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- When John Bunny died the New York Times stated, "The name John Bunny will always be linked to the movies." Little did movie fans of 1915 realize that he would be completely forgotten the next year and completely omitted from many books on silent movies 70-80 years later.
Bunny was the ninth in a line of English sea captains and would be the first not to follow in that profession. He attended St. James High School in Brooklyn and worked as a grocery clerk before running away in the late 1800s to discover the world of entertainment and appear in a small touring minstrel show. He became involved in theater and appeared in musical comedies such as "Old Dutch" with Hattie Williams and Lew Fields. He also worked as a stage manager for various stock companies. Bunny's rebellious nature took over again and he quit the theater to become involved in the "flickers". This was a very bold step. Not only was it a major step down for a "legitimate" stage actor to go into the movies at that time, but Bunny took a pay cut from $150 to $40 a week to work for Vitagraph in 1910. He made more than 250 shorts for Vitagraph over five years and become the best known face in the world.
Bunny always said that he did not aim to be a comedian, but with his short, gnome-like appearance and a weight approaching the 300-pound mark, he wound up taking advantage of these features to play comedy (he once asked rhetorically, "How could I play Romeo with a figure like mine?"). Bunny's co-star for the majority of his films was Flora Finch, who contrasted with Bunny's figure by being tall and thin. They usually appeared as Mr. & Mrs. Bunny. Their shorts were referred to as "Bunnygraphs" and "Bunnyfinches". They stayed away from physical comedy and dealt with relationships, usually the man getting away with something that his wife disagrees with.
Bunny even traveled to England to make a version of Charles Dickens' "Pickwick Papers". He decided to go back on the road with "John Bunny in Funnyland", but it was not a success. Not only did the show fail, but he was tired and ill. He talked to Vitagraph about restarting his film career, but it was too late. The man who led an adventurous life--he raced horses and flew airplanes--died at his home at 1416 Glenwood Road in Brooklyn of Bright's Disease in 1915. His funeral was held at the Elks Club House on West 43rd St. After just five years in the business, Bunny was gone and forgotten. The news of his death was heard around the world. He was so popular in Russia they created a series with an impersonator using the name "Poxon" after Bunny died. Bunny had two children, George (dec. 1958) and John (dec. 1971) Sadly, only a handful of Bunny's films survive. The one most available is the popular A Cure for Pokeritis (1912). - Actor
- Director
- Producer
William V. Ranous was born on 12 March 1857 in New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Treasure Island (1913), Othello (1908) and Julius Caesar (1908). He was married to Doris Thompson. He died on 1 April 1915 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Louis Pergaud was born on 22 January 1882 in Belmont, Doubs, France. He was a writer, known for La guerre des gosses (1936), War of the Buttons (1994) and War of the Buttons (1962). He died on 7 April 1915 in Marchéville en Woëvre, Meuse, France.
- Booker T. Washington was born on 5 April 1856 in Franklin County, Virginia, USA. He was married to Margaret James Murray, Olivia Davidson and Fanny Norton Smith. He died on 14 November 1915 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Elmer Booth was born on 9 December 1882 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for His Auto's Maiden Trip (1912), Why He Gave Up (1911) and Abe Gets Even with Father (1911). He was married to Irene Outtrim. He died on 16 June 1915 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
Edwin R. Phillips was born in January 1872 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He was an actor and director, known for A Life for a Life (1910), Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910) and Wisteria Memories (1911). He died on 30 August 1915 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.- Actor
- Director
David Miles was born on 26 October 1871 in Milford, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Everyman (1913), Twin Brothers (1909) and Local Color (1913). He was married to Anita Hendrie. He died on 28 October 1915 in New York City, New York, USA.- Soundtrack
Fanny Crosby was born on 24 March 1820 in Brewster, New York, USA. She was married to Alexander van Alstyne, Jr.. She died on 12 February 1915 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA.- W.G. Grace was born on 18 July 1848 in Downend, Bristol, England, UK. He was married to Agness Nicholls Day. He died on 23 October 1915 in Mottingham, Kent, England, UK.
- Indian politician and social reformer. Born in Kotluk, Bombay, in 1866, he became Professor of History at Fergusson College, Poona, resigning in 1904, when he was selected representative of the Bombay legislative council at the supreme council. He founded the Servants of India Society in 1905 to work for the relief of the underprivileged, and in the same year was elected president of the Indian National Congress. He was a leading protagonist of Indian self-government and influenced Mahatma Gandhi, advocating moderate and constitutional methods of agitation and gradual reform.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Nolan Gane was born on 24 February 1892 in Houma, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Gratitude of Conductor 786 (1915), Heartbroken Shep (1913) and With the Assistance of 'Shep' (1913). He died on 12 February 1915.- Additional Crew
- Producer
Many people today know the names of George M. Cohan and Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., but Charles Frohman, though lesser known, reigned supreme in the theatrical world for over a generation. From a young age Frohman's heart and soul belonged in the theatre. His lower-middle-class family moved from Sandusky, Ohio, to New York City in 1874 and he landed a job as a night clerk for the New York Graphic. In 1876 the paper sent him to Philadelphia to expand its circulation during the Centennial Exposition, and it was there he first demonstrated his entrepreneurial talents by organizing newsboys to more efficiently exploit the market. He then moved over briefly to the New York Tribune and moonlighted by selling theatre tickets at night, soaking in everything he could learn about the theatrical business. In 1880, at the age of 20 with 50 cents to his name after paying for a seat for the hit play "Shenandoah", he successfully schmoozed its producers into selling him its road-show rights. From this point onward there was no stopping Charles Frohman in his desire to conquer the entertainment business, which at the time was headquartered in New York City with the Broadway theater district its nerve center.
He began by leasing an unprofitable house named Proctor's Theatre and gradually created a stock production company. In the early 1890s he built his own theatre, the Empire. He, younger brother Gustave Frohman and older brother Daniel Frohman became the leading theatre impresarios of the Gilded Age. By the turn of the century Charles Frohman was the #1 theatrical producer in the world. He solidified his position by creating a theatrical monopoly with a handful of Broadway and regional theatre owners, known as the Theatrical Syndicate, which would come to dominate virtually every aspect of theatrical production through its proprietary booking network. His syndicate controlled not only first-run and revival Broadway shows, but dozens of road-show companies that continuously traversed the US and Canada, in addition to a number of productions that almost always illuminated London and Paris.
Despite his titular status within his company, however, Frohman was always detail-oriented. He believed that a large degree of his success was due to his actors and paid an unusual amount of attention to their development (or non-development), billing, promotion, costumes, etc., down to the tiniest booking details. In brief, he was a hands-on producer and he held a seemingly hypnotic hold over his troupes (no less a legend than Ethel Barrymore idolized him). He also worked extensively in London and formed a separate stage company to fill his five leased theatres there. By the outbreak of World War I, he could claim to have produced over 700 plays and employed a staff that exceeded 1,000 on both sides of the Atlantic.
Back in the States he owned or leased six theatres on Broadway and some 200 across the country, and had dozens of road-show companies traversing the nation by rail at any given time. Oddly, he rarely attended opening nights at any of his theatres, preferring to keep tabs on audience reactions by employing dozens of runners who kept him informed at intermissions and final curtains. Few of his business associates knew him intimately; he was shy and steadfastly avoided socializing, preferring to remain ensconced inside his suite at the Knickerbocker Hotel whenever in New York City. By modern definition, Frohman would be considered moderately neurotic and perhaps mildly obsessive-compulsive. He was occasionally practically agoraphobic, had an intense fear of darkness and rigidly held to theatrical superstitions, all rolled into a shroud of secrecy surrounding his private life (accused of being a homosexual by his detractors, he was also rumored to be secretly married to Maude Adams, a stage actress who would be termed a "superstar" today). In business Frohman was considered cold and calculating, often ruthlessly crushing competitors to the extent that lesser producers only survived on Broadway because he let them. He suffered a debilitating fall while at his home in White Plains, New York, in 1912 and the resulting arthritis proved so painful that he required use of a cane. Back in the Knickerbocker Hotel, Frohman became a virtual invalid.
