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Elstree Calling
''Elstree Calling'' is a 1930 British comedy musical film directed by Adrian Brunel and Alfred Hitchcock at Elstree Studios. Synopsis The film, referred to as "A Cine-Radio Revue" in its original publicity, is a lavish musical film revue and was Britain's answer to the Hollywood revues which had been produced by the major studios in the United States, such as ''Paramount on Parade'' (1930) and ''The Hollywood Revue of 1929''. The revue has a slim plot about its being a television broadcast. The film consists of 19 comedy and music vignettes linked by running jokes of an aspiring Shakespearean actor and technical problems with a viewer's TV set. Production background Among Hitchcock's contributions was the comic linking segments about a man trying to "tune in" the revue on his television set, but always failing to get the picture for long because of his needless tinkering. In the UK, John Logie Baird's work in mechanical television in the 1920s made television a topical subject a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adrian Brunel
Adrian Brunel (4 September 1892 – 18 February 1958) was an English film director and screenwriter. Brunel's directorial career started in the silent era, and reached its peak in the latter half of the 1920s. His surviving work from the 1920s, both full-length feature films and shorts, is highly regarded by silent film historians for its distinctive innovation, sophistication and wit. With the arrival of talkies, Brunel's career ground to a halt and he was absent from the screen for several years before returning in the mid-1930s with a flurry of quota quickie productions, the majority of which are now classed as lost. Brunel's last credit as director was in a 1940 comedy film, although he worked for a few years more as a "fixer-up" for films directed or produced by friends in the industry. After decades of neglect, Brunel's work has latterly been rediscovered and has undergone a critical re-evaluation. His lost films are eagerly sought, and the British Film Institute includes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mechanical Television
Mechanical television or mechanical scan television is a television system that relies on a mechanical scanning device, such as a rotating disk with holes in it or a rotating mirror drum, to scan the scene and generate the video signal, and a similar mechanical device at the receiver to display the picture. This contrasts with vacuum tube electronic television technology, using electron beam scanning methods, for example in cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions. Subsequently, modern solid-state liquid-crystal displays (LCD) are now used to create and display television pictures. Mechanical-scanning methods were used in the earliest experimental television systems in the 1920s and 1930s. One of the first experimental wireless television transmissions was by John Logie Baird on October 2, 1925, in London. By 1928 many radio stations were broadcasting experimental television programs using mechanical systems. However the technology never produced images of sufficient quality to become ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Longden
John Longden (11 November 1900 – 26 May 1971) was an English film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1926 and 1964, including five films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Biography Longden was born in the West Indies, the son of a Methodist missionary, and was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, Somerset. Originally intending to be a mining engineer, he worked for two years in a coal mine in Yorkshire, where he started acting in amateur theatrical companies. An introduction to Seymour Hicks saw him start acting on the legitimate stage, beginning with a walk-on part in ''Old Bill, MP''. He played in ''My Old Dutch'' with Albert Chevalier, then spent time with the Liverpool and Birmingham repertory theatres. He also appeared in ''The Farmer's Wife'', produced by Barry Jackson at the Court Theatre in London for two years. About this time Longden began to appear in silent films. He signed a contract with Gaumont British Pictures to write and act, earning a notable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jameson Thomas
Jameson Thomas (born Thomas Roland Jameson; 24 March 1888 – 10 January 1939) was an English film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1923 and 1939. He was born in St George Hanover Square, London. On the stage from his early teens, Jameson first appeared as a "half-breed" boy in '' The Squaw Man''. He made his screen debut in 1923 in the film ''Chu Chin Chow''. In 1929, he starred in '' Piccadilly'' as Valentine Wilmot opposite Anna May Wong. ''Piccadilly'' was a smash hit in England, where reviewers called it "by far the best production yet made at Elstree" and "one of the finest films that has ever come from a British studio." The film, however, only received a tepid response in the U.S. where it had a limited run. Today, ''Piccadilly'' is recognised as an accomplished melodrama and one of the best films of the late British silent era. Thomas moved to Hollywood, appearing on the stage with Bebe Daniels in '' The Last of Mrs. Cheyney''. He continued to app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna May Wong
Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain international recognition. Her varied career spanned silent film, sound film, television, stage, and radio. As one of the first women depicted on the reverse of the quarter in the 2022–2025 American Women quarters series, she is also the first Asian American to appear on a U.S. coin. Born in Los Angeles to second-generation Taishanese Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with films and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in ''The Toll of the Sea'' (1922), one of the first films made in color, and in Douglas Fairbanks' '' The Thief of Bagdad'' (1924). Wong became a fashion icon and had achieved international stardom in 1924. Wong had been one of the first to embrace the flapper look. In 1934 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobbie Comber
Edmund Comber (8 January 1886 – 1 March 1942),5 March 1942, "Chit Chat", ''The Stage'', p.4, accessed viThe Stage Archive2 February 2014 known professionally as Bobbie Comber, was a British comedian, singer and actor. He was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. He first appeared on stage in 1904 in Bournemouth, and worked as a civil servant in the War Office before forming his own concert party in 1912.Denis Gifford, ''The Golden Age of Radio'', B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1985, , p.55 He served in the military in the First World War, and then toured the country in musical revues and the comedy ''Chu Chin Chow''. He first appeared on stage in London at the Adelphi Theatre in a production of ''The Naughty Princess'' in 1920. "Bobbie Comber in ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lily Morris
Lily Morris (born Lilles Mary Crosby; 30 September 1882 – 3 October 1952)Richard Anthony Baker, ''British Music Hall: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2014, , pp.252-253 was an English music hall performer, who specialised in singing comedic songs, notably "Why Am I Always the Bridesmaid" and "Don't Have Any More, Missus Moore". Biography She was born in the Holborn area of London, the daughter of Maurice Crosby, a cigar maker and amateur songwriter. He directed her early career, which started in music halls in 1894, when she was 11 years old. Her first successful song, "Lardi-Doody-Day", written for her by Joseph Tabrar, brought her to the attention of promoter Augustus Harris, who cast her in a minor role in the annual pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Her reputation grew, and she continued to perform Tabrar songs in major London theatres, and around the country, over the next few years. In 1897, she took the lead role in ''Cinderella'' in the Theatre Royal, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cicely Courtneidge
Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge, (1 April 1893 – 26 April 1980) was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies. After the outbreak of the First World War, her father had a series of failures and temporarily withdrew from production. No other producers offered the young Courtneidge leading roles in musical comedies, and she turned instead to the music hall, learning her craft as a comedian. In 1916 she married the actor and dancer Jack Hulbert, with whom she formed a professional as well as a matrimonial partnership that lasted until his death 62 years later. They acted together on stage and screen, initially in a series of revues, with Hulbert frequently producing as well as performing. Courtneidge appeared in 12 British films in the 1930s, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black And White
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. However, there are exceptions to this rule, including black-and-white fine art photography, as well as many film motion pictures and art film(s). Photography Contemporary use Since the late 1960s, few mainstream films have been shot in black-and-white. The reasons are frequently commercial, as it is difficult to sell a film for television broadcasting if the film is not in color. 1961 was the last year in which the majority of Hollywood films were released in black and white. Computing In computing terminology, ''black-and-white'' is sometimes used to refer to a binary image consisting solely of pure black pixels and pure white ones; what would normally be called a black-and-white image, that is, an image containing shades of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stencil
Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach only some parts of the surface. The stencil is both the resulting image or pattern and the intermediate object; the context in which ''stencil'' is used makes clear which meaning is intended. In practice, the (object) stencil is usually a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, wood or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to repeatedly and rapidly produce the same letters or design. Although aerosol or painting stencils can be made for one-time use, typically they are made with the intention of being reused. To be reusable, they must remain int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pathécolor
Pathécolor, later renamed Pathéchrome, was an early mechanical stencil-based film tinting process for movies developed by Segundo de Chomón for Pathé in the early 20th century. Among the last feature films to use this process were the British revue film ''Elstree Calling'' (1930) and the Mexican film ''Robinson Crusoe'' (1954) by Spanish Surrealist Luis Buñuel. The Pathécolor stencil process should not be confused with the later Pathécolor, Pathé Color and Color by Pathé trade names seen in screen credits and advertising materials. Like Metrocolor, WarnerColor and Color by DeLuxe, these were simply rebrandings, for advertising purposes, of the use of Eastman Kodak's Eastmancolor color negative film for the original photography. However, the stencil process was not a color photography process and did not use color film. Like computer-based film colorization processes, it was a way of arbitrarily adding selected colors to films originally photographed and printed in black-and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
