Street Scene (play)
''Street Scene'' is a 1929 American play by Elmer Rice. It opened January 10, 1929, at the Playhouse Theatre in New York City. After a total of 601 performances on Broadway, the production toured the United States and ran for six months in London. The action of the play takes place entirely on the front stoop of a New York City brownstone and in the adjacent street in the early part of the 20th century. It studies the complex daily lives of the people living in the building (and surrounding neighborhood) and the sense of despair that hovers over their interactions. ''Street Scene'' received the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. History ''Street Scene'' has its origins in a play that Elmer Rice began in the mid-1920s titled ''Sidewalks of New York''—a play without words that he wrote as a technical exercise for his own entertainment. Rice devised 15 vignettes that were a microcosm of New York life. One of these scenes presented the front of a brownstone in the early morning hours. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Elmer Rice
Elmer Rice (born Elmer Leopold Reizenstein, September 28, 1892 – May 8, 1967) was an American playwright. He is best known for his plays ''The Adding Machine'' (1923) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of New York tenement life, '' Street Scene'' (1929). Biography Early years Rice was born Elmer Leopold Reizenstein at 127 East 90th Street in New York City. His grandfather was a political activist in the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. After the failure of that political upheaval, he emigrated to the United States where he became a businessman. He spent most of his retirement years living with the Rice family and developed a close relationship with his grandson Elmer, who became a politically motivated writer and shared his grandfather's liberal and pacifist politics. A staunch atheist, his grandfather may also have influenced Elmer in his feelings about religion as he refused to attend Hebrew school or to have a bar mitzvah. In contrast, Rice's relationship with his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jane Corcoran
Jane Corcoran (August 13, 1881 – August 27, 1961) was an American stage actress. Early life Jane Eleanor Corcoran was born in San Francisco, the daughter of actress Estha (or Esta) Williams and Joseph T. Corcoran, and stepdaughter of director Arthur Clifford Aiston, who was also her manager. She began acting as a child. She attended the Institute of Holy Angels in Fort Lee, New Jersey, for her schooling. Career Broadway appearances by Corcoran included roles in ''A Stranger in a Strange Land'' (1899), ''All for a Girl'' (1908), ''Mother'' (1910), ''A Rich Man's Son'' (1912), ''Life'' (1914), ''Drifting'' (1922), '' Pictures from the Insects' Life, The World We Live In'' (1922), ''Kitty's Kisses'' (1926), '' Street Scene'' (1929), ''Little Orchid Annie'' (1930), ''Little Women'' (1931), ''A Night of Barrie'' (1932), ''A Saturday Night'' (1933), ''A Party'' (1933), and ''While Parents Sleep'' (1934). Other stage credits, often in touring productions, included roles in ''Ten ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sylvia Sidney
Sylvia Sidney (born Sophia Kosow; August 8, 1910 – July 1, 1999) was an American stage, screen and film actress whose career spanned over 70 years. She rose to prominence in dozens of leading roles in the 1930s. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in '' Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams'' in 1973. She later gained attention for her role as Juno, a case worker in the afterlife, in Tim Burton's 1988 film ''Beetlejuice'', for which she won a Saturn Award as Best Supporting Actress. Early life Sidney was born Sophia Kosow in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Rebecca (née Saperstein), a Romanian Jew, and Victor Kosow, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who worked as a clothing salesman. Her parents divorced by 1915, and she was adopted by her stepfather Sigmund Sidney, a dentist. Her mother became a dressmaker and renamed herself Beatrice Sidney. Now using the surname Sidney, Sylvia became an actress at the age of 15 as a way of overcomi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor (; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, humane, and sympathetic depiction of contemporary social issues. Considered an auteur director, Vidor approached multiple genres and allowed the subject matter to determine the style, often pressing the limits of film-making conventions. His most acclaimed and successful film in the silent era is ''The Big Parade'' (1925). Vidor's sound films of the 1940s and early 1950s arguably represent his richest output. Among his finest works are ''Northwest Passage'' (1940), ''Comrade X'' (1940), ''An American Romance'' (1944), and '' Duel in the Sun'' (1946). His dramatic depictions of the American western landscape endow nature with a sinister force where his characters struggle for survival and redemption. Vidor's earlier films tend to identify ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Street Scene (film)
''Street Scene'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by King Vidor. With a screenplay by Elmer Rice adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, ''Street Scene'' takes place on a New York City street from one evening until the following afternoon. Except for one scene which takes place inside a taxi, Vidor shot the entire film on a single set depicting half a city block of house fronts. The film stars Estelle Taylor, David Landau, Sylvia Sidney, William Collier, Jr., and Beulah Bondi (her screen debut). The music score is by Alfred Newman, his first complete film score. Newman composed the eponymous title theme, in the style of George Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue''. The theme has been used in other movies, including ''Cry of the City'', ''Kiss of Death'', ''I Wake Up Screaming'', ''Where the Sidewalk Ends'', ''The Dark Corner'', ''Gentleman's Agreement'' and as the overture to ''How to Marry a Millionaire''. In Febr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood. He was awarded the 1973 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1947) and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1958). Early life Goldwyn was likely born in July 1879, although he claimed his birthday to be August 27, 1882. He was born as Szmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw to Polish Jewish Hasidic parents, Aaron Dawid Gelbfisz (1859–1894), a peddler, and his wife, Hanna Frymet (''née'' Fiszhaut ; 1860–1925). He left Warsaw penniless after his father's death and made his way to Hamburg. There he stayed with acquaintances of his family where he has trained as a glove maker. On November 26, 1898, Gelbfisz left Hamburg for Birmingham, England, whe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dodd, Mead And Company
Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. History Origins In 1839, Moses Woodruff Dodd (1813–1899) and John S. Taylor, at that time a leading publisher in New York, formed the company of Taylor and Dodd as a publisher of religious books. In 1840, Dodd bought out Taylor and renamed the company as M.W. Dodd. Frank Howard Dodd (1844–1916) joined his father in business in 1859 and became increasingly involved in the publishing company's operation. With the retirement of founder Moses Dodd in 1870, control passed to his son Frank Howard Dodd, who joined in partnership with his cousin Edward S. Mead (1847–1894), and the company was reorganized as Dodd and Mead. In 1876, Bleecker Van Wagenen became a member of the firm and the name was changed to Dodd, Mead and Company. Tebbel, John, ''Between Covers: The Rise and Transformation of Book Publishing in A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Burns Mantle
Robert Burns Mantle (December 23, 1873February 9, 1948) was an American theater critic. He founded the ''Best Plays'' annual publication in 1920.Chansky, Dorothy (2011)"Burns Mantle and the American Theatregoing Public" in ''Theatre History Studies'' (via Google Books). Vol. 31. Biography Mantle was born in Watertown, New York, on December 23, 1873, to Robert Burns Mantle and Susan Lawrence. As a child he moved to Denver, Colorado. By 1892, he was working as a linotype machine operator in California and then became a reporter. By the late 1890s, Mantle was working as a drama critic for the ''Denver Times''. He later moved to Chicago, Illinois, and then New York City, New York, in 1911. He was at the ''New York Evening Mail'' until 1922, and then the '' Daily News'' until his retirement in 1943. Mantle was succeeded as the drama critic at the ''Daily News'' by his assistant John Arthur Chapman.Staff (August 16, 1943)Burns Mantle Quits as Drama Reviewer" Associated Press ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence. It is a member of the Ivy League. Columbia is ranked among the top universities in the world. Columbia was established by royal charter under George II of Great Britain. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolution, and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University. Columbia scientists and scholars have ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theatre critic. He worked for ''The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of his time." Atkinson became a ''Times'' theater critic in the 1920s and his reviews became very influential. He insisted on leaving the drama desk during World War II to report on the war; he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for his work as the Moscow correspondent for the ''Times''. He returned to the theater beat in the late 1940s, until his retirement in 1960. Biography Atkinson was born in Melrose, Massachusetts to Jonathan H. Atkinson, a salesman statistician, and Garafelia Taylor. As a boy, he printed his own newspaper (using movable type), and planned a career in journalism. He attended Harvard University, where he began writing for the ''Boston Herald.''"Atkinson, (Justin) Brooks." The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. Ed. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with an undergraduate degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine ''Oxford Poetry'', before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962. Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addre ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |