Joan Crawford
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Lucille Fay LeSueur
March 23, 1905(1905-03-23)[1][2]
San Antonio, Texas, USA
Died May 10, 1977 (aged 72)
New York City, New York, USA
Years active 1925-1972
Spouse(s) James Welton (1923-1924)[3]
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr (1929-1933)
Franchot Tone (1935-1939)
Phillip Terry (1942-1946)
Alfred Steele (1956-1959)
[show]Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Actress
1945 Mildred Pierce
Golden Globe Awards
Cecil B. DeMille Award
1970 Lifetime achievement
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; (March 23, 1905 - May 10, 1977)[1][2] was an Academy Award-winning American actress. The American Film Institute named Crawford among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time, ranking her at number 10.
Starting as a dancer on Broadway,[4] Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1925 and played in small parts. By the end of the '20s, as her popularity grew, she became famous as a youthful flapper. At the beginning of the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled that of fellow MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. She was often cast in movies in which she played hardworking young women who eventually found romance and financial success. These "rags to riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences. Women, particularly, seemed to identify with her characters' struggles. By the end of the decade, Crawford remained one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars, and one of the highest paid women in the U.S.
Moving to Warner Bros. in 1943, Crawford won an Academy Award for her performance in Mildred Pierce and achieved some of the best reviews of her career in the following years. In 1955, she became involved with PepsiCo, the company run by her last husband, Alfred Steele. Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors after his death in 1959, but was forcibly retired in 1973. She continued acting regularly into the 1960s, when her performances became fewer, and retired from the screen in 1970 after the release of the horror film Trog.
Early life
Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, the third child of Tennessee-born Thomas E. LeSueur (1868-1938) and Anna Bell Johnson (1884-1958). Her older siblings were Daisy LeSueur, who died very young, and Hal LeSueur. Although Crawford was of mostly English descent, her surname originated from her great-great-great-great grandparents, David LeSueur and Elizabeth Chastain, French Huguenots who immigrated from London in the early 1700s to Virginia, where they lived for several generations.[5]
Crawford's father was said to have abandoned the family in Texas; Crawford later said she had been only a few months old when her father left. Her mother later married Henry J. Cassin. The family lived in Lawton, Oklahoma, where Cassin ran a movie theater. The 1910 Comanche County, Oklahoma, Federal Census, enumerated on April 20, showed Henry and Anna living at 910 "D" Street in Lawton. Crawford was then five years old, thus showing that 1905 was her likely year of birth, although later on, she would shave some years off and claim she was born in 1908.
Growing up, Crawford preferred the nickname "Billie," and she loved watching vaudeville acts perform on the stage of her stepfather's theater. Her ambition was to be a dancer. Unfortunately, she cut her foot deeply on a broken milk bottle when she leapt from the front porch of her home in an attempt to escape piano lessons and run and play with friends. Crawford was unable to attend elementary school for a year and a half and ultimately had three operations on her foot. She eventually overcame the injury and returned not only to walking normally, but to dancing as well.
Around 1916, Crawford's family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Cassin was first listed in the City Directory in 1917, living at 403 East Ninth Street. While still in elementary school, Crawford was placed in St. Agnes Academy, a Catholic school in Kansas City. Later, after her mother and stepfather broke up, she stayed on at St. Agnes as a work student. She then went to Rockingham Academy as a work student. In 1922, Crawford registered at the posh Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and gave her year of birth as 1906. She attended Stephens for less than a year, however, as she recognized that she was not academically prepared for college.
Career
Early career
Crawford began as a dancer in a chorus line under the name Lucille LeSueur, eventually making her way to New York City. In 1924, she signed a contract with MGM, and arrived in Culver City, California. Crawford started out in silent films. As Lucille LeSueur, her first film was Pretty Ladies in 1925, which starred ZaSu Pitts. Pretty Ladies was the first and only time Crawford used her birth name professionally. In the book, Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood, Crawford is quoted as saying that it was Sam De Grasse who said that her name LeSueur sounded too much like 'sewer.' A contest in the fan magazine, Movie Weekly, became the source of her well-known stage name. The female contestant who entered the name Joan Crawford was awarded $500. Though Crawford reportedly detested the name at first, saying it sounded like "crawfish" - and also requested that Joan be pronounced the same as "Joanne" - she eventually became used to the name. Her friend, actor William Haines, quipped, "You're lucky. They could have called you Cranberry and served you up with a Turkey!"
Crawford first made an impression on audiences in Edmund Goulding's Sally, Irene and Mary (1925), in which she played Irene, a struggling chorus girl who meets a tragic end. In the same year, Crawford worked on Lady of the Night, starring Norma Shearer. Crawford's face was seen briefly, as she was made up and used as a double for Shearer. It was also during this time that Crawford grew to resent Shearer because of how well she was treated compared to herself. The following year, she was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, along with Mary Astor, Mary Brian, Dolores Costello, Dolores Del Rio, Janet Gaynor and Fay Wray. For the next two years, Crawford consolidated on these gains, appearing in increasingly important movies. In 1926, she made Paris, where she was able to show her sex appeal. It was also during this time that she was the romantic interest for some of MGM's leading male stars, among them Ramon Novarro, William Haines, John Gilbert and Tim McCoy.
Crawford's most unusual movie from this period was The Unknown (1927), starring Lon Chaney, Sr. as Alonzo, a carnival knife thrower with no arms. Crawford played his skimpily clad young carnival assistant, Nanon Zanzi, who he hopes to marry. She stated that she learned more about acting from watching Chaney work in this movie than from anything else in her long career.
In 1928, Crawford starred opposite Ramon Novarro, as Priscilla Crowninshield in Across to Singapore, but it was her role as Diana Medford in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) that catapulted her to stardom. The role also established her as a symbol of modern 1920s-style femininity that rivalled the image of Clara Bow, who was then Hollywood's foremost flapper. A stream of hits followed Our Dancing Daughters, including two more flapper-themed movies, in which Crawford embodied for her legion of fans (many of whom were women) an idealized vision of the free-spirited, all-American girl.
Crawford tirelessly studied diction and elocution to rid herself of her Southwestern accent. Her first talkie was Untamed (1929), opposite Robert Montgomery, which was a box office success. The movie proved to be an important milestone for the durable star, as she made an effective transition to sound movies. One critic wrote, "Miss Crawford sings appealingly and dances thrillingly as usual; her voice is alluring and her dramatic efforts in the difficult role she portrays are at all times convincing."
