Walt Disney is one of the 20th century's most famous filmmakers, most famous for revolutionizing animation and turning our most famous folk tales into blockbuster animation movies. He also went into the theme park business, establishing Disneyland, Disney World and many others with great success.
He was born in Chicago in 1901, but his family moved to Missouri, and then Kansas City when he was growing up. He moved out to California in the early 1920's. He'd been interested in drawing from the beginning, and had taken some classes before he went. He set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy, but it became the Walt Disney Company and eventually became one of the U.S.'s largest and most successful companies. He developed the character Mickey Mouse early on, and adapted well with the development of color and technicolor, often with animation, in movies. Snow White (1940), Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), and Cinderella (1950) were some of his earliest movie versions of popular folk tales, but Fantasia (1940) was the one where he really showed his skill with mixing animation, color, and music. He did non-animated movies as well; Mary Poppins (1964) received five Academy Awards.
Having made as many movies as he did, Disney had a huge influence on American culture. His movies came out at critical times while the nation moved through two world wars, a depression, and other difficult experiences. He has been accused of racism and anti-semitism because of things in his movies, but he also has many defenders who say it would be difficult to make so many movies in that era and not be accused of those things later.
He had a wife and two daughters, whose privacy he protected strongly, and his love of theme parks came from his desire to have a place where families could go to enjoy life and spend time together. Although Disney World did not open until after he died, and EPCOT Center became an attraction rather than a model city as he'd intended, the success of his parks was based on the success of his movies and thus they were ensured success in the broader cultural variety of places to go.
He was a heavy smoker all his life, and died of cancer in 1966. He ended up being involved in 81 movies, many of them blockbusters, and all of which will play an important role in American entertainment for years to come.
___ 1. Without using a dictionary, figure out whether a "blockbuster" movie is:
a. very short
b. very long
c. very fast-moving
d. very successful
___ 2. Bambi (1942) is given as an example of:
a. a movie that features an animal
b. an animated movie taken from a folk tale
c. a movie that received Academy Awards
d. an animated movie with Mickey Mouse in it
___ 3. Without using a dictionary, figure out whether "animated" means a movie:
a. has animals in it
b. is like a cartoon in nature
c. is very fast-moving
d. is about the war and depression
___ 4. Disney is most famous for his influence on:
a. American entertainment
b. American politics
c. American sports
d. American family dynamics
Monday, September 18, 2023
Monday, July 24, 2023
Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer was an American chess Grand Master, and became famous for not only his victories in chess but also his somewhat stubborn approach to living life his own way.
He was born in Chicago on March 9, 1943; his parents were Polish Jews, but they had separated in Moscow before his mother moved to the United States. She was homeless for a while, but she moved Bobby and his sister to Manhattan in 1949. He won his first of eight World Championships at the age of 14, with a perfect 11-0 score, and this caught the world's attention. In those days premier chess matches were part of the Cold War, with Americans and Russians feeling intense competition over who would be better. But Fischer sometimes forfeited matches if the conditions didn't meet his approval, and once disappeared from the public eye for quite a while. Finally the U.S. government warned him that he should follow the rules of citizenship with regard to playing in certain countries, and he became an emigre. Finally he was granted Icelandic citizenship and moved to Iceland.
There was a controversy over whether Hans-Gerhardt Fischer was really his father, as his mother claimed; another man, Paul Nemenyi, had had an affair with his mother just before his birth, while his supposed father had never even come to the U.S. in that time. Nemenyi was a Hungarian mathematician and physicist, while Hans-Gerhardt Fisher had been a biophysicist. The controversy was never really resolved. The FBI watched Bobby Fischer carefully, since he traveled a lot and his mother had so many connections among important Russians and Eastern Europeans. But in the end, he was probably not a spy, just a very eccentric, and genius, chess player.
___ 1. Where did Bobby Fisher live as a teenager?
a. Chicago
b. New York
c. Moscow
d. Hungary
___ 2. Why was the U.S. government mad at him?
a. He was a spy.
b. He was born in Russia.
c. He played in countries that were prohibited.
d. He let the Russians win.
___ 3. Who was Paul Nemenyi?
a. a friend of his mother's
b. a great chess player
c. a biophysicist
d. a spy
___ 4. Where did he move after his chess career was over?
a. Poland
b. Chicago
c. Iceland
d. the United States
He was born in Chicago on March 9, 1943; his parents were Polish Jews, but they had separated in Moscow before his mother moved to the United States. She was homeless for a while, but she moved Bobby and his sister to Manhattan in 1949. He won his first of eight World Championships at the age of 14, with a perfect 11-0 score, and this caught the world's attention. In those days premier chess matches were part of the Cold War, with Americans and Russians feeling intense competition over who would be better. But Fischer sometimes forfeited matches if the conditions didn't meet his approval, and once disappeared from the public eye for quite a while. Finally the U.S. government warned him that he should follow the rules of citizenship with regard to playing in certain countries, and he became an emigre. Finally he was granted Icelandic citizenship and moved to Iceland.
There was a controversy over whether Hans-Gerhardt Fischer was really his father, as his mother claimed; another man, Paul Nemenyi, had had an affair with his mother just before his birth, while his supposed father had never even come to the U.S. in that time. Nemenyi was a Hungarian mathematician and physicist, while Hans-Gerhardt Fisher had been a biophysicist. The controversy was never really resolved. The FBI watched Bobby Fischer carefully, since he traveled a lot and his mother had so many connections among important Russians and Eastern Europeans. But in the end, he was probably not a spy, just a very eccentric, and genius, chess player.
___ 1. Where did Bobby Fisher live as a teenager?
a. Chicago
b. New York
c. Moscow
d. Hungary
___ 2. Why was the U.S. government mad at him?
a. He was a spy.
b. He was born in Russia.
c. He played in countries that were prohibited.
d. He let the Russians win.
___ 3. Who was Paul Nemenyi?
a. a friend of his mother's
b. a great chess player
c. a biophysicist
d. a spy
___ 4. Where did he move after his chess career was over?
a. Poland
b. Chicago
c. Iceland
d. the United States
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