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Love it, Letty.

Ah, there's our pup without pictures. I love Lake Wobegon, too, Raggedy. We need a good satire in this woebegone world.

and speaking of the world, folks.

Did we all come from the Monkees?



Whole Wide World

When I was a young boy, my momma she said to me:
There's only one girl in the world for you
And she probably lives in Tahiti
Or maybe in the Bahamas
where the Caribbean sea is blue
Weepin' away in the tropical night
because nobody's told her 'bout you

I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
just to find her
I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
to find out where they hide her
YEAH!

Why am I hanging around in the rain out here
Tryin' to think of a girl
Why are my eyes fillin' up with these lonely tears
When there's girls all over the world?
Or is she lying on a tropical beach somewhere
Underneat the tropical sun
Hiding away in the heat wave there
Hopin' that I won't be long?

I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
just to find her
I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
to find out where they hide her
[repeat]
YEAH!

I'd go the whole wide world
[repeat to fade]

Sterling Hayden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sterling Hayden (March 26, 1916 - May 23, 1986) was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir. He is most noted for his appearance as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He also played the Irish policeman, Captain McCluskey, who was gunned down by Al Pacino, in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather in 1972.






Biography

Born in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, Hayden's parents were George and Frances Walter, who named him Sterling Relyea Walter (Hayden, Wanderer, pp. 65-66, 76, and 1920 U.S. Census). After his father died, he was adopted at the age of nine by James Hayden and renamed Sterling Walter Hayden. As a child, he lived in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and Maine, where he attended Wassookeag School in Dexter, Maine.

Hayden was a genuine adventurer and man of action, not dissimilar from many of his movie parts. He ran away to sea at 17, as a ship's boy, then later was a fisherman on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. After serving as sailor and fireman on larger vessels, he was awarded his first command at 19, and sailed around the world several times.

Hayden became a print model and later signed a contract with Paramount Studios, who dubbed the 6' 5" (1.96 m) actor The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies and The Beautiful Blond Viking God. His first film starred Madeleine Carroll, with whom he fell in love and whom he married. But after just two film roles, he left Hollywood to serve as an undercover agent with William J. Donovan's COI office. He remained there after it became the OSS. Hayden also joined the Marines under the name John Hamilton (which was never his legal name). His World War II service included running guns through German lines to the Yugoslav partisans and parachuting into fascist Croatia. He won the Silver Star and a commendation from Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito.

His admiration for the Communist partisans led to a brief membership in the Communist Party. According to his IMDB biography, as the Red Scare deepened in U.S., "he cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee, confessing his brief Communist ties" and 'naming names'. His wife at that time, Betty De Noon, insisted that the 'names' her ex-husband provided were already in the hands of the Committee, which had a copy of the Communist Party's membership list. In any event, Hayden subsequently repudiated his own cooperation with the Committee, stating in his autobiography "I don't think you have the foggiest notion of the contempt I have had for myself since the day I did that thing." (Hayden, Wanderer, p. 354).

Sterling Hayden often professed distaste for film acting, claiming he did it mainly to pay for his ships and voyages. In 1959, after a very bitter divorce he was awarded custody of his children. He defied a court order and sailed to Tahiti with all four children, Christian, Dana, Gretchen and Matthew.

Hayden married Catherine Devine McConnell in 1960. They had two sons, Andrew and David, and were married until his death in 1986.

In the early 1960s, Hayden rented one of the pilot houses of the retired ferryboat Berkeley, docked in Sausalito, California where he resided, to pen his autobiography Wanderer, which was published in 1963.

In the 1970s, after his appearance in The Godfather, he appeared several times on NBC's The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder where he talked about his career resurgence and how it had funded his travels and adventures around the world. Hayden bought a canal barge in the Netherlands in 1969, eventually moving it to the heart of Paris and living on it part of the time. He also shared a home in Connecticut with his family and had an apartment in Sausalito, California.

In 1986, Sterling Hayden died of prostate cancer in Sausalito, California. He was 70.


Quotations

Hayden's thoughts, from his autobiography, Wanderer:

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... cruising, it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?

Strother Martin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strother Martin (March 26, 1919 - August 1, 1980) was an American character actor in numerous films and television programs. Martin is perhaps best known as the prison "captain" in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, where he uttered the classic line, "What we've got here is failure to communicate."

He also frequently acted alongside L. Q. Jones, who in real life was one of his closest friends.

Born in Kokomo, Indiana, Martin excelled at swimming and diving, and got the nickname "T-Bone Martin" from his diving expertise. At 17 he won the National Junior Springboard Diving Championship. He served as a swimming instructor in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was a member of the diving team at the University of Michigan. He entered the adult National Springboard Diving competition in hopes of gaining a berth on the U.S. Olympic team, but finished third in the competition. After the war, Martin moved to Los Angeles and worked as a swimming instructor and as a swimming extra in water scenes in films, eventually earning bit roles in a number of pictures. He quickly became a frequent fixture in small character roles in movies and TV through the 1950s. Martin's distinctive, reedy voice and menacing demeanor made him ideal for villainous roles in many of the best known Westerns of the 1960s and 1970s. In a classic Gunsmoke episode "Island in the Desert" he starred as a crazy desert hermit named Ben Snow. By the late 1960s Martin was almost as well-known a figure in movies as many top-billed stars.

Martin appeared in all three of the classic Westerns released in 1969: Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (as Coffer, a bloodthirsty bounty hunter); George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (as Percy Garris, the "colorful" Bolivian mine boss who hires the two title characters); and Henry Hathaway's True Grit (as Colonel Stonehill, a horse dealer). Though he usually appeared in supporting roles, he had major parts in Hannie Caulder, The Brotherhood of Satan (both 1971), and SSSSSSS (1973). Martin later appeared in another classic George Roy Hill film, Slap Shot (1977), again with Paul Newman, as the cheap manager of the Charlestown Chiefs hockey club who may have "traded a puck bag" for the infamous Hanson Brothers.

Strother Martin can also be seen in Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke (1978) as Arnold Stoner, the father of Tommy Chong's character Anthony.

One of his last acting jobs was as host of Saturday Night Live on April 19, 1980.

Martin died of a heart attack in 1980 at the age of 61.

Leonard Nimoy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Leonard Simon Nimoy
Born March 26, 1931 (age 76)
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Spouse(s) Sandra Zober
(1954-1987)
Susan Bay
(1988 - present)
Official site None
Notable roles Spock in
Star Trek (TV 1966-1969)
Paris in
Mission: Impossible (TV 1969-1971)
Miller in
Catlow (1971)
Dr. David Kibner in
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Leonard Simon Nimoy (March 26, 1931) is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. He is well known for having played the character Spock in the Star Trek franchise.




Life

Leonard Nimoy was raised in Boston, Massachusetts by Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants. After a short enrollment at Boston College, he left formal study to move to California to pursue acting. Nimoy spent much of his early career doing small parts in B-movies, TV shows such as Dragnet, and serials such as Republic Pictures Zombies of the Stratosphere in 1952. He fondly recalls playing in pinochle tournaments and selling his body for medical experiments to pay for tap dance lessons. In 1961 he had a minor role in The Twilight Zone episode "A Quality of Mercy". His Bostonian upbringing can be heard in his pronunciation, for example his pronunciation of the word "rather" in Star Trek episodes.

Nimoy served in the U.S. Army Reserve, receiving final discharge in November 1955 as a Sergeant. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, Nimoy's U.S. Army service record was destroyed in the 1973 National Archives Fire.

Nimoy has long been active in the Jewish community, and is an adherent of Reform Judaism. One of his better-known roles was that of Tevye the milkman, in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, based on the series of short stories by Yiddish author Sholom Aleichem. In 1997 he narrated the documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews. In October 2002 Nimoy published Shekhina, a photographic study of women intended to visualize the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah (esoteric Jewish mysticism).

Nimoy has been married twice. In 1954, he married actress Sandra Zober, whom he divorced in 1987. He had two children by her, director Adam Nimoy and Julie Nimoy. In 1988, he married actress Susan Bay.


Career

Stage and screen

Nimoy's most famous role is the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock from Star Trek, the original series (TOS; 1966-69). He earned three Emmy nominations for playing this character.

In a strange twist of fate, Nimoy and William Shatner (who would go on to play Spock's commanding officer, Captain James T. Kirk) found themselves on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain in the 1964 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Project Strigas Affair". With his saturnine looks, Nimoy was predictably the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit. Nimoy went on to reprise Spock's character in a voice-over role in Star Trek: The Animated Series, in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in six Star Trek motion pictures featuring the original cast.

Following the cancellation of TOS, Nimoy immediately joined the cast of the spy series Mission: Impossible, which was seeking a replacement for Martin Landau. Nimoy was cast as an actor-turned-spy known as "The Great Paris". He played the role from 1969 to 71. (Coincidentally, as noted by Patrick White in The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier, Landau had been an early choice to play Spock.) It was during the run of the show that Nimoy fell ill with a stomach ulcer.


He co-starred with Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna in the Western movie Catlow (1971). Nimoy also appeared in various made for television films in this period, such as Assault On The Wayne (1970), Baffled (1972), The Alpha Caper (1973), The Missing Are Deadly (1974), Seizure: The Story Of Kathy Morris (1980), Marco Polo (1982) and he received an Emmy award nomination for best supporting actor for the TV film A Woman Called Golda (1982). In 1973, Nimoy also appeared on an episode of the popular television series Columbo called "A Stitch In Crime". He played a murderous doctor and was one of the few criminals at whom Columbo ever really became angry. In the late 1970s, he hosted and narrated the television series In Search of..., which investigated paranormal or unexplained events or subjects. He also has a memorable character part as a mad scientist-type New Age psychologist in Philip Kaufman's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It was during this time that Nimoy won acclaim for a series of stage roles as well. He has appeared in such plays as Vincent, Fiddler On The Roof, The Man In The Glass Booth, Oliver, Six Rms Riv Vu, Full Circle, Camelot, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The King And I, Caligula, The Four Poster, Twelfth Night, Sherlock Holmes and My Fair Lady. When a new Star Trek series was planned in the late 1970s, Nimoy was to be in only two out of every eleven episodes, but when the show was elevated to a feature film, he agreed to reprise his role.

After directing a few television show episodes, Nimoy broke into film directing in 1984 with the successful third installment of the Star Trek film series (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock). Nimoy would go on to direct Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and move beyond the Trek universe with Three Men and a Baby in 1987. Nimoy also did occasional work as a voice actor in animated feature films including the character of Galvatron in Transformers: The Movie in 1986 and The Pagemaster in 1994.


Literary works

Nimoy has written two autobiographies, the first one called I Am Not Spock (1977). The title of this book was controversial, as many fans incorrectly assumed that Nimoy was distancing himself from the Spock character; however, Nimoy's stated intention was merely to remind the public at large that Spock and Nimoy were not one and the same. In the book, Nimoy conducts dialogues between himself and Spock.

His second autobiography was entitled I Am Spock (1995), and this title was meant to communicate that he finally realized that his years of portraying the Spock character had led to a much greater identification between the fictional character and the real person. Over the years, Nimoy had much input into how Spock would act in certain situations, and, conversely, Nimoy's contemplation of how Spock acted gave him cause to think about things in a way that he never would have thought if he had not portrayed this character. As such, in this autobiography Nimoy maintains that in some meaningful sense, he really is now Spock, and Spock is he, while at the same time maintaining the distance between fact and fiction.

Nimoy has also written several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. His latest effort is entitled A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002). His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts. In the mid '70s Nimoy wrote and starred in a one man play called Vincent based on the play Van Gogh by Phillip Stephens.

In 1995, Nimoy was involved in the production of Primortals a comic book series published by Tekno Comix that involved a first contact situation with aliens that had arisen from discussion between him and Isaac Asimov. There was a novelization by Steve Perry.


Music career

During and following Star Trek, Nimoy also released five albums of vocal recordings on Dot Records, including Trek-related songs and cover versions of popular tunes. The albums were extremely popular and resulted in numerous live appearances and promotional record signings that attracted crowds of fans in the thousands. The early recordings were produced by Charles Grean, who may be best known as the composer of "Quentin's Theme" for the mid-sixties goth soap opera, Dark Shadows. These recordings are generally regarded as unintentionally camp, though his tongue-in-cheek performance of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" received a fair amount of airplay when Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films were released.

In addition to his own music career he also directed a 1985 music video for The Bangles' "Going Down to Liverpool". He makes a brief cameo appearance in the video as their driver. This came about because his son Adam Nimoy (now a frequent television director) was a friend of Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs from college.


Current work

Starting in 1994, Nimoy began to narrate the Ancient Mysteries series on The History Channel including "The Sacred Water of Lourdes" and "The Last Days of the Romanovs". He also appeared in advertising in the United Kingdom for the computer company Time Computers in the late 1990s. He had a central role in Brave New World (film), a 1998 TV-movie version of Aldous Huxley's book where he played a character wonderfully reminiscent of Spock in his philosophical balancing of unpredictable human qualities with the need for control. In 1999 and onwards, he had cameos in Futurama, usually as either himself or Spock. In 2003, he announced his retirement from acting in order to concentrate on his photography, such as his recent exhibit for nude pictures of overweight women, but has subsequently appeared in several popular television commercials with William Shatner for Priceline.com. He also appeared in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication, which aired during the 2006 Super Bowl. Nimoy also provided a comprehensive series of voiceovers for the 2005 computer game Civilization IV. He also did the TV series "Next Wave" where he interviewed people about technology. He is the host in the documentary film "The Once and Future Griffith Observatory" currently running in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater located at the recently reopened Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California. In January of 2007, he granted an interview to Fat free film where he discussed his early career and the benefits of being type-casted[1].

