Question: Baker was born into a staunch Methodist family, the youngest son of Birmingham Gas Department's chief accountant, Charles Frederick Baker and Millie Baker. His early schooling was at King Edwards Grammar School. His elder brothers, Leonard and Norman studied law, and he had a sister, Edna who was the oldest of them all. In his teens Baker began to question what religion meant to him and decided to become a Quaker, since it was closer to what he believed in.

While at Pithoragarh, Baker found his English construction education to be inadequate for the types of issues and materials he was faced with: termites and the yearly monsoon, as well as laterite, cow dung, and mud walls, respectively, Baker had no choice but to observe and learn from the methods and practices of vernacular architecture. He soon learned that the indigenous architecture and methods of these places were in fact the only viable means to deal with local problems.  Inspired by his discoveries (which he modestly admitted were 'discoveries' only for him, and mere common knowledge to those who developed the practices he observed), he realized that unlike the Modernist architectural movement that was gaining popularity at the time denouncing all that was old just because it was old didn't make sense. Baker adopted local craftsmanship, traditional techniques and materials but then combined it with modern design principles and technology wherever it made sense to do so. This prudent adoption of modern technology helped local architecture retain its cultural identity and kept costs low due to the use of local materials. It also revived the local economy due to the use of local labour for both construction of the buildings and for manufacture of construction materials such as brick and lime surkhi.  Baker built several schools, chapels and hospitals in the hills. Eventually, as word spread of his cost-effective buildings more clients from the plains started to contact Baker. One of the early clients was Welthy Fisher, who sought to set up a 'Literacy Village' in which she intended to use puppetry, music and art as teaching methods to help illiterate and newly-literate adults add to their skills. An ageing woman who risked her health to visit Laurie, she refused to leave until she received plans for the village. More and more hospital commissions were received as medical professionals realised that the surroundings for their patients were as much a part of the healing process as any other form of treatment, and that Baker seemed the only architect who cared enough to become familiarised with how to build what made Indian patients comfortable with those surroundings. His presence would also soon be required on-site at Ms. Fisher's "Village," and he became well known for his constant presence on the construction sites of all his projects, often finalising designs through hand-drawn instructions to masons and labourers on how to achieve certain design solutions.

Using a quote from the above article, answer the following question: What was he most famous for?
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Answer: Baker adopted local craftsmanship, traditional techniques and materials but then combined it with modern design principles and technology wherever it made sense to do so.


Question: Merman was born in her maternal grandmother's house located at 359 4th Avenue in Astoria, Queens in New York City in 1908, though she would later emphatically insist that it was actually 1912. Her father, Edward Zimmermann (1879-1977), was an accountant with James H. Dunham & Company, a Manhattan wholesale dry-goods company, and her mother, Agnes (Gardner) Zimmermann (1883-1974), was a teacher. Edward Zimmermann had been raised in the Dutch Reformed Church and his wife was Presbyterian.

Merman was married and divorced four times. Her first marriage, in 1940, was to theatrical agent William Smith. They were divorced in 1941. Later that same year, Merman married newspaper executive Robert Levitt. The couple had two children: Ethel (July 20, 1942 - 1965) and Robert, Jr. (born August 11, 1945) Merman and Levitt were divorced in 1952. In March 1953, Merman married Robert Six, the president of Continental Airlines. They separated in December 1959 and were divorced in 1960.  Merman's fourth and final marriage was to actor Ernest Borgnine. They were married in Beverly Hills on June 27, 1964. They separated on August 7 and Borgnine filed for divorce on October 21. Merman filed a cross-complaint shortly thereafter charging Borgnine with extreme cruelty. She was granted a divorce on November 18, 1964. Borgnine later told fellow actor Frank Wilson that he spent most of his short marriage arguing with Merman. By the end, he recounted how she came back from a film one day and said, "The director said I looked sensational. He said I had the face of a 20-year-old, and the body and legs of a 30-year-old!" Borgnine replied, "Did he say anything about your old cunt?" "No," replied Merman, "he didn't mention you at all."  In a radio interview, she said of her many marriages: "We all make mistakes. That's why they put rubbers on pencils, and that's what I did. I made a few lulus!" In her autobiography Merman (1978), the chapter entitled "My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine" consists of one blank page.  Ethel Levitt, her daughter, died on August 23, 1967, of a drug overdose that was ruled accidental. Her son Robert, Jr. was married to actress Barbara Colby who was, while estranged from Robert, shot and killed along with her boyfriend in a parking garage in Los Angeles in July 1975 by apparent gang members who had no clear motive.

Using a quote from the above article, answer the following question: What happened with this marriage?
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Answer: The couple had two children: Ethel (July 20, 1942 - 1965) and Robert, Jr. (born August 11, 1945) Merman and Levitt were divorced in 1952.


Question: Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 - December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actor in film and television. He performed jazz, pop, rock and roll, folk, swing, and country music. He started his career as a songwriter for Connie Francis.

Born Walden Robert Cassotto in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, Bobby Darin was reared by his maternal grandmother, whom he believed was his mother. Darin's birth mother, Vanina Juliette "Nina" Cassotto (born November 30, 1917), became pregnant with him in the summer of 1935 when she was 17. Presumably because of the scandalous nature of out-of-wedlock pregnancies in that era, Nina and her mother hatched a plan to pass her baby off as Nina's younger brother. Years later, when Nina finally told Darin the truth about his upbringing, she refused to reveal the identity of his biological father, and kept the secret to her death in 1983. Darin's maternal grandfather, Saverio Antonio "Big Sam Curly" Cassotto (born January 26, 1882), was of Italian descent and a would-be mobster who died in prison from pneumonia a year before Darin's birth. His maternal grandmother, Vivian Fern Walden (also born in 1882), who called herself Polly, was of English ancestry and a vaudeville singer. From his birth, Darin always believed Nina to be his older sister and Polly his mother. But in 1968, when he was 32, Nina told Darin the truth, reportedly devastating him.  By the time he was a teenager, Darin could play several instruments, including piano, drums, and guitar. He later added harmonica and xylophone.  Darin moved to the Bronx early in his life (with a rented summer home in Staten Island) and graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science. In later years he attributed his arrogance to his experiences there, where he was surrounded by brighter students who teased him. He then enrolled at Hunter College and soon gravitated to the drama department. After only two semesters, he dropped out to pursue an acting career.

Using a quote from the above article, answer the following question: Who was his father?
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Answer:
she refused to reveal the identity of his biological father, and kept the secret to her death in 1983.