In 1915 he opted to make a European trip to check on the crop of productions in London with playwright Charles Klein and his valet. Unfortunately he chose passage on the Lusitania, then the fastest ship to London. His friends and associates were aghast at his decision and tried to dissuade him from making the voyage. The German Embassy had issued a proclamation declaring the Lusitania a military target; Frohman reacted by dictating his company's entire 1916 season in advance and dismissed their fears for his safety, telling his friend Al Hayman, "If you want to write to me, just address the letter care of the German Submarine U-4." By eyewitness accounts, Frohman remained characteristically calm after the torpedoing of the ship, dismissing offers of assistance and offering his life belt to a female passenger. Among his last reported words was a line from J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan": "Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life."
Frohman's body was recovered and arrived in New York on May 24, 1915. He was given two funerals (John Barrymore was one of the pallbearers), with simultaneous memorial services across the US and in London. Maude Adams retired from acting upon his death. By the following year, Frohman's all-powerful theatrical syndicate would be broken by the Shubert Brothers.- Anna Edwards was born in India in 1834, the daughter of a cabinetmaker who died three months before her birth. Her mother then remarried to officer in the Engineers who sent Anna and her sister, Eliza, to a school in England. The girls returned to India as teenagers and Anna escaped her stepfather's plans to marry her to a man twice her age by accompanying Rev.Percy Badger on a tour of the Middle East. She married a clerk, Thomas Leon Owens, and they had two children, a daughter Avis and a son, Louis. Her husband had trouble keeping a job, and moved his family a great deal; for some unknown reason, he also changed his name to Thomas Leonowens. After her husband died of apoplexy in Penang, Malaya, Anna moved to Singapore, where she received an invitation to teach English to the children of the Siamese King. She later embellished her memoirs of this time (changing her place of birth to Wales, and taking three years off her age; making her husband a major in the British army instead of a lowly clerk; and adding the tale of a concubine's brutal death, which never happened) which became famous. Anna herself retired to Canada, where she became a suffragist before her death. Her sister, Eliza, was the grandmother of the famous actor Boris Karloff.
- William West was born in 1856 in Wheeling, West Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for The Rise and Fall of Weary Willie (1911), At Bear Track Gulch (1913) and Caste (1913). He died on 9 December 1915 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Alfred G. Vanderbilt was born on 20 October 1877 in New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Margaret Emerson Smith Hollins McKim and Elsie French. He died on 7 May 1915.
- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Gaston Méliès was born on 12 February 1852 in Paris, France. He was a producer and director, known for The Prisoner's Story (1912), Hinemoa (1913) and Captured by Aboriginals (1913). He died on 9 April 1915 in Ajaccio, Corsica, France.- Will E. Sheerer was born in 1871. He was an actor, known for Graft (1915), Oliver Twist (1912) and The Close of the American Revolution (1912). He died on 24 December 1915 in Yonkers, New York, USA.
- Marshall P. Wilder was born on 19 September 1859 in Geneva, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Widow's Might (1913), Professor Optimo (1912) and Marshall P. Wilder (1897). He was married to Mrs. Marshall P. Wilder. He died on 10 January 1915 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Emil Waldteufel was born on 9 December 1837 in Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France. He is known for Enthiran (2010), Mute (2018) and Victor Frankenstein (2015). He was married to Célestine Dufau. He died on 12 February 1915 in Paris, France.- American short story writer and novelist, was born the son of Andrew Robertson, a ship captain on the Great Lakes, and Amelia (Glassford) Robertson. Morgan went to sea as a cabin boy and was in the merchant service from 1866 to 1877, rising to first mate. Tiring of life at sea, he studied jewelry making at Cooper Union in New York City and worked for 10 years as a diamond setter. When that work began to impair his vision, he turned to writing sea stories, placing his work in such popular magazines as McClure's and the Saturday Evening Post. Robertson never made much money from his writing, a circumstance that greatly embittered him. Nevertheless, from the early 1890s until his death in 1915 he supported himself as a writer and enjoyed the company of artists and writers in a small circle of New York's bohemia. Robertson was found dead of heart disease in an Atlantic City hotel room.
- Nita Allen was an actress, known for Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1917) and Daughter of Destiny (1917). She died on 3 July 1915 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- William H. West was born on 26 July 1860 in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. He was an actor, known for The Fatal Opal (1914), On the Warpath (1911) and Mysteries of the Grand Hotel (1915). He was married to Roumelia G. Morris. He died on 20 August 1915 in Glendale, California, USA.
