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1934 In Film
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Al Jolson
Al Jolson (May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer".
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Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject.
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Alice Faye
Alice Faye (May 4, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was an American actress and singer, called by the New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader-comedian Phil Harris. She is also often associated with the Academy Award–winning standard, "You'll Never Know", which she introduced in the 1943 musical, Hello, Frisco, Hello.
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Amos 'n' Andy
'Amos 'n' Andy' is a situation comedy based on stock sketch comedy characters but set in the African-American community. It was very popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s on both radio and television.
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Ann Todd
Ann Todd (24 January 1909, Hartford, Cheshire – 6 May 1993, London) was an English actress and producer.
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Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra. After a short stint as a stage actress, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.
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Basil Wright
Basil Wright, (12 June 1907, Sutton, Surrey – 14 October 1987, Frieth, Buckinghamshire, England), was an English documentary filmmaker, film historian, film critic and teacher.
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Bela Lugosi
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Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television and theatre. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.
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Bill Bixby
Bill Bixby (January 22, 1934 – November 21, 1993) was an American film and television actor, director, and frequent game show panelist.
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Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke (August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970) was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live.
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Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor. His career stretched more than half a century from 1926 until his death in 1977. Crosby's unique bass-baritone voice made him the best-selling recording artist until well into the rock era, with over half a billion records in circulation.
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Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), whose real name was William Henry Pratt, was an English-born actor who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. Karloff performed in a variety of contexts throughout his career, but is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein, 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, and 1939 film Son of Frankenstein. His popularity following Frankenstein in the early 1930s was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or, on some movie posters, "Karloff the Uncanny".
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Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (, ; born 28 September 1934) is a French animal rights activist and a former fashion model, actress and singer.
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Buck Jones
Buck Jones (December 12, 1891 – November 30, 1942) was an American motion picture star of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, best known for his work starring in many popular western movies. In his early film appearances, he was billed as Charles Jones.
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Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley (November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976) was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeley's works used large numbers of showgirls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances.
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Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank Keaton, known professionally as Buster Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966), was an American comic actor and filmmaker. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".
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Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard (October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in several classic films of the 1930s, most notably in the 1936 film My Man Godfrey. She is listed as one of the American Film Institute's greatest stars of all time and was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s, earning around US$500,000 per year (more than five times the salary of the US President). Lombard's career was cut short when she died at the age of 33 in the crash of TWA Flight 3.
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Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959) was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies. Among his best-known films are The Ten Commandments (1956), Cleopatra (1934), and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
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Charles Bickford
Charles Bickford (January 1, 1891 – November 9, 1967) was an American actor best known for his supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for The Song of Bernadette (1943), ''The Farmer's Daughter (1947), and Johnny Belinda (1948). Other notable roles include Whirlpool (1948), A Star is Born (1954) and The Big Country'' (1958).
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Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer (28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in movies during the 1930s. His most famous role was opposite Ingrid Bergman in the 1944 mystery-thriller Gaslight. Other memorable performances were among the era's highly praised romantic dramas, Algiers (1938) and Love Affair (1939). He received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.
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Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton (July 1, 1899 – December 15, 1962) was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and two-time director.
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Charles Ruggles
Charles Sherman “Charlie” Ruggles (February 8, 1886 - December 23, 1970) was a comic American actor. In a career spanning six decades, Ruggles appeared in close to 100 feature films. He was also the brother of director, producer, and silent actor Wesley Ruggles (1889–1972).
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Charles Vanel
Charles-Marie Vanel, known as Charles Vanel (21 August 1892 in Rennes, France - 15 April 1989, in Cannes, France) was a French director and actor.
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Charlie Chaplin
actor
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Clark Gable
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, nicknamed "The King of Hollywood" in his heyday. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time.
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Claude Rains
Claude Rains (10 November 1889 – 30 May 1967) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 47 years; he later held American citizenship. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man (1933), a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and, perhaps his most notable performance, as Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942).
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Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert (; September 13, 1903 — July 30, 1996) was a French-born American stage and film actress.
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Dick Powell
Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.
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Dolores Hope
Dolores Hope, DC*SG (born May 27, 1909) is an American singer, philanthropist and the widow of actor Bob Hope.
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Dorothy Dell
Dorothy Dell (January 30, 1915 – June 8, 1934) was an American film actress.
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Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro. An astute businessman, Fairbanks was a founding member of United Artists. Fairbanks was also a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy and hosted the first Oscars Ceremony in 1929. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became Hollywood royalty with Fairbanks constantly referred to as "The King of Hollywood", a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable.
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Douglass Montgomery
Douglass Montgomery (October 29, 1907 – July 23, 1966) was an American film actor.
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Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor (January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife Ida and five daughters. Some of his hits include "Makin' Whoopee", "Ida", "If You Knew Susie", "MA! He's Makin' Eyes at Me", "Margie" and "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree?)" He also wrote a few songs, including "Merrily We Roll Along", the Merry Melodies Warner Bros. cartoon theme.
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Edna Best
Edna Best (3 March 1900 – 18 September 1974) was a British actress.
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Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver (November 9, 1883 – November 9, 1942) was an American film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the American screen's best-known character actresses often playing tart-tongued spinsters.
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Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch (January 28, 1892 – November 30, 1947) was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch".
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Fay Wray
Fay Wray (born Vina Fay Wray; September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian-American actress. Through an acting career that spanned 57 years, Wray attained international stardom as an actress in horror film roles, leading to many considering her as the first "scream queen".
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Fernandel
Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin (8 May 1903 – 26 February 1971), better known as Fernandel, was a French actor and singer. Born in Marseille, France, he was a comedy star who first gained popularity in French vaudeville, operettas, and music-hall revues. His stage name is the diminutive form of his first name in Occitan.
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Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was a Sicilian-born American film director and a creative force behind a number of films of the 1930s and 1940s, including It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), ''You Can't Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Meet John Doe (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946).
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Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz, was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. He is particularly associated with Ginger Rogers, with whom he made ten films.
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Fredric March
Fredric March (August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives.
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Fritz Lang
Friedrich "Fritz" Christian Anton Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976) was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. His most famous films are the groundbreaking Metropolis (the world's most expensive silent film at the time of its release) and M, made before he moved to the United States, his iconic contribution to the film noir genre.
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Gary Cooper
Frank James “Gary” Cooper (May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961) was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, individualistic, emotionally restrained, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made. His career spanned from 1925 until shortly before his death, and comprised more than one hundred films.
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George Arliss
George Arliss (10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award.
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George Raft
George Raft (September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. Today George Raft is mostly known for his role in Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy Some Like it Hot and also Scarface (1932), Bolero (1934), and They Drive by Night (1940).
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Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century.
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Harry A. Pollard
Harry A. Pollard (23 January 1879, Republic City, Kansas - 6 July 1934, Pasadena California) was an American silent film actor, director, and screenwriter who in total was involved in over 300 film productions.
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Harry Baur
Harry Baur (born 12 April 1880 as Henri-Marie Baur in Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine – died 8 April 1943 in Paris) was a French actor. He was tortured to death by the Gestapo during World War II. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0062428/bio]
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Helen Mack
Helen Mack (November 12, 1913 – August 13, 1986) was an American actress. Mack started her career as a child actress in silent films, moving on to Broadway plays, and touring the vaudeville circuit. Her greater success as an actress was as a leading lady in the 1930s. Eventually Mack transitioned into performing on radio, and then into writing, directing, and producing some of the best known radio shows during the Golden Age of Radio. Later in life, Mack billed herself as a professional writer, writing for Broadway, stage, and television. Her career spanned the infancy of the motion picture industry, the beginnings of Broadway, the final days of Vaudeville, the transition to "talking pictures", the Golden Age of Radio, and the rise of television.
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Horace B. Carpenter
Horace B. Carpenter (January 31, 1875 – May 21, 1945) was an American actor, film director and, screenwriter. He appeared in 334 films between 1914 and 1946. He also directed 15 films between 1925 and 1934. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Carpenter died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack.
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Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. He is popular for his films from a wide range of genres such as Scarface (1932), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Sergeant York (1941), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Rio Bravo (1959), and El Dorado (1967).
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Ian Hunter (actor)
Ian Hunter (13 June 1900 – 22 September 1975) was a British character actor.
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Jack Mulhall
Jack Mulhall, born John Joseph Francis Mulhall, (October 7, 1887 in Wappingers Falls, New York – June 1, 1979 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California) was a movie actor since the silent film era and appeared in over 430 films. Reputedly, he was one of a number of male models(Fredric March & Reed Howes were two others) for the Arrow Collar Man in the Arrow collar ads illustrated by J. C. Leyendecker for the Cluett Peabody shirt company. Died from congestive heart failure.
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Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper (born September 15, 1922) is an American actor, TV director, TV producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to transition to an adult career. As of 2010, Cooper's Oscar-nominated performance in Skippy is the earliest nomination (1931) in any Academy Award category in which the nominee is still living. He is also the youngest performer to be nominated in a leading role in the Academy's entire history.
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Jacques Feyder
Jacques Feyder (21 July 1885 – 24 May 1948) was a Belgian screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the USA, Britain and Germany. He was a leading director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930s he became associated with the style of poetic realism in French cinema. He adopted French nationality in 1928.
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James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986) was an American film actor. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of roles, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.
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Jamie Farr
Jamie Farr (born July 1, 1934) is an American television and film actor. He is best known for playing the role of cross-dressing Corporal (later Sergeant) Maxwell Q. Klinger in the television sitcom M*A*S*H.
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Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Platinum Blonde" and the "Blonde Bombshell" due to her platinum blonde hair, Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute. Harlow starred in several films, mainly designed to showcase her magnetic sex appeal and strong screen presence, before making the transition to more developed roles and achieving massive fame under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Harlow's enormous popularity and "laughing vamp" image were in distinct contrast to her personal life, which was marred by disappointment, tragedy, and ultimately her sudden death from renal failure at age 26.
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Jean Marsh
Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh (born 1 July 1934) is an English actress, occasional screenwriter, and co-creator of the television series Upstairs, Downstairs and The House of Eliott.
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Jean Parker
Jean Parker (August 11, 1915 – November 30, 2005) was an American movie actress.
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Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in grand opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing grand opera to movie-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singers.
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Jessie Matthews
Jessie Matthews, OBE (11 March 1907 – 19 August 1981) was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period.
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Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell (August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress.
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Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (March 23, 1905 – May 10, 1977), born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s she was labeled "box office poison".
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Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea, (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor and film star whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.
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John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth Barrymore (February 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor. He first gained fame as a stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III. His success continued with motion pictures in various genres in both the silent and sound eras. Barrymore's personal life has been the subject of much writing before and since his passing in 1942. Today John Barrymore is mostly known for his roles in movies like Grand Hotel (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Twentieth Century (1934), and Don Juan (1926), the first ever movie to use a Vitaphone soundtrack.
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John Beal (actor)
John Beal (August 13, 1909 – April 26, 1997) was an American actor.
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John Davis Lodge
John Davis Lodge (October 20, 1903 – October 29, 1985), United States Republican politician, was the 64th Governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955. He was also an actor and U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Argentina and Switzerland.
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John Gilbert (actor)
John Gilbert (July 10, 1899 – January 9, 1936) was an American actor and a major star of the silent film era.
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John Wayne
Marion Mitchell "Duke" Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison; May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an Academy Award-winning American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive voice, walk and height. He was also known for his conservative political views and his support, beginning in the 1950s, for anti-communist positions.
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Johnny Mack Brown
Johnny Mack Brown (September 1, 1904 – November 14, 1974) was an All-American college football player and film actor.
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Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller (born Johann Peter Weißmüller; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven world records. After his swimming career, he became the sixth actor to portray Tarzan in films, a role he played in twelve motion pictures. Dozens of other actors have also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller is by far the best known. His character's distinctive, ululating Tarzan yell is still often used in films.
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Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg (29 May 1894 – 22 December 1969) — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.
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Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.
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Karen Morley
Karen Morley (December 12, 1909 – March 8, 2003) was an American film actress.
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Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress of film, stage, and television. A film icon, in 1999, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the greatest female star in the history of American cinema.
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Ken Maynard
Ken Maynard (July 21, 1895 – March 23, 1973) was an American motion picture stuntman and actor.
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Kira Muratova
Kira Muratova (born 5 November 1934) is a Soviet and Russian - Ukrainian film director, screenwriter and actress. She was born in 1934 in Soroca, Bessarabia, Romania (present-day Moldova). She is known for her unusual and original directorial style. Her films have undergone a great deal of censorship in the Soviet Union.
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Kiril Gospodinov
Kiril Ivanov Gospodinov () was a Bulgarian theater and film actor. His acting created one of the eminent characters in the Bulgarian film art.
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Kitty Carlisle
Kitty Carlisle (also billed as Kitty Carlisle Hart; September 3, 1910 – April 17, 2007) was an American singer, actress and spokeswoman for the arts. She is best remembered as a regular panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth. She served 20 years on the New York State Council on the Arts. In 1991, she received the National Medal of Arts from President George H. W. Bush.
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L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a host of other works (55 novels in total (plus four "lost" novels), 82 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings), and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen. His works predicted such century-later commonplaces as television, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (''Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work'').
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Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular comedy teams of the early to mid Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. Composed of thin, English-born Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and heavy, American-born Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) they became well known during the late 1920s to the mid-1940s for their work in motion pictures; the team also appeared on stage throughout America and Europe.
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Lee Tracy
William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American actor.
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Leo Carrillo
Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo (August 6, 1881 – September 10, 1961), was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist.
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Leslie Banks
Leslie Banks, CBE (9 June 1890 – 21 April 1952) was an English theatre and cinema actor, director and producer, now best remembered playing gruff, menacing characters in black and white movies of the 1930s and 1940s.
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Lilyan Tashman
Lilyan Tashman (October 23, 1896 – March 21, 1934) was a Brooklyn-born Jewish American vaudeville, Broadway, and film actress. Tashman was best known for her supporting roles as tongue-in-cheek villainesses and the bitchy 'other woman'. She made sixty-six films over the course of her Hollywood career and although never obtained superstar status, her cinematic performances are "sharp, clever and have aged little over the decades".
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Lupino Lane
Lupino Lane (16 June 1892 – 10 November 1959) was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances. He is best known for playing Bill Snibson in the play and film Me and My Girl, which popularised the Lambeth walk.
http://wn.com/Lupino_Lane -
Madge Evans
Madge Evans (July 1, 1909 – April 26, 1981) was an American stage and film actress. She began her career as a child performer and model.
http://wn.com/Madge_Evans -
Mady Christians
Marguerita Maria "Mady" Christians (January 19, 1892 – October 28, 1951), was an Austrian actress who achieved a successful acting career in theatre and film, in the United States until she was blacklisted during the McCarthy period.
http://wn.com/Mady_Christians -
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith-Cross, DBE (born 28 December 1934), better known as Maggie Smith, is an English film, stage, and television actress who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 58 years. She has won numerous awards for acting, including five BAFTA Awards, two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award.
http://wn.com/Maggie_Smith -
Marion Davies
Marion Davies (January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career.
http://wn.com/Marion_Davies -
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich (; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992) was a German-American actress and singer.
http://wn.com/Marlene_Dietrich -
Mary Boland
Mary Boland (January 28, 1882 – June 23, 1965) was an American stage and film actress.
http://wn.com/Mary_Boland -
Maureen O'Sullivan
Maureen Paula O’Sullivan (17 May 1911 – 23 June 1998) was an Irish actress who was considered Ireland's first film star.
http://wn.com/Maureen_O'Sullivan -
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier (September 12, 1888 – January 1, 1972) was a French actor, singer, and popular vaudeville entertainer. Chevalier's signature songs included "Louise", "Mimi", "Valentine", and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls". His trademark was a boater hat, which he always wore on stage with his tuxedo (dinner jacket).
http://wn.com/Maurice_Chevalier -
Max Ophuls
http://wn.com/Max_Ophuls -
Michel Simon
Michel Simon (9 April 1895, Geneva, Switzerland - 30 May 1975, Bry-sur-Marne, France), was a Swiss actor. The actor François Simon is his son.
http://wn.com/Michel_Simon -
Muriel George
Muriel George (29 August 1883 – 22 October 1965) was a London born British film actress. She appeared in 55 films between 1932 and 1955.
http://wn.com/Muriel_George -
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). Her successful pairing with William Powell resulted in fourteen films together, including several subsequent Thin Man films.
http://wn.com/Myrna_Loy -
Nadine Trintignant
Nadine Trintignant (born 11 November 1934, Nice, France) is a French film director, producer, and screenwriter.
http://wn.com/Nadine_Trintignant -
Nancy O'Neil
http://wn.com/Nancy_O'Neil -
Nikolay Binev
Nikolay Binev () was a Bulgarian theater and film actor. During the almost whole career he was the soul and the history of the Mladezhki Theater, Sofia and remained devoted to it until the end of the life.
http://wn.com/Nikolay_Binev -
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902 – June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in the world from the mid-1920s until her retirement in 1942. Her early films cast her as the girl-next-door but after her 1930 film The Divorcee, she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies and dramas, as well as several historical and period films.
http://wn.com/Norma_Shearer -
Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy (January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted over 31 years, from 1926 to 1957.
http://wn.com/Oliver_Hardy -
Pat O'Brien (actor)
Pat O’Brien (November 11, 1899 – October 15, 1983) was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.
http://wn.com/Pat_O'Brien_(actor) -
Peter Gawthorne
Peter Gawthorne was an Irish actor, probably best known for his roles in Will Hay films. Gawthorne was one of Britain's most called-upon bit part actors during the 1940s and 50s. He worked for a number of companies but, in particular, Gainsborough Studios. He was born in 1884 in Queen's County in Ireland, but spent most of his career in Great Britain where he worked exstensively in cinema often playing military officers and stern, authority figures, many of whom frequently clashed with the bumbling idiots played by Hay and other well-known comedians such as The Crazy Gang, Jessie Matthews, Jack Hulbert, Alistair Sim and Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch. He also worked with a number of famous straght actors including George Arliss, Errol Flynn and Leslie Banks.
http://wn.com/Peter_Gawthorne -
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (26 June 1904 – 23 March 1964) was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.
http://wn.com/Peter_Lorre -
Raymond Bernard
Raymond Bernard (10 October 1891, Paris – 12 December 1977) was a French filmmaker and son of French playwright, Tristan Bernard.
http://wn.com/Raymond_Bernard -
Robert Donat
Robert Donat (18 March 1905 – 9 June 1958) was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr. Chips for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor.
http://wn.com/Robert_Donat -
Robert Flaherty
http://wn.com/Robert_Flaherty -
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English actor.
http://wn.com/Ronald_Colman -
Ruby Keeler
Ruby Keeler, born Ethel Hilda Keeler, (August 25, 1910 – February 28, 1993) was an actress, singer, and dancer most famous for her on-screen coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Brothers, particularly 42nd Street (1933). From 1928 to 1940, she was married to legendary singer Al Jolson. She retired from show business in the 1940s but made a widely publicized comeback on Broadway in 1971.
http://wn.com/Ruby_Keeler -
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (August 17, 1879 January 31, 1974) was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.
http://wn.com/Samuel_Goldwyn -
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine (born April 24, 1934) is an American film and theater actress, dancer, activist, and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career. In 1983, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Terms of Endearment. She is the elder sister of actor Warren Beatty.
http://wn.com/Shirley_MacLaine -
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple (born April 23, 1928) is an American film and television actress, autobiographer, and public servant. She began her screen career in 1932 at the age of three, and, in 1934, skyrocketed to superstardom in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Academy Award in February 1935, and blockbusting super hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid to late 1930s. Licensed merchandise that capitalized on her wholesome image included dolls, dishes, and clothing. Her box office popularity waned as she reached adolescence and she left the film industry at the age of twelve to attend high school. She appeared in a few films of varying quality in her mid to late teens, and retired completely from the silver screen in 1950 at the age of twenty-one. She was the top box-office draw four years in a row (1935–1938) in a Motion Picture Herald poll.
http://wn.com/Shirley_Temple -
Sol M. Wurtzel
Sol M. Wurtzel (September 12, 1890 – April 9, 1958) was an American motion picture producer.
http://wn.com/Sol_M_Wurtzel -
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren (born Sofia Villani Scicolone; September 20, 1934) is an Italian actress.
http://wn.com/Sophia_Loren -
Stan Laurel
Arthur Stanley Jefferson (16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965), better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy double-act Laurel and Hardy. His career stretched from the silent films of the early 20th century until after World War II.
http://wn.com/Stan_Laurel -
Tina Louise
Tina Louise (born February 11, 1934) is an American actress, singer and author. She played the "movie star" Ginger Grant on the television situation comedy ''Gilligan's Island''.
http://wn.com/Tina_Louise -
Victor McLagen
http://wn.com/Victor_McLagen -
Victor McLaglen
Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was an English boxer and World War I veteran who became a leading American film actor.
http://wn.com/Victor_McLaglen -
Victor Saville
Victor Saville (25 September 1895, Birmingham, England – 8 May 1979, London) was an English film director, producer and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954. He also produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962.
http://wn.com/Victor_Saville -
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer. Fields created a comic persona: a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathetic character despite his snarling contempt for dogs, children, and women.
http://wn.com/W_C_Fields -
W.S. Van Dyke
http://wn.com/WS_Van_Dyke -
Wallace Beery
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, his titular role in a series of films featuring the character Sweedie, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 movies over a 36-year span.
http://wn.com/Wallace_Beery -
Warner Baxter
Warner Leroy Baxter (March 29, 1889 – May 7, 1951) was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona (1929), for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in
http://wn.com/Warner_Baxter -
Warner Oland
Warner Oland (October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish American actor most remembered for his role as Charlie Chan.
http://wn.com/Warner_Oland -
Warren William
Warren William (December 2, 1894 – September 24, 1948) was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, born the son of Freeman E. and Frances Krech, as Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After moving from Broadway to Hollywood in 1931, he reached his peak as a leading man in early 1930s pre-Production Code films. He was a contract player at the Warner Bros. studio and was known for portraying amoral businessmen, lawyers, and other heartless types, including the Sam Spade character (renamed "Ted Shane") in the second filming of The Maltese Falcon, called Satan Met a Lady (1936) with Bette Davis.
http://wn.com/Warren_William -
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor, noted for his sophisticated, cynical portrayals.
http://wn.com/William_Powell -
Yasujiro Ozu
http://wn.com/Yasujiro_Ozu
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Czech Republic
The Czech Republic ( ; , , short form Česko ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The Czech Republic has been a member of NATO since 1999 and of the European Union since 2004. The Czech Republic is also a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). As an OSCE participating State, the Czech Republic’s international commitments are subject to monitoring under the mandate of the U.S. Helsinki Commission. From 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2009, the Czech Republic held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
http://wn.com/Czech_Republic -
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia (Czech and Slovak: Československo, Česko-Slovensko) was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992. From 1939 to 1945 the state did not have de facto existence, due to its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, but the Czechoslovak government-in-exile nevertheless continued to exist during this period. In 1945 the eastern part of Carpathian Ruthenia was taken over by the Soviet Union. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
http://wn.com/Czechoslovakia -
Kladno District
The Kladno District (Okres Kladno in Czech) is a district (okres) within the Central Bohemian Region (Středočeský kraj) of the Czech Republic. The capital of the district is the city of Kladno.
http://wn.com/Kladno_District -
Prague
Prague (; , see also ) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included: Praga mater urbium/Praha matka měst ("Prague – Mother of Cities") in Latin/Czech, Stověžatá Praha ("City of a Hundred Spires") in Czech and Zlaté město/Goldene Stadt ("Golden City") in Czech/German.
http://wn.com/Prague
- 1914 in film
- 1915 in film
- 1917 in film
- 1921 in film
- 1922 in film
- 1924 in film
- 1925 in film
- 1927 in film
- 1928 in film
- 1929 in film
- 1930 in film
- 1931 in film
- 1932 in film
- 1933 in film
- 1935 in film
- 1936 in film
- 1937 in film
- 1938 in film
- 1939 in film
- 1940 in film
- 1941 in film
- 1944 in film
- 1945 in film
- 1946 in film
- 1949 in film
- 1953 in film
- 1957 in film
- 1962 in film
- 1964 in film
- 1969 in film
- 7th Academy Awards
- A Lost Lady (film)
- A Wicked Woman
- Academy Award
- Academy Awards
- Al Jolson
- Alan Arkin
- Alexander Korda
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Alice Faye
- Amos 'n' Andy
- Angele (film)
- Ann Todd
- Baby Take a Bow
- Barbara Stanwyck
- Basil Wright
- Bela Lugosi
- Bette Davis
- Betty Boop
- Bill Bixby
- Billie Burke
- Bing Crosby
- Bob Hope
- Bolero (1934 film)
- Boris Karloff
- Bright Eyes (film)
- Brigitte Bardot
- Broadway Bill
- Buck Jones
- Burn 'Em Up Barnes
- Busby Berkeley
- Buster Keaton
- Carole Lombard
- Cartune Classics
- Cecil B. DeMille
- Chapaev (film)
- Charles Bickford
- Charles Boyer
- Charles Laughton
- Charles Ruggles
- Charles Starrett
- Charles Vanel
- Charlie Chaplin
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- Colonel Blood (film)
- Color Rhapsodies
- Columbia Pictures
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- Cubby Bear (cartoon)
- Dames
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- Death on the Diamond
- Diana Wynyard
- Dick Powell
- Doctor Monica
- documentary film
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- Dolores Hope
- Dorothy Dell
- Douglas Fairbanks
- Douglass Montgomery
- Eddie Cantor
- Edna Best
- Edna May Oliver
- Edward G. Robinson
- Elisabeth Bergner
- Ernst Lubitsch
- Evergreen (film)
- Everybody's Woman
- Fashions of 1934
- Fay Wray
- Fernandel
- Fog Over Frisco
- Forsaking All Others
- Fox Studios
- Frank Capra
- Frankie Darro
- Fred Astaire
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- French films of 1934
- Fritz Lang
- Gambling Lady
- Gary Cooper
- Gene Autry
- George Arliss
- George Raft
- Ginger Rogers
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- Grand Canary (film)
- Happy Harmonies
- Harold Lloyd
- Harry A. Pollard
- Harry Baur
- Harry Langdon
- Helen Mack
- Here Comes the Navy
- Here is My Heart
- Horace B. Carpenter
- Howard Hawks
- Ian Hunter (actor)
- It's a Gift
- Jack Mulhall
- Jackie Cooper
- Jacques Feyder
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- Jamie Farr
- Jean Harlow
- Jean Marsh
- Jean Parker
- Jean Vigo
- Jeanette MacDonald
- Jessie Matthews
- Joan Blondell
- Joan Crawford
- Joel McCrea
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- John Beal (actor)
- John Davis Lodge
- John Gilbert (actor)
- John Singer (actor)
- John Wayne
- Johnny Mack Brown
- Johnny Weissmuller
- Jolly Fellows
- Josef von Sternberg
- Judge Priest
- Judi Dench
- Karen Morley
- Katharine Hepburn
- Kay Francis
- Ken Maynard
- Kid Millions
- Kira Muratova
- Kiril Gospodinov
- Kitty Carlisle
- Krazy Kat
- L'Atalante
- L. Frank Baum
- La veuve joyeuse
- Laurel and Hardy
- Leave It to Blanche
- Lee Tracy
- Leo Carrillo
- Leslie Banks
- Let's Try Again
- Liliom (1934 film)
- Lilyan Tashman
- Limehouse Blues
- Little Miss Marker
- Looney Tunes
- Loretta Young
- Lupino Lane
- Madge Evans
- Mady Christians
- Mae West
- Maggie Smith
- Man of Aran
- Managed Money
- Mandalay (film)
- Manhattan Melodrama
- Maniac (1934 film)
- Marcel Pagnol
- Margaret Lockwood
- Margaret Sullavan
- Marie Dressler
- Marion Davies
- Marlene Dietrich
- Mary Boland
- Mascot Pictures
- Maureen O'Sullivan
- Maurice Chevalier
- Max Ophuls
- Merle Oberon
- Merrie Melodies
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Michel Simon
- Mickey Mouse
- Miriam Hopkins
- Muriel George
- Myrna Loy
- Nadine Trintignant
- Nancy O'Neil
- Nikolay Binev
- Norma Shearer
- Now I'll Tell
- Oliver Hardy
- One Night of Love
- Operator 13
- Our Gang
- Pat O'Brien (actor)
- Perry Mason
- Peter Gawthorne
- Peter Lorre
- Pirate Treasure
- Popeye
- Production Code
- Ralph Richardson
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- Raymond Bernard
- Rin Tin Tin
- Riptide (film)
- Robert Donat
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- Robert Young (actor)
- Roger Pryor (actor)
- Ronald Colman
- Rosalind Russell
- Ruby Keeler
- Samuel Goldwyn
- Scrappy
- Screen Songs
- Shirley Jones
- Shirley MacLaine
- Shirley Temple
- Silly Symphonies
- Six of a Kind
- Sol M. Wurtzel
- Sophia Loren
- Soviet films of 1934
- Spitfire (1934 film)
- Stan Laurel
- Stand Up and Cheer!
- Tarzan and His Mate
- Terrytoons
- The Circus Clown
- The Clairvoyant
- The Gay Bride
- The Gay Divorcee
- The Law of the Wild
- The Little King
- The Little Minister
- The Lost Jungle
- The Lucky Texan
- The Man From Utah
- The Marx Brothers
- The Red Rider
- The Scarlet Empress
- The Song of Ceylon
- The St. Louis Kid
- The Star Packer
- The Thin Man (film)
- The Three Stooges
- The Trail Beyond
- The Vanishing Shadow
- Tina Louise
- Tom Keene (actor)
- Universal Pictures
- Upstairs Downstairs
- Victor McLagen
- Victor McLaglen
- Victor Saville
- Viva Villa!
- W. C. Fields
- W.C. Fields
- W.S. Van Dyke
- Wallace Beery
- Wallace Ford
- Warner Baxter
- Warner Oland
- Warren William
- We're Not Dressing
- We're Rich Again
- Wheeler and Woolsey
- Will Rogers
- William Powell
- Willie Whopper
- Wonder Bar
- Yasujiro Ozu
- You're Telling Me!
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Jan Svankmajer - Meat Love (1989)
Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others. Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing. Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium. Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees. A lot of his movies, like the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were banned. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s. Today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. His best known works are probably the feature films Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Little Otik (2000 <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Jan_Svankmajer__Meat_Love_1989
Jan Svankmajer - Food Pt:1 (1992)
Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others. Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing. Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium. Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees. A lot of his movies, like the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were banned. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s. Today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. His best known works are probably the feature films Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Little Otik (2000 <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Jan_Svankmajer__Food_Pt1_1992
Jan Svankmajer - Dimensions Of Dialogue Pt:2 (1982)
Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others. Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing. Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium. Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees. A lot of his movies, like the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were banned. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s. Today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. His best known works are probably the feature films Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Little Otik (2000 <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Jan_Svankmajer__Dimensions_Of_Dialogue_Pt2_1982
Jan Svankmajer - Oscuridad-luz-oscuridad
Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others. Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing. Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium. Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees. A lot of his movies, like the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were banned. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s. Today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. His best known works are probably the feature films Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Little Otik (2000 <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Jan_Svankmajer__Oscuridad-luz-oscuridad
Pete the Pup in Our Gang helping the kids (Little Rascals)
Learn more about dogs in movies at: reeldogs.blogspot.com - DRgonzothompson was looking for footage of Petey helping the Gang. Hope this is useful to you. Scenes are from Hi Neighbor! (1934) Fly My Kite (1931) Bear Shooters (1930) Readin' and Writen' (1932) Sprucin' Up (1935) For Pete's Sake (1934) Dogs is Dogs (1931) The Pooch (1932) Dog Heaven (1927)
http://wn.com/Pete_the_Pup_in_Our_Gang_helping_the_kids_Little_Rascals
Cleopatra (CB DeMille, 1934)
Classical antiquity in movies. Watch the video in its context : see blog.seniorennet.be
http://wn.com/Cleopatra_CB_DeMille,_1934
Jan Svankmajer - Kurzfilm - The Flat Pt:2 (1968)
Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others. Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing. Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium. Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees. A lot of his movies, like the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were banned. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s. Today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. His best known works are probably the feature films Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Little Otik (2000 <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Jan_Svankmajer__Kurzfilm__The_Flat_Pt2_1968
Jan Svankmajer - Dimensions Of Dialogue Pt:1 (1982)
Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others. Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing. Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium. Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees. A lot of his movies, like the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were banned. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s. Today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. His best known works are probably the feature films Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Little Otik (2000 <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Jan_Svankmajer__Dimensions_Of_Dialogue_Pt1_1982
Tomorrows Children (1934) - Eugenics in America Propaganda Film
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 52:29
- Published: 27 Feb 2012
- Updated: 10 Mar 2012
- Author: NotForSale2NWO
Tomorrow's Children' (1934) which was also called 'The Unborn' in the UK. This video is in the public domain. The Intel Hub - Daily News and Opinion theintelhub.com This is a propaganda film from 1934 that openly promotes the use of eugenics. The people in power TODAY are eugenicists they have just gone underground with their eugenic beliefs. This video is from the PUBLIC archive www.archive.org When this video was first uploaded it came up as BLOCKED IN THE UNITED STATES but after i filed a dispute(because the movie is clearly in the public domain) it has now been approved.FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 USC section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
http://wn.com/Tomorrows_Children_1934__Eugenics_in_America_Propaganda_Film
Haiti ~ Josephine Baker sings "Haiti" ~ in the film, "ZOU ZOU". 1934
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:59
- Published: 23 Feb 2010
- Updated: 15 Mar 2012
- Author: islandblackberryvine
Josephine Baker sings "Haiti" in the film, ZOU ZOU, 1934
http://wn.com/Haiti_~_Josephine_Baker_sings_Haiti_~_in_the_film,_ZOU_ZOU_1934
Slavko Vorkapich "The Furies" 1934.
music: Ludwig von Beethoven score synchronized by Slavko Vorkapich Vorkapich hade complete creative freedom in writing, designing, directing and editing his montage sequences for feature films, his work was often reduced to its bones in the released productions. Here is the filmmaker's original version of one of his outstanding efforts
http://wn.com/Slavko_Vorkapich_The_Furies_1934
Laurel & Hardy - Hollywood Party (1934)
Here's another film featuring brief cameos by the Boys. Hollywood Party was an MGM film from 1934 featuring all of the big stars signed to MGM at the time. Stan and Ollie made numerous film cameos during their long career, but this one is regarded as one of their finest.
http://wn.com/Laurel_Hardy__Hollywood_Party_1934
Alpha the Robot (1934)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:38
- Published: 13 Mar 2011
- Updated: 10 Mar 2012
- Author: paleofuture
www.paleofuture.com Alpha the Robot with inventor Harry May in 1934.
http://wn.com/Alpha_the_Robot_1934
Rajkumari: Wey mein kajle di panian taar Posti 1951 Punjabi songs sardul kwatra nankana pakistan
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:34
- Published: 01 May 2010
- Updated: 15 Feb 2012
- Author: nankanaorg
Rajkumari: Wey mein kajle di panian taar Posti 1951 Punjabi songs sardul kwatra nankana punjab pakistan Punjabi indian pakistani urdu hindi punjabi songs music classical folk Rajkumari was born in 1924. She never really had the opportunity to learn to sing, but was always supported by her family. She was just 10 years old when she recorded her first song for HMV in 1934 and she started her career as a stage artiste. Vijay Bhatt and Shankar Bhatt of Prakash Pictures spotted her during one of her shows. They liked her voice and persuaded her to discontinue acting on stage as it would spoil her voice (In those days, there were no mikes and you had to shout to be heard). So she quit theatre, and became an employee of Prakash Pictures as an actress and singer. Rajkumari's first film with them was a Hindi-Gujarati bilingual called Sansar Leela Nayi Duniya. She got important roles in films like Aankh Ka Tara and Turki Sher (1933). She was the heroine Bhakt Ke Bhagwan and Insaaf Ki Topi (1934). In those days she often acted opposite Zakaria Khan (late actor Amjad Khan's father, whose screen name was Jayant). She also used to sing for popular music director Lallubhai. He gave music to films starring Rajkumari ji like Nai Duniya alias Sacred Scandal(1934) (Sansaar Leela in gujrati version), Laal Chitthi alias Red Letter(1935), Bombay Mail(1935), Bambai Ki Sethaani (1935)and Shamsheer-e-Arab(1935). She began getting fed up with having to watch on her figure and decided to stick to <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Rajkumari_Wey_mein_kajle_di_panian_taar_Posti_1951_Punjabi_songs_sardul_kwatra_nankana_pakistan
The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 92:56
- Published: 29 Jun 2011
- Updated: 18 Feb 2012
- Author: Lackteen01
A British-made biographical film about how a German princess in an unhappy marriage became empress of all the Russias. Starring Elizabeth Bergner as Catherine and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Peter III. It was released in the same year as the Von Sternberg's "The Scarlet Empress", filmed in Gothic style and starring Marlene Dietrich and Sam Jaffe in the same roles. London Film Company
http://wn.com/The_Rise_of_Catherine_the_Great_1934
LA CUCARACHA (1934) Short Film
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 20:28
- Published: 22 Jan 2011
- Updated: 28 Feb 2012
- Author: TheVideoCellar
A "Melody Drama Of Dazzling Splendor In Technicolor" This is an early technicolor test film made by Pioneer Pictures. The film tells the story of a theatre owner who goes to a local cafe to see and audition its famous band and dancers.
http://wn.com/LA_CUCARACHA_1934_Short_Film
Indubala Devi... Thumari Tilang
Indubala's mother was Rajabala, who along with sister Matibala and brother Tinkary worked in Motilal Bose's The Great Bengal Circus, also known as Bose's Circus or Professor Bose's Circus.Indubala was born in Novenber, 1899 at Amritsar, where the circus party had gone for performance. Indu was born premature and Dr. Bidhumukhi Basu was taken to Amritsar from Calcutta to attend to Rajabala. Indubala's first training in music was from her mother. The initial plan was to train Indu as a nurse and she was admitted as a trainee in a hospital in the Pataldanga locality of Calcutta. Indu did not take fancy in the job and ran away from the hospital, much to the disappointment of her mother, who never wanted her only daughter to be forced into a life of indignity. After this incident Indubala's musical training started. In later years she took training from Girin Chakraborty, Kamal Dasgupta, Subal Dasgupta, Jamiruddin Khan and Kazi Nazrul Islam. In time she came to be one of the major exponents of Nazrul songs and her songs along with those of Miss Angurbala and Kamala Jharia are still referred to for authenticity of lyrics and tunes of Nazrul songs. In 1916, Indubala recorded her first songs. As a playback singer she lent her voice in films like Alibaba (1937), Chandragupt (1934) in Hindi, Ab E Hayat (1933) in Urdu and Dil Ki Pyaas (1935) also in Urdu. She did not act in these four films. Indubala did not receive any major award apart from the Gold Disc given on behalf of His <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Indubala_Devi_Thumari_Tilang
Louise Beavers in Imitation of Life (1934)
Louise Beavers appeared in over 160 films from the 1920s through the 1950s, most often as a mammy stereotype in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. Her most famous role was Delilah Johnson in the 1934 film "Imitation of Life." In this clip, Beavers' light-skinned daughter feels the sting of racism for the first time and Beavers tries to comfort her with, "You gotta learn to take it. You might just as well begin now." Learn more about Louise Beavers at: black-face.com
http://wn.com/Louise_Beavers_in_Imitation_of_Life_1934
Percy Honri in Lily of Killarney
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:30
- Published: 22 Apr 2008
- Updated: 28 Feb 2012
- Author: konsertina
The great Percy Honri starring in "Lily of Killarney", 1934
http://wn.com/Percy_Honri_in_Lily_of_Killarney
Trailer - Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
PLEASE READ THIS - This video was uploaded to Youtube specifically to embed in my web page about this film: terrororstralis.com "Tarzan and His Mate" was Johnny Weissmuller's second MGM film as Tarzan. It was directed by Cedric Gibbons in 1934 and also starred Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane Parker; Neil Hamilton as Harry Holt; Paul Cavanagh as Martin Arlington; and two chimpanzees, Yama and Jiggs, as Cheeta.
