THE COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1790 IS INSTITUTED IN THE USA

Copyright Act of 1790

Today, The Grandma is creating new material for her courses. She has wanted to have more information about Copyright Laws and Laws of Author because they are changing constantly and it is very important to respect the authors of works before including them in your own manuals.

The Grandma loves sharing information without any kind of legal restriction. She thinks that Internet must be a free place to share knowledge and information and it will not be the best place if its users start to forbid the access to information or if Internet becomes a place to do business losing the original idea of sharing information waiting for nothing in return.

This free concept of Internet is the best reason because of The Grandma uses Wikipedia to refill her posts. Wikipedia is a free space, a great web created with the effort of thousands of people in different languages with posts that have a great reputation in a high percentage.

The Copyright Act of 1790 was the first federal copyright act to be instituted in the United States, though most of the states had passed various legislation securing copyrights in the years immediately following the Revolutionary War.

The stated object of the act was the encouragement of learning, and it achieved this by securing authors the sole right and liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing and vending the copies of their maps, charts, and books for a term of 14 years, with the right to renew for one additional 14-year term should the copyright holder still be alive.

The 1710 British Statute of Anne did not apply to the American colonies. The colonies' economy was largely agrarian, hence copyright law was not a priority, resulting in only three private copyright acts being passed in America prior to 1783. Two of the acts were limited to seven years, the other was limited to a term of five years.

In 1783 a committee of the Continental Congress concluded that nothing is more properly a man's own an the fruit of his study, and that the protection and security of literary property would greatly tends to encourage genius and to promote useful discoveries.

But under the Articles of Confederation, the Continental Congress had no authority to issue copyright; instead it passed a resolution encouraging the States to secure to the authors or publishers of any new book not hitherto printed... the copy right of such books for a certain time not less than fourteen years from the first publication; and to secure to the said authors, if they shall survive the term first mentioned,... the copy right of such books for another term of time no less than fourteen years.

Copyright Act of 1790, Section 1

Three states had already enacted copyright statutes in 1783 prior to the Continental Congress resolution, and in the subsequent three years all of the remaining states except Delaware passed a copyright statute. Seven of the States followed the Statute of Anne and the Continental Congress' resolution by providing two fourteen-year terms. The five remaining States granted copyright for single terms of fourteen, twenty and twenty-one years, with no right of renewal.

At the Constitutional Convention 1787 both James Madison of Virginia and Charles C. Pinckney of South Carolina submitted proposals that would allow Congress the power to grant copyright for a limited time. These proposals are the origin of the Copyright Clause in the United States Constitution, which allows the granting of copyright and patents for a limited time to serve a utilitarian function, namely to promote the progress of science and useful arts.

During the first session of the 1st United States Congress in 1789, the House of Representative considered enacting a copyright law. The historian Davit Ramsay petitioned congress seeking to restrict the publication of his History of the American Revolution on April 15.

Congressmen Thomas Tudor Tucker, Alexander White, and Benjamin Huntington examined his claims and a copyright committee consisting of Huntington, Lambert Cadwalader, and Benjamin Contee began drafting the legislation on April 20. Jedidiah Morse, Nicholas Pike, and Hannah Adams each also petitioned Congress with their interests in restricting the printing of texts. Their bill moved to the Committee of the Whole House in June, but the matter was postponed in anticipation of the first recess, to be taken up again when the House reconvened.

Both houses of Congress pursued a copyright law more pointedly during 1790's second session. They responded to President George Washington's 1790 State of the Union Address, in which he urged Congress to pass legislation designed for the promotion of Science and Literature so as to better educate the public. This led to the Patent Act of 1790 and, shortly thereafter, the Copyright Act of 1790.

More information: United States Copyright Office

The scope of what works would be covered by the law's exclusivity was contended in the House. When he reintroduced the matter, Aedanus Burke wanted to establish a first law about copyright regarding literary property, but Alexander White called for the expansion of copyright beyond writings on the behalf of Jedidiah Morse, who wrote to Congress in fear that unauthorized copying of his American Geography would hurt his business.

The need to re-raise the copyright issue, among other items left unresolved at the end of the first session, required the House to clarify some order of business problems over whether or not they could reopen unfinished business from a previous session. That settled, the House established a drafting committee for the law on February 1, chaired by Abraham Baldwin. Eventually, the House passed a copyright bill and passed it to the Senate.

The Senate also deliberated on Copyright after the President's speech. On May 14, the Senate passed an amended version of the bill sent to them by the House. The House accepted their amendment on May 18 and the bill passed to the President.

