Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 232
- Producer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Louis Lumière was a French engineer and industrialist who played a key role in the development of photography and cinema. His parents were Antoine Lumière, a photographer and painter, and Jeanne Joséphine Costille Lumière, who were married in 1861 and moved to Besançon, setting up a small photographic portrait studio. Here were born Auguste Lumière, Louis and their daughter Jeanne. They moved to Lyon in 1870, where their two other daughters were born: Mélina and Francine. Auguste and Louis both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. At age 17, Louis invented a new process for film development using a dry plate. This process was significantly successful for the family business, permitting the opening of a new factory with an eventual production of 15 million plates per year. In 1894, his father, Antoine Lumière, attended an exhibition of Edison's Kinetoscope in Paris. Upon his return to Lyon, he showed his sons a length of film he had received from one of Edison's concessionaires; he also told them they should try to develop a cheaper alternative to the peephole film-viewing device and its bulky camera counterpart, the Kinetograph. This inspired brothers Auguste and Louis to work on a way to project film onto a screen, where many people could view it at the same time. By early 1895 they invented a device which they called the Cinématographe, a three-in-one device that could record, develop, and project motion pictures, and patented it on 13 February 1895. Their screening of a single film, Leaving the Factory (1895), on 22 March 1895 for around 200 members of the Society for the Development of the National Industry in Paris was probably the first presentation of projected film. Their first commercial public screening at Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris on 28 December 1895 for around 40 paying visitors and invited relations has traditionally been regarded as the birth of cinema. The cinematographe was an immediate hit, and its influence was colossal. Within just two years, the Lumière catalogue included well over a thousand films, all of them single-shot efforts running under a minute, and many photographed by cameramen sent to various exotic locations. The Lumière brothers saw film as a novelty and had withdrawn from the film business by 1905. The Lumière freres' cinematographer was not their only invention. Mainly Louis is also credited with the birth of color photograph, the Autochromes, using a single exposure trichromic basis (instead of a long three-step exposure): a glass plaque is varnished and embedded with potato starch tinted in the three basic colors (rouge-orange, green and violet-blue), vegetal coal dust to fill the interstices and a black-and-white photographic emulsion layer to capture light. They were the main and more successful procedure for obtaining color photographs from 1903 to 1935, when Kodachrome, then Agfacolor and other less fragile film based procedures took over. An Autochrome is positivated from the same plaque, so they are unique images with a soft toned palette. As the Institut Lumière describes them, they are a middle point between photography and painting (akin specially to pointillism technique), because of their pastel shades and easy but still static pose looks.- Tully Marshall intended to pursue a legal career, until he tried a dramatic course at Santa Clara University. He started stage work in San Francisco in 1883 and moved to New York in 1887, where he played in various roles on Broadway and on the road. After a few small parts in films he was given the role of the High Priest of Babylon in the D.W. Griffith classic, Intolerance (1916). One of his finest roles in silents was that of an old frontiersman in another classic, The Covered Wagon (1923).
When sound arrived Marshall was very much in demand and worked for nearly every major studio. His last film was Behind Prison Walls (1943). He died on March 10, 1943, after a 60-year career in entertainment. - Actor
- Director
- Producer
A storybook hero, the original screen cowboy, ever forthright and honest, even when (as was often the case) he played a villain, William S. Hart lived for a while in the Dakota Territory, then worked as a postal clerk in New York City. In 1888 he began to study acting. In 1899 he created the role of Messala in "Ben-Hur", and received excellent reviews for his lead part in "The Virginian" (1907). His first film was a two-reeler, His Hour of Manhood (1914). In 1915 he signed a contract with Thomas H. Ince and joined Ince's Triangle Film Company. Two years later he followed Ince to Famous Players-Lasky and received a very lucrative contract from Adolph Zukor. His career began to dwindle in the early 1920s due to the publicity surrounding a paternity suit against him, which was eventually dismissed. He made his last film, Tumbleweeds (1925), for United Artists and retired to a ranch in Newhall, CA. By that time audiences were more interested in the antics of a Tom Mix or Hoot Gibson than the Victorian moralizing of Hart. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, NY.- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Richard Strauss was a German composer best known for symphonic poem 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1896) used as the music score in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by director Stanley Kubrick.
He was born Richard Georg Strauss on June 11, 1864, in Munich, Bavaria (now Germany). His father, named Franz Strauss, was the principal horn player at the Royal Opera in Munich. Young Strauss was taught music by his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of 6. From the age of 10 he studied music theory and orchestration with an assistant conductor of the Munich Court Orchestra. He was also attending orchestral rehearsals. In 1874 Strauss heard operas by Richard Wagner, but his father did not share his son's interest and forbade him to study Wagner's music until the age of 16.
Strauss studied philosophy and art history at Munich University, then at Berlin University. In 1885 he replaced Hans von Bulow as the principal conductor of the Munich Orchestra. Strauss emerged from under his father's influence when he met Alexander Ritter, a composer, and the husband of one of the nieces of Richard Wagner. He abandoned his father's conservative style and began writing symphonic tone poems. In 1894, Strauss married soprano singer Pauline Maria de Ahna. She was famous for being dominant and ill-tempered, but she was also a source of inspiration to Strauss, resulting in the preferred use of the soprano voice in his compositions.
The image of Richard Strauss and his music was abused by the Nazi propaganda machine, to a point of damaging the composer's posthumous reputation. Richard Strauss was trapped in Nazi Germany just as the Russian intellectuals were under Stalin in the Soviet regime. Strauss' name and music was used by the Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who appointed Strauss, without his consent, to the State Music Bureau, as a mask on the ugly regime. Strauss was commissioned to write the Olympic Hymn for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. His cautious apolitical position was the only way to survive and to protect his daughter-in-law Alice, who was Jewish.
In 1935 Strauss was fired from his job at the State Music Bureau. He refused to remove from the playbill the name of his friend and opera librettist, the writer Stefan Zweig, who was Jewish. Later Gestapo intercepted a letter from Strauss to Zweig, where Strauss condemned the Nazis. Strauss' daughter-in-law Alice was placed under the house arrest in 1938. In 1942 Strauss managed to move his Jewish relatives to Vienna. There Alice and Strauss's son were later again arrested and imprisoned for two nights. Only Strauss' personal effort saved them. They were returned under house arrest until the end of the Second World War.
Richard Strauss died on September 8, 1949, in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany at the age of 85. Strauss' symphonic poem 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1896) was recorded under the baton of Herbert von Karajan and was used as the music score in '2001: A Space Odyssey' by director Stanley Kubrik, as well as in many other films.- Alfred Stieglitz is undoubtedly one of the most significant contributors to the history of photography. He contributed not only scientific and artistic photographic studies, but also introduced modern art to America and furthered the theory of photography as art. Stieglitz was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on January 1, 1864.
The renowned photographer Stieglitz first studied photochemistry with Hermann Wilhelm Vogel at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin, from 1882-1886, and took his first photographs in 1883. He continued to travel and photograph in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland until 1890, when he returned to New York City. From 1890 to 1895 he was a partner in a photogravure firm. During this time he concentrated on photographing the streets of New York City. In 1894, Stieglitz travelled to Europe and was elected a member of the Linked Ring, a pictorialist society in London. In 1902, Stieglitz founded the Photo-Secession Movement which attempted to prove that pictorialist photography was a fine art form. From 1903 to 1917, Stieglitz was publisher and director of Camera Work magazine.
The graphic section was run by Edward Steichen (1879-1973). In 1905, Stieglitz opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession "291" on Fifth Avenue in New York City with Steichen. Along with the other original members, Gertrude Kasebier and Clarence H. White, they formulated their mission to secede from conventional expectations and explore the creative potential of photography from both a theoretical and scientific point of view. Needing space to gather, work and exhibit, the gallery was open to and exhibited such paintings by Cezanne, Picasso, Braque and Matisse. The gallery was also a gathering place for writers, philosophers and musicians.
Georgia O'Keeffe and Stieglitz began their relationship in 1917; she eventually became his wife. Over the next twenty years together, Stieglitz made more than 300 images of O'Keeffe.
Accomplished photographic scientist, photographer, gallery owner, art dealer, collector and writer, Stieglitz was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in 1971. Throughout his life, until his death in 1946, he fought for the art and science of photography. A great, fearless fight. And if he were alive today he would still be fighting. Photography as a respected art form is still not accepted by some today. - Frank Campeau was born on 14 December 1864 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for 3 Bad Men (1926), Battling Bunyan (1924) and The Life of the Party (1920). He was married to Sarah Estelle Lewis and Lillian Stratton Corbin. He died on 5 November 1943 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- John Jacob Astor was born on 13 July 1864 in Rhinebeck, New York, USA. He was married to Madeleine Talmadge Force and Ava Willing. He died on 15 April 1912 in North Atlantic Ocean.
- Louise Mackintosh was born on 24 December 1864 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for They Just Had to Get Married (1932), The Little Giant (1933) and Compromised (1931). She was married to Robert Rogers. She died on 1 November 1933 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
George Nichols was born on 28 October 1864 in Rockford, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Flirt (1922), The Midnight Express (1924) and Jess (1912). He was married to Viola Alberti. He died on 20 September 1927 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
David Torrence was the second child born out of eleven children to Henry Torrance Thomson and Janet Bryce. Davis given name was 'David Bryce Thomson." Born on Jan 17,1863 in Edinbough,Scotland. David's brother was character star 'Ernest Torrence' who was 15 years younger than David. Ernest was the first of the two to come to California and become actors. Educated in both England and Germany, David moved with equal ease from stage to screen in the early part of the 20th century. Following the completion of the classic silent films Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1913) with the legendary stage actress Minnie Maddern Fiske, and The Prisoner of Zenda (1913), however, David returned to focus on Broadway plays and enjoy life on a Mexican ranch. A steep reversal of fortunes aggravated a necessary return to Hollywood following World War I, and, fortunately for his fans, he stayed for nearly two decades. Playing a number of leads during his silent heyday, many of them men of influence, his portrayals of stern-faced villains may not have rivaled that of brother Ernest, but David made for quite a contemptible gent in a few. In his first sound picture, the historical drama Disraeli (1929), he played an austere-looking anti-Semitic head of the Bank of England whose refusal to finance the Suez canal results in action taken by Prime Minister Disraeli, played by George Arliss. David also went on to lend Arliss prime support in the comedy drama A Successful Calamity (1932), and in another biopic history lesson, Voltaire (1933). Come the advent of sound, his characters continued to prestigious characters (bankers, merchants, lawyers, and attorneys), but grew smaller in size until he faded out in unbilled parts, such as in The Dark Angel (1935) and Lost Horizon (1937). Comedy fans might remember David for his performance as Scots attorney Mr. Miggs in the Laurel and Hardy feature Bonnie Scotland (1935). His last roles included, Rulers of the Sea (1939) and Stanley and Livingstone (1939). David Torrence died Dec 26,1951 Beverly Hills, Ca. and is buried at the Inglewood Cemetery while others give 1951.- Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpinar was born on 17 August 1864 in Istanbul, Turkey. He was a writer, known for Efsuncu baba (1950), Mürebbiye (1919) and Cadi (2024). He died on 8 March 1944 in Istanbul, Turkey.
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Maurice Leblanc was a prolific French author born in Rouen on November 11, 1864. He had studied law, but abandoned that for a career in writing. He initially wrote for various periodicals, with "Une Femme" being his first published work in 1887. He gained fame in France and abroad after starting his Arsène Lupin series of novels. Lupin was a gentleman-thief who was a master of disguise and made his first appearance in 1905 in "L'arrestation d'Arséne Lupin". In 1908 LeBlanc pitted Lupin against Sherlock Holmes in "Arsène Lupin Versus Holmlock Shears". Leblanc would eventually produce 20 volumes worth of Lupin's adventures. On November 6, 1941, Leblanc died in Perpignan, France, at the age of 76.- Writer
- Actress
- Producer
Elinor Glyn was born on 17 October 1864 in Jersey, Channel Islands. She was a writer and actress, known for It (1927), Knowing Men (1930) and The Price of Things (1930). She was married to Clayton Glyn. She died on 23 September 1943 in London, England, UK.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Was a cafe concert entertainer before Charles Pathe noticed him during the Universal Exhibition, where Zecca had been assigned to Pathe's stand. After a few daysPathe asked Zecca if he would like to work in cinematography. Zecca immediately accepted the offer and rapidly became Pathe's right hand man and head of production.- Ben Webster was born on 2 June 1864 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Drake the Pirate (1935), The Gay Lord Quex (1917) and 12.10 (1919). He was married to May Whitty. He died on 26 February 1947 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Born into a large Bohemian-Polish family in Chicago on March 14, 1864, William N. Selig was one of the true pioneers of the motion picture industry. Though not widely remembered today, his Selig Polyscope Co. was responsible for many landmark events in early cinema. Among these were construction of the first permanent studio in Los Angeles in 1908-1909, production of the first cliff-hanger serial (The Adventures of Kathlyn (1913)) and the first film version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910).
After working as an upholsterer, then a vaudeville magician in Chicago, Selig traveled to northern California in 1890 to run a fruit ranch in a small town called Chicago Park. The move was partially necessitated by health problems he was having at the time. By 1893 William had recovered enough to start an African-American minstrel company known as "Selig and Johnson's Colored Minstrels." Performing in the San Francisco area, the most notable member of this troupe was Bert Williams, who would become the greatest African-American comedian of the vaudeville era.
Upon seeing an Edison Kinetescope at the Dallas Fair in 1894, Selig decided to return home to Chicago where he began working on his own camera-projection system. In 1896 he founded one of the world's first motion picture studios. From very modest beginnings, his Selig Polyscope Co. quickly grew to be one of the major players during the pioneer era. With the help of a machinist named Andrew Schustek, Selig designed one of the earliest camera-projectors. Based largely on the Lumiere Cinematographe, his invention would share its name with his fledgling studio.
The first decade of Selig Polyscope's operation was marked by legal turmoil, due largely to the efforts of Thomas A. Edison's lawyers. Finally, in 1909, Selig and several other studio heads formed an uneasy alliance with Edison. The resulting Motion Picture Patents Company and its distribution arm General Films would dominate the film industry until 1915. That year the independent companies won a major victory when the Supreme Court ruled the M.P.P.C. an illegal monopoly.
"Colonel" Selig's ambitions were not strictly confined to cinema. Around 1911 he began acquiring land for what would become the largest private zoo in the world. The Selig Zoo at Eastlake (now Lincoln) Park, in Los Angeles was a logical extension of his movie business. Over the years, William had accumulated a sizable collection of animals for his jungle movies. The 32-acre zoo allowed him to showcase his menagerie while leaving room for studios at the back of the grounds. Many famous animals resided at the zoo, including the original Leo the MGM lion.
Once the zoo/studio was in operation, Selig no longer needed the first L.A. studio that director Francis Boggs had opened for him in Edendale (now Echo Park). An up-and-coming producer named William Fox decided to lease that site for his soon-to-be-famous company. Another giant of the industry benefited from Selig's initial investment in Los Angeles. Louis B. Mayer moved into the studios at the zoo once Selig retired from major production around 1920. The Colonel had no desire to compete against these younger, more aggressive movie moguls.
There were other factors which led William to leave the industry he helped found. With the release of The Spoilers (1914) in 1914, Selig enjoyed his greatest success. At this point Selig Polyscope appeared to have a bright future, but things quickly changed. During this time the industry was evolving from producing the short films Selig specialized in to the modern feature-length productions. While William did make longer films like "The Spoilers," he felt shorts were the way of the future. The onset of World War I also hurt Selig Polyscope, given its extensive European operations. Finally, the dissolution of the Patents Company made the industry more competitive, dooming the pioneer studios.
Selig moved into independent production after closing his studios, working infrequently until the 1930s. The Colonel's glory days were past, though, and he faded into obscurity. The cost of operating a large zoo and the Great Depression had reduced Selig's fortune to nothing. He became a literary agent in his later years, selling off the story rights purchased years before for his films. In 1947 Selig and several other film pioneers were awarded special Oscars. He died the following year on July 15, with his loving wife of many years, Mary, at his side.- John Alexander was born on 13 September 1864. He was an actor, known for The Petrified Forest (1936) and Men in Exile (1937). He died on 5 April 1951 in Ontario, Canada.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
French director and actor of American and French films. He began his career as a stage actor at the Odeon in Paris, then at the Eclair, where he became artistic director and chief director of the theatre school in 1910. Five years later he traveled to America and began a successful career as a film director for a variety of American film companies. After more than a decade as a director, he returned abruptly to acting and appeared in a wide range of roles in a number of films before his death at 53.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
Along with his better-known French counterpart Georges Méliès George Albert Smith was one of the first filmmakers to explore fictional and fantastic themes, often using surprisingly sophisticated special effects. His background was ideal--an established portrait photographer, he also had a long-standing interest in show business, running a tourist attraction in his native Brighton featuring a fortune teller. His films were among the first to feature such innovations as superimposition (Smith patented a double-exposure system in 1897), close-ups and scene transitions involving wipes and focus pulls. He also patented Kinemacolor--the world's first commercial cinema color system--in 1906, which was extremely successful for a time, despite the special equipment required to project it- Alice was a silent screen comedic actress. She worked in a number of Keystone films and also appeared in the early films that Chaplin did. Other actors that Alice worked with who went on to become big stars were Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler . Alice was married and divorced from Broadway actor Harry Davenport. Alice was the mother of Dorothy Davenport who was married to Paramount matinee idol Wallace Reid.
- E. Holman Clark was born on 22 April 1864 in East Hothley, Sussex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Brass Bottle (1914), A Message from Mars (1913) and Once Aboard the Lugger (1920). He died on 7 September 1925 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Stunts
Started as a jockey and steeple-chase rider, then worked on "Lucky" Baldwin's ranch in Arcadia, California. Joined Ringling Bros. Circus and then with Burgess Pawnee Indian Show. Played in Vaudeville before being with Universal Film Company for six years, beginning in 1912. Was in Fox westerns with William Farnum for one year, with William S. Hart for three years and worked for Leo Maloney circa 1925 through 1929.- Elizabeth Feodorovna was born on 1 November 1864 in Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine, German Confederation [now Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany]. She was married to Grand Duke Sergei. She died on 18 July 1918 in Alapayevsk, Russian SFSR [now Alapayevsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia].
- Writer
- Soundtrack
A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson was born on 17 February 1864 in near Orange, New South Wales, Australia. He was a writer, known for Australia (2008), The Light Between Oceans (2016) and The Man from Snowy River (1920). He was married to Alice Walker. He died on 5 February 1941 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.- Character actor S.S. Simon--not to be confused with director S. Sylvan Simon, who occasionally went by the name S.S. Simon--was born in Sacramento, CA, in 1864. His parents were vaudeville actors, and as a child they used him in their act on a cross-country tour. As a teenager he left vaudeville and joined a circus and later joined the troupe of well-known actors Lawrence Barrett and Edwin Booth.
He left acting in the 1890s and enrolled in the Colorado School of Mines, where he learned the finer points of prospecting for oil. Upon leaving the school he headed for Death Valley, CA, to try his hand at oil prospecting. He hit a gusher there, and continued that winning streak at other sites throughout the state. When the oil boom hit Kern County (CA), he set up several oil companies to prospect there, and hit even more gushers.
When he turned 40 he sold his mine for $2 million, and spent the next year traveling around the world with his wife. Upon his return to the US, however, he discovered that the Taft administration had come to the conclusion that smaller oil companies hadn't been developing their holdings quickly enough, and canceled their oil leases. The government paid him for what he lost, but it wasn't anywhere near what he would have made if his leases hadn't been canceled. He embarked on another prospecting expedition, but this time with no luck. When he decided that Monterey County, CA, was the site where the next big oil strike would be made, he spent most of his money buying and developing fields there, but nothing panned out. He sold his businesses--including a cannery, a fleet of fishing boats and some factories--to raise money for the big strike he knew would come, but it never happened. By the mid-'20s he was flat broke.
Down but not out, he returned to an industry where he thought he could make at least enough money to survive on--Hollywood. He started getting jobs in "B" pictures--including a lot of westerns--as a bartender, townsman, homesteader and the like. In 1934 he appears to have landed a contract with Columbia, and appeared in many of their films.
He died in April of 1940 in Hollywood. - Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (Albert Victor Christian Edward "Eddy"; 8 January 1864 - 14 January 1892), was the eldest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and grandson of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria. From the time of his birth, he was second in the line of succession to the British throne, but never became king because he died before his father and grandmother.
After two unsuccessful courtships (to his cousin Tsarina Alexandra in 1889 - she would later marry Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, another of Albert Victor's cousins, in 1894 -, and with Princess Hélène of Orléans in 1890), he was engaged to be married to Queen Mary in late 1891. A few weeks later, he died during an influenza pandemic. Mary later married his younger brother, who became King George V in 1910. - Additional Crew
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec was born on 24 November 1864 in Albi, Tarn, France. He is known for Coded (2021). He died on 9 September 1901 in Saint-André-du-Bois, Gironde, France.- Richard Daniels was born on 23 January 1864 in Gwubach, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for The Little Minister (1922), Her Night of Nights (1922) and Girl Shy (1924). He died on 27 January 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Max Weber was born on 21 April 1864 in Erfurt, Kingdom of Prussia [now Thuringia, Germany]. He died on 14 June 1920 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
- Frank Wedekind was born on 24 July 1864 in Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover [now Lower Saxony, Germany]. He was a writer, known for Spring Awakening, Pandora's Box (1929) and Spring Awakening. He was married to Tilly Wedekind. He died on 9 March 1918 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
- 'Foxy' Lloyd was a failure in virtually everything he ever attempted in life. He married a domineering woman and suffered through a miserable marriage (they finally divorced in 1910; a scandalous event in those days). His work history consisted of literally dozens of careers and entrepreneurial ventures that quickly failed. In short, Foxy was a lot of talk (and how he loved to talk!), little action and virtually no follow-through. Nominally, he was employed as a sewing machine salesman for Singer and he demonstrated a glimmer of talent for creating a system of tracking down deadbeat clients. But this, along with his other so-called 'back-up trade' as a shoe salesman, were to be relied upon whenever his aspirations at other business ventures inevitably failed him. He began and failed at a multitude of businesses and get rich quick schemes that would usually fold within days. Foxy's inability to find himself left the Lloyd boys in a constant state of financial insecurity, moving around frequently across Nebraska and Colorado. Still, his sons Gaylord and, to a much greater extent, Harold, would be his greatest accomplishments. Harold was always far more attached to his father than his mother, despite Foxy's obvious shortcomings. After Foxy's divorce, a fortuitous buggy accident while working for Singer provided him with the means to go east or west. With cash in their pockets, Foxy and Harold flipped a coin and ended up in San Diego in 1913. Another one of Foxy's business ventures, a saloon/pool room, quickly failed there and they were soon reduced to living on the rent-free rooftop of an apartment building and eating day-old donuts. Foxy read about a Frank L. Baum movie being shot in conjunction with the city's Pan-American Exposition and suggested Harold (who had a limited amount of amateur acting experience in grade school) go see if he could 'get work in the flickers.' Harold had a fateful encounter with Hal Roach on the movie set, which built (albeit very slowly, Harold spent years laboring in Roach's low budget one-reel comedies beginning in 1915) into one of the most successful--- if not altogether the friendliest--- associations in silent film history. Once Harold became nominally established as an actor, Foxy rejoined him, happily hitching his wagon to his son's ascending star. Harold's rise to stardom accelerated exponentially when he gave up his 'Lonesome Luke' persona (an even earlier character was 'Will E. Work') in favor of his 'glasses' character in 1917. As Harold's popularity grew he expanded into 2-reel comedies beginning in 1920. Foxy was enlisted by Harold to become his archiver, a function that he performed with particular enthusiasm. Foxy maintained dozens of scrapbooks detailing every aspect of his son's career, which reached dizzying heights by the mid-1920s. In late 1921, Harold starred in his first feature-length comedy, A Sailor-Made Man (1921); the 40-minute film grew out of an originally-planned 2-reeler and earned an astonishing $485,000. Correctly sensing features as the pot of gold, Harold abandoned shorts and from 1921-30, everything he starred in was a hit. Arguably second only to Chaplin, Harold's films were at least as popular and he was far more prodigious, earning him at least $1.5 million per feature throughout the decade. Just prior to leaving Hal Roach, he started the privately held Harold Lloyd Corporation and Foxy was a equal shareholder (his ex-wife was not, although Harold provided for her across as much distance as possible). Foxy's no-less important secondary responsibility was to inscribe fan mail correspondence and fulfill (and autograph) Harold's publicity photos (nearly all inscribed photos of Harold prior to 1936 were actually signed by Foxy or occasionally another assistant, Roy Brooks). He performed these duties diligently until he retired to Palm Springs in 1936. Foxy outlived his son Gaylord (who also became an actor, but with little talent) and died in Los Angeles in 1947.
- Writer
- Actor
- Director
American novelist, writer and minister Thomas Dixon was born in Shelby, NC. His father was a Baptist minister and, by inheritance, a slave-owner. As a young boy Dixon helped out on the farms the family owned; although he would later say he detested farm labor, he admitted that it helped him to better understand the life of the working class Southerner after the Civil War. He came to despise what he saw as the collaboration among corrupt local politicians, occupying Union troops and an oppressive federal government that worked to keep down the defeated South. While still a young boy he became aware of the Ku Klux Klan when a local Confederate widow had accused a freed slave of raping her daughter. Getting no help from the authorities, the woman turned to Dixon's family--his uncle commanded the unit the widow's husband served in during the Civil War. The Klan found the accused rapist and dragged him to the town square, where they hanged and shot him. The incident made a deep impression on the young Dixon, who believed that the Klan's actions were justified since the woman--and, by extension, all Southerners--could not trust the governing authorities to protect them. Dixon's uncle and father were both Klan members, who joined because they saw the Klan as the only way to bring order to a South still embroiled in violence and outlawry after the war. However, they saw the Klan eventually turn into the kind of corrupt and brutal gang it was supposed to be protecting people against, and they soon left it.
Young Dixon entered the Shelby Academy in 1877, getting his diploma two years later, at which time he enrolled in Wake Forest University. An excellent student, it took him just four years to earn his masters degree in history and political science. After graduation he received a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University, where he befriended another student who went on to great success--future US President Woodrow Wilson (I).
In 1884 Dixon left Johns Hopkins for New York City, where he intended to have a career as a journalist and also act on the Broadway stage. His acting career was a bust, however, and he soon returned to North Carolina. He enrolled in Greensboro (NC) Law School, and in 1885 obtained his law degree. He then became involved in local politics, and was elected to the North Carolina legislature. However, he declined to run for re-election when his term was up, saying he was shocked and disgusted by the corruption and shady dealings he saw. He then became an advocate for the rights of Confederate veterans, and that gained him a following all through the South. After a short time practicing law, Dixon left the profession to become a minister. In 1886 he was ordained as a Baptist minister and moved to Greensboro, NC, then to Goldsboro. A year later he took over the Second Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC, then later was hired to take over a church in Boston, MA. In 1889 he took a position at a church in New York City. It was there that he ran into the "big time", associating with such well-known figures as John D. Rockefeller and Theodore Roosevelt (who he helped in Roosevelt's campaign for Governor of New York). However, Dixon eventually tired of what he saw as the corruption of the church, business and politics, and in 1895 he resigned from the Baptist ministry altogether, preferring to preach at nondenominational churches. He began preaching and lecturing all over the country, gaining an even bigger following, especially in the South. At one point he attended a production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel of the pre-Civil War South, "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Infuriated at what he considered the distortions, misrepresentations and falsehoods about the South in the play, he wrote his first novel, "The Leopard's Spots" (1902), which was meant as a refutation of Stowe's novel, and actually incorporated several of that novel's characters, including Simon Legree.
If there is one thing Dixon is famous for, however, it is his novel "The Clansman", a heavily romanticized fictional accounting of life in the post-Civil War South, in the period known as Reconstruction. It portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as the protectors of Southern womanhood against the ravages of newly freed black slaves and a force for law and order, instead of the murderous terrorist gang they actually were. The book was turned into a film by famed director D.W. Griffith (I)--the controversial The Birth of a Nation (1915).
Thomas Dixon died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Raleigh, NC, on April 3, 1946, at 82 years of age.- British novelist Robert Smythe Hichens was born at Speldhurst in Kent, England, in 1864. He was educated at a variety of schools, including the Royal College of Music in London (his father was H.C. Hichens, the Canon of Canterbury, and wanted his son to study at Oxford, but Robert preferred a musical education, and was eventually allowed to do so). He also studied journalism for a year, and after leaving that class he began to write, first for newspapers and then short stories. His first novel, "The Green Carnation", was inspired after he spent a winter in Egypt, and it turned out to be successful both in Europe and the US.
He joined the staff of the "London World" newspaper as music critic (his predecessor was George Bernard Shaw), a post he held for three years before resigning and embarking on a long period of travel and residing in a number of countries, including Italy and Switzerland, and traveling extensively in North Africa. where he got the inspiration to write what is one of his best known novels, "The Garden of Allah" (famously filmed with Marlene Dietrich as The Garden of Allah (1936)). Egypt again was the inspiration for another successful novel, "Bella Donna". His best known novel is probably "The Paradine Case", which was turned into a film by Alfred Hitchcock (The Paradine Case (1947)).
Hichens was a prolific writer, turning out approximately 50 books and a score of articles for various newspapers and magazines. He died in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1950. - Charles Herzinger was born on 10 August 1864 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Bat (1926), Rich Girl, Poor Girl (1921) and Honor Bound (1920). He died on 18 February 1953 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
William Collier Sr. was born on 12 November 1864 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Cain and Mabel (1936), A Successful Failure (1934) and Nothing But the Truth (1929). He was married to Paula Marr (actress) and Louise Allen. He died on 13 January 1944 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Lakshminath Bezbaruah was born on 14 October 1864 in Aahatguri, Nagaon, Assam, British Raj. He was a writer, known for Joymati (1935), Kukuri Kona (2005) and Kothanodi (2015). He was married to Pragyasundari Devi. He died on 26 March 1938 in Dibrugarh, Assam, India.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
English actress Vesta Tilley (1864 - 1952) was the most famous and well paid music hall male impersonator of her day, nicknamed 'The London Idol'. She was a star in both Britain and the United States for over thirty years. Tilley also appeared in some very early silent films.
Vesta Tilley was born as Matilda Alice Powles Worcester, England in 1864. She was the second of thirteen children. Her father was an ex-factory worker who worked as a comedy actor and sometimes theatre manager, using the name Harry Ball. His daughter first appeared on stage at the age of three and a half. Managed by her father, she was soon performing regularly, billed as 'The Great Little Tilley. Tilley was the family's nickname for Matilda. At the age of six she did her first role in male clothing under the name Pocket Sims Reeves, a parody of then-famous music-hall singer, J. Sims Reeves. It was a great success and her father quickly developed her music-hall act into a series of male impersonations, for which she wore specially tailored costumes. She would come to prefer doing male roles exclusively, saying that "I felt that I could express myself better if I were dressed as a boy". At the age of 11 she debuted in London at the Canterbury Hall the name Vesta Tilley. 'Vesta' referred to the trade-mark of the most popular safety-match, 'Swan Vesta'. In 1877, she performed in Portsmouth in her first pantomime and, the following year, made her first major London theatre appearance at the Royal Holborn. Tilley began to be known for her singing of comic numbers, including 'Girls are the Ruin of Men' and 'Angels without Wings', both by George Dance. In 1890 she married Walter de Frece, who was active in theatre management. Under his management, she established herself as one of the highest paid and most loved music-hall performers. In 1894, Vesta Tilley embarked on her first tour of the USA, starting at Tony Pastor's music hall in New York. She became almost as popular in America as she was in Britain and would return to the US on subsequent tours playing in New York and Chicago. In 1900 she made her film debut in the short The Midnight Son (1900, Walter Gibbons). The 3 minutes-long film was produced by Gibbons' Bio-Tableaux, which company also made with her Louisiana Lou (1900, Walter Gibbons) and Algy the Pickadilly Johnny (1900, Walter Gibbons). The latter was based on her act Algy, 'The Piccadilly Johnny with the Little Glass Eye'. Algy was described as 'the most perfectly dressed young man in the house'. In the cinema she also later appeared in the silent short Please Conductor, Don't Put Me Off the Train (1907, Arthur Gilbert) for Gaumont.
In 1912 Vesta Tilley appeared in the first Royal Variety Performance as Algy. It is said that Queen Mary was so shocked to see Tilley wearing men's trousers that she buried her head in her program. Tilley's popularity reached its all-time high point during World War I, when she and her husband ran a military recruitment drive, as did a number of other music-hall stars. In the guise of characters like 'Tommy in the Trench' and 'Jack Tar Home from Sea', Tilley performed songs like 'The army of today's all right' and 'Jolly Good Luck to the Girl who Loves a Soldier'. This is how she got the nickname Britain's best recruiting sergeant - young men were sometimes asked to join the army on stage during her show. She was prepared to be a little controversial. Famously, for example, she sang a song 'I've Got a Bit of a Blighty One', about a soldier who was delighted to have been wounded because it allowed him to go back to England and get away from extremely deadly battlefields. Tilley performed in hospitals and sold War Bonds. She also starred in the film The Girl Who Loves a Soldier (1916, Alexander Butler). It was a war drama about a tomboy who becomes a nurse and poses as a man to deliver her wounded fiancé's dispatches. After the war, Tilley's husband Walter de Frece was knighted in 1919 for his services to the war effort. Vesta Tilley became Lady Matilda Alice de Freece and so she decided that, with her husband's title and intention to enter the world of politics, it was no longer appropriate for her to perform in the variety theatre. Although she had contracts for stage appearance for the following six years, she announced that she would retire. Tilley made her last performance in 1920 at the Coliseum Theatre, London, at the age of 56. Nearly two million people signed the People's Tribute to her. In the 1924 elections, she campaigned for her husband, who was duly elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament. Upon his retirement in 1931, they moved to Monte Carlo. She returned to England after her husband's death in 1935. Her autobiography, Recollections of Vesta Tilley, was published in 1934. Vesta Tilley died in London in 1952, aged 88.- Mikhaylo Kotsyubinsky (1864 - 1913) was a Ukrainian modernist and impressionist writer in the Russian Empire. He was born into a poor family of a clerk in the city of Vinnitsa. From his youth Kotsyubinsky had to work hard in order to support his blind mother and his unemployed father with a big family. In 1880 he graduated from the Shargorod Theological Seminary where he studied classic languages, religion and history. His involvement in the popular political movement "Narodnaya Volya" led to his arrest in 1882 and a brief imprisonment. As a social democrat he remained under secret surveillance by the Russian police for most of his life.
Kotsyubinsky was a graduate school teacher until 1890, when he began to publish his writing. He promoted the Ukrainian language in literature and his main works were translated from Ukrainian into Russian and many other languages. Kotsyubinsky wrote about the life of simple folks, the hard working people, peasants and serfs, as well as about the beautiful folk traditions of the Ukrainian people. His writings were first published in Galitsiya (West Ukraine), because the Ukrainian language publications were banned in the Russian Empire. His large two-part novel "Fata Morgana" (1903-1910) revealed a comprehensive picture of life of the Ukrainian people just before and during the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, describing the life and traditions of the Ukrainian peasants and and their struggle against the corrupt landlords in Ukraine. In his most lyrical work "Shadows of the forgotten ancestors" (1912) he made a portrait of the Carpathian tribe, the Gutsuls.
His poor health required him to travel abroad for convalescence in Capri, Italy. There, in 1909, he met the Russian writer Maxim Gorky and the two writers became good friends and had several more meetings in the years ahead. Kotsyubinsky lived and worked in Chernigov from 1898 until his death in 1913. His home in the city of Chernigov is now a Memorial museum of the Ukrainian Literature. - George Foottit was born in Manchester, England. His parents were George Foottit and Sarah Crockett, both circus performers. He began his career at the age of twelve. He went into exile in France where he quickly established himself as a clown. In 1895, the clown duo, Foottit & Chocolat (Chocolat) was formed. The two played together for twenty years. After retiring, he ran a bar and restaurant near the Rond Point des Champs-Élysées. He died from cancer in Paris on 21 September 1921.
- Miguel de Unamuno was born at number 16 of the Ronda de Bilbao, in the neighborhood of Seven Streets. In 1900 he was appointed, with only 36 years old, president of the University of Salamanca for the first time, a post he came to hold three times. In 1921 he was appointed rector. His constant attacks on the king and the dictator Primo de Rivera dismiss him do it again and banished to Fuerteventura in February 1924. Although he was later pardoned, Unamuno voluntarily exiled to France; first to Paris and, soon after, to Hendaye in the French Basque Country. He stays until 1930, year in which Primo de Rivera's regime falls. On his return to Salamanca, he entered the city with a tremendous welcome. At the start of the Spanish civil war, initially he supported the rebels but later regret it publicly their support for the uprising. He died suddenly at his home in Bordadores Street (Salamanca), in the evening of December 31, 1936.
- Albert Roccardi was born on 9 May 1864 in Rome, Papal State [now Lazio, Italy]. He was an actor, known for Sunken Silver (1925), Partners in Crime (1928) and The Love Parade (1929). He died on 14 May 1934 in Paris, France.
- His family was strictly Catholic. The father was a judicial councilor and notary. Alois Alzheimer attended high school in Aschaffenburg. Alzheimer's was enthusiastic about science while still at school. In 1883 he passed his high school diploma and began studying medicine in Berlin. He later also studied in Tübingen and Würzburg. In 1887, Alzheimer completed his dissertation with a histological study of the cerumen glands at the University of Würzburg. After studying, Alzheimer met a mentally ill lady and went traveling with her. After this trip he became more and more interested in psychology. The following year, 1888, he came to the Frankfurt mental asylum as an assistant. This institution was considered very progressive for the time and research was also carried out there. In Frankfurt, Alzheimer met the pathologist Franz Nissl, with whom he remained friends throughout his life.
In 1895, Alzheimer was appointed second assistant (senior physician) to succeed Nissl. In April 1894, Alzheimer married the widow Cäcilia Wallerstein. The marriage resulted in three children. Because his wife was wealthy, Alzheimer was able to devote himself to research without worry. In 1901 Cecilia died of angina. On November 26, 1901, Auguste Deter went down in history as the first "Alzheimer's patient". The patient with symptoms of memory impairment died in 1906. Alzheimer undertook a brain pathological examination and discovered herd-shaped deposits, the "Alzheimer's plaques and fibrils". Alois Alzheimer was then appointed head of the anatomical laboratory at the Munich Mental Hospital in 1903 by the psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin. In the years that followed, Alzheimer investigated additional cases of senile dementia. In 1904 he completed his habilitation with the work "Histological studies on the differential diagnosis of progressive paralysis."
Alzheimer worked unpaid for several years because there was no permanent position for him. He is also said to have financed some of his employees out of his own pocket. He probably followed his father's saying: "The stronger should support the weaker." In 1908 Alzheimer was finally appointed associate professor. Two years later, Kraepelin used the term "Alzheimer's disease" for the first time in his textbook. In 1912 Alzheimer was appointed full professor of psychiatry and clinic director at the University of Breslau. Shortly after his arrival, however, Alzheimer became ill with a bacterial inflammation of the inner lining of the heart.
Alois Alzheimer died on December 19, 1915 at the age of 52.
The syndrome of senile dementia he discovered and described is becoming increasingly widespread as the population ages. Former US President Ronald Reagan was one of the most prominent victims of Alzheimer's disease. - Walter Walker was born on 13 March 1864 in New York, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), Everybody's Old Man (1936) and Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933). He died on 4 December 1947 in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, USA [now Hawaii, USA].
- Edwin Denison was born on 5 November 1864 in Williamstown, Vermont, USA. He was an actor, known for The Seven Swans (1917), The Town That Forgot God (1922) and The Black Circle (1919). He was married to Gertrude Marsh. He died on 26 January 1928 in White Plains, New York, USA.
- Alma Aiken was born on 13 September 1864 in New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Test of Honor (1919) and The Master Mind (1920). She was married to Paul/ George William Matthews. She died on 10 September 1949 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
- Stefan Zeromski was born on 14 October 1864 in Strawczyn, Poland, Russian Empire [now Strawczyn, Swietokrzyskie, Poland]. He was a writer, known for Wierna rzeka (1936), Story of a Sin (1933) and Wiatr od morza (1930). He was married to Anna Zawadzka and Oktawia Radziwllowicz. He died on 20 November 1925 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.
- Soundtrack
H.H. Morant was born on 9 December 1864 in Bridgwater, Somerset, England, UK. He died on 27 February 1902 in Pietersburg, Transvaal Colony.- Nellie Bly was born on 5 May 1864 in Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania, USA. Nellie was a writer, known for The Nellie Bly Story (2020). Nellie died on 27 January 1922 in New York, New York, USA.
- Wadsworth Harris was born on 9 October 1864 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Graft (1915), The Right to Be Happy (1916) and The Declaration of Independence (1911). He died on 1 November 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Charles A. Taylor was born on 20 January 1864 in South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Through Eyes of Men (1920), The Half Breed (1922) and Mister 44 (1916). He was married to Laurette Taylor and Emma McKenna. He died on 21 March 1942 in Glendale, California, USA.