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Herb Alpert
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Herbert Alpert
Also known as Herb Alpert, Dore Alpert
Born March 31, 1935 (1935-03-31) (age 73)
Origin Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genre(s) Jazz, Latin, Funk, Pop, R&B
Occupation(s) Trumpeter, Composer, Songwriter, Singer, Record Producer, Painter, Sculptor
Instrument(s) Trumpet, Voice
Years active 1957-present
Label(s) A&M Records
Associated acts The Tijuana Brass
Baja Marimba Band
Website www.herbalpert.com

Herbert "Herb" Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass or as Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass or just TJB for short. He is also famous for being a recording industry executive ?- he is the "A" of A&M Records (a recording label he and business partner Jerry Moss founded and eventually sold). Alpert's musical accomplishments include five number one hits, twenty-eight albums on the Billboard charts, eight Grammy Awards, fourteen Platinum albums and fifteen Gold albums.[1] As of 1996, Alpert had sold 72 million albums worldwide.[2].[3]





Early life and career

Born in Los Angeles, California, Alpert began trumpet lessons at about the age of eight and played at dances as a teenager. Acquiring an early wire recorder in high school, he experimented with recording on this crude equipment. After graduating from Fairfax High School in 1952, he joined the U.S. Army and frequently performed at military ceremonies. After his service in the Army, Alpert tried his hand at acting, but eventually settled on pursuing a career in music. While attending the University of Southern California in the 1950s, he was a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band for two years. He graduated with a BM in 1954.

In 1957, Alpert teamed up with Lou Adler, another burgeoning lyricist, as a songwriter for Keen Records. A number of songs written or co-written by Alpert during the following two years became top twenty hits, including "Baby Talk" by Jan and Dean, "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke, and "Alley-Oop" by Dante and The Evergreens. [4] In 1960, Alpert began his recording career as a vocalist at RCA Records under the name of Dore Alpert, where he recorded early vocals.

"Tell It To The Birds" was recorded as the first release on the Alpert & Moss label, Carnival Records. When Herb & Jerry found that there was prior usage of the Carnival name, their label became A&M Records.


The Tijuana Brass years

Alpert set up a small recording studio in his garage and had been overdubbing a tune called "Twinkle Star", written by Sol Lake, who would eventually write many of the Brass' original tunes. During a visit to Tijuana, Mexico, Alpert happened to hear a mariachi band while attending a bullfight. Following the experience, Alpert recalled that he was "inspired to find a way to musically express what [he] felt while watching the wild responses of the crowd, and hearing the brass musicians introducing each new event with rousing fanfare."[5] Alpert adapted the trumpet style to the tune, mixed in crowd cheers and other noises to create ambiance, and renamed the song, "The Lonely Bull". He paid out of his own pocket to press the record as a single, and it spread through radio DJs until it caught on and became a Top Ten hit in 1963. He followed up quickly with his debut album, The Lonely Bull by "Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass". The initial version of the Tijuana Brass consisted of studio musicians. The title cut reached #6 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart. This was also A&M's first album (the original number was 101), but was recorded at Conway Records.

By the end of 1964, due to a growing demand for live appearances by the Tijuana Brass, Alpert auditioned and hired a team of crack session men. No one in Alpert's band was actually Hispanic (Alpert himself is Jewish). Alpert used to tell his audiences that his group consisted of "Three pastramis, two bagels, and an American cheese": John Pisano (electric guitar); Lou Pagani (piano); Nick Ceroli (drums); Pat Senatore (bass guitar); Tonni Kalash (trumpet); Herb Alpert (trumpet and vocal); Bob Edmondson (trombone). The band debuted in 1965 and quickly became one of the highest-paid acts then performing, having put together a complete revue that included choreographed moves and comic routines written by Bill ("Jose Jimenez") Dana.

The Tijuana Brass's success helped spawn other Latin acts, notably Julius Wechter (long-time friend of Alpert's and the marimba player for the Brass) and the Baja Marimba Band, and the profits allowed A&M to begin building a repertoire of artists like Chris Montez and The Sandpipers. Wechter would also contribute a number of the Brass' original songs, usually at least one per album, along with those of other Alpert friends, Sol Lake and Ervan "Bud" Coleman.

In addition, the Tijuana Brass's style was adopted by American bands as well, most notably Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire. Both bands would score major hits in the 1970s and early 1980s.

An album or two would be released each year throughout the 1960s. Alpert's band was also featured in several TV specials, each one usually centered on visual interpretations of the songs from their latest album - essentially an early version of the kinds of music videos later made famous by MTV.


Alpert's style achieved enormous popularity with the national exposure The Clark Gum Company gave to one of his recordings in 1964, a Sol Lake number titled "The Mexican Shuffle" (which was retitled "The Teaberry Shuffle" for the television ads). In 1965, Alpert released two albums, Whipped Cream (and Other Delights) and Going Places. Whipped Cream sold over 6 million copies in the United States. The album cover is considered a classic. It featured model Dolores Erickson wearing only what appeared to be whipped cream. In reality, Erickson was wearing a white blanket over which were scattered artfully-placed daubs of shaving cream--real whipped cream would have melted under the heat of the studio lights (although the cream on her head is real whipped cream). In concerts, when about to play the song, Alpert would tell the audience, "Sorry, we can't play the cover for you." The art was parodied by several groups including one-time A&M band Soul Asylum[1] and by comedian Pat Cooper for his album Spaghetti Sauce and Other Delights.The singles included the title cut, "Lollipops and Roses", and "A Taste of Honey." The latter won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Going Places produced four more singles: "Tijuana Taxi", "Spanish Flea", "Third Man Theme", and "Zorba the Greek". "Whipped Cream" became the theme song for the popular American television show "The Dating Game."

The Brass also covered the Bert Kaempfert tune "The Happy Trumpet" retitling it "Magic Trumpet". Alpert's rendition contained a bar that coincided with a Schlitz beer tune, "When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer". ("The Maltese Melody" was another Alpert cover of a Kaempfert original). Another commercial use was a tune called "El Garbanzo", which was featured in some Sunoco ads ("They're movin', they're movin', people in the know, they're movin' to Sunoco").

In 1967, the TJB did the title cut to the first movie version of Casino Royale.

Many of the tracks from Whipped Cream and Going Places received a great deal of airplay, and still do at times; for example, they are frequently used as incidental music in The Dating Game on the Game Show Network, notably the tracks Whipped Cream, Spanish Flea and Lollipops and Roses. Despite the popularity of his singles, Alpert's albums outsold and outperformed them on the charts.

Alpert and the Tijuana Brass won six Grammy awards. Fifteen of their albums won gold discs, and fourteen won platinum discs. In 1966, his music outsold The Beatles by two to one - over 13 million Alpert recordings were sold. That same year, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized that Alpert set a new record by placing five albums simultaneously on the Billboard Pop Album Chart, an accomplishment that has never been repeated. In April of that year, four of those albums were in the Top 10 simultaneously.

The dearth of in-depth, unauthorized biographical/historical material on Alpert is somewhat curious given that so much has been written about the only three recording artists who outsold him in the 1960s - Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and the Beatles. This is perhaps explained by the apparent lack of any outrageous, dramatic, or tragic elements in his life. There were, however, hundreds of articles written about Alpert by mainstream general and music newspapers and magazines.

Alpert's only number one single during this period (and the first #1 hit for his A&M label) was a solo effort[2]: "This Guy's in Love with You" (written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David), featuring a rare vocal. Alpert sang this to his first wife in a 1968 CBS Television special titled Beat of the Brass. The sequence was taped on the beach in Malibu. The song was not intended to be released, but after it was used in the television special, thousands of telephone calls to CBS asking about it, convinced label owner Alpert to release it as a single, two days after the show aired.[3]. Alpert's vocal skills were limited, but this song also had limited technical demands and it worked for him. The single debuted in May 1968, topped the national chart for four weeks and ranked high among the year's biggest hits. Initially dismissed by the critical cognoscenti and "hip" music-lovers as strictly a housewife's favorite, Alpert's unusually expressive recording of "This Guy's in Love with You" is now regarded as one of the monumental ballads in pop. In 1996 at London's Royal Festival Hall, Noel Gallagher (of British rock band Oasis) performed the song with Burt Bacharach.


Life after the Brass

Alpert disbanded the Tijuana Brass in 1969, but released another album by the group in 1971. In 1973, with some of the original Tijuana Brass members and some new members, he formed a group called the T.J.B. This new version of the Brass released two albums in 1974 and 1975 and toured. Alpert reconvened a third version of the Brass in 1984 after being invited to perform for the Olympic Games athletes at the Los Angeles Summer Games. The invitation led to the Bullish album and tour.

In the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, Alpert enjoyed a successful solo career. He had his biggest instrumental hit, "Rise" (from the album of the same name), which went number one in October of 1979 and won a Grammy Award, and was later sampled in the 1997 rap song "Hypnotize" by the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. It also made Alpert the only solo artist ever to hit #1 on the Billboard charts with both vocal and instrumental pieces. In 1987, he branched out successfully to the R&B world with hit album Keep Your Eye On Me, teaming up with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on "Diamonds" and "Making Love In the Rain" featuring vocals by Janet Jackson and Lisa Keith. The song "Route 101" peaked at number 37 in Billboard in August 1982.

From 1962 through 1992 Alpert signed artists to A&M Records and produced records. He discovered the West Coast band We Five. Among the notable artists he worked with personally are Chris Montez, The Carpenters, Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, Bill Medley, Lani Hall (Alpert's second and current wife), and Janet Jackson (featured vocalist on his 1987 hit single "Diamonds"). These working relationships have allowed Alpert to become one of only a handful of artists to place singles in the Top 10 in at least three different decades ('60s, '70s, and '80s).

Alpert and A&M Records partner Jerry Moss received a Grammy Trustees Award in 1997 for their lifetime achievements in the recording industry as executives and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

For his contribution to the recording industry, Herb Alpert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6929 Hollywood Blvd. Moss also has a star on the Walk of Fame. Alpert and Moss were also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006 as non-performer lifetime achievers for their work at A&M.


Today

Alpert continues to play his trumpet and devotes time to his second career as an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor with shows around the United States, as a Broadway theatre producer. His production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America won a Tony award.

In the 1980s he created The Herb Alpert Foundation and the Alpert Awards in the Arts[4] with The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). The Foundation supports youth and arts education as well as environmental issues and helps fund the PBS series "Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason."

He has provided funding for the culture jamming activists known as the Yesmen.[6]

Although he has not released an album of new material since 1999's "Herb Alpert and Colors", he is actively overseeing the reissue of his music library. In 2000, Alpert acquired the rights to his music from Universal Music (current owners of A&M Records), in a legal settlement and began remastering his albums for CD reissue. In 2005, Shout! Factory began distributing digitally remastered versions of Alpert's A&M output, including a new album, Lost Treasures, consisting of unreleased material from Alpert's Tijuana Brass years. In the spring of 2006, a remixed version of the Whipped Cream album, entitled Whipped Cream and Other Delights: Re-Whipped was released and climbed to #5 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart.

He continues to be a guest artist for friends like Gato Barbieri, Rita Coolidge, Jim Brickman, Brian Culbertson and David Lanz.

His songs have been in various TV shows such as Saturday Night Live.

Alpert was also credited with an acting role in the Beastie Boys music video, "Ch-Check It Out," although he did not appear.

Apart from the reissues, the Christmas Album continues to be available every year during the holiday season.

He recently donated $30,000,000 to UCLA, founding the Herb Alpert School of Music.


Herb Alpert and his Music in Modern Culture

The song "Tijuana Taxi" is played in an episode of The Simpsons where Bart assumes that the family misses him when he is forced to be 200 feet away from Lisa, but inside the house, Marge, Homer, Lisa, and even Maggie, are "celebrating" by playing "Tijuana Taxi". At the very end of the episode, where everything is back to the way it was, the family, minus Bart again, plays this song again outside in the backyard, while Bart chases an animal around. The song also features in another episode when Mr. Burns gives testimony in a civil trial.
"Spanish Flea" is played in another episode of The Simpsons to which Homer sings along in his car while waiting for Bart to emerge from a Spinal Tap concert, oblivious to the riot police outside entering the arena en masse. This song has appeared in 4 other times in 4 other episodes of the show.
Some of "Spanish Flea" is played in American Pie 2 in a scene at the band camp by a senior member of the camp on a trumpet.
In the King of Queens, Carrie's father Arthur dances to the song "Tijuana Taxi" as the record Carrie replaced (she had broken her father's Herb Alpert "South of the Border" record 15 years ago) plays on the record player. He dances at the very end of the episode.
Alpert's biggest hit of his post-TJB career, "Rise", is used as the main hook for the The Notorious B.I.G. single "Hypnotize".
English Association Football League One team Leyton Orient (from East London) run out at the start of each match to the strains of "Tijuana Taxi." This is a tradition dating back to the late 1960s of unknown/uncertain origin.
The song 'Beanbag' is best remembered in the UK as the theme music to the long running British physical game show It's A Knockout.
The Cover & Title of Soul Asylum's 1989 album Clam Dip & Other Delights is a parody of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass's Whipped Cream & Other Delights.
The track, Tijuana Taxi, can also be heard on an episode of 'Just Shoot Me', as Dennis commits a number of mischievous deeds.
Herb makes a cameo appearance in the Jeff Beck music video Ambitious.
In the movie Matchstick Men (film), the Nicholas Cage character is playing the song "The Lonely Bull."
"Casino Royale Theme" is featured on Saturday Night Live during the guest appearance of Peyton Manning.
The punk rock band NOFX covers one of his songs "What Now My Love" on their 2007 live album They've Actually Gotten Worse Live!.

Christopher Walken
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born Ronald Walken
March 31, 1943 (1943-03-31) (age 65)
Queens, New York, United States
Other name(s) Chris Walken, Ronnie Walken, Christopher Wlaken
Spouse(s) Georgianne Walken (1969-)
Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor
1978 The Deer Hunter
BAFTA Awards
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
2002 Catch Me If You Can
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
2002 Catch Me If You Can
Other Awards
NYFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor
1978 The Deer Hunter
Theatre World Award
1967 The Rose Tattoo

Christopher Walken (born March 31, 1943) is an Academy Award-winning American film and theatre actor.

Walken is a prolific actor who has spent more than 50 years on stage and screen.[1] He has appeared in over 100 movie and television roles, including The Deer Hunter, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New York, Batman Returns, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, The Funeral and Catch Me If You Can, and in TV's Kojak and The Naked City. Walken gained a cult following in the 1990s[citation needed] as the Archangel Gabriel in the first three The Prophecy movies, as well as his frequent guest host appearances on Saturday Night Live. In the United States, films featuring Walken have grossed over $1.8 billion.[2] In 1979, Walken won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Deer Hunter, where he played a disturbed Vietnam veteran alongside Robert De Niro. Walken was nominated again in 2002 for Catch Me if You Can. He won the Clarence Derwent Award for his performance in The Lion in Winter in 1966[3] and an Obie for his 1975 performance in Kid Champion. He has played the main role in the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Coriolanus.

Walken debuted as a film director and script writer with the short five-minute film Popcorn Shrimp in 2001. He also wrote and acted the main role in a play about Elvis Presley titled Him in 1995.[4]





Early life

Walken was born Ronald Walken (named after actor Ronald Colman) into a Methodist family[5] in Queens, New York. His mother, Rosalie, was a Scottish immigrant, and his father, Paul Walken, was a German immigrant.[6] Both of his parents were bakers. Throughout his youth, Walken worked after school in the family bakery, Walken's Bakery, which was situated on Broadway and 30th Street in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York. Walken often worked alongside a young immigrant girl interested in learning all about the food business, Lidia Motika, who grew up to become acclaimed restaurateur and TV cooking show host Lidia Bastianich; the two have remained close ever since[7].

Influenced by their mother's own dreams of stardom, he and his brothers Ken and Glenn were child actors on television in the 1950s. Walken studied at Hofstra University on Long Island but did not graduate. Walken initially trained as a dancer in musical theatre before moving on to dramatic roles in theatre and then film.


Early roles

Walken first appeared on the screen as a child extra in numerous anthology series and variety shows during the Golden Age of Television. After appearing in a sketch with Martin and Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour, Walken decided to become an actor.[8] He landed a regular role in the 1953 television show The Wonderful John Acton as the show's narrator. During this time, he was credited as "Ronnie Walken".

Over the next 20 years, he appeared frequently on television, landed an experimental film role in Me and My Brother, and had a thriving career in theatre. In 1964, he changed his name to "Christopher" at the suggestion of a friend who believed the name suited him better.[9] He nowadays prefers to be known informally as "Chris Walken".[10]


1970s

Walken made his feature film debut with a small role opposite Sean Connery in Sidney Lumet's The Anderson Tapes in 1971. In 1972, Walken played his first starring role in The Mind Snatchers.[11] He plays a sociopathic American soldier stationed in Germany, in a science fiction film which deals with mind control and normalization.

Woody Allen's 1977 film Annie Hall has Walken playing the suicidal brother of Annie Hall (Diane Keaton);[12] In 1978, he appeared in Shoot the Sun Down, a western filmed in 1976 and co-starring Margot Kidder.[13] Along with Nick Nolte, Walken was considered by George Lucas for the part of Han Solo in Star Wars.[14][15] The part eventually went to Harrison Ford.

Walken won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in the controversial 1978 film, The Deer Hunter.[16] He plays a young Pennsylvania steelworker who is emotionally destroyed by the Vietnam War. To help achieve a gaunt appearance for the role, Walken ate nothing but bananas and rice for a week.


1980s

Walken's first film of the 1980s was the controversial Heaven's Gate, helmed by Deer Hunter director Michael Cimino. Walken also starred in the 1981 action-adventure The Dogs of War directed by Jack Cardiff. Walken then played schoolteacher-turned-psychic Johnny Smith in David Cronenberg's 1983 adaptation of Stephen King's The Dead Zone. That same year, Walken also starred in Brainstorm alongside Natalie Wood and, in a minor role, his wife Georgianne.

In 1985, Walken played a James Bond villain, Max Zorin, in A View to a Kill. Walken dyed his hair blond to befit Zorin's origins as a Nazi experiment. He also played the leading role of Whitley Strieber in 1989s Communion, an autobiographical film written by Streiber and based on his claims that he and his family were subject to alien abductions.

At Close Range starred Walken as Brad Whitewood, a rural Pennsylvania crime boss who tries to bring his two sons into his empire.


1990s

The Comfort of Strangers, an art house film directed by Paul Schrader, had the distinction of providing a role for Walken that disturbed even him. He plays Robert, a decadent Italian aristocrat who lives with his wife (Helen Mirren) in Venice, in addition to having extreme sexual tastes and murderous tendencies.

King of New York, directed by Abel Ferrara, stars Walken as ruthless New York City drug dealer Frank White, recently released from prison and set on reclaiming his criminal territory. In 1992, Walken again played the leading villain in Batman Returns as millionaire industrialist Max Shreck. Walken's next major film role was opposite Dennis Hopper in True Romance, scripted by Quentin Tarantino. His so-called "Sicilian scene" has been hailed by critics as the best scene in the film, and is the subject of four commentaries on the DVD.[citation needed] Walken has a supporting role in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, as a Vietnam veteran giving his dead comrade's son the family's prized possession, a gold watch, while explaining in graphic detail how he had hidden it from the Vietcong by smuggling it in his own rectum.

Later in 1994, Walken starred in A Business Affair, a rare leading role for him in a romantic comedy. Walken manages to once again feature his trademark dancing scene, as he performs the tango. In 1995, he appeared in Wild Side, The Prophecy, and the modern vampire flick The Addiction (his second collaboration with director Abel Ferrara and writer Nicholas St. John).

In the 1996 film Last Man Standing, Walken plays a sadistic gangster. That year, he played a predominant role in the video game Ripper, portraying Detective Vince Magnotta. Ripper made extensive use of real-time recorded scenes and a wide cast of celebrities in an interactive movie. In 1998, Walken played an influential, gay, New York theater critic in John Turturro's film Illuminata.

In 1999, Walken played Calvin Webber in the romantic comedy Blast from the Past. Webber is a brilliant but eccentric Cal Tech nuclear physicist whose fears of a nuclear war lead him to build an enormous fallout shelter beneath his suburban home. The same year, he appeared as The Headless Horseman in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.

Walken also starred in two music videos in the 1990s. His first video role was as the Angel of Death in Madonna's 1993 "Bad Girl" video, the second appearance was in Skid Row's "Breakin' Down" video.


2000s

In 2000, Walken was cast as the lead, along with Faith Prince, in James Joyce's The Dead on Broadway. A "play with music", The Dead featured music by Shaun Davey, conducted by Charles Prince with music coordination and percussion by Tom Partington. James Joyce's The Dead won a Tony Award that year for Best Book for a Musical.

Walken had a notable music video performance in 2001 with Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice. Directed by Spike Jonze, it won six MTV awards in 2001 and also won best video of all time in April 2002, in a list of the top 100 videos of all time, compiled from a survey of musicians, directors, and music industry figures conducted by a UK music TV channel VH1. In this video, Walken performs a tap dance around the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles. Walken also helped choreograph the dance. Also in 2001 Walken played a gangster in the witness protection program in the David Spade comedy Joe Dirt and an eccentric film director in America's Sweethearts.

Walken played Frank Abagnale, Sr. in Catch Me If You Can. It is inspired by the story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a con artist who passed himself off as several identities and forged millions of dollars worth of checks. His portrayal earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.[16] Walken also had a part in the 2003 action comedy film The Rundown starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Seann William Scott, in which he plays a ruthless despot. 2002 The Country Bears was Nominated Razzie Worst Supporting Actor[17] 2003 Gigli and Kangaroo Jack was Nominated Worst Supporting Actor.[18]

Most recently, he played the role of Morty, a sympathetic inventor who's more than meets the eye, in the comedy Click and also appeared in Man of the Year with Robin Williams and Lewis Black. He costarred in the 2007 film adaptation Hairspray where he is seen singing and dancing in a romantic duet with John Travolta, as well as an eccentric but cruel crime lord and ping-pong enthusiast Feng, in the 2007 comedy Balls of Fury opposite Dan Fogler.

Walken is currently in the movie Five Dollars a Day, in which he plays a con man proud of living like a king on five dollars a day. He recently completed filming on The Lonely Maiden, a comedy co-starring Morgan Freeman about security guards in an art museum.

Walken can now be found in Universal Studios' "Disaster" attraction, (formerly Earthquake and the Magic of Effects". Walken portrays the owner of 'Disaster Studios' and encourages guests to be extras in his latest film 'Mutha Nature'. Walken is projected on a clear screen, much like a life-sized hologram, and interacts with the live action talent.


Cult status

Christopher Walken vs Gary Oldman on MTV's Celebrity DeathmatchWalken has attracted a strong cult following as an actor. He is often imitated for his deadpan affect, sudden off-beat pauses, and strange speech rhythm. He is revered for his quality of danger and menace, but his unpredictable deliveries and expressions make him invaluable in comedy as well. He has been parodied on Dave the Barbarian by an unusual unicorn named Twinkle. He is one of the most frequently impersonated actors in Hollywood; notable Walken impressionists include Eddie Izzard, Kevin Spacey, Kevin Pollak, Jay Mohr, Phil Mondiello, Johnny Depp and Jake Gyllenhaal. He is also frequently referenced in various other works of pop culture, such as in the Fountains of Wayne song "Hackensack". Walken remains one of the most popular portrayers of villains among film fans, with a page dedicated entirely to him on the movievillains.com website.[19] MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch also aired a match between Walken and Gary Oldman to determine who was the greatest cinematic villain.[20] On Feb. 15, 2008, he accepted Harvard's award as Hasty Pudding Man of the Year.

Appearances on Saturday Night Live

Walken as Bruce Dickinson in the SNL "More Cowbell" sketchWalken has hosted the comedy sketch and satire TV series Saturday Night Live on six occasions, and has a standing offer from Lorne Michaels to host the show when Walken's schedule permits. One of his more famous SNL performances was a spoof of "Behind the Music" featuring a recording session of Blue ?-yster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." In the guise of record producer Bruce Dickinson (not to be confused with Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer for Iron Maiden), Walken makes passionate and slightly unhinged speeches to the band, and is obsessed with getting "more cowbell" into the song.

Walken also spoofed his role from The Dead Zone in a sketch titled "Ed Glosser: Trivial Psychic", in which the title character had the ability to accurately predict meaningless, trivial future events ("You're going to get an ice cream headache. It's going to hurt real bad...right here for eight, nine seconds.")

He also spoofed his role from A View to a Kill in a sketch titled "Lease with an Option to Kill", in which he reprised his role as Max Zorin. Zorin, who had taken on some qualities of other notable Bond villains (Blofeld's cat and suit, Emilio Largo's eye patch), was upset that everything was going wrong for him: his lair was still under construction, his henchmen had jump suits that did not fit, and his shark tank lacked sharks, instead having a giant sea sponge. A captive James Bond, portrayed by Phil Hartman, offered to get Zorin "a good deal" on the abandoned Blofeld volcanic lair if Zorin let him go, to which he reluctantly agreed.

In another appearance, he performed a song and dance rendition of the Irving Berlin standard "Let's Face the Music and Dance". Finally, the "Colonel Angus" sketch, in which Walken played a dishonored Confederate officer, laden with ribald double entendres. Walken's SNL appearances proved so popular that he is one of the few SNL hosts for whom a Best of...SNL DVD is available (an honor usually reserved only for SNL cast members).

On every appearance, he has performed in "The Continental", a recurring sketch in which Walken is a "suave ladies' man" who in reality can't say or do anything to keep women from giving him the cold shoulder. Though he is outwardly chivalrous, his more perverted tendencies inevitably drive away his date over his pleading objections. For instance, he invites a woman to wash up in his bathroom. Once she is inside, it becomes obvious that the bathroom mirror is a two-way mirror when the Continental is seen lighting up a cigarette.

Walken is scheduled to host Saturday Night Live once again on April 5, 2008.


Presidential candidacy hoax

Walken was the subject of a hoax controversy in October 2006 from a fake website started that August by members of internet forum General Mayhem, which announced he was running for President of the United States. Some fans believed it was authentic until Walken's publicist dismissed the claims.[21] When asked about the hoax in a September 2006 interview with Conan O'Brien, Walken was amused by the hoax, and when asked to come up with a campaign slogan, replied "What the Heck?" and "No More Zoos!"[22]

The site, Walken2008.com, remains online.


Personal life

Walken has been married to Georgianne Walken (née Thon) since 1969. She is a casting director, most notably for The Sopranos. They live in rural Connecticut.[23] In regards to his villainous roles preceding him when meeting new people, Walken says that "when they see me in a movie they expect me to be something nasty... that's why it's good to defy expectations some times."[24]

Walken has a genetic condition called heterochromia?-a difference between the color of each of a person's eyes (one is blue, while the other is brown).

Rhea Perlman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born March 31, 1948 (1948-03-31) (age 60)
Brooklyn, New York
Years active 1972 - present
Spouse(s) Danny DeVito
[show]Awards won
Emmy Awards
Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
1984, 1985, 1986, 1989 Cheers

Rhea Perlman (born March 31, 1948) is an American four-time Emmy Award-winning actress, known for her role as Carla Tortelli on the classic sitcom Cheers.




Biography

Personal life

Perlman was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Adele and Philip Perlman, who was an actor as well as doll and toy part salesman.[1] She is the sister of Heide Perlman, who worked as a writer, story editor and producer on the show. Perlman attended Hunter College in New York and is an active Democrat. She is married to actor Danny DeVito, with whom she has three children - Lucy Chet DeVito (born March 1983), Grace Fan DeVito (born March 1985) and Jacob Daniel DeVito (born October 1987).


Career

Perlman received 10 Emmy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Cheers ran 11 seasons, from 1982-1993; the only year in which Perlman wasn't nominated was 1992). She won the Emmy four times, in 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1989. She later starred in the 1996 sitcom Pearl as the title character and was featured on the 2001 TV drama Kate Brasher. She also appeared in a 2000 television film How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale, in which she played Jacqueline Kennedy.

Perlman also played the role of Honey in the film Canadian Bacon and she appeared in the movie Matilda opposite her husband Danny DeVito, Pam Ferris and Mara Wilson.

Perlman is the author of the successful illustrated children's book series Otto Undercover, with six books which are Born to Drive, Canyon Catastrophe, Water Balloon Doom, Toxic Taffy Takeover, Brink of the Ex-stink-tion, and the recently published Brain Freeze.

Perlman is appearing as 'Bertha' in the West End of London in the comedy Boeing Boeing.

Marc McClure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born March 31, 1957 (1957-03-31) (age 50)
San Mateo, California

Marc A. McClure (born March 31, 1957) is an American actor. McClure was born in San Mateo, California.





Superman film series

His best known role was perhaps in the 1978 classic Superman, playing photographer Jimmy Olsen. McClure reprised his role as Jimmy Olsen in Superman II, Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and in the 1984 movie Supergirl. He is the only actor to appear in the same role in all four Christopher Reeve-era Superman films and Supergirl. Sam Huntington took over the role in Superman Returns.

As previously reported by UGO, in a flash back to his Superman days, McClure appeared on the CW's Smallville. McClure appeared as Dax-Ur, a Kryptonian scientist who has been living on Earth for over 100 years.


Other roles

Besides Jimmy Olsen, McClure's other well known role is in the 1985 hit film Back to the Future as Dave McFly. He reprised his role in Back to the Future Part III (he did appear in Back to the Future Part II, but the scene he was in was ultimately deleted from the film).

In addition, McClure starred in the 1977 film Freaky Friday and in the 2003 remake. He also starred in the 1978 film I Wanna Hold Your Hand and the 1980 film Used Cars along side Back to the Future co-star Wendie Jo Sperber.


TV guest appearances

He has also made guest appearances in many TV shows such as Happy Days, Hunter, The Shield, and Cold Case.

The English Language

Have you ever wondered why foreigners have trouble with the English Language?

Let's face it
English is a stupid language.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth
Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth
If the teacher taught,
Why didn't the preacher praught.

If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all)

That is why
When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts
But when I wind up this observation,
It ends.

Welcome back, Bob. Hope you and Nair had a lovely weekend. Thanks for explaining to our audience why English is the third most difficult language to learn, and once again we are grateful for your celeb info.

Until our puppy arrives with faces to match, here is the theme from St. Elsewhere. First time that I ever saw Denzel Washington.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=y1Hr0MrxMak&feature=related

Good morning WA2K.

Bob's bios:

Sergei Diaghilev; William Daniels; Richard Chamberlain; Shirley Jones; Herb Alpert; Christopher Walken; Rhea Perlman and Marc McClure





And a Good Day to all.

Thanks, PA, for the great collage. You're the best, Raggedy.

Sorry, Anthony Michael Hall, but Christopher Walken was marvelous in the Dead Zone(the movie). The format on the TV version has changed too many times to be believable.

Also, folks, Christopher was outstanding in The Deer Hunter.

The Deer Hunter is an Academy Award winning 1978 war drama film about a trio of Rusyn American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Vietnam War. It is loosely inspired by the German novel Three Comrades (1937), by World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque, which follows the lives of a trio of World War I veterans in 1920s Weimar Germany. Like the novel, The Deer Hunter meditates and explores the moral and mental consequences of war violence and politically-manipulated patriotism upon the meaning of friendship, honor, and family in a tightly-knit community and deals with controversial issues such as drug abuse, suicide, infidelity and mental illness.
The film features Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep. The story occurs in southern Vietnam and in working-class Clairton, Pennsylvania, a Monongahela River town south of Pittsburgh. It was filmed in the Pittsburgh area; Cleveland and Mingo Junction, Ohio; Weirton, West Virginia; the North Cascades National Park, Washington State, the Patpong region of Bangkok, Thailand (as the Saigon red light district), and in Sai Yok, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand.

At the end, when De Niro could not bring himself to kill the deer, I wept.

Theme from The Dead Zone (both of them)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8hLqN9AYzQ

I'd like to add:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAAiYMgFcbw



"This classical guitar piece was written by Stanley Myers and is most famous for being the theme song to the movie 'The Deer Hunter'(1979). The piece had been recorded by John Williams many years before that movie was made. It had originally been written for piano, but at Williams' request Myers re-wrote it for guitar and expanded it. Before 'Deer Hunter', it had been used on the soundtrack of the movie 'The Walking Stick'(1970). As well as being a hit for John Williams, it has also been a chart success for The Shadows and, with added lyrics by Cleo Laine, for Iris Williams (no relation to John). "

Oh, Raggedy, that is at once beautiful and sad. Nothing is as lovely as an acoustic guitar. Thanks, puppy. I can't believe that I didn't recognize that theme. The entire melody reflects the Vietnam war.

And, folks, another guitar gently weeps, but for a different reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7qpfGVUd8c&feature=related

Well, it seems that I am making errors all over the place today. I called Tai Chi, chai. Is it too late to apologize?

Of all things, y'all, this is by a man named Timberland.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=B__jJ-zQwKU

Hi Letty! No need to apologize; I'd happily be mistaken for Chai (and have been often) as she's one clever poster!

Phonographic memory gave me a smile

Well, Tai, I'm glad that we cleared that up.

Maybe dj will remember this funny spoof by the Statler Brothers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkytM2Kj_Ao

Time for me to say goodnight, and this my song to all of you who love Lady Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBiRmyUsJ8w&feature=related

Goodnight

From Letty with love.

Good night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ufzIano8D8

Good morning, radio folks.

edgar, I love that cute little song, and here's one to match since it's Debbie Reynolds' birthday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgFg2Tm5_wE&feature=related

Good Morning all.

Here's to Debbie's 76th, Jane Powell's 79th and Ali MacGraw's 70th today.

The way they were:

Good morning, Raggedy. Happy April Fool's Day. Thanks for the lovely trio, PA.

Interesting, folks. I am rather surprised that no tricks have been forth coming.

Well, here's a great "fool's" song, so what kind is he?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6tkyvmf8NY

Sergei Rachmaninoff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Rachmaninoff, in his later years, toured the United States extensively, and remained there from 1918 until his death.Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff[a] (Russian: Сергей Васильевич Рахманинов, Sergej Vasil'evič Rakhmaninov, 1 April 1873 [O.S. 20 March]-28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, one of the last great champions of the Romantic style of European classical music.

Rachmaninoff is regarded as one of the most influential pianists of the 20th century. He had legendary technical faculties and rhythmic drive, and his large hands were able to cover the interval of a thirteenth on the keyboard (a hand span of approximately twelve inches). According to fellow composer Igor Stravinsky Rachmaninoff stood 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm) tall.[1] He also had the ability to play complex compositions upon first hearing. Many recordings were made by the Victor Talking Machine Company recording label of Rachmaninoff performing his own music, as well as works from the standard repertoire.

His reputation as a composer generated a variety of opinions, before his music gained steady recognition across the world. The 1954 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians notoriously dismissed his music as "monotonous in texture ... consist[ing] mainly of artificial and gushing tunes" and predicted that his popular success was "not likely to last".[citation needed] To this, Harold C. Schonberg, in his Lives of the Great Composers, responded, "It is one of the most outrageously snobbish and even stupid statements ever to be found in a work that is supposed to be an objective reference."[citation needed] Indeed, not only have Rachmaninoff's works become part of the standard repertoire, but their popularity among both musicians and audiences has, if anything, increased since the middle of the twentieth century, with some of his symphonies and other orchestral works, songs and choral music recognized as masterpieces alongside the more familiar piano works.

His compositions include, among numerous others: four piano concerti; the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini; three symphonies; two piano sonatas; three operas; a choral symphony (The Bells, based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe); the All-Night Vigil, for unaccompanied choir (often known as Rachmaninoff's Vespers); twenty-four Preludes (including the famous Prelude in C-sharp minor); the Six Moments Musicaux; seventeen Études-tableaux; many songs, of which the most famous are "V molchanyi nochi taynoi" ("In the silence of night"), Lilacs, and the wordless Vocalise; and the last of his works, the Symphonic Dances. Most of his pieces follow a melancholy, late-Romantic style akin to Tchaikovsky, although strong influences of Chopin and Liszt are apparent. Further inspiration included the music of Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Medtner (whom he considered the greatest contemporary composer and who, according to Schonberg's Lives, returned the compliment by imitating him) and Henselt.




Life


Youth

Rachmaninoff was born in Semyonovo, near Novgorod in north-western Russia, into an aristocratic family with strong musical and military leanings. His parents were both amateur pianists. When he was four, his mother gave him casual piano lessons,[2] but it was his paternal grandfather, Arkady Alexandrovich, who brought Anna Ornatskaya, a teacher from Saint Petersburg, to teach Sergei in 1882. Ornatskaya remained for "two or three years", until Vasily had to auction off their home. Due to financial troubles, the family moved to Saint Petersburg, where Rachmaninoff studied at the Conservatory before moving to Moscow alone to study piano under Nikolai Zverev and Alexander Siloti (who was his cousin and a former student of Franz Liszt). He also studied harmony under Anton Arensky, and counterpoint under Sergei Taneyev. Rachmaninoff was found to be quite lazy, failing most of his classes, and it was the strict regime of the Zverev home that instilled discipline in the boy.[citation needed]

In his early years, he showed great skill in composition. While still a student, he wrote the one-act opera, Aleko, for which he was awarded a gold medal in composition, his first piano concerto, and a set of piano pieces, Morceaux de Fantaisie (Op. 3, 1892), which includes the popular and famous Prelude in C-sharp minor. The composer later became annoyed by the public's fascination with this piece, composed when he was just nineteen years old. He would often tease an expectant audience in the days when it was traditional for the audience to request particular compositions, by asking, "Oh, must I?" or claiming inability to remember anything else.[3] In Moscow, he met the prominent composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who became an important mentor and commissioned the teenage Rachmaninoff to arrange a piano transcription of the suite from his ballet, Sleeping Beauty. Rachmaninoff confided in Zverev his desire to compose more, requesting a private room where he could compose in silence, but Zverev saw him only as a pianist and severed his links with the boy. He moved out and continued to compose.


Setbacks

Even after vacationing at Ivanovka the following summer, the failure of his Symphony No. 1 (Op. 13, 1896) bothered Rachmaninoff for years.The sudden death of Tchaikovsky in 1893 made a strong impression on Rachmaninoff, affecting his emotional state, his personality as well as his creativity. Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1 (Op. 13, 1896) premiered on 27 March 1897 in one of a long-running series of "Russian Symphony Concerts," but was torn apart by critics. In a particularly vitriolic review by a nationalist composer César Cui, it was likened to a depiction of the ten plagues of Egypt and suggested that it would be admired by the "inmates" of a music conservatory in hell.[citation needed] However, the criticisms stem from inadequacy of the performance; the conducting of Alexander Glazunov is often remembered as a problem: he liked the piece, but was a weak conductor and starved of rehearsal time. Rachmaninoff's wife and other witnesses later suggested that Glazunov may have been drunk and, although this was never intimated by Rachmaninoff, it would not seem out of character.[4][5] The disastrous reception of his Symphony No 1, a negative review from writer Leo Tolstoy, and his distress over the Russian Orthodox Church's objection to his marrying his cousin, Natalia Satina, contributed to a period of severe depression.


Recovery

Rachmaninoff wrote little music over the following years, until he began a course of autosuggestive therapy with psychologist Nikolai Dahl, himself an amateur musician. Rachmaninoff quickly recovered confidence and overcame his writer's block. A result of these sessions was the composition of Piano Concerto No. 2 (Op. 18, 1900-01), dedicated to Dr. Dahl. The piece was very well received at its premiere, at which Rachmaninoff was soloist, and remains one of his most popular compositions.

Rachmaninoff's spirits were further bolstered when, after years of engagement, he was finally allowed to marry Natalia. They were married in a suburb of Moscow by an army priest on 29 April 1902, using the family's military background to subvert the church. Although he had an affair with the 22-year-old singer Nina Koshetz in 1916[1], his and Natalia's union lasted until the composer's death. After several successful appearances as a conductor, Rachmaninoff was offered a job as conductor at the Bolshoi Theater in 1904, although political reasons led to his resignation in March 1906, after which he stayed in Italy until July. He spent the following three winters in Dresden, Germany, intensively composing, and returning to the family estate of Ivanovka every summer.


Emigration

Rachmaninoff made his first tour of the United States as a pianist in 1909, an event for which he composed the Piano Concerto No. 3 (Op. 30, 1909) as a calling card. This successful tour made him a popular figure in America.

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, which meant the end of the old Russia, and the loss of his estate, on 22 December 1917, Rachmaninoff with his wife and two daughters left Saint Petersburg for Helsinki on an open sledge, having only a few notebooks with sketches of his own compositions. Then he took a train to Stockholm, arriving there for Christmas. They never returned to their homeland. Rachmaninoff then settled in Denmark and spent a year giving concerts in Scandinavia. He left from Kristiania (Oslo) to New York on 1 November 1918, which marked the beginning of the American period of the composer's life. After Rachmaninoff's departure, his music was banned in the Soviet Union for several years. His compositional output then started to slow down to some degree, partly because he was required to spend much of his time performing in order to support himself, but the main cause was homesickness.[6] When he left Russia, it was as if he had left behind his inspiration. Nevertheless, his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, one of his best known works, was written in the United States in 1934. While still in Russia, he had had about ten pieces in his piano repertoire (that is, of other composers; in Russia he mostly performed his own compositions). When he came to the US, he re-invented himself as a concert pianist; in fact he became one of the top pianists of his generation, the generation that is now referred to as the Golden Age of Piano Playing.

In 1919, William Andrews Clark, Jr., founder of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, asked Rachmaninoff to move west to Southern California to be the Philharmonic's first Music Director, but since that he had recently moved to New York and did not want to move again, he declined.[7][8]

After emigration, Rachmaninoff had an extremely busy concert schedule. He played over a thousand solo piano concerts in America, in addition to his tours in Europe. He made over one hundred studio recordings of his own music as well as the music of his favorites, Chopin and Beethoven, among others. Due to his busy concert career, Rachmaninoff had a decreased output as composer. Between 1892 and 1917 (living mostly in Russia), Rachmaninoff wrote thirty-nine compositions with opus numbers. Between 1918 and his death in 1943, while living in the U.S. and Europe, he completed only six. His revival as composer became possible only after he built himself a new home, Villa Senar on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, where he spent summers from 1932 to 1939. There, in the comfort of his own villa which reminded him of this family estate Ivanovka back in Russia, Rachmaninoff composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Settling in the U.S., Rachmaninoff began making recordings for Thomas Edison in 1919, recording on an upright piano that the inventor admitted was below average; however, the discs provided the composer with some much-needed income. The next year he signed an exclusive contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company and continued to make recordings for Victor until February 1942.

Rachmaninoff played most of his public performances on Steinway & Sons pianos. He owned two New York Steinways D-274 in his Beverly Hills home on Elm Drive, he also owned a New York D in his New York home, however, in 1933, he chose a Hamburg D for his new home, villa Senar, in Switzerland.[citation needed]


In 1931, together with other Russian exiles, he helped found a music school in Paris which would later bear his name, the Conservatoire Rachmaninoff. His Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, today one of his best-known works, was written in his home, Villa Senar, Switzerland in 1934. He went on to compose his Symphony No. 3 (Op. 44, 1935-36) and the Symphonic Dances (Op. 45, 1940), his last completed work. Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered the Symphonic Dances in 1941 in the Academy of Music. Rachmaninoff fell ill during a concert tour in late 1942, and was subsequently diagnosed with advanced sarcoma.

Rachmaninoff and his wife became American citizens on 1 February 1943. His last recital, given on 17 February 1943 at the Alumni Gymnasium of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, prophetically featured Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat Minor, which contains the famous Funeral March. A statue called "Rachmaninoff: The Last Concert", designed and sculpted by Victor Bokarev, now stands in World Fair Park in Knoxville as a permanent tribute to Rachmaninoff.

As Rachmaninoff became more and more aware of the fact that he would never again return to his beloved homeland, he was overwhelmed with melancholia. Most people who knew him later in life described him as the saddest man they had ever known. In a 1961 interview, conductor Eugene Ormandy declared: "Rachmaninoff was really two people. He hated his own music and was usually unhappy about it when he performed or conducted it in public so that the public saw only this side of him. But, among his close friends, he had a very good sense of humor and was in good spirits." [2]



Death

Rachmaninoff died of cancer (sarcoma) on March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills, California, just four days before his 70th birthday, and was interred on June 1 in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.


Works

Oeuvre


The cadenza of Piano Concerto No. 3 is famous for its large chords.Rachmaninoff wrote five works for piano and orchestra: four concerti, and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Of the concerti, the Second and Third are the most popular. The Third is widely considered one of the most difficult of all piano concertos, and thus is a favorite among virtuoso pianists, although Rachmaninoff felt that the Third "fell more easily under the fingers" than the famous Second. Rachmaninoff admired the way Vladimir Horowitz played the Third, observing that "He swallowed it whole!", and such was Horowitz's performance that Rachmaninoff himself seldom played the concerto after hearing Horowitz.

Works for piano solo include the Preludes, ten in Op. 23 and thirteen in Op. 32, which, together with the Prelude in C-sharp minor (Op. 3 No. 2) from Morceaux de Fantaisie (Op. 3), traverse all 24 major and minor keys. Especially difficult are the two sets of Études-Tableaux, Opp. 33 and 39, which are very demanding study pictures. There are also the Six Moments Musicaux (Op. 16), the Variations on a Theme of Chopin (Op. 22), and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli (Op. 42). He wrote two piano sonatas, both of which are monumental works and fine post-romantic examples of the genre. Rachmaninoff also composed works for two pianos, four hands, including two Suites (the first subtitled Fantasie-Tableaux), a version of the Symphonic Dances (Op. 45), and a Russian Rhapsody (posth.).

Rachmaninoff wrote three symphonies, of which, the first in D minor was a gargantuan failure at its premiere. He tore up the score and for many years it was believed lost; however after his death, the orchestral parts were found in the Leningrad Conservatory and the score was reconstructed, leading to its second performance (and American premiere) on 19 March 1948 at an all-Rachmaninoff concert, marking the fifth anniversary of the composer's death. The second and third symphonies are both considered among his greatest works. Other orchestral works include The Rock (Op. 7), Caprice Bohémien (Op. 12), The Isle of the Dead (Op. 29), and the Symphonic Dances (Op. 45).


Rachmaninoff at the piano, 1910sRachmaninoff wrote two major a cappella choral works: the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and the All-Night Vigil (also known as the Vespers). The Bells, a work for choir and orchestra, is based on the translated poetry of Edgar Allan Poe; its four-movement program signifies the circle of life: youth, marriage, maturity, and death. The Spring Cantata is lesser known and rarely performed; the same can be said about his Three Russian Songs and his early Concerto for Choir (a cappella). The All-Night Vigil and The Bells are widely admired: Rachmaninoff himself considered them his favorites among all his works.[9]

His chamber music includes two piano trios, both which are named Trio Elégiaque, the second of which is a memorial tribute to Tchaikovsky, and a Cello Sonata. In his chamber music, the piano tends to be perceived by some to dominate the ensemble.

He completed three operas: Aleko, The Miserly Knight, and Francesca da Rimini. He started another opera in 1907, based on a work by Maurice Maeterlinck, titled Monna Vanna, but did not finish it. It was completed by Igor Buketoff and had its first performance in 1984.

He also composed songs for voice and piano, based on works by Aleksey Tolstoy, Aleksandr Pushkin, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Victor Hugo and Anton Chekhov, among others.


Composition style

Rachmaninoff's style is fundamentally Russian: his music shows the influence of the idol of his youth, Tchaikovsky. His harmonic language expanded above and beyond that of Tchaikovsky, however. Rachmaninoff's frequently used motifs include the Dies Irae, often just the fragments of the first phrase. This is especially prevalent in The Bells, The Isle of the Dead, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and in all of his symphonies.

Especially important is Rachmaninoff's use of unusually wide-spread chords for bell-like sounds: this occurs in many pieces, most notably in the cantata The Bells, the Second Piano Concerto, the E flat major Etude-Tableaux (Op. 33 No. 7), and the B-minor prelude (Op. 32 No. 10). He was also fond of Russian Orthodox chants. He uses them most perceptibly in his Vespers, but many of his melodies found their origins in these chants. The opening melody of the First Symphony is derived from chants. (Note that the opening melody of the Third Piano Concerto is not derived from chants; when asked, Rachmaninoff said that "it had written itself").[10]

Rachmaninoff had great command of counterpoint and fugal writing. The above-mentioned occurrence of the Dies Irae in the Second Symphony is but a small example of this. Very characteristic of his writing is chromatic counterpoint.

His later works, such as the Piano Concerto No. 4 (Op. 40, 1926) and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli (Op. 42, 1931), are composed in a more emotionally detached style, making them less popular with audiences despite the striking originality of the music. In these later compositions, Rachmaninoff sought a greater sense of compression and motivic development in his works at the expense of melody. Nevertheless, some of his most beautiful (nostalgic and melancholy) melodies occur in the Third Symphony, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Symphonic Dances, the last-named of which is considered his swan song, and which has references to the Alliluya of the Vespers and the first theme of his First Symphony (neither of which would have been recognized by most listeners at the premiere).


Pianism
Rachmaninoff's pianism is generally considered among the finest of the twentieth century. It displayed features characteristic of the Russian school of piano playing: effortless technical ability; interpretative freedom; creative freedom in dynamics and phrasing.


Early recordings

Rachmaninoff made his first phonograph recordings for Edison Records on their "Diamond Disc" records, since they claimed the best audio fidelity in recording the piano at the time. Rachmaninoff did not consider himself a great pianist and believed his own performances to be variable in quality; he therefore requested to personally approve any recorded performances to be commercially issued. Despite this, the Edison Company issued multiple alternative takes of Rachmaninoff's recordings, a common occurrence in the gramophone record industry at the time, possibly for reasons of simple carelessness or because of the ease of mass production of records from multiple masters.

Rachmaninoff was so angered by this that he left Edison and subsequently started recording for the Victor Talking Machine Company (in 1920) and its successor, RCA Victor. The company was pleased to abide by Rachmaninoff's restrictions, and proudly advertised him as one of the great artists who recorded for the Victor Company.


Piano rolls

Rachmaninoff was also involved in various ways with music on piano rolls. Several manufacturers, and in particular the Aeolian Company, had perforated his compositions on music roll from about 1900 onwards.[11] His sister-in-law, Sofia Satina, remembered him at the family estate at Ivanovka, pedalling gleefully through a set of rolls of his Second Piano Concerto, apparently acquired from a German source,[12] most probably the Aeolian Company's Berlin subsidiary, the Choralion Company. Aeolian in London created a set of three rolls of this concerto in 1909, which remained in the catalogues of its various successors until the late 1970s.[13]

From 1919 he made a number of recorded piano rolls for the American Piano Company's Ampico re-enacting piano; according to the Ampico publicity department, he initially disbelieved that a roll of punched paper could provide an accurate record, so he was invited to listen to a proof copy of his first recording. After the performance, he was quoted as saying "Gentlemen ?- I, Sergei Rachmaninoff, have just heard myself play!" For demonstration purposes, he recorded the solo part of his Second Piano Concerto for Ampico, though only the second movement was used publicly and has survived. He continued to record until around 1929, though his last roll, the Chopin Scherzo in Bb minor, was not published until October 1933.[14]


Gramophone

Many of Rachmaninoff's recordings are acknowledged as classics. Particularly renowned are his renditions of Schumann's Carnaval and Chopin's Funeral March Sonata, which many consider the finest performance of that work, along with many shorter pieces. He recorded all four of his piano concertos with the Philadelphia Orchestra, including two versions of the second concerto with Leopold Stokowski conducting, and a world premiere recording of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, soon after the first performance (1934) with the Philadelphians under Stokowski. The first, third, and fourth concertos were recorded with Eugene Ormandy.

Rachmaninoff wanted to record several other major piano works, including Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, Liszt's Sonata in B minor and his own Symphonic Dances in a two-piano collaboration with Vladimir Horowitz, but RCA turned him down. He also wanted to record his second symphony.

Rachmaninoff also made three greatly admired recordings conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra in his own Third Symphony, his symphonic poem Isle of the Dead, and his orchestration of Vocalise.

His final recordings were made for RCA Victor in February 1942; a Musicians Union recording ban prevented him from making further recordings before his death the following year.

Whenever Rachmaninoff played in a concert that was broadcast, he specifically requested that one of his recordings be played instead by the station or network. However, at least one private recording of him playing in public has survived and was included by RCA Victor in its boxed set of his complete recordings (1919-42), released in 1973 on LP and later reissued on CD.[15]

For many years Rachmaninoff's lengthy second symphony was played in concert or recorded in abridged versions. The first recording of the Second Symphony, abridged, was made by the Cleveland Orchestra with Nikolai Sokoloff conducting in 1928. Unabridged performances became more common in later years, spurred by recordings including one by Eugene Ormandy in the composer's centenary year of 1973.

Rachmaninoff's performances on piano can be heard on many recordings including: Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff (electrical recording) and the piano roll reconstructions: A Window In Time and A Window In Time 2.

Lon Chaney, Sr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born Leonidas Frank Chaney
April 1, 1883(1883-04-01)
Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.
Died August 26, 1930 (aged 47)
Los Angeles, California, USA

Spouse(s) Cleva Creighton (1906-1915), Hazel Hastings (1915-1930)
Lon Chaney (April 1, 1883 - August 26, 1930), nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema. He is best remembered for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with film makeup. [1]





Biography

Lon Chaney was born Leonidas Frank Chaney in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Frank H. Chaney and Emma Alice Kennedy; his father had mostly English and some French ancestry, and his mother was of Irish descent.[1] Both of Chaney's parents were deaf, and as a child of deaf adults Chaney became skilled in pantomime. He entered a stage career in 1902, and began traveling with popular Vaudeville and theater acts. In 1905, he met and married singer Cleva Creighton and in 1906, their first child and only son, Creighton Chaney (a.k.a. Lon Chaney, Jr.) was born. The Chaneys continued touring, settling in California in 1910.

Unfortunately, marital troubles developed and in April 1913, Cleva went to the Majestic Theater in downtown Los Angeles, where Lon was managing the Kolb and Dill show, and attempted suicide by swallowing mercury bichloride. The suicide attempt failed and ruined her singing career; the ensuing scandal and divorce forced Chaney out of the theater and into film.

The time spent there is not clearly known, but between the years 1912 and 1917, Chaney worked under contract for Universal Studios doing bit or character parts. His outstanding skill with makeup gained him many parts in the highly competitive casting atmosphere. During this time, Chaney befriended the husband-wife director team of Joe De Grasse and Ida May Parke, who gave him substantial roles in their pictures, and further encouraged him to play macabre characters.

Chaney also married one of his former colleagues in the Kolb and Dill company tour, a chorus girl named Hazel Hastings. Little is known of Hazel, except that her marriage to Chaney was solid. Upon marrying, the new couple gained custody of Chaney's ten year-old son Creighton, who had resided in various homes and boarding schools since Chaney's divorce in 1913. [2]

By 1917 Chaney was a prominent actor in the studio, but his salary did not reflect this status. When Chaney asked for a raise, studio executive William Sistrom replied, "you'll never be worth more than one hundred dollars a week."

After leaving the studio, Chaney struggled for the first year as a character actor. It was not until 1918 when playing a substantial role in William S. Hart's picture, Riddle Gawne, that Chaney's talents as a character actor were truly recognized by the industry.

In 1919, Chaney had a breakthrough performance as "The Frog" in George Loane Tucker's The Miracle Man. The film not only displayed Chaney's acting ability, but his talent as a master of makeup. Critical praise and a gross of over $2 million put Chaney on the map as America's foremost character actor.


Chaney is chiefly remembered as a pioneer in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and most notably The Phantom of the Opera. His ability to transform himself using self-invented makeup techniques earned him the nickname of "Man of a Thousand Faces". In an autobiographical 1925 article published in Movie magazine that gave a rare glimpse into his life, Chaney referred to his specialty as "extreme characterization".

He also exhibited this adaptability with makeup in more conventional crime and adventure films, such as The Penalty, where he played an amputee gangster. He appeared in a total of ten films by director Tod Browning, often playing disguised and/or mutilated characters, including carnival knife thrower Alonzo the Armless in The Unknown (1927) with Joan Crawford. In 1927, Chaney co-starred with Conrad Nagel, Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall and Polly Moran in the now lost Tod Browning directed horror classic London After Midnight, quite possibly the most famous lost film ever. His last film was a remake with sound of his silent classic The Unholy Three (1930), his only "talkie" and the only film in which he displayed his versatile voice. In fact, Chaney signed a sworn statement declaring that five of the key voices in the film (the ventriloquist, old woman, parrot, dummy and girl) were in fact his own.

Although Chaney created, in Quasimodo, the bell ringer of Notre Dame, and Erik, the "phantom" of the Paris Opera House, two of the most grotesquely deformed characters in film history, the portrayals sought to elicit a degree of sympathy and pathos among viewers not overwhelmingly terrified or repulsed by the monstrous disfigurements of the characters, who were merely victims of fate.

"I wanted to remind people that the lowest types of humanity may have within them the capacity for supreme self-sacrifice," Chaney wrote in Movie magazine. "The dwarfed, misshapen beggar of the streets may have the noblest ideals. Most of my roles since The Hunchback, such as The Phantom of the Opera, He Who Gets Slapped, The Unholy Three, etc., have carried the theme of self-sacrifice or renunciation. These are the stories which I wish to do."

"He was someone who acted out our psyches. He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen," the writer Ray Bradbury once explained. "The history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that's grotesque, that the world will turn away from."

Chaney's talents extended far beyond the horror genre, and stage makeup. He was also a highly skilled dancer, singer and comedian. In fact, many people who did not know Chaney were surprised by his rich baritone voice and his sharp comedic skills.

Chaney and his second wife Hazel led a discreet private life distant from the Hollywood social scene. Chaney did minimal promotional work for his films and MGM studios, purposefully fostering a mysterious image, and he reportedly avoided the social scene in Hollywood on purpose.

In the final five years of his film career (1925-1930), Chaney worked exclusively under contract to MGM, giving some of his most memorable performances. His portrayal of a tough-as-nails marine drill instructor in Tell it To the Marines (1926), one of his favorite films, earned him the affection of the US Marine Corps, who made him their first honorary member from the motion picture industry. He also earned the respect and admiration of numerous up and coming actors, as Cheney was considered helpful towards new actors, showing them the ropes, and was always willing to talk to the cast and crew about his experiences between takes on films.

During the filming of Thunder in the winter of 1929, Chaney developed pneumonia. In late 1929 he was diagnosed with bronchial lung cancer. Despite aggressive treatment, his condition gradually worsened, and seven weeks after the release of the remake of The Unholy Three, he died of a throat hemorrhage. His death was deeply mourned by his family, the film industry and by his fans. The US Marine Corps provided a chaplain and Honor Guard for his funeral. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California, next to the crypt of his father. His wife Hazel was also interred there upon her death in 1933. For unknown reasons, Chaney's crypt has remained unmarked.


Legacy

In 1957, Chaney was the subject of a biopic titled Man of a Thousand Faces, and was portrayed by James Cagney. Though much of the plot was fictional, the film was a moving tribute to Chaney and helped boost his posthumous fame. During his lifetime, Chaney had boasted he would make it difficult for biographers to portray his life, saying that "between pictures, there is no Lon Chaney.".[2] This was in line with the air of mystery he purposefully fostered around his makeup and performances.

Lon Chaney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1994, he was honored by having his image designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, placed on a United States postage stamp.

The stage theater at the Colorado Springs Civic Auditorium is named after Lon Chaney.


Chaney built an impressive stone cabin in the remote wilderness of the eastern Sierra Nevada, near Big Pine, California, as a retreat. The cabin (designed by architect Paul Williams) still stands, and is preserved by the Inyo National Forest Service.

Chaney's son, Lon Chaney, Jr., was also known for his roles in horror movies, especially The Wolf Man. The Chaneys appeared on US postage stamps as their signature characters, the Phantom of the Opera and the Wolf Man, with the set completed by Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster and The Mummy.

He and his son are mentioned in the Warren Zevon song "Werewolves of London".

He is referenced in the The Mountain Goats song "Letter From Belgium" from the album "We Shall All Be Healed".

Many of Chaney's colleagues held him in high regard and he would often give advice and help actors who were just beginning their careers. He was also greatly respected by the film crews and studio employees with whom he worked.

Following his death, Chaney's famous makeup case was donated by his wife Hazel to the Los Angeles County Museum, where it is sometimes displayed for the public. Makeup artist and Chaney biographer Michael Blake considers Chaney's case the Holy Grail of film makeup.