1.
Bronxville, New York
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Bronxville /ˈbrɒŋksvɪl/ is a suburban village in Westchester County, New York, located about 15 miles north of midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester, the village comprises 1 square mile of land in its entirety, approximately 20% of the town of Eastchester. As of the 2010 U. S. census, Bronxville had a population of 6,323, as of 2014, it was ranked 18th in the state in median income. The area, once known as Underhills Crossing, became Bronxville when the village was formally established, the population grew in the second half of the 19th century when railroads allowed commuters from Westchester County to work in New York City. Lawrences influence can be throughout the community, including the historic Lawrence Park neighborhood, the Houlihan Lawrence Real Estate Corporation. John F Kennedy, the president of the United States, also resided here for a time, the village was home to an arts colony in the early 20th century during which time many noteworthy houses by prominent and casual architects were built. After the Bronx River Parkway was completed in 1925, the Village expanded rapidly with the construction of apartment buildings. As of 1959, they continued to own or manage 97% of the rental market, in both rentals and ownership, the village discouraged and effectively prohibited Jewish residency, earning the name The Holy Square Mile. The Gramatan Hotel on Sunset Hill was a hotel in the late 19th century. Gramatan was the name of the chief of the local Siwanoy Indian tribe that was centered in the Gramatan Rock area above Bronxville Station, chief Gramatan sold the land to the settlers. The hotel was demolished in 1970, and a complex of townhouses was built on the site in 1980, elizabeth Clift Bacon, General George Armstrong Custers widow, lived in Bronxville, and her house still stands to this day. St. Josephs Catholic Church, located in the area, was attended by the Kennedys when they were residents from 1929 to about 1936. In 1958 future-senator Ted Kennedy married Joan Bennett in St. Josephs Church, in 1960, the Village voted 5,1 for Nixon over Kennedy. The US Post Office–Bronxville was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, other sites on the National Register are the Bronxville Womens Club, Lawrence Park Historic District, and Masterton-Dusenberry House. As of the 2000 census, there were 6,543 people,2,312 households and 1,660 families residing in the village, the population density was 6,869.3 per square mile. There were 2,387 housing units at a density of 2,506.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 91. 88% White,1. 15% African American,0. 05% Native American,4. 83% Asian,0. 06% Pacific Islander,0. 73% from other races, and 1. 30% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 93% of the population,24. 3% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older
2.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
3.
Santa Cruz, California
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Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California. As of 2013 the U. S. Census Bureau estimated Santa Cruzs population at 62,864, Santa Cruz is known for its moderate climate, the natural beauty of its coastline, redwood forests, alternative community lifestyles, and socially liberal leanings. The present-day site of Santa Cruz was the location of Spanish settlement beginning in 1791, including Mission Santa Cruz, following the Mexican–American War of 1846–48, California became the 31st state in 1850. The City of Santa Cruz was incorporated in 1866 and chartered in April 1876, important early industries included lumber, gunpowder, lime and agriculture. Late in the 19th century, Santa Cruz established itself as a resort community. Prior to the arrival of Spanish soldiers, missionaries and colonists in the late 18th century, the diverse and numerous tribes of this region were also earlier referred to by the Spanish as Coastanoan. The term Ohlone has been used in place of Costanoan since the 1970s by some descendant groups and by most ethnographers, historians, and writers of popular literature. Awaswa was one of the eight Coastanoan languages and made up a tribe of Native Americas living in Western Santa Cruz County, the Awaswas tribe was made up of no more than one thousand people and their language is now extinct. The only remnants of their language are three local place names, Aptos, Soquel and Zayante, and the name of a native shellfish - abalone. The majority of Ohlone or Coastanoan tribes had no written language, within fifty years of the Spaniards arrival, the Ohlone or Coastanoan culture and way of life had virtually disappeared in the Bay area. The party forded the river and camped nearby on October 17,1769, franciscan missionary Juan Crespi, traveling with the expedition, noted in his diary that, This river was named San Lorenzo. Next morning, the set out again, and Crespi noted that. Santa Cruz was the mission to be founded in California. The creek, however, later lost the name, and is today as Laurel Creek because it parallels Laurel Street. It is the feeder of Neary Lagoon. One of only three towns established in California during the Spanish colonial period, the Villa was located across the San Lorenzo River. Its original main street is now North Branciforte Avenue, Villa de Branciforte later lost its civic status, and in 1905 the area was annexed into the City of Santa Cruz. In the 1820s, newly independent Mexico assumed control of the area, following the secularization of the Mission in 1834, the community that had grown up around the Mission was renamed Pueblo de Figueroa
4.
Yale University
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Yale University is an American private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 in Saybrook Colony to train Congregationalist ministers, it is the third-oldest institution of education in the United States. The Collegiate School moved to New Haven in 1716, and shortly after was renamed Yale College in recognition of a gift from British East India Company governor Elihu Yale. Originally restricted to theology and sacred languages, the curriculum began to incorporate humanities and sciences by the time of the American Revolution. In the 19th century the school introduced graduate and professional instruction, awarding the first Ph. D. in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Yale is organized into fourteen constituent schools, the undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. While the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, each schools faculty oversees its curriculum, the universitys assets include an endowment valued at $25.4 billion as of June 2016, the second largest of any U. S. educational institution. The Yale University Library, serving all constituent schools, holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-largest academic library in the United States, Yale College undergraduates follow a liberal arts curriculum with departmental majors and are organized into a social system of residential colleges. Almost all faculty teach courses, more than 2,000 of which are offered annually. Students compete intercollegiately as the Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Division I – Ivy League, Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including five U. S. Presidents,19 U. S. Supreme Court Justices,20 living billionaires, and many heads of state. In addition, Yale has graduated hundreds of members of Congress,57 Nobel laureates,5 Fields Medalists,247 Rhodes Scholars, and 119 Marshall Scholars have been affiliated with the University. Yale traces its beginnings to An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School, passed by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut on October 9,1701, the Act was an effort to create an institution to train ministers and lay leadership for Connecticut. Soon thereafter, a group of ten Congregationalist ministers, Samuel Andrew, Thomas Buckingham, Israel Chauncy, Samuel Mather, the group, led by James Pierpont, is now known as The Founders. Originally known as the Collegiate School, the institution opened in the home of its first rector, Abraham Pierson, the school moved to Saybrook, and then Wethersfield. In 1716 the college moved to New Haven, Connecticut, the feud caused the Mathers to champion the success of the Collegiate School in the hope that it would maintain the Puritan religious orthodoxy in a way that Harvard had not. Cotton Mather suggested that the school change its name to Yale College, meanwhile, a Harvard graduate working in England convinced some 180 prominent intellectuals that they should donate books to Yale. The 1714 shipment of 500 books represented the best of modern English literature, science, philosophy and it had a profound effect on intellectuals at Yale. Undergraduate Jonathan Edwards discovered John Lockes works and developed his original theology known as the new divinity
5.
The Yale Record
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The Yale Record is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it became the oldest humor magazine in the world when Punch folded in 2002, the Record is currently published eight times during the academic year and is distributed in Yale residential college dining halls and around the nation through subscriptions. Content from the magazine is available online and entire issues can be downloaded in. pdf form. The Record began as a newspaper, with its first issue appearing on September 11,1872. Almost immediately, it became a home to funny writing, and later, the Record thrived immediately, and by the turn of the century had a wide circulation outside of New Haven—at prep schools, other college towns, and even New York City. As Yale became one of the bellwethers of collegiate taste and fashion, scott Fitzgerald referred to the magazine as one of the harbingers of the new, looser morality of collegians of that time. But it wasnt just laughs The Record was serving up—during the 1920s, comedy first published in the magazine was re-printed in national humor magazines like Puck and Judge. The character Whit in the Sinclair Lewis story Go East, Young Man drew caricatures for the Yale Record, from the 1920s to the 1960s, The Record placed special emphasis on cartooning, which led many of its alumni to work at Esquire magazine and especially The New Yorker. Record cartoonists during this period included Peter Arno, Reginald Marsh, Clarence Day, Julien Dedman. Osborn, James Stevenson, William Hamilton and Garry Trudeau, from 1920 through the 1940s, many Record staffers and alums contributed to College Humor, a popular nationally distributed humor magazine. Additionally, comedy first published in The Record was re-printed in national magazines like Life. By the late 1940s, the ties to The New Yorker were so strong that designers from that magazine consulted on The Records layout. By the 1950s, the Record had established the Cartoonist of the Year award, which people like Walt Kelly. In the early 1960s, cartoons and comic writing from the magazine were regularly re-printed in Harvey Kurtzmans Help, a satirical magazine that helped launch the careers of Monty Pythons Terry Gilliam, R. Crumb, Woody Allen, John Cleese, Gloria Steinem and many others. In the late 1960s, the played a integral role in editor-in-chief Garry Trudeaus creation of his epochal strip Doonesbury. Trudeau published the pre-syndication Doonesbury collection Michael J. through The Yale Record, in addition to editing the Record, Trudeau organized Record events such as a successful Annette Funicello film festival, a Tarzan film festival and a Jefferson Airplane concert featuring Sha Na Na. The 1970s and 1980s are known as the Dark Ages amongst Record staffers, boards were convened and issues were published on an intermittent basis, with issues released in 1971,1972,1973, 1976-1981,1983, and 1987. Then in 1989, Yale students Michael Gerber and Jonathan Schwarz relaunched The Record for good and their more informal, iconoclastic version of The Record proved popular, and a parody of the short-lived sports newspaper The National garnered national media attention
6.
Mercury Theatre
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The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures, the Mercury also released promptbooks and phonographic recordings of four Shakespeare works for use in schools. After a series of acclaimed Broadway productions, the Mercury Theatre progressed into its most popular incarnation as The Mercury Theatre on the Air. The radio series included one of the most notable and infamous radio broadcasts of all time, The War of the Worlds, the Mercury Theatre on the Air produced live radio dramas in 1938–1940 and again briefly in 1946. In addition to Welles, the Mercury players included Ray Collins, Joseph Cotten, George Coulouris, Martin Gabel, Norman Lloyd, Agnes Moorehead, Paul Stewart, Much of the troupe would later appear in Welless films at RKO, particularly Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. In 1935, John Houseman, director of the Negro Theatre Unit in New York, invited his recent collaborator, 20-year-old Orson Welles and their first production was an adaptation of William Shakespeares Macbeth with an entirely African-American cast. The play opened April 14,1936, at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem and was received rapturously and that production was followed by an adaption of the farce Horse Eats Hat and, in 1937, Marlowes Doctor Faustus and Marc Blitzsteins socialist musical The Cradle Will Rock. The latter received much publicity when on the eve of its preview the theatre was padlocked by the WPA, Welles invited the waiting audience to walk several blocks to a neighboring theatre where the show was performed without sets or costumes. Blitzstein played an upright piano while the cast, barred from taking the stage by their union, sat in the audience and rose from their seats to sing. Welles and Houseman broke with the Federal Theatre Project in August 1937 and founded their own repertory company, the name was inspired by the title of the iconoclastic magazine, The American Mercury. To be sure, this generated a bit of resentment among his collaborators. However, in a profound sense, that credit is, in fact. The concepts that animated each of them originated with him and, Welles and Houseman secured the Comedy Theatre, a 687-seat Broadway theatre at 110 West 41st Street in New York City, and reopened it as the Mercury Theatre. It was the venue for all their productions from November 1937 through November 1938. The Mercury Theatre began with a groundbreaking, critically acclaimed adaption of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar that evoked comparison to contemporary Fascist Italy and it premiered on Broadway on November 11,1937. The production moved from the Mercury Theatre to the larger National Theatre on January 24,1938 and it ran through May 28,1938, for a total of 157 performances. At the National Theatre, Polly Rowles took the role of Calpurnia, from January 20,1938, a roadshow version of Caesar with a different cast toured the United States. The company included Tom Powers as Brutus, and Edmond OBrien as Marc Antony, the Mercury Theatres second production was a staging of Thomas Dekkers Elizabethan comedy The Shoemakers Holiday, which attracted unanimous raves again
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Caesar (Mercury Theatre)
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Breaking with the Federal Theatre Project in 1937, Orson Welles and John Houseman founded their own repertory company, which they called the Mercury Theatre. The name was inspired by the title of the iconoclastic magazine, the set was completely open with no curtain, and the brick stage walls were painted dark red. Scene changes were achieved by lighting alone, on the stage was a series of risers, squares were cut into one riser at intervals and lights were set beneath it, pointing straight up to evoke the cathedral of light at the Nuremberg Rallies. He staged it like a melodrama that happened the night before, said Norman Lloyd. In a scene that became the fulcrum of the show, Cinna the Poet dies at the hands not of a mob, Lloyd called it an extraordinary scene gripped the audience in a way that the show stopped for about three minutes. The audience stopped it with applause and it showed the audience what fascism was, rather than an intellectual approach, you saw a physical one. In addition to adapting the text, Welles directed the production, music was by Marc Blitzstein, sets and lighting were by Samuel Leve, the production manager was Jean Rosenthal. At the end of October press agent Henry Senber oversaw a ceremony unveiling the new electric sign identifying the theatre as the Mercury, ticket prices ranged from 55 cents, for seats in the top balcony, to $2.20 for front row orchestra seats. The production moved from the Mercury Theatre to the larger National Theatre on January 24,1938 and it ran through May 28,1938, for a total of 157 performances. Caesar was unquestionably Welless highest achievement in the theatre, wrote critic