Frank Capra, a leading figure in the film industry, had created many remarkable masterpieces from the era of the Great Depression all the way through the Second Great War. Not only did he face the innovating changes of movie life, such as the change from silent to sound film-making, he had has made a great impact on the lives of Americans.
Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897. Capra, was initially named Francesco Rosario Capra, changed it after he had immigrated to America with his family from Italy. As Frank puts it: “It all began with a letter. A letter from America - when I was a big-eyed child of five. It was the first letter Papa, my forty-seven-year-old peasant father, Salvatore Capra, had received from anywhere (3). He settled in Los Angeles, California in what was known to him as an Italian ghetto. Though times were tough, he attended the California Institute of Technology, majoring in chemical engineering. After finishing college, he enrolled in the U.S. Army to fight in the First Great War. This would later influence his implementation of his political perspectives such as, American individualism, into his movie making. He married actress Helen Howell, but later divorced, and married Lucille Warner later on, together they had three sons and a daughter.
After the war, he participated in many odd jobs, some of which included farm-working, oil stock selling, and book vending. Capra faced hard times, but with one phone call to a new San Francisco theater, he had ignited his career into the world of the film industry.
Frank was at first an amateur with silent film-making, but working as an apprentice with producer Henry Cohn, he began more adept at it. He started with gags and comedy humor movies, but the emergence of fil...
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Works Cited
"A Certain Cinema." A Certain Cinema. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
"Frank Capra." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
Capra, Frank. The Name above the Title: An Autobiography. New York: Da Capo, 1997. Print.
"Frank Capra at the BFI - Review." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 18 Dec. 2010. Web. 04 May 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/dec/18/frank-capra-bfi-season-review. Barson, Michael. "Frank Capra (American Film Director)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 12 May 2014. .
"Frank Capra." - New World Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014. .
Frank Serpico is depicted in the movie, “Serpico” starring Al Pacino. Although this movie has won many awards, it’s important to remember that the characters within it are based from real characters. Frank Serpico is just one example of a person who decided to stand up for what is right and suffered very real consequences for doing so.
The silent era in film occurred between 1895 through 1929. It had a a major impact on film history, cinematically and musically. In silent films, the dialogue was seen through muted gestures, mime, and title cards from the beginning of the film to the end. The pioneers of the silent era were directors such as, D. W. Griffith, Robert Wiene and Edwin S. Porter. These groundbreaking directors brought films like first horror movie and the first action and western movie. Due to lack of color, the silent films were either black and white or dyed by various shades and hues to signal a mood or represent a time of day. Now, we begin to enter towards the sound era and opposed to the silent era, synchronized sounds were introduced to movies. The classic movie, The Jazz Singer, which was directed by Alan Crosland, was the first feature length film to have synchronized dialogue. This was not only another major impact in film history, but it also played a major part in film technology and where film is right now.
He started to work for another crime boss Johnny Torrio. “Capone started out in Chicago as a manager for the Four Deuces,...
Franklin D. Roosevelt was always a very smart and educated young man. Growing up, Franklin's parents took him on many trips to Europe, where he studied and learned how to speak many different languages. He graduated from Harvard University in 1903 and then went on to get a degree from Columbia University Law School. But he never seemed to show an interest with doing legal work. In 1905, he married his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he had been courting for some years before that. Franklin and Eleanor had six children together. Franklin took much pride and companionship in them. It wasn't until this time that Franklin decided to get involved with politics.
Leo Frank was a Jewish man who had grown up in Brooklyn, New York, where he moved within a few months of his birth. In 1908 Leo Frank moved to Atlanta, Georgia to become the supervisory of the National Pencil Factory. He married his wife Lucille two years later.
Al Capone had his rise to fame during the prohibition era. He started out as a bodyguard for a gang leader in Chicago. When a north side gang member shot the man capone was guarding, he gave up leadership of the gang
In the beginning, Cesar Chavez started having a hard life ever since he was young. He was born on March 31, 1927 in San Luis Arizona, near Yuma. He had two brothers and two sisters. He started working at a young age after his family lost their ranch on an economic crisis. As a consequence, they moved and started living in a barrio, which was a poor area of town in San Jose, California and they started living as immigrants. Later, he left school in order to start working with his family in fields and, in a way, start supporting his family. They used to move from farm to farm in look for more fields to harvest, so they could get more money. When he was seventeen he enlisted into the United States Navy and served for two years. At his return, in 1948, he married the love of his life, Helen Fabela, and eventually years later they had eight children together.
Frank Capra was born in Sicily and raised in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from California Institute of Technology he joined the military for it’s in battle in World War I. During this time he became ill and was discharged. While recovering in L.A. he reprioritized and was cast as an extra in 1919’s The Outcasts of Poker Flat. Capra bluffed his way into the director's seat at studios in San Francisco. He eventually helped Columbia Pictures transition from silent films to talkies in the early 1930s’. By 1947, he had a total of six nominations, half of which he won. His most notable films include the comedies like It Happened One Night, Lady for the Day and It’s a Wonderful Life. After WWI, came changes in the film industry and Capra’s
Turan, Kenneth. “Tale of The Godfather is Epic in Itself.” Los Angeles Times 21 Mar. 1997.
Because the opinions and activities of the police helped control public reaction, Leo Frank was almost immediately the victim of public clamor. The fact that he was Jewish generated both public and legal controversy. Press spread unstoppable rumors of Frank being a...
The very famous gangster, Alphonse Capone also known as, “Al Capone” was born in Brooklyn, NY on January 17, 1899. Born from an Italian immigrant family, Al Capone rose to be one of the most famous gangsters of all time during United States’ Prohibition era. At the time his family moved into the US, he already had 2 other brothers before he was born. His father and mother were from Italy, Gabriele and Teresa, they moved in at a poor apartment where Al was later born. The place where he lived was a very law abiding place, where from a young age it was notable that he would grow up to be in a world of crime. Capone at a young age, went to a catholic school, where he was an outstanding student, and had a very promising
John Ford. Dear Reader, what more can one say about the man, the myth, the legend of an artist and director? When naming the great classic movie moguls from the experimental days of cinematography, John Ford is one of the towering giants who changed movie making forever! Often, film students compare Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford neck to neck, and Alfred is usually given the title of “Best Director Of All Time’”. Oh, but what a mistake! Hitchcock is great in his own right, but John Ford brings so much style and pioneering creativity to the round table of movie experts. “why ?” one might ask, “why are you so adamant on the title of BDOAT belongs to Ford??’’ Ah my Dear Reader, patience and I will explain everything and soon, you too will
Perhaps one of the greatest if not the greatest director/producer in American film history is Steven Allan Spielberg. Spielberg is a three-time Academy Award winner and is the highest grossing filmmaker of all time; his films having made nearly $8 billion internationally. As of 2006, Premiere listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the motion picture industry. TIME magazine named him in the '100 Greatest People of the Century'. At the end of the 20th century LIFE named him the most influential person of his generation.
After the war, Herbert met a young woman named Beverly Ann Stuart in a creative writing class at the University of Washington. Frank’s son, Brian, once said that Frank did not graduate from college because he did not want to take all of the required courses. He only wanted to take the classes that interested him. Herbert and Beverly, his fu...
Torrio instantly became Capone's new role model; Capone even got a job running small errands for Torrio and his crew. Capone spent every waking moment with the Torrio organization, which in way served as his new educational system, seeing as he no longer attended regular school. After a few years Torrio moved to Chicago but Capone would soon find a new influence to further his street education. Before moving Torrio got Capone a job as a bartender slash bouncer for Frankie Yale, which is where he would earn the nickname Scarface after a late night scuffle left him with three knife cuts on his face (Al Capone:Scarface). I'm sure Al Capone could have found a happy life doing something else but from the very start of his life he was never given a fair deal so he took the only real education he ever got and made himself into an American legend Al Capone was an Italian criminal working the streets of