Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Burns, George, 1896–1996, b. New York City as Nathan Birnbaum, and his wife Gracie Allen, 1906–64, b. San Francisco, American comedy team (1923–58). In vaudeville in the 1920s, on radio (1932–...

(Encyclopedia) Burns, Arthur Frank, 1904–87, American economist, b. Austria, grad. Columbia Univ. (A.B., 1925; A.M., 1925; Ph.D., 1934). He taught economics at Rutgers Univ. (1927–44), and then joined (1944) the...

(Encyclopedia) Woodward, Robert Burns, 1917–80, American chemist and educator, b. Boston, grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B., 1936; Ph.D., 1937). He taught at Harvard from 1938, becoming Donner prof...

(Encyclopedia) cinéma vérité, a style of filmmaking that attempts to convey candid realism. Often employing lightweight, hand-held cameras and sound equipment, it shows people in everyday situations and uses auth...

(Encyclopedia) Allen, Gracie: see Burns, George. ...

(Encyclopedia) Kilmarnock kĭlmärˈnək [key], city (1991 pop. 51,799), East Ayrshire, SW Scotland. An industrial town in a mining area, it has industries that manufacture carpets, hosiery, farm and hydraulic machi...

(Encyclopedia) Ayr âr [key], town, South Ayrshire, SW Scotland, at the mouth of the Ayr River on the Firth of Clyde. Ayr is a sea resort and a port for fishing, the export of iron and a...

(Encyclopedia) doxology dŏksŏlˈəjē [key] [Gr. doxa=glory] formulaic ascription of praise to God, encountered in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition. The best-known doxologies of the Christian church are Gl...

(Encyclopedia) Ramsay, Allan, 1685?–1758, Scottish poet. An Edinburgh bookseller, he opened one of the first circulating libraries in Great Britain. The Gentle Shepherd (1725), a pastoral comedy, is his most famou...

(Encyclopedia) burn, injury resulting from exposure to heat, electricity, radiation, or caustic chemicals. Three degrees of burn are commonly recognized. In first-degree burns the outer layer of skin, called epiderm...