1.
Malden, Massachusetts
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Malden is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2010 United States Census, the population was at 59,450 people, in 2009, Malden was named the Best Place to Raise Your Kids in Massachusetts by Bloomberg Businessweek. Malden, a woodland area north of the Mystic River, was settled by Puritans in 1640 on land purchased in 1629 from the Pennacook tribe. The area was called the Mistick Side and was a part of Charlestown. It was incorporated as a town in 1649. The name Malden was selected by Joseph Hills, a settler and landholder. The city originally included what are now the adjacent cities of Melrose, Malden High School has the second-oldest continuous high school football rivalry in the United States with Medford High School. The first Thanksgiving Day Game dates back to 1889, in 1984, Malden came to national renown as the location of the controversial Fells Acres Day Care Center preschool trial. In 2004, a same-sex Malden couple was the first to marry in Massachusetts at precisely 9,15 AM on May 17,2004 at Cambridge City Hall, Massachusetts was the first state in the United States to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Malden is bordered by Melrose on the north, Stoneham on the northwest, Medford on the west, Everett on the south, Revere on the east, and Saugus on the northeast. Boojum Rock located in the north west corner of Malden inside the Middlesex Fells Reservation is the highest point in Malden with an elevation of approximately 275 feet. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 5.1 square miles. Bordered on the northwest by the cliffs of Middlesex Fells, Malden is drained by the Malden River, as of the 2010 United States Census, there were 59,450 people,25,161 households, and 13,575 families residing in the city. The population density was 11,788.6 people per square mile, there were 23,634 housing units at an average density of 4,657.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 52. 5% White,14. 8% African American,0. 14% Native American,20. 1% Asian,0. 06% Pacific Islander,2. 10% from other races, and 3. 46% were multiracial. 8. 6% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,32. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the family size was 3.13. In the city, the population was out with 19. 9% under the age of 18,8. 5% from 18 to 24,36. 9% from 25 to 44,20. 8% from 45 to 64
2.
Hollywood Hills
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The Hollywood Hills are a part of the Santa Monica Mountains and also a hillside neighborhood of the same name in the central region of the city of Los Angeles, California. The Hollywood Hills are the part of the Santa Monica Mountains and it includes Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the Hollywood Reservoir, the Hollywood Sign, the Hollywood Bowl and the John Anson Ford Theater. Hollywood Hills is bisected southeast-northwest by US101, relation of the Hollywood Hills to nearby areas, The neighborhood of Hollywood Hills includes the Hollywood Bowl and Forest Lawn Memorial Park as well as two private and three public schools. The population was estimated at 22,988 in 2008, the median age for residents was 37, considered old for the city and the county. The percentages of residents aged 19 through 64 were among the countys highest, the neighborhood is not particularly diverse for the city, the diversity index being 0.433, and the percentage of white people is considered high, at 74. 1%. Latinos make up 9. 4%, Asians are at 6. 7%, African American at 4. 6%, the median household income in 2008 dollars was $69,277, considered high for the city but about average for the county. The percentage of households earning $125,000 or more was high, the average household size of 1.8 people was relatively low. Renters occupied 56. 5% of the units, and homeowners the rest. In 2000, there were 270 families headed by single parents, or 6. 9%, in 2000,54. 8% of residents aged 25 and older held a four-year degree, considered high when compared with the city and the county as a whole. Davies, Los Angeles City Council member, 1943–51, active against gravel extraction in the hills Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Hollywood Hills crime map and statistics
3.
California
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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, Nevada, 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 also 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 then 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 then 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, government, real estate services, technology, 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 also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage 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 later English explorer Francis Drake also 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
4.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
5.
The Subject Was Roses (film)
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The Subject Was Roses is a 1968 American Metrocolor drama film directed by Ulu Grosbard. The screenplay by Frank D. Gilroy is based on his 1964 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same title, the film stars Patricia Neal, Martin Sheen and Jack Albertson. Albertson won an Academy Award for his performance, returning to his Bronx home following World War II, Timmy Cleary discovers his middle class parents have drifted apart and constantly quarrel at the least provocation. Once closer to his mother Nettie, the young veteran finds himself bonding with his salesman father John, en route home after a day trip to the familys summer cottage with his father, Timmy purchases a bouquet of roses and suggests John present them to his wife. Nettie is thrilled by his apparent thoughtfulness, and the three spend the evening nightclubbing in Manhattan. The following morning, while John is at Sunday Mass, Timmy accuses his mother of trying to make him choose between his parents, and she goes out to both of them time to calm down. When she returns, she finds John arguing with their half-drunk son, realizing the domestic situation is not likely to improve, Timmy announces he is leaving home, a decision his parents grudgingly accept. When he changes his mind, his father insists he stick to his plan, Patricia Neal as Nettie Cleary Jack Albertson as John Cleary Martin Sheen as Timmy Cleary Don Saxon as Nightclub M. C. Joining him were original cast members Jack Albertson and Martin Sheen as John and Timmy Cleary, the film was a significant comeback for Neal, who was recovering from a debilitating stroke she had suffered three years earlier and hadnt appeared on screen since In Harms Way in 1965. She also discussed her effort to memorize a five-page monologue she was required to do in one take, the film was shot on location in New York City, Spring Lake, New Jersey, and Belmar, New Jersey. The soundtrack includes Who Knows Where the Time Goes. and Albatross, vincent Canby of the New York Times called the film one of those. Middle-class domestic dramas that — for various reasons — time has passed by, the play has been brought to the screen with flat, fatal fidelity by Mr. Gilroy. Quite awkwardly, the play has been opened up with several excursions outside the Bronx apartment. Whats worse, Mr. Grosbard has retained the Broadway pace, the tempo of the acting often seems to be outrunning the movie itself. Gives the movie an emotional impact it wouldnt otherwise have and she has, in fact, simply too much style and wit for this kind of monosyllabic nonsense. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times thought Gilroys extraordinary play, has been filmed with the greatest care, but it fails as a movie. It is hard to say exactly why, theres nothing obviously wrong, but when you walk out you dont feel as if youve been there. He added, Part of the problem is with the actors, talk loudly, their movements are too obvious, they are trying to project
6.
Roald Dahl
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Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot. His books have more than 250 million copies worldwide. He rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for children and adults and he became one of the worlds best-selling authors. He has been referred to as one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century and his awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the British Book Awards Childrens Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945 and his books champion the kind-hearted, and feature an underlying warm sentiment. Dahls works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and his adult works include Tales of the Unexpected. Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl, Dahls father had emigrated to the UK from Sarpsborg in Norway, and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s. His mother came over and married his father in 1911, Dahl was named after the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen. His first language was Norwegian, which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild, Dahl and his sisters were raised in the Lutheran faith, and were baptised at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff, where their parents worshipped. In 1920, when Dahl was three years old, his sister, Astri, died from appendicitis. Weeks later, his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57, Dahl first attended the Cathedral School, Llandaff. This was known among the five boys as the Great Mouse Plot of 1924, a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, Dahl would later refer to gobstoppers in his literary creation, Everlasting Gobstopper. Thereafter, he transferred to a school in England, St Peters in Weston-super-Mare. Roalds parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school and, because of a regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel. His time at St Peters was an unpleasant experience for him and he was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed to her his unhappiness. Only after her death in 1967 did he find out that she had saved every single one of his letters, in 2016, to mark the centenary of Dahls birth, his letters to his mother were abridged and broadcast as BBC Radio 4s Book of the Week. Dahl wrote about his time at St Peters in his autobiography Boy, from 1929, he attended Repton School in Derbyshire. There are echoes of these experiences in Dahls writings and his hatred of cruelty
7.
