1.
The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)
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The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent short Western film written, produced, and directed by Edwin S. Porter, a former Edison Studios cameraman. Actors in the movie included Alfred C, abadie, Broncho Billy Anderson and Justus D. Barnes, although there were no credits. Though a Western, it was filmed in Milltown, New Jersey, the film was inspired by Scott Marbles 1896 stage play. At twelve minutes long, The Great Train Robbery film is considered a milestone in making, expanding on Porters previous work Life of an American Fireman. The film used a number of techniques, including composite editing, on-location shooting. The film is one of the earliest to use the technique of cross cutting, some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes. Techniques used in The Great Train Robbery were inspired by used in Frank Mottershaws British film A Daring Daylight Burglary. Film historians now largely consider The Great Train Robbery to be the first American action film, in 1990, The Great Train Robbery was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. They then knock the operator out and tie him up, as the train stops it is boarded by the bandits—now four. Two bandits enter a car, kill a messenger and open a box of valuables with dynamite. The bandits then force the passengers off the train and rifle them for their belongings, one passenger tries to escape, but is instantly shot down. Carrying their loot, the escape in the locomotive, later stopping in a valley where their horses had been left. Meanwhile, back in the office, the bound operator awakens. His daughter arrives bringing him his meal and cuts him free, there is some comic relief at a dance hall, where an eastern stranger is forced to dance while the locals fire at his feet. The door suddenly opens and the telegraph operator rushes in to them of the robbery. The men quickly form a posse, which overtakes the bandits, an additional scene of the film is a close up of the leader of the bandits, played by Justus D. Barnes, who empties his pistol point blank into the camera. Although it is placed at the end, Porter stated that the scene could also appear at the beginning of the film. In the 1990 film Goodfellas, the shot of Tommy shooting at the camera was taken from this film
2.
Western (genre)
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Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers, Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a. mythic vision of the plains, specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution. The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre, from the early 20th century to the 1960s, Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Fords landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939, Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time – including High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–frontier justice–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, a showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress, similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West, it is the place to go for music, women, gambling, drinking, brawling and shooting. The American Film Institute defines western films as those set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, the term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became an art form. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds, Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era. With the advent of sound in 1927-28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and these smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream star in the wake of a decade of headlining B westerns
3.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Outlaw
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In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, outlawry was thus one of the harshest penalties in the legal system. In early Germanic law, the penalty is conspicuously absent. The concept is known from Roman law, as the status of homo sacer, women were declared waived rather than outlawed but it was effectively the same punishment. Among other forms of exile, Roman law included the penalty of interdicere aquae et ignis, people so penalized were required to leave Roman territory and forfeit their property. If they returned, they were effectively outlaws, providing them the use of fire or water was illegal, and they could be killed at will without legal penalty. Interdicere aquae et ignis was traditionally imposed by the tribune of the plebs and it was later also applied by many other officials, such as the Senate, magistrates, and Julius Caesar as a general and provincial governor during the Gallic Wars. It fell out of use during the early Empire, in English common law, an outlaw was a person who had defied the laws of the realm, by such acts as ignoring a summons to court, or fleeing instead of appearing to plead when charged with a crime. Outlawry was a principally pre-Magna Carta phenomenon, the most famous English outlaw was Robin Hood, however, his historical existence is not proved. The term outlawry referred to the procedure of declaring someone an outlaw. In the common law of England, a judgment of outlawry was one of the harshest penalties in the system, since the outlaw could not use the legal system for protection. To be declared an outlaw was to suffer a form of civil or social death, the outlaw was debarred from all civilized society. No one was allowed to give him food, shelter, or any sort of support – to do so was to commit the crime of aiding and abetting. A more recent concept of wanted dead or alive is similar, an outlaw might be killed with impunity, and it was not only lawful but meritorious to kill a thief fleeing from justice — to do so was not murder. A man who slew a thief was expected to declare the fact without delay, otherwise the dead man’s kindred might clear his name by their oath and require the slayer to pay weregild as for a true man. By the rules of law, a criminal outlaw did not need to be guilty of the crime for which he was an outlaw. If a man was accused of a treason or felony but failed to appear in court to defend himself, if he was accused of a misdemeanour, then he was guilty of a serious contempt of court which was itself a capital crime. It was obsolete by the time the offence was abolished in 1938, there was also a doctrine of civil outlawry
6.
