Gossima was the original name for which sport?

The Original Names of 10 Sports | Mental Floss The Original Names of 10 Sports The new game of badminton, circa 1874. Getty Like us on Facebook If history hadn't changed, we would be watching Gabrielle Reece dominate mintonette, Tony Hawk would be a leader in the world of sidewalk surfing, and Forrest Gump would have been an amazing wiff waff player. Check out the names of 10 sports before they became what we know them as today. 1. KITTEN BALL The sport we know as softball today was named kitten ball when it came onto the scene in 1895. Between that time and 1926, it was also referred to as "diamond ball," "mush ball" and "pumpkin ball." The phrase "softball" was coined in 1926 by Walter Hakanson of the Denver YMCA. 2. BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK Circa 1871. Getty It’s not exactly fair to say that this is what badminton was once called—it might be more appropriate to say this game evolved into badminton. Battledore and shuttlecock was an old game quite similar to badminton, minus the net. The players simply tried to keep the shuttlecock in the air as long as possible by batting it around with racquets (known as battledores). 3. MINTONETTE Speaking of badminton, that game is the reason today's volleyball was originally called mintonette. Because much of the game play was similar to badminton (players keep an object bouncing back and forth across a net), its creator, William G. Morgan, the director of a Massachusetts YMCA, simply named it something similar to the existing sport. The name changed when a player suggested the ball volleyed over the net like cannon fire, and eventually the new term stuck. 4. SPHAIRISTIKE quisnovis via Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0 Tennis has been around in some form or another for centuries, but in December 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield invented "Sphairistike," or lawn tennis, to amuse his garden party guests. It’s more similar to the modern game of tennis than any of the older versions. Those older versions are sometimes called "real tennis" to differentiate them from the game the Williams sisters play—William Shakespeare mentioned real tennis in Henry V. 5. PADDLE RACKETS When Joe Sobek invented racquetball in 1950, he didn’t call it that. He named his creation "paddle rackets," and even founded the National Paddle Rackets Association in 1952. As it gained popularity, professional tennis player Bob McInerney began calling it racquetball and the name slowly took over. 6. PAILLE MAILLE The earliest published occurrence of the word "croquet" is 1856. Prior to that, the Queen of Hearts' favorite game was called "paille maille" (or any number of variations such as pall mall and pelemele). Some early descriptions of paille maille suggest that at one point, it was played over a large area of land (such as in golf) before it evolved to the short lawn version we know today. 7. SIDEWALK SURFING You can probably figure out that skateboarding is just surfing on land. The sport is thought to have originated when California surfers were looking for a replacement for surfing when the waves were unfit to ride. 8. WHIFF-WAFF OR GOSSIMA


Steve McQueen - Prefab Sprout — Listen and discover music at Last.fm Steve McQueen mid Steve McQueen is the second studio album released by Prefab Sprout. Originally released in June 1985, it was retitled in the U.S. as Two Wheels Good due to a legal conflict with the estate of the late American actor. The album reached #21 on the UK album chart and #178 on the Billboard 200. On April 2, 2007 the album was reissued as a legacy edition double-cd, featuring remastered versions of the original tracks and a bonus disc featuring… read more Tracklist


Which English Monarch succeeded William III of Orange?

King William III and Queen Mary II | Britroyals Name: King William III and Queen Mary II Full Name: William Henry Stuart Born: November 14, 1650 at William: The Hague, Netherlands; Mary: St James Palace, London Parents: William: William II of Orange and Mary Stuart; Mary: James II and Anne Hyde Relation to Elizabeth II: 2nd cousin 8 times removed House of: Orange Ascended to the throne: February 13, 1689 aged 38 years Crowned: April 11, 1689 at Westminster Abbey, when William was 38 and Mary was 26 Married: William married Mary, daughter of James II Children: Three stillborn Died: March 8, 1702 at Kensington Palace (William), aged 51 years, 3 months, and 21 days Buried at: Westminster Reigned for: 13 years, and 21 days Succeeded by: Mary's sister Anne William was born in The Hague in the Netherlands. He was an only child and never knew his father William II who died of smallpox before his birth. His mother was Mary eldest daughter of Charles I of England. William was appointed Stadtholder (chief magistrate) and captain-general of the Dutch forces in 1672 to resist the French invasion of the Netherlands. He forced Louis XIV to make peace in 1678 and then concentrated on building up a European alliance against France. In 1677 he married his cousin Mary, eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, the future James II. The marriage was intended to repair relations between England and The Netherlands following the Anglo-Dutch wars. William was a successful soldier, but had several male favourites, was dour, asthmatic, 12 years older and several inches shorter than his English wife Mary who was a reluctant bride. In 1688 they were invited by the parliamentary opposition to Mary�s father James II to take the crown on England and were assured of English support. William landed at Torbay on 5 November 1688, in 463 ships unopposed by the Royal Navy, and with an army of 14,000 troops which gathering local support grew to over 20,000 and advanced on London in what became known as �The Glorious Revolution�. James fled to France, and in February 1689 William and his wife were crowned King William III and Queen Mary II. Parliament passed the Bill of Rights which prevented Catholics for succeeding to the throne ensuring that Mary�s sister Anne would become the next queen, and after the autocratic rules of Kings Charles II and his brother James II limited the powers of monarchs so that they could neither pass laws nor levy taxes without parliamentary consent. William and Mary were faced in 1689 with two Jacobite attempts to regain the throne. In Scotland government troops were defeated at Killiekrankie by Scottish Jacobites but won shortly afterwards at Dunkeld, and James II landed in Ireland with French troops and laid siege to Londonderrry. William�s navy relieved the siege and he led is army to victory at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. James fled back to France. William returned several times to the Netherlands but found the English parliament reluctant to support his continuing war with France. The Bank of England was founded in 1694 to control public expenditure. Williamsburg and the college of William and Mary in Virginia, were named after the King and Queen in 1693. Mary died of smallpox in 1694 and had no surviving children. William now ruled alone. The Peace of Rijswijk in 1697 marked the end of the war with in Flanders with Louis XIV. William formed an alliance between England, Holland and Austria to prevent the union of the French and Spanish crowns. This became known as the �War of Spanish Succession�. In 1701 following death of Prince William, the only surviving son of Mary�s sister Anne, the Act of Settlement was passed ensuring succession of Protestant heirs of Sophie of Hanover instead of the Catholic heirs of James. William died on 1702 of pneumonia following a broken collar bone after a fall from his horse. Because his horse had reputedly stumbled on a mole�s burrow Jacobites toasted 'the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat.' King William III's Signature Quotes: �The liberties of England and the P


Which planet's day is longer than its year?

Which Planet Has The Longest Day? - Universe Today   Universe Today Which Planet Has The Longest Day? Article Updated: 19 Aug , 2016 by Jerry Coffey Just to be clear, this answer to ‘which planet has the longest day’ is based on this criteria: a planets day is how long it takes it to complete one rotation on its axis. This is also referred to as its rotational period. So, Venus has the longest day of any planet in our solar system. It completes one rotation every 243 Earth days. Its day lasts longer than its orbit. It orbits the Sun every 224.65 Earth days, so a day is nearly 20 Earth days longer than its year. Length Of A Day On The Planets In Our Solar System Mercury: 58 days and 15 hours Venus: 243 days Mars: 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds Jupiter: 9.9 hours Saturn: 10 hours 45 minutes 45 seconds, but can only be approximated because of atmospheric density. Uranus: 17 hours, 14 minutes and 24 seconds Neptune: 16 hours, 6 minutes and 36 seconds, but it is a bit more complicated than that. The equator and poles rotate at different speeds. You would have to do more research on the planet to fully understand the varying day on Neptune. Now, back to why the Venusian day is longer than its year. Venus is closer to the Sun; therefore, its orbit takes a shorter period of time than its rotation upon its axis. The planet also rotates in retrograde. That means it spins in the opposite direction of the Earth. If you were standing on Venus, you could see the Sun rise in the West and set in the East. A manned Venus flyby mission was proposed in the late 1960s. The mission was planned to launch in late October or early November 1973, and would have used a Saturn V rocket to send three men. The flight would have lasted approximately one year. The spacecraft would have passed approximately 5,000 km from the surface about four months into the flight. There have been several unmanned probes and flybys of the planet, including MESSENGER and the Venus Express. Future proposed missions include the BepiColombo, Venus InSitu Explorer, and the Venera-D. If you’d like more information on Venus, check out Hubblesite’s News Releases about Venus , and here’s a link to NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on Venus . We’ve also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about Venus. Listen here, Episode 50: Venus .


What is the name of the closest star to Earth?