The Poseidon Adventure (1972 film)
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The Poseidon Adventure is a 1972 American disaster film directed by Ronald Neame, produced by Irwin Allen, and based on Paul Gallicos novel of the same name. It features an ensemble cast, including five Academy Award winners, Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Albertson, Shelley Winters, parts of the movie were filmed aboard the RMS Queen Mary. The plot centers on the SS Poseidon, a luxury liner on her final voyage from New York City to Athens before being sent to the scrapyard. On New Years Eve, she is overturned by a rogue wave, passengers and crew are trapped inside, and a rebellious preacher attempts to lead a small group of survivors to safety. It is in the vein of other all-star disaster films of the early-mid 1970s such as Airport, Earthquake, by the end of 1974, it was regarded as a widely successful film. The film won two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award, a 1979 sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, was also based on a novel by Gallico, but was a commercial and critical failure. The S. S. Poseidon, an ocean liner slated for retirement and scrapping, makes her way across the North Atlantic Ocean, the Reverend Frank Scott, a minister believing God helps those who help themselves, delivers a sermon. Detective Lt. Mike Rogo and wife Linda, a former prostitute. Susan and younger brother Robin are traveling to meet their parents, Robin is interested in how the ship works and frequently visits the engine room. Retired Jewish hardware store owner Manny Rosen and wife Belle are going to Israel to meet their two-year-old grandson for the first time, haberdasher James Martin is a love-shy, health-conscious bachelor. The ships singer, Nonnie Parry, rehearses for the New Years Day celebration with her band and that evening, passengers gather in the dining room to celebrate. Harrison is called to the bridge in response to a report of an undersea earthquake and he receives word from the lookout that a huge wave is approaching from the direction of Crete, at 60 knots. He issues a mayday signal and commands a hard left turn. The wave hits the ship and she capsizes, in the dining room, survivors take stock of their predicament. Acres, a waiter, is trapped at the galley door now high above. Scott surmises that the route will be found upwards, at the outer hull. Robin tells him the hull near the shaft is only one inch thick. The Rosens, the Rogos, Susan, Robin, Acres, Nonnie, Scott unsuccessfully tries convincing more passengers to join them
8.
Chico and the Man
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Chico and the Man is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for four seasons from September 13,1974 to July 21,1978. It was the first U. S. television series set in a Mexican-American neighborhood, Cheech and Chong have both stated that Komack had originally approached them to star in the show, but they turned down the offer, preferring to stick to films. Komack told the Associated Press that he first tried working with Cheech and Chong on a show about a Chicano, Komack said he decided to make the show about a young Chicano and a seventh-generation WASP after he and the comedy team couldnt get it together. A hard-drinking Anglo widower, Ed stubbornly refuses to fit in with the changing East L. A. neighborhood and has alienated most of the people who live around him. He uses ethnic slurs and berates Chico, a Latino, in an effort to get him to leave when Chico comes looking for a job. Yet Chico sees something in Ed, and sneaks back in at night to clean up the garage, as Ed sees all the effort Chico has put in, he begins to warm to Chico. Over the course of the show, Ed grows to see Chico as family, the chemistry between Jack Albertsons Ed and Freddie Prinzes Chico was a major factor in making the show a hit in its first two seasons. It debuted in the top 10 and remained there for the first two seasons, the show was created by James Komack, who produced other successful TV shows such as The Courtship of Eddies Father and Welcome Back, Kotter. Freddie Prinze was discovered by Komack after he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in December 1973, Komack thought he would be perfect for the role of Chico Rodriguez. As the show progressed, Chicos background was revealed as being Mexican on his fathers side and Puerto Rican on his mothers side, Chico was revealed to have spent part of his childhood in Hungary following the death of his mother, being raised by his Aunt Connie. During this scene and this episode, the love between these characters was made clear for the first time, which Chicos cousin Carlos notes when he releases Chico from his promise. By the second season, Ed begins to see that he is a part of a bigger world, by this time he has found himself a girlfriend by the name of Flora. The theme song was written and performed by Jose Feliciano, after struggling with depression and drug use, Freddie Prinze shot himself on January 28,1977. He was taken off life support and died the day at the age of 22. The last episode to star Prinze, Ed Talks to God, was taped several hours before Prinzes death, after Prinzes death, the producers considered canceling the show, but opted instead to try replacing the character. To write Chico out of the script, they had the characters comment that he had gone to visit his father in Mexico. The third season finished out with episodes focusing on the characters in the show. Early in the season, a replacement for Chico was introduced
9.
Mabel Albertson
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Mabel Ida Albertson was an American actress. Mabel Ida Albertson was born on July 24,1901, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, to Flora Craft and Leopold Albertson and her younger brother was actor Jack Albertson. Albertsons mother, an actress, supported the family by working in a shoe factory. Albertson graduated from the New England School of Speech and Expression, Albertson traced her show business career back to age 13, when she was paid $5 per performance to play piano behind palm trees for a reader. She later moved to California and became involved with the Pasadena Playhouse and she moved directly into professional stage work in stock, vaudeville, and night clubs, appearing with Jimmy Durante. She appeared in at least one episode of the drama series, Perry Mason. Albertson also guest starred as character Agnes Daly, the mother of Marilyns would-be suitor, in the Munster Masquerade episode of The Munsters, Albertson played the mother of Barbara Whiting Smith and Margaret Whiting in Those Whiting Girls. White on The Lucy Show episode Lucy and the Missing Stamp, Albertson was heard on Dress Rehearsal, Joe Rines Dress Rehearsal, and the Phil Baker Show. She was also a writer for radio programs, a memorable early film role for Albertson was as a proper bankers wife who is repulsed by the bucolic title characters in Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki. Albertsons Broadway credits include The Egg and Xmas in Las Vegas, albertsons son George Englund was once married to actress Cloris Leachman. Her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean and her brother Jack Albertson, who had died 10 months before, also had his ashes scattered there
10.
Wes Studi
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Wesley Wes Studi is a Cherokee actor and film producer from Nofire Hollow in Oklahoma. He has won acclaim and awards for his portrayal of Native Americans in film. He has appeared in Academy Award-winning films, such as Dances with Wolves and The Last of the Mohicans and he is also known for portraying Sagat in Street Fighter. Other films hes appeared in are Heat, Mystery Men, Avatar, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Studi was born Wesley Studi in a Cherokee family in Nofire Hollow, Oklahoma, a rural area in Tahlequah named after his mothers family. He is the son of Maggie Studie, a housekeeper, and Andy Studie, until he attended grade school, he spoke only Cherokee at home. He attended Chilocco Indian Agricultural School for high school and graduated in 1964, in 1967, Studi was drafted into the Army and served 18 months in Vietnam. After his discharge, Studi became politically active in American Indian activism and he participated in the Wounded Knee Incident at Pine Ridge Reservation in 1973. Studi appeared in his first film, The Trial of Standing Bear and he is best known for his roles as ruthless Native American warriors, such as a Pawnee in Dances with Wolves, and Magua in The Last of the Mohicans. A year later, he was cast with Eric Schweig for TNTs film The Broken Chain, about the historic Iroquois League that was based in the area of central and western present-day New York state. This was part of a group of productions shown over 14 months on TNT as its Native American initiative, a six-hour history series was told from a Native American perspective. In 1993 Studi had the lead in Geronimo, An American Legend and he showed a talent for comedy as the superhero Sphynx in the 1999 film Mystery Men. In 2002, Studi brought to life the character of Lt. Joe Leaphorn, for a series of PBS movies based on Tony Hillermans novels set in the Southwest among the Navajo and it was produced by Robert Redford. In 2005, Studi portrayed a character based on chief Opechancanough, leader of the Powhatan Confederacy in Virginia, on April 20,2009 Studi appeared as Major Ridge, a leader of the Cherokee before removal to Indian Territory, in Trail of Tears. In 2009, Studi appeared in James Camerons science fiction epic Avatar and he played Eytukan, the chieftain of a Navi tribe. After his studies, he taught Cherokee language and syllabary and helped found a Cherokee-language newspaper, after his first marriage ended in divorce, Studi left ranching and started to study acting - a friend had recommended it as a place to meet women. Studi married again - he and his wife Maura Dhu Studi moved their family to a farm near Santa Fe, Studi has a daughter, Leah, and a son, Daniel, from his first marriage. Studi and his wife perform in the band Firecat of Discord, more recently, in Santa Fe, Studi serves as honorary chair of the national endowment campaign of the Indigenous Language Institute. 1994, Won a Western Heritage Award for Geronimo, An American Legend,1998, The Dreamspeakers Film and Festival honored Studi with its Career Achievement Award
11.
