Well, folks, the tornado watch has been canceled and now I can breathe a little easier. hbg, I loved Rosemary doing the mambo. She was some performer; unfortunately George did not inherit her musical ability, but he sure could do the lip sync well.
I do hope you all watched and listened to Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong. That is one fabulous performance. As a matter of record, I am going to sign off tonight with one of my favorite Hans Christian Anderson songs.
Please support our hebba, too, because these guys are both great Danes.
Ah, Raggedy, you are right. I don't think my older sister really caught the deep down Danny. Thanks for a different view of the inch worm through the eyes of a muppet.
Well, today is also Elizabeth Taylor's birthday, and I had no idea that "she of the violet eyes" could sing. She's not the greatest, but....
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born February 27, 1807(1807-02-27)
Portland, Maine, United States
Died March 24, 1882 (aged 75)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 - March 24, 1882) was an American poet whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", "A Psalm of Life", "The Song of Hiawatha", "Evangeline", and "Christmas Bells". He also wrote the first American translation of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" and was one of the five members of the group known as the Fireside Poets. Longfellow was born and raised in the region of Portland, Maine. He attended university at an early age at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. After several journeys overseas, Longfellow settled for the last forty-five years of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Life and work
Early life and education
Birthplace in c. 1910 Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, to Stephen and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow in Portland, Maine,[1] and grew up in what is now known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House. His father was a lawyer, and his maternal grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth, Sr., was a general in the American Revolutionary War.[2] He was named after his mother's brother Henry Wadsworth, a Navy lieutenant who died only three years earlier.[3]
Longfellow's siblings were Stephen (1805), Elizabeth (1808), Anne (1810), Alexander (1814), Mary (1816), Ellen (1818), and Samuel (1819). Henry was enrolled in a dame school at the age of only three and by age six was enrolled at the private Portland Academy. In his years there, he earned a reputation as being very studious and became fluent in Latin.[4] He printed his first poem ?- a patriotic and historical four stanza poem called "The Battle of Lovell's Pond" ?- in the Portland Gazette on November 17, 1820.[5] He remained at the Portland Academy until the age of fourteen.
In the fall of 1822, the 15-year old Longfellow enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine alongside his brother Stephen.[4] His grandfather was a founder of the college[6] and his father was a trustee.[4] There, Longfellow met Nathaniel Hawthorne, who would later become his lifelong friend.[7] He boarded with a clergyman for a time before rooming on the third floor of what is now Maine Hall in 1823.[8] He joined the Peucinian Society, a group of students with Federalist leanings.[9] In his senior year, Longfellow wrote to his father about his aspirations:
"I will not disguise it in the least... the fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature, my whole soul burns most ardently after it, and every earthly thought centres in it... I am almost confident in believing, that if I can ever rise in the world it must be by the exercise of my talents in the wide field of literature."[10]
He pursued his literary goals by submitting poetry and prose to various newspapers and magazines. Between January 1824 and his graduation in 1825, he had published nearly 40 minor poems.[11] About 24 of them appeared in the short-lived Boston periodical The United States Literary Gazette.[9]
European tours and professorships
After graduating in 1825, he was offered a job as professor of modern languages at his alma mater. The story, possibly apocryphal, is that an influential trustee, Benjamin Orr, had been so impressed Longfellow's translation of Horace that he was hired under the condition that he travel to Europe to study French, Spanish and Italian.[12] Whatever the motivation, he began his tour of Europe in May 1826 aboard a ship named Cadmus.[13] His time abroad would last three years and cost his father an estimated $2,604.24.[14] He traveled to France, Spain, Italy, Germany, back to France, then England before returning to the United States in mid-August 1829.[15] Longfellow was saddened to learn his favorite sister Elizabeth had died of tuberculosis at the age of 20 that May while he was abroad.[16]
On August 27, 1829, he wrote to the president of Bowdoin that he was turning down the professorship because he considered the $600 salary "disproportionate to the duties required." The trustees raised his salary to $800 with an additional $100 to serve as the college's librarian, a post which required one hour of work per day.[17] During his years at the college, he wrote textbooks in French, Italian, and Spanish and a travel book, Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea.[18] On September 14, 1831, he married Mary Storer Potter, a childhood friend from Portland.[19] The couple settled in Brunswick, though the two were not happy there.[20]
In December 1834, Longfellow received a letter from Josiah Quincy III, president of Harvard College, offering him a position as the Smith Professorship of Modern Languages with the stipulation that he spend a year or so abroad.[21] In October 1835, during the trip, his wife Mary had a miscarriage about six months into her pregnancy.[22] She did not recover and died after several weeks of illness at the age of 22 on November 29, 1835. Longfellow had her body embalmed immediately and placed into a lead coffin inside an oak coffin which was then shipped to Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston.[23] Three years later, he was inspired to write "Footsteps of Angels" about their love.
When he returned to the United States in 1836, Longfellow took up the professorship at Harvard University. He was required to live in Cambridge to be close to the campus and moved in to the Craigie House in the spring of 1837.[24] The home, built in 1759, had once been the headquarters of George Washington during the seige of Boston in July 1775.[25] Longfellow began publishing his poetry, including "Voices of the Night" in 1839 and Ballads and Other Poems, which included his famous poem "The Village Blacksmith", in 1841.
Courtship of Frances "Fanny" Appleton
Longfellow began courting Frances "Fanny" Appleton, the daughter of a wealthy Boston industrialist, Nathan Appleton.[26] At first, she was not interested but Longfellow was determined. In July 1839, he wrote to a friend: "victory hangs doubtful. The lady says she will not! I say she shall! It is not pride, but the madness of passion."[27] During the courtship, he frequently walked from Harvard to her home in Boston, crossing the Boston Bridge. That bridge was subsequently demolished and replaced in 1906 by a new bridge, which was eventually renamed as the Longfellow Bridge. Longfellow continued writing, however, and in the fall of 1839 published Hyperion, a book of travel writings discussing his trips abroad.[27]
After seven years, Fanny finally agreed to marriage, and they were wed in 1843. Nathan Appleton bought the Craigie House, overlooking the Charles River, as a wedding present to the pair.
His love for Fanny is evident in the following lines from Longfellow's only love poem, the sonnet "The Evening Star", which he wrote in October, 1845: "O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus! My morning and my evening star of love!"
He and Fanny had six children:
Charles Appleton (1844-1893)
Ernest Wadsworth (1845-1921)
Fanny (1847-1848)
Alice Mary (1850-1928)
Edith (1853-1915), who married Richard Henry Dana III, son of Richard Henry Dana
Anne Allegra (1855-1934)
When the younger Fanny was born on April 7, 1847, Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep administered ether as the first obstetric anesthetic in the United States to Fanny Longfellow.[28] A few months later, on November 1, 1847, the poem "Evangeline" was published for the first time.[28]
On June 14, 1853, Longfellow held a farewell dinner party at his Cambridge home for his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne as he prepared to move overseas.[29] Shortly after, Longfellow retired from Harvard in 1854, devoting himself entirely to writing. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of Laws from Harvard in 1859.
Death of Frances
Longfellow was a devoted husband and father with a keen feeling for the pleasures of home. But each of his marriages ended in sadness and tragedy.
On a hot July day, while Fanny was putting a lock of a child's hair into an envelope and attempting to seal it with hot sealing wax, her dress caught fire causing severe burns. She died the next day, aged 44, on July 10, 1861. Longfellow was devastated by her death and never fully recovered. The strength of his grief is still evident in these lines from a sonnet, "The Cross of Snow" (1879), which he wrote eighteen years later to commemorate her death:
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.
Death
In March 1882, Longfellow went to bed with severe stomach pain. He endured the pain for several days with the help of opium before he died surrounded by family on Friday, March 24, 1882.[30] He had been suffering from peritonitis.
He is buried with both of his wives at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1884 he was the first and only American poet for whom a commemorative sculpted bust was placed in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey in London.
Writing
Longfellow often used allegory in his work. In "Nature", death is depicted as bedtime for a cranky child.[31]
Critical response
Contemporary writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote to Longfellow in May 1841 of his "fervent admiration which [your] genius has inspired in me" and later called him "unquestionably the best poet in America".[32] However, after Poe's reputation as a critic increased, he publicly accused Longfellow of plagiarism in what has been since termed by Poe biographers as "The Longfellow War".[33] His assessment was that Longfellow was "a determined imitator and a dextrous adapter of the ideas of other people",[32] specifically Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson.[34]
Margaret Fuller judged him "artificial and imitative" and lacking force.[35] Poet Walt Whitman also considered Longfellow an imitator of European forms, though he praised his ability to reach a popular audience as "the expressor of common themes - of the little songs of the masses."[36]
Legacy
Longfellow was the most popular poet of his day[37] He was such an admired figure in the United States during his life that his 70th birthday in 1877 took on the air of a national holiday, with parades, speeches, and the reading of his poetry. He had become one of the first American celebrities.
His work was immensely popular during his time and is still today, although some modern critics consider him too sentimental. His poetry is based on familiar and easily understood themes with simple, clear, and flowing language. His poetry created an audience in America and contributed to creating American mythology.
Other
Longfellow's poem "Christmas Bells" is the basis for the Christmas carol "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".
His poem at the Jewish cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island, is one of his more popular works; it discusses Jewish history and immigration.
Longfellow's home in Cambridge, the Longfellow National Historic Site, is a U.S. National Historic Site, National Historic Landmark, and on the National Register of Historic Places. A two-thirds scale replica was built in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at Minnehaha Park in 1906 and once served as a centerpiece for a local zoo.
"Longfellow Serenade" is a pop song by Neil Diamond.
In March 2007 the United States Postal Service made a stamp commemorating him.
A number of schools are named after him in various states, including Maine, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Montana, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Texas, Florida, and South Dakota. A middle school in Massillon, Ohio was once named after him, but has recently been replaced by a new middle school in 2006.
He is a protagonist in Matthew Pearl's murder mystery The Dante Club.
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Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:10 am
Lotte Lehmann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lotte Lehmann (February 27, 1888 - August 26, 1976) was an German soprano opera and Lieder singer who was especially associated with German repertory. She gave memorable performances in the operas of Richard Strauss; the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier was considered her greatest role.[citation needed]
Lehmann was born in Perleberg. After studying in Berlin, she made her debut in Hamburg Opera in 1910 as a Page in Wagner's Lohengrin. In 1914, she sang for the first time in, and in 1916 joined, the Vienna State Opera, where she sang in the premieres of a number of Strauss's operas, Ariadne auf Naxos (1916), Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919), Intermezzo (1924), and Arabella (1933) as well as Vienna premieres of several operas of Puccini. Lehmann made her debut in London in 1914, and from 1924 to 1935 she performed regularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.[citation needed]
She also appeared regularly at the Salzburg Festival (1926-1937), performing with Arturo Toscanini, among other conductors. She also gave recitals there accompanied at the piano by the conductor Bruno Walter.
On the cover of Time magazine: February 18, 1935.In 1930, Lehmann made her US debut in Chicago as Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre.[citation needed] Lehmann's other Wagnerian roles included Eva in Die Meistersinger, Elsa in Lohengrin, and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser; she was also famous for her interpretation of Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio. Just before Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, Lehmann emigrated to the United States, where she sang at the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera until 1945.
In addition to her operatic work, Lehmann was a renowned singer of lieder, giving frequent recitals up until her retirement. During her long career, Lehmann also made more than five hundred recordings.[citation needed]
After her retirement from the recital stage in 1951, Lehmann taught master classes in Santa Barbara, California, at the Music Academy of the West, which she helped found.[citation needed] She also gave master classes in Chicago, London, Vienna etc. For her contribution to the recording industry, Lehmann has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1735 Hollywood Blvd. However, her first name was misspelled as "Lottie."
She was a prolific writer, publishing a book of poems Verse in Prosa in the early 1920s, a novel, Orplid, mein Land (1937), translated as Eternal Flight (1937) and a book of memoirs, Anfang und Aufstieg (1937), translated as On Wings of Song (UK 1938) and as Midway in My Song (US 1938); a book on the interpretation of song, More Than Singing (1945); My Many Lives (1948), a book on the interpretation of opera roles. Later books include Five Operas and Richard Strauss also titled Singing with Richard Strauss (UK) (1964); a second book of poems Gedichte (1969) and Eighteen Song Cycles (1971) which was largely taken from earlier books.
Biographies of Lehmann include: Lotte Lehmann...mehr als eine Sängerin by Wessling (1969); Lotte Lehmann: A Life in Opera and Song by Glass (1988); Lotte Lehmann: 1888-1976 A Centenary Biography by Jefferson (1988), translated into German as Lotte Lehmann: Eine Biographie (1991).
Lehmann died in 1976 age 88 in Santa Barbara, California. She is interred in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria.[citation needed]
The Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara was named in her honor.
The Lotte Lehmann Foundation was begun in 1995 with the dual missions to preserve and perpetuate Lotte Lehmann's legacy, and to honor her dream of bringing art song into the lives of as many people as possible.
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Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:17 am
John Steinbeck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born February 27, 1902(1902-02-27)
Salinas Valley, California, United States
Died December 20, 1968
New York, New York, United States
Occupation Writer
John Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 - December 20, 1968) was one of the best-known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century. He wrote both the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937. In all, he wrote twenty-five books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories. In 1962 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Steinbeck grew up in the Salinas Valley region of California, an agrarian, yet culturally diverse place of rich migratory and immigrant history. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place.[1][2] Steinbeck moved briefly to New York City, but soon returned home to California to begin his career as a writer. Most of his earlier work dealt with subjects familiar to him from his formative years. An exception was his first novel Cup of Gold which concerns the pirate Henry Morgan, whose adventures had captured Steinbeck's imagination as a child.
In his subsequent novels, Steinbeck found a more authentic voice by drawing upon direct memories of his life in California. Later he used real historical conditions and events in the first half of 20th century America, which he had experienced first-hand as a reporter. Steinbeck often populated his stories with struggling characters; his works examined the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. His later body of work reflected his wide range of interests, including marine biology, politics, religion, history, and mythology. One of his last published works was Travels with Charley, a travelogue of a road trip he took in 1960 to rediscover America. He died in 1968 in New York of a heart attack and his ashes are interred in Salinas.
Seventeen of his works, including Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and East of Eden (1952), went on to become Hollywood films (some appeared multiple times, i.e. as remakes), and Steinbeck also achieved success as a Hollywood writer, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Story in 1944 for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.
Biography
Early life and work
John Ernst Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was of German American and Irish American descent. Johann Adolf Großteinbeck (i.e. Grossteinbeck), Steinbeck's grandfather, changed the family name from Grossteinbeck to Steinbeck when he migrated to the United States. His father, John Steinbeck, Sr., served as the Monterey County Treasurer while his mother, Olive (Hamilton) Steinbeck, a former school teacher, fostered Steinbeck's love of reading and writing.[3]
At the time of his childhood, Salinas was a small Californian town. Though growing larger, more prosperous, and modern, it was still essentially a rough-and-tumble frontier place, set amid some of the world's most fertile land.[1] Steinbeck spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrants on the huge Spreckels ranch. During this time, Steinbeck became aware of the harsher aspects of the migrant life in the region and of the darker side of human nature-- material which was to be explored in works such as Of Mice and Men.[1] He also explored the surrounding Salinas Valley, walking across local forests, fields and farms. This material was to provide background for most of his short stories.[1]
Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1920. He then attended Stanford University intermittently until 1925, eventually leaving without a degree. The reason no degree was to be had was because one day after drinking beer he decided that Stanford was a 'poorly put together college, with little classes of interest for the average person'[citation needed] From Stanford, he traveled to New York City and held various temporary jobs while pursuing his dream as a writer. However, he was unable to get any of his work published and returned to California [3] where for a time he was resort handyman in Lake Tahoe.[4]
In California he continued to write. His first novel, Cup of Gold was published in 1929. It is based on the privateer Henry Morgan's life and death. It centers on Morgan's assault and sacking of the city of Panama, sometimes referred to as the 'Cup of Gold', and the woman fairer than the sun reputed to be found there.[2]
After Cup of Gold Steinbeck produced three shorter works between 1931 and 1933: The Pastures of Heaven, published in 1932, consisted of twelve interconnected stories about a valley in Monterey, California, which was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway American Indian slaves. In 1933 Steinbeck brought out two works: The Red Pony is a short 100-page, four-chapter story, which recollects memories from Steinbeck's childhood.[2] To a God Unknown follows the life of a homesteader and his family in California, depicting a character with a primal and pagan worship of the land he works. He lived for many years in a cottage in Pacific Grove owned by his father, Ernest, who provided John ledger paper on which to write his manuscripts.[5]
Steinbeck lived for many years in a cottage in Pacific Grove, California; he planted the pine tree in the front yard.Steinbeck achieved his first critical success with the novel Tortilla Flat (1935), which won the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal.[2] The book portrays the adventures of a young group of classless and usually homeless men in Monterey, set in the era after World War I, just before U.S. prohibition. These characters, who are portrayed in ironic comparison to mythologic knights on a quest, reject nearly all of the standard mores of American society in enjoyment of a dissolute life centering around wine, lust, comradery, and petty thievery. The book, was made into a film of the same name in 1942, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, and John Garfield.
Critical success
Steinbeck began to write a series of "California novels" and Dust Bowl fiction, set among common people during the Great Depression. These included In Dubious Battle in 1936, Of Mice and Men in 1937, and The Grapes of Wrath in 1939.
Of Mice and Men (1937), his novella about the dreams of a pair of migrant laborers working the California soil, was critically acclaimed.[2]
The stage adaptation of his novel Of Mice and Men was a hit, starring Broderick Crawford as the mentally child-like but physically powerful itinerant farmhand "Lennie," and Wallace Ford as Lennie's companion, "George." However, Steinbeck refused to travel from his home in California to attend any performance of the play during its New York run, telling Kaufman that the play as it existed in his own mind was "perfect," and that anything presented on stage would only be a disappointment. Steinbeck would ultimately write only two stage plays (the second an adaptation of The Moon Is Down).
