1.
Chicago, Illinois
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
Chicago, Illinois
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Clockwise from top:
Downtown Chicago, the
Chicago Theatre, the
'L',
Navy Pier,
Millennium Park, the
Field Museum, and the
Willis Tower.
Chicago, Illinois
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Traditional
Potawatomi costume on display at the
Field Museum
Chicago, Illinois
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A 1903 painting of Chicago in 1833
Chicago, Illinois
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An artist's rendering of the
Great Chicago Fire of 1871
2.
Nipomo
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Nipomo is a census-designated place in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. The population was 12,626 at the 2000 census, Nipomo is located at 35°1′48″N 120°29′24″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has an area of 14.9 square miles. This region experiences warm and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Nipomo has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated Csb on climate maps. The 2010 United States Census reported that Nipomo had a population of 16,714, the population density was 1,125.4 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Nipomo was 12,281 White,177 African American,200 Native American,421 Asian,33 Pacific Islander,2,821 from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 6,645 persons. The Census reported that 16,703 people lived in households,11 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, there were 338 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 49 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 807 households were made up of individuals and 346 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 3.05. There were 4,365 families, the family size was 3.35. The median age was 37.0 years, for every 100 females there were 97.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.9 males, there were 5,759 housing units at an average density of 387.8 per square mile, of which 3,898 were owner-occupied, and 1,576 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1. 7%, the vacancy rate was 3. 1%. 11,583 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 5,120 people lived in housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 12,626 people,4,035 households, the population density was 1,106.1 people per square mile. There were 4,146 housing units at a density of 363.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 75. 9% White,0. 60% African American,1. 3% Native American,1. 4% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,16. 0% from other races, and 4. 7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 34. 6% of the population,13. 5% of all households were made up of individuals and 6. 6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.13 and the family size was 3.42
Nipomo
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The Capt. Dana Tree at the Dana Adobe. Part of the town can be seen in the background.
Nipomo
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The entrance to Nipomo High School
Nipomo
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Dorothea Lange 's Migrant Mother depicts destitute pea pickers in California, centering on a mother, age 32, of seven children in Nipomo, California, March 1936.
3.
Viveca Lindfors
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Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors, better known under her professional name of Viveca Lindfors, was a Swedish stage and film actress. Lindfors was born in Uppsala, Sweden, the daughter of Karin Emilia Therese and she trained at the Royal Dramatic Theatre School, Stockholm. Soon after, she became a theater and film star in Sweden and she moved to the United States in 1946 after being signed by Warner Bros. and began working in Hollywood. She appeared in more than one hundred films including Night Unto Night, No Sad Songs for Me, Dark City, King of Kings, Creepshow, The Sure Thing, and Stargate. She appeared with such as Ronald Reagan, Jeffrey Hunter, Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott. In 1963 she appeared in the film An Affair of the Skin as the mistress of Kevin McCarthys character, Lindfors appeared in an television episode of the first season of Twelve OClock High. She also appeared on television, including the 1959 episode The Temple of the Swinging Doll of the NBC espionage drama Five Fingers, later, she had a recurring role on the ABC series Life Goes On, for which she won an Emmy Award. Lindfors appeared with Joseph Cotten and Ward Bond in the 1957 film The Halliday Brand, one of her last performances was in the original Stargate film in which she played the role of Catherine Langford. An original and mesmerizing stage presence, her roles ranged from Strindberg to Shakespeare to the musical Pal Joey, in 1962 she shared the Silver Bear for Best Actress award with Rita Gam at the Berlin Film Festival, for their performances in Tad Danielewskis No Exit. Among her later roles, perhaps the most memorable is the kindly. She had three children, two sons and a daughter, in the last years of her life, she taught acting at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and had a lead role in Henry Jagloms Last Summer in the Hamptons. The same year she returned to the Strindberg Festival in Stockholm to perform in the play In Search of Strindberg and she died of rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 74 and was buried in Sweden. In New York City, a service was held at the Actors Studio where Gene Frankel, vera Simpson 1965 – Postmark Zero 1971 - Dance of Death. Viveca Lindfors at Find a Grave Photographs and literature Viveca Lindfors papers, 1945–1990, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Viveca Lindfors
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with
Bob Fosse in Broadway play, Pal Joey (1963)
4.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 film)
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 American black-and-white science fiction horror film in Superscope that was partially shot in the film noir style. It was produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, Daniel Mainwaring adapted the screenplay from Jack Finneys science fiction novel The Body Snatchers. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was released in 1956 by Allied Artists Pictures on a bill with the British science fiction film The Atomic Man. The storyline concerns an extraterrestrial invasion that begins in the fictional California town of Santa Mira, alien plant spores have fallen from space and grown into large seed pods, each one capable of reproducing a duplicate replacement copy of each human. Little by little, a local doctor uncovers this quiet invasion, the slang expression pod people that arose in late 20th century American culture references the emotionless duplicates seen in the film. Psychiatrist Dr. Hill is called to the room of a California hospital. Dr. Hill agrees to listen to his story, returning from a trip, Miles meets his former girlfriend, Becky Driscoll, who has herself recently come back to town after a divorce. Beckys cousin Wilma has the same fear about her Uncle Ira, psychiatrist Dr. Dan Kauffman assures Bennell that these cases are merely an epidemic of mass hysteria. When Bennell calls Kauffman to the scene, the bodies have mysteriously disappeared, the following night, Bennell, Becky, Jack, and Jacks wife Teddy again find duplicates of themselves, emerging from giant seed pods in Dr. Bennells greenhouse. They conclude that the townspeople are being replaced while asleep with exact physical copies. Miles tries to make a long distance call to authorities for help. Bennell and Becky discover that by now all of the inhabitants have been replaced and are devoid of humanity. The next morning they see truckloads of the giant pods heading to neighboring towns to be planted and used to replace their populations. Kauffman and Jack, both of whom are pod people by now, arrive at Bennells office and reveal that a life form is responsible for the invasion. After their takeover, they explain, life loses its frustrating complexity, because all emotions, Bennell and Becky manage to escape, but are soon pursued by a crowd of pod people. Exhausted, they manage to hide in a mine outside town. Bennell leaves a little later, coming upon a large greenhouse farm, when Bennell kisses Becky after his return, he realizes, to his horror, that Becky fell asleep and is now one of them. As Bennell runs away, she sounds the alarm and he runs and runs, eventually finding himself on a crowded state highway
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 film)
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Original film poster (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 film)
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In this screenshot from the trailer; the principal cast (topright going clockwise):
Carolyn Jones as Teddy,
Kevin McCarthy as Dr. Miles Bennell,
King Donovan as Jack Belicec, and
Dana Wynter as Becky Driscoll; discover the pods growing
5.
