1.
Wilmington, North Carolina
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Wilmington is a port city and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. The population is 112,067, according to the 2010 Census it is the eighth most populous city in the state, Wilmington was settled by European Americans along the Cape Fear River. Its historic downtown has a one-mile-long Riverwalk, originally developed as a tourist attraction and it is minutes away from nearby beaches. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Wilmington, North Carolina, in 2003 the city was designated by the US Congress as a Coast Guard City. It is the port for the USCGC Diligence, a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. The World War II battleship USS North Carolina is held as a war memorial, located across from the port area. Other attractions include the Cape Fear Museum, the Wilmington Hammerheads United Soccer Leagues soccer team, Wilmington is the home of EUE Screen Gems Studios, the largest domestic television and movie production facility outside of California. Dream Stage 10, the facilitys newest sound stage, is the third-largest in the US and it houses the largest special-effects water tank in North America. After the studios opening in 1984, Wilmington became a center of American film. Numerous movies in a range of genres and several series, including Iron Man 3, Foxs Sleepy Hollow, One Tree Hill, Dawsons Creek. In recent years, however, the end of tax credits to the industry has severely impacted filmmaking in the entire area. The area had long inhabited by various cultures of indigenous peoples, at the time of European encounter. The ethnic European and African history of Wilmington spans more than two and a half centuries, giovanni da Verrazano is reportedly the first European to observe the area, including the citys present site, in the early 16th century. The first permanent European settlement in the area came in the 1720s when English colonists began settling the area, in September 1732, a community was founded on land owned by John Watson on the Cape Fear River, at the confluence of its northwest and northeast branches. The settlement, founded by the first royal governor, George Burrington, was called New Carthage, governor Gabriel Johnston soon after established his government there for the North Carolina colony. In 1739 or 1740, the town was incorporated with a new name, Wilmington, in honor of Spencer Compton, many of the settlers were indentured servants, mainly from the British Isles and northern Europe. As the indentured servants gained their freedom, the colonists imported a number of African slaves as laborers into the port city. By 1767, slaves accounted for more than 62% of the population of the Lower Cape Fear region, many worked in the port as laborers, and some in ship-related trades
2.
Norfolk, Virginia
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Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2010 census, the population was 242,803, in 2015, Norfolk is located at the core of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, named for the large natural harbor of the same name located at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. It is one of nine cities and seven counties that constitute the Hampton Roads metro area, officially known as the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, the city is bordered to the west by the Elizabeth River and to the north by the Chesapeake Bay. It also shares borders with the independent cities of Chesapeake to its south. Norfolk is one of the oldest cities in Hampton Roads, and is considered to be the historic, urban, financial, the city has a long history as a strategic military and transportation point. The largest Navy base in the world, Naval Station Norfolk, is located in Norfolk along with one of NATOs two Strategic Command headquarters. As the city is bordered by multiple bodies of water, Norfolk has many miles of riverfront and bayfront property, including beaches on the Chesapeake Bay. It is linked to its neighbors by a network of Interstate highways, bridges, tunnels. In 1619, the Governor of the Virginia Colony, Sir George Yeardley incorporated four jurisdictions, termed citties and these formed the basis for colonial representative government in the newly minted House of Burgesses. What would become Norfolk was put under the Elizabeth Cittie incorporation, in 1634 King Charles I reorganized the colony into a system of shires. The former Elizabeth Cittie became Elizabeth City Shire, after persuading 105 people to settle in the colony, Adam Thoroughgood was granted a large land holding, through the head rights system, along the Lynnhaven River in 1636. When the South Hampton Roads portion of the shire was separated, one year later, it was split into two counties, Upper Norfolk and Lower Norfolk, chiefly on Thoroughgoods recommendation. This area of Virginia became known as the place of entrepreneurs, the House of Burgesses established the Towne of Lower Norfolk County in 1680. In 1691, a final county subdivision took place when Lower Norfolk County split to form Norfolk County, in 1730, a tobacco inspection site was located here. By 1775, Norfolk developed into what contemporary observers argued was the most prosperous city in Virginia and it was an important port for exporting goods to the British Isles and beyond. In part because of its merchants numerous trading ties with other parts of the British Empire, after fleeing the colonial capital of Williamsburg, Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, tried to reestablish control of the colony from Norfolk. Dunmore secured small victories at Norfolk but was forced into exile by the American rebels and his departure brought an end to more than 168 years of British colonial rule in Virginia. On New Years Day,1776, Lord Dunmores fleet of three ships shelled the city of Norfolk for more than eight hours, the damage from the shells and fires started by the British and spread by the patriots destroyed over 800 buildings, almost two-thirds of the city
3.
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
4.
Atlanta
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Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
5.
Emory University
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Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, in 1915, the college relocated to metropolitan Atlanta and was rechartered as Emory University. The university is the second-oldest private institution of education in Georgia. Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Peking University in Beijing, the university operates the Confucius Institute in Atlanta in partnership with Nanjing University. Emory has a faculty research partnership with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science. Emory University students come from all 50 states,6 territories of the United States, the university operates the Winship Cancer Institute, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and many disease and vaccine research centers. Emory University is the coordinator of both the NIAIDs Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center and the U. S. Health Departments National Ebola Training and Education Center, the university is one of four institutions involved in the NIAIDs Tuberculosis Research Units Program. The university is partnered with the Carter Center, the National Science Foundation ranked the university 36th among academic institutions in the United States for research and development expenditures. Emory University research is funded primarily by government agencies, namely the National Institutes of Health. In 1995 Emory University was elected to the Association of American Universities, Emory College was founded in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The college was named in honor of the departed Methodist bishop John Emory, ignatius Alphonso Few was the colleges first president. In 1854, the Atlanta Medical College, a forerunner of Emory University School of Medicine, was founded, on April 12,1861, the American Civil War began. Emory College was closed in November 1861 and all of its students enlisted on the Confederate side, in late 1863 the war came to Georgia and the college was used as hospital and later a headquarters for the Union Army. The university produced many officers who served in the war, including General George Thomas Anderson who fought in every major battle in the eastern theater. Thirty five Emory students lost their lives and much of the campus was destroyed during the war, Emory College, as with the entire Southeastern United States, struggled to overcome financial devastation during the Reconstruction Era. In 1880, Atticus Greene Haygood, Emory College President, delivered a speech expressing gratitude for the end of slavery in the United States, which captured the attention of George I. Seney gave Emory College $5,000 to repay its debts, $50,000 for construction, in the 1880s, the technology department was launched by Isaac Stiles Hopkins, a polymath professor at Emory College
6.
Minstrel show
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The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American form of entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of skits, variety acts, dancing. The shows were performed by people in make-up or blackface for the purpose of playing the role of black people. There were also some African-American performers and all-black minstrel groups that formed and toured, Minstrel shows lampooned black people as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious and happy-go-lucky. Minstrel shows emerged as brief burlesques and comic entractes in the early 1830s and were developed into full-fledged form in the next decade, by 1848, blackface minstrel shows were the national artform, translating formal art such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. By the turn of the 20th century, the show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity. The form survived as professional entertainment until about 1910, amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools, the genre has had a lasting legacy and influence and was featured in a television series as recently as the late 1970s. Generally, as the civil rights movement progressed and gained acceptance, the typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. The troupe first danced onto stage then exchanged wisecracks and sang songs, the second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech. The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or a send-up of a popular play, Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters, most popularly the slave and the dandy. These were further divided into such as the mammy, her counterpart the old darky, the provocative mulatto wench. Minstrels claimed that their songs and dances were authentically black, although the extent of the black influence remains debated, spirituals entered the repertoire in the 1870s, marking the first undeniably black music to be used in minstrelsy. Blackface minstrelsy was the first theatrical form that was distinctly American, during the 1830s and 1840s at the height of its popularity, it was at the epicenter of the American music industry. For several decades it provided the means through which American whites viewed black people, on the one hand, it had strong racist aspects, on the other, it afforded white Americans a singular and broad awareness of what some whites considered significant aspects of black culture in America. Although the minstrel shows were popular, being consistently packed with families from all walks of life and every ethnic group. Although white theatrical portrayals of black characters date back to as early as 1604, by the late 18th century, blackface characters began appearing on the American stage, usually as servant types whose roles did little more than provide some element of comic relief. Eventually, similar performers appeared in entractes in New York theaters and other such as taverns. Author Constance Rourke even claimed that Forrests impression was so good he could fool blacks when he mingled with them in the streets, Thomas Dartmouth Rices successful song-and-dance number, Jump Jim Crow, brought blackface performance to a new level of prominence in the early 1830s
7.
California Eagle
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The California Eagle was an African-American newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded as The Owl in 1879 by John J. Neimore, Charlotta Bass became owner in of the paper after Neimores death in 1912. She owned and operated the paper, renamed the California Eagle, Bass, served as editor until his death in 1934. In the 1920s, they increased circulation to 60,000, during this period, Bass was also active as a civil rights campaigner in Los Angeles, working to end segregation in jobs, housing and transportation. The newspaper was owned for more than a decade by Loren Miller. He also worked as a civil lawyer and was a leader in the community. After he sold the paper in 1964 to accept an appointment as a justice to the State Supreme Court, Neimore founded the newspaper as The Owl in 1879 to serve new arrivals to Los Angeles during the Great Migration, when millions of African-Americans left the Deep South. The paper offered information on employment and housing opportunities as well as news stories geared towards the newly arrived migrant population, after Neimores death in 1912, Charlotta Bass bought the paper and renamed it California Eagle. Her husband, J. B. Bass, was editor until his death in 1934, by 1925, the newspaper had a circulation of 60,000, the largest of any African-American newspaper in California. Its publishers and editors were active in civil rights, beginning with campaigns for equitable hiring, patronage of black businesses, in 1951 Bass sold the California Eagle to Loren Miller, the former city editor. Miller was a Washburn University, Kansas law graduate, after he relocated to Los Angeles in 1930, he began writing for the Eagle and eventually became city editor. In 1945, Miller represented Hattie McDaniel and won her case against the Sugar Hill restrictive covenant case and he was appointed in 1963 as Superior Court of California judge by former Governor Edmund Pat Brown. In 1963, Miller sold the paper to fourteen local investors in order to accept his appointment as judge, the California Eagle initially increased circulation from 3,000 to 21,000. But within six months the paper had to close, on January 7,1964, several newspaper employees went on to become prominent figures in their own right. Howard, From 1933 to 1935, Howard, then a student at Loma Linda University, was the circulation manager. He wrote a column entitled The Negro in the Light of History. After medical school Howard returned to Mississippi where he became a doctor, by the 1940s and 1950s, he had become one of the wealthiest and most influential blacks in the state and was a leading civil rights leader. He was later a mentor of Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer and he played a key role in finding evidence and witnesses in the Emmett Till murder case
8.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
9.
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones
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Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, was an African-American soprano. She sometimes was called The Black Patti in reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti, Jones repertoire included grand opera, light opera, and popular music. Matilda Sissieretta Joyner was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, to Jeremiah Malachi Joyner, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, by 1876 her family moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where she began singing at an early age in her fathers Pond Street Baptist Church. In 1883, Joyner began the study of music at the Providence Academy of Music. The same year she married David Richard Jones, a news dealer, in the late 1880s, Jones was accepted at the New England Conservatory of Music. On October 29,1885, Jones gave a performance in Providence as an opening act to a production of Richard III put on by John A. Arneauxs theatre troupe. In 1887, she performed at Bostons Music Hall before an audience of 5,000, Jones made her New York debut on April 5,1888, at Steinway Hall. During a performance at Wallacks Theater in New York, Jones came to the attention of Adelina Pattis manager, Jones made successful tours of the Caribbean in 1888 and 1892. In February 1892, Jones performed at the White House for President Benjamin Harrison and she eventually sang for four consecutive presidents — Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt — and the British royal family. Jones performed at the Grand Negro Jubilee at New Yorks Madison Square Garden in April 1892 before an audience of 75,000 and she sang the song Swanee River and selections from La traviata. She was so popular that she was invited to perform at the Pittsburgh Exposition, in June 1892, Jones became the first African-American to sing at the Music Hall in New York. Among the selections in her program were Charles Gounods Ave Maria, the New York Echo wrote of her performance at the Music Hall, If Mme Jones is not the equal of Adelina Patti, she at least can come nearer it than anything the American public has heard. Her notes are as clear as a mockingbirds and her annunciation perfect, Pond, who had meaningful affiliations to many authors and musicians. The company Troubadours made an important statement about the capabilities of black performers, in 1893, Jones met composer Antonín Dvořák, and in January 1894 she performed parts of his Symphony No.9 at Madison Square Garden. Dvořák wrote a part for Jones. Besides the United States and the West Indies, Jones toured in South America, Australia, India, during a European tour in 1895 and 1896, Jones performed in London, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Milan, and Saint Petersburg. In 1896, Jones returned to Providence to care for her mother, Jones found that access to most American classical concert halls was limited by racism. She formed the Black Patti Troubadours, a musical and acrobatic act made up of 40 jugglers, comedians, dancers, not only is the solo singing of the highest order, but the choruses are rendered with a spirit and musical finish which never fail to excite genuine enthusiasm
10.
Library of Congress
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The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, the Library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. it also maintains the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, which houses the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. The Library of Congress claims to be the largest library in the world and its collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 450 languages. Two-thirds of the books it acquires each year are in other than English. The Library of Congress moved to Washington in 1800, after sitting for years in the temporary national capitals of New York. John J. Beckley, who became the first Librarian of Congress, was two dollars per day and was required to also serve as the Clerk of the House of Representatives. The small Congressional Library was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century until the early 1890s, most of the original collection had been destroyed by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812. To restore its collection in 1815, the bought from former president Thomas Jefferson his entire personal collection of 6,487 books. After a period of growth, another fire struck the Library in its Capitol chambers in 1851, again destroying a large amount of the collection. The Library received the right of transference of all copyrighted works to have two copies deposited of books, maps, illustrations and diagrams printed in the United States. It also began to build its collections of British and other European works and it included several stories built underground of steel and cast iron stacks. Although the Library is open to the public, only high-ranking government officials may check out books, the Library promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book, and Poet Laureate. James Madison is credited with the idea for creating a congressional library, part of the legislation appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress. And for fitting up an apartment for containing them. Books were ordered from London and the collection, consisting of 740 books and 3 maps, was housed in the new Capitol, as president, Thomas Jefferson played an important role in establishing the structure of the Library of Congress. The new law also extended to the president and vice president the ability to borrow books and these volumes had been left in the Senate wing of the Capitol. One of the only congressional volumes to have survived was a government account book of receipts and it was taken as a souvenir by a British Commander whose family later returned it to the United States government in 1940. Within a month, former president Jefferson offered to sell his library as a replacement
11.
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
12.
James Reese Europe
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James Reese Europe was an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. He was the figure on the African-American music scene of New York City in the 1910s. Eubie Blake called him the Martin Luther King of music, James Jim Reese Europe was born in Mobile, Alabama, to Henry and Laura Europe. His family, which included his older sisters Minnie and Ida, and older brother John, moved to Washington, D. C. in 1890 and he moved to New York in 1904. In 1910 Europe organized the Clef Club, a society for African Americans in the music industry, in 1912 the club made history when it played a concert at Carnegie Hall for the benefit of the Colored Music Settlement School. The Clef Club Orchestra, while not a band, was the first band to play proto-jazz at Carnegie Hall. The Clef Clubs performances played music written solely by black composers, including Harry T. Burleigh, Europes orchestra also included Will Marion Cook, who had not been in Carnegie Hall since his own performance as solo violinist in 1896. Cook was the first black composer to launch full musical productions, fully scored with a cast, in the words of Gunther Schuller, Europe. Had stormed the bastion of the establishment and made many members of New Yorks cultural elite aware of Negro music for the first time. Europe was known for his personality and unwillingness to bend to musical conventions. From a realization of the advantages of sticking to the music of my own people, and later, We colored people have our own music that is part of us. Its the product of our souls, its created by the sufferings. His Society Orchestra became nationally famous in 1912, accompanying theater headliner dancers Vernon, the Castles introduced and popularized the foxtrot—America learned to dance from the waist down. In 1913 and 1914 he made a series of records for the Victor Talking Machine Company. These recordings are some of the best examples of the pre-jazz hot ragtime style of the U. S and these are some of the most accepted quotes that are in place to protect the idea that the Original Dixieland Jass Band recorded the first jass pieces in 1917 for Victor. Unlike Europes post-War recordings, the Victor recordings were not called nor marketed as jazz at the time, neither the Clef Club Orchestra nor the Society Orchestra were small Dixieland style bands. They were large bands to satisfy the tastes of a public that was used to performances by the likes of the John Philip Sousa band. The Clef Orchestra had 125 members and played on occasions between 1912 and 1915 in Carnegie Hall
13.
Harry Lawrence Freeman
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Harry Lawrence Freeman was a United States opera composer, conductor, impresario and teacher. He was the first African-American to write an opera that was successfully produced, Freeman founded the Freeman School of Music and the Freeman School of Grand Opera, as well as several short-lived opera companies which gave first performances of his own compositions. During his life, he was known as the black Wagner, Harry Lawrence Freeman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1869, to parents Lemuel Freeman and Agnes Silms-Freeman. Freeman learned to play the piano and was an assistant church organist by the age of 10, at the age of 18, he was inspired to begin composing his own music after attending a performance of Richard Wagners opera Tannhäuser. By the age of 22, Freeman had founded the Freeman Opera Company in Denver and his first opera, Epithalia, was performed at the Deutsches Theater in Denver in 1891. His second opera, The Martyr, premiered at the theater on August 16,1893. It was also produced by the Freeman Opera Company, and concerned an Egyptian nobleman put to death for accepting the religion of Jehovah, the Freeman Opera Company went on to produce The Martyr in Chicago in October 1893 and in Cleveland in 1894. This was the first opera in the United States to be produced by a production company. The Martyr is also listed by John Warthen Struble as produced in Denver, although this is clearly incorrect given the staging of Epithalia two years earlier, Freeman was certainly a pioneering classical composer in the African-American community. In 1894, Freeman returned to live in Cleveland, and began training in music theory under Johann Heinrich Beck. In 1898, Freeman married Charlotte Loise Thomas, a woman from Charleston, two years later, Charlotte gave birth to Freemans son Valdo, and the same year, the Cleveland Orchestra gave readings of excerpts from Freemans operas. For the next decade, the new family lived in Cleveland, Chicago, and Xenia, Ohio, around 1908, the Freeman family moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. In 1912, ragtime composer Scott Joplin, who was living in New York, asked Freemans help in revising his three-act opera, Treemonisha. The extent of Freemans help is unknown, in 1920, he opened the Salem School of Music on 133rd Street in Harlem, later renamed Freeman School of Music. Also in 1920, he founded the Negro Grand Opera Company, Freemans wife Carlotta and his son Valdo, a baritone, sang principal roles in many of the Negro Grand Opera Companys productions. In addition to opera, Freeman wrote stage music and served as musical director for vaudeville. He was musical director and wrote music for the Hogans Musical Comedy Company production Rufus Rastus. He wrote the music for the musical comedy Captain Rufus, which premiered August 12,1907 at the Harlem Music Hall and he was guest conductor and composer/music director of the pageant O Sing a New Song at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1933
14.
