1.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
2.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
3.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
4.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Gale Sondergaard was the first winner of award for her role in Anthony Adverse. 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 78 actresses. Dianne Wiest and Shelley Winters have received the most awards in this category with two awards each, despite winning no awards, Thelma Ritter was nominated on six occasions, more than any other actress. As of the 2017 ceremony, Viola Davis is the most recent winner in category for her role as Rose Maxson in Fences. 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, inside Oscar, The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York, United States, Ballantine Books, oscars. org Oscar. com The Academy Awards Database
5.
The Danny Thomas Show
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The Danny Thomas Show is an American sitcom which ran from 1953 to 1957 on ABC and from 1957 to 1964 on CBS. A revival series known as Make Room for Granddaddy aired on ABC from 1970 to 1971, episodes regularly featured music as part of the plot by Danny Thomas, guest stars, and occasionally by other cast members. In March 1953, Danny Thomas first signed the contract for the show with ABC, two proposed titles during preproduction were The Childrens Hour and Here Comes Daddy. Thomas played Danny Williams, a comedian and nightclub entertainer at the Copa Club. Jean Hagen played his serious and loving wife Margaret, Sherry Jackson their daughter Terry, the shows premise dealt with Danny rarely having time to spend with his family and Margaret dealing with the children on her own. Margaret often felt neglected by her husband, and on several occasions felt like leaving him, Margaret was a society woman and strict with the children, but loved her family. Louise Beavers made several appearances during this era as the Williams maid, Louise Evans, bryant died in late 1955 and her character simply stopped appearing. During 1955, Louise Beavers became ill and Amanda Randolph took over the role of Louise, for its first three years, Make Room For Daddy garnered decent ratings, but failed to make the list of the top-30 programs. Shortly after the season finished filming, Jean Hagen left the show due to dissatisfaction with her role. Thomas was upset with her for leaving, as he felt the show would not last without her, at the start of the fourth season, the series title was changed to The Danny Thomas Show. Both Thomas and producer Sheldon Leonard were faced with a serious dilemma - how to explain Jean Hagens absence on the show, to have Danny and Margaret Williams separate and divorce would have been unacceptable to television audiences at that time. So, it was explained that Margaret had died suddenly off-screen, until this time, no character on a situation comedy had died. Danny was now a widower juggling a career while raising two children on his own. Danny had Louise and his friends often looking after the children while he was still touring and he decided to move them to a boarding school, but later relented and the family moved into a new apartment. During the season, Danny dated a few women and nearly got engaged to a widowed singer until he found out she did not like children. By seasons end, the ratings had suffered and it was decided that a wife, in a four-part story arc that began airing in April,1957, Rusty fell ill with the measles and Danny hired Kathy OHara, a young Irish nurse, to look after him. Kathy was a widow with a little girl, Danny and Kathy became fast friends and Danny fell in love with her very quickly, as did the kids. In the season finale, Kathy proposed to Danny and the two became engaged, at this time, ABC cancelled the series, which proved to be fortunate
6.
