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National Board Of Review

National Board of Review

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George McClennan's revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor (son of the famous Civil War general) believed that the new medium degraded the morals of community. To assert their constitutional freedom of expression, theatre owners led by Marcus Loew and film distributors (Edison, Biograph, Pathe and Gaumont) joined John Collier of The People's Institute at Cooper Union and established a National Review Committee that endorsed films of merit and championed the new "art of the people," which was transforming America's cultural life. In an effort to avoid government censorship of films, the National Board became the unofficial clearinghouse for new movies. From 1916 into the 1950's thousands of motion pictures carried the legend "Passed by the National Board of Review" in their main titles. To the public, this was the catchphrase of confidence. In 1929, the NBR was the first group to choose the ten best English-language movies of the year and the best foreign films, and is still the first critical body to announce its annual awards. The NBR has also gained international acclaim for its publications: Film Program (1917-1926); Exceptional Photoplays (1920-1925); Photoplay Guide to Better Movies (1924-1926); National Board of Review Magazine (1926-1942); New Movies (1842-1949); and Films in Review, which published its first issue in 1950. Influencing generations of filmmakers and film lovers, these journals have fostered commentary on all aspects of cinema production and history, counting among contributors Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Harold Robbins, Tennessee Williams, Dore Schary, William Saroyan, James Agee, Manny Farber, William K. Everson, Alistair Cooke, and Pearl Buck. In 2001, FOXNews began referring to NBR as the "National Board of People Who Aren't Reviewers But Pay a Membership Fee to See Films and Give Them Awards." Opinions are sent in from the 150 members — who are sophisticated film fans living in New York, not film critics — and these are merely recommendations to the Exceptional Photoplay Committee, a dozen elite members who really decide winners.

External link

- [http://www.nbrmp.org National Board of Review of Motion Pictures] - official website. Category:Film awards

1909

1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).

Events

January – March

- January 16 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
- January 28 - United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War.
- February 12 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
- February 23 - The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
- February 24 - The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
- March 4 - End of term for Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States. He is succeeded by William Howard Taft.
- March 18 - Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter becoming the first to broadcast as a ham radio operator.
- March 23 - Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
- March 31 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

April – June

- April 6 - Robert Peary allegedly reaches the North Pole.
- April 27 - Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown and succeeded by his brother, Muhammad V. He leaves the country the next day.
- May - Choosing a vocation by Frank Parsons (died 1908) is published.
- June 1 - The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition opens in Seattle.
- June 2 - Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
- June 9 – Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, became the first woman to drive across the United States. With three female companions, none of whom could drive a car, for fifty-nine days she drove a Maxwell automobile the 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York to San Francisco, California.
- June 15 - Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lords and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.
- June 22 - Construction begins on the Cape Cod Canal, which would separate Cape Cod from mainland Massachusetts, United States.

July – September

- July 13 - Gold discovered near Cochrane, Ontario.
- July 16 - A revolution forces Mohammad Ali Shah, Persian Shah of the Qajar dynasty to abdicate in favor of his son Ahmad Shah Qajar. He proceeds in leaving Persia for Imperial Russia, reportedly seeking the assistance of Nicholas II of Russia in regaining the throne.
- July 25 - Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft.
- August 8 - Launching of The Rosicrucian Fellowship at Seattle (Washington). Later, in October 28 1911, its international headquarters, till today, were physically launched at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside (California, United States) and the Healing Temple "The Ecclesia" was lauched in December 25 1920.
- September 9 - Comet Halley first recorded on a photographic plate.
- September 10-21 – Hurricane sweeps over Louisiana and Mississippi - 350 dead
- September 25 – Auroras seen in Singapore.

October – December

- October 2 - The first rugby football match played in Twickenham
- November 11 - US Navy founds a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
- November 13 - Ballinger-Pinchot scandal begins: Collier's magazine accuses US Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields.
- November 18 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya.
- November - First edition of Max Heindel's magnum opus The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception.
- December 4 - The University of Bristol was founded and received its Royal Charter.
- December 17 - Léopold II of Belgium dies and is succeeded by his nephew Albert I of Belgium

Month/date unknown

- William Dickson Boyce, a United States businessman visiting London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is introduced to members of the Scouting movement. The following year Boyce becomes founder of the Boy Scouts of America.
- Karl Landsteiner develops system of blood groups.
- Leon's, a Canadian furniture chain is first opened.
- Britain introduces Minimum Wage Laws.
- Old age pensions in Britain
- The laboratory of Paul Ehrlich creates the Salvarsan treatment for syphilis
- Mohorovičić discontinuity discovered
- Centennial anniversary of Miami University (Ohio)
- American Issue Publishing House of Anti-Saloon League incorporated.

Births

January

- January 1 - Barry Goldwater, American politician (d. 1998)
- January 3 - Victor Borge, Danish entertainer (d. 2000)
- January 5 - Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician (d. 1994)
- January 8 - Willy Millowitsch, German actor (d. 1999)
- January 13 - Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist accused of setting fire to the Reichstag (d. 1934)
- January 15 - Jean Bugatti, German-born automobile designer (d. 1939)
- January 15 - Gene Krupa, American drummer (d. 1973)
- January 16 - Clement Greenberg, American art critic (d. 1994)
- January 19 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (d. 2003)
- January 22 - Ann Sothern, American actress (d. 2001)
- January 22 - U Thant, Burmese United Nations Secretary General (d. 1974)
- January 24 - Martin Lings, British Islamic scholar (d. 2005)

February

- February 3 - Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)
- February 9 - Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born actress and singer (d. 1955)
- February 9 - Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (d. 1994)
- February 11 - Max Baer, American boxer and actor (d. 1959)
- February 11 - Joseph Mankiewicz, American filmmaker (d. 1993)
- February 15 - Guillermo Gorostiza Paredes, Spanish footballer (d. 1966)
- February 15 - Miep Gies, Dutch friend and biographer of Anne Frank
- February 18 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (d. 1993)
- February 24 - August Derleth, American writer (d. 1971)
- February 26 - King Talal of Jordan (d.1972)

March

- March 1 - David Niven, English actor (d. 1983)
- March 2 - Mel Ott, baseball player (d. 1958)
- March 4 - Harry Helmsley, American real estate entrepreneur (d. 1997)
- March 19 - Louis Hayward, South African-born actor (d. 1985)
- March 22 - Gabrielle Roy, Canadian author (d. 1983)
- March 24 - Clyde Barrow, American outlaw (d. 1934)
- March 27 - Golo Mann, German historian (d. 1994)

April

- April 13 - Stanislaw Marcin Ulam, Polish-born mathematician (d. 1984)
- April 22 - Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian neurologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- April 30 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (d. 2004)

May

- May 7 - Edwin H. Land, American camera inventor (d. 1991)
- May 10 - Mother Maybelle Carter, American musician (d. 1978)
- May 15 - James Mason, British actor (d. 1984)
- May 18 - Fred Perry, English tennis player (d. 1995)
- May 30 - Benny Goodman, American musician (d. 1986)

June

- June 6 - Isaiah Berlin, Russian historian of ideas (d. 1997)
- June 7 - Jessica Tandy, English actress (d. 1994)
- June 14 - Burl Ives, American singer (d. 1995)
- June 17 - Elmer Lee Andersen, Governor of Minnesota (d. 2004)
- June 20 - Errol Flynn, Australian actor (d. 1959)
- June 26 - Colonel Tom Parker, Dutch-born celebrity manager (d. 1997)

July

- July 18 - Mohammed Daoud Khan, President of Afghanistan (d. 1978)
- July 28 - Malcolm Lowry, British novelist (d. 1957)
- July 30 - C. Northcote Parkinson, British historian and author (d. 1993)

August

- August 9 - Adam von Trott zu Solz, German lawyer and diplomat (d. 1944)
- August 25 - Ruby Keeler, Canadian singer and actress (d. 1993)
- August 25 - Michael Rennie, English actor (d. 1971)
- August 26 - Jim Davis, American actor (d. 1981)

September

- September 7 - Elia Kazan, Hungarian-born film director (d. 2003)
- September 14 - Peter Scott, British ornithologist and painter (d. 1989)
- September 21 - Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanian politician (d. 1972)
- September 24 - Carl Sigman, American songwriter (d. 2000)
- September 28 - Al Capp, American cartoonist (d. 1979)

October

- October 14 - Bernd Rosemeyer, German race car driver (d. 1938)
- October 24 - Bill Carr, American athlete (d. 1966)
- October 28 - Francis Bacon, British painter (d. 1992)

November

- November 4 - Skeeter Webb, baseball player (d. 1986)
- November 10 - Paweł Jasienica, Polish historian (d. 1970)
- November 18 - Johnny Mercer, American songwriter (d. 1976)
- November 23 - Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and writer (d. 2000)
- November 24 - Gerhard Gentzen, German mathematician (d. 1945)
- November 27 - James Agee, American writer (d. 1955)

December

- December 14 - Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1975)
- December 20 - Vagn Holmboe, Danish composer (d. 1996)
- December 22 - Alan Carney, American actor (d. 1973)
- December 23 - Barney Ross, American boxer (d. 1967)
- December 23 - Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 2000)
- December 23 - Giulio Racah, Israeli mathematician and physicist (d. 1965)

Deaths

- January 12 - Hermann Minkowski, German mathematician (b. 1864)
- January 14 - Arthur William a Beckett, British journalist (b. 1844)
- April 10 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (b. 1837)
- May 19 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (b. 1860)
- June 24 - Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (b. 1849)
- August 27 - Emil Christian Hansen, Danish fermentation physiologist (b. 1842)
- September 4 - Clyde Fitch, American dramatist (b. 1865)
- October 26 - Prince Hirobumi Ito, Japanese governor of Korea (assassinated) (b. 1841)
- December 17 - Léopold II of Belgium (b. 1835)

Date unknown

- Gideon T. Stewart, American educator and politician (b. 1824)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Guglielmo Marconi, Karl Ferdinand Braun for the development of wireless telegraphy (radio)
- Chemistry - Wilhelm Ostwald for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria, and reaction velocities
- Medicine - Emil Theodor Kocher for his work on the physiology, pathology, and surgery of the thyroid gland
- Literature - Selma Lagerlöf
- Peace - Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert and Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant Category:1909 ko:1909년 ms:1909 ja:1909年 simple:1909 th:พ.ศ. 2452

Christmas Eve

), watercolor painting by the Swedish painter Carl Larsson (1853-1919)]] Christmas Eve, December 24, the day before Christmas Day, is treated to a greater or a lesser extent in most Christian societies as part of the Christmas festivities. Christmas Eve is the traditional day to set up the Christmas tree, but as the holiday season has been extended several weeks back (to around Thanksgiving in the United States), many trees will have been set up for weeks. In the UK, Christmas Eve is sometimes treated as a short day in bank and trade establishments (if it occurs on a weekday) In the Roman Catholic Church, the Christmas season liturgically begins on Christmas Eve. Unless it be a Sunday (see Advent), the Mass of the Vigil is said on the morning of December 24. It is forbidden, however, to anticipate the Mass of Christmas before midnight. The Christmas season continues through until January 4, or if that be a Saturday, until January 5, when the Vigil of the Epiphany is celebrated. Many Christians traditionally celebrate a midnight mass at midnight on Christmas Eve, which is held in churches throughout the world, marking the beginning of Christmas Day. Other churches hold a candlelight service which is typically held earlier in the evening. These often feature dramatizations of the Nativity. Large meals are common, often with turkey or ham as the main item. A traditional dish in Germany is roast carp. It is also seen as the night when Santa Claus or his international variants, make their rounds giving gifts to good children. In Italy presents are opened on the morning of Christmas Eve, while in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Portugal and Poland, Christmas presents are opened on that evening or on the morning of Christmas Day. In most parts of Germany Christmas presents are opened in the evening of December 24th ('Bescherung'). In Iceland Christmas start at 6:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Church bells ring at that time and people either sit down for holiday dinner at home or with closest family. After that they open gifts and spend the evening together. In North America, there is a mixture of families opening gifts in the evening and, more commonly, on Christmas Day morning. In families where a divorce has occurred, children may spend one day with one part of the family, and the next with the other. In extended families where two branches of the family reside within a reasonable driving distance, many families may choose to spend Christmas Eve with the maternal side of the family and Christmas Day with the paternal side, or vice-versa. In Spain gifts are opened on the morning of January 6th, Epiphany day ("Día de reyes"). Most Christmas stories start or take place on this day.

External links

- [http://groups.msn.com/965172qg02rbm4ek3a6e7udur5/_whatsnew.msnw Santa Club] - A free club for everyone interested in Christmas Category:Christmas-linked holidays ja:クリスマス・イヴ

Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an inventor and businessman who developed many important devices. "The Wizard of Menlo Park" was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention. Edison is considered the most prolific inventor, holding a record 1,093 patents in his name. Some of these inventions were not completely original but improvements of earlier patents, and were actually works of his numerous employees. Edison was sometimes criticized for not sharing the credit, but it was understood by his experimenters that all work was the property of their employer. Nevertheless, Edison received patents worldwide, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Edison started the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was a conglomerate of nine major film studios (commonly known as the Edison Trust).

Family background

Thomas Alva Edison's ancestors, the Dutch Edisons, emigrated to New Jersey in 1730. John Edison remained loyal to England when the colonies revolted (see United Empire Loyalists). That got him arrested and nearly hanged. He and his family fled to Nova Scotia, Canada, settling on land the colonial government gave those who had been loyal to Britain. In 1811, three generations of Edisons took up farming near Vienna, Ontario. Among them was Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (1804-1896), an erstwhile shingle maker, tailor, and tavern keeper from Marshalltown, Nova Scotia. He married Nancy Matthews Elliott, of Chenango County, New York. In 1837, Samuel Edison was a rebel in the MacKenzie Rebellion that sought land reform and autonomy from Great Britain. The revolt failed and, like his grandfather before him, Samuel Edison was forced to flee for his life. Unlike his grandfather, he went south across the American border instead of north. He settled first in Port Huron, Michigan, temporarily leaving his wife Nancy and children behind.

Birth

Thomas Edison was born on February 11,1847 in Milan, Ohio to Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810-1871). Thomas was their seventh child. When he was seven years old, the family moved to Port Huron, Michigan.

Early years

Edison had a late start in his schooling due to childhood illness. His mind often wandered and shortly into his schooling, his teacher Alexander Crawford, was overheard calling him "addled". This ended Edison's three-months of formal schooling. His mother had been a school teacher in Canada and happily took over the job of schooling her son in his academics. She encouraged and taught him to read and experiment. He recalled later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." http://www.nps.gov/edis/home_family/fam_album.htm. Many of his lessons came from reading R.G. Parker's School of natural philosophy'. Edison's life in Port Huron was bittersweet. Partially deaf since adolescence, he became a telegraph operator after he saved Jimmie Macenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Little Jimmie's father, station agent J.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan was so grateful that he took Edison under his wing and trained him as a telegraph operator. Edison's deafness aided him as it blocked out noises and prevented Edison from hearing the telegrapher sitting next to him. One of his mentors during those early years was a fellow telegrapher and inventor named Franklin Leonard Pope, who allowed the then impoverished youth to live and work in the basement of his Elizabeth, New Jersey home. Some of his earliest inventions related to electrical telegraphy, including a stock ticker. Edison applied for his first patent, the electric vote recorder, on October 28, 1868.
First marriage
On December 25, 1871 he married Mary Stilwell (1855-1884), and they had three children:
- Marion Estelle Edison (1872-1965) who married Karl Oscar Oeser
- Thomas Alva Edison, Jr. (1876-1935) who married Marie Louise Toohey and later married Beatrice Heyzer
- William Leslie Edison (1878-1937) who married Blanche Travers
Inventor
Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey with the automatic repeater and other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention which first gained Edison fame was the phonograph in 1877. While non-reproducible sound recording was first achieved by Leon Scott de Martinville (France, 1857), and scientists at the time (notably Charles Cros) were contemplating the notion that sound waves might be recorded and reproduced, Edison was the first to publicly demonstrate a device to do so. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park" after the New Jersey town where he resided. His first phonograph recorded onto tinfoil cylinders that had low sound quality and destroyed the track during replay so that one could listen only once. In the 1880s, a redesigned model using wax-coated cardboard cylinders was produced at the Bell Laboratory by Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter; this was one factor which prompted Edison to resume work on his own "Perfected Phonograph". Both were marketed by the North American Phonograph Co, mainly for office dictation. The "gramophone", playing gramophone records, was invented by Emile Berliner in 1887, but in the early years, the audio fidelity was worse than the phonograph cylinders marketed by Edison Records.
Second marriage
On February 24, 1886 he married Mina Miller (1865-1947) and had an additional three children:
- Madeleine Edison (1888-1979) who married John Eyre Sloane
- Charles Edison (1890-1969) who took over the company upon his father's death and married Carolyn Hawkins
- Theodore Edison (1898-1992) who married Ann Osterhout
Middle career

