1.
Belmont, Massachusetts
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Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. It is part of the Boston metropolitan area and its population was 24,729 at the 2010 census. They also wanted a town no one could buy or sell alcohol. The town was named after Bellmont, the 200 acre estate of one of the leading and largest donor to its createion, Cushing Square is named after him and what was left of his estate after it nearly burned to the ground became a Belmont Public Library branch. Preceding its incorporation, Belmont was an agrarian based town, with large farms servicing Boston for produce. Belmonts population grew by over 90 percent during the 1920s, other commercial enterprises in Belmont included mining and waste management. The reclamation of a dump and quarry off Concord Avenue into sites for the Belmont High School. With the introduction of automobiles and highways Belmont continued its transition to a commuter-based suburb throughout the twentieth century, Belmont was the home of the headquarters of the John Birch Society from the organizations founding in 1958 until its relocation to Appleton, Wisconsin in 1989. In 1963, English composer Arthur Bliss wrote The Belmont Variations based on the town of Belmont MA, the work was used at the Royal Albert Hall as the test piece for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain. The residents of Belmont did not have cable until 1989 and they could only watch cable televisi be a department that is part of the town government. It would be called The Belmont Cable Department, as this had never been donw before by any Mass. town, the Town of Belmont had to get a special law passed by the Massachusetts legislature to makne this caple dept. possible. The local cable companies like Time Warner and Cablevision did not like this law and spent most of the 1980s fighting the law tooth. The cable companies won and in 1989, the system was set up by Time Warner. 3 In 1993, this small suburban was overwhelmed by Japanese tourists, Crown Prince of Japan had just become engaged to Masako Owada, the future Crown Princess of Japan. Her parents were part of the Japanese diplomatic service and they had lived in Belmont in the early 1980s and she graduated from Belmont High School. The Japanese tourists came to see the house where she had lived and this is probably the only time that this small town had ever been mentioned in newspapers throughout the world. Belmont was once served by two railroads, the Fitchburg Railroad and the Central Massachusetts Railroad, both of which were later to become part of the Boston & Maine Railroad system. Originally the two railroads had their own tracks through town, but in 1952 the Central Mass tracks were lifted between Hills Crossing and Clematis Brook, traffic was then rerouted over the Fitchburg line
2.
Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles
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Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, founded in 1927 with boundary changes afterward. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower density than some other areas in Los Angeles. A partner of the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, Gen. Moses Hazeltine Sherman, the company had subdivided 1,000 acres of land that would become Sherman Oaks. In 1927 each acre was sold for $780, shermans other major venture was the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad. Petitioners in the area argued that their neighborhood was part of Sherman Oaks. As a result of change, Van Nuys Middle School became separated from its namesake neighborhood. Finally, in 2009, the Los Angeles City council voted to redraw neighborhood boundaries again to allow an area of about 1,800 homes in Van Nuys to be included and this proposal attracted criticism from locals. The 1994 Northridge earthquake caused damages in the surrounding area, the Community Redevelopment Agency sought to manage the rebuilding efforts. The homeowners in the Sherman Oaks area later won a lawsuit to prevent the agency from managing efforts, as of the 2010 census, according to the San Fernando Valley Almanac, Sherman Oaks had a population of 52,677 people and 25,255 households. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 82% non-Hispanic white, 5% Asian American and 3% African American, other races made up less than 1%. In 2008, the city estimated that the resident population had increased to 65,436, in 2000, the percentages of residents aged 19 to 49 and 65 and older were among the countys highest. The percentages of divorced residents and of widows were among the countys highest, the average household size of two people was low when compared to the rest of the city and the county. Renters occupied 58. 9% of the stock and house- or apartment-owners held 41. 1%. The neighborhood was considered not especially diverse ethnically within Los Angeles, the breakdown was whites,73. 8%, Latinos,11. 8%, Asians,5. 7%, blacks,4. 4%, and others,4. 4%. Iran and Mexico were the most common places of birth for the 26. 2% of the residents who were born abroad—an average percentage for Los Angeles. The neighborhood had a household income of $69,651 in 2008. The percentage of households that earned $125,000 and up was high for Los Angeles County, Los Angeles Fire Department operates Station 88 Sherman Oaks and Station 102 South Van Nuys/Valley Glen in Sherman Oaks. In addition the department operates Fire Station 78, which serves Sherman Oaks, the Los Angeles Police Department operates the nearby Van Nuys Community Police Station at 6240 Sylmar Avenue,91401, serving the community
3.
B movie
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A B movie is a low-budget commercial movie, but one that is not an arthouse film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, although the U. S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continues to be used in the broader sense it maintains today. In either usage, most B movies represent a particular genre—the Western was a Golden Age B movie staple, while low-budget science-fiction, early B movies were often part of series in which the star repeatedly played the same character. Almost always shorter than the films they were paired with. The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more handsomely budgeted headliners, latter-day B movies still sometimes inspire multiple sequels, but series are less common. As the average running time of top-of-the-line films increased, so did that of B pictures, the term is also now used loosely to refer to some higher-budgeted, mainstream films with exploitation-style content, usually in genres traditionally associated with the B movie. From their beginnings to the present day, B movies have provided both for those coming up in the profession and others whose careers are waning. Celebrated filmmakers such as Anthony Mann and Jonathan Demme learned their craft in B movies and they are where actors such as John Wayne and Jack Nicholson first became established, and they have provided work for former A movie actors, such as Vincent Price and Karen Black. Some actors, such as Bela Lugosi, Eddie Constantine and Pam Grier, the term B actor is sometimes used to refer to a performer who finds work primarily or exclusively in B pictures. In 1927–28, at the end of the silent era, the production cost of a feature from a major Hollywood studio ranged from $190,000 at Fox to $275,000 at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. That average reflected both specials that might cost as much as $1 million and films made quickly for around $50,000. These cheaper films allowed the studios to derive value from facilities. Studios in the leagues of the industry, such as Columbia Pictures and Film Booking Offices of America. Their movies, with short running times, targeted theaters that had to economize on rental and operating costs, particularly small-town and urban neighborhood venues. A new programming scheme developed that would become standard practice, a newsreel, a short and/or serial. The second feature, which screened before the main event. The majors clearance rules favoring their affiliated theaters prevented the independents timely access to top-quality films, the low-budget picture of the 1920s thus evolved into the second feature, the B movie, of Hollywoods Golden Age. The major studios, at first resistant to the double feature, all established B units to provide films for the expanding second-feature market
4.
Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio based in Hollywood, California, that has been a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor contracted 22 actors and actresses and these fortunate few would become the first movie stars. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, followed by the Nordisk Film company. It is the last major film studio headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company, hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success and its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, the Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies, Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor, until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation, in 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged the three companies into one, with only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, the driving force behind Paramounts rise was Zukor. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg and they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, three years later, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. In 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps, animated cartoons produced by Max, the Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957, Paramount was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies, and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris
5.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
6.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
7.
Flash Gordon
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Flash Gordon is the hero of a space opera adventure comic strip created by and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7,1934, the strip was inspired by, the Flash Gordon comic strip has been translated into a wide variety of media, including motion pictures, television and animated series. The latest version, a Flash Gordon television series, appeared on the Syfy channel in the United States in 2007–2008. At first King Features tried to purchase the rights to the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, however, King Features then turned to Alex Raymond, one of their staff artists, to create the story. Raymonds first samples were dismissed for not containing enough action sequences, Raymond reworked the story and sent it back to the syndicate, who accepted it. Raymond was partnered with ghostwriter Don Moore, an experienced editor, Raymonds first Flash Gordon story appeared in January 1934, alongside Jungle Jim. The Flash Gordon strip was well received by readers, becoming one of the most popular American comic strips of the 1930s. Like Buck Rogers, the success of Flash Gordon resulted in numerous licensed products being sold, including books, colouring books. The comic strip follows the adventures of Flash Gordon, a polo player and Yale University graduate. The story begins with Earth threatened by a collision with the planet Mongo, Dr. Zarkov invents a rocket ship to fly into space in an attempt to stop the disaster. Half mad, he kidnaps Flash and Dale and they travel to the planet, landing on the planet, and halting the collision, they come into conflict with Ming the Merciless, Mongos evil ruler. They are joined in early adventures by Prince Thun of the Lion Men. Eventually, Ming is overthrown, and Mongo is ruled by a council of leaders led by Barin, Flash and friends return to Earth and have some adventures before returning to Mongo and crashing in the kingdom of Tropica, then reuniting with Barin and others. Flash and his friends travel to worlds and return to Mongo. In the 1950s, Flash became an astronaut who travelled to other planets besides Mongo, the long story of the Skorpii War takes Flash to other star systems, using starships that are faster than light. After Raymonds tenure, later created new enemies for Flash to combat. Austin Briggs created Kang the Cruel, Mings callous son, Prince Polon, who had the power to shrink or enlarge living creatures, the unscrupulous Queen Rubia, and Pyron the Comet Master were among the antagonists introduced during Mac Raboys run. The Skorpi, a race of alien shape shifters who desired to conquer the galaxy, were recurring villains in both the Mac Raboy and Dan Barry stories, the Skorpi space-fighter ace Baron Dak-Tula became a periodic nemesis of Flash in the late 1970s stories
8.
John Wayne
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Marion Mitchell Morrison, known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed Duke, was an American actor and filmmaker. An Academy Award-winner for True Grit, Wayne was among the top box office draws for three decades, born in Winterset, Iowa, Wayne grew up in Southern California. He found work at film studios when he lost his football scholarship to the University of Southern California as a result of a bodysurfing accident. Initially working for the Fox Film Corporation, he appeared mostly in bit parts. His first leading role came in Raoul Walshs The Big Trail, Waynes career took off in 1939, with John Fords Stagecoach making him an instant star. He went on to star in 142 pictures, biographer Ronald Davis said, John Wayne personified for millions the nations frontier heritage. Eighty-three of his movies were Westerns, and in them he played cowboys, cavalrymen and he is also remembered for his roles in The Quiet Man, Rio Bravo, and The Longest Day. In his final performance, he starred as an aging gunfighter battling cancer in The Shootist. He appeared with many important Hollywood stars of his era, Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26,1907 at 224 South Second Street in Winterset, Iowa. The local paper, Winterset Madisonian, reported on page 4 of the edition of May 30,1907 that Wayne weighed 13 pounds at birth and his middle name was soon changed from Robert to Mitchell when his parents decided to name their next son Robert. Waynes father, Clyde Leonard Morrison, was the son of American Civil War veteran Marion Mitchell Morrison, Waynes mother, the former Mary Molly Alberta Brown, was from Lancaster County, Nebraska. Waynes ancestry included English, Irish, Scots-Irish, and Scottish, Waynes family moved to Palmdale, California, and then in 1916 to Glendale, California, where his father worked as a pharmacist. A local fireman at the station on his route to school in Glendale started calling him Little Duke because he never went anywhere without his huge Airedale Terrier and he preferred Duke to Marion, and the nickname stuck. Wayne attended Wilson Middle School in Glendale, as a teen, he worked in an ice cream shop for a man who shod horses for Hollywood studios. He was also active as a member of the Order of DeMolay and he played football for the 1924 league champion Glendale High School team. Wayne applied to the U. S. Naval Academy, and he instead attended the University of Southern California, majoring in pre-law. He was a member of the Trojan Knights and Sigma Chi fraternities, Wayne also played on the USC football team under coach Howard Jones. A broken collarbone injury curtailed his career, Wayne later noted that he was too terrified of Jones reaction to reveal the actual cause of his injury
9.
Cesar Romero
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Cesar Julio Romero Jr. was an American actor, singer, dancer, voice artist, and comedian who was active in film, radio, and television for almost 60 years. Cesar Julio Romero Jr. was born in New York City on February 15,1907 and his mother was said to be the biological daughter of Cuban national hero José Martí. His father was born in Barcelona, Spain and emigrated to the United States in 1888 and his mother was a concert singer. He grew up in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, and was educated at Bradley Beach Elementary School, Asbury Park High School, the Collegiate School, and the Riverdale Country Day School. However, that changed dramatically when his parents lost their sugar import business. Romeros Hollywood earnings allowed him to support his family, all of whom followed him to the American West Coast years later. Romero lived on and off with various members for the rest of his life. On October 12,1942, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard as an apprentice seaman. He reported aboard the Coast Guard-manned assault transport USS Cavalier in November 1943, according to a press release from the period, Romero saw action during the invasions of Tinian and Saipan. The same article mentioned that he preferred to be a part of the crew and was eventually promoted to the rating of Chief Boatswains Mate. At 63 Romero was very tall for an actor, and routinely played Latin lovers in films from the 1930s until the 1950s and he starred as the Cisco Kid in six westerns made between 1939 and 1941. Romero danced and performed comedy in the 20th Century Fox films he starred in opposite Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable, such as Week-End in Havana and Springtime in the Rockies, in the 1940s. He also played a role as Sinjin, a piano player in Glenn Millers band. In The Thin Man, Romero played a supporting role opposite the films main star William Powell. Many of Romeros films from this period saw him cast in small character parts, such as Italian gangsters. Romero had a role as the Pathan rebel leader, Khoda Khan, in John Fords 1937 British Raj-era actioner Wee Willie Winkie. He also appeared in a turn as a subversive opponent to Frank Sinatra. 20th Century Fox, along with mogul Darryl Zanuck, personally selected Romero to co-star with Tyrone Power in the Technicolor historical epic Captain from Castile, while Power played a fictionalized character, Romero played Hernán Cortés, a historical conquistador in Spains conquest of the Americas
10.
Rosalind Russell
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A noted comedian, she won all five Golden Globes for which she was nominated. Russell won a Tony Award in 1953 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Ruth in the Broadway show Wonderful Town and she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times throughout her career. She had a career span from the 1930s to the 1970s. Catherine Rosalind Russell was one of seven children born in Waterbury, Connecticut, to James Edward, a lawyer, and Clara A. Russell and she was named after a ship on which her parents had traveled. Her parents thought Russell was studying to become a teacher, and were unaware that she was planning to become a comedic actress, Russell started her career as a fashion model and was in many Broadway shows. Against parental objections, she took a job at a company for seven months at Saranac Lake and then Hartford. Afterwards, she moved to Boston, where she acted for a year at a group for Edward E. Clive. Later, she appeared in a revue in New York, there, she took voice lessons and built a career in the opera, which was short-lived due to her difficulty in reaching high notes. In the early 1930s, Russell went west to Los Angeles, when she first arrived on the lot, she was ignored by most of the crew and later told the press she felt terrible and humiliated at Universal, which affected her self-confidence. Unhappy with Universals leadership, and second-class studio status at the time, when MGM first approached her for a screen test, Russell was wary, remembering her experience at Universal. When she met MGMs Benny Thau and Ben Piazza, she was surprised and her screen test was directed by Harold S. Bucquet, and she later recalled that she was hired because of a closeup he took of her. Under contract to MGM, Russell debuted in Evelyn Prentice, although the role was small, she received good notices, with one critic saying that she was convincing as the woman scorned. She starred in comedies such as Forsaking All Others and Fours a Crowd, as well as dramas, including Craigs Wife. Russell was first acclaimed when she co-starred with Robert Young in the MGM drama West Point of the Air, One critic wrote, Rosalind Russell as the other woman in the story gives an intelligent and deft handling to her scenes with Young. She quickly rose to fame, and by 1935, was seen as a replacement for actress Myrna Loy, in her first years in Hollywood, Russell was characterized, both in her personal life and film career, as a sophisticated lady. This dissatisfied Russell, who claimed in a 1936 interview, Being typed as a lady is the greatest misfortune possible to a motion picture actress and it limits your characterizations, confines you to play feminine sops and menaces and the public never highly approves of either. I earnestly want to get away from this, first, because I want to improve my career and professional life and, secondly because I am tired of being a clothes horse – a sort of hothouse orchid in a stand of wild flowers. Russell approached director Frank Lloyd for help changing her image, but instead of helping her, in 1939, she was cast as catty gossip Sylvia Fowler in the all-female comedy The Women, directed by George Cukor
11.
Red Skelton
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Richard Bernard Red Skelton was an American entertainer. He was best known for his radio and television acts between 1937 and 1971, and as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show. Skelton began developing his comedic and pantomime skills from the age of 10 and he then spent time on a showboat, worked the burlesque circuit, then entered into vaudeville in 1934. The Doughnut Dunkers, a sketch of how different people ate doughnuts written by Skelton and his wife launched a career for him in vaudeville, in radio. Skeltons radio career began in 1937 with a guest appearance on The Fleischmanns Yeast Hour which led to his becoming the host of Avalon Time in 1938. He became the host of The Raleigh Cigarette Program in 1941 where many of his characters were created and had a regularly scheduled radio program until 1957. Skelton made his debut in 1938 alongside Ginger Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks. He was most eager to work in television, even when the medium was in its infancy, the Red Skelton Show made its television premiere on September 30,1951, on NBC. By 1954, Skeltons program moved to CBS, where it was expanded to one hour, despite high ratings, his television show was cancelled by CBS in 1970 as the network believed more youth-oriented programs were needed to attract younger viewers and their spending power. Skelton moved his program to NBC, where he completed his last year with a regularly scheduled show in 1971. After he no longer had a program, Skeltons time was spent making up to 125 personal appearances a year. Skeltons artwork of clowns remained a hobby until 1964 when his wife, Georgia, sales of his originals were successful and Skelton also sold prints and lithographs of them, earning $2.5 million yearly on lithograph sales. At the time of his death, his art dealer believed that Skelton had earned money through his paintings than from his television work. Skelton believed his lifes work was to make people laugh, he wanted to be known as a clown because he defined it as being able to do everything and he had a 70-year career as a performer and entertained three generations of Americans during this time. Born on July 18,1913, in Vincennes, Indiana, Richard Skelton was the fourth and youngest son of Ida Mae, Joseph, a grocer, died two months before Richard was born, he had once been a clown with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. During Skeltons lifetime there was some dispute about the year of his birth, author Wesley Hyatt suggests that since he began working at such an early age, Skelton may have claimed he was older than he actually was in order to gain employment. Because of the loss of his father, Skelton went to work as early as the age of seven, selling newspapers and doing odd jobs to help his family. He quickly learned the newsboys patter and would keep it up until a prospective buyer bought a copy of the paper just to quiet him, when the man asked Skelton what events were going on in town, Skelton suggested he see the new show in town
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