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Al Capone (film)
''Al Capone'' is a 1959 biographical crime drama film directed by Richard Wilson, written by Malvin Wald and Henry F. Greenberg and released by Allied Artists. It stars Rod Steiger as Al Capone. The finished film was noted for its deglamorized portrayal of Capone. Plot Chicago, 1919: A young Al Capone arrives to work for mob boss Johnny Torrio. He meets Torrio's top man, "Big Jim" Colosimo, who runs business and politics in the First Ward while secretly on Torrio's payroll. Prohibition is enacted a year later, causing Torrio and other gangsters like Dean O'Banion, George "Bugs" Moran and Earl "Hymie" Weiss to compete for profits in bootleg liquor and beer. Colosimo is too old and comfortable to desire the new liquor racket, so Capone convinces Torrio to allow Colosimo's assassination; making Torrio kingpin. A reform mayor is elected, so Torrio and Capone change their base of operations to Cicero, a few miles away. Capone also has O'Banion killed and makes a play for Maureen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reynold Brown
William Reynold Brown (October 18, 1917 – August 24, 1991) was an American realist artist who painted many Hollywood film posters. He was also briefly active as a comics artist. Biography He attended Alhambra High School and refined his drawing under his teacher Lester Bonar. A talented artist, Brown met cartoonist Hal Forrest around 1936-37. Forrest hired Brown to ink (uncredited) Forrest's comic strip ''Tailspin Tommy''. Extensive discussion of the comic strip. Norman Rockwell's sister was a teacher at Alhambra High, and Brown later met Rockwell who advised him to leave cartooning if he wanted to be an illustrator. Brown subsequently won a scholarship to the Otis Art Institute. During World War II he worked as a technical artist at North American Aviation. There he met his wife, fellow artist Mary Louise Tejeda. Following the war Brown drew numerous advertisements and illustrations for magazines such as '' Argosy'', ''Popular Science'', '' Saturday Evening Post'', ''Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The word is also used to refer to a period of time during which such bans are enforced. History Some kind of limitation on the trade in alcohol can be seen in the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1772 BCE) specifically banning the selling of beer for money. It could only be bartered for barley: "If a beer seller do not receive barley as the price for beer, but if she receive money or make the beer a measure smaller than the barley measure received, they shall throw her into the water." In the early twentieth century, much of the impetus for the prohibition movement in the Nordic countries and North America came from moralistic convictions of pietistic Protestants. Prohibition movements in the West coincided with the advent of women's su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murvyn Vye
Marvin Wesley Vye Jr. (July 15, 1913 – August 17, 1976) was an American character actor. He is best known for portraying Prince Ken Arok in the comedy film ''Road to Bali''. Early years Vye was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, and educated at Yale University. Career Vye's first film was ''Golden Earrings'' (1947). He appeared in numerous films in the 1940s and 1950s, often in exotic roles. He portrayed a villainous Merlin the Magician in the 1949 Bing Crosby musical comedy, ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', and the scheming Prince Arok in 1952's ''Road to Bali'', a comedy co-starring Crosby and Bob Hope. On Broadway, Vye debuted in ''Hamlet'' (1936). He also created the role of Jigger Cragin in the original production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''Carousel''. Vye was also set to appear as the Kralaholme in the original production of ''The King and I'', but as rehearsals went on he lost his only two musical numbers and left the show. In 1958 Vye appear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jake Lingle
Alfred "Jake" Lingle (July 2, 1891 – June 9, 1930) was an American reporter for the ''Chicago Tribune''. He was shot dead gangland-style in the underpass leading to the Illinois Central Randolph Street station on the afternoon on June 9, 1930, as dozens of people watched. The man convicted of the murder was mob associate Leo Vincent Brothers. Lingle was initially lionized as a martyred journalist, but it was eventually revealed that he was involved in racketeering with the Capone organization and that his death had more to do with his own criminal activities than his journalism. Early life Jake Lingle was born on July 2, 1891 and raised on the West Side of Chicago. When he was eight years old, his parents converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism. He received an education up to the eighth grade at John Calhoun North Elementary. His childhood friend, William F. Russell, later became the chief of police in Chicago. Before becoming an office boy for the ''Chicago Tribune'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American actor. He had a prolific career in character roles in film, in theatre, and on television. An early member of the Actors Studio, he began his career on the New York stage, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Robert Anderson’s ''You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running'' (1968). He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in '' A Thousand Clowns'' (1965). His other notable film roles include Juror #1 in ''12 Angry Men'' (1957), private detective Milton Arbogast in '' Psycho'' (1960), Hollywood agent O.J. Berman in '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961), Bernard B. Norman in ''The Carpetbaggers'' (1964), Lt. Commander Chester Potter, the ship doctor, in ''The Bedford Incident'', Colonel Cathcart in Catch-22 (film), ''Catch-22'' (1970), Admiral Husband E. Kimmel in ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' (1970), Mr. Green in ''The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (197 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Jim Colosimo
