Browsing: Arts & Entertainment

A Brief History On April 23, 1953, Shane premiered in New York City at Radio City Music Hall.  This American Technicolor Western film from Paramount Pictures is noted for its landscape cinematography, editing, performances, and contributions to the genre. The picture was produced and directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by A. B. Guthrie Jr., based on the 1949 novel of the same name by Jack Schaefer. Its Oscar-winning cinematography was by Loyal Griggs. Shane stars Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur in the last feature (and only color) film of her career. The film also stars Van Heflin and features Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance, Emile Meyer, Elisha Cook Jr., and Ben Johnson. Digging Deeper You can rent or buy this film on YouTube below: Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Did you enjoy…

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A Brief History Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is an 1893 novella by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). The story centers on Maggie, a young girl from the Bowery who is driven to unfortunate circumstances by poverty and solitude. The work was considered risqué by publishers because of its literary realism and strong themes. Crane – who was 22 years old at the time – financed the book’s publication himself, although the original 1893 edition was printed under the pseudonym Johnston Smith. After the success of 1895’s The Red Badge of Courage, Maggie was reissued in 1896 with considerable changes and re-writing. The story is followed by George’s Mother. Digging…

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A Brief History Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks is a Bildungsroman by Horatio Alger Jr., which was serialized in Student and Schoolmate in 1867 and expanded for publication as a full-length novel in May 1868 by the publisher A. K. Loring. It was the first volume in the six-volume Ragged Dick Series and became Alger’s best-selling work. The tale follows a poor bootblack’s rise to middle-class respectability in 19th-century New York City. It had a favorable reception. Student and Schoolmate reported their readers were delighted with the first installment, and Putnam’s Magazine thought boys would love the novel. One modern scholar considers the story a “puerile fantasy” about class…

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A Brief History On October 20, 2017, the eye popping new disaster film from the people (Jerry Bruckheimer) that brought us Flashdance, Top Gun, Armageddon, The Rock, Beverly Hills Cop, National Treasure, and Pirates of the Caribbean, will open tonight across the US.  With a pedigree of such popular films, you would expect Geostorm to be seriously entertaining eye candy, and it is! Digging Deeper We got the opportunity to watch a pre-screening of the film, a movie that was actually shot in 2016 and had several scenes re-filmed because of negative reaction to the original print.  The reworking of…

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A Brief History On October 20, 1803, Ludwig van Beethoven, one of history’s greatest composers (and a favorite here at History and Headlines!) was hard at work on his vastly important “Symphony No. 3 in E Flat Major,” better known as “Sinfonia Eroica” (“Heroic Symphony”).  This musical work is important to Beethoven personally because it marks the beginning of his “middle period” and marks the transition from Classical to Romantic musical style. Digging Deeper Beethoven’s other major works, such as “Ode to Joy,” “Fur Elise,” and his momentous “Symphony No. 5” (colloquially called, “Beethoven’s Fifth”) are familiar musical works, and…

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