Zero Mostel

Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in "Fiddler on the Roof", Pseudolus on stage and on screen in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", and Max Bialystock in the original film version of Mel Brooks' "The Producers" (1967). Mostel was a student of Don Richardson, and he used an acting technique based on muscle memory. He was blacklisted during the 1950s; his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee was well publicized. Mostel later starred in the Hollywood Blacklist drama film "The Front" (1976) alongside Woody Allen, for which Mostel was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Mostel was an Obie Award and three-time Tony Award winner. He is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, inducted posthumously in 1979.
Early life.
Mostel was born in Brooklyn, to Israel Mostel, who was of Eastern European Jewish origin, and Cina "Celia" Druchs, a Polish Jew who was raised in Vienna. The two immigrated to the United States separately – Israel in 1898 and Cina in 1908 – where they met and married. Israel already had four children from his first wife; he had four more children with Cina. Samuel, later known as Zero, was Israel's seventh child.
According to his brother, Bill Mostel, their mother coined the nickname "Zero", noting that if he continued to do poorly at school, he would amount to a zero.
Initially living in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, the family moved to Moodus, Connecticut, where they bought a farm. The family's income in those days came from a winery and a slaughterhouse. The farm failed, and the family moved back to New York, where his father obtained work as a wine chemist. Mostel was described by his family as outgoing and lively, and with a developed sense of humor. He showed an intelligence and perception that convinced his father he had the makings of a rabbi, but Mostel preferred painting and drawing, a passion he was to retain for life. According to Roger Butterfield, his mother sent him to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to copy paintings while dressed in a velvet suit. Mostel had a favorite painting, John White Alexander's "", which he copied every day, to the delight of the gallery crowds. One afternoon, while a crowd was watching over his velvet-clad shoulder, he solemnly copied the whole painting upside down, delighting his audience.
In addition to English, Mostel spoke Yiddish, Italian, and German.
He attended Public School 188, where he was an A student. He also received professional training as a painter through The Educational Alliance. He completed his high school education at Seward Park High School, where his yearbook noted: "A future Rembrandt... or perhaps a comedian?".
Mostel attended the City College of New York, a public college that allowed many poor students to pursue higher education. He later claimed that he was on the swimming team and the Reserve Officers Training Corps, though the claim is dubious. As only beginner classes were available in art, Mostel took them repeatedly to be able to paint and receive professional feedback. During that time he worked odd jobs. He graduated in 1935 with a bachelor's degree. He then continued studying towards a master's degree at New York University before leaving after a year to find work. He then joined the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), which paid him a stipend to teach art.
In 1939 he married Clara Sverd, and the couple moved to an apartment in Brooklyn. The marriage did not last, however, since Clara could not accept the many hours Mostel spent in his studio with his fellow artists, and he did not seem to be able to provide for her at the level to which she had been accustomed. They separated in 1941 and divorced in 1944, Clara only agreeing to the divorce in return for a percentage of Mostel's earnings for the rest of his life. The arrangement lasted until the mid-1950s.
Career.
Early comic routines.
Part of Mostel's duty with the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was to give gallery talks at New York's museums. Leading groups of students through the many paintings, Mostel could not suppress his comedic nature, and his lectures were noted less for their artistic content than for his sense of humor. As his reputation grew, he was invited to entertain at parties and other social occasions, earning three to five dollars per performance. Labor union social clubs followed, where Mostel mixed his comic routine with social commentary. These performances played a large role in his eventual blacklisting in the next decade.
In 1941, the Café Society, a downtown Manhattan nightclub, approached Mostel with an offer to become a professional comedian and play a regular spot. Mostel accepted, and in the next few months he became the Café Society's main attraction. It was here that he adopted the stage name Zero (Zee to his friends), created by press agent Ivan Black at the behest of Barney Josephson, the proprietor, who felt that "Sam Mostel" was not appropriate for a comic.
Thus, at the age of 27, Mostel dropped every other job and occupation to start his show business career.
Rise.
Mostel's rise professionally was rapid. In 1942, his salary at the Café Society went up from $40 a week to $450; he appeared on radio shows, opened in two Broadway shows ("Keep Them Laughing", "Top-Notchers"), played at the Paramount Theatre, appeared in an MGM movie ("Du Barry Was a Lady"), and booked into "La Martinique" at $4,000 a week. He also made cameo appearances at the Yiddish theatre, which influenced his performance style. In 1943 "Life" magazine described him as "just about the funniest American now living".
In March 1943, Mostel was drafted by the US Army. Although Mostel gave varying accounts of his Army service, records show he was honorably discharged in August 1943 because of an unspecified physical disability. He subsequently entertained servicemen through the USO until 1945.
Mostel married Kathryn (Kate) Cecilia Harkin, an actress and dancer, on July 2, 1944, after two years of courtship. The pair met at Radio City Music Hall where she was a Rockette. The marriage caused problems in his relationship with his Orthodox Jewish parents as his new wife was a gentile. His mother never met Kate or her grandsons. The marriage had problems at times, again mostly due to Mostel's spending most of his time in his art studio. Their relationship was described by friends of the family as complicated, with many fights but having mutual adoration. The couple stayed together until Mostel's death and had two children: film actor Josh Mostel in 1946 and Tobias in 1948.
After Mostel's discharge from the Army, his career resumed. He appeared in a series of plays, musicals, operas, and movies. In 1946 he even made an attempt at serious operatic acting in "The Beggar's Opera", but received lukewarm reviews. Critics saw him as a versatile performer.
Mostel made notable appearances on New York City television in the late 1940s. He had his own show in 1948 called "Off The Record" on WABD with comedian partner Joey Faye. Simultaneously, Mostel had a live TV show on WPIX, "Channel Zero". He also appeared in the May 11, 1949 "Toast of the Town" broadcast hosted by Ed Sullivan.
Blacklist years and HUAC testimony.
Since college, Mostel was a leftist, and his nightclub routine included political jabs at right-wingers. His MGM contract was terminated, and his role in "Du Barry Was a Lady" was truncated, because studio executives were upset that he participated in protests against another MGM film, "Tennessee Johnson", which protesters believed had downplayed the racism of former US President Andrew Johnson. According to biographer Arthur Sainer, "MGM blacklisted Zero Mostel way before the days of the blacklist".
During his Army service he was under investigation for alleged Communist Party membership. The Military Intelligence Division of the U.S. War Department said it was "reliably reported" that he was a Communist Party member. The Post Intelligence Officer at the Army's Camp Croft, where Mostel served, believed that Mostel was "definitely a Communist." As a result of that, his application to be an entertainment director with the US Army Special Services unit was denied. Mostel had lobbied hard to transfer to Special Services, at one point traveling to Washington to request a transfer.
It was not until 1950 that Mostel again acted in movies, for a role in the Oscar-winning film "Panic in the Streets", at the request of its director, Elia Kazan. Kazan describes his attitude and feelings during that period, where
Mostel played supporting roles in five movies for Twentieth Century Fox in 1950, all in films released in 1951. Fox then abruptly cancelled his contract. Mostel learned this after he was loaned out to Columbia for a film role but not permitted on the set. The studio may have received word that he was about to be named as a Communist in Congressional testimony.
On January 29, 1952, Martin Berkeley identified Mostel to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) as having been a member of the Communist Party. After the testimony he was effectively blacklisted. He was subpoenaed to appear before HUAC on August 14, 1955. Mostel declined to name names and jousted with the members of Congress, invoked the Fifth Amendment, while standing up for his right to the privacy of his personal political beliefs.
His testimony won him admiration in the blacklisted community, and in addition to not naming names he also confronted the committee on ideological matters, something that was rarely done. Among other things, he referred to Twentieth Century Fox as "18th Century Fox" (due to its collaboration with the committee), and manipulated the committee members to make them appear foolish. Mostel later commented: "What did they think I was going to do – sell acting secrets to the Russians?"
The admiration he received for his testimony did nothing to take him out of the blacklist, however, and the family had to struggle throughout the 1950s with little income. Mostel used this time to work in his studio. Later he said that he cherished those years for the time it had afforded him to do what he loved most. Mostel's appearance before the HUAC (as well as others) was incorporated into Eric Bentley's 1972 play "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been...?" During this period he also appeared in many regional productions of shows like "Peter Pan" (as Captain Hook) and "Kismet" (as the Wazir), with his name seen prominently in the advertising.
"Ulysses in Nighttown" and career revival.
In 1957, Toby Cole, a New York theatrical agent who strongly opposed the blacklist, contacted Mostel and asked to represent him. Mostel agreed, and the partnership led to the revival of Mostel's career and made him a household name. Mostel accepted the role of Leopold Bloom in "Ulysses in Nighttown", a play based on the novel "Ulysses", which he greatly admired in his youth. It was an Off-Off-Broadway play produced in a small Houston Street theater, but the reviews Mostel received were overwhelmingly favorable. Most notably, "Newsweek"s Jack Kroll compared him to Laurence Olivier, writing, "Something unbelievable happened. A fat comedian named Zero Mostel gave a performance that was even more astonishing than Olivier's." Mostel received the Obie award for best Off Broadway performance of the 1958–59 season.
After the success of "Ulysses", Mostel received many offers to appear in classic roles, especially abroad; however, he declined the offers because of artistic differences with the directors and the low salaries associated with the roles. By this time the effects of the blacklist were lessening, and in 1959 he appeared twice on TV's "The Play of the Week".
1960s and height of career.
On January 13, 1960, while exiting a taxi on his way back from rehearsals for the play "The Good Soup", Mostel was hit by a number 18 (now the M86) 86th Street crosstown bus, and his leg was crushed. The doctors wanted to amputate the leg, which would have effectively ended his stage career. Mostel refused, accepting the risk of gangrene, and remained hospitalized for four months. The injury took a huge toll; for the rest of his life, the massively-scarred leg gave him pain and required frequent rests and baths. He sought compensation for the injury by retaining the famous Harry Lipsig (the 5'3" self-described "King of Torts") as his attorney. The case was settled for an undisclosed sum. From this time forward, whenever he attended the Metropolitan Opera, Mostel carried a cane to go along with the cape that he also favored.
Later that year Mostel took on the role of Estragon in a TV adaptation of "Waiting for Godot." In 1961, he played Jean in "Rhinoceros" to very favorable reviews. "The New Republic's" Robert Brustein said that he had "a great dancer's control of movement, a great actor's control of voice, a great mime's control of facial expressions." His transition onstage from man to rhinoceros became a thing of legend; he won his first Tony Award for Best Actor, even though he was not in the lead role.
In 1962 Mostel began work on the role of Pseudolus in the Broadway musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," which was to be one of his best-remembered roles. The role of Pseudolus was originally offered to Phil Silvers, who declined it, saying he did not want to do this "old shtick". Mostel did not originally want to do the role either, which he thought below his capabilities, but was convinced by his wife and agent. The reviews were excellent, and, after a few slow weeks after which the play was partially rewritten with a new opening song, "Comedy Tonight", which became the play's most popular piece, the show became a great commercial success, running 964 performances and conferring star status on Mostel (he also won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for this role). A film version was produced in 1966, also starring Mostel – and Silvers.
On September 22, 1964, Mostel opened as Tevye in the original Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof." Because of Mostel's respect for the works of Sholem Aleichem he insisted that more of the author's mood and style be incorporated into the musical, and he made major contributions to its shape. He also created the cantorial sounds made famous in the song "If I Were a Rich Man". "The New York Times" wrote "Zero Mostel's Tevye is so penetrating and heartwarming that you all but forget that it is a performance." In later years, the actors who followed Mostel in the role of Tevye invariably followed his staging. The show received rave reviews and was a great commercial success, running 3,242 performances, a record at the time. Mostel received a Tony Award for it and was invited to a reception in the White House, officially ending his political pariah status.
Mostel in 1967 appeared as Potemkin in "Great Catherine," and the next year he took the role of Max Bialystock in "The Producers." Mostel refused to accept the role of Max at first, but director Mel Brooks persuaded him to show the script to his wife, who then talked Mostel into doing it. His performance originally received mixed reviews, and the film overall was not a great success at the time of its release. The comedy, however, has since achieved classic status in the decades after its premiere. Reflecting on that rising popularity, Roger Ebert, longtime critic for the "Chicago Sun-Times", wrote in 2000, "This is one of the funniest movies ever made", adding that Mostel's performance "is a masterpiece of low comedy."
He lived in a large rented apartment in The Belnord on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and built a summer house on Monhegan Island in Maine.
Last years.
In his last decade, Mostel's star dimmed as he appeared in movies that were received with indifference by both critics and the general audience. These titles include "The Great Bank Robbery" and "Once Upon a Scoundrel". In the 1970s, he often played supporting rather than lead roles.
His more notable films in these years include the movie version of "Rhinoceros" (appearing with his "Producers" costar Gene Wilder), "The Hot Rock" and "The Front" (where he played Hecky Brown, a blacklisted performer whose story bears a similarity to Mostel's own, and for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor). Screenwriter Walter Bernstein loosely based the character of Hecky Brown on television actor Philip Loeb, who was a friend of Mostel. On Broadway, he starred in revivals of "Ulysses in Nighttown" (receiving a Tony nomination for Best Actor) and "Fiddler on the Roof". He also made memorable appearances in children's shows such as "Sesame Street", "The Electric Company" (for which he performed the Spellbinder in the Letterman cartoons), and gave voice to the boisterous seagull Kehaar in the animated film "Watership Down". He also appeared as a guest star during Season 2 of 'The Muppet Show', taped during mid-1977. Mostel was the only guest in the show's history to die before his appearance was broadcast.
Death.
In the last four months of his life, Mostel took on a nutritionally unsound diet (later described by his friends as a starvation diet) that reduced his weight from 304 to 215 pounds. During rehearsals for Arnold Wesker's new play "The Merchant" (in which Mostel played a re-imagined version of Shakespeare's Shylock) in Philadelphia, he collapsed in his dressing room and was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He was diagnosed with a respiratory disorder and it was believed he was in no danger and would be released soon. However, on September 8, 1977, Mostel complained of dizziness and lost consciousness. The attending physicians were unable to revive him, and he was pronounced dead that evening. It is believed that he suffered an aortic aneurysm.
Wesker wrote a book chronicling the out-of-town tribulations that beset the play and culminated in Zero's death called "The Birth of Shylock and the Death of Zero Mostel".
In accordance with his final requests, his family did not stage any funeral or other memorial service. Mostel was cremated following his death; the location of his ashes is not publicly known.
Professional relationships.
Mostel had often collided with directors and other performers in the course of his professional career. He was described as irreverent, believing himself to be a comic genius (many critics agreed with him) and showed little patience for incompetence. He often improvised, which was received well by audiences but which often left other performers (who were not prepared for his ad-libbed lines) confused and speechless during live performances. He often dominated the stage whether or not his role called for it. Norman Jewison stated this as a reason for preferring Chaim Topol for the role of Tevye in the movie version of "Fiddler on the Roof". Mostel took exception to these criticisms:
Other producers, such as Jerome Robbins and Hal Prince, preferred to hire Mostel on short contracts, knowing that he would become less faithful to the script as time went on. His exuberant personality, though largely responsible for his success, had also intimidated others in his profession and prevented him from receiving some important roles.
In his autobiography "Kiss Me Like a Stranger", actor Gene Wilder describes being initially terrified of Mostel. However, just after being introduced, Mostel got up, walked over to Wilder, hugged him, and planted a big kiss on his lips. Wilder claims to be grateful to Mostel for teaching him such a valuable lesson, and for picking Wilder up every day so that they could ride to work together. He also tells the story of a dinner celebrating the release of "The Producers". Mostel switched Wilder's place card with Dick Shawn's, allowing Wilder to sit at the main table. Mostel and Wilder later worked together in "Rhinoceros" and the Letterman cartoons for the children's show "The Electric Company". The two remained close friends until Mostel's death.
Mostel was the subject of the 2006 retrospective play "Zero Hour", written and performed by actor/playwright Jim Brochu. The play recounts events from Mostel's life and career, including his HUAC testimony, his professional relationships, and his theatrical work.


Stone Mountain, Georgia

Stone Mountain is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 5,802 according to the 2010 US Census. Stone Mountain is in the eastern part of DeKalb County and is a suburb of Atlanta that encompasses nearly 1.7 square miles. It lies near and touches the western base of the geological formation Stone Mountain. Locals often call the city "Stone Mountain Village" to distinguish it from the larger unincorporated area traditionally considered Stone Mountain and Stone Mountain Park.
History.
Stone Mountain's history began long before European settlers and the Creek Indians before them. Evidence of numerous earlier Native American tribes, including mound builders, has been found in the area.
The Treaty of Indian Springs in 1821 opened a large swath of Georgia for settlement by European Americans on former Creek Indian land, including present-day Stone Mountain Village. In 1822, the area that now makes up the city was made a part of the newly formed DeKalb County.
Settlement.
By the 1820s, Rock Mountain, as it was then called, was "a major travel center", with an inn for travelers. A stagecoach line linking the village with Georgia's capital, Milledgeville, began in 1825. Another stage line ran to Winder and Athens. In 1828 another stage line began trips to Dahlonega, and a fourth connected the community with Macon. "Hundreds of people visited Rock Mountain in the summer [of 1828] and...a house of entertainment was nearby." Rail service did not reach the town, by then New Gibraltar, until 1845.
A post office was created in 1834 on the old Augusta Road, and Andrew Johnson, called the founder of New Gibraltar and first mayor, around whose house the city limits were drawn, built a hotel along the road in 1836. ("An 1843 amendment to the act of incorporation extended the town limits to in every direction from the house of Andrew Johnson.") About 1839 Aaron Cloud, who also had a hotel, built a wooden observation tower, octagonal like a lighthouse and high, along with a restaurant and club, at the mountain's summit. A storm destroyed the tower in 1849; in 1851, Thomas Henry built a smaller, tower, with telescopes so it could serve as an observatory. Visitors to the mountain traveled by rail and road, then hiked up the mountaintop trail to the top. By 1850, Stone Mountain had become a popular destination for Atlanta urbanites who endured the four-hour round trip by rail just to experience its natural beauty, lodging, and attractions.
Industry.
Granite quarrying at the mountain was the area's lifeblood for decades, employing many thousands. The excellent grade of building stone from the mountain was used in many notable structures, including the locks of the Panama Canal, the roof of the bullion depository at Fort Knox, Philadelphia's Liberty National Building, and the steps in the east wing of the U.S. Capitol.
In August 1846, New Gibraltar hosted Georgia's first state fair, then known as the Agriculture Fair and Internal Improvement Jubilee. The fair had just one exhibit—three horses and two cows, both belonging to the event's organizer, John Graves. The next year, the village again hosted the event, which featured caskets, marble, embroidery, brooms, bedspreads, vegetables, blooded stock, wheat, farm tools, and a magnetic telegraph. Stone Mountain hosted the event until 1850, when it moved to Macon.
Civil War.
Though DeKalb County voted against secession from the United States, it was not spared the devastation of the Civil War. Stone Mountain Village went unscathed until the Battle of Atlanta, when it was destroyed by men under the command of General James B. McPherson on July 19, 1864. Several antebellum homes were spared as they were used as hospitals. The railroad depot's roof burned, but the building stood, owing to its 2-foot-thick granite walls.
From the village’s destruction in July 1864 until November, Union forces scavenged Stone Mountain and the surrounding area, taking corn, wheat, cotton, cattle, and other goods. On November 15, 1864, between 12,000 and 15,000 Union troops marched through Stone Mountain and further destroyed the rail lines. The rails were rendered useless by heating them over burning railroad ties, then twisting them around trees. The term Sherman’s neckties was coined for this form of destruction.
Birth of Shermantown.
After the Civil War ended, housing in the area was rebuilt as Stone Mountain granite was again in demand for construction across the nation. A significant portion of the quarry's work force were African Americans, but they were generally excluded from areas where white families lived, so a shantytown, Shermantown, came into being at the southeast side of the village; its name was a reference to Union General William T. Sherman.
In 1868, Reverend R. M. Burson organized Bethsaida Baptist Church to serve Shermantown. A church building was then built under Reverend F. M. Simons at what is now 853 Fourth Street. Simons was among a delegation of southern African American pastors to meet with Sherman in Washington, D.C. after the war to discuss the treatment of the freedmen. Bethsaida Baptist is still an active part of the Stone Mountain Village.
By the 20th century, much of Shermantown’s original structures had been replaced. Bethsaida’s original wooden structure was replaced by stone in 1920. Though Shermantown has mostly integrated into the growing Stone Mountain Village, it retains its own distinct community.
Rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan.
1915 was the year of the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization. Members assembled at Stone Mountain with permission of quarry owner Samuel Venable, an active member. Their activities, including annual cross-burnings, continued for over 40 years, but Stone Mountain’s association with the Klan began to erode when the State of Georgia began to acquire the mountain and surrounding property in 1958. In 1960, Governor Ernest Vandiver condemned the property the state had purchased in order to void the perpetual easements Venable had granted the Klan. This ended any official link between Stone Mountain and the Klan.
Civil Rights Movement.
During the Civil Rights Movement's March on Washington, on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. referred to Stone Mountain in his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech when he proclaimed, "let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!" Charles Burris, the Village's first African-American mayor, dedicated the Freedom Bell on Main Street in King's honor on February 26, 2000. At an annual ceremony held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the bell is rung to commemorate King's legacy.
Many names.
The mountain has been known by countless names throughout the centuries. It was called Crystal Mountain by 16th-century Spanish explorer Juan Pardo when he visited in 1567. The Creek Indians who inhabited the area at that time used a name translating to "Lone Mountain". Around the turn of the 19th century, settlers called it Rock Mountain or Rock Fort Mountain. By the end of the 1830s, Stone Mountain had become the generally accepted name. Like the mountain, the village formed at its base was initially known as Rock Mountain but was incorporated as New Gibraltar in 1839 by an act of the General Assembly. In 1847 the Georgia legislature changed the name to Stone Mountain.
Cemetery.
The Stone Mountain Cemetery, established around 1850, is a microcosm of the village’s past. It is the final resting place for roughly 200 unknown Confederate soldiers. 71 known Confederate soldiers are buried there, along with James Sprayberry, a Union soldier. Another notable site is the grave of George Pressley Trout, who is buried there with his wife and his horse. James B. Rivers, the village’s first African American police chief, is at rest there on a hillside facing the mountain. The cemetery is still in use.
Government.
Stone Mountain is governed by a council-manager form of government. Citizens elect a mayor and six council members who are all elected at-large. The terms of office are four years, with elections staggered every two years. Daily city operations are managed by an appointed professional city manager. Services provided by the city include police, public works, code enforcement, and municipal court.
The city also has standing commissions for historic preservation, downtown development, and planning & zoning. The city holds a "City of Ethics" designation from the Georgia Municipal Association and is a member of Main Street America.
Geography.
Stone Mountain is at the western base of the quartz monzonite dome monadnock of the same name. While Stone Mountain city proper is completely within DeKalb County, the postal regions designated and traditionally considered as Stone Mountain include portions of DeKalb and Gwinnett Counties.
According to the State of Georgia, the city has an area of , of which 0.62% is water.
Demographics.
According to 2017 US Census Bureau estimates, Stone Mountain has 6,368 residents, a 9.0% increase since 2010. There are 2,519 households, with an average of 2.42 persons per household. 8.9% of Stone Mountain residents are foreign-born. Estimates of the racial makeup of the city are 73% African-American/Black, 22.1% White, 1% Asian, 0.9% Native American/Alaskan, and 1.1% of two or more races.
Of persons 25 years or older, 87.3% are high school graduates or higher, while 30.8% have attained a bachelor's degree or higher. The median income is $35,964, with a per capita income of $21,134.
Arts, culture and leisure.
In film.
The Stone Mountain area has been a beneficiary of Georgia's flourishing film industry. Film crews and production personnel have become common sights in Stone Mountain Village. Due to the demand for filming in the historic downtown area, requests for filming in the village are handled by the downtown development authority. The proceeds help fund festivals and other public events for the community.
Most of the shops and buildings on Main Street were built right after the turn of the 20th century and maintain many of the original facades. This has provided an appropriate backdrop for a number of filming projects, ranging from period pieces to those requiring a quaint village setting.
Parts of motion pictures like "Footloose" (2011) and "Need for Speed" (2014) were filmed in the village. The growing number of television show credits include "The Vampire Diaries", "Kevin (Probably) Saves the World", "MacGyver", and the Netflix science fiction/horror series "Stranger Things".
Organizations.
Stone Mountain Village is home to a number of community, civic, and outreach organizations:
Education.
The children of Stone Mountain are served by the DeKalb County Public Schools. Stone Mountain Elementary School and Champion Theme Middle School are within the city limits.
Georgia Military College (GMC) has a satellite campus in Stone Mountain Village at 5325 Manor Drive.
DeKalb County Public Library operates the Stone Mountain-Sue Kellogg Library (952 Leon Street).


George Tyne

Martin Yarus (February 6, 1917 – March 7, 2008), better known by the stage name George Tyne, was an American stage and film actor and television director. He was blacklisted in the 1950s, and was indicted for contempt of Congress but subsequently acquitted.
Early life and career.
Tyne, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, began his acting career under the name Buddy Yarus. He used that name when appearing in the 1945 war film "Objective Burma!", and in the Laurel and Hardy film "The Dancing Masters" (1943). As "George Tyne" he appeared in "A Walk in the Sun", "Sands of Iwo Jima" and "Thieves Highway".
Tyne also appeared on Broadway in a number of roles, including the hit 1954 play "Lunatics and Lovers".
Congressional testimony and prosecution.
Tyne was blacklisted from the movies in 1951 and from television in 1952, after his name was publicized in congressional committee hearings into alleged Communist infiltration of the entertainment industry.
In August 1955, the House Un-American Activities Committee held hearings in New York City to probe alleged Communist infiltration of Broadway, radio and television. Tyne was one of seven witnesses who refused to answer questions about whether they had been members of the Communist Party. Six cited their right to avoid self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but Tyne simply refused to answer.
In his testimony, Tyne called actor Lee J. Cobb a "stool pigeon" for naming him as part of a "Communist group" in Hollywood in 1943. Tyne refused to say whether he knew Cobb, and said, "I think the privilege offered by the fifth amendment is wonderful for those who wish to take advantage of it, but I'm not standing on it." Tyne refused to identify a Communist Party card, shown to him by the committee counsel, which was made out to "Buddy" Yarus. Tyne said, "All these questions are an invasion of any personal and private ideas and associations."
In July 1956, Tyne was one of seven witnesses, including playwright Arthur Miller, who were cited for contempt of Congress of Congress by the House of Representatives. The other six included stage actress Sarah Cunninghan, her husband John Randolph, and actors Lou Polan and Stanley Prager.
In March 1957, Tyne was one of three entertainers who were indicted by a federal grand jury in New York for refusing to answer HUAC questions during its August 1955 hearings. The others were Pete Seeger and Elliot Sullivan. All were charged with contempt of Congress. Tyne was acquitted in 1961 on technical grounds.
Later life and career.
Prior to his blacklisting, Tyne's last movie role was in the 1951 war film "Decision Before Dawn". During the period of his blacklisting he worked mainly as a stage actor. He appeared in supporting roles in the 1954 off-Broadway revival of "Threepenny Opera", the 1954 comedy "Lunatics and Lovers", and "Romanoff and Juliet "(1957).
In the 1960s, Tyne began appearing in small roles on television and in the movies. He also began work as a television director.
Tyne directed episodes of "The Love Boat", "The Paul Lynde Show", "M*A*S*H*" and the 1979 TV series "Friends". He returned to acting, in small roles, in TV shows and movies in the 1960s. His last film role was a bit part in the 1984 film, "The Lonely Guy". In the early 1990s, he taught directing courses at the California Institute of the Arts.


The Green Hornet (TV series)

The Green Hornet is an American action television series that aired on ABC in the 1966–1967 television season, starring Van Williams as the Green Hornet/Britt Reid and Bruce Lee as Kato. It was produced and narrated by William Dozier.
The single-season series premiered September 9, 1966, and ran through March 17, 1967, lasting 26 episodes; ABC repeated the series after its cancellation by the network, until July 14, 1967, when "The Green Hornet" had its last broadcast on network television. With the later success of Lee as a premiere star of the martial arts film genre, the series has become a cult favorite.
Plot.
Playboy bachelor and media mogul Britt Reid is the owner and publisher of the "Daily Sentinel" newspaper, but as the masked vigilante Green Hornet, he fights crime with the assistance of his martial arts expert partner, Kato, and his weapons-enhanced car, a custom Imperial called the "Black Beauty". On police records, the Green Hornet is a wanted criminal, but in reality, the Green Hornet is masquerading as a criminal so that he can infiltrate and battle criminal gangs, leaving them and the incriminating evidence for police arrival. Beyond Kato, Britt's dual identity is known only to his secretary Lenore "Casey" Case and District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon.
Britt's motive for fighting crime was explained on-screen: his father had died in prison after having been framed for a crime he did not commit.
Origin.
The character had originated as the star of a radio series (1930s to 1950s), and it had previously been adapted to movie serials, comic books, and other media. Owing in part to George W. Trendle and Fran Striker having created all the central characters and developed the core formats of both radio shows, Britt Reid shares the same family name as the Lone Ranger, as Britt's father had been the Lone Ranger's nephew Dan Reid.
Production.
Despite character co-creator George W. Trendle's failed efforts to generate interest in a Green Hornet TV series in 1951 and 1958, it was not until the success of ABC's 1960s "Batman" series that the network decided to adapt the venerable radio and movie-serial character. The task was taken on by William Dozier who produced and narrated the series. The series stars Van Williams as the Green Hornet and introduced martial artist Bruce Lee to American television audiences as his partner, Kato. Unlike the campy and humorous "Batman" series, "The Green Hornet" was played straight. Though it was canceled after one season, Lee became a major star of martial arts movies. Lee's popularity in Hong Kong, where he was raised, was such that the show was marketed there as "The Kato Show." It was Lee's insistence that Kato be played as a martial artist—rather than an American-style fisticuffs fighter—that pushed the directors to rethink the character's portrayal. The Green Hornet was the first time broad swaths of the American public saw true martial arts fighting, and led to its increasing popularity. Indeed, Van Williams took lessons from Lee so that he could do some of the increasingly popular moves as well.
The Green Hornet and Kato also appear in three episodes of "Batman"; "The Spell of Tut" (as a brief cameo) and "A Piece of the Action"/"Batman's Satisfaction", with Reid mentioning that he and Bruce Wayne had been acquaintances and rivals since childhood. Though other characters in the story are all led to believe wrongly that the Green Hornet and Kato are villains, as on "The Green Hornet", Roger C. Carmel played the real villain, who called himself Colonel Gumm.
Differences from radio version.
As with the later years of the radio version, secretary Lenore "Casey" Case (played by Wende Wagner) is again aware of Reid's secret, and the Hornet also has a confidant within the law enforcement community, but now he is District Attorney Frank P. Scanlon (played by Walter Brooke). This character was changed from the original's police commissioner because the "Batman" TV series was already using a man in that post as the hero's official contact, and William Dozier, the executive producer of both programs, wanted to downplay comparisons between the two shows. Michael Axford (Lloyd Gough), the bodyguard turned reporter of the radio series, is now solely a police reporter for "The Daily Sentinel", the newspaper owned by Britt Reid/the Green Hornet. (The first episode, "The Silent Gun", provides a connection between the radio and the TV series, as Axford reminds Reid of the "old days" when he lived in the same apartment with Reid's father, which hints that Reid's father may have been the Green Hornet of the radio series.) In this series, Reid owned a television station as well.
There were visual differences as well. Promotional artwork for the radio program and the comic books of the day depicted the Hornet wearing a mask that covered all of his face below the eyes (the two Universal Studios Saturday matinee serials contained a full face mask with eye holes) while Kato wore goggles. Here, both men wear masks that cover only the upper portions of their faces. These masks initially had a stylized angularity that soon proved problematic: neither man could see much. They were soon replaced with masks molded to the performers' faces.
In a technological update, the Hornet carried a telescoping device called the Hornet's Sting, which projected ultrasonic soundwaves. He most frequently used it to open locked doors, although he was also seen using it to set things on fire (presumably by vibrating them and causing heat through friction) and to threaten criminals to get information. In the episode "The Secret of the Sally Bell", the Hornet used it to explode the thug's gun, causing the thug to fall and suffer a concussion, resulting in the criminal's being hospitalized. He also had a Hornet knockout gas gun.
The television version Kato used green "sleeve darts" to give him a ranged attack he could use to counter enemies both at a distance and in hand-to-hand combat. The impression Bruce Lee made at the time is demonstrated by "Kato's Revenge Featuring the Green Hornet", a TV series tie-in coloring book produced by Watkins & Strathmore.
Theme music and opening.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral interlude, "Flight of the Bumblebee", used for the radio series, was so strongly identified with "The Green Hornet" that a similar, jazz-styled theme modeled after the Rimsky-Korsakov piece was used for the series, arranged by Billy May, who also composed the background scores, and conducted by Lionel Newman, with trumpet solo performed by Al Hirt. Hirt recorded a longer, stereo version of the theme with a somewhat different arrangement for his album "The Horn Meets The Hornet". A similar recording titled "The Green Bee" recorded by trombonist Urbie Green that appears on Green's 21 Trombones album had also been considered as the tv series theme.
Each episode begins with the following monologue, narrated by producer William Dozier
Years later, the version of the theme from "The Horn Meets The Hornet" was featured in the 2003 film "Kill Bill, Vol. 1", in which director Quentin Tarantino paid tribute to Kato by featuring the dozens of sword-fighting members of "The Crazy 88" wearing Kato-style masks during one of the film's fight sequences.
Episodes.
Crossover with "Batman" TV series.
There were several comparisons and crossovers from Batman to Green Hornet, both on TV and in movies.
The Green Hornet and Kato on "Batman".
Van Williams and Bruce Lee make a cameo appearance as the Green Hornet and Kato in "window cameos" while Batman and Robin were climbing a building. This was in part one of a two-part second-season episode of the "Batman" TV series: "The Spell of Tut," which aired on September 28, 1966. There is also mention of "The Green Hornet" TV series on the "Batman" two-part episode "The Impractical Joker," transmitted on November 16, 1966, as Alfred, Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne are watching television, and Bruce Wayne says, "It's time to watch "The Green Hornet!"".
Later that same season, the Green Hornet and Kato appeared in the two-part second-season episodes "A Piece of the Action" and "Batman's Satisfaction," which aired on March 1–2, 1967. In the two episodes, the Green Hornet and Kato are in Gotham City to bust a counterfeit stamp ring run by Colonel Gumm (portrayed by Roger C. Carmel). "Batman's Satisfaction" leads up to a mixed fight, with both Batman & Robin and The Green Hornet & Kato fighting Colonel Gumm and his gang. Once Gumm's crew is defeated, Batman and Robin square off against The Green Hornet and Kato, resulting in a stand-off interrupted by the police. In this episode, Batman, Robin and the police consider the Green Hornet and Kato criminals, though Batman and Robin were cordial to the duo in the earlier window appearance.
Batman and Robin on "The Green Hornet".
In the December 9, 1966 "The Green Hornet" episode "The Secret Of The Sally Bell" the Batmobile is seen on a television receiver, turning around inside the Batcave. In the February 3, 1967 "Green Hornet" episode "Ace in the Hole," which was transmitted in between the September 1966 and March 1967 "Batman" appearances (mentioned above), an unidentified episode of "Batman" is seen playing on a television set, showing Batman and Robin climbing a building. One other appearance of The Green Hornet, Kato, and Batman was broadcast in Autumn 1966 on a Milton Berle "Hollywood Palace" television variety show.
Black Beauty.
The TV series featured the Green Hornet's car, The Black Beauty, a 1966 Imperial Crown sedan customized by Dean Jeffries at a cost of US$13,000. Two cars were built for the show and both exist today. "Black Beauty 1" is located in the Petersen Automotive Museum collection and "Black Beauty 2" has been fully restored and is located in a private collection in South Carolina.
Storage and deployment.
The Black Beauty was stored underneath Britt Reid's garage. A set of switches on a secret control panel behind a tool wall would sequentially set the lights to green, attach clamps to the bumpers of Reid's personal car, rotate the floor of the garage – hiding Reid's car (a Chrysler 300 convertible), and bringing up the Black Beauty – finally unclamping the Black Beauty's bumpers. The Black Beauty would then exit the garage through a hidden rear door, and enter the street from behind a billboard advertising the fictitious product Kissin' Candy Mint (with the slogan "How sweet they are") designed to separate down the middle and rejoin.
Weaponry, surveillance and security features.
The Black Beauty, which carried rear license plate number V194, could fire explosive charges from tubes hidden behind retractable panels below the headlights which were said to be rockets with explosive warheads; had a concealed-when-not-in-use, drop-down knock-out gas nozzle in the center of the front grille and the vehicle could launch a small flying video/audio surveillance device (referred to as the scanner) through a small rectangular panel in the middle of the trunk lid. It was a foreshadowing of today's small helicopter-like drones. Working rockets and gas nozzles were incorporated into the trunk lid as well.
Other appearances.
"Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story".
The 1993 American semi-fictionalized film biography of Bruce Lee depicts Lee (Jason Scott Lee) meeting fictional producer Bill Krieger (Robert Wagner) after a martial arts tournament, and being hired to play Kato in "The Green Hornet" series. The movie shows the fictionalized shooting of the first episode, where cast and crew are impressed by Lee's martial arts skills. Van Williams plays the director of the episode.
"Batman '66 Meets the Green Hornet".
Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman are co-writers of a Batman and Green Hornet team-up titled "Batman '66 Meets the Green Hornet". The issues were drawn by artist Ty Templeton, with covers by Alex Ross. The six-issue miniseries was co-produced by DC Comics (publishers of "Batman") and Dynamite Entertainment (current publishers of the "Green Hornet" titles). The overall story is a sequel to the above-mentioned "Batman/Green Hornet" two-part TV crossover episodes, reuniting Hornet & Kato with Batman & Robin, and pitting both teams against the now "General Gumm" and his new criminal cohort, the Joker. The series was published both in physical comic book form and in an extended 12-part digital format (splitting each regular issue's material into two digital issues). The full series has since been published in a collected volume, both in hardcover and "trade paperback" editions. Furthermore, Garman and Smith have performed dramatized readings of all 6 issues on podcast episodes hosted on Smith's SModcast webpage. The first issue was dramatized in an episode of Smith's "Fatman on Batman" podcast (episode #66), and the remaining five as episodes of "Hollywood Babble-On", co-hosted by Garman and Smith, as special "Hollywood Babble-On Comic-Con Theater" episodes (episodes 175, 180, 184, 188 & 193).
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".
The 2019 film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" has a flashback scene in which stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) has a confrontation with Bruce Lee (played by Mike Moh in full Kato gear) on the set of "The Green Hornet". In the scene, an impromptu two-out-of-three martial arts match between Booth and Lee takes place, with both men winning one match, but the fight is broken up before the deciding match can finish.
Comics.
The series was adapted into a comic strip by Dan Spiegle, distributed by Gold Key Comics.


Camila Ashland

Camila Ashland (March 24, 1911 – September 12, 2008) was an American actress, best known for her role in “V” and “V The Final Battle. Also as Minnie Du Val in "Dark Shadows". Ashland was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in "Black Comedy/White Lies" in 1967.
Career.
Ashland also starred on the soap opera "General Hospital" as Alice Grant from 1976–77, and in the 1983 NBC miniseries "V" and its 1984 sequel, "V: The Final Battle", in which she played Ruby Engels. She made guest appearances on "The Golden Girls", "Cheers", "St. Elsewhere", "Hardcastle and McCormick", and "Taxi".
Her film credits include "Any Which Way You Can" and "10". She appeared in 11 Broadway productions, including "Darling of the Day" (1968), "Dear World", "Follies" (1971), and a 1973 Broadway revival of "The Women".
Personal life.
A victim of the Hollywood blacklist, Ashland was married to James Vincent Russo, a Broadway director, with whom she adopted a son, Walter Russo (1956-2010).


Bess Taffel

Bess Taffel Boyle (December 10, 1913 – July 21, 2000) was an American screenwriter, whose career was effectively ended after she was identified as a member of the Communist Party during the McCarthy period.
Taffel is known for writing such films as "Elopement".
She wrote only a few television scripts from 1969 to 1974, before she ended her career entirely. She had worked in the Yiddish theatre before becoming a writer in Hollywood.
She was married to Robert F. Boyle, an Academy Award-winning film production designer and art director, until her death from a stroke in 2000 at age 86. Her widower died at the age of 100 on August 1, 2010. His career was apparently not impacted by his wife's blacklisting.


Nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM


Belle Gunness

Belle Gunness, born Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset (November 11, 1859 – possibly April 28, 1908), was a Norwegian-American serial killer who was active in Illinois and Indiana between 1884 and 1908. Gunness is thought to have killed at least fourteen people, most of whom were men she enticed to visit her rural Indiana property on the promise of marriage, while some sources speculate her involvement in as many as forty murders. Gunness seemingly died in a fire in 1908, but it is popularly believed that she faked her death. Her actual fate is unconfirmed.
Early life.
Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset (Belle Gunness) was born in Selbu, Norway on November 11, 1859 to Paul and Berit Storset; she was the youngest of eight children. She was confirmed at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1874. At age 14, she began working for neighboring farms by milking and herding cattle to save enough money for passage to New York. She moved to the United States in 1881. When she was processed by immigration at Castle Garden, she changed her first name to Belle, then travelled to Chicago to join her sister, Nellie who had immigrated several years earlier.
In Chicago, while living with her sister and brother-in-law, she worked as a domestic servant, then got a job at a butcher's shop cutting up animal carcasses, until her first marriage in 1884.
Deaths associated with Gunness.
Mads Sorenson and children.
Belle Gunness married Mads Sorenson in 1884. Sorenson and Gunness owned a candy store which burned to the ground. The couple’s home had also burned down, and both instances granted the couple insurance payouts.
Two babies in their home died from inflammation of the large intestine, which can result from poisoning. Belle had insured both of the children and collected a large insurance check after each death. Neighbors gossiped about the babies, since Belle never appeared to be pregnant.
Sorenson had purchased two life insurance policies. On July 30, 1890, both policies were active at the same time, as one would expire that day, and the other began. Sorenson died of cerebral hemorrhage that day. Gunness explained he had come home with a headache and she provided him with quinine powder for the pain; she later checked on him and he was dead. Gunness collected money from both the expiring life insurance policy, and the one that went into effect that day, making a total of $5,000. With the insurance money, she moved to La Porte, Indiana, and bought a pig farm.
Peter Gunness.
Belle married Peter Gunness on April 1, 1902. The following week, while Peter was out of the house, his infant daughter died of unknown cause in Belle's care.
Peter died eight months later due to a skull injury. Belle explained that Peter reached for something on a high shelf and a meat grinder fell on him, smashing his skull. The district coroner convened a coroner's jury, suspecting murder, but nothing came of the case. Belle collected $3000 insurance money for Peter's death.
Disappearances.
Gunness began placing marriage ads in Chicago newspapers in 1905. One of her ads was answered by a Wisconsin farmhand, Henry Gurholt. After travelling to La Porte, Gurholt wrote his family, saying that he liked the farm, was in good health, and requesting that they send him seed potatoes. When they failed to hear from him after that, the family contacted Gunness. She told them Gurholt had gone off with horse traders to Chicago. She kept his trunk and fur overcoat.
John Moe of Minnesota answered Gunness's ad in 1906. After they had corresponded for several months, Moe travelled to La Porte and withdrew a large amount of cash. Although no one ever saw Moe again, a carpenter who did occasional work for Gunness observed that Moe's trunk remained in her house, along with more than a dozen others.
Andrew Helgelien and discovery of multiple graves.
Her criminal activities came to light in April 1908, when the Gunness farmhouse in La Porte, Indiana burned to
the ground. In the ruins, authorities found the bodies of a headless adult woman, initially identified as Belle Gunness, and her three children. Further investigation unearthed the partial remains of at least 11 additional people on the Gunness property.
After the fire at the Gunness homestead led to the discovery of bodies believed to be Gunness and her children, La Porte police authorities were contacted by Asle Helgelien, who had found correspondence between his brother, Andrew Helgelien, and Gunness; the letters included petitions for him to relocate to La Porte, to bring money, and to keep the move a secret. A visit by Asle Helgelien to the Gunness farm with a former hired hand led to attention being paid to "soft depressions" in what had been made into a pen for hogs; after briefly digging one of the depressions in the lot, a gunny sack was found that contained "two hands, two feet, and one head", which Helgelien recognized to be those of his brother.
Immediate inspection of the site revealed that there were dozens of such "slumped depressions" in the Gunness yard, and further digging and investigation at the site yielded multiple burlap sacks containing "torsos and hands, arms hacked from the shoulders down, masses of human bone wrapped in loose flesh that dripped like jelly", from trash-covered depressions that proved to be graves. In each case, the body had been butchered in the same manner—the body decapitated, the arms removed at the shoulders, and the legs severed at the knees. Blunt trauma and gashes characterized the skulls that were found that had been separated from the bodies. Lucas Reilly, quoting "The Chicago Inter Ocean" in "Mental Floss", noted thatThe bones had been crushed on the ends, as though they had been... struck with hammers after they were dismembered... [and that] Quicklime had been scattered over the faces and stuffed in the ears. After finding the parts of 5 bodies on the first day, and an additional 6 on the second—some in shallow graves under the original hog pen, others near an outhouse or a lake—"the police stopped counting". With these discoveries, the perceptions of Belle Gunness, as reported in newspaper descriptions of a praiseworthy woman—dying in the fire that consumed her house, "in a desperate attempt to save her children"—were reassessed. Despite the initial success with the identification of Andrew Helgelien, and despite the fact that widening news coverage of the mass murders invited inquiries from families with men that had gone missing, "[m]ost of the remains could not be identified."
Involvement of Ray Lamphere.
Ray Lamphere was Gunness' hired hand and on-and-off lover. In November 1908, Lamphere was convicted of arson in connection with the fire. Lamphere later confessed that Gunness had placed advertisements seeking male companionship, only to murder and rob the men who responded and subsequently visited her on the farm. Lamphere stated that Gunness asked him to burn down the farmhouse with her children inside. Lamphere also asserted that the body thought to be Gunness's was in fact a murder victim, chosen and planted to mislead investigators. The brother of one victim had warned Gunness that he might arrive at the farm shortly to investigate his brother's disappearance. According to Lamphere, this impending visit motivated Gunness to destroy her house, fake her own death, and flee. When Lamphere was arrested, he was wearing John Moe's overcoat and Henry Gurhold's watch.
Edward Bechly, a journalist, was given a secret assignment to acquire access to a confession and publish it, thus bringing a second, inconsistent Lamphere account to light. The second account is based on the report that Lamphere contacted a Reverend Edwin Schell and provided him with a verbal confession that Schell transcribed and had Lamphere sign, a document that Schell kept sealed in his personal safe. Bechly attempted to convince Schell to allow him to publish this later confession, but was denied by both Schell and Schell's wife. However, a separate newspaper published a story with speculation regarding the second Lamphere confession. Described as worried as to the peace of the families of the victims, Schell offered the confession to Bechly, which was later published. The Bechly narrative, entitled "Lanphere's Confession" ["sic"], contains this summary from Bechly: In the confession, Lanphere ["sic"] said that he had killed Mrs. Gunness and children with an ax, sprinkled the bodies with kerosene and set fire to them and the house. It gave details of the slaying, and told of his part in the former murders which occurred at the Gunness farm, his task usually being the burying of the bodies in the garden. The essential fact, however, was that the murderess was not alive as a fugitive. The publication of Lamphere's confession resulted in the subsequent arrest of his accomplice Elisabeth Smith. The inconsistencies between the two confessions, including the matter of the survival of Belle Gunness, remain historical issues that are not fully resolved.
Legacy.
Belle Gunness was pronounced dead, even though the doctor who performed the postmortem testified that the headless body was five inches shorter and about fifty pounds lighter than Gunness. No explanation was provided for what happened to the body's head. Whether Gunness died in the fire or escaped remained uncertain, although the sheriff blamed a "Chicago American" reporter for inventing the "escaped" story. Reported "sightings" of Gunness in the Chicago area continued long after she was declared dead. At the time, police looked into reports of women suspected to be Belle, none of which led to her apprehension. Recent DNA tests were performed on the headless corpse, but the results were inconclusive.
After Gunness' crimes came to light, the Gunness farm became a tourist attraction. Spectators came from across the country to see the mass graves, and concessions and souvenirs were sold. Moreover, the crime became an acknowledged part of area history: the La Porte County Historical Society Museum has a permanent "Belle Gunness" exhibit.
Gunness has also been the subject of at least two American musical ballads.
See also.
General:


Jean Rouverol

Jean Rouverol (July 8, 1916 – March 24, 2017) was an American author, actress and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.
Life and career.
Rouverol was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of playwright Aurania Rouverol (1886–1955), who created Andy Hardy and wrote many of the films in the MGM series. After being spotted in a high school production, Rouverol first acted in a Hollywood motion picture at the age of seventeen, appearing as W. C. Fields' daughter in the comedy "It's a Gift" (1934). She continued to perform mainly in supporting roles, making another eleven films until 1940 when she married screenwriter Hugo Butler.
With four children coming in quick order, Rouverol did not return to film acting but throughout the 1940s performed on radio, including playing Betty Carter on "One Man's Family". While her husband was away serving in the U.S. military during World War II, she wrote her first novella, which she sold to "McCall's" magazine in 1945. By 1950, she had her first screenplay made into a film, but her career was interrupted as a result of the investigations by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) into Communist influence in Hollywood.
American Communist Party/HUAC.
In 1943, Rouverol and her husband had joined the American Communist Party. In 1951, when agents for HUAC attempted to subpoena them, Rouverol and her husband chose self-exile to Mexico with their four small children rather than face a possible prison sentence, as endured by some of their friends who were dubbed the Hollywood Ten. Labeled as subversives and dangerous revolutionaries by the government, they did not return to the United States on a permanent basis for thirteen years, during which time they had two more children.
In Mexico, she continued to write screenplays, short stories and articles for various American magazines to earn money. Three screenplays she co-wrote with her husband were accepted for filming by the Hollywood studios because agent Ingo Preminger arranged for friends from the Writers Guild of America to put their names on the scripts. In 1960 the family moved to Italy, so Rouverol and her husband could work on a film script. In 1961 the family, with the exception of son Michael and daughter Susan, moved to Rome for two years. After a few years, in 1964 they briefly lived in Mexico again, and then returned to the United States for good. Living in California again, she and her husband continued their screenplay collaboration. She wrote a book on Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her husband died in 1968.
In the 1970s, Rouverol returned to writing. She scripted an episode of "Little House on the Prairie", and after publishing three books in three years, she was hired as co-head writer for the CBS soap opera "Guiding Light". For this show she received a Daytime Emmy nomination and a Writers Guild of America Award. Rouverol, by then sixty years old, left the show in 1976. Her book "Writing for the Soaps" was published in 1984. She taught writing at the University of Southern California and at UCLA Extension.
Rouverol wrote scripts for "Search for Tomorrow" and "As the World Turns". She served four terms on the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America, and in 1987 she received the Guild's Morgan Cox Award as a member "whose vital ideas, continuing efforts and personal sacrifice" best exemplified the ideal of service to the Guild. In 2000, Rouverol (aged 84) published "Refugees from Hollywood: A Journal of the Blacklist Years", which told the story of her family's life in exile.
Death.
For many years Rouverol lived with actor Cliff Carpenter, who was another former blacklisted performer. Carpenter died on January 9, 2014 at the age of 98. Rouverol died on March 24, 2017 at the age of 100.


Dynagroove

Dynagroove is a recording process introduced in 1963 by RCA Victor that, for the first time, used analog computers to modify the audio signal used to produce master discs for LPs. The intent was to boost bass on quiet passages, and reduce the high-frequency tracing burdens (distortion) for the less-compliant, "ball" or spherical-tipped playback cartridges then in use. With boosted bass, tracing demands could be reduced in part by reduced recording levels, sometimes supplemented by peak compression. This added top-end margin permitted selective pre-emphasis of some passages for greater perceived (psychological) brilliance of the recording as a whole. As with any compander, the program material itself changed the response of the Dynagroove electronics that processed it. But, because the changes were multiple (bass, treble, dynamic range) and algorithmic (thresholds, gain curves), RCA justifiably referred to the analog device as a computer.
RCA claimed that Dynagroove had the effect of adding brilliance and clarity, realistic presence, full-bodied tone and virtually eliminated surface noise and inner groove distortion. In addition, Dynagroove recordings were mastered on RCA magnetic tape. Hans H. Fantel (who wrote liner notes on the first Dynagroove releases) summed it up with, "[Dynagroove] adds up to what is, in my opinion, a remarkable degree of musical realism. The technique is ingenious and sophisticated, but its validation is simple: the ear confirms it!"
The process was not received well by some industry commentators, with many audio engineers of the time referring to Dynagroove as "Grindagroove". Dynagroove was also sharply criticized by Goddard Lieberson of the competing label Columbia Records, who called it "a step away from the faithful reproduction of the artist's performance;" and by Harry Pearson, founder of "The Absolute Sound", who termed it "Dynagroove, for that wooden sound." Another noted detractor of Dynagroove was J. Gordon Holt, the founder of "Stereophile" magazine, who in December 1964 wrote a highly unfavourable article entitled "Down with Dynagroove!" Holt, a noted audio engineer and writer of the 1960s and 1970s, slammed Dynagroove as introducing "pre-distortion" into the mastering process, making the records sound worse if they were played on high-quality phono systems.
Holt was technically correct, as the Dynagroove process used tracing compensation, which pre-distorted the record groove to cancel out the distortion created by playback with a conical-shaped phonograph stylus, which could not track the record groove accurately in the high frequencies, especially in the inner grooves of an LP. The process worked well with playback via a conical stylus, typical of most phonograph cartridges prior to about 1964. However, if one played a Dynagroove record with an elliptical-shaped stylus, this pre-distortion became audible. As the decade of the 1960s progressed, high quality playback cartridges increasingly used elliptical styli. This development made tracing compensation obsolete by about 1970, and RCA quietly stopped using the technique.
The other technique used with Dynagroove was a dynamic equalizer, which varied the tonal quality of the recording according to the loudness of the sound. Loud passages were reproduced with little tonal change, but softer passages had boosted lows and highs. Harry Olson, RCA's chief engineer, advocated the use of dynamic equalization for two reasons: the process would help keep softer musical passages above the noise floor of the LP disc; and music processed through the dynamic equalizer would, in theory, tend to have a tonal balance closer to what the listener would hear in a live performance. This latter characteristic was based on Olson's work comparing consumer playback of recorded music to live musical performance. Olson found that most people listened to records at sound levels about 20 decibels lower than actual live performances. Human hearing is not linear with level change, but tends to perceive softer sounds as having less bass content. The dynamic equalizer was an attempt to compensate for the reduction in bass that would be perceived by listening to records at typical levels. As noted above, critical reaction to this technique was mixed. RCA stopped using dynamic equalization about the same time they stopped using tracing compensation in 1970.
Dynagroove promotional and regular records.
Partial list
"* Stereo first regular records"


Tunis Commitment

The Tunis Commitment was a consensus statement of the World Summit on the Information Society, adopted on November 18, 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia.


Fetch TV

Fetch TV is an Australian IPTV provider that delivers a subscription television service over a user's regular internet service. Fetch TV launched in 2010 backed by its Malaysian parent Astro All Asia Networks, which owns 75% in the company.
Fetch TV provides a set top box with a digital TV tuner, personal video recorder and up to 45+ subscription channels, video on demand, pay per view movies, web applications, and a mobile app.
The service is delivered by HLS adaptive bitrate streaming. The minimum internet sync speed required varies by ISP delivery method. The majority of Fetch TV content is unmetered when delivered over a broadband connection from a Fetch TV ISP partner.
History.
On 25 May 2010 Fetch TV announced they would begin offering their first generation set top box PVRs through partner iiNet. This featured three digital tuners to receive Australian terrestrial channels, as well as fourteen linear subscription channels and six Video on Demand based channels. On 21 July they added five international news channels to the subscription channel package. On 6 August they added the WarnerTV SVOD service.
Fox Sports News was added on 27 August 2010 and by 14 February 2011 Fetch had Chelsea TV, Man City TV, Barcelona TV, Man Utd TV and Real Madrid TV.
The Ovation channel and Setanta Sports were added soon after, with Setanta later being rolled out as a $15/month add-on to the basic subscription package. The Travel Channel was added 15 September 2011, and Optus began on-selling the service.
Syfy was added in 2014 and from February 1, 2015 the subscription channel pack was completely revamped, with nine new channels added including ESPN and BBC and six channels removed. When Setanta Sports was purchased by the Al Jazeera Media Network in 2014 the channel was rebranded as beIN Sports (Australia).
On 16 February 2015 they announced plans to become the first Australian pay-TV provider to integrate the Netflix service into its platform, allowing users with a separate Netflix subscription to access Netflix content through the Fetch TV set-top box. In March 2016 it was announced Optus would add its Optus Sport channels showing the English Premier League to the service, available only to Optus customers, and on 15 June 2016 they announced their third generation boxes: the 4k-capable Mighty and the puck-like Mini. This announcement included the addition of Spike to the channel pack and the planned additions of the Presto and 9Now apps to the service. Their press release from the event also hinted at a future catch-up service for content available on the entertainment pack channels.
In 2016 they began trialling HD and broadcast ESPN, beIN Sports (Australia) and Optus Sport in minimum 720p, and customers with the third generation boxes reported that they were receiving BBC First and BBC Knowledge in HD.
Models & Features.
Fetch TV offers two set-top boxes, the Mighty and the Mini. Both boxes receive all Free-to-Air Australian television channels via antenna connections, as well as offering the subscription packages via IPTV. Both boxes contain apps such as Netflix and Stan which require external subscriptions, as well as apps such as the Seven Sport 'Olympicson7' and '7CommGames' apps. The boxes connect when using the same network, and registered to the same account, allowing for "multi-room" functionality, such as using the Mini in another room to watch recorded programs from a connected Mighty device.
Fetch Mighty.
The Mighty has an RRP of $449 AUD (previously $399). It can support resolutions up to UHD 3840 x 2160, and has a 1TB hard drive for recording live television and storing downloaded content. It has 4 TV tuners to support simultaneous recording and can record multiple multiplex channels at once using the same tuner.
Fetch Mini.
The Mini has an RRP of $169 AUD. It can support resolutions up to HD 1920 x 1080, and has 4GB flash memory for pausing live television. It has 1 TV tuner.
Availability.
Fetch TV can be purchased at retailers JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Bing Lee, Harvey Norman, Joyce Mayne and Domayne and through Australian ISP's (Internet Service Providers) such as Optus, Dodo, iPrimus, iiNet and its subsidiaries Internode, Westnet, Adam Internet, Aussie Broadband and TransACT
In 2016 TPG announced that they would abandon their own plans for an IPTV service and begin selling FetchTV.
Subscriber Base.
Fetch TV Australia faced significant opposition in the market place from competitors such as Foxtel and Telstra TV leading to comments by mainstream technology and financial media sources in 2014 that the service needs to ramp up its subscriber base to progress. In response the company said in 2013 it has strategies in place to produce success and increase its subscription base significantly.
In early 2016 it was revealed the service had 400,000 active subscribers and were aiming for 600,000 by the end of the year. This goal was reached in late 2017, with Fetch citing the growth of Australia's National Broadband Network as a key driver. On the back of the NBN, Fetch added an average 20,000 customers per month in 2017.
The service operates an industry TV ratings app which gives an indication which boxes are subscribed at any one time and which channels have what share of their audience.
Subscription channels.
Fetch TV has broadcast rights to channels from ViacomCBS, BBC Studios, Comcast, Discovery, Inc. & Turner Broadcasting System. ACC TV and Hillsong Channel are free to all customers.
As of 1 May 2018, the following Fetch Channel Packages are offered:
Ultimate Pack.
The Ultimate Pack includes all four 'skinny' channel packs: Kids, Knowledge, Vibe, and Variety.
Note: 1 These channels are exclusively available through Fetch TV in Australia.2 This channel is a different version to the one provided by the Seven Network on free-to-air television until December 2019.3 Content from this channel is available on demand.
Special Interest Packs.
As of December 2020 the following channels are offered through the Fetch TV Special Interest Packs:
Fetch offers UFC pay-per-view fights at $54.95 AUD per event.
Note: 1 These channels are exclusively available through Fetch TV in Australia.
Former Channels.
Ultimate Pack Channel List.
Note: 1 These channels are exclusively available through Fetch TV in Australia.2 This channel is a different version to the one provided by the Seven Network on free-to-air television until December 2019.
World Language Channels.
Pinoy TV Package.
8 Channels.
TVB Cantonese & Korean Package.
4 Channels.
Taj Mahal (Indian and Pakistani) Package.
23 Channels.
Chinese (The Great Wall) Package.
14 Channels.
Apps.
Fetch boxes receive the following apps
Note: 1 Appears in 'Catch Up' menu.2 Appears in 'TV' menu.


Sandra Postel

Sandra Postel is the founding director of the Global Water Policy Project. She is a world expert on fresh water and related ecosystems. From 2009-2015, she served as Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society. She is the author of scores of articles and several books on global freshwater issues, including "Last Oasis", which appears in eight languages, and most recently "Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity". She is the recipient of four honorary doctor of science degrees. From 1988 to 1994 she served as the Vice President for Research at the Worldwatch Institute. Postel has taught water policy courses at Tufts University and Mount Holyoke College. In 2002, Scientific American magazine named her as one of their "Scientific American 50" to recognize her contribution to science and technology. Postel's work aims to build a more water-secure world for all earthly beings. In 2021, Postel was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize, often described as the Nobel Prize for water.
Overview.
After graduate school, Postel worked as a natural resources consultant with a private firm in Menlo Park, California. In 1983 she joined the Worldwatch Institute, where she assumed the global water portfolio. From 1988 to 1994 she served as Vice President for Research. She left the Worldwatch Institute in 1994, moved to Massachusetts, and founded the Global Water Policy Project, which continues to serve as the umbrella for Postel's research, writing, speaking and consulting. In 2009, she was appointed Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society, a position she held through 2015. She now lives in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico.
Awards.
"Scientific American 50". Postel was honored for promoting "sweeping changes aimed at preserving the world's dwindling supplies of freshwater." In 2021, Postel won the Stockholm Water Prize, jointly awarded by Swedish Royal Academy of the Sciences and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). According to the prize committee “no one has exhibited more commitment, capacity, courage, and perseverance to address far-ranging and critical water issues. Her work has been instrumental in shifting both public and professional awareness about the water crisis.”


Melbourne Press Club

The Melbourne Press Club, commonly referred to as MPC, is a not-for-profit association of journalists in the city of Melbourne, Australia.
The Melbourne Press Club provides awards in the State of Victoria for outstanding journalism, presenting the annual Quill Awards for Excellence in Victorian journalism. MPC co-hosts the annual Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award, named after a celebrated Australian journalist. MPC also presents the annual Grant Hattam Award, in honour of the leading media lawyer who died suddenly in 1998 from cancer. It also hosts The Australian Media Hall of Fame which honours "journalists, editors, publishers, broadcasters, producers, artists, photographers or others who have had a significant impact by working in the media".
The MPC often holds lunches for the press to meet with high-profile political leaders, business leaders and figures relevant to significant public issues. The Journalism 2007 Conference was sponsored by MPC in 2007, and in 2007, Prime Minister John Howard made an address to the MPC regarding Australia's Climate Change Policy.


Automatic equipment identification

Automatic equipment identification (AEI) is an electronic recognition system in use with the North American railroad industry. Consisting of passive tags mounted on each side of rolling stock and active trackside readers, AEI uses RF technology to identify railroad equipment while en route.
History.
Predecessor systems.
In the late 1960s, railroads in North America began searching for a system that would allow them to automatically identify rail cars and other rolling stock. Through the efforts of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), a number of companies developed automatic car identification (ACI) systems. The AAR selected four systems for extensive field tests. General Electric developed an RFID system, ABEX a microwave system, Wabco a black and white barcode system, and General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) a color barcode system called KarTrak. The RFID system used a tag mounted under the rail car and an interrogator installed between the rails. The other three systems had labels that were mounted on each side of the rail car and a trackside scanner.
After the initial field tests, the ABEX, Wabco, and the GTE KarTrak ACI systems were selected for a head-to-head accuracy test on the Pennsylvania Railroad, at Spruce Creek PA. The KarTrak system was declared the winner and selected by the AAR as the standard.
The KarTrak system was abandoned by the late 1970s. Because of this failure, the railroad industry did not seriously search for another system to identify rail cars until the mid-1980s.
Development.
Burlington Northern was the first railroad in North America to renew the search for an effective identification system. BN had been closely following the efforts of various maritime shipping companies, such as American President Lines, in their efforts to find a system to automatically identify containers. Based on the maritime companies' success with RF-based identification systems, Burlington Northern began a testing program in 1986.
Burlington Northern initially asked nine vendors to present their identification systems. From this group of nine, Burlington Northern selected two systems for full-scale testing. The two vendors selected were General Railway Signal (GRS) and Union Switch & Signal (US&S). The US&S system is manufactured by Amtech Corporation of Dallas, Texas.
In January, 1988, Burlington Northern equipped 1,500 taconite (iron ore pellets) rail cars in northern Minnesota each with a GRS and an Amtech transponder. Each vendor also installed three wayside reader sites. All tags were mounted on the sides of the rail cars.
In August, 1988, the Burlington Northern Railroad presented a report on the results of their testing at the AAR Communication and Signal Annual Meeting. They stated that the accuracy of both systems over a six-month period was in excess of 99.99%. Based on the spectacular results from both systems, the Burlington Northern asked the AAR to form a committee to write an AEI standard for the North American rail industry, and suggested that the AAR use the current draft ISO standard for container identification as a starting point.
A committee was formed by the AAR, charged with the development of an AEI standard. Railroads such as Norfolk Southern Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, CSX Transportation and Canadian National Railway began their own testing programs and reported the results to the AAR's AEI Committee.
In August, 1989, the AAR informed various identification system vendors that Amtech's identification technology had been selected as the AEI standard.
By the fall of 1989, the AAR's AEI Committee had selected a technology and defined the tag's data format. The only major question still unresolved was whether to place tags on the sides of the rail cars or underneath, each approach having advantages and disadvantages in cost and maintainability. It was finally decided by the AEI Committee in the summer of 1990 that a tag would be mounted on each side of each car.
In July, 1990, the AAR Committee on Car Service sent a resolution to the O-T General Committee of the AAR to set a mandatory implementation date when all rail cars in interchange service would be tagged. The O-T General Committee is the highest operating committee within the AAR. The O-T General Committee requested that the AEI Committee perform a cost/benefit analysis on mandatory AEI implementation and recommend an implementation schedule. In October, 1990, the O-T General Committee approved the recommended AEI voluntary standard.
With these recommendations, in August, 1991, the O-T General Committee of the Association of American Railroads voted to make the AEI standard mandatory. The mandatory vote was ratified by the AAR Board of Directors at their meeting in September, 1991. The mandatory period started on 1 March 1992, and ended on 31 December, 1994. By the end of this period all 1.4 million rail cars in North American interchange service were to be tagged.
As part of the AAR's adoption of a standard based on Amtech technology, AAR required that Amtech license that technology. At the time of the AAR's 1991 mandate, six vendors sold AEI site equipment. Those vendors were US&S, Safetran, Harmon, VideoMasters, CCTC International in partnership with IBM, and Southern Technologies. As of August 2007, only two of these vendors remain, SAIC (formerly VideoMasters) and Southern Technologies.
Usage.
As of 31 December 1994, Amtech had shipped over 3.1 million tags to railways in North America. The AAR reported that over 95% of the North American rail car fleet was tagged. Over 3,000 readers have been installed by the railways in North America as of the end of 2000. Amtech was bought by TransCore. TransCore is today the most important producer of RFID tags for rail in the world.
The AAR's S-918 specifications outline ten recommended frequencies ranging from 902.250 to 921.500 MHz, depending on the location of the reading device (in a yard or trackside), with a nominal transmitting power of 2.0 Watts (measured at the transmitter).


Oridathoru Puzhayundu

Oridathoru Puzhayundu is a 2008 Malayalam environmental film directed by Kalavoor Ravikumar, written and screenplay by Jiju Asokan, starring K. B. Venu, Jenny (Meera Jasmine's sister), Jayasree Sivadas, Goutham Babu, Balachandran Chullikad etc. The film is based on a real-life incident and is dedicated to the people of Plachimada. The film won the Kerala Film Critics Association Awards for the Best film for children of 2007. Jayasree Sivadas won the Kerala State and Kerala Film Critics awards for the best child artist.
Plot.
The film is about Sumangala (Jayasree Sivadas), a young girl from Valayapatti village in Tamil Nadu, seeking refuge in Kuriachira in Thrissur, Kerala along with her folks after a factory completely exploited the water sources in her village.
The villagers come to Kerala hoping to start a new life and settle in a private land which they found. Sumangala goes to collect old plastic articles from nearby households to make a living. Once she found a clay statue in Sandeep's (Goutham Babu) house which was made by her father earlier. As she tried to get the statue, Sandeep shouted and she hid herself in the shed near the house. Later Sandeep and friends found her and continue to hide and feed her. After a few days, Venu (K. B. Venu) and Lakshmi (Jenny Jasmine) found Sumangala and the people in the neighbourhood decides to keep her with them till her mother is found. With the help of the authorities, Venu succeeded in locating Sumangala's mother and they all happily sent her back to her village. The children were worried about how Sumangala will survive in her village without water and started collecting money to help Sumangala's villagers dig a well in Valayapatti. Venu and friends came to know about this noble cause and contributed the full amount required for digging the well and sent to Sumangala. After three months, Sandeep received a letter saying that the well in constructed but the villagers want Sandeep and friends to come an drink the first pot of water from the well. Venu and friends took the children to Valayapatti and meet Sumangala and the villagers and enjoyed the water from the well.
While returning to their homes in Kuriachira, Venu saw a packaged drinking water factory beginning construction near the river in their village. Venu realised that a similar fate as that of Valayapatti is going to fall on them also sooner.


Kamila B. Richter

Kamila B. Richter (born 2 May 1976 in Olomouc) is a Czech-German media artist. Richter lives and works in Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe. From 2000 to 2002 she lived in Durban and Johannesburg in South Africa and studied at the Technikon Natal, Durban. Previously, in 2001, she achieved the title of Master of Fine Arts and later, in 2010, the title of Doctor of Philosophy at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
Life.
As a programmer of the early web era (0-System, web project reflecting the medium of the web, 1997 and M-System, participatory web game project, 1998) Kamila B. Richter is rendering the data streams visible which surround us on a daily basis (Emporium Spirit, New York Stock Exchange visualization, 2005, Black Vortex, Prague Stock Exchange visualization, 2006, and others) and gives rise to the strings of zeros and ones, which invisibly plough through our daily communication, work and social life in exhibition spaces, where those data streams made visible meander, dislimn and resurge.
Since 2005 - in cooperation with Michael Bielický - she develops web based, often interactive projects, which are controlled by real time data fed from the Internet. Usually market and stock exchange data, news, Twitter and other data sources guide their animated stories - often in an uncanny and counterintuitive way. Most recently in Lost Objects, National Theatre Prague (2015) and Lost, Apollonia, Strasbourg (2016). In 2017 their solo exhibition LOST at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam in Havana, Cuba ended after the second extension.
Since 2011 Kamila B. Richter uses technically out-dated mobile phones with low-resolution cameras, to capture the nightlife on the streets of European, Asian, South- and North-American cities, usually showing blurred silhouettes of human entities, often captured in backlight atmospheres of technically disintegrated surroundings. Kamila B. Richter is interested mainly in everything mediatised, the machine glare: the depiction of preconscious processes of sight, which our brain has learned to subconsciously construe. For Kamila B. Richter the camera’s blurred limited phase image is the proper reflection of reality. The abstract, mediatised reality as content and old master style oil painting technique, which she layers in weeklong work stages to finish her versions of mediatised streetscapes, materialize the tension of contemporary visual culture.
Kamila B. Richter has participated in numerous international exhibitions, festivals and projects. Her innovative artworks shown worldwide include: Exhibitions on the Internet, Biennale Sevilla, Museum Kunstpalast, Telegrafenamt Vienna, Art Center Nabi Seoul in South Korea, the Künstlerhaus Vienna, the DOX in Prague and the ZKM Museum für Neue Kunst in Karlsruhe.
Kamila B. Richter received the Master of Fine Arts title in 2001 and the Dr. Phil title at the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) in Prague. She lived in Durban, Johannesburg, South Africa, and studied at the Technikon Natal, Durban. Today she lives and works in Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe.
Exhibitions.
Richter had a group exhibition at 2nd Zlín Youth Salon (2000). And her first billboard projects in the city of Zlín, Czech Republic, titled Pure Love were exhibited as part of the 3rd Zlín Youth Salon (2003). Later she continued with Guerilla public billboard projects in Prague, Czech Republic (2004). Her second major group exhibition was the seminal World as Structure, Structure as Image Exhibition at Gallery At the White Unicorn, Klatovy, Czech Republic in 2003 A retrospective of Richter's work in collaboration with Michael Bielicky was held at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam in Havana, Cuba. Her first major painting exhibition ended in September 2019. A retrospective of Richter's work in collaboration with Michael Bielicky is held at the ZKM Karlsruhe until march 2020.
Richter's work also appeared in seminal group exhibitions such as Biennale Moscow, Moscow (2011), Havana Biennale, Sevilla (2012), Globale, ZKM (2015) and Open Codes, ZKM (2017).


Are Media

Are Media is an Australian media company that was formed after the 2020 purchase of the assets of Bauer Media Australia, which had in turn acquired the assets of Pacific Magazines, AP Magazines and Australian Consolidated Press during the 2010s. It is owned by the Sydney investment firm Mercury Capital.
History.
Australian Consolidated Press.
Consolidated Press was formed in 1936, combining ownership of "The Daily Telegraph" and Frank Packer's "Australian Women's Weekly". It was renamed Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) in 1957, and acquired "The Bulletin" in 1960.
"The Daily Telegraph" was sold to News Limited in 1972; the same year ACP founded "Cleo" and took over Publishers Holdings (including "Australian House & Garden", "Wheels", and others). Two years later, Frank Packer died, and his son Kerry took over the company.
In 1988, ACP acquired John Fairfax's magazines (including "Woman's Day", "People", "Dolly", and "Good Housekeeping").
In 1994, ACP merged with the Nine Network to form Publishing and Broadcasting Limited. In 2000, Australian Consolidated Press was rebranded ACP Magazines.
In 1999, PBL acquired Crown Limited, and in 2002, it combined ACP and Nine into a new division, PBL Media. CVC Capital Partners acquired PBL Media in 2007.
In 2011, ACP sold its magazines in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to Singapore Press Holdings.
Pacific Magazines.
Pacific Magazines was a magazine publisher operating in Australia owned by Seven West Media. It was acquired by Bauer Media Australia in April 2020. In June 2020, Mercury Capital acquired Pacific Magazines as part of its purchase of Bauer's former Australian and New Zealand assets.
Bauer Media Australia and New Zealand.
In September 2012, Nine Entertainment Co announced that it had agreed to sell ACP Magazines to the German multinational publishing company Bauer Media for an estimated A$500 million, with the sale completed on 1 October 2012. ACP was rebranded as Bauer Media Australia.
The publisher had many tie-ins with other Nine Entertainment Co. companies, such as Nine Network programs ("Burke's Backyard" and "Good Medicine") and the Magshop web service which is now operated by Bauer Media Group.
In October 2019, Bauer agreed terms to purchase Pacific Magazines from Seven West Media. The transaction was completed in May 2020 after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission cleared the sale.
In April 2020, several titles temporarily ceased publication due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mercury Capital.
In mid-June 2020, the Sydney investment firm Mercury Capital purchased Bauer Media's Australian and New Zealand print and digital assets covering women's entertainment and lifestyle; fashion, beauty and health; food; and the motoring and trader lifestyle categories. Some New Zealand brands acquired by Mercury Capital included the "New Zealand Woman's Weekly", the "New Zealand Listener", and "North and South". Notable Australian assets acquired by the company include "Woman's Day", "The Australian Women's Weekly", "Rolling Stone Australia", "Cleo", "Dolly", and Pacific Magazines.
In mid-July 2020, Mercury Capital announced that it would resume publishing several former Bauer titles including "Woman's Day", the "New Zealand Woman's Weekly", "The Australian Women's Weekly NZ", home category magazine "Your Home & Garden", current affairs weekly "New Zealand Listener", Air New Zealand's in-flight magazine "Kia Ora", the "Property Press", and the websites Now to Love, Homes to Love and Beauty Heaven. However, Mercury Capital closed down several publications including "NW" and "Good Health", and the Australian editions of "Elle", "Harper's Bazaar", "InStyle", "Men's Health", "OK!", "Women's Health". In addition, Mercury Capital sold the New Zealand titles "Metro" to independent publisher Simon Chesterman and "North & South" to independent publishers Konstantin Richter and Verena Friederike Hasel respectively.
In late September 2020, Bauer Media Australia was rebranded as Are Media. As part of the rebrand and relaunch, the company's CEO Brendon Hill confirmed that Are Media would be relaunching several titles including the "New Zealand Woman's Weekly", "New Zealand Listener", "Woman's Day", "The Australian Women's Weekly", "Your Home and Garden", and Air New Zealand's inflight magazine "Kia Ora".