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Edison, The Man
''Edison, the Man'' is a 1940 biographical film depicting the life of inventor Thomas Edison, who was played by Spencer Tracy. Hugo Butler and Dore Schary were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story for their work on this film. However, much of the film's script fictionalizes or exaggerates the real events of Edison's life. The film was the second of a complementary pair of Edison biopics released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1940. '' Young Tom Edison'', starring Mickey Rooney, was released two months earlier and told the story of Edison's youth. Plot In 1869, anxious to be more than a tramp telegraph operator, Edison travels to New York at the prompting of an old friend, Bunt Cavatt. He goes to work for Mr. Els. He tries to persuade financier Mr. Taggart to fund the development of his inventions, but Taggart has no interest in financing “green electrical workers”. However, General Powell, the president of Western Union, does. Edison eventually sel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarence Brown
Clarence Leon Brown (May 10, 1890 – August 17, 1987) was an American film director. Early life Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, to Larkin Harry Brown, a cotton manufacturer, and Katherine Ann Brown (née Gaw), Brown moved to Tennessee when he was 11 years old. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee, both in Knoxville, Tennessee, graduating from the university at the age of 19 with two degrees in engineering. An early fascination in automobiles led Brown to a job with the Stevens-Duryea Company, then to his own Brown Motor Car Company in Alabama. He later abandoned the car dealership after developing an interest in motion pictures around 1913. He was hired by the Peerless Studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and became an assistant to the French-born director Maurice Tourneur. Career After serving as a fighter pilot and flight instructor in the United States Army Air Service during World War I, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the silent-film era. He was the top box-office attraction from 1939 to 1941, and one of the best-paid actors of that era. At the height of a career marked by declines and comebacks, Rooney performed the role of Andy Hardy in a series of 16 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomized mainstream America's self-image. At the peak of his career between ages 15 and 25, he made 43 films, and was one of MGM's most consistently successful actors. A versatile performer, he became a celebrated character actor later in his career. Laurence Olivier once said he considered Rooney "the best there has ever been". Clarence Brown, who directed him in two of his earliest dramatic roles in '' National Velvet'' and '' The Human Comedy'', said Rooney was "the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Reynolds
Eugene Reynolds Blumenthal (April 4, 1923 – February 3, 2020) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor. He was one of the developers and producers of the TV series ''M*A*S*H''. Early life Reynolds was born on April 4, 1923, to Frank Eugene Blumenthal, a businessman and entrepreneur, and Maude Evelyn (Schwab) Blumenthal, a model, in Cleveland, Ohio. Reynolds initially was raised in Detroit, before the family relocated to Los Angeles in 1934. Reynolds served in the United States Navy during World War II. He served on ships including a destroyer-minesweeper the USS ''Zane''. Following the war, Reynolds received a degree in history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and resumed his acting career. Career Acting Reynolds made his screen debut in the 1934 '' Our Gang'' short ''Washee Ironee'', and for the next three decades made numerous appearances in films such as ''Captains Courageous'' (1937), '' Love Finds Andy Hardy'' (1938), '' Boys Town'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felix Bressart
Felix Bressart (March 2, 1892 – March 17, 1949) was a German-American actor of stage and screen. Life and career Bressart (pronounced "BRESS-ert") was born in East Prussia, Germany (now part of Russia). His acting debut came in 1914 as Malvolio in "Twelfth Night," and he went on to act in Austria, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. He was an experienced stage actor when he had his film debut in 1927. He began as a supporting actor, for example as the Bailiff in the box-office hit '' Die Drei von der Tankstelle'' (1930), but soon established himself in leading roles of minor movies. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, the Jewish Bressart left Germany and continued his career in German-speaking movies in Austria, where Jewish artists were still relatively safe. After acting in forty German films, he emigrated to the United States in 1936. One of Bressart's former European colleagues was Joe Pasternak, who had become a Hollywood producer. Bressart's f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Travers
Travers John Heagerty (5 March 1874 – 18 October 1965), known professionally as Henry Travers, was an English film and stage character actor. His best known role was the guardian angel Clarence Odbody in the 1946 film ''It's a Wonderful Life''. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942). Travers specialized in portraying slightly bumbling but friendly and lovable older men. Early life Travers was born in Prudhoe, Northumberland, and was the son of Daniel Heagerty, a doctor originally from Ireland, and Ellen Gillman Hornibrook. His mother was a native of County Cork, Ireland, and was previously married to William H. Belcher, a merchant seaman. He died in 1869. Travers had a half-brother, Samuel William Belcher, by his mother's previous marriage. He also had another brother, Daniel George Belsaigne Heagerty, and a sister, Mary Sophia Maude Heagerty. Travers grew up in Berwick-upon-Tweed, and many biographies wrongly report h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Lockhart
Edwin Eugene Lockhart (July 18, 1891 – March 31, 1957)"Gene Lockhart" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. was a Canadian-American , playwright, singer and lyricist. He became an American citizen in 1939. Early life Born in , he made his professional debut at the age of six when he appeared with the Kilties Band of Canada. He later appeared in sketches with . ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Coburn
Charles Douville Coburn (June 19, 1877 – August 30, 1961) was an American actor and theatrical producer. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award three times – in ''The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941), '' The More the Merrier'' (1943), and '' The Green Years'' (1946) – winning for his performance in ''The More the Merrier''. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for his contribution to the film industry. Biography Coburn was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Scots-Irish Americans Emma Louise Sprigman (May 11, 1838 Springfield, Ohio – November 12, 1896 Savannah, Georgia) and Moses Douville Coburn (April 27, 1834 Savannah – December 27, 1902 Savannah). Growing up in Savannah, he started out at age 14 doing odd jobs at the local Savannah Theater, handing out programs, ushering, or being the doorman. By age 17 or 18, he was the theater manager. He later became an actor, making his debut on Broadway in 1901. Coburn forme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Alva Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory. Edison was raised in the American Midwest. Early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator, which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions were developed. He later established a botanical laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edison The Man Lobby Card
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory. Edison was raised in the American Midwest. Early in his career he worked as a telegraph operator, which inspired some of his earliest inventions. In 1876, he established his first laboratory facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many of his early inventions were developed. He later established a botanical laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phonograph
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue recording and reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a spiral groove engraved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called a "record". To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it, very faintly reproducing the recorded sound. In early acoustic phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm which produced sound waves which were coupled to the open air through a flaring horn, or directly to the listener's ears through stethoscope-type earphones. The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison. Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory made sev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menlo Park, New Jersey
Menlo Park is an unincorporated community located within Edison Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. In 1876, Thomas Edison set up his home and research laboratory in Menlo Park, which at the time was the site of an unsuccessful real estate development named after the town of Menlo Park, California. While there, he earned the nickname "the Wizard of Menlo Park".Walsh, Bryan"The Electrifying Edison" Web: ''Time'' 5 Jul 2010. The Menlo Park lab was significant in that it was one of the first laboratories to pursue practical, commercial applications of research. It was in his Menlo Park laboratory that Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and developed a commercially viable incandescent light bulb filament. Christie Street in Menlo Park was one of the first streets in the world to use electric lights for illumination. Edison left Menlo Park and moved his home and laboratory to West Orange, New Jersey in 1887. After his death, the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