Menlo Park
Edison's major innovation was the Menlo Park research lab, which was built in New Jersey. It was the first institution set up with the specific purpose of producing constant technological innovation and improvement. Edison invented most of the inventions produced there, though he primarily supervised the operation and work of his employees. Most of Edison's patents were utility patents, with only about a dozen being design patents. Many of his inventions were not completely original, but improvements which allowed for mass production. For example, contrary to public perception, Edison did not invent the electric light bulb. Several designs had already been developed by earlier inventors including Moses G. Farmer (see)[http://www.eliotmaine.org\mosespage.htm], Joseph Swan, Henry Woodward, Mathew Evans, James Bowman Lindsay, William Sawyer, Humphrey Davey, and Heinrich Göbel. In 1878, Edison applied the term filament to the element of glowing wire carrying the current, although English inventor Joseph Swan used the term prior to this. Edison took the features of these earlier designs and set his workers to the task of creating longer-lasting bulbs. By 1879, he had produced a new concept: a high resistance lamp in a very high vacuum, which would burn for hundreds of hours. While the earlier inventors had produced electric lighting in laboratory conditions, Edison concentrated on commercial application and was able to sell the concept to homes and businesses by mass-producing relatively long-lasting light bulbs and creating a system for the generation and distribution of electricity. The Menlo Park research lab was made possible by the sale of the quadruplex telegraph that Edison invented in 1874. The quadruplex telegraph could send four simultaneous telegraph signals over the same wire. When Edison asked Western Union to make an offer, he was shocked at the unexpectedly large amount that Western Union offered; the patent rights were sold for $10,000. The quadruplex telegraph was Edison's first big financial success.
Incandescent era
Western Union In 1878, Edison formed Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with several financiers, including J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts. Edison made the first public demonstration of incandescent lighting on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. On January 27, 1880, he filed a patent in the United States for the electric incandescent lamp. On October 8, 1883, the U.S. patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of William Sawyer and was therefore invalid. Litigation continued until October 6, 1889, when a judge ruled that Edison's electric light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" was valid. To avoid a possible court battle with Joseph Swan, he and Swan formed a joint company called Ediswan to market the invention in Britain. In 1880, Edison patented an electric distribution system. The first investor-owned electric utility was the 1882 Pearl Street Station, New York City. On January 25, 1881, Edison and Alexander Graham Bell formed the Oriental Telephone Company. On September 4, 1882, Edison switched on the world's first electrical power distribution system, providing 110 volts direct current (DC) to 59 customers in lower Manhattan, around his Pearl Street generating station. On January 19, 1883, the first standardized incandescent electric lighting system employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey.
War of the Currents era
Roselle, New Jersey During the initial years of electricity distribution, Edison's DC was the standard for the United States, and Edison had an interest in protecting the large investments made in equipment. During the "War of the Currents" era, George Westinghouse and Edison became adversaries due to Edison's promotion of DC for electric power distribution over the more easily transmitted alternating current (AC) advocated by Tesla, who patented AC devices in Graz, Austria. (AC could be "stepped-up" to very high voltages with inexpensive transformers, then sent over much thinner wires than DC & "stepped-down" again at the destination, for distribution to users) . Popular myth has it that Edison invented the electric chair, despite being against capital punishment, solely as a means of impressing the public that AC was more dangerous than DC. In fact, the chair was primarily invented Harold P. Brown, who was allowed to use the Edison facilities in West Orange, NJ. [http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa102497.htm] Edison went on to carry out a brief campaign to discredit and discourage the use of AC. It should be noted that, at the time, there was neither an AC motor nor an AC meter, and that many people WERE, in fact, killed by AC. For a time, the annual death rate of electric linemen approached 50% . Widespread use of DC ultimately lost favor to AC. AC distribution systems replaced DC, extending the range and improving the efficiency of power distribution. Since the 1950s, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems have become more common in certain situations.
Work relations
Frank J. Sprague, a former naval officer, was recruited by Edward H. Johnson, and joined the Edison organization in 1883. Sprague was a good mathematician, and one of Sprague's significant contributions to the Edison Laboratory at Menlo Park was the introduction of mathematical methods. Prior to his arrival, Edison conducted many costly trial-and-error experiments. Sprague's approach was to calculate the optimum parameters and thus save much needless tinkering. He did important work for Edison, including correcting Edison's system of mains and feeders for central station distribution. In 1884, Sprague decided his interests in the exploitation of electricity lay elsewhere, and he left Edison to found the Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company. However, Sprague, who later developed many electrical innovations, always credited Edison for their work together.
Media inventions
The key to Edison's fortunes was telegraphy. With knowledge gained from years of working as a telegraph operator, he learned the basics of electricity. This allowed him to make his early fortune with the stock ticker, the first electricity-based broadcast system. Edison holds the patent for the motion picture camera, developed at the West Orange lab. Edison established the standard of using 35 mm (then 1 and 3/8 inches) film that allowed film to emerge as a mass medium. The film included four perforations on the edge of each frame to enable the projector to advance the film properly. He built what has been called the first movie studio, the Black Maria, in New Jersey. There, he made the first copyrighted film, Fred Ott's Sneeze. In 1902, a US court rejected Edison's claim that he be granted sole rights over all aspects of movie production in the case "Edison v. American Mutoscope Company" [http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/edison_mutoscope.cfm], but a syndicate of patent-holders was later formed, to properly protect the group of inventors who made motion pictures possible. In 1891, Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope, or peep-hole viewer. This device was installed in penny arcades, where people could watch short, simple films. In 1894, Edison experimented with synchronizing audio with film; the Kinetophone loosely synchronized a Kinetoscope image with a cylinder phonograph. This was especially important to Thomas Edison because he had been searching for a way to entertain customers that were listening to music on his phonograph. Now, people could go to a penny arcade, put in a coin, put on eartubes, and watch a film through the peep-hole. On August 9, 1892, Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph. In April of 1896, Thomas Armat's Vitascope, manufactured by the Edison factory & marketed in Edison's name, was used to project motion pictures in public screenings in New York City.
Homes
In the 1880s, Thomas Edison bought property in Fort Myers, Florida and built (Seminole Lodge) as a winter retreat. Henry Ford, the automobile magnate, later lived across the street at his winter retreat (The Mangoes). Edison even contributed technology to the automobile. They were friends until Edison died. The Edison and Ford Winter Estates are now open to the public.
Trivia

- Thomas Edison was a freethinker, and was most likely a deist, claiming he did not believe in "the God of the theologians," but did not doubt that "there is a Supreme Intelligence." However, he rejected the idea of the supernatural, along with such ideas as the soul, immortality, and a personal God. "Nature," he said, "is not merciful and loving, but wholly merciless, indifferent."[http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/edison.htm 5]
- He purchased a home known as Glenmont in 1886 as a wedding gift for Mina in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey. The remains of Thomas and Mina Edison are now buried there. The 13.5 acre (55,000 m²) property is maintained by the National Park Service as the Edison National Historic Site.
- His contributions to technology benefitted people world-wide, and in 1878 he was named Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur of France, and in 1889 was made a Commander in the Legion of Honor.
List of contributions

- Phonograph
- Kinetoscope
- Dictaphone
- Edison provided financial backing for Guglielmo Marconi's work on Radio transmission, and obtained several related patents
- Tattoo gun (Based on the Electric Pen, used to make mimeograph copies )
- Incandescent light bulb
Improvements of Edison's work

- Lewis Latimer patented an improved method of producing the filament in light bulbs (there is no evidence that this was ever used by an Edison company)
- Nikola Tesla developed alternating current distribution, which could be used to transmit electricity over longer distance than Edison's direct current due to the ability to transform the voltage.
- Emil Berliner developed the gramophone, which is essentially an improved phonograph, with the main difference being the use of flat records with spiral grooves.
- Edward H. Johnson had light bulbs specially made, hand-wired, and displayed at his home on Fifth Avenue in New York City on the first electrically-illuminated Christmas tree on December 22, 1882.
Tributes
The town of Edison, New Jersey, and Thomas Edison State College, a nationally-known college for adult learners in Trenton, New Jersey, are named for the inventor. There is a Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower and Museum in the town of Edison. The Edison Medal was created on 11 February 1904 by a group of Edison's friends and associates. Four years later the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), later IEEE, entered into an agreement with the group to present the medal as its highest award. The first medal was presented in 1909 to Elihu Thomson, and surprisingly to Tesla in 1917. The Edison Medal is the oldest award in the area of electrical and electronics engineering, and presented annually "for a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering or the electrical arts." Life (magazine) (USA), in a special double issue, placed Edison first in the "100 Most Important People in the Last 1000 Years," noting that his light bulb "lit up the world." He was ranked #35 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. The City Hotel, in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, was the first building to be lit with Edison's three-wire system. The hotel was renamed The Hotel Edison, and retains that name today. The Port Huron Museums, in Port Huron, Michigan, restored the original depot that Thomas Edison worked out of as a young newsbutcher. The depot is appropriately been named the Thomas Edison Depot Museum. The town has many Edison historical landmarks including the gravesites of Edison's parents. The United States Navy named the USS Edison (DD-439), a Gleaves-class destroyer, in his honor in 1940. The vessel was decommissioned a few months after the end of World War II. In recognition of the enormous contribution inventors make to the nation and the world, the Congress, pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 140 (Public Law 97 - 198), has designated February 11, the anniversary of the birth of Thomas Alva Edison, as National Inventor's Day
External links

-
Biography

-
- Dyer, Frank Lewis, "[http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/biography/Edison/toc.html Edison, His Life And Inventions]." (Worldwideschool.org)
- Beals, Gerry, "[http://www.thomasedison.com/ Thomas Edison]"
- Murphy, John Patrick Michael, "[http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/john_murphy/edison.html Thomas Alva Edison]"
Historic sites

- [http://www.tomedison.org/ Edison Birthplace Museum]
- [http://www.edisonhouse.org/ Thomas Edison House]
- [http://www.nps.gov/edis/ Edison National Historic Site]
- [http://www.edisonnj.org/menlopark/ Menlo Park]
- [http://www.phmuseum.org/depot/depot.htm Edison Depot Museum]
- [http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/edison/ Edison exhibit and Menlo Park Laboratory at Henry Ford Museum]
- [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1630&pt=%3Cb%3EThomas%3C/b%3E%20Edison Edison's Grave]
Archives

- [http://edison.rutgers.edu Rutgers: Edison Papers]
- [http://edison.rutgers.edu/patents.htm Rutgers: Edison Patents]
- [http://www.edisonian.com/ Edisonian Museum Antique Electrics]
- [http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/edison/aa_edison_subj_e.html Thomas A. Edison in his laboratory in New Jersey, 1901]
- "[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/edison/ Edison's Miracle of Light]." American Experience, PBS.
Relations

- [http://www.flyingmoose.org/truthfic/tesla.htm One Story of Nikola Tesla] : Anecdotes concerning the relationship of Tesla and Edison.
Writings and speech

- Edison, Thomas A., [http://www.aldeism.com/paine.html The Philosophy of Thomas Paine]. June 7, 1925. (essay)
Cross references in popular culture

- [http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/edisons%20conquest%20of%20Mars.htm Edison's conquest of Mars] : How Thomas Edison became involved in a sequel to The War Of The Worlds
Timeline

- 1847 Birth in Ohio
- 1854 Went to school first time
- 1855 Had scarlet Fever
- 1869 Moved to New York
- 1871 Marriage to Mary Stilwell (1855-1884)
- 1880 US Census in Raritan, New Jersey
- 1884 Death of Mary Stilwell, his wife
- 1886 (circa) Marriage to Mina Miller (1865-1947)
- 1900 US Census in West Orange, New Jersey
- 1910 US Census in West Orange, New Jersey
- 1920 US Census in West Orange, New Jersey
- 1928 Won an award
- 1930 US Census in West Orange, New Jersey
- 1930 US Census in Fort Myers, Florida
- 1931 Death of Edison Edison, Thomas Alva Edison, Thomas Alva Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison, Thomas ms:Thomas Edison ja:トーマス・エジソン simple:Thomas Alva Edison th:โทมัส เอดิสัน

Biograph

Biograph may refer to:
- American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, a silent movie era production company widely known as Biograph or Biograph Studios.
- The Biograph -- an early-type movie projector invented by Herman Casler, 1896; similar to a Kinetoscope.
- Biographe an early-type camera invented by Georges Demenÿ, 1896.
- Biograph, a 1985 album by Bob Dylan.

Pathe

Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France. This article deals with their movie company. For their phonograph and record business, see Pathé Records.

History

Founded as Société Pathé Frères in Paris, France on September 28, 1896 by brothers, Charles, Émile, Théophile and Jacques Pathé, during the first part of the 20th Century, Pathé became the largest film equipment and production company in the world as well as a major producer of phonograph records. 1896 The driving force behind the film operation was Charles Pathé who had helped open a gramophone shop in 1894 and then established a phonograph factory at Chatou on the western outskirts of Paris. Successful, he saw the opportunities that new means of entertainment offered and in particular by the fledgling motion picture industry. Having decided to expand the record business to include film equipment, Charles Pathé oversaw a rapid expansion of the company. To finance its growth, he took the company public in 1897, its shares then listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. In 1902, Pathé acquired the Lumière brothers patents then set about to design an improved studio camera and to make their own film stock. Their technologically advanced equipment, new processing facilities built at Vincennes, and aggressive merchandising combined with efficient distribution systems allowed them to capture a huge share of the international market. They first expanded to London in 1902 where they set up production facilities and a chain of movie theaters. By 1909, Pathé had built more than 200 movie theaters in France and Belgium and by the following year they had facilities in Madrid, Moscow, Rome and New York City plus Australia and Japan. Prior to the outbreak of World War I, Pathé dominated Europe's market in motion picture cameras and projectors. It has been estimated that at one time, 60 percent of all films were shot with Pathé equipment.

Innovation

Worldwide, the company emphasized research, investing in such experiments as hand-coloured film and the synchronisation of film and gramophone recordings. In 1908, Pathé invented the newsreel that was shown in theaters prior to the feature film. The news clips featured the Pathé logo of a crowing rooster at the begining of each reel. In the United States, beginning in 1914, the company's film production studios in New Jersey produced the extremely successful serialized episodes called The Perils of Pauline. By 1918 Pathé had grown to the point where it was necessary to separate operations into two distinct divisions. With Emile Pathé as chief executive, Pathé Records dealt exclusively with phonographs and recordings while brother Charles headed up Pathé-Cinéma that was responsible for film production, distribution, and exhibition. 1922 saw the introduction of the Pathé Baby home film system using a new 9.5mm film stock which became hugely popular over the next few decades. In 1923, Pathé sold its United States motion picture production arm which a few years later came under the control of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. who made it part of RKO Pictures. In 1927 they sold their British studios to Eastman Kodak while maintaining the theater and distribution arm.

Natan to Paretti

Eastman Kodak By 1929 Charles Pathé had decided to sell out and accepted an offer from investor, Bernard Natan (1886-1942), who gave it a new identity as Pathé-Natan. However, the company was poorly run and went into decline, experiencing severe financial difficulties during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The company was forced to undergo a restructuring in 1943 and was acquired by Adrien Ramauge. Over the years, the business underwent a number of changes including diversification into producing programs for the burgeoning television industry. During the 1970s, operating theaters overtook film production as Pathé's primary source of revenue. When the film operation came under the control of Giancarlo Paretti, he used it as a vehicle to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, only to lose both in a bankruptcy.

Jérôme Seydoux

In 1990 Chargeurs a French conglomerate led by Jérôme Seydoux, took control of the company. As a result of the deregulation of the French telecommunications market, in June of 1999 Pathé merged with Vivendi, the exchange ratio for the merger fixed at three Vivendi shares for every two Pathé shares. The Wall Street Journal estimated the value of the deal at US$2.59 billion. Following the completion of the merger, Vivendi retained Pathé's interests in British Sky Broadcasting and CanalSatellite, a French broadcasting corporation, but then sold all remaining assets to Jérôme Seydoux's family-owned corporation, "Fornier SA," who changed its name to Pathé.

Sectors

The sectors in which Pathé operates today are:
- Cinema:
- production
- distribution to theatres and homes
- the international management of a catalog of more than 500 films
- movie theaters
- EuroPalaces (network which federates the Pathé theatres and Gaumont)
- Cable and satellite television networks:
- TMC (Télé Monte Carlo)
- Comédie! (majority shareholder)
- cuisine.tv
- Voyage Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel retained 3 of the projects of the group for digital terrestrial television: TMC, Comédie! and cuisine.tv.

Gaumont

Gaumont Pictures was founded in 1900 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont (1864-1946). From 1905 to 1914, its studios "Cité Elgé" (from the normal French pronunciation of founder's initials) at La Villette, France, were the largest in the world. The company manufactured its own equipment and mass-produced films until 1907 under Alice Guy Blaché, the motion picture industry’s first female director, and then under Louis Feuillade. Among some of the most notable films produced were the serials "Judex", "Fantomas"; the comedies of "Onesime", "Bebe"; and the newsreels of the "Gaumont Actualities". Directors such as Abel Gance, Alfred Hitchcock, and the early animator Emile Cohl worked for this studio at one time or another. Gaumont opened foreign offices and acquired theatre chains Gaumont British, which notably later produced The Lady Vanishes) and along with its giant competitor, Pathé Frères, dominated the motion-picture industry in Europe until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. After significant post-war losses in market-share/competition to American productions, Gaumont experienced the subsequent business reversals of technological change (the advent of sound) and financial depression, and was eventually merged with Franco-Film Aubert in the early 1930s. Today, Gaumont is independent and is still recognized as one of the largest producers (Léon, The Fifth Element) and distributors of films in France. The company has also produced television as well, including three animated series: Highlander: The Animated Series, Dragon Flyz, and Sky Dancers (the second and third are based on their respective toy lines).

External link

- [http://www.gaumont.com Official site] Category:Movie studios Category:Cinema of France

John Collier

This article concerns John Collier, writer and painter. For the author of short stories, see John Henry Collier. ---- John Henry Collier John Henry Collier John Maler Collier (January 27, 1850–April 11,1934) was a British writer and painter in the Pre-Raphaelite style.

Life and career

The artist, the Hon. John Collier OBE RP ROI, was one of the most prominent portrait painters of his generation. He was born in 1850, the son of a judge and amateur artist, Lord Monkswell. He was educated at Eton and studied at the Slade under (Sir) E J Poynter, in Paris under Jean-Paul Laurens, and in Munich. Although not their pupil, he was encouraged and influenced by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Sir John Everett Millais. "It was from Millais that he learnt the method, which he has ever since adopted in portraiture, of putting sitter and canvas side by side, looking at them from some distance, and walking backwards and forwards to do the actual painting." (Polloch, W H, The Art of the Honourable John Collier (1914), p 2). Collier was one of the 24 founding members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, of which he became Vice President. He was also a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He exhibited no fewer than 130 paintings at the Royal Academy and 165 at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, as well as many others in galleries throughout the country and abroad. He was the author of The Primer of Art (1882), A Manual of Oil Painting (1886) and The Art of Portrait Painting (1905). He was awarded the OBE in 1920. He was the subject of The Art of the Honourable John Collier (1914) by W H Pollock, published by the Art Journal, which lists all his most important subjects between 1875 and 1914, whether portraits, or historical or other dramatic scenes. It has 50 illustrations and 6 colour plates of his works, and an interesting photograph of his studio.

