You're right, edgar. He ain't in it. Thanks for the trailer, however.
Well, folks, I know that I didn't see this one, but I'll bet it was fun. Who knows about UFO's.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4vJQH4o4pAE
Letty wrote
Quote:quote for today Bush: Troubled financial system is basically sound
Bush must be listening to this--and believing it.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wjVrFN9lbpk
firefly, I loved that pig latin, and I know both those songs, dear. They were perfect.
edgar, I recall vividly waking up in the middle of the night when we were in Virginia, hearing Deep Night by Rudy Vallee. Love that song, buddy.
Speaking of pig latin, there's also dulfuble talfalk. That would be double talk in English.
How about this one, folks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlnMjB6LNGA
Wow! those guys really swing, firefly. Thanks for the reminder!
This one is in response to edgar's Rudy Vallee. He also had a role in Auntie Mame. funny bit of dialogue, folks.
Mr. Babcock(a lawyer) to Patrick: You're a bully little boy.
Patrick: Thank you. You're bully, too, Mr. Babcock.
Young Rudy, folks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rZUd-_-eo8
Now listen to old blue eyes do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1EDlNuWSJw
I just listened to the other videos. Rudy isd just so good. Right now I'm hearing the Sinatra performance.
A friend wrote this (it's copyighted) - thought I would share it.
Verse 1
My hands are here to guide you my eyes look into your soul
My ears are there to listen to your heart
And my nose to sense your sweetness
And this I pray our love will last a fate forever binding
Like the sea will always meet the shore and the sun forever shining
Verse 2
With wings to rise that will not stray or ever to stop flying
In oceans of sadness you make my soul blossom
We look out together in the same direction
Something to hope for something to do
Our love it has no boundaries like the blue serenity of the sky
Chorus
But oh we share everything that seems invisible
Like one soul in our two bodies
Burning with such fearless daring
I am me when I'm with you
I am me Iam me when I'm with you
Verse 3
Maybe time it has no meaning like the distance between the stars
But there's nothing as close as our heaven
For god only knows we can have it all
Our hands to hold on forever never wanting to let go
The love we share together nothing changing like time for evermore
Chorus - and Repeat
edgar, that is lovely. Just wish we could hear the melody, Texas.
I particularly like the idea of "..just being me.."
Here's an interesting jazz song, folks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2nc3ogue8c
Hope this works. My little studio equipment is a mite messed up.
Hee, hee. I can't understand it either, edgar. I think valse may mean waltz.
Here's one that most of us understand by the little sparrow.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vQZJB6WFAn0&feature=related
and here's why.
Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is La vie en rose
When you kiss me heaven sighs
And tho I close my eyes
I see La vie en rose
When you press me to your heart
I'm in a world apart
A world where roses bloom
And when you speak...angels sing from above
Everyday words seem...to turn into love songs
Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose
It's been lovely, but now it's Time to Say Goodbye. This seems a fitting way to end this multilingual musical day.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrfvP11Hbo
firefly, what a lovely song. Don't have to know Italian to get that message. You do, of course, mean goodnight. Thanks for the beauty, dear.
Time for me to say goodnight as well, folks, and here's one I really like, and although we have heard it before, I think it's worth a replay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd40mBrEB8g&feature=related
As ever, dear audience,
From Letty with love
Good morning, WA2K radio audience.
Welcome back, RH. What a lovely song by Tanya. The title is intriguing as well; "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane" says quite a bit, dear, and we all understand the power of love.
Well, folks, today is Michael Flatley's birthday, so how about a river dance. We could all use the exercise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOoPUlObPs4&feature=related
Percy Kilbride
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Percy Kilbride (July 16, 1888 - December 11, 1964), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Irish immigrants. Kilbride was a popular character actor. Despite being raised in a big city, he made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as lazy Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle movie series.
Kilbride began working in theater at the age of 12 and eventually left his young son and young daughter to become an actor on Broadway. Ironically in light of his most familiar roles, he first played an 18th-century French dandy in A Tale of Two Cities.
