Freak show
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics, those with extraordinary diseases and conditions, others with performances expected to be shocking to viewers. Tattooed or pierced people have sometimes been seen in freak shows, as have attention-getting physical performers such as fire-eating and sword-swallowing acts. In the mid-16th century, freak shows became popular pastimes in England. Deformities began to be treated as objects of interest and entertainment, the crowds flocked to see them exhibited. A famous early modern example was the exhibition at the court of Charles I of Lazarus and Joannes Baptista Colloredo, two conjoined brothers born in Genoa, Italy. While Lazarus appeared to be otherwise ordinary, the underdeveloped body of his brother dangled from his chest; when Lazarus was not exhibiting himself, he covered his brother with his cloak to avoid unnecessary attention.
As well as exhibitions, freak shows were popular in the taverns and fairgrounds where the freaks were combined with talent displays. For example, in the 18th century, Matthias Buchinger, born without arms or lower legs, entertained crowds with astonishing displays of magic and musical ability, both in England and Ireland, it was in the 19th century, both in England and the United States, where freak shows reached maturity as successful commercially run enterprises. During the late 19th century and the early 20th century freak shows were at their height of popularity. Although not all abnormalities were real, some being alleged, the exploitation for profit was seen as an accepted part of American culture; the attractiveness of freak shows led to the spread of the shows that were seen at amusement parks, dime museums and vaudeville. The amusement park industry flourished in the United States by the expanding middle class who benefited from short work weeks and a larger income. There was a shift in American culture which influenced people to see leisure activities as a necessary and beneficial equivalent to working, thus leading to the popularity of the freak show.
The showmen and promoters exhibited all types of freaks. People who appeared non-white or who had a disability were exhibited as unknown races and cultures; these “unknown” races and disabled whites were advertised as being undiscovered humans to attract viewers. For example, those with microcephaly, a condition linked to mental retardation and characterized by a small, pointed head and small overall structure, were considered or characterized as “missing links” or as atavistic specimens of an extinct race. Hypopituitary dwarfs who tend to be well proportioned and physically attractive, were advertised as lofty. Achondroplastic dwarfs, whose head and limbs tend to be out of proportion to their trunks, were characterized as exotic mode; those who were armless, legless, or limbless were characterized in the exotic mode as animal-people, such as “The Snake-Man”, “The Seal man”. There were four ways freak shows were marketed; the first was lecture. This featured a showman or professor who managed the presentation of the people or “freaks”.
The second was a printed advertisement using long pamphlets and broadside or newspaper advertisement of the freak show. The third step included costuming, choreography and space used to display the show, designed to emphasize the things that were considered abnormal about each performer; the final stage was a collectable drawing or photograph that portrayed the group of freaks on stage for viewers to take home. The collectable printed souvenirs were accompanied by recordings of the showmen’s pitch, the lecturer’s yarn, the professor’s exaggerated accounts of what was witnessed at the show. Exhibits were authenticated by doctors who used medical terms that many could not comprehend but which added an air of authenticity to the proceedings. Freak show culture normalized a specific way of thinking about gender, sexual aberrance and disability. Scholars believe that freak shows contributed to the way American culture views nonconforming bodies. Freak shows were a space for the general public to scrutinize bodies different from their own, from dark-skinned people, to victims of war and diseases, to ambiguously sexed bodies.
People felt that paying to view these “freaks” gave them permission to compare themselves favorably to the freaks. During the first decade of the twentieth century the popularity of the freak show was starting to dwindle. In their prime, freak shows had been the main attraction of the midway, but by 1940 they were starting to lose their audience, with credible people turning their backs on the show. In the nineteenth century science supported and legitimized the growth of freak shows, but by the twentieth century, the medicalization of human abnormalities contributed to the end of the exhibits' mystery and appeal. P. T. Barnum was considered the father of modern-day advertising, one of the most famous showmen/managers of the freak show industry. In the United States he was a major figure in popularizing the entertainment. However, it was common for Barnum's acts to be schemes and not altogether true. Barnum was aware of the improper ethics behind his business as he said, "I don't believe in duping the public, but I believe in first attracting and pleasing them."
During the 1840s Barnum began his museum, which had a rotating acts schedule, which included The Fat Lady
Joseph Merrick
Joseph Carey Merrick incorrectly called John Merrick, was an English man with severe deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show as the "Elephant Man", went to live at the London Hospital after he met Frederick Treves, subsequently becoming well known in London society. Merrick was born in Leicester and began to develop abnormally during the first few years of his life, his mother died when he was 11 and his father soon remarried. Rejected by his father and stepmother, he went to live with his uncle Charles Merrick. In 1879, 17-year-old Merrick entered the Leicester Union Workhouse. In 1884 he contacted a showman proposed that Torr should exhibit him. Torr arranged for a group of men to manage Merrick. After touring the East Midlands, Merrick travelled to London to be exhibited in a penny gaff shop rented by showman Tom Norman. Norman's shop was visited by surgeon Frederick Treves. After Merrick was displayed by Treves at a meeting of the Pathological Society of London in 1884, Norman's shop was closed by the police and Merrick joined Sam Roper's circus and was toured in Europe.
In Belgium, Merrick was abandoned in Brussels. He made his way back to the London Hospital where he was allowed to stay for the rest of his life. Treves visited him daily, the pair developed quite a close friendship. Merrick got visits from the wealthy ladies and gentlemen of London society, including Alexandra, Princess of Wales. Although the official cause of his death was asphyxia, who performed the autopsy on the body, said that Merrick had died of a dislocated neck; the exact cause of Merrick's deformities is unclear. In 1986 it was conjectured. DNA tests on his hair and bones in a 2003 study were inconclusive. Merrick's life was depicted in a 1979 play by Bernard Pomerance and a David Lynch film in 1980, both titled The Elephant Man. Joseph Carey Merrick was born 5 August 1862 at 50 Lee Street in Leicester, to Joseph Rockley Merrick and his wife Mary Jane. Joseph Rockley Merrick was the son of London-born weaver Barnabas Merrick who moved to Leicester during the 1820s or 1830s, his third wife Sarah Rockley.
Mary Jane Potterton had been born at Evington, her father being William Potterton, described as an agricultural labourer in the 1851 census of Thurmaston, Leicestershire. She was said to have some form of physical disability and as a young woman worked as a domestic servant in Leicester before marrying Joseph Rockley Merrick a warehouseman, in 1861; the following year, Joseph Carey Merrick was born healthy, had no outward symptoms of any disorder for the first few years of his life. Named after his father, he was given the middle name Carey by his mother, a Baptist, after the preacher William Carey; the Merricks had two more children, not three as stated on his mother's grave. John Thomas, born 21 April 1864, who died of smallpox on 24 July of the same year, was not related to Joseph and Mary Jane Merrick; the other two children were: William Arthur, born January 1866, who died of scarlet fever on 21 December 1870 aged four and was buried on Christmas Day 1870. William is buried with his mother and uncles in Welford Road Cemetery in Leicester while Marian is buried with her father in Belgrave Cemetery in Leicester.
In his book The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity, Ashley Montagu states that "John Thomas Merrick was born on 21 April 1864". Montagu believed Treves's statement in his book, The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences, referring to Merrick's first name as John, not Joseph, was due to confusing him with his supposed younger brother, a child which has now been proven was not related to Joseph Merrick. A pamphlet titled "The Autobiography of Joseph Carey Merrick", produced c. 1884 to accompany his exhibition, states that he started to display symptoms at five years of age, with "thick lumpy skin... Like that of an elephant, the same colour". According to a 1930 article in the Illustrated Leicester Chronicle, he began to develop swellings on his lips at the age of 21 months, followed by a bony lump on his forehead and a loosening and roughening of the skin; as he grew, a noticeable difference between the size of his left and right arms appeared and both his feet became enlarged. The Merrick family explained his symptoms as the result of Mary's being knocked over and frightened by a fairground elephant while she was pregnant with Joseph.
