title: Black Watch

text: On 4 July 1915, the battalion received embarkation orders for France, the machine gun and transport sections led the way and departed Parkhouse Camp on 7 July sailing on the SS Mount Temple that night from Southampton to Le Havre. The bulk of the battalion left Parkhouse Camp early on 8 July sailing on the SS Invicta from Folkestone and arriving in Boulogne that same evening. The 9th (Service) Battalion first entered the trenches on 2 August 1915 when it relieved 23rd/24th Battalions of the London Regiment in a section of the line East of Maroc and opposite the famous 'Double Crassier'. The battalion was in turn relieved on 9 August 1915 by 10th Battalion Scottish Rifles. To their credit, the battalion suffered no casualties during this first introduction to trench warfare. On 25 September 1915 the battalion went in to action at the Battle of Loos where it suffered severe losses in two days of hard fighting. Of the 940 officers and men who went into action on 25 September, only 98 returned to their billets when the battalion was relieved by 21st Division on 26 September. The battalion lost a total of 701 men at Loos - 11 officers killed and 10 officers wounded with 360 other ranks killed or missing and 320 other ranks wounded.


title: Black Watch

text: The 9th (Service) Battalion spent the rest of the war in the trenches of the Western Front and took part in a number of key battles.


title: Black Watch

text: On 11 May 1918, the original 9th (Service) Battalion left the line for the final time and was merged with the 4/5th Territorial Battalion. This amalgamation was part of measures taken to address the drain on manpower across the British Army. Whilst the bulk of the 9th went to the 4/5th a small training cadre of 10 officers and 51 other ranks remained and were initially employed training newly arrived American troops. Later that month the cadre returned to Aldershot where they spent two months raising and training a new unit which became 2/9th (Service) Battalion assigned to the 47th Brigade, 16th (Irish) Division. The 2/9th left Aldershot on 30 July 1918 sailing from Folkestone to Boulogne and reaching billets at Hodecq the following day. The next eighteen days were spent training before 2/9th entered the battle area at Noeux-les-Mines on 19 August 1918 where it relieved the 1st Battalion. On 21 August the battalion proceeded by rail to Sailly-Labourse where it supported the 14th Leicesters and 18th Welch holding the line in the Hohenzollern Sector. On 2 September 1918, the battalion was involved in a costly trench raid losing 31 men. The battalion advanced with the 16th Division until 20 October 1918 when it was assigned the task of repairing roads around Escoeuilles where it was when the armistice was declared on 11 November 1918. Following the armistice, the battalion started the process of demobilization and found itself at Fretin by 27 November 1918 where it remained until Spring 1919 when it was reduced to cadre strength and moved to Pont-a-Marcq. The cadre returned to Scotland in July 1919 where the 2/9th was finally disbanded. During active service between 1915-1918 the battalion lost 140 officers (46 killed/88 wounded/6 missing) and 2,899 other ranks (645 killed/2,029 wounded/225 missing). The bravery of the 9th is reflected in the number of gallantry decorations awarded, this includes 3 Distinguished Service Orders, 28 Military Crosses, 7 Distinguished Conduct Medals, 2 Meritorious Service Medals and 65 Military Medals.


title: Black Watch

text: The 10th (Service) Battalion was raised in Perth at the beginning of September 1914 under Lt Col Sir William Stewart Dick-Cunyngham, 8th Baronet of Lambrughton. By 20 September 1914 a core body of 400 men had volunteered and were sent South to train at Shrewton on Salisbury Plain where the 10th was to form part of the 77th Infantry Brigade alongside the 10th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 11th Battalion Scottish Rifles and 8th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers as part of Kitchener's K3 Army. Officers were gradually appointed to the battalion, some with previous Regular or Territorial military experience but the majority had none. November saw the battalion move to Bristol where the men practised trench digging in Ashton Park. The men were comfortably quartered in several public buildings, A and C companies occupied Colston Hall, B the Victoria Gallery and D the Coliseum (a large ice skating rink); the officers were billeted at the Colston Hotel. In the New Year, makeshift uniforms were finally replaced by the coveted kilt and sporran. March 1915 saw the 77th Infantry Brigade move to Sutton Veny to engage in brigade and divisional manoeuvres with the 26th Division. Training was completed by the end of July 1915 and during August three days 'farewell' leave was granted to officers and men. On 10 September 1915 embarkation orders were received and on 17 September an advance party of 5 officers and 109 other ranks left for France, arriving at Longueau on 20 September before marching 20 miles to Bougainville to arrange billets for the battalion. The bulk of the battalion soon followed, leaving Folkestone at 6pm on 20 September aboard the SS La Marguerite and arriving at Boulogne around midnight. The rest of the night was spent under canvas at Ostrahove Camp, the next morning the battalion boarded trains to Sallux before marching the final fifteen miles to rendezvous with the advance party at Bougainville.


title: Black Watch

text: On 23 September 1915, the battalion received orders to march to Salouël which was reached at midnight after seven hour's march in torrential rain. The following morning the 77th Infantry Brigade marched on to Villers-Bretonneux and were inspected on the road by the XII Corps Commander Lt-Gen Sir Henry Fuller Maitland Wilson who congratulated the 10th battalion on its march discipline and fine appearance. The battalion spent five days training at Villers-Bretonneux where the men could hear the distant rumbling of guns, this was artillery supporting the Battle of Loos for which 10th Battalion was held in reserve. On 29 September 1915, the battalion left for Proyart and the companies entered the front line trenches for the first time for forty-eight hours of instruction with the resident units. A and D companies joined 2nd Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in the line at Fontaine-lès-Cappy with B and C companies rotating in on 2 October with the Royal Irish Fusiliers. The battalion took responsibility for its first stretch of the line on 14 October when it relieved the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry around Bray with battalion HQ located in the town of Carnoy. On 5 November the battalion received orders to prepare for immediate deployment to Salonika to participate in operations on the Macedonian front. On 10 November the battalion marched to Longueau from where they boarded trains to Marseilles which they reached soon after midday on 12 November. The battalion marched straight to the quay to begin boarding HMS Magnificent alongside two companies from the 11th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and two companies from the 12th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The course followed was North of Corsica, passing Elba, South through the Straits of Messina, along the coast of Sicily and on to Alexandria which was reached on 18 November 1915. At Alexandria, the men disembarked and spent the night at Maritza Camp before re-embarking on HMS Magnificent and sailing for Salonika which was reached on 24 November 1915.


title: Black Watch

text: The 10th Battalion spent the rest of 1915 and early 1916 constructing and manning part of the 'Birdcage Defensive Line' in the hills surrounding Salonika, the stretch of line allocated to the 10th ran between the villages of Aivatli and Laina. June 1916 saw the battalion move 'up country', spending time in division reserve and manning trenches in the Vladaja Line. On 8 May 1917 the 10th Battalion took part in the Battle of Doiran. Out of 600 men engaged in this action, the 10th lost 5 officers killed and 6 wounded with 63 other ranks killed and 309 wounded. Due to losses incurred as a result of the German spring offensive it was decided that one battalion in each brigade would be withdrawn from Greece and transferred to the Western Front. On 14 June 1918 the 10th Battalion received orders to move to France with the men embarking on the French transport Odessa at Itea on 6 July bound for Taranto. From Italy, the battalion travelled by train to Abancourt, finally reaching the rest camp on 14 July and were attached to 197th Infantry Brigade in the 66th Division. On 20 September the battalion was informed that they were to be disbanded with orders received on 29 September to send one complete company to each of the 1st, 6th and 14th Black Watch Battalions to replace losses. On 15 October the disbandment of the 10th (Service) Battalion was reported as complete to 197th Infantry Brigade. During active service between 1915-1918 the 10th (Service) Battalion lost a total of 18 officers (8 killed/10 wounded) and 435 other ranks (122 killed/311 wounded/2 missing). The bravery of the 10th is reflected in the number of gallantry decorations awarded, this includes 2 Distinguished Service Orders, 6 Military Crosses, 3 Distinguished Conduct Medals, 3 Meritorious Service Medals and 10 Military Medals.


title: Black Watch

text: The 1st Battalion landed in France in September 1939 as part of the 12th Brigade in the 4th Infantry Division for service with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The battalion later transferred to the 153rd Brigade of the 51st (Highland) Division and was captured at St Valery-en-Caux during the Battle of France. It was reformed from reserve units of the 9th (Highland) Infantry Division in August 1940 and moved to North Africa in August 1942 where it fought at the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942 and then continued to fight in the Tunisian Campaign before it took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. It also took part in the Normandy landings in June 1944, the Battle for Caen later that month and the Battle of the Falaise Pocket in August 1944. It later saw action at the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945, Battle of the Reichswald in February 1945 and the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945.


title: Black Watch

text: The 2nd Battalion was serving in Palestine from where it was sent to East Africa in August 1940 and saw action during the Italian conquest of British Somaliland. It was sent to Crete, as part of the 14th Brigade in the 8th Division, and took part in the Battle of Heraklion in May 1941. It moved to North Africa in October 1941 and took part in the break out from Tobruk in November 1941.


title: Black Watch

text: The 4th Battalion landed in France in January 1940 as part of the 153rd Brigade in the 51st (Highland) Division for service with the BEF and then took part in the Dunkirk evacuation in June 1940. From July 1940 to April 1943 the battalion was stationed in Gibraltar. The battalion remained in the United Kingdom for the rest of the war.


title: Black Watch

text: The 5th Battalion landed in North Africa as part of the 153rd Brigade in the 51st (Highland) Division and fought at the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. It also took part in the Normandy landings, while attached to the 3rd Parachute Brigade, in June 1944 and saw action at the Battle for Caen followed by the Battle of Bréville later that month. It saw combat again at the Battle of the Falaise Pocket in August 1944 and the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945.


