Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time and was known for his virtuoso technique and speed, he performed with Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Count Basie, led a big band. Rich was born in Sheepshead Bay, New York, to Jewish-American parents Bess Skolnik and Robert Rich, both vaudevillians; as a kid, when he was at a restaurant with his parents, he used the fork as drum sticks. Before he turned two, he was part of his parents' act on vaudeville, but on breaks he would sneak into the orchestra pit and try to get the drummer's sticks, he was on Broadway as Baby Traps the Drum Wonder at age four, playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" on a drum. He was a tap dancer. In his teens he led a band and toured in the U. S. and Australia. At fifteen he became the second highest paid child entertainer behind Jackie Coogan during the 1930s, his jazz career began in 1937 with clarinetist Joe Marsala. He became a member of big bands led by Artie Shaw.
When he was home from touring with Shaw, he gave drum lessons to a 14-year-old Mel Brooks for six months. At 21, he participated in his first major recording with the Vic Schoen Orchestra who backed the Andrews Sisters. In 1942 he joined the United States Marine Corps, he was discharged for medical reasons. After leaving the Marines, he returned to the Dorsey band. In 1946, with financial support from Frank Sinatra, he formed a band and continued to lead bands intermittently until the early 1950s. In addition to Tommy Dorsey, Rich played with Benny Carter, Harry James, Les Brown, Charlie Ventura, Jazz at the Philharmonic, Charlie Parker. From 1966 until his death, he led successful big bands in an era, he continued to play clubs but stated in interviews that the majority of his band's performances were at high schools and universities rather than clubs. He was a session drummer for many recordings, where his playing was more understated than in his big-band performances. Notable were sessions for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong and the Oscar Peterson trio with bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis.
In 1968, Rich collaborated with the Indian tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha on the album Rich à la Rakha. He performed a big-band arrangement of a medley from West Side Story, released on the 1966 album Swingin' New Big Band; the "West Side Story Medley" is a complex big-band arrangement which highlights Rich's ability to blend the rhythm of his drumming into his band's playing of the musical chart. Penned by Bill Reddie, Rich received the West Side Story arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's melodies from the famed musical in the mid-1960s and found it challenging, it consists of many difficult sections which feature 6/8 time signatures. It became a staple in all his performances, clocking in at various lengths from seven to fifteen minutes. In 2002, a DVD was released called The Lost West Side Story Tapes that captured a 1985 performance of this along with other numbers. A live recording of the "Channel One Suite" is on the album Mercy, Mercy recorded at Caesars Palace in 1968; the album received acclaim as the "finest all-round recording by Buddy Rich's big band".
In the 1950s Rich was a frequent guest on The Steve Allen Show and other television variety shows, most notably on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson where he was a frequent guest. Rich and Johnny were lifelong friends and Johnny Carson was a drum enthusiast himself. In 1973 PBS broadcast and syndicated Rich's February 6, 1973, performance at the Top of the Plaza in Rochester, New York, it was the first time thousands of drummers were exposed to Buddy in a full-length concert setting, many drummers continue to name this program as a prime influence on their own playing. One of his most seen television performances was in a 1981 episode of The Muppet Show in which he engaged Muppet drummer "Animal" in a drum battle. Rich's famous televised drum battles included Gene Krupa, Ed Shaughnessy and Louie Bellson. Rich was married to Marie Allison, a dancer and showgirl on April 24, 1953, until his death in 1987; the marriage produced one child in 1954, daughter Cathy, who became a vocalist and carried on her father's band.
Rich was cousin of actor Jonathan Haze. He lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Rich continued performing until the end of his life. In early March 1987, he was touring in New York when he was hospitalized after suffering a paralysis on his left side that physicians believed had been caused by a stroke, he was transferred to California to UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles for tests, where doctors discovered and removed a brain tumor on March 16. He was discharged a week but had been receiving daily chemotherapy treatments at the hospital when, on April 2, 1987, he died of unexpected respiratory and cardiac failure after his treatment for the malignant brain tumor, his wife Marie and daughter Cathy buried him in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. He was 69. Rich had a notoriously short temper. Singer Dusty Springfield slapped him after several days of "putting up with Rich's insults and show-biz sabotage", he held a rivalry with Frank Sinatra which sometimes ended in brawls when both were members of Tommy Dorsey's band.
But they remained lifelong friends, Sinatra delivered a eulogy at Rich's funeral in 1987. Rich held a black belt in karate. Billy Cobham said that he met Rich in a club and asked him to sign his sna
Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane was an American poet and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism, he is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. The ninth surviving child of Methodist parents, Crane began writing at the age of four and had published several articles by the age of 16. Having little interest in university studies though he was active in a fraternity, he left Syracuse University in 1891 to work as a reporter and writer. Crane's first novel was the 1893 Bowery tale Maggie: A Girl of the Streets considered by critics to be the first work of American literary Naturalism, he won international acclaim in 1895 for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, which he wrote without having any battle experience. In 1896, Crane endured a publicized scandal after appearing as a witness in the trial of a suspected prostitute, an acquaintance named Dora Clark.
Late that year he accepted an offer to travel to Cuba as a war correspondent. As he waited in Jacksonville, Florida for passage, he met Cora Taylor, with whom he began a lasting relationship. En route to Cuba, Crane's vessel the SS Commodore sank off the coast of Florida, leaving him and others adrift for 30 hours in a dinghy. Crane described the ordeal in "The Open Boat". During the final years of his life, he covered conflicts in Greece and lived in England with her, he was befriended by writers such as H. G. Wells. Plagued by financial difficulties and ill health, Crane died of tuberculosis in a Black Forest sanatorium in Germany at the age of 28. At the time of his death, Crane was considered an important figure in American literature. After he was nearly forgotten for two decades, critics revived interest in his work. Crane's writing is characterized by vivid intensity, distinctive dialects, irony. Common themes involve spiritual crises and social isolation. Although recognized for The Red Badge of Courage, which has become an American classic, Crane is known for his poetry and short stories such as "The Open Boat", "The Blue Hotel", "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", The Monster.
His writing made a deep impression on 20th-century writers, most prominent among them Ernest Hemingway, is thought to have inspired the Modernists and the Imagists. Stephen Crane was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey, to Jonathan Townley Crane, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, Mary Helen Peck Crane, daughter of a clergyman, George Peck, he was the last child born to the couple. At 45, Helen Crane had suffered the early deaths of her previous four children, each of whom died within one year of birth. Nicknamed "Stevie" by the family, he joined eight surviving brothers and sisters—Mary Helen, George Peck, Jonathan Townley, William Howe, Agnes Elizabeth, Edmund Byran, Wilbur Fiske, Luther; the Cranes were descended from Jaspar Crane, a founder of New Haven Colony, who had migrated there from England in 1639. Stephen was named for a putative founder of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, who had, according to family tradition, come from England or Wales in 1665, as well as his great-great-grandfather Stephen Crane, a Revolutionary War patriot who served as New Jersey delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
Crane wrote that his father, Dr. Crane, "was a great, simple mind," who had written numerous tracts on theology. Although his mother was a popular spokeswoman for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and a religious woman, Crane wrote that he did not believe "she was as narrow as most of her friends or family." The young Stephen was raised by his sister Agnes, 15 years his senior. The family moved to Port Jervis, New York, in 1876, where Dr. Crane became the pastor of Drew Methodist Church, a position that he retained until his death; as a child, Stephen was sickly and afflicted by constant colds. When the boy was two, his father wrote in his diary that his youngest son became "so sick that we are anxious about him." Despite his fragile nature, Crane was an intelligent child who taught himself to read before the age of four. His first known inquiry, recorded by his father, dealt with writing. In December 1879, Crane wrote a poem about wanting a dog for Christmas. Entitled "I'd Rather Have –", it is his first surviving poem.
Stephen was not enrolled in school until January 1880, but he had no difficulty in completing two grades in six weeks. Recalling this feat, he wrote that it "sounds like the lie of a fond mother at a teaparty, but I do remember that I got ahead fast and that father was pleased with me."Dr. Crane died on February 16, 1880, at the age of 60; some 1,400 people mourned Dr. Crane at more than double the size of his congregation. After her husband's death, Mrs. Crane moved to Roseville, near Newark, leaving Stephen in the care of his older brother Edmund, with whom the young boy lived with cousins in Sussex County, he next lived with a lawyer, in Port Jervis for several years. His older sister Helen took him to Asbury Park to be with their brother Townley and his wife, Fannie. Townley was a professional journalist. Agnes, another Crane sister, joined the siblings in New Jersey, she took a positio
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films deserving of preservation. The NFPB, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, again in October 2008; the NFPB's mission, to which the NFR contributes, is to ensure the survival and increased public availability of America's film heritage. The 1996 law created the non-profit National Film Preservation Foundation which, although affiliated with the NFPB, raises money from the private sector; the NFPB adds to the NFR up to 25 "culturally or aesthetically significant films" each year, showcasing the range and diversity of American film heritage to increase awareness for its preservation. A film becomes eligible for inclusion ten years after its original release. For the first selection in 1989, the public nominated 1,000 films for consideration. Members of the NFPB developed individual ballots of possible films for inclusion.
The ballots were tabulated into a list of 25 films, modified by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and his staff at the Library for the final selection. Since 1997, members of the public have been able to nominate up to 50 films a year for the NFPB and Librarian to consider; the NFR includes films ranging from Hollywood classics to orphan films. A film is not required to be feature-length, nor is it required to have been theatrically released in the traditional sense. In addition, television programs and foreign films are not excluded from consideration, although American films are given preference; the Registry contains newsreels, silent films, student films, experimental films, short films, music videos, films out of copyright protection or in the public domain, film serials, home movies, documentaries and independent films. As of the 2018 listing, there are 750 films in the Registry; the earliest listed film is Newark Athlete, the most recent is Brokeback Mountain. Counting the 11 multi-year serials in the NFR once each by year of completion, the year with the most films selected is 1939, with 19 films from that year chosen.
The time between a film's debut and its selection varies greatly. The longest span is 121 years; the shortest span is the minimum 10 years. This table is through the 2018 induction list. For purposes of this list, multi-year serials are counted only once by year of completion. Category:United States National Film Registry films National Recording Registry These Amazing Shadows, a 2011 documentary film that tells the history and importance of the registry National Film Registry homepage Classic Movie Hub: National Film Registry List These Amazing Shadows site for Independent Lens on PBS
Orpheum Theatre (Los Angeles)
The Orpheum Theatre on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles opened on February 15, 1926, as the fourth and final Los Angeles venue for the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. After a $3 million renovation, started in 1989, it is the most restored of the historical movie palaces in the city; the Orpheum has a Beaux Arts facade designed by movie theater architect G. Albert Lansburgh and has a Mighty Wurlitzer organ, installed in 1928, one of three pipe organs remaining in Southern California venues; the Orpheum theatres are named for Orpheus. Soon after it was opened, it was a popular venue for burlesque queen Sally Rand, the Marx Brothers, Will Rogers, Judy Garland and comedian Jack Benny, as well as jazz greats Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. Vaudeville acts were still playing the Orpheum as late as 1950. In the 1960s, the theater held rock'n' roll concerts featuring Little Richard, Aretha Franklin and Little Stevie Wonder; the restored Orpheum Theatre is now a venue for live concerts, movie premieres, location shoots.
The love metal band HIM played there for their live CD/DVD album Digital Versatile Doom. The 2010 Streamy Awards were live broadcast from the theater. Broadcasts of American Idol and America's Got Talent, the Season 5 finale of The Apprentice, the seventh- and eighth-season finales of RuPaul's Drag Race, filming of The Last Action Hero and Transformers were hosted here; the Orpheum appeared as the first venue for the Chipmunks' world tour in the 2007 Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. The Orpheum appears in the 2007 film In Search of a Midnight Kiss, in Hop, David Hasselhoff hosted a talent show contest there; the building's facade appears in Avril Lavigne's music video for "I'm With You". Guns N' Roses filmed part of the "November Rain" music video at the Orpheum in 1992. Brandi Carlile filmed her music video for "The Story" at the Orpheum in 2007 and returned to the Orpheum in 2017 on her tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Story album. Taylor Swift filmed her music video for "Mean" at the Orpheum in 2011.
Broadway Theater District Million Dollar Theater Los Angeles Theatre Tower Theatre Orpheum Theatre website Extensive information about the theatre
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. The first multimedia star, Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, motion picture grosses from 1931 to 1954, his early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dick Haymes, Dean Martin. Yank magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. In 1948, Music Digest estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music. Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary's opposite Ingrid Bergman the next year, becoming the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character.
In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award. He is one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the categories of motion pictures and audio recording, he was known for his collaborations with longtime friend Bob Hope, starring in the Road to... films from 1940 to 1962. Crosby influenced the development of the postwar recording industry. After seeing a demonstration of a German broadcast quality reel-to-reel tape recorder brought to America by John T. Mullin, he invested $50,000 in a California electronics company called Ampex to build copies, he convinced ABC to allow him to tape his shows. He became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape. Through the medium of recording, he constructed his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship used in motion picture production, a practice that became an industry standard. In addition to his work with early audio tape recording, he helped to finance the development of videotape, bought television stations, bred racehorses, co-owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.
