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Brenda Jackson Drake
Brenda is a feminine given name in the English language. Origin The overall accepted origin for the female name Brenda is the Old Nordic male name ''Brandr'' meaning both ''torch'' and ''sword'': evidently the male name Brandr took root in areas of the British Isles under Nordic dominance and through being heard as '"Brenda" was eventually adopted as a female name. The name Brenda was probably influenced by the iconic Gaelic male name Brendan: although linguistically it is unlikely that the name Brendan would yield the name Brenda as its feminine form, the name Brenda is widely considered a feminine form of the name Brendan in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. History The British Isles Occurring in the medieval legend of Madoc—the purported son of the 12th century historical Welsh ruler Owain Gwynedd by Brenda the daughter of a Viking overlord in Ireland—the name Brenda was apparently until the 19th century confined to the Northern Isles being an evident remnant of the Northern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples that Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, migrated to Britain after its End of Roman rule in Britain, Roman occupiers left. English is the list of languages by total number of speakers, most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British Empire (succeeded by the Commonwealth of Nations) and the United States. English is the list of languages by number of native speakers, third-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish language, Spanish; it is also the most widely learned second language in the world, with more second-language speakers than native speakers. English is either the official language or one of the official languages in list of countries and territories where English ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decline and Fall'' (1928) and ''A Handful of Dust'' (1934), the novel ''Brideshead Revisited'' (1945), and the Second World War trilogy ''Sword of Honour'' (1952–1961). He is recognised as one of the great prose stylists of the English language in the 20th century. Waugh, the son of a publisher, was educated at Lancing College and then at Hertford College, Oxford. He worked briefly as a schoolmaster before he became a full-time writer. As a young man, he acquired many fashionable and aristocratic friends and developed a taste for country house society. He travelled extensively in the 1930s, often as a special newspaper correspondent; he reported from Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia at the time of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935 Italian inva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brenda Joyce (actress)
Brenda Joyce (born Betty Graftina Leabo, February 25, 1917 – July 4, 2009) was an American film actress. She was best known for playing Jane Porter in RKO's Tarzan films from 1945 to 1949. Early life The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Grafton Leabo, Joyce was born in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, and was known to family and friends as Graftina. When she was 5 years old, she moved with her mother to San Bernardino, California, staying there through her junior high school years. They moved to Los Angeles, California, where she attended high school. She entered the University of Southern California on a scholarship but transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles after one semester. Between her years in college and those in film, Joyce was a model for photographers. She appeared "in current magazines -- in new automobiles, using toothpaste, modeling shoes, smiling her way through the glossy life of a magazine girl." Film career Although she appeared in many B-movies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; however, most firms in the entertainment industry have never had their own studios, but have rented space from other companies instead. Day-to-day filming operations are generally handled by a production company subsidiary. Another type of company is an independently owned studio facility, which does not produce motion pictures by itself; such facilities only sell studio space. Beginnings In 1893, Thomas Edison built the first movie studio in the United States: he constructed the Black Maria, a tarpaper-covered structure near his laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, and he asked circus, vaudeville, and dramatic actors to perform for the camera. He distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fair ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Williams-Taylor
Sir Frederick Williams-Taylor (October 23, 1863 – August 2, 1945) was a Canadian banker. He was general manager of the Bank of Montreal. Early life Frederick was born in Moncton, New Brunswick on October 23, 1863. He was the son of Ezekiel Moore Taylor, from County Donegal, Ireland, and Rosaline (née Beatty) Taylor, born in Moncton, New Brunswick. His paternal great-grandfather was Capt. Moore (d. 1849) of Buncrana Castle in Inishowen, Ireland (third son of William Thornton-Todd, heir of both Isaac Todd, the prominent Montreal merchant with the North West Company, and William Thornton, a British Army officer who served as Lieutenant Governor of Jersey) and his maternal great-grandfather was Joseph Morse (30 Nov 1721 Medfield MA-1769 Amherst, Nova Scotia), a pre-Loyalist planter to Nova Scotia. This Irish ancestry has not been proven. Williams-Taylor was educated at the Moncton Superior School until he began working in 1878. In 1914, he was honored with the honorary degre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brenda Frazier
Brenda Diana Duff Frazier (June 9, 1921 – May 3, 1982) was an American socialite popular during the Depression era. Her December 1938 debutante ball was so heavily publicized worldwide, she eventually appeared on the cover of ''Life'' magazine for that reason alone. She was known and dubbed a "Poor Little Rich Girl" by the media, along with other famous debutantes and socialites Barbara Hutton, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Doris Duke. Early life Brenda Diana Duff Frazier was born on June 9, 1921, in Quebec, Canada. Her father, Frank Duff Frazier, came from a prosperous Boston family. Her mother, the former Brenda Germaine Henshaw Williams-Taylor, was the only daughter of Sir Frederick Williams-Taylor (a general manager of the Bank of Montreal who was knighted in 1910 and combined his middle name and birth surname into a new hyphenated surname) and his wife, the former Jane Fayrer Henshaw. Frazier's parents were married in December 1916. Both of Frazier's parents drank heav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celebutante
''Famous for being famous'' is a paradoxical term, often used pejoratively, for someone who attains celebrity status for no clearly identifiable reason—as opposed to fame based on achievement, skill, or talent—and appears to generate their own fame, or someone who achieves fame through a family or relationship association with an existing celebrity. History The term originates from an analysis of the media-dominated world called '' The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America'' (1962), by historian and social theorist Daniel J. Boorstin. In it, he defined the celebrity as "a person who is known for his well-knownness". He further argued that the graphic revolution in journalism and other forms of communication had severed fame from greatness, and that this severance hastened the decay of fame into mere notoriety. Over the years, the phrase has been glossed as "a celebrity is someone who is famous for being famous". The British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge may have been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Baxter
Stanley Livingstone Baxter (born 24 May 1926) is a retired Scottish actor, comedian, impressionist and author. Baxter began his career as a child actor on BBC Scotland and later became known for his British television comedy shows '' The Stanley Baxter Show'', '' The Stanley Baxter Picture Show'', '' The Stanley Baxter Series'' and '' Mr Majeika''. Baxter has also written a number of books based on Glasgow. Early life The son of an insurance manager, Baxter was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 24 May 1926. He was educated at Hillhead High School, Glasgow, and schooled for the stage by his mother. He began his career as a child actor in the Scottish edition of the BBC's ''Children's Hour''. Following employment in mining as a Bevin Boy in World War II, he developed his performing skills further during his national service with the British Army's Combined Services Entertainment unit, working alongside comedy actor Kenneth Williams, actor Peter Vaughan, film director John Schles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Travesti (theatre)
Travesti is a theatrical character in an opera, play, or ballet performed by a performer of the opposite sex. For social reasons, female roles were played by boys or men in many early forms of theatre, and ''travesti'' roles continued to be used in several types of context even after actresses became accepted on the stage. The popular British theatrical form of the pantomime traditionally contains a role for a " principal boy" — a breeches role played by a young woman — and also one or more pantomime dames, female comic roles played by men. Similarly, in the formerly popular genre of Victorian burlesque, there were usually one or more breeches roles. Etymology The word means "disguised" in French. Depending on sources, the term may be given as travesty, ''travesti'', or ''en travesti''. The ''Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English'' explains the origin of the latter term as "pseudo- French", although French sources from the mid-19th century have used th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She had been queen regnant of List of sovereign states headed by Elizabeth II, 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was the monarch of 15 realms at her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the List of monarchs in Britain by length of reign, longest of any British monarch, the List of longest-reigning monarchs, second-longest of any sovereign state, and the List of female monarchs, longest of any queen regnant in history. Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George V. She was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother). Her father acceded to the throne in 1936 upon Abdication of Edward VIII, the abdic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Eye
''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised for its prominent criticism and Parody, lampooning of public figures. It is also known for its in-depth investigative journalism into under-reported scandals and cover-ups. ''Private Eye'' is Britain's best-selling current affairs news magazine, and such is its long-term popularity and impact that many of Recurring jokes in Private Eye, its recurring in-jokes have entered popular culture in the United Kingdom. The magazine bucks the trend of declining circulation for print media, having recorded its highest-ever circulation in 2016 of over 287,000 for that year's Christmas edition. It is privately owned and highly profitable. With a "deeply conservative resistance to change", it has resisted moves to online content or glossy format: it h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Statistics Office (Ireland)
The Central Statistics Office (CSO; ) is the statistical agency responsible for the gathering of "information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions" in the Republic of Ireland (it does not operate in Northern Ireland), in particular the census which is held every five years. The office is answerable to the Taoiseach and has its main offices in Cork. The Director General of the CSO is Jennifer Banim. History The CSO was established on a statutory basis in 1994 to reduce the number of separate offices responsible for collecting statistics for the state. The CSO had existed, as an independent office within the Department of the Taoiseach, from June 1949, and its work greatly increased in the following decades, particularly from 1973 with the Republic of Ireland joining the European Economic Community (EEC). Previous to the 1949 reforms, statistics were collected by the Statistics Branch of the Department of Industry and Commerce on the creation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