Richard France, Herbert Kehls color photographs in the June 1938 issue of Coronet magazine are from the production after it moved from the Mercury Theatre to the larger National Theatre in January. At the National Theatre, Polly Rowles took the role of Calpurnia, unable to attend on opening night, drama critic John Mason Brown asked to review the matinee preview of Caesar—a troublesome request, wrote producer John Houseman, but one that was granted. At the end of the performance Brown asked to be taken backstage, in his New York Post review, Brown called Caesar by all odds the most exciting, the most imaginative, the most topical, the most awesome and the most absorbing of the seasons new productions. The touch of genius is upon it, heywood Broun called Caesar the most exhilarating play in New York. Greatly conceived and brilliantly executed, it is the most vivid production of Shakespeare seen in New York in this generation, here, splendidly acted and thrillingly produced is what must certainly be the great Julius Caesar of our time. For founding that theatre, with John Houseman, for the vision, the courage, the executive art which accompanied its founding. For establishing a uniformly excellent repertory company, in financial straits from the outset, the Mercury briefly considered exploiting the sensational success of Caesar by continuing a straight run of the play and setting aside its repertory mission. Instead, the company went into rehearsal with two new productions and accepted a proposal for a tour of Caesar. Producer Alex Yokel offered a $5,000 advance and 50 percent of the profits, Tom Powers, a leading actor with the Theatre Guild and a principal in the original production of Strange Interlude, led the company as Brutus
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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
9.
Orson Welles
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George Orson Welles was an American actor, director, writer, and producer who worked in theatre, radio, and film. In 1937 he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory company that presented a series of productions on Broadway through 1941. It reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was actually occurring, although some contemporary sources claim these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to notoriety. His first film was Citizen Kane, which he co-wrote, produced, directed, Welles was an outsider to the studio system and directed only 13 full-length films in his career. He has been praised as the ultimate auteur, Welles followed up Citizen Kane with critically acclaimed films including The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942 and Touch of Evil in 1958. Although these three are his most acclaimed films, critics have argued other works of his, such as The Lady from Shanghai and Chimes at Midnight, are underappreciated. Known for his voice, Welles was an actor in radio and film, a Shakespearean stage actor. George Orson Welles was born May 6,1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, son of Richard Head Welles and he was named after his paternal great-grandfather, influential Kenosha attorney Orson S. Head, and his brother George Head. Despite his familys affluence, Welles encountered hardship in childhood and his parents separated and moved to Chicago in 1919. His father, who made a fortune as the inventor of a bicycle lamp, became an alcoholic. Beatrice died of hepatitis in a Chicago hospital May 10,1924, the Gordon String Quartet, which had made its first appearance at her home in 1921, played at Beatrices funeral. After his mothers death Welles ceased pursuing music and it was decided that he would spend the summer with the Watson family at a private art colony in Wyoming, New York, established by Lydia Avery Coonley Ward. There he played and became friends with the children of the Aga Khan, Welles briefly attended public school before his alcoholic father left business altogether and took him along on his travels to Jamaica and the Far East. When they returned they settled in a hotel in Grand Detour, Illinois, when the hotel burned down, Welles and his father took to the road again. During the three years that Orson lived with his father, some observers wondered who took care of whom, in some ways, he was never really a young boy, you know, said Roger Hill, who became Welless teacher and lifelong friend. Welles briefly attended school in Madison, Wisconsin, enrolled in the fourth grade. At Todd School, Welles came under the influence of Roger Hill, Hill provided Welles with an ad hoc educational environment that proved invaluable to his creative experience, allowing Welles to concentrate on subjects that interested him. Welles performed and staged theatrical experiments and productions there, Todd provided Welles with many valuable experiences, wrote critic Richard France
10.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
11.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
