1 comments about Biography - Jeffrey Dahmer.

1. I followed this case, have all the books, read all tabloids and magazines, taped all shows off the TV, "Dateline" in the spring of 1994 with Stone Phillips was very very good but this particular video has the most actual authentic video clips, interviews with "Lionel Dahmer" Jeffrey Dahmer's Father, a great bibliography on Jeff's life.

2 comments about Biography: Kenny Rogers.

1. Well...what can i say?!?...I enjoy this VHS-tape about Kennys life and professional-life...It was very very intresting to hear what he has accomplished in his life...and to see some glimpses of his tv-shows and some glimpses of his tv-serie "The Gambler"....I am so amazed over what Kenny has done over these 5 decades...He is an amazing artist and all his songs are AMAZING!!...It was intresting to hear about his growing-up-time and to hear what his friends had said about him....So i am very positive to this VHS-tape...but i wished it could be on dvd soon...i have a feeling that i will watch this VHS-tape alot of times...**So once again...thanks Kenny for doing such a great job for your fans and for yourself ofcourse!...I hope you will be still around for many years to come...okay;-)...Best regards from Bina in SWE**dec 7th 2007 at 3.42pm*



2. I had never seen this biography until now, but I can honestly say that even for a long-time Kenny-fan like me, I learned something new! This biography is made in 1999 and is quite prophetic, since people in the music business, like Kenny's old producer Larry Butler, talks about how he thinks Kenny will reach his goal and top the charts again, which he did some months after! This is also before his latest face-job that has gotten even more attention than his young wife and his great new album, which was even Grammy-nominated for the duet with Don Henley. I hope there will be more biographies about this great artist in the future, but until then this will do for me!

1 comments about Biography - Alice Faye.

1. This video has been set out in a great format. Alice was the most beautiful star of the mid thirties to early forties, with a voice to match. OK she was not in the same class as Great Actresses "Bette Davis & Katherine Hepburn" but they couldn't sing. This video shows Alice's early life in "Hell's Kitchen", with many Photo's & clips of her singing from her many films. Friends & family comment on her life, which is a great tribute to Alice as this was produced before leaving us all in 1998. I hope the studio's who own the rights to her films decide to bring out a few more of her films on video, under the heading of " The Feel Good Movies " as after seeing one of her movies this is how you felt. What more could one say.

No comments about Tiffany - The Mark of Excellence.

1 comments about Biography - Leif Ericson.

1. Bravo to A&E for this Biography surprise!
   I half expected to see this drop down the
   old '1984-style' memory hole! A must have!

1 comments about Biography - Ponce De Leon.

1. If you're like me, you never could keep all of those New World explorers straight: who discovered what, who killed the most natives, who found tons of gold, who died at the hands of the enemy, etc. You might remember Ponce de Leon, however; he was the guy who went all over the place hunting the fountain of youth - that is how he is best remembered. This video, however, seriously downplays that particular obsession and really speaks little about it. de Leon may have had his eyes out for any fountain of youth he happened to stumble across, but that search, which seems sort of silly when you think about it, is not what this man, the first and quintessential conquistador, should be remembered for.

   What did de Leon do? Well, for starters, he lived to be 61 years old - which is pretty impressive given his participation in the campaign to rid his native Spain of the Moors, his transatlantic trip to the New World on Columbus' second voyage, and all of the Indians he fought and killed over the years. When he wasn't killing natives, he was discovering and naming Florida, serving as the first governor of Puerto Rico (where, oddly enough, he is still hailed as a national hero), and making money hand over fist not be mining gold but, rather, by handling the sale of native laborers and selling cassava bread (which could last up to four weeks or so before spoiling) to ships returning to Spain. He built great villas, designed towns, planted colonies, and never stopped pursuing his dreams of more power, more money, and a greater legacy - all the things any conquistador of the time pined for. He even succeeded in winning a coat of arms from his king, which was basically the highest reward a Spaniard could earn in his life. de Leon really made his mark and established himself in the New World as the ultimate enforcer. Whenever natives rebelled or caused trouble, de Leon was the guy the authorities sent in to take care of business.

   The discovery of Florida was de Leon's final accomplishment. It was a mission he funded himself, and even though he thought Florida was just a really big island, he was determined to establish a colony there. He may have officially discovered Florida, but the natives there had already been in contact with slave traders, and they didn't want any part of this settlement business. Forced out initially, he returned to a spot on the western Florida coast with 200 settlers, spent five months establishing a base there, and then faced a new Indian attack. Hit in the leg with a poisoned arrow, de Leon soon succumbed to his injuries and died. His accomplishments, however, assured him a place in history, and this video introduces you to the real explorer, not the old codger wasting half his life in search of liquid immortality.

No comments about Biography - Samson & Delilah.

3 comments about Biography - Ann-Margret: Sugar & Spice.

1. A MUST HAVE for any Ann-Margret fan. It's Ann-Margret from begining to end. Well done, informative and entertaining.



2. As a long time fan I loved the Spice but the Sugar made it twice as nice. No better way to describe this superstar! She never fails to entertain. He biography is no different. A facinating person who has brought me years of enjoyment.



3. Some of the celebrity friends who add their two cents gush a bit much, but how can you blame them when they're speaking of titian-haired swinger Ann-Margret, icon of the '60's and comeback kitten of the '70's(her later turn toward TV movies in the '80's and '90's is really another story altogether--Sugar & Spice Part 2?). Nicely narrated and informative, this special doesn't skimp on the clips, the most enjoyable being A-M's personality test for Fox. A great story, worthy of a film itself, Ann-Margret's Biography is one of the very best produced.

3 comments about Biography - Sir Isaac Newton.

1. It is not possible to conduct a course in the history of mathematics or science without an in-depth study of the life and work of Isaac Newton. Generally considered to be the greatest scientist of all time, his work in mathematics alone would have placed him in the upper tier of scientific figures. His life largely consisted of two distinct parts, the years where he was withdrawn and unwilling to publish followed by those where he was an icon and readily destroyed his rivals.
   Given the short amount of time, the coverage in the tape is impressive. While not spending an inordinate amount of time on his personality, the producers of the tape impart a sound sense of what he was like. Arguably the smartest person who has ever lived, he was socially inept and it is rumored that he only laughed once in his life. Despite that genius and his early years of intellectual reclusion, he also proved to be a superb organizer. Many biographers of Newton tend to ignore his work at the royal mint, where he took an inefficient process for producing coins and turned it into a producer of coinage that all had confidence in. That part of his life is covered in this tape, showing Newton to be one of the first modern CEOs. The role that stable coinage played in the industrial revolution is not to be underestimated and Newton is the person most responsible for creating it in Britain.
   Like so many great historical figures, there was an inflection point in Newton's life. Being small and sickly, he was bullied in his early years at school. All that changed when he physically stood up to the bully and after that event, threw himself into his schoolwork, rapidly outdistancing all his classmates and even the teachers. His talent was so overwhelming that his professor resigned so that Newton could be given his position.
   This tape should be in every academic library and part of the curriculum in all courses in the history of math or science. It presents all sides of Newton, from the reclusive genius who could barely speak to people to the popular, ruthless icon who did not hesitate to destroy his rivals.

   Published in Mathematics and Computer Education, reprinted with permission.




2. Most children idolize famous athletes, movie stars, and the like. I was different - my two idols were Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. I still believe Newton to be the greatest genius to ever live. Certainly, I was impressed by Newton's accomplishments (the theory of gravity, calculus, the laws of motion, etc.), but I was perhaps more deeply impressed by his unsurpassed commitment to his work. When I read that he would oftentimes forget to eat while he worked days on end, I became convinced that this was the type of man I wanted to become. My own path to scientific accomplishment took a different turn when I got to college, but I still have nothing but the greatest respect for and interest in this great man of science.
   
   This is an excellent look at Newton's life, one that does not shy away from the genius' negative qualities. Newton was a complex man who struggled in terms of his relationships with human beings, living a rather reclusive life devoted solely to his work. The story of his early years helps explain his adult character. His father died before he was born, and he rarely saw his mother between the ages of 3 and 8. In school, he did not socialize with his classmates, devoting himself to his work instead. His brilliance was obvious to his instructors, though, and his mother was eventually convinced that Newton should continue his studies rather than return to run the family farm.
   
   Amazingly, many of Newton's greatest discoveries originated in an 18-month period he spent at home while Cambridge was closed down because of the plague. In private study, he discovered the refraction of light, began to recognize the principles of gravity, and basically invented the refracting telescope. He was most reticent to publish any of his work, however, and the ridicule that greeted his first scientific paper on optics convinced him to never publish again. He continued his work, of course, and some of the great discoveries in scientific history were only to be discovered later in Newton's life, years after he had actually made them. He did want the credit for his discoveries, however, a fact which led to some less than admirable actions on his part later in life. He developed a bitter, life-long feud with Robert Hooke, for example, fought stridently against the claims of Leibnitz in order to secure the credit for his discovery of calculus, and later behaved rather unethically in regard to an astronomer who dared stand in the way of his wishes. True fame would not come until 1687, when Newton published the Principia. It was Edmund Halley who came to Newton inquiring as to the great mystery of planetary rotation. Newton, to his surprise, had already provided an answer to the question, and in the Principia Newton was to describe the laws of gravity, put forth his famous three laws of thermodynamics, explain the celestial rotation of heavenly bodies, and basically postulate and demonstrate a mathematical structure to the universe itself. Never has a single publication changed the course of science and indeed human culture in the way the Principia did; its influence is still heavily with us today and helped push man into outer space successfully.
   
   I was most surprised to learn the incredible scope of Newton's work. Everyone knows about his invention of calculus and other scientific achievements, but Newton was also an intense theologian and alchemist. He strove to discover the true nature of God in nature, for he believed the world to be a rational creation of a rational God, built upon universal laws that man could discern through focused analysis and then explain via mathematics. He also had a few strange ideas, such as his belief that Protagoras acquired his mathematical knowledge from a meeting with Moses the Prophet.
   
   The reclusive Newton enjoyed the incredible fame he attained after publication of the Principia and went on to occupy a political post as Warden of the Mint; in this capacity, he recoined the monetary system of the realm to great acclaim. His final years were not necessarily happy ones, though. Bitter rivalries with those he felt had wronged him revealed a rather nasty side of the genius' character, and Newton actually suffered a nervous breakdown in 1693 when his only true intellectual friend left England for the Continent. He recovered his mental health quickly and, despite the negative conflicts he had with select peers, he went to his grave as Sir Isaac Newton, the most famous scientist of his era and, to many, the great scientific mind the world has ever seen.



3. According to Derek Jarman's autobiography, Newton was what we'd call gay nowadays. This A&E special, instead, says something like, "Well, Newton was so hooked on science that he didn't have the time for love." Yet it stresses that Newton never married and had a nervous breakdown after his "intimate friend" left England. C'mon, be more daring! Gay scientists everywhere would have appreciated finding out the real deal about a potential role model. Biographers have ducked the issue with George Washington Carver and Maurice Ravel as well. Very disappointing!

No comments about Barbara Hutton.