 

George Washington

The bill was signed into law on May 31, 1790 by George Washington and published in its entirety throughout the country shortly after.

The Act granted copyright for a term of fourteen years from the time of recording the title thereof, with a right of renewal for another fourteen years if the author survived to the end of the first term. It restricted books, maps, and charts. Although musical composition were not mentioned in the text of the act, and would not be expressly covered by copyright until the Copyright Act of 1831, they were routinely registered under the 1790 Act as books. The Act also did not mention paintings or drawings, which were not covered until the enactment of the Copyright Act of 1870.

The Act was copied almost verbatim from the 1709 British Statute of Anne. The first sentences of the two laws are almost identical. Both require registration in order for a work to receive copyright protection; similarly, both require that copies of the work be deposited in officially designated repositories such as the Library of Congress in the United States, and the Oxford and Cambridge universities in the United Kingdom.

The Statute of Anne and the Copyright Act of 1790 both provided for an initial term of 14 years, renewable once by living authors for an additional 14 years, for works not yet published.

The Statute of Anne differed from the 1790 Act, however, in providing a 21-year term of restriction, with no option for renewal, for works already published at the time the law went into effect (1710). The 1790 Act only offered a 14-year term for previously published works.

More information: Association of Research Libraries

The Copyright Act of 1790 applied exclusively to citizens of the United States. Non-citizens and material printed outside the United States could not be granted any copyright protection until the International Copyright Act of 1891. Consequently, Charles Dickens sometimes complained about cheap American knockoffs of his work for which he received no royalty.

At the time, works only received protection under federal statutory copyright if the statutory formalities, such as a proper copyright notice, were satisfied. If this was not the case, the work immediately entered into the public domain. In 1834 the Supreme Court ruled in Wheaton v. Peters, a case similar to the British Donaldson v Beckett of 1774, that although the author of an unpublished work had a common law right to control the first publication of that work, the author did not have a common law right to control reproduction following the first publication of the work.

The Act was first amended on April 29, 1802, extending copyright restriction to etchings and, for the first time, requiring notice of copyright registration on copies of the works. The Act did not specify a consequence of failing to include that notice; however, the federal case Ewer v. Coxe established that the failure to include notice invalidated a copyright.

The Act was also amended on February 15, 1819 to expand the jurisdiction of circuit courts, analogous to today's district courts, to allow them to hear cases on patents and copyrights.

More information: U.S. National Archives

The most important thing about intellectual

property vs. creative expression is that 

copyright law was created not to stifle creativity 

but to encourage creativity.

Shepard Fairey

JOSEF MENGELE IN 'ZIGEUNERFAMILIENLAGER', 1943

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland

Today, The Grandma has gone to the library. She is going to search more information about one the most horrible figures of the last century, Josef Mengele, the nazi doctor who experimented with prisoners in Auschwitz concentration camp and selected victims to be killed in the gas chambers.

Josef Mengele wasn't prosecuted because he could escape from allies and he could have a normal life in South America. There are lots of questions without answers about these terrible events of our recent past. Many nazi scientists could escape from European justices and "disappear" in South America and Spain.

The Grandma is very interested in knowing more things about the Paper Clip Operation and she reclaims reading about Josef Mengele to not forget the horror of the nazism, especially nowadays, when this movement is increasing dangerously in Europe again.

Josef Mengele (16 March 1911-7 February 1979) was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and physician in Auschwitz concentration camp during WWII.

He performed deadly human experiments on prisoners and was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be killed in the gas chambers. Arrivals that were judged able to work were admitted into the camp, while those deemed unsuitable for labor were sent to the gas chambers to be killed. With Red Army troops sweeping through Poland, Mengele was transferred 280 kilometers from Auschwitz to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp on 17 January 1945, just ten days before the arrival of the Soviet forces at Auschwitz. After the war, he fled to South America where he evaded capture for the rest of his life.

Before the war, Mengele had received doctorates in anthropology and medicine, and began a career as a researcher. He joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the SS in 1938. He was assigned as a battalion medical officer at the start of World War II, then transferred to the Nazi concentration camps service in early 1943 and assigned to Auschwitz, where he saw the opportunity to conduct genetic research on human subjects. His subsequent experiments focused primarily on twins, with little regard for the health or safety of the victims.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland

Mengele sailed to Argentina in July 1949, assisted by a network of former SS members. He initially lived in and around Buenos Aires, then fled to Paraguay in 1959 and Brazil in 1960, while being sought by West Germany, Israel, and Nazi hunters such as Simon Wiesenthal who wanted to bring him to trial.

