1.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
2.
Century City, Los Angeles
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Century City is a 176-acre neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles Westside. Outside of Downtown Los Angeles, Century City is one of the areas most prominent employment centers. The district was developed on the backlot of film studio 20th Century Fox. There are two schools, but no public schools in the neighborhood. Important to the economy are the Westfield Century City shopping center, business towers, the land of Century City belonged to cowboy actor Tom Mix, who used it as a ranch. It later became a backlot of 20th Century Fox, which still has its headquarters just to the southwest. The following year, in 1957, they commissioned a development from Welton Becket Associates. Of America, also known as Alcoa, for US$300 million, herrscher had encouraged his uncle-in-law to borrow money instead, but once Skouras refused, he was out of the picture. The new owners conceived Century City as a city within a city, in 1963, the first building, Gateway West Building, was completed. The next year, in 1964, Minoru Yamasaki designed the Century Plaza Hotel, five years later, in 1969, architects Anthony J. Lumsden and César Pelli designed the Century City Medical Plaza. Century Citys plaza as it appeared in the early 1970s can be viewed in several scenes of still another Fox film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. The 2000 U. S. census counted 5,513 residents in the 0. 70-square-mile Century City neighborhood—or 7,869 people per square mile, the Southern California Association of Governments estimates that the daytime population amounts to 48,343 on a working day. In 2008, the city estimated that the resident population had increased to 5,934, in 2008, the median age for residents was 46, older than average for the city and the county. The percentage of residents aged 65 and older was the highest for any neighborhood in Los Angeles County, the percentages of widowed men and women and of divorced men were among the countys highest. Military veterans accounted for 11. 9% of the population, a rate for the city. The neighborhood was considered not especially diverse ethnically, with a percentage of white residents. The breakdown was whites,82. 5%, Asians,8. 6%, Latinos,4. 4%, blacks,1. 4%, and others,3, 0%. Iran and Canada were the most common places of birth for the 25. 5% of the residents who were born abroad—a low percentage, the median yearly income in 2014 was $95,135, a high figure for Los Angeles
3.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
4.
Comedian
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A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, a comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comic. Since the 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy, has grown in popularity with its more offbeat and this normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting, e. g. Alexei Sayle, Daniel Tosh, Louis C. K. and Malcolm Hardee. Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Edinburgh Fringe, often a comics career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, however, a comics stand-up success does not guarantee a films critical or box office success. Comedians can be dated back to 425 BC, when Aristophanes and he wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive and are still being performed. Aristophanes comedy style took the form of satyr plays, the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare wrote many comedies. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has an ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeares other plays. Charles Chaplin was the most popular comedian of the first half of the 20th century. He wrote comedic silent films such as Modern Times and The Kid and his films still have a major impact on comedy in films today. One of the most popular forms of comedy is stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy is a monologue performed by one or more people standing on a stage. Bob Hope was the most popular comedian of the 20th century. Other noted stand-up comedians include George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Louis CK, another popular form of modern-day comedy is talk shows where comedians make fun of current news or popular topics. Such comedians include Jay Leno, Conan OBrien, Daniel Tosh, Chris Hardwick, Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, a third form of modern-day comedy is television programs in which many comedians band together to make skits, such as Saturday Night Live. These shows often receive high ratings, likely because many comedians band together to create jokes, one of the most successful comedians is Ellen Degeneres, who has parlayed her comic career into film, television shows, and hosting major media events. In 1986, Ellen DeGeneres appeared for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson since she began gaining popularity as a comic in the 1980s. Johnny Carson, who launched many contemporary comics careers, would invite them to join him on the couch for one-on-one conversation after their set
5.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Walter Brennan was the first winner of award for his role in Come. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 72 actors. Brennan has received the most awards in this category with three awards, Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, and Claude Rains were nominated on four occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Mahershala Ali is the most recent winner in category for his role as Juan in Moonlight. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com Complete Downloadable List of Academy Award Nominees
6.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
7.
City Island, Bronx
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City Island is a small island and a neighborhood approximately 1.5 miles long by 0.5 miles wide. At one time it was incorporated within the boundaries of Pelham, Westchester County, as of the 2010 census the island had a population of 4,362. Its land area is 1.023 km2, the island is part of Bronx Community Board 10. City Island is located at the western end of Long Island Sound, south of Pelham Bay. The body of water between City Island and the even smaller Hart Island to the east is known as City Island Harbor, the small island adjacent to the northeast is High Island. The Stepping Stones Light, marking the main shipping channel into New York, is off the tip of the island. It is part of the Pelham Islands, a group of islands belonging to Thomas Pell. Originally inhabited by the Siwanoy band of Lenape Indians, City Island later was settled by Europeans as part of property, prior to that, English settlers led by Anne Hutchinson settled in an area nearby on the river in 1642. After changing hands several times, in 1761 the Island, was bought by Benjamin Palmer of New York, up to this point the island had been inhabited by only a few homes and farms. It had a population of about 1000 people, who tended farms, Palmer had the vision of developing the island into a port, which could rival that of New York. He knew that ships heading north and south passed City Island using Long Island Sound as a safe inshore waterway and he envisioned shipyards, and stores that could cater to the ships. This patent, known as the Palmer Grant is unique to City Island, it has contested in courts since. Palmer also is responsible for changing the name from Minefers Island to City Island in anticipation of things to come. Palmers vision never fully materialized, however, as the timing just before the American Revolution halted all progress, the history of the island has been chronicled in Tales Of The Clamdiggers by Alice Payne, and in City Island and Orchard Beach by Catherine A. Scott. According to local tradition, anyone born on the island is known as a clamdigger. A City Island resident not born on the island is known as a musselsucker, most businesses are clustered along the central City Island Avenue. There are two supermarkets, a gas station, a pharmacy, a bank, a hardware store. The island is most famous for its numerous restaurants and antique stores
8.
