WA2K Radio is now on the air

good evening , listeners !
computer is going into the shop in the morning and the hamburgers will be taking the train to toronto on friday morning .
signing off with a proper creole song - it's really more a shout than a song !
back on monday - ya all take care , ya hear ?
hbg

Have a wonderful time, hbg, and do be careful. Great song, buddy, and we're glad that you provided the translation. Your name isn't Joe, but here's one you know.

Hank Williams

Goodbye, joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh.
Me gotta go, pole the pirogue down the bayou.
My yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh.
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and file gumbo
'cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio.
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo,
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Thibodaux, fontaineaux, the place is buzzin',
Kinfolk come to see yvonne by the dozen.
Dress in style and go hog wild, me oh my oh.
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filé gumbo
'cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio.
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo,
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Settle down far from town, get me a pirogue
And I'll catch all the fish in the bayou.
Swap my mon to buy yvonne what she need-o.
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filé gumbo
'cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio.
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo,
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou

and Letty exclaims as she goes to bed tonight, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight."



Merry Christmas
Afrikaans Gesëende Kersfees
Czech Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish Glædelig Jul
Esperanto Gajan Kristnaskon
Finnish Hyvää Joulua
French Joyeux Noël
German Froehliche Weihnachten
Greek Kala Christouyenna
Hawaiian Mele Kalikimaka
Irish Nollaig Shona Dhuit
Italian Buon Natale or Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Korean Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latin Natale hilare
Lithuanian Linksmu Kaledu
Norwegian God Jul
Polish Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia
Portuguese Feliz Natal
Russian Srozhdestovm Kristovim
Spanish Feliz Navidad
Swahili Kuwa na Krismasi njema
Tagalog Maligayang Pasko
Thai Suksun Wan Christmas
Vietnamese Chuc Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh Nadolig Llawen

From Letty with love

here's a cool N'Orleans tune by Gary US Bonds
(tis another yw transcription; lyrics not necessarily authoritative)

I said a hey hey hey yeah
Said a hey hey hey yeah
I said a hey hey hey yeah
Said a hey hey hey yeah

Well come on everybody take a trip with me
Way down the Mississippi down to New Orleans.
And the honey suckle bloomin on the honeysuckle vine
And love is bloomin there all the time.
You know every Southern belle is a Mississippi queen,
Down the Mississippi down in New Orleans.

I said a hey hey hey yeah
Said a hey hey hey yeah
I said a hey hey hey yeah
Said a hey hey hey yeah

Well come on take a stroll down to Basin Street
And listen to the music with the Dixieland beat.
Ah where the magnolia blossoms fill the air.
And you ain't been to heaven if you ain't been there.
They got French moss hangin' from a big oak tree,
Down the Mississippi down in New Orleans.

I said a hey hey hey hey yeah
Hey hey hey hey yeah
I said a look out child yeah yeah yeah
Look out child yeah yeah yeah

Well come on everybody take a trip with me
Down the Mississippi down to New Orleans.
Where the honey suckle's bloomin on the honeysuckle vine
And love is bloomin there all the time.
You know every Southern belle is a Mississippi queen,
Down the Mississippi down in New Orleans

The Beatles - Michelle

Michelle, ma belle
These are words that go together well
My Michelle

Michelle, ma belle
Sont des mots qui vont tres bien ensemble
tres bien ensemble

I love you, I love you, I love you
that's all I want to say
Until I find a way
I will say the only words I know you'll understand

Michelle, ma belle
Sont des mots qui vont tres bien ensemble
tres bien ensemble

I need to, I need to, I need to
I need to make you see
Oh, what you mean to me
Until I do I'm hoping you will know what I mean
I love you

I want you, I want you, I want you
I think you know by now
I'll get to you some how
Until I do I'm telling you so you'll understand

Michelle, ma belle
Sont des mots qui vont tres bien ensemble
tres bien ensemble
And I will say the only words I know that you'll understand
My Michelle

Good morning, WA2K radio audience.

Loved the "transcribed" song from the island man, but had no idea that there was such a thing as French moss, M.D. I always thought it was Spanish moss. Ah, yes, that old Dixieland jazz. Love it.

edgar, Michelle is one of my favs by The Fab Four. I think it was cello who was looking for songs with foreign languages embedded, and that one is so easy to recognize. Thanks, Texas.

48 degrees in my little corner of the world this morning, folks. How about one for the house this morning.


I'll light the fire
You put the flowers in the vase
That you bought today

Staring at the fire
For hours and hours
While I listen to you
Play your love songs
All night long for me
Only for me

Come to me now
And rest your head for just five minutes
Everything is good
Such a cosy room
The windows are illuminated
By the sunshine through them
Fiery gems for you
Only for you

Our house is a very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you
And our la,la,la, la,la, la, la, la, la, la, la.....

Our house is a very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you
And Our

I'll light the fire
And you place the flowers in the jar
That you bought today

William S. Hart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Surrey Hart (6 December 1864 in Newburgh, New York - 23 June 1946 in Newhall, California) was a silent film actor, screenwriter, director, and producer.

A successful Shakespearian actor on Broadway who had worked with Margaret Mather and other stars, William S. Hart went on to become one of the first great stars of the motion picture western. Hart appeared in original 1899 stage production of Ben Hur.

He entered films in 1914 where, after playing supporting roles in two short films, he achieved stardom as the lead in the feature, The Bargain.

Hart was particularly interested in making realistic western films. His films are noted for their authentic costumes and props, as well as Hart's extraordinary acting ability, honed on Shakespearian theatre stages in the US and England.


In 1917, he accepted a lucrative offer from Adolph Zukor to join Famous Players-Laskey. In 1925, he starred in King Baggot's film Tumbleweeds which was his last and probably most famous for United Artists. Hart's popularity waned when the public began to be attracted to "larger than life" Western stars such as Tom Mix. He retired to his ranch home, "La Loma de los Vientos" in Newhall, California, which was designed by architect Arthur R. Kelly.

Hart was fascinated by the Old West. He acquired Billy the Kid's "six shooters", and was a friend of legendary lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson.

Hart married young Hollywood actress, Winifred Westover. Although their marriage was short-lived, they had one child, William S. Hart Jr. (1922-2004).

On his passing in 1946, William S. Hart was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, William S. Hart has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Blvd. In 1975, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

As part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California, Hart's former home and 260 acre (1.1 km²) ranch in Newhall is now "William S. Hart Park". The William S. Hart Union High School District as well as William S. Hart Senior High School, both located in the Santa Clarita Valley in the northern part of Los Angeles County, were named in his honor.

Joyce Kilmer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born 6 December 1886(1886-12-06).
New Brunswick, New Jersey (USA)
Died 30 July 1918 (aged 31)
near Seringes, France
Occupation poet, journalist, editor, lecturer, soldier
Nationality American
Writing period 1909-1918
Genres poetry, literary criticism, catholicism
Influences Gerard Manley Hopkins
William Butler Yeats
Coventry Patmore

Alfred Joyce Kilmer (6 December 1886 - 30 July 1918) was an American journalist, poet, literary critic, lecturer and editor. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, Kilmer is remembered most for a poem entitled "Trees" (1913) which was published in the collection Trees and Other Poems in 1914. While most of his works are unknown, a select few of his poems remain popular and are published frequently in anthologies. Several critics, both Kilmer's contemporaries and modern scholars, disparaged Kilmer's work as being too simple, overly sentimental, and that his style was far too traditional, even archaic.

At the time of his deployment to Europe during the first World War (1914-1918), Kilmer was considered the leading American Roman Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, whom critics often compared to British contemporaries G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) and Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953).[1][2][3] A sergeant in the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment, Kilmer was killed at the Second Battle of Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.




