Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 285
- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Character fame on film came quite late for long-time stage actor Harry Davenport at age 70, but he made up for lost time in very quick fashion with well over a hundred film roles registered from the advent of sound to the time of his death in 1949. Beloved for his twinkle-eyed avuncular and/or grandfatherly types in both comedy and drama, Davenport also represented a commanding yet comforting wisdom in his more authoritative roles as judge, doctor, minister, senator, etc.
The scion of an acting dynasty, he was born Harold George Bryant Davenport on January 19, 1866, in New York City to actors Edward Loomis Davenport (1815-1877) and Fanny (Elizabeth) Vining (1829-1891). One of nine children, two of his siblings died young while the seven surviving children went on to share their parents' love of the arts, including actress Fanny (1850-1898) and opera singer Lillie Davenport (1851-1927). Harry took his first stage bow in an 1871 production of "Damon and Pythias" in Philadelphia, and by his teen years was playing Shakespeare in stock companies.
Re-settling in New York, Harry began assertively building up his theater credits. In 1893, at age 27, he married actress Alice Shepard (aka Alice Davenport). Their brief marriage of three years produced daughter Dorothy Davenport, who would continue the acting dynasty into a new generation. She earned further recognition as the wife of tragic silent screen star Wallace Reid. Shortly after his divorce from Alice was final in early 1896, Harry married musical comedy star Phyllis Rankin (1875-1934). Their children Kate Davenport, Edward Davenport and Fanny Davenport became actors as well.
Making his Broadway debut with the musical comedy "The Voyage of Suzette" in 1894, Harry continued in the musical vein with Broadway productions of "The Belle of New York" (1897) (with wife Phyllis) (1895), "In Gay Paree" (1899) and "The Rounders" (1899) (again with Phyllis). The new century ushered in more musicals with "The Girl from Up There" (1901), "The Defender" (1901), "The Girl from Kay's" (1903), "It Happened in Nordland" (1904), "My Best Girl" (1912), "Sari" (1914) and "The Dancing Duchess" (1914). On the legit side he played expertly in "A Country Mouse" (opposite Ethel Barrymore), and in "The Next of Kin" (1909) and "Children of Destiny" (1910).
Co-founding the Actor's Equity Association along with vaudeville legend Eddie Foy as a means to confront the deplorable exploitation of actors, Harry was held in high regard as the acting community subsequently came together and executed strikes to protect and guarantee their rights. This dire situation also prompted Harry to seek work elsewhere -- in films. He joined up with Vitragraph in 1914 and made his silent screen debut with the film Too Many Husbands (1914). In the next year he starred in and directed a series of "Jarr Family" shorts, and made his last silent feature with an unbilled part in Among Those Present (1921) before refocusing completely on his first love -- the stage.
He and his actress/wife Phyllis joined forces once again with the Broadway hit comedies "Lightnin'" and "Three Wise Fools", both in 1918. Throughout the 1920s decade he continued to find employment on the stage with "Thank You," Cock O' the Roost, "Hay Fever" and "Julius Caesar". The untimely death of wife Phyllis in 1934 prompted Harry to abandon his stage pursuits and travel to California, at age 69, to again check out the film industry. It proved to be a very smart move.
Harry graced a number of Oscar-caliber films during his character reign: The Life of Emile Zola (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), All This, and Heaven Too (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), One Foot in Heaven (1941), Kings Row (1942) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1942). Several of his films also featured family or extended family members. His brother-in-law Lionel Barrymore appeared in a number of Harry's films and Gone with the Wind (1939) also had a son and grandson in the cast.
Harry maintained his film career right up until his death at age 83 of a heart attack on August 9, 1949, and was buried back in New York (Valhalla).- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Writer, born in Bromley, Kent. He was apprenticed to a draper, tried teaching, studied biology in London, then made his mark in journalism and literature. He played a vital part in disseminating the progressive ideas which characterized the first part of the 20th-c. He achieved fame with scientific fantasies such as The Time Machine (1895) and War of the Worlds (1898), and wrote a range of comic social novels which proved highly popular, notably Kipps (1905) and The History of Mr Polly (1910). Both kinds of novel made successful (sometimes classic) early films. A member of the Fabian Society, he was often engaged in public controversy, and wrote several socio-political works dealing with the role of science and the need for world peace, such as The Outline of History (1920) and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Erik Satie was born on 17 May 1866 in Honfleur, Calvados, France. He was a composer and actor, known for Badlands (1973), The November Man (2014) and Mr. Nobody (2009). He died on 1 July 1925 in Paris, France.- Writer
- Art Department
Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, mycologist and conservationist. She is famous for writing children's books with animal characters such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Potter was born in Kensington, London. Her family was quite rich. She was educated by governesses. She did not have many friends, but she had many pets, including Benjamin and Peter, two rabbits. She spent her holidays in Scotland and the Lake District. There, she began to learn to love nature, plants, and animals, which she carefully painted.
