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Robert Montgomery Presents
''Robert Montgomery Presents'' is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC from January 30, 1950, until June 24, 1957. The live show had several sponsors during its eight-year run, and the title was altered to feature the sponsor, usually Lucky Strike cigarettes, for example, ''Robert Montgomery Presents Your Lucky Strike Theater'', ''....The Johnson's Wax Program'', and so on. Evolution Initially offering hour-long dramas adapted from successful Hollywood films, the series was hosted and produced by Robert Montgomery. His presence lent a degree of respectability to the new medium of television, and he was able to persuade many of his Hollywood associates to appear. Montgomery introduced each episode and also acted in many episodes. The program was noted for the high level of production values and the consistent attempt to present quality entertainment within the constraints of a live presentation. A drama built around the ''Hindenburg'' disaster, inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Dean
James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, ''Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in '' East of Eden'' (1955) and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in ''Giant'' (1956). After his death in a car crash on September 30, 1955, Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role in ''East of Eden''. Upon receiving a second nomination for his role in ''Giant'' the following year, Dean became the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 18th best male movie star of Golden Age Hollywood in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list. Early life and education James Byron Dean was born on February ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Letter (play)
''The Letter'' is a 1927 play by W. Somerset Maugham, dramatised from a short story that first appeared in his 1926 collection ''The Casuarina Tree''. The story was inspired by the real-life Ethel Proudlock case which involved the wife of the headmaster of Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur who was convicted in a murder trial after shooting dead a male friend in April 1911. She was eventually pardoned. Synopsis In the play, the action takes place in the house of a plantation owner, Robert Crosbie, and his wife Leslie in the then-British colony of British Malaya, Malaya, and later in the Chinese quarter of Singapore. With the husband away on business, the wife claims that she shot her husband's friend, Geoff Hammond, in self-defence, following an attempted rape; it is later revealed that Hammond was her lover, but had rejected her in favour of a native woman. The play focuses on the steps taken by the wife's lawyer to convince the court of her innocence, following the discovery ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nelson Case
Nelson Case (February 3, 1910 – March 23, 1976) was an American radio and television announcer. Case was the son of Walter and Ethel Case. His father was a newspaperman, and his mother was a driving force in the Long Beach Community Players. He attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School and first worked as an announcer on the school's radio station. One of his early ventures into entertainment came when "as a youngster in Long Beach, he sang and played the uke for a band called the Sunset Symphonic Six." He was a graduate of the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he met his future wife. Although Case was best known for being an announcer on popular radio and television programs (in 1953, he was "on radio 20 times a week, on TV three" ), a 1941 newspaper article noted that he "covered everything from news and special events to sports." His assignments included "Miss America pageants ... Davis Cup tennis matches and presidential inaugurations." One of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the film ''Charly''. On television, Robertson portrayed retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the 1976 TV film adaptation of Aldrin's autobiographic ''Return to Earth'', played a fictional character based on Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms in the 1977 miniseries '' Washington: Behind Closed Doors'', and portrayed Henry Ford in '' Ford: The Man and the Machine'' (1987). His last well-known film appearances were as Uncle Ben in the 2002–2007 ''Spider-Man'' film trilogy. Robertson was also an accomplished aviator who served as the founding chairman of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s Young Eagles Program during its inception in the early 1990s. It became the most succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Montgomery
Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery (April 15, 1932 – May 18, 1995) was an American actress whose career spanned five decades in film, stage, and television. She is best remembered for her leading role as the witch Samantha Stephens on the television series ''Bewitched''. The daughter of actor, director and producer Robert Montgomery, she began her career in the 1950s with a role on her father's television series ''Robert Montgomery Presents'', and she won a Theater World Award for her 1956 Broadway debut in the production ''Late Love''. In the 1960s, she became known for her role as Samantha Stephens on the ABC sitcom ''Bewitched''. Her work on the series earned her five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations. After ''Bewitched'' ended its run in 1972, Montgomery continued her career with roles in numerous television films, including ''A Case of Rape'' (1974), as Ellen Harrod, and ''The Legend of Lizzie Borden'' (1975), as Lizzie Borden. Both role ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amahl And The Night Visitors