Vaudeville
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Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, a typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a vaudevillian, Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called the heart of American show business, vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades, the origin of this term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the French expression voix de ville. A second speculation is that it comes from the songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin. Some, however, preferred the term variety to what manager Tony Pastor called its sissy. Thus, vaudeville was marketed as variety well into the 20th century, with its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment. The form gradually evolved from the saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as Polite Vaudeville, in the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere, in the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found a number of ways to be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns, a significant influence also came from Dutch minstrels and comedians. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in Americas growing urban hubs, pastors experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit. B. F. Keith took the step, starting in Boston. Later, E. F. Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudevilles greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years, Albee also gave national prominence to vaudevilles trumpeting polite entertainment, a commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men, women and children. Acts that violated this ethos were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the remaining performances or were canceled altogether
12.
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
13.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
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Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a 1971 American musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart, and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. It is an adaptation of the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, the film tells the story of Charlie Bucket as he receives a Golden Ticket and visits Willy Wonkas chocolate factory with four other children from around the world. Filming took place in Munich in 1970, and the film was released by Paramount Pictures on June 30,1971, with a budget of just $3 million, the film received generally positive reviews and earned $4 million by the end of its original run. It then made an additional $21 million during its re-release by Warner Bros. under the Family Entertainment banner in 1996, the film became highly popular in part through repeated television airings and home entertainment sales. In 1972, the received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, and Wilder was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. The movie introduced the song The Candy Man, which went on to become a hit when recorded by Sammy Davis Jr. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, until 1977, Paramount distributed the film. From then on, all the rights to the film were handed over to Warner Bros. for home entertainment purposes starting in the 1980s, a group of children go to a candy shop in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Charlie Bucket, whose family is poor, stares through the window as the shop owner sings The Candy Man, walking home, he passes Willy Wonkas chocolate factory. A mysterious tinker recites the first lines of William Allinghams poem The Fairies, and tells Charlie, Nobody ever goes in, Charlie rushes home to his widowed mother and four bedridden grandparents. Wonka disappeared, but three years later began selling candy, the origin of Wonkas labor force is unknown. Wonka announces to the world that he has hidden five Golden Tickets in chocolate Wonka Bars, the finders of these tickets will be given a factory tour and a lifetime supply of chocolate. As each winner is heralded to the world on TV, a man whispers to them, the fifth ticket is supposedly found by a millionaire in Paraguay. Charlie finds money in a gutter, using it to buy a Wonka Bar and he uses the change to buy a Wonka Bar for Joe. The newspapers reveal that the Paraguayan millionaire faked his ticket, when Charlie opens the Wonka Bar, Charlie returns home with his news. Joe is so elated that he finds he can walk, Charlie chooses him as his chaperone, the next day, Wonka greets the ticket winners. Each signs a contract before the tour. The factory includes a river of chocolate, edible mushrooms, lickable wallpaper, Wonkas workers are small men known as Oompa-Loompas
14.
Sitcom
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A situation comedy, or sitcom, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. This form can also include mockumentaries, a situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the programs production format. The effect of a studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. The terms situational comedy or sitcom werent commonly used until the 1950s, there were prior examples on radio, but the first television sitcom is said to be Pinwrights Progress, ten episodes being broadcast on the BBC in the United Kingdom between 1946 and 1947. There have been few long-running Australian-made sitcoms, but many U. S. UK sitcoms are a staple of government broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in the 1970s and 1980s many UK sitcoms also screened on the Seven Network. By 1986, UK comedies Bless This House and Are You Being Served, had been repeated by ABC Television several times, and were then acquired and screened by the Seven Network, in prime time. In 1981, Daily at Dawn was the first Australian comedy series to feature a gay character. In 1987, Mother and Son was winner of the Television Drama Award presented by the Australian Human Rights Commission, in 2013, Please Like Me was praised by the critics, receiving an invitation to screen at the Series Mania Television Festival in Paris. And has garnered three awards and numerous nominations, nominated to the 2012 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards for Best Television Comedy Series. Conversely, however, Canadian television has had greater success with sketch comedy and dramedy series. The popular show King of Kensington, aired from 1975 to 1980, corner Gas, which ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009, became an instant hit, averaging a million viewers per episode. It has been the recipient of six Gemini Awards, and has been nominated almost 70 times for various awards, other noteworthy recent sitcoms have included Call Me Fitz and Schitts Creek, Letterkenny and Kims Convenience. Sitcoms started appearing on Indian television in the 1980s, with serials like Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, since it ceased production in 1992, the show has earned an estimated billion in syndication fees alone for Televisa. Gliding On, a popular sit-com in New Zealand in the early 1980s, won awards over the course of its run, including Best Comedy, Best Drama. The first Russian sitcom series was Strawberry, which was aired in 1996-1997 on the RTR channel, however, the boom of Russian sitcoms began only in the 2000s - when in 2004 the STS started very successful sitcom My Fair Nanny. Since that time sitcoms in Russia were produced by the two largest entertainment channels of the country - STS and TNT, in 2007 the STS released the first original domestic sitcom - Daddys Daughters, and in 2010 TNT released Interns - the first sitcom, filmed as a comedy. Most American sitcoms generally include episodes of 20 to 30 minutes in length, some popular British shows have been successfully adapted for the U. S
15.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
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The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. It is a popular tourist destination, with a reported 10 million visitors in 2003, as of 2017, the Walk of Fame comprises over 2,600 stars, spaced at 6-foot intervals. The monuments are coral-pink terrazzo five-point stars rimmed with brass inlaid into a charcoal-colored terrazzo background, in the upper portion of each star field the name of the honoree is inlaid in brass block letters. Below the inscription, in the half of the star field. Approximately 20 new stars are added to the Walk each year, special category stars recognize various contributions by corporate entities, service organizations, and special honorees, and display emblems unique to those honorees. The moons are silver and grey terrazzo circles rimmed in brass on a square pink terrazzo background, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce credits E. M. Stuart, its volunteer president in 1953, with the original idea for creating a Walk of Fame. Stuart reportedly proposed the Walk as a means to maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamor, Harry Sugarman, another Chamber member and president of the Hollywood Improvement Association, receives credit in an independent account. A committee was formed to flesh out the idea, and a firm was retained to develop specific proposals. By 1955 the basic concept and general design had been agreed upon, multiple accounts exist for the origin of the star concept. By another account, the stars were inspired, by Sugarmans drinks menu, which featured celebrity photos framed in gold stars. In February 1956 a prototype was unveiled featuring a caricature of an example honoree inside a star on a brown background. The committees met at the Brown Derby restaurant, and included such prominent names as Cecil B, deMille, Samuel Goldwyn, Jesse L. Lasky, Walt Disney, Hal Roach, Mack Sennett, and Walter Lantz. A requirement stipulated by the audio recording committee specified minimum sales of one million records or 250,000 albums for all music category nominees. The committee soon realized that many important recording artists would be excluded from the Walk by that requirement, as a result, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences was formed for the purpose of creating a separate award system for the music business. The first Grammy Awards were presented in Beverly Hills in 1959, construction of the Walk began in 1958 but two lawsuits delayed completion. The first was filed by local property owners challenging the legality of the $1.25 million tax assessment levied upon them to pay for the Walk, along with new street lighting, in October 1959 the assessment was ruled legal. The second lawsuit, filed by Charles Chaplin, Jr. sought damages for the exclusion of his father, chaplins suit was dismissed in 1960, paving the way for completion of the project. Woodwards name was one of eight drawn at random from the original 1,558, the other seven names were Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, and Ernest Torrence
16.
