Good one, letty. Did you see my other offering, right after Jerry and Kris? Sometimes when the page changes, we miss some posts.
Rush
This time I saw you I knew
It would be the last time for us
And though I can see you there
It's like a distant memory
We were destined to fail
We wanted too much
To hold a dream,
A word, a touch
Only to disappear
What we needed the most
To drift in the haze
To vanish away
I think about you
And wonder what life would be like
If you were still mine
If love was not crossed
Silence is the cost
Yet I know you still love me
I can see it in your eyes
So baby,
Rush into me
Please,
Rush into me
Rush into me
And I'll rush into you
Into you
Instrumental
Now the nights are an eternity
And every breath is like death to me
A part of me dies
Never to live again
A part of me cries
As each day come to an end
Like a forest I'm lost
Like a desert I'm dry
Like an ocean I'm drown
Like a river I'm found
So baby,
Rush into me
Please,
Rush into me
Rush into me
And I'll rush into you
Into you
Into you
RexRed
3/11/08
Rex, I missed your lyrics. I know they must be original, Maine, and they have much to do with love, I see.
Well, I just talked to my son and he sounded wonderful. It must have been the rainbow and the elephant and the encouraging words from so many people whom I have never met, but feel that I know.
Time for me to say goodnight, and I found that other Baby Elephant Walk by that young woman with RED hair; not green.
It's strange, but she is German.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPB6Oy-WOvk
Goodnight and we will sing again tomorrow.
From Letty with love.
Good Morning, WA2K folks.
Dutchy, I loved that song by the heat wave bunch. Wow! I do hope you Aussies get some relief soon. It's spring here and fall down under. That's the way the world turns, buddy, and thanks for returning to our cyber radio.
Speaking of which. hingehead, welcome to WA2K radio. I do believe that this is a FIRST for you, so stick around.
edgar, I cannot believe that was Bobby Darin. That man sounds different every time that I hear him. Loved it, Texas.
Today is James Taylor's birthday, y'all, and here is one of my favorite songs by him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNjLUPqckWY
Gordon MacRae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 - January 24, 1986) was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in musical films of the 1950s.
Born in East Orange, New Jersey, MacRae served as a navigator in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He made his Broadway debut in the mid-1940s, acquiring his first recording contract soon afterwards. Many of his hit recordings were made with Jo Stafford. It was in 1948 that he appeared in his first film, The Big Punch, a non-musical boxing drama. He soon began an on-screen partnership with Doris Day and appeared with her in several films. In 1953, he starred opposite Kathryn Grayson in the third film version of The Desert Song. This was followed by starring appearances in two major films of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956), both opposite Shirley Jones. At this point, alcoholism interfered with his career, and fewer movie musicals with a demand for his type of singing voice continued to be made, but MacRae appeared frequently on television and eventually overcame his alcoholism. He also toured in summer stock and appeared in nightclubs. In 1967, he replaced Robert Preston in the original Broadway run of the musical I Do! I Do!, starring opposite Carol Lawrence, who had taken over the role from Mary Martin.
He was married to Sheila MacRae from 1941 until 1967, and was the father of Heather MacRae and the late Meredith MacRae.
MacRae was considered by some a better actor than most film musical stars, and he occasionally played non-musical roles, especially in later life. In the 1970s, for instance, he portrayed a murderer on the popular TV series McCloud, and drawing on his experience as an alcoholic, he played a supporting role in the little-seen 1979 motion picture The Pilot, starring Cliff Robertson as an alcoholic pilot. It was his last film.
He continued to record and act almost until the end of his life. He died of cancer of the mouth and jaw at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska at the age of 64.
Jack Kerouac
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born March 12, 1922(1922-03-12)
Lowell, Massachusetts
Died October 21, 1969 (aged 47)
St. Petersburg, Florida
Occupation Novelist
Poet
Nationality United States
Genres Beat Poets
Literary movement Beat
Notable work(s) On the Road
Influences[show]
Thomas Wolfe, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Marcel Proust, Jack London,James Joyce, Neal Cassady, Walt Whitman, Charlie Parker, Arthur Rimbaud, Hart Crane
Influenced[show]
Thomas Pynchon, Tom Robbins, Richard Brautigan, Ken Kesey, Jim Morrison, Roy Harper, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Tom Wolfe, Tom Waits, Jerry Garcia, Ben Gibbard, Joe Cutler, Russell Brand, Jim Dodge
Jack Kerouac (pronounced /ˈkɛrəwæk/) (March 12, 1922 - October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, and artist. Along with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is amongst the best known of the writers (and friends) known as the Beat Generation.