title: Black Watch

text: The 6th Battalion landed in France in January 1940 as part of the 154th Brigade in the 51st (Highland) Division for service with the BEF. The battalion exchanged places with the 1st Battalion and became part of the 12th Brigade of the 4th Division and then took part in the Dunkirk evacuation in June 1940. It moved to North Africa in the spring of 1943 for service in the final stages of the Tunisian Campaign and then on to the Italian Front in February 1944 where it took part in the Battle of Monte Cassino in the spring of 1944. The battalion later fought on the Gothic Line before being sent to Greece in late 1944, where it remained for the rest of the war.


title: Black Watch

text: The 7th Battalion landed in North Africa as part of the 154th Brigade in the 51st (Highland) Division and fought at the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. It also took part in the Normandy landings in June 1944, the Battle for Caen later that month and the Battle of the Falaise Pocket in August 1944. It later saw action at the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945. The 7th Battalion was also one of the first battalions to cross the river Rhine during Operation Plunder on the 23 March 1945.


title: Black Watch

text: The 2nd Battalion was deployed to India in 1945 and arrived at Cherat Cantonment, thirty-four miles from Peshawar, on 15 August 1947, when India and Pakistan became independent. In February 1946, the Black Watch was deployed to suppress the Royal Indian Navy mutiny at Karachi. On 26 February 1948 the battalion became the last British Army unit to leave Pakistan, boarding a transport ship at Karachi, after a formal parade through the streets with the salute taken by the Prime Minister Jinnah.


title: Black Watch

text: The regiment won honours after the Second Battle of the Hook in November 1952 during the Korean War. The regiment helped to suppress the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya in 1953 and to suppress the actions of EOKA during intercommunal violence in Cyprus in the late 1950s.


title: Black Watch

text: During the state funeral of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, nine bagpipers from the regimental band which had been on tour in the USA were invited to participate in the funeral procession. Between the White House and the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle they performed "The Brown Haired Maiden", "The Badge of Scotland", "The 51st Highland Division", and "The Barren Rocks of Aden." The Black Watch had won such renown that in December 1964 during an Anglo-American summit, President Lyndon Johnson asked the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson to send the Black Watch to Vietnam, a request that was refused.


title: Black Watch

text: The Black Watch served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles as part of Operation Banner. The regiment was frequently a major target of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). A lance corporal serving with the regiment was shot by a sniper in East Belfast in November 1971 and a young private serving with the regiment was killed while on foot patrol in Dungannon, County Tyrone, by a remote control device in July 1978.


title: Black Watch

text: The Black Watch was the last British military unit to leave Hong Kong in 1997, and it played a prominent role in the handover ceremony.


title: Black Watch

text: During the 2003 Iraq War, the Black Watch fought during Operation Telic in the initial attack on Basra, and during its deployment, the unit suffered a single fatality. The following year, the Black Watch was dispatched to Iraq again, as part of 4 (Armoured) Brigade. On 12 August, a soldier from the regiment was killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED). In October, the Black Watch was at the centre of political controversy after the United States Army requested British forces to be moved further north, outside of the British-controlled Multi-National Division (South East), to replace forces temporarily redeployed for the Second Battle of Fallujah. Despite objections in Parliament, the deployment went ahead. Based at Camp Dogwood, located between Fallujah and Karbala, in an area later dubbed the "Triangle of Death", the Black Watch came under sustained insurgent attack from mortars and rockets. On 29 October, during the journey to their new base, a Black Watch soldier was killed in a road accident. On 4 November, three soldiers and an interpreter were killed by a car bomb at a check point, and on 8 November, another soldier was killed: the high-profile nature of the deployment caused a magnification of these events back home in Britain.


title: Black Watch

text: Under a plan devised by Lieutenant General Alistair Irwin and approved by General Sir Mike Jackson, on 16 December 2004, it was announced that the Black Watch was to join with five other Scottish regiments – the Royal Scots, the King's Own Scottish Borderers, the Royal Highland Fusiliers, The Highlanders and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders – to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland, a single regiment consisting of five regular and two territorial battalions. The measure, which reflected recruiting difficulties and the inefficiencies inherent in maintaining a number of relatively small separate units, took place on 28 March 2006. The Black Watch were retained following intervention from Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Black Watch

text: On 24 June 2009, it was reported that elements of the battalion numbering about 350 troops carried out one of the largest air assault operations of the NATO troops in Afghanistan, named Operation Panther's Claw, by deploying into and attacking a Taliban stronghold located near Bābājī (باباجی ), north of Lashkar Gah. The operation commenced on 19 June just before midnight. After a number of combat engagements with the insurgents, the soldiers of the battalion secured three main crossing points: the Lui Mandey Wadi crossing, the Nahr-e-Burgha canal and the Shamalan canal. Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Cartwright, Commanding Officer of The Black Watch battalion, was reported saying that this operation established a firm foothold in what was the last remaining Taliban area controlled in the southern Helmand Province. The location of the Taliban force in the area had allowed it to conduct attacks on the A01 highway, a major national route connecting Kandahar and Herat. During 22 June, troops of the battalion also "found 1.3 tonnes of poppy seed and a number of improvised explosive devices and anti-personnel mines before they could be laid." Analysis by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation revealed the haul to be of mung beans, not poppy seed.


title: Black Watch

text: Following the Army 2020 Refine, the battalion will remain at Fort George until 2023 when it will move to another barracks in Scotland. Following the refine, the battalion was equipped with the Foxhound light mechanised vehicle. The battalion was also moved under the command of the 51st Infantry Brigade and Headquarters Scotland.


title: Black Watch

text: The regiment is currently organised into a standard light infantry organisation (included are affiliated units):


title: Black Watch

text: The Black Watch's primary recruiting areas are in Fife, Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross. The battalion is permitted to retain its most famous distinction, the red hackle on the Tam o'Shanter.


title: Black Watch

text: Before and after the Second World War, the Australian Militia, later renamed the Citizen Military Forces (CMF), included the 30th Battalion, New South Wales Scottish Regiment. This unit was affiliated with the Black Watch.


title: Black Watch

text: Canada (from 1862) has its own Black Watch, being raised as the 5th Battalion of the Canadian Militia, being renamed by 1914 as the 5th Regiment (Royal Highlanders of Canada). It adopted its current title, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, prior to the Second World War, and saw action in both world wars.


title: Black Watch

text: New Zealand raised the New Zealand Scottish Regiment in 1939, which was allied to the Black Watch and disbanded in 2013.


title: Black Watch

text: When wearing the kilt, it is customary for troops to "go regimental" or "military practice", wearing no underwear. In 1997, a Black Watch soldier received wide press exposure because of windy conditions during a military ceremony in Hong Kong.


title: Rheumatology

text: Rheumatology (Greek "ῥεῦμα", "rheûma", flowing current) is a branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and management of disorders whose common feature is inflammation in the bones, muscles, joints, and internal organs. Rheumatology covers more than 100 different complex diseases, collectively known as rheumatic diseases, which includes many forms of arthritis as well as lupus and Sjögren's syndrome. Doctors who have undergone formal training in rheumatology are called rheumatologists.


title: Rheumatology

text: Many of these diseases are now known to be disorders of the immune system, and rheumatology has significant overlap with immunology, the branch of medicine that studies the immune system.


title: Rheumatology

text: A rheumatologist is a physician who specializes in the field of medical sub-specialty called rheumatology. A rheumatologist holds a board certification after specialized training. In the United States, training in this field requires four years undergraduate school, four years of medical school, and then three years of residency, followed by two or three years additional Fellowship training. The requirements may vary in other countries. Rheumatologists are internists who are qualified by additional postgraduate training and experience in the diagnosis and treatment of arthritis and other diseases of the joints, muscles and bones. Many Rheumatologists also conduct research to determine the cause and better treatments for these disabling and sometimes fatal diseases. Treatment modalities are based on scientific research, currently, practice of rheumatology is largely evidence based.


title: Rheumatology

text: Rheumatologists treat arthritis, autoimmune diseases, pain disorders affecting joints, and osteoporosis. There are more than 200 types of these diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, lupus, back pain, osteoporosis, and tendinitis. Some of these are very serious diseases that can be difficult to diagnose and treat. They treat soft tissue problems related to musculoskeletal system sports related soft tissue disorders.


title: Rheumatology

text: Local diseases and lesions affecting the joints and structures around the joints including tendons, ligaments capsules, bursae, stress fractures, muscles, nerve entrapment, vascular lesions, and ganglia. For example:


title: Rheumatology

text: Following are examples of methods of diagnosis able to be performed in a normal physical examination.


title: Rheumatology

text: Most rheumatic diseases are treated with analgesics, NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug), steroids (in serious cases), DMARDs (disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs), monoclonal antibodies, such as infliximab and adalimumab, the TNF inhibitor etanercept, and methotrexate for moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. The biologic agent rituximab (anti-B cell therapy) is now licensed for use in refractory rheumatoid arthritis.


title: Rheumatology

text: Physiotherapy is vital in the treatment of many rheumatological disorders. Occupational therapy can help patients find alternative ways for common movements that would otherwise be restricted by their disease. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis often need a long term, coordinated and a multidisciplinary team approach towards management of individual patients. Treatment is often tailored according to the individual needs of each patient which is also dependent on the response and the tolerability of medications.


title: Rheumatology

text: Beginning in the 2000s, the incorporation of biopharmaceuticals (which include inhibitors of TNF-alpha, certain interleukins, and the JAK-STAT signaling pathway) into standards of care is one of the paramount developments in modern rheumatology.


