Thelma Alice Todd was an American actress and businesswoman who carried the nicknames "The Ice Cream Blonde" and "Hot Toddy". Appearing in about 120 feature films and shorts between 1926 and 1935, she is remembered for her comedic roles opposite ZaSu Pitts, and in films such as Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers and a number of Charley Chase's short comedies. She co-starred with Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante in Speak Easily. She also had roles in several Wheeler and Woolsey and Laurel and Hardy films, the last of which featured her in a part that was cut short by her sudden death in 1935 at the age of 29.
Walter Andrew Brennan was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940), making him one of only three male actors to win three Academy Awards, and the only male or female actor to win three awards in the supporting actor category. Brennan was also nominated for his performance in Sergeant York (1941). Other noteworthy performances were in To Have and Have Not (1944), My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948) and Rio Bravo (1959).
The Barbary pirates, Barbary corsairs, or Ottoman corsairs were mainly Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from the Barbary states. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, in reference to the Berbers. Slaves in Barbary could be of many ethnicities, and of many different religions, such as Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, but they primarily operated in the western Mediterranean. In addition to seizing merchant ships, they engaged in razzias, raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in the British Isles, the Netherlands, and Iceland.
Liar's Poker is a non-fiction, semi-autobiographical book by Michael Lewis describing the author's experiences as a bond salesman on Wall Street during the late 1980s. First published in 1989, it is considered one of the books that defined Wall Street during the 1980s, along with Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and the fictional The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. The book captures an important period in the history of Wall Street. Two important figures in that history feature prominently in the text, the head of Salomon Brothers' mortgage department Lewis Ranieri and the firm's CEO John Gutfreund.
John Ward or Birdy, also known as Jack Ward or later as Yusuf Reis, was an English pirate who later became a Corsair for the Ottoman Empire operating out of Tunis during the early 17th century.
Eat the Document is a documentary of Bob Dylan's 1966 tour of parts of Europe with the Hawks. It was shot under Dylan's direction by D. A. Pennebaker, whose groundbreaking documentary Dont Look Back chronicled Dylan's 1965 British tour. The film was originally commissioned for the ABC television series ABC Stage 67.
To Have and Have Not is a 1944 American romantic war adventure film directed by Howard Hawks, loosely based on Ernest Hemingway's 1937 novel of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan and Lauren Bacall; it also features Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Sheldon Leonard, Dan Seymour, and Marcel Dalio. The plot, centered on the romance between a freelancing fisherman in Martinique and a beautiful American drifter, is complicated by the growing French resistance in Vichy France.
Patsy Kelly was an American actress. She is known for her role as the brash, wisecracking sidekick to Thelma Todd in a series of short comedy films produced by Hal Roach in the 1930s. Kelly's career continued in similar roles after Todd's death in 1935.
Roland West was an American film director, known for his innovative proto-film noir movies of the 1920s and early 1930s. He is however best known for his possible involvement in the death of Hollywood actress Thelma Todd in 1935.
Lights of New York is a 1928 American crime drama film starring Helene Costello, Cullen Landis, Wheeler Oakman and Eugene Pallette, and directed by Bryan Foy. Filmed in the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system, it is the first all-talking full-length feature film, released by Warner Bros., who had introduced the first feature-length film with synchronized sound Don Juan two years earlier, and the first with spoken dialogue, The Jazz Singer, one year earlier. The film, which cost $23,000 to produce, grossed over $1 million. The enthusiasm with which audiences greeted the talkies was so great that by the end of 1929, Hollywood was producing sound films exclusively.
In English-speaking popular culture, the modern pirate stereotype owes its attributes mostly to the imagined tradition of the 18th-century Caribbean pirate sailing off the Spanish Main and to such celebrated 20th-century depictions as Captain Hook and his crew in the theatrical and film versions of J. M. Barrie's children's book Peter Pan, Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in the 1950 film adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island, and various adaptations of the Middle Eastern pirate, Sinbad the Sailor. In these and countless other books, films, and legends, pirates are portrayed as "swashbucklers" and "plunderers". They are shown on ships, often wearing eyepatches or peg legs, having a parrot perched on their shoulder, speaking in a West Country accent, and saying phrases like "Arr, matey" and "Avast, me hearty". Pirates have retained their image through pirate-themed tourist attractions, film, toys, books and plays.
A Rage in Harlem is a 1991 American crime film directed by Bill Duke and loosely based on Chester Himes' novel A Rage in Harlem. The film stars Forest Whitaker, Danny Glover, Badja Djola, Robin Givens and Gregory Hines. Producer Stephen Woolley intended it to be a comedy film, and several reviewers have described it as such, but this categorization has been disputed by director Bill Duke.
Tornado is a 1943 film directed by William A. Berke and starring Chester Morris and Nancy Kelly.
The Big Shakedown is a 1934 American pre-Code drama film starring Charles Farrell and Bette Davis, and directed by John Francis Dillon. The screenplay is based on the story "Cut Rate" by Niven Busch and Samuel G. Engel. The film also stars Ricardo Cortez and Glenda Farrell and was director John Francis Dillon's final film.
John Clark, better known as Signor Brocolini, was an Irish-born American operatic singer and actor remembered for creating the role of the Pirate King in the original New York City production of The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan, in 1879–80.
The Big Timer is a 1932 American Pre-Code sports drama film directed by Edward Buzzell and starring Ben Lyon, Constance Cummings and Thelma Todd. Produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures, it is about a boxer whose success goes to his head.
Life as We Know It is a 2010 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Greg Berlanti, starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. It was released on October 8, 2010, after sneak previews in 811 theaters on October 2, 2010. It was a financial success at the box office.
Big Momma's House is a 2000 American crime comedy film, directed by Raja Gosnell, and written by Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer. The film stars Martin Lawrence as an FBI agent who is tasked with tracking down an escaped convict and his loot, by going undercover as the estranged grandmother of his former girlfriend, unaware of the bond he will form with her. The film also stars Nia Long, Paul Giamatti, and Terrence Howard.
The Haunted House is a 1928 American mystery film directed by Benjamin Christensen. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-disc Vitaphone process. The film stars Larry Kent and Thelma Todd and is based on Owen Davis's 1926 Broadway play of the same name. As of 2020, UCLA Film and Television Archive has a copy of the film.
CenTrust Bank, A State Savings Bank was an American savings and loan association based in Miami, Florida that failed in 1990. Its failure in 1990 was one of the largest and costliest failures of the savings and loan crisis.