Of Mice and Men was rapidly adapted into a 1939 Hollywood film, in which Lon Chaney, Jr. (who had portrayed the role in the Los Angeles production of the play)was cast as Lennie and Burgess Meredith as "George."[6] Steinbeck followed this wave of success with The Grapes of Wrath (1939), based on newspaper articles he had written in San Francisco. The novel would be considered by many to be his finest work. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940, even as it was made into a notable film directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the part.
The success of The Grapes of Wrath, however, was not free of controversy, as Steinbeck's liberal political views, portrayal of the ugly side of capitalism, and mythical reinterpretation of the historical events of the Dust Bowl migrations led to backlash against the author, especially close to home.[7] In fact, claiming the book was both obscene and misrepresented conditions in the county, the Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries in August 1939. This ban lasted until January 1941.[8]
Of the controversy, Steinbeck wrote, "The vilification of me out here from the large landowners and bankers is pretty bad. The latest is a rumor started by them that the Okies hate me and have threatened to kill me for lying about them. I'm frightened at the rolling might of this damned thing. It is completely out of hand; I mean a kind of hysteria about the book is growing that is not healthy."
The film versions of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men (by two different movie studios) were in production simultaneously. Steinbeck spent a full day on the set of The Grapes of Wrath and the next day on the set of Of Mice and Men.
1940s-1950s
Steinbeck divorced his first wife, Carol Henning, in 1943. He married Gwyn Conger that same year, a union which produced Steinbeck's only children, Thomas ("Thom") Myles Steinbeck in 1944 and John Steinbeck IV (Catbird), in 1946. They divorced in 1948. Two years later, Steinbeck married Elaine Scott, the ex-wife of actor Zachary Scott. They would remain married until his death in 1968.[2]
Ed Ricketts
In 1940, Steinbeck's interest in marine biology and his friendship with Ed Ricketts led him to a voyage around the Gulf of California, also known as the "Sea of Cortez," where they collected biological specimens. Steinbeck's narrative portion of the total expedition report (with some philosophical additions by Ricketts) was later published as The Log from the Sea of Cortez, and describes the daily experiences of the trip. The narrative-log plus the full catalog of the marine invertebrates taken, had earlier been published as a naturalist's narrative and biological catalog of the invertebrate life of the Gulf of California. While it remains a classic of an earlier tradition in biological reporting, in 1942 it did not sell well, in part due to failure to find a popular audience.[9]
Ed Ricketts had a tremendous impact on Steinbeck's writing. Not only did he help Steinbeck while he was in the process of writing, but he aided Steinbeck in his social adventures. Steinbeck frequently took small trips with Ricketts along the California coast, to collect the biological specimens which Ricketts sold for a living, and to give Steinbeck a vacation from his writing.[9]
Ricketts' impact on Steinbeck was so great that Steinbeck decided to base his character "Doc" in the novels Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday on Ricketts. Steinbeck's close relationship with Ricketts would end with the coming of the second World War, and as Steinbeck moved away from Salinas, California, to pursue a life away from his wife Carol. [9]
Second World War
During the Second World War, Steinbeck served as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune. It was at that time he became friends with Will Lang Jr. of Time/Life magazine. During the war, Steinbeck saw action in accompanying some of the commando raids of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.'s Beach Jumpers program, which (among other things) launched small-unit diversion operations against German-held islands in the Mediterranean. As a war correspondent, Steinbeck would certainly have been executed if he had been captured with the automatic weapon which he routinely carried on such missions, but all were successful. These missions would help to earn Fairbanks a number of decorations, but as a civilian, Steinbeck's role in these doings went officially unrecognized. Some of Steinbeck's writings from his correspondence days were collected and made into the novelistic documentary Once There Was A War (1958).
During the war, he continued to work in film, writing Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), and the film A Medal for Benny (1945), about paisanos from Tortilla Flat going to war. John Steinbeck later requested that his name be removed from the credits of Lifeboat, because he believed the final version of the film had racist undertones.
His novel The Moon is Down (1942), about the Socrates-inspired spirit of resistance in a Nazi-occupied village in northern Europe, was made into a film almost immediately. It was presumed that the unnamed country of the novel was Norway, and in 1945 Steinbeck received the Haakon VII Medal of freedom for his literary contributions to the Norwegian resistance movement.
After the war
After the war, he wrote The Pearl (1947), already knowing it would be filmed. The story first appeared in the December 1945 issue of Woman's Home Companion magazine as "The Pearl of the World." It was illustrated by John Alan Maxwell. The novel is an imaginative telling of a newspaper article which Steinbeck had heard in La Paz, as related in The Log From the Sea of Cortez, which he described as being 'so much like a parable it was hard to believe it was true'.[citation needed] Steinbeck traveled to Mexico for the filming; on this trip he would be inspired by the story of Emiliano Zapata, and subsequently wrote a film script (Viva Zapata!) directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn.
In 1948 Steinbeck again toured the Soviet Union, together with renowned photographer Robert Capa. They visited Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, Batumi and the ruined Stalingrad. He wrote a humorous report-book about their experiences, A Russian Journal, which was illustrated with Capa's photos. Avoiding political topics and reporting about the life of simple Soviet peasants and workers, Steinbeck tried to generate more understanding toward people living in the Soviet Union, in a time when anti-Communism was widespread in the U.S. and the danger of war between the two countries was imminent. However, throughout his writing, until nearly the end of his career, Steinbeck was far more concerned with the biological problems and biological facts of existence of the individual human, than he was with ideological systems.
In the same year he was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
1950s-1960s
Following his divorce from Gwyndolyn Conger and the sudden, tragic death of his close friend Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck wrote one of his most popular novels, East of Eden (1952). This book, which he wrote to give his sons some idea of their heritage, was the book he repeatedly wrote of as his best, and his life's work.
In 1952, Steinbeck appeared as the on-screen narrator of 20th Century Fox's film, O. Henry's Full House. Although Steinbeck later admitted he was uncomfortable before the camera, he provided interesting introductions to several filmed adaptations of short stories by the legendary writer O. Henry. About the same time, Steinbeck recorded readings of several of his short stories for Columbia Records; despite some obvious stiffness, the recordings provide a literal record of Steinbeck's deep, resonant voice.
Following the success of Viva Zapata!, Steinbeck collaborated with Kazan on the theatrical production of East of Eden, James Dean's film debut. Steinbeck did not care for Dean, claiming that the actor was arrogant, but said that Dean was the perfect person to play Cal Trask.[citation needed]
Steinbeck's next to last major work, Travels with Charley (subtitle: In Search of America) is a travelogue of a coast-to-coast road trip he took across the United States in 1960, in a camper truck, with his standard poodle Charley. In the work, Steinbeck misses his lost youth and lost roots, and both criticizes and praises America on many levels. According to Thom Steinbeck, the author's older son, the real reason for the trip was that Steinbeck knew he was dying and wanted to see his country one last time. Thom says he was surprised that his stepmother (Steinbeck's wife) allowed Steinbeck to make the trip, since Steinbeck's heart disease put him at risk of dying without warning at any time.[10]
Rocinante, Steinbeck's camper truck which he used to travel across the United States in 1960Steinbeck's last novel, The Winter of Our Discontent, was written in 1961. The book examines moral decline in America through a tragic story.[11] The book reflected Steinbeck's increasing concern over the loss of integrity amongst members of society and the subsequent moral decay; in the book, the protagonist Ethan, like Steinbeck grows discontented both with his own moral decline and of those around him.[11] The book is quite different in tone to Steinbeck's amoral and ecological description of the innocent thievery of the protagonists of his earlier works such as Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row. Like many of Steinbeck's works, his last one was critically savaged. Many reviewers saw the quality and importance of the novel but were again disappointed, as many were still hoping for a work similar to the Grapes of Wrath.[11]
Nobel prize for literature
In 1962, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his "realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception." Privately, he felt he did not deserve the honor. In his acceptance speech, he said:
"the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit - for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature."
- Steinbeck Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
The gravesite of Steinbeck's ashes in Salinas CemeteryIn September of 1964, Steinbeck was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson.[12]
In 1967, at the behest of Newsday magazine, Steinbeck went to Vietnam to report on the war there. Thinking of the Vietnam War as a heroic venture, he was considered a Hawk for his position on that war. His sons both served in Vietnam prior to his death, and Steinbeck visited one son in the battlefield (at one point being allowed to man a machine-gun watch position at night at a firebase, while his son and other members of his platoon slept). [13]
Death
On December 20, 1968 John Steinbeck died in New York City. His death is listed as heart disease or heart attack. An autopsy showed nearly complete occlusion of Steinbeck's main coronary arteries.[2]
In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated and an urn containing his ashes were interred at his family gravesite. His ashes were placed with those of the Hamiltons (grandparents). His third wife, Elaine was buried with him in 2004.[14] He had earlier written to his doctor that he felt deeply "in his bones" that he would not survive his physical death, and that the biological end of his life was the final end to it.[9]
After Steinbeck's death, his incomplete novel based on the King Arthur legends, Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights was finally published, in 1976.
