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Willis O' Brien
Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962) was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history," and is best remembered for his work on '' The Lost World'' (1925), ''King Kong'' (1933), ''The Last Days of Pompeii'' (1935) and '' Mighty Joe Young'' (1949), for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Biography Willis O'Brien was born in Oakland, California. He first left home at the age of eleven to work on cattle ranches, and again at the age of thirteen when he took on a variety of jobs including farmhand, factory worker, fur trapper, cowboy, and bartender. During this time he also competed in rodeos and developed an interest in dinosaurs while working as a guide to palaeontologists in Crater Lake region. He spent his spare time sculpting and illustrating and his natural talent led to him being employed firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay Area and the List of largest California cities by population, eighth most populated city in California. With a population of 440,646 in 2020, it serves as the Bay Area's trade center and economic engine: the Port of Oakland is the busiest port in Northern California, and the fifth busiest in the United States of America. An act to municipal corporation, incorporate the city was passed on May 4, 1852, and incorporation was later approved on March 25, 1854. Oakland is a charter city. Oakland's territory covers what was once a mosaic of California coastal prairie, California coastal terrace prairie, oak woodland, and north coastal scrub. In the late 18th century, it became part of a large ''rancho'' grant in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Prehistoric Tragedy
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry O
''Harry O'', sometimes spelled ''Harry-O'', is an American Detective fiction, private detective series that aired for two seasons on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1974 to 1976. The series starred David Janssen, and Jerry Thorpe was executive producer. ''Harry O'' followed the broadcast of two Television pilot, pilot films: firstly ''Such Dust as Dreams Are Made On'' (which aired on March 11, 1973) and secondly (with noticeable retooling) ''Smile Jenny, You're Dead'' (which aired on February 3, 1974), both starring Janssen. Synopsis David Janssen starred as the title character Harry Orwell, a San Diego cop forced into retirement when he is shot in the back. To support himself, he sets up a Private investigator, private investigation practice out of his beach house on Coronado Island, in San Diego. Henry Darrow originally starred as Lt. Manny Quinlan, his friend and police contact. For the second half of the first season, the series was retooled, with the location of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agathaumas
''Agathaumas'' (; "great wonder") is a dubious genus of a large ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in Wyoming during the Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian stage, 66 million years ago). The name comes from grc, αγαν - 'much' and - 'wonder'. It is estimated to have been long and weighed , and was seen as the largest land animal known at the time of its discovery. It was the first ceratopsian known to science from more than teeth, though relatively little is known about it. The original specimen consisted only of the animal's hip bones, hip vertebrae and ribs, and because these bones vary little between ceratopsid species, it is usually considered a ''nomen dubium''. It is provisionally considered a synonym of ''Triceratops'', but is difficult to compare to that genus because it is only known from postcranial remains. History The holotype remains of ''Agathaumas'' were first found in 1872 in southwestern Wyoming. They were discovered by Fielding Bradford Meek and Henry Martyn B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolution (1923 Film)
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation tends to exist within any given population as a result of genetic mutation and recombination. Evolution occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection (including sexual selection) and genetic drift act on this variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more common or more rare within a population. The evolutionary pressures that determine whether a characteristic is common or rare within a population constantly change, resulting in a change in heritable characteristics arising over successive generations. It is this process of evolution that has given rise to biodiversity at every level of biological organisation, including the levels of species, individual organisms, and molecules. The theory of evolution by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ghost Of Slumber Mountain
''The Ghost of Slumber Mountain'' is a 1918 film written and directed by special effects pioneer Willis O'Brien, produced by Herbert M. Dawley, and starring both men. It is the first film to show live actors and stop-motion creatures together on the screen and is often cited as a trial run for '' The Lost World''. An advertising tagline for the film read "These giant monsters of the past are seen to breathe, to live again, to move and battle as they did at the dawn of life!". The film attracted the interest of Watterson R. Rothacker, founder of the Industrial Motion Picture Company, who was so impressed by the film's special effects, he joined forces with O'Brien to create the dinosaurs of ''The Lost World'' (1925), a classic that advanced the development of special effects techniques. ''The Ghost of Slumber Mountain'' originally took up 3000 feet of film and three reels, equivalent to approximately 40 minutes. However, after the film premiered at the Strand Theater, manager Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nippy's Nightmare
Nippy's is a drink manufacturer in South Australia. The company is 100% owned by a South Australian family with all of its products being made in Australia. The company produces Fruit Juices, Flavoured Milks and UHT Milk. Following a salmonella outbreak in 2003 the company was awarded 3 million in damages after they were supplied with infected oranges. In 2011, the company commenced only using Australian grown oranges in its products for the first time since 2006. In 2016, the company announced it intended to expand its operations in the Riverland region. The $967,000 expansion was made possible with a 400,000 grant from the Federal government. The company completed an 10 million plant in 2017 to produce flavoured milk bottles in addition to the existing range of flavoured milk boxes. In 2021, the company announced they intended to remove voluntary health rating logos from their products after the fruit juice range rating changed from 5 stars to two stars following a review ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Puzzling Billboard
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conquest Pictures
Conquest Pictures was a film production unit launched in 1917 as part of Thomas A. Edison Inc. It produced films for young people and families including subjects from popular children's authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Richard Harding Davis, Ralph Henry Barbour, and Mary Shipman Andrews. Anna M. Callan was in charge of the division. Its films were distributed through the George Kleine System. It closed in 1918 and its films were sold off as Edison exited the film production business. Background Conquest's first release was July 14, 1917. The Conquest Pictures plan included weekly releases of 7 reels of film including varying content such as a main 4-reel film, a 1-reel comedy, a 1-reel travel feature, and magazine style news reel. The films could also be ordered individually. The programs were intended to be promoted by involvement from women's clubs who advocated for wholesome fare and marketed to educators and families. In February 1918, an advertisement touting Conque ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prehistoric Poultry
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world his ... with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared 5000 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing spreading to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at very different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. In the early Bronze Age, Sumer in Mesopotamia, the I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theme (literary)
In contemporary literary studies, a theme is a central topic, subject, or message within a narrative. Themes can be divided into two categories: a work's ''thematic concept'' is what readers "think the work is about" and its ''thematic statement'' being "what the work says about the subject". Themes are often distinguished from premises. The most common contemporary understanding of theme is an idea or point that is central to a story, which can often be summed in a single word (for example, love, death, betrayal). Typical examples of themes of this type are conflict between the individual and society; coming of age; humans in conflict with technology; nostalgia; and the dangers of unchecked ambition. A theme may be exemplified by the actions, utterances, or thoughts of a character in a novel. An example of this would be the thematic idea of loneliness in John Steinbeck's ''Of Mice and Men'', wherein many of the characters seem to be lonely. It may differ from the thesis—the te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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