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Frances Robinson-Duff
Frances Robinson-Duff (1878-1951) was an American actress and voice teacher known as "the foremost dramatic coach in America" in the first half of the 20th century. Robinson-Duff was born in Bangor, Maine, to British mining engineer Colonel Charles Duff and his wife Sarah Robinson, a native of Bangor who, after the couple separated, moved to Chicago and later to Paris, becoming a noted opera singer and singing teacher under the name Sarah Robinson-Duff; her first pupil was future opera star Mary Garden. From an early age, Robinson-Duff wanted to teach dramatic arts, but her mother insisted that she first gain experience in the craft of acting. After being instructed in the Delsarte system by a drama teacher in Chicago, Robinson-Duff was invited to join the touring company of famed Shakespearean actress Julia Marlowe. In 1898 she made her Broadway debut with Miss Marlowe at the Knickerbocker Theatre in New York, and subsequently appeared in numerous productions in New York ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vocal Pedagogy
Vocal pedagogy is the study of the art and science of voice instruction. It is used in the teaching of singing and assists in defining what singing is, how singing works, and how proper singing technique is accomplished. Vocal pedagogy covers a broad range of aspects of singing, ranging from the physiological process of vocal production to the artistic aspects of interpretation of songs from different genres or historical eras. Typical areas of study include: : * Human anatomy and physiology as it relates to the physical process of singing. * Breathing and air support for singing * Posture for singing * Phonation * Vocal resonation or voice projection * Diction, vowels and articulation * Vocal registration * Sostenuto and legato for singing * Other singing elements, such as range extension, tone quality, vibrato, coloratura * Vocal health and voice disorders related to singing * Vocal styles, such as learning to sing opera, belt, or art song * Phonetics * Voice classification ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. Her work was in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute. Raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn began to act while at Bryn Mawr College. Favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Her early years in film brought her international fame, including an Academy Award for Best Actress for her thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'Neill, and William Shakespeare, and was the first five-time Academy Award acting nominee, winning Best Actress for ''The Divorcee'' (1930). Reviewing Shearer's work, Mick LaSalle called her "the exemplar of sophisticated 1930s womanhood ... exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards". He described her as a feminist pioneer, "the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen". Early life Shearer was of Scottish, English, and Irish descent. Her childhood was spent in Montreal, where she was educated at Montreal High School for Girls and Westmount High School. Her life was one of privilege, due to the success of her father's construction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades of which was as a leading man. Gable died of a heart attack at the age of 59; his final on-screen appearance was as an aging cowboy in '' The Misfits'', released posthumously in 1961. Born and raised in Ohio, Gable traveled to Hollywood where he began his film career as an extra in silent films between 1924 and 1926. He progressed to supporting roles for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and his first leading role in ''Dance, Fools, Dance'' (1931) was alongside Joan Crawford, who requested him for the part. His role in the romantic drama '' Red Dust'' (1932) with reigning sex symbol Jean Harlow, made him MGM's biggest male star. Gable won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Frank Capra's romantic comedy ''It Happened One Night'' (1934), co-starring C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Pickford
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founded Pickford–Fairbanks Studios and United Artists, and was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Pickford is considered to be one of the most recognisable women in history. Cited as "America's Sweetheart" during the silent film era, she is named on the list of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars as the 24th top female stars from the Classical Hollywood Cinema era and the "girl with the curls", Pickford was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. She was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her own name, and was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and 1920s, earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies". She is credited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton (December 24, 1892 – November 24, 1961) was an American stage, film, and television actress, aviator and novelist. She was at her most popular in the early to mid-1930s, and in the same era gained prominence as an aviator, one of the few female pilots in the United States at the time. In the late 1930s, Chatterton retired from film acting but continued her career on the stage. She had several TV roles beginning in the late 1940s and became a successful novelist in the 1950s. Early life Chatterton was born in New York City on December 24, 1892 to Walter, an architect, and Lillian (née Reed) Chatterton. She was of English and French extraction. Her parents separated while she was young. Chatterton attended Mrs. Hagen's School in Pelham, New York. In 1908, Chatterton and her friends were attending a play in Washington, D.C. Chatterton later criticized the acting of the lead actress to her friends, who challenged her to become a stage actress herself or "shut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miriam Hopkins
