1.
First Lady of the United States
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First Lady of the United States is the informal but accepted title held by the wife of the President of the United States, concurrent with the presidents term of office. Although the first lady’s role has never been codified or officially defined, melania Trump is the current First Lady. While the title was not in use until much later, Martha Washington, the wife of George Washington. During her lifetime she was referred to as Lady Washington. Since the 1790s the role of first lady has changed considerably and it has come to include involvement in political campaigns, management of the White House, championship of social causes, and representation of the president at official and ceremonial occasions. Additionally, over the individual first ladies have held influence in a range of sectors. Historically, should a president be unmarried, or a widower, the use of the title First Lady to describe the spouse or hostess of an executive began in the United States. In the early days of the republic, there was not a generally accepted title for the wife of the president. Indulging in no indolence, she left the pillow at dawn, sometime after 1849, the title began being used in Washington, D. C. social circles. The title first gained recognition in 1877, when newspaper journalist Mary C. Ames referred to Lucy Webb Hayes as the First Lady of the Land while reporting on the inauguration of Rutherford B, the frequent reporting on Lucy Hayes activities helped spread use of the title outside Washington. A popular 1911 comedic play about Dolley Madison by playwright Charles Nirdlinger, titled The First Lady in the Land, by the 1930s, it was in wide use. Use of the later spread from the United States to other nations. The wife of the Vice President of the United States is sometimes referred to as the Second Lady of the United States, the position of the First Lady is not an elected one and carries only ceremonial duties. Nonetheless, first ladies have held a highly visible position in American society, the role of the First Lady has evolved over the centuries. She is, first and foremost, the hostess of the White House and she organizes and attends official ceremonies and functions of state either along with, or in place of, the president. Lisa Burns identifies four main themes of the first ladyship, as public woman, as political celebrity, as political activist. Martha Washington created the role and hosted many affairs of state at the national capital and this socializing became known as the Republican Court and provided elite women with an opportunity to play backstage political role
2.
Betty Ford
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Elizabeth Ann Betty Ford was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977, as the wife of the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford. As First Lady, she was active in policy and created precedents as a politically active presidential wife. Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness following her 1974 mastectomy, in addition, she was a passionate supporter of, and activist for, the Equal Rights Amendment. She also raised awareness of addiction when in the 1970s, she announced her battle with alcoholism and substance abuse. Following her White House years, she continued to lobby for the ERA and she was the founder, and served as the first chair of the board of directors, of the Betty Ford Center for substance abuse and addiction. She was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom and she was born Elizabeth Ann Bloomer in 1918 in Chicago, Illinois, the third child and only daughter of Hortense and William Stephenson Bloomer, Sr. who was a traveling salesman for Royal Rubber Co. She was called Betty as a child, Hortense and William married on Nov 9,1904 in Chicago. Bettys two older brothers were Robert and William Jr, after the family lived briefly in Denver, Colorado, she grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she graduated from Central High School. After the 1929 stock market crash, when Bloomer was aged 11, she began to earn money by modeling clothes and teaching children popular dances, such as the foxtrot, waltz, and big apple. She also entertained and worked with children with disabilities at the Mary Free Bed Home for Crippled Children and she studied dance at the Calla Travis Dance Studio, graduating in 1935. When Betty Bloomer was age 16, her father died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage while working under their car. He died the day before his 60th birthday, in 1936, after Bloomer graduated from high school, she proposed continuing her study of dance in New York City, but her mother refused. Instead, she attended the Bennington School of Dance in Bennington, Vermont and she joined Grahams auxiliary troupe and eventually performed with the company at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Her mother opposed her daughters choice of a career and insisted that she move home, but Bloomer resisted. They finally came to a compromise, Bloomer had to return home for six months, Bloomer became immersed in her life in Grand Rapids and did not return to New York. Her mother remarried, to family friend and neighbor Arthur Meigs Goodwin and she got a job as assistant to the fashion coordinator for Herpolsheimers, a local department store. She also organized her own group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids. In 1942, Elizabeth Bloomer married William G. Warren, who worked for his father in insurance sales, William Warren began selling insurance for another company shortly after their marriage
3.
