1.
Barcelona
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Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. Barcelona has a cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre. Particularly renowned are the works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona, the city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments. It is a cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world. In 2008 it was the fourth most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union, in 2012 Barcelona had a GDP of $170 billion, it is leading Spain in both employment rate and GDP per capita change. In 2009 the city was ranked Europes third and one of the worlds most successful as a city brand, since 2011 Barcelona has been a leading smart city in Europe. During the Middle Ages, the city was known as Barchinona, Barçalona, Barchelonaa. Internationally, Barcelonas name is abbreviated to Barça. However, this refers only to FC Barcelona, the football club. The common abbreviated form used by locals is Barna, another common abbreviation is BCN, which is also the IATA airport code of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport. The city is referred to as the Ciutat Comtal in Catalan. The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear, the ruins of an early settlement have been excavated in the El Raval neighbourhood, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends, the first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum centred on the Mons Taber, under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens, the city minted its own coins, some from the era of Galba survive. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, also known as the Basilica La Seu, is said to have founded in 343
2.
Catalonia
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Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, located on the northeastern extremity of the Iberian Peninsula. It is designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy, Catalonia consists of four provinces, Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. The capital and largest city is Barcelona, the second-most populated municipality in Spain, Catalonia comprises most of the territory of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is bordered by France and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, the official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan. The eastern counties of these marches were united under the rule of the Frankish vassal the Count of Barcelona, in the later Middle Ages Catalan literature flourished. Between 1469 and 1516, the King of Aragon and the Queen of Castile married and ruled their kingdoms together, retaining all their distinct institutions, Courts, and constitutions. During the Franco-Spanish War, Catalonia revolted against a large and burdensome presence of the Royal army in its territory, within a brief period France took full control of Catalonia, at a high economic cost for Catalonia, until it was largely reconquered by the Spanish army. In the nineteenth century, Catalonia was severely affected by the Napoleonic, in the second half of the century Catalonia experienced industrialisation. As wealth from the industrial expansion grew, Catalonia saw a cultural renaissance coupled with incipient nationalism while several workers movements appeared. In 1914, the four Catalan provinces formed a Commonwealth, and with the return of democracy during the Second Spanish Republic, after the Spanish Civil War, the Francoist dictatorship enacted repressive measures, abolishing Catalan institutions and banning the official use of the Catalan language again. Since the Spanish transition to democracy, Catalonia has regained some political and cultural autonomy and is now one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain, the origin of the name Catalunya is subject to diverse interpretations because of a lack of evidence. During the Middle Ages, Byzantine chroniclers claimed that Catalania derives from the medley of Goths with Alans. Other less plausible theories suggest, Catalunya derives from the land of castles, having evolved from the term castlà or castlan. This theory therefore suggests that the names Catalunya and Castile have a common root, the source is of Celtic origin, meaning chiefs of battle. Although the area is not known to have been occupied by Celts, the Lacetani, an Iberian tribe that lived in the area and whose name, due to the Roman influence, could have evolved by metathesis to Katelans and then Catalans. In English, Catalonia is pronounced /kætəˈloʊniə/, the native name, Catalunya, is pronounced in Central Catalan, the most widely spoken variety whose pronunciation is considered standard. The Spanish name is Cataluña, and the Aranese name is Catalonha, the first known human settlements in what is now Catalonia were at the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic. From the next era, the Epipaleolithic or Mesolithic, important remains survive
3.
San Diego
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San Diego is a major city in California, United States. It is in San Diego County, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, approximately 120 miles south of Los Angeles and immediately adjacent to the border with Mexico. With an estimated population of 1,394,928 as of July 1,2015, San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest in California. It is part of the San Diego–Tijuana conurbation, the second-largest transborder agglomeration between the US and a country after Detroit–Windsor, with a population of 4,922,723 people. San Diego has been called the birthplace of California, historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for Spain, the Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly independent Mexico, in 1850, California became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War and the admission of California to the union. The city is the seat of San Diego County and is the center of the region as well as the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. San Diegos main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, the presence of the University of California, San Diego, with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center, has helped make the area a center of research in biotechnology. The original inhabitants of the region are now known as the San Dieguito, the area of San Diego has been inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the region was Portuguese-born explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailing under the flag of Castile, sailing his flagship San Salvador from Navidad, New Spain, Cabrillo claimed the bay for the Spanish Empire in 1542, and named the site San Miguel. In November 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno was sent to map the California coast, in May 1769, Gaspar de Portolà established the Fort Presidio of San Diego on a hill near the San Diego River. It was the first settlement by Europeans in what is now the state of California, in July of the same year, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded by Franciscan friars under Junípero Serra. By 1797, the mission boasted the largest native population in Alta California, with over 1,400 neophytes living in, Mission San Diego was the southern anchor in California of the historic mission trail El Camino Real. Both the Presidio and the Mission are National Historic Landmarks, in 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain, and San Diego became part of the Mexican territory of Alta California. In 1822, Mexico began attempting to extend its authority over the territory of Alta California. The fort on Presidio Hill was gradually abandoned, while the town of San Diego grew up on the land below Presidio Hill. The Mission was secularized by the Mexican government in 1833, the 432 residents of the town petitioned the governor to form a pueblo, and Juan María Osuna was elected the first alcalde, defeating Pío Pico in the vote
4.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
5.
