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Good afternoon, WA2K listeners and contributors.

Raggedy, what a delightful trio of photo's today. Not quite certain who that ranchero is, but I think we know Ellen. Someone once imagined that I looked a bit like her, and the third man is a mystery, PA, at least to me.

I was waiting for the hawk to finish his bio's, folks.

My word, Walter is back. Are we going to be in trouble? <smile>Well, buddy, I suppose one could speculate with the Beatles and determine if "love is all you need."

Actually, inspired by our navigator, I went to the archives and found these two poems:

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
by Christopher Marlowe
1599
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields
Woods or steepy mountain yields
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flower, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.
The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

And......

Raleigh's answer:

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd
by Sir Walter Raleigh
1600
If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.
Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complain of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy bed of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.
But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.

Louis Prima
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Louis Prima (December 7, 1910 - August 24, 1978) was an Italian-American entertainer, singer, actor, and trumpeter born in New Orleans. He was referred to as the King of the Swingers.

Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a Swing combo in the 1930s, a Big Band in the 1940s, a hot Vegas lounge act in the 1950s, and a pop-Rock go-go band in the 1960s, in all cases projecting his exuberant personality.




Biography

Origins

Prima was born into a musical family of Sicilian origin in New Orleans. His family emigrated from Sicily, and after a brief stay in Argentina found themselves in the United States. He studied violin for several years as a child. His older brother Leon Prima was a well regarded local bandleader. Prima was proud of his heritage, and made a point of letting the audience know at every performance that he was Italian-American and from New Orleans. His singing and playing showed that he absorbed many of the same influences as his fellow Crescent City musician, Louis Armstrong, particularly in his hoarse voice and scat singing.

In his youth in New Orleans Prima played trumpet with Irving Fazola, his brother's band, and the pit band of the Saenger Theater before forming his own group, Louis Prima's New Orleans Gang. He moved to New York in 1934, working regularly on 52nd Street with old New Orleans friends like Eddie Miller (tenor sax and clarinet) and George Brunies (trombone), and also new acquaintances like Pee Wee Russell (clarinet). Prima's 1936 composition "Sing Sing Sing" became one of the biggest hits and most covered standards of the swing era, famously being performed in Carnegie Hall by Benny Goodman with a featured performance by Gene Krupa on drums.

He moved to Los Angeles to headline at the Famous Door nightclub. He appeared in several Hollywood movies, including a featured performance with Bing Crosby in the 1936 film Rhythm on the Range. In the late 1940s he added young singer Keely Smith (who was to become Prima's 4th wife) and later, saxophonist/arranger Sam Butera to lead his band, called Sam Butera and the Witnesses.

The act, Louis Prima and Keely Smith, was very much the model for Sonny and Cher, the exuberant Italian musician and the serious exotic female singer. (Smith was of Cherokee descent; Cher was Armenian.)

In 1967, Prima made a memorable contribution to the Walt Disney film The Jungle Book, as the voice of the raucous orangutan King Louie. "I Wan'na Be Like You" was a hit song from the movie that led to the recording of two albums with Phil Harris: The Jungle Book and More Jungle Book, on Disneyland Records. He can also be heard on the soundtrack to The Man Called Flintstone.


The Vegas Years

In the early 1950s, the popularity of the Big Band sound started to wane, his income reduced, and with Smith pregnant, Prima found work with Smith in small venues all over the East Coast. Eventually he called up a friend of his, Bill Miller, who was then entertainment directory of The Sahara nightclub and casino in Las Vegas, and asked for a job. His friend Cab Calloway warned him against the cramped Sahara lounge, but the financial pressure was too great. Prima and Smith worked hard throughout the 1950s, performing multiple shows a night, finishing at 6am, and this was rewarded with a resurgence, and was at least partly responsible for making the lounge at The Sahara a hotspot. To bolster the cut-down band, he brought in Sam Butera to play saxophone and lead the band.. This 9-year period of his career was kept busy with raising two children, making scores of records, owning racehorses, television appearances and Prima even opened a golf course. They outgrew the lounge and were promoted to the big room, something that didn't sit right with Smith.

During this episode of new-found success, according to Smith, he "changed", perhaps in an attempt to impress critics who had usually denied him his rightful credit due to his apparently relaxed attitude to his craft. They drifted further and further apart until one night, he refused to conduct for one of Smith's performances, delegating to Butera instead. A couple of days later they were in court, petitioning for divorce.

Following the divorce, he took on Gia Maione. Maione was a long-time fan of Prima's, who was already familiar with all the arrangements, and even kept a signed photo of him in her purse. To the surprise of no one, she became Louis' fifth and final wife, and was with the band right up until 1975. By this point, the band was putting out a markedly different and more contemporary sound, with electric organs and synths.

In 1975, following headaches and problems with his memory, he sought medical attention. He went into a coma following surgery to remove a brain tumor. He never recovered, and died three years later, having been moved back to New Orleans. He was buried in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans; his gray marble crypt is topped by a figure of Gabriel, the trumpeter-angel. The inscription on the crypt's door quote the lyrics from one of his hits: When the end comes, I know, they'll all say 'just a gigolo' as life goes on without me. Lovingly, your little family...[1]


Legacy

The Prima-Butera arrangements and recordings continued to be copied by younger musicians, including David Lee Roth, who covered his medley of "Just a Gigolo"/"I Ain't Got Nobody" in the 1980s, and Brian Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and other nouveau swing bands of the 1990s, covering such Prima standards as "Jump, Jive and Wail". The pop band Smash Mouth has professed a liking of Prima's work, mentioning his name in the song "Heave-Ho" (from their album Fush Yu Mang), and covering "I Wan'na Be Like You" for the soundtrack album of The Jungle Book 2. "I Wanna Be Like You" was also covered by Los Lobos.

Prima's original recordings have also featured in movies, including Big Night (1996) and Mickey Blue Eyes (1999).

Butera and the Witnesses also continue to tour.

His works were also in the motion picture Analyze This in 1999.

Eli Wallach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born December 7, 1915
Brooklyn, New York, USA

Eli Herschel Wallach (born December 7, 1915) is an American film, TV and stage actor. Wallach was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin and received a Masters of Arts from The City College of New York. He however, gained his first method experience at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

He served as a staff sergeant in Hawaii in a military hospital in the United States Army in World War II. However, soon he was sent to Officer Candidate School in Abilene, Texas to undergo training to become a medical administrative officer. He graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant and was sent to Madison Barracks in New York, where he was promptly shipped to Casablanca and, later in the war, to France. It was there that a superior discovered his acting history and asked him to form a show for the patients. He and other members from his unit wrote a play called Is This the Army?, which was inspired by Irving Berlin's This is the Army. In the comedic play Wallach and the other men clowned around as various dictators, Eli himself portraying Hitler.

Wallach made his Broadway debut in 1945 and won a Tony Award in 1951 for his performance in the Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo. His film debut was in Elia Kazan's controversial Baby Doll and he went on to have a prolific career in films, although rarely in a starring role. Other early films include The Misfits, The Magnificent Seven and as Tuco (the 'Ugly') in Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He also continued to work on the stage including the 1967/68 drama Staircase on Broadway, directed by Barry Morse and co-starring Milo O'Shea, which stands as Broadway's first depiction of homosexual men in a serious way.

He has been married to acclaimed stage actress Anne Jackson (born 1926) since March 5, 1948, and they have three children: Peter, Katherine and Roberta. His autobiography, "The Good, the Bad, and Me: In My Anecdotage" was published in 2005.

In 2006, Wallach made a guest appearance on the NBC show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, playing a former writer who was blacklisted in the 1950s. His character was a writer on "The Philco Comedy Hour", a comedy show that aired on the fictional NBS network. This is a reference to The Philco Television Playhouse, which Wallach himself appeared on several episodes of that show in 1955.

Ellen Burstyn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ellen Burstyn (born December 7, 1932 as Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, Michigan) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. She attended one of Detroit's premier high schools Cass Tech.



Career

She debuted on Broadway in 1957 and, in 1975, won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in "Same Time, Next Year." In 1990 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. Up until 1970, she was credited as "Ellen McRae" in nearly all her film and TV appearances.

Burstyn won the Best Actress Oscar in 1974 for her performance in the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. She received her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1971 for the film The Last Picture Show, and she was subsequently nominated for Best Actress in 1973 for the horror movie The Exorcist, in 1978 for Same Time, Next Year, in 1980 for Resurrection, and for her role as Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream in 2000.

She appeared in many TV programs in the 1960s, including guest work on Perry Mason, Wagon Train, 77 Sunset Strip, The Big Valley and Gunsmoke. She hosted Saturday Night Live in 1980. And in 1986, she had her very own sitcom, The Ellen Burstyn Show with Megan Mullally as her daughter and Elaine Stritch as her mother. It was cancelled after one season. From 2000 to 2002, Burstyn appeared in the CBS television drama That's Life. In 2006, she starred as a bishop in the controversial NBC comedy-drama The Book of Daniel.

Burstyn plays Lilian in Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain.


Emmy Awards and controversy

Burstyn was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Miniseries or Special, for the TV movie The People vs. Jean Harris (1981) and again for another TV movie, Pack of Lies (1987).

In 2006, she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special for Mrs. Harris. Her nomination was notable for a few reasons - because she had appeared as Jean Harris in the 1981 movie, and also because her nomination was for a performance that, in its entirety, consisted of two lines of dialogue and a total of thirty-eight words - which resulted in fourteen seconds of screen time. This is the shortest nominated performance in the history of the Emmy Awards.


Other activities

In 1981, Burstyn recorded "The Ballad of the Nazi Soldier's Wife" (Kurt Weill's musical setting of Bertolt Brecht's text "Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib?") for Ben Bagley's album Kurt Weill Revisited, Vol. 2.
Burstyn served as president of the Actors' Equity Association from 1982 to 1985.
In 1997, Burstyn was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.
In 2000 Burstyn was, along with Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel, named co-president of The Actor's Studio.
Burstyn practices Sufism. She is affiliated with the Maezumi Institute (Zen Peacemakers) and says her spiritual journey was inspired by the book The Last Barrier: A Journey Through the World of Sufi Teaching.[1]

Harry Chapin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Background information

Born December 7, 1942 in New York City, New York, USA
Died July 16, 1981, New York, USA

Harry Chapin (December 7, 1942 - July 16, 1981) was an American singer, songwriter, and humanitarian. He originally intended to be a documentary film-maker, and directed Legendary Champions in 1968, which was nominated for a documentary Academy Award. In 1971, he decided to focus on music. With Big John Wallace, Tim Scott and Ron Palmer, Chapin started playing in various local nightclubs in New York City.



Education

Chapin graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School along with the class of 1960, and was among four other inductees in the 2000 Alumni Hall Of Fame. He briefly attended the United States Air Force Academy and then was an intermittent student at Cornell University. He did not complete a degree.


Music career and life

Chapin's debut album was Heads and Tales (1972), which was a success thanks to the single "Taxi." His follow-up album, Sniper and Other Love Songs, was less successful, but his third, Short Stories, was a major success. Verities & Balderdash, released soon after, was even more successful, bolstered by the chart-topping hit single "Cat's in the Cradle" (co-written by his wife). He also wrote and performed a Broadway musical, The Night That Made America Famous.

In the mid 1970s, Chapin focused on his social activism, including raising money to combat hunger in the United States and co-founding the organization World Hunger Year, before returning to music with On the Road to Kingdom Come. He also released a book of poetry, Looking...Seeing, in 1977.

He was married to Sandy Chapin, and was stepfather to her children as well as having children of his own with her. The story of their meeting and romance is told in his song "I Wanna Learn a Love Song."


Death

Chapin died in his VW Rabbit on July 16, 1981 in an automobile accident on the Long Island Expressway at the age of 38. He was headed to perform a concert in Eisenhower Park in Nassau County when his car was struck by a truck. An autopsy showed that he had suffered a heart attack, but it could not be determined whether that occurred before or after the collision. Although Chapin was a notoriously poor driver, Supermarkets General, the owner of the truck, paid $12 million to his widow in the ensuing litigation.

Chapin was interred in the Huntington Rural Cemetery, Huntington, New York. His epitaph is taken from his song "I Wonder What Would Happen to this World." It is:

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
to this world

Legacy

Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor in 1987 for his campaigning on social issues, particularly his highlighting of hunger around the world and in the United States. His work on hunger included being widely recognized as a key player in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977.

Chapin often remarked that he came from an artistic family. His father Jim Chapin and brothers Tom Chapin and Steve Chapin are also musicians, as are his daughter, Jen Chapin, and two of his nieces (see the Chapin Sisters). His grandfather was an artist who illustrated Robert Frost's first two books of poetry.

A biography of Chapin entitled Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story, by Peter M. Coan, was released following his death. Although Chapin had co-operated with the writer, following his death the family withdrew their support. There is some debate about the accuracy of the details included in the book.

In 1989, the Local United Network to Combat Hunger, one of the world's largest and most successful Harry Chapin tribute groups, was founded by Bill Pere. The group, based in Mystic, Connecticut, has a close relation with the Chapin family and has raised over $500,000 for both local and worldwide hunger relief efforts in Chapin's memory.

Despite seeming social and political differences with Chapin, Dr. James Dobson often quotes the entirety of "Cat's In The Cradle" to illustrate dynamics of contemporary American families. "Cat's In The Cradle" was also re-recorded by hard rock group Ugly Kid Joe in 1992 and once again topped the charts. A country version was also recorded by Ricky Skaggs in 1995. It would be sampled by Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC and Canadian diva Sarah McLachlan in 2006 on the rapper's recent discovery that he was adopted in infancy.

He was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on Oct 15, 2006.

The rock band M.O.D. wrote a song about Harry Chapin named Ode To Harry.


Extended family

Chapin has several notable musicians in his extended family included Jim Chapin, Tom Chapin, Steve Chapin, Jen Chapin, and the Chapin Sisters.

Priscilla Barnes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Priscilla Barnes (born in Fort Dix, New Jersey on December 7, 1955) is an American actress best known for replacing Suzanne Somers (Jenilee Harrison having stepped in the season before) when Somers finally quit the show Three's Company. On that series, she portrayed Terri Alden, a (usually) non-ditzy, intelligent blonde nurse who seemed to be the show's answer to complaints about their portrayal of blondes. Incidentally, Barnes had previously auditioned for the part of Cindy Snow, but was turned down because she was deemed "too old" for the part.

Before she made it big on Three's Company, Barnes was a beauty pageant contestant and during her teens, aspired to be a dancer. During a Hollywood Bowl performance, she fell off the stage, fracturing her jaw and breaking her leg, and putting a lid on her dancing career. Barnes eventually turned to acting and appeared on TV shows such as Starsky and Hutch, The Rockford Files and The Love Boat. Although an unknown, her charisma and screen presence ensured that she worked steadily.

Being cast as Terri Alden on Three's Company brought Barnes instant public recognition, something she said she never really cared for. In 1998, on the show, E! True Hollywood Story, she called Three's Company the "three worst years" of her life, even though she became lifelong friends with castmate Joyce DeWitt and she does have some favorite episodes of the show. Barnes revealed that after shooting a couple of episodes of the show, she felt "uncomfortable" on the set and asked to be released from her contract. When she turned down the producers' offer to pay her more money as an incentive to stay, she claimed they penalized her with a lower salary.

In any case, Barnes stuck on with the show in spite of her disagreements with the producers. She also claimed the show typecasted her as a comedy actress whereas before Three's Company, she was "up for anything".

Barnes has many film credits to her name as well as extensive experience on stage, notably appearing in the James Bond film Licence to Kill, as well as the three-nippled fortune teller in Mallrats. In the 2005 Rob Zombie movie, The Devil's Rejects, she played Gloria Sullivan.

Prior to fame she appeared in Penthouse (March 1976) under the false name Joann Witty. Barnes later sued the magazine when they republished her photo using her real name. In her personal life, she has been married to actor Ted Monte since 2003.

A husband was in BIG trouble when he forgot his wedding anniversary.
"Tomorrow," his wife angrily told him, "there had better be something in
our driveway that goes from zero to 200 in two seconds flat!"
The husband thought and thought, and as he was watching his favorite show,
an ad jumped out at him."
That's it!" he exclaimed to himself as he rushed out the door to get the present.
The next morning, the wife looked outside and saw a small package in the driveway.
She brought it inside, opened it and found a brand new set of bathroom scales.

Well, folks, our Bob got through the day with all those great bio's, and now we know what happened to that man who forgot the anniversary. Like Woody Allen, they are still "picking up the pieces." Love it, Boston, and thanks.

I was really interested in Ellen Burstyn's "The Ballad of the Nazi Soldier's Wife", but couldn't find it. Instead, more serendipity, I found that it was composed by Kurt Weill who did "Three Penny Opera." Always learn something from our man in Boston, right?

Also found out that Keely Smith was part Cherokee and was originally from Norfolk, Virginia. Amazing what we learn.

My, my. Keely Smith also did Trenet's, "I Wish you Love". Tried my best to find her song from Thunder Road but without success:

Let's do it again, listeners:

I Wish You Love Lyrics
(A.A.Beach & C.Trenet)

Goodbye, no use leading with our chins
This is where our story ends
Never lovers, ever friends...
Goodbye, let our hearts call it a day
But before you walk away
I sincerely want to say...
I wish you bluebirds in the Spring
To give your heart a song to sing
And then a kiss, but more than this, I wish you love!
And in July a lemonade
To cool you in some leafy glade
I wish you health, and more than wealth, I wish you love!
My breaking heart and I agree
That you and I could never ever be
So with my best, my very best, I set you free!
I wish you shelter from the storm
A cozy fire to keep you warm
But most of all, but most of all...
When snowflakes fall, I wish you wealth
I wish you health...I wish you love!

...and HA-witch po-et *



is neither a Bard nor a biddy, but a Cape Cod town.











* Harwichport

the finally opened the Chick-fil-A on San Marcos Blvd, and i had my first Chick-fil-A deluxe combo. this number by the Doors (not to mention Howlin' Wolf) seems appropriate:

Wha, yeah!
C'mon, yeah
Yeah, c'mon, yeah
Yeah, c'mon
Oh, yeah, ma
Yeah, I'm a back door man
I'm a back door man
The men don't know
But the little girl understand

Hey, all you people that tryin' to sleep
I'm out to make it with my midnight dream, yeah
'Cause I'm a back door man
The men don't know
But the little girls understand

All right, yeah
You men eat your dinner
Eat your pork and beans
I eat more chicken
Than any man ever seen, yeah, yeah
I'm a back door man, wha
The men don't know
But the little girls understand

Well, I'm a back door man
I'm a back door man
Whoa, baby, I'm a back door man
The men don't know
But the little girls understand

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

My word. Did I hear jjorge broadcast something about a witch poet? Welcome to our studio, buddy. It is great to see you back.

And speaking of back, there is our telling turtle who slipped in through the "back door" with a great chicken song. Love it, M.D.

And here's a morning chicken song accompanied by a bar:

Artist: A.F.I. (AFI) Lyrics
Song: The Chicken Song Lyrics


Chicken's good for the body
Chicken's good for the mind
Chicken's good for the funny bone
Chicken's easy on the eyes
Here we go

Yum-Yum chicken bone
Bock Bock Chicken
Yum-Yum chicken bone
Tell all your friends

Granola bar - nice and chewy
Granola bar - my best friend
Granola bar - how I love you
Granola bars don't beat the kids

Yum-Yum granola bar
Chew-Chew-Chewy
Yum-Yum granola bar
Tell all your friends

Chicken and granola bars make a nice meal
Especially when you're all alone
It's something to eat when your wife's in the shelter
Because she ran into the door
One Two Three

Yum-Yum granola bone
Bock Bock chewy
Yum-Yum granola bone
Tell all your friends

Yum-Yum-Yummy
Bock-Bock-Bocky
Slap-Slap-Slappy
Tell all your friends.

Weird, no?

Good morning all.

Wishing a Happy 76th to Maximilian Schell; 70th to David Carradine; 53rd to Kim Basinger and 42nd to Teri Hatcher.

Well, folks. There's our Raggedy with a montage of delightful photo's. Can the hawkman be far behind? <smile> Thanks once again, PA for the display:

There's Max; the grasshopper; Kim and Teri? I still recall the movie "L.A.Confidential in which Kim played Veronica Lake." I do believe that is the first time that I saw Russell Crowe. Kevin Spacey was my very favorite, however.

From Kevin, listeners:

Artist: Kevin Spacey Lyrics
Song: Beyond the Sea Lyrics

Somewhere beyond the sea
Somewhere waiting for me
My lover stands on golden sands
And watches the ships that go sailin'

Somewhere beyond the sea
She's there watching for me
If I could fly like birds on a high
Then straight to her arms
I'd go sailing

It is far beyond the stars
It is near beyond the moon
But I know beyond a doubt
My heart will lead me there soon

We'll meet beyond the shore
We'll kiss just as before
Happy we'll be beyond the sea
And never again I'll go sailing

And I know beyond a doubt
My heart will lead me there soon
We'll meet (I know we'll meet) beyond the shore
We're gonna kiss just as before
And happy we'll be beyond the sea
And never again I'll go sailing

No more sailing
So long sailing
Bye bye sailing...

Joel Chandler Harris
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Joel Chandler Harris

Joel Chandler Harris (December 8, 1848 - July 3, 1908) was an American journalist born in Eatonton, Georgia who wrote the Uncle Remus stories, including Uncle Remus; His Songs and His Sayings. The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation. (1880), Nights with Uncle Remus (1881 & 1882), Uncle Remus and His Friends (1892), and Uncle Remus and the Little Boy (1905).

The stories, based on the African-American oral storytelling tradition, were revolutionary in their use of dialect and in featuring a trickster hero called Br'er ("Brother") Rabbit, who uses his wits against adversity, though his efforts do not always succeed. The rabbit is the trickster character in traditional tales in Central and Southern Africa. The stories, which began appearing in the Atlanta Constitution in 1879, were popular among both Black and White readers in the North and South, not least because they presented an idealized view of race relations soon after the Civil War. The first published Brer Rabbit stories were written by President Theodore Roosevelt's uncle, Robert Roosevelt.

Paul Reuben wrote, "Joel Chandler Harris was a white man, born of poor parents, who at thirteen left home and became an apprentice to Joseph Addison Turner, a newspaper publisher and plantation owner. It is at this plantation, Turnwold, that Harris first heard the black folktales that were to make him famous." In Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson describes Harris as a "painfully shy newsman" who had a pronounced stammer and was very self-conscious about his illegitimate birth.

H. L. Mencken held a less than favorable view of Harris. He wrote: "Once upon a time a Georgian printed a couple of books that attracted notice, but immediately it turned out that he was little more than an amanuensis for the local blacks--that his works were really the products, not of white Georgia, but of black Georgia. Writing afterward as a white man, he swiftly subsided into the fifth rank." [from The Sahara of the Bozart]

Among Black American writers, Harris is a highly polarizing figure. Alice Walker accused Harris of "stealing a good part of my heritage" in a searing essay called "Uncle Remus, No Friend of Mine." Toni Morrison wrote a novel called "Tar Baby" based on the folktale recorded by Harris. In interviews, she has claimed she learned the story from family, and owes no debt to Harris. Black folklorist Julius Lester holds a somewhat kinder view of Harris. He sees the Uncle Remus stories as important records of Black Folklore, and has rewritten many of the Harris' stories in an effort to elevate the subversive elements over the racist ones.

Apart from Uncle Remus, Harris wrote several other collections of stories depicting rural life in Georgia.

In 1946, the Walt Disney Company produced a film based on Harris's work, called Song of the South. While critically and commercially successful during its original release and re-releases, the fear of controversy has kept the film from North American release on home video.

Jean Sibelius
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born December 8, 1865
Hämeenlinna, Finland
Died September 20, 1957
Järvenpää, Finland

Johan Julius Christian "Jean" Sibelius (December 8, 1865 - September 20, 1957) was a Finnish composer of classical music and one of the most notable composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity.

Sibelius was born into a Swedish-speaking family in Hämeenlinna in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland. Although known as "Janne" to his family, during his student years he began using the French form of his name, "Jean", from a stack of visiting cards used by his seafaring uncle.

Against the larger context of the rise of the Fennoman movement and its expressions of Romantic Nationalism, his family decided to send him to a Finnish language school, and he attended The Hämeenlinna Normal-lycée from 1876 to 1885. Romantic Nationalism was to become a crucial element in Sibelius's artistic output and his politics.

The core of Sibelius's ouvre is his set of seven symphonies. Like Beethoven, Sibelius used each one both to develop a single musical idea and to further develop his own personal compositional style. These works continue to be performed frequently in the concert hall and are often recorded.

Among Sibelius's best-known compositions are Finlandia, Valse Triste, the Violin Concerto, the Karelia Suite and The Swan of Tuonela (one of the four movements of the Lemminkäinen Suite). Other works major works include pieces inspired by the Kalevala, over 100 songs for voice and piano, incidental music for 13 plays, the opera Jungfrun i tornet (The Maiden in the Tower), chamber music, piano music, 21 separate publications of choral music, and Masonic ritual music. Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s. However, soon after completing his seventh symphony (1924) and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he went into a 30-year period of near artistic silence, which lasted until his death in 1957.


Family and personal life

After Sibelius graduated from high school in 1885, he began to study law at Aleksander's Imperial University in Helsinki. However, music interested more than law and he soon quit his studies. From 1885 to 1889, Sibelius studied music in the Helsinki music school (now the Sibelius Academy). One of his teachers there was Martin Wegelius. Sibelius continued studying in Berlin (from 1889 to 1890) and in Vienna (from 1890 to 1891).

Jean Sibelius married Aino Järnefelt (1871-1969) at Maxmo on June 10, 1892. Their home, called Ainola, was completed at Lake Tuusula, Järvenpää in 1903, and the two lived out the remainder of their lives there. They had six daughters: Eva, Ruth, Kirsti (who died at a very young age), Katarine, Margaret, and Heidi.

In 1911, Sibelius underwent a serious operation for suspected throat cancer. The impact of this brush with death can be seen in several of the works that he composed at the time, including Luonnotar and the Fourth Symphony.

Sibelius loved nature, and the Finnish landscape often served as material for his music. He once said of his Sixth symphony, "[It] always reminds me of the scent of the first snow." The forests surrounding Ainola are often said to have inspired his composition of Tapiola. On the subject of Sibelius' ties to nature, one biographer of the composer, Erik Tawaststjerna, wrote the following:

Even by Nordic standards, Sibelius responded with exceptional intensity to the moods of nature and the changes in the seasons: he scanned the skies with his binoculars for the geese flying over the lake ice, listened to the screech of the cranes, and heard the cries of the curlew echo over the marshy grounds just below Ainola. He savoured the spring blossoms every bit as much as he did autumnal scents and colours.
Tawaststjerna also relayed an endearing anecdote regarding Sibelius's death:

[He] was returning from his customary morning walk. Exhilarated, he told his wife Aino that he had seen a flock of cranes approaching. "There they come, the birds of my youth," he exclaimed. Suddenly, one of the birds broke away from the formation and circled once above Ainola. It then rejoined the flock to continue its journey. Two days afterwards Sibelius died of a brain haemorrhage.
He died at age 91 on September 20, 1957 in Ainola, where he is buried in a garden. Aino lived there for the next twelve years until she died on June 8, 1969; she is buried with her husband.

In 1972, Sibelius's surviving daughters sold Ainola to the State of Finland. The Ministry of Education and the Sibelius Society opened it as a museum in 1974.


Musical style

Like many of his contemporaries, Sibelius was initially enamored with the music of Wagner. A performance of Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival had a strong effect on him, inspiring him to write to his wife shortly thereafter, "Nothing in the world has made such an impression on me, it moves the very strings of my heart." He studied the scores of Wagner's operas Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, and Die Walküre intently. With this music in mind, Sibelius began work on an opera of his own, entitled Veneen luominen (The Building of the Boat).

However, his appreciation for Wagner waned and Sibelius ultimately rejected Wagner's Leitmotif compositional technique, considering it to be too deliberate and calculated. Departing from opera, he later used the musical material from the incomplete Veneen luominen in his Lemminkäinen Suite (1893).

More lasting influences included Ferruccio Busoni, Anton Bruckner and Tchaikovsky. Hints of the Tchaikovsky's music are particularly evident in works such as Sibelius' First Symphony (1899) and his Violin Concerto (1905). The influence of Bruckner is most strongly felt in the 'unmixed' timbral palette and sombre brass chorales of Sibelius's orchestration, as well as in the latter composer's fondness for pedal points and in the underlying slow pace of his music.

Sibelius progressively stripped away formal markers of sonata form in his work and, instead of contrasting multiple themes, he focused on the idea of continuously evolving cells and fragments culminating in a grand statement. His later works are remarkable for their sense of unbroken development, progressing by means of thematic permutations and derivations. The completeness and organic feel of this synthesis has prompted some to suggest that Sibelius began his works with their finished statement and worked backwards.

Sibelius has often been criticized as a reactionary figure in 20th century classical music. Despite the innovations of the Second Viennese School, he continued to write in a strictly tonal idiom. However, critics who have sought to re-evaluate Sibelius' music have cited its self-contained internal structure, which distills everything down to a few motivic ideas and then permits the music to grow organically, as evidence of a previously under-appreciated radical bent to his work. The severe nature of Sibelius' orchestration is often noted as representing a "Finnish" character, stripping away the superfluous from music.


This self-contained structure stood in stark contrast to the symphonic style of Gustav Mahler, Sibelius' primary rival in symphonic composition. While thematic variation played a major role in the works of both composers, Mahler's style made use of disjunct, abruptly changing and contrasting themes, while Sibelius sought to slowly transform thematic elements. The Finnish composer wrote that he "admired [the symphony's] severity of style and the profound logic that created an inner connection between all the motifs...Mahler's opinion was just the reverse. 'No, a symphony must be a world. It must embrace everything.'"

However, the two rivals did find common ground in their music. Like Mahler, Sibelius made frequent use both of folk music and of literature in the composition of his works. The Second Symphony's slow movement was sketched from the motive of the Commandatore in Don Giovanni, while the stark Fourth symphony combined work for a planned "Mountain" symphony with a tone poem based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven". Sibelius also wrote several tone poems based on Finnish poetry, beginning with the early En Saga and culminating in the late Tapiola (1926), his last major composition.

Sibelius's melodies often feature powerful modal implications. Sibelius studied Renaissance polyphony, as did his contemporary, the Danish composer Carl Nielsen, and Sibelius's music often reflects the influence of this early music. He often varied his movements in a piece by changing the note values of melodies, rather than the conventional change of tempi. He would often draw out one melody over a number of notes, while playing a different melody in shorter rhythm. For example, his Seventh symphony is comprised of four movements without pause, where every important theme is in C major or C minor; the variation comes from the time and rhythm. His harmonic language was often restrained, even iconoclastic, compared to many of his contemporaries who were already experimenting with musical Modernism. As reported in the Manchester Guardian newspaper in 1958, Sibelius summed up the style of his later works by saying that while many other composers were engaged in the manufacture of cocktails for the audience and public, he offered them pure cold water.

Because of this conservatism, Sibelius's music is sometimes considered insufficiently complex, but he was immediately respected by even his more progressive peers. Later in life he was championed by critic Olin Downes, who wrote a biography, but he was attacked by composer-critic Virgil Thomson. Perhaps one reason Sibelius has attracted both the laud and the ire of critics is that in each of his seven symphonies he approached the basic problems of form, tonality, and architecture in unique, individual ways. On the one hand, his symphonic (and tonal) creativity was novel, but others thought that music should be taking a different route. Sibelius's response to criticism was dismissive: "Pay no attention to what critics say. No statue has ever been put up to a critic."


Over time, he sought to use new chord patterns, including naked tritones (for example in the Fourth symphony), and bare melodic structures to build long movements of music, in a manner similar to Joseph Haydn's use of built-in dissonances. Sibelius would often alternate melodic sections with blaring brass chords that would swell and fade away, or he would underpin his music with repeating figures which push against the melody and counter-melody.

1926 saw a sharp and lasting decline in Sibelius's output: after his Seventh symphony, he only produced a few major works in the rest of his life. Arguably the two most significant were incidental music for Shakespeare's The Tempest and the tone poem Tapiola. For nearly the last thirty years of his life, Sibelius even avoided talking about his music.

There is substantial evidence that Sibelius worked on an eighth numbered symphony. He promised the premiere of this symphony to Serge Koussevitzky in 1931 and 1932, and a London performance in 1933 under Basil Cameron was even advertised to the public. However, the only concrete evidence for the symphony's existence on paper is a 1933 bill for a fair copy of the first movement [1]. Sibelius had always been quite self-critical; he remarked to his close friends, "If I cannot write a better symphony than my Seventh, then it shall be my last." Since no manuscript survives, sources consider it likely that Sibelius destroyed all traces of the score, probably in 1945, during which year he certainly consigned (in his wife's presence) a great many papers to the flames.[2]

Sibelius has fallen in and out of fashion, but remains one of the most popular 20th century symphonists, with complete cycles of his symphonies continuing to be recorded. In his own time, however, he focused far more on the more profitable chamber music for home use, and occasionally on works for the stage. Eugene Ormandy and, to a lesser extent, his predecessor Leopold Stokowski, were instrumental in bringing Sibelius's music to the American audience by programming his works often, and the former thereby developed a friendly relationship with Sibelius throughout his life. Currently Paavo Berglund and Colin Davis are considered major exponents of his work. Other classic sets of recordings of the symphonies are by John Barbirolli, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Leonard Bernstein, Simon Rattle and Lorin Maazel. Herbert von Karajan was also associated with Sibelius, recording all of the symphonies except the Third, some several times. Recently Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra released a critically acclaimed complete Sibelius cycle, including unpublished or retracted pieces such as the first versions of the Fifth symphony (1915) and the Violin Concerto (1903).


Trivia

An image of Sibelius, designed by the Finnish graphic designer Erik Bruun, was used as the motif for the 100 markka bank note in Finland's final markka series.
The Sibelius notation program was apparently named after Sibelius because the inventors' surname was "Finn."
In the 2003 movie Sibelius, Jean Sibelius is portrayed as having a poor knowledge of the Swedish language while speaking the Finnish language fluently, when in fact the situation was the other way around.
"At the Castle Gate," from Sibelius's incidental music to Maurice Maeterlinck's drama Pelléas et Mélisande, has long been used as the theme tune to the BBC's "The Sky at Night."
Sibelius suffered from stage fright and had sound-to-color synesthesia

Lee J. Cobb
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Lee J. CobbLee J. Cobb (December 8, 1911 - February 11, 1976) was an American actor.



Biography

Early life

Born as Leo Jacoby to a Jewish family in New York City. Cobb had studied at New York University when he joined the left wing Group Theatre in 1935 and appeared in its production of Clifford Odets' play Waiting for Lefty.


Career

In 1934 he made his movie debut in The Vanishing Shadow. He was rather oddly cast[citation needed] as the Kralahome in the 1946 non-musical film Anna and the King of Siam. He also played the sympathetic doctor in The Song of Bernadette. He is probably best known for creating the role of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's stage play Death of a Salesman directed by Elia Kazan. It is widely considered his best performance, and one of the greatest performances ever on the American stage.

He also played James Coburn's supervisor in the psychedelic flicks In Like Flint and Our Man Flint. He reprised his role of Willy Loman in the 1966 CBS TV adaptation of the play Death of a Salesman, which included then unknown actors like Gene Wilder, Bernie Kopell, and George Segal. Cobb was nominated for an Emmy Award for the performance. Mildred Dunnock, who had co-starred in both the original stage version and the 1951 film version, again repeated her role as Linda, Willy's devoted wife.

Cobb was named as a possible Communist in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee because of his involvement in the Group Theatre. He was called to testify before HUAC but refused to do so for two years until, with his career threatened by the blacklist, he relented in 1953 and gave testimony in which he named twenty people as former members of the Communist Party USA.

Later, Cobb explained why he "named names" saying:

"When the facilities of the government of the United States are drawn on an individual it can be terrifying. The blacklist is just the opening gambit - being deprived of work. Your passport is confiscated. That's minor. But not being able to move without being tailed is something else. After a certain point it grows to implied as well as articulated threats, and people succumb. My wife did, and she was institutionalized. The HUAC did a deal with me. I was pretty much worn down. I had no money. I couldn't borrow. I had the expenses of taking care of the children. Why am I subjecting my loved ones to this? If it's worth dying for, and I am just as idealistic as the next fellow. But I decided it wasn't worth dying for, and if this gesture was the way of getting out of the penitentiary I'd do it. I had to be employable again." (Interview with Victor Navasky for the 1982 book Naming Names.)
Following the hearing he resumed his career and worked with Kazan and Budd Schulberg, two other HUAC "friendly witnesses" on the 1954 film On the Waterfront which is widely seen as an allegory and apologia for testifying.

Cobb also appeared as ranch owner Judge Garth in the television series The Virginian.

Lee J. Cobb died of a heart attack in 1976 in Woodland Hills, California and was buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Sammy Davis, Jr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Sammy Davis, Jr. (December 8, 1925 - May 16, 1990) was an American entertainer. He was a dancer, singer, multi-instrumentalist (playing vibraphone, trumpet, and drums), impressionist, comedian, and actor.



Biography

Early life

Davis, Jr. was born in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA to Elvera Sanchez, a Cuban-American dancer, and Sammy Davis, Sr., an African-American entertainer. The couple were both dancers in vaudeville. As an infant, he was raised by his paternal grandmother. When he was three years old, his parents split up. His father, not wanting to lose custody of his son, took him on tour. Sammy Davis Jr. claimed that his mother was Puerto Rican, however the 2003 biography In Black and White alleges that he made this claim due to the political sensitivities of the 1960s (during the Cuban Missile Crisis), and that his mother was born in New York of Cuban descent rather than in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

As a child he learned how to dance from his father, Sammy Davis, Sr., and his "uncle" Will Mastin, who led the dance troupe his father worked for. Davis joined the act as a young child and they became the Will Mastin Trio. Throughout his long career, Davis included the Will Mastin Trio in his billing.


Mastin and his father had shielded him from racism. Snubs were explained as jealousy. But during World War II, Davis served in the United States Army, where he was first confronted by strong racial prejudice. As he said later, "Overnight the world looked different. It wasn't one color anymore. I could see the protection I'd gotten all my life from my father and Will. I appreciated their loving hope that I'd never need to know about prejudice and hate, but they were wrong. It was as if I'd walked through a swinging door for eighteen years, a door which they had always secretly held open."


Career

While in the service, however, he joined an entertainment unit, and found that the spotlight removed some of the prejudice. "My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight. It was the one way I might hope to affect a man's thinking," he said.[citation needed]


After he was discharged, he rejoined the dance act and began to achieve success. The next year, he released his second album. The next move in his growing career was to appear in the Broadway show Mr. Wonderful in 1956. In 1959 he became a charter member of the Rat Pack, which was led by his old friend Frank Sinatra. After he achieved success, he refused to work at venues which would practice racial segregation. His demands eventually led to the integration of Miami Beach nightclubs and Las Vegas, Nevada casinos.

In Japan, Davis appeared in television commercials for coffee.


Personal life

Davis, Jr. suffered a setback on November 19, 1954, when he almost died in an automobile accident in San Bernardino, California on a return trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and lost his left eye. The accident occurred on a bend in U.S. Highway 66 at a railroad bridge. While in the hospital, his friend Eddie Cantor told him about the similarities between the Jewish and black cultures. During his hospital stay, Davis converted to Judaism after reading a history of the Jews. One paragraph about the ultimate endurance of the Jewish people intrigued him in particular: "The Jews would not die. Three centuries of prophetic teaching had given them an unwavering spirit of resignation and had created in them a will to live which no disaster could crush".[1]

In his autobiography, Davis describes his swinger lifestyle which included alcohol, cocaine, and women. He also chronicles his financial difficulties.

In 1960, Davis caused controversy when he married white Swedish-born actress May Britt. Davis received hate mail when he was cast in the Broadway musical adaptation of Golden Boy in 1964, but that did not bother his fans. The play was (at first) a success, but closed quickly. At the time Davis starred in the play, interracial marriages were forbidden by law in 31 US states, and only in 1967 were those laws abolished by the US Supreme Court. The couple had one daughter and adopted two sons. Davis performed almost continuously and spent little time with his wife. They divorced in 1968, after Davis admitted to having had an affair with singer Lola Falana. That year, Davis, Jr. started dating Altovise Gore, a dancer in "Golden Boy". They were wed in 1970 by Jesse Jackson. They remained married until Sammy Davis, Jr.'s death in 1990.


Davis, Jr. was one of the first male celebrities to admit to watching television soap operas, particularly the shows produced by the American Broadcasting Company. This admission led to him making a cameo appearance on General Hospital and playing the recurring character Chip Warren on One Life to Live for which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1980.

Near the end of his life when accepting a reward from the black community in a televised event, he thanked Jesus for making it possible. The resulting furor was only quelled when Davis later said he was caught up in the moment and was not referring to his personal beliefs

Davis, Jr. died in Beverly Hills, California on May 16, 1990 (the same day as Jim Henson) of complications from throat cancer at age 64. Davis is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California next to his father and Will Mastin.

Because of his past-due federal income taxes, many of his memorabilia were auctioned to pay the IRS.

David Carradine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


David Carradine (born John Arthur Carradine on December 8, 1936 in Hollywood, California) is an American actor.


Career

Carradine is best known for his roles as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s television series Kung Fu (as well as the sequels in the 1980s and 1990s), 'Big' Bill Shelly in Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha (1972), folksinger Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory (1976), Abel Rosenberg in Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg (1977), and as Bill in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. I (2003) and Vol. II (2004).

Other notable roles include the lead in Shane (the 1966 television series based upon the 1949 novel of the same name) and a gunslinger in Taggart, a 1964 western film based on a novel by Louis L'Amour. More recently, he portrayed Tempus on the television series Charmed and Conrad in the television series Alias. He currently appears as the host of Wild West Tech on the History Channel, taking over the duties from his brother Keith. Carradine is also known for producing and starring in several exercise videos teaching the martial arts of Tai chi and Qi Gong exercises. Carradine actually had no knowledge of martial arts prior to starring in the series Kung Fu, but developed an interest in it after this experience and has since become an avid practitioner.


Background and family

Carradine is the son of noted American actor John Carradine. Born of Irish, English, Scottish, Welsh, German, Spanish, Ukrainian, Cherokee and Italian descent, he is the half-brother of Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, Bruce Carradine, and Michael Bowen. He is also the uncle of Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton.

He studied drama at San Francisco State University before working as an actor on stage as well as in television and cinema.

James MacArthur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Gordon MacArthur (born December 8, 1937 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actor. James MacArthur is best known for the role of Dan (Danno) Williams, reliable second-in-command to Steve McGarrett (played by Jack Lord), head of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O. The role made his name a household word and won him fans all over the world.


Early life

He was adopted as an infant by playwright Charles MacArthur and his wife, actress Helen Hayes, he grew up in Nyack, New York, along with the MacArthurs' biological daughter, Mary, also an actress. He was educated at Allen-Stevenson School in New York, and later at Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania, where he starred in basketball, football and baseball.

In his final year at Solebury he played guard on the football team, captained the basketball team, was elected president of his class as well as of the Student Government and the Drama Club, rewrote the school's constitution, edited the school paper, The Scribe, and played Scrooge in a local presentation of A Christmas Carol. While at Solebury, Jim started dating a fellow student, Joyce Bulifant. They were married in November, 1958 and divorced nine years later.

MacArthur was growing up around the greatest literary and theatrical talent of the time. Lillian Gish was his Godmother, and his parents' guests included such personalities as Ben Hecht, Harpo Marx, Robert Benchley, Beatrice Lillie, John Barrymore and John Steinbeck. This environment would present him with opportunities and challenges not experienced by other young people.

His first radio role was on Theatre Guild of the Air, in 1948. The Theatre Guild of the Air was the premiere radio program of its day, producing one-hour plays that were performed in front of a live audience of 800. Helen Hayes accepted a role in one of the plays, which also had a small part for a child. Her son was asked if he would like to do it, and agreed.

Acting career

He made his stage debut at Olney, Maryland, in 1949, with a two-week stint in The Corn is Green. His sister, Mary, was in the play and telephoned their mother to request that James go to Olney to be in it with her. The following summer, he repeated the role at Dennis, Massachusetts, and his theatrical career was underway. In 1954, he played John Day in Life With Father with Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney. However, young James did not get a fast track into important Broadway productions just for being Helen Hayes' son. Instead, he received his training in summer stock.

He also worked as a set painter, lighting director and chief of the parking lot. During a Helen Hayes festival at the Falmouth Playhouse on Cape Cod, he had a few walk-on parts. He also helped the theatre electrician and, in fact, grew so interested that he was allowed to stay on after Miss Hayes' plays had ended. As a result, he lighted the show for Barbara Bel Geddes in The Little Hut and for Gloria Vanderbilt in The Swan. When he visited Paris with his mother as a member of The Skin of Our Teeth Company, he was in charge of making thunder backstage with a four-by-eight sheet of metal.

In 1955, at the age of 18, he was chosen to play Hal Ditmar in the TV play Deal a Blow. The play was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred MacDonald Carey, Phyllis Thaxter and Edward Arnold. In his scenes with the veterans, James showed that he was more than capable of matching experience with ability, and his "sensitive and intelligent" portrayal of the misunderstood teenager, teetering on the brink of delinquency, was lauded by critics and viewers alike.

In 1956, Frankenheimer directed the movie version of the play, which was renamed The Young Stranger, and James MacArthur was again chosen for the starring role. Once again, his performance was critically acclaimed, and earned him a nomination in the Most Promising Newcomer category at the 1958 BAFTA awards.

During summer breaks from Harvard University, where he was studying history, he made The Light in the Forest and Third Man on the Mountain, for Walt Disney. Then, deciding to make acting his full-time career, he dropped out of Harvard in his sophomore year, and made two more Disney movies, Kidnapped and Swiss Family Robinson. These movies are now regarded as 'classics,' and are still popular more than forty years later. In February, 2003, Conrad Richter's novel The Light in the Forest was one of the books selected for Ohio's One Book, Two Counties project. Jim was invited to be a guest speaker, and spoke of how the book was turned into the film, and his experiences making the movie. When Swiss Family Robinson was released in DVD format, he was asked to provide background commentary and other 'bonus' material for the DVD.

He made his Broadway debut in 1960, playing opposite Jane Fonda in Invitation to a March. For his performance, he received a Theater World Award. Then came roles in Under the Yum Yum Tree, The Moon Is Blue, John Loves Mary (with his wife at the time, Joyce Bulifant), Barefoot in the Park and Murder at the Howard Johnson's.

He then went on to star in such movies as The Interns, Spencer's Mountain, The Truth About Spring and Cry of Battle, as well as in the rather less successful The Love-Ins and The Angry Breed.

On the set of The Angry Breed, in 1968, Jim met Melody Patterson, who was to become the second Mrs. James MacArthur. They were married on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, in July 1970, and divorced several years later. In 1963, he was a runner-up in the 'Top New Male Personality' category of the Golden Laurel Awards.

Between movie and theatre roles, Jim was also much in demand for television guest appearances, which included parts in Studio One, G.E. Theatre, Bus Stop, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, The Eleventh Hour, The Great Adventure, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Wagon Train, Great Adventure, Combat, The Virginian, Twelve O'Clock High, Tarzan and a particularly chilling performance as baby-faced opium dealer 'Johnny Lubin' in The Untouchables episode, Death For Sale.

Though not all his movie characters were 'starring roles,' and some of them were quite brief, for the most part they were pivotal to the plot. His role in The Bedford Incident was that of a young ensign who became so rattled by the needling of his Captain (Richard Widmark), that he accidentally fired an atomic weapon, thus (we are given to understand) starting World War III.

In The Battle of the Bulge he again played the role of a young and inexperienced officer. This time, however, the officer found courage and a sense of responsibility. It was his brief but memorable appearance in the Clint Eastwood movie, Hang 'Em High, that eventually led him to the role of Dan Williams in Hawaii Five-0.


"Hawaii Five-0"

In 1967, Leonard Freeman, the producer of Hang 'Em High, produced the pilot for a new television cop show, Hawaii Five-0. Before the pilot went to air, it was shown to a test audience. The show was well received, but the audience did not like the actor playing the role of Dan Williams. Freeman remembered the actor who had appeared as the traveling preacher in Hang 'Em High, who came on the set, did the scene in one take and was gone. He called James MacArthur and offered him the role of Dan Williams.

Hawaii Five-0, one of the most successful shows in television history, ran for twelve years, and gave MacArthur an eleven year run on a television series. Leaving Hawaii Five-0 at the end of its eleventh season, Jim returned to the theatre in The Lunch Hour with Cybill Shepherd.

He appeared in A Bedfull of Foreigners in Chicago in 1984, and in Michigan in 1985. He followed this with The Hasty Heart, before taking a year out of showbusiness. In 1987, he returned to the stage in The Foreigner, then played Mortimer in the national tour of Arsenic and Old Lace with Jean Stapleton, Marion Ross and Larry Storch. In 1989, he followed another stint in The Foreigner with Love Letters and, in 1990 - 1991, A Bedfull of Foreigners, this time in Las Vegas.

Since leaving Hawaii Five-0, Jim has also guest-starred on such TV shows as Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and Vega$, as well as in the mini series Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story and The Night the Bridge Fell Down, and in the 1998 TV movie Stormchasers: Revenge of the Twister, with Kelly McGillis.


Semi-retirement

Throughout his career, Jim has also found time for various other ventures. During 1959 - 1960, between movie and theatrical successes, he was a partner with actor James Franciscus and Alan Ladd, Jr. in a Beverly Hills telephone answering service; in June 1972 he directed The Honolulu Community Theatre in a production of his father's play The Front Page, and for a while in the 1990s he was part owner of Senior World publication as well as writing the occasional celebrity interview.

In the year 2000, he joined the ranks of those celebrities who have been awarded their own 'sidewalk star' in Palm Springs. These days, Jim enjoys spending time with his third wife, H. B. Duntz, his four children and six grandchildren. He continues to make personal appearances at conventions and 'Collectors' Shows,' to greet fans and sign autographs, and at celebrity sporting events. A keen golfer, he was the winner of the 2002 Frank Sinatra Invitational Charity Golf Tournament.

He is still much in demand for television and radio specials and interview programs. His most recent appearances include spots on Entertainment Tonight, Christophers Closeup and the British BBC 5 Radio obituary programme, Brief Lives, in which he paid a moving tribute to late Hawaii Five-0 cast mate, Kam Fong.

In April, 2003, Jim traveled to Honolulu for a brief return to the stage in a cameo role in Joe Moore's play Dirty Laundry, appearing as a priest accused of molestation.

With many of his films now being released in DVD format, Jim has found a new audience, as he has provided interviews and 'behind the scenes' commentary to be included as 'extras' with DVDs of not only his own movies, but also those of his mother, Helen Hayes.

Rumors persist, about another attempt at a movie version of Hawaii Five-0, leaving die-hard fans with the hope that Jim will once more be seen in the role that he made famous. He comments, "I certainly would not be playing Danno but perhaps some sort of character ... maybe an old man leering at the young girls on the beach!!"

Jim is also developing a one man show based on his life and career, which he has tested at a couple of venues near his home, with encouraging results.