The concept of maternal impression—that the emotional experiences of pregnant women could have lasting physical effect on their unborn children—was still common in 19th-century Britain. Merrick held this belief about the cause of his affliction for his entire life. In addition to his deformities, at some point during his childhood, Merrick suffered a fall and damaged his left hip; this injury left him permanently lame. Although affected by his physical deformities, Merrick attended school and enjoyed a close relationship with his mother, she was a Sunday school teacher, his father worked as an engine driver at a cotton factory, as well as running a haberdashery business. On 29 May 1873, less than three years after the death of her youngest son William, Mary Jane Merrick died from bronchopneumonia. Joseph Rockley Merrick moved with his two children to live with Mrs. Emma Wood Antill, a widow with children of her own, they married on 3 December 1874. Merrick left school aged 13, usual for
Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Jean Cartwright is an American actress, voice actress, writer and director, known for her long-running role as Bart Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons. Cartwright voices other characters for the show, including Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders and Database. Cartwright was born in Ohio. Cartwright trained alongside voice actor Daws Butler, her first professional role was voicing Gloria in the animated series Richie Rich, which she followed with a starring role in the television movie Marian Rose White and her first feature film, Twilight Zone: The Movie. After continuing to search for acting work, in 1987, Cartwright auditioned for a role in a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family, to appear on The Tracey Ullman Show. Cartwright intended to audition for the role of the middle child. Matt Groening, the series' creator, allowed her to audition for Bart and offered her the role on the spot, she voiced Bart for three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show, in 1989, the shorts were spun off into a half-hour show called The Simpsons.
For her subsequent work as Bart, Cartwright received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 and an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in the Field of Animation in 1995. Besides The Simpsons, Cartwright has voiced numerous other animated characters, including Daffney Gillfin in The Snorks, Rufus in Kim Possible, Mindy in Animaniacs, Pistol in Goof Troop, Margo Sherman in The Critic, Todd Daring in The Replacements, Charles "Chuckie" Finster, Jr. in Rugrats and All Grown Up!. In 2000, she published her autobiography, My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy, four years adapted it into a one-woman play. In 2017, she produced the film In Search of Fellini. Cartwright was born in Dayton, Ohio, on October 25, 1957, Frank and Miriam Cartwright's fourth of six children, she grew up in Kettering and discovered her talent for voices at an early age. While in the fourth grade at the school of St. Charles Borromeo, she won a school-wide speech competition with her performance of Rudyard Kipling's How the Camel Got His Hump.
Cartwright attended Fairmont West High School, participated in the school's theater and marching band. She entered public speaking competitions, placing first in the "Humorous Interpretation" category at the National District Tournament two years running; the judges suggested to her that she should perform cartoon voices. Cartwright accepted a scholarship from Ohio University, she continued to compete in public speaking competitions. In 1976, Cartwright landed a part-time job doing voice-overs for commercials on WING radio in Dayton. A representative from Warner Bros. Records visited WING and sent Cartwright a list of contacts in the animation industry. One of these was Daws Butler, known for voicing characters such as Huckleberry Hound, Elroy Jetson, Spike the Bulldog and Yogi Bear. Cartwright left a message in a Cockney accent on his answering machine. Butler called her back and agreed to be her mentor, he instructed her to send him a tape recording of herself reading it. Once he received the tape, Butler sent her notes.
For the next year, they continued in this way. Cartwright described Butler as "absolutely amazing, always encouraging, always polite". Cartwright returned to Ohio University for her sophomore year, but transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles so she could be closer to Hollywood and Butler, her mother, died late in the summer of 1978. Cartwright nearly changed her relocation plans but, on September 17, 1978, "joylessly" left for Westwood, Los Angeles. While attending UCLA, which did not have a public speaking team, Cartwright continued training as a voice actress with Butler, she recalled, "every Sunday I'd take a 20-minute bus ride to his house in Beverly Hills for a one-hour lesson and be there for four hours... They had four sons, they didn't have a daughter and I kind of fitted in as the baby of the family." Butler introduced her to many of the voice directors at Hanna-Barbera. After she met the director Gordon Hunt, he asked her to audition for a recurring role as Gloria in Richie Rich.
