title: What's My Line?

text: To begin a round, Daly would invite the contestant to "come in and sign in, please," which, by 1960, had evolved to the more familiar "enter and sign in, please." The contestant entered by writing his or her name on a small sign-in board. (For the first few telecasts, the contestants signed their names on an artist's sketch pad; but when the brightness of the studio lights made it difficult for the signatures to be seen clearly by the viewers, the white sketchpad was replaced by a black chalkboard.) Daly would then usually ask where the guest lived and, with a woman, if she should be addressed as "Miss" or "Mrs." Early in the show's run, the panel was allowed to inspect contestants, studying their hands, or label on their suit or asking them to make a muscle.


title: What's My Line?

text: While ostensibly a game show, if there was time, it also was an opportunity to conduct interviews. "Line's" sister show, "I've Got a Secret," and later, the syndicated version of "WML" engaged in the practice of contestants demonstrating their talents. However, despite frequent requests by the panel, particularly Arlene Francis, such demonstrations rarely occurred as according to executive producer Gil Fates, Daly was not fond of this practice.


title: What's My Line?

text: After the first four episodes, the show gained its initial sponsor when Jules Montenier paid to have his product, Stopette spray deodorant, featured in advertising on the program. This involved featuring the product in the show's opening, on the front of the panel's desk, above the sign-in board, and on Daly's scorecards. In his last years, Cerf explained to interviewer Robbin Hawkins that Montenier was ultimately ruined by his refusal to abandon or share sponsorship as the show entered new markets and became too expensive. After Montenier sold Stopette to Helene Curtis, the series was sponsored by a variety of companies which were either regular or rotating. Sponsors were accorded the same exposure on the set as Stopette. One of the first rotating sponsors, which actually came before Montenier's sale of Stopette to Helene Curtis (who continued to sponsor the program after the purchase and still promoted Stopette in their advertising), was the Remington Rand Corporation, who used their time to promote their line of electric shaver and computers such as the UNIVAC.


title: What's My Line?

text: Near the end of its run, sponsors would be introduced in the opening title and given commercials during the show, but would not be displayed on the set. Frequent sponsors in the 1960s were Kellogg's cereals, Allstate Insurance, and Geritol.


title: What's My Line?

text: Unknown to the public, mystery guests were paid $500 (equal to $ in ) as an appearance fee, whether they won or lost the game. This was in addition to the maximum $50 (equal to $ in ) game winnings, which guests sometimes donated to charity. Guest panelists were paid $750 (equal to $ in ) as an appearance fee. The regular panelists were under contract and were paid "much more," according to Fates. Bennett Cerf explained that when he became a permanent member of the program, he was paid $300 (equal to $ in ) per week, and he told Robbin Hawkins in their interview that by the end of the series, the panelists were being paid "scandalous amounts of money."


title: What's My Line?

text: The first four episodes (#001 – #004; February – March 16, 1950) were broadcast live from a converted loft at the former CBS Studio 41 Grand Central Studios at Grand Central Terminal (15 Vanderbilt Ave., NY).


title: What's My Line?

text: Beginning with the first Wednesday episode (#005; April 12, 1950, and continuing until around 1951), the show was broadcast from the now demolished CBS Studio 51 (Maxine Elliott's Theatre, aka Maxine Elliott Theatre, 109 W. 39th St., NY).


title: What's My Line?

text: At least by episode #034 (January 21, 1951), the show moved to CBS Studio 59 (Mansfield Theatre, later renamed the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in 1960, 256 W. 47th St., NY), and stayed there until Episode #516, June 5, 1960. Meanwhile, the concurrent 1952–1953 Radio edition, at least during the CBS run, was heard live from CBS Studio Building 22 (49 E. 52nd St., NY).


title: What's My Line?

text: Episode #225 (September 19, 1954) was a color edition of the show, broadcast live from CBS Studio 72 (on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Broadway at 81st St., NY). This predated the show's eventual move to color by 12 years.


title: What's My Line?

text: Episode #323 (August 12, 1956), in conjunction with the 1956 Democratic Party Convention, was a special Chicago episode broadcast from the studios of CBS owned-and-operated WBBM-TV (630 N. McClurg Ct., Chicago, IL).


title: What's My Line?

text: Episode #397 (January 12, 1958) was a special Hollywood episode broadcast from CBS Television City (7800 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA). The moderator and panel's desks were not brought over, as they had been for the Chicago special.


title: What's My Line?

text: Beginning with episode #517 through episode #829 (June 12, 1960 – September 4, 1966), the show used CBS Studio 52 (254 W. 54th St., NY; the future Studio 54). The last episode aired in black & white was taped on July 17, 1966, and the last episode to be produced there in black & white aired live on July 24.


title: What's My Line?

text: For the final season, from episode #830 to episode #876 (September 11, 1966 – September 3, 1967), in conjunction with the program's permanent move to color, the show used CBS Studio 50 (later renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater, 1697 Broadway at 53rd St., NY).


title: What's My Line?

text: CBS announced in early 1967 that a number of game shows, including "What's My Line?", were to be canceled at the end of the season. Bennett Cerf wrote that the network had decided that game shows were no longer suitable for prime time, and that the news was broken by "The New York Times" on February 14 before anyone involved with the show was notified. The primary reason for the cancellation, along with that of the other panel shows CBS aired in prime time, was that the programs' low overall viewership—the key metric of success during Michael Dann's time with the network—could no longer justify their presence even as the shows continued to turn a profit with their low production costs.


title: What's My Line?

text: The 876th and final CBS telecast of "What's My Line?" aired on September 3, 1967; it was highlighted by clips from past telecasts, a visit by the show's first contestants, a challenger from the New York unemployment office, and the final mystery guest, who was John Daly himself. Daly had always been the emergency mystery guest in case the scheduled guest was unable to appear on the live broadcast, but this had never occurred. Mark Goodson, Bill Todman and (briefly) Johnny Olson appeared on-camera as well.


title: What's My Line?

text: Once the original "What's My Line?" had ended, Goodson-Todman struck a deal with CBS's syndication arm, which in time became the present-day Viacom (now CBS Media Ventures), to syndicate a new weekday videotaped edition, beginning one year after the network version's cancellation. This version became a staple of local stations' afternoon and early evening schedules, especially from the 1971–72 season onward, when the FCC forced networks to cede one half-hour to their affiliates. The Prime Time Access Rule was intended to permit local stations to produce news and public affairs programming, but instead many of them turned to programs like "WML," as practically all stations outside the largest markets found it unprofitable to produce their own shows locally.


title: What's My Line?

text: The first three seasons (1968–1971) originated from Studio 50, the home of the final year of the original series, but with a new, modern-design set. In 1971, production of "What's My Line?" moved from the Broadway studio to Studio 6-A at NBC in Rockefeller Center, and the series remained there for the rest of its run, with a set redesign in 1974 for the final season. As they had with the original series, Goodson-Todman went to ABC News to seek out a host, whose title had ceased to be that of "moderator," and hired Wally Bruner to take over for John Charles Daly. Bruner left the series at the conclusion of its fourth season in 1972, and Broadway actor Larry Blyden, who had already helmed several other gameshows and served as both a "Line" panelist and mystery guest in the past, stepped in at the beginning of the 1972–1973 season to host the remaining three seasons.


title: What's My Line?

text: The syndicated edition had two regular panelists for its entire run, with comedian Soupy Sales joining the returning Arlene Francis. Bennett Cerf appeared as a guest on an irregular basis until he died during production of the fourth season in 1971. Other panelists included Alan Alda, his father Robert Alda, Joanna Barnes, Joyce Brothers, Jack Cassidy, Bert Convy, Joel Grey, Elaine Joyce, Ruta Lee, Sam Levene, Meredith MacRae, Henry Morgan, Jerry Orbach, Gene Rayburn, Nipsey Russell, Gene Shalit, Dana Valery, and Anita Gillette.


title: What's My Line?

text: Unlike its predecessor, the syndicated "What's My Line?" did not emphasize formality as the panelists did not dress in formal wear. In addition, the panelists were simply referred to by name and only their first names were displayed in front of them. The show did manage to keep some elements of the original series intact, as the cartoon introduction used during the final two seasons on CBS was reused with new music added. The panelists also entered in the same manner as they had before with Soupy Sales (or the panelist occupying the seat farthest house left when he was absent) coming out first and introducing the person sitting next to them, and continuing down the line to Arlene Francis (or whoever occupied her seat while she was absent), who would then introduce the host. That practice continued until the beginning of the final season in 1974, when announcer Chet Gould began introducing the panelists and host Blyden at once, in a conventional fashion.


title: What's My Line?

text: In the 1960s and 1970s syndicated run, whenever there was extra time, a special game was instituted called "Who's Who." Four members of the studio audience were lined up on stage, and their occupations were printed on cards. Each panelist had 20 seconds to take those occupation cards to the appropriate contestant (the ones who they thought had that occupation). Each time one panelist failed, the audience team won $25 and another panelist took a turn. If all four panelists failed, each member of the team won an additional bonus prize. The game ended when the panel was stumped or if a panelist placed the occupations with the right contestants. If the panelists got it correct on the first try, the audience members received $5 and a year's supply of Turtle Wax.


title: What's My Line?

text: The producers considered the revival a merger of "What's My Line?" and its 1950s spinoff, "I've Got a Secret," which resulted in noticeable changes from the original. As with "Secret," contestants frequently demonstrated their skill or product after the game. Bruner, and later Blyden, would preface the demonstrations by asking Lloyd Gross, who directed most of the editions, "Lloyd, would you open the curtains, please?" Dollar signs for "no" answers were replaced by sequential numbers. Mystery guest rounds were no longer scored and simply ended with a correct guess or when time ran out.


title: What's My Line?

text: The set, designed by veteran Goodson-Todman art director Theodore Cooper, was predominantly blue and featured walls behind the panel and host areas tiled with illustrations representing various occupations. This set debuted when the show premiered, made the move from Broadway to Rockefeller Center in 1971, and was used until the end of the 1973–74 season.


title: What's My Line?

text: For the 1974–75 season, the show's set was changed. The tiles were done away with in favor of having blue walls with question marks painted on them, and the rest of the set adopted a red and yellow color palette. Also, the animated intro was done away with in favor of the show's announcer (usually Gould) offering a brief preview of one of the contestants' games.


title: What's My Line?

