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Tibbett, Lawrence

(Encyclopedia)Tibbett, Lawrence tĭbˈĭt [key], 1896–1960, American baritone, b. Bakersfield, Calif. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1923. After a successful appearance as Ford in Verdi's Fa...

Addams, Charles Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Addams, Charles Samuel, 1912–88, American cartoonist, b. Westfield, N.J. Beginning in 1932, Addams's work appeared regularly in the New Yorker, to which he eventually contributed more than 1,300 car...

Burns, George

(Encyclopedia)Burns, George, 1896–1996, b. New York City as Nathan Birnbaum, and his wife Gracie Allen, 1906–64, b. San Francisco, American comedy team (1923–58). In vaudeville in the 1920s, on radio (1932–...

Guy Blache, Alice

(Encyclopedia)Guy Blache or Guy-Blaché, Alice, 1873–1968, French-American filmmaker, b. Paris as Alice Guy. The first woman filmmaker, she directed, produced, wrote screenplays for, or supervised some 1,000 film...

De Filippo, Eduardo

(Encyclopedia)De Filippo, Eduardo ādwärˈdō dā fēlĭpˈpō [key], 1900–1984, Neapolitan playwright and actor. In his scores of plays he combined pathos and farce. Napoli milionaria (1946) depicts postwar Nap...

spectroheliograph

(Encyclopedia)spectroheliograph, device for photographing the surface of the sun in a single wavelength of light, usually one corresponding to a chief element contained in the sun, e.g., hydrogen or calcium; the re...

music hall

(Encyclopedia)music hall. In England, the Licensing Act of 1737 confined the production of legitimate plays to the two royal theaters—Drury Lane and Covent Garden; the demands for entertainment of the rising lowe...

Waltari, Mika

(Encyclopedia)Waltari, Mika mēˈkə välˈtärē [key], 1908–79, Finnish author. Waltari wrote plays, detective stories, and travelogues, but is best known for his novels. After completing his university educati...

stereophonic sound

(Encyclopedia)stereophonic sound, sound recorded simultaneously through two or more electronic channels. For live recordings, microphones are placed in different positions relative to the sound source. The recorded...

West, Mae

(Encyclopedia)West, Mae, 1893–1980, American stage and movie comedienne, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Mary Jane West. The unparalleled mistress of double entendre, West began in burlesque and continued in vaudeville, st...