WA2K Radio is now on the air

That sounds like her!

Start of another week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7KrlDZ5Hkw

Good morning, WA2K radio audience.

Stray Cat, the little sparrow was rather sad, too.

firefly, Love that song. Use to sit around and sing it with a bunch from Virginia and only accompanied by an acoustic guitar.

Another aha moment, folks. A song from The Grand Canyon Suite simply popped into my head while I was abed.

Here it is, then, and I know there are lyrics to this one, but cannot find them. "...we'll ride away along the trail that follows the sun..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AdKm9zPQGA&feature=related

Today is the birthday of Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book for West Side Story.

I love the way these two do this number. So much feeling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI2CZ6RZWXA

Laurents also wrote the book for Gypsy, and he directed this year's Broadway version. Here's Patty LuPone in a clip that shows why she won this year's Tony award for Best Actress in a Musical

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXl10a9gJwA

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qzyEd2soQk
The Skyliners
Not certain - I think Carol King wrote this

edgarblythe, check the link on your last post.

Today is also Woodie Guthrie's birthday. He wrote hundreds of songs and was a major influence in folk music. When Bob Dylan was asked to write 25 words on what Woodie meant to him, he wound up writing 5 pages. This song is from Dust Bowl Ballads, his first commercial recording and the most successful album Woodie made.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8K6RXWORcOg&feature=related

firefly, Thanks for the info on Arthur Laurents. I had no idea that he wrote the book for West Side Story nor Gypsy.

Loved the song "Tonight" by a black lady and a Jewish guy. Fabulous, dear.

And Gypsy? My word, we learn something new every day here on WA2K. "Everything's Coming up Roses" was great by Patty LaPone.

edgar, couldn't access your Skyliner song, buddy. It went to another form of YouTube and wouldn't play.

Well, today is Woody Guthrie's birthday and his son, Arlo, is doing one of his most famous songs, "This Land is Your Land". He also did "Alice's Restaurant", and I loved the observation that many folks thought it was an anti war song when, in fact, it was an anti idiot one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_HGDCj8hP0&feature=related

Oops, firefly and I had another great minds thing.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZh6ZSRoYg

Terry-Thomas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens
14 July 1911(1911-07-14)
Finchley, London, England
Died 8 January 1990 (aged 78)
Godalming, Surrey, England
Spouse(s) Ida Patlanski (1938-62)
Belinda Cunningham (1963-90)

Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens (14 July 1911 - 8 January 1990) was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads, the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, dressing gown, and such catch-phrases as "You're an absolute shower!" and "Good show!"





Biography

Early life and career

Born Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens in Glenfern House, Nether Street, Finchley, England, and educated at Ardingly College, Thomas worked in cabaret and as a film extra before finding success as an entertainer during World War II. After the war, he worked in TV, radio and variety, but it was during the mid-1950s that he developed his famous persona, first in his television series, How Do You View?, and then in films. His performance as Major Hitchcock in John and Roy Boulting's Private's Progress (1956) gave birth to his catchphrase, "you're an absolute shower", and made him a favourite in British comedy films for the next decade. He reprised the role of Hitchcock in I'm All Right Jack (1959), and appeared in several of the Boultings' other films, including Lucky Jim and Brothers in Law.

Although Terry-Thomas was renowned for his caddish persona, he was a gifted voice actor with a range of accents in his repertoire. It was reported that the voice actor Ivan Owen based his voice for Basil Brush on Terry-Thomas's voice.


Career

He played a variety of exuberant, malevolent and silly characters during the 1960s, and became famous for his portrayal of the archetypal cad, bounder, and absolute rotter. (Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Monte Carlo or Bust; Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon). In the 1970s he reprised his character from the first two of the films above along with Eric Sykes to make high quality cinema and TV advertisements for Benson and Hedges cigarettes.

In 1966, he played a notable but very different role as an RAF airman travelling through occupied France -and nicknamed "Big Moustache" by his French helpers- in the French film La Grande Vadrouille, which for over forty years remained the most successful film in the history of cinema in France.[1]


Personal life and death

He was married twice. His first marriage was to Ida Patlanski, from 1938 to 1962, and he was married to Belinda Cunningham from 1963 until his death. He had two sons.

