Tag Archives: Celebrity

Shirley Temple

By | |
Leave a comment
Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple: a very young star of the depression era.

  • Shirley Temple, born on 23 April, 1928, in Santa Monica, in the USA’s California, was a juvenile actress from three years old.
  • Shirley Temple married first in 1945 to John Agar, had a daughter, and divorced a few years later, and remarried in 1950 to Charles Black whom she was married to for 54 years until he died, the marriage of which produced a daughter and a son.
  • Shirley Temple was the ‘world’s number one box-office star’ for four years in a row; the first juvenile actress to win an Oscar (Juvenile Oscar), an award she received in 1935 for ‘outstanding contributions to screen entertainment’; and she also won other notable awards.
  • Shirley Temple is known for her star role in the film ‘The Little Princess’, in 1939, which was her first Technicolour movie, and she featured in at least 40 films in her 19 years as an actress.
  • Shirley Temple retired from acting in 1950 after starring in a number of consecutive low profit films, and after losing an acting spot in ‘Peter Pan’.

Young, juvenile actress, Black and White, Shirley Temple Black, Kid, Ten Random Facts, Flickr

Young Temple
Image courtesy of Gushi Soda/Flickr
  • Shirley Temple ventured into the political industry in 1967, and was the first Chief of Protocol of the United States to be female in gender, from 1976 to 1977.
  • Shirley Temple was one of the first famous women to announce their breast cancer to the public, being diagnosed in 1972 and announced in 1973.
  • Shirley Temple died from natural causes on 10 February, 2014, in California, at 85 years of age.
  • As an adult, Shirley Temple became a diplomat, which included work as a United States ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia.
  • As an actress, Shirley Temple generally worked for 20th Century Fox, as well as Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros studios.
Bibliography:
Shirley Temple, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple
Brumfield B, Famed former child actress Shirley Temple dies, 2014, CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/11/showbiz/hollywood-shirley-temple-death/
Shirley Temple: the superstar who had her childhood destroyed by Hollywood, 2008, Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-560626/Shirley-Temple-superstar-childhood-destroyed-Hollywood.html

Amazon:      

Nikola Tesla

By | |
Leave a comment
Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was an inventor of many ideas and less inventions.

  • Nikola Tesla was a Serbian American who was a renowned inventor for his AC (alternating current) electrical system, and he was also an engineer, physicist, futurist and author.
  • Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July, 1856 in Smiljan in the Austrian Empire, now Croatia, in Europe, and died quietly on 7 January 1943 in America’s New York, but was not discovered dead until the next day, by a maid.
  • Nikola Tesla was to be a priest, like his father, but when Tesla caught life-threatening cholera; his father promised he could go to an engineering university.
  • Nikola Tesla spent much of his life in the United States, and became a citizen of the country in 1891 at age 35, originally working for future rival Thomas Edison in the 1880s, but later working for himself.
  • Nikola Tesla had at least 278 official patents for some of his inventions, with many being improvements to technology, in areas of radio, magnetism and, particularly electricity, and he also experimented significantly with x-rays.

Nikola Tesla, Greyscale, Painting, Ten Random Facts, Inventor, Flickr

Tesla
Image courtesy of Theirry Ehrmann/Flickr

  • The SI unit (System of Units) of measurement for the strength of a magnetic field was named after Nikola Tesla, and is known as a ‘tesla’.
  • Although Nikola Tesla earned much money from his patents, Tesla experienced bankruptcy and died in debt, since much of his money was spent on new experiments.
  • Nikola Tesla was primarily 1.88 metres (6 feet 2 inch) in height, 64 kilograms (142 pounds) in weight, had a liking for pigeons, did not generally sleep longer than two hours a night, is believed to have had obsessive-compulsive disorder and a photographic memory, and died unmarried.
  • Nikola Tesla has a planet, ‘2244 Tesla’, and a crater named after him, and he also a number of other honours and memorials, including a monument that was unveiled in September 2013 in New York.
  • Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre opened in 2006, in his hometown in Croatia, featuring Tesla’s inventions, innovations, statues and even his ashes.
Bibliography:Nikola Tesla, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
Vujovic L, Tesla’s Biography, 1998, Tesla Memorial Society of New York, http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm

Amazon:     

Play School (Australia)

By | |
Leave a comment
Play School (Australia)

“Open wide, … it’s Play School.”

