1.
California
California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence.
The western portion of Alta California was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, real estate services and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA.
Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups were diverse in their organization with bands, villages. Trade and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years English explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
2.
Jo Van Fleet
Catherine Josephine Jo Van Fleet was an American theatre and film actress. Known primarily for playing roles older than she was, her career spanned three decades, and she won an Academy Award as well as a Tony Award. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1954 for her performance as Jessie Mae Watts in Horton Footes The Trip to Bountiful, costarring Lillian Gish, after her success on the stage, director Elia Kazan brought her to Hollywood to work on screen. Kazan, who had directed her on stage in 1952s Flight to Egypt and 1953s Camino Real, cast her as Cathy Ames in his adaptation of John Steinbecks East of Eden. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance and her subsequent film work was steady through 1960, and included such films as The Rose Tattoo, Ill Cry Tomorrow, The King and Four Queens, and Gunfight at the O. K. Corral. However, her career did not progress as she had hoped and her friend and mentor, once said Jo stagnated, since she knew it, was bitter.
And as she became bitter, she became more difficult, in 1958, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Look Homeward, Angel, in which she played the acquisitive mother of Anthony Perkins character. Her television work included Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza, Van Fleet was married to William Bales from 1946 until his death in 1990. Van Fleet died in a Jamaica, Queens hospital from undisclosed causes at the age of 80 and her interment was at Flushing Cemetery. She was survived by her son Michael Bales, and a grandson and she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. Jo Van Fleet at the Internet Broadway Database Jo Van Fleet profile, lortel. org, Jo Van Fleet at the Internet Movie Database Jo Van Fleet at the TCM Movie Database Jo Van Fleet at AllMovie
3.
Virginia Gregg
Virginia Lee Gregg was an American actress known for her many roles in radio dramas and television series. Born in the Illinois city of Harrisburg, she was the daughter of musician Dewey Alphaleta, when Gregg was 5, she and her family moved to Pasadena. She attended Jefferson High School, Pasadena Junior College and Pacific Academy of Dramatic Art, before going into radio, Gregg played the double bass with the Pasadena Symphony and Pops. She was a member of the Singing Strings group heard initially on KHJ in Los Angeles in 1937 and on CBS, Gregg was a prolific radio actress, heard on such programs as The Adventures of Sam Spade, Dragnet, Dr. On the radio series Have Gun–Will Travel, Gregg portrayed Miss Wong and she had the role of Betty Barbour on One Mans Family and played Richard Diamonds girlfriend, the wealthy Helen Asher, on the radio series Richard Diamond, Private Detective. She guest starred in an episode of the version of Richard Diamond. Gregg once said of her work as an actress on television, I work steadily.
She added, When casting people have a call for a woman who looks like the wrath of God, Gregg may be best remembered for her many appearances in Dragnet. Jack Webb used her in dozens of roles on both the radio and TV versions of the show, as well as in the 1954 film version of Dragnet, in years, she appeared on other shows produced by Webbs production company, Mark VII Limited. Gregg supplied the voice of Mrs. Bates in Psycho as did Jeanette Nolan and Paul Jasmin, only Gregg did the voice in the sequels Psycho II and Psycho III. She voiced Tarra on the 1967 animated TV series, The Herculoids and she reprised that role when the series was revived in 1981 as part of the Space Stars animated series. Gregg married producer Jaime del Valle in 1948, and they had three children, Gregg and Ricardo and they were divorced December 22,1959. She was active with the Recording for the Blind Inc. organization, making recordings as a volunteer, Gregg died from lung cancer in Encino, September 15,1986, aged 70.
She was survived by her three sons, Gregg and Ricardo del Valle, official website Virginia Gregg at the Internet Movie Database Virginia Gregg at Find a Grave
4.
Helen Rose
Helen Rose was an American costume designer and clothing designer who spent the bulk of her career with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Helen Rose was born on February 2,1904 to William Bromberg and Ray Bobbs in Chicago and she attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and designed nightclub and stage costumes for various acts. She moved to Los Angeles in 1929, where she designed outfits for Fanchon and Marco, in the early 1940s she spent two years working for 20th Century Fox, where she designed wardrobes for musical selections. In 1943 MGM hired her in the wake of Adrians departure, Rose won two Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, for The Bad and the Beautiful in 1952 and for Ill Cry Tomorrow in 1955. She was nominated a further eight times and was very well known for designing famous wedding dresses of the era. She designed the wedding dress of Grace Kelly when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. She designed clothing for Elizabeth Taylor in the movies Father of the Bride, in the late 1960s, Rose left the studio to open her own design business and continued to provide fancy attire for the famed and the wealthy.
She wrote a fashion column and she wrote two books - her autobiography Just Make Them Beautiful in 1976 and The Glamorous World of Helen Rose. In the 1970s Rose staged a fashion show featuring some of her MGM-designed costumes that was called The Helen Rose Show. Helen was married to Harry V. Rose, whose name was Harry Rosenstein. She died in Palm Springs, California in 1985,1910 United States Federal Census, Cook County, Enumeration District 7, Sheet 17, April 22–23,1910. 1920 United States Federal Census, Cook County, Enumeration District 6, Sheet 10A, Helen Rose at the Internet Movie Database
5.
Daniel Mann
Daniel Mann, known as Daniel Chugerman, was an American film and television director. Mann was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Helen and Samuel Chugerman and he was a stage actor since childhood, and attended Erasmus Hall High School, New Yorks Professional Childrens School and the Neighborhood Playhouse. He entered films in 1952 as a director, and is known for his excellent ear for dialogue, most of Manns films were adaptations from the stage and literature. Mann died of heart failure in Los Angeles, California, in November 1991 and he is buried in the Jewish Cemetery Hillside Memorial Park. He had three children with his wife, actress Mary Kathleen Williams, Michael Mann, Erica Mann Ramis and his daughter is the widow of director Harold Ramis
6.
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid fellowship founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. AAs stated primary purpose is to help alcoholics stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety, with other early members, Bill Wilson and Bob Smith developed AAs Twelve Step program of spiritual and character development. AAs initial Twelve Traditions were introduced in 1946 to help the fellowship be stable, the Traditions recommend that members and groups remain anonymous in public media, altruistically help other alcoholics and avoid official affiliations with other organizations. They advise against dogma and coercive hierarchies, subsequent fellowships such as Narcotics Anonymous have adopted and adapted the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions to their respective primary purposes. According to AAs 2014 membership survey, 27% of members have been less than one year, 24% have 1–5 years sober, 13% have 5–10 years, 14% have 10–20 years. Studies of AAs efficacy have produced inconsistent results, while some studies have suggested an association between AA attendance and increased abstinence or other positive outcomes, other studies have not.
The first female member, Florence Rankin, joined AA in March 1937, and the first non-Protestant member, AA membership has since spread across diverse cultures holding different beliefs and values, including geopolitical areas resistant to grassroots movements. Over 2 million people worldwide are members of AA as of 2016, AAs name is derived from its first book, informally called The Big Book, originally titled Alcoholics Anonymous, The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism. AA sprang from The Oxford Group, a non-denominational movement modeled after first-century Christianity, some members founded the Group to help in maintaining sobriety. Feeling a kinship of common suffering and, though drunk, Wilson attended his first Group gathering, within days, Wilson admitted himself to the Charles B. Towns Hospital after drinking four beers on the way—the last alcohol he ever drank, under the care of Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, Wilsons detox included the deliriant belladonna.
At the hospital a despairing Wilson experienced a flash of light. Following his hospital discharge Wilson joined the Oxford Group and recruited other alcoholics to the Group, Wilsons early efforts to help others become sober were ineffective, prompting Dr. Silkworth to suggest that Wilson place less stress on religion and more on the science of treating alcoholism. Wilsons first success came during a trip to Akron, where he was introduced to Dr. Robert Smith. After thirty days of working with Wilson, Smith drank his last drink on June 10,1935, by 1937, Wilson separated from the Oxford Group. AA Historian Ernest Kurtz described the split. more and more, Bill discovered that new adherents could get sober by believing in each other and this, then—whatever it was that occurred among them—was what they could accept as a power greater than themselves. They did not need the Oxford Group, in 1955, Wilson acknowledged AAs debt, saying The Oxford Groupers had clearly shown us what to do. And just as importantly, we learned from them not to do
7.
Don "Red" Barry
Donald Barry de Acosta, known as Red Barry, was an American film and television actor. He was nicknamed Red after appearing as the first Red Ryder in the highly successful 1940 film Adventures of Red Ryder, Barry went on to bigger budget films following Red Ryder, but none reached his previous level of success. By the 1950s, Barry was an actor instead of playing leads in westerns. Early in 1955, he appeared as the bandit Milt Sharp in an episode of the series, Stories of the Century, starring. Barry played Clete in the 1956 western film Seven Men from Now, Barry appeared four times in the ABC/WB western Colt.45. Barry was cast as black-clad gunfighter in a 1961 episode, Last Stop, Oblivion, of the ABC/WB western series, Maverick with Jack Kelly, barrys voice in the television westerns sounded much like that of the character actor Dub Taylor. About this time, he guest starred on two other ABC/WB dramas, Bourbon Street Beat and The Roaring 20s. He appeared as well in the crime drama, U. S. Marshal, starring John Bromfield.
On January 13,1965, Barry was cast in the episode of the short-lived Mickey ABC sitcom starring Mickey Rooney. Barry was cast as a friend who had saved Mickeys life in World War II. In 1966, Barry played Confederate soldier Lt. Farrow in the Western film Alvarez Kelly, Barry played a supporting role in the 1968 film, with Sean Connery. Barry played supporting roles in dozens of series, particularly westerns. He appeared eight times on the long-running NBC series, The Virginian and he appeared in six episodes of Michael Landons Little House on the Prairie as farmer Judd Larrabee, and appeared in all-star TV miniseries, such as Rich Man, Poor Man Book II and The Dream Merchants. Prior to acting, Barry had been a school and college football player. During the height of his Red Ryder fame, he married B-movie actress Peggy Stewart, on July 17,1980, Barry died by suicide after a domestic dispute. He was estranged from his wife, Barbara at the time—with whom he had two daughters. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, Don Barry at the Internet Movie Database Don Red Barry at AllMovie Don Red Barry at Find a Grave
8.
This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life is an American reality documentary series broadcast on NBC radio from 1948 to 1952, and on NBC television from 1952 to 1961. It was originally hosted by its creator and producer Ralph Edwards, in the program, the host would surprise guests and take them through a retrospective of their lives in front of an audience, including appearances by colleagues and family. Edwards revived the show in 1971–1972, and Joseph Campanella hosted a version in 1983, Edwards returned for some specials in the late 1980s, before his death in 2005. The idea for This Is Your Life arose while Edwards was working on Truth or Consequences and he had been asked by the U. S. Army to do something for paraplegic soldiers at Birmingham General Hospital, a Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California Army rehabilitation hospital. Edwards received such positive feedback from the capsule narrative of the soldier he gave on Truth or Consequences that he developed This Is Your Life as a new radio show. In the show, Edwards would surprise each guest by narrating a biography of the subject, the show alternated in presenting the life stories of entertainment personalities and ordinary people who had contributed in some way to their communities.
The host, consulting his red book, would narrate while presenting the subject with family members, friends, by the 1950s, the show was aired live before a theater audience. The guests were surprised by Ralph Edwards and confronted by the microphone, planning for the broadcast meant that some would find out in advance that they would be featured. For example, Carl Reiner admitted that he knew beforehand about his appearance, stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy was angered by being tricked into what would be the teams only American television appearance, on December 1,1954. Laurel said, Oliver Hardy and I were always planning to do something on TV, but we never dreamed that we would make our television debut on an unrehearsed network program. I was damned if I was going to put on a free show for them. Lowell Thomas displayed obvious anger and embarrassment, when host Ralph Edwards tried to assure him that he would enjoy what was to come, Thomas replied, in 1993, Angie Dickinson refused to appear on a retrospective show.
One of the subjects was Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. During the episode Edwards introduced Tanimoto to Robert A. Lewis, the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, hanna Bloch Kohner, a Holocaust survivor, was a subject on May 27,1953. Roths story became the basis of her 1954 autobiography and 1955 film adaption, Ill Cry Tomorrow, farmer commented on her hospitalization by saying If someone is treated like a patient, theyre likely to act like one. Johnny Cash was caught off guard while filming a 1971 episode of The Johnny Cash Show. He had finished welcoming the audience to the stage when his wife, June Carter Cash, walked onstage and introduced Ralph Edwards, the taping thereafter turned into an episode of This is Your Life. He tried to keep his composure, but was seen to be nervous. It fared well in the ratings during the 1950s, finishing at #11 in 1953–19954, #12 in 1954–1955, #26 in 1955–1956, #19 in 1957–1958, the episode on Hahn was cited as an example of the limited research that the show was doing on its guests
9.
Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward was an American actress. After working as a model, Hayward traveled to Hollywood in 1937. She secured a contract and played several small supporting roles over the next few years. Her career continued successfully through the 1950s and she received subsequent nominations for My Foolish Heart, With a Song in My Heart and she finally won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of death-row inmate Barbara Graham in I Want to Live. After Haywards second marriage and subsequent move to Georgia, her appearances became infrequent, although she continued acting in film. She died in 1975 of brain cancer, Hayward was born Edythe Marrenner in Brooklyn, the youngest of three children born to Ellen and Walter Marrenner. Her paternal grandmother was an actress, Kate Harrigan, from County Cork and her mother was of Swedish descent. She had a sister, and an older brother, Walter, Jr. Hayward was educated at Public School 181. During her high school years, she acted in school plays and was named Most Dramatic by her class.
Hayward began her career as a model, going to Hollywood in 1937. Although she did not win the role, Hayward found employment playing bit parts until she was cast in Beau Geste opposite Gary Cooper. During the war years, she acted with John Wayne twice, as a lead in Reap the Wild Wind. She starred in the version of The Hairy Ape. After the war, Haywards career took off when she was contracted by producer Walter Wanger for a contract at $100,000 a year. With her first film being Canyon Passage, in 1947, she received the first of five Academy Award nominations for her role as an alcoholic nightclub singer in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman, her second film for Wanger. She continued as one of Hollywoods most popular leading ladies in films such as Tap Roots, My Foolish Heart and Bathsheba, Haywards portrayal of Graham won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1959, she played the lead, Mary Sharron, in Woman Obsessed, in 1956, she was cast by Howard Hughes to play Bortai in the historical epic The Conqueror, as John Waynes leading lady.
Though Hayward never truly known as a singer because she hated her own singing
10.
Chicago
Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, film, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language.
The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S.
The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
