Yakov Smirnoff
Yakov Naumovich Pokhis (; born 24 January 1951), better known as Yakov Smirnoff (; ), is a Jewish Soviet-American comedian, actor and writer. He began his career as a stand-up comedian in the Soviet Union, then immigrated to the United States in 1977 in order to pursue an American show business career, not yet knowing any English. He reached his biggest success in the mid-to-late 1980s, appearing in several films which include '' Moscow on the Hudson'' with Robin Williams, ''The Money Pit'' with Tom Hanks, ''Heartburn'' with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, and ''Brewster's Millions'' with Richard Pryor. He was a star of the television series '' What a Country!'' and was a recurring guest star on NBC's hit television series ''Night Court'' playing the part of Yakov Korolenko. His comic persona was of a naive immigrant from the Soviet Union who was perpetually confused and delighted by life in the United States. His humor combined a mockery of life under Communist states and of co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Odesa
Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrative centre of the Odesa Raion and Odesa Oblast, as well as a multiethnic cultural centre. As of January 2021, Odesa's population was approximately On 25 January 2023, its Historic Centre of Odesa, historic city centre was declared a World Heritage Site and added to the List of World Heritage in Danger by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in recognition of its multiculturality and 19th-century urban planning. The declaration was made in response to the Odesa strikes (2022–present), bombing of Odesa during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has damaged or destroyed buildings across the city. In classical antiquity a large Greek settlement existed at its location no later than t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Moscow On The Hudson
''Moscow on the Hudson'' is a 1984 American romantic comedy-drama film, written and directed by Paul Mazursky, starring Robin Williams as a Soviet circus musician who defects while on a visit to the United States. It co-stars María Conchita Alonso (in her American film debut), Elya Baskin as the circus clown, Savely Kramarov as one of two KGB apparatchiks, Alejandro Rey as the musician's immigration attorney, and Cleavant Derricks as his first American host and friend. The film was released on April 6, 1984. Plot Vladimir Ivanoff, a saxophonist with the Moscow circus, lives in a crowded apartment with his extended family. He stands in lines for hours to buy toilet paper and shoes. When Boris, the apparatchik assigned to the circus, criticizes Vladimir for being late to rehearsal, and warns him that he may miss the approaching trip to New York City, Vladimir gives Boris a pair of shoes from the queue that made Vladimir late. While Ivanoff is riding in his friend Anatoly's La ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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University Of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of founder and first president Benjamin Franklin, who had advocated for an educational institution that trained leaders in academia, commerce, and public service. The university has four undergraduate schools and 12 graduate and professional schools. Schools enrolling undergraduates include the College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Wharton School, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, School of Nursing. Among its graduate schools are its University of Pennsylvania Law School, law school, whose first professor, James Wilson (Founding Father), James Wilson, helped write the Constitution of the United States, U.S. Cons ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Branson, Missouri
Branson is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. Most of the city is situated in Taney County, Missouri, Taney County, with a small portion in the west extending into Stone County, Missouri, Stone County. Branson is in the Ozarks, Ozark Mountains. The community was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s. The population was 12,638 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and its population constitutes nearly one fourth of the Taney County population. Branson has long been a popular destination for vacationers from Missouri and around the country. The collection of entertainment theaters along Missouri Route 76, 76 Country Boulevard (and to a lesser extent along Missouri Route 248, Shepherd of the Hills Expressway), including Dolly Parton's Stampede, has increased Branson's popularity as a tourist destination. Branson is the site of the Branson Cross, the largest cross monument in North America. History In 1882, Reuben ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dissolution Of The Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, formally establishing the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a state and subject of international law. It also brought an end to the Soviet Union's federal government and General Secretary (also President) Mikhail Gorbachev's effort to reform the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to stop a period of political stalemate and economic backslide. The Soviet Union had experienced internal stagnation and ethnic separatism. Although highly centralized until its final years, the country was made up of 15 top-level republics that served as the homelands for different ethnicities. By late 1991, amid a catastrophic political crisis, with several republics al ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fall Of Communism
The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. This revolutionary wave is sometimes referred to as the Autumn of Nations, a play on the term Spring of Nations that is sometimes used to describe the revolutions of 1848 in Europe. The revolutions of 1989 were a key factor in the dissolution of the Soviet Union—one of the two global superpowers—and in the abandonment of communist regimes in many parts of the world, some of which were violently overthrown. These events drastically altered the world's balance of power, marking the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the post-Cold War era. The earliest recorded protests which led to the revolutions began in Poland on 14 August 1980, the massive general strike across the entire nation which led to the Gdańsk Agreement on 31 August ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Consumerism
Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the purchase and the consumption of products have evolved beyond the mere satisfaction of basic human needs, Stearns, Peter (2006). ''Consumerism in World History''. 2nd ed. Routledge. p. vii–viii. transforming into an activity that is not only economic but also cultural, social, and even identity-forming. It emerged in Western Europe and the United States during the Industrial Revolution and became widespread around the 20th century. In economics, consumerism refers to policies that emphasize consumption. It is the consideration that the free choice of consumers should strongly inform the choice by manufacturers of what is produced and how, and therefore influence the economic organization of a society. Consumerism has been criticized b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Communist State
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was the Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comintern after its Bolshevisation, and the communist states within the Comecon, the Eastern Bloc, and the Warsaw Pact. After the peak of Marxism–Leninism, when many communist states were established, the Revolutions of 1989 brought down most of the communist states; however, Communism remained the official ideology of the ruling parties of Chinese Communist Party, China, Communist Party of Cuba, Cuba, Lao People's Revolutionary Party, Laos, Communist Party of Vietnam, Vietnam, and to a lesser extent, Workers' Party of Korea, North Korea. During the later part of the 20th century, before the Revolutions of 1989, around one-third of the world's ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Known for reaching a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential stand-up comedians of all time. Pryor won a Primetime Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards. He received the first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. He won the Writers Guild of America Award in 1974. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians. In 2017, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.The 50 Best Stand-up Comics of All Time . Rollingstone.com. Retrieved February 15, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brewster's Millions (1985 Film)
''Brewster's Millions'' is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Walter Hill. The film stars Richard Pryor, John Candy, Lonette McKee, Stephen Collins, and Hume Cronyn. The screenplay by Herschel Weingrod and Timothy Harris was based on the 1902 novel of the same name by George Barr McCutcheon. It is the seventh film based on the story, and focusing on a Minor League Baseball pitcher who accepts a challenge to spend $30 million in 30 days in order to inherit $300 million from his great-uncle. The film was met with negative reviews. A sequel titled '' Brewster's Millions: Christmas'' was released on December 5, 2024. Plot Montgomery Brewster is a Minor League Baseball pitcher with the Hackensack Bulls. He and his best friend Spike Nolan, the Bulls' catcher, are arrested after a post-game bar fight. A man named J. B. Donaldo offers to post their bail if they plead guilty. Donaldo takes them to New York City with him. At the Manhattan law office of Granville & Baxter where ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Known for her versatility and adept accent work, she has been described as "the best actress of her generation". She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, including three Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, eight Golden Globe Awards, four Emmy Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for seven Grammy Awards and a Tony Award. Streep made her feature film debut in '' Julia'' (1977) and soon established herself as one of the most respected actresses of all time. She has received three Academy Awards, the first for Best Supporting Actress for playing a troubled wife in '' Kramer vs. Kramer'' (1979), followed by two Best Actress wins for playing a Holocaust survivor in '' Sophie's Choice'' (1982) and Margaret Thatcher in '' The Iron Lady'' (2011). Throughout her career she has continued to earn critical acclaim for her div ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, often playing rebels fighting against the social structure. Over his five-decade-long career, he received List of awards and nominations received by Jack Nicholson, numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award. Nicholson won Academy Awards for Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Actor for playing Randle McMurphy in ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1975) and a man with Obsessive–compulsive disorder, OCD in ''As Good as It Gets'' (1997), as well as for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actor for playing an aging playboy in ''Terms of Endearment'' (1983). He received further Oscar nominations for ''Easy Rider'' (1969), ''Five Easy Pieces'' (1970), ''T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |