1.
Peggie Castle
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Peggie Castle was an American actress who specialized in playing the other woman in B-movies. She was also billed under the names Peggy Castle and Peggie Call, Castle was born Peggy Blair in Appalachia in Wise County in far southwestern Virginia. She changed her last name from Blair because there was another actress named Blair at the first studio in which she worked and her father, Doyle H. Blair, was at one point an industrial relations director for a large corporation and later business manager for Donald OConnor. She took lessons in drama when she was 8 years old and she attended Mills College for two years. Castles first work as an actress came in the soap opera Todays Children, then a spot on Radio Theatre in 1947 brought her a screen test offer from 20th Century Fox. Castle was discovered by a talent scout while eating in a restaurant in Beverly Hills and she was signed to a seven-year contract with Universal-International and made her film debut in the 1947 film When a Girls Beautiful. In 1949, she was named Miss Cheesecake by the Southern California Restaurant Association, later that year, the Junior Chamber of Commerce named Castle Miss Three Alarm. She later appeared in films as Payment on Demand, The Prince Who Was a Thief Invasion U. S. A.99 River Street. In the 1950s, Castle moved into television and she appeared in multiple guest roles on Fireside Theater, Cheyenne,77 Sunset Strip, and The Restless Gun. In 1957 she played defendant Sally Fenner in the Perry Mason episode, from 1959 to 1962, she co-starred in the television western series Lawman — her first continuing series. Her role as saloon owner Lily Merrill brought out a new dimension of Castles talent and she stated For the first time in my life Im a singer — thats the producers opinion, not mine. Her final onscreen role was a guest appearance in a 1966 episode of The Virginian, in 1960, Castle and Peter Brown traveled to rodeos, performing as a song-and-dance team. Castle stressed, Were very careful not to sing any romantic songs, the duos stops included St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Albuquerque. Her first marriage was to Revis Call and they married in 1945 and divorced in 1950. She married Universal publicist Robert H. Raines January 4,1951 and her third marriage was to producer/director William McGarry in 1955. They had a daughter, Erin, before divorcing in 1969, Castles fourth and final marriage was to Arthur Morganstern in 1971. They remained married until Morgansterns death in April 1973, for her contribution to the television industry, Peggie Castle has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6230 Hollywood Boulevard. It was dedicated February 8,1960, in her later years, Castle developed alcoholism
2.
Film noir
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Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywoods classical film noir period is regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively, before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noir were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars. Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, films now so described have been made around the world, many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such works as neo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s, the questions of what defines film noir, and what sort of category it is, provoke continuing debate. They emphasize that not every film noir embodies all five attributes in equal measure—one might be more dreamlike, another, while many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing. Because of the diversity of noir, certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a style. Other critics treat film noir as a mood, characterize it as a series, there is no consensus on the matter. By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, the Universal horror that comes closest to noir, in story and sensibility is The Invisible Man, directed by Englishman James Whale and photographed by American Arthur Edeson. Edeson later photographed The Maltese Falcon, widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era, josef von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood at the same time. Films of his such as Shanghai Express and The Devil Is a Woman, with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style, the commercial and critical success of Sternbergs silent Underworld was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Successful films in that such as Little Caesar, The Public Enemy. An important, possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s French poetic realism, with its romantic, fatalistic attitude, the movements sensibility is mirrored in the Warner Bros. drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, a forerunner of noir. Among films not considered films noir, perhaps none had an effect on the development of the genre than Citizen Kane
3.
3D film
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A three-dimensional stereoscopic film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception, hence adding a third dimension. The most common approach to the production of 3D films is derived from stereoscopic photography, 3D films are not limited to theatrical releases, television broadcasts and direct-to-video films have also incorporated similar methods, especially since the advent of 3D television and Blu-ray 3D. 3D films became more and more throughout the 2000s, culminating in the unprecedented success of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009. The stereoscopic era of motion pictures began in the late 1890s when British film pioneer William Friese-Greene filed a patent for a 3D film process, in his patent, two films were projected side by side on screen. The viewer looked through a stereoscope to converge the two images, because of the obtrusive mechanics behind this method, theatrical use was not practical. Frederic Eugene Ives patented his stereo camera rig in 1900, the camera had two lenses coupled together 1¾ inches apart. On June 10,1915, Edwin S. Porter and William E. Waddell presented tests to an audience at the Astor Theater in New York City. However, according to Adolph Zukor in his 1953 autobiography The Public Is Never Wrong, My 50 Years in the Motion Picture Industry, nothing was produced in this process after these tests. The earliest confirmed 3D film shown to an audience was The Power of Love. The camera rig was a product of the producer, Harry K. Fairall. Whether Fairall used colored filters on the ports or whether he used tinted prints is unknown. After a preview for exhibitors and press in New York City, the film dropped out of sight, apparently not booked by exhibitors, and is now considered lost. Kelley then struck a deal with Samuel Roxy Rothafel to premiere the first in his series of Plasticon shorts entitled Movies of the Future at the Rivoli Theater in New York City. Also in December 1922, Laurens Hammond premiered his Teleview system, Teleview was the first alternating-frame 3D system seen by the public. Using left-eye and right-eye prints and two interlocked projectors, left and right frames were alternately projected, each pair being shown three times to suppress flicker. Viewing devices attached to the armrests of the seats had rotary shutters that operated synchronously with the projector shutters, producing a clean. The show ran for weeks, apparently doing good business as a novelty. In 1922, Frederic Eugene Ives and Jacob Leventhal began releasing their first stereoscopic shorts made over a three-year period, the first film, entitled Plastigrams, was distributed nationally by Educational Pictures in the red-and-blue anaglyph format
4.
