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From Ernst Lubitsch's experiences in Sophien Gymnasium (high school) theater, he decided to leave school at the age of 16 and pursue a career on the stage. He had to compromise with his father and keep the account books for the family tailor business while he acted in cabarets and music halls at night. In 1911 he joined the Deutsches Theater of famous director/producer/impresario Max Reinhardt, and was able to move up to leading acting roles in a short time. He took an extra job as a handyman while learning silent film acting at Berlin's Bioscope film studios. The next year he launched his own film career by appearing in a series of comedies showcasing traditional ethnic Jewish slice-of-life fare. Finding great success in these character roles, Lubitsch turned to broader comedy, then beginning in 1914 started writing and directing his own films.

His breakthrough film came in 1918 with The Eyes of the Mummy (1918) ("The Eyes of the Mummy"), a tragedy starring future Hollywood star Pola Negri. Also that year he made Carmen (1918), again with Negri, a film that was commercially successful on the international level. His work already showed his genius for catching the eye as well as the ear in not only comedy but historical drama. The year 1919 found Lubitsch directing seven films, the two standouts being his lavish Passion (1919) with two of his favorite actors--Negri (yet again) and Emil Jannings. His other standout was the witty parody of the American upper crust, The Oyster Princess (1919) ("The Oyster Princess"). This film was a perfect example of what became known as the Lubitsch style, or the "Lubitsch Touch", as it became known--sophisticated humor combined with inspired staging that economically presented a visual synopsis of storyline, scenes and characters.

His success in Europe brought him to the shores of America to promote The Loves of Pharaoh (1922) ("The Loves of Pharaoh") and he become acquainted with the thriving US film industry. He soon returned to Europe, but came back to the US for good to direct new friend and influential star Mary Pickford in his first American hit, Rosita (1923). The Marriage Circle (1924) began Lubitsch's unprecedented run of sophisticated films that mirrored the American scene (though always relocated to foreign or imaginary lands) and all its skewed panorama of the human condition. There was a smooth transition between his silent films for Warner Bros. and the sound movies--usually at Paramount--now embellished with the flow of speech of Hollywood's greats lending personal nuances to continually heighten the popularity at the box office and the fame of Lubitsch's first-rate versatility in crafting a smart film. There was a mix of pioneering musical films and some drama also through the 1930s. The of those films resulted in Paramount making him its production chief in 1935, so he could produce his own films and supervise production of others. In 1938 he signed a three-year contract with Twentieth Century-Fox.

Certainly two of his most beloved films near the end of his career dealt with the political landscape of the World War II era. He moved to MGM, where he directed Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas in Ninotchka (1939), a fast-paced comedy of "decadent" Westerners meeting Soviet "comrades" who were seeking more of life than the mother country could--or would--offer. During the war he directed perhaps his most beloved comedy--controversial to say the least, dark in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way--but certainly a razor-sharp tour de force in smart, precise dialog, staging and story: To Be or Not to Be (1942), produced by his own company, Romaine Film Corp. It was a biting satire of Nazi tyranny that also poked fun at Lubitsch's own theater roots with the problems and bickering--but also the triumph--of a somewhat raggedy acting troupe in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. Jack Benny's perfect deadpan humor worked well with the zany vivaciousness of Carole Lombard, and a cast of veteran character actors from both Hollywood and Lubitsch's native Germany provided all the chemistry needed to make this a classic comedy, as well as a fierce statement against the perpetrators of war. The most poignant scene was profoundly so, with Felix Bressart--another of Reinhardt's students--as the only Jewish bit player in the company. His supreme hope is a chance to someday play Shylock. He gets his chance as part of a ruse in front of Adolf Hitler's SS bodyguards. The famous soliloquy was a bold declaration to the world of the Axis' brutal inhumanity to man, as in its treatment of and plans for the Jewry of Europe.

Lubitsch had a massive heart attack in 1943 after having signed a producer/director's contract with 20th Century-Fox earlier that year, but completed Heaven Can Wait (1943). His continued efforts in film were severely stymied but he worked as he could. In late 1944 Otto Preminger, another disciple of Reinhardt's Viennese theater work, took over the direction of A Royal Scandal (1945), with Lubitsch credited as nominal producer. March of 1947, the year of his passing, brought a special Academy Award (he was nominated three times) to the fading producer/director for his "25-year contribution to motion pictures." At his funeral, two of his fellow directorial émigrés from Germany put his epitaph succinctly as they left. Billy Wilder noted, "No more Lubitsch." William Wyler answered, "Worse than that - no more Lubitsch films."

Born in New York City to a Judge of Special Sessions who was also president of a sewing machine company. Grew up on City Island, New York. Attended Hamilton Military Academy and turned down an appointment to West Point to attend New York Law School, where his law school classmates included future New York City mayor James J. Walker. After a boating accident which led to pneumonia, Carey wrote a play while recuperating and toured the country in it for three years, earning a great deal of money, all of which evaporated after his next play was a failure. In 1911, his friend Henry B. Walthall introduced him to director D.W. Griffith, for whom Carey was to make many films. Carey married twice, the second time to actress Olive Fuller Golden (aka Olive Carey, who introduced him to future director John Ford. Carey influenced Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle to use Ford as a director, and a partnership was born that lasted until a rift in the friendship in 1921. During this time, Carey grew into one of the most popular Western stars of the early motion picture, occasionally writing and directing films as well. In the '30s he moved slowly into character roles and was nominated for an Oscar for one of them, the President of the Senate in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He worked once more with Ford, in The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), and appeared once with his son, Harry Carey Jr., in Howard Hawks's Red River (1948). He died after a protracted bout with emphysema and cancer. Ford dedicated his remake of 3 Godfathers (1948) "To Harry Carey--Bright Star Of The Early Western Sky."

Lionel Braham was born on 1 April 1879 in Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Christmas Carol (1938), Skinner's Dress Suit (1926) and As You Like It (1936). He died on 6 October 1947 in Hollywood, California, USA.

The son of Colonel H.G. Toler, breeder of trotting horses, Sidney Toler acted on stage by the time he was seven years old. He was an established star of the theater by the 1890s, long before his career in motion pictures began. He was also active as a playwright and had a good enough voice to be cast as a lead baritone with an operatic stock company at the Orpheum Theatre in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 'The Office Boy' in 1903 and for the next nine years went on the road with his own touring acting troupes. His prowess as a writer equaled that of his performances with two of his plays opening on Broadway while a third ('The Man They Left Behind') was enacted by no less than eighteen different stock companies in a single week nationwide.

Frequently under the auspices of theatrical impresario David Belasco, Sidney starred in Broadway comedy for twelve years (1918-30). Having decided to abandon his successful stage career, he made the move to Hollywood and played supporting roles as a free-lance actor for several years, often cast as police officers, bankers or butlers.

In the mid-1930s, he joined 20th Century Fox under contract. The death of Charlie Chan impersonator Warner Oland in 1938 presented him with an opportunity for a leading role and he successfully auditioned for the part among 34 candidates screen-tested. His expansive, avuncular personality made Sidney, arguably, the most popular incarnation of the famous oriental detective with a noticeably strong line in sarcastic wit -- usually directed at 'Number Two Son'. He played Chan in 22 feature films beginning with Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938), and ending with The Trap (1946). The first 11 Charlie Chan outings were produced by 20th Century Fox Studios. All of them were box office hits. However, by 1942, the quality of the series began to decline. With America's entry into the Second World War, overseas markets began to dwindle. Fox retired the series, but two years later, in 1944, sold the character rights to the 'poverty row' company Monogram Pictures. This inevitably resulted in poorer scripts and lower production values.

Moreover, after years of being typecast as Charlie Chan and given few opportunities to expand his range as an actor, Sidney's performances also became less defined and more automatic. While filming the last three Charlie Chan installments (Shadows Over Chinatown (1946), Dangerous Money (1946), and The Trap (1946)), the actor became increasingly incapacitated by ill-health which resulted in extra screen time for his co-stars Mantan Moreland and Victor Sen Yung. After being bedridden for several months, he passed away at his Hollywood home from intestinal cancer on February 12, 1947 at age 72.

Infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone was born in the tough Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn, NY, the fourth of nine children of Italian immigrants from Naples. Capone was a born sociopath. In the sixth grade he beat up a teacher and promptly quit school. He picked up his education from the streets, "making his bones" when he joined the notorious James Street gang. This was run by Johnny Torrio, who later graduated Capone into the even more notorious Five Points gang. It was here that Capone became friends with Lucky Luciano, another who would become a hallmark in the '30s gangster era.

By his late teens Capone had been hired by Torrio and Frankie Yale as a bouncer at a saloon / brothel in Brooklyn. In 1918 he was involved in a bar fight over a prostitute with hoodlum Frank Galluccio. Gallucio went after Capone with a knife, resulting in Capone's picking up the moniker by which he would be known for the rest of his life--"Scarface" (although that word was NEVER used in his presence). Capone, however, would attribute the scar to wounds he received in battle while fighting with the famous "lost battalion" in France during World War I (the fact that Capone never spent one minute in the army was a minor point, apparently). By 1919 he was already suspected by New York police of at least two murders, so he moved to Chicago to work under Torrio's uncle, "Big" Jim Colosimo, a Chicago gangster who ran a string of brothels. Torrio and Colosimo had a dispute over bootlegging during the Prohibition era--Torrio was for it and Colosimo was against it. Torrio hatched a plot with Capone to have Colosimo "rubbed out" and they got their old pal Frankie Yale to do it. Over the next few years the new Torrio-Capone regime went to war with rival bootlegging gangs in Chicago. In 1924 they killed Charles Dion O'Bannion, head of the Irish North Side gang. That didn't end the war, however, which went on for several more years. Capone's younger brother Frank died in a hail of rival gangsters' bullets in 1924. In February 1925 Torrio, who had been badly wounded in a shootout, decided to retire. He told Capone, "It's all yours". At the tender age of 26, Al Capone found himself in control of a sophisticated crime organization with 1,000 gunmen at his command and a $300,000-a-week payroll. He was up to it, however, and made a smooth transition from a simple gun-toting leg-breaker, pimp and killer to a "business executive" (his business card stated that he sold "second-hand furniture"). It was estimated that at one point he had approximately half of Chicago's police department on his payroll, and his reach extended to the highest levels of Chicago's city government and even into the Illinois legislature (he was also suspected of having the Illinois governor "in his pocket"). He controlled the local political process by terrorizing voters into voting for candidates he picked. So great was his power that he claimed he "owned" Chicago, and once publicly assaulted the mayor of nearby Cicero--who was on his payroll--on the steps of City Hall for doing something without his clearance, while the local police looked the other way.