Subjects

The range of Collier's portrait subjects can be seen from the fact that, in 1893 for example, his subjects included the Bishop of Shrewsbury (Sir Lovelace Stamer), A Glass of Wine with Caesar Borgia, Sir John Lubbock FRS, A N Hornby (Captain of the Lancashire Eleven), A Witch, A Tramp, and the Bishop of Hereford (Dr Atlee). His commissioned portrait of King George V as Master of Trinity House in 1901 when Duke of Cornwall and York, although very far from being his best work, shows the extent of his fashionable reputation. Other subjects included two Lord Chancellors (the Earl of Selborne in 1882 and the Earl of Halsbury in 1898), the Lord Chief Justice Lord Alverstone (1912), and the Master of the Rolls (Sir George Jessel, 1881); Rudyard Kipling (1891); the painter (Sir) Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1884); the actors J L Toole (1887) and Mrs Kendal, Miss Ellen Terry and Mr Tree (in "The Merry Wives of Windsor", 1904); heads of houses such as the Master of Balliol (Professor Caird, 1904), the Warden of Wadham College, Oxford (G E Thorley, 1889) and the Provost of Eton (1898); the Speaker of the House of Commons (1898, one of relatively few political subjects); soldiers such as Field Marshal Lord Kitchener of Khartoum (1911) and Field Marshall Sir Frederick Haines (1891); two Indian Maharajahs, including the Maharajah of Nepal (1910); and scientists including Charles Darwin (1882), Dr Joule FRS (1882) and the artist’s father-in-law Professor Huxley (1891). A photocopy of John Collier's Sitters Book (made in 1962 from the original in the possession of the artist's son) can be consulted in the National Portrait Gallery Heinz Archive and Library. This is the artist's own handwritten record of all his portraits, including name of subject, date, fee charged, and details of any major exhibitions of the picture in question.

The artist's family

Collier was from a talented and successful family. His grandfather, John Collier, was a Quaker merchant who became a Member of Parliament. His father (who was a Member of Parliament, Attorney General and, for many years, a full-time judge of the Privy Council) was created the first Lord Monkswell. He was also a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. John Collier's elder brother, the second Lord Monkswell, was Under Secretary of State for War and Chairman of the London County Council. Collier was also closely connected with the family of the arch-scientist of late Victorian England, the Rt Hon Professor Thomas Henry Huxley, President of the Royal Society. Collier married two of Professor Huxley's daughters and was "on terms of intimate friendship" with his son, the writer Leonard Huxley (Dictionary of National Biography s.v. L. Huxley). Collier's first wife, in 1879, was Marian Huxley. She was a painter, who studied, like her husband, at the Slade, and exhibited at the Royal Academy and elsewhere. After the birth of their only child, a daughter, she suffered severe post-natal depression and was taken to Paris for treatment where, however, she contracted pneumonia and died in 1887. Shortly afterwards, Collier married in 1889 her younger sister Ethel Huxley. Until the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 such a marriage was not possible in England and the ceremony took place in Norway. Collier's daughter by his first marriage, Joyce, was a portrait miniaturist, and a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters. By his second wife he had a daughter and a son, Sir Laurence Collier KCMG, who was the British Ambassador to Norway 1941-51.

Posthumous reputation

The Hon. John Collier died in 1934. His entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (volume for 1931-40, published 1949) compares his work to that of Frank Holl because of its solemnity. This is only true, however, of his many portraits of distinguished old men — his portraits of younger men, women and children, and his so-called "problem pictures", covering scenes of ordinary life, are often very bright and fresh. His entry in the Dictionary of Art (1996) vol 7 p 569, written by Geoffrey Ashton, refers to the invisibility of his brush strokes as a "rather unexciting and flat use of paint" but contrasts that with "Collier's strong and surprising sense of colour" which "created a disconcerting verisimilitude in both mood and appearance". The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920 (1997) describes his portraits as "painterly works with a fresh use of light and colour".

Public collections

Thirteen of John Collier's paintings are now in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London, two in the Tate Gallery and one, a self portrait of 1907, in the Uffizzi Gallery in Florence which presumably commissioned it as part of its celebrated collection of artists’ self portraits. Four of the National Portrait Gallery paintings are currently (December 1997) on display: John Burns, Sir William Huggins, Thomas Huxley (the artist's father in law) and Charles Darwin (copies of the last two are also prominently displayed at the top of the staircase at the Athenaeum club in London). Other pictures may be seen in houses and institutions open to the public: his portrait of the Earl of Onslow (1903), for example, at Clandon Park, Surrey (National Trust). Reproductions of many others, from various collections, may be consulted in the John Collier box in the National Portrait Gallery Heinz Archive and Library, and a very good selection is published in The Art of the Honourable John Collier by W H Pollock (1914). The Hon. John Collier's work was also included in the Great Victorian Pictures exhibition mounted by the Arts Council in 1978 (catalogue, p 27).

Publications

- A Primer of Art, 1882
- A Manual of Oil Painting, 1886
- The Art of Portrait Painting, 1905.

External links

- [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8879070 Find-A-Grave profile for John Collier] Collier, John Collier, John Collier, John

1950

1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January

- January 5 - U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the U.S.
- January 6 - The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
- January 9 - The Israeli government recognizes the People's Republic of China.
- January 11 - Huk guerillas attack the town of Hermosa in Bataan, Philippines.
- January 12 - Huk guerillas attack the town of Tuyn, kill two and torch the city of Staingnacan.
- January 12 - British submarine Truculent collides with a Swedish oil tanker in River Thames - 64 dead.
- January 13 - Finland forms diplomatic relations to People's Republic of China
- January 15 - Volcanic cloud kills 5000 in Mount Lamington, New Guinea
- January 17 - The Great Brinks Robbery - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car in Boston, Massachusetts
- January 21 - Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury
- January 23 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
- January 24 - Cold War: Klaus Fuchs confesses his wartime espionage at Los Alamos to British interrogators - formally charged February 2
- January 26 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president.
- January 28 - Somaliland is put under Italian mandate
- January 29 - Lord Balfour criticizes the fact that rationing is still in force in Britain
- January 31 - President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb
- January 31 - Last Kuomintang troops surrender in continental China

February

- February 1 - Chiang Kai-shek re-elected as a president of the Republic of China
- February 4 - Ingrid Bergman's illegitimate child arouses ire in USA
- February 9 - Red scare: In his speech to the Republican Women's Club at the McClure Hotel in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with 205 Communists.
- February 11 - Two Vietcong battalions attack a French base in Indochina
- February 11 - Finland recognizes Indonesia
- February 12 - Pro-communist riots in Paris
- February 12 - European Broadcasting Union founded
- February 13 - In USA army begins to deploy anti-aircraft cannons to protect nuclear stations and military targets
- February 14 - The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty
- February 15 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi re-elected president of Finland
- February 19 - Konrad Adenauer tries unsuccessfully to negotiate with East Germany to begin unification.
- February 12 - Albert Einstein warns that nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction
- February - British Labour Party forms a new government.

March-April

- March 1 - 7.25 PM West South Baptist Church(negro) in Bestridge, Nebraska blows up - all the choir is late for rehearsals
- March 1 - Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by giving them top secret atomic bomb data.
- March 1 - Acting Chinese President Li Tsung-jen ends his term in office
- March 1 - Chiang Kai-shek resumes his duties as Chinese president after moving his government to Taipei, Taiwan
- March 3 - Poland states that it intends to exile all Germans.
- March 8 - The Soviet Union claims to have an atomic bomb.
- March 12-March 13 - In Belgium, the referendum over the monarchy shows 57.7% support the return of king Léopold III, 42.3% against.
- March 14 - Ship Cygnet hits mine off the Dutch coast.
- March 17 - University of California, Berkeley researchers announce the creation of element 98 which they have named "californium".
- March 20 - Government of Poland decides to confiscate the property of Polish church
- March 22 - Egypt demands that Britain remove all its troops in Suez Canal
- April 15 - King Léopold III of Belgium announces that he is ready to abdicate in favor of his son Baudouin
- April 24 - Jordan formally annexes West Bank
- April 27 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
- April 27 - Britain formally recognizes Israel

May-June

- May 6 - Tollund Man found
- May 9 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
- May 11 - Kefauver Committee hearings about US organized crime begin
- May 25 - Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is formally opened to traffic
- May 29 - St. Roch, first ship to circumnavigate North America arrives in Halifax Nova Scotia.
- June 3 - First ascent of Annapurna I, 10th highest mountain in the world.
- June 6 - Turkey: The Adhan in Arabic is legalized
- June 8 - Sir Thomas Blamey becomes the only Field Marshal in Australian history.
- June 10 - French police capture escaped murderer Emile Buisson in Paris restaurant
- June 24 - 58 persons were killed when a commercial airliner crashed into Lake Michigan. The reason for the disaster is unknown. Only fragments of the plane and the bodies of passengers were ever found.
- June 25 - Beginning of Korean War. In the USA, people began to hoard supplies in case of rationing and shortages.
- June 25 - NSC-68 enacted by President Truman, setting US foreign policy for the next twenty years.
- June 28 - Korean War - North Korean forces capture Seoul
- June 29 - United States defeats England 1-0 in the . For more details, see England v United States (1950).

July

- July 5 - Sicilian bandit leader Salvatore Giuliano killed in a shootout with carabinieri
- July 5 - Korean War: Task Force Smith - First clash between American and North Korean forces.
- July 5 - Zionism: The Knesset passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.
- July 6 - East Germany agrees with Poland on the Oder-Neisse line - West Germany does not at this time
- July 16 - Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1 to win 1950 World Cup
- July 17 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg arrested
- July 19 - 15 SS-men sentenced to death in East Germany
- July 20 - Tydings committee report to US senate denounces Joe McCarthy - he begins a public attack on members of the committee standing for election in 1950
- July 20 - In Belgium, the United Chambers adopt a decree which reinstates King Léopold III in his royal dignity.
- July 23 - King Léopold III of Belgium returns to Brussels
- July 24 - Hoax by J. Bam Morrison begins the tradition of "Sucker Day" in Wetumka, Oklahoma
- July 25 - Walter Ulbricht elected the general secretary of the communist party of East Germany
- July 28 - In Belgium, demonstrations and strikes break out as a result of King Léopold III's return. In Liège, three labourers are shot.

August-September

- August 5 - Florence Chadwick swims over English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes
- August 5 - A bomb-laden B-29 Superfortress crashes into a residential area in California. 17 dead, 68 injured.
- August 6 - Riot in Brussels in monarchist demonstrations
- August 8 - Winston Churchill supports idea of pan-European army allied with Canada and USA
- August 15 - Earthquake and floods in Assam, India - 574 deaths, 5,000,000 believed homeless
- September 1 - Hungarian major general Laszlo Viragen defects to Austria and applies for political asylum
- September 4 - Beetle Bailey comic strip started.
- September 7 - Coal mine collapses in New Cumnock, Scotland - 13 miners dead. 116 rescued.
- September 7 - The gameshow Truth or Consequences debuts on television.
- September 12 - Communist riots in Berlin
- September 13 - First main-line diesel-electric locomtives run in Australia
- September 15 - Allied troops land in Inchon, occupied by North Korea, to begin the Battle of Inchon.
- September 19 - West Germany decides to fire all its communist officials
- September 26 - Indonesia admitted to the United Nations

October

- October 1 - The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in seven US newspapers.
- October 3 - Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, elected president of Brazil, for a five-year term.
- October 5 - Indonesian government quells riots in the Moluccas
- October 11 - The Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however).
- October 15 - In East Germany, communists win 99.7% of the vote
- October 20 - Australia passes the Communist Party Dissolution Act, later struck down by the High Court.
- October - Sister Mary Teresa begins her charity work in Calcutta and becomes known as Mother Teresa

November

- November 1 - Pope Pius XII defines a new dogma of Roman Catholicism: that God assumed Mary's body into Heaven after her death.
- November 1 - Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman, who is staying at the Blair-Lee House in Washington, D.C. during White House repairs.
- November 4 - United Nations ends the diplomatic isolation of Spain
- November 8 - Korean War: While in an F-80, United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown intercepts two North Korean MiG-15s near the Yalu River and shots them down in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history.
- November 11 - The Mattachine Society founded in Los Angeles as the first Gay liberation organization
- November 13 - Colonel Carlos Delgado Chalbaud is kidnapped and murdered in Caracas.
- November 18 - United Nations accepts the formation of Libyan national council
- November 20 - T. S. Eliot speaks against television in the UK
- November 22 - Anti-British riots in Egypt
- November 22 - Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business
- November 23 - George Robb was born in Aylth, Scotland
- November 26 - Korean War: Troops from the People's Republic of China move into North Korea and launch a massive counterattack against South Korean and American forces, ending any thought of a quick end to the conflict.
- November 28 - Greece and Yugoslavia reform diplomatic relations
- November 29 - Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force a desperate retreat of United Nations forces from North Korea.
- November 30 - Truman threatens to use nuclear weapons in Korea

December

- December 3 - Etna volcano erupts in Sicily
- December 12 - Paula Ackerman becomes the first woman in the United States to serve a congregation as a Rabbi, a few weeks after the death of her husband.
- December 24-December 25 - Scottish nationalists take the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey
- December 28 - The Peak District becomes Britain's first National Park.

Unknown date

- Ralph Schneider founds Diners Club - it initially only works in 27 restaurants in New York City.
- United Nations building finished.
- First pagers developed.
- Antihistamine discovered.
- First TV remote control, Zenith Radio's Lazy Bones is marketed.
- IBM Israel begins operating in Tel Aviv
- Japanese soldier Yuichi Akitsu surrenders in the Philippines
- President Harry Truman sends United States military personnel to Vietnam to aid French forces.
- National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA founded.

Births

January-February

- January 12 - Sheila Jackson Lee, American politician
- January 16 - Debbie Allen, American actress, dancer, and choreographer
- January 18 - Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver
- January 21 - Billy Ocean, West Indian-born musician
- January 23 - Richard Dean Anderson, American actor
- January 24 - Benjamin Urrutia, Ecuadoran author and scholar
- January 29 - Jody Scheckter, South African race car driver
- February 3 - Morgan Fairchild, American actress
- February 4 - Pamela Franklin, British actress
- February 6 - Natalie Cole, American singer
- February 10 - Mark Spitz, American swimmer
- February 12 - Michael Ironside, American actor
- February 13 - Peter Gabriel, British musician
- February 16 - Peter Hain, British politician
- February 18 - John Hughes, American film director, producer, and writer
- February 20 - Ken Shimura, Japanese television performer and actor
- February 22 - Julius Erving, American basketball player
- February 22 - Julie Walters, English actress
- February 22 - Miou-Miou, French actress
- February 22 - Ellen Greene, American actress
- February 25 - Neil Jordan, Irish film director, writer, and producer
- February 25 - Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina
- February 26 - Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand

March-April

- March 2 - Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (d. 1983)
- March 4 - Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
- March 9 - Doug Ault, baseball player (d. 2004)
- March 9 - Danny Sullivan, American race car driver
- March 11 - Bobby McFerrin, American singer
- March 11 - Jerry Zucker, American film producer, director, and writer
- March 13 - William H. Macy, American actor
- March 18 - Brad Dourif, American actor
- March 20 - William Hurt, American actor
- March 26 - Teddy Pendergrass, American singer
- March 29 - Bud Cort, American actor
- March 30 - Robbie Coltrane, British actor and comedian
- April 3 - Sally Thomsett, British actress
- April 4 - Christine Lahti, American actress
- April 5 - Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer and songwriter (ABBA)
- April 10 - Ken Griffey, Sr., baseball player
- April 12 - Kari Palaste, Finnish architect
- April 22 - Peter Frampton, English musician
- April 25 - Lenora Branch Fulani, American Presidential candidate
- April 28 - Jay Leno, American comedian and talk show host
- April 29 - Paul Holmes , a radio and television broadcaster in New Zealand

May-September

- May 1 - Danny McGrain, Scottish footballer
- May 1 - Dann Florek, American actor
- May 3 - Howard Ashman, American lyricist (d. 1991)
- May 7 - Randall 'Tex' Cobb, American boxer and actor
- May 12 - Bruce Boxleitner, American actor
- May 12 - Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor
- May 13 - Stevie Wonder, American singer and musician
- May 16 - Johannes Georg Bednorz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- May 17 - Janez Drnovšek, Slovene politician
- May 17 - Valeria Novodvorskaya, Russian politician and dissident
- May 18 - Thomas Gottschalk, German television host
- May 18 - Rodney Milburn, American athlete (d. 1997)
- May 18 - Mark Mothersbaugh, American composer and musician (Devo)
- May 22 - Bernie Taupin, English songwriter
- May 22 - Mary Tamm, British actress
- June 1 - Tom Robinson, English singer and musician
- June 3 - Suzi Quatro, American singer and actress
- June 6 - John Byrne, American comic book creator
- July 18 - Sir Richard Branson, British entrepreneur
- July 18 - Glenn Hughes, American vocalist (d. 2001)
- July 19 - Per-Kristian Foss, Norwegian Minister of Finance
- August 11 - Gennidy Nikonov, Russian weapon designer
- August 14 - Bob Backlund, American professional wrestler
- August 15 - Anne, Princess Royal of England
- August 16 - Hasely Crawford, West Indian athlete
- August 27 - Charles Fleischer, American actor
- September 2 - Rosanna DeSoto, American actress
- September 14 - Paul Kossoff, British guitarist (Free) (d. 1976)
- September 17 - Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat
- September 21 - Charles Clarke, British politician
- September 21 - Bill Murray, American actor and comedian
- September 28 - John Sayles director and screenwriter

October-December

- October 1 - Randy Quaid, American actor
- October 5 - Jeff Conaway, American actor
- October 9 - Jody Williams, American teacher and aid worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- October 12 - Kaga Takeshi, Japanese actor
- October 22 - Bill Owens, Governor of Colorado
- October 28 - Sihem Bensedrine, Tunisian human rights activist
- October 31 - John Candy, American comedian and actor
- October 31 - Jane Pauley, American television broadcaster and journalist
- November 1 - Robert B. Laughlin, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 21 - Alberto Juantorena, Cuban athlete
- November 22 - Lyman Bostock, baseball player (d. 1978)
- November 28 - Russell Alan Hulse, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 1 - Keith Thibodeaux, American actor and musician
- December 5 - Camarón de la Isla, Spanish singer (d. 1992)
- December 18 - Leonard Maltin, American film critic
- December 23 - Michael C. Burgess, American politician
- December 25 - Manny Trillo, baseball player

Unknown date

- Charles Lee Ray, American serial killer (d. 1988)

Deaths

- January 21 - George Orwell, English author (b. 1903)
- February 6 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (b. 1884)
- February 25 - George Minot, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1885)
- March 5 - Sid Grauman, American restaurateur (b. 1895)
- March 9 - Danny Sullivan, American race car driver
- March 19 - Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
- March 19 - Edgar Rice Burroughs, American author (b. 1875)
- March 24 - James Rudolph Garfield, U.S. politician (b. 1865)
- March 30 - Joe Yule, Scottish-born comedian (b. 1894)
- April 19 - Ernst Robert Curtius, Alsatian philologist (b. 1886)
- May 1 - Lothrop Stoddard, American eugenicist (b. 1883)
- May 9 - Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist, and engineer (b. 1883)
- May 10 - Belle da Costa Greene, American librarian, bibliographer, and archivist (b. 1883)
- July 22 - William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian politician (b. 1874)
- September 10 - Raymond Sommer, American race car driver (b. 1906)
- September 11 - Jan Christian Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1870)
- September 21 - Arthur Milne, British space physicist (b. 1896)
- October 23 - Al Jolson, American musician (b. 1886)
- October 29 - King Gustav V of Sweden (b. 1858)
- November 2 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856)
- November 3 - Koiso Kuniaki, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1880)
- November 25 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1873)
- December 2 - Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist (b. 1917)
- December 5 - Shri Aurobindo, Indian guru (b. 1872)
- December 11 - Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer (b. 1893)
- December 27 - Max Beckmann, German painter (b. 1884)

Date unknown

- Ernest Cherrington, American temperance movement leader (b. 1877)
- William E. Johnson, American Anti-Saloon League leader (b. 1862)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Cecil Frank Powell
- Chemistry - Otto Paul Hermann Diels, Kurt Alder
- Medicine - Edward Calvin Kendall, Tadeus Reichstein, Philip Showalter Hench
- Literature - Earl (Bertrand Arthur William) Russell
- Peace - Ralph Bunche

Fields Medalists

- Laurent Schwartz, Atle Selberg Category:1950 ko:1950년 ms:1950 ja:1950年 simple:1950 th:พ.ศ. 2493

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was a British-born (later American as well) film director and producer, closely associated with the suspense thriller genre. He began directing in the United Kingdom before working in the United States from 1939 onwards, becoming an American citizen in 1956. He directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades, from the silent film era, through the invention of talkies, to the color era. Hitchcock remains one of the best known and most popular directors of all time, famous for his expert and often unrivaled control of pace and suspense throughout his movies. Hitchcock's films draw heavily on both fear and fantasy, and are known for their droll humour. They often portray innocent people caught up in circumstances beyond their control or understanding. This often involves a transference of guilt in which the "innocent" character's failings are transferred to another character and magnified. Another common theme is the exploration of the compatibility of men and women; Hitchcock's films often take a cynical view of traditional romantic relationships. Although Hitchcock was an enormous star during his lifetime, he was not usually ranked highly by contemporaneous film critics. Rebecca was the only one of his films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, although four others were nominated. He was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in 1967, but never personally received an Academy Award of Merit. The French New Wave critics, especially Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, and François Truffaut, were among the first to promote his films as having artistic merit beyond entertainment. Hitchcock was one of the first directors to whom they applied their auteur theory, which stresses the artistic authority of the director in the movie-making process. Through his fame, public persona, and degree of creative control, Hitchcock transformed the role of the director, which had previously been eclipsed by that of the producer. He is seen today as the quintessential director who managed to combine art and entertainment in a way very few have ever matched. His innovations and vision have influenced a great number of filmmakers, producers, and actors.

Biography

Early life

Alfred Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1899, in Leytonstone, London, the second son and youngest of the three children of William Hitchcock, a greengrocer, and his wife, Emma Jane Hitchcock (nee Whelan). His family was mostly Irish Catholic. Hitchcock was sent to Catholic boarding schools in London. He has said his childhood was very lonely and sheltered. At 14, Hitchcock lost his father and left the Jesuit-run St Ignatius' College, his school at the time, to study at the School for Engineering and Navigation. After graduating, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a cable company. About that time, Hitchcock became intrigued by photography and started working in film in London. In 1920, he obtained a full-time job at Islington Studios under its American owners, Players-Lasky, and their British successors, Gainsborough Pictures, designing the titles for silent movies.

Pre-war British career

As a major talent in a new industry with plenty of opportunity, he rose quickly. In 1925, Michael Balcon of Gainsborough Pictures gave him a chance to direct his first film, The Pleasure Garden, made at the Ufa studios in Germany. However, the commercial failure of this film, and his second, The Mountain Eagle, threatened to derail his promising career, until he attached himself to the thriller genre. The resulting film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, was released in 1927 and was a major commercial and critical success. Like many of his earlier works it was influenced by Expressionist techniques he had witnessed first hand in Germany. In it, attractive blondes are strangled and the new lodger (Ivor Novello) in the Bunting family's upstairs apartment falls under heavy suspicion. This is the first truly "Hitchcockian" film, incorporating such themes as the "wrong man". Following the success of The Lodger, Hitchcock began his first efforts to promote himself in the media, and hired a publicist to cement his growing reputation as one of the British film industry's rising stars. In 1926, he was to marry his assistant director Alma Reville. The two had a daughter Patricia in 1928. Alma was Hitchcock's closest collaborator. She wrote some of his screenplays and worked with him on every one of his films. In 1929, he began work on Blackmail, his tenth film. While the film was in production, the studio decided to make it one of Britain's first sound pictures. With the climax of the film taking place on the dome of the British Museum, Blackmail also began the Hitchcock tradition of using famous landmarks as the backdrop to a story. In 1933, Hitchcock was once again working for Michael Balcon at Gaumont-British Picture Corporation. His first film for the company, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), was a success, while his second, The 39 Steps (1935), is often considered one of the best films from his early period. It was also one of the first to introduce the concept of the "MacGuffin", a plot device around which a whole story would revolve. In The 39 Steps, the MacGuffin is a stolen set of blueprints. His next major success was in 1938, The Lady Vanishes, a clever and fast-paced film about the search for a kindly old Englishwoman (Dame May Whitty), who disappears while on board a train in the fictional country of Vandrika (a thinly-veiled version of Nazi Germany). By the end of the 1930s, Hitchcock was at the top of his game artistically, and in a position to name his own terms when David O. Selznick managed to entice the Hitchcocks across to Hollywood.

Hollywood

Hitchcock's gallows humour continued in his American work, together with the suspense that became his trademark. However, working arrangements with his new producer were less than optimal. Selznick suffered from perennial money problems and Hitchcock was often unhappy with the amount of creative control demanded by Selznick over his films. Subsequently, Selznick ended up "loaning" Hitchcock to the larger studios more often than producing Hitchcock's films himself. With the prestigious picture Rebecca in 1940, Hitchcock made his first American movie, although it was set in England and based on a novel by English author Dame Daphne du Maurier. This Gothic melodrama explores the fears of a naïve young bride who enters a great English country home and must grapple with a distant husband, a predatory housekeeper, and the legacy of her husband's late wife. It has also subsequently been noted for lesbian undercurrents. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1940. Hitchcock's second American film, the European-set thriller Foreign Correspondent was also nominated for Best Picture that year. Hitchcock's work during the 1940's was very diverse, ranging from the romantic comedy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) and the courtroom drama The Paradine Case (1947), to the dark and disturbing Shadow of a Doubt (1943). Shadow of a Doubt, his personal favorite, was about young Charlotte "Charlie" Newton (Teresa Wright), who suspects her beloved uncle Charlie Spencer (Joseph Cotten) of murder. In its use of overlapping characters, dialogue, and closeups it has provided a generation of film theorists with psychoanalytic potential, including Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek. The film also harkens to one of Cotten's better known films, Citizen Kane. Spellbound explored the then very fashionable subject of psychoanalysis and featured a dream sequence which was designed by Salvador Dali. The actual dream sequence in the film was considerably cut from the original planned scene that was to run for some minutes but proved too disturbing for the finished film. Notorious (1946) marked Hitchcock's first film as a producer as well as director. As Selznick failed to see the subject's potential, he allowed Hitchcock to make the film for RKO. From this point on, Hitchcock would produce his own films, giving him a far greater degree of freedom to pursue the projects that interested him. Starring Ingrid Bergman and Hitchcock regular Cary Grant, and featuring a plot about Nazis, radium and South America, Notorious was a huge box office success and has remained one of Hitchcock's most acclaimed films. Its inventive use of suspense and props briefly led to Hitchcock being under surveillance by the CIA due to his use of uranium as a plot device. Rope (his first color film) came next in 1948. Here Hitchcock experimented with marshalling suspense in a confined environment, as he had done earlier with Lifeboat. He also experimented with exceptionally long takes - up to ten minutes (see Themes and devices). Featuring James Stewart in the leading role, Rope was the first of an eventual four films Stewart would make for Hitchcock. Based on the Leopold and Loeb case of the 1920s, Rope is also among the earliest openly gay-themed films to emerge from the Hays Office controlled Hollywood studio era. Under Capricorn, set in nineteenth-century Australia, also used this short-lived technique, but to a more limited extent. For these two films he formed a production company with Sidney Bernstein, called Transatlantic Pictures, which folded after these two unsuccessful pictures.

Peak years and decline

With Strangers on a Train (1951), based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, Hitchcock combined many of the best elements from his preceding British and American films. Two men casually meet and speculate on removing people who are causing them difficulty. One of the men, though, takes this banter entirely seriously. With Farley Granger reprising some elements of his role from Rope, Strangers continued the director's interest in the narrative possiblities of homosexual blackmail and murder. Three very popular films, all starring Grace Kelly, followed. Dial M for Murder was adapted from the popular stage play by Frederick Knott. This was originally another experimental film, with Hitchcock using the technique of 3D cinematography. Rear Window, starred James Stewart again, as well as Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr. Here the wheelchair-bound Stewart observes the movements of his neighbours across the courtyard. He becomes convinced that the wife of a near neighbour has been murdered. To Catch a Thief, set in the French Riviera, starred Kelly and Cary Grant. In 1956, Hitchcock also remade his 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much, this time with James Stewart and Doris Day. 1958's Vertigo again starred Stewart, this time with Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. The film was a commercial failure, but has come to be viewed by many as one of Hitchcock's masterpieces. Hitchcock followed Vertigo with three very different films, which were all massive commercal successes. All are also recognised as among his very best films: North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963). The latter two were particularly notable for their unconventional soundtracks, both by Bernard Herrmann: the screeching strings in the murder scene in Psycho pushed the limits of the time, and The Birds dispensed completely with conventional instruments, using an electronically produced soundtrack. These were his last great films, after which his career slowly wound down. In 1972 Hitchcock returned to London to film Frenzy, his last major success. For the first time, Hitchcock allowed nudity and profane language, which had before been taboo, in one of his films. Failing health slowed down his output over the last two decades of his life. Family Plot (1976) was his last film. It related the escapades of "Madam" Blanche Tyler played by Barbara Harris, a fraudulent spiritualist, and her taxi driver lover Bruce Dern making a living from her phony powers. William Devane and Katherine Helmond co-starred. Hitchcock was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Years Honours. He died just four months later, on April 29, before he had the opportunity to be formally invested by the Queen. He was nevertheless entitled to be known as Sir Alfred Hitchcock and to use the postnominal letters KBE, because he remained a British subject when he adopted American citizenship in 1956. Alfred Hitchcock died from renal failure in his Bel Air, Los Angeles, home at the age of 80 and was survived by his wife Alma Reville, and their daughter, Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell. His body was cremated, and apparently there was no public funeral or memorial service.

Themes and devices

Hitchcock preferred the use of suspense over surprise in his films. In surprise, the director assaults the viewer with frightening things. In suspense, the director tells or shows things to the audience which the characters in the film do not know, and then artfully builds tension around what will happen when the characters finally learn the truth. Further blurring the moral distinction between the innocent and the guilty, occasionally making this indictment clear, Hitchcock also makes voyeurs of his "respectable" audience. In Rear Window (1954), after L. B. Jeffries (played by James Stewart) has been staring across the courtyard at him for most of the film, Lars Thorwald (played by Raymond Burr) confronts Jeffries by saying "What do you want of me?" Burr might as well have been addressing the audience. In fact, shortly before asking this, Thorwald turns to face the camera directly for the first time — at this point, audiences often gasp. One of Hitchcock's favourite devices for driving the plots of his stories and creating suspense was what he called the "MacGuffin." The plots of many of his suspense films revolve around a "MacGuffin": a detail which, by inciting curiosity and desire, drives the plot and motivates the actions of characters within the story, but whose specific identity and nature is unimportant to the spectator of the film. In Vertigo, for instance, "Carlotta Valdes" is a MacGuffin; she never appears and the details of her death are unimportant to the viewer, but the story about her ghost's haunting of Madeleine Elster is the spur for Scottie's investigation of her, and hence the film's entire plot. In Notorious the uranium that the main characters must recover before it reaches Nazi hands serves as a similarly arbitrary motivation: any dangerous object would suffice. And state secrets of various kinds serve as MacGuffins in several of the spy films, like The Thirty-Nine Steps. Most of Hitchcock's films contain cameo appearances by Hitchcock himself: the director would be seen for a brief moment boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or appearing in a photograph. This playful gesture became one of Hitchcock's signatures. As a recurring theme he would carry a musical instrument — especially memorable was the large double bass case that he wrestles onto the train at the beginning of Strangers on a Train. In his earliest appearances he would fill in as an obscure extra, standing in a crowd or walking through a scene in a long camera shot. But he became more prominent in his later appearances, as when he turns to see Jane Wyman's disguise when she passes him on the street in Stage Fright, and in stark silhouette in his final film Family Plot. (See a list of Hitchcock cameo appearances.) Hitchcock also uses the number 13 in his films. Adding up various dates, street addresses, license plates, and other numbered items brings up the number 13 on a regular basis. Psycho (1960) provides several good examples. Norman Bates moves to select room 3, then room 1. The most recent date of entry in the logbook on check-in adds up to 13. Hitchcock seemed to delight in the technical challenges of filmmaking. In Lifeboat, Hitchcock sets the entire action of the movie in a small boat, yet manages to keep the cinematography from monotonous repetition. His trademark cameo appearance was a dilemma, given the claustrophobic setting; so Hitchcock appeared on camera in a fictitious newspaper ad for a weight loss product. In Spellbound two unprecedented point-of-view shots were achieved by constructing a large wooden hand (which would appear to belong to the character whose point of view the camera took) and outsized props for it to hold: a bucket-sized glass of milk and a large wooden gun. For added novelty and impact, the climactic gunshot was hand-colored red on some copies of the black-and-white print of the film. Rope (1948) was another technical challenge: a film that appears to have been shot entirely in a single take. The film was actually shot in eight takes of approximately 10 minutes each, which was the amount of film that would fit in a single camera reel; the transitions between reels were hidden by having a dark object fill the entire screen for a moment. Hitchcock used those points to hide the cut, and began the next take with the camera in the same place. His 1958 film Vertigo contains a camera trick that has been imitated and re-used so many times by filmmakers, it has become known as the Hitchcock zoom. Although famous for inventive camera angles, Hitchcock generally avoided points of view that were physically impossible from a human perspective. For example, he would never place the camera looking out from inside a refrigerator.

His character and its effects on his films

Hitchcock was in his mid-twenties, and a professional film director, before he'd ever drunk alcohol or been on a date. His films sometimes feature male characters struggling in their relationships with their mothers. In North by Northwest (1959), Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant's character) is an innocent man ridiculed by his mother for insisting that shadowy, murderous men are after him (in this case, they are). In The Birds (1963), the Rod Taylor character, an innocent man, finds his world under attack by vicious birds, and struggles to free himself of a clinging mother. The killer in Frenzy (1972) has a loathing of women but idolizes his mother. The villain Bruno in Strangers on a Train hates his father, but has an incredibly close relationship with his mother. Norman Bates' troubles with his mother in Psycho are infamous. Hitchcock heroines tend to be lovely, cool blondes who seem at first to be proper but, when aroused by passion or danger, respond in a more sensual, animal, perhaps criminal way. As noted, the famous victim in The Lodger is a blonde. In The 39 Steps, Hitchcock's glamorous blonde star, Madeleine Carroll, is put in handcuffs. In Marnie (1964), glamorous blonde Tippi Hedren is a kleptomaniac. In To Catch a Thief (1955), glamorous blonde Grace Kelly offers to help someone she believes is a cat burglar. After becoming interested in Thorwald's life in Rear Window, Lisa breaks into Thorwald's apartment. And, most notoriously, in Psycho, Janet Leigh's character steals $40,000 and gets murdered by a young man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who thought he was his own mother. (Or, as Norman put it himself, "My mother is — what's the phrase? — she isn't really herself today.") His last blonde heroine was French actress Claude Jade as the secret agent's worried daughter Michele in Topaz (1969). Hitchcock saw that reliance on actors and actresses was a holdover from the theater tradition. He was a pioneer in using camera movement, camera set ups and montage to explore the outer reaches of cinematic art. Hitchcock's most personal films are probably Notorious (1946) and Vertigo — both about the obsessions and neuroses of men who manipulate women. Hitchcock often said that his personal favourite was Shadow of a Doubt. Vertigo explores more frankly and at greater length his interest in the relation between sex and death. Kim Novak's character is most attractive as a blonde, and though Jimmy Stewart's character believes she is suicidal (he later discovers the truth about her), he falls in love with her and she with him. Stewart's character feels an angry need to control his lover, to dress her, to fetishise her clothes, her shoes, her hair.

His style of working

Hitchcock had trouble giving proper credit to the screenwriters who did so much to make his visions come to life on the screen. Gifted writers worked with him, including Raymond Chandler and John Michael Hayes, but rarely felt they had been treated as equals. Hitchcock once commented, "The writer and I plan out the entire script down to the smallest detail, and when we're finished all that's left to do is to shoot the film. Actually, it's only when one enters the studio that one enters the area of compromise. Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with the actors and all the rest." Hitchcock was often critical of his actors and actresses as well, dismissing, for example, Kim Novak's performance in Vertigo, and once famously remarking that actors were to be treated like cattle. (In response to being accused of saying 'actors are cattle', he said 'I never said they were cattle; I said they were to be treated like cattle'.) The first book devoted to the director is simply named Hitchcock. It is a document of a one-week interview by François Truffaut in 1967. (ISBN 0671604295)

Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Hitchcock the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, in 1967. However, despite 6 earlier nominations, he never won an Oscar in a contested category. His unsuccessful Oscar nominations were:
- for Best Director: Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window, and Psycho; and
- as a producer, for Best Picture: Suspicion (1941). However Rebecca, which Hitchcock did direct, won the 1940 Best Picture Oscar for its producer David O. Selznick. Three other films Hitchcock directed were unsuccessfully nominated for Best Picture. Hitchcock was knighted in 1980.

Quotations

- "Like Freud, Hitchcock diagnosed the discontents that chafe and rankle beneath the decorum of civilization. Like Picasso or Dali, he registered the phenomenological threat of an abruptly modernised world." — Peter Conrad
- "I'd like to know more about his relationships with women. No, on second thought, I wouldn't." — Ingrid Bergman
- "I'm a philanthropist: I give people what they want. People love being horrified, terrified." — Alfred Hitchcock
- "I never said actors were cattle. All I said is that actors should be treated as cattle" — Alfred Hitchcock
- "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out." — Alfred Hitchcock
- "A murder without gleaming scissors is like asparagus without the hollandaise sauce - tasteless." — Alfred Hitchcock
- "Seeing a murder on television... can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some." — Alfred Hitchcock
- "Here is someone, who has an enormous, inordinate, neurotic fear of disorder. And that's from which he makes his art. He always has his people in a moment of disorder. They think they're in control, they think they have power, they think they have order, and then he just slips the rug out from under them to see what they're going to do." — Drew Casper

Other notes

From 1955 to 1965, Hitchcock was the host and producer of a long-running television series entitled Alfred Hitchcock Presents. While his films had made Hitchcock's name strongly associated with suspense, the TV series made Hitchcock a celebrity himself. His irony-tinged voice, image, and mannerisms became instantly recognizable and were often the subject of parody. He directed a few episodes of the TV series himself and he upset a number of movie production companies when he insisted on using his TV production crew to produce his motion picture Psycho. In the late 1980s, a new version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents was produced for television, making use of Hitchcock's original introductions. Alfred Hitchcock is also immortalised in print and appeared as himself in the very popular juvenile detective series, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. The long-running detective series was clever and well-written with characters much younger than the Hardy Boys. Alfred Hitchcock agreed to introduce the cases of the Three Investigators after they succeeded in solving a very difficult case involving a castle and thereafter a parrot. Alfred Hitchcock formerly introduced each case at the beginning of the book. As a director, he even often gave them new cases to solve. At the end of each book, Alfred Hitchcock would discuss the specifics of the case with Jupiter Jones, Bob Andrews and Peter Crenshaw and every so often the three boys would give Alfred Hitchcock mementos of their case. When Alfred Hitchcock passed away, his chores as the boys' mentor/friend would be done by a fictional character: a retired detective named Hector Sebastian. Due to the popularity of the series, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators scored several reprints and out of respect, the latter reprints were changed to just The Three Investigators. Over the years, more than one name has been used to replace Alfred Hitchcock's character, especially for the earlier books when his role was emphasised. At the height of Hitchcock's success, he was also asked to introduce a set of books with his name attached. The series was a collection of short stories by popular short story writers. They were primarily focused on suspense and thrillers. These titles included Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum, Alfred Hithcock's Supernatural Tales of Terror and Suspense, Alfred Hitchock's Spellbinders in Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock's Witch's Brew, Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery and Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful. Some notable writers whose works were used in the collection include Shirley Jackson (Strangers in Town, The Lottery), T.H. White (The Sword in the Stone), Robert Bloch, H. G. Wells (The War of the Worlds), Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain and the creator of The Three Investigators, Robert Arthur.

Filmography

(all dates are for release)

Silent films

- No. 13 (Unfinished, also known as Mrs. Peabody) (1922)
- Always Tell Your Wife (Uncredited) (1923)
- The Pleasure Garden (1925)
- The Mountain Eagle (1926)
- The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
- Downhill (1927)
- Easy Virtue (1928), based on a Noel Coward play
- The Ring (1927), an original story by Hitchcock.
- The Farmer's Wife (1928)
- Champagne (1928)
- The Manxman (1929)

Sound films

- Blackmail (1929), the first British talkie
- Juno and the Paycock (1930)
- Murder! (1930)
- Elstree Calling (1930), made jointly with Adrian Brunel, Andre Charlot, Jack Hulbert and Paul Murray
- The Skin Game (1931)
- Mary (1931)
- Number Seventeen (1932)
- Rich and Strange (1932)
- Waltzes from Vienna (1933)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
- The 39 Steps (1935), with Robert Donat
- Secret Agent (1936), loosely based on Somerset Maugham's "Ashenden" stories
- Sabotage (1936), adapted from Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent
- Young and Innocent (1937)
- The Lady Vanishes (1938), with Michael Redgrave
- Jamaica Inn (1939), starring Charles Laughton
- Rebecca (1940), his only film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture
- Foreign Correspondent (1940)
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), written by Norman Krasna
- Suspicion (1941)
- Saboteur (1942), often seen as a dry run for North by Northwest
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
- Lifeboat (1944), Tallulah Bankhead's most famous film role
- Aventure Malgache (1944), a French language short made for the British Ministry of Information
- Bon Voyage (1944), another French language propaganda short
- Spellbound (1945), includes dream sequences designed by Salvador Dali
- Notorious (1946)
- The Paradine Case (1947)
- Rope (1948)
- Under Capricorn (1949)
- Stage Fright (1950), his first film in Britain since 1939
- Strangers on a Train (1951)
- I Confess (1953)
- Dial M for Murder (1954)
- Rear Window (1954)
- To Catch a Thief (1955)
- The Trouble with Harry (1955)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), remake of his 1934 film
- The Wrong Man (1956)
- Vertigo (1958)
- North by Northwest (1959)
- Psycho (1960)
- The Birds (1963)
- Marnie (1964)
- Torn Curtain (1966)
- Topaz (1969)
- Frenzy (1972)
- Family Plot (1976)

Television episodes

- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Revenge" (1955)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Breakdown" (1955)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "The Case of Mr. Pelham" (1955)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Back for Christmas" (1956)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Wet Saturday" (1956)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Mr. Blanchard's Secret" (1956)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "One More Mile to Go" (1957)
- Suspicion: "Four O'Clock" (1957)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "The Perfect Crime" (1957)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Lamb to the Slaughter" (1958)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Dip in the Pool" (1958)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Poison" (1958)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Banquo's Chair" (1959)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Arthur" (1959)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "The Crystal Trench" (1959)
- Ford Startime: "Incident at a Corner" (1960)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" (1960)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "The Horseplayer" (1961)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Bang! You're Dead" (1961)
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: "I Saw the Whole Thing" (1962)

Frequent collaborators

Sara Allgood, Charles Bennett (screenwriter), Ingrid Bergman, Carl Brisson, Robert Burks (cinematographer), Madeleine Carroll, Leo G. Carroll, Joseph Cotten, Hume Cronyn, Robert Cummings, Joan Fontaine, John Forsythe, Farley Granger, Cary Grant, Clare Greet, Lilian Hall-Davis, Gordon Harker, Ben Hecht (writer), Tippi Hedren, Bernard Herrmann (composer), Hannah Jones, Malcolm Keen, Grace Kelly, Charles Laughton, John Longden, Peter Lorre, Miles Mander, Vera Miles, Ivor Novello, Anny Ondra, Gregory Peck, Jessie Royce Landis, James Stewart, John Williams

External links

- [http://alfredhitchcock.directorscut.info/ Multi-Language Website]
- [http://www.hitchcockpresentsdvd.com/ Official Universal Website]
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- [http://www.soundtrackinfo.com/search.asp?q=hitchcock Hitchcock at the SoundtrackINFO project]
- [http://hitchcock.tv Alfred Hitchcock - The Master of Suspense]
- [http://www.writingwithhitchcock.com/ Writing With Hitchcock] - Companion site to Steven DeRosa's book of the same name, includes original interviews, essays, script excerpts, and extensive material on Hitchcock's unproduced works.
- [http://warnervideo.com/hitchcock/home.html Warner Video: Alfred Hitchcock]
- [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tours/hitch/tour1.html Hitchcock's Style]
- Online exhibit from screenonline, a website of the British Film Institute
- [http://hollywoodglorydays.blogspot.com/2005/09/alfred-hitchcock-cameo-appearances.html Alfred Hitchock Cameo Appearances]
- [http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~muffin/ The MacGuffin Web Page] - the online extension of the Alfred Hitchcock journal The MacGuffin
- [http://www.24liesasecond.com/site2/index.php?page=2&task=index_onearticle.php&Column_Id=75 Building a Better Bomb: The Alternatives to Suspense] essay at 24 Lies A Second
- [http://www.24liesasecond.com/site2/index.php?page=2&task=index_onearticle.php&Column_Id=68 The Plausibles: The Problems of Make-Believe in the Age of Reason] essay at 24 Lies A Second
- [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/05/hitchcock.html/ Senses of Cinema Great Directors profile] - informed and readable study, called 'definitive' by Thomas Elsaesser, University of Amsterdam Hitchcock, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Alfred ko:앨프리드 히치콕 ja:アルフレッド・ヒッチコック simple:Alfred Hitchcock th:อัลเฟร็ด ฮิตช์ค็อก

Harold Robbins

Harold Robbins (originally Harold Rubin) (May 21, 1916–October 14 1997) was an American author. 1997 Born in New York City, Harold Rubin spent his childhood in an orphanage. He was educated at George Washington High School and after leaving school he worked in several jobs. Robbins made his first million at the age of twenty by selling sugar for the wholesale trade. At the beginning of World War II, Robbins had lost his fortune and moved to Hollywood where he worked for Universal Studios, first as a shipping clerk. Later he became a studio executive. His first book, Never Love a Stranger, (1948) drew on his own life as an orphan on the streets of New York and created controversy with its graphic sexuality. Ian Parker says that according to Robbins, publisher Pat Knopf bought Never Love a Stranger because "it was the first time he ever read a book in which on one page you'd have tears and on the next page you'd have a hardon. [sic]" The Dream Merchants (1949) was about Hollywood's film industry, from the first steps to sound era. Again Robbins blended his own experiences, historical facts, melodrama, sex, and action into a fast-moving story. His 1952 novel, A Stone for Danny Fisher, was adapted into a 1958 motion picture King Creole, which starred Elvis Presley. He would become one of the world's bestselling authors, publishing over 20 books which were translated into 32 languages and sold over 50 million copies. Among his best-known books is The Carpetbaggers. It was loosely based on the life of Howard Hughes, taking the reader from New York to California, from the prosperity of the aeronautical industry to the glamour of Hollywood. Its sequel, The Raiders, appeared in 1995. Robbins was married five times. From 1982 he was obliged to use a wheelchair because of hip trouble, but continued writing. He spent a great deal of time on the French Riviera and Monte Carlo until his death on October 14, 1997 from respiratory heart failure at the age of 81. He is buried in the Palm Springs Mortuary & Mausoleum in Palm Springs, California. Harold Robbins has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6743 Hollywood Boulevard.

Selected bibliography

- Never Love A Stranger, 1948
- The Dream Merchants, 1949
- A Stone for Danny Fisher, 1952
- Never Leave Me, 1953
- 79 Park Avenue, 1955
- Stiletto, 1960
- The Carpetbaggers, 1961
- Where Love Has Gone, 1962
- The Adventurers, 1966
- The Inheritors, 1969
- The Betsy, 1971
- The Pirate, 1974
- The Lonely Lady, 1976
- Dreams Die First, 1977
- Memories of Another Day, 1979
- Goodbye, Janette, 1981
- The Storyteller, 1982
- Descent from Xanadu, 1984
- The Piranhas, 1986
- The Raiders, 1995
- Tycoon: A Novel, 1997
- The Predators, 1998
- The Secret, 2000
- Never Enough, 2001

External links

- [http://publicity4u.com/new_yorker.htm Making Advances] Article on Harold Robbins by Ian Parker Robbins, Harold Robbins, Harold Robbins, Harold Robbins, Harold Robbins, Harold

Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known by the pen name Tennessee Williams, was a noted playwright. The name "Tennessee" was a name given to him by college friends because of his southern accent and his father's background in Tennessee. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat On a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition to those two plays, The Glass Menagerie in 1945 and The Night of the Iguana in 1961 received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo (dedicated to his partner, Frank Merlo), received the Tony Award for best play. Genre critics maintain that Williams writes in the Southern Gothic style.

Biography

Tennessee Williams's family was a troubled one providing inspiration for much of his writings. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi, and his family moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi by the time he was 3; the family moved, again, to St. Louis, Missouri in 1918. His father, Cornelius Williams, was a travelling shoe salesman who grew increasingly abusive as his children grew older. Edwina Williams, Tennessee's mother, was a descendant of genteel southern life, and was somewhat smothering. Dakin Williams, Tennessee's brother, was often favored over Tennessee by their father. For many years Williams lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. He first moved there in 1939 to write for the WPA and lived first at 722 Toulouse Street (now a bed and breakfast); he wrote A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) while living at 632 St. Peter Street. Tennessee was close to his sister, Rose Williams, who was perhaps the greatest influence on him. She was an elegant, slim beauty who was subject to severe nervous attacks and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Mentally ill and emotionally disturbed, she spent most of her adult life in mental hospitals. After various unsuccessful attempts at therapy, her parents eventually allowed a prefrontal lobotomy in an effort to treat her. The operation, performed in 1943, in Washington, D.C. went badly, and Rose remained incapacitated for the rest of her life. Rose's failed lobotomy was a hard blow to Tennessee, who never forgave his parents for allowing the operation. It may have been one of the factors that drove him to alcoholism. The common "mad heroine" theme that appears in many of his plays may have been influenced by his sister. Characters in his plays are often seen to be direct representations of his family members. Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie is understood to be modeled on Rose. Some biographers say that the character of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire is based on her as well. The motif of lobotomy also arises in Suddenly, Last Summer. Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie can easily be seen to represent his mother. Many of his characters can be considered autobiographical, including Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Sebastian in Suddenly, Last Summer. Actress Anne Meacham was a close personal friend of Tennessee Williams and played the lead in many of his plays, including but not limited to Suddenly, Last Summer. In his memoirs, the playwright claims he became sexually active as a teenager; his biographer, Lyle Leverich, maintained this actually occurred later, in his late 20s. His physical and emotional relationship with his secretary, Frank Merlo, lasted from 1947 until Merlo's death from cancer in 1961, and provided stability when Williams produced his most enduring works. Merlo was a balance to many of Williams's depressions, especially the fear that like his sister, Rose, he would become insane. The death of his lover drove Williams into a deep decade-long depression. Tennessee Williams was the victim of a gay-bashing in January 1979 in Key West, being beaten by five teenage boys, but was not seriously injured. The episode was part of a spate of anti-gay violence that had occurred after a local Baptist minister ran an anti-gay newspaper ad. Some of his literary critics spoke ill of the "excesses" present in his work, but these were, for the most part, merely attacks on Williams' sexuality. Tennessee Williams died after he choked on a bottle cap at the age of 71. However, some (among them is Dakin Williams, his brother) believe he was murdered. Alternately, the police report from his death seems to indicate that drugs were involved, as it states that pills were found under his body. He was interred in the Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri, despite his stated desire to be buried at sea at approximately the same place as the poet Hart Crane, whom he considered one of his most significant influences. He left his literary rights to Sewanee, The University of the South in honor of his grandfather, Walter Dakin, an alumnus of the University. The funds today support a creative writing program.

Plays (chronological order)

- Beauty Is the Word (1930)
- Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay! (1935)
- Candles to the Sun (1936)
- The Magic Tower (1936)
- Fugitive Kind (1937)
- Spring Storm (1937)
- Summer at the Lake (1937)
- The Palooka (1937)
- The Fat Man's Wife (1938)
- Not about Nightingales (1938)
- Adam and Eve on a Ferry (1939)
- Battle of Angels (1940)
- The Long Goodbye (1940)
- Auto Da Fé (1941)
- The Lady of Larkspur Lotion (1941)
- At Liberty (1942)
- The Gentleman Callers (Screenplay) (1944)
- The Glass Menagerie (1944)
- You Touched Me ohhhhhhh you toucheed me (1945)
- Moony's Kid Don't Cry (1946)
- This Property is Condemned (1946)
- Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton (1946)
- Portait of a Madonna (1946)
- The Last of My Solid Gold Watches (1947)
- Stairs to the Roof (1947)
- A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
- Summer and Smoke (1948)
- I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix (1951)
- The Rose Tattoo (1951)
- Camino Real (1953)
- Hello from Bertha (1954)
- Lord Byron's Love Letter (1955) - libretto
- Three Players of a Summer Game (1955)
- Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
- The Dark Room (1956)
- The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1956)
- Baby Doll (1956) - original screenplay
- Orpheus Descending (1957)
- Suddenly, Last Summer (1958)
- A Perfect Anaysis Given by a Parrot (1958)
- Garden District (1958)
- Something Unspoken (1958)
- Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)
- The Purification (1959)
- And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens (1959)
- The Purification (1959)
- Period of Adjustment (1960)
- The Night of the Iguana (1961)
- The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963)
- The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1964)
- Grand (1964)
- Slapstick Tragedy (The Mutilated and The Gnädiges Fräulein) (1966)
- The Mutilated (1967)
- Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968)
- Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws (1969)
- In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969)
- Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? (1969)
- I Can't Imagine Tomorrow (1970)
- The Frosted Glass Coffin (1970)
- Out Cry (1973)
- Small Craft Warnings (1972)
- The Two-Character Play (1973)
- The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975)
- Demolition Downtown (1976)
- This Is (An Entertainment) (1976)
- Vieux Carré (1977)
- Tiger Tail (1978)
- Kirche, Kuchen und Kinder (1979)
- Creve Coeur (1979)
- Lifeboat Drill (1979)
- Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980)
- The Chalky White Substance (1980)
- This is Peaceable Kingdom/Good Luck God
- Steps Must be Gentle (1980)
- The Notebook of Trigorin (1980)
- Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1981)
- A House Not Meant to Stand (1982)
- The One Exception (1983)

Novels

- The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950)
- Moise and the World of Reason (1975)
- The Bag People

Short Stories

- Hard Candy: a Book of Stories (1959)
- Three Players of a Summer Game and Other Stories (1960)
- The Knightly Quest: a Novella and Four Short Stories (1966)
- One Arm and Other Stories (1967)
- Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed: a Book of Stories (1974)
- It Happened the day the Sun Rose, and Other Stories (1981)

Poetry

- In the Winter of Cities: Poems (1956)
- Androgyne, Mon Amour: Poems (1977)

References

- The Kindness of Strangers, Donald Spoto
- Memoirs, Tennessee Williams
- Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, Lyle Leverich
- His Brother's Keeper: The Life and Murder of Tennessee Williams, Dakin Williams

External links

- [http://www.booksfactory.com/writers/williams.htm Booksfactory] article.
- [http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/KarshShmith/Detail.cfm?IRN=49399 A photograph of Tennessee Williams] by Yousuf Karsh on the website of the National Gallery of Australia. Williams, Tennessee Williams, Tennessee Williams, Tennessee Williams, Tennessee Williams, Tennessee Williams, Tennessee Williams, Tennessee Williams, Tennessee Williams, Tennessee ja:テネシー・ウィリアムズ

William Saroyan

William Saroyan (August 31, 1908 - May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American author who wrote many plays and short stories about growing up impoverished as the son of Armenian immigrants. These stories were popular during the Great Depression. Saroyan grew up in Fresno, California, where many of his works are set (although he sometimes gave the city a fictional name).

Works

Stories

- The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeze (1934)
- The Human Comedy (1943)
- Tracy's Tiger (1943)
- The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse

Plays

- The Time Of Your Life (1939) - winner of the New York Drama Critics' Award and the Pulitzer Prize
- Hello Frankie!
- [http://www.ram.org/ramblings/plays/heart_highlands.html My Heart's in the Highlands] (1939).

Song

- "Come On-a My House", a hit for Rosemary Clooney, based on an Armenian folk song, written with his cousin, Ross Bagdasarian, the impressario of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

"The Armenian and the Armenian"

A lot of the most well known Armenian poetry has been written by William Saroyan. But no other has had the significance that "The Armenian and the Armenian" has had. The Setting of the poem is that of the events taken place during the Armenian Genocide on April 24, 1915 by the young Ottoman Empire in which over 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated. The poem is known for the emotions of Saroyan that are expressed in relations to Armenian culture. "I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread and water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia."

Assessment

William Saroyan's stories celebrated optimism in the middle of trials and difficulties of the Depression. Several of Saroyan's works were drawn from his own experiences, although his approach to autobiographical facts can be called poetic. His advice to a young writer was: "Try to learn to breathe deeply; really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell." Saroyan worked tirelessly to perfect a prose style, that was full of zest of for life and was seemingly impressionistic. The style became known as Saroyanesque. Saroyan was born in Fresno, California, the son of an Armenian immigrant. His father moved to New Jersey in 1905 - he was a small vineyard owner, who had been educated as a Presbyterian minister. In the new country he was forced to take farm-labouring work. He died in 1911 from peritonitis, after drinking a forbidden glass of water given by his wife, Takoohi. Saroyan was put in an orphanage in Alameda with his brothers. Six years later the family reunited in Fresno, where Takoohi had obtained work in a cannery. Fresno is a major center of Armenian population in the United States. In 1921 Saroyan attended technical school to learn to type. At the age of fifteen, Saroyan left the school. His mother had showed him some of his father's writings, and he decided to become a writer. Saroyan continued his education by reading and writing on his own, and supporting himself by odd jobs. At the San Francisco Telegraph Company he worked as an office manager. A few of his early short articles were published in The Overland Monthly. His first stories appeared in the 1930s. Among these was "The Broken Wheel", written under the name Sirak Goryan and published in the Armenian journal Hairenik in 1933. Many of Saroyan's stories were based on his childhood, experiences among the Armenian-American fruit growers of the San Joaquin Valley, or dealt with the rootlessness of the immigrant. The short story collection My Name is Aram (1940), an international bestseller, was about a young boy, Aram Garoghlanian, and the colorful characters of his immigrant family. It has been translated into many languages. As a writer Saroyan made his breakthrough in Story magazine with "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1934). The protagonist is a young, starving writer who tries to survive in a Depression-ridden society. :"Through the air on the flying trapeze, his mind hummed. Amusing it was, astoundingly funny. A trapeze to God, or to nothing, a flying trapeze to some sort of eternity; he prayed objectively for strength to make the flight with grace." Saroyan's character has some connections to Knut Hamsun's penniless writer in his novel Hunger (1890), but without the anger and nihilism of Hamsun's narrator. The story was republished in Saroyan's bestselling collection, and with its royalties Saroyan financed his trip to Europe and Armenia, where he learned to love the taste of Russian cigarettes. He also developed a theory that "you may tend to get cancer from the thing that makes you want to smoke so much, not from the smoking itself." (from Not Dying, 1963) As a playwright Saroyan's work was drawn from deeply personal sources. He disregarded the conventional idea of conflict as essential to drama. My Heart's in the Highlands (1939), his first play, was a comedy about a young boy and his Armenian family. It was produced at the Guild Theatre in New York. Among Saroyan's best known plays is The Time of Your Life (1939), set in a waterfront saloon in San Francisco. It won a Pulitzer Prize. Saroyan refused the honor, on the grounds that commerce should not judge the arts, but accepted the New York Drama Critics Circle award. In 1948 the play was adapted into a film starring James Cagney. The Human Comedy (1943) is set in Ithaca in California's San Joaquin Valley, where the young Homer, a telegraph messenger, becomes a witness of sorrows and joys of small town people during World War II. :"Mrs. Sandoval," Homer said swiftly, "your son is dead. Maybe it's a mistake. Maybe it wasn't your son. Maybe it was somebody else. The telegram says it was Juan Domingo. But maybe the telegram is wrong." (Quotation from The Human Comedy) The story was bought by MGM and made Saroyan's shaky financial situation more secure. Louis B. Mayer had purchased the story for $60,000 and gave Saroyan $1,500 a week for his work as producer-director. After seeing Saroyan's short film, Mayer gave the direction to Clarence Brown. The sentimental final sequence of the Oscar-winning film, starring Mickey Rooney and Frank Morgan, was called "the most embarrassing moment in the whole history of movies" by David Shipman in The Story of Cinema (vol. 2, 1984). Before the war Saroyan had worked on the screenplay of Golden Boy (1939), based on Clifford Odets's play, but he never gained much success in Hollywood. Saroyan also published essays and memoirs, in which he depicted the people he had met on travels in the Soviet Union and Europe, such as the playwright George Bernard Shaw, the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and Charlie Chaplin. During World War 2 Saroyan joined the US army. He was stationed in Astoria, Queens, but he spent much of his time at the Lombardy Hotel in Manhattan, far from the Army personnel. In 1942 he was posted to London in as a part of a film unit and narrowly avoided a court martial, when his novel, The Adventures of Wesley Jackson (1946) turned out to be pacifist. In 1943 Saroyan married the seventeen-years-old Carol Marcus; they had two children, Aram and Lucy. By the late forties Saroyan's increasing problems with drinking and gambling had taken a toll on his mariage, and he filed for divorce upon his return from an extended European trip. They remarried again and divorced. Lucy became an actress. Aram became a poet, who published a book about his father. Carol Marcus was married to the actor Walter Matthau. Saroyan's financial situation did not improve after the war, when interest in his novels declined and he was criticized for sentimentalism. Saroyan praised freedom; brotherly love and universal benevolence were for him basic values, but with his idealism Saroyan was considered out of date. However, he still wrote prolifically. "How could you you write so much good stuff and still write such bad stuff?" asked one of his readers. In 1952 Saroyan published the first of several book-length memoirs, The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills. In the title novella of The Assyrian and other stories (1950) and in The Laughing Matter (1953) Saroyan mixed allegorical elements within a realistic novel. The plays Sam Ego's House (1949) and The Slaughter of the Innocents (1958) examined moral questions, but they did not gain the success of his prewar works. When Saroyan made jokes about Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway responded: "We've seen them come and go. Good ones too. Better ones than you, Mr. Saroyan." Many of Saroyan's later plays, such as The Paris Comedy (1960), The London Comedy(1960), and Settled Out of Court (1969), premiered in Europe. Manuscripts of a number of his unperformed plays are now at Stanford University with his other papers. Saroyan worked rapidly, hardly editing his text. Much of his earnings he spent in drinking and gambling. From 1958 the author lived mainly in Paris, where he had an apartment. :"I am an estranged man, said the liar: estranged from myself, from my family, my fellow man, my country, my world, my time, and my culture. I am not estranged from God, although I am a disbeliever in everything about God excepting God indefinable, inside all and careless of all." (from Here Comes There Goes You Know Who, 1961) In the late 1960s and the 1970s Saroyan managed to write himself out of debt and create substantial income. Saroyan died from cancer on May 18, 1981, in Fresno. "Everybody has got to die," he had said, "but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case." Half of his ashes were buried in California, and the rest in Armenia.

Quotations

- "The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy - the good and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops." – From The William Saroyan Reader, 1958

External links

- [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/saroyan.htm Brief biography] at Kirjasto (Pegasos)
- [http://www.williamsaroyansociety.org/index.html The William Saroyan Society]
- [http://www.cilicia.com/armo22_william_saroyan.html Tribute site]
- [http://www.cilicia.com/armo22_william_saroyan_5.html "A good dose of Saroyan is what this world needs"], The San Diego Union-Tribune (6 April 1998)
- [http://www.williamsaroyan.org/ William Saroyan Literary Foundation]
- [http://www.electroasylum.com/saroyan/ William Saroyan Page]
- [http://www.kalinian-saroyan.com/main.html William Saroyan : The Man, The Writer] Saroyan, William Saroyan, William Saroyan, William Saroyan, William Saroyan, William Saroyan, William Saroyan, William

James Agee

James Agee (November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was a United States novelist, screenwriter, journalist, poet, and film critic. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was one of the most influential film critics in the U.S. His autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family (1957), won the Pulitzer Prize. Agee was born at 15th and Highland Streets in Knoxville, Tennessee. He lost his father at the age of six in an automobile accident. Much of his early education was at a boarding school for boys. He attended Saint Andrew's School for Mountain Boys, now Saint Andrews-Sewanee School, Phillips Exeter Academy, where he edited the Monthly and Harvard University, where he was president of the Harvard Advocate. After graduation, he wrote for Fortune and Time magazines. In 1934, he published his first volume of poetry, Permit Me Voyage, with a foreword by Archibald MacLeish. In the summer of 1936, he spent eight weeks with the photographer Walker Evans living among sharecroppers in Alabama. Although Fortune never published his article, the material became a book in 1941, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. In 1951, Agee suffered the first in a series of heart attacks, which ultimately claimed his life four years later, at the age of 45, while riding in a taxicab in New York City. His considerable if erratic career as a movie script writer was by then curtailed by alcoholism, and his contribution to The Night of the Hunter (1955) remains unclear. During the 1950s he worked on movies with photographer Helen Levitt. During his life he had modest recognition by the public but since his death in 1955 his literary reputation has grown enormously. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) has been placed among the top works of literature in the 20th Century by both the New York Public Library and the NYU School of Journalism selection committees.

List of works

- Permit Me Voyage
- Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families
- The African Queen
- The Morning Watch
- The Night of the Hunter
- A Death in the Family (stage adaptation: All the Way Home)
- Agee on Film
- Agee on Film II
- Letters of James Agee to Father Flye
- The Collected Short Prose of James Agee

External links

- [http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/Tales_dir/james_agee_mother_tale.html A Mother's Tale]
- Agee, James Agee, James Agee, James Agee, James Agee, James Agee, James

Manny Farber

Manny Farber is an American painter and film critic, born in 1917 in Douglas, Arizona. He taught at the University of California San Diego. In Negative Space, a collection of his film essays, he writes on the virtues of "termite art" and the excesses of "white elephant art." In an essay originally published in 1962, he eloquently champions the B film and under-appreciated auteurs, which he felt were able, termite-like, to burrow into a topic. Bloated, pretentious, white elephant art lacks the economy of expression found in the greatest works of termite art. "Termite-tapeworm-fungus-moss art," Farber contends, "goes always forward eating its own boundaries, and, like as not, leaves nothing in its path other than the signs of eager, industrious, unkempt activity."

Pearl Buck

Pearl S. Buck (birth name Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker; ) (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was a prolific writer and Nobel Prize winner.

Life

Born in Hillsboro, West Virginia to Carie (Stulting) and Absalom Sydenstricker, Buck went with her parents, southern Presbyterian missionaries, to Zhenjiang, China in 1892 when Buck was 3 months old. She was brought up there and first knew the Chinese language and customs, especially from Mr. Kong, and then was taught English by her mother and her teacher. She was encouraged to write at an early age. By 1910, she left for America and went to Randolph-Macon Woman's College [http://www.rmwc.edu/], where she would earn her degree in 1914. She then returned to China, and married an agricultural economist, John Lossing Buck, on May 13, 1917. In 1921, she and John had a daughter, Carol, who was afflicted with phenylketonuria. The small family then moved to Nanjing, where Pearl taught English literature at University of Nanking. In 1925, the Bucks adopted Janice (later surnamed Walsh) and subsequently 8 more adoptees. In 1926, she left China and returned to the United States for a short time in order to earn her Master of Arts degree from Cornell University. Buck began her writing career in 1930 with her first publication of East Wind:West Wind. In 1931 she wrote her best known novel, The Good Earth, which is considered to be one of the best of her many works. The story of the farmer Wang Lung's life brought her the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. Her career would keep flourishing, and she won the William Dean Howells Medal in 1935. Pearl was forced to flee China in 1934 due to political tensions. She returned to the United States and obtained a divorce from her husband. She then married Richard J. Walsh, president of the John Day Publishing Company, on June 11, 1935, and with him adopted six other children. In 1938 she won the Nobel Prize for Literature, after writing biographies of her parents, The Exile, and The Fighting Angel. She was the first woman from the United States to win the Nobel in Literature. In her lifetime, Pearl S. Buck would write over 100 works of literature, her most known being The Good Earth. She wrote novels, short stories, fiction, and children's stories. Many of her life experiences are described in her books. She wanted to prove to her readers that universality of mankind can exist if they accept it. She dealt with many topics including women, emotions (in general), Asians, immigration, adoption, and conflicts that many people go through in life. In 1949, she established Welcome House Inc., the first adoption agency dedicated to the placement of bi-racial children, particularly Amerasians. Pearl S. Buck died on March 6, 1973 in Danby, Vermont and was interred in Green Hills Farm, Perkasie, Pennsylvania. Buck, Pearl Buck, Pearl

Foxnews

The Fox News Channel is a United States cable and satellite news channel. It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, and is a subsidiary of News Corporation, under major shareholder and chief executive officer Rupert Murdoch. As of January 2005, it is available to 85 million subscribers in the U.S. and to further viewers internationally, broadcasting primarily out of its New York City studios. Launched on October 7 1996 to 17 million cable subscribers, the nascent network quickly rose to prominence in the late 1990s as it started taking market share away from competitor CNN. As of 2005, it regularly beats CNN in Nielsen ratings for the US market.