title: Rheumatology

text: "Rheumasurgery" - sometimes called rheumatoid surgery - is a subfield of orthopedics occupied with the surgical treatment of patients with rheumatic diseases. The purpose of the interventions is to limit disease activity, soothe pain and improve function.


title: Rheumatology

text: Rheumasurgical interventions can be divided in two groups. The one is early synovectomies, that is the removal of the inflamed synovia in order to prevent spreading and stop destruction. The other group is the so-called corrective intervention, i.e. an intervention done after destruction has taken place. Among the corrective interventions are joint replacements, removal of loose bone or cartilage fragments, and a variety of interventions aimed at repositioning and/or stabilizing joints, such as arthrodesis.


title: Rheumatology

text: Recently, a large body of scientific research deals with the background of autoimmune disease, the cause of many rheumatic disorders. Also, the field of osteoimmunology has emerged to further examine the interactions between the immune system, joints, and bones. Epidemiological studies and medication trials are also being conducted. The Rheumatology Research Foundation is the largest private funding source of rheumatology research and training in the United States.


title: Rheumatology

text: Rheumasurgery emerged in the cooperation of rheumatologists and orthopedic surgeons in Heinola, Finland, during the 1950s.


title: Rheumatology

text: In 1970 a Norwegian investigation estimated that at least 50% of patients with rheumatic symptoms needed rheumasurgery as an integrated part of their treatment.


title: Rheumatology

text: Around the turn of the 21st century, focus for treatment of patients with rheumatic disease shifted, and pharmacological treatment became dominant, while surgical interventions became rarer.


title: Silent film

text: A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of title cards.


title: Silent film

text: The term "silent film" is something of a misnomer, as these films were almost always accompanied by live sounds. During the silent era that existed from the mid-1890s to the late 1920s, a pianist, theater organist—or even, in large cities, a small orchestra—would often play music to accompany the films. Pianists and organists would play either from sheet music, or improvisation. Sometimes a person would even narrate the inter-title cards for the audience. Though at the time the technology to synchronize sound with the film did not exist, music was seen as an essential part of the viewing experience. "Silent film" is typically used as a historical term to describe an era of cinema prior to the invention of synchronized sound, but it also applies to such sound-era films as "City Lights," "Silent Movie" and "The Artist", which are accompanied by a music-only soundtrack in place of dialogue.


title: Silent film

text: The term "silent film" is a retronym—a term created to retroactively distinguish something from later developments. Early sound films, starting with "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, were variously referred to as the "talkies", "sound films", or "talking pictures". The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is older than film (it was suggested almost immediately after Edison introduced the phonograph in 1877), and some early experiments had the projectionist manually adjusting the frame rate to fit the sound, but because of the technical challenges involved, the introduction of synchronized dialogue became practical only in the late 1920s with the perfection of the Audion amplifier tube and the advent of the Vitaphone system. Within a decade, the widespread production of silent films for popular entertainment had ceased, and the industry had moved fully into the sound era, in which movies were accompanied by synchronized sound recordings of spoken dialogue, music and sound effects.


title: Silent film

text: Most early motion pictures are considered lost because the nitrate film used in that era was extremely unstable and flammable. Additionally, many films were deliberately destroyed because they had negligible continuing financial value in this era. It has often been claimed that around 75 percent of silent films produced in the US have been lost, though these estimates may be inaccurate due to a lack of numerical data.


title: Silent film

text: Film projection mostly evolved from magic lantern shows, which utilized a glass lens, and a persistent light source (such as a powerful lantern) to project images from glass slides onto a wall. These slides were originally hand-painted, but, after the advent of photography in the 19th century, still photographs were sometimes used. The invention of a practical photography apparatus preceded cinema by about fifty years.


title: Silent film

text: In 1833, Joseph Plateau introduced the principle of stroboscopic animation with his Fantascope (better known as the phenakistiscope). Six years later, Louis Daguerre introduced the first successful photographic system. Initially, the chemicals were not light-sensitive enough to properly capture moving subjects at all. Plateau suggested an early method to animate stereoscopic photographs in 1849, with a stop motion technique. Jules Duboscq produced a simplified device in 1852, but it was not very successful. Early successes in instantaneous photography in the late 1850s inspired new hope to develop animated (stereo)photography systems, but in the next two decades the few attempts once again used stop-motion techniques.


title: Silent film

text: In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge used a row of a dozen cameras to record a running horse (as suggested by others much earlier) and surprised the world with the results, published as "The Horse in Motion" cabinet cards with rows of small still pictures. Many others started to work with chronophotography and tried to animate and project the results. Ottomar Anschutz had much success with his Electrotachyscope since 1887, with very clear animated photographic images displayed on a small milk-glass screen or inside coin-slot viewers, until he started projecting the images on a large screen in 1894. His recordings only lasted a few seconds, and inspired the Edison Company to compete with films that could last circa 20 seconds in their Kinetoscope peep-box movie viewers from 1893 onward.


title: Silent film

text: The work of Muybridge, Marey, and Le Prince laid the foundation for future development of motion picture cameras, projectors and transparent celluloid film, which lead to the development of cinema as we know it today. American inventor George Eastman, who had first manufactured photographic dry plates in 1878, made headway on a stable type of celluloid film in 1888.


title: Silent film

text: The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the "silent era" (1894 in film – 1929 in film). The height of the silent era (from the early 1910s in film to the late 1920s) was a particularly fruitful period, full of artistic innovation. The film movements of Classical Hollywood as well as French Impressionism, German Expressionism, and Soviet Montage began in this period. Silent filmmakers pioneered the art form to the extent that virtually every style and genre of film-making of the 20th and 21st centuries has its artistic roots in the silent era. The silent era was also a pioneering one from a technical point of view. Three-point lighting, the close-up, long shot, panning, and continuity editing all became prevalent long before silent films were replaced by "talking pictures" or "talkies" in the late 1920s. Some scholars claim that the artistic quality of cinema decreased for several years, during the early 1930s, until film directors, actors, and production staff adapted fully to the new "talkies" around the mid 1930s.


title: Silent film

text: The visual quality of silent movies—especially those produced in the 1920s—was often high, but there remains a widely held misconception that these films were primitive, or are barely watchable by modern standards. This misconception comes from the general public's unfamiliarity with the medium, as well as from carelessness on the part of the industry. Most silent films are poorly preserved, leading to their deterioration, and well-preserved films are often played back at the wrong speed or suffer from censorship cuts and missing frames and scenes, giving the appearance of poor editing. Many silent films exist only in second- or third-generation copies, often made from already damaged and neglected film stock. Another widely held misconception is that silent films lacked color. In fact, color was far more prevalent in silent films than in the first few decades of sound films. By the early 1920s, 80 percent of movies could be seen in some sort of color, usually in the form of film tinting or toning or even hand coloring, but also with fairly natural two-color processes such as Kinemacolor and Technicolor. Traditional colorization processes ceased with the adoption of sound-on-film technology. Traditional film colorization, all of which involved the use of dyes in some form, interfered with the high resolution required for built-in recorded sound, and were therefore abandoned. The innovative three-strip technicolor process introduced in the mid-30s was costly and fraught with limitations, and color would not have the same prevalence in film as it did in the silents for nearly four decades.


title: Silent film

text: As motion pictures gradually increased in running time, a replacement was needed for the in-house interpreter who would explain parts of the film to the audience. Because silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreen inter-titles were used to narrate story points, present key dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the audience. The "title writer" became a key professional in silent film and was often separate from the "scenario writer" who created the story. Inter-titles (or "titles" as they were generally called at the time) "often were graphic elements themselves, featuring illustrations or abstract decorations that commented on the action".


title: Silent film

text: Showings of silent films almost always featured live music starting with the first public projection of movies by the Lumière brothers on December 28, 1895, in Paris. This was furthered in 1896 by the first motion-picture exhibition in the United States at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City. At this event, Edison set the precedent that all exhibitions should be accompanied by an orchestra. From the beginning, music was recognized as essential, contributing atmosphere, and giving the audience vital emotional cues. Musicians sometimes played on film sets during shooting for similar reasons. However, depending on the size of the exhibition site, musical accompaniment could drastically change in scale. Small town and neighborhood movie theatres usually had a pianist. Beginning in the mid-1910s, large city theaters tended to have organists or ensembles of musicians. Massive theatre organs, which were designed to fill a gap between a simple piano soloist and a larger orchestra, had a wide range of special effects. Theatrical organs such as the famous "Mighty Wurlitzer" could simulate some orchestral sounds along with a number of percussion effects such as bass drums and cymbals, and sound effects ranging from "train and boat whistles [to] car horns and bird whistles; ... some could even simulate pistol shots, ringing phones, the sound of surf, horses' hooves, smashing pottery, [and] thunder and rain".


title: Silent film

text: Musical scores for early silent films were either improvised or compiled of classical or theatrical repertory music. Once full features became commonplace, however, music was compiled from photoplay music by the pianist, organist, orchestra conductor or the movie studio itself, which included a cue sheet with the film. These sheets were often lengthy, with detailed notes about effects and moods to watch for. Starting with the mostly original score composed by Joseph Carl Breil for D. W. Griffith's epic "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), it became relatively common for the biggest-budgeted films to arrive at the exhibiting theater with original, specially composed scores. However, the first designated full-blown scores had in fact been composed in 1908, by Camille Saint-Saëns for "The Assassination of the Duke of Guise", and by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov for "Stenka Razin".


title: Silent film

text: When organists or pianists used sheet music, they still might add improvisational flourishes to heighten the drama on screen. Even when special effects were not indicated in the score, if an organist was playing a theater organ capable of an unusual sound effect such as "galloping horses", it would be used during scenes of dramatic horseback chases.


title: Silent film

text: At the height of the silent era, movies were the single largest source of employment for instrumental musicians, at least in the United States. However, the introduction of talkies, coupled with the roughly simultaneous onset of the Great Depression, was devastating to many musicians.