Capone was probably the first "equal-opportunity" mob boss. While many of his fellow Italian and Sicilian gangsters would only hire those from their own ethnic group, Capone hired Jews, Irish, Poles, Slovaks, blacks--as long as he considered them trustworthy, they could work for Capone. He even purged the Chicago organized crime scene of "Mustache Petes", the old-time Sicilian gangsters who he didn't think were capable of running a "modern" crime organization. Capone ran Chicago's gambling, prostitution and bootlegging empire, getting rich giving people what they wanted. He was soon wildly popular among the citizenry and was even cheered at the ballpark, while "respectable" citizens like President Herbert Hoover were not. Capone absorbed smaller gangs into his own--sometimes by negotiation, other times by gunfire--extending his reach to outside the Chicago environs and expanding his empire even further. He was, however, always concerned for his own safety and surrounded himself with trusted bodyguards (including Frank Gallucio, the man responsible for his nickname, "Scarface"). Several attempts were made on his life by rival mobsters--one time a convoy of cars full of gangster Hymie Weiss' gunmen shot up a restaurant at which Capone was dining; the place was destroyed, but Capone came through unscathed. Another time would-be assassins poisoned his soup, but his luck held out again.

On Valentine's Day in 1929 Capone ordered the bloody "St. Valentine's Day Massacre". His underlings found out the location of the warehouse of his rival George Moran (aka "Bugs" Moran) and that Moran was to attend a meeting there at a particular time. Capone sent a carload of his gunmen dressed as police officers to the address. Once there they lined up the seven men they found, but Moran wasn't among them; he was on the sidewalk heading towards the building when he saw the "police car" pull up in front and he quickly ducked into a nearby store. Nevertheless, Capone's gunmen machine-gunned them to death. Following the massacre (when Moran was later asked who he thought was responsible for the murders, he replied, "Only Capone kills like that"), public opinion about Capone began to change. He was not above killing on his own, either. When he was informed that his bodyguards John Scalise and Albert Anselmi were part of an assassination plot against him, he decided to take care of the matter himself. To put their minds at ease, he threw a banquet in their honor. While delivering a glowing testimonial to them, Capone suddenly pulled out an Indian club and beat both men to death.

Although local and state authorities had been trying to bring down Capone for years, the federal government finally managed to do it by prosecuting him for income-tax evasion. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, GA. In 1934 he was transferred to Alcatraz, a federal prison on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay that was set up to hold the nation's worst criminals. He never finished out his sentence, though. In 1939 he was paroled because of the ravages of neurosyphilis, a disease he contracted while running Torrio's and Colosimo's whorehouses. He lived the last eight years of his life as a virtual zombie at his estate in Florida, his brain almost totally destroyed by the disease.

Ernie Adams was born on 18 June 1885 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Pride of the Yankees (1942), The Man with Nine Lives (1940) and Invisible Ghost (1941). He was married to Mamie Silver, Margaret Adams, Shirley Adams and Berdonna Gilbert. He died on 26 November 1947 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Stalwart character actor Henry Kolker appeared on the Broadway stage from 1904, comedy being his forte early on. Later, as a leading man in romantic dramas, he partnered famous stars like Alla Nazimova. Moving on to films in 1914 as actor/director, he became noted in particular for directing Disraeli (1921), starring George Arliss (now a lost film, except for one reel). Plagued by ill-health and much publicised marital problems, Kolker's star had waned somewhat by the end of the silent era. However, he continued to remain in demand as a supporting actor, generally typecast as stern judges, priests, heavy fathers and cuckolded husbands. Usually scowling and sombre, he chided and glowered over stars like Melvyn Douglas, Gary Cooper and Katharine Hepburn (arguably his best role being the latter's father, Edward Seton, in Holiday (1938)). He was equally effective in the role of banker John Fair in The Crash (1932), and as Friar Laurence in George Cukor's Romeo and Juliet (1936). Kolker remained a prolific fixture on screen throughout the 1930's, managing to tally up in excess of twenty appearances each, for 1934 and 1935 alone.

Elizabeth Short was born July 29th, 1924, in Medford, Massachusetts, to Phoebe and Cleo Short. When she was five her father disappeared; his car was later found near a lake, apparently abandoned, which led to the belief that he had committed suicide. However, he later appeared at home and apologized to his wife for leaving the family like that. Nevertheless, she wouldn't take him back, and he left the family again and moved to the West Coast.

Elizabeth developed a passion for movies in her youth, and when she turned 19 she decided to visit her father in California. She stayed with him for a while, but it wasn't long before he kicked her out for "not doing anything with her life"; apparently he also wasn't enamored of the fact that Elizabeth was dating a lot of different men.

After moving out, Elizabeth traveled to Santa Barbara where she was arrested for underage drinking and sent back home to Massachusetts. She returned to southern California in 1946.

On January 15th, 1947, her body was found cut in half in a vacant lot in Leimert Park. It was assumed that she had died the previous day. The press named the crime "The Black Dahlia murder", mostly because of Elizabeth's dark hair and her practice of often times wearing black or dark clothing.

The murder started one of the most intense investigations in Los Angeles history, but although the police said they did have suspects, no arrests were ever made. The case still remains unsolved.

Born in Fort Worth, TX, in 1907, Adrienne Ames hit Hollywood in the late 1920s. Although her career only lasted about ten years, she crammed a lot of living into it--high-profile marriages (and divorces) and her reputation as a clothes horse and glamour queen par excellence far outshone her reputation as an actress.

In 1933 she married Bruce Cabot after leaving her second husband, a rich New York City stockbroker, but she and Cabot only lasted four years. In her divorce she told the court that the main reason she left him was that he was a violent, uncontrollable drunk. In 1938 the pair appeared before a US Tax Appeals Board to explain why she wrote off more than $9000 in wardrobe and jewelry on her 1934 tax form, which she claimed was necessary for "professional reasons" (as was her maid). She claimed that her "daily expenses" included flowers, massages, taxis and beauty work.