  • Play School is an award winning television program, that has educational and entertainment content targeted at children in the preschool years, and is broadcasted at least once every weekday on multiple ABC, Australian Broadcasting Company channels.
  • The first Australian version of Play School was produced and broadcasted on 18 July, 1966, and was based on the same-named British program that began in 1964.
  • Play School generally features games, activities like craft and cooking, and songs, as well as telling the time, naming the day of the week, and looking through the window into ‘reality’.
  • In 2000, Play School commenced major changes to its set, such as making it more colourful and changing features such as the clock and the windows.
  • Play School won Logie’s Most Outstanding Children’s Program, in 1998, appeared in the Logie Hall Of Fame in 2006, and won Aria’s award for Best Children’s Album in 1997.

Play School, Graphic, Come and Play, Blocks, Logo, Little Ted, Jemimah, Cartoon, Ten Ranom Facts, ABC Australian TV Program

Logo
Image Courtesy of Play School
  • Play School have released 17 albums containing many popular songs, with many more featured on the program.
  • Play School is typically presented by two people, and has had more than 100 people featured as presenters on the program during its history.
  • Play School has a repertoire of over 4,500 episodes in over 45 years and 46 seasons, and is the second longest running children’s television show in the English-speaking world.
  • Play School features many different toys, with the main toys named Big Ted, Little Ted, Jemima and Humpty.
  • In a week, Play School, on estimate, is viewed by 4 out of 5 children under the age of six, at least once during that time.
Bibliography:
Play School (Australian TV Series), 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_School_(Australian_TV_series)
Taylor R, Play Schooling for 45 Years, 2011, Television.au, http://televisionau.com/2011/07/play-schooling-for-45-years.html

Amazon:    
             Playschool CDs

The Wiggles

By | |
1 Comment
The Wiggles

Let’s ‘Hot Potato’ along with the Wiggles!

  • ‘The Wiggles’, named from the song ‘Get ready to wriggle’ by John Field, is a band that performs music and tours internationally, and has a target audience of preschool children, from ages 2 to 6.
  • The Wiggles originally wore colourful but ‘messy’ costumes, but soon turned to the simple coloured skivvies of yellow, red, purple and blue, the latter originally green.
  • In 2013, the members of the Wiggles were Anthony Field (Blue), Lachlan Gillespie (Purple), Simon Pryce (Red) and Emma Watkins (Yellow).
  • The original and main members of the Wiggles were Murray Cook (Red), Jeff Fatt (Purple), Greg Page (Yellow) and Anthony Field (Blue), as well as Phillip Wilcher, who featured only on the first album, and later, Sam Moran (Yellow), who eventually replaced Greg.
  • The Wiggles are well known for entertaining children around the world, having performed at more than 6,000 shows, and were the highest earning entertainers in Australia over four consecutive years, from 2004 to 2008, as well as earning AUD $45 million in 2009, and they continue to be among the top earning entertainers.

The Wiggles, Sam, Jeff, Anthony, Murry, Ten Random Facts, Big Red Car, Show, Peformance, Entertainment

(From left to right) Anthony, Jeff, Murry, Sam
Image courtesy of Meandertail/Flickr
  • The Wiggles were formed for the production of the first album in 1991, due to Anthony Field wanting a recorded album of children’s music, to present to his future employers to help him obtain a job as a preschool teacher.
  • The group produced a film called ‘The Wiggles Movie’ (in Australia) in 1997, and started a television series broadcasting in Australia and the United States, in 1998.
  • The Wiggles were featured in their first mini theme park in Dreamworld, Australia, in 2005, which increased the fun at theme parks for young children.
  • The Wiggles generally produce new music every year and by 2014, had released approximately 50 albums and videos, and sold over 30 million copies.
  • The Wiggles have won many awards, including eleven Best Children’s Album awards at the ARIAs, have been included in the ARIA Hall of Fame, and the original members were appointed Members in the Order of Australia in 2010.
Bibliography:
About us, 2013, The Wiggles, http://web.archive.org/web/20130924110739/http://www.thewiggles.com.au/au/about/
The Wiggles, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wiggles

Amazon:     

Mary Poppins

By | |
Leave a comment
Mary Poppins

“It’s Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” says Mary Poppins.

  • Mary Poppins is often rated among the best movies ever produced, and is a musical film with a fantasy based theme, set in 1910, in London.
  • Mary Poppins was made by the Walt Disney film company, directed by Robert Stevenson, and the screenplay was written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi.
  • Mary Poppins was based mainly on the first of eight books in the series of the same title, authored by Australian born Pamela Lyndon Travers (P.L. Travers, originally Helen Lyndon Goff), who did not like, and regretted, the overall film production.
  • Mary Poppins is based on the character of the same name, who is a supernatural nanny, performed by Julie Andrews, who won an Academy Award for the best actress as Poppins.
  • Mary Poppins was chosen to be preserved by Library of Congress for the United States National Film Registry in 2013.
Mary Poppins Poster, Film, Walt Disne, Julie Andrews, Magic, Disney, Ten Random Facts
 Mary Poppins
Image courtesy of Disney
  • Mary Poppins was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, winning five of them, the most ever in Walt Disney history.
  • The Mary Poppins producers took twenty-three years to obtain production rights from the author of the books, Pamela Travers, to create the movie, due to her belief that a film would detract from her books.
  • The Mary Poppins film runs for approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes, and was first released on 27 August, 1964.
  • Mary Poppins had over 30 music pieces written by the Sherman brothers, Robert B Sherman and Richard M Sherman, for the production, although only 17 were used.
  • Mary Poppins had the top profits of 1965, with a $28.5 million net profit, a budget of 6 million, and to date, a worldwide gross of over $146 million.
Bibliography:
Mary Poppins (Film), 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins_(film)
Pohn K, The History of Mary Poppins, 2007, Cosmic Play, http://www.cosmicplay.net/Kaleid/Mary/scenebehind1.html

Nelson Mandela

By | |
Leave a comment
Nelson Mandela

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

  • Nelson Mandela was the first black president of South Africa and spent much of his life peacefully fighting against the racism of his people, that was rife in his country.
  • Nelson Mandela’s full name was ‘Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’; his English name (Nelson) was given to him by his school teacher on his first day of school, as customary at the time.
  • Nelson Mandela was born on 18 July, 1918, in Mvezo, Cape Province, South Africa, and died on 5 December, 2013, in his home in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the age of 95, due to a long-term lung infection.
  • Nelson Mandela spent 27 years of his life imprisoned, in three prisons, being arrested in 1964, for ‘sabotaging’ government buildings, and was released in 1990.
  • Nelson Mandela was often called the ‘Father of a Nation’ and was also known by his clan name, ‘Madiba’.

Nelson Mandela, Death, Award, Johannesburg, South Africa, Former Black President, Ten Random Facts, Flickr

Mandela
Image courtesy of South Africa The Good News
  • Nelson Mandela was born into a state of royalty, but later ran away to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he spent much of his residential life, to avoid an arranged marriage.
  • While in prison, Nelson Mandela’s eyesight was damaged permanently due to the glare on the limestone in the quarry where he worked.
  • Nelson Mandela became president on 10 May, 1994, and retired in 1999, although he continued to express his opinions until he ‘retired from retirement’ in 2004.
  • Nelson Mandela had six children and married three times, and his most recent wife was Graça Machel, whom he married in 1998.
  • Nelson Mandela jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, and received over 250 awards and honours, including a number of statues erected.
Bibliography:
Nelson Mandela, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela
Nelson Mandela’s life and times, 2013, BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12305154

Amazon:     

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...