History

Rupert Murdoch established Fox News to counter a news media that he claimed was dominated by liberals. Murdoch had significant experience with cable news after starting the Sky News rolling news service in the United Kingdom. In February 1996, after Roger Ailes (who would later be the president of Fox News) was relieved of duties at America's Talking, in preparation for conversion of the network to MSNBC, Murdoch called Ailes to start the network. A group of Ailes loyalists who followed him throughout the NBC empire joined him at Fox. From there, they proceeded to select space in New York and worked individuals through five months of grueling 14 hour workdays and several weeks of rehearsal shows before launch. At launch, only ten million households were able to watch Fox News, and most notably Fox News was not on the cable systems of the key media markets of New York City and Los Angeles. Fox News had to invite media writers to its launch to write reviews about the coverage. Media writers generally found the news programming of Fox at launch to be down the middle, if somewhat shallow. The rolling news coverage during the day consisted of 20 minute single topic shows like Fox on Crime or Fox on Politics surrounded by news headlines. During the evening, Fox's opinion shows, The O'Reilly Factor (then called The O'Reilly Report), a show with Catherine Crier, and Hannity & Colmes, were judged by many media writers to be generally conservative, with O'Reilly being too harsh on some guests (such as Barry McCaffrey) and Catherine Crier being too soft on her first guest, Rush Limbaugh. To get cable systems to take Fox News, Ailes paid systems up to $11 per subscriber in subsidy to take up the network. This contrasted with past practice, in which cable operators pay stations carriage fees for their programming. Ailes also used his connections with New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani to get Fox News on the New York cable system, which was owned by Time Warner. When Time Warner bought out Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting, a federal antitrust consent decree required Time Warner to carry a second all-news channel in addition to Time Warner's own CNN. Time Warner selected MSNBC as the secondary news network, instead of Fox News. Fox News claimed that this violated an agreement to carry Fox News, and persuaded Mayor Giuliani to carry Fox News and Bloomberg Television on two underutilized city-owned cable channels, which he did. New York City also threatened to revoke Time Warner's cable franchise for not carrying Fox News. A lawsuit was filed by Time Warner against the City of New York claiming undue interference and for inappropriate use of the city's educational channels for commercial programming. News Corporation countered with an antitrust lawsuit against Time Warner for unfairly protecting CNN. This led to an acrominous battle between Murdoch and Turner, with Turner publicly comparing Murdoch to Adolf Hitler while Murdoch's New York Post ran an editorial questioning Turner's sanity. Giuliani's motives were also questioned, as his then-wife was a producer at Murdoch-owned WNYW-TV. In the end, Time Warner and News Corporation signed a settlement agreement to permit Fox News to be carried on New York City cable system beginning in October 1997, and to all of Time Warner's cable systems by 2001. In return, Time Warner was given some rights to News Corporation's satellites in Asia and Europe to distribute Time Warner programming, would receive the normal compensation per subscriber paid to cable operators, and News Corporation would not object to Atlanta Braves baseball games being carried on TBS (which they could be because of the Fox television network's contract with Major League Baseball.)

Management

The CEO, Chairman, and President of Fox News is Roger Ailes. After he began his career in broadcasting, Ailes started Ailes Communications, Inc and was successful as a political strategist for Presidents Nixon and Reagan and in producing campaign TV commercials for Republican political candidates. His work for former President Richard M. Nixon was chronicled in the book The Selling of the President: 1968 by Joe McGinniss. Ailes withdrew from consulting and returned to broadcasting in 1992. He ran the CNBC channel and America's Talking, the forerunner of MSNBC for NBC. More recently, Ailes was named Broadcaster of the Year by Broadcast and Cable Magazine in 2003.

Programming

Broadcast and Cable Magazine Fox News presents a wide variety of programming, with up to 15 hours of live programming per day. Most of the programs are broadcast from Fox News headquarters in New York City with its street-side studios on Sixth Avenue (1211 Avenue of the Americas) in the west extension of Rockefeller Center. The following is the usual weekday lineup (as of Jan. 2005, all times Eastern):
- 6 a.m.: Morning programming begins with Fox & Friends 1st, hosted by one or more of the Fox & Friends hosts with rotating co-hosts Kiran Chetry, Lauren Green, Juliet Huddy, Andrew P. Napolitano and others.
- 7 a.m.: Fox & Friends, hosted by Steve Doocy, E.D. Hill and Brian Kilmeade, is similar to other cable news network programming in the mornings, such as CNN's American Morning with Miles O'Brien and Soledad O'Brien and MSNBC's Imus in the Morning.
- 9 a.m.: Late morning and early afternoon programming starts with Fox News Live, a show featuring news, guest analysis, and interviews. Like other American cable news stations, there is news mixed with feature-like stories, as well as commentary and short debates between people on opposite sides of issues, usually between associates of candidates and officials, think tank members and journalists. Usually hosted by Jon Scott, Brigitte Quinn and Bill Hemmer.
- 1 p.m.: Juliet Huddy and Mike Jerrick's talk show with a live audience, Dayside.
- 2 p.m.: Another hour of Fox News Live hosted by Martha MacCallum.
- 3 p.m.: Shepard Smith's news program, Studio B.
- 4 p.m.: Fox's flagship business program, Your World, hosted by Neil Cavuto.
- 5 p.m.: John Gibson hosts The Big Story, a news/commentary program.
- 6 p.m.: Primetime starts with the political news and discussion show Special Report with Brit Hume, hosted by political reporter Brit Hume from Washington, DC.
- 7 p.m.: Shepard Smith broadcasts The Fox Report With Shepard Smith, offering various reports on the day's events.
- 8 p.m.: The network's top-rated show, The O'Reilly Factor. The taped broadcast features commentary from Bill O'Reilly, formerly of Inside Edition fame.
- 9 p.m.: Conservative Sean Hannity and liberal Alan Colmes debate political issues of the day with guests and analysts during Hannity & Colmes.
- 10 p.m.: Greta Van Susteren broadcasts On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. This program has an emphasis on stories pertaining to legal matters or human interest.
- 11 p.m.: Reruns of previous programs are shown until 6 a.m. the next day. Fox News also produced several newsmagazine shows for its Fox affiliates including Fox Files and The Pulse, although both were cancelled after short runs due to poor ratings. Fox News Sunday currently airs on many Fox affiliates and is similar in format to other Sunday morning political discussion programs.

Personalities

Former personalities

- Catherine Crier
- Paula Zahn(Now at CNN)
- Jon Du Pre
- Rita Cosby(Now at MSNBC)
- Matt Drudge
- David Shuster(Now at MSNBC)
- Pat Sajak (Game Show Host, briefly held news program)
- Heather Nauert (Now at ABC News)

Ratings

Fox News currently leads the cable news market, earning higher ratings than its chief competitors CNN and MSNBC combined by average viewership. Measured by unique viewers, however, Fox is bested by CNN which, during the election season, earned 11% greater numbers of individual P2+ viewers. This is primarily due to Fox's somewhat longer duration "talk" programs which cause viewers to tune in for longer periods as compared to CNN's generally shorter news segments. The BBC reported that Fox News saw its profits double during the Iraq conflict, due in part to what the report called patriotic coverage of the war. By some reports, at the height of the conflict, they enjoyed as much as a 300% increase in viewership, averaging 3.3 million viewers daily . In 2004, the perceived gain in ratings began to become more apparent. Coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Boston ranked higher in the ratings than its two closest cable competitors combined. In September, Fox News Channel's ratings for its broadcast of the Republican National Convention beat those of all three broadcast networks. During President Bush's address, Fox News notched 7.3 million viewers nationally, while NBC, CBS, and ABC scored ratings of 5.9, 5.0, and 5.1, respectively. In April 2005, however, CNN sent out a press release stating that Fox's viewership of adults betwen the ages of 25 and 54 had dropped over a period of six months since the peak of the November 2004 elections (to a total drop of over 58% [http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/fncs_2554_prime_downward_spiral_20939.asp], [http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2005/narrative_cabletv_contentanalysis.asp?cat=2&media=5]), though Fox still held eight of the ten most-watched nightly cable news shows, with The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes coming in first and second places, respectively. And since then Fox's ratings have surged. [http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/original/ranker_april05.pdf] News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, has campaigned against plans by Nielsen to change the method used to compile ratings from the traditional 'diary' method to the electronic 'people meter'. A longstanding criticism of the diary method of compiling ratings is that consumers may misrepresent their viewing behavior in order to 'vote' for prefered programming such as PBS or Fox News. A grassroots campaign financed and organized by Fox, Don't Count Us Out has alleged that the new method of compiling ratings is biased against minority viewers pointing to dramatic falls in the viewing figures of network TV programs aimed at minority audiences. Supporters of Nielsen, including Jesse Jackson, have noted that the Nielsen sample actually over-represents minority viewers and that the dramatic falls in viewing of broadcast programming are matched by a rise in the ratings for cable programming, in particular Black Entertainment Television [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_38/b3900100_mz017.htm]

Controversies and allegations of bias

Fox News asserts that it is more objective and factual than other American networks. Its self-promotion includes the phrases "Fair and Balanced" and "We Report, You Decide". However, some critics claim that the network has a conservative bias and tailors its news to support the Republican Party. Although most critics do not claim that all Fox News reporting is slanted, some allege that bias at Fox News is systemic, and implemented to both target and build a conservative audience. Regardless of its reporting practices, it is noted for having a significantly higher proportion of "analysis" programming (such as the O'Reilly Factor) and personal commentary (such as those offered by Neil Cavuto, John Gibson, Bill O'Reilly and others at the end of their programs.) Liberal media commentators and competitors have alleged that Fox News' reporting is frequently characterized by conservative editorials disguised as news, and left-wing critics frequently refer to Fox News as the "Faux News Network," "Fascist News Network," the "Republican News Network," "GOP TV," "Fear and Bias," or "Unfair and Unbalanced." Critics of Fox News point to the following as evidence of bias:

Ownership and management

- Rupert Murdoch's ownership of several conservative outlets, including the New York Post and The Times. During the buildup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, all 175 Murdoch-owned newspapers worldwide editorialized in favor of the war. [http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,896864,00.html]
- CEO Roger Ailes' past activities, including Republican campaign work, involvement in the Willie Horton ad, his production of the Rush Limbaugh television show, and having served as either advisor or consultant to Republican Presidents Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
- That John Prescott Ellis, a full cousin of George W. Bush, was one of four consultants assigned by the Voter News Service to Fox News on night of the 2000 Presidential election; thus he was part of the team that recommended Fox News be the last to retract its call of Florida for Al Gore and the first to call Florida for Bush, which Fox News did at 2:16 a.m [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/11/14/politics/main249357.shtml]. Though all major networks called Florida for Bush by 2:20 a.m., Ellis has since admitted to informing both Jeb and George Bush several times by telephone of how projections were going on election night. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/11/14/politics/main249357.shtml]
- [http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=2558 Capitalizing on viewers' fears by manufacturing "scoops."] In April 2002, Fox News presented a three-part series called "Nuclear Neglect." Fox reporter Douglas Kennedy arranged through local air traffic control and other pertinent government agencies a private airplane flight over the Nuclear power plant at Indian Head, New York. However, when his report characterized the event as proof the facility's security was in shambles - a sensational sell during the post-9/11 months - Phil Boyer, President of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, publicly castigated Roger Ailes for Kennedy's stunt [http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2002/020424letter1.html].
- [http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=8147&fcategory_desc=Fox%20News,%2024hr%20Republican%20Network Photocopied memos] from Fox News executive John Moody instructing the network's on-air anchors and reporters on using positive language when discussing anti-abortion viewpoints, the Iraq war, and tax cuts; as well as requesting that the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal be put in context with the other violence in the area.
- In September 2005 Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal (nephew of the late Saudi King Fahd) purchased 5.46 percent of the Fox corporation [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=90439], raising concern that the Fox News may soften its anti-terror stance due to the views of the new shareholder.

Reports, polls and studies

- A report released in August 2001 by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, titled "Fox: The Most Biased Name in News", ([http://www.fair.org/reports/Fox.html]) which:
- States that, despite his claims to the contrary, The O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly is conservative; and
- Compared guests on Fox's Special Report with Brit Hume with those on CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports: :
- A study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, in the Winter 2003-2004 issue of Political Science Quarterly, reported that viewers of the Fox Network local affiliates or Fox News were more likely than viewers of other news networks to hold three views which the authors labeled as misperceptions:[http://www.psqonline.org/cgi-bin/99_article.cgi?byear=2003&bmonth=winter&a=02free&format=view] (PDF),
- 67% of Fox viewers believed that the "US has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al Qaeda terrorist organization" (Compared with 56% for CBS, 49% for NBC, 48% for CNN, 45% for ABC, 16% for both NPR and PBS). However, the belief that "Iraq was directly involved in September 11" was held by 33% of CBS viewers and only 24% of Fox viewers.
- 33% of Fox viewers believed that the "US has found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" "since the war ended". (Compared with 23% for CBS, 20% for both CNN and NBC, 19% for ABC and 11% for both NPR and PBS)
- 35% of Fox viewers believed that "the majority of people [in the world] favor the US having gone to war" with Iraq. (Compared with 28% for CBS, 27% for ABC, 24% for CNN, 20% for NBC, 5% for both NPR and PBS) :Fox viewers were unique in that those who paid greater attention to news were moderately more likely to have these misperceptions than those who paid less or no attention to news.
- A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in 2005 found that, in covering the Iraq War in 2004, 73% of Fox News stories included editorial opinions, compared with 29% on MSNBC and 2% on CNN. The same report found Fox less likely than CNN to present multiple points of view. On the other hand, it found Fox more transparent about its sources[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33008-2005Mar14?language=printer]. [http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2005/narrative_cabletv_contentanalysis.asp?cat=2&media=5 Full report]
- A December 2004 study, entitled "A Measure of Media Bias", by Tim Groseclose of UCLA and Jeff Milyo of the University of Missouri.[http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm] In this study, the researchers investigated congressional citations of think tanks and other policy groups. Based on the scores of members of congress assigned by Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), the researchers estimated the ADA scores of the think tanks and other policy groups that these members of congress cited. Based on journalists' citations of these think tanks and other policy groups, the researchers then estimated the ADA scores of 20 major American news outlets. :The researchers omitted editorials, book reviews, and letters to the editor, and focused on the news stories of the outlets. The researchers ignored instances of legislators or journalists citing actions taken by policy groups (focusing instead on citations regarding the perceived views of the policy group), citations that were performed for the sole purpose of rebutting the policy groups' views, or when an ideological label was assigned to the policy group. The purpose of this was to focus on instances where "the legislator or journalist cited the think tank as if it were a disinterested expert on the topic at hand." :Based on this methodology, the researchers estimated Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume to have an ADA score of 39.7. This places Special Report to the right of the average American voter, who the researchers estimated to have an ADA score of 50.1. (Higher ADA scores indicate a liberal slant, lower scores a conservative slant.) :Out of the twenty news outlets investigated, Special Report was the fifth closest to the center, following PBS's Newshour with Jim Lehrer, CNN's NewsNight with Aaron Brown, and ABC's Good Morning America. (The Drudge Report came in fourth, but the researchers believed this to be an anomaly.) This study lends support to allegations that American media as a whole has a liberal bias, since, aside from Special Report, only one other news outlet had an estimated ADA score less than 50.1 (the Washington Times, with a score of 35.4). The study also lends support to allegations that American media has bias towards the center, since only one outlet, the Wall Street Journal, with a score of 85.1, had a score that was less than the average Republican member of Congress or greater than the average Democratic member of Congress.

Criticisms of on-air conservative personalities

A number of Fox News Channel' anchors, hosts and personalities are self-professed right-wing conservatives, and several others are considered such by the channel's critics.
- Managing editor and host Brit Hume is a contributor to the conservative American Spectator and Weekly Standard.
- Daytime anchor David Asman previously worked at The Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Manhattan Institute, a conservative thinktank.
- Weekend Live host Tony Snow is a conservative columnist, radio host, and former chief speechwriter for the first Bush administration. He also hosts his own show, The Tony Snow Show, on conservative talk radio, second only to Rush Limbaugh in terms of listeners, and went on tour for George W. Bush before the 2004 election.
- One of the most well-known personalities is the popular Bill O'Reilly, who often faces criticism from the left over a perceived pro- (Iraq) war, right-wing slant in his opinion program. O'Reilly himself maintains that he is politically independent (chiefly due to libertarian positions on social issues like homosexuality and marijuana legislation). Some people accuse O'Reilly for frequently using incendiary, emotive, or nationalist "rhetoric" toward those who hold disagreeing positions, such as accusing Senator Dick Durbin of "slamming America" and "condemning his own country" over Durbin's criticism of the conditions at the United States' Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba when Durban said, "you would most certainly believe (torturing of prisoners) must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings." O'Reilly counters that his show is not so much "news", but a news analysis program. [http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159877,00.html]
- John Gibson's afternoon block of news coverage, "The Big Story", is frequently cited as an example of Fox News blurring the lines between objective reporting and opinion/editorial programming. Gibson gained notoriety immediately after the 2000 presidential election controversy when, during the opinion segment of his show, Gibsonn advocated the burning of all ballots involved in the election dispute once George W. Bush was sworn into office: "Is this a case where knowing the facts actually would be worse than not knowing? I mean, should we burn those ballots, preserve them in amber, or shred them? George Bush is going to be president. And who needs to know that he's not a legitimate president?" [http://www.yaaams.org/medianews.shtml]
- Business anchor Neil Cavuto, who is also Fox News' vice president of business news and a current member of the network's executive committee, has been described as a "Bush apologist" by critics [http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0613-23.htm] after conducting an allegedly deferential interview with President George W. Bush [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,158960,00.html] wherein Cavuto told Bush that domestic lack of support for the partial privatization of Social Security was due to Americans being "distracted" by Michael Jackson's child molestation trial. Cavuto has been a syndicated columnist on Townhall.com [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/neilcavuto/archive.shtml] and NewsMax.com [http://www.newsmax.com/pundits/Cavuto.shtml], both conservative outlets of news and opinion.