In 1971 Thomas was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and by 1977, he had retired. In 1989, writer and broadcaster Richard Hope-Hawkins, and actor Jack Douglas, organised a benefit concert for Thomas, after discovering he was living in virtual obscurity and ill health. The gala, held at London's Theatre Royal, ran for five hours, Phil Collins topping the bill along with 120 artistes. Michael Caine was the gala chairman. The show raised over £75,000 for Thomas and the Parkinson's Disease Society. He was a second cousin of the actor, Richard Briers, who because of Terry-Thomas's Parkinson's disease, became President of the Parkinson's Disease Society.

Terry-Thomas died in 1990 at the age of 78 in Busbridge Hall nursing home, Godalming, Surrey. His funeral service at its St. John the Baptist Church. He was cremated at Guildford Crematorium.

A new biography of Terry-Thomas titled 'Bounder' and written by author Graham McCann will be released in September 2008.

That's a great old song, edgar.

We are in sync, Letty, and those two performances, father and son, compliment each other beautifully. I loved the rabbit story that Arlo told.

Well, Angelina Jolie finally gave birth to her twins. So, let's take a listen to The Twins.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4oCmP65RrBo&feature=related

Arthur Laurents
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arthur Laurents (born July 14, 1918) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, librettist and stage director.




Biography

Laurents was born in New York City to a Jewish family. After studying at Cornell University and a stint in the Army, he began writing scripts for radio and, in 1945, wrote his first play, Home of the Brave, a drama set during World War II.

During McCarthyism, Laurents was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses and, for several years, none of his work was used in film. Other plays by Laurents include Time of the Cuckoo, Invitation to a March, The Enclave, and Jolson Sings Again. He also has written the books for several musicals, including West Side Story, Gypsy, Anyone Can Whistle, and Do I Hear a Waltz?, which was based on his play Time of the Cuckoo. Laurents has directed several Broadway productions as well, including the musicals I Can Get It for You Wholesale and La Cage Aux Folles.

Laurents has also written two novels, The Way We Were and The Turning Point, both of which became successful films for which Laurents wrote the screenplays. He also wrote the screenplays for The Snake Pit, Anastasia, and the Alfred Hitchcock film Rope. The play 'Time of the Cuckoo' later became the David Lean/Katherine Hepburn film Summertime.

In 2000, Laurents published a memoir, Original Story By.[1] In it, the author reveals that he is gay and had relationships with Farley Granger and Tom Hatcher.[2] Laurents and Hatcher were together for more than fifty years until Hatcher's death on October 26, 2006.[3]


Work

The Snake Pit (1948)
Libretti
Nick & Nora - 1991
The Madwoman of Central Park West - 1979
Hallelujah, Baby! - 1967 - Tony Award for Best Musical
Do I Hear a Waltz? - 1965
Anyone Can Whistle - 1964
Gypsy - 1959 - Tony Nomination for Best Musical
West Side Story - 1957 - Tony Nomination for Best Musical

Direction
Gypsy - 2008 -- Tony Award nomination as Best Director of a Musical
Nick & Nora - 1991
Anyone Can Whistle - 1964
La Cage aux Folles - 1983 - Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical
The Madwoman of Central Park West - 1979
Gypsy - 1974 - Tony Nomination for Best Direction of a Musical
I Can Get It for You Wholesale - 1962
Invitation to a March - 1960

Plays
Invitation to a March - 1960
A Clearing in the Woods - 1957
The Time of the Cuckoo - 1952
The Bird Cage - 1950
Home of the Brave - 1945

Dale Robertson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born Dayle Lamoine Robertson
July 14, 1923 (1923-07-14) (age 85)
Harrah, Oklahoma, U.S.

Dale Robertson (born Dayle Lamoine Robertson on July 14, 1923) is an American actor best known for his starring roles on television.


Biography

Robertson was born in Harrah, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City. He began his acting career in the late 1940s while he was in the U.S. Army. While stationed at San Luis Obispo, California, Robertson went to Amos Carr Studio to have a picture taken for his mother. A copy of the photo displayed in the shop window attracted movie agents. When Robertson left for Hollywood, actor Will Rogers, Jr., the son of the Oklahoma legend, gave him this advice: "Don't ever take a dramatic lesson. They will try to put your voice in a dinner jacket, and people like their hominy and grits in everyday clothes." Robertson thereafter avoided formal acting lessons.

For most of his career, he played in Western movies and TV shows. His two best-remembered series were the Tales of Wells Fargo, in which he played a roving company 'trouble-shooter' named "Jim Hardie", and The Iron Horse, in which he won an incomplete railroad line in a poker game and took up the challenge of running it.

In its March 30, 1959, cover story on TV westerns, Time magazine reported that Robertson stood 6 feet tall, weighed 180 pounds, and had measurements of 42-34-34. Robertson sometimes made use of his physique in "beefcake" scenes such as the one in 1952's Return of the Texan when he's seen bare-chested and sweaty, repairing a fence.

In 1981 he was part of the original starring cast of ABC's popular Dynasty, playing Walter Lankershim, a character who disappeared after the first season. In 1985 it was revealed in the storyline that the character had died offscreen.

Robertson was also one of the hosts of the syndicated Death Valley Days during the 1960s. He is a well known rodeo speaker, having appeared at such events as the Pike's Peak or Bust Rodeo in Colorado Springs. He received the Golden Boot Award in 1985, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is also in the Hall of Great Western Performers. He is an inductee in the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He is retired on a ranch near Oklahoma City.

Harry Dean Stanton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born July 14, 1926 (1926-07-14) (age 82)
West Irvine, Kentucky

Harry Dean Stanton (born July 14, 1926) is an American actor.




Biography

Early life

Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, the son of Ersel (née Moberly), a hair dresser, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a tobacco farmer and barber.[1][2] His parents divorced when Stanton was in high school and later re-married. He has two younger brothers, Archie and Ralph, and a younger half-brother Stan. Stanton attended the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, where he studied journalism and radio arts. He also studied at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California. Stanton is a veteran of World War II. Harry is also known to be a big fan of rock n roll music, his favourites including Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Lance Lazer.


Career

Stanton has appeared in both indie and cult films (Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter, Escape from New York, Repo Man), as well as many mainstream Hollywood productions, including Cool Hand Luke, The Godfather Part II, Alien, Red Dawn, Pretty in Pink, and The Green Mile. He has been a favorite actor of Sam Peckinpah, John Milius, David Lynch, and Monte Hellman, and is also close friends with Francis Ford Coppola. His principal lead role was in Wim Wenders's film Paris, Texas.

Stanton is a favorite of film critic Roger Ebert who has said that "no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad." However Ebert later admitted that Dream a Little Dream (1989), in which Stanton appeared, was a "clear violation" of this rule.[3] In the DVD extra interview of Repo Man, Stanton deeply reviews his outlook on life in a way that is considered "Tao".

Stanton has also occasionally toured nightclubs as a singer/guitarist, playing mostly country-inflected cover tunes. He appeared in the Dwight Yoakam video, "Sorry You Asked". The role that Stanton is often associated with, the role of Travis in Paris, Texas, was originally to go to Sam Shepard at the urging of Wim Wenders.

He also plays Roman Grant, the manipulative leader/prophet of a polygamous sect of Mormonism in the HBO television series Big Love.

In an episode of season two of the series Two and a Half Men Harry Dean Stanton played a senile version of himself amongst other stars playing themselves, Sean Penn and Elvis Costello who attended Charlie Harper's (portrayed by Charlie Sheen), the series' main character, self-help group.

Nancy Olson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born Nancy Ann Olson
July 14, 1928 (1928-07-14) (age 79)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Years active 1948 - 1997
Spouse(s) Alan Jay Lerner (1950-1957)
Alan W. Livingston (1962-)

Nancy Ann Olson[1] (born July 14, 1928) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress.





Career

Olson was signed to a film contract by Paramount Pictures in 1948 and, after a few supporting roles, producers began to consider her for more prominent parts. She was up for the role of Delilah in Cecil B. De Mille's 1949 film Samson and Delilah, for which Olson later said she was not suited, and when she was passed over in favor of Hedy Lamarr, Billy Wilder signed her for his upcoming project. In Sunset Boulevard she played Betty Schaefer, a down-to-earth character who contrasted with the other eccentric and cynical ones, and she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her pairing with William Holden was considered a success and she appeared opposite him in other 1950s films, but none repeated their earlier success.

