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Merian C. Cooper
Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893 – April 21, 1973) was an American filmmaker, actor, producer and air officer. In film, his most famous work was the 1933 movie ''King Kong (1933 film), King Kong'', and he is credited as co-inventor of the Cinerama film projection process. He was awarded an Academy Honorary Award, honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1952 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. He was a passionate anti-communist. Before entering the movie business, Cooper fought in the World War I as a pilot in the United States Army Air Service and later in the Polish Air Force. He had a distinguished career as the founder of the Kościuszko's Squadron, Kościuszko Squadron during the Polish–Soviet War and was a Soviet prisoner of war for a time. He got his start in film as part of the Explorers Club, traveling the world and documenting adventures. He was a member of the board of directors of Pan American Airways, but his love of film took pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonville Jacksonville Consolidation, consolidated in 1968. It was the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020, and became the 10th List of United States cities by population, largest U.S. city by population in 2023. Jacksonville straddles the St. Johns River in the First Coast region of northeastern Florida, about south of the Georgia state line ( to the urban core/downtown) and north of Miami. The Jacksonville Beaches communities are along the adjacent Atlantic coast. The area was originally inhabited by the Timucua people, and in 1564 was the site of the French colony of Fort Caroline, one of the earliest European settlements in what is now the continental United States. Under B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pioneer Pictures
Pioneer Pictures, Inc. was a Hollywood motion picture company, most noted for its early commitment to making color films. Pioneer was initially affiliated with RKO Pictures, whose production facilities in Culver City, California were used by Pioneer, and who distributed Pioneer's films. Pioneer later merged with Selznick International Pictures. History The company was formed in 1933 by investor John Hay Whitney, who wanted to get into the motion picture business, and his cousin Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, on the encouragement of RKO executive Merian C. Cooper, an enthusiast of the newly improved, full-color Technicolor Process No. 4, introduced in 1932. The process had been used thus far only in Walt Disney cartoons. Technicolor, Inc. had been operating at a loss in 1931–1933, mostly servicing old contracts for its two-component color system, and badly needed a movie studio that would move the new three-component process into feature filmmaking. Although there was no forma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for explorers and scientists worldwide. The Explorers Club hosts an annual dinner to honor accomplishments in exploration, which is known for its adventurous, exotic cuisine. History In 1904, a group of men active in exploration met at the request of noted journalist, historian and explorer Henry Collins Walsh to form an organization to unite explorers in the bonds of good fellowship and to promote the work of exploration by every means in its power. Joining Walsh were Adolphus Greely, Arthur Donaldson Smith, Donaldson Smith, Carl Sofus Lumholtz, Carl Lumholtz, Marshall Howard Saville, Marshall Saville, Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh, Frederick Dellenbaugh and David Legge Brainard, David Brainard. After several further informal meetings, The Expl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polish–Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse of the Central Powers and the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Vladimir Lenin's Soviet Russia annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and moved forces westward to reclaim the ''Ober Ost'' regions abandoned by the Germans. Lenin viewed the newly independent Poland as a critical route for spreading communist revolutions into Europe. Meanwhile, Polish leaders, including Józef Piłsudski, aimed to restore Poland's First Partition of Poland, pre-1772 borders and secure the country's position in the region. Throughout 1919, Polish forces occupied much of present-day Lithuania and Belarus, emerging victorious in the Polish–Ukrainian War. However, Soviet forces regained strength after their victories in the Russian Civil War, and Symon Petliura, lea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kościuszko's Squadron
The Kościuszko Squadron (officially: Polish 7th Air Escadrille) was a Polish Air Force fighter squadron established in late 1919 by Merian C. Cooper, an American aviator who would go on to direct the film King Kong (1933 film), ''King Kong'' in 1933, then to advocate for McCarthyism in 1950s. The unit was named after Tadeusz Kościuszko, and Major Cedric Fauntleroy became its commander. The squadron's insignia was designed by Elliot William Chess (1899–1962), an American pilot serving with the Polish Army during the Polish–Soviet War. To encourage the recruitment of Americans of Polish descent, the Polish military set up a unit called the Polish–American Air Group. The most famous successor to this original Kościuszko Squadron was the World War II No. 303 (Polish) Squadron RAF, No. 303 "Kościuszko" Polish Fighter Squadron (''Warszawski im. Tadeusza Kościuszki''), the most successful fighter squadron in the Battle of Britain. Formation First formed after Poland regai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polish Air Force
The Polish Air Force () is the aerial warfare Military branch, branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 26,000 military personnel and about 475 aircraft, distributed among ten bases throughout Poland. The Polish Air Force can trace its origins to the second half of 1917 and was officially established in the months following the end of World War I in 1918. During the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939, 70% of its aircraft were destroyed. Most pilots, after the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September, escaped via Romania and Hungary to continue fighting throughout World War II in allied air forces, first in France, then in Britain, and later also the Soviet Union. History Polish Air Force backline Origins Military aviation in Poland started even before the officially recognised date of regaining independence (11 November 1918). The first independent units of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Army Air Service
The United States Army Air Service (USAAS)Craven and Cate Vol. 1, p. 9 (also known as the ''"Air Service"'', ''"U.S. Air Service"'' and before its legislative establishment in 1920, the ''"Air Service, United States Army"'') was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1918 and 1926 and a forerunner of the United States Air Force. It was established as an independent but temporary branch of the United States Department of War, U.S. War Department during World War I by two executive orders of President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Aviation Section, Signal Corps as the nation's air force; and March 19, 1919, establishing a military Director of Air Service to control all aviation activities., p. 149, Appendix 2 Redesignations of the Army Air Arm, 1907–1942. Its life was extended for another year in July 1919, during which time Congress passed the legislation necessary to make it a permanent establ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hollywood Walk Of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. The stars, the first permanently installed in 1960, are monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of actors, musicians, producers, directors, theatrical/musical groups, athletes, fictional characters, and others. The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. The Hollywood Chamber collects fees from chosen celebrities or their sponsors (currently $85,000) which fund the creation and installation of the star, as well as maintenance of the Walk of Fame. It is a popular tourist attraction, receiving an estimated 10million annual visitors in 2010. Description The Walk of Fame runs fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards (previously called the Special Award, which was first presented at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929) – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Since 2009, it has been presented at the separate annual Governors Awards rather than at the regular Academy Awards ceremony. The Honorary Award celebrates motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of competitive Academy Awards are not excluded from receiving the award. Unless otherwise specified, Honorary Award recipients receive the same gold Oscar statuettes received by winners of the competitive Academy Awards. Unlike the Special Achievement Award instituted in 1972, those on whom the Academy confers its Honorary Award do not have to meet "the Academy's eligibility year and deadline requirements". Like the Special Achievement Award, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinerama
Cinerama is a widescreen process that originally projected images simultaneously from three synchronized 35 mm movie film, 35mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen, Subtended angle, subtending 146-degrees of arc. The trademarked process was marketed by the Cinerama corporation. It was the first of several novel processes introduced during the 1950s when the movie industry was reacting to competition from television. Cinerama was presented to the public as a theatrical event, with reserved seating and printed programs, and audience members often dressed in their best attire for the evening. The Cinerama projection screen, rather than being a continuous surface like most screens, is made of hundreds of individual vertical strips of standard perforated screen material, each about inch (~22 millimeters) wide, with each strip angled to face the audience, to prevent light scattered from one end of the deeply curved screen from reflecting across the screen and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Kong (1933 Film)
''King Kong'' is a 1933 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code adventure film, adventure horror film, horror Monster movie, monster film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, with special effects by Willis H. O'Brien and music by Max Steiner. Produced and distributed by RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, it is the first film in the King Kong (franchise), ''King Kong'' franchise and combines live action sequences with stop-motion animation using rear-screen projection. The idea for the film came when Cooper decided he wanted to make a film about a giant gorilla struggling against modern civilization. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong (actor), Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot. The film follows a giant ape dubbed King Kong, Kong who feels affection for a beautiful young woman offered to him as a sacrifice. ''King Kong'' opened in New York City on March 2, 1933, to rave reviews, with praise for its stop-motion animation and score. During its init ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