Biography

Early years: 1886-1908

Kilmer was born on 6 December 1886 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the fourth and youngest child[a] of Annie Ellen Kilburn (1849-1932) [4] and Dr. Frederick Barnett Kilmer (1851-1934), a physician and analytical chemist employed by the Johnson and Johnson Company and inventor of the company's baby powder.[5][6][7] Joyce was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer after Alfred R. Taylor, the curate; and the Rev. Dr. Elisha Brooks Joyce (1857-1926), the rector of Christ Church, the oldest Episcopal parish in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family were parishioners.[8][9] Rector Joyce, who served the parish from 1883 to 1916, baptised the young Kilmer.[10] Kilmer's birthplace in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family lived from 1886 to 1892, is still standing, and houses a small museum to Kilmer, as well as a few Middlesex County government offices.[11]

Kilmer entered the Rutgers College Grammar School (now Rutgers Preparatory School) in 1895 at the age of 8. During his years at the Grammar School, he...

"...won the Lane prize in public speaking and was editor-in-chief of the Argo, the school paper. He loved the classics, although he had considerable difficulty with Greek. In his last year at Rutgers, he won the first Lane Classical Prize, a free scholarship for the academic course at Rutgers College, and one hundred dollars in money. Despite his difficulties with mathematics and Greek, he stood at the head of his class in preparatory school."[12]
After graduating from the Rutgers College Grammar School in 1904, he continued his education at Rutgers College from 1904 to 1906. At Rutgers, Kilmer was associate editor of the Targum, the campus newspaper and a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. Unable to complete the rigorous mathematics requirement in the curriculum at Rutgers, facing a repeat of his sophomore year and under pressure from his mother, Kilmer transferred to Columbia College of Columbia University in New York City.[13]

At Columbia, Kilmer was vice-president of the Philolexian Society, associate editor of Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and was a member of the Debating Union. He completed his Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree and was graduated from Columbia on 23 May 1908.[14] Shortly after graduation, on 9 June 1908, he married Aline Murray (1888-1941), a fellow poet to whom he had been engaged since his sophomore year at Rutgers.[15][16] The Kilmers had five children: Kenton Sinclair Kilmer (1909-1995), Michael Barry Kilmer (1916-1927), Deborah ("Sister Michael") Clanton Kilmer (1914-1999) who was a Catholic nun at the Saint Benedict's Monastery, Rose Kilburn Kilmer (1912-1917), and Christopher Kilmer (1917-1984).[6][17]


Years of writing and faith: 1909-1917

Shortly after his marriage and graduation from Columbia, Kilmer sought teaching positions. In the Autumn of 1908, Kilmer obtained a position teaching Latin in Morristown, New Jersey, and finding that teaching did not demand much of his time, he found considerable time to dedicate to writing. At this time, he submitted essays to Red Cross Notes (including his first published piece, an essay on the "Psychology of Advertising") and poems to Moods, Smart Set, The Sun, The Pathfinder and The Bang. In addition to all this, he wrote book reviews for The Literary Digest, Town & Country, The Nation, and The New York Times. By June 1909, Kilmer had abandoned any aspirations to continue teaching and relocated to New York City, the literary and publishing mecca of the United States, deciding to focus solely on a career as a writer.[18]

From 1909 to 1912, Kilmer was employed by Funk and Wagnalls. which was preparing an edition of The Standard Dictionary. According to Hillis,

"[Kilmer's] job was to define ordinary words assigned to him at five cents for each word defined. This was a job at which one would ordinarily earn ten to twelve dollars a week, but Kilmer attacked the task with such vigor and speed that it was soon thought wisest to put him on a regular salary."[19]
Shortly after the publication of The Standard Dictionary in 1912, Kilmer became a special writer for the New York Times Review of Books and the New York Times Sunday Magazine and was often engaged in lecturing. Kilmer and his family then moved to Mahwah, New Jersey, where he resided until his service and death in World War I. Kilmer at this time was established as a published poet, and as a popular lecturer. According to Robert Holliday, Kilmer "frequently neglected to make any preparation for his speeches, not even choosing a subject until the beginning of the dinner which was to culminate in a specimen of his oratory. His constant research for the dictionary, and, later on, for his New York Times articles, must have given him a store of knowledge at his fingertips to be produced at a moment's notice for these emergencies."[20]


In 1911, Kilmer's first book of verse, entitled Summer of Love was published. Kilmer would later write that "...some of the poems in it, those inspired by genuine love, are not things of which to be ashamed, and you, understanding, would not be offended by the others."[21]

The Kilmers' daughter Rose (1912-1917) was stricken with Poliomyelitis (also known as infantile paralysis) shortly after birth. The Kilmers turned to their religious faith, and in correspondence between Joyce Kilmer and Father James J. Daly, Joyce and Aline began a conversion to Roman Catholicism into which they were received in 1913. In one of these letters, Kilmer writes:

"Of course you understand my conversion. I am beginning to understand it. I believed in the Catholic position, the Catholic view of ethics and aesthetics, for a long time. But I wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental - in fact I wanted Faith.

"Just off Broadway, on the way from the Hudson Tube Station to the Times Building, there is a Church, called the Church of the Holy Innocents. Since it is in the heart of the Tenderloin, this name is strangely appropriate - for there surely is need of youth and innocence. Well, every morning for months I stopped on my way to the office and prayed in this Church for faith. When faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralyzed daughter. Her lifeless hands led me; I think her tiny feet know beautiful paths. You understand this and it gives me a selfish pleasure to write it down."[22][23]
The year 1913 approached Kilmer in trials of suffering and faith but also in success. With the publication of "Trees" in the magazine Poetry, Kilmer gained immense popularity as a poet across the United States. At this time his popularity and success as a lecturer, particularly one seeking to reach a Catholic audience, led Robert Holliday to write: "It is not an unsupported assertion to say that he was in his time and place the laureate of the Catholic Church."[24] Trees and Other Poems (1914) was published the following year. The next few years saw an immense output of work, with Kilmer continuing his lecturing, his literary criticism and essays, writing poetry, and finding the time in 1915 to become poetry editor of Current Literature and contributing editor of Warner's Library of the World's Best Literature. After the publication of The Circus and Other Essays in 1916, the following year would see the publication of three books, Literature in the Making, Main Street and Other Poems, and Dreams and Images: An Anthology of Catholic Poets.


War years: 1917-1918

Within a few days after the United States declared war on Germany and entered the first World War in April 1917, Kilmer enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard. In August, Kilmer was initially assigned as a statistician with the 69th Volunteer Infantry Regiment (better known as the "Fighting 69th" and later redesignated the 165th Infantry Regiment), of the 42nd "Rainbow" Division, and quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant. Though he was eligible for commission as an officer and often recommended for such posts during the course of the war, Kilmer refused stating that he would rather be a sergeant in the Fighting 69th than an officer in any other regiment.[25]

In September, before Kilmer was deployed, the Kilmer family was met with both with the contrary emotions of tragedy and rejoicing. The Kilmer's daughter Rose had died, and twelve days later, their son Christopher was born.[26] Kilmer sailed to Europe with his regiment on 31 October 1917, arriving in France two weeks later. Before his departure, Kilmer had contracted with publishers to write a book about the war, deciding upon the title Here and There with the Fighting Sixty-Ninth. Kilmer wrote home, stating "I have not written anything in prose or verse since I got here - except statistics - but I've stored up a lot of memories to turn into copy when I get a chance."[27] Unfortunately, Kilmer never was to write such a book. During his time in Europe, Kilmer did write prose sketches and poetry, most notably the poem "Rouge Bouquet", which was written after the First Battalion of the 42nd Division, which had been occupying the Rouge Bouquet forest northeast of the French village of Baccarat, which at the time was a quiet sector of the front?-was struck by a heavy artillery bombardment on the afternoon of 12 March 1918 that buried 21 men of the unit, of which 14 remained entombed.[28][29][30]

