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1-50 of 1,489
- Charles Nodier was born on 29 April 1780 in Besançon, Doubs, France. He was a writer, known for La légende de soeur Béatrix (1923) and Grands pas classiques (1978). He died on 27 January 1844 in Paris, France.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Karl Millöcker was born on 29 April 1842 in Vienna, Austria. He was a composer, known for Der Bettelstudent (1936), The Beggar Student (1956) and Kaiserwalzer (1933). He was married to Charlotte Kling and Karoline Hofer. He died on 31 December 1899 in Baden, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary.- He was born into the feudal royal family of Travancore (now part of the state of Kerala in South India). Varma's contribution to iconography and lithographs in Indian painting is significant. He apprenticed under the court painter Ramaswamy Naicker and even studied under the tutelage of the Dutch painter Theodore Jensen. Varma was very popular among the British authorities in having him do their portraits. He is more well known today for his paintings of scenes from Indian mythology that have an 'academic' style. In 1894 he mass produced his olegraphs at Lonavala. His paintings had a significant impact on Indian theatre. The Sangeet Natnak used his style of rendering for their stage backdrops that was quickly imitated by others. The poet and novelist Kerala Varma (1845-1914) has written extensively about him.
- Soundtrack
Paul Rubens was born on 29 April 1875 in London, England, UK. Paul died on 5 February 1917 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, UK.- Thomas "Tad" Aloysius Dorgan was born on 29 April, 1877, at San Francisco, the son of Thomas J. and Anna Dorgan. His father worked as a laundryman and later as a teamster in the Bay Area.
Dorgan began working in the mid 1890s as a cartoonist for the San Francisco Bulletin. In 1904 he joined the staff of the New York Evening Journal as a cartoonist and sports writer. Soon his cartoons and sports columns were being picked up by the Hearst wire service and published nationwide and abroad. While at the Evening Journal Dorgan was instrumental in advancing the career of fellow sports writer, Charles E. van Loan.
Through his wit and creative use of the English language, Dorgan became one of the most beloved sports journalists of his day. He was famous for assigning many sports celebrities with ingenious nicknames and for originating some of the most popular slang phrases of all time. Dorgan was thought to have been the first to use slang terms like: "Twenty-Three Skidoo", "He's a Hard-Boiled Egg", "Dumb Dora", "Finale Hopper", "Solid Ivory", "Drug Store Cowboy", "Cake-Eater", "The Cat's Meow" "Nickel Nurse", "There's Nobody Home", "You Tell 'Em the First Hundred Years are the Hardest", Dumb-Bell", 'As Busy as a One-Armed Paper-Hanger with Hives" and others.
Tad Dorgan died on 2 May, 1929, at his home in Great Neck, Long Island. He had been suffering from heart disease for several years and even though he spent most of that that time bedridden he was able to continue working up to a few days before his death. The end came not long after he came down with pneumonia. - Writer
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Konstadinos Kavafis was born on 29 April 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt. He was a writer, known for Cuéntame cómo pasó (2001), I nyhta (1970) and Ap tes ennia (1979). He died on 29 April 1933 in Alexandria, Egypt.- C.P. Cavafy was born on 29 April 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt. He was a writer, known for Love's Presentation (1968), Preámbulo a un silencio (1986) and Reviens et prends-moi (2005). He died on 29 April 1933 in Alexandria, Egypt.