Legacy
The day after Steinbeck's death in New York City, reviewer Charles Poore wrote in the New York Times: "John Steinbeck's first great book was his last great book. But Good Lord, what a book that was and is: The Grapes of Wrath." Poore noted a "preachiness" in Steinbeck's work, "as if half his literary inheritance came from the best of Mark Twain?-and the other half from the worst of Cotton Mather." But he asserted that "Steinbeck didn't need the Nobel Prize?-the Nobel judges needed him." Poore concluded:
" "His place in [U.S.] literature is secure. And it lives on in the works of innumerable writers who learned from him how to present the forgotten man unforgettably." "
Many of Steinbeck's works are often included on required reading lists in American high schools. His works are often read in other countries, in particular, in schools in Canada and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom Of Mice and Men is one of the key texts used by the examining body AQA for its English Literature GCSE. A study by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature in the United States found that Of Mice and Men was one of the ten most frequently read books in both public high and independent schools.[15]
Steinbeck's works have aroused controversy. For example, at the time of its release The Grapes of Wrath was banned by several school boards, who believed his work to be obscene and misrepresentational. In one case, Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries in August 1939.[16] The Grapes of Wrath was also burned in Steinbecks home town of Salinas on two occasions.[17][18] Controversy however, still surrounds some of his work today; Of Mice and Men as another example, was banned in 2003 by a school board in Mississippi who considered the books use of profanity as a danger to its students.[19] The American Library Association states that Steinbeck was one of the ten most challenged and banned authors from 1990 to 2004, with Of Mice and Men the sixth highest challenged out of the 100 most frequently challenged books in the United States.[20][21]
California
The California area which includes Salinas and the Salinas Valley, Monterey, and parts of the nearby San Joaquin Valley, acted as a setting for many of his stories. The area is now sometimes referred to as "Steinbeck Country".[9]
Steinbeck's boyhood home, a turreted Victorian building in downtown Salinas, has been preserved and restored by the Valley Guild, a nonprofit organization. Fixed menu lunches are served Monday through Saturday, and the house is open for tours during the summer on Sunday afternoons.[22]
The National Steinbeck Center, two blocks away at One Main Street is the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to a single author. Dana Gioia (chair of the National Endowment for the Arts) told an audience at the Center, "This is really the best modern literary shrine in the country, and I've seen them all." Its Steinbeckiana includes Rocinante, the camper truck in which Steinbeck made the crosscountry trip described in "Travels with Charley." A detailed breakdown of all of Steinbecks work are narrated through audio and visual materials including some original manuscripts, first editions and personal possessions.[23]
The cottage his father owned on Eleventh Street in Pacific Grove, where Steinbeck wrote some of his earliest books, has also survived.[9]
In Monterey, "Doc" Ed Ricketts' laboratory has survived (though is not yet open to the public) and at the corner which Steinbeck describes in Cannery Row, also the store which once belonged to Lee Chong, and the adjacent vacant lot frequented by the hobos of Cannery Row. The sardine cannery next to Doc's lab has long stopped operation as a cannery, and is now the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which contains some historical treasures, including a selection of Doc's library books. The town displays a series of civic links to Steinbeck's work including an avenue of flags from famous characters from Cannery Row, as well as a series of historical display signs.[9]
Honors
On December 5, 2007 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Steinbeck into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.[24] His son, author Thomas Steinbeck accepted the award on his behalf.
Political views
Steinbeck's literary background brought him into close collaboration with leftist authors, journalists, and labor union figures, who may have influenced his writing. Steinbeck was mentored by radical writers Lincoln Steffens and his wife Ella Winter, and through Francis Whitaker, a member of the United States Communist Party's John Reed Club for writers, Steinbeck met with strike organizers from the Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union.[25]
Steinbeck complained publicly about government harassment. In a 1942 letter to United States Attorney General Francis Biddle he wrote "Do you suppose you could ask Edgar's boys to stop stepping on my heels? They think I am an enemy alien. It is getting tiresome".[26] The FBI issued disingenuous denials that Steinbeck was not "under investigation". In fact, Steinbeck was indeed the object of intense FBI scrutiny. He was not under investigation, which is a technical term used by the FBI when it seeks to collect evidence in connection with a specific crime.
Steinbeck was also screened for his political beliefs by Army Intelligence during World War II to determine his suitability for an officer's commission. It found him ideologically unqualified. In later years, he would be criticized from the left by those who accused him of insufficient ideological commitment to socialism. In 1948 a women's socialist group in Rome condemned Steinbeck for converting to "the camp of war and anti-Sovietism". Then in a 1955 article in the Daily Worker his portrayal of the American Left was criticised.[27]
In 1967, Steinbeck traveled to Vietnam to report on the war, and his sympathetic portrait of the United States Army caused the New York Post to denounce him for betraying his liberal past. Steinbeck's biographer, Jay Parini, has suggested that Steinbeck's affection for Lyndon B. Johnson, whom he considered a friend, influenced his view of the situation in Vietnam.[2]
Steinbeck was a close associate of playwright Arthur Miller, author of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. In June 1959, Steinbeck took a personal and professional risk by standing up for his companion, who was held in contempt of the United States Congress for refusing to name names in the House Un-American Activities Committee trials.[17] Steinbeck called the period one of the "strangest and most frightening times a government and people have ever faced."[17]
Major Works
Of Mice and Men is a tragedy that was written in the form of a play in 1937. The story is about two traveling ranch workers, George and Lennie, trying to work up enough money to buy their own farm/ranch. It encompasses themes of racism, loneliness, prejudice against the mentally ill, and the struggle for personal independence. Along with Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and The Pearl, Of Mice and Men is one of Steinbeck's best known works. It was made into a movie three times, in 1939 starring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr., and Betty Field, in 1982 starring Randy Quaid, Robert Blake and Ted Neeley, and in 1992 starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath was written in 1939 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The book is set in the Great Depression and describes a family of sharecroppers, the Joads, who were driven from their land due to the dust storms of the Dust Bowl. The title is a reference to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The book was made into a film in 1940 starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford.
East of Eden
Steinbeck deals with the nature of good and evil in this Salinas Valley saga. The story follows two families: the Hamiltons - based on Steinbeck's own maternal ancestry - and the Trasks, reprising stories about the Biblical Adam and his progeny. The book was published in 1952.
Travels With Charley
In 1960, Steinbeck bought a pickup truck and had it modified with a custom-built camper top - rare for that day - and drove across the United States with his faithful poodle, Charley. In this sometimes comical, sometimes melancholic book, Steinbeck describes what he sees from Maine to Montana to California, and from there to Texas and Louisiana and back to his home in Long Island. The restored camper truck is on exhibit in the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California.
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bobsmythhawk
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Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:20 am
Franchot Tone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Stanislas Pascal Franchot Tone
February 27, 1905(1905-02-27)
Niagara Falls, New York, U.S.
Died September 18, 1968 (aged 63)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Years active 1932 - 1968
Spouse(s) Joan Crawford (October 11, 1935 - April 11, 1939) (divorced)
Jean Wallace (1941 - 1948) (divorced) 2 children
Barbara Payton (1951 - 1952) (divorced)
Dolores Dorn (1956-1959) (divorced)
Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 - September 18, 1968) was an American actor.
Biography
He was born Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the president of the Carborundum Company, and his wife, Gertrude Franchot. He was of French Canadian, Irish, English and Basque ancestry, and was related to Irish revolutionary Theobald Wolfe Tone.
Tone attended Cornell University, where he was President of the Dramatic Club and was elected to the Sphinx Head Society. He gave up the family business to pursue an acting career in the theatre. After graduating, he moved to Greenwich Village, New York, and got his first Broadway role in the 1929 Katharine Cornell production of The Age of Innocence.
The following year, he joined the Theatre Guild and played Curly in their production of Green Grow the Lilacs (later to become the famous musical Oklahoma!). He later became a founding member of the famed Group Theatre, together with Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Clifford Odets, and others, many of whom had worked with the Theatre Guild. Strasberg had been a castmate of Tone's in Green Grow the Lilacs. These were intense and productive years for him: among the productions of the Group he acted in were 1931 (1931) and Success Story (1932). Franchot Tone was universally regarded by the critics as one of the most promising actors of his generation. Gary Cooper called Tone the best actor he had ever worked with.
The same year, however, Tone was the first of the Group to turn his back on the theatre and go to Hollywood when MGM offered him a film contract. Nevertheless, he always considered cinema far inferior to the theatre and recalled his stage years with longing. He often sent financial support to the Group Theatre, which often needed it. He eventually returned to the stage from time to time after the 1940s. His screen debut was in the 1932 movie The Wiser Sex. He achieved fame in 1933, when he made seven movies that year, including Today We Live, written by William Faulkner, where he first met his future wife Joan Crawford, Bombshell, with Jean Harlow (with whom he co-starred in three other movies), and the smash hit Dancing Lady, again with Crawford and Clark Gable. In 1935, probably his best year, he starred in Mutiny on the Bounty (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor), The Lives of a Bengal Lancer and Dangerous opposite Bette Davis, with whom he was rumored to have had an affair.
He was married October 11, 1935 in New Jersey to actress Joan Crawford; they were divorced in 1939. They made seven films together: Today We Live (1933), Dancing Lady (1933), Sadie McKee (1934), No More Ladies (1935), The Gorgeous Hussy (1936), Love On The Run (1936) and The Bride Wore Red (1937).
He married and divorced three more times: to fashion model turned actress Jean Wallace (1941-48, with whom he had two sons, actress Barbara Payton (1951-52) (which resulted in his being physically assaulted by Payton's one-time lover, Tom Neal), and finally to the much younger actress Dolores Dorn (1956-59).
He worked steadily through the 1940s without breaking through as a major star. He was beginning to be type-cast as the wealthy cafe-society playboy and very few of the films of this period are notable. One conspicuous exception was Five Graves to Cairo (1943), the third film by the young Billy Wilder, a World War II espionage story, starring Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff and Erich von Stroheim as German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
In the 1950s, he moved to television and returned to Broadway. In 1957, he appeared on Broadway in A Moon for the Misbegotten with Wendy Hiller. He co-starred in the Ben Casey medical series from 1965 to 1966 as Casey's supervisor. He also starred in, directed, and produced his first film, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (1957) with then wife Dolores Dorn.
A chain smoker, he died of lung cancer in New York City at the age of 63. Joan Crawford was moved by Tone's plight during his illness and was reported to have taken him into her home to care for him. His remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered.
Franchot Tone has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6558 Hollywood Blvd.
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Raggedyaggie
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Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:20 am
I still like the movie Inchworm the best though, Letty.
And I also like Elizabeth singing that song. Love that Sondheim song and Elizabeth
Happy 76th birthday Elizabeth:
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Raggedyaggie
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Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:22 am
OOOPS! Sorry Bob.
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bobsmythhawk
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Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:24 am
Joan Bennett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Joan Geraldine Bennett
February 27, 1910(1910-02-27)
Palisades Park, New Jersey
Died December 7, 1990 (aged 80)
Scarsdale, New York
Years active 1916 - 1982
Spouse(s) John Marion Fox (1926-1928)
Gene Markey (1932-1937)
Walter Wanger (1940-1965)
David Wilde (1978-1990)
Children Adrienne Ralston Fox (b.1928)
Melinda Markey (b.1934)
Stephanie Wanger (b.1943)
Shelley Wanger (b.1948)
Parents Richard Bennett (1872-1944)
Adrienne Morrison (1883-1940)
Joan Geraldine Bennett (February 27, 1910 - December 7, 1990) was an Emmy-nominated American film actress who appeared in more than 70 Hollywood films from the silent era to talkies, from color to the advent of television and epic films. She may be best known and loved for her film noir femme fatale roles in films by director Fritz Lang.
Biography
Joan Bennett (1910-1990) had three distinct phases to her long and successful career, first as a winsome blonde ingenue, then as a brunette femme fatale and, finally, as a warm-hearted wife/mother figure.
Early life
Born in Palisades, N.J., she was part of a famous theatrical family with a lineage dating back to traveling minstrels in 18th century England. Her father was actor Richard Bennett, her mother, actress Adrienne Morrison, and her sisters, actress Constance Bennett and dancer, Barbara Bennett. Joan first acted onstage with her father at age 18 and by 19 had become a movie star courtesy of her roles in such movies as Bulldog Drummond (1929) and Disraeli (1929). She moved quickly from film to film throughout the 1930s, appearing with John Barrymore in his version of Moby Dick (1930) and playing Amy to Katharine Hepburn's Jo in Little Women (1933). Of the three Bennett sisters, Joan would achieve the greatest fame.
Career
Contracted to 20th Century Fox, Joan Bennett appeared as a blonde ingenue in several films including Puttin' on the Ritz in 1930 and Me and My Gal in 1932, before leaving this studio to appear in Little Women (1933). The latter film brought Bennett to the attention of producer Walter Wanger, who signed her to a contract and eventually (in 1940) married her.
Wanger managed Bennett's career, and with director Tay Garnett convinced her to change her hair from blonde (her natural color) to brunette. With this change her screen persona evolved into that of a glamorous seductive, femme fatale and she began to attract attention in a series of highly acclaimed film noirs by director Fritz Lang. During the search to find an actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, Bennett was tested and impressed producer David O. Selznick. She was briefly considered to be a front runner for this part but Selznick eventually turned his attention to Paulette Goddard, who was then rejected in favour of Vivien Leigh.
In the 1940s Bennett appeared in four films directed by Fritz Lang with whom she and Wanger had formed their own film company. Three of these films, Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1945), and Scarlet Street (1945) established her as a film noir femme fatale and leading Hollywood actress. She also worked with noted directors Jean Renoir in The Woman on the Beach (1947) and Max Ophüls in The Reckless Moment. Other Highlights of the more mature phase of her career include the role of Spencer Tracy's wife and Elizabeth Taylor's mother in both Father of the Bride (1950) and Father's Little Dividend (1951).
Scandal & later years
In 1950, Bennett changed agents. In 1951 Wanger shot and injured Bennett's new MCA agent, Jennings Lang (1915-1996), with whom she had allegedly begun an affair. The resulting scandal hurt her career much more than Wanger's, according to the double standards toward women of the time. Wanger's attorney, Jerry Giesler, mounted a "temporary insanity" defense and Wanger served a four-month sentence at the Castaic Honor Farm two hours' drive north of Los Angeles, quickly returning to his film career to make a string of intelligent hit films. Bennett, meanwhile was forced to flea to Chicago to appear in theater, and later in television because the scandal was too great a stain on her film career and the film studios were already floundering in the 1950s as it was. Though Humphrey Bogart, a longtime friend of Bennett's, pleaded with the studios on her behalf to keep her role in "We're No Angels" following the shooting scandal, that film proved to be one of Bennett's last. Wanger and Bennett remained married until 1965.
Bennett continued to work steadily in theatre and television and was a cast member of the television series Dark Shadows for its entire five year run, from 1966 until 1971, receiving an Emmy Award nomination for her performance therein. Bennett also appeared in a few more films, most notably the cult horror thriller from Italian director Dario Argento's Suspiria. In the last decades of her life, she was married to David Wilde, a Yale graduate and film critic. Bennett died from a heart attack in Scarsdale, New York at the age of 80, and was buried in Pleasant View Cemetery, Lyme, Connecticut.
Joan Bennett was survived by 4 daughters (Diana Fox, Melinda Markey, and Shelley and Stephanie Wanger) and 13 grandchildren.
Bennett has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for services to Motion Pictures, at 6310 Hollywood Boulevard.
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bobsmythhawk
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Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:27 am
Joanne Woodward
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward
February 27, 1930 (1930-02-27) (age 78)
Thomasville, Georgia, USA
Spouse(s) Paul Newman (1958-)
[show] Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Actress
1957 The Three Faces of Eve
BAFTA Awards
Best Actress in a Leading Role
1973 Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries/Movie
1978 See How She Runs
1985 Do You Remember Love
Outstanding Informational Special
1990 American Masters: Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1958 The Three Faces of Eve
1969 Rachel, Rachel
Best Actress - Miniseries/TV Movie
1995 Breathing Lessons
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Life Achievement Award
1986 Lifetime Achievement
Outstanding Actress - Miniseries/TV Movie
1994 Breathing Lessons
Other Awards
NBR Award for Best Actress
1957 The Three Faces of Eve ; No Down Payment
NYFCC Award for Best Actress
1968 Rachel, Rachel
1973 Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams
1990 Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
Best Actress Award - Cannes Film Festival
1973 The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, Emmy and Cannes award-winning American actress. Woodward, who is married to Paul Newman, is also a television and theatrical producer.
Early life
Woodward was born in Thomasville, Georgia, daughter of Elinor Gignilliat (née Trimmier) and Wade Woodward, Jr., who at one point was vice president of publisher Charles Scribner's Sons.[1][2] Her middle name, "Gignilliat", originates from distant Huguenot ancestry.[3] She was influenced to become an actress by her mother's love of movies.[3] Her mother named her after Joan Crawford, using the Southern pronunciation of the name - "Joanne".[3] Attending the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta, nine-year-old Woodward rushed out into the parade of stars and sat on the lap of Laurence Olivier, star Vivien Leigh's husband. She eventually worked with Olivier in 1979, in a television production of Come Back, Little Sheba.
Woodward lived in Thomasville until she was in the second grade. Her family relocated to Marietta, Georgia. They moved once again when she was a junior in high school, after her parents divorced.[3] She graduated from Greenville High School in 1947, in Greenville, South Carolina. Woodward won many beauty contests as a teenager. She majored in drama at Louisiana State University, where she was an initiate of Chi Omega sorority, then headed to New York City to perform on the stage.[3]
Career
Early career
Woodward's first film was a post-Civil War western Count Three and Pray, in 1955. She continued to move between Hollywood and Broadway, eventually, understudying in the New York production of Picnic which featured Paul Newman.[3] The two were married in 1958 after their work together in the film The Long, Hot Summer. By that time, Woodward had starred in The Three Faces of Eve, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.[3]
Films with Paul Newman
She appeared with her husband, Paul Newman in ten featured films:
The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958)
From the Terrace (1960)
Paris Blues (1961)
A New Kind of Love (1963) - a lightweight romantic comedy that she persuaded Newman to make.
Winning (1969)
WUSA (1970)
The Drowning Pool (1975)
Harry & Son (1984) - which Newman also directed
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990)
They both also appeared in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls but did not have any scenes together.
She starred in four films that Newman directed or produced but did not star in:
Rachel, Rachel (1968)
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds - which also starred their daughter, Nell Potts.
The Shadow Box (1980) - a television movie
The Glass Menagerie (1987)
Later career
Woodward has continued to act on stage, films, and television in such films as Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams and Philadelphia (1993) in which she played the mother to Tom Hanks' character.[3] She also appeared in the television films Sybil opposite Sally Field and Crisis at Central High. She was the narrator for Martin Scorsese's screen version of The Age of Innocence.
She has produced, co-produced and directed a number of TV programs. Woodward is the artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse.[3]
Personal life
Woodward married Paul Newman on January 29, 1958. They have three daughters: Elinor Teresa (1959; known professionally as Nell Potts), Melissa Stewart (1961), and Claire "Clea" Olivia (1965). She and Newman live in Westport, Connecticut, but are extremely private about their personal lives. Newman will occasionally venture to California, but Woodward has refused to go west for many years.
In 1990, she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College alongside her daughter, Clea.[3]
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bobsmythhawk
1
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Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:34 am
Elizabeth Taylor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor
27 February 1932 (1932-02-27) (age 76)
Hampstead, London, England
Other name(s) Liz Taylor
Years active 1942 - 2003
Spouse(s) Conrad Hilton Jr. (1950-1951)
Michael Wilding (1952-1957)
Mike Todd (1957-1958)
Eddie Fisher (1959-1964)
Richard Burton (1964-1974)
Richard Burton (1975-1976)
John Warner (1976-1982)
Larry Fortensky (1991-1996)
Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Actress
1960 BUtterfield 8
1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
1993 Outstanding Contributions to Humanitarian Causes
BAFTA Awards
Best Actress
1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Academy Fellowship
1999
Britannia Award
2005 Artistic Excellence in International Entertainment
Golden Globe Awards
Special Award
1957
Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1959 Suddenly, Last Summer
Cecil B. DeMille Award
1985 Lifetime achievement
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Life Achievement Award
1998 Lifetime Achievement
Other Awards
NYFCC Award for Best Actress
1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
NBR Award for Best Actress
1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actress
1972 Hammersmith Is Out
AFI Life Achievement Award
1993 Lifetime Achievement
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE (born 27 February 1932) is a two-time Academy Award-winning English American actress. Known for her acting skills and beauty, as well as her Hollywood lifestyle including many marriages, she is considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's golden years, as well as a larger-than-life celebrity.
The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time.
Biography
Life and career
Taylor was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of north-west London, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897 - 1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1896 - 1994), who were Americans residing in England. Taylor's older brother, Howard Taylor, was born in 1929.
Her two first names are in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Taylor, who was born Elizabeth Mary Rosemond. Taylor was born both a British subject and an American citizen, the former by being born on British soil under the principle of jus soli, and the latter through her parents under the principle of jus sanguinis.
Both of her American parents were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress whose stage name was Sara Sothern. Sara retired from the stage when she and Francis Taylor married in 1926 in New York.
At the age of three, Elizabeth began taking ballet lessons. Shortly after the beginning of World War II, her parents decided to return to the United States to avoid hostilities. Her mother took the children first, while her father remained in London to wrap up matters in the art business. They settled in Los Angeles, California, where Sara's family, the Warmbrodts, were then living.
Taylor appeared in her first motion picture at the age of nine for Universal. They let her contract drop, and she was signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first movie with that studio was Lassie Come Home (1943), which drew favorable attention. That movie starred child star Roddy McDowall, with whom Elizabeth would share a lifelong friendship. After a few more movies, the second on loan-out to 20th Century Fox, she first appeared in her first leading role and achieved child star status playing Velvet Brown, a young girl who trains a horse to win the Grand National in Clarence Brown's movie National Velvet (1944) with Mickey Rooney. National Velvet was a big hit, grossing over US$4 million at the box-office, and she was signed to a long-term contract. Gene Tierney originally was offered the role in MGM's National Velvet but production was delayed so Tierney signed with Fox.
She attended school on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot and received a diploma from University High School in Los Angeles on January 26, 1950, the same year she was first married at age 18.
Elizabeth Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performances in BUtterfield 8 (1960), which co-starred then husband Eddie Fisher, and again for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), which co-starred then-husband Richard Burton and the Supporting Actress Oscar-winner, Sandy Dennis.
Taylor was nominated for Raintree County (1957) with Montgomery Clift, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Paul Newman, and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Clift, Katharine Hepburn and Mercedes McCambridge.
In 1963, she became the highest paid movie star up until that time when she accepted US$1 million to play the title role in the lavish production of Cleopatra for 20th Century Fox. It was during the filming of that movie that she worked for the first time with future husband Richard Burton, who played Mark Antony. Movie magazines, the forerunners of today's tabloids, had a field day when Taylor and Burton began an affair during filming; both stars were married to other people at the time. She was even accused by a Vatican newspaper of having descended into "erotic vagrancy." A lot of people thought of Elizabeth Taylor as a "Scarlet Woman." She and many others disagreed with that strongly. Richard Burton was quoted as saying: "You'd be surprised at the morals of many women stars who are regarded by the public as goody-two-shoes. They leap into bed with any male in grabbing distance. That's what makes me mad when I read stuff hinting Liz is a scarlet woman because she's been married five times. She's only had five men in her life whereas those goody-two-shoes have lost count."[citation needed]
She has also appeared a number of times on television, including the 1973 made-for-TV movie with then husband Richard Burton, titled Divorce His - Divorce Hers. In 1985, she played movie gossip columnist Louella Parsons in Malice in Wonderland opposite Jane Alexander, who played Hedda Hopper, and also appeared in the mini-series North and South. In 2001, she played an agent in These Old Broads. She has also appeared on a number of other TV shows, including the soap operas General Hospital and All My Children and the animated The Simpsons; once as herself, and the other as the voice of Maggie.
Taylor has also acted on the stage, making her Broadway and West End debuts in 1982 with a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. She was then in a production of Noel Coward's Private Lives (1983), in which she starred with her former husband, Richard Burton. The student-run Burton Taylor Theatre in Oxford was named for the famous couple after Burton appeared as Doctor Faustus in the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) production of the Marlowe play. Elizabeth Taylor played the ghostly, wordless Helen of Troy, who is entreated by Faustus to 'make [him] immortal with a kiss'.
Marriages
Taylor has been married eight times to seven husbands:
Conrad "Nicky" Hilton (May 6, 1950 - January 29, 1951) (divorced)
Michael Wilding (February 21, 1952 - January 26, 1957) (divorced)
Michael Todd (February 2, 1957 - March 22, 1958) (widowed)
Eddie Fisher (May 12, 1959 - March 6, 1964) (divorced)
Richard Burton (March 15, 1964 - June 26, 1974) (divorced)
Richard Burton (again) (October 10, 1975 - July 29, 1976) (divorced)
John Warner (December 4, 1976 - November 7, 1982) (divorced)
Larry Fortensky (October 6, 1991 - October 31, 1996) (divorced)
Relationship with parents
Taylor's mother exerted influence on Taylor's life well into adulthood. Despite their often difficult relationship, Sara was always her daughter's biggest champion and when she died in 1994, Taylor was devastated. In 2000 when Taylor was made a Dame of the British Empire she raised a glass of sparkling cider and made a toast:
" There's a woman who deserves our deepest appreciation because if it weren't for her we'd all be somewhere else right now. Let's all drink to my mother Sara Taylor. "
A guest shouted 'Hear, hear!'; however, Taylor then commanded
" No! Let's drink to two things. To my mother and forgiveness.[citation needed] "
Little is known regarding Taylor's relationship with her father.
Children
Taylor and Wilding had two sons, Michael Howard Wilding (b. January 6, 1953), and Christopher Edward Wilding (b. February 27, 1955). She and Todd had one daughter, Elizabeth Frances Todd, called "Liza," (b. August 6, 1957). And in 1964, she and Fisher started adoption proceedings for a daughter, whom Burton later adopted, Maria Burton (b. August 1, 1961). She became a grandmother on August 25, 1971 at age 39.
Other interests
Taylor has a passion for jewelry. Over the years she has owned a number of well known pieces, two of the most talked about being the 33.19 carat (6.638 g) Krupp Diamond and the 69.42 carat (13.884 g) pear-shaped Taylor-Burton Diamond, which were among many gifts from husband Richard Burton. Taylor also owns the 50 carat La Peregrina Pearl, purchased by Burton as a Valentine's day present in 1969. The pearl was formerly owned by Mary I of England, and Burton sought a portrait of Queen Mary wearing the pearl. Upon the purchase of the painting, the Burtons discovered that the British National Portrait Gallery did not have an original painting of Mary, so they donated the painting to the Gallery.[1][2] Her enduring collection of jewelry has been eternalized with her book My Love Affair with Jewelry (2002).
In 2005, she partnered with Jack and Monty Abramov of Mirabelle Luxury Concepts in Los Angeles to introduce the House of Taylor Jewelry. In 2005, House of Taylor Jewelry formed a partnership with Kathy Ireland Worldwide, a design-and-marketing firm with more than US$1 billion in annual sales. She has also launched three perfumes, "Passion," "White Diamonds," and "Black Pearls," that together earn an estimated US$200 million in annual sales. In the Fall of 2006, Dame Elizabeth Taylor celebrated the 15th anniversary of her White Diamonds perfume, one of the top-10 best selling fragrances for more than the past decade.
Taylor has devoted much time and energy to AIDS-related charities and fundraising. She helped start the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) after the death of her former co-star and friend, Rock Hudson. She also created her own AIDS foundation, Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF). By 1999, she had helped to raise an estimated US$50 million to fight the disease.
Recently, in 2006, Taylor donated US$40,000 to the New Orleans Aids task force, a charity designed for the New Orleans population with AIDS and HIV. The NO/AIDS task force estimated that about 7,400 residents were infected with HIV before Hurricane Katrina.[citation needed] Taylor and Macy's donated a 37-foot "CareVan," equipped with examination tables and X-Ray equipment.[3]
In the early 1980s she moved to Bel-Air, which is her current home. She also owns homes in Palm Springs and Hawaii. The fenced and gated property is on tour maps sold at street corners and is frequently passed by tour guides.
Taylor was also a fan of the soap opera General Hospital. In fact, she was cast as the first Helena Cassadine, matriarch of the Cassadine family.
Taylor is a supporter of Kabbalah and member of the Kabbalah Centre. She encouraged friend Michael Jackson to wear a red string as protection from the evil-eye during his 2005 trial for molestation, where he was eventually cleared of all charges. Back in 1997, Jackson presented Taylor with exclusively written to her epic 'Elizabeth, I Love You' song, performed on the day of her 65th birthday celebration.
In October 2007, she won a legal battle over a Vincent van Gogh painting in her possession when the US Supreme Court refused to reconsider a legal suit filed by four persons claiming that the artwork belongs to one of their Jewish ancestors.[citation needed]
Recent years
In November 2004, Taylor announced that she had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a condition in which the heart pumps insufficient amounts of blood throughout the body. She has broken her back five times, had both her hips replaced, survived a benign brain tumor operation, skin cancer, and has faced life-threatening bouts with pneumonia twice. She is reclusive and sometimes fails to make scheduled appearances due to illness or other personal reasons. She now uses a wheelchair and when asked about it she said that she has osteoporosis and was born with scoliosis.[4][5]
In 2005 she was a vocal supporter of her friend Michael Jackson in his trial in California on charges of sexually abusing a child.[6] [7] He was acquitted.
In recent years, Taylor reportedly became closely attached to her pet dog, saying that she went nowhere without her little Maltese named Sugar.[citation needed]In an interview with American magazine W, Taylor said she was happiest while with husbands Todd and Burton, but now has to be content with Sugar for company. She explains, "I've never loved a dog like this in my life. It's amazing. Sometimes I think there's a person in there. There's something to say for this kind of love - it's unconditional."[citation needed] In June 2005, Taylor's beloved dog Sugar died. However, several months later (in September) she purchased a descendant of Sugar which she named Daisy.
It was reported on April 27, 2006 that Taylor was close to death.[citation needed] This was quickly denied by Taylor's publicist, Dick Guttman. "Dick Guttman says that he can refute every allegation in these published reports. In fact, he says they didn't get anything right. Guttman says Taylor has a very busy life, with her successful perfume and jewelry lines and the work she does for the fight against AIDS."[citation needed] On May 30, 2006, she appeared on Larry King Live to refute the claims that she has been ill, and denied the allegations that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was close to death.[8]
In late August 2006 Taylor decided to take a boating trip to help prove that she was not even close to death. She also decided to make Christie's auction house the primary place where she will sell her jewelry, artwork, clothing, furniture, and memorabilia (September 2006).[9]
In October 2006, it was widely reported that Taylor would be marrying her photographer Firooz Zahedi, 17 years her junior.[10] Taylor responded by asserting that she and Zahedi "never have been and will never be romantically involved."[11]
The February 2007 issue of Interview magazine devoted itself entirely to Elizabeth Taylor--a celebration of her life, career and her upcoming seventy-fifth birthday.
On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Taylor into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.[12]
She was in news once more recently for a rumored 9th marriage to her constant companion Jason Winters. This has been dismissed as a rumour.[13] However she is quoted as saying, "Jason Winters is one of the most wonderful men I've ever known and that's why I love him. He bought us the most beautiful house in Hawaii and we visit it as often as possible,"[14] to celebrated gossip columnist Liz Smith. Dame Elizabeth and Jason Winters enjoy spending time together in Dame Elizabeth's home in Bel Air as well as in both of Winters' homes located in Palm Springs and Hawaii. He also accompanied her to Macy's Passport 2007 where she was honored with the Humanitarian Award as well as to her performance of A.R. Gurney's, Love Letters in 2007, escorting her down the red carpet at both events.
On December 1, 2007, Taylor and James Earl Jones gave a benefit performance of the A.R. Gurney play Love Letters, to raise $1 million for Taylor's AIDS foundation. Tickets for the show were priced at $2,500 and more than 500 people attended. This event happened to coincide with the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike and, rather than cross the picket line, Taylor requested a "one night dispensation". The Writers Guild agreed not to picket the Paramount Pictures lot that night, to allow for the performance. [15]
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
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Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:38 am
Josh Groban
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Joshua Winslow Groban
Born February 27, 1981 (1981-02-27) (age 27)
Los Angeles, California,
United States
Genre(s) Classical
Vocal
Occupation(s) Singer
Instrument(s) Singing, piano, drums
Years active 1997-present
Label(s) 143/Reprise
Website http://www.joshgroban.com
Joshua Winslow Groban (born February 27, 1981) is a Grammy-nominated American singer/songwriter known for his lyrical baritone voice. He has concentrated his career so far mostly in concert singing and recordings, although he has stated that he wishes to pursue musical theatre in the future.
Early life
Josh Groban was born in Los Angeles, California, to a Jewish American father (a descendant of Polish and Russian immigrants) and a Norwegian American mother. His father converted to Christianity upon marriage, and Groban was raised an Anglican-Episcopalian. His younger brother Christopher shares a birthday with him four years later.[1]
Groban debuted as a singer in seventh grade, but soon put it on hold for a few years. "I enjoyed the arts aspects, but my grades were slipping. I didn't feel that I was getting enough creative input. So I went to Bridges Academy to get my grades up to straight A's." While at Bridges Academy, Groban took normal classes from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM, and then afterwards attended theater classes.[2] He also played the penny whistle as well as the kazoo in grade school.[citation needed]
In 1997 and 1998 , Groban attended the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, majoring in musical theater, which is also when he began taking voice lessons outside of school. "I started taking music lessons on the side. I was very much into musical theater. I had a pretty good baritone voice, so I began acting and singing in school productions".[3]
In late 1998, the 17-year-old Groban was introduced by his vocal coach to Grammy-winning producer/arranger David Foster. Groban worked for Foster as a rehearsal singer on a series of high-profile events, including the 1999 Grammy Awards -- where, as a stand-in for Andrea Bocelli, he rehearsed Foster's "The Prayer" with Céline Dion -- and the January 1999 inauguration of Gray Davis as governor of California.
Groban attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as a theater major and graduated in 1999 and then attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, studying drama.
Career
Early career
Groban left Carnegie Mellon after only one year when he was offered a recording contract at Warner Bros. Records through Foster's 143 Records imprint. With regard to signing Groban, Foster said: "I love his natural ability in the pop and rock arena, but I love his sense of classics even more. He's a true musical force to be reckoned with."[4] Therefore, under Foster's influence, Groban's first album focused more on the classics with songs such as "Gira Con Me" and "Alla Luce Del Sole," the first ones decided on by Foster and Groban.
Soon after being picked up by Foster, Groban went on to perform "There For Me" with Sarah Brightman on her 2000-2001 La Luna Tour, featured on her "La Luna" Concert DVD. He made his recording debut by singing "For Always" with Lara Fabian on the movie soundtrack to A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001). Groban also became involved in many benefit shows, including the following: "The Andre Agassi Grand Slam Event For Children", singing alongside Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Don Henley and Robin Williams; "Muhammad Ali's Fight Night Foundation" which honored Michael J. Fox and others; "The Family Celebration" (2001) which was co-hosted by President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and David E. Kelley and his wife, Michelle Pfeiffer; and Michael Milken's CapCure event, which raises funds for cancer research.
Groban played the role of Malcolm Wyatt in the May 2001 season finale of the television series Ally McBeal, performing "You're Still You." The series creator, David E. Kelley, was impressed at Groban's performance at The Family Celebration event, and, based on the audience reaction to Groban's singing, Kelley created a character for Groban in this finale. The character of Malcolm Wyatt was so popular, with 8,000 emails from fans,[4] that Groban was asked to return the next season to reprise his role and perform "To Where You Are."
The singer's eponymous debut album Josh Groban was released on November 20, 2001. Over the next year, it went from gold to double-platinum.[5]
On February 24, 2002, Groban performed "The Prayer" with Charlotte Church at the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, and by November, he had his own PBS special, Josh Groban In Concert (2002). In December he performed "To Where You Are" and then sang "The Prayer" in a duet with Sissel Kyrkjebø at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. He then joined The Corrs, Ronan Keating, Sting, Lionel Richie and others for a Christmas performance at the Vatican in Rome, Italy. In 2003, Groban performed at the David Foster created concert for World Children's Day. He performed "The Prayer" with Celine Dion and the finale song, "Aren't They All Our Children" with artists like Yolanda Adams, Nick Carter, Enrique Iglesias and Celine Dion.
Recent years
Groban's second album Closer, also produced by Foster, was released on November 11, 2003. Groban said that he believed that this second album was a better reflection of him and that his audience would be able to get a better idea of him personally from listening to it. "What most people know about me, they know through my music. This time, I've tried to open that door as wide as possible. These songs are a giant step closer to who I really am and what my music is all about. Hence the title."[4]
Two months after Closer was released, it rose on the Billboard charts from number 11 to number one.[6] His cover of Brian Kennedy's "You Raise Me Up" became very popular on the adult contemporary charts. Groban also performed the song "Remember" (with Tanja Tzarovska) on the Troy soundtrack, "Believe" on the soundtrack to the 2004 animated film The Polar Express, and a cover of Linkin Park's "My December".
During the summer of 2004, Groban returned to Interlochen, where he gave a performance to local residents and campers, also speaking about his experiences as a young performer. On November 30, 2004, his second live DVD, Live At The Greek, was released. It also ran as a Great Performances special on PBS. Also in 2004 , Groban performed "Remember When It Rained," backed by a full orchestra, at the American Music Awards where he was nominated for Favorite Male Artist in the pop category. Groban and his recordings were nominated for more than a dozen awards in 2004, including the American Music Award, World Music Award, Academy Award, and a Grammy.
Other appearances have included The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Jay Leno, Larry King Live, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, 20/20, The Today Show, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Super Bowl XXXVIII, the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade, and the Rockefeller Tree Lighting.[7]
During the first week of September 2006, Groban's latest single entitled "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)", was exclusively released to AOL's First Listen. It was taken from his third studio album Awake, which was officially released on November 7, 2006. Josh Groban performed "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)" as well as two other tracks from "Awake" at his recording session for Live from Abbey Road at Abbey Road Studios on 26 October, 2006. On this album Groban also collaborated with British musician and songwriter Imogen Heap, on the single "Now or Never". Two tracks were performed with the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, namely "Lullaby" and "Weeping", both songs having strong African influences. Groban toured with Angelique Kidjo around the U.S. for his Awake tour. The latter also featured a performance by another famous South African artist, Vusi Mahlasela. Groban's "Awake" world tour visits 71 cities between February and August 2007, and travelled further to Australia in September and the Philippines with Lani Misalucha as his special guest in October of 2007. He did a duet with Barbra Streisand ("All I Know of Love") and also in 2007 a duet with Mireille Mathieu ("Over the Rainbow"). Groban has expressed an interest in performing on Broadway one day.
In June 2007, Josh spent some weeks in London recording a Christmas album with the London Philharmonic and the African Children's Choir, which he discussed on the DVD from "The Making of Noël". It was released on October 9, 2007 and is titled Noël.[8] The album has been highly successful in the U.S. breaking numerous records for a Christmas album, as well as becoming the best selling album of 2007 in only its tenth week of release, at sales of 3.6 million. [9] On 10 February, he performed at the 2008 Grammy Awards with Andrea Bocelli in a tribute to Luciano Pavarotti.
According to an advertisement that came with the CD/DVD version of Noël, "Awake: The Live Concert CD + DVD" will be available in early 2008. The concert was filmed in Salt Lake City, Utah, in honor of his first arena concert, which was given at the same city.
More recently in late February 2008, Groban flexed his comedic talents by participating in a skit on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live where he performed in Kimmel's "revenge" music video called "I'm ******* Ben Affleck" which was directed at Kimmel's girlfriend Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon whom had previous released a video entitled "I'm ******* Matt Damon". In discussing the star-studded revenge video, Jill Leiderman, Executive Producer of the program singled out Groban. "We knew he would be an exemplary artist to participate, and he knocked it out of the park. His voice added the exact gravitas we needed for this piece." Leiderman also noted that Groban had long been interested in participating in a skit to show a side of his personality that fans not often see.
Charity
Under the guidance of his mentor David Foster, Groban performed for many charity events that included VH1 Save the Music (2005), Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope (2005), Fifth Adopt-A-Annual Minefield concert (2005), 2nd Annual Grammy Jam (2005), Live 8 (2005), The Heart Foundation Gala (2005), and David Foster and Friends Charity Gala (2006). Inspired by a visit with Nelson Mandela during a 2004 trip to South Africa, he established the Josh Groban Foundation to help children in need through education, healthcare and the arts.[10] Mandela appointed Groban as an Official Ambassador for Mandela's Project 46664, a campaign to help raise Global awareness of HIV/AIDS in Africa. On April 25th, 2007, Josh Groban performed with the African Children's Choir on American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" episode. Also on September 2, 2007 Josh Groban donated $150,000 to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to fund music education.[11]
Influences and personal details
Some of Groban's musical influences have been Radiohead, Paul Simon, Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Björk.[7] He says he is able to look up to anyone, musically, who has pushed the boundaries and stepped outside of the box. As for vocal influences, "anyone who told a story with their songs," including Mandy Patinkin, Klaus Nomi, George Hearn, and Luciano Pavarotti.[12]
He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
He is single, but dated January Jones from 2003-2006, breaking up in the summer of that year. However, they "remain friends".[13]
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
Reply
Wed 27 Feb, 2008 10:40 am
IDIOT SIGHTING:
We had to have the garage door repaired. The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a "large" enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, "Lady, you need a 1/4 horsepower." I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4. He said, "NO, it's not." Four is larger than two.."
We haven't used Sears repair since.
IDIOT SIGHTING
My daughter and I went through the McDonald's take-out window and I gave the clerk a $5 bill . Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. She said, "you gave me too much money." I said, "Yes I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back." She sighed and went to get the manager who asked me to repeat my request. I did so, and he handed me back the quarter, and said "We're sorry but they could not do that kind of thing." The clerk then proceeded to give me back$1 and 75 cents in change.
Do not confuse the clerks at McD's.
IDIOT SIGHTING</ B>:
I live in a semi rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the DEER CROSSING sign on our road. The reason: "Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore."
>From Kingman , KS
IDIOT SIGHTING IN FOOD SERVICE:
My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the
counter for "minimal lettuce." He said he was sorry, but they only had iceburg lettuce.
From Kansas City
IDIOT SIGHTING:
I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, "Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?" To which I replied, "If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?" He smiled knowingly and nodded,
"That's why we ask."
Happened in Birmingham , Ala.
IDIOT SIGHTING:
The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine. She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explaine d that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, "What on earth are blind people doing driving?!"
She was a probation officer in Wichita , KS
IDIOT SIGHTING:
At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker. She was leaving the company due to "downsizing." Our manager commented cheerfully, "This is fun. We should do this more often." Not another word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare.
This was a lunch at Texas Instruments.
IDIOT SIGHTING:
I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into itself and for the sake of her life, couldn't understand why her system would not turn on.
A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriffs office, no less.
IDIOT SIGHTING:
When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, w e were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the drivers side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. "Hey," I announced to the technician, "its open!" His reply, "I know. I already got that side. "
This was at the Ford dealership in Canton , Mississippi
STA Y ALERT!
They walk among us... and the scary part is that they VOTE and
they REPRODUCE
0 Replies
Letty
1
Reply
Wed 27 Feb, 2008 11:06 am
Well, hawkman, I was looking out my window today to see if skies were cloudy and grey, and I spotted an idiot. UhOh, but I think he is still in Africa. Thanks again for the great bio's, honey.
Raggedy, Elizabeth can fit anywhere, puppy. Damned if she hasn't survived a bunch of stuff.
please give rockwell about two minutes before he starts to sing
Quote:
Rockwell Blake (born January 10, 1951 in Plattsburgh, New York) is an American operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in Rossini operas. He was the first winner of the Richard Tucker Award.
0 Replies
hamburger
1
Reply
Wed 27 Feb, 2008 06:15 pm
i always enjoyed hearing her sing or talk about her performances -
she always was able to make me smile and helped me appreciate music .
she left much too early !