He eluded capture in spite of extradition requests by the West German government and clandestine operations by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. He drowned in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming off the Brazilian coast, and was buried under a false name. His remains were disinterred and positively identified by forensic examination in 1985.

The ideology of Nazism brought together elements of antisemitism, racial hygiene, and eugenics, and combined them with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism with the goal of obtaining more Lebensraum -living space- for the Germanic people.

Nazi Germany attempted to obtain this new territory by attacking Poland and the Soviet Union, intending to deport or kill the Jews and Slavs living there, who were considered by the Nazis to be inferior to the Aryan master race.

More information: CIA

In 1942, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), originally intended to house slave laborers, began to be used instead as a combined labour camp and extermination camp. Prisoners were transported there by rail from all over German-occupied Europe, arriving in daily convoys.

By July 1942, SS doctors were conducting selections where incoming Jews were segregated, and those considered able to work were admitted into the camp while those deemed unfit for labor were immediately killed in the gas chambers. The arrivals that were selected to die, about three-quarters of the total, included almost all children, women with small children, pregnant women, all the elderly, and all of those who appeared, in a brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor, to be not completely fit and healthy.

In 1943, Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Zigeunerfamilienlager (Romani family camp) at Auschwitz concentration camp.

Mengele used Auschwitz as an opportunity to continue his anthropological studies and research into heredity, using inmates for human experimentation. His medical procedures showed no consideration for the health, safety, or physical and emotional suffering of the victims.

He was particularly interested in identical twins, people with heterochromia iridum, eyes of two different colors, dwarfs, and people with physical abnormalities. A grant was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation), at the request of von Verschuer, who received regular reports and shipments of specimens from Mengele. 

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland

The grant was used to build a pathology laboratory attached to Crematorium II at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

The twin research was in part intended to prove the supremacy of heredity over environment and thus strengthen the Nazi premise of the superiority of the Aryan race. The twin studies may also have been motivated by an intention to increase the reproduction rate of the German race by improving the chances of racially desirable people having twins.

Mengele's research subjects were better fed and housed than the other prisoners, and temporarily spared from execution in the gas chambers. He established a kindergarten for children who were the subjects of his experiments, as well as the preschool children from the Romani camp. The facility provided better food and living conditions than other areas of the camp, and included a children's playground.

When visiting his young subjects, he introduced himself as Uncle Mengele and offered them sweets, while at the same time being personally responsible for the deaths of an unknown number of victims whom he killed via lethal injection, shootings, beatings, and his deadly experiments.

More information: The New York Times

In his 1986 book, Lifton describes Mengele as sadistic, lacking empathy, and extremely antisemitic, believing the Jews should be eliminated entirely as an inferior and dangerous race. Rolf Mengele later claimed that his father had shown no remorse for his wartime activities.

Along with several other Auschwitz doctors, Mengele transferred to Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Lower Silesia on 17 January 1945, taking with him two boxes of specimens and the records of his experiments at Auschwitz. Most of the camp medical records had already been destroyed by the SS by the time the Red Army liberated Auschwitz on 27 January.

Mengele fled Gross-Rosen on 18 February, a week before the Soviets arrived there, and traveled westward to Žatec in Czechoslovakia, disguised as a Wehrmacht officer. There he temporarily entrusted his incriminating documents to a nurse with whom he had struck up a relationship. He and his unit then hurried west to avoid being captured by the Soviets, but were taken prisoners of war by the Americans in June 1945.

 

Liberation Day. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland

Although Mengele was initially registered under his own name, he was not identified as being on the major war criminal list due to the disorganization of the Allies regarding the distribution of wanted lists, and the fact that he did not have the usual SS blood group tattoo. He was released at the end of July and obtained false papers under the name Fritz Ullman, documents he later altered to read Fritz Hollmann. After several months on the run, including a trip back to the Soviet-occupied area to recover his Auschwitz records, Mengele found work near Rosenheim as a farmhand.

He eventually escaped from Germany on 17 April 1949, convinced that his capture would mean a trial and death sentence. Assisted by a network of former SS members, he used the ratline to travel to Genoa, where he obtained a passport from the International Committee of the Red Cross under the alias Helmut Gregor, and sailed to Argentina in July 1949. His wife refused to accompany him, and they divorced in 1954.

In May 1960, Isser Harel, director of Mossad -the Israeli intelligence agency-, personally led the successful effort to capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires. He was also hoping to track down Mengele, so that he too could be brought to trial in Israel.

More information: The Local

Under interrogation, Eichmann provided the address of a boarding house that had been used as a safe house for Nazi fugitives. Surveillance of the house did not reveal Mengele or any members of his family, and the neighborhood postman claimed that although Mengele had recently been receiving letters there under his real name, he had since relocated without leaving a forwarding address. Harel's inquiries at a machine shop where Mengele had been part owner also failed to generate any leads, so he was forced to abandon the search.

Meanwhile, sightings of Josef Mengele were being reported all over the world. Wiesenthal claimed to have information that placed Mengele on the Greek island of Kythnos in 1960, in Cairo in 1961, in Spain in 1971, and in Paraguay in 1978, eighteen years after he had left the country.

He insisted as late as 1985 that Mengele was still alive -six years after he had died-having previously offered a reward of US$100,000 in 1982 for the fugitive's capture. Worldwide interest in the case was heightened by a mock trial held in Jerusalem in February 1985, featuring the testimonies of over one hundred victims of Mengele's experiments.

Shortly afterwards, the West German, Israeli, and U.S. governments launched a coordinated effort to determine Mengele's whereabouts. The West German and Israeli governments offered rewards for his capture, as did The Washington Times and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

In 1992, DNA testing confirmed Mengele's identity beyond doubt, but family members refused repeated requests by Brazilian officials to repatriate the remains to Germany. The skeleton is stored at the São Paulo Institute for Forensic Medicine, where it is used as an educational aid during forensic medicine courses at the University of São Paulo's medical school.

More information: Spiegel

 The schools would fail through their silence, 

the Church through its forgiveness, 

and the home through the denial and silence of the parents. 

The new generation has to hear 

what the older generation refuses to tell it. 

Simon Wiesenthal

MELISSA LOU ETHERIDGE, 'BRING ME SOME WATER'

Melissa Etheridge

Fourth day at home. The Grandma is still without enough force to go out. She feels tired and she prefers to stay at home listening to music.

Today, she has chosen Melissa Etheridge's songs. The Grandma likes rock, country and folk music and Melissa Etheridge is one of her favourite artists.

Melissa Etheridge was born on a day like today in 1961 and The Grandma wants to homage her talking about her career.

Melissa Lou Etheridge, born May 29, 1961, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist. Etheridge was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, the younger of two girls of Elizabeth (Williamson), a computer consultant, and John Etheridge, an American Constitution teacher at Leavenworth High School.

Her self-titled debut album Melissa Etheridge was released in 1988 and became an underground success. The album peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and its lead single, Bring Me Some Water, garnered Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.

Brave and Crazy followed the same musical formula as her eponymous debut garnering a Grammy nomination. The album peaked at #22 on the Billboard charts, equal to her first album.

More information: Melissa Etheridge

Etheridge then went on the road, like one of her musical influences, Bruce Springsteen, and built a loyal fan base. Etheridge has covered his songs Thunder Road and Born to Run during live shows.

In 1993, Etheridge won her first Grammy award for her single Ain't It Heavy from her third album, Never Enough. Later that year, she released what would become her mainstream breakthrough album, Yes I Am.

Melissa Etheridge

Its tracks I'm the Only One and Come to My Window both reached the top 30 in the United States, and the latter earned Etheridge her second Grammy award. Yes I Am peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and spent 138 weeks on the chart, earning a RIAA certification of 6× Platinum, her largest to date.

In 1994, Etheridge played a cover version of Burning Love live in Memphis, during the It's Now Or Never, The Tribute To Elvis. Also in 1994, she was honored by VH-1 for her work with the AIDS organization L.A. Shanti. During the televised occasion, she highlighted the appearance with a performance of I'm the Only One and a duet with Sammy Hagar covering The Rolling Stones' song, Honky Tonk Woman.

The album's fifth single, If I Wanted To, debuted in February 1995 on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 25, the highest debut for a single in 1995.

Etheridge returned to the music charts with the release of Breakdown in October 1999. Breakdown peaked at #12 on the Billboard charts and spent 18 weeks in the charts. Despite this, Breakdown was the only album of Etheridge's career to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.

More information: The Melissa Etheridge Cruise

Later that year, Etheridge released her first compilation album, Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled. The album was a success, peaking at No. 14 on the Billboard 200, and going Gold almost immediately. Her latest studio album is The Medicine Show.

Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals. She has also been a gay and lesbian activist since her public coming out in January 1993. She has received fifteen Grammy Award nominations throughout her career, winning two, in 1993 and 1995.

In 2002, Etheridge released an autobiography entitled The Truth Is: My Life in Love and Music.

Melissa Etheridge

In October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent surgery and chemotherapy. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, she made a return to the stage and, although bald from chemotherapy, performed a tribute to Janis Joplin with the song Piece of My Heart. Etheridge's performance was widely lauded.

Etheridge wrote I Need to Wake Up for the film documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2006. The song was released only on the enhanced version of her greatest hits album, The Road Less Traveled.

In 2007, she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for I Need to Wake Up from the film An Inconvenient Truth. In September 2011, Etheridge received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

More information: AARP

Etheridge was featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's breast cancer docudrama titled 1 a Minute released in 2010. The documentary is being made by actress Namrata Singh Gujral and will also feature breast cancer survivors Olivia Newton-John, Diahann Carroll, Namrata Singh Gujral, Mumtaz and Jaclyn Smith as well as William Baldwin, Daniel Baldwin and Priya Dutt. The feature is narrated by Kelly McGillis. The film will also star Bárbara Mori, Lisa Ray, Deepak Chopra and Morgan Brittany.

On June 9, 2015 she released a live album titled: A Little Bit of Me: Live in L.A.. It was recorded at the closing show of the U.S. leg of her This Is M.E. Tour on December 12, 2014 at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

February 14, 2019 it would be announced on Etheridge's social media pages that her upcoming 14th studio album would be entitled The Medicine Show and promoted by the Medicine Show tour.

More information: Rolling Stone

 Life happens, and I write about it wherever I am.

Melissa Etheridge

GLADYS MARIA KNIGHT, THE GREAT EMPRESS OF SOUL

Gladys Knight & the Pips

Third day at home. The Grandma is still tired and today she has decided to listen to some music. She has chosen Gladys Knight, the American singer known as the Empress of Soul, one of her favourite singers, and one of the most beautiful voices nowadays.

The Grandma loves American Black Culture and this community has lots of great artists with wonderful and amazing careers. The Grandma loves Soul, Gospel, Blues, RnB, Jazz... It is very difficult to choose only one style or one artist but she wants to talks about Gladys Knight on her 75th anniversary. Congratulations Ms. Knight!

Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the Empress of Soul, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and author. A seven-time Grammy Award-winner, Knight is known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her group Gladys Knight & The Pips, which also included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and cousins Edward Patten and William Guest.

Knight has recorded two number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles, Midnight Train to Georgia and That's What Friends Are For, eleven number-one R&B singles, and six number-one R&B albums.

She has won seven Grammy Awards, four as a solo artist and three with the Pips, and is an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with The Pips. She also recorded the theme song for the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill.

Knight is also listed as one of Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Knight was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Merald Woodlow Knight Sr., a postal worker, and Sarah Elizabeth. She has a sister, Brenda, one living brother, Merald Jr. and one deceased brother, David.

Gladys Knight, 1954

She first achieved minor fame by winning Ted Mack's The Original Amateur Hour TV show contest at the age of seven in 1952. That same year, she, her brother Merald, sister Brenda, and cousins William and Elenor Guest formed a musical group called the Pips, named after another cousin, James "Pip" Woods.

By the end of the decade, the act had begun to tour, and had replaced Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest with Gladys Knight's cousin Edward Patten and friend Langston George.

In 1961, Knight and her group recorded the single, Every Beat of My Heart, which was written for Knight by R&B producer Johnny Otis. It was released on the tiny Atlanta Huntom label, which was eventually picked up by Vee Jay Records. At the same time, they were also signed with Bobby Robinson's label, Fury Records. Both labels issued different versions of the song, with the Vee Jay/Huntom version becoming a hit and outselling the Fury remake.

After the success of their follow-up, Letter Full of Tears, Fury released their first full-length album. They stayed with Fury through 1962 until signing with Larry Maxwell's Maxx label in 1964, releasing several modest hits produced by Van McCoy, including the original version of Giving Up and Lovers Always Forgive.

More information: Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight & the Pips joined the Motown Records roster in 1966, while the band had no sure hit, and, although initially regarded as a second-string act, scored several major hit singles, including I Heard It Through the Grapevine recorded first by Marvin Gaye, his version not released until 1968, Take Me in Your Arms and Love Me (1967), Friendship Train (1969), If I Were Your Woman (1970), I Don't Want To Do Wrong (1971), the Grammy Award-winning Neither One of Us (1972), and Daddy Could Swear (1973).

Gladys Knight

In their early Motown career, Gladys Knight and the Pips toured as the opening act for Diana Ross and The Supremes.

Gladys Knight stated in her memoirs that Ross kicked her off the tour because the audience's reception to Knight's soulful performance overshadowed her. Berry Gordy later told Knight that she was giving his act a hard time. The act eventually left Motown for a better deal with Buddah Records in 1973, and achieved full-fledged success that year with hits such as the Grammy-winning Midnight Train to Georgia, #1 on the pop and R&B chart, I've Got to Use My Imagination, The Way We Were/Try To Remember and Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me.