Ellen Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) was an American actress known for her versatility. She first signed with Paramount Pictures in 1930. Her best-known roles included a pickpocket in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy '' Trouble in Paradise'', bar singer Ivy in Rouben Mamoulian's '' Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' and the titular character in the controversial drama ''The Story of Temple Drake''. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the 1935 film ''Becky Sharp'', by which she earned the distinction of being the first performer nominated for a performance in a color picture, and a Golden Globe nomination for ''The Heiress''. She co-starred with Joel McCrea in five films. Her long-running feud with actress Bette Davis was publicized for effect. Hopkins later became a pioneer of TV drama. She was considered a distinguished hostess in Hollywood and moved in intellectual and creative circles. Early life Hopkins was born in Savannah, Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ina Claire
Ina Claire (born Ina Fagan; October 15, 1893February 21, 1985) was an American stage and film actress. Early years Ina Fagan was born October 15, 1893 in Washington, D.C. After the death of her father, Claire began doing imitations of fellow boarders in the boarding house where she and her mother, Cora, and brother, Allen, were forced to live. Claire's mother took her out of school in the eighth grade, and she used her mother's maiden name when she began her career appearing in vaudeville. In 1906, she gave a recitation as the grand finale of a program presented by Miss Cora B. Shreve's pupils in Washington, D.C. She was identified in a newspaper article as Ina Claire Fagan. Career Claire made her professional stage debut in October 1907 in Elmira, New York. She played Florie in a production of ''The Fatal Flower'' — the beginning of a two-year contract. In 1909, she appeared in a vaudeville act entitled "Dainty Mimic", which included an imitation of actor Harry Lauder. A b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catherine Calvert
Catherine Calvert (born Catherine Cassidy; April 20, 1890 – January 18, 1971) was an American actress. Biography The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cassidy, Catherine Calvert was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland.Hines, Dixie; Hanaford, Harry Prescott, eds. (1914). "Calvert, Catherine (Catherine Calvert Cassidy)". Who's Who in Music and Drama'. New York: H. P. Hanaford, p. 60. She made her stage debut in the play ''Brown of Harvard'' in September 1908, in Albany, New York. On Broadway, she portrayed Laura Moore in ''The Deep Purple'' (1911), May Joyce in ''The Escape'' (1913), and Dona Sol in ''Blood and Sand'' (1921). After many years' experience onstage in productions including ''The Deep Purple'' (a play by her future husband, Paul Armstrong), in 1910, she entered films via Keeney Pictures Corporation in ''A Romance of the Underworld'' (1918; based on a play in which she had appeared onstage). Other films in which she appeared include ''Marriage'', ''Out of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth MacKenna
Kenneth MacKenna (born Leo Mielziner Jr.; August 19, 1899 – January 15, 1962) was an American actor and film director. Family MacKenna was born as Leo Mielziner Jr. in Canterbury, New Hampshire, to portrait artist Leo Mielziner (December 7, 1868 - August 11, 1935), the son of a prominent Reform rabbi (Moses Mielziner) and Ella Lane McKenna Friend (March 18, 1873 – February 2, 1968). Although Kenneth changed his name from Mielziner to MacKenna for stage purposes, it was taken from family roots. Ella's mother’s maiden name was Margaret A. McKenna, and Ella was also named McKenna. So it seemed natural for Leo, Jr., to take MacKenna as his stage surname, changing the spelling slightly. In Mary C. Henderson's book about his brother, Jo Mielziner, ''Mielziner: Master of Modern Stage Design'' (2001), she states, "Kenneth MacKenna was the classic example of the first born son. On reaching manhood, he felt that it was his duty to take care of his entire family: mother, f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (an EGOT). She was also the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting The Triple Crown of Acting is a term used in the American entertainment industry to describe actors who have won a competitive Academy Award, Emmy Award, and Tony Award in the acting categories, the highest accolades recognized in American film, t ...; to date, the only other person to have accomplished both is Rita Moreno. Hayes also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, from President Ronald Reagan in 1986. In 1988, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. The annual Helen Hayes Awards, which have recognized excellence in professional theatre in greater Washington, DC, si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
