1.
Hamilton, Ontario
–
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Residents of the old city are known as Hamiltonians, since 1981, the metropolitan area has been listed as the ninth largest in Canada and the third largest in Ontario. Hamilton is home to the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, McMaster University is ranked 4th in Canada and 94th in the world by Times Higher Education Rankings 2015-16 and has a well-known medical school. Possibly because of its environment, numerous TV and film productions have been filmed in Hamilton, regulated by the Hamilton Film. A growing arts and culture community garnered media attention in 2006 when the Globe and Mail published an article called Go West, the article highlighted local art galleries, recording studios and independent film production. In pre-colonial times, the Neutral Indians used much of the land but were driven out by the Five Nations who were allied with the British against the Huron. A member of the Iroquois Confederacy provided the route and name for Mohawk Road, which originally included King Street in the lower city. In 1784, about 10,000 United Empire Loyalists settled in Upper Canada, chiefly in Niagara, around the Bay of Quinte, and along the St. Lawrence River between Lake Ontario and Montreal. They were soon followed by many more Americans, some of not so much ardent loyalists but attracted nonetheless by the availability of inexpensive. At the same time, large numbers of Iroquois loyal to Britain arrived from the United States and were settled on reserves west of Lake Ontario. The town of Hamilton was conceived by George Hamilton, when he purchased farm holdings of James Durand, nathaniel Hughson, a property owner to the north, cooperated with George Hamilton to prepare a proposal for a courthouse and jail on Hamiltons property. Hamilton offered the land to the crown for the future site, Durand was empowered by Hughson and Hamilton to sell property holdings which later became the site of the town. As he had instructed, Durand circulated the offers at York during a session of the Legislative Assembly. Initially, this town was not the most important centre of the Gore District, a permanent jail was not constructed until 1832 when a cut-stone design was completed on one of the two squares created in 1816, Princes Square. Subsequently, the first police board and the limits were defined by statute on February 13,1833. Official City status was achieved on June 9,1846, by an act of Parliament,9 Victoria Chapter 73, the city had several interurban electric street railways and two inclines, all powered by the Cataract Power Co. Though suffering through the Hamilton Street Railway strike of 1906, with industrial businesses expanding, allan Skyway in 1958, and the first Tim Hortons store in 1964. Since then, many of the industries have moved or shut down operations and the economy has shifted more toward the service sector, such as transportation, education
2.
Beverly Hills, California
–
Beverly Hills is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, surrounded by the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood. By 2013, its population had grown to 34,658, sometimes referred to as 90210, one of its primary ZIP codes, it was home to many actors and celebrities throughout the 20th century. The city includes the Rodeo Drive shopping district and the Beverly Hills Oil Field, gaspar de Portolá arrived in the area that would later become Beverly Hills on August 3,1769, travelling along native trails which followed the present-day route of Wilshire Boulevard. The area was settled by Maria Rita Quinteros de Valdez and her husband in 1828 and they called their 4,500 acres of property the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. in 1854, she sold the ranch to Benjamin Davis Wilson and Henry Hancock. By the 1880s, the ranch had been subdivided into parcels of 75 acres and was being bought up by anglos from Los Angeles. Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker acquired most of it, at this point, the area was known as the Hammel and Denker Ranch. By 1888, Denker and Hammel were planning to build a town called Morocco on their holdings and they did not find enough to exploit commercially by the standards of the time, though. In 1906, therefore, they reorganized as the Rodeo Land and Water Company, renamed the property Beverly Hills, subdivided it, the development was named Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts and because of the hills in the area. The first house in the subdivision was built in 1907, although sales remained slow, Beverly Hills was one of many all-white planned communities started in the Los Angeles area around this time. Restrictive covenants prohibited non-whites from owning or renting property unless they were employed as servants by white residents and it was also forbidden to sell or rent property to Jews in Beverly Hills. Burton Green began construction on The Beverly Hills Hotel in 1911, the hotel was finished in 1912. The visitors drawn by the hotel were inclined to purchase land in Beverly Hills and that same year, the Rodeo Land and Water Company decided to separate its water business from its real estate business. The Beverly Hills Utility Commission was split off from the company and incorporated in September 1914, buying all of the utilities-related assets from the Rodeo Land. In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford bought land on Summit Drive and built a mansion, finished in 1921, the glamor associated with Fairbanks and Pickford as well as other movie stars who built mansions in the city contributed to its growing appeal. By the early 1920s the population of Beverly Hills had grown enough to make the water supply a political issue, in 1923 the usual solution, annexation to the city of Los Angeles, was proposed. There was considerable opposition to annexation among such famous residents as Pickford, Fairbanks, Will Rogers, the Beverly Hills Utility Commission, opposed to annexation as well, managed to force the city into a special election and the plan was defeated 337 to 507. In 1925, Beverly Hills approved an issue to buy 385 acres for a new campus for UCLA. The cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Venice also issued bonds to pay for the new campus
3.
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
–
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally named Hollywood Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, Paramount Studios is located at the south end of the same block on 40 acres which were once part of the cemetery, but held no interments. People who played roles in shaping Los Angeles are interred throughout the property. The cemetery is active and regularly hosts community events, including music, the cemetery, the only one actually in Hollywood, was founded in 1899 on 100 acres and called Hollywood Cemetery by F. W. </ref></ref> Incorporated. The Hollywood Cemetery Association filed articles of incorporation yesterday, </ref> The cemetery sold off large tracts to Paramount Studios, which, with RKO Studios, bought 40 acres by 1920. Part of the land was set aside for the Beth Olam Cemetery, a dedicated Jewish burial ground. In 1939, Jules Roth, a felon and millionaire, bought a 51% stake in the cemetery. He used the money from the operations to pay for personal luxuries while allowing the cemetery and crematory to fall into disrepair. At the time of her death, Hollywood Memorial, like other cemeteries, was segregated, on the 47th anniversary of McDaniels death, the cemeterys current owner dedicated a cenotaph in her honor at a prime location south of Sylvan Lake. The crematory was shut down in July,1974 after the cremation of singer Cass Elliot, according to the cemetery grounds supervisor Daniel Ugarte, the crematory was in such disrepair that bricks began falling in around Elliots body. By the 1980s, the California Cemetery Board began receiving complaints from the families of people interred there. Family members complained that the grounds were not kept up and were disturbed to hear stories about vandalism on the cemetery grounds, the heirs of well-known makeup artist Max Factor moved his and other Factor family remains after the mausoleum sustained water damage that discolored the walls. In the late 1980s, to settle tax bills and maintain his lavish lifestyle and those lawns are now strip malls which house, among other businesses, an auto parts store and a laundromat. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Roth couldnt afford to repair the roofs, by that time, Hollywood Memorial was no longer making money and only generated revenue by charging families $500 for disinterments. In 1997, Roth became ill after he fell in his Hollywood Hills home and he had been embroiled in a scandal regarding another cemetery he owned, Lincoln Memorial Park, in Carson, California. Roth died on January 4,1998, and he was interred next to his wife Virginia, his father, the state of California had revoked the cemeterys license to sell its remaining interment spaces. After Roths death, it was discovered that the cemeterys endowment care fund, meant to care for the cemetery in perpetuity, was missing about $9 million, according to the current owner. Those owners, Tyler and Brent Cassity, purchased the now 62-acre property which was on the verge of closure in a bankruptcy proceeding, in 1998 for $375,000
4.
Biograph Company
–
The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1928. The company was distinguished with pioneering director D. W. Griffith and such actors as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, an unrelated company, with the same name, was incorporated in California in 1991. As of 2012, its operations are suspended, the company was started by William Kennedy Dickson, an inventor at Thomas Edisons laboratory who helped pioneer the technology of capturing moving images on film. Dickson left Edison in April 1895, joining with inventors Herman Casler, Henry Marvin, in the summer of 1896 the Biograph projector was released, offering superior image quality to Edison’s Vitascope projector. The company soon became a leader in the industry, with distribution and production subsidiaries around the world including the British Mutoscope Company. In 1899 it changed its name to the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, the camera used friction feed, instead of Edison’s sprocket feed, to guide the film to the aperture. The camera itself punched a hole on each side of the frame as the film was exposed at 30 frames per second. Biograph offered prints in both formats to exhibitors until 1905, when it discontinued the larger format, the occasional narrative film, usually a comedy, was typically shot in one scene, with no editing. Spurred on by competition from Edison and British and European producers, as the stories became more complex, the films became longer, with multiple scenes to tell the story, although an individual scene was still usually presented in one shot without editing. Biographs production of actualities ended by 1908 in favor of the narrative film, the companys first studio was located on the roof of 841 Broadway at 13th Street in Manhattan, known then as the Hackett Carhart Building and today as the Roosevelt Building. The set-up was similar to Thomas Edisons Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey, as of 1988, the foundations of this machinery were still extant. The company moved in 1906 to a brownstone mansion at 11 East 14th Street near Union Square. This was Biographs first indoor studio, and the first movie studio in the world to rely exclusively on artificial light, Biograph moved again in 1913, as it entered feature film production, to a new, state-of-the-art studio on 175th Street in the Bronx. In order to make the audience aware that they were watching an American Biograph movie the AB logo would be prominently placed in random parts of the movie. Director D. W. Griffith joined Biograph in 1908 as a writer and actor, but within months became their principal director. In 1908, the head director Wallace McCutcheon grew ill, and his son, Wallace McCutcheon Jr. took his place. As a result of failed productions, studio head Henry Marvin gave the position of head director to Griffith. Although Griffith did not invent these techniques, he made them a part of the film vocabulary
5.
Vaudeville
–
Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, a typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a vaudevillian, Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called the heart of American show business, vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades, the origin of this term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the French expression voix de ville. A second speculation is that it comes from the songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin. Some, however, preferred the term variety to what manager Tony Pastor called its sissy. Thus, vaudeville was marketed as variety well into the 20th century, with its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment. The form gradually evolved from the saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as Polite Vaudeville, in the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere, in the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found a number of ways to be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns, a significant influence also came from Dutch minstrels and comedians. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in Americas growing urban hubs, pastors experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit. B. F. Keith took the step, starting in Boston. Later, E. F. Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudevilles greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years, Albee also gave national prominence to vaudevilles trumpeting polite entertainment, a commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men, women and children. Acts that violated this ethos were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the remaining performances or were canceled altogether
6.
Great Famine (Ireland)
–
The Great Famine or the Great Hunger was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine, during the famine, approximately one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the islands population to fall by between 20% and 25%. The proximate cause of famine was potato blight, which ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The famine and its effects permanently changed the demographic, political. For both the native Irish and those in the diaspora, the famine entered folk memory. Ireland sent 105 members of parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, between 1832 and 1859, 70% of Irish representatives were landowners or the sons of landowners. The laws had largely been reformed by 1793, and the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 allowed Irish Catholics to again sit in parliament, during the 18th century, the middleman system for managing landed property was introduced. Rent collection was left in the hands of the landlords agents and this assured the landlord of a regular income, and relieved them of direct responsibility, while leaving tenants open to exploitation by the middlemen. Catholics, the bulk of whom lived in conditions of poverty and insecurity despite Catholic emancipation in 1829, made up 80% of the population. At the top of the pyramid was the ascendancy class, the English and Anglo-Irish families who owned most of the land. Some of their estates were vast, for example, the Earl of Lucan owned over 60,000 acres, many of these landlords lived in England and were known as absentee landlords. The rent revenue—collected from impoverished tenants who were paid wages to raise crops. In 1843, the British Government considered that the question in Ireland was the root cause of disaffection in the country. They established a Royal Commission, chaired by the Earl of Devon, Daniel OConnell described this commission as perfectly one-sided, being composed of landlords, with no tenant representation. In February 1845, Devon reported, It would be impossible adequately to describe the privations which they habitually and silently endure, in many districts their only food is the potato, their only beverage water. Their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather, a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury. And nearly in all their pig and a manure heap constitute their only property, the Commission stated that bad relations between landlord and tenant were principally responsible. There was no loyalty, feudal tie, or mitigating tradition of paternalism as existed in England
7.
Buffalo, New York
–
Buffalo is a city in western New York state and the county seat of Erie County, on the eastern shores of Lake Erie at the head of the Niagara River. As of 2014, Buffalo is New York states 2nd-most populous city after New York City, the metropolitan area has a population of 1.13 million. After an economic downturn in the half of the 20th century, Buffalos economy has transitioned to sectors that include financial services, technology, biomedical engineering. Residents of Buffalo are called Buffalonians, the citys nicknames include The Queen City, The Nickel City and The City of Good Neighbors. The city of Buffalo received its name from a creek called Buffalo Creek. British military engineer Captain John Montresor made reference to Buffalo Creek in his journal of 1764, there are several theories regarding how Buffalo Creek received its name. In 1804, as principal agent opening the area for the Holland Land Company, Joseph Ellicott, designed a radial street and grid system that branches out from downtown like bicycle spokes similar to the street system he used in the nations capital. Although Ellicott named the settlement New Amsterdam, the name did not catch on, during the War of 1812, on December 30,1813, Buffalo was burned by British forces. The George Coit House 1818 and Samuel Schenck House 1823 are currently the oldest houses within the limits of the City of Buffalo, on October 26,1825, the Erie Canal was completed with Buffalo a port-of-call for settlers heading westward. At the time, the population was about 2,400, the Erie Canal brought about a surge in population and commerce, which led Buffalo to incorporate as a city in 1832. In 1845, construction began on the Macedonia Baptist Church, an important meeting place for the abolitionist movement, Buffalo was a terminus point of the Underground Railroad with many fugitive slaves crossing the Niagara River to Fort Erie, Ontario in search of freedom. During the 1840s, Buffalos port continued to develop, both passenger and commercial traffic expanded with some 93,000 passengers heading west from the port of Buffalo. Grain and commercial goods shipments led to repeated expansion of the harbor, in 1843, the worlds first steam-powered grain elevator was constructed by local merchant Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar. Darts Elevator enabled faster unloading of lake freighters along with the transshipment of grain in bulk from barges, canal boats, by 1850, the citys population was 81,000. At the dawn of the 20th century, local mills were among the first to benefit from hydroelectric power generated by the Niagara River, the city got the nickname City of Light at this time due to the widespread electric lighting. It was also part of the revolution, hosting the brass era car builders Pierce Arrow. President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by an anarchist at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on September 6,1901, McKinley died in the city eight days later and Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in at the Wilcox Mansion as the 26th President of the United States. The Great Depression of 1929–39 saw severe unemployment, especially working class men
8.
Vitagraph Studios
–
Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, by 1907 it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros. in 1925, in 1896, English émigré Blackton was moonlighting as a reporter/artist for the New York Evening World when he was sent to interview Thomas Edison about his new film projector. The inventor talked the entrepreneurial reporter into buying a set of films, a year later, Blackton and business partner Smith founded the American Vitagraph Company in direct competition with Edison. A third partner, distributor William Pop Rock, joined in 1899, the companys first studio was located on the rooftop of a building on Nassau Street in Manhattan. Operations were later moved to the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, the companys first claim to fame came from newsreels, Vitagraph cameramen were on the scene to film events from the Spanish–American War of 1898. These shorts were among the first works of propaganda. In 1897 Vitagraph produced The Humpty Dumpty Circus, which was the first film to use the stop-motion technique, Blackton did his best to avoid lawsuits by buying a special license from Edison in 1907 and by agreeing to sell many of his most popular films to Edison for distribution. The American Vitagraph Company made many contributions to the history of movie-making, in 1903 the director Joseph Delmont started his career by producing westerns, he later became famous by using wild carnivores in his movies—a sensation for that time. In 1909 it was one of the ten production companies included in Edisons attempt to corner movie-making. Major stars included Florence Turner, Maurice Costello, Harry T. Morey, Jean and such stars as Helen Hayes, Viola Dana, Dolores Costello, Norma Talmadge, Constance Talmadge. Larry Trimble was a director of films for Turner and Jean. The first Les Miserables film adaptation, a short silent historical drama starring Maurice Costello as Jean Valjean, the film consists of four reels, each released over the course of three months beginning on 4 September to 27 November 1909. In 1910 a number of houses showed the five parts of the Vitagraph serial The Life of Moses consecutively. A long series of Shakespeare adaptations were the first done of the Bards works in the U. S. In 1911, Vitagraph produced the first aviation film, The Military Air-Scout, directed by William J. Humphrey, the 1915 feature The Battle Cry of Peace was one of the great propaganda films of World War I. Ironically, after America declared war, the film was modified for re-release because it was seen as not being sufficiently pro-war, World War I spelled the beginning of the end for Vitagraph. With the loss of foreign distributors and the rise of the monopolistic Studio system, on January 28,1925, it left the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, the owner, Albert E
9.
Broadway theatre
–
Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
10.
Edison Manufacturing Company
–
Its assets and operations were transferred to Thomas A. Edison, Inc. in 1911. Thomas Edison organized the Edison Manufacturing Company in December 1889 as his business for the purpose of making and selling the Edison-Lalande primary battery. It was formally incorporated on 5 May 1900 in New Jersey, the company made and sold batteries for use in telegraph, phonoplex, and telephone systems, and for phonographs, dental equipment, medical instruments, and other machinery. It also made kinetoscopes, phonograph cylinder wax, x-ray equipment, medical instruments, from April 1895 to June 1908 William E. Gilmore was vice-president and general manager of the company. He was succeeded by the patent lawyer Frank Dyer, edisons films were made by the Kinetograph Department of the Edison Manufacturing Company. The Edison Studios first produced kinetoscope films in Manhattan, then from 1905 in a studio in the Bronx, the company had the same senior executives as the more profitable National Phonograph Company, to which Edison paid more attention. Edison was also distracted by other enterprises including storage batteries, iron ore and cement, in February 1911 the companys assets were assigned to Thomas A. Edison, Inc. The Edison Manufacturing Company was formally dissolved on 9 November 1926
11.
Brooklyn
–
Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with a Census-estimated 2,636,735 residents in 2015. It borders the borough of Queens at the end of Long Island. Today, if New York City dissolved, Brooklyn would rank as the third-most populous city in the U. S. behind Los Angeles, the borough continues, however, to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves, Brooklyns official motto, displayed on the Borough seal and flag, is Eendraght Maeckt Maght which translates from early modern Dutch as Unity makes strength. Since 2010, Brooklyn has evolved into a hub of entrepreneurship and high technology startup firms. The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years, the neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North Americas first tidal mill. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today, however, the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in Gabriel Furmans early compilation, what is today Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the final English conquest of New Netherland in 1664, a prelude to the Second Anglo–Dutch War. The English reorganized the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island as Kings County on November 1,1683 and this tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of Brooklyn identity. On August 27,1776 was fought the Battle of Long Island, the first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared, and the largest of the entire conflict. British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights near the sites of Green-Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park. The fortified American positions at Brooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, One result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 was the evacuation of the British from New York City, celebrated by residents into the 20th century. The New York Navy Yard operated in Wallabout Bay for the entire 19th century, the first center of urbanization sprang up in the Town of Brooklyn, directly across from Lower Manhattan, which saw the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1817. Reliable steam ferry service across the East River to Fulton Landing converted Brooklyn Heights into a town for Wall Street. Ferry Road to Jamaica Pass became Fulton Street to East New York, Town and Village were combined to form the first, kernel incarnation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834. Industrial deconcentration in mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities, and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems and it later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America. The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19,1842, on May 14,1849 the name was shortened to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, on September 5,1938 it was further shortened to Brooklyn Eagle
12.
Dion Boucicault
–
Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot, commonly known as Dion Boucicault, was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the English-speaking theatre, the New York Times heralded him in his obituary as the most conspicuous English dramatist of the 19th century. Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot was born and educated in Dublin where he lived on Gardiner Street and his mother was Anne Darley, sister of the poet and mathematician George Darley. The Darleys were an important Dublin family influential in many fields, Anne was married to Samuel Smith Boursiquot, of Huguenot ancestry, but the identity of the boys father is questionable. He was probably Dionysius Lardner, a lodger at his mothers house at a time when she was separated from her husband. Dion went to London and was enrolled at University College School at the age of 13, after a year in London, Boursiquot/Boucicault left to pursue acting in Cheltenham. The young actor used the stage name Lee Morton and he joined William Charles Macready and made his first appearance upon the stage with Benjamin Webster at Bristol, England. Soon afterwards he began to write plays, occasionally in conjunction and his first play, A Legend of the Devils Dyke, opened in Brighton in 1838. Three years later he found success as a dramatist with London Assurance. Produced at Covent Garden on 4 March 1841, its cast included such actors as Charles Mathews, William Farren, Mrs Nesbitt. The last two plays were adaptations of French plays, in his play The Vampire, Boucicault made his début as a leading actor as the vampire Sir Alan Raby. Although the play itself had mixed reviews, Boucicaults characterisation was praised as a dreadful, in 1854 he wrote and played the title character in Andy Blake, or, The Irish Diamond. From 1854 to 1860, Boucicault resided in the United States, Boucicault and his actress wife, Agnes Robertson, toured America. He also wrote successful plays there, acting in most of them. These included the popular Jessie Brown, or, The Relief of Lucknow in 1858, in the summer of 1859, Boucicault took over as manager of Burtons New Theatre on Broadway just below Amity Street. After extensive remodelling, he renamed his new showplace the Winter Garden Theatre, there on 5 December 1859, he premiered his new sensation, the anti-slavery potboiler The Octoroon, in which he also starred. This was the first play to treat seriously the Black American population, on his return to England, he produced at the Adelphi Theatre a dramatic adaptation of Gerald Griffins novel, The Collegians, entitled The Colleen Bawn. This play, one of the most successful of the times, was performed in almost every city of the United Kingdom, although it made its author a handsome fortune, he lost it in the management of various London theatres
13.
The Shaughraun
–
The Shaughraun /ˈʃɒk. raʊn/ is a melodramatic play written by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault. It was first performed at Wallacks Theatre, New York, on 14 November 1874, Boucicault played Conn in the original production. The play was a success, making half a million dollars for Boucicault. The play is about Robert Ffolliott, fiancé of Arte ONeil, a country squire who arranged the betrayal, Kinchela, who also conspires to force Arte into marriage, tries to hunt Robert down and arrest him, with the help of a police informer, Harvey Duff. Robert escapes various melodramatic cliffhanger situations with the help of Conn the Shaughraun, roberts sister, Claire Ffolliott, is in love with an English soldier, Captain Molineaux, who is tracking down Fenians in the area. She cannot decide whether or not to protect her brother or betray the Captain, however, Molineauxs fish out of water attitudes to rural Ireland provide comic relief, and all ends well. The Fenians receive a general amnesty, the couples marry, Kinchela is arrested, the original production and cast is praised by the protagonist, Newland Archer, in Edith Whartons 1920 novel The Age of Innocence which is set in 1870s New York. Theatre poster from performances at Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in 1885
14.