Mary Tyler Moore
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She was later active in charity work and various political causes, particularly the issues of animal rights and diabetes. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes early in the run of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and she also suffered from alcoholism, which she wrote about in her first of two memoirs. In May 2011, Moore underwent elective surgery to remove a benign meningioma. She died from cardiopulmonary arrest due to pneumonia at the age of 80 on January 25,2017, Moore was born in Brooklyn, New York, to George Tyler Moore, a clerk, and his wife Marjorie Hackett. Moore was the oldest of three children, Moores family lived on Ocean Parkway in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Her paternal great-grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Tilghman Moore, owned the house which is now the Stonewall Jacksons Headquarters Museum in Winchester, when she was eight years old, Moores family moved to Los Angeles at the recommendation of Moores uncle, an MCA employee. She was raised Catholic, and attended St. Rose of Lima Parochial School in Brooklyn until the third grade and she then attended Saint Ambrose School in Los Angeles, followed by Immaculate Heart High School in Los Feliz, California. Moores sister, Elizabeth, died at age 21 from a combination of. painkillers, Moore decided at age 17 that she wanted to be a dancer. Her television career began with Moores first job as Happy Hotpoint, after appearing in 39 Hotpoint commercials in five days, she received approximately $6,000. She became pregnant while working as Happy and Hotpoint ended her work when it was too difficult to conceal her pregnancy with the elf costume. Moore modeled anonymously on the covers of a number of albums and auditioned for the role of the older daughter of Danny Thomas for his long-running TV show. Much later, Thomas explained that she missed it by a nose, no daughter of mine could ever have a nose that small. Moores first regular role was as a mysterious and glamorous telephone receptionist on Richard Diamond. On the show, Moores voice was heard, but only her legs appeared on camera, about this time, she guest-starred on John Cassavetess NBC detective series Johnny Staccato. She also guest-starred in Bachelor Father in the episode titled Bentley, the show was produced by Danny Thomass company, and Thomas himself recommended her. He remembered Moore as the girl with three names whom he had turned down earlier, Moores energetic comic performances as Van Dykes characters wife, begun at age 24, made both the actress and her signature tight capri pants extremely popular, and she became internationally known. When she won her first Emmy Award for her portrayal of Laura Petrie, she said, the Mary Tyler Moore Show is a half-hour newsroom sitcom featuring Ed Asner as her gruff boss Lou Grant. The premise of the working womans life, alternating during the program between work and home, became a television staple
4.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
5.
Columbia University
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Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1754 as Kings College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, after the American Revolutionary War, Kings College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. Columbia is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the M. D. degree. The university also has global research outposts in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Asunción, Columbia administers annually the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally,100 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Columbia as students, researchers, faculty, Columbia is second only to Harvard University in the number of Nobel Prize-winning affiliates, with over 100 recipients of the award as of 2016. In 1746 an act was passed by the assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college. Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the colleges first president, Dr. Johnson was the only instructor of the colleges first class, which consisted of a mere eight students. Instruction was held in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan, in 1763, Dr. Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queens College, Oxford, and an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777. The suspension continued through the occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. The colleges library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a hospital first by American. Loyalists were forced to abandon their Kings College in New York, the Loyalists, led by Bishop Charles Inglis fled to Windsor, Nova Scotia, where they founded Kings Collegiate School. After the Revolution, the college turned to the State of New York in order to restore its vitality, the Legislature agreed to assist the college, and on May 1,1784, it passed an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called Kings College. The Regents finally became aware of the colleges defective constitution in February 1787 and appointed a revision committee, in April of that same year, a new charter was adopted for the college, still in use today, granting power to a private board of 24 Trustees. On May 21,1787, William Samuel Johnson, the son of Dr. Samuel Johnson, was unanimously elected President of Columbia College, prior to serving at the university, Johnson had participated in the First Continental Congress and been chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. The colleges enrollment, structure, and academics stagnated for the majority of the 19th century, with many of the college presidents doing little to change the way that the college functioned. In 1857, the college moved from the Kings College campus at Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, during the last half of the 19th century, under the leadership of President F. A. P. Barnard, the institution assumed the shape of a modern university
6.