James Caan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name James Langston Edmund Caan
Born March 26, 1940 (age 67)
The Bronx, New York, USA
Other name(s) James Caan
Notable roles Santino Corleone in
The Godfather
Brian Piccolo in
Brian's Song
Frank in
Thief
Paul Sheldon in
Misery
Ed Deline in
Las Vegas

James Caan (born March 26, 1940) is an Academy Award, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated American film, stage and television actor. He is best known as having played the role of Sonny Corleone in 1972's The Godfather, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.





Biography

Early life

Caan was born in The Bronx, New York to Sophie and Arthur Caan, Jewish immigrants from Germany.[1] He is a graduate of New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse where one of his instructors was teaching legend Sanford Meisner. Caan played college football at Michigan State University.


Career

Caan began acting in television in such series as The Untouchables, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "Kraft Suspense Theatre", "Combat!", Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, "The Wide Country", "Alcoa Premiere", "Route 66", and "Naked City". His first substantial film role was as a villain in the 1964 thriller Lady In A Cage. In 1967, Caan appeared in El Dorado with John Wayne. He first won praise for his role as a brain-damaged football player in The Rain People (1969), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In 1971, Caan won more acclaim as dying football player Brian Piccolo in the television movie Brian's Song, which was later released in theaters. The following year, Coppola cast Caan as mobster Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, which also helped launch Al Pacino's career. Caan was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the film.

From 1973-82, Caan appeared in many Hollywood films. He played a wide variety of roles. His films include Cinderella Liberty, Rollerball, Harry And Walter Go To New York, A Bridge Too Far, Comes A Horseman and Chapter Two (a play screenplay conversion by Neil Simon). In 1980, Caan directed Hide In Plain Sight a film about a father searching for his children lost in the Witness Protection Program. Despite critical praise, the film was not a hit with the public. The following year, Caan appeared in Thief, directed by Michael Mann, where he played a professional safe cracker. This film is today regarded as a neo-noir classic and Caan has often said it is the role he is proudest of next to The Godfather.

From 1982-87, Caan suffered from depression over his sister's death, a growing problem with cocaine, and what he described as "Hollywood burnout," did not act in any films. He returned to film in 1987 when Coppola cast him as an army platoon sergeant for the "Old Guard" in Gardens of Stone, a film that dealt with the effect of the Vietnam War on the homefront. In 1988 and 1990, Caan starred in the films Alien Nation, Dick Tracy and Misery (co-star Kathy Bates won a Best Actress Oscar). In 1992, Caan made the hit Honeymoon in Vegas. He co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicolas Cage and spoofed his "Sonny Corleone" character from The Godfather.

In 1996, he appeared in the indie hit Bottle Rocket and pursued Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser. In 1999, Caan followed Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Powers Boothe and Danny Glover when he portrayed Philip Marlowe in the HBO film Poodle Springs. Some of his most recent appearances have been in The Yards (2000), City of Ghosts (2002), Dogville (2003), and Elf (2003).

In 2003, he auditioned and won the role of the head security officer 'Big Ed' Deline in Las Vegas. On February 27, 2007, Caan announced that he would not return to Las Vegas for the show's fifth season in order to return to film work.


Personal life

Caan has been married four times. In 1960, he married Dee Jay Mathis; they had one child and divorced in 1966 . His second marriage to Sheila Ryan (1976) was short lived: they divorced the next year. His son Scott was born in 1976. Between September 1990 and March 1995, Caan was married to Ingrid Hajek; they also had one child. He married Linda Stokes in October 1996, and they divorced in April 2005. They have two children.

Caan is a practicing martial artist. He has trained with karate master Tak Kubota for nearly thirty years, earning various ranks.[2] He trained the Culver City Police department in martial arts use.[1] mickey blue eyes 1999


Linked to the Mob

Caan was regularly seen with Columbo family underboss Carmine "Junior" Persico during the filming of The Godfather. Caan is also friends with mafia member Ronald "Ronnie" Lorenzo, for whom Caan put his house up to bail him out of jail. Caan testified at L.A. mafia tough guy Anthony Fiato's grand jury. Caan also appeared as a character witness in Lorenzo's trial.


Caan in pop culture

The popular TV series Family Guy makes a reference to Caan in the episode "He's Too Sexy for His Fat." Caan is also featured in the "All's Fair in Oven War" episode of The Simpsons, playing himself in Bart's treehouse grotto. He is gunned down in a manner similar to Sonny Corleone in the episode's coda (by Cletus Spuckler variants, in revenge for Caan "stealing" Brandine's heart). He also made an appearance as himself in the TV series "Newsradio," episode 308 ("Movie Star"). The episode deals with his visiting the radio station to research a role, but being sidetracked by Matthew, who in Caan's words is "the strangest sonuvabitch I ever saw/"

In the sit-com Seinfeld episode "The Letter," Jerry receives a letter from the girl he is seeing, Nina, telling him that he doesn't "opt for happiness", a direct line she copied out of Chapter Two. Later, when Jerry discovers the "stunning similarity," he exclaims "I opt for happiness! James Caan doesn't opt for happiness!"

"From Chunk to Hunk," an episode of the animated TV series The Critic, portrays William Shatner hosting an episode of "Celebrity 911" that is entirely dedicated to police calls involving James Caan. He then twitches and shouts, "CAAAAAAN!," a reference to his famous line from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

As a result of his portrayal of Sonny Corleone, Caan is often mistaken for being of Italian ancestry, and has even received recognition from a few Italian-American organizations. However, Caan is of German Jewish descent.[1]

Diana Ross
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Background information

Birth name: Diane Ernestine Earle Ross
Date of birth: March 26, 1944 (age 63)
Birth location: Detroit, United States
Official site: www.dianaross.com
Genres: Pop/Soul/R&B/Dance/Disco
Spouse(s): Robert Ellis Silberstein, (1971-1977)
Arne Næss Jr., (1985-2000)

Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross on March 26, 1944) is a Grammy Award-nominated American singer, performer and Oscar-nominated actress who gained prominence in the 1960s girl group The Supremes before establishing a successful solo career. During the 1970s and 1980s, she was one of the most successful female artists of the rock era, parlaying her successes into triumphs outside of the record charts, in film, television and Broadway.

In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the female entertainer of the century. The Guinness Book of World Records declared Diana Ross as the most successful female music artist of the twentieth century with a record eighteen American number-one singles.




Biography

The Supremes


Born and raised in Albany, Georgia, Diana Ross' family moved to the Brewster-Douglas housing project when Ross was fourteen. Later the same year, Ross began her music career with Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and Betty McGlown as the doo-wop quartet the Primettes, a sister group to The Primes. After signing to Motown Records in 1961 and replacing McGlown with Barbara Martin, they changed the name of the group to The Supremes. Barbara Martin left the group shortly afterwards, and The Supremes carried on as a trio.

Ross sang lead on all of the group's early singles, save for 1961's "Buttered Popcorn", led by Ballard. These singles were not successes, and Ross worked for a time as Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr.'s secretary for additional income. Feeling that Ross' distinctive soprano voice would allow the Supremes to crossover for mainstream audiences, Gordy made her the "official" lead singer of the group in late 1963. The same year, the Supremes had their first hit, the Holland-Dozier-Holland composition "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes." More H-D-H written and produced pop hits soon followed, with an unprecedented ten Supremes singles, among them "Where Did Our Love Go", "Stop! In the Name of Love", and "You Keep Me Hangin' On", becoming number one Billboard Hot 100 hits between 1964 and 1967.

By 1967 the Supremes were the most successful act on the Motown label, with Diana Ross established as the focal point of the group. That year, Florence Ballard was replaced by Cindy Birdsong of Patti LaBelle & the Blue Belles, and the group's name was changed to "Diana Ross & the Supremes." The group continued a frenzied pace of network TV show appearances, supper club gigs and recording time with a revolving team of producers after Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in late 1967. Their last H-D-H single, the psychedelic and wildly popular "Reflections" peaked at number-two for three weeks.

In 1968, "Love Child" returned the group to number-one. Hot on the heels of that hit, their duet with The Temptations, "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" went to number-two, and for the second out of three times in their career, The Supremes had two songs in the Top 10 simultaneously. Diana Ross and the Supremes became the most successful American musical group of the 1960s, and the second most successful international group of the decade, behind The Beatles.


Leaving the Supremes

Motown began plans to have Ross begin a solo career in 1968. Television specials such as TCB (1968) and G.I.T. on Broadway (1969) were designed to spotlight Ross as a star in her own right, and much of the later Ross-led Supremes material was recorded by Ross with session singers The Andantes, not Wilson and Birdsong, on backing vocals.

By the summer of 1969, Jean Terrell was chosen by Gordy to be Ross' replacement and Ross began her first solo recordings. In November of the same year, three years after it was first rumored, Billboard magazine confirmed Ross' exit from the group to begin her solo career. In conjunction with the launching of her solo career, Ross introduced Motown's newest act, The Jackson 5, to national audiences.

Ross began her solo sessions with a number of producers, including Bones Howe and Johnny Bristol. Her first track with Bristol, "Someday We'll Be Together", was tagged as her first solo single; it was instead issued as the final Diana Ross & the Supremes release. "Someday We'll Be Together" was the twelfth and final number-one hit for the Supremes, and the last Number One record of the 1960s. Ross made her final appearance with the Supremes at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas on January 14, 1970.


Early solo career

Ross' first solo LP, Diana Ross, featured her first solo number-one hit, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".After a half-year of recording material with various producers, Ross settled with the production team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, the creative force behind Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's hit duets. Ashford and Simpson helmed most of Ross' first album, Diana Ross, and would continue to write and produce for Ross for the next decade.

In May 1970, Diana Ross was released on Motown. The first single, the gospel-influenced "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)", peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, a cover of Gaye and Terrell's 1967 hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", was an international hit, and gave Ross her first #1 pop single as a solo artist.

In 1971, Motown released Ross's second album Everything is Everything, which garnered Ross's first UK number one solo single, "I'm Still Waiting". Several months later, Ross released Surrender, which garnered the top 20 pop hit, "Remember Me". That year, Ross hosted her first solo TV special, Diana!. Featuring guest appearances by The Jackson 5, Bill Cosby and Danny Thomas, Ross' special continued her popularity with her middle of the road fan base.

By this point, Motown Records had relocated to the West Coast, specifically Hollywood. Berry Gordy decided it was time the company ventured out once more in new territory, so he focused much of his attention on developing a motion pictures company and set his sights on making Ross a movie star.


Lady Sings the Blues

Diana Ross' film debut, the Billie Holliday biographical film Lady Sings the Blues, was a notable success.In late-1971, it was announced that Diana Ross was going to play jazz icon Billie Holiday in a Motown-produced biographical film loosely based on Holiday's autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues. From the moment the film was announced, critics ridiculed Ross throughout the media: Ross and Holiday were miles apart from each other in style and appearance. Ross soldiered on, immersing herself into Holiday's music. She did not attempt to imitate Holiday's voice, instead, Ross focused on adapting Holiday's vocal phrasing. According to a television documentary, Ross studied Holiday's character so well that Motown executive SuZANNA DEPasse says Gordy told her to "put a little Diana back into it".

Opening in October 1972, Lady Sings the Blues was a phenomenal success, and Ross' performance drew universal rave reviews. The movie co-starred Brian's Song star Billy Dee Williams, who played Holiday's lover, Louis McKay. Also appearing was, in his film debut, comedian and actor Richard Pryor, who played the "Piano Man". In 1973, Ross was nominated for both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winning a Golden Globe for Best Newcomer, Ross lost the Best Actress Oscar to her friend Liza Minnelli, for her role in Cabaret. The soundtrack album for Lady Sings the Blues went to number-one album on the Billboard 200 for two weeks, and reportedly sold 300,000 copies during its first eight days of release. The soundtrack also garnered accolades for Ross, as critics praised her for "suggesting Billie Holiday" with her delivery and expertly capturing Holiday's intricate phrasing.


Ross' continued success in music and film

Ross' second self-titled release, Diana Ross (1976), featured the number-one hits "Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)" and "Love Hangover".In 1971, Ross and Motown labelmate Marvin Gaye had begun an album of duets. The two singers clashed over Gaye's refusal to stop smoking marijuana in the studio to appease Ross, then pregnant with her second child Tracee Ellis Ross. As a result, the duets album, Diana & Marvin, was completed in separate studios in 1972. Upon its 1973 release, Diana & Marvin proved to be a success, with their cover of The Stylistics' "You Are Everything" becoming a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom.

The Michael Masser-composed ballad, "Touch Me in the Morning", became Ross' second number-one pop single as a solo artist in 1973. A resulting Touch Me in the Morning LP was a Top 10 success in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 1975, Ross again co-starred with Billy Dee Williams in the Motown film Mahogany. The story of an aspiring fashion designer who becomes a runway model and the toast of the industry, Mahogany was a troubled production from early on. The film's original director, Tony Richardson, was fired during production and Berry Gordy assumed the director's chair himself. In addition, Gordy and Ross clashed during filming, with Ross leaving the production before shooting had been completed. While a box office hit, the film was not a critical success: Time magazine's review of the film chastised Gordy for "squandering one of America's most natural resources: Diana Ross." [1]

Ross hit number-one on the pop charts twice in 1976 with "Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", and the disco single "Love Hangover". The successes of these singles made her 1976 album, Diana Ross, her fourth LP to reach the Top 10. In 1977, her Broadway one-woman show earned the singer a special Tony Award. That same show was televised as a special on NBC and later released as "An Evening with Diana Ross."

That same year, Motown acquired the film rights to the popular Broadway play The Wiz, an African-American reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Although teenaged Stephanie Mills, a veteran of the play, was originally cast as Dorothy, Diana Ross convinced Universal Pictures producer Rob Cohen to have Ross cast as Dorothy, As a result, the eleven-year old protagonist of the story was altered into a shy twenty-four year old schoolteacher from Harlem, New York. Among Ross' costars in the film were Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, and her former labelmate and protégé Michael Jackson from the Jackson 5. Upon its October 1978 release, the film adaptation of The Wiz was a costly commercial and critical failure, and it was Ross' final film for Motown. The album, however, went gold selling 500,000 copies.


Diana Ross' landmark 1980 album, diana, was her final LP for Motown Records before leaving for RCA the following year. "diana" was her most successful studio album to date, peaking at number-two on the Billboard 200 chart for three weeks and selling over six million copies.Resuming her becalmed singing career in 1979, Ross re-teamed with Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson for the album The Boss, which became Ross' first gold-certified album (Motown sales records before 1977 were not audited by the RIAA, and therefore none of Motown's pre-1977 releases were awarded certifications). In 1980, Ross released her first RIAA platinum-certified disc, the six-million plus selling "diana," produced by CHIC's front men Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. The album included two of Ross' most successful and familiar solo hits, her fifth number-one single, "Upside Down", and the Top 5 single "I'm Coming Out". Ross scored a Top 10 hit in late 1980 with the theme song to the 1980 film It's My Turn. The following year, she collaborated with former Commodores singer-songwriter Lionel Richie on the theme song for the film Endless Love. The "Endless Love" single became Ross' final hit on Motown Records, and the Number One Record of the year. Feeling that Motown, and in particular Gordy, were keeping her from freely expressing herself, and not according her financial parity, Ross left Motown for $20 million contract to sign with RCA Records, ending her twenty-year tenure with the label. The Ross-RCA deal was the most money ever paid to an artist until Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and Janet Jackson all signed deals many years after Ross'. When "Endless Love" hit number-one in 1981, Ross became the first female artist in music history to place six singles at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, surpassing Barbra Streisand's five number-ones and Donna Summer's four number-ones. Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie was and still remains the most successful duet in pop history.


Ross' career during the 1980s and 1990s

Why Do Fools Fall in Love was Ross' debut LP for Ross Records distributed by RCA Records.Diana Ross' RCA Records debut, the platinum-selling Why Do Fools Fall in Love, was issued in the summer of 1981. The album yielded Top 10 hits such as the title track "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", a remake of the 1956 Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers classic of the same name, and the single "Mirror, Mirror".

In 1983, Ross reunited with former Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong for the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. The three singers performed their 1969 number-one hit "Someday We'll Be Together", although altercations onstage between Ross and Wilson became an issue during the taping of the special. Ross, angered that Wilson and Birdsong had conspired to take a step forward every time she did, pushed Wilson towards the back of the stage. Ross and Wilson later argued onstage as Wilson was attempting to ask Berry Gordy to join them and the other Motown stars onstage for the finale. [2] These incidents were excised from the final edit of the taped special, but still made their way into the news media; People magazine reported that "Ross [did] some elbowing to get Wilson out of the spotlight." [3]

Later that year, Ross held a much-heralded concert in Central Park, the proceeds of which were to go towards building a playground in the singer's name. Fifteen minutes into the show, which was being filmed for Showtime cable television, it began to rain, and as she urged the crowd of 300,000 to safely exit the venue, Ross announced that she would continue the performance the next day. Ross' actions drew praise within the mainstream press. That next day, over 500,000 people came back for one of the largest free concerts in the park's history. However, the second show generated controversy. New York mayor Ed Koch objected to the expenses of a second show. To settle the matter, Ross personally wrote a check for an estimated $250,000 to cover the remaining costs. Although Koch's objections slowed the progress, the Diana Ross Playground was finally built three years later. [4]

Ross's 1984 album Swept Away became her final largely successful album for many years Stateside, going Gold. The hit singles from the album included "All of You" feat. Julio Iglasias ,"Telephone", "Swept Away" and her final #1 Billboard Hot 100 hit to date, "Missing You." Other hit singles recorded by Ross for RCA included "Muscles" (1982), "Swept Away" (1984), "Missing You" (1984), "Eaten Alive" (1985) and the UK number-one single, "Chain Reaction" (1986). While Ross continued to have success overseas as the 1980s continued, she began to struggle on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 1989, after leaving RCA, Diana Ross returned to Motown, where Ross was now both a part-owner and a recording artist.

In 1989, Diana Ross released her first Motown album in eight years, the Nile Rodgers-produced Workin' Overtime. Despite a top three R&B hit with the title track, the album failed to find a pop audience in America, much as Ross' later RCA releases has. Subsequent follow-ups such as 1991's The Force Behind the Power, 1995's Take Me Higher and 1999's Every Day is a New Day produced the same results in the US however, charted in the United Kingdom.

Ross still had success with her latter-day Motown albums in the United Kingdom and Europe, however, scoring Top 10 Hits with "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" (1991), "One Shining Moment" (1992) and "Not Over You Yet" (2000). In 1999, Diana Ross was named the most successful female singer in the history of the United Kingdom charts, based upon a tally of her career hits. Fellow Michigan songbird Madonna would eventually beat Ross out as the most successful female artist in the UK. In 2002, Diana Ross and Motown parted ways.


Ross co-starred with R&B singer Brandy in the ABC television movie Double Platinum in 1999.Diana Ross returned to acting in the ABC telefilm, Out of Darkness (1993), in which she played a woman suffering from schizophrenia. Once again, Ross drew critical acclaim for her acting, and scored her third Golden Globe nomination for acting. In 1999, Ross co-starred with young R&B singer Brandy for the ABC television movie Double Platinum playing a singer who neglected her daughter while concentrating on her career.


Later years

Diana Ross was a presenter at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards, held that September. She shocked TV viewers when she grabbed rapper Lil' Kim's exposed breast, reportedly amazed at the open brashness of the rapper showcasing her body.[5] A month after the Lil Kim incident, authorities at London's Heathrow Airport detained Ross for assaulting a female security guard. Angered over a "body search" by the guard that she felt was invasive, Ross had fondled the woman back. The singer was arrested but was later released.[6]

In 2000, Ross announced a Supremes reunion tour, again with Wilson and Birdsong, called Return to Love. Wilson and Birdsong declined the tour because of a reported difference in pay offered to each member: Ross was offered $15 million while Wilson was offered $3 million and Birdsong less than $1 million.[7] They were replaced by latter-day Supremes Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne. It should be of note that both Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne were members of the Supremes after Diana Ross had left The Supremes. Despite a respectable opening in Philadelphia, the"Return to Love" tour was cancelled after nine dates, because of lackluster ticket sales.


Current work

In 2005, Diana Ross returned to the charts with a pair of duets. "I Got a Crush on You" was recorded with Rod Stewart for his album The Great American Songbook, and reached number nineteen on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart. Another duet, recorded with Westlife, was a remake of Ross' 1991 number-two UK single, "When You Tell Me You Love Me", and reached number-two in the UK just as the original had.

In 2006, Motown released a shelved Ross album titled Blue, which was a collection of jazz standards recorded after Ross filmed Lady Sings the Blues. Released in June to stellar reviews, Blue peaked at number-two on the jazz albums chart. In August, it was announced that Ross would release a new studio album of classic rock and soul standards on the EMI label Angel Records. The album, titled I Love You, was released on October 2 around the world, and then saw release in North America on January 16, 2007, on the Manhattan Records/EMI label.[8] The new album proved to be a comeback of sorts, achieving Hot Shot Debut status on the Billboard 200 by debuting at no. 32, and giving Diana her first Top 40 album on that chart since Swept Away, over two decades earlier.

In January 2007, Diana appeared on a number of TV shows across the U.S. to promote her new album and will also be touring in the spring. She also appeared on American Idol as a mentor to the contestants[9]


Personal life

Ross was the second of six children born to a Baptist family, Fred and Ernestine Ross in Detroit, Michigan. Her sisters Barbara and Rita did not venture into show business. Instead, Barbara Ross became a doctor, while Rita Ross became a schoolteacher. Ross' younger brother Arthur "T-Boy" Ross was a successful songwriter for Motown, composing hits for Marvin Gaye, the Jackson 5, and others alongside Leon Ware. Ross' youngest brother, Wilbert "Chico" Ross, was a dancer on Ross' tours.

Ross married music business manager Robert Ellis Silberstein in August 1971. After divorcing him in March 1977, Ross publicly dated actor Ryan O'Neal and rocker Gene Simmons of the group Kiss, before marrying Norwegian tycoon Arne Næss Jr. in October 1985. After a long-distance marriage, Næss made headlines in 1999 announcing his split from Ross, which was finalized in February 2000.

Ross is the mother of five children. She and Gordy are the parents of Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein (born 1971), now known as Rhonda Ross Kendrick. Ross and Robert Silberstein are the parents of Tracee Joy Silberstein (born 1972), now known as Tracee Ellis Ross, and Chudney Lane Silberstein (born 1975). Ross Arne Næss (born 1987) and Evan Olaf Næss, now known as Evan Ross (born 1988), are the children of Ross and Arne Næss.

Rhonda Ross Kendrick found fame in the television soap opera Another World, and had a brief career as a jazz singer. Tracee Ellis Ross pursued a career as a model, and later found fame as an actress: her sitcom, Girlfriends, ran on UPN from 2000 to 2006, and continues to run on The CW. Her youngest daughter, Chudney Ross, is a model, and was briefly a judge in a reality show Fame. Ross' youngest son, Evan Ross, received positive reviews for his role in the 2006 film ATL, in which he co-starred with rapper T.I. Most recently, Evan Ross has been seen in Queen Latifah's produced HBO drama, Life Support (2007), in which he portrays a gay HIV positive teenager.

Vicki Lawrence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born: March 26, 1949 (age 58)
Inglewood, California, USA
Occupation: Comic, Singer, Actress

Vicki Lawrence (born Vicki Ann Axelrad on March 26, 1949, in Inglewood, California) is an Emmy Award-winning actress and also an American comedian and singer.

She has also been credited as Vicki Lawrence Schultz; Schultz being the surname of her second husband and Hollywood Make-Up artist, Al Schultz, to whom she has been married since November 16, 1974, and by whom she has two children, Courtney (May 3, 1975) and Garrett (July 3, 1977).



Comedy

As a comedienne and actress, she is best known for her work on The Carol Burnett Show, of which she was a part from 1967 to 1978. Lawrence's ascension to become part of the Burnett show is part of Hollywood legend; she was literally hired for the show on the basis of a letter she had sent to Burnett and the producers, with a photograph of Lawrence that clearly showed her resemblance to Burnett. Despite her beginner's status, Lawrence proved to be a valuable part of the comedic team on the show, and played many memorable characters, particularly the role of Thelma "Mama" Harper in the recurring "Eunice" sketches.

After the Carol Burnett Show ended in 1978, Vicki and her husband Al moved with their children to Maui in Hawaii but returned to Los Angeles after a couple of years where they have remained.

Her portrayal of the "Mama" character was so popular that NBC created a sitcom, Mama's Family, based on characters from the skit. (Burnett reprised Eunice for the sitcom.) The series ran from 1983 to 1985 on NBC; after its cancellation from NBC, it was renewed from 1986 to 1990 in first-run syndication, in which many believe to be a more animated, livelier version of Mama's Family. The show was more successful in the renewed version. She also reprised the "Mama" character on stage for Vicki Lawrence & Mama: A Two-Woman Show.

Lawrence has made appearances on other programs, such as the sitcoms Roseanne, Hannah Montana and Yes, Dear. She has also appeared with Burnett, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway in the Burnett show retrospectives that were broadcast in 2001 and 2004.



Other careers

As a singer, she is most known for her #1 one-hit wonder, "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia," a song written by her first husband Bobby Russell, which was released on Bell Records in 1973. (Cher was offered the song first but unbeknownst to her Sonny Bono had turned it down.)

"He Did with Me," Vicki's follow-up to "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," only managed to reach #75 in the United States (although it became her biggest hit in Australia, reaching #1 there in November of 1973). Two years later, in the fall of 1975, Vicki managed one last minor US chart entry on the Private Stock label with the anti-feminist curiosity "The Other Woman" (#81).

As an emcee, she hosted the daytime NBC version of the game show Win, Lose or Draw, and has also appeared often as a popular panelist on such game shows as Match Game, Password, The $10,000 Pyramid, and The $25,000 Pyramid, as well as Hollywood Squares, where she appeared both as herself and in character as Thelma "Mama" Harper. Lawrence was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Talk Show in 1993 for the eponymous Vicki!, but the show was canceled after only two seasons, due to low ratings.

She tours the country with her one-woman show with her and Mama Harper in tow.

Teddy Pendergrass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theodore DeReese Pendergrass, Sr. (born March 26, 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) affectionately known as 'Teddy P', "TP", or "Teddy Bear" is an American soul singer.



Early life

He was born to Ida Geraldine Epps and the late Jesse Pendergrass. Teddy got his start singing gospel in the church, where he was ordained a minister at the age of 10, and sang doo wop tunes on the street corners in North Philadelphia where he grew up. He was a student at the old Thomas Edison High School for Boys. However, he dropped out in the 11th grade to go in the music business. His first taste of show business was in Nova Scotia, Canada with a James Brown clone of a musician named Little Royal[citation needed]. Afterwards, Pendergrass left for unknown reasons.


Musical career

Pendergrass' career began when he was a drummer for The Cadillacs, which soon merged with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. Melvin invited Pendergrass to become the lead singer after he jumped from the rear of a stage and started singing his heart out. Months later the group signed with Gamble & Huff on the then CBS subsidiary Philadelphia International Records in 1972. The Blue Notes had hits such as "I Miss You", "Bad Luck", "Wake Up Everybody", "The Two Million Seller", "If You Don't Know Me By Now", and many more. Following personality conflicts between Melvin and Pendergrass and a brief stint with Teddy leading a group of Blue Notes[citation needed], Pendergrass launched a solo career and released hit singles like "The More I Get the More I Want", "Close The Door" also redone by Boyz ll Men in 2004, "I Don't Love You Anymore", "Turn Off The Lights", and more. Pendergrass was the first African-American singer to sell five platinum albums in a row. He also began his practice of ladies-only concerts, for which he remains well-known[citation needed]. His first solo album was self titled Teddy Pendergrass (1977), followed by Life Is a Song Worth Singing (1978), Live Coast to Coast and Teddy (1979), 1980's TP and the final Philadelphia International Records album It's Time For Love (1981). In august 1982 PIR also released "This one's for you" while TP was recovering. Even in 1983 the album "Heaven Only Knows" was released. This was his last album containing his pre-accident recordings.


Personal life

On March 18, 1982, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pendergrass was involved in an automobile accident when the brakes failed on his Rolls-Royce and he hit a tree leaving him paralyzed from the waist down with a spinal cord injury. In the car with him was a transvestite, Tenika Watson, 31, an exotic dancer with an extensive rap sheet, though he never explained his relationship with Watson [1]. They were trapped in the auto 45 minutes after the 1:30 A.M. accident. The police said there were no indications of drug or alcohol use. He was taken to a center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for treatment. Miss Watson was released after treatment at a hospital. Pendergrass spent six months in rehabilitation. After completing physical therapy, he returned to the studio to record the album Love Language, featuring the 1984 ballad "Hold Me", a duet with the then upcoming star Whitney Houston. He also returned to the public for a performance on July 13, 1985 at the historic Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, then continued to record throughout the 1980s and 90s. Pendergrass has published a biography entitled 'Truly Blessed' with Patricia Romanowski. Pendergrass divorced Karen Still-Pendergrass in 2002 after 15 years of marriage stating irreconciable differences. In 2006, Teddy Pendergrass announced on a radio station in New York that he has officially retired from the music business.[citation needed]

Martin Short
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name Martin Hayter Short
Born March 26, 1950
Hamilton, Ontario
Spouse(s) Nancy Dolman (1980-present)
Notable roles Various in SCTV and Saturday Night Live
Emmy Awards

Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1983 SCTV Network 90
Tony Awards

Best Actor in a Musical
1999 Little Me

Martin Hayter Short, CM (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian/American actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live.





Early life

The youngest of five children, Short was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to Charles and Olive Short. His father, an executive with Stelco,[1] a Canadian steel company, came to North America in 1921 as a stowaway Roman Catholic refugee from Belfast, Northern Ireland during the Troubles.[citation needed] His mother, who was the concertmaster of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, encouraged his early creative endeavours.[2]

Short attended Westdale Secondary School[3] and graduated in 1972 from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work.

Short lost several members of his family at an early age. His eldest brother, David, was killed in a car accident in 1962, when Short was 12. His mother died of cancer when he was 17; two years later, his father died of complications from a stroke in 1972.[4]


Career

When Short graduated from McMaster University, he intended to pursue a career in social work; but he became interested in acting once he was cast in a Toronto production of Godspell in 1972 (among the other members of that production's cast: Victor Garber, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas and Andrea Martin, with Paul Shaffer as musical director.) He was subsequently cast in several television shows and plays, including an intense topical drama, "Fortune and Men's Eyes". (He worked solely in Canada from 1972 through 1979.)


Sketch comedy

Short was encouraged to pursue comedy by McMasters classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas, both notable comedians in their own right. He joined Levy and Thomas at the Second City improv troupe in 1977. Short came to public notice when the troupe produced a show for television, which ran for several years in Canada and the United States. Short was a cast member and performed several recurring characters. He was a member of the troupe for several years, and also performed on Saturday Night Live for the 1984-1985 season. [1]


Characters

Among Short's recurring characters:

Talk show host Jiminy Glick
Aged songwriter Irving Cohen
Spurious entertainer Jackie Rogers Jr.
Fey and flamboyant current-events commentator Troy Soren
Industrialist and art patron Bradley P. Allen
Defensive attorney Nathan Thurm
Oddball man-child Ed Grimley.
The Grimley character became perhaps Short's best known original character. He also was recognized for his impersonations of celebrities, notably Jerry Lewis and Katharine Hepburn. (See "Trivia" below for a list of other impersonations.)


Other roles

After doing sketch comedy for several years, Short focused on film roles, appearing in several films, including Three Amigos, Innerspace, and the 1992 remake of Father of the Bride. He also resumed work in the theater, taking a role in the 1993 musical version of the Neil Simon work The Goodbye Girl. He had the lead role in the 1999 revival of the musical Little Me, which earned him a Tony Award.


Fame Becomes Me

Short performed in a satirical one-man show (with a full cast of six), Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. The show toured several cities in the spring of 2006, began previews on July 29, 2006, opened on August 17 and closed on January 7, 2007. In it, he performed his aforementioned classic characters Grimley, Cohen, and Glick. As Glick, Short brought a member of the audience (usually a celebrity) on stage and interviews him or her. Jerry Seinfeld was the guest on opening night and the subjects have included Kristin Chenoweth, Regis Philbin, Neil Simon, Diane Keaton, Jamie Lee Curtis, Richard Kind, David Schwimmer, David Hasselhoff and many more. The show also featured parodies of many celebrities including Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Celine Dion, Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Tommy Tune, Joan Rivers, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Renée Zellweger, Jodie Foster and Short's wife, actress Nancy Dolman.

The cast album release date is set for Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 and will be available off of Ghostlight Records (www.sh-k-boom.com).

Jennifer Grey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born March 26, 1960
New York City, New York, United States
Notable roles Jeanie Bueller in Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Baby in Dirty Dancing Jennifer Grey in It's Like, You Know...

Jennifer Grey (born March 26, 1960, in New York City) is an American actress.





Biography

Early life

She is the daughter of well known stage and screen actor Joel Grey and the granddaughter of comedian and musician Mickey Katz. Grey is an alumna of The Dalton School, an elite private school in New York City.


Career

After small roles in The Cotton Club and American Flyers, she landed the role of angry sister Jeanie in the hit 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Grey, who had starred alongside Patrick Swayze in Red Dawn reunited with him again in 1987 to star in her biggest role yet, playing Frances "Baby" Houseman in Dirty Dancing.





Grey also appeared in the TV movie The West Side Waltz in 1995 on Thanksgiving evening on CBS, written by acclaimed playwright Ernest Thompson. The movie also stars Shirley Maclaine, Liza Minnelli, and Kathy Bates.

After a few years out of the spotlight, Grey returned with the short-lived ABC sitcom It's Like, You Know... (1999-2000) as a struggling actress named Jennifer Grey. With her reapparance, Grey sported a new nose after some plastic surgery.

In one episode of the sitcom, however, Grey even poked fun at herself with a storyline about a much-publicized nose job and the following exchange:

Arthur Garment: You know, you look different somehow.
Jennifer Grey: Well, you see a movie ten years ago…
Arthur Garment: I saw it just recently.
Jennifer Grey: … on a small TV screen…
Arthur Garment: This was a revival. Huge movie screen.
Jennifer Grey: … sitting so far back…
Arthur Garment: Front row. Right up close.
Jennifer Grey: Nose job!
Arthur Garment: Oh. [pauses] Just one?
She was also on the sitcom Friends.

Jennifer also had a small role in the 2000 film Bounce with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck.


Personal life

Grey's husband since July 2001 is actor Clark Gregg (The New Adventures of Old Christine). The couple has one child, daughter Stella, born December 3, 2001. She co-starred in a Lifetime TV movie Road to Christmas with her husband.

Four lawyers in a law firm lived and died for their Saturday morning
round of golf. It was their favorite moment of the week. Then one of
the lawyers transferred to another City. It wasn't quite the same
without him and then a new woman lawyer joined their firm and overheard
the three talking about golf.

Curious she spoke up, "You know, I used to play golf at college and I
was pretty good. Would you mind if I joined you next week?"

The three lawyers looked at each other and were hesitant to say yes but
she had them on the spot. Finally one man said it would be ok, but they
would be starting early at 6.30 am. He thought this may discourage her
immediately.

The woman said this may be a problem and asked if she could be up to 15
minutes late. They rolled their eyes but said it would be ok.

On the first week she showed up on time at 6.30 am and wound up beating
them all with an eye catching 2 under par round. She was a fun pleasant
person the entire round. The guys were impressed! Back in the clubhouse
they congratulated her and invited her back the following week.

The following week she showed again at 6.30 am - only this time she
played left-handed. The three lawyers were incredulous as she still
managed to beat them with an even par round, despite playing with her
off-hand. By now the guys were totally amazed but wondered if she was
trying to make them look bad by beating them left-handed. However, she
was very pleasant and each man then had a burning desire to beat her.

In the third week they all had their game faces on but this week she
was 15 minutes late. This made them irritable because they were waiting
to play the best round of golf in their lives, their aim to beat her.
This time the lady lawyer again played right handed, which was a good
thing since she narrowly beat them. However she was very gracious and
complimented their strong play. It was hard to hold a grudge against
her..

Back in the clubhouse she had all three guys shaking their heads at her
ability. One of the men asked her point blank, "How do you decide if
you are going to play right or left handed?"

The lady blushed and grinned. When my Dad taught me to play golf I
learnt I was ambidextrous. I have always switched back and forth. Then
when I met my husband I discovered he always sleeps in the nude. From
then on I developed a silly habit. Right before I left in the morning
for golf practice, I would pull back the covers and if his you- know
-what was pointing right I played golf right-handed and if it was
pointed left I played left-handed."

All the guys on the team thought this was hysterical! Astonished at
this bizarre information, one of the guys shot back, "But what if it's
pointed straight up in the air?"

She said, "Then I'm fifteen minutes late!"

Well, hawkman, now I know why I don't play golf. Love it, Boston. Thanks once again for all those bio's. Unfortunately, I think I know most of your celeb's. but will await our Raggedy before acknowledging.

a song from Diana Ross AKA Lady Day, folks.


Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers

Your sweet expression
the smile you gave me,
the way you looked when we meet
it's easy to remember
but so hard to forget.
I hear you whisper,
"I'll always love you"
I know it's over and yet
it's easy to remember
but so hard to forget.

So I must dream
to have your hand caress me,
fingers press me tight.
I'd rather dream
than have the lonely feeling
stealing through the night.

Each little moment
is clear before me,
and though it brings me regret
it's easy to remember
but so hard to forget.

And away we go!

There she is, folks, with her famous faces. Great octet today, PA. Let's see, now.

We're looking at Leonard, Alan, James, Diana, Johnny, Teddy, Martin and Jennifer. Ah, Jennifer Grey's face brings back a fond and a sad memory because someone observed that Lord Ellpus' wife resembled her.

I wonder where London Calling has gone.

For L.E. and his wife:

From the 1987 movie "Dirty Dancing" starring Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, and Jerry Orbach (best known as detective Lenny Briscoe on the TV series "Law & Order")
The soundtrack from the movie is one of the best selling soundtracks of all time


Song Lyrics - (I've Had) The Time of My Life

Now I've had the time of my life
No I never felt like this before
Yes I swear it's the truth
And I owe it all to you
'Cause I've had the time of my life
And I owe it all to you

I've been waiting for so long
Now I've finally found someone to stand by me
We saw the writing on the wall
As we felt this magical fantasy

Now with passion in our eyes
There's no way we could disguise it secretly
So we take each other's hand
'Cause we seem to understand the urgency
Just remember

You're the one thing
I can't get enough of
So I'll tell you something
This could be love because

I've had the time of my life
No I never felt like this before
Yes I swear, it's the truth
And I owe it all to you

With my body and soul
I want you more than you'll ever know
So we'll just let it go
Don't be afraid to lose control
Yes I know what's on your mind
When you say, "Stay with me tonight"
Just remember

You're the one thing
I can't get enough of
So I'll tell you something
This could be love because

I've had the time of my life
No I never felt like this before
Yes I swear, it's the truth
And I owe it all to you

I've had the time of my life
No I never felt like this before
Yes I swear it's the truth
And I owe it all to you

I've had the time of my life
No I never felt like this before
Yes I swear it's the truth
And I owe it all to you

I've had the time of my life
No I never felt like this before

One segment of that movie was filmed at Mountain Lake Resort.

here is an old favourite of mine !
the library has a 2-cd set with many similar tunes - have to take it out again for some fun !
hbg

Remembering Bessie, hamburger.



Death
On September 26, 1937, Smith was severely injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis and Clarksdale, Mississippi with her lover (and Lionel Hampton's uncle), Richard Morgan, at the wheel. She was taken to Clarksdale's black Afro-American Hospital where her right arm was amputated. She never regained consciousness, and died that morning.

The Afro-American Hospital, now the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, was the site of the dedication of the fourth historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Bessie Smith
Graveyard Dream Blues


Blues on my mind, blues all around my head
Blues on my mind, and blues all around my head
I dreamed last night that the man that I love was dead
I went to the graveyard, fell down on my knees
I went to the graveyard, fell down on my knees
And I asked the gravedigger to give me back my real good man please
The gravedigger look me in the eye
The gravedigger look me in the eye
Said "I'm sorry lady but your man has said his last goodbye"
I wrung my hands and I wanted to scream
I wrung my hands and I wanted to scream
But when I woke up I found it was only a dream.

Wow! I don't want to be macabre, folks. What made me do that, I wonder.

China
Cracker

Miss Mary won't you please come home from China.
Bring a bottle of whisky and a tin cup for your teeth.
Don't you sneak into the back door wearing some disguise.
Knock on the front door in view of the Temperance Guild.

Miss Mary won't you please come home cause I miss ya.
Your old spinster sister don't always give good advice.
Look at her she's in love with that drunken bandy-legged sheriff.
He'll unzip her pantsuit, but never leave his fat wife

CHORUS:
Miss Em Mary won't you please come home from China.
Come home from China.
Come home from China

REPEAT CHORUS

Now that fake old beatnik poet the volunteer fireman.
He don't care if you come, he don't like I do.
He's in love with his dog and all his volunteer fireman.
And he is afraid to let the end of his versus rhyme.

REPEAT CHORUS x2