http://wn.com/Trailer__Tarzan_and_His_Mate_1934
The Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop - The Poteet 1934 Coupe
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:04
- Published: 27 Nov 2008
- Updated: 16 Mar 2012
- Author: whitebirdfilms
(note: this is an art film inspired by The Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop. It is a non-commercial piece.) Defining the term "Hot Rod" is about as elusive as trying to find a deuce roadster that's been stored in some old farmer's barn since April 1st, 1932. It can and does mean many things to many people. For The Rollng Bones Hot Rod Shop, it's about using many of the same parts and building hot rods the way they were when they were simply Hot Rods. While those men had no interest in the history they were creating, The Rolling Bones do. They were simply trying to go fast with what was available. The Rolling Bones are simply trying to capture the look, the feel, and the soul of a late forties - early fifties Hot Rod with a story to tell. There are lots of people in this world who claim to be artists but there are only a certain few who can put that very elusive magic in their work. Great Hot Rods are also works of art and The Rolling Bones will argue that point with you until the beer runs out. Like a romantic painting, when you look at it, a great Hot Rod will tell you just enough of its story to grab your emotions and let your imagination take you as fast and far as you want to go. That's what they build, stories, in The Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop style, one story at a time.
http://wn.com/The_Rolling_Bones_Hot_Rod_Shop__The_Poteet_1934_Coupe
JANE EYRE - Full Movie - Described
Public domain classic based on a novel by Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre is an orphan, sent to Lowood school, and eventually becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall to a girl named Adele. While she is there, many strange things happen and eventually she and Edward Rochester, owner of Thornfield and Adele's guardian, fall in love. Suddenly, when Jane is about to win the happiness she deserves, a dark secret comes to light, and it takes all of her courage, love, and understanding to triumph.
http://wn.com/JANE_EYRE__Full_Movie__Described
Frankie Darro - No Greater Glory - 1934
This a scene from Frank Borzage's 1934 film No Greater Glory. Frankie plays Feri Ats, the leader of the Red Shirts, nemeses of The Paul Street Boys, whose battle over a vacant lot provides a powerful anti-war allegory. Also turning in terrific performances are George Breakston as Nemecsek and Jackie Searle as the turncoat, Gereb.
http://wn.com/Frankie_Darro__No_Greater_Glory__1934
__TOC__
Events
Top grossing films
| Rank | Title| | Studio | Actors |
| 1. | ''Viva Villa!'' | MGM | Wallace Beery |
| 2. | Paramount | Claudette Colbert | |
| 3. | ''The Barretts of Wimpole Street'' | MGM | Norma Shearer |
| 4. | ''It Happened One Night'' | Columbia | Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert |
| 5. | MGM | William Powell and Myrna Loy | |
| 6. | RKO | Miriam Hopkins | |
| 7. | ''The Gay Divorcee'' | RKO | Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers |
| 8. | Universal | Claudette Colbert | |
| 9. | ''The Girl from Missouri'' | MGM | Jean Harlow |
| 10. | ''The House of Rothschild'' | United Artists | George Arliss and Loretta Young |
Academy Awards
Films released in 1934
U.S. unless stated
Serials
Comedy film series
Animated short film series
Births
Deaths
Debuts
de:Filmjahr 1934 es:Anexo:Cine en 1934 fr:1934 au cinéma he:1934 בקולנוע hu:1934 a filmművészetben nl:Film in 1934 no:Filmåret 1934 pl:1934 w filmie pt:1934 no cinema ru:1934 год в кино sq:1934 në film fi:Elokuvavuosi 1934 sv:Filmåret 1934 uk:1934 у кіно
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| name | Jan Švankmajer |
|---|---|
| birth date | September 04, 1934 |
| birth place | Prague, Czechoslovakia |
| occupation | Film director |
| spouse | Eva Švankmajerová }} |
Jan Švankmajer (; born 4 September 1934) is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others.
Life and career
Jan Švankmajer was born in Prague. An early influence on his later artistic development was a puppet theatre he was given for Christmas as a child. He studied at the College of Applied Arts in Prague and later in the Department of Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. He contributed to Emil Radok's film ''Doktor Faust'' in 1958 and then began working for Prague's Semafor Theatre where he founded the Theatre of Masks. He then moved on to the Laterna Magika multimedia theatre, where he renewed his association with Radok. This theatrical experience is reflected in Švankmajer's first film ''The Last Trick'', which was released in 1964. Under the influence of theoretician Vratislav Effenberger Švankmajer moved from the mannerism of his early work to classic surrealism, first manifested in his film ''The Garden'' (1968), and joined the Czechoslovakian Surrealist Group.He was married to Eva Švankmajerová, an internationally known surrealist painter, ceramicist, and writer until her death in October 2005. Švankmajerová collaborated on several of her husband's movies, including ''Alice'', ''Faust'', and ''Otesánek''. They had two children, Veronika (b. 1963) and Václav (b. 1975, an animator).
Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish, and yet somehow funny pictures. He continues to make films in Prague.
Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses fast-motion sequences when people walk or interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects being brought to life through stop-motion. Many of his films also include clay objects in stop-motion, otherwise known as clay animation. Food is a favourite subject and medium.
Stop-motion features in most of his work, though recently his feature films have included much more live action sequences than animation.
Many of his movies, like the short film ''Down to the Cellar'', are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were suppressed. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s.
Today Švankmajer is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. Among his best known works are the feature films ''Alice'' (1988), ''Faust'' (1994), ''Conspirators of Pleasure'' (1996), ''Little Otik'' (2000) and ''Lunacy'' (2005), a surreal comic horror based on two works of Edgar Allan Poe and the life of Marquis de Sade. The two stories by Poe, "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" and "The Premature Burial", provide ''Lunacy'' its thematic focus, whereas the life of Marquis de Sade provides the film's blasphemy. Also famous (and much imitated) is the short ''Dimensions of Dialogue'' (1982), selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time. His films have been called "as emotionally haunting as Kafka's stories. His latest film is ''Surviving Life'' from 2010.
His next project is called ''Insects'' (''Hmyz''). It has a projected budget of 40 million CZK and a preliminary release set to 2015. The film will be based on the play ''Pictures from the Insects' Life'' by Karel Čapek, which Švankmajer describes as following: "This Čapek´s play is a very misanthropic, and I always liked it — bugs behave as a human beings, and people behave as insects. It also reminds one a lot of Franz Kafka and his famous ''Metamorphosis''."
Filmography
Feature-length films
| Year !! English title !! Original title !! Source material | |||
| 1988 | Alice (1988 film)>Alice'' | ''Něco z Alenky'' | |
| 1994 | ''Faust (1994 film)Faust'' || | ''Lekce Faust'' | The Faust legend, Goethe's Faust |
| 1996 | ''[[Conspirators of Pleasure''| | ''Spiklenci slasti'' | Original story |
| 2000 | ''Little Otik''| | ''Otesánek'' | ''Otesánek'' by Karel Jaromír Erben |
| 2005 | ''Lunacy (film)Lunacy'' || | ''Šílení'' | "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" and "The Premature Burial" by Edgar Allan Poe |
| 2010 | ''Surviving Life''| | ''Přežít svůj život'' | Original story |
| 2015 | ''Insects''| | ''Hmyz'' | ''Pictures from the Insects' Life'' by Karel Čapek and Josef Čapek |
Short films
| Year !! English title !! Original title !! Notes | |||
| 1964 | ''The Last Trick'' | ''Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara'' | |
| 1965 | ''Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasy in G minor'' | ||
| 1965 | ''A Game with Stones'' | ||
| 1966 | ''Punch and Judy''| | ''Rakvičkárna'' | Also known as ''The Coffin Factory'' and ''The Lych House'' |
| 1966 | ''Et Cetera'' | ||
| 1967 | ''Historia Naturae, Suita'' | ||
| 1968 | ''The Garden'' | ||
| 1968 | ''The Flat'' | ||
| 1968 | ''Picnic with Weissmann'' | ||
| 1969 | ''A Quiet Week in the House'' | ||
| 1969 | Don Juan (1969 film)>Don Juan'' | ||
| 1970 | ''The Ossuary''| | ''Kostnice'' | About the Sedlec Ossuary |
| 1971 | Jabberwocky (1971 film)>Jabberwocky'' | ||
| 1972 | ''Leonardo's Diary'' | ||
| 1977 | ''Castle of Otranto'' | ||
| 1980 | ''The Fall of the House of Usher''| | ''Zánik domu Usherů'' | Based on "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe |
| 1982 | ''Dimensions of Dialogue'' | ||
| 1983 | ''Down to the Cellar'' | ||
| 1983 | ''The Pendulum, the Pit and Hope''| | ''Kyvadlo, jáma a naděje'' | Based on "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe |
| 1988 | ''The Male Game''| | ''Mužné hry'' | Also known as ''Virile Games'' |
| 1988 | ''Another Kind of Love'' | ||
| 1988 | ''Meat Love'' | ||
| 1989 | ''Darkness/Light/Darkness'' | ||
| 1989 | ''Flora'' | ||
| 1989 | ''Animated Self-Portraits'' | ||
| 1990 | ''The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia'' | ||
| 1992 | Food (film)>Food'' | ||
|
|
|||
Animation and gadgets
| Year !! English title !! Original title !! Director | |||
| 1978 | ''Dinner for Adele'' | ''Adéla ještě nevečeřela'' | |
| 1981 | ''The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians''| | ''Tajemství hradu v Karpatech '' | Oldřich Lipský |
| 1982 | ''Ferat Vampire''| | ''Upír z Feratu'' | Juraj Herz |
| 1984 | ''Three Veterans''| | ''Tři veteráni '' | Oldřich Lipský |
See also
References
Further reading
External links
Category:1934 births Category:Living people Category:People from Prague Category:Czech animators Category:Czech film directors Category:Czechoslovak film directors Category:Surrealist filmmakers Category:Stop motion animators
cs:Jan Švankmajer de:Jan Švankmajer es:Jan Švankmajer fa:یان اشونکمایر fr:Jan Švankmajer it:Jan Švankmajer hu:Jan Švankmajer ja:ヤン・シュヴァンクマイエル no:Jan Švankmajer pl:Jan Švankmajer pt:Jan Švankmajer ru:Шванкмайер, Ян sk:Jan Švankmajer fi:Jan Švankmajer sv:Jan Švankmajer tr:Jan Švankmajer uk:Ян ШванкмаєрThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| background | solo_singer |
|---|---|
| birth name | Freda Josephine McDonald |
| born | June 03, 1906St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
| died | April 12, 1975Paris, France |
| instrument | Vocals |
| genre | CabaretMusic hallFrench popFrench jazz |
| occupation | Dancer, Singer, Actress |
| years active | 1921–1975 |
| label | Columbia, Mercury, RCA Victor |
| website | www.cmgww.com/stars/baker }} |
Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess".
Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II, and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.
Early life
Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Carrie McDonald. Her estate identifies vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson as her natural father. A biography written by her foster son Jean-Claude Baker stated:}}
Her mother, Carrie, was adopted in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1886 by Richard and Elvira McDonald, both of whom were former slaves of African and Native American descent.
When Baker was eight she was sent to work for a white woman who abused her, burning Baker's hands when she put too much soap in the laundry. She later went to work for another woman.
Baker dropped out of school at the age of 12 and lived as a street child in the slums of St. Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters and scavenging for food in garbage cans. Her street-corner dancing attracted attention and she was recruited for the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show at 15. She then headed to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance, performing at the Plantation Club and in the chorus of the popular Broadway revues ''Shuffle Along'' (1921) with Adelaide Hall and ''The Chocolate Dandies'' (1924). She performed as the last dancer in a chorus line, a position in which the dancer traditionally performed in a comic manner, as if she was unable to remember the dance, until the encore, at which point she would not only perform it correctly, but with additional complexity. Baker was then billed as "the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville."
On October 2, 1925, she opened in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage. After a successful tour of Europe, she reneged on her contract and returned to France to star at the Folies Bergères, setting the standard for her future acts. She performed the ''Danse sauvage'', wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas.
Baker's success coincided (1925) with the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which gave birth to the term "Art Deco", and also with a renewal of interest in ethnic forms of art, including African. Baker represented one aspect of this fashion.
In later shows in Paris she was often accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah, Chiquita, who was adorned with a diamond collar. The cheetah frequently escaped into the orchestra pit, where it terrorized the musicians, adding another element of excitement to the show.
Rise to fame
After a short while she was the most successful American entertainer working in France. Ernest Hemingway called her "… the most sensational woman anyone ever saw." In addition to being a musical star, Baker also starred in three films which found success only in Europe: the silent film ''Siren of the Tropics'' (1927), ''Zouzou'' (1934) and ''Princesse Tam Tam'' (1935). She also starred in ''Fausse Alerte'' (English title: ''The French Way'') in 1940.
At this time she also scored her most successful song, "J'ai deux amours" (1931) and became a muse for contemporary authors, painters, designers, and sculptors including Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior.
Under the management of Giuseppe Pepito Abatino—a Sicilian former stonemason who passed himself off as a count—Baker's stage and public persona, as well as her singing voice, went through a significant transformation. In 1934 she took the lead in a revival of Jacques Offenbach's 1875 opera ''La créole'' at the Théâtre Marigny on the Champs-Élysées of Paris, which premiered in December of that year for a six month run. In preparation for her performances she went through months of training with a vocal coach.
In the words of Shirley Bassey, who has cited Baker as her primary influence, "… she went from a 'petite danseuse sauvage' with a decent voice to 'la grande diva magnifique' … I swear in all my life I have never seen, and probably never shall see again, such a spectacular singer and performer."
Despite her popularity in France, she never obtained the same reputation in America. Upon a visit to the United States in 1935-1936, her performances received poor opening reviews for her starring role in the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' and she was replaced by Gypsy Rose Lee later in the run.
Baker returned to Paris in 1937, married Frenchman Jean Lion, and became a French citizen.
Her affection for France was so great that when World War II broke out, she volunteered to spy for her adopted country. Baker was so well known and popular with the French that even the Nazis, who occupied France during World War II, were hesitant to cause her harm. Baker's agent's older brother approached her about working for the French government as an "honorable correspondent" -- if she happened to hear any gossip at parties that might be of use to her adopted country, she could report it. Baker immediately agreed, since she was against the Nazi stand on race not only because she was black but because her husband was Jewish. Her café society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in-the-know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and report back what she heard. She was able to do things such as attend parties at the Italian embassy without any suspicion falling on her and gather information that turned out to be useful. She also helped in the war effort in other ways, such as by sending Christmas presents to French soldiers.
When the Germans invaded France, Baker left Paris and went to the Château des Milandes, her home in the south of France, where she had Belgian refugees living with her and others who were eager to help the Free French effort led by Charles de Gaulle from England. As an entertainer, Baker had an excuse for moving around Europe, visiting neutral nations like Portugal, and returning to France. Baker assisted the French Resistance by smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music.
She helped mount a production in Marseille on the south coast of France to give herself and her like-minded friends a reason for being there. She helped quite a lot of people who were in danger from the Nazis get visas and passports to leave France. Later in 1941, she and her entourage went to the French colonies in North Africa; the stated reason was Baker's health (since she really was recovering from another case of pneumonia) but the real reason was to continue helping the Resistance. From a base in Morocco, she made tours of Spain and pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear (counting on her celebrity to avoid a strip search) and made friends with the Pasha of Marrakesh, whose support helped her through a miscarriage (the last of several) and emergency hysterectomy she had to go through in 1942. Despite the state of medicine in that time and place, she recovered, and started touring to entertain Allied soldiers in North Africa. She even persuaded Egypt's King Farouk to make a public appearance at one of her concerts, a subtle indication of which side his officially neutral country leaned toward. Later, she would perform at Buchenwald for the liberated inmates who were too frail to be moved.
After the war, for her underground activity, Baker received the Croix de guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.
In January 1966, she was invited by Fidel Castro to perform at the Teatro Musical de La Habana in Havana, Cuba. Her spectacular show in April of that year led to record breaking attendance. In 1973, Baker opened at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation. In 1974, she appeared in a Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium.
Civil rights activism
Although based in France, Baker supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. She protested in her own way against racism, adopting 12 multi-ethnic orphans, who she called the "Rainbow Tribe." They were: Akio (Korean son), Jeannot, or Janot (Japanese son), Luis (Colombian son), Jari (Finnish son), Jean-Claude (French son), Moïse (Israeli son), Brahim (Algerian son), Marianne (French daughter), Koffi (Ivorian son), Mara (Venezuelan son), Noël (French son), and Stellina (Moroccan daughter). For some time she lived with all of her children and an enormous staff in a castle, Château de Milandes, in Dordogne, France. Baker bore only one child, stillborn in 1941, an incident that precipitated an emergency hysterectomy.She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States. Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1951, Baker made charges of racism against Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in New York, where she alleged that she'd been refused service. Actress Grace Kelly, who was at the club at the time, rushed over to Baker, took her by the arm and stormed out with her entire party, vowing never to return (and she never did). However, during his work on the ''Stork Club'' book, author and ''New York Times'' reporter Ralph Blumenthal was contacted by Jean-Claude Baker, one of Josephine Baker's sons. Having read a Blumenthal-written story about Leonard Bernstein's FBI file, he indicated that he had read his mother's FBI file and using comparison of the file to the tapes, said he thought the Stork Club incident was overblown. The two women became close friends after the incident. Testament to this was made evident when Baker was near bankruptcy and was offered a villa and financial assistance by Kelly (who by then was princess consort of Rainier III of Monaco).
Baker also worked with the NAACP. In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr. Wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d'honneur, she was the only woman to speak at the rally. After King's assassination, his widow Coretta Scott King approached Baker in Holland to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "… too young to lose their mother."
Personal life
There is evidence to suggest that she was bisexual. Her son Jean-Claude Baker and co-author Chris Chase state in ''Josephine: The Hungry Heart'' that Baker was involved in numerous lesbian affairs, both while she was single and married, and mention six of her female lovers by name. Clara Smith, Evelyn Sheppard, Bessie Allison, Ada "Bricktop" Smith, and Mildred Smallwood were all African-American women she met while touring on the black performing circuit early in her career. She was also involved with the writer Colette, and possibly with Caroline Dudley Reagan, who ran the Paris extravaganza ''La Revue Nègre''.Not mentioned, but confirmed since, was her affair with Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Baker wrote that affairs with women were not uncommon with Josephine throughout her lifetime.
Jean-Claude Baker interviewed over 2,000 people while writing his book. He was quoted in one interview as saying,
"She was what today you would call bisexual, and I will tell you why. Forget that I am her son, I am also a historian. You have to put her back into the context of the time in which she lived. In those days, Chorus Girls were abused by the white or black producers and by the leading men if he liked girls. But they could not sleep together because there were not enough hotels to accommodate black people. So they would all stay together, and the girls would develop lady lover friendships, do you understand my English? But wait wait...If one of the girls by preference was gay, she'd be called a bull dyke by the whole cast. So you see, discrimination is everywhere."
Death
On April 8, 1975, Baker starred in a retrospective revue at the Bobino in Paris—''Joséphine à Bobino 1975'', celebrating her 50 years in show business. The revue, financed by Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, opened to rave reviews. Demand for seating was such that fold-out chairs had to be added to accommodate spectators. The opening-night audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli.Four days later, Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance. She was in a coma after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. She was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died at age 68 on April 12, 1975. Her funeral was held at L'Église de la Madeleine. The first American woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral, Josephine Baker locked up the streets of Paris one last time. She was interred at the ''Cimetière de Monaco'' in Monte Carlo.
Legacy
"Place Joséphine Baker" in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris was named in her honor. She has also been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and the Hall of Famous Missourians. Her name has also been incorporated at Paris Plage, a man-made beach along the river Seine "Piscine Joséphine Baker".Two of Baker's sons, Jean-Claude and Jarry (Jari), grew up to go into business together, running the restaurant Chez Josephine on Theatre Row, 42nd Street, New York, which celebrates Baker's life and works.
Baker's iconic performance style has also been influential. Diana Ross, a long-time admirer of Baker, performed in Bob Mackie-designed outfits similar to Baker's and reenacted similar poses of the latter in many photo sessions. During the 1980s, Ross moved to Paris for one year, to research Baker's life for a feature film project Ross hoped to mount. Whitney Houston pays tribute to Baker in her "I'm Your Baby Tonight" music video to represent the Harlem Renaissance. Baker's banana skirt, in particular, has made numerous media appearances. A dancer wore one in Sir-Mix-A-Lot's 1991 video for "Baby Got Back".
In 2009, a musical based on Baker's war experiences was headed for Broadway. The musical has a book by Ellen Weston and Mark Hampton, music by Steve Dorff and lyrics by John Bettis. At the time, Deborah Cox was being mentioned as a possibility for the title role, but—as of 2010—the musical has not yet appeared on Broadway.
Portrayals
Filmography
References
Further reading
External links
Category:African American actors Category:African American dancers Category:African American singers Category:Burlesque performers Category:American buskers Category:American erotic dancers Category:American expatriates in France Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:Bisexual actors Category:Bisexual dancers Category:Burials in Monaco Category:Cabaret singers Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France) Category:Recipients of the Médaille de la Résistance Category:Deaths from cerebral hemorrhage Category:French erotic dancers Category:French female singers Category:French film actors Category:French people of American descent Category:French Resistance members Category:Actors from Illinois Category:LGBT African Americans Category:LGBT Christians Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:Musicians from Illinois Category:Mercury Records artists Category:People from East St. Louis, Illinois Category:RCA Records artists Category:Traditional pop musicians Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Women in World War II Category:1906 births Category:1975 deaths
bg:Джозефин Бейкър ca:Joséphine Baker cs:Josephine Bakerová da:Josephine Baker de:Josephine Baker et:Joséphine Baker es:Joséphine Baker eo:Josephine Baker fr:Joséphine Baker fy:Josephine Baker gl:Josephine Baker hr:Josephine Baker io:Josephine Baker id:Josephine Baker it:Joséphine Baker he:ג'וזפין בייקר la:Iosephina Baker lv:Džozefīne Beikere li:Joséphine Baker lmo:Giüsepina Baker hu:Josephine Baker nl:Josephine Baker ja:ジョセフィン・ベーカー no:Joséphine Baker oc:Josephine Baker pms:Joséphine Baker pl:Josephine Baker pt:Josephine Baker ksh:Josephine Baker ro:Josephine Baker ru:Бейкер, Жозефина sk:Josephine Bakerová sr:Жозефина Бекер fi:Joséphine Baker sv:Joséphine Baker tr:Josephine Baker zh:約瑟芬·貝克This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| name | Slavko Vorkapić |
|---|---|
| image siz | 200px |
| birth date | March 17, 1894 |
| birth place | Dobrinci, Austria-Hungary |
| death date | October 20, 1976 |
| death place | Mijas, Spain }} |
Early life
Slavko Vorkapić was born on March 17, 1894, in the small village of Dobrinci near Sremska Mitrovica in Syrmia, Vojvodina (at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia), later Yugoslavia, now Serbia). His father Petar, the town clerk, insisted that young Slavko should be well-educated. After finishing his primary education, he became a student in a well-known regional high-school in the nearby town of Sremska Mitrovica, where he made his first steps in art and drawing. (Mileva Marić-Einstein, the first wife and work associate of Albert Einstein went to the same high school.) He continued his high-school education in Zemun and later in the famous ''Art School'' in Belgrade. With a scholarship received from ''Matica srpska'', Serbia's highest cultural and scientific institution at the time, Vorkapić went to Budapest, Hungary, where he studied art. At the beginning of World War I he immediately returned to his homeland where, with the country besieged on all sides, he survived the tragic Serbian retreat across Albania in order to reach Allied positions in Greece. From there he sailed to Italy, from where he reached France. He managed to enter ''Art Academy'' in Paris but soon after moved to Montparnasse among other Avant-garde artists. He took part in the 1917 and 1919 collective painter exhibits.
Career in the United States
Film work
Slavko Vorkapić's dream to go to the United States was fulfilled in 1920. For a short time, he lived in New York City. Then, for almost a year, he roamed the country nearly homeless, until his arrival in Hollywood in July 1921. Although he started his film career as a painter and an actor, he became best-known as a special effects expert, film artist, film teacher, director, editor and became one of the most respected filmmakers in the period between the two World Wars. Vorkapić made a great number of documentaries and experimental films.Vorkapić co-directed the experimental short film ''The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra'' (1928) with Robert Florey, and ''Moods of the Sea'' (1941) and ''Forest Murmurs'' (1947) with filmmaker John Hoffman (1904–1980).
He is best known for his montage work (see montage sequence) on Hollywood films such as ''Viva Villa'' (1934), ''David Copperfield'' (1935), ''San Francisco'' (1936), ''The Good Earth'' (1937), and ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939). In October 2005, the DVD collection ''Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941'' was released and included a one-minute montage sequence Vorkapich did for the otherwise lost film ''Manhattan Cocktail'' (1928), directed by Dorothy Arzner.
The now-common montage sequence often appeared as notation in Hollywood scripts of the 1930s and 40s as the "vorkapich" because of his mastery of the dynamic visual montage sequence wherein time and space are compressed using a variety of editing techniques and camera moves. Vorkapich used kinetic editing, lap dissolves, tracking shots, creative graphics and optical effects for his stunning montage sequences for such features as ''Meet John Doe'', ''Maytime'', ''Crime without Passion'', ''Manhattan Melodrama'', and ''Firefly''. He created, shot, and edited these kinesthetic montages for features at MGM, RKO, and Paramount.
His protege, Art Clokey, learned kinescope animation techniques under him and went on to create the ''Gumby'' animated series.
He was appointed dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts of the University of Southern California from 1949-1951.
In 1938 Vorkapich commissioned modern architect Gregory Ain to build a garden house for his Beverly Hills residence. It was a minor landmark in prefabricated architecture. It has since been destroyed.
During the 1950s he was in Yugoslavia and worked as a professor at the Belgrade ''Film and Theatre Academy''. In Yugoslavia in 1955 Vorkapić made his last full-length movie ''Hanka''.
Slavko Vorkapić died of a heart attack in Mijas, Spain, on the estate of his son on October 20, 1976.
Two of his many master drawings, his gift during a visit to Yugoslavia, are kept in the ''Syrmia Museum'' in Sremska Mitrovica. Recent reports say that his descendants are ready to fulfill Vorkapić’s last will and testament to donate the same museum with all of his remaining art drawings.
