1.
Kremenchuk
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Kremenchuk, an important industrial city in central Ukraine, stands on the banks of the Dnieper River. Kremenchuk is the center of the Kremenchuk Raion in the Poltava Oblast. In 2015, the city had a population of 225,216 people, the latter concern, one of the oldest railway repair and rail-car building factories in Eastern Europe, dates back to 1869. Kremenchuk was supposedly founded in 1571, the name Kremenchuk is explained as deriving from the word kremen - chert because the city is located on a giant chert plate. An alternative explanation says that Kremenchuk is the Turkish for small fortress, in 1625, at Lake Kurukove in Kremenchuk, the Treaty of Kurukove was signed between the Cossacks and the Poles. During World War II, Kremenchuk suffered heavily under Nazi occupation and it was occupied from September 15,1941 to September 29,1943. More than 90% of the buildings were leveled over the course of the war. 29 September, the day when the city was liberated from the Nazis in 1943, is celebrated in Kremenchuk as the City Day. Despite a remarkable recovery and a healthier economy, Kremenchuk lacks much of the architectural charm and distinctly Ukrainian character of its sister city. During the Cold War, Kremenchuk became the headquarters for the 43rd Rocket Division of the 43rd Army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces, the division was equipped with R-12 Dvina intercontinental ballistic missiles. Oleh Babayev, the mayor of Kremenchuk was assassinated on July 26,2014, oleh Babayev opposed separatism and promoted national unity, prior to becoming mayor he was a member of the Batkivshchyna political party which opposed Victor Yanukovich. His political views and Kremenchuks large industrial base may have been the motivation for the attack, during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine security at the Kremenchuk Reservoir was heightened as it was seen as a possible target for saboteurs. Kremenchuks Ukrtatnafta oil refinery is the largest in Ukraine and the one operating since the beginning of the conflict with Russia that left refineries in the Donbass inactive. Kremenchuk is the center of the Poltava Oblast and one of the leading industrial centers of Ukraine. It contributes about 7% of the economy and accounts for more than 50% of the industrial output in the Poltava Oblast. The light industries of the city include tobacco, confectionery, a factory as well as milk. Kremenchuk is one of the most important railway junctions in Central Ukraine, Kremenchuk is home to HK Kremenchuk ice hockey team who compete in the Ukrainian Championship and the FC Kremin football club. Emmanuel Mané-Katz, artist Leo Ornstein, composer and pianist Avraham Shlonsky, Israeli poet and editor Dimitri Tiomkin, film composer Anton Makarenko, educator, sergey Vashchenko, Balalaika virtuoso and conductor Vyacheslav Senchenko, World welterweight boxing champion
Kremenchuk
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Kremenchuk Кременчук
Kremenchuk
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The Dnieper River in Kremenchuk,
Ukraine.
Kremenchuk
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An avenue in Kremenchuk
2.
Poltava Governorate
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The Poltava Governorate covered a total area of 49,365 km², and had a population of 2,778,151 according to the 1897 Russian Empire census. In 1914, the population was 2,794,727, after the formation of the Ukrainian SSR, the territory was wholly included into the new Soviet Republic. However, on Third of June 1925 the guberniya was liquidated and replaced by five okrugs, Russian Census of 1897, the cities of more than 10,000 people. In bold are the cities of over 50,000, in bold are languages spoken by more people than the state language. By the Imperial census of 1897, in bold are religions with more members than the Eastern Orthodox. The major religion in the region that was virtually the state religion was the Eastern Orthodox with some population following Judaism, other religions in the governorate were much less common
Poltava Governorate
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An old map showing the Poltava Governorate.
Poltava Governorate
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Poltava Governorate Полтавская губернiя
3.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
Russian Empire
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Peter the Great officially renamed the Tsardom of Russia the Russian Empire in 1721, and himself its first emperor. He instituted the
sweeping reforms and oversaw the transformation of Russia into a major European power.
Russian Empire
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Flag
Russian Empire
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Empress
Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, continued the empire's expansion and modernization. Considering herself an
enlightened absolutist, she played a key role in the
Russian Enlightenment.
Russian Empire
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Catherine II Sestroretsk Rouble (1771) is made of solid copper measuring 77 millimetres (3 3 ⁄ 100 in) (diameter), 26 millimetres (1 1 ⁄ 50 in) (thickness), and weighs 1.022 kg (2.25 lb). It is the largest copper coin ever issued.
4.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
London
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Palace of Westminster,
Buckingham Palace and
Central London skyline
London
London
London
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The name London may derive from the
River Thames
5.
Albertina Rasch
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Albertina Rasch was a naturalized American dancer and choreographer. Rasch was born in 1891, in Vienna, to a family of Polish Jewish descent and she studied at the Vienna State Opera Ballet school and became leading ballerina at the New York Hippodrome in 1911. Rasch also helped establish Cole Porters Begin the Beguine as a standard by choreographing it to an ethnic dance in Jubilee. Additional Broadway credits include The Three Musketeers, Show Girl, The Bohemian Girl, The Great Waltz, footage of Rasch filmed for the unfinished Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical The March of Time was used in the MGM film Broadway to Hollywood with Frank Morgan and Alice Brady. MGM also reused her Chinese Ballet from Children of Pleasure in the short film Roast Beef, Rasch was married for many years to composer Dimitri Tiomkin. Following a long illness, she died at age 76 in Woodland Hills, Albertina Rasch at the Internet Broadway Database Albertina Rasch at the Internet Movie Database
Albertina Rasch
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Albertina Rasch, circa 1915.
6.
Duel in the Sun (film)
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The movie stars Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish, and Lionel Barrymore. Pearl Chavez is orphaned after her father Scott Chavez kills her mother, before Scott Chavez is executed as a punishment for killing his wife, he arranges for his daughter Pearl to live with his second cousin and old sweetheart, Laura Belle. Arriving by stagecoach, Pearl is met by Jesse McCanles, one of Laura Belles two grown sons and he takes her to Spanish Bit, their enormous cattle ranch. The second son, Lewt, is a man with a personality quite unlike that of his gentlemanly brother Jesse. He expresses his interest in Pearl in direct terms and she takes a dislike to him. Laura Belle calls in Mr. Jubal Crabbe, the Sinkiller, Pearl is determined to remain a good girl. When she submits to Lewts aggressive advances one night, Pearl is angry with him, but she also cannot help but be flattered by his lust and attentions. Jesse, meanwhile, is ostracized by his father and no longer welcome at the ranch after siding with railroad men, headed by Mr. Langford, against the Senators personal interests. Jesse is in love with Pearl but he leaves for Austin to pursue a career and becomes engaged to Helen Langford. Offended when Lewt reneges on a promise to marry her, Pearl takes up with Sam Pierce and she does not love him but says yes to his proposal. Before they can be married, however, Lewt picks a fight with Pierce in a saloon and he insists that Pearl can belong only to him. On the run from the law, Lewt finds time to derail a train and occasionally drop by the ranch late at night and she cannot resist her desire for him and lies for Lewt to the law, hiding him in her room. Afterward, however, he walks out on her, despite her pleas that she loves him, Laura Belles health takes a turn for the worse and the Senator admits his love for her before she dies. Jesse returns to visit but is too late, his mother is dead, the Senator continues to shun him, as does Lewt, their family feud finally resulting in a showdown. Lewt tosses a gun to his brother but Jesse stands his ground without attempting to pick it up. Jesse warns that Lewt will eventually be hanged as a murderer, the Senators old friend, Lem Smoot tells him that Jesses wound is not mortal and the old man softens up towards his son. A livid Pearl is relieved that Jesse is going to survive, when Helen arrives, she invites Pearl to leave Spanish Bit forever and come live with them in Austin. Pearl agrees, but she is tipped off by one of the Spanish Bit hands and she arms herself and engages in a shootout with Lewt in the desert, where they die in each others arms
Duel in the Sun (film)
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Duel in the Sun
7.
Red River (1948 film)
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The dramatic tension stems from a growing feud over the management of the drive, between the Texas rancher who initiated it and his adopted adult son. The films supporting cast features Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, Coleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Hank Worden, Noah Beery, Jr. Harry Carey, Jr. borden Chase and Charles Schnee wrote the screenplay, based on Chases original story. In 1990, Red River was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, thomas Dunson is a stubborn man who wants nothing more than to start up a successful cattle ranch in Texas. Despite this tragedy, Dunson and Groot press on and that night, Dunson and Groot, keeping watch, hear a group of Indians planning to attack them. They kill the Indians, and on the wrist of one, one day before, he had presented it to his young love as he left the wagon train. The bracelet reappears significantly later in the film, the next day, an orphaned boy named Matthew Garth wanders into Dunson and Groots camp, traumatized and babbling incoherently. He had been part of the wagon train Dunson had left and he is the sole survivor of the wagon train. Dunson adopts him and ties the boys cow to his wagon, with only the bull and the cow, Dunson, Groot and the boy enter Texas by crossing the Red River. In search for land travel through Texas, finally settling in deep South Texas near the Rio Grande. Upon arrival, Dunson proudly proclaims all the land about them as his own, two Mexican men appear on horseback and inform Dunson that the land already belongs to their boss, a Spanish grandee whose family held the land by patent from the King of Spain. Dunson dismisses this inconvenient fact and, thanks to a draw in a showdown, kills one of the men. Dunson names his new spread the Red River D, after his chosen cattle brand for his herd, fatefully, he promises to add M to the brand, once Matt has earned it. Fourteen years pass and Dunson now has a fully operational cattle ranch, with the help of Matt and Groot, his herd now numbers over ten thousand cattle, but he is also broke as a result of widespread poverty in the southern United States. Due to its loss of the American Civil War, the South cannot afford Dunsons beef, Dunson decides to drive his massive herd hundreds of miles north to the railhead at Sedalia, Missouri, where he believes they will fetch a good price. After Dunson hires some men to help out with the drive, including professional gunman Cherry Valance. Along the way, they encounter many troubles including a stampede sparked by one of the men, Bunk Kenneally and this leads to the death of Dan Latimer. The wounded Bunk is sent to make his way home on his own, continuing with the drive, Valance relates around the campfire one evening that the railroad has reached Abilene, Kansas, which is much closer than Sedalia. When Dunson confirms that Valance had not actually seen the railroad, deeper problems arise when Dunsons tyrannical leadership style begins to affect the men
Red River (1948 film)
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Theatrical release poster
8.
High Noon
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High Noon is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, depicted in real time, centers around a town marshal, though mired in controversy with political overtones at the time of its release, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and won four as well as four Golden Globe Awards. The award-winning score was written by Russian-born composer Dimitri Tiomkin, in Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico Territory, Marshal Will Kane, newly married to Amy Fowler, is preparing to retire. Millers gang—his younger brother Ben, Jack Colby, and Jim Pierce —await his arrival at the train station, for Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives, but Kanes sense of duty and honor is strong. Theyre making me run, he tells her, ive never run from anybody before. Besides, he says, Miller and his gang will hunt him down anyway, Amy gives Kane an ultimatum, She is leaving on the noon train, with or without him. While waiting at the hotel for the train, she meets Helen Ramírez, who was once Millers lover, and then Kanes, and is leaving as well. Amy understands why Helen is fleeing, but the reverse is not true, Helen tells Amy that if Kane were her man, Kanes efforts to round up a posse at the tavern, and then the church, are met with fear and hostility. Some townspeople, worried that a gunfight would damage the towns reputation, others are Millers friends, and resent that Kane cleaned up the town in the first place. Kanes young deputy Harvey Pell, who is bitter that Kane did not recommend him as his successor, says he will stand with Kane only if Kane goes to the city fathers, Kane rejects the quid pro quo, and Pell turns in his badge. Kane writes out his will as the clock in his office ticks toward high noon, at the stables, Pell saddles a horse and tries to persuade Kane to mount it and leave town. Their conversation becomes an argument, and then a fist fight, Kane finally knocks his former deputy senseless, then goes into the street to face Miller and his gang. In one of the most iconic shots in film history, the camera rises, the outlaws approach and the gunfight begins. Kane guns down Ben Miller and Colby, but is wounded in the process, as the train is about to leave the station, Amy hears the gunfire, leaps off, and runs back to town. Choosing her husbands life over her religious beliefs, she picks up Ben Millers gun and shoots Pierce from behind, leaving only Frank Miller, Amy claws Millers face and he pushes her to the ground, giving Kane a clear shot, and he shoots Miller dead. Kane helps his bride to her feet and they embrace, as the townspeople emerge and cluster around him, Kane surveys them with bitter contempt, wordlessly throws his marshals star in the dirt, and departs with Amy on their wagon. Foreman had once been a member of the Communist Party, but he declined to identify fellow members, as a result, he was labeled an uncooperative witness by the committee, making him vulnerable to blacklisting. After his refusal to name names was made public, Foremans production partner Stanley Kramer demanded a dissolution of their partnership
High Noon
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1952 theatrical poster
High Noon
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Will Kane and Amy Fowler meet in Marshal's office
High Noon
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Gary Cooper as Marshal
William "Will" Kane
High Noon
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Grace Kelly as Amy Fowler Kane
9.