Armistice of 11 November 1918
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It went into effect at 11 a. m. Paris time on 11 November 1918, and marked a victory for the Allies, the Germans were responding to the policies proposed by U. S. President Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points of January 1918. Although the armistice ended the fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. In addition, he recommended the acceptance of the demands of US president Woodrow Wilson including putting the Imperial Government on a democratic footing, hoping for more favorable peace terms. As he said to officers of his staff on 1 October, on 3 October, the liberal Prince Maximilian of Baden was appointed Chancellor of Germany, replacing Georg von Hertling in order to negotiate an armistice. In the subsequent two exchanges, Wilsons allusions failed to convey the idea that the Kaisers abdication was a condition for peace. The leading statesmen of the Reich were not yet ready to contemplate such a monstrous possibility, in late October, Ludendorff, in a sudden change of mind, declared the conditions of the Allies unacceptable. He now demanded to resume the war which he himself had declared lost only one month earlier, however the German soldiers were pressing to get home. It was scarcely possible to arouse their readiness for battle anew, the Imperial Government stayed on course and Ludendorff was replaced by Wilhelm Groener. On 5 November, the Allies agreed to take up negotiations for a truce, the latest note from Wilson was received in Berlin on 6 November. That same day, the led by Matthias Erzberger departed for France. For example, they assumed that the de-militarization suggested by Wilson would be limited to the Central Powers, there were also contradictions with their post-War plans that did not include a consistent implementation of the ideal of national self-determination. Also on 9 November, Max von Baden handed over the office of Chancellor to Friedrich Ebert, eberts SPD and Erzbergers Catholic Centre Party had enjoyed an uneasy relationship with the Imperial government since Bismarcks era in the 1870s and 1880s. They were well represented in the Imperial Reichstag, which had power over the government. Their prominence in the negotiations would cause the new Weimar Republic to lack legitimacy in right-wing. The Armistice was the result of a hurried and desperate process and they were then entrained and taken to the secret destination, aboard Ferdinand Fochs private train parked in a railway siding in the forest of Compiègne. Foch appeared only twice in the three days of negotiations, on the first day, to ask the German delegation what they wanted, the Germans were handed the list of Allied demands and given 72 hours to agree. The German delegation discussed the Allied terms not with Foch, but with other French, the Armistice amounted to complete German demilitarization, with few promises made by the Allies in return
15.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
16.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
17.
South Africa
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South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, the remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European, Asian, and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a variety of cultures, languages. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the recognition of 11 official languages. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a role in the countrys recent history. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation, since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the countrys democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation to describe the multicultural diversity. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an economy. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed, nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence. The name South Africa is derived from the geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, since 1961 the long form name in English has been the Republic of South Africa. In Dutch the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika, since 1994 the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning south, is a name for South Africa. South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world, extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has termed the Cradle of Humankind
18.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
19.
New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
20.
Wall Street Crash of 1929
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The crash, which followed the London Stock Exchanges crash of September, signaled the beginning of the 12-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries. The Roaring Twenties, the decade that followed World War I and led to the crash, was a time of wealth, while the American cities prospered, the overproduction of agricultural produce created widespread financial despair among American farmers throughout the decade. This would later be blamed as one of the key factors that led to the 1929 stock market crash, despite the dangers of speculation, many believed that the stock market would continue to rise forever. On March 25,1929, after the Federal Reserve warned of excessive speculation, two days later, banker Charles E. Mitchell announced his company the National City Bank would provide $25 million in credit to stop the markets slide. Mitchells move brought a halt to the financial crisis and call money declined from 20 to 8 percent. Despite all these economic trouble signs and the breaks in March and May 1929, stocks resumed their advance in June. The market had been on a run that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average increase in value tenfold. Shortly before the crash, economist Irving Fisher famously proclaimed, Stock prices have reached what looks like a high plateau. The optimism and financial gains of the bull market were shaken after a well publicized early September prediction from financial expert Roger Babson that a crash was coming. The initial September decline was thus called the Babson Break in the press and this was the start of the Great Crash, although until the severe phase of the crash in October, many investors regarded the September Babson Break as a healthy correction and buying opportunity. On September 20, the London Stock Exchange crashed when top British investor Clarence Hatry and many of his associates were jailed for fraud, the London crash greatly weakened the optimism of American investment in markets overseas. In the days leading up to the crash, the market was severely unstable, periods of selling and high volumes were interspersed with brief periods of rising prices and recovery. On October 24, the market lost 11 percent of its value at the bell on very heavy trading. Several leading Wall Street bankers met to find a solution to the panic and chaos on the trading floor. The meeting included Thomas W. Lamont, acting head of Morgan Bank, Albert Wiggin, head of the Chase National Bank and they chose Richard Whitney, vice president of the Exchange, to act on their behalf. With the bankers financial resources behind him, Whitney placed a bid to purchase a block of shares in U. S. Steel at a price well above the current market. As traders watched, Whitney then placed similar bids on other blue chip stocks and this tactic was similar to one that ended the Panic of 1907. It succeeded in halting the slide, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered, closing with it down only 6.38 points for the day
21.
Southern California
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Southern California, often abbreviated as SoCal, is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises Californias 10 southernmost counties. The region is described as eight counties, based on demographics and economic ties, Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara. The more extensive 10-county definition, which includes Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, is used and is based on historical political divisions. Southern California is an economic center for the state of California. The 8-county and 10-county definitions are not used for the greater Southern California Megaregion, the megaregions area is more expansive, extending east into Las Vegas, Nevada and south across the Mexican border into Tijuana.5 million people. With over 22 million people, Southern California contains roughly 60 percent of Californias population, located east of Southern California is the Colorado Desert and the Colorado River at the border with Arizona. The Mojave Desert is located at the border with the state of Nevada while towards the south is the Mexico–United States border, within Southern California are two major cities, Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as three of the countrys largest metropolitan areas. With a population of 3,792,621, Los Angeles is the most populous city in California and the second most populous in the United States. South of Los Angeles and with a population of 1,307,402 is San Diego, the second most populous city in the state and the eighth most populous in the nation. The counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside are the five most populous in the state, the motion picture, television, and music industry are centered in the Los Angeles area in Southern California. Hollywood, a district within Los Angeles, gives its name to the American motion picture industry, headquartered in Southern California are The Walt Disney Company, Sony Pictures, Universal, MGM, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Brothers. Universal, Warner Brothers, and Sony also run major record companies, Southern California is also home to a large homegrown surf and skateboard culture. Companies such as Vans, Volcom, Quiksilver, No Fear, RVCA, some of the worlds biggest action sports events, including the X Games, Boost Mobile Pro, and the U. S. Open of Surfing, are all held in Southern California. Southern California is also important to the world of yachting, the annual Transpacific Yacht Race, or Transpac, from Los Angeles to Hawaii, is one of yachtings premier events. The San Diego Yacht Club held the Americas Cup, the most prestigious prize in yachting, from 1988 to 1995, Southern California is home to many sports franchises and sports networks such as Fox Sports Net. Many locals and tourists frequent the Southern California coast for its popular beaches, the desert city of Palm Springs is popular for its resort feel and nearby open spaces. Southern California is not a geographic designation and definitions of what constitutes Southern California vary. Geographically, Californias North-South midway point lies at exactly 37°958.23 latitude, around 11 miles south of San Jose, however, when the state is divided into two areas, the term Southern California usually refers to the 10 southernmost counties of the state
22.
Man to Man (1930 film)
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Man to Man is an all-talking American Pre-Code drama film produced by Warner Bros. in 1930. The film was directed by Allan Dwan and stars Phillips Holmes, the film is based on the story Barber Johns Boy by Ben Ames Williams. Phillips Holmes plays as the son of a barber, played by Grant Mitchell, Holmes, who is ashamed at being the son of a murderer, is working at a bank when his father is paroled. Although Mitchell is eager to establish a relationship with his son, feeling that people are judging him because of his father, Holmes decides to leave town and take his girl friend, played by Lucille Powers, with him. There is only one problem, Holmes needs to make money quickly in order to marry Powers. Dwight Frye, who works at the bank as Holmes, is also in love with Powers. Frye steals two thousand dollars from Holmes drawer so that he will be accused of stealing money, when Holmes realizes that two thousand dollars is missing from his drawer he assumes his father has stolen the money as he visited him at the bank earlier in the day. This leads Holmes to confess to stealing the money to prevent his dad going to prison. At the same time, his father confesses to stealing the money to prevent Holmes from going to prison, Powers, who suspects that Fyre has stolen the money, tricks him into confessing his crime and father and son are happily reunited. A print has also preserved at the Library of Congress since the 1970s. Man to Man at the Internet Movie Database
23.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
24.
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
25.
Stepin Fetchit
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Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, better known by the stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American comedian and film actor, who had his greatest fame throughout the 1930s. In films and on stage, the persona of Stepin Fetchit was billed as the Laziest Man in the World, Perry parlayed the Fetchit persona into a successful film career and became a millionaire. He was the first black actor to do so and he was also the first black actor to receive featured screen credit in a film. Perrys film career slowed after 1939, and after 1953, nearly stopped altogether, around that time, the actor and the character began to be seen by black Americans and Americans at large as an embarrassing and harmful anachronism, echoing and perpetuating negative stereotypes. The Stepin Fetchit character has undergone a re-evaluation by some scholars, little is certain about Perrys background other than that he was born in Key West, Florida, to West Indian immigrants. He was the child of Joseph Perry, a cigar maker from Jamaica and Dora Monroe. Both of his parents came to the United States in the 1890s, by 1910, the family had moved north to Tampa, Florida. Another source says he was adopted when he was years old and taken to live in Montgomery. His mother wanted him to be a dentist, so Perry was adopted by a quack dentist and he earned his living for a few years as a singer and tap dancer. Perry began entertaining in his teens as a character actor. By the age of twenty, Perry had become a vaudeville artist and his stage name was a contraction of step and fetch it. His accounts of how he adopted the name varied, but generally he claimed that it originated when he performed an act with a partner. Perry won money betting on a racehorse named Step and Fetch It, when Perry became a solo act he combined the two names, which later became his professional name. Perry played comic roles in a number of films, all based on his character known as The Laziest Man in the World. In his personal life, Perry was highly literate and had a concurrent career writing for The Chicago Defender and he made his reputation and earned a five-year studio contract with his performance in In Old Kentucky. The film featured a connection between Perry and actress Carolynne Snowden, a subplot that was decidedly an on-screen rarity for African-American actors working among a white cast. Perry starred in Hearts in Dixie, one of the first studio productions to boast a predominantly black cast. For his role as Joe in the 1929 part-talkie film version of Show Boat, Perrys singing voice was supplied by Jules Bledsoe, Fetchit did not sing Ol Man River, but instead a new song used in the film, The Lonesome Road
26.
Bill Robinson
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Bill Bojangles Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor, the best known and most highly paid African American entertainer in the first half of the twentieth century. According to dance critic Marshall Stearns, Robinsons contribution to tap dance is exact and he brought it up on its toes, dancing upright and swinging, giving tap a …hitherto-unknown lightness and presence. His signature routine was the dance, in which Robinson would tap up and down a set of stairs in a rhythmically complex sequence of steps. Robinson is also credited with having introduced a new word, copacetic, into popular culture, via his repeated use of it in vaudeville and radio appearances. Robinson is remembered for the support he gave to fellow performers, including Fred Astaire, Lena Horne, Jesse Owens, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ann Miller credited him as a teacher and mentor, and Miller credits him with having changed the course of my life. Gregory Hines produced and starred in a movie about Robinson for which he won the NAACP Best actor Award. In 1989, the U. S. Congress designated May 25, Robinsons birthday, luther Robinson was born in Richmond, Virginia and raised in its Jackson Ward neighborhood. His parents were Maxwell, a worker, and Maria Robinson. His grandmother raised him after both died in 1884 when he was eight years old—his father from chronic heart disease. Details of Robinsons early life are only through legend, much of it perpetuated by Robinson himself. He claimed he was christened Luther—a name he did not like and he suggested to his younger brother Bill that they should exchange names. Eventually, the exchange between the names of both brothers was made, the brother subsequently adopted the name of Percy and under that name achieved recognition as a musician. At the age of five, Robinson began dancing for small change, appearing as a hoofer or busker in local beer gardens, a promoter saw him performing outside the Globe Theater in Richmond and offered him a job as a pick in a local minstrel show. At that time, minstrel shows were staged by performers in blackface. Pickaninnies were cute black children at the edge of the singing, dancing. In 1890, at the age of 13, Robinson ran away to Washington, D. C. where he did odd jobs at Benning Race Track and he teamed up with a young Al Jolson, with Jolson singing while Robinson danced for pennies or to sell newspapers. In 1891 he was hired by Whallen and Martel, touring with Mayme Remingtons troupe in a show titled The South Before the War, performing again as a pickaninny and he travelled with the show for over a year before growing too mature to play the role credibly. In 1898, he returned to Richmond where he joined the United States Army as a rifleman when the Spanish–American War broke out and he received an accidental gunshot wound from a second lieutenant who was cleaning his gun
27.
RKO Pictures
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RKO Pictures Inc. also known as RKO Radio Pictures and in its later years RKO Teleradio Pictures, was an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the companys sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum, RKO has long been celebrated for its series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio, cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The work of producer Val Lewtons low-budget horror unit and RKOs many ventures into the now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after the fact, by film critics. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history, King Kong and Citizen Kane, RKO Pictures is also a member of Motion Picture Association of America. Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948, after years of turmoil and decline under his control, Hughes sold the troubled studio to General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the heir, revived it as a production subsidiary. In October 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer and its success prompted Hollywood to convert from silent to sound film production en masse. The Radio Corporation of America controlled an advanced optical sound-on-film system, RCA Photophone, the industrys two largest major studios, Paramount and Loews/MGM, with two other studios Universal and First National, were poised to contract with ERPI for sound conversion as well. Next on the agenda was securing a string of exhibition venues like those the leading Hollywood production companies owned, Kennedy began investigating the possibility of such a purchase. Around that time, the large Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit of theaters, built around the medium of live vaudeville, was attempting a transition to the movie business. In mid-1927, the operations of Pathé Exchange and Cecil B. De Milles Producers Distributing Corporation had united under KAOs control, early in 1928, KAO general manager John J. Murdock, who had assumed the presidency of Pathé, turned to Kennedy as an adviser in consolidating the studio with De Milles company, PDC. This was the relationship Sarnoff and Kennedy sought, on October 23,1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, with Sarnoff as chairman of the board. Kennedy, who withdrew from his positions in the merged companies, kept Pathé separate from RKO. RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO,22 percent, in the early 1930s, the companys production and distribution arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I
28.
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
29.
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
30.
Republic Pictures
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Republic Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 through 1959, based in Los Angeles, California. It had studio facilities in Studio City and a ranch in Encino. It was best known for specializing in Westerns, movie serials, Republic Pictures was also notable for developing the careers of John Wayne, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers. It was also responsible for the financing and distributing of several John Ford-directed films during the 1940s and early 1950s and one Shakespeare film, Macbeth, created in 1935 by Herbert J. In the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Yates laboratory was servicing many studios, in 1935 Yates saw a chance to become a studio head himself. Six established Poverty Row companies were all in debt to Yates lab and he prevailed upon these studios to merge under his leadership. Yates new company, Republic Pictures Corporation, was established as an enterprise focused on low-budget product. The largest of Republics components was Monogram Pictures, run by producers Trem Carr and W. Ray Johnston, mascot also had just discovered Gene Autry and signed him to a contract as a singing cowboy star. Larry Darmours Majestic Pictures had developed a following, with big-name stars, Republic took its original Liberty Bell logo from M. H. Hoffmans Liberty Pictures. Chesterfield Pictures and Invincible Pictures, two companies under the same ownership, were skilled in producing low-budget melodramas and mysteries. In exchange for merging, the principals were promised independence in their productions under the Republic aegis, after he had learned the basics of film production and distribution from his partners, Yates began asserting more and more authority over their film departments, and dissension arose in the ranks. Republic also acquired Brunswick Records to record their singing cowboys Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, in its early years Republic was itself sometimes labelled a poverty row company, as its primary products were B movies and serials. Republic, however, showed more interest in, and provided larger budgets to, these films than many of the studios were doing. The heart of the company was its westerns, and its many western-film leads, among them John Wayne, Gene Autry, Rex Allen and Roy Rogers, became recognizable stars at Republic. However, by the mid-1940s, Yates was producing better-quality pictures, even mounting big-budget fare like The Quiet Man, Sands of Iwo Jima, Johnny Guitar and The Maverick Queen. Another distinguishing aspect of the studio was Yates avoidance of any subject matter. In 1947, Republic incorporated animation into its Gene Autry feature film Sioux City Sue and it turned out well enough for the studio to dabble in animated cartoons. Cartoons in 1946, Bob Clampett approached Republic and wound up directing a single cartoon, Its a Grand Old Nag, Republic management, however, had second thoughts owing to dwindling profits, and discontinued the series
31.
