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Sir Michael Balcon
Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in West London from 1938 to 1955. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film studios of the day. In an industry short of Hollywood-style moguls, Balcon emerged as a key figure, and an obdurately British one too, in his benevolent, somewhat headmasterly approach to the running of a creative organization. He is known for his leadership, and his guidance of young Alfred Hitchcock. Balcon had earlier co-founded Gainsborough Pictures with Victor Saville in 1923, later working with Gaumont British, which absorbed their studio. Later still he worked with MGM-British. In 1956 he founded a production company known as Ealing Films, and later headed British Lion Films. He served as chairman of the British Film Institute production board to help fund and encourage new work. Balcon was described in his obituary in ''The Times' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West Midlands metropolitan county, and approximately 4.3 million in the wider metropolitan area. It is the largest UK metropolitan area outside of London. Birmingham is known as the second city of the United Kingdom. Located in the West Midlands region of England, approximately from London, Birmingham is considered to be the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers is the Severn, approximately west of the city centre. Historically a market town in Warwickshire in the medieval period, Birmingham grew during the 18th century during the Midla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Dixon Academy
George Dixon Academy is a school in north Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. Former names include George Dixon Higher Grade School, George Dixon Grammar School, George Dixon Community School, George Dixon Grant Maintained School and George Dixon International School. The current headmaster is Tutvinder Mann. Former heads include Robert Dowling and Anthony Hamilton, a double gold medal paralympian. History George Dixon (1820–1898) was a councillor, mayor, and MP in Birmingham. One of his first actions after being elected mayor in 1866 was to hold a conference to discuss the lack of education for children. This led to the formation of the Birmingham Education Society in 1867, and the National Education League, which he chaired, in 1869. The League in turn was instrumental in the creation of the Elementary Education Act 1870 (Forster's Act), leading to the formation of the first school boards in England and Wales. In 1884, Dixon created Bridge Street Technical School. He bought ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures), and the sole member of the Major film studio, "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, Motion Picture Associ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. The deal, guided by president Zukor, eventually resulted in the incorporation of eight film production companies, making the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation one of the biggest players of the silent film era. Famous Players-Lasky, under the direction of Zukor, is perhaps best known for its vertical integration of the film industry and block booking practices. On April 1, 1927, the company name was changed to Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation. In September 1927, the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation studio in Astoria (New York City) was temporarily closed with the objective of equipping it with the technology for the production of sound films. The Balaban and Katz Historical Foundation now owns t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Becky Sharp (1935) 8
Rebecca "Becky" Sharp, later describing herself as Rebecca, Lady Crawley, is the main protagonist of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–48 novel '' Vanity Fair''. She is presented as a cynical social climber who uses her charms to fascinate and seduce upper-class men. This is in contrast with the clinging, dependent Amelia Sedley, her friend from school. Becky then uses Amelia as a stepping stone to gain social position. Sharp functions as a ''picara''—a picaresque heroine—by being a social outsider who is able to expose the manners of the upper gentry to ridicule. The book—and Sharp's career—begins in a traditional manner of Victorian fiction, that of a young orphan (Sharp) with no source of income who has to make her own way in the world. Thackeray twisted the Victorian tradition, however, and quickly turned her into a young woman who knew what she wanted from life—fine clothes, money and a social position—and knew how to get them. The route was to be by marri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Islington Studios
Islington Studios, often known as Gainsborough Studios, were a British film studio located on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, London between 1919 and 1949. The studios are closely associated with Gainsborough Pictures which was based there for most of the studio's history. During its existence Islington worked closely with its sister Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush and many films were made partly at one studio and partly at the other. Amongst the films made at the studios were Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, Will Hay comedies and Gainsborough Melodramas. History The studios were originally built as a power station for the Great Northern & City Railway, and were acquired by the major American company Famous Players-Lasky which wanted to set up a British subsidiary. The building was converted into a two-stage studio, and production began in 1920. During this era Alfred Hitchcock made his start in fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Cutts
