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Billy Rose
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Billy Rose (September 6, 1899 - February 10, 1966) was an American theatrical showman.

Born William Samuel Rosenberg to a Jewish family in New York City, he began his career as a stenographic clerk to Bernard Baruch of the War Industries Board during World War I. Later he became a lyricist. In this role, he is best known as the credited writer or co-writer of the lyrics to Me and My Shadow, Great Day (with Edward Eliscu), Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight (with Marty Bloom), I Found a Million Dollar Baby (with Mort Dixon) and It's Only a Paper Moon (with E. Y. Harburg).

Most of Rose's lyrical credits were collaborations. Biographer Earl Conrad said, "Nobody clearly knew what he wrote or didn't write ... Publishers tend to credit him with writing the songs known to bear his name as a lyricist...But tales rumble on...that Billy could feed and toss in a remark and monkey around, but that others did most of the writing." Lyricists might have been willing to tolerate a Rose credit grab because Rose was very successful at promoting "his" songs.

He went on to become a Broadway producer, and a theatre/nightclub owner. In June 1934, he opened The Billy Rose Music Hall at 52nd and Broadway in New York with the first Benny Goodman Orchestra. He produced "Jumbo," starring Jimmy Durante at the New York Hippodrome Theatre. For Fort Worth Frontier Days, he constructed the huge elaborate dinner theatre, "Casa Manana," featuring stripper Sally Rand and the world's largest revolving stage. He presented a show at the Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, Ohio in 1936.

Diminutive in stature, whenever he wanted to attend a show, Rose's practice was to book four tickets: one for himself, one for his female companion, and the other two for the two seats directly in front of the other seats; thus, Rose was ensured of an unobstructed view.

In 1938, he opened "Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe" nightclub in New York City in the basement of the Paramount Hotel off Times Square. It initially opened with a version of his Fort Worth show. The Diamond Horseshoe operated under that name until 1951.

At the 1939 New York World's Fair, Billy Rose's Aquacade starred Olympian Eleanor Holm in what the fair program called "a brilliant girl show of spectacular size and content." He married Holm shortly after divorcing his first wife, comedian Fanny Brice. Future MGM star Esther Williams and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller were both Aquacade headliners.

Following the Fair, Rose asked John Murray Anderson, who had staged the Aquacade, to recommend a choreographer for a new show at the Horseshoe. Anderson recommended Gene Kelly, then performing in William Saroyan's One for the Money. Rose objected that he wanted someone who could choreograph "tits and asses", not "soft-soap from a crazy Armenian." (Yudkoff, 2001). However, after seeing Kelly's performance, he gave Kelly the job, an important step in Kelly's career.


In 1943, he produced Carmen Jones with an all-black cast. An adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, the story was transplanted to World War II America by lyricist and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. It was an instant hit. The New York Telegraph called it "far and away the best show in New York," the New York Times said it was "beautifully done ... just call it wonderful." The New York Herald Tribune said that Oscar Hammerstein II "must be considered one of the greatest librettists of our day" and that Carmen Jones was "a masterly tour de force." It was made into a motion picture in 1954, for which Dorothy Dandridge received an Academy Award nomination.

Billy Rose founded the Billy Rose Sculpture Garden in Jerusalem.

Rose died in 1966 in New York City, aged 66. At the time of his death, his fortune was estimated at about 42 million dollars, which he left entirely to a foundation named after him, disowning both of his sisters. He is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York.

Jo Anne Worley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jo Anne Worley (born on September 6, 1937) is an American actress. Her work covers television, movies, theater, game shows, talk shows, commercials, and cartoons. She is best known for her work on the comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.





Biography

Worley was born in Lowell, Indiana, the third of five children. In 1962, her father remarried and his second union gave her two half-brothers and two half-sisters. Always remembered for her loud voice, Worley once said that when she attended church as a little girl, she never sang the hymns but would only lip-synch them for fear that she would drown out everyone else. Before graduating from high school, she was named School Comedienne.

After graduating from high school in 1955, Worley moved to Blauvelt, New York, where she began her professional career as a member of the Pickwick Players. This led to a drama scholarship to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. After studying at Midwestern for two years, she moved to Los Angeles to study at Los Angeles City College and the Pasadena Playhouse. She was soon given her first musical role in a production of Wonderful Town. In 1961, she received her first major break when she appeared in the musical revue Billy Barnes People; this performance soon moved to Broadway.

In 1964, Worley was chosen to be a stand-in the original Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! One year later, she created her own nightclub act in Greenwich Village, where she was discovered by talk-show host Merv Griffin in 1966. Impressed by Worley's talents, Griffin allowed her to be one of his primary guest stars on his show, where she made approximately 200 appearances. That same year, she co-starred Off-Broadway in The Mad Show, a musical revue based on Mad Magazine. In 1967, her stint on Griffin's show led to her discovery by George Schlatter, who soon cast her in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

In 1970, she left Laugh-In to pursue other projects and has made guest appearances on several TV shows, including Love, American Style, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Andy Williams Show, and different game shows, such as Hollywood Squares. She continued working in various movies, TV shows, and theatrical performances (original productions and revivals alike) over the years; and she also became known for her work as a voice provider for several cartoons and animated movies (particularly Disney movies). In 1989, she returned to Broadway to appear in the original performance of Prince of Central Park. Her voice work includes Nutcracker Fantasy (1979), the Disney movies Beauty and the Beast (1991), A Goofy Movie (1995), and Belle's Magical World (1998).

Worley continues to perform today in several acting circuits in New York and Los Angeles, and she has also been active at times in the lecture circuit. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Actors and Others for Animals. Her most recent role was playing the voice of the Wardrobe in the hit video game Kingdom Hearts II.

Currently, Worley can be seen as Mrs. Tottendale in the hit Broadway musical, The Drowsy Chaperone at the Marquis Theatre.

Jane Curtin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Jane Therese Curtin
Born September 6, 1947 (1947-09-06) (age 60)
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Spouse(s) Patrick Lynch
[show]Awards
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series, Kate & Allie, 1984,
Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series, Kate & Allie, 1985

Jane Therese Curtin (born on September 6, 1947 in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States) is an Emmy Award (and 8-time Emmy-Award nominee) winning and Golden Globe winning American actress and comedienne. Curtin is well known for being one of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. Curtin was also in a Saturday Night Live inspired movie, The Coneheads.





Biography

Career

She holds an associate degree from Elizabeth Seton Junior College in New York City. Curtin lives in Connecticut with her husband, Patrick Lynch. The couple have one daughter, Tess Lynch. She has served as a U.S. Committee National Ambassador for UNICEF.

In 1968, Curtin decided to pursue comedy as a career and dropped out of college. She joined a comedy group, "The Proposition", and performed with them until 1972. She starred in Pretzels, an off-Broadway play written by Curtin and Fred Grandy, in 1974.

