LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Robert Altman: Kansas City
built 263 days ago
Long recognized in Europe as a true auteur, Robert Altman brings an ironic, spare, irreverent gaze to bear on many long-standing American values through his ongoing project of reconsidering film genres. His style—very much part of what one might call "American art cinema"—is full of quirks and surprises, all the more striking in light of his early training in TV and industrials. Altman's apprenticeship began in 1947 in his native Kansas City with the Calvin Company, a leading producer of industrial films....
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Gabbard, Krin "Kansas City dreamin' : Robert Altman's jazz history lesson." In: Music and cinema / edited by James Buhler, Caryl Flinn, and David Neumeyer. Hanover, NH : University Press of New England [for] Wesleyan University Press, c2000. Music/culture. Music ML2075.M875 2000
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On February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, Robert Altman was born to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there he went to Rockhurst high school.
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The son of an insurance broker, Robert Bernard Altman was born in Kansas City in 1925. He was brought up in the city and was educated at Jesuit schools. During the Second World War he served as a bomber pilot, and once demobilised he studied engineering at the University of Missouri and sold a couple of film scripts to Hollywood studios. But that success proved to be a false start to his movie career, and for eight years he had to content himself with making industrial films.
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In 1943, when Altman was 18 years old, he joined the United States Air Force. He was trained as a bomber pilot at March Field, near Riverside, California. While stationed there, Altman got a first look at Hollywood, the city that would play a significant role in his future. After his training was complete, Altman was stationed in Morotai, The Philippines, where he flew bombing missions in B-24s. He reached the rank of lieutenant before his discharge in 1947. After leaving the service, Altman returned home to his wife, La Vonne Elmer, a telephone operator in Kansas City, and their daughter, Christine.
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Altman was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of wealthy insurance man/gambler Bernard Clement Altman, who came from an upper-class family, and Helen Mathews, a Mayflower descendant from Nebraska. Altman's ancestry was German, English and Irish;[1][2] his paternal grandfather, Frank Altman, Sr., changed the family name from "Altmann" to "Altman".[2] Altman had a strong Catholic upbringing.[3] He attended St. Peter's School for elementary school. He later attended high school at Rockhurst High School and Southwest High School in Kansas City, and was then sent to Wentworth Military Academy and Junior College in nearby Lexington, Missouri, where he graduated from high school and junior college. In 1943, at the age of 18, Altman joined the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and flew as a co-pilot on B-24 bombers during World War II. It was while training for the Army Air Corps in California that Altman had first seen the bright lights of Hollywood and became enamored of it. Upon his discharge in 1947, Altman began living in Los Angeles and tried out acting, writing and directing.
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