Biograph Studios
–
Biograph Studios was an early film studio and laboratory complex, built in 1912 by the Biograph Company at 807 East 175th Street, in The Bronx, New York City, New York. The set-up was similar to Thomas Edisons Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey, as of 1988, the foundations of this machinery were still extant. The company moved in 1906 to a brownstone at 11 East 14th Street near Union Square and it was at this location that D. W. Griffith began as a director, and quickly became the studios focus. Griffith left the company in 1913, and it moved its facilities to 807 East 175th Street in The Bronx. Without Griffith, the studio did not prosper, and the company was dissolved in 1915, the studio facilities were acquired by one of Biograph Companys creditors, the Empire Trust Company, although Biograph continued to manage it. Herbert Yates acquired the Biograph Studios properties and Film laboratory facilities in 1928, Biograph Studios facilities in The Bronx was made a subsidiary of his Consolidated Film Industries. However, the principal activity in that decade was the production of shorts for Universal, Columbia. At this time, the remaining Biograph film collection was donated to the department of the Museum of Modern Art. The Soundies Distributing Corporation filmed at the Biograph Studios in 1944, Empire Trust later assigned management of the property to one of its own subsidiaries, The Actinograph Corp. which held it until 1948. Martin Poll restored Biograph Studios and reopened it in 1956 as the Gold Medal Studios, Gold Medal Studios became the largest film studio in the United States outside of Los Angeles at the time of its 1956 reopening. Poll sold the property in 1961, when it was incorporated into a company, Biograph Studios, Inc. in 1961. The television series Naked City, Car 54, Where Are You, Biograph Studios went dormant again in the 1970s before the studio facilities burned down in 1980. The site is now occupied by a New York City Department of Sanitation garage, hollywood on the Hudson, Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff, Rutgers University Press,2008
15.
D. W. Griffith
–
David Wark D. W. Griffith was an American director, writer, and producer who pioneered modern filmmaking techniques. Griffith is best remembered for The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, the Birth of a Nation made use of advanced camera and narrative techniques, and its popularity set the stage for the dominance of the feature-length film in the United States. Today, it is noted for its radical technique and condemned for its inherently racist philosophy. The film was subject to boycotts by the NAACP and, after screenings of the film had caused riots at several theaters, Intolerance, his next film, was, in part, an answer to his critics. By the time of his feature, The Struggle, he had made roughly 500 films. Griffith is one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and he is credited with popularizing the use of the close-up shot. Griffith was born on a farm in Oldham County, Kentucky, Jacob was a Confederate Army colonel in the American Civil War and was elected as a Kentucky state legislator. He attended a one-room schoolhouse where he was taught by his older sister, after his father died when he was ten, the family struggled with poverty. When Griffith was 14, his mother abandoned the farm and moved the family to Louisville, Griffith then left high school to help support the family, taking a job in a dry goods store and later in a bookstore. Griffith began his career as an actor in touring companies. Meanwhile, he was learning how to become a playwright, but had little success—only one of his plays was accepted for a performance, Griffith then decided to become an actor, and appeared in many films as an extra. Griffith began making films in 1908, and released his first feature film, Judith of Bethulia. A few years earlier, in 1907, Griffith, still struggling as a playwright, Porter rejected Griffiths script, but gave him an acting part in Rescued from an Eagles Nest instead. Finding this attractive, Griffith began to explore a career as an actor in the picture business. At Biograph, Griffiths career in the industry would change forever. In 1908, Biographs main director Wallace McCutcheon grew ill, and his son, Wallace McCutcheon, McCutcheon, Jr. however, was not able to bring the studio any success. As a result, Biograph co-founder, Henry Harry Marvin, decided to give Griffith the position, Griffith would end up directing forty-eight shorts for the company that year. His short In Old California was the first film shot in Hollywood, four years later he produced and directed his first feature film Judith of Bethulia, one of the earliest to be produced in the United States
16.
Florence Turner
–
Florence Turner was an American actress who became known as the Vitagraph Girl in early silent films. Born in New York City, Turner was pushed into appearing on the stage at age three by her ambitious mother, Turner became a regular performer in a variety of productions. In 1906 she joined the fledgling motion picture business, signing with the pioneering Vitagraph Studios, at the time there were no stars per se, unless an already famous stage star made a movie. Performers were not even mentioned by name, long, drawn out screen credits were not thought of. There was nothing but the name of the company and the picture, as the content of movies evolved from simple incidents, or situations, into definite stories, some of the heroes and heroines were conceded a vague identity, such as the Edison Girl, etc. Though she was only as the Vitagraph Girl in the early motion picture shorts. Her worth to the studio, as its biggest box-office draw, was recognised in 1907 when her pay was upped to $22 a week and it was somewhat less than the male leading players, especially those with stage experience, particularly the super-popular Maurice Costello. In March 1910 she and Florence Lawrence became the first screen actors not already famous in another medium to be publicized by name by their studios to the general public. Later that year, Florence was paired several times with heart throb Wallace Reid, by 1913 she was looking for new pastures and left the United States accompanied by longtime friend Laurence Trimble, who directed her in a number of movies. They moved to England, where she and Larry began performing together in London music halls, Turner sometimes wrote screenplays and directed her own movies, including a number of comedies. She also organized her own company, Turner Films, for which she made more than thirty shorts. Turner entertained Allied troops during World War I and she returned to the U. S. after the Armistice, but was not as successful as before. In 1920, she went to England, where she remained until moving to Hollywood, virtually forgotten. By then she was years of age and her starring days were long behind her. She continued to act in supporting roles into the 1930s, in 1928 she acted in a minor role on Broadway in Sign of the Leopard, which ran for 39 performances. Turner was placed on the payroll at MGM by Louis B. Mayer in the 1930s and she mostly played bit or small parts and worked as an extra. She later moved to the Motion Picture Country House, a retirement community for the industry in Woodland Hills, after appearing in more than 160 motion pictures, Florence Turner died at 61 in Woodland Hills. She was cremated at a mortuary in Hollywood and, at her request and she was buried at Chapel of the Pines Crematory
17.
Arthur V. Johnson
–
Arthur Vaughan Johnson was a pioneer actor and director of the early American silent film era. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Rev. Myron A. Johnson and he later appeared on stage with Sol Smith Russell, Robert B. Johnson began as an actor in 1905 with the Edison Studios in The Bronx, New York, appearing in the one-reel drama The White Caps directed by Wallace McCutcheon, Sr. In 1908, he went to work for Biograph Studios, where he acted in films directed by D. W. Griffith including Resurrection and In Old California, at Biograph, Arthur Johnson performed with stars such as Mary Pickford and Florence Lawrence. Johnson was reputed to be Griffiths favorite actor, in 1911 he accepted an offer from Lubin Studios in Philadelphia that allowed him to direct as well as act. With Lottie Briscoe, his frequent co-star at Lubin, Johnson directed and starred in The Belovéd Adventurer, after performing in more than three hundred silent film shorts and directing twenty-six, health problems ended his career in 1915. According to an interview published nine months before his death, Arthur V. Johnson married actress Maude Webb when he was 20 years old, other sources indicate that around 1910 he married Florence Hackett, with whom he appeared in the 1913 film Power of the Cross. He died of tuberculosis in Philadelphia in 1916, a few weeks short of his fortieth birthday, Johnsons funeral services were held in Philadelphia and his remains later interred at Fairview Cemetery, Chicopee, Massachusetts. Nearby stands Grace Episcopal Church, where his father served as rector. Arthur V. Johnson at the Internet Movie Database Arthur V. Johnson at Find a Grave
18.
