This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2024) |
Gifts of an Eagle is non-fiction book written by Kent Durden and published by Simon & Schuster in 1972. [1]
The book details the story of Ed Durden, who raised and filmed a golden eagle, named Lady, for 16 years.
In 1975, a documentary film based on the book was released in movie theaters across the country. [2] The film contained original footage from the 1950s to the 1970s showing the story of Lady and Ed. In 2009, the film was released in DVD format.
In 1955 Ed Durden got a grant from the Fish and Wildlife Department to capture a golden eaglet to film and study for educational purposes. A close bond developed between Ed and Lady. There were many incidents that showed the strong smarts and personality of Lady. For example: after one incident when Kent held her down while they had to trim her claws, Lady never liked him again and would dive on him whenever she was out flying free and Kent showed up. Ed found this endlessly amusing and loved getting a good shot of Lady diving while Kent ran for cover.
Lady laid eggs that were infertile. Wanting her to have the experience of motherhood, Ed replaced the eggs with fertile geese eggs (all he could find at the time). She accepted them as hers and nurtured the eggs until fluffy yellow baby geese broke out of those eggs. Lady cared for them as she would her own, even though there were some very curiously odd things about these "eagles".
Lady eventually got to raise eaglets. The amazing footage that Ed got the morning she first chirped at the breaking eagle egg was the first time an eagle being born was captured on film.
When Lady was on the nest and Ed would come into her cage, she would get up to leave, leaving the eggs to Ed to keep warm. This was how they knew that Lady had accepted Ed as her mate.
Lady on Film
Ed and Kent were wildlife photographers and Lady was used in many TV and feature films. Most notably Lady was featured in: [3]
Lassie Come Home is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Technicolor feature film starring Roddy McDowall and canine actor Pal, in a story about the profound bond between Yorkshire boy Joe Carraclough and his rough collie, Lassie. The film was directed by Fred M. Wilcox from a screenplay by Hugo Butler based upon the 1940 novel Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight. The film was the first in a series of seven MGM films starring "Lassie."
The Rescuers Down Under is a 1990 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to Disney's 1977 animated feature film The Rescuers, which was based on the novels by Margery Sharp. In The Rescuers Down Under, Bernard and Bianca travel to the Australian Outback to save a young boy named Cody from a villainous poacher who wants to capture an endangered golden eagle for money. Directed by Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel from a screenplay by Jim Cox, Karey Kirkpatrick, Byron Simpson, and Joe Ranft, the film features the voices of Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, John Candy, and George C. Scott.
Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 American animated musical romantic comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. Based on Ward Greene's 1945 Cosmopolitan magazine story "Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog", it was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wilfred Jackson. Featuring the voices of Peggy Lee, Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucom, Stan Freberg, Verna Felton, Alan Reed, George Givot, Dallas McKennon, and Lee Millar, the film follows Lady, the pampered Cocker Spaniel, as she grows from puppy to adult, deals with changes in her family, and meets and falls in love with the homeless mutt Tramp.
Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a 1938 short story by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a 1940 full-length novel, Lassie Come-Home. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with another fictional female collie of the same name, featured in the British writer Elizabeth Gaskell's 1859 short story "The Half Brothers". In "The Half Brothers", Lassie is loved only by her young master and guides the adults back to where two boys are lost in a snowstorm.
Winged Migration is a 2001 documentary film directed by Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats and Jacques Perrin, who was also one of the writers and narrators, showcasing the immense journeys routinely made by birds during their migrations.
Bonita Gloria Granville Wrather was an American actress and producer.
Lady in the Water is a 2006 American fantasy psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who produced with Sam Mercer. The film features the starring cast of Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard with Bob Balaban, Jeffrey Wright, Sarita Choudhury, Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Irwin and Jared Harris in supporting roles. Produced by Legendary Pictures and Blinding Edge Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film's plot concerns the superintendent of a Philadelphia apartment complex who discovers a young woman in the swimming pool. Gradually, he and his neighbors learn that she is a water nymph whose life is in danger from a vicious, wolf-like, mystical creature called a Scrunt that tries to keep her from returning to her watery "blue world". Lady in the Water was released on July 21, 2006. It is Shyamalan's first film not distributed by Walt Disney Studios under their Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures labels since Wide Awake.
