1.
William Conrad
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William Conrad was an American actor, producer, and director whose career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television. A radio writer and actor, he moved to Hollywood after his World War II service and he created the role of Marshal Matt Dillon for the popular radio series Gunsmoke and narrated the television adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and The Fugitive. Finding fewer onscreen roles in the 1950s, he changed from actor to producer-director with television work, narration, and a series of Warner Bros. films in the 1960s. Conrad found stardom as a detective in the TV series Cannon and Nero Wolfe, and as district attorney Jason Lochinvar J. L. Fatman McCabe in the legal drama Jake and the Fatman. William Conrad was born John William Cann, Jr. on September 27,1920, in Louisville and his parents, John William Cann and Ida Mae Upchurch Cann, owned a movie theatre, and Conrad grew up watching movies. The family moved to Southern California when Conrad was in high school and he majored in drama and literature at Fullerton College, in Orange County, California, and began his career as an announcer, writer, and director for Los Angeles radio station KMPC. Conrad served as a pilot in World War II. On the day he was commissioned in 1943 at Luke Field and he left the United States Army Air Corps with the rank of captain and as a producer-director of the Armed Forces Radio Service. William Conrad estimated that he played more than 7,500 roles during his radio career, at KMPC, the 22-year-old Conrad produced and acted in The Hermits Cave, the Los Angeles incarnation of a popular syndicated horror anthology series created at WJR Detroit. Conrad was the voice of Escape, a radio series. He played Warchek, a policeman, in Johnny Modero, Pier 23, a detective series starring Jack Webb. He played newspaper editor Walter Burns opposite Dick Powells reporter Hildy Johnson in the ABC radio drama The Front Page, most prominently, Conrads deep, resonant voice was heard in the role of Marshal Matt Dillon on CBS Radios gritty Western series Gunsmoke. Conrad voiced Dillon for the shows run, and he wrote the June 1953 episode Sundown. When Gunsmoke was adapted for television in 1955, executives at CBS did not cast Conrad or his radio costars despite a campaign to get them to change their minds and his other credits include Suspense, Lux Radio Theater, and Fibber McGee and Molly. In The Wax Works, a 1956 episode of Suspense, Conrad performed every part, because of his CBS Radio contract, he sometimes appeared on shows on other networks under the pseudonym Julius Krelboyne. In January 1956, Conrad was the announcer on the debut broadcast of The CBS Radio Workshop, Conrad directed and narrated the 1957 episode Epitaphs, an adaptation of Edgar Lee Masterss poetry volume Spoon River Anthology. And 1489 Words remains a favorite of many, a powerful Conrad performance proving that one picture is not necessarily worth a thousand words, a lovely way to end a day, a decade, or an era. As an actor in films, Conrad was often cast as a threatening figure
2.
