WA2K Radio is now on the air

Good day, Francis. What holiday are the French celebrating? That is a powerful poem, no?

In the background, I just heard this song, and although the implication is not exactly what we would normally play to greet the day, let us hear it anyway. Can't shake the rhyme somehow. <smile>

Animals:

Rising Sun

There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one

My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new bluejeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans

Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk

------ organ solo ------

Oh mother tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun

Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain

Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one

Good morning, Miss Letty.

France is celebrating a Christian holiday - Ascension Day.

McCrae's poem is indeed powerful...

Love that song, House of Rising Sun. (Les portes du pénitencier, in French.)

Many European countires celebrate this joliday - in Germany, it's traditionally (and not related at all) 'Father's Day' as well, when the males can booze with an official reason ... :wink:


The only combined tune I know is the following [since by Madonno - oy, oy - oops, oops]

It's funny that way, you can get used
To the tears and the pain
What a child will believe
You never loved me

Chorus:

You can't hurt me now
I got away from you, I never thought I would
You can't make me cry, you once had the power
I never felt so good about myself

Seems like yesterday
I lay down next to your boots and I prayed
For your anger to end
Oh Father I have sinned

(chorus)

Oh Father you never wanted to live that way
You never wanted to hurt me
Why am I running away
(repeat)

Maybe someday
When I look back I'll be able to say
You didn't mean to be cruel
Somebody hurt you too

(chorus)

Well, folks. It is wonderful to see our European friends here with us.

Francis, the French title of The Rising Sun is lovely. Ascension Day? I am totally familiar with that, dear. How fascinating the days that are observed in different parts of the world.

Walter, so it's Father's Day in Germany. That was a rather sad song for the occasion, honey, but then not everything is wine and roses, I guess.

Not a bad song, folks. Let's play it.


Days Of Wine And Roses




Artist: Andy Williams (peak Billboard position # 26 in 1963)
Music by Henry Mancini and Words by Johnny Mercer



The days of wine and roses laugh and run away like a child at play
Through a meadow land toward a closing door
A door marked "nevermore" that wasn't there before

The lonely night discloses just a passing breeze filled with memories
Of the golden smile that introduced me to
The days of wine and roses and you

The lonely night discloses just a passing breeze filled with memories
Of the golden smile that introduced me to
The days of wine and roses and you-oo-oo

Good Morning WA2K.

Remembering today:

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson




a Happy 77th to Beverly Sills:


and Happy 71st to Tom T. Hall:



From Tom:

Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine

How old do you think I am? he said.
I said, well, I didn't know.
He said, I turned 65 about 11 months ago.

I was sittin' in Miami pourin' blended whiskey down
When this old gray black gentleman was cleanin' up the lounge

There wasn't anyone around 'cept this old man and me
The guy who ran the bar was watchin' Ironsides on tv
Uninvited, he sat down and opened up his mind
On old dogs and children and watermelon wine

Ever had a drink of watermelon wine? he asked
He told me all about it, though I didn't answer back
Ain't but three things in this world that's worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.

He said, women think about they-selves, when menfolk ain't around.
And friends are hard to find when they discover that you're down.
He said, I tried it all when I was young and in my natural prime;
Now it's old dogs and children and watermelon wine.

Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes;
God bless little children while they're still too young to hate.
When he moved away I found my pen and copied down that line
'bout old dogs and children and watermelon wine.

I had to catch a plane up to Atlanta that next day
As I left for my room I saw him pickin' up my change
That night I dreamed in peaceful sleep of shady summertime
Of old dogs and children and watermelon wine.

(I don't agree about the "women" part, though. )

I Love
(Tom T. Hall)

I love little baby ducks, old pick-up trucks, slow-moving trains,
and rain
I love little country streams, sleep without dreams, sunday school in may,
And hay
And I love you too

I love leaves in the wind, pictures of my friends, birds in the world,
and squirrels
I love coffee in a cup, little fuzzy pups, bourbon in a glass,
and grass
And I love you too

I love honest open smiles, kisses from a child, tomatoes on the vine,
and onions
I love winners when they cry, losers when they try, music when its good, and life
And I love you too

A happy birthday to Miles Davis, as well.

Miles Davis

It Never Entered My Mind


Once I laughed when I heard you saying
That I'd be playing solitaire
Uneasy in my easy chair
It never entered my mind.

And once you told me I was mistaken
That I'd awaken with the sun
And ordered orange juice for one.
It never entered my mind.

You had what I lack, myself
Now I even have to scratch my back myself.

Once you warned me that if you scorned me,
I'd say the maiden's prayer again
And wish that you were there again
To get into my hair again.
It never entered my mind.

It never entered my mind.



And a special mention for the birthdays of Frank Oz, who gave us the voice of Yoda for Star Wars, and Ralph W. Emerson, who would be 203 if he were still with us today.

Well, There's our Raggedy, folks. Hey, PA, now I remember Tom T. My best RNA comes from music. Thanks once again for all the lovely pictures that we can pin on our studio board.

Ah, and, of course, Mr. Bojangles by Bob Dylan:

I knew a man Bojangles and he'd dance for you in worn out shoes
Silver hair, a ragged shirt and baggy pants, that old soft shoe
He'd jump so high, he'd jump so high, will he likely touch down ?
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, dance.

