15 FACTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT AMELIA EARHART

Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Here are some facts that you probably didn’t know about her:

– Amelia was named Amelia Mary Earhart after her two grandmothers, Amelia Harres Otis and Mary Wells Earhart — a family tradition.

– Amelia received the nickname “Meelie” from her younger sister Muriel, because as a young child, Muriel couldn’t pronounce Amelia’s name correctly.

TLBSPEDIA: BRIAN MAY

Brian Harold May was born on July 19 1947, in Hampton, Middlesex, England, to parents Ruth and Harold May. An imaginative teen, May, with the help of his father, built his own homemade guitar, dubbed “The Red Special.” The guitar, which was made from makeshift materials including firewood and was played with a six-pence coin for a pick, would later figure prominently in May’s musical career. He would go on to play it on every Queen album and live show.

The young May received his education at the Hampton Grammar School (now the Hampton School). An exceptional student, after graduation in 1965, he enrolled in the astrophysics program at London Imperial College, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in science. He would finish most of his Ph.D. by 1974 and finally complete it nearly 40 years later in 2007.

CURIOSITIES ABOUT ‘ROBOCOP’

Photo by Orion

In July 17 1987, was released one classic movie of the 80’s, ‘Robocop’. The movie is about Detroit, in the future, who is crime-ridden and run by a massive company. The company has developed a huge crime-fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favor with the public when policeman Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphy’s body is reconstructed within a steel shell and called RoboCop. RoboCop is very successful against criminals and becomes a target of supervillian Boddicker.

Stars: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy
Director: Paul Verhoeven

To celebrate the 30th anniversary, here are some of the curiosities about this movie.

• It was discovered that when in full RoboCop costume, Peter Weller could not fit properly into the police car as he was too bulky. That’s why most shots of him show him exiting the car or preparing to get into it. For shots where he actually needed to be in the car, he only wore the top part of the costume and sat in his underwear. However, to maintain the illusion that RoboCop wears the entire suit while inside a car, most shots show his robotic feet exiting the car first.

TLBSPEDIA: GEORGE A. ROMERO

Legendary filmmaker George A. Romero was born on February 4 1940, in the Bronx, New York. He started out making commercials and short films before moving on to feature films. His iconic movies, including ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘Day of the Dead’, he combines horror with social commentary and satire.

The son of a commercial artist, George Andrew Romero loved watching movies growing up. ‘The Tales of Hoffman’ (1951), a film adaptation of an opera, was an early influence. As a teen, he borrowed the film numerous times, using a projector to watch it at home. Romero once said that only one other person took this movie out as much as he did, and the fellow fan turned out to be Martin Scorsese.

TLBSPEDIA: MARTIN LANDAU

Veteran character actor Martin Landau was born on June 20 1928, in Brooklyn, New York. He first dreamed of becoming an artist. After graduating from Brooklyn’s James Madison High School, Landau studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League.

Around the age of 17, Landau landed a job with the ‘New York Daily News’ as a cartoonist and illustrator. He made the switch to acting in his early twenties. As Landau explained to ‘Back Stage West’, “I was being groomed to be the next theater cartoonist. But when I looked around the office and saw guys 30 and 40 years my senior doing exactly what I was doing… I knew this wasn’t for me.”

MUSIC TIP: JOHN COLTRANE

Born September 23 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina, John Coltrane was always surrounded by music. His father played several instruments sparking Coltrane’s study of E-flat horn and clarinet. While in high school, Coltrane’s musical influences shifted to the likes of Lester Young and Johnny Hodges prompting him to switch to alto saxophone. He continued his musical training in Philadelphia at Granoff Studios and the Ornstein School of Music. He was called to military service during WWII, where he performed in the U.S. Navy Band in Hawaii.

2017 EMMY AWARDS NOMINEES

Here are the Emmy Awards 2017 nominees list. Winners will be announced on Sunday, Sept. 17 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

Outstanding drama series

Better Call Saul
The Crown
The Handmaid’s Tale
House of Cards
Stranger Things
This Is Us
Westworld

Outstanding comedy series

Atlanta
Black-ish
Master of None
Modern Family
Silicon Valley
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Veep

10 VINTAGE HORROR MOVIES POSTERS

TLBSPEDIA: VIVIEN LEIGH

Famed actress Vivien Leigh was born Vivian Mary Hartley on November 5 1913, in Darjeeling, India, to an English stockbroker and his Irish wife. The family returned to England when Hartley was 6 years old. A year later, the precocious Hartley announced to classmate Maureen O’Sullivan that she “was going to be famous.” She was right, though her fame would eventually come under a different name.

As a teen, Vivian Hartley attended schools in England, France, Italy and Germany, becoming fluent in both French and Italian. She went on to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but put her career temporarily on hold at age 19, when she married a lawyer named Leigh Holman and had his daughter. Replacing the “a” in her first name with the less commonly used “e,” Hartley used her husband’s name to craft a more glamorous stage name, Vivien Leigh.