text: A bright, contemporary music package was composed by Charles Fox. According to Fox's book, "Killing Me Softly: My Life in Music," Bob Israel of Score Productions paid him a buyout fee of $1,000 (equal to $ today) for the work. The music was performed and recorded at CTS Studios in Wembley, England, with Fox, Israel and producer Mark Goodson in attendance.


title: What's My Line?

text: Johnny Olson continued as announcer until a short time into the 1972–73 season, when he departed for California to begin his tenures as announcer of the revivals of "The Price Is Right" (which he continued to do until his passing in 1985) and "I've Got a Secret" (1972-73).


title: What's My Line?

text: Following Olson's departure, a succession of guest announcers were used, including Wayne Howell, Dennis Wholey, Bob Williams, Jack Haskell and Chet Gould, with Gould eventually taking over full-time in early 1973. Gene Wood also sub-announced an episode in 1970.


title: What's My Line?

text: After Bennett Cerf's death, stations continued to air shows where he was a panelist resulting in confusion among some fans, who were seeing "new" episodes with Cerf long after hearing about his death. At the time, syndication involved videotape-sharing among stations that aired a series, a practice referred to as "bicycling." As such, while "What's My Line?" aired daily on weekdays, each station airing the show did not air the same episode on a particular day. This prompted producer Gil Fates, who recalled the situation in his book, "What's My Line?: TV's Most Famous Panel Show," to send a form letter response to fans who had written complaining about the late Bennett Cerf's failure to disappear, some saying the television stations were using poor taste.


title: What's My Line?

text: Fates explained that Cerf indeed had died, but television was practicing a time-honored tradition of celebrating one's work long after his death. As he wrote in his book, Fates knew, but did not tell viewers, about the production costs that would have gone to waste had his company acceded to the demands, some coming from station managers, to scrap the Cerf videotapes.


title: What's My Line?

text: The syndicated series ran for 1,320 episodes over seven seasons. An attempt at an eighth season did not get off the ground as not enough stations were willing to pick up the series for an additional year. With this in mind, Goodson-Todman offered host Blyden the hosting position on "Showoffs," a charades-based game show that the company was developing for ABC's daytime lineup. He accepted and shot a pilot shortly after "What's My Line?" ended production. However, Blyden never got to host the series as he was killed in an automobile accident while traveling in Morocco just before taping was to begin. At the time of Blyden's death, a handful of new episodes of "What's My Line?" had yet to air in certain markets; by the fall of 1975, the last of these episodes had aired across the United States. Comedian Bobby Van ended up hosting "Showoffs."


title: What's My Line?

text: New versions of "WML" were planned as early as 1981, then in 1996, the show was going to be revived by a joint venture between All-American Television and Miramax Films (which also would have been Miramax's first foray into television game shows) as it was being described as "a new model" that would have blended the original features such as having a celebrity panel question contestants in an effort to guess their occupation and also having the panel blindfolded to guess the identity of a famous person, with contemporary "special effects" and "interactive twists." CBS reportedly committed to air six episodes for its fall 1999 schedule. However, according to Miramax TV president Billy Campbell, the deal crumbled because the network decided the show was too costly and ambitious.


title: What's My Line?

text: In 2000, a pilot was shot with host Harry Anderson for CBS, but was later turned down in favor of the reality show "Survivor." This pilot started with three panelists playing the Mystery Guest round; the guest would then be the fourth panelist for the remainder of the episode.


title: What's My Line?

text: In 2008, another revival of the show with David Hasselhoff was planned in cooperation with FremantleMedia, which had taken over ownership of all Goodson-Todman and Mark Goodson Productions programming, that never got off the ground. In 2014, another pilot for a revival was shot to offer to stations in 2015, but it also failed to sell.


title: What's My Line?

text: It was during the run of the syndicated version that Woody Allen parodied "What's My Line?" in his 1972 film "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex," with the segment "What Are Sex Perverts?" featuring a game show called "What's My Perversion?" Appearing as panelists were Robert Q. Lewis, who had been a panelist on the original "What's My Line?", and Pamela Mason, who had been a mystery guest. Jack Barry, partner of Dan Enright, both of whom had taken falls in the quiz-show scandals of the 1950s, hosted the "What's My Perversion?" game show, shortly before both finally returned to television in triumph with "The Joker's Wild."


title: What's My Line?

text: In early 1975, with production on break, it became clear to staff that the seventh season of the syndicated "What's My Line?" would be the last. This was the time of year when production companies and syndicators would try to sell new and continuing series to local stations. Viacom and Goodson-Todman found themselves unable to secure contracts with enough stations to justify continuing to produce the program beyond the episodes that had been videotaped on or prior to December 12, 1974. Just days after disbanding their technical crew, Mark Goodson and Bill Todman pitched the idea of a retrospective network special to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program's CBS debut, called "What's My Line at 25". The programming department at CBS turned down the idea, but ABC bought it. The special eventually was broadcast by ABC on May 28, 1975 on the late-night series "ABC's Wide World of Entertainment", and is currently available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media. It made a return twice on basic-cable television as a one-time rerun on GSN (Game Show Network) on December 25, 2014 at 1:00 A.M. EST and as part of Buzzr "Lost & Found" week on September 29, 2018 at 6:30 P.M. EST.


title: What's My Line?

text: In producing the special, the only existing master 16 millimeter prints of the original series kinescope films were removed from storage and brought to a Manhattan editing facility that Goodson-Todman Productions rented. There, company employees Gil Fates, Bob Bach, Pamela Usdan and Bill Egan worked round-the-clock for three days to compile the 90-minute special under deadline pressure from ABC network official Bob Shanks. In the process of viewing and editing the films for the special, they accidentally damaged or destroyed several kinescope films that spanned the entire run of the original series, including a few that did not make the final cut of the retrospective. In addition, some unspooled film remained on the floor after the group's rented time at the facility ran out. An April 1967 episode featuring Candice Bergen as the mystery guest was lost in its entirety, as was a June 1967 episode featuring both Betty Grable and F. Lee Bailey. Other episodes sustained only partial damage, such as a 1965 episode that is mainly damaged during the mystery guest appearance of Marian Anderson.


title: What's My Line?

text: Mark Goodson, Arlene Francis and John Charles Daly appeared on-camera in 1975 having a conversation that introduced the old kinescope clips. Hosts of the syndicated version, Wally Bruner and Larry Blyden, were alive at the time but did not participate. With the exception of Bruner's 1969 appearance with mystery guest Gerald Ford (presented in black and white), the 25th anniversary special consisted entirely of highlights from the CBS Sunday night version of the series, that viewers likely remembered more fondly than the syndicated version.


title: What's My Line?

text: In 1980, Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, creators of "What's My Line?", produced "That's My Line" which also highlighted the unusual occupations of ordinary people. However, the show was developed as a reality show and had no panel or game elements. "What's My Line?" announcer Johnny Olson was the announcer, and Bob Barker was the host for the show which ran for two seasons on CBS.


title: What's My Line?

text: From November 2004 to July 2006, Jim Newman and J. Keith van Straaten produced one-hour live stage versions of the show at the ACME Comedy Theatre in Los Angeles, California, titled "What's My Line? — Live On Stage". The Los Angeles version of the live show went on hiatus when van Straaten relocated to New York, then resumed in June 2007.


title: What's My Line?

text: The production debuted in New York at the Barrow Street Theatre on March 24, 2008 for an announced run of six shows. The show is now an authorized production as it is licensed by FremantleMedia, the owners of "What's My Line?". As of April 12, 2008 the New York mystery guests have been George Wendt, Moby, Natalia Paruz and Tony Roberts. Panelists have included Jonathan Ames, Joy Browne, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Frank DeCaro, Michael Riedel, and original TV version veterans Betsy Palmer and Julia Meade. The first guest on the New York show (#75 in the production overall) was Pat Finch, who was the first guest on the first CBS episode.


title: What's My Line?

text: In Los Angeles, panelists have included Carlos Alazraqui, Alison Arngrim, E.G. Daily, Andy Dick, Paul Goebel, Danny Goldman, Annabelle Gurwitch, Mariette Hartley, Elaine Hendrix, Marty Ingels, Cathy Ladman, David Lander, Kate Linder, Ann Magnuson, Jayne Meadows, Lee Meriwether, Patt Morrison, Rick Overton, Jimmy Pardo, Lisa Jane Persky, Nancy Pimental, Greg Proops, Mink Stole, Nicole Sullivan, Marcia Wallace, Matt Walsh, Len Wein, Wil Wheaton, Gary Anthony Williams, Debra Wilson, April Winchell, and Andy Zax.


title: What's My Line?

text: Mystery guests have included Ed Begley Jr., Stephen Bishop, Mr. Blackwell, LeVar Burton, Brett Butler, José Canseco, Drew Carey, Andy Dick, Michael and Kitty Dukakis, Hector Elizondo, Nanette Fabray, Peter Falk, Caitlyn Jenner, Larry King, Kathy Kinney, Bruno Kirby, Tara Lipinski, Lisa Loeb, Shelley Long, Leonard Maltin, Rose Marie, Wink Martindale, Sally Struthers, Rip Taylor, Judy Tenuta, Alan Thicke, Dick Van Patten, Lindsay Wagner, Wil Wheaton, Noah Wyle, and Sean Young.


title: What's My Line?

text: Panelists and guests who appeared on the original TV versions and on the stage version include Shelley Berman, Lee Meriwether, radio commentator Michael Jackson, Jayne Meadows, Nanette Fabray, Joanna Barnes, Julie Newmar, Margaret O'Brien, and Marty Ingels. Usually when such a veteran appears, there is a pristine-quality DVD screening of the original kinescope on a plasma screen. Non-celebrities include the lifelong Los Angeles-area resident who challenged the panel with her line, afterward reminiscing how 43 years earlier she had traveled to New York, where Arlene Francis identified her as a meter maid. A clip from the kinescope was played.


title: What's My Line?

text: In addition, the show has featured relatives of the original cast: Jill Kollmar (daughter of Dorothy Kilgallen and Richard Kollmar), Nina Daly (daughter of John Charles Daly), and Vint Cerf (co-inventor of the Internet and distant cousin of Bennett Cerf). It also included a segment in which Vint Cerf's son Bennett (named after the panelist) appeared as a guest.


title: What's My Line?