- Lincoln Beachey was born on 3 March 1887 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for A Girl of Yesterday (1915), The Universal Boy (1914) and Niagara Falls Celebration (1911). He died on 14 March 1915 in San Francisco, California, USA.
- Upendra Kishore Raychowdhuri was born on 12 May 1863 in Moshua, Bengal Presidency, British India. Upendra Kishore was a writer, known for Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969), The World of Goopi and Bagha (2013) and Jola Aar Saat Bhoot (2005). Upendra Kishore died on 20 December 1915 in Giridih, Bihar and Orissa Province, British India.
- Antony Mars was born on 22 October 1861 in Vence, Alpes-Maritimes, France. He was a writer, known for Les vingt-huit jours de Clairette (1933), Le billet de logement (1932) and Le sorprese del divorzio (1923). He died on 17 February 1915 in Paris, France.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Gaston Arman de Caillavet was born on 15 March 1870 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for The King on Main Street (1925), Tavasz a télben (1918) and Papacito lindo (1939). He was married to Jeanne Pouquet. He died on 15 January 1915 in Essendièras Périgord, France.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Miguel Ramos Carrión was born in 1845 in Zamora, Castilla y León, Spain. He was a writer, known for La mujer de tu prójimo (1966), La tempestad (1945) and El rey que rabió (1929). He died on 10 August 1915 in Madrid, Spain.- Rupert Brooke was born on 3 August 1887 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, UK. Rupert was a writer, known for The Burying Party (2018). Rupert died on 23 April 1915 in Aegean Sea, near Skyros, Greece.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who invented the first colour keyboard and notation for lights and colors based on his scale of Synesthetic colors. His symphony 'Prometheus: The Poem of Fire' (1910) was the first composition in history which included notation for lights and colors. Scriabin's large-scale performances in Moscow and New York were the first live shows ever with lights and colors played on a colour keyboard and projected to the beat and harmony of his music, thus preceding modern day rock concerts.
He was born Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin on January 6, 1872, (old calendar date December 25, 1871, the Russian Orthodox Christmas), in Moscow, Russia. His father, named Nikolai Scriabin, was a wealthy aristocrat, a lawyer, and a ranking diplomat, who lived mostly in the Russian embassies abroad. His mother, named Lyubov Petrovna, was a professional pianist; she died when Scriabin was only one year old. Young Scriabin was brought up by his aunt, and played his first music on his late mother's piano.
His first piano teacher was Nikolai Zverev who was also teaching Sergei Rachmaninoff at the same time, and two composers developed a life-long friendship. From 1882-1889 he studied sciences and languages at the Moscow School of Cadets. From 1888-1892 Scriabin studied piano and composition under 'Sergei Taneyev' at Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1892, as composer and pianist, then he became a professor at the same conservatory. In 1896 Scriabin married a famous Russian pianist, Vera Isakovich, who was the winner of the Gold Medal for performances of Scriabin's piano music. Before 1900 Scriabin joined the Moscow Philosophic Society and studied various schools of thought in his pursuit of inspirational ideas.
From 1904-1910 Scriabin was living and concertizing in Western Europe and in the United States. He was a remarkable pianist and successfully performed his original compositions before international audiences. At that time Scriabin became a curious student of contemporary philosophic trends and literature. His readings ranged from Oriental philosophies and Metaphysics, to Friedrich Nietzsche, whose 'ubermensch' theory Scriabin eventually outgrew, to Astrology and Medicine, and to Sir Isaac Newton's 'Optics'. He joined the circle of the Belgian Symbolist and Occultist Jean Delwille in Brussels. Scriabin also entered the circle of late Helene Blavatsky in London, studied her Theosophy, and even visited the room where she died. Scriabin's search for inspiration was not limited to Mysticism, Astrology and other Esoteric writings of the time. From 1907-1910 Scriabin lived in Paris with his second wife, Tatiana Schletser. There he was involved in the circle of Sergei Diaghilev and provided his compositions for concerts of Russian music. He also gave piano performances with the Russian Symphony Orchestra directed by M. I. Altshuller.
Scriabin was gifted with syn-aesthetic ability, though probably different from that of the physiological gift of Wassily Kandinsky, or a cognate cross-sensational gift of Vladimir Nabokov. Scriabin was the first composer in the world who wrote the musical notation for the light and color, thus making color intertwined with sound in a cross-senses harmony. In his symphonic poem 'Prometheus: the Poem of Fire' (1909) he wrote the line with notation for 'Luxe', a specially designed multicolor light projector with colored light-bulbs which was controlled by Scriabin himself playing on a colour keyboard. The multi-colored keyboard was first built in Russia by physicist Alexander Moser in 1910 for the performances of 'Prometheus'. It's performances in Moscow and in New York were the first ever orchestral concerts with color accompaniment being projected on a special screen. Scriabin also experimented with such styles as musical impressionism and expressionism. His harmonic and melodic inventiveness became manifested in his piano works and especially in his orchestral compositions. The 'Prometheus' chord' was the beginning in Scriabin's search for the new tonal/harmonic means of expression. His theory of the 'Synthesis of arts' made profound effect on innovations in film and theatre, most notably those of Vsevolod Meyerhold at the Moscow Art Theatre.
In 1915 Scriabin worked on developing of a new form of entertainment that would unite all Mankind through music, art, light, acting and interaction between performers and public. For this project Scriabin started a draft of a new cross-genre composition, which included music, literature, dance, architecture, natural landscape and light. He contemplated a seven-day long composition titled 'Misterium', of which he wrote down a few fragments on seventy pages shortly before his death. He described the composition in his draft as "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a New World." Scriabin planned his work to be performed at the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. Scriabin planned to include the Sunrises and the Sunsets into the measures of his unfinished music score. Part of that unfinished composition was performed under the title of 'Prefatory Action' by Vladimir Ashkenazy in Berlin with Aleksey Lyubimov at the piano. The idea of a seven-day music piece was later realized by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Scriabin's admirer and friend poet Valery Briusov was a regular guest at Scriabin's home, where composer performed for friends and absorbed new ideas in cross-disciplinary discussions. Those discussions initially revolved around Symbolism in Art, and then eventually led to Scriabin's idea of "Future Art" or "Synthesis of Arts" alluding to a term "Gezamtkunstwerk" which was originally coined by Richard Wagner. Music and cultural heritage of other nations was among important sources of inspiration for Scriabin, who was also known as an acclaimed piano performer of music by Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt and Ludwig van Beethoven. Scriabin's original piano pieces show progressive development of his own tonal and harmonic thinking. His ten piano sonatas, 24 preludes, poems, études and other piano pieces are staples of many contemporary concert pianists' repertoire. The piano recordings of Scriabin's music by Vladimir Sofronitsky and Vladimir Horowitz are among the finest there are.
During the 1890s and 1900s Scriabin's evolution to multi-tonal complexities superseded calculated duodecafonic compositions of the Neo-Viennese school. From his early piano compositions to his grand-scale symphonies, Scriabin's music is peppered with harmonic innovations, unusual changes and surprise tonal discoveries. Scriabin's creative thinking invites a prepared listener to an intellectual journey beyond the calculated atonality of Arnold Schönberg or even the sophisticated cosmopolitanism of Igor Stravinsky. The ascensual trajectory of Scriabin's multi-tonality development is unparalleled in freedom of musical imagination. His rich and delicate Piano Concerto in F-Sharp Minor (1896) and the passionate 'Poem of Ecstasy' (1906) has been among the most recorded and frequently performed of his orchestral works.
Alexander Scriabin was at the peak of his creativity and worked on his innovative breakthrough project of 'Mysteria', when he died of septicaemia, a complication from an inflammation on his upper lip, aged 43, on April 27, 1915, in Moscow. He was laid to rest in the Church of St. Nikolai na Peskah, near his home in Moscow, Russia. Since 1922, the Scriabin's home in Moscow has been open to public as a National museum and a Cultural Heritage Memorial. Scriabin's Bechstein grand piano has been used for regular concert performances of his music.
Since the 1910 premiere of 'Prometheus', Scriabin's large-scale symphonies has been successfully performed with light and color accompaniment at concert venues all over the world. Among the milestone performances of Scriabin's 'Prometheus' with lights were the London premiere with conductor Henry Wood (UK, 1914), the Carnegie Hall premiere (USA, 1915), the Bolshoi Theatre show (Russia, 1918), the New Haven show (USA, 1971), and the Kasan Conservatory show (Tatarstan, 1996) where Scriabin's music was intertwined with colorful compositions of Wassily Kandinsky. Scriabin's ideas are now working in such projects as "Animusic" and other 3D visualization and MIDI-based music applications.- Edith Cavell was born on 4 December 1865 in Swardeston, Norfolk, England, UK. She was a writer, known for Nurse and Martyr (1915) and Les funérailles d'Edith Cavell (1915). She died on 12 October 1915 in Brussels, Belgium.
- Richard Marsh was born in 1857. He was a writer, known for The Beetle!, In Full Cry (1921) and Dow Hour of Great Mysteries (1960). He died on 9 August 1915.
- Jerzy Zulawski was born on 14 July 1874 in Lipowiec, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Lipowiec, Malopolskie, Poland]. He was a writer, known for On the Silver Globe (1988), Pod vlastyu luny (1911) and Teatr Polskiego Radia (2004). He died on 9 August 1915 in Debica, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Debica, Podkarpackie, Poland].
- John C. Rice was born on 7 April 1857 in Beaverkill, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Kiss (1896) and The Kleptomaniacs (1900). He was married to Sally Cohen. He died on 5 June 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Frank M. Stites was born on 28 February 1882 in Spencer County, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for A Girl of Yesterday (1915), The Mysterious Contragrav (1915) and Grand Opening of the World's Only Movie City (1915). He was married to Jessie Maude Nelson. He died on 16 March 1915 in Universal City, California, USA.
- British poet and dramatist James Elroy Flecker was born Herman Elroy Flecker in London, England, in 1884. His father, Rev. W.H. Flecker, was appointed headmaster of the Dean Close School in Cheltenham, England. The family lived on campus, and young Herman spent most of his youth there. He came to writing poetry at an early age (13), and at age 16 he was sent to Uppingham and from there to Trinity College, Oxford (where he changed his first name from Herman to James), which he attended from 1902 to 1906.
At Oxford he achieved average grades, but that was due mainly to his obsession with French poetry, to which he devoted much of the time he should have spent studying the school's classical curriculum. It was also at Oxford that, despite the strict evangelical Protestant upbringing by his father, he rejected Christianity and became an agnostic.
Upon graduation from Oxford he secured a job teaching at a private school in Hempstead at the end of 1906. He had decided that he wanted to become an interpreter in the consular service, so he set about learning as many languages as he could. He already spoke French and German, and to those he added Italian, Spanish and modern Greek. In 1908 he passed the consular service examination, and then began a two-year course in modern languages at Cambridge.
In June of 1910 he was posted by the consular service to Constantinople, Turkey, but shortly afterwards he was discovered to have tuberculosis and was returned to England to recover at a sanitarium in the Cotswolds, where he stayed for three months. He had already published two books of verse, "The Bridge of Fire" and "Thirty-Six Poems", and it was at the sanitarium that he wrote the play "Don Juan". When he left the sanitarium he traveled to London and Paris, then back to Constantinople and from there to Beirut, Lebanon, where he was vice-consul and where he married a Greek woman, Helle Skiadaressi. In May of 1913 he began to have major health problems--tuberculosis again--and was taken to a sanitarium in Switzerland. He spent the last few years of his life in a variety of sanitariums in that country. It was during that period that he re-converted to Christianity.
James Elroy Flecker died in Davos, Switzerland, on January 3, 1915. - James Tanner was born on 17 October 1858 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Broken Melody (1896) and A Gaiety Duet (1909). He was married to Ethel Maud May Tyler. He died on 18 June 1915 in London, England, UK.
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Vasili Goncharov was born in 1861. He was a director and writer, known for Votsareniye doma Romanovykh (1913), Pyotr Velikiy (1910) and Vanka-klyuchnik (1909). He died on 23 August 1915.- Luigi Capuana was born on 28 May 1839 in Mineo, Sicily, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies [now Sicily, Italy]. He was a writer, known for Il vampiro (1914), I girovaghi (1956) and Malìa (1912). He died on 29 November 1915 in Catania, Sicily, Italy.
- Porfirio Diaz, known for his long and autocratic rule of Mexico and his disdain for the poorer classes, was actually born into a lower-middle-class Spanish / Mixtec Indian family in Oaxaca. His father was a blacksmith and an innkeeper and died when Porfirio was only three years old. He was educated by the Catholic church in what was to be his preparation for entering the priesthood, but by age 16 Diaz realized he had no intention of becoming a priest. Many men of Oaxaca had joined the Mexican army to fight in the Mexican-American War of 1846, and at 18 Diaz did the same, but the war ended before he saw combat. He left the army and returned to Oaxaca to study law. There he became acquainted with Benito Juarez, the state's governor. The civil war of 1854 pitted Juarez and his liberal reformers against the dictatorship of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna--of "the Alamo" fame--and his supporters, mainly wealthy landowners and the Catholic Church. Diaz came out squarely on Juarez's side, and fled Oaxaca to join Juarez's revolutionary army. Diaz proved to be an able commander and defeated Santa Anna's forces in several key battles, earning a promotion to general. Juarez eventually triumphed and Santa Anna fled Mexico, but the victory didn't last long. Mexico was soon invaded by the French, on the pretext of collecting on loans from French bankers that Mexico couldn't pay. They overthrew Juarez and installed a member of the Hapsburg royal family as ruler, calling him Emperor Maximilian. Diaz again fought with Juarez against this French occupation, and upon Maximilian's overthrow and execution, Diaz resigned from the army and retired to Oaxaca. Juarez died and was succeeded by Sebastian Lerdo, whose administration was racked by internal squabbles, chaos and rebellions. Diaz was persuaded to lead a rebellion against Lerdo, and in 1876 Diaz's forces drove out Lerdo after defeating his army in several battles. Diaz took Mexico City and became president.
At first his regime instituted many needed reforms, settled the national debt and embarked on an ambitious program to modernize the country, bringing railroads and telegraph services to many areas of Mexico that didn't have them. He was succeeded at the end of his term in 1880 by his former Minister of War, but ran for president in the 1884 election and won handily. However, his administration grew more repressive the longer it stayed in power, and eventually it became allied with the very forces it had once fought. Diaz wanted to bring foreign investment into the country, and to that end he instituted a controversial program of wholesale "evacuations" of the poor from the cities to the countryside, so that foreign investors and tourists wouldn't see them and would be more inclined to invest their money in Mexico. Eventually his autocratic rule and repressive policies resulted in a series of rebellions and uprisings, led by such legendary Mexican figures as Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza, among others. In 1913 these leaders combined their forces in a final assault on Mexico City, Diaz's seat of government, defeated his armies and forced him to flee the country. Ironically, although he came to power in Mexico largely because of his fight against the French, he wound up spending his exile in Paris, where he died in 1915. - Mary Elizabeth Braddon was born on 4 October 1835 in London, England, UK. She was a writer, known for Lady Audley's Secret (1915), East Lynne (1916) and Lady Audley's Secret (1920). She was married to John Maxwell. She died on 4 February 1915 in Richmond, England, UK.
- Luis Coloma was born on 9 January 1851 in Jerez de la Frontera, Andalucía, Spain. He was a writer, known for Boy (1926), Boy (1940) and Pequeñeces... (1950). He died on 10 June 1915 in Madrid, Spain.
- Additional Crew
- Writer
George Helgesen Fitch was an American humorist who is best remembered for his book "At Good Old Siwash" (1911), a collection of eleven stories that first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. Drawn from his student days at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, Fitch told of the exploits of the big Swede, Ole Skjarsen and the Eta Bita Pie fraternity.
Fitch helped pay for his college education, starting at the age of nine, from the money he saved while working at the same printing plant that employed his father. Fitch was the oldest of two boys and a daughter born to Elmer and Rachel Fitch. His father had also at one time been a school teacher and later became a publisher.
After college Fitch worked on several newspapers in Illinois and Iowa. In 1912 he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives.
Fitch was also remembered for a story he wrote about one of his hobbies "My Demon Motor Boat" (1912).
George Helgesen Fitch died at a hospital in Berkeley, California from complications after a failed appendectomy. He and his wife had been visiting his sister, who was a student at the University of California. Besides his wife, Fitch left behind two young daughters. His remains were laid to rest at a cemetery in Peoria, Illinois.- Actor
- Writer
Lewis Waller was born on 3 November 1860 in Bilbao, Spain. He was an actor and writer, known for King John (1899), Brigadier Gerard (1915) and Fires of Fate (1923). He was married to Florence West. He died on 1 November 1915 in Nottingham, England, UK.- Rolf Boldrewood was born on 6 August 1826 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Robbery Under Arms (1957), Captain Starlight, or Gentleman of the Road (1911) and Robbery Under Arms (1907). He was married to Margaret Maria. He died on 11 March 1915 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
- James Berry was born on 11 May 1880 in Hulme, Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Richard III (1911). He died on 31 July 1915 in Hove, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Music Department
Leo Frank was a New York-born Jew who moved to Marietta, Georgia. In 1913 he was the superintendent of the National Pencil Co., which was partly owned by his uncle, when he was arrested for the rape and murder of a local girl employed at the factory, 13-year-old Mary Phagan. She had been raped and strangled and her body found in the factory's cellar on August 26. Frank was the last person known to have seen her alive. When authorities were told about rumors that he had been seen flirting with the young Phagan, he was regarded as the chief suspect and shortly thereafter arrested. Prosecutors, along with local and state politicians, cast him as a rich, arrogant Yankee Jew who had come to the South to prey on young Christian women. A former member of the US House of Representatives used the specter of Jewish predators "ravaging our little girls" to help revive the Ku Klux Klan. Frank, to no one's surprise, was found guilty of rape and murder and sentenced to death, even though there was little actual evidence to connect him to the crime.
In 1915 Georgia Gov. John Slaton, after investigating the case himself, came to the conclusion that Frank had been unjustly convicted and that the trial had been rigged against him from the beginning. He commuted Frank's sentence from death to life imprisonment. Local citizenry, however, were outraged. A large mob of at least 1000 people surrounded Slaton's home, shouting and protesting his action, some of them urging the crowd to break into the house and lynch the governor. In August of 1915 a group of approximately 30 armed men calling itself "The Knights of Mary Phagan" broke into the prison where Frank was being held, tied up the warden and guards and kidnapped Frank. They drove him 150 miles to a place called Frey's Gin, near Mary Phagan's home, and before a shouting, angry crowed, hanged him from a tree. After his dead body was cut down, members of the crowd stomped on and otherwise mutilated it, while others took pictures and some even took bits of the rope that was used to hang him and sold them as souvenirs. Many of the members of the lynch mob were known to people in the area, including authorities, but local newspapers never used their names in stories about the lynching and none were prosecuted for or even charged with the crime. Among the lynch mob were a former Georgia governor, several local police officers and sheriff's deputies, a Superior Court judge, the Sheriff of Cobb County, several prominent businessmen, a future District Attorney and a future mayor of Marietta.
Frank's mutilated body was driven to Atlanta and turned over to an undertaker. A crowd of several thousand showed up at the establishment, demanding to see his body to ensure that he had indeed been hanged. When the undertaker refused, the crowed threatened to break into the business and see for itself, and began throwing bricks and rocks through the windows. The undertaker relented and let the crowd file past the body, many of them spitting on it.
In the early 1980s a re-investigation of the case determined that Mary Phagan had in fact been raped and murdered by the company's janitor, a black ex-convict named Jim Conley, who police at the time had initially suspected but let go when they turned their attention to Frank. In 1986 the Georgia State Board of Paroles and Pardons granted Frank a posthumous pardon.- Oreste Calabresi was born on 7 May 1857 in Macerata, Marche, Italy. He was an actor, known for Amore senza stima (1914) and Il gran giudice (1914). He died on 15 February 1915 in Lecco, Lombardy, Italy.
- Frank James was born on 10 January 1843 in Kearney, Clay County, Missouri, USA. He was married to Annie Ralston. He died on 18 February 1915 in Kearney, Missouri, USA.
- Elbert Hubbard was born on 19 June 1856 in Bloomington, Illinois, USA. He was a writer, known for A Message to Garcia (1916), A Message to Garcia (1936) and Justinian and Theodora (1910). He was married to Alice Moore and Bertha C. Crawford. He died on 7 May 1915 in off the coast of Ireland.
- Ede Ujházi was born on 28 January 1841 in Debrecen, Hungary. He was an actor, known for Gazdag ember kabátja (1912). He died on 14 November 1915 in Budapest, Hungary.