Olson's attempts to further her career were unsuccessful, though she did make several memorable appearances in films at The Walt Disney Company. The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber paired her with Fred MacMurray and were popular with movie-goers. She also appeared alongside Hayley Mills in Pollyanna and Dean Jones in Snowball Express. Olson then moved to New York City where she appeared on Broadway.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she did guest roles on television, and has been retired since the mid 1980s, although she made a brief, uncredited appearance in the 1997 remake of The Absent-Minded Professor titled Flubber.


Personal life

Olson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the daughter of Evelyn (née Bergstrom) and Henry J. Olson, who was a physician.[1] Olson married the lyricist Alan Jay Lerner in 1950 and did not seriously follow her acting career. They divorced in 1957. In 1962 she married longtime Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston, best known for creating "Bozo the Clown" and for signing Frank Sinatra and The Beatles, among other legends, with Capitol.

Polly Bergen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born Nellie Paulina Burgin
July 14, 1930 (1930-07-14) (age 78)
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Spouse(s) Jerome Courtland
(1954-1955)
Freddie Fields (1956-1975)
Jeffrey Endervelt
(1982-1990)
Awards won
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie
1957 The Helen Morgan Story

Polly Bergen (born Nellie Paulina Burgin, July 14, 1930, Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American Emmy Award-winning actress, singer, and entrepreneur.





Biography

Career

Bergen appeared in many film roles, notably in the original Cape Fear (1962) opposite Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum.

She captured an Emmy award for her portrayal of singer Helen Morgan on an episode of the 1950s television series Playhouse 90. Bergen had her own recording career for Columbia Records during that era.

She was a regular panelist on the CBS game show To Tell the Truth during its debut run. She earned an Emmy nomination for her role as Rhoda Henry in two ABC miniseries, The Winds of War and its sequel War and Remembrance. She starred in a 2001 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies at the Belasco Theater and received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

She also appeared on HBO's The Sopranos as the former mistress of Tony Soprano's father, Fran Felstein, a former acquaintance of John F. Kennedy.

In 2007, Bergen had a role in Desperate Housewives as Lynette Scavo's mother, Stella Wingfield.

Bergen became a semi-regular cast member of 2006's Commander-in-Chief as the mother of a President of the United States played by Geena Davis. Bergen had herself once played the first female President of the United States in the 1964 film Kisses for My President.

Another of recent appearances came in CBS' Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation Candles on Bay Street (2006), in which she played the assistant to a husband-and-wife team of veterinarians. In the 1950's , she was also known as " The Pepsi Cola Girl " ,having done a series of commercials for that product . http://www.pepsinut.com/pepsi_stars.htm


Personal life

In 1965, she created the Polly Bergen Co. cosmetics line. She also is the founder of personal jewelry and shoe brands and the author of three books on beauty.

Bergen converted to Judaism[citation needed] after having married Hollywood talent agent Freddie Fields, by whom she had one biological child and two adopted children. She had previously been a Southern Baptist; a grandfather was a Baptist minister.[citation needed]

She had two other marriages that also ended in divorce. When not working, Bergen lives in Connecticut.

Bergen is also the aunt of acclaimed television producer Wendy Riche.

The Rude Parrot

David received a parrot for his birthday. The parrot was fully grown with a bad attitude and worse vocabulary. Every other word was an obscenity. Those that weren't expletives, were to say the least, rude. David tried hard to change the bird's attitude and was constantly saying polite words, playing soft music, anything he could think of. Nothing worked. He yelled at the bird and the bird yelled back. He shocked the bird and the bird just got more angry and more rude. Finally, in a moment of desperation, David put the bird in the freezer, just for a few moments. He heard the bird squawk and kick and scream-then suddenly, there was quiet.

David was frightened that he might have hurt the bird and quickly opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'll endeavor at once to correct my behavior. I really am truly sorry and beg your forgiveness." David was astonished at the bird's change in attitude and was about to ask what had made such a dramatic change when the parrot continued, "May I ask what did the chicken say?"

bobsmythhawk, thanks for helping me start my day with a chuckle.

Gap-toothed actor Terry Thomas was in many movie comedies. One of them, How to Murder Your Wife featured this song on it's soundtrack. This is my favorite version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS9FJwMoJaM

Here's a clip from the same movie with some catchy background music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh9Qg0XKZTI