1.
Ancient Greek comedy
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Ancient Greek comedy was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece. Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy, New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. The philosopher Aristotle wrote in his Poetics that comedy is a representation of laughable people, C. A. Trypanis wrote that comedy is the last of the great species of poetry Greece gave to the world. These divisions appear to be arbitrary, and ancient comedy almost certainly developed constantly over the years. The most important Old Comic dramatist is Aristophanes, born in 446 B. C. his works, with their pungent political satire and abundance of sexual and scatological innuendo, effectively define the genre today. He was one of a number of comic poets working in Athens in the late 5th century, his most important contemporary rivals being Hermippus. The Old Comedy subsequently influenced later European writers such as Rabelais, Cervantes, Swift, in particular, they copied the technique of disguising a political attack as buffoonery. For ancient scholars, the term may have meant little more than later than Aristophanes and his contemporaries, for at least a time, mythological burlesque was popular among the Middle Comic poets. Stock characters of all sorts also emerge, courtesans, parasites, revellers, philosophers, boastful soldiers, because no complete Middle Comic plays have been preserved, it is impossible to offer any real assessment of their literary value or genius. But many Middle Comic plays appear to have revived in Sicily and Magna Graecia in this period, suggesting that they had considerable widespread literary. New Comedy followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and lasted throughout the reign of the Macedonian rulers and it is comparable to situation comedy and comedy of manners. The three best-known playwrights belonging to this genre are Menander, Philemon and Diphilus, Menander was the most successful of these three comedians. His comedies not only provided their audience with a respite from reality. This led an ancient critic to ask if life influenced Menander in the writing of his plays or if the case was vice versa and this seems to be what made him more successful than the other Greek comedians who wrote in the same genre. These plays were much less satirical than preceding comedies, the other two comedians are Philemon and Diphilus. Philemon was a comedian whose comedies dwelt on philosophical issues and Diphilus was a comedian whose comedies were noted for their broad comedy, philemons comedies survive only in fragments, but Diphilus comedies were translated and adapted by Plautus. Examples of these comedies are Plautus Asinaria and Rudens, based on the translation and adaptation of Diphilus comedies by Plautus, one can conclude that he was skilled in the construction of his plots. Substantial fragments of New Comedy have survived, but no complete plays, the most substantially preserved text is the Dyskolos by Menander, discovered on a papyrus, and first published in 1958
2.
Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a polymath and a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman. As a scientist, he was a figure in the American Enlightenment. As an inventor, he is known for the rod, bifocals. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphias fire department and the University of Pennsylvania, Franklin earned the title of The First American for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation, in the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat. To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin the most accomplished American of his age, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richards Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, after 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies. He pioneered and was first president of The Academy and College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 and he organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France, during the Revolution, he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, from 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the 1750s, he argued against slavery from an economic perspective, Franklins father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, a soap-maker and a candle-maker. Josiah was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England on December 23,1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith-farmer, and Jane White. His mother, Abiah Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on August 15,1667, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife, Mary Morrill, Josiah Franklin had seventeen children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to Boston in 1683, after her death, Josiah was married to Abiah Folger on July 9,1689 in the Old South Meeting House by Samuel Willard. Benjamin, their child, was Josiah Franklins fifteenth child and tenth
3.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, following this work, he gave a speech entitled The American Scholar in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be Americas intellectual Declaration of Independence. Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised them for print and his first two collections of essays, Essays, First Series and Essays, Second Series, represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays Self-Reliance, The Over-Soul, Circles, The Poet, together with Nature, these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emersons most fertile period. Emersons nature was more philosophical than naturalistic, Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature, Emerson is one of several figures who took a more pantheist or pandeist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world. He remains among the linchpins of the American romantic movement, and his work has influenced the thinkers, writers. When asked to sum up his work, he said his doctrine was the infinitude of the private man. Emerson is also known as a mentor and friend of Henry David Thoreau. Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25,1803, a son of Ruth Haskins and the Rev. William Emerson and he was named after his mothers brother Ralph and his fathers great-grandmother Rebecca Waldo. Ralph Waldo was the second of five sons who survived adulthood, the others were William, Edward, Robert Bulkeley. Three other children—Phebe, John Clarke, and Mary Caroline—died in childhood, Emerson was entirely of English ancestry, and his family had been in New England since the early colonial period. Emersons father died from cancer on May 12,1811. Emerson was raised by his mother, with the help of the women in the family. She lived with the family off and on and maintained a constant correspondence with Emerson until her death in 1863, Emersons formal schooling began at the Boston Latin School in 1812, when he was nine. In October 1817, at 14, Emerson went to Harvard College and was appointed freshman messenger for the president, requiring Emerson to fetch delinquent students and send messages to faculty. Midway through his year, Emerson began keeping a list of books he had read. He took outside jobs to cover his expenses, including as a waiter for the Junior Commons and as an occasional teacher working with his uncle Samuel in Waltham. By his senior year, Emerson decided to go by his middle name, Emerson served as Class Poet, as was custom, he presented an original poem on Harvards Class Day, a month before his official graduation on August 29,1821, when he was 18
4.