Stereophonic sound
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Stereophonic sound or, more commonly, stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that creates an illusion of multi-directional audible perspective. Thus the term applies to so-called quadraphonic and surround-sound systems as well as the more common two-channel. It is often contrasted with monophonic, or mono sound, where audio is heard as coming from one position, in the 2000s, stereo sound is common in entertainment systems such as broadcast radio and TV, recorded music and the cinema. The word stereophonic derives from the Greek στερεός, firm, solid + φωνή, sound, tone, voice and it was coined in 1927 by Western Electric, the signal is then reproduced over multiple loudspeakers to recreate, as closely as possible, the live sound. Secondly artificial or pan-pot stereo, in which a sound is reproduced over multiple loudspeakers. By varying the amplitude of the signal sent to each speaker an artificial direction can be suggested. The control which is used to vary this relative amplitude of the signal is known as a pan-pot, by combining multiple pan-potted mono signals together, a complete, yet entirely artificial, sound field can be created. In technical usage, true stereo sound recording and sound reproduction that uses stereographic projection to encode the relative positions of objects and events recorded. During two-channel stereo recording, two microphones are placed in strategically chosen locations relative to the source, with both recording simultaneously. The two recorded channels will be similar, but each will have distinct time-of-arrival and sound-pressure-level information, during playback, the listeners brain uses those subtle differences in timing and sound level to triangulate the positions of the recorded objects. Stereo recordings often cannot be played on systems without a significant loss of fidelity. This phenomenon is known as phase cancellation and this two-channel telephonic process was commercialized in France from 1890 to 1932 as the Théâtrophone, and in England from 1895 to 1925 as the Electrophone. Both were services available by coin-operated receivers at hotels and cafés, modern stereophonic technology was invented in the 1930s by British engineer Alan Blumlein at EMI, who patented stereo records, stereo films, and also surround sound. In early 1931, Blumlein and his wife were at a local cinema, Blumlein declared to his wife that he had found a way to make the sound follow the actor across the screen. The genesis of ideas is uncertain, but he explained them to Isaac Shoenberg in the late summer of 1931. His earliest notes on the subject are dated 25 September 1931, the application was dated 14 December 1931, and was accepted on 14 June 1933 as UK patent number 394,325. The patent covered many ideas in stereo, some of which are used today and these discs used the two walls of the groove at right angles in order to carry the two channels. Much of the development work on this system for cinematic use did not reach completion until 1935, in Blumleins short test films, his original intent of having the sound follow the actor was fully realised
5.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
6.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
7.
Elisha Cook Jr.