John Henry Graham Cutts (1884 – 7 February 1958), known as Graham Cutts, was a British film director, one of the leading British directors in the 1920s. His fellow director A. V. Bramble believed that Gainsborough Pictures had been built on the back of his work. His daughter was actress Patricia Cutts (1926–1974). Cutts worked with many leading figures in the UK film and stage world, including Basil Dean, Alfred Hitchcock, Gracie Fields, Ivor Novello, and Noël Coward. Selected filmography * ''The Wonderful Story (1922 film), The Wonderful Story'' (1922) * ''Cocaine (film), Cocaine'' (1922) * ''Flames of Passion'' (1922) * ''Woman to Woman (1923 film), Woman to Woman'' (1923) with Alfred Hitchcock as assistant * ''The White Shadow (film), The White Shadow'' (1923) with Hitchcock as assistant * ''Paddy the Next Best Thing (1923 film), Paddy the Next Best Thing'' (1923) * ''The Prude's Fall'' (1924) aka ''Dangerous Virtue'' with Hitchcock as assistant * ''The Passionate Ad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty Compson
Betty Compson (born Eleanor Luicime Compson; March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress and film producer who got her start during Hollywood's silent era. She is best known for her performances in ''The Docks of New York'' and ''The Barker'', the latter of which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Early life Compson was born on March 19, 1897, the daughter of Virgil and Mary ( Rauscher) Compson, in Beaver, Utah, at a mining camp. Her father was a mining engineer, a gold prospector, and a grocery store proprietor, and her mother was a maid in homes and in a hotel. Compson graduated from Salt Lake High School. Her father died when she was young, and she obtained employment as a violinist at 16 at a theater in Salt Lake City. Career Playing in vaudeville sketches with touring circuits, Compson got noticed by Hollywood producers. While touring, she was discovered by comedic producer Al Christie and signed a contract with him. Her first sile ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clive Brook
Clifford Hardman "Clive" Brook (1 June 1887 – 17 November 1974) was an English film actor. After making his first screen appearance in 1920, Brook emerged as a leading British actor in the early 1920s. After moving to the United States in 1924, Brook became one of the major stars for Paramount Pictures in the late silent era. During 1928–29 he successfully made the transition to sound and continued to be featured in many of Hollywood's most prestigious films, including a number of literary adaptations. In the mid-1930s he returned to England, where he appeared regularly in leading film roles for a further decade. Early life Brook was born in Islington, London, the son of George Alfred Brook and Charlotte Mary Brook. He attended Dulwich College because of his father's desire for him to be a lawyer, but family financial problems caused him to leave at age 15. He then studied elocution at a polytechnic. He served in the Artists' Rifles in the First World War, rising to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woman To Woman (1923 Film)
''Woman to Woman'' is a 1923 British silent drama film directed by Graham Cutts, with Alfred Hitchcock as the uncredited assistant director and co-screenwriter. The film was the first of three adaptions of the 1921 play '' Woman to Woman'' by Michael Morton. To capitalise on the success of the film, Cutts and Hitchcock made another film, '' The White Shadow'', with Compson before she returned to the United States. Hitchcock met his future wife, Alma Reville, while working on this film. Plot As described in a film magazine review, Deloryse, a dancer of exquisite charm and grace, is wooed and won by David Compton, an English officer billeted in Paris. On the eve of their marriage, her fiancée is unexpectedly called away. A blow to the head robs him of his memory and he forgets all about the faithful young woman who sacrificed all for him. Later, fate brings them together and, while the man's heart is wrung by the wrong that he has unwittingly done to Deloryse by marrying anothe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was developed from farmland by Henry VIII in 1536, when it became a royal park. It became a parish in its own right in the late 17th century, when buildings started to be developed for the upper class, including the laying out of Soho Square in the 1680s. St Anne's Church was established during the late 17th century, and remains a significant local landmark; other churches are the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory and St Patrick's Church in Soho Square. The aristocracy had mostly moved away by the mid-19th century, when Soho was particularly badly hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1854. For much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation as a base for the sex industry in addition to its night life and its location for the headquarte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Freedman
John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Epistle of John, often shortened to 2 John * Third Epistle of John, often shortened to 3 John People * John the Baptist (died c. AD 30), regarded as a prophet and the forerunner of Jesus Christ * John the Apostle (lived c. AD 30), one of the twelve apostles of Jesus * John the Evangelist, assigned author of the Fourth Gospel, once identified with the Apostle * John of Patmos, also known as John the Divine or John the Revelator, the author of the Book of Revelation, once identified with the Apostle * John the Presbyter, a figure either identified with or distinguished from the Apostle, the Evangelist and John of Patmos Other people with the given name Religious figures * John, father of Andrew the Apostle and Saint Peter * Pope J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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