The Big Sky (film)
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The Big Sky is a 1952 American Western film produced and directed by Howard Hawks, based on the novel of the same name. The cast includes Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt and Arthur Hunnicutt, though not considered among Hawkss major achievements by most critics, the film was chosen by Jonathan Rosenbaum for his alternative list of the Top 100 American Films. In 1832, Jim Deakins is traveling in the wilderness when he encounters an initially hostile Boone Caudill, however, they soon become good friends. They head to the Missouri River in search of Boones uncle and they find him when they are tossed in jail for brawling with fur traders of the Missouri River Company. When Frenchy Jourdonnais comes to bail Zeb out, Zeb talks him into paying for Jim, the two men join an expedition organized by Zeb and Frenchy to travel 2,000 miles up the river to trade with the Blackfoot Indians, in competition with the Missouri Company. Zeb has brought along Teal Eye, a pretty Blackfoot woman Zeb found several years before after she had escaped from an enemy tribe, Zeb intends to use her as a hostage, as she is the daughter of a chief. On the journey, they encounter another Blackfoot Zeb knows, Poordevil, later, Teal Eye falls into the river and is rescued from rapids by Boone. The Missouri Company knows about the threat to their monopoly, one day, it makes its move. A party led by Streak captures Teal Eye and tries to burn the boat, Poordevil tracks the enemy and Zeb and Jim rescue the woman. Later, the expedition puts in at a trading post. A week later, they repulse an attack by Crow Indians, Jim is separated from the group and shot in the leg. Boone, followed by Teal Eye and Poordevil, finds him, extracts the bullet, when they rejoin their band, they find Streak trying to buy the boat and the goods on it. Jim compares the bullet dug out of his leg one of Streaks. Streak and his men are killed in the ensuing shootout, the expedition reaches the Blackfeet and begins trading. Teal Eye tells a very disappointed Jim that she loves him, Boone follows her back to her teepee. When he emerges much later, he is surprised to find out he is now married, however, Teal Eye makes him buy her from her father, so that he can leave any time he wants to. With winter coming on, the men begin the return trip. However, Boone changes his mind and decides to stay with Teal Eye, recorded in London in December 1975, the RCA Red Seal album was re-released on audio CD in 1991 and 2010
The Big Sky (film)
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Film poster
10.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (film)
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Gunfight at the O. K. Corral is a 1957 American western film starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday, based on a real event which took place on October 26,1881. The picture was directed by John Sturges from a written by novelist Leon Uris. The shootout was couched in the movie as a firefight that took place at medium range. The historical event itself lasted only about 30 seconds, and was fought at close range with only a few firearms, in Fort Griffin, Texas, Ed Bailey comes looking to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of gunslinger John H. Seeing him in a bar, Hollidays girl, Kate Fisher, returns to Hollidays room, Holliday refuses to help the lawman, holding a grudge against Wyatts brother, Morgan. Holliday kills Bailey with a knife-throw when Bailey attempts to him in the back. Holliday is arrested for murder, though Wyatt and Kate allow him to escape from a lynch mob, in Dodge City, Kansas, Wyatt finds out that Holliday and Kate are in town. Holliday tells him he has no money, so Wyatt allows him to stay if he promises to not fight while he is in town, meanwhile, gorgeous gambler Laura Denbow is arrested for playing cards since women are not allowed to gamble. She is released and allowed to play in the rooms of the saloon. Wyatt is forced to deputize Holliday because a bank robber kills a cashier, the bank robbers attempt to ambush Wyatt outside of town, but are instead killed by Wyatt and Holliday. Back in Dodge City, Holliday learns Kate has left him for Ringo, Holliday steadfastly refuses to fight him. Shanghai Pierce and his henchmen ride into town, wound deputy Charlie Bassett and attack a dancehall, as Ringo attempts to intervene, Holliday shoots him in the arm. Holliday returns to his room and Kate is waiting for him and she swears she will see him dead. By now, Wyatt and Laura have fallen in love, but when he receives a letter from his brother, Virgil, asking him to clean up Tombstone, Arizona. Holliday catches up to Wyatt on the trail and both head to Tombstone, in Tombstone, Wyatt finds out that Ike Clanton is trying to herd thousands of head of Mexican cattle but cannot as long as the Earps control Tombstones railway station. Morgan Earp criticizes his brothers association with Holliday, but Wyatt insists the gunslinger is welcome in Tombstone as long as he out of trouble. Cotton, the county sheriff from Fort Griffin, offers Wyatt a $20,000 bribe if he allows the stolen cattle to be shipped. He rides out to the Clanton ranch, returning young Billy Clanton to his mother after finding Billy drunk, Wyatt informs Ike that he has been made a U. S
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (film)
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Gunfight at the O.K. Corral / Last Train from Gun Hill film poster
11.
Last Train from Gun Hill
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Last Train from Gun Hill is a 1959 Western by action director John Sturges. It stars Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Douglas and Holliman had previously appeared together in Sturges Gunfight at the O. K. Corral, which used much of the same crew. Two old friends, Matt Morgan and Craig Belden, now themselves on opposite sides of the law. Belden, a cattle baron, is the de facto ruler of the town of Gun Hill. Morgan is a U. S. marshal living in town with his Native American wife and young son. Two young drunken cowboys rape and murder Morgans wife while she is returning with their son from a visit to her father, the boy escapes on one of the killers horses, bearing a distinctive, fancy saddle. Morgan sets off to find the killer and his one clue is the saddle, which he recognizes as belonging to Belden. Assuming it was stolen from his old friend, Morgan travels to Gun Hill to pick up the trail, Belden refuses to turn over his son, forcing Morgan to go against the entire town. He vows to capture Rick and get him on that nights last train from Gun Hill, Morgan takes Rick prisoner, holding him at the hotel. Belden sends men to rescue his son, but Morgan manages to hold them off, in the meantime, Beldens former lover decides to help Morgan. She sneaks a shotgun to his hotel room, the second rapist, Lee, sets fire to the hotel to flush out Morgan. Morgan presses the shotgun to Ricks chin on the way to the train depot, Lee tries to kill Morgan but shoots Rick instead. Morgan then kills Lee with the shotgun, as the train prepares to leave, a devastated Belden confronts Morgan in a final showdown and is gunned down. Dell Four Color #1012 List of American films of 1959 Last Train from Gun Hill at the Internet Movie Database Last Train from Gun Hill at Rotten Tomatoes
Last Train from Gun Hill
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Gunfight at the O.K. Corral / Last Train from Gun Hill film poster
12.
Academy Award
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
Academy Award
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Academy Awards
Academy Award
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31st Academy Awards Presentations,
Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, 1959
Academy Award
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81st Academy Awards Presentations,
Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, 2009
Academy Award
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Pantages Theatre, 2008
13.
The High and the Mighty (film)
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The High and the Mighty is a 1954 WarnerColor American disaster film in CinemaScope directed by William A. Wellman and written by Ernest K. Gann who also wrote the 1953 novel on which his screenplay was based, the films cast was headlined by John Wayne, who was also the projects co-producer. Composer Dimitri Tiomkin won an Academy Award for his original score while his song for the film also was nominated for an Oscar. The film received positive reviews and grossed $8.5 million in its theatrical release. The supporting cast includes Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Stack, Jan Sterling, Phil Harris, in Honolulu, a DC-4 airliner prepares to take off for San Francisco with 17 passengers and a crew of 5. Former captain Dan Roman, the veteran first officer known for his habit of whistling, is haunted by a crash that killed his wife and son. The captain, Sullivan, suffers from a fear of responsibility after logging thousands of hours looking after the lives of passengers. Young second officer Hobie Wheeler and veteran navigator Lenny Wilby are contrasts in age, Spalding befriends the terminally ill Frank Briscoe after being charmed by his pocket watch. A last-minute arrival, Humphrey Agnew, causes the crew concern with his strange behavior, after a routine departure, the airliner experiences sporadic sudden vibrations. Although the crew senses that something may be wrong with the propellers, when a vibration causes Spalding to burn her hand, Dan inspects the tail compartment but still finds nothing amiss. After nightfall, as the passes the point of no return, Agnew confronts fellow passenger Ken Childs. The men struggle and Agnew pulls out a gun, intending to shoot Childs, but before he can do so, the airliner swerves violently when it loses a propeller, the crew quickly extinguishes the fire, but the engine has twisted off its mounting. In mid-ocean, the radios for help and sets in motion a rescue operation. Unassuming José Locota disarms Agnew and confiscates the gun, compelling him to sit quietly, gustave Pardee, who up until now has made no secret of his fear of flying, inspires calm in his terrified fellow passengers. Dan calmly explains the situation, trying to lessen their anxiety, the passengers rally around each other and find changed perspectives about their existing problems. They toss luggage from the airliner to lighten its load, with May Holst literally kissing her mink coat goodbye, in San Francisco, Manager Tim Garfield comes to the airlines operations center but is not sanguine about their chances. Dans experience tells him that their luck would be trying to make land than ditching in the rough seas at night. Sullivan panics and prepares to ditch immediately, but Dan slaps him back to his senses, thinking clearly again, Sullivan decides not to ditch
The High and the Mighty (film)
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Theatrical poster
The High and the Mighty (film)
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John Wayne pushed for the use of
CinemaScope, although Wellman later considered it "bulky and unwieldy" during filming
The High and the Mighty (film)
–
Although Wayne and Wellman had considered
Robert Cummings for the role of captain, Robert Stack got the role after an interview with Wellman
The High and the Mighty (film)
–
Initially a producer, John Wayne was cast in the film after
Spencer Tracy dropped out.
14.
The Old Man and the Sea (1958 film)
–
The Old Man and the Sea is a 1958 American adventure drama film directed by John Sturges with uncredited direction from Henry King and Fred Zinnemann. The screenplay was adapted by Peter Viertel from the novella of the name by Ernest Hemingway. Dimitri Tiomkin won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the film, the same year, Tracy was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The Old Man in the film is a Cuban fisherman who has gone 84 days without a catch and his only friend is a young boy who has been barred by his father from accompanying the Old Man out to sea. On the Old Mans 85th day out, he hooks a huge marlin. For three days and nights he battles the fish, which is portrayed in the film as a trial of mental and physical courage that becomes the ultimate test for him of his worth as a man, spencer Tracy as The Old Man Felipe Pazos Jr. The films budget, originally $2 million, grew to $5 million in search of suitable fish footage, Sturges called it technically the sloppiest picture I have ever made. The credits note that Some of the film used in this picture was of the worlds record catch by Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. at the Cabo Blanco Fishing Club in Peru, Mr. Glassell acted as special advisor for these sequences. Veteran film composer Dimitri Tiomkin composed and conducted the music for the film and his soundtrack recording, with the Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra, was recorded in the auditorium of Hollywood Post No. 43, American Legion, in Hollywood, The Billboard reported that the acoustics in the Hollywood Legion were far superior to most studio space in Hollywood and similar to that of the best concert halls. During the week of April 21,1958, Columbia held open sessions for The Old Man, the soundtrack was later released in both stereo and mono by Columbia Records. Also credit Dimitri Tiomkin for providing a score that virtually puts Mr. Tracy in the position of a soloist with a symphony. And that just about completes a run-down of the aspects of this film. There are, to be sure, some long shots of Cuban villages. Time noted that the script follows the book in almost every detail, according to producer Hayward, Hemingway was pleased with the film, and said it had a wonderful emotional quality and is very grateful and pleased with the transference of his material to the screen. The handling of the fishing and mechanical fish very good, but all in all he was terribly high on the picture and pleased with it
The Old Man and the Sea (1958 film)
–
The Old Man and the Sea
15.
Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
Russian language
–
Russian language street sign in
Russia.
Russian language
–
Russian minimarket in
Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian goods. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
Russian language
–
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter
П.
Russian language
–
The
Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest
East Slavic book known, one of many medieval
illuminated manuscripts preserved in the
Russian National Library.
16.
Ukrainian language
–
Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster
Ukrainian language
–
Miniature of
St Luke from the
Peresopnytsia Gospels (1561).
Ukrainian language
–
Ukrainian-speaking world
Ukrainian language
–
The 1921 Soviet recruitment poster. It uses traditional Ukrainian imagery with Ukrainian-language text: "Son! Enroll in the school of
Red commanders, and the defense of
Soviet Ukraine will be ensured."
Ukrainian language
–
Anti-russification protest. The banner reads "For Ukrainian Children – a Ukrainian school!".
17.
Ukraine
–
Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
Ukraine
–
Gold
Scythian pectoral, or neckpiece, from a royal
kurgan in
Ordzhonikidze, dated to the 4th century BC
Ukraine
–
Flag
Ukraine
–
Principalities of
Kievan Rus', 1054-1132
Ukraine
–
The baptism of the Grand Prince Vladimir led to the adoption of Christianity in
Kievan Rus'.
18.
Paul Ehrlich
–
Paul Ehrlich was a German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. He invented the technique to Gram staining bacteria. The methods he developed for staining tissue made it possible to distinguish different types of blood cells, which led to the capability to diagnose numerous blood diseases. His laboratory discovered arsphenamine, the first effective treatment for syphilis, thereby initiating. Ehrlich popularized the concept of a magic bullet and he also made a decisive contribution to the development of an antiserum to combat diphtheria and conceived a method for standardizing therapeutic serums. In 1908, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contributions to immunology and he was the founder and first director of what is now known as the Paul Ehrlich Institute. Born 14 March 1854 in Strehlen in Silesia in what is now south-west Poland, Paul Ehrlich was the second child of Rosa and Ismar Ehrlich. His father was an innkeeper and distiller of liqueurs and the royal lottery collector in Strehelen and his grandfather, Heymann Ehrlich, had been a fairly successful distiller and tavern manager. Ismar Ehrlich was the leader of the local Jewish community, after elementary school, Paul attended the time-honored secondary school Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in Breslau, where he met Albert Neisser, who later became a professional colleague. As a schoolboy, he became fascinated by the process of staining microscopic tissue substances and he retained that interest during his subsequent medical studies at the universities of Breslau, Strasbourg, Freiburg im Breisgau and Leipzig. He married Hedwig Pinkus in 1883, the couple had two daughters, Stephanie and Marianne. Upon his return he established a medical practice and small laboratory in Berlin-Steglitz. Ehrlich was named its founding director, in 1899 his institute moved to Frankfurt am Main and was renamed the Institute of Experimental Therapy. One of his important collaborators there was Max Neisser, in 1906 Ehrlich became the director of the Georg Speyer House in Frankfurt, a private research foundation affiliated with his institute. Among the foreign guest scientists working with Ehrlich were two Nobel Prize winners, Henry Hallett Dale and Paul Karrer, the institute was renamed Paul Ehrlich Institute in Ehrlichs honour in 1947. In 1914 Ehrlich signed the controversial Manifesto of the Ninety-Three which was a defense of Germany’s World War I politics, on 17 August 1915 Ehrlich suffered a heart attack and died on 20 August in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe. Paul Ehrlich was buried at the Old Jewish Cemetery, Frankfurt, in the early 1870s, Ehrlich’s cousin Karl Weigert was the first person to stain bacteria with dyes and to introduce aniline pigments for histological studies and bacterial diagnostics. During his studies in Strassburg under the anatomist Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer, Ehrlich continued the started by his cousin in pigments
Paul Ehrlich
–
Paul Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich
–
Commemorative plaque at Bergstraße 96 in Berlin-Steglitz, where Ehrlich lived and worked from 1890 to 1899
Paul Ehrlich
–
Ehrlich’s grave in the Jewish cemetery on Rat-Beil-Straße in Frankfurt am Main
Paul Ehrlich
–
Photo of cultured mast cells at 100X stained with
Tol Blue
19.
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
–
The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students, the conservatory was founded in 1862 by the Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. On his resignation in 1867, he was succeeded by Nikolai Zaremba, Rimsky-Korsakov was appointed in 1871 and the conservatory has borne his name since 1944. In 1887, Rubinstein returned to the Conservatory with the goal of improving overall standards and he revised the curriculum, expelled inferior students, fired and demoted many professors, and made entrance and examination requirements more stringent. In 1891, he resigned again over the Imperial demand of racial quotas, the current building was erected in the 1890s on the site of the old Bolshoi Theatre of Saint Petersburg and still preserves its grand staircase and landing. As the city changed its name in the 20th century, the conservatory was duly renamed Petrograd Conservatory, amongst his pupils were German Okunev and Boris Tishchenko. Composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov taught at the Conservatory for almost forty years, the youngest musician ever admitted to the Conservatory was four-year-old violinist Clara Rockmore, who later became one of the worlds foremost theremin players. Anton Rubinstein Nikolai Zaremba Mikhail Azanchevsky Karl Davydov Yuli Johansen Auguste Bernhard Alexander Glazunov A
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
–
Theatre Square and the conservatory in 1913
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
–
Graduates of the
Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg Conservatory include
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Sergey Prokofiev,
Dmitri Shostakovich, and
George Balanchine.