Clint Eastwood
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Clinton Clint Eastwood Jr. is an American actor, filmmaker, musician, and political figure. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring icon of masculinity. For his work in the Western film Unforgiven and the sports drama Million Dollar Baby, Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture, as well as receiving nominations for Best Actor. Eastwoods greatest commercial successes have been the adventure comedy Every Which Way But Loose and its sequel, the war drama biopic American Sniper set box office records for the largest January release ever and was also the largest opening ever for an Eastwood film. Eastwood received considerable praise in France for several films, including some that were not well received in the United States. Eastwood has been awarded two of Frances highest honors, in 1994 he became a recipient of the Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, in 2000, Eastwood was awarded the Italian Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. Since 1967, Eastwood has run his own company, Malpaso. Starting in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, a non-partisan office, Eastwood was born Clinton Eastwood Jr. May 31,1930, in San Francisco, California, the son of Clinton Eastwood Sr. and he has one younger sister, Jeanne Bernhardt. Eastwood is of English, Irish, Scottish, and Dutch ancestry and he is descended from Mayflower passenger William Bradford, and through this line is the 12th generation of his family born in North America and the 13th generation to live in North America. His family moved often as his father worked at jobs along the West Coast, settled in Piedmont, California, the Eastwoods lived in a very wealthy part of town, had a swimming pool, belonged to the country club, and each parent drove their own car. Clint attended Piedmont Junior High School, shortly before he was to enter Piedmont High School, he rode his bike on the schools sports field and tore up the wet turf, this resulted in his being asked not to enroll. Clint graduated from the airplane shop, I think that was his major, joked classmate Don Kincaid. Another high school friend, Don Loomis, echoed I dont think he was spending much time at school because he was having a pretty good time elsewhere. I think what happened is he just went off and started having a good time, I just dont think he finished high school, explained Fritz Manes, a boyhood friend two years younger than Eastwood, who remained associated with him until their falling out in the mid-1980s. Biographer Patrick McGilligan notes that high school records are a matter of strict legal confidentiality. Eastwood worked at a number of jobs, including lifeguard, paper carrier, grocery clerk, forest firefighter, Eastwood has said that he tried to enroll at Seattle University but was then drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War. He always dropped the Korean War reference, hoping everyone would conclude that he was in combat, actually, hed been a lifeguard at Fort Ord in northern California for his entire stint in the military, commented Eastwoods former longtime companion, Sondra Locke
Clint Eastwood
–
Eastwood at the
2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Clint Eastwood
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Publicity photo for
Rawhide, 1961
Clint Eastwood
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Eastwood as the
Man with No Name in
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
Clint Eastwood
–
Eastwood directing
William Holden in Breezy (1973)
6.
Dirty Harry
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Dirty Harry is a 1971 American action thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector Dirty Harry Callahan. The film drew upon the case of the Zodiac Killer as the Callahan character seeks out a similar vicious psychopath. Dirty Harry was a critical and commercial success and set the style for a genre of police films. It was followed by four sequels, Magnum Force in 1973, The Enforcer in 1976, Sudden Impact in 1983, in 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant. A psychopathic serial killer calling himself Scorpio shoots a woman in a San Francisco swimming pool from a nearby rooftop. The chief of police and the mayor assign the inspector to the case, while in a local diner, Callahan observes a bank robbery in progress. He goes outside, wielding his Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver, Callahan then challenges him, I know what you’re thinking, Did he fire six shots or only five. Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, but being this is a.44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question, Do I feel lucky. After the robber surrenders, he tells Callahan that he must know if the gun was still loaded, Callahan pulls the trigger, with the weapon pointed directly at the robber, and laughs, as it is revealed to be empty. Scorpio targets a gay male, but is interrupted by a police helicopter. Later that night, Callahan and his partner, Chico Gonzalez pursue a likely suspect. Following that, Callahan successfully halts a suicide attempt, after which he reveals that the origin of his nickname comes from the fact that he is given every dirty job to do. When Scorpio kills a black boy from another rooftop, the police believe the killer will next pursue a Catholic priest. Scorpio escapes, killing a police officer disguised as a priest, Scorpio then demands $200,000 for a teenage girl he has kidnapped, threatening to let her suffocate otherwise. The mayor decides to pay and tells Callahan to deliver the money with no tricks, but the inspector wears a covert listening device, brings a switchblade, and has his partner follow him. As Scorpio sends Callahan to various payphones throughout the city to make sure he is alone, Scorpio brutally beats Callahan and tells him hes going to kill him and let the girl die anyway, Gonzalez comes to his partners rescue but is wounded. Callahan stabs Scorpio in the leg, but the killer escapes without the money, the doctor who has treated Scorpios wound phones the police and tells Callahan and his new partner that he has seen Scorpio in Kezar Stadium
Dirty Harry
–
Theatrical release poster by
Bill Gold
Dirty Harry
–
Harry Callahan pointing his S&W Model 29
7.
Escape from Alcatraz (film)
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Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 American prison thriller film directed by Don Siegel. It is an adaptation of the 1963 non-fiction book of the name by J. Campbell Bruce. The film stars Clint Eastwood, Jack Thibeau and Fred Ward as prisoners Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin, Allen West was played by Larry Hankin, his characters name was changed to Charley Butts. Patrick McGoohan portrays the suspicious, vindictive warden and Danny Glover appears in his film debut, escape from Alcatraz marks the fifth and final collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogans Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara, The Beguiled and Dirty Harry. On January 18,1960, Frank Morris arrives at the maximum security prison Alcatraz, soon after arriving, he is sent in to meet the warden, who curtly informs him that no inmate has ever successfully escaped from Alcatraz. Morris also makes an enemy of the rapist Wolf, who harasses him in the showers and later attacks him in the yard with a knife. Later, during mealtime, Morris places one of Docs chrysanthemums at the table in honor of Doc, litmus is enraged, but as he reaches out to grab the warden, he suffers a fatal heart attack. The warden coldly reminds Morris that some men are destined never to leave Alcatraz—alive, Morris notices that the concrete around the grille in his cell is weak and can be chipped way, which evolves into an escape plan. Over the next few months Morris, the Anglins and Butts dig through the walls of their cells with spoons, make papier-mâché dummies to act as decoys, on June 11,1962, the inmates decide to leave. Wolf has been released from confinement and prepares to stab Frank with a knife. That night, Frank, John, Clarence and Charley plan to meet in the passageway, however, Charley panics and fails to rendezvous with them. Carrying the flotation gear, Frank and the access the roof. From there, they scramble down the side of the building into the yard, climb over a barbed-wire fence. The three men enter the water, partially submerged, they cling to the raft and use their legs as the propelling force. When their escape is discovered the morning, a massive manhunt ensues. The warden does not want to blemish his perfect record and insists that the men drowned, on a rock on the shore of Angel Island, he finds a chrysanthemum and throws it in the water after being told that they do not grow there. Alcatraz was closed shortly after the events on which the film was based. Screenwriter Richard Tuggle spent six months researching and writing a screenplay based on the 1963 non-fiction account by J. Campbell Bruce and he went to the Writers Guild and received a list of literary agents who would accept unsolicited manuscripts
Escape from Alcatraz (film)
–
Movie poster by
Bill Gold
8.
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)
9.