In the summer of 1974, Knight and the Pips recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield. The act was particularly successful in Europe, and especially the United Kingdom. However, a number of the Buddah singles became hits in the UK long after their success in the US. For example, Midnight Train to Georgia hit the UK pop charts Top 5 in the summer of 1976, a full three years after its success in the U.S.

During this period of greater recognition, Knight made her motion picture acting debut in the film, Pipe Dreams, a romantic drama set in Alaska. The film failed at the box-office, but Knight did receive a Golden Globe Best New Actress nomination.

More information: @MsGladysKnight

Knight and the Pips continued to have hits until the late 1970s, when they were forced to record separately due to legal issues, resulting in Knight's first solo LP recordings, Miss Gladys Knight (1978) on Buddah and Gladys Knight (1979) on Columbia Records.

Having divorced James Newman II in 1973, Knight married Barry Hankerson, uncle of future hip/hop, R&B singer Aaliyah, then Detroit mayor Coleman Young's executive aide. Knight and Hankerson remained married for four years, during which time they had a son, Shanga Ali. Upon their divorce, Hankerson and Knight were embroiled in a heated custody battle over Shanga Ali.

Signing with Columbia Records in 1980 and restored to its familiar quartet form, Gladys Knight & the Pips began releasing new material. The act enlisted former Motown producers Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson for their first two albums: About Love (1980) and Touch (1981). During this period, Knight kicked a gambling addiction to the game baccarat.

Gladys Knight

In 1983 Gladys Knight and the Pips scored again with the hit Save The Overtime For Me. The song, under the artistic direction of Leon Sylvers III, known for collaborating on Shalamar hits, was done in a soulful boogie style.

The single was released from their LP Visions and reached number sixty-six on the Hot 100, but was more successful on the R&B where it hit number one for a single week in mid 1983. The single was the first time the group hit number one on the R&B chart since 1974.

In 1987 Knight decided to pursue a solo career and she and the Pips recorded their final LP together, All Our Love (1987), for MCA Records. Its infectious lead single, Love Overboard, was a number-one R&B hit and won another Grammy for the act as well. After a successful 1988 tour, the Pips retired and Knight began her solo career.  

Gladys Knight & the Pips were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

While still with the Pips, Gladys joined with Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John on the 1986 AIDS benefit single, That's What Friends Are For, a triple No. 1 mega-hit, which won a Grammy for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.

More information: Classic Motown

In 1989 she recorded the title track Licence to Kill for the James Bond movie Licence to Kill, a Top 10 hit in the UK and Germany.

In April 2004, Knight performed during the VH1's benefit concert Divas Live 2004 alongside Ashanti, Cyndi Lauper, Jessica Simpson, Joss Stone, and Patti LaBelle, in support of the Save the Music Foundation.

In 2013 Knight recorded the Lenny Kravitz written and produced song You And I Ain't Nothin' No More for the soundtrack from Lee Daniels' motion picture The Butler. The song was added to the movie's soundtrack of older songs by various artists so that the producers had a song to compete in the Best Song from a Motion Picture category at the Academy Awards.

In 1996, Gladys Knight & the Pips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One year before, Knight had received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2007, Knight received the Society of Singers ELLA Award at which time she was declared the Empress of Soul. She is listed on Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Singers of All Time.

More information: Smooth Radio

Soul is just that inner spirit.

I use that inner spirit for whatever it is I do.

Gladys Knight

THREE LITTLE PIGS, WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF?

The Three Little Pigs

Today, The Grandma is still at home. She is a little tired and she has preferred to invite her friend Tina Picotes to watch a film on TV. They have chosen Three Little Pigs, an animated short film released on a day like today in 1933.

Three Little Pigs is an animated short film released on May 27, 1933 by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by Burt Gillett. 

Based on a fable of the same name, the Silly Symphony won the 1934 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film of 1933. The short cost $22,000 and grossed $250,000.

In 1994, it was voted #11 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

In 2007, Three Little Pigs was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

More information: Cartoon Research

Practical Pig, Fiddler Pig and Fifer Pig are three brothers who build their own houses with bricks, sticks and straw respectively. All three of them play a different kind of musical instrument –Fifer Pig toots his flute, doesn't give a hoot and plays around all day, Fiddler Pig with a hey diddle diddle, plays on his fiddle and dances all kinds of jigs and Practical Pig is initially seen as working without rest.

Fifer and Fiddler build their straw and stick houses with much ease and have fun all day. Practical, on the other hand, has no chance to sing and dance for work and play don't mix, focusing on building his strong brick house, but his two brothers poke fun at him.