20.
Felix Blumenfeld
–
Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld was a Russian composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher. He then taught there himself from 1885 until 1918, whilst also serving as conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre until 1911. This theatre saw the premieres of the operas composed by his teacher and mentor Rimsky-Korsakov, in 1908, he conducted the Paris premiere of Modest Mussorgskys opera Boris Godunov. From 1918 to 1922, he was the director of the Music-drama school of Mykola Lysenko in Kiev and he returned to the Moscow Conservatory in 1922, teaching there until his death. Other famous pupils of his include Simon Barere, Maria Yudina, as a pianist, he played many of the compositions of his Russian contemporaries. His compositions, which showed the influence of Frédéric Chopin and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, include a symphony, pieces for piano, an Allegro de Concert for piano and orchestra. His virtuoso pieces for piano in particular are enjoying something of a renaissance in recent years and he was the uncle of Heinrich Neuhaus and first cousin, once removed of Karol Szymanowski. Free scores by Felix Blumenfeld at the International Music Score Library Project
Felix Blumenfeld
–
Felix Blumenfeld
21.
Vladimir Horowitz
–
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-born American classical pianist and composer. He was acclaimed for his technique, his tone color. He is recognized as one of the greatest pianists of all time, Vladimir Horowitz was born in Kiev in the Russian Empire. There are unsubstantiated claims that Horowitz was born in Berdychiv, however, Horowitz was the youngest of four children of Samuil Horowitz and Sophia Bodik, who were assimilated Jews. Samuil was an electrical engineer and a distributor of electric motors for German manufacturers. Horowitzs grandfather Joachim was a merchant, belonging to the 1st Guild and this status gave exemption from having to reside in the Pale of Settlement. The 1904 date appeared in reference works during the pianists lifetime. Horowitzs uncle, Alexander, was a pupil and close friend of Alexander Scriabin, as a 10-year-old boy, it was arranged for Horowitz to play for Scriabin, who afterwards informed his parents that he was extremely talented. Horowitz received piano instruction from an age, initially from his mother. In 1912 he entered the Kiev Conservatory, where he was taught by Vladimir Puchalsky, Sergei Tarnowsky and his first solo recital was in Kharkiv in 1920. Horowitzs fame grew, and he began to tour Russia where he was often paid with bread, butter and chocolate rather than money. During the 1922–1923 season, he performed 23 concerts of different programs in Petrograd alone. In December 1925, Horowitz immigrated to the West, ostensibly to study with Artur Schnabel in Berlin, privately intending not to return, the 22-year-old pianist had stuffed American dollars and British pound notes into his shoes to finance his initial concerts. On December 18,1925, Horowitz made his first appearance outside his home country and he later played in Paris, London, and New York City. Horowitz gave his United States debut on January 12,1928 and he played Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto No.1 under the direction of Sir Thomas Beecham, who was also making his U. S. debut. Horowitz later commented that he and Beecham had divergent ideas regarding tempos, Horowitzs rapport with his audience was phenomenal. In this debut performance, Horowitz demonstrated an ability to excite his audience. As Downes commented, it has been years since a pianist created such a furor with an audience in this city, in his review of Horowitzs solo recital, Downes characterized the pianists playing as showing most if not all the traits of a great interpreter
Vladimir Horowitz
–
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
–
Horowitz in 1931
Vladimir Horowitz
–
Horowitz in 1986
Vladimir Horowitz
–
While
Wanda looks on, Horowitz receives the
Presidential Medal of Freedom from President
Ronald Reagan and First Lady
Nancy Reagan (presenting it to him)
22.
Alexander Glazunov
–
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He continued heading the Conservatory until 1930, though he had left the Soviet Union in 1928, the best-known student under his tenure during the early Soviet years was Dmitri Shostakovich. Glazunov was significant in that he successfully reconciled nationalism and cosmopolitanism in Russian music, while he was the direct successor to Balakirevs nationalism, he tended more towards Borodins epic grandeur while absorbing a number of other influences. These included Rimsky-Korsakovs orchestral virtuosity, Tchaikovskys lyricism and Taneyevs contrapuntal skill, Glazunov was born in Saint Petersburg, the son of a wealthy publisher. He began studying piano at the age of nine and began composing at 11, mily Balakirev, former leader of the nationalist group The Five, recognized Glazunovs talent and brought his work to the attention of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Casually Balakirev once brought me the composition of a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old high-school student and it was an orchestral score written in childish fashion. The boys talent was indubitably clear, Balakirev introduced him to Rimsky-Korsakov shortly afterwards, in December 1879. Rimsky-Korsakov premiered this work in 1882, when Glazunov was 16, Borodin and Stasov, among others, lavishly praised both the work and its composer. Rimsky-Korsakov taught Glazunov as a private student and his musical development progressed not by the day, but literally by the hour, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote. The nature of their relationship also changed, by the spring of 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov considered Glazunov more of a junior colleague than a student. More important than this praise was that among the works admirers was a timber merchant. Belyayev was introduced to Glazunovs music by Anatoly Lyadov and would take a keen interest in the musical future. Belyayev took Glazunov on a trip to Western Europe in 1884, Glazunov met Liszt in Weimar, where Glazunovs First Symphony was performed. Also in 1884, Belyayev rented out a hall and hired an orchestra to play Glazunovs First Symphony plus an orchestral suite Glazunov had just composed. Buoyed by the success of the rehearsal, Belyayev decided the following season to give a concert of works by Glazunov. This project grew into the Russian Symphony Concerts, which were inaugurated during the 1886–1887 season, in 1885 Belyayev started his own publishing house in Leipzig, Germany, initially publishing music by Glazunov, Lyadov, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin at his own expense. Young composers started appealing for his help, to help select from their offerings, Belyayev asked Glazunov to serve with Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov on an advisory council. The group of composers that formed eventually became known at the Belyayev Circle and he had a creative crisis in 1890–1891
Alexander Glazunov
–
Portrait of Glazunov by
Ilya Repin, 1887
Alexander Glazunov
–
Portrait of
Mitrofan Belyayev by
Ilya Repin (1886)
Alexander Glazunov
–
Alexander Glazunov
23.
Sergei Prokofiev
–
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. Prokofievs greatest interest, however, was opera, and he composed works in that genre, including The Gambler. Prokofievs one operatic success during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges, composed for the Chicago Opera and subsequently performed over the decade in Europe. During that time he married a Spanish singer, Carolina Codina, in the early 1930s, the Great Depression diminished opportunities for Prokofievs ballets and operas to be staged in America and western Europe. He enjoyed some success there – notably with Lieutenant Kijé, Peter and the Wolf, Romeo and Juliet, the Nazi invasion of the USSR spurred him to compose his most ambitious work, an operatic version of Leo Tolstoys War and Peace. Prokofiev was born in 1891 in Sontsovka, a rural estate in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father, Sergei Alexeyevich Prokofiev, was an agronomist, Prokofievs mother, Maria, came from a family of former serfs who had been owned by the Sheremetev family, under whose patronage serf-children were taught theatre and arts from an early age. She was described by Reinhold Glière as a woman with beautiful. Who knew how to create an atmosphere of warmth and simplicity about her, after their wedding in the summer of 1877, the Prokofievs had moved to a small estate in the Smolensk governorate. Eventually Sergei Alexeyevich found employment as a engineer, employed by one of his former fellow-students, Dmitri Sontsov. By seven, he had learned to play chess. At the age of nine, he was composing his first opera, The Giant, as well as an overture, unable to arrange that, Tanayev instead arranged for composer and pianist Reinhold Glière to spend the summer of 1902 in Sontsovka teaching Prokofiev. The first series of lessons culminated, at the 11-year-old Prokofievs insistence, the following summer, Glière revisited Sontsovka to give further tuition. By 1904, his mother had decided instead on Saint Petersburg, glazunov was so impressed that he urged Prokofievs mother to have her son apply for admission to the Conservatory. He passed the tests and enrolled that year. Several years younger than most of his class, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant and he also shared classes with the composers Boris Asafyev and Nikolai Myaskovsky, the latter becoming a relatively close and lifelong friend. As a member of the Saint Petersburg music scene, Prokofiev developed a reputation as a rebel, while getting praise for his original compositions
Sergei Prokofiev
–
Sergei Prokofiev in New York, 1918
Sergei Prokofiev
–
Prokofiev as drawn by
Henri Matisse for the premiere of
Chout (1921)
Sergei Prokofiev
–
Prokofiev and his second wife, Mira Mendelson
Sergei Prokofiev
–
Sergei Prokofiev with
Mstislav Rostropovich
24.
Dmitri Shostakovich
–
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Russian pianist and composer of the Soviet period. He is regarded as one of the composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. A polystylist, Shostakovich developed a voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his works. Shostakovichs orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti and his chamber output includes 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, two piano trios, and two pieces for string octet. His solo piano works include two sonatas, an set of preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Born at Podolskaya street in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Shostakovich was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, Shostakovichs paternal grandfather, originally surnamed Szostakowicz, was of Polish Roman Catholic descent, but his immediate forebears came from Siberia. When his term of exile ended, Szostakowicz decided to remain in Siberia and he eventually became a successful banker in Irkutsk and raised a large family. His son, Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, the father, was born in exile in Narim in 1875 and studied physics and mathematics in Saint Petersburg University. He then went to work as an engineer under Dmitri Mendeleev at the Bureau of Weights, in 1903 he married another Siberian transplant to the capital, Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, one of six children born to a Russian Siberian native. Their son, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, displayed significant musical talent after he began lessons with his mother at the age of nine. In 1918 he wrote a march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet party, murdered by Bolshevik sailors. In 1919, at the age of thirteen, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory, then headed by Alexander Glazunov, Shostakovich also attended Alexander Ossovskys history of music classes. Steinberg tried to guide Shostakovich in the path of the great Russian composers and he also suffered for his perceived lack of political zeal, and initially failed his exam in Marxist methodology in 1926. His first major achievement was the First Symphony, written as his graduation piece at the age of nineteen. After graduation, Shostakovich initially embarked on a career as concert pianist and composer. He nevertheless won a mention at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927. He explained the disappointment at the competition to suffering from appendicitis and he later had his appendix removed in April 1927
Dmitri Shostakovich
–
Dmitri Shostakovich in 1950
Dmitri Shostakovich
–
Birthplace of Shostakovich (now School No. 267). Commemorative plaque at left
Dmitri Shostakovich
–
Shostakovich in 1925
Dmitri Shostakovich
–
Muddle instead of music, article published on Pravda on January 18, 1936, harshly criticizing Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
25.
May Day
–
May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on May 1. It is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the celebrations that the day includes, in the late 19th century, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers Day may also be referred to as May Day and it is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane, most commonly held on April 30. The day was a summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of spring, May 1 was the first day of summer, hence, as Europe became Christianised, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and May Day changed into a popular secular celebration. A significant celebration of May Day occurs in Germany where it is one of days on which St. Walburga. The secular versions of May Day, observed in Europe and America, may be best known for their traditions of dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of May baskets, small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours doorsteps. May 1 is also one of two feast days of the Catholic patron saint of workers St Joseph the Worker, a carpenter, husband to Mother Mary, and surrogate father of Jesus. Replacing another feast to St. Joseph, this date was chosen by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counterpoint to the communist International Workers Day celebrations on May Day. In the late 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing traditions, traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a maypole. Historically, Morris dancing has been linked to May Day celebrations, much of this tradition derives from the pagan Anglo-Saxon customs held during Þrimilci-mōnaþ along with many Celtic traditions. May Day has been a day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes, seeding has been completed by this date and it was convenient to give farm labourers a day off. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons, the spring bank holiday on the first Monday in May was created in 1978, May Day itself – May 1 – is not a public holiday in England. Unlike the other Bank Holidays and common law holidays, the first Monday in May is taken off from schools by itself and this is because it has no Christian significance and does not otherwise fit into the usual school holiday pattern. May Day was abolished and its celebration banned by Puritan parliaments during the Interregnum, may 1,1707, was the day the Act of Union came into effect, joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain
May Day
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Maypole dancing at Bishopstone Church,
Sussex, UK.
May Day
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May Queen on village green,
Melmerby, England
May Day
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Morris dancing on May Day in
Oxford, England, in 2004.
May Day
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May blossom, the flower of the
May tree or common hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna
26.
Russian Revolution (1917)
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The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, in the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state. The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Petrograd, then capital of Russia, in the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, the February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War, which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny. During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many strikes, when the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their control into the Red Guards over which they exerted substantial control, the Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, soon after, civil war erupted among the Reds, the Whites, the independence movements and the non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the Russian Revolution of 1905 was said to be a major factor to the February Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered a line of protests, a council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in all this chaos, and the beginning of a communist political protest had begun. World War I prompted a Russian outcry directed at Tsar Nicholas II and it was another major factor contributing to the retaliation of the Russian Communists against their royal opponents. However, the problems were merely administrative, and not industrial as Germany was producing great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts, the war also developed a weariness in the city, owing to a lack of food in response to the disruption of agriculture. Food scarcity had become a problem in Russia, but the cause of this did not lie in any failure of the harvests. As a result, they tended to hoard their grain and to revert to subsistence farming, thus the cities were constantly short of food. At the same time rising prices led to demands for wages in the factories. The outcome of all this, however, was a criticism of the government rather than any war-weariness. The original fever of excitement, which had caused the name of St. Heavy losses during the war also strengthened thoughts that Tsar Nicholas II was unfit to rule, the Liberals were now better placed to voice their complaints, since they were participating more fully through a variety of voluntary organizations
Russian Revolution (1917)
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Bolshevik forces marching on
Red Square
Russian Revolution (1917)
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Soldiers blocking
Narva Gate on
Bloody Sunday
Russian Revolution (1917)
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Russian soldiers marching in Petrograd in February 1917
Russian Revolution (1917)
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The Petrograd Soviet Assembly meeting in 1917
27.