title: Silent film

text: A number of countries devised other ways of bringing sound to silent films. The early cinema of Brazil, for example, featured "fitas cantatas" (singing films), filmed operettas with singers performing behind the screen. In Japan, films had not only live music but also the "benshi", a live narrator who provided commentary and character voices. The "benshi" became a central element in Japanese film, as well as providing translation for foreign (mostly American) movies. The popularity of the "benshi" was one reason why silent films persisted well into the 1930s in Japan. Conversely, as "benshi"-narrated films often lacked intertitles, modern-day audiences may sometimes find it difficult to follow the plots without specialised subtitling or additional commentary.


title: Silent film

text: Few film scores survived intact from the silent period, and musicologists are still confronted by questions when they attempt to precisely reconstruct those that remain. Scores used in current reissues or screenings of silent films may be complete reconstructions of compositions, newly composed for the occasion, assembled from already existing music libraries, or improvised on the spot in the manner of the silent-era theater musician.


title: Silent film

text: Interest in the scoring of silent films fell somewhat out of fashion during the 1960s and 1970s. There was a belief in many college film programs and repertory cinemas that audiences should experience silent film as a pure visual medium, undistracted by music. This belief may have been encouraged by the poor quality of the music tracks found on many silent film reprints of the time. Since around 1980, there has been a revival of interest in presenting silent films with quality musical scores (either reworkings of period scores or cue sheets, or the composition of appropriate original scores). An early effort of this kind was Kevin Brownlow's 1980 restoration of Abel Gance's "Napoléon" (1927), featuring a score by Carl Davis. A slightly re-edited and sped-up version of Brownlow's restoration was later distributed in the United States by Francis Ford Coppola, with a live orchestral score composed by his father Carmine Coppola.


title: Silent film

text: In 1984, an edited restoration of "Metropolis" (1927) was released with a new rock music score by producer-composer Giorgio Moroder. Although the contemporary score, which included pop songs by Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar, and Jon Anderson of Yes, was controversial, the door had been opened for a new approach to the presentation of classic silent films.


title: Silent film

text: Today, a large number of soloists, music ensembles, and orchestras perform traditional and contemporary scores for silent films internationally. The legendary theater organist Gaylord Carter continued to perform and record his original silent film scores until shortly before his death in 2000; some of those scores are available on DVD reissues. Other purveyors of the traditional approach include organists such as Dennis James and pianists such as Neil Brand, Günter Buchwald, Philip C. Carli, Ben Model, and William P. Perry. Other contemporary pianists, such as Stephen Horne and Gabriel Thibaudeau, have often taken a more modern approach to scoring.


title: Silent film

text: Orchestral conductors such as Carl Davis and Robert Israel have written and compiled scores for numerous silent films; many of these have been featured in showings on Turner Classic Movies or have been released on DVD. Davis has composed new scores for classic silent dramas such as "The Big Parade" (1925) and "Flesh and the Devil" (1927). Israel has worked mainly in silent comedy, scoring the films of Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, and others. Timothy Brock has restored many of Charlie Chaplin's scores, in addition to composing new scores.


title: Silent film

text: Contemporary music ensembles are helping to introduce classic silent films to a wider audience through a broad range of musical styles and approaches. Some performers create new compositions using traditional musical instruments, while others add electronic sounds, modern harmonies, rhythms, improvisation, and sound design elements to enhance the viewing experience. Among the contemporary ensembles in this category are Un Drame Musical Instantané, Alloy Orchestra, Club Foot Orchestra, Silent Orchestra, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Minima and the Caspervek Trio, RPM Orchestra. Donald Sosin and his wife Joanna Seaton specialize in adding vocals to silent films, particularly where there is onscreen singing that benefits from hearing the actual song being performed. Films in this category include Griffith's "Lady of the Pavements" with Lupe Vélez, Edwin Carewe's "Evangeline" with Dolores del Río, and Rupert Julian's "The Phantom of the Opera" with Mary Philbin and Virginia Pearson.


title: Silent film

text: The Silent Film Sound and Music Archive digitizes music and cue sheets written for silent films and makes them available for use by performers, scholars, and enthusiasts.


title: Silent film

text: Silent-film actors emphasized body language and facial expression so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic or campy. The melodramatic acting style was in some cases a habit actors transferred from their former stage experience. Vaudeville was an especially popular origin for many American silent film actors. The pervading presence of stage actors in film was the cause of this outburst from director Marshall Neilan in 1917: "The sooner the stage people who have come into pictures get out, the better for the pictures." In other cases, directors such as John Griffith Wray required their actors to deliver larger-than-life expressions for emphasis. As early as 1914, American viewers had begun to make known their preference for greater naturalness on screen.


title: Silent film

text: Silent films became less vaudevillian in the mid-1910s, as the differences between stage and screen became apparent. Due to the work of directors such as D. W. Griffith, cinematography became less stage-like, and the development of the close up allowed for understated and realistic acting. Lillian Gish has been called film's "first true actress" for her work in the period, as she pioneered new film performing techniques, recognizing the crucial differences between stage and screen acting. Directors such as Albert Capellani and Maurice Tourneur began to insist on naturalism in their films. By the mid-1920s many American silent films had adopted a more naturalistic acting style, though not all actors and directors accepted naturalistic, low-key acting straight away; as late as 1927, films featuring expressionistic acting styles, such as "Metropolis", were still being released. Greta Garbo, who made her debut in 1926, would become known for her naturalistic acting.


title: Silent film

text: According to Anton Kaes, a silent film scholar from the University of California, Berkeley, American silent cinema began to see a shift in acting techniques between 1913 and 1921, influenced by techniques found in German silent film. This is mainly attributed to the influx of emigrants from the Weimar Republic, "including film directors, producers, cameramen, lighting and stage technicians, as well as actors and actresses".


title: Silent film

text: Until the standardization of the projection speed of 24 frames per second (fps) for sound films between 1926 and 1930, silent films were shot at variable speeds (or "frame rates") anywhere from 12 to 40 fps, depending on the year and studio. "Standard silent film speed" is often said to be 16 fps as a result of the Lumière brothers' Cinématographe, but industry practice varied considerably; there was no actual standard. William Kennedy Laury Dickson, an Edison employee, settled on the astonishingly fast 40 frames per second. Additionally, cameramen of the era insisted that their cranking technique was exactly 16 fps, but modern examination of the films shows this to be in error, and that they often cranked faster. Unless carefully shown at their intended speeds silent films can appear unnaturally fast or slow. However, some scenes were intentionally undercranked during shooting to accelerate the action—particularly for comedies and action films.


title: Silent film

text: Slow projection of a cellulose nitrate base film carried a risk of fire, as each frame was exposed for a longer time to the intense heat of the projection lamp; but there were other reasons to project a film at a greater pace. Often projectionists received general instructions from the distributors on the musical director's cue sheet as to how fast particular reels or scenes should be projected. In rare instances, usually for larger productions, cue sheets produced specifically for the projectionist provided a detailed guide to presenting the film. Theaters also—to maximize profit—sometimes varied projection speeds depending on the time of day or popularity of a film, or to fit a film into a prescribed time slot.


title: Silent film

text: All motion-picture film projectors require a moving shutter to block the light whilst the film is moving, otherwise the image is smeared in the direction of the movement. However this shutter causes the image to "flicker", and images with low rates of flicker are very unpleasant to watch. Early studies by Thomas Edison for his Kinetoscope machine determined that any rate below 46 images per second "will strain the eye". and this holds true for projected images under normal cinema conditions also. The solution adopted for the Kinetoscope was to run the film at over 40 frames/sec, but this was expensive for film. However, by using projectors with dual- and triple-blade shutters the flicker rate is multiplied two or three times higher than the number of film frames — each frame being flashed two or three times on screen. A three-blade shutter projecting a 16 fps film will slightly surpass Edison's figure, giving the audience 48 images per second. During the silent era projectors were commonly fitted with 3-bladed shutters. Since the introduction of sound with its 24 frame/sec standard speed 2-bladed shutters have become the norm for 35 mm cinema projectors, though three-bladed shutters have remained standard on 16 mm and 8 mm projectors, which are frequently used to project amateur footage shot at 16 or 18 frames/sec. A 35 mm film frame rate of 24 fps translates to a film speed of per second. One reel requires 11 minutes and 7 seconds to be projected at 24 fps, while a 16 fps projection of the same reel would take 16 minutes and 40 seconds, or per second.


title: Silent film

text: In the 1950s, many telecine conversions of silent films at grossly incorrect frame rates for broadcast television may have alienated viewers. Film speed is often a vexed issue among scholars and film buffs in the presentation of silents today, especially when it comes to DVD releases of restored films, such as the case of the 2002 restoration of "Metropolis".


title: Silent film

text: With the lack of natural color processing available, films of the silent era were frequently dipped in dyestuffs and dyed various shades and hues to signal a mood or represent a time of day. Hand tinting dates back to 1895 in the United States with Edison's release of selected hand-tinted prints of "Butterfly Dance". Additionally, experiments in color film started as early as in 1909, although it took a much longer time for color to be adopted by the industry and an effective process to be developed. Blue represented night scenes, yellow or amber meant day. Red represented fire and green represented a mysterious atmosphere. Similarly, toning of film (such as the common silent film generalization of sepia-toning) with special solutions replaced the silver particles in the film stock with salts or dyes of various colors. A combination of tinting and toning could be used as an effect that could be striking.


title: Silent film

text: Some films were hand-tinted, such as "Annabelle Serpentine Dance" (1894), from Edison Studios. In it, Annabelle Whitford, a young dancer from Broadway, is dressed in white veils that appear to change colors as she dances. This technique was designed to capture the effect of the live performances of Loie Fuller, beginning in 1891, in which stage lights with colored gels turned her white flowing dresses and sleeves into artistic movement. Hand coloring was often used in the early "trick" and fantasy films of Europe, especially those by Georges Méliès. Méliès began hand-tinting his work as early as 1897 and the 1899 "Cendrillion" (Cinderella) and 1900 "Jeanne d'Arc" (Joan of Arc) provide early examples of hand-tinted films in which the color was a critical part of the scenography or "mise en scène"; such precise tinting used the workshop of Elisabeth Thuillier in Paris, with teams of female artists adding layers of color to each frame by hand rather than using a more common (and less expensive) process of stenciling. A newly restored version of Méliès' "A Trip to the Moon", originally released in 1902, shows an exuberant use of color designed to add texture and interest to the image.


title: Silent film

text: Comments by an American distributor in a 1908 film-supply catalog further underscore France's continuing dominance in the field of hand-coloring films during the early silent era. The distributor offers for sale at varying prices "High-Class" motion pictures by Pathé, Urban-Eclipse, Gaumont, Kalem, Itala Film, Ambrosio Film, and Selig. Several of the longer, more prestigious films in the catalog are offered in both standard black-and-white "plain stock" as well as in "hand-painted" color. A plain-stock copy, for example, of the 1907 release "Ben Hur" is offered for $120 ($ USD today), while a colored version of the same 1000-foot, 15-minute film costs $270 ($) including the extra $150 coloring charge, which amounted to 15 cents more per foot. Although the reasons for the cited extra charge were likely obvious to customers, the distributor explains why his catalog's colored films command such significantly higher prices and require more time for delivery. His explanation also provides insight into the general state of film-coloring services in the United States by 1908:


title: Silent film

text: By the beginning of the 1910s, with the onset of feature-length films, tinting was used as another mood setter, just as commonplace as music. The director D. W. Griffith displayed a constant interest and concern about color, and used tinting as a special effect in many of his films. His 1915 epic, "The Birth of a Nation", used a number of colors, including amber, blue, lavender, and a striking red tint for scenes such as the "burning of Atlanta" and the ride of the Ku Klux Klan at the climax of the picture. Griffith later invented a color system in which colored lights flashed on areas of the screen to achieve a color.


title: Silent film

text: With the development of sound-on-film technology and the industry's acceptance of it, tinting was abandoned altogether, because the dyes used in the tinting process interfered with the soundtracks present on film strips.


title: Silent film

text: The early studios were located in the New York City area. Edison Studios were first in West Orange, New Jersey (1892), they were moved to the Bronx, New York (1907). Fox (1909) and Biograph (1906) started in Manhattan, with studios in St George, Staten Island. Others films were shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In December 1908, Edison led the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Company in an attempt to control the industry and shut out smaller producers. The "Edison Trust", as it was nicknamed, was made up of Edison, Biograph, Essanay Studios, Kalem Company, George Kleine Productions, Lubin Studios, Georges Méliès, Pathé, Selig Studios, and Vitagraph Studios, and dominated distribution through the General Film Company. This company dominated the industry as both a vertical and horizontal monopoly and is a contributing factor in studios' migration to the West Coast. The Motion Picture Patents Co. and the General Film Co. were found guilty of antitrust violation in October 1915, and were dissolved.


title: Silent film

text: The Thanhouser film studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York, in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser. The company produced and released 1,086 films between 1910 and 1917, including the first film serial ever, "The Million Dollar Mystery", released in 1914. The first westerns were filmed at Fred Scott's Movie Ranch in South Beach, Staten Island. Actors costumed as cowboys and Native Americans galloped across Scott's movie ranch set, which had a frontier main street, a wide selection of stagecoaches and a 56-foot stockade. The island provided a serviceable stand-in for locations as varied as the Sahara desert and a British cricket pitch. War scenes were shot on the plains of Grasmere, Staten Island. "The Perils of Pauline" and its even more popular sequel "The Exploits of Elaine" were filmed largely on the island. So was the 1906 blockbuster "Life of a Cowboy", by Edwin S. Porter Company and filming moved to the West Coast around 1912.


title: Silent film

text: The following are American films from the silent film era that had earned the highest gross income as of 1932. The amounts given are gross rentals (the distributor's share of the box-office) as opposed to exhibition gross.


title: Silent film

text: Although attempts to create sync-sound motion pictures go back to the Edison lab in 1896, only from the early 1920s were the basic technologies such as vacuum tube amplifiers and high-quality loudspeakers available. The next few years saw a race to design, implement, and market several rival sound-on-disc and sound-on-film sound formats, such as Photokinema (1921), Phonofilm (1923), Vitaphone (1926), Fox Movietone (1927) and RCA Photophone (1928).


title: Silent film

text: Warner Bros. was the first studio to accept sound as an element in film production and utilize the Vitaphone, a sound-on-disc technology, to do so. The studio then released "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, which marked the first commercially successful sound film, but silent films were still the majority of features released in both 1927 and 1928, along with so-called goat-glanded films: silents with a subsection of sound film inserted. Thus the modern sound film era may be regarded as coming to dominance beginning in 1929.


title: Silent film

text: For a listing of notable silent era films, see "List of years in film" for the years between the beginning of film and 1928. The following list includes only films produced in the sound era with the specific artistic intention of being silent.


title: Silent film

text: Several filmmakers have paid homage to the comedies of the silent era, including Charlie Chaplin, with "Modern Times" (1936), Orson Welles with "Too Much Johnson" (1938), Jacques Tati with "Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot" (1953), Pierre Etaix with "The Suitor" (1962), and Mel Brooks with "Silent Movie" (1976). Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's acclaimed drama "Three Times" (2005) is silent during its middle third, complete with intertitles; Stanley Tucci's "The Impostors" has an opening silent sequence in the style of early silent comedies. Brazilian filmmaker Renato Falcão's "Margarette's Feast" (2003) is silent. Writer / Director Michael Pleckaitis puts his own twist on the genre with "Silent" (2007). While not silent, the "Mr. Bean" television series and movies have used the title character's non-talkative nature to create a similar style of humor. A lesser-known example is Jérôme Savary's "La fille du garde-barrière" (1975), an homage to silent-era films that uses intertitles and blends comedy, drama, and explicit sex scenes (which led to it being refused a cinema certificate by the British Board of Film Classification).


title: Silent film

text: In 1990, Charles Lane directed and starred in "Sidewalk Stories", a low budget salute to sentimental silent comedies, particularly Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid".


title: Silent film

text: The German film "Tuvalu" (1999) is mostly silent; the small amount of dialog is an odd mix of European languages, increasing the film's universality. Guy Maddin won awards for his homage to Soviet era silent films with his short "The Heart of the World" after which he made a feature-length silent, "Brand Upon the Brain!" (2006), incorporating live Foley artists, narration and orchestra at select showings. "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000) is a highly fictionalized depiction of the filming of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's classic silent vampire movie "Nosferatu" (1922). Werner Herzog honored the same film in his own version, "" (1979).


title: Silent film

text: Some films draw a direct contrast between the silent film era and the era of talkies. "Sunset Boulevard" shows the disconnect between the two eras in the character of Norma Desmond, played by silent film star Gloria Swanson, and "Singin' in the Rain" deals with Hollywood artists adjusting to the talkies. Peter Bogdanovich's 1976 film "Nickelodeon" deals with the turmoil of silent filmmaking in Hollywood during the early 1910s, leading up to the release of D. W. Griffith's epic "The Birth of a Nation" (1915).


title: Silent film

text: In 1999, the Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki produced "Juha" in black-and-white, which captures the style of a silent film, using intertitles in place of spoken dialogue. Special release prints with titles in several different languages were produced for international distribution. In India, the film "Pushpak" (1988), starring Kamal Haasan, was a black comedy entirely devoid of dialog. The Australian film "Doctor Plonk" (2007), was a silent comedy directed by Rolf de Heer. Stage plays have drawn upon silent film styles and sources. Actor/writers Billy Van Zandt & Jane Milmore staged their Off-Broadway slapstick comedy "Silent Laughter" as a live action tribute to the silent screen era. Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford created and starred in "All Wear Bowlers" (2004), which started as an homage to Laurel and Hardy then evolved to incorporate life-sized silent film sequences of Sobelle and Lyford who jump back and forth between live action and the silver screen. The animated film "Fantasia" (1940), which is eight different animation sequences set to music, can be considered a silent film, with only one short scene involving dialogue. The espionage film "The Thief" (1952) has music and sound effects, but no dialogue, as do Thierry Zéno's 1974 "Vase de Noces" and Patrick Bokanowski's 1982 "The Angel".


title: Silent film

text: In 2005, the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society produced a silent film version of Lovecraft's story "The Call of Cthulhu". This film maintained a period-accurate filming style, and was received as both "the best HPL adaptation to date" and, referring to the decision to make it as a silent movie, "a brilliant conceit".


title: Silent film

text: The French film "The Artist" (2011), written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius, plays as a silent film and is set in Hollywood during the silent era. It also includes segments of fictitious silent films starring its protagonists. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture.


title: Silent film

text: The Japanese vampire film "Sanguivorous" (2011) is not only done in the style of a silent film, but even toured with live orchestral accompiment. Eugene Chadbourne has been among those who have played live music for the film.


title: Silent film

text: "Blancanieves" is a 2012 Spanish black-and-white silent fantasy drama film written and directed by Pablo Berger.


title: Silent film

text: The American feature-length silent film "Silent Life" started in 2006, features performances by Isabella Rossellini and Galina Jovovich, mother of Milla Jovovich, will premiere in 2013. The film is based on the life of the silent screen icon Rudolph Valentino, known as the Hollywood's first "Great Lover". After the emergency surgery, Valentino loses his grip of reality and begins to see the recollection of his life in Hollywood from a perspective of a coma – as a silent film shown at a movie palace, the magical portal between life and eternity, between reality and illusion.


