Irene (musical)
Irene is a musical with a book by James Montgomery, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy, music by Harry Tierney. Based on Montgomery's play Irene O'Dare, it is set in New York City's Upper West Side and focuses on immigrant shop assistant Irene O'Dare, introduced to Long Island's high society when she is hired by one of its leading grande dames to help redecorate her home; the musical opened on Broadway in 1919 and ran for 675 performances, at the time the record for the longest-running musical in Broadway history, which it maintained for nearly two decades. It starred Edith Day in the title role, it was revived on Broadway in 1923, filmed twice, had a major Broadway revival in 1973, starring Debbie Reynolds, followed by a 1976 London run that lasted 974 performances. The original Broadway production, directed by Edward Royce, opened on November 18, 1919 at the Vanderbilt Theatre, where it ran for 675 performances, at the time the record for the longest-running show in Broadway history, one it maintained for nearly two decades.
The cast included Edith Day as Irene, Walter Regan as tycoon Donald Marshall, Eva Puck as Helen Cheston, Gladys Miller as Jane Gilmour, Bobby Watson as'Madame Lucy', a flamboyant male dress designer. The show made a star of Day, who departed the cast after five months to recreate her role at London's Empire Theatre, where it ran for 399 performances. Day was replaced in the Broadway production by Helen Shipman. Irene enjoyed a brief Broadway revival at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre in 1923 with Dale Winter as Irene, Jere Delaney as Madame Lucy, Walter Regan reprising his role as Donald. There were 17 national touring companies, it was filmed twice, first as a 1926 silent movie with Colleen Moore and again in 1940 with Anna Neagle. In 1971, the revival of the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette with film star Ruby Keeler proved to be a hit, its producer, Harry Rigby, deciding to cash in on the nostalgia craze by reviving another vintage show with another glamorous movie star as its centerpiece, zeroed in on Irene, engaging Debbie Reynolds to make her Broadway debut in the title role.
Rigby hired librettist Hugh Wheeler to rework the show, which retained only five of the original songs and added tunes written by McCarthy with other composers and original numbers by Charles Gaynor and Otis Clements, with additional material written by Wally Harper and Jack Lloyd for the revival. Actor John Gielgud was hired to direct; the production was troubled from the beginning. Billy De Wolfe was replaced by George S. Irving as Madame Lucy. Reviews in Toronto were mixed, when Reynolds was stricken with a throat ailment, the producers, rather than cancel the sell-out performances, had her mime her dialogue and songs on stage to Gielgud's reading of them from the wings, much to the dismay of angry audiences. Philadelphia critics were brutal, Gielgud, an odd choice for a lightweight musical comedy, was replaced by Gower Champion, who had helmed a Los Angeles revival of Annie Get Your Gun with Reynolds. Peter Gennaro was hired to restage the musical numbers, Joseph Stein was brought in to doctor the book, which now had Irene posing as a countess in cahoots with couturier Madame Lucy in a scheme to promote his fashions.
Postponing the Broadway opening, the producers brought the work-in-progress to Washington, D. C. where it was seen by his family. Their declaration that Irene was a hit made headlines and spurred advance-ticket sales in New York City. After 13 previews, the revival opened on March 13, 1973 as the inaugural production of the Minskoff Theatre, where it set new box-office records, it ran for 594 performances. In addition to Reynolds and Irving, the cast included Patsy Kelly, Monte Markham as Donald, Ruth Warrick, Janie Sell, Meg Bussert, Reynolds' daughter Carrie Fisher. Raoul Pène Du Bois designed the sets and costumes, with the exception of Reynolds' costumes, which were by Irene Sharaff; the Broadway reviews were mixed, but Clive Barnes of The New York Times described it as "raucous cheerful, the best 1919 musical in town." Reynolds and Kelly were each nominated for a Tony Award. Reynolds' former MGM co-star, Jane Powell, replaced her in February 1974. New York Times reviewer Mel Gussow wrote; the two stars are an equal match for peppiness.
Miss Reynolds may score a point for clowning, but Miss Powell wins two for softness." "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows", cut during the pre-Broadway try-outs, was restored to the score. Reynolds returned to play the final week before the revival closed on September 8, 1974, took the show on a national tour, playing for five months and setting new box-office records before being replaced again by Powell; the success of this revival led to a 1973 Australian production with Julie Anthony, who went on to star in a 1976 London revival at the Adelphi Theatre, directed by Freddie Carpenter and choreographed by Norman Maen, that lasted 974 performances. The cast included Jon Pertwee and Eric Flynn. Additional changes were made in the song list. Act IIrene O'Dare is a humble but ambitious, hard-working Irish girl from the West side of Manhattan, who runs a little music store with her widowed mother. Irene is sent to tune a piano for a Long Island society gentleman. Once at Donald's estate, Irene falls in love with him, each is captivated by how different the other is from their usual friends.
Donald's ne'er-d
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards known as the Oscars, are a set of awards for artistic and technical merit in the film industry. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements as assessed by the Academy's voting membership; the various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more referred to by its nickname "Oscar". The award was sculpted by George Stanley from a design sketch by Cedric Gibbons. AMPAS first presented it in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; the Academy Awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now seen live worldwide, its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, the Grammy Awards for music – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2018, was held on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, California.
The ceremony was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,072 Oscar statuettes have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 90th ceremony, it was the first ceremony since 1988 without a host. The first Academy Awards presentation was held on 16 May 1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people; the post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists and other participants in the film-making industry of the time, for their works during the 1927–28 period; the ceremony ran for 15 minutes. Winners were announced to media three months earlier; that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11:00 pm on the night of the awards; this method was used until an occasion when the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began.
The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. He had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier. At that time, the winners were recognized for all of their work done in a certain category during the qualifying period. With the fourth ceremony, the system changed, professionals were honored for a specific performance in a single film. For the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on 27 March 1957, the Best Foreign Language Film category was introduced; until foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies have ended with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Traditionally, the previous year's winner for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor present the awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, while the previous year's winner for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress present the awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.
See § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. Made of gold-plated bronze on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in tall, weighs 8.5 lb, depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Directors and Technicians; the model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons' design; the statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years the bronze was abandoned in favor of Britannia metal, a pewter-like alloy, plated in copper, nickel silver, 24-karat gold. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, Oscars were made of painted plaster for three years. Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones; the only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base.
The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C. W. Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, which contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Award's statuettes. From 1983 to 2015 50 Oscars in a tin alloy with gold plating were made each year in Chicago by Illinois manufacturer R. S. Owens & Company, it would take between four weeks to manufacture 50 statuettes. In 2016, the Academy returned to bronze as the core metal of the statuettes, handing manufacturing duties to Walden, New York-based Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry. While based on a digital scan of an original 1929 Oscar, the statuettes retain their modern-era dimensions and black pedestal. Cast in liquid bronze from 3D-printed ceramic molds and polished, they are electroplated in 24-karat gold by Brooklyn, New York–based Epner Technology; the time required to produce 50 such statuettes is three months. R. S. Owens i
Una Merkel
Una Merkel was an American stage, film and television actress. Merkel was acted on stage in New York in the 1920s, she became a popular film actress. Two of her best-known performances are in the films 42nd Destry Rides Again, she won a Tony Award in 1956 and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961. Una Merkel was born in Covington, Kentucky, to Arno Merkel and Bessie Phares, but in her early childhood, she lived in many of the Southern United States due to her father's job as a traveling salesman. At the age of 15, she and her parents moved to Philadelphia, they stayed there a year or so before settling in New York City, where she began attending the Alviene School of Dramatic Art. Because of her strong resemblance to actress Lillian Gish, Merkel was offered a part as Gish's youngest sister in a silent film called World Shadows; the public never saw the film because funding for it dried up, it was never completed. Merkel went on to appear in several of them for the Lee Bradford Corporation, she appeared in the two-reel Love's Old Sweet Song, made by Lee DeForest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process and starred Louis Wolheim and Helen Weir.