Crosby was born on May 3, 1903 in Tacoma, Washington, in a house his father built at 1112 North J Street. In 1906, his family moved to Spokane and in 1913, his father built a house at 508 E. Sharp Avenue; the house sits on the campus of Gonzaga University. It functions today as a museum housing over 200 artifacts from his life and career, including his Oscar, he was the fourth of seven children: brothers Laurence Earl, Everett Nathaniel, Edward John, George Robert. His parents were Harry Lowe Crosby, a bookkeeper, Catherine Helen "Kate", his mother was a second generation Irish-American. His father was of English descent. Through another line on his father's side, Crosby is descended from Mayflower passenger William Brewster. On November 8, 1937, after Lux Radio Theatre's adaptation of She Loves Me Not, Joan Blondell asked Crosby how he got his nickname: Crosby: "Well, I'll tell you, back in the knee-britches day, when I was a wee little tyke, a mere broth of a lad, as we say in Spokane, I used to totter around the streets, with a gun on each hip, my favorite after school pastime was a game known as "Cops and Robbers", I didn't care which side I was on, when a cop or robber came into view, I would haul out my trusty six-shooters, made of wood, loudly exclaim bing! bing!, as my luckless victim fell clutching his side, I would shout bing! bing!, I would let him have it again, as his friends came to his rescue, shooting as they came, I would shout bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing!"Blondell: "I'm surprised they didn't call you "Killer" Crosby!
Now tell me another story, Grandpa! Crosby: "No, so help me, it's the truth, ask Mister De Mille."De Mille: "I'll vouch for it, Bing."That story was pure whimsy for dramatic effect and the truth is that a neighbor - Valentine Hobart - named him "Bingo from Bingville" after a comic feature in the local paper called "The Bingville Bugle" which the young Harry liked. In time, Bingo got shortened to Bing. In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane's "Auditorium," where he witnessed some of the finest acts of the day, including Al Jolson, who held him spellbound with ad libbing and parodies of Hawaiian songs, he described Jolson's delivery as "electric."Crosby graduated from Gonzaga High School in 1920 and enrolled at Gonzaga University. He did not earn a degree; as a freshman, he played on the university's baseball team. The university granted him an honorary doctorate in 1937. Today, Gonzaga University houses a large collection of photographs and other material related to Crosby.
In 1923, Crosby was invited to join a new band composed of high school students a few years younger than himself. Al Rinker, Miles Rinker, James Heaton, Claire Pritchard and Robert Pritchard, along with drummer Crosby, formed the Musicaladers, who performed at dances both for high school students and club-goers; the group disbanded after two years. Crosby and Al Rinker obtained work at the Clemmer Theatre in Spokane. Crosby was a member of a vocal trio called'The Three Harmo
Producers Releasing Corporation
Producers Releasing Corporation was one of the less prestigious of the Hollywood film studios. It was considered a prime example of what was called "Poverty Row", a term applied to a stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood known for being the headquarters of a plethora of low-budget production companies because the rents were cheap. Many of these companies would make only a few low-budget "B" pictures disappear. PRC lasted from 1939-47, churning out low-budget B-movies for the lower half of a double bill or the upper half of a neighborhood cinema showing second-run films; the company was substantial enough to not only produce but distribute its own product and some imports from the UK, operated its own studio facility, first at 1440 N. Gower St. from 1936–43 the complex used by the defunct Grand National Pictures from 1943-46, located at 7324 Santa Monica Blvd. This address is now an apartment complex. PRC never spent over $100,000 on any of them. Most of its films cost less than that; the company evolved from the earlier Producers Distributing Corporation begun in 1939 by exhibitor Ben Judell, who had hired producer Sigmund Neufeld and his brother, director Sam Newfield, to make the studio's films.
After the collapse of PDC the brothers established PRC. Most of the movies made were within the genres of other studios of the 1940s, but at a much lower budget, each took a week or less to shoot, they included a number of horror movies. In 1943 Robert R. Young, a railroad magnate who owned the American Pathé film processing laboratory, acquired the studio. PRC had few star names on its payroll and had to make do with either character actors, stars who were idle or celebrities from other fields. However, the company acquired the services of Buster Crabbe following the expiration of his contract with Paramount Pictures. PRC gave former Miss America Rosemary LaPlanche the lead in two horror films, Strangler of the Swamp and Devil Bat's Daughter, used comedian El Brendel in a pair of comedies. Typical PRC efforts include a sequel, Devil Bat's Daughter. Much like other studios of the time, PRC released a wide variety of westerns, including 17 films in the Lone Rider series, a Billy the Kid film series and The Frontier Marshals, similar to Republic Pictures' and Monogram Pictures' cowboy trio series.