Hollywood Boulevard
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West of Laurel Canyon, it continues as a residential street and ending at Sunset Plaza Drive. The eastern end of Hollywood Boulevard passes through Little Armenia and Thai Town, parts of the boulevard are popular tourist destinations. Prior to Hollywood Boulevard, the street was named Prospect Avenue until 1910, after annexation, the street numbers changed from 100 Prospect Avenue, at Vermont Avenue, to 6400 Hollywood Boulevard. In the early 1920s, real estate developer Charles E. Toberman envisioned a thriving Hollywood theatre district, Toberman was involved in 36 projects while building the Max Factor Building, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the Hollywood Masonic Temple. With Sid Grauman, he opened the three themed theatres, Egyptian, El Capitan, and Chinese, and was inspired to write Here Comes Santa Claus with Oakley Haldeman. In 1958, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which runs from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue, was created as a tribute to artists working in the entertainment industry, the El Capitan Theatre was refurbished in 1991 then damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The full El Capitan building was restored and upgraded in December 1997. The Hollywood Entertainment District, a business improvement district, was formed for the properties from La Brea to McCadden on the boulevard. The Hollywood extension of the Metro Red Line subway was opened in June 1999, stops on Hollywood Boulevard are located at Western Avenue, Vine Street, and Highland Avenue. Metro Local lines 180,181, and 217, and Metro Rapid line 780 also serve Hollywood Boulevard, an anti-cruising ordinance prohibits driving on parts of the boulevard more than twice in four hours. Beginning in 1995, then Los Angeles City Council member Jackie Goldberg initiated efforts to clean up Hollywood Boulevard, central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland Center and adjacent Dolby Theatre in 2001. In early 2006, the city made revamping plans on Hollywood Boulevard for future tourists, the three-part plan was to exchange the original streetlights with red stars into two-headed old-fashioned streetlights, put in new palm trees, and put in new stoplights. The renovations were completed in late 2006, in the few years leading up to 2007, more than $2 billion was spent on projects in the neighborhood, including mixed-use retail and apartment complexes and new schools and museums. A popular event that takes place on the Boulevard is the transformation of the street to a Christmas theme. Shops and department stores attract customers by lighting their stores and the street with decorated Christmas trees. The street essentially becomes Santa Claus Lane, list of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Hollywood Hollywood Chamber of Commerce
17.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days
18.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
19.
Tap dance
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Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist, rhythm tap and Broadway tap, Broadway tap focuses on dance, it is widely performed in musical theater. Rhythm tap focuses on musicality, and practitioners consider themselves to be a part of the jazz tradition, the sound is made by shoes that have a metal tap on the heel and toe. There are different brands of shoes which sometimes differ in the way they sound and it preceded what is currently considered to be modern tap, but has since declined in popularity. Tap dance is believed to have begun in the mid-1800s during the rise of minstrel shows, as the minstrel shows began to decline in popularity, tap dance moved to the increasingly popular Vaudeville stage. Due to the rule, which forbade blacks from performing solo. This gave rise to the famous pair Buck and Bubbles, which consisted of John Bubbles Sublett tap dancing, the duo perfected the Class Act, a routine in which the performers wore impeccable tuxedos, which has since become a common theme in tap dance. The move is seen by some as a rebuttal to the minstrel show idea of the tap dancer as a grinning-and-dancing clown. John Bubbles Sublett is also known famously for popularizing rhythm tap which incorporates more percussive heel drops, another notable figure to emerge during this period is Bill Bojangles Robinson who was a protégé of Alice Whitman of The Whitman Sisters around 1904. Well versed in both Buck and Wing dancing and Irish Step dancing, Bill Robinson joined the Vaudeville circuit in 1902, the act quickly became famous, headlining events across the country, and touring England as well. In 1908, however, the two had an altercation, and the partnership was ended, gambling on his popularity, Robinson decided to form a solo act, which was extremely rare for a black man at that time. Despite this, he had success and soon became a world-famous celebrity. He went on to have a role in many films. Shortly thereafter, the Nicholas Brothers came on the scene, during the 1930s tap dance mixed with Lindy Hop. Flying swing outs and flying circles are Lindy Hop moves with tap footwork, in the mid- to late 1950s, the style of entertainment changed. Jazz music and tap dance declined, while rock and roll, what is now called jazz dance evolved out of tap dance, so both dances have many moves in common. But jazz evolved separately from tap dance to become a new form in its own right, well-known dancers during the 1960s and 1970s included Arthur Duncan and Tommy Tune. No Maps on My Taps, the Emmy award winning PBS documentary of 1979, the outstanding success of the animated film, Happy Feet, has further reinforced the popular appeal
20.
Double act
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If the audience identifies primarily with one character, the other will often be referred to as a comic foil. The term feed comes from the way a man is wont to set up jokes. Despite the names given to the roles, the straight man need not be humorless. Where the straight man serves no personal comic purpose but acts as a device to make the comic look good and this is sometimes considered a derogatory term. Most often, however, the humor in a double act comes from the way the two personalities play off other, rather than from the individuals themselves. In many successful acts the roles are interchangeable, the template for the modern double act began in the British music halls and the American vaudeville scene of the late nineteenth century. Here, the man was a necessity, as he would repeat the lines of the comic. This was done simply because the audience would be noisy, soon the dynamic developed so that the straight man became a more integral part of the act, setting up jokes to which the comic could then deliver the punchline. At various stages, acts such as George Burns and Gracie Allen, Abbott and Costello, Flanagan and Allen, Gallagher and Shean, the dynamic continued to develop, with Abbott and Costello using a modern and recognizable formula in routines such as Whos On First. In the 1930s and Flanagan and Allen using cross talking, by the 1920s, double acts were beginning to attract worldwide fame more readily through the silent era. However, because of the restrictions, the comedy was not derived from cross talk or clever verbal exchanges but through slapstick routines. The first double act to gain fame through film was Laurel. Before meeting, the pair had never worked together on stage, though both had worked in vaudeville—Stan Laurel with Charlie Chaplin as part of Fred Karnos Army and Oliver Hardy as a singer. Laurel could loosely be described as the comic, though the pair were one of the first not to fit the mold in the way that many double acts do, the pair first worked together as a double act in the 1927 film Duck Soup. The first Laurel and Hardy film was called Putting Pants on Philip though their characters had not yet been established. The first film both appeared in was Lucky Dog in 1917. Indeed, they were one of the few silent acts who made a successful transition to spoken word pictures in the 1930s. The year 1940 saw the release of Laurel and Hardys Saps at Sea, their film for long-term producer
21.
Phil Silvers
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Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as The King of Chutzpah. He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show and his siblings were Lillian, Harry, Jack, Saul, Pearl, Michael, and Reuben Silver. His father, a metal worker, helped build the early New York skyscrapers. By age 13, he was working as a singer in the Gus Edwards Revue, Silvers next worked in short films for the Vitaphone studio, such as Ups and Downs, and on Broadway, where he made his début in the short-lived show Yokel Boy in 1939. Critics raved about Silvers, who was hailed as the spot in the mediocre play. The Broadway revue High Kickers was based on his concept and he made his feature film début in Hit Parade of 1941 in 1940. Over the next two decades, he worked as an actor for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia, and 20th Century Fox. That same year, he played a scene with W. C, fields in Tales of Manhattan which was cut from the original release, but restored decades later in home video issues. Silvers also appeared in Lady Be Good, Coney Island, Cover Girl, when the studio system began to decline, he returned to the stage. Cover Girl demonstrates that Silvers was a dancer, performing flawlessly in quick-tempo trios with famed dancers Gene Kelly. Silvers wrote the lyrics for Frank Sinatras Nancy, although he was not a songwriter, he wrote the lyrics while visiting composer Jimmy Van Heusen. The two composed the song for Van Heusens writing partner Johnny Burke, for his wife Bessies birthday, substituting Sinatras little daughters name Nancy at her birthday party, the trio pressed the singer to record it himself. The song became a hit in 1945 and was a staple in Sinatras live performances. Towards the end of the Second World War, Silvers entertained the troops during several successful overseas USO tours with Sinatra, Silvers scored a major triumph in Top Banana, a Broadway show of 1952. Silvers played Jerry Biffle, the egocentric, always-busy star of a television show. Silvers dominated the show and won a Tony Award for his performance and he repeated the role in the 1954 film version that was originally released in 3-D. According to the documentary on the DVD of Its A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Silvers was not a traditional comedian, Silvers never did stand-up, and, out of character, he was not known for cracking jokes. Silvers became a name in 1955 when he starred as Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko in Youll Never Get Rich
22.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
23.