Elkhart, Indiana
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Elkhart /ˈɛlkɑːrt/ is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located 15 miles east of South Bend, Indiana,110 miles east of Chicago, Illinois, the population was 50,949 at the 2010 census. Despite the shared name, it is not the county seat of Elkhart County, when the Northwest Territory was organized in 1787, the area now known as Elkhart was mainly inhabited by the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes. In 1829, the Village of Pulaski was established, consisting of a Post Office, mill, Two years later, Dr. Havilah Beardsley moved westward from Ohio and purchased one square mile of land from Pierre Moran in order to establish a rival town named Elkhart. In 1839, the Pulaski Post Office was officially changed to Elkhart, Elkhart County was founded exclusively by immigrants from New England. These were old stock Yankee immigrants, that is to say they were descended from the English Puritans who settled New England in the 1600s, the completion of the Erie Canal caused a surge in New England immigration to what was then the Northwest Territory. Some of these settlers were from upstate New York and had parents who had moved to that region from New England shortly after the Revolutionary War. New Englanders and New England transplants from upstate New York were the vast majority of Elkhart Countys inhabitants during the first several decades of its history. The Congregational Church subsequently has gone through many divisions and some factions, including those in Elkhart County are now known as the Church of Christ, correspondingly, many inhabitants of Elkhart County fought in the Union Army during the Civil War. By the late 19th century and early 20th century, musical instrument factories, Miles Medical Company, in 1934, the first recreational vehicle factory opened in Elkhart. Similar companies followed suit for the remainder of the decade, after the war, growth picked back up and, by 1949, Elkhart was officially dubbed the RV Capital of the World. In 1851, the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Company built the first rail line through the city and this, in turn, caused major population growth. Today, Norfolk Southern has the biggest railroad presence in town, although Elkhart has 2 other railroads (Shortline-Elkhart and Western, Amtrak has two trains that stop in Elkhart. Canadian Pacific runs 6-8 trains through town on Norfolk Southerns trackage, in 1867, Elkhart Hydraulic Company built the first hydroelectric dam across the St. Joseph River and by 1870, it powered the city. Today, the dam still produces electric power and is operated by Indiana Michigan Power, in 1889, the second electric streetcar system in the world began operation on the citys streets. The Beardsley Avenue Historic District, Albert R. Beardsley House, Dr. Havilah Beardsley House, although apparently a name of German or Germanic origin, the etymology of the citys name is disputed. One source argues that the citys Island Park looks like an elks heart, another source claims that the origin of the citys name was the Shawnee Indian Chief Elkhart, cousin of the famous Chief Tecumseh, and the father of Mishawaka, the namesake of neighboring Mishawaka. Elkhart is located at 41°40′59″N 85°58′8″W, according to the 2010 census, Elkhart has a total area of 24.417 square miles, of which 23.45 square miles is land and 0.967 square miles is water
7.
Northwestern University
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Composed of twelve schools and colleges, Northwestern offers 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees. Northwestern was founded in 1851 by John Evans, for whom the City of Evanston is named and its founding purpose was to serve the Northwest Territory, an area that today includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. Instruction began in 1855, women were admitted in 1869, today, the main campus is a 240-acre parcel in Evanston, along the shores of Lake Michigan 12 miles north of downtown Chicago. The universitys law, medical, and professional schools are located on a 25-acre campus in Chicagos Streeterville neighborhood, in 2008, the university opened a campus in Education City, Doha, Qatar with programs in journalism and communication. In 2016, Northwestern opened its San Francisco space at 44 Montgomery St. which hosts journalism, engineering, Northwestern is a large research university with a comprehensive doctoral program and it attracts over $650 million in sponsored research each year. Northwestern has the tenth largest university endowment in the United States, in 2017, the university accepted 9. 0% of undergraduate applicants from a pool of 37,255. Northwestern is a member of the Big Ten Conference and remains the only private university in the conference. The Northwestern Wildcats compete in 19 intercollegiate sports in the NCAAs Division I Big Ten Conference, on January 28,1851, the Illinois General Assembly granted a charter to the Trustees of the North-Western University, making it the first chartered university in Illinois. The schools nine founders, all of whom were Methodists, knelt in prayer, John Evans, for whom Evanston is named, bought 379 acres of land along Lake Michigan in 1853, and Philo Judson developed plans for what would become the city of Evanston, Illinois. The first building, Old College, opened on November 5,1855, to raise funds for its construction, Northwestern sold $100 perpetual scholarships entitling the purchaser and his heirs to free tuition. Willard Residential College is named in her honor, Northwestern admitted its first women students in 1869, and the first woman was graduated in 1874. Northwestern fielded its first intercollegiate football team in 1882, later becoming a member of the Big Ten Conference. In the 1870s and 1880s, Northwestern affiliated itself with already existing schools of law, medicine, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law is the oldest law school in Chicago. The Association of American Universities invited Northwestern to become a member in 1917, in 1933, a proposal to merge Northwestern with the University of Chicago was considered but rejected. Northwestern was also one of the first six universities in the country to establish a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps in the 1920s, after the golden years of the 1920s, the Great Depression in the United States hit Northwestern hard. Its annual income dropped 25 percent from $4.8 million in 1930-31 to $3.6 million in 1933-34. Investment income shrank, fewer parents could pay full tuition, and annual giving from alumni, the university responded with two salary cuts of 10 percent each for all employees. It imposed a freeze, a building freeze, and slashed appropriations for maintenance, books
8.
