1.
Waxahachie, Texas
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Waxahachie is the county seat of Ellis County, Texas, United States, and lies just beyond the southern suburbs of Dallas. The population was 29,621 at the 2010 census, with a population of 32,344 in 2014. Some sources state that the name means cow or buffalo in an unspecified Native American language, in the Alabama language, waakasi hachi means calfs tail. That there is a Waxahatchee Creek near present-day Shelby, Alabama, suggests that Waxahachie, Texas, many place names in Texas and Oklahoma have their origins in the Southeastern United States, largely due to migration and/or forced removal of various southeastern Indian tribes. The area in central Alabama that includes Waxahatchee Creek was for hundreds of years the home of the Upper Creek moiety of the Muscogee Creek Nation, again, this would suggest a Muscogee Creek language origin of Waxahachie. Waxahachie therefore may be an anglicized pronunciation of the Muscogee compound word Wakvhvce from the Muscogee words Wakv and the Muscogee word Hvce. A second etymology that has been suggested for the name is insisted on by speakers of Wichita, Wichita people claim the name comes from their word waksahe, tsi. From 1902 to 1942, Waxahachie was the home of Trinity University and its present-day location is San Antonio. The town is the namesake of the former United States Naval Ship Waxahachie.1 miles, seventeen shafts were sunk and 14.6 miles of tunnel were bored before the project was canceled by Congress in 1993. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Waxahachie has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated Cfa on climate maps. As of the census of 2000, there were 21,426 people,7,325 households, the population density was 536.1 people per square mile. There were 7,909 housing units at a density of 197.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 70. 45% White,17. 10% African American,0. 76% Native American,0. 40% Asian,9. 33% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 19. 74% of the population. The total estimated population as of June 2014 was 32,287,21. 9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the family size was 3.18. In the city, the population was out with 26. 9% under the age of 18,13. 3% from 18 to 24,28. 0% from 25 to 44,19. 4% from 45 to 64. The median age was 32 years, for every 100 females there were 93.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.3 males, the median income for a household in the city was $43,213, and the median income for a family was $50,048
2.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Walter Brennan was the first winner of award for his role in Come. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 72 actors. Brennan has received the most awards in this category with three awards, Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, and Claude Rains were nominated on four occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Mahershala Ali is the most recent winner in category for his role as Juan in Moonlight. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com Complete Downloadable List of Academy Award Nominees
3.
Francis Ford Coppola
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Francis Ford Coppola, also credited as Francis Coppola, is a semi-retired American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered to have been a figure of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. After directing The Rain People, he co-wrote the 1970 film Patton and he followed with The Godfather Part II in 1974, which became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Conversation, which he directed, produced and wrote, was released same year. He next directed 1979s Apocalypse Now, while notorious for its lengthy and strenuous production, the film was widely acclaimed for its vivid and stark depiction of the Vietnam War, winning the Palme dOr at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. Coppola is one of only eight filmmakers to win two Palme dOr awards, while a number of Coppolas ventures in the 1980s and 1990s were critically lauded, he has never quite achieved the same commercial success with films as in the 1970s. His most well-known films released since the start of the 1980s are the dramas The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, the crime-drama The Cotton Club, and his movies The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now are often ranked among the greatest films of all time. Coppola was born in Detroit, Michigan, to father Carmine Coppola, a flautist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Coppola is the second of three children, his older brother was August Coppola, his younger sister is actress Talia Shire. Born into a family of Italian immigrant ancestry, his grandparents came to the United States from Bernalda. His maternal grandfather, popular Italian composer Francesco Pennino, immigrated from Naples, Coppola received his middle name in honor of Henry Ford, not only because he was born in the Henry Ford Hospital but also because of his musician-fathers association with the automobile manufacturer. Contracting polio as a boy, Coppola was bedridden for periods of his childhood. Reading A Streetcar Named Desire at age 15 was instrumental in developing his interest in theater, eager to be involved in film-craft, he created 8mm features edited from home movies with such titles as The Rich Millionaire and The Lost Wallet. As a child, Coppola was a student, but he was so interested in technology. Trained initially for a career in music, he became proficient on the tuba, overall, Coppola attended 23 other schools before he eventually graduated from the Great Neck North High School. He entered Hofstra College in 1955 with a major in theater arts, there he was awarded a scholarship in playwriting. This furthered his interest in directing theater despite the disapproval of his father, Coppola was profoundly impressed after seeing Sergei Eisensteins October, Ten Days That Shook the World, especially with the movies quality of editing. It was at this time Coppola decided he would go into cinema rather than theater, Coppola also gives credit to the work of Elia Kazan and for its influence on him as a director. Amongst Coppolas classmates at Hofstra were James Caan, Lainie Kazan and he later cast Lainie Kazan in One from the Heart and Caan in The Rain People and The Godfather
4.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
5.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
6.
Lee Harvey Oswald
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Lee Harvey Oswald was an American former U. S. Marine who assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 22,1963. Shortly after being discharged from the Marine Corps, Oswald defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959 and he lived in the Belarusian city of Minsk until June 1962, at which time he returned to the United States with Marina, his Russian wife, eventually settling in Dallas. Following Kennedys assassination, Oswald was initially arrested for the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit, Oswald was later charged with the murder of Kennedy. He denied shooting anybody, saying that he was a patsy, two days later, while being transferred from the city jail to the county jail, Oswald was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in full view of television cameras broadcasting live. In September 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy by firing three shots from the Texas School Book Depository and this conclusion was supported by previous investigations carried out by the FBI, the Secret Service, and the Dallas Police Department. The assassination has spawned numerous conspiracy theories, Oswald was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18,1939 to Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Sr. and Marguerite Frances Claverie. Robert Oswald died of an attack two months before Lee was born. Lees elder brother Robert, Jr. was also a former Marine, through Marguerites first marriage to Edward John Pic, Jr. Lee and Robert Jr. were the half-brothers of Air Force veteran John Edward Pic. In 1944, Marguerite moved the family from New Orleans to Dallas, Texas, Oswald entered the 1st grade in 1945 and over the next half-dozen years attended several different schools through the 6th grade in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas. Oswald took an IQ test in the 4th grade and scored 103, on achievement tests in, he twice did best in reading, as a child, Oswald was described by several people who knew him as withdrawn and temperamental. In August 1952, when Oswald was 12, his mother took him to New York City where they lived for a time with Oswalds half-brother. Oswald and his mother were asked to leave after an argument in which Oswald allegedly struck his mother. Oswald attended the 7th grade in the Bronx, New York, but was often truant, the reformatory psychiatrist, Dr. Dr. Hartogs detected a personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies and recommended continued treatment. In January 1954, Oswalds mother returned to New Orleans, taking Oswald with her, in New Orleans, Oswald completed the 8th and 9th grades. He entered the 10th grade in 1955 but quit school after one month, after leaving school, Oswald worked for several months as an office clerk and messenger in New Orleans. In July 1956, Oswalds mother moved the family to Fort Worth, Texas, a few weeks later in October, Oswald quit school at age 17 to join the Marines, he never received a high school diploma. By the age of 17, he had resided at 22 different locations, though the young Oswald had trouble spelling and may have had a reading-spelling disability, he read voraciously. By age 15, he claimed to be a Marxist, writing in his diary, I was looking for a key to my environment, I had to dig for my books in the back dusty shelves of libraries
7.
Marilu Henner
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Mary Lucy Denise Marilu Henner is an American actress, producer, radio host, and author. She is best known for her role as Elaine OConnor Nardo on the sitcom Taxi from 1978 to 1983. Henner was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Loretta Callis, who died of arthritis at age 58 and Joseph Henner and her maternal grandparents were Greek and her paternal grandparents were Polish. Henner was raised on the northwest side of Chicago in the Logan Square neighborhood and she is the third of six children. Her mother was president of the National Association of Dance and Affiliated Arts, while a student at the University of Chicago in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Henner originated the role of Marty in the Kingston Mines production of Grease in 1971. Additional Broadway credits for Henner include Over Here, with Travolta, revivals of Pal Joey, Chicago, Social Security, and The Tale of the Allergists Wife. Her first film appearance was in the 1977 sleeper-hit Between the Lines, co-starring then-unknowns Jeff Goldblum, Lindsay Crouse, John Heard and her second role was opposite Richard Gere in the 1978 film Bloodbrothers. Henner came to prominence with the role of Elaine Nardo in the situation comedy Taxi and she was the leading lady in the 1982 film Hammett directed by Wim Wenders, produced by Francis Ford Coppola and starring her first husband Frederic Forrest. In 1983, Henner starred opposite Burt Reynolds in The Man Who Loved Women, Reynolds then asked Henner to join the cast of Cannonball Run II later that year along with Shirley MacLaine and Dom DeLuise. She was the lady in the 1984 film Johnny Dangerously. In 1985 she once again appeared alongside John Travolta in Perfect, in 1991 she appeared opposite Steve Martin in L. A. Story as Trudi, a role for which she received a nomination for an American Comedy Award as the Funniest Supporting Female in a Motion Picture. From 1990 through 1994, she appeared opposite Burt Reynolds in the situation comedy Evening Shade and she also appeared in Noises Off and in Man on the Moon, a film about her Taxi co-star Andy Kaufman. Henner guested on Match Game and Hollywood Squares, in 1994, she hosted her own daytime talk show, Marilu, for 165 episodes. Henner starred as the mother of the bride in the Brooks & Dunn video You Cant Take the Honky Tonk Out of the Girl in 2003. In 2006 and 2007, Henner was the host of the television series Americas Ballroom Challenge and she later hosted FitTV and The Discovery Channels Shape Up Your Life, which is based on her books. Henner was a contestant on NBCs first The Celebrity Apprentice, in 2008 and she was fired by Donald Trump in the eighth episode, but was brought back to help fellow contestant Trace Adkins in the final task of the show. Henner, who has highly superior autobiographical memory, was a consultant for the CBS drama Unforgettable, which starred Poppy Montgomery as Carrie Wells, a woman with the same ability. She leads monthly classes on her website, www. marilu. com, designed to help people integrate these steps into a healthier, both of her parents died in their 50s, which prompted her to lead a healthier lifestyle
8.
Apocalypse Now
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Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film directed, produced and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written by John Milius with narration by Michael Herr. It stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Larry Fishburne, the screenplay written by Milius updates the setting of Joseph Conrads novella Heart of Darkness to that of the Vietnam War. It draws from Herrs Dispatches, and Werner Herzogs Aguirre, the Wrath of God, the film revolves around Captain Benjamin L. Willard on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, a renegade who is presumed insane. The film has been noted for the problems encountered while making it, chronicled in the documentary Hearts of Darkness, problems continued after production as the release was postponed several times while Coppola edited thousands of feet of film. Apocalypse Now was released to universal acclaim and it was honored with the Palme dOr at Cannes, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. It is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, the film was ranked No.14 in the British Film Institutes Sight and Sound greatest films poll in 2012. In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. During the Vietnam War in 1969, Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz has gone insane and now commands his own Montagnard troops, inside neutral Cambodia, as a demi-god. Willard, initially ambivalent, joins a Navy PBR commanded by Chief, with crewmen Lance, Chef and they rendezvous with surfing enthusiast Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, 1st Cavalry commander, to discuss going up the Nùng. Kilgore scoffs, but befriends Lance after discovering his surfing experience and they successfully raid at dawn, with Kilgore ordering a napalm sortie on the local cadres. Willard gathers his men to the PBR and journeys upriver, tension arises as Willard believes himself in command of the PBR while Chief prioritizes other objectives over Willards. Slowly making their way upriver, Willard reveals his mission partially to the Chief to assuage his concerns about why his mission should precede, as night falls, the PBR reaches the American Do Lung Bridge outpost on the Nùng River. Willard and Lance enter seeking information for what is upriver, unable to find the commander, Willard orders the Chief to continue as an unseen enemy launches a strike on the bridge. The next day, Willard learns from dispatch that another SOG operative, Captain Colby, meanwhile, as the crew read letters from home, Lance activates a smoke grenade, attracting the attention of a camouflaged enemy, and Mr. Clean is killed. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by the natives, Willard suffocates him and Lance buries Chief in the river. Willard reveals his mission to Chef but despite his anger towards the mission, he rejects Willards offer for him to continue alone, the PBR arrives at Kurtzs outpost and the surviving crew are met by an American freelance photojournalist, who manically praises Kurtzs genius. As they wander through they come across a near-catatonic Colby, along with other US servicemen now in Kurtzs renegade army. Returning to the PBR, Willard later takes Lance with him, Chef is later killed by Kurtz
9.
Dario Argento
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Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo. Argento was born in Rome, the son of producer and executive Salvatore Argento. He began his career in film as a critic, writing for various magazines while still attending high school, Argento did not attend college, electing rather to take a job as a columnist at the newspaper Paese Sera. While working at the newspaper, Argento also began working as a screenwriter and his most notable work was for Sergio Leone, he and Bernardo Bertolucci collaborated on the story for the spaghetti western classic Once Upon a Time in the West. Soon after that films 1969 release, Argento began working on his debut, the giallo film The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Argento continued to concentrate largely on the genre, directing two more successful thrillers, The Cat o Nine Tails and Four Flies on Grey Velvet. Along with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, these three films are referred to as Argentos Animal Trilogy. The director then turned his attention away from movies, filming two Italian TV dramas and a period comedy in 1973. Argento returned to thrillers with 1975s Deep Red, frequently cited by critics as the best giallo ever made. The film made Argento famous internationally and inspired a number of directors to work in the genre. Argentos next movie was Suspiria, a violent supernatural thriller, lacking the constraints of the more conventional giallo subgenre, Suspiria is a semi-surreal work of art, where plot and character are secondary to sound and vision. Argento planned for Suspiria to be the first of a trilogy about The Three Mothers, the second movie of the trilogy was 1980s Inferno. The Mother of Tears belatedly concluded the trilogy, Argento oversaw the European release of the film which was much shorter and featured much more of the score written and performed by Goblin. After Inferno, Argento returned to the more conventional style with Tenebrae. He then attempted to combine giallo and supernatural fantasy in 1985s Phenomena, also known as Creepers, Phenomena also showed Argentos predilection for using new technology, as evidenced by the films several prowling Steadicam shots. Both films received a reception upon their release. Argento subsequently took a break from directing to write two screenplays for Mario Bavas son, Lamberto Bava, Dèmoni and Dèmoni 2, in 1987-88, Argento produced a TV series called Turno di Notte, which had 15 episodes
10.
Dark Shadows
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Dark Shadows is an American Gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27,1966 to April 2,1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, the series became hugely popular when vampire Barnabas Collins appeared ten months into its run. Dark Shadows also featured ghosts, werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel, a small company of actors each played many roles, indeed, as actors came and went, some characters were played by more than one actor. The original network run of the show lasted for five years to amass 1,225 episodes. It continues to enjoy a cult following. In 2004 and 2007, Dark Shadows was ranked #19 and #23 on TV Guides Top Cult Shows Ever. Since 2006, the series has continued as a range of dramas produced by Big Finish Productions, featuring many of the original cast, including David Selby, Lara Parker. Creator Dan Curtis claimed he had a dream in 1965 of a young woman. The following day Curtis told his wife of the dream and pitched the idea as a TV series to ABC, network officials greenlit production and Curtis began hiring crew members. Art Wallace was hired to create a story from Curtiss dream sequence, Wallace wrote the story bible Shadows on the Wall, the proposed title for the show, later changed to Dark Shadows. Robert Costello was added as a producer, and Curtis took on the creator. Lela Swift, John Sedwick, and Henry Kaplan all agreed to be directors for the new series, Robert Cobert created the musical score and Sy Thomashoff designed the set. Curtis then set out to find the actress to play the girl on the train, veteran film star Joan Bennett was soon cast as Victorias employer Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, a woman who had not left her home in over eighteen years. Stage actor Louis Edmonds was cast as Elizabeths brother Roger Collins, Another stage actress, Nancy Barrett, was then cast as Elizabeths head-strong daughter Carolyn Stoddard, and child actor David Henesy was cast as Rogers troubled son David Collins. Dark Shadows had a rocky beginning, critics were quick to deem the series rather boring for its heavy use of unknown actress Moltke and the slow progression of the shows legacy. The earliest episodes consisted of introducing the characters and did not show any of the supernatural elements that later made the show a hit. As production on the continued, the introduction of many new and mysterious characters and various unknown actors. Most actors also ended up playing characters, and those same characters would often return through flasbacks or the unprecedented use of parallel time lines. m
11.
Tucker: The Man and His Dream
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Tucker, The Man and His Dream is a 1988 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Jeff Bridges. S. Joan Allen, Martin Landau, Elias Koteas, Frederic Forrest, in 1973, Coppola began development of a film based on the life of Tucker, originally with Marlon Brando in the lead role. Starting in 1976, Coppola planned Tucker to be both a musical and a film with music and lyrics written by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden. The project eventually collapsed when Coppolas American Zoetrope experienced financial problems, Tucker was revived in 1986 when Coppolas friend, George Lucas, joined as a producer. The film received praise, but was a box office disappointment. Nonetheless, Tucker, The Man and His Dream produced a spike in prices of Tucker Sedans, as well as an appreciation for Tucker. Detroit engineer Preston Tucker has been interested in building cars since childhood, during World War II he designed an armored car for the military and made money building gun turrets for aircraft in a small shop next to his home in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Tucker is supported by his large, extended family, including wife Vera, as the war winds down, Tucker has a dream of finally building the car of the future. The Tucker Torpedo will feature revolutionary safety designs including disc brakes, seat belts, a pop out windshield, Tucker hires young designer Alex Tremulis to help with the design and enlists New York financier Abe Karatz to arrange financial support. Raising the money through an issue, Tucker and Karatz acquire the enormous Dodge Chicago Plant to begin manufacturing. Abe hires Robert Bennington to run the new Tucker Corporation on a day-to-day basis, launching the car of tomorrow in a spectacular way, the Tucker Corporation is met with enthusiasm from shareholders and the general public. While Tucker travels the country, Bennington and directors change the design of Tuckers car to a conventional design, eliminating the safety. At the same time, Tucker faces animosity from the Big Three, Tucker then receives a call from Howard Hughes, who sends a private plane to bring Tucker to his aircraft manufacturing site. Hughes advises Tucker to purchase Air Cooled Motors, which can supply both the steel Tucker needs, as well as a small, powerful engine that might replace Tuckers original 589 power plant. Faced with being unable to change Benningtons design, Tucker modifies the new engine and installs it in a test Tucker in the secrecy of his backyard tool and this prototype proves successful in both durability and crash testing. However, Tucker is confronted with allegations of stock fraud, fergusons investigation with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, causes Karatz, once convicted of bank fraud, to resign, fearful that his criminal record will prejudice the hearings. After giving a speech to the jurors on how capitalism in the United States is harmed by efforts of large corporations against small entrepreneurs like himself, Tucker is acquitted on all charges. Nevertheless, his company falls into bankruptcy and Preston Tucker dies of cancer seven years later, never able to realize his dream of producing a state-of-the-art automobile
12.
Dashiell Hammett
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Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, screenwriter, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, in his obituary in The New York Times, he was described as the dean of the. Time magazine included Hammetts 1929 novel Red Harvest on its list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005 and his novels and stories also had a significant influence on films. Hammett was born on a farm in Saint Marys County, Maryland and his parents were Richard Thomas Hammett and Anne Bond Dashiell, his mother belonged to an old Maryland family, whose name in French was De Chiel. Known as Sam, Hammett was baptized a Catholic, and grew up in Philadelphia and he left school when he was 13 years old and held several jobs before working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He served as an operative for Pinkerton from 1915 to February 1922, the agencys role in union strike-breaking eventually left him disillusioned. Hammett enlisted in the Army in 1918 and served in the Motor Ambulance Corps and he was afflicted during that time with the Spanish flu and later contracted tuberculosis. He spent most of his time in the Army as a patient at Cushman Hospital in Tacoma, Washington, where he met a nurse, Josephine Dolan, Hammett and Dolan had two daughters, Mary Jane and Josephine. Shortly after the birth of their child, Health Services nurses informed Dolan that due to Hammetts TB, she. Dolan rented a home in San Francisco, California, where Hammett would visit on weekends, the marriage soon fell apart, but he continued to financially support his wife and daughters with the income he made from his writing. Hammett was first published in 1922 in the magazine The Smart Set, known for the authenticity and realism of his writing, he drew on his experiences as a Pinkerton operative. Hammett wrote most of his fiction while he was living in San Francisco in the 1920s, streets. He said that All my characters were based on people Ive known personally, Raymond Chandler, often considered Hammetts successor, summarized his accomplishments in The Simple Art of Murder, Hammett was the ace performer. He is said to have lacked heart, yet the story he himself thought the most of and he was spare, frugal, hard-boiled, but he did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have written before. In 1929 and 1930, he was involved with Nell Martin. He dedicated The Glass Key to her, and in turn, in 1931, Hammett embarked on a 30-year affair with the playwright Lillian Hellman. Though he sporadically continued to work on material, he wrote his novel in 1934