The Shootist
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The Shootist is a 1976 American western film directed by Don Siegel and starring John Wayne in his final film role. The film is based on a 1975 novel of the name by Glendon Swarthout with a screenplay by Miles Hood Swarthout. The supporting cast includes Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Hugh OBrian, Harry Morgan, John Carradine, Sheree North, the movie also received widespread critical acclaim, garnering a 95% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. He laments that the Old West is dying—as is he, a trusted friend, Doc Hostetler, confirms a Colorado doctors prognosis of an imminent and painful death from cancer. Books rents a room at a house owned by the widow Bond Rogers. Marshal Thibido, alarmed at the presence of a gunfighter in his town. Books explains that he is dying, and intends to die in Carson City, Thibido relents, but says, Dont take too long to die. Word spreads that Books is in town, profiteers, young guns, a newspaperman named Dobkins proposes a spectacular series of articles, exaggerating and glorifying Books tumultuous career. Books kicks him out, only to be visited by an old flame, Serepta and he is touched, until he learns that she wants to co-write, with Dobkins, a widows sensational memoir. Woman, says Books, I still have some pride, Hostetler prescribes laudanum to ease Books worsening pain, and reluctantly answers his questions about what will come next, The pain will continue to build, eventually becoming unbearable. Hostetler remarks that if he had Books courage, the death he has just described is not the one he would choose, the undertaker, Hezekiah Beckum pitches a grand funeral, which Books rejects as another profiteering scheme, but he does order a headstone. Two strangers seeking notoriety try to ambush him as he sleeps, Gillom is impressed, his mother, who is losing boarders, is angry. During a buggy ride, Books tells Bond he has never killed a man who didnt deserve it and she worries that Gillom, lacking a fathers guidance, is acquiring a taste for violence and drink. Books negotiates the sale of his horse to the blacksmith, Moses, Books confronts Gillom, after they resolve their differences, Gillom asks for a shooting lesson. To Gilloms surprise, he is nearly as accurate as Books, Books points out that the trees dont shoot back. It isnt always being fast or even accurate that counts, he adds, Gillom informs each of them, separately, that Books will be at the Metropole Saloon on January 29, his 58th birthday. Books insists that Gillom accept his horse, which he has bought back from Moses, on January 29, the headstone arrives, bearing Books name, birth date, and Died 1901, with the day left blank. After bidding farewell to Bond, who has grown to like him, the room is deserted except for the four men and the bartender
The Shootist
–
Theatrical release poster by
Richard Amsel
10.
American Jews
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American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are Americans who are Jews, either by religion, ethnicity, or nationality. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews and their US-born descendants, Minority Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented, including Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and a smaller percentage of converts to Judaism. The American Jewish community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions, depending on religious definitions and varying population data, the United States is home to the largest or second largest Jewish community in the world. In 2012, the American Jewish population was estimated at between 5.5 and 8 million, depending on the definition of the term and this constitutes between 1. 7% and 2. 6% of the total U. S. population. Jews have been present in what is today the United States of America since the mid-17th century, however, they were small in number, with at most 200 to 300 having arrived by 1700. The majority were Sephardic Jewish immigrants of Spanish and Portuguese ancestry, until after 1720 when Ashkenazi Jews from Central, after passage of the Plantation Act of 1740, Jews were specifically permitted to become British citizens and immigrate to the colonies. Until about 1830, Charleston, South Carolina had more Jews than anywhere else in North America and they primarily became merchants and shop-owners. Jewish migration to the United States increased dramatically in the early 1880s, as a result of persecution, many Jews also emigrated from Romania. Over 2,000,000 Jews landed between the late 19th century and 1924, when the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted immigration, most settled in the New York metropolitan area, establishing the worlds major concentrations of Jewish population. In 1915 the circulation of the daily Yiddish newspapers was half a million in New York City alone, in addition thousands more subscribed to the numerous weekly papers and the many magazines. American Jewish writers of the time urged assimilation and integration into the wider American culture,500,000 American Jews fought in World War II, and after the war younger families joined the new trend of suburbanization. There, Jews became increasingly assimilated and demonstrated rising intermarriage, more recent waves of Jewish emigration from Russia and other regions have largely joined the mainstream American Jewish community. Americans of Jewish descent have been successful in many fields. Scholars debate whether the historical experience for Jews in the United States has been such a unique experience as to validate American exceptionalism. Korelitz shows how American Jews during the late 19th and early 20th centuries abandoned a racial definition of Jewishness in favor of one that embraced ethnicity. The key to understanding this transition from a racial self-definition to a cultural or ethnic one can be found in the ‘’Menorah Journal’’ between 1915 and 1925, siporin uses the family folklore of ethnic Jews to their collective history and its transformation into an historical art form. They tell us how Jews have survived being uprooted and transformed, many immigrant narratives bear a theme of the arbitrary nature of fate and the reduced state of immigrants in a new culture. By contrast, ethnic family narratives tend to show the more in charge of his life
American Jews
–
David René de Rothschild
American Jews
–
Betty Friedan
American Jews
–
Rashida Jones
American Jews
–
Joe Lieberman, he was the first Jewish Democratic Party vice-presidential candidate.
11.
Jesus College, Cambridge
–
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The colleges full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and its common name comes from the name of its chapel, Jesus Chapel. Jesus College was established between 1496 and 1516 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Mary and St Radegund by John Alcock, the cockerel is a symbol of Jesus College, after the surname of its founder. Three members of Jesus College have received a Nobel Prize, two fellows of the college have been appointed to the International Court of Justice. Notable alumni include Thomas Cranmer, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Reid, Lord Toulson, Sir Rupert Jackson, Sir David Hare, Jesus College has assets of approximately £243m making it Cambridge’s third wealthiest college. The college is known for its particularly expansive grounds which include its sporting fields, ian White, current van Eck Professor of Engineering in the university, has been master of Jesus College since 2011. Founded at the beginning of the 12th century, Jesus Chapel is the oldest university building in Cambridge still in use, when founded in 1496, the college consisted of buildings taken over from the Nunnery of St Mary and St Radegund. This included the chapel and the attached to it, the nuns’ refectory, which became the college hall, and the former lodging of the prioress. This set of remains the core of the college to this day and this accounts for its distinctly monastic. A library was added, and the chapel was considerably modified and reduced in scale by Alcock. At its foundation, the college had a master, six fellows, the college offers a wide range of scholarships. The college consistently performs well in the informal Tompkins Table, which ranks Cambridge colleges by undergraduate results, along with students from Trinity, Kings, Christs and St Johns, students of the college have been members of the Cambridge Apostles. The main entrance to Jesus College is a passage known as the Chimney. The term is derived the Middle French word chemin, for path or way, the Chimney leads directly to the Porters Lodge and then into First Court. All the courts at the college, with the exception of the cloister, are open on at least one side, the Quincentenary Library is the main library of Jesus College and is open 24 hours a day. The library was designed by Eldred Evans and David Shalev in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the foundation of the college in 1996, completion of the library was shortly followed by a new accommodation building in 2000, now known as Library Court. The Quincentenary Library has a large law collection, housed in a law library on the ground floor. The Old Library was in use until 1912
Jesus College, Cambridge
–
Colleges of the
University of Cambridge Jesus College
Jesus College, Cambridge
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College in 1690
Jesus College, Cambridge
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The Cloister in the College grounds
Jesus College, Cambridge
–
The Gatehouse looking into First Court
12.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
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Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
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Lobby card from Open Your Eyes (1919)
Warner Bros.
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Lobby card from
The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
13.
Hal Wallis
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Harold Brent Hal Wallis was an American film producer. He is best remembered for producing Casablanca and True Grit, along many other major films for Warner Bros. featuring such film stars as Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis. Later on, for a period, he was connected with Paramount Pictures and oversaw films featuring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley. Aaron Blum Wolowicz was born October 19,1898 in Chicago, Illinois and his family moved in 1922 to Los Angeles, California, where he found work as part of the publicity department at Warner Bros. in 1923. Within a few years, Wallis became involved in the end of the business. In a career spanned more than 50 years, he was involved with the production of more than 400 feature-length movies. Among the more significant movies he produced were Casablanca, Dark Victory, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Maltese Falcon, Sergeant York and he left Warner Bros. in 1944, after a clash with Jack L. Warner over Warners acceptance of the Best Picture Oscar for Casablanca, to work as an independent producer, the first screenwriters he hired for his new enterprise were Ayn Rand and Lillian Hellman. Among his financial hits were the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies and he produced True Grit, for which John Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor of 1969, and its sequel. After moving to Universal Pictures, he produced Mary, Queen of Scots and he received 16 Academy Award producer nominations for Best Picture, winning for Casablanca in 1943. For his consistently high quality of motion picture production, he was honored with the Academy Awards Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was also nominated for seven Golden Globe awards, twice winning awards for Best Picture, in 1975, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures, in 1980, he published his autobiography, Starmaker, cowritten with Charles Higham. In the 1930s Mr. Wallis used his investment dollars to develop real estate in Sherman Oaks. He named one of the streets after himself using his nickname Hal, halbrent Avenue, Sherman Oaks, CA is the street and most of the original homes are still standing today. Its very close to Ventura and Sepulveda Boulevards near the infamous Sherman Oaks Galleria used extensively in the 1982 movie romp Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Wallis was married twice, to actress Louise Fazenda from 1927 until her death in 1962 and he had one son with Fazenda, Brent Harris. Wallis died in 1986 of complications of diabetes in Rancho Mirage, California, news of his passing was not released until after his private memorial service was completed
Hal Wallis
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Hal B. Wallis
14.
Casablanca (film)
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Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alisons unproduced stage play Everybody Comes to Ricks. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid, it also features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, story editor Irene Diamond convinced producer Hal B. Wallis to purchase the rights to the play in January 1942. Brothers Julius and Philip G. Epstein were initially assigned to write the script, however, despite studio resistance, they left to work on Frank Capras Why We Fight series early in 1942. Howard E. Koch was assigned to the screenplay until the Epsteins returned a month later, Casey Robinson assisted with three weeks of rewrites, but his work would later go uncredited. Wallis chose Curtiz to direct the film after his first choice, William Wyler, principal photography began on May 25,1942, ending on August 3, the film was shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, with the exception of one sequence at Van Nuys Airport in Van Nuys, although Casablanca was an A-list film with established stars and first-rate writers, no one involved with its production expected it to be anything out of the ordinary. It was just one of hundreds of pictures produced by Hollywood every year, Casablanca was rushed into release to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier. It had its premiere on November 26,1942, in New York City and was released nationally in the United States on January 23,1943. The film was a solid if unspectacular success in its initial run, Casablanca went on to win three Academy Awards – Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay – and gradually its reputation grew. Its lead characters, memorable lines, and pervasive theme song have all become iconic, in December 1941, American expatriate Rick Blaine is the proprietor of an upscale nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca. Ricks Café Américain attracts a clientele, Vichy French and German officials, refugees desperate to reach the still-neutral United States. Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, it is revealed he ran guns to Ethiopia during its war with Italy. Petty crook Ugarte shows up and boasts to Rick of letters of transit obtained by murdering two German couriers, the papers allow the bearers to travel freely around German-controlled Europe and to neutral Portugal, and are thus almost priceless to the refugees stranded in Casablanca. Ugarte plans to them at the club that night. Before he can meet his contact, he is intercepted by the police under the command of Captain Louis Renault. Ugarte dies in custody without revealing that he entrusted the letters to Rick, at this point, the reason for Ricks bitterness—former lover Ilsa Lund—walks into his establishment. Upon spotting Ricks friend and house pianist, Sam, Ilsa asks him to play As Time Goes By, Rick storms over, furious that Sam has disobeyed his order never to perform that song, and is stunned to see Ilsa
Casablanca (film)
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Theatrical release poster by
Bill Gold
Casablanca (film)
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From left to right: Henreid, Bergman, Rains and Bogart
Casablanca (film)
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Bogart and Bergman
Casablanca (film)
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Greenstreet and Bogart
15.
Star in the Night
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Star in the Night is a 1945 American short drama film directed by Don Siegel. The film was Siegels directorial debut, and won an Academy Award in 1946 for Best Short Subject, the film is a modern-day retelling of the Nativity story, set on Christmas Eve at a desert motel in the Southwestern United States. Christmas Eve in a desert in the Southwestern United States, Three riding cowboys have just bought out Christmas presents from a store. One of the cowboys says that he just had the feeling that he should buy gifts to them to someone. The cowboys see a star in the distance, which they ride over to investigate. The star is actually a second star, used by the Italian-American Nick Catapoli for his little motel in the desert. A mysterious hitchiker appears at Nicks motel who states that he just wants to come in from the cold for a little while, Nick and the Hitchhiker have a discussion about Christmas. A young Mexican-American couple, Jose and Maria Santos, arrives at the motel hoping to get lodging, there are no cabins available, so Rosa accommodates them in a small shed next to the hotel. Maria is expecting a baby and is in a critical condition without a doctor. When the motel lodgers find out about Marias approaching birth they try to help her, after the successful birth, the three cowboys appear at the motel and give their presents to the child. Nick learns that there is goodness in the world and is now positive about Christmas. He even gives the hitchiker, who observed the situation, a cup of coffee and he wishes Merry Christmas to the hitchiker who now leaves the hotel. At the end, Nick sees how much the birth of the child in his shed resembles the Nativity Story, produced with a rather small budget and character actors, it was the directorial debut of Don Siegel, who later directed thriller feature films like Dirty Harry. Previously Siegel had worked as a Warner Bros. montage and second unit director, the cinematography was by a young Robert Burks who later worked for Alfred Hitchcock. Star in the Night won an Academy Award in 1946 for Best Short Subject, the Academy Award for Best Short Documentary Film was won by Hitler Lives, also directed by Don Siegel. After his success with both shorts he went on to feature films. The film in its entirety is available as a feature on the DVD release of Christmas in Connecticut. Star in the Night at the Internet Movie Database
Star in the Night
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Title card
16.
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
17.