Essanay Studios
–
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture studio. It is best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies of 1915, the studio was founded in 1907 in Chicago, United States by George K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson, originally as the Peerless Film Manufacturing Company. On August 10,1907, the name was changed to Essanay, Essanay was originally located at 496 Wells Street. Essanays first film, An Awful Skate, or The Hobo on Rollers, starring Ben Turpin, produced for only a hundred dollars. The studio prospered and in 1908 moved to its more famous address at 1333–45 W. Argyle St in Uptown, the mainstays of the organization, however, were studio co-owner G. M. Anderson, starring in the very popular Broncho Billy westerns, and Charlie Chaplin. Allan Dwan was hired by Essanay Studios as a screenwriter and developed into a famous Hollywood director, louella Parsons was also hired as a screenwriter and went on to be a Hollywood gossip columnist. Both George K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Broncho Billy Anderson received Oscars, specifically Academy Honorary Awards and this included locations in San Rafael and Santa Barbara. Colorado is the finest place in the country for Wild West stuff, Essanay opened the Essanay-West studio in Niles, California, in 1912, at the foot of Niles Canyon, where many Broncho Billy westerns were shot, along with The Tramp featuring Charlie Chaplin. Eventually the studio moved all operations to Los Angeles, the Chicago studio, as well as the new Niles studio, continued to produce films for another five years, reaching a total of well over 1,400 Essanay titles during its ten-year history. Essanay also produced some of the very first cartoons. In late 1914 Essanay succeeded in hiring Charlie Chaplin away from Mack Sennetts Keystone Studios, offering Chaplin a higher salary, Chaplin made 14 short comedies for Essanay in 1915, at both the Chicago and Niles studios, plus a cameo appearance in one of the Broncho Billy westerns. Chaplins Essanays are more disciplined than the chaotic roughhouse of Chaplins Keystones, with better story values, the landmark film of the Chaplin series is The Tramp, in which Chaplins vagabond character finds work on a farm and is smitten with the farmers daughter. Chaplin injected moments of drama and pathos unheard of in slapstick comedies, audiences responded to the humanity of Chaplins character, and Chaplin continued to explore serious or sentimental themes within comic situations. Chaplin disliked the weather of Chicago, and left after only one year for more money. His departure caused a rift between founders Spoor and Anderson, Chaplin was the studios biggest moneymaker, and Essanay resorted to creating new Chaplin comedies from file footage and out-takes. Finally, with Chaplin off the Essanay scene for good, Essanay signed French comedian Max Linder, Linder failed to match Chaplins popularity in America. In a last-ditch effort to save the studio, Essanay joined in a four-way merger orchestrated by Chicago distributor George Kleine in 1918, kleines new combine, V-L-S-E, Incorporated, was an amalgam of the Vitagraph, Lubin, Selig, and Essanay companies. Only the Vitagraph brand name continued into the 1920s, and was absorbed by Warner Brothers in 1925
19.
Independent Moving Pictures
–
The Independent Moving Pictures Company was a motion picture studio and production company founded in 1909 by Carl Laemmle. The company was based in New York City and Fort Lee, in 1912, IMP was one of the independent film companies absorbed into the newly incorporated Universal Film Manufacturing Company, with Laemmle as president. The Independent Moving Pictures Company was founded in 1909 by Carl Laemmle, and was located at Eleventh Avenue and 53rd Street New York City, and in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The first movie produced by IMP was Hiawatha starring Gladys Hulette, in the early 20th century, the Motion Picture Patents Company, or the Trust, was fought by the unlicensed independent films, led by Laemmle. Others against the MPPC included Harry E. Aitken, William Fox, the flexible, stealthy and adventurous independents avoided coercive MPPC restrictions by using unlicensed equipment, obtaining their own film materials, and making movies on the sly. Before long, the independents began moving to Southern California, then the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company began fighting among themselves, and that was disorganized. On June 10,1912, the assets of Independent Moving Pictures were sold to the newly incorporated Universal Film Manufacturing Company, IMP was dissolved but continued to be used as a brand
20.
Carl Laemmle
–
Carl Laemmle was a pioneer in American film making and a founder of Universal Studios. Laemmle produced or worked on over 400 films, regarded as one of the most important of the early film pioneers, Laemmle was born in modern-day Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1884 and worked in Chicago for 20 years before he began buying nickelodeons, eventually expanding into a distribution service. Laemmle was born on 17 January 1867 in Laupheim, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, in Germany, to a Jewish family and his parents were born with the same surname and were first cousins. As a youth, he was an apprentice in Ichenhausen and he worked a variety of jobs, but by 1894 he was the bookkeeper of the Continental Clothing Company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he introduced a bolder advertising style. In 1906, Laemmle quit his job and started one of the first motion picture theaters in Chicago and he challenged Thomas Edisons monopoly on moving pictures under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. After moving to New York, Carl Laemmle got involved in producing movies, forming Independent Moving Pictures, the city was the site of many new movie-related businesses. They founded the Company with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, in 1915, the studio moved to 235 acres of land in the San Fernando Valley, California. Universal maintained two East Coast offices, The first was located at 1600 Broadway, New York City and this building, initially known as The Studebaker building, was razed around 2004-5. The second location to house Universals executive offices was at 730 Fifth Avenue, many years later,445 Park Avenue was the location of Universals executive offices. After moving to California, Laemmle purchased as a residence for his family the home of film pioneer Thomas Ince on Benedict Canyon Drive. The house was razed in the early 1940s, Laemmle also maintained a large apartment for himself and his two children, Rosabelle Laemmle and Carl Jr. at 465 West End Avenue, New York City, one block off Riverside Drive near the Hudson River. In 1916, Laemmle sponsored the $3,000 three-foot-tall solid silver Universal Trophy for the winner of the annual Universal race at the Uniontown Speedway board track in southwestern Pennsylvania, Universal filmed each race from 1916 to 1922. in the title role, and The Man Who Laughs. In the early and mid-1930s, Laemmles son, Carl Laemmle and his occasional successes included Back Street, 1936s Show Boat. Carl Laemmle and his son were forced out of the company in 1936 during the Great Depression. He died from disease on September 24,1939 in Beverly Hills, California. Laemmle was entombed in the Chapel Mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery, to ensure and facilitate their immigration, Laemmle contacted American authorities, members of the House of Representatives and Secretary of State Cordell Hull. He also intervened to try to secure entry for the refugees on board the SS St. Louis, who were sent back from Havana to Europe in 1939
21.
Universal Pictures
–
Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
22.
St. Louis
–
St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area
23.