Dick Gregory
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Richard Claxton Dick Gregory is an American civil rights activist, social critic, writer, entrepreneur, conspiracy theorist, comedian, and occasional actor. Gregory is a member of the prestigious fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, Gregory was a poor student who excelled at running, and was aided by teachers at Sumner High School, among them Warren St. James. Gregory earned a scholarship to Southern Illinois University Carbondale. There he set records as a half-miler and miler. His college career was interrupted for two years in 1954 when he was drafted into the United States Army. The Army was where he got his start in comedy, entering and winning several Army talent shows at the urging of his commanding officer, who had taken notice of Gregorys penchant for joking. In 1956, Gregory briefly returned to SIU after his discharge, Gregory drew on current events, especially racial issues, for much of his material, Segregation is not all bad. Have you ever heard of a collision where the people in the back of the bus got hurt, Gregory began his career as a comedian while serving in the military in the mid 1950s. He served in the army for a year and a half at Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Lee in Virginia and he was drafted in 1954 while attending Southern Illinois University Carbondale. After being discharged in 1956 he returned to the university but did not receive a degree, with a desire to perform comedy professionally, he moved to Chicago. In 1958, Gregory opened a nightclub called the Apex Club in Illinois, the club failed, landing Gregory in financial hardship. In 1959, Gregory landed a job as master of ceremonies at the Roberts Show Club, Gregory performed as a comedian in small, primarily black-patronized nightclubs, while working for the United States Postal Service during the daytime. He was one of the first black comedians to gain widespread acclaim performing for white audiences, I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well, I spent twenty years there one night. Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant, bring me a whole fried chicken. Then these three white boys came up to me and said, Boy, were giving you fair warning, anything you do to that chicken, were gonna do to you. So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken, then I said, Line up, boys. Gregory attributes the launch of his career to Hugh Hefner, who watched him perform at Herman Roberts Show Bar, based on that performance, Hefner hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club as a replacement for comedian Professor Irwin Corey
7.
Richard Pryor
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Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and actor. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues and he reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style. Dave Chappelle said of Pryor, You know those, like and he was the dude walking upright. Richard was the highest evolution of comedy and this legacy can be attributed, in part, to the unusual degree of intimacy Pryor brought to bear on his comedy. As Bill Cosby reportedly once said, Richard Pryor drew the line between comedy and tragedy as thin as one could possibly paint it. Pryors body of work includes the concert movies and recordings, Richard Pryor, Live & Smokin, Bicentennial Nigger, Richard Pryor, Live in Concert, Richard Pryor, Live on the Sunset Strip, and Richard Pryor, Here and Now. As an actor, he starred mainly in comedies such as Silver Streak and he collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder. Another frequent collaborator was actor/comedian/writer Paul Mooney, Pryor won an Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards. In 1974, he won two American Academy of Humor awards and the Writers Guild of America Award. The first-ever Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to him in 1998 and he was listed at Number 1 on Comedy Centrals list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time, many comedians have stated that the late Patrice ONeal was the only comic who came close to achieving Pryors stage presence. Pryor and ONeals discussions on race and gender is considered by many prominent stand-ups to be some of the best material performed in stand-up history. Born on December 1,1940 in Peoria, Illinois, Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor grew up in his grandmothers brothel and his father, LeRoy Buck Carter Pryor, was a former boxer and hustler. After his alcoholic mother abandoned him when he was 10, Pryor was raised primarily by his grandmother Marie Carter, Pryor was one of four children raised in his grandmothers brothel and was sexually abused at age seven. He was expelled from school at the age of 14 and his first professional performance was playing drums at a night club. Pryor served in the U. S. Army from 1958 to 1960, according to a 1999 profile about Pryor in The New Yorker, Pryor was incarcerated for an incident that occurred while stationed in Germany. Angered that a soldier was overly amused at the racially charged sections of Douglas Sirks movie Imitation of Life, Pryor and some other black soldiers beat and stabbed him. In 1963, Pryor moved to New York City and began performing regularly in clubs alongside performers such as Bob Dylan, on one of his first nights, he opened for singer and pianist Nina Simone at New Yorks Village Gate
8.