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
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The Twilight Zone is an American science-fiction, fantasy, psychological-supernatural horror anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. Each story typically features a moral and a surprise ending, the series is notable for featuring both established stars and younger actors who would become more famous later on. Serling served as producer and head writer, he wrote or co-wrote 92 of the shows 156 episodes. He was also the shows host and narrator, delivering monologues at the beginning, Serlings opening and closing narrations usually summarize the episodes events encapsulating how and why the main character had entered the Twilight Zone. In 2016, it was ranked No.8 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 greatest shows of all time, in 2002, The Twilight Zone was ranked No.26 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked it as the third best-written TV series ever, by the late 1950s, Rod Serling was a regular name in television. His successful teleplays included Patterns and Requiem for a Heavyweight, but constant changes and edits made by the networks, in Requiem for a Heavyweight, the line Got a match. But according to comments in his 1957 anthology Patterns, Serling had been trying to delve into more controversial than his works of the early 1950s. Despite bad reviews, activists sent numerous letters and wires protesting the production, the script, however, was rejected and shelved for a year until Bert Granet discovered and produced it as an episode of Desilu Playhouse in 1958. The show was a success and enabled Serling to finally begin production on his anthology series. There is a dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity and it is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of mans fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination and it is an area which we call The Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone premiered the night of October 2,1959 and its the one series that I will let interfere with other plans, said Terry Turner for the Chicago Daily News. Even as the show proved popular to televisions critics, it struggled to find an audience of television viewers. CBS was banking on a rating of at least 21 or 22, the series future was jeopardized when its third episode, Mr. Denton on Doomsday earned a 16.3 rating. With one exception, the first season featured scripts written only by Rod Serling and these three were responsible for 127 of the 156 episodes in the series. Additionally, with one exception, Serling never appeared on camera during any first-season episode, Serling did appear on screen in Twilight Zone promotional spots plugging the following weeks episode – just not in the episodes themselves
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
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Serling working on his script with a dictating machine, 1959
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
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Original 1959 title card
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
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Rod Serling models an airplane with actress
Inger Stevens, who appeared in "
The Hitch-Hiker " and "
The Lateness of the Hour "
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
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Julie Newmar and
Albert Salmi in "
Of Late I Think of Cliffordville "
18.
Eli Wallach
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Eli Herschel Wallach was an American film, television and stage actor whose career spanned more than six decades, beginning in the late 1940s. Trained in stage acting, which he enjoyed doing most, he one of the greatest character actors ever to appear on stage and screen states TCM. On stage, he often co-starred with his wife, Anne Jackson, as a stage and screen character actor, Wallach had one of the longest careers in show business, spanning 62 years from his Broadway debut to his last major Hollywood studio movie. Wallach initially studied method acting under Sanford Meisner, and later became a member of the Actors Studio. His versatility gave him the ability to play a variety of different roles throughout his career. For his debut performance in Baby Doll, he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer. Among his other most famous roles are Calvera in The Magnificent Seven, Guido in The Misfits, and Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Other notable portrayals include outlaw Charlie Gant in How The West Was Won, Don Altobello in The Godfather Part III, Cotton Weinberger in The Two Jakes, and Arthur Abbott in The Holiday. One of Americas most prolific screen actors, Wallach remained active well into his nineties, with roles as recently as 2010 in Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps and The Ghost Writer. Wallach received BAFTA Awards, Tony Awards and Emmy Awards for his work, in March,2017, the Harry Ransom Center announced the acquisition of Wallachs papers, along with that of his wife. It will be made public when cataloging is complete, Wallach was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, at 156 Union Street, a son of Jewish immigrants Abraham and Bertha Wallach, both from Poland. He had a brother and two sisters, with his family being the only Jews in an otherwise Italian American neighborhood and his parents owned Berthas Candy Store. Wallach graduated in 1936 from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in history, while at the university, he performed in a play with fellow students Ann Sheridan and Walter Cronkite. In a later interview, Wallach said that he learned to ride horses while in Texas and he explained, You could rely on people. If they gave you their word, that was it, Two years later he received a master of arts degree in education from the City College of New York. He gained his first method acting experience at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City, there, according to Wallach, actors were forced to unlearn all their physical and vocal mannerisms, while traditional stage etiquette and singsong deliveries were utterly excised from his classroom. Wallachs education was cut short when he was drafted into the United States Army in January 1941 and he served as staff sergeant in a military hospital in Hawaii and later sent to Officer Candidate School in Abilene, Texas to train as a medical administrative officer. Commissioned a second lieutenant, he was ordered to Casablanca, later, when he was serving in France, a senior officer noticed his acting career and asked him to create a show for the patients
Eli Wallach
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Photo taken 1966
Eli Wallach
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with
Maureen Stapleton in The Rose Tattoo (1951)
Eli Wallach
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Wallach and
Carroll Baker in the swing scene from Baby Doll
Eli Wallach
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Wallach at the 2010 TCM Classic Film Festival
19.
The Lineup (film)
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The Lineup is a 1958 American film version of the police procedural television series of the same name that ran on CBS radio from 1950 until 1953, and on CBS television from 1954 until 1960. The film was directed by Don Siegel and it features a number of scenes shot in locations in San Francisco during the late 1950s including shots of the Embarcadero Freeway and the Sutro Baths. An international drug-smuggling racket plants heroin on unsuspecting American tourists traveling in Asia, two psychopathic killers and their driver then collect the contraband, murdering several people along the way. Lt. Ben Guthrie leads the hunt for the criminals. However, Tom Tullys character, Inspector Matt Grebb, is replaced by Inspector Al Quine, tully, the T. V. series co-star, was not seen in the film. Anderson, the star of the TV series, is not given billing in the movie, star billing was instead given to Wallach. List of American films of 1958 Illegal drug trade The Lineup at the Internet Movie Database The Lineup at AllMovie The Lineup at the TCM Movie Database The Lineup film scenes on YouTube
The Lineup (film)
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Theatrical poster
20.
Elvis Presley
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Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is referred to as the King of Rock and Roll. Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis and his music career began there in 1954, when he recorded a song with producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was a popularizer of rockabilly. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, Presleys first RCA single, Heartbreak Hotel, was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. He was regarded as the figure of rock and roll after a series of successful network television appearances. In November 1956, Presley made his debut in Love Me Tender. In 1958, he was drafted into military service, in 1973, Presley featured in the first globally broadcast concert via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii. Several years of drug abuse severely damaged his health. Presley is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century and he won three Grammys, also receiving the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Presley was born on January 8,1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love and Vernon Elvis Presley, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered stillborn 35 minutes before his own birth. Thus, as a child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an especially close bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God, where he found his musical inspiration. Although he was in conflict with the Pentecostal church in his later years, rev. Rex Humbard officiated at his funeral, as Presley had been an admirer of Humbards ministry. Presleys ancestry was primarily a Western European mix, including Scots-Irish, Scottish, German, gladyss great-great-grandmother, Morning Dove White, was possibly a Cherokee Native American. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family, Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evincing little ambition. The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance, the Presleys survived the F5 tornado in the 1936 Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of kiting a check written by the landowner, Orville S. Bean and he was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives
Elvis Presley
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Presley in a publicity photograph for the 1957 film
Jailhouse Rock
Elvis Presley
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Presley's birthplace in
Tupelo, Mississippi
Elvis Presley
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Presley in a
Sun Records promotional photograph, 1954
Elvis Presley
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The "iconic cover" of
Presley's 1956 debut album featuring a photo taken July 31, 1955, in Tampa, Florida
21.