Patricia Neal
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Patsy Louise Patricia Neal was an American actress of stage and screen. She played Olivia Walton in the 1971 made-for-television film The Homecoming, A Christmas Story, patsy Louise Neal was born in Packard, Whitley County, Kentucky, to William Burdette Neal and Eura Mildred Neal. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she attended Knoxville High School, at Northwestern, she was crowned Syllabus Queen in a campus-wide beauty pageant. Neal gained her first job in New York as an understudy in the Broadway production of the John Van Druten play The Voice of the Turtle. Next she appeared in Lillian Hellmans Another Part of the Forest, winning the 1947 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, Neal made her film debut in John Loves Mary, followed by a role with Ronald Reagan in The Hasty Heart, and then The Fountainhead. The shooting of the last film coincided with her affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper, Neal starred with John Garfield in The Breaking Point, in The Day the Earth Stood Still with Michael Rennie and in Operation Pacific starring John Wayne. In 1955, she starred in Edith Sommers A Roomful of Roses, while in New York, Neal became a member of the Actors Studio. Neal won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Hud, Neal was reunited with John Wayne in Otto Premingers In Harms Way, winning her second BAFTA Award. Her next film was The Subject Was Roses, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, Neal played a dying widowed mother trying to find a home for her three children in a 1975 episode of NBCs Little House on the Prairie. She was a subject of the British television show This Is Your Life in 1978 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at a party on Londons Park Lane. Neal played the role in Robert Altmans movie Cookies Fortune. In 2003, Neal was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame, in the same year as the films release, Neal received one of two annually-presented Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SunDeis Film Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. Having won a Tony Award in their year and eventually becoming the last surviving winner from that first ceremony. In April 2009, Neal received an achievement award from WorldFest Houston on the occasion of the debut of her film. Neal was an actress with Philip Langners Theatre at Sea/Sail With the Stars productions with the Theatre Guild. In her final years she appeared in a number of health-care videos, during the filming of The Fountainhead, Neal began an affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper, whom she had met in 1947 when she was 21 and he was 46. At one point in their relationship, Cooper slapped Neal in the face after he caught Kirk Douglas trying to seduce her, a few months later, Neal hoped that tempers would cool while she went to London, England, to film The Hasty Heart, starring Ronald Reagan. Reagan was unhappy over his breakup with Jane Wyman, adding to what would be a shoot for Neal
9.
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
10.
Femme fatale
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A femme fatale is a stock character of a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art, in American early 20th century film, femme fatale characters were referred to as vamps, an allusion to their role as sexual vampires. The phrase is French for fatal woman, a femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. In some situations, she uses lies or coercion rather than charm and she may also make use of some subduing weapon such as sleeping gas, a modern analog of magical powers in older tales. She may also be a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape, a younger version of a femme fatale is called a fille fatale, or fatal girl. Femmes fatale are typically villainous, or at least morally ambiguous, and always associated with a sense of mystification, the femme fatale archetype exists in the culture, folklore and myth of many cultures. Ancient mythical or legendary examples include Mohini, Lilith, the Sirens, historical examples from Classical times include Cleopatra and Messalina, as well as the Biblical figures Delilah, Jezebel and Salome. An example from Chinese literature and traditional history is Daji, the femme fatale was a common figure in the European Middle Ages, often portraying the dangers of unbridled female sexuality. The pre-medieval inherited Biblical figure of Eve offers an example, as does the wicked, along with them, there rose the gothic novel, The Monk featuring Matilda, a very powerful femme fatale. This led to her appearing in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, pre-Raphaelite painters frequently used the classic personifications of the femme fatale as a subject. Later, Salome was the subject of an opera by Strauss, and was popularized on stage, screen, another enduring icon of glamour, seduction, and moral turpitude is Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, 1876–1917. While working as a dancer, she took the stage name Mata Hari. Although she may have been innocent, she was accused of German espionage and was put to death by a French firing squad, after her death she became the subject of many sensational films and books. Other considerably famous femmes fatales are Isabella of France, Hedda Gabler of Kristiania, Marie Antoinette of Austria, one traditional view portrays the femme fatale as a sexual vampire, her charms leech the virility and independence of lovers, leaving them shells of themselves. Rudyard Kipling took inspiration from a vampire painted by Philip Burne-Jones, the poem inspired the 1913 eponymous film The Vampire by Robert Vignola, sometimes cited as the first vamp movie. Like much of Kiplings verse it became popular, and its refrain. Describing a seduced man, became the title of the popular 1915 film A Fool There Was that made Theda Bara a star, the poem was used in the publicity for the film. On this account, in the American slang of the era the femme fatale was called a vamp, from the American film-audience perspective, the femme fatale often appeared foreign, usually either of indeterminate Eastern European or Asian ancestry
11.
Spencer Tracy
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Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American actor, noted for his natural style and versatility. One of the stars of Hollywoods Golden Age, Tracy was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor. Tracy first discovered his talent for acting while attending Ripon College and he spent seven years in the theatre, working in a succession of stock companies and intermittently on Broadway. Tracys breakthrough came in 1930, when his performance in The Last Mile caught the attention of Hollywood. After a successful debut in Up the River, Tracy was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. His five years with Fox were unremarkable, and he remained unknown to audiences after 25 films. In 1935 Tracy joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, at the time Hollywoods most prestigious studio and his career flourished with a series of hit films, and in 1937 and 1938 he won consecutive Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. By the 1940s, Tracy was one of the top stars. In 1942 he appeared with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, Tracy left MGM in 1955 and continued to work regularly as a freelance star, despite an increasing weariness as he aged. His personal life was troubled, with a struggle against alcoholism. Tracy became estranged from his wife in the 1930s, but never divorced, towards the end of his life, Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer. It was for Kramer that he made his last film, Guess Whos Coming to Dinner in 1967, during his career, Tracy appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screens greatest actors. In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema, Tracy was born on April 5,1900, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the son of Caroline and John Edward Tracy. His mother was a Presbyterian from a wealthy Midwestern family, and his one brother, Carroll, was four years older. Spencer was a difficult and hyperactive child with poor school attendance, raised as a Catholic, at nine years old he was placed in the care of Dominican nuns in the hope of transforming his behavior. Later in life he remarked, I never would have back to school if there had been any other way of learning to read the subtitles in the movies. He became fascinated with motion pictures, watching the same ones repeatedly and then re-enacting scenes to his friends, Tracy attended several Jesuit academies in his teenage years, which he claimed took the badness out of him and helped him improve his grades
12.
Katharine Hepburn
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Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress. Known for her independence and spirited personality, Hepburn was a leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years. She appeared in a range of genres, from comedy to literary drama. In 1999, Hepburn was named by the American Film Institute as the greatest female star of Classic Hollywood Cinema, raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn began to act while studying at Bryn Mawr College. After four years in the theatre, favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Hepburn masterminded her own comeback, buying out her contract with RKO Radio Pictures and acquiring the rights to The Philadelphia Story. In the 1940s, she was contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where her career focused on an alliance with Spencer Tracy, the screen-partnership spanned 25 years and produced nine movies. Hepburn challenged herself in the half of her life, as she regularly appeared in Shakespearean stage productions. She found a niche playing middle-aged spinsters, such as in The African Queen, three more Oscars came for her work in Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond. In the 1970s, she began appearing in films, which became the focus of her career in later life. She remained active into old age, making her screen appearance in 1994 at the age of 87. After a period of inactivity and ill health, Hepburn died in 2003 at the age of 96, Hepburn famously shunned the Hollywood publicity machine and refused to conform to societys expectations of women. She was outspoken, assertive, athletic, and wore trousers before it was fashionable for women to do so and she married once, as a young woman, but thereafter lived independently. A 26-year affair with her co-star Spencer Tracy was hidden from the public, Hepburn was born on May 12,1907 in Hartford, Connecticut, the second of six children. Her parents were Thomas Norval Hepburn, a urologist at Hartford Hospital, and Katharine Martha Houghton, as a child, Hepburn joined her mother on several Votes For Women demonstrations. The Hepburn children were raised to exercise freedom of speech and encouraged to think and her parents were criticized by the community for their progressive views, which stimulated Hepburn to fight against barriers she encountered. Hepburn said she realized from an age that she was the product of two very remarkable parents, and credited her enormously lucky upbringing with providing the foundation for her success. She remained close to her throughout her life
