Good morning, WA2K radio audience.
Welcome back, Rex. What a wonderful song by Led Zepplin, Maine. We all have our achilles tendon, no?
I tried to find Come O Come Emmanuel to play for today, but every version sounded like a dirge. Yikes.
What a surprise to find that Humphrey Bogart was born on this day, folks, so let's hear one from Casablanca and a traditional hymn, ok?
London Boys Singers - Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel
Oh come, Oh come, Emma-a-anuel
And ransom captive I-i-israel
That mourns in lonely e-exile here
Until the Son of Go-o-od appear-ear-ear
Rejoice, rejoice! Emma-a-anuel
Shall come to thee, Oh I-i-israel
Oh come, Thou Rod of Je-e-esse
Free thine own from Satan's tyr-yr-yranny
From depths of hell Thy peo-eople save
And give them victory o-o-o'er the grave
Rejoice, rejoice! Emma-a-anuel
Shall come to thee, Oh I-i-israel
Oh come, Thou Dayspring, co-o-ome and cheer
Our spirits by Thine a-a-advent here
Disperse the gloomy clou-ouds of night
And death's dark shadows pu-u-ut to fli-i-ight
Rejoice, rejoice! Emma-a-anuel
Shall come to thee, Oh I-i-israel
Oh come, Thou Key of Da-a-avid
Come and open wide our hea-eavenly home
Make safe the way that lea-eads on high
And close the path to mi-i-isery
Rejoice, rejoice! Emma-a-anuel
Shall come to thee, Oh I-i-israel
Oh come, Oh come, Thou Lor-or-ord of Might
Who to Thy tribes, on Si-i-inai's height
In ancient times did gi-ive the law
In cloud, and majesty-y-y and awe
Rejoice, rejoice! Emma-a-anuel
Shall come to thee, Oh I-i-israaaeeeel
You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say, "I love you."
On this you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
On this you can deny
It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by
"Here's lookin' at you, kid."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_bMFVDu9yo
Humphrey Bogart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Humphrey DeForest Bogart
Born December 25, 1899(1899-12-25)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Died January 14, 1957 (aged 57)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active 1930 - 1956
Spouse(s) Helen Menken (1926-1927)
Mary Philips (1928-1938)
Mayo Methot (1938-1945)
Lauren Bacall (1945-1957)
Children Stephen Bogart (b.1949)
Leslie Bogart (b.1952)
Parents Belmont Bogart (1867-1934)
Maud Bogart (1865-1940)
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Actor
1951 The African Queen
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899[1][2] - January 14, 1957) was an Academy Award-winning American actor. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Bogart the Greatest Male Star of All Time. Playing primarily smart, playful and reckless characters anchored by an inner moral code while surrounded by a corrupt world, Bogart's most notable films include The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Key Largo (1948), The African Queen (1951) (for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor), The Caine Mutiny (1954), We're No Angels (1955) and The Left Hand of God (1955). Altogether, he appeared in 75 feature motion pictures.
Though he started his career as Broadway stage player and B-movie actor during the 1920s and 1930s, Bogart's later accomplishments have made him a worldwide icon. French actors, such as Jean-Paul Belmondo, were deeply influenced by his work and image. India's great national movie star, Ashok Kumar, listed Bogart as a major influence on his "natural" acting style. In 1997, the United States Postal Service featured Bogart in its "Legends of Hollywood" series, and Entertainment Weekly magazine has named Bogart the number one movie legend of all time.
Birth and early life
He was born Humphrey DeForest Bogart in New York City, the oldest child of Belmont DeForest Bogart and Maud Humphrey; he had English and Dutch ancestry.[3] His father was a Presbyterian, while his mother was an Episcopalian; Bogart was raised in his mother's Episcopal church.[4] He is one of the descendants of King Edward III of England.[citation needed] Through Thomas Dudley, Bogart was related to playwrights Tennessee Williams[citation needed] and Robert E. Sherwood,[citation needed] as well as John Brown.[citation needed] He was also descended from the Pilgrim John Howland.[citation needed]
Bogart's birthday has been a subject of controversy. It was long believed that his birthday on Christmas Day, 1899, was a Warner Bros. fiction created to romanticize his background, and that he was really born on January 23, 1899, a date that appears in many references. However, this story is now considered baseless: although no birth certificate has ever been found, his birth notice did appear in a Boston newspaper in early January 1900, which supports the December 1899 date.
In addition, the 1900 census for the household of Belmont Bogart lists his son Humphrey as having a birth date in December of 1899. There are also three different censuses attesting to his birth date in December, 1899. In addition, his last wife, actress Lauren Bacall, always maintained that December 25 was his true birth date.[5]
Childhood
Bogart's father, Belmont, was a successful surgeon. His mother, Maud Humphrey, was a very successful commercial illustrator. Indeed, she used a drawing of baby Humphrey in a well-known ad campaign for Mellins Baby Food. In her prime, she made over $50,000 a year as an illustrator, then a vast sum. The Bogarts lived in a fashionable Upper West Side apartment, and had a cottage in upstate New York.
From his father, Bogart inherited a tendency for needling people, a fondness for fishing and a life-long love of sailing. Humphrey was the oldest of three children. When Lauren Bacall introduced him to her large family, he said, "Christ, you've got more goddamn relatives than I've ever seen."
As a boy, Bogart was teased for his curls, his tidiness, the "cute" pictures his mother had him pose for, the Little Lord Fauntleroy clothes she dressed him in?-and the name "Humphrey."
Education
Typical of New York society parents, the Bogarts sent their son to private schools. Humphrey began school at the Delancy school until fifth grade when he was enrolled in Trinity School.[6] Later he went to the prestigious preparatory school Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts. They hoped he would go on to Yale, but in 1918, Bogart was expelled from Phillips Academy.[7]
The details of his expulsion are disputed: one story claims that he was expelled for throwing the headmaster (alternatively, a groundskeeper) into Rabbit Pond, a man-made lake on campus. Another cites smoking and drinking, combined with poor academic performance and possibly some intemperate comments to the staff. It has also been said that he was actually withdrawn from the school by his father for failing to improve his academics, as opposed to expulsion.
Navy
In spring 1918, Bogart enlisted in the U.S. Navy. It was during his naval stint that he got his trademark scar and developed his characteristic lisp, though the actual circumstances are hazy at best. One account is that his lip was cut by a piece of shrapnel during a shelling of his ship, the USS Leviathan, although some claim that Bogart didn't make it to sea until after the Armistice was signed. Another version, which Bogart's long time friend, author Nathaniel Benchley, claims is the truth, is that Bogart was injured while on assignment to take a naval prisoner to Portsmouth Naval Prison in New Hampshire. Supposedly, while changing trains in Boston, the handcuffed prisoner asked Bogart for a cigarette and while Bogart looked for a match, the prisoner raised his hands, smashed Bogart across the mouth with his cuffs, cutting Bogart's lip, and fled. The prisoner was eventually taken to Portsmouth. An alternate explanation is that while in the process of uncuffing an inmate, Bogart was struck in the mouth when the inmate wielded one open, uncuffed bracelet while the other side was still on his wrist.[8] This incident reportedly resulted in his trademark snarl and unique speaking voice.[9] Nevertheless, by the time Bogart was treated by a doctor, the scar had already formed. "Goddamn doctor," Bogart later told David Niven, "instead of stitching it up, he screwed it up." In fact, Niven says that when he asked Bogart about his scar he said it was caused by a childhood accident, which seems to contradict the above stories; Niven claims the stories that Bogie got the scar during wartime were made up by the studios to inject glamour.
Early career in the theatre
Bogart took odd jobs, joined the Naval Reserve, and eventually drifted into acting. He liked the late hours that actors kept, and enjoyed the attention that an actor got on stage. Most of all, he enjoyed the challenge of putting on a difficult scene, making the audience believe it. He dug deeply into the characters he portrayed, and found them a welcome escape from his own self.[citation needed]
Bogart began his acting career on the Brooklyn stage in 1921, playing a Japanese butler. He never took acting lessons, and had no formal training. Critic Alexander Woollcott wrote of Bogart's early work that he "is what is usually and mercifully described as inadequate."[10] Bogart loathed the trivial parts he had to play early in his career, calling them "White Pants Willie" roles.
Bogart appeared in at least 17 Broadway productions between 1922 and 1935.[11] He played juveniles or romantic second-leads in drawing room comedies. He is said to have been the first actor to ask "Tennis, anyone?" on stage.
Early in his career, Bogart met Helen Menken. They married in 1926, divorced in 1928, and remained friends. Later in 1928, he married Mary Philips, who, like Menken, had a fiery temper, and who once bit the finger off a police officer who tried to arrest her for drunkenness.
Spencer Tracy was a serious Broadway actor whom Bogart liked and admired, and they became good friends. It was Tracy, in 1930, who first called him "Bogie". (Spelled variously in many sources, Bogart himself spelled his nickname "Bogie.")[12] Tracy and Bogart appeared together in John Ford's early sound film Up the River (1930).
The Petrified Forest
In 1934, Bogart starred in the play Invitation to a Murder. The producer Arthur Hopkins saw the play and sent for Bogart when he chose to produce Robert E. Sherwood's new play, The Petrified Forest. Bogart arrived in Hopkins' office while Sherwood was there; Hopkins told him: "I've got a good role for you. A gangster role." Robert Sherwood was sure Hopkins was wrong; Bogart should play the football player. Bogart said later: "They argued back and forth, and I thought Sherwood was right. I couldn't picture myself playing a gangster. So what happened? I made a hit as the gangster."
The Petrified Forest had 197 performances in New York; Bogart played escaped killer Duke Mantee. Leslie Howard, who played the lead, knew how crucial Bogart was to the success of the play. He and Bogart became friends, and he promised to help Bogart reprise his role if Hollywood made the play into a film.
Bogart was proud of his success as an actor, but the fact that it came from playing a gangster weighed on him. He once said, "I can't get in a mild discussion without turning it into an argument. There must be something in my tone of voice, or this arrogant face?-something that antagonizes everybody. Nobody likes me on sight. I suppose that's why I'm cast as the heavy."
Warner Bros. bought the screen rights to The Petrified Forest, signed up Leslie Howard, then tested several Hollywood veterans for the Duke Mantee role, and chose Edward G. Robinson. Bogart cabled news of this to Howard, who was in Scotland. Leslie Howard insisted that Bogart play Duke Mantee. When Warner Bros. saw that Howard would not budge, they gave in and cast him. Bogart never forgot this favor, and in 1952 he named his only daughter, Leslie, after Leslie Howard, who had died in World War II.
Early film career
Robert E. Sherwood remained a close friend of Bogart's. In 1936, the film version of The Petrified Forest came out. Bogart got excellent reviews, but he was then typecast as a gangster in a series of crime dramas for Warner Bros. All told, Bogart went to the electric chair 12 times, and was sentenced to over 800 years of hard labor. Jack Warner saw nothing wrong with that; as long as the movies made money, and the actors got paid, he saw no reason for anyone to complain.
Mary Philips refused to give up her Broadway career to come to Hollywood with Bogart, and soon they were divorced.
On August 21, 1938, Bogart entered into a disastrous third marriage, with Mayo Methot, a lively, friendly woman when sober, but a paranoid when drunk. She was convinced that her husband was cheating on her. The more she and Bogart drifted apart, the more she drank, got furious and threw things at him: plants, crockery, anything close at hand. Bogart sometimes returned fire, and the press dubbed them "the Battling Bogarts." "The Bogart-Methot marriage was the sequel to the Civil War," said their friend Julius Epstein. A wag observed that there was madness in his Methot. During this time, Bogart bought a motor launch, which he named "Sluggy" after his hot-tempered wife.
In 1938, Warner Bros. put him in a "hillbilly musical" called Swing Your Lady as a wrestling promoter; he later apparently considered this his worst film performance.[citation needed] In 1939, Bogart played a mad scientist in The Return of Doctor X. He cracked: "If it'd been Jack Warner's blood
I wouldn't have minded so much. The trouble was they were drinking mine and I was making this stinking movie."
The studio system, then in its heyday, largely restricted actors to one studio, and Warner Bros. had no interest in making Bogart a star. Shooting on a new movie might begin days or only hours after shooting on the previous one was completed. Any actor who refused a role could be suspended without pay. Bogart didn't like the roles chosen for him, but he worked steadily: between 1936 and 1940, Bogart averaged a movie every two months. He thought that Warner Bros.' wardrobe department was cheap, and often wore his own suits in his movies. In High Sierra, Bogart used his own mutt to play his character's dog "Pard."
The leading men ahead of Bogart at Warner Bros. included not just such classic stars as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, but also actors far less well-known today, such as Victor McLaglen, George Raft and Paul Muni. Most of the studio's better movie scripts went to these men, and Bogart had to take what was left. He made films like Racket Busters, San Quentin, and You Can't Get Away With Murder. The only substantial leading role he got during this period was in Samuel Goldwyn's Dead End (1937), but he played a variety of interesting supporting roles, such as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) (in which he got shot by James Cagney). Bogart was gunned down on film repeatedly, by Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, among others; he rarely saw his own films and didn't attend the premieres.
