1.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
2.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
3.
20th Century Fox
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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, the studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2015, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 80th anniversary as a studio. Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, the studios biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn, at first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called Fox-20th Century, even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, the new company, 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31,1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985. Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President, Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Foxs longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan. The company established a training school. The contracts included an option for renewal for as long as seven years. For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The companys films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their credits as well as its opening fanfare. Also on the Fox payroll he found two players who he built up into the studios leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple, favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox overtook RKO, while Zanuck went off for eighteen months war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by going for light entertainment. The studios—indeed the industrys—biggest star was creamy blonde Betty Grable, in 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Foxs output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razors Edge, Wilson, Gentlemans Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and they also made the 1958 film version of South Pacific
4.
John Garfield
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John Garfield was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City, in the early 1930s, he became a member of the Group Theater. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner Bros. stars, called to testify before the U. S. Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities, he denied communist affiliation and refused to name names, some have alleged that the stress of this incident led to his premature death at 39 from a heart attack. Garfield is acknowledged as a predecessor of such Method actors as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, in early infancy, a middle name—Julius—was added, and for the rest of his life those who knew him well called him Julie. His father, a presser and part-time cantor, struggled to make a living. When Garfield was five, his brother Max was born and their mother never fully recovered from what was described as a difficult pregnancy. She died two years later, and the boys were sent to live with various relatives, all poor, scattered across the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens. Several of these lived in tenements in a section of East Brooklyn called Brownsville. At school, he was judged a poor reader and speller and he would later say of his time on the streets there, that he learned all the meanness, all the toughness its possible for kids to acquire. His father remarried and moved to the West Bronx, where Garfield joined a series of gangs, much later, he would recall, Every street had its own gang. Thats the way it was in poor sections and he soon became a gang leader. At this time, people started to notice his ability to mimic well-known performers and he also began to hang out and eventually spar at a boxing gym on Jerome Avenue. At some point, he contracted fever, causing permanent damage to his heart. After being expelled three times and expressing a wish to quit school altogether, his parents sent him to P. S,45, a school for difficult children. It was under the guidance of the schools principal—the noted educator Angelo Patri—that he was introduced to acting, noticing Garfields tendency to stammer, Patri assigned him to a speech therapy class taught by a charismatic teacher named Margaret ORyan. She gave him acting exercises and made him memorize and deliver speeches in front of the class and, as he progressed, ORyan thought he had natural talent and cast him in school plays. She encouraged him to sign up for a citywide debating competition sponsored by the New York Times, to his own surprise, he took second prize
5.
Fritz Lang
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Friedrich Christian Anton Fritz Lang was an Austrian-German filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best-known émigrés from Germanys school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the Master of Darkness by the British Film Institute. His most famous include the groundbreaking futuristic Metropolis and the also influential M. Lang was born in Vienna as the son of Anton Lang, an architect and construction company manager. He was baptized on December 28,1890, at the Schottenkirche in Vienna, Langs parents were of Moravian descent and practicing Roman Catholics. His parents took their religion seriously and were dedicated to raising Fritz as a Catholic, Lang frequently had Catholic-influenced themes in his films. Late in life, he described himself as born Catholic, after finishing school, Lang briefly attended the Technical University of Vienna, where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. In 1910 he left Vienna to see the world, traveling throughout Europe and Africa and later Asia, in 1913, he studied painting in Paris, France. At the outbreak of World War I, Lang returned to Vienna and volunteered for service in the Austrian army and fought in Russia and Romania. While recovering from his injuries and shell shock in 1916, he wrote some scenarios, Langs writing stint was brief, as he soon started to work as a director at the German film studio Ufa, and later Nero-Film, just as the Expressionist movement was building. In 1920, he met his wife, the writer. Considered by many scholars to be his masterpiece, M is a disturbing story of a child murderer who is hunted down. M remains a work, it was remade in 1951 by Joseph Losey, but this version had little impact on audiences. During the climactic scene in M, Lang allegedly threw Peter Lorre down a flight of stairs in order to give more authenticity to Lorres battered look. Lang, who was known for being hard to work with, epitomized the stereotype of the tyrannical German film director and his wearing a monocle added to the stereotype. At the end of 1932, Lang started filming The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933, and by March 30, the new regime banned it as an incitement to public disorder. Testament is sometimes deemed an anti-Nazi film as Lang had put phrases used by the Nazis into the mouth of the title character. Lang had stated that it was during this meeting that he had decided to leave for Paris –, Lang has stated that he fled that very evening
6.