MGM
During the early 1930s, Crawford modified her image to better fit the hard-scrabble conditions of Depression-era America. In this new role, she played a glamorized version of the working girl, who relied on her intelligence, looks and sheer determination to get ahead in life. This persona was fully realized in Possessed (1931), where Crawford was teamed with Clark Gable. During production, the two stars began an affair that resulted in an ultimatum from studio chief Louis B. Mayer to Gable that the affair end. Gable chose his career over the relationship, although their affair would resume spasmodically and secretly for many years. Upon release, Possessed was an enormous hit.
An indication of Crawford's superstar-status was the studio's decision to cast her in its most prestigious movie of 1932, the all-star extravaganza, Grand Hotel. She also starred as Sadie Thompson in a version of W. Somerset Maugham's Rain, a film which many feel looks better today than it did upon its initial release.
Crawford achieved continued success with Letty Lynton (1932), now considered the "lost" Crawford film due to a plagiarism case that forced MGM to withdraw it soon after release. As a result, it has never since been shown theatrically, on television, or made available on VHS/DVD. The film is mostly remembered today because of the Letty Lynton dress, designed by Adrian: a white cotton organdy gown with large mutton sleeves, puffed at the shoulder. It was with this gown that Crawford's broad shoulders began to be accentuated by costume; this would become a trademark for the actress along with, later in her career, emphasized eyebrows and ankle strap shoes. When the Letty Lynton dress was copied by Macy's in 1932, it sold over 500,000 replicas nationwide.[6]
Following the success of Possessed, Gable was starred in a series of steamy pairings opposite Crawford, in which they established themselves as a formidable romantic duo of the 1930s. Their rollicking smash hit Dancing Lady (1933), in which Crawford received top billing over Gable, was the only movie to feature Robert Benchley, Nelson Eddy, Fred Astaire and the Three Stooges all together in one movie. Crawford's next two movies with Gable, Chained (1934) and Forsaking All Others (also 1934), were both big hits, being among the top money makers of the mid-1930s, and marked Crawford's peak at MGM as a popular star at the box office.
By the end of the decade, Crawford had adopted a more sophisticated image in which her characters seemed to be defined as much by their glamorous clothing, beautiful accessories, and carefully styled hair and make-up as by any meaningful character trait. However, fans soon grew tired of this remote "clothes horse" persona and eventually Crawford's movies began to lose money. In 1938, she was one of the unfortunate stars to be labeled "box-office poison," along with Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West and Fred Astaire.
Crawford somewhat rectified her position at MGM through a fruitful collaboration with director George Cukor. She first played bitchy home-wrecker Crystal Allen in Cukor's comedy The Women (1939), then capitalized on this success in two more movies under his direction, Susan and God (1940) and A Woman's Face (1941).
Eager to promote their new generation of female stars (among them Greer Garson, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and the resurgent Katharine Hepburn), the management at MGM began to view Crawford as a bad investment. After 18 years at the studio, Crawford's contract was terminated by mutual consent on June 29, 1943. In lieu of one more movie owed under her contract, MGM bought out her contract for $100,000. That same day, the studio had already cleared out her bungalow.
Move to Warner Bros.
Upon leaving MGM, Crawford signed with Warner Bros. for $500,000 for three movies and was placed on the payroll on July 1, 1943. She appeared as herself in the star-studded production Hollywood Canteen (1944). She was also cast in the title role of Mildred Pierce (1945), in which she played opposite Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth and Butterfly McQueen. Director Michael Curtiz and producer Jerry Wald developed the property from the popular James M. Cain novel, which was adapted for the screen by Ranald MacDougall. Crawford was not, in fact, first choice for the role of Mildred Pierce, even though it would become the defining role of her career. Bette Davis was the studio's first choice and was offered first refusal. Davis turned the role down, as she did not want to play the mother of a 17-year-old daughter - Ann Blyth. Curtiz also didn't want Crawford; he refused to work with her, telling Jack Warner, "With her high-hat airs and her goddamn shoulder pads, she's a has-been." His first choice was Barbara Stanwyck, following her success in Double Indemnity (film) (1944). Curtiz only agreed to Crawford being cast as Mildred Pierce after she took a voluntary screen test to prove her suitability for the part, during which she had to endure Curtiz bellowing at her down his megaphone, "Okay, start shooting that no-good motherf***ker washerwoman's daughter!"
The final product of Mildred Pierce was a commercial and artistic triumph. It epitomized the lush visual style and the hard-boiled film noir sensibility that defined Warner Bros. movies of the late 1940s. Crawford earned the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance.
On the strength of Mildred Pierce, Crawford established herself as the chief leading lady at Warner Bros., effectively stealing the limelight from the former queen of the studio, Bette Davis, and apparently sowing the seeds for the future conflict and discord Crawford endured with Davis on two films. There were opportunities at Warner Bros. for collaborative roles alongside Davis, which Crawford both sought and in some cases was offered. These were the following:
Ethan Frome (1944)
- Warner Bros. owned the rights to this picture in 1943, which Crawford said was "one of the main reasons" she signed with the studio after almost 20 years with MGM. Crawford approached Jack Warner regarding Ethan Frome as a joint venture with Davis and Gary Cooper. Both Davis and Warner agreed that Cooper would be perfect in the role of Edith Wharton's tragic hero. The problem was that Crawford wanted to play Mattie, the servant girl Ethan falls for - and for Davis to be cast as his nagging, harridan wife. Crawford said, "That was my dream. When I brought it up to Jack Warner, he suggested I move slowly, because Miss Davis had her heart set on the property, but in the younger role." Warner dissmissed the whole idea when Davis declared that if she did the film, she would be playing Mattie, telling Warner, "Joan's far too old, and besides, she can't act!" A film version of Ethan Frome was not made until 1993.[7]
Time To Sing (1947) - This was the story of two retired stage actresses who team up for a tour of summerstock theatres. A similar story to RKO's Stage Door (1937), starring Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. The project was intended to team Crawford with Davis, however, it was never made.[8].
Caged (1950) - A prison drama based on the novel, Women Without Men, by Virginia Kellogg. The story surrounded a female prison warden who attempts to rehabilitate a prisoner before she becomes a hardened criminal. In 1973, Crawford said, "I knew of a women's prison picture; it was written by Virginia Kellogg and later became Caged [1950] with Eleanor Parker and Agnes Moorehead." This too was intended to pair Crawford with Davis - who made it clear that she would not be starring in any "dyke movie."[9]
Crawford and Davis would not appear in a motion picture together until the 1962 film, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?.
From 1945-1952, Crawford reigned as a top star and respected actress, appearing in such roles as Helen Wright in Humoresque (1946), Louise Howell Graham in Possessed (1947, for which she was nominated for a second Oscar as Best Actress) and the title role in Daisy Kenyon (also 1947).
Crawford's other movie roles of the era include Lane Bellamy in Flamingo Road (1949), a dual role in the film noir The Damned Don't Cry (1950) and her performance in the title role of Harriet Craig (1950) at Columbia Pictures. After filming This Woman Is Dangerous (1952), Crawford asked to be released from her Warner Bros. contract. As she had done so before, Crawford triumphed as Myra Hudson in Sudden Fear (1952) at RKO, which was also the movie that introduced her co-star, Jack Palance, to the screen and earned Crawford a third and final Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Besides acting in motion pictures, Crawford also worked in radio and television. She appeared numerous times in episodes of anthology TV shows in the 1950s and, in 1959, made a pilot for her own series, The Joan Crawford Show. However, the show was never picked up by a network.
Work at Pepsi
Besides her work as an actress, from 1955 to 1973, Crawford traveled extensively on behalf of husband Al Steele's company, Pepsi Cola Company. Two days after Steele's death in 1959, Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors.
Crawford was the recipient of the sixth annual "Pally Award," which was in the shape of a bronze Pepsi bottle. It was awarded to the employee making the most significant contribution to company sales.
In 1973, Crawford retired from the company at the behest of company executive Don Kendall, whom Crawford had referred to for years as "Fang."
Later career
After her triumph in RKO's Sudden Fear (1952), Crawford continued to star in films that ranged from the cult western Johnny Guitar (1954) to the drama Autumn Leaves (1956), opposite a young Cliff Robertson. By the early 1960s, however, Crawford's status in motion pictures had diminished significantly.
Crawford's career rebounded when she accepted the role of "Blanche Hudson" in the highly successful thriller, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962), directed by Robert Aldrich. She played the part of a physically disabled woman, a former A-list movie star in conflict with her psychotic sister. Despite the actresses' earlier tensions, Crawford suggested Bette Davis for the role of Jane. The movie was completed and became a blockbuster.
Crawford went on to play Lucretia Terry in the United Artists movie The Caretakers (1963). Davis was nominated for an Academy Award that year for her performance as "Baby Jane" in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? which led to Crawford aggressively, but secretly, campaigning against her. Unbeknown to Davis, Crawford had contacted all of the Oscar nominees beforehand to tell them that she would be happy to accept the Oscar on their behalf if they were unable to attend the ceremony. Both Davis and Crawford were backstage when the absent Anne Bancroft was announced as the winner. Crawford reportedly elbowed her way past Davis and said, "Excuse me, I have an Oscar to accept."[citation needed] That same year, Crawford went on to star as Lucy Harbin in William Castle's horror/mystery Strait-Jacket (1964).
Aldrich cast Crawford and Davis to work together again in Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), but Crawford soon entered a hospital with an illness that was reportedly feigned in order to get out of the commitment reportedly due to a campaign of harassment by Davis[citation needed]. After a prolonged absence, Aldrich was forced to replace Crawford with Olivia de Havilland. There is a long shot in the beginning of the movie, when Miriam gets out of the taxi upon her arrival at the Hollis plantation, that actually shows the back of Joan Crawford's head and not de Havilland's. "When the taxi pulls up with cousin Miriam inside and stops at the foot of the steps, if you look closely before Miriam gets out you can just for a split moment see it is fact Joan Crawford in the back and not Olivia de Havilland. You can't see Crawford's face but you can tell it's her by the black dress and dark sunglasses that she is wearing. When de Haviland as Miriam is seen in the taxi before she arrives she is wearing a white hat and her clothing is light colored."
Upon her release from the hospital after her Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte debacle, Crawford played the role as Amy Nelson in I Saw What You Did (1965), another William Castle vehicle. She next starred as Monica Rivers in Herman Cohen's horror/thriller Berserk! (1968). After the film's release, Crawford then guest-starred as herself on The Lucy Show. The episode, "Lucy and the Lost Star," caused much celebrity fodder as title star Lucille Ball had a very public feud with Crawford during filming. According to Ball, Crawford was often drunk on the set and could not memorize her lines. Ball was said to have requested several times to replace Crawford with Gloria Swanson, who was supposed to have originally filled the role, but bowed out at the last minute. When asked during an interview how she had liked working with Ball, Crawford's response was, "And they call me a bitch!"
In October 1968, Crawford's 29-year-old daughter, Christina (who was then acting in New York on the TV soap opera The Secret Storm), fell ill due to a ruptured ovarian tumor and needed immediate medical attention. Crawford offered to fill in for her and play her daughter's role until she was well enough to return, which the producer readily agreed to. The implausibility of Crawford (then 63) playing a 28-year-old woman was coupled by her apparent state of intoxication on the live telecast. Christina was fired from the role the following year. In her memoir, Mommie Dearest, Christina claimed her mother's behaviour contributed to her firing.
Crawford's appearance in a 1969 episode of Night Gallery, entitled, "Eyes," marked one of Steven Spielberg's earliest directing jobs.
Crawford starred on the big screen one final time, playing Dr. Brockton in Herman Cohen's sci-fi/horror Trog (1970), rounding out a career spanning 45 years and over 80 motion pictures.
Crawford made four more TV appearances, as Stephanie White in an episode of The Virginian (1970), entitled "The Nightmare"; as a board member in an episode of The Name of the Game (1971), entitled "Los Angeles"; as Allison Hayes in the made-for-TV movie Beyond the Water's Edge (1972); and as Joan Fairchild (her final screen performance) on an episode of the television series, The Sixth Sense, entitled, "Dear Joan: We're Going To Scare You To Death" (1972).
Personal life
Marriages and residences
In 1929, at the time she wed Douglas Fairbanks Jr. at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, Crawford purchased a mansion at 426 North Bristol Avenue in Brentwood, located midway between Beverly Hills and the Pacific Ocean. The home would be her primary residence for the next 26 years. During that period, Crawford had her home decorated and redecorated by William Haines, her former silent movie co-star and lifelong friend, who was much in demand as an interior designer after receiving Crawford's recommendation.
Crawford had five husbands: musician James Welton (married 1923-divorced 1924)[10]; actors Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (married June 3, 1929 in New York-divorced 1933); Franchot Tone (married October 11, 1935 in New Jersey-divorced 1939); Phillip Terry (married July 21, 1942 at Hidden Valley Ranch in Ventura County, California-divorced 1946); and Pepsi-Cola president Alfred N. Steele (married May 10, 1955 in Las Vegas, Nevada-his death 1959).
Crawford moved to a lavish penthouse apartment at 2 East 70th St. with her last husband, Alfred Steele. He died there on April 19, 1959. Crawford then sold her Brentwood mansion and stayed in New York, moving to a smaller apartment, number 22-G in the Imperial House. She later moved to a smaller apartment in the same building (Apt.# 22-H) where she died, aged 72. She kept a small apartment in Los Angeles for her frequent trips there. Crawford was well-known for her relationship with her fans, often sending thousands of handwritten replies to fan letters each month. She also worked tirelessly with her official fan club, which disappeared after her death. It re-established in 2007.[1]
Adopted children
Crawford adopted five children, though she raised only four.
The first was Christina (born June 11, 1939), whom Crawford adopted in 1940 while a single, divorced woman.
The second was a boy she named Christopher (born April 1941), whom Crawford adopted in June of that year. In 1942, his biological mother discovered his whereabouts and reclaimed the child.
The third child was Christopher Terry (born 1943). Crawford and Philip Terry adopted him that same year but she changed his name to Christopher Crawford after she and Terry divorced. According to Christina, Crawford changed his birth date because she was afraid he would also be taken away. He died of cancer on September 22, 2006 in Greenport, New York.
The fourth and fifth children were twin girls Cynthia "Cindy" Crawford and Cathy Crawford (born January 13, 1947). Crawford adopted them in June of that year while she was a single, divorced woman. They were born in Dyersburg, Tennessee, to an unwed mother who died seven days after their birth. It was said that Crawford was afraid that their biological parents might try to reclaim them and therefore claimed that they were not twins. Their version is consistent with newspaper reports at the time of their adoption.[citation needed] Cynthia died on October 14, 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas from complications following a liver transplant.
Religion
Crawford was raised Catholic by her stepfather, Henry Cassin, a Roman Catholic (although he and Crawford's mother ultimately divorced). Crawford insisted on marrying Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who was not Catholic, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.
By the late 1930s, Crawford attended The Church of Christ, Scientist. She would bring her adopted children to that church regularly, but not always weekly. Although Crawford practiced Christian Science, she sought medical care for herself and her children when necessary. She regarded the Christian Scientist doctrine as an ideal, not a practical reality, according to Mommie Dearest.[citation needed]
Christina Crawford attended the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy For Girls for her junior and senior years of high school, along with the daughters of non-Catholic actresses Virginia Field and Lana Turner. Christina Crawford stated in her memoir, Mommie Dearest, that the Catholic doctrines she was taught came as a shock following her experiences with Christian Science. Christina also stated in Mommie Dearest that Crawford considered herself a Catholic despite the fact that she had stopped practicing the faith nearly 50 years before her death.
Mommie Dearest
A year and a half after Crawford's death, Christina published a bestseller exposé entitled, Mommie Dearest, which contained allegations that Crawford was emotionally and physically abusive to her and her brother Christopher. Though many of Crawford's friends, as well as her other two daughters, harshly criticized and disputed the book's claims, some believed in the book, and her reputation was somewhat tarnished. The book was later made into the 1981 film Mommie Dearest, starring Faye Dunaway as Crawford. It has been said that this movie was the beginning of the end of Dunaway's career, who enjoyed a massive success in the 70s with such now classics like 'Network'. Dunaway has stated that this was indeed the film that somewhat killed her career, and therefore refused to promote its re-releases, now marketed as "a camp classic" by the studio. In the year of its release, 'Mommie Dearest' won 5 of the 9 Razzies (Golden Rapsberry Award, given to "the very worst of film") it was nominated for, including Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor and Worst Supporting Actress. The movie is now regarded as one of the "campiest films of all time".
Final years and death
In 1970, Crawford was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award by John Wayne on the Golden Globes, which was telecast from the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. She also spoke at her alma mater, Stephens College, from which she never graduated.
A Portrait of Joan, an autobiography written with Jane Kesner Ardmore, was published in 1962 by Doubleday. Crawford's next book, My Way of Life, was published in 1971 by Simon and Schuster. Those expecting a racy tell-all were disappointed, although Crawford's meticulous ways were revealed in her advice on grooming, wardrobe, exercise, and even food storage.
In September 1973, Crawford moved from apartment 22-G to the smaller apartment 22-H in the Imperial House. Her last public appearance was September 23, 1974, at a party honoring her old friend Rosalind Russell at New York's Rainbow Room. Russell was battling breast cancer at the time and died two years later in 1976. On May 8, 1977, Crawford gave away her beloved Shih Tzu "Princess Lotus Blossom," which signaled to her close friends that the end was near.
Crawford died two days later at her New York apartment from a heart attack, while also ill with pancreatic cancer.[2] According to her daughter Christina, Crawford's alleged last words were "Damn it...Don't you dare ask God to help me," which were directed at her housekeeper, who had begun to pray out loud.[11] However, other sources indicate that Crawford was found dead on the bedroom floor by her housemaid. A funeral was held at Campbell Funeral Home, New York, on May 10, 1977. All four of her adopted children attended, as did her niece, Joan Crawford LeSueur (aka Joan Lowe), who was the daughter of her late brother, Hal LeSueur (died in 1963). In her will, which was signed October 28, 1976, Crawford bequeathed to her two youngest children, Cindy and Cathy, $77,500 each from her $2,000,000 estate. However, she explicitly disinherited the two eldest, Christina and Christopher. In the last paragraph of the will, she wrote, "It is my intention to make no provision herein for my son Christopher or my daughter Christina for reasons which are well known to them."
A memorial service was held for Crawford at All Souls' Unitarian Church on Lexington Avenue in New York on May 16, 1977, and was attended by, among others, her old Hollywood friend Myrna Loy. Another memorial service, organized by George Cukor, was held on June 24 in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California.
Crawford was cremated and her ashes placed in a crypt with her last husband, Al Steele, in Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.
Crawford's hand and footprints are immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1750 Vine Street. In 1999, Playboy listed Crawford as one of the "100 Sexiest Women of the 20th century," ranking her #84.
Akira Kurosawa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born March 23, 1910(1910-03-23)
Ota, Tokyo, Japan
Died September 6, 1998 (aged 88)
Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Spouse(s) Yôko Yaguchi (1945-1985)
[show]Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Foreign Language Film
1951 Rashōmon
1975 Dersu Uzala
Academy Honorary Award
1990 Lifetime Achievement
BAFTA Awards
Best Direction
1980 Kagemusha
Best Foreign Film
1986 Ran
César Awards
Best Foreign Film
1981 Kagemusha
Other Awards
Golden Lion - Venice Film Festival
1951 Rashōmon
Golden Palm - Cannes Film Festival
1980 Kagemusha
In this Japanese name, the family name is Kurosawa.
This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (January 2008)
Akira Kurosawa (Kyūjitai: 黒澤 明, Shinjitai: 黒沢 明, Kurosawa Akira?, 23 March 1910 - 6 September 1998) was a prominent Japanese film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His first credited film (Sanshiro Sugata) was released in 1943; his last (Madadayo) in 1993. His many awards include the Légion d'Honneur and an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.
Early life
Akira Kurosawa was born to Isamu and Shima Kurosawa on March 23, 1910. He was the youngest of eight children born to the Kurosawas in a suburb of Tokyo. Shima Kurosawa was forty years old at the time of Akira's birth and his father Isamu was forty-five. Akira Kurosawa grew up in a household with three older brothers and four older sisters. Of his three older brothers, one died before Akira was born and one was already grown and out of the household. One of his four older sisters had also left the home to begin her own family before Kurosawa was born. Kurosawa's next-oldest sibling, a sister he called "Little Big Sister," also died suddenly after a short illness when he was ten years old.
Kurosawa's father worked as the director of a junior high school operated by the Japanese military and the Kurosawas descended from a line of former samurai. Financially, the family was above average. Isamu Kurosawa embraced western culture both in the athletic programs that he directed and by taking the family to see films, which were then just beginning to appear in Japanese theaters. Later, when Japanese culture turned away from western films, Isamu Kurosawa continued to believe that films were a positive educational experience.
In primary school, Akira Kurosawa was encouraged to draw by a teacher who took an interest in mentoring his talents. His older brother, Heigo, had a profound impact on him. Heigo was very intelligent and won several academic competitions, but also had what was later called a cynical or dark side. In 1923, the Great Kantō earthquake destroyed Tokyo and left 100,000 people dead. In the wake of this event, Heigo, 17, and Akira, 13, made a walking tour of the devastation. Corpses of humans and animals were piled everywhere. When Akira would attempt to turn his head away, Heigo urged him not to. According to Akira, this experience would later instruct him that to look at a frightening thing head-on is to defeat its ability to cause fear.
Heigo eventually began a career as a benshi in Tokyo film theaters. Benshi narrated silent films for the audience and were a uniquely Japanese addition to the theater experience. However, with the impact of talking pictures on the rise, benshi were losing work all over Japan. Heigo organized a benshi strike that failed. Akira was likewise involved in labor-management struggles, writing several articles for a radical newspaper while improving and expanding his skills as a painter and reading literature. Akira never considered himself a Communist, despite his activities that he later would describe as reckless.
When Akira Kurosawa was in his early 20s, his older brother Heigo committed suicide. Four months later, the oldest of Kurosawa's brothers also died, leaving Akira as the only surviving son of an original four at age 23.
Early career
In 1936, Kurosawa learned of an apprenticeship program for directors through a major film studio, PCL (which later became Toho). He was hired and worked as an assistant director to Kajiro Yamamoto. After his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata, his next few films were made under the watchful eye of the wartime Japanese government and sometimes contained nationalistic themes. For instance, The Most Beautiful is a propaganda film about Japanese women working in a military optics factory. Judo Saga 2 portrays Japanese judo as superior to western (American) boxing.
His first post-war film No Regrets for Our Youth, by contrast, is critical of the old Japanese regime and is about the wife of a left-wing dissident who is arrested for his political leanings. Kurosawa made several more films dealing with contemporary Japan, most notably Drunken Angel and Stray Dog. However, it was his period film Rashomon that made him internationally famous and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Directorial approach
Kurosawa had a distinctive cinematic technique, which he had developed by the 1950s, and which gave his films a unique look. He liked using telephoto lenses for the way they flattened the frame and also because he believed that placing cameras farther away from his actors produced better performances. He also liked using multiple cameras, which allowed him to shoot an action scene from different angles. Another Kurosawa trademark was the use of weather elements to heighten mood: for example the heavy rain in the opening scene of Rashomon, and the final battle in Seven Samurai, the intense heat in Stray Dog, the cold wind in Yojimbo, the snow in Ikiru, and the fog in Throne of Blood. Kurosawa also liked using frame wipes, sometimes cleverly hidden by motion within the frame, as a transition device.
He was known as "Tenno", literally "Emperor", for his dictatorial directing style. He was a perfectionist who spent enormous amounts of time and effort to achieve the desired visual effects. In Rashomon, he dyed the rain water black with calligraphy ink in order to achieve the effect of heavy rain, and ended up using up the entire local water supply of the location area in creating the rainstorm. In the final scene of Throne of Blood, in which Mifune is shot by arrows, Kurosawa used real arrows shot by expert archers from a short range, landing within centimetres of Mifune's body. In Ran, an entire castle set was constructed on the slopes of Mt. Fuji only to be burned to the ground in a climactic scene.
Other stories include demanding a stream be made to run in the opposite direction in order to get a better visual effect, and having the roof of a house removed, later to be replaced, because he felt the roof's presence to be unattractive in a short sequence filmed from a train.
His perfectionism also showed in his approach to costumes: he felt that giving an actor a brand new costume made the character look less than authentic. To resolve this, he often gave his cast their costumes weeks before shooting was to begin and required them to wear them on a daily basis and "bond with them." In some cases, such as with Seven Samurai, where most of the cast portrayed poor farmers, the actors were told to make sure the costumes were worn down and tattered by the time shooting started.
Kurosawa did not believe that "finished" music went well with film. When choosing a musical piece to accompany his scenes, he usually had it stripped down to one element (e.g., trumpets only). Only towards the end of his films are more finished pieces heard.
Influences
A notable feature of Kurosawa's films is the breadth of his artistic influences. Some of his plots are based on William Shakespeare's works: "Ran" is loosely based on King Lear, Throne of Blood is based on Macbeth, while The Bad Sleep Well parallels Hamlet, but is not affirmed to be based on it. Kurosawa also directed film adaptations of Russian literary works, including The Idiot by Dostoevsky and The Lower Depths, a play by Maxim Gorky. Ikiru was inspired by Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Dersu Uzala was based on the 1923 memoir of the same title by Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev. Story lines in Red Beard can be found in The Insulted and Humiliated by Dostoevsky.
High and Low was based on King's Ransom by American crime writer Ed McBain, Yojimbo may have been based on Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest and also borrows from American Westerns, and Stray Dog was inspired by the detective novels of Georges Simenon. The American film director John Ford also had a large influence on his work.
Despite criticism by some Japanese critics that Kurosawa was "too Western", he was deeply influenced by Japanese culture as well, including the Kabuki and Noh theaters and the Jidaigeki (period drama) genre of Japanese cinema.
When Kurosawa got to meet John Ford, a director commonly said to be the most influential to Kurosawa, Ford simply said, "You really like rain." Kurosawa responded, "You've really been paying attention to my films."[1]
His influence
Kurosawa's films have had a major influence on world cinema and continue to inspire filmmakers, and others, around the globe.
Seven Samurai
Western Film
Seven Samurai has been remade several times in assorted cinema genres, including Westerns, Science Fiction, and Chinese Martial Arts. The main versions, all of which directly use the same plot structure, comprise:
The Magnificent Seven (1960, Dir. John Sturges)[1]
Beach of the War Gods (1973, Prod. Run Run Shaw)
Sholay (1975, Dir. Ramesh Sippy. )
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980, Prod. Roger Corman)
World Gone Wild (1988, Dir. Lee Katzin)
Indian movies
The film has inspired Indian films which feature similar plots:
Khotay Sikkay
Rajkumar Santoshi's China Gate
Kamal Hassan's Virumaandi
Novels
The story was also used as inspiration in numerous novels, among them Stephen King's 5th Dark Tower novel, Wolves of the Calla.
Rashomon
Rashomon was also remade by Martin Ritt in 1964's The Outrage. The Tamil films Andha Naal (1954) and Virumaandi (2004), starring Kamal Hassan, employ a storytelling method similar to that Kurosawa uses in Rashomon. In a more recent incarnation, the film "Hero" starring Jet Li, Ziyi Zhang, Tony Leung, and Maggie Cheung also features a 'Rashomon' style story. The 2005 animated film "Hoodwinked" applies the narrative structure of "Rashomon" to the story of "Little Red Riding Hood."
Rashomon not only helped open Japanese cinema to the world, but also entered the English language as a term for fractured, inconsistent narratives (see rashomon effect).
Yojimbo
Yojimbo was the basis for the Sergio Leone western A Fistful of Dollars and two Bruce Willis films, prohibition-era Last Man Standing, and modern day Lucky Number Slevin.
The Hidden Fortress
The Hidden Fortress is an acknowledged influence on George Lucas's Star Wars films, in particular Episodes IV and VI and most notably in the characters of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Lucas also used a modified version of Kurosawa's wipe transition effect throughout the Star Wars saga.
Collaboration
During his most productive period, from the late 40s to the mid-60s, Kurosawa often worked with the same group of collaborators. Fumio Hayasaka composed music for seven of his films ?- notably Rashomon, Ikiru and Seven Samurai. Many of Kurosawa's scripts, including Throne of Blood, Seven Samurai and Ran were co-written with Hideo Oguni. Yoshiro Muraki was Kurosawa's production designer or art director for most of his films after Stray Dog in 1949, and Asakazu Nakai was his cinematographer on 11 films including Ikiru, Seven Samurai and Ran. Kurosawa also liked working with the same group of actors, especially Takashi Shimura, Tatsuya Nakadai, and Toshirō Mifune. His collaboration with the latter, which began with 1948's Drunken Angel and ended with 1965's Red Beard, is one of the most famous director-actor combinations in cinema history.
Later films
The film Red Beard marked a turning point in Kurosawa's career in more ways than one. In addition to being his last film with Mifune, it was his last in black-and-white. It was also his last as a major director within the Japanese studio system making roughly a film a year. Kurosawa was signed to direct a Hollywood project, Tora! Tora! Tora!; but 20th Century Fox replaced him with Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku before it was completed. His next few films were a lot harder to finance and were made at intervals of five years. The first, Dodesukaden, about a group of poor people living around a rubbish dump, was not a success.
After an attempted suicide, Kurosawa went on to make several more films, although he had great difficulty in obtaining domestic financing despite his international reputation. Dersu Uzala, made in the Soviet Union and set in Siberia in the early 20th century, was the only Kurosawa film made outside of Japan and not in the Japanese language. It is about the friendship of a Russian explorer and a nomadic hunter, and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Kagemusha, financed with the help of the director's most famous admirers, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, is the story of a man who is the body double of a medieval Japanese lord and takes over his identity after the lord's death. The film was awarded by the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival (which was shared this year with Bob Fosse's All That Jazz). Ran was the director's version of Shakespeare's King Lear, set in medieval Japan. It was by far the largest project of Kurosawa's late career, and he spent a decade planning it and trying to obtain funding, which he was finally able to do with the help of the French producer Serge Silberman. The film was an international success and is generally considered Kurosawa's last masterpiece. In an interview, Kurosawa said that he considered it to be the best film he ever made.[2]
Kurosawa made three more films during the 1990s which were more personal than his earlier works. Dreams is a series of vignettes based on his own dreams. Rhapsody in August is about memories of the Nagasaki atomic bomb and his final film, Madadayo, is about a retired teacher and his former students. Kurosawa died of a stroke in Setagaya, Tokyo, at age 88.
After the Rain (雨あがる, Ame Agaru?) is a 1998 posthumous film directed by Kurosawa's closest collaborator, Takashi Koizumi, co-produced by Kurosawa Production (Hisao Kurosawa) and starring Tatsuda Nakadai and Shiro Mifune, son of Toshirō Mifune. Screenplay, script and dialogues were both written by Kurosawa himself. The story is based on a short novel by Shugoro Yamamoto, Ame Agaru.
Personal life
Kurosawa's wife was Yoko Yaguchi. He had two children with her: a son named Hisao and a daughter named Kazuko.
Kurosawa was a notoriously lavish gourmet, and spent huge quantities of money on film sets providing an incredibly large quantity of fine delicacies, especially meat, for the cast and crew,[citation needed] although the meat was sometimes left over from recording sound effects of the sound of blades cutting flesh in the many swordfight scenes.[3]
He was a close friend of director Ishiro Honda, who directed the Kaiju masterpiece "Gojira."
Chaka Khan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Yvette Marie Stevens
Born March 23, 1953 (1953-03-23) (age 55)
Origin Great Lakes, Illinois, United States
Genre(s) Funk, soul, R&B, jazz
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter
Years active 1970-1983 (with Rufus)
1978-present (solo)
Label(s) ABC (1972-1979)
MCA (1979-1980)
Warner Bros. (1978-1993)
Reprise (1993-1997)
NPG (1998-2000)
Burgundy (2005-present)
Associated acts Rufus
Indira Khan
Website ChakaKhan.com
Chaka Khan (born March 23, 1953) is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American singer known for hit songs such as "I'm Every Woman", "I Feel For You" and "Through the Fire". Khan was first featured as a member of the funk band Rufus before beginning her solo career. Though regarded as an R&B singer, she has performed numerous musical genres including funk, disco, jazz, ballads, hip hop, adult contemporary, pop and blues standards.
Biography
Early life
Khan was born Yvette Marie Stevens in Great Lakes, Illinois to Charles Stevens and Sandra Coleman. Her sister is dance music artist Taka Boom. Khan was raised on Chicago's South Side, and at the age of 11 formed her first group, the Crystalettes. While still in high school, she joined the Afro-Arts Theater, a group which toured with Motown great Mary Wells. A few years later, she adopted the African name "Chaka" while working as a volunteer on the Black Panthers' Free Breakfast for Children program in Chicago. She received her name during a naming ceremony at the Afro- Arts Theater where a Yoruba priest from Africa christened her Chaka Adunne Aduffe Yemoja Hodarhi Karifi (as stated on her official website at
http://www.chakakhan.com/bio/). Khan attended Lewis University in Romeoville, IL. After quitting high school in 1969, Chaka joined the group Lyfe, soon exiting that group to join another dance band, The Babysitters; neither enjoyed any success, but her fortunes changed when she teamed with exAmerican Breed member Kevin Murphy and Andre Fisher to form Rufus. In the meantime, she had married bass guitarist Hassan Khan.
Life with Rufus
Debuting in 1973 with a self-titled album on the ABC label, Rufus was among the most successful funk groups of the decade. With the help of Stevie Wonder, Rufus broke into both the pop music and R&B charts in 1974 with the hit "Tell Me Something Good". Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, the band had a number of R&B hits, including "Tell Me Something Good", "Masterjam", "Sweet Thing", "Do You Love What You Feel?", and "Once You Get Started". The group earned half a dozen gold or platinum albums and two gold singles with "Tell Me Something Good" and "Sweet Thing" before Khan went solo in 1978.
Solo stardom
In 1978, Khan recorded the album Chaka featuring the Arif Mardin-produced disco hit "I'm Every Woman" (#1 R&B and #21 Pop) later covered by Whitney Houston. Chaka proved to be a significant hit on the strength of the single written by Ashford & Simpson, however Khan's success was somewhat tempered by her public rivalry with the remaining members of Rufus, to whom she was contractually bound for two more LPs.
Khan recorded backing vocals for Ry Cooder's 1979 effort "Bop Till You Drop," then cut her second album, 1980s Naughty, a minor hit on the R&B charts, which featured 'Clouds' (also by Ashford & Simpson), 'Move Me No Mountain', and other songs that displayed Khan's range as a singer. The 'Naughty' album also featured Luther Vandross, Cissy Houston, and a young Whitney Houston singing background vocals.
Her next album, What Cha' Gonna Do for Me ?, was a gold seller and included at two hit singles on Billboard's R&B Singles chart including the title song (which topped the R&B chart and made #53 Pop). The album also featured the song "And The Melody Still Lingers On (Night In Tunisia)" with Dizzy Gillespie & Herbie Hancock, which has Chaka hitting "notes that aren't in the book" according to producer Arif Mardin.[citation needed]
In 1982, Warner Brothers released Khan's eponymous album, Chaka Khan, again produced by Arif Mardin.. This album featured the single "Tearin It Up", as well as Chaka's reading of Michael Jackson's "Got To Be There". "Slow Dancin" (a duet with Rick James) was also featured, but her "Be Bop Medley" won a Grammy Award, as well as praise from jazz singer Betty Carter, who praised Khan for her improvisational skills.[citation needed] Chaka Khan received positive reviews but was not the commercial success that Warner Brothers wanted. Reviewer David Bertrand Wilson (of warr.org) said, "This [album] didn't generate any hits, but it's a lot of fun...her singing here is phenomenal". The song "Got to be There", from the album , became an R&B top 5 hit. Chaka Khan is a rare collector's item because Warner Brothers refuses to release it in the United States and fans must acquire CDs imported from Japan.[citation needed]
In 1981, she appeared on two songs on Rick Wakeman's thematic album 1984.