Bill Cosby
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William Henry Bill Cosby, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, author, and singer. Cosbys start in comedy began at the hungry i in San Francisco and was followed by his landing a starring role in the 1960s television show I Spy. He was also a regular on the television series The Electric Company during the shows first two seasons. Throughout the 1970s, Cosby starred in a number of films, after attending Temple University in the 1960s, he received his bachelors degree there in 1971. In 1973, he received a degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His dissertation discussed the use of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids as a tool in elementary schools. The sitcom highlighted the experiences and growth of an affluent African-American family, Cosby has been the subject of publicized sexual assault allegations since about 2000. He surrendered to authorities on December 30,2015, and was released on $1 million bail, Cosby is scheduled to go on trial on or before June 5,2017. Cosby was born on July 12,1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and he is one of four sons of Anna Pearl, a maid, and William Henry Cosby Sr. who served as a mess steward in the U. S. Navy. During much of Cosbys early childhood, his father was away in the U. S. armed forces, as a student, he described himself as a class clown. Cosby was the captain of both the team and the track and field team at Mary Channing Wister Public School in Philadelphia. Early on, though, teachers noted his propensity for clowning around rather than studying, at FitzSimons Junior High School, Cosby began acting in plays as well as continuing his devotion to playing sports. Cosby went on to Philadelphias Central High School, a magnet and academically rigorous university prep school where he played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track. In addition, Cosby was working before and after school, selling produce, shining shoes and he transferred to Germantown High School, but failed the tenth grade. Instead of repeating, he got a job as an apprentice at a repair shop, which he liked. In 1956, Cosby enlisted in the Navy, serving at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland and at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. During his four years in the Navy, Cosby served as a Hospital Corpsman working in therapy with Navy. He finished his equivalency diploma via correspondence courses and was awarded a track, there, he studied physical education while running track and playing fullback on the universitys football team
9.
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
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The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from October 1,1962 through May 22,1992. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked No.12 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, particularly during the early years of Carsons tenure, his guests included politicians such as former U. S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon, former U. S. Attorney General Robert F. Psychologist Joyce Brothers was also one of Carsons most frequent guests. Carson strongly disliked prop comedy and generally refused to have such comics on his show, gallagher first appeared on The Tonight Show Dec.5,1975, when he demonstrated his prop, The Tonight Show Home Game, and Carson noted that it was his first appearance. Gallagher again appeared on May 9,1979, a show hosted by Carson, mort Sahl recalled, The producer crouches just off camera and holds up a card that says, Go to commercial. So Carson goes to a commercial and the team rushes up to his desk to discuss what had gone wrong. Actor Robert Blake once compared being interviewed by Carson to facing the death squad or Broadway on opening night, the publicity value of appearing on Tonight was so great, however, that most guests were willing to subject themselves to the risk. The shows announcer and Carsons sidekick was Ed McMahon, who from the very first show would introduce Carson with a drawn-out Heeeeeeeeeres Johnny. The catchphrase was heard nightly for 30 years, and ranked top of the TV Land poll of U. S. McMahon, who held the same role in Carsons ABC game show Who Do You Trust. For five years previously, would remain standing to the side as Carson did his monologue, laughing at his jokes, the two would usually interact in a comic spot for a short while before the first guest was introduced. McMahon stated in a 1978 profile of Carson in The New Yorker that the ‘Tonight Show’ is my staple diet, my meat and potatoes—I’m realistic enough to know that everything else stems from that. After a 1965 incident in which he ruined Carsons joke on the air McMahon was careful to, as he said and he wrote in his 1998 autobiography, My role on the show never was strictly defined. I did what had to be done when it had to be done, I was there when he needed me, and when he didnt I moved down the couch and kept quiet. I did the audience warm-up, I did commercials, for a brief period I co-hosted the first fifteen minutes of the show, and I performed in many sketches. On our thirteenth-anniversary show Johnny and I were talking at his desk and he said and he paused long enough for me to recognize my cue, so I asked, How long is it. Thats why youre here, he said, probably summing up my primary role on the show perfectly. I had to him, I had to help him get to the punch line. Many nights Id be listening to Johnny and in my mind Id reach the same ad lib just as he said it, Id have to bite my tongue not to say it out loud
10.
Bob Hope
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Bob Hope KBE, KC*SG, KSS was an American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, athlete, centenarian and author. With a career spanning nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in over 70 feature films and short films, in addition to hosting the Academy Awards 19 times, he appeared in many stage productions and television roles and was the author of 14 books. The song Thanks for the Memory is widely regarded as Hopes signature tune, born in Eltham, Kent, Hope arrived in America with his family at the age of four and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He began his career in business in the early 1920s, initially on stage. He was praised for his timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes. He also appeared in numerous specials for NBC television, starting in 1950, Hope participated in the sports of golf and boxing and owned a small stake in his hometown baseball team, the Cleveland Indians. He died at age 100 at his home in Toluca Lake, Hope was born in Eltham, Kent the fifth of seven sons. They married in April 1891 and lived at 12 Greenwood Street in Barry, before moving to Whitehall, Bristol, and then St George, Bristol. In 1908, the family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia and passed through Ellis Island on March 30,1908, before moving to Cleveland, from age 12, Hope earned pocket money by busking, singing, dancing, and performing comedy. He entered many dancing and amateur talent contests and won a prize in 1915 for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin, for a time, he attended the Boys Industrial School in Lancaster, Ohio. As an adult, he donated sizable sums of money to the institution, Hope had a brief career as a boxer in 1919, fighting under the name Packy East. He had three wins and one loss and participated in a few staged charity bouts later in life, Hope worked as a butchers assistant and a lineman in his teens and early twenties. Hope also had a stint at Chandler Motor Car Company. Deciding on a business career, he and his girlfriend signed up for dancing lessons. Encouraged after they performed in an engagement at a club, Hope formed a partnership with Lloyd Durbin. Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw them perform in 1925 and found work with a touring troupe called Hurleys Jolly Follies. Within a year, Hope had formed an act called the Dancemedians with George Byrne, Hope and Byrne had an act as a pair of Siamese twins as well and danced and sang while wearing blackface before friends advised Hope that he was funnier as himself. In 1929, Hope informally changed his first name to Bob, in one version of the story, he named himself after racecar driver Bob Burman
11.
James L. Brooks
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James Lawrence Jim Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life, after dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the CBS News broadcasts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1965 to work on David L. Wolpers documentaries, after being laid off he met producer Allan Burns who secured him a job as a writer on the series My Mother the Car. Brooks wrote for several shows before being hired as an editor on My Friend Tony. Grant Tinker hired Brooks and Burns at MTM Productions to create The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970, the show, one of the first to feature an independent working woman as its lead character, was critically acclaimed and won Brooks several Primetime Emmy Awards. Brooks and Burns then created two successful spin-offs from Mary Tyler Moore in the shape of Rhoda and Lou Grant, Brooks left MTM Productions in 1978 to co-create the sitcom Taxi which, despite winning multiple Emmys, suffered from low ratings and was canceled twice. Brooks moved into film work when he wrote and co-produced the 1979 film Starting Over. His next project was the acclaimed film Terms of Endearment. Basing his next film, Broadcast News, on his journalistic experiences, although his 1994 work Ill Do Anything was hampered by negative press attention due to the cutting of all of its recorded musical numbers, As Good as It Gets earned further praise. It was seven years until his film, 2004s Spanglish. His sixth film, How Do You Know, was released in 2010, Brooks also produced and mentored Cameron Crowe on Say Anything. And Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson on Bottle Rocket, in 1984, Brooks founded the television and film company, Gracie Films. Although he did not intend to do so, Brooks returned to television in 1987 as the producer of The Tracey Ullman Show and he hired cartoonist Matt Groening to create a series of shorts for the show, which eventually led to The Simpsons in 1989. The Simpsons won numerous awards and is still running, Brooks also co-produced and co-wrote the 2007 film adaptation of the show, The Simpsons Movie. In total, Brooks has received 47 Emmy nominations, winning 20 of them, Brooks was born James Lawrence Brooks on May 9,1940 in Brooklyn, New York, United States, and raised in North Bergen, New Jersey. His parents, Dorothy Helen and Edward M. Brooks, were both salespeople, the Brooks family was Jewish, Edward Brooks changed his surname from Bernstein and claimed to be Irish. Brooks father abandoned his mother when he found out she was pregnant with him, during the pregnancy, Brooks father sent his wife a postcard stating that If its a boy, name him Jim. His mother died when he was 22 and he has an older sister, Diane, who helped look after him as a child and to whom he dedicated As Good As It Gets
12.
Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio based in Hollywood, California, that has been a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor contracted 22 actors and actresses and these fortunate few would become the first movie stars. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, followed by the Nordisk Film company. It is the last major film studio headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company, hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success and its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, the Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies, Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor, until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation, in 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged the three companies into one, with only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, the driving force behind Paramounts rise was Zukor. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg and they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, three years later, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. In 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps, animated cartoons produced by Max, the Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957, Paramount was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies, and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris
