Mordecai Manuel Noah (1785-1851): A journalist with a flair for politics and diplomacy. Noah tried to create Jewish homeland on Grand Island in the Niagara River.

Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872): Yes, he invented the telegraph and Morse Code. But he was also a celebrated artist, right-wing politician and first-rate curmudgeon.

Lewis Charles Levin (1808-1860): The original “Know-Nothing,” Levin's fiery political rhetoric caused riots wherever he went. Levin argued in favor of prayer in the public schools and against immigration in the 1840s.

August Belmont (1816-1890): Originally the Rothschild family's “man in America,” Belmont became both the arbiter of good taste and chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Ignatius Donnelly (1831-1901): The “Apostle of Protest,” Donnelly served in Congress, wrote best-selling novels, and turned the world's attention to the “Lost Continent of Atlantis.” Indeed, he was America's answer to Nostrodamus.

Mark Twain (1835-1910): America's favorite writer, bar none. Who else but Twain could begin a tale with the immortal words: “My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian.”

William d'Alton Mann (1839-1920): A ‘larger-than-life protean scoundrel' and America's first gossip columnist, Mann capped of an unbelievably colorful career by ‘robbing the Robber Barons.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935): Variously called “The Great Dissenter” and “The Justice From Beacon Hill,” Holmes was the quintessential Boston Brahmin. His life and career are the stuff of legend.

Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911): The true father of “Yellow Journalism,” and one of America's most brilliant eccentrics, Pulitzer built a state-of-the-art skyscraper for his New York-based newspaper empire, and only entered it twice.

“Diamond Jim” Brady (1856-1917): Robber Baron, bon vivant, world class trencherman and companion of Lillian Russell, Brady was truly larger than life.

Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856-1941): “The People's Lawyer,” Brandeis became the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.

Florence Prag Kahn (1866-1948): The first Jewish woman to serve in Congress, Kahn was often referred to by J. Edgar Hoover as “The Mother of the F.B.I.”

Cora Crane (1868-1910): Raised in a proper Boston family, Cora defied convention by doing whatever she pleased – from becoming a war correspondent to carrying on a torrid and very public affair with writer Stephen Crane.

Emma Goldman (1869-1940: The ‘most dangerous woman in America,' “Red Emma” was jailed for conspiracy to assassinate President William McKinley, and then deported to Russia just in time to participate in the revolution.

Bernard Baruch (1870-1965): A legendary financier who became the most trusted and long-lived presidential advisor in American history.

Meyer London (1871-1926): Elected to Congress as a Socialist, London was the have-nots best friend in America.

Al Smith (1873-1944): It is a long, long way from the Fulton Street Fish Market to the Governor's mansion in Albany.

Adolph Zukor (1873-1976): More than anyone, Zukor can claim title to being the real father of the motion picture industry.

Belle Linder Moskowitz (1877-1933): Governor Al Smith's closest political advisor, Moskowitz was a major force in creating the social welfare programs of the New Deal.

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956): A Baltimore-based newspaperman, Mencken was once hailed as “. . . the most powerful personal influence on this whole generation of educated people.”

Damon Runyon (1880-1946): The quintessential New York, the man who put the “guy” into Guys and Dolls, was actually born in Kansas and was a good friend of Bat Masterson.

Samuel Dickstein (1885-1954): The “Father” of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Dickstein was, in truth, on the payroll of the KGB. His Soviet handlers nicknamed him “Crook.”

Erich Von Stroheim (1885-1957): Hollywood's first made genius. During the Great War, he played the perfect Hun. Trouble was, he was the son of a Jewish hat maker.

John Barrymore (1882-1942): “The Great Profile.” John Sidney Blythe was the youngest, most talented, and notorious of the three siblings known collectively as the “House of Barrymore.” John had the talent and guts to perform a stellar Hamlet in England, and then wind up drowning his artistry in a sea of alcohol.

Edna Ferber (1887-1968): Hailing from Kalamazoo, Michigan, Ferber became, arguably, America's most popular and successful female writer, penning such classics as Show Boat, Dinner at Eight, So Big¸ and The Ice House.

Frances Marion (1888-1973): Hollywood's most respected and successful screenwriter, Marion wrote starring vehicles for everyone from Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish to Wallace Berry and Spencer Tracy.

Sir Charles Chaplin (1889-1977): Within a few weeks of his first appearance before a camera, Chaplin gave birth to The Tramp – the little guy whose mixture of dignity and grit taught the world that it was possible to laugh and cry at the same time.

Averell Harriman (1891-1973): One of the richest men in America, Harriman spent the first half of his life as a playboy. Who could have predicted that he would become one of America's greatest diplomats?

Mabel Normand (1892-1930): The “Queen of Silent Comedy” and Hollywood's first “I don't care girl,” Normand's epitaph could easily have read “She jazzed herself into oblivion.”

Hugie Long (1893-1935): Known as “the Kingfish,” Long blazed a meteoric path across the American political horizon, serving simultaneously as a United States Senator and the Governor of Louisiana.Equal parts genius and demagogue, Long's career, was cut short by an assassin's bullet.

Ben Hecht (1893-1964): A gritty reporter from Chicago, Hecht went on to write “. . . about half of all the entertaining films [ever] produced in Hollywood,” including His Girl Friday, Some Like it Hot, and Strangers on a Train.

Lillian Gish (1893-1993): The “Queen of Silents,” Miss Gish's career on the Silver Screen lasted an incredible 75 years.

Harold Lloyd (1893-1971): After several false starts, Lloyd hit upon his signature “Glass Character.” Although far less profound than either Chaplin or Keaton, Lloyd was, in his time, the most popular and successful of the three.

Buster Keaton (1895-1966): Keaton had a profound understanding of the faint line between the reality of the audience and the surrealism of the screen.

Humphrey DeForest Bogart (1899-1957): “Bogie,” Hollywood's penultimate tough-guy, was actually the son of a prominent surgeon and a world-famous photographer. After prepping at Andover and entering Yale, Bogart turned to the stage – where he was the first to utter that immortal line “tennis anyone?” and then go on to a legendary Hollywood career.

Meyer Lansky (1902-1983): Many believe that if he had not been a gangster, he probably would have wound up running General Motors. Oh really?

Tallulah Bankhead (1902-1968): “Hello dahling!” The scion of a politically power family (her father was Speaker of the House of Representatives), Bankhead became the toast of Broadway and London's West End, conquered Hollywood, and enthralled two generations with her madcap antics.

Ayn Rand (1905-1983): The exotic creator of “objectivism,” which rejects altruism and exalts wealth, was, in reality, a Russian-born émigré named Alissa Rosenbaum.

Clara Bow (1905-1965): The “It Girl.” The personification of the roaring twenties, Bow at her peak received upwards of 50,000 fan letters a week. A grade school dropout who was nearly murdered by an insane mother and defrauded by an avaricious father, Bow wound up as the subject of a sensational trial in which her penchant for drugs and alcohol, gambling and men, became public knowledge.