Albert Einstein

 

Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 to April 18, 1955) was a German mathematician and physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize for physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. In the following decade, he immigrated to the U.S. after being targeted by the Nazis. His work also had a major impact on the development of atomic energy. In his later years, Einstein focused on unified field theory. With his passion for inquiry, Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century.

 

 

As a physicist, Einstein had many discoveries, but he is perhaps best known for his theory of relativity and the equation E=MC2, which foreshadowed the development of atomic power and the atomic bomb. Einstein first proposed a special theory of relativity in 1905 in his paper, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” taking physics in an electrifying new direction. By November 1915, Einstein completed the general theory of relativity. Einstein considered this theory the culmination of his life research. He was convinced of the merits of general relativity because it allowed for a more accurate prediction of planetary orbits around the sun, which fell short in Isaac Newton’s theory, and for a more expansive, nuanced explanation of how gravitational forces worked. Einstein's assertions were affirmed via observations and measurements by British astronomers Sir Frank Dyson and Sir Arthur Eddington during the 1919 solar eclipse, and thus a global science icon was born. 

 

 

Einstein’s 1905 paper on the matter/energy relationship proposed the equation E=MC2: energy of a body (E) is equal to the mass (M) of that body times the speed of light squared (C2). This equation suggested that tiny particles of matter could be converted into huge amounts of energy, a discovery that heralded atomic power. Famed quantum theorist Max Planck backed up the assertions of Einstein, who thus became a star of the lecture circuit and academia, taking on various positions before becoming director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics from 1913 to 1933.

 

 

Albert Einstein grew up in a secular Jewish family. His father, Hermann Einstein, was a salesman and engineer who, with his brother, founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a Munich-based company that manufactured electrical equipment. Albert’s mother, the former Pauline Koch, ran the family household. Einstein had one sister, Maja, born two years after him.

 

Albert Einstein married Milena Maric on Jan. 6, 1903. While attending school in Zurich, Einstein met Maric, a Serbian physics student. Einstein continued to grow closer to Maric, but his parents were strongly against the relationship due to her ethnic background. Nonetheless, Einstein continued to see her, with the two developing a correspondence via letters in which he expressed many of his scientific ideas. Einstein’s father passed away in 1902, and the couple married thereafter. 

 

That same year the couple had a daughter, Lieserl, who might have been later raised by Maric's relatives or given up for adoption. Her ultimate fate and whereabouts remain a mystery. The couple went on to have two sons, Hans and Eduard. The marriage would not be a happy one, with the two divorcing in 1919 and Maric having an emotional breakdown in connection to the split. Einstein, as part of a settlement, agreed to give Maric any funds he might receive from possibly winning the Nobel Prize in the future.

During his marriage to Maric, Einstein had also begun an affair some time earlier with a cousin, Elsa Löwenthal. The couple wed in 1919, the same year of Einstein’s divorce. He would continue to see other women throughout his second marriage, which ended with Löwenthal's death in 1936.

 

During Albert Einstein’s autopsy, Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed his brain, reportedly without the permission of his family, for preservation and future study by doctors of neuroscience. However during his life Einstein participated in brain studies, and at least one biography says he hoped researchers would study his brain after he died. Einstein's brain is now located at the Princeton University Medical Center, and his remains were cremated and his ashes scattered in an undisclosed location, following his wishes. 

 

 

https://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408

 



Bill Melendez

 



José Cuauhtémoc Melendez was born on Nov. 15, 1916, in Hermosillo, in the Mexican state of Sonora. His father, a Mexican Army cavalry officer who later became a general, was a romantic who gave his children Aztec names. Growing up, José drew everything in sight: horses, cattle, cowboys. In 1928 his mother moved with him and his siblings to Arizona so they could learn English. José, then about 12, was placed in a kindergarten class, a humiliation, his son said, that forced him to learn his new language in a hurry. The family later moved to Los Angeles. As a young man, Mr. Melendez planned to be an engineer, but the Depression intervened. He held a series of odd jobs, including working in a lumberyard, before a friend persuaded him to show his drawings to the Walt Disney company.

 

Disney suggested formal training; after Mr. Melendez studied briefly at the Chouinard Art Institute, Disney hired him in 1938. There he helped animate “Fantasia” (1940), “Pinocchio” (1940) and myriad Mickey Mouse cartoons. He also acquired a new name. After asking Disney to bill him as Cuauhtémoc Melendez, he was informed that his name was too wide for the credits and that he would hereafter be known as Bill. In 1941 Mr. Melendez left Disney after an animators’ strike he helped organize. He joined Leon Schlesinger Productions (later acquired by Warner Brothers), where he worked on Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. He formed his own studio, Bill Melendez Productions, in 1964. Mr. Melendez and Mr. Schulz met in the late 1950s over a Ford Falcon. Mr. Melendez had been engaged by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency to produce an animated commercial for the car. The Ford Motor Company wanted to use “Peanuts” characters in the spot.

 

Mr. Schulz demurred until he saw Mr. Melendez’s drawings. They were noteworthy for their fealty to Mr. Schulz’s style; instead of embellishing the comic strip’s flat figures and clean, simple lines, Mr. Melendez kept them much as they were. Mr. Melendez’s other work included the TV special “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (1979); he also animated the specials “Garfield on the Town” (1983) and “Cathy” (1987), both of which won Emmys.

 

 

Mr. Melendez’s second career as the voice of Snoopy happened entirely by accident. Because Mr. Schulz would not countenance the idea of a beagle uttering English dialogue, Mr. Melendez recited gibberish into a tape recorder, speeded it up and put the result on the soundtrack.For his decades of squeaks, squawks and grunts, Mr. Melendez received residuals to the end of his life.

 

 

Melendez died on September 2, 2008 at the age of 91.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/arts/television/05melendez.html

 



Desi Arnaz

 

 

Desiderio Alberto Arnaz III was born on March 2, 1917 in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. Born to a wealthy family, the Arnazes fled Cuba for Miami after a revolution in 1933. After working a number of odd jobs to help support the family, Desi got his first musician's gig as a guitarist for the Siboney Septet. After working briefly for Xavier Cugat in New York, Arnaz returned to Miami to lead a combo of his own and introduce the Conga Line to American audiences. It was such a hit, both locally and nationally, that Arnaz returned to New York to start his own band. He was offered a role in the 1939 Broadway musical Too Many Girls and later starred in Hollywood's film version. It was there that he met his future wife, Lucille Ball. They were married in 1940. Arnaz made three more films before being inducted into the Army during WWII. During his two years in the service, he was responsible for entertaining the troops. He formed a new orchestra after being discharged and recorded several hits during the late 1940s. During this time he served as orchestra leader on Bob Hope's radio show from 1946 to 1947.

 

In 1949, Arnaz turned his efforts to developing the hit television series I Love Lucy, which ran for six years on CBS and became the most successful television program in history. Arnaz and Ball had a clear goal in mind when the series began development. Not only did they request the the show be shot on film as opposed to the cheaper kinescope, but they also retained full ownership of the program under their production company, Desilu Productions. The show aired in 1951.

The show touched on many personal and taboo issues of the time, including marriage and pregnancy. And as a couple both on and off camera, Arnaz and Ball's show had parallells to their actual marriage, giving birth to their son on the show on the same day that Ball gave birth to their son in real life. The novelty of the series, coupled with Arnaz and Ball's strong chemistry, proved to be a success. I Love Lucy became the No. 1 show in the country for four of its six seasons. The series ended in 1957.

 

 

Desi's marriage to Lucille Ball ended in 1960. He sold his share of Desilu Productions to Ball in 1963. After that, Arnaz made a few forays into television, working largely behind the scenes. He served as a producer on such shows as The Mothers-In-Law in the late 1960s.  With his second wife, Edith, he lived in Del Mar, California. He died of lung cancer at his home there December 2, 1986 at the age of 69.

 

 

https://www.biography.com/people/desi-arnaz-9542545

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tyrus Wong

 

Wong Gen Yeo was born on October 25, 1910 in a farming village in Guangdong Province China. As a young child, he already exhibited a love of drawing and was encouraged by his father. In 1920, seeking better economic prospects, Gen Yeo and his father embarked for the United States, leaving his mother and sister behind. Gen would never see his mother again.

 

 

They were obliged to travel under false identities- a state of affairs known among Chinese immigrants as being a "paper son"- in the hope of circumventing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur, the act, which drastically curtailed the number of Chinese people allowed to enter the country, was among the earliest United States laws to impose severe restrictions on immigration.

 

 

On Dec. 30, 1920, after a month at sea, the Wongs landed at Angel Island Immigration Station. The elder Mr. Wong was traveling as a merchant named Look Get; his son as Look Tai Yow. Because Mr. Wong’s father had previously lived in the United States as Look Get, he was able to clear Immigration quickly. But as a new arrival, Gen Yeo was detained on the island for nearly a month, the only child among the immigrants being held there. On Jan. 27, 1921, in the presence of an interpreter and a stenographer, young Gen Yeo, posing as Look Tai Yow, was interrogated by three inspectors. His father had already been questioned.Gen Yeo was well prepared and answered without error. In Sacramento, where he joined his father, a schoolteacher Americanized “Tai Yow” to “Tyrus,” and he was known as Tyrus Wong ever after.

Soon afterward, father and son were separated once more, when the elder Mr. Wong moved to Los Angeles to seek work. For reasons that have been lost to time, he could not take his son. Tyrus lived on his own in a Sacramento boardinghouse while attending elementary school.

 

Two years later — possibly more — Tyrus traveled to Los Angeles to join his father, who had found work in a gambling den. They lived in a vermin-infested boardinghouse sandwiched between a butcher shop and a brothel. After school, Tyrus worked as a houseboy for two Pasadena families, earning 50 cents a day.His first art teacher was his father, who trained him nightly in calligraphy by having him dip a brush in water and trace ghostly characters on newspaper: They could not afford ink or drawing paper.When Tyrus was in junior high, a teacher, noting his drawing talent, arranged a summer scholarship to the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles.By his own account an indifferent student in public school, Tyrus found his calling at the institute, now the Otis College of Art and Design. When his scholarship ended he declined to return to junior high. His father scraped together the $90 tuition — a small fortune — to let him stay on as Otis’s youngest student.He studied there for at least five years, simultaneously working as the school janitor, before graduating in the 1930s. Not long afterward his father died, leaving young Mr. Wong entirely on his own.

From 1936 to 1938, Mr. Wong was an artist for the Works Progress Administration, creating paintings for libraries and other public spaces.

 

Asians were then a novelty at Hollywood studios, and Mr. Wong was made keenly aware of the fact, first at Disney and later at Warner Brothers. One co-worker flung a racial epithet at him. Another assumed on sight that he worked in the company cafeteria.Then there was the affront of the in-betweener’s job itself: Painstaking, repetitive and for Mr. Wong quickly soul-numbing, it is the assembly-line work of animation — “a terrible use of his talents as a landscape artist and a painter,” Mr. Canemaker said. reprieve came in the late 1930s, when Mr. Wong learned that Disney was adapting “Bambi, a Life in the Woods,” the 1923 novel by the Austrian writer Felix Salten about a fawn whose mother is killed by a hunter. In trying to animate the book, Disney had reached an impasse. The studio had enjoyed great success in 1937 with its animated film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” a baroque production in which every detail of the backgrounds — every petal on every flower, every leaf on every tree — was meticulously represented.

Wong spent two years painting the illustrations that would inform every aspect of “Bambi.” Throughout the finished film — lent a brooding quality by its stark landscapes; misty, desaturated palette; and figures often seen in silhouette — his influence is unmistakable. But in 1941, in the wake of a bitter employees’ strike that year, Disney fired Mr. Wong. Though he had chosen not to strike — he felt the studio had been good to him, Mr. Canemaker said — he was let go amid the lingering climate of post-strike resentments. Wong joined Warner Brothers in 1942, working there — and lent out on occasion to other studios — until his retirement in 1968.

Wong died on December 30, 2016 at the ripe age of 106.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/movies/tyrus-wong-dies-bambi-disney.html

Henry Kissinger

 

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923 in Furth, Germany to a Jewish family. His father was a schoolteacher and his mother was a homemaker. On August 20, 1938, Kissinger's family set sail for New York City by way of London. His family was extremely poor upon arrival in the United States, and Kissinger immediately went to work in a shaving brush factory to supplement his family's income. At the same time, Kissinger enrolled at New York's George Washington High School, where he learned English with remarkable speed and excelled in all of his classes. One of his teachers later recalled of Kissinger, "He was the most serious and mature of the German refugee students, and I think those students were more serious than our own." Kissinger graduated from high school in 1940 and continued on to the City College of New York, where he studied to become an accountant.

 

In 1943, Kissinger became a naturalized American citizen and, soon after, he was drafted into the army to fight in World War II. Thus, just five years after he left, Kissinger found himself back in his homeland of Germany, fighting the very Nazi regime from which he had once fled. He served first as a rifleman in France and then as a G-2 intelligence officer in Germany. Over the course of the war, Kissinger abandoned his plan to become an accountant and instead decided that he wanted to become an academic with a focus on political history. In 1947, upon his return to the United States, he was admitted to Harvard University to complete his undergraduate coursework. Kissinger's senior thesis, completed in 1950, was a 383-page tome that tackled a vast subject matter: the meaning of history. It became Harvard lore that his daunting manuscript which, though unrefined, showed flashes of brilliance, prompted Harvard to impose a rule limiting the length of future theses, but according to Walter Issacson’s 1992 biography, this “Kissinger Rule” is most likely a myth.

 

Upon graduating summa cum laude in 1950, Kissinger decided to remain at Harvard to pursue a Ph.D. in the Department of Government. His 1954 dissertation, A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh, and the Problems of Peace, 1812-1822, examined the efforts of Austrian diplomat Klemens von Metternich to reestablish a legitimate international order in Europe in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. Metternich proved a profound influence on Kissinger's own later conduct of foreign policy, most notably in his firm belief that even a deeply flawed world order was preferable to revolution and chaos.

 

After receiving his doctorate in 1954, Kissinger accepted an offer to stay at Harvard as a member of the faculty in the Department of Government. Kissinger first achieved widespread fame in academic circles with his 1957 book Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, opposing President Dwight Eisenhower's policy of holding out the threat of massive retaliation to ward off Soviet aggression. Instead, Kissinger proposed a "flexible" response model, arguing that a limited war fought with conventional forces and tactical nuclear weapons was, in fact, winnable. He served as a member of the Harvard faculty from 1954-69, earning tenure in 1959.

 

Kissinger always kept one eye outside academia on policymaking in Washington, D.C. From 1961-68, in addition to teaching at Harvard, he served as a special advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson on matters of foreign policy. Then in 1969, Kissinger finally left Harvard when incoming President Richard Nixon appointed him to serve as his National Security Advisor. As National Security Advisor from 1969-75, and then as Secretary of State from 1973-77, Kissinger would prove one of the most dominant, influential and controversial statesmen in American history.

 

The great foreign policy trial of Kissinger's career was the Vietnam War. By the time Kissinger became National Security Advisor in 1969, the Vietnam War had become enormously costly, deadly and unpopular. Seeking to achieve "peace with honor," Kissinger combined diplomatic initiatives and troop withdrawals with devastating bombing campaigns on North Vietnam designed to improve the American bargaining position and maintain American credibility with its international allies and enemies.

 

On January 27, 1973, Kissinger and his North Vietnamese negotiating partner Le Duc Tho finally signed a ceasefire agreement to end direct American involvement in the conflict. Both men were honored with the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, although Duc declined, leaving Kissinger the sole recipient of the award. Nevertheless, Kissinger's handling of the Vietnam War was highly controversial. His "peace with honor" strategy prolonged the war for four years, from 1969-73, during which 22,000 American troops and countless Vietnamese died. Furthermore, he initiated a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia that ravaged the country and helped the genocidal Khmer Rouge take power there.

 

In addition to ending the Vietnam War, Kissinger also accomplished a host of other foreign policy achievements. In 1971, Kissinger made two secret trips to the People's Republic of China, paving the way for President Nixon's historic visit in 1972 and the normalization of Chinese-American relations in 1979. Kissinger was also instrumental in bringing about the early 1970s détente between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1972, he negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, helping to ease tensions between the two Cold War superpowers. When détente was threatened by the October 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel, an American ally, and Egypt, a Soviet ally, Kissinger proved crucial in leading diplomatic efforts to prevent the war from escalating into a global confrontation. Kissinger stepped down as secretary of state at the conclusion of the Ford administration in 1977.

 

Since, then Kissinger has continued to play a major role in American foreign policy. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, and from 1984-90, under Presidents Reagan and Bush, he served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Kissinger founded the international consulting firm Kissinger Associates in 1982, and he serves as a board member and trustee to numerous companies and foundations. Kissinger has authored several books and countless articles on American foreign policy and diplomatic history.

 

https://www.biography.com/people/henry-kissinger-9366016

 

 



Immigration Agency Removes 'Nation of Immigrants' From Mission Statement

 

 

The United States is a nation of immigrants no longer, at least according to the mission statement for the federal agency that issues green cards and visas. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services revised its mission statement Thursday to remove the phrase "nation of immigrants," director L. Francis Cissna told staffers in email.

 

Here's the old statement:

 

"USCIS secures America's promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system."

 

And the new one:

 

"U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation's lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the  homeland, and honoring our values."

 

In his email to staffers, Cissna wrote, "I believe this simple, straightforward statement clearly defines the agency's role in our country's lawful immigration system and the commitment we have to the American people."

 

Cissna goes on to explain the removal of the word “customers” from the mission statement, which he says “leads to the erroneous belief that applicants and petitioners, rather than the American people, are whom we ultimately serve.”

Though the change to the mission statement is new and attention grabbing, USCIS under Cissna has quietly made life harder for potential immigrants for months, as the Times notes.

 

"The agency has increased scrutiny of visa applications for foreign workers whom American companies seek to hire; it has changed the asylum application process to discourage people from seeking safe haven in the United States; and it has added steps to the process for foreigners already in the country to obtain legal permanent residency, or a green card."

 

After Cissna’s email, The Intercept reached out to a spokesperson for USCIS and asked if the agency has changed its view of whether the U.S. is a nation of immigrants. “The statement speaks for itself,” the spokesperson said.

 

ICE Launches New Immigration Sweeps L.A. Area; At Least 100 Detained So Far

 

 

Federal officials are in the midst of an immigration enforcement operation in the Los Angeles area and have so far detained more than 100 people suspected for being in violation of immigration laws. The sweep, launched on Sunday, is focusing on "individuals who pose a threat to national security public safety and border security," Immigration Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez said.

 

"This means that, ideally, we are working with local police and county jails to identify public safety threats in their custody, who are also in the country illegally, for deportation," Rodriguez said in a written statement. However, "uncooperative jurisdictions" like Los Angeles have forced ICE agents to "conduct" at-large arrests in the community, putting officers, the general public, and the aliens at greater risk and increasing the incidence of collateral arrests.

 

"That is what ICE is now doing in Los Angeles, and what ICE will continue to do in uncooperative jurisdictions," Rodriguez stated. The Los Angeles Police Department and many other California law enforcement agencies have said they will not cooperate with ICE on sweeps. The LAPD has long had a policy that prevents officers from asking people about their immigration status, rules designed to encourage those here illegally to cooperate with law enforcement in criminal investigations.

 

Rodriguez said that the agency would not release any further information about the ongoing sweep until it came to a close. She wouldn't say what it would be. The operation is taking place in the agency's Los Angeles area of responsibility, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Trump administration officials have warned in recent months that ICE might target California for more immigration raids, citing the states’ efforts to create “sanctuary” protection for those here illegally. ICE has not said whether the L.A. raids were part of a larger California crackdown.

 

The operation comes at a time when President Trump has pushed for a sweeping crackdown on the estimated 11 million people living in the country without authorization. He and U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions contend that agencies should give immigration agents limitless access to jails and delay releasing immigrants from custody so that agents can detain them.

Local law enforcement officials in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities have ignored demands and instead passed laws or enacted polices that restrict what authorities can do for immigration agents. Some conservative communities have also resisted holding on to inmates for ICE out of fear that doing so is illegal.
In response, Sessions has lashed out against cities deemed to be uncooperative and threatened to withhold funding—a move that courts have found to be unconstitutional.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-launches-new-immigration-sweeps-in-la-area-at-least-100-detained-so-far/ar-BBJ8ZNu


Al Jolson

 



 

Asa Yoelson was born on May 26, 1886 to a Jewish family in Srednike, Russia. His family immigrated to the United States when he is seven years old, and he and his three older siblings were raised in Washington, D.C. At a young age, Jolson began singing and dancing on the streets for money. Frustrated by his cantankerous relationship with his father, a conservative Rabbi, Al and his brother, Harry, changed their last name to "Jolson" and moved to New York City, soon beginning a vaudeville act together. Jolson began performing on stage in 1899 and, a decade later, joined a minstrel troupe. A few years later, he began performing his own act in San Francisco, California.

 

 

Jolson starred in multiple New York musicals, including Sinbad. The musical included the George Gershwin song "Swanee," which became Jolson's hallmark performance. In 1921, he introduced the song "My Mammy" to the public via the show Bombo. Jolson's records sold millions of copies. In modern times, his stage work has been controversial, as he frequently wore blackface on stage. His vaudeville act became known for its use of dark facial makeup and white gloves. While critics perceived Jolson as a racist egomaniac, others maintained that his fame was well-deserved, thanks to his enthusiastic stage presence. His performances were marked by interaction with the audience, fervent gesturing and vibrating his voice. Jolson was so beloved by audiences that New York City's Imperial Theatre was named after him in 1921.

 

Jolson's most famous performance was in the 1927 film, The Jazz Singer, the first feature in history to include synchronized speech. The film marked the end of the silent movie age and began Jolson's film career. Although he was in his forties and was not the most talented actor, Jolson's singing turned him into a magnetic movie star. He went on to appear in films such as The Singing Fool (1928) and Swanee River (1940), and provided the voiceover for a movie based on his own life entitled The Jolson Story (1946).

 

 

Jolson married four times and had three adopted children. He was very supportive of American troops, performing for soldiers in World War II and the Korean War. He died of a heart attack in San Francisco on October 23, 1950 at the age of sixty-four. His gravesite in Los Angeles' Hillside Memorial Park features a large monument to his career, a life-sized statue of Jolson genuflecting as if he just finished a performance.

 

 

https://www.biography.com/people/al-jolson-9356888

Rudolph Valentino

 

Rudolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piere Filibert Gugliemi di Valentina d'Antonguella was born on May 6, 1895 in Castellaneta, Apuila, Kingdom of Italy to an Italian father and French mother. He attended military school, but was rejected from the service. In 1912, Valentino went to Paris, but he failed to find work there. He ended up begging on the streets until he made his way to New York City the following year.

 

In New York, Valentino worked several menial jobs before becoming a nightclub dancer. He later joined a national touring production, but it folded in Utah. The young performer then made his way to San Francisco where he resumed his dancing career. In 1917, Valentino set his sights on Hollywood. At first, Valentino only landed bit parts, often playing the bad guy. In 1919, Valentino married actress Jean Acker, but their union was never consummated. According to several accounts, Acker locked Valentino out of their hotel room on their wedding night. According to experts, prior to the marriage, Acker had been in a romantic relationship with a woman.

 

Valentino captured the attention of screenwriter June Mathis, who believed that he was the perfect choice for the lead in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). She had to work hard to convince the executives at Metro to sign Valentino, but they finally agreed. He stole the hearts of female movie-goers by dancing a tango in his first scene in the film. The movie was a box office hit, and the darkly handsome actor quickly became a star.

 

The mania around Valentino grew so rapidly that some women reportedly fainted when they saw him in his next picture The Sheik (1921). This desert romance told the story of a Bedouin chief who wins over a cultured, Anglo woman (Agnes Ayres). The following year, Valentino had another stellar success with Blood and Sand. This time around, he played bullfighter Juan Gallardo who falls under the spell of a charming seductress Dona Sol (Nita Naldi).

 

Valentino's reputation as a lothario was probably enhanced with his arrest for bigamy in 1922. Divorced from Acker in 1921, he failed to wait a full year before remarrying. He was taken into custody and forced to pay a fine after his 1922 wedding to actress and set designer Natasha (or Natacha, according to some sources) Rambova in Mexico. The pair remarried the following year. Valentino published a collection of poetry entitled Day Dreams around this time, a work which reflected the couple's interest in Spiritualism.

 

Rambova took a dominant role in managing her husband's career, much to Valentino's detriment. Some male critics and movie-goers were already put off by his somewhat androgynous style, and Valentino's next few films accentuated this quality. His wife picked parts for him that made him seem more effeminate, as seen in 1924's Monsieur Beaucaire. While still a box office success, Valentino suffered a backlash for this change in his screen persona. Soon separated from his wife, Valentino returned to the kind of fare that made him famous. The Eagle (1925) featured him as a Russian soldier seeking to avenge the wrongs committed against his family by the Czarina. The following year, Valentino made a sequel of sorts to his earlier hit, The Son of the Sheik. This silent classic proved to be his last work.

 

While he was still a popular draw at the box office, Valentino struggled the public and media perceptions of him. He challenged one newspaper writer to a fight after he was criticized in an editorial called "Pink Powder Puffs." In response to the piece, Valentino wrote: "You slur my Italian ancestry; you ridicule upon my Italian name; you cast doubt upon my manhood." Valentino also suffered from commonly held prejudices about immigrants, having been denied roles for being "too foreign."

 

On a promotional tour for The Son of the Sheik, Valentino became ill. He was taken to a New York hospital, where he had surgery on August 15, 1926, to treat acute appendicitis and ulcers. In the days after the surgery, Valentino developed an infection known as peritonitis. The 31-year-old actor's health quickly began to decline, and his devoted fans swamped the hospital's phone lines with calls for the ailing star. Valentino died nearly a week after entering the hospital, on August 23, 1926. His last words were, "Don't worry, chief, I will be all right."

 

For three days, thousands crowded a funeral home to view his body and say good-bye to the romantic idol. Then two funerals were held -- one in New York and one in California.

 

 

Levi Strauss

 

Loeb Strauss was born in Buttenheim, Bavaria (present-day Germany) on February 26, 1829 to Jewish parents Hirsch and Rebecca Strauss. He had three older brothers and three older sisters. In 1846, his father died of tuberculosis and two years later, he, his mother, and his sisters emigrated to New York. There, they were met with Loeb's brothers, who started a dry good business called J. Strauss Brother and Co. Young Loeb soon started to learn and trade himself, and by 1850, he was known among his family and customers as Levi.

 

When the news of the California Gold Rush made its way east, Levi immigrated to San Francisco to make his fortune, though he knew he wouldn't make it panning for gold. In late January 1853, he became an American citizen, and in February he headed for West Coast via the Isthmus of Panama. He arrived in loud, noisy San Francisco in March, establishing a dry goods business under his own name and also serving as the West Coast representative of the family's New York firm. His new company imported dry goods and sold them to small stores that we're springing up all over California and the West. It was these stores that helped outfit the miners of the Gold Rush, and eventually, the new families that begin to populate the western regions.

 

The first address where Levi conducted business was at 90 Sacramento Street, and the name of his firm was simply Levi Strauss. In 1861, the business relocated to 315 and 317 Sacramento Street and two years it was renamed Levi Strauss & Co. In his thirties, Levi was already a well-known figure around the city. He was active in the business and cultural life of San Francisco, and actively supported the Jewish community, including Temple Emanu-El, the city's first synagogue. Despite his stature as an important businessman, he insisted that his employees address him a Levi, not Mr. Strauss.

 

In 1872, Levi received a letter from Jacob Davis, a tailor from Reno, Nevada. Davis was one of Levi's regular customers; he purchased bolts of cloth from the company to use for his own business. In his letter, he told Strauss about the interesting way he made pants for his customers: he placed metal rivets at the points of the strain- pocket corners, and at the base of the button fly. He did this in order to make his pants stronger for laboring men who were his customers. He wanted to patent this new idea but needed a business partner to get the idea off the ground. So he suggested that the two men take out the patent together. Levi was eager about the idea and the patent was granted to both men on May 20, 1873. It was that moment when the denim blue jean was born. Levi would soon become one of the largest conglomerates in California during the late 19th Century.

 

Levi Strauss died on September 26, 1902 at the age of 73.

 

http://www.levistrauss.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Levi-Strauss-Full-Biography.pdf

 

 

 

Levi Strauss

 

Donald Trump Ties Hardline Immigration Demands to a Deal on DACA

 

 

President Donald Trump prides himself on his skills as a negotiator. Among the tips he offers in “The Art of the Deal” is to “think big.” “To me it’s very simple,” he explains. “If you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.” Of course, maximalism has always seemed more credo than negotiating strategy for Mr. Trump. But it provides a lens through which to view the set of immigration “principles” that the president sent to Congress on the evening of October 8th.

 

In September, Mr. Trump announced a six-month wind-down for an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which gives two-year work and residency permits to young undocumented immigrants, without criminal records, who were brought to America before they were 16, provided they are in or have graduated from high school or university or were honorably discharged from the army. That surprised nobody; Mr. Trump campaigned hard against illegal immigration, and his administration abounds in immigration hardliners—notably Jeff Sessions, his attorney-general, and Stephen Miller, a one-time aide to Mr. Sessions turned policy advisor.

 

But soon after ending DACA, Mr. Trump indicated that he would be open to a deal that protected the program's nearly 800,000 recipients. Most Americans, including most Republicans, believe that recipients should be allowed to stay; they were, after all, brought to America and raised there through no fault of their own. But enough Congressional Republicans disagree that any deal would depend on Democratic support. After a meeting with “Chuck and Nancy”—Schumer and Pelosi, the Senate and House Democratic leaders—the three were all smiles. There were reports that a deal had been struck. Those reports proved wrong, however. And after Sunday’s release of positions “that must be included in as part of any legislation addressing the status of DACA recipients”, the smiles have faded.

 

Some of Mr. Trump’s "principles" are unobjectionable, such as cracking down on visa overstays and requiring that employers electronically verify the immigration status of prospective hires. But the administration also says that any deal must include funding for a border wall—an immediate non-starter for Democrats (and probably repellent to budget-hawk Republicans too: the wall is a ludicrously expensive showpiece). The administration also wants funding to hire another 10,000 immigration agents and 300 prosecutors “to support Federal immigration prosecution efforts.”

 

Two White House officials told Politico that these positions were just an opening bid—Mr Trump “thinking big”, in other words. But the immigration debate has grown so acrimonious that both sides reject positions that they ought to support, or at the very least be able to live with. DACA recipients are precisely the sort of accomplished, diligent, educated immigrants that Republicans claim to want. Similarly, Democrats should have no objection to a more secure border (and indeed, privately many accept that a deal will have to include extra funding for border security; just not the wall).

The two sides now have five months left to strike a deal for DACA recipients. Republicans inclined to accept a deal will worry about primary challenges from the right (DACA ends just as campaign season heats up); those inclined to oppose will worry about footage showing Americans in all but name being rounded up and forcibly deported. Democrats face pressure to keep DACA recipients in the country they have grown up in, but also to avoid too much capitulation to Mr Trump—who is, after all, an unpopular president without a single legislative victory since taking office.