Pearl Harbor
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Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base and it is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The U. S. government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet, the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7,1941, was the immediate cause of the United States entry into World War II. Pearl Harbor was originally a shallow embayment called Wai Momi or Puʻuloa by the Hawaiians. Puʻuloa was regarded as the home of the goddess, Kaʻahupahau. Making due allowance for legendary amplification, the estuary already had an outlet for its waters where the present gap is, during the early 19th century, Pearl Harbor was not used for large ships due to its shallow entrance. The interest of United States in the Hawaiian Islands grew as a result of its whaling, shipping and trading activity in the Pacific. As early as 1820, an Agent of the United States for Commerce and these commercial ties to the American continent were accompanied by the work of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. American missionaries and their families became a part of the Hawaiian political body. Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, many American warships visited Honolulu, in most cases, the commanding officers carried letters from the U. S. Government giving advice on governmental affairs and of the relations of the island nation with foreign powers. In 1841, the newspaper Polynesian, printed in Honolulu, advocated that the U. S. establish a base in Hawaii for protection of American citizens engaged in the whaling industry. The British Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs Robert Crichton Wyllie, remarked in 1840 that and my opinion is that the tide of events rushes on to annexation to the United States. In 1865, the North Pacific Squadron was formed to embrace the western coast, lackawanna in the following year was assigned to cruise among the islands, a locality of great and increasing interest and importance. This vessel surveyed the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands toward Japan, as a result, the United States claimed Midway Island. The Secretary of the Navy was able to write in his report of 1868. This increased activity caused the permanent assignment of at least one warship to Hawaiian waters and it also praised Midway Island as possessing a harbor surpassing Honolulus. In the following year, Congress approved an appropriation of $50,000 on March 1,1869, after 1868, when the Commander of the Pacific Fleet visited the islands to look after American interests, naval officers played an important role in internal affairs. They served as arbitrators in disputes, negotiators of trade agreements and defenders of law
9.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
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The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U. S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U. S. -held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, the attack commenced at 7,48 a. m. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, all eight U. S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service, the Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed,2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the station, shipyard, maintenance. Japanese losses were light,29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, one Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. The surprise attack came as a shock to the American people. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, the U. S. responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, Roosevelt to proclaim December 7,1941, a date which will live in infamy. Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland, from December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion, the United States, the United Kingdom, in 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, an invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40 and this was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented. By 1941, U. S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet
10.
Fiorello H. La Guardia
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Fiorello Henry La Guardia was an American politician. He is best known for being the 99th Mayor of New York City for three terms from 1934 to 1945 as a Republican, previously he had been elected to Congress in 1916 and 1918, and again from 1922 through 1930. Irascible, energetic, and charismatic, he craved publicity and is acclaimed as one of the greatest mayors in American history, only five feet, two inches tall, he was called the Little Flower. La Guardia, a Republican who appealed across party lines, was popular in New York during the 1930s. As a New Dealer, he supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, La Guardia revitalized New York City and restored public faith in City Hall. La Guardia was a leader who verged on authoritarianism but whose reform politics were carefully tailored to address the sentiments of his diverse constituency. He succeeded with the support of a sympathetic president and he secured his place in history as a tough-minded reform mayor who helped clean out corruption, bring in gifted experts, and fix upon the city a broad sense of responsibility for its own citizens. His administration engaged new groups that had kept out of the political system, gave New York its modern infrastructure. La Guardia was born in Greenwich Village in New York City and it was in Trieste that Achille La Guardia met and married Irene. Fiorello La Guardia was raised an Episcopalian and practiced that religion all his life and his middle name Enrico was anglicized to Henry when he was a child. He moved to Arizona with his family, where his father had a position at Fort Whipple in the U. S. Army. La Guardia attended public schools and high school in Prescott, Arizona, after his father was discharged from his bandmaster position in 1898, Fiorello lived in Trieste. He graduated from the Dwight School, a school on the Upper West Side of New York City. La Guardia joined the State Department and served in U. S. consulates in Budapest, Trieste and he returned to the United States to continue his education at New York University. From 1907 to 1910, he worked as an interpreter for the U. S. Bureau of Immigration at the Ellis Island immigration station. He graduated from New York University School of Law in 1910, was admitted to the bar the same year and his first wife was Thea Almerigotti, an Istrian immigrant, whom he married on March 8,1919. In June 1920 they had a daughter, Fioretta Thea, who died May 9,1921 and his first wife died of tuberculosis on November 29,1921, at the age of 26. In 1929 he married Marie Fisher who had been his secretary while in Congress, La Guardia became Deputy Attorney General of New York in January 1915
11.
United States Army Air Forces
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Each of these forces had a commanding general who reported directly to the Army Chief of Staff. S. Army to control its own installations and support personnel, the peak size of the AAF during the Second World War was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft by 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943. By V-E Day, the Army Air Forces had 1.25 million men stationed overseas, in its expansion and conduct of the war, the AAF became more than just an arm of the greater organization. By the end of World War II, the Army Air Forces had become virtually an independent service and this contrast between theory and fact is. fundamental to an understanding of the AAF. Gen. Billy Mitchell that led to his later court-martial, a strategy stressing precision bombing of industrial targets by heavily armed, long-range bombers emerged, formulated by the men who would become its leaders. Since 1920, control of units had resided with commanders of the corps areas. Both were created in 1933 when a conflict with Cuba seemed possible following a coup détat. Activation of GHQ Air Force represented a compromise between strategic airpower advocates and ground force commanders who demanded that the Air Corps mission remain tied to that of the land forces. GHQ Air Force organized combat groups administratively into a force of three wings deployed to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts but was small in comparison to European air forces. Corps area commanders continued to control over airfields and administration of personnel. The expected activation of Army General Headquarters prompted Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall to request a study from Chief of the Air Corps Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold resulting on 5 October 1940 in a proposal for creation of an air staff, unification of the air arm under one commander, and equality with the ground and supply forces. Marshall implemented a compromise that the Air Corps found entirely inadequate, naming Arnold as acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Air but rejecting all organizational points of his proposal. GHQ Air Force instead was assigned to the control of Army General Headquarters, although the latter was a training and not an operational component, when it was activated in November 1940. A division of the GHQ Air Force into four air defense districts on 19 October 1940 was concurrent with the creation of air forces to defend Hawaii. The air districts were converted in March 1941 into numbered air forces with an organization of 54 groups. Marshall had come to the view that the air forces needed a simpler system, Arnold and Marshall agreed that the AAF would enjoy a general autonomy within the War Department until the end of the war, while its commanders would cease lobbying for independence. Marshall, a proponent of airpower, left understood that the Air Force would likely achieve its independence following the war
12.
Mario Lanza
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Mario Lanza was an American tenor of Italian ancestry, actor and Hollywood film star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a singer at the age of 16. After appearing at the Hollywood Bowl in 1947, Lanza signed a film contract with Louis B. Mayer, the head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who saw his performance and was impressed by his singing, prior to that, the adult Lanza had sung only two performances of an opera. The following year, however, he sang the role of Pinkerton in Puccinis Madama Butterfly in New Orleans and his film début for MGM was in That Midnight Kiss with Kathryn Grayson and Ethel Barrymore. The following year, in The Toast of New Orleans, his popular song Be My Love became his first million-selling hit. In 1951, he played the role of tenor Enrico Caruso, his idol, in the biopic The Great Caruso, the Great Caruso was the top-grossing film that year. The title song of his film, Because Youre Mine, was his final million-selling hit song. The song went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper writes that his smile, which was as big as his voice, was matched with the habits of a tiger cub, impossible to housebreak. She adds that he was the last of the great romantic performers and he made three more films before dying of an apparent pulmonary embolism at the age of 38. At the time of his death in 1959 he was still the most famous tenor in the world, author Eleonora Kimmel concludes that Lanza blazed like a meteor whose light lasts a brief moment in time. Born Alfred Arnold Cocozza in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was exposed to classical singing at an age by his Abruzzese-Molisan Italian parents. His mother, Maria Lanza, was from Tocco da Casauria and his father, Antonio Cocozza, was from Filignano, a province of Isernia in the region of Molise. By age 16, his talent had become apparent. In 1942, Koussevitzky provided young Cocozza with a student scholarship to the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. Reportedly, Koussevitzky would later tell him, Yours is a such as is heard once in a hundred years. This was when Cocozza adopted the stage name Mario Lanza, for its similarity to his mother’s maiden name, Herbert Graf subsequently wrote in Opera News, A real find of the season was Mario Lanza He would have no difficulty one day being asked to join the Metropolitan Opera. In an interview shortly before her own death in 2008, González recalled that Lanza was very correct, likeable and his budding operatic career was interrupted by World War II, when he was assigned to Special Services in the U. S. Army Air Corps