Sporting Blood (1931 film)
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Sporting Blood is a 1931 American MGM sports drama film directed by Charles Brabin. The film stars Clark Gable, Ernest Torrence and Madge Evans, gambler Rid Riddell works for Tip Scanlon, a crooked gambler, who buys Tommy-Boy, a racehorse from a wealthy man whose spoiled wife loses interest. Tip and Rid consistently win with the horse in both honestly and dishonestly run races, but before long, Tommy Boy loses a race he wasnt supposed to, and the mob is after Tip. Tip is murdered but not before giving Tommy Boy to his friend who sets out to rehabilitate herself. After an attempt at sabotage, the horse wins the Kentucky Derby, himself, a Horse According to MGM records the film earned $547,000 in the US and Canada and $346,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $148,000. Sporting Blood at the Internet Movie Database
32.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936 film)
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The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a 1936 American romance film based on the novel of the same name. It was directed by Henry Hathaway and it was the second full-length feature film to be shot in three-strip Technicolor and the first in color to be shot outdoors, with the approval of the Technicolor Corporation. Much of it was shot at Big Bear Lake in southern California, the Trail of the Lonesome Pine was the fifth feature film adaptation of John Fox, Jr. s 1908 novel, including 1916 and 1923 silent versions. A feud between Kentucky clans the Tollivers and Falins has been ongoing for as long as anyone can recall, after an engineer, Jack Hale, arrives with coal and railroad interests, he saves the life of Dave Tolliver, whose injury has developed gangrene. Dave expects to marry a cousin, June, but she takes a shine to the newcomer. Her younger brother Buddie is also impressed with Hale, who begins to educate him, but others from both families do not give this outsider their trust. Upset over the romance, Dave sets out after Hale with a rifle but is ambushed by the Falins. The latest round of violence causes June not to want to return home, a bridge is destroyed by the Falins, causing the accidental death of Buddie. A funeral is held and June returns, newly sophisticated from being in the big city, family patriarch Buck Falin extends his apologies about her brother. Dave, however, is shot in the back by Wade Falin, the families agree that the feud has gone too far. Hale is befriended by all, and will happily marry June, the film was the first feature-length film to be shot in three-strip Technicolor on location. The significance of this achievement is not to be minimized and it means that color need not shackle the cinema, but may give it fuller expression. The Trail of the Lonesome Pine received positive acclaim, with Frank Nugent of The New York Times considering the film as significant yet not without flaws. The movie made a profit of $522,620, two original songs from the film, both written by composer Louis Alter and lyricist Sidney D. Mitchell and sung by Fuzzy Knight, gained national prominence. A Melody from the Sky was nominated for the 1937 Academy Award in the category of Best Music, the other song, Twilight on the Trail, became a popular hit and eventually something of a classic. It inspired a 1941 cowboy movie of the name and has been recorded by numerous country, pop, rock. Trail of the Lonesome Pine was recognized at the 1936 Venice Film Festival for a Special Recommendation for the use of color film. The Trail of the Lonesome Pine at the TCM Movie Database The Trail of the Lonesome Pine at the Internet Movie Database The Trail of the Lonesome Pine at Virtual History
33.
The Great Ziegfeld
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The Great Ziegfeld is a 1936 American musical drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg. It stars William Powell as the theatrical impresario Florenz Flo Ziegfeld, Jr. Luise Rainer as Anna Held, and Myrna Loy as Billie Burke. Many of the performers of the theatrical Ziegfeld Follies were cast in the film as themselves, including Fanny Brice and Harriet Hoctor, and Billie Burke acted as a supervisor for the film. The A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody set alone was reported to have cost US$220,000, featuring a towering rotating volute of 70 ft diameter with 175 spiral steps, weighing 100 tons. The music to the film was provided by Walter Donaldson, Irving Berlin, the extravagant costumes were designed by Adrian, taking some 250 tailors and seamstresses six months to prepare them using 50 pounds of silver sequins and 12 yards of white ostrich plumes. Over a thousand people were employed in the production of the film and it won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture for producer Hunt Stromberg, Best Actress for Luise Rainer, and Best Dance Direction for Seymour Felix, and was nominated for four others. In 1951, they produced their Technicolor remake of Show Boat, the son of a highly respected music professor, Florenz Flo Ziegfeld, Jr. yearns to make his mark in show business. Flo travels to England on a liner, where he runs into Billings again who is laughing at a newspaper article denouncing him as a fraud. Flo discovers that Billings is on his way to sign a contract with beautiful French star, despite losing all his money gambling at Monte Carlo, Flo charms Anna into signing with him instead, pretending that he doesnt know Billings. Anna twice almost sends him away for his rudeness and for being broke, Ziegfeld promises to give her more publicity than she ever dreams of and to feature her alongside Americas most prominent theatrical performers. At first, Annas performance at the Herald Square Theatre is not a success, however, Flo manages to generate publicity by sending 20 gallons of milk to Anna every day for a fictitious milk bath beauty treatment, then refusing to pay the bill. The newspaper stories soon bring the curious to pack his theater, audience members comment on how the milk must make her skin beautiful and the show is a major success. Flo sends Anna flowers and jewelry and a note saying you were magnificent my wife, however, one success is not enough for the showman. He has an idea for a new kind of show featuring a bevy of blondes and brunettes. The new show, the Ziegfeld Follies, an opulent production filled with women and highly extravagant costumes and sets, is a smash hit. Ziegfeld tries to make an out of Audrey Dane, who is plagued with alcoholism. He gives stagehand Ray Bolger his break as well, mary Lou, now a young woman, visits Ziegfeld, who doesnt recognize her initially, and hires her as a dancer. The new production upsets Anna, who realizes that Flos world does not revolve around just her and she divorces him after walking in on Flo and a drunk Audrey at the wrong moment
34.
The Green Pastures (film)
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The Green Pastures is a 1936 American film depicting stories from the Bible as visualized by African-American characters. It starred Rex Ingram, Oscar Polk, and Eddie Rochester Anderson and it was based on the 1928 novel Ol Man Adam an His Chillun by Roark Bradford and the 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Marc Connelly. God tests the human race in this reenactment of Bible stories set in the world of black American folklore, in spite of criticisms about its racial stereotyping, The Green Pastures proved to be an enormously popular film. On its opening day at New Yorks Radio City Music Hall, the film was held over for an entire years run at some theaters. It remained the highest grossing all-black cast film until the release of Carmen Jones in 1954, the Green Pastures at the TCM Movie Database The Green Pastures at the Internet Movie Database The Green Pastures at AllMovie The Green Pastures at the American Film Institute Catalog
35.
Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
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Edmund Lincoln Anderson was an American comedian and actor. Anderson got his start in business as a teenager on the vaudeville circuit. In the early 1930s, he transitioned into films and radio, in 1937, he began his most famous role of Rochester van Jones, usually known simply as Rochester, the valet of Jack Benny, on his radio show The Jack Benny Program. Anderson became the first Black American to have a role on a nationwide radio program. When the series moved to television, Anderson continued in the role until the end in 1965. After the series ended, Anderson remained active with guest starring roles on television and he was also an avid horse-racing fan who owned several race horses and worked as a horse trainer at the Hollywood Park Racetrack. Anderson was married twice and had four children and he died of heart disease in February 1977 at the age of 71. Anderson was born in Oakland, California and his father, Big Ed Anderson, was a minstrel performer, while his mother, Ella Mae, had been a tightrope walker until her career was ended by a fall. He described himself as being a descendant of slaves who were able to leave the South during the Civil War through the Underground Railroad, at the age of ten, Anderson and his family moved from Oakland to San Francisco. He left school when he was 14 to work as a boy to help his family. Stage-struck at an age, he spent much of his free time waiting at stage doors and cutting up on street corners with his friend and brother. Anderson briefly tried being a jockey, but had to give it up when he became too heavy, Anderson started in show business as part of an all African-American revue at age 14, he had previously won an amateur contest at a vaudeville theater in San Francisco. Anderson joined the cast of Struttin Along in 1923 and was part of Steppin High both as a dancer and as one of the Three Black Aces with his brother, Cornelius and he later worked in vaudeville with Cornelius. Anderson began adding comedy to his song and dance act in 1926, during one of his vaudeville tours to the East Coast, Anderson first met Jack Benny, the men only exchanged greetings and shook hands. Andersons vocal cords were ruptured when he was a youngster selling newspapers in San Francisco, the newsboys believed those who were able to shout the loudest sold the most papers. The permanent damage done to his vocal cords left him with the gravel voice familiar to radio listeners and television viewers over a course of more than twenty years. Anderson was also a dancer and got his show business start in this way, Andersons first appearance on The Jack Benny Program was on March 28,1937. Benny liked the idea of the sketch enough to wire California to find someone for the role of the train porter before the script was actually finished
36.
Louise Beavers
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Louise Beavers was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s until 1960, most often in the role of a maid, servant, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American sororities. Louise Beavers was an actress for black women. Beavers became known as a symbol of a “mammy” on the screen, a mammy archetype “is the portrayal within a narrative framework or other imagery of a black domestic servant, generally good-natured, often overweight, and loud”. Louise Ellen Beavers was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to school teacher Ernestine Monroe Beavers and William M. Beavers, due to her mothers illness, Louise and her parents moved to Pasadena, California. In Pasadena, she attended school and engaged in several school activities, such as basketball. Her mother also worked as a teacher and taught Louise how to sing for concerts. In June 1920, she graduated from Pasadena High School and “worked as a room attendant for a photographer. There is some ambiguity how Beavers began her acting career and she was in a group called the Lady Minstrels who were a group of young women who staged amateur productions and appeared on stage at the Loews State Theatre. It was either her performance in group or in a contest at the Philharmonic Auditorium. Charles Butler from the Central Casting Bureau, who was known for being an agent for African American actors, saw the performance and recommended that Louise try out for a role for a movie. ”At first she was hesitant to try out for movies because of how African Americans were portrayed in movies and how Hollywood encouraged these roles. She once said, “In all the pictures I had seen… they never used colored people for anything except savages. ”Despite this, she tried out for a role in the film Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1927, Louise Beavers started her career in the 1920s. At the time, black people in films were limited to acting in only very few roles and she played the mammy in many of the movies she acted in. She started to more attention in the acting world after she played the role of Julia in Coquette. In this film she played the maid and mother figure to a young white woman. She has a pleasing personality, one that draws people to her instantly and makes them feel that they are meeting a friend instead of a Hollywood Star. ”Beavers had an attractive personality. In most of Beavers movies, her role was such that she would serve, as often black characters did. In 1934, Beavers played Delilah in Imitation of Life in a dramatic role and her character again plays a black maid, but instead of the usual stereotypical comedic or purely functional role, Delilahs story line is a secondary parallel plot
37.
Matthew Beard (American actor)
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Matthew Beard, Jr. was an American child actor, most famous for portraying the character of Stymie in the Our Gang short films from 1930 to 1935. He was a native of Los Angeles, California, Matthew Beard, Jr. was born near Los Angeles, California. His father was Matthew Beard, Sr. and his mother was Johnnie Mae Beard née Clay and his father was also the Founder and Pastor of Beloved Church of God in Christ still located at 7529 S. Main St, Los Angeles, CA90003, Beard had previously played baby parts in many films before signing a five-year contract to play in Our Gang. Stymie could also offer sound, commonsense advice that helped resolve the dilemmas of his playmates, the characters trademark was a bald head crowned by an oversize derby hat, a gift to Beard from comedian Stan Laurel, who had also worked under Our Gang creator Hal Roach. Stymie is the only Our Ganger who both replaced one of the gang members and was in turn replaced by one who would stay on until the series disbanded. The name Stymie was provided by Our Gang director Robert McGowan, who was frustrated by little Matthews curious wanderings around the studio. McGowan would later recall that Stymie was his favorite of all the Our Gang kids, the then five-year-old Beard came to the series a year after the transition from the silent/early talkie era Our Gang. Beards paycheck was used to support his East Los Angeles family. After Beard renamed his younger brother Bobbie Cotton, his parents allowed him to all of the rest of his siblings as they were born. He named one Dickie after his best friend, child actor and Our Gang kid Dickie Moore. and his younger sister Carlena Beard appeared as Stymies younger sister in Shiver My Timbers, Readin and Writin, and For Petes Sake. She did not appear in The First Round-Up, willie Mae Taylor played Buckwheat, a role which would eventually be converted to a male character and given to Billie Thomas. His younger brother Bobbie Beard appeared in six Our Gang shorts from 1932 to 1934 as Stymies younger brother and his mother, Johnnie Mae Beard, has a cameo as Stymies mother in Big Ears and Free Wheeling. Beards younger brother Renee Beard would appear in Hal Roachs Our Gang-derived featurettes of the 1940s, Curley and Who Killed Doc Robbin. After Beard left the series in 1935 at the age of ten, he went on to some minor roles in feature films, such as Captain Blood starring Errol Flynn. At the age of 15 he made an appearance and was credited as Mose the bellboy in the 1940 Fritz Lang directed The Return of Frank James with Henry Fonda, by the time he was in high school, he had retired from acting. Falling into drug use and street life, Beard became addicted to heroin, in the 1960s, he checked himself into Synanon, a drug rehabilitation facility in Los Angeles, and successfully ended his heroin use. In 1978, he appeared in the movie The Buddy Holly Story as a member of the crew at the Apollo Theatre
38.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker