1.
Pat O'Brien (actor)
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William Joseph Patrick Pat OBrien was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits. Of Irish descent, he often played Irish and Irish-American characters and was referred to as Hollywoods Irishman in Residence in the press, one of the best-known screen actors of the 1930s and 1940s, he played priests, cops, military figures, pilots, and reporters. He is especially well-remembered for his roles in Knute Rockne, All American, Angels with Dirty Faces and he was frequently paired onscreen with Hollywood legend James Cagney. OBrien also appeared on stage and television, Pat OBrien was born in 1899 to an Irish-American Roman Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All four of his grandparents had come from Ireland, the OBriens were originally from County Cork. His grandfather, Patrick OBrien, for whom he was named, was an architect who was killed trying to break up a saloon fight in New York City. His mothers parents, the McGoverns, immigrated from County Galway in the west of Ireland in the mid- to late-19th century, as a child, OBrien served as an altar boy at Gesu Church, while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets in Milwaukee. He attended Marquette Academy with fellow actor Spencer Tracy, who became a lifelong friend, during World War I, OBrien and Tracy joined the United States Navy. They both attended boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, but the war ended before their training had finished, Jack Benny was also at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center at the same time as OBrien and Tracy. According to his autobiography, Benny performed a number on the violin at a one evening. OBrien walked on stage and whispered in his ear, For heavens sake, Ben, put down the damn fiddle, Benny stopped playing his violin and made a series of comments that got laughs from the audience. In this way, OBrien indirectly helped to start Bennys career in comedy, after the war, OBrien finished his secondary schooling at Marquette Academy and later attended Marquette University. While still at college, he decided to work as an actor. He moved to New York, where he lived for a while with Tracy, after a decade in plays on Broadway and in the New York City area, OBrien began appearing in movies in 1930. Often playing fast-talking smart alecs or romantic leads at first, he progressed to playing a string of authority figures, especially cops. His first starring role was as ace reporter Hildy Johnson in the original 1931 version of The Front Page with Adolphe Menjou, Warner Brothers hired OBrien as a contract player in 1933. He remained with the studio until 1940, when he left after a dispute over the terms of his contract renewal and he appeared with James Cagney, also under contract to Warner Brothers, in nine feature films, including Angels with Dirty Faces and Cagneys last film, Ragtime. The two originally met in 1926 and remained friends for almost six decades, after OBriens death, Cagney referred to him as his dearest friend
2.
Ronald Reagan
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Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who was the 40th President of the United States, from 1981 to 1989. Before his presidency, he was the 33rd Governor of California, from 1967 to 1975, after a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader. Raised in a family in small towns of northern Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932. After moving to Hollywood in 1937, he became an actor, Reagan was twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild, the labor union for actors, where he worked to root out Communist influence. In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a speaker at General Electric factories. Having been a lifelong Democrat, his views changed and he became a conservative and in 1962 switched to the Republican Party. In 1964, Reagans speech, A Time for Choosing, in support of Barry Goldwaters foundering presidential campaign, Building a network of supporters, he was elected Governor of California in 1966. Entering the presidency in 1981, Reagan implemented sweeping new political, in his first term he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, and fought public sector labor. During his re-election bid, Reagan campaigned on the notion that it was Morning in America, foreign affairs dominated his second term, including ending of the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, and the Iran–Contra affair. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an empire, and during his famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate. Jack, a salesman and storyteller, was the grandson of Irish Catholic immigrants from County Tipperary, Reagan had one older brother, John Neil Reagan, who became an advertising executive. As a boy, Reagans father nicknamed his son Dutch, due to his fat little Dutchman-like appearance and Dutchboy haircut, Reagans family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg, and Chicago. In 1919, they returned to Tampico and lived above the H. C, Pitney Variety Store until finally settling in Dixon. After his election as president, residing in the upstairs White House private quarters, for the time, Reagan was unusual in his opposition to racial discrimination, and recalled a time in Dixon when the local inn would not allow black people to stay there. Reagan brought them back to his house, where his mother invited them to stay the night and have breakfast the next morning, after the closure of the Pitney Store in late 1920 and the familys move to Dixon, the midwestern small universe had a lasting impression on Reagan. Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in acting, sports and his first job was as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park in 1927. Over a six-year period, Reagan reportedly performed 77 rescues as a lifeguard and he attended Eureka College, a Disciples-oriented liberal arts school, where he became a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, a cheerleader, and studied economics and sociology. While involved, the Miller Center of Public Affairs described him as an indifferent student and he majored in economics and sociology, and graduated with a C grade
3.
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
4.
