Answer: December 24

Context: On December 24, Yeltsin informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations that by agreement of the member states of the CIS Russian Federation would assume the membership of the Soviet Union in all UN organs (including permanent membership in the UN Security Council). Thus, Russia is considered to be an original member of the UN (since October 24, 1945) along with Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) and Belarus (Byelorussian SSR). On December 25—just hours after Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union—the Russian SFSR was renamed the Russian Federation (Russia), reflecting that it was now a sovereign state with Yeltsin assuming the Presidency. The change was originally published on January 6, 1992 (Rossiyskaya Gazeta). According to law, during 1992, it was allowed to use the old name of the RSFSR for official business (forms, seals and stamps). The Russian Federation's Constitution (Fundamental Law) of 1978, though with the 1991–1992 Amendements, remained in effect until the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis.

Question: When did the Russian Federation assume the Soviet Union's membership in the UN?


Answer: December 25

Question: On what day did Gorbachev give up the presidency of the Soviet Union?


Answer: the Russian Federation

Question: What was the new name given to the Russian SFSR after the resignation of Gorbachev?


Answer: Yeltsin

Question: Who was the first president of the Russian Federation?


Answer: Rossiyskaya Gazeta

Question: In what periodical was the new sovereign status of the Russian Federation first published?


Answer: the Council of People's Commissars

Context: The Government was known officially as the Council of People's Commissars (1917–1946), Council of Ministers (1946–1978) and Council of Ministers–Government (1978–1991). The first government was headed by Vladimir Lenin as "Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR" and the last by Boris Yeltsin as both head of government and head of state under the title "President".

Question: What was the government of the RSFSR called up to 1946?


Answer: Council of Ministers

Question: What was the RSFSR government called starting in 1946?


Answer: Council of Ministers–Government

Question: When the Soviet Union ended in 1991, what was the RSFSR government called?


Answer: Vladimir Lenin

Question: Who led the first government of the RSFSR?


Answer: Boris Yeltsin

Question: Who led the final government of the RSFSR?


Answer: the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Context: The Russian SFSR was controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, until the abortive 1991 August coup, which prompted President Yeltsin to suspend the recently created Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

Question: What political organization controlled the RSFSR up to 1991?


Answer: the abortive 1991 August coup

Question: What event prompted the end to the control of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the RSFSR?


Answer: Yeltsin

Question: Who suspended the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic?


Answer: NBCUniversal

Context: Universal Studios Inc. (also known as Universal Pictures) is an American film studio, owned by Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal, and is one of Hollywood's "Big Six" film studios. Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City. Universal Studios is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Universal was founded in 1912 by the German Carl Laemmle (pronounced "LEM-lee"), Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, and Jules Brulatour.

Question: Which company is directly above Universal Studios?


Answer: Comcast

Question: Which company runs NBC Universal?


Answer: Big Six

Question: What is the nickname given to the large studios of which Universal is a part?


Answer: 1912

Question: When was Universal Studios created?


Answer: Universal City, California

Question: Where does Universal's filming take place?


Answer: Universal Pictures

Question: What is another name for Universal Studios Inc.?


Answer: Comcast

Question: Who is the ultimate owner of Universal Studios?


Answer: 100 Universal City Plaza Drive

Question: What is the street address of Universal Studios' production studios?


Answer: Universal City, California

Question: In what city and state are its production studios located?


Answer: New York City

Question: In what city are Universal Studios' corporate offices located?


Answer: fourth

Context: It is the world's fourth oldest major film studio, after the renowned French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, and the Danish Nordisk Film company.

Question: What rank does Universal Studios have in terms of age?


Answer: Nordisk

Question: Which film studio from Denmark is older than Universal?


Answer: Gaumont Film Company and Pathé

Question: Which French companies are older than Universal?


Answer: French

Question: What is the nationality of Pathé?


Answer: Nordisk Film company

Question: Along with Pathé and the Gaumont Film Company, what major film studio is older then Universal Studios?


Answer: fourth

Question: Among major film studies, where does Universal Studios rank in terms of age?


Answer: Chicago

Context: Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane[a] and Jules Brulatour. One story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the day's takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons. For Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Based on the Latham Loop used in cameras and projectors, along with other patents, the Trust collected fees on all aspects of movie production and exhibition, and attempted to enforce a monopoly on distribution.

Question: After a trip to what city did Carl Laemmle leave the dry goods business?


Answer: 1908

Question: In what year was the Motion Picture Trust created?


Answer: Edison

Question: What notable historical figure was involved in the Motion Picture Trust?


Answer: the Latham Loop

Question: For what part of a motion picture projector did the Motion Picture Trust hold a patent?


Answer: Yankee Film Company

Context: Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures. In June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. That company quickly evolved into the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where many early films in America's first motion picture industry were produced in the early 20th century. Laemmle broke with Edison's custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers. By naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as "The Biograph Girl", and actor King Baggot, in what may be the first instance of a studio using stars in its marketing.

Question: What company did Laemmle found in June 1909?


Answer: Abe Stern and Julius Stern

Question: Who were Laemmle's business partners in the Yankee Film Company?


Answer: Fort Lee, New Jersey

Question: In what city and state was the Independent Moving Pictures Company based?


Answer: The Biograph Girl

Question: What was a nickname of Florence Lawrence?


Answer: King Baggot

Question: What actor did Laemmle promote?


Answer: April 30, 1912

Context: The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30, 1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the primary figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley, and Brulatour. Eventually all would be bought out by Laemmle. The new Universal studio was a vertically integrated company, with movie production, distribution and exhibition venues all linked in the same corporate entity, the central element of the Studio system era.

Question: On what date was the incorporation of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company?


Answer: New York

Question: In what state was the Universal Film Manufacturing Company incorporated?


Answer: Laemmle

Question: Who was the president of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company circa July 1912?


Answer: bought out by Laemmle

Question: What was the fate of the other partners of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company?


Answer: movie production

Question: Along with exhibition and distribution, what business did the Universal Film Manufacturing Company engage in?


Answer: March 15, 1915

Context: On March 15, 1915,:8 Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230-acre (0.9-km²) converted farm just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood. Studio management became the third facet of Universal's operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists. Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in small towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns and serials.

Question: On what date did Universal City Studios open?


Answer: 0.9

Question: In square kilometers, what was the size of Universal City Studios?


Answer: Cahuenga Pass

Question: What geographical feature separated Universal City Studios from Hollywood?


Answer: Universal

Question: What was the biggest Hollywood studio during this period?


Answer: low-budget programmers

Context: In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers; Bluebird, more ambitious productions; and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, one of the few women directing films in Hollywood.:13

Question: What sort of films were produced by Red Feather?


Answer: more ambitious productions

Question: What type of movies came out of Bluebird?


Answer: prestige motion pictures

Question: What motion pictures were made by Jewel?


Answer: Directors

Question: What was the profession of George Marshall?


Answer: Lois Weber

Question: Who was one of the few female Hollywood directors in this era?


Answer: Erich von Stroheim

Context: Despite Laemmle's role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew, Laemmle chose not to develop a theater chain. He also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. This policy nearly bankrupted the studio when actor-director Erich von Stroheim insisted on excessively lavish production values for his films Blind Husbands (1919) and Foolish Wives (1922), but Universal shrewdly gained a return on some of the expenditure by launching a sensational ad campaign that attracted moviegoers. Character actor Lon Chaney became a drawing card for Universal in the 1920s, appearing steadily in dramas. His two biggest hits for Universal were The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). During this period Laemmle entrusted most of the production policy decisions to Irving Thalberg. Thalberg had been Laemmle's personal secretary, and Laemmle was impressed by his cogent observations of how efficiently the studio could be operated. Promoted to studio chief, Thalberg was giving Universal's product a touch of class, but MGM's head of production Louis B. Mayer lured Thalberg away from Universal with a promise of better pay. Without his guidance Universal became a second-tier studio, and would remain so for several decades.

Question: Who directed Blind Husbands?


Answer: 1922

Question: In what year was Foolish Wives produced?


Answer: Lon Chaney

Question: Who starred in The Phantom of the Opera?


Answer: 1923

Question: What year saw a film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame?


Answer: Irving Thalberg

Question: Who was at one time Laemmle's personal secretary?


Answer: Deutsche Universal-Film AG

Context: In 1926, Universal opened a production unit in Germany, Deutsche Universal-Film AG, under the direction of Joe Pasternak. This unit produced three to four films per year until 1936, migrating to Hungary and then Austria in the face of Hitler's increasing domination of central Europe. With the advent of sound, these productions were made in the German language or, occasionally, Hungarian or Polish. In the U.S., Universal Pictures did not distribute any of this subsidiary's films, but at least some of them were exhibited through other, independent, foreign-language film distributors based in New York, without benefit of English subtitles. Nazi persecution and a change in ownership for the parent Universal Pictures organization resulted in the dissolution of this subsidiary.

Question: What was the name of Universal's German production unit?


Answer: Joe Pasternak

Question: Who ran Universal's German production unit?


Answer: 1926

Question: In what year did Deutsche Universal-Film AG open?


Answer: three to four

Question: How many films did Universal's German subsidiary make yearly?


Answer: Hungary

Question: Along with Germany and Austria, where was Deutsche Universal-Film AG at one time based?


Answer: "clean picture"

Context: In the early years, Universal had a "clean picture" policy. However, by April 1927, Carl Laemmle considered this to be a mistake as "unclean pictures" from other studios were generating more profit while Universal was losing money.

Question: what was the policy that Universal followed in its early years?


Answer: April 1927

Question: By what month and year did Laemmle change his opinion on "unclean pictures"?


Answer: Universal was losing money

Question: Why did Laemmle change his position on "unclean pictures"?


Answer: Ub Iwerks

Context: Universal owned the rights to the "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" character, although Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks had created Oswald, and their films had enjoyed a successful theatrical run. After Charles Mintz had unsuccessfully demanded that Disney accept a lower fee for producing the property, Mintz produced the films with his own group of animators. Instead, Disney and Iwerks created Mickey Mouse who in 1928 stared in the first "sync" sound animated short, Steamboat Willie. This moment effectively launched Walt Disney Studios' foothold, while Universal became a minor player in film animation. Universal subsequently severed its link to Mintz and formed its own in-house animation studio to produce Oswald cartoons headed by Walter Lantz.

Question: Along with Walt Disney, who created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit?


Answer: Universal

Question: Who owned the rights to Oswald?


Answer: Charles Mintz

Question: Who produced an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit motion picture?


Answer: Mickey Mouse

Question: What character did Walt Disney create in 1928?


Answer: Steamboat Willie

Question: What was the first animated short with synchronized sound?


Answer: Disney

Context: In 2006, after almost 80 years, NBC Universal sold all Walt Disney-produced Oswald cartoons, along with the rights to the character himself, back to Disney. In return, Disney released ABC sportscaster Al Michaels from his contract so he could work on NBC's Sunday night NFL football package. However, Universal retained ownership of Oswald cartoons produced for them by Walter Lantz from 1929 to 1943.

Question: Who bought the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons in 2006?


Answer: NBC Universal

Question: Who was 2006 seller of the Oswald cartoons?


Answer: Al Michaels

Question: What notable figure worked as a sportscaster for ABC?


Answer: Walter Lantz

Question: Who began producing Oswald cartoons for Universal in 1929?


Answer: 1943

Question: In what year did Walter Lantz cease producing Oswald cartoons for Universal?


Answer: 70

Context: In 1928, Laemmle, Sr. made his son, Carl, Jr. head of Universal Pictures as a 21st birthday present. Universal already had a reputation for nepotism—at one time, 70 of Carl, Sr.'s relatives were supposedly on the payroll. Many of them were nephews, resulting in Carl, Sr. being known around the studios as "Uncle Carl." Ogden Nash famously quipped in rhyme, "Uncle Carl Laemmle/Has a very large faemmle." Among these relatives was future Academy Award winning director/producer William Wyler.

Question: How many of Carl Laemmle, Sr.'s relatives were working for Universal as of 1928?


Answer: Uncle Carl

Question: What was Carl Laemmle, Sr.'s nickname at Universal?


Answer: Ogden Nash

Question: What poet wrote a notable rhyme about Laemmle?


Answer: 21

Question: At what age did Carl Laemmle, Jr. become president of Universal?


Answer: William Wyler

Question: What Academy Award-winning director was a relative of Carl Laemmle's?


Answer: Junior

Context: "Junior" Laemmle persuaded his father to bring Universal up to date. He bought and built theaters, converted the studio to sound production, and made several forays into high-quality production. His early efforts included the critically mauled part-talkie version of Edna Ferber's novel Show Boat (1929), the lavish musical Broadway (1929) which included Technicolor sequences; and the first all-color musical feature (for Universal), King of Jazz (1930). The more serious All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), won its year's Best Picture Oscar.

Question: What was Carl Laemmle Jr.'s nickname?


Answer: Show Boat

Question: What movie was based on an Edna Ferber novel?


Answer: 1929

Question: In what year was the musical Broadway produced?


Answer: All Quiet on the Western Front

Question: What movie won the 1930 Academy Award for Best Picture?


Answer: King of Jazz

Question: What all-color musical did Universal make in 1930?


Answer: 1931

Context: Laemmle, Jr. created a niche for the studio, beginning a series of horror films which extended into the 1940s, affectionately dubbed Universal Horror. Among them are Frankenstein (1931), Dracula ( also in 1931), The Mummy (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933). Other Laemmle productions of this period include Imitation of Life (1934) and My Man Godfrey (1936).

Question: In what year did Universal make a film version of Dracula?


Answer: 1933

Question: In what year was The Invisible Man made?


Answer: Imitation of Life

Question: What film was produced by Laemmle in 1934?


Answer: 1936

Question: In what year did My Man Godfrey premiere?


Answer: 1931

Question: When was Universal's version of Frankenstein made?


Answer: The theater chain

Context: Universal's forays into high-quality production spelled the end of the Laemmle era at the studio. Taking on the task of modernizing and upgrading a film conglomerate in the depths of the depression was risky, and for a time Universal slipped into receivership. The theater chain was scrapped, but Carl, Jr. held fast to distribution, studio and production operations.

Question: What part of Universal's business was terminated while it was in bankruptcy?


Answer: production operations

Question: Along with distribution and studio operations, what part of Universal was retained by Carl Laemmle, Jr. during bankruptcy?


Answer: 1936

Context: The end for the Laemmles came with a lavish version of Show Boat (1936), a remake of its earlier 1929 part-talkie production, and produced as a high-quality, big-budget film rather than as a B-picture. The new film featured several stars from the Broadway stage version, which began production in late 1935, and unlike the 1929 film was based on the Broadway musical rather than the novel. Carl, Jr.'s spending habits alarmed company stockholders. They would not allow production to start on Show Boat unless the Laemmles obtained a loan. Universal was forced to seek a $750,000 production loan from the Standard Capital Corporation, pledging the Laemmle family's controlling interest in Universal as collateral. It was the first time Universal had borrowed money for a production in its 26-year history. The production went $300,000 over budget; Standard called in the loan, cash-strapped Universal could not pay, Standard foreclosed and seized control of the studio on April 2, 1936.

Question: In what year was Universal's ill-fated film version of Show Boat released?


Answer: 1929

Question: In what year had Universal previously made a version of Show Boat?


Answer: $750,000

Question: What was the amount of the production loan Universal sought to complete Show Boat?


Answer: the Standard Capital Corporation

Question: Who granted Universal the production loan?


Answer: April 2, 1936

Question: When did the Standard Capital Corporation take control of Universal?


Answer: J. Cheever Cowdin

Context: Universal's 1936 Show Boat (released a little over a month later) became a critical and financial success, it was not enough to save the Laemmles' involvement with the studio. They were unceremoniously removed from the company they had founded. Because the Laemmles personally oversaw production, Show Boat was released (despite the takeover) with Carl Laemmle and Carl Laemmle Jr.'s names on the credits and in the advertising campaign of the film. Standard Capital's J. Cheever Cowdin had taken over as president and chairman of the board of directors, and instituted severe cuts in production budgets. Gone were the big ambitions, and though Universal had a few big names under contract, those it had been cultivating, like William Wyler and Margaret Sullavan, left.

Question: Who became president of Universal after the Standard Capital takeover?


Answer: Margaret Sullavan

Question: What notable female star left Universal after the Standard Capital takeover?


Answer: J. Cheever Cowdin

Question: Who was Universal's chairman of the board of directors after the Standard Captial takeover?


Answer: William Wyler

Question: Along with Margaret Sullavan, what notable film talent left Universal after the Standard Capital takeover?


Answer: 1936

Question: In what year was Show Boat released?


Answer: Joe Pasternak

Context: Meanwhile, producer Joe Pasternak, who had been successfully producing light musicals with young sopranos for Universal's German subsidiary, repeated his formula in America. Teenage singer Deanna Durbin starred in Pasternak's first American film, Three Smart Girls (1936). The film was a box-office hit and reputedly restored the studio's solvency. The success of the film led Universal to offer her a contract, which for the first five years of her career produced her most successful pictures.

Question: Who produced the film Three Smart Girls?


Answer: Deanna Durbin

Question: Who starred in the film Three Smart Girls?


Answer: 1936

Question: In what year was Three Smart Girls made?


Answer: Universal's German subsidiary

Question: Prior to his work in America, where was Joe Pasternak employed?


Answer: light musicals

Question: What type of films did Joe Pasternak produce in Germany?


Answer: 13

Context: When Pasternak stopped producing Durbin's pictures, and she outgrew her screen persona and pursued more dramatic roles, the studio signed 13-year-old Gloria Jean for her own series of Pasternak musicals from 1939; she went on to star with Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, and Donald O'Connor. A popular Universal film of the late 1930s was Destry Rides Again (1939), starring James Stewart as Destry and Marlene Dietrich in her comeback role after leaving Paramount Studios.

Question: How old was Gloria Jean in 1939?


Answer: Bing Crosby

Question: Along with Donald O'Connor and Bing Crosby, with whom did Gloria Jean star?


Answer: James Stewart

Question: Who played Destry in Destry Rides Again?


Answer: Paramount Studios

Question: Prior to working at Universal, what studio employed Marlene Dietrich?


Answer: 1939

Question: In what year was Destry Rides again produced?


Answer: 1938–43

Context: By the early 1940s, the company was concentrating on lower-budget productions that were the company's main staple: westerns, melodramas, serials and sequels to the studio's horror pictures, the latter now solely B pictures. The studio fostered many series: The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys action features and serials (1938–43); the comic adventures of infant Baby Sandy (1938–41); comedies with Hugh Herbert (1938–42) and The Ritz Brothers (1940–43); musicals with Robert Paige, Jane Frazee, The Andrews Sisters, and The Merry Macs (1938–45); and westerns with Tom Mix (1932–33), Buck Jones (1933–36), Bob Baker (1938–39), Johnny Mack Brown (1938–43); Rod Cameron (1944–45), and Kirby Grant (1946–47).

Question: During what period were the Little Tough Guys films produced?


Answer: 1938–41

Question: Over what span were the Baby Sandy films made?


Answer: 1938–42

Question: In what period did Universal produce Hugh Herbert comedies?


Answer: 1932–33

Question: When did Universal make Tom Mix westerns?


Answer: 1946–47

Question: In what span did Universal produce westerns with Kirby Grant?


Answer: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello

Context: Universal could seldom afford its own stable of stars, and often borrowed talent from other studios, or hired freelance actors. In addition to Stewart and Dietrich, Margaret Sullavan, and Bing Crosby were two of the major names that made a couple of pictures for Universal during this period. Some stars came from radio, including Edgar Bergen, W. C. Fields, and the comedy team of Abbott and Costello (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello). Abbott and Costello's military comedy Buck Privates (1941) gave the former burlesque comedians a national and international profile.

Question: What two performers were known as the team Abbott and Costello?


Answer: Buck Privates

Question: What military comedy did Bud Abbott and Lou Costello star in?


Answer: W. C. Fields

Question: Along with Abbott and Costello and Edgar Bergen, what radio star appeared in Universal films?


Answer: Fritz Lang

Context: During the war years Universal did have a co-production arrangement with producer Walter Wanger and his partner, director Fritz Lang, lending the studio some amount of prestige productions. Universal's core audience base was still found in the neighborhood movie theaters, and the studio continued to please the public with low- to medium-budget films. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in new Sherlock Holmes mysteries (1942–46), teenage musicals with Gloria Jean, Donald O'Connor, and Peggy Ryan (1942–43), and screen adaptations of radio's Inner Sanctum Mysteries with Lon Chaney, Jr. (1943–45). Alfred Hitchcock was also borrowed for two films from Selznick International Pictures: Saboteur (1942) and Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

Question: Who was the directorial partner of Walter Wanger?


Answer: 1942–46

Question: In what period did Basil Rathbone star in a series of Sherlock Holmes films?


Answer: 1943–45

Question: In what period did film versions of Inner Sanctum Mysteries appear?


Answer: Selznick International Pictures

Question: What was the studio that Alfred Hitchcock normally worked for?


Answer: 1943

Question: In what year was Shadow of a Doubt produced?


Answer: Arabian Nights

Context: As Universal's main product had always been low-budget film, it was one of the last major studios to have a contract with Technicolor. The studio did not make use of the three-strip Technicolor process until Arabian Nights (1942), starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez. The following year, Technicolor was also used in Universal's remake of their 1925 horror melodrama, Phantom of the Opera with Claude Rains and Nelson Eddy. With the success of their first two pictures, a regular schedule of high-budget, Technicolor films followed.

Question: What was the first Universal film to use the three-strip Technicolor process?


Answer: Maria Montez

Question: What actress starred in Arabian Nights?


Answer: Claude Rains

Question: Along with Nelson Eddy, who starred in the Phantom of the Opera?


Answer: 1925

Question: When was Universal's first version of the Phantom of the Opera made?


Answer: 1942

Question: In what year was Arabian Nights produced?


Answer: 1945

Context: In 1945, the British entrepreneur J. Arthur Rank, hoping to expand his American presence, bought into a four-way merger with Universal, the independent company International Pictures, and producer Kenneth Young. The new combine, United World Pictures, was a failure and was dissolved within one year. Rank and International remained interested in Universal, however, culminating in the studio's reorganization as Universal-International. William Goetz, a founder of International, was made head of production at the renamed Universal-International Pictures Inc., which also served as an import-export subsidiary, and copyright holder for the production arm's films. Goetz, a son-in-law of Louis B. Mayer decided to bring "prestige" to the new company. He stopped the studio's low-budget production of B movies, serials and curtailed Universal's horror and "Arabian Nights" cycles. Distribution and copyright control remained under the name of Universal Pictures Company Inc.

Question: In what year was United World Pictures founded?


Answer: Kenneth Young

Question: What producer was involved in the founding of United World Pictures?


Answer: one year

Question: How long did United World Pictures last?


Answer: William Goetz

Question: Who was the head of production at Universal-International Pictures?


Answer: Louis B. Mayer

Question: Who was William Goetz's father-in-law?


Answer: 1948

Context: Goetz set out an ambitious schedule. Universal-International became responsible for the American distribution of Rank's British productions, including such classics as David Lean's Great Expectations (1946) and Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948). Broadening its scope further, Universal-International branched out into the lucrative non-theatrical field, buying a majority stake in home-movie dealer Castle Films in 1947, and taking the company over entirely in 1951. For three decades, Castle would offer "highlights" reels from the Universal film library to home-movie enthusiasts and collectors. Goetz licensed Universal's pre–Universal-International film library to Jack Broeder's Realart Pictures for cinema re-release but Realart was not allowed to show the films on television.

Question: In what year was the Olivier version of Hamlet made?


Answer: David Lean

Question: Who directed 1946's Great Expectations?


Answer: Castle Films

Question: In 1947, what company did Universal buy a stake in?


Answer: Jack Broeder

Question: Who ran Realart Pictures?


Answer: 1951

Question: In what year did Universal-International take over Castle Films?


Answer: 1946

Context: The production arm of the studio still struggled. While there were to be a few hits like The Killers (1946) and The Naked City (1948), Universal-International's new theatrical films often met with disappointing response at the box office. By the late 1940s, Goetz was out, and the studio returned to low-budget films. The inexpensive Francis (1950), the first film of a series about a talking mule and Ma and Pa Kettle (1949), part of a series, became mainstays of the company. Once again, the films of Abbott and Costello, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), were among the studio's top-grossing productions. But at this point Rank lost interest and sold his shares to the investor Milton Rackmil, whose Decca Records would take full control of Universal in 1952. Besides Abbott and Costello, the studio retained the Walter Lantz cartoon studio, whose product was released with Universal-International's films.

Question: In what year was The Killers produced?


Answer: Francis

Question: What Universal-International film was about a talking mule?


Answer: 1949

Question: In what year was Ma and Pa Kettle made?


Answer: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Question: What Abbott and Costello film was released in 1948?


Answer: Milton Rackmil

Question: Who bought Rank's share of Universal-International?


Answer: Tony Curtis

Context: In the 1950s, Universal-International resumed their series of Arabian Nights films, many starring Tony Curtis. The studio also had a success with monster and science fiction films produced by William Alland, with many directed by Jack Arnold. Other successes were the melodramas directed by Douglas Sirk and produced by Ross Hunter, although for film critics they were not so well thought of on first release as they have since become. Among Universal-International's stable of stars were Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Jeff Chandler, Audie Murphy, and John Gavin.

Question: Who did many of Universal-International's Arabian Nights films feature?


Answer: William Alland

Question: Who notably produced monster and science fiction films for Universal?


Answer: Douglas Sirk

Question: What Universal director was known for his melodramas?


Answer: Jack Arnold

Question: Who directed monster movies for Universal?


Answer: Ross Hunter

Question: Who produced melodramas for Universal?


Answer: Lew Wasserman

Context: Though Decca would continue to keep picture budgets lean, it was favored by changing circumstances in the film business, as other studios let their contract actors go in the wake of the 1948 U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures, et al. decision. Leading actors were increasingly free to work where and when they chose, and in 1950 MCA agent Lew Wasserman made a deal with Universal for his client James Stewart that would change the rules of the business. Wasserman's deal gave Stewart a share in the profits of three pictures in lieu of a large salary. When one of those films, Winchester '73, proved to be a hit, the arrangement would become the rule for many future productions at Universal, and eventually at other studios as well.

Question: Who was a notable talent agent circa 1950?


Answer: James Stewart

Question: What star did Lew Wasserman represent?


Answer: James Stewart

Question: What actor featured in Winchester '73?


Answer: U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures, et al.

Question: What legal decision resulted in movie studios letting their contract actors go?


Answer: MCA

Context: By the late 1950s, the motion picture business was again changing. The combination of the studio/theater-chain break-up and the rise of television saw the reduced audience size for cinema productions. The Music Corporation of America (MCA), then predominately a talent agency, had also become a powerful television producer, renting space at Republic Studios for its Revue Productions subsidiary. After a period of complete shutdown, a moribund Universal agreed to sell its 360-acre (1.5 km²) studio lot to MCA in 1958, for $11 million, renamed Revue Studios. MCA owned the studio lot, but not Universal Pictures, yet was increasingly influential on Universal's product. The studio lot was upgraded and modernized, while MCA clients like Doris Day, Lana Turner, Cary Grant, and director Alfred Hitchcock were signed to Universal Pictures contracts.

Question: What acronym was the Music Corporation of America known by?


Answer: Republic Studios

Question: Where did MCA's Revue Productions subsidiary rent space?


Answer: 1.5

Question: In square kilometers, how large was the lot Universal sold to MCA?


Answer: 1958

Question: In what year did Universal sell its 360-acre lot to MCA?


Answer: $11 million

Question: How much did MCA pay for Universal's 360-acre lot?


Answer: 1962

Context: The long-awaited takeover of Universal Pictures by MCA, Inc. happened in mid-1962 as part of the MCA-Decca Records merger. The company reverted in name to Universal Pictures. As a final gesture before leaving the talent agency business, virtually every MCA client was signed to a Universal contract. In 1964 MCA formed Universal City Studios, Inc., merging the motion pictures and television arms of Universal Pictures Company and Revue Productions (officially renamed as Universal Television in 1966). And so, with MCA in charge, Universal became a full-blown, A-film movie studio, with leading actors and directors under contract; offering slick, commercial films; and a studio tour subsidiary launched in 1964. Television production made up much of the studio's output, with Universal heavily committed, in particular, to deals with NBC (which later merged with Universal to form NBC Universal; see below) providing up to half of all prime time shows for several seasons. An innovation during this period championed by Universal was the made-for-television movie.

Question: In what year did MCA take over Universal?


Answer: Universal City Studios, Inc.

Question: What company did MCA create in 1964?


Answer: Universal Television

Question: What new name was given to Revue Productions in 1966?


Answer: NBC Universal

Question: What was the company formed by the merger of Universal and NBC?


Answer: 1964

Question: When did Universal inaugurate its studio tour subsidiary?


Answer: Hal B. Wallis

Context: At this time, Hal B. Wallis, who had latterly worked as a major producer at Paramount, moved over to Universal, where he produced several films, among them a lavish version of Maxwell Anderson's Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), and the equally lavish Mary, Queen of Scots (1971). Though neither could claim to be a big financial hit, both films received Academy Award nominations, and Anne was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Richard Burton), Best Actress (Geneviève Bujold), and Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Quayle). Wallis retired from Universal after making the film Rooster Cogburn (1975), a sequel to True Grit (1969), which Wallis had produced at Paramount. Rooster Cogburn co-starred John Wayne, reprising his Oscar-winning role from the earlier film, and Katharine Hepburn, their only film together. The film was only a moderate success.

Question: Who produced Anne of the Thousand Days?


Answer: Maxwell Anderson

Question: Who wrote the original work that the film version of Anne of the Thousand Days was based on?


Answer: 1971

Question: In what year was the film version of Mary, Queen of Scots made?


Answer: Richard Burton

Question: Whose performance in Anne of the Thousand Days garnered a Best Actor nod?


Answer: Rooster Cogburn

Question: What was the name of the sequel to True Grit produced by Universal?


Answer: Paramount Pictures

Context: In the early 1970s, Universal teamed up with Paramount Pictures to form Cinema International Corporation, which distributed films by Paramount and Universal worldwide. Though Universal did produce occasional hits, among them Airport (1970), The Sting (1973), American Graffiti (also 1973), Earthquake (1974), and a big box-office success which restored the company's fortunes: Jaws (1975), Universal during the decade was primarily a television studio. When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased United Artists in 1981, MGM could not drop out of the CIC venture to merge with United Artists overseas operations. However, with future film productions from both names being released through the MGM/UA Entertainment plate, CIC decided to merge UA's international units with MGM and reformed as United International Pictures. There would be other film hits like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Back to the Future (1985), Field of Dreams (1989), and Jurassic Park (1993), but the film business was financially unpredictable. UIP began distributing films by start-up studio DreamWorks in 1997, due to connections the founders have with Paramount, Universal, and Amblin Entertainment. In 2001, MGM dropped out of the UIP venture, and went with 20th Century Fox's international arm to handle distribution of their titles to this day.

Question: Who partnered with Universal in the creation of Cinema International Corporation?


Answer: 1970s

Question: In what year was the film Airport made?


Answer: Earthquake

Question: What Universal hit film was produced in 1974?


Answer: United Artists

Question: What company was purchased by MGM in 1981?


Answer: 1997

Question: When did United International Pictures start distributing films for DreamWorks?


Answer: Lew Wasserman

Context: Anxious to expand the company's broadcast and cable presence, longtime MCA head Lew Wasserman sought a rich partner. He located Japanese electronics manufacturer Matsushita Electric (now known as Panasonic), which agreed to acquire MCA for $6.6 billion in 1990. Meanwhile, around this time, the production subsidiary was renamed Universal Studios Inc., and (in 1990) MCA created MCA/Universal Home Video Inc. for the VHS video cassette (later DVD) sales industry.

Question: Who was the head of MCA in 1990?


Answer: Panasonic

Question: What is the current name of the company that was called Matsushita Electric in 1990?


Answer: $6.6 billion

Question: How much did Matsushita Electric pay for MCA?


Answer: 1990

Question: In what year was MCA/Universal Home Video Inc. created?


Answer: Japanese

Question: What was the nationality of Matsushita Electric?


Answer: 80%

Context: Matsushita provided a cash infusion, but the clash of cultures was too great to overcome, and five years later Matsushita sold an 80% stake in MCA/Universal to Canadian drinks distributor Seagram for $5.7 billion. Seagram sold off its stake in DuPont to fund this expansion into the entertainment industry. Hoping to build an entertainment empire around Universal, Seagram bought PolyGram in 1999 and other entertainment properties, but the fluctuating profits characteristic of Hollywood were no substitute for the reliable income stream gained from the previously held shares in DuPont.

Question: What percentage of MCA/Universal did Matsushita Electric sell five years after acquiring the company?


Answer: Seagram

Question: To whom did Matsushita sell a large share of MCA/Universal?


Answer: $5.7 billion

Question: How much did Seagram pay to buy a large share of MCA/Universal?


Answer: its stake in DuPont

Question: What did Seagram sell to finance their purchase of a share in MCA/Universal?


Answer: PolyGram

Question: What company did Seagram buy in 1999?


Answer: Edgar Bronfman Jr.

Context: To raise money, Seagram head Edgar Bronfman Jr. sold Universal's television holdings, including cable network USA, to Barry Diller (these same properties would be bought back later at greatly inflated prices). In June 2000, Seagram was sold to French water utility and media company Vivendi, which owned StudioCanal; the conglomerate then became known as Vivendi Universal. Afterward, Universal Pictures acquired the United States distribution rights of several of StudioCanal's films, such as Mulholland Drive (which received an Oscar nomination) and Brotherhood of the Wolf (which became the second-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States since 1980). Universal Pictures and StudioCanal also co-produced several films, such as Love Actually (an $40 million-budgeted film that eventually grossed $246 million worldwide). In late 2000, the New York Film Academy was permitted to use the Universal Studios backlot for student film projects in an unofficial partnership.

Question: Who was the head of Seagram?


Answer: Barry Diller

Question: Who bought the USA cable network from Seagram?


Answer: Vivendi

Question: Who bought Seagram in June 2000?


Answer: $40 million

Question: What was the budget of the film Love Actually?


Answer: Mulholland Drive

Question: What StudioCanal film received an Academy Award nomination?


Answer: General Electric

Context: Burdened with debt, in 2004 Vivendi Universal sold 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (including the studio and theme parks) to General Electric, parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed NBCUniversal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. After that deal, GE owned 80% of NBC Universal; Vivendi held the remaining 20%, with an option to sell its share in 2006. GE purchased Vivendi's share in NBCU in 2011 and in turn sold 51% of the company to cable provider Comcast. Comcast merged the former GE subsidiary with its own cable-television programming assets, creating the current NBCUniversal. Following Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, the Comcast-GE deal was closed on Jan 29, 2011. In March 2013, Comcast bought the remaining 49% of NBCUniversal for $16.7 billion.

Question: Who bought 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment in 2004?


Answer: 20%

Question: What percentage of NBC Universal was owned by Vivendi until 2011?


Answer: Comcast

Question: Who bought 51% of NBC Universal in 2011?


Answer: March 2013

Question: In what month and year did Comcast buy 49% of NBCUniversal?


Answer: $16.7 billion

Question: How much did Comcast pay for 49% of NBCUniversal in 2013?


Answer: 2005

Context: In late 2005, Viacom's Paramount Pictures acquired DreamWorks SKG after acquisition talks between GE and DreamWorks stalled. Universal's long time chairperson, Stacey Snider, left the company in early 2006 to head up DreamWorks. Snider was replaced by then-Vice Chairman Marc Shmuger and Focus Features head David Linde. On October 5, 2009, Marc Shmuger and David Linde were ousted and their co-chairperson jobs consolidated under former president of worldwide marketing and distribution Adam Fogelson becoming the single chairperson. Donna Langley was also upped to co-chairperson. In 2009, Stephanie Sperber founded Universal Partnerships & Licensing within Universal to license consumer products for Universal. In September 2013, Adam Fogelson was ousted as co-chairman of Universal Pictures, promoting Donna Langley to sole-chairman. In addition, NBCUniversal International Chairman, Jeff Shell, would be appointed as Chairman of the newly created Filmed Entertainment Group. Longtime studio head Ron Meyer would give up oversight of the film studio and appointed Vice Chairman of NBCUniversal, providing consultation to CEO Steve Burke on all of the company's operations. Meyers still retains oversight of Universal Parks and Resorts.

Question: In what year did Paramount Pictures purchase DreamWorks?


Answer: Stacey Snider

Question: What Universal chairperson headed DreamWorks as of 2006?


Answer: Adam Fogelson

Question: Who became the chairperson in late 2009?


Answer: Stephanie Sperber

Question: Who was the founder of Universal Partnerships & Licensing?


Answer: Donna Langley

Question: Who became chairperson of Universal Pictures in September 2013?


Answer: Elliott Management

Context: Universal's multi-year film financing deal with Elliott Management expired in 2013. In July 2013, Universal made an agreement with Legendary Pictures to market, co-finance, and distribute Legendary's films for five years starting in 2014, the year that Legendary's similar agreement with Warner Bros. expires.

Question: Universal's deal with what company ended in 2013?


Answer: Legendary Pictures

Question: With whom did Universal sign a marketing and distribution deal in July 2013?


Answer: five years

Question: How many years is the deal with Legendary Pictures intended to run?


Answer: 2014

Question: In what year did Universal's deal with Legendary Pictures begin?


Answer: Gramercy Pictures

Context: In June 2014, Universal Partnerships took over licensing consumer products for NBC and Sprout with expectation that all licensing would eventually be centralized within NBCUniversal. In May 2015, Gramercy Pictures was revived by Focus Features as a genre label, that concentrated on action, sci-fi, and horror films.

Question: What film studio was brought back in May 2015?


Answer: Focus Features

Question: What division of NBCUniversal revived Gramercy Pictures?


Answer: action, sci-fi, and horror

Question: What genre of films will Gramercy be responsible for creating?


Answer: 2015

Context: As of 2015, Universal is the only studio to have released three billion-dollar films in one year; this distinction was achieved in 2015 with Furious 7, Jurassic World and Minions.

Question: In what year did Universal release three billion-dollar films?


Answer: Minions

Question: Along with Jurassic World and Furious 7, what billion-dollar film was released by Universal in 2015?


Answer: Universal is the only studio

Question: How many studios have released three billion-dollar films in one year?


Answer: Universal Productions France S.A.

Context: In the early 1950s, Universal set up its own distribution company in France, and in the late 1960s, the company also started a production company in Paris, Universal Productions France S.A., although sometimes credited by the name of the distribution company, Universal Pictures France. Except for the two first films it produced, Claude Chabrol's Le scandale (English title The Champagne Murders) and Romain Gary's Les oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou (English title Birds in Peru), it was only involved in French or other European co-productions, the most noticeable ones being Louis Malle's Lacombe, Lucien, Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses (English title Going Places), and Fred Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal. It was only involved in approximately 20 French film productions. In the early 1970s, the unit was incorporated into the French Cinema International Corporation arm.

Question: What was the name of the Universal production company based in Paris?


Answer: Universal Pictures France

Question: What was the name of Universal's French distribution company?


Answer: The Champagne Murders

Question: What was the English title of Le scandale?


Answer: Fred Zinnemann

Question: Who directed The Day of the Jackal?


Answer: Les Valseuses

Question: What film was known in English as Going Places?


Answer: telephone

Context: Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born[N 3] scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.

Question: What is Bell most famous for inventing?


Answer: 1922

Question: What year did Bell die?


Answer: practical

Question: What was special about his telephone?


Answer: Alexander Graham Bell

Question: What is Bell's full name?


Answer: telephone

Question: What is Bell famous for inventing?


Answer: elocution and speech

Context: Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876.[N 4] Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.[N 5]

Question: What were his relatives known for working on?


Answer: deaf

Question: What was interesting about his mother and wife?


Answer: 1876

Question: What year did Bell get the patent for his telephone?


Answer: U.S.

Question: In what country did Bell patent his telephone?


Answer: telephone

Question: What did Bell never put in his study?


Answer: 33

Context: Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. Although Bell was not one of the 33 founders of the National Geographic Society, he had a strong influence on the magazine while serving as the second president from January 7, 1898 until 1903.

Question: How many people started the National Geographic Society?


Answer: National Geographic Society

Question: Bell was the second president of what magazine?


Answer: hydrofoils

Question: What field did Bell later work in, apart from optical telecommunications and aeronautics?


Answer: 1898

Question: What year did Bell become President of the National Geographic magazine?


Answer: Edinburgh

Context: Alexander Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. The family home was at 16 South Charlotte Street, and has a stone inscription marking it as Alexander Graham Bell's birthplace. He had two brothers: Melville James Bell (1845–70) and Edward Charles Bell (1848–67), both of whom would die of tuberculosis. His father was Professor Alexander Melville Bell, a phonetician, and his mother was Eliza Grace (née Symonds). Born as just "Alexander Bell", at age 10 he made a plea to his father to have a middle name like his two brothers.[N 6] For his 11th birthday, his father acquiesced and allowed him to adopt the name "Graham", chosen out of respect for Alexander Graham, a Canadian being treated by his father who had become a family friend. To close relatives and friends he remained "Aleck".

Question: What city was Bell born in?


Answer: stone

Question: What material marks Bells family home as his birthplace?


Answer: tuberculosis

Question: What disease did his two brothers die of?


Answer: 10

Question: At what age did Bell ask for a middle name?


Answer: Aleck

Question: What did those close to him call Bell?


Answer: botanical specimens

Context: As a child, young Bell displayed a natural curiosity about his world, resulting in gathering botanical specimens as well as experimenting even at an early age. His best friend was Ben Herdman, a neighbor whose family operated a flour mill, the scene of many forays. Young Bell asked what needed to be done at the mill. He was told wheat had to be dehusked through a laborious process and at the age of 12, Bell built a homemade device that combined rotating paddles with sets of nail brushes, creating a simple dehusking machine that was put into operation and used steadily for a number of years. In return, John Herdman gave both boys the run of a small workshop in which to "invent".

Question: What sort of things did Bell collect as a child?


Answer: Ben Herdman

Question: Who was Bell's closest friend as a child?


Answer: flour

Question: What sort of mill did Bell's neighbors run?


Answer: rotating paddles

Question: Bell's dehusking machine combined what with nail brushes?


Answer: small workshop

Question: What was Bell's reward for his dehusking machine?


Answer: music

Context: From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry, and music that was encouraged by his mother. With no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the family's pianist. Despite being normally quiet and introspective, he reveled in mimicry and "voice tricks" akin to ventriloquism that continually entertained family guests during their occasional visits. Bell was also deeply affected by his mother's gradual deafness, (she began to lose her hearing when he was 12) and learned a manual finger language so he could sit at her side and tap out silently the conversations swirling around the family parlour. He also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mother's forehead wherein she would hear him with reasonable clarity. Bell's preoccupation with his mother's deafness led him to study acoustics.

Question: Bell was gifted at art, poetry, and what?


Answer: piano

Question: What did Bell succeed at without being taught?


Answer: 12

Question: How old was Bell when his mom started to go deaf?


Answer: forehead

Question: What part of his mom's head would Bell talk into?


Answer: acoustics

Question: What did Bell research because of his mom's deafness?


Answer: Dublin

Context: His family was long associated with the teaching of elocution: his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in Dublin, and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists. His father published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are still well known, especially his The Standard Elocutionist (1860), which appeared in Edinburgh in 1868. The Standard Elocutionist appeared in 168 British editions and sold over a quarter of a million copies in the United States alone. In this treatise, his father explains his methods of how to instruct deaf-mutes (as they were then known) to articulate words and read other people's lip movements to decipher meaning. Bell's father taught him and his brothers not only to write Visible Speech but to identify any symbol and its accompanying sound. Bell became so proficient that he became a part of his father's public demonstrations and astounded audiences with his abilities. He could decipher Visible Speech representing virtually every language, including Latin, Scottish Gaelic, and even Sanskrit, accurately reciting written tracts without any prior knowledge of their pronunciation.

Question: Where did Bell's uncle live?


Answer: The Standard Elocutionist

Question: What was Bell's father most famous for publishing?


Answer: pronunciation

Question: Bell learned to accurately read lips even without knowing what?


Answer: 168

Question: The Standard Elocutionist was printed how many times?


Answer: father

Context: As a young child, Bell, like his brothers, received his early schooling at home from his father. At an early age, however, he was enrolled at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, Scotland, which he left at age 15, completing only the first four forms. His school record was undistinguished, marked by absenteeism and lacklustre grades. His main interest remained in the sciences, especially biology, while he treated other school subjects with indifference, to the dismay of his demanding father. Upon leaving school, Bell travelled to London to live with his grandfather, Alexander Bell. During the year he spent with his grandfather, a love of learning was born, with long hours spent in serious discussion and study. The elder Bell took great efforts to have his young pupil learn to speak clearly and with conviction, the attributes that his pupil would need to become a teacher himself. At age 16, Bell secured a position as a "pupil-teacher" of elocution and music, in Weston House Academy, at Elgin, Moray, Scotland. Although he was enrolled as a student in Latin and Greek, he instructed classes himself in return for board and £10 per session. The following year, he attended the University of Edinburgh; joining his older brother Melville who had enrolled there the previous year. In 1868, not long before he departed for Canada with his family, Bell completed his matriculation exams and was accepted for admission to the University of London.

Question: Who taught Bell when he was very young?


Answer: Royal High School

Question: What school did Bell leave at 15?


Answer: biology

Question: What was Bell's favorite subject?


Answer: 16

Question: How old was Bell when he became a "pupil-teacher"?


Answer: 1863

Context: His father encouraged Bell's interest in speech and, in 1863, took his sons to see a unique automaton, developed by Sir Charles Wheatstone based on the earlier work of Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen. The rudimentary "mechanical man" simulated a human voice. Bell was fascinated by the machine and after he obtained a copy of von Kempelen's book, published in German, and had laboriously translated it, he and his older brother Melville built their own automaton head. Their father, highly interested in their project, offered to pay for any supplies and spurred the boys on with the enticement of a "big prize" if they were successful. While his brother constructed the throat and larynx, Bell tackled the more difficult task of recreating a realistic skull. His efforts resulted in a remarkably lifelike head that could "speak", albeit only a few words. The boys would carefully adjust the "lips" and when a bellows forced air through the windpipe, a very recognizable "Mama" ensued, to the delight of neighbors who came to see the Bell invention.

Question: In what year did Bell's father take him to see an automaton?


Answer: Sir Charles Wheatstone

Question: Who created the automaton Bell saw?


Answer: human voice

Question: What did the automaton mimic?


Answer: Melville

Question: Bell built his own automaton with who?


Answer: skull

Question: What part of the automaton did Bell create?


Answer: Skye Terrier

Context: Intrigued by the results of the automaton, Bell continued to experiment with a live subject, the family's Skye Terrier, "Trouve". After he taught it to growl continuously, Bell would reach into its mouth and manipulate the dog's lips and vocal cords to produce a crude-sounding "Ow ah oo ga ma ma". With little convincing, visitors believed his dog could articulate "How are you grandma?" More indicative of his playful nature, his experiments convinced onlookers that they saw a "talking dog". However, these initial forays into experimentation with sound led Bell to undertake his first serious work on the transmission of sound, using tuning forks to explore resonance.

Question: What living thing did Bell use in his research?


Answer: Trouve

Question: What was Bell's pet's name?


Answer: How are you grandma?

Question: What phrase did people believe Bell's dog could say?


Answer: tuning forks

Question: Bell investigated resonance using what?


Answer: growl continuously

Question: What did Bell instruct his dog to do?


Answer: Alexander Ellis

Context: At the age of 19, he wrote a report on his work and sent it to philologist Alexander Ellis, a colleague of his father (who would later be portrayed as Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion). Ellis immediately wrote back indicating that the experiments were similar to existing work in Germany, and also lent Bell a copy of Hermann von Helmholtz's work, The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music.

Question: Who did Bell get to read his work?


Answer: Germany

Question: What country was doing work similar to Bell's?


Answer: Hermann von Helmholtz

Question: Who wrote The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music?


Answer: 19

Question: How old was Bell when he wrote his paper?


Answer: Professor Henry Higgins

Question: What fictional character is based on Alexander Ellis?


Answer: electrical

Context: Dismayed to find that groundbreaking work had already been undertaken by Helmholtz who had conveyed vowel sounds by means of a similar tuning fork "contraption", he pored over the German scientist's book. Working from his own erroneous mistranslation of a French edition, Bell fortuitously then made a deduction that would be the underpinning of all his future work on transmitting sound, reporting: "Without knowing much about the subject, it seemed to me that if vowel sounds could be produced by electrical means, so could consonants, so could articulate speech." He also later remarked: "I thought that Helmholtz had done it ... and that my failure was due only to my ignorance of electricity. It was a valuable blunder ... If I had been able to read German in those days, I might never have commenced my experiments!"[N 7]

Question: By what means did Bell conclude vowel sounds could be made?


Answer: consonants

Question: What else besides vowels did Bell decide could be created?


Answer: German

Question: What language was Bell happy he couldn't read?


Answer: electricity

Question: What did Bell think he didn't know well enough?


Answer: 1865

Context: In 1865, when the Bell family moved to London, Bell returned to Weston House as an assistant master and, in his spare hours, continued experiments on sound using a minimum of laboratory equipment. Bell concentrated on experimenting with electricity to convey sound and later installed a telegraph wire from his room in Somerset College to that of a friend. Throughout late 1867, his health faltered mainly through exhaustion. His younger brother, Edward "Ted," was similarly bed-ridden, suffering from tuberculosis. While Bell recovered (by then referring to himself in correspondence as "A.G. Bell") and served the next year as an instructor at Somerset College, Bath, England, his brother's condition deteriorated. Edward would never recover. Upon his brother's death, Bell returned home in 1867. His older brother Melville had married and moved out. With aspirations to obtain a degree at University College London, Bell considered his next years as preparation for the degree examinations, devoting his spare time at his family's residence to studying.

Question: In what year did the Bell's move to London?


Answer: Weston House

Question: Where did Bell go in work in 1865?


Answer: Somerset College

Question: What building was Bell in?


Answer: A.G. Bell

Question: How did Bell sign his letters?


Answer: 1867

Question: In what year did Bell move home?


Answer: South Kensington

Context: Helping his father in Visible Speech demonstrations and lectures brought Bell to Susanna E. Hull's private school for the deaf in South Kensington, London. His first two pupils were "deaf mute" girls who made remarkable progress under his tutelage. While his older brother seemed to achieve success on many fronts including opening his own elocution school, applying for a patent on an invention, and starting a family, Bell continued as a teacher. However, in May 1870, Melville died from complications due to tuberculosis, causing a family crisis. His father had also suffered a debilitating illness earlier in life and had been restored to health by a convalescence in Newfoundland. Bell's parents embarked upon a long-planned move when they realized that their remaining son was also sickly. Acting decisively, Alexander Melville Bell asked Bell to arrange for the sale of all the family property,[N 8] conclude all of his brother's affairs (Bell took over his last student, curing a pronounced lisp), and join his father and mother in setting out for the "New World". Reluctantly, Bell also had to conclude a relationship with Marie Eccleston, who, as he had surmised, was not prepared to leave England with him.

Question: What city is Susanna E. Hull located in?


Answer: deaf

Question: What sort of student attended Susanna E. Hull?


Answer: Melville

Question: Who died in 1870?


Answer: Newfoundland

Question: Where did Bell's father go to recover from illness?


Answer: lisp

Question: What did Bell help his final student get rid of?


Answer: 23

Context: In 1870, at age 23, Bell, his brother's widow, Caroline (Margaret Ottaway), and his parents travelled on the SS Nestorian to Canada. After landing at Quebec City the Bells transferred to another steamer to Montreal and then boarded a train to Paris, Ontario, to stay with the Reverend Thomas Henderson, a family friend. After a brief stay with the Hendersons, the Bell family purchased a farm of 10.5 acres (42,000 m2) at Tutelo Heights (now called Tutela Heights), near Brantford, Ontario. The property consisted of an orchard, large farm house, stable, pigsty, hen-house, and a carriage house, which bordered the Grand River.[N 9]

Question: How old was Bell when he went to Canada?


Answer: SS Nestorian

Question: What boat did Bell travel on?


Answer: Quebec City

Question: In what Canadian city did Bell first arrive?


Answer: Paris

Question: What city did Bell arrive at by train?


Answer: 10.5

Question: How many acres was the farm the Bell's bought in Canada?


Answer: carriage house

Context: At the homestead, Bell set up his own workshop in the converted carriage house near to what he called his "dreaming place", a large hollow nestled in trees at the back of the property above the river. Despite his frail condition upon arriving in Canada, Bell found the climate and environs to his liking, and rapidly improved.[N 10] He continued his interest in the study of the human voice and when he discovered the Six Nations Reserve across the river at Onondaga, he learned the Mohawk language and translated its unwritten vocabulary into Visible Speech symbols. For his work, Bell was awarded the title of Honorary Chief and participated in a ceremony where he donned a Mohawk headdress and danced traditional dances.[N 11]

Question: What building did Bell use as a workshop?


Answer: dreaming place

Question: What did Bell call his special spot in the back of the property?


Answer: Mohawk

Question: What Native American language did Bell learn?


Answer: Honorary Chief

Question: What special status did Bell get in the Mohawk tribe?


Answer: Onondaga

Question: Where was the Six Nations Reserve located?


Answer: melodeon

Context: After setting up his workshop, Bell continued experiments based on Helmholtz's work with electricity and sound. He also modified a melodeon (a type of pump organ) so that it could transmit its music electrically over a distance. Once the family was settled in, both Bell and his father made plans to establish a teaching practice and in 1871, he accompanied his father to Montreal, where Melville was offered a position to teach his System of Visible Speech.

Question: What did Bell rework to send music?


Answer: pump organ

Question: What is a melodeon a kind of?


Answer: 1871

Question: When did Bell go to Montreal?


Answer: father

Question: Who went with Bell to Montreal?


Answer: electrically

Question: How did Bell's reworked melodeon send music?


Answer: Sarah Fuller

Context: Bell's father was invited by Sarah Fuller, principal of the Boston School for Deaf Mutes (which continues today as the public Horace Mann School for the Deaf), in Boston, Massachusetts, to introduce the Visible Speech System by providing training for Fuller's instructors, but he declined the post in favor of his son. Traveling to Boston in April 1871, Bell proved successful in training the school's instructors. He was subsequently asked to repeat the program at the American Asylum for Deaf-mutes in Hartford, Connecticut, and the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Question: Who ran the Boston School for Deaf Mutes?


Answer: the public Horace Mann School for the Deaf

Question: What name does the Boston School for Deaf Mutes go by now?


Answer: April

Question: What month did Bell go to Boston?


Answer: instructors

Question: Bell trained who in Boston?


Answer: Hartford

Question: What city was the American Asylum in?


Answer: 1

Context: Returning home to Brantford after six months abroad, Bell continued his experiments with his "harmonic telegraph".[N 12] The basic concept behind his device was that messages could be sent through a single wire if each message was transmitted at a different pitch, but work on both the transmitter and receiver was needed.

Question: How many wires did Bell send a signal through?


Answer: pitch

Question: For his system to work, Bell had to change what about each code?


Answer: receiver

Question: Bell needed to fix both the transmitter and what?


Answer: Brantford

Question: Where was Bell's home?


Answer: Boston

Context: Unsure of his future, he first contemplated returning to London to complete his studies, but decided to return to Boston as a teacher. His father helped him set up his private practice by contacting Gardiner Greene Hubbard, the president of the Clarke School for the Deaf for a recommendation. Teaching his father's system, in October 1872, Alexander Bell opened his "School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech" in Boston, which attracted a large number of deaf pupils, with his first class numbering 30 students. While he was working as a private tutor, one of his most famous pupils was Helen Keller, who came to him as a young child unable to see, hear, or speak. She was later to say that Bell dedicated his life to the penetration of that "inhuman silence which separates and estranges." In 1893, Keller performed the sod-breaking ceremony for the construction of the new Bell's new Volta Bureau, dedicated to "the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf".

Question: What city did Bell decide to return to?


Answer: 1872

Question: In what year did Bell open his own school?


Answer: 30

Question: How many people were in Bell's first class?


Answer: Helen Keller

Question: Which of Bell's students is the most well known?


Answer: sign language

Context: Several influential people of the time, including Bell, viewed deafness as something that should be eradicated, and also believed that with resources and effort they could teach the deaf to speak and avoid the use of sign language, thus enabling their integration within the wider society from which many were often being excluded. In several schools, children were mistreated, for example by having their hands tied behind their backs so they could not communicate by signing—the only language they knew—in an attempt to force them to attempt oral communication. Owing to his efforts to suppress the teaching of sign language, Bell is often viewed negatively by those embracing Deaf culture.

Question: Bell's goal was to instruct the deaf to speak and not use what?


Answer: tied behind their backs

Question: What would happen so some children's hands in schools?


Answer: negative

Question: In what light to many pro-deaf people see Bell?


Answer: signing

Question: What was the only language many deaf people had?


Answer: Boston University School of Oratory.

Context: In the following year, Bell became professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at the Boston University School of Oratory. During this period, he alternated between Boston and Brantford, spending summers in his Canadian home. At Boston University, Bell was "swept up" by the excitement engendered by the many scientists and inventors residing in the city. He continued his research in sound and endeavored to find a way to transmit musical notes and articulate speech, but although absorbed by his experiments, he found it difficult to devote enough time to experimentation. While days and evenings were occupied by his teaching and private classes, Bell began to stay awake late into the night, running experiment after experiment in rented facilities at his boarding house. Keeping "night owl" hours, he worried that his work would be discovered and took great pains to lock up his notebooks and laboratory equipment. Bell had a specially made table where he could place his notes and equipment inside a locking cover. Worse still, his health deteriorated as he suffered severe headaches. Returning to Boston in fall 1873, Bell made a fateful decision to concentrate on his experiments in sound.

Question: With what school did Bell get his next teaching job?


Answer: Vocal Physiology and Elocution

Question: What was Bell's discipline?


Answer: experiments

Question: What did Bell do late at night?


Answer: headaches

Question: What health condition did Bell start to have?


Answer: 1873

Question: In what year did Bell start to focus on research into sound?


Answer: Mabel Hubbard

Context: Deciding to give up his lucrative private Boston practice, Bell retained only two students, six-year-old "Georgie" Sanders, deaf from birth, and 15-year-old Mabel Hubbard. Each pupil would play an important role in the next developments. George's father, Thomas Sanders, a wealthy businessman, offered Bell a place to stay in nearby Salem with Georgie's grandmother, complete with a room to "experiment". Although the offer was made by George's mother and followed the year-long arrangement in 1872 where her son and his nurse had moved to quarters next to Bell's boarding house, it was clear that Mr. Sanders was backing the proposal. The arrangement was for teacher and student to continue their work together, with free room and board thrown in. Mabel was a bright, attractive girl who was ten years Bell's junior, but became the object of his affection. Having lost her hearing after a near-fatal bout of scarlet fever close to her fifth birthday,[N 13] she had learned to read lips but her father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Bell's benefactor and personal friend, wanted her to work directly with her teacher.

Question: Bell's two remaining students were "Georgie" Sanders and who?


Answer: Thomas Sanders

Question: What was Georgie's father's name?


Answer: scarlet fever

Question: What disease made Mabel deaf?


Answer: 15

Question: How old was Mabel when she became deaf?


Answer: smoked glass

Context: By 1874, Bell's initial work on the harmonic telegraph had entered a formative stage, with progress made both at his new Boston "laboratory" (a rented facility) and at his family home in Canada a big success.[N 14] While working that summer in Brantford, Bell experimented with a "phonautograph", a pen-like machine that could draw shapes of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing their vibrations. Bell thought it might be possible to generate undulating electrical currents that corresponded to sound waves. Bell also thought that multiple metal reeds tuned to different frequencies like a harp would be able to convert the undulating currents back into sound. But he had no working model to demonstrate the feasibility of these ideas.

Question: On what material did the phonautograph operate?


Answer: metal

Question: What kind of reed did Bell want to play with?


Answer: sound

Question: What did Bell believe the reeds would turn the signal into?


Answer: pen

Question: What instrument is a phonautograph similar to?


Answer: 1874

Question: In what year was Bell really working on his telegraph?


Answer: Western Union

Context: In 1874, telegraph message traffic was rapidly expanding and in the words of Western Union President William Orton, had become "the nervous system of commerce". Orton had contracted with inventors Thomas Edison and Elisha Gray to find a way to send multiple telegraph messages on each telegraph line to avoid the great cost of constructing new lines. When Bell mentioned to Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders that he was working on a method of sending multiple tones on a telegraph wire using a multi-reed device, the two wealthy patrons began to financially support Bell's experiments. Patent matters would be handled by Hubbard's patent attorney, Anthony Pollok.

Question: What business was William Orton in charge of?


Answer: nervous system

Question: In 1874 the telegraph was known as the what of commerce?


Answer: cost

Question: What was the primary motivation for not building new telegraph lines?


Answer: Elisha Gray

Question: Thomas Edison and what other scientist were already asked to work on a better telegraph?


Answer: Joseph Henry

Context: In March 1875, Bell and Pollok visited the famous scientist Joseph Henry, who was then director of the Smithsonian Institution, and asked Henry's advice on the electrical multi-reed apparatus that Bell hoped would transmit the human voice by telegraph. Henry replied that Bell had "the germ of a great invention". When Bell said that he did not have the necessary knowledge, Henry replied, "Get it!" That declaration greatly encouraged Bell to keep trying, even though he did not have the equipment needed to continue his experiments, nor the ability to create a working model of his ideas. However, a chance meeting in 1874 between Bell and Thomas A. Watson, an experienced electrical designer and mechanic at the electrical machine shop of Charles Williams, changed all that.

Question: Who did Bell go to see in 1875?


Answer: Joseph Henry

Question: Who ran the Smithsonian in 1875?


Answer: Get it!

Question: What was Henry's reply to Bell's statement that he lacked information to complete his telegraph?


Answer: Thomas A. Watson

Question: Who did Bell meet in 1874?


Answer: electrical machine

Question: What kind of business did Watson work at?


Answer: Thomas Watson

Context: With financial support from Sanders and Hubbard, Bell hired Thomas Watson as his assistant,[N 15] and the two of them experimented with acoustic telegraphy. On June 2, 1875, Watson accidentally plucked one of the reeds and Bell, at the receiving end of the wire, heard the overtones of the reed; overtones that would be necessary for transmitting speech. That demonstrated to Bell that only one reed or armature was necessary, not multiple reeds. This led to the "gallows" sound-powered telephone, which could transmit indistinct, voice-like sounds, but not clear speech.

Question: Who did Bell take on to work with him?


Answer: June 2

Question: What month and day did Watson and Bell have a breakthrough?


Answer: 1

Question: How many reeds did Bell conclude he needed?


Answer: gallows

Question: What name was given to the telephone that sort of worked?


Answer: Sanders and Hubbard

Question: Who gave money to Bell and Watson?


Answer: U.S. profits

Context: In 1875, Bell developed an acoustic telegraph and drew up a patent application for it. Since he had agreed to share U.S. profits with his investors Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, Bell requested that an associate in Ontario, George Brown, attempt to patent it in Britain, instructing his lawyers to apply for a patent in the U.S. only after they received word from Britain (Britain would issue patents only for discoveries not previously patented elsewhere).

Question: What did Bell promise to split with his financers?


Answer: Britain

Question: In what country other than the U.S. did Bell try to patent his telegraph?


Answer: Britain

Question: Which country did Bell first try to get a patent?


Answer: George Brown

Question: Who did Bell ask to get a patent in Britain?


Answer: acoustic

Question: What kind of telegraph did Bell create?


Answer: water

Context: Meanwhile, Elisha Gray was also experimenting with acoustic telegraphy and thought of a way to transmit speech using a water transmitter. On February 14, 1876, Gray filed a caveat with the U.S. Patent Office for a telephone design that used a water transmitter. That same morning, Bell's lawyer filed Bell's application with the patent office. There is considerable debate about who arrived first and Gray later challenged the primacy of Bell's patent. Bell was in Boston on February 14 and did not arrive in Washington until February 26.

Question: What material did Elisha Gray use to convey sound?


Answer: February 14, 1876

Question: On what date did Gray and Bell both put in for a patent?


Answer: February 26

Question: On what day did Bell get to Washington?


Answer: U.S. Patent Office

Question: What office in Washington did Bell and Gray visit?


Answer: telephone

Question: What sort of machine did Bell and Gray both try to patent at the same time?


Answer: 174,465

Context: Bell's patent 174,465, was issued to Bell on March 7, 1876, by the U.S. Patent Office. Bell's patent covered "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically ... by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound" [N 16] Bell returned to Boston the same day and the next day resumed work, drawing in his notebook a diagram similar to that in Gray's patent caveat.

Question: What number is Bell's patent?


Answer: March 7, 1876

Question: On what date did Bell get his patent?


Answer: apparatus

Question: Bell's patent was for the method and what for transmitting vocal and other sounds telegraphically?


Answer: March 7, 1876

Question: On what day did Bell go back to Boston?


Answer: Gray

Question: Bell sketched a design that looked like the work of who?


Answer: liquid

Context: On March 10, 1876, three days after his patent was issued, Bell succeeded in getting his telephone to work, using a liquid transmitter similar to Gray's design. Vibration of the diaphragm caused a needle to vibrate in the water, varying the electrical resistance in the circuit. When Bell spoke the famous sentence "Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you" into the liquid transmitter, Watson, listening at the receiving end in an adjoining room, heard the words clearly.

Question: What kind of transmitter did Bell put in his telephone?


Answer: Mr. Watson

Question: How did Bell refer to his partner in his well known line?


Answer: electrical resistance

Question: What did the vibrations cause to change?


Answer: proof of concept

Context: Although Bell was, and still is, accused of stealing the telephone from Gray, Bell used Gray's water transmitter design only after Bell's patent had been granted, and only as a proof of concept scientific experiment, to prove to his own satisfaction that intelligible "articulate speech" (Bell's words) could be electrically transmitted. After March 1876, Bell focused on improving the electromagnetic telephone and never used Gray's liquid transmitter in public demonstrations or commercial use.

Question: Bell implemented Gray's design as a what?


Answer: March

Question: Bell stopped using the liquid-based method after what month?


Answer: commercial use

Question: Bell used his own design in all public demonstrations and what?


Answer: variable resistance

Context: The question of priority for the variable resistance feature of the telephone was raised by the examiner before he approved Bell's patent application. He told Bell that his claim for the variable resistance feature was also described in Gray's caveat. Bell pointed to a variable resistance device in Bell's previous application in which Bell described a cup of mercury, not water. Bell had filed the mercury application at the patent office a year earlier on February 25, 1875, long before Elisha Gray described the water device. In addition, Gray abandoned his caveat, and because he did not contest Bell's priority, the examiner approved Bell's patent on March 3, 1876. Gray had reinvented the variable resistance telephone, but Bell was the first to write down the idea and the first to test it in a telephone.

Question: What part of the telephone was investigated by the patent officer?


Answer: February 25, 1875

Question: When did Bell put in his prior patent?


Answer: mercury

Question: What liquid did Bell use in his first application?


Answer: Zenas Fisk Wilber

Context: The patent examiner, Zenas Fisk Wilber, later stated in an affidavit that he was an alcoholic who was much in debt to Bell's lawyer, Marcellus Bailey, with whom he had served in the Civil War. He claimed he showed Gray's patent caveat to Bailey. Wilber also claimed (after Bell arrived in Washington D.C. from Boston) that he showed Gray's caveat to Bell and that Bell paid him $100. Bell claimed they discussed the patent only in general terms, although in a letter to Gray, Bell admitted that he learned some of the technical details. Bell denied in an affidavit that he ever gave Wilber any money.

Question: Who declared himself an alcoholic?


Answer: Civil War

Question: In what war did Wilber and Bailey fight together?


Answer: $100

Question: How much did Wilber say Bell gave him in order to look at Gray's paperwork?


Answer: technical details

Question: What did Bell only admit to knowing in a letter?


Answer: Mount Pleasant

Context: Continuing his experiments in Brantford, Bell brought home a working model of his telephone. On August 3, 1876, from the telegraph office in Mount Pleasant five miles (eight km) away from Brantford, Bell sent a tentative telegram indicating that he was ready. With curious onlookers packed into the office as witnesses, faint voices were heard replying. The following night, he amazed guests as well as his family when a message was received at the Bell home from Brantford, four miles (six km) distant, along an improvised wire strung up along telegraph lines and fences, and laid through a tunnel. This time, guests at the household distinctly heard people in Brantford reading and singing. These experiments clearly proved that the telephone could work over long distances.

Question: From what city did Bell send his first message?


Answer: fences

Question: Bell sent messages over wires hooked onto telegraph lines and what?


Answer: reading and singing

Question: What did the group at the Bells house hear other people doing?


Answer: $100,000

Context: Bell and his partners, Hubbard and Sanders, offered to sell the patent outright to Western Union for $100,000. The president of Western Union balked, countering that the telephone was nothing but a toy. Two years later, he told colleagues that if he could get the patent for $25 million he would consider it a bargain. By then, the Bell company no longer wanted to sell the patent. Bell's investors would become millionaires, while he fared well from residuals and at one point had assets of nearly one million dollars.

Question: How much did Bell et al. try to sell his patent for?


Answer: Western Union

Question: Who did Bell et al. try to sell his patent to?


Answer: a toy

Question: What did the President think the telephone was, such that he refused to buy the patent?


Answer: $25 million

Question: How much the the President of Western Union want to pay for the patent later on?


Answer: Philadelphia

Context: Bell began a series of public demonstrations and lectures to introduce the new invention to the scientific community as well as the general public. A short time later, his demonstration of an early telephone prototype at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia brought the telephone to international attention. Influential visitors to the exhibition included Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. Later Bell had the opportunity to demonstrate the invention personally to Sir William Thomson (later, Lord Kelvin), a renowned Scottish scientist, as well as to Queen Victoria, who had requested a private audience at Osborne House, her Isle of Wight home. She called the demonstration "most extraordinary". The enthusiasm surrounding Bell's public displays laid the groundwork for universal acceptance of the revolutionary device.

Question: In what city was the 1876 Centennial Exposition?


Answer: Emperor Pedro II

Question: What important person saw the telephone at the Centennial Exposition?


Answer: Brazil

Question: Pedro II was the Emperor of what Country?


Answer: Victoria

Question: Which Queen did Bell present his invention to?


Answer: 1877

Context: The Bell Telephone Company was created in 1877, and by 1886, more than 150,000 people in the U.S. owned telephones. Bell Company engineers made numerous other improvements to the telephone, which emerged as one of the most successful products ever. In 1879, the Bell company acquired Edison's patents for the carbon microphone from Western Union. This made the telephone practical for longer distances, and it was no longer necessary to shout to be heard at the receiving telephone.

Question: In what year was the Bell Telephone Company founded?


Answer: 150,000

Question: How many people in the United States had a telephone by 1886?


Answer: 1879

Question: In what year did Bell get some of Edison's patents?


Answer: carbon microphone

Question: What addition let people stop yelling into the telephone?


Answer: Western Union

Question: What company did Bell acquire the carbon microphone from?


Answer: January 1915

Context: In January 1915, Bell made the first ceremonial transcontinental telephone call. Calling from the AT&T head office at 15 Dey Street in New York City, Bell was heard by Thomas Watson at 333 Grant Avenue in San Francisco. The New York Times reported:

Question: In what month and year did Bell telephone across the country?


Answer: AT&T

Question: What company office did Bell make the original cross country phone call from?


Answer: New York

Question: What city did Bell make the first cross country call from?


Answer: San Francisco

Question: What city did Bell make the first cross country call to?


Answer: Thomas Watson

Question: Who was on the other end of the first cross country phone call?


Answer: 18

Context: As is sometimes common in scientific discoveries, simultaneous developments can occur, as evidenced by a number of inventors who were at work on the telephone. Over a period of 18 years, the Bell Telephone Company faced 587 court challenges to its patents, including five that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, but none was successful in establishing priority over the original Bell patent and the Bell Telephone Company never lost a case that had proceeded to a final trial stage. Bell's laboratory notes and family letters were the key to establishing a long lineage to his experiments. The Bell company lawyers successfully fought off myriad lawsuits generated initially around the challenges by Elisha Gray and Amos Dolbear. In personal correspondence to Bell, both Gray and Dolbear had acknowledged his prior work, which considerably weakened their later claims.

Question: During how many years did the Bell Company battle lawsuits?


Answer: 587

Question: How many times were Bell's patents contested?


Answer: 5

Question: How many of the court cases wound up at the Supreme Court?


Answer: Amos Dolbear

Question: Elisha Gray and what other man were behind many of the court cases?


Answer: misrepresentation

Context: On January 13, 1887, the U,S. Government moved to annul the patent issued to Bell on the grounds of fraud and misrepresentation. After a series of decisions and reversals, the Bell company won a decision in the Supreme Court, though a couple of the original claims from the lower court cases were left undecided. By the time that the trial wound its way through nine years of legal battles, the U.S. prosecuting attorney had died and the two Bell patents (No. 174,465 dated March 7, 1876 and No. 186,787 dated January 30, 1877) were no longer in effect, although the presiding judges agreed to continue the proceedings due to the case's importance as a "precedent". With a change in administration and charges of conflict of interest (on both sides) arising from the original trial, the US Attorney General dropped the lawsuit on November 30, 1897 leaving several issues undecided on the merits.

Question: In 1887 the US Government wanted to undo Bell's patent due to fraud and what?


Answer: Supreme Court

Question: The US Government lost the bid to overturn Bell's patent in what court?


Answer: 9

Question: How many years did Bell and the US Government fight in court?


Answer: precedent

Question: What excuse did the judges have for the trial despite the fact that the patents had expired?


Answer: November 30, 1897

Question: On what date did the US Government stop legal action?


Answer: Antonio Meucci

Context: During a deposition filed for the 1887 trial, Italian inventor Antonio Meucci also claimed to have created the first working model of a telephone in Italy in 1834. In 1886, in the first of three cases in which he was involved, Meucci took the stand as a witness in the hopes of establishing his invention's priority. Meucci's evidence in this case was disputed due to a lack of material evidence for his inventions as his working models were purportedly lost at the laboratory of American District Telegraph (ADT) of New York, which was later incorporated as a subsidiary of Western Union in 1901. Meucci's work, like many other inventors of the period, was based on earlier acoustic principles and despite evidence of earlier experiments, the final case involving Meucci was eventually dropped upon Meucci's death. However, due to the efforts of Congressman Vito Fossella, the U.S. House of Representatives on June 11, 2002 stated that Meucci's "work in the invention of the telephone should be acknowledged", even though this did not put an end to a still contentious issue.[N 17] Some modern scholars do not agree with the claims that Bell's work on the telephone was influenced by Meucci's inventions.[N 18]

Question: Who claimed to have invented the in 1834?


Answer: 3

Question: How many court trials did Meucci participate in?


Answer: American District Telegraph (ADT)

Question: At what company were Meucci's prototypes supposedly lost?


Answer: 1901

Question: In what year did Western Union absorb ADT?


Answer: death

Question: What event caused Meucci's trials to be dropped?


Answer: royalties

Context: The value of the Bell patent was acknowledged throughout the world, and patent applications were made in most major countries, but when Bell had delayed the German patent application, the electrical firm of Siemens & Halske (S&H) managed to set up a rival manufacturer of Bell telephones under their own patent. The Siemens company produced near-identical copies of the Bell telephone without having to pay royalties. The establishment of the International Bell Telephone Company in Brussels, Belgium in 1880, as well as a series of agreements in other countries eventually consolidated a global telephone operation. The strain put on Bell by his constant appearances in court, necessitated by the legal battles, eventually resulted in his resignation from the company.[N 19]

Question: Because of their patent, what didn't Siemens & Halske have to give Bell?


Answer: Brussels

Question: What was the home city for the International Bell Telephone Company?


Answer: 1880

Question: In what year was the International Bell Telephone Company founded?


Answer: Mabel Hubbard

Context: On July 11, 1877, a few days after the Bell Telephone Company was established, Bell married Mabel Hubbard (1857–1923) at the Hubbard estate in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His wedding present to his bride was to turn over 1,487 of his 1,497 shares in the newly formed Bell Telephone Company. Shortly thereafter, the newlyweds embarked on a year-long honeymoon in Europe. During that excursion, Bell took a handmade model of his telephone with him, making it a "working holiday". The courtship had begun years earlier; however, Bell waited until he was more financially secure before marrying. Although the telephone appeared to be an "instant" success, it was not initially a profitable venture and Bell's main sources of income were from lectures until after 1897. One unusual request exacted by his fiancée was that he use "Alec" rather than the family's earlier familiar name of "Aleck". From 1876, he would sign his name "Alec Bell". They had four children:

Question: Who did Bell marry in 1877?


Answer: 4

Question: How many children did Bell and Mabel have?


Answer: Europe

Question: Where did Bell and his wife go on their honeymoon?


Answer: lectures

Question: Before 1897, what did Bell get most of his money from?


Answer: 1880

Context: The Bell family home was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, until 1880 when Bell's father-in-law bought a house in Washington, D.C., and later in 1882 bought a home in the same city for Bell's family, so that they could be with him while he attended to the numerous court cases involving patent disputes.

Question: In what year did Mabel's father move to Washington D.C.?


Answer: 1882

Question: In what year did Bell acquire a house in D.C.?


Answer: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Question: Where did Bell and Mabel live before 1880?


Answer: patent disputes

Question: What did Bell have to go to court for in D.C.?