Not making much of a mark in films, Merkel turned her attention to the theater and found work in several important plays on Broadway. Her biggest triumph was in Coquette, which starred Helen Hayes. Invited to Hollywood by famous director D. W. Griffith to play Ann Rutledge in his film Abraham Lincoln, Merkel became a big success in the "talkies". During the 1930s, she became a popular second lead in a number of films playing the wisecracking best friend of the heroine, supporting actresses such as Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Loretta Young, Eleanor Powell. With her Kewpie-doll looks, strong Southern accent, wry line delivery, Merkel left her mark on scores of films in the 1930s, she played Sam Spade's secretary in the original 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon. Merkel was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player from 1932 to 1938, appearing in as many as 12 films in a year on loan-out to other studios, she was often cast as leading lady opposite Jack Benny, Harold Lloyd, Franchot Tone, Charles Butterworth, among others.
In 42nd Street, Merkel played a streetwise show girl, Ginger Rogers' character's buddy. In the famous "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" number and Rogers sang the verse: "Matrimony is baloney. She'll be wanting alimony in a year or so./Still they go and shuffle, shuffle off to Buffalo." Merkel appeared in both the 1934 and the 1952 film versions of The Merry Widow, playing different roles. One of her most famous roles was in the Western comedy Destry Rides Again, in which her character, Lily Belle, gets into a famous "cat-fight" with Frenchie over the possession of her husband's trousers, won by Frenchie in a crooked card game, she played the elder daughter to the W. C. Fields character, Egbert Sousé, in the 1940 film The Bank Dick, her film career went into decline during the 1940s, although she continued working in smaller productions. In 1950, she starred with William Bendix in the baseball comedy Kill the Umpire, a surprise hit, she made a comeback as a middle-aged woman playing mothers and maiden aunts, in 1956 won a Tony Award for her role on Broadway in The Ponder Heart, adapted from the novella of the same name.
She had a major part in the MGM 1959 film The Mating Game as Paul Douglas's character's wife and Debbie Reynolds' character's mother, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Summer and Smoke. She was featured as Brian Keith's character's housekeeper, Verbena, in the Walt Disney comedy The Parent Trap in 1961, her final film role was opposite Elvis Presley in Spinout. On March 5, 1945, Merkel was nearly killed when her mother Bessie, with whom she shared an apartment in New York City, committed suicide by gassing herself. Merkel was overcome by the five gas jets her mother had turned on in their kitchen and was found unconscious in her bedroom. On March 4, 1952, seven years to the day after her mother committed suicide, Merkel overdosed on sleeping pills, she was found unconscious by a nurse, caring for her at the time and remained in a coma for a day before recovering. Merkel was a lifelong Methodist. Merkel had no children, she married North American Aviation executive Ronald L. Burla in 1932.
They separated in April 1944. Merkel filed for divorce on December 19, 1946 in Miami, it was granted in March 1947. On January 2, 1986, Merkel died in Los Angeles at the age of 82, she is buried near her parents and Bessie Merkel, in Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Una Merkel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1991, a historical marker was dedicated to her in her hometown of Covington. For TV movies, see the Television credits section. Kinder, Larry Sean. Una Merkel: The Actress With Sassy Wit and Southern Charm. Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2016. Una Merkel at the Internet Broadway Database Una Merkel on IMDb Photographs of Covington, Kentucky's Una Merkel Photographs of Una Merkel Una Merkel at Find a Grave
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC for 41 years, from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, on The Online Network from April 29 to September 2, 2013, via Hulu, Hulu Plus, iTunes. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictional suburb of Philadelphia, modeled on the actual Philadelphia suburb of Rosemont; the original series featured Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime television's most popular characters. The title of the series refers to the bonds of humanity. All My Children was the first new network daytime drama. Owned by Creative Horizons, Inc. the company created by Nixon and her husband, the show was sold to ABC in January 1975. The series started at a half-hour in per-installment length was expanded to a full hour on April 25, 1977. Earlier, the show had experimented with the full-hour format for one week starting on June 30, 1975, after which Ryan's Hope premiered. From 1970 to 1990, All My Children was recorded at ABC's TV18 at 101 West 67th St, now a 50-story apartment tower.
From March 1990 to December 2009, it was taped at ABC's Studio TV23 at 320 West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. In December 2009, the locale for taping the series moved from Manhattan to less costly Los Angeles, California; the show was produced in Stages 1 and 2 at the Andrita Studios in Los Angeles, from 2010 to 2011, at the Connecticut Film Center in Stamford, Connecticut. All My Children started taping in high definition on January 4, 2010, began airing in high definition on February 3, 2010. All My Children became the third soap opera to be broadcast in high definition. At one point, the program's popularity positioned it as the most recorded television show in the United States. In a departure from societal norms at the time, All My Children, in the mid-1970s, had an audience, estimated to be 30% male; the show ranked No. 1 in the daytime Nielsen ratings in the 1978–79 season. Throughout most of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, All My Children was the No. 2 daytime soap opera on the air.
However, like the rest of the soap operas in the United States, All My Children experienced unprecedented declines in its daytime ratings during the 2000s. By the 2010s, it had become one of the least watched soap operas in daytime television. On April 14, 2011, ABC announced the cancellation of All My Children after a run of 41 years due to low ratings. On July 7, 2011, ABC sold the licensing rights of All My Children to third-party production company Prospect Park with the show set to continue on the internet as a series of webisodes; the show taped its final scenes for ABC on August 30, 2011, its final episode on the network aired on September 23, 2011, with a cliffhanger. On September 26, 2011, the following Monday, ABC replaced All My Children with a newly debuted talk show The Chew. Prospect Park had suspended its plan to revive the series on November 23, 2011, due to lack of funding and unsuccessful negotiation with the union organizations representing the actors and crews. On January 7, 2013, Prospect Park brought back its project to restore All My Children as a web series.
The show taped its first scenes for Prospect Park TOLN on February 18, 2013, its first episode on the network aired on April 29, 2013. However, the new series faced several behind-the-scene obstacles throughout its run. On November 11, 2013, several All My Children cast members announced that Prospect Park had closed production and canceled the series again. ABC regained the rights to All My Children in December 2016. Agnes Nixon head writer for The Guiding Light, first came up with the idea for All My Children in the 1960s; when writing the story bible, she designed the show so it would be a light-hearted soap opera that focused on social issues and young love. She unsuccessfully attempted to sell the series to NBC to CBS, once again to NBC through Procter & Gamble; when Procter & Gamble was unable to make room for the show in its lineup, Nixon put All My Children on hold. Nixon became head writer for Another World in 1965, decided to use a few ideas from her All My Children bible. In one specific case, she used the model of the Erica Kane character to create a brand new Another World character named Rachel Davis.
Nixon said Rachel was Erica's "precursor to the public... Erica and Rachel have in common is they thought if they could get their dream, they'd be satisfied... But that dream has been elusive", Nixon said. ABC approached her to create a show that would reflect a more contemporary tone; that program became One Life to Live, it debuted in 1968. After the show became a success, the network asked her for another program, she obliged by reviving her All My Children bible and the Erica Kane character; the poem, written by Nixon, that appears in the title credits' photo album reads: The Great and the Least, The Rich and the Poor, The Weak and the Strong, In Sickness and in Health, In Joy and Sorrow, In Tragedy and Triumph, You are ALL MY CHILDREN All My Children debuted on January 5, 1970, replacing the canceled game show Dream House. Rosemary Prinz was signed on to be the "special guest star" for six months, playing the role of political activist Amy Tyler. Prinz was well known for her role of Penny Hughes on As the World Turns in the 1950s and 1960s, she was added to the show to give it an initial boost due to her name value.
From 1970 and into the 1980s, the show was either written by Nixon herself or by her protégé, Wisner Washam. He was groomed by Nixon to take over the reins in the 1980s while she focused on other endeavors, which included creating and launching Loving in 1983. Nixon strove to cr
Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon was an American television writer and producer. She is best known as the creator of the soap operas One Life to Live, All My Children, Loving. Nixon's work as producer and writer introduced a number of new storylines to American daytime television – the first health-related storyline, the first storyline related to the Vietnam War, the first on-screen lesbian kiss and the first on-screen abortion, she won five Writers' Guild of America Awards, five Daytime Emmy Awards, in 2010 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Nixon was referred to as the "Queen" of the modern American soap opera. Nixon was born Agnes Eckhardt on December 10, 1922, in Chicago, the daughter of Agnes Patricia and Harry Joseph Eckhardt, she attended Northwestern University. She began her career in soaps working for Irna Phillips. Under her tutelage, Nixon was a writer on Woman in White and As the World Turns, was head writer for Search for Tomorrow, Guiding Light, Another World.