America Sings was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, United States, from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of Audio-Animatronics animals singing songs from various periods in America's musical history, often in a humorous fashion.
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale, the production was supervised by Clyde Geronimi, and was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson, and Les Clark. Featuring the voices of Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Barbara Jo Allen, Taylor Holmes, and Bill Thompson, the film follows Princess Aurora, who was cursed by the evil fairy Maleficent to die from pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. She is saved by three good fairies, who alter Aurora's curse so that she falls into a deep sleep and will be awakened by true love's kiss.
Alice Estes Davis was an American costume designer. She is most famous for her work with Walt Disney, who employed her to develop costumes for films, television, and theme parks. She was married to Marc Davis, a Disney animator and Imagineer. Alice was named a Disney Legend in 2004.
Leslie Iwerks is an American producer, director, and writer. She is daughter of Disney Legend Don Iwerks and granddaughter of Disney Legend Ub Iwerks, the animator and co-creator of Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. She has directed films including Recycled Life which was nominated for an Academy Award and The Pixar Story which was nominated for an Emmy for best nonfiction special.
The Legend of Bigfoot is a 1976 American pseudo-documentary film directed by Harry Winer.
Kent Durden (1937–2007) was an American wildlife photographer, documentary producer and writer. He is widely known for the non-fiction book Gifts of an Eagle, published by Simon and Schuster in 1972. He followed this book with the fictional Flight to Freedom (1974) and the memoir A Fine and Peaceful Kingdom (1975).
The Decorah Bald Eagles is a website featuring a live-streaming webcam trained on a bald eagle nest and family in Decorah, Iowa. The Raptor Resource Project installed and runs the live stream for research purposes. It is one of more than a dozen eagle webcams across the United States.
Media diving is underwater diving in support of the media industries, including the practice of underwater photography and underwater cinematography outside of normal recreational interests. Media diving is often carried out in support of television documentaries, such as the BBC series Planet Earth or movies, with feature films such as Titanic and The Perfect Storm featuring underwater photography or footage. Media divers are normally highly skilled camera operators who use diving as a method to reach their workplace, although some underwater photographers start as recreational divers and move on to make a living from their hobby.
Valerie May Taylor AM is an Australian conservationist, photographer, and filmmaker, and an inaugural member of the diving hall of fame. With her husband Ron Taylor, she made documentaries about sharks, and filmed sequences for films including Jaws (1975).
The Beatles: Get Back is a documentary television series directed and produced by Peter Jackson. It covers the making of the Beatles' 1970 album Let It Be and draws largely from unused footage and audio material originally captured for and recycled original footage from the 1970 documentary of the album by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The docuseries has a total runtime of nearly eight hours, consisting of three episodes, each of duration between two and three hours covering about one week each, together covering 21 days of studio time.
Marvel Studios: Legends is an American television docuseries created for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics characters and objects that appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Produced by Marvel Studios, each episode showcases an individual character or object with footage from past MCU films and Disney+ series, highlighting their prominent moments from the MCU.
Kangaroo Valley is a 2022 nature documentary film made for Netflix, directed by Kylie Stott and written by Tab Murphy. Narrated by Sarah Snook, the film is a coming-of-age adventure starring a nervous baby eastern grey kangaroo named Mala as she faces hungry dingoes and winter snows to survive her first year out of pouch. The film features a debut new track from Australian pop star Sia called ‘We Can Do Anything.’ It was released on December 14, 2022.
Lois E. Brown Crisler was an American writer, filmmaker and conservationist. She wrote books about wolves and wildlife in the Arctic, including Arctic Wild. Her book Captive Wild recounted her experiences with an Arctic wolf that she held in captivity for seven years. With her husband, she created nature documentaries for Disney Studios about elk, bighorn sheep, bears, and caribou. Their short film The Olympic Elk was part of Disney's True-Life Adventures series.