Sir Hannibal Anthony Lecter Hopkins

On 31 December, 1937 in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales was born a kid who became a sir: Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins best known as the actor Anthony Hopkins.

This Welsh actor of film, stage, and television, is considered as one of the greatest living actors.  Hopkins is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, its sequel Hannibal and the prequel Red Dragon. But his movies have spanned a wide variety of genres, from family films to horror.

Retaining his British citizenship, he became a U.S. citizen on 12 April 2000. As well as his Academy Award, Hopkins has also won three BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards and the Cecil DeMille Golden Globe Award.

The son of Muriel Anne (née Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins that he was a baker was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993 for services to the arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, and was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2008.

It’s really hard to tell just couple of things about this actor…

Enjoy the paper memorabilia with his scary and his soothing face.

Some paper ideas from the same date from the past!

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Hit the Ball Tiger!

On December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California was born a kid that was going to win 74 official PGA Tour events including 14 majors titles in …GOLF! This guy is known as “Tiger” Woods!

This American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time he is the highest-paid athlete in the world according to Forbes for several years.

Woods turned professional in 1996, and by April 1997 he had already won his first major, the 1997 Masters in a record-breaking performance. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf.

After some problems in his personal life he lost form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011. But “Tiger” was born a golfer! He is coming back and as of November 25, 2012, he is ranked No. 3!

Woods has broken numerous golf records. He has been world number one for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any other golfer

He is the synonym of golf nowadays and we love to see more…

Happy Birthday Tiger!

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You’ll Never Know Barbra…

On December 29, in 1955 a thirteen year old girl sung a beautiful song: You’ll Never Know

She was an American actress and singer that her discography consists of 117 singles, 33 studio albums, and numerous compilations, live albums and soundtracks and she is the second best-selling female recording artist of all time and has sold more than 240 million records worldwide. Barbra Streisand!

“You’ll Never Know” is a popular song with music written by Harry Warren and the lyrics by Mack Gordon. The song is based on a poem written by a young Oklahoma war bride named Dorothy Fern Norris.

The song was first introduced in the 1943 movie Hello, Frisco, Hello where it was sung by Alice Faye. The song won the 1943 Academy Award for Best Original Song, one of nine nominated songs that year. It was also performed by Faye in the 1944 film Four Jills in a Jeep but she never released a record of the ballad. Then follows an outstanding history for this song!

It was recorded in 1943 by, among others, Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes, (Sinatra’s version spent two weeks at number 2), in Britain, was recorded by Vera Lynn and it was popular during the ongoing Second World War, than Rosemary Clooney recorded the song with Harry James in 1952, and a version was recorded in 1954 by Big Maybelle. Bette Midler performed the song for the Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook. Quite a few…

The song was the opening song on Barbra Streisand 4-CD box-set Just for the Record (1991).

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Marlene Dietrich – an American Star from Germany

As in today on 27 December, in 1901 a blonde star was born: Marie Magdalene Dietrich 

She was born in Berlin, Germany and was the younger of two daughters (her sister Elisabeth being a year older). Dietrich’s mother was from a prosperous Berlin family who owned a clock making firm and her father was a police lieutenant.

Around the age of 11, she contracted her two first names to form her famous name “Marlene”.

Dietrich was known to have strong political convictions and the awareness to speak them. In interviews, Dietrich stated that she had been approached by representatives of the Nazi Party to return to Germany, but had turned them her back. Dietrich, a loyal anti-Nazi, became an American citizen in 1939.

From the early 1950’s until the mid-1970’s, Dietrich worked almost completely as a highly paid cabaret artist, performing live in large theaters in major cities worldwide. Her show business career largely ended on 29 September 1975, when she fell off the stage and broke her thigh during a performance in Sydney, Australia.

Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as “Lola-Lola” in The Blue Angel, directed by Josef von Sternberg, brought her international fame and provided her a contract with Paramount Pictures in the US. Hollywood films such as Shanghai Express and Desire exploited on her glamour looks, making her one of the highest-paid actresses of the era.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Dietrich the ninth-greatest female star of all time.

I let you enjoy the exotic view of Marlene through paper memorabilia…

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Baby Ruth goes to Yankees!

On December 26, 1919, a bid star was sold to … New York Yankees!

Frazee had a huge financial concern and he sold Babe Ruth!!!

Ruth between 1915 and 1917 had been used in just 44 games in which he had not pitched. After the 1917 season, in which he hit .325, albeit with limited at bats, teammate Harry Hooper suggested that Ruth might be more valuable in the lineup as an everyday player.

In 1918, he began playing in the outfield more and pitching less, making 75 hitting-only appearances. And during the 1919 season, Ruth pitched in only 17 of his 130 games. He also set his first single-season home run record that year with 29 (passing Ned Williamson’s 27 in 1884. This was Babe Ruth’s last season with the Red Sox.

After the 1919 season, Ruth demanded a raise to $20,000 ($230,000 in current dollar terms)—double his previous salary. Frazee finally lost patience with Ruth, and decided to trade him.

Frazee, and the Yankees side with Ruppert and Huston quickly agreed to a deal and Ruth officially became property of the Yankees on December 26. The deal was announced ten days later.

After moving to the Yankees, Ruth’s evolution from a pitcher to a power-hitting outfielder became complete. In his fifteen year Yankee career, consisting of over 2,000 games, Ruth re-wrote the record books in terms of his hitting achievements, while making only five widely scattered token appearances on the mound, winning all of them.

His .847 slugging average was a Major League record until 2001. Aside from the Yankees, only the Philadelphia Phillies managed to hit more home runs as a team than Ruth did as an individual!

In 1921, Ruth improved to arguably the best year of his career, while leading the Yankees to their first league championship.

No doubt about Ruth’s legend. It is still alive! On paper too…

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Tennis match with Chris Evert!

On 21 December, in 1954 a world no. 1 professional tennis player was born: Christine Marie “Chris” Evert

Chris was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Colette Thompson and Jimmy Evert, and raised in a devout Roman Catholic family. Her father was a professional tennis coach, and tennis was a way of life in his family.

She was a huge tennis star winning 18 singles championships and three doubles titles. Overall Evert won 157 singles championships and 29 doubles titles.

Evert reached 34 Grand Slam singles finals, more than any player, man or woman, in the history of professional tennis. She reached the semifinals or better, in singles, of 52 of the 56 Grand Slams she played, including the semifinals or better of 34 consecutive Grand Slams played from the 1971 U.S. open through the 1983 French Open (Roland Garos). Evert never lost in the first or second round of a Grand Slam singles tournament.

Chris’ affairs and weddings were some of the stories! The romance with the top men’s player Jimmy Connors captured the public’s attention in the 1970s, mostly after they both captured the singles titles at Wimbledon in 1974. They got engaged, when she was 19, but the romance did not last. A wedding was planned for November 8, 1974, but it was called off. In 1979, Evert married the British tennis player John Lloyd and changed her name to “Chris Evert-Lloyd.” The marriage ended in divorce in 1987. Then in 1988, Evert married two-time Olympic downhill skier Andy Mill and they have three sons together. This also ended in a bad divorce on December 4, 2006, with Evert paying Mill a settlement of U.S. $7 million. Recently Evert and Australian golfer Greg Norman were married on June 28, 2008, in the Bahamas. But after 18 months of marriage they announced their divorce.

All the above was “food” for the media. The bottom line is that Chris was one of the biggest and most inspirational woman tennis player of all times. And this is it in our hearts!

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Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate

On December 20, in 1967 an American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols debuts:  The Graduate

This film it is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder Willingham. The film tells the story of Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), a recent university graduate with no well-defined aim in life, who is seduced by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (played by Anne Bancroft), and then proceeds to fall in love with her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross).

In 1996, The Graduate was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. Initially, the film was placed at #7 on AFI’ s 100 Years… 100 Movies list in 1998. When AFI revised the list in 2007, the film was moved to #17.

Adjusted for inflation, the film is #21 on the list of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada.

The film boosted the profile of folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Originally, Nichols and O’ Steen used their existing songs like “The Sound of Silence” merely as a pacing device for the editing until Nichols decided that substituting original music would not be effective and decided to include them on the soundtrack, an unusual move at that time.

On the strength of the hit single “Mrs. Robinson”, the soundtrack album rose to the top of the charts in 1968 (knocking off The Beatles’ White Album).

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence…………………………

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Happy birthday Mr. Steven Spielberg!

As today December 18, in 1946 a man that he finally became a symbol in the movie history was born; Ladies and Gentlemen we present you through paper memorabilia Mr. Steven Spielberg!

It’s really hard to talk about a living legend. In that case we say just a few words for his early life and we “shoot” some paper memorabilia to show to you very few of the famous and unforgettable moment he gave and still giving us this extraordinary director.

Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a Jewish family. His mother, Leah Adler was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. He spent his childhood in Haddon Township, New Jersey, where he saw one of his first films in a theater. In 1958 as a boy scout director he fulfilled a requirement for the photography merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. As a teenager, Spielberg made amateur 8 mm “adventure” films with his friends, the first of which he shot at the Pinnacle Peak Patio restaurant in Scottsdale. He charged admission (25 cents) to his home films (which involved the wrecks he staged with his Lionel train set) while his sister sold popcorn.

Well… a brilliant mind back then. Even more nowadays!

We experienced tremendous moments through his amazing cinematography. We hope there is more to come! Thank you Mr. Spielberg and …happy birthday!

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An American in Paris by George Gershwin!

Some Parisian taxi horns were blowing on December 13, 1928 in New York! It was in the Carnegie Hall premiere of George Gershwin’s symphonic tone poem “An American in Paris”.

Gershwin completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the work’s premiere! He composed An American in Paris on commission from the New York Philharmonic. He scored the piece for the standard instruments of the symphonic orchestra plus celesta, saxophones, and automobile horns. That explains the Parisian taxi horns in premiere!

Gershwin on the original program notes, noting that: “My purpose here is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere.” And when the tone poem moves into the blues, he explains “our American friend … has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness.” But, “nostalgia is not a fatal disease.” The American visitor “once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life” and “the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant.”

Gershwin based An American in Paris on a melodic piece called “Very Parisienne”, written in 1926 on his first visit to Paris as a gift to his hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. Gershwin explained in Musical America, “My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere.”

In 1951, MGM released the musical An American in Paris, featuring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. Winning the 1951 Best Picture Oscar and numerous other awards, the film was directed by Vincente Minnelli.

A part of the symphonic composition is also featured in the film starring Jack Nicholson As Good as It Gets, released in 1997.

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Through paper we travel with Frank Sinatra to New York!

As today, December 12 in 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey a star was born. The name was …Frank Sinatra!

Sinatra was the only child of Italian immigrants Natalie Della (Garaventa) and Antonino Martino Sinatra.

During the Great Depression, his mother Dolly provided money to her son for outings with friends and expensive clothes. In 1938, Sinatra was arrested for carrying on with a married woman, a criminal offense at the time. For his livelihood, he worked as a delivery boy, and later as a riveter at a shipyard, but music was Sinatra’s main interest, and he listened carefully to big band jazz. He began singing for tips at the age of eight, standing on top of the bar at a local nightclub in Hoboken. Sinatra began singing professionally as a teenager in the 193’0s, while he learned music by ear and never went to a music school to learn how to read music.

In May 1941, Sinatra was at the top of the male singer polls in the Billboard and Down Beat magazines. On December 30, 1942, Sinatra made a “fabulous opening” at the Paramount Theater in New York. Jack Benny said, “I thought the goddamned building was going to cave in. I never heard such a commotion… All this for a fellow I never heard of.” When Sinatra returned to the Paramount in October 1944, 35,000 fans caused a protest parade outside the theater because they were not permitted to get in.

And a great career started that is going to last about five decades!

Sinatra had three children, Nancy, Frank Jr., and Tina, all with his first wife, Nancy Sinatra. He was married three more times, to actresses Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow, and finally to Barbara Marx.

Sinatra used to love glamorous surroundings and he appreciated to have people always around!  He acknowledged this, telling in an interviewer in the 1950’s: “Being an 18-karat manic-depressive, and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation.” In her memoirs My Father’s Daughter, his daughter Tina wrote about the “18-karat” remark: “As flippant as Dad could be about his mental state, I believe that a Zoloft a day might have kept his demons away. But that kind of medicine was decades off.”

Apart of his personal life no one can forget his big hits as an actor or as a singer.

Autumn in New York, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, April in Paris, Three Coins in the Fountain, Someone to Watch Over Me, Love and Marriage, Stardust, Strangers in the Night, Somethin’ Stupid” (with Nancy Sinatra), My Way, Something, Theme from New York, New York, Teach Me Tonight, Mack the Knife …we could write forever…

This is Frank Sinatra, our Frankie!

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