Ferruccio Busoni
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Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. Busoni was born in Empoli, just south of Florence, he was the son of professional musicians, initially trained by his father, he later studied at the Vienna Conservatory and then with Wilhelm Mayer and Carl Reinecke. In the ensuing years, after brief periods teaching in Helsinki and Moscow, he devoted himself to composing, teaching, and touring as a virtuoso pianist in Europe and his writings on music were influential, they covered not only aesthetics but considerations of microtones and other innovative topics. He was based in Berlin from 1894 but spent much of World War I in Switzerland, Busoni was an outstanding pianist from an early age. His visits to America led to interest in North American indigenous tribal melodies which were reflected in some of his works. His compositions include works for piano, including a monumental Piano Concerto and his other compositions include chamber music, vocal and orchestral works, and also operas, one of which, Doktor Faust, was left unfinished at the time of his death. Busoni died in Berlin at the age of 58, Busoni was born in the Tuscan town of Empoli, the only child of two professional musicians, Ferdinando, a clarinettist, and Anna, a pianist. The family shortly moved to Trieste. A child prodigy, largely taught by his father, he began performing and composing at the age of seven, commercially promoted by his parents in a series of further concerts, he was later to say I never had a childhood. In 1875 he made his concerto début playing Mozarts Piano Concerto No.24, from the ages of nine to eleven, with the help of a patron, Busoni studied at the Vienna Conservatory. His first performances in Vienna were glowingly received by the critic Eduard Hanslick, in 1877 he heard the playing of Franz Liszt, and was introduced to the composer who admired his performance. In the following year he composed a four-movement concerto for piano, leaving Vienna he had a brief period of study in Graz with Wilhelm Mayer, and conducted a performance of his own composition Stabat Mater, Op.55 in the composers initial numbering sequence, in 1879. Other early pieces were published at time, including settings of Ave Maria. Busoni was elected in 1881 to the Accademia Filharmonica of Bologna, in the mid 1880s he was based in Vienna where he met with Karl Goldmark and helped to prepare the vocal score for the latters 1886 opera, Merlin. He also met Johannes Brahms, to whom he dedicated two sets of piano Etudes, and who recommended him to study in Leipzig with Carl Reinecke. During this period he supported himself by giving recitals, and also by the support of a patron. He also continued to compose, and made his first attempt at an opera, Sigune, in a letter he describes how, finding himself penniless in Leipzig, he appealed to the publisher Schwalm to take his compositions. Schwalm demurred but said he would commission a fantasy on Peter Corneliuss opera The Barber of Baghdad for fifty marks down, and a hundred on completion
Ferruccio Busoni
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Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
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Commemorative plate in Berlin
Ferruccio Busoni
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Portrait of Ferruccio Busoni, 1916 by
Umberto Boccioni Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome
Ferruccio Busoni
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Ferruccio Busoni.
28.
Egon Petri
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Egon Petri was a classical pianist. Egon Petris family was Dutch, he was born a Dutch citizen, but in Hanover, Germany, and grew up in Dresden and his father, a professional violinist, taught him to play the violin. While still a teen, Petri played with the Dresden Court Orchestra and he studied composition and theory with Hermann Kretzschmar and Felix Draeseke at the Dresden Conservatory. From an early age Petri had also taken piano lessons and eventually, with encouragement from Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Ferruccio Busoni. He studied with Busoni, who influenced him. He considered himself more a disciple than a student of Busonis, under Busonis influence, Petri focused on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt, composers who, along with Busoni himself, remained at the centre of his repertoire. During World War I, Petri moved with Busoni to Switzerland, in the 1920s, Petri taught in Berlin, his students included Victor Borge, Stanley Gardner, Jan Hoffman, Gunnar Johansen, and Vitya Vronsky. In 1923 he became the first non-Soviet soloist to play in the Soviet Union, in 1927 he moved to Zakopane, Poland, where, until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he conducted summer and early fall sessions and master-classes for selected piano students. From 1929 he made recordings for labels, including Columbia Records. Petri escaped from Poland the day before the German invasion in September 1939 and he moved to the United States, working first at Cornell University and later at Mills College in Oakland, California. He pointedly refused ever to play in Germany again, in 1955 he became a naturalised American citizen. Though a Dutch citizen until he was 74, he never lived in the Netherlands and was not at ease with the Dutch language, on one occasion when he performed for Queen Wilhelmina, they spoke German. He was fluent in German, English, French, Italian, Polish and he was an influential figure among many pianists of the mid-20th century. His international students included Earl Wild, Ozan Marsh, and John Ogdon, a big man, Petri had a superb technique and a powerful sonority, and was a superlative exponent of the larger works of Beethoven, Liszt, and Brahms. He was also a proponent of new music, Petri died in 1962 in Berkeley, California
Egon Petri
–
Egon Petri
29.
Franz Liszt
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Franz Liszt was a prolific 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, organist, philanthropist, author, nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary. Liszt gained renown in Europe during the nineteenth century for his prodigious virtuosic skill as a pianist. As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School and he left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated many 20th-century ideas and trends. Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt and Adam Liszt on October 22,1811, in the village of Doborján in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Liszts father played the piano, violin, cello and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and knew Haydn, Hummel, at age six, Franz began listening attentively to his fathers piano playing and showed an interest in both sacred and Romani music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age seven, and Franz began composing in an elementary manner when he was eight and he appeared in concerts at Sopron and Pressburg in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franzs musical education in Vienna, There Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. He also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, then director of the Viennese court. Liszts public debut in Vienna on December 1,1822, at a concert at the Landständischer Saal, was a great success and he was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and also met Beethoven and Schubert. In spring 1823, when his one-year leave of absence came to an end, Adam Liszt therefore took his leave of the Princes services. At the end of April 1823, the returned to Hungary for the last time. At the end of May 1823, the family went to Vienna again, towards the end of 1823 or early 1824, Liszts first composition to be published, his Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli, appeared as Variation 24 in Part II of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. Liszts inclusion in the Diabelli project—he was described in it as an 11 year old boy, born in Hungary—was almost certainly at the instigation of Czerny, his teacher, Liszt was the only child composer in the anthology. After his fathers death in 1827, Liszt moved to Paris, to earn money, Liszt gave lessons in piano playing and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he often had to long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking, the following year he fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq, the daughter of Charles Xs minister of commerce, Pierre de Saint-Cricq. Her father, however, insisted that the affair be broken off, Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and pessimism. He again stated a wish to join the Church but was dissuaded this time by his mother and he had many discussions with the Abbé de Lamennais, who acted as his spiritual father, and also with Chrétien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists
Franz Liszt
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Portrait of Liszt by
Ary Scheffer, 1837
Franz Liszt
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Anna Liszt, née Maria Anna Lager (portrait by Julius Ludwig Sebbers between 1826 and 1837)
Franz Liszt
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Niccolò Paganini. His playing inspired Liszt to become a great virtuoso.
Franz Liszt
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Franz Liszt's fundraising concert for the flood victims of Pest, where he was the conductor of the orchestra. Vigadó Concert Hall,
Pest, Hungary 1839.
30.
Berlin Philharmonic
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The Berlin Philharmonic, is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany and is consistently ranked as one of the best orchestras in the world. The BPO supports several music ensembles. The orchestra was renamed and reorganized under the management of Hermann Wolff in 1882. Their new conductor was Ludwig von Brenner, in 1887 Hans von Bülow, one of the most esteemed conductors in the world, programmes of this period show that the orchestra possessed only 46 strings, much less than the Wagnerian ideal of 64. In 1895, Arthur Nikisch became chief conductor, and was succeeded in 1923 by Wilhelm Furtwängler, despite several changes in leadership, the orchestra continued to perform throughout World War II. After Furtwängler fled to Switzerland in 1945, Leo Borchard became chief conductor and this arrangement lasted only a few months, as Borchard was accidentally shot and killed by the American forces occupying Berlin. Sergiu Celibidache then took over as conductor for seven years. Furtwängler returned in 1952 and conducted the orchestra until his death in 1954 and his successor was Herbert von Karajan, who led the orchestra from 1955 until his resignation in April 1989, only months before his death. Under him, the made a vast number of recordings and toured widely. The orchestra hired its first female musician, violinist Madeleine Carruzzo, however, Karajans hiring in September 1982 of Sabine Meyer, the first female wind player to the orchestra, led to controversy when the orchestra voted 73 to 4 not to admit her to the orchestra. After Karajan stood down from the orchestra in 1989, the offered the chief conductorship to Carlos Kleiber. In 1989, the orchestra elected Claudio Abbado as its principal conductor. He expanded the repertoire beyond the core classical and romantic works into more modern 20th-century works. Abbado stepped down from the conductorship of the orchestra in 2002. During the post-unification period, the orchestra encountered financial problems resulting from stress in the city of Berlin. In 2006, the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in Abbados honour, in June 1999, the musicians elected Sir Simon Rattle as their next chief conductor. Rattle made it a condition of his signing with the Berlin Philharmonic that it be turned into a public foundation, with the power to make its own artistic. This required a change to state law, which was approved in 2001, Rattles contract with the orchestra was initially through 2012
Berlin Philharmonic
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Philharmonie entrance
Berlin Philharmonic
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Sir Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 2006
Berlin Philharmonic
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Waldbühne, site of an annual summer concert
31.
Morris Gest
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Morris Gest, also Maurice Guest, was an American theatrical producer of the early 20th century. Moishe Gershnowitz was born near Vilna, the son of Leon, through his mother he was a member of the middle-class Michliszanski clan which included his cousin, later renamed as Bernard Berenson, the art historian. A couple were emigrating to Boston and agreed to him with them in 1890. Later, he attracted the attention of Mr. Thompson, for whom he worked in the library of the United States District Court who saw to it that he went to school. The theatre was the first job that came Gests way and he gained experience in most of the involved in Bostons theatres. In 1901, he went to New York and worked for Oscar Hammerstein at the Manhattan Opera House and was promoted to foreign representative and he also produced Broadway shows such as Morris Gests Midnight Whirl with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Buddy DeSylva. After some false starts in production by himself, he teamed up with F. Ray Comstock, in 1922 and 1923, Gest and Comstock presented Nikita Balieffs company La Chauve-Souris. They also presented the Moscow Art Theatre directed by Konstantin Stanislavski which reigned over New York drama despite the handicap of Russian dialogue, in 1923, he organised the last U. S. tour of Eleanor Duse. In 1924, he brought Max Reinhardt from Germany to stage The Miracle to which Gest brought his own talents in publicity and these were well needed as the heavy costs of the sets, costumes, and cast of 175 could have meant financial disaster. The Great Depression and the parting from Comstock seem to have curbed his productions for five years but there was a last production, the same year marked the onset of a nervous breakdown. However he recovered sufficiently to be involved in the Morris Gests Little Miracle Town and this was in connection with the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. His widow, Reina, the daughter of David Belasco, died in 1948, interview with Morris Gest, The American Hebrew,29 December 1922 Charles B. About Geraldine Farrar, How the most famous prima-donna in the world was secured for the photoplays, the man who turned the trick tells the story
Morris Gest
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Morris Gest, 1923
Morris Gest
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Gest (left) with Russian actor
Fyodor Chaliapin.
32.
Benjamin Franklin Keith
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Benjamin Franklin Keith was an American vaudeville theater owner, highly influential in the evolution of variety theater into vaudeville. Keith was born in Hillsboro Bridge, New Hampshire and he joined the circus after attending Van Amburgs Circus and then worked at Bunnells Museum in New York City in the early 1860s. He later joined P. T. Barnum and then joined the Forepaugh Circus, before he opened a museum in Boston, in 1883. In 1885 he joined Edward Franklin Albee II, who was selling circus tickets and their opening show was on July 6,1885. The theatre was one of the early adopters of the variety show which ran from 10,00 in the morning until 11,00 at night. Previously, shows ran at fixed intervals with several hours of downtime between shows, with the continuous show, you could enter the theatre at any time, and stay until you reached the point in the show where you arrived. Albee and Keith opened the Union Square Theatre in New York City and they had obtained the exclusive American rights to the Lumière apparatus and their film output, and the first showing was on June 29,1896. They then opened theatres in Philadelphia, and Boston, and then smaller theatres in the East and Midwest of the United States and they signed a contract with Biograph Studios in 1896 which lasted until July 1905 when they switched to Edison Studios as their supplier of motion pictures. Keith and Albee merged their theatre circuit with Frederick Freeman Proctor in June 1906, Keith withdrew from business in 1909 and married for a second time on October 29,1913, to Ethel Bird Chase. She was 26 years old and Keith was 67, Keith died at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida in 1914. After his son, Andrew Keith, died in 1918, control of the went to Albee. In 1928, the B. F. Keith Circuit merged with the Orpheum Circuit to form the Keith-Albee-Orpheum corporation in Marysville, in a few months, this organization became the major motion picture studio Radio-Keith-Orpheum. Also in 1928 the B. F. Keith Memorial Theatre opened in Boston, black Like You, Blackface, Whiteface, Insult and Imitation in American Popular Culture
Benjamin Franklin Keith
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Keith circa 1909
Benjamin Franklin Keith
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Keith Memorial Theatre, Boston (built 1928)
33.
Edward Franklin Albee II
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Edward Franklin Albee was a vaudeville impresario, and the adoptive grandfather of Edward Franklin Albee, the playwright. Albee was born on October 8,1857 in Machias, Maine to Nathaniel Smith Albee and he toured with P. T. Barnum as a roustabout, then in 1885 he partnered with Benjamin Franklin Keith in operating the Bijou Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. With the success of their business, it grew into the Keith-Albee theatre circuit of vaudeville theatres, Albee gradually took managerial control of Keiths theatrical circuit. They were the first to introduce moving pictures in the United States, in 1900, Pat Shea of Buffalo proposed to Keith and Albee that they should set up a shared booking arrangement for vaudeville similar to the Theatrical Syndicate. They did not invite Frederick Freeman Proctor, Keiths main competitor, the Vaudeville Managers Association was founded at the New York meeting. Keith and Albee dominated the new organization, Albee was president of the VMAs United Bookings Office from its formation in 1906. Albee had most of the vaudeville circuits give him control of their theatrical bookings where he charged acts a 5% commission. When performers tried to form a union, he set up National Vaudeville Artists and his partner Keith died in Palm Beach, Florida in 1914. He formed the Keith-Albee-Orpheum corporation on January 28,1928 with Joseph P. Kennedy, radio Corporation of America bought his company and formed RKO Pictures and turned the Orpheum vaudeville circuit into a chain of movie theaters. Many entertainers considered Albees tactics tyrannical, groucho Marx referred to the United Bookings Office as Albees Gestapo. They divorced in 1925 and in the year, he married Frances Cotter. Ethel Keith Albee, who married Edwin George Lauder, Jr. in 1914, on March 11,1930, Albee died at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. He was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York and his grandson was Edward Albee, the playwright, who was adopted by his son, Reed. 1900 US census with Albees in Manhattan USS Beaumere II New York Times, but the club has always run an annual deficit. For years Edward Franklin Albee variety tycoon, footed the losses until his death in 1930
Edward Franklin Albee II
–
Edward Franklin Albee
34.
Orpheum Circuit Inc.