Dark Victory (1939) was one of the last films in which he played a supporting role.Bogart had been raised to believe that acting was beneath a gentleman. Acting in movies was even worse than on the stage, and playing depraved gunmen in "B" pictures for Warner Bros. was not something to be mentioned in polite company.
In California in the 1930s, Bogart bought a 55-foot sailing yacht from Dick Powell. The sea was his sanctuary.[13] He was a serious sailor, respected by other sailors who had seen too many Hollywood actors and their boats. About 30 weekends a year, he went out on his boat. He once said: "An actor needs something to stabilize his personality, something to nail down what he really is, not what he is currently pretending to be."
He had a lifelong disgust for the pretentious, fake or phony, as his son Stephen told Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne in 1999. Sensitive yet caustic, and disgusted by the inferior movies he was churning out, Bogart cultivated the persona of a soured idealist, a man exiled from better things in New York, living by his wits, drinking too much, cursed to live out his life among second-rate people and projects.
When he thought an actor, director or a movie studio had done something shoddy, he spoke up about it and was willing to be quoted. The Hollywood press, unaccustomed to candor, was delighted. Bogart once said, "All over Hollywood, they are continually advising me 'Oh, you mustn't say that. That will get you in a lot of trouble' when I remark that some picture or writer or director or producer is no good. I don't get it. If he isn't any good, why can't you say so? If more people would mention it, pretty soon it might start having some effect."
Rise to stardom
High Sierra
High Sierra, a 1941 movie directed by Raoul Walsh, had a screenplay written by Bogart's friend and drinking partner, John Huston, adapted from the novel by W.R. Burnett (Little Caesar, etc.). The film was a step forward for Bogart. He still played the villain, "Mad Dog" Roy Earle, and he still died at the end, but at least he got to kiss Ida Lupino and play a character with some depth. In a climactic scene, Bogart's character slid 90 feet down a mountainside to his just reward. His stunt double, Buster Wiles, bounced a few times going down the mountain and wanted another take to do better. "Forget it," said Raoul Walsh. "It's good enough for the 25-cent customers."
Bogart admired and somewhat envied Huston for his skill as a writer. Though a poor student, Bogart was a lifelong reader. He could quote Plato, Pope, Ralph Waldo Emerson and over a thousand lines of Shakespeare. He admired writers, and some of his best friends were screenwriters, including Louis Bromfield, Nathaniel Benchley and Nunnally Johnson.
John Huston reported being easily bored, and admired Bogart not just for his acting talent but for his intense concentration.
The Maltese Falcon
Paul Muni and George Raft had both turned down Bogart's part in High Sierra. Raft then turned down the male lead in John Huston's directorial debut The Maltese Falcon (1941), due to its being a cleaned up version of the pre-Production Code The Maltese Falcon (1931), his contract stipulating that he did not have to appear in remakes.
Bogart grabbed the part and audiences saw him play a leading role with real complexity. His character, Sam Spade, was still capable of duplicity and violence, but he was a leading man: handsome, smart, fated to survive. The ending speech he made is famous: "I don't care who loves who. I won't play the sap for you! You killed Miles and you're going over for it. I hope they don't hang you by your sweet neck. If you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20 years and I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you."
Casablanca
Bogart got his first real romantic lead in Casablanca, playing Rick Blaine, the nightclub owner.
In real life, Bogart himself played tournament chess, one level below master level. It was reportedly his idea that Rick Blaine be portrayed as a chess player.
Off the set, Ingrid Bergman and Bogart hardly spoke during the filming of Casablanca. She said later, "I kissed him but I never knew him." Years later, after Bergman had taken up with Italian director Roberto Rossellini, and bore him a child, Bogart confronted her. "You used to be a great star," he said. "What are you now?" "A happy woman," she replied.
Casablanca won the 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture. Bogart was nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role, but lost out to Paul Lukas for his performance in Watch on the Rhine.
Bogart and Bacall
Only Bogart's fourth marriage, to Lauren Bacall ("Baby"), was a happy one. They met while filming To Have and Have Not. The director, Howard Hawks, once commented: "When two people are falling in love with each other, they're not tough to get along with, I can tell you that. Bogie was marvelous. I said, 'You've got to help,' and of course after a few days he really began to get interested in the girl. That made him help more." Hawks at some point began to disapprove of the pair. He fell for Bacall as well, and wanted her to feel the same way (although he was married). Out of jealousy, he said of Bacall: "She had to keep practicing for six to eight months to keep that low voice. Now, it's perfectly natural. And the funny thing is that Bogie fell in love with the character she played, so she had to keep playing it the rest of her life." They were married on May 21, 1945 in Lucas, Ohio, at Malabar Farm, the country home of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield, who was a close friend of Bogart's. The wedding was held in the Big House.
Bogart and Bacall's relationship is at the heart of the film noir masterpiece The Big Sleep, based on the novel by Raymond Chandler. Chandler thoroughly admired Bogart's performance: "Bogart can be tough without a gun. Also, he has a sense of humor that contains that grating undertone of contempt."
Bacall allowed Bogart lots of weekend time on his boat. She got seasick, and Bogart said, "The trouble with having dames on board is you can't pee over the side." Bogart would frequently sail to Catalina with friends or set some lobster traps.
Bacall wrote of Bogart: "You had to stay awake married to him. Every time I thought I could relax and do everything I wanted, he'd buck. There was no way to predict his reactions, no matter how well I knew him."
Bogart and Bacall moved into a $160,000 white brick mansion in Holmby Hills, an exclusive neighborhood between Beverly Hills and Bel-Air. Bogart and Bacall had two Jaguar cars, and three blooded Boxer dogs. Bogart said "We moved where all the creeps live." But he liked some of his neighbors, especially Judy Garland.
On January 6, 1949, Lauren Bacall gave birth to a son, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, making Bogart a father at 49. He had had months to absorb the news and even had his own baby shower. (Frank Sinatra brought him baby rattles.) On August 23, 1952, they had their second child, Leslie Howard Bogart (a girl named after British actor Leslie Howard, who had been killed in World War II).
Bogart stories
The panda case
In 1950, Bogart and his friend Bill Seeman arrived at the El Morocco Club in New York after midnight. Bogart and Seeman sent someone to buy two 22-pound stuffed pandas because, in a drunken state, they thought the pandas would be good company.[14] They propped up the bears in separate chairs, and began to drink.
Two young women at the club saw the stuffed animals, and one of the women picked up one of the pandas. She quickly ended up on the floor. The other woman tried to do the same and wound up in the same position.[14] Club spokesperson Leonard MacBain later stated, "No blows were exchanged, it was just one of those things."[14] The next morning Bogart was awakened by a city official who served him an assault summons. Knowing a media frenzy was imminent, he met the media still unshaved and in his pajamas. He told the press that he remembered grabbing the panda and "this screaming, squawking young lady. Nobody got hurt, I didn't sock anybody; if girls were falling on the floor, I guess it was because they couldn't stand up."[15] At the same time Time reported that the alleged victim had three marks from the alleged assault and "she explained that they were swelling and contusions."[14]
That following Friday, Bogart went to court to face the charges. After the woman admitted to touching the panda, "Magistrate John R. Starkey ruled that Bogart had been defending his property, said he suspected the actor had been mousetrapped in the cause of club publicity, and dismissed the case."[16]
The Rat Pack and Romanoff's
Bogart was a founding member of the Rat Pack. During the spring of 1955, after a long party in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra, Mike and Gloria Romanoff, Angie Dickinson and others, "Lauren Bacall surveyed the wreckage of the party" and declared, "You look like a god damn rat pack."[17]
Romanoff's in Beverly Hills was where the Rat Pack became "official". "Sinatra was named Pack Leader. Betty [Bacall] was named Den Mother, Bogie was Director of Public Relations, and Sid Luft was Acting Cage Manager."[16] When asked by columnist Earl Wilson what the purpose of the group was, Bacall responded "to drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late."[17]
Even so, the Rat Pack under Bogart's presidency was pretty civilized compared to what it became later. Bogart actually got away with telling Sinatra that he had an immature attitude towards women.
Later career
The enormous success of Casablanca redefined Bogart's career. For the first time, Bogart could be cast successfully as a tough, strong man and, at the same time, as a vulnerable love interest. From 1943 to 1955, Bogart starred in many other films that reflected his diverse talent as an actor. In addition to being offered better, more diverse roles, he started his own production company in 1949 called Santana Productions, named after his private sailing yacht. Jack Warner was reportedly furious at this, fearing that other stars would do the same and major studios would lose their power. Under Bogart's Santana Productions, Bogart starred in:
Knock on Any Door (1949)
Tokyo Joe (1949)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
Sirocco (1951)
Beat the Devil (1954)
While the majority of his films lost money at the box office (the main reason for Santana's end), at least two of them are still remembered today; In a Lonely Place (1950) is recognized as a masterpiece of film noir and is usually considered the finest of the films Santana produced. Many Bogart biographers and actress/writer Louise Brooks agree that the role of violent screenwriter Dixon Steele is the closest to Bogart's real self, and is considered among Bogart's best performances. Beat the Devil (1954), his last film with his close friend and favorite director John Huston, also enjoys a cult following.
The African Queen
In 1951, Bogart starred in the movie The African Queen, with Katharine Hepburn, again directed by his friend John Huston. It was a difficult shoot, on location in Africa and just about everyone in the cast came down with dysentery except Bogart and John Huston. Bogart explained: "I built a solid wall of Scotch between me and the bugs. If a mosquito bit me, he'd fall over dead drunk."
One day during The African Queen shoot, the eponymous boat even sank. Lauren Bacall recalled: "The natives had been told to watch it and they did; they watched it sink."
John Huston recalled: "Bogie didn't particularly care for the Charlie Alnutt role when he started, but I slowly got him into it, showing him by expression and gesture what I thought Alnutt should be like. He first imitated me, then all at once he got under the skin of that wretched, sleazy, absurd, brave little man. He realized he was on to something new and good. He said to me, 'John, don't let me lose it.'"
Hepburn's proper spinster character scolded Bogart's Charlie Alnutt: "Nature, Mr. Alnutt, is what we are put in this world to rise above." Bogart had a famous put down too: "You crazy, psalm-singing, skinny old maid!"
The African Queen was the first Technicolor film in which Bogart appeared. Remarkably, he appeared in relatively few color films during the rest of his career, which continued for another five years. (His other color films included The Caine Mutiny, The Barefoot Contessa, We're No Angels, and The Left Hand of God.)
The role of Charlie Alnutt won Bogart his only Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1951. He had vowed to friends that if he won, his speech would break the convention of thanking everyone in sight. He would say instead: "I don't owe anything to anyone! I earned this award by hard work and paying attention to my craft." But when Bogart won the Academy Award, he thanked John Huston, Katharine Hepburn, and the cast and crew.
Also in 1951, Bogart and Bacall co-starred in the syndicated radio drama Bold Venture, for which he was paid a reported $4,000 a week. He played a character very much like Steve in To Have and Have Not, and she played his "ward". He called her "Sailor".
The House Un-American Activities Committee
Bogart organized a delegation to Washington, D.C., called the Committee for the First Amendment during the height of McCarthyism, against the House Un-American Activities Committee's harassment of Hollywood writers and actors. He subsequently wrote an article "I'm No Communist" in the March 1948 edition of Photoplay magazine in which he distanced himself from the Hollywood Ten in order to counter the negative publicity that resulted from his appearance.
Final roles
He dropped his asking price to get the role of Captain Queeg in Edward Dmytryk's The Caine Mutiny, then griped with some of his old bitterness about it. ("This never happens to Cooper or Grant or Gable, but always to me. Why does it happen to me?")
Bogart gave a bravura performance as Captain Queeg, in many ways an extension of the character he had played in The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The Big Sleep?-the wary loner who trusts no one?-but with none of the warmth or humor that made those characters so appealing. Like his portrayal of Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Bogart played a paranoid, self-pitying character whose small-mindedness eventually destroyed him.
Sabrina (dir. Billy Wilder) and The Barefoot Contessa (dir. Joseph Mankiewicz) in 1954 gave him two of his subtlest roles. During the filming of The Left Hand of God (1955) he noticed his co-star Gene Tierney was having a hard time remembering her lines and was also behaving oddly. He coached Tierney, feeding her lines. He was familiar with mental illness (his sister had bouts of depression), and Bogart encouraged Tierney to seek treatment, which she did.
In 1955, he made three films: We're No Angels (dir. Michael Curtiz), The Left Hand of God (dir. Edward Dmytryk) and The Desperate Hours (dir. William Wyler). Mark Robson's The Harder They Fall (released in 1956) was his last film.
Television work
Bogart rarely appeared on television. However, he and his wife appeared on Edward R. Murrow's Person to Person. Bogart was also featured on The Jack Benny Show. The surviving kinescope of the live Benny telecast features Bogart in his only TV sketch comedy outing. Bogart and Bacall also worked together on a rare color telecast, in 1955, an NBC adaptation of The Petrified Forest for Producers' Showcase. Only a black and white kinescope of the live telecast has survived.
Death
By the mid-1950s, Bogart's health was failing. Once, after signing a long-term deal with Warner Bros., Bogart predicted with glee that his teeth and hair would fall out before the contract ended. That sent a fuming Jack Warner to his lawyers.