Lubin Manufacturing Company
–
The Lubin Manufacturing Company, was an American motion picture production company that produced silent films from 1902 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with a Liberty Bell trademark, the Lubin Manufacturing Company was formed in 1902 and incorporated in 1909 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Siegmund Lubin. The company was the offspring of Lubins film equipment and film distribution and production business, known as Pop Lubin, he constructed his own combined camera/projector he called a Cineograph and his lower price and marketing know-how brought reasonable success. In 1897 Lubin began making films for commercial release, certain his business could prosper, the following year he rented low-cost space on the roof of a building in Philadelphias business district. He exhibited his new equipment at the 1899 National Export Exposition in Philadelphia, the insatiable appetite of the American public for motion picture entertainment saw Lubins film company undergo enormous growth. At the time, it was one of the most modern studios in the world, complete with a huge artificially lit stage, editing rooms, laboratories, the facility allowed several film productions to be undertaken simultaneously. The Lubin Manufacturing Company expanded production beyond Philadelphia, with facilities at 750 Riverside Avenue in Jacksonville, Florida, Los Angeles, and then in Coronado, California. In 1912, Lubin purchased a 350-acre estate in Betzwood, in what was rural countryside in the northwest outskirts of Philadelphia and converted the property into a studio. Lubin films also marked the first film appearance of Oliver Hardy, hardys first onscreen appearance was in the 1914 movie, Outwitting Dad where he was billed as O. N. Hardy. In many of his films at Lubin, he was billed as “Babe Hardy. ”He was most often cast as “the heavy” or the villain and had roles in comedy shorts. However, the companys downfall came even faster than its meteoric rise, Lubin was not as adroit as its competitors in shifting to quality feature-length films. Also, a fire at its main studio in June 1914, damaged nearby buildings, and destroyed the negatives for a number of unreleased new films. When World War I broke out in Europe in September of that year, Lubin Studios, in 1915, the Lubin company entered into an agreement with Vitagraph Studios, Selig Polyscope Company, and Essanay Studios to form a film distribution partnership known as V-S-L-E. However, the decline of the Lubin operations continued and the United States Supreme Court rulings against the monopoly of the Motion Picture Patents Company spelled the end of Lubins business. After making more than a motion pictures the corporation was forced into bankruptcy. Eventually Lubin gave up the fight with Edison and became part of the Motion Picture Patents Company. S. Lubin at the Internet Movie Database Lubin Manufacturing Company at the Internet Movie Database - filmography THE KING OF THE MOVIES - Film Pioneer, see Betzwood Film Archive below for updated work by Eckhardt. Betzwood Film Archive A new site dedicated to Lubin and his film studios from the Libraries and Archives of Montgomery County Community College with professor emeritus Joseph Eckhardt, the History Of The Discovery Of Cinematography An Illustrated Chronology History Detectives
24.
Canadians
–
Canadians are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural, for most Canadians, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Canadian. Elements of Aboriginal, French, British and more recent immigrant customs, languages and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada, Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic and economic neighbour, the United States. Canadian independence from the United Kingdom grew gradually over the course of years since the formation of the Canadian Confederation in 1867. World War I and World War II in particular gave rise to a desire among Canadians to have their country recognized as a sovereign state with a distinct citizenship. Canadas nationality law closely mirrored that of the United Kingdom, legislation since the mid 20th century represents Canadians commitment to multilateralism and socioeconomic development. As of 2010, Canadians make up 0. 5% of the total population, having relied upon immigration for population growth. Approximately 41% of current Canadians are first- or second-generation immigrants, and 20 percent of Canadian residents in the 2000s were not born in the country. Statistics Canada projects that, by 2031, nearly one-half of Canadians above the age of 15 will be foreign-born or have one foreign-born parent. Aboriginal peoples, according to the 2011 Canadian Census, numbered at 1,400,685 or 4. 3% of the countrys 33,476,688 population. The French originally settled New France, in present-day Quebec and Ontario, approximately 100 Irish-born families would settle the Saint Lawrence Valley by 1700, assimilating into the Canadien population and culture. This arrival of newcomers led to the creation of the Métis, after the War of 1812, British, Scottish and Irish immigration was encouraged throughout Ruperts Land, Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Between 1815 and 1850, some 800,000 immigrants came to the colonies of British North America and these new arrivals included some Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots displaced by the Highland Clearances to Nova Scotia. Descendants of Francophone and Anglophone northern Europeans who arrived in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries are often referred to as old stock Canadians. Beginning in the late 1850s, the immigration of Chinese into the Colony of Vancouver Island, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 eventually placed a head tax on all Chinese immigrants, in hopes of discouraging Chinese immigration after completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The population of Canada has consistently risen, doubling approximately every 40 years, from the mid- to late 19th century, Canada had a policy of assisting immigrants from Europe, including an estimated 100,000 unwanted Home Children from Britain. Block settlement communities were established throughout western Canada between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some were planned and others were spontaneously created by the settlers themselves. Canada was now receiving a number of European immigrants, predominantly Italians, Germans, Scandinavians, Dutch, Poles
25.
Mary Pickford
–
Gladys Louise Smith, known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress, writer, director, and producer. She was a co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Known in her prime as Americas Sweetheart and the girl with the curls, Pickford was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. Pickford was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her name and she was awarded the second ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her first sound film role in Coquette and also received an honorary Academy Award in 1976. In consideration of her contributions to American cinema, the American Film Institute ranked Pickford as 24th in its 1999 list of greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema, Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in 1892 at 211 University Avenue, A Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her father, John Charles Smith, was the son of English Methodist immigrants and her mother, Charlotte Hennessey, was of Irish Catholic descent and worked for a time as a seamstress. She had two siblings, Charlotte, called Lottie, and John Charles, called Jack, who also became actors. To please her husbands relatives, Pickfords mother baptized her children as Methodists, John Charles Smith was an alcoholic, he abandoned the family and died on February 11,1898, from a fatal blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a purser with Niagara Steamship. When Gladys was age four, her household was under infectious quarantine and their devoutly Catholic maternal grandmother asked a visiting Roman Catholic priest to baptize the children. Pickford was at this time baptized as Gladys Marie Smith, Charlotte Smith began taking in boarders after being widowed. One of these was a stage manager. At his suggestion, Gladys was given two roles, one as a boy and the other as a girl, in a stock company production of The Silver King at Torontos Princess Theatre. She subsequently acted in many melodramas with Torontos Valentine Company, finally playing the child role in their version of The Silver King. By the early 1900s, theatre had become a family enterprise, Gladys, her mother and two younger siblings toured the United States by rail, performing in third-rate companies and plays. After six impoverished years, Pickford allowed one more summer to land a role on Broadway. In 1906 Gladys, Lottie and Jack Smith supported singer Chauncey Olcott on Broadway in Edmund Burke, Gladys finally landed a supporting role in a 1907 Broadway play, The Warrens of Virginia. The play was written by William C. deMille, whose brother, Cecil, David Belasco, the producer of the play, insisted that Gladys Smith assume the stage name Mary Pickford. After completing the Broadway run and touring the play, however, on April 19,1909, the Biograph Company director D. W. Griffith screen-tested her at the companys New York studio for a role in the nickelodeon film, Pippa Passes
26.
Owen Moore
–
Owen Moore was an Irish actor in American films, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937. S. Anchoria and was inspected on Ellis Island in May 1896, settled around Toledo, Ohio, Moore and his siblings went on to careers in motion pictures in Hollywood. While working at D. W. Griffiths Biograph Studios, Moore met a young Canadian actress named Gladys Smith whom he married on January 7,1911 and their marriage was kept secret at first because of the strong opposition of her mother. However, Gladys Moore would soon overshadow her husband under her stage name, in 1912, he signed on with Victor Studios, co-starring in a number of their films with studio owner/actress Florence Lawrence. Mary Pickford left Biograph Studios to join the Independent Moving Pictures to replace their major star, Pickford’s Canadian friend, carl Laemmle, the owner of IMP who soon merged IMP into Universal Studios, agreed to sign her husband as part of the deal. This humiliation, together with his wifes meteoric rise to fame, drastically affected Moore and alcohol became a problem led to violent behavior. In 1916, Pickford met actor Douglas Fairbanks, Pickford filed for a divorce from Moore, Pickford and Fairbanks married just days later in 1920. He also appeared in films for his own company as well as Goldwyn. Moore married a second time to another silent film actress, Katherine Perry, with the advent of sound film, Moores career declined and he became basically a supporting actor for newer stars. He competed, as the lead, with Cary Grant and Noah Beery, Sr. for the attentions of Mae West in She Done Him Wrong. His last film appearance was as a director in the 1937 drama A Star Is Born starring Janet Gaynor. After years of fighting alcoholism, Owen Moore died in Beverly Hills, California from an attack and was interred in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles. For his contribution to the picture industry, Owen Moore has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6727 Hollywood Boulevard. Owen Moore at the Internet Movie Database Owen Moore at Find a Grave Menefee, David Sweet Memories ISBN1469966956
27.