Kerouac's work was popular, but received little critical acclaim during his lifetime. Today, he is considered an important and influential writer who inspired others, including Tom Robbins, Lester Bangs, Richard Brautigan, and Ken Kesey, and writers of the New Journalism. Kerouac also influenced musicians such as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Morrissey, Tom Waits, Simon & Garfunkel, Lebris, Ulf Lundell and Jim Morrison.[1] Kerouac's best-known books are On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and Visions of Cody.
Biography
Family and early years
Jack Kerouac was born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac, in Lowell, Massachusetts to French-Canadian parents, Léo-Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, natives of the province of Québec, Canada. Like many other Quebecers of their generation, the Lévesques and Kerouacs were part of the Quebec emigration to New England to find employment.
Kerouac did not start to learn English until the age of six[2], and at home, he and his family spoke joual, a Quebec French dialect. When he was four he was profoundly affected by the death of his nine-year-old brother, Gérard, from rheumatic fever, an event later described in his novel Visions of Gerard. Some of Kerouac's poetry was written in French, and in letters written to friend Allen Ginsberg towards the end of his life he expressed his desire to speak his parents' native tongue again. Recently, it was discovered that Kerouac first started writing On the Road in French, a language in which he also wrote two unpublished novels.[3] The writings are in dialectal Quebec French, and predate the first novels of Michel Tremblay by a decade.
Kerouac's athletic prowess led him to become a 100-meter hurdler on his local high school track team, and his skills as a running back in American football earned him scholarship offers from Boston College, Notre Dame and Columbia University. He entered Columbia University after spending a year at Horace Mann School, where he earned the requisite grades to matriculate to Columbia. Kerouac broke a leg playing football during his freshman season, and he argued constantly with coach Lou Little who kept him benched. While at Columbia, Kerouac wrote several sports articles for the student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator.
Jack Kerouac lived above this flower shop in Ozone Park.When his football scholarship did not pan out, Kerouac dropped out of Columbia, though he continued to live for a period on New York City's Upper West Side with his girlfriend, Edie Parker. It was during this time that he met the people with whom he was later to journey around the world, the subjects of many of his novels: the so-called Beat Generation, including Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, John Clellon Holmes, Herbert Huncke and William S. Burroughs. Kerouac joined the United States Merchant Marine in 1942 and in 1943 joined the United States Navy, but was honorably discharged during World War II on psychiatric grounds (he was of "indifferent disposition").[4]
In 1944, Kerouac was arrested as an accessory in the murder of David Kammerer, who'd been stalking Kerouac's friend Lucien Carr since Carr was a teenager in St. Louis. (William Burroughs was himself a native of St. Louis, and it was through Carr that Kerouac came to know both Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.) When Kammerer's obsession with Carr turned violent, Carr stabbed him to death and turned to Kerouac for help. Together, they disposed of evidence. Advised by Burroughs to turn themselves in, Kerouac's father at first refused to pay his bail. Kerouac then agreed to marry Edie Parker if she'd pay it. Their marriage was annulled a year later, and Kerouac and Burroughs briefly collaborated on a novel about the Kammerer killing entitled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. Though the book was never published, an excerpt eventually appeared in Word Virus: A William S. Burroughs Reader. Kerouac also later wrote about the killing in his novel Vanity of Duluoz.
Later, he lived with his parents in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, after they, too, moved to New York. He wrote his first novel, The Town and the City, and, according to at least John Clellon Holmes, began the quintessential On the Road around 1949 while living there. His friends jokingly called him "The Wizard of Ozone Park,"[5] a spoof of Thomas Edison's "Wizard of Menlo Park" nickname while simultaneously alluding to the title character of the film The Wizard of Oz and a shortened form of the word "ozone".
Career
Kerouac tended to write constantly, carrying a notebook with him everywhere. Letters to friends and family members tended to be long and rambling, including great detail about his daily life and thoughts. Prior to becoming a writer, he tried a varied list of careers. He was a sports reporter for The Lowell Sun; a temporary worker in construction and food service; a United States Merchant Marine and he joined the United States Navy twice.
The Town and the City was published in 1950 under the name "John Kerouac," and, though it earned him a few respectable reviews, the book sold poorly. Heavily influenced by Kerouac's reading of Thomas Wolfe, it reflects on the generational epic formula and the contrasts of small town life versus the multi-dimensional, and larger, city. The book was heavily edited by Robert Giroux; some 400 pages were taken out.