Henry Slesar
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Henry Slesar was an American author, playwright, and copywriter. He is famous for his use of irony and twist endings, after reading Slesars M Is for the Many in Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock bought it for adaptation and they began many successful collaborations. Slesar wrote hundreds of scripts for television series and soap operas, Henry Slesar was born in Brooklyn, New York City. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, and he had two sisters named Doris and Lillian. After graduating from the School of Industrial Art, he found he had a talent for ad copy and design and he was hired right out of school to work for the prominent advertising agency Young & Rubicam. It has been claimed that the coffee break was coined by Slesar. During World War II, for years he served in the United States Air Force. Afterwards, he opened his own agency, Slesar was married three times, to Oenone Scott, 1953-1969, to Jan Maakestad, 1970-1974, and to Manuela Jone in 1974. He had one daughter and one son, in addition to writing chiefly under his own name, Slesar published under several pseudonyms, particularly on early short stories. These included, Clyde Mitchell - a Ziff Davis house pseudonym used by science fiction and fantasy authors in Amazing Stories and Fantastic. Slesar used the Mitchell name for The Monster Died at Dawn in Amazing Stories, Leslie - Slesar chose this name, which he used from 1956 to 1964, again for Paul Fairman as well as other magazines. In Amazing Stories he published stories as Marriages Are Made in Detroit, Reluctant Genius, No Room in Heaven. In Fantastic he published stories as Death Rattle, My Robot, Abe Lincoln—Android, The Marriage Machine. Ivar Jorgensen - This pseudonym, a name, was also used by Robert Silverberg, Randall Garrett, Harlan Ellison, Howard Browne. Slesars use of the name appeared in Fantastic for Cowards Death, E. K. Jarvis - another Ziff Davis house name, also used by Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, Paul W. Fairman, Robert Bloch, and Robert Moore Williams. Slesar used it for Get Out of Our Skies. in Amazing Stories, lawrence Chandler - Another Ziff Davis house name, shared by Howard Browne, Slesar used it for Tool of the Gods in Fantastic. Sley Harson - Nearly an anagram of Slesars name, he used it in collaboration with his friend Harlan Ellison, together they published Sob Story in The Deadly Streets. Gerald Vance - Another Ziff Davis house name, shared by William P. McGivern, Rog Phillips, Robert Silverberg, Slesar sold the story The Lavender Talent to Paul Fairman at Fantastic
3.
Cesar Romero
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Cesar Julio Romero Jr. was an American actor, singer, dancer, voice artist, and comedian who was active in film, radio, and television for almost 60 years. Cesar Julio Romero Jr. was born in New York City on February 15,1907 and his mother was said to be the biological daughter of Cuban national hero José Martí. His father was born in Barcelona, Spain and emigrated to the United States in 1888 and his mother was a concert singer. He grew up in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, and was educated at Bradley Beach Elementary School, Asbury Park High School, the Collegiate School, and the Riverdale Country Day School. However, that changed dramatically when his parents lost their sugar import business. Romeros Hollywood earnings allowed him to support his family, all of whom followed him to the American West Coast years later. Romero lived on and off with various members for the rest of his life. On October 12,1942, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard as an apprentice seaman. He reported aboard the Coast Guard-manned assault transport USS Cavalier in November 1943, according to a press release from the period, Romero saw action during the invasions of Tinian and Saipan. The same article mentioned that he preferred to be a part of the crew and was eventually promoted to the rating of Chief Boatswains Mate. At 63 Romero was very tall for an actor, and routinely played Latin lovers in films from the 1930s until the 1950s and he starred as the Cisco Kid in six westerns made between 1939 and 1941. Romero danced and performed comedy in the 20th Century Fox films he starred in opposite Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable, such as Week-End in Havana and Springtime in the Rockies, in the 1940s. He also played a role as Sinjin, a piano player in Glenn Millers band. In The Thin Man, Romero played a supporting role opposite the films main star William Powell. Many of Romeros films from this period saw him cast in small character parts, such as Italian gangsters. Romero had a role as the Pathan rebel leader, Khoda Khan, in John Fords 1937 British Raj-era actioner Wee Willie Winkie. He also appeared in a turn as a subversive opponent to Frank Sinatra. 20th Century Fox, along with mogul Darryl Zanuck, personally selected Romero to co-star with Tyrone Power in the Technicolor historical epic Captain from Castile, while Power played a fictionalized character, Romero played Hernán Cortés, a historical conquistador in Spains conquest of the Americas
4.