Vincenzo Colosimo (; February 16, 1878 – May 11, 1920), known as James "Big Jim" Colosimo or as "Diamond Jim", was an Italian-American Mafia crime boss who emigrated from Calabria, Italy, in 1895 and built a criminal empire in Chicago based on prostitution, gambling and racketeering. He gained power through petty crime and by heading a chain of brothels. From about 1902 until his death in 1920, he led a gang that became known after his death as the Chicago Outfit. Colosimo was assassinated on May 11, 1920, and no one was ever charged with his murder. Johnny Torrio, an enforcer whom Colosimo imported in 1909 from New York, seized control of Colosimo's businesses after his death. Al Capone, a close associate of Torrio, has been accused of involvement in Colosimo's murder, but was not yet in Chicago at the time. Early years Colosimo was born on February 16, 1878, to Luigi Colosimo and his second wife Giuseppina Mascaro in the town of Colosimi, Province of Cosenza, Italy. He emigrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe De Santis
Joseph Vito Marcello De Santis (June 15, 1909 – August 30, 1989) was an American radio, television, movie and theatrical actor and sculptor. Biography Joe De Santis was born Joseph Vito Marcello De Santis to Italian immigrant parents in New York City. His father, Pasquale De Santis, was a tailor from San Pietro Apostolo in Catanzaro, Italy; his mother, Maria Paoli, emigrated from Gioviano in the province of Lucca in Tuscany and worked in a paper flower factory. He worked his way through New York University studying sculpture and drama, his first performances being in Italian. In 1931, De Santis debuted as a broadcaster on an Italian-language radio station. After obtaining a part in a play at Hunter College, he secured work as an actor for three seasons with the Walter Hampden Repertory Company, which marked the beginning of his performances in the English language. In the 1930s, when professional acting opportunities became scarce, he worked as an instructor with the Works ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fay Spain
Lona Fay Spain (October 6, 1932 – May 8, 1983) was an American actress in motion pictures and television. Early years Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Fay Spain was the younger of two daughters born to Robert C. Spain and Arminta Frances "Mickie" Cochran. When she was 17 years old, Spain worked as a dealer in a casino in Reno, Nevada. Years later, she said, "I lied about my age and got a job as a dealer – and made big money, much more than my husband, who was a shill." Theater apprentice Within two months she found work with a stock company in the Catskill Mountains. She obtained an Equity Card which enabled her to continue working as an actress. Spain eschewed a college scholarship after attending high school in White Salmon, Washington. She chose instead to pursue a stock company apprenticeship. Film actress Spain pursued acting, unimpeded by rejection. She accepted any parts which came along, learning the techniques of the acting trade. In 1955, Spain was one of 15 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Torrio
John Donato Torrio (born Donato Torrio, ; January 20, 1882 – April 16, 1957) was an Italian born-American mobster who helped build the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s later inherited by his protégé Al Capone. Torrio proposed a National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and later became an adviser to Lucky Luciano and his Luciano crime family. Torrio had several nicknames, primarily "The Fox" for his cunning and finesse. The US Treasury official Elmer Irey considered him "the biggest gangster in America" and wrote, "He was the smartest and, I dare say, the best of all the hoodlums. 'Best' referring to talent, not morals". Virgil W. Peterson of the Chicago Crime Commission stated that his "talents as an organizational genius were widely respected by the major gang bosses in the New York City area". Crime journalist Herbert Asbury affirmed: "As an organizer and administrator of underworld affairs, Johnny Torrio is unsurpassed in the annals of American crime; he was probably the nearest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nehemiah Persoff
Nehemiah Persoff (August 2, 1919 – April 5, 2022) was an American character actor and painter. He appeared in more than 200 television series, films, and theatre productions and also performed as a voice artist in a career spanning 55 years, beginning after his service in the United States Army during World War II. Persoff got his first part as an extra in ''The Naked City'' (1948). He is best known for roles as Leo in ''The Harder They Fall'' (1956), as Little Bonaparte in ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959), as Rebbe Mendel in '' Yentl'' (1983), and as the voice of Papa Mousekewitz in the animated film ''An American Tail'' (1986) and its sequels. He also made appearances on episodes of ''The Twilight Zone'', ''Gilligan's Island'', ''Hawaii Five-O'', Adam-12 and ''Law & Order''. Biography Early life and training Persoff was born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, on August 2, 1919, to Puah (née Holman, 1887–1963) and Shmuel Persoff (1885–1961). His father, who was a silversmith, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcatraz
Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. In 1934, the island was converted into a federal prison, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. The strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures made escape nearly impossible, and the prison became one of the most notorious in American history. The prison closed in 1963, and the island is now a major tourist attraction. Beginning in November 1969, the island was occupied for more than 19 months by a group of Native Americans, initially primarily from San Francisco, who were later joined by AIM and other urban Indians from other parts of the country, who were part of a wave of Native American activists organizing public protests across the US through the 1970s. In 1972, Alcatraz was transferred to the Department of Interior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cicero, Illinois
Cicero (originally known as Hawthorne) is a suburb of Chicago and an Incorporated town#Illinois, incorporated town in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 85,268. making it the List of cities in Illinois#Most populous places, 11th largest municipality in Illinois. The town of Cicero is named after Cicero, Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman Republic, Roman statesman and orator. History Originally, Cicero Township, Cook County, Illinois, Cicero Township occupied an area six times the size of its current territory. The cities of Oak Park, Illinois, Oak Park and Berwyn, Illinois, Berwyn were incorporated from portions of Cicero Township, and other portions, such as Austin, Chicago, Austin, were annexed into the city of Chicago. By 1911, an aerodrome called the ''Cicero Flying Field'' had been established as the town's first aircraft facility of any type, located on a roughly square plot of land abo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