Closest Star to the Sun - Universe Today   Universe Today Closest Star to the Sun Article Updated: 18 Oct , 2016 by Fraser Cain This is a classic trick question. Ask a friend, “what is the closest star?” and then watch as they try to recall some nearby stars. Sirius maybe? Alpha something or other? Betelgeuse? The answer, obviously, is the Sun; that massive ball of plasma located a mere 150 million km from Earth. Let’s be more precise; what’s the closest star to the Sun? Closest Star You might have heard that it’s Alpha Centauri, the third brightest star in the sky, just 4.37 light-years from Earth. But Alpha Centauri isn’t one star, it’s a system of three stars. First, there’s a binary pair, orbiting a common center of gravity every 80 years. Alpha Centauri A is just a little more massive and brighter than the Sun, and Alpha Centauri B is slightly less massive than the Sun. Then there’s a third member of this system, the faint red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri. It’s the closest star to our Sun, located just a short 4.24 light-years away. Proxima Centauri Alpha Centauri is located in the Centaurus constellation, which is only visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately, even if you can see the system, you can’t see Proxima Centauri. It’s so dim, you need a need a reasonably powerful telescope to resolve it. Let’s get sense of scale for just how far away Proxima Centauri really is. Think about the distance from the Earth to Pluto. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft travels at nearly 60,000 km/h, the fastest a spacecraft has ever traveled in the Solar System. It will have taken more than nine years to make this journey when it arrives in 2015. Travelling at this speed, to get to Proxima Centauri, it would take New Horizons 78,000 years. Proxima Centauri has been the nearest star for about 32,000 years, and it will hold this record for another 33,000 years. It will make its closest approach to the Sun in about 26,700 years, getting to within 3.11 light-years of Earth. After 33,000 years from now, the nearest star will be Ross 248. What About the Northern Hemisphere? Bernard’s Star For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the closest visible star is Barnard’s Star, another red dwarf in the constellation Ophiuchus. Unfortunately, just like Proxima Centauri, it’s too dim to see with the unaided eye. The closest star that you can see with the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere is Sirius, the Dog Star. Sirius, has twice the mass and is almost twice the size of the Sun, and it’s the brightest star in the sky. Located 8.6 light-years away in the constellation Canis Major – it’s very familiar as the bright star chasing Orion across the night sky in Winter. How do Astronomers Measure the Distance to Stars? They use a technique called parallax. Do a little experiment here. Hold one of your arms out at length and put your thumb up so that it’s beside some distant reference object. Now take turns opening and closing each eye. Notice how your thumb seems to jump back and forth as you switch eyes? That’s the parallax method. To measure the distance to stars, you measure the angle to a star when the Earth is one side of its orbit; say in the summer. Then you wait 6 month, until the Earth has moved to the opposite side of its orbit, and then measure the angle to the star compared to some distant reference object. If the star is close, the angle will be measurable, and the distance can be calculated. You can only really measure the distance to the nearest stars this way, since it only works to about 100 light-years. The 20 Closest Stars Here is a list of the 20 closest star systems and their distance in light-years. Some of these have multiple stars, but they’re part of the same system. Alpha Centauri – 4.2


Who, in 1960, became the first woman Prime Minister in the world?

BBC ON THIS DAY | 20 | 1960: Ceylon chooses world's first woman PM About This Site | Text Only 1960: Ceylon chooses world's first woman PM Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of Ceylon's assassinated prime minister Solomon Bandaranaike, has become the world's first woman prime minister. Her Sri Lanka Freedom Party won a resounding victory in the general election taking 75 out of 150 seats. Mrs Bandaranaike only entered politics after her husband was shot by an extremist Buddhist on 26 September 1959. She has become known as the "weeping widow" for frequently bursting into tears during the election campaign and vowing to continue her late husband's socialist policies. This week's election was called after Dudley Senanayake's United National Party failed to produce a working majority after winning elections in March. Aristocratic by birth Mrs Bandaranaike was born into the Ceylon aristocracy and her husband was a landowner. She was educated by Roman Catholic nuns at St Bridget's school in the capital, Colombo, and is a practising Buddhist. She married in 1940 aged 24 and has three children - and until her husband's death seemed content in her role as mother and retiring wife. Her SLFP aims to represent the "little man" although its policies during the campaign were not clear. Mr Bandaranaike attributed her success to the "people's love and respect" for her late husband and urged her supporters to practise "simple living, decorum and dignity". Her husband came to power in 1955, eight years after independence, and declared himself a Buddhist which appealed to nationalists. But his government was wracked by infighting among Sinhalese and Tamils and lacked direction. Mrs Bandaranaike inherits a country in a state of flux and her party's proposed programme of nationalisation may bring her into conflict with foreign interests in commodities like tea, rubber and oil.


Which ancient thinker is said to have had a golden thigh?

Pythagoras (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Pythagoras First published Wed Feb 23, 2005; substantive revision Wed May 28, 2014 Pythagoras, one of the most famous and controversial ancient Greek philosophers, lived from ca. 570 to ca. 490 BCE. He spent his early years on the island of Samos, off the coast of modern Turkey. At the age of forty, however, he emigrated to the city of Croton in southern Italy and most of his philosophical activity occurred there. Pythagoras wrote nothing, nor were there any detailed accounts of his thought written by contemporaries. By the first centuries BCE, moreover, it became fashionable to present Pythagoras in a largely unhistorical fashion as a semi-divine figure, who originated all that was true in the Greek philosophical tradition, including many of Plato's and Aristotle's mature ideas. A number of treatises were forged in the name of Pythagoras and other Pythagoreans in order to support this view. The Pythagorean question, then, is how to get behind this false glorification of Pythagoras in order to determine what the historical Pythagoras actually thought and did. In order to obtain an accurate appreciation of Pythagoras' achievement, it is important to rely on the earliest evidence before the distortions of the later tradition arose. The popular modern image of Pythagoras is that of a master mathematician and scientist. The early evidence shows, however, that, while Pythagoras was famous in his own day and even 150 years later in the time of Plato and Aristotle, it was not mathematics or science upon which his fame rested. Pythagoras was famous (1) as an expert on the fate of the soul after death, who thought that the soul was immortal and went through a series of reincarnations; (2) as an expert on religious ritual; (3) as a wonder-worker who had a thigh of gold and who could be two places at the same time; (4) as the founder of a strict way of life that emphasized dietary restrictions, religious ritual and rigorous self discipline. It remains controversial whether he also engaged in the rational cosmology that is typical of the Presocratic philosopher/scientists and whether he was in any sense a mathematician. The early evidence suggests, however, that Pythagoras presented a cosmos that was structured according to moral principles and significant numerical relationships and may have been akin to conceptions of the cosmos found in Platonic myths, such as those at the end of the Phaedo and Republic. In such a cosmos, the planets were seen as instruments of divine vengeance (“the hounds of Persephone”), the sun and moon are the isles of the blessed where we may go, if we live a good life, while thunder functioned to frighten the souls being punished in Tartarus. The heavenly bodies also appear to have moved in accordance with the mathematical ratios that govern the concordant musical intervals in order to produce a music of the heavens, which in the later tradition developed into “the harmony of the spheres.” It is doubtful that Pythagoras himself thought in terms of spheres, and the mathematics of the movements of the heavens was not worked out in detail. There is evidence that he valued relationships between numbers such as those embodied in the so-called Pythagorean theorem, though it is not likely that he proved the theorem. In recent scholarship this consensus view has received strong challenges, which will be discussed below. Pythagoras' cosmos was developed in a more scientific and mathematical direction by his successors in the Pythagorean tradition, Philolaus and Archytas. Pythagoras succeeded in promulgating a new more optimistic view of the fate of the soul after death and in founding a way of life that was attractive for its rigor and discipline and that drew to him numerous devoted followers. 1. The Pythagorean Question What were the beliefs and practices of the historical Pythagoras? This apparently simple question has become the daunting Pythagorean question for several reasons. First, Pythagoras himself wrote nothing, so our


Which English cricket county did W. G. Grace represent?

W.G. Grace | England Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo 1865 - 1908 Profile It is more than 150 years since WG Grace was born, but there are other ways of measuring how distant he is in time. For one thing, no one still alive, not even Jim Swanton, can remember seeing him play (although in Sort Of A Cricket Person, EWS notes that "I am supposed to have watched [him] from my perambulator on the Forest Hill ground round 1910"). Eight decades have passed since Grace died, yet he dogs us still, demanding our attention at regular intervals. The statistics of his career are alone enough to explain why - more than 54,000 first-class runs (there are at least two different versions of the precise figure, so let's leave it at that) spread across 44 seasons, including 839 in just eight days of 1876, when he hit a couple of triple-centuries, and only one other batsman managed to top a thousand runs in the entire season; a thousand in May in 1895, when he was nearly 47; and 2800-odd wickets costing less than 18 runs apiece. I suppose we might wonder why his bowling average wasn't even more impressive, given the ropey pitches on which Dr Grace played. No modern cricketer would deign to turn out on them, which makes his batting all the more wondrous, and comparisons with Bradman or anyone since quite pointless. But there was not that much to Grace apart from these skills and his devotion to his family. A hand of whist appears to have marked the limit of his capacity for cerebration, and if one wished to be rude to suburbia one might identify Grace as suburban man incarnate, fluctuating mentally as well as physically between the fringes of Bristol and the London Counties, ultimately coming to rest in Eltham. His one inherited asset was that he came from a clan which was dotty about a great game and dutiful (but in some cases no more) about the general practice of medicine, with no doubt in its collective mind which came first at all times and in all places. His brother EM Grace, who was a coroner, once had a corpse put on ice until he could attend to it at close of play, and WG himself must have had one of the most prolonged medical trainings in history because he so frequently interrupted it in order to exercise his major talent at the crease. He began to study as a bachelor of 19, and was a father of three in his thirties before taking his final qualification at Westminster Hospital. His most conspicuous act as a doctor is thought to have occurred when an unfortunate fieldsman impaled himself on the boundary fence at Old Trafford. It was simply because the cricketing Grace totally dominated his own era that an exasperated CLR James could not understand why standard history books of the period never mentioned him. This man, for heaven's sake, opened for England at the age of 50 - and at the age of 18 he had scored 224 not out for England against Surrey, in a match which he left halfway through in order to win a quarter-mile hurdles championship at the Crystal Palace! No wonder he was the best-known Englishman apart from Mr Gladstone, so much so that Evelyn Waugh's friend, Monsignor Ronnie Knox, waggishly suggested that Gladstone and Grace were really one and the same celebrity. Athletic is not a word that obviously comes to mind when contemplating Grace in his prime, though a slim young man did precede the pot-bellied genius, who in middle age was far too heavy for any horse to bear. I have often wondered how stylishly he played his strokes ever since I saw some film in which he appeared to be brandishing his bat as though he was about to poke the fire with it. Something tells me that he never hit the ball as gracefully as Victor Trumper did in the famous photo of his straight drive; Grace, I suspect, was much more about power than aesthetics. That, at any rate, would fit what we know of his character in general. Apart from tenderness to his relatives and a generous soft spot for children, he was not, I think, a particularly attractive man, though he could sometimes (and it is usually recorded as remarkable) encour


In Japanese what word means they who serve?

What does Samurai mean? GCIDE(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition: Samurai(n. pl. & sing.) In the former feudal system of Japan, the class or a member of the class, of military retainers of the daimios, constituting the gentry or lesser nobility. They possessed power of life and death over the commoners, and wore two swords as their distinguishing mark. Their special rights and privileges were abolished with the fall of feudalism in 1871. They were referred to as Origin: [Jap.] Wiktionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition: samurai(Noun) In feudal Japan, a samurai was a soldier of noble birth who followed the code of bushido and served a daimyo. Origin: From 侍 (さむらい, samurai). Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Samurai Samurai, usually referred to in Japanese as bushi or buke, were the military nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany persons in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility," the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, an early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the Kokin Wakashū, the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as bushidō. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts. Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Samurai sam′ōō-rī, n. sing. (also pl.) a member of the military class in the old feudal system of Japan, including both daimios, or territorial nobles, and their military retainers: a military retainer, a two-sworded man. [Jap.] The New Hacker's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: samurai A hacker who hires out for legal cracking jobs, snooping for  factions in corporate political fights, lawyers pursuing privacy-rights and  First Amendment cases, and other parties with legitimate reasons to need an  electronic locksmith. In 1991, mainstream media reported the existence of  a loose-knit culture of samurai that meets electronically on BBS systems,  mostly bright teenagers with personal micros; they have modeled themselves  explicitly on the historical samurai of Japan and on the “net  cowboys” of William Gibson's cyberpunk  novels. Those interviewed claim to adhere to a rigid ethic of loyalty to  their employers and to disdain the vandalism and theft practiced by  criminal crackers as beneath them and contrary to the hacker ethic; some  quote Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings, a  classic of historical samurai doctrine, in support of these principles.  See also sneaker, Stupids,  social engineering, cracker,  hacker ethic, and   dark-side hacker. The numerical value of Samurai in Chaldean Numerology is: 9 Pythagorean Numerology


Which singing and dancing actor was born Frederick Austerlitz in 1899?

Frederick Austerlitz - definition of Frederick Austerlitz by The Free Dictionary Frederick Austerlitz - definition of Frederick Austerlitz by The Free Dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Frederick+Austerlitz Also found in: Thesaurus , Encyclopedia , Wikipedia . ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Noun 1. Fred Astaire - United States dancer and cinema actor noted for his original and graceful tap dancing (1899-1987) Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: Virginia McMath References in periodicals archive ? 30pm The names Frederick Austerlitz and Virginia Katherine McMath probably won't mean much to anyone, but once the former adopted the name Fred Astaire, above, the skilled dancer from Nebraska started out on the road to fame and fortune (even though one Hollywood boss reportedly said: "Can't sing. Copyright © 2003-2017 Farlex, Inc Disclaimer All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.


Why Under Milk Wood is the greatest radio play ever - Telegraph Theatre Why Under Milk Wood is the greatest radio play ever Under Milk Wood took Dylan Thomas nearly 20 tortured years to bring to life.  On his centenary, three theatrical productions pay homage to the greatest  ever radio drama Dylan Thomas in 1948 Photo: National Portrait Gallery By Jasper Rees 7:00AM GMT 27 Mar 2014 “I’ve finished that infernally eternally unfinished ‘PLAY’ & have done it in New York with actors.” Thus wrote Dylan Thomas to his wife Caitlin of the birth of Under Milk Wood. There seems little room for argument: his “play for voices” is the greatest drama ever written for radio. “It is all about religion, sex and death,” said Richard Burton, the actor whose voice in the famous BBC recording begins at the beginning of Thomas’s rich portrait of a poor community. “And,” he added, “it is a comic masterpiece.” The characters who populate the fictional village of Llareggub have become household names: the blind old seadog Captain Cat forever mourning his dead love Rosie Probert, the Rev Eli Jenkins greeting each morning in verse, Polly Garter with her list of lost paramours, Mr Pugh who dreams of poisoning Mrs Pugh, Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard and her two dead husbands, Dai Bread and his two live wives. So it seems odd that there were no drum rolls when Thomas wrote from America to Caitlin after the cast took their inaugural bow in May 1953. Instead, Thomas devoted much of his letter to sweet nothings: his ever-tempestuous wife was feeding small mouths back in the real Laugharne rather than the romanticised one known as Llareggub, while the playwright-poet had embarked on another love affair in New York. In the same letter he implored Caitlin to set aside a month to travel with him to Los Angeles, where he was to work on a libretto for Stravinsky. Then, just before the play is mentioned in passing, there is a sentence of chilling brevity: “Is my sister dead?” Thomas’s older sister Nancy had indeed died of cancer in Bombay the previous month. Related Articles Dylan Thomas and Igor Stravinsky: an unlikely partnership 10 Feb 2014 So there was much on Thomas’s mind aside from a play which had resisted completion for years. The truth is that Caitlin, never eager to massage her husband’s ego, must have grown impatient with Under Milk Wood’s snail-like progress and the much postponed pay cheque. Under Milk Wood brewed in the cauldron of Thomas’s imagination for more than 20 years. Before he was 20 some of the characters had sprung into being and populated a play – never published – about a Welsh seaside community. By the mid-1930s the word Llareggub, the name Thomas invented by reversing the letters of “bugger all”, was cropping up in short stories. He applied it variously to a village (in “The Holy Six” and “The Orchards”) and to a “sowfaced woman” in “The Burning Baby”, in which a preacher has sexual relations with his daughter and incinerates the fruit of her womb. So it was already associated in Thomas’s mind with the chapel, transgression and sexuality. As early as 1939 Thomas was heard suggesting that “what Laugharne really needs is a play about well-known Laugharne characters – and get them all to play themselves”. And yet the radio piece “Quite Early One Morning”, clearly a precursor, was inspired by his time living in New Quay in Cardiganshire towards the end of the war, thus seeding the fishing port’s claim to be the real Llareggub. It introduced an antecedent to Polly Garter, serially impregnated by a variety of lovers, and a Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard who, obsessed with cleanliness, will not let the sun in her house until he’s wiped his shoes. In 1948 Thomas’s correspondence alluded (in parenthesis) to what would become Under Milk Wood. Pitching an article to Picture Post about his sometime home – “I know the little town intimately, and everyone in it” – he added: “(A radio play I am writing has Laugharne, though not by name, as its setting)”. Later that year he reported that he was “getting on with my awful script”. For several years the play was


Which actress, who died in 1962, starred in the films Some Like It Hot and Bus Stop?

Marilyn Monroe - IMDb IMDb Soundtrack | Actress | Writer Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson at the Los Angeles County Hospital on June 1, 1926. Her mother Gladys Pearl Baker was a film-cutter at Consolidated Film Industries. Marilyn's father's identity was never known. Because Gladys was mentally and financially unable to care for young Marilyn, Gladys placed her in the care of a foster ... See full bio » Born: a list of 39 people created 27 Jul 2011 a list of 34 people created 26 Mar 2012 a list of 48 people created 26 Aug 2014 a list of 38 people created 7 months ago a list of 34 images created 7 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Marilyn Monroe's work have you seen? User Polls Won     1     Golden Globe. Another    7 wins & 10 nominations. See more awards  » Known For  2015 Autopsy: The Last Hours Of (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Marilyn Monroe (2015) ... (performer: "Happy Birthday to You" - uncredited)  2015 Ochéntame... otra vez (TV Series documentary) (performer - 1 episode) - La juventud canta y baila (2015) ... (performer: "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend")  2014 My Granny the Escort (TV Movie documentary) (performer: "I'm Thru with Love" - uncredited)  2012 Love, Marilyn (Documentary) (performer: "I Wanna Be Loved by You", "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend", "After You Get What You Want You Don't Want It", "I'm Gonna File My Claim")  2011 Gent de paraula (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Episode #2.5 (2011) ... (performer: "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend")  2011 Shooting the Hollywood Stars (TV Movie documentary) (performer: "Some Like It Hot" - uncredited)  2010/I Burlesque (performer: "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend (Swing Cats Mix)")  2009 Willkommen Österreich (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Episode #1.91 (2009) ... (performer: "I Wanna Be Loved By You" - uncredited)  2009 Dzi Croquettes (Documentary) (performer: "My Heart Belongs to Daddy")   Dancing with the Stars (TV Series) (2 episodes, 2005 - 2006) (performer - 1 episode, 2009) - Round One: Part 2 (2009) ... (performer: "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" - uncredited) - Round 7 (2006) ... ("I Wanna Be Loved By You") - Dance Off (2005) ... ("Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend")  2008 Game Boys (performer: "I Wanna Be Loved By You")  2008 Mad Men (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Six Month Leave (2008) ... (performer: "I'm Through With Love" - uncredited)  2008 Vita da Star: Cristiano Malgioglio (TV Movie documentary) (performer: "I Wanna Be Loved By You")  2008 Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical Treasure (TV Movie documentary) (performer: "A Little Girl from Little Rock" - uncredited)  2007 Nip/Tuck (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Joyce and Sharon Monroe (2007) ... (performer: "I Wanna Be Loved by You")  2007 Hoge bomen: Pioniers (TV Series documentary) (performer - 1 episode) - Simon van Collem (2007) ... (performer: "I Wanna Be Loved By You")  2006 La imagen de tu vida (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Episode #1.12 (2006) ... (performer: "Happy Birthday to You")  2005 The Comeback (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode)  2002-2004 Queer as Folk (TV Series) (performer - 2 episodes) - Escalating Violence (2004) ... (performer: "I Wanna Be Loved by You")  1999-2004 Hinter Gittern - Der Frauenknast (TV Series) (performer - 2 episodes) - Böser Onkel (2004) ... (performer: "Teach Me Tiger") - Neues Leben (1999) ... (performer: "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" - uncredited)  2001 Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days (TV Movie documentary) (performer: "Happy Birthday to You")  2001 Lukas (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Der 18. Geburtstag (2001) ... (performer: "Happy Birthday, Mr. President", "I Wanna Be Loved By You" - uncredited) - Eine schwere Entscheidung (2001) ... (performer: "You'd Be Surprised" - uncredited) - Feuer und Flamme (1999) ... (performer: "I Wanna Be Loved By You" - uncredited) - Zwei Männer am Herd (1999) ... (performer: "I Wanna Be Loved By You" - uncredited)  2001 Town & Country (performer: "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (1953))


Which author's works include The History Of Mr Polly, The Time Machine and The War Of The Worlds?

The 100 best novels: No 39 – The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells (1910) | Books | The Guardian The 100 best novels The 100 best novels: No 39 – The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells (1910) The choice is great, but Wells's ironic portrait of a man very like himself is the novel that stands out Share on Messenger Close HG Wells is often catalogued as a pioneer of science fiction (which he was) with bestselling books like The Invisible Man and The First Men in the Moon. But he was also a great Edwardian writer of immense fame and influence who deserves to be remembered as a major literary figure, now somewhat eclipsed in the posterity stakes. But which of his 50 novels to choose? The Sleeper Awakes (a far-sighted portrait of a world enslaved by money and machines)? Love and Mr Lewisham (the tale of a schoolteacher who becomes a socialist but subordinates politics to family life)? Tono-Bungay (a brilliant satire on advertising and the popular press)? Kipps (a Dickensian comedy about one ordinary man's struggle for self-improvement)? Wells's fans will have their favourites. But I have chosen The History of Mr Polly, a novel from Wells's early middle age (he wrote it when he was 44), a delightful comedy of everyday Edwardian England that draws inspiration from its author's own life. Moreover, as Wells put it in the preface to "the Atlantic Edition" of 1924, "a small but influential group of critics maintain that The History of Mr Polly is the writer's best book". If he could not quite accept that, he said, he would still concede that "certainly it is his happiest book, and the one he cares for most". I've always liked it (I've never been much of a sci-fi enthusiast) because it is, in many ways, so un-Wellsian. The story – still strikingly modern – is a comedy about a midlife crisis. Alfred Polly has a routine job as a gentlemen's outfitter in the small, provincial town of Fishbourne, a location widely agreed to be modelled on Sandgate in Kent, where Wells himself lived for several years. The tone is established at the outset: "He hated Fishbourne, he hated his shop and his wife and his neighbours. But most of all Mr Polly "hated himself". When he becomes threatened with bankruptcy, Mr Polly decides that the only way to liberate himself from his hateful predicament is to burn down his shop and commit suicide. But he makes a hash of his "bit of arson" and cannot find the courage to cut his throat with a razor. So then, acknowledging that "Fishbourne wasn't the world", Mr Polly takes off "on the tramp" and walks himself into a better future through what he calls his "exploratious menanderings". For me, there are three elements to The History of Mr Polly that unite to give the book an enduring appeal, and to place it at the top of Wells's extraordinary output. First, Wells's picture of Mr Polly – an ironic self-portrait – is deliciously appealing. In the literary tradition of Mrs Malaprop, and many minor Dickens characters, Mr Polly has an "innate sense of epithet" that inspires a teeming vocabulary: "intrudacious", "jawbacious" and "retrospectatiousness". Second, Mr Polly (who could have stepped from the pages of Dickens) is a "little man" of a kind typical of late Victorian and Edwardian England, a man painfully, even doggedly, liberating himself from an oppressive class-ridden society. The debt to Dickens is unequivocal. Alfred Polly is descended from Joe Gargery, Bob Cratchit and Mr Wemmick. He's also related, as it were, to Mr Pooter, is contemporary with EM Forster's Leonard Bast, and will subsequently inspire many Kingsley Amis protagonists, as well as Billy Liar. Finally, The History of Mr Polly is a comedy of ordinary, provincial life, rooted in the everyday, with countless brilliantly observed details. In part of the long flashback that composes the middle part of Mr Polly's "history", there's a hilarious wedding which commits him to Miriam, an event that inspires one of Wells's best lines: "He had a curious feeling that it would be very satisfying to marry and have a wife – only somehow he wished it wasn't Miriam." In lat


Who wrote the poem The Hunting Of The Snark?

The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll | Poetry Foundation The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll The Hunting of the Snark Related Poem Content Details "Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,    As he landed his crew with care; Supporting each man on the top of the tide    By a finger entwined in his hair. "Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:    That alone should encourage the crew. Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:    What I tell you three times is true." The crew was complete: it included a Boots—    A maker of Bonnets and Hoods— A Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes—    And a Broker, to value their goods. A Billiard-marker, whose skill was immense,    Might perhaps have won more than his share— But a Banker, engaged at enormous expense,    Had the whole of their cash in his care. There was also a Beaver, that paced on the deck,    Or would sit making lace in the bow: And had often (the Bellman said) saved them from wreck,    Though none of the sailors knew how. There was one who was famed for the number of things    He forgot when he entered the ship: His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings,    And the clothes he had bought for the trip. He had forty-two boxes, all carefully packed,    With his name painted clearly on each: But, since he omitted to mention the fact,    They were all left behind on the beach. The loss of his clothes hardly mattered, because    He had seven coats on when he came, With three pair of boots—but the worst of it was,    He had wholly forgotten his name. He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry,    Such as "Fry me!" or "Fritter my wig!" To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!" While, for those who preferred a more forcible word,    He had different names from these: His intimate friends called him "Candle-ends,"    And his enemies "Toasted-cheese." "His form is ungainly—his intellect small—"    (So the Bellman would often remark) "But his courage is perfect! And that, after all,    Is the thing that one needs with a Snark." He would joke with hænas, returning their stare    With an impudent wag of the head: And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear,    "Just to keep up its spirits," he said. He came as a Baker: but owned, when too late—    And it drove the poor Bellman half-mad— He could only bake Bride-cake—for which, I may state,    No materials were to be had. The last of the crew needs especial remark,    Though he looked an incredible dunce: He had just one idea—but, that one being "Snark,"    The good Bellman engaged him at once. He came as a Butcher: but gravely declared,    When the ship had been sailing a week, He could only kill Beavers. The Bellman looked scared,    And was almost too frightened to speak: But at length he explained, in a tremulous tone,    There was only one Beaver on board; And that was a tame one he had of his own,    Whose death would be deeply deplored. The Beaver, who happened to hear the remark,    Protested, with tears in its eyes, That not even the rapture of hunting the Snark    Could atone for that dismal surprise! It strongly advised that the Butcher should be    Conveyed in a separate ship: But the Bellman declared that would never agree    With the plans he had made for the trip: Navigation was always a difficult art,    Though with only one ship and one bell: And he feared he must really decline, for his part,    Undertaking another as well. The Beaver's best course was, no doubt, to procure    A second-hand dagger-proof coat— So the Baker advised it—and next, to insure    Its life in some Office of note: This the Banker suggested, and offered for hire    (On moderate terms), or for sale, Two excellent Policies, one Against Fire,    And one Against Damage From Hail. Yet still, ever after that sorrowful day,    Whenever the Butcher was by, The Beaver kept looking the opposite way,    And appeared unaccountably shy. The Bellman himself they all praised to the skies—    Such a carriage, such ease and such grace! Such solemnity, too! One could see he was wise,    The mome


Who played Vito Corleone in The Godfather?

Don Vito Corleone (Character) Don Vito Corleone (Character) from The Godfather (1972) The content of this page was created by users. It has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. There may be more photos available for this character. To select more photos to be displayed in this character's gallery, click the Edit Photos link. Overview Biography In the first film, Don Vito Corleone was portrayed by Marlon Brando... See more  » Alternate Names: Godfather / The Godfather / Vito Corleone / Young Vito Corleone Filmography ... aka "Mario Puzo's The Godfather: A Novel for Television" - USA (complete title) ... aka "The Godfather 1902-1959: The Complete Epic" - USA (video title) ... aka "The Godfather Novella" - USA (alternative title) ... aka "The Godfather Saga" - USA (alternative title) ... aka "The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television" - USA (alternative title) ... aka "NBC's Saturday Night" - USA (complete title) ... aka "SNL" - USA (informal title) ... aka "SNL 25" - USA (alternative title) ... aka "Saturday Night" - USA (first season title) ... aka "Saturday Night Live '80" - USA (sixth season title) ... aka "Saturday Night Live 15" - USA (fifteenth season title) ... aka "Saturday Night Live 20" - USA (twentieth season title) ... aka "Saturday Night Live 25" - USA (twentyfifth season title)


Marx publishes Manifesto - Feb 21, 1848 - HISTORY.com Marx publishes Manifesto Publisher A+E Networks On February 21, 1848, The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx with the assistance of Friedrich Engels, is published in London by a group of German-born revolutionary socialists known as the Communist League. The political pamphlet–arguably the most influential in history–proclaimed that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” and that the inevitable victory of the proletariat, or working class, would put an end to class society forever. Originally published in German as Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (“Manifesto of the Communist Party”), the work had little immediate impact. Its ideas, however, reverberated with increasing force into the 20th century, and by 1950 nearly half the world’s population lived under Marxist governments. Karl Marx was born in Trier, Prussia, in 1818–the son of a Jewish lawyer who converted to Lutheranism. He studied law and philosophy at the universities of Berlin and Jena and initially was a follower of G.W.F. Hegel, the 19th-century German philosopher who sought a dialectical and all-embracing system of philosophy. In 1842, Marx became editor of the Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal democratic newspaper in Cologne. The newspaper grew considerably under his guidance, but in 1843 the Prussian authorities shut it down for being too outspoken. That year, Marx moved to Paris to co-edit a new political review. Paris was at the time a center for socialist thought, and Marx adopted the more extreme form of socialism known as communism, which called for a revolution by the working class that would tear down the capitalist world. In Paris, Marx befriended Friedrich Engels, a fellow Prussian who shared his views and was to become a lifelong collaborator. In 1845, Marx was expelled from France and settled in Brussels, where he renounced his Prussian nationality and was joined by Engels. During the next two years, Marx and Engels developed their philosophy of communism and became the intellectual leaders of the working-class movement. In 1847, the League of the Just, a secret society made up of revolutionary German workers living in London, asked Marx to join their organization. Marx obliged and with Engels renamed the group the Communist League and planned to unite it with other German worker committees across Europe. The pair were commissioned to draw up a manifesto summarizing the doctrines of the League. Back in Brussels, Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto in January 1848, using as a model a tract Engels wrote for the League in 1847. In early February, Marx sent the work to London, and the League immediately adopted it as their manifesto. Many of the ideas in The Communist Manifesto were not new, but Marx had achieved a powerful synthesis of disparate ideas through his materialistic conception of history. The Manifesto opens with the dramatic words, “A spectre is haunting Europe–the spectre of communism,” and ends by declaring: “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world, unite!” In The Communist Manifesto, Marx predicted imminent revolution in Europe. The pamphlet had hardly cooled after coming off the presses in London when revolution broke out in France on February 22 over the banning of political meetings held by socialists and other opposition groups. Isolated riots led to popular revolt, and on February 24 King Louis-Philippe was forced to abdicate. The revolution spread like brushfire across continental Europe. Marx was in Paris on the invitation of the provincial government when the Belgian government, fearful that the revolutionary tide would soon engulf Belgium, banished him. Later that year, he went to the Rhineland, where he agitated for armed revolt. The bourgeoisie of Europe soon crushed the Revolution of 1848, and Marx would have to wait longer for his revolution. He went to London to live and continued to write with Engels as they further organized the international communist move


Which famous singer songwriter was the inspiration for the 2007 movie I'm Not There?

'I'm Not There' (2007) | 30 Best Music Biopics of All Time | Rolling Stone 30 Best Music Biopics of All Time 30 Best Music Biopics of All Time From 18th-century composers to hip-hop legends, the greatest musician stories to ever grace big and small screens All Stories 1. 'I'm Not There' (2007) How do you possibly try to encapsulate the life of Bob Dylan — one of the rock era's greatest shape-shifters — in a single film? If you're Carol director Todd Haynes, by splitting that life into different eras and influences, casting everyone from Cate Blanchett to Richard Gere to Heath Ledger to Christian Bale to portray separate shards in Dylan's rich, confounding mosaic. I'm Not There is both thrilling and inquisitive, staying away from chronology and straight biography to grasp, in a larger sense, how Dylan remade the world while constantly reinventing himself over the years. On one level, the film is merely a joyride through cinematic styles — aping the look and feel of Godard, A Hard Day's Night, 8 1/2 and 1970s revisionist Westerns — but, more profoundly, it pays the singer-songwriter the highest compliment by crafting a fractured, often brilliant exploration that's as vibrant as the man it honors. TG


What is the name of Ron Weasley's pet rat in the Harry Potter movies?

Ronald Weasley | Harry Potter Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia — Slytherins mock Ron about his Keeper abilities [src] Ron with others in 12 Grimmauld Place preparing to clean With the start of the Second Wizarding War and Voldemort's rise to power, Dumbledore reconstructed the Order of the Phoenix . Early in the summer of 1995 the Order, along with the remaining Weasley schoolchildren and Hermione, moved into headquarters at 12 Grimmauld Place . There, they helped Mrs Weasley  clean the old house and kept an ear out for information about Harry. Early in August, he finally arrived at the headquarters but only after a Dementor attack  on his cousin. Ron felt sorry about having to keep Harry in the dark, but quickly became aware of Harry's angry temper, which was very close to the surface due to Harry's increasing feelings of persecution and isolation. Throughout August, they stayed at Grimmauld Place, and late in the month, Ron was shocked to be made a Gryffindor prefect , along with Hermione. For this traditional Weasley achievement, Molly and Arthur gave him a new broomstick, a Cleansweep Eleven . Bound by their prefect duties, Ron and Hermione could not initially join Harry on the Hogwarts Express , but had to go to another compartment to learn of their responsibilities before they were able to join Harry in his compartment for the last part of their journey to Hogwarts. That evening, Ron was worried when Hagrid was not at his seat at the welcoming feast and disconcerted by the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Dolores Umbridge , who worked for Fudge . The first DADA class with Umbridge as the professor Along with several other students, Ron was angry when Professor Umbridge refused to teach the class practical defensive magic. That first week of school, Ron also tried out to be the Gryffindor Quidditch team 's Keeper . He won the position, but according to Quidditch Captain Angelina Johnson, he needed more improvement. Ron's Quidditch practises left him behind in his homework, to Hermione's chagrin. Soon, news of Ron's prefect position reached his brother, Percy Weasley , and Percy sent Ron a letter advising him to break off his friendship with Harry, whom he accused of being mad for supporting Dumbledore . Late in September, one evening when Harry returned from detention with Professor Umbridge, Ron, somewhat reluctantly, joined Hermione in convincing that Harry teach his fellow students defence against the dark arts. Harry initially disagreed, but after a few days he decided to give it a go. Around this time, Professor Umbridge was appointed the first Hogwarts High Inquisitor , giving her the power to randomly create new school rules and inspect teachers' lessons. The meeting of students in the Hog's Head that would become known as Dumbledore's Army Late in October, students had their first visit to Hogsmeade . There, Harry, Ron, and Hermione met with several students who were interested in learning proper defence. Ron defended Harry when questions rose, and was among the first to sign the recruitment parchment. On the way home from Hogsmeade, Ron became upset when he learned from Hermione that his sister Ginny was dating Ravenclaw student Michael Corner . The following morning, Ron awoke to find that suddenly, by order of Professor Umbridge, all student groups had been disbanded including the House Quidditch teams, but he was mollified when Harry said they would continue with their secret group, which Ginny named " Dumbledore's Army " during their first meeting, mocking the Ministry of Magic 's fears of student uprisings. In the weeks following the first Dumbledore's Army meeting, Quidditch season arrived. Ron had nervous issues prior to the first match against Slytherin. They had made badges saying "Weasley is our king," which Harry decided could not mean anything good. In an attempt to distract Ron from the Slytherins, Hermione kissed him on the cheek for luck, effectively stunning Ron. Ron's play was abysmal, and it was not helped by the Slytherins' new song also entitled, " Weasley is Our King ". Follow


Of Mice And Men is a novel by which American novelist?

John Steinbeck - The Greatest Literature of All Time East of Eden [SHOW] [HIDE] Is it all timshel? Steinbeck has his main character drop the word at the end of the novel. Earlier it had been explained that the Hebrew word from the Bible meant that humankind.... more The highs and lows of a great author John Steinbeck's art and career follow a typically American arc of   the mid-twentieth century. The early hard-scrabble years of unadulterated   talent giving creative and dignified voice to the downtrodden. The rise   to iconic status as the conscience of a new mainstream. And an   alcohol-facilitated decline into alienating self-indulgence and general   crankiness. But one thing remained constant: he wrote like no one else and he   never repeated himself, always trying something new. While he was always at least interesting, nowadays however we choose to focus on the highlights   of Steinbeck's writing career, especially the accomplished   vision of his middle period. This is the period from   the depths of the Great Depression to the booming post-war—from the   mid-1930s to early 1950s—encompassing the twin peaks of The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden , as well as two or three   comparable heights of modern lit. It's surprising then to discover Steinbeck produced over forty books   in his lifetime. Before that golden middle period was launched with Tortilla Flat in 1935, Steinbeck had published three novels and   two short story collections—largely based on his background as a native   of the Monterey Bay area of California, his experience in marine biology,   and various other odd jobs he held across the United States—all of which   works drew little attention. His first publishing success, Tortilla Flat, is a somewhat   fanciful account of a small gang of charming ne'er-do-wells in an impoverished   settlement above Monterey. The drinking, womanizing, thievery and more   drinking of the paisanos (Spanish, Mexican, Indian and Caucasian bloods   mixed together) is presented by Steinbeck as a take-off on King Arthur   and the Knights of the Round Table, though most readers would be hard-pressed   to see the connection. It's as Danny, Pilon, Pablo that the lumpen characters   won the hearts of readers, thanks to Steinbeck's clever, philosophical   and warm-spirited writing. They appeared as such also in the 1942 movie   of Tortilla Flat. Tortilla Flat was followed by In Dubious Battle (1936),   the story of a strike by migratory workers. And then by The Red Pony stories, published separately beginning in 1933. Collected in 1937,   they became a Steinbeck favourite, telling the simple story of a young   boy coming of age on a farm in Salinas Valley, California. Also in 1937 he published the equally enduring Of Mice and Men ,   about the relationship of two itinerant ranch workers, the ambitious   George and the strong but simple-minded Lenny, whose dreams are crushed   by events beyond their control. Steinbeck produced both novel and play   forms of the pathetic story and it became his biggest success to date. His style was set now. Ignoring the postmodern, stream-of-consciousness   experiments of many more "literary" figures Steinbeck was a straightforward,   natural writer in the Hemingway mould of "less is more"—though slightly   looser, more playful, and seemingly less cynical than his great contemporary.   More sentimentally folksy. His best work was still to come. The monumental novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) relates the trek of the dispossessed Joad family   from Oklahoma to California during the Depression. It's Steinbeck's   most political novel, taking the side of the Okies as they come up against   oppressive labour conditions, corrupt police, and vicious vigilantes.   But, despite its near advocacy of socialist revolution, which many pundits   attacked as anti-American, The Grapes of Wrath has stood the   test of time as a modern classic, one of the top dozen novels of the   twentieth century. The popular 1940 movie versi


Glenis the Guinea Pig is which rodent superstar's girlfriend?