Little Falls, New York
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Little Falls is a city in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 4,946 at the 2010 census, the name is derived from a small cataract near the city. The city is built on both sides of the Mohawk River, at a point at which rapids had impeded travel upriver, transportation through the valley was improved by construction of the Erie Canal, completed in 1825 and connecting the Great Lakes with the Hudson River. The city of Little Falls is located at the corner of the Town of Little Falls and is east of Utica. Little Falls has a location on the slope of a narrow and rocky defile, flowing through which the river falls 45 feet in less than a mile. Little Falls was first settled by Europeans around 1723, when German Palatines were granted land under the Burnetsfield Patent and it was then the westernmost European settlement in the colony of New York. The need to portage around the falls promoted a trading location on the site of the future city and it was the first settlement in the town. The settlers were attacked during the French and Indian War, the small settlement here was destroyed by Iroquois Indians, mostly Mohawk, and Tories in June 1782. The village was not resettled until 1790, and it was known at times as Rockton, Little Falls was incorporated as a village in 1811, and reincorporated in 1827. The City of Little Falls was chartered in 1895, the Western Inland Canal was constructed in 1792 and helped the local economy. The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, passes through the city, lock 17 of the New York State Erie Canal replaced the three locks of the original 1825 Erie Canal and is 40.5 feet in height. With dairy farms located throughout the town, Little Falls was a center for the manufacturing of cheese in the third quarter of the 19th century. Its products were shipped to market in New York City and other major cities, in the 20th century it attracted immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, who worked in factories for textiles, gloves and other products. In 1900,10,381 people lived in Little Falls and it had its peak of population in 1920 with 13,029. Increasing urbanization of larger cities and the decline of manufacturing in the Mohawk Valley in mid-century have led to a decline in population, in 1903, a westbound New York Central special newspaper train derailed due to excessive speed on a sharp curve killing the engine crew. In 1940, a more serious crash at the same location of a fifteen car luxury passenger train killed 31. Benjamin T. Babbitt operated a shop in Little Falls early in his career. Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge of Allegiance, lived in the city, natale H. Bellocchi, United States diplomat, was born in Little Falls David H. S
7.
Edison Manufacturing Company
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Its assets and operations were transferred to Thomas A. Edison, Inc. in 1911. Thomas Edison organized the Edison Manufacturing Company in December 1889 as his business for the purpose of making and selling the Edison-Lalande primary battery. It was formally incorporated on 5 May 1900 in New Jersey, the company made and sold batteries for use in telegraph, phonoplex, and telephone systems, and for phonographs, dental equipment, medical instruments, and other machinery. It also made kinetoscopes, phonograph cylinder wax, x-ray equipment, medical instruments, from April 1895 to June 1908 William E. Gilmore was vice-president and general manager of the company. He was succeeded by the patent lawyer Frank Dyer, edisons films were made by the Kinetograph Department of the Edison Manufacturing Company. The Edison Studios first produced kinetoscope films in Manhattan, then from 1905 in a studio in the Bronx, the company had the same senior executives as the more profitable National Phonograph Company, to which Edison paid more attention. Edison was also distracted by other enterprises including storage batteries, iron ore and cement, in February 1911 the companys assets were assigned to Thomas A. Edison, Inc. The Edison Manufacturing Company was formally dissolved on 9 November 1926
8.
Thomas Edison
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Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as Americas greatest inventor. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Edison was an inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France. Edisons inventions contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications and these included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of generation and distribution to homes, businesses. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York, Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. His father, the son of a Loyalist refugee, had moved as a boy with the family from Nova Scotia, settling in southwestern Ontario, in a known as Shewsbury, later Vienna. Samuel Jr. eventually fled Ontario because he took part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837 and his father, Samuel Sr. had earlier fought in the War of 1812 as captain of the First Middlesex Regiment. By contrast, Samuel Jr. s struggle found him on the losing side, once across the border, he found his way to Milan, Ohio. His patrilineal family line was Dutch by way of New Jersey and his mother taught him at home. Much of his education came from reading R. G, parkers School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Edison developed hearing problems at an early age, the cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. In his later years, he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, Edisons family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, after the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854 and business declined. Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit and he briefly worked as a telegraph operator in 1863 for the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford, Ontario railway at age 16. He was held responsible for a near collision and he also studied qualitative analysis and conducted chemical experiments on the train until he left the job. Edison obtained the right to sell newspapers on the road, and, with the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald
