1.
Reefer Madness
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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
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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)
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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.
Film
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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
5.
Actor
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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
6.
Film director
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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
7.
B movie
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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
8.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
9.
Busby Berkeley
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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
10.
42nd Street (film)
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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
11.
Western (genre)
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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
12.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