Flaming Star
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Flaming Star is a 1960 Western film starring Elvis Presley and Barbara Eden, based on the book Flaming Lance by Clair Huffaker. Critics agreed that Presley gave one of his best acting performances as the mixed-blood Pacer Burton, the film was directed by Don Siegel and had a working title of Black Star. The movie reached No.12 on the box office charts, Elvis Presley plays Pacer Burton, the son of a Kiowa mother and a Texan father working as a rancher. His family, including a half-brother, Clint, live a life on the Texan frontier. Life becomes anything but typical when a tribe of Kiowa begin raiding neighboring homesteads. Pacer soon finds himself caught between the two worlds, part of both but belonging to neither, Elvis Presley as Pacer Burton Barbara Eden as Roslyn Pierce Steve Forrest as Clint Burton Dolores del Río as Neddy Burton John McIntire as Sam Pa Burton L. Q. Originally Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando were lined up to play the brothers, blues, had been a success at the box office and had led to one of his best selling albums to that point. However, determined to be taken seriously as an actor, Presley asked for roles with fewer songs. Flaming Star was initially to include four songs, but after Presley demanded two of the songs be removed, it ended up only the title song and a short number at the opening birthday party scene. Barbara Steele, a British actress originally signed to play the love interest, was replaced during filming by Barbara Eden after studio executives decided that Steeles accent was too pronounced, the film was released only one month after G. I. Blues but did not achieve the degree of box office success. Presleys next film, Wild in the Country, also failed to impress fans or critics and this led to musical-comedies such as Blue Hawaii and Kid Galahad, which set the precedent for most of his roles for the rest of his career. No longer would Presley be considered a serious actor, Movie reviews Movie review by For Elvis Fans Only Review by Rachel Sanders at Apollo Movie Guide. DVD reviews Review by Jon Danziger at digitallyOBSESSED
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Film poster
Flaming Star
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Elvis By Request
22.
Steve McQueen (actor)
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Terence Steven Steve McQueen was an American actor. Called The King of Cool, his anti-hero persona developed at the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. In 1974, he became the movie star in the world. McQueen was combative with directors and producers, but his popularity placed him in high demand, Terence Steven McQueen was born on March 24,1930 at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove, Indiana. His father, William Terence McQueen, was a stunt pilot for a flying circus who left McQueens mother, Julia Ann. Unable to cope with caring for a child, she left him with her parents in Slater, Missouri. As the Great Depression set in shortly thereafter, McQueen and his grandparents moved in with Lillians brother Claude at his farm in Slater. McQueen expressed having good memories of living at his Uncle Claudes farm, later stating, He was a good man, very strong. I learned a lot from him, Claude gave him a red tricycle on the boys fourth birthday that McQueen later said sparked his interest in racing. At age eight, he was home by his mother. McQueen retained a special memory of leaving the farm, The day I left the farm Uncle Claude gave me a personal going-away present—a gold pocket watch, the inscription read, To Steve – who has been a son to me. Dyslexic and partly due to a childhood ear infection, Steve did not adjust well to his new life. His new stepfather beat him to an extent that at the age of nine he left home to live on the streets, soon he was running with a street gang and committing acts of petty crime. Unable to control his behavior, his mother sent him back to Slater, when he was 12, Julia wrote to Claude asking that her son be returned to her again to live in her new home in Los Angeles, California. Julias second marriage had ended in divorce and she had married a third time, by McQueens own account his new stepfather and he locked horns immediately. McQueen recalls him being a son of a bitch who was not averse to using his fists on McQueen. As McQueen began to rebel again he was sent back to live with Claude a final time, McQueen was caught stealing hubcaps by police, who handed him over to his stepfather, who beat him severely, ending the fight by throwing McQueen down a flight of stairs. McQueen looked up at his stepfather and said, You lay your hands on me again and I swear
Steve McQueen (actor)
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McQueen in Wanted: Dead or Alive, 1959
Steve McQueen (actor)
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Steve McQueen in
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery
Steve McQueen (actor)
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McQueen with
Virginia Gregg in
Wanted: Dead or Alive, 1959
23.
Hell Is for Heroes (film)
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Hell Is for Heroes is a 1962 American war film directed by Don Siegel and starring Steve McQueen. Montigny, Meurthe-et-Moselle,1944, Squad leader Sergeant Larkin and his men are taking a well-deserved rest behind the lines after conducting front-line combat operations for several weeks, rumor has it the unit will be rotated state-side and the men are almost giddy in anticipation. During an interlude at a church and later at a tavern, Reese was a former master sergeant, demoted to private after a court martial, who walks about armed with a distinctive M3 submachine gun. Reese is the quintessential troubled loner, managing to alienate almost everyone in the right from the beginning. Unlike his jubilant comrades, the prospect of a break from combat, perhaps the end of the war itself. Pike informs the men that they will shortly be going back on the rather than home. After much bitter complaining, the men get ready to move out, the remaining members of 2nd Squad include con-man/scavenger Corby, Corporal Henshaw, a mechanic who can fix anything, the easy-going, somewhat-naive kid, Cumberly, and family man Kolinsky. The squad has their own mascot, a young Polish displaced person Homer Janeczek, who is not a soldier, but stays with the squad in hopes of accompanying the men upon their return to the United States. The morning after they arrive at their appointed post and dig in, one stroke of good luck is the sudden and mistaken arrival of an Army company clerk, Private First Class James Driscoll. Larkin quickly puts Driscoll’s jeep to use by having Henshaw drive it back and forth behind their lines, after rigging it to backfire and sound like a tank, in an attempt to fool the Germans. Driscoll himself is put to use improvising misleading radio messages for a microphone, discovered by Corby. A German raid results in Cumberlys death, but Reese manages to eliminate three Germans in close combat, Larkin, fearing an overwhelming enemy assault on their positions, decides to go find Pike and obtain his permission for the pillbox attack. After a heated argument with Reese, Larkin is killed in an artillery barrage, Reese decides to proceed without orders and two others, Henshaw and Kolinsky, go along. Shortly after they set out, Sgt, Pike and the rest of the company begins to return to the line. The squads attack fails when Henshaw accidentally sets off an undetected S-mine, fatally burning with the flamethrower tanks he carries. Reese and Kolinsky retreat, covered by smoke from the company mortar squad, as they run back to their lines, Kolinsky is struck by shrapnel through the back and abdomen, and finally dies, screaming about his guts, as a medic and others attend to his wounds. A furious Captain Loomis berates Reese and promises him a court-martial for defying orders to hold the line, the dominant German pillbox fires on the advancing Americans, who press on despite heavy casualties. Determined to eliminate the pillbox, Reese gets within striking range, aided by Corby, Reese throws a satchel charge into the pillbox, but, in the process, is wounded in the back and stomach
Hell Is for Heroes (film)
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Hell Is for Heroes
24.
Lee Marvin
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Lee Marvin was an American film and television actor. Known for his voice and prematurely white hair, Marvin initially appeared in supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers. From 1957 to 1960, he starred as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger in the NBC crime series, M Squad. In 1966, he won awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actor, and Best Actor BAFTA. Marvin was born in New York City and he was the son of Lamont Waltman Marvin, an advertising executive and the head of the New York and New England Apple Institute. His mother was Courtenay Washington, a writer and beauty consultant. As with his brother, Robert, he was named in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. His father was a descendant of Matthew Marvin, Sr. who emigrated from Great Bentley, Essex, England, in 1635. Marvin studied violin when he was young, as a teenager, Marvin spent weekends and spare time hunting deer, puma, wild turkey, and bobwhite in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades. Marvin left school at 18 to enlist in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 12,1942 and he served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was shot by gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve. After over a year of treatment in naval hospitals, Marvin was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class in 1945 at Philadelphia. Contrary to rumors, Marvin did not serve on Iwo Jima, receive a Navy Cross, or serve with actor, producer, and former Marine Bob Keeshan during World War II. After the war, while working as an assistant at a local community theatre in upstate New York. He then began an amateur acting career in New York City. In 1950, Marvin moved to Hollywood and he found work in supporting roles, and from the beginning was cast in various war films. His debut was in Youre in the Navy Now, and in 1952, he appeared in films, including Don Siegels Duel at Silver Creek, Hangmans Knot. He played Gloria Grahames vicious boyfriend in Fritz Langs The Big Heat, Marvin had a small but memorable role in The Wild One opposite Marlon Brando, followed by Seminole and Gun Fury
Lee Marvin
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Marvin in 1971.
