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- One of the most prominent French philosophes and the author of "L'Encyclopédie", Diderot was born in 1713, the son of a cutler. An ardent student of classical literature, he attended the University of Paris, from which he received a master of the arts degree in 1732. A radical freethinker, Diderot rejected conventional dogma and associated himself with some of the most enlightened philosophers of his age. His books were burned and Diderot himself served three months in Vincennes prison in retaliation for his attacks on the conventional morality of the day. Some of his books were considered so radical that they were banned until after his death.
- After college he studied law. Arthur then practiced as a successful lawyer in New York City. Beginning in 1857, Arthur was employed as a lawyer by the "Second Brigade" of the New York State Militia. In 1859 he married Ellen Lewis Herndon, daughter of a Virginia naval hero. The marriage resulted in three children. Ellen Lewis Herndon died of pneumonia in 1880 and was unable to live to see her husband's subsequent presidency. During the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, Chester Arthur made a name for himself by supplying the troops. In 1868 he supported Ulysses S. Grant's presidential campaign. He also became chairman of the Executive Committee of the New York State Committee. He was heavily involved with the Republicans. In 1871 he was appointed director of customs for the Port of New York.
However, his involvement in the usual patronage of offices of the time resulted in his dismissal in 1878. In 1880, Arthur rose to vice president under the presidency of James Garfield. After his murder, Arthur succeeded to the presidency in September 1881. The new president initiated a reform of the civil service and the expansion and modernization of the fleet. He fought corruption in politics and led a reform-oriented government that enacted the first comprehensive civil service laws in the United States. Arthur also placed great emphasis on the representative aesthetics of his office, which he surrounded with new splendor. However, the Republican Party did not nominate Arthur to run for president in the 1884 presidential election. He therefore left office in 1885 and subsequently retreated into private life.
Chester Alan Arthur died on November 18, 1886 in New York. - Prince Henry of Battenberg was born on 5 October 1858 in Milan, Lombardy-Venetia, Austrian Empire [now Lombardy, Italy]. He was married to Princess Henry of Battenberg. He died on 20 January 1896 in near British Sierra Leone.
- Paul Mounet was born on 5 October 1847 in Bergerac, Dordogne, France. He was an actor, known for The Return of Ulysses (1909), Macbeth (1909) and L'héritière (1910). He was married to Philippine Madeleine André Barbot. He died on 10 February 1922 in Paris, France.
- William Musgrave was born on 5 October 1890 in Toledo, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Society's Driftwood (1917), The Black Sheep of the Family (1916) and Crown Jewels (1918). He died on 28 August 1922 in Clyde, Ohio, USA.
- Johanne Dinesen was born on 5 October 1882 in Silkeborg, Denmark. She was an actress, known for Den døde Rotte (1910) and Det gamle Købmandshus (1912). She died on 10 April 1930 in Monaco.
- Ida Brander was born on 5 October 1857 in Helsinki, Finland. She was an actress, known for Rakkauden kaikkivalta - Amor Omnia (1922), Rautakylän vanha parooni (1923) and Till österland (1926). She died on 15 May 1931 in Kauniainen, Finland.
- Fedor von Zobeltitz was born on 5 October 1857 in Gut Spiegelberg, Prussia, Germany [now Pozrzadlo, Lubuskie, Poland]. He was a writer, known for Der Klapperstorchverband (1920), Der Sträfling aus Stambul (1929) and Das Gasthaus zur Ehe (1926). He was married to Martha Tützer and Klara Auguste Hackenthal. He died on 10 February 1934 in Berlin, Germany.
- Sam Godfrey was born on 5 October 1891 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Men Without Names (1935), College Scandal (1935) and Torch Singer (1933). He was married to Marjorie Alexandria North. He died on 18 April 1935 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Teresa de la Parra was born on 5 October 1889 in Paris, France. She was a writer, known for Ifigenia, la película (1987), Ifigenia (1956) and Ifigenia (1979). She died on 23 April 1936 in Madrid, Spain.
- James Bradbury Jr. was born on 5 October 1894 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Song of the Eagle (1933), Gorilla Ship (1932) and The Last of the Duanes (1930). He died on 21 June 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Lady Tree was born on 5 October 1858 in Bexley, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Girl from Maxim's (1933), Wedding Rehearsal (1932) and Still Waters Run Deep (1916). She was married to Herbert Beerbohm Tree. She died on 7 August 1937 in London, England, UK.