I met him in a cell in New Orleans, I was down and out
He looked to me to be the eye of age as he spoke right out
He talked of life, he talked of life, laughing slapped his leg stale
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, dance.

He said the name Bojangles and he danced a lick all across the cell
He grabbed his pants for a better stance, oh he jumped so high and he
clicked up his heels
He let go laugh, he let go laugh, shook back his clothes all around
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, dance, yeah, dance.

He danced for those at minstrel shows and county fairs throughtout the south
He spoke with tears of 15 years of how his dog and him just travelled about
Hid dog up and died, he up and died, and after 20 years he still grieves
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, dance.

He said "I dance now at every chance at honky-tonks for drinks and tips
But most of the time I spend behind these county bars, cause I drinks a bit"
He shook his head, yes he shook his head, I heard someone ask him, 襭lease?
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, dance, dance, Mr Bojangles, dance.

Oops. It seems that I am always missing our Arthur, listeners.

Ah, yes. Miles and miles of smiles with that fabulous trumpet man. That song, tin sword, is beautiful, incidentally.

I would also like to mention that the Days of Wine and Roses is for our jazz buddy, Fred, who sang it so sweetly. He is the only surviving member of my husband's jazz group.

Ah yes, Letty, Days of Wine and Roses is indeed a beautiful Henry Mancini song.

Sammy Davis Jr's version of "Mr. Bojangles" is my favorite. I never heard the composer, Jerry Jeff Walker, sing it.

You know, Raggedy and all, I never did pay much attention to who wrote what when I sang. It was my husband who tuned me in to a lot of things.

Now, WA2K radio is rather like the Where Am I travelogue. It's a learning thing.

Well, our Mr. Turtle is still engaged in the game of chess, and that's why we haven't seen him here. As for me, I never got beyond a simple game.

Another poem, listeners:

LIFE, THE GAME OF CHESS

I have played my life like a meaningless game of chess

A game of chess which will be over and start again.

Making thoughtless moves that are so concrete and unredeemable.

I need to realize that each move counts, it takes me that much closer to the final move.

I also need to find out who it is that I'm playing with

Is my opponent wiser, does she see checkmate?

Is she chuckling at each of my foolish moves

That will bring her to the conquering of my position?

Each day is a fresh new game.

It's my chance to win!

Before I break out the board and line up my men,

I can think about all the games in my past and remember

how I lost, and how I won. I will tell myself, "I will do it different this time, no

I won't do that again"

I will know not to play with that one until I am confident in my game.

Or, not to play with this one EVER.

by Maiko Maya.

Hmmm. Wonder if she is any kin to Ticomaya. <smile>

Ralph Waldo Emerson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 - April 27, 1882) was a famous American author, poet, and philosopher.

Life

Early life

Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to the Rev. William Emerson, a Unitarian minister in a famous line of ministers. He gradually drifted from the doctrines of his peers, then formulated and first expressed the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his essay Nature.

When he was three years old, Emerson's father complained that the child could not read well enough. Then in 1811, when Emerson was eight years old, his father died. He attended Boston Latin School. In October 1817, at the age of 14, Emerson went to Harvard University and was appointed President's Freshman, a position which gave him a room free of charge. He waited at Commons, which reduced the cost of his board to one quarter, and he received a scholarship. He added to his slender means by tutoring and by teaching during the winter vacations at his Uncle Ripley's school in Waltham, Massachusetts.

After Emerson graduated from Harvard in 1821, he assisted his brother in a school for young ladies established in their mother's house; when his brother went to Göttingen to study divinity, Emerson took charge of the school. Over the next several years, Emerson made his living as a schoolmaster, then went to Harvard Divinity School, and emerged as a Unitarian minister in 1829. A dispute with church officials over the administration of the Communion service, and misgivings about public prayer led to his resignation in 1832. A year earlier his young wife and reputed one true love, Miss Ellen Louisa Tucker, died in April 1831.

In 1832-33, Emerson toured Europe, a trip that he would later write about in English Traits (1856). During this trip, he met William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Stuart Mill, and Thomas Carlyle. Emerson maintained a correspondence with Carlyle until the latter's death in 1881. He served as Carlyle's agent in the U.S.

In 1835, Emerson bought a house on the Cambridge Turnpike, in Concord, Massachusetts. He quickly became one of the leading citizens in the town. He also married his second wife Lydia Jackson there.

Literary career

In September 1836, Emerson and other like-minded intellectuals founded the Transcendental Club, which served as a center for the movement, but didn't publish its journal The Dial, until July 1840. Emerson published his first essay, Nature, anonymously in September 1836. While it became the foundation for Transcendentalism, many people at the time assumed it to be a work of Swedenborgianism.

In 1838 he was invited back to Divinity Hall, Harvard Divinity School, for the school's graduation address, which came to be known as his Divinity School Address. His remarks managed to outrage the establishment and shock the whole Protestant community at the time, as he proclaimed that while Jesus was a great man, he was not God. For this, he was denounced as an atheist, and a poisoner of young men's minds. Despite the roar of his critics, he made no reply, leaving it to others for his defense. He was not invited back to speak at Harvard for another 40 years, but by the mid-1880s his position had become standard Unitarian doctrine.

Early in 1842, Emerson lost his first son, Waldo, to scarlet fever. Emerson wrote about his grief in two major works: the poem "Threnody", and the essay "Experience." In the same year, William James was born, and Emerson agreed to be his godfather.

Emerson made a living as a popular lecturer in New England and the rest of the country outside of the South. During several scheduled appearances that he was not able to make, Frederick Douglass took his place. Emerson spoke on a wide variety of subjects. Many of his essays grew out of his lectures.

Emerson associated closely with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau and often took walks with them in Concord. Emerson encouraged Thoreau's talent and early career. The land on which Thoreau built his cabin on Walden Pond belonged to Emerson. While Thoreau was living at Walden, Emerson provided food and hired Thoreau to perform odd jobs. When Thoreau left Walden after two years' time, it was to live at the Emerson house while Emerson was away on a lecture tour. Their close relationship fractured after Emerson gave Thoreau the poor advice to publish his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, without extensive drafts, and directed Thoreau to his own agent who made Thoreau split the price/risk of publishing. The book was a flop, and put Thoreau heavily into debt. Eventually the two would reconcile some of their differences, although Thoreau privately accused Emerson of having drifted from his original philosophy, and Emerson began to view Thoreau as a misanthrope. Emerson's eulogy to Thoreau is largely credited with the latter's negative reputation during the 19th century.

Emerson was noted as being a very abstract and difficult writer who nevertheless drew large crowds for his speeches. The heart of Emerson's writing was his direct observations in his journals, which he started keeping as a teenager at Harvard. The journals were elaborately indexed by Emerson. Emerson went back to his journals, his bank of experiences and ideas, and took out relevant passages, which were joined together in his dense, concentrated lectures. He later revised and polished his lectures for his essays and sermons.

He was considered one of the great orators of the time, a man who could enrapture crowds with his deep voice, his enthusiasm, and his egalitarian respect for his audience. His outspoken, uncompromising support for abolitionism later in life caused protest and jeers from crowds when he spoke on the subject. He continued to speak on abolition without concern for his popularity and with increasing radicalism. He attempted, with difficulty, not to join the public arena as a member of any group or movement, and always retained a stringent independence that reflected his individualism. He always insisted that he wanted no followers, but sought to give man back to himself, as a self-reliant individual. Asked to sum up his work late in life, he said it was his doctrine of "the infinitude of the private man" that remained central.

In 1845, Emerson's Journal records that he was reading the Bhagavad Gita and Henry Thomas Colebrooke's Essays on the Vedas.[1] Emerson was strongly influenced by the Vedas, and much of his writing has strong shades of nondualism. One of the clearest examples of this can be found in his essay, "The Over Soul":

We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.[2]

Montaigne strongly influenced Emerson by his early reading of the French essayist. From those compositions he took the conversational, subjective style and the loss of belief in a personal God. He never read Kant's works, but, instead, relied on Coleridge's interpretation of the German Transcendental Idealist. This led to Emerson's non-traditional ideas of soul and God.

Emerson is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord.

Bill Robinson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robinson (May 25, 1878 - November 25, 1949) was a pioneer and pre-eminent African-American tap dance performer.

Childhood and early career

Born in Richmond, Virginia on May 25, 1878, to Maxwell Robinson, a machine-shop worker, and Maria Robinson, a choir singer, Bill Robinson was brought up by his grandmother after the death of his parents when he was still a baby. He was christened Luther, a name he did not like, so he suggested to his younger brother Bill that they should exchange names. When Bill objected, Luther applied his fists, and the exchange was made! (The new 'Luther' later adopted the name Percy and became a well-known drummer.) The details of Robinson's early life are known only through legend, much of it perpetuated by Bill Robinson himself.

At the age of six he began dancing for a living, appearing as a "hoofer," or song-and-dance man, in local beer gardens. Two years later, in Washington, DC he toured with Mayme Remington's troupe. In 1891 (Ed: another source-1892), at the ripe age of 12, he joined a traveling company in "The South Before the War", and in 1905 (Ed: another source 1902) worked with George Cooper as a vaudeville team. He gained great success as a nightclub and musical comedy performer, and during the next 25 years became one of the toasts of Broadway. Not until he was fifty did he dance for white audiences, having devoted his early career exclusively to appearances on the black theater circuit.

In 1908 in Chicago he met Marty Forkins, who became his lifelong manager. Under Forkins' tutelage Robinson matured and began working as a solo act in nightclubs, increasing his earnings to an estimated $3500 per week. The publicity that gradually came to surround him included the creation of his famous "stair dance" (which he claimed to have invented on the spur of the moment when he was receiving some honor--he could never remember exactly what-- from the King of England. The King was standing at the top of a flight of stairs, and Bojangles' feet just danced up to be honored), his successful gambling exploits, his prodigious charity, his ability to run backward (he set a world's record of 8.2 seconds for the 75-yard backward dash!) and to consume ice-cream by the quart, his argot--most notably the neologism "copasetic"--and such stunts as dancing down Broadway in 1939 from Columbus Circle to 44th St. in celebration of his 61st birthday.

Because his public image became preeminent, little is known of his first marriage to Fannie S. Clay in Chicago shortly after World War I, his divorce in 1943, or his marriage to Elaine Plaines on January 27, 1944, in Columbus, Ohio.

Toward the end of the vaudeville era a white impresario, Lew Leslie, produced "Blackbirds of 1928," a black revue for white audiences featuring Robinson and other black stars. From then on his public role was that of a dapper, smiling, plaid-suited ambassador to the white world, maintaining a tenuous connection with the black show-business circles through his continuing patronage of the Hoofer's Club, an entertainer's haven in Harlem. Consequently, blacks and whites developed differing opinions of him. To whites, for example, his nickname "Bojangles" meant happy-go-lucky, while the black variety artist Tom Flatcher claimed it was slang for "squabbler." Political figures and celebrities appointed him an honorary mayor of Harlem, a lifetime member of policemen's associations and fraternal orders, and a mascot of the New York Giants baseball team. Robinson reciprocated with open handed generosity and frequently credited the white dancer James Barton for his contribution to Robinson's dancing style.

After 1930 black revues waned in popularity, but Robinson remained in vogue with white audiences for more than a decade in some fourteen motion pictures produced by such companies as RKO, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. Most of them had musical settings, in which he played old-fashioned roles in nostalgic romances. His most frequent role was that of an antebellum butler opposite Shirley Temple or Will Rogers in such films as "The Littlest Colonel," "The Littlest Rebel" and "In Old Kentucky" (all released in 1935.) Rarely did he depart from the stereotype imposed by Hollywood writers. In a small vignette in "Hooray For Love" (1935) he played a mayor of Harlem modeled after his own ceremonial honors; in "One Mile From Heaven" (1937), he played a romantic lead opposite the singer Lena Horne after Hollywood had relaxed its taboo against such roles for blacks. Audiences enjoyed his style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug. In contrast, Robinson always remained cool and reserved, rarely using his upper body and depending on his busy, inventive feet and his expressive face. He appeared in one film for black audiences, "Harlem Is Heaven" (1931), a financial failure that turned him away from independent production.

In 1939 he returned to the stage in "The Hot Mikado", a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta produced at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, and was one of the greatest hits of the fair. His next performance, in "All in Fun" (1940), failed to attract audiences. His last theatrical project was to have been "Two Gentlemen From The South" with James Barton, in which the black and white roles reverse and eventually come together as equals, but the show did not open. Thereafter he confined himself to occasional performances, but he could still dance in his late sixties almost as well as he ever could, to the continual astonishment of his millions of admirers. He explained this extraordinary versatility--he once danced for more than an hour before a dancing class without repeating a step--by insisting that his feet responded directly to the music, his head having nothing to do with it.

Robinson died of a chronic heart condition at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York City in 1949. His body lay in state at an armory in Harlem; schools were closed, thousands lined the streets waiting for a glimpse of his bier, and he was eulogized by politicians, black and white--perhaps more lavishly than any other African American of his time. "To his own people", wrote Marshall and Jean Stearns, "Robinson became a modern John Henry, who instead of driving steel, laid down iron taps." He was buried in the cemetery of the Evergreens in New York City.

[The previous biographical article is from the International Tap Association Newsletter May/June 1993. The biographical material was extrapolated from "The American Dictionary of Biography" and "Webster's American Biographies."]

Racism and Robinson's rise to fame

However, overcoming even a part of the racism that existed took a long time. At a point in history when racial segregation was the accepted norm in the United States, Robinson initially was made to perform for white audiences in blackface. However, his popularity led to a tour of Canada where he could appear without having to hide behind make-up. Nevertheless, at home, Robinson performed almost exclusively for black audiences until a Broadway producer in need of something different to help arrest the decline in popularity of vaudeville acts hired him for a revue called "Blackbirds of 1928." The all-white audiences loved the show and the then 50-year-old Robinson soon became much in demand, said to be the highest paid black performer of the time. Acclaimed for his innovative and complex dance style, he personified the happy-go-lucky image of a dapper gentleman, often appearing on stage in tails and top hat while swinging a cane.

Film career

Whether he was performing in a small town theater or a grand Broadway playhouse, Robinson gave his best and his national popularity became such that he was invited by studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck to come to Hollywood to appear in motion pictures, albeit limited to stereotypical roles. In all, he appeared in more than a dozen films but is best remembered for a number of 1930s film performances with the child star Shirley Temple including director Allan Dwan's very successful 1938 production of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

Partial filmography

Harlem Is Heaven (1932)
The Little Colonel (1935)
The Littlest Rebel (1935)
In Old Kentucky (1935)
Hooray For Love (1935)
One Mile From Heaven (1937)
Cotton Club Revue (1938)
Stormy Weather (1943)

Other notable performances

In 1939 Robinson returned to the New York stage to take on the lead role in "The Hot Mikado", a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. The much-loved performer brought his show great publicity when in his sixties, he danced his way backwards down Broadway from Columbus Circle to 44th Street. Robinson had spoken out against being stereotyped by Hollywood and in 1943 he went back there to star opposite Lena Horne and Cab Calloway in the quality film musical, Stormy Weather.

Legacy

Robinson was dogged by lifelong personal demons, enhanced by having to endure the indignities of racism that, despite his great success, still limited his opportunities. A notorious gambler and a high liver but with a big heart, he was a soft touch for anyone down on their luck or with a good story. During his lifetime Robinson spent a fortune but his generosity was not totally wasted and his haunting memories of surviving on the streets as a child never left him. In 1933, while in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, he saw two children risk speeding traffic to cross a street because there was no stoplight at the intersection. Robinson went to the city and provided the money to have a safety traffic light installed. In 1973, a statue of "Bojangles" was erected in a small park at the intersection.

Bojangles co-founded the New York Black Yankees baseball team in Harlem in 1936 with financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler. The team was a successful member of the Negro National League until it disbanded in 1948.

Death

In 1949, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson died penniless in New York City at the age of 71 from heart disease. Television host Ed Sullivan is said to have personally paid for the funeral. More than half a million people lined the streets when Robinson's funeral procession made its way through Harlem and down Broadway to Times Square on its way to his interment in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn.

Mr. Bojangles memorialized

Fred Astaire paid tribute to Bill Robinson in the tap routine Bojangles of Harlem from the 1936 classic Swing Time. In it he famously dances to three of his shadows. Duke Ellington composed 'Bojangles (A Portrait of Bill Robinson)', a set of rhythmic variations as a salute to the great dancer. Bill Robinson's character was, in effect, memorialized in Jerry Jeff Walker's 1968 folk song "Mr. Bojangles" that was later recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Harry Nilsson, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Nina Simone, John Denver, David Bromberg, Neil Diamond, Sammy Davis, Jr, Tom T. Hall, and Robbie Williams.

It is an interesting fact that the "Mr. Bojangles" of the song was another individual, a poor, alcoholic tap-dancer, who may have been inspired by the success of Robinson. This other "Bojangles" turned up in parts of the south and in small towns on the west coast. Over time, he touched thousands of people with his amazing dancing skill, that he'd meet in bars, jails, or the bus stations where he might sweep, and dance with his broom. His actual name is not recorded, but he too, was a living part of what we celebrate in the black American folk name," Bojangles".

Bill Robinson's biography was published in 1988 and a made-for-television film titled Bojangles was released in 2001. The film earned the NAACP Best actor Award for Gregory Hines' performance as Bill Robinson.

Claude Akins
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Claude Akins as Sheriff LoboClaude Marion Akins was an American actor (born May 25, 1918 in Nelson, Georgia - died January 27, 1994 in Altadena, California). Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever (or less than clever) tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is best remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s TV series B.J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a spinoff series.

In movies, Akins portrayed prisoner Joe Berdett in the movie Rio Bravo (which also starred John Wayne and Angie Dickinson), the Reverend Jeremiah Brown in the 1960 movie Inherit the Wind, and later the gorilla leader Aldo in Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the last original Apes movie in 1973.

In television, Akins had an early appearance in The Adventures of Superman (episode number 69, "Peril by Sea"), playing a villainous co-conspirator. He had numerous roles in Western series, including Wagon Train, Death Valley Days, Zane Grey Theater, The Rifleman and Bonanza, and featured roles on the original The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables.

Before his signature character Lobo, he appeared as trucker Sonny Pruett in NBC's Movin' On, from 1974 to 1976. He also appeared in TV commercials for Polygrip and Aamco.

Jeanne Crain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jeanne CrainJeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 - December 14, 2003) was an American actress.

Born in Barstow, California to George A. Crain (a school teacher) and Loretta Carr, she moved to Los Angeles as a young child.

An excellent ice skater, Crain first attracted attention when she was crowned Miss Pan Pacific at L.A.'s Pan Pacific Auditorium. Later, while still in high school, she was asked to make a screen test opposite Orson Welles. She did not get the part, but in 1943, at the age of 18, she appeared in a bit part in the movie The Gang's All Here.

In 1944 she starred in Home in Indiana and In the Meantime, Darling. Her acting was critically panned, but she rebounded in the hit Winged Victory. During World War II, Crain's fan mail was second in volume only to that of Betty Grable.

In 1945 she starred in State Fair, and, in 1949, in three films: A Letter to Three Wives, The Fan and Pinky, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Pinky was a controversial movie, since it told the story of a light-skinned African-American young woman who passes for white in the northern United States. Although Lena Horne and other black actresses were considered for the role, Darryl F. Zanuck chose to cast a white actress for box-office reasons.

In 1950, Crain starred opposite Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb in Cheaper by the Dozen. Next, Crain paired up with Cary Grant, for the Joseph L. Mankiewicz production of People Will Talk (1951). 1952 saw Crain again teamed with Loy in the release of Belles on Their Toes, the sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen. While still at Fox, Crain gave an excellent performance as a young wife quickly losing her mind amidst high seas intrigue in Dangerous Crossing, co-starring Michael Rennie. Crain then starred in a string of pictures for Universal, including notable pairings with Kirk Douglas, such as Man Without a Star (1955).

Also in 1955, Crain also showed off her lively dancing abilities in Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, co-starring Jane Russell, Alan Young, and Rudy Vallee. The production was filmed on location in Paris and Crain's singing in the film was dubbed, as was customary. The film was based on the Anita Loos novel that was a sequel to her acclaimed Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was popular throughout Europe at the time and was released in France as A Paris Pour les Quatre ("Paris For The Four"), and in Belgium as Cevieren Te Parijs. Later in the 1950s, Crain, Russell, and another actress teamed up for a short-lived singing and dancing lounge act at one of the hotels on the Las Vegas Strip.

In 1956, Crain starred opposite Glenn Ford, Russ Tamblyn, and Broderick Crawford in the compelling Western, Fastest Gun Alive. The film was directed by Russell Rouse. In 1957, she was a socialite who helps a crushed singer (played by Frank Sinatra) redeem himself in The Joker Is Wild.

In 1959, Crain appeared in a prestigious CBS Television Special production of "Meet Me in St. Louis." Also starring in the broadcast were Myrna Loy, Walter Pidgeon, Jane Powell, and Ed Wynn. A sign of the times: top-billing on the program went to co-star Tab Hunter!

Film roles became fewer in the 1960s as Crain went into semi-retirement. Crain was captivating as Nefertiti in the 1961 Italian production of Queen of the Nile, with Edmund Purdom and Vincent Price. During this period Crain did a stint as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday night CBS-TV program . Crain's last film role was in Skyjacked in 1972.

Against her mother's wishes, Crain married former RKO Studios contract player Paul Brinkman on December 31, 1946; the first of their 7 children was born the following April. During the early 1950s, Crain was earning approx. $3,500 per week. Crain and her husband Brinkman bought a large, lovely home for their growing family on Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills. (The home can be seen and is described by Bette Davis in candid footage of a driving sequence in the 1952 now cult-classic, The Star.) The marriage was rocky for some years. Crain obtained an interlocutory divorce decree, each spouse claiming the other had been unfaithful (she also claimed Brinkman had been abusive), but the couple reconciled on the eve of their 11th wedding anniversary.

As a lifelong devout Roman Catholic, Jeanne Crain Brinkman and her husband Paul remained married, though they lived separately in Santa Barbara, California, until Brinkman's death in October of 2003. Crain died a few months later and it was speculated that she died of a broken heart. Crain's funeral Mass was held at the Old Santa Barbara Mission. Crain is buried in the Brinkman family plot at Santa Barbara Cemetery. The couple outlived two of their children. The Brinkmans were survived by five adult children, including Paul Brinkman Jr., a successful television executive, most known for his work on CBS TV's JAG. Crain was also survived by many grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

Crain's career is fully documented by an extraordinary collection of memorabilia about her assembled by the late Charles J. Finlay (longtime publicist at 20th Century Fox). The Jeanne Crain collection resides perpetually at the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives in Middletown, Connecticut. These archives also hold the papers of Frank Capra, Ingrid Bergman, Clint Eastwood, and others.

Beverly Sills
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The coloratura soprano Beverly Sills (born May 25, 1929) was perhaps the best-known American opera singer in the 1960s and 1970s. After retiring in 1980, she became the general manager of the New York City Opera. As a celebrity, Sills was and continues to be much liked for her down-to-earth personality and her charity work for the prevention and treatment of birth defects.

Sills was born Belle Miriam Silverman to first generation immigrants of Ukrainian and Romanian Jewish background. She was raised in a working-class neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. As a child, she spoke Russian, Romanian and English.

When she was three years old, Sills won a "Miss Beautiful Baby" contest singing "The Wedding of Jack and Jill". Her mother was convinced of her musical talents, and she provided her daughter with lessons in dance, voice and elocution. In the 1930s, she performed professionally on radio and in the 1936 short film Uncle Sol Solves It. In 1936, Sills began taking lessons with Estelle Liebling, a famous singing teacher, who encouraged her to audition for CBS Radio's Major Bowes' Amateur Hour. On October 26, 1939, she was the winner of that week's program. Bowes then asked her to appear on his Capital Family Hour, a weekly variety show. Her first appearance was on November 19, 1939, the 17th anniversary of the show, and she appeared a number of times on the program thereafter (the dates of the first Bowes appearances are incorrect in most printed sources about Sills) .

In 1945, Sills made her professional stage debut with a Gilbert & Sullivan touring company and sang operetta for several years. In 1947, she made her operatic stage debut as the Spanish gypsy Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen with the Philadelphia Civic Opera. On September 15, 1953, she made her debut with the San Francisco Opera as Helen of Troy in Boito's Mefistofele. In 1955, she first appeared with the New York City Opera as Rosalinde in Strauss's Die Fledermaus, which drew raves from the newspaper critics. Her reputation was established with her performance of the title role in the New York premiere of Douglas Stuart Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe.

In 1956, she married Peter Greenough, publisher of the Cleveland, Ohio newspaper, The Plain Dealer. She had two children with Greenough and, upon learning that one was virtually deaf and the other was mentally retarded, she temporarily retired from the stage in order to care for them.

Sills resumed her career in January 1964 when she sang the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute with the Opera Company of Boston. (Thanks to her formidable coloratura technique, Sills was greatly admired for her performance, but she herself was not fond of the role. She tells the story that she often spent the time between the main arias and the finale addressing holiday cards.)

In 1966, the New York City Opera revived Handel's then virtually unknown opera seria masterpiece Giulio Cesare and Sills' performance as Cleopatra made her an international opera star.

In subsequent seasons, Sills took on the roles of the Queen of Shemakha in Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or, Manon in Massenet's opera of that title, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and the three female leads Suor Angelica, Giorgetta, and Lauretta in Puccini's trilogy Il Trittico. In 1969, she sang Pamira in Rossini's The Siege of Corinth, at La Scala.

In April 1975, Sills made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in The Siege of Corinth, receiving an eighteen-minute ovation.

Although essentially a "lyric coloratura" as a voice type, Sills took on a number of heavier roles more associated with spinto sopranos as she grew older, including Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata and Gaetano Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux. She was much admired for transcending the lightness of her voice with her dramatic interpretation, although it may have come at a cost; Sills later commented that Roberto Devereux "shortened her career by four years."

After Sills retired from the stage in 1980, she served as general director of the New York City Opera until 1991, where she helped turn what was then a financially struggling opera company into a viable enterprise. From 1994 to 2000, she was chairman of the Lincoln Center. She also devoted herself to various arts causes and such charities as the March of Dimes. She returned from retirement in 2002 to serve as chairman of the Metropolitan Opera, and resigned the position in January 2005, citing family as the main reason (she had recently had to place her husband, whom she had cared for over 8 years, in a nursing home). She stayed long enough to supervise the controversial appointment of Peter Gelb, known while at Sony Records for his doubts about the commercial potential for classical music, as the Met's General Manager.

During her illustrious operatic career, Sills recorded eighteen full-length operas. She also starred in eight opera productions televised on PBS and participated in such specials as Sills and Burnett at the Met, with Carol Burnett, Profile in Music, which won an Emmy Award, and A Conversation with Beverly Sills. In 1976, Sills published a memoir, Bubbles: A Self-Portrait (ISBN 0446815209). In 1987, she wrote Beverly: An Autobiography (ISBN 0553051733).

Tom T. Hall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom T. Hall (born May 25, 1936 in Olive Hill, Kentucky) is an American country balladeer and songwriter. He was the son of a preacher.

As a teen, Hall put together a band called the Kentucky Travelers that performed before movies for a travelling theater. During a stint in the Army, Hall performed over the Armed Forces Radio Network and wrote comic songs about Army experiences. His early career included being a radio announcer at WRON, a local radio station in Ronceverte, West Virginia.

Hall's big break came in 1963 when singer Jimmy C. Newman recorded his song "DJ For a Day." In 1964 Hall moved to Nashville, TN, and within months had songs climbing the charts. Nicknamed "The Story Teller", he has written songs for dozens of country stars such as Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings, and Alan Jackson.

One of the most popular songs, "Harper Valley PTA", was originally recorded in 1968 by Jeannie C. Riley, sold over six million copies, and won both a Grammy and CMA award.

Hall's own recording career took off after that and he had such hits as "A Week in the County Jail," "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine," "I Love," "Country Is", "The Year Clayton Delaney Died," "The Old Side of Town," and "I Like Beer." He was also noted for his children's songs, the most popular being "Sneaky Snake".

He also hosted the syndicated country music TV show Pop Goes the Country.

He has a son, Dean Hall, who is also a singer and member of the MuzikMafia.

In honor of D'artagnan's post in the Avian Flu Killing Dinosaurs thread -

Alley Oop
The Hollywood Argyles

(Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
(Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Theres a man in the funny papers we all know (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
He lived 'way back a long time ago (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
He dont eat nothin' but a bear cat stew (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Well this cat's name is-a Alley Oop (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)

He got a chauffeur that's a genuwine dinosawruh (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
And he can knuckle your head before you count to fawruh (Alley Oop, oop, oop-
oop)

He got a big ugly club and a head fulla hairuh (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Like great big lions and grizzly bearuhs (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
(Alley Oop) He's the toughest man there is alive
(Alley Oop) Wearin' clothes from a wildcat's hide
(Alley Oop) He's the king of the jungle jive
(Look at that cave man go!!) (SCREAM)

He rides thru the jungle tearin' limbs offa trees (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Knockin' great big monstahs dead on their knees (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
The cats don't bug him cuz they know bettah (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
Cuz he's a mean motah scootah and a bad go-gettah (Alley Oop, oop, oop-oop)
(Alley Oop) He's the toughest man there is alive
(Alley Oop) Wearin' clothes from a wildcat's hide
(Alley Oop) He's the king of the jungle jive
(Look at that cave man go!!) (SCREAM)


Thair he goes, look at that cave man go
He sure is hip ain't he?
Like what's happening?
He's too much
Ride, Daddy, ride
Hi-yo dinosawruh
Ride, Daddy, ride
Get 'em, man
Like--hipsville

Anne Heche
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anne Celeste Heche (born May 25, 1969) is an American actress.

Biography

Early life

Heche was born in Aurora, Ohio to Donald Heche, a Baptist minister and choir director, and Nancy. In her book, "Call Me Crazy", Anne claimed that her father molested her during her childhood, giving her herpes; he later disclosed his homosexuality to his family, before dying of AIDS in 1983 [1]. Heche was a noted actress even at Francis W. Parker School, and the soap opera As the World Turns offered her a contract in 1985, when she was only 16. However, both she and her parents felt it best that she finish high school first.

Career

Immediately after her high school graduation, she accepted another soap offer and left for New York City. Heche first became famous by playing the dual roles of Vicky wudson and Marley Love Hudson on the American soap opera Another World from 1987 to 1991, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award; her acclaimed work as Vicky and Marley can currently be seen on Soapnet. Heche has starred in a number of high-profile films, including Donnie Brasco, Volcano, Wag the Dog, Six Days Seven Nights, and Psycho.

Personal life

Heche's autobiography coverMost know of Heche because of her relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres and the events following their breakup. The couple started dating in 1997 shortly after the infamous "Puppy Episode" of DeGeneres' first sitcom. At one point, the two said they would get a civil union if they became legal in Vermont. They also worked on film and TV projects together. However, the couple split up in August 2000 and Heche soon began dating cameraman Coley Laffoon, whom she met while he was filming a comedy special for DeGeneres. They married in September 2001 and have a son, Homer Heche Laffoon, born March 2, 2002.

A year after her split with DeGeneres, Heche made claims in television interviews and in her autobiography, Call Me Crazy, that she was mentally ill for the first 31 years of her life after being sexually abused by her father (who died of AIDS in 1983). She also claimed to have an alter ego that was the daughter of God and half-sibling of Jesus named "Celestia," who had contacts with extraterrestrial life forms. In her book, she explained that before her split with DeGeneres, she was contacted by "God" and told He would walk with her for seven days.

Her mother, Nancy, is a Christian and psychotherapist, and does not believe that her late husband sexually abused Anne. Nancy tours the nation speaking with ex-gay groups claiming her prayers cured Anne of her homosexuality. Anne has denounced her mother for speaking at these events and said her split with DeGeneres was not because of a change in her own sexual orientation.[2] In an interview with The Advocate following the split, Anne said she does not give a label to her own sexual orientation and said "I have been very clear to everybody that just because I'm getting married does not mean I call myself a straight."[3]

Before dating DeGeneres, Heche dated comedian Steve Martin for two years (she is rumored to be the basis for the Heather Graham character in Bowfinger, although Martin denies it [4]). She also dated musician Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac for a year in the early 1990s.

She the subject of Buckingham's barbed song 'Come', where he took a number of shots at her lesbianism and delusions, and he wrote the unreleased 'Down on Rodeo' with a much softer reflection on the relationship where he can be heard saying "Do your hear me Annie?" at the end.

In 1998, Heche's sister, Susan Bergman, wrote a book about the family and their relationship with their father. Susan, like Anne, was estranged from her mother. Heche and Bergman were reportedly estranged after the release of Bergman's book; Bergman died in January 2006 after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. Heche has two other siblings - Nathan, who died in a car accident in 1983, and an older sister, Abigail.

Trivia

In 1998 Mad TV lampooned Heche (Mo Collins) and DeGeneres (Alex Borstein) in a sketch where both women claimed Hollywood discriminated against them due to their relationship. They claimed they now had only several expensive homes, Heche was only making four or five films a year, and so on. The sketch ended when DeGeneres attempted to hug Heche and Heche ran off the stage in horror.

She was portrayed (by Reese Witherspoon) on Saturday Night Live negatively, on the sketch Celebrity Jeopardy!, and viewed as a crazed woman, because she answered many questions in her so-called "native" alien language. At one point in the sketch when she was called on, Will Ferrell's character (Alex Trebek) had been forced to call her "Celestia" before she would answer the question, alluding to her self-described extraterrestrial origins. She answered one question concerning Rush Hour and Chris Tucker (also portrayed in the bit) in the form of an alien language, at which point Ferrell expressed his discontent with the contestants.

Yankee's Baseball ... A Golden Moment ...

Bill and Hillary are at the Yankee's season opener sitting in the first row,
with the Secret Service people directly behind them. One of the Secret

Service guys leans forward and whispers something to Bill.

At first, Clinton stares at the guy, looks at Hillary, looks back at the

agent, and shakes his head "no". The agent then says, "Mr. President, it was
a unanimous request of the entire team, from the owner of the team to the
bat boy."

Bill hesitates...but begins to change his mind when the agent tells him the
fans would love it! Bill shrugs his shoulders and says, "Ho-Kay! If that is
what the people want. C'mere Hilly baby..."

With that, Bill gets up, grabs Hillary by her collar and the seat of her
pants, lifts her up, and tosses her right over the wall onto the field.

She gets up kicking, swearing, screaming, "Bill you!*%$%**!!!.."

The crowd goes absolutely wild. Fans are jumping up & down, cheering,
hooting & hollering, and high-fiving.

Bill is bowing, smiling and waving to the crowd. He leans over to the agent
and says, "How about that! I would have never believed how much everyone
would enjoy that!"

Noticing the agent has gone totally pale, he asks what is wrong.

The agent replies, "Sir, I said they want you to throw out the first
Pitch!