The Actor's Studio is an acting school in New York that taught an Americanised version of Stanislavsky's Method and was very influential in 1950s and 60s American drama. It was founded in 1947-1948 either by Lee Strasberg or by Elia Kazan and Cheryl Crawford, depending on which source one consults. Strasberg served as artistic director of the school until his death in 1982. Many notable American actors of the 1950s and 1960s were graduates, including Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, James Dean, Montgomery Clift and Eva Marie-Saint. Research Actor's Studio
The Confederate States was a government formed in 1861, in North America, by seceding States. The second State to secede, Mississippi, at the time of secession, January 9, 1861, proposed a convention to form a Southern Confederacy. This provisional Congress met at Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, with delegates present from six of the seven States - which had then seceded. It voted by States. On February 8, it adopted a provisional Constitution, and the next day choseJefferson Davis, of Mississippi, provisional President and Alexander H Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President.
The permanent Constitution was adopted on March 11. It set forth the doctrines of State sovereignty and recognized slavery, though it forbade the slave trade. It forbade protective tariffs and Federal expenditures for internal improvements. Congress was forbidden to emit bills of credit. It could permit members of the Cabinet to speak before it. The President was empowered to veto single items in appropriation bills. His term was to be six years, and he was not to be re-elected. All the seceding States ratified the Constitution through conventions. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas seceded, and were admitted into the Confederacy. The seat of government was removed to Richmond, and Davis and Stephens were chosen again under the permanent Constitution. They were inaugurated as such on February 22, 1862.
During most of the existence of the Confederate Government, Judah P Benjamin was Secretary of State, Charles G Memminger Secretary of the Treasury, James A Seddon Secretary of War, Stephen R Mallory of the Navy and John H Reagan Postmaster-General. In this government Congress was of little account. Everything was subordinated to the energetic prosecution of the war, for which the President assumed almost dictatorial powers. Extraordinary efforts were made.
Money was obtained by means of the issue of Treasury notes, by cotton loans and by requisitions. Supplies were obtained by any means possible. Troops were obtained, finally, by conscription. The Government, though given belligerent rights by most maritime nations, could not secure any recognition of its independence. As the armies began to be more and more completely destroyed, dissensions broke out. Violent criticism of Davis prevailed. Finally, the surrender of Lee brought the Confederate Government to an end. The Federal Government of the USA never recognized its existence. Research Confederate States
The Stars and Bars was the flag of the American Confederacy. On March the 5th, 1861, the Flag Committee appointed in the Provisional Senate of the Southern States recommended that 'the flag of the Confederate States shall consist of a red field with a white space extending horizontally through the centre, and equal in width to one-third the width of the flag'. It was first displayed on March the 4th, 1861, simultaneously with the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, being unfurled over the State House at Montgomery, Alabama. In 1863 the Confederate Senate adopted a white flag with one blue star in the centre, the Stars and Bars bearing too close a resemblance to the Stars and Stripes. Johnston and Beauregard also adopted a battle flag, consisting of a red ground with a blue diagonal cross and white stars. Research Stars and Bars
Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the USA. He was born in 1809 at Hardin County, Kentucky and died in 1865 when he was assassinated at a theatre by John Wilkes Booth. Both in Kentucky and in Indiana, to which in 1816 the family removed, as well as in Illinois, whither they went in 1830, Abraham Lincoln had the privations and also the training of a backwoodsman's life.
In his youth he earned money to educate himself by splitting rails for a neighbour, and so earned the nickname 'rail-splitter'. About this time he also made a flat-boat voyage to New Orleans.
In the Black Hawk War of 1832 he served as captain and private. He tried keeping store and failed, studied law, was postmaster of New Salem in Illinois, and deputy surveyor of the county. As a politician he had better success, and after one defeat served in the Legislature from 1834 to 1842. Meanwhile he removed to Springfield and built up a law practice. From 1847 to 1849 he was a Whig Congressman, but was not notably prominent.
His importance dates from the Kansas-Nebraska controversy. In its progress he became the Republican State leader, and in 1858 he took part with Stephen A Douglas in a series of joint debates in canvassing for the US Senatorship. Abraham Lincoln was defeated, but the discussion had aroused great interest, and his utterances, e.g.: 'a house divided against itself cannot stand', brought him into national prominence. In February, 1860, he delivered a remarkable political speech at the Cooper Institute, New York.
He was pressed for the Presidency by many Western Republicans in the Chicago Convention in May, though Seward was in the lead at the outset. Amid great excitement Abraham Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot, and elected, by 180 electoral votes, over Douglas, Breckenridge and Bell. This first victory of the Republicans decided the Secessionists, and when the new President delivered his conciliatory inaugural address the country was drifting toward civil war.
In the Cabinet Seward had the Department of State, Chase the Treasury, Cameron, and soon afterward Stanton, War, Welles the Navy, Caleb B. Smith the Interior, Edward Bates was Attorney-General, and Montgomery Blair Postmaster-General. Immediately on the fall of Port Sumter the President, on April the 15th, 1861, called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the Rebellion. He soon issued a call for additional troops, instituted a blockade, and summoned Congress to meet in extra session on July the 4th.
As the 'War President' Abraham Lincoln is identified with a great part of the history of the struggle. Foreign complications, military and naval movements, domestic politics, as well as routine administrative duties, all claimed his attention; to the people and the armies he was endeared as 'Father Abraham' innumerable anecdotes are related bearing on his humour, strong common sense and sympathy.
On September the 22nd, 1862, profiting by the partial success of Antietam, he issued a preliminary proclamation fixing the coming January the 1st as the date for freeing slaves in insurgent States. The Emancipation Proclamation to that effect accordingly appeared at the opening of 1863. On the nineteenth of November 1863, he pronounced on the battlefield of Gettysburg his short but famous eulogy.
He was renominated by the Republicans on June the 8th, 1864, and elected over McClellan, receiving 212 electoral votes. 'Malice toward none, charity for all' was the burden of his second inaugural. He had visited Richmond after its fall, and was pondering the questions of reconstruction, when on the night of April the 14th he was shot in Ford's Theatre at the capital, and died the next morning. Research Abraham Lincoln
Bruce Montgomery was an English composer, conductor and organist. He was born in 1921 and died in 1978. From 1948 he worked in films, composing music scores for films such as the 1958 'Carry On Sergeant' and other 'Carry On' films of the 1950s and early 1960s. Research Bruce Montgomery
Gabriel Montgomery (Comte de Montgomery) was a French knight of Scottish origin. He was born in 1530 and died in 1574. He accidentally killed Henry II of France in a tournament, and fled to England where he became a protestant. On the outbreak of the Huguenot wars he returned to France became one of the Protestant leaders. He was executed in Paris following his surrender at Domfont in Normandy. Research Gabriel Montgomery
Sir Guy Carleton Carleton was a British soldier. He was born in 1724 and died in 1808. He distinguished himself at the sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec. He was Governor of Quebec from 1766 to 1770 and from 1775 to 1778, and defended it against the Americans under Montgomery in 1775. He commanded the army that invaded New York in 1776, and fought a severe battle with Arnold on LakeChamplain. In 1782 he superseded Sir Henry Clinton as commander-in-chief. From 1786 to 1796, as LordDorchester, he was Governor of Canada. He became a lieutenant-general in 1777. Research Guy Carleton
Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, was a British Field Marshal and Conservative statesman. He was born in 1891 and died in 1969. During the Second World War he commanded the 1st Division in the British Expeditionary Force and subsequently supervised the evacuation from Dunkirk, after which he was promoted to I Corps and then to command the British forces in Burma. He commanded over the withdrawal from Burma, and was sent to North Africa with Montgomery where he oversaw the victorious campaigns there in 1943, and later as commander of the Anglo-American ground force he directed the invasions of Sicily and Italy. He succeeded Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean and took the German surrender in Italy in April 1945. After the war he became Governor-General of Canada in 1946 until 1952 and British Minister of Defence from 1952 to 1954. Research Harold Alexander
Henry II was King of France. He was born in 1519 and died in 1559 in a jousting accident. He succeeded his father, Francis I, in 1547. Throughout his reign his mistress, Diana of Poitiers, exercised an important influence over king and court. After a brief war with England for the recovery of Boulogne, a war of longer duration and more serious results originated in 1551 in disputes between Henry and the pope as to the duchies of Parma and Placentia, and continued to devastate Europe until the general peace of Cateau-Cambresis, 1559. To confirm the peace Philip II, who had become a widower by the death of Mary of England, was to marry Elizabeth, Henry's eldest daughter by Catharine de Medici. In the course of a tournament held to celebrate the event, Henry was mortally wounded by a splinter from the lance of LordMontgomery, captain of the Scottish guard. He was succeeded in 1559 by his eldest son, Francis II. Research Henry II of France
James Clinton was an American soldier. He was born in 1736 at New York and died in 1812. During the French and Indian War he captured a French sloop-of-war on Lake Ontario. As colonel of a New Yorkregiment he was with Montgomery at Quebec in 1775. As brigadier-general he commanded at Fort Clinton when it was taken by the British in 1777, and was present at Yorktown. He was a member of the New York convention that adopted the Federal Constitution. Research James Clinton
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Actor's Studio