See also
References
Sources
External links
Category:1894 births Category:1976 deaths Category:American people of Serbian descent Category:University of Southern California faculty Category:American film directors Category:American film editors Category:American cinematographers Category:Serbian film directors
fa:اسلاوکو ورکاپیچ sr:Славко Воркапић sh:Slavko VorkapićThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| name | Catherine II |
|---|---|
| imgw | 200px |
| succession | Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias |
| reign | 9 July 1762 – 17 November 1796 () |
| coronation | 12 September 1762 |
| cor-type | Coronation |
| predecessor | Peter III |
| successor | Paul I |
| succession1 | Empress consort of All the Russias |
| reign1 | 25 December 1761 – 9 July 1762 |
| reign-type1 | Tenure |
| spouse | Peter III of Russia |
| spouse-type | Consort to |
| issue | Paul I Anna Petrovna |
| full name | Sophie Friederike Auguste |
| house | House of RomanovHouse of Ascania |
| father | Christian Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst |
| mother | Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp |
| birth date | May 02, 1729 |
| birth place | Stettin, Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire |
| death date | November 17, 1796 |
| death place | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
| burial place | Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg |
| signature | SignatureEkaterina II.jpg |
| religion | Lutheranism, then Eastern Orthodox }} |
Catherine II (, ''Yekaterina II Velikaya''), also known as Catherine the Great (), was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as ''Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg''. She reigned as Empress of Russia from after the assassination of her husband, Peter III, just after the end of the Seven Years' War until her death on .
Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines. Catherine's rule re-vitalized Russia, which grew stronger than ever and became recognized as one of the great powers of Europe. She had successes in foreign policy and oversaw sometimes brutal reprisals in the wake of rebellion (most notably Pugachev's Rebellion).
Early life
Catherine's father Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst belonged to the ruling family of Anhalt, but held the rank of a Prussian general in his capacity as Governor of the city of Stettin ( Szczecin, Poland). Born as Sophia Augusta Frederica (German: ''Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg'', nicknamed "Figchen") in Stettin, Pomerania, two of her first cousins became Kings of Sweden: Gustav III and Charles XIII. In accordance with the custom then prevailing in the ruling dynasties of Germany, she received her education chiefly from a French governess and from tutors.The choice of Sophia as wife of her second cousin, the prospective tsar Peter of Holstein-Gottorp, resulted from some amount of diplomatic management in which Count Lestocq, Peter's aunt (the ruling Russian Empress Elizabeth), and Frederick II of Prussia took part. Lestocq and Frederick wanted to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia in order to weaken Austria's influence and ruin the Russian chancellor Bestuzhev, on whom Empress Elizabeth relied, and who acted as a known partisan of Russo-Austrian co-operation.
The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention of Sophia's mother, Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Historical accounts portray her as a cold, abusive woman who loved gossip and court intrigues. Johanna's hunger for fame centered on her daughter's prospects of becoming empress of Russia, but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who eventually banned her from the country for spying for King Frederick of Prussia. The empress knew the family well: she herself had intended to marry Princess Johanna's brother Charles Augustus (Karl August von Holstein), who had died of smallpox in 1727 before the wedding could take place. Nonetheless, Elizabeth took a strong liking to the daughter, who on arrival in Russia spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with the Empress Elizabeth, but with her husband and with the Russian people. She applied herself to learning the Russian language with such zeal that she rose at night and walked about her bedroom barefoot repeating her lessons (though she mastered the language, she retained an accent). This led to a severe attack of pneumonia in March 1744. When she wrote her memoirs, she said she made up her mind when she came to Russia to do whatever was necessary, and to profess to believe whatever required of her, to become qualified to wear the crown.
Princess Sophia's father, a very devout German Lutheran, strongly opposed his daughter's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite his objection, on 28 June 1744 the Russian Orthodox Church received Princess Sophia as a member with the new name Catherine (''Yekaterina'' or ''Ekaterina'') and the (artificial) patronymic Алексеевна (Alekseyevna, daughter of Aleksey). On the following day the formal betrothal took place. The long-planned dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 at Saint Petersburg. Sophia had turned 16; her father did not travel to Russia for her wedding. The bridegroom, known then as Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (located in the north-west of Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739.
As she recalls herself in her memoirs, as soon as she arrived in Russia she fell ill with a pleuritis which almost brought her to the grave. She says she owes her survival to frequent bloodletting; in one single day she had four phlebotomies. Her mother, being opposed to this practice, fell into the Empress' disfavour. When her situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed by a Lutheran priest; she however, awaking from her delirium, said: "I don't want any Lutheran; I want my orthodox father." This raised her in the empress' estimation.
The newlyweds settled in the palace of Oranienbaum, which remained the residence of the "young court" for many years to come.
Count Andrei Shuvalov, chamberlain to Catherine, knew the diarist James Boswell well, and Boswell reports that Shuvalov shared private information regarding the monarch's intimate affairs. Some of these rumours included that Peter took a mistress (Elizabeth Vorontsova), while Catherine carried on liaisons with Sergei Saltykov, Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734–1783), Stanisław August Poniatowski, Alexander Vasilchikov, and others. She became friends with Princess Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, the sister of her husband's mistress, who introduced her to several powerful political groups that opposed her husband.
Of the period before her accession to the Russian throne, Catherine uttered: ''Happiness and unhappiness are in the heart and spirit of each one of us: if you feel unhappy, then place yourself above that and act so that your happiness does not get to be dependent on anything.''
The reign of Peter III and the coup d'état of July 1762
After the death of the Empress Elizabeth on 5 January 1762 (OS: 25 December 1761), Peter, the Grand Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, succeeded to the throne as Peter III of Russia, and his wife, Grand Duchess Catherine became Empress Consort of Russia. The imperial couple moved into the new Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.The new tsar's eccentricities and policies, including a great admiration for the Prussian king, Frederick II alienated the same groups that Catherine had cultivated. Besides, Peter intervened in a dispute between his Duchy of Holstein and Denmark over the province of Schleswig (see Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff).
Peter's insistence on supporting Frederick II of Prussia, who had seen Berlin occupied by Russian troops in 1760 but now suggested partitioning the Polish territories with Russia, eroded much of his support among the nobility. (Russia and Prussia fought each other during the Seven Years War (1756–1763) until Peter's accession.)
In July 1762, barely six months after becoming the Tsar, Peter committed the political error of retiring with his Holstein-born courtiers and relatives to Oranienbaum, leaving his wife in Saint Petersburg. On 8 and 9 July the Leib Guard revolted, deposed Peter from power, and proclaimed Catherine the Empress of Russia. The bloodless coup succeeded; Ekaterina Dashkova, a confidante of Catherine who became President of the Russian Academy in 1783, the year of its foundation, seems to have stated that Peter seemed rather glad to have rid himself of the throne, and requested only a quiet estate and his mistress.
But eight days after the coup, on 17 July 1762 – just six months after his accession to the throne – Peter III died at Ropsha, at the hands of Alexei Orlov (younger brother to Gregory Orlov, then a court favorite and a participant in the coup). Historians find no evidence for Catherine's complicity in the supposed assassination. (Note that at that time other potential rival claimants to the throne existed: Ivan VI (1740–1764), in closed confinement at Schlüsselburg, in Lake Ladoga, from the age of 6 months; and Princess Tarakanova (1753–1775).)
Catherine, although not descended from any previous Russian emperor, succeeded her husband as Empress Regnant. She followed the precedent established when Catherine I (born in the lower classes in the Swedish East Baltic territories) succeeded her husband Peter I in 1725.
Legitimists debate Catherine's technical status: seeing her as a Regent or as a usurper, tolerable only during the minority of her son, Grand Duke Paul. In the 1770s a group of nobles connected with Paul (Nikita Panin and others) contemplated the possibility of a new coup to depose Catherine and transfer the crown to Paul, whose power they envisaged restricting in a kind of constitutional monarchy. However, nothing came of this, and Catherine reigned until her death.
Reign (1762–1796)
Foreign affairs
During her reign Catherine extended the borders of the Russian Empire southward and westward to absorb New Russia, Crimea, Northern Caucasus, Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Courland at the expense, mainly, of two powers the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. All told, she added some 200,000 miles² (518,000 km²) to Russian territory.
Catherine's foreign minister, Nikita Panin (in office 1763–81), exercised considerable influence from the beginning of her reign. A shrewd statesman, Panin dedicated much effort and millions of rubles to setting up a "Northern Accord" between Russia, Prussia, Poland, and Sweden, to counter the power of the Bourbon–Habsburg League. When it became apparent that his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out of favor and Catherine had him replaced with Ivan Osterman (in office 1781–97).
Catherine agreed to a commercial treaty with Great Britain in 1766, but stopped short of a full military alliance. Although she could see the benefits of Britain's friendship, she was wary of Britain's increased power following their victory in the Seven Years War, which threatened the European Balance of Power.
Russo-Turkish Wars
While Peter the Great had succeeded only in gaining a toehold in the south on the edge of the Black Sea in the Azov campaigns, Catherine completed the conquest of the south that Peter had begun. Catherine made Russia the dominant power in south-eastern Europe after her first Russo-Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire (1768–74), which saw some of the heaviest defeats in Turkish history, including the Battle of Chesma (5–7 July 1770) and the Battle of Kagul (21 July 1770).The Russian victories allowed Catherine's government to obtain access to the Black Sea and to incorporate the vast steppes of present-day southern Ukraine, where the Russians founded the new cities of Odessa, Nikolayev, Yekaterinoslav (literally: "the Glory of Catherine"; the future Dnepropetrovsk), and Kherson. The Treaty of Kutschuk Kainardzhi, signed 10 July 1774, gave to the Russians the "new" territories at Azov, Kerch, Yenikale, Kinburn and the small strip of Black Sea coast between the rivers Dnieper and Bug. The treaty also removed restrictions on Russian naval or commercial traffic in the Azov Sea, granted to Russia the position of protector of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, and made the Crimea a protectorate of Russia.
Catherine annexed the Crimea as late as 1783, a mere nine years after the Crimean Khanate had gained nominal independence, which had been guaranteed by Russia, from the Ottoman Empire as a result of her first war against the Turks. The palace of the Crimean khans passed into the hands of the Russians. In 1786, Catherine conducted a triumphal procession in the Crimea, which helped provoke the next Russo–Turkish War.
The Ottomans re-started hostilities in the second Russo-Turkish War (1787–92). This war proved catastrophic for the Ottomans and ended with the Treaty of Jassy (1792), which legitimized the Russian claim to the Crimea and granted the Yedisan region to Russia.
Relations with Western Europe
Ever conscious of her legacy, Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign. She pioneered for Russia the role that Britain later played through most of the nineteenth and early twentieth century as an international mediator in disputes that could, or did, lead to war. Accordingly, she acted as mediator in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–79) between the German states of Prussia and Austria. In 1780, she established a League of Armed Neutrality designed to defend neutral shipping from the British Royal Navy during the American Revolution.From 1788 to 1790 Russia fought in the Russo-Swedish War against Sweden, a conflict instigated by Catherine's cousin, King Gustav III of Sweden, who expected to simply overtake the Russian armies still engaged in war against the Ottoman Turks and hoped to strike Saint Petersburg directly. But Russia's Baltic Fleet checked the Royal Swedish navy in a tied battle off Hogland (July 1788), and the Swedish army failed to advance. When Denmark declared war on Sweden in 1788 (the Theater War), things looked bleak for the Swedes. After the decisive defeat of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Svensksund in 1790, the parties signed the Treaty of Värälä (14 August 1790) returning all conquered territories to their respective owners and confirming the Treaty of Abo, and peace ensued for 20 years, aided by the assassination of Gustav III in 1792.
The partitions of Poland
In 1764 Catherine placed Stanisław Poniatowski, her former lover, on the Polish throne. Although the idea of partitioning Poland came from the Prussian king Frederick the Great, Catherine took a leading role in carrying it out in the 1790s. In 1768, she formally became protectress of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which provoked an anti-Russian uprising in Poland, the Confederation of Bar (1768–72). After smashing the uprising she established in the ''Rzeczpospolita'' a system of government fully controlled by the Russian Empire through a Permanent Council under the supervision of her ambassadors and envoys.
After the French Revolution of 1789, Catherine rejected many principles of the Enlightenment that she had once viewed favorably. Afraid that the May Constitution of Poland (1791) might lead to a resurgence in the power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and that the growing democratic movements inside the Commonwealth might become a threat to the European monarchies, Catherine decided to intervene in Poland. She provided support to a Polish anti-reform group known as the Targowica Confederation. After defeating Polish loyalist forces in the Polish War in Defense of the Constitution (1792) and in the Kościuszko Uprising (1794), Russia completed the partitioning of Poland, dividing all of the remaining Commonwealth territory with Prussia and Austria (1795).
Relations with Japan
In the Far East, Russians became active in fur-trapping in Kamchatka and in the Kuril Islands. This spurred Russian interest in opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and food. In 1783 storms drove a Japanese sea-captain, Daikokuya Kōdayū, ashore in the Aleutian Islands, at that time Russian territory. Russian local authorities helped his party, and the Russian government decided to use him as a trade envoy. On 28 June 1791, Catherine granted Kōdayū an audience at Tsarskoye Selo. Subsequently, in 1792, the Russian government dispatched a trade-mission led by Adam Laxman to Japan. The Tokugawa government received the mission, but negotiations failed.
Banking and finance
In 1768, the Assignation Bank was instituted in Russia to issue the first government paper-money. It opened in St. Petersburg and in Moscow in 1769. Several bank branches were afterwards established in other towns, called government towns. Paper notes were issued upon payment of similar sums in copper money, which were also refunded upon the presentation of those notes.The emergence of these Assignation rubles was due to large government spending on military needs, leading to a shortage of silver in the treasury (as all the calculations, especially in foreign trade, were conducted exclusively in silver and gold coins). Assignation ruble circulated on equal footing with the silver ruble; there was an ongoing market exchange rate for these two currencies. The use of these notes continued until 1849.
Arts and culture
Catherine's patronage furthered the evolution of the arts in Russia more than that of any Russian sovereign before or after her.
Catherine had a reputation as a patron of the arts, literature and education. The Hermitage Museum, which occupies the whole Winter Palace, began as Catherine's personal collection. At the instigation of her factotum, Ivan Betskoi, she wrote a manual for the education of young children, drawing from the ideas of John Locke, and founded (1764) the famous Smolny Institute, admitting young girls of the nobility.
She wrote comedies, fiction and memoirs, while cultivating Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert all French encyclopedists who later cemented her reputation in their writings. The leading economists of her day, such as Arthur Young and Jacques Necker, became foreign members of the Free Economic Society, established on her suggestion in Saint Petersburg in 1765. She lured the scientists Leonhard Euler and Peter Simon Pallas from Berlin and Anders Johan Lexell from Sweden to the Russian capital.
Catherine enlisted Voltaire to her cause, and corresponded with him for 15 years, from her accession to his death in 1778. He lauded her accomplishments, calling her "The Star of the North" and the "Semiramis of Russia" (in reference to the legendary Queen of Babylon, a subject on which he published a tragedy in 1768). Though she never met him face-to-face, she mourned him bitterly when he died, acquired his collection of books from his heirs, and placed them in the National Library of Russia.
Within a few months of her accession in 1762, having heard that the French government threatened to stop the publication of the famous French ''Encyclopédie'' on account of its irreligious spirit, Catherine proposed to Diderot that he should complete his great work in Russia under her protection.
Four years later, in 1766, she endeavoured to embody in legislation the principles of Enlightenment she learned from studying the French philosophers. She called together at Moscow a Grand Commission—almost a consultative parliament—composed of 652 members of all classes (officials, nobles, burghers and peasants) and of various nationalities. The Commission had to consider the needs of the Russian Empire and the means of satisfying them. The Empress herself prepared the "Instructions for the Guidance of the Assembly", pillaging (as she frankly admitted) the philosophers of Western Europe, especially Montesquieu and Cesare Beccaria.
As many of the democratic principles frightened her more moderate and experienced advisers, she refrained from immediately putting them into execution. After holding more than 200 sittings the so-called Commission dissolved without getting beyond the realm of theory.
In spite of this, Catherine did begin issuing codes to address some of the modernization trends suggested in her Nakaz. In 1775 the Empress decreed a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire. The Statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by increasing population and dividing the country into provinces and districts. By the end of her reign, there were fifty provinces, nearly 500 districts, more than double the government officials, and they were spending six times as much as previously on local government. In 1785 Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the Nobility, increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs. Nobles in each district elected a Marshal of the Nobility who spoke on their behalf to the monarch on issues of concern to them, mainly economic ones. In the same year, Catherine issued the Charter of the Towns, which distributed all people into six groups as a way to limit the power of nobles and create a middle estate. Each of these charters had major flaws, and Catherine seemingly could not gain the reform she long desired for her country. Catherine also issued the Code of Commercial Navigation and Salt Trade Code of 1781, the Police Ordnance of 1782, and the Statue of National Education of 1786. In 1777, the Empress described her legal innovations within a backward Russia, to Voltaire, as progressing "little by little".
During Catherine's reign, Russians imported and studied the classical and European influences that inspired the Russian Enlightenment. Gavrila Derzhavin, Denis Fonvizin and Ippolit Bogdanovich laid the groundwork for the great writers of the nineteenth century, especially for Alexander Pushkin. Catherine became a great patron of Russian opera (see Catherine II and opera for details).
When Alexander Radishchev published his ''Journey from Saint Petersburg to Moscow'' in 1790 (one year after the start of the French Revolution) and warned of uprisings because of the deplorable social conditions of the peasants held as serfs, Catherine exiled him to Siberia. (The same sort of censorship also happened at that time in many other European countries as a reaction to the civil violence in France.)
Education
Catherine embraced a life of enlightened ideals. She held western European philosophies and culture close to her heart and she wanted to surround herself with like-minded people within Russia. She believed a ‘new kind of person’ could be created by inoculating Russian children with proper European education. Catherine believed education could change the hearts and minds of the Russian people, and turn them away from inherent backwardness. This meant developing individuals both intellectually and morally, providing them knowledge and skills, and fostering a sense of civic responsibility.Catherine appointed Ivan Betskoy as her adviser on educational matters. Through him, she collected information from Russia and other countries about educational institutions. In addition to appointing Betskoy as her educational adviser, she established a Commission composed of T.N. Teplov, T. con Klingstedt, F.G. Dilthey, and the historian G. Muller. She also sought advice on her educational projects from British education pioneers, particularly Rev. Daniel Dumaresq and Dr. John Brown. In 1764, Catherine sent for Dumaresq to come to Russia and then appointed him to the educational Commission. The Commission studied the reform projects previously installed by I.I. Shuvalov under Elizabeth and under Peter III. They then submitted their own recommendations for the establishment of a general system of education for all Russian orthodox subjects from the age of 5 to 18, excluding serfs. However, no action was taken on any recommendations put forth by the Commission due to the calling of the Legislative Commission. In July 1765 Dumaresq wrote to Dr. John Brown about the commission’s problems and received a long reply containing very general and sweeping suggestions for education and social reforms in Russia. Dr. Brown argued that in a democratic country, education ought to be under the state’s control and based on an education code. He also placed great emphasis on the “proper and effectual education of the female sex,” which was bound to impress Catherine because, two years prior, she had commissioned Ivan Betskoy to draw up the ''General Program for the Education of Young People of Both Sexes''. This work emphasized the fostering of the creation of a ‘new kind of people’ raised in isolation from the damaging influence of a backward Russian environment. The Establishment of the Moscow Foundling Home (Moscow Orphanage) was the first attempt at achieving that goal. It was charged with admitting destitute and extramarital children in order to educate them in any way the state deemed fit. Since the Moscow Foundling Home was not established as a state funded institution, the Home represented an opportunity to experiment with new educational theories. However, the Moscow Foundling Home proved not to be very successful mainly due to the extremely high mortality rates preventing many of the children from living long enough to develop into the enlightened subjects the state desired.
Not long after the Moscow Foundling Home, Catherine established the Smolny Institute for Noble Girls to educate females. The Smolny Institute emerged as the first of its kind in Russia. At first the Institute only admitted young girls of the noble elite, but eventually it began to admit girls of the petit-bourgeoisie as well. The girls that attended the Smolny Institute, Smolyanki, were often accused of being ignorant of anything that went on in the world outside the walls of the Smolny buildings. Within the walls of the Institute they were taught impeccable French, musicianship, dancing and complete awe of the Monarch. At the Institute, enforcement of strict discipline was central to its philosophy. Running and games were forbidden and the building was kept particularly cold because it was believed that too much warmth was harmful to the developing body, just like excess play.
During the years 1768-1774, there was no progress made in setting up a national school system. However, Catherine herself continued to investigate educational theory and practice in other countries. She made many educational reforms despite the lack of establishment of a national school system. The remodeling of the Cadet Corps 1766 initiated her many educational reforms. It then began to take children from a very young age and educate them until the age of 21. The curriculum was broadened from the professional military curriculum to include the sciences, philosophy, ethics, history, international law, etc. This policy in the Cadet Corps influenced the teaching in the Naval Cadet Corps, and in the Engineering and Artillery Schools. After the war and the defeat of Pugachov, Catherine laid the obligation to establish schools at the ''guberniya''—a provincial subdivision of the Russian empire ruled by a governor—on the Boards of Social Welfare set up with the participation of elected representatives from the three free estates.
By 1782, Catherine arranged another advisory commission to study the information gathered about various models of educational systems in many different countries. A system produced by a mathematician, F Aepinus stood out in particular. He was strongly in favor of the adoption of the Austrian three tier model of trivial, real and normal schools at village, town and provincial capital level. In addition to the advisory commission, Catherine established a Commission of National Schools under P.I. Zavadovsky. This commission was charged with organizing a national school network, training the teachers and providing the textbooks. Finally, on August 5, 1786, the Russian Statute of National Education was promulgated. The Statute established a two-tier network of high schools and primary schools in guberniya capitals that were free of charge, open to all of the free classes (non-serfs), and co-educational. It also regulated, in detail, the subjects to be taught at every age and the method of teaching it. In addition to the textbooks translated by the Commission, teachers were provided with the Guide to Teachers. This work, divided into four parts, dealt with teaching methods, the subjects taught, the behavior of the teacher, and the running of a school. Two years after the implementation of Catherine’s educational program, a member of the National Commission inspected the institutions being established. Throughout Russia, the inspectors encountered a patchy response. While the nobility put up appreciable amounts of money for these institutions, they preferred to send their children to private, more prestigious institutions. Also, the townspeople tended to turn against the junior schools and their pedagogical methods. When all was said and done, it is estimated that about 62,000 pupils were being educated in some 549 state institutions near the end of Catherine’s reign. This was only a minuscule amount of people compared to the size of the Russian population.
Religious affairs
Catherine's apparent whole-hearted adoption of all things Russian (including Orthodoxy) may have prompted her personal indifference to religion. She did not allow dissenters to build chapels, and she suppressed religious dissent after the onset of the French Revolution. Politically, Catherine exploited Christianity in her anti-Ottoman policy, promoting the protection and fostering of Christians under Turkish rule. She placed strictures on Roman Catholics (''ukaz'' of 23 February 1769), mainly Polish, and attempted to assert and extend state control over them in the wake of the partitions of Poland. Nevertheless, Catherine's Russia provided an asylum and a base for re-grouping to the Society of Jesus following the suppression of the Jesuits in most of Europe in 1773.
Islam
Catherine took many different approaches to Islam during her reign. Between 1762 and 1773, Muslims were actively prohibited from owning any Orthodox serfs. They were also pressured into Orthodoxy through monetary incentives. Catherine promised more serfs of all religions, as well as amnesty for convicts, if Muslims chose to convert to Orthodoxy. However, the Legislative Commission of 1767 offered several seats to people professing the Islamic faith. This Commission promised (but did not protect) their religious rights. Even with this sense of equality, many Orthodox peasants felt threatened by the sudden change, and burned mosques as a sign of their displeasure. Catherine created the Spiritual Muslim Assembly to help regulate Muslim-populated regions, as well as regulate the instruction and ideals of Mullahs. The positions on the Assembly were appointed and paid for by Catherine and her government, as a way of regulating the religious affairs of her nation. In 1785, Catherine approved the subsidization of new mosques and subsequently, of new town settlements for Muslims. This was another attempt to organize and passively control the outer fringes of her country. By building new settlements with mosques placed in them, Catherine attempted to ground many of the nomadic people that wandered through southern Russia. In 1786, Catherine assimilated the Islamic schools into the Russian public school system, to be regulated by the government. The plan was another attempt to force nomadic people to settle. This allowed the Russian government to control more people, especially those who previously had not fallen under the jurisdiction of Russian law.
Judaism
In contrast to the assimilation of Islam, Russia often treated Judaism as a separate entity, where Jews were maintained with a separate legal and bureaucratic system. Although the government knew that Judaism existed, Catherine and her advisers had no real definition of ‘Jew,’ since the term meant many things during her reign. Judaism was a small, if not nonexistent, religion in Russia until 1772. When Catherine agreed to the First Partition of Poland, Jews were treated as a separate people, defined by their religion. In keeping with their treatment in Poland, Catherine allowed the Jews to separate themselves from Orthodox society, with certain restrictions. She levied taxes only on the followers of Judaism; if a family converted to the Russian faith, that tax was lifted. This tax doubled the amount that Jewish members of society were required to pay, in comparison to their Orthodox neighbors. In addition, converted Jews could gain permission to enter the merchant class and farm as free peasants under Russian rule. In an attempt to assimilate the Jews into Russia’s economy, Catherine included them under the rights and laws of the Charter of the Towns of 1782. While this presented some benefits for Jews - they received recognition as equal to any Orthodox citizen - many people attempted to take advantage of this equality. Orthodox Russians disliked the inclusion of Judaism, mainly for economic reasons; many Jews also practiced as bankers and merchants. Catherine tried to keep the Jews away from certain economic spheres, even with a ruse of equality; in 1790, she banned Jewish citizens from Moscow’s middle class. In 1785, Catherine declared that Jews were officially foreigners, with foreigners’ rights. This reestablished the separate identity that Judaism maintained in Russia throughout the Jewish period of failed assimilation. Catherine’s decree also denied Jews the rights of an Orthodox or naturalized citizen of Russia. Taxes doubled again for those of Jewish descent in 1794, and Catherine officially declared that Jews bore no relation to Russians.
Russian Orthodoxy
In many ways, the Orthodox Church fared no better than its foreign counterparts during the reign of Catherine. Under her leadership, she completed what Peter III had started; the church’s lands were appropriated, and the budget of both monasteries and bishoprics were controlled by the College of Economy. Endowments from the government replaced income from privately held lands. The endowments were often much less than the original intended amount. She closed 569 out of 954 monasteries and only 161 got government money. Only 400,000 rubles of church wealth was paid back. By bringing these lands into the care of the government, Catherine officially placed secular government ahead of religion. The invitations extended by Catherine to her Commission show this new secular superiority. While other religions (such as Islam) received invitations to the Legislative Commission, the Orthodox clergy did not receive a single seat. Their place in government was restricted severely during the years of Catherine's reign.In 1762, to help mend the rift between the Orthodox church and a sect that called themselves the Old Believers, Catherine passed an act that allowed Old Believers to openly practice their rights without interference. While claiming religious toleration, she intended to recall the believers into the official church. Unfortunately they refused to comply, and in 1764 Catherine deported over twenty-thousand Old Believers to Siberia on the grounds of their faith.
Religious education was also strictly reviewed. At first, she simply attempted to revise clerical studies, proposing a reform of religious schools. This reform never progressed beyond the planning stages. By 1786, Catherine chose to simply exclude all religion and clerical studies programs from lay education. By separating the public interests from those of the church, Catherine began a secularization of the day to day workings of Russia. She transformed the clergy from a group that wielded great power over the Russian government and its people to a segregated community forced to depend on the state for compensation.
Personal life
Catherine, throughout her long reign, took many lovers, often elevating them to high positions for as long as they held her interest, and then pensioning them off with large estates and gifts of serfs. The percentage of state money spent on the court increased from 10.4% in 1767 to 11.4% in 1781 to 13.5% in 1795. Catherine gave away 66,000 serfs 1762–72, 202,000 1773–93 and 100,000 in one day: 18 August 1795. Just as the church supported her hoping to get their land back, Catherine bought the support of the Bureaucracy by making promotion up the 14 ranks automatic after a certain time period, regardless of position or merit. Thus, the bureaucracy was populated with time servers. After her affair with her lover and capable adviser Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin ended in 1776, he allegedly selected a candidate-lover for her who had the physical beauty and mental faculties to hold her interest (such as Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov). Some of these men loved her in return, and she always showed generosity towards them, even after the affair ended. One of her lovers, Zavadovsky, received 50,000 rubles, a pension of 5,000 rubles, and 4,000 peasants in the Ukraine after she dismissed him in 1777. The last of her lovers, Prince Zubov, was 40 years her junior. Her sexual independence led to many of the legends about her.In her memoirs, Catherine indicated that her first lover, Sergei Saltykov, had fathered Paul, but Paul physically resembled her husband, Peter. Catherine kept near Tula, away from her court, her illegitimate son by Grigori Orlov, Alexis Bobrinskoy (later created Count Bobrinskoy by Paul). Catherine and Orlov had another child, a daughter, called Elizabeth Alexandrovna Alexeeva (born in Saint Petersburg, 1761 – died 1844), born one year before Alexis. She married (1787) Friedrich Maximilian Klinger and from this marriage she had one son, Alexander, who apparently died young in 1812.
Poniatowski
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the British ambassador to Russia, offered Stanisław Poniatowski a place in the embassy, in return for gaining Catherine as an ally. Poniatowski, through his mother's side, came from the Czartoryski family, prominent members of the pro-Russian faction in Poland. Catherine, 26 years old and already married to the then-Grand Duke Peter for some 10 years, met the 22-year-old Poniatowski in 1755, therefore well before encountering the Orlov brothers. Two years later, in 1757, Poniatowski served in the British forces during the Seven Years' War, thus severing close relationships with Catherine. She bore him a daughter named Anna Petrovna in December 1757 (not to be confused with Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, the daughter of Peter I's second marriage).King August III of Poland died in 1763, and therefore Poland needed to elect a new ruler. Catherine supported Poniatowski as a candidate to become the next king.
Catherine sent the Russian army into Poland to avoid possible disputes right away. Russia invaded Poland on 26 August 1764, threatening to fight and forcing Poniatowski to become king. Poniatowski accepted the throne, and thereby put himself under Catherine's control. News of Catherine's plan spread and Frederick II (others say the Ottoman sultan) warned her that if she tried to conquer Poland by marrying Poniatowski, all of Europe would oppose her strongly.
She had no intention of marrying him, having already given birth to Orlov's child and to the Grand Duke Paul by then. She told Poniatowski to marry someone else to remove all suspicion. Poniatowski refused; he never married.
Prussia (through the agency of Prince Henry), Russia (under Catherine), and Austria (under Maria Theresa) began preparing the ground for the Partitions of Poland. In the first partition, 1772, the three powers split between them. Russia got territories east of the line connecting, more or less, Riga–Polotsk–Mogilev.
In the second partition, in 1793, Russia received the most land, from west of Minsk almost to Kiev and down the river Dnieper leaving some spaces of steppe down south in front of Ochakov, on the Black Sea.
After this, uprisings in Poland led to the third partition, 1795, one year before Catherine's death.
Orlov
Grigory Orlov, the grandson of a rebel in the Streltsy Uprising (1698) against Peter the Great, distinguished himself in the Battle of Zorndorf (25 August 1758), receiving three wounds. He represented an opposite to Peter's pro-Prussian sentiment, with which Catherine disagreed. By 1759, he and Catherine had become lovers although no one in the know told Catherine's husband, the Grand Duke Peter. Catherine saw Orlov as very useful, and he became instrumental in the July 1761 coup d’état against her husband, but she preferred to remain the Dowager Empress of Russia, rather than marrying anyone.
Grigory Orlov and his other three brothers found themselves rewarded with titles as Counts, money, swords and other gifts. But Catherine did not marry Grigory, who proved inept at politics and useless when asked for advice. He received a palace in St. Petersburg when Catherine became Empress.
Orlov died in 1783. His and Catherine's son, Aleksey Grygoriovich Bobrinsky, (1762–1813) had one daughter, Maria Alexeeva Bobrinsky (Bobrinskaya), (1798–1835) who married aged 21 in 1819 the 34-year-old Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin (London, England, 12 July 1784 – 25 July 1842, assassinated by a furious servant he employed) who took part in the Battle of Borodino (7 September 1812) against the Napoleonic forces, and later served as Ambassador in Turin, the capital of the Duchy of Savoy .
Potemkin
Grigory Potemkin had had involvement in the ''coup d'état'' of 1762. In 1772, Catherine's close friends informed her of Orlov's affairs with other women, and she dismissed him. By the winter of 1773 the Pugachev revolt had started to grow threatening. Catherine's son Paul had also started gaining support; both of these trends threatened her power. She called Potemkin for help mostly military and he became devoted to her.In 1772, Catherine wrote to Potemkin. Days earlier, she had found out about an uprising in the Volga region. She appointed General Aleksandr Bibikov to put down the uprising, but she needed Potemkin's advice on military strategy.
Potemkin quickly gained positions and awards. Russian poets wrote about his virtues, the court praised him, foreign ambassadors fought for his favor, and his family moved into the palace. He later became governor of New Russia.
In 1780 the son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Emperor Joseph II of Austria, toyed with the idea of determining whether or not to enter an alliance with Russia, and asked to meet Catherine. Potemkin had the task of briefing him and traveling with him to Saint Petersburg.
Potemkin also convinced Catherine to expand the universities in Russia to increase the number of scientists.
Potemkin fell very ill in August 1783. Catherine worried that he would not finish his work developing the south as he had planned. Potemkin died at the age of 52 in 1791.
Final months and death
Catherine's life and reign having been remarkable personal successes, they ended with two failures. Her Swedish cousin (once removed) King Gustav IV Adolph visited her in September of 1796, the empress's intention being that her granddaughter Alexandra should become Queen of Sweden by marriage. A ball was given at the imperial court on September 11, when the engagement was supposed to be announced, but Gustav Adolph felt this pressured him too hard to accept that Alexandra would not be willing to convert to Lutheranism, and though he was delighted by the young lady, he refused to appear at the ceremony and left for Stockholm. Catherine was so irritated at this that her health was impacted. She recovered well enough to begin to plan a ceremony where a favorite grandson would supersede her difficult son on the throne (see ''Succession'' below), but she died of a massive stroke before the announcement could be made, just over two months after the engagement ball.On , Catherine rose early in the morning and had her usual morning coffee, soon settling down to work on papers at her study. Her lady's maid, Maria Perekusikhina, had asked the Empress if she had slept well, and Catherine reportedly replied that she had not slept so well in a long time.
Sometime after 9:00 a.m. that morning, Catherine went to her dressing room and collapsed on the floor. Worried by Catherine's absence, her attendant Zakhar Zotov opened the door and peered in. Catherine's body was sprawled on the floor where she had fallen. Her face appeared purplish, her pulse was weak, and her breathing shallow and labored. Despite all attempts to revive the Empress, she fell into a coma from which she never recovered. With no hope of recovery, Catherine was given the Last Rites and died the following evening at approximately 9:45 p.m.
Catherine's undated will, discovered in early 1792 by her secretary Alexander Vasilievich Khrapovitsky among her papers while the Empress was still grieving the death of Potemkin, gave specific instructions should she die: "Lay out my corpse dressed in white, with a golden crown on my head, and on it inscribe my Christian name. Mourning dress is to be worn for six months, and no longer: the shorter the better." In the end, the Empress was laid to rest with a gold crown on her head and clothed in a silver brocade dress. On 25 November, the coffin, richly decorated in gold fabric, was placed atop an elevated platform at the Grand Gallery's chamber of mourning, designed and decorated by Antonio Rinaldi. Catherine was buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg.
The claim that her death was caused by a sexual incident involving a horse is an urban myth and has no basis.
Romanov dynastic issues
Pretenders and potential pretenders to the throne
Princess Tarakanova (1753–1775) declared herself in Paris in 1774 as Elizabeth's daughter by Alexis Razumovsky and as the sister of Pugachev. The Empress Catherine dispatched Alexey Orlov to Italy, where he captured Tarakanova in Livorno. When brought to Russia in 1775, Tarakanova went to prison in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where she died of tuberculosis in December 1775. There are rumors that this death was faked and that she was confined to a nunnery in Moscow in 1785, where she died in 1810.
Succession to the throne
On a date already set for a week after she died, Catherine had intended to formally announce that Paul would be excluded from the succession, and that the crown would go to her eldest grandson Alexander (whom she greatly favored, and who subsequently became the emperor Alexander I in 1801). Her harshness towards Paul probably stemmed as much from political distrust as from what she saw of his character. Whatever Catherine's other activities, she emphatically functioned as a sovereign and as a politician, guided in the last resort by reasons of state. Keeping Paul in a state of semi-captivity in Gatchina and Pavlovsk, she resolved not to allow her son to dispute or to share in her authority during her lifetime.
Titles and styles
Ancestors
In popular culture
Gallery
See also
List of prominent Catherinians
Pre-eminent figures in Catherinian Russia include:
References
Notes
Annotated bibliography
Further reading
External links
Category:1729 births Category:1796 deaths Category:18th-century female rulers Category:Burials at Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Protestantism Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Duchesses of Holstein-Gottorp Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Russia Category:Empresses regnant Category:German Russians Category:House of Ascania Category:House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov Category:Orthodox monarchs Category:People from Szczecin Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint Andrew the First-Called Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint George I Class Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Category:Russian art collectors Category:Russian empresses Category:Russian grand duchesses by marriage Category:Russian Orthodox Christians *
af:Katharina II van Rusland ar:كاثرين العظيمة an:Catarina II de Rusia ast:Catuxa II de Rusia be:Кацярына II be-x-old:Кацярына II bs:Katarina II, carica Rusije br:Katelin II bg:Екатерина II ca:Caterina II de Rússia cs:Kateřina II. Veliká cy:Catrin Fawr da:Katharina 2. af Rusland de:Katharina II. (Russland) et:Katariina II el:Αικατερίνη Β΄ της Ρωσίας es:Catalina II de Rusia eo:Katerina la 2-a (Rusio) eu:Katalina II.a Errusiakoa fa:کاترین دوم روسیه fr:Catherine II de Russie fy:Katarina II fan Ruslân ga:Caitríona II na Rúise gl:Catarina II de Rusia ko:예카테리나 2세 hi:महारानी काथरिन hr:Katarina II. Velika io:Yekaterina 2ma id:Yekaterina II dari Rusia is:Katrín mikla it:Caterina II di Russia he:יקטרינה הגדולה jv:Katarina ingkang Agung ka:ეკატერინე II (რუსეთი) kk:Екатерина II lad:Katalina la Grande la:Catharina II (imperatrix Russiae) lv:Katrīna II lt:Jekaterina II hu:II. Katalin orosz cárnő mk:Катерина II (Русија) mr:कॅथेरिन दुसरी, रशिया arz:كاترين التانيه ملكة روسيا nl:Catharina II van Rusland ja:エカチェリーナ2世 no:Katarina II av Russland nn:Katarina II av Russland nds:Katharina de Grote pl:Katarzyna II Wielka pt:Catarina, a Grande ksh:Katharina II. ro:Ecaterina a II-a a Rusiei qu:Katharina II ru:Екатерина II sa:महारानी काथरिन scn:Catirina II la Granni simple:Catherine II of Russia sk:Katarína II. (Rusko) sl:Katarina Velika sr:Катарина Велика sh:Katarina Velika fi:Katariina II sv:Katarina II av Ryssland tl:Catherine II ng Rusya ta:உருசியாவின் இரண்டாம் கத்தரீன் tt:Екатерина II th:สมเด็จพระจักรพรรดินีนาถแคทเธอรีนที่ 2 แห่งรัสเซีย tr:II. Katerina tk:Ýekaterina II uk:Катерина II (імператриця Росії) vec:Caterina II de Rusia vi:Ekaterina II của Nga war:Catherine II han Rusya yo:Katẹrínì 2k ilẹ̀ Rọ́síà zh-yue:嘉芙蓮二世 (俄國) zh:叶卡捷琳娜二世This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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