text: All original series shows were recorded via kinescope onto silver nitrate film, but networks in the early 1950s sometimes destroyed such recordings to recover the silver content from the film. CBS regularly recycled "What's My Line?" kinescopes until July 1952, when Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, having realized it was occurring, offered to pay the network for a film of every broadcast. As a result, only about ten episodes exist from the first two years of the series, including the first three broadcasts.


title: What's My Line?

text: Episode #048 from April 29, 1951 exists at the University of Wisconsin Center For Film and Theater Research.


title: What's My Line?

text: Episode #013 (August 2, 1950), episode #084 (January 6, 1952), and episode #855 (March 26, 1967) exist at The Paley Center for Media.


title: What's My Line?

text: An audio-only portion of episode #079 from December 2, 1951 (only has part of Game 1 with Mrs. Virginia Hendershot as the Steam Shovel Operator from Bound Brook, NJ) exists.


title: What's My Line?

text: A portion of episode #097 (April 6, 1952), the full episode #533 (October 2, 1960), and the full milestone 800th episode (January 23, 1966) exist at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.


title: What's My Line?

text: Only a portion of episode #191 (January 24, 1954) w/Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis as mystery guests exists, and was shown in "What's My Line? at 25".


title: What's My Line?

text: Episode #195 (February 21, 1954) only exists among collectors as a second-hand kinescope, as the official kinescope is missing from the Goodson-Todman archive.


title: What's My Line?

text: In 2016, episode #018, aired live on October 1, 1950, was discovered by a film archivist. It was preserved and digitally converted for release.


title: What's My Line?

text: An audio-only excerpt from the otherwise lost episode #866 (June 18, 1967) can be heard in an LP called "The Age of Television". This album, which was released by RCA Records in 1971, featured interviews with TV personalities about the medium's first 25 years. One of these interviews concerned "What's My Line?" and included audio from the mystery guest segment featuring Betty Grable from that now-lost episode. Lost segments include one in which panelists tried to determine that a contestant was a lawyer. He was F. Lee Bailey.


title: What's My Line?

text: The existing kinescope films (now digitized) have subsequently been rerun on television. The series has been seen on Game Show Network at various times. The series has also been shown on Buzzr, a digital broadcast television network which is owned and operated by Fremantle.


title: What's My Line?

text: Some episodes of the CBS radio version of the 1950s are available to visitors to the Paley Center for Media in New York City and Beverly Hills, CA. Others are at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where procedures to access them are more complicated.


title: What's My Line?

text: Alpha Video released a DVD containing four episodes on February 26, 2008. This is an unofficial release of public domain episodes, and it is unclear if an official release will occur.


title: What's My Line?

text: A YouTube channel features all surviving 757 episodes of the CBS run of "What's My Line?", plus extras featuring WML regulars, various compilations of clips, and several "lost" episodes that were never included in reruns. Some are off-the-air home recordings of rebroadcasts.


title: What's My Line?

text: Many, but not all, episodes of the 1968-75 syndicated run were preserved and have been rebroadcast, since the 1990s, on several cable and broadcast networks, notably GSN and Buzzr.


title: What's My Line?

text: In order to commemorate the show's 50th Anniversary at the time, this version was released by Endless Games in 2001.


title: What's My Line?

text: Released by Dot in 1955, audio recordings of eight "mystery guest" segments from the original Daly era can only be heard.


title: What's My Line?

text: Released by Prentice Hall in 1978, Gil Fates, the executive producer of the show, looks back over the quarter-century run of the series. The cover of the book features the photos of panelists Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen and host John Daly.


title: Echosmith

text: Echosmith is an American indie pop band formed in February 2009 in Chino, California. Originally formed as a quartet of siblings, the band currently consists of Sydney, Noah and Graham Sierota, following the departure of eldest sibling Jamie in 2016. Echosmith started first as "Ready Set Go!" until they signed to Warner Bros. Records in May 2012. They are best known for the song "Cool Kids", which reached number 13 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and was certified triple platinum by the RIAA with over 1,200,000 sales in the United States and also double platinum by ARIA in Australia. The song was Warner Bros. Records' fifth-biggest-selling-digital song of 2014, with 1.3 million downloads sold. The band's debut album, "Talking Dreams", was released on October 1, 2013.


title: Echosmith

text: The group grew up in a musical household playing multiple instruments throughout their childhood. The band has mentioned that numerous rock artists, including Coldplay, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Smiths, the Killers, U2, Joy Division and Fleetwood Mac influenced them while growing up and encouraged them to make music together. Echosmith's youngest sibling, Graham, plays drums. The only female member in the group, Sydney, is co-lead vocalist for the band, often contributing on tambourine and keyboard. Noah plays bass and sings back-up vocals for the band. The oldest sibling, Jamie, was co-lead singer, and played guitar before he left the band in 2016. He later rejoined the band in 2022. Graham was diagnosed with autism as a child.


title: Echosmith

text: Echosmith has also released an array of covers of songs such as "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons, "Lights" by Ellie Goulding, "Set Fire to the Rain" by Adele, and "Princess of China" by Coldplay and Rihanna. The band is currently managed by their father, producer and songwriter Jeffery David, who helped develop the band as well as co-writing the majority of the band's debut album. In April 2013, Echosmith was named one of the "100 Bands You Need To Know" by Alternative Press. On May 31, 2013, Echosmith released their new single on YouTube, "Come Together". The video was directed by Justin Coloma and filmed in Los Angeles, CA. Echosmith launched a "Summer Sampler" free download promo on their website, with the songs "Cool Kids", "Come Together", and "Talking Dreams".


title: Echosmith

text: On June 7, 2013, the band performed a free concert at Warner Bros. Records in Burbank, CA, with simultaneous streaming through Echosmith's YouTube channel. Echosmith was featured on ESPN's June programming. The featured songs consisted of "Come Together", "Let's Love", and "March Into The Sun." Echosmith also performed on the entire 2013 Vans Warped Tour. The band toured the United States and Canada as the opening act for Owl City on his 2013 Midsummer Station tour. The band's debut album, "Talking Dreams", was released on October 8, 2013. Echosmith released a holiday track "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" on December 3, 2013. It was available to download for free on their website through the month of December. The band performed the song "Cool Kids" on December 31, 2013, during the Teen Nick top 10: New Year's Eve Countdown, hosted by Nick Cannon. Echosmith was selected as MTV's 2014 Artists To Watch. The band's song, "Surround You" was featured in the soundtrack for the film "Endless Love".


title: Echosmith

text: Echosmith played on the Vans Warped Tour in 2014 for the second year in a row. Echosmith made their late night TV premiere in June 2014, performing "Cool Kids" on "Conan" and the "Teen Wolf" after-show, "Wolf Watch". In 2015, Echosmith supported Twenty One Pilots on their national tour. On June 10, Echosmith released an acoustic EP, titled "Acoustic Dreams", which features acoustic versions of four tracks off "Talking Dreams", in addition to one new track titled "Terminal". Leading up to the release, the acoustic version of "Cool Kids" was premiered on the group's YouTube channel on June 3. Echosmith was the MTV Push Artist of the Month for November 2014. The band had a headline tour with The Colourist as their supporting act in February 2015. In 2015, Echosmith provided the vocals for Russian-German DJ and musician Zedd's track "Illusion", featured on his second studio album titled "True Colors". In August, the band announced that Jamie Sierota would be taking a break from the band in preparation for fatherhood; session musician Josh Murty filled in on guitar for the band's tour dates. The band made a guest appearance in "The Muppets" episode "Single All the Way" (S1:E10), which originally aired December 8, 2015. In 2016 Sydney announced a collaboration with Hollister for a fashion line. In November 2016, the band announced via Twitter, Facebook and mail newsletter that Jamie will no longer be part of the band so that he can take care of his baby. They also stated they will continue as a trio. Also in 2016, Sydney collaborated with The Goo Goo Dolls on their song, "Flood", which can be found on their album "Boxes".


title: Echosmith

text: Leading up to what was supposed to be the release of the band's sophomore album and corresponding tour, "Goodbye" was released as the lead single on July 14, 2017. One week later, the band performed their new single live for the first time at the 2017 MTV Fandom Awards during San Diego Comic-Con. Over the Summer, two additional singles, "Future Me" and "Dear World," were also released. After a prior announcement delaying the album and tour until Spring 2018, the "Inside a Dream" EP was released in its stead on September 29, 2017. With this release, "Get Into My Car" was featured as a promotional single with a corresponding music video. In March 2018, the band released a new lead single, "Over My Head," pushing the album to summer, and subsequently delaying it indefinitely. Later that Summer, the band opened for Pentatonix on their tour and rounded out the year with a Christmas show in San Diego on December 8, 2018. On March 8, 2019, Echosmith released their single "Favorite Sound," as a collaboration with musician Audien, as well as a cover of "Reflektor" by Arcade Fire, originally from 2013. Later that year, Echosmith and for KING & COUNTRY worked on a remix cover of "God Only Knows." Echosmith performed during the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival on November 23, 2019, in Chicago; the event was broadcast nationally. The band's second studio album, "Lonely Generation", was released on January 10, 2020, via their Echosmith Music label under Warner Music Group. On May 28, 2022, Echosmith performed the English opening song of the 25th season of Pokémon the Series, "With You."


title: Echosmith

text: Echosmith is described as an indie rock and 1980s dance-rock-influenced band. The band has cited Coldplay, U2, the Killers and the Smiths as influences. American Christian rock band Switchfoot has also been a big influence for the band and the reason they started making music.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: John Gilbert (born John Cecil Pringle; July 10, 1897 – January 9, 1936) was an American actor, screenwriter and director. He rose to fame during the silent film era and became a popular leading man known as "The Great Lover". His breakthrough came in 1925 with his starring roles in "The Merry Widow" and "The Big Parade". At the height of his career, Gilbert rivaled Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert's career declined precipitously when silent pictures gave way to talkies. Though Gilbert was often cited as one of the high-profile examples of an actor who was unsuccessful in making the transition to sound films, his decline as a star had far more to do with studio politics and money than with the sound of his screen voice, which was rich and distinctive.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Born John Cecil Pringle in Logan, Utah, to stock-company actor parents, John George Pringle (1865–1929) and Ida Adair Apperly Gilbert (1877–1913), he struggled through a childhood of abuse and neglect, with his family moving frequently and young "Jack" having to attend assorted schools throughout the United States. When his family finally settled in California, he attended Hitchcock Military Academy in San Rafael. After he left school, Gilbert worked as a rubber goods salesman in San Francisco, then performed with the Baker Stock Company in Portland, Oregon, in 1914. He subsequently found work the following year as a stage manager in another stock company in Spokane, Washington, but he soon lost that job when the company went out of business.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: After losing his stage job in 1915, Gilbert decided to try screen acting, and he quickly gained work as a film extra through Herschell Mayall. Gilbert first appeared in "The Mother Instinct" (1915), a short directed by Wilfred Lucas. He then found work as an extra with the Thomas Ince Studios in productions such as "The Coward" (1915), "Aloha Oe" (1915), "Civilization" (1915), "The Last Act" (1916), and William Hart's "Hell's Hinges" (1916).