''Amahl and the Night Visitors'' is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer.Menotti, Gian-Carlo: ''Amahl and the Night Visitors (piano-vocal score)'', G. Schirmer, Inc., 1997. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast live on television from that venue as the debut production of the ''Hallmark Hall of Fame''. It was the first opera specifically composed for television in the United States.Obituary: Gian Carlo Menotti '' |
Opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as '' Singspiel'' and '' Opéra comique''. In traditional number opera, singers employ two styles of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gian-Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. One of the most frequently performed opera composers of the 20th century, his most successful works were written in the 1940s and 1950s. Highly influenced by Giacomo Puccini and Modest Mussorgsky, Menotti further developed the verismo tradition of opera in the post-World War II era. Rejecting atonality and the aesthetic of the Second Viennese School, Menotti's music is characterized by expressive lyricism which carefully sets language to natural rhythms in ways that highlight textual meaning and underscore dramatic intent. Like Wagner, Menotti wrote the libretti of all his operas. He wrote the classic Christmas opera ''Amahl and the Night Visitors'' (1951), along with over two dozen other operas intended to appeal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ride The Pink Horse
''Ride the Pink Horse'' is a 1947 film noir crime film produced by Universal Studios. It was directed by Robert Montgomery, who also stars in it, from a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer, which was based on the 1946 novel of the same title by Dorothy B. Hughes. Thomas Gomez was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance. An army veteran known only as Gagin travels to San Pablo in New Mexico to avenge the death of his wartime buddy. Some of the villagers refer to Gagin as "the man with no place." ''Ride the Pink Horse'' and the noir genre A common theme in ''noir'' films is the post-war disillusionment experienced by many soldiers returning to the peacetime economy, which was mirrored in the sordidness of the urban crime film. In these films a serviceman returns to find his sweetheart unfaithful or a good friend dead. The war continues, but now the antagonism turns with a new viciousness toward American society itself. In ''Ride the Pink Horse'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dark Victory
''Dark Victory'' is a 1939 American melodrama film directed by Edmund Goulding, starring Bette Davis, and featuring George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Henry Travers, and Cora Witherspoon. The screenplay by Casey Robinson was based on the 1934 play of the same title by George Brewer and Bertram Bloch, starring Tallulah Bankhead. Plot Judith "Judy" Traherne (Bette Davis), is a young, carefree, hedonistic Long Island socialite and heiress with a passion for horses, fast cars, and too much smoking and drinking. She initially ignores severe headaches and brief episodes of dizziness and double vision, but when she uncharacteristically takes a spill while riding and then tumbles down a flight of stairs, her secretary and best friend Ann King insists she see the family doctor, who refers her to a specialist. Dr. Frederick Steele, (George Brent), is closing his New York City office in preparation for a move to Brattleboro, Vermont, where he plans to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Egg And I (film)
''The Egg and I'' is a 1947 American romantic comedy film directed by Chester Erskine, who co-wrote the screenplay with Fred F. Finklehoffe, based on the book of the same name by Betty MacDonald and starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, with Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle. The box office success of ''The Egg and I'' influenced the production of Universal-International's ''Ma and Pa Kettle'' series, which consists of nine feature films most of which star Main and Kilbride together. At the 20th Academy Awards, Main was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Plot The film tells the story of a young married couple who become chicken farmers. Betty follows her husband Bob to the countryside where his dream is to be a successful chicken farmer. The problem is, their home is old and needs to be repaired and the baby chicks need constant care. When a rich single woman with a new house and new farm equipment flirts with Bob, Betty questions the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rebecca (1940 Film)
''Rebecca'' is a 1940 American romantic psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock's first American project, and his first film under contract with producer David O. Selznick. The screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison, and adaptation by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan, were based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The film stars Laurence Olivier as the brooding, aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as the young woman who becomes his second wife, with Judith Anderson, George Sanders and Gladys Cooper in supporting roles. The film is a gothic tale shot in black-and-white. Maxim de Winter's first wife Rebecca, who died before the events of the film, is never seen. Her reputation and recollections of her, however, are a constant presence in the lives of Maxim, his new wife and the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers. ''Rebecca'' was theatrically released on April 12, 1940 to critical and commercial su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