- Cinematographer
John Urie was born on 5 October 1854 in Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was a cinematographer, known for The Queen of Hearts (1918), The Law of Compensation (1917) and The Prima Donna's Husband (1916). He died on 16 May 1938 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, USA.- Halsey H. Tower was born on 5 October 1889 in Buffalo, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Man's Fate (1917). He died on 24 November 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Constance Willis was born on 5 October 1893 in Southwark, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Mikado (1939), Plain Jane (1939) and Hansel and Gretel (1937). She died on 17 November 1940 in Worcester Park, Surrey, England, UK.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Del Andrews was born on 5 October 1894 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Del was a director and writer, known for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Is That Nice? (1926) and The Hottentot (1922). Del was married to Edith E.. Del died on 27 October 1942 in Tonopah, Nevada, USA.- Coen Hissink was born on 5 October 1878 in Kampen, Overijssel, Netherlands. He was an actor, known for De zwarte tulp (1921), Der Mann im Hintergrund (1922) and De man op den achtergrond (1922). He died on 17 December 1942 in Neuengamme, Germany.
- Cinematographer
Harry Ensign was born on 5 October 1883 in Waterbury, Connecticut, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for In the Park (1915). He died on 13 October 1943 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Rhody Hathaway was born on 5 October 1868 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for A Daughter of the Sioux (1925), The Phantom of the Forest (1926) and Bigger Than Barnum's (1926). He was married to Jean Hathaway. He died on 18 February 1944 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Additional Crew
- Producer
The motion picture producer Myron Selznick, who was the head of his father's Lewis J. Selznick Pictures in the early 1920s, is most famous for being the first great talent agent in Hollywood and the brother of David O. Selznick. Movie stars for which Selznick received his ten percent included Constance Bennett, W.C. Fields, Paulette Goddard, Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Carole Lombard, and Laurence Olivier. Selznick also represented directors, including George Cukor, Alfred Hitchcock (whom he was instrumental in bringing to the United States), and Rouben Mamoulian.
Myron was born on October 5, 1898, the eldest of the two sons of Lewis J. Selznick, one of the pioneers of studio film production. Born Lewis Zeleznik in Kiev, Ukraine in the Russian Empire into a poor Jewish family of eighteen, Selznick migrated to London at the age of twelve, and then to the United States, eventually winding up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he made his living as a jeweler. His shop was located near the nickelodeon opened by John P. Harris in 1905, which Pennsylvania officials claim was the country's first dedicated movie theater. Selznick and another merchant with a shop near Harris' nickelodeon, Harry Warner, were intrigued by Harris' business, and both would go on to be the founders of film studios.
After becoming the general manager of the East Coast Universal Film Exchange, Lewis J. Selznick started Equitable Pictures, raiding Vitagraph for Clara Kimball Young, a superstar of the silent screen. Selznick was one of the investors who created World Pictures in 1914 to import foreign feature films and to distribute the movies of several newly-established feature-film companies, including Equitable. Eventually, Selznick merged his company with Shubert Pictures and Peerless Pictures and took effective control of World.
World Pictures, whose corporate motto was "Quality Not Quantity," released movies produced by Equitable, Peerless, Shubert Pictures, and various independent companies, with production centered in Fort Lee, New Jersey. World Pictures wound up dominating the companies whose movies it distributed. When World Film Corp. was incorporated in February 1915, Selznick was appointed its vice president and general manager.
A financial innovator, Lewis Selznick inaugurated a new age of Wall Street investment in the film industry. World Film was a large feature film company with a market capitalization of $2 million (75% of which was outstanding stock), earning a net profit of $329,000 for a return of a little over 20% on the outstanding stock for the fiscal year ending June 27, 1915.
Lewis Selznick was ousted as general manager of World Film in 1916. He left World, taking with him the movie star Clara Kimball Young (who likely was his mistress), and forming his own production company, the Clara Kimball Young Film Corp. Selznick's new company also released movies produced by the Schenck brothers, Joseph and Nicholas, who were partners with theater-owner Marcus Lowe in his chain of movie houses.
