best-regimented on Broadway, berkeleys top shot technique appeared seminally in the Cantor films, and also the 1932 Universal drama film Night World. As choreographer, Berkeley was allowed a degree of independence in his direction of musical numbers. Berkeleys popularity with an entertainment-hungry Great Depression audience was secured when he choreographed four musicals back-to-back for Warner Bros. 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, the aforementioned Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames, berkeleys innovative and often sexually charged dance numbers have been analyzed at length by cinema scholars. In particular, the numbers have been critiqued for their display of the form as seen through the male gaze. Berkeley always denied any deep significance to his work, arguing that his professional goals were to constantly top himself. As the outsized musicals in which Berkeley specialized became passé, he turned to straight directing, the result was 1939s They Made Me a Criminal, one of John Garfields best films. Berkeley had several well-publicized run-ins with MGM stars such as Judy Garland, in 1943, he was removed as director of Girl Crazy because of disagreements with Garland, although the lavish musical number I Got Rhythm, which he directed, remained in the picture. His next stop was at 20th Century-Fox for 1943s The Gangs All Here, the film made money, but Berkeley and the Fox brass disagreed over budget matters. Berkeley returned to MGM in the late 1940s, where many other accomplishments he conceived the Technicolor finales for the studios Esther Williams films. Berkeleys final film as choreographer was MGMs Billy Roses Jumbo, in the late 1960s, the camp craze brought the Berkeley musicals back to the forefront
14.
42nd Street (film)
–
42nd Street is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film, directed by Lloyd Bacon. The choreography was staged by Busby Berkeley, the songs were written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. The script was written by Rian James and James Seymour, with Whitney Bolton and this backstage musical was very successful at the box office and is now considered a classic by many. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, in 1998, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. In 2006, it ranked 13th on the American Film Institutes list of best musicals and it is 1932, the depth of the Depression, and noted Broadway producers Jones and Barry are putting on Pretty Lady, a musical starring Dorothy Brock. He must make his last show a hit, in order to have money to retire on. Cast selection and rehearsals begin amidst fierce competition, with not a few casting couch innuendos flying around, lorraine is assured a job because of her relationship with dance director Andy Lee, she also sees to it that Ann and Peggy are chosen. The shows juvenile lead, Billy Lawler, takes a liking to Peggy. When Marsh learns about Dorothys relationship with Pat, he sends some thugs led by his gangster friend Slim Murphy to rough him up. That, plus her realization that their situation is unhealthy, makes Dorothy and Pat agree not to see each other for a while, rehearsals continue for five weeks to Marshs complete dissatisfaction until the night before the shows opening in Philadelphia, when Dorothy breaks her ankle. By the next morning Abner has quarreled with her and wants Julian to replace her with his new girlfriend and she, however, tells him that she cant carry the show, but the inexperienced Peggy can. With 200 jobs and his future riding on the outcome, a desperate Julian rehearses Peggy mercilessly until an hour before the premiere, Billy finally gets up the nerve to tell Peggy he loves her, she enthusiastically kisses him. Then Dorothy shows up and wishes her luck, telling her that she, the show goes on, and the last twenty minutes of the film are devoted to three Busby Berkeley production numbers, Shuffle Off to Buffalo, Young and Healthy, and 42nd Street. As the theater audience comes out Julian stands in the shadows, hearing the comments that Peggy is a star, plot note In the original Bradford Ropes novel Julian and Billy are lovers. Since same-sex relationships were unacceptable in films by the standards of the era. Nugent as Terry, a chorus boy Robert McWade as Jones George E. Dubin and Warren, the film was Ruby Keelers first, and the first time that Berkeley, Warren and Dubin had worked for Warner Bros. Director Lloyd Bacon was not the first choice to direct – he replaced Mervyn LeRoy when LeRoy became ill, LeRoy was dating Ginger Rogers at the time, and had suggested to her that she take the role of Anytime Annie. Stone as Andy, the dance director, the film began production on 5 October 1932
15.
Western (genre)
–
Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers, Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a. mythic vision of the plains, specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution. The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre, from the early 20th century to the 1960s, Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Fords landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939, Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time – including High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–frontier justice–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, a showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress, similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West, it is the place to go for music, women, gambling, drinking, brawling and shooting. The American Film Institute defines western films as those set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, the term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became an art form. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds, Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era. With the advent of sound in 1927-28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and these smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream star in the wake of a decade of headlining B westerns
16.
Lillian Miles
–
Lillian Miles was an American actress in several films in the 1930s. Miles was born in 1907 in Oskaloosa, Iowa, however, she has something of a cult following nowadays for her performance in the infamous anti-dope exploitation movie Reefer Madness, made in 1936. It is she who appears in the films most remembered sequence, after a role in an Edgar Kennedy short in 1939, she retired from the screen. She died in 1972 in California
17.
The Devil Bat
–
The Devil Bat is a 1940 black-and-white American horror film produced by Producers Releasing Corporation and directed by Jean Yarborough. The film stars Bela Lugosi along with Suzanne Kaaren, Guy Usher, Yolande Mallott and it was the first horror film from PRC. Although described as a sequel, PRCs 1946 film Devil Bats Daughter has no actors, characters or close plot elements from the 1940 film. The story involves a small town cosmetic company chemist Dr. Paul Carruthers who is upset at his wealthy employers, to get revenge, he breeds giant bats. He then conditions them to kill those wearing a special after-shave lotion he has concocted and he cleverly distributes the lotion to his enemies as a test product. Once they have applied the lotion, the chemist then releases his Devil Bats in the night, a hot shot big city reporter, Johnny Layton gets assigned by his editor to cover and help solve the murders. He and his bumbling photographer One-Shot McGuire begin to unwind the mystery with some comic sidelights, the mad chemist is done in by his own shaving lotion, and by his own creation—the dreaded Devil Bat. The shooting of the film began a more than one week later. PRC was known for shooting its films quickly and cheaply, but for endowing them with an amount of horror. Following its theatrical release, The Devil Bat fell into public domain and since the advent of video, has been released in countless truncated, poorly edited video. In 1990, the film was restored from original 35mm elements by Bob Furmanek, in 2008, Furmanek supplied his original elements to Legend Films, who performed a new restoration and also created a computer-colorized version. Both the restored black-and-white and colorized versions were released on DVD. The film was re-released in 1945 on a bill with Man Made Monster. The Los Angeles Times described the duo as two of the scariest features on the market, in the book Poverty Row Horrors. Tom Weaver judges The Devil Bat as one of Lugosis best films for the poverty row studios, the Devil Bat in Poverty Row Horrors. Monogram, PRC and Republic Horror Films of the Forties, jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Co. IMDB link to Devil Bats Daughter, a sequel of sorts
18.
Double act
–
If the audience identifies primarily with one character, the other will often be referred to as a comic foil. The term feed comes from the way a man is wont to set up jokes. Despite the names given to the roles, the straight man need not be humorless. Where the straight man serves no personal comic purpose but acts as a device to make the comic look good and this is sometimes considered a derogatory term. Most often, however, the humor in a double act comes from the way the two personalities play off other, rather than from the individuals themselves. In many successful acts the roles are interchangeable, the template for the modern double act began in the British music halls and the American vaudeville scene of the late nineteenth century. Here, the man was a necessity, as he would repeat the lines of the comic. This was done simply because the audience would be noisy, soon the dynamic developed so that the straight man became a more integral part of the act, setting up jokes to which the comic could then deliver the punchline. At various stages, acts such as George Burns and Gracie Allen, Abbott and Costello, Flanagan and Allen, Gallagher and Shean, the dynamic continued to develop, with Abbott and Costello using a modern and recognizable formula in routines such as Whos On First. In the 1930s and Flanagan and Allen using cross talking, by the 1920s, double acts were beginning to attract worldwide fame more readily through the silent era. However, because of the restrictions, the comedy was not derived from cross talk or clever verbal exchanges but through slapstick routines. The first double act to gain fame through film was Laurel. Before meeting, the pair had never worked together on stage, though both had worked in vaudeville—Stan Laurel with Charlie Chaplin as part of Fred Karnos Army and Oliver Hardy as a singer. Laurel could loosely be described as the comic, though the pair were one of the first not to fit the mold in the way that many double acts do, the pair first worked together as a double act in the 1927 film Duck Soup. The first Laurel and Hardy film was called Putting Pants on Philip though their characters had not yet been established. The first film both appeared in was Lucky Dog in 1917. Indeed, they were one of the few silent acts who made a successful transition to spoken word pictures in the 1930s. The year 1940 saw the release of Laurel and Hardys Saps at Sea, their film for long-term producer
19.