One of the original "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" for NBC's Saturday Night Live (1975), Curtin remained on the show through the 1979-1980 season. As she was, at the time, a practicing Catholic, she did not participate in SNL's notorious backstage party scene.


Saturday Night Live

Jane Curtin is famous as one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live (SNL). On this show, and mirroring her own low-key real life, she often played straight-woman characters, seemingly driven to frustration by the antics of her wackier castmates including John Belushi and Gilda Radner.

Curtin anchored SNL's "Weekend Update" segment in 1976-77, and was paired with Dan Aykroyd in 1977-78 and Bill Murray in 1978-80.

As a TV anchorwoman, Jane played as a foil to John Belushi, who would often give a rambling and out of control "commentary" on events of the day. During these sketches, Jane would timidly try to get Belushi to come to the point which would only make him angrier. In the most noted sketch, Belushi gave a rambling account of his Irish friend's troubles to demonstrate that there was no such thing as "the luck of the Irish".

Gilda Radner, in her persona of Roseanne Roseannadanna, would present an ethnic face to Jane's Anglo-Saxon self-control and as such annoy Jane with personal remarks. In one famous sketch, the ever-earthy Roseanne asked Jane (in her newscaster role) whether her breasts were of identical size. Jane's newscaster character lost control and exposed her bra to Roseanne, spouting "Check for yourself, Roseanne!"

Jane's newscaster would also introduce baseball expert Chico Escuela (Garrett Morris), a heavily-accented Dominican, who would start his sketches by saying, "Thank you, Hane", before repeating his famous catchphrase, "Baseball been bery, bery good to me!"

In a parody of the "Point-Counterpoint" segment of the news program 60 Minutes, Curtin portrayed a controlled "liberal", Politically Correct viewpoint (referencing Shana Alexander) vs. Dan Aykroyd, who (referencing James J. Kilpatrick) prototyped today's right-wing media "attack" journalist. Curtin would present the liberal "Point" portion first, then Aykroyd would present the "Counterpoint" portion, beginning with the statement, "Jane, you ignorant slut!"

Curtin is also well known for her role in the Conehead sketches as "Prymaat Conehead" (mother of the Conehead family), and as "Enid Loopner" (in sketches with Gilda Radner and Bill Murray).


Later television career

Unlike many of her SNL cast members who ventured often successfully into film, Curtin chose to stay in television and has been remarkably successful there. Her film appearances have been sporadic. To date, she has starred in two long-running television sitcoms. First, in Kate & Allie, with Susan Saint James (1984-89), she played a single mother named "Allie Lowell."

In 1993, Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd were reunited in Coneheads, a full-length motion picture based on their popular SNL characters. They also appeared together as the voices of a pair of wasps in the film Antz.

In 1994, Curtin narrated the documentary television series Understanding.

She later joined the cast of 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) playing a human, "Dr. Mary Albright," opposite the alien family, composed of John Lithgow, Kristen Johnston, French Stewart, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. As with SNL, her mostly-straight-laced character was often confounded by the zany and whimsical antics of the Solomon family.

Curtin starred with Fred Savage in the ABC sitcom Crumbs, which debuted in January 2006 and was canceled in May of that year.


Broadway

Curtin has also performed on Broadway on occasion. She first appeared on the Great White Way as Miss Prosperine Garrett in the play "Candida" in 1981. She later went on to be a replacement actress in two other plays: "Love Letters" and "Noises Off", and was in the 2002 revival of "Our Town," which received huge press attention as Paul Newman returned to the Broadway stage after several decades away.

Curtin has a cousin in the industry, actress and writer Valerie Curtin.


Trivia

Curtin was played by Jennifer Irwin in the 2002 TV movie Gilda Radner: It's Always Something. Curtin is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the United States.

SENIOR DRESS CODE

Many of us "Old Folks" (those over 50, WAY over 50, or hovering near 50)
are quite confused about how we should present ourselves. We are unsure
about the kind of image we are projecting and whether or not we are
correct as we try to conform to current fashions.
Despite what you may have seen on the streets, the following combinations
DO NOT go together and should be avoided:

1. A nose ring and bifocals

2. Spiked hair and bald spots

3. A pierced tongue and dentures

4. Miniskirts and support hose

5. Ankle bracelets and corn pads

6. Speedo's and cellulite

7. A belly button ring and a gall bladder surgery scar

8. Unbuttoned disco shirts and a heart monitor

9. Midriff shirts and a midriff bulge

10. Bikinis and liver spots

11. Short shorts and varicose veins

12. Inline skates and a walker

And last, but not least...my personal favorite

13. Thongs and Depends

Hey Edgar:

Thanks for playing September Morn. Love it and many Neil Diamond songs. Here's one I sing at karaoke looking directly at my sweetheart and wife Nair.



The Story of My Life

Words and music by neil diamond

The story of my life is very plain to read
It starts the day you came
And ends the day you leave
The story of my life begins and ends with you
The names are still the same
And the story's still the truth

I was alone.
You found me waiting and made me your own
I was afraid
That somehow I never could be a man that you wanted of me

You're the story of my life, and every word is true
Each chapter sings your name
Each page begins with you
It's the story of our times and never letting go
If I die today, I wannted yo to know

Stay with me here
Share with me, care with me
Stay and be near
And when it began I'd lie awake every night
Just knowing somewhere deep inside
That our affair just might write

The story of my life is very plain to read
It starts the day you came
It ends the day you leave

Hey, hawkman. Thanks for the bio's today, buddy. I do wish that you would quit reminding us "over fifty" folks of what NOT to do; however, those are funny, Boston. We'll all keep your advice in mind.

Hope our Raggedy doesn't have difficulty today, but will wait and see, listeners.

edgar, thanks for the September morn song. This month only has 30 days.

Noticed that Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night has a birthday as well, so here is one of my favorite songs by the group who got its name from the sheep herders who huddled with their dogs on the cold nights in Australia

Mama told me not to come
Mama told me not to come
She said, that ain't the way to have fun, son
That ain't the way to have fun, son

The radio is blastin'
Someone's knocking at the door
I'm lookin' at my girlfriend
She's passed out on the floor

I seen so many things
I ain't never seen before
Don't know what it is
I don't wanna see no more

[Refrain]

Mama told me, mama told me, mama told me
Told me, told me
That ain't no way to have fun, whoah, yeah yeah
Mama told me not to come
Mama, mama, mama told me
That ain't no way to have fun

That ain't the way to have fun, no
That ain't the way to have fun, son
That ain't the way to have fun, no
That ain't the way to have fun, son

[Ad lib, repeat to fade]

Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow,
Follow, follow, follow, follow.

Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
Deep in December, it's nice to remember,
The fire of September that made us mellow.
Deep in December, our hearts should remember
And follow.

Well, my goodness, folks. There's our dys risen from his bed of nails and doing a Tom Jones song. Thanks, cowboy, and I found this one for you.

Weird group, however.

Husker Du - Bed Of Nails

I can walk the bed of nails
I'm not the only one
But some, they cannot walk the jagged line
Callous, concentrating
For nails are sharp as lies
I run the jagged line

From years and years of practice
I know just how to stand
Alone with perfect balance, hand in hand
Prepared with boards and hammers
And several bags of nails
I could build a wall to lean on
Roof above my mind
I can see you've got your own plans
Please don't drive your nails into this heart of mine

I can walk the bed of nails
Grin and bear the pain
But some, they cannot deal with all these things
Always sacrificing
For lies are sharp as nails
And all the pain it brings

Sometimes I just pretend that all the lies are true
And I know I might depend on you
But if my concentration breaks
I'm washed away with pain
And then my feet begin to bleed upon my only bed of nails
And I'm stuck here in the middle of a sea of lies
Inside my bed of nails

Good morning WA2K.

Am feeling sad having just read that Luciano Pavarotti died today at age 71. I loved his voice.

But, am feeling good that I'm able to access WA2K again.

Today's celebs: Billy Rose, Jo Ann Worley and Jane Curtin

Ah, there's our Raggedy with a delightful trio of famous folks. Glad that you are once again able to do your "thang", PA.

I did not realize that Billy Rose did this lovely jazz ballad, folks, and although it's not an autumn song, we'll imagine that it is by picturing an autumn background.

Each time I look at you is like the first time
Each time you're near me the thrill is new
And there is nothing that I wouldn't do for
The rare delight of the sight of you for

The more I see you, the more I want you
Somehow this feeling just grows and grows
With every sigh I become more mad about you
More lost without you and so it goes

Can you imagine how much I love you?
The more I see you as years go by
I know the only one for me can only be you
My arms won't free you, my heart won't try

instrumental interlude

I know the only one for me can only be you
My arms won't free you, my heart won't try

What a delight to see that osso visited Capistrano, California on the stoatmobile. It reminded me of my brother who sang it.

When the swallows come back to Capistrano
That's the day you promised to come back to me
When you whispered, "Farewell", in Capistrano
Twas the day the swallow flew out to sea

All the mission bells will ring
The chapel choir will sing
The happiness you'll bring
Will live in my memory
When the swallows come back to Capistrano
That's the day I pray that you'll come back to me

All the mission bells will ring
The chapel choir will sing
The happiness you'll bring
Will live in my memory
When the swallows come back to Capistrano
That's the day I pray that you'll come back to me

More genetic memory, I guess.

the best i can do from canada is a poem about the wild geese :wink:
we've noticed that some flocks are asembling rather early for their flight to warmer climes - an early winter perhaps ?

it looks rather awesome to see sometimes several hundred geese winging their way north or south - and their "honking" can be pretty loud - they make us go outside and watch .

He sits in your room, his tomb, with a fist full of tacks
Preoccupied with his vengeance
Cursing the dead that cannot set him back
You know that he has no intentions
Of looking your way, unless it's to say
That he needs you to test his inventions.

Hey crawl out your window?
Come on Don't say it'll ruin you
Come on Don't say he will haunt you?
You can go back to him any time you want to.

He looks so truthful, is this how he feels
Trying to peel the moon and expose it
With his businesslike anger and his bloodhounds that kneel
If he needs a third eye he just grows it
He just needs you to talk or to hand him his chalk
Or pick it up after he throws it.

Can you please crawl out your window?
Use your arms and legs it won't ruin you
How can you say he will haunt you?
You can go back to him any time you want to.

He looks so righteous while your face is so changed
As you sit on the box you keep him in
While his genocide fools and his friends rearrange
Their religion of little ten women
That backs up their views but your face is so bruised
Come on out the dark is beginning.

Can you please crawl out your window?
Use your arms and legs it won't ruin you
How can you say he will haunt you?
You can go back to him any time you want to.

Crawl Out Your Window
Bob Dylan

Good morning, WA2K radio audience.

hbg, first I would like to say that I love that poem by Rachel Field. That's the part of genetic memory that we can all understand because it IS instinct. I recall after the big hurricane season, looking in the sky over the intercostal and seeing the Canadian geese in a rather haphazard vee fashion. I attributed it to disorientation as a result of the wild winds.

edgar, loved your Dylan song, and as synchronicity would have it, I found this one that matched hgb's and yours.

Artist: Neil Young
Album: Prairie Wind

Far From Home

When I was a growing boy
A-rocking on my daddy's knee
Daddy took an old guitar and sang
Bury me on the lone prairie
Uncle Bob sat at the piano
My girl cousins sang harmony
Those were the good old family times
That left a big mark on me

Bury me out on the prairie
Where the buffalo used to roam
Where the Canada geese once filled the sky
And then I won't be far from home
Bury me out on the prairie
Where the buffalo used to roam
You won't have to shed a tear for me
'Cause then I won't be far from home


Walking down the trans-Canada highway
I was talking to a firefly
Trying to make my way to Nashville, Tennessee
When another car passed me by

Some day I'm gonna make big money
And buy myself a big old car
Make my way on down to that promised land
And then I'm gonna really go far

Bury me out on the prairie
Where the buffalo used to roam
Where the Canada geese once filled the sky
And then I won't be far from home
Just bury me out on the prairie
Where the buffalo used to roam
You won't have to shed a tear for me
'Cause then I won't be far from home

In 1993, Neil YOung did new arrangements of older songs including Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower, and Otis Reddings' Dock of the Bay

Yes, I'm Ready
Barbara Mason

[Written by Barbara Mason]

Male backups: (Are you ready)
Female backups: [Yes I'm ready]
Male backups: (Are you ready)
Female backups: [Yes I'm ready]

I don't even know how to love you
Just the way you want me to
But I'm ready [ready] to learn (to learn)
Yes, I'm ready [ready] to learn (to learn)
To fall in love, to fall in love, to fall in love with you

I don't even know how to hold your hand
Just to make you understand
But I'm ready [ready] to learn (to learn)
Yes, I'm ready [ready] to learn (to learn)
To hold your hand, make you understand
To hold your hand right now

I don't even know how to kiss your lips (kiss your lips)
At a moment like this
But I'm going to learn how to do
All the things you want me to
(Are you ready) Yes, I'm ready
(Are you ready) Yes, I'm ready
To fall in love, to fall in love, to fall in love right now

(Are you ready) Yes, I'm ready
(Are you ready) Yes, I'm ready
(To kiss me) Yes, I'm ready
(To love me)
To kiss you, love you, and hug you
Baby, I'm ready

edgar, is this your Barbara Mason?



We like to learn things about musicians on our cyber radio.

MORNING GLORY

Morning glory, ancient story
Golden sunshine rising high
'Tis a new birth of the new earth
Wondrous splendour now is nigh

Night-time moonbeams, magic daydreams
Wakening to a life anew
Past is history, now the mystery
Living in the moment true

Freely flowing, all is glowing
Loving all in brotherhood
Ideas showering, creative flowering
Morning glory golden flood

©Elizabeth A Feisst 26 January 2006

Elia Kazan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Elias Kazanjoglou
Born September 7, 1909(1909-09-07)
Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died September 28, 2003 (aged 94)
New York, US
Spouse(s) Molly Day Thatcher (1932-1963)
Barbara Loden (1967-1980)
Frances Rudges (1982-2003)
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Director
1947 Gentleman's Agreement
1954 On the Waterfront
Academy Honorary Award
1999 Lifetime Achievement
Golden Globe Awards
Best Director - Motion Picture
1948 Gentleman's Agreement
1955 On the Waterfront
1957 Baby Doll
1964 America, America
Tony Awards
Best Direction of a Play
1947 All My Sons
1949 Death of a Salesman
1959 J.B.

Elia Kazan, (Greek: Ηλίας Καζάν), (September 7, 1909 - September 28, 2003) was a Greek-American film and theatre director, film and theatrical producer, screenwriter, novelist and cofounder of the influential Actors Studio in New York in 1947.




Early life

He was born Elias Kazanjoglou in 1909 in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), then capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents.[1][2] According to some sources he was born in Kayseri[citation needed]. In 1913, when he was four, his family emigrated to the United States and settled in New York City, where his father, George Kazanjoglou, became a rug merchant. Kazan's father expected that his son would go into the family business, but his mother, Athena, encouraged Kazan to make his own decisions.

Kazan attended public schools in New York City and New Rochelle, New York. After graduating from Williams College, Massachusetts, Kazan studied at Yale University's School of Drama. In the 1930s, Kazan acted with New York's Group Theatre, alongside (among others) Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets, and Stella and Luther Adler. During this period, Kazan earned his nickname 'Gadg,' short for Gadget - he never learned to love the name. For about 19 months in 1934-36, Kazan was a member of a secret Communist cell.[3]


Group Theater and Actors Studio

Theatrical career

He became one of the most visible members of the Hollywood elite. Kazan's theater credits included acting in Men in White, Waiting for Lefty, Johnny Johnson, and Golden Boy, and directing A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), two of the plays that made Tennessee Williams a theatrical and literary force, and All My Sons (1947) and Death of a Salesman, (1949) the plays which did much the same for Arthur Miller. He received three Tony Awards, winning for All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and J.B.


Film director

Kazan's history as a film director is scarcely less noteworthy. He won two Academy Awards for Best Director, for Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and On the Waterfront (1954). He elicited remarkable performances from actors such as Marlon Brando and Oscar winners Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) (the film version of Tennessee Williams' play), James Dean and Oscar winner Jo Van Fleet in East of Eden (adapted from the John Steinbeck novel), and Andy Griffith in A Face in the Crowd.


HUAC controversy

Kazan's later career was marked by his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the postwar "Red Scare", in which he "named names." Some others who named names, for a variety of reasons, included Jerome Robbins, Robert Taylor, Sterling Hayden, Leo Townsend, Burl Ives, Budd Schulberg and Lela Rogers (mother of Ginger Rogers).

Kazan had briefly been a member of the Communist Party in his youth, when working as part of a theater troupe, the Group Theater, in the 1930s. At the time, the Group Theater included several theater professionals who had Communist or other left-wing sympathies. A committed Socialist, Kazan felt betrayed by Stalin's atrocities and the ideological rigidity of Communists in general. He was personally offended when Party functionaries tried to intervene in the artistic decisions of his theater group.

At first, although Kazan agreed to testify before HUAC, and readily admitted his former membership in the Communist Party, he refused to name others who had been members. But Kazan felt increasing pressure from Hollywood studio management to cooperate with the Committee and provided the names of former Party members or those connected with Party activities, in order to preserve his career.

He knew that the names were already known to the Committee, since HUAC had already obtained copies of Communist Party membership archives, and that his testimony would be used primarily to increase media attention. After a delay, during which he asked for and received permission to release the names of former members of the Party, he was recalled to testify, and at the second examination Kazan provided testimony to the Committee.

The 'naming of names' by some in Hollywood was used as a tactic by HUAC to validate the Committee's actions and galvanize reaction against those who were merely friends or relations of the accused, so-called fellow travelers. One of those named as being a Party member was the wife of noted actor John Garfield, with whom Kazan had worked in the Group Theatre troupe, and who was being investigated by HUAC. HUAC failed to uncover any evidence of Communist Party membership by Garfield himself, but Garfield was nonetheless subpoenaed.

As Kazan later explained, he felt that it was in the best interest of the country and his own liberal beliefs to cooperate with HUAC's anti-communist efforts in order to counter Communists in Hollywood who were co-opting the liberal agenda. Kazan felt no allegiance to Communism, and had been disillusioned by the Soviet Union's brutal record of murder and repression during Stalin's Purges, and the Polish massacres of World War II. He still resented the Party's attempt to force their agenda on him during his theatre group days. American playwrights Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller publicly and bitterly disagreed with Kazan's reasoning. Ironically, though Kazan testified to HUAC under threat of ostracism and blacklisting by the Hollywood studios, he was in turn shunned and ostracized by many of his former friends. Always a confirmed liberal and progressive, even socialist in his political outlook, Kazan now found himself hated by the left, yet mistrusted by many on the right. Some have perceived elements of Kazan's own reaction to his critics in the film On the Waterfront.



The life of a Greek-American

In 1967, Kazan published The Arrangement, a novel about an emotionally-battered middle-aged Greek-American living a double life in California as both an advertising executive, under the name "Eddie Andreson", and a serious, muckraking magazine writer under the name "Evans Arness", neither of which was his birth name, Evangelos Arness. The character's "arrangement" of his life takes a huge toll on him, eventually leading him to a suicide attempt and a nervous breakdown. Critics saw parallels to Kazan's own life, most notably that the character had briefly been a member of the Communist Party prior to World War II and of course, the character's Anatolian Greek background and Americanization of his birth name. Kazan disclaimed any autobiographical elements and stated that the novel was a work of fiction, nothing more or less. It served as the basis for his 1969 film of the same name.


Honorary Award

In 1999, Kazan received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. He was accompanied by Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro who warned the audience sotto voce not to misbehave. Robert De Niro himself had appeared in a film about the Hollywood Red Scare. While many in Hollywood who had experienced the Red Scare felt that enough time had passed that it was appropriate to bury the hatchet and recognize Kazan's great artistic accomplishments, others did not. Some Hollywood celebrities expressed outrage, and former blacklisted writer Abraham Polonsky stated that he wished Kazan would be shot onstage.[4] Some footage from the 1999 Oscars suggests that fully three-quarters of those present in the audience gave him a standing ovation, including Lynn Redgrave, Karl Malden, Meryl Streep and the very liberal Warren Beatty (Beatty later said that he was applauding because Kazan had directed him in his first film Splendor in the Grass, but was not endorsing the decision he made). However, the footage also showed actors such as Ed Harris, Nick Nolte, Ian McKellen, Richard Dreyfuss, Amy Madigan, Ed Begley, Jr. and Holly Hunter sitting on their hands or refusing to applaud. Still others, such as Steven Spielberg and Sherry Lansing applauded politely, but did not rise.


Personal life

Elia Kazan was married three times. His first wife was Molly Day Thacher, playwright; married from 1932 until her death in 1963, this marriage produced two daughters and two sons. His second wife was Barbara Loden, actress; married from 1969 until her death in 1980, this marriage produced two sons. Finally, he was married to Frances Rudge from 1982 until his death in 2003 from natural causes at his home in New York. He was 94 years old. Constance Dowling had been involved in a long affair with him while in New York. He couldn't bring himself to leave his first wife and the affair ended when Dowling went to Hollywood under contract to Goldwyn

Anthony Quayle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born 7 September 1913(1913-09-07)
Ainsdale, Southport, Lancashire, England
Died 20 October 1989 (aged 76)
London, England

Sir John Anthony Quayle, CBE, KBE (7 September 1913 - 20 October 1989) was an English actor and director.

He was born in Ainsdale, Southport in Lancashire and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After appearing in music hall, he joined the Old Vic in 1932. During the Second World War he was an Army Officer and made one of the area commanders of the auxiliary units [1]. Later he joined the Special Operations Executive and served as a liaison officer with the partisans in Albania (reportedly, his service with the SOE seriously affected him, and he never felt comfortable talking about it). In 1944 he was the aide to the Governor of Gibraltar at the time of the air crash of General Władysław Sikorski's aircraft on July 4, 1943. He described his experiences in a fictionalised form in Eight Hours from England [2].

From 1948 to 1956 he directed at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and laid the foundations for the creation of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His own Shakespearian roles included Falstaff, Othello, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and Aaron in Titus Andronicus opposite Lord Laurence Olivier; he played Mosca in Ben Jonson's Volpone; and he also appeared in contemporary plays.

His film roles included parts in Ice Cold in Alex (1958),Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959), The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1969 for his role in Anne of the Thousand Days. Often cast as the decent British officer he drew upon his own wartime experience, bringing a degree of authenticity to the parts notably absent from the performances of some non-combatant stars. One of his best friends was fellow actor Alec Guinness, who he knew from his days at the Old Vic, and appeared in several films with him.

Quayle made his Broadway debut in The Country Wife in 1936. Thirty-four years later, he won critical acclaim for his starring role in the highly successful Anthony Shaffer play Sleuth, which earned him a Drama Desk Award.

Television appearances include the title role in the 1969 ITC drama series Strange Report. Also he narrated the acclaimed aviation documentary series Reaching for the Skies.

Quayle was knighted in 1985 and he died in London from liver cancer in October 1989, aged 76. He was married twice. His first wife was actress Hermione Hannen (1913-1983) and his widow and second wife was Dorothy Hyson (1914-1997). He and Dorothy had two daughters, Jenny and Rosanna, and a son, Christopher.

Peter Lawford
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Peter Sydney Lawford
Born September 7, 1923(1923-09-07)
London, England, UK
Died December 24, 1984 (aged 61)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Peter Sydney Lawford (September 7, 1923 - December 24, 1984) was a British-born Hollywood actor, member of Frank Sinatra's "Rat Pack," and brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting. In his earlier professional years (late 1930s through the 1950s) he had a strong presence in popular culture and starred in a number of highly acclaimed films.





Biography

Early life

Born in London, England, on September 7, 1923, the son of English World War I hero Sir Sydney Turing Barlow Lawford and the former May Somerville Bunny, he spent his early childhood in France and began acting at a young age. Lawford's mother was said to have dressed him as a girl in private up until age eleven. Lady May and Sir Sydney were not married when Peter was conceived. Young Peter lived all over the world with his parents. Because of his family's travels, Peter was never formally educated. His lack of education was allegedly a sore subject for the actor, which contributed to his feelings of inadequacy later on as a member of the Kennedy family, and throughout his adult life. In America, Sir Sydney and Lady Lawford were treated as royalty among the well-to-do in their new neighborhood of Palm Beach, Florida, and were always invited to events and social occasions; they had, however, lost whatever source of money they had had when war was declared in England in 1939.

As a child Lawford severely injured his arm, in his words, "attempting to run through a glass door.". Doctors were able to save the arm, but the injury continued to bother him throughout his life, and the arm was slightly deformed. The injury was considered damaging enough to keep him from entering World War II, but this turn of fate was probably the greatest boon to his career. At that time, Hollywood was infatuated with heroic Englishmen, and as war movies were being churned out by the dozens and American actors volunteered or were drafted for the war, Lawford put his talents to work "stateside".


Career

Prior to the war Lawford had gained a contract position with the MGM studios. Once he signed with MGM, his mother, Lady May, insisted that studio head Louis B. Mayer pay her a salary as Peter's personal assistant. Mayer declined. Lady Lawford responded by claiming her son to be "homosexual" and that he needed to be "supervised". When Peter learned of his mother's actions their relationship was never the same.

Lawford's first movie role was at age seven in the film Poor Old Bill. Eight years later, he made his Hollywood debut in a minor part in Lord Jeff. His first major movie role was A Yank At Eton (1942). He played a snobbish bully opposite Mickey Rooney. The picture was a smash hit, and Lawford's performance was widely praised. Also that year, Lawford appeared in Mrs. Miniver. He won even greater acclaim for his performance in The White Cliffs Of Dover (1944), in which he played a young soldier in World War II. MGM gave him another important role in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). Lawford also made Son Of Lassie (1945) and won a Modern Screen Magazine readers' poll as the most popular actor in Hollywood. His fan mail jumped to thousands of letters a week. Lawford had become a major star.

Lawford's busiest year as an actor was 1946, when two of his films opened within days of each other: Cluny Brown (1946) and Two Sisters From Boston (1946). With heartthrobs such as Clark Gable and stalwarts like James Stewart off to war, Lawford was recognized as the romantic lead on the MGM lot. He appeared with Frank Sinatra for the first time in the musical It Happened in Brooklyn (1947). Lawford received rave reviews for his work in the film while Sinatra's were lukewarm. Lawford later admitted that the most terrifying experience of his career was the first musical number he performed (the Jitterbug). He also made his first comedy that same year: My Brother Talks To Horses (1947). It was in the musical Good News (1947) that he won his greatest acclaim as a performer, holding his own against other cast members with far more training in song and dance.

Lawford was given other important roles in MGM films over the next few years, including On an Island with You (1948), Easter Parade (1948), Little Women (1949), It Should Happen to You (1954), Ocean's Eleven (1960), The Longest Day (1962), and Advise and Consent (1962). In the late 1950s he co-starred with Phyllis Kirk in a short-lived television series based on the Thin Man films of the 1930s.

His first marriage, in 1954, was to Patricia Kennedy Lawford, sister of then-U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy. They had four children; actor Christopher, and daughters Sydney, Victoria, and Robin. Lawford became an American citizen in 1960, in time to vote for his brother-in-law in the presidential elections. Lawford, along with other members of the "Rat Pack," helped campaign for Kennedy and the Democratic Party. Sinatra famously dubbed him "Brother-in-Lawford" at this time.


Personal life

Lawford had a reputation as a ladies' man and was reported to have had many affairs with famous ladies of film, song, and politics including Ava Gardner, June Allyson, Lana Turner, Janet Leigh, Rita Hayworth, Dorothy Dandridge, Lucille Ball, Anne Baxter, Judy Holliday, Gina Lollobrigida, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Lee Remick, Nancy Reagan, and Elizabeth Taylor[citation needed]. It has been said that in another time and place Lawford and Dandridge would have been married, but in the racially-intolerant 1950s this was not an option, and would have meant an end to both of their careers [citation needed]. Lawford introduced Marilyn Monroe as she stepped out to sing her infamous Happy Birthday, Mr. President at Madison Square Garden in May of 1962. He and brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy are rumoured to have visited Monroe on the day she died (August 5, 1962), and Lawford is said to have been the last person to see the troubled actress alive, although neither fact has ever been confirmed. The Kennedy family distanced itself from Lawford as his antics proved increasingly embarrassing. Patricia Kennedy Lawford divorced him in 1966 because of his alcoholism and infidelity.

Lawford was very close to Frank Sinatra for a number of years, appearing in several Rat Pack movies and stage acts. Sinatra, however, threatened him with bodily harm when he learned that Lawford had lunch with Ava Gardner, Sinatra's primary love interest at the time. Lawford's friends managed to convince Sinatra that nothing was going on between Gardner and Lawford, but Sinatra refused to speak with Lawford for a number of years. The two were later reconciled, but Sinatra ultimately broke off the friendship after Lawford refused to act as a go-between for Sinatra and President Kennedy after their association had become controversial (Sinatra's alleged mob ties, even if based more on rumor than fact, made White House image guardians unhappy). The end of the Lawford-Sinatra relationship came when the President made plans to stay at crooner Bing Crosby's house instead of Sinatra's during a visit to Los Angeles. Sinatra was especially incensed because Crosby was a Republican. Sinatra's feelings were such that once, when he learned Lawford was in the audience he was about to perform for, he refused to come out until Lawford and his wife were removed from the premises. Lawford and Sinatra never spoke again, though Lawford maintained a good friendship with Rat-Pack-pal Sammy Davis, Jr.. The two starred together in the 1968 film Salt and Pepper and its 1970 sequel One More Time.

Lawford's alcohol abuse and later drug abuse, as well as strained relationships and financial difficulties, caused a great deal of stress on his increasingly fragile health. Lawford was reduced to television guest shots on such shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Profiles in Courage (TV series), The Wild Wild West, I Spy, The Name Of The Game, The Virginian, Bewitched, The Patty Duke Show, The Doris Day Show, Hawaii Five-O, The Jeffersons, Fantasy Island and The Love Boat. Besides sitcoms, he also guest-starred on variety shows such as The Judy Garland Show and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and game shows What's My Line?, Password, and Pyramid.

Lawford married his second wife, Mary Rowan, the daughter of comedian Dan Rowan, in 1971 when she was in her twenties; the marriage lasted eight months. In 1975, he married Deborah Gould, but the marriage lasted only two months. His fourth and final marriage, in July 1984, after a nine-year courtship, was to Patricia Seaton. Lawford died in a hospital in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve 1984 of cardiac arrest complicated by kidney and liver failure, at the age of 61.

His body was cremated and the ashes were "in-urned" at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. His original inurnment location was near that of Marilyn Monroe. According to his son, the actor Christopher Lawford, talking on Larry King's CNN talk-show on September 27, 2005, none of the Rat Pack members attended the funeral, though a number of the Lawford/Kennedy cousins came. Because of a dispute between his widow and the cemetery, his ashes were removed and scattered in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California by his widow, Patricia Seaton Lawford, who invited the "National Enquirer" tabloid to photograph the event. Westwood Village Memorial Park still has, as of 2006, a plaque bearing Lawford's name. It is not known if any ashes remain at the site.

Buddy Holly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Background information
Birth name Charles Hardin Holley
Born September 7, 1936(1936-09-07)
Origin Lubbock, Texas U.S.
Died February 3, 1959 (aged 22)
Genre(s) Rock and Roll
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, Guitarist
Instrument(s) Vocals, Guitar
Years active 1956 - 1959
Label(s) Decca
Associated
acts The Crickets
Website BuddyHolly.com
Notable instrument(s)
Fender Stratocaster

Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 - February 3, 1959),[1] better known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and a pioneer of rock and roll. The change of spelling of "Holley" to "Holly" came about because of an error in a contract he was asked to sign, listing him as Buddy Holly.[2] That spelling was then adopted for his professional career.

Buddy Holly is considered one of the most influential founding fathers of rock 'n roll. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #13 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[3] Although his career was tragically cut short, his body of work is considered among the finest in rock. His works and innovations were copied by his contemporaries and those who were to follow, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and had a profound influence on popular music.




Biography

Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas[4] to Lawrence Odell Holley and Ella Pauline Drake in 1936. The Holleys were a musical family, and, as a young boy, Holley learned to play the violin (his brothers oiled the strings so much that no one could hear him play), piano and guitar. In the fall of 1949, he met Bob Montgomery in Hutchinson Junior High School. They shared a common interest in music and soon teamed up as the duo "Buddy and Bob." Initially influenced by bluegrass music, they sang harmony duets at local clubs and high school talent shows. His musical interests grew throughout high school while singing in the Lubbock High School Choir.[5]

Holly turned to rock music after seeing Elvis Presley sing live in Lubbock in early 1955. A few months later, he appeared on the same bill with Presley, also in Lubbock. Holly's transition to rock was finalized when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets at a local rock show organized by Eddie Crandall, who was also the manager for Marty Robbins. As a result of this performance, Holly was offered a contract with Decca Records to work alone, which he accepted. According to the Amburn book (p. 45), his public name changed from "Holley" to "Holly" on February 8, 1956, when he signed the Decca contract. Among the tracks recorded for Decca was an early version of "That'll Be The Day," which took its title from a phrase that John Wayne's character said repeatedly in the 1956 film, The Searchers.[6]


Back in Lubbock, Holly formed his own band, The Crickets and began making records at Norman Petty's studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Norman had music industry contacts and believing that "That'll Be the Day" would be a hit single, he contacted publishers and labels. Coral Records, a subsidiary of Decca, signed Buddy Holly and The Crickets. This put Holly in the unusual position of having two record contracts at the same time. Before "That'll Be The Day" had its nationwide release, Holly played lead guitar on the hit-single "Starlight", recorded in April, 1957, featuring Jack Huddle. The initial, unsuccessful version of "That'll Be The Day" played more slowly and about half an octave higher than the hit version

Holly managed to bridge some of the racial divide that marked rock n' roll music. While Elvis made black music more acceptable to whites, Holly won over an all-black audience when the Crickets were accidentally booked at New York's Apollo Theater (though, unlike the immediate response depicted in the 1978 movie The Buddy Holly Story, it actually took several performances for his talents to be appreciated).

After the release of several highly successful songs, Holly and the Crickets toured the United Kingdom in 1958.[7]


That same year, he met Maria Elena Santiago (born 1935 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) while she was working as a receptionist for a New York music publisher. He proposed to her on their very first date. She initially thought he was kidding, but they were married in Lubbock, Texas on August 15, 1958, less than two months after they met. Maria traveled on some of the tours, doing everything from the laundry to equipment set-up to ensuring the group got paid.

The ambitious Holly became increasingly interested in the New York music/recording/publishing scene, while his easygoing bandmates preferred to go back home to Lubbock. Holly acceded to their wishes and in 1959, the group split up. Holly began a solo tour with other notable performers, including Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, "The Big Bopper".

Two nights after a performance in Duluth, Minnesota, the three headliners gave their final show in Clear Lake, Iowa. Following the February 2, 1959 performance at the Surf Ballroom, Buddy Holly chartered a Beechcraft Bonanza to take him and his new back-up band (Tommy Allsup, Carl Bunch, and Waylon Jennings) to Fargo, North Dakota. Carl Bunch did not take the flight as he had been hospitalized for frostbite three days earlier. The Big Bopper asked Jennings for his spot on the four-seat plane, as he was recovering from the flu. Ritchie Valens had never flown on a small plane and requested Allsup's seat. They flipped a coin for it; Valens called heads and won.

The four-passenger plane took off in light snow and gusty winds at around 12:55 A.M., but crashed only a few minutes after takeoff. The wreckage was discovered several hours later by the plane's owner, Jerry Dwyer, some 8 miles from the airport on the property of Albert Juhl. The crash killed Holly, Valens, Richardson, and the 21-year-old pilot, Roger Peterson. While theories abound as to the exact cause of the crash, an official determination of pilot error was rendered by the Civil Aeronautics Board (one of the predecessors of the Federal Aviation Administration). Although the crash received a good deal of local coverage, it was displaced in the national news by an accident that occurred the same day in New York City, when American Airlines Flight 320 crashed during an instrument landing approach at LaGuardia Airport, killing 65.

Holly's pregnant wife became a widow after barely six months of marriage and miscarried soon after.


Holly's funeral services were held at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock, and his body was interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery in the eastern part of the city. Holly's headstone carries the correct spelling of his surname (Holley) and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.


Posthumous record releases

The music of Buddy Holly didn't die with him. He had recorded so prolifically that his record label was able to release brand-new Buddy Holly albums and singles for 10 years after his death. Holly's simple demonstration recordings were overdubbed by studio musicians, to bring them up to then-commercial standards. The best of these records is probably the first posthumous single, the 1959 coupling of "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," produced by Jack Hansen, with added backing vocals by the Ray Charles Singers in simulation of an authentic Crickets record. "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" was actually supposed to be the "A" side of the 45, with the backup group effectively echoing Buddy's call-and-response vocal. The Hansen session, in which Holly's last six original compositions were overdubbed, was issued on the 1960 Coral LP The Buddy Holly Story, Volume Two.

Buddy Holly continued to be promoted and sold as an "active" artist, and his records had a loyal following, especially in Europe. The demand for unissued Holly material was so great that Norman Petty resorted to overdubbing whatever he could find: alternate takes of studio recordings, originally rejected masters, "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and the other five 1959 tracks (adding new surf-guitar arrangements), and even Holly's amateur demos from 1954 (where the low-fidelity vocals are often muffled behind the new orchestrations). The last new Buddy Holly album was Giant (featuring the single, "Love Is Strange"), issued in 1969. Between the 1959-60 Jack Hansen overdubs, the 1960s Norman Petty overdubs, various alternate takes, and Holly's undubbed originals, collectors can often choose from multiple versions of the same song.


Style

Holly's music was sophisticated for its day, including the use of instruments considered novel for rock and roll, such as the celesta (heard on "Everyday"). Holly was an influential lead and rhythm guitarist, notably on songs such as "Peggy Sue" and "Not Fade Away". While Holly could pump out boy-loves-girl songs with the best of his contemporaries, other songs featured more sophisticated lyrics and more complex harmonies and melodies than had previously appeared in the genre.

Many of his songs feature a unique vocal "hiccup" technique, a glottal stop, to emphasize certain words in any given song, especially the rockers.[8] Other singers (such as Elvis) have used a similar technique, though less obviously and consistently. An example is the start of the raucous "Rave On": "Weh-eh-ell, the little things you say and do, make me want to be with you-ou...". Or this, from "That'll Be the Day": "Well, you give me all your lovin' and your -turtle dovin'..." and "Peggy sue": "I love you Peggy Sue - with a love so rare and tr-ue ..."


Influence

Contrary to popular belief, teenagers John Lennon and Paul McCartney did not attend a Holly concert; a school friend of McCartney and George Harrison, Tony Bramwell, did. Bramwell met Holly, and freely shared his records with all three. Lennon and McCartney later cited Holly as a primary influence (their band's name, The Beatles, was chosen partly in homage to Holly's Crickets). The Beatles did a cover version of "Words of Love" that was an almost perfect reproduction of Holly's version. Fan McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly's song catalogue.[9]

A young Bob Dylan attended the January 31, 1959 show, part of Holly's final tour. Dylan referred to this in his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his 1997 Time out of Mind winning Album of the Year:

"And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him...and he LOOKED at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was---I don't know how or why---but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way."[10]

Various rock and roll histories have asserted that the singing group The Hollies were named in homage to Buddy Holly. However, according to the band's website,[11] although the group admired Holly (and years later produced an album covering some of his songs), their name was inspired primarily by the sprigs of holly in evidence around Christmas of 1962. The site also admits to a degree of uncertainty about that story, so it is possible that any reference to Holly has been disavowed in order to avoid legal issues.

Since his death, many bands and artists have recorded Buddy Holly material, including The Beatles, Billy Fury, Cliff Richard, The Rolling Stones, Albert Hammond Jr., Linda Ronstadt, Humble Pie, Peter & Gordon, Rush, Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Blind Faith, Don McLean, John Mellencamp, Foghat, MxPx, Meat Loaf , Pearl Jam, The Knack, The Lillingtons, The Raveonettes [12] and many others.


Buddy Holly in popular culture

Mike Berry released a single called "Tribute to Buddy Holly" (1961). It was written by Geoff Goddard and produced by Joe Meek, who was a great Buddy Holly-fan. In the USA it was released on Coral, the label that also released Buddy Holly's recordings[13].

Don McLean's popular 1971 ballad "American Pie", covered by Madonna in the year 2000, is inspired, at least in part, by the "The Day the Music Died" (the day of the plane crash).

A 1980 Gyllene Tider song is called "Ska vi älska, så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly".

Eddie Cochran, good friend and fellow rock 'n' roll pioneer was so distraught by the deaths of Holly, Valens and The Big Bopper that he recorded the song "Three Stars" as a tribute. Ironically, the song was not released until after Eddie's own all-too-young death.

Paul Simon's song "Old" references his early influences, including Buddy Holly, including the line, "Buddy Holly still goes on, but his catalog was sold."

The Smithereens' song "Maria Elena" is a Buddy Holly tribute as sung to his widow.

During a performance at Zilker Park Austin, Texas, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones performed "Learning the Game", introducing it as "paying homage to a great Texan." Following the performance, Richards stated "One for Buddy, pals." The performance was released in The Rolling Stones DVD box-set, The Biggest Bang.

Phil Ochs famously sang a long tribute to Buddy Holly on the infamous Gunfight at Carnegie Hall album.

Weezer's self-titled debut album features the band's popular single "Buddy Holly".

Of the trio of musicians who died in the crash, Buddy was the one mentioned in Billy Joel's history-themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire".

The Dixie Chicks recently recorded the song "Lubbock or Leave It", which references Buddy Holly's death and the statue that was erected in his hometown after his death.

The Who's 2006 album, "Endless Wire," features the song "Mirror Door" which contains a tribute to passed rock and roll stars, including "Elvis, Buddy, and Eddie C" (Eddie Cochran).

Downtown Lubbock has a "walk of fame" with plaques to various area artists such as Glenna Goodacre, Mac Davis, Maines Brothers Band, and Waylon Jennings, with a life-size statue of Buddy by sculptor Grant Speed (1980), playing his Fender guitar, as its centerpiece. Downtown Lubbock also features Buddy Holly Avenue and the Buddy Holly Center, which is a museum dedicated to Texas art and music.

The Surf Ballroom, a popular old-fashioned dance hall that dates to the height of Big Band Era, continues to put on shows, notably an annual Buddy Holly tribute on the anniversary of his last performances.


In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s, erected a stainless steel monument depicting a steel guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers.[14] It is located on private farmland, about one quarter mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, approximately five miles north of Clear Lake. He also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians near the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003.[15]

The dramatic arc of Holly's life story inspired a Hollywood biography The Buddy Holly Story, for which actor Gary Busey received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Holly, While entertaining, the movie was widely criticized by the rock community for its wild inaccuracies. This led Paul McCartney to produce and host his own tribute to Holly, titled "The Real Buddy Holly Story." This authoritative video includes interviews with Keith Richards, Phil and Don Everly, Sonny Curtis, Jerry Allison, Holly's family, and McCartney himself, among others. There were also successful Broadway and West End musicals documenting his career. The musical, Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, ran in the West End for 13 years.[16]

Holly is one of two musical acts mentioned in the dialogue of the 1973 film American Graffiti. In one scene, the song playing is "Surfin' Safari" by the Beach Boys, leading to an arguing couple to alternate turning the radio off and on:

Carol: "What'd you do that for?"
John: "I don't like that surfin' ****! Rock and roll's been goin' downhill ever since Buddy Holly died!"
Two of Holly's songs are also featured on the film's soundtrack: "That'll Be the Day" and " Maybe Baby".

The 1998 film Six-String Samurai, a surreal romp through an alternate-timeline post-apocalyptic America (Russia bombed and then invaded the United States in 1957), features a rock-and-rolling martial arts hero named "Buddy" who sports familiar black horn-rimmed glasses and a tuxedo. The film follows Buddy's journey to "Lost Vegas," the last outpost of freedom in the world, to claim the crown of the recently-deceased King Elvis.

The science fiction novel Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede, by Bradley Denton (ISBN 0-688-10822-9 and ISBN 0-380-71876-6), begins when television sets throughout the world suddenly begin broadcasting a concert by an apparently living Buddy Holly, who says he is on Ganymede.

"Oil", an episode of The Young Ones features Mike (Christopher Ryan) discovering Buddy Holly, alive and well and tangled in parachutes, in the attic of a house in London. Holly comments that he loves "your British beetles", as he has been eating them since the plane crash. Mike asks Holly if he has come up with any new material, and Holly plays a brief song about eating crickets...then his parachute strap suddenly breaks, slamming him into the floor and killing him. Mike later hands off a duffel bag containing Holly's corpse to two minor characters, asking them to "take care of my Buddy."

A fictional version of a young pre-fame Buddy Holly appears in an episode of Quantum Leap, working as a veterinarian's assistant. Throughout the episode Sam doesn't know his name and addresses him using a variety of nicknames. The surprise ending of the show depicts a baffled Sam, having completed his perceived mission, wondering why he's still in Texas. Listening to Buddy (whose last name is never revealed during the episode) singing a ditty about "Sooey! Piggy!" to one of the farm's pigs, he suggests that Buddy reverse the word order. He does, singing "Piggy! Sooey!" which becomes "Peggy Sue" which leads into the first verse of Buddy's hit. Buddy's identity is only confirmed after Al suggests he should try it, Sam therefore addresses Holly as "Buddy" who responds positively for the first time. Then Sam leaps, having successfully established one of the bedrocks of Rock 'n' Roll.

Buddy is also one of the evil citizens who live in the town of "Rock N' Roll Heaven", a community inhabited by deceased music legends in Stephen King's short horror story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band". He was portrayed by Australian actor Kristian Schmid in the television version on the Nightmares & Dreamscapes television mini-series.

In a Simpsons episode, "Colonel Homer", the manager of the recording studio fondly recalled how "Buddy Holly stood on this spot in 1958 and said, 'There is no way in hell, I am gonna record in this dump.'" In a later episode, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper appear on an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Itchy sabotages the plane's engine, resulting in the crash that kills the musicians and pilot Scratchy. In yet another episode, Lisa discovers Sideshow Bob had won election as mayor through votes by her two dead cats, Snowball I and Snowball II, as well as Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (whose tombstone reads "So Long Baaaby!").

When Val Kilmer hosted Saturday Night Live, he played Jim Morrison in a parody of VH-1's Behind the Music show. Morrison forms a band in heaven called The Great Frog Society that includes Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon and Louis Armstrong. With Jesus (played by Will Farrell) as their producer ("The first time I heard them, I said, 'Oh, my Dad!), they became the toast of Heaven. But as always happens, superstar egos and Holly's reincarnation as a tree stump broke up the band.

In an episode of the MTV series, Clone High, Holly "guest stars", along with Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, and several other musicians who died in plane crashes.