- Adolph Klauber was born on 29 April 1879 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was a producer, known for Scrambled Wives (1921). He was married to Jane Cowl. He died on 7 December 1933 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Bert Woodruff was the son of non-professionals Hannah R. and William A. Woodruff of Peoria, Illinois. He was married to Hattie M. Sprague. He entered the theatrical profession in 1876 in Minstrels and toured for two years as a Minstrel. Toured on the stage from 1878 until 1882, and then entered Vaudeville in Peoria, in the same house for seven years. He did an Irish act 1889-1891. He also managed theatres in Davenport, Iowa; Sheboygan, Wisconsin and in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois until 1904. He went to California that year with a Carnival company. He entered pictures in 1916 with D. W. Griffith, appearing in "Jim Bludson," "Veteran Sinners," "Children of Dust," "Flaming Gold," "The Barrier," "The Fire Brigade," "Spring Fever," "Speedy," "Masked Money" and "The Awakening." Also appeared in nine Charles Ray films and in "Song of Kentucky" in 1929.- Marshall Rogers was born on 29 April 1891 in Eddyville, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor, known for Body and Soul (1925) and The Spider's Web (1927). He died on 3 December 1934 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Cecil Morton York was born on 29 April 1857 in Kensington, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Lorna Doone (1920), Wuthering Heights (1920) and The House of Temperley (1913). He died on 23 February 1935 in Denville Hall, Northwood, London, England, UK.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Alfred G. Robyn was born on 29 April 1860 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Alfred G. was a writer, known for The Yankee Consul (1924). Alfred G. was married to Isadora M. Schmitt. Alfred G. died on 18 October 1935 in New York City, New York, USA.- Max Wesell was born on 29 April 1863 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for Rangeland (1922), The Forbidden Range (1923) and West of the Pecos (1922). He was married to Alma C. Tips. He died on 22 March 1936 in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
- Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson was born on 29 April 1867 in Helsinki, Finland. She was an actress and writer, known for Bröderna Östermans huskors (1925), The Outlaw and His Wife (1918) and Värdshusets hemlighet (1917). She died on 15 June 1937 in Stockholm, Sweden.
- Director
- Producer
Louis Myll was born on 29 April 1871 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Keep Moving (1915), The Adopted Baby (1915) and When Ciderville Went Dry (1915). He was married to Alma Hanlon and Corah White. He died on 22 April 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.- Wilhelmina Schwab-Welman was born on 29 April 1862 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She was an actress, known for Geeft ons kracht (1920) and Helleveeg (1920). She was married to Herman Schwab. She died on 7 January 1940 in Heemstede, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.
- Kurt Kluge was born on 29 April 1886 in Leipzig, Germany. He was a writer, known for Die Zaubergeige (1944), The Higher Command (1935) and Die gefälschte Göttin (1971). He was married to Carla Heidensleben. He died on 26 July 1940 in Fort Eben-Emael nearby Liege, Belgium.
- Cosmo Hamilton was born on 29 April 1870 in Norwood, London, England, UK. Cosmo was a writer, known for Paradise (1926), Reckless Youth (1922) and Day Dreams (1919). Cosmo was married to Mrs. Julia A. Currey Bolton and Beryl Faber. Cosmo died on 14 October 1942 in Guildford, Surrey, England, UK.
- Actor
- Composer
- Writer
Matti Jurva was born on 29 April 1898 in Helsinki, Finland. He was an actor and composer, known for Kaunis Veera eli ballaadi Saimaalta (1950), Drifting Clouds (1996) and Toto (1982). He died on 16 September 1943 in Helsinki, Finland.- Actress
Irena Horwath was born on 29 April 1865 in Bródno, Poland, Russian Empire [now Bródno, Targówek, Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. She was an actress, known for Wife (1915) and Niebezpieczny kochanek (1912). She died on 3 October 1943 in Lwów, Lwowskie, Poland [now Lviv, Ukraine].- Béla Bálint was born on 29 April 1886 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary. He was an actor, known for Házasodik az anyósom (1916), Tájfun (1918) and Piri mindent tud (1932). He died on 16 March 1945 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Henry A. Barrows was born on 29 April 1875 in Saco, Maine, USA. He was an actor, known for Captain Blood (1924), Rent Free (1922) and The Sunset Derby (1927). He died on 25 March 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
William Kent was born on 29 April 1882 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for King of Jazz (1930), When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922) and The Scarlet Letter (1934). He was married to Mary R.. He died on 4 October 1945 in New York City, New York, USA.- Writer
- Actor
Egon Erwin Kisch was born on 29 April 1885 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. He was a writer and actor, known for Tonka Sibenice (1930), Pasák holek (1930) and Der Fall des Generalstabs-Oberst Redl (1931). He was married to Gisela Lyner. He died on 31 March 1948 in Prague, Czechoslovakia.- Rafael Sabatini was born near the Adriatic seaport of Ancona, Italy to Anna Trafford, an Englishwoman, and Italian Vincenzo Sabatini, both of whom were well known opera singers. With their careers still in full swing and included much traveling, so baby Rafael was sent to her parents near Liverpool for a stable home life. After seven years they retired from opera and turned to being voice teachers and the boy rejoined them, first in Portugal where they set up their first music school, then back to Italy, where they settled in Milan.
By early adolescence Rafael had already been a voracious reader, with a particular fondness for romantic historical novels. He was schooled at Zug, Switzerland, but by 17 years of age he was well versed in some six languages and decided it was time to make his way in the world. His father stepped in and determined that Rafael's linguistic skill was best served in international commerce, so he was sent back to Liverpool in 1892--a logical decision, since he had family there and the city was Great Britain's largest commercial port. His knowledge of Portuguese came in especially useful in his company's dealings in Brazil, but after four years of business, Rafael's interest in writing was bubbling to the top. He was writing his own romance stories, which he believed to be more interesting than just reading the works of others. All of this work was in English, as he considered the best literature of the world to be in that language. Some of his work was submitted by an acquaintance to an editor and, and wound up being accepted and published by a Liverpool publisher. By 1899 he was selling short stories regularly to prominent magazines: Person's, London, and Royal. He also had a translation job as well, and by 1905 with two novels published, he decided to devote full time to writing. That same year he married Ruth Goad Dixon, the daughter of a Liverpool paper merchant. At that point Sabatini moved to London, the publishing hub of Britain.
Rafael produced, in addition to about a novel a year, a steady stream of short stories. By the time he published his first really interesting swashbuckler, "The Sea Hawk", in 1915 he had completed 12 novels and, although comfortable in his new living, he was not the success he had envisioned. Though he had a modest and loyal following and his historical research was of a high degree, Sabatini's earlier work could be rather uneven in subject matter, of special interest to him but not the public. For instance, his supposed illegitimacy may have led to his half-dozen books dealing with the illegitimate despot Cesare Borgia of early 16th-century Italy. He also sometimes hampered himself with heavy-handed historical constraints, dragged out with extraneous philosophizing, as well as stilted dialog--but some of these faults were characteristic of 19th- and early 20th-century novel writing style. He managed another novel for 1917, but through most of World War I he was working in as a translator for the British intelligence service--evidently of great import to the war effort (he had finally become a British citizen, due in no small part to Italy's continued threats to conscript him into the army).
Sabatini returned to his writing after the war but nothing was forthcoming until 1921. He had been writing professionally for nearly 25 years when he finished "Scaramouche" and tried, but failed, to interest several American publishers in it. It was, however, picked up in England for publishing, and then in America as well. The story of Andre Moreau in the period of the French Revolution became a runaway best-seller internationally. After the success of "Scaramouche", Sabatini was ready with a second to his 1-2 punch. In 1922 "Captain Blood" was published, to even greater success. Suddenly his earlier works were being rushed into reprints, the most popular being "The Sea Hawk". Although the growing silent-film industry had already used six of his stories for films, they quickly started optioning the new best sellers for production. "Scaramouche" was turned into Scaramouche (1923) and followed by The Sea Hawk (1924) which hewed to the book's many turns, something the 1940 Errol Flynn version didn't do, opting for pretty much an entirely new screenplay, but was nonetheless extremely popular. The 1935 remake of "Captain Blood", also starring Flynn (Captain Blood (1935)), stuck the novel's story and was just as popular. The "Scaramouche" remake (Scaramouche (1952)) starred Stewart Granger and was a big hit.
By 1925 Sabatini had achieved his dream of success--he was rich and still filled with ideas and the will to write still more novels. There was time to rest, especially in his much beloved Wales--fishing was one of his favorite pastimes--but he also loved to ski. There was tragedy ahead, however. The Sabatinis' only son Rafael-Angelo (born in 1909 and nicknamed Binkie), busy with college, was given a new car by his parents in 1927. They were all due to go north to Scotland for a vacation, when the son and his mother went for a drive and the car was involved in an accident. Ruth Sabatini was thrown from the vehicle and knocked unconscious and was unable to remember what had happened, but Rafael-Angelo was fatally injured. Sabatini, returning from taking a friend to the railway station in Gloucester, happened on the accident and found his wife and son lying by the side of the road. The son died after arrival back at their rented estate of Brockweir House. The parents were devastated, and Sabatini went into a depression that stopped all writing. He started again a year later, and it would provide him enough to enable him to complete another novel, "The Hounds of God". Thereafter the novel-a-year work ethic would continue until 1941. However, his relationship with his wife was already strained by the time of their son's death, and they divorced in 1931. That year he also did a sequel to "Scaramouche"--"Scaramouche the Kingmaker". Sabatini turned to a new domesticated tranquility, having finally moved to Wales near Hay-on-Wye and refurbishing a fine old home called Clock Mill, complete with its own stream and stocked with trout.
In 1935 he married the sculptress Christine Goad, the wife of his first wife's brother. They were a happy couple, spending each January in Adelboden, Switzerland, for skiing. He finished a two-volume set of stories centering on his Captain Blood character called "Chivalry" in 1935. By the late 1930s the clouds of war in Europe especially disturbed Sabatini. He suffered through yet another tragedy when his new wife's son, Lancelot, flew over their house the day he received his RAF pilot's wings. The plane went out of control and crashed in flames across the Wye in a field right before their eyes. Sabatini wrote no more novels until 1944, for by this time he was developing what appeared to be stomach cancer. He managed one more novel in 1949, his 31st. He died on one last trip to Adelboden in 1950 and was buried there. On his headstone his wife had written the first lines from Scaramouche: "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." It made a very fitting epitaph. There have been 21 adaptations of his works for the screen, both in film and on TV. His writings also included eight collections of short novels/stories, six non-fiction books and many short stories, some of which are lost. - Actor
- Director
Jan W. Speerger was born on 29 April 1895 in Adamov, Ceské Budejovice District, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor and director, known for Karel Havlícek Borovský (1925), Za svobodu národa (1920) and Batalión (1937). He died on 25 June 1950 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].- Valentine Petit was born on 29 April 1873 in Saint Josse ten Node, Brussels, Belgium. She was an actress, known for Les armes de la femme (1916), Lafayette, We Come (1918) and The Silent Master (1917). She was married to Léonce Perret. She died on 18 January 1951 in Nogent-sur-Marne, Seine [now Val-de-Marne], France.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
William Randolph Hearst was the greatest newspaper baron in the history of the United States and is the person whom Citizen Kane (1941), widely regarded as the greatest film ever made, is primarily based on. While there are many similarities between Charles Foster Kane, as limned by the great Orson Welles and his screenwriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz (who knew Hearst), there are many dissimilarities also.
He was born on April 29, 1863, in San Francisco, California, the only child of the multi-millionaire miner George Hearst and his wife, Phoebe Apperson Hearst. Mrs. Hearst was a former school-teacher with refined manners who was over 20 years her husband's junior. Phoebe spoiled William Randolph, who was raised with personal tutors and sent to the most elite prep schools back East. He attended Harvard College but was expelled in 1885.
When he was 23 years old, William Randolph asked his father if he could take over the daily operation of the "San Francisco Examiner," a newspaper that George had acquired as payment for a gambling debt. His father relented and William Randolph took over, styling himself as its "Proprietor." The "Examiner," which he grandly called "The Monarch of the Dailies" on its masthead, was the first of many newspapers that the young Hearst would come to run, and the first where he indulged his appetite for sensationalistic, attention-getting, circulation-boosting news stories.
When his father George died, Phoebe Hearst liquidated the family mining assets to fund her son's acquisition of the ailing "New York Morning Journal." (The family continued to own forest products and petroleum properties.) Ruthless and driven, the aggressive Hearst willed the "Morning Journal" into becoming the best newspaper in New York City, hiring the best executives and finest reporters from the competition. In the style of yellow-news baron Joseph Pulitzer, with whom he now went into direct competition, Hearst introduced an in-your-face, outrageous editorial content that attracted a new market of readers. Though the term "Yellow Journalism" was originally coined to describe the practices of Pulitzer, Hearst proved adept at it. Hearst responded to the request of illustrator Frederic Remington, who had been detailed to Havana in 1898 in anticipation of something big, to return to the States with a terse message: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."
After the U.S.S. Maine was blown-up in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, Hearst called the Journal city desk and demanded that the front page prominently play up the incident as the sinking of the American battleship meant war. The Journal began immediately running banner headlines proclaiming "War? Sure!" to inflame the public and pressure the government of President William McKinley to proclaim war against Spain. (Some critics accused Hearst of being indirectly responsible for McKinley's assassination as he had published a poem by Ambrose Bierce that seemed to call for such an act.)
The Spanish-American War became the Journal's war just as Vietnam was the television network's war. Ernest L. Meyer wrote about Hearst's journalistic standards: "Mr. Hearst in his long and not laudable career has inflamed Americans against Spaniards, Americans against Japanese, Americans against Filipinos, Americans against Russians, and in the pursuit of his incendiary campaign he has printed downright lies, forged documents, faked atrocity stories, inflammatory editorials, sensational cartoons and photographs and other devices by which he abetted his jingoistic ends."
Hearst added Chicago to his domain, acquiring the "Chicago American" in 1900 and the "Chicago Examiner" in 1902. The "Boston American" and the "Los Angeles Examiner" were acquired in 1904, firmly establishing the media empire that in its heyday during the 1920s, consisted of 20 daily and 11 Sunday newspapers in 13 cities, the King Features syndication service, the International News Service, and the American Weekly (Sunday syndicated supplement). One in four Americans in the '20s read a Hearst newspaper daily. His media empire also included International News Reel and the movie production company Cosmopolitan Pictures, plus a number of national magazines, including "Cosmopolitan," "Good Housekeeping" and "Harper's Bazaar." In 1924, he opened the "New York Daily Mirror," a racy tabloid that was an imitation of the innovative "New York Daily News," which ran many photographs to illustrate its lurid reporting.
Unlike Charles Foster Kane, Willaim Randolph Hearst never married the niece of the president of the United States. The closest he got to a president other than socializing with one was marrying Millicent Wilson, who shared the name of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921). The nuptials took place the day before he turned 40. His family opposed his marriage to Millicent, who was a 21-year-old showgirl whom he had known for many years. Before Millicent, he had been involved with Tessie Powers, a waitress he had financially supported since he had attended Harvard and trysted with her while still sporting the college's beanie. Hearst's personal life often was featured in stories that his competitors, the tabloid newspapers, ran during his lifetime, the kind of press he would have no moral qualms about if the proverbial shoe were on the other foot and it was someone else's other than his ox being gored. (So much for his moral outrage over Citizen Kane (1941).) He and Millicent had five sons, but Hearst took another showgirl, 20-year-old Marion Davies of the Ziefgeld Follies, as his mistress. She was 34 years his junior. It was a relationship that lasted until the end of his life.
Hearst used his media power to get himself twice elected to Congress as a member of House of Representatives (1903-1905; and 1905-1907) as a progressive, if not radical Democrat. However, he failed in his two bids to become mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, and was defeated by the Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes in his attempt to become governor of New York State in (1906). He supported the Spanish-American War - many observers believe he even was the casus belli of that conflict - but opposed the U.S. entry into World War One as he despised the British Empire. He also opposed President Wilson's formation of the League of Nations and American membership in the organization.
By the time of the First World War, his political ambitions frustrated, he decided to live openly with Davies in California and at a castle he bought in Wales. His wife and children remained in New York, where Hearst became known as a leading philanthropist, creating the Free Milk Fund for the poor in 1921. They officially separated in 1926.
Hearst spent many years and a fortune promoting Marion Davies' film career. According to the great critic Pauline Kael, Davies was a first-rate light comedienne, but Hearst wanted her to play the classical roles of a tragedienne, with the result that he pushed her into movies that were ill-suited for her, and that made her look ridiculous. She was not, however, the talentless drunk that Charles Foster Kane's second wife, Susan Alexander was. (Orson Welles said that his only regret over Citizen Kane (1941) was the backlash and grief caused to Davies, who was a woman adored by everyone who knew her. Davies nephew actually was the step-father of Welles' first child.)
Phoebe Hearst died in 1919, and Hearst moved onto the family's 268,000-acre San Simeon Ranch in southern California. On 127 acres overlooking the California coast north of Cambria, he built what is now called Hearst Castle but that he called "La Cuesta Encantada." Starting in 1922, and not finished until 1947, the 165-room mansion was built by an army of craftsmen and laborers. The mansion -- which cost approximately $37 million to build -- was not ready for full-time occupancy until 1927, and additions to the main building continued for another 20 years. At La Cuesta Encantada, Hearst entertained the creme de la creme of Hollywood and the world, whom he treated to his hospitality among his personal art collection valued at over $50 million, the largest ever assembled by any private individual. He could live openly in California with Davies.
Along with his sensationalism and jingoism, William Randold Hearst was a racist who hated minorities, particularly Mexicans, both native-born and immigrants. He used his newspaper chain to frequently stir up racial tensions. Hearst's newspapers portrayed Mexicans as lazy, degenerate and violent, marijuana-smokers who stole jobs from "real Americans." Hearst's hatred of Mexicans and his hyping of the "Mexican threat" to America likely was rooted in the 800,000 acres of timberland that had been confiscated from him by Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution.
The Great Depression hurt Hearst financially, and he never recovered from it. At one point, his financial distress was so great, his mistress, Marion Davies, had to pawn some of her jewels to get him the cash to keep him afloat. The Hearst media empire has reached its zenith in terms of circulation and revenues the year before the Stockmarket Crash of October 1929, but the huge over-extension of the Hearst media empire eventually cost him control of his holdings. Hearst's newspaper chain likely had never been profitable, but had been supported by the income from his mining, ranching and forest products interests. All of Hearst's business interests were adversely affected by the economic downturn, but the newspapers were hit particularly hard due to the decline in advertising revenues, the life's blood of any newspaper. His bellicose and eccentric behavior only made matters worse.
By the time Franklin D. Roosevelt exerted himself over the U.S. economy, Hearst had become a reactionary. He had produced a film, Gabriel Over the White House (1933) starring Walter Huston as a presidential messiah, but Roosevelt, apparently, wasn't his kind of Christ-figure. In the movie, President 'Judd' Hammond exercised near dictatorial powers, including apparently ordering summary executions of gangsters; this may have gone over well in corporate America, but hardly was a management paradigm for a working democracy. However, Roosevelt's attempts to centralize power in government and industry cartels to combat the Depression were eventually repudiated by Hearst. His anti-Roosevelt stance, trumpeted by his papers, proved unpopular with the common man who was his primary readership.
Once, he had served as the self-appointed tribune of the common man, and his progressive politics was denounced by the plutocrats as radical, but by the 1930s, Hearst was flirting with Fascism. The Hearst papers carried paid-for columns by both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, though Hearst claimed that he was only an anti-Communist. However, during a continental tour with Marion Davies, Hearst actually attended the Nuremberg rally of 1934. He later completed a newsreel deal with Hitler during the trip. Franklin D. Roosevelt, of course, was as staunchly anti-fascist as Hearst was anti-communist. His pro-intervention policies on the side of Britian during the early days of World War Two rankled the philo-German Hearst.