Bogart, a heavy smoker and drinker, contracted cancer of the esophagus. He almost never spoke of it and refused to see a doctor until January of 1956, and by then removal of his esophagus, two lymph nodes and a rib was too little, too late.
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy came to see him. Bogart was too weak to walk up and down stairs. He tried to joke about it: "Put me in the dumbwaiter and I'll ride down to the first floor in style."
Hepburn has described the last time she and Spencer Tracy saw Bogart (the night before he died): "Spence patted him on the shoulder and said, 'Goodnight, Bogie.' Bogie turned his eyes to Spence very quietly and with a sweet smile covered Spence's hand with his own and said, 'Goodbye, Spence.' Spence's heart stood still. He understood."
Bogart had just turned 57 and weighed only 80 pounds (36 kg) when he died on January 14, 1957 after falling into a coma. He died at 2:25 a.m. at his home at 232 Mapleton Drive in Holmby Hills, California, nearby Hollywood. His funeral was held at All Saints Episcopal Church with musical selections played from Bogart's favorite composers, Johann Sebastian Bach and Claude Debussy. Bacall had asked Spencer Tracy to give the eulogy but Tracy was too upset. John Huston gave the eulogy instead, and reminded the gathered mourners that while Bogart's life had ended far too soon, it had been a rich one. Huston said: "He is quite irreplaceable. There will never be another like him."
Huston also noted of Bogart:
"Himself, he never took too seriously?-his work most seriously. He regarded the somewhat gaudy figure of Bogart, the star, with an amused cynicism; Bogart, the actor, he held in deep respect
In each of the fountains at Versailles there is a pike which keeps all the carp active; otherwise they would grow overfat and die. Bogie took rare delight in performing a similar duty in the fountains of Hollywood. Yet his victims seldom bore him any malice, and when they did, not for long. His shafts were fashioned only to stick into the outer layer of complacency, and not to penetrate through to the regions of the spirit where real injuries are done."
Katharine Hepburn said:
"He was one of the biggest guys I ever met. He walked straight down the center of the road. No maybes. Yes or no. He liked to drink. He drank. He liked to sail a boat. He sailed a boat. He was an actor. He was happy and proud to be an actor. He'd say to me, 'Are you comfortable? Everything okay?' He was looking out for me."
His cremated remains are interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California. Buried with him is a small gold whistle, which he had given to his future wife, Lauren Bacall, before they married. In reference to their first movie together, it was inscribed: "If you want anything, just whistle."
Humphrey Bogart's hand and foot prints are immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6322 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.
After his death, the "Bogie Cult" formed at the Brattle Theatre which contributed to his spike in popularity in the late '50s and '60s.
Quotes
Attributed
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Humphrey Bogart"I can't say I ever loved my mother, I admired her."
"My parents fought. We kids would pull the covers over our ears to keep out the sound of fighting. Our home was kept together for the sake of the children as well as for the sake of propriety."
"I don't approve of the John Waynes and the Gary Coopers saying 'Shucks, I ain't no actor?-I'm just a bridge builder or a gas station attendant.' If they aren't actors, what the hell are they getting paid for? I have respect for my profession. I worked hard at it."
"The whole world is three drinks behind."
"Don't ever name a restaurant after me."
Famous movie quotes
Casablanca
"I stick my neck out for nobody."
"There are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade." [to Major Strasser]
"You played it for her, you can play it for me! . . . If she can stand it, I can! Play it!"
"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
"Here's looking at you, kid."
"Tell me, who was it you left me for? Was it Laszlo, or were there others in between? Or ?- aren't you the kind that tells?"
"Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this? I mean what you're fighting for."
"If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday soon; and for the rest of your life."
"I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy mixed up world. Someday you'll understand that."
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"We'll always have Paris."
The Maltese Falcon
"The stuff that dreams are made of." [about the falcon - a misquotation from Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act IV Scene 1 - "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep." ]
"When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it." [to Peter Lorre]
"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter." [to the "Gunsel"] (played by Elisha Cook, Jr.)
"I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble." [to Brigid (Mary Astor)]
"You're good, you're very good."
The Big Sleep
"Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains!"
Popular culture
Humphrey Bogart's life has spurred the imaginations of many writers and others:
The Fedora variation, the "Bogart," was named for Humphrey, who was also the hat's first wearer.
Two Bugs Bunny cartoons featured Humphrey Bogart:
Bogart is a customer in a Hollywood restaurant who gets hit in the face with a coconut custard pie with whipped cream by Elmer Fudd (Slick Hare (1947)).
Bugs decides to take a baby penguin back to the South Pole (Eight Ball Bunny (1950)); at intervals, "Fred C. Dobbs" (Bogart's character in Treasure of the Sierra Madre) appears and asks Bugs to "help a poor American down on his luck."
In V. S. Naipaul's Miguel Street (1959) there is a character named "Bogart." This Bogart cultivates an American accent and gives chocolates to children.[18]
Bogart is featured in one of Woody Allen's comic movies, Play It Again, Sam (1972), which relates the story of a young man obsessed by his persona.
The Al Stewart song Year of the Cat (1976) begins with the line "On a morning from a Bogart movie."
Issue #70 of the US The Phantom (1977) comic book is known as the "Bogart" issue, as the story stars Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Claude Rains and is a mixture of Casablanca, The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon and Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
In the comic strip Baby Blues (first published in 1990),a character is named "Bogart" after the famous actor; his name comes from the fact that he was conceived while his parents watched The African Queen.
Among many marijuana smokers, "bogarting" refers to the act of retaining the marijuana cigarette (or "joint") for an abnormally long time, instead of passing it on to one's successor in the circle. The term is derived from the manner in which Bogart sometimes smoked his cigarettes, leaving the cigarette dangling from his lips for extended periods of time. Two notable songs which employ this use of the term are "Don't Bogart Me" by the Fraternity of Man, featured in the film Easy Rider, and the later live cover by Little Feat, which was released as "Don't Bogart That Joint" on Waiting for Columbus. "Bogart" was often used in this context in the MTV series Beavis and Butt-head.
The 1980s television show Remington Steele featured the title character, played by Pierce Brosnan, as a fan of Bogart's. In the show's first episode, Steele is shown to have held aliases whose names feature characters played by Humphrey Bogart.
During the 1990s Parody Film Hot Shots, one pilot says "I got a Bogey at 12 o' clock!"(referring to the Brevity code), then Bogart appears smiling inside a cockpit in his hat & trench coat from the Casablanca Film.
Cab Calloway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Cabell Calloway III
Born December 25, 1907(1907-12-25) in Rochester, New York
Died November 18, 1994 (aged 86)
Genre(s) Swing, Big band
Occupation(s) Bandleader, Musician
Instrument(s) Singer
Website
http://www.cabcallowayllc.com
Cab Calloway (December 25, 1907-November 18, 1994) was a famous African American jazz singer and bandleader. Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's Orchestra featured performers that included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86.
Biography
Early years
Calloway was born Cabell Calloway III in a middle-class family in Rochester, New York, and lived there until 1918, on Sycamore Street. He was later raised in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Cabell Calloway II, was a lawyer, and his mother, Martha Eulalia Reed, was a teacher and church organist. His parents recognized their son's musical talent, and he began private voice lessons in 1922. He continued to study music and voice throughout his formal schooling. Despite his parents' and vocal teachers' disapproval of jazz, Calloway began frequenting and eventually performing in many of Baltimore's jazz clubs, where he was mentored by drummer Chick Webb and pianist Johnny Jones.
After graduating from high school Cab joined his older sister, Blanche, in a touring production of the popular black musical revue Plantation Days (Blanche Calloway herself would become an accomplished bandleader before her brother did, and Cab would often credit his inspiration to enter show business to her). Cab attended Lincoln University, PA , and left in 1930 without graduating.
When the tour ended in Chicago in the fall, Cab decided to remain in Chicago with his sister, who had an established career as a jazz singer in that city. His parents had hopes of their son becoming a lawyer like his father, so Calloway enrolled in Crane College.
His main interest, however, was in singing and entertaining, and he spent most of his nights at the Dreamland Cafe the Sunset Cafe and the Club Berlin, performing as a drummer, singer and emcee.
At the Sunset Cafe he met and performed with Louis Armstrong who taught him to sing in the "scat" style.
Success
The Cotton Club was the premier jazz venue in the country, and Cab Calloway and his Orchestra (he had taken over a brilliant but failing band called "The Missourians" in 1930) were hired as a replacement for the Duke Ellington Orchestra while they were touring. (There is some speculation that Mafia pressure was responsible for Cab's hiring.)[citation needed] Calloway quickly proved so popular that his band became the "co-house" band with Ellington's, and Cab and his group began touring nationwide when not playing the Cotton Club. Their popularity was greatly enhanced by the twice-weekly live national radio broadcasts on NBC at the Cotton Club. Calloway also appeared on Walter Winchell's radio program and with Bing Crosby in his show at the Paramount Theatre. As a result of these appearances, Calloway, together with Ellington, broke the major broadcast network color barrier.
Unlike many other bands of comparable commercial success, Calloway's gave ample soloing space to its lead members, and, through the varied arrangements of Walter 'Foots' Thomas, provided much more in the way of musical interest.
In 1931, he recorded his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher". That song, "St. James Infirmary Blues", and "The Old Man Of The Mountain" were performed for the Betty Boop animated shorts Minnie the Moocher, Snow White and The Old Man of the Mountain, respectively. Through rotoscoping, Cab not only gave his voice to these cartoons but his dance steps as well. Cab took advantage of this and timed his concerts in some communities with the release of the films in order to make the most of the attention. As a result of the success of "Minnie the Moocher" he became identified with its chorus, gaining the nickname "The Hi De Ho Man." In 1943 he appeared in the high-profile 20th Century Fox musical film, Stormy Weather.
In 1941 Cab Calloway fired Dizzy Gillespie from his Orchestra after an onstage fracas erupted when Calloway was hit with spitballs. He wrongly accused Gillespie, who stabbed Calloway in the leg with a small knife.
In 1944, The New Cab Calloway's Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive was published, an update of an earlier book in which Cab set about translating jive for fans who might not know, for example, that "kicking the gong around" was a reference to smoking opium.
Later years
In the 1950s, Calloway moved his family from Long Island, NY, to Greenburgh, NY to raise the three youngest of his five daughters.
In his later career, Calloway became a popular personality, appearing in a number of films and stage productions that utilized both his acting and singing talents. In 1952, he played the prominent role of "Sportin' Life" in a production of the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess with William Warfield and Leontyne Price as the title characters. Another notable role was "Yeller" in The Cincinnati Kid (1965), with Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret and Edward G. Robinson.
In 1967 Calloway co-starred as Horace Vandergelder in an all-black revival of Hello, Dolly! (even though the original production was still running!) starring Pearl Bailey. This was a major success and led to a cast recording released by RCA. In 1973-1974 he was featured in an unsuccessful Broadway revival of The Pajama Game alongside Hal Linden and Barbara McNair.
1976 saw the release of his autobiography, Of Minnie The Moocher And Me (Crowell). It included his complete Hepsters Dictionary as an appendix.
Calloway attracted renewed interest in 1980 when he appeared as a supporting character in the film The Blues Brothers, performing "Minnie The Moocher", and again when he sang "The Jumpin' Jive" with the Two-Headed Monster on Sesame Street. This was also the year cult movie Forbidden Zone was released, which included rearrangements and parodies of Cab Calloway songs written by Danny Elfman, a Calloway fan.
Calloway helped establish the Cab Calloway Museum at Coppin State College (Baltimore, Maryland) in the 1980s and Bill Cosby helped establish a scholarship in Cab Calloway's name at the New School of Social Research New York City. In 1994, a creative and performing arts school Cab Calloway School of the Arts was dedicated in his name in Wilmington, Delaware.
In 1986, Calloway appeared at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s WrestleMania 2 as a guest judge for a boxing match between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Mr. T that took place Nassau Coliseum and in 1990 made a cameo in Janet Jackson's video for "Alright". In the United Kingdom he also appeared in several commercials for the Hula Hoops snack, both as himself and as a voice for a cartoon (in one of these commercials he sang his hit "Minnie The Moocher"). He also made an appearance at the Apollo Theater.
Death
On November 18, 1994, Calloway died after having suffered a major stroke six months earlier. In 1998, The Cab Calloway Orchestra (directed by Cab's grandson C. "CB" Calloway Brooks [1]) was formed to honor Cab Calloway's legacy on the national and international levels.
Barbara Mandrell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Barbara Ann Mandrell
Also known as The Princess of Steel
Born December 25, 1948 (1948-12-25) (age 58)
Origin Houston, Texas
Genre(s) Country, Country-Pop, Adult Contemp.
Occupation(s) Singer, Songwriter, Actress
Years active 1969 - present
Label(s) Columbia Records
ABC/Dot Records
MCA Records
Capitol Records
Universal Records
Associated
acts Louise Mandrell, David Houston, Lee Greenwood, Lynn Anderson, Dottie West, Dolly Parton, Crystal Gayle, Kenny Rogers, Eddie Rabbitt
Website Barbara Mandrell Official Site
Barbara Mandrell (born Barbara Ann Mandrell on December 25, 1948) is an American country music singer. She is best-known for a series of Top 10 hits from the late 1970s that helped her become one of country music's most successful female vocalists of the 1970s and 1980s.
Thanks to a string of hit singles and a popular television variety series, Mandrell was arguably the biggest female star in country music in the late '70s and early '80s.[1] She is one of the few females in country music to win the "Entertainer of the Year" award, and she has also won the Country Music Association's "Female Vocalist of the Year" twice.
Biography & career
Early life & rise to fame
Born the oldest daughter into a musical family in Houston, TX, on Christmas Day, 1948, Mandrell was already reading music and playing accordion by the age of five. Just six years later, she was so adept at playing the steel guitar that her father escorted her to a music trade convention in Chicago, where her talents caught the attention of Chet Atkins and Joe Maphis. Soon after, she was a featured performer in Maphis' Las Vegas nightclub show, followed by television performances and tours with Red Foley, Johnny Cash, and Tex Ritter. [2]
While growing up, she was taught the steel guitar and many other instruments, including the accordion, saxophone and banjo. She even played steel guitar for the legendary Patsy Cline. Cline once wrote to a friend in a letter that Mandrell was "a 13 year old blonde doll that plays the steel guitar out of this world! What a show woman!" Mandrell toured as a 13 year old with Cline, Johnny Cash and George Jones. She also played guitar for Joe Maphis in Las Vegas and even on the Town Hall Party show. A couple of years later, Barbara and her sisters, as well as her parents founded the Mandrell Family Band. With this, they toured all over the United States and Asia. The drummer in the band, Ken Dudney became Mandrell's husband shortly after she finished high school.
Later, Dudney enlisted in the Navy, serving as a pilot, and was sent overseas. Mandrell decided that she would become a country singer and moved to Nashville. Her father was now her manager and with his help, she signed on with Columbia Records in 1969. Over the next couple of years, Mandrell had a few minor hits. This was only showing the potential Barbara had inside of her to become successful. Her producer at the time was Billy Sherrill, who was known for producing other well-known singers in Country music like Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich and Tanya Tucker.
1969 - 1974: Country success
Within 48 hours of a nightclub appearance near the Grand Ole Opry, she received offers for recording contracts from six record companies. In 1969, she signed with CBS Records, and emerged on the record charts with Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long", unveiling a "blue-eyed soul" style that garnered instant radio airplay. She recorded a collection of country hit singles, including her first No. 1 hit, "Midnight Oil". Today, that record is regarded as a major breakthrough in female country music because of its drama and startling frankness [3]
While under Columbia records, Mandrell worked with legendary Country producer, Billy Sherrill, who also produced Charlie Rich and Tammy Wynette. Under Sherrill's direction, Mandrell recorded a lot of Country-Soul material, which really never gained her widespread success, however, she did have hits within the Country Top 40, which would occasionally yield Top 10 hits, like 1971's "Tonight My Baby's Comin' Home", or 1970's "After Closing Time" (a duet with David Houston). Her records barely sold under Columbia. Sherrill later said in the book, How Nashville Became Music City, that he was contiually asked every year by the other Columbia executives why he was keeping Barbara Mandrell because she wasn't selling any records. Sherrill kept Mandrell under their label until 1975.
1975 - 1989: Country-pop
In 1975, she switched to ABC/Dot Records (purchased by MCA Records in 1978). Her first release on that label, "Standing Room Only". Another one of her first hits to reach the top of the country charts was the bubbly "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed". Ther record became a cross-over hit on the pop charts--a forecast of the direction many of her recordings would take. As he 70's drew to a close, Mandrell's style gravitated to a country version of rhythm and blues, and she topped the charts with touchy tunes like "Woman to Woman", "Married But Not to Each Other", "Years", and "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Right)". She recorded 18 hit albums for MCA Records before moving to Capitol Records in 1986 where she released 6 recordings. [4]
During the 1980s Mandrell had more hits, including "Crackers" and "Wish You Were Here," but perhaps more importantly, in terms of gaining exposure, she started off the decade by starring in her own television variety show, supported on screen by her two sisters, Louise and Irlene, who were also talented on a wide variety of instruments. [5] The show, "Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters," fared extremely well for a variety program, and lasted two seasons. Possibly the increased recognition Mandrell received from being seen by millions of television viewers helped her garner six consecutive People's Choice Awards for Favorite All-Around Female Entertainer during the span from 1982 to 1987. [6]
In 1980 Barbara won the Entertainer of the Year Award from the Country Music Association and won it again in 1981. This was unprecedented as in the several years prior to her, it was understood that it only went to an artist once - but she nabbed it a 2nd year in a row with her non-stop touring, hit records, and popular TV show. This began the huge array of awards and accolades she would win: several CMA, ACM, and MCN awards, 7 American Music Awards, and 9 People's Choice, making her one of the most awarded country acts in history.
During the peak of the Urban Cowboy movement in Country music in 1981, Mandrell released, "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool", a song that is considered her "anthem" or signature song today. The song reached the No. 1 spot on the Country charts in 1981, and the live version of the song (featuring George Jones) is the best-known version. The album the song was put on, Barbara Mandrell Live was one of her biggest-selling albums, certified "Gold" by the RIAA that year.
A collection of duets with Lee Greenwood, Made for Each Other, followed in 1984. Tragedy struck later in the year, however, when Mandrell and two of her children were involved in a nightmarish head-on car crash that left the other driver dead. Though Mandrell and her kids survived, all three faced a long period of recovery. When she finally returned to performing a year later, the country music landscape had changed dramatically, with the "new traditionalist" movement gaining dominance while the glitzier, more pop-influenced music Mandrell favored began falling out of favor. As the 1980s became the 1990s, she began focusing almost exclusively on live performing, where she remained a significant draw. [7]
In 1984, at the height of her popularity Barbara opened a fan-based attraction across from the Country Music Hall of Fame in the heart of music row in Nashville called Barbara Mandrell Country. This museum was to remain a strong tourist attraction for the next decade as it chronicled the life & times of Barbara Mandrell's incredible career.
1984: Motor accident
On the evening of September 11, 1984, Barbara had a major brush with death when a young driver's car drifted across the center line of a street in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and crashed head-on with Barbara's car. Both cars were demolished, and the other driver was killed. Barbara suffered a severe head injury, a broken right leg, broken right ankle, damaged right knee and various cuts and bruises. Her son, Matt and daughter Jaime also suffered injuries. Only minutes before the crash, for some fateful reason, Barbara had suggested that Matt, Jaime and she buckle up. Until that moment, Barbara confesses she had not been a seatbelt user. The accident had brought her skyrocketing career to an abrupt halt. There were months and months of physical pain and mental anguish. Many painful hours were spent in physical therapy. Barbara's head injury was so severe, she has no memory for 2 weeks after the accident. It took well over 2 years for Barbara to recuperate enough to perform again. Barbara debuted her first live performance since the September 1984 accident at the Universal Ampitheatre in Los Angeles on February 28, 1986. Now a confirmed seatbelt advocate, she has completed a national Public Service Announcement available on audio, video and poster, strongly urging the public to "Please, buckle up. You may never get a second chance". [8]
On a side note, during the recuperation period, Ms. Mandrell was unable to work and therefore needed to collect on her insurance to pay for medical bills, and to keep her band paid. Ms. Mandrell was informed that under Tennessee law, she had to sue the estate of the other driver in order to collect. It went misunderstood for years - until she was allowed to clarify in 1990 on the The Oprah Winfrey Show. Barbara said she never planned to take a penny from the family of the other driver, who was killed in the accident. Instead, she hoped to collect on the insurance to which she paid such high premiums. But there was a huge immediate backlash, from which she never quite recovered.
1990 - present: Career today
In 1997 she shocked all of her fans by stating she was leaving her Country music career and moving more into her acting career. She held her last concert at the Grand Ole Opry in October 1997, and it was televised on TNN to huge ratings. The title of the show was "The Last Dance." However, despite having retired from the business, she still remains a member of the Grand Ole Opry to this day.
In the middle of 1997 and the beginning of 1998, Barbara had a short recurring role as Alex Mitchum in NBC daytime drama Sunset Beach. Barbara starred in the made-for-TV movie, The Wrong Girl. She followed that success up with 2000's Stolen From the Heart. Barbara also continued her work in episodic television appearances. In October 1999 she was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame with fellow artist, Andy Griffith, Loretta Lynn, Gary S. Paxton, David L Cook, Lulu Roman and Jimmy Snow. [1]
On October 17, 2006 Barbara was honored with the release of a new tribute album titled She Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool: A Tribute To Barbara Mandrell on BNA Records. The album debuted on Billboard's Country Album's chart at an impressive #25. This was on the strength of its featured artists (Reba McEntire, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, LeAnn Rimes, Brad Paisley and Gretchen Wilson) and Barbara's strong fan base. GAC (Great American Country channel) had several specials throughout October to promote the album. Barbara even hosted the Grand Ole Opry live on October 28, where several of the artists on the album sang many of her classics.
On November 6, 2006, Barbara made an appearance on the 40th Annual CMA Awards. She presented the same award she won 2 consecutive years, Entertainer of the Year, to Kenny Chesney to close the show. Barbara is also the first country artist (and the only woman) to ever win the CMA Entertainer of the Year Award 2 years in a row -- she received those accolades in 1980 and 1981.
Time Life has recently released a DVD collection called The Best of Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters on May 1, 2007, and that features over 40 guest musical performances including Country superstars Johnny Cash, Alabama, Marty Robbins, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, The Statler Brothers, Ray Charles, John Schneider, Glen Campbell and many more, as well as comedy legends such as Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller and Andy Kaufman. Fans of the original series have been critical of the DVD release, since it cuts out many of the song and dance routines, opening numbers, as well as the sketch comedy that rounded out the series.
Mandrell, along with Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell, was awarded a star on Nashville's WALK OF FAME on Monday, Nov. 5th, 2007.
Acting
In 1980, the TV program Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters premiered on NBC. In addition to hosts Barbara, Louise, and Irlene Mandrell, the show featured musical guests and comedy sketches. Each broadcast also closed with a gospel song, and in 1982 Mandrell released her own inspirational album, He Set My Life to Music. As a result of her busy schedule, she began suffering from vocal strain, and on doctor's orders pulled the plug on the television program in 1982. In 1983, she premiered The Lady Is a Champ, a Las Vegas stage show. [9]
Barbara also focused more on acting. Barbara had the starring role in "Burning Rage" alongside Tom Wopat in 1984 just prior to her car accident. Later, she also had starring guest roles on hit shows such as "Empty Nest", "Diagnosis: Murder", Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, The Commish, Baywatch, and Walker, Texas Ranger. She even had a recurring featured role in the late 90's on Aaron Spelling's daytime drama, Sunset Beach. Many of these performances can be caught on late-night television or on the DVD box sets of the respective shows. In 1990, she wrote an autobiography called Get to the Heart: My Story, which was a New York Times Bestseller for over 3 months, and in 1997 became a highly rated CBS TV movie of the week starring Maureen McCormick (Marcia on "The Brady Bunch). Barbara faithfully made the talk show rounds to promote her autobiography on shows such as "Sally Jesse Raphaël", "Geraldo", and The Oprah Winfrey Show - whom she shared the "Woman of the World" honor with in 1992. In primetime, she sat on the couches of the "Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson", Ralph Emery's Nashville Now, and she even "rapped" during one of her 3 memorable "Arsenio" visits.
Personal life
Mandrell's daughter Jaime Dudney was Miss Tennessee Teen USA 1993 and placed in the semi-finals at Miss Teen USA 1993. Jaime was Miss Golden Globe in 1996, following a long line of tradition where one son and one daughter of famous parents present the Golden statues. Following this, Jaime played her Aunt Irlene in "Get to the Heart (The Barbara Mandrell Story)" and was seen on the long running CBS daytime drama, As The World Turns, from June 1998 - January 2000.
Denver, edgar?
Well, buddy, I guess you got your white Christmas after all.
Incidentally, this is now Colorado's state song by none other than that Denver man himself, John.
He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Comin home to a place he'd never been before
He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again
You might say he found a key for every door
When he first came to the mountains his life was far away
On the road and hangin by a song
But the strings already broken and he doesn't really care
It keeps changin fast and it don't last for long
But the colorado rocky mountain high
Ive seen it rainin fire in the sky
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabye
Rocky mountain high (high colorado) rocky mountain high (high colorado)
He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below
He saw everything as far as you can see
And they say he got crazy once, and he tried to touch the sun
And he lost a friend but kept his memory
Now he walks in quiet solitude the forests and the streams
Seeking grace in every step he takes
His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand
The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake
And the colorado rocky mountain high
Ive seen it rainin fire in the sky
You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply
Rocky mountain high (high colorado) rocky mountain high (high colorado)
Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land
And the colorado rocky mountain high
Ive seen it rainin fire in the sky
I know he'd be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly
Rocky mountain high
Its a colorado rocky mountain high
Ive seen it rainin fire in the sky
Friends around the campfire and everybodys high
Rocky mountain high (high colorado) rocky mountain high (high colorado)
Rocky mountain high (high colorado) rocky mountain high do de do
