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Selig Polyscope Company
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Selig Polyscope also established Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles. Ending film production in 1918, the business, which had become known for its film production animals, became an animal and prop supplier to other studios and a zoo and amusement park attraction in East Los Angeles. The amusement park and zoo went into decline during the Great Depression in the 1930s. In 1947, William Selig and several other early movie producers and directors shared a special Academy Honorary Award to acknowledge their role in building the film industry. History William Selig initially worked as a Vaudevi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of United States cities by population, third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. As the county seat, seat of Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, the List of the most populous counties in the United States, second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, often colloquially called "Chicagoland" and home to 9.6 million residents. Located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a Chicago Portage, portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magic (illusion)
Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of close-up magic, parlor magic, and stage magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from Magic (supernatural), paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world. Modern entertainment magic, as pioneered by 19th-century magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, has become a popular theatrical art form. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, magicians such as John Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant, Howard Thurston, Harry Kellar, and Harry Houdini achieved widespread commercial success during what has become known as "the Golden Age of Magic", a period in which performance magic became a staple of Broadway theatre, vaudeville, and music halls. Meanwhile, magicians such as Georges Méliès, Gaston Velle, Walter R. B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edendale, Los Angeles
Edendale is a historical name for a district in Los Angeles, California, northwest of downtown Los Angeles, in what is known today as Echo Park, Los Angeles, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, Los Feliz and Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Silver Lake. In the opening decades of the 20th century, in the era of silent film, silent movies, Edendale was known as the home of most major movie studios on the West Coast of the United States, West Coast. Among its many claims, it was home to the Keystone Cops, and the site of many movie firsts, including Charlie Chaplin's first movie, the first feature-length comedy, and one of the first Pieing, pies-in-the-face. The Edendale movie studios were mostly concentrated in four-block stretch of Allesandro Street, between Berkeley Avenue and Duane Street Allesandro Street was later renamed Glendale Boulevard (and a smaller nearby street took on the name Allesandro). Edendale's hilly streets and nearby lake lent themselves to many silent movie gags. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Oz Books
The ''Oz'' books form a book series that begins with '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900) and relates the fictional history of the Land of Oz. Oz was created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen full-length ''Oz'' books. Baum was styled as "the Royal Historian of Oz" in order to emphasize the concept that Oz is an actual place on Earth, full of magic. In his ''Oz'' books, Baum created the illusion that characters such as Dorothy and Princess Ozma relayed their adventures in Oz to Baum themselves, by means of a wireless telegraph. After Baum's death in 1919, publisher Reilly & Lee continued to produce annual ''Oz'' books, passing on the role of Royal Historian. Ruth Plumly Thompson took up the task in 1921, and wrote nineteen ''Oz'' books. After Thompson, Reilly & Lee published seven more books in the series: three by John R. Neill, two by Jack Snow, one by Rachel R.C. Payes, and a final book by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw. The forty bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fairylogue And Radio-Plays
''The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'' was an early attempt to bring L. Frank Baum's Oz books to the motion picture screen. It was a mixture of live actors, hand-tinted magic lantern slides, and film. Baum himself would appear as if he were giving a lecture, while he interacted with the characters (both on stage and on screen). Although acclaimed throughout its tour, the show experienced budgetary problems (with the show costing more to produce than the money that sold-out houses could bring in) and folded after two months of performances. It opened in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 24, 1908. It then ran in Orchestra Hall in Chicago on October 1, toured the country and ended its run in New York City. There, it was scheduled to run through December 31, and ads for it continued to run in ''The New York Times'' until then, but it reportedly closed on December 16. Although today seen mostly as a failed first effort to adapt the Oz books, ''The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays'' is notab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armour And Company
Armour & Company was an American company and was one of the five leading firms in the meat packing industry. It was founded in Chicago, in 1863, by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour. By 1880, the company had become Chicago's most important business and had helped make Chicago and its Union Stock Yards the center of America's meatpacking industry. During the same period, Armour Packing Plant (Omaha, Nebraska), its facility in Omaha, Nebraska, boomed, making the city's meatpacking industry the largest in the nation by 1959. In connection with its meatpacking operations, the company also ventured into pharmaceuticals (Armour Pharmaceuticals) and soap manufacturing, introducing Dial (soap), Dial soap in 1948. Presently, the Armour food brands are split between Smithfield Foods (for refrigerated meat — "Armour Meats") and ConAgra Brands (for canned shelf-stable meat products — "Armour Star"). The Armour pharmaceutical brand is owned by Forest Laboratories. Dial s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sponsored Film
Sponsored film, or ephemeral film, as defined by film archivist Rick Prelinger, is a film made by a particular sponsor (commercial), sponsor for a specific purpose other than as a work of art: the films were designed to serve a specific pragmatic purpose for a limited time. Prelinger estimates that 300,000 industrial and institutional films were made in the U.S. – far more than theatrical films. Many of the films are orphan works since they lack copyright owners or active custodians to guarantee their long-term preservation. Types of sponsored film Films that fall under the sponsorship genre include industrial video or business films, industrial musicals, training films, advertising films, educational films, religious films, Travel documentary, travelogues, medical and scientific films, government films, and advocacy films by social service organizations and/or trade organizations. While some may borrow themes from well-known film genres such as western film, Musical film, mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Travelogue (films)
A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or web series, online series that describes travel in general or tourist attractions without recommending particular package deals or tour operators. A travelogue film is an early type of travel documentary, serving as an exploratory ethnographic film. Ethnographic films have been made for the spectators to see the other half to relate with the world in relative relations. These films are a spectacle to see beyond the cultural differences as explained by the Allison Griffith in her journal. Before the 1930s, it was difficult to see the importance of documentary films in Hollywood cinema but the 1930s brought about a change in the history of these films with the popularity of independent filmmakers. The genre has been represented by television shows such as ''Across the Seven Seas'', which showcased travelogues produced by third parties, and by occasional itinerant presentations of travelogues in theaters and other ven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slapstick
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such as saws and ladders. The term arises from a device developed for use in the broad, physical comedy style known as ''commedia dell'arte'' in 16th-century Italy. The "Clapper (musical instrument), slap stick" consists of two thin slats of wood, which makes a "slap" when striking another actor, with little force needed to make a loud—and comical—sound. The physical slap stick remains a key component of the plot in the traditional and popular Punch and Judy puppet show. More contemporary examples of slapstick humor include ''The Three Stooges'', ''The Naked Gun'' and ''Mr. Bean (character), Mr. Bean''. Origins The name "slapstick" originates from the Italian ''batacchio'' or ''bataccio''—called the "Clapper (musical instrument), slap sti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tramp And The Dog
''The Tramp and the Dog'' (1896) is believed to be the first commercial production of American film pioneer William Selig at Selig Polyscope. It is also likely the first commercial narrative film shot in Chicago. Described as a "backyard comedy" (filmed in the Rogers Park neighborhood), in the opening bit, a baker comes outdoors into her yard and leaves a pie on a chair to cool. A tramp hops the fence into the backyard, grabs the pie and seeks to hop back over the fence. A bulldog appears who catches the backside of the tramp as he tries to escape, leading to various pratfalls, and the woman reappearing with a broom. The film became very popular and was distributed throughout North America and Europe. It began a film trend known as "pants humor" where the loss or threatened loss of the character's trousers formed the gag, and it led to a number of filmmakers to feature tramps and hobos in short comedic situations. It was a lost film until 2021, when it was rediscovered in the fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 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 Incandescent light bulb, light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrial society, 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclosure of the invention."A patent is not the grant of a right to make or use or sell. It does not, directly or indirectly, imply any such right. It grants only the right to exclude others. The supposition that a right to make is created by the patent grant is obviously inconsistent with the established distinctions between generic and specific patents, and with the well-known fact that a very considerable portion of the patents granted are in a field covered by a former relatively generic or basic patent, are tributary to such earlier patent, and cannot be practiced unless by license thereunder." – ''Herman v. Youngstown Car Mfg. Co.'', 191 F. 579, 584–85, 112 CCA 185 (6th Cir. 1911) In most countries, patent rights fall under private la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