During her time on Guiding Light, Nixon is believed to have written the first health-related storyline on a daytime soap opera. A friend of Nixon's had died from cervical cancer, Nixon wanted to do something to educate women about getting a pap smear, she wrote it into Guiding Light by having Bert Bauer, experience a cancer scare. The storyline aired in 1962. In 2002, she was the inaugural recipient of the Pioneer for Health Award from Sentinel for Health for her work on the episode. By the mid-1960s, Nixon had created a blueprint for. ABC executives passed on the program, due to contractual issues with sponsor Lever Brothers, who sponsored a program that All My Children would replace in its time slot, they asked her to create a show that would reflect a more "contemporary" tone. Nixon, "tired of the restraints imposed by the WASPy, non-controversial nature of daytime drama", presented the network with a startlingly original premise and cast of characters. Although the show was built along the classic soap formula of a rich family and a poor family, One Life to Live emphasized the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the people of Llanview, Pennsylvania, a fictional Main Line suburb of Philadelphia."Premiering in 1968, One Life to Live reflected changing social structures and attitudes.
The first few years of the show were rich in issue stories and characters including a Jewish character, an Irish American family, some of the first African American leading roles in soap operas with Sadie Gray, Carla Gray and Ed Hall. Carla's story, for example, had her develop from a character, passing as white to one who embodied black pride, with white and black lovers along the way, to antagonize racists. One Life to Live has been called "the most peculiarly American of soap operas: the first serial to present a vast array of ethnic types, broad comic situations, a constant emphasis on social issues, strong male characters." With the success of One Life to Live, Nixon was given the greenlight for All My Children, which began as a half-hour soap opera in 1970. The show was successful from its beginning, combining its study of social clashes with acting talent including Ruth Warrick and Rosemary Prinz. Nixon helmed the writing team for over a decade, until 1983, again introduced many social issues into storylines, including the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement, the AIDS epidemic, American television's first onscreen abortion.
All My Children was a half-hour show for the first seven years of its run, no recordings of those episodes survive. When ABC went to Nixon and said that they wanted her to expand the show to an hour in 1975, she resisted due to her own creative/quality concerns but agreed under the condition that the tapes of the show would be archived and preserved by the network. Episodes began to be saved in 1976, All My Children expanded to an hour on April 25, 1977. In 1992, ABC executives decided that All My Children needed new blood and promoted a Nixon protégé, Megan McTavish, to the position of head writer. Nixon continued to be involved with the show, but wanted to take a step back from the grueling day-to-day task of being a head writer. McTavish made some important changes by re-writing major storylines and was dismissed in early 1995. Lorraine Broderick returned as head writer, working alongside Nixon to return the show to its relevant, character-driven roots. Broderick and Nixon went on to accept three consecutive Daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Writing Team.
Still, in late 1997, ABC abruptly decided to bring back McTavish. This move led to Nixon's electing to step back from her story consulting role. In early 1999, McTavish was dismissed for the second time and Nixon was again asked to take over the headwriting reins at All My Children. Nixon again wove social issues into the show, by having a major character "come out". In 2000, Erica's daughter, Bianca Montgomery, returned to Pine Valley and came out as a lesbian to her mother and to all of Pine Valley; this storyline led to All My Children's winning a casting Artios award, a GLAAD Media Award, a nomination for a Daytime Emmy for Best Drama Series. In 1983, Nixon began; the half-hour program debuted on ABC in June of that year and was set in the fictional town of Corinth, Pennsylvania. Loving struggled to
Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company is an American multi-national consumer goods corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, founded in 1837 by English American William Procter and Irish American James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer health, personal care and hygiene products. Before the sale of Pringles to the Kellogg Company, its product portfolio included foods and beverages. In 2014, P&G recorded $83.1 billion in sales. On August 1, 2014, P&G announced it was streamlining the company and selling off around 100 brands from its product portfolio in order to focus on the remaining 65 brands, which produced 95% of the company's profits. A. G. Lafley—the company's chairman, CEO until October 31, 2015—said the future P&G would be "a much simpler, much less complex company of leading brands that's easier to manage and operate". David Taylor is the current CEO of Procter & Gamble. Candlemaker William Procter, born in England, soapmaker James Gamble, born in Ireland, both emigrated from the United Kingdom.