High Button Shoes
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High Button Shoes is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn and book by George Abbott and Stephen Longstreet. It was based on the semi-autobiographical 1946 novel The Sisters Liked Them Handsome by Longstreet, the story concerns the comic entanglements of the Longstreet family with two con men in Atlantic City. The musical opened on Broadway in 1947, on the West End in 1948, many involved with High Button Shoes were Broadway first-timers or relatively unknown, except for the director, George Abbott. The designers Oliver Smith and Miles White and choreographer Jerome Robbins were all Broadway veterans, rumors circulated that the book by Longstreet was hopeless and that Abbott and Silvers were heavily rewriting it. The Shuberts, involved because the show was to play in one of their theaters, historian Ken Mandelbaum agrees that the shows book was originally by Longstreet but that it was extensively rewritten by Abbott. The duos dubious intentions are clear as Floy pitches snake-oil schemes including selling fake watches and diamond mines. They are chased by the police, and the scheme is repeated. After they cheat the Longstreets in a land deal, Floy and Pontdue try to escape to Atlantic City, New Jersey with their ill-gotten profits. As the con men Floy and Pontdue are pursued to the Atlantic City beach while carrying a full of stolen money. They tangle with a number of people—including bathing beauties, lifeguards, other criminals. The climax occurs when the Keystone Cops arrive, and Floy loses everything when he bets on the football team. But after his being captured we learn that Pontdue has bet on not a football team, Floy gives the conned citizens their money back, but before he leaves tries to get the audience to buy one more item of great worth. The highlight of the production was a long ensemble dance number at the beginning of the second act. Choreographer Robbins staged this number in the manner of a Mack Sennett silent slapstick film and it uses the music of On A Sunday By the Sea, Liszts Second Hungarian Rhapsody, and Offenbachs can-can from Orpheus in the Underworld. This number was so basic to the show that deleting it would render the evening incoherent and it was a major evocation of a period, a tribute to silent-film comedy. The cast starred Silvers as Harrison Floy and Fabray as Sara Longstreet, the direction was by Abbott, choreography by Jerome Robbins, scenic design by Oliver Smith, costume design by Miles White, and lighting design by Peggy Clark. Robbins won the Tony Award for choreography, the U. S. national tour opened in the summer of 1949, after the Broadway closing, with Joey Faye as Harrison Floy and Jack Whiting as Papa Longstreet. It played at least 16 cities in the Midwest and Great Plains, including Chicago, Denver and Minneapolis, a London production opened at the Hippodrome December 22,1948, and ran for 291 performances
24.
Top Banana (musical)
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Top Banana is a musical with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer and book by Hy Kraft which premiered on Broadway in 1951. The show was written as a vehicle for comedian Phil Silvers. Silvers won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical in 1952, the musical opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on November 1,1951 and closed on October 4,1952 after 350 performances. The original cast co-starred Rose Marie, Lindy Doherty, Jack Albertson, Bob Scheerer, scenic and lighting design were by Jo Mielziner and costume design was by Alvin Colt. The play was filmed and released in a version by United Artists in 1954. Jerry Biffle is the star of the Blendo Soap Program and he has been invited to participate in an autograph-signing party for his new book at an important department store. Jerry meets Sally Peters, one of the department store models, as part of his campaign to court Sally, Jerry gets Cliff Lane, the tenor of his TV company, to sing to her over the phone. When Sally and Cliff meet, they fall in love, with Biffle ignorant of the complications, Biffle engineers a big publicity wedding between Cliff and a girl, not knowing that Sally is the girl. To further complicate his life, Jerry learns that he is about to lose his sponsor, the publicity elopement between his girl and Cliff almost shatters his entire career and life. When it seems that his world will cave in, Jerrys sponsor comes up with a new format for the Blendo program and, as far as Jerry is concerned. He is king-pin in a very funny show that ought to last as long as he can. Silvers had suggested that a musical be made of the madness of week-to-week television. I would do Uncle Miltie, milton Berle began hosting the Texaco Star Theater on television in 1948. Because of their friendship, Silvers was able to use his knowledge of Berle to create the character of Jerry Biffle, later, Berle performed the song Top Banana on the Muppet Show with Fozzy Bear. Phil Silvers won the 1952 Tony Award for the Best Actor in a Musical, notes Top Banana at the Internet Broadway Database Top Banana Production, Musical Numbers, Scenes and Settings at guidetomusicaltheatre. com
25.
The Cradle Will Rock
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The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 musical by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles, the musical is a Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed and includes a panoply of societal figures. The piece is almost entirely sung-through, giving it many operatic qualities, the Cradle Will Rock was reprised January–April 1938 as part of the first season of the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory company founded by Welles and Houseman. An abridged version of the production was recorded and released in 1938, act I Moll, a young prostitute, is thrown in jail when she refuses to accept money from a corrupt policeman. She is soon joined by the leaders of the Liberty Committee, gus Polack, a newly elected member of the union, is killed in a car bombing that also kills his wife and Harrys son Stevie. Harry is pressured to keep quiet and subsequently loses his business permit, act II Eventually, all of Steeltowns prominent citizens join the Liberty Committee, including Salvation, Daily, the painter Dauber, and the violinist Yasha. With their support, Mr. Misters rule over the town is seemingly unshakeable, later that night, Larry is arrested and beaten for distributing leaflets. He urges the others to him and rise against Mr. Mister, saying that, in time. A flashback shows Mr. Mister persuading President Prexy of Steeltown University to threaten students with expulsion if they do not join the army. Dr. Specialist, the chairman of the Liberty Committee, is told to cover up the death of a steelworker by writing it off as a drunken accident and he does so even when the workers sister, Ella Hammer, confronts him knowing the truth. Later that evening, Mr. Mister arrives and bails out the committee members and he offers to pay off Foreman, but he refuses. As the committee jeers him, he declares that Mr. Misters power over Steeltown will soon come to an end as the curtain falls. It was the first original cast recording ever made and a version is now available through the Internet Archive. In December 1964 the recording was re-released in a limited-edition LP on the American Legacy Records label, key to casts, Moll/Ella Hammer/Editor Daily/Larry Foreman/Mr. /Green-MP. /Lund. /Baratta. /van Norden. The theatre was padlocked and surrounded by security to prevent anyone from stealing props or costumes, which were U. S. Welles, Houseman and Blitzstein, seeking a way to produce the show, rented the much larger Venice Theatre. The 600 audience members, who had gathered outside the Maxine Elliot Theatre for the preview, travelled 21 blocks north to the Venice Theatre, the sold-out house grew even larger when the shows creators invited people off the street to attend for free. The shows creators thus planned for Blitzstein to perform the musical at the piano
26.
Show Boat
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Show Boat is a 1927 musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love, the musical contributed such classic songs as Ol Man River, Make Believe and Cant Help Lovin Dat Man. The premiere of Show Boat on Broadway was a moment in the history of American musical theatre. According to The Complete Book of Light Opera, Here we come to a new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. The play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play, came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity. The quality of the musical was recognized immediately by the critics, awards for Broadway shows did not exist in 1927 when the original production of the show premiered, nor in 1932, when its first revival was staged. Late 20th-century revivals of Show Boat have won both the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, in a few weeks, she gained what she called a treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true. Jerome Kern was impressed by the novel and, hoping to adapt it as a musical, Woollcott introduced them that evening during the intermission of Kerns latest musical, Criss Cross. Impatient with Kern and Hammerstein and worried about their keeping too serious tone, Ziegfeld decided to open his theatre in February 1927 with Rio Rita, when Rio Rita proved to be a success, Show Boats Broadway opening was delayed until Rita could be moved to another theatre. Note, Although the basic plot of Show Boat has always remained the same, over the years revisions and alterations were made by the creators, and over time by subsequent producers and directors. Some of these revisions were for length and some for convenience, some have been made to reflect contemporary sensitivities toward race, gender and other social issues. Act I In 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the dock in Natchez. The Reconstruction era had ended an earlier, and white-dominated Southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation. The boats owner, Capn Andy Hawks, introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee, Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears revenge, suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie. Capn Andy pretends to the crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed. The troupe exits with the band, and the crowd follows. A handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal, appears on the levee and is taken with eighteen-year-old Magnolia Hawks, an aspiring performer, Magnolia is likewise smitten with Ravenal. She seeks advice from Joe, a dock worker aboard the boat, who has returned from buying flour for his wife Queenie
27.
The Sunshine Boys
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The Sunshine Boys is a play by Neil Simon that was produced on Broadway in 1972 and later adapted for film and television. The plays protagonists are Al Lewis and Willie Clark, Lewis and Clark were once a successful vaudevillian comedy duo known as the Sunshine Boys. During the later years of their 43-year run, animosity between the partners grew to the point where they ceased to speak with each other, eleven years prior to the events of the play, Al retired from show business, leaving Willie struggling to keep his career afloat. Willie, now an old man struggling with memory loss, reluctantly accepts an offer from his nephew Ben, Willie and Al meet in Willies apartment to rehearse their classic doctor and tax collector sketch. The reunion gets off to a bad start, with the two getting into heated arguments over various aspects of the performance, however, thanks to the urging of Als daughter, the two decide to go through with the performance. Willie and Als dress rehearsal at CBS studio ends badly, Willie is enraged when Al repeats his old habits of poking his chest and accidentally spitting on his face. Al walks off the stage in regret, while Willie has an attack as a result of his agitated state. Two weeks later, Willie is under the care of a nurse as he recovers from his heart attack, upon Bens recommendation, he decides to move into an actors home in New Jersey. Al, concerned about Willies well-being, comes over to visit, when the two talk, it is revealed that Al will be moving into the same home as Willie. Neil Simon was inspired by two venerable vaudeville teams, the longevity of Lewis and Clark was inspired by Smith and Dale who, unlike their theatrical counterparts, were inseparable lifelong friends. The undercurrent of hostility between Lewis and Clark was inspired by the team of Gallagher and Shean, who were successful professionally. Other sources say this is based on Weber and Fields, produced by Emanuel Azenberg and directed by Alan Arkin, the original cast featured Sam Levene as Lewis, Jack Albertson as Clark, and Lewis J. Stadlen as Ben. Replacements later in the run included Lou Jacobi as Lewis and Jack Gilford as Clark, Tony Award nominations went to Simon, Albertson and Arkin, and Albertson won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. The play was revived on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre, opening on December 8,1997, directed by John Tillinger, the cast starred Jack Klugman as Willie Clark and Tony Randall as Al Lewis. A West End production of the play, starring Danny DeVito ) and Richard Griffiths, opened on 17 May 2012, the Blog A Cultured Lad spoke very highly of the production and gave it a full five star rating saying that Productions like this don’t come often. This show glitters, like fireworks on the fourth of July, the production was scheduled for a run in Los Angeles, but Griffiths untimely passing delayed it. DeVitos old Taxi co-star Judd Hirsch stepped into the role of Lewis, Burns won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance. In 1995, Simon adapted his play for a Hallmark Entertainment production that aired on December 28,1997
28.
Tony Award
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The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at a ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre, several discretionary non-competitive awards are also given, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards are named after Antoinette Tony Perry, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, the rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in the official document Rules and Regulations of The American Theatre Wings Tony Awards, which applies for that season only. It also forms the fourth spoke in the EGOT, that is someone who has won all four awards, the Tony Awards are also considered the equivalent of the Laurence Olivier Award in the United Kingdom and the Molière Award of France. From 1997 to 2010, the Tony Awards ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in June and broadcast live on CBS television, except in 1999, in 2011 and 2012, the ceremony was held at the Beacon Theatre. From 2013 to 2015, the 67th, 68th, and 69th ceremonies returned to Radio City Music Hall, the 70th Tony Awards were held on June 12,2016 at the Beacon Theatre. The 71st Tony Awards will be held on June 11,2017, as of 2014, there are 24 categories of awards, plus several special awards. Starting with 11 awards in 1947, the names and number of categories have changed over the years, some examples, the category Best Book of a Musical was originally called Best Author. The category of Best Costume Design was one of the original awards, for two years, in 1960 and 1961, this category was split into Best Costume Designer and Best Costume Designer. It then went to a category, but in 2005 it was divided again. For the category of Best Director of a Play, a category was for directors of plays. A newly established non-competitive award, The Isabelle Stevenson Award, was given for the first time at the ceremony in 2009. The award is for an individual who has made a contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian. The category of Best Special Theatrical Event was retired as of the 2009–2010 season, the categories of Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical were retired as of the 2014-2015 season. Performance categories Show and technical categories Special awards Retired awards The award was founded in 1947 by a committee of the American Theatre Wing headed by Brock Pemberton. The award is named after Antoinette Perry, nicknamed Tony, an actress, director, producer and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, who died in 1946. As her official biography at the Tony Awards website states, At Jacob Wilks suggestion, proposed an award in her honor for distinguished stage acting, at the initial event in 1947, as he handed out an award, he called it a Tony
29.
The Subject Was Roses
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The Subject Was Roses is a Pulitzer Prize-winning 1964 play written by Frank D. Gilroy, who also adapted the work in 1968 for a film with the same title. A major critical and commercial success, the play ran 832 performances and was nominated for five Tony Awards, for his work in the play, Gilroy won the years Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Columbia Records recorded the play in a recording studio with the original cast members. In the published script, Gilroy included a journal he titled, About Those Roses or How Not To Do a Play. During the plays run, The Subject Was Roses played five different Broadway theaters and Dustin Hoffman became a replacement stage manager. In 1991, the Roundabout Theatre Company revived the play in New York City with John Mahoney, Dana Ivey, a 2006 revival of the play was produced by Jeffrey Finn at the Kennedy Center starring Bill Pullman, Judith Ivey, and Steve Kazee. All three performers were nominated for 2007 Helen Hayes Awards, in a 2009 revival in Los Angeles, Martin Sheen again appeared, this time in the role of the father. Irene Dailey as Nettie Cleary Jack Albertson as John Cleary Martin Sheen as Timmy Cleary Timmy Cleary returns home from his service during World War II, while he seems to vindicate himself in his fathers eyes for surviving the war, his drinking and cursing disturb his mother. Though his parents, John and Nettie, seem to be happy, soon old emotional wounds and unresolved marital problems resurface. Caught in the middle, Timmy feels responsible for their squabbling, but can see no way to resolve their problems
30.
Miracle on 34th Street
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Miracle on 34th Street is a 1947 Christmas comedy-drama film written and directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valentine Davies. It stars Maureen OHara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn, the story takes place between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day in New York City, and focuses on the impact of a department store Santa Claus who claims to be the real Santa. The film has become a perennial Christmas favorite, the film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Writing, Original Story and Best Writing, Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Picture, losing to Gentlemans Agreement, in 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. The Academy Film Archive preserved Miracle on 34th Street in 2009, Davies also penned a short novelization of the tale, which was published by Harcourt Brace simultaneously with the films release. Kris Kringle is indignant to find that the man assigned to play Santa in the annual Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade is intoxicated, when he complains to event director Doris Walker, she persuades Kris to take his place. He does so well, he is hired to play Santa at Macys flagship New York City store on 34th Street, ignoring instructions to steer parents to buy from Macys, Kris directs one shopper to a competitor. Impressed, she tells Julian Shellhammer, head of the toy department, Attorney Fred Gailey, Doris neighbor, takes the young divorcées second-grade daughter Susan to see Santa. Doris has raised her to not believe in tales. Doris asks Kringle to tell Susan that he is not Santa, worried, Doris decides to fire him. However, Kris has generated so much publicity and goodwill for Macys that a delighted Macy promises Doris. To alleviate Doriss misgivings, Julian has Granville Sawyer administer a psychological evaluation, Kris passes, but questions Sawyers own mental health. The store expands on the concept, to avoid looking greedy, competitor Gimbels implements the same policy, forcing Macys and others to escalate. Eventually, Kris does the impossible, he reconciles bitter rivals Macy, pierce, the doctor at Kris nursing home, assures Doris that Kris is harmless. Kris makes a pact with Fred – he will work on Susans cynicism while Fred does the same with Doris, when Susan reveals she wants a house, Kris reluctantly promises to do his best. Kris learns that Sawyer has convinced young employee Alfred that he is mentally ill simply because he is kind-hearted, finding Sawyer unwilling to budge, Kris hits him on the head with his cane. Sawyer exaggerates his pain in order to have Kris confined to Bellevue Hospital, tricked into cooperating, and believing Doris to be in on the deception, Kris deliberately fails his examination and is recommended for permanent commitment. However, Fred persuades Kris not to give up, at a hearing before Judge Henry X. Harper, District Attorney Thomas Mara gets Kris to assert that he is Santa Claus and rests his case
31.
Dead letter mail
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Dead letter mail or undeliverable mail is mail that cannot be delivered to the addressee or returned to the sender. Largely based on the British model that emerged in the eighteenth century. Being internal departments within postal administrations, little information about the dead letter office function has ever made public. A few journal articles and at least one published book dealing with this topic have appeared. Countries must also set up regulations for the disposal of dead letters, some very valuable items have turned up in undeliverable mail, including a stolen painting by Marc Chagall which turned up in a United States Postal Service sorting center in Topeka, Kansas. With increased collection and study of the postal markings originating from such offices, many countries, including Canada and the United States, have issued special labels for envelopes that have travelled through the dead letter office. Genuinely used examples are highly prized by collectors, although mint labels, collectors of postal markings also use this method in order to receive uncommon postal markings seldom seen in everyday mail
32.
Jack Wild
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He played Much the Millers Son in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. The film of Lionel Barts musical, Oliver, earned him Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award nominations, plus a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. As Jimmy, he was the protagonist of the series and feature film about a boy befriended by a friendly dragon named H. R. Pufnstuf, produced by Sid. Wild was born into a working family in the small industrial town of Royton, Lancashire, to a labourer father. Their family lived in a two bedroom cottage in the country, roughly twenty miles away from any commercial establishment, Wild moved to Hounslow with his parents and older brother Arthur in 1960. He was discovered whilst playing football by theatrical agent June Collins, June Collins enrolled both Jack and Arthur at the Barbara Speake Stage School, an independent school in Acton in West London. The Wild brothers sought acting roles to supplement their parents income, Arthur in the title role, and Jack as a member of Fagins gang. Although Jack auditioned as The Artful Dodger for several subsequent stage productions of Oliver and he was always turned down because he was too short. However, he was chosen to portray the Artful Dodger for the 1968 movie version and that Wild met brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, who thought he would make a good lead for a show they were developing called H. R. Pufnstuf. Wild starred in this American family television series launched in 1969. He was to be paid $1,000,000 to play Jimmy, a boy washed up on Living Island with his best friend Freddy and he starred in the movie Pufnstuf. Other roles followed, including the films Melody and Flight of the Doves, the latter film reunited him with Ron Moody, who had played Fagin in Oliver. The three albums were called The Jack Wild Album, Everythings Coming Up Roses and Beautiful World, at the height of his acting career, Jack usually acted younger than he was. For H. R. Pufnstuf, Wild was a seventeen-year-old playing a boy who was eleven, when I first entered in the show businees, Jack said in 1999, Of course I didnt mind playing younger roles. However it did bug me when I would be twenty-one being offered the role of a thirteen-year-old, im not saying I didnt enjoy playing these roles, I had barrels of fun, I just wanted more serious and dramatic roles, its that simple. During the early 70s, Wild was considered one of the worlds teen heartthrobs, alongside David Cassidy, with large hazel eyes, a somewhat pug nose and freckles, Jack was loved and adored by many girls across the globe. I received roughly 2,000 fan letters a week, he stated in 1989, I never left any one of them blank. I always answered, even if I was exhausted, I really thought it was one of the most important things
33.
Shelley Winters
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Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television, her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006. Winters won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue and she also appeared in such films as The Big Knife, A Double Life, Lolita, The Night of the Hunter, Alfie, Next Stop, Greenwich Village, and Petes Dragon. Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Rose, a singer with the Muny, and Jonas Schrift and her parents were Jewish, her father emigrated from Austria, and her mother was born in St. Louis to Austrian immigrants. Her family moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was three years old and her sister Blanche Schrift later married George Boroff, who ran the Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Winters studied at the New School in New York City, as the New York Times obituary noted, A major movie presence for more than five decades, Shelley Winters turned herself into a widely respected actress who won two Oscars. Winters originally broke into Hollywood films as a Blonde Bombshell type, but quickly tired of the roles limitations. She claims to have washed off her makeup to audition for the role of Alice Tripp, the girl, in A Place in the Sun, directed by George Stevens. As the Associated Press reported, the public was unaware of how serious a craftswoman Winters was. Although she was in demand as an actress, Winters continued to study her craft. She attended Charles Laughtons Shakespeare classes and worked at the Actors Studio and she studied in the Hollywood Studio Club, and in the late 1940s, she shared an apartment with another newcomer, Marilyn Monroe. Her first movie was What a Woman, working in films through the 1940s, Winters first achieved stardom with her breakout performance as the victim of insane actor Ronald Colman in George Cukors A Double Life, in 1947. She quickly ascended in Hollywood with leading roles in The Great Gatsby with Alan Ladd and she also returned to the stage on various occasions during this time, including a Broadway run in A Hatful of Rain, in 1955–1956, opposite future husband Anthony Franciosa. She won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for The Diary of Anne Frank in 1960 and she donated her Oscar for The Diary of Anne Frank to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. In The Poseidon Adventure, she was the ill-fated Belle Rosen and she returned to the stage during the 1960s and 1970s, most notably in Tennessee Williams Night of the Iguana. She appeared in cult films as 1968s Wild in the Streets. She also starred in the 1970 Broadway musical Minnies Boys as Minnie Marx, the mother of Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, as the Associated Press reported, During her 50 years as a widely known personality, Winters was rarely out of the news. Her stormy marriages, her romances with famous stars, her forays into politics and she delighted in giving provocative interviews and seemed to have an opinion on everything. That led to a career as a writer
34.