When she was around 30, Potter published The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It was very popular. She also became engaged to her publisher Norman Warne. Her parents became angry and separated with her because of this. They did not want her to marry someone who was socially lower than her. However, Warne died before he and Potter could marry.
Potter began writing and illustrating children's books full time. She did not have to ask her parents for money anymore because she had money from her books. In time, she bought Hill Top Farm and more land. In her forties, she married William Heelis, a local solicitor. She also began raising sheep and became a farmer, though she continued writing. She published 23 books.
Potter did not have any children. She died of heart disease and pneumonia in Near Sawrey, Lancashire on 22 December 1943. Almost all of her money was left to the National Trust. Her books continue to sell well around the world, in many different languages. Her widower died in August 1945.- Actor
- Soundtrack
George Reed was born on 27 November 1866 in Macon, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for Huckleberry Finn (1920), The River of Romance (1929) and Going Places (1938). He was married to Julia Ridley. He died on 6 November 1952 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
Reginald Barlow was born on 17 June 1866 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Big Cage (1933) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936). He was married to Carol Brown and Selma Rose. He died on 6 July 1943 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Brandon Hurst was born on 30 November 1866 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and Love (1927). He died on 15 July 1947 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Frank McGlynn Sr. was born on 26 October 1866 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Captain Blood (1935), Little Miss Marker (1934) and The Plainsman (1936). He was married to Rose O'Byrne. He died on 18 May 1951 in Newburgh, New York, USA.- A veteran stage and screen actor, Swickard was the brother of actor Charles Swickard. He entered films in 1912 and was playing supporting roles for Mack Sennett by 1914. He remained with Sennett until 1917 when he started numerous aristocratic roles in films. His career in sound films was somewhat limited and he played in low-budget and action serial type films. In 1939, his ex-wife, Broadway actress Margaret Campbell, was brutally murdered by their son. Swickard died a year later from natural causes, not, by jumping from the Hollywood sign as several accounts state.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Additional Crew
Maurice Schutz was born on 4 August 1866 in Paris, France. He was an actor and assistant director, known for The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Vampyr (1932) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1923). He died on 22 March 1955 in Clichy-la-Garenne, Hauts-de-Seine, France.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Carlos Arniches was born on 11 October 1866 in Alicante, Spain. He was a writer, known for Love in Jalisco (1942), What a Charming Fellow (1943) and No te ofendas, Beatriz (1953). He was married to Pilar Moltó. He died on 16 April 1943 in Madrid, Spain.- Henry Carvill was born on 11 May 1866 in St. Mary's, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was an actor, known for To Hell with the Kaiser! (1918), The Great Victory, Wilson or the Kaiser? The Fall of the Hohenzollerns (1919) and The Turn of the Wheel (1918). He died on 11 March 1941 in London, England, UK.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Helen Lowell was born on 2 June 1866 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Maybe It's Love (1935), Party Wire (1935) and Page Miss Glory (1935). She died on 28 June 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Elizabeth von Arnim was born on 31 August 1866 in Kirribilli, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She was a writer, known for Enchanted April (1991), Mr. Skeffington (1944) and Enchanted April (1935). She was married to John Francis Stanley Russell and Count Henning August von Arnim. She died on 9 February 1941 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
- Janet Sully was born on 25 June 1866 in Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for Making Matters Worse (1915), The Lure of Luxury (1918) and The Immigrant (1917). She was married to Charles H. Maguire. She died on 25 October 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Art Department
- Writer
Wassily Kandinsky, a lawyer turned artist, belongs in the Pantheon of the 20th century artists alongside Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.
He was born Wassily (Vasili Vasilevich) Kandinsky on December 16, 1866, in Moscow, Russia. His father, Vasili Silvesterovich Kandinsky, was a successful Russian businessman, his mother was a homemaker. Young Kandinsky enjoyed a happy childhood traveling across Europe with his parents and living in Odessa and Moscow. He studied arts and music from his early age and played piano and cello. Kandinsky had the physiological gift of synaesthesia cognate with that of composer Aleksandr Skryabin, and writer Vladimir Nabokov, which enabled him to hear colors and to see sounds. Kandinsky wrote: "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul."
