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Here are some great photos from the Library of Congress.
I first heard about this when I was a kid, from my mom, who worked as a riveter for an aircraft plant during WWII. Rosie was an actual person, a riveter from Kentucky who represented the six million women who worked in the manufacturing plants that produced munitions and material during World War II. These women took the places of the male workers who were absent fighting in the Pacific and European theaters. The character is now considered a feminist icon in the US, and a herald of women's economic power to come. Rosie and her slogan were featured on posters, magazines, and more. These hard working women were paid a whopping $31.21 a week compared to men who brought home $54.65. Now....over 60 years later we're still fighting for equal pay!
Tags:
rosie
the
riveter
Added: 22nd January 2008
Views: 331
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Posted By: Naomi |

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Born as Anna Maria Italiano in the Bronx in 1931, Anne Bancroft didn't quite fall into the category of a 'classic' actress.
She didn't break into films until 1952. But she appeared on screen with Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark, Cornel Wilde, Susan Hayward, and Victor Mature. After appearing in her first film, but not really finding the roles she wanted, she returned to New York and the stage, finding success, and a Tony award opposite Henry Fonda in 'Two For the Seesaw' (1958). The following year she appeared in the stage version of 'The Miracle Worker', and eventually returned to Hollywood in 1962, starring with Patty Duke in the film adaptation of the play, and winning a Best Actress Oscar with her first nomination. She was on a roll throughout the 60's, including a second Best Actress Oscar nomination for 'The Pumpkin Eater' (1964), then '7 Women' (1966), and finally her famous role as Mrs. Robinson in 'The Graduate' (1967), resulting in another Oscar nomination and a lifetime association with the part.
She was nominated five times for Best Actress. Ann was married to the great comedy director Mel Brooks since 1964, and worked with him many times. She was still a very young 73 years old when she passed away on June 6, 2005, and is missed by so many of us.
Tags:
ann
bancroft
actresses
mel
brooks
the
miracle
worker
Added: 22nd January 2008
Views: 302
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Posted By: Naomi |

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Suzanne Pleshette, the husky-voiced star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife, Emily, on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show," has died at age 70.
Pleshette, whose career included roles in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds" and in Broadway plays including "The Miracle Worker," died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein, also a family friend.
Pleshette underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006. "The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason.
Four years after the show ended in 1978, Newhart went on to the equally successful "Newhart" series in which he was the proprietor of a New England inn populated by more eccentrics. When that show ended in 1990, Pleshette reprised her role - from the first show - in one of the most clever final episodes in TV history.
It had Newhart waking up in the bedroom of his "The Bob Newhart Show" home with Pleshette at his side. He went on to tell her of the crazy dream he'd just had of running an inn filled with eccentrics.
"If I'm in Timbuktu, I'll fly home to do that," Pleshette said of her reaction when Newhart told her how he was thinking of ending the show.
Born Jan. 31, 1937, in New York City, Pleshette began her career as a stage actress after attending the city's High School of the Performing Arts and studying at its Neighborhood Playhouse. She was often picked for roles because of her beauty and her throaty voice.
"When I was 4," she told an interviewer in 1994, "I was answering the phone, and (the callers) thought I was my father. So I often got quirky roles because I was never the conventional ingenue."
She met her future husband, Tom Poston, when they appeared together in the 1959 Broadway comedy "The Golden Fleecing," but didn't marry him until more than 40 years later.
Although the two had a brief fling, they went on to marry others. By 2000 both were widowed and they got back together, marrying the following year.
"He was such a wonderful man. He had fun every day of his life," Pleshette said after Poston died in April 2007.
Among her other Broadway roles was replacing Anne Bancroft in "The Miracle Worker," the 1959 drama about Helen Keller, in New York and on the road.
Meanwhile, she had launched her film career with Jerry Lewis in 1958 in "The Geisha Boy." She went on to appear in numerous television shows, including "Have Gun, Will Travel,""Alfred Hitchcock Presents,""Playhouse 90" and "Naked City."
By the early 1960s, Pleshette attracted a teenage following with her youthful roles in such films as "Rome Adventure,""Fate Is the Hunter,""Youngblood Hawke" and "A Distant Trumpet."
She married fellow teen favorite Troy Donahue, her co-star in "Rome Adventure," in 1964 but the union lasted less than a year. She was married to Texas oilman Tim Gallagher from 1968 until his death in 2000.
Pleshette matured in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds" and the Disney comedies "The Ugly Dachshund,""Blackbeard's Ghost" and "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin." Over the years, she also had a busy career in TV movies, including playing the title role in 1990's "Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean."
More recently, she appeared in several episodes of the TV sitcoms "Will & Grace" and "8 Simple Rules ... For Dating My Teenage Daughter."
In a 1999 interview, Pleshette observed that being an actress was more important than being a star.
"I'm an actress, and that's why I'm still here," she said. "Anybody who has the illusion that you can have a career as long as I have and be a star is kidding themselves."
Tags:
suzanne
pleshette
bob
newhart
show
tom
poston
cancer
Added: 20th January 2008
Views: 398
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Posted By: Sophia |