An angry Practical warns them You can play and laugh and fiddle. Don't think you can make me sore. I'll be safe and you'll be sorry when the Wolf comes through your door! Fifer and Fiddler ignore him and continue to play, singing the now famous song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?.

The Three Little Pigs

As they are singing, the Big Bad Wolf really comes by, at which point Fifer and Fiddler reveal they are in fact very afraid of the wolf.

Fifer and Fiddler each retreat to their respective houses; the Wolf first blows Fifer's house down, except for the roof, with little resistance. Fifer manages to escape and hides at Fiddler's house. The Wolf pretends to give up and go home, but returns disguised as an innocent sheep. The pigs see through the disguise, Not by the hair of our chinny-chin-chin! You can't fool us with that old sheep skin!, whereupon the Wolf blows Fiddler's house down, except for the door.

The two pigs manage to escape and hide at Practical's house, who willingly gives his brothers refuge; in Practical's house, it is revealed that his musical instrument is the piano. The Wolf arrives disguised as a Jewish peddler/Fuller Brush man to trick the pigs into letting him in, but fails. The Wolf then tries to blow down the strong brick house, losing his clothing in the process, but is unable, all while a confident Practical plays melodramatic piano music.

Finally, he attempts to enter the house through the chimney, but smart Practical Pig takes off the lid of a boiling pot filled with water, to which he adds turpentine, under the chimney, and the Wolf falls right into it. Shrieking in pain, the Wolf runs away frantically, while the pigs sing Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? again. Practical then plays a trick by knocking on his piano, causing his brothers to think the Wolf has returned and hide under Practical's bed.

More information: Tor

The movie was phenomenally successful with audiences of the day, so much that theaters ran the cartoon for months after its debut, to great financial response. The cartoon is still considered to be the most successful animated short ever made, and remained on top of animation until Disney was able to boost Mickey's popularity further by making him a top merchandise icon by the end of 1934.

Animator Chuck Jones observed, That was the first time that anybody ever brought characters to life in an animated cartoon. They were three characters who looked alike and acted differently.

Other animation historians, particularly admirers of Winsor McCay, would dispute the word first, but Jones was not referring to personality as such but to characterization through posture and movement.

The Three Little Pigs

Fifer and Fiddler Pig are frivolous and care-free; Practical Pig is cautious and earnest. The reason for why the film's story and characters were so well developed was that Disney had already realized the success of animated films depended upon telling emotionally gripping stories that would grab the audience and not let go.

This realization led to an important innovation around the time Pigs was in development: a story department, separate from the animators, with storyboard artists who would be dedicated to working on a story development phase of the production pipeline. The moderate, but not blockbuster, success of the further Three Pigs cartoons was seen as a factor in Walt Disney's decision not to rest on his laurels, but instead to continue to move forward with risk-taking projects, such as the multiplane camera and the first feature-length animated movie. Disney's slogan, often repeated over the years, was you can't top pigs with pigs.

The original song composed by Frank Churchill for the cartoon, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?, was a best-selling single, mirroring the people's resolve against the big bad wolf of The Great Depression; the song actually became something of an anthem of the Great Depression.

More information: TV Tropes

When the Nazis began expanding the boundaries of Germany in the years preceding World War II, the song was used to represent the complacency of the Western world in allowing Adolf Hitler to make considerable acquisitions of territory without going to war, and was notably used in Disney animations for the Canadian war effort.

The song was further used as the inspiration for the title of the 1963 play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Three cartoons inspired by this cartoon were produced by Warner Bros. The first was Pigs in a Polka which tells the story to the accompaniment of Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances. The second was The Three Little Bops, featuring the pigs as a jazz band, who refused to let the inept trumpet-playing wolf join until after he died and went to Hell, whereupon his playing markedly improved. Both of these cartoons were directed by ex-Disney animator Friz Freleng. The third film was The Windblown Hare, featuring Bugs Bunny, and directed by Robert McKimson.

In Windblown, Bugs is conned into first buying the straw house, which the wolf blows down, and then the sticks house, which the wolf also blows down. After these incidents, Bugs decides to help the wolf and get revenge on all three pigs, who are now at the brick house.

More information: WDW ParkHoppers

Cartooning at its best is a fine art.

I'm a cartoonist who works in the medium of animation, 

which also allows me to paint my cartoons.

Ralph Bakshi

ALIEN, IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM

Alien

The Grandma is at home today. She has invited Claire Fontaine to watch Alien, one of their favourite films of sci-fi.

The Grandma remembers the premiere of this masterpiece on a day like today in 1979. Forty years after this premiere, the film continues being one of the most magnificent films of the history of the cinema.

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo who encounter the eponymous Alien, a deadly and aggressive extraterrestrial set loose on the ship.

The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was executive producer. The Alien and its accompanying artifacts were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the more human settings.

More information: The New York Times

Alien was released on May 25, 1979 in the United States and September 6 in the United Kingdom. It was met with critical acclaim and box office success, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, along with numerous other nominations. It has been consistently praised in the years since its release, and is considered one of the greatest films of all time.

In 2002, Alien was deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, and as the thirty-third greatest film of all time by Empire magazine.

The crew of Nostromo

The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of films, novels, comic books, video games, and toys. It also launched Weaver's acting career, providing her with her first lead role. The story of her character's encounters with the Alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of the sequels Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997). A crossover with the Predator franchise produced the Alien vs. Predator films, which includes Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). A prequel series includes Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017).

The commercial space tug Nostromo is on a return trip to Earth with a seven-member crew in stasis, Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, Warrant Officer Ripley, Navigator Lambert, Science Officer Ash and two Engineers, Parker and Brett. Detecting a transmission from nearby moon LV-426, the ship's computer, Mother, awakens the crew. Company policy requires any potential distress signal be investigated, so they land on the moon, sustaining damage from its atmosphere and rocky landscape. Parker and Brett repair the ship while Dallas, Kane and Lambert head out to investigate. They discover the signal comes from a derelict alien ship and enter it, losing communication with the Nostromo. Ripley deciphers part of the transmission, determining it to be a warning, but cannot relay this information to those on the derelict ship.

More information: The Guardian

Meanwhile, Kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of large egg-like objects. When he touches one, a creature springs out, breaks through his helmet, and attaches itself to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo. As acting senior officer, Ripley refuses to let them aboard, citing quarantine regulations, but Ash overrides her decision and lets them inside.

Ash attempts to remove the creature from Kane's face but stops when he discovers that its blood is an extremely corrosive acid. It later detaches on its own and is found dead. The ship is partly repaired, and the crew lifts off. Kane awakens with some memory loss but is otherwise unharmed. During a final crew meal before returning to stasis, he chokes and convulses. A small alien creature bursts from Kane's chest, killing him, and escapes into the ship.

Warrant Officer Ripley

The crew attempts to locate it with tracking devices and capture or kill it with nets, electric prods and flamethrowers. Brett follows the crew's cat Jones into a huge supply room, where the now fully-grown alien attacks him and disappears with his body.

After heated discussion, the crew decide the creature must be in the air ducts. Dallas enters the ducts, intending to force the alien into an airlock, but it ambushes and kills him. Lambert implores the others to abandon ship and escape in its small shuttle. Now in command, Ripley explains it will not support four people and pursues the plan of flushing out the alien.

Now with access to Mother, Ripley discovers Ash has been secretly ordered by the company to bring the alien back, with the crew deemed expendable. She confronts Ash, who tries to choke her to death. Parker intervenes and clubs Ash, knocking his head loose and revealing him to be an android. Ash's head is reactivated, and they learn he was assigned to ensure the creature's survival. He expresses admiration for the creature's psychology, unhindered by conscience or morality, and taunts them about their chances of survival. Ripley cuts off his power; as they leave, Parker incinerates him.

More information: Cinephilia & Beyond

The remaining crew decides to self-destruct the Nostromo and escape in the shuttle. Parker and Lambert are killed by the creature as they gather supplies. Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence, but finds the alien blocking her path to the shuttle. She retreats and attempts unsuccessfully to abort the self-destruct. With no further options, she makes her way to the shuttle and barely escapes as the Nostromo explodes.

As Ripley prepares for stasis, she discovers that the alien is aboard, having wedged itself into a narrow space. She puts on a spacesuit and uses gas to flush the creature out. It approaches Ripley, but before it can attack she opens an airlock door, almost blowing the creature into space. It manages to hang on by gripping the frame. Ripley shoots it with a grappling hook, but the gun catches as the airlock door closes, tethering the alien to the shuttle. As it floats into one of the engine exhausts, Ripley ignites them to blast the creature free. After recording the final log entry, she places herself and the cat into stasis for the trip home to Earth.

The musical score for Alien was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, conducted by Lionel Newman, and performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra.

The sets of the Nostromo's three decks were each created almost entirely in one piece, with each deck occupying a separate stage. The actors had to navigate through the hallways that connected the stages, adding to the film's sense of claustrophobia and realism.

More information: Yahoo

 When I started the original Alien,

Ripley wasn't a woman, it was a guy.

Ridley Scott