She received the part, worked with Hunt on several other projects. At the end of 1980, Cartwright signed with a talent agency and landed a lead role in a pilot for a sitcom called In Trouble. Cartwright described the show as "forgettable, but it jump-started my on-camera career", she graduated from UCLA in 1981 with a degree in theater. During the summer, Cartwright worked with Jonathan Winters as part of an improvisation troupe at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Returning to Los Angeles, Cartwright won the lead role in the television movie Marian Rose White. Janet Maslin, a critic for The New York Times, described Cartwright as "a chubby, lumbering cross-eyed actress whose naturalness adds to the film's impact". Cartwright replied by sending Maslin a letter insisting she was not cross-eyed, included a photograph. Cartwright auditioned for the role of Ethel, a girl who becomes trapped in a cartoon world in the third segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie, she met with director Joe Dante and described him as "a total cartoon buff, once he
Moe Szyslak
Morris "Moe" Szyslak is a recurring character from the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Moe is the proprietor and bartender of Moe's Tavern, a Springfield bar frequented by Homer Simpson, Barney Gumble, Lenny Leonard, Carl Carlson, Sam and others. Grouchy, lonely and prone to violent outbursts, Moe is down on his luck, has attempted suicide numerous times. Other running jokes featuring him include being prank called by Bart Simpson, running illegal activities from his bar, an ambiguous ethnic origin. Moe is the owner and operator of Moe's Tavern, frequented by Homer Simpson and other characters including Lenny Leonard, Carl Carlson and Larry and his former most loyal customer, Barney Gumble; the bar is noted for uncleanliness. The regular patrons of the tavern have been abandoned by Moe in several episodes in which he changes its target audience; the first of these was "Flaming Moe's", in the third season.
As a running joke, Moe is sometimes seen engaging in unlicensed or illegal activities at the tavern, such as smuggling pandas and an orca in "Cape Feare" and "The Springfield Files", respectively. In earlier episodes, the Tavern was prank called by Bart Simpson, who would ask for a gag name which when said by Moe would involve innuendo or insults. Moe is portrayed with a disagreeable personality: he has a short, violent temper, a penurious nature, a crass and undiplomatic manner of speech, a mood that vacillates between anger and suicidal despair, he has an annual Christmas tradition of attempted suicide, but his attempts are comically unsuccessful, he has called the suicide hotline so many times that they've blocked his number. He is irritated threatening the patrons at his bar with a shotgun he keeps behind the counter, he is gullible, Bart's unending chain of successful prank calls to his bar are infuriating to him prompting a torrent of Red Deutsch-style threats of gruesome bodily harm in return.
He is, however shown to have a sentimental and caring side to his personality, such as reading to sick children and the homeless, although he is secretive about such behavior. In his interactions with his various girlfriends, he has shown genuine selflessness and kindness, although negative elements of his personality emerge and ruin things. In "Thank God It's Doomsday", he asks for salvation, and the stuff I am proud of is disgusting." Moe has an non-existent love life due to his vulgarity towards women and his ugly appearance. Despite this, he has had a number of romantic experiences, including sleeping with his waitress Collette, dating a woman named Renee, enjoying the company of many women after he had plastic surgery, he has a relationship and proposed to a dwarf named Maya, but Moe could not adjust to the difference in height, to the point where his ultimate plan to have his own leg bones shortened led Maya to leave him. He has long been infatuated with Marge Simpson, whom he calls "Midge", has on occasion tried to win her away from Homer, although episodes have shown him working to keep the two together.