In the early years of the film industry, there was a constant series of mergers and acquisitions among studios as individual moguls jockeyed for position. In 1917, Selznick merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Pictures, creating Select Pictures, later reorganized as the Selznick Film Co. He eventually bought out Zukor and merged the two companies into Selznick-Select, then acquired World Pictures' film exchanges, which he renamed Republic Distributing Corp. He shifted his operation to California, completing the move in 1920, where he again linked up with Zukor and Jesse Lasky's Paramount-Artcraft, the successor to Famous Players-Lasky.
The slogan "Selznick Pictures Make Happy Hours" was, by the end of the second decade of the new 20th Century, the best-known slogan in the entertainment industry. Colorful and flamboyant, a quote of Selznick's became one of the most famous aphorisms about the motion picture industry: "There's no business in the world in which a man needs so little brains as in the movies."
Personally, Selznick was a spendthrift, living in a high and imperious style, which shocked the more puritanical and abstentious Louis B. Mayer. Unlike most of the other moguls who lusted for legitimacy for their new industry and themselves, Lewis J. Selznick didn't take the movie business too seriously. Other movie magnates were outraged by his cavalier attitude toward the industry and to the moguls themselves.
Among the immigrant businessmen who created Hollywood and the American motion picture industry, many of whom were barely literate when they entered what would become known almost a century later as the "communications industry," it was the cultured and introspective ones who failed. Selznick had a self-deprecating cynicism that eventually diluted his ambition. It was said that in the early 20s, Selznick would rather stay at home surrounded by his ojects d'art than make the rounds of Hollywood. Apparently, he eschewed schmoozing with other industry insiders at their favorite haunts. Lacking their tastes and world view, Selznick wound up distrusted by the other movie magnates.
Lewis Selznick thoroughly grounded his two sons in the movie industry, an industry in which nepotism is taken for granted. Myron attended Columbia University, but he dropped out and then went to work for his father's movie company as a film examiner, an entry-level position, to "earn his bones" in the industry. He became the youngest producer in Hollywood by the time he was 20, and was producer-in-chief of Selznick Pictures by the time he was 21. By 1920, he had been appointed president of the company, a post he held until the company's failure in 1923, when Adolph Zukor bested his old rival, Lewis J. Selznick.
One of Lewis J. and Myron Selnick's protégés was former Follies girl (and courtesan) Olive Thomas, who was billed as "the world's most beautiful girl." She starred in Upstairs and Down (1919), the first film produced by Myron Selznick, and the first film released by the new Selznick Pictures Corp. She also appeared in "The Flapper" (1920), helping give wide currency to the word which helped define the new, modern, liberated woman of what became known as "The Roaring Twenties," and it was Myron who was considered to have made her a star. Married to Mary Pickford's brother Jack, Thomas died under mysterious circumstances on her "second honeymoon" in Paris in 1920, at the height of her youthful fame. Ruled an accidental suicide by French authorities, she perished after ingesting the contents of a full bottle of mercury bi-chloride pills, a common remedy for syphilis at the time, which her husband said she had mistaken for a bottle of aspirin, never explaining why she had downed its entire contents.
The 1920 edition of "Who's Who on the Screen" hailed Myron as being "recognized by all concerned as one of the most thorough and efficient men connected with the industry. Being in absolute charge of the purchasing of all stories and supervising productions for all the Selznick stars, young Mr. Selznick is indeed a busy executive. When the wonderful new Selznick Studio building is formally opened in Long Island City, Myron Selznick will assume command and Studio Managers, Casting Directors, and Film Editors will work under the youthful executive's wing. He is still in his early twenties and from all indications will become one of the great leaders of the fourth industry of the United States."
That prophecy was never to be realized. When Lewis J. Selznick Production, Inc., became financially troubled during a cyclical downturn that hit the industry in 1923, Lewis J. had no one to turn to. His company went bankrupt in 1923 due to over-expansion, done in by the machinations of a vengeful Zukor, who had bought up stock behind his back and forced the company into bankruptcy.
Lewis J. Selznick never produced another movie. He died on January 25, 1933, in Los Angeles, California. It was said that the professional lives of Myron and his younger brother David O. Selznick thereafter were lived to vindicate the Selznick name. David also learned the ropes as a young man at Lewis J. Selznick Production, and as an independent producer for his own Selznick International, David would win back-to-back Best Picture Oscars for "Gone With the Wind" (1939) and "Rebecca" (1940).
After his father went bankrupt, David O. Selznick quit Columbia University like his brother Myron had before him and moved to California to get back into the industry. Without any help from his father, he got a proofreaders job at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He worked his way up to become an assistant producer in Harry Rapf's unit, then got engaged to Irene Mayer, daughter of Louis B. Mayer, a match strongly disapproved by the M.G.M. boss, who despised David's father.
Lewis J. Selznick had tried to horn in on M.G.M,'s original 1925 production of "Ben-Hur," claiming he had rights to the stage play. David apologized to Mayer for his father, admitting it wasn't right for his father to have pulled such a con, and the two healed their rift. To avoid charges of nepotism, David eventually quit M.G.M. for Paramount, then became production boss at R.K.O. before returning to M.G.M. in 1933 after the heart attack of central producer Irving Thalberg. (The news of the elevation of David O. Selznick to supervising producer at M.G.M. was the source of the famous newspaper headline "The Son-in-Law Also Rises.") After quitting M.G.M. a second time in 1935, he went on to become arguably the greatest independent producer ever, responsible for "Gone With the Wind (1939), the most popular motion picture in cinematic history.
After the collapse of Lewis J. Selznick Production, Myron Selznick tried but failed to establish himself as an independent producer. In 1927, he produced the B-Western The Arizona Whirlwind (1927) with Bill Cody. Two years later, he established himself as a talent agent, creating Myron Selznick & Co., which eventually had offices in Hollywood, New York, and London. His brilliance as an agent made him a millionaire many times over. Selznick became so well-known and such a power in the industry by the early 1940s, that he was mentioned by name in Budd Schulberg's seminal Hollywood novel, "What Makes Sammy Run" (1941).
According to a September 1, 1952 "Time" Magazine cover story on Katharine Hepburn, when she first arrived in Hollywood from Broadway, Myron Selznick, her agent, was appalled at her looks, including her casual way of dressing. He said, "My God, are we sticking them $1,500 a week for this?!?" "Them" was R.K.O., where his brother David was production chief. But Myron's eye for talent was keen, and Hepburn quickly established herself as a star.
Myron built up his agency by signing movie personnel at a time where the studios were cavalier about their employees. In 1930, Myron hired Warner Bros. producer-in-chief Darryl F. Zanuck's former secretary, Marcella Rabwin, to be part of his agency. She had left Zanuck due to sexual harassment, and Rabwin herself had approached Selznick, offering him a proposition; if hired, she'd go back to Warner Bros. and sign up writers and directors, none of whom were under contract. Rabwin's proposition was accepted and proved successful for both her and Myron. Soon she was making more money than anyone else in Selznick's agency. Rabwin quit when Myron asked her to take a pay cut so she'd make less than his male agents. She went back to secretarial work, hired by R.K.O. at $35 per week, and eventually she became David O. Selznick's secretary, moving with him to Selznick International Pictures as his executive assistant.
The actress Marjorie Daw had appeared in England in the silent film with The Passionate Adventure (1924), co-starring Alice Joyce, Clive Brook and Victor McLaglen, a movie co-written by a young Alfred Hitchcock. Daw divorced her husband A. Edward Sutherland to become the wife of Myron Selznick, whose Lewis J. Selznick Enterprises released the film in 1924 in the U.S. Eventually, Myron was the one who "discovered" Histchcock, the director, and brought him to the attention of his brother, Davd O. Selznick, who in turn, brought Hitchcock to Hollywood to direct "Rebecca," the younger Selznick's second consecutive Best Picture Oscar winner.
Myron was no stranger to dealing with his brother as an agent. Earlier, he had represented director-writer William A. Wellman when he was making "A Star is Born" for David, who as a producer, was a notorious control-freak. Behind his director-writer's back, David hired Dorothy Parker and her husband Alan Campbell to rewrite Wellman's dialog. He also hired fellow mogul's son Budd Schulberg and future Hollywood 10 member Ring Lardner, Jr. to help rewrite to the screenplay. When Wellman had had enough of David's meddling, he had Myron threaten to sue his own brother on Wellman's behalf. The meddling stopped.
In 1938, Selznick had a memorable run-in with 20th Century-Fox chief executive Joseph M. Schenck, a former business partner of his father's. He demanded that Loretta Young's salary be doubled to approximately $70,000 a picture and also demanded also that the studio give her the right to work for other studios. Schenck, who had recently been appointed the new president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, was so incensed by Myron's demands, he ordered Selznick off of the 20th Century-Fox lot.
Despite Schenck's intransigence and influence with other studio executives, the Selznick Agency continued to flourish, and Myron's luck remained good. That year, Myron's horse "Can't Wait" finished third at the Kentucky Derby, a fortuitous augury in a company town mad for horse raising. Before Lew Wasserman assumed the late Myron Selznick's mantle as agent extraordinaire around 1950, Selznick had pioneered the production of motion pictures by the stars he represented.
Perhaps Myron Selznick's most famous exploit in Hollywood was his role in the casting of Vivien Leigh as Scarlet O'Hara in his brother's "Gone With the Wind (1939). Then representing Laurence Olivier, Myron took on as a client Olivier's lover Leigh, who had only appeared in English motion pictures. In December 1938, he invited the couple to attend the filming of the burning of Atlanta sequence on the old R.K.O. back-lot, now owned by his brother's Selznick International Pictures. When they arrived that night for the filming of the sequence, the action was being performed by stunt doubles, as would be expected on any picture. But for this, the most hyped movie of its time, it was absolutely necessary as David O. Selznick had yet to cast his leading lady despite a well-publicized talent search over the past year and the fact that he had actually begun production of the movie that very night.
When Myron, Olivier, and the beautiful Vivien Leigh joined the group watching the filming, Myron introduced his client to David with the immortal line, "Hey genius. Meet your Scarlett O'Hara."
The rest, as they say, was history. "God With the Wind" (1939), with Leigh in an Oscar-wining turn as Scarlett, went on to become the most popular motion picture in history, for over half-a-century touted as the greatest American commercial movie ever made.
Myron, at five-and-a-half feet tall, was quite a contrast with his taller brother David, whom according to David's ex-wife Irene Mayer Selznick, he adored and was extremely proud of. Irene Selznick, in her memoir, comments that Myron was frustrated by the agent business as it did not fully engage his extraordinary intelligence and talents. He let David remain the sole producer in the family, although towards the end of his life, he was involved in the setting up of a production company for another major independent producer, Hunt Stromberg.
A long-time M.G.M. producer, Stromberg was involved in a contract dispute with Louis B. Mayer in 1941. On December 13th, after 18 years with the studio, Stomberg resigned, though he had three years to go on his contract. Mayer released him from his obligations, and Stromberg officially left the studio on February 10, 1942. Hollywood expected Stromberg to join United Artists, or to hook up with Myron's brother David O. Selznick. There were other rumors that he would form a partnership with former United Artists executive Murray Silverstone, who had left his studio. Instead, with the help of Myron Selznick, Stromberg revived his independent production company that had lain dormant for 20 years. Stromberg signed up executives from David O.'s old Selznick International team, including Kay Brown, who had bird-dogged "Gone With the Wind" when the novel was in galleys. Already one of the primary investors in Hunt Stromberg Productions, Inc., it was Myron who negotiated a lucrative five-year distribution deal with United Artists.
Myron Selznick never returned to movie production. He died on Mrch 23, 1944, at the age of 45 years old. According to Irene Selznick, the death of Myron was a tragedy for David as only he and David's former producing partner and best friend, John Hay "Jock" Whitney, had had an ameliorating effect on David's megalomaniacal behavior. Jock was off to military service during World War II when Myron died and when Jock returned to the States after being held as a prisoner of war, he abandoned the movie industry for Wall Street. Without his brother and his best friend, the producer David O. Selznick became reckless and eventually became a shell of himself after engaging in the flamboyantly destructive behavior that had brought his own father to ruin.
Myron Selznick was buried at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery (now the Hollywood Forever Cemetery) in Hollywood near the Paramount and R.K.O. studios. The pallbearers at his funeral included Walter Wanger and William Powell, who read the funeral oration. In the fall of 1944, he was disinterred and buried in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, where he was later joined by his beloved brother David.- Son of Georgia State Supreme Court Judge R.C. Bell, Vereen McNeill Bell was graduated from Davidson College (North Carolina) in 1932 and later studied writing in Louisiana. He served as associate editor of _American Boy/Youth's Companion_ magazine for two years, then became a freelance writer. Volunteered for U.S. Navy duty in 1943. He died in WWII while serving as a lieutenant in the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea. In tribute to his career, the Georgia Legislature renamed the entrance highway to the Okefenokee Swamp the Vereen Bell Memorial Highway. Davidson College currently offers a Vereen Bell Award for creative writing.
- Mór Ditrói was born on 5 October 1851 in Kolozsvár, Hungary [now Cluj, Romania]. He was an actor, known for Júdás (1918), A bor (1933) and A szentjóbi erdö titka (1917). He died on 16 February 1945 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Robert H. Goddard was born on 5 October 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He was married to Esther Christine Kisk. He died on 10 August 1945 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
- Elvira Tubet was born on 5 October 1853 in Santander, Cantabria, Spain. She was an actress, known for Chucho el Roto (1934). She was married to Francisco Machio Gómez. She died on 9 August 1946 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico.
- Elise Bartlett was born on 5 October 1899 in Union City, Tennessee, USA. She was an actress, known for Show Boat (1929), Oh, Sailor Behave! (1930) and A Harp in Hock (1927). She was married to Michael Picard, Horace Liveright and Joseph Schildkraut. She died on 22 May 1947 in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA.
- Actress
Madame Chalif was born on 5 October 1902 in New York, USA. She was an actress. She was married to Selmer L. Chalif. She died on 31 January 1948 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Producer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Louis Lumière was a French engineer and industrialist who played a key role in the development of photography and cinema. His parents were Antoine Lumière, a photographer and painter, and Jeanne Joséphine Costille Lumière, who were married in 1861 and moved to Besançon, setting up a small photographic portrait studio. Here were born Auguste Lumière, Louis and their daughter Jeanne. They moved to Lyon in 1870, where their two other daughters were born: Mélina and Francine. Auguste and Louis both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. At age 17, Louis invented a new process for film development using a dry plate. This process was significantly successful for the family business, permitting the opening of a new factory with an eventual production of 15 million plates per year. In 1894, his father, Antoine Lumière, attended an exhibition of Edison's Kinetoscope in Paris. Upon his return to Lyon, he showed his sons a length of film he had received from one of Edison's concessionaires; he also told them they should try to develop a cheaper alternative to the peephole film-viewing device and its bulky camera counterpart, the Kinetograph. This inspired brothers Auguste and Louis to work on a way to project film onto a screen, where many people could view it at the same time. By early 1895 they invented a device which they called the Cinématographe, a three-in-one device that could record, develop, and project motion pictures, and patented it on 13 February 1895. Their screening of a single film, Leaving the Factory (1895), on 22 March 1895 for around 200 members of the Society for the Development of the National Industry in Paris was probably the first presentation of projected film. Their first commercial public screening at Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris on 28 December 1895 for around 40 paying visitors and invited relations has traditionally been regarded as the birth of cinema. The cinematographe was an immediate hit, and its influence was colossal. Within just two years, the Lumière catalogue included well over a thousand films, all of them single-shot efforts running under a minute, and many photographed by cameramen sent to various exotic locations. The Lumière brothers saw film as a novelty and had withdrawn from the film business by 1905. The Lumière freres' cinematographer was not their only invention. Mainly Louis is also credited with the birth of color photograph, the Autochromes, using a single exposure trichromic basis (instead of a long three-step exposure): a glass plaque is varnished and embedded with potato starch tinted in the three basic colors (rouge-orange, green and violet-blue), vegetal coal dust to fill the interstices and a black-and-white photographic emulsion layer to capture light. They were the main and more successful procedure for obtaining color photographs from 1903 to 1935, when Kodachrome, then Agfacolor and other less fragile film based procedures took over. An Autochrome is positivated from the same plaque, so they are unique images with a soft toned palette. As the Institut Lumière describes them, they are a middle point between photography and painting (akin specially to pointillism technique), because of their pastel shades and easy but still static pose looks.- Charles Hanson Towne was born on 5 October 1889 in Buffalo, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Fighting Roosevelts (1919) and Saved by Parcel Post (1913). He died on 28 February 1949 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Leyland Hodgson was born on 5 October 1892 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944) and Susannah of the Mounties (1939). He died on 16 March 1949 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Marriott Edgar was born on 5 October 1880 in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Band Waggon (1940), Miss London Ltd. (1943) and Hi Gang! (1941). He was married to Mildred Williams. He died on 5 May 1951 in London, England, UK.- Musician and writer John Erskine was born in New York City on October 5, 1879. As a child he had a strong interest in music, taking piano lessons for many years; for a time he was being taught by noted composer Edward MacDowell.
Erskine graduated from Columbia University in 1900 and received his PhD in 1903. He was an English instructor at Amherst College and became an Associate Professor there. In 1909 he accepted a position on the faculty at his alma mater, Columbia, and became a full professor there in 1916. He was at Columbia for 28 years and gained a reputation as a highly respected and influential teacher; among his students were future authors Mark Van Doren, Clifton Fadiman, Rexford Tugwell and Mortimer J. Adler.
Erskine also kept up his interest in music, often performing at private functions and on occasion at public concerts. He was a trustee at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music from 1927 and was president of the institution from 1928 to 1937. He also published numerous books, mainly scholarly studies and poetry volumes. He surprised many with his 1928 novel "The Private Life of Helen of Troy", his humorous version of the classic legend set in the contemporary Jazz Age. It was hugely successful, being translated into 16 languages and even turned into a film (The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927)).
In 1937 he retired from academic life and took up writing full-time. He published a variety of non-fiction works, two biographies (of Walt Whitman and American revolutionary figure Patrick Henry) and three volumes of memoirs.
He died in New York City on June 2, 1951. - Ernst Pittschau was born on 5 October 1883 in Altona, Germany. He was an actor, known for Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (1917), Germany Year Zero (1948) and Pique Dame (1918). He died on 2 June 1951 in Berlin, Germany.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Ryszard Ordynski was born on 5 October 1878 in Maków Podhalanski, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Maków Podhalanski, Malopolskie, Poland]. He was a director and actor, known for To Be or Not to Be (1942), Palac na kólkach (1932) and Dziesieciu z Pawiaka (1931). He died on 13 August 1953 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Herbert Blaché was born on 5 October 1882 in London, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for The Song of the Wage Slave (1915), A Prisoner in the Harem (1913) and The Million Dollar Robbery (1914). He was married to Alice Guy. He died on 23 October 1953 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Mme. d'Esterre was born on 5 October 1863 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Hound of the Baskervilles (1921), Henry, King of Navarre (1924) and The Sign of Four (1923). She was married to John Norcott D'Esterre . She died on 25 January 1954 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England, UK.
- Stig Dagerman was born on 5 October 1923 in Älvkarleby, Uppland, Sweden. He was a writer, known for German Autumn, Nattlekar and En natt på Glimmingehus (1954). He was married to Anita Björk. He died on 5 November 1954 in Enebyberg, Stockholms län, Sweden.
- Sidney Sinclair was born on 5 October 1878. He was an actor, known for Shopgirls: or, The Great Question (1914). He died on 5 August 1955 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England, UK.
- Peter Peterz was born on 5 October 1925 in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He was an actor, known for Bürgermeister Anna (1950), Melodie des Schicksals (1950) and Die letzte Heuer (1951). He died on 24 September 1955 in Berlin, Germany.
- Soundtrack
Songwriter ("Runnin' Wild"), author, actor and singer, educated at LaSalle University. He was an adverising salesman and then a stage manager in England and Europe, and an actor in London in 1915. He then sang in a trio in night clubs for fourteen years, and joined ASCAP in 1939. His other popular-song compositions include "The Call of the Red, White and Blue", "Come On and Follow Me", "I Got the Fever", "Pickin' the Blues Away", "Rocky Road", and "How Can You Tell?".- Additional Crew
- Actor
One of the best (and most qualified) technical advisors in 1930's Hollywood was Belgian-born Louis Joseph Marie Antoine van den Ecker (his surname is sometimes spelled as 'Vandenecker'). An adventurer and soldier-of-fortune of Dutch-Belgian parentage, this guy was the real deal. At eleven, he he absconded from a military school, and, by the age of sixteen, joined the French Foreign Legion. He served for eight years, earning his corporal stripes fighting the Tuareg in the deserts of Northern Africa. During World War I, he was again in the thick of it, receiving citations for bravery as a lieutenant with the 97th Alpine Infantry Division. During the battle of Hartmannswillerkopf in the Vosges Mountains, Louis received a shrapnel wound in the leg while delivering a crucial message to a divisional HQ. He went on the see action in a further 23 engagements. When the war finally ended, Louis promptly went east to fight with the Polish Army against the Soviets. Further exploits included his capture behind the lines of three Russian officers. In the wake of the Peace Treaty of Riga which ended the Polish-Soviet War in 1921, Louis moved to the United States. In New York, he obtained a position at the French Consulate. He eventually ended up in Hollywood and became a much sought-after technical advisor, adding authenticity to epic adventures like Beau Geste (1926) and its sequel Beau Sabreur (1928). During the 1930's, he was consulted on the fighting scenes of several major classics including The Three Musketeers (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and the sound remake of Beau Geste (1939) (working alongside fellow ex-Legionnaire William A. Wellman).
Louis fathered four children, three of them born in the United States. He died in Los Angeles in March 1956 at the age of 66.- Director
- Writer
Lawrence C. Windom was born on 5 October 1872 in Lancaster, Ohio, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Modern Marriage (1923), Modern Matrimony (1923) and The Very Idea (1920). He died on 14 November 1957 in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, USA.- Edward Pfitzenmeier was born on 5 October 1876 in Connecticut, USA. He was an editor, known for Lucky in Love (1929), Syncopation (1929) and Mother's Boy (1929). He was married to Charlotte Pitzer. He died on 11 December 1957 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Guido Riccioli was born on 5 October 1883 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was an actor, known for Io, Amleto (1952), La donna perduta (1940) and For Men Only (1938). He was married to Nanda Primavera. He died on 28 March 1958 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Milan Orlovic was born on 5 October 1899 in Rivica, Austria-Hungary. He was an actor, known for H-8... (1958), Bakonja fra Brne (1951) and Koncert (1954). He died on 5 August 1958 in Zadar, Croatia.
- Ilse Abel was born on 5 October 1909 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Der Favorit der Kaiserin (1936), The Unknown (1936) and Monika (1938). She died on 21 May 1959 in Berlin, Germany.
- Animation Department
- Director
- Writer
Riley Thomson was born on 5 October 1912 in California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Fantasia (1940), Fantasia 2000 (1999) and The Magical World of Disney (1954). He died on 26 January 1960 in California, USA.- Ida Rubinstein was a Russian actress, dancer and director. She came from a wealthy family, who sent her to music, dancing and acting classes with some of the most prominent teachers in the field. Her performance in a private showing of "Salome" in 1908 created a scandal in conservative Russia when, in the course of her performance of "The Dance of the Seven Vails", she removed most of the veils. The next year she joined the Ballet Russes under the direction of Sergei Diaghilev. She performed in productions of "Cleopatra" and "Scheherezade", but left the organization in 1911 to start her own ballet company. She put on a series of large-scale--and expensive--productions, such as "Le Martyre of Saint-Sebastian". World War I slowed down her career somewhat, but after the war she made appearances in Europe, including a performance of "Istar" at the Paris Opera. From 1928-29 she had her own ballet company, and produced and directed several productions in Paris, with choreography by the famous Bronislava Njinska. She was one of the very few female ballet directors of her time, and her productions were lavish and well-received.
In 1935 she closed down her ballet company in Paris and only made a few more appearances on stage before she retired, her last performance occurring in 1939 in Paris. She died in 1960. - As a brigadier general, Walter Bedell Smith was chief of staff in Europe to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War II, and he was the man who negotiated first the surrender of Italy and then of Germany. He was U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1949 and Director of Central Intelligence from 1951 to 1953. He retired from the army in 1953, and was appointed Undersecretary of State.
- Actor
- Director
George Irving was born on 5 October 1874 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Bringing Up Baby (1938), Man Power (1927) and The Landloper (1918). He was married to Mary Katherine Gilman. He died on 11 September 1961 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Eugénie Hardon was born on 5 October 1877 in Courquetaine, Seine-et-Marne, France. She was married to François de Hérain and Philippe Pétain. She died on 30 January 1962 in Paris, France.