Criticisms of on-air liberal personalities

Alan Colmes is touted by Fox as "a hard-hitting liberal" ([http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,1536,00.html]), but is dismissed by many on the left as being a political moderate too weak to provide an effective balance for self-professed "arch-conservative" Sean Hannity. As executive producer of Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity is also Colmes' de facto boss ([http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1158]). Liberal viewers have long found Colmes' quiet, deferential style infuriating, particularly in contrast to the outspoken Hannity; and Colmes himself has sometimes taken more right-leaning positions, such as supporting Rudy Giuliani for mayor of New York City and defending Mississippi Senator Trent Lott after the latter made racially suspect remarks at the 100th birthday party for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond. It hasn't helped Colmes with his liberal critics either that he has also defended Fox's "fair and balanced" slogan as accurate, or that he has been praised by prominent conservatives such as Newt Gingrich and was once chosen as the favorite liberal by posters on a Free Republic forum. Liberal commentator Al Franken lambasted Colmes in his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, accusing him of refusing to ask tough questions during debates and neglecting to challenge alleged erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests (Franken even jokingly suggested that Colmes is a whipping boy who's forced to do odd jobs around the Fox News studios). The term Fox News liberal is used among Democrats and liberals in the U.S. to refer to those commentators and politicians who hold themselves out as liberals and/or Democrats, yet do one or more of the following:
- often agree with their conservative and/or Republican opposite numbers on TV talk shows or in legislative bodies on various issues and positions.
- show no hesitation to distance themselves from and criticize their fellow Democrats and liberals, especially to predominantly conservative audiences;
- present weak arguments in favor of liberal/Democratic positions, and refuse to debate or easily succumb to conservative/Republican arguments.
- base arguments on dubious claims made by conservatives and Republicans, thereby suggesting that those are valid liberal/Democratic positions.

Other criticisms

- Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, a documentary film on Fox News by Robert Greenwald, makes allegations of bias in Fox News by interviewing a number of former employees who discuss the company's practices. For example, Frank O'Donnell, a former employee identified as "Fox News producer", says: "We were stunned, because up until that point, we were allowed to do legitimate news. Suddenly, we were ordered from the top to carry [...] Republican, right-wing propaganda", after being told what to say about Ronald Reagan. O'Donnell actually worked for Washington, D.C. Fox affiliate WTTG, which while a local affiliate, is not the Fox News Channel cable network. Fox News has always stressed that affiliates are separate entities from Fox News Channel, and Fox News has no editorial oversight of any Fox affiliate. The network made an [http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125436,00.html official response] and a [http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125437,00.html review of selected employees] featured in the film and their employment (or non-employment) with Fox News.
- A news article in October 2004 by Carl Cameron, chief political correspondent of Fox News, containing three fabricated quotes attributed to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The quotes included: "Women should like me! I do manicures", "Didn't my nails and cuticles look great?" and "I'm metrosexual [Bush's] a cowboy". Fox News [http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134166,00.html retracted the story and apologized], citing a "jest" that became published through "fatigue and bad judgement, not malice."
- An opinion piece on the Hutton Inquiry decision, in which John Gibson said the BBC had "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest" and that the BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan, "insisted on air that the Iraqi Army was heroically repulsing an incompetent American Military" [http://www.Foxnews.com/story/0,2933,109821,00.html]. In reviewing viewer complaints, Ofcom (the United Kingdom's statutory broadcasting regulator) ruled that Fox News had breached the program code in three areas: "respect for truth", "opportunity to take part", and "personal view programmes opinions expressed must not rest upon false evidence". Fox News admitted that Gilligan had not actually said the words that John Gibson appeared to attribute to him; OfCom rejected the claim that it was intended to be a paraphrase. (see [http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/prog_cb/pcb_11/upheld_cases Ofcom complaint, response and ruling]). In June 2004, CEO Roger Ailes responded to some criticism with rebuttal in an online column for the Wall Street Journal ([http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005157]), claiming that Fox's critics intentionally confuse opinion shows such as The O'Reilly Factor with regular news coverage. Ailes claimed that Fox News has broken stories which turned out harmful to Republicans and the Republican Party, stating "Fox News is the network that broke George W. Bush's DUI four days before the election" as an example. The story on Bush's drunk driving record was broken by then-Fox affiliate WPXT in Portland, Maine. In a Wall Street Journal Europe op-ed published on May 20, 2005, London bureau chief Scott Norvell wrote: "Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly". [http://slate.msn.com/id/2119864/#ContinueArticle], [http://www.newshounds.us/2005/05/31/Fox_news_confesses_that_its_in_bed_with_karl_rove.php] However, the quote is used in the context of Norvell's criticism of a rival, state-funded broadcaster. More recently, in 2005, as 4,000 people in Detroit paid their final respects to civil rights hero Rosa Parks during the four hours of her funeral ceremony on November 2, Fox News devoted just 23 minutes of air time to live coverage, compared with 108 minutes of coverage on CNN and 100 on MSNBC. [http://mediamatters.org/items/200511040001] In place of Rosa Parks's funeral Fox News featured (among other things) an extensive discussion, complete with visuals, of the top-five ranked celebrities from In Touch Weekly magazine's "Best Cleavage in Hollywood" poll. [http://mediamatters.org/items/200511040007]

Trademark disputes

In 2003, Penguin Books published Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, by the comedian and writer Al Franken. The book criticized many right-wing individuals and institutions on grounds of inaccuracy; it included Fox News among the media outlets described as biased. Before the book was released, Fox brought a lawsuit, alleging that the book's subtitle violated Fox's trademark in the promotional phrase "Fair and Balanced". On that basis, Fox moved for a preliminary injunction to block the publication of the book. The United States District Court Judge hearing the case denied the motion, characterizing Fox's claim as "wholly without merit, both factually and legally". Fox then withdrew the suit. Franken then suggested that the judge's phrase "Wholly Without Merit" would make a more appropriate slogan for Fox. In December 2003, the Independent Media Institute, which publishes the Alternet online magazine, brought a petition before the United States Patent and Trademark Office seeking the cancellation of Fox's trademark in the phrase "Fair & Balanced". [http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?qt=adv&pno=92042790&qs=&propno=&propnameop=&propname=&pop=&pn=&pop2=&pn2=&cop=&cn=] The petition argued that the phrase was so widely used by others as to have no particular association with Fox, and that Fox's use of the phrase was "notoriously misdescriptive of [Fox]'s presentation of news content". The IMI withdrew its petition in June 2005 and the USPTO dismissed the case shortly thereafter. [http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=92042790&pty=CAN&eno=1] As Fox News spread to the nation's major cable markets, a handful of observers jumped on the opportunity to mock the network's putative bias. In 1999, [http://www.fauxnews.com/ "Faux News"], the first of a series of internet sites devoted to satirizing Fox News, appeared on line. In late 2001, a personal website calling itself [http://www.fauxnewschannel.com "The Most Powerful Smell in News"] created the now-ubiquitous "Faux News" logo. [http://fauxnewschannel.com/logo.html] The following January the idea grew legs of its own, and the second Faux Fox website was born. By mid-2002 half a dozen websites were using the phony logo, poking fun at Fox's stories and style, and pointing out what they perceived as examples of yellow journalism. Before the year was over, a website called [http://www.agitproperties.com Agitproperties] gained national attention with its T-shirts and other merchandise bearing the "Faux News" logo ("The Most Powerful Smell in News" also began selling merchandise with the controversial logo, but never got the attention Agitproperties did). Fox charged Agitproperties and "The Most Powerful Smell in News" with infringement of Fox's rights, telling both to cease selling all such merchandise, threatening litigation if the sites did not comply. [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06/25/faux_news_parody_site_draws/] After some valuable publicity (commonly a benefit for those Fox publicly threatens), Agitproperties backed off, and stopped selling merchandise bearing the "Faux News" logo. "The Most Powerful Smell in News," however, continues to sell products displaying its "Faux News" logo, including a popular image of a dog defecating on it [http://www.cafepress.com/fauxnews/160012]. In 2005, MSNBC began using the new slogan "Fair and Accurate".

International transmission

The channel is now available internationally, though its world programming is the same as its American programming, unlike CNN International, which airs regional programming that is largely independent of its U.S. broadcasts.

Australia

Fox News Channel is broadcast on the three major Pay-TV providers, Austar, Optus Television and Foxtel. Foxtel is 25% owned by News Corporation. The Australian syndication previously featured some local programming, including a John Laws current affairs programme in place of "Fox & Friends". Currently, it is a direct feed of the US broadcast.

Brazil

Since 2002 Fox News has been broadcast to Brazil, but the commercials are replaced with weather forecasts (except for their own ads). It is broadcasted by Sky Brazil (satellite) and NET (cable), both owned by News Corporation.

Canada

On December 14, 2000, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved Fox News Canada on behalf of the Global Television Network, for broadcast. Fox News Canada was to be a domestic Canadian version of Fox News. [http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2000/DB2000-565.htm] The channel, or specialty television service, was never implemented by Fox, and the deadline for commencement of the service expired on November 24, 2004. That same day, a similar licence was granted to Rogers Communications for "MSNBC Canada", which went to air in September, 2001. During this period, it was stated by supporters of Fox News that the station was being "banned in Canada," ignoring its CRTC licence. The CRTC's previous refusal to grant Fox News an outright license had been contested by some Canadians, as well as American fans of the channel, who believed the decision to be politically motivated. On June 18, 2003, the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA), an organization representing approximately 90 cable companies in Canada, applied to add Fox News, ESPN, HBO, and other non-domestic programming to the CRTC's Lists of Eligible Satellite Services on a digital basis. In their application the CCTA duly noted that, absent a change in CRTC policy, some of the channels were likely to be ineligible for addition to the lists as some were partially or totally competitive with licensed Canadian programming. Some Canadian channels additionally might hold exclusive rights. In a lengthy response, the CRTC stated that "the Commission considers that CCTA has not raised sufficient question as to the validity of the existing policy, or sufficient argument or evidence as to the benefits of its proposed approach, to warrant a policy review at this time" and noted that "CCTA has not provided the information generally required for the Commission to consider requests to add services to the Lists. Accordingly, the Commission is not in a position to examine whether it would be appropriate to authorize for distribution any of the specific services noted in CCTA’s request" ([http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Letters/2003/lb031107.htm]). The CCTA applied on April 15, 2004 solely to add Fox News, along with the NFL Network. [http://www.ccta.com/english/View.asp?t=&x=150&id=331] CCTA's acting president Michael Hennessy said that the previous "bulk approach... ...was just too big", adding it raised "significant issues" with respect to broadcast rights and competition with existing domestic services ([http://www.friends.ca/News/Friends_News/archives/articles04160401.asp]) On November 18, 2004 the CRTC announced that a digital license would be granted to Fox News ([http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2004/pb2004-88.htm]). In its proposal, Fox News stated, with reference to Fox News Canada, that "Fox News does not intend to implement this service and therefore will not meet the extended deadline to commence operations" ([http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2004/pb2004-45.htm]). On December 16, 2004, Rogers Communications became the first Canadian cable or satellite provider to broadcast Fox News, with other companies following suit within the next several days.

United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland

Fox News is also carried in Britain and Ireland, with global weather forecasts instead of most advertisements, by the British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) satellite television network, in which News Corporation holds a 38 percent stake. It is a "sister channel" to BSkyB's Sky News, however Sky is obliged by law to uphold a neutral editorial stance. Fox News is usually broadcast as an encrypted channel but during major news stories it may be broadcast Free to air on Sky News Active.

New Zealand

Fox News is carried during the PRIME network's nighttime shut-down, and is available on terrestrial broadcast and through SKY Satellite paid television. Because of their position on the date line, New Zealanders only see Fox News' early morning programming, especially "Fox and Friends." Like other foreign markets, a global weather map replaces American advertising, though ad breaks are interlaced with PRIME advertisements. The weather map temperatures are presented in degrees celsius.

Other countries

Fox News Channel is also carried in more than 40 countries including Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, Grenada, Germany, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, New Guinea, Panama, Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, The United Kingdom and Venezuela, mostly through News Corporation-owned cable and satellite systems. (Service having ceased in the summer of 2003, Fox News Channel is not currently available in Japan)

References

# # #Scott Collins Crazy Like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN, ISBN 1591840295.

External links

- [http://www.foxnews.com Fox News] - The channel's official website.
- [http://www.newscorp.com/ News Corporation] - Fox's parent company.
- [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/ailesroger/ailesroger.htm Museum of Broadcast Communications: Ailes, Roger]
- [http://www.outfoxed.org/ Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism] - The critical documentary's website.
- [http://cgi.omroep.nl/cgi-bin/streams?/tv/vpro/tegenlicht/bb.20041024.rm?title=Bekijk%20hier%20de%20uitzending%20OUTFOXED Outfoxed] streaming Dutch VPRO [http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/afleveringen/19365659/ documentary] by [http://www.vpro.nl/programma/tegenlicht/service_info/19361409/ Tegenlicht]. Introduction, several seconds, in Dutch with story itself in English and Dutch subtitles; 50 min. Broadband internet needed.
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1319955,00.html Guardian Unlimited special report: Fox - the naked truth], October 5, 2004, Zoe Williams, The Guardian
- [http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/sticksandstones.html The Fifth Estate: Sticks and Stones], CBC - Bob McKeown investigates Fox News for The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 45 min.
- [http://www.fauxnewschannel.com/ "The Most Powerful Smell in News"] - Origin of the "Faux News" logo. ja:FOXニュース

Category:Film awards

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Crète

La Crète est une île méditerranéenne qui se distingue par sa situation géographique qui constitue le point méridional extrême de l'Europe. Rattachée à la Grèce en 1913, elle en est une des treize périphéries (région administrative). La Crète est le berceau de la civilisation minoenne, dont Cnossos est le cœur et le site archéologique le plus important.

Histoire

Cnossos
- À partir de 7000 av. J.-C. (époque néolithique), l'île est envahie par des peuples venant d'Anatolie qui pratiquent l'agriculture et l'élevage. Les plus anciennes poteries sont trouvées à Cnossos et Phaistos. Culte de la « Grande Mère », déesse de la fertilité.
- Période prépalatiale : 2600-2100 av. J.-C. De nouveaux immigrants viennent de l'est. Les poteries sont plus fines, le travail du cuivre et du bronze se généralise.
- Période paléopalatiale : 2100-1650 av. J.-C. La Crète atteint une position prééminente en mer Méditerranée.
- Période néopalatiale : 1650-1450 av. J.-C. Suite à des catastrophes naturelles, vraisemblablement séismes et raz-de-marée liés à l'explosion du Santorin, la construction de sites plus grands est relancée à l'image de Cnossos.
- Période postpalatiale : 1450-1200 av. J.-C. La culture minoenne décline rapidement. Les Mycéniens envahissent la Crète.
- 1200-67 av. J.-C. : La Crète vit selon l'organisation sociale dorienne et à l'ombre de la culture grecque classique.
- 67 av. J.-C. - 395 : La Crète appartient à l'Empire Romain. Gortyne devient capitale de la Crète et de la province qui comprend la Cyrénaique.
- 395-824 : La Crète fait partie de l'empire byzantin.
- 824-961 : Occupation arabe.
- 961-1204 : Reconquête par les Byzantins.
- 1204-1669 : Après la prise de Constantinople par les croisés, Candia (la Crète) devient vénitienne.
- 1669 : Les Turcs conquièrent Héraklion et dominent l'île pendant 200 ans.
- 1898 : La Crète devient autonome et le prince Georges de Grèce devient son Haut-Commissaire.
- 1913 : La Crète est rattachée à la Grèce.

Géographie

Grèce La Crète possède une forme étirée d'est en ouest (250 km sur 60 au maximum). D'une superficie de 8400 km², 1000 km environ de périphérie, elle est la cinquième île de Méditerranée après la Sicile, la Sardaigne, la Corse et Chypre. Tout comme la Corse, elle est montagneuse, le point culminant est le Psiloritis à 2500 m. La Crète compte officiellement environ 300 000 oliviers. Riche d'un écosystème très diversifié, elle abrite plusieurs espèces d'animaux qu'on ne retrouve nulle part ailleurs, ainsi qu'une flore très variée. L'île est bercée par un climat méditerranéen, l'été est chaud et sec, alors que l'hiver est plutôt doux. La Crète souffre en revanche de problèmes d'environnement. En effet, il y a quelques années encore, une immense décharge à ciel ouvert située près de Chania posait d'importants problèmes écologiques. L'état grec a donc décidé de la fermer. Mais il existe encore beaucoup de décharges sauvages un peu partout sur l'île. Les plages sont elles aussi envahies de déchets en tout genre (bien que certaines d'entre elles soient régulièrement nettoyées, comme Elafonissi). Les rivages crétois sont malheureusement victimes également de dégazages.

Principales villes

- Agios Nikolaos
- La Canée (Chania)
- Cnossos
- Héraklion
- Ierapetra
- Paleohora
- Rethymno
- Sfakia
- Spili
- Timbaki

Économie

Tourisme

Mythes Fondateurs

L'île de Crète a été le théâtre de nombreux épisodes de la mythologie grecque:
- elle est le lieu où Zeus est né, protégé par sa mère Gaia (la Terre), contre l'appétit de son père Cronos.
- elle est le lieu des amours de Zeus et de sa captive Europe, liaison qui donnera naissance à Minos, le roi légendaire de la Crète.
- l'épouse de Minos ayant succombé au charme d'un taureau blanc, elle enfantera le fameux Minotaure. Celui-ci sera enfermé par Minos dans le Labyrinthe, construit par l'architecte Dédale. L'emplacement du Labyrinthe serait reconnaissable d'après certains archéologues sur le site de Cnossos en Crète.
- la ruse et le courage de Thésée et d'Ariane permettront de tuer le Minotaure et de ressortir du Labyrinthe.
- Enfin, Dédale et son fils Icare cherchent à s'échapper de l'île où la vengeance de Minos les poursuit : pour cela, Dédale construit des ailes en cire. Icare y laissera la vie en volant trop près du soleil.

Voir aussi

- Périphérie de Crète

Liens externes

- [http://www.crète.net Le portail de la Crète - Guide, actualités, météo, réservations, plans et cartes]
- [http://crete.free.fr La Crète - Voyage en images]
- [http://nezumi.dumousseau.free.fr/crete.htm Les principaux sites de Crète]
- [http://grecomania.site.voila.fr/Crete/index.html Site sur la Crète] Catégorie:Île grecque Catégorie:Région grecque ja:クレタ島

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