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On March 25, 1911, 146 employees of the Triangle Shrtwaist Company in New York City--mostly female Jewish immigrants--perished when fire engulfed their factory. Death came in many hideous ways: Some workers were trampled to death in the panic. Others suffocated on the smoke-filled ninth floor. More than 50 chose to jump to their deaths rather than burn once they discovered the emergency doors had been locked by their employer to keep them from leaving work early. Though nearly forgotten today, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire was responsible for many fire safety regulations and labor laws that exist today.
Tags:
Triangle
Shirtwaist
Factory
Fire
Added: 2nd March 2008
Views: 196
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Posted By: Lava1964 |

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This is the final eight minutes of Easy Street (1917) starring Charlie Chaplin. In this film, Chaplin is hired to be the policeman on Easy Street, the toughest neighborhood in town. He has to subdue an enormous miscreant (Eric Campbell) and then rescue local mission worker (Edna Purviance). Chaplin's physcial comedy is unmatched!
Tags:
Charlie
Chaplin
Easy
Street
Added: 1st June 2008
Views: 129
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Posted By: Lava1964 |

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Once we were proud nation.. there was nothing we couldn't do, or accomplish.
There was noting that we couldn't manufacture for ourselves. This was the American Spirit. It was what made this country the envy of every nation in the world.
Now, as one TV commentator put it, "We have become suicidally arrogant ... we have the attitude that there isn't anything anyone won't sell us."
It has been argued that "America holds no resemblance to the once great nation for which our forebears fought and died. Given the rapidity with which America has forsaken its heritage, can you imagine what it will look like 50 years from now?" - Chuck Baldwin
Once can only wonder. But, Once Upon A Time In America, it was truly a great and promising place to be.
Film Clip - Southern Pacific Cab Forward Collection
Southern Pacific Archives
Pentrex Videos/Pentrex Media Group
http://pentrex.com/
Photos
Jack Delano
U.S. Office of War Information Collection
Library of Congress - Documenting America
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome....
Music
fanfare for the common man
Aaron Copeland
railroad song
Jim Croce
railroad blues
Woody Guthrie
daddy was a railroad man
Box Car Willie
john henry/worried blues
Doc and Merle Watson
railroad song (reprise)
conceived and produced by Dale Caruso
Tags:
1940s
American
Spirit
Railroads
American
Worker
Added: 26th September 2008
Views: 129
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Posted By: dalecaruso |

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It was the worst factory fire in the history of New York City occurred on March 25, 1911, in the Asch building, where the Triangle Shirtwaist Company occupied the top three of ten floors. Five hundred women, mostly Jewish immigrants between thirteen and twenty-three years old, were employed there. The owners had locked the doors leading to the exits to keep the women at their sewing machines. In less than fifteen minutes, 146 women died. The event galvanized support for additional efforts to be made to increase safety in the workplace. It also garnered support for labor unions in the garment district, and in particular for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
Much material was provided by several websites, among them are;
Photos:
Brown Brothers
Franklin D.Roosevelt Library
Corbis Bettmann
The Kheel Center, Catherwood Library, ILR School at Cornell University.
Authentic History Center
Shorpy.com
The Office Museum
The Library of COngress
Audio
National Public Radio
Authentic History Center
The Kheel Center, Catherwood Library, ILR School at Cornell University
However, two of the above mentioned in particular, I want to call attention, the first for an overall exceptionally presented look back at this tragedy and a stunning presentation of the labor movement. Truly a brilliant multi-media presentation.
The Triangle Factory Fire -- Presented by The Kheel Center, Catherwood Library, ILR School at Cornell University.
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
and National Public Radio ...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...
I can not recommend those two sites too highly. They are top notch.
Tags:
Triangle
Shirtwaist
Fire
1911
Unions
Women
Immigrant
Labor
New
York
City
American
History
Added: 25th September 2008
Views: 85
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Posted By: dalecaruso |

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