He has been romantically involved with Edna Krabappel as well as Marge's sister Selma Bouvier. Moe's romantic attractions have resulted in run-ins with the law. At one point he is seen on his way to a "V. D. clinic". Despite his disturbing approach, Moe has showed to be a devoted lover. While dating Renee, he wholeheartedly spoiled them with whatever they wanted and vowed to give up his bar and take them away from Springfield forever if it means losing his own money and doing illegal acts to make more money; when he thought he won Marge's heart, he promised to be "the best man she'd had". In "Pygmoelian", Moe and his three closest friends assess him as a gargoyle with cauliflower ears, lizard lips, little rat eyes, a caveman brow and fish snout, who isn't pleasant to look at, listen to or be with; the Season 29 episode King Leer reveals Moe's backstory and shows his family. Revealing Moe's father, called Morty still lives, that Moe has a brother and a sister. Moe's family works in the business of selling mattress and beds, having a franchise with multiple stores in Springfield, the key to the success was that Moe's father kept infesting all rival business with termites, making his business the only reliable one.
When Morty asks a young Moe to infest a rival business, Moe refuses the family of the business Moe refused to infest, infests one of the mattress stores of Moe's father, as a consequence Moe's dad stops speaking to him. Decades Moe and his father reconnect in the episode. Previous to that appeareance of Moe's family, the show had given many wildly inconsistent backstories regarding Moe's past, in "Moe Goes from Rags to Riches", an infant Moe is depicted living on Mount Everest as the son of a Yeti. Prior to that revelation, numerous one-off jokes had been made regarding Moe's childhood and his earlier adult years. In "Radioactive Man", he is depicted as having been one of the original Little Rascals, but was fired after killing the "origi
Water balloon
A water balloon or water bomb is a latex rubber balloon filled with water. Water balloons are used in a summer pastime of cooling off through water balloon wars. Water balloons are popular for celebrations, including celebrating Holi and Carnival in India and several other countries. Water balloons are common in sizes from 40 and 100 mm or 1 1⁄2 and 4 in though larger sizes are available. Water balloons are sold in quantity and include a filling nozzle in the packaging. Many of the low cost brands use small water balloons and generic nozzles which both tend to be difficult to use. Another form of water bomb is a sheet of paper folded to form a container capable of holding water; these are filled and used in a similar way to latex versions. Gas balloons may be used as water balloons, but are not preferred because the balloon wall thickness is different. A water balloon is designed to be filled up to the approximate size of a baseball in a pear shape, whereas some gas balloons, when filled with water, may reach the size of a basketball.
For safety reasons, water balloon walls are designed to be thick enough to be held without bursting yet thin enough to burst upon impact. In a similar process to gas balloons, water balloons may be molded into various shapes at manufacturing. One process involves a patented mandrel for making elastomeric articles. Water balloons are filled at an indoor faucet, an outside tap, or at the end of a garden hose. Multiple types of filling nozzles are available on the consumer market and come in threaded and non-threaded types. Non-threaded nozzles may be difficult to use; some brands of nozzles are called loader instead of nozzle, but no differentiation exists between other types of nozzles. Nozzles may include a valve feature for turning the water source on or off as needed. Homemade water balloon filling stations may incorporate water balloon nozzles or valves that are on the market or use common plumbing fixtures; these stations may have one or more valves. Portable and fixed station designs each have distinct pros and cons depending on the location of use, number of system users, the quantity of filled water balloons needed.
Multi-nozzle stations not only enable more water balloons to be filled for adults planning upcoming youth events or for preventing boredom in children upset with how challenging it may be to fill a balloon at a hose spigot, but enhance group social interactions, important in toys for children and adult volunteers that work with children. Multiple toy companies have created balloon tying and filling devices, enabling the user to fill and tie water balloons. Water balloons, like air balloons, are made from latex, which decomposes. While there still could be some environmental impact if burst water balloons are left behind in the wild where animals might ingest them, that impact would be low. However, some air balloons are made from mylar. If mylar balloons are used as water bombs littering or leaving behind mylar balloons will have a much bigger environmental impact; the use of mylar balloons might be less problematic in closed controlled environments where the material is subsequently collected and recycled, possible with mylar.