Ohio State University
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The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State or OSU, is a large, primarily residential, public university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and ninth university in Ohio with the Morrill Act of 1862, Hayes, and in 1878 the Ohio General Assembly passed a law changing the name to The Ohio State University. It has since grown into the third-largest university campus in the United States, along with its main campus in Columbus, Ohio State also operates a regional campus system with regional campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster. Ohio State athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are known as the Ohio State Buckeyes, athletes from Ohio State have won 100 Olympic medals. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference for the majority of sports, the Ohio State mens ice hockey program competes in the Big Ten Conference, while its womens hockey program competes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. In addition, the OSU mens volleyball team is a member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, OSU is one of only 14 universities that plays Division I FBS football and Division I ice hockey. As of August 2015, the university had awarded a total of 714,512 degrees, alumni and former students have gone on to prominent careers in government, business, science, medicine, education, sports, and entertainment. Championed by the Republican stalwart Governor Rutherford B, Hayes, the Ohio State University was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university under the Morrill Act of 1862 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The school was originally within a community on the northern edge of Columbus. The university opened its doors to 24 students on September 17,1873, in 1878, the first class of six men graduated. The first woman graduated the following year, also in 1878, in light of its expanded focus, the Ohio legislature changed the name to the now-familiar The Ohio State University, with The as part of its official name. Ohio State began accepting students in the 1880s, and in 1891. It would later acquire colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, veterinary medicine, commerce, in 1916, Ohio State was elected into membership in the Association of American Universities. Michael V. Drake, former chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, in an attack against the campus on November 28,2016, an unrelated fluorine leak was called in for Watts Hall, resulting in the evacuation of the building to an outside courtyard. As firetrucks began to depart, Abdul Razak Ali Artan drove into the crowd, then emerged, the attack was stopped in under two minutes by OSU Police Officer Alan Horujko, who witnessed the attack after responding to the reported gas leak, and who shot and killed Artan. The universitys Buckeye Alert system was triggered and the campus was placed on lockdown, Ten were transported to local hospitals and one suspect was killed according to multiple sources. Local law enforcement and the FBI launched an investigation, according to authorities, Artan was inspired by terrorist propaganda from the Islamic State and radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Ohio States 1, 764-acre main campus is about 2.5 miles north of the citys downtown, the historical center of campus is the Oval, quad of about 11 acres
5.
Robert A. Heinlein
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Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science-fiction writer. Often called the dean of science writers, his controversial works continue to have an influential effect on the genre. Heinlein became one of the first science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. He was one of the best-selling science-fiction novelists for many decades, and he, Isaac Asimov and he also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices. Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974 and he also anticipated mechanical Computer Aided Design with Drafting Dan and described a modern version of a waterbed in his novel The Door into Summer, though he never patented or built one. In the first chapter of the novel Space Cadet he anticipated the cell-phone,35 years before Motorola invented the technology, several of Heinleins works have been adapted for film and television. Heinlein was born on July 7,1907 to Rex Ivar Heinlein and Bam Lyle Heinlein, in Butler and he was a 6th-generation German-American, a family tradition had it that Heinleins fought in every American war starting with the War of Independence. His childhood was spent in Kansas City, Missouri, Heinleins experience in the U. S. Navy exerted a strong influence on his character and writing. He graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland with the class of 1929 and he was assigned to the new aircraft carrier USS Lexington in 1931, where he worked in radio communications, then in its earlier phases, with the carriers aircraft. The captain of this carrier was Ernest J. King, who served as the Chief of Naval Operations and Commander-in-Chief. Heinlein was frequently interviewed during his later years by historians who asked him about Captain King. Heinlein also served aboard the destroyer USS Roper in 1933 and 1934, reaching the rank of lieutenant. His brother, Lawrence Heinlein, served in the U. S. Army, the U. S. Air Force, and the Missouri National Guard, in 1929, Heinlein married Elinor Curry of Kansas City in Los Angeles, and their marriage lasted about a year. His second marriage in 1932 to Leslyn MacDonald lasted for 15 years, in 1934, Heinlein was discharged from the Navy due to pulmonary tuberculosis. During a lengthy hospitalization, he developed a design for a waterbed, Heinlein supported himself at several occupations, including real estate sales and silver mining, but for some years found money in short supply. Heinlein was active in Upton Sinclairs socialist End Poverty in California movement in the early 1930s, when Sinclair gained the Democratic nomination for Governor of California in 1934, Heinlein worked actively in the campaign. Heinlein himself ran for the California State Assembly in 1938, but was unsuccessful, while not destitute after the campaign—he had a small disability pension from the Navy—Heinlein turned to writing in order to pay off his mortgage. His first published story, Life-Line, was printed in the August 1939 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction, originally written for a contest, it was instead sold to Astounding for significantly more than the contests first-prize payoff
6.
Ray Bradbury
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Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction author and screenwriter. While most of his best known work is in speculative fiction, he wrote in other genres, such as the coming-of-age novel Dandelion Wine or the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows. Recipient of numerous awards, including a 2007 Pulitzer Citation, Bradbury also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick, many of his works were adapted to comic book, television and film formats. On his death in 2012, The New York Times called Bradbury the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream. Bradbury was born on August 22,1920 in Waukegan, Illinois, to Esther Bradbury, a Swedish immigrant, and Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and he was given the middle name Douglas, after the actor Douglas Fairbanks. Bradbury was related to the American Shakespeare scholar Douglas Spaulding and was descended from Mary Bradbury, Bradbury was surrounded by an extended family during his early childhood and formative years in Waukegan, Illinois. An aunt read him stories when he was a child. This period provided foundations for both the author and his stories, in Bradburys works of fiction, 1920s Waukegan becomes Green Town, Illinois. The family arrived with only US$40, which paid for rent and this meant that they could stay, however, and Bradbury—who was in love with Hollywood—was ecstatic. Bradbury attended Los Angeles High School and was active in the drama club and he often roller-skated through Hollywood in hopes of meeting celebrities. Among the creative and talented people Bradbury met this way were special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen, throughout his youth, Bradbury was an avid reader and writer and knew at a young age that he was going into one of the arts. Bradbury began writing his own stories at age eleven, during the Great Depression — sometimes writing on the available paper, butcher paper. In his youth, he spent much time in the Carnegie library in Waukegan, reading such authors as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, at twelve, Bradbury began writing traditional horror stories and said he tried to imitate Poe until he was about eighteen. In addition to comics, he loved Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan of the Apes, the Warlord of Mars impressed him so much that at the age of twelve he wrote his own sequel. The young Bradbury was also a cartoonist and loved to illustrate and he wrote about Tarzan and drew his own Sunday panels. He listened to the radio show Chandu the Magician, and when the show went off the air every night he would sit, as a teen in Beverly Hills, he often visited his mentor and friend, science fiction writer Bob Olsen, sharing ideas and maintaining contact. In 1936, at a bookstore in Hollywood, Bradbury discovered a handbill promoting meetings of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society. Excited to find there were others sharing his interest, Bradbury joined a weekly Thursday-night conclave at age sixteen, at age 17, Bradbury read stories published in Astounding Science Fiction, and read everything by Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C
7.
Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge—but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified
8.
Marvel Comics
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Marvel Comics is the common name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwides parent company, Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvels modern incarnation dates from 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. Most of Marvels fictional characters operate in a reality known as the Marvel Universe. Martin Goodman founded the later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Martin Goodman, a magazine publisher who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. The issue was a success, with it and a second printing the following month selling, combined. While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc, Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. It, too, proved a hit, with sales of one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941, Goodman hired his wifes cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles, Goodmans business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55. As well, some covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12, were labeled A Marvel Magazine many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961. The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion and this globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas also published a plethora of childrens and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlos Homer the Happy Ghost, Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Atlas did not achieve any hits and, according to Stan Lee, Atlas survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply. During this time, the Comic Code Authority made its debut in September 1954, Wertham published the book Seduction of the Innocent in order to force people to see that comics were impacting American youth. He believed violent comics were causing children to be reckless and were turning them into delinquents, in September 1954, comic book publishers got together to set up their own self-censorship organization—the Comics Magazine Association of America—in order to appease audiences
9.
Chicago Tribune
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The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by tronc, Inc. formerly Tribune Publishing. The Tribune was founded by James Kelly, John E. Wheeler, forrest, publishing its first edition on June 10,1847. The paper saw numerous changes in ownership and editorship over the eight years. Initially, the Tribune was not politically affiliated but tended to either the Whig or Free Soil parties against the Democrats in elections. By late 1853, it was frequently running xenophobic editorials that criticized foreigners, about this time it also became a strong proponent of temperance. Ray became editor-in-chief, Medill became the editor, and Alfred Cowles, Sr. brother of Edwin Cowles. Each purchased one third of the Tribune, under their leadership the Tribune distanced itself from the Know Nothings and became the main Chicago organ of the Republican Party. However, the continued to print anti-Catholic and anti-Irish editorials. Between 1858 and 1860, the paper was known as the Chicago Press & Tribune, on October 25,1860, it became the Chicago Daily Tribune. Before and during the American Civil War, the new editors pushed an abolitionist agenda and strongly supported Abraham Lincoln, the paper remained a force in Republican politics for years afterwards. In 1861, the Tribune published new lyrics for the song John Browns Body by William W. Patton, Medill served as mayor of Chicago for one term after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Under the 20th-century editorship of Colonel Robert R. Joseph McCarthy, when McCormick assumed the position of co-editor in 1910, the Tribune was the third-best-selling paper among Chicagos eight dailies, with a circulation of only 188,000. At the same time, the Tribune competed with the Hearst paper, by 1914, the cousins succeeded in forcing out Managing Editor William Keeley. By 1918, the Examiner was forced to merge with the Chicago Herald, in 1919, Patterson left the Tribune and moved to New York to launch his own newspaper, the New York Daily News. In a renewed war with Hearsts Herald-Examiner, McCormick and Hearst ran rival lotteries in 1922. The Tribune won the battle, adding 250,000 readers to its ranks, also in 1922, the Chicago Tribune hosted an international design competition for its new headquarters, the Tribune Tower. The competition worked brilliantly as a publicity stunt, and more than 260 entries were received, the winner was a neo-Gothic design by New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood. The newspaper sponsored an attempt at Arctic aviation in 1929
10.
Spider-Man
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Spider-Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko, when Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, teenagers in superhero comic books were usually relegated to the role of sidekick to the protagonist. Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several book series, the first. In the 2010s, he joins the Avengers, Marvels flagship superhero team, Spider-Mans nemesis Doctor Octopus also took on the identity for a story arc spanning 2012–2014, following a body swap plot in which Peter appears to die. Spider-Man is one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes, the character was first portrayed in live action by Nicholas Hammond in the 1977 television movie Spider-Man. Reeve Carney starred as Spider-Man in the 2010 Broadway musical Spider-Man, in 1962, with the success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee was casting about for a new superhero idea. He said the idea for Spider-Man arose from a surge in demand for comic books. At that time Lee had to get only the consent of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman for the characters approval, in a 1986 interview, Lee described in detail his arguments to overcome Goodmans objections. In particular, Lee stated that the fact that it had already decided that Amazing Fantasy would be cancelled after issue #15 was the only reason Goodman allowed him to use Spider-Man. While this was indeed the issue, its editorial page anticipated the comic continuing. Will appear every month in Amazing, regardless, Lee received Goodmans approval for the name Spider-Man and the ordinary teen concept, and approached artist Jack Kirby. Lee and Kirby immediately sat down for a conference, Theakston writes. Steve Ditko would be the inker, when Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, Lee recalled, I hated the way he was doing it. Not that he did it badly—it just wasnt the character I wanted, Lee turned to Ditko, who developed a visual style Lee found satisfactory. Ditko recalled, One of the first things I did was to work up a costume, a vital, visual part of the character. I had to know how he looked, for example, A clinging power so he wouldnt have hard shoes or boots, a hidden wrist-shooter versus a web gun and holster, etc. I wasnt sure Stan would like the idea of covering the characters face and it would also add mystery to the character. Although the interior artwork was by Ditko alone, Lee rejected Ditkos cover art, as Lee explained in 2010, I think I had Jack sketch out a cover for it because I always had a lot of confidence in Jacks covers
11.
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
12.
Kevin Spacey
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Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known as Kevin Spacey, is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, and singer. He began his career as an actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film. In Broadway theatre, Spacey won a Tony Award for his role in Lost in Yonkers and he was the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London from 2004 until stepping down in mid-2015. Since 2013, Spacey has played Frank Underwood in the Netflix political drama series House of Cards, Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey, to Kathleen Ann, a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, a technical writer and data consultant. He has two siblings, a sister, Julie, and a brother, Randy. He has English, Swedish, and Welsh ancestry and his family relocated to Southern California when Spacey was four years old. He attended Northridge Military Academy, Canoga Park High School, and then Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, California, where he graduated co-valedictorian of his class in 1977. At Chatsworth, Spacey starred in the senior production of The Sound of Music. He took Spacey as his stage name, several reports have incorrectly suggested that he took his name in tribute to actor Spencer Tracy, combining Tracys first and last names. He had tried to succeed as a comedian for several years, before attending the Juilliard School in New York City, during this time period, Spacey performed stand-up comedy in bowling alley talent contests. Spaceys first professional appearance was as a spear carrier in a New York Shakespeare Festival performance of Henry VI. The following year, he made his first Broadway appearance, as Oswald in a production of Henrik Ibsens Ghosts, then he portrayed Philinte in Molières The Misanthrope. In 1984, he appeared in a production of David Rabes Hurlyburly, next came Anton Chekhovs The Seagull. In 1986, he appeared in a production of Sleuth in a New Jersey dinner theatre, Lemmon in particular would become a mentor to Spacey. He made his first major appearance in the second-season premiere of Crime Story. Although his interest soon turned to film, Spacey remained actively involved in the theater community. In 1991, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Uncle Louie in Neil Simons Broadway hit Lost in Yonkers, Spaceys father was unconvinced that Spacey could make a career for himself as an actor, and did not change his mind until Spacey became well-known. Some of Spaceys early roles include a widowed eccentric millionaire on L. A. Law, the television miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan, opposite Lemmon, and he earned a fan base after playing the criminally insane arms dealer Mel Profitt on the television series Wiseguy
