A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war zone .
86-398: The Ringer may refer to: Film, Theatre, and TV [ edit ] The Ringer (originally titled The Gaunt Stranger ), a 1925/1926 novel by Edgar Wallace Adaptations of The Ringer : The Ringer , a 1929 play by Edgar Wallace The Ringer (1928 film) , a British crime film directed by Arthur Maude The Ringer (1931 film) ,
172-735: A pub named after him in Essex Street, off Strand in London. Wallace narrated his words onto wax cylinders (the dictaphones of the day) and his secretaries typed up the text. This may be why he was able to work at such high speed and why his stories have narrative drive. Many of Wallace's successful books were dictated like this over two or three days, locked away with cartons of cigarettes and endless pots of sweet tea, often working pretty much uninterrupted in 72 hours. Most of his novels were serialised in segments but written in this way. The serialised stories that were instead written piecemeal have
258-401: A " mirror Earth " or " mirror Universe " later became a standard subgenre within science fiction. The story also bears similarities to Rudyard Kipling's hard science fiction story " Wireless ". Wallace's other science fiction works include The Green Rust , a story of bio-terrorists who threaten to release an agent that will destroy the world's corn crops, 1925 , which accurately predicted that
344-488: A British crime film directed by Walter Forde The Ringer (1932 film) , an Austrian-German mystery film by Martin Frič and Karel Lamač The Ringer (1952 film) , a British mystery directed by Guy Hamilton The Ringer aka Der Hexer (1964 film) , a German crime film The Ringer , a 1972 short film by Jeff Lieberman The Ringer (2005 film) , a 2005 comedy starring Johnny Knoxville The Ringer (2013 film) ,
430-659: A Public Relations Section created as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). At the beginning of World War II, the War Office urged all the major newspapers to nominate men to accompany the BEF. While the official process of vetting journalists took place, the War Office authorised to provide a limited ‘eye-witness’ coverage. Journalist Alex Clifford became one the first ‘eye-witness’ who joined
516-637: A Wesleyan missionary, was strongly opposed to the marriage. The couple's first child, Eleanor Clare Hellier Wallace, died suddenly from meningitis in 1903, and the couple returned to London soon afterwards, deeply in debt. In London, Wallace worked for the Mail and began writing detective stories in a bid to earn quick money. A son, Bryan Edgar Wallace , was born in 1904 followed by a daughter, Patricia, in 1908. In 1903, Wallace met his birth mother Polly, whom he had never known. Terminally ill, 60 years old, and living in poverty, she came to him to ask for money and
602-578: A best seller, and in 1935 it was adapted into an eponymous film , starring Paul Robeson . Wallace went on to publish 11 more similar collections (102 stories). They were tales of exotic adventure and local tribal rites, set on an African river, mostly without love interest as this held no appeal for Wallace. His first 28 books and their film rights he sold outright, with no royalties, for quick money. Critic David Pringle noted in 1987: "The Sanders Books are not frequently reprinted nowadays, perhaps because of their overt racism". The period from 1908 to 1932
688-535: A celebrity writer, "King of Thrillers", known for this trademark trilby , cigarette holder , and yellow Rolls-Royce . He was said to be able to write a 70,000 word novel in three days and plough through three novels at once, and the publishers agreed to publish everything he wrote as fast as he could write it. In 1928, it was estimated that one in four books being read in the UK had come from Wallace's pen. He wrote across many genres including science fiction, screen plays, and
774-601: A child. His foster-father George Freeman was determined to ensure Richard received a good education, and for some time Wallace attended St. Alfege with St. Peter's, a boarding school in Peckham , but he played truant and then left full-time education at the age of 12. By his early teens, Wallace had held down numerous jobs such as newspaper-seller at Ludgate Circus near Fleet Street , milk-delivery boy, rubber factory worker, shoe shop assistant, and ship's cook. A plaque at Ludgate Circus commemorates Wallace's first encounter with
860-591: A controversial article in the Daily Mail in 1926 entitled "The Canker In Our Midst" about paedophilia and the show business world. Describing how some show business people unwittingly leave their children vulnerable to predators, it linked paedophilia with homosexuality and outraged many of his colleagues, publishing associates, and business friends including theatre mogul Gerald du Maurier . Biographer Margaret Lane describes it as an "intolerant, blustering, kick-the-blighters-down-the-stairs" type of essay, even by
946-530: A distinctive ring-shaped moraine at the mouth of Ringer Glacier Publications [ edit ] The Ringer (website) , a sports and pop culture website See also [ edit ] Ringer (disambiguation) The Sorcerer (1932 film) (originally Der Hexer ), 1932 Austrian-German film based on the Edgar Wallace novel The Ringer Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
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#17327765056581032-442: A distinctly different narrative energy, not sweeping up the reader on the story wave. Wallace rarely edited his own work after it was dictated and typed up, but sent it straight to the publishers, intensely disliking the revision of his work with other editors. The company would do only cursory checks for factual errors before printing. Wallace faced widespread accusations that he used ghost writers to churn out books, though there
1118-451: A drama written and directed by Chris Shepherd for Canal+ and CNC "The Ringer", an episode of the TV series The Legend of Zelda Music [ edit ] The Ringers , an American rock band The Ringer (album) , a jazz music album by Charles Tolliver, or the title track "The Ringer" (song) , by Eminem from Kamikaze Places [ edit ] The Ringer (Antarctica) ,
1204-521: A fictitious obligation in Greenwich that would last at least half a year and obtained a room in a boarding house where she lived until her son's birth, on 1 April 1875. During her confinement she had asked her midwife to find a couple to foster the child. The midwife introduced Wallace's mother to her close friend, Mrs Freeman, a mother of ten children, whose husband George Freeman was a Billingsgate fishmonger. On 9 April 1875, his mother took Wallace to
1290-573: A film editor. By 1929, Wallace's earnings were almost £50,000 per annum (equivalent to about £2 million in current terms). He also invented at this time the Luncheon Club, bringing together his two greatest loves: journalism and horse-racing. Wallace was the first British crime novelist to use policemen as his protagonists, rather than amateur sleuths as most other writers of the time did. Most of his novels are independent stand-alone stories; he seldom used series heroes, and when he did he avoided
1376-408: A firm hand. Sanders, for example, pledges to bring "civilisation" to "half a million cannibal folk". George Orwell called Wallace a "bully worshipper" and "proto-fascist", though many critics conceived Wallace more as a populist writer who wrote for the market of the time. Selling over 50 million copies of his works, including 170 novels, Wallace was very much a populist writer, and was dismissed by
1462-402: A minute." Kong is finally killed when lightning strikes the flag pole he is hanging on to. Early publicity stills for the movie have the title as "Kong" and "by Edgar Wallace" and show a lightning storm and flashes of lightning as envisioned by Wallace. In his version, a small ape peeling a rose prefigured Kong's peeling away Shirley's clothes. His treatment also included an underwater scene from
1548-574: A non-fiction ten-volume history of the First World War . All told, he wrote over 170 novels, 18 stage plays, and 957 short stories, and his works were translated into 28 languages. The critic Wheeler Winston Dixon suggests that Wallace became somewhat of a public joke for this prodigious output. Wallace served as chairman of the Press Club , which continues to present an annual Edgar Wallace Award for excellence in writing. Following
1634-590: A reporter in the Congo, covering the Belgian atrocities , Wallace serialised short stories in magazines such as The Windsor Magazine and later published collections such as Sanders of the River (1911). He signed with Hodder and Stoughton in 1921 and became an internationally recognised author. After an unsuccessful bid to stand as Liberal MP for Blackpool (as one of David Lloyd George 's Independent Liberals ) in
1720-426: A short peace would be followed by a German attack on England, and The Black Grippe , about a disease that renders everyone in the world blind. His last work of science fiction and the only one widely remembered today is the screenplay for King Kong . Out of the many scripts he penned for RKO, Merian C. Cooper's "gorilla picture" had the most lasting influence, becoming the classic King Kong (1933). Wallace wrote
1806-595: A strict story order, so that continuity was not required from book to book. On 6 June 1923, Edgar Wallace became the first British radio sports reporter , when he made a report on The Derby for the British Broadcasting Company , the newly founded predecessor of the BBC . Wallace's ex-wife Ivy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1923, and though the tumour was successfully removed, it returned terminally by 1925, and she died in 1926. Wallace wrote
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#17327765056581892-509: A writer. Lane's biography of Edgar Wallace was published in 1938 The Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine was a monthly digest-size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. It published 35 issues from 1964 to 1967. Each issue contained original works of short crime or mystery fiction as well as reprints by authors like Wallace, Chekhov , Steinbeck , and Agatha Christie . More than 160 films and several radio adaptations have been made based on Wallace's work. Wallace also has
1978-428: Is "slapdash and cliché-ridden, [with] characterization that is two dimensional and situations [that] are frequently trite, relying on intuition, coincidence, and much pointless, confusing movement to convey a sense of action. The heroes and villains are clearly labelled, and stock characters, humorous servants, baffled policemen, breathless heroines, could be interchanged from one book to another." The Oxford Companion to
2064-405: Is 30 feet tall, thus establishing Kong as a giant ape. John and the remaining convicts then go after Shirley, using a log to cross a ravine. Kong attacks them which leads to their deaths as the log crashes down the ravine. Kong fights and kills a triceratops. Dinosaurs and pterodactyls attack Kong and the party. Kong takes Shirley to his hideout in the mountains, and Jack rescues her. Using gas bombs,
2150-609: Is a promoter and a P. T. Barnum type showman who is looking for a giant ape to bring back to Madison Square Garden or the Polo Grounds to exhibit as a sideshow. The movie retains the Barnum theme when Denham, who evolved into Carl Denham in the Rose and Creelman treatment, refers to Kong as "the eighth wonder of the world", echoing Barnum's style of hyping acts. Wallace created the major characters, their relationships, and their role in
2236-647: Is no evidence of this, and his prolificness became something of a joke, the subject of cartoons and sketches. His "three day books", reeled off to keep the loan sharks from the door, were unlikely to garner great critical praise and Wallace claimed not to find literary value in his own works. Wallace characters such as District Commissioner Sanders can be taken to represent the values of colonial white supremacy in Africa, and now viewed by many critics as deeply racist and paternalistic. His writing has been attacked by some for its conception of Africans as stupid children who need
2322-573: Is remembered as a writer of "the colonial imagination", for the J. G. Reeder detective stories , and for the Green Archer serial. He sold over 50 million copies of his combined works in various editions and The Economist in 1997 describes him as "one of the most prolific thriller writers of [the 20th] century". Although the great majority of his books are out of print in the UK, they are still read in Germany. A 50-minute German TV documentary
2408-595: Is said to be Dutch painter Willem van de Velde , who in 1653 took to sea in a small boat to observe a naval battle between the Dutch and the English, of which he made many sketches on the spot, which he later developed into one big drawing that he added to a report he wrote to the States General . A further modernization came with the development of newspapers and magazines . One of the earliest war correspondents
2494-516: Is similar to journalism, though he did not himself participate in the events. Thucydides , who some years later wrote a history of the Peloponnesian War was a commander and an observer to the events he described. Memoirs of soldiers became an important source of military history when that specialty developed. War correspondents, as specialized journalists , began working after the printing of news for publication became commonplace. In
2580-542: Is typical for wars among less-developed countries, as audiences are less interested and the reports do little to increase sales and ratings. The lack of infrastructure makes reporting more difficult and expensive, and the conflicts are also far more dangerous for war correspondents. War correspondents are protected by the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their additional protocols . In general, journalists are considered civilians so they have all rights related to
2666-643: The 1931 general election , Wallace moved to Hollywood, where he worked as a script writer for RKO . He died suddenly from undiagnosed diabetes, during the initial drafting of King Kong (1933). Wallace was such a prolific writer that one of his publishers claimed that a quarter of all books in England were written by him. As well as journalism, Wallace wrote screen plays, poetry, historical non-fiction, 18 stage plays, 957 short stories and over 170 novels, 12 in 1929 alone. More than 160 films have been made of Wallace's work. In addition to his work on King Kong , he
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2752-821: The Civil Rights Movement , war correspondence in Vietnam would have a major impact on the American political scene. Some have argued that the conduct of war correspondents in Vietnam is to blame for the tightening of restrictions on journalists by the US in wars that followed, including the Persian Gulf war and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan . During the Vietnam War, UPI correspondent Joseph Galloway
2838-592: The Congo Free State , to report on atrocities committed against the Congolese under King Leopold II of Belgium and the Belgian rubber companies, in which up to 15 million Congolese were killed. Isabel Thorne, of the Weekly Tale-Teller penny magazine, invited Wallace to serialise stories inspired by his experiences. These were published as his first collection Sanders of the River (1911),
2924-490: The literati as such. Q. D. Leavis , Arnold Bennett and Dorothy L Sayers led the attack on Wallace, suggesting he offered no social critique or subversive agenda at all and distracting the reading public from better things. Trotsky , reading a Wallace novel whilst recuperating on his sickbed in 1935, found it to be "mediocre, contemptible and crude ... [with no] shade of perception, talent or imagination." Critics Steinbrunner and Penzler stated that Wallace's writing
3010-642: The BEF units in France in September 1939. The first official group of British, Commonwealth and American correspondents arrived in France on October 10, 1939 (among them were O. D. Gallagher , Bernard Gray ). All of the war reporting was subject to censorship, directed by the chief press censor George Pirie Thomson . At the start of the war the Royal Navy implemented a policy that curtailed war correspondents' presence on its ships. This positioned them as
3096-575: The French high command were leaked to the press during the Battle of Verdun in 1916). By far the most rigid and authoritarian regime was imposed by the United States, though General John J. Pershing allowed embedded reporters ( Floyd Gibbons had been severely wounded at the Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918). At the beginning of the war the matters of war reporting came under the authority of
3182-453: The Spot , written about gangster Al Capone , would prove to be the writer's greatest theatrical success. It was described by Jack Adrian as "arguably, in construction, dialogue, action, plot and resolution, still one of the finest and purest of 20th-century melodramas". It launched the career of Charles Laughton , who played the lead Capone character Tony Perelli. In December 1931, Wallace
3268-887: The Theatre asserts, however, that "In all his works [Wallace] showed unusual precision of detail, narrative skill, and inside knowledge of police methods and criminal psychology, the fruits of his apprenticeship as a crime reporter". Wallace did not use plot formulae, unlike many other thriller writers. The critic Wheeler Winston Dixon maintains that Wallace covered a wide variety of perspectives and characterisations, exploring themes such as feminist self-determination ( Barbara on her Own 1926, Four-Square Jane 1929, The Girl from Scotland Yard 1926), upsetting peerage hierarchies ( Chick , 1923), science fiction ( The Day of Uniting , 1926), schizophrenia ( The Man Who Knew , 1919) and autobiography ( People , 1926). Edgar Wallace enjoyed writing science fiction but found little financial success in
3354-560: The US Military allowed unprecedented access for journalists, with almost no restrictions on the press, unlike in previous conflicts. These factors produced military coverage the likes of which had never been seen or anticipated, with explicit coverage of the human suffering produced by the war available right in the living rooms of everyday people. Vietnam-era war correspondence was markedly different from that of WWI and WWII, with more focus on investigative journalism and discussion of
3440-573: The Wallace estate, managing her father's literary legacy and starting the Edgar Wallace Society in 1969. The work is continued by Penelope's daughter, also named Penelope. The Society has members in 20 countries. The literary body is currently managed by the London agency A.P. Watt. Wallace's eldest son Bryan Edgar Wallace (1904–1971) was also an author of mystery and crime novels. In 1934, Bryan married Margaret Lane (1907–94), also
3526-477: The attacking dinosaur's point of view as it approached a capsized boat. War correspondent War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the world. Once there, they attempt to get close enough to the action to provide written accounts, photos, or film footage. It is often considered the most dangerous form of journalism. Modern war correspondence emerged from
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3612-537: The bell of St. Bride's tolled in mourning. His body was returned to England and he was buried at Little Marlow Cemetery, Fern Lane , Buckinghamshire, not far from his UK country home, Chalklands, in Bourne End . Despite his later success, Wallace had amassed massive debts, some still remaining from his years in South Africa, many to racing bookies. The large royalties from his greatly popular works allowed
3698-616: The children, and Wallace drew closer to his secretary Ethel Violet King (1896–1933), daughter of banker Frederick King. They married in 1921; their daughter Margaret Penelope June (known as Penny Wallace) was born in 1923. Wallace began to take his fiction writing career more seriously and signed with publishers Hodder and Stoughton in 1921, organising his contracts, instead of selling rights to his work piecemeal in order to raise funds. This allowed him advances, royalties, and full scale promotional campaigns for his books, which he had never before had. The publisher aggressively advertised him as
3784-579: The civilians in a conflict. William Howard Russell , who covered the Crimean War , also for The Times , was perhaps the first modern war correspondent. The stories from this era, which were almost as lengthy and analytical as early books on war, took numerous weeks from being written to being published. Another renowned journalist, Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina , Italian correspondent of European newspapers such as La Presse , Journal des débats , Indépendance Belge and The Daily News ,
3870-470: The criticism and muckraking that had characterized coverage of Vietnam. Journalists like CNN 's Peter Arnett were lambasted for reporting anything that could be construed as contrary to the war effort, and commentators observed that coverage of the war in general was "saccharine" and heavily biased towards the American account. These trends would continue into the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, where
3956-812: The eighteenth century the Baroness Frederika Charlotte Riedesel 's Letters and Journals Relating to the War of the American Revolution and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga is regarded as the first account of war by a woman . Her description of the events that took place in the Marshall House are particularly poignant because she was in the midst of battle. The first modern war correspondent
4042-492: The estate to be settled within two years. Violet Wallace outlived her husband by only 14 months. She died suddenly in April 1933, aged 33, while the estate was still deep in debt. Violet Wallace's own will left her share of the Wallace estate to her daughter Penelope (1923–1997), herself an author of mystery and crime novels, who became the chief benefactor and shareholder. Penelope married George Halcrow in 1955. The couple ran
4128-519: The ethics surrounding the war and America's role in it. Reporters from dozens of media outlets were dispatched to Vietnam, with the number of correspondents surpassing 400 at the peak of the war. Vietnam was a dangerous war for these journalists, and 68 would be killed before the conflict came to a close. Many within the US Government and elsewhere would blame the media for the American failure in Vietnam, claiming that media focus on atrocities,
4214-833: The event, he lost the election by over 33,000 votes. He went to America, burdened by debt, in November 1931. Around the same time, he wrote the screenplay for the first sound film adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932), produced in England by Gainsborough Pictures . He moved to Hollywood and began working as a " script doctor " for RKO . His later play, The Green Pack , opened to excellent reviews, boosting his status even further. Wallace wanted to get his own work on Hollywood celluloid, and so he adapted books such as The Four Just Men and Mr J G Reeder . In Hollywood, Wallace met Stanley Holloway 's scriptwriter, Wallace's own half-brother Marriott Edgar . Wallace's play On
4300-650: The expedition knocks out Kong. Kong is brought back to New York and put in a cage. Shirley is attacked by lions and tigers let loose on purpose by Senorita. Kong kills the cats and whisks Shirley away. He climbs the Empire State Building where airplanes shoot at him. Cooper sent Wallace an internal memo from RKO suggesting that John dissuade the police from shooting Kong because of the danger to Shirley: "Please see if you consider it practical to work out theme that John attempts single handed rescue on top of Empire State Building if police will let off shooting for
4386-401: The full brutality of war became a daily feature on the nightly news. News coverage gives combatants an opportunity to forward information and arguments to the media. By this means, conflict parties attempt to use the media to gain support from their constituencies and dissuade their opponents. The continued progress of technology has allowed live coverage of events via satellite up-links and
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#17327765056584472-462: The genre despite several efforts. His constant need for income always brought him back to the more mundane styles of fiction that sold more easily. Planetoid 127 , first published in 1924 but reprinted as late as 2011, is a short story about an Earth scientist who communicates via wireless with his counterpart on a duplicate Earth orbiting unseen because it is on the opposite side of the Sun. The idea of
4558-475: The government, and the news anchor would then add narration . This footage was often staged as cameras were large and bulky until the introduction of small, portable motion picture cameras during World War II . The situation changed dramatically with the Vietnam War when networks from around the world sent cameramen with portable cameras and correspondents. This proved damaging to the United States as
4644-552: The great success of his novel The Ringer , Wallace was appointed chairman of the British Lion Film Corporation in return for giving British Lion first option on all his output. Wallace's contract gave him an annual salary, a substantial block of stock in the company, a large stipend from everything British Lion produced based on his work, plus 10% of British Lion's overall annual profits. Additionally, British Lion employed his elder son, Bryan E. Wallace, as
4730-433: The horrors of combat and the impact on soldiers damaged morale and eliminated support for the war at home. Unlike in older conflicts, where Allied journalism was almost universally supportive of the war effort, journalists in the Vietnam theater were often harshly critical of the US military, and painted a very bleak picture of the war. In an era where the media was already playing a significant role in domestic events such as
4816-411: The initial 110-page first draft for "The Beast" (the film's original title) over five weeks, from late December 1931 to January 1932. In all, there were three draft versions, another titled "Kong". Kong was rejected as the film's title because it was too similar to another Cooper film, Chang , released in 1927, and because it sounded Chinese. Wallace suggested the title King Ape . His diary described
4902-405: The main dialogue-free action of the film (the jungle sequences) would have to be shot first, both as insurance and as a showreel for the board of RKO. In My Hollywood Diary , Edgar Wallace wrote about the reception of his screenplay: "Cooper called me up last night and told me that everybody who had read 'Kong' was enthusiastic. They say it is the best adventure story that has ever been written for
4988-574: The media for the loss of the Vietnam war, and prominent military leaders did not believe the United States could sustain a prolonged and heavily televised war. As a result, numerous restrictions were placed on the activities of correspondents covering the war in the Gulf. Journalists allowed to accompany the troops were organized into "pools", where small groups were escorted into combat zones by US troops and allowed to share their findings later. Those who attempted to strike out on their own and operate outside
5074-573: The most conservative branch of the British military in terms of media engagement. The US conflict in Vietnam saw the tools and access available to war correspondents expanded significantly. Innovations such as cheap and reliable hand-held color video cameras, and the proliferation of television sets in Western homes give Vietnam-era correspondents the ability to portray conditions on the ground more vividly and accurately than ever before. Additionally,
5160-665: The news reporting of military conflicts during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars . Its presence grew in the middle of the nineteenth century, with American journalists covering the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the European newspapermen writing reports from the Crimean War (1853-1856). People have written about wars for thousands of years. Herodotus 's account of the Persian Wars
5246-518: The newspaper business. He was dismissed from his job on the milk run for stealing money. In 1894, he became engaged to a local Deptford girl, Edith Anstree, but broke the engagement and enlisted in the infantry. Wallace registered in the British Army under the name Edgar Wallace, after the author of Ben-Hur , Lew Wallace . At the time the medical records register him as having a 33-inch chest and being stunted from his childhood spent in
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#17327765056585332-410: The overall plot. He also created the story's beauty and the beast theme. In his original screenplay, the crew of the boat consists of escaped convicts who kidnap Shirley. After a dinosaur attacks and wrecks their boat, they find refuge on the island. In a tent, a convict tries to rape Shirley. Kong appears, rescues Shirley and takes her away to his cave. Wallace says in a notation on the script that Kong
5418-534: The pool system claim to have found themselves obstructed directly or indirectly by the military, with passport visas revoked and photographs and notes taken by force from journalists while US forces observed. Beyond military efforts to control the press, observers noted that press reaction to the Gulf War was markedly different from that of Vietnam. Critics claim that coverage of the war was "jingoistic" and overly favorable towards American forces, in harsh contrast to
5504-677: The rise of twenty-four hour news channels has led to a heightened demand for material to fill the hours. Only some conflicts receive extensive worldwide coverage, however. Among recent wars, the Kosovo War , the Persian Gulf War and the Russo-Ukrainian war received a great deal of coverage. In contrast, the largest war in the last half of the 20th century, the Iran–Iraq War , received far less substantial coverage. This
5590-481: The screen." Wallace had high expectations for the film: "I am certain that 'Kong' is going to be a wow." His screenplay begins with Denham and the party at the island, called "Vapour Island" by Wallace because of the volcanic emissions. Ann Darrow is called Shirley Redman in this early version. Jack Driscoll is also referred to as John Lanson or Johnny, and Captain Englehorn is much more domineering. Danby G. Denham
5676-521: The semi-literate Freeman family, and made arrangements to visit often. Wallace, then known as Richard Horatio Edgar Freeman, had a happy childhood and a close bond with 20-year-old Clara Freeman, who became a second mother to him. By 1878, his mother could no longer afford the small sum she had been paying the Freemans to care for her son and, instead of placing the boy in the workhouse , the Freemans adopted him. His mother never visited Wallace again as
5762-735: The slums. He was posted to South Africa with the West Kent Regiment , in 1896. He disliked army life but managed to arrange a transfer to the Royal Army Medical Corps , which was less arduous but more unpleasant, and so transferred again to the Press Corps, which he found suited him better. Wallace began publishing songs and poetry, much inspired by Rudyard Kipling , whom he met in Cape Town in 1898. Wallace's first book of ballads, The Mission that Failed! ,
5848-476: The stage, assuming the stage name "Polly" Richards. In 1872, she met and joined the Marriott family theatre troupe, managed by Alice Marriott, her husband Richard Edgar, and her three adult children (from earlier liaisons), Grace, Adeline and Richard Horatio Marriott Edgar. Wallace's parents had a "broom cupboard" style sexual encounter during an after-show party. Discovering she was pregnant, his mother invented
5934-598: The standards of the day. Wallace became active in the Liberal Party and contested Blackpool in the 1931 general election as one of a handful of Independent Liberals , who rejected the National Government , and the official Liberal support for it, and strongly supported free trade . He also bought the Sunday News , edited it for six months, and wrote a theatre column, before it closed. In
6020-466: The story was to use as much footage of an abandoned RKO picture with a similar premise, Creation , as possible. He showed Wallace the fragments that were to be reused in the current script. Although the draft was incomplete, Wallace only made minor revisions to it, each at Cooper's request. In late January, Wallace was hospitalized, and by 10 February, he was dead, leaving Cooper without a screenwriter. The fragmentary nature of Wallace's script meant that
6106-499: The theatre as a stagehand, usherette, and bit-part actress until she married in 1867. Her husband, Captain Joseph Richards, was born in 1838; he was from an Irish family. He and his father John Richards were both Merchant Navy captains, and his mother Catherine Richards came from a mariner family. Joseph died at sea in 1868, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. After the birth of Wallace's older sibling, his mother returned to
6192-518: The title The Ringer . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Ringer&oldid=1137972680 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932)
6278-434: The writing process for this draft: Cooper fed aspects of the story in conferences and phone conversations; Wallace then executed Cooper's ideas, the latter approving the developing script on a sequence-by-sequence basis. While working on the project, Cooper also screened various recent films for Wallace to put him in the right mindset, including Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). One of Cooper's main aspirations with
6364-668: Was Henry Crabb Robinson , who covered Napoleon's campaigns in Spain and Germany for The Times of London. Another early correspondent was William Hicks whose letters describing the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) were also published in The Times. Winston Churchill in 1899 , working as a correspondent, became notorious as an escaped prisoner of war. Early film newsreels and television news rarely had war correspondents. Rather, they would simply collect footage provided by other sources, often
6450-575: Was a British writer of sensational detective, gangster, adventure, and sci-fi novels, plays and stories. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during the Second Boer War for Reuters and the Daily Mail . Struggling with debt, he left South Africa, returned to London and began writing thrillers to raise income, publishing books including The Four Just Men (1905). Drawing on his time as
6536-473: Was anxious that the farrago might reflect badly on his newspaper. Problems were compounded when inaccuracies in Wallace's reporting led to libel suits being brought against the Mail . Wallace was fired in 1907, the first reporter ever to be fired from the paper, and he found no other paper would employ him, given his reputation. The family lived continuously in a state of near-bankruptcy, Ivy having to sell her jewellery for food. During 1907, Edgar travelled to
6622-685: Was assigned work on the RKO "gorilla picture" ( King Kong , 1933) for producer Merian C. Cooper . By late January, however, he was beginning to suffer sudden, severe headaches and was diagnosed with diabetes . His condition deteriorated within days. Violet booked passage to California on a liner out of Southampton , but received word that Edgar had slipped into a coma and died of the condition, combined with double pneumonia , on 10 February 1932 in North Maple Drive, Beverly Hills . The flags on Fleet Street 's newspaper offices flew at half-mast, and
6708-640: Was characterized by rigid censorship. British Lord Kitchener hated reporters, and they were banned from the Front at the start of the war. But reporters such as Basil Clarke and Philip Gibbs lived as fugitives near the Front, sending back their reports. The Government eventually allowed some accredited reporters in April 1915, and this continued until the end of the war. This allowed the Government to control what they saw. French authorities were equally opposed to war journalism, but less competent (criticisms of
6794-733: Was considered essential. The First Balkan War (1912–1913) between the Balkan League ( Serbia , Greece , Montenegro and Bulgaria ) and the Ottoman Empire , and the Second Balkan War (1913) between Bulgaria and its former allies Serbia and Greece, was actively covered by a large number of foreign newspapers, news agencies, and movie companies. An estimated 200–300 war correspondents, war photographers , war artists , and war cinematographers were active during these two nearly sequential conflicts. The First World War
6880-471: Was developed, reports could be sent on a daily basis and events could be reported as they occurred. That is when short, mainly descriptive stories as used today became common. Press coverage of the Russo-Japanese War was affected by restrictions on the movement of reporters and strict censorship. In all military conflicts which followed this 1904–1905 war, close attention to more managed reporting
6966-475: Was known for his extremely gory style in his articles but involving at the same time. Jules Claretie , critic of Le Figaro , was amazed about his correspondence of the Battle of Custoza , during the Third Italian War of Independence . Claretie wrote, "Nothing could be more fantastic and cruelly true than this tableau of agony. Reportage has never given a superior artwork." When the telegraph
7052-454: Was made in 1963 called The Edgar Wallace Story , which featured his son Bryan Edgar Wallace . Wallace's great-grandfather was entertainer James Henry Marriott , and his grandmother was actress Alice Marriott . Wallace was born at 7 Ashburnham Grove, Greenwich , to actors Richard Horatio Marriott Edgar (1847–1894) and Mary Jane "Polly" Richards, née Blair (born 1843). Wallace's mother's family had been in show business, and she worked in
7138-623: Was present at the battle of the Ia Drang. The U.S. Army awarded him the Bronze Star for his actions during the battle, a rare event for a journalist. Along with Gen. Hal Moore, who commanded U.S. forces in the battle, Galloway subsequently wrote about his experiences in the book, We Were Soldier Once.. And Young. The role of war correspondents in the Gulf War would prove to be quite different from their role in Vietnam. The Pentagon blamed
7224-456: Was published that same year. In 1899, he bought his way out of the forces and turned to writing full time. Remaining in Africa, he became a war correspondent , first for Reuters and then the Daily Mail (1900) and other periodicals during the Boer War . In 1901, while in South Africa, Wallace married Ivy Maude Caldecott (1880?–1926), although her father Reverend William Shaw Caldecott,
7310-861: Was the most prolific of Wallace's life. Initially, he wrote mainly in order to satisfy creditors in the UK and South Africa. However, his books' success began to rehabilitate his reputation as a journalist, and he began reporting from horse racing circles. He wrote for the Week-End and the Evening News , became an editor for Week-End Racing Supplement , started his own racing papers Bibury's and R. E. Walton's Weekly , and bought many racehorses of his own. He lost many thousands gambling, and despite his success, spent large sums on an extravagant lifestyle he could not afford. During 1916, Ivy had her third and last child by Edgar, Michael Blair Wallace, and filed for divorce in 1918. Ivy moved to Tunbridge Wells with
7396-490: Was turned away. Polly died in the Bradford Infirmary later that year. Unable to find any backer for his first book, Wallace set up his own publishing company, Tallis Press, which issued the sensational thriller The Four Just Men (1905). Despite promotion in the Mail and good sales, the project was financially mismanaged, and Wallace had to be bailed out by the Mail 's proprietor Alfred Harmsworth , who
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