They settled in Cincinnati and met when they married sisters Olivia and Elizabeth Norris. Alexander Norris, their father-in-law, called a meeting in which he persuaded his new sons-in-law to become business partners. On October 31, 1837, as a result of the suggestion, Procter & Gamble was created. In 1858–1859, sales reached $1 million. By that point, about 80 employees worked for Gamble. During the American Civil War, the company won contracts to supply the Union Army with soap and candles. In addition to the increased profits experienced during the war, the military contracts introduced soldiers from all over the country to Procter & Gamble's products. In the 1880s, Procter & Gamble began to market a new product, an inexpensive soap that floats in water; the company called the soap Ivory. William Arnett Procter, William Procter's grandson, began a profit-sharing program for the company's workforce in 1887. By giving the workers a stake in the company, he assumed that they would be less to go on strike.
The company began to build factories in other locations in the United States because the demand for products had outgrown the capacity of the Cincinnati facilities. The company's leaders began to diversify its products, as well, in 1911, began producing Crisco, a shortening made of vegetable oils rather than animal fats; as radio became more popular in the 1920s and 1930s, the company sponsored a number of radio programs. As a result, these shows became known as "soap operas"; the company moved into other countries, both in terms of manufacturing and product sales, becoming an international corporation with its 1930 acquisition of the Thomas Hedley Co. based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. After this acquisition, Procter & Gamble had their UK Headquarters at'Hedley House' in Newcastle upon Tyne, until quite recently. Numerous new products and brand names were introduced over time, Procter & Gamble began branching out into new areas; the company introduced Tide laundry detergent in 1946 and Prell shampoo in 1947.
In 1955, Procter & Gamble began selling the first toothpaste to contain fluoride, known as Crest. Branching out once again in 1957, the company purchased Charmin paper mills and began manufacturing toilet paper and other tissue paper products. Once again focusing on laundry, Procter & Gamble began making Downy fabric softener in 1960 and Bounce fabric softener sheets in 1972. One of the most revolutionary products to come out on the market was the company's disposable Pampers diaper, first test-marketed in 1961, the same year Procter & Gamble came out with Head & Shoulders. Prior to this point, disposable diapers were not popular, although Johnson & Johnson had developed a product called Chux. Babies always wore cloth diapers, which were labor-intensive to wash. Pampers provided a convenient alternative, albeit at the environmental cost of more waste requiring landfilling. Amid the recent concerns parents have voiced on the ingredients in diapers, Pampers launch Pampers Pure collection in 2018, a "natural" diaper alternative.
Procter & Gamble acquired a number of other companies that diversified its product line and increased profits. These acquisitions included Folgers Coffee, Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals, Richardson-Vicks, Shulton's Old Spice, Max Factor, the Iams Company, Pantene, among others. In 1994, the company made headlines for big losses resulting from levered positions in interest rate derivatives, subsequently sued Bankers Trust for fraud. In 1996, P&G again made headlines when the Food and Drug Administration approved a new product developed by the company, Olestra. Known by its brand name'Olean', Olestra is a lower-calorie substitute for fat in cooking potato chips and other snacks. In January 2005, P&G announced the acquisition of Gillette, forming the largest consumer goods company and placing Unilever into second place; this added brands such as Gillette razors, Duracell and Oral-B to their stable. The acquisition was approved by the European Union and the Federal Trade Commission, with conditions to a spinoff of certain overlapping brands.
P&G agreed to sell its SpinBrush battery-operated electric toothbrush business to Church & Dwight, Gillette's Rembrandt toothpaste line to Johnson & Johnson. The deodorant brands Right Guard and Dri, Dry Idea were sold to Dial Corporation; the compa
Daisy Kenyon
Daisy Kenyon is a 1947 American film noir romantic-drama by 20th Century Fox starring Joan Crawford, Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews in a story about a post-World War II romantic triangle. The screenplay by David Hertz was based upon a 1945 novel of the same name by Elizabeth Janeway; the film was produced by Otto Preminger. Having opened to restrained reception, Kenyon has seen reappraisal, now enjoys a minor cult following for its realistic treatment of a melodramatic plot. Daisy Kenyon is a Manhattan commercial artist having an affair with an arrogant and overbearing but successful lawyer named Dan O'Mara, married and has two children, he breaks a date with Daisy one night and she goes out with a widowed war veteran named Peter Lapham. O'Mara and his wife Lucille fight constantly: about his job, the upbringing of their two daughters, about his cheating; that same night, Dan turns up at New York's Stork Club with his wife and older daughter where Daisy and Peter are waiting to be seated. Daisy and Peter leave immediately.