Serial film
–
Each chapter was screened at a movie theater for one week, and ended with a cliffhanger, in which characters found themselves in perilous situations with little apparent chance of escape. Viewers had to each week to see the cliffhangers resolved. Many serials were Westerns, since those were the least expensive to film, besides Westerns, though, there were films covering many genres, including crime fiction, espionage, comic book or comic strip characters, science fiction, and jungle adventures. Although most serials were filmed economically, some were made at significant expense, the Flash Gordon serial and its sequels, for instance, were major productions in their times. Serials were a form of movie entertainment dating back to Edisons What Happened to Mary of 1912. Usually filmed with low budgets, serials were action-packed stories that involved a hero battling an evil villain. The hero and heroine would face one trap after another, battling countless thugs and lackeys, many famous clichés of action-adventure movies had their origins in the serials. The popular Indiana Jones movies are a well-known, romantic pastiche of the serials clichéd plot elements, ruth Roland, Marin Sais, Ann Little, and Helen Holmes were also early leading serial queens. Most of these serials put beautiful young women in jeopardy week after week, the serials starring women were the most popular during the silent period but in the sound era few serials had a female character in the major role. Years after their first release, serials gained new life at Saturday Matinees, for that reason, serials are sometimes called Saturday Matinee Serials, even though they were originally shown with feature films. Many have been released in home video formats, besides the hero or heroine, some terms are used to define villains and supporting players, The saddle pal or sidekick was the helper or assistant of the hero or heroine. That person was often a comic or a more serious. The brains heavy was the man who issued the orders to his henchmen and he often wears a suit, and pretends to be an upright, lawful member of the community. He usually had little to do until the last chapter except talk, snarl, the action heavy is the assistant or second-in-command to the brains heavy who usually wore workmanlike duds, did the physical labor, and often had more brawn than brains. He went from one chapter to the next trying desperately to kill the hero with fists, knives, guns, bombs, or whatever else was handy at the time. The oldtimer was the man who owned the ranch, the father of the hero and often had a short lifespan, as well those that wore a badge of a sheriff, marshall. The middle-aged and older performers who were judges, lawyers, storeowners, wardens, owners of the newspaper, scientists, executives. Famous American serials of the silent era include The Perils of Pauline and The Exploits of Elaine made by Pathé Frères, another popular serial was the 119-episode The Hazards of Helen made by Kalem Studios and starring Helen Holmes for the first forty-eight episodes then Helen Gibson for the remainder
20.
Captain Midnight (serial)
–
Captain Midnight was the 17th serial released by Columbia Pictures. It was based upon the radio serial of the same name broadcast from 1938 to 1949. Captain Midnight was only one of the many aviation serials released in wartime whose leading characters were derived from early pulp magazines and our hero leads the Secret Squadron, whose staff includes Chuck Ramsay who is Midnights ward and Ichabod Icky Mudd, the Squadrons chief mechanic. Shark has developed a highly efficient mercenary organization, being aided by his daughter Fury who is intelligent and second in command, Gardo the henchman and Fang. Unfortunately, Shark is after a new range finder invented by the altruistic scientist, John Edwards, whose daughter, Joyce. List of film serials by year List of film serials by studio AllMovie. com Cinefania. com eMoviePoster. com Captain Midnight at the Internet Movie Database
21.
Kiss Me Kate (film)
–
Kiss Me Kate is a 1953 MGM film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name. Already on poor terms, the pair begin an all-out emotional war mid-performance that threatens the productions success, the only thing keeping the show together are threats from a pair of gangsters, who have come to collect a gambling debt from the shows Lucentio, Bill Calhoun. In classic musical comedy fashion, slapstick madness ensues before everything is resolved, dorothy Kingsleys screenplay, which was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award, was adapted from the musicals book by Samuel and Bella Spewack. The songs were by Cole Porter, with musical underscoring by Saul Chaplin and André Previn, hermes Pan choreographed the dance routines. The movie was filmed in 3-D using the most advanced methods of that technique then available, devotees of the stereoscopic 3-D medium usually cite this film as one of the best examples of a Hollywood release in polarized 3D. Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, a couple, meet at Freds apartment to hear the score for the Cole Porter musical version of The Taming of the Shrew. Lois Lane, who is to play Bianca, arrives and sings Too Darn Hot, Lilli almost decides against performing in the show, as she fears it might interfere with her honeymoon. But when she overhears Cole and Fred promising Lois the part, Lois laments Bills bad-boy lifestyle, but Bills winsome charm soon wins her over, and she forgives him. Meanwhile, after a confrontation during rehearsals, Fred and Lilli get together in Lillis dressing room. Fred later sends flowers to Lois but his butler gets confused, Lilli is overcome by this romantic gesture and falls back in love with Fred. The show gets underway, with Fred, Lilli, Lois, the main body of the play is their enactment of Shakespeares The Taming of The Shrew - the script is largely the same as Shakespeares, but interspersed with Cole Porters songs. In the play, Bianca, the daughter of Baptista, a Paduan merchant, wishes to marry. Bianca has three suitors – Gremio, Hortensio and Lucentio – and each of them try to persuade her to him as her husband. She is prepared to marry anyone, lucentios friend Petruchio arrives in Padua, seeking a wife, and when he hears of Katherine, he resolves to woo her. Katherine, however, hates the idea of getting married, Lilli is so moved by Freds heartfelt delivery of the song, that she cant resist reading the card that came with the flowers, having placed it next to her heart. She sees that it is addressed to Lois, and attacks Fred mercilessly on stage, as the curtain comes down, Fred has had enough, and spanks Lilli. Lilli resolves to leave the theatre with her fiancé, Tex Calloway, she phones him, meanwhile, Lippy and Slug, a pair of gang enforcers, arrive to collect Bills IOU from Fred. Fred decides to accept the IOU and convinces Lippy and Slug that he needs them to help keep Lilli from leaving so the show will be enough for Fred to afford the debt
22.
California
–
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
23.
IMDb
–
In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
24.
Coleman Jacoby
–
Coleman Jacoby was an American comedy writer for radio and television. Born Coleman Jacobs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, his father abandoned the family died when he was young. He was raised at the Jewish Home for Babies and Children from age 7, after studying art, he moved to New York City, New York, where he worked painting murals for nightclubs. He also started writing jokes for comedians, joke writing for Bob Hope and Fred Allen paved the way for steady work in radio. He changed his name to Jacoby on the recommendation of columnist Earl Wilson and he wrote for Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca on Your Show of Shows. Later, after teaming up with his longtime partner Arnie Rosen, he wrote extensively for Jackie Gleason, the team also wrote for Phil Silverss character Sergeant Ernie Bilko for Youll Never Get Rich. Jacoby was married twice, first to Violeta Velero in 1940, from whom he divorced, and later to Gaby Monet and he died of pancreatic cancer in East Meadow, New York. Lists of American writers List of Long Islanders List of people from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area Coleman Jacoby at the Internet Movie Database
25.
George Balzer
–
George Balzer was an American Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, television producer. Balzer was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and spent most of his writing for Jack Benny. He died, aged 91, in Van Nuys, California, the Laugh Crafters, Comedy Writing in Radio & TVs Golden Age. Beverly Hills, Past Times Publishing ISBN 0-940410-37-0 George Balzer at the Internet Movie Database George Balzer interview video at the Archive of American Television
26.
Sherwood Schwartz
–
Sherwood Charles Schwartz was an American television producer. He worked on shows in the 1940s, and created the television series Gilligans Island on CBS. On March 7,2008, Schwartz, at the still active in his 90s, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That same year, Schwartz was also inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, Schwartzs entertainment career came by accident. He relocated from New York to southern California to pursue a Master of Science degree in Biology, in need of employment, he began writing jokes for Bob Hopes radio program, for which Schwartzs brother, Al Schwartz, worked. Schwartz recalled that Hope liked my jokes, used them on his show, then he asked me to join his writing staff. I was faced with a major decision—writing comedy or starving to death while I cured those diseases, I made a quick career change. He went on to write for Ozzie Nelsons The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Schwartz was a writer on the Armed Forces Radio Network before he got his break in television. He went on to create and produce Gilligans Island and The Brady Bunch and he wrote the theme song for three of his shows, Gilligans Island, Its About Time, and The Brady Bunch. Syndication turned his two major successes into TV institutions with cultural relevance and he made them icons, and as a result he became a television icon. During the late 1990s and the 2000s, he made appearances on TV talking about his series, on shows such as the CBS Evening News, 20/20, TV Lands Top Ten. He also took part in a Creators marathon on Nick at Nite in the late 1990s and he was also a guest at the 2004 TV Land Awards. In 1988, Schwartz appeared on The Late Show with Ross Shafer for a Gilligans Island reunion and this was the last time they were all together on television. He also appeared as himself in a 1995 episode of Roseanne titled Sherwood Schwartz, A Loving Tribute, Schwartz was born in Passaic, New Jersey to a Jewish family. His parents were Herman and Rose Schwartz and he was a younger brother of writer Al Schwartz. His younger brother, Elroy Schwartz, a writer, became a principal screenwriter for Gilligans Island. Sherwood Schwartz is the uncle of Douglas Schwartz, Bruce Schwartz, sherwoods play, Rockers, a comedy-drama had a production at Theatre West in honor of his 90th birthday. On a Robin Hood-themed episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, a states that Sherwood Forest is a relative of Sherwood Schwartz
27.
Red Skelton
–
Richard Bernard Red Skelton was an American entertainer. He was best known for his radio and television acts between 1937 and 1971, and as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show. Skelton began developing his comedic and pantomime skills from the age of 10 and he then spent time on a showboat, worked the burlesque circuit, then entered into vaudeville in 1934. The Doughnut Dunkers, a sketch of how different people ate doughnuts written by Skelton and his wife launched a career for him in vaudeville, in radio. Skeltons radio career began in 1937 with a guest appearance on The Fleischmanns Yeast Hour which led to his becoming the host of Avalon Time in 1938. He became the host of The Raleigh Cigarette Program in 1941 where many of his characters were created and had a regularly scheduled radio program until 1957. Skelton made his debut in 1938 alongside Ginger Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks. He was most eager to work in television, even when the medium was in its infancy, the Red Skelton Show made its television premiere on September 30,1951, on NBC. By 1954, Skeltons program moved to CBS, where it was expanded to one hour, despite high ratings, his television show was cancelled by CBS in 1970 as the network believed more youth-oriented programs were needed to attract younger viewers and their spending power. Skelton moved his program to NBC, where he completed his last year with a regularly scheduled show in 1971. After he no longer had a program, Skeltons time was spent making up to 125 personal appearances a year. Skeltons artwork of clowns remained a hobby until 1964 when his wife, Georgia, sales of his originals were successful and Skelton also sold prints and lithographs of them, earning $2.5 million yearly on lithograph sales. At the time of his death, his art dealer believed that Skelton had earned money through his paintings than from his television work. Skelton believed his lifes work was to make people laugh, he wanted to be known as a clown because he defined it as being able to do everything and he had a 70-year career as a performer and entertained three generations of Americans during this time. Born on July 18,1913, in Vincennes, Indiana, Richard Skelton was the fourth and youngest son of Ida Mae, Joseph, a grocer, died two months before Richard was born, he had once been a clown with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. During Skeltons lifetime there was some dispute about the year of his birth, author Wesley Hyatt suggests that since he began working at such an early age, Skelton may have claimed he was older than he actually was in order to gain employment. Because of the loss of his father, Skelton went to work as early as the age of seven, selling newspapers and doing odd jobs to help his family. He quickly learned the newsboys patter and would keep it up until a prospective buyer bought a copy of the paper just to quiet him, when the man asked Skelton what events were going on in town, Skelton suggested he see the new show in town
28.
Carl Reiner
–
Carl Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, and writer of comedy whose career spans nearly seven decades. During the early years of comedy, from 1950 to 1957, he co-wrote and acted on Caesars Hour and Your Show of Shows. In the 1960s Reiner was best known as the creator, producer, writer, Reiner played a comedy duo in 2000 Year Old Man with Mel Brooks, and acted in films such as The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming and the Oceans Trilogy. Reiner has won twelve Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during his career and he is the father of actor and director Rob Reiner and author Annie Reiner. Reiner was born in the Bronx, New York City, New York on March 20,1922, the son of Irving, who was a watchmaker and his parents were Jewish immigrants, his mother from Romania and his father from Austria. His older brother Charlie served in the 9th Divisions 37th Infantry at 11 major World War II battles and had his ashes buried at Arlington National Cemetery. At age 16, Charlie read in the New York Daily News about a dramatic workshop being put on by the Works Progress Administration. His uncle Harry Mathias was the first entertainer in his family and he had been working as a machinist repairing sewing machines. He credits Charlie with changing his career plans, Reiner was drafted into the Army Air Forces in 1943 and served during World War II, eventually achieving the rank of corporal. During language training, he had his first experience as a director, in 1944, after completing language training, he was sent to Hawaii to work as a teleprinter operator. The night before he was to out for an unknown assignment. Following an audition for actor and Major Maurice Evans, he was transferred to the Special Services, Reiner performed around the Pacific theater, entertaining troops in Hawaii, Guam, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima for the next two years. Reiner performed in several Broadway musicals and had the role in Call Me Mister. In 1950, he was cast by producer Max Leibman in Sid Caesars Your Show of Shows, appearing on air in skits while also working alongside writers, such as Mel Brooks and Neil Simon. Reiner also worked on Caesars Hour with Brooks, Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, Mike Stewart, Aaron Ruben, Sheldon Keller, starting in 1960, Reiner teamed with Brooks as a comedy duo on The Steve Allen Show. Their performances on television and stage included Reiner playing the man in 2000 Year Old Man. Eventually, the routine expanded into a series of 5 comedy albums, the act gave Brooks an identity as a comic performer for the first time, said Reiner. Brookss biographer, William Holtzman, called their 12-minute act a jazz improvisation
