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Lou Costello
Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959), professionally known as Lou Costello, was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known for his double act with straight man Bud Abbott and their routine "Who's on First?". Abbott and Costello, who teamed in burlesque in 1936, were among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II. During a national tour in 1942, they sold $85 million in war bonds in 35 days. By 1955, their popularity waned from overexposure, and their film and television contracts lapsed. Their partnership ended in 1957. Early life Louis Francis Cristillo was born on March 6, 1906, in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Helen Rege and Sebastiano Cristillo, a silk weaver and insurance sales agent. His father was Italian, from CasertaCostello, Chris and Raymond Strait."Lou's On First." New York: St. Martin's Press. in Campania, Italy, and his mother was an American of Italian, French and Irish ancestry (he ...
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Africa Screams
''Africa Screams'' is a 1949 American Adventure film, adventure comedy film directed by Charles Barton (director), Charles Barton and starring Abbott and Costello that parodies the safari#Cinema genre, safari genre. The title is a play on the title of the 1930 documentary ''Africa Speaks!'' The supporting cast features Clyde Beatty, Frank Buck (animal collector), Frank Buck, Hillary Brooke, Max Baer (boxer), Max Baer, Buddy Baer, Shemp Howard and Joe Besser. The film entered the public domain in 1977. Plot Diana Emerson visits the book section of Klopper's department store seeking a copy of ''Dark Safari'' by the famed explorer Cuddleford. She tells the clerk Buzz Johnson that she will pay $2,500 for a map that is inside the book. Buzz's friend and coworker Stanley Livington, an armchair explorer, has read the book and says that he is familiar with a map within it. Buzz brings Stanley to Diana's home to draw the map, but when he overhears Diana offer Clyde Beatty $20,000 to lead ...
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Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region. Italy is also considered part of Western Europe, and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. Italy covers an area of , with a population of over 60 million. It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome. Italy was the native place of many civilizations such as the Italic peoples and the Etruscans, while due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, the country has also historically been home ...
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The Battle Of The Century
''The Battle of the Century'' is a 1927 silent short film starring comedy double act Laurel and Hardy, who appeared in 107 films between 1921 and 1951. The film is famous for its use of more than 3,000 cream pies (although the Guinness Book of Records claims that as many as 10,000 may have been used) in the film's climactic pie fight. For many years, only three minutes from the film's second reel containing the pie fight was known to survive, as the footage had been included in Robert Youngson's 1950s film documentaries. However, the complete reel was rediscovered in 2015. It was released to the public on DVD and Blu-ray disc on June 16, 2020 as part of the ''Laurel & Hardy: The Definitive Restorations'' compilation of remastered films. Also in 2020, ''The Battle of the Century'' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Plot A broke Hardy arranges for ...
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Laurel And Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American Double act, comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to "sound film, talkies". From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully. Their signature theme song, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos" (by Hollywood composer Marvin Hatley, T. Marvin Hatley) was heard over their films' opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats. Prior to emerging as a team, both had well-established film careers. Laurel had acted in over 50 films, and worked as a writer and director, while Hardy was in more than 250 productions. Both had appea ...
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The Trail Of '98
''The Trail of '98'' is a 1928 American silent Action film, action-adventure/drama film featuring Harry Carey (actor born 1878), Harry Carey and Dolores del Río about the Klondike Gold Rush. The film was originally released by MGM in a short-lived widescreen process called “Fantom Screen“. The film is based on the 1910 novel by that title, written by Robert W. Service. Cast * Dolores del Río as Berna * Ralph Forbes as Larry * Karl Dane as Lars Petersen * Harry Carey (actor born 1878), Harry Carey as Jack Locasto * Tully Marshall as Salvation Jim * George Cooper (actor), George Cooper as Samuel Foote (The Worm) * Russell Simpson (actor), Russell Simpson as Old Swede * Emily Fitzroy as Mrs. Bulkey * Tenen Holtz as Mr. Bulkey * Cesare Gravina as Henry Kelland (Berna's Grandfather) * Doris Lloyd as Locasto's procurer * E. Alyn Warren as Engineer * Johnny Downs as Mother's boy (as John Down) * Ray Hallor as Brother Jim * Ray Gallagher as Brother Joe * Francis Ford (actor), Franc ...
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Stunt Performer
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed to a daredevil, who performs for a live audience. When they take the place of another actor, they are known as stunt doubles. Overview A stuntman or stuntwoman typically performs stunts intended for use in a film or dramatized television. Stunts seen in films and television include car crashes, falls from great height, drags (for example, behind a horse), and explosions. There is an inherent risk in the performance of all stunt work. There is maximum risk when the stunts are performed in front of a live audience. In filmed performances, visible safety mechanisms can be removed by editing. In live performances the audience can see more clearly if the performer is genuinely doing what they claim or appear to do. To reduce the risk of injury ...
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Hal Roach Studios
Hal Roach Studios was an American motion picture and television production studio. Known as ''The Laugh Factory to the World'', it was founded by producer Hal Roach and business partners Dan Linthicum and I.H. Nance as the Rolin Film Company on July 23, 1914. The studio lot, at 8822 Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California, United States, was built in 1920, at which time Rolin was renamed to ''Hal E. Roach Studios''. History Roach saw significant success in the 1920s with series of short comedy films featuring stars such as Harold Lloyd, Snub Pollard, and the ''Our Gang'' kids. The studio produced both short films and features for distribution through Pathé Exchange until 1927, when it signed a new distribution deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. By the early 1930s, the studio had entered a golden age, with a line-up of many of film's most popular comedians, including Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, ''Our Gang'', Thelma Todd, and Zasu Pitts. As movie theaters began to favor d ...
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions, Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur (1959 film), Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified ...
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Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially — he was sent to a workhouse twice before age nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to the United States. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon de ...
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Here Come The Co-Eds
''Here Come The Co-Eds'' is a 1945 American comedy film starring the comedy team Abbott and Costello. Plot Oliver Quackenbush, Molly McCarthy and her brother Slats who acts as her publicity agent work for the Miramar Ballroom as taxi dancers. Slats plants a phony article in the local newspaper that declares Molly's ambition is to attend Bixby College. The dean of Bixby reads the article and offers her a scholarship. She agrees, but only if Oliver and Slats can accompany her. They are hired as caretakers. Meanwhile, Chairman Kirkland, whose daughter Diane also attends Bixby, holds the mortgage on the college and threatens to foreclose if the dean continues to ignore tradition and does not expel Molly. Slats and Oliver run into some problems of their own as they fail at every task assigned to them by their supervisor, Mr. Johnson. Slats devises a plan to raise $20,000 to save the school: Oliver will wrestle the Masked Marvel. However, just before the match the Masked Marvel becomes ...
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Free Throw
In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the Key (basketball), restricted area. Free throws are generally awarded after a Personal foul (basketball), foul on the shooter by the opposing team, analogous to penalty shots in other team sports. Free throws are also awarded in other situations, including technical fouls, and when the fouling team has entered the ''Bonus (basketball), bonus/penalty situation'' (after a team commits a requisite number of fouls, each subsequent foul results in free throws regardless of the type of foul committed). Also, depending on the situation, a player may be awarded between one and three free throws. Each successful free throw is worth one point. Description In the National Basketball Association, NBA, most players make 70–80% of their attempts. The league's best shooters (such ...
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Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's hoop (a basket in diameter mounted high to a Backboard (basketball), backboard at each end of the court, while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A Field goal (basketball), field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the 3 point line, three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (Overtime (sports), overtime) is mandated. Players advance the ball by bouncing it while walking ...
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