Yo-yo balloons known as Yo-yo Tsuris, are a common type of water balloon found at matsuri festivals in Japan. Small and colourful, the balloons are filled to a diameter of about 75 mm with air and 45 mL of water; the balloon is clipped or tied closed and hung from an elastic string with a finger loop tied at the end. This gives them enough bounce to function as a yo-yo, earning them their name; the balloons are won in a game where they are set floating in a tub of water. Players "fish" for the balloons with a hook at the end of a twisted paper string; as the wet paper line breaks the game is likened to goldfish scooping in terms of difficulty. The Wii video game Ennichi. Guinness World Records maintains a record category for largest water balloon fight; the current holder is the University of Kentucky Christian Student Fellowship, a campus ministry of the Christian churches and churches of Christ. List of inflatable manufactured goods
Sleeping with the Enemy (The Simpsons)
"Sleeping With the Enemy" is the third episode from the sixteenth season of The Simpsons. It aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 21, 2004. To date, this is Lauren MacMullan's last episode as director. Lisa gets teased about her big butt, so this embarrasses her, she becomes self-conscious about her weight. Homer only makes matters worse when he tells her about the "Simpson butt", something that all Simpsons have. Bart brings home a geography test with a grade of 100, eagerly expecting a party, promised to him if he had got a 100. Despite Homer discovering that the watermark of Bart's test is real and that all the answers are correct, he and Marge speak to Bart's teacher. Mrs. Krabappel confesses that she did not bother to fold up the map during the test, so Bart and everyone else received 100. Marge throws Bart a party, attended by Patty and Selma, Grandma and Martin. Milhouse can only attend via speakerphone. Bart hates the party and to make matters worse, Lisa runs up to her room crying when Marge offers her one slice of cake.
Marge thinks her children no longer appreciate her, so when she finds Nelson catching tadpoles from a water fountain at the zoo, she decides to become a mother figure by spending quality time with him. They bond as Nelson tells Marge about his poor life involving his father abandoned him and never came back. Marge brings him home. Nelson's mother does not want Marge giving them any charity; that night, Mrs. Muntz leaves town, Nelson, having nowhere else to go, stays with the Simpsons. Marge lets. Late one night, Bart sees Nelson sing about his missing father, sees Lisa eat an entire Labor Day cake as she was unable to take any more starvation. After talking about the situation, Nelson offers to help Lisa get back at Sherri and Terri for teasing her; the next day, Nelson unleashes a skunk, which sprays both of them, while Lisa and her friends point and sing a parody of Jingle Bells. Both twins are flee; when Lisa and Nelson return home, they find Nelson's father, who Bart found working at a freak show in a circus.
It turns out that Mr. Muntz had gone to the Kwik-E-Mart, where he had gotten a severe allergic reaction from eating a peanut bar. Coincidentally, the circus had made a stop in the Kwik-E-Mart parking lot, the unscrupulous ringmaster noted the allergy and kept him as a forced freak for his traveling show. Nelson's mother returns, after going to Hollywood and getting the lead role in Macbeth, playing Lady Macbeth. At the conclusion of this episode, Nelson thanks Marge for making him feel good about himself and appreciates what Bart did but says that this still will not stop him from bullying Bart again; as the family talk about the morals of the episode, Lisa admits that she still has body image issues. Homer tries to get Lisa to talk about it positively, but Lisa says that it's a "very open-ended problem" and like other women and girls, she may never be content with her body image. Homer tries to goad Lisa into changing her mind. Sleeping with the Enemy at the Internet Movie Database Sleeping with the Enemy at TV.com Sleeping with the Enemy at the Big Cartoon DataBase
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the Sundance Institute, takes place annually in Park City, the largest independent film festival in the United States with more than 46,660 attending in 2016. It is held in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as at the Sundance Resort, it is a showcase for new work from international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Midnight and Documentary Premieres; the 2019 Sundance Film Festival began January 24 and ran through February 3. Sundance began in Salt Lake City in August 1978, as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah, it was founded by John Earle. The 1978 festival featured films such as Deliverance, A Streetcar Named Desire, Midnight Cowboy, Mean Streets, The Sweet Smell of Success. With chairman Robert Redford, the help of Utah Governor Scott M. Matheson, the goal of the festival was to showcase American-made films, highlight the potential of independent film, to increase visibility for filmmaking in Utah.
At the time, the main focus of the event was to conduct a competition for independent American films, present a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions, to celebrate the Frank Capra Award. The festival highlighted the work of regional filmmakers who worked outside the Hollywood system; the jury of the 1978 festival was headed by Gary Allison, included Verna Fields, Linwood G. Dunn, Katharine Ross, Charles E. Sellier Jr. Mark Rydell, Anthea Sylbert. In 1979, Sterling Van Wagenen left to head up the first-year pilot program of what was to become the Sundance Institute, James W. Ure took over as executive director, followed by Cirina Hampton Catania as executive director. More than 60 films were screened at the festival that year, panels featured many well-known Hollywood filmmakers; that year, the first Frank Capra Award went to Jimmy Stewart. The festival made a profit for the first time. In 1980, Catania left the festival to pursue a production career in Hollywood. Several factors helped propel the growth of Utah/US Film Festival.
First was the involvement of actor and Utah resident Robert Redford, who became the festival's inaugural chairman. By having Redford's name associated with the festival, it received great attention. Secondly, the country was hungry for more venues that would celebrate American-made films as the only other festival doing so at the time was the USA Film Festival in Dallas. Response in Hollywood was unprecedented, as major studios did all they could to contribute their resources. In 1981, the festival moved to Park City and changed the dates from September to January; the move from late summer to midwinter was done by the executive director Susan Barrell with the cooperation of Hollywood director Sydney Pollack, who suggested that running a film festival in a ski resort during winter would draw more attention from Hollywood. It was called the US Video Festival. In 1984, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over management of the US Film Festival. Gary Beer and Van Wagenen spearheaded production of the inaugural US Film Festival presented by Sundance Institute, which included Program Director Tony Safford and Administrative Director Jenny Walz Selby.
The branding and marketing transition from the US Film Festival to the Sundance Film Festival was managed under the direction of Colleen Allen, Allen Advertising Inc. by appointment of Robert Redford. In 1991, the festival was renamed the Sundance Film Festival, after Redford's character the Sundance Kid from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. UK-based publisher C21 Media first revealed in October 2010 that Robert Redford was planning to bring the Sundance Film Festival to London, in March the following year, Redford announced that Sundance London would be held at The O2, in London from 26–29 April 2012. In a press statement, Redford said, "We are excited to partner with AEG Europe to bring a particular slice of American culture to life in the inspired setting of The O2, in this city of such rich cultural history, it is our mutual goal to bring to the UK, the best in current American independent cinema, to introduce the artists responsible for it, in essence help build a picture of our country, broadly reflective of the diversity of voices not always seen in our cultural exports."The majority of the film screenings, including the festival's premieres, would be held within the Cineworld cinema at The O2 entertainment district.
The 2013 Sundance London Festival was held 25–28 April 2013, sponsored by car-maker Jaguar. Sundance London 2014 took place on 25–27 April 2014 at the O2 arena; the Sundance London 2015 Festival was cancelled in an announcement on 16 January 2015. Sundance London returned to London from 2–5 June 2016 and again 1–4 June 2017, both at Picturehouse Cinema in London's West End. Inaugurated in 2014, Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong took place from 22 September to 2 October 2016 and is scheduled again for 21 September to 1 October 2017, it is held at The Metroplex in Kowloon Bay each year. From 2006 through 2008, Sundance Institute collaborated with the Brooklyn Academy of Music on a special series of film screenings, panel discussions, special events bringing the institute's activities and the festival's programming to New York City. M
