1.
Charles Lederer
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Charles Lederer was an American screenwriter and film director. A child prodigy, he entered college at age 13, Lederer is recognized for his comic and acerbic adaptations and collaborative screenplays of the 1940s and early 1950s. His screenplays frequently delved into the corrosive influences of wealth and power, Lederer was born in New York City to two prominent figures in the American theater, Broadway producer George Lederer and singer Reine Davies. After his parents were separated, Lederer and his younger sister Pepi moved to California and were raised by his mothers sister, actress Marion Davies. He grew up in Hollywood, spending time at San Simeon, the enchanted castle on the hill. He was a prodigy and was admitted to UC Berkeley at the age of 13. According to biographer William MacAdams, Hollywood was home to Lederer, virtually none of the film community had grown up in Los Angeles, but Lederer had been brought there when he was 11 by Marion Davies, his mothers sister. Lederer thus knew the movie colony inside out as seen from the top, when he was 19, Lederer became friends with Ben Hecht, who introduced him to the New York literati. His friendship with Hecht led to his being hired to write dialogue for the film The Front Page. He later moved back to Hollywood to become a full-time screenwriter, Lederer is recognized for his acerbic wit, with adaptations and collaborative screenplays written mostly during the 1940s and early 1950s. His screenplays frequently delved into the corrosive influences of wealth and power, yet his comedy writing was also among the best of the period, and he, along with Hecht and Herman Mankiewicz became major contributors to the film genre known as screwball comedy. He was friends with screenwriters Joseph and Herman Mankiewicz, Herman would later become co-screenwriter of Citizen Kane. After becoming friends with Lederer, Herman told Joe to come to the office of their mutual friend Charlie Lederer, as explained by Hollywood columnist Pauline Kael, Mankiewicz found himself on story-swapping terms with the power behind it all, Hearst himself. Lederer, a prodigy, who had entered college at thirteen. Lederer was Marion Davies’s nephew – the son of her sister Reine. Marion was childless, and Lederer was very close to her, he spent a deal of his time at her various dwelling places, and took his friends to meet both her and Hearst. ”After finishing the script for Citizen Kane, Mankiewicz gave a copy to Lederer. In some crazily naive way, Mankiewicz seems to have imagined that Lederer would be pleased by how good it was, but Lederer, apparently, was deeply upset and took the script to his aunt and Hearst. It went from them to Hearsts lawyers, Lederer, however, told director Peter Bogdanovich that Kael was totally incorrect in this matter, and she never bothered to check with him
2.
William Powell
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William Horatio Powell was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, for The Thin Man, My Man Godfrey, and Life with Father, an only child, Powell was born in Pittsburgh to Nettie Manila and Horatio Warren Powell, on July 29,1892. His father was born in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, to William S. in 1907, he moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated from Central High School in 1910. After high school, he left home for New York and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of 18, in 1912, Powell graduated from the AADA, and worked in some vaudeville and stock companies. Powells most famous role was that of Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, beginning with The Thin Man in 1934, Myrna Loy played his wife, Nora, in each of the Thin Man films. Their on-screen partnership, beginning alongside Clark Gable in 1934 with Manhattan Melodrama, was one of Hollywoods most prolific, Loy and Powell starred in the Best Picture of 1936, The Great Ziegfeld, with Powell in the title role and Loy as Ziegfelds wife Billie Burke. That same year, he received his second Academy Award nomination. In 1935, he starred with Harlow in Reckless, a serious romance developed between them, and in 1936, they were reunited on screen and with Loy and Spencer Tracy in the screwball comedy Libeled Lady. Harlow died from uremia at the age of 26 in June 1937 before they could marry and his distress over her death, as well as a cancer diagnosis, caused him to accept fewer acting roles. Powells career slowed considerably in the 1940s, although he received his third Academy Award nomination in 1947 for his role as the cantankerous Clarence Day and his last film was 1955s Mister Roberts. In 1915, he married Eileen Wilson who was born Julia Tierney, with whom he had his child, William David Powell. Powells son became a writer and producer before a period of ill health led to his suicide in 1968. On June 26,1931, Powell married actress Carole Lombard, the marriage lasted just over two years. They were divorced in 1933, though they, too, remained on good terms, Powell was devastated when he learned of her death in 1942. In 1937, Powell was diagnosed with cancer and he underwent surgery and experimental radium treatment which put the disease in full remission within two years. Given his own health and sorrow over Jean Harlows death, Powell did not undertake any film roles for over a year during this period, three weeks after they met, on January 6,1940, Powell married actress Diana Lewis, whom he called Mousie. Powell died in Palm Springs, California, on March 5,1984, at the age of 91 and he is buried at the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California, near his son William David Powell and wife Diana Lewis
3.
Myrna Loy
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Myrna Loy was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to a career following a few minor roles in silent films. She was originally typecast in roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent. During World War II, Loy served as assistant to the director of military and she was later appointed a member-at-large of the U. S. While the height of her popularity was during the 1930s and 40s, she continued to pursue stage, television. Loy was born in Helena, Montana, the daughter of Adelle Mae and rancher David Franklin Williams and she had a younger brother, David Williams. Loys paternal grandparents were Welsh, and her grandparents were Scottish and Swedish. Her first name was derived from a stop near Broken Bow, Nebraska. Her father was also a banker and real estate developer and the youngest man elected to the Montana state legislature. Her mother studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, during the winter of 1912, Loys mother nearly died from pneumonia, and her father sent his wife and daughter to La Jolla, California. Loys mother saw great potential in Southern California, and during one of her husbands visits, among the properties he bought was land he later sold at a considerable profit to Charlie Chaplin so the filmmaker could construct his studio there. Although her mother tried to persuade her husband to move to California permanently, he preferred ranch life and the three eventually returned to Montana. Loys father died on November 7,1918, of Spanish influenza, and Loys mother was able to realize her dream to permanently relocate her family to California. Loy attended the exclusive Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles, California, when her teachers objected to her participating in theatrical arts, her mother enrolled her in Venice High School, and at 15, she began appearing in local stage productions. In 1921, Loy posed for Venice High School sculpture teacher Harry Fielding Winebrenner for the central figure Inspiration in his sculpture group Fountain of Education. Completed in 1922, the group was erected in front of the campus outdoor pool in May 1923 where it stood for decades. Fountain of Education can be seen in the scenes of the 1978 film Grease. Loy left school at the age of 18 to help with the familys finances and she obtained work at Graumans Egyptian Theatre, where she performed in elaborate musical sequences that were related to and served as prologues for the feature film
4.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
5.
Loews Cineplex Entertainment
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From 1924 until 1959, it was also the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. The Loews name is used by AMC in many markets. Its slogan was Thank you for coming to Loews, sit back and relax, which was used in the chains theater policy ads from the 1980s through the 1990s, when Sony rebranded the chain. The company was originally called Loews, after the founder, Marcus Loew, in 1969, when the Tisch brothers acquired the company, it became known as Loews. Loews Theatres Incorporated was founded in 1904 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Loew founded a chain of nickelodeon theaters which showed short silent films in storefront locations. Soon the successful enterprise grew to include deluxe vaudeville houses and finally lavish movie palaces, Loews theaters were found in cities from coast-to-coast, but primarily in East Coast and Midwest states. To provide quality films for his theaters, Loew founded Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures in 1924, by merging the earlier firms Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions. Loews Incorporated served as distribution arm and parent company for the studio until the two were forced to separate by the 1948 U. S. Supreme Court ruling United States v. Paramount Pictures, the two companies officially split in 1959. Loews Corporation by this time was a company owned by brothers Robert. CBS left Tri-Star in 1985, and HBO left the venture and Tri-Star merged with Columbia Pictures in 1987, upon the full acquisition of Tri-Star by Columbia Pictures, and when Columbia was bought from Coca-Cola by Sony in 1989, Sony inherited the theaters as well. For a while, Loews operated under the Sony Theaters banner, in 1994, Sony partnered with Magic Johnson to form Magic Johnson Theaters, a mini-chain of theaters specifically geared toward the inner cities, particularly in Los Angeles. A year before, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound was installed in theaters since the parent company used it to promote Sonys cinema sound division. In 1998, Cineplex Odeon Corporation merged with Loews Theaters to form Loews Cineplex Entertainment, the combined company was one of the largest movie exhibitors in the world, with theaters in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Spain. In 2001, though, the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in 2002, Onex Corporation and Oaktree Capital Management acquired Loews Cineplex. In 2004, they sold Loews to a group of investors which included the Carlyle Group. Onex retained the Canadian Loews Cineplex to form Cineplex Galaxy LP, in 2005, AMC Theatres announced that it would merge with Loews Cineplex Entertainment and that the merged company would adopt the AMC name. The Loews name is used in many markets. At the time of the merger, Loews operated 198 theaters with 2,235 screens, Loews Wonder Theaters United States v. Loews Inc
6.
Carl Switzer
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Carl Dean Switzer was an American actor, professional dog breeder, and hunting guide. Switzer began his career as an actor in the mid-1930s appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series as Alfalfa, one of the series most popular. After leaving the series in 1940, Switzer struggled to find substantial roles owing to typecasting, as an adult, he appeared mainly in bit parts and B-movies. He later became a dog breeder and hunting guide, Switzer married in 1954 and had one son before divorcing in 1956. In January 1959, he was shot by an acquaintance over a dispute about money. Switzer was born in Paris, Illinois, the third son, the oldest brother died in 1922. A sister Janice was born in 1923 and a brother Harold was born in 1925, of Scottish and German ancestry, he was named Carl after a member of the Switzer family and Dean after many relatives on his grandmothers side. He and his brother Harold became famous in their hometown for their musical talent, both sang and could play a number of instruments. In 1934, the Switzers traveled to California to visit family, while sightseeing, they went to Hal Roach Studios. Following a public tour, 8-year-old Harold and 6-year-old Carl entered the Hal Roach Studios open-to-the-public cafeteria, the Our Gang Café, producer Hal Roach was present and was impressed. He signed both brothers to appear in Our Gang, Harold was given two nicknames, Slim and Deadpan, while Carl was dubbed Alfalfa. The brothers first appeared in the 1935 Our Gang short Beginners Luck, by the end of the year, Alfalfa was one of the main characters, while Harold had been relegated to the background. Although Carl was a singer and musician, his character Alfalfa was often called upon to sing off-key renditions of popular songs. By the end of 1937, Alfalfa had surpassed George Spanky McFarland, while the boys got along, their fathers argued constantly over their sons screen time and salaries. Switzers best friend among the Our Gang actors was Tommy Bond, in Bonds words, he and Switzer became good friends because neither of us could replace the other since we played opposites. However, Switzer was known for being abrasive and difficult on the set and he would often play cruel jokes on the other actors and hold up filming with his antics. In 1938 the production rights for Our Gang were sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Switzers tenure on Our Gang ended in 1940, when he was twelve. His first role after leaving the series was as co-star in the 1941 comedy Reglar Fellers, the next year, he had a supporting role in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
7.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
8.
Cary Grant
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Cary Grant was a British-American actor, known as one of classic Hollywoods definitive leading men. He began a career in Hollywood in the early 1930s, and became known for his accent, debonair demeanor. He became an American citizen in 1942, Born in Horfield, Bristol, Grant became attracted to theatre at a young age, and began performing with a troupe known as The Penders from the age of six. After attending Bishop Road Primary School and Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol, he toured the country as a stage performer and he established a name for himself in vaudeville in the 1920s and toured the United States before moving to Hollywood in the early 1930s. Along with the later Arsenic and Old Lace and I Was a Male War Bride, having established himself as a major Hollywood star, he was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Penny Serenade and None but the Lonely Heart. In the 1940s and 1950s, Grant forged a relationship with the director Alfred Hitchcock, appearing in films such as Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief. Hitchcock admired Grant and considered him to have been the actor that he had ever loved working with. His comic timing and delivery made Grant what Premiere magazine considers to have quite simply. Grant was married five times, three of his marriages were elopements with actresses—Virginia Cherrill, Betsy Drake and Dyan Cannon and he has one daughter with Cannon, Jennifer Grant. After his retirement from acting in 1966, Grant pursued numerous business interests, representing cosmetics firm Fabergé. He was presented with an Honorary Oscar by his friend Frank Sinatra at the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970, in 1999, the American Film Institute named Grant the second greatest male star of Golden Age Hollywood cinema, after Humphrey Bogart. Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18,1904 at 15 Hughenden Road in the northern Bristol suburb of Horfield and he was the second child of Elias James Leach and Elsie Maria Leach. Elias, the son of a potter, worked as a tailors presser at a factory, while Elsie. Grants elder brother, John William Elias Leach, died of tuberculous meningitis, Grant considered himself to have been partly Jewish. He had an upbringing, his father was an alcoholic. Wanting the best for her son, Elsie taught Grant song and dance when he was four and she would occasionally take him to the cinema where he enjoyed the performances of Charlie Chaplin, Chester Conklin, Fatty Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, Mack Swain and Broncho Billy Anderson. Grant entered education when he was four-and-a-half and was sent to the Bishop Road Primary School, Bristol, another biographer, Geoffrey Wansell, notes that Elsie blamed herself bitterly for the death of Grants older brother John, and never recovered from it. Grant later acknowledged that his experiences with his fiercely independent mother affected his relationships with women later in life
9.
Lux Radio Theatre
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Lux Radio Theatre, sometimes spelled Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network, CBS Radio, and NBC Radio. Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films and these hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences. The series became the most popular anthology series on radio, broadcast for more than 20 years. The primary sponsor of the show was Unilever through its Lux Soap brand, broadcasting from New York, the series premiered at 2,30 p. m. October 14,1934, on the NBC Blue Network with a production of Seventh Heaven starring Miriam Hopkins, the host was the shows fictional producer, Douglass Garrick. Doris Dagmar played another character, Peggy Winthrop, who delivered the Lux commercials. Each show featured a session with Garrick talking to the lead actors. Anthony appeared as Garrick from the premiere 1934 episode until June 30,1935, Garrick was portrayed by Albert Hayes from July 29,1935 to May 25,1936, when the show moved to the West Coast. DeMille took over as the host on June 1,1936 and that initial episode with DeMille featured Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable in The Legionnaire and the Lady. On several occasions, usually when he was out of town, he was replaced by various celebrities. Lux Radio Theatre strove to feature as many of the stars of the original stage and film productions as possible. In 1936, when sponsor Lever Brothers moved the show from New York City to Hollywood, the first Lux film adaptation was The Legionnaire and the Lady, with Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable, based on the film Morocco. That was followed by a Lux adaptation of The Thin Man, featuring the stars, Myrna Loy. Though the show focused on film and its performers, several classic radio regulars appeared in Lux Radio Theatre productions. Jim and Marian Jordan, better known as Fibber McGee and Molly, appeared on the show twice, bryan, made a few Lux appearances as well. Bandleader Phil Harris, a regular on Jack Bennys radio program and his wife Alice Faye. Fred Allen, Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen were among the radio stars who were invited to do Lux presentations as well. At least once Lux Radio Theatre offered a presentation without any known performers, a famous urban legend claimed that actor Sonny Tufts was slated to appear as a guest alongside Joan Fontaine for a production of The Major and the Minor on Lux Radio Theatre
10.
Ann Sothern
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Ann Sothern was an American stage, radio, film, and television actress whose career spanned six decades. Sothern began her career in the late 1920s in bit parts in films, in 1930, she made her Broadway stage debut and soon worked her way up to starring roles. In 1939, MGM cast her as Maisie Ravier, a brash yet lovable Brooklyn showgirl, the character, based on the Maisie short stories by Nell Martin, proved to be popular and spawned a successful film series and a network radio series. In 1953, Sothern moved into television as the star of her own sitcom Private Secretary, the series aired for five seasons on CBS and earned Sothern three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In 1958, she starred in another sitcom for CBS, The Ann Sothern Show, from 1965 to 1966, Sothern provided the voice of Gladys Crabtree, the title character in the sitcom My Mother the Car. She continued her career throughout the late 1960s with stage and film appearances, due to health issues, she worked sporadically during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1987, Sothern appeared in her final film The Whales of August, starring Bette Davis, Sothern earned her first and only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film. After filming concluded, she retired to Ketchum, Idaho, where she spent her years before her death from heart failure in March 2001. Born Harriet Arlene Lake in Valley City, North Dakota, she was the oldest of three born to Walter J. Lake and Annette Yde-Lake. She had two sisters, Marion and Bonnie. Her maternal grandfather was Danish violinist Hans Nielsen, Annette Yde-Lake was a concert singer, while Sotherns father worked in importing and exporting. Sothern and her sisters were raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota and her parents separated when she was four years old. At the age of five, she began taking piano lessons and she later studied at McPhail School of Music, where her mother also taught piano. She also began accompanying her mother on her concert tours when her schedule permitted. By age 11, she had become an accomplished pianist and was singing solos in her church choir, at age 14, she began voice lessons and also continued to study piano and music composition. As a teen at Minneapolis Central High School, she appeared in stage productions. During her high school years, she entered the annual state-sponsored contests for student musical composers, in 1926, she graduated from high school, Green Acres star Eddie Albert was a member of her high school graduating class. Her mother moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a coach for Warner Bros. studios
