Bank Night
Bank Night was a lottery game franchise in the United States during the Great Depression. It was invented and marketed by Charles U. Yaeger, a former booking agent for 20th Century Fox. In 1936, Bank Night was played at 5,000 of America's 15,000 active theaters, and copies of it were played at countless more. The popularity of Bank Night and similar schemes contributed to the resiliency of the film industry during the Great Depression more than any other single business tactic. Operation Bank Night was run as a franchise which was leased to theaters for from $5 to $50 a week, depending on their size. The payment entitled the owner to run an event called Bank Night, and each owner was given a film reel with a Bank Night trailer, as well as a registration book and equipment to draw numbers to pick winners. Anyone could enter his or her name in a book kept by the theater manager, and on Bank Night, a name would be drawn at random. The person selected must reach the stage within a se ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion began around September and led to the Wall Street stock market crash of October 24 (Black Thursday). It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. Devastating effects were seen in both rich and poor countries with falling personal income, prices, tax revenues, and profits. International trade fell by more than 50%, unemployment in the U.S. rose to 23% ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Neighborhood House (film)
''Neighborhood House'' is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Charley Chase, Harold Law, and Alan Hale, Sr. and written by Charley Chase, Harold Law, Richard Flournoy, and Arthur Vernon Jones. The film stars Charley Chase, Rosina Lawrence, Darla Hood, George Meeker, Ben Taggart, and Dick Elliott. Originally produced as a 55-minute feature first titled ''Bank Night'' and then ''Neighborhood House'', the film faced legal action from the actual Bank Night corporation, which organized cash giveaways in America's movie theaters. The film was withdrawn, cut down to 22 minutes, and released as a standard Charley Chase short by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The often cited release date of May 9, 1936, is erroneous. That was when the unreleased feature version was scheduled for distribution; the ''Motion Picture Herald'' trade review of the feature was published on May 9. The short-subject version was released later in the year. Plot Charley Chase and his wife and daughter look forward to th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Games And Sports Introduced In 1931
A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong, solitaire, or some video games). Games are sometimes played purely for enjoyment, sometimes for achievement or reward as well. They can be played alone, in teams, or online; by amateurs or by professionals. The players may have an audience of non-players, such as when people are entertained by watching a chess championship. On the other hand, players in a game may constitute their own audience as they take their turn to play. Often, part of the entertainment for children playing a game is deciding who is part of their audience and who is a player. A toy and a game are not the same. Toys generally allow for unrestricted play whereas games come with present rules. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cinemas And Movie Theaters
A movie theater (American English), cinema ( British English), or cinema hall (Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a building that contains auditoria for viewing films (also called movies) for entertainment. Most, but not all, movie theaters are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing a ticket. The film is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium while the dialogue, sounds, and music are played through a number of wall-mounted speakers. Since the 1970s, subwoofers have been used for low-pitched sounds. Since the 2010s, the majority of movie theaters have been equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film print on a heavy reel. A great variety of films are shown at cinemas, ranging from animated films to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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On Your Toes
''On Your Toes'' (1936) is a musical with a book by Richard Rodgers, George Abbott, and Lorenz Hart, music by Rodgers, and lyrics by Hart. It was adapted into a film in 1939. While teaching music at Knickerbocker University, Phil "Junior" Dolan III tries to persuade Sergei Alexandrovich, the director of the Russian Ballet, to stage the jazz ballet ''Slaughter on Tenth Avenue''. After becoming involved with the company's prima ballerina Vera Barnova, Junior is forced to assume the male lead in ''Slaughter''. Trouble ensues when he becomes the target of two thugs hired by Vera's lover and dance partner to kill him. ''On Your Toes'' marked the first time a Broadway musical made dramatic use of classical dance and incorporated jazz into its score. Films about ballet Background ''On Your Toes'' originally was conceived as a film, and as a vehicle for Fred Astaire. His refusal of the part, because he thought that the role clashed with his debonair image developed in his contemporar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rodgers And Hart
Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and the lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895–1943). They worked together on 28 stage musicals and more than 500 songs from 1919 until Hart's death in 1943.Rodgers and Hart Biography Guide to Musical Theatre, accessed April 5, 2009 History Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were introduced in 1919; Rodgers was still in high school while Hart had already graduated from . Their first collaboration together was at Columbia, and resulted in the 1920[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Road To Singapore
''Road to Singapore'' is a 1940 American semi-musical comedy film directed by Victor Schertzinger and starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope. Based on a story by Harry Hervey, the film is about two playboys trying to forget previous romances in British Singapore, where they meet a beautiful woman. Distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film marked the debut of the long-running and popular "'' Road to ...''" series of pictures spotlighting the trio, seven in all. The supporting cast features Charles Coburn, Anthony Quinn, and Jerry Colonna. Plot Josh Mallon (Bing Crosby) and Ace Lannigan (Bob Hope) are best friends and work aboard the same ship. As their ship returns to the US after a long voyage, they see all the other sailors being mistreated by their wives and girlfriends, and the two friends pledge never to get involved with women again. Unfortunately, this vow is tested almost immediately. First, Ace is confronted by the family of a former lover, Cherry, who ins ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thugs With Dirty Mugs
''Thugs with Dirty Mugs'' is a 1939 Warner Bros. '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Tex Avery. The short was released on May 6, 1939. The title is derived from the Warner Bros.' 1938 acclaimed feature film, '' Angels with Dirty Faces''. It is similar to Avery's later MGM crime/detective-oriented cartoon '' Who Killed Who?'' Plot The film takes place in the fictional New York town of Everyville, which is home to a vast total of 112 banks. The title card and technical credits are followed by introductions of the two lead characters: "F.H.A. (Sherlock) Homes" as police chief "Flat-Foot Flanigan with a Floy Floy," and "Edward G. Robemsome" (a caricature of Edward G. Robinson) as notorious gang leader "Killer Diller." After these introductions, Killer and his gang are seen robbing every bank in the town in numerical order (except that they skip the 13th bank out of superstition) — with the newspaper ''Telegraph Post'' reporting the criminals' every move, and even declaring ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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A Day At The Zoo
''A Day at the Zoo'' is a 1939 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon supervised by Tex Avery. The short was produced in 1938 and released on March 11, 1939 and features an early version of Elmer Fudd. Plot This is one of the cartoons that Warner Bros. would occasionally produce in the late 1930s and early 1940s that was centered around a series of gags, usually based on outrageous stereotypes, plays on words, and topical references, as a narrator describes the action in a rapid-fire succession of anthropomorphic behavior, pun gags, or any combination thereof. In this cartoon, the unifying thread is a visit to the zoo and the various animals therein: a wolf in his natural habitat (standing next to a door, a play on the phrase "wolves at the door"), a pack of camels ( smoking Camels), a North American Greyhound ( the bus line, not the dog breed), "two bucks..." (white-tailed deer) "...and five (s)cents" (five skunks), two friendly Elks, monkeys who toss peanuts to their spectat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His most significant work was for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, where he was crucial in the creation and evolution of famous animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, The Wolf, Red Hot Riding Hood, and George and Junior. He gained influence for his technical innovation, directorial style and brand of humor. Avery's attitude toward animation was opposite that of Walt Disney and other conventional family cartoons at the time. Avery's cartoons were known for their sarcastic, ironic, absurdist, irreverent, and sometimes sexual tone in nature. Avery's cartoon focused on sight gags, surrealist humor, rapid pacing, racial stereotypes, and violent humor, with wacky ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Calling All Husbands
''Calling All Husbands'' is a 1940 American comedy film directed by Noel M. Smith and written by Robert E. Kent and based on Martin Flavin's 1929 play "Broken Dishes". The film stars George Tobias, Lucile Fairbanks, Ernest Truex, George Reeves, Florence Bates and Charles Halton. The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 7, 1940. Plot Cast *George Tobias as Oscar Armstrong *Lucile Fairbanks as Bette Trippe *Ernest Truex as Homer Trippe *George Reeves as Dan Williams *Florence Bates as Emmie Trippe *Charles Halton as Hadley Weaver *Virginia Sale as Mabel Parker * John Alexander as Sheriff Ben Bar *Clem Bevans as Judge Todd *Sam McDaniel Samuel Rufus McDaniel (January 28, 1886September 24, 1962)Tanner, Beccy (November 7, 1991)"McDaniel Opened Doors; 'Gone With the Wind' Was Actress' Most Famous Film" ''The Wichita Eagle''. Retrieved January 3, 2021. was an American actor who ap ... as Nappy * Elliott Sullivan as Chunky References External links * 1940 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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After The Thin Man
''After the Thin Man'' is a 1936 American murder mystery comedy film directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starring William Powell, Myrna Loy and James Stewart. A sequel to the 1934 feature ''The Thin Man'', the film presents Powell and Loy as Dashiell Hammett's characters Nick and Nora Charles. The film also features Elissa Landi, Joseph Calleia, Jessie Ralph, Alan Marshal and Penny Singleton (billed under her maiden name as Dorothy McNulty). Plot Nick and Nora Charles return from vacation on New Year's Eve to their home in San Francisco, where Nora's stuffy family expects the couple to join them for a formal dinner. Nick is disliked by Nora's aunt Katherine, the family matriarch, as his immigrant heritage and experience as a "flatfoot" are considered beneath Nora's station. Nora's cousin Selma tells Nora that her husband Robert has been missing for three days. David Graham is Selma's earlier fiancé and an old friend of Nora's family. He offers to pay Robert $25,000 to leave a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |