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1-50 of 110
- Grace McHugh was born in 1898 in Golden, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for Across the Border (1914). She died on 1 July 1914 in near Canon City, Colorado, USA.
- Born on December 18, 1863, the eldest son of Archduke Karl-Ludwig von Habsburg and his wife, Princess Annunziata di Borbone, Franz Ferdinand was third in line to the thrown of the Austro-Hungarian Empire upon his birth. After his cousin Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide in 1889 and his father died in 1896, Franz Ferdinand became the heir of his aging uncle Emperor Franz Josef. He eloped with Countess Sophie Chotek in 1900, but this marriage was considered unequal and they were forced to renounce rights of rank and succession for their three children. A radical reformist, Franz Ferdinand had a number of new ideas he planned to implement when he became Emperor, one of them giving Slavs an equal voice in the empire. After the annexation of Bosnia by Austria, he decided to go on a tour of his new province in 1914 in hopes of fostering good will with his new subjects. A Serbian terrorist group called The Black Hand sent three of its members to murder Franz Ferdinand and his wife as they visited Sarajevo. Their first assassination attempt, throwing a bomb at the Archduke's car, failed, though a number of bystanders were wounded. The assassins almost gave up their plans, and one of them, Gavrilo Princip, wandered off down the street. Meanwhile, the Archduke and Archduchess decided to visit the wounded in the hospital, but their driver took a wrong turn and they ended up on the same street as Princip. Seizing his chance, Princip stepped forward and fired several times into the car, fatally wounding both Franz Ferdinand and Sophie. They were raced to the governor's mansion where they were pronounced dead. Not only did this act of violence orphan their three young children, it also set off a series of events that led directly to World War I.
- Director
- Cinematographer
Wordsworth Donisthorpe was an English barrister, individualist anarchist and inventor, pioneer of cinematography and chess enthusiast. He studied at Leeds Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1876 he filed a patent for a film camera which he named a "kinesigraph." In 1885, he was the co-founder of the British Chess Association and the British Chess Club. He was associated with the Liberty and Property Defence League until his split from the League in 1888. In 1890, together with his cousin William Carr Crofts, he produced a moving picture of London's Trafalgar Square (1890). The camera that produced this moving picture was patented in 1889 along with the projector necessary to show the motion frames. In 1893, he was one of the founding members and President of the children's rights and free love advocacy organisation the Legitimation League; he left the organization in 1897.- Brandon Thomas was born on 24 December 1848 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Charley's Aunt (1930), Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940) and Charley's Aunt (1941). He was married to Marguerite Blanche Leverson. He died on 19 June 1914 in Bloomsbury, London Borough of Camden, Greater London, England, UK.
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Editor
Johann Schwarzer was born on 30 August 1880 in Javornik, Silesia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. Johann was a director and cinematographer, known for Zimmer zu Vermieten (1908), Sklavenmarkt (1907) and Weibliche Ringkämpfer. Johann died on 8 October 1914 in Wierzbolów, Poland, Russian Empire [now Virbalis, Lithuania].- Rube Waddell was born on 13 October 1876 in Bradford, Pennsylvania, USA. He was married to Madge Maguire, May Wynne Skinner and Florence Dunning. He died on 1 April 1914 in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
Gladys Rankin was born on October 8, 1870 in New York City. Her father was actor Arthur McKee Rankin and her mother was actress Kitty Blanchard. She began acting on the stage when she was a child. One of her first starring roles was in The Runaway Wife. At the age of eighteen she married actor Sidney Drew. The couple costarred in the plays The Burglar and That Girl From Mexico. Their son, S. Rankin Drew, was born in 1891. Gladys and Sidney became a popular duo and they were first actors to perform drama in vaudeville. They also appeared together in the 1901 Broadway show Sweet And Twenty. She was usually billed as "Mrs. Sidney Drew". Her sister Doris Rankin married actor John Barrymore in 1904. Gladys was a talented author who wrote scripts using the pen name "George Cameron".
In 1908 her dramatic play Agnes was produced on Broadway. She made her film debut in the 1911 comedy The Red Devils. It was directed by Sidney and was based on one of their vaudeville sketches. Gladys wrote numerous short films including The Still Voice, A Sweet Deception, and The Line-Up. Sidney starred in all the films she wrote. Sadly in 1913 she was diagnosed with cancer. On January 9, 1914 she died from the disease at the age of forty-three. She was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York, Just six months after her death Sidney married actress Lucille McVey who would also billed as "Mrs. Sidney Drew". Gladys's son, S. Rankin Drew, became an actor but tragically he was killed during World War 1. She is the great-grand aunt of actress Drew Barrymore.- Actor
- Writer
Edwin Barbour was born on 2 July 1857 in Cresco, Iowa, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Northern Lights (1914), The Fire Patrol (1924) and The Fiancee and the Fairy (1913). He died on 15 September 1914 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.- Lillian Nordica was born on 12 December 1857 in Farmington, Maine, USA. She was married to George Washington Young (banker), Zoltan F. Doeme (Hungarian tenor) and Frederick Allen Gower (journalist and inventor). She died on 10 May 1914 in Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia.
- Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg was born on 1 March 1868 in Stuttgart, Germany. She was married to Archduke Franz Ferdinand. She died on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Stellan Rye was born on 4 July 1880 in Randers, Denmark. He was a director and writer, known for Der Flug in die Sonne (1914), Ein Sommernachtstraum in unserer Zeit (1914) and The Student of Prague (1913). He died on 14 November 1914 in France.- Flora Foster was born on 4 March 1898 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for David Copperfield (1911), The District Attorney's Conscience (1912) and The Wedding Gown (1913). She died on 21 September 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Pierre Souvestre was born on 1 June 1874 in Plomelin, Finistère, France. He was a writer, known for Fantomas, Fantomas (1964) and Untitled Fantomas/Wassim Beji/SND Series. He died on 26 February 1914 in Paris, France.
- Peyo Yavorov was born on 1 January 1878 in Chirpan, Kingdom of Bulgaria. He was a writer, known for Dve hubavi ochi (2001). He was married to Lora Karavelova. He died on 29 October 1914 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
- Jean Jaurès was born on 3 September 1859 in Castres, Tarn, France. He died on 31 July 1914 in Paris, France.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Arturo Colautti was born in 1851 in Zadar, Croatia, Austria-Hungary [now Croatia]. He was a writer, known for Adriana Lecouvreur (2011), The Metropolitan Opera HD Live (2006) and The Metropolitan Opera Presents (1977). He died on 9 November 1914 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Alain-Fournier was born on 3 October 1886 in La Chapelle-d'Angillon, Cher, France. He was a writer, known for The Wanderer (1967), Kouzelné dobrodruzství (1983) and Le grand Meaulnes (2006). He died on 22 September 1914 in Les Éparges, Meuse, France.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Julius Freund was born on 8 December 1862 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was a writer, known for Eine tolle Nacht (1914), Das rosa Trikot (1920) and Durchlaucht Radieschen (1927). He died on 6 January 1914 in Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany.- Victor Arnold was a Vienna born comic actor of the German stage during the second decade of the 2oth century, who mentored the future film director Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin and encouraged him to go for comedy roles rather than heavy drama.Arnold was short and stocky and not especially good looking and used these characteristics to good effect. He worked with pioneering director Max Reinhardt and with Felix Hollaender. Arnold and Lubitsch played together in the films The Perfect Thirty Six and The Pride of the Firm.Arnold also was in an early version of the Sumurun story which Lubitsch would later film. In the lead up to WWII, Arnold's mental health deteriorated and he was put in a sanatorium after which he cut his throat in October of 1914.
- Camillo Boito was born on 30 October 1836 in Rome, Papal State [now Lazio, Italy]. He was a writer, known for Times Gone By (1952), Black Angel (2002) and Senso (1954). He died on 28 June 1914 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.
- Antonio Grisanti was born on 26 October 1859 in Cunico, Piedmont, Italy. He was an actor, known for The Last Days of Pompeii (1913), The Betrothed (1913) and The Maniac (1912). He died on 17 May 1914 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy.
- Frank Lawton was born in 1861 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Dance (1894). He was married to Virginia Earle and Daisy May Collier (actress). He died on 18 April 1914 in New York, USA.
- Paul Heyse was born on 13 March 1830 in Berlin, Germany. He was a writer, known for Your Favorite Story (1953) and Zwei Liebesgeschichten (1980). He was married to Anna Schubart and Margaret Kugler. He died on 2 April 1914 in Munich, Germany.
- Mikhail Obukhov was born on 25 January 1879 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia]. Mikhail died on 25 March 1914 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia].
- McKee Rankin was born on 6 February 1844 in Sandwich, Ontario, Canada. McKee was a writer, known for The Runaway Wife (1915) and The Danites (1912). McKee was married to Kitty Blanchard (actress). McKee died on 17 March 1914 in San Francisco, California, USA.
- Vernona Jarbeau was born in 1858 in New York, New York, USA. She was married to Jefferson Davis Bernstein. She died on 16 October 1914 in Nanuet, New York, USA.
- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Herkomer was a painter who founded an art school in Bushey, Hertfordshire, in the 1880s. His film company produced only a handful of films, of which not a single can appears to have survived. He was widely credited with pushing cinema to new artistic heights, with bringing down the pace of the action to a more realistic speed and with taking more care than most with his period costumes and settings. He commissioned scripts from literary sources, notably the novels of Marie Corelli and Thomas Hardy, but none of these seem to have made it on to the screen.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Christian Morgenstern was born on 6 May 1871 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He was a writer, known for Der Kriminalist (2006), Peer Gynt (1971) and Morgenstern am abend (1973). He was married to Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern. He died on 31 March 1914 in Meran, South Tyrol, Austria [now Merano, Alto Adige, Italy].- Writer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Hermann Löns was born on 29 August 1866 in Culm, West Prussia, Germany [now Chelmno, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland]. He was a writer, known for The Heath Is Green (1932), Rot ist die Liebe (1957) and Wenn die Heide blüht (1960). He was married to Lisa Hausmann and Elisabeth Erbeck. He died on 26 September 1914 in Reims, Marne, France.- Frederick Bond was born on 12 September 1861 in New Rochelle, New York, USA. He was married to Annie Rose (actress) and Caroline Parker (actress). He died on 9 February 1914 in Whitestone, Long Island, New York, USA.
- The theater-owner Benjamin Franklin Keith was born in Hillsboro Bridge (Hillsborough), New Hampshire on January 26, 1846. He is the theatrical impresario generally credited with the creation of vaudeville in America, which evolved out of variety theater. The theatrical empire he helped build became one of the building blocks for Joseph P. Kennedy's and David Sarnoff's Radio-Keith-Orpheum (R.K.O.) Studios, one of the major Hollywood film studios from 1929 through the early 1950s.
B.F. Keith was one of those romantic youths who joined a circus, eventually working for P.T. Barnum and then the Forepaugh Circus. In 1883, he and his partner Colonel William Austin opened a museum of curiosities in Boston, Massachusetts. Two years later, he and his new partner, Edward Franklin Albee II (the father of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee) opened Boston's Bijou Theatre. The Bijou ran a continuous variety show program from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 P.M. daily, a format that came to be known as vaudeville. There was no intermission.
Keith and Albee's Union Square Theatre in New York City was the first to exhibit motion pictures, the Lumière Cinématographe, on June 29, 1896. Owning the American rights to the Lumière cinema equipment, they signed a contract with Biograph Studios for the production of films to be shown in their theaters in Boston, New York Philadelphia, and other locations in the East and Midwest. They began buying up small theaters throughout the East and Midwest to expand their empire of vaudeville theaters that also showcased the new medium. In 1905, they signed a deal with Thomas Edison's Edison Studios to supply their theaters with movies. The Keith and Albee chain of theaters was expanded via a merger with Frederick Freeman Proctor's theater chain in 1906. They were not nickelodeon owners, but legitimate theater impresarios who incorporated short films as part of their vaudeville bill.
B.F. Keith retired from the running of the theater chain in 1909 and died at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida on March 26, 1914. His interest went to his son Andrew Keith and subsequently was acquired by Albee after Andrew's death in 1918. The Keith and Albee chain eventually was merged with the Orpheum theater chain to form Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corp. in early 1928, and a controlling interest in K-A-O was acquired by Joseph Kennedy, the financier father of future U.S. President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy. The Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corp. consisted of a chain of vaudeville and movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada that had 1.05 million seats. Kennedy, who already controlled the small film producer/distributor F.B.O. (Film Booking Office), envisioned the K-A-O chain of theaters as the exhibition arm of a new major motion picture studio.
Later that year, Kennedy brokered a deal with David Sarnoff's Radio Corporation of America (RCA) to create Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) from K-A-O and his own Film Booking Office. Sarnoff had been looking for a venue for his company's new optical sound-on-film process, as other studios were wedded to the rival process created by Western-Electric. Sarnoff likely was the major force behind the deals that Kennedy had pulled off earlier.
David Sarnoff became the chairman of the board of RKO, and a motion picture production unit, Radio Pictures, was created in 1929, its name -- like that of the parent corporation -- paying homage to RCA, which owned a controlling share in the new studio throughout the 1930s. His wheeling and dealing done, Kennedy got out of the film industry for good in 1931, selling the last remaining film asset under his direct control, Pathé, to RKO, with which it was merged.
Vaudeville bills were soon dropped from the former K-A-O theaters after they were wired for sound. Vaudeville acts in some theaters survived, but only as an added feature, typically as an interlude for the feature film, as shown in the James Cagney 1933 movie Footlight Parade (1933) from Warner Bros. In the musical-comedy, Cagney is the harassed producer of vaudeville interludes used at major movie theaters in New York City. (Ironically, one of the movie companies Joe Kennedy considered acquiring was First National Pictures, which eventually merged with Warner Bros. in 1928 and gained access to its Vitaphone sound-on-film process, the first to be used in commercial motion pictures but which was soon obsolete. First National was dropped as a separate marque by Warner Bros. in 1936. Warner Bros. itself was sold by Jack L. Warner to Seven Arts Productions in 1967, after which the old cinema warhorse retired.)
Radio-Keith-Orpheum Studios was one of the major studios of Hollywood, producing the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals and Citizen Kane (1941), which many consider the greatest motion picture ever made. Aside from Astaire & Rogers, its major stars in the 1930s included Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. After buying the studio in 1948, eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes ran it into the ground.
Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp. as a corporate entity was terminated in 1950 when Hughes signed a consent decree with the federal government in the wake of the Supreme Court's 1948 Paramount decision that ordered the studios to divest themselves of their theater chains. The studio was split up into a production-distribution business, RKO Pictures Corp., and an exhibition chain, RKO Theatres Corp. Hughes didn't actually sell off RKO Theatres until 1953, and two years later, he sold off the studio to General Tire & Rubber Co. for $25 million (approximately $200 million in today's money, when factored for inflation), by which time it was a shadow of itself.
The deal was a bust for General Tire, which shut down RKO Studios in January 1957. The studio's production facilities were sold to Desilu Productions, which was owned by TV superstar Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz. Ironically, Ball had signed a seven-year contract with R.K.O. as a 24-year-old starlet in 1935. In her seven years at R.K.O., she served as a supporting player in A pictures and as a leading player at the studio's B pictures unit until 1942, enjoying the title "Queen of the B's." She moved over to M.G.M. after her contract was up, to star in support of Red Skelton in 1943's Du Barry Was a Lady (1943). Now christened "The Queen of T.V.", Lucy came back to R.K.O. a generation later as owner of her former employer. - Pierre Sales was born on 22 December 1856 in Trie-sur-Baïse, Hautes-Pyrénées, France. Pierre was a writer, known for The Secret of the Well (1914), The Kind Old Man (1912) and Peine d'amour (1914). Pierre died on 10 April 1914 in Paris, France.
- Gustav Wied was born on 6 March 1858 in Nakskov, Denmark. He was a writer, known for Das Feuer (1914), Thummelumsen (1941) and Slægten (1978). He was married to Alice Tutein. He died on 24 October 1914 in Roskilde, Denmark.
- Pol Plancon was born on 12 June 1854 in Fumay, Ardennes, France. He was an actor, known for Lucia di Lammermoor (1911). He died on 12 August 1914 in Paris, France.
- Bertie Pitcairn was born in May 1885 in Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Tommy's Tramp (1914), The Horse Thief (1914) and The Love of Tokiwa (1914). She died on 30 November 1914 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Edwin Palmer was born in 1847 in Middlesex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Boatswain's Daughter (1913) and Johann Strauß an der schönen blauen Donau (1913). He was married to Elisabeth Ruddell. He died on 14 February 1914 in London, England, UK.
- Väinö Kataja was born on 28 September 1867 in Hailuoto, Finland. He was a writer, known for Koskenlaskijan morsian (1937), Curses of the Witch (1927) and Koskenlaskijan morsian (1923). He died on 2 December 1914.
- Caesar was born in 1898 in Caesar of Notts. He died on 18 April 1914.
- Luke J. Loring was born in 1852 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Forgiven; or, the Jack of Diamonds (1914). He died on 4 May 1914 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sam Corker, Jr. was familiar with both sides of the entertainment business, being knowledgeable about the business and administrative end of as well as being a topflight performer in front of the footlights. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, he was the son of a fisherman who served in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The son decided that his fate led elsewhere, and when he was in his teens, he headed north to New York City where he got a job as an usher at Augustin Daly's theatre on Broadway. In 1897, Corker was the business manager for Bob Cole and Billy Johnson's traveling minstrel show, "A Trip to Coontown." In 1904, he managed the road company of "In Dahomey," eventually traveling to Great Britain, to great acclaim. In 1908, he was briefly the manager of the Pekin Theatre in Chicago and later involved in organizing minstrel shows and booking vaudeville acts. He died as the result of a fall from a ladder and was buried in his home town of Charleston.- Elinor Aickin was born in 1834 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Richard III (1911). She was married to Edward Fitzjames Hely. She died on 5 May 1914 in Croydon, Surrey, England, UK.
- Rev. John M. Snyder was a Unitarian minister, author and playwright. After graduating with honors from the Meadville Theological School in Meadville, Pennsylvania, Rev. Snyder was ordained a pastor in 1870 at the Hingham Unitarian Church in Hingham, Massachusetts. Three years later he became pastor at the Messiah Church in St. Louis, Missouri, a post he would hold for the next 26 years. In 1899 he returned to Massachusetts to become pastor at the Wellesley Hills Unitarian Church. It was at this posting that in 1904 he wrote the play "As Ye Sow", in an attempt to reach a larger audience than he could preaching from his pulpit. The following year "As Ye Sow" was produced on stage at Boston and in 1914 released as a motion picture. Rev. John M. Snyder died on 12 August, 1914, at Nantucket, Massachusetts, after a year long battle with throat cancer. At the time of his death Rev. Snyder had been pastor of the Nantucket Unitarian Church for five years
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Abundio Martínez was born on 8 February 1875 in Huichapan, Hidalgo, Mexico. Abundio is known for El tango vuelve a París (1948), El buena suerte (1961) and A Quixote Without La Mancha (1969). Abundio died on 27 April 1914 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.- Jules Lemaître was born on 27 April 1853 in Vennecy, Loiret, France. He was a writer, known for The Return of Ulysses (1909). He died on 4 August 1914 in Tavers, Loiret, France.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Mark Melford was born in 1850 in Fareham, Hampshire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Flying from Justice (1913), The Courtier Caught (1912) and A Day's Sport (1912). He died on 4 January 1914 in Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK.- Donald Smith was born on 6 August 1820 in Forres, Moray, Scotland, UK. He was married to Isabella Sophia Hardisty . He died on 21 January 1914 in London, England, UK.
- William A. Russell was born in 1878 in Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Electric Insoles (1910), Method in His Madness (1910) and Tag Day (1909). He died on 11 January 1914 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Isabelle Evesson was born in March 1869 in New York, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for A Mother's Atonement (1914) and The Girl and the Bachelor (1915). She was married to Almyr Wilder Cooper. She died on 9 August 1914 in Stamford, Connecticut, USA.
- Addie Dunant was born in April 1863 in Washington County, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for David Harum (1915). She was married to Charles Eldridge. She died on 20 August 1914 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
- Cinematographer
Charles Fisher was a cinematographer, known for The Tangle (1914). He died on 11 August 1914 in Yonkers, New York, USA.