South Bend, Indiana
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South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents, its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 318,586 and it is the fourth-largest city in Indiana, serving as the economic and cultural hub of Northern Indiana. The highly ranked University of Notre Dame is located just to the north in unincorporated Notre Dame, the area was originally settled in the early 19th century by fur traders and was established as a city in 1865. The St. Joseph River shaped South Bends economy through the mid-20th century, River access assisted heavy industrial development such as that of the Studebaker Corporation, the Oliver Chilled Plow Company, and other large corporations. The population of South Bend declined after 1960, when it had a population of 132,445. This was chiefly due to migration to areas as well as the demise of Studebaker and other heavy industry. Today, the largest industries in South Bend are health care, education, small business, remaining large corporations include Crowe Horwath, Honeywell, and AM General. Recently, the city population has started to grow for the first time in fifty years. The old Studebaker plant and surrounding area, now called Ignition Park, is being redeveloped as a center to attract new industry. The St. Joseph Valley was long occupied by Native Americans, one of the earliest known groups to occupy what would later become northern Indiana was the Miami tribe. Later, the Potawatomi moved into the region, utilizing the rich food, the Potawatomi occupied this region of Indiana until most of them were forcibly removed in the 1840s. The South Bend area was so popular because its portage was the shortest overland route from the St. Joseph River to the Kankakee River and this route was used for centuries, first by the Native Americans, then by French explorers, missionaries and traders. The first permanent white settlers of South Bend were fur traders who established trading posts in the area, in 1820, Pierre Frieschutz Navarre arrived, representing the American Fur Company of John Jacob Astor. He settled near what is now downtown South Bend, alexis Coquillard, another agent of the AFC, established a trading post known as the Big St. Joseph Station. In 1827, Lathrop Minor Taylor established a post for Samuel Hanna and Company, in whose records the name St. Josephs, by 1829, the town was growing, with Coquillard and Taylor emerging as leaders. They applied for a post office, Taylor was appointed postmaster, and the post office was designated as Southold, Allen County, Indiana. The following year, the name was changed to South Bend, probably to ease confusion, in 1831, South Bend was laid out as the county seat and as one of the four original townships of St. Joseph County with 128 residents. Soon after, design began on what would become the town of South Bend, the town was formally established in 1835 and rapidly grew
5.
Knute Rockne
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Knute Kenneth Rockne was a Norwegian-American football player and coach at the University of Notre Dame. Rockne is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in football history. His biography at the College Football Hall of Fame identifies him as without question, Rockne helped to popularize the forward pass and made the Notre Dame Fighting Irish a major factor in college football. Knute Rockne was born Knut Larsen Rokne in Voss, Norway, to smith and wagonmaker Lars Knutson Rokne and his wife and he emigrated with his parents at five years old to Chicago. He grew up in the Logan Square area of Chicago, on the northwest side of the city, Rockne learned to play football in his neighborhood and later played end in a local group called the Logan Square Tigers. He attended North West Division High School in Chicago, playing football, after Rockne graduated from high school, he took a job as a mail dispatcher with the Post Office in Chicago for four years. When he was 22, he had saved money to continue his education. He headed to Notre Dame in Indiana to finish his schooling, Rockne excelled as a football end there, winning All-American honors in 1913. Rockne helped to transform the game in a single contest. On November 1,1913, the Notre Dame squad stunned the highly regarded Army team 35–13 in a game played at West Point. This game was not the invention of the pass. He was educated as a chemist at Notre Dame, and graduated in 1914 with a degree in pharmacy, in 1914, he was recruited by Peggy Parratt to play for the Akron Indians. There Parratt had Rockne playing both end and halfback and teamed with him on several successful forward pass plays during their title drive, Knute wound up in Massillon, Ohio, in 1915 along with former Notre Dame teammate Dorais to play with the professional Massillon Tigers. Rockne and Dorais brought the pass to professional football from 1915 to 1917 when they led the Tigers to the championship in 1915. Pro Football in the Days of Rockne by Emil Klosinski maintains the worst loss suffered by Rockne was in 1917. He coached the South Bend Jolly Fellows Club when they lost 40–0 to the Toledo Maroons, during 13 years as head coach, Rockne led his Fighting Irish to 105 victories,12 losses, five ties and three national championships, including five undefeated seasons without a tie. Rockne posted the highest all-time winning percentage for a college football coach. His schemes utilized include the eponymous Notre Dame Box offense and the 7–2–2 defense, the backfield lined up in a T-formation, then quickly shifted into a box to the left or right just as the ball was snapped
6.
University of Notre Dame
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The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located adjacent to South Bend, Indiana, in the United States. In French, Notre Dame du Lac means Our Lady of the Lake and refers to the patron saint. The main campus covers 1,250 acres in a setting and it contains a number of recognizable landmarks, such as the Golden Dome, the Word of Life mural. The school was founded on November 26,1842, by Father Edward Sorin, CSC, Today, many Holy Cross priests continue to work for the university, including the president of the university. Notre Dame is a large, four-year, highly residential research university, undergraduate students are organized into four colleges, and the Architecture School. The latter is known for teaching New Classical Architecture and for awarding the globally renowned annual Driehaus Architecture Prize, the university offers over 50 foreign study abroad yearlong programs and over 15 summer programs. It maintains a system of libraries, cultural venues, artistic and scientific museums, including the Hesburgh Library and the Snite Museum of Art. Over 80% of the universitys 8,000 undergraduates live on campus in one of 29 single-sex residence halls, each with its own traditions, legacies, events, the university counts approximately 120,000 alumni. The universitys athletic teams are members of the NCAA Division I and are known collectively as the Fighting Irish, other ND sport teams, chiefly in the Atlantic Coast Conference, have accumulated 16 national championships. The Notre Dame Victory March is often regarded as the most famous, started as a small all-male institution in 1842 and charter in 1844, Notre Dame reached international fame at the beginning of the 20th century. Ever since, the University has seen growth, and under the leadership of the next two presidents, Rev. Malloy and Rev. Jenkins, many infrastructure and research expansions have been completed. In 1842, the Bishop of Vincennes, Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière, offered land to Father Edward Sorin of the Congregation of Holy Cross, on the condition that he build a college in two years. Sorin arrived on the site with eight Holy Cross brothers from France and Ireland on November 26,1842 and he soon erected additional buildings, including the Old College, the first church, and the first main building. They immediately acquired two students and set about building additions to the campus, Notre Dame began as a primary and secondary school, but soon received its official college charter from the Indiana General Assembly on January 15,1844. Under the charter the school is named the University of Notre Dame du Lac. Because the university was only for male students, the female-only Saint Marys College was founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross near Notre Dame in 1844. The first degrees from the college were awarded in 1849, the university was expanded with new buildings to accommodate more students and faculty. With each new president, new programs were offered and new buildings built to accommodate them
7.
Pop Warner
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Glenn Scobey Warner, most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game. Included among his innovations are the single and double wing formations, fellow pioneer coach Amos Alonzo Stagg called Warner one of the excellent creators. He was inducted as a coach into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of its class in 1951. He also contributed to a football program which became known as Pop Warner Little Scholars. In the early 1900s, he created a football program at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School—a federally-funded. He also coached teams to four championships, Pittsburgh in 1915,1916. Predating Bear Bryant and Bobby Bowden, he once had the most wins of any coach in football history. Warner was born April 5,1871 on a farm in Springville and he was the son of William Warner, a cavalry officer in the American Civil War, and schoolteacher Adaline Scobey. In 1878 a railroad came to Springville, and four years later the moved to a house on East Main Street. Plump as a child, Warner was sometimes known as Butter and he began playing baseball at an early age, and was a skilled pitcher. Nobody in town owned a football, his exposure to the new sport at a young age was with an inflated cows bladder, and as few knew the rules. Warners East Main Street house attracted a number of friends, when a neighbor told his mother that the play would damage her lawn, she replied, Im raising boys. Aside from ranching, Warner got a job assisting a tinsmith and he was already interested in art as a kid — learning how to paint watercolor landscapes, and as a tinsmith he learned how to use tools to make cups, teapots, baking pans as well as lanterns. In 1892, Warner returned to Springville and began to use his experience to gamble on horse races. Although he had no interest in college, soon after coming back he was forced to attend Cornell Universitys law school. Later Warner wrote I dare not write to my father and tell him I was broke — he felt that the way to get funds was to inform his father that he decided to study law. His father, who had wanted him to be a lawyer. Eventually, Warner became known as Pop because he was one of the oldest students at Cornell, at the end of 1894, Warner left Cornell and began working as an attorney in Buffalo, New York
8.
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
9.
National Film Registry
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The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Boards selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The NFPB, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992,1996,2005, and again in October 2008. The NFPBs mission, to which the NFR contributes, is to ensure the survival, conservation, the 1996 law also created the non-profit National Film Preservation Foundation which, although affiliated with the NFPB, raises money from the private sector. To be eligible for inclusion, a film must be at least ten years old, for the first selection in 1989, the public nominated almost 1,000 films for consideration. Members of the NFPB then developed individual ballots of possible films for inclusion, the ballots were tabulated into a list of 25 films which was then modified by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and his staff at the Library for the final selection. Since 1997, members of the public have been able to nominate up to 50 films a year for the NFPB, the NFR includes films ranging from Hollywood classics to orphan films. A film is not required to be feature-length, nor is it required to have been released in the traditional sense. As of the 2016 listing, there are 700 films preserved in the Registry, currently, the earliest listed film is Newark Athlete, and the most recent is 13 Lakes. Counting the 11 multi-year serials in the NFR once each by year of completion, the years with the most films selected are 1928,1939, the time between a films debut and its selection varies greatly. The longest span is 119 years, Newark Athlete was originally released in 1891, the shortest span is the minimum 10 years, this distinction is shared by Raging Bull, Do the Right Thing, Goodfellas, Toy Story, Fargo and 13 Lakes. For purposes of this list, multi-year serials are counted once by year of completion
10.
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