According to the 'Chaka's World' website, Khan was originally scheduled to duet on Tom Browne's hit "Funkin' For Jamaica" and Dennis Edwards' hit "Don't Look Any Further" (which he went on to perform with Siedah Garrett). She also recorded the song "Addicted to Love" with Robert Palmer. Her vocals were later removed after her management refused to allow its release.[citation needed]
Jazz experiment
In 1982, Khan recorded Echoes Of An Era, a collection of jazz standards featuring performances from Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea and Lenny White. 1983 saw Khan return to Rufus to record her last contractually obligated album Stompin' At The Savoy: Live. The double album contained live versions of Rufus classics, Khan's solo hits and a handful of newly recorded tracks. One of these was the hit "Ain't Nobody," which returned Khan to the top of the urban and top 40 charts (#22 Pop). To make room for the new studio tracks, Warner Brothers omitted live versions of "The Best Of Your Heart", "Hollywood", and "Everlasting Love" which was later released on the rare 1983 soundtrack to Night Shift.
Hip hop
In 1984, she released I Feel For You, a platinum-selling album launched by its title cut, a Grammy Award-winning, hip hop-based rendition of a Prince album track with a cameo appearance by Stevie Wonder on harmonica and rap by Melle Mel. Produced by David Foster, the popular ballad "Through the Fire" also reached the R&B top ten, setting a then-record for most consecutive weeks on the Billboard R&B chart. It also rose to #60 on the Pop chart during a 19-week run on the Hot 100, and crossed over to the adult contemporary chart. "Through the Fire" has since been sampled by Kanye West for his hit single "Through The Wire". Chaka also recorded "Krush Groove (Can't Stop The Street)" for the movie Krush Groove in 1985. In 1986, she provided co-lead and background vocals for Steve Winwood's #1 hit, "Higher Love".
In 1995, Khan teamed up with rapper Guru, on his solo jazz/hip hop fusion collection Jazzmatazz, Vol. 2: The New Reality for the track "Watch What You Saying" which reached Billboard's chart at #13.
1990-2004
The success of Khan's Destiny (1986) and C.K. (1988) were limited to the R&B charts but in 1990, she won another Grammy for "I'll Be Good To You," a duet with Ray Charles which rose to #1 on the R&B charts and was a Top 20 Pop hit.
In 1992, Khan released her album The Woman I Am, for which she received a Grammy Award for best Rhythm & Blues vocal performance. The album's hit single "Love You All My Lifetime" was penned by German songwriter duo Irmgard Klarmann and Felix Weber (a.k.a. Klarmann/Weber and was produced by David Gamson. According to the Chaka's World Website, Khan recorded a follow up album Dare You To Love Me which was to be released in 1995. Warner Brothers shelved the project (although several of the tracks appeared on a career retrospective titled Epiphany: The Very Best of Chaka Khan and soundtracks such as To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar and Waiting to Exhale (singing the standard "My Funny Valentine").
Khan soon left Warner Brothers for what she felt was a lack of promotion and after the label had decided to release the Epiphany compilation instead of Dare You To Love Me in its true form.[citation needed] Prince (who also feuded with the company) assisted Khan in leaving Warner Brothers. Khan eventually made a special agreement with "The Artist" (as Prince then marketed himself), and recorded her next album on his New Power Generation label.
The Prince-produced Come 2 My House appeared in 1998 and was certified gold[citation needed] despite little promotion. Khan also appeared on new CDs by Prince and Larry Graham for the New Power Generation Label, and she toured in support of the projects.
Although she sang at both the 2000 Democratic and Republican conventions, Khan says that she is more of a "Democratic-minded person".[1]
In 2001, Khan sang on De La Soul's hit song "All Good?". In 2002 she was an integral part of the documentary about Motown studio musicians The Funk Brothers, Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, in which she performed the classic R&B songs "What's Going On?" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (a duet with Montell Jordan). She won her eighth Grammy Award for the latter performance.
In October 2004, Khan released her cover album ClassiKhan on her own label Earth Song Records and Sanctuary Records. The album of standards featuring the London Symphony Orchestra was recorded primarily at Abbey Road Studios in London and produced by Eve Nelson of Nelson-O'Reilly Productions.
On December 3, 2004, she received an honorary doctorate degree from Berklee College of Music. She is also active in the autism community, as she has family members who have been diagnosed with this condition. Her EarthSong Entertainment and Chaka Khan Foundation operate from Beverly Hills, California.
2005?-
In early 2006, she signed with Sony BMG's new label Burgundy Records.
Embracing Christianity, Khan participated in a live all-star gospel concert recording for artist Richard Smallwood's new album Journey: Live In New York. Khan is featured on the song "Oh, How Precious." [2] On her official website, Khan credits singer Karen Clark Sheard with being "the voice that helped me find the Holy Ghost". Khan performed a cover version of Sheard's "A Secret Place" along with Richard Smallwood on TBN's show Praise The Lord in October 2006.
In December 2006, Chaka recorded "Do You Hear What I Hear" on the Christmas compilation Breaking For the Holidays produced by Eve Nelson (who also produced Classikhan). The album also featured Vonzell Solomon, Sandra Bernhard, Ben Jelen and many more.
In February 2007, Khan headlined and performed at the NARAS 2007 Grammy Award official post party. In September of 2007, she released Funk This, a mix of cover songs and original material. Produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and James "Big Jim" Wright, the album debuted at #15 on the Top 200 Album Chart and at #5 on the R&B Album Chart, selling 39,000 copies in its first week. This marked her highest chart position since her first solo album in 1978 peaked at #12. "Angel," the first single from the album, reached #29 and went on become her first R&B hit in nearly fifteen years. Promoting the album on the Today Show on September 26, 2007, she performed "Angel" and announced that she would appear in the role of Sofia on Broadway's The Color Purple.
Khan opened as Sofia, a role she says she closely identifies with, on January 9, 2008 along with BeBe Winans as Sofia's husband
The ability to make and understand puns is the highest level of language
development. Here are the top 10 winners in the International Pun Contest:
1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The
Stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion
allowed per passenger."
2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and
says, "Dam!"
3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the
craft. Not surprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have
your kayak and heat it too.
4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, "I've lost my electron." The other
says, "Are you sure?" The first replies, "Yes, I'm positive."
5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocaine during a root
canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing
in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about
an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse.
"But why?," they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't
stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.
7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to
a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in
Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of
himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her
husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband
responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they
opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to
buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the
competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but
they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They
ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest
and most vicious thug in town, to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up
the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't
close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh
can prevent florist friars.
9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time,
which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet He also ate
very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he
suffered from bad breath. This made him (Oh, man, this is SO BAD, it's
good) a supercalloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
10. And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to
friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them
laugh. No pun in ten did.