Neil Simon
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Marvin Neil Simon is an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He has written more than thirty plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays and he has received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer. Simon grew up in New York during the Great Depression, with his parents financial hardships affecting their marriage, giving him a mostly unhappy and he often took refuge in movie theaters where he enjoyed watching the early comedians like Charlie Chaplin. After a few years in the Army Air Force Reserve, and after graduating high school, he began writing comedy scripts for radio. Among them were Sid Caesars Your Show of Shows from 1950 and he began writing his own plays beginning with Come Blow Your Horn, which took him three years to complete and ran for 678 performances on Broadway. It was followed by two successful plays, Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple, for which he won a Tony Award. It made him a celebrity and the hottest new playwright on Broadway. During the 1960s to 1980s, he wrote original screenplays and stage plays, with some films actually based on his plays. His style ranged from comedy to farce to more serious dramatic comedy. Overall, he has garnered seventeen Tony nominations and won three and his comedies centred on subjects such as marital conflict, infidelity, sibling rivalry, adolescence, and fear of aging. Simons facility with dialogue gives his stories a rare blend of realism, humor, Neil Simon was born on July 4,1927 in The Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents. His father, Irving Simon, was a garment salesman, and his mother, Simon had one older brother by eight years, Danny Simon. Simons childhood was difficult and mostly due to his parents tempestuous marriage. He would sometimes block out their arguments by putting a pillow over his ears at night and his father often abandoned the family for months at a time, causing them further financial and emotional hardship. As a result, Simon and his brother Danny were sometimes forced to live with different relatives, or else their parents took in boarders for some income. During an interview with writer Lawrence Grobel, Simon stated, To this day I never really knew what the reason for all the fights, shed hate him and be very angry, but he would come back and she would take him back. It made me strong as an independent person, to escape difficulties at home he often took refuge in movie theaters, where he especially enjoyed comedies with silent stars like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy. Simon recalls, I was constantly being dragged out of movies for laughing too loud, I think part of what made me a comedy writer is the blocking out of some of the really ugly, painful things in my childhood and covering it up with a humorous attitude
35.
Just Plain Bill
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Just Plain Bill was a long-running 15-minute American daytime radio drama program heard on CBS Radio and NBC Radio. The series was sponsored by Anacin for 18 of the programs 23-year run, other sponsors over the years were Kolynos toothpaste, Clapp’s baby food, and BiSoDol. It was “the real-life story of people just like people we all know. ”Originally called Bill the Barber and it told the story of Bill Davidson, a barber in the town of Hartville, and his daughter Nancy. Bill often became involved in helping his friends and neighbors when he wasnt cutting hair, also in the cast, Dick Janaver. Chameleon, Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons, Our Gal Sunday, music was by Hal Brown, who played harmonica and whistled the Just Plain Bill opening theme, Darling Nellie Gray. The closing theme was Polly Wolly Doodle, don Pardo was the programs announcer towards the end of the series, which came to an end on September 30,1955. In The Three Stooges short Goofs and Saddles Larry Fines character is known as Just Plain Bill. The April 24,1949 episode of The Jack Benny Program has Jack shopping for a new car, passing up such dealers as Madman Muntz and this episode was remade on February 24,1952. Bill was played by Jim Backus in the original, and Joseph Kearns in the remake, the January 14,1950 episode of The Bob Hope radio show has Hope, with guest star Bing Crosby, performing a soap opera parody called Just Plain Bing. In the M*A*S*H episode Major Fred C, dobbs, Hawkeye tape-records an encounter between Frank Burns and Hot Lips in the latters tent, then plays it back for Frank in the guise of my favorite armed forces soap opera, Just Plain MacArthur. The comedy team Bob and Ray parodied the show in their sketch Just Fancy Dan, Just Plain Bill List of radio soaps Soaps on Radio by Terry G. G. Salomonson Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs, Just Plain Bill
36.
Milton Berle
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Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor. As the host of NBCs Texaco Star Theater, he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television during TVs golden age. Milton Berle was born into a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 W. 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan and his given name was Mendel Berlinger. He chose Milton Berle as his name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger, was a paint and varnish salesman and his mother, Sarah Glantz Berlinger, eventually became stagestruck and changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous. Berle entered show business at the age of five when he won a talent contest. He appeared as an actor in silent films, beginning with The Perils of Pauline, filmed in Fort Lee. The director told Berle that he would portray a boy who would be thrown from a moving train. In Milton Berle, An Autobiography, he explained, I was scared shitless, which is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that. By Berles account, he continued to play roles in other films, Bunnys Little Brother, Tess of the Storm Country, Birthright, Loves Penalty, Divorce Coupons. In 1916, Berle enrolled in the Professional Childrens School, around 1920, at age 12, Berle made his stage debut in a revival of the musical comedy Florodora in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which later moved to Broadway. By the time he was 16, he was working as a Master of Ceremonies in Vaudeville, by the early 1930s he was a successful stand-up comedian, patterning himself after one of Vaudevilles top comics, Ted Healy. In 1933, he was hired by producer Jack White to star in the theatrical featurette Poppin the Cork, Berle also co-wrote the score for this film, which was released by Educational Pictures. Berle continued to dabble in songwriting, with Ben Oakland and Milton Drake, Berle wrote the title song for the RKO Radio Pictures release Lil Abner, an adaptation of Al Capps comic strip, featuring Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat. Berle wrote a Spike Jones B-side, Leave the Dishes in the Sink, in 1939, he was the host of Stop Me If Youve Heard This One with panelists spontaneously finishing jokes sent in by listeners. In the late 1940s, he canceled well-paying nightclub appearances to expand his radio career, three Ring Time, a comedy-variety show sponsored by Ballantine Ale, was followed by a 1943 program sponsored by Campbells Soups. The audience participation show Let Yourself Go could best be described as radio with studio audience members acting out long suppressed urges—often directed at host Berle
37.
Western (genre)
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Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers, Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a. mythic vision of the plains, specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution. The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre, from the early 20th century to the 1960s, Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Fords landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939, Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time – including High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–frontier justice–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, a showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress, similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West, it is the place to go for music, women, gambling, drinking, brawling and shooting. The American Film Institute defines western films as those set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, the term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became an art form. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds, Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era. With the advent of sound in 1927-28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and these smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream star in the wake of a decade of headlining B westerns
38.
Rex Allen
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Rex Elvie Allen was an American film and television actor, singer and songwriter, known as the Arizona Cowboy and as the narrator of many Disney nature and Western productions. For contributions to the industry, Allen was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Allen was born to Horace E. Allen and Luella Faye Clark on a ranch in Mud Springs Canyon, as a boy he played guitar and sang at local functions with his fiddle-playing father until high-school graduation when he toured the Southwest as a rodeo rider. He got his start in business on the East Coast as a vaudeville singer, then found work in Chicago as a performer on the WLS-AM program. He left the show in 1949 and moved to Hollywood, in 1948 he signed with Mercury Records where he recorded a number of successful country music albums until 1952, when he switched to the Decca label where he continued to make records into the 1970s. He also recorded one album for Buena Vista in the 1960s, when singing cowboys such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were very much in vogue in American film, in 1949 Republic Pictures in Hollywood gave him a screen test and put him under contract. Beginning in 1950, Allen starred as himself in 19 of Hollywoods Western movies, Allens comic-relief sidekick in his first few pictures was Buddy Ebsen and then character actor Slim Pickens. One of Allens most successful singles was Dont Go Near The Indians and it features The Merry Melody Singers. The song is a tale of a man who disobeys his fathers advice stated in the title. The other secret, His son cannot marry Nova Lee because shes the biological sister. Allen was married three times, all three ended in divorce. First, on August 25,1946, he married Bonnie Linder and his first marriage was to Doris Winsor, with whom he had one child. His final marriage was to Virginia Hudson, on November 25,1992 and his five children included Rex Allen Jr. who became a singer like his father. Allen wrote and recorded songs, a number of which were featured in his own films. Late in coming to the industry, his career was relatively short as the popularity of westerns faded by the mid 1950s. Allen has the distinction of making the last singing western in 1954, in 1961 he was one of five rotating hosts for NBC-TVs Five Star Jubilee. The work earned him the nickname, The Voice of the West, most notably, perhaps, he narrated the original 1963 version of The Incredible Journey. He also was the voice of the father on Walt Disneys Carousel of Progress, a 1993 renovation replaced Allen with Jean Shepherd as the voice of the father, but Allen was given a cameo as the grandfather in the final scene
