David Horsley - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia 10/12/2015, 22:11

David Horsley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 10/12/2015, 22:11

David Horsley

David Horsley (March 11, 1873 – February 23, 1933) was an English-born pioneer of the film industry who built the first film studio in Hollywood.

Born in West Stanley, Durham, England, a small coal mining village where his entire family worked in the mines. At age nine, he fell on the railway tracks and his hand was badly injured when the train ran over it. Without proper medical care, and fearful of deadly gangrene poisoning, his arm was amputated about two inches below the elbow.

In 1884, the family emigrated to the United States, settling in Bayonne, New Jersey where as a young man he built a bicycle business and ran a pool hall. It was then that he met a former employee of Biograph Studios, Charles Gorman, and along with his brother William Horsley (1870–1956), they formed the Centaur Film Company. By 1910 their operation was producing three films a week, including the Mutt and Jeff comedies.

David and William Horsely, along with other film independents, succeeded in defeating the monopolistic hold on the industry of Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company. However, weather conditions on the east coast made filming an uncertain proposition because camera technology at the time relied on sunshine. Frustrated, and realizing that California afforded the opportunity to make films year round, David Horsley moved his operations to the west coast.

Among the first motion pictures ever filmed in Hollywood was taken on October 26, 1911 in the orchards of H J Whitley's estate (D.W. Griffith filmed "Love Among the Roses" at the studio of famed French floral painter, Paul de Longpre at his some and studio in Hollywood in 1909). Although the movie never really had a name it is a true piece of Hollywood history. In the fall of 1911, the Nestor Motion Picture Company opened the first motion picture studio in Hollywood in the Blondeau Tavern building at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. With Horsley was Al Christie who served as general manager and in charge of Christie Comedies plus Charles Rosher who lent his expertise as the studio's full-time cameraman. Other east coast films companies recognized Horsley's advantage and quickly followed his lead.

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In April 1912, the Universal Film Company was formed and David Horsley and other small studios merged, each accepting shares in Universal as payment for their business. Horsley received $175,000 in preferred stock and $204,000 in common stock in the new Universal Film Company and was also appointed the company's treasurer. However, the peaceful merger soon turned sour and in 1913 Horsley sold his interest to Carl Laemmle. A wealthy man, David Horsley travelled to his birthplace and around Europe.

After returning to California, and investing in a failed exotic animal show, David Horsley went back into the motion picture business with David Horsley Studios and using the animals from the failed show, established the Bostock Jungle Films Company. By the spring of 1917, he had outfitted his new operations in Los Angeles at Main and Washington streets however a series of setbacks cost Horsley his entire fortune and left him in debt.

David Horsley died in Los Angeles. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood.

His son, David Stanley Horsley (1906–1976), trained as a cinematographer and became an expert in special effects photography, working in the film industry for nearly thirty years.

External links

David Horsley at Find a Grave

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Michael Heaviside

Michael Wilson Heaviside VC (20 October 1880 – 26 April 1939) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Early years

Michael Wilson Heaviside was born on 28 October 1880 at Station Lane, Gilesgate in Durham. His father, John Wilson Heaviside was, at that time, a grocer. When Michael was still a boy, the family moved to Kimblesworh, where his father worked as head keeker and Michael went to the local Council school. Later, the family moved to Sacriston, when his father transferred to the local pit.

Following the death of his mother, Annie, Michael enlisted - as 11796 Private Heaviside - in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He served as a stretcher bearer in South Africa during the Boer War and was awarded the Queen’s and King’s South African Medals, before he was invalided home suffering from enteric fever.

After he left the Regular Army, he transferred to the Army Reserve and began work underground at Burnhope Colliery.[1] He met his future wife, Elizabeth, whilst living in Burnhope and they married at Lanchester. About 1913, he took work as a hewer at Oswald pit and the family moved to Craghead, near Stanley.

On 7 September 1914, with the First World War just a month old, 4/9720 Private Michael Heaviside re-enlisted, just one amongst the thousands of miners from County Durham who answered Kitchener’s call. After training, he crossed to France in June 1915 and there settled into the deadly routine of trench warfare on the Western Front.

Details

He was 36 years old, and a Private in the 15th Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry, British Army during the First World War at the Battle of Arras when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On the evening of 5 May 1917, the battalion returned to their barricades on the Hindenburg Line, near Fontaine-les-Croisilles, France. Only one hundred yards separated the British and German positions but the terrible fighting of the preceding days had died down. Snipers and machine gunners were, however, still active and any movement attracted deadly fire. Then about 2 o’clock the next afternoon, 6 May 1917,

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a sentry noticed movement in a shell hole about forty yards from the German barricade. A wounded British soldier was desperately waving an empty water bottle. Any attempt to help this soldier in daylight would result in almost certain death for the rescuers. Michael Heaviside, however, said that he was going to try. Grabbing water and a first aid bag, this thirty-six-year-old stretcher bearer scrambled over the barricade and out into no-man’s-land. Immediately, he came under heavy rifle and machine gun fire from the German positions and was forced to throw himself to the ground. He then began to crawl sixty yards across the broken ground from shell hole to shell hole to where the wounded soldier was sheltering. One eye witness later wrote -

“We could see bullets striking the ground right around the spot over which Heaviside was crawling. Every minute we expected to be his last but the brave chap went on.” As he crawled closer to the German lines, the firing increased. -

“The enemy seemed to be more determined to hit him, for the bullets were spluttering about more viciously than ever.”

When Private Heaviside reached the soldier, he found the man nearly demented with thirst for he had been lying badly wounded in the shell hole for four days and three nights, without any food or water. Michael Heaviside gave the soldier water, dressed his wounds and then promised that he would return with help. That night, Michael Heaviside led two other stretcher bearers out across no-man’s-land to the wounded soldier and carried him back to safety. Without doubt, he had saved this man’s life. The London Gazette announced the award of the Victoria Cross to Private Michael Heaviside on 8 June 1917 for his “most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty.”[2] He was the third soldier of The Durham Light Infantry to gain this award during the First World War.

Death

After the war, Michael Heaviside VC returned to work as a miner at Craghead. On 26 April 1939, he died at his home at Bloemfontein Terrace, aged just 58 years, his health damaged by his years underground and his time on the Western Front. Hundreds of mourners, many wearing their Great War medals, followed Michael Heaviside’s coffin to St Thomas’s Church, Craghead, as the local Colliery Band played the “Dead March in Saul.” At the graveside, a firing party from the 8th Battalion DLI fired three volleys of shots, followed by the “Last Post” played by the battalion’s buglers, then the mourners filed past, each dropping Flanders poppies into the open grave.

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On 12 July 1957, forty years after his “Welcome Home” parade through the streets of Stanley and Craghead, Michael Heaviside’s Victoria Cross and other medals were presented by his family to The Durham Light Infantry’s Regimental Museum. This presentation took place during a parade at Brancepeth Castle, when, watched by his mother and over thirty sons, daughters, grandchildren and other relatives of Michael Heaviside VC, Company Sergeant Major Norman Heaviside proudly handed over his father’s medals.

The Victoria Cross is displayed at the Durham Light Infantry Museum and Durham Art Gallery.

References

News Item (erection of headstone) Location of grave and VC medal (Co. Durham) Michael Heaviside at Find a Grave

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Tommy Armstrong (singer)

"Thomas "Tommy" Armstrong" redirects here. For other Tommys that are Thomases, see Thomas Armstrong (disambiguation). Tommy Armstrong Thomas "Tommy" Armstrong (1848 – 1920) Birth name Thomas Armstrong was a County Durham concert hall song writer 15 August 1848 Wood Street, Shotley and performer in the late 19th century. His most Born Bridge, County Durham, famous song is arguably "Wor Nanny’s a England mazer". He was known as "The Pitman Poet" or 30 August 1920 (aged 72) "The Bard of the Northern Coalfield". Died Havelock Terrace, Tantobie, England Early life Genres Concert hall Occupation(s) Songwriter, performer Tommy Armstrong was born in Wood Street, Shotley Bridge, County Durham, on 15 August 1848. Armstrong was of very short stature, and very bow legged (thought to be caused by rickets when young) and this caused him to have problems all his life, including using a walking stick when older. He started work in the mines at the age of 9 as a trapper boy, and at the age of 12 had progressed to a "pony boy". He worked at various collieries in the area including Tanfield Lea colliery,[1] near Stanley, and also worked at the collieries at Addison,[2] East Tanfield,[3] and Tanfield Moor.[4]

Later life

Tommy Armstrong was married in 1869 to a Mary Ann Hunter in 1869 and they had 14 children. Ann died in 1898 and Tommy remarried in 1901 to a widow named Ann Thompson. He lived most of his life at Tanfield Lea, although he is known to have also lived in East Tanfield, Iveston, Tanfield, Tantobie and Whitley Bay.

A book of 26 of his popular songs was published but it is thought that much of his work was lost. His works were printed at the time on chapbooks and broadsheets which sold for a halfpenny or a penny each. He moved for a time in 1902 to Whitley Bay where he worked for a period as a Newsagent. He died on 30 August 1920 at the age of 72 years at Havelock Terrace, Tantobie.

Works

The material varies between the humorous "Wor Nanny’s a mazer" to the attack on "Dirty Kaiser Bill". Many told of the times, the hunger suffered by many with ‘The Cat

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Pie’ and ‘The Hedgehog Pie’, of the disasters with "The Consett Choir Calamity" after the charabanc crash of Saturday 26 August 1911, and "The Trimdon Grange Explosion" of 16 February 1882 in which 68 miners died, of the hard times and conditions with "The Durham Lockout", "Oakey’s Keeker" and "The Oakey Strike Evictions" and back to the humour with "Funny Nuaims It Tanfeeld" and the various club outing tales. "Stanla Market" and "The Nue Ralewae Te Anfeeld Plane" tell about the area.

Taken as a whole, the collection of songs become a social history of the times as well as a feast of dialect materials

Selected songs

Blanchland Murder, (The) Bobby En Bet Borth E Th' Lad, (Th') - (or The Birth of the Lad) Cat Pie, (The) Consett Choir Calamity, (The) – (of Saturday 26 August 1911) Corry’s Rat Dorham Jail - (or Durham Gaol) Durham Strike, (The) – (more correctly The Durham Lock-out) Funny Nuaims It Tanfeeld Pit – (or The funny names of the folk at Tanfield) Gateshead Poor Childrens' Trip To Stanley Geordie Broon Ghost Thit' Anted Bunty, (The) - (or The Ghost that Haunted Bunty) Hedgehog Pie, (The) Jack Reckonen - (or Jack’s Reckoning) Kaiser And The War, (The) Kelloe Disaster Marla Hill Ducks - (or Marley Hill Ducks) Murder of Mary Donnelly Neglectful Sally Nue Ralewae Te Anfeeld Plane, (Th') - (or The new railway to Annfield Plain) Oakey’s Keeker Oakey’s Strike - (or The Oakey Strike Evictions) Old Dolly Cook and Her Family Old Folks Tea at West Stanley Old Men’s Trip, (The) - From the Victoria Club, West Stanley Picture Hall at Tantobie, (The) Poam To The Kaiser, (A) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Armstrong_(singer) Page 2 of 3 Tommy Armstrong (singer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 10/12/2015, 22:13

Prudent Pitman, (The) Row Between Th' Cages, (Th'), - (or The Row ‘Atween the Cages) Row I' Th' Guuttor, (Th') Sewing Meeting, (A) Sheel Raw Flud, (The) Skeul Bord Man, (Th') - (or The Skuil (or school) Board Man Sooth Medomsley Strike, (The) - (or The South Medomsley Strike) Stanla Market – (or Stanley Market) Summer Flies, (The) Tanfeeld Lee Silvor Modil Band – (ot The Tanfield Lea Silver Model Band) Tanfield Braike Tantobie Wednesday Football Team Tantobie Workmen's Club Oxo Banquet Tommy The Poet Signed On Trimdon Grange Explosion, (The) - (or The Trimdon Grange Disaster) Trip From Tantobie Union Club to Jarrow Excelsior Club, (The) Unhappy Couple, (The) Wheelbarrow Man, (Th') Wor Nanny's a mazer (alternately spelt mazer, mazor, maisor, maizor, etc.)