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: During his initial years in films, Gilbert also performed in releases by Kay-Bee Company such as "Matrimony" (1915), "The Corner" (1915), "Eye of the Night" (1916), and "Bullets and Brown Eyes" (1916). His first major costarring role was as Willie Hudson in "The Apostle of Vengeance", also with William S. Hart. Viewed by studio executives as a promising but still "juvenile" actor at this stage of his career, Gilbert's contract salary was $40 a week ($ today), fairly ample pay for most American workers in the early 1900s. Gilbert continued to get more substantial parts at Kay-Bee, which billed him as "Jack Gilbert" in "The Aryan" (1916), "The Phantom" (1916), "Shell 43" (1916), "The Sin Ye Do" (1917), "The Weaker Sex" (1917), and "The Bride of Hate" (1917). His first true leading role was in "Princess of the Dark" (1917) with Enid Bennett, but the film was not a big success and he went back to supporting roles in "The Dark Road" (1917), "Happiness" (1917), "The Millionaire Vagrant" (1917), and "The Hater of Men" (1917).


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert went over to Triangle Films where he was in "The Mother Instinct" (1917), "Golden Rule Kate" (1917), "The Devil Dodger" (1917) (second billed), "Up or Down?" (1917), and "Nancy Comes Home" (1918). For Paralta Plays, Gilbert did "Shackled" (1918), "One Dollar Bid" (1918), and "Wedlock" (1918) and "More Trouble" (1918) for Anderson, but the company went bankrupt. He also was cast in "Doing Their Bit" (1918) at Fox and then returned to Triangle for "The Mask" (1918). Gilbert also did "Three X Gordon" (1918) for Jesse Hampton, "The Dawn of Understanding" (1918), "The White Heather" (1919) for Maurice Tourneur, "The Busher" (1919) for Thomas Ince, "The Man Beneath" for Haworth, "A Little Brother of the Rich" (1919) for Universal, "The Red Viper" (1919) for Tyrad, "For a Woman's Honor" (1919) for Jess Hampton, "Widow by Proxy" (1919) for Paramount, "Heart o' the Hills" (1919) for Mary Pickford, and "Should a Woman Tell?" (1919) for Screen Classics.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Maurice Tourneur signed him to a contract to both write and act in films. Gilbert performed in and co-wrote "The White Circle" (1920), "The Great Redeemer" (1921), and "Deep Waters" (1921). As a writer only, he worked on "The Bait" (1921), which starred and was produced by Hope Hampton. For Hampton, Gilbert wrote and directed as well, but he did not appear in "Love's Penalty" (1921).


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: In 1921, Gilbert signed a three-year contract with Fox Film Corporation, which subsequently cast him in romantic leading roles and promoted him now as "John Gilbert". The actor's first starring part for the studio was in "Shame" (1921). He followed it with leading roles in "Arabian Love" (1922), "Gleam O'Dawn" (1922), "The Yellow Stain" (1922), "Honor First" (1922), "Monte Cristo" (1922), "Calvert's Valley" (1922), "The Love Gambler" (1922), and "A California Romance" (1922). Many of the scenarios for these films were written by Jules Furthman.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert returned temporarily to Tourneur to costar with Lon Chaney in "While Paris Sleeps" (1923). Back at Fox, he starred in "Truxton King" (1923), "Madness of Youth" (1923), "St. Elmo" (1923), and "The Exiles" (1923). The same year he starred in "Cameo Kirby" (1923), directed by John Ford, co starring Jean Arthur. He went into "The Wolf Man" (1923) with Norma Shearer, not a horror film, but the story of a man who believes he murdered his fiancée's brother while drunk. Gilbert also performed in his last films for Fox in 1924, including "Just Off Broadway", "A Man's Mate", "The Lone Chance", and "Romance Ranch".


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Under the auspices of movie producer Irving Thalberg, Gilbert obtained a release from his Fox contract and moved to MGM, where he became a full-fledged star cast in major productions. First starring in "His Hour" (1924) directed by King Vidor and written by Elinor Glyn his film career entered its ascendancy. He followed this success with "He Who Gets Slapped" (1924) co-starring Chaney and Shearer and directed by Victor Sjöström; "The Snob" (1924) with Shearer; "The Wife of the Centaur" (1924) for Vidor.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: The next year, Gilbert would star in two of MGM's most critically acclaimed and popular film productions of the silent era: Erich von Stroheim's "The Merry Widow" and King Vidor's "The Big Parade".


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert was assigned to star in Erich von Stroheim's "The Merry Widow" by Irving Thalberg, over the objections of the Austrian-American director. Von Stroheim expressed his displeasure bluntly to his leading man: "Gilbert, I am forced to use you in my picture. I do not want you, but the decision was not in my hands. I assure you I will do everything in my power to make you comfortable." Gilbert, mortified, soon stalked off the set in a rage, tearing off his costume. Von Stroheim followed him to his dressing room and apologized. The two agreed to share a drink. Then Gilbert apologized and they had another drink. The tempest subsided and was resolved amicably. According to Gilbert, the contretemps served to "cement a relationship which for my part will never end."


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: The public adulation that Gilbert experienced with his growing celebrity astounded him: "Everywhere I hear whispers and gasps in acknowledgment of my presence...[t]he whole thing became too fantastic for me to comprehend. Acting, the very thing I had been fighting and ridiculing for seven years, had brought me success, riches and renown. I was a great motion picture artist. Well, I’ll be damned!"


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert was next cast by Thalberg to star in King Vidor's war-romance "The Big Parade" (1925), which became the second-highest grossing silent film and the most profitable film of the silent era. Gilbert's "inspired performance" as an American doughboy in France during World War I was the high point of his acting career. He fully immersed himself in the role of Jim Apperson, a Southern gentleman who, with two working class comrades, experiences the horrors of trench warfare. Gilbert declared: "No love has ever enthralled me as did the making of this picture...All that has followed is balderdash."


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: The following year, Vidor reunited Gilbert with two of his co-stars from that picture, Renée Adorée and Karl Dane, for the film "La Bohème" (1926) which also starred Lillian Gish. He then did another with Vidor, "Bardelys the Magnificent" (1926).


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: In 1926, Gilbert made "Flesh and the Devil", his first film with Greta Garbo. Gilbert first encountered Garbo on the set during filming of the railway station scene, and the chemistry between the two was evidently instantaneous. Director Clarence Brown remarked approvingly that he "had a love affair going for me that you couldn’t beat, any way you tried." Garbo and Gilbert soon began a highly publicized romance, much to the delight of their fans and to MGM.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: He made "The Show" (1927) with Adoree for Tod Browning then did "Twelve Miles Out" (1927) with Joan Crawford and "Man, Woman and Sin" (1927) with Jeanne Eagels.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert was reunited with Garbo in a modern adaptation of Tolstoy's 19th-century novel, "Anna Karenina". The title was changed to "Love" (1927) to capitalize on the real life love affair of the stars and advertised by MGM as "Garbo and Gilbert in Love."


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Though officially directed by Edmund Goulding, Gilbert, though uncredited, was responsible for directing the love scenes involving Garbo. He was perhaps the only person in the industry whose "artistic judgment" she fully respected. As such, MGM approved of this arrangement.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert made "The Cossacks" (1928) with Adoree; "Four Walls" (1928) with Crawford; "Show People" (1928) with Marion Davies for Vidor, in which Gilbert only had a cameo; and "The Masks of the Devil" (1928) for Victor Sjöström.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert and Garbo were teamed for a third time in "A Woman of Affairs" (1928). His last silent film was "Desert Nights" (1929).


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: With the coming of sound, Gilbert's vocal talents made a good first impression, though the studio had failed to conduct a voice test. The conventional wisdom of the day dictated that actors in the new talkies should emulate "correct stage diction". Gilbert's strict adherence to this method produced an affected delivery that made audiences giggle, and not due to any particularity in Gilbert's natural speech. Indeed, the "quality of his voice compared well with that of co-star Conrad Nagel, regarded as having one of the best voices for sound."


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert signed an immensely lucrative multi-picture contract with MGM in 1928 that totaled $1,500,000. The terms of the agreement positioned MGM executives Irving Thalberg and Nicholas Schenck, both sympathetic to the star, to supervise his career. Gilbert, however, frequently clashed with studio head Louis B. Mayer over creative, social and financial matters. A confrontation between the two men, one that became physical, occurred at the planned double-wedding of Garbo and Gilbert and director King Vidor and actress Eleanor Boardman. Mayer reportedly made a crude remark to Gilbert about Garbo, and Gilbert reacted by knocking Mayer to the floor with his fist. While this story has been disputed or dismissed as hearsay by some historians, Vidor's bride Eleanor Boardman insisted that she actually witnessed the altercation.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: In the all-star musical comedy "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" (1929), Gilbert and Norma Shearer played the balcony scene from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", first as written, then followed with a slang rendition of the scene. The comic effect served to "dispell the bad impression" produced by Gilbert's original "mincing" delivery.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Audiences awaited further romantic roles from Gilbert on the talking screen. The next vehicle was the Ruritanian romance "His Glorious Night" (1929), directed by Lionel Barrymore. According to reviewers, audiences laughed nervously at Gilbert's performance. The offense was not Gilbert's voice, but the awkward scenario along with the overly ardent love scenes. In one, Gilbert keeps kissing his leading lady, (Catherine Dale Owen), while saying "I love you" over and over again. (The scene was parodied in the MGM musical "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) in which a preview of the fictional "The Dueling Cavalier" flops disastrously.)


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Director King Vidor speculated that the late Rudolph Valentino, Gilbert's main rival for romantic leads in the silent era, probably would have suffered the same fate in the talkie era had he lived. Gilbert's inept phrasing, his "dreadful enunciation" and the "inane" script as the genuine sources of his poor performance, that drew "titters" from audiences.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: The persistent myth that John Gilbert had a "squeaky voice" that doomed his career in sound films first emerged from his performance in 1929 with "His Glorious Night". It was even rumored that Louis B. Mayer ordered Gilbert's voice to be gelded by manipulating the sound track to give it a higher, less masculine pitch. Later, after analyzing the film's sound track, British film historian Kevin Brownlow found that the timbre and frequency of Gilbert's speaking scenes in "His Glorious Night" were no different than in his subsequent talkies. Brownlow also reported from that analysis that Gilbert's voice, overall, was "quite low". With regard to the alleged manipulation of Gilbert's footage by Mayer or by anyone else, television technicians in the 1960s determined that the actor's voice was consistent with those of other performers on the same print, casting doubt that any targeted "sabotaging" of Gilbert's voice occurred.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Film critic John Baxter described Gilbert as having "a light speaking voice", a minor defect that both MGM and the star "magnified into an obsession." Despite any conflicting opinions or myths surrounding the actor's voice, Mayer's lingering resentment and hostility toward Gilbert remained apparent, especially after MGM's star signed a new contract for six pictures at $250,000 each. Those ill feelings fueled additional speculation that Mayer deliberately assigned Gilbert bad scripts and ineffective directors in an effort to void the contract.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast Gilbert in a film adaptation of "The Living Corpse" by Tolstoy re-titled as "Redemption" (1929). The bleak atmosphere and maudlin dialogue presaged the disaster looming in the star's personal life and career. Gilbert's confident screen presence had vanished, while his use of the exaggerated stage diction that elicited laughs from the audience persisted. In one scene Gilbert declares ominously "I’m going to kill myself to let the whole world know what it has lost."


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: MGM put him in a more rugged film, "Way for a Sailor" (1930) with Wallace Beery. He followed it with "Gentleman's Fate" (1931).


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert became increasingly depressed by progressively inferior films and idle stretches between productions. Despite efforts by studio executives at MGM to cancel his contract, Gilbert resolved to thwart Louis B. Mayer and see the six-picture ordeal through to the end.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert's fortunes were temporarily restored when MGM's production chief Irving Thalberg gave him two projects that were character studies, giving Gilbert an excellent showcase for his versatility. "The Phantom of Paris" (1931), originally intended for Lon Chaney (who died from cancer in 1930), cast Gilbert as a debonair magician and showman who is falsely accused of murder and uses his mastery of disguise to unmask the real killer.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: "Downstairs" (1932) was based on Gilbert's original story, with the actor playing against type as a scheming, blackmailing chauffeur. The films were well received by critics and fans but failed to revive his career. In between, he appeared in "West of Broadway" (1931).


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert fulfilled his contract with MGM with a perfunctory "B" picture – "Fast Workers" (1933) directed by Browning. He left the studio in 1933, terminating his $10,000 a week contract.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Exhausted and demoralized by his humiliations at MGM and his declining success at the box office, Gilbert began to drink heavily, contributing to his declining physical and mental health.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert announced his retirement from acting and was working at Fox as an "honorary" director when, in August 1933, he announced he had signed a seven-year contract with MGM at $75–100,000 a picture. The reason was Greta Garbo insisted that Gilbert return to MGM to play her leading man in "Queen Christina" (1933), directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Garbo was top-billed, with Gilbert's name beneath the title. "Queen Christina", though a critical success, did not revive Gilbert's poor self-image or his career. Garbo was reported to have dropped the young Laurence Olivier scheduled to play the part, but director Rouben Mamoulian recalled that Olivier's screen tests had already eliminated him from consideration.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Columbia Pictures gave Gilbert what would be his final chance for a comeback in "The Captain Hates the Sea" (1934) in which he gave a capable performance as "a dissipated, bitter [and] cynical" playwright. But the off-screen cast of heavy drinkers encouraged his alcoholism. It was his last film.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Biographer Kevin Brownlow's eulogy to John Gilbert considers the destruction of both the man and his career:


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: "The career of John Gilbert indicates that the star, and the person playing the star, were regarded by producers as separate entities, subject to totally different attitudes. Gilbert, as an ordinary human being, had no legal right to the stardom that was the sole property of the studio. When Gilbert, as an employee, tried to seize control of the future of Gilbert the star, the studios decided to save their investment from falling into the hands of rivals, [so] they had to wreck their property. Other properties – books, films, sets – could be destroyed with impunity. But the destruction of a star carried with it the destruction of a person…it seems somewhat abhorrent that it took such tragedies as that of John Gilbert to bring us our entertainment."


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert was married four times. His first marriage, on August 26, 1918, was to Olivia Burwell, a native of Mississippi whom Gilbert had met after her family moved to California. They separated the following year and Burwell returned to Mississippi for a while. She filed for divorce in Los Angeles in 1921.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: In February 1921, Gilbert announced his engagement to actress Leatrice Joy. They married in Tijuana in November 1921. As Gilbert had failed to secure a divorce from his first wife and the legality of Gilbert and Joy's Mexican marriage was questionable, the couple separated and had the marriage annulled to avoid a scandal. They remarried on March 3, 1922. The marriage was tumultuous and, in June 1923, Joy filed for legal separation after she claimed that Gilbert slapped her face after a night of heavy drinking. They reconciled several months later. In August 1924, Joy, who was pregnant with the couple's daughter, filed for divorce. Joy later said she left Gilbert after discovering he was having an affair with actress Laurette Taylor. Joy also claimed that Gilbert had conducted affairs with Barbara La Marr (with whom he had a romance before his marriage to Joy), Lila Lee and Bebe Daniels. Gilbert and Joy had a daughter, Leatrice Gilbert (later Fountain; September 4, 1924 – January 20, 2015). Joy was granted a divorce in May 1925.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: In 1929, Gilbert eloped with actress Ina Claire to Las Vegas. They separated in February 1931 and divorced six months later. Gilbert's fourth and final marriage was on August 10, 1932, to actress Virginia Bruce, who had recently costarred with him on the MGM film "Downstairs". The entertainment trade paper "The Film Daily" reported that their "quick" wedding was held in Gilbert's dressing room on the MGM lot while Bruce was working on another studio production, "Kongo". Among the people attending the small ceremony were the head of MGM production Irving Thalberg, who served as Gilbert's best man; screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart, whose wife Beatrice acted as Bruce's matron of honor; MGM art director and set designer Cedric Gibbons; and his wife, actress Dolores del Río. Bruce retired briefly from acting following the birth of their daughter Susan Ann; however, she resumed her career after her divorce from Gilbert in May 1934.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Before his death, Gilbert dated actress Marlene Dietrich from 1935 until his death in 1936 as well as Greta Garbo from 1926 to 1927. When he died, he had recently been slated to play a prominent supporting role in Dietrich's film "Desire".


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: By 1934, alcoholism had severely damaged Gilbert's health. He suffered a serious heart attack in December 1935, which left him in poor health. Gilbert suffered a second heart attack at his Bel Air home on January 9, 1936, which was fatal.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: A private funeral was held on January 11 at the B.E. Mortuary in Beverly Hills. Among the mourners were Gilbert's two ex-wives, Leatrice Joy and Virginia Bruce, his two daughters, and stars Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Myrna Loy, and Raquel Torres.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert was cremated and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale in Glendale, California.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert left the bulk of his estate, valued at $363,494 (equivalent to $ million in ), to his last ex-wife Virginia Bruce and their daughter, Susan Ann. He left $10,000 to his eldest daughter Leatrice, and other amounts to friends, relatives and his servants.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Gilbert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1755 Vine Street. In 1994, he was honored with his image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: John Gilbert is the subject of a mini-documentary film called "Rediscovering John Gilbert" (2010) featuring an on-camera interview with John Gilbert's daughter and biographer, Leatrice Gilbert Fountain. The short film, directed and produced by film historian Jeffrey Vance, has aired on the Turner Classic Movies cable channel and is also available on DVD from home video distributor Flicker Alley.


title: John Gilbert (actor)

text: Gilbert has been portrayed in several films. Barry Bostwick appeared as the actor in the television film "The Silent Lovers" first shown in 1980. He has also been portrayed by his grandson, John Fountain, in "Sunset" (1988), Christopher Renstrom in "La Divina" (1989), and Adnan Taletovich in "Return to Babylon" (2012). Gilbert was the inspiration behind the character of George Valentin, played by Jean Dujardin in "The Artist" (2011), and Jack Conrad, played by Brad Pitt in Babylon (2022).


title: Blank Check (film)

text: Blank Check (in the United Kingdom originally released as Blank Cheque) is a 1994 American comedy film directed by Rupert Wainwright and starring Brian Bonsall, Karen Duffy, Miguel Ferrer, James Rebhorn, Tone Lōc, Jayne Atkinson and Michael Lerner. It was released on February 11, 1994, by Walt Disney Pictures. The film follows a boy who inherits a blank check and uses it to buy a house under an alter ego, but is soon being searched for by several members of the bank he cashed it under. Upon release, the film received negative reviews, but was a box office success grossing $39 million on a $13 million budget.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: 11-year-old Preston Waters laments his relative lack of money compared to his entrepreneurial older brothers and his working class father, an investor. His situation regularly leads him to humiliating situations including having his brothers, 16-year-old Damian and 15-year-old Ralph, commandeer his bedroom as an office for their home business. He is also forced to attend his bully Butch’s birthday party at Cliffside Fun Park, where he is unable to afford anything other than the kiddie rides because his father is very frugal with money.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: One day, he gets involved in a bike accident with escaped convict Carl Quigley, who had just left a Zero Halliburton briefcase containing $1,000,000 in stolen cash in the care of bank president Edward H. Biderman to be laundered and retrieved by an associate the next day. Afraid of drawing attention from the police, Quigley hastily hands Preston a signed blank check and flees the scene.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: Preston is grounded by his father for not taking care of his possessions. He then uses his computer to fill out the check himself for $1,000,000 and attempts to cash it the next day. He is taken to Biderman, who believes Preston is the associate named “Juice” that Quigley told him he was sending. Believing this is part of Quigley's plan, Biderman fills Preston’s backpack with $1,000,000 in clean money and Preston leaves the bank just as the real Juice arrives for the money. An angered Quigley sets out to find Preston with the Juice hoping to reclaim his stolen money and threaten Biderman with death unless he comes along. Meanwhile, Preston goes on a spending spree, purchasing a large house and a limousine service with a chauffeur named Henry, and then fills the house with toys, gadgets, and electronics all in the name of a mysterious employer he creates named "Macintosh", after his brothers' computer. Preston uses a computer program called MacSpeak as the voice of Mr. Macintosh in order to buy a house over the phone.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: Shay Stanley, a teller from the bank, seeks out Preston and his employer Mr. Macintosh, after the realtor who sold the house to Macintosh deposits $300,000 cash with her bank. Shay, an undercover FBI agent investigating Biderman for money laundering, is suspicious of the sudden flow of cash that has come through Biderman’s bank and follows the trail to Preston/Macintosh. Denied a meeting with Macintosh, Preston claims that he handles some of Macintosh’s financial affairs and the two end up going on a business date. Later, Preston throws an expensive birthday party for himself and Macintosh for which the party planner Yvonne takes at least $40,000 in cash from Preston, claiming it covers the fees for the event. Yvonne later gives Preston the party planning bill and cost which is $100,000. Preston invites Shay and Henry to the party, with many others showing up. At the party, Preston learns that he only has $332 left and that he cannot pay the planner what he owes for the party.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: Still checking on the computer, his dad shows up talking to the so-called Macintosh. He tells him that if he sees where Preston is at and tells him to send him home because it is his birthday. He just takes a second to talk about his son. He talks about how he puts pressure on his son, how he doesn’t listen to him and about having money. He leaves and Preston starts crying and realizes that his dad is not there. The planner shuts the party down, leaving Preston alone in the empty house. Quigley, Biderman, and Juice arrive and demand Preston return the money, only to find out Preston has spent all of it in six days; Biderman tells Quigley about helming the Macintosh name in hopes of inheriting the new life he was hoping. After pursuing Preston throughout the property when the latter tries to escape, the FBI shows up with Shay in time to save Preston.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: Quigley announces that he is Macintosh, thinking that assuming the false identity would grant him the new life he was seeking after escaping prison. However, the FBI arrest Quigley for numerous crimes they intended to charge to Macintosh, along with Biderman and Juice as accomplices. Preston says goodbye to Shay and Henry before returning to his family to celebrate his birthday, now understanding that money cannot buy happiness and that his family is what matters most.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: "Blank Check" was filmed in Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas. The castle house that Preston buys was filmed at the Pemberton Castle (Fisher Gideon House) at 1415 Wooldridge Drive in Austin, a Texas Historical Landmark, which is now owned by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. The theme park in the beginning of the movie was Six Flags Fiesta Texas; several of the park's attractions, including The Rattler and Power Surge, were filmed in this movie.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: The bank featured in the movie is in the historic Alamo National Bank Building. The bank lobby was featured and it has a 23 story office tower above it. The building opened in 1929, and today houses the Drury Plaza Hotel.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 9% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 2.98/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: Peter Rainer of the "Los Angeles Times" stating that what was "missing from this film is any trace of the joy in simple pleasures. Preston isn't a very imaginative child; he's a goodies gatherer." Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" said that it "looks like the best bet for family audiences in a season short on kiddie oriented entertainment. And it's a movie that no parents in their right minds should let children see."


title: Blank Check (film)

text: The "Chicago Tribune" stated that "[w]ith its contrived plot, its MTV inspired montages and its blatant shilling for products, it is film as hard sell, and it comes with a decidedly suspect warranty. Its mercantile instincts are so primary it looks like an infomercial."


title: Blank Check (film)

text: In recent years, the appropriateness of a scene depicting a kiss between Preston and Shay near the end of the film has been called into question, particularly with Shay's job as an agent with the FBI. Brian Bonsall was 12 years old at the time of filming, while Karen Duffy was 31. Concerns were first raised in a September 2009 episode of the review web series "Nostalgia Critic".


title: Blank Check (film)

text: In January 2017, "Blank Check" was made available on Netflix in the United States, which led many critics to review the film anew. "Observer"'s Dana Schwartz claimed the kissing scene left her feeling "totally grossed out", while Kylie Queen from WJBQ described the act as "borderline pedophilia". In March 2020, the Disney+ streaming service came under criticism for not featuring the "Love, Simon" spinoff television series "Love, Victor", deeming it to be "too adult", but making "Blank Check" available to view with the kissing scene still featuring.


title: Blank Check (film)

text: "Blank Check" debuted at number 3 at the US box office behind "" and "The Getaway" with $5.4 million in its opening weekend. In total, the film went on to gross $30.5 million in the United States and Canada and $38.8 million worldwide.


title: 2022–23 EFL League One

text: The 2022–23 EFL League One (referred to as the Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons) is the 19th season of the Football League One under its current title and the 31st season under its current league division format. The season began on 30 July 2022 and is scheduled to end in early May 2023.


title: 2022 Indian vice presidential election

text: The elections for the 14th vice president of India was held on 6 August 2022. The announcement was made by the Election Commission of India. Article 56(1) of the Constitution of India provides that the Vice President of India shall remain in office for a period of five years. The winner of this election is Jagdeep Dhankhar who replaced Venkaiah Naidu as Vice President on 11 August 2022. On 16 July 2022, Jagdeep Dhankhar the then serving Governor of West Bengal was nominated as a vice-presidential candidate by the BJP. On 17 July 2022, Margaret Alva was announced as the vice-presidential candidate by the United Progressive Alliance and some non-UPA Parties. Hence, Jagdeep Dhankhar won the election by 528 votes defeating the United Opposition candidate Margaret Alva.


title: 2022 Indian vice presidential election

text: The Vice President is elected by an electoral college which includes members of the Rajya Sabha and of the Lok Sabha. The nominated members of the mentioned houses are also eligible to vote in the election process. Voting is done by secret ballot.


title: 2022 Indian vice presidential election

text: Under sub-section (1) of Section (4) of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act 1952, the schedule for the election of the Vice President of India had been announced by the Election Commission of India on 29 June 2022.


title: The Lies of Locke Lamora

text: The Lies of Locke Lamora is a 2006 fantasy novel by American writer Scott Lynch, the first book of the "Gentleman Bastard" series. Elite con artists calling themselves the "Gentleman Bastards" rob the rich of the city of Camorr, based on late medieval Venice but on an unnamed world. Two stories interweave: in the present, the Gentleman Bastards fight a mysterious Grey King taking over the criminal underworld; alternate chapters describe the history of Camorr and the Gentleman Bastards, in particular Locke Lamora.


title: The Lies of Locke Lamora

text: The Gentleman Bastards are masters of deception, disguise, and fine cuisine. Father Chains, their "garrista" (leader), is a priest of the Crooked Warden, the god of thieves. He buys troublesome youth Locke for his gang. Through a series of confidence tricks on the rich, they defy the Secret Peace, an unspoken agreement between the criminal underground and the Duke’s government which allows for the existence of organized crime with the understanding that the peerage and the servants of justice are off limits. After Chains' death, Locke becomes garrista of the group, consisting of Jean Tannen, an expert fighter; Calo and Galdo Sanza, jack-of-all-trades identical twins; and Bug, a young apprentice. Their wayward female associate Sabetha is mentioned, but resides elsewhere during the events of the novel.


title: The Lies of Locke Lamora

text: The criminal underworld of Camorr is ruled with an iron fist by the Capa Barsavi, who collects a commission on all criminal activity under his purview. Under Locke's leadership, the Gentleman Bastards are known as a small gang of gentrified but petty thieves and pickpockets, and their dues, though regularly paid, are relatively small. Secretly, the Bastards have actually been using elaborate schemes to swindle various nobles out of large sums, and have amassed a considerable fortune; they "purchase" the trinkets they pass on to Barsavi as tribute, in accordance with their small-time reputation. What little is spoken of their operations is credited to the shadowy "Thorn of Camorr."


title: The Lies of Locke Lamora

text: Locke pretends to be Lukas Fehrwight, a merchant from Emberlain, to con Don Lorenzo Salvara and his wife. Meanwhile, a mysterious criminal calling himself the Gray King has been killing Barsavi's most trusted garristas; fearing for his safety, Barsavi has sequestered himself in his ship-fortress, the Floating Grave. Locke finds himself face to face with the Gray King and his hired Bondsmage "The Falconer", who somehow know what the Gentleman Bastards have been up to; Locke agrees to impersonate the Gray King in an arranged meeting with Barsavi in exchange for the Gray King's silence, as well as the Bondsmage's magical protection from Barsavi's wrath during the meeting. The Gray King murders Barsavi's daughter Nazca and delivers her body to the Capa in a barrel of horse urine; Locke is forced to continue with the plan, even though he knows that now Barsavi will never negotiate.


title: The Lies of Locke Lamora

text: At the meeting, Barsavi manages to circumvent a disguised Locke's magical protection, having him severely beaten and left to drown in a barrel. Jean and Bug save him, but they realize that the Gray King has double-crossed them; they return to their secret lair and find their wealth stolen and the Sanza twins brutally murdered. An intruder kills Bug and nearly Jean and Locke, who swear revenge. Locke goes to the Floating Grave in disguise, where Barsavi is celebrating the Gray King's supposed death. Suddenly two of Barsavi's trusted bodyguards, the fierce Berengias sisters, turn on him and cut down Barsavi and his two sons. The Gray King (whom Locke deduces is the brother of the Berengias twins) appears, introduces himself as Capa Raza and claims Barsavi's empire as his own.


title: The Lies of Locke Lamora

text: Left without resources and needing funds to somehow strike back at Raza, Locke tries to complete the con against the Salvaras. Meanwhile, Jean investigates the after-dark activity of Raza's minions and realizes that the new Capa is secretly loading his newfound wealth onto a ship supposedly quarantined for plague. Before Jean can tell Locke, he is ambushed by the Berengias sisters. He manages to kill both, but is seriously wounded himself. The Duke's "Spider", Camorr's secret spymaster who is actually the elderly Doña Vorchenza, has learned that the Salvaras are being conned by the mysterious "Thorn of Camorr." She and the Salvaras lure Locke to the Duke's annual celebration, and he barely escapes. Returning to their hideout, Locke finds Jean incapacitated by the Bondsmage's sorcery, which relies on the use of Jean's true name. Locke, whose real name is not known, overpowers the Falconer and tortures him for information. Wary of revenge by other Bondsmages should he be killed, Jean and Locke remove his fingers and tongue so he cannot gesture or speak spells, leaving him alive but insane.