Her career lasted from 1929-40, during which she appeared in about 30 films, mostly "B" pictures. The best-known of her movies would probably be You're Telling Me! (1934) with W.C. Fields. After her film career ended she worked as a radio commentator.

She died in New York City in 1947 after a long illness.

Harry Holman was born on 15 March 1872 in Conway, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Meet John Doe (1941), The Dark Horse (1932) and Oliver Twist (1933). He died on 3 May 1947 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Lucile Gleason was born on 6 February 1888 in Pasadena, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Clock (1945), I Like It That Way (1934) and Should Husbands Work? (1939). She was married to James Gleason. She died on 18 May 1947 in Brentwood, California, USA.

Edward Alexander "Aleister" Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, philosopher, professional writer, and self-proclaimed prophet. In his youth, Crowley joined the occult organization Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887-1903), where he received much of his training in theurgy and ceremonial magic. In 1904, Crowley established his own religion: Thelema (Greek for "the will"). He had supposedly received a divine revelation from an angel. Crowley believed that humans should strive to overcome both their desires and their socially-instilled inhibitions in order to find out the true purpose of their respective lives. Several of Crowley's religious ideas went on to influence Wicca, the practice of chaos magick, Satanism, and Scientology.

In 1875, Crowley was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire to a wealthy family. His father was the retired engineer Edward Crowley (1829-1887), who was 46-years-old at the time of Crowley's birth. Edward had grown wealthy due to being the partial owner of a successful brewery. Cowley's mother was Emily Bertha Bishop (1848-1917), a member of a somewhat prominent family whose members lived in both Devonshire and Somerset.

Crowley's parents were converts of the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian fundamentalist movement whose members believed that the Bible is the only authority for church doctrine and practice. Crowley received his early education at an evangelical boarding school located in Hastings. He was then send to the Ebor preparatory school in Cambridge. The boy grew to hate the abusive Reverend Henry d'Arcy Champney, who inflicted sadistic punishments on his students. Crowley eventually dropped out of this school, due to health problems. The boy had developed albuminuria, a urine disease.

By the time he was 12, Crowley was skeptical about Christianity and its teachings. Years of bible study had resulted in Crowley realizing and memorizing the inconsistencies in the Bible. He eagerly pointed these to his religious teachers. In his teen years, Crowley largely rejected Christian morality. He felt the need to satisfy his sexual urges, and did not view this need as immoral. He received college lessons in chemistry, and started writing poetry as a hobby. In his early 20s, Crowley was also a chess enthusiast, and an increasingly skilled mountaineer. In 1894, Crowley joined the Scottish Mountaineering Club. In 1895, Crowley climbed the peaks of five mountains in the Bernese Alps.

By 1895, Crowley started using his nickname "Aleister" as his legal name. From 1895 to 1898, Crowley attended Trinity College, Cambridge. He studied primarily philosophy and literature. He was the president of the local chess club, and briefly considered pursuing a career as a professional chess player. In 1896, Crowley had his first sexual experience with another man while vacationing in Stockholm, Sweden. He would later embrace his bisexuality. He had sexual sexual relationships with various men while living in Cambridge, though such activities were illegal in Victorian England. In 1897, Crowley started a romantic relationship with the on-stage female impersonator (drag queen) Herbert Charles Pollitt (1871-1942). They eventually broke up because Pollitt refused to join his boyfriend in his studies of mysticism and occultism. Crowley later wrote several texts concerning his lifelong regrets about ending his relationship with Pollitt.

In 1898, Crowley dropped out of Cambridge. He maintained excellent grades, but he lost interest in actually pursuing a degree. Also in 1898, Crowley published two volumes of his poems. Shortly after leaving Cambridge, the novice occultist Crowley started hanging out with members of the occultist organization Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887-1903). He was formally initiated into the organization in November 1898. His initiation ritual was performed by the organization's de facto leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854 -1918). Crowley grew to consider Mathers to be an ineffectual leader.

In the late 1890s, Crowley received training in ceremonial magic by more experienced members of the Golden Dawn. He was fascinated with the ritual use of drugs. He rose through the organization's ranks, but was soon refused entry into the group's inner Second Order. The openly bisexual and libertine Crowley was disliked by several conservative members of the organization. Crowley had started a feud with a fellow member, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). Yeats' friends resented Crowley.

A schism eventually started within the Golden Dawn, between Mathers' supporters and the members who disliked Mathers' autocratic policies. Crowley chose to support Mathers, and tried to take over one of the organization's temples in the name of Mathers. The dispute resulted in a court case between the rival factions of the Golden Dawn, over ownership of the temple. Mathers lost the court case, and Crowley started being treated as a pariah by members of the winning faction.

In 1900, Crowley decided to migrate to Mexico. He settled in Mexico City, where he experimented with the Enochian invocations of the famed occultist and alchemist John Dee (1527-1608/1609). His mountaineering activities led him to reach the top of several Mexican mountains, such as Iztaccihuatl, Popocatepetl, and Colima. After leaving Mexico, Crowley started traveling the world in search of new experiences. He visited California, Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, and France. Crowley took part in a failed mountaineering expedition that attempted to reach the peak of K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth. The expedition reached an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters). They abandon the attempt to reach the peak, as Crowley and several other expedition members were suffering from malaria.

In August 1903, Crowley married Rose Edith Kelly (1874-1932), the sister of one of his close friends. It was a marriage of convenience, not love. Rose wanted to escape an arranged marriage, and was fleeing from domineering family members. Her brother viewed the marriage as a personal betrayal by Crowley. The couple took an extended honeymoon. In February 1904, the couple settled in Cairo Egypt. Crowley started invoking ancient Egyptian deities in magical ceremonies. He also took the opportunity to study Islamic mysticism.

In early April 1904, Crowley started listening to the disembodied voice of the angel Aiwass. It supposedly delivered to Crowley messages from the god Horus, concerning a new age for humanity. Crowley recorded his divine revelations in "The Book of the Law", the first publication of Thelema. The disembodied voice supposedly also requested a number of difficult tasks from Crowley, who simply chose to ignore them as unreasonable demands.

In 1905, Crowley returned to his private estate in Scotland, for the first time in several years. He renounced his former mentor Mathers, as Crowley was convinced that the old man was conspiring against him. Crowley established his own printing company, the "Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth". He chose the name to mock a Christian charity organization, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1698-). The primary purpose of the company was the promotion of Crowley's literary works. By this point, Crowley was relatively famous as a poet. Several of his poems were favorably received by critics, but they never sold well.

Crowley soon resumed world traveling. He led a failed mountaineering expedition to climb the mountain Kanchenjunga in Nepal. Crowley faced a mutiny over his reckless behavior during the expedition. He returned to India, then made an extended tour of Southern China. He also visited Hanoi in Vietnam. He worked on a new ritual while in China, invoking his Holy Guardian Angel. He proceeded to travel through Japan and Canada, and visited New York City in a failed effort to secure funding for a new mountaineering expedition.

Crowley's return to the United Kingdom came with a nasty surprise for him. He learned that his first-born daughter Lilith Crowley had died of typhoid fever during his absence. He also realized that his wife Rose was struggling with alcoholism, and that she was probably not fit to be a parent. His own health was failing at the time, and he underwent a series of surgical operations.

In 1907, Crowley started regularly using hashish in his magic rituals. In 1909, he published an essay concerning the mystical aspects of hashish use. He published several books concerning the occult during the late 1900s. The family fortune which he had inherited was running out at the time, and he tried to secure additional funds. At one point, Crowley was hired by George Montagu Bennett, the Earl of Tankerville, to protect him from evil witchcraft. Crowley realized that Tankerville was a cocaine-addict suffering from paranoia, so Crowley just improvised a drug rehabilitation project for his employer.

In 1908, Crowley realized that horror short stories were selling much better than poetry. So he published a series of his own horror stories. He also became a regular writer for a weekly magazine, the so-called "Vanity Fair" (1868-1914). In 1909, Crowley established his own magazine, "The Equinox" (1909-1998). The magazine specialized in texts about occultism and magick, but also regularly published poetry, prose fiction, and biographies.

In 1909, Crowley divorced his wife Rose, as he was fed-up with her drinking binges. Rose was institutionalized in 1911.In November 1909, Crowley started a long journey through the deserts of Algeria. He chose to recite the Quran on a daily basis while living in the desert. At one point, Crowley offered a blood sacrifice to the demon Choronzon while still in Algeria. He returned to London in January 1910, to find that his old mentor Mather was suing him for publishing secret texts of the defunct Golden Dawn. Crowley both won the court case, and enjoyed the publicity which the case brought him. The yellow press was portraying him as a Satanist, and Crowley found it amusing to embrace various stereotypes about Satanism at the time.

In 1910, Crowley organized the Rites of Artemis, a public performance of magic and symbolism. All the performers were associates and followers of Crowley. The celebrations received favorable reviews from the press. The encouraged Crowley soon organized the Rites of Eleusis in Westminster, but this performance received mostly negative reviews. There were press reports at the time that Crowley was homosexual, but the authorities made no attempt to arrest him. Crowley devoted the next couple of years to his writing activities, completing 19 works on magic and mysticism in this period. He also continued publishing poetry and fiction.

In 1912, Crowley published the magical book "The Book of Lies", one of his best-reviewed works. Crowley found himself accused of plagiarizing the works of the German occultist Theodor Reuss (1855-1923), based on the similarities between their ideas. Crowley managed to convince Reuss that the similarities were coincidental, and befriended Reuss in the process. Crowley was then initiated in Reuss' own occult organization, the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). With Reuss' permission, Crowley established a British branch of the organization and completely rewrote most of the organization's rituals. OTO was practicing sex magic, and Crowley liked that idea.

In 1913, Crowley served as the producer for a group of female violinists. Primarily because the group's leader was a close friend and lover of Crowley. He followed them during 6 weeks of performances in Moscow, Russia. Crowley wrote several new works while in Moscow. In January 1914, Crowley and his long-term lover Victor Neuburg settled together in a Parisian apartment. The couple experimented with sex magic rituals, which involved the use of strong drugs. At the time, Crowley regularly invoked the Roman gods Jupiter and Mercury in his new rituals. Noticing that Neuburg had started distancing himself from Crowley by the end of their vacation in Paris, Crowley had an intense argument with him and ritually cursed Neuburg.

By 1914, Crowley was nearly bankrupt. He financially depended on donation by his followers. In May 1914, he transferred the ownership of his estate in Scotland. Later that year, Crowley suffered from a bout of phlebitis. Following his recovery, he decided to migrate to the United States for financial reasons. He settled in New York City, where he became a regular writer for the American version of the magazine "Vanity Fair" (1913-1936). He continued experimenting with sex magic while living in the Big Apple.

During World War I, Crowley declared his support for the German Empire against the British Empire. His sympathies were possibly influenced by his German friends in the OTO. In 1915, Crowley was hired as a writer for the propagandist newspaper "The Fatherland", which championed German interests in the United States. Crowley left New York City for a while, going on an extended tour of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. He visited Vancouver to make contact with the local variation of the OTO. Crowley spend part of the winter of 1916 in New Orleans, which was his favorite American city. In February 1917, Crowley headed to Florida for a family reunion with a number of his evangelical Christian relatives who had settled there.

Later in 1917, Crowley returned to New York City. He struggled with unemployment, as several of the newspapers and magazines which had previously hired him had shut down. In 1918, Crowley worked on a new translation of the Taoist book "Tao Te Ching". At the time, Crowley claimed to have started experiencing past life memories. Fueled by his belief in reincarnation, Crowley proclaimed himself to be a reincarnation of Pope Alexander VI/Rodrigo de Borja (1431-1503, term 1492-1503). Having more free time than usual while living in Greenwich Village, Crowley found a new hobby in painting. He exhibited several of his painting at a local literary club, and attracted some attention from the local press.

In 1919, the impoverished Crowley moved back to London. The local press labeled a traitor for his Germanophile tendencies. He was suffering from asthma attacks at the time. An English doctor prescribed a supposedly miraculous drug for Crowley, which promised to cure his asthma. The drug was actually heroine, and was highly addictive. Crowley developed a drug addiction. In January 1920, Crowley moved to the Parisian apartment of his lover Leah Hirsig. While there, he started efforts to establish a new organization, the Abbey of Thelema. He named it after a fictional organization which had appeared in the works of Francois Rabelais (c. 1483-1553).

In April 1920, Crowley settled in Sicily with a number of his supporters and their families. They established the Abbey of Thelema. They established daily rituals for the sun god Ra. Crowley offered a libertine education for the children of his followers, and allowed them to witness sex magic rituals. The organization soon attracted new followers, but Crowley's drug addiction was increasingly out of control. In 1922, Crowley published the autobiographical novel "Diary of a Drug Fiend". The British press criticized it for supposedly promoting the use of drugs.

In 1923, Crowley was at the center of an international scandal. A young Thelemite follower died from a liver infection, after drinking polluted water. His widow published stories of the unsanitary conditions in the Abbey, and of self-harm rituals which Crowley had created for his followers. The international press published scathing stories for Crowley. Benito Mussolini, the fascist Prime Minister of Italy (1883-1945, term 1922-1943) decided to deport Crowley in April 1923. The Abbey was not officially targeted by the fascist government, but it soon collapsed due to its lack of leadership. There was no way to attract more followers of Crowley to Sicily without using Crowley's physical presence as a tool for recruitment.

In self-exile in Tunis during much of 1923, Crowley started working on his autobiography, "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley". In January 1924, Crowley moved back to France in preparation for a series of nasal operations. For the next few years, Crowley spend part of each year in Tunis and part of each year in France. He wrote a few significant works at the time, though some of his personal relationships deteriorated.

In the mid-1920s, Crowley declared himself to be the new leader of the OTO, following the death of Reuss. His right to leadership was questioned by other candidate leaders,. The OTO soon split itself to several rival factions, each proclaiming itself to be the true continuation of the original organization. In 1928, Crowley was deported from France. Due to Crowley's past loyalty to the German Empire, the French authorities worried that he may be a German agent.

In 1929, Crowley moved back to the United Kingdom. He secured a book deal with Mandrake Press, which agreed to publish his autobiography and several works of prose fiction. The Great Depression negatively affected Crowley. In November 1930, Mandrake went into liquidation. Crowley was left with no regular published for his works, and no regular source of income. Crowley spend part of the year 1930 in Berlin, Germany, where his expressionistic paintings were displayed in a gallery. His works gained favorable press reviews, but few of them were actually sold. Painting was not a profitable occupation for Crowley.

In January 1932, Crowley started socializing with German communists and other far left figures in Berlin, despite having never previously expressed any interest in their ideologies. Some of his biographers suspect that Crowley was merely acting as a spy for British intelligence at this time. Later that year, he returned to London for another nasal surgery. In desperate need of money, Crowley launched a series of court cases for libel against his perceived enemies. The litigation proved more expensive than he expected, and he was declared bankrupt in February 1935. The bankruptcy case revealed that Crowley's expenses over the past few years had far exceeded his income.

In 1936, Crowley published "The Equinox of the Gods". It was his first new book in half a decade, and sold unusually well. Crowley also managed to secure funding from the Agape Lodge, a Californian splinter faction of the OTO. His benefactor was the Lodge's de facto leader, the rocket engineer Jack Parsons (1914-1952). Crowley was concerned at the time about the disestablishment of the German faction of the OTO, whose members faced persecution by the Nazi Party. Several of Crowley's German friends had been arrested, and others had fled the country.

During World War II, Crowley was closely associated with the British intelligence community. His biographers are uncertain whether he was working as a British agent, or merely assisting actual agents. Among Crowley's close associates during the War were two fellow British writers who were working as intelligence agents: Roald Dahl (1916-1990) and Ian Fleming (1908-1964). Crowley supposedly helped create a new war slogan for the BBC, called "V for Victory". His asthma attacks worsened during the war, in part because the medication he needed was unavailable. He was briefly hospitalized in Torquay. Among Crowley's last published works was a wartime book about the concept of human rights.

On December 1, 1947, Crowley died due to chronic bronchitis, aggravated by pleurisy. He was 72-years-old at the time of his death. Despite Crowley maintaining several friendly and professional contacts during the last years of his life, only about a dozen people bothered to attend his funeral. His body was cremated, and his ashes were delivered to the next leader of the OTO, Karl Gemer. Gemer was living at the time in exile in the United States. Gemer buried Crowley's ashes in a garden located in Hampton, New Jersey. Crowley remains one of the most famous and influential occultists of his era, thought the nature of his legacy remains a controversial topic.

In his earlier days, Halliday seems to have relished the life of an adventurer. At one time he fought with the British Army during the Boer War. As a mining engineer he then dug for gold nuggets in Nevada, rapidly made a fortune and lost it as quickly. He eventually switched to the more peaceful pursuit of acting, initially in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, then in dramatic plays on Broadway from 1912 to 1936 (lastly in "Tovarich", as Prince Alexandrovitch). Though Brooklyn-born, Halliday was raised in England and often adopted an upper-crust British accent. An incisive and debonair actor with a penchant for sophisticated comedy, he received good reviews as co-star of The Woman Accused (1933) with Cary Grant and Nancy Carroll. He was very much at home playing caddish bon vivants, gleeful villains (such as in Terror Aboard (1933)) or wily arch rogues (notably Desire (1936) with Marlene Dietrich). Halliday had another pivotal role in Intermezzo (1939) and was then cast to best advantage as Katharine Hepburn's charming philanderer of a father in The Philadelphia Story (1940). He died in Honolulu, Hawaii, from a heart ailment in October 1947 at the age of 67.

Dour-faced US character player in films for more than two decades from 1923, often in portrayals of peace officers such as judges and lawmen. Even at his most elderly, he could frequently be seen as a white-haired, uniformed policeman - often affecting an Irish accent to boot.

Christine Maple was born Christine Raphael on November 16, 1912 in Belle-Plaine, Kansas. When she was a child her parents divorced. Her mother remarried and they moved to Los Angeles. Christine started competing in beauty pageants and was a finalist in the Elks National Convention bathing beauty contest. In 1930 she made her film debut in the Charley Chase short Fifty Million Husbands. She also appeared as a dancer in the musical Whoopee. Florenz Ziegfeld hired her to star in the Ziegfeld Follies and gave her the title of "Miss Universe". During the show she shocked audiences by appearing on stage completely nude. She was romantically involved with violinist Enric Madriguera and plastic surgeon Dr. Morton Berson (who fixed her nose). Christine became known for wearing low-cut evening dresses and telling outrageous lies about her life. She once claimed that her father was a British duke. In December of 1933 she was arrested after causing a scene on train in Switzerland.

A few months later the wife of millionaire Martino De Alzaga Unzue accused her of being "too friendly" with her husband. She made headlines in April of 1935 when she got into a fight with a cab driver after refusing to pay her bill. Her mother said she had a nervous breakdown and sent her to a sanitarium. Christine signed a contract with Republic pictures in 1936 and appeared in the westerns The Big Show and Roarin' Lead. She went to Australia in 1938 to appear in a stage production of The Women. Unfortunately she had to leave the show when she became very ill. She suffered another nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized in 1943. After being released she moved to Langhorne, Pennsylvania and worked in a department store. Tragically on January 12, 1947 she committed suicide by hanging herself. Christine was only thirty-four years old. Her body was cremated and her ashes were given to her family.

Bugsy Siegel (born Benjamin Siegelbaum) came out of the tough Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn, and was involved in criminal activities from an early age. As a teenager he struck up a friendship with another local gangster, Meyer Lansky, that would last the rest of their lives, and in fact one of their first business dealings together was the formation of a gang of local toughs called the "Bugs and Meyer Mob". Siegel, unlike many of his contemporaries, didn't fit the stereotype of a typical gangster. He was tall, had thick wavy hair, movie-star good looks and clear, piercing blue eyes. While Lansky - as always - was the brains and financial genius behind the mob, Siegel was the brawn, always preferring to use his fists, his knife or his gun whenever an obstacle appeared, and soon got a reputation as a vicious and fearless killer. It was during this period that he acquired the nickname "Bugsy". While that name often was used as a term of respect or honor, in Siegel's case it was used as a synonym for "crazy" in recognition of his penchant for explosive, senseless violence (he hated the nickname and was known to physically assault anyone unwise enough to use it in his presence).

Siegel is most famous for his transformation of Las Vegas, Nevada, into a gambling mecca, although in reality that isn't quite true. Gambling had been legal in Nevada for quite some time and there were already gambling establishments in Las Vegas when Siegel got there. A Los Angeles businessman was trying to build a huge luxury hotel and casino to which he was hoping to attract wealthy film-industry and businesspeople from Los Angeles, but he was running into financial problems. Siegel, who had been unsuccessfully trying to gain a foothold in the gambling business in Las Vegas, seized the opportunity and bought a controlling interest in the project. He renamed the hotel "The Flamingo", after his nickname for his girlfriend, actress Virginia Hill. Siegel convinced many of his organized-crime friends and associates to put both the mob's money and their own into the venture, and he soon had more than a million dollars to work with. Unfortunately, Siegel's lack of business experience and his unfamiliarity with Las Vegas and the construction industry in general resulted in huge overruns as costs escalated, much of it due to theft, double-billing and other fraudulent business practices by many of the resort's contractors and suppliers. Soon the estimated price tag of the complex had ballooned from $1 million to $6 million, with no end in sight and no revenue coming in. The casino finally opened at the end of 1946, but opening night was a disaster. The weather was awful and kept many potential customers away, few of the locals showed up, and since the hotel wasn't finished yet, the customers who did gamble there took their lodgings at several of the other downtown casinos, thereby cutting into the hotel's profits on food and services. A few days after it opened the Flamingo was basically empty, and shortly thereafter Siegel closed it in order to finish up the hotel.

Siegel's mob "friends" were furious and wanted to put out a contract on his life, but were persuaded by Siegel's friend Lansky to let him have more time to finish the complex. In March the hotel was finally finished and the casino opened up again, and since gamblers were now able to stay in the hotel and avail themselves of food and entertainment in addition to the gambling, the casino began to make money, By the middle of 1947 it was showing a $250,000 profit for the year.

However, if Siegel thought he was off the hook, he was mistaken. On June 20, 1947, he was sitting on the couch at his home in Beverly Hills when gunmen standing outside his living room window opened fire on him. He was killed instantly. Although it has never been established who had ordered the hit, conventional wisdom is that his mob associates, even though they were now making money from the casino, were still angry with him for the financial losses they incurred during the construction phase, especially since much of the money came out of their own pockets.

Peter Robinson was born the son of Norwegian immigrants. He stated that during his childhood, he had a normal appearance until his early teens when his weight began to drop rapidly. He first went on exhibition in 1895, working at Coney Island and later Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Robinson was married twice, both times to circus fat ladies. He married "Sweet Adaline" la France, his co-star in the Blue Ribbon Show in 1914. At the time of their marriage in Troy, New York, Pete (then known as "The Cigarette Fiend") was just 49 pounds and Adeline was 600. In fact, she was too large to enter the courtroom, so the judge performed the ceremony in the hallway. They honeymooned in Niagara Falls, but the marriage did not last.

In 1916, while with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. 37-year old, 58 lb. Robinson married for the second time at Madison Square Garden to 18-year-old Helen "Bunny" Smith (1898-1951). a 467-pound Coney Island fat lady. Bunny later related that he had been involved with no fewer than eight fat women before he married her. In their circus act, Pete played to a patriotic audience during World War I by claiming that Bunny had tried to fatten him up with her cooking so he could serve in the Army, although in reality he was too old for the service.

Apparently, over the years, the two were "married" over and over again for circus promotions purposes, and as an example, here is an article from the Indiana Evening Gazette dated November 26, 1924, eight years after they were originally married:

"The living skeleton has married the fat lady. Pete Robinson, who is 45 years old and weighs 58 pounds soaking wet, and Baby Bunny Smith, aged 23, weight 467, got the necessary papers and were married in the Municipal Building. The bridegroom wore a striped shirt, one stripe on each side. The witnesses were Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Harris, in whose home the bride and bridegroom have occupied rooms. Living skeletons have been marrying fat ladies in circuses ever since Barnum had a show. The romance of Baby and Pete started in a Barnum & Bailey show eight years ago. Mrs. Harris said to reporters after giving the newlyweds her blessing, 'I never had easier people to feed. They are wonderful. She makes up for what he leaves. And he makes up for what she doesn't do. They are certainly ideally suited.'"

Pete and Bunny seemed to find true love together, as friends reported that they were quite devoted to each other, and eventually had two children. They entertained crowds with a comical couples' dance on the Coney Island sideshow stage called Dreamland, and in 1928, Pete toured with a revue called "A Night at Coney Island," which performed at vaudeville theaters around the country, a rare experiment in those days.

Robinson only screen appearance was in Tod Browning's Freaks (1932) as a circus performer who is overjoyed as he celebrates the fact that his wife, the Bearded Lady (Olga Roderick) has just given birth to their child, who is also bearded. By all accounts, his character in the film, the chatty, good-natured fellow who plays poker in the back of the tent and celebrates his baby's birth with a round of fine cigars, was not much of a stretch for Pete. He was a jovial man who loved to stubbornly argue about politics, and was rumored to be a classically trained Shakespearian actor and an expert harmonica player.

Pete Robinson died in 1947 at the age of 72.

Arthur Rankin was born on 30 August 1896 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for To Have and to Hold (1922), The Great Adventure (1921) and The Truth About Husbands (1920). He was married to Marian Mansfield and Mignon Audrey Klemm. He died on 23 March 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Herman Bing was born on 30 March 1889 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was an actor and assistant director, known for The Great Waltz (1938), Redheads on Parade (1935) and Sweethearts (1938). He was married to Carla Lichtenstein. He died on 9 January 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Strongman who won role of Maciste in Cabiria (1914), and took the character's name as his own stage name in a series of films for the next 14 years. After Pagano's death, the character of Maciste was played by several other actors.

Brandon Hurst was born on 30 November 1866 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and Love (1927). He died on 15 July 1947 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Pearl Argyle was born on 7 November 1910 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was an actress, known for Chu Chin Chow (1934), Things to Come (1936) and Adventure Ltd. (1935). She was married to Curtis Bernhardt. She died on 29 January 1947 in New York City, New York, USA.

Grace Moore, the internationally famous star of the Metropolitan Opera, Broadway, motion pictures, radio and recordings, was born December 5, 1898, in Del Río near Newport, Tennessee. Her family moved to Jellico when she was a young girl. She attended Jellico High School where she was captain of the girls basketball team in 19l6. She was selected by Florenz Ziegfeld of Ziegfeld Follies fame as one of the ten most beautiful women in the world. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her motion picture, "One Night of Love", and was the subject of a movie titled, "So This is Love", in which Kathryn Grayson portrayed the "Tennessee Nightingale", as Grace was called. She died tragically in an airplane crash in 1947 at the height of her career.

George Lessey was born on 8 June 1875 in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Corsican Brothers (1915), The Evil Dead (1922) and His Own Story (1916). He was married to May Abbey. He died on 3 June 1947 in Westbrook, Connecticut, USA.

Georg von Trapp was born on 4 April 1880 in Zara, Dalmatia, Austria. He was married to Maria von Trapp and Agathe Whitehead. He died on 30 May 1947 in Stowe, Vermont, USA.