Gladden James
–
Gladden James was an American film actor. He appeared in 187 films between 1911 and 1946 and he was born in Zanesville, Ohio and died in Hollywood, California, from leukemia. He married Julia Nagl, a Broadway actress, in New York City in 1913 and they had one child, Jacqueline F. James, M. D. Gladden James at the Internet Movie Database
28.
Victory Bateman
–
Victory Bateman was an American silent film actress. Her father, Thomas Creese, and her mother, Elizabeth Lizzie Creese, were both actors, on stage, Ms. Bateman appeared in the 1900 tour of The Man From Mexico and in the 1919 tour of Seven Days Leave. She was born nine days before Abraham Lincoln was assassinated but was named Victory because of the Norths eventual win over the Confederate South finishing the Civil War, in the early 1890s she became embroiled in the divorce proceedings of actors Aubrey Boucicault and Amy Busby. Though later exonerated from all involvement in the case Bateman was forced to resign from a group called The Professional Womans League. At one time she was married to Wilfred Clarke, a son of John Sleeper Clarke and they were separated for many years at the time of the Boucicault trial. She was also married, in years, to Harry Mestayer. Cleveland was young enough to be her son and she and her last two husbands were eventually involved in the silent film industry. Mrs. James Sheridan Tess of the DUrbervilles, Mother Finnegan Can a Woman Love Twice. Mrs. OReilly A Trip to Paradise, mrs. Smiley Keeping Up with Lizzie. Ma Du Geen The Service Star, aka The Flag of Mothers The Passing of the Third Floor Back. Miss De Hooley Romeo and Juliet, lady Montague The Power of Evil. The Widow, Florences Mother Her Cousin Fred
29.
Fort Lee, New Jersey
–
Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, in the New York City Metropolitan Area, situated atop the Hudson Palisades. The borough is the terminus of the George Washington Bridge and is located across the Hudson River from the Manhattan borough of New York City. Named for the site of an early American Revolutionary War military encampment, according to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 2.888 square miles, including 2.541 square miles of land and 0.347 square miles of water. The borough is situated atop the escarpment of the Hudson Palisades on the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson rivers, the borough is bisected by the confluence of roads at GWB Plaza leading to the George Washington Bridge. Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the borough include Coytesville, Palisade, the borough borders Cliffside Park, Edgewater, Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield. and the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan. It was during Washingtons retreat in November 1776 that Thomas Paine composed his pamphlet, The American Crisis and these events are recalled at Monument Park and Fort Lee Historic Park. Fort Lee was formed by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 29,1904, with the creation of Fort Lee, Ridgefield Township became defunct and was dissolved as of March 29,1904. The Fort Lee Police Department was formed under borough ordinance on August 9,1904, the history of cinema in the United States can trace its roots to the East Coast where, at one time, Fort Lee was the motion picture capital of America. The industry got its start at the end of the 19th century with the construction of Thomas Edisons Black Maria, in 1909, a forerunner of Universal Studios, the Champion Film Company, built the first studio. They were quickly followed by others who either built new studios or who leased facilities in Fort Lee, such notables as Mary Pickford got their start at Biograph Studios. With the offshoot businesses that sprang up to service, the film studios, however, just as the development of Fort Lee production facilities were gaining strength, Nestor Studios of Bayonne, New Jersey, built the first studio in Hollywood in 1911. Californias more hospitable and cost-effective climate led to the shift of virtually all filmmaking to the West Coast by the 1930s. At the time, Thomas Edison owned almost all the relevant to motion picture production. Television and film in New Jersey remains an important industry, since 2000, the Fort Lee Film Commission has been charged with celebrating the history of film in Fort Lee, as well as attracting film and television production companies to the borough. In 1957, market researcher James Vicary claimed that quickly flashing messages on a screen, in Fort Lee, had influenced people to purchase more food. Vicary coined the term subliminal advertising and formed the Subliminal Projection Company based on a six-week test, Vicary claimed that during the presentation of the movie Picnic he used a tachistoscope to project the words Drink Coca-Cola and Hungry. Eat popcorn for 1/3000 of a second at five-second intervals, Vicary asserted that during the test, sales of popcorn and Coke in that New Jersey theater increased 57. 8% and 18. 1% respectively. In 1962, Vicary admitted to lying about the experiment and falsifying the results, an identical experiment conducted by Henry Link showed no increase in cola or popcorn sales
30.
River Vale, New Jersey
–
River Vale is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. River Vale is the most eastern town in an area of the county referred to as the Pascack Valley, the township was ranked #29 on the 100 Best Places to Live 2007 survey published by CNN/Money magazine. River Vale was formed as a township on April 30,1906, the township was named for its location along the Hackensack River. On January 5,1904, the temperature in River Vale fell to −34 °F, before 1841, the area comprising River Vale was part of Harrington Township. It used to be known as the Over Kill Neighborhood or just Over Kill — it being over the kill from Tappan and its southern part, known as Eastwood, became an independent borough in 1894, but was dissolved and re-absorbed into Washington Township in 1896. River Vale was incorporated as a township in 1906, formed from portions of both Hillsdale and Washington Township, on July 15,1929, part of River Vale was ceded to Park Ridge. On May 20,1959, territory was acquired from Montvale, in 1967, a mass grave site was discovered in River Vale from an event in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, the Baylor Massacre. This became widely known due to a February 1968 report to the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders,1778 - The Massacre of Baylors Dragoons, the burial site was made into a county park that was dedicated on October 15,1972. A River Vale resident, Henry Hoffman, directed the scrapping of the USS Enterprise in Kearny from 1958 to 1960, following Hoffmans death in 1965, the stern plate of the Enterprise was placed on a Little League baseball field as a memorial. The field was later named Hoffman Field, on October 2,2000, the stern plate was moved to the townships Veterans Memorial Park. The fund urged the township to update employment practices and better train managers to avoid liabilities, as a result of these issues, The New York Times called the township small but litigious. According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had an area of 4.275 square miles. Its borders are defined by the Hackensack River to the east, which was dammed to form Lake Tappan, the northern border is defined by the New York-New Jersey state border. The western border has several sections, including a section defined by an unnamed creek, the southern portion of the township lies between the Hackensack River and Pascack Brook, and is relatively flat. The northern portion slopes down from rolling hills in the west into Lake Tappan to the east, much of the land is developed as suburban single-family residences, but there remain some undeveloped areas. The undeveloped areas are wooded and are south and west of Lake Tappan, following the Cherry Brook. In 1996, plans to develop watershed land received resistance from the community, in the southwest of the township, the Pascack Brook County Park also preserves a wooded area. There are three courses in the township, two 18-hole public courses, and a private 27-hole course
31.