Tyrone Power
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Tyrone Edmund Power III was an American film, stage and radio actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s Power appeared in dozens of films and his better-known films include The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan, Prince of Foxes, Witness For The Prosecution, The Black Rose, and Captain from Castile. Powers own favorite film among those that he starred in was Nightmare Alley, though largely a matinee idol in the 1930s and early 1940s and known for his striking looks, Power starred in films in a number of genres, from drama to light comedy. In the 1950s he began placing limits on the number of films he would make in order to more time for theater productions. He received his biggest accolades as an actor in John Browns Body. Power died from an attack at the age of 44. Power was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1914, son of Helen Emma Patia, Power was descended from a long theatrical line going back to his great-grandfather, the actor and comedian Tyrone Power. Tyrone Powers sister, Ann Power was born in 1915, after the family moved to California and his fathers ancestry included Irish, English, Scottish, Italian, German, and French Huguenots. His mother was Roman Catholic, and her ancestry included the French-Canadian Reaume family, Power went to Cincinnati-area Catholic schools and graduated from Purcell High School in 1931. Upon his graduation, he opted to join his father to learn what he could about acting from one of the stages most respected actors, Power joined his father for the summer of 1931, after being separated from him for some years due to his parents divorce. His father suffered an attack in December 1931, dying in his sons arms. Tyrone Power, Jr. as he was known, decided to continue his pursuit of an acting career. He went door to door, trying to work as an actor. He appeared in a bit part in 1932 in Tom Brown of Culver, discouraged, he took the advice of a friend, Arthur Caesar, to go to New York to gain experience as a stage actor. Power went to Hollywood in 1936, the director Henry King was impressed with his looks and poise, and he insisted that Power be tested for the lead role in Lloyds of London, a role thought already to belong to Don Ameche. Despite his own reservations, Darryl F. Zanuck decided to give Power the role, once King, Power was billed fourth in the movie but he had by far the most screen time of any actor. He walked into the premiere of the movie an unknown and he walked out a star, which he remained the rest of his career. Power racked up hit after hit from 1936 until 1943, when his career was interrupted by military service. A. F. and This Above All, and the swashbucklers The Mark of Zorro and The Black Swan
7.
Errol Flynn
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Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor who achieved fame in Hollywood after 1935. He was known for his romantic roles in Hollywood films, as well as frequent partnerships with Olivia De Havilland. Errol Leslie Flynn was born in a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania and his mother was born Lily Mary Young, but shortly after marrying Theodore at St. Johns Church of England, Birchgrove, Sydney, on 23 January 1909, she changed her first name to Marelle. Flynn described his mothers family as seafaring folk and this appears to be where his lifelong interest in boats, both of his parents were native-born Australians of Irish, English, and Scottish descent. Despite Flynns claims, the evidence indicates that he was not descended from any of the Bounty mutineers and his formal education ended with his expulsion from Shore for theft, and, he later claimed, for a sexual encounter with the schools laundress. He spent the five years oscillating between the New Guinea frontier territory and Sydney. In January 1931, he engaged to Naomi Campbell-Dibbs, the youngest daughter of Mr and Mrs R Campbell-Dibbs of Temora and Bowral NSW. Chauvel was looking for someone to play the role of Fletcher Christian, there are different stories how Errol Flynn was cast. According to one, Chauvel saw his picture in an article about a wreck involving Flynn. The most popular account is that he was discovered by cast member John Warwick, the film was not a strong success at the box office, but it was the lead role and seemed to ignite Flynns interest in acting. In late 1933 he returned to Britain to pursue a career in acting, Northampton is home to an art-house cinema named after him, the Errol Flynn Filmhouse. He performed at the 1934 Malvern Festival and in Glasgow, in 1934 Flynn was dismissed from Northampton Rep. after he threw a female stage manager down a stairwell. Asher cast him as the lead in Murder at Monte Carlo, the movie was not widely seen ), but Asher was enthusiastic about Flynns performance and cabled Warner Bros in Hollywood, recommending him for a contract. Executives agreed, and Flynn was sent out to Los Angeles, on the ship from London, Flynn met Lili Damita, an actress five years his senior whose contacts proved valuable when Flynn arrived in Los Angeles. Warner Bros publicity described him as an Irish leading man of the London stage and his first appearance was a small role in The Case of the Curious Bride. Flynn had two scenes, one as a corpse and one in flashback and his next part was slightly bigger, in Dont Bet on Blondes, a B-picture screwball comedy. Warner Bros were preparing a big budget movie, Captain Blood, based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini. They originally intended to cast Robert Donat but he turned down the role, Warners considered a number of other actors, including Leslie Howard and conducted screen tests of those they had under contract, such as Flynn
8.
The Ed Sullivan Show
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The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that ran on CBS from Sunday June 20,1948, to Sunday June 6,1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, in 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the series finished No.31 in TV Guide Magazines 60 Best Series of All Time, the format was essentially the same as vaudeville, and although vaudeville had died a generation earlier, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show. The last original Sullivan show telecast was on March 28,1971, with guests Melanie, Joanna Simon, Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, repeats were scheduled through June 6,1971. While most of the episodes aired live from New York City, the show aired live on occasion from other nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia. For many years, Ed Sullivan was an event each Sunday evening. In those days, we had six acts. Then, each of our acts would do a leisurely ten minutes or so, Now they do two or three minutes. And in those early days I talked too much, I look up at me talking away and I say You fool. But I just keep on talking, Ive learned how to keep my mouth shut. The show enjoyed phenomenal popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s and he was regarded as a kingmaker, and performers considered an appearance on his program as a guarantee of stardom, although this sometimes did not turn out to be the case. The shows iconic status is illustrated by the song Hymn for a Sunday Evening from the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, in the song, a family of viewers expresses their regard for the program in worshipful tones. In September 1965, CBS started televising the program in compatible color, CBS had once backed its own color system, developed by Peter Goldmark, and resisted using RCAs compatible process until 1954. At that time, it built its first New York City color TV studio, Studio 72, in a former RKO movie theater at 2248 Broadway. One Ed Sullivan Show was broadcast on August 22,1954, from the new studio, CBS Studio 72 was demolished in 1986 and replaced by an apartment house. CBS Studio 50 was finally colorized in 1965, the 1965–66 season premiere starred the Beatles in an episode airing on September 12, which was the last episode to air in black and white. In the late 1960s, Sullivan remarked that his program was waning as the decade went on and he realized that to keep viewers, the best and brightest in entertainment had to be seen, or else the viewers were going to keep on changing the channel. Along with declining viewership, Ed Sullivan attracted a higher age for the average viewer as the seasons went on
9.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
10.
Paul Newman
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Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor. Newmans other films include The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as Butch Cassidy, The Sting, and The Verdict. Despite being colorblind, Newman won several championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing. He was a co-founder of Newmans Own, a company from which he donated all post-tax profits. As of 2016, these donations have totaled over US$460 million and he was also a co-founder of Safe Water Network, a nonprofit that develops sustainable drinking water solutions for those in need. In 1988, Newman founded the SeriousFun Childrens Network, a family of summer camps. Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the son of Theresa and Arthur Sigmund Newman. Newmans father was Jewish, and was the son of Simon Newman and Hannah Cohn, immigrants from Hungary, Newman had no religion as an adult, but described himself as a Jew, saying its more of a challenge. Newmans mother worked in his fathers store, while raising Paul and his brother, Arthur. Newman showed an early interest in the theater, his first role was at the age of seven, playing the court jester in a school production of Robin Hood. At age 10, Newman performed at the Cleveland Play House in a production of Saint George and the Dragon, graduating from Shaker Heights High School in 1943, he briefly attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he was initiated into the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. Newman served in the United States Navy in World War II in the Pacific theater, initially, he enrolled in the Navy V-12 pilot training program at Yale University, but was dropped when his colorblindness was discovered. Boot camp followed, with training as a radioman and rear gunner, qualifying in torpedo bombers in 1944, Aviation Radioman Third Class Newman was sent to Barbers Point, Hawaii. He later flew as a gunner in an Avenger torpedo bomber. As a radioman-gunner, his unit was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill along with other replacements shortly before the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945, the pilot of his aircraft had an ear infection which kept their plane grounded. The rest of their squadron flew to the Bunker Hill, days later, a kamikaze attack on the vessel killed a number of service members, including the other members of his unit. After the war, Newman completed his Bachelor of Arts in drama and economics at Kenyon College in Gambier, shortly after earning his degree, he joined several summer stock companies, most notably the Belfry Players in Wisconsin and the Woodstock Players in Illinois. He toured with them for three months and developed his talents as a part of Woodstock Players and he later attended the Yale School of Drama for one year, before moving to New York City to study under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio
11.
Bobby Darin
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Bobby Darin was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actor of film and television. He performed in a range of genres, including jazz, pop, rock n roll, folk, swing. He started as a songwriter for Connie Francis, and recorded his own first million-seller Splish Splash in 1958 and this was followed by Dream Lover, Mack the Knife, and Beyond the Sea, which brought him world fame. In 1962 he won a Golden Globe Award for his first film Come September, co-starring his first wife, during the 1960s he became more politically active and worked on Robert F. Kennedys Democratic presidential campaign. He was present on the night of June 4/5,1968 and that same year he discovered that he had been brought up by his grandmother, not his mother, and that the girl he had thought to be his sister was actually his mother. These events deeply affected Darin and sent him into a period of seclusion. Although he made a successful comeback - in television - his health was beginning to fail, as he had always expected and this knowledge of his vulnerability had always spurred him on to exploit his musical talent while still young. He died at age 37, following an operation in Los Angeles. Born Walden Robert Cassotto in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, Bobby Darin was reared by his maternal grandmother, Darins birth mother, Vanina Juliette Nina Cassotto, became pregnant with him in the summer of 1935 when she was 17. Presumably because of the nature of out-of-wedlock pregnancies in that era, Nina. Darins maternal grandfather, Saverio Antonio Big Sam Curly Cassotto, was of Italian descent and his maternal grandmother, Vivian Fern Walden, who called herself Polly, was of English ancestry and a vaudeville singer. From his birth, Darin always believed Nina to be his older sister, but in 1968, when he was 32, Nina told Darin the truth, reportedly devastating him. By the time he was a teenager, Darin could play several instruments, including piano, drums and he later added harmonica and xylophone. Darin moved to the Bronx early in his life and graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, in later years he attributed his arrogance to his experiences at the high school, where he was surrounded by brighter students who would tease him. He then enrolled at Hunter College and soon gravitated to the drama department, after only two semesters, he dropped out to pursue an acting career. Darins career took off with a partnership, formed in 1955 with Don Kirshner. They wrote jingles and songs, beginning with Bubblegum Pop, in 1956 his agent negotiated a contract with Decca Records. The songs recorded at Decca had very little success, a member of the Brill Building gang of struggling songwriters, Darin was introduced to singer Connie Francis, for whom he helped write several songs
12.
Sandra Dee
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Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model, working in commercials before transitioning to film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénues, Dee earned a Golden Globe Award as one of the years most promising newcomers for her performance in Robert Wises Until They Sail. She became a star for her subsequent performances in Imitation of Life and Gidget. By the late 1960s her career had started to decline, and she rarely acted after this time, and her final years were marred by illness. She died in 2005 at the age of 62 of complications from kidney disease and she was of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry, and raised in the Russian Orthodox faith. Dee recalled, we belonged to a Russian Orthodox Church, alexandra would soon take the name Sandra Dee. She became a model by the age of 4 and subsequently progressed to television commercials. There has been dispute as to Dees actual birth year. Legal records, including her California divorce record from Bobby Darin, as well as the Social Security Death Index, in a 1967 interview with the Oxnard Press-Courier, she acknowledged being 18 in 1960 when she first met Bobby Darin, and the couple wed three months later. According to her sons book, Dee was born in 1944, according to this version, this explains why 1942 was listed as her birth year in official studio press releases. It does not however explain why her gravestone, which had to have been commissioned by her son, her child and sole immediate survivor. Dees parents divorced in 1950, and her then married a man who reportedly sexually abused Dee. Producer Ross Hunter claimed to have discovered Dee on Park Avenue in New York City with her mother when she was years old. In a 1959 interview, Dee recalled that she grew up fast, surrounded mostly by older people, during her modeling career, Dee attempted to lose weight to be as skinny as the high-fashion models, although an improper diet ruined skin, hair, nails—everything. Having slimmed down, her body was unable to digest any food she ate, according to the actress, she could have killed and had to learn to eat all over again. According to sources, Dees large modeling salary was more than she would come to earn as an actress. Ending her modeling career, Dee moved from New York to Hollywood in 1957, after studying at the Hollywood Professional School, she graduated from University High School in Los Angeles in June 1958