At the end of the date, Peter announces that he loves Daisy, leaves. Peter stands her up for their next date, but he comes by unannounced and proposes to Daisy, she realizes. After a brief and hesitant courtship Daisy marries Peter. Daisy supports Peter's post-war career. Peter is sometimes quiet and withholding, sometimes wildly exuberant. Peter knows. Daisy feels. Dan's wife fed up with his cheating, wants a divorce, using full custody of the children as leverage to hurt Dan. Dan asks Peter and Daisy to allow him to reveal the full details of his former relationship with Daisy during the divorce proceedings. Peter states that he won't stand in Daisy's way, that when they first met he needed her, but that he doesn't anymore, he leaves. The trial begins, he asks Peter to sign divorce papers though Daisy did not request them. Daisy goes away to think, she gets into a car accident. Dan and Peter are waiting for her at the cottage, she asks Dan to leave. Daisy realizes she remains with Peter. Joan Crawford as Daisy Kenyon Dana Andrews as Dan O'Mara Henry Fonda as Peter Lapham Ruth Warrick as Lucille O'Mara Martha Stewart as Mary Angelus Peggy Ann Garner as Rosamund O'Mara Connie Marshall as Marie O'Mara Nicholas Joy as Coverly Art Baker as Lucille O'Mara's attorneyNewspaper reporters Walter Winchell, Leonard Lyons, Damon Runyon, along with actor John Garfield, make cameo appearances in the film.
The rights to Elizabeth Janeway's novel were purchased by 20th Century Fox for $100,000 in 1945. An unfinished first draft of the screenplay was first written in August 1945 by Margaret Buell Wilder and Ted Sills before Hertz was brought in to write a second draft. Ring Lardner Jr. who had written the script for Laura, was hired to revise Hertz's draft in 1947. The Motion Picture Production Code administrators, with whom Preminger sparred, took issue with the screenplay's "lack of regard for the sanctity of marriage"; the studio was advised to avoid referencing explicit sexual intercourse, to emphasize the moral wrongness of the relationship between the characters of Daisy and Dan. Preminger was forced to work around the PCA's concerns over alcohol- characters pour alcoholic drinks in several scenes, but never drink them. Gene Tierney, who had starred in Preminger's 1944 film Laura, Jennifer Jones, considered for Tierney's role in that picture, were both considered for the part of Daisy Kenyon in 1945 and 1946 before Crawford was allowed to be "borrowed" from her contract with Warner Bros.
The casting of Crawford was somewhat problematic, as she was 42, while the character of Daisy as depicted in the novel is 32. A make-up artist and shadowy cinematography were employed to disguise Crawford's age. Andrews and Fonda completed the film to fulfill their contracts. Production of the film was completed without setback, two days ahead of schedule and only $100 over the set budget. Ruth Warrick stated that Preminger "carried himself like an army officer, behaved like a general moving the troops." Warrick commented on the amicable relationship of the director and his lead star, saying, "With Otto and Joan, we had two tyrants on the set, that may have kept both of them in line." The only apparent problem on set was the maintenance of a temperature of 50 degrees to ease Crawford's hot flashes. According to Warrick, "she was always in tennis shorts and a thin blouse because she was so hot, while I had to wear a fur coat to keep warm. Otto said not one word about the temperature." Crawford presented Fonda with long underwear as appeasement.
Reviews at its release were positive, if dismissive. Otto Preminger himself stated. Variety's review stated that the central "triangle, in which Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda fight it out for the love of Joan Crawford, is a shallow lending-library affair, but it's made to seem important by the magnetic trio's slick-smart backgrounds - plus, of course, excellent direction, sophisticated dialog, solid supporting cast and other flashy production values." T. M. P. in the New York Times noted, "Miss Crawford is, of course, an old hand at being an confused and frustrated woman, she plays the role with easy comp
