Remembering The Whitechapel Bell Foundry, Jonathan Demme, Albert Freedman

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was founded in 1570 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and is believed to be Britain’s oldest manufacturing company. Its bells include the Liberty Bell (1752) and Big Ben at the Palace of Westminster (1858). Jonathan Demme was the film director best known for “Silence of the Lambs” (1991), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director, and “Philadelphia” (1993), in which Tom Hanks earned an Academy Award for Best Actor. Albert Freedman was a television producer in the 1950’s. He brought Charles Van Doren on NBC’s “Twenty One”, which set off the quiz show scandals of the late 1950’s. His story is part of Robert Redford’s retelling of the story in the 1994 movie “Quiz Show”.