The Signal-Man
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The Signal-Man
"The Signal-Man" is a first-person horror/mystery story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of the ''Mugby Junction'' collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of '' All the Year Round''. The railway signal-man of the title tells the narrator of an apparition that has been haunting him. Each spectral appearance precedes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. The signalman's work is at a signal-box in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely stretch of the railway line, and he controls the movements of passing trains. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him by telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is followed by the appearance of the spectre, and then by a terrible accident. The first accident involves a terrible collision between two trains in the tunnel. Dickens may have based this incident on the Clayton Tunnel crash that ...
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First-person Narrative
A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller, first-person witness, or first-person peripheral. A classic example of a first-person protagonist narrator is Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'' (1847), in which the title character is also the narrator telling her own story, "I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me". This device allows the audience to see the narrator's mind's eye view of the fictional universe, but it is limited to the narrator's experiences and awareness of the true state of affairs. In some stories, first-person narrators may relay dialogue with other characters or refer to information they heard from the other characters, in order to try to deliver a larger point of view. Other stories may switch the narrator to different cha ...
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Denholm Elliott
Denholm Mitchell Elliott, (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English actor, with more than 125 film and television credits. His well-known roles include the abortionist in ''Alfie'' (1966), Marcus Brody in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981), for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989). Elliott gave acclaimed turns in a succession of commercial and critical hits throughout his storied career, as well as three consecutive (to this day, a still-unbeaten record) Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award wins in the 1980s for his performances as Coleman the butler in ''Trading Places'' (1983), Dr. Charles Swamby in ''A Private Function'' (1984), and as the endangered newspaper reporter Vernon Bayliss in ''Defence of the Realm'' (1985). But it was his portrayal of the eccentric Mr. Emerson in 1986's ''A Room with a View'' that earned him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting ...
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Suspense (radio Program)
''Suspense'' is a radio drama series broadcast on CBS Radio from 1940 through 1962. One of the premier drama programs of the Old-time radio, Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on Suspense (genre), suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era. Approximately 945 episodes were broadcast during its long run, and more than 900 still exist. ''Suspense'' went through several major phases, characterized by different hosts, sponsors, and director/producers. Formula plot devices were followed for all but a handful of episodes: the protagonist was usually a normal person suddenly dropped into a threatening or bizarre situation; solutions were "withheld until the last possible second"; and evildoers were usually punished in the end. In its early years, the program made only occasional forays into science fiction and fantasy. Notable exceptions include adaptations of Curt Siodmak's ''Donovan's Brain' ...
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The Hall Of Fantasy
''The Hall of Fantasy'' is an American old-time radio dramatic anthology. It was broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System from August 22, 1952, until September 28, 1953. Format and background ''The Hall of Fantasy'' featured stories with supernatural themes. Radio historian John Dunning (radio historian), John Dunning wrote in his reference work ''Tune in Yesterday:'' "The difference between this program and its competitors was that here, man was usually the loser. The supernatural was offered as something respectable, awesome, sometimes devastating and always frightening." An early version of the show was developed by Richard Thorne and Carl Greyson and broadcast on KALL in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1949, Thorne revived the program on WGN (AM), WGN in Chicago, enhancing the program's appeal with "unusually excellent production values" and sound effects. Stories adapted for the show included "The Cask of Amontillado", by Edgar Allan Poe, and "Green Tea" by Sheridan Le Fanu. Th ...
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Lights Out (radio Show)
''Lights Out'' is an American old-time radio program devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural. Created by Wyllis Cooper and then eventually taken over by Arch Oboler, versions of ''Lights Out'' aired on different networks, at various times, from January 3, 1934 to the summer of 1947 and the series eventually made the transition to television. ''Lights Out'' was one of the earliest radio horror programs, predating '' Suspense'' and '' Inner Sanctum''. History The Wyllis Cooper era In the fall of 1933, NBC writer Wyllis Cooper conceived the idea of "a midnight mystery serial to catch the attention of the listeners at the witching hour." The idea was to offer listeners a dramatic program late at night, at a time when the competition was mostly airing music. At some point, the serial concept was dropped in favor of an anthology format emphasizing crime thrillers and the supernatural. The first series of shows (each 15 minutes long) ran on a local NBC station, WENR, at midnight ...
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Columbia Workshop
''Columbia Workshop'' was a radio series that aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from 1936 to 1943, returning in 1946–47. Irving Reis The series began as the idea of Irving Reis. Reis had begun his radio career as an engineer and developed a fascination with the possibilities of the relatively new medium. His idea was to use experimental modes of narrative to enhance the way a narrative was conveyed over the radio. Reis had isolated attempts to experiment on the radio: Before the ''Columbia Workshops debut, he had directed at least a few radio dramas. For Reis, the ''Columbia Workshop'' was a platform for developing new techniques for presentation on radio as noted in the debut broadcast: :The ''Columbia Workshop'' dedicates itself to the purposes of familiarizing you with the story behind radio, both in broadcasting, as well as in aviation, shipping, communication and pathology, and to experiment in new techniques with a hope of discovering or evolving new and better f ...
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English National Opera
English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English. The company's origins were in the late 19th century, when the philanthropist Emma Cons, later assisted by her niece Lilian Baylis, presented theatrical and operatic performances at the Old Vic, for the benefit of local people. Baylis subsequently built up both the opera and the theatre companies, and later added a ballet company; these evolved into the ENO, the Royal National Theatre and The Royal Ballet, respectively. Baylis acquired and rebuilt the Sadler's Wells theatre in north London, a larger house, better suited to opera than the Old Vic. The opera company grew there into a permanent ensemble in the 1930s. During the Second World War, the theatre was closed and the company toured British towns and cities. After the war, the comp ...
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Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586, it is the second oldest university press after Cambridge University Press. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics known as the Delegates of the Press, who are appointed by the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho. For the last 500 years, OUP has primarily focused on the publication of pedagogical texts and ...
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Tell Me On A Sunday
''Tell Me on a Sunday'' is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black. A one-woman show, it has been performed by a number of female singers/actors, most notably Marti Webb and Bernadette Peters. A one-act song cycle, it tells the story of an ordinary English girl from Muswell Hill, who journeys to the United States in search of love. Her romantic misadventures begin in New York City, lead her to Hollywood, and eventually take her back to Manhattan. Background The musical is based on an idea originally conceived by Tim Rice, who intended to develop it as a cycle of television shows with songwriting partner Andrew Lloyd Webber. The two relished working on a small-scale project following ''Evita''. Shortly after they began working, however, Lloyd Webber realized Rice was writing specifically for Elaine Paige, with whom the married father of two young children was having a blatant affair. Lloyd Webber felt that allowing Paige to appear in the series would ...
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The Woman In White (novel)
''The Woman in White'' is Wilkie Collins's fifth published novel, written in 1859 and set from 1849 to 1850. It is a mystery novel and falls under the genre of "sensation novels". The story can be seen as an early example of detective fiction with protagonist Walter Hartright employing many of the sleuthing techniques of later private detectives. The use of multiple narrators (including nearly all the principal characters) draws on Collins's legal training, and as he points out in his preamble: "the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness". Collins also drew on memories of his father, the artist William Collins, in the creation of drawing master Walter Hartright, and populates his story with a number of Italian characters, likely inspired by two years spent in Italy during childhood. In 2003, Robert McCrum writing for ''The Observer'' listed ''The Woman in White'' number 23 ...
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Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for ''The Moonstone'' (1868), which has been proposed as the first modern English detective novel. Born to the London painter William Collins (painter), William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both Italian language, Italian and French language, French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. After ''Antonina'', his first novel, appeared in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became a friend and mentor. Some of his work appeared in Dickens's journals ''Household Words'' and ''All the Year Round''. They also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins gained financial stability and an international following by the 1860s, but became addicted to the op ...
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The Woman In White (musical)
''The Woman in White'' is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by David Zippel, and a book by Charlotte Jones. It is based on the 1860 novel of the same name by Wilkie Collins, as well as on elements of the 1866 short story "The Signal-Man" by Charles Dickens. It ran for nineteen months in the West End and three months on Broadway, making it one of Lloyd Webber's shortest-running shows. Production history West End The musical was produced in a workshop at Lloyd Webber's Sydmonton Festival (Hampshire, England) in July 2003."Sydmonton Workshop"
ovrtur.com, accessed 16 March 2016
The musical opened in 's We ...
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