title: The Lies of Locke Lamora

text: Capa Raza has planned his revenge against Barsavi and the nobles of Camorr since childhood, when his parents were murdered as collateral damage from the Secret Peace. To destroy the peers, he gives the Duke of Camorr four sculptures, actually time bombs filled with a substance that will cause all of the nobles and their children present at the celebration to slide into permanent mindlessness. Locke races back to the tower from which he escaped and manages to convince Vorchenza and the Salvaras of the danger, and the devices are defused. He next coerces the Spider to set him free to kill Raza, and not put him on trial for theft as a reward for saving their lives. Vorchenza agrees when Locke has shared the location of the stolen money; he tells her that Raza has hidden his treasure on a waste barge, and instructs her to destroy the plague ship and its crew before Raza can use it to infect the city. Locke faces Raza in mortal combat even though he is outmatched by the Capa's skills with a sword, and is nearly killed before managing to distract Raza for the split second he needs to finally slay him. When no treasure is found on the barge, Vorchenza realizes that the Thorn tricked her into destroying the ship filled with Raza's fortune, which is now an offering to the god of thieves for Locke's murdered friends. Later, Jean and Locke, recovering from their injuries, sail away to a new life.


title: The Lies of Locke Lamora

text: Warner Bros. bought the film rights soon after the book's release in 2006. The brothers Kevin and Dan Hageman were to write the screenplay, with Michael De Luca and Julie Yorn to produce. However, the film rights lapsed in April 2010.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: USS "Langley" (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS "Jupiter" (Navy Fleet Collier No. 3), and also the US Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built s "Lexington" and "Saratoga", freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers and . "Langley" was named after Samuel Langley, an American aviation pioneer. Following another conversion to a seaplane tender, "Langley" fought in World War II. On 27 February 1942, while ferrying a cargo of USAAF P-40s to Java, she was attacked by nine twin-engine Japanese bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd naval air flotillas and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: President William H. Taft attended the ceremony when "Jupiter"s keel was laid down on 18 October 1911, at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. She was launched on 14 August 1912, sponsored by Mrs. Thomas F. Ruhm; and commissioned on 7 April 1913, under Commander Joseph M. Reeves. Her sister ships were , which disappeared without a trace in World War I, , and , both of which disappeared on the same route as "Cyclops" in World War II.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: "Jupiter" was the first turbo-electric-powered ship of the US Navy. had been built with a steam turbine and geared drive but performance was inferior to the earlier "Cyclops" with its two triple expansion steam engines. "Jupiter"s electric drive, designed by William Le Roy Emmet and built by the General Electric Company, consisted of two electric motors, each directly connected to a propeller shaft, powered by a single Curtis turbine and alternator set. At 2,000 rpm and 2,200 volts the set delivered a speed of with propellers at 110 rpm. There was also a weight saving with the turbo-electric drive being 156 tons versus the 280 tons of equivalent machinery for "Cyclops".


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: After successfully passing her sea trial "Jupiter" embarked a United States Marine Corps detachment at San Francisco, California, and reported to the Pacific Fleet at Mazatlán, Mexico, on 27 April 1914, bolstering US naval strength on the Mexican Pacific coast in the tense days of the Veracruz crisis. She remained on the Pacific coast until she departed for Philadelphia, on 10 October. "En route", the collier steamed through the Panama Canal on Columbus Day, the first vessel to transit it from the Pacific to the Atlantic.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: Prior to America's entry into World War I, she cruised the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, attached to the Atlantic Fleet Auxiliary Division. The ship arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, on 6 April 1917, and was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transport Service, interrupted her coaling operations by two cargo voyages to France, in June 1917 and November 1918. The first voyage transported a naval aviation detachment of 7 officers and 122 men to England. It was the first US aviation detachment to arrive in Europe and was commanded by Lieutenant Kenneth Whiting, who became "Langley" first executive officer five years later. "Jupiter" was back in Norfolk, on 23 January 1919, whence she sailed for Brest, France, on 8 March, for coaling duty in European waters to expedite the return of victorious veterans to the United States. Upon reaching Norfolk, on 17 August, the ship was transferred to the West Coast. Her conversion to an aircraft carrier was authorized on 11 July 1919, and she sailed to Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 12 December, where she was decommissioned on 24 March 1920.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: "Jupiter" was converted into the first US aircraft carrier at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia. On 11 April 1920, she was renamed "Langley" in honor of Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American astronomer, physicist, aeronautics pioneer and aircraft engineer, and she was given the hull number "CV-1". By early 1921, memories of World War I were swaying public opinion away from warship construction toward disarmament. Article VIII of the Washington Naval Treaty provided an exemption for experimental aircraft carriers in existence or building on 12 November 1921. The Washington Naval Treaty was signed on 6 February 1922; and "Langley" was recommissioned on 20 March 1922 for the purpose of conducting experiments in seaborne aviation. The commanding officer was Commander Kenneth Whiting, who had first proposed conversion of a collier to the General Board of the United States Navy three years and twelve days earlier.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: As the first American aircraft carrier, "Langley" was the scene of several seminal events in US naval aviation. On 17 October 1922, Lt. Virgil C. Griffin piloted the first plane—a Vought VE-7—launched from her full-length wooden deck. Though this was not the first time an airplane had taken off from a ship, and though "Langley" was not the first ship with an installed flight deck, this one launching was of monumental importance to the modern US Navy. The era of the aircraft carrier was born, introducing into the navy what was to become the vanguard of its forces in the future. With "Langley" underway nine days later, Lieutenant Commander Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier made the first landing, in an Aeromarine 39B. On 18 November, Commander Whiting was the first aviator to be catapulted from a carrier's deck.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: An unusual feature of "Langley" was provision for a carrier pigeon house on the stern between the 5-inch guns. Pigeons had been carried aboard seaplanes for message transport since World War I, and were to be carried on aircraft operated from "Langley". The pigeons were trained at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard while "Langley" was undergoing conversion. As long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for exercise, they returned to the ship; but when the whole flock was released while "Langley" was anchored off Tangier Island, the pigeons flew south and roosted in the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard. The pigeons never went to sea again and the former pigeon house became the executive officer's quarters; but the early plans for conversion of "Lexington" and "Saratoga" included compartments for pigeons.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: By 15 January 1923, "Langley" had begun flight operations and tests in the Caribbean Sea for carrier landings. In June, she steamed to Washington, D.C., to give a demonstration at a flying exhibition before civil and military dignitaries. She arrived at Norfolk on 13 June, and commenced training along the Atlantic coast and Caribbean which carried her through the end of the year. This publicity cruise stopped at Bar Harbor, Maine, Portland, Maine, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Boston and New York City. After entering port and anchoring, "Langley" published a takeoff and landing schedule so interested civilians might watch. Although the aviators did some formation flying over the cities, people were more interested in watching the shipboard takeoffs and landings. The planes seldom attained flying speed on deck when taking off while the ship was at anchor with little or no wind, but the pilots were confident their Vought VE-7s could reach flying speed during the drop from the flight deck before reaching the water. In 1924, "Langley" participated in more maneuvers and exhibitions, and spent the summer at Norfolk for repairs and alterations, she departed for the West Coast late in the year and arrived in San Diego, California, on 29 November to join the Pacific Battle Fleet.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: In 1927, "Langley" was at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. For the next 12 years, she operated off the California coast and Hawaii, engaged in training fleet units, experimentation, pilot training, and tactical-fleet problems. "Langley" was featured in the 1929 silent film about naval aviation "The Flying Fleet."


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: On 25 October 1936, she put into Mare Island Navy Yard, California for overhaul and conversion to a seaplane tender. Though her career as a carrier had ended, her well-trained pilots had proved invaluable to the next two carriers, "Lexington" and "Saratoga" (commissioned on 14 December and 16 November 1927, respectively).


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: "Langley" completed conversion on 26 February 1937 and was assigned hull number "AV-3" on 11 April. She was assigned to the Aircraft Scouting Force and commenced her tending operations out of Seattle, Washington, Sitka, Alaska, Pearl Harbor, and San Diego, California. She departed for a brief deployment with the Atlantic Fleet from 1 February-10 July 1939, and then steamed to assume duties with the Asiatic Fleet at Manila arriving on 24 September.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: On the entry of the US into World War II, "Langley" was anchored off Cavite, Philippines. On 8 December, following the invasion of the Philippines by Japan, she departed Cavite for Balikpapan in the Dutch East Indies. As the Japanese advance continued, "Langley" proceeded to Australia, arriving in Darwin on 1 January 1942. She then became part of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) naval forces. Until 11 January, "Langley" assisted the Royal Australian Air Force in running anti-submarine patrols out of Darwin.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: "Langley" went to Fremantle to pick up a cargo of 32 P-40 fighters of the Far East Air Force's 13th Pursuit Squadron (Provisional), along with U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) pilots and ground crews. At Fremantle, "Langley" and the cargo ship (loaded with an additional 27 unassembled and crated P-40s), joined Convoy MS.5 which had just arrived from Melbourne bound for Colombo, Ceylon with troops and supplies eventually destined for India and Burma. The convoy was composed of the United States Army Transport and the Australian troop transports and , escorted by the light cruiser . MS.5 departed Fremantle on 22 February. En route to Colombo, "Langley" and "Sea Witch" were directed by ABDACOM to leave the convoy and instead proceed individually to deliver the planes to Tjilatjap, Java.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: In the early hours of 27 February, "Langley" rendezvoused with the destroyers and , which had been sent from Tjilatjap to escort her. Later that morning, a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft located the formation. At 11:40, about south of Tjilatjap, the seaplane tender, along with "Edsall" and "Whipple" were attacked by sixteen Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service's Takao Kōkūtai, led by Lieutenant Jiro Adachi, flying out of Denpasar airfield on Bali, and escorted by fifteen A6M2 Reisen fighters. Rather than dropping all their bombs at once, the Japanese bombers attacked releasing partial salvos. Since they were level bombing from medium altitude, "Langley" was able to alter helm when the bombs were released and evade the first and second bombing passes, but the bombers changed their tactics on the third pass and bracketed all the directions "Langley" could turn. As a result, "Langley" took five hits from a mix of bombs as well as three near misses, with 16 crewmen killed. The topside burst into flames, steering was impaired, and the ship developed a 10° list to port. "Langley" went dead in the water as her engine room flooded. At 13:32, the order to abandon ship was passed.