Lee Marvin
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Marvin in
Attack
Lee Marvin
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Gravestone, Arlington National Cemetery
25.
The Killers (1964 film)
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The movie remains notable for being future U. S. president Reagans last theatrical film before entering politics, as well as the only one in which he plays a villain. The picture was the second Hollywood adaptation of Ernest Hemingways short story of the name, following a 1946 version starring Burt Lancaster. At the time of release, Marvin said that it was his favorite film, the supporting cast features Clu Gulager, Claude Akins, and Norman Fell. One morning, hit men Charlie and Lee enter a school for the blind and terrorize the principal until she reveals the whereabouts of a teacher, as the hitmen walk toward Norths upstairs classroom, the teacher receives a call warning him of their arrival. As he calmly waits at his desk, Charlie and Lee enter, as they depart by train, Charlie is bothered that North refused to flee, and that they were paid an unusually high fee for such a simple hit. He and Lee run through what they know about the man they have just killed, Johnny was once a champion race car driver whose career ended in a violent crash. Four years before his death, he was involved in a robbery of a mail truck. Tempted by the million, Charlie and Lee visit Miami to interview Johnnys former mechanic. Earl Sylvester, who considers himself Johnnys only friend, is devastated to learn of his death, in between sobs and gulps of whiskey, he tells the story as he remembers it. Johnny North was at the top of his profession when he met the beautiful Sheila Farr, Johnny fell in love and planned to propose marriage after winning his next big race. However, Johnnys late nights with Sheila had left him disoriented from lack of sleep and his racing career ended with a fiery crash. At the hospital, Earl revealed to Johnny that Sheila was the mistress of mob boss Jack Browning, known for her extravagant taste, Sheila has already cheated on Browning with several other sports figures, all of whom met bad ends. Enraged and heartbroken, Johnny rebuffed Sheilas attempts to explain and cut his ties to her, intrigued, Charlie and Lee approach a former member of Brownings crew, who also reveals his memories. After the crash, Sheila found Johnny working as a pit mechanic and she says a much better job might soon be his for the taking. Browning was planning the robbery of a U. S. postal truck, on Sheilas recommendation, he agreed to Johnny as his getaway driver. Although Johnny still felt betrayed, Sheila said that she had always regretted losing him and he also helped Browning by souping up the getaway car. Browning, however, was enraged when he learned that Sheila had returned to Johnny, in a deliberate provocation, Browning brutally slapped Sheila in front of Johnny, after she defied him. Johnny punched Browning and threatened to kill him if he ever hurt Sheila again and they agreed to settle this after the robbery
The Killers (1964 film)
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Theatrical release poster
26.
Albert Maltz
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Albert Maltz was an American playwright, fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were jailed in 1950 for their 1947 refusal to testify before the US Congress about their involvement with the US Communist Party. They and many other US entertainment industry figures were subsequently blacklisted, born into an affluent Jewish family, in Brooklyn, New York, Maltz was educated at Columbia University and the Yale School of Drama. He became a communist out of conviction, later telling an interviewer, I still think it to be the noblest set of ideals ever penned by man. Where else in political literature do you find thinkers saying that we were going to end all forms of human exploitation, wage exploitation, exploitation of women by men, the exploitation of people of colour by white peoples, the exploitation of colonial countries by imperialist countries. And Marx spoke of the fact that socialism will be the kingdom of freedom and this was an inspiring body of literature to read. In 1932, his play Merry Go Round was adapted for a film, at the Theater Union he met Margaret Larkin, whom he married in 1937. These writings and his 1940 novel The Underground Stream are considered works of proletarian literature, in 1944 he published the novel The Cross and the Arrow, about which Jerry Belcher noted that it was a best seller chronicling German resistance to the Nazi regime. It was distributed in a special Armed Forces edition to more than 150,000 American fighting men during World War II, in 1970 he published a new collection of short stories Afternoon in the Jungle. After working on Casablanca, Maltz first screenwriting credit was for This Gun for Hire and he worked regularly as a screenwriter until his blacklisting, his last assignment for some years was The Robe, although he didnt receive a credit until decades later. In 1960, Frank Sinatra engaged Maltz to write a screenplay for The Execution of Private Slovik, Maltz was finally employed again on Two Mules for Sister Sara, which was a vehicle for the popular actors Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine. His last credit is for Hangup, for his script for the 1945 film Pride of the Marines, Maltz was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. His screenplay for Broken Arrow won the 1951 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Western, in 1991, in the course of correcting screen credits for blacklisted screenwriters, the Writers Guild of America officially recognized Maltz as the only credited screenwriter for Broken Arrow. One of Maltzs literary agents was Maxim Lieber, whom he visited in Warsaw, Poland, Maltz refers to him as my friend and former agent. He also referred positively in his article to the work of James T. Farrell and this article brought upon Maltz venomous attacks from fellow CPUSA members, both in print and in person at party meetings. He was accused of Browderism and in order to retain his good standing with the party he had to himself by publishing in the Daily Worker a rebuttal of his own article. Furthermore, he publicly denounced himself onstage at a writer’s symposium chaired by party members, in Jay Roachs Trumbo, Maltz is part of a composite character, Arlen Hird. This Gun for Hire The House I Live In Pride of the Marines Cloak and Dagger The Red House The Naked City Broken Arrow The Robe Two Mules For Sister Sara The Beguiled Scalawag Hangup Burnett, Colin
Albert Maltz
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Albert Maltz (1947)
27.