In 1946 PRC produced Gas House Kids, an attempt to create its own version of The East Side Kids. It was followed by two sequels. Mystery series were provided by three Philo Vance films. During World War II PRC made several war films such as Corregidor, They Raid By Night, A Yank in Libya, a pair of films set in China—Bombs over Burma and Lady from Chungking, both starring Anna May Wong—and a flag-waving patriotic musical, The Yanks Are Coming. A notable film for the studio was Baby Face Morgan, a tongue-in-cheek gangster epic with Mary Carlisle, Robert Armstrong and Richard Cromwell, directed by German emigre Arthur Dreifuss. According to B Movies by Don Miller, "Most of the remainder of the 1942 PRC product dealt with gangsters, crime or whodunit puzzles, reliable standbys of the indie companies catering to action and grind theater houses. Baby Face Morgan played it with Cromwell as a rube posing as a tough racketeer. Armstrong, Chick Chandler and Carlisle lent strong support, while it never scaled any heights it was a passable spoof of the genre."Austrian director Edgar G. Ulmer began working for the studio in 1942 and directed three films noir classics there: Bluebeard, Strange Illusion and Detour.
All three—especially Detour—have acquired reputations as artistic achievements. The PRC production Hitler's Madman, directed by Douglas Sirk, was picked up by MGM for distribution, one of PRC's music composers, Leo Erdody, was nominated for an Academy Award for his musical score for tbe studio's Minstrel Man in 1944; the Enchanted Forest was a surprise hit for the studio, was photographed in Cinecolor. The unexpected success of the film led to several major studios filming their own movies in the process. PRC was purchased by Pathe Industries, though the only noticeable change was of the name of the company's production arm to PRC Pictures Inc; the company otherwise continued to flourish within its own element until after World War II, with two series—the Michael Shayne detective series with Hugh Beaumont and Eddie Dean with a series of singing cowboy westerns in Cinecolor, the first western series to be filmed in color. The distribution arm of the company was disbanded with the formation of Eagle-Lion Films Inc. in 1946.
PRC's final production was James Flood's The Big Fix. Madison Pictures Inc. released PRC's product for both television showing and cinema re-releases until 1955. Madison was formed in late December 1945 and, headed by Armand Schenck, a former supervisor of PRC's branch operations and an executive with Commonwealth Film Corporation and Pathé Laborat
New York City
The City of New York called either New York City or New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles, New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural and media capital of the world, exerts a significant impact upon commerce, research, education, tourism, art and sports; the city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of, a separate county of the State of New York. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898; the city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. New York City is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the United States, the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world. In 2017, the New York metropolitan area produced a gross metropolitan product of US$1.73 trillion. If greater New York City were a sovereign state, it would have the 12th highest GDP in the world. New York is home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world. New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan.
The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790, it has been the country's largest city since 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the U. S. by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is an international symbol of the U. S. and its ideals of liberty and peace. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance, environmental sustainability, as a symbol of freedom and cultural diversity. Many districts and landmarks in New York City are well known, with the city having three of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013 and receiving a record 62.8 million tourists in 2017. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world. Times Square, iconic as the world's "heart" and its "Crossroads", is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, a major center of the world's entertainment industry.
The names of many of the city's landmarks and parks are known around the world. Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world. New York is home to the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is the largest single-operator rapid transit system worldwide, with 472 rail stations. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, Rockefeller University, which have been ranked among the top universities in the world. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, the city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. In 1664, the city was named in honor of the Duke of York.
James's older brother, King Charles II, had appointed the Duke proprietor of the former territory of New Netherland, including the city of New Amsterdam, which England had seized from the Dutch. During the Wisconsinan glaciation, 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth; the erosive forward movement of the ice contributed to the separation of what is now Long Island and Staten Island. That action left bedrock at a shallow depth, providing a solid foundation for most of Manhattan's skyscrapers. In the precolonial era, the area of present-day New York City was inhabited by Algonquian Native Americans, including the Lenape, whose homeland, known as Lenapehoking, included Staten Island; the first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown. He named it Nouvelle Angoulême. A Spanish expedition led by captain Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River, which he named Río de San Antonio.
The Padrón Rea
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