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
6.
Douglas Fairbanks
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Douglas Fairbanks was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood. Fairbanks was a member of United Artists. Fairbanks was also a member of The Motion Picture Academy. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became Hollywood royalty and Fairbanks was referred to as The King of Hollywood, a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable. Though widely considered as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the 1910s and 1920s and his final film was The Private Life of Don Juan. Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado and he had two half-brothers, John Fairbanks, Jr. and Norris Wilcox, and a full brother, Robert Payne Ullman. Douglas Fairbankss father, Hezekiah Charles Ullman was born in Berrysburg, Pennsylvania and he was the fourth child in a Jewish family consisting of six sons and four daughters. Charless parents, Lazarus Ullman and Lydia Abrahams, had immigrated to the U. S. in 1830 from Baden, when he was 17, Charles started a small publishing business in Philadelphia. Two years later, he left for New York to study law and he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1856 and began building a substantial practice. At the onset of the Civil War, Charles joined the Union forces and he engaged in several battles, was wounded, and later became a captain in the 5th Pennsylvania Reserves. Charles left the service in 1864 and returned to his law practice, law Association, a forerunner of the American Bar Association. Charles met Ella Adelaide Marsh, after she married his friend and client John Fairbanks, the Fairbankses had a son, John, and shortly thereafter John Senior died of tuberculosis. Ella, born into a wealthy southern Catholic family, was overprotected, consequently, she was swindled out of her fortune by her husbands partners. Even the efforts of Charles Ullman, acting on her behalf, distraught and lonely, she met and married a courtly Georgian, Edward Wilcox, who turned out to be an alcoholic. After they had a son, Norris, she divorced Wilcox with Charles acting as her own lawyer in the suit, the pretty southern belle soon became romantically involved with Charles and agreed to move to Denver with him to pursue mining investments. They arrived in Denver in 1881 with her son, John and they were married and in 1882 had a child, Robert and then a second son, Douglas, a year later. Charles purchased several mining interests in the Rocky Mountains, and he re-established his law practice, Charles Ullman, after hearing of his wifes philandering, abandoned the family when Douglas was five years old
7.
A Girl in Every Port (1928 film)
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A Girl in Every Port is an American silent comedy film based on an original story by Howard Hawks, who directed the film as well. The feature stars Victor McLaglen, Robert Armstrong and Louise Brooks and it was produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation, which later remade it as Goldie in 1931, with Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow. A print of the 1928 movie exists at the George Eastman House, Spike travels the world as the mate of a schooner. In Central America, he takes a dislike to another sailor, Salami, then Spike notices that Salami has a ring shaped like a heart with an anchor inscribed. He has finally found his nemesis, when they are released, they look for a private place to fight, but accidentally fall into the water. Oddly, Spike cannot swim, so when Salami rescues him, inseparable, they sail the seas on the same ships. Just before they reach Marseille, Spike tells Salami he has saved enough money to buy a house and some horses, cows and chickens. When they dock, Salami has to stay due to a toothache. Sure enough, that is what happens, at a carnival, Spike becomes entranced by the high diver Mamselle Godiva. When the barker signals her that Spike gave him the most money to watch her performance and he is so in love with her that he asks her if she would like to settle down with him, she leads him on so she can get the rest of his money. When Spike first introduces Salami to her, Salami recognizes her and she was his girlfriend at Coney Island until he left her. She makes it clear that she would very much like to renew their relationship, one night, she sends Spike on an errand so she can visit Salami, whom she finds asleep in bed. She tells him that she has gotten most of Spikes savings and is about to drop him, Salami refuses to take her back, he gets dressed and goes to a bar to get away from her. However, Spike returns to their lodgings and finds her there and he also spots Salamis unmade bed, so he assumes the worst. Meanwhile, Salami gets into a fight with two sailors and yells for his friends help. Spike knocks the two men out, then does the same to Salami, after thinking over all the fun they had together, however, he asks Salami if he betrayed him. When Salami says no, they become friends again and it was his first love story between two men, with two men bonding over their duty, skills and careers and considering their friendship to be more important than relationships with women. In his book Hawks on Hawks, Joseph McBride asked the director, Hawks replied, You ever hit anybody hard
8.
Mr. Robinson Crusoe
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Mr. Robinson Crusoe is a 1932 Pre-Code American film. It is one of the few films starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in his penultimate film role, Fairbanks also produced the film. The film was directed by A. Edward Sutherland, a silent film director, for Fairbankss Elton Productions. Steve Drexel shows a fiery optimism and can-do spirit that matches the Fairbanks screen persona that appears in his most popular films, the South Seas comedy adventure featured location filming on Tahiti with working titles being Tropical Knight, A Modern Robinson Crusoe and Robinson Crusoe of the South Seas. The Fairbanks character Steve Drexel voluntarily strands himself on an island on a bet. He intends to re-create civilization and carves a comfortable home, complete with a sign reading 52nd Street, Drexel is joined by his dog, and befriended by a native monkey, parrot, and a wild goat that is captured in one of his traps. He attempts to cultivate a head-hunter native as his Man Friday from Robinson Crusoe, a woman played by actress Maria Alba runs away from a marriage she does not want on a neighboring island and is trapped in one of his devices. He names her Saturday and she becomes the love interest of the film, in an attempt to communicate with Saturday, he tries German, Spanish, and then Pig Latin. Over the course of the film, she slowly learns rudimentary English, eventually, the natives on a nearby island attack the Fairbanks settlement at the behest of the men that bet against the main character. The hero defeats the hostile natives just as his friends arrive, coincidental to their arrival, a separate war party of natives arrives and attacks. Steve Drexel distracts them as his friends save his animals and head for the yacht, after a harrowing chase, he ends up escaping with his friends, animals and the girl Saturday on the yacht that brought him there. He takes her back to New York where she performs to a crowd in the Ziegfeld Follies. Alfred Newman who had previously scored Fairbanks Reaching for the Moon composed the score, Newman reused one of his musical themes for the 1937 film The Hurricane where it became a popular song called Moon of Manakoora. Newmans score for The Hurricane was nominated for an Academy Award, Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance writes Mr. Robinson Crusoe, his last personal production, was designed to meet his responsibilities in the least demanding way. The film was conceived as an inexpensive travelogue masquerading as a narrative film. Free from the dialogue that had so confined his type of film. And yet, despite the visual aspect of the film, his customary ebullience is not in evidence. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press,2008
9.
Hell's Heroes (film)
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Hells Heroes is a western film, one of many adaptations of Peter B. Three outlaws, played by Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, and Fred Kohler and this film was the first sound film directed by William Wyler. Four men, Bob Sangster, Barbwire Gibbons, Wild Bill Kearney, José and the cashier is killed, while Barbwire is shot in the shoulder. The three outlaws escape the posse, fleeing into the desert, however, their horses die and they have little water. When they reach a water hole, they are dismayed to find not only is it dry. She gives birth to a boy, before she dies from her ordeal, she makes the three the childs godfathers and begs them to take him to his father, Frank Edwards. Bob wants to abandon the boy, but the two are determined to honor the womans request. They start walking the 40 miles to New Jerusalem, weakened by his wound, Barbwire eventually can go no further. He makes the others continue on without him, then shoots himself and that night, they stop to rest. When Bob wakes up the morning, he finds Bill gone. A note explains he left to conserve the remaining water. Bob goes on, discarding his belongings along the way, including finally the loot, at one point, he leaves the baby, but then picks him up again. His strength gives out just as he reaches a poisoned water hole, then, he comes up with a plan. He drinks his fill, knowing that he will have about an hour before it kills him and he stumbles into New Jerusalems church, where the congregation is celebrating Christmas. Then, his task completed, he dies without uttering a word, the production utilized much of the towns main street and included both exterior and interior footage of the Bodie Bank, which burned in 1932, and Methodist Church. The bank robbery sequence features an elaborate horse-drawn hearse which is still on display in the towns museum, Hells Heroes at the Internet Movie Database Hells Heroes at the TCM Movie Database Hells Heroes at AllMovie