Roland Rat Superstar | Child Of The 1980's Child Of The 1980's Roland Rat Superstar Posted by Big Boo on April 29th, 2008 Roland Rat Superstar, self proclaimed saviour of TVam, as well as self proclaimed superstar for that matter, first hit our TV screens in 1983. He was brought in to introduce the five minute cartoon breaks that TVam had at certain times every morning. My favourite of these was Superchicken, but that’s potentially something for another time. Anne Diamond and Nick Owen would hand over to Roland from their comfy sofa to Roland and his Shedvision. This was a motif that was set to continue with Roland Rat. Whilst he pretended to have all the trimmings of a superstar, everything around him was quite obviously not all that wonderful, as broadcasting from a shed is a good example of. Roland would come on screen, usually insult Anne and Nick in some way, and then the cartoon would start. Roland was soon joined by fellow puppet Kevin the Gerbil, a slightly effeminate rodent with a penchant for anything pink. This was particularly irritating to Roland when he instructed Kevin to get a car for him, which ended up being an old Ford Zodiac sprayed pink, with Ratmobile written along the side. Another associate who arrived slightly later was Errol the Hamster, who was in charge of anything technical to do with sound or video. It was Errol’s job to start the cartoons running, which was cued by Roland shouting “Errol! Run VT“. Errol was a Welsh hamster, which meant that Roland usually poked fun of him with jokes about leeks. When it came to the school holidays Roland would normally get a much longer chance to entertain the kids, or his millions of fans as he would put it. The first such example was Rat on the Road, aired at 9am after the main TVam show during the Summer holidays in 1983. In this series Roland travelled around the UK in the Ratmobile, meeting people and generally getting into trouble. I believe this is also when we were first introduced to Roland’s agent, the scheming D’Arcy De Farcy, who was little more than a con man really. The following year Roland’s girlfriend, Glenis the Guinea Pig, was revealed in a short series called Operation F.O.G.I (Free Our Glenis Immediately). Before this Glenis had been mentioned, but this was the first time we actually got to see her, as the gang attempted to rescue (steal) her from Harrod’s pet department. In 1986 Roland left TVam, claiming he had done enough to bring them back from the brink of closure, and moved to the BBC, creating Roland Rat The Series, and even his own BBC channel (this was the first version of BBC3!). This show was a kind of sketch show involving all Roland’s friends and family, including Little Reggie his baby brother (who had been around on TVam before. He farted a lot and said “Great ‘ere innit“), Iris and Freddy (Roland’s Mum and Dad – Freddy looked exactly like Roland but with greyer fur) and even his pet flea, Colin. This show got two series, but then Roland left the UK to go and live in LA with all the other superstars. Channel 5 offered Roland a comeback soon after it first start transmitting with LA Rat, detailing Roland’s adventures in LA, but it wasn’t very popular. A stint on Channel 4’s Big Breakfast was doomed to failure too, ending when the once popular breakfast show ended up under the axe. During his hey day Roland Rat was everywhere. The Roland soft toy was in scarce supply when it was released, and he had chart success with single “Rat Rappin’” and a cover of Elvis hit “Love Me Tender“. Nowadays he only makes the odd guest appearance now and then, most recently taking part in the Weakest Link Puppet special! For further details on the superstar rat and all his chums, there’s a wealth of information available on the Rat Fans website.


Spike the bulldog from the Tom And Jerry cartoons has a son called what?

Spike Bulldog | Tom and Jerry Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Tom and Jerry Wiki For other uses, see the disambiguation page for Spike . Spike Bulldog is a grey, rough bulldog that appears in many of Tom and Jerry cartoons. He has a somewhat minor friendship with Jerry and is a formidable enemy to Tom , though he is occasionally is a rival to both protagonists, as he was in the cartoon Dog Trouble . Spike has a grudge against Tom, not just because he's a cat, but because whenever they cross paths, Tom is interrupting quality time with his son, Tyke because he's too busy chasing Jerry to watch where he's going. Obviously, whenever Spike tells Tom not to do a certain thing (ex. dirty Tyke), Jerry overhears this and does his best to get Tom in trouble (in the example, Jerry would get Tyke as dirty as possible). Spike proceeds to beat Tom up thinking he was responsible for it. After Spike beats Tom, he is shown having a good time or resting peacefully with his son tyke and they are joined by Jerry their real saboteur, disturber and culprit who was really the one that Spike should beat up. Spike also appeared in some of the recent cartoons featuring a basset hound called  Droopy , another popular MGM cartoon character. Spike (and his son, Tyke) is most likely a secondary or even major character, as he has appeared in almost all renditions of Tom and Jerry's cartoons. Contents [ show ] Appearance Spike has brownish-grey fur with a light brown marking that spans up the front of his torso. In many cartoons, his fur is light grey, while his marking is white. His ears are pointed with pink insides and his tail is slender, small, and pointed as well. His only consistent article of clothing is a red, spiked dog collar. He has a anchored tattoo on his left upper arm as seen in " Quiet Please! ".


In the 1997 comedy movie MouseHunt which two comic actors play the parts of the Smuntz brothers Ernie and Lars?

MOUSE HUNT (1997) – For The Love Of Celluloid Running Time: 1 hour 38 minutes MPAA Rating: PG for Language, Comic Sensuality and Mayhem Directed by: Gore Verbinski Written by: Adam Rifkin Starring: Nathan Lane, Lee Evans, Vicki Lewis, Maury Chaykin, Camilla Soeberg, Debra Christofferson, Christopher Walken & William Hickey MOUSE HUNT has the distinction of being the first-ever family film from DreamWorks. Despite being intended for kids as well as adults, the movie tries too hard to make things equally enjoyable for both age groups but in very different ways. Sometimes, the movie is a well-intentioned and genuinely funny romp that has a surprising level of sophistication around it. About an equal amount, the film turns into a live-action TOM & JERRY episode. Sadly, both approaches don’t blend together well or coherently. There are a decent amount of laughs in the well-intentioned parts of the movie that focus on a creative screenplay where everything doesn’t result in a pratfall. Lars and Ernie Smuntz are the two sons of a formerly rich proprietor of a string factory. Leaving not much of an inheritance to his sons (some knick-knacks, a rundown factory, and an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere), Lars and Ernie find their lives upended through two separate acts of fate. Things seem to be changing for the better when the brothers find out that their father’s countryside property is actually the legendary abandoned house of a famed architect that’s worth millions. Blinded by the possibility of a fortune, the Smuntz siblings embark on renovating the house. This process is made difficult and destructive by a mouse that’s smarter than your average rodent. MOUSE HUNT has an identity crisis between being a kids movie about a mouse outwitting two grown men or a raunchy comedy that happens to have a seemingly indestructible rodent as a plot device. The former doesn’t work quite as well as it wants to and the latter feels like it’s pushing the boundaries for what’s appropriate in a family flick. There are utterances of notable swear words that I’m sure parents don’t want their young ones picking up. Also there’s frank talk about sex and some risqué humor. One stand-out scene is a moment near the end that made me laugh hard, but didn’t fit at all within the boundaries of a PG-rated family flick. It’s like how CASPER (a film that came out a couple of years prior) threw in curse words for the sake of being edgy and was bound to irritate some parents. I almost always praise family entertainment that takes risks, but there’s also a certain level of content that should be avoided if you’re making a movie that’s specifically geared towards children and MOUSE HUNT rubbed me the wrong way in a few areas. The performances from the cast are well above the level of material they’ve ended up working with. Nathan Lane and Lee Evans are a good comedic duo and it makes you wonder that if this film had been more well-received, they could have possibly have gone on starring in more family films together. At any rate, they both highlight different styles of comedy. Nathan Lane is Ernie and the more brash of the brothers. Lee Evans delivered more laughs as Lars, but came off as the goofy screw-up. The late William Hickey also makes his last film appearance as their father, seen in one flashback and appearing in a painting with multiple expressions. Christopher Walken also takes a brief cameo-length role that has a few chuckles, but ultimately winds up being entirely pointless. It literally felt like someone felt they should hire Walken for a day to be an exterminator and he’s in the film for about five minutes at the most. It may sound like I’m bad mouthing MOUSE HUNT quite a bit. It’s true that I don’t consider it to be a necessarily good movie and I found it a lot funnier when I was a kid watching this on the old-fashioned VCR, but there are still some solid laughs in the film. Ironically, the best scenes don’t involve the title animal at all. The opening is solid enough and showcases dark humor that may have pushed the envelope for kids mater


What is the first name of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple?

Characters from Agatha Christie stories - Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot One of the most famous fictional characters of all time, the inimitable Belgian private detective is synonymous with waxed moustaches, perfectionism and little grey cells. Poirot would be the first to call himself a great man - he has never been known for his modesty - but with such success in his career, it is difficult to argue with him. Miss Marple Miss Jane Marple doesn’t look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesn’t look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. But as she often points out, she has had every opportunity to observe human nature. Tommy & Tuppence International spies, two world wars, murders, thefts and not to mention marriage, Tommy and Tuppence seek out excitement wherever it may lie. Tuppence leads the way with her charismatic nature, while Tommy’s slow, considered manner provides the perfect foil. Together they form the 'Young Adventurers Ltd' and the adventures begin.


What was the name of the number one hit single by Spitting Image in 1986?

Spitting Image S Spitting Image Spitting Image was a British satirical puppet show which ran on the ITV television network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one, for editing, in 1989. The series was notorious for featuring caricatured puppets of numerous celebrities who were famous during the 1980s and 1990s. The humor was usually controversial and bitingly sharp. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , then American president Ronald Reagan and The British Royal Family were the most prominent targets, although hundreds of other celebrities were spoofed in an equally disrespectful manner. Certain countries have been inspired to have similar satirical puppet shows, based on "Spitting Image". History Development The show took several years to be developed. The original idea is credited to graphic designer Martin Lambie-Nairn, who proposed the idea of a satirical television show featuring puppets to Peter Fluck and Roger Law, two illustrators and sculptors who worked mostly in print media. The puppets, caricaturing public figures often including British and American politicians and celebrities, were designed by Fluck and Law (who sometimes spoonerised their names as 'Luck and Flaw'). They were assisted by various young voice caricaturists including David Stoten, Steve Bendelack, Tim Watts, Pablo Bach, Christopher Sharrock (who coined the internal name for the show: "Splitting Headache") and Oscar da Costa and virtually every successful British impressionist of the time. Musical parodies were provided by Philip Pope (former member of Who Dares Wins and The Hee Bee Gee Bees) and later Steve Brown (who played the character of bandleader Glen Ponder in Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge). Beginnings As neither Lambie-Nairn, Fluck or Law had prior TV experience, they turned to others to actually produce the show. Fluck and Law brought in comedy writer and National Lampoon editor Tony Hendra, who they had met previously while working in America. Hendra in turn brought in John Lloyd, producer of the satirical sketch show Not The Nine O'Clock News. They were joined by Jon Blair, a documentary producer. They then hired Muppet puppeteer Louise Gold. The initial development of the show was funded by entrepreneur Clive Sinclair . At the start in 1984 and 1985 the show wasn't doing well in the ratings and was nearly cancelled. As there was no availability at Central's Birmingham Studio 1, the team used Studio 2 - better known as the Crossroads Motel. Early series were recorded at Limehouse Studios in London's Docklands, now demolished. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor were brought in as head writers to try and save the show, with the informal understanding that they would be promoted to executive producers if they succeeded. By 1986, under their supervision, Spitting Image had become a popular phenomenon, even producing a number 1 hit single (the infamous Chicken Song), but producer John Lloyd was unaware of the writers' deal and refused their promotion. With the feeling that they wouldn't be able to progress on the show, the pair left (and later created Red Dwarf for BBC2). Several of the politicians found their characterisations offensive, although in subsequent interviews many were glad of the attention. Though an appreciation of the programme's humour required more than a passing knowledge of British politics, it aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation late on Sunday nights in the late 1980s. The American NBC network aired several prime-time specials adapted from the series in the same period. Popularity and changes As the show progressed, Britain's political landscape altered. Particularly, in the early 1990s, many of the characters who had proven so popular retired from real-world politics, particularly Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, whilst others such as Michael Heseltine and Norman Tebbit became much less prominent. At the height of its popularity, Spitting Image also spun off several public exhibits of puppets a


Who rode Kris Kin to success in the Epsom Derby in 2003?

Epsom Derby 2003 Result | Derby Winner Kris Kin 6/1 Toggle navigation Epsom Derby 2003 Result The Epsom Derby in 2003 was all about one of the biggest and sustained gambles in a major race seen in quite a few years. Kris Kin was backed at all prices in the morning of the race. Those you lumped on could only thank one person for collecting and that was the brilliant jockeyship of Kieran Fallon for getting Kris Kin up in the dying strides. In the end Kris Kin proved strong enough to fend off The Great Gatsby, ridden by Pat Eddery , who had led from the off but faded over the last two furlongs. In a year which was going to see Pat Eddery ride in his last Epsom Derby, it would have been a wonderful climax to his magnificent career if he had got the Great Gatsby to hang on, but in the end he had to settle for second place. One of the pre-race favourite Alamshar also finished strongly to take third place. \"Everything went his way and he travelled well in his race. They went a good gallop and he was able to quicken,\" Fallon told BBC Sport after the race. \"It got a bit tight at the top of the hill as it always does when they cross over. I worried there but I let him find himself and he was OK.\" The Great Gatsby made the early running under Eddery, along with Dutch Gold. Refuse To Bend, the 11-4 favourite, was racing in touch with Brian Boru close up on the inside and Kris Kin in mid-division. As the field turned for home Eddery kicked on and had most of the runners in trouble, but Fallon had the move covered and went in pursuit of the leader. His mount answered all his calls to lead inside the final furlong and hold his rivals at bay in a stirring finish to land a massive public gamble. Alamshar threatened briefly a furlong out and was only a short head behind the second, while Norse Dancer had been last at the top of the hill on the Epsom Racecourse and made up an amazing amount of ground to claim fourth place. Kris Kin and Norse Dancer had been supplemented for the race at a cost of £90,000 on Monday. Winning trainer Sir Michael Stoute landed his third Derby following the victories of Shergar in 1981 and Shahrastani five years later. It was Fallon\'s second blue riband after Oath\'s success in 1999. Stoute said: \"It\'s always a great thrill. You can\'t win it too many times and 1986 was a long time ago. \"We\'ve had a little bit of misfortune over the years since that period so I am delighted that it has come good. \"I am delighted for Saeed Suhail (owner) who was tough enough to supplement him. You\'ve got one of the great rides round Epsom on Derby day from Kieren Fallon - and that helped.\" Some £20m was gambled on the race, and bookmakers were pleased none of the three market leaders won, but the support for Kris Kin left them with mixed feelings. Pos.


Who wrote the classic thriller novel The Thirty-Nine Steps?

The 39 Steps to writing a perfect thriller by author John Buchan's grandson | Daily Mail Online comments Even now, almost 100 years after it was first published, the story retains a modernity that is little short of astonishing 'The 39 Steps, in its language, its settings, its nods to contemporary technology and its characterisation, belongs firmly to the 20th century,' said John Buchan's grandson, Toby On a late-summer’s day in 1914, a man walks with his small daughter down a rickety flight of wooden steps leading to a private beach from a house on the clifftop. The girl, just turned six, is improving her counting by determinedly calling out the number of each step. ‘Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-NINE!’ she says in triumph as they step off onto the sand. Thus Alice Buchan gave the title to her father’s, my grandfather’s, new novel, little knowing that it would prove to be one of the most enduring adventure stories ever to be published. John Buchan wrote The 39 Steps in a few weeks towards the end of 1914, while staying with his wife and children at Broadstairs in Kent, in a house on the cliffs overlooking Stone Bay. (The house is still there; indeed, anyone wishing to re-enact the novel’s finale may rent it as a holiday let.) While there, he became ill with the duodenal problems that plagued him all his life, and which had prevented him from joining the Army, Britain having declared war against Germany on August 4 that year. Two major elements among these facts – the clifftop setting and the coming of war – infuse what has come to be widely regarded as the first modern spy thriller. Buchan posted the manuscript to Blackwood & Sons in Edinburgh, publisher not only of books but of the famous literary magazine that bore its name. ‘It has amused me to write, but whether it will amuse you to read is another matter,’ he wrote. He need not have fretted. Blackwood’s accepted it at once and published it in the magazine, in serial form and pseudonymously, between July and September 1915, and as a book under Buchan’s name in October. It was an immediate success – and more than that, it has become a classic of its kind. Today, the principal charges levelled against the novel are that it is dated, and that it relies too heavily upon improbable circumstances or coincidences. Yet I would argue that even now, almost 100 years after it was first published, the story retains a modernity that is little short of astonishing. Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, released in 1935, is an extremely well-made comedy thriller that's widely and deservedly admired I am reminded of its place in our collective narrative by a cartoon I clipped from a newspaper a few years ago and pinned to my office wall. It shows a boy of about eight, standing in front of his parents. He is wearing a tweed Norfolk jacket, a tie, breeches, chequered shooting stockings and what are no doubt stout brogues. Eyes closed as in serious thought, he is drawing on a pipe clamped between his teeth, the bowl of which he’s holding in his left hand. In his right, half wedged beneath his arm, he holds a copy of The 39 Steps. Anxiously, his mother is saying to her husband, ‘Why doesn’t he read Harry Potter, like other kids?’ Why indeed? True, The 39 Steps isn’t read by the young (or old) in anything like the numbers that JK Rowling’s marvellous creation attracts, but it’s still in print nearly 100 years after its first publication; indeed, it has never been out of print, something that isn’t true of the works of, for instance, Jane Austen. John Buchan has quite often been called ‘the last Victorian’, but I have always found this a somewhat lazy description, especially when applied to his writing. He was, of course, a Victorian by birth and upbringing, but he was not stuck in the past. The storyline of The 39 Steps makes free use of the technology of its age: cars and a motorbike, radio and the telephone, a fleeting reference to a semi-automatic pistol and even a monoplane, at a time when all these were rarities – new-fangled, almost certainly dangerous and, to many, ar


Who was the last of the seven Roman kings?

The Kings 715-674 Reign of Numa Pompilius Your browser does not support the IFRAME tag. 673-642 Reign of Tullus Hostilius. Destruction of Alba Longa. 642-617 Reign of Ancus Marcius. Extension of Rome's power to the coast. 616-579 Reign of L. Tarquinius Priscus. Forum drained. 578-535 Reign of Servius Tullius. Treaty with Latins. 535-510 Reign of L. Tarquinius Superbus. Erection of the Capitoline Temple. Treaty with Gabii. Roman territory extended to ca. 350 square miles. 510 Downfall of the last Tarquinian king, Tarquinius Superbus. Brutus liberates Rome. Establishment of a republic headed by two magistrates (later called consuls) elected annually. The Roman Kings Historical details are still too obscure for any definite records of Rome under the kings, All remains half mythical. But it was under the Roman Kings that the Roman ability to create an empire of sorts first came to the fore, even though any original intentions will hardly have been of an imperial nature. In all there was said to have been seven kings of Rome covering a period of over two hundred years. Romulus The first recognized king of Rome was its mythical founder, Romulus. To him is attributed the foundation of the senate. He is also said to have ruthlessly pursued a policy of expanding the population, granting refuge and acceptance to criminals on the run at the asylum on the Capitoline Hill. He expanded the city�s boundaries to encompass four hills; Capitoline, Aventine, Caelian and Quirinal. If Romulus� reign was infamous, this impression is only further reinforced with an episode widely known as the �Rape of the Sabine women�. With Rome�s populace enlarged with runaway slaves and criminals, king Romulus found himself ruling a nation with too few women. The story goes that he staged extravagant celebrations for the festival of Consus (the god of the granary and the storehouse), inviting the neighbouring tribes to attend. For large image click on picture Italian warrior of the late 8th, early 7th century BC Museo della Civilta, Rome Many of the neighbouring Sabines were invited. But in mid-celebration the festival was brought to a sudden end, when Romulus and his Romans revealed their true intentions, taking possession of the unmarried Sabine women by force and claiming them as brides. Romulus himself came by his wife Hersilia by this very method. The Sabine town of Cures, ruled by king Titus Tatius, quite understandably declared war. In the resulting fight the Sabines managed to capture the Capitoline Hill, due to the treachery of Tarpeia who opened a gate (and who gave name to the Tarpeian Rock on the Capitoline). Further legend has it that it was the Sabine women who intervened to stop the fighting between their Sabine relatives and their new found Roman husbands. A peace was agreed and the Sabines of Cures and the Romans united and henceforth became one people. The two kings thereafter ruled jointly, Titus Tatius from the Capitoline and Romulus from the Palatine. Once the Sabine king died, sole rule fell to Romulus until his death at the age of 54. If all this sounds very much like a string of fairy tales and legends, there are hints to underlying truths. For example, Quirinus was the Sabine equivalent of the Roman god Mars and we found his name reflected in the Quirinal Hill. So too in the rarely used alternative name the Romans would use for themselves, the quirites. Naturally Romulus death is also wrapped up in legend. While he was performing a ritual sacrifice to the gods at the river a thunderstorm struck. The people ran for cover from the rain, leaving Romulus and the senators behind. When they returned Romulus had vanished. If the official version suggested he had been swept up to the heavens by his father Mars in a chariot, this sounded just a little too far fetched, even to the Romans. Especially as in his later life Romulus was said to have grown unpopular. So it was indeed suspected that the senators had ceased him and stabbed the tyrant to death. Given later Roman history the legend of Romulus proved indeed ominously prophetic. Numa Pom


Who did Rocky fight for the title in the original film?

Rocky (1976) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer, gets a supremely rare chance to fight heavy-weight champion Apollo Creed in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON TV a list of 30 titles created 22 Jul 2011 a list of 26 titles created 26 Jan 2014 a list of 43 titles created 13 Jul 2014 a list of 25 titles created 30 Oct 2014 a list of 25 titles created 8 months ago Search for " Rocky " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won     3     Oscars. Another    16 wins & 21 nominations. See more awards  » Videos Rocky struggles in family life after his bout with Apollo Creed, while the embarrassed champ insistently goads him to accept a challenge for a rematch. Director: Sylvester Stallone After winning the ultimate title and being the world champion, Rocky falls into a hole and finds himself picked up by a former enemy. Director: Sylvester Stallone After iron man Drago, a highly intimidating 6-foot-5, 261-pound Soviet athlete, kills Apollo Creed in an exhibition match, Rocky comes to the heart of Russia for 15 pile-driving boxing rounds of revenge. Director: Sylvester Stallone Thirty years after the ring of the first bell, Rocky Balboa comes out of retirement and dons his gloves for his final fight; against the reigning heavyweight champ Mason 'The Line' Dixon. Director: Sylvester Stallone Reluctantly retired from boxing, and back from riches to rags, Rocky takes on a new protege who betrays him, as the champ's son must adjust to his family's new life after bankruptcy. Director: John G. Avildsen     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X   A seemingly indestructible humanoid cyborg is sent from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate a waitress, whose unborn son will lead humanity in a war against the machines, while a soldier from that war is sent to protect her at all costs. Director: James Cameron     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X   A giant great white shark arrives on the shores of a New England beach resort and wreaks havoc with bloody attacks on swimmers, until a part-time sheriff teams up with a marine biologist and an old seafarer to hunt the monster down. Director: Steven Spielberg During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok. Director: Steven Spielberg Former Green Beret John Rambo is pursued into the mountains surrounding a small town by a tyrannical sheriff and his deputies, forcing him to survive using his combat skills. Director: Ted Kotcheff The former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed. Director: Ryan Coogler John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save his wife Holly Gennaro and several others that were taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles. Director: John McTiernan When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge. Director: Ridley Scott Edit Storyline Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying to make the big time, working as a debt collector for a pittance. When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to set up an exhibition match between Creed and a struggling boxer, touting the fight as a chance for a "nobody" to become a "somebody". The match is supposed to be easily won by Creed, but someone forgot to tell Rocky, who sees this as his only shot at the big time. Written by Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au> See All (117)  » Taglines: A Philadelphia fighter who never made the big time...He showed he could take on a challenge...a


What was the rank Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape?

Hilts in The Great Escape | BAMF Style Hilts in The Great Escape Steve McQueen as the unflappable Capt. Hilts in The Great Escape (1963). This weekend marked the 69th anniversary of “The Great Escape”, the mass escape of allied airmen from the German-controlled Stalag Luft III in Lower Silesia. The escape, which involved the efforts of 600 men, achieved the goal of RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bushell to “make life hell for the Hun.” In 1963, the story was filmed by the Mirisch Company as The Great Escape. Vitals Steve McQueen as Capt. Virgil Hilts, U.S. Army Air Force pilot and escape artist Silesia, Spring 1944 Release Date: July 4, 1963 Director: John Sturges Wardrobe Credit: Bert Henrikson Background If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’ve heard of The Great Escape and have hopefully seen it roughly a hundred times in your life. Since there’s not much more for me to say about it, here’s a great bit from British comedian Eddie Izzard from Dress to Kill, about the film and McQueen’s attire in particular. The Great Escape, now there’s a film. A lot of British actors, I’m British, so link up there. Steve McQueen, action hero; action transvestite, linkup there. The story is based on a true story about 76 British prisoners, I think, who escaped from the prisoner of war camp in Silesia, in Poland. They’re all experts at escaping; they’ve escaped from lots of other prisons, and they’re all put together, so they say, “Hey, let’s work together.” Steve McQueen plays the American guy who is dropped into British films in order to make them sell… in America, that is, because you’d go, “Oh, I’m not gonna see it, it’s full of British guys, and what the fuck do I know about British things?”… In The Great Escape, they say, “Look, we’re gonna do the biggest escape in the history of people escaping from things they shouldn’t. Fantastic.” And Steve isn’t really a part of this, he’s just hanging out, playing baseball, runs with the van, does an escape, gets caught, covered in mud, and stuff like that; but the British are working away, they’re digging three tunnels – Charley, Barley and Farley. No, four tunnels, Charley, Barley, Farley and Wally; no, five tunnels, Charley, Barley, Farley and Wally… Nobody expects the Spanish tunnel king! And they’re digging away, and there’s people in charge of shoveling it up, people putting breathing apparatus in, putting things on trolleys, lighting apparatus; people disguising the entrance of the tunnel so it looks like a kibbutz or something; people saying, “I’ve turned my uniform inside out, turned up my collar, I’ve turned my buttocks into a hat, and I now look like a German officer… but I have no buttocks.” “Jawol, mein Herr. So habe ich linge wenige. Locherbekommen.” “Well done, Simpkins. That’s a line from Monty Python, isn’t it?” Donald Pleasance is doing forgeries on bits of tin can with a bit of jam. Clang! And on the day of the escape, they’re all there, and Steve McQueen has joined up in the escape, and the British have trilby hats on, overcoats, canoe, a bit of a rabbit… And Steve’s just there in jeans and a T-shirt, disguised as an American man! He romps out, jumps in a motorbike, knocks a guy off, and within 15 minutes, he’s in the borders of Switzerland. This is from Poland! And if you don’t know the geography, it goes Poland, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Venezuela, Africa, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon… and then Switzerland, where the Nazi gold comes from. I love the way you do that! Whenever I say something slightly weird, you all mutter. “I’m catching the ferry right now!” Anyway, so yes, so Steve’s just damn cool, he jumps on the motorbike, and as soon as he gets on, the music cuts to (sings action film theme). The British are all down at the train station. “Can’t we do a motorbike? Damn!” “Yes, a train ticket to… Ich möchte einen ticket to nach… London. No, not London! Calais! That’s nice and Nazi, isn’t it?” “Ihre Pässe, bitte.” “It’s a bit clangy and a bit jammy…” “Yes, I’m from the steel and jam area of Stuttgart.” The British are getting hassled, and Steve is away, and he gets


In which two James Bond films did Jaws appear?

Richard Kiel, James Bond villian Jaws, dies at 74 - Chicago Tribune Privacy Policy Richard Kiel , who most famously played the villainous Jaws in two James Bond films starring Roger Moore, "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker," and also appeared in Adam Sandler comedy "Happy Gilmore," died Wednesday afternoon in a hospital in Fresno, Calif., three days shy of his 75th birthday. Kiel died at Saint Agnes Medical Center , hospital spokeswoman Kelley Sanchez said. She did not reveal any further details on the cause of his death, citing patient confidentiality. "He was a very loyal friend and client for over 35 years, a terrific husband and father, and was not only a giant actor but a giant man," said Steve Stevens, Kiel's agent. The actor had broken his leg earlier in the week, but it is not clear if that event is tied to his death. Kiel had lent his voice to a James Bond videogame in 2003 but more recently had voiced Vlad for the animated film "Tangled" in 2010. Before his appearances in the Bond film in the mid to late '70s, Kiel was perhaps best known for his roles in Burt Reynolds prison football film "The Longest Yard" and for appearing in several episodes of "The Wild Wild West" as an assistant to supervilllain Miguelito Loveless (played by dwarf Michael Dunn). Remembering legends, celebrities and other newsmakers who passed away this year. Younger audiences knew him best from "Happy Gilmore," in which he played a golf spectator who threatens the villainous Shooter McGavin. Stevens said Kiel had taken a step back from acting after he was involved in a truck accident several years ago and was faced with walking difficulties. He remained active on the autograph circuit for avid Bond fans. Kiel stood 7 feet 1.5 inches tall in his prime. His height and distinctive features were the result of acromegaly, a hormonal condition. In 1962 the actor played the title role in "Eegah," beloved by fans of extraordinarily bad movies. The same year Kiel starred "To Serve a Man," a classic episode of "Twilight Zone" in which he played Kanamit. A few years later he appeared on "The Monkees." In the 1970s he continued to appear on television. He was a series regular on the William Shatner- Doug McClure series "Barbary Coast," and he was an evil Native American shapeshifter who terrorizes Darren McGavin 's character in "The Night Stalker." The actor's autobiography, "Making It Big in the Movies," was published in 2002.  Variety, Reuters