Ross in his prime. You wouldn't think a guy with hair like that would be such a cultural icon. In the 1920s, only one American city was the center of art and commerce: New York. And in that city, only one magazine kept track of it all: "The New Yorker." And in that magazine, only one person mattered: founder and editor Harold Ross. Ross was born November 6, 1892, in Aspen, Colorado, and soon developed printer's ink in his blood. By 13, he had dropped out of school to work at the Denver Post, and by 25 he had worked for six other newspapers, from San Francisco to Atlanta. During World War I, Ross' talents got him a job in Paris, editing the Army newspaper, "Stars and Stripes." His fellow staff members included drama critic Alexander Woollcott and New York columnist Franklin P. Adams -- both of whom would go on to play roles in Ross' plans. After the war, he settled in Manhattan, where he worked on those plans -- to create a weekly magazine that would analyze, comment on, and play a role in the cultural life of the city. It would not, Ross insisted, be a magazine for "the old lady in Dubuque." It would be sophisticated and urbane -- but not snobby. It had standards, but if a reader was witty or informed enough, he or she would be a member of the club. In the depths of the winter of 1925, the first issue of "The New Yorker" rolled off the presses. Despite some glitches, such as a joke ("Pop: A man who thinks he can make it in par. Johnny: What's an optimist, Pop?") that ran with the set-up and punchline reversed -- a error reprinted in every anniversary issue for years -- the magazine was an instant hit. In the decades since, it has come to be considered the gold standard of American magazines. That respect is due almost entirely to Ross. He personally edited virtually every word that appeared in every issue until his death in 1951, and, despite his own poor spelling, his meticulousness for precise grammar, clarity, and good writing attracted such notables as Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, Ernest Hemingway, John Hersey, Ann Beattie, John Cheever, Roald Dahl, Alice Munro, John O'Hara, Philip Roth, J.D. Salinger, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Irwin Shaw, Woody Allen, James Thurber, E.B. White (whose own prose style was crucial in setting the magazine’s voice and tone), and even Marlon Brando. But the literary aspect of "The New Yorker" was only part of the package. Each issue was filled with cartoons by artists like Charles Addams, Peter Arno, George Booth, Roz Chast, George Price, Saul Steinberg, William Steig, and Thurber again. So good were (and are) the cartoons, that many readers never get past them and are still satisfied they got their money’s worth. Despite Woollcott describing him as looking like "a dishonest Abe Lincoln," Ross' contributions to the culture of Manhattan and America are impossible to calculate. His sensibilities shaped the ways plays were written, movies received, and books were published, and it's almost impossible to imagine American -- and world -- culture without him. Suggested Sites... Wikipedia: Harold Ross - overview of Ross' life and career. The New Yorker - bringing the world to New York -- and vice versa -- since 1925. The New Yorker Cartoon Bank - pretty near every cartoon ever seen in the magazine, yours for the asking. Harold Wallace Ross - biography of The New Yorker's founder. Harold Ross: The History - the BBC takes a look at Ross and his magazine.

Directory categories: Harold Ross, The New Yorker, E.B. White, Magazines, Manhattan

Archived under: 1920s, Authors, Biographies, Birthdays, Cartoons, Journalism, Literature, Magazines, Media, New York, Society and Culture, The New Yorker

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Dracula, Prince of Wallachia Long before Lestat, Bill Compton, Angel, and Edward Cullen took their first bites, there was the original vampire: Dracula. Unlike the aforementioned bloodsuckers, Dracula didn't wrestle with his conscience, delve into politics, help the helpless, or (God forbid) sparkle. Both the "real life" and fictional Draculas were violent and merciless -- not brooding, self-aware emo kids. The "real" Dracula is believed to be a Wallachian (not Transylvanian) prince named Vlad Tepes who lived during the mid-15th century. Vlad lived during a time of great political turmoil for his homeland. The ever-expanding Ottoman Empire was determined to conquer Romania and Vlad led the resistance to turn them away. Vlad used guerilla warfare and what amounted to martial law to keep the Turks out and the local nobility from rebelling. He became known as "Vlad the Impaler" for his particular brutal torture and execution tactics. According to legend, anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 were killed by Vlad's forces, leading to his reputation as a bloodthirsty tyrant. But Vlad's actions should be placed in the context of the violent and war-torn era in which he lived. In fact, many modern Romanians consider him to be a national hero. The Dracula of fiction was probably inspired by the legend of Vlad Tepes. It is debatable how aware writer Bram Stoker was of old Vlad's biography; he may have just liked the sound of "Dracula" for his villain. And Dracula was quite a villain. In between murdering and brainwashing, Dracula also plots world domination. He is apparently defeated by Dr. Van Helsing and his allies at the end of Stoker's novel by being stabbed in his coffin. However, as Hollywood has shown us, this death certainly wasn't permanent. In the Universal Studios Dracula films of the 1930s and '40s (made famous by Bela Lugosi) and the Hammer Films movies of the '60s and '70s (with Christopher "Saruman" Lee), Dracula always lives to kill another day. The popularity of these films further cemented Dracula's place in pop culture history. The last few years have seen vampires come back into vogue, thanks primarily to the TV shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "True Blood," and "The Vampire Diaries," and the Twilight books and movies. But Dracula has largely been absent, save a cameo on "Buffy" and a role in the 2004 film "Van Helsing." But as we all know, Dracula always comes back. This year, Bram Stoker's great grand-nephew will publish "The Undead," a sequel to "Dracula" based on Stoker's original notes and material not included in the original novel. With this release and the ceaseless popularity of vampire books, movies, and TV shows, it probably won't be long before Dracula rises again. But please: no sparkling.   Suggested Sites... Dracula: 1897 Original Text - read the original 1897 version of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" online at Internet Archive. Dracula's Castle - visit Dracula's Castle in Brasov, Romania and learn about other Dracula-related places in Romania. Romania Tourism; Dracula - discover more about Dracula (a.k.a. Vlad Tepes) and learn more about Dracula's place in Romanian history from the official tourism website of Romania. The Dracula Society - the foremost organization devoted to learning more about the real and fictional Dracula, as well as other supernatural beings.

Directory categories: Count Dracula, Vampires, Vlad Tepes, Bram Stoker, Romania

Archived under: Biographies, Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, European History, Fiction, Horror, Horror Films, Literature, Movies, Mythology and Folklore, Paranormal, TV, Vampires, Villains

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Larry Fine looking stunned, undoubtedly by some unexpected turn of events People who work in comedy know the "Rule of Three." That is, when writing jokes or creating a comedic movie, TV show, play, or even a skit, writers know how to establish a situation, confirm it, and then overturn it. If you look for it, you'll see it all the time: "A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar ..."; "an Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman were arguing ..."; "a genie grants a man three wishes ..." With that rule so well-known, it makes us wonder why there are so few three-man comedy teams. There's the Ritz Brothers (who few remember nowadays), the Marx Brothers (who originally were a quartet), the Three Stooges -- and that’s about it. We were reminded of this apparent paradox today in noting that October 5 marks the birthday of our favorite Stooge, Larry Fine. Every Stooge fan has his favorite. (We use the pronoun "his" deliberately here, since it's well known that women just don't get -- or even like the Stooges.) Some prefer the outright lunacy of Curly; some think Shemp is the ne plus ultra of wackiness; there are undoubtedly those who think the antics of Joe or Curly Joe cannot be bettered; and we're sure Moe brings delight to many for his attempts to bring order out of chaos. But Larry is, for us, the essential Stooge. His "normalcy" (at least in terms of Stoogedom) provides the necessary grounding between Moe's masochism and Curly's flights of fancy. The Trinity of Stooges has been compared to Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious (no, honestly), what with Moe's controlling force representing the ego, Curly the uncontrollable id, and Larry, the superego that strives for organization and peace. Larry Fine himself was an unassuming man. He was born Louis Feinberg in Philadelphia in 1902, and after a childhood accident (he burned his arm with acid), he took up the violin, a choice that led to a career in vaudeville, where a chance meeting with comedian Ted Healy (who had originally hired the Howard Brothers -- Moe, Shemp, and Curly -- to accompany him on stage) led him to join Healy's act as the third Stooge, a role he would hold for the next four decades, until a debilitating stroke forced him to retire. Larry's contribution to the act is invaluable. He provides an entry point for the viewer, allowing us to put Moe's harshness and Curly's craziness into context. Without him, Stooge fanatics would be left only with an authoritarian beating up on a lunatic. And every so often, Larry will say or do something so off the wall that it confirms his own existence as a Stooge. Director Peter Farrelly has been threatening to make a new "Three Stooges" movie for years. While this may not seem a good idea at first blush (Benicio Del Toro as Moe? Sean Penn as Larry?), his views on Mr. Fine give Larry-philes reason for hope (while also providing a fine epitaph): "Growing up, first you watched Curly, then Moe, and then your eyes got to Larry. He's the reactor, the most vulnerable. Five to fourteen, Curly; fourteen to twenty-one, Moe. Anyone out of college, if you're not looking at Larry, you don’t have a good brain." Suggested Sites... Larry Fine.com - dedicated the most important Stooge of them all. IMDb: Larry Fine - film credits, biography, and photos. Wikipedia: Larry Fine - good overview of his life and career. Stooge World: Larry Fine - illustrated biography. Farrelly Brothers' Three Stooges Saga: The 13-Year Backstory - is the lack of a movie a good thing or a bad thing?

Directory categories: Larry Fine, The Three Stooges, Comedy Teams, Comedy, Actors

Archived under: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Actors, Biographies, Birthdays, Comedians, Entertainment, Humor, Men, Movie History, Movies, Musicians, The Three Stooges, Vaudeville

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The King holding court at the 1982 San Diego Comic-Con (Photo by Alan Light) How did a kid from the Lower East Side of New York grew up to become the "King of Comics," and have an immeasurable impact on the world’s popular culture? That’s the story of Jacob Kurtzberg, better known as Jack Kirby, who was born on August 28, 1917. As a child, Kirby was likelier to get into fistfights than study art, but he was captivated by such masters of the comic strip as Alex Raymond ("Flash Gordon"), Hal Foster ("Prince Valiant"), and Milton Caniff ("Terry and the Pirates"). He enrolled at the Pratt Art Institute, but soon left because they wanted him to linger over his work, and he wanted to "get things done." His imagination was so full and his creativity so profound that he rarely lingered over anything, turning out dozens of pages of brilliant comic art every week. From Pratt, he went to the Fleischer animation studios (working on their "Popeye" cartoons), but left because of the "production line" way the movies were turned out). He then tried creating a number of comic strips (under an equal number of pseudonyms: Curt Davis, Fred Sande, Jack Curtiss, Ted Grey, and even just "Teddy"). While his work was good, nothing stuck until he met fellow writer and artist Joe Simon. With Simon, he created the character Captain America for Timely Comics (the precursor of today's Marvel Comics), and the rest was history. Simon and Kirby became one of the top teams in comics history, but when they suspected they were being underpaid, they moved to DC Comics, revitalizing such characters as Manhunter and The Sandman, and creating The Guardian and The Boy Commandos. After World War II, the duo went back to work, creating the classic "Boys’ Ranch," the tongue-in-cheek "Fighting American," any number of crime comics, and even found time to invent the romance comic genre. But good things can last only so long, and the partnership split up. Kirby went back to DC, where he created "The Challengers of the Unknown." But after another legal battle, he returned to Marvel, where he began an unparalleled run that saw him co-create scores of characters, including The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, The X-Men, The Avengers, Thor, The Silver Surfer, Dr. Doom, and The Black Panther, mainstream comics' first black superhero. His muscular and dynamic style was credited by the New York Times as creating "a new grammar of storytelling and a cinematic style of motion ... Even at rest, a Kirby character pulsed with tension and energy in a way that makes movie versions of the same characters seem static by comparison." But the comics business being what it is, and Kirby being Kirby, following a dust-up over creator's rights and original art, he again went back to DC, creating the "Fourth World," a series of characters (The Demon, Mister Miracle, The New Gods, and Darkseid, DC's ultimate supervillain) and storylines that were nothing less than cosmic in scope. After only four years, though, he was back at Marvel yet again, leaving only three years later to work in animation (becoming an inadvertent footnote in the Iran Hostage Crisis of the 1980s). But ink was always in Kirby's blood, and after another brief stint at DC, he went to smaller publishers that allowed him not only full creative freedom, but also the ownership of his characters -- something he'd always craved. He died in 1994, never having lost any of his talent or creativity. It's hard today to find a comics artist -- or even a film director -- who has not been influenced in some way by Kirby's dramatic and dynamic style. He set the standard, and even 15 years after his death, he is still "the King." Suggested Sites... Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center - promoting and encouraging the study, understanding, preservation, and appreciation of the work of Jack Kirby. Jack Kirby - really nice analysis of Kirby's style and influence. Marvel Comics Database: Jack Kirby - detailed biography, with links to massive galleries of Kirby covers, characters, and interior art. Grand Comics Database: Jack Kirby - 60 years of comics, catalogued and categorized. Wikipedia: Jack Kirby - extensive biography of the King.

Directory categories: Jack Kirby, Comic Book Artists, Comic Books, Marvel Comics, DC Comics

Archived under: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Animation, Artists, Arts, Biographies, Birthdays, Captain America, Cartoonists, Celebrities, Comic Books, Comic Strips, Comics, Entertainment, History, Men, Popeye, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Villains, Writers

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Groucho Marx in 1931 Thirty-two years ago this week, an icon of American entertainment died: a performer who was recognizable by his voice, his physicality, and his frequent appearances on television and in films. We refer, of course, to Julius Henry Marx -- better known as Groucho. Groucho Marx died on August 19, 1977, but with all the fuss over Elvis Presley's death three days earlier, his passing was virtually overlooked by the media. But for those with a taste for a sharp tongue and terrible puns, Groucho lives on. In a career that spanned almost all of the 20th century, Groucho and his brothers conquered vaudeville, Broadway, radio, the literary world, and motion pictures. After he retired from movies (more or less), Groucho hosted "You Bet Your Life," a game show that became known for Groucho's verbal byplay with civilian guests and its immortal catch phrase, "say the secret word and win $100." He made a "comeback" at the age of 82 (though he'd never really left), packing concert halls with his one-man show. While some may prefer the karate-chopping guy in the jumpsuit, we'll take the cigar-smoking con man in the greasepaint mustache waggling his eyebrows at the nearest blonde or trying to scam a wealthy dowager. Suggested Sites... Marx-Brothers.org: Groucho Marx - detailed biography of the life of Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx. Marx Brothers.org - information on every aspect of the lives and careers of the five Marx Brothers. The Smoking Gun: Groucho Marx's FBI File - investigating just what kind of a Marxist Groucho was. Clown Ministry: The Marx Brothers - letters, quotes, photos, and articles about Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo. Museum of Broadcast Communications: Groucho Marx - information about Groucho's television career.

Directory categories: Groucho Marx, The Marx Brothers, Comedians, Comedy Films, Television Game Shows

Archived under: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Actors, Anniversaries, Authors, Biographies, Broadway, Celebrities, Comedians, Dead Celebrities, Entertainment, Game Shows, Humor, Movies, Musicals, TV, Vaudeville

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