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The Orpheum Circuit was a chain of vaudeville and movie theaters. It was founded in 1886 and operated through 1927 when it was merged with the Keith-Albee theater chain, the Orpheum Circuit was started by the vaudeville impresario Gustav Walter, who opened the Orpheum Opera House in San Francisco in 1886. This first Orpheum seated 3500 and quickly became one of the most popular theaters in San Francisco attracting a variety of people. The Orpheums tickets were scaled to draw a mixed audience, customers bought tickets to the Orpheum because of its diverse program that ranged from knockabout comedy to opera. It drew a late-night crowd since it was the theater open late with performances lasting until two in the morning. The Orpheums shows were advertised to appeal to audiences and were suitable for refined young ladies. One reporter noted that seeing a show at the Orpheum. Despite his success, Walter was in debt, and in 1891, faced bankruptcy, he leased his theater. Cort took over the operations of the Orpheum for two years until his own led to Walter being rehired as manager. This time, Walter had the backing of Morris Meyerfeld. Meyerfeld became Walters business partner, investing $50,000 as his share, as co-owner, Meyerfeld managed the business and financial aspects of the Orpheum while Walter managed the talent and booking for the theater. As partners they re-opened the theater is 1893 and made the Orpheum the place to go for a night on the town and it was regularly sold out, including the standing room. Following their success in San Francisco, Meyerfeld encouraged Walter to open more theaters, Meyerfeld argued that in order to entice more performers to make the journey to perform at their theater, they needed to make their journey worthwhile. San Francisco was so far removed geographically from the rest of the nation that continuing to attract quality acts was difficult, by offering more opportunities to perform, Meyerfeld persuaded Walter that they would entice more performers to come to their theater from the east coast and Europe. The next logical city to Meyerfeld was Los Angeles, the pair leased the Grand Opera House and opened the Los Angeles Orpheum to a sold out house in 1894. It was now customary for performers to stop in Los Angeles after playing in San Francisco, Walter and Meyerfeld continued to expand their operations by opening more theaters on the road between the Midwestern United States and their Pacific Coast theaters. Due to its connections and thriving economy, Kansas City. The pair leased the Ninth Street Theatre and renamed it the Orpheum and it opened in 1898 to a sold out house
Orpheum Circuit Inc.
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The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles
35.
Carnegie Hall
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Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891, it is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music. Carnegie Hall has its own programming, development, and marketing departments. It is also rented out to performing groups, the hall has not had a resident company since 1962, when the New York Philharmonic moved to Lincoln Centers Philharmonic Hall. Carnegie Hall has 3,671 seats, divided among its three auditoriums, Carnegie Hall presented about 200 concerts in the 2008–2009 season, up 3 percent from the previous year. Its stages were rented for an additional 600 events in the 2008–2009 season, Carnegie Hall contains three distinct, separate performance spaces. The Isaac Stern Auditorium seats 2,804 on five levels and was named after violinist Isaac Stern in 1997 to recognize his efforts to save the hall from demolition in the 1960s, the hall is enormously high, and visitors to the top balcony must climb 137 steps. All but the top level can be reached by elevator, the main hall was home to the performances of the New York Philharmonic from 1892 until 1962. Known as the most prestigious concert stage in the U. S. almost all of the classical music. After years of wear and tear, the hall was extensively renovated in 1986. The Ronald O. Perelman Stage is 42 feet deep, the First Tier and Second Tier consist of sixty-five boxes, the First Tier has 264 seats at eight seats per box and the Second Tier seats 238, with boxes ranging from six to eight seats each. Second from the top is the Dress Circle, seating 444 in six rows, at the top, the balcony seats 837. Although seats with obstructed views exist throughout the auditorium, only the Dress Circle level has structural columns, Zankel Hall, which seats 599, is named after Judy and Arthur Zankel. Originally called simply Recital Hall, this was the first auditorium to open to the public in April 1891, following renovations made in 1896, it was renamed Carnegie Lyceum. The completely reconstructed Zankel Hall is flexible in design and can be reconfigured in several different arrangements to suit the needs of the performers, the 599 seats in Zankel Hall are arranged in two levels. The Parterre level seats a total of 463 and the Mezzanine level seats 136, each level has a number of seats which are situated along the side walls, perpendicular to the stage. These seats are designated as boxes, there are 54 seats in six boxes on the Parterre level and 48 seats in four boxes on the Mezzanine level, the boxes on the Parterre level are raised above the level of the stage. Zankel Hall is accessible and its stage is 44 feet wide and 25 feet deep — the stage occupies approximately one fifth of the performance space, the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall seats 268 and is named after Sanford I. Weill, a chairman of the board, and his wife Joan
Carnegie Hall
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Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
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Isaac Stern Auditorium
Carnegie Hall
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A closeup view of Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
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Andrew Carnegie, 1913
36.
Maurice Ravel
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Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, in the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as Frances greatest living composer. After leaving the conservatoire Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with form, as in his best-known work, Boléro. He made some arrangements of other composers music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known. As a slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, many of his works exist in two versions, a first, piano score and a later orchestration. Some of his music, such as Gaspard de la nuit, is exceptionally difficult to play. Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public, from the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works, others were made under his supervision. Ravel was born in the Basque town of Ciboure, France and his father, Pierre-Joseph Ravel, was an educated and successful engineer, inventor and manufacturer, born in Versoix near the Franco-Swiss border. His mother, Marie, née Delouart, was Basque but had grown up in Madrid, in 19th-century terms, Joseph had married beneath his status – Marie was illegitimate and barely literate – but the marriage was a happy one. Both Ravels parents were Roman Catholics, Marie was also something of a free-thinker, a trait inherited by her elder son and he was baptised in the Ciboure parish church six days after he was born. The family moved to Paris three months later, and there a younger son, Édouard, was born and he was close to his father, whom he eventually followed into the engineering profession. Maurice was particularly devoted to their mother, her Basque-Spanish heritage was an influence on his life. Among his earliest memories were folk songs she sang to him, the household was not rich, but the family was comfortable, and the two boys had happy childhoods. Ravel senior delighted in taking his sons to factories to see the latest mechanical devices, in later life, Ravel recalled, Throughout my childhood I was sensitive to music. My father, much better educated in art than most amateurs are, knew how to develop my taste. There is no record that Ravel received any formal schooling in his early years
Maurice Ravel
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Ravel in 1925
Maurice Ravel
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Joseph Ravel (1875), Marie Ravel (1870) and Maurice Ravel aged four (1879)
Maurice Ravel
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Piano class of
Charles de Bériot in 1895, with Ravel on the left
Maurice Ravel
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Gabriel Fauré, Ravel's teacher and supporter
37.
Alexander Scriabin
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Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist. Scriabin, who was influenced early in his life by the work of Frédéric Chopin, later in his career, independently of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a substantially atonal and much more dissonant musical system, which accorded with his personal brand of mysticism. Scriabin was influenced by synesthesia, and associated colours with the harmonic tones of his atonal scale, while his colour-coded circle of fifths was also influenced by theosophy. He is considered by some to be the main Russian Symbolist composer, Scriabin was one of the most innovative and most controversial of early modern composers. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia said of Scriabin that, No composer has had more scorn heaped on him or greater love bestowed, leo Tolstoy described Scriabins music as a sincere expression of genius. Scriabin had a impact on the music world over time, and influenced composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev. However Scriabins importance in the Russian and then Soviet musical scene, according to his biographer Bowers, No one was more famous during their lifetime, and few were more quickly ignored after death. Scriabin was born into a family in Moscow on Christmas Day 1871. His father and all of his uncles had military careers, when he was only a year old, his mother—herself a concert pianist and former pupil of Theodor Leschetizky—died of tuberculosis. Scriabins father would remarry, giving Scriabin a number of half-brothers and sisters. His aunt Lyubov was an amateur pianist who documented Sashas early life until the time he met his first wife, as a child, Scriabin was frequently exposed to piano playing, and anecdotal references describe him demanding that his aunt play for him. Apparently precocious, Scriabin began building pianos after being fascinated with piano mechanisms and he sometimes gave away pianos he had built to house guests. Lyubov portrays Scriabin as very shy and unsociable with his peers, another anecdote tells of Scriabin trying to conduct an orchestra composed of local children, an attempt that ended in frustration and tears. He would perform his own plays and operas with puppets to willing audiences. In 1882 he enlisted in the Second Moscow Cadet Corps, however, Scriabin won his peers approval at a concert where he performed on the piano. He ranked generally first in his class academically, but was exempt from drilling due to his physique and was given each day to practise at the piano. Scriabin later studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Anton Arensky, Sergei Taneyev and he became a noted pianist despite his small hands, which could barely stretch to a ninth. Feeling challenged by Josef Lhévinne, he damaged his hand while practicing Franz Liszts Réminiscences de Don Juan
Alexander Scriabin
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Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin
Alexander Scriabin
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A young Alexander Scriabin (late 1870s)
Alexander Scriabin
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Zverev's students in the late 1880s. Scriabin, with military attire, is the second on the left. Rachmaninoff is the fourth from the right.
Alexander Scriabin
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Scriabin (sitting on the left of the table) as a guest at Wladimir Metzl's home in Berlin, 1910
38.
Francis Poulenc
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Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodies, solo works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets. Poulencs wealthy family intended him for a career in the Rhone Poulenc family company. Largely self-educated musically, he studied with the pianist Ricardo Viñes, Poulenc soon came under the influence of Erik Satie, under whose tutelage he became one of a group of young composers known collectively as Les Six. In his early works Poulenc became known for his high spirits, during the 1930s a much more serious side to his nature emerged, particularly in the religious music he composed from 1936 onwards, which he alternated with his more light-hearted works. In addition to composing, Poulenc was an accomplished pianist and he was particularly celebrated for his performing partnerships with the baritone Pierre Bernac and the soprano Denise Duval, touring in Europe and America with each, and making many recordings. He was among the first composers to see the importance of the gramophone, in his later years, and for decades after his death, Poulenc had a reputation, particularly in his native country, as a humorous, lightweight composer, and his religious music was often overlooked. Poulenc was born in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, the child and only son of Émile Poulenc and his wife, Jenny. Émile Poulenc was a joint owner of the Établissements Poulenc Frères and he was a member of a pious Roman Catholic family from Espalion in the département of Aveyron. Jenny Poulenc was from a Parisian family with artistic interests. In Poulencs view, the two sides of his nature grew out of this background, a religious faith from his fathers family. The critic Claude Rostand later described Poulenc as half monk and half naughty boy and he took piano lessons from the age of five, when he was eight he first heard the music of Debussy and was fascinated by the originality of the sound. Other composers whose works influenced his development were Schubert and Stravinsky, the formers Winterreise, at his fathers insistence, Poulenc followed a conventional school career, studying at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris rather than at a music conservatory. In 1916 a childhood friend, Raymonde Linossier, introduced Poulenc to Adrienne Monniers bookshop, There he met the avant-garde poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Paul Éluard and Louis Aragon. He later set many of their poems to music, in the same year he became the pupil of the pianist Ricardo Viñes. The biographer Henri Hell comments that Viñess influence on his pupil was profound, I admired him madly, because, at this time, in 1914, he was the only virtuoso who played Debussy and Ravel. That meeting with Viñes was paramount in my life, I owe him everything, in reality it is to Viñes that I owe my fledgling efforts in music and everything I know about the piano. When Poulenc was sixteen his mother died, his father died two years later, Viñes became more than a teacher, he was, in the words of Myriam Chimènes in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the young mans spiritual mentor
Francis Poulenc
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Poulenc in the early 1920s
Francis Poulenc
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The Place des Saussaies, Paris, where Poulenc was born
Francis Poulenc
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The pianist
Ricardo Viñes, with whom Poulenc studied from 1914
Francis Poulenc
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Stravinsky (top),
Satie and
Ravel
39.
Alexandre Tansman
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Alexandre Tansman was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of Jewish origin. He spent his years in his native Poland, but lived in France for most of his life. His music is said to be primarily neoclassical, drawing on his Polish Jewish heritage as well as his French musical influences. Tansman was born and raised in the Polish city of Łódź during the era when Poland did not exist as an independent state, the composer wrote the following about his childhood and heritage in a 1980 letter to an American researcher. My fathers family came from Pinsk and I knew of a famous rabbi related to him. My father died young, and there were certainly two, or more branches of the family, as ours was quite wealthy, we had in Lodz several domestics. My father had a sister who settled in Israel and married there, I met her family on my tours in Israel. My family was, as far as religion is concerned, quite liberal and my mother was the daughter of Prof. Leon Gourvitch, quite a famous man. Though he began his studies at the Łódź Conservatory, his doctoral study was in law at the University of Warsaw. Tansman later wrote a biography of Stravinsky that was well received. Tansman used to himself as a French–Polish composer, he spoke French at home and married a French pianist, Colette Cras, daughter of the French composer. In 1941, Tansman fled Europe, as his Jewish background put him in danger with Hitlers rise to power, for the 1946 Academy Awards ceremony, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, for Paris Underground. There was a field of 21 nominations, and the winner was Miklós Rózsa for Spellbound. Tansman also composed scores for films made and released outside the United States, in many works, Tansman returned to his musical roots, drawing on his Jewish and Polish background to create some of his greatest works. During the last period of his life, he began to reestablish connections to Poland, though his career and family kept him in France, where he lived until his death in Paris in 1986. Today, the Alexandre Tansman Competition for promising musicians is held in his every other year in his birthplace of Łódź, in order to promote his music. Notable students of Tansman include Yüksel Koptagel, Turkish composer and pianist, Tansman was not only an internationally recognized composer, but was also a virtuoso pianist. From 1932–33, Tansman performed worldwide for audiences including Emperor Hirohito of Japan and Mahatma Gandhi, many musicologists have said that Tansmans music is written in the French neoclassical style of his adopted home, and the Polish styles of his birthplace, drawing on his Jewish heritage
Alexandre Tansman
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Alexandre Tansman with his first wife Anna Eleonora Brociner
40.
George Gershwin
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George Jacob Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwins compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known, among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris as well as the opera Porgy and Bess. Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell and he began his career as a song plugger, but soon started composing Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin, and Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, who refused him, after returning to New York City, he wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and the author DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, Porgy and Bess is now considered one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century, Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores until his death in 1937 from a malignant brain tumor – glioblastoma multiforme. Gershwins compositions have been adapted for use in films and for television. Many celebrated singers and musicians have covered his songs, Gershwin was of Russian Jewish and Ukrainian Jewish ancestry. His grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, had served for 25 years as a mechanic for the Imperial Russian Army to earn the right of travel and residence as a Jew. His teenage son, Moishe Gershowitz, worked as a cutter for womens shoes. Moishe Gershowitz met and fell in love with Roza Bruskina, the daughter of a furrier in Vilnius. She and her family moved to New York due to increasing anti-Jewish sentiment in Russia, Moishe, faced with compulsory military service if he remained in Russia, moved to America as soon as he could afford to. Once in New York, he changed his first name to Morris, Gershowitz lived with a maternal uncle in Brooklyn, working as a foreman in a womens shoe factory. When he married Rose on July 21,1895, Gershowitz soon Americanized his name to Gershwine. Their first child was born on December 6,1896, Gershwin then moved his family into a second-floor apartment on Brooklyns Snediker Avenue. Their second son, soon to be renamed George, was born at there on September 26,1898 and his birth certificate identifies him as Jacob Gershwine, with the surname pronounced Gersh-vin in the Russian and Yiddish immigrant community. He was named after his grandfather, the one time Russian army mechanic, American practice by then was to give children a first and a middle name, but had no other. He changed the spelling of his name to Gershwin when he became a professional musician, George and Ira lived in many different residences, as their father changed dwellings with each new enterprise which he became involved in. Mostly, the boys grew up around the Yiddish Theater District and they frequented the local Yiddish theaters, with George occasionally appearing onstage as an extra
George Gershwin
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George Gershwin in 1937
George Gershwin
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George Gershwin, c. 1935.
George Gershwin
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Gershwin's mausoleum in
Westchester Hills Cemetery
George Gershwin
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Birthday party honoring
Maurice Ravel in New York City, March 8, 1928. From left:
Oskar Fried;
Éva Gauthier; Ravel at piano;
Manoah Leide-Tedesco; and George Gershwin.
41.
Paris Opera
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The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of France. Classical ballet as we know it today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral, small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille. The companys annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, with this money, the company runs the two houses and supports a large permanent staff, which includes the orchestra of 170, a chorus of 110 and the corps de ballet of 150. Each year, the Opéra presents about 380 performances of opera, ballet and other concerts, to an audience of about 800,000 people. In the 2012/13 season, the Opéra presented 18 opera titles,13 ballets,5 symphonic concerts, the companys training bodies are also active, with 7 concerts from the Atelier Lyrique and 4 programmes from the École de Danse. The poet Pierre Perrin began thinking and writing about the possibility of French opera in 1655 and he believed that the prevailing opinion of the time that the French language was fundamentally unmusical was completely incorrect. Seventeenth-century France offered Perrin essentially two types of organization for realizing his vision, an academy or a public theater. On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV signed the Privilège accordé au Sieur Perrin pour létablissement dune Académie dOpéra en musique and he was free to select business partners of his choice and to set the price of tickets. No one was to have the right of free entry including members of the royal court, although it was to be a public theatre, it retained its status as royal academy in which the authority of the king as the primary stakeholder was decisive. The monopoly, originally intended to protect the enterprise from competition during its phase, was renewed for subsequent recipients of the privilege up to the early French Revolution. As Victoria Johnson points out, the Opera was an organization by nature so luxurious and expensive in its productions that its survival depended on financial protection. His first opera Pomone with music by Robert Cambert opened on 3 March 1671, a second work, Les peines et les plaisirs de lamour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672. The institution was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and came to be known in France simply as the Opéra. Because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, during Lullys tenure, the only works performed were his own. The first productions were the pastorale Les fêtes de lAmour et de Bacchus, Lully greatly desired a better theatre and persuaded the king to let him use the one at the Palais-Royal free of charge. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had been altered in 1660 and 1671, the first production in the new theatre was Alceste on 19 January 1674. The opera was bitterly attacked by those enraged at the restrictions that Lully had caused to be placed on the French, to mitigate the damage, Louis XIV arranged for new works to be premiered at the court, usually at the Chateau Vieux of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This had the advantage of subsidizing the cost of rehearsals, as well as most of the machinery, sets, and costumes
Paris Opera
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Front of the
Palais Garnier illuminated at night
Paris Opera
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Le Grand Foyer, at the Palais Garnier
Paris Opera
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View of the Salle du Bel-Air
Paris Opera
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Vigarani's plan of the Salle du Palais-Royal
42.
MGM
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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
MGM
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MGM Tower, former company headquarters highlighted by the famous
Leo the Lion logo at the top
MGM
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc.
MGM
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Clark Gable
MGM
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Marie Dressler and
Wallace Beery in
Min and Bill (1930)
43.
Alice in Wonderland (1933 film)
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Alice in Wonderland is a 1933 American Pre-Code film version of the famous Alice novels by Lewis Carroll. The film was produced by Paramount Pictures, featuring an all-star cast and it is all live-action, except for the Walrus and The Carpenter sequence, which was animated by the Harman-Ising Studio. Stars featured in the film included W. C, charlotte Henry played her first leading role as Alice. It also drew heavily from Eva Le Gallienne and Florida Friebuss then-recent stage adaptation, the film is occasionally broadcast on cable television channels such as Turner Classic Movies. The original running time was 90 min. but when EMKA bought the rights in the late 1950s. Universal Studios released the cut version to DVD on March 2,2010, left alone with a governess one snowy afternoon, Alice is supremely bored. She idly starts to wonder what life is like on the side of the drawing room mirror. She discovers that she can pass through the glass and finds herself in a strange room where many things seem to be the exact reverse of what is in the drawing room. Strangely, through all of this, the governess does not seem to notice what has happened, Alice looks out the window and suddenly sees a White Rabbit. She follows it to a hole and falls in. Seeing nobody else there, she comes upon a table with a key to a door. In a situation exactly reversed from the book, she grows to enormous size after drinking the bottles contents, unable to pass into the room beyond the locked door, she begins to cry. A cake with a sign saying Eat Me appears and she eats the cake, shrinks to a tiny size, and is immediately swept along into a flood caused by her own tears. Many more of her adventures follow, combining sections of Through the Looking Glass with the original Alice. At the end, Alice is awakened from her dream, not by the pack of playing cards, nevertheless, this film remains as of 2014 the only major live action Hollywood-produced film directly adapting the original Alice stories. Reprints of historic reviews, photo gallery at CaryGrant. net Alice in Wonderland available for download from the Internet Archive
Alice in Wonderland (1933 film)
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Theatrical release poster
44.
Frank Capra
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Frank Russell Capra was an Italian-American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, during World War II, Capra served in the U. S. Army Signal Corps and produced propaganda films, such as the Why We Fight series. After World War II, Capras career declined as his films such as Its a Wonderful Life. In succeeding decades, however, these films have been favorably reassessed, outside of directing, Capra was active in the film industry, engaging in various political and social issues. He served as President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, worked alongside the Screenwriters Guild, Capra was born Francesco Rosario Capra in Bisacquino, Sicily, a village near Palermo. He was the youngest of seven children of Salvatore Capra, a grower. The name Capra, notes Capras biographer Joseph McBride, represents his familys closeness to the land, and means goat. For Capra, the journey, which took 13 days, remained in his mind for the rest of his life as one of his worst experiences, very few people have trunks or anything that takes up space. They have just what they can carry in their hands or in a bag, theres no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. Its the most degrading place you could ever be, Capra remembers the ships arrival in New York Harbor, where he saw a statue of a great lady, taller than a church steeple, holding a torch above the land we were about to enter. He recalls his fathers exclamation at the sight, Ciccio, look, thats the greatest light since the star of Bethlehem. The family settled in Los Angeless East Side which Capra described in his autobiography as an Italian ghetto, Capras father worked as a fruit picker and young Capra sold newspapers after school for 10 years, until he graduated from high school. Instead of working after graduating, as his parents wanted, he enrolled in college and he studied chemical engineering and graduated in the spring of 1918. Capra later wrote that his education had changed his whole viewpoint on life from the viewpoint of an alley rat to the viewpoint of a cultured person. Soon after graduating college, Capra was commissioned in the US Army as a second lieutenant, in the Army, he taught mathematics to artillerymen at Fort Point, San Francisco. His father died during the war in an accident, in the Army, Capra contracted Spanish flu and was medically discharged to return home to live with his mother. He became a naturalized U. S. citizen in 1920, living at home with his siblings and mother, Capra was the only family member with a college education, yet he was the only one who remained chronically unemployed. After recovering at home, Capra moved out and spent the few years living in flophouses in San Francisco and hopping freight trains
Frank Capra
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Frank Capra circa 1930s
Frank Capra
Frank Capra
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Walter Brennan,
Gary Cooper,
Irving Bacon,
Barbara Stanwyck, and
James Gleason in Meet John Doe
Frank Capra
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Receiving medal from General
George C. Marshall, 1945
45.
Lost Horizon (1937 film)
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Lost Horizon is a 1937 American drama-fantasy film directed by Frank Capra. The screenplay by Robert Riskin is based on the 1933 novel of the name by James Hilton. The film exceeded its budget by more than $776,000. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Before returning to England to become the new Foreign Secretary, writer, soldier and he flies out with the last few evacuees, just ahead of armed revolutionaries. Unbeknownst to the passengers, the pilot has been replaced and their aircraft hijacked and it eventually runs out of fuel and crashes deep in the Himalayan Mountains, killing their abductor. The group is rescued by Chang and his men and taken to Shangri-La, the contented inhabitants are led by the mysterious High Lama. Conway is particularly enchanted, especially when he meets Sondra, who has grown up in Shangri-La, however, Conways younger brother George, and Maria, another beautiful young woman they find there, are determined to leave. Conway eventually has an audience with the High Lama and learns that his arrival was no accident, having read Conways writings, Sondra believed he was the one, the Lama had agreed with her and arranged for Conways abduction. The old man names Conway as his successor and then passes away. George refuses to believe the Lamas fantastic story and is supported by Maria, uncertain and torn between love and loyalty, Conway reluctantly gives in to his brother and they leave, taking Maria with them, despite being warned that she is much older than she appears. After several days of grueling travel, she becomes exhausted and falls face down in the snow, when they turn Maria over, they discover that she had become extremely old and died, as her departure from Shangri-La had restored her to her true age. Horrified, George loses his sanity and jumps to his death, the Sherpa porters accompanying them were earlier swept away by an avalanche, triggered by one of them who carelessly fires a handgun. Conway continues on and eventually meets up with a party sent to find him. On the voyage back to England, he remembers everything, he tells his story, the searchers track him back to the Himalayas, but are unable to follow him any further. Conway manages to return to Shangri-La, Frank Capra had read the James Hilton novel while filming It Happened One Night, and he intended to make Lost Horizon his next project. When Ronald Colman, his first and only choice for the role of Robert Conway, proved to be unavailable, Capra decided to wait and made Mr. Deeds Goes to Town instead. Harry Cohn authorized a budget of $1.25 million for the film, according to a 1986 Variety interview with Frank Capra, Jr
Lost Horizon (1937 film)
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Original poster
46.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American political comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra, starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and featuring Claude Rains and Edward Arnold. The film was controversial when it was first released, but was successful at the box office. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, the governor of an unnamed western state, Hubert Happy Hopper, has to pick a replacement for recently deceased U. S. His corrupt political boss, Jim Taylor, pressures Hopper to choose his handpicked stooge, while popular committees want a reformer, the governors children want him to select Jefferson Smith, the head of the Boy Rangers. Unable to make up his mind between Taylors stooge and the reformer, Hopper decides to flip a coin, junior Senator Smith is taken under the wing of the publicly esteemed, but secretly crooked, Senator Joseph Paine, who was Smiths late fathers friend. Smith develops an attraction to the senators daughter, Susan. At Senator Paines home, Smith has a conversation with Susan, fidgeting and bumbling, to keep Smith busy, Paine suggests he propose a bill. However, the campsite is already part of a dam-building graft scheme included in an appropriations bill framed by the Taylor political machine. Unwilling to crucify the worshipful Smith so that their plan will go through, Paine tells Taylor he wants out. Through Paine, the machine in his state accuses Smith of trying to profit from his bill by producing fraudulent evidence that Smith already owns the land in question, Smith is too shocked by Paines betrayal to defend himself, and runs away. In his last chance to prove his innocence, he talks non-stop for about 24 hours, reaffirming the American ideals of freedom, yet none of the Senators are convinced. The constituents try to rally around him, but the opposition is too powerful. An effort by the Boy Rangers to spread the news in support of Smith results in attacks on the children by Taylors minions. Although all hope seems lost, the begin to pay attention as Smith approaches utter exhaustion. Paine has one last card up his sleeve, he brings in bins of letters and telegrams from Smiths home state, nearly broken by the news, Smith finds a small ray of hope in a friendly smile from the President of the Senate. Smith vows to press on until people believe him, but immediately collapses in a faint, overcome with guilt, Paine leaves the Senate chamber and attempts to commit suicide by gunshot, but is stopped by onlooking senators. The President of the Senate observes the chaos with amusement. Cast notes, Among the unbilled veteran character actors seen in the film are Guy Kibbees brother, Milton Kibbee, who has a bit as a reporter, Lafe McKee, also in the film in minor roles are Dub Taylor and Jack Carson, later well-known actors
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
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theatrical poster
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
–
Claude Rains and
James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
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James Stewart and
Jean Arthur in a taxicab
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
–
James Stewart
47.
Meet John Doe
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Meet John Doe is a 1941 American comedy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The film is about a political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist with the involvement of a hired homeless man. It became a box office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story and it was ranked #49 in AFIs 100 Years. In 1969, the film entered the public due to the claimants failure to renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after release. It was the first of two features Capra made for Warner Brothers, after he left Columbia Pictures, Mitchell starts to pen a series of articles in Does name, elaborating on the original letters ideas of societys disregard for people in need. Proposing to take Doe national via the radio, Mitchell is given $100 a week by the newspapers publisher, Norton, to write radio speeches for Willoughby. Afterward, feeling conflicted, he runs away, riding the rails with the Colonel until they reach Millsville. John Doe is recognized at a diner and brought to City Hall, where hes met by Bert Hanson, the John Doe philosophy spreads across the country, developing into a broad grassroots movement whose simple slogan is, Be a better neighbor. However, Norton secretly plans to support for Doe into support for his own national political ambitions. On the night of the rally, Willoughby, who has come to believe in the John Doe philosophy himself, learns of Nortons treachery from a drunken Connell. He denounces Norton and tries to expose the plot at the rally, despondent at letting his now-angry followers down, Willoughby plans to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the City Hall on Christmas Eve, as indicated in the original John Doe letter. Mitchell, who has fallen in love with Willoughby, desperately tries to him out of jumping. Convinced not to himself, Willoughby leaves, carrying a fainted Mitchell in his arms. The film was screenwriter Robert Riskins last collaboration with Capra, the treatment was based upon Connells 1922 Century Magazine story titled A Reputation. Gary Cooper was always Frank Capras first choice to play John Doe, the composer selected was frequent Capra collaborator Dimitri Tiomkin, who also did the scores for Capras Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Its a Wonderful Life. He later won two music Oscars for the non-Capra film High Noon, bosley Crowther, the film critic for The New York Times noted that John Willoughby was just the latest of the everyman that Frank Capra had portrayed in earlier films. Crowther wrote, With an excellent script by Mr. Riskin—overwritten in many spots, Capra has produced a film which is eloquent with affection for gentle people, for the plain, unimpressive little people who want reassurance and faith. Many of his camera devices are magnificent in the scope of their suggestion, only space prevents us from enthusing loudly about individual touches
Meet John Doe
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Theatrical release poster
Meet John Doe
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Walter Brennan,
Gary Cooper,
Irving Bacon,
Barbara Stanwyck, and
James Gleason in Meet John Doe
48.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
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The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
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Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
49.
Why We Fight
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Why We Fight is a series of seven propaganda films commissioned by the United States government during World War II to justify to American soldiers their involvement in the war. Later on, they were shown to the U. S. public to persuade them to support American involvement in the war. Most of the films were directed by Frank Capra, who was daunted yet impressed and challenged by Leni Riefenstahls propaganda film Triumph of the Will and worked in direct response to it. The series faced a challenge, convincing a recently non-interventionist nation of the need to become involved in the war and ally with the Soviets. In many of the films, Capra and other directors spliced in Axis powers propaganda footage going back twenty years, why We Fight was edited primarily by William Hornbeck, although some parts were re-enacted under War Department supervision if there was no relevant footage available. The animated portions of the films were produced by the Disney studios – with the animated maps following a convention of depicting Axis-occupied territory in black, director Frank Capra enlisted shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was assigned to directly under Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, the most senior officer in command of the Army, Marshall felt that Signal Corps was incapable of producing sensitive and objective troop information films. You have an opportunity to contribute enormously to your country and the cause of freedom, are you aware of that, sir. Shortly after his meeting with General Marshall, Capra viewed Leni Riefenstahls terrifying motion picture, Capra describes the film as the ominous prelude of Hitlers holocaust of hate. Satan couldnt have devised a more blood-chilling super-spectacle, … Though panoplied with all the pomp and mystical trappings of a Wagnerian opera, its message was as blunt and brutal as a lead pipe, We, the Herrenvolk, are the new invincible gods. According to Capra, Triumph of the Will fired no gun, but as a psychological weapon aimed at destroying the will to resist, it was just as lethal. Capra at this point had no assistants or facilities, and he began to see his assignment as overwhelming, I sat alone, how could I mount a counterattack against Triumph of the Will, keep alive our will to resist the master race. I was alone, no studio, no equipment, no personnel, Capra made his primary focus the creation of one basic, powerful idea that would spread and evolve into other related ideas. Capra considered one important idea that had always been in his thoughts, there was one sentence in it that always gave me goose pimples, Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. As a result, his goal became to let the enemy prove to our soldiers the enormity of his cause—and the justness of ours and he would compile enemy speeches, films, newsreels, newspaper articles, with a list of the enemys hostile actions. He presented his ideas to other officers now assigned to him, I told them of my hunch. Let our boys hear the Nazis and the Japs shout their own claims of master-race crud—and our fighting men will know why they are in uniform and we had found the great cache of enemy films—and it was ours
Why We Fight
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Prelude to War depicts the Nazi propaganda machine.
Why We Fight
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Frank Capra receiving the Distinguished Service Medal from U.S. Army Chief of Staff General
George C. Marshall, 1945
50.
Fred Zinnemann
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Alfred Fred Zinnemann was an Austrian-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing films in genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir. He made 25 feature films during his 50-year career and he was among the first directors to insist on using authentic locations and for mixing stars with civilians to give his films more realism. According to one historian, Zinnemanns style demonstrated his sense of psychological realism, some of his most notable films were The Men, High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma. The Nuns Story, A Man For All Seasons, The Day of the Jackal and his films have received 65 Oscar nominations, winning 24. Zinnemann was born in Rzeszów, the son of Anna and Oskar Zinnemann and his family was Jewish, and he had one younger brother. While growing up in Austria, he wanted to become a musician, while studying law, he became drawn to films and convinced his parents to let him study film production in Paris. After studying for a year at the Ecole Technique de Photographie et Cinématographie in Paris, he became a cameraman and found work on a number of films in Berlin, both of his parents were killed during the Holocaust. Zinnemann worked in Germany with several other beginners after he studied filmmaking in France, earlier in the decade, in fact, Zinnemann had worked with documentarian Robert Flaherty, probably the greatest single influence on my work as a filmmaker, he said. Although he was fascinated by the culture in Germany, with its theater, music and films. He became disenchanted with Berlin after continually seeing decadent ostentation and luxury existing alongside desperate unemployment, the wealthy classes were moving more to the political right and the poor to the left. Emotion had long since begun to displace reason, he said, Zinnemann, then only 21, got his parents permission to go to America where he hoped filmmaking opportunities would be greater. He arrived in New York at the end of October,1929 and it was as though I had just left a continent of zombies and entered a place humming with incredible energy and power. He took a Greyhound bus to Hollywood a few months following the completion of his first directorial effort for the Mexican cultural protest film, The Wave, in Alvarado. He established residence in North Hollywood with Henwar Rodakiewicz, Gunther von Fritsch and Ned Scott, One of Zinnemanns first jobs in Hollywood was as an extra in All Quiet on the Western Front. He says that many of the extras were former Russian aristocrats. He was twenty-two but he said he felt older than the forty-year-olds in Hollywood, but he was jubilant because he was then certain that this was the place one could breathe free and belong. But after a few years he became disillusioned with the talents of Hollywoods elites
Fred Zinnemann
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Zinnemann in the 1940s
51.
Gary Cooper
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Gary Cooper was an American film actor known for his natural, authentic, and understated acting style and screen performances. His career spanned thirty-five years, from 1925 to 1960, and he was a major movie star from the end of the silent film era through the end of the golden age of Classical Hollywood. His screen persona appealed strongly to men and women, and his range of performances included roles in most major movie genres. Coopers ability to project his own personality onto the characters he played contributed to his appearing natural, the screen persona he sustained throughout his career represented the ideal American hero. Cooper began his career as an extra and stunt rider. After establishing himself as a Western hero in his silent films, Cooper became a movie star in 1929 with his first sound picture. In the early 1930s, he expanded his heroic image to include more characters in adventure films and dramas such as A Farewell to Arms. In the postwar years, he portrayed more mature characters at odds with the world in such as The Fountainhead. In his final films, Cooper played non-violent characters searching for redemption in films such as Friendly Persuasion and he married New York debutante Veronica Balfe in 1933, and the couple had one daughter. Their marriage was interrupted by a three-year separation precipitated by Coopers love affair with Patricia Neal, Cooper received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in Sergeant York and High Noon. He also received an Academy Honorary Award for his achievements in 1961. He was one of the top ten film personalities for twenty-three consecutive years, the American Film Institute ranked Cooper eleventh on its list of the twenty five greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema. Frank James Cooper was born on May 7,1901, at 730 Eleventh Avenue in Helena, Montana to English immigrants Alice and his father emigrated from Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire and became a prominent lawyer, rancher, and eventually a Montana Supreme Court justice. His mother emigrated from Gillingham, Kent and married Charles in Montana, in 1906, Charles purchased the 600-acre Seven-Bar-Nine cattle ranch about fifty miles north of Helena near the town of Craig on the Missouri River. Frank and his older brother Arthur spent their summers there and learned to ride horses, hunt, in April 1908, the Hauser Dam failed and flooded the Missouri River valley along portions of the Cooper property, but Cooper and his family were able to evacuate in time. Cooper attended Central Grade School in Helena, at Dunstable, Cooper studied Latin and French, and took several courses in English history. While he managed to adapt to the discipline of an English school and learned the requisite social graces, he never adjusted to the class structure. After completing confirmation classes, Cooper was baptized into the Anglican Church on December 3,1911, Coopers mother accompanied her sons back to the United States in August 1912, and Cooper resumed his education at Johnson Grammar School in Helena
Gary Cooper
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Gary Cooper, 1936
Gary Cooper
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Cooper at Grinnell College (top row, second from the left), 1922
Gary Cooper
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Cooper in The Winning of Barbara Worth, 1926
Gary Cooper
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Cooper and Mary Brian in The Virginian, 1929
52.
Grace Kelly
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Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who became Princess of Monaco after marrying Prince Rainier III, in April 1956. In October 1953, she gained stardom from her performance in the film Mogambo, which won her a Golden Globe Award, subsequently, she had leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, for which her deglamorized performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Kelly retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Rainier and they had three children, Caroline, Albert II, and Stéphanie. Kelly retained her American roots, maintaining dual U. S. and she died on September 14,1982, a day after suffering a stroke while driving her car, which caused a crash. Kelly was born on November 12,1929, at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an affluent and influential family. Her father, Irish-American John B. Kelly Sr. had won three Olympic gold medals for sculling and owned a successful brickwork contracting company that was well-known on the East Coast. A registered Democrat, he was nominated to be mayor of Philadelphia for the 1935 election, in later years, he served on the Fairmount Park Commission and, during World War II, was appointed by President Roosevelt as National Director of Physical Fitness. Kellys mother was Philadelphia native Margaret Katherine Majer, the daughter of German immigrants, Margaret had taught physical education at the University of Pennsylvania and had been the first woman to coach womens athletics at the institution. She was noted for her beauty and modeled for a time in her youth, after marrying John B. Kelly in 1924, Margaret focused on being a housewife until all her children were of school age, following which she began actively participating in various civic organizations. Kelly had two siblings, Margaret and John Jr. and a younger sister, Elizabeth. The children were raised in the Roman Catholic faith, while attending Ravenhill Academy, a prestigious Catholic girls school, Kelly modeled fashions at local social events with her mother and sisters. In 1942, at the age of 12, she played the lead in Dont Feed the Animals, before graduating in May 1947 from Stevens School, a socially prominent private institution on Walnut Lane in the Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Germantown, she acted and danced. Her graduation yearbook listed her favorite actress as Ingrid Bergman and her favorite actor as Joseph Cotten, written in the Stevens Prophecy section was, Miss Grace P. Kelly – a famous star of stage and screen. Owing to her low mathematics scores, Kelly was rejected by Bennington College in July 1947, despite her parents initial disapproval, Kelly decided to pursue her dreams of being an actress. John was particularly displeased with her decision, he viewed acting as a cut above streetwalker. To start her career, she auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, although the school had already met its semester quota, she obtained an interview with the admission officer, Emile Diestel, and was admitted through the influence of George. She began her first term the following October, while at school, she lived in Manhattans Barbizon Hotel for Women, a prestigious establishment which barred men from entering after 10 pm, and she worked as a model to support her studies. Kelly worked diligently and practiced her speech by using a tape recorder and her early acting pursuits led her to the stage, most notably a Broadway debut in Strindbergs The Father alongside Raymond Massey
Grace Kelly
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Kelly in 1956
Grace Kelly
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MGM Publicity Photo
Grace Kelly
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High Noon, 1952
Grace Kelly
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To Catch a Thief, 1955
53.
Frankie Laine
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Often billed as Americas Number One Song Stylist, his other nicknames include Mr. Rhythm, Old Leather Lungs, and Mr. Steel Tonsils. His hits included Thats My Desire, That Lucky Old Sun, Mule Train, Cry of the Wild Goose, A Woman In Love, Jezebel, High Noon, I Believe, Hey Joe. The Kids Last Fight, Cool Water, Moonlight Gambler, Love Is a Golden Ring, Rawhide, and Lord, You Gave Me a Mountain. He sang well-known theme songs for many movie Western soundtracks, including 3,10 To Yuma, Gunfight at the O. K. Corral, and Blazing Saddles, although he was not a country & western singer. Laine sang a variety of song styles and genres, stretching from big band crooning to pop, western-themed songs, gospel, rock, folk, jazz. Laines enduring popularity was illustrated in June 2011, when a TV-advertised compilation called Hits reached No.16 on the British chart. The accomplishment was achieved nearly 60 years after his debut on the UK chart,64 years after his first major U. S. hit and he was also known as Mr. Rhythm for his driving jazzy style. Laine was the first and biggest of a new breed of singers who rose to prominence in the post–World War II era. This new, raw, emotionally charged style seemed at the time to signal the end of the previous eras singing styles and was, indeed, a harbinger of the rock n roll music that was to come. In the words of Jazz critic Richard Grudens, Franks style was very innovative and his 1946 recording of Thats My Desire remains a landmark record signaling the end of both the dominance of the big bands and the crooning styles favored by contemporary Dick Haymes and others. Often called the first of the soul singers, Laines style cleared the way for many artists who arose in the late 1940s and early 1950s, including Kay Starr, Tony Bennett. I think that Frank probably was one of the forerunner of…blues, a lot of singers who sing with a passionate demeanor—Frank was and is definitely that. I always used to love to him with Thats…my…desire. And then later Johnnie Ray came along that made all of those kind of movements, hes one of those singers thats not in one track. And yet and still I think that his records had more excitement, and I think that was his big selling point, that he was so full of energy. You know when you hear his records it was dynamite energy, — Herb Jeffries Frankie Laine was born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio on March 30,1913, to Giovanni and Cresenzia LoVecchio. His parents had emigrated from Monreale, Sicily, to Chicagos Near West Side, in Little Italy, Laines family appears to have had several organized crime connections, and young Francesco was living with his grandfather when the latter was killed by rival gangsters. He later attended Lane Technical High School, where he helped to develop his power and breath control by joining the track and field
Frankie Laine
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Jimmy Crawford (left) and Frankie Laine, ca. 1947. Photography by
William P. Gottlieb.
Frankie Laine
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Laine and Patti Page, circa 1950s.
Frankie Laine
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Nan Grey and Frankie Laine in a scene from Rawhide, 1960.
54.
