Thanks, puppy, for the great trio of celeb's. We always appreciate your having put those faces to name.
hbg, That was great. We really appreciate the sub titles So, Strauss was the father of that delightful duo. Thanks, buddy.
Well, it seems that the hamburgers are going to party tonight. Here's one for them, followed by a parody of same. Remember to read the annotation, folks.
We like repartee
We like, we like repartee
We like repartee
We like, we like repartee
We like repartee
We like, we like repartee
We like repartee
Ive got something to tell you
Ive got news for you
Well it pays to increase your word power
Get ready 'cause were coming through.
Hey now hey now, hear what I say now,
Eruditions just around the corner
Hey now hey now, hear what I say now,
Well be there for you.
The dictionarys coming,
And everybodys jumping
With Webster and Encarta
Youll soon be feeling smarta
If knowledge is your mission
Look up the definition
If you think you can swing this
Youll be a cunning linguist.
We like repartee
We like, we like repartee
We like repartee
We like, we like repartee
Hey now hey now, hear what I say now,
Elocutions just around the corner
Hey now hey now, hear what I say now,
Well be there for you.
The dictionarys coming,
And everybodys jumping
With Webster and Encarta
Youll soon be feeling smarta
Dont watch Oprah or Jerry
Learn some vocabulary
Youll rise above the rabble
And kick ass playing Scrabble
The dictionarys coming,
And everybodys jumping
With Webster and Encarta
Youll soon be feeling smarta
Were gonna stop this chorus
Before it starts to bore us
So while youre waiting for us
Go check out our thesaurus
We like repartee
We like we like repartee
We like repartee
We like we like repartee
We like repartee
We like we like repartee
We like repartee
We like we like repartee
The dictionarys coming
The dictionarys coming
The dictionarys coming
The dictionarys coming...
The dictionarys coming
And everybodys jumping
With Webster and Encarta
Youll soon be feeling smarta
>From aardvark to zygotic
Our language is exotic
The longest, we suppose, is
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
The dictionarys coming,
And everybodys jumping
With Webster and Encarta
Youll soon be feeling smarta
Were causing a sensation
With our pronunciation
Though dictionaraoke
Can sound a little hokey
The dictionarys coming
0 Replies
urs53
1
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Fri 8 Feb, 2008 05:59 pm
The Venga Boys! I can't believe you found this! I remember when they were big in Germany.
0 Replies
Letty
1
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Fri 8 Feb, 2008 06:03 pm
Hey, Urs. Purely coincidental, honey.(I like to use the words serendipity or synchronicity) Take a look at that parody.
Oops, missed edgar's song. Thanks, Texas. What a lovely woman, and I noticed that she is no longer with us.
0 Replies
urs53
1
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Fri 8 Feb, 2008 06:09 pm
Before I go to bed, here is something German. Some of the childhood pictures look pretty familiar to me
Ah, Urs, what a sweet song. I loved the nostalgia of it, gal, and although the places are not familiar to me, the situation with the children is. Thank you for the ultimate happy ending, however.
My goodness, edgar. That was great blues, buddy, and the comment about Bill Clinton and his sax was quite timely. Thanks, Texas.
Well, all, it appears that today is the birthday of one of my favorite performers, Carole King. This was brings me some memories of my own.
Ronald Colman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Ronald Charles Colman
Born February 9, 1891(1891-02-09)
Richmond, Surrey, England
Died May 19, 1958 (aged 67)
Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Actor
1947 A Double Life
Ronald Colman (February 9, 1891 - May 19, 1958) was an Oscar and Golden Globe-winning English actor.
Early years
Born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the son of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser, he was educated in Littlehampton, where he discovered his enjoyment in acting. He intended to attend Cambridge University to study engineering, but his father's death put an end to that.
He became a well-known amateur actor, and was a member of the West Middlesex Dramatic Society in 1908-9. He made his first appearance on the professional stage in 1914.
Upon the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, he joined the Territorial Army and served in the London Scottish Regiment[1] with fellow actors Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall and Basil Rathbone. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Messines[1] on October 31, 1914 and invalided from the service in 1916.
Main stage career
He had sufficiently recovered to appear at the London Coliseum on June 19, 1916, as Rahmat Sheikh in The Maharani of Arakan, with Lena Ashwell; at the Playhouse in September that year as Stephen Weatherbee in Charles Goddard & Paul Dickey's play The Misleading Lady; at the Court Theatre in March 1917 he played Webber in Partnership and at that theatre the following year appeared in Eugene Brieux's play, adapted from the French, Damaged Goods; at the Ambassador Theatre in February 1918 he played George Lubin in The Little Brother, and during 1918 toured as David Goldsmith in The Bubble.
In 1920 he Colman went to America and toured with Robert Warwick in The Dauntless Three, and subsequently toured with Fay Bainter in East is West; at the Booth Theatre, New York, in January 1921 he played the Temple Priest in William Archer's play The Green Goddess, with George Arliss; at the 39th Street Theatre in August 1921 he appeared as Charles in The Nightcap; and in September 1922 he made a great success as Alain Sergyll at the Empire Theatre, New York in the hit play La Tendresse.
Film career
Ronald Colman had first appeared in films in England in 1917 and 1919 under Cecil Hepworth, and subsequently with the old Broadwest Film Company in The Snow of the Desert. While appearing on stage in New York in La Tendress, Director Henry King saw him, and engaged him as the leading man in the 1923 film, The White Sister, opposite Lillian Gish, and was an immediate success. Thereafter Colman virtually abandoned the stage for film. He became a very popular silent film star in both romantic and adventure films, and successfully made the transition to "talkies" because of his elegant and sonorous speaking voice.
His first major talkie success was in 1930, when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two roles ?- Condemned and Bulldog Drummond. He thereafter appeared in a number of notable films including Raffles, The Masquerader, Clive of India, A Tale of Two Cities in 1935, Under Two Flags, The Prisoner of Zenda and Lost Horizon in 1937, If I Were King in 1938, and The Talk of the Town in 1941. He won the Best Actor Oscar in 1948 for A Double Life. At the time of his death, Colman was contracted by MGM for the lead role in Children of the Damned. However, Colman died and the film became a British production starring George Sanders, who had married Coleman's widow, Benita Hume.
Radio and Television
Beginning in 1945, Colman made many guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program on radio, alongside his second wife, stage and screen actress Benita Hume. Their comedy work as Benny's next-door neighbors led to their own radio comedy The Halls of Ivy from 1950 to 1952, and then on television from 1954 to 1955.
Death
Ronald Colman died on 19 May 1958, aged 67, from a lung infection in Santa Barbara, California and was interred in the Santa Barbara Cemetery. He had a daughter, Juliet, by his second wife.
Honours
He was nominated for four Academy awards: Bulldog Drummond and Condemned (both in 1930); Random Harvest (1940); and A Double Life (1947). He won the final nomination for his role of Anthony John, an actor playing Othello whose wife leaves him. In 2002, Coleman's Oscar statuette was sold at auction by Christie's for US$174,500.[2]
Coleman has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. and one for television at 1625 Vine Street.
0 Replies
Letty
1
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Sat 9 Feb, 2008 02:32 pm
Debacle, I love that. I think we might refer to that kid as an idiot savant. Isn't it amazing that the same man who wrote Deliverance is a fabulous poet?Thanks, buddy.
So, folks, our poem for the day.
A Morning
by James Dickey
A dog surroundingly howls.
Painfully he is changing
His voice from a voice for the moon
To the voice he has for the sun.
I stoop, and my hands are shining;
I have picked up a piece of the sea
To feel how a tall girl has swum
Yesterday in it too deeply,
And, below the light, has become
More naked than Eve in the garden.
I drop her strange body on the cobbles.
My hands are shining with fever,
And I understand
The long, changing word of the dog
With the moon dying out in his voice,
And the pain when the sun came up
For the first time on angel-shut gates,
In its rays set closer than teeth.
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
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Sat 9 Feb, 2008 02:34 pm
Peggy Wood
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Mary Margaret Wood
Born February 9, 1892
Brooklyn, New York
Died March 18, 1978 (aged 86)
Stamford, Connecticut
Years active 1919-1968
Spouse(s) John V.A. Weaver (1924-1938)
Will Walling (1941-1973)
Peggy Wood (February 9, 1892 - March 18, 1978), born Mary Margaret Wood, was an Academy Award nominated American actress of stage, film and television.
Career
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Wood spent nearly fifty years on the stage, beginning in the chorus and becoming known as a Broadway singer and star. She made her stage debut in 1910 in the chorus of Naughty Marietta. In 1917, in Maytime, she introduced the song ?'Will You Remember'. She starred in several other musicals before playing Portia in a 1928 production of The Merchant of Venice. In the late 1920s and 1930s, she played lead roles in musicals staged in London and New York. In 1941, in the New York premiere of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, she portrayed Ruth Condomine - whose husband's deceased first wife returns as an irritating ghost. Coward had originally written the part for Wood in the London based production in 1929.
Because of her stage career, Peggy did not make many films. She co-starred opposite Will Rogers in Handy Andy and was seen in the film Jalna. She also had a cameo in the 1937 film A Star is Born playing a receptionist at a movie studio who advises Janet Gaynor to go back home.
From 1949 to 1957, she played matriarch Marta Hansen, Mama, in the popular CBS television series Mama, based on the popular film I Remember Mama When General Foods cancelled the program there was so much protest CBS brought it back on Sunday afternoon, this time as a filmed series. But since they did not have that many clearances it was decided to put the show into syndication where it was a huge success. 26 episodes were filmed. By then Robin Morgan who played Dagmar left the series and she was replaced by Toni Campbell. Following "Mama", Wood was also seen in episodes of Zane Grey Theater and an episode of The Nurses which co-starred Ruth Gates, who played her sister Jenny on Mama.
She then co-starred with Imogene Coca in the Broadway play, The Girls in 509 which had a moderate run.
Her final screen appearance was as the gentle Mother Abbess in the 1965 film The Sound Of Music, for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Wood did not do her own singing in the film. It was dubbed by Margery McKay. She also speaks the final line of the movie--"What is this sin, my children?"
Peggy Wood also starred in the adaptation of the Biblical book of Ruth, The Story of Ruth.
In 1969 she joined the cast of the ABC-TV soap, One Life to Live as Dr. Kate Nolan and had a recurring role until the end of the year.
Her first autobiography, How Young You Look, was published by Farrar and Rinehart in 1941. An update, Arts and Flowers, appeared in 1963. She also wrote a biography of John Drew, was co-author of a play called Miss Quis and a novel called The Star Wagon.
Wood received numerous awards for her theatrical work and for a while was president of American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA).
Marriage
Wood married and was widowed twice. Her first husband, poet/writer John V.A. Weaver, died of tuberculosis at age 44 and her second, William Walling, an executive in the printing business, died in 1973 after 32 years. Wood herself died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Stamford, Connecticut.
