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Leigh Whipper
Leigh Rollin Whipper (October 29, 1876 – July 26, 1975) was an American actor on the stage and in motion pictures. He was the first African American to join the Actors' Equity Association, and one of the founders of the Negro Actors Guild of America. He created the role of Crooks in the original Broadway production of ''Of Mice and Men'', which he reprised in the 1939 film version. Biography Whipper was the son of African-American educator, author and activist Frances Rollin Whipper and a nephew of abolitionist William Whipper, attorney William J. Whipper. Educated at Howard University Law School, he left in 1895 and never practiced as a lawyer. Without any dramatic training, Whipper made his acting debut in a Philadelphia stock theater production of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' in 1899. He made his first Broadway appearance in Georgia Minstrels. His first film role was in the 1920 silent film ''The Symbol of the Unconquered''. A portrait of Whipper entitled "Dans un Café à Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porgy (play)
''Porgy: A Play in Four Acts'' is a play by Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward, adapted from the short novel by DuBose Heyward. It was first produced by the Theatre Guild and presented October 10, 1927 – August 1928 at the Guild Theatre in New York City. Featuring a cast of African Americans at the insistence of its authors—a decision unusual for its time—the original production starred Frank Wilson, Evelyn Ellis, Jack Carter, and Rose McClendon. ''Porgy'' marked the Broadway directing debut of Rouben Mamoulian. The play ran a total of 55 weeks in New York, and the original cast toured the United States twice and performed for 11 consecutive weeks in London. The play tells the story of Porgy, a disabled black beggar who lives in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina. It relates his efforts to rescue Bess, the woman he loves, from Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and a drug dealer called Sporting Life. The play is the basis of the libretto of the opera ''Porg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Park Slope neighborhoods of Brooklyn, the museum's Beaux-Arts building was designed by McKim, Mead and White. The Brooklyn Museum was founded in 1898 as a division of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and was planned to be the largest art museum in the world. The museum initially struggled to maintain its building and collection, only to be revitalized in the late 20th century, thanks to major renovations. Significant areas of the collection include antiquities, specifically their collection of Egyptian antiquities spanning over 3,000 years. European, African, Oceanic, and Japanese art make for notable antiquities collections as well. American art is heavily represented, starting at the Colonial period. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ox-Bow Incident
''The Ox-Bow Incident'' is a 1943 American Western film directed by William A. Wellman, starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews and Mary Beth Hughes, with Anthony Quinn, William Eythe, Harry Morgan and Jane Darwell. Two cowboys arrive in a Western town, when news arrives that a local rancher has been murdered and his cattle stolen. The townspeople, joined by the two cowboys and cowboys from other ranches, form a posse to catch the perpetrators. They find three men in possession of the cattle, and are determined to see justice done on the spot. The film premiered in May 1943 to positive reviews from critics. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture at the 16th Academy Awards, losing to '' Casablanca''. ''The Ox-Bow Incident'' and ''The Outlaw'' (also produced in 1943) are the earliest films in the AllMovie list of psychological Westerns. In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "cultural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Cargo
''White Cargo'' is a 1942 film drama starring Hedy Lamarr and Walter Pidgeon, and directed by Richard Thorpe. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it is based on the 1923 London and Broadway hit play by Leon Gordon, which was in turn adapted from the novel ''Hell's Playground'' by Ida Vera Simonton. The play had already been made into a British part-talkie, also titled ''White Cargo'', with Maurice Evans in 1930. The 1942 film, unlike the play, begins in what was then the present-day, before unfolding in flashback. Plot During the early years of World War II Worthing (Richard Ainley) the “boss”, is on board a seaplane, the ''Congo Queen'' on an inspection tour of rubber plantations in remote locations in the West African jungle. The plane lands at a large, modern operation. Worthing tells the local supervisor that they must maximize production because the Japanese hold Malaya, reducing the supply of that critical war material. He points to a photograph on the wall that shows ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heart Of The Golden West
'' Heart of the Golden West '' is a 1942 American Western film starring Roy Rogers. Plot Roy helps the ranchers of Cherokee City when Ross Lambert (McDonald) doubles the rates to ship their cattle to market. Roy contacts the owner of a steamboat, Colonel Silas Popen (Catlett) to see about shipping cattle by boat. Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers plan a warm western welcome for Popen and his daughter, Mary Lou (Terry). James Barabee (Paul Harvey), head of the Cattleman's Association, sends Roy a telegram saying that Popen hates everything western, but Lambert intercepts the telegram, so Roy makes a bad first impression. Lambert also stages a saloon brawl to terrify Popen; the noise scares the horses of Popen's wagon and causes a runaway. Roy saves Popen and Mary Lou, but Popen still refuses to ship cattle. Mary Lou takes matters into her own hands and tells the ranchers to round up the cattle and bring them to Barabee's ranch. Lambert has some of his men set fire to the steamboat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Vanishing Virginian
''The Vanishing Virginian'' is a 1942 American drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Frank Morgan and Kathryn Grayson. It is based on the memoirs of Rebecca Yancey Williams and set in Lynchburg, Virginia, from 1913 to 1929. Synopsis Based on the true story of turn-of-the-century Robert Yancey, lawyer and ever-popular politician in Virginia. The film starts with the statement, "This is the story of a vanishing era when simple men so loved their country, their families and their friends that America became a better place in which to live. Such a man was Cap'n Bob Yancey." The film is based on a 1940 memoir of the same name by Rebecca Yancey Williams. The book's central figure was her father, Robert Davis Yancey, and detailed the story of Cap'n Bob Yancey, his charming and absent‐minded wife and all the Yancey children. The film explores societal roles in plantations of the "Old Dominion" around Lynchburg and their socio-economic implications, as well as the movement fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady For A Night
''Lady for a Night'' is a 1942 American drama film starring Joan Blondell and John Wayne. The World War II B-17 bomber the ''Memphis Belle'' is named after a steamboat in this film. It is also known as ''The Lady from New Orleans'', ''Memphis Belle'' and ''Lady of New Orleans''. The social climber female owner of a casino steamboat gains the ownership of plantation, and negotiates her marriage to the previous owner in order to gain entry in the upper class. Her new in-laws resent her, and she survives a poisoning attempt. When her husband is murdered instead, the widow is framed for his murder. Plot Social climber Jenny Blake owns the casino steamboat ''Memphis Belle'', together with the influential Jack Morgan. Most of the customers are from the upper class, but they have little respect for Jenny and her - in their opinion - vulgar occupation. Jack is secretly in love with Jenny. To show her what it really is she aspires to, he arranges for her to be made queen of the Mardi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bahama Passage
''Bahama Passage'' is a 1941 American drama film directed by Edward H. Griffith, starring Madeleine Carroll and Sterling Hayden. The film was primarily shot on Salt Cay, Turks Islands in Technicolor. Plot When his father dies in an accident, Adrian Ainsworth is forced to get a replacement as head of the family salt company on an island in the Caribbean. His mentally unstable mother firmly believes that her husband was murdered by one of their Bahama workers. Soon a Mr. Delbridge and his daughter Carol arrives to the island to run the company. Adrian is not happy with this solution though, and is reluctant to give Mr. Delbridge complete control of the company affairs. The new boss is quickly unpopular with the rest of the work force, including Adrian's right hand man Morales, who is hit by Delbridge when he fails to give him the keys to the house. Morales only wants to protect his friend Adrian's interests. The daughter Carol, a pretty and flirtatious socialite girl, shows a rom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Of The Zombies
''King of the Zombies'' is a 1941 American zombie comedy film directed by Jean Yarbrough and starring Dick Purcell, Joan Woodbury, and Mantan Moreland. The film was produced by Monogram Pictures, and was typical of its B films produced by the Pine-Thomas team. Along with flying scenes, the use of zany characters and slapstick efforts were juxtaposed with a spy and zombie story.Weaver 1993, pp. 36-45. Plot In 1941, a Capelis XC-12 transport aircraft flown by pilot James "Mac" McCarthy ( Dick Purcell) flying between Cuba and Puerto Rico runs low on fuel and is blown off course by a storm. McCarthy, unable to pick up any radio transmissions over the Caribbean, hears a faint radio signal. After crash-landing on a remote island, his passenger Bill Summers ( John Archer) and his black manservant/valet, Jefferson Jackson (Mantan Moreland) take refuge in a mansion owned by Dr. Miklos Sangre (Henry Victor) and his wife Alyce (Patricia Stacey). The quick-witted yet easily frightened ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Road To Zanzibar
''Road to Zanzibar'' is a 1941 Paramount Pictures semi-musical comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour, and marked the second of seven pictures in the popular "''Road to …''" series made by the trio. It takes place in the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Plot The film starts with con-artist Chuck Reardon singing "You Lucky People, You" as a side-show caller at a circus advertising an act featuring his friend Hubert "Fearless" Frazier. "Fearless" poses as a human cannonball, but quickly substitutes a dummy at the last minute and hides in a secret compartment. The flaming dummy sets the big tent on fire and the two of them flee to Africa. At a fancy restaurant, they're sent champagne by diamond baron Charles Kimble, who convinces Chuck to spend all their money on the deed to one of Kimble's diamond mines. When they find out Kimble is an eccentric and the deed is worthless, Fearless ends their partnership. Later that evening, Fearless comes back with a fistful of mone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia (1941 Film)
''Virginia'' is a 1941 American drama film directed by Edward H. Griffith and starring Madeleine Carroll, Fred MacMurray, Sterling Hayden (onscreen debut), Helen Broderick and Marie Wilson. Plot The film opens at the train station of the fictional Fairville, Virginia, as an African-American man named "Carburetor" is playing the guitar and singing. Jackson "Stoney" Elliott and his daughter, "Pretty", watch the arrival of a train that has brought Charlotte "Charlie" Dunterry to town. Charlie was born in Dunterry but has lived in New York where she worked in show business. She has returned to Fairville to sell the Dunterry estate where she was born and which she has inherited. Stoney and Charlie realize that they were childhood friends as he drives her out to the property. Stoney is married but estranged from his wife who lives in Europe. He lives with his daughter and his cousin, "Miss Theo", in a modest home near the Dunterry property. Charlie discovers that the 150-year-old f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