Two Mules for Sister Sara
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Two Mules for Sister Sara is an 1970 American-Mexican western film starring Shirley MacLaine set during the French intervention in Mexico. The film was released in 1970 and directed by Don Siegel and it was to have been the first in a five-year exclusive association between Universal Pictures and Sanen Productions of Mexico. The film marked the second of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogans Bluff, the collaboration continued with The Beguiled and Dirty Harry and finally Escape from Alcatraz. The plot follows an American mercenary who gets mixed up with a nun, the film featured both American and Mexican actors and actresses, including being filmed in the picturesque countryside near Tlayacapan, Morelos. Ennio Morricone composed the film music, a gunslinger named Hogan spots and saves a naked woman from being gang-raped by several bandits whom he shoots and kills. He later learns that the woman, Sara, is a nun working with a group of Mexican revolutionaries who are fighting the French, as the duo heads towards the camp, Hogan is surprised that the nun smokes his cigars and drinks his whiskey. Before he attempts to detonate a charge to destroy a French ammunition train, Sara is able to bandage him, but he is still unable to shoot the charge to disable the train himself. Sara assists him in aiming his rifle, and the two succeed in destroying the train together, eventually the two reach Juarista commander Col. Beltrans camp and Sara reveals the layout of the French garrison. She then reveals to Hogan that she is not a nun, although Hogan is shocked the two team up, infiltrate the fortress and open the gates for the Mexican revolutionary forces to swarm through. Hogan singlehandedly guns down several French soldiers, the French retreat and the Mexicans capture the fort. As promised, Hogan receives a portion of the riches. Now wealthy and his job completed, Hogan sets off with Sara, budd Boetticher, a long term-resident of Mexico renowned for his series of Randolph Scott westerns, wrote the original 1967 screenplay that was bought with the provision that he would direct. Boetticher had planned the film for Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, who had played a man of action and a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. Kerrs character was a member of the Mexican aristocracy escaping the vengeance of the Mexican Revolution, carrol Case sold the screenplay to Martin Rackin, who had Albert Maltz, also living in Mexico, rewrite the story. Maltzs version had Clint Eastwood playing a soldier of fortune for the Juaristas, the film saw Eastwood embody the tall mysterious stranger once more, unshaven, wearing a serape-like vest and smoking a cigar and the film score was composed by Ennio Morricone. Although the film had Leonesque dirty Hispanic villains, the film was considerably less crude, though Boetticher was friends with both Eastwood and director Don Siegel, Siegel understood Boettichers dislike of the final film. Eastwood had been shown the script by Elizabeth Taylor during the filming of Where Eagles Dare with the view of Taylor playing the female role. The role of Sister Sara was initially offered to Taylor, Sister Sara was supposed to be Mexican but Shirley MacLaine was cast instead
Two Mules for Sister Sara
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1970 original American movie poster
28.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
American Civil War
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New Orleans the largest cotton exporting port for New England and Great Britain textile mills, shipping Mississippi River Valley goods from North, South and Border states.
American Civil War
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Clockwise from top:
Battle of Gettysburg,
Union Captain John Tidball's artillery,
Confederate prisoners,
ironclad USS Atlanta, ruins of
Richmond, Virginia,
Battle of Franklin
American Civil War
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Sen. Stephen Douglas, author of the
Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854
American Civil War
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Sen. John J. Crittenden, of the 1860
Crittenden Compromise
29.
Unforgiven
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Unforgiven is a 1992 American revisionist Western film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by David Webb Peoples. The film portrays William Munny, an outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after he had turned to farming. Eastwood stated that the film would be his last Western for fear of repeating himself or imitating someone elses work, Eastwood dedicated the movie to deceased directors and mentors Don Siegel and Sergio Leone. The film won four Academy Awards, Best Picture and Best Director for Clint Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman, Eastwood was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, but he lost to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. The film was the third Western to win the Oscar for Best Picture, following Cimarron, in 2004, Unforgiven was added to the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The film is set in 1880 and 1881 in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, where Little Bill Daggett, two cowboys, Quick Mike and Davey-Boy Bunting, disfigure prostitute Delilah Fitzgerald after she laughs at the small size of Quick Mikes penis. As punishment for the cowboys, Little Bill allows them to pay compensation to the brothel owner, the rest of the prostitutes, led by Strawberry Alice, are infuriated by this leniency and offer a $1,000 reward to whoever can kill the cowboys. Miles away in Kansas, the Schofield Kid, a young man, visits the pig farm of William Munny. In his youth, Munny was a bandit, notorious for being a cold-blooded murderer, now a repentant widower raising two children, he has sworn off alcohol and killing. Though Munny initially refuses to help, his farm is failing, putting his childrens future in jeopardy, Munny reconsiders a few days later and sets off to catch up with the Kid. On his way, Munny recruits his friend Ned Logan, another retired gunfighter. Back in Wyoming, Britain-born gunfighter English Bob, an old acquaintance and rival of Little Bill, is seeking the reward and arrives in Big Whiskey with a biographer. Little Bill and his deputies disarm Bob, and Bill beats him savagely, the next morning he ejects Bob from town, but Beauchamp decides to stay and write about Bill, who has impressed him with his tales of old gunfights and seeming knowledge of the gunfighters psyche. Munny, Logan and the Kid arrive later during a rain storm, with a bad fever after riding in the rain, Munny is sitting alone in the saloon when Little Bill and his deputies arrive to confront him. With no idea of Munnys past, Little Bill beats him, Logan and the Kid, upstairs getting advances in kind on their payment from the prostitutes, escape out a back window. The three regroup at a barn outside of town, where they nurse Munny back to health, three days later, they ambush a group of cowboys and kill Bunting, though Logan and Munny show that they no longer have much stomach for murder. Logan decides to return home while Munny feels they must finish the job, Munny and the Kid head to the cowboys ranch, where the Kid ambushes Quick Mike in an outhouse and kills him. After they escape, a distraught Kid confesses he had never killed anyone before, when Little Sue meets the two men to give them the reward, they learn that Logan was captured by Little Bills men and tortured to death — but not before revealing Munnys identity
Unforgiven
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Theatrical release poster by
Bill Gold
30.
Sergio Leone
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Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter, credited as the inventor of the Spaghetti Western genre. Leones film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots. born in Rome, Leone was the son of the cinema pioneer Vincenzo Leone and the silent film actress Edvige Valcarenghi. During his schooldays, Leone was a classmate of his musical collaborator Ennio Morricone for a time. After watching his work on film sets, Leone began his own career in the film industry at the age of 18 after dropping out of law studies at the university. Working in Italian cinematography, he began as an assistant to Vittorio de Sica during the movie The Bicycle Thief in 1948, Leone began writing screenplays during the 1950s, primarily for the sword and sandal historical epics, popular at the time. When director Mario Bonnard fell ill during the production of the 1959 Italian epic The Last Days of Pompeii, starring Steve Reeves, Leone was asked to step in and complete the film. As a result, when the time came to make his directorial debut with The Colossus of Rhodes. His film A Fistful of Dollars was based upon Akira Kurosawas Edo-era samurai adventure Yojimbo, Leones film elicited a legal challenge from the Japanese director, though Kurosawas film was in turn probably based on the 1929 Dashiell Hammett novel, Red Harvest. A Fistful of Dollars is also notable for establishing Clint Eastwood as a star, until that time Eastwood had been an American television actor with few credited film roles. The look of A Fistful of Dollars was established by its Spanish locations, the film paid tribute to traditional American western films, but significantly departed from them in storyline, plot, characterization and mood. The characters were also morally ambiguous by appearing generously compassionate, or nakedly and brutally self-serving, relationships revolved around power and retributions were emotion-driven rather than conscience-driven. According to Christopher Fraylings book Something to do with Death, Leone knew a deal about the American Old West. It fascinated him as a child, which carried into his adulthood, the films featured innovative music scores by Ennio Morricone, who worked closely with Leone in devising the themes. Leone had a way of shooting scenes with Morricones music ongoing. In addition, Clint Eastwood stayed with the series, joined later by Eli Wallach, Lee van Cleef. Based on the success of The Man with No Name trilogy, the film was shot mostly in Almería, Spain and Cinecittà in Rome. It was also shot in Monument Valley, Utah. The film starred Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Once Upon a Time in the West emerged as a long, violent, dreamlike meditation upon the mythology of the American Old West, with many stylistic references to iconic western films
Sergio Leone
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Sergio Leone