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: After taking off the surviving crew and passengers ("Whipple" rescued 308 men and "Edsall" 177) at 13:58, the escorting destroyers stood off and began firing nine shells and two torpedoes into "Langley" hull at 14:29 to prevent her from falling into enemy hands, scuttling her at approximately 8°51'04.2"S 109°02'02.6"E After being transferred to the oiler , many of "Langley"s crew were lost when "Pecos" was sunk en route to Australia by Japanese carrier aircraft. Out of over 630 total crewmen and "Langley" survivors on "Pecos", 232 were rescued while more than 400 were left behind and died due to Japanese submarines in the area hindering rescue efforts. Exact casualty numbers for the doomed ships of the United States Asiatic Fleet and American-British-Dutch-Australian Command are impossible to gather because so many Allied warships were sunk in the Dutch East Indies campaign (at least 24 total) and many of those ships had already picked up survivors of other sunken ships and then were also sunk by the Japanese hours or days later. Thirty-one of the thirty-three pilots assigned to the USAAF 13th Pursuit Squadron (Provisional) being transported by "Langley" remained on "Edsall" to be brought to Tjilatjap, but were lost when she was sunk on the same day by Japanese warships while responding to the distress calls of "Pecos".


title: USS Langley (CV-1)

text: USS "Langley" (as AV-3) earned two battle stars on its Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Streamer: One for the Philippine Islands Operation, 8 December 1941 – 6 May 1942; and one for Netherlands East Indies Engagements, 23 January – 27 February 1942.


title: Murder of Nicholas Markowitz

text: Nicholas Samuel Markowitz (September 19, 1984 – August 9, 2000) was an American teenager who was kidnapped and murdered at the age of 15 after a feud over drug money between his half-brother Benjamin Markowitz and Jesse James Hollywood.


title: Murder of Nicholas Markowitz

text: Markowitz lived in West Hills, Los Angeles, with his parents, Jeff and Susan Markowitz. A feud between Nicholas' older half-brother, Ben Markowitz, and Jesse James Hollywood, a mid-level drug dealer, began over an alleged $1,200 debt owed to Hollywood by Ben Markowitz. On August 6, 2000, Hollywood and his friends Jesse Rugge and William Skidmore decided to confront Ben. On their way to see him, they saw Nicholas walking on the side of the road and decided to abduct him and hold him for ransom. After they chased, assaulted, and abducted Nicholas, they forced him into a white van and sped off.


title: Murder of Nicholas Markowitz

text: Markowitz's captors took him to Santa Barbara and plied him with drugs and alcohol. While in Santa Barbara, Nicholas met Rugge's friends Graham Pressley, Natasha Adams-Young, and Kelly Carpenter and attended various house parties with them. Reports indicate that many witnesses, parents and teens alike, saw Nicholas with the others, but did not realize anything was amiss.


title: Murder of Nicholas Markowitz

text: After Hollywood told Rugge that Nicholas would be returning home, Rugge and several others held a party at the Lemon Tree Inn. However, after learning of the legal ramifications he could face for kidnapping, Hollywood called Ryan Hoyt, another member of his gang who owed him money. Hollywood gave Hoyt a TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun and directed him to kill Nicholas as a way of paying off his debt. A decision was made to commit the murder on the Lizard’s Mouth trail in the Santa Ynez Mountains north of Goleta, California.


title: Murder of Nicholas Markowitz

text: After the party, Hoyt, Rugge, and Pressley drove Nicholas to the mountains and walked up a trail to a grave dug by Pressley earlier that night. Rugge bound Nicholas's hands behind his back and covered his mouth with duct tape. Hoyt then hit Nicholas in the back of the head with a shovel, knocking him into the grave, and shot him nine times with Hollywood's handgun. The grave was shallow, and was located near a popular trail. Nicholas's body was found on August 12, 2000. Hoyt, Rugge, Skidmore, and Pressley were all arrested. Hollywood went on the run, but was eventually captured in a small town near Rio de Janeiro five years later.


title: Murder of Nicholas Markowitz

text: Several civil and criminal court proceedings have arisen from the Markowitz murder. Those proceedings include:


title: Murder of Nicholas Markowitz

text: The feature film "Alpha Dog", based on the events leading up to the murder of Nicholas Markowitz and directed by Nick Cassavetes, was released in 2006. In the film, the character modeled after Markowitz was named Zack Mazursky. The role was played by Anton Yelchin.


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: "Doña" María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick, 19th Countess of Teba, 16th Marchioness of Ardales (5 May 1826 – 11 July 1920), known as Eugénie de Montijo (), was Empress of the French from her marriage to Emperor Napoleon III on 30 January 1853 until the Emperor was overthrown on 4 September 1870.


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: Born to prominent Spanish nobility, Eugénie was educated in France, Spain, and England. As Empress, she used her influence to champion "authoritarian and clerical policies"; her involvement in politics earned her much criticism from contemporaries. Napoléon and Eugénie had one child together, Napoléon, Prince Imperial (1856–79). After the fall of the Empire, the three lived in exile in England; Eugénie outlived both her husband and son and spent the remainder of her life working to commemorate their memories and the memory of the Second Empire.


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: The woman who became the last Empress of the French was born in Granada, Spain, to Don Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero (1785–1839), three times Grandee of Spain, whose titles included 15th Duke of Peñaranda de Duero, 9th Count of Montijo, 15th Count of Teba, 8th Count of Ablitas, 8th Count of Fuentidueña, 14th Marquess of Ardales, 17th Marquess of Moya and 13th Marquess of la Algaba and his half-Scottish, quarter-Belgian, quarter-Spanish wife (whom he married on 15 December 1817), María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick de Closbourn y de Grevigné (24 February 1794 – 22 November 1879), a daughter of the Scots-born William Kirkpatrick of Closeburn (1764–1837), who became United States consul to Málaga, and later was a wholesale wine merchant, and his wife, Marie Françoise de Grevigné (born 1769), daughter of Liège-born Henri, Baron de Grevigné and wife, Doña Francisca Antonia de Gallegos (1751–1853).


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: Eugenia's older sister, María Francisca de Sales de Palafox Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick, nicknamed "Paca" (24 January 1825 – 16 September 1860), who inherited most of the family honours and was 12th Duchess of Peñaranda, Grandee of Spain and 9th Countess of Montijo, a title later ceded to her sister, married the 15th Duke of Alba in 1849. Until her marriage in 1853, Eugénie variously used the titles of Countess of Teba or Countess of Montijo. However, some family titles were inherited by her elder sister, through which they passed to the House of Alba. After the death of her father, Eugenia became the 9th Countess of Teba and is named as such in the "Almanach de Gotha" (1901 edition). After Eugenia's demise, all titles of the Montijo family came to the Fitz-Jameses (the Dukes of Alba and Berwick).


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: On 18 July 1834, María Manuela and her daughters left Madrid for Paris, fleeing a cholera outbreak and the dangers of the First Carlist War. The previous day, Eugenia had witnessed a riot and murder in the square outside their residence, Casa Ariza.


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: Eugénie de Montijo, as she became known in France, was formally educated mostly in Paris, beginning at the fashionable, traditionalist Convent of the Sacré Cœur from 1835 to 1836. A more compatible school was the progressive Gymnase Normal, Civil et Orthosomatique, from 1836 to 1837, which appealed to her athletic side (a school report praised her strong liking for athletic exercise, and although an indifferent student, that her character was "good, generous, active and firm"). In 1837, Eugénie and Paca briefly attended a boarding school for girls on Royal York Crescent in Clifton, Bristol, to learn English. Eugénie was teased as "Carrots" for her red hair and tried to run away to India, making it as far as climbing on board a ship at Bristol docks. In August 1837, they returned to school in Paris. However, much of the girls' education took place at home, under the tutelage of English governesses Miss Cole and Miss Flowers, and family friends such as Prosper Mérimée and Henri Beyle.


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: In March 1839, on the death of their father in Madrid, the girls left Paris to rejoin their mother there. In Spain, Eugénie grew up into a headstrong and physically daring young woman, devoted to horseriding and a range of other sports. She was rescued from drowning and twice attempted suicide after romantic disappointments. She was very interested in politics and became devoted to the Bonapartist cause, under the influence of Eleanore Gordon, a former mistress of Louis Napoléon. Due to her mother's role as a lavish society hostess, Eugénie became acquainted with Isabel II and the prime minister Ramón Narváez. María Manuela was increasingly anxious to find a husband for her daughter and took her on trips to Paris again in 1849 and England in 1851.


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: She first met Prince Louis Napoléon after he had become president of the Second Republic with her mother at a reception given by the "prince-president" at the Élysée Palace on 12 April 1849. "What is the road to your heart?" Napoleon demanded to know. "Through the chapel, Sire", she answered.


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: In a speech on 22 January 1853, Napoleon III, after becoming emperor, formally announced his engagement, saying, "I have preferred a woman whom I love and respect to a woman unknown to me, with whom an alliance would have had advantages mixed with sacrifices". They were wed on 29 January 1853 in a civil ceremony at the Tuileries, and on the 30th, there was a grander religious ceremony at Notre Dame.


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: The marriage had come after considerable activity concerning who would make a suitable match, often toward titled royals and with an eye to foreign policy. The final choice was opposed in many quarters. Eugénie was considered of too little social standing by some. In the United Kingdom, "The Times" made light of the latter concern, emphasizing that the parvenu Bonapartes were marrying into Grandees and one of the most important established houses in the peerage of Spain: "We learn with some amusement that this romantic event in the annals of the French Empire has called forth the strongest opposition and provoked the utmost irritation. The Imperial family, the Council of Ministers, and even the lower coteries of the palace or its purlieus, all affect to regard this marriage as an amazing humiliation..."


title: Eugénie de Montijo

text: Eugénie found childbearing extraordinarily difficult. An initial miscarriage in 1853, after a three-month pregnancy, frightened and soured her. On 16 March 1856, after two-day labor that endangered mother and child and from which Eugénie made a prolonged recovery, the empress gave birth to an only son, Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte, styled "Prince Impérial".