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Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. was an American character actor, probably best remembered as the gunsel Wilmer, who tries to intimidate Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. His acting career spanned more than 60 years, with roles in such as The Big Sleep, Shane, The Killing, House on Haunted Hill. Cook was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Elisha Vanslyck Cook Sr. a pharmacist and he started in vaudeville and stock by the age of fourteen. He was an actor in the East Coast and the Midwest before arriving in New York City. Which ran on Broadway for two years, Cook served in the United States Army during World War II. In 1930, Cook settled in Hollywood, after several small and/or uncredited roles, he began a long period playing weaklings or sadistic losers and hoods. Cooks characters usually were killed off, hollywoods most notable fall guy for many years, he made a rare appearance in slapstick comedy in the cameo role of The Screenwriter in Hellzapoppin. In Universals Phantom Lady, he portrays a slimy, intoxicated nightclub-orchestra drummer to memorable effect and he had a substantial uncredited role as Bobo in I, the Jury. He appeared in William Castles horror film House on Haunted Hill and he played a private detective, Homer Garrity, in an episode of Adventures of Superman television series titled Semi-Private Eye, airing for the first time on January 16,1954. That same year, on April 12, he guest-starred on NBCs The Dennis Day Show, in 1960, he was cast in the episode, The Hermit, of the ABC sitcom The Real McCoys, with Walter Brennan. He appeared as Jeremy Hake in the episode The Bequest of the ABC western series, The Rebel and he appeared as Gideon McCoy in an episode entitled The Night of the Bars of Hell of The Wild Wild West. He appeared in the episode of ABCs crime drama, The Fugitive. Cook made two guest appearances on the CBS courtroom drama series Perry Mason, in 1958, he played Art Crowley in The Case of the Pint-Sized Client, and in 1964, he played Reelin Peter Rockwell in The Case of the Reckless Rockhound. He also appeared in The Bionic Woman episode, Once a Thief, Cook was married twice, to Mary Lou Cook in 1929 and Peggy McKenna Cook in 1943, a union which lasted until his death. He lived in Bishop, California, typically summering on Lake Sabrina in the Sierra Nevada, according to John Huston, who directed him in The Maltese Falcon, lived alone up in the High Sierra, tied flies and caught golden trout between films. When he was wanted in Hollywood, they sent word up to his cabin by courier. He would come down, do a picture, and then again to his retreat. Cook died of a stroke on May 18,1995 in Big Pine, California and he was the last surviving member of the main cast of The Maltese Falcon
8.
Tom Powers
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Tom Powers was an American actor in theatre, films, radio and television. A veteran of the Broadway stage, notably in plays by George Bernard Shaw and he succeeded Orson Welles in the role of Brutus in the Mercury Theatres debut production, Caesar. Thomas McCreery Powers was born in 1890 in Owensboro, Kentucky and his father, Colonel Joshua D. Powers, was a banker, his uncle was sculptor Hiram Powers. Tom Powers mother loved the theatre and enrolled him at school at age three. He entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at age 16, and he studied drama, wrote and produced plays, Powers apprenticed to a pantomime troupe for ten years and became a star of Vitagraph Westerns. Powers appeared in over 70 silent films from 1911 to 1917 opposite such actors as Florence Turner, Harry T. Morey, Clara Kimball Young, Alma Taylor, Powers had great success in his first Broadway appearance, as William Booth in Mr. Lazarus. He became a star in comedies, and won acclaim as a leading player and character actor. His best-known roles included Gregers Werle in The Wild Duck, the captain in Androcles and the Lion, and Bluntschli in Arms and he created the role of Charles Marsden in Eugene ONeills long-running drama, Strange Interlude. In 1938 he succeeded Orson Welles as Brutus in the Mercury Theatres debut stage production, Caesar and his last significant Broadway role was in Three Sisters, with Judith Anderson, Katharine Cornell and Ruth Gordon. His radio credits include Tom Powers Life Studies, a 15-minute series of stories on NBC. Powers published two books of monologues, Life Studies and More Life Studies and he also wrote four plays and two romantic novels, Virgin with Butterflies and Sheba on Trampled Grass. For the next dozen years or so, Powers appeared in over 80 film and television roles, usually playing middle-aged business men and his performance as Metallus Cimber in Julius Caesar is regarded as Powers best during his Hollywood years. Tom Powers was married to Meta Murray Janney of Philadelphia on September 7,1929, Powers died of heart disease at his home in Manhattan Beach, California, on November 9,1955, at age 65. He was interred in Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, in North Hollywood, Tom Powers at the Internet Movie Database Tom Powers at the TCM Movie Database Tom Powers at the Internet Broadway Database Tom Powers at Find a Grave
9.
YouTube
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YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—in February 2005, Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion, YouTube now operates as one of Googles subsidiaries. Unregistered users can watch videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos deemed potentially offensive are available only to registered users affirming themselves to be at least 18 years old, YouTube earns advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program which targets ads according to site content and audience. YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, Hurley had studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, Hurley and Chen said that the original idea for YouTube was a video version of an online dating service, and had been influenced by the website Hot or Not. YouTube began as a venture capital-funded technology startup, primarily from an $11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006, YouTubes early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California. The domain name www. youtube. com was activated on February 14,2005, the first YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23,2005, and can still be viewed on the site, YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005. The first video to reach one million views was a Nike advertisement featuring Ronaldinho in November 2005. Following a $3.5 million investment from Sequoia Capital in November, the site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. The site has 800 million unique users a month and it is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000. The choice of the name www. youtube. com led to problems for a similarly named website, the sites owner, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being regularly overloaded by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to www. utubeonline. com, in October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13,2006. In March 2010, YouTube began free streaming of certain content, according to YouTube, this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event. On March 31,2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface, Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman commented, We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter. In May 2010, YouTube videos were watched more than two times per day. This increased to three billion in May 2011, and four billion in January 2012, in February 2017, one billion hours of YouTube was watched every day
10.
United Artists
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United Artists is an American film and television entertainment studio. The studio was bought, sold and restructured over the ensuing century. On December 14 of the year, however, MGM acquired the 48% stake of UAMG it did not own. UA was incorporated as a joint venture on February 5,1919, by Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks, each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work. They were spurred on by established Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening their control over salaries and creative decisions. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before anything was formalized, when he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, is said to have observed, The inmates are taking over the asylum. The four partners, with advice from McAdoo, formed their distribution company and its headquarters was established at 729 Seventh Avenue in New York City. The original terms called for each of the stars to produce five pictures each year, UAs first film was a success. Without selling stock to the public, following the other studios, as a result, production was slow and the company distributed an annual average of five films during its first five years. By 1924 Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis, veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. He had been producing pictures for a decade, and he brought commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, contracts were signed with independent producers, most notably Samuel Goldwyn, and Howard Hughes. In 1933, Schenck organized a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, called Twentieth Century Pictures, Schenck formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name. They began international operations, first in Canada and then in Mexico, by the end of the 1930s, United Artists was represented in over 40 countries. When he was denied a share in 1935, Schenck resigned. He set up 20th Century Pictures merger with Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox, al Lichtman succeeded Schenck as company president. Other independent producers distributed through United Artists in the 1930s including, Walt Disney Productions, Alexander Korda, Hal Roach, David O. Selznick, as the years passed, and the dynamics of the business changed, these producing partners drifted away. Samuel Goldwyn Productions and Disney went to RKO, and Wanger to Universal Pictures, in the late 1930s, UA turned a profit
11.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
12.
Mike Hammer
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Michael Mike Hammer is a fictional hard boiled detective created by the American author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book I, the Jury. In 1946, Spillane, an established writer, worked with illustrator Mike Roy to create the private-eye character Mike Danger for proposed comic-book or comic-strip publication. Unable to sell the project as a comic, he reworked the story as the novel I, Spillane wrote the work in nine days by some accounts,19 in others. In The Big Kill Hammer describes himself to a bargirl as a misanthrope, Hammer is also loosely based on the real-life hard-boiled Texas Ranger and gunfighter Frank Hamer, who was most famous for tracking down and killing Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in 1934. While other hardboiled heroes bend and manipulate the law, Hammer often views it as an impediment to justice, the one virtue he holds in absolute esteem. Hammer nevertheless has a respect for the majority of police, realizing they have a difficult job. Mike Hammer is a private investigator who carries a.45 Colt M1911A1 in a shoulder harness under his left arm. His love for his secretary Velda is outweighed only by his willingness to kill a killer, Hammers best friend is Pat Chambers, Captain of Homicide NYPD. Hammer was a World War II army veteran who spent two years fighting jungle warfare in the Pacific theatre against Japan, Hammer is also patriotic and anti-communist. The novels are peppered with remarks by Hammer supporting American troops in Korea, in One Lonely Night, where Hammer attends a communist meeting in a park, his reaction to the speakers propaganda is a sarcastic Yeah. So far as violence is concerned, the Hammer novels leave little to the imagination, written in the first person, Hammer describes his violent encounters with relish. In all but a few novels, Hammers victims are often left vomiting after a blow to the stomach or groin, Mickey Spillane has said of his character, See, heroes never die. John Wayne isnt dead, Elvis isnt dead, otherwise you dont have a hero. Thats why I never let him get older, Spillane himself played Hammer in a 1963 motion picture adaptation of The Girl Hunters. Spillane himself favoured ex-Marine and former Newburgh, New York police officer Jack Stang, on whom he based the character, Stang appeared with Spillane in the 1954 film Ring of Fear and in the film adaptation of I, the Jury. I, the Jury, filmed in 3-D starring Biff Elliot as Mike Hammer, kiss Me Deadly, Robert Aldrich was the director, Ralph Meeker was cast as Hammer, while Maxine Cooper portrayed Hammers sexy secretary/companion Velda. My Gun Is Quick, Robert Bray was cast as Hammer, the film grossed $308,000 with a total of $602 overseas. The Girl Hunters, Mickey Spillane was given the opportunity to portray his own creation in this film