Max Steiner
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Maximilian Raoul Max Steiner was an Austrian-born American music composer for theatre and films. He was a prodigy who conducted his first operetta when he was twelve and became a full-time professional, either composing, arranging, or conducting. He worked in England, then Broadway, and in 1929 he moved to Hollywood, Steiner was referred to as the father of film music. Steiner composed over 300 film scores with RKO Pictures and Warner Bros. and was nominated for 24 Academy Awards and he was also the first recipient of the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, which he won for his score to Life with Father. A lot of his scores are available as separate soundtrack recordings. Steiner was born on May 10,1888, in Austria-Hungary and he was the only child in a wealthy business and theatrical family of Jewish heritage. His father was Gabor Steiner, Viennese impresario, carnival exposition manager, Steiners mother was a dancer in stage productions put on by his grandfather. His godfather was the composer Richard Strauss, Max Steiner often credited his family for inspiring his early musical abilities. His parents sent Steiner to the Vienna University of Technology, and he studied various instruments including piano, organ, violin, double bass, and trumpet. He also had courses in harmony, counterpoint, and composition, for his early achievements he was awarded a gold medal by the academy. Steiner first entered the world of music when he was fifteen. He wrote and conducted the operetta, The Beautiful Greek Girl, the opera ran for a year and led to opportunities to conduct other shows in various cities around the world, including Moscow and Hamburg. He was invited to London to conduct Lehars The Merry Widow and he stayed in London for 8 years conducting musicals at Dalys Theares, the Adelphi, the Hippodrome, the London Pavilion and the Blackpool Winter Gardens. In England, Steiner wrote and conducted theater productions and symphonies, but in 1914, World War I started and he was interned as an enemy alien. Fortunately, he was befriended by the Duke of Westminster, who was a fan of his work and he arrived in New York City in December,1914, with only $32 to his name. Steiner soon acquired employment and worked in New York for fifteen years as a director, arranger, orchestrator. These productions include operettas and musicals written by Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, Steiners credits include, George Whites Scandals, Peaches, Lady, Be Good. In 1927, Steiner orchestrated and conducted Harry Tierneys Rio Rita, tierney himself later requested that RKO Pictures in Hollywood hire Steiner to work in their music production departments
5.
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
6.
Horror film
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Horror film is a film genre that seeks to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on their fears. Inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, the macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction and thriller genres, Horror films often deal with viewers nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event. Another of his projects was 1898s La Caverne maudite. Japan made early forays into the genre with Bake Jizo and Shinin no Sosei. The era featured a slew of literary adaptations, with the works of Poe and Dante, in 1908, Selig Polyscope Company produced Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In 1910, Edison Studios produced the first filmed version of Frankenstein, the macabre nature of the source materials used made the films synonymous with the horror film genre. Before and during the Weimar Republic era, German Expressionist filmmakers would significantly influence later productions, the first vampire-themed movie, Nosferatu, was made during this period, though it was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stokers Dracula. Other European countries also, contributed to the genre during this period, though the word horror to describe the film genre would not be used until the 1930s, earlier American productions often relied on horror themes. Some notable examples include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera, The Cat and the Canary, The Unknown, and The Man Who Laughs. Many of these films were considered dark melodramas because of their stock characters and emotion-heavy plots that focused on romance, violence, suspense. The trend of inserting an element of macabre into American pre-horror melodramas continued into the 1920s, directors known for relying on macabre in their films during the 1920s were Maurice Tourneur, Rex Ingram, and Tod Browning. Ingrams The Magician contains one of the first examples of a mad doctor and is said to have had a influence on James Whales version of Frankenstein. The Unholy Three is an example of Brownings use of macabre and unique style of morbidity, he remade the film in 1930 as a talkie, during the early period of talking pictures, Universal Pictures began a successful Gothic horror film series. Tod Brownings Dracula was quickly followed by James Whales Frankenstein and The Old Dark House, some of these films blended science fiction with Gothic horror, such as Whales The Invisible Man and featured a mad scientist, mirroring earlier German films. Frankenstein was the first in a series of remakes which lasted for years, the Mummy introduced Egyptology as a theme, Make-up artist Jack Pierce was responsible for the iconic image of the monster, and others in the series. Universals horror cycle continued into the 1940s with B-movies including The Wolf Man, the once controversial Freaks, based on the short story Spurs, was made by MGM, though the studio disowned the completed film, and it remained banned, in the UK, for thirty years