For the next six years, Kerouac wrote constantly but could not find a publisher. Building upon previous drafts tentatively titled "The Beat Generation" and "Gone on the Road," Kerouac wrote what is now known as On the Road in April, 1951 (ISBN 0-312-20677-1). The book was largely autobiographical, narrated from the point of view of the character Sal Paradise, describing Kerouac's roadtrip adventures across the United States and Mexico with Neal Cassady, the model for the character of Dean Moriarty.
Part of the Kerouac myth is that, fueled by Benzedrine and coffee, he completed the first version of the novel during a three week extended session of spontaneous confessional prose. This session produced the now famous scroll of On the Road. In fact, according to his Columbia professor and mentor Mark Van Doren, he had outlined much of the work in his journals over several years. His technique was heavily influenced by Jazz, especially Bebop, and later, Buddhism, as well as the famous "Joan Anderson letter", authored by Neal Cassady.[6]
Publishers rejected it due to its experimental writing style and its sympathetic tone towards minorities and marginalized social groups of the United States in the 1950s. In 1957, Viking Press purchased the novel, demanding major revisions.[7]
In 1954, Kerouac discovered Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible at the San Jose Library, which marked the beginning of Kerouac's immersion into Buddhism. In 1955 Kerouac wrote a biography of Siddhartha Gautama, entitled Wake Up, which was unpublished during his lifetime but eventually serialised in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, 1993-95.
He chronicled parts of his own experience with Buddhism, as well as some of his adventures with Gary Snyder and other San Francisco-area poets, in the book The Dharma Bums, set in California and published in 1958. The Dharma Bums, which some have called the sequel to On the Road, was written in Orlando, Florida during late 1957 through early 1958. Kerouac also wrote and narrated a "Beat" movie entitled Pull My Daisy in 1958.
Beginning of the original typed roll where Kerouac wrote On the Road. The first sentence is: "I first met met Neal not long after my father died..." Later it would be replaced by the definitive one: "I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up".In July 1957, Kerouac moved to a small house on Clouser Ave. in the College Park section of Orlando, Florida to await the release of On the Road. A few weeks later, the review appeared in the New York Times proclaiming Kerouac the voice of a new generation. Kerouac was hailed as a major American writer. His friendship with Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso, among others, became a notorious representation of the Beat Generation. His fame would come as an unmanageable surge that would ultimately be his undoing. Kerouac's novel is often described as the defining work of the post-World War II Beat Generation and Kerouac came to be called "the king of the beat generation," a term that he never felt comfortable with. He once observed, "I'm not a beatnik, I'm a Catholic."[8]
John Antonelli's 1985 documentary Kerouac, the Movie begins and ends with footage of Kerouac reading from On the Road and Visions of Cody on The Tonight Show with Steve Allen in 1957. Kerouac appears intelligent but shy. "Are you nervous?" asks Steve Allen. "Naw", says Kerouac, sweating and fiddling.
Kerouac developed something of a friendship with the scholar Alan Watts (cryptically named Arthur Wayne in Kerouac's novel Big Sur, and Alex Aums in Desolation Angels). He also met and had discussions with the famous Japanese Zen Buddhist authority D.T. Suzuki. Kerouac moved to Northport, New York in March 1958, six months after releasing On the Road, to care for his aging mother Gabrielle and to hide from his newfound celebrity.
Death
Kerouac died on October 21, 1969 at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, one day after being rushed with severe abdominal pain from his St. Petersburg home by ambulance. His death, at the age of 47, resulted from an internal hemorrhage (bleeding esophageal varices) caused by cirrhosis of the liver, the result of a lifetime of heavy drinking. At the time of his death, he was living with his third wife Stella, and his mother Gabrielle. Kerouac is buried in his home town of Lowell and was honored posthumously with a Doctor of Letters degree from his hometown's University of Massachusetts - Lowell on June 2, 2007.
In 2007, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of On the Road's publishing,[9] Viking issued two new editions: On the Road: The Original Scroll, and On the Road: 50th Anniversary Edition. By far the more significant is Scroll, a transcription of the original draft typed as one long paragraph on rolls of teletype paper which Kerouac taped together to form a 120-foot scroll. The text is more sexually explicit than Viking allowed to be published in 1957, and also uses the real names of Kerouac's friends rather than the fictional names he later substituted. (Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay paid $2.43 million for the original scroll and is allowing an exhibition tour that will conclude at the end of 2009.) The other new issue, 50th Anniversary Edition, is a reissue of the 40th anniversary issue under an updated title.
In March 2008, Penguin Books announced that the Kerouac/Burroughs manuscript, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks will be published for the first time in November 2008. (Previously, a fragment of the manuscript had been published in the Burroughs compendium, Word Virus).[10]
Works, style, and innovations
Style
Jack Kerouac's poem in the center of his namesake alley.Kerouac is generally considered to be the father of the Beat movement, although it must be said that he actively disliked such labels, and, in particular, regarded the subsequent Hippie movement with some disdain. Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of Jazz, especially the Bebop genre established by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and others. Later, Kerouac would include ideas he developed in his Buddhist studies, beginning with Gary Snyder. He called this style Spontaneous Prose, a literary technique akin to stream of consciousness.
Kerouac utilized Chögyam Trungpa's "first-thought-best-thought" Buddhist idea,[11] and applied it to spontaneous writing; many of his books exemplified this approach including On the Road, Visions of Cody, Visions of Gerard, Big Sur, and The Subterraneans. The central features of this writing method were the ideas of breath (borrowed from Jazz and from Buddhist meditation breathing), improvising words over the inherent structures of mind and language, and not editing a single word (much of his work was edited by Donald Merriam Allen, a major figure in Beat Generation poetry who also edited some of Ginsberg's work as well). Connected with his idea of breath was the elimination of the period, preferring to use a long, connecting dash instead. As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble improvisational jazz licks. When spoken, the words might take on a certain kind of rhythm, though none of it pre-meditated.
Gary Snyder was greatly admired by Kerouac, and many of his ideas influenced Kerouac. The Dharma Bums contains accounts of a mountain climbing trip Kerouac took with Snyder. One summer, Kerouac took a job as a fire lookout in the North Cascade Mountains in Washington state on Snyder's recommendation. Kerouac described the experience in his novel Desolation Angels.
He would go on for hours to friends and strangers about his method, often drunk, which at first wasn't well received by Allen Ginsberg, though Ginsberg would later be one of its great proponents, and indeed was apparently influenced by Kerouac's free flowing prose method of writing in the composition of his masterpiece "Howl". It was at about the time that Kerouac wrote The Subterraneans that he was approached by Ginsberg and others to formally explicate exactly how he wrote it, how he did Spontaneous Prose. Among the writings he set down specifically about his Spontaneous Prose method, the most concise would be Belief and Technique for Modern Prose, a list of thirty "essentials."
Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
Submissive to everything, open, listening
Try never get drunk outside your own house
Be in love with your life
Something that you feel will find its own form
Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
Blow as deep as you want to blow
Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
The unspeakable visions of the individual
No time for poetry but exactly what is
Visionary tics shivering in the chest
In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
Like Proust be an old teahead of time
Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
Write in recollection and amazement for yrself
Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
Accept loss forever
Believe in the holy contour of life
Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
Don't think of words when you stop but to see picture better
Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
You're a Genius all the time
Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven
"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars, and in the middle, you see the blue center-light pop, and everybody goes ahh..."
from On the Road
Some believed that at times Kerouac's writing technique did not produce lively or energetic prose. Truman Capote famously said about Kerouac's work, "That's not writing, it's typing." Despite such criticism, it should be kept in mind that what Kerouac said about writing and how he wrote are sometimes seen to be separate. According to Carolyn Cassady and other people who knew him he rewrote and rewrote. Some claim his own style was in no way spontaneous. However it should be taken into account that throughout most of the '50s, Kerouac was constantly trying to have his work published, and consequently he often revised and re-arranged manuscripts in an often futile attempt to interest publishers, as is clearly documented in his collected letters (which are in themselves wonderful examples of his style). The Subterraneans and Visions of Cody are possibly the best examples of Kerouac's free-flowing spontaneous prose method.
Influence
Kerouac is considered by some as the "King of the Beats".
Kerouac's plainspeak manner of writing prose, as well as his nearly long-form haiku style of poetry have inspired countless modern neo-beat writers and artists, such as George Condo (Painter), Roger Craton (Poet and Philosopher), and John McNaughton (filmmaker).
The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University is named in his honor. In 2007, Kerouac was awarded a posthumous honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.[12]
In the 1999 film, The Source, that detailed the Beat Generation, Kerouac was portrayed by Johnny Depp.
A reference is made to Kerouac in the Julie Taymor film Across the Universe when the father of Max claims that his son will end up like Kerouac, driving around the country.
Billie Thomas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born March 12, 1931(1931-03-12)
Los Angeles, California
Died October 10, 1980 (aged 49)
Los Angeles, California
Billie Thomas (originally William Thomas, Jr.) (March 12, 1931 - October 10, 1980) was an American child actor best remembered for portraying the character of Buckwheat in the Our Gang (Little Rascals) short films from 1934 until the series' end in 1944. He was a native of Los Angeles, California.
Biography
Our Gang and later life
Although the character he played was often the subject of controversy in later years for containing elements of the "pickaninny" stereotype, Thomas always defended his work in the series, pointing out that Buckwheat and the rest of the black Our Gang kids were treated as equals with the white kids in the series. The 1980s Little Rascals animated series adapted from the Our Gang comedies addressed the problem by changing Buckwheat into a clever inventor who is always building ingenious machines for the gang.
After Our Gang was discontinued in 1944, Thomas played some small parts in other films, but soon left show business altogether. As an adult, he worked as a film lab technician with the Technicolor corporation. Thomas died of a sudden heart attack in his Los Angeles apartment on October 10, 1980.[1]
Impersonations, controversy and an imposter
Three years after Thomas's death, his character was parodied by Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live in a sketch that had Buckwheat as the target of an assassination. His assassin, "John David Stutts" (also played by Murphy), was in turn later assassinated in a scene that parallels Lee Harvey Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby. It was meant to be a parody on the extensive media coverage of the then recent murder of John Lennon and the attempt on Ronald Reagan's life. In particular, it was meant to parody the excessive amount of attention given to the assassins. The real Buckwheat's son, William Thomas, Jr., strongly protested Murphy's sketch. (Murphy's exaggerated portrayal of Buckwheat had the child actor supposedly retaining his tangled, unkempt hair and inarticulate speech even into adulthood.) Murphy performed other parody skits as well, including a murder attempt by Alfalfa and an advertisement for a record, Buh-Weet Sings, the latter containing the opening line which later became an SNL classic: "Hi, Ah'm Buh-Weet. Amembah me?" ("Hi, I'm Buckwheat. Remember me?")
In 1990, the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 aired a segment purporting to be an interview with Buckwheat, now a downtrodden minimum wage grocery bagger in Arizona. However, the interview was actually with a man named Bill English, who had made a career of claiming to be the adult Buckwheat. By the next week, 20/20 had learned of their error (George "Spanky" McFarland personally contacted the media following the broadcast), that the true Buckwheat had been dead for 10 years, and admitted their mistake on-air. Fallout from this incident included the resignation of a 20/20 producer, and a negligence lawsuit filed by the son of William Thomas.[2]
In 2007, Louisiana State Representative Carla Dartez, a Democrat, came under fire from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for calling one of her female volunteers "Buckwheat." The local chapter of the NAACP threw its support behind her Republican opponent, who won the November 17, 2007 run-off election.[3]
Buckwheat and his mispronunciation of the word Okay are mentioned on Lil' Wayne's verse on the Brisco single, "In The Hood".
Barbara Feldon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Barbara Hall
March 12, 1932 (1932-03-12) (age 76)
Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Barbara Feldon (born Barbara Hall on March 12, 1932 in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania) is an American actress, game show panelist of the 1960s and model, known for her character-type roles. The naturally brunette-headed Feldon gained prominence in the 1960s for playing Don Adams's working partner and future wife, Agent 99, on the long-running cult favorite 1960s sitcom, Get Smart. She also guest-starred on Cheers, and she also guest-starred as Paul Reiser's TV idol, Diane Caldwell, a spy, on Mad About You.
Biography
She graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts in drama, shortly after which she won the grand prize on The $64,000 Question in the category of William Shakespeare. In 1965 she had a lead role in an earlier spy show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in "The Never-Never Affair" where she was a Portuguese translator for U.N.C.L.E. who wished for more excitement and got it.
Career
She was most famous for her character Agent 99 in the television comedy series Get Smart, starring with lead Don Adams throughout the series' five seasons. When she was cast for the role, she was already famous, although anonymously, appearing on a tigerskin rug in an advertisement for Top Brass dandruff cream. In addition, she also had a wonderful on- and off- screen chemistry with Adams, throughout the entire run, and when the series had ended they became best friends. For her performance in Get Smart, she was nominated for an Emmy award for 'Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series' in 1968 and 1969.
During the run of Get Smart she appeared in a comedy film with Dick Van Dyke titled Fitzwilly, released in 1967. Before this film she had small parts in various popular TV shows such as: The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Twelve O'Clock High and Flipper.
After Get Smart ended, she was strongly typecast. She appeared in an episode of Mad About You as Diane "Spy Girl" Caldwell, an actress who was trying to shake her typecasting as "Spy Girl" in a series similar to Get Smart. She frequently appeared on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, guest-starring on the first show in 1968 and several episodes thereafter. Her finest performance may be as the beauty contest organizer in Michael Richie's Smile (1974). In recent years she has been successful as a voice performer.
In 1991 she played a love interest of Sam Malone in Cheers. Long-divorced and New York City-based, Feldon has appeared on stage and on guest spots on TV shows, including in her old role as "99" in a brief sequel to the old Get Smart series, which had the same name, co-starring her old star Don Adams and new actor Andy Dick, in 1995. In 2003, Feldon authored Living Alone and Loving It, a self-help guide to assist single people of all ages live more fulfilling lives.
In 2006, she provided audio commentaries for the long-awaited Get Smart DVD set, being the only principal cast member still alive (Don Adams having died in 2005, and Edward Platt having died in 1974).
Liza Minnelli
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born March 12, 1946 (1946-03-12) (age 62)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation singer, actress
Years active 1949 - present
Spouse(s) Peter Allen (1967-1974)
Jack Haley, Jr. (1974-1979)
Mark Gero (1979-1992)
David Gest (2002-2003)
Parents Vincente Minnelli (1903-1986)
Judy Garland (1922-1969)
[show]Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Actress
1972 Cabaret
BAFTA Awards
Best Actress in a Leading Role
1972 Cabaret
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Single Program - Variety and Popular Music
1973 Liza with a 'Z'
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1973 Cabaret
Best Actress - Miniseries or TV Movie
1986 A Time to Live
Golden Raspberry Awards
Worst Actress
1988 Arthur 2: On the Rocks ; Rent-A-Cop
Grammy Awards
Grammy Legend Award
1990 Contributions and Influence in the recording field
Tony Awards
Best Leading Actress in a Musical
1965 Flora the Red Menace
1978 The Act
Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) is an Academy Award-winning American actress and singer. She is the daughter of legendary actress and singer Judy Garland and her second husband, film director Vincente Minnelli. In 1972, she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Cabaret and two of her records have been certified gold.
Biography
Minnelli is from a well-known artistic family; her maternal lineage had entertainers in the family going back six generations.[1] Her famous mother, Judy Garland, had success in film and in music, and her aunts had been part of a singing group, "The Gumm Sisters", with her mother. Her father, also from a theatrical family including circus performers, was an acclaimed film director. Minnelli's first film appearance was at the age of three in the final scene of the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime, starring her mother and Van Johnson.
Although Minnelli and her mother shared a warm personal relationship, during the London Palladium performances Garland recognized Minnelli's talent and felt a sense of competition. Minnelli recalled a time where she was singing on stage: "I was onstage with my mother, but suddenly, she wasn't Mama ... she was Judy Garland.".[1]
As a teenager with two younger siblings, Minnelli bore the brunt of Garland's substance abuse issues and instability, and often had to take responsibility for her mother and siblings. Minnelli's half-siblings through her mother are sister Lorna Luft and brother Joe "Joey" Luft. Her half-siblings are a result of Garland's marriage to her manager Sid Luft. She also has a half-sibling Tina Nina Minnelli through her father's second marriage.
She has also been portrayed in the Australian musical The Boy From Oz starring Hugh Jackman. On Broadway, she was portrayed by Broadway star Stephanie J. Block. The show received four Tony nominations.
Public life
Her well-publicized struggles with substance abuse have made inevitable parallels and comparisons to her mother's personal and career challenges. Minnelli has been in rehab for her substance abuse numerous times. She entered rehab shortly before her marriage to David Gest.[2] Another visit occurred at their first anniversary; she recently visited rehab and a psychiatric center to deal with issues stemming from her contentious divorce from Gest.[3]
Marriages
Minnelli has been married (and divorced) four times; her husbands have been:
Peter Allen (real name Peter Allen Woolnough) (March 3, 1967-1972). Australian-born Allen, who died of complications from AIDS in 1992. Allen was Judy Garland's protégé in the mid-1960s.
Jack Haley Jr., (September 15, 1974-1979), a producer and director. His father, Jack Haley, was Garland's co-star in The Wizard of Oz.
Mark Gero (December 4, 1979-1992), a sculptor and stage manager
David Gest (March 16, 2002-July 25, 2003), a concert promoter.
Minnelli's divorce from Gest was particularly acrimonious. Gest alleged that Minnelli infected him with herpes and did not disclose it until after the wedding, whereas Minnelli claimed Gest was a drug addict.[4]
The couple filed divorce papers in February 2007. Separation and subsequent divorce proceedings from Gest in 2003 had been fraught with controversy. Minnelli and Gest signed an agreement in January 2007 to end all pending lawsuits against each other, and to proceed with a no-fault divorce. Prior legal matters were either resolved or dismissed.
Career
Theatre
Minnelli started performing (professionally) at age 17, in 1963, in an Off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, for which she received good notices, and her first award -- The Theatre World Award. The next year, her mother invited Minnelli to perform with her at the London Palladium. The audience loved her, launching her future concert career. She returned to Broadway at 19, and won a 1965 Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace.
Film
Her first film role was as the love-interest in Albert Finney's only film as director and star, Charlie Bubbles (1967).
In 1969 she appeared in Alan J. Pakula's first feature film, The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), as Pookie Adams, a needy, eccentric teenager. Her performance won her her first Academy Award nomination. She played another eccentric character the following year in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, directed by Otto Preminger.
Liza Minnelli, in 1993, visiting the tomb of Eva Perón. In the early 1980s, Minnelli was in the running for the role of Evita.In 1972, Minnelli appeared in perhaps her best-known film role, as Sally Bowles in the movie version of Cabaret. She said that one of the things she did to prepare was to study photographs of classic actresses Louise Glaum and Louise Brooks and the dark-haired ladies of that time.[5] Minnelli won the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance, along with a Golden Globe Award, and was featured on the covers of Time and Newsweek Magazines simultaneously.
Hot off the success of the movie, Fosse and Minnelli teamed up for what was to become a groundbreaking show in several departments. Liza with a 'Z', a filmed concert later aired only two times on TV until the somewhat "accidental" recovery from the vaults and first public release on DVD in 2006. In the concert, filmed over two performances, Minnelli danced and sang in several daring and censor-challenging costumes designed by famed costume-designer Halston. Several awards were the reward for what is regarded by both critics and public as a piece of show business history.
Following a string of less successful feature movies and ventures into television, she finally got the chance to work with her father, director Vincente Minnelli, in the 1976 fantasy-musical A Matter of Time, co-starring Ingrid Bergman. After severe editing and cutting, done at the request of the producers, the film was neither a commercial nor a critical success.
Her appearance opposite Robert De Niro in the 1977 film, New York, New York however, gave Minnelli her best known signature song, "Theme from New York, New York". Frank Sinatra released a successful cover version (for his Trilogy: Past Present Future album) two years later and used it as his signature song as well, sometimes even duetting with Liza live on stage.
After her performance as leading lady to Dudley Moore in 1981's Arthur, Minnelli made fewer film appearances.
Later career
Minnelli's career has been known to be filled with highs and lows, both personal and professional, but she has never stopped recording albums, even though in her later career these were mostly live recordings of her concerts, several of them highly acclaimed[citation needed] record-breaking[citation needed] stints at the Radio City Music Hall among others. In the beginnings, however, she recorded several studio albums, for A&M and Capitol Records. The Capitol albums "Liza! Liza!", "It Amazes Me" and "There Is A Time" have recently been reissued on a 2CD compilation, for the first time in their entirety. Her perhaps biggest success in the music department might be the 1989 pop album Results, recorded with English duo Pet Shop Boys, which included a hit version of the Stephen Sondheim song "Losing My Mind"[citation needed]. The album spawned 4 singles ("Don't Drop Bombs", "Losing My Mind", "Love Pains" and "So Sorry, I Said") and gave her a chance to film promotional videos for them and enjoy another long-overdue comeback in the music business. Initially released on a VHS tape titled "Visible Results", the clips were later issued on a bonus DVD included in the 2005 remastered and expanded edition of the album. Later that year she performed "Losing My Mind" live at the Grammys ceremony before receiving a Grammy Legend Award, making her one of only 12 other entertainers, in a list that includes Whoopi Goldberg, Barbra Streisand, and Mel Brooks among others, to win an Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and Academy Award, even though she is sometimes discounted since her Grammy was a special award and was not won in a competitive category.
She returned to Broadway in 1997, taking over the title role in the musical Victor/Victoria, replacing Julie Andrews. In his review, New York Times critic Ben Brantley commented, "her every stage appearance is perceived as a victory of show-business stamina over psychic frailty... She asks for love so nakedly and earnestly, it seems downright vicious not to respond." However, rumors of ill will between her and co-star Tony Roberts gained momentum when he deliberately skipped performances.
After a serious case of viral encephalitis in 2000, Minnelli was in very bad shape, her family and friends were seriously worried, and even a feud with half-sister Lorna was buried. Doctors predicted the rest of her life in a wheelchair. She however refused to accept this and thanks to her dance lessons, which she still takes daily, managed to achieve yet another comeback, with her then-husband who produced her big show "Liza's Back" in 2002.
After this success, the world was again made aware of Minnelli's entertainment capabilities and she kept on touring the world and had offers coming from several fields in the business. She had once again all doors open to her, the only thing that seems to escape her is another big movie role, with her last big mark on the silver screen being in 1981 in the comedy Arthur.
In 2004 and 2005 she appeared as a recurring character on the critically acclaimed TV sitcom Arrested Development as Lucille Austero, the lover of sexually and socially awkward Buster Bluth and also the lover of Buster's brother GOB Bluth.
In September 2006, she made a guest appearance on the long-running NBC drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Masquerade, the Halloween-themed episode, was written by Gina Gionfriddo and broadcast on Tuesday, October 31, 2006.[6] She also completed guest vocals on My Chemical Romance's 2006 concept album The Black Parade, portraying "Mother War", a dark conception of the main character's mother, in the song "Mama".
Her latest project is the imminent release of a collection of songs that her godmother Kay Thompson originated. In 2007 she has added the songs to her latest tour to introduce them to audiences.
It has recently been announced that once she has completed the collection of songs that Kay Thompson originated and also her tour, she will begin filming Katie's Blues, which she is in negotiations with the writers of the movie musical Chicago in writing the script. Liza will write, produce and star in the film.
Signature song
Minnelli had several notable public performances of her signature song, "New York, New York", some of them are:
At the 1978 Studio 54 party honoring New York City's revival, at which a guest was Mayor Ed Koch;
The reopening of the Statue of Liberty on July 4, 1986;
As a duet with Luciano Pavarotti at the 1996 "Pavarotti & Friends" concert in Modena, Italy.
At a 2001 New York Mets baseball game that was the metro area's first major sporting event after the September 11 attacks;
At the age of 60, for the "Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular" televised live, and nationally on NBC on July 4, 2006, she performed the song and received an ovation.
In February 2008, weeks before turning 62, she performed the song at a televised celebration of Bruce Forsyth's 80th birthday celebration on BBC.
Awards and other recognitions
Minnelli's appearance in The Sterile Cuckoo garnered the young actress her first Academy Award nomination.
In 1973, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the movie released in 1972, Cabaret.
She also won an Emmy Award for the 1972 TV special Liza with a 'Z', a 1989 Grammy Legend Award, and Golden Globe Awards for both Cabaret and the 1985 TV movie A Time to Live.
She has received three Tony Awards to date: a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical in 1965 for "Flora the Red Menace" (and for it still holds the record as the youngest person to receive a Tony for lead in a musical), a special Tony in 1974 for her concert engagement at NY's Winter Garden, and a second Tony, for The Act in 1978. She was nominated in 1984 for The Rink but lost to her costar, Chita Rivera.
Minnelli has one Oscar and Emmy, three Tony Awards, two Golden Globes, along with a special Grammy. She has the distinction of being one of the few Academy Award winners whose parents were both Academy Award nominees, and she is the only winner of that award whose parents were both winners of it as well.
Image
Minnelli's work in Cabaret molded her popular image; the black helmet of hair, huge eyes and extravagant eyelashes have remained her visual trademarks. The perception among many is that she embodies the same characteristics she portrayed as Sally Bowles's that is a combination of fragility, determination, detachment from reality and hunger for affection. During the Eighties she softened her image and has kept it ever since. Recently, she has suffered from fluctuating weight and has faced severe health problems, including having had both hips replaced, other surgeries, and stints in rehab. Despite this, she stated she will keep on doing what she does best as long as her body allows her to. A recent interview session filmed for "Inside the Actor's Studio" in which she provided insight into her career and style, she stated she will continue to be herself. Her later image is notable for big eyebrows, which has become something of a signature look for her, as much as the black helmet hair was in the 1970s.
Television work
During the early days of Television in the 1950s Liza appeared as a child guest on Art Linkletter's show and in 1959 sang and danced with Gene Kelly on his first television special. She was a guest star in one episode of the popular Ben Casey television series starring Vince Edwards and was a frequent guest on chat shows of the day including numerous appearances on shows hosted by Jack Parr, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Joe Franklin, Dinah Shore and Johnny Carson. During the 1960s she made several guest appearances on Laugh In as well as other variety shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, as well as The Judy Garland Show. Recently, Minnelli has made guest appearances on such shows as Arrested Development and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In the UK she has appeared on the Ruby Wax, Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross shows and in October 2006 participated in a comedy skit on the Charlotte Church Show and was featured on the Michael Parkinson Show.
