The big five studios

Warner Bros. Pictures, incorporated in 1923 by Polish brothers (Jack, Harry, Albert, and Sam); in 1925, Warner Brothers merged with First National, forming Warner Bros.-First National Pictures; the studio's first principal asset was Rin Tin Tin; became prominent by 1927 due to its introduction of talkies (The Jazz Singer (1927)) and early 30s gangster films; it was known as the "Depression studio"; in the 40s, it specialized in Bugs Bunny animations and other cartoons

Warner Bros.
2.
Adolph Zukor's Famous Players (1912) and Jesse Lasky's Feature Play - merged in 1916 to form Famous Players-Lasky Corporation; it spent $1 million on United Studios' property (on Marathon Street) in 1926; the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation became Paramount studios in 1927, and was officially named Paramount Pictures in 1935; its greatest silent era stars were Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks; Golden Age stars included Mae West, W.C. Fields, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and director Cecil B. DeMille

Famous Players-Lasky
(Paramount)
3.
RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures, evolved from the Mutual Film Corporation (1912), was established in 1928 as a subsidiary of RCA; it was formed by RCA, Keith-Orpheum Theaters, and the FBO Company (Film Booker's Organization) - which was owned by Joseph P. Kennedy (who had already purchased what remained of Mutual); this was the smallest studio of the majors; kept financially afloat with top-grossing Astaire-Rogers musicals in the 30s, King Kong (1933), and Citizen Kane (1941); at one time, RKO was acquired by eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes

RKO
4.
Marcus Loew of Loew's, Inc., was the parent firm of what eventually became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Metro Pictures Corporation was a production company founded in 1916 by Richard A. Rowland and Louis B. Mayer. In 1918, Mayer left this partnership to start up his own production company in 1918, called Louis B. Mayer Pictures. In 1920, Metro Pictures Corporation (with its already-acquired Goldwyn Pictures Corporation) was purchased by early theater exhibitor Marcus Loew of Loew's Inc. In another acquisition, Loew merged his 'Metro-Goldwyn production company with Louis B. Mayer Pictures.

So, in summary, MGM, first named Metro-Goldwyn Pictures, was ultimately formed in 1924 from the merger of three US film production companies: Metro Pictures Corporation (1916), Goldwyn Pictures Corporation (1917), and the Louis B. Mayer Pictures Company (1918); Irving Thalberg (nicknamed the 'boy wonder') was head of production at MGM from 1924 until his death in 1936; the famous MGM lion roar in the studio's opening logo was first recorded and viewed in a film in 1928; its greatest early successes were The Big Parade (1925), Broadway Melody (1929), Grand Hotel (1932), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), A Night at the Opera (1935), The Good Earth (1937), Gone With the Wind (1939), The Wizard of Oz (1939), as well as Tarzan films, Tom and Jerry cartoons, and stars such as Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, and Spencer Tracy

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
5.
Fox Film Corporation/Foundation, founded in 1912 by NY nickelodeon owner William Fox (originally a garment industry worker), was first known for Fox Movietone news and then B-westerns; its first film was Life's Shop Window (1914); it later became 20th-Century Fox, formed through the 1935 merger of 20th Century Pictures Company (founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck) and Fox; it became famous for Shirley Temple films in the mid-30s and Betty Grable musicals in the 40s

Warner Brothers	Famous Players-Lasky (Paramount)
RKO	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Movietone Newsreels	20th Century Pictures
20th-Century Fox

For more information click here

Cool site

So I just found this really cool site
with a bunch of old music recordings,
radio shows and much, much more!
I'm so excited about this..
This is the best thing about technology!

The Colonial Club Orchestra - Brunswick Brevities 1929



Audio Archive

old time radio shows

George W. Johnson

George Washington Johnson (c. October 1846 – January 23, 1914) was a singer and pioneer sound recording artist, the first African American recording star of the phonograph.

Johnson sang as well as whistled, and also was able to give a boisterous laugh in musical pitch. From this he developed the second performance that made him famous,
The laughing song.

Here's a play list that will play
different recordings of the laughing song.
This is such an uplifting song..
I hope it makes you laugh like, ha ha ha..ho ho ho!




Track listing:

The Laughing Coon (1898)
The Laughing Song (1898)
The Laughing Song (1901)
The Laughing Song (1901)
The Laughing Song (1902)
The Whistling Coon (1896)



Lyrics "

THE LAUGHING SONG
(George W. Johnson, 1894)

As I was coming ‘round the corner, I heard some people say,
“Here comes a dandy darky. Here he comes this way.
His heel is like a snowplow and his mouth is like a trap,
And when he opens it gently you will see a fearful gap.”

CHO: Then I laugh, “Ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ha.”
I couldn't stop my laughing, “Ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ha.
Ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ha.”
I couldn't stop my laughing, “Ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ha.”

They said, “His mother was a Princess. His father was a Prince,
And he'd been the apple of their eye if he hadn't been [a] quince.
He[‘ll] be the King of Africa, in the sweet by and bye.”
And when I heard them say it, why, I laughed until I cried. CHO.

An actor came to see me about a week ago.
He said to me, “Come sing a song down at our little show.”
And when he told me about the scenes, so nice and so complete,
I couldn't stop from laughing from my head down to my feet. CHO.

So now, kind friends, just listen to what I'm going to say.
I've tried my best to please you with my simple little lay.
Now, whether you think it's funny or a quiet bit of chaff,
Why, all I'm going to do is just to give this little laugh. CHO.

Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919

Time after time

No, not the 1947 song by Sammy Cahn and Julie Styne.
This Time after time is the 1979 film starring Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, David Warner, and Charles Cioffi. It was written and directed by Nicholas Meyer,
and adapted from the novel by Karl Alexander.


The year is 1893, Jack the ripper, John Leslie Stevenson (Warner), is on the run from Scotland Yard. To escape imprisonment he steals his colleague, H.G Wells'(McDowell), time machine and travels to 1979, but the heated Wells is not too far behind. While chasing the ripper through the streets of San Francisco, the viewer can get a good feel of what the city must have been like at that time. Like every time travel movie, there's always something or someone that the main character must bring back with them. Wells meets Bank of England employee Amy Robbins (Steenburgen), and she is smitten by his archaic English charm. The pair try to find Stevenson, who has resumed his killings throughout the city, and escort him to the hands of justice in Victorian England.

Today's Mnemonic

WEATHER FORECASTING

Here's an old country saying for judging the likely weather to come, that's actually a mnemonic rhyme:

" A red sky at night, shepherd's delight,
But a red sky int' morning, is a shepherd's warning... "

At sundown, an evening sky appears red in the west when thin high clouds are present to reflect the dying light. Such high clouds usually indicate a warm and dry night without rain the next day. However a reddish tinge in the sky towards sunrise usually indicates the opposite, due to lower clouds of a different nature. At sunrise the early presence of such clouds combined with an obvious rising temperature usually brings rain before too long!

According to Brewster's Dictionary the Italians also have a saying that is somewhat similar:

" Serra rosso et negro mattino
allegra il pelligrino "
("A red evening and a white morning rejoice the pilgrim")

For more mnemonics click here

Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Sherlock, Jr. (1924) is an American comedy silent film starring and directed by Buster Keaton and written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez and Joseph A. Mitchell. It features Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton and Ward Crane.[1]

In 1991, Sherlock, Jr. was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and on 14 June 2000 the American Film Institute, as part of its AFI 100 Years... series, ranked the film as #62 in the list of the funniest films of all time (AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs).