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The Absent-Minded Professor
''The Absent-Minded Professor'' is a 1961 American science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and based on the short story "A Situation of Gravity" by Samuel W. Taylor, originally published in the May 22, 1943 issue of ''Liberty'' magazine. The title character was based in part on Hubert Alyea, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Princeton University, who was known as "Dr. Boom" for his explosive demonstrations. Directed by Robert Stevenson, the film stars Fred MacMurray as Professor Ned Brainard, alongside Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk, Leon Ames, Elliott Reid, and Edward Andrews. The plot follows Brainard as he invents a substance that defies gravity, which he later exploits through various means. Released on March 16, 1961, the film was a huge success at the box office, and two years later became the first Disney film to have a sequel, '' Son of Flubber'' (1963). It was one of the first Disney films to be colorized (for the 1986 video release) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Stevenson (filmmaker)
Robert Edward StevensonRyall, Tom"Stevenson, Robert Edward (1905–1986)"''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, online edition, May 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2018. (31 March 1905 – 30 April 1986) was an English film screenwriter, director and actor. After directing a number of British films, including ''King Solomon's Mines'' (1937), he was contracted by David O. Selznick and moved to Hollywood, but was loaned to other studios, directing ''Jane Eyre'' (1943). He directed 19 films for The Walt Disney Company in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Stevenson is best remembered for directing the Julie Andrews musical '' Mary Poppins'' (1964), for which Andrews won the Academy Award for Best Actress and Stevenson was nominated for Best Director. His other Disney films include the first two Herbie films, ''The Love Bug'' (1968) and '' Herbie Rides Again'' (1974), as well as '' Bedknobs and Broomsticks'' (1971). Three of his films featured English actor David To ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hubert Alyea
Hubert Newcombe Alyea (October 10, 1903 – October 19, 1996)''Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014''. Social Security Administration. was an American professor of chemistry at Princeton University. His explosive chemistry demonstrations earned him the nickname "Dr. Boom". He was famous around the world for his "zany, eccentric" public lectures on science, which "were as much performance as professorship". Alyea served as inspiration for the title character in the 1961 film ''The Absent-Minded Professor''. In 1984, Alyea received the Joseph Priestley award. Career at Princeton ''The New York Times'' described his Princeton lectures as follows: Public lectures According to ''Time'' magazine, he "lectured with an animated, dynamic style that drew enthusiastic audiences of all ages". ''Life'' magazine reported "Grimacing with fiendish delight... he sets off explosions, shoots water pistols and sprays his audience with carbon dioxide in the course of 32 harrowing experiments dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enthalpy
Enthalpy , a property of a thermodynamic system, is the sum of the system's internal energy and the product of its pressure and volume. It is a state function used in many measurements in chemical, biological, and physical systems at a constant pressure, which is conveniently provided by the large ambient atmosphere. The pressure–volume term expresses the work required to establish the system's physical dimensions, i.e. to make room for it by displacing its surroundings. The pressure-volume term is very small for solids and liquids at common conditions, and fairly small for gases. Therefore, enthalpy is a stand-in for energy in chemical systems; bond, lattice, solvation and other "energies" in chemistry are actually enthalpy differences. As a state function, enthalpy depends only on the final configuration of internal energy, pressure, and volume, not on the path taken to achieve it. In the International System of Units (SI), the unit of measurement for enthalpy is the j ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Physical Chemistry
Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mechanics, analytical dynamics and chemical equilibria. Physical chemistry, in contrast to chemical physics, is predominantly (but not always) a supra-molecular science, as the majority of the principles on which it was founded relate to the bulk rather than the molecular or atomic structure alone (for example, chemical equilibrium and colloids). Some of the relationships that physical chemistry strives to resolve include the effects of: # Intermolecular forces that act upon the physical properties of materials ( plasticity, tensile strength, surface tension in liquids). # Reaction kinetics on the rate of a reaction. # The identity of ions and the electrical conductivity of materials. # Surface science and electrochemistry of cel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Absent-minded Professor
The absent-minded professor is a stock character of popular fiction, usually portrayed as a talented academic whose academic brilliance is accompanied by below-par functioning in other areas, leading to forgetfulness and mistakes. One explanation of this is that highly talented individuals often have unevenly distributed capabilities, being brilliant in their field of choice but below average on other measures of ability. Alternatively, they are considered to be so engrossed in their field of study that they forget their surroundings. The phrase is also commonly used in English to describe people who are so engrossed in their own world that they fail to keep track of their surroundings. It is a common stereotype that professors get so obsessed with their research that they pay little attention to anything else. The archetype is sometimes mixed with that of the mad scientist, often for comic effect, as in the Jerry Lewis film '' The Nutty Professor'' or the Profesor Bacterio in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike, he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time. Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s, and rose to fame playing the alien Mork in the ABC sitcom '' Mork & Mindy'' (1978–1982). After his first leading film role in '' Popeye'' (1980), he starred in several critically and commercially successful films, including '' The World According to Garp'' (1982), '' Moscow on the Hudson'' (1984), '' Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987), '' Dead Poets Society'' (1989), '' Awakenings'' (1990), '' The Fisher King'' (1991), '' Patch Adams'' (1998), '' One Hour Photo'' (2002), and '' World's Greatest Dad'' (2009). He also starred in box office successes such as ''Hook'' (1991), ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flubber (film)
''Flubber'' is a 1997 American science-fiction comedy film directed by Les Mayfield (who had previously directed another John Hughes scripted remake, '' Miracle on 34th Street'') and written by Hughes and Bill Walsh. A remake of ''The Absent-Minded Professor'' (1961), the film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and stars Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald, Ted Levine, Raymond J. Barry, Wil Wheaton, and Clancy Brown with Jodi Benson providing a voice. The film grossed $178 million worldwide and received negative reviews from critics. In selected theaters, the '' Pepper Ann'' episode "Old Best Friend" was featured before the film. Plot Professor Philip Brainard, of Medfield College, is a mad scientist who is developing a new energy source. He does this to raise enough money to save the college from closure. His preoccupation with his research distracts him from his fiancée, Sara Jean Reynolds, who is the president of the college; he has already m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Shaggy Dog (1959 Film)
''The Shaggy Dog'' is a 1959 American comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and loosely based on the 1923 novel ''The Hound of Florence'' by Felix Salten. Directed by Charles Barton from a screenplay by Lillie Hayward and Bill Walsh, the film stars Fred MacMurray, Tommy Kirk, Jean Hagen, Kevin Corcoran, Tim Considine, Roberta Shore, and Annette Funicello. The film follows a teenage boy named Wilby Daniels who, by the power of an enchanted ring of the Borgias, is transformed into a shaggy Old English Sheepdog. The film was released on March 19, 1959, and grossed over $9 million during its initial release, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1959. A sequel, ''The Shaggy D.A.'' (1976), starred Dean Jones, Tim Conway, and Suzanne Pleshette. It was followed by a 1987 television sequel, a 1994 television remake and a 2006 live-action theatrical remake. Plot Wilbur "Wilby" Daniels is a boy who is misunderstood by his father, Wilson. Wilson thinks Wilby is cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Colorization
Film colorization (American English; or colourisation [British English], or colourization [Canadian English and Oxford English]) is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia tone, sepia, or other monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, to "modernize" black-and-white films, or to restore color films. The first examples date from the early 20th century, but colorization has become common with the advent of digital image processing. Early techniques Hand colorization The first film colorization methods were hand done by individuals. For example, at least 4% of George Méliès' output, including some prints of ''A Trip to the Moon'' from 1902 and other major films such as ''The Kingdom of the Fairies'', ''The Impossible Voyage'', and ''The Barber of Seville (1904 film), The Barber of Seville'' were individually hand-colored by Elisabeth Thuillier's coloring lab in Paris. Thuillier, a former colorist of glass and celluloid pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Son Of Flubber
''Son of Flubber'' is a 1963 American science fiction comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The sequel to ''The Absent-Minded Professor'' (1961), Fred MacMurray reprises his role from the first film as Ned Brainard, a scientist who has perfected a high-bouncing substance, Flubber ("flying rubber") that can levitate an automobile and cause athletes to bounce into the sky. In addition to MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Ed Wynn, Elliott Reid and Tommy Kirk also co-star, reprising their roles from ''The Absent-Minded Professor''. The film was shot in black and white, but a colorized version was released on VHS in 1997. Plot Professor Ned Brainard's discovery of Flubber has not quite brought him or his college the riches he thought. The Pentagon has declared his discovery "top secret" and the IRS has slapped him with a huge tax bill, even though he has yet to receive any money from his invention. Ned thinks he may have found the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Andrews
Edward Bryan Andrews Jr. (October 9, 1914 – March 8, 1985) was an American stage, film and television actor. Andrews was one of the most recognizable character actors on television and films from the 1950s into the 1980s. His stark white hair, imposing build and horn-rimmed glasses added to the type of roles he received, as he was often cast as an ornery boss, a cagey businessman, or other officious types. Life and career Andrews was born in Griffin, Georgia, the son of an Episcopal priest, and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cleveland, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia. As a child, he attended Pittsburgh's Nixon Theatre and would nab a balcony seat so as to catch a good view of the 'headliners'. At the age of twelve, he did a walk-on in a stock theatre production which featured James Gleason and he was 'hooked' on an acting career. He attended the University of Virginia, and at age 21, made his stage debut in 1935, progressing to Broadway the same year. During this pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elliott Reid
Edgeworth Blair "Elliott" Reid (January 16, 1920 – June 21, 2013) was an American actor. Early life Reid was born in Manhattan, the son of artist Christine Challenger Reid and banker Blair Reid. He attended the Professional Children's School. Radio In 1935, Reid debuted on the radio program ''The March of Time'', which led to regular work on radio dramas during the golden age of radio. He portrayed Melvin Castleberry on the children's program ''Billy and Betty'', and Philip Cameron on the serial ''Against the Storm'' and was a host on radio's version of ''The United States Steel Hour''. Early on he took "Elliott" as his stage name. His credits include many Orson Welles-directed stage and radio productions, such as '' The Mercury Theatre on the Air.'' He also acted on '' Theatre Guild on the Air'','' The Adventures of Philip Marlowe'', ''Suspense'', and the ''CBS Radio Mystery Theater''. In some early performances he was credited as "Ted Reid". Film Reid's best-known f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