title: Silent film

text: "The Picnic" is a 2012 short film made in the style of two-reel silent melodramas and comedies. It was part of the exhibit, "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man," a 2018-2019 exhibit curated by the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The film was shown inside a miniature 12-seat Art Deco movie palace on wheels called "The Capitol Theater", created by Oakland, Ca. art collective Five Ton Crane.


title: Silent film

text: The 2015 British animated film "Shaun the Sheep Movie" based on Shaun the Sheep was released to positive reviews and was a box office success. Aardman Animations also produced Morph and Timmy Time as well as many other silent short films.


title: Silent film

text: The American Theatre Organ Society pays homage to the music of silent films, as well as the theatre organs that played such music. With over 75 local chapters, the organization seeks to preserve and promote theater organs and music, as an art form.


title: Silent film

text: The Globe International Silent Film Festival (GISFF) is an annual event focusing on image and atmosphere in cinema which takes place in a reputable university or academic environment every year and is a platform for showcasing and judging films from filmmakers who are active in this field. In 2018 film director Christopher Annino shot the now internationally award-winning feature silent film of its kind "Silent Times". The film gives homage to many of the characters from the 1920s including Officer Keystone played by David Blair, and Enzio Marchello who portrays a Charlie Chaplin character. "Silent Times" has won best silent film at the Oniros Film Festival. Set in a small New England town, the story centers on Oliver Henry III (played by Westerly native Geoff Blanchette), a small-time crook turned vaudeville theater owner. From humble beginnings in England, he immigrates to the US in search of happiness and fast cash. He becomes acquainted with people from all walks of life, from burlesque performers, mimes, hobos to classy flapper girls, as his fortunes rise and his life spins ever more out of control.


title: Silent film

text: The vast majority of the silent films produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are considered lost. According to a September 2013 report published by the United States Library of Congress, some 70 percent of American silent feature films fall into this category. There are numerous reasons for this number being so high. Some films have been lost unintentionally, but most silent films were destroyed on purpose. Between the end of the silent era and the rise of home video, film studios would often discard large numbers of silent films out of a desire to free up storage in their archives, assuming that they had lost the cultural relevance and economic value to justify the amount of space they occupied. Additionally, due to the fragile nature of the nitrate film stock which was used to shoot and distribute silent films, many motion pictures have irretrievably deteriorated or have been lost in accidents, including fires (because nitrate is highly flammable and can spontaneously combust when stored improperly). Examples of such incidents include the 1965 MGM vault fire and the 1937 Fox vault fire, both of which incited catastrophic losses of films. Many such films not completely destroyed survive only partially, or in badly damaged prints. Some lost films, such as "London After Midnight" (1927), lost in the MGM fire, have been the subject of considerable interest by film collectors and historians.


title: Silent film

text: Though most lost silent films will never be recovered, some have been discovered in film archives or private collections. Discovered and preserved versions may be editions made for the home rental market of the 1920s and 1930s that are discovered in estate sales, etc. The degradation of old film stock can be slowed through proper archiving, and films can be transferred to safety film stock or to digital media for preservation. The preservation of silent films has been a high priority for historians and archivists.


title: Silent film

text: Dawson City, in the Yukon territory of Canada, was once the end of the distribution line for many films. In 1978, a cache of more than 500 reels of nitrate film was discovered during the excavation of a vacant lot formerly the site of the Dawson Amateur Athletic Association, which had started showing films at their recreation center in 1903. Works by Pearl White, Helen Holmes, Grace Cunard, Lois Weber, Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks, and Lon Chaney, among others, were included, as well as many newsreels. The titles were stored at the local library until 1929 when the flammable nitrate was used as landfill in a condemned swimming pool. Having spent 50 years under the permafrost of the Yukon, the reels turned out to be extremely well preserved. Owing to its dangerous chemical volatility, the historical find was moved by military transport to Library and Archives Canada and the US Library of Congress for storage (and transfer to safety film). A documentary about the find, "" was released in 2016.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: Sebastián Obando Giraldo (born 15 October 1994), known professionally as Sebastián Yatra, is a Colombian singer, songwriter and actor. He began as a Latin pop artist and has recorded many ballads, but has released several successful reggaeton singles. Yatra is noted for his romantic lyrics, melding traditional lyricism with modern reggaeton influences. He rose to prominence in Latin America in 2016 when he released the hit "Traicionera". He has released three studio albums and recorded with artists from a diverse range of musical genres throughout his career.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: Born in Medellín and raised primarily in Miami, Yatra began singing at a young age and returned to Colombia to begin his musical career. He achieved breakout success with "Traicionera" followed by "Robarte un Beso" featuring Carlos Vives. "Traicionera" served as the lead single for his 2018 debut album, "Mantra", which also featured the single "Sutra", featuring Puerto Rican rapper Dalmata. He then released the album "Fantasía" including the lead single "Un Año" featuring Mexican band Reik. He received continued success collaborating with Daddy Yankee, Natti Natasha, and the Jonas Brothers on the bilingual single "Runaway".


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: Born in Medellín, Yatra lived briefly in Cartagena before moving with his mother to Miami at age five. At the same time, his father stayed in Colombia to work in real estate. Discussing the experience, Yatra explained, “It was a big sacrifice. Since my dad stayed working in Colombia, [my parents] had a long-distance relationship for like 12 years.” He studied piano, guitar, and vocal technique, and was an avid football player before deciding to concentrate on his music, although he continues to practice football as a hobby. The first concert he attended was that of Colombian pop singer Juanes. He decided to become a singer at age twelve after landing the role of Troy Bolton in his school production of "High School Musical".


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: In high school, Yatra played the position of the central defensive midfielder on his school's football team and often wore a scarf over his mouth during practice to protect his voice. He practiced performing for his teammates on the bus to and from games, performing songs by his favorite artists as well as his own original songs. He attended vocal lessons every day after school. After graduating from the Sagemont School in Weston, Florida in 2012, Yatra attended Babson College to study business administration. However, Yatra dropped out of school to focus on music and at age 20, Yatra returned to Colombia to begin his musical career.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: In September 2013, Yatra had his first minor hit single, "El psicólogo", which charted in his home country Colombia, as well as Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico and the United States. "El Psicólogo", a pop ballad with reggae influences was recorded in the United States, and produced by well-known Latin producers Yhonny Atella and Ender Thomas, mastered by Tom Coynequien and music video shot by Colombian director Simón Brand. Yatra toured with Paty Cantú in her Drama Queen Tour and with Sandoval Sandoval in her Deja Que La Vida Te Sorprenda Tour gaining more fame. His follow-up single "Todo Lo Que Siento" was mildly successful, but the ensuing "Para olvidar" became a big hit in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and yet again in the States. 2015 saw launching of two successful singles, "No me llames" featuring Alkilados and "Cómo Mirarte", a repeat hit first as solo and again in a collaboration featuring Kenai and remixed by producers like Kevin ADG, Chan El Genio and Dandee.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: Yatra first received international success with the single "Traicionera" a Reggaeton, trap and EDM-influenced hit that solidified his status as a favorite international artist in Latin America, in the Latin market in the States also charting in Spain and finding success all over Europe. The single was classified double platinum in Colombia and platinum in Ecuador. It peaked at number twelve on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. Yatra's collaboration with Colombian vallenato singer Carlos Vives entitled "Robarte Un Beso" won an ASCAP award. The single's accompanying music video, directed by Venezuelan filmmaker Daniel Duran and released on July 28, 2017, features four love stories that all center around partners serenading each other.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: Yatra released the album "Mantra" on May 18, 2018. On the album's title, he explained, “My mantra are my songs. It takes you to that good energy with whatever you’re listening to. All these songs have these positive vibes, especially in the lyrics. They’re just sharing love." In 2018, Yatra voiced the character Migo in the Spanish language version of the computer-animated film "Smallfoot". He released the single "Sutra" featuring Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Dalmata in March 2018, which also peaked at number 26 on the "Billboard" Hot Latin Songs.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: In December 2018, Yatra's single "Ya No Tiene Novio" featuring Mau y Ricky reached number one on the "Billboard" Latin Airplay chart. To promote the song, Yatra and Mau y Ricky publicized a "feud" between them to create attention around the track, with Yatra explaining, “It’s pretty crazy because the song blew up before it even came out. Instead of telling people it was awesome, we told everyone that the collaboration sucked and having everyone say, ‘Dude you guys messed up the song so bad.’” Artists Maluma, Zion Y Lennox, and J Balvin publicly commented on the "rivalry". The music video features a playful nod at the artificial feud, with the artists competing over love interests.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: In January 2019, Sebastián Yatra and Reik launched a collaborative work titled “Un Año” (one year). The single was well-received by many Venezuelan migrants who identify the song lyrics with separations from families. The single was released alongside his new album "Fantasía", which was released in April 2019. Despite releasing several reggaeton-influenced songs prior to releasing the album, the majority of the twelve tracks on "Fantasía" have been classified as ballads. Yatra commented, "I started my career as a balladeer. I listened to Luis Fonsi, Reik, Alex Ubago and Michael Bublé. I'm very grateful for all the urban things I've done but I did not want to lose my essence." "Fantasía" has been nominated for Best Latin Pop Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: In June 2019, Yatra released the track "Runaway" with Daddy Yankee and Natti Natasha, featuring the Jonas Brothers. "Runaway" is the first bilingual song Yatra has released. After writing the chorus in English, Yatra realized that he wanted a mainstream English-language musician to feature on the track, putting the recording of the song on hold for two years while he searched for the right collaborators. Commenting on the song, Yatra stated, "you feel the happiness in the track." Yatra performed the song alongside Natti Natasha, Daddy Yankee, and the Jonas Brothers on the opening night of the Jonas Brothers' Happiness Begins Tour in Miami.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: His single "Oye", featuring Argentine singer Tini, reached number one on the "Billboard" Argentina Hot 100 for the week of October 26, 2019. The music video received more than 40 million views in the two weeks after it was released on YouTube. In October 2019 he was involved in political controversies after expressing his support for the politicians and candidates of the Colombian far-right, including controversial former president Álvaro Uribe. Yatra collaborated with Mexican rock group Maná in November 2019 to release a new version of the group's 1995 single “No Ha Parado De Llover”. The song's music video, which partially centers around a fatal car accident, serves as a public service announcement against texting and driving. Maná initiated the collaboration after seeing Yatra cover the song at the 2018 Grammys gala.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: Yatra has publicly advocated for fans to practice social distancing to stop the spread of COVID-19. In March 2020, he began reading children's books on Instagram Live every night at 8pm EST. Also in March 2020, he released a remix of his "Fantasía" song "Falta Amor" featuring Ricky Martin. On the collaboration, Yatra reflected, "Singing with Ricky Martin is just insane. I would have never thought it possible in [this] lifetime. It’s huge not only as a Latino, but for any person that loves music.” He announced that he will be the opening act for Martin and Enrique Iglesias's US tour, which is planned to take place from September 5 to October 30, 2021.


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: In 2021, Yatra recorded the Spanish song "Dos Oruguitas" and its English language version, "Two Oruguitas" for the soundtrack of the Disney animated film "Encanto". The song, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, represented Yatra's first inclusion on a Disney movie soundtrack and the accomplishment of a personal goal: "It's always been a dream of mine to be a part of a Disney movie and it really hits the heart when it's a Disney movie about my country and showing the best of what we have to offer, which is love and family and miracles," Yatra noted. "Dos Oruguitas" was one of five songs nominated for Best Original Song for the 2022 Oscars. On February 22, 2022, Yatra revealed the North America dates for his "Dharma World Tour".


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: Yatra's music has been classified as Latin pop, reggaeton, and ballads. According to "The Fader", Yatras music lands "somewhere in between the olden times’ sappy romantics and the new wave’s sensuous vibras." He is influenced by Latin pop and reggaeton artists Ricky Martin, Shakira, J Balvin, Juanes, and Reik. In an interview with "Billboard", he expressed a desire to collaborate with Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli. Yatra believes that contemporary musicians commit an "error in associating ballads with boring and slow and old", and hopes to rejuvenate intererest in ballads for a younger audience. However, his music contains elements of other genres; Desire Thompson of "Vibe" described his song "Traicionera" as a "trap-EDM blend".


title: Sebastián Yatra

text: Despite growing up in Florida and being fluent in English, Yatra sings almost exclusively in Spanish. Yatra explains, “My goal was always to be a singer in Spanish. And I really wanted to understand where I come from and live it. A lot of times I went to Colombia and, even though I spoke Spanish and was always speaking Spanish with my parents, I still felt like an outsider. I wasn’t 100 percent part of it. I wanted to give my roots the importance they deserve.” His June 2019 song "Runaway" was his first foray into bilingual songwriting. In December 2019, he collaborated with South Korean boy group Monsta X for the song "Magnetic", which features verses from Yatra in Spanish and a bridge from Monsta X in Spanglish. Sara Delgado of "Teen Vogue" called the song a "truly international pop hit".


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title (co-authored with Montague Barstow) enjoyed a long run in London, having opened in Nottingham in 1903.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: The novel is set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The title is the "nom de guerre" of its hero and protagonist, a chivalrous Englishman who rescues aristocrats before they are sent to the guillotine. Sir Percy Blakeney leads a double life: apparently nothing more than a wealthy fop, but in reality a formidable swordsman and a quick-thinking master of disguise and escape artist. The band of gentlemen who assist him are the only ones who know of his secret identity. He is known by his symbol, a simple flower, the scarlet pimpernel ("Anagallis arvensis").


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Opening at the New Theatre in London's West End on 5 January 1905, the play became a favourite of British audiences, eventually playing more than 2,000 performances and becoming one of the most popular shows staged in London. Published after the success of the play, the novel was an immediate success, gaining Orczy a following of readers in Britain and the rest of the world.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Orczy's premise of a daring hero who cultivates a secret identity disguised by a meek or ineffectual manner proved enduring. Zorro, Doctor Syn, the Shadow, the Spider, the Phantom, Superman and Batman followed within a few decades, and the trope remains a popular one in serial fiction today. Read by Stan Lee as a boy, the Marvel co-creator called The Scarlet Pimpernel "the first character who could be called a superhero."


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Set in 1792, during the early stages of the French Revolution, Marguerite St. Just, a beautiful French actress, is married to wealthy English fop Sir Percy Blakeney, baronet. Before their marriage Marguerite took revenge upon the Marquis de St. Cyr, who had ordered her brother beaten for his romantic interest in the Marquis' daughter, with the unintended consequence that the Marquis and his sons were guillotined. When Percy found out, he became estranged from his wife. Marguerite, for her part, became disillusioned with Percy's shallow, dandyish lifestyle.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Meanwhile, the "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel", a secret society of twenty English aristocrats, "one to command, and nineteen to obey", is engaged in rescuing their French counterparts from the daily executions of the Reign of Terror. Their leader, the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, takes his "'nom de guerre" from the small, wayside red flower he draws on his messages. Despite being the talk of London society, only his followers and possibly the Prince of Wales know the Pimpernel's true identity. Like many others, Marguerite is entranced by the Pimpernel's daring exploits.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: At a ball attended by the Blakeneys, Percy's verse about the "elusive Pimpernel" becomes an instant success. But Marguerite is being blackmailed by Citizen Chauvelin, the wily new French envoy to England: Chauvelin's agents have stolen a letter proving that her beloved brother Armand is in league with the Pimpernel. Chauvelin offers to trade Armand's life for her help against the Pimpernel. Contemptuous of her seemingly witless and unloving husband, Marguerite does not go to him for help or advice. Instead, she passes along information which enables Chauvelin to learn the Pimpernel's true identity.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Later that night, Marguerite finally tells her husband of the terrible danger threatening her brother and pleads for his help. Percy promises to save him. After Percy unexpectedly leaves for France, Marguerite, in a twist, discovers to her horror (and simultaneous delight) that "he" is the Pimpernel. He had hidden behind the persona of a dull, slow-witted fop to deceive the world. He had not told Marguerite because of his worry that she might betray him, as she had the Marquis de St. Cyr. Desperate to save her husband, she decides to pursue Percy to France to warn him that Chauvelin knows his identity and his purpose. She persuades Sir Andrew Ffoulkes to accompany her, but because of the tide and the weather, neither they nor Chauvelin can leave immediately.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: At Calais, Percy openly approaches Chauvelin in the "Chat gris", a decrepit inn whose owner is in Percy's pay. Despite Chauvelin's best efforts, the Englishman manages to escape by offering Chauvelin a pinch of snuff, which turns out to be pure pepper. Through a bold plan executed right under Chauvelin's nose, Percy rescues Marguerite's brother Armand and the Comte de Tournay, the father of a schoolfriend of Marguerite's. Marguerite pursues Percy right to the very end, resolute that she must either warn him or share his fate. Percy, heavily disguised, is captured by Chauvelin, who does not recognise him so he is able to escape.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: With Marguerite's love and courage amply proven, Percy's ardour is rekindled. Safely back on board their schooner, the "Day Dream", the happily reconciled couple returns to England. Sir Andrew marries the count's daughter, Suzanne.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: The title character, Sir Percy Blakeney, a wealthy English fop who transforms into a formidable swordsman and a quick-thinking escape artist, established the "hero with a secret identity" in popular culture, a trope that would be seen in subsequent literary creations such as Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro), Kent Allard/Lamont Cranston (The Shadow), Clark Kent (Superman), and Bruce Wayne (Batman). The Scarlet Pimpernel exhibits characteristics that would become standard superhero conventions, including the penchant for disguise, use of a signature weapon (sword), ability to out-think and outwit his adversaries, and a calling card (he leaves behind a scarlet pimpernel at each of his interventions). By drawing attention to his alter ego, Blakeney hides behind his public face as a slow-thinking, foppish playboy, and he also establishes a network of supporters, The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, that aids his endeavours. A plot technique from "Pimpernel" also used by some superheroes is the spurious "love triangle", where a woman is torn between attraction to her staid husband and the dashing hero—although they are in reality the same man. Marvel co-creator Stan Lee stated: "The Scarlet Pimpernel was the first superhero I had read about, the first character who could be called a superhero."


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: The popular success of the novel is considered to be based on the myth of the aristocratic hero with a double life, along with the love story and conflict of loyalties. Dugan says that "Behind the wigs and Mechlin lace cuffs lies an enduring human story of love, misunderstandings, conflict of loyalties, audacious bravery – and a dramatic double life." and this is a major part of the story's enduring popularity. Another aspect is the "Englishness" of the hero in the era when the British Empire began to shrink.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: As a writer, Orczy often alluded to historical events and figures but adapted these freely in creating her tales.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Citizen Chauvelin, the recurring villain of the "Scarlet Pimpernel" series, is based to some extent on the real-life Bernard-François, marquis de Chauvelin, who survived the Revolutionary period to serve as an official under Napoleon. He was a noted liberal Deputy under the Bourbon Restoration.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Orczy's original play, "The Scarlet Pimpernel", was produced and adapted by Julia Neilson and Fred Terry. It opened on 15 October 1903 at Nottingham's Theatre Royal and was not a success. Terry, however, had confidence in the play and, with a rewritten last act, took it to London's West End where it opened at the New Theatre on 5 January 1905. The premiere of the London production was enthusiastically received by the audience, but critics considered the play 'old-fashioned.' In spite of negative reviews, the play became a popular success, running 122 performances and enjoying numerous revivals. "The Scarlet Pimpernel" became a favourite of London audiences, playing more than 2,000 performances and becoming one of the most popular shows staged in the United Kingdom.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: The novel "The Scarlet Pimpernel" was published two years after the play opened and was an immediate success. Orczy gained a following of readers in Britain and throughout the world. The popularity of the novel encouraged her to write a number of sequels for her "reckless daredevil" over the next 35 years. The play was performed to great acclaim in France, Italy, Germany and Spain, while the novel was popular across the former British Empire and translated into 16 languages. Subsequently, the story has been adapted for television, film, a musical and other media.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: The commercial success of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" allowed Orczy and her husband to live out their lives in luxury. Over the years, they lived on an estate in Kent, a bustling London home and an opulent villa in Monte Carlo. Conceiving the character while standing on a platform on the London Underground, Orczy wrote in her autobiography, "Links in the Chain of Life":


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: I have so often been asked the question: "But how did you come to think of "The Scarlet Pimpernel?"" And my answer has always been: "It was God's will that I should." And to you moderns, who perhaps do not believe as I do, I will say, "In the chain of my life, there were so many links, all of which tended towards bringing me to the fulfillment of my destiny."


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Orczy wrote numerous sequels, none of which became as famous as "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Many of the sequels revolve around French characters whom Sir Percy has met and is attempting to rescue. His followers, such as Lord Tony Dewhurst, Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, Lord Hastings, and Armand St. Just (Marguerite's brother), also take their turn in major roles.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: In addition to the direct sequels about Sir Percy and his league, Orczy's related books include "The Laughing Cavalier" (1914) and "The First Sir Percy" (1921), about an ancestor of the Pimpernel's; "Pimpernel and Rosemary" (1924), about a descendant; and "The Scarlet Pimpernel Looks at the World" (1933), a depiction of the 1930s world from the point of view of Sir Percy.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Some of her non-related Revolutionary-period novels reference the Scarlet Pimpernel or the League, most notably "The Bronze Eagle" (1915).


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: "The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel", a fictional biography of Percy Blakeney published in 1938, named the nineteen members of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Marguerite, Lady Blakeney, is also named as a member of the League in the book "Mam'zelle Guillotine", but it is not known when she was formally enrolled. The Prince Regent is rumored to also be a member of the League, but in the original novel he refuses to confirm or deny this, saying "My lips are sealed!"; in the novel "The Elusive Pimpernel", Sir Percy tells Marguerite that he has had to report to the Prince before joining her at the village gala.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Orczy did not publish her Pimpernel stories as a strict chronological series, and in fact, the settings of the books in their publication sequence may vary forward or backward in time by months or centuries. While some readers enjoy following the author's development of the Pimpernel character as it was realised, others prefer to read the stories in historical sequence. Taking into account occasional discrepancies in the dates of events (real and fictional) referred to in the stories, the following is an approximate chronological listing of Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel novels and short stories:


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Hollywood took to the Pimpernel early and often, although most of the Pimpernel movies have been based on a melange of the original book and another Orczy novel, "Eldorado". The best known of the Pimpernel movies is the 1934 "The Scarlet Pimpernel" starring Leslie Howard, which is often considered the definitive portrayal and adaptation.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: In 1923, Fred Terry and Julia Nelson bought the sole performance right to a stageplay based on "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Orczy sued the two in an attempt to claim a separate right of performance for films, but was unsuccessful. As a result of the case, people who controlled a stage performance right under the English Copyright Act were entitled to create films with the same right.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: The novel has been parodied or used as source material in a variety of media, such as films, TV, stage works, literature, and games:


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Inspired by the title, "Scarlet Pimpernel", the Tartan Pimpernel was a nickname given to the Reverend Donald Caskie (1902–1983), formerly minister of the Paris congregation of the Church of Scotland, for aiding over 2,000 Allied service personnel to escape from occupied France during World War II.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Varian Fry was a 32-year-old Harvard-educated classicist and editor from New York City who helped save thousands of endangered refugees who were caught in Vichy France, helping them to escape from Nazi terror during World War II. His story is told in "American Pimpernel: The Man Who Saved the Artists on Hitler's Death List".


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty was an Irish priest who saved thousands of people, British and American servicemen and Jews, during World War II while in the Vatican in Rome. His story is told in two books and a film:


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Harald Edelstam (1913–1989) was a Swedish diplomat. During World War II, he earned the nickname "Svarta nejlikan" ("the Black Pimpernel") for helping Norwegian resistance fighters in escape from the Germans. Stationed in Chile in the 1970s, he arranged for the escape of numerous refugees from the military junta of Augusto Pinochet; this brought him into conflict with the regime, and he eventually was forced to leave the country.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: This name was also given to Nelson Mandela prior to his arrest and long incarceration for his anti-apartheid activities in South Africa due to his effective use of disguises when evading capture by the police.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, was directly inspired by ""Pimpernel" Smith", a 1941 British anti-Nazi propaganda thriller, to begin rescuing Hungarian Jews during World War II. The film had been banned in Sweden, but Wallenberg and his sister Nina were invited to a private screening at the British Embassy in Stockholm. Enthralled by Professor Smith (played by Leslie Howard) who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis, Nina stated, “We thought the film was amazing. When we got up from our seats, Raoul said, “that is the kind of thing I would like to do”. Wallenberg issued false passports identifying the Jews as Swedish nationals, and is credited with rescuing at least 15,000 Jews. He disappeared in Eastern Europe after the war, and is believed to have died in a Soviet prison camp.


title: The Scarlet Pimpernel

text: "Behind the scenes, Mandela worked very closely with Walter Sisulu, who was now being pursued by the police. Z.K. Matthews told the Cape ANC in June that Sisulu was operating behind the 'iron curtain' of the Transkei as a Scarlet Pimpernel (before Mandela inherited the title): "They sought him here, they sought him there, they sought him everywhere."" Quote cites: "Karis & Carter, Vol.3, op. cit., p.128"


title: Andrew Madoff

text: Andrew Madoff ( ; April 8, 1966 – September 3, 2014) was an American financier, best known for his role in exposing the financial crimes of his father, Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme has been widely described as the most successful in history.


title: Andrew Madoff

text: He and his brother, Mark, worked for their father's firm but in a division removed from their father's deceptive practices. As the financial crisis of 2008 made markets plunge, their father was unable to maintain the deception; they later described how he confessed to them and their mother, on December 10, 2008. Their father asked them to give him 24 hours before going to the police so he could get his affairs in order, but the brothers chose not to; their father was arrested the next day, and the brothers never spoke with him again.


title: Andrew Madoff

text: Andrew Madoff married Deborah Anne West in January 1992. According to Jerry Oppenheimer's "Madoff with the Money", the pair separated in 2007; Madoff later became engaged to Catherine Hooper, claiming that they met after his separation, although that has been disputed. Madoff and Hooper announced their plans to marry and lived together for years, but his divorce had not been completed prior to his death.


title: Andrew Madoff

text: Andrew was diagnosed with cancer in 2003. His cancer went into remission, returning in 2011. He attributed his relapse to the stress of the fallout over his father's crime. Another likely contributing factor is the fact that his brother had died by suicide in 2010, two years to the day since Bernie Madoff's arrest. Andrew Madoff died while undergoing further cancer treatment, on September 3, 2014.


title: Andrew Madoff

text: On his death, Reuters described ongoing attempts to sue Andrew Madoff and his brother's estate, in spite of a British court's ruling that the pair were not co-conspirators. Irving Picard, trustee for their father's victims, sued Andrew, and sued his brother's estate, on July 15, 2014.


title: Andrew Madoff

text: Madoff retained an estate of $16 million. His will left his estranged wife a substantial fraction of his estate. He had set up a trust which would have left $50,000 a month to Hooper and their daughter. Hooper, however, has told reporters that the trust fund was tied up in legal disputes, that she had received no money from it, and that she was living as if she might never receive those funds. She said she had downsized to a apartment, where she and her daughter shared a set of bunkbeds.


title: Post-Soviet conflicts

text: This article lists the post-Soviet conflicts; the violent political and ethnic conflicts in the countries of the former Soviet Union following its dissolution in 1991.


title: Post-Soviet conflicts

text: Some of these conflicts such as the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis or the 2013 Euromaidan protests in Ukraine were due to political crises in the successor states. Others involved separatist movements attempting to break away from one of the successor states.


title: Post-Soviet conflicts

text: Some post-Soviet conflicts ended in a stalemate or without a peace treaty, and are referred to as frozen conflicts. This means that a number of former-Soviet states are left sovereignty over the entirety of their territory in name only. In reality, they do not exercise full control over areas still under the control of rebel factions. Rebel groups are essentially left independent over large chunks of the territories they claim. In many instances, they have created institutions which are similar to those of fully fledged independent states, albeit with little or no international recognition. Notable such cases include Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia; Artsakh in western Azerbaijan; Transnistria in land near to Moldova's eastern border with Ukraine; and the Donetsk region and the Luhansk region breakaway areas in Ukraine.


title: Post-Soviet conflicts

text: Recognition of these states varies. Transnistria has not received recognition from any UN-member state, including Russia. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have received recognition from Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru and Syria. The Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic had received recognition from Russia, Syria, and North Korea before their illegitimate annexation by russia.


title: Anish Kapoor

text: Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK to begin his art training at Hornsey College of Art and, later, Chelsea School of Art and Design.