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bobsmythhawk
1
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Sat 9 Feb, 2008 02:37 pm
Brian Donlevy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Waldo Bruce Donlevy
Born February 9, 1901
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Died April 5, 1972
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA
Years active 1924-1969
Spouse(s) Yvonne Grey (1928-1936)
Marjorie Lane (1936-1938)
Lillian Lugosi (1966-1972)
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Supporting Actor
1939 Beau Geste
Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 - April 5, 1972) was an American actor, known for many film roles from the 1930s to the 1960s. Particularly known for playing "tough guy" roles, he mainly appeared in supporting roles on screen. Amongst the films for which he was best known were Beau Geste (1939) and The Great McGinty (1940). For his role as Sergeant Markoff in Beau Geste he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
His obituary in The Times newspaper in the United Kingdom stated that "any consideration of the American 'film noir' of the 1940s would be incomplete without him."[1]
Early life and career
Donlevy was born Waldo Bruce Donlevy in Cleveland, Ohio. Early in his career, Hollywood film bosses established a fictional background of Donlevy having been born in Portadown, County Armagh, Ireland. This was not true, although it remains a popular biographical myth.[2]
After lying about his age, Donlevy joined the American army in 1916 and saw service as a pilot during the First World War. After the war, he remained in the army for a short time before he decided to make the move into acting. He began his career in New York in the early 1920s, over the course of the decade appearing in many theatre productions and also winning an increasing number of silent film parts.
Film roles
Donlevy's break into major film roles came in 1935, when he was cast in the Edward G. Robinson film Barbary Coast. A large amount of successful film work followed, with several important parts. In 1939, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Sergeant Markoff in Beau Geste, although the Oscar went to Thomas Mitchell for Stagecoach.
The following year he played the role for which he is perhaps the best remembered, that of McGinty in The Great McGinty (known as Down Went McGinty in the United Kingdom), a role he reprised four years later in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.
In 1942, Donlevy starred in the Paramount film Wake Island. Donlevy played Maj. Geoffrey Caton, part of a small band of United States Marines defending the island against the Japanese. At the time, the movie Wake Island was very well received garnering four major Academy Award nominations: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor.
In 1955, he starred in the British science-fiction / horror film The Quatermass Xperiment (called The Creeping Unknown in the US) for the Hammer Films company, playing the lead role of Professor Bernard Quatermass. The film was based on a 1953 BBC Television serial of the same name, in which the character had been British, but Hammer cast Donlevy in an attempt to help sell the film to American audiences, much to the displeasure of Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale who disliked Donlevy's portrayal of the character, referring to Donlevy as "a former Hollywood heavy gone to seed". Nonetheless, the film version was a success and Donlevy returned for the sequel, Quatermass 2 (Enemy From Space in the US), in 1957, also based on a BBC television serial. This made Donlevy the only man ever to play the famous scientist on screen twice, although later Scottish actor Andrew Keir would play him two times, once on film and later on the radio.
Later work
Throughout his film career, Donlevy also did several radio shows, including a reprise of The Great McGinty. He went on to feature in a number of films over the following years until his death. He also appeared in a variety of television series from the late 1940s to the mid 1960s, guest starring in episodes of such popular programs as Perry Mason, Wagon Train, Rawhide, as well as in his own series in the 1950s, Dangerous Assignment. In 1957, he appeared in a CBS production of the A. J. Cronin novel, Beyond This Place. His last film role was in a picture called The Winner, released in 1969.
Personal life
Donlevy was married three times: firstly to Yvonne Grey from 1928-36, then to actress Marjorie Lane from 1936-1938, and finally to Lillian Lugosi (the widow of Bela Lugosi, famous for playing Dracula) from 1966 until his death in 1972.
He died on April 6, 1972 in Woodland Hills, California from throat cancer, aged 71, survived by his wife Lillian and a daughter, Judy Donlevy, by his second wife. His ashes were scattered over Santa Monica Bay.
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bobsmythhawk
1
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Sat 9 Feb, 2008 02:43 pm
Carmen Miranda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha
Born February 9, 1909(1909-02-09)
Marco de Canaveses, Portugal
Died August 5, 1955 (aged 46)
Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California
Other name(s) The Brazilian Bombshell
Spouse(s) Dave Sebastian (17 March 1947 - 5 August 1955)
Official site Official site
Carmen Miranda, pron. IPA: ['kaɾme͂j mi'rɐ͂dɐ], (February 9, 1909 - August 5, 1955); birth name Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, GCIH) was a Portuguese-born[1] Brazilian[2] samba singer and motion picture star most active in the 1940s. She was nicknamed Carmen by her father, because of his love of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. Carmen's legacy was instrumental in synthesizing, divulging and popularizing samba.
Life and career
Carmen Miranda was born in the small northern Portuguese town of Marco de Canaveses to Portuguese parents. She was the second daughter of José Maria Pinto Cunha (1887 - 1938) and Maria Emília Miranda (1886 - 1971). Shortly after her birth, her father, José Maria, emigrated to Brazil and settled in Rio de Janeiro (the then capital), where he opened a barber's shop. In 1910, her mother followed, together with her eldest daughter, Olinda, and Carmen. Carmen never returned to Portugal. Once in Brazil, her parents had further children, namely: Amaro (1911), Cecília (1913), Aurora (1915 - 2005) and Oscar (1916).
Carmen went to school at the Convent of Saint Therese of Lisieux. Her very Catholic parents did not approve of her dreams of pursuing show business, so she kept them secret for years. In her spare time, she often sang at parties and festivals around town. Carmen's sister, Olinda, contracted tuberculosis and returned to Portugal for treatment. Carmen got her first job, in a tie shop at age 14, to help pay for her sister's medical treatment. She later worked in a boutique, La Femme Chic, where she learned to make hats. In no time, she started her own small hat business which became quite profitable. Olinda, meanwhile, remained in Portugal until her death in 1931.
Before long, she was discovered and began singing on a local radio station. Ultimately, Carmen wound up with a recording contract with RCA. One thing led to another, and she pursued a career as a samba singer for 10 years before she was invited to New York City to perform in a show on Broadway.By 1928, she was a genuine superstar in Brazil. As with other popular singers of the era, Carmen eventually made her way into the film world. She made her debut in the Brazilian documentary "A Voz Do Carnaval". Two years later Carmen appeared in her first feature film entitled "Alo, Alo Brasil". But it was Estudantes that seemed to solidify Carmen in the minds of the movie going public
In Brazil, she was noted as a musical innovator, and was one of the first samba superstars long before her arrival in the United States. She also made six films in Brazil.
Carmen arrived in the United States in 1939 with her band, the Bando da Lua, and achieved stardom in the early 1940s. She was encouraged by the United States government in her American career as part of President Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy, designed to strengthen links with Latin America and Europe; it was believed that in delivering content like hers, the policy would be better received by the American public. She was the country's highest-paid entertainer for several years in the 1940s, and in 1945, was the highest-paid woman in the United States, earning more than $200,000 that year, according to IRS records.
Carmen made a total of 14 Hollywood films between 1940 and 1953. As a singer, she sold more than 10 million copies worldwide[citation needed]. She was given the nickname "The Brazilian Bombshell".
Carmen's Hollywood image was one of a generic Latinness that blurred the distinctions between Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico as well as between samba, tango and habanera. It was carefully stylized and outlandishly flamboyant. She was often shown wearing platform sandals and towering headdresses made of fruit, becoming famous as "the lady in the tutti-frutti hat." At only 5 feet tall (1,52 m), these accoutrements made her appear almost larger-than-life on screen.
She was well aware of the tensions in her career. During a visit to Brazil in 1940, she was heavily criticized for giving in to American commercialism and projecting a false image of Brazil. She responded with the Portuguese language song "Disseram Que Voltei Americanizada," or "They Say I've Come Back Americanized." Another song, "Bananas Is My Business," was based on a line in one of her movies and directly addressed her image. She was greatly upset by the criticism and did not return to Brazil again for 14 years.
Carmen did not drink or smoke until her late 30s.[citation needed] In addition to her addiction to alcohol and tobacco, Carmen regularly used amphetamines and barbiturates, all of which weakened her heart.[citation needed]
"Scared Stiff" was her final performance on the silver screen. On August 4, 1955, Carmen suffered a heart attack, although she didn't realize it at the time, while taping a segment for the Jimmy Durante Show.
The A&E Network Biography episode featuring Carmen Miranda contained the final tragic kinescope footage from her August 4 appearance.
After completing a dance number, Carmen unknowingly suffered a mild heart attack, and nearly collapsed. Durante was at her side, and helped keep her on her feet. She laughed "I'm all out of breath" and Durante replied "Dat's OK, honey, I'll take yer lines!" Carmen laughed again, quickly pulled herself together and finished the show. At the end of the broadcast, she danced backwards out of the door, turned to the audience, blew a big kiss, and was gone for the last time.
"The Brazilian Bombshell" died early the following morning, at the age of 46.
The official cause of death given on her death certificate was from untreated toxemia (later known as pre-eclampsia), and heart failure stemming from a pregnancy. Her body was flown back to Brazil soon afterwards and the Brazilian government declared a period of national mourning. She was buried in the Cemitério São João Batista in Rio de Janeiro[3]. Her funeral cortège, en route to the cemetery, was accompanied by about half a million people.
Tributes
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Carmen Miranda has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6262 Hollywood Boulevard.
Helena Solberg made a documentary of her life, Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business in 1995.
Carmen's enormous, fruit-laden hats are iconic visual recognized around the world. Her image was much satirized and taken up as camp, and today, the "Carmen Miranda" persona is popular among female impersonators and drag performers. The style was even emulated in animated cartoon shorts. The animation department at Warner Brothers seemed to be especially fond of the actress's image. Animator Virgil Ross used it in his short Slick Hare, featuring Bugs Bunny, who escapes from Elmer Fudd by hiding in the fruit hat. Tex Avery also used it in his MGM short Magical Maestro when an opera singer is temporarily changed into the persona, fruit hat and all, via a magician's wand. The popular internet cartoon Homestar Runner paid tribute to Miranda in 2000 in the Halloween cartoon Homestarloween Party, when Strong Bad dressed up as Carmen. He was mistaken for the Chiquita banana lady, and protested, "I'm Carmen freakin' Miranda!"
Serious musical tributes and references are relatively infrequent. Brazilian singer Ney Matogrosso's album Batuque brings the period and several of Carmen's great early hits back to life in faithful style. Caetano Veloso paid tribute to Carmen out of love for her early samba recordings made in Rio when he recorded Disseram que eu voltei americanizada on the live album Circuladô Vivo in 1992. He also examined her iconic legacy of both kitsch and sincere samba artistry in an essay in the New York Times. Additionally, on one of Veloso's most popular songs, "Tropicalia", Veloso sings "Viva a banda da da da....Carmem Miranda da da da" as the final lyrics of the song. Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett included a tribute to Carmen Miranda on his 1973 album A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, entitled "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More." In the early 1970s a novelty act known as Daddy Dewdrop had a top 10 hit single in the US titled "Chick-A-Boom," one of Carmen's trademark song phrases, although the resemblance ended there.
Brazilian author Ruy Castro wrote a monumental biography of Carmen Miranda entitled Carmen After Four Years of Interviews, published in 2005 in Brazil. This book has yet to appear in English.
Visitors to Rio de Janeiro can find a museum dedicated to Carmen Miranda in the Flamengo neighborhood on Avenida Rui Barbosa. The museum includes several original costumes, and shows clips from her filmography. There is also a museum dedicated to her in Marco de Canaveses, Portugal called "Museu Municipal Carmen Miranda", with various photos and one of the famous hats. Outside the museum there is a statue of Carmen Miranda.
A hot air balloon in her likeness was conceived in 1982 at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta by Jacques Soukup and Kirk Thomas. Named "Chic-I-Boom", the craft was built by Cameron England, and was the first special-shaped hot-air balloon ever to fly at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. The original Chic-I-Boom was retired from flight in 1996, and a new Chic-I-Boom was built by Aerostar. Chic-I-Boom's bananas are each 50 feet long.
The singer Leslie Fish created a song called "Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three", in which a space station is inundated with fresh fruit. A science fiction anthology later had the same title.
John Cale, a member of the Velvet Underground, issued a song called "The Soul of Carmen Miranda" on his album Words for the Dying.
A suburb in Sydney, Australia called "Miranda" has a night club called "Carmens" thus being Carmens Miranda.
Carmen Miranda Square
On September 25, 1998, a city square in Hollywood was named Carmen Miranda Square in a ceremony headed by longtime honorary mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant, who was also one of the singer's personal friends dating back to World War II. The effort was spearheaded by concert promoter Jean Chakanaka and Carmen Miranda's grandniece, Cheryl Cunha, herself a songwriter, singer and performer who adopted the stage name "Miranda" and performs many of her aunt's songs in tribute. Brazil's Consul General Jorió Gama was on hand for opening remarks, as were members of Bando da Lua, Carmen Miranda's original band.
Carmen Miranda Square is only one of about a dozen Los Angeles city intersections named for historic performers. The square is located at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Orange Drive across from Grauman's Chinese Theater. The location is especially noteworthy not only since Carmen Miranda's footprints are preserved in concrete at the Chinese Theater's famous collection, but in remembrance of an impromptu performance at a nearby Hollywood Boulevard intersection on V-J Day where she was joined by a throng of servicemen from the nearby USO.
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
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Sat 9 Feb, 2008 02:49 pm
Gypsy Rose Lee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Seattle, Washington
Died April 26, 1970
Los Angeles, California
Gypsy Rose Lee (also known as Rose Louise Hovick and Louise Hovick) (b. February 9, 1911/1914 - April 26, 1970) was an American actress, burlesque entertainer, and writer whose 1957 memoir, which included a scathing portrait of her domineering mother, was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.
Early life
Born as Rose Louise Hovick in Seattle, Washington in either 1911 or 1914, Gypsy was initially known by her middle name, Louise. Her mother, Rose Thompson Hovick, was fifteen when she married John Hovick, who, according to Rose's 1914 birth certificate, was an ad salesman with a newspaper. A second daughter, Ellen Hovick (better known as actress June Havoc), was born several years later. She, too, would be known by her middle name, June (although some sources indicate that Ellen Hovick's middle name was originally "Evangeline").
After Rose T. Hovick divorced her husband John, the girls earned the family's money by appearing in vaudeville where June's talent shone while Louise remained in the background. At the age of 16, June married a boy in the act named Bobby Reed, whom Mother Rose had arrested and met at the police station with a hidden gun. She pulled the trigger but the safety was on and Bobby was freed. June left the act and went on to a brief career in marathon dancing before giving birth to April Reed around 1930.
Career success
Louise's singing and dancing talents were insufficient to sustain the act without June. Eventually, it became apparent that Louise could earn money in burlesque, which earned her legendary status. Her innovations were an almost casual strip style, compared to the herky-jerky styles of most burlesque strippers (she emphasized the "tease" in "striptease") and she brought a sharp sense of humor into her act as well. She became as famous for her onstage wit as for her strip style, and?-changing her stage name to Gypsy Rose Lee?-she became one of the biggest stars of Minsky's Burlesque, where she performed for four years. She was frequently arrested in raids against the Minsky brothers' shows.
Gypsy Rose Lee had relationships with an assortment of characters from comedian Rags Ragland to Eddy Braun. She eventually traveled to Hollywood, where she was billed as Louise Hovick and she married Arnold "Bob" Mizzy on August 25, 1937 at the insistence of the film studio. Her acting was generally panned. So she returned to New York City and invested in Michael Todd (1909-1958). She eventually appeared as an actress in many of his film productions.
Trying to describe what Gypsy was (a "high-class" stripper), H. L. Mencken coined the term ecdysiast. Her style of intellectual recitation while stripping was spoofed in the number "Zip!" from Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, a play in which her sister June appeared. Gypsy can be seen performing an abbreviated version of her act (intellectual recitiation and all) in the 1943 film, Stage Door Canteen.
In 1941, Gypsy Rose Lee authored a mystery thriller called The G-String Murders which was made into the 1943 film Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck. While some assert this was in fact ghost-written by Craig Rice there are also those who suggest that there is more than sufficient written evidence in the form of manuscripts and Lee's own correspondence to prove she wrote a large part of the novel herself under the guidance of Rice and others, including her friend and mentor, the editor George Davis.[1][2] Lee's second murder mystery, Mother Finds a Body, was published in 1942.
Relationships
In love with Michael Todd and in an attempt to make him jealous, Gypsy Lee married William Alexander Kirkland in 1942. They divorced in 1944. While married to Kirkland, she gave birth to a son fathered by Otto Preminger; he was named Erik Lee, and has been known successively as Erik Kirkland, Erik de Diego, and Erik Preminger. Gypsy Lee was married for a third time in 1948 to Julio de Diego, but they eventually divorced.
Gypsy and June, who also became a successful performer, continued to get demands for money from their mother, who had opened a lesbian boardinghouse in a ten-room apartment on West End Avenue in New York City. This property and a farm in Highland Mills, New York, had been rented for Mother Rose by Gypsy Lee. Mother Rose shot and killed one of her guests (according to Erik Preminger, she killed her own lover, who had made a pass at Gypsy) at the boardinghouse. This incident was explained as a suicide. As Mother Rose was dying of colon cancer, her final words, in 1954, were for Gypsy Lee: "Wherever you go... I'll be right there. When you get your own private kick in the ass, just remember: it's a present from me to you."
Later years
With their mother dead, the sisters now felt free to write about her without risking a lawsuit. Gypsy's memoirs, titled Gypsy, were published in 1957 and were taken as inspirational material for the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable. Sister June did not like the way she was portrayed in the piece, but she was eventually persuaded not to oppose it for her sister's sake. The play and the subsequent movie deal assured Gypsy a steady income. The sisters became estranged. June, in turn, wrote Early Havoc and More Havoc, relating her version of the story.
Gypsy Rose Lee went on to host an AM San Francisco KGO-TV television talk show, Gypsy. A smoker, she was diagnosed in 1969 with metastatic lung cancer, which prompted her to reconcile with June before her death. "This is my present, you know," she reportedly told June. "My present from Mother."
The walls of her Los Angeles home were adorned with pictures by Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning, all of which were reportedly gifts to her by the artists themselves. Like Picasso, she was a supporter of the Popular front movement in the Spanish Civil War and raised money for charity to alleviate the suffering of children during the conflict which preceded World War II.
Lee died in Los Angeles, aged either 56 or 59, and was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.
Trivia
In May 1955 the Lancaster & Chester Railway Co. of South Carolina Board of Directors appointed her "Vice-President in charge of Unveiling". ("The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States") May 1955, Page 543.
She was referenced in the 1973 Tony Orlando and Dawn hit "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose?".
American punk band The Distillers had a track named after her on their debut album.
In Gypsy: A Musical Fable, the role of Lee's mother Rose has been played on Broadway by Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters; on film by Rosalind Russell and on American television by Bette Midler.
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bobsmythhawk
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Sat 9 Feb, 2008 02:52 pm
Kathryn Grayson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kathryn Grayson (born February 9, 1922) is an American actress and singer who was born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Hedrick family later moved to Franlin, St Louis, where she was discovered singing on the empty stage of the St Louis Municipal Opera House by a janitor, who introduced her to Frances Marshall of the Chicago Civic Opera, who gave the twelve-year-old girl voice lessons.
In Hollywood she would marry twice: first to actor John Shelton; secondly to actor/singer Johnnie Johnston. She has one daughter. Throughout the 1950's, she carried on an affair with mogul Howard Hughes, and was briefly engaged to him (although this was not included in the film The Aviator, as the film only profiled Hughes through the late 1940s).
Though she started out as MGM's answer to Deanna Durbin (with films such as Seven Sweethearts and Anchors Aweigh), she proved herself a top star in "Thousands Cheer", "Anchors Aweigh' and "Two Sisters From Boston". and in the film versions of the Broadway hitKiss Me, Kate (1953). In this film, she teamed up with Howard Keel, with whom she had starred earlier in the 1951 Technicolor remake of Show Boat, and in 1952's Lovely To Look At, a 1952 Technicolor version of Roberta. She and Keel also appeared together in a highly successful cabaret act in the 1960's. She also appeared in a duo of films with tenor Mario Lanza - The Toast of New Orleans and That Midnight Kiss.
With the end of MGM's great era of musicals, so ended Miss Grayson's film career. Kathryn was on stage in numerous stage musicals such as Show Boat, Rosalinda, Kiss Me, Kate, Naughty Marietta, and The Merry Widow, for which she was nominated for Chicago's Sarah Siddons Award. This led to her as a replacement for Julie Andrews on Broadway in 1962 in Camelot, scoring a great success as Queen Guenevere, before going on to star in the National tour for over sixteen months, after which she left the show due to health problems. During her period with the Camelot tour, all box-office records were broken and she gained uniformly excellent notices. Grayson had a lifelong dream of being an opera star, and she appeared number of operas in the '60s, such as La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, Orpheus in the Underworld and La Traviata. Her dramatic and comedy stage roles included Night Watch, Noises Off, Love Letters and Something's Afoot as Dottie Otterling.
She also appeared on television occasionally. Her first TV appearances were in the 1950s, and she received an Emmy nomination in 1956 for her performance in the General Electric Theater episode Shadow on the Heart with John Ericson. Most recently, she appeared in several episodes of Angela Lansbury's long-running series Murder, She Wrote in the late 1980s.
Never to be overshadowed these days by other talented or exciting MGM contemporaries such as Jane Powell, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Esther Williams and Ann Blyth, Miss Grayson has gained cult status among a large, and wildly devoted, crowd of fans. Today, Kathryn supervises the Voice and Choral Studies Program at the Idaho State University.
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bobsmythhawk
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Sat 9 Feb, 2008 02:56 pm
Carole King
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Carole Klein
Born February 9, 1942 (1942-02-09) (age 66)
Origin New York City, New York, United States
Genre(s) Rock
Pop
Jazz
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s) Piano, vocals
Years active 1958 - present
Label(s) Rockingale
Website CaroleKing.com
Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She was most active as a singer during the first half of the 1970s, though she was a successful songwriter for considerably longer both before and after this period.
King has won four Grammy Awards and has been inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting, along with long-time partner Gerry Goffin.
Biography
Born Carol Klein in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish household, King started out playing the piano and then moved on to singing, forming a vocal quartet called the Co-Sines at James Madison High School.
She attended Queens College, where she was a classmate of Neil Sedaka and inspired Sedaka's first big hit, "Oh, Carol". She wrote "Oh, Neil" in return. While attending Queens College, King befriended Paul Simon and Gerry Goffin.
Goffin and King soon formed a songwriting partnership, eventually marrying and having two daughters, Louise Goffin and Sherry Goffin Kondor, who also became singers. Working in the Brill Building, where chart-topping hits were churned out during the 1960s, the Goffin-King partnership first hit it big with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". Recorded by The Shirelles, the song topped the charts in 1961; it was later covered by Dusty Springfield, Laura Branigan, Little Eva, Roberta Flack, and King herself.
Another classic song written by King during this era was the 1971 #1 US hit "You've Got a Friend".
In 1965, Goffin and King wrote a special theme to Sidney Sheldon's new television series, I Dream of Jeannie, but the song was rejected in favor of an instrumental theme by Hugo Montenegro.
Their 1965 song Pleasant Valley Sunday, a #3 hit for The Monkees, was inspired by their move to suburban West Orange, New Jersey.[1]
In 1968, she was hired to co-write two songs for Strawberry Alarm Clock with Toni Stern, "Lady of the Lake" and "Blues for a Young Girl Gone," which appeared on the album, The World in a Seashell.
Mainstream success
King's own singing career, however, was slower to gain momentum. She had a modest hit singing one of her own songs in 1962 with "It Might As Well Rain Until September" (#22 in the US and a top 10 success in the UK, later a hit in Canada for Gary & Dave), but after "He's a Bad Boy" made #94 in 1963, King did not make the Hot 100 singles chart again for eight years.
After failing several times at launching a solo career, King eventually helped pioneer a record label, Tomorrow Records, divorced Goffin and married Charles Larkey (of the Myddle Class). Moving to the West Coast, Larkey, King and Danny Kortchmar formed a group called The City, which released one album, Now That Everything's Been Said, but the album was a commercial failure. King then released Writer (1970), another commercial failure. Undaunted, the following year King gave thoughtful, folk-flavored reinterpretations of some of her early pop hits as a songwriter, placing them on an album alongside new compositions. Tapestry (1971) became a turning point in her career.
Tapestry
Her best-received album, Tapestry, was instantly recognized as one of the landmark albums of the singer-songwriter genre of the early 1970s. With numerous hit singles, Tapestry would remain on the charts for nearly six years and sell over 10 million copies in the United States alone, an estimated 22 million world-wide, remaining her most popular album among fans and critics alike. The album garnered four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Record of the Year ("It's Too Late"); and Song of the Year ("You've Got a Friend"). Music (1971), Rhymes and Reasons (1972), Fantasy (1973) and Wrap Around Joy (1974) followed, each selling respectably. Tapestry was placed at #36 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of all time. [2] In addition, "It's Too Late" was placed at #469 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 1973, Carole King performed a free concert in New York City's Central Park and broke all previous records for such a concert with over 100,000 people attending.[3] (This record was subsequently broken in 1981 by Simon and Garfunkel, with 500,000 people.)
Wrap Around Joy
King again found major success with her 1974 album Wrap Around Joy. The album reached number #1 on the Billboard charts and only for the second time in her career she had a song reach as high as #2 on the singles chart with the big hit "Jazzman," as well as another top 10 single from the album "Nightingale." Although the album did not have the long lasting success and chart endurance of Tapestry, it was among King's most successful albums at the time of its release, and the singles received very strong radio play the year of its release.
Thoroughbred
Goffin and King reunited to write Thoroughbred (1975) with David Crosby, Graham Nash and James Taylor, a long-time friend of King's. Thoroughbred would be her last Gold record and major chart success. She married another songwriting partner, Rick Evers, after releasing Simple Things (1977); Evers died of a cocaine overdose one year later. Also in 1975, King scored a number of songs for the animated TV production of Maurice Sendak's work, Really Rosie.
Speeding Time to present
After releasing a collection called Speeding Time in 1983, King took a hiatus in Idaho, where she became an environmental activist. She returned to music in 1989, recording City Streets with guest Eric Clapton on two tracks, followed by Color of Your Dreams (1993), with a guest appearance by Slash of Guns N' Roses. In addition, her song "Now and Forever" is featured in the opening credits to the 1992 movie A League of Their Own.
In 1988 she starred in the off-Broadway production A Minor Incident, and in 1994 she played the role of Mrs. Johnstone on Broadway in Blood Brothers.
In 1991, she co-wrote the song "If It's Over", for Mariah Carey's second album Emotions, after Carey refused King's proposal to cover (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman by her idol, Aretha Franklin.
An all-star roster of artists paid tribute to King on the 1995 album Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King. From the album, Rod Stewart's version of "So Far Away" and Celine Dion's cover of "A Natural Woman" were both Adult Contemporary chart hits. Other artists who appeared on the album included Amy Grant ("It's Too Late"), Richard Marx ("Beautiful"), Aretha Franklin ("You've Got a Friend"), Faith Hill ("Where You Lead"), and the Bee Gees ("Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?").
In addition to the numerous hit versions of her songs with Gerry Goffin and Tapestry Revisited, many other cover versions of King's work have appeared over the years. Most notably, "You've Got a Friend" was a smash hit for James Taylor in 1971 (in fact, just two weeks earlier King's "It's Too Late" was at number one for its fifth week on the Billboard Hot 100) and a top 40 hit for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway that same year. Barbra Streisand had a top 40 hit with "Where You Lead" twice ?- by itself and as part of a live medley with "Sweet Inspiration." The Carpenters recorded King's "It's Going to Take Some Time" in 1972 and reached number 12 on the Billboard charts. Martika had a number 25 hit in 1989 with her version of "I Feel the Earth Move", and "It's Too Late" reappeared on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1995 by Gloria Estefan. Celine Dion also recorded King's song "The Reason" on her 1997 album Let's Talk About Love.
In 1996 a film loosely based on her life, Grace of My Heart, was released. In the film an aspiring singer, Denise Waverly/Edna Buxton, sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. Mirroring King's life, the film follows her from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph in realizing her dream to record her own hit album.
In 2001 she co-wrote a song for the Semisonic album All About Chemistry.
King is very politically active in the United States Democratic Party. In 2003 she began campaigning for John Kerry, performing in private homes for caucus delegates during the Democratic primaries. On July 29, 2004, she made a short speech and sang at the Democratic National Convention, about two hours before Kerry made his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President. King continued her support of Kerry throughout the general election.
King's "Where You Lead (I Will Follow)" is the theme song to the TV series Gilmore Girls. In the theme-song version, King sings with her daughter Louise. King ?- who has appeared sporadically in acting roles ?- has guest starred three times on the show (in its second, fifth, and sixth seasons) as Sophie, the owner of the Stars Hollow music store.
Recent tours and releases
King launched her "Living Room Tour" (in a nod to her appearances in private homes during the Democratic primaries) on July 15, 2004, at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. That show, along with the shows at the Greek Theater (Los Angeles) in Los Angeles and the Cape Cod Melody Tent (Hyannis, Massachusetts) were recorded live and released as The Living Room Tour album on July 12, 2005. The 2005 leg of "The Living Room Tour" kicked off on July 3, 2005, in Ontario, Canada.
In May 2007, King released Love Makes the World: Deluxe Edition on her own label, Rockingale Records. The 2-CD set contains a bonus disc with five additional tracks, including "Where You Lead (I Will Follow)."
King can be heard on the track "Everyday People" from Reba McEntire's Reba: Duets CD, released September 18, 2007.
King has recorded a duet with Anne Murray on Murray's album "Duets: Friends and Legends". The song "Time Don't Run Out On Me" was originally recorded by Anne Murray for her 1984 album "Heart Over Mind". The song was written by King and Goffin. Anne Murray has said that she wouldn't have re-recorded the song as a duet with anyone else but King because she had co-written the song.
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bobsmythhawk
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Sat 9 Feb, 2008 02:59 pm
Joe Pesci
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Joseph Frank Pesci
Born February 9, 1943 (1943-02-09) (age 65)
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Years active 1961 - 2006
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor
1990 Goodfellas
BAFTA Awards
Best Newcomer
1980 Raging Bull
Joseph Frank "Joe" Pesci (February 9, 1943) is an American Academy Award-winning actor, comedian and singer.
Biography
Early life
Pesci, an Italian American, was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Mary, who worked part-time as a barber, and Angelo Pesci, a forklift driver for General Motors and bartender.[1][2] By the time Pesci was 5, he was appearing in plays in New York.[2] A few years later, at 10, he was a regular on a television variety show called "Startime Kids," which also featured Connie Francis.[2]
Pesci started out working as a barber in the 1960s, following in his mother's footsteps. He released an album entitled Little Joe Sure Can Sing under the pseudonym Joseph Richie, accompanied by a band that included good friend and future fellow actor Frank Vincent.[2] Pesci played guitar for Joey Dee and the Starliters, and was an extra in Dee's film "Hey, Let's Twist!", where he made his film debut.[2]
Career
His breakthrough as an actor came in 1980 alongside Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's boxing film Raging Bull. Subsequently, he performed with De Niro in the films Once Upon A Time In America (in which he was cast at the behest of his friend De Niro), Goodfellas (for which he received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), and Casino. The pairing became famous enough to inspire a recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live, called "The Joe Pesci Show". (The real Pesci and De Niro would eventually make a surprise appearance in one episode). Pesci hosted Saturday Night Live on October 10, 1992. During the monologue, he restored a picture of Pope John Paul II, which was torn by Sinead O'Connor on the previous broadcast.
Pesci co-starred in Home Alone (1990), playing one of two bumbling burglars (along with good friend, Daniel Stern) who attempt to rob the house of the character played by Macaulay Culkin. In 1992, he appeared in Home Alone 2.
He also played the non-gangster role of David Ferrie in JFK and finally My Cousin Vinny released in 1991 and 1992 respectively. He appeared in three Lethal Weapon films as the sleazy but likeable Leo Getz.
In 1998 he released an album called Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You which spawned the single "Wise Guy". In 1999, Pesci announced his retirement from acting to pursue a musical career and to enjoy life away from the camera. Pesci returned to acting when he did a cameo in De Niro's 2006 film The Good Shepherd. Pesci is slated to star in the 2009 drama Love Ranch, alongside Helen Mirren.
Personal life
Pesci has been married three times, the first to Claudia Martha (Marty) Haro,[3] with whom he has a daughter, Tiffany.[4] Pesci has been linked with companion Angie Everhart,[3] but rumours that they are engaged have so far yet to be confirmed. Comedian George Carlin prays to him because "he's a good actor" [4] He introduced childhood friends Tommy DeVito, Frankie Valli, and Nick Massi to Bob Gaudio. They went on to become the Four Seasons, one of the most influential rock groups of all time.
So, Strauss was the father of that delightful duo. Thanks, buddy.