Tex Ritter
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Tex Ritter was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and he was born Woodward Maurice Ritter in Murvaul, Texas, the son of Martha Elizabeth and James Everett Ritter. He grew up on his familys farm in Panola County and attended school in Carthage. He attended South Park High School in Beaumont, Texas, after graduating with honors, he entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1922, he studied pre-law and majored in government, political science, and economics. After traveling to Chicago with a troupe, he entered Northwestern Law School. An early pioneer of music, Ritter soon became interested in show business. In 1928, he sang on KPRC-AM in Houston, a 30-minute program of mostly cowboy songs and that same year, he moved to New York City and landed a job in the mens chorus of the Broadway show The New Moon. He appeared as cowboy Cord Elam in the Broadway production Green Grow the Lilacs and he also played the part of Sagebrush Charlie in The Round Up and Mother Lode. In 1932, he starred in New York Citys first broadcast Western, The Lone Star Rangers on WOR-AM, Ritter wrote and starred in Cowboy Toms Roundup on WINS-AM in 1933, a daily childrens cowboy program aired over two other East Coast stations for three years. He also performed on the radio show WHN Barndance and sang on NBC Radio shows, Ritter began recording for American Record Company in 1933. His first release was Goodbye Ole Paint and he also recorded Rye Whiskey for the label. In 1935, he signed with Decca Records, where he recorded his first original recordings, Sam Hall and he recorded 29 songs for Decca, the last in 1939 in Los Angeles as part of Tex Ritter and His Texans. Ritter was also cast in guest-starring roles on the television series, Death Valley Days. In 1936, Ritter moved to Los Angeles and his motion picture debut was in Song of the Gringo for Grand National Pictures. He starred in 12 B-movie Westerns for Grand National, including Headin for the Rio Grande, after starring in Utah Trail, Ritter left financially troubled Grand National. Between 1938 and 1945, he starred in around forty singing cowboy movies and he made four movies with actress Dorothy Fay at Monogram Pictures, Song of the Buckaroo, Sundown on the Prairie, Rollin Westward and Rainbow Over the Range. Ritter then moved to Universal Pictures and teamed with Johnny Mack Brown for films such as The Lone Star Trail, Raiders of San Joaquin, Cheyenne Roundup and he was also the star of the films Arizona Trail, Marshal of Gunsmoke and Oklahoma Raiders. When Universal developed financial difficulties, Ritter moved to Producers Releasing Corporation as Texas Ranger Tex Haines for eight features between 1944 and 1945, Ritter did not return to acting until 1950, playing mostly supporting roles or appearing as himself
Tex Ritter
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Tex Ritter
Tex Ritter
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Ritter's grave marker in
Port Neches in
Jefferson County,
Texas
55.
Walt Disney
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Walter Elias Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons, as a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors, several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing and he took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy, with Ub Iwerks, Walt developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success, he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, Disney became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons, the results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi, furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella and Mary Poppins, in the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in 1955 he opened Disneyland. In 1965, he began development of theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city. Disney was a smoker throughout his life, and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed. Disney was a shy, self-deprecating and insecure man in private and he had high standards and high expectations of those with whom he worked. Although there have been accusations that he was racist or anti-semitic and his reputation changed in the years after his death, from a purveyor of homely patriotic values to a representative of American imperialism. Nevertheless, Disney is considered an icon, particularly in the United States. Walt Disney was born on December 5,1901, at 1249 Tripp Avenue and he was the fourth son of Elias Disney—born in the Province of Canada, to Irish parents—and Flora, an American of German and English descent. Aside from Disney, Elias and Calls sons were Herbert, Raymond and Roy, in 1906, when Disney was four, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where his uncle Robert had just purchased land. In Marceline, Disney developed his interest in drawing when he was paid to draw the horse of a neighborhood doctor. Elias was a subscriber to the Appeal to Reason newspaper, Disney also began to develop an ability to work with watercolors and crayons. He lived near the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line and he and his younger sister Ruth started school at the same time at the Park School in Marceline in late 1909. In 1911, the Disneys moved to Kansas City, Missouri, before long, he was spending more time at the Pfeiffers house than at home
Walt Disney
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Disney in 1946
Walt Disney
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Walt's parents, Elias and Flora (Call) Disney
Walt Disney
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10-year-old Walt Disney (center right) at a gathering of Kansas City newsboys in 1912.
Walt Disney
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Disney as an
ambulance driver immediately after World War I
56.
The Sundowners
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The movie stars Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Peter Ustinov, with a supporting cast including Glynis Johns, Dina Merrill, Michael Anderson, Jr. and Chips Rafferty. The screenplay was adapted by Isobel Lennart from Jon Clearys novel of the same name, irish-Australian Paddy Carmody is a sheep drover and shearer, roving the sparsely-populated back country with his wife Ida and son Sean. They are sundowners, constantly moving, pitching their tent whenever the sun goes down, Ida and Sean want to settle down, but Paddy has wanderlust and never wants to stay in one place for long. While passing through the bush the family meet refined Englishman Rupert Venneker, along the way, they survive a dangerous brush fire. Mrs. Firth, who runs the pub in Cawndilla, takes a liking to Rupert and he takes to spending nights with her, but, like Paddy, he has no desire to be tied down. Ida convinces Paddy to take a job at a station shearing sheep, she serves as the cook, Rupert as a wool roller, Ida enjoys the company of another woman, their employers lonely wife, Jean Halstead. When fellow shearer Bluey Browns pregnant wife Liz shows up unannounced, Ida is saving the money the family earns for a farm that they stayed at for a night on the sheep drive. Even though Paddy has agreed to participate in a shearing contest against someone from a rival group and he loses the contest to an old veteran. Paddy wins a lot of money and a race horse playing two-up, owning such an animal has been his longstanding dream. They name him Sundowner and enter him, with Sean as his jockey, Sean and Sundowner win their first race. Ida finally convinces a still reluctant Paddy to buy the farm she, however, he loses everything Ida has saved for the down payment in a single night of playing two-up. By way of apology, he tells her that he has found a buyer for Sundowner if he wins the next race, the money would recoup their down payment. Though Sundowner does win, he is disqualified for interference and the falls through. Nevertheless, Paddys deep remorse heals the breach with Ida, Deborah Kerr as Ida Carmody Robert Mitchum as Paddy Carmody Peter Ustinov as Rupert Venneker Glynis Johns as Mrs. Firth Dina Merrill as Jean Halstead Chips Rafferty as Quinlan Michael Anderson, Jr. She intended to send him a copy of the novel The Shiralee and he immediately bought the screen rights and decided to produce it himself. The ending of the film was a tribute to John Hustons The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, gary Cooper was hired to play Paddy Carmody, but had to leave due to poor health. He was replaced by Robert Mitchum, who agreed to work on the film for a chance to appear opposite Deborah Kerr, with whom he had good friends while making Heaven Knows. He also agreed to give her top billing, joking to the team that they could design a twenty-four foot sign of me bowing to her if you like
The Sundowners
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film poster
The Sundowners
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Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr
The Sundowners
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Peter Ustinov
The Sundowners
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Deborah Kerr
57.
William A. Wellman
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William Augustus Wellman was an American film director notable for his work in crime, adventure and action genre films, often focusing on aviation themes, a particular passion. He also directed several well-regarded satirical comedies, beginning his film career as an actor, he went on to direct over 80 films, at times co-credited as producer and consultant. In 1927, Wellman directed Wings, which became the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony, Wellmans father, Arthur Gouverneur Wellman, was a New England Brahmin of English-Welsh-Scottish and Irish descent. William was a great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Puritan Thomas Wellman who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1640, William was a great-great-great grandson of Francis Lewis of New York, one of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence. His much beloved mother was an Irish immigrant named Cecilia McCarthy, Wellman was expelled from Newton High School in Newtonville, Massachusetts, for dropping a stink bomb on the principals head. Ironically, his mother was an officer who was asked to address Congress on the subject of juvenile delinquency. In World War I Wellman enlisted in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps as an ambulance driver, N.87, les Chats Noir was stationed at Lunéville in the Alsace-Lorraine sector and was equipped with Nieuport 17 and later Nieuport 24 pursuit aircraft. Wellmans combat experience culminated in three recorded kills, along with five probables, although he was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire on March 21,1918. Wellman survived the crash but he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Wellmans credits, January 19,1918 a German Rumpler shot down in front of American lines in Lorraine by Wellman, March 9,1918 shot down a German Rumpler, killed the rear Gunner, Pilot killed by airman Ruamps. March 18,1918 shot down a German Rumpler, not confirmed as fight took above German Lines, maréchal des Logis Wellman received a medical discharge from the Foreign Legion and returned to the United States a few weeks later. He spoke at War Savings Stamp rallies in his French uniform, in September 1918 his book about French flight school and his eventful four months at the front, Go Get Em. was published. He joined the United States Army Air Service but too late to fly for America in the war, stationed at Rockwell Field, San Diego, he taught combat tactics to new pilots. While in San Diego, Wellman would fly to Hollywood for the weekends in his Spad fighter, using Fairbanks polo field in Bel Air as a landing strip. Wellman was hired for the role of an officer in Evangeline, but was fired for slapping the leading lady, the actress Miriam Cooper. Wellman hated being an actor, thinking it an unmanly profession and his first assignment as an assistant director for Bernie Durning provided him with a work ethic that he adopted for future film work. One strict rule that Durning enforced was no fraternization with screen femme fatales, which almost immediately Wellman broke, leading to a confrontation, despite his transgression, both men became lifelong friends, and Wellman steadily progressed to more difficult first unit assignments. Wellman made his directorial debut in 1920 at Fox with The Twins of Suffering Creek
William A. Wellman
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William Wellman during filming of
The High and the Mighty, 1954
William A. Wellman
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Corporal William Wellman and Celia Nieuport 24 fighter c. 1917 (one of a series of aircraft all named after his mother)
William A. Wellman
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William Wellman as a flight instructor at
Rockwell Field,
San Diego (1919)
58.
John Wayne
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Marion Mitchell Morrison, known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed Duke, was an American actor and filmmaker. An Academy Award-winner for True Grit, Wayne was among the top box office draws for three decades, born in Winterset, Iowa, Wayne grew up in Southern California. He found work at film studios when he lost his football scholarship to the University of Southern California as a result of a bodysurfing accident. Initially working for the Fox Film Corporation, he appeared mostly in bit parts. His first leading role came in Raoul Walshs The Big Trail, Waynes career took off in 1939, with John Fords Stagecoach making him an instant star. He went on to star in 142 pictures, biographer Ronald Davis said, John Wayne personified for millions the nations frontier heritage. Eighty-three of his movies were Westerns, and in them he played cowboys, cavalrymen and he is also remembered for his roles in The Quiet Man, Rio Bravo, and The Longest Day. In his final performance, he starred as an aging gunfighter battling cancer in The Shootist. He appeared with many important Hollywood stars of his era, Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26,1907 at 224 South Second Street in Winterset, Iowa. The local paper, Winterset Madisonian, reported on page 4 of the edition of May 30,1907 that Wayne weighed 13 pounds at birth and his middle name was soon changed from Robert to Mitchell when his parents decided to name their next son Robert. Waynes father, Clyde Leonard Morrison, was the son of American Civil War veteran Marion Mitchell Morrison, Waynes mother, the former Mary Molly Alberta Brown, was from Lancaster County, Nebraska. Waynes ancestry included English, Irish, Scots-Irish, and Scottish, Waynes family moved to Palmdale, California, and then in 1916 to Glendale, California, where his father worked as a pharmacist. A local fireman at the station on his route to school in Glendale started calling him Little Duke because he never went anywhere without his huge Airedale Terrier and he preferred Duke to Marion, and the nickname stuck. Wayne attended Wilson Middle School in Glendale, as a teen, he worked in an ice cream shop for a man who shod horses for Hollywood studios. He was also active as a member of the Order of DeMolay and he played football for the 1924 league champion Glendale High School team. Wayne applied to the U. S. Naval Academy, and he instead attended the University of Southern California, majoring in pre-law. He was a member of the Trojan Knights and Sigma Chi fraternities, Wayne also played on the USC football team under coach Howard Jones. A broken collarbone injury curtailed his career, Wayne later noted that he was too terrified of Jones reaction to reveal the actual cause of his injury
John Wayne
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Wayne in a 1965 publicity photo
John Wayne
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The house in
Winterset, Iowa, in which Wayne was born in 1907
John Wayne
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With
Marsha Hunt in
Born to the West (1937)
John Wayne
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With
Jean Rogers and
Ward Bond in
Conflict (1936)
59.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he one of the most famous. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies,5 piano concertos,1 violin concerto,32 piano sonatas,16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn and he lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost completely deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose, many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life. Beethoven was the grandson of Ludwig van Beethoven, a musician from the town of Mechelen in the Duchy of Brabant in the Flemish region of what is now Belgium, who at the age of twenty moved to Bonn. Ludwig was employed as a singer at the court of the Elector of Cologne, eventually rising to become, in 1761. The portrait he commissioned of himself towards the end of his life remained proudly displayed in his grandsons rooms as a talisman of his musical heritage. Ludwig had one son, Johann, who worked as a tenor in the musical establishment and gave keyboard. Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767, she was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Keverich, Beethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn. There is no record of the date of his birth, however. Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only Ludwig, the second-born, caspar Anton Carl was born on 8 April 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, the youngest, was born on 2 October 1776. Beethovens first music teacher was his father and he later had other local teachers, the court organist Gilles van den Eeden, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, and Franz Rovantini. Beethovens musical talent was obvious at a young age, some time after 1779, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was appointed the Courts Organist in that year. Neefe taught Beethoven composition, and by March 1783 had helped him write his first published composition, Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, at first unpaid, and then as a paid employee of the court chapel conducted by the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi. His first three piano sonatas, named Kurfürst for their dedication to the Elector Maximilian Friedrich, were published in 1783, Maximilian Frederick noticed Beethovens talent early, and subsidised and encouraged the young mans musical studies. Maximilian Fredericks successor as the Elector of Bonn was Maximilian Francis, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, echoing changes made in Vienna by his brother Joseph, he introduced reforms based on Enlightenment philosophy, with increased support for education and the arts
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Portrait by
Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Beethoven's birthplace at Bonngasse 20, now the
Beethoven House museum
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Prince-Elector's Palace (Kurfürstliches Schloss) in Bonn, where the Beethoven family had been active since the 1730s
Ludwig van Beethoven
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A portrait of the 13-year-old Beethoven by an unknown Bonn master (c. 1783)
60.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884, by Emperor Alexander III, although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a career in Russia at that time. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Tchaikovskys training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy, Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. This resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the countrys national identity—an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovskys career, despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovskys life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has also been considered a major factor. Tchaikovskys sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, there is a debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of death. While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed, some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. Others dismissed Tchaikovskys music as lacking in elevated thought, according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C, schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a town in Vyatka Governorate in the Russian Empire. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and his grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, served first as a physicians assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Viatka. His great-grandfather, a Ukrainian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Tchaikovskys mother, Alexandra Andreyevna, was the second of Ilyas three wives,18 years her husbands junior and French on her fathers side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to an area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment. Of Tchaikovskys six siblings, he was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly, alexandras marriage to Lev Davydov would produce seven children and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult, especially during his years of wandering. One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, whom the composer would nickname Bob, in 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai. By the age of six, he had become fluent in French, Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovskys work from this period, which includes his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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Portrait of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky by
Nikolai Kuznetsov
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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The Tchaikovsky family in 1848. Left to right: Pyotr, Alexandra Andreyevna (mother), Alexandra (sister), Zinaida, Nikolai, Ippolit, Ilya Petrovich (father)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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Modern view of the Imperial School of Jurisprudence