Hearst had a complicated relationship with Roosevelt, whom he helped obtain the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination (as a moderate). Hearst fluctuated between endorsing and attacking F.D.R. and his New Deal. In public, Roosevelt, on his part, would woo Hearst with invitations to the White House, obtaining a temporary truce, while in private, Roosevelt complained of Hearst's power and had his income taxes investigated. In 1934, Hearst launched a virulent anti-communist witch-hunt that would last for 20 years in which he tarred New Deal supporters as reds, then ended up labeling F.D.R. himself a communist. In response to his red-baiting, liberals and leftists retaliated with a boycott of Hearst newspapers.
Hearst had become a major liability to the Hearst Corp. by the mid-1930s as he became more noxious. He had started out as a populist, but had veered right in the 1920s, then tacked left in the early 1930s, only to veer to the far right beginning in the mid-'30s. Always a maverick, Hearst might have been psychologically unable to maintain a constant position; unable or unwilling to reign in his ego and support those in power, he could never stay allies with anyone for long, and thus regularly shifted positions. As Roosevelt went left, Hearst went right. Apparently, as his flirtation with fascism elucidates, he had cast himself as the savior of America in his own mind.
The economic result of Hearst's shift to the right (which also may have been influenced by his need to cajole financiers, who decidedly were anti-Roosevelt) was that advertising sales and circulation declined, just as millions in debt came due and had to be refinanced. In 1936, Hearst's efforts to raise more capital by floating a new bond issue was stymied by his creditors, with the result that he was unable to service the Hearst Corp.'s debts. The Hearst Corp. went into receivership and was reorganized, and William Randolph Hearst was reduced to the status of an employee, with a court-appointed overseer. A liquidation of Heart Corp. assets began, and newspapers were shed, Cosmopolitan Pictures was terminated, and there was an auctioning off of his art and antiquities. Hearst, the media baron of unparalleled power, was through as a major independent power in American politics and culture.
However, he still retained enough clout with his remaining newspapers (and their ability to publicize movies) in the early 1940s to make life miserable for Orson Welles after the supreme insult of his roman a clef Citizen Kane (1941). Allegedly, Hearst wasn't so much incensed at Welles as he was at Mankiewicz, a friend who had betrayed his secrets. ("Rosebud," the name of the Charles Foster Kane's childhood sled that supposedly is the key to his psychology but is actually a "McGuffin" around which to structure the movie's plot, was allegedly Hearst's nickname for Davies' private parts.)
The economic recovery that came with war production during World War II (which he opposed, just as he had America's entry into the First World War) buoyed the Hearst newspapers' circulation and advertising revenues, but he never returned to the prominence he had enjoyed in the old days. He did, still, have the love of Marion Davies, who was with him to the end, steadfast in her love. Hearst died in 1951, aged eighty-eight, at Beverly Hills, California, and is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.
More than 50 years after his death, Hearst's stature has diminished while the reputation of Citizen Kane (1941) remains secure. Interestingly, Hearst's own current, largely negative image has largely been shaped by the film, which is considered a landmark in cinematic innovation. Perhaps it was just a case of Hearst living too long, of outliving his own innovative period. As a newspaper publisher, Hearst promoted innovative writers and cartoonists despite the indifference of his readers. George Herriman, the creator of the comic strip "Krazy Kat," was a Hearst favorite; Hearst even produced Krazy Kat movie shorts. "Krazy Kat" was not especially popular with readers, but it is now considered to be a classic and a watershed of that increasing respected art form. On the negative side, the sensationalistic, border-line fabricated, over-hyped journalistic paradigm that Hearst championed through his perfection of modern yellow journalism, a paradigm he made standard newspaper fare for over half-a-century, lives on in today's media.- Actor
Barney Crozier was born on 29 April 1890 in Canada. He was an actor. He died on 14 September 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Ivan Klyukvin was born on 29 April 1900 in Skopin, Ryazan Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ryazan Oblast, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Kapitanskaya dochka (1928), Svoi i chuzhiye (1928) and The Wings of a Serf (1926). He died on 24 June 1952 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Václav Vydra was born on 29 April 1876 in Plzen, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Skeleton on Horseback (1937), Svatý Václav (1930) and Bogra (1919). He died on 7 April 1953 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Toppo Elonperä was born on 29 April 1893 in Helsinki, Finland. He was an actor, known for Onnellinen ministeri (1941), Tukkijoella (1937) and Seitsemän veljestä (1939). He was married to Kerttu Hellin Jussila. He died on 27 August 1953 in Elimäki, Finland.- Tommy Hughes was born on 29 April 1887 in Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Manhattan Moon (1935). He died on 25 November 1953 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
T. Arthur Hughes was born on 29 April 1887 in Sketty, Swansea, Wales, UK. He was an actor. He died on 25 November 1953 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Elsa Widborg was born on 29 April 1896 in Fågelfors, Högsby, Kalmar län, Sweden. She was an actress, known for Crime and Punishment (1945), The Girl and the Devil (1944) and För hemmet och flickan (1925). She died on 4 April 1956.
- Vladimir Savelev was born on 29 April 1899 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for The Fall of Berlin (1950), Sekretnaya missiya (1950) and Solntse voskhodit na zapade (1933). He died on 9 April 1956 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Léon Arvel was born on 29 April 1873 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Un mauvais garçon (1936), Diary of a Country Priest (1951) and La chanson du souvenir (1937). He died on 26 June 1956 in Paris, France.
- Actor
Harold Herskind was born on 29 April 1906 in Ronde, Jutland, Denmark. He was an actor. He died on 12 June 1957 in Beltrami, Minnesota, USA.- Actor
- Director
Floyd France was born on 29 April 1890 in Decatur, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Putting the Bee in Herbert (1917), The Princess' Necklace (1917) and The Luck of Roaring Camp (1917). He was married to Elizabeth Burden. He died on 19 August 1957 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
Chuck DeShon was born on 29 April 1910 in Moundsville, West Virginia, USA. He was an actor. He died on 4 January 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Otto Sauter-Sarto was born on 29 April 1884 in Munich, Germany. He was an actor, known for The Csardas Princess (1934), The Blue from the Sky (1932) and Mach' mich glücklich (1935). He died on 19 January 1958 in Berlin, Germany.
- Suzanne Dantès was born on 29 April 1888 in Saint-Quentin, Aisne, France. She was an actress, known for Le blanc et le noir (1931), Sins of Youth (1941) and Chéri (1950). She died on 29 July 1958 in Saint-Léger-en-Yvelines, Yvelines, France.
- Art Department
Charles B. Steiner was born on 29 April 1890 in Austria. Charles B. died on 19 November 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Friedrich Lobe was born on 29 April 1889 in Frankfurt, Germany. He was an actor, known for Der fröhliche Weinberg (1927), Gasparone (1955) and Prater (1924). He was married to Mira Lobe. He died on 20 November 1958 in Vienna, Austria.
- Sound Department
Robert Pritchard was born on 29 April 1893 in Minnesota, USA. He is known for Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Paris Calling (1941) and The Witness Vanishes (1939). He died on 20 April 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Mabel Hart was born on 29 April 1886 in Rock Island, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Over the Wall (1938). She was married to Benjamin Ambler Reynolds. She died on 9 June 1960 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Charles Hitchcock was born on 29 April 1876 in Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Shadows (1914), One Wonderful Night (1914) and Terrible Teddy (1912). He died on 17 June 1960 in Beach Park, Lake County, Illinois, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Harry Pilcer was born on 29 April 1885 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Razor's Edge (1946), Cinderella (1937) and La femme rêvée (1929). He died on 14 January 1961 in Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Thomas Beecham was born on 29 April 1879 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, UK. He is known for The Red Shoes (1948), Atonement (2007) and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). He was married to Shirley Hudson, Betty Humby-Beecham and Utica Celestia Welles. He died on 8 March 1961 in London, England, UK.- Wallingford Riegger was born on 29 April 1885 in Albany, Georgia, USA. Wallingford was married to Rose Schramm. Wallingford died on 2 April 1961 in New York City, New York, USA.