Kilmer sought more hazardous duty and was transferred to the Regimental Intelligence Section, in April 1918. He wrote to his wife, Aline that, "Now I'm doing work I love - and work you may be proud of. None of the drudgery of soldiering, but a double share of glory and thrills."[31] According to Hillis:

"Kilmer's companions wrote: "He was worshipped by the men about him. I have heard them speak with awe of his coolness and his nerve in scouting patrols in No Man's Land." This coolness and his habit of choosing, with typical enthusiasm, the most dangerous and difficult missions, led to his death."[32]
During the Second Battle of Marne, there was heavy fighting throughout the last days of July 1918, and on 30 July 1918, Kilmer volunteered to accompany Major William "Wild Bill" Donovan when Donovan's First Battalion was sent to lead the day's attack.


Death and burial

During the course of the day, Kilmer led a scouting party to find the position of a German machine gun. When his comrades found him, some time later, they thought at first that he was peering over the edge of a little hill, where he had crawled for a better view. When he did not answer their call, they ran to him and found him dead. According to Father Duffy wrote: "A bullet had pierced his brain. His body was carried in and buried by the side of Ames. God rest his dear and gallant soul."[33] Kilmer died, likely immediately, from a sniper's bullet to the head near Muercy Farm, beside the Oureq River near the village of Seringes, in France, on 30 July 1918 at the age of 31. [34] For his valor, Kilmer was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) by the French Republic. [35]

Kilmer was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France. Although Kilmer is buried in France in an American military cemetery, a cenotaph is located on the Kilmer family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A memorial service was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. [36]


"Trees"

Though a prolific poet, Joyce Kilmer is chiefly known for a poem entitled "Trees" published in a collection entitled Trees and Other Poems (1914), after debuting in Poetry magazine in August 1913. Joyce Kilmer wrote "Trees" on 2 February 1913, in the Kilmer home in Mahwah, New Jersey.[37] The poem was dedicated to Mrs. Henry Mills Alden,[38] (Ada Foster Murray Alden), his wife's mother and a poet in her own right. [39] Other sources, which state it was written in Chicago, are unsubstantiated. "Trees" has been given several musical settings that were quite popular in the 1940s and 1950s, the most popular written by Oscar Rasbach in 1922, with renditions performed by Ernestine Schumann-Heink, John Charles Thomas, Nelson Eddy, Robert Merrill and Paul Robeson.

The text stated below is the original written by Kilmer.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

There have been several variations on the text, including many parody texts substituted to mimic Kilmer's seemingly simple rhyme and meter. Of the often repeated parodies, one of the most known is "Song of the Open Road" by Ogden Nash (1902-1971) in which Nash wrote:

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all.[40]

In the Our Gang short "Arbor Day," Alfalfa, after the cue in a Woodsman-spare-that-tree exchange with Spanky, sings "Trees," in what Leonard Maltin called "the poem's all-time worst rendition," with his whiny, strained voice.

In his album Caught in the Act, Victor Borge, at one point, when playing requests, says, "Sorry I don't know that 'Doggie in the Window'. I know one that comes pretty close to it." Then he starts to play "Trees."


Inspiration

According to Kilmer's son, Kenton, the poem?-which was not inspired by any specific tree but about trees in general?-was written "...in an upstairs bedroom... which served as Mother's and Dad's bedroom and also as Dad's office.... The window looked out down a hill, on our well-wooded lawn - trees of many kinds, from mature trees to thin saplings: oaks, maples, black and white birches, and I do not know what else."[41] However, a 1915 interview with Kilmer "pointed out that while Kilmer might be widely known for his affection for trees, his affection was certainly not sentimental - the most distinguished feature of Kilmer's property was a colossal woodpile outside his home. The house stood in the middle of a forest and what lawn it possessed was obtained only after Kilmer had spent months of weekend toil in chopping down trees, pulling up stumps, and splitting logs. Kilmer's neighbors had difficulty in believing that a man who could do that could also be a poet."[42]

Many locations across the United States maintain legends that certain trees in their localities inspired Kilmer to write the poem. Most noted among them is the tradition in Kilmer's birthplace, New Brunswick, New Jersey, which states that Kilmer wrote the poem "Trees" after a large white oak (Quercus alba) tree that was located on the outskirts of town on the campus of Cook College (now known as the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences), at Rutgers University.[43] This tree, estimated to be over three hundred years old, was so weakened by age and disease that it had to be removed in 1963.[44] Currently, saplings from acorns of the historic tree are being grown at the site, throughout the Middlesex County area, and in major arboretums around the United States. The remains of the original Kilmer Oak are currently kept in storage at Rutgers University.[45][46]

Guy Davenport suggests quite a different inspiration. "Trees were favorite symbols for Yeats, Frost, and even the young Pound. [ . . . ] But Kilmer had been reading about trees in another context [,] the movement to stop child labor and set up nursery schools in slums. [ . . . ] Margaret McMillan . . . had the happy idea that a breath of fresh air and an intimate acquaintance with grass and trees were worth all the pencils and desks in the whole school system. [ . . . ] The English word for gymnasium equipment is 'apparatus.' And in her book Labour and Childhood (1907) you will find this sentence: 'Apparatus can be made by fools, but only God can make a tree.' "[47]


Scansion and analysis

His poem "Trees" has twelve lines. The second and eleventh lines possess seven syllables; all the others have eight syllables in strict iambic tetrameter. The poem's rhyme scheme is rhyming couplets rendered aa bb cc dd ee aa.[48]

Despite its deceptive simplicity in rhyme and meter, "Trees" is notable for its use of personification and anthropomorphic imagery: the tree of the poem, which Kilmer depicts as female, is depicted as pressing its mouth to the earth's breast, looking at God, and raising its "leafy arms" to pray. The tree of the poem also has human physical attributes ?- it has a "hungry mouth", arms, hair (in which Robins nest), and a bosom.[49]


Criticism and influence

Joyce Kilmer's reputation as a poet is staked largely on the widespread popularity of one poem, namely "Trees". His untimely death removed from him the opportunity to develop into a more mature poet. Because "Trees" is often dismissed by modern critics and scholars as simple verse, much of Kilmer's work, especially his literary criticism, has slipped into obscurity. Only a very few of his poems have appeared in anthologies, and with the exception of "Trees" and to a much lesser extent "Rouge Bouquet", almost none have obtained lasting widespread popularity.[50]

The entire corpus of Kilmer's work appears in the early years of the modernist movement, especially before the influence of the Lost Generation. In the years after Kilmer's death, poetry went in new directions, as is seen especially in the work of T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) and Ezra Pound. The years in which Kilmer was writing, and the conservatism and traditional style he used, were the last of the Romantic era. Kilmer's poetry is often criticized for failing to break free of traditional modes, rhyme and meter, or themes, and for being too sentimental to be taken seriously.[51]

Kilmer's early works were inspired by, and were imitative of, the poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Ernest Dowson, Aubrey Beardsley, and William Butler Yeats. It was later through the influence of works by Coventry Patmore, Francis Thompson, and those of Alice Meynell and her children Viola Meynell and Francis Meynell, that Kilmer seems to have become interested in Catholicism.[52] Kilmer wrote of his influences:

"I have come to regard them with intense admiration. Patmore seems to me to be a greater poet than Francis Thompson. He has not the rich vocabulary, the decorative erudition, the Shelleyan enthusiasm, which distinguish the 'Sister Songs' and the 'Hound of Heaven,' but he has a classical simplicity, a restraint and sincerity which make his poems satisfying."[53]
Because he was initially raised Episcopalian (or Anglican), Kilmer became literary editor of the Anglican weekly, The Churchman, before his conversion to Roman Catholicism. During this time he did considerable research into 16th and 17th century Anglican poets as well as metaphysical, or mystic poets of that time, including George Herbert, Thomas Traherne, Robert Herrick, Bishop Coxe, and Robert Stephen Hawker, the Vicar of Morwenstow, the latter whom he referred to as "a coast life-guard in a cassock." These poets also had an influence on Kilmer's writings.[54]

Critics compared to British Catholic writers, Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton, suggesting that his reputation might have risen to the level where he would have been considered their American counterpart if not for his untimely death.[55].[56]


Legacy

Several municipalities across the United States have named parks, schools and streets and squares in honor of Joyce Kilmer, including his hometown of New Brunswick, New Jersey, which renamed Codwise Avenue, the street on which he was born, "Joyce Kilmer Avenue."

In the 1940 film, The Fighting 69th directed by William Keighley and starring James Cagney, Kilmer is depicted as a minor character played by actor Jeffrey Lynn (1909-1995).
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest (3,800 acres/15 km²) located in the Nantahala National Forest, near Robbinsville in Graham County, North Carolina was dedicated in Kilmer's memory on 10 July 1936.
Camp Kilmer, opened in 1942 in what is now Edison, New Jersey, an embarkation center for soldiers going to the European theatre during World War II. Many of the original buildings remain, and it is now the location of the Livingston campus of Rutgers University where a library is named after him.[57]
The State of New Jersey and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority have named a rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike, located in East Brunswick Township after him.[58]
The Philolexian Society of Columbia University, a collegiate literary society of which Kilmer was Vice President, holds the annual Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest in his honor.[59]
Joyce Kilmer Park, is located along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The park is located very close to Yankee Stadium.

Ira Gershwin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born December 6, 1896(1896-12-06)
New York City
Died August 17, 1983 (aged 86)
Beverly Hills

Ira Gershwin (6 December 1896 - 17 August 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century.

With George he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as "I Got Rhythm," "Embraceable You," "The Man I Love" and "Someone to Watch Over Me," and the opera Porgy and Bess.

The success the brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. However, his mastery of songwriting continued after the early death of George; and he wrote further hit songs with composers Jerome Kern ("Long Ago (And Far Away)", Kurt Weill and Harold Arlen.

His critically-acclaimed book Lyrics on Several Occasions of 1959, an amalgam of autobiography and annotated anthology, is an important source for studying the art of the lyricist in the golden age of American popular song.





Biography

Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershowitz) was reportedly shy as a young boy and spent most of his time at home reading. However, from grammar school through college he played a prominent part in several school newspapers and magazines. He graduated from Townsend Harris High School where he met Yip Harburg. He graduated from City College of New York. While his younger brother began composing and "plugging" in Tin Pan Alley from the age of eighteen, Ira worked as a cashier in his father's Turkish baths. It was not until 1921 that Ira became involved in the music business. Alex Aarons signed Ira to write the music for his next show (ultimately produced by Abraham Erlanger), Two Little Girls in Blue, with co-composers Vincent Youmans and Paul Lannin. His lyrics were well received and allowed him to successfully enter the theatre world with just one show.

It wasn't until 1924 that Ira and George teamed up to write the music for their first Broadway hit, Lady, Be Good! Once the brothers joined together, their combined talents became one of the most influential forces in the history of American Musical Theatre. Together, they wrote the music for over twelve shows and four films. Some of their more famous works include "The Man I Love", "Fascinating Rhythm", "Someone to Watch Over Me", "I Got Rhythm" "Summertime" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me". Their partnership continued up until George's sudden death from a brain tumor in 1937.

Following his brother's death, Ira waited nearly three years before writing again. After this interlude, he teamed up with such accomplished composers as Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, and Harold Arlen. Over the next fourteen years, Ira continued to write the lyrics for many film scores and a few Broadway shows.

Ira died on August 17, 1983, and is now interred in the Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Together, the Gershwin siblings left behind a legacy that would help shape American Musical Theatre. Solely, Ira played a huge part in bringing about a new type of song lyric: a smart, witty, vernacular style that the common man could relate to and enjoy.

American singer, pianist, musical historian Michael Feinstein worked for Ira in the lyricist's latter years, helping him with his archive. Several lost musical treasures were unearthed during this period and Feinstein performed some of the material.


Legacy

The music of George and Ira Gershwin runs deep in the American consciousness. The opening clarinet glissando from Rhapsody in Blue, the taxi horn theme from An American in Paris and the songs - "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", "The Man I Love", "Someone to Watch Over Me", "Fascinating Rhythm", and many others - are instantly recognizable.

Ira Gershwin was a joyous listener to the sounds of the modern world. He noted in a diary: "Heard in a day: An elevator's purr, telephone's ring, telephone's buzz, a baby's moans, a shout of delight, a screech from a 'flat wheel', hoarse honks, a hoarse voice, a tinkle, a match scratch on sandpaper, a deep resounding boom of dynamiting in the impending subway, iron hooks on the gutter."

In 1987, Ira's widow, Lenore Gershwin, established the Ira Gershwin Literacy Center. Lenore Gershwin provided $10,000 to establish this literacy center for primarily Hispanic and Chinese Americans at University Settlement, a century-old institution at 185 Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side, where the Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist and his younger brother George, the composer, spent many after-school hours.

In 2007, The Library of Congress named their Prize for Popular Song after him and his brother George. Recognizing the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world's culture, the prize will be given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins. On March 1, 2007, Paul Simon, one of America's most respected songwriters and musicians, was announced to be the recipient of the first annual Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

Agnes Moorehead
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Agnes Robertson Moorehead
Born December 6, 1900(1900-12-06)
Clinton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died April 30, 1974 (aged 73)
Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.
Spouse(s) Jack G. Lee (1930-1952)
Robert Gist (1954-1958)
[show]Awards
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series
1967 The Wild Wild West
Golden Globe Awards
Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1945 Mrs. Parkington
1965 Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
Other Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
1942 The Magnificent Ambersons

Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900 - April 30, 1974) was an Oscar-nominated American character actress.

Although she appeared in more than 70 films and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than 30 years, Moorehead is probably most widely known to modern audiences for her role as the witch Endora in the television series Bewitched. While rarely playing leads in films, Moorehead's skill at character development and range earned her one Emmy, and two Golden Globe awards in addition to four Oscar and six Emmy nominations. Moorehead's transition to television won acclaim and accolades for her work in drama and in comedy. She could play many different character types, but often portrayed haughty, arrogant characters.





Early life

Moorehead was born on December 6, 1900 in Clinton, Massachusetts of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh ancestry, of a Presbyterian minister, John Henderson Moorehead, and his wife, Mildred McCauley, a former singer. She later shaved six years off her age by claiming to have been born in 1906. Moorehead recalled her first public performance was at the age of three, reciting "The Lord's Prayer" in her father's church. The family moved to St. Louis, Missouri and Moorehead's ambition to become an actress grew "very strong". Her mother indulged her active imagination often asking "Who are you today, Agnes?", while Moorehead and her sister [1] would often engage in mimicry, often coming to the dinner table and imititating parishioners. Moorehead noted and was encouraged by her father's amused reactions. She joined the chorus of the "St Louis Municipal Opera Company", and in addition to her interest in acting, developed a lifelong interest in religion; in later years actors such as Dick Sargent would recall Moorehead arriving on the set with "the Bible in one hand and the script in the other". [2]

She graduated from Central High School in 1918. Although her father did not discourage Moorehead's acting ambitions, he insisted that she obtain a formal education. Moorehead earned a bachelor's degree, with a major in biology, from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio in 1923, and while there also appeared in college stage plays. She later received an honorary doctorate in literature from Muskingum, and served for a year on its board of trustees. When her family moved to Reedsburg, Wisconsin, she taught public school for five years in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, while earning a master's degree in English and public speaking at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She then pursued post-graduate studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which she was graduated with honors in 1929. Although Moorehead's New York Times death notice (May 1, 1974) states that she attained a doctoral degree from Bradley University, in fact Bradley University did not offer doctoral degrees in literature at the time. Moorehead received an honorary doctoral degree from Bradley University.


Career

Moorehead's early career was unsteady, and although she was able to find stage work she was often unemployed and forced to go hungry. She later recalled going four days without food, and said that it had taught her "the value of a dollar". She found work in radio, and was soon in demand, often working on several programs in a single day. She believed that it offered her excellent training and allowed her to develop her voice to create a variety of characterizations. Moorehead met the actress Helen Hayes who encouraged her to try to enter films, but her first attempts were met with failure. Rejected as not being "the right type", Moorehead returned to radio.

She met Orson Welles and by 1937 was a member of his Mercury Theatre Group, along with Joseph Cotten. She appeared in his radio production Julius Caesar, had a regular role in the serial The Shadow and was one of the players in his War of the Worlds production. In 1939, Welles moved the Mercury Theatre Group to Hollywood, where he started working for RKO Studios. Several of his radio performers joined him, and Moorehead made her film debut as his mother in Citizen Kane (1941). She also appeared in his films Journey into Fear (1943) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). She received a New York Film Critics Award and an Academy Award nomination for her performance in the latter film.

Moorehead played another strong role in The Big Street (1942) with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, and then appeared in two films that failed to find an audience, Government Girl with Olivia de Havilland and The Youngest Profession with Virginia Weidler.

By the mid 1940s, Moorehead joined MGM, negotiating a $6,000 a week contract with the provision to also perform on radio, an unusual clause at the time. Moorehead explained that MGM usually refused to allow their actors to play on radio as "the actors didn't have the knowledge or the taste of the judgement to appear on the right sort of show". [2]

She skillfully portrayed puritanical matrons, neurotic spinsters, possessive mothers, and comical secretaries throughout her career. Moorehead was part of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air radio program in the 1930s and appeared in Broadway productions of Don Juan in Hell in 1951-1952, and Lord Pengo in 1962-1963. She played Parthy Hawks, wife of Cap'n Andy and mother of Magnolia, in MGM's hit 1951 remake of Show Boat.

During the 1940s and 1950s, she was one of the most in demand actresses for radio dramas, and in 1943 starred in the legendary Suspense play Sorry, Wrong Number, written by Lucille Fletcher. Moorehead played a selfish, neurotic woman who overhears a murder being plotted via crossed phone wires who eventually realizes she is the intended victim. She recreated the performance many times on the radio (always using her original, dog-eared script), recorded an album of the drama in 1952, and performed scenes from the story in her one-woman show in the 1950s.

Sorry, Wrong Number also inspired writers of the television series The Twilight Zone to script an episode with Moorehead in mind.[3] In "The Invaders" (broadcast 27 January 1961) Moorehead played a woman whose isolated farm is plagued by a mysterious intruders. In "Sorry, Wrong Number" Moorehead offered a famed, bravura performance using only her voice, and for "The Invaders" she was offered a script where she had no dialogue at all.


In 1964, Moorehead accepted the role of Endora, in the situation comedy Bewitched. She later commented that she had not expected it to succeed and that she ultimately felt trapped by its success, however she had negotiated that she would appear in only eight of every twelve episodes made, therefore allowing her sufficient time to pursue other projects. She also felt that the television writing was often below standard and dismissed many of the Bewitched scripts as "hack" in a 1965 interview. The role brought her a level of recognition that she had not received before as Bewitched was in the top 10 programs for the first few years it screened.

Moorehead received six Emmy Award nominations, but was quick to remind interviewers that she had enjoyed a long and distinguished career. Despite her ambivalence, she remained with Bewitched until its run ended in 1972. She commented to the New York Times in 1974, "I've been in movies and played theater from coast to coast, so I was quite well known before Bewitched, and I don't particularly want to be identified as a witch." Later that year she said that had enjoyed playing the role, but that it was not challenging and the show itself was "not breathtaking" although her flamboyant and colorful character appealed to children. She expressed a fondness for the show's star, Elizabeth Montgomery, and said that she had enjoyed working with her, but Dick Sargent had a more difficult relationship with Moorehead, and described her as "a tough old bird...very self-involved." [2]

Awards
Preceded by
Joan Fontaine
for Suspicion NYFCC Award for Best Actress
1942
forThe Magnificent Ambersons Succeeded by
Ida Lupino
for The Hard Way


Private life

Moorehead married actor John Griffith Lee in 1930, and they divorced in 1952. Moorehead and Lee adopted an orphan named Sean in 1949, but it remains unclear whether the adoption was legal, although Moorehead did raise the child until he ran away from home. In 1954, she married actor Robert Gist, and they divorced in 1958. In the years since her death, rumors about Moorehead's being a lesbian have been widespread (most notoriously in the book Hollywood Lesbians by Boze Hadleigh, whose source for the alleged lesbianism was Paul Lynde); however, Moorehead biographer Charles Transberg (I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead, 2005) interviewed several of the actress's closest friends, including some who were openly gay, who all stated the rumor is untrue. Debbie Reynolds explicitly denied to film historian Robert Osborne that her "best friend" Moorehead was gay.[4]

Moorehead was a devout Presbyterian (Reynolds described her as "terribly religious"[4]) and, in interviews, often spoke of her relationship with God. Erin Murphy stated that the actress would read Bible stories to the children affiliated with Bewitched. Shortly before her death, Moorehead, who embraced her Reformed Calvinist roots, sought conservative causes to bequest her estate. This angered some of her Hollywood connections and has been postulated as the reason for the rumors of lesbianism.

Agnes Moorehead died of uterine cancer in Rochester, Minnesota,[5] not lung cancer as was long believed.

While never confirmed, some suspect that Moorehead's cancer was a result of having been exposed to radiation at a site previously used for nuclear testing while filming The Conqueror (1956) in Utah. Moorehead believed her cancer was related to this exposure, and commented in an interview shortly before her death, "I wish I'd never done that damn movie!" There is no definitive proof that the movie caused her illness.

Moorehead willed her 1967 Emmy for The Wild Wild West and her private papers to Muskingum College, including her home in Rix Mills, Ohio. She left her family's Ohio estate and farmlands, Moorehead Manor, to Bob Jones University, as well as some biblical studies books from her personal library. Her will stipulated that BJU should use the farm for retreats and special meetings "with a Christian emphasis," but the distance of the estate from the South Carolina school rendered it mostly useless. In May 1976, BJU traded the farmlands with an Ohio college for $25,000 and a collection of her library books. Moorehead also left her professional papers, scripts, Christmas cards and scrapbooks to the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

In 1994, Agnes Moorehead was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

She is interred at Dayton Memorial Park in Dayton, Ohio.

Dave Brubeck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Background information

Birth name David Warren Brubeck
Born December 6, 1920 (1920-12-06) (age 87)
Origin Concord, California, U.S.
Genre(s) Jazz
Cool jazz
West Coast jazz
Third stream
Occupation(s) Pianist
Composer
Bandleader
Instrument(s) Piano
Associated
acts Paul Desmond
Gerry Mulligan
Joe Morello
Eugene Wright

David Warren Brubeck (born December 6, 1920 in Concord, California[1]), better known as Dave Brubeck, is a U.S. jazz pianist. Regarded as a genius in his field, he has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills. Much of his music employs unusual time signatures.

His long-time musical partner, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, wrote the Dave Brubeck Quartet's most famous piece, "Take Five", which is in 5/4 time and has endured as a jazz classic. Brubeck experimented with time signatures through much of his career, recording "Pick Up Sticks" in 6/4, "Unsquare Dance" in 7/4, and "Blue Rondo à la Turk" in 9/8. He also provided music for the TV animated miniseries "This Is America, Charlie Brown".





Early life and career

Brubeck's mother studied piano in England and intended to become a concert pianist; at home she taught piano for extra money. Brubeck was not particularly interested in learning by any particular method, but preferred to create his own melodies and therefore avoided learning to read sheet music.

In college, Brubeck was nearly expelled when one of his professors discovered that he could not read sheet music. Several of his professors came forward arguing for his ability with counterpoint and harmony, but the school was still afraid that it would cause a scandal, and only agreed to let Brubeck graduate once he promised never to teach piano.[2]

After graduating from the University of the Pacific in 1942, Brubeck was drafted into the army and served overseas in George Patton's Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge. While serving as a rifleman, Brubeck met Paul Desmond in early 1944.[3]He played in a band, quickly integrating it and gaining both popularity and deference. He returned to college after serving nearly 4 years in the army, this time attending Mills College and studying under Darius Milhaud, who encouraged him to study fugue and orchestration but not classical piano (Oddly enough, most critics consider Brubeck something of a classical pianist playing jazz).

After completing his studies under Milhaud, Brubeck signed with Berkeley, California's Fantasy Records. He started an octet and also a trio which included Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty. Later the trio became a quartet with Paul Desmond. Highly experimental, the group made few recordings and got even fewer paying jobs. A bit discouraged, Brubeck started a trio with two of the members, not including Desmond, who had a band of his own, and spent several years playing nothing but jazz standards.[4]


The Dave Brubeck Quartet era

Following a near-fatal swimming accident which incapacitated him for several months, Brubeck organized The Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1951, with Desmond on saxophone. They took up a long residency at San Francisco's Black Hawk nightclub and gained great popularity touring college campuses, recording a series of albums with such titles as Jazz at Oberlin, Jazz Goes to College and Jazz Goes to Junior College. In 1954 he was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, the second jazz musician to be so honored (the first was Louis Armstrong on February 21st, 1949[1]).

In the mid-1950s, original Quartet members Bob Bates and Joe Dodge were respectively replaced by Eugene Wright and Joe Morello. Eugene Wright is African-American; in the late 1950s Brubeck cancelled many concerts because the club owners wanted him to bring a different bassist. He also cancelled a television appearance when he found out that the venue intended to keep Wright off-camera.

In 1959, the Dave Brubeck Quartet released Time Out, an album their label was enthusiastic about but nonetheless hesitant to release. The album contained all original compositions, almost none of which were in common time. Nonetheless, on the strength of these unusual time signatures (the album included "Take Five", "Blue Rondo à la Turk", and "Pick Up Sticks"), it quickly went platinum.

During this time, Dave Brubeck and his wife Iola were developing a jazz musical, The Real Ambassadors, which was based in part on experiences they and their colleagues had during foreign tours on behalf of the U.S. State Department. The soundtrack album, which featured Louis Armstrong, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, and Carmen McRae was recorded in 1961, and the musical itself was performed at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival.


The quartet followed up the success of Time Out with several more albums in the same vein, including Time Further Out (1961), Time in Outer Space, and Time Changes. These albums were also known for using contemporary paintings as cover art, featuring the work of Neil Fujita on Time Out, Joan Miró on Time Further Out, Franz Kline on Time in Outer Space, and Sam Francis on Time Changes. A high point for the group was their classic 1963 live album At Carnegie Hall, described by critic Richard Palmer as "arguably Dave Brubeck's greatest concert".

Apart from the Jazz Goes to College and the 'Time' series, Brubeck recorded several records featuring his compositions based on local music. Jazz Impressions of USA, Jazz Impressions of Japan, Jazz Impressions of Eurasia and Jazz Impressions of New York may not be his most famous works, but all are brilliant examples of the quartet's studio work.

In the early 1960s Dave Brubeck was the program director of WJZZ-FM radio. He achieved his vision of an all jazz format radio station along with his friend and neighbor John E. Metts, one of the first African Americans in senior radio management. From 1956 - 1965 Mr. Metts was the Vice President of an existing news station in Bridgeport, CT, call letters:WICC "Wicc600". In 1964 WJZZ switched to broadcasting the "Top 100" - most likely due to the British Invasion of Rock and Roll.


Later career

The Dave Brubeck Quartet broke up in 1967 except for a 25th anniversary reunion in 1976; Brubeck continued playing with Desmond and then began recording with Gerry Mulligan. Desmond died in 1977 and left all residuals including the immense royalties for "Take Five", to the American Red Cross.[5] Mulligan and Brubeck recorded together for six years and then Brubeck formed another group with Perry Robinson on clarinet (or Jerry Bergonzi on saxophone), and three of his sons, Dan, Darius, and Chris, on drums, bass, and keyboards.


Today, Brubeck continues to write new works, including orchestrations and ballet scores, and tours about 80 cities each year, up to recently about 20 of them in Europe in autumn. From his 85th birthday his European appearances will be limited. His area of focus is the US, where he still premieres new works, like the Cannery Row Suite, and a project with a big band. His quartet now includes alto saxophonist and flautist Bobby Militello, bassist Michael Moore (who replaced Alec Dankworth), and his long-time drummer Randy Jones and has recently worked extensively with the London Symphony Orchestra.

At the Monterey Jazz Festival in September 2006, Brubeck debuted his commissioned work, Cannery Row Suite, a jazz opera drawn from the characters in John Steinbeck's American classic writing about Monterey's roots as a sardine fishing and packing town. Iola, Dave Brubeck's wife since 1942, is his personal secretary, manager and lyricist. She co-authored the Cannery Row Suite with Dave. His performance of this as well as a number of jazz standards with his current quartet was the buzz of the 49th Monterey Jazz Festival. Dave Brubeck's family has always been as important to him as his music has been.


Personal life

Four of Brubeck's six children are professional musicians. Darius, the eldest, is an accomplished pianist, producer, educator and performer. Dan is a renowned percussist, Chris is a multi-instrumentalist and composer. Matthew, the youngest, is a versatile cellist with an impressive list of composing and performance credits. Dave Brubeck's children often join with him in concerts and in the recording studio.

Dave Brubeck believed the casualties of World War II contradicted the Ten Commandments, and the war evoked a spiritual awakening. Brubeck became a Catholic in 1980, shortly after completing the Mass To Hope which had been commissioned by Ed Murray, editor of the national Catholic weekly Our Sunday Visitor. Although he had spiritual interests before then he indicates "I didn't convert to Catholicism, because I wasn't anything to convert from. I just joined the Catholic Church."[6] In 1996, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, Brubeck was awarded the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics, during the University's Commencement. He performed "Travellin' Blues" for the graduating class of 2006.

Wally Cox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Wallace Maynard Cox
Born December 6, 1924
Detroit, Michigan
Died February 15, 1973 (aged 48)

Years active 1948 - 1973

Wallace Maynard Cox (December 6, 1924 - February 15, 1973) was a television and motion picture actor.


Biography

Cox was born in Detroit, Michigan. He moved with his divorced mother, mystery author Eleanor Atkinson and a younger sister to Evanston, Illinois, when he was about 10, where he met and became close friends with another neighborhood child, Marlon Brando. Cox's family moved fairly frequently, eventually to Chicago, then New York City, then back to Detroit where he graduated from Denby High School.

During World War II he and his family returned to New York City, where Cox attended CCNY, had four months of Army service, and then attended New York University. He supported his invalid mother and sister by making and selling jewelry, in a small shop, and at parties ?- where he started doing comedy monologues for the guests, which were well-received enough to lead to regular performances at nightclubs such as the Village Vanguard, beginning in December 1948. At one point, he became the roommate of his boyhood friend, Marlon Brando, who encouraged him to study acting with Stella Adler. Cox and Brando remained very close friends for the rest of Cox's life, and Brando is reported [1] to have kept Cox's ashes in his bedroom. Brando was quoted as saying, "Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed." Wally Cox was an alleged long time lover of Brando's. Brando is quoted as saying: "If Wally had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after." After Cox died, Brando kept his ashes for 30 years; they were eventually scattered with his own. Cox's third wife only discovered he possessed them after reading an interview in Time where Brando is quoted as saying: "I have Wally's ashes in my house. I talk to him all the time." She wanted to sue, but her lawyers would not accept the case

Cox appeared in Broadway musical reviews, night clubs, and early TV comedy-variety programs in the period 1949-1951, creating a huge impact with a starring role as a well-meaning but ineffective policeman on Philco Television Playhouse in 1951. Producer Fred Coe approached Cox about a starring role in a proposed live TV sitcom, Mr. Peepers, which he accepted. Peepers ran on NBC for three years and made Cox a household name in the US.

Other notable roles were as the eponymous hero of The Adventures of Hiram Holliday (1956-1957), based on a series of short stories of Paul Gallico, collected into a book of the same name; a regular occupant of the upper left square on the television game show Hollywood Squares (1966-1973); and the voice of the animated cartoon character Underdog, (1964-1973). He also guested on the game show What's My Line and on the pilot of Mission: Impossible (1966). He also made several appearances on Here's Lucy as well as The Beverly Hillbillies and evening talk shows.

He played character roles in more than 20 motion pictures and worked frequently in guest-star roles in a large number of TV drama, comedy and variety series in the 1960s and early 1970s. Among these was a role as a down-on-his-luck prospector seeking a better life for his family in an episode of Alias Smith and Jones, the western comedy. His television and screen persona was that of a shy, timid but kind man who wore thick eyeglasses and spoke in a pedantic, high-pitched voice.

Cox published a number of books, including Mr. Peepers (1955), a novel created by adapting several scripts from the TV series; My Life as a Small Boy, an idealized depiction of his childhood (1961); a parody and update of Horatio Alger in Ralph Makes Good (1966), which was probably originally a screen treatment for an unmade film intended to star Cox; and a children's book, The Tenth Life of Osiris Oakes (1972). Cox also wrote and performed songs, and even had a yodeling routine.

Cox protested in vain to reporters and interviewers over the years that he was nothing like Peepers; he was physically quite strong, hiked and rode a motorcycle and especially in his later years sometimes displayed a sarcastic and peevish personality. In a 1975 Tonight Show appearance, actor Robert Blake spoke of how much he missed Cox, who was described as being adventuresome and athletic.

Cox died of a heart attack, rumored (but not proven) to have been brought on by a sleeping pill overdose, in Los Angeles at the age of 48. Eventually his ashes were mingled with those of Brando and another friend and scattered in Death Valley, California.

Marriages- Patricia Tiernan (1967 - 15 February 1973) (his death), Milagros Tirado Cox (7 September 1963 - 29 December 1970) (divorced) 2 children, Marilyn Gennaro (7 June 1954 - ?).

Bobby Van
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bobby Van (December 6, 1928-July 31, 1980) was a musical actor probably best known for his career on Broadway in the 1950s and 1970s.

Bobby Van was born Robert Jack Stein to vaudeville parents in The Bronx, New York City, and grew up backstage to many memorable Depression-era acts. Originally, Van took King as his stage name (after his father's stage name, from the trio "Gordon, Reed and King"). He finally opted for Van, supposedly after seeing a Van Johnson poster hanging in his sister's bedroom.

Van began his career as a musician, playing trumpet. When his band played a venue in the Catskills, Van was asked to fill in as a song and dance man for another act. His act drew rave reviews, and gave Van a thrill out of performing live as a solo act.

In the early 1950s, while Van was married to starlet Diane Garrett, he appeared in several films and television shows, including the title role in The Affairs of Dobie Gillis and a role in the classic MGM musical Kiss Me, Kate (both 1953). However, most of Van's roles involved singing and dancing, and the era of the Hollywood film musical was waning.

In the 1960s, Van did comedy work with Mickey Rooney in films and television. He also did some choreography , as his father had years earlier. In 1968, Van married Broadway actress Elaine Joyce, and together they appeared on 1970s game shows like Tattletales and Match Game. Van also hosted short-lived game shows Showoffs, The Fun Factory and Make Me Laugh. Their only child, daughter Taylor, was born in 1977.

In 1973 he appeared in the ill-fated musical remake of Lost Horizon, the last occasion on which he took his traditional song-and-dance persona to the big screen. Van's last television appearance was as the host for the Mrs. America Pageant in 1980, which he had emceed for several years.

In 1979, Van was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He survived the initial surgery, but after a year-long battle with cancer, he succumbed to the disease in Los Angeles at the age of 51 and was interred at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park in Burbank.

JoBeth Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


JoBeth Williams (born December 6, 1948) is an American Emmy & Golden Globe nominated television and film actress as well as an Academy Award (short subject category) nominated director.




Biography

Margaret Jobeth Williams was born in Houston, Texas and attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island intending to become a child psychologist. Instead, she turned to theater (her father was an opera singer), training at the Trinity Repertory Company during which time she took voice lessons to help lose her "Texas-twang" accent. Following this, she moved to New York City and began to appear on television series in the mid-1970s. Her first television role was on the children's Boston produced, first run syndicated television series "Jabberwocky"(see entry), which debuted in 1974. Her character was named, appropriately enough, JoBeth. She joined the "Jabberwocky" cast in season two, replacing the original hostess, Joanne Sopko. The series ran until 1978.

Williams' feature film debut came in 1979's Kramer vs. Kramer as a girlfriend of Dustin Hoffman's character, memorably quizzed by his son after being discovered walking nude to the bathroom.

She is perhaps most recognized for her role in Poltergeist (1982) as pot-smoking suburban housewife Diane Freeling (she reprised her character in the sequel, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, 1986). A year later she was part of the ensemble comedy-drama The Big Chill (1983). This led to her only major starring role in a studio feature film, American Dreamer (1984) opposite Tom Conti.

Williams continued to work in television in both groundbreaking TV films like The Day After (1983), Adam (1983) Baby M (1988), Murder Ordained (1987) and My Name is Bill W. (1989) as well as network series such as Frasier and a brief TV series version of John Grisham's The Client in the lead role of "Reggie Love" (which had been played by Susan Sarandon onscreen). She has received three Emmy nominations to date (for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special for her work in Adam and Baby M; and for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in Frasier)

In 1995 she was nominated for an Academy Award for her 1994 live action short, On Hope. It was her debut as a director.

She appeared on an episode of 24 as Christopher Henderson (Peter Weller)'s wife, Miriam, who literally takes a (non-fatal) bullet for her husband.

She is married to TV and film director John Pasquin (with whom she worked on Jungle 2 Jungle); they have two children, Nick and Will.

Tom Hulce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Thomas Edward Hulce
Born December 6, 1953 (1953-12-06) (age 54)
Whitewater, Wisconsin
[show]Awards
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie
1996 The Heidi Chronicles

Thomas Hulce (born December 6, 1953) is an Academy Award-nominated, Tony Award and Emmy Award-winning American actor and producer.





Early life

Born in Whitewater, Wisconsin, Hulce was raised in Plymouth, Michigan. He wanted to be a singer as a small child, but switched to acting when his voice changed. He graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy and then obtained his degree from North Carolina School of the Arts.


Career

Hulce's first film role was in the James Dean-influenced film 9/30/55 in 1977. His next was in the highly popular National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). In 1984, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Mozart in Amadeus, losing to his co-star, F. Murray Abraham. Other films include Echo Park (1986), Slam Dance (1987), Shadow Man (1988), Dominick and Eugene (1988), Parenthood (1989), The Inner Circle (1991), Fearless (1993), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) (as the voice of the protagonist Quasimodo), and Stranger Than Fiction (2006). He also played 1960s civil rights activist Michael Schwerner in the 1990 TV-movie Murder in Mississippi.

Hulce produced the film adaptation of Michael Cunningham's A Home at the End of the World directed by Michael Mayer, who later directed Hulce's project Spring Awakening on Broadway.

On Broadway, Hulce starred in A Memory of Two Mondays, Equus, and A Few Good Men, for which he was Tony Award nominee in 1990. He appeared in the groundbreaking early AIDS-era drama The Normal Heart in London's West End and Hamlet at the Shakespeare Theater.

Hulce is a producer of the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit Spring Awakening. He shepherded two other major projects to fruition: the six-hour, two-evening stage adaptation of John Irving's The Cider House Rules, and Talking Heads, a festival of Alan Bennett's plays which won six Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, a special Outer Critics Circle Award, and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. Hulce also is heading a new musical project by Keith Bunin and Grammy Award-nominated singer/songwriter Patty Griffin, scheduled for a Spring 2007 premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company.

Hulce has been nominated for four Golden Globes, two Helen Hayes Awards and has won an Emmy Award for his performance in The Heidi Chronicles, as well as his aforementioned Tony award for producing the musical Spring Awakening.


Personal life

Tom Hulce was married in 1996 to Cecilia Ermini with whom he has one daughter, Anya, born in 1997. They divorced in August of 2005.

A Dog Named Sex



Everybody I know who has a dog usually calls him "Rover" or "Spot". I call mine Sex. Now, Sex has been very embarrassing to me. When I went to the City Hall to renew the dog's license, I told the clerk that I would like a license for Sex. He said, "I would like to have one too!" Then I said, "But she is a dog!" He said he didn't care what she looked like. I said, "You don't understand. ... I have had Sex since I was nine years old." He replied, "You must have been quite a strong boy." When I decided to get married, I told the minister that I would like to have Sex at the wedding. He told me to wait until after the wedding was over. I said, "But Sex has played a big part in my life and my whole world revolves around Sex." He said he didn't want to hear about my personal life and would not marry us in his church. I told him everyone would enjoy having Sex at the wedding. The next day we were married at the Justice of the Peace. My family is barred from the church from then on.

When my wife and I went on our honeymoon, I took the dog with me. When we checked into the motel, I told the clerk that I wanted a room for me and my wife and a special room for Sex. He said that every room in the motel is a place for sex. I said, "You don't understand. ... Sex keeps me awake at night." The clerk said, "Me too!"

One day I entered Sex in a contest. But before the competition began, the dog ran away. Another contestant asked me why I was just looking around. I told him that I was going to have Sex in the contest. He said that I should have sold my own tickets. "You don't understand," I said, "I hoped to have Sex on TV." He called me a show off.

When my wife and I separated, we went to court to fight for custody of the dog. I said, "Your Honor, I had Sex before I was married but Sex left me after I was married." The Judge said, "Me too!"

Last night Sex ran off again. I spent hours looking all over for her. A cop came over and asked me what I was doing in the alley at 4 o'clock in the morning. I said, "I'm looking for Sex." -- My case comes up next Thursday.

Well now I've been thrown in jail, been divorced and had more damn troubles with that dog than I ever foresaw. Why just the other day when I went for my first session with the psychiatrist, she asked me, "What seems to be the trouble?" I replied, "Sex has been my best friend all my life but now it has left me for ever. I couldn't live any longer so lonely." and the doctor said, "Look mister, you should understand that sex isn't a man's best friend
so get yourself a dog."

Very informative bio's today, Bob, and we love the little story about man's best friend. Just as a boy named sue, what we call pets and people can come back to haunt us later. Thanks for the smile, Boston.

I was particularly interested in Joyce Kilmer because I hadn't realized that he was such an accomplished man. His "Trees" is better left as a poem, however, because the melody to those lovely words simply does not fit.

My word, I cannot believe that Dave Brubeck is eighty seven. He is a non conformist when it comes to certain things so I guess it was his innate talent and his mother's urgings.

I don't think there are many people who don't know the Gershwin brothers, so let's hear one by them.

There's a saying old
Says that love is blind -
Still we're often told,
"Seek and ye shalI find."
So I'm going to seek
A certain lad I've had in mind.
Looking everywhere,
Haven't found him yet;
He's the big affair
I cannot forget.
Only man I ever
Think of with regret.
I'd like to add his initials to my monogram.
Tell me, where is the shepherd for this lost
lamb.
There's a somebody I'm longing to see
I hope that he
Turns out to be
Someone who'll watch over me.
I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood.
I know I could
Always be good
To one who'll watch over me.
Although he may not be the man some
Girls think of as handsome
To my heart he carries the key.
Won't you telI him please to put on some
speed -
Follow my lead -
Oh! How I need
Someone to watch over me.
Someone to watch over me.

I will be quite interested to see the puppy's pictures today, as some of the celebs are not familiar.

Hello WA2.

I was going to post just a few, but since you asked, I'll see what I can do Letty. Very slow loading today.

William S. Hart; Joyce Kilmer; Ira Gershwin; Agnes Moorehead; Dave Brubeck; Wally Cox; Bobby Van; Tom Hulce

Hey, Raggedy. Thanks for the great octet, PA. Wow! I am just like my daughter. Got my days and nights mixed up.

Recognize everyone but Bobby Van, and for a moment, I had forgotten exactly who played Mozart in that movie. Now I recall, thanks to your pix.

Too bad that I cannot locate lyrics to one single song by Paul Desmond, who originally played with Dave Brubeck. Let's hear a poem, then.

Joyce Kilmer

I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

"..who intimately lives with rain..."

I love that line, folks.

Written by Neil Young

See the sky about to rain
Locomotive pull the train
Whistle blowin through my brain
Signals curling on an open plain
Rolling down the track again
See the sky, about to rain

Some are bound for happiness
Some are bound for glory
Some are bound to live with less
Who can tell your story

See the sky about to rain
Locomotive pull the train
Whistle blowin through my brain
Signals curling on an open plain
Rolling down the track again
See the sky, about to rain

I was down in Dixie land
Played a silver fiddle
Played it loud and then the man
broke it down the middle
See the sky about to rain