Feature film
–
A film, also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession, the process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. The word cinema, short for cinematography, is used to refer to the industry of films. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film through a photochemical process, the adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the process of production, distribution. Films recorded in a form traditionally included an analogous optical soundtrack. It runs along a portion of the film exclusively reserved for it and is not projected, Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures. They reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them, Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful medium for educating—or indoctrinating—citizens. The visual basis of film gives it a power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles to translate the dialog into the language of the viewer, some have criticized the film industrys glorification of violence and its potentially negative treatment of women. The individual images that make up a film are called frames, the perception of motion is due to a psychological effect called phi phenomenon. The name film originates from the fact that film has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for a motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay. The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field, in general, include the big screen, the screen, the movies, and cinema. In early years, the sheet was sometimes used instead of screen. Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film, scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scène. Owing to the lack of any technology for doing so, the moving images, the magic lantern, probably created by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s, could be used to project animation, which was achieved by various types of mechanical slides
32.
Automotive lighting
–
The lighting system of a motor vehicle consists of lighting and signalling devices mounted or integrated to the front, rear, sides, and in some cases the top of a motor vehicle. Emergency vehicles usually carry distinctive lighting equipment to warn drivers and indicate priority of movement in traffic, early road vehicles used fueled lamps, before the availability of electric lighting. For example, the first introduced Ford Model T used carbide lamps for headlamps and it did not have all-electric lighting as a standard feature until after several years on the market. Dynamos for automobile headlamps were first fitted around 1908 and became commonplace in 1920s automobiles, silent film start Florence Lawrence is often credited with designing the first “auto signaling arm”, a predecessor to the modern turn signal, along with the first mechanical brake signal. She did not patent these inventions, however, and as a result she received no credit for–or profit from–either one, tail lamps and brake lamps were introduced around 1915, and by 1919 dip headlamps were available. The sealed beam headlamp was introduced in 1936 and standardised as the only type in the USA in 1940. Self-cancelling turn signals were developed in 1940, by 1945 headlamps and signal lamps were integrated into the body styling. Halogen headlamp light sources were developed in Europe in 1960, HID headlamps were produced starting in 1991. In 1993, the first LED tail lamps were installed on mass-production automobiles, LED headlamps were introduced in the first decade of the 21st century. The colour of light emitted by vehicle lights is largely standardised by longstanding convention and it was first codified in the 1949 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic and later specified in the 1968 United Nations Convention on Road Traffic. No other colours are permitted except on emergency vehicles, forward illumination is provided by high- and low- beam headlamps, which may be augmented by auxiliary fog lamps, driving lamps, or cornering lamps. Dipped-beam headlamps provide a distribution to give adequate forward and lateral illumination without dazzling other road users with excessive glare. This beam is specified for use other vehicles are present ahead. UN Regulations for headlamps specify a beam with a sharp, asymmetric cutoff preventing significant amounts of light from being cast into the eyes of drivers of preceding or oncoming cars, control of glare is less strict in the United States-based Society of Automotive Engineers beam standard. It is contained in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108, main-beam headlamps provide an intense, centre-weighted distribution of light with no particular control of glare. Therefore, they are suitable for use when alone on the road. ECE and Japanese Regulations permit higher-intensity, high-beam headlamps than allowed under US regulations, auxiliary high beam lamps may be fitted to provide high intensity light to enable the driver to see at longer range than the vehicles high beam headlamps may be fitted. Such lamps are most notably fitted on rallying cars, and are fitted to production vehicles derived from or imitating such cars
33.
Stock market
–
Examples of the latter include shares of private companies which are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms. Stock exchanges list shares of equity as well as other security types, e. g. corporate bonds. Stocks can be categorised in various way, one way is by the country where the company is domiciled. S. At the close of 2012, the size of the stock market was about US$55 trillion. By country, the largest market was the United States, followed by Japan, as of 2015, there are a total of 60 stock exchanges in the world with a total market capitalization of $69 trillion. Of these, there are 16 exchanges with a capitalization of $1 trillion or more. Apart from the Australian Securities Exchange, these 16 exchanges are based in one of three continents, North America, Europe and Asia, a stock exchange is a place where, or an organization through which, individuals and organisations can trade stocks. Many large companies have their stock listed on a stock exchange and this makes the stock more liquid and thus more attractive to many investors. It may also act as a guarantor of settlement, other stocks may be traded over the counter, that is, through a dealer. Some large companies will have their stock listed on more than one exchange in different countries, Stock exchanges may also cover other types of securities, such as fixed interest securities or derivatives, which are more likely to be traded OTC. Trade in stock markets means the transfer for money of a stock or security from a seller to a buyer and this requires these two parties to agree on a price. Equities confer an ownership interest in a particular company and their buy or sell orders may be executed on their behalf by a stock exchange trader. Some exchanges are physical locations where transactions are carried out on a trading floor and this method is used in some stock exchanges and commodity exchanges, and involves traders shouting bid and offer prices. The other type of exchange has a network of computers where trades are made electronically. An example of such an exchange is the NASDAQ, a potential buyer bids a specific price for a stock, and a potential seller asks a specific price for the same stock. Buying or selling at the means you will accept any ask price or bid price for the stock. When the bid and ask prices match, a sale takes place, on a first-come, the purpose of a stock exchange is to facilitate the exchange of securities between buyers and sellers, thus providing a marketplace. The exchanges provide real-time trading information on the securities, facilitating price discovery
34.
Great Depression
–
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930
35.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
–
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
36.
Louis B. Mayer
–
Louis Burt Mayer was an Belarusian-Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1924. Mayer was skilled at developing star actors, including actors, then placing them in consistently slick productions, such as musicals or comedies. Under Mayers management, MGM became the most prestigious film studio and he renovated and expanded several other theaters in the Boston area catering to higher end audiences. After expanding and moving to Los Angeles, he teamed up with Irving Thalberg, Mayer handled the business part of running the studio, such as setting budgets and approving new productions, while Thalberg, still in his twenties, ran all MGM productions. During his reign at MGM, after Thalbergs early death in 1936, some stars did not appreciate his control over their lives, while others saw him as a father figure, important in their lives. He believed in wholesome entertainment and went to lengths to discover new actors. Actors working under Mayer would generally portray an idealized vision of men and women, family life, virtue and he believed that movies should not be a mere reflection of life, but be an entertaining escape from life. Because of his gift for understanding the nature of stardom and the needs of the audience and he was forced to resign MGM as its vice president in 1951, when the studios parent company, Loews, Inc. wanted to improve MGMs declining profits. Mayer was a conservative, at one time the chairman of Californias Republican party. In 1927 he was one of the founders of AMPAS, famous for its annual Academy Awards, Mayer was born Lazar Meir to a Jewish family in Minsk, Russian Empire. Probably his date of birth was July 12,1884 and his parents were Jacob Meir and Sarah Meltzer, and he had two sisters—Yetta, born in 1878, and Ida, born in 1883. Mayer first moved with his family to Rhode Island, where lived from 1887 to 1892. Then, they moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada where Mayer attended school and his father started a scrap metal business, J. Mayer & Son. An immigrant unskilled in any trade, he struggled to earn a living, young Louis quit school at age twelve to work with his father and help support his family. He roamed the streets with a cart that said Junk Dealer, wilson remembered that he was impressed with the boys good manners and bright personality. Whenever Mayer visited Saint John in later years, he placed flowers on Wilsons grave and it was a crappy childhood, said Mayers nephew Gerald. His family was poor, and Mayers father spoke little English and had no valuable skills and it thereby became young Mayers ambition and drive which supported the family. With his family speaking mostly Yiddish at home, his goal of self-education when he quit school was more difficult