He earned his Law degree from the Moscow University and lectured at the Moscow Faculty of Law until 1896, then worked as managing director at a Moscow publishing and printing business. At age 30 he changed his life and career completely and moved from Russia to Europe. From 1896-1914 Kandinsky lived in Munich. There he studied art anatomy, drawing and composition under Anthon Azbe for two years. From 1897-1900, he studied in Munich Academy of Art and graduated from the class of Franz von Schtucke. In 1901 he founded "Falanga" artistic movement and school, where he also taught his ideas in art. At that time his paintings represented his earlier impressions from seeing the Russian folk art coupled with his musical imagination. Synaesthetic ability led him to creation of his original style, focused more on series of colors than on formal details. His paintings from that period, like "The Blue Rider" (1903), are steps to creation of the modern abstract art.
Kandinsky was the founder and active member of some of the most influential art movements. In 1911 he founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) together with Franz Marc, and included such artists as August Macke, Paul Klee, Alexej von Javlensky, and other painters fundamental to Expressionism. The group held two important exhibitions in 1911 and 1912 touring Germany, for which Kandinsky also included paintings by Henri Rousseau. Kandinsky was the main driving force behind the start of the new movement: he chose artists, collected their works, and published an almanac. In his writings Kandinsky promoted abstract art. He formulated his ideas of spirituality in art, his color theory, and the concept of autonomous color painted apart from an object or form.
The start of WWI in 1914 forced Kandinsky back to Russia. There he taught art in Moscow and visited St. Petersburg. In 1916, he met Nina Andrievskaya who became his wife in 1917. During and after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he was involved in art teaching and participated in museum reform. He published an autobiographical book 'Stupeni' (Steps 1918). From 1919-1921 he was the Chairman of Russian Art Acqusitions Commission, taught at VKHUTEMAS, and was elected the Vice-President of Russian Academy of Arts. His life in Russia was full of painful and traumatic events. He was devastated by the death of his young son in Moscow. At that time, Kandinsky suffered from another blow from the Soviets when his spiritual and artistic position was bashed and denounced as individualistic and bourgeois. He was under suspicion from the Soviet communists and was eventually stripped from his Soviet citizenship. In 1921 Kandinsky escaped from the Soviet Russia and joined the Bauhaus movement in Weimar, Germany. He was invited by Walther Gropius, the founder of Bauhaus, an innovative school of art and architecture. There Kandinsky taught design and advanced color theory, as well as an abstract painting class.
In 1933 Bauhaus was banned by the Nazis. Kandinsky fled from the Nazi Germany and settled in Paris. He became a French citizen in 1939 and continued living and working in Paris during the Nazi occupation in WWII. His studio in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, was frequently visited by 'Joan Miro' and younger artists. He became established internationally through several exhibitions, and his works were acquired in the USA by Solomon Guggenheim, who became one of his most enthusiastic supporters. Kandinsky expressed his creative achievements in the series of seven large "Compositions" (1911-39), which are widely acclaimed as the culmination of an abstract style in art.
Wassily Kandinsky died on December 13, 1944, in his studio in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. He is recognized as the developer of Abstractionism in modern art.- Rosa Gore was born on 15 September 1866 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Vanity Fair (1923), The Bandit Tamer (1925) and Lovey Mary (1926). She was married to Dan Crimmins. She died on 4 February 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- E. Phillips Oppenheim was born on 22 October 1866 in London, England, UK. E. Phillips was a writer, known for The Golden Web (1926), The Black Box (1915) and Monte Carlo Nights (1934). E. Phillips died on 3 February 1946 in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK.
- Anne Sullivan was born on 14 April 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, USA. She was married to John Albert Macy. She died on 20 October 1936 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA.
- Considered the originator of modern boxing, Corbett became world heavyweight champ in one of the biggest upsets ever when he embarrassed the 30 pound heavier legend John L. Sullivan (1892). The handsome San Francisco bank clerk immediately had a play written for him ("Gentleman Jack"), and crossed the U.S. performing it. "Gentleman Jim" was also outstanding at baseball, playing exhibitions as he toured, and he attempted to join the 1894 Baltimore Orioles, partly to supply a season-ending attendance boost. Corbett's brother Joe pitched for the Orioles. The attempt was blocked by other teams, including the New York Giants, who beat the Orioles in the 1894 version of the World Series. His long-time pal John Montgomery Ward, was then Giants manager/player. Ward (Baseball's Radical for All Seasons), a lawyer, was a pioneer of scientific baseball, and was the other preeminent gentleman athlete of the 19th CEntury.
Ward and Corbett both dated the gorgeous actress Maxine Elliott. Corbett dumped Elliott to a marry his long-time wife, while Ward's controversial relationship with Elliott broke up his (and her first) marriage.
Gentleman Jim was the only top white heavyweight of the era to fight a top Black fighter, when he dueled another scientific boxer, the great Australian, Peter "The Black Prince" Jackson to a 61 round draw in 1891. Corbett lost the heavyweight championship in 1897 to Bob Fitzsimmons. Though devastated by the 1898 murder/suicide of his parents, Corbett continued his successful acting career on Broadway, and in early movies. Like Ward, he was a union organizer, active in the White Rats, the first successful U.S. actors' union.
His colorful biography The Roar of the Crowd, was the basis for the fine Corbett biopic "Gentleman Jim," with Errol Flynn starring. - Writer
- Director
Jacinto Benavente was born on 12 August 1866 in Madrid, Spain. He was a writer and director, known for La madona de las rosas (1919), Los intereses creados (1919) and Para toda la vida (1923). He died on 14 July 1954 in Madrid, Spain.- Actor
- Writer
Macklyn Arbuckle was born on 9 July 1866 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Thoroughbred (1925), That Old Gang of Mine (1925) and The County Chairman (1914). He was married to Mrs. Macklyn Arbuckle. He died on 1 April 1931 in Waddington, New York, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Chief Thunderbird was born on 6 August 1866 in near Tongue River, Montana, USA. He was an actor, known for Laughing Boy (1934), Annie Oakley (1935) and Cyclone of the Saddle (1935). He died on 6 April 1946 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Oskar Messter was born on 22 November 1866 in Berlin, Germany. He was a producer and director, known for Rapunzel (1897), Das wandernde Licht (1916) and Tanz der Salome (1906). He was married to Antonie König and Margarete Wittmann. He died on 7 December 1943 in Tegernsee, Bavaria, Germany.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Henry Krauss was born on 26 April 1866 in Paris, France. He was an actor and director, known for Les trois masques (1921), Les misérables (1913) and Les Misérables, Part 1: Jean Valjean (1913). He died on 15 December 1935 in Paris, France.- George Barr McCutcheon was born on 26 July 1866 in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, USA. He was a writer, known for Brewster's Millions (1985), The Man from Brodney's (1923) and Beverly of Graustark (1926). He was married to Mrs. Marie Van Antwerp Fay. He died on 23 October 1928 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Caroline Harris was born on 1 November 1866 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Madame Butterfly (1915), The Ragged Princess (1916) and The Gulf Between (1917). She was married to Alfred W. Barthelmess. She died on 23 April 1937 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Yat-sen Sun was born on November 12, 1866 in Hsiang-shan, Kwangtung Province, China. He was married to Ching-Ling Soong and Lu Mu-chen. He died on March 12, 1925 in Peking, China.
Sun was survived by his first and second wives, a daughter, and a son, Sun Fo. His first marriage, at the age of 18, to Lu Mu-chen (1867-1952) had been traditionally arranged. She was the mother of his three children. The elder of their two daughters, Chin-yen, died in 1913. Sun's second marriage, to Soong Ch'ing-ling, in Tokyo on 25 October 1914 was controversial because he and his first wife had not been divorced. Sun never divorced his first wife, nonetheless, Soong Ch'ing-ling remained Sun's constant companion until the end of his life. - Hermann Benke was born on 7 June 1866 in Linz, Austria. He was an actor, known for Der König amüsiert sich (1918), Der Meineidbauer (1915) and Die Tragödie auf Schloss Rottersheim (1916). He died on 25 March 1937 in Vienna, Austria.
- Director
- Producer
Maria P. Williams was a Kansas City schoolteacher who entered the political arena in the 1890s as a lecturer who traveled through the state of Kansas giving speeches for political candidates and delivering lectures on the "topics of the day." From 1891 to 1894, she was editor-in-chief of a weekly newspaper in Kansas City, Kansas called, the "New Era." From 1896 to 1900 or so, she edited and published a newspaper, the "Women's Voice," sponsored by the "colored women's auxiliary" of the Republican party; the paper was described as having "many pleasant things to say on a choice of timely topics." After permanently settling in Kansas City, Missouri, she involved herself in a number of civic activities. In 1916, she published a short pamphlet describing her life and discussing her political and social views entitled "My Work and Public Sentiment." In 1923, Williams wrote, produced, and acted in the five reel crime drama, "The Flames of Wrath," and to distribute the picture, she formed the Western Film Producing Company and Booking Exchange owned by her and husband, Jesse L. Williams, who owned a number of businesses in and around Kansas City. Mr. Williams died later that year and Maria soon remarried. She appears to have involved herself in other endeavors, which may have led to her untimely end. In January of 1932, she was called away from her home by a stranger who requested help for his sick brother. She was found shot to death on the side of a road several miles from her home. The murder remains unsolved.- Princess Irene of Prussia was born on 11 July 1866 in Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine, German Confederation [now Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany]. She was married to Prince Henry of Prussia. She died on 11 November 1953 in Hemmelmark, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany.
- Lydia Knott was born on 1 October 1866 in Tyner, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for Luck in Pawn (1919), As Ye Sow (1914) and Crime and Punishment (1917). She died on 30 March 1955 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Fred Karno was born on 26 March 1866 in Exeter, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Mother, Don't Rush Me (1936), The Bad Companions (1932) and My Old Duchess (1934). He was married to Marie T. L. Moore and Edith Cuthbert. He died on 18 September 1941 in Dorset, England, UK.- Born Robert Leroy Parker in Beaver, Utah, in 1866, the outlaw later to become famous as Butch Cassidy (he took the name Butch because he was once a butcher and the name Cassidy in honor of a local rancher who had befriended him as a youth) started his criminal career at an early age, stealing livestock when he was just a teenager. He soon left the Beaver area and hooked up with other rustlers and thieves, eventually forming a gang known as The Wild Bunch, which included such well known desperadoes as The Sundance Kid and Harvey Logan. The gang began robbing banks, payrolls and trains all over Colorado and Utah, and became so proficient at it that the Pinkerton Detective Agency was hired to run them down, and in addition a $4000 bounty (a huge sum at the time) was placed on their heads. The gang soon broke up and Cassidy and his partner The Sundance Kid headed to Mexico. Even that wasn't far enough, however, as both the Pinkerton detectives and professional bounty hunters were soon in Mexico looking for them, so they fled to Argentina, where they set up shop--under assumed names--as cattle ranchers. The ruse worked for a while until one night The Sundance Kid, under the influence of too much alcohol, began to brag about the many robberies they had gotten away with. A few days later a bank in a nearby town was robbed by two English-speaking bandits, and suspicion immediately fell upon the two, who were forced to pull up stakes and flee again. They wound up in Chile, and though they made several attempts to settle down and give up their lives of crime, circumstances dictated otherwise. They eventually crossed into Bolivia with plans to rob a bank in the small town of San Vicente. A hotel worker, having heard that the police were on the lookout for two English-speaking bank robbers, became suspicious of the pair and informed the local police chief. The chief and two of his men approached them in a restaurant, whereupon the Sundance Kid opened fire, killing one of the officers. The two gunmen fled and the police requested help from an army cavalry regiment that happened to be in town, and the soldiers and police soon trapped Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in a small house, where, after an all-night siege and gun battle, the two were found dead the next morning of gunshot wounds. Although rumors have surfaced over the years claiming that the pair actually escaped the battle and returned to the US, so far no real evidence has surfaced to conclusively prove that story.
- Charles Rock was born on 30 May 1866 in Velore, East Indies. He was an actor, known for Carry On (1919), The Prisoner of Zenda (1915) and Vice Versa (1916). He was married to Constance Helen Wilkie Jones (aka Miss Cybel Wynne). He died on 12 July 1919 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
William Carr was born on 6 August 1866 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Wedding Rings (1929), Love and Treachery (1912) and The Triumph of the Weak (1918). He was married to Mary Carr (I). He died on 13 February 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Writer
- Director
- Special Effects
American writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright George Ade was first and foremost a self described Hoosier. Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana, one of seven children raised by John and Adaline Ade. While attending Purdue University, he met and started a lifelong friendship with cartoonist and Sigma Chi brother John T. McCutcheon and worked as a reporter for the Lafayette Call. In 1890, Ade was hired on by the Chicago Morning News (later known as the Chicago Record), where McCutcheon was working. He wrote the column, Stories of the Streets and of the Town. In the column, which McCutcheon illustrated, Ade illustrated Chicago-life. It featured characters like Artie, an office boy, Doc Horne, a gentlemanly liar, and Pink Marsh, a black shoeshine boy. Ade's well-known "Fables in Slang" was introduced in the popular column.
Ade's literary reputation rests upon his achievements as a great humorist of American character during an important era in American history. The 1890's marked the first large migration from the countryside to burgeoning cities like Chicago, where, in fact, Ade produced his best fiction. He was a practicing realist during the Age of (William Dean) Howells and a local colorist of Chicago and the Midwest. His work constitutes a vast comedy of Midwestern manners and, indeed, a comedy of late 19th century American manners.
Ade's fiction dealt consistently with the "little man," the common, undistinguished, average American, usually a farmer or lower middle class citizen (he sometimes skewered women too, especially women with laughable social pretensions).
Ade's followed in the footsteps of his idol Mark Twain by making expert use of the American language. In his unique "Fables in Slang," (1899) which purveyed not so much slang as the American colloquial vernacular, Ade pursued an effectively genial satire notable for its scrupulous objectivity. Ade's regular practice in the best fables is to present a little drama incorporating concrete, specific evidence with which he implicitly indicts the object of his satire-- always a type (e.g., the social climber). The fable's actual moral is nearly always implicit, though he liked to tack on a mock, often ironic moral (e.g., "Industry and perseverance bring a sure reward").
As a moralist who does not overtly moralize, who is all too aware of the ironies of what in his day was the modern world, George Ade was perhaps our first modern American humorist, paving the way for people such as Will Rogers to follow. The United States, in Ade's lifetime, underwent a great population shift and transfer from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Many felt the nation suffered the even more agonizing process of shifting values toward philistinism, greed, and dishonesty. Ade's prevalent practice is to record the pragmatic efforts of the little man to get along in such a world.
Ade was a playwright (see "Other Works") as well as an author, penning such stage works as Artie, The Sultan of Sulu (a musical comedy), The College Widow, The Fair Co-ed, and "The County Chairman." He wrote the first American play about football.
After twelve years in Chicago, he built a home near the town of Brook, Indiana (Newton County). It soon became known for hosting a campaign stop in 1908 by William Howard Taft, a rally for Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912, and a homecoming for returning soldiers and sailors in 1919.
George Ade is one of the American writers whose publications made him rich. When land values were inflated about the time of World War I, Ade was a millionaire. The Ross-Ade football stadium at Purdue University was built with his (and David E. Ross's) financial support. He also generously supported his college fraternity, Sigma Chi, leading a fund-raising campaign to endow the Sigma Chi mother house at the site of the fraternity's original establishment at Miami University. Ade is also famous among Sigma Chis as the author of The Sigma Chi Creed, written in 1929, one of the central documents of the fraternity's philosophies.
While Ade's writings fell out of public favor as America struggled through the Great Depression and the onslaught of World War II, his legacy lives on. Ade populated his writings with comedic characters lifted from the streets and front porches of small Midwestern towns and peppered the language with witty slang; characters and situations that can still be found in movies and television sitcoms. Ade's comedic style is just as popular today as it was when he introduced it over a hundred years ago. While Ade was never considered a high-brow literary writer or a fashionably caustic social critic, he succeeded in what he had set out to do, he made America laugh.- Actor
- Director
Sidney De Gray was born on 16 June 1866 in England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for The Mark of Zorro (1920), American Pluck (1925) and The Silver Treasure (1926). He died on 30 June 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
Joaquín Coss was born on 6 January 1866 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He was an actor and director, known for The Grey Automobile (1919), Alma de sacrificio (1917) and En defensa propia (1917). He was married to Emilia Jordán Millanes. He died on 23 February 1947 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Vladimir Barskiy was born on 15 March 1866. He was a director and actor, known for Battleship Potemkin (1925), Shuquras saidumloeba (1925) and Tavadis asuli Meri (1926). He died on 24 January 1936.- Edith Ellis was born in Coldwater, Michigan, to Edward C Ellis, playwright and actor, and Ruth McCarty Ellis, an actress. She claimed she was born to the stage, her first part was at age 6, and by 10 she was a star. Two plays were written for her before she was 12 years old. Several times she was head of her own stock companies, traveling or stationary, and wrote, produced, directed, and acted in many plays. Her first writing attempt was out of necessity, when she and her brother, Edward, were stranded on the road by the unexpected disbanding of their stock company. The play was successful enough to pay their way home. Edith married Frank A. Baker, and they leased the Park Theatre and the Criterion Theatre in Brooklyn, where she directed plays for many years. They later moved to the Berkely Lyceum in New York where she directed her own play, The Point of View, which never made it to Broadway. She also wrote uncredited scenarios for silent films for Samuel Goldwyn. Their daughter, Ellis Baker, became an actress. Later, Edith married C. Becher Furness, a Canadian. She finally made it to Broadway by age 34 with her play, "Mary Jane's Pa" (1908) which ran for a then-very respectable 120 performances. She continued her career there as a playwright/director through 7 more productions through mid-1925 (see "Other works"). While none of these later efforts were particularly wildly successful, her 1925 play, "White Collars" enjoyed two film adaptations by MGM in 1929 and 1938. Her earliest film adaptations were sold to Vitagraph and Myron Selznick.
Ellis had her fascinating quirks. As her theatrical career wound down in the mid-1930s, she took up an avid interest in (using modern terminology) channeling the dead. She claimed to transcribe works by none other than George Washington (whom she claimed demanded she transcribe his definitive autobiography in a receptive transcendent state) and common citizens such as a New England farm boy named Wilfred Brandon, supposedly killed in the Revolutionary War. These oddly entertaining works attracted enough attention to warrant several printings ("Incarnation: a Plea from the Masters," first edition 1936, 1951 reprint + UK/European editions). She was plagued with vision problems by her 60s and died at what is generally believed to be age 84, although her birth date is in dispute. - Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Charles Henry Smith was born on 12 July 1866 in Germany. He was a writer and actor, known for The General (1926), Battling Butler (1926) and The Silver Lining (1921). He was married to Lillian Ashley (vaudevillian) and Beatrice Lapla. He died on 11 July 1942 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Louis Morrison was born on 8 February 1866 in Portland, Maine, USA. He was an actor, known for Peter Pan (1924), Rumpelstiltskin (1915) and The Iron Strain (1915). He was married to Rosa Roma Rosenberg, Blanche Evelyn Hall and Elizabeth De Witt. He died on 22 April 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- William E. Shay was born on 16 September 1866 in New York, New York, USA. He is known for Robespierre (1913), The Clemenceau Case (1915) and The Two Orphans (1915).
- John R Cumpson was born in Buffalo, New York, one of the youngest in a large family. His father was a blacksmith. In 1887, John R Cumpson was listed in a Buffalo City Directory as a bank clerk, and in the 1890 census as a bookkeeper. He apparently soon set aside ledgers and took up a career in acting. By 1901, he had moved to New York City and had a role on in a drama at the 14th Street Theater, "Upstate New York." By 1905 he was acting in silent film shorts, and by 1908 he was working with D.W. Griffith (who was then just at the beginning of his own career). He most often worked as a comedic character. He played Mr. Jones opposite Florence Lawrence in a series about a hapless couple. He created the role of "Bumptious" for the Edison Studios, and was under contract to Carl Laemmle's company when he died of cardiac dilatation at the age of 46.
- Actor
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Jay Dwiggins was born on 1 September 1866 in Rensselaer, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Bound in Morocco (1918), High Tide (1918) and He Comes Up Smiling (1918). He was married to Cora Arbogast. He died on 8 September 1919 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Walter Lynch was born on 10 April 1866 in Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Scars of Jealousy (1923), The Whispering Chorus (1918) and The Border Raiders (1921). He died on 26 February 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
Robert Leffler was born on 9 January 1866 in Aschersleben, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for Der Mann im Monde (1918), Der Taktstock Richard Wagners (1918) and Der Fall Tolstikoff (1919). He died on 15 March 1940 in Berlin, Germany.- E.W. Hornung was born on 7 June 1866 in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Raffles (1939), Raffles (1930) and Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (1925). He was married to Constance Conan Doyle. He died on 22 March 1921 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Paul Lincke was born on 7 November 1866 in Berlin, Germany. He was a composer and actor, known for Titanic (1997), Mona Lisa Smile (2003) and Marvin's Room (1996). He was married to Anna Müller-Lincke. He died on 4 September 1946 in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Lower Saxony, Germany.