His film debut was as Jakey in White Woman in 1933. He left Broadway for good in 1942.
In 1945 he appeared in The Southerner.
In 1947 he and Marjorie Main played the supporting parts of Ma and Pa Kettle in The Egg and I, starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert. Those were followed by the popular Ma and Pa Kettle series with Kilbride and Main playing the main characters, during which time he also played in other movies.
Kilbride retired after making the 1955 film Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki He did, however, take a small role in Son of Flubber in 1963.
He died in Los Angeles, California, after having been struck by a car while walking near his home with a friend.
Kilbride left his estate to the four nephews and a sister of his wife.
Barbara Stanwyck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Ruby Catherine Stevens
July 16, 1907(1907-07-16)
New York City, New York, USA
Died January 20, 1990 (aged 82)
Santa Monica, California, USA
Years active 1927-1986
Spouse(s) Frank Fay (1928-1935)
Robert Taylor (1939-1951)
Awards won
Academy Awards
Academy Honorary Award
1982 Life achievement
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series
1961 The Barbara Stanwyck Show
1966 The Big Valley
Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries/Movie
1983 The Thorn Birds
Golden Globe Awards
Best Supporting Actress - Miniseries
1984 The Thorn Birds
Cecil B. DeMille Award
1986 Lifetime achievement
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Life Achievement Award
1966 Lifetime Archievement
Other Awards
AFI Life Achievement Award
1987 Lifetime Achievement
Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 - January 20, 1990) was a four-time Academy Award-nominated, three-time Emmy Award-winning, and Golden Globe-winning American actress of film, stage, and screen. She is ranked as the eleventh greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute.[1]
Biography
Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens in New York City to Catherine Ann McPhee, a Canadian immigrant from Nova Scotia, and Byron E. Stevens, an American.[2] When she was two, her mother, who was pregnant at the time, died after being pushed off a moving trolley by a drunk. By age four, her father had abandoned the family. She was raised in foster homes and by an elder sister, but began working at age 13, and was a fashion model and Ziegfeld Girl by the age of 15. She was reared in Brooklyn, New York, where she attended Erasmus Hall High School.[3]
In 1926, Stanwyck began performing at the Hudson Theatre in the drama The Noose, which became one of the biggest hit plays of the season. She co-starred with actors Rex Cherryman and Wilfred Lucas. Cherryman and Stanwyck began a romantic relationship.[citation needed] The relationship was cut short however, when in 1928, Cherryman died at the age of 30 of septic poisoning while vacationing in Le Havre, France. Her performance in The Noose earned rave reviews, and she was summoned by film producer Bob Kane to make a screen test for his upcoming 1927 silent film Broadway Nights where she won a minor part of a fan dancer after losing out the lead role, because she couldn't cry during the screen test.[4] This marked Stanwyck's first film appearance.
Career
In 1926, a friend introduced Stanwyck (then known under her original name) to Willard Mack, who was casting his play The Noose. Asked to audition, she was hired on the spot. Willard thought a great deal of the actress and believed that to change her image, she needed a first class name, one that would stand out. He happened to notice a playbill for a play then running called Barbara Frietchie in which an actress named Jane Stanwyck appeared. He used this to come up with "Barbara Stanwyck" as Ruby's new stage name. She was an instant hit and he even rewrote the script to give her a bigger part.
Stanwyck starred in almost 100 films during her career and received four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Stella Dallas (1937), Ball of Fire (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). In 1954 she appeared opposite Ronald Reagan in the western Cattle Queen of Montana. Perhaps her most famous role was in the 1941 film The Lady Eve, in which she starred with Henry Fonda.
As well as being a versatile actress Stanwyck also had a reputation as being one of the nicest people ever to grace Hollywood.[citation needed] She was known for her accessibility and kindness to the backstage crew on any film set. Frank Capra said she was "destined to be beloved by all directors, actors, crews and extras. In a Hollywood popularity contest she would win first prize hands down." She received an Academy Honorary Award "for superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting" in 1982.
When Stanwyck's film career declined in 1957, she moved to television. Her 1961-1962 series The Barbara Stanwyck Show was not a ratings success but earned the star her first Emmy Award. The 1965-1969 Western series The Big Valley on ABC made her one of the most popular actresses on television, winning her another Emmy. She was billed as "Miss Barbara Stanwyck," and her role as head of a frontier family was likened to that of Ben Cartwright, played by Lorne Greene in the long-running NBC series Bonanza. Stanwyck's costars included Richard Long (who had been in Stanwyck's 1953 film All I Desire), Peter Breck, Linda Evans, and Lee Majors.
Years later, Stanwyck earned her third Emmy for The Thorn Birds. In 1985, she made three guest appearances on the hit primetime soap opera Dynasty prior to the launch of its ill-fated spin-off series The Colbys in which Stanwyck starred alongside Charlton Heston, Stephanie Beacham and Katharine Ross. Stanwyck remained with the series for only one season (it only lasted for two), and her role as Constance Colby Patterson would prove to be her last. Ironically, Earl Hamner Jr. (producer of The Waltons) had initially wanted Stanwyck for the lead role of Angela Channing on the successful 1980s soap opera, Falcon Crest, but she turned it down. The role ultimately went to Jane Wyman.
William Holden always credited her with saving his career when they co-starred in Golden Boy. They remained lifelong friends. Stanwyck and Holden were presenting the Best Sound Oscar. Holden paused to pay a special tribute to Stanwyck. Shortly after Holden's death, Stanwyck returned the favor at an awards ceremony, with an emotional reference to "her golden boy."
In 1973, she was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1987 the American Film Institute awarded her a televised AFI Life Achievement Award. Stanwyck has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street.
Personal life
Her first husband was actor Frank Fay. They were married on August 26, 1928. On December 5, 1932 they adopted a son, Dion Anthony "Tony" Fay, who was one month old. (He and Stanwyck eventually became estranged.) The marriage was a troubled one; Fay's successful career on Broadway did not translate to the big screen, whereas Stanwyck achieved Hollywood stardom, after a short bumpy start. Also, Fay reportedly did not shy away from physical confrontations with his young wife, especially when he was inebriated. Some film historians claim that the marriage was the basis for A Star is Born.[5] The couple divorced on December 30, 1935. Rumors of Stanwyck's sexuality have lingered for decades, with it being said that she was in fact lesbian or bisexual, and that she'd had an affair with actress Tallulah Bankhead, during the same time frame that Bankhead was having her affair with actress Patsy Kelly.[6] While such rumors were never confirmed by Miss Stanwyck, similar stories about her are featured in books about lesbians in Hollywood.
Stanwyck and actor Robert Taylor began living together. Their 1939 marriage was arranged with the help of the studio, a common practice in Hollywood's golden age. She and Taylor enjoyed their time together outdoors during the early years of their marriage, and were the proud owners of many acres of prime West Los Angeles property. Their large ranch and home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, Los Angeles, California is still to this day referred to by locals as the old "Robert Taylor ranch".
Taylor would have several affairs during the marriage, including one with Ava Gardner. Stanwyck was rumored to have attempted suicide when she learned of Taylor's fling with Lana Turner. She ultimately filed for divorce in 1950 when a starlet made her romance with Taylor public. The decree was granted on February 21, 1951. Even after the divorce, they still acted together in Stanwyck's last feature film The Night Walker (1964). Stanwyck was reportedly devastated when many of his old letters and photos were lost in a house fire. She never remarried, collecting alimony of 15 percent of Taylor's salary until his death in 1969.
Her sister-in-law was B-movie actress Caryl Lincoln, who had married Stanwyck's brother, Byron Stevens, whom Lincoln had met through her friendship with Stanwyck. The two would remain married until Stevens' death in 1964, having one son, Brian.
Later years
Her retirement years were active, with charity work done completely out of the limelight. She became somewhat reclusive following a robbery in her home while she was present; she was pushed into a closet, but suffered no serious physical injury.
She died of congestive heart disease at St. John's Hospital, in Santa Monica, California.
Ginger Rogers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Virginia Katherine McMath
July 16, 1911(1911-07-16)
Independence, Missouri
Died April 25, 1995 (aged 83)
Rancho Mirage, California
Spouse(s) Jack Pepper (1929-1931)
Lew Ayres (1934-1941)
Jack Briggs (1943-1949)
Jacques Bergerac (1953-1957)
William Marshall (1961-1969)
Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Actress
1940 Kitty Foyle
Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 - April 25, 1995) was an Academy Award-winning American film and stage actress, dancer and singer. In a film career spanning fifty years she made a total of 73 films, and is now principally celebrated for her role as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre.
Early life
Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri, the daughter of William Eddins McMath, of Scottish ancestry, and his wife Lela Owens, of Welsh ancestry. Her mother separated from Rogers' father soon after her birth, and mother and daughter went to live with the Walter Owens family in nearby Kansas City. Ginger was close to her grandfather and she later (1939) bought him a home in Sherman Oaks, California (5115 Greenbush Ave) so that he could be close to her while she was filming at the studios.
Rogers' parents divorced and fought for custody, with her father even kidnapping her twice. After they divorced, Rogers stayed with her grandparents, Walter and Saphrona Owens, while her mother wrote scripts for two years in Hollywood. Several of Rogers' cousins had a hard time pronouncing her first name Virginia, shortening it to "Ginya".
When Rogers was nine years old, her mother got remarried to a man named John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the name of Rogers, although she was never legally adopted. They lived in Fort Worth, Texas, and her mother became a theater critic for a local newspaper, the Fort Worth Record.
As a teenager, Rogers thought of teaching school, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her young exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of the Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along to the performers on stage.
Vaudeville
Rogers' entertainment career was born one night when the traveling vaudeville act of Eddie Foy came to Fort Worth and needed a quick stand-in. She would enter and win a Charleston contest and then hit the road on a Vaudeville tour. She and her mother would tour for four years. During this time her mother divorced John Rogers, but kept his surname.
At 17 years old, Rogers married Jack Culpepper, another dancer on the circuit. The marriage was over within months, and she went back to touring with her mother. When the tour got to New York City, she stayed, getting radio singing jobs and then her Broadway theater debut in a musical called Top Speed, which opened on Christmas Day, 1929.
Film career
1929-1933
Rogers' first movie roles were in a trio of short films made in 1929 ?- Night in the Dormitory, A Day of a Man of Affairs, and Campus Sweethearts.
Within two weeks of opening in Top Speed, Rogers was hired to star on Broadway in Girl Crazy by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin. Fred Astaire was hired to help the dancers with their choreography, Rogers dated him for a while. Her appearance in Girl Crazy made her an overnight star at the age of 19. In 1930 she was signed with Paramount Pictures for a seven-year contract.
Rogers would soon get herself out of the Paramount contract -- under which she had made films at Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens -- and move with her mother to Hollywood. When she got to California, she signed a three-picture deal with Pathé, which resulted in three forgettable pictures. She received bit parts for singing and dancing for most of 1932, as well as being named as one of fifteen "WAMPAS Baby Stars", a list which that year also included future Hollywood legend Gloria Stuart. She then made her screen breakthrough in the Warner Brothers film 42nd Street (1933). She went on to make a series of films with RKO Radio Pictures and, in the second of those, Flying Down to Rio (1933), she again met up with Fred Astaire.
1933-1939: Astaire and Rogers
Rogers was most famous for her partnership with Fred Astaire. Together, from 1933 to 1939 they made nine musical films at RKO and in so doing, revolutionized the Hollywood musical, introducing dance routines of unprecedented elegance and virtuosity, set to songs specially composed for them by the greatest popular song composers of the day. To this day, "Fred and Ginger" remains an almost automatic reference for any successful dance partnership.
Croce, Hyam and Mueller all consider Rogers to have been Astaire's finest dance partner, principally due to her ability to combine dancing skills, natural beauty and exceptional abilities as a dramatic actress and comedienne, thus truly complementing Astaire: a peerless dancer who sometimes struggled as an actor and was not considered classically handsome. The resulting song and dance partnership enjoyed a unique credibility in the eyes of audiences, as bluntly expressed by Katharine Hepburn: "She gives him sex, he gives her class." Most of the films in which the two appeared had several very difficult numbers to be rehearsed dozens of times. During Swing Time, the highlighted dance in which the pair had to dance up and down a flight of stairs was shot 99 times. There was even a take where Astaire's hair piece flew off.[citation needed] Of the 33 partnered dances she filmed with Astaire, Croce and Mueller have highlighted the infectious spontaneity of her performances in the comic numbers "I'll Be Hard to Handle" from Roberta (1935), "I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket" from Follow the Fleet (1936) and "Pick Yourself Up" from Swing Time (1936). They also point to the use Astaire made of her remarkably flexible back in classic romantic dances such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" from Roberta (1935), "Cheek to Cheek" from Top Hat (1935) and "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from Follow the Fleet (1936). For special praise, they have singled out her performance in the "Waltz in Swing Time" from Swing Time (1936), which is generally considered to be the most virtuosic partnered routine ever committed to film by Astaire. She generally avoided solo dance performances: Astaire always included at least one virtuoso solo routine in each film while Rogers only ever performed one: "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet (1936).
Although the dance routines were choreographed by Astaire and his assistant Hermes Pan, both have acknowledged Rogers' input into the process, and have also testified to her consummate professionalism, even during periods of intense strain as she tried to juggle her many other contractual film commitments with the punishing rehearsal schedules of Astaire, who made at most two films in any one year. In 1986, shortly before his death, Astaire remarked: "All the girls I ever danced with thought they couldn't do it, but of course they could. So they always cried. All except Ginger. No no, Ginger never cried". John Mueller sums up Rogers' abilities as follows: "Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began...the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable". According to Astaire, "Ginger had never danced with a partner before. She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after a while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong."
Rogers also introduced some celebrated numbers from the Great American Songbook, songs such as Harry Warren and Al Dubin's "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're in the Money)" from Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), "Music Makes Me" from Flying Down to Rio (1933), "The Continental" from The Gay Divorcee (1934), Irving Berlin's "Let Yourself Go" from Follow the Fleet (1936) and the Gershwins' "Embraceable You" from Girl Crazy and "They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus)" from Shall We Dance (1937). Furthermore, in song duets with Astaire, she co-introduced Berlin's "I'm Putting all My Eggs in One Basket" from Follow the Fleet (1936), Jerome Kern's "Pick Yourself Up" and "A Fine Romance" from Swing Time (1936) and the Gershwins' "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" from Shall We Dance (1937).
After 1939
In 1939, Rogers requested a break from musicals saying "I don't want to make a musical for the next year. Don't get me wrong?-I'm not ungrateful for what musicals have accomplished for me. However for the last four years I've been doing the same thing with minor variations." After breaking with Astaire, her first role was opposite David Niven in Bachelor Mother. In 1941 Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in 1940s Kitty Foyle. She enjoyed considerable success during the early 1940s, and was RKO's hottest property during this period, however, by the end of this decade her film career was in decline. Arthur Freed reunited her with Fred Astaire for one last time in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) which, while very successful, failed to revive Rogers's flagging career, although she continued to obtain parts throughout the 1950s. She played Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway in 1965. In 1956 Ginger Rogers was the debut act at the grand opening of Hotel Riviera in Havana Cuba, dictator Fulgencio Batista's collaboration project with gangster Meyer Lansky.
In later life, Rogers remained on good terms with Astaire: she presented him with a special Academy Award in 1950, and they teamed up in 1967 as co-presenters of individual Academy Awards. The Kennedy Center honored Ginger Rogers in December 1992, an event which when shown on television, was somewhat marred when Astaire's widow, Robyn Smith (who permitted clips of Astaire dancing with Rogers to be shown for free at the function, itself), was unable to agree terms with CBS for broadcast rights to the clips.[1]
Personal life
In 1940, Rogers purchased a 1000-acre (4 km²) ranch between Shady Cove, Oregon and Eagle Point, Oregon, along the Rogue River, just north of Medford. The ranch, named the 4-R's (for Rogers's Rogue River Ranch), is where she would live, along with her mother, when not doing her Hollywood business, for 50 years. The ranch was also a dairy, and supplied milk to Camp White for the war effort during World War II. Rogers loved to fish the Rogue every summer. She sold the ranch in 1990 and moved to Medford.
Rogers, who was an only child, lived for much of her life with her mother, Lela Rogers (1891-1977), who was a newspaper reporter, scriptwriter, and movie producer. Lela was also one of the first women to enlist in the Marine Corps, and was a founder of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals.
Rogers' mother "named names" to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and both mother and daughter were staunchly anti-Communist. They had an extremely close mother-daughter relationship ?- Rogers's mother even denied Rogers's father visitation rights after their divorce.
Rogers' first marriage was to her dancing partner Jack Pepper (real name Edward Jackson Culpepper) on March 29, 1929. They divorced in 1931, having separated soon after the wedding. In 1934, she married her second husband, actor Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996). They separated quickly and were divorced in 1941. In 1943, she married her third husband, Jack Briggs, a Marine. They divorced in 1949.
In 1953, Rogers married her fourth husband, lawyer Jacques Bergerac. 16 years her junior, he became an actor and then a cosmetics company executive. They divorced in 1957 and he soon remarried actress Dorothy Malone. In 1961, she married her fifth husband, director and producer William Marshall. They divorced in 1971.
Rogers was good friends with Lucille Ball (a distant cousin on her mother's side) for many years until Ball's death in 1989, at the age of 77. Ball did not seem to share Rogers's political views, but evidently still enjoyed her friendship, as did Bette Davis, a Democrat who definitely did not share Rogers's views and called her a "moralist", but still professed to enjoying her company.
Rogers was a cousin of actress/writer/socialite Phyllis Fraser (whose acting career was brief).
It has been said in books and other publications that Rogers was Rita Hayworth's cousin but they were not blood relatives. Their connection is as follows: Hayworth's mother's brother, Vinton Hayworth (Hayworth's uncle), was married to Rogers's mother's sister, Jean Owens (Rogers's aunt).
Rogers would spend the winters in Rancho Mirage, California, and the summers in Medford, Oregon. Ginger Rogers died on April 25, 1995, of congestive heart failure, at the age of 83, in Rancho Mirage, and was cremated. Her ashes are interred in the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California.
Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater
The Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater opened in 1924 in Medford, Oregon, USA. Originally, the theater featured silent films and then later new releases, but eventually lost popularity. In 1997, the theater was revitalized and reopened with the present name.[1]
The theater now seats 734 patrons, with 529 on the floor and 205 in the balcony. The stage is elevated 32 inches (81 centimeters), is 82 feet (25 meters) wide, and is 31 feet (9.5 meters) deep. The theater provides two group dressing rooms and two star dressing rooms.[1]
Portrayals of Rogers
A musical about the life of Rogers, entitled Backwards in High Heels, premiered in Florida in early 2007.[2]
Quotations about Rogers
"Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels."[3]
"Fred gave Ginger class, and Ginger gave Fred sex." Katharine Hepburn, actress. Variants include "Astaire gave her class, and Rogers gave him sex" and "He gave her class, and she gave him sex appeal."
Michael Flatley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Personal information
Full name Michael Ryan Flatley
Date of birth 16 July 1958 (1958-07-16) (age 50)
Place of birth Chicago, Illinois, United States
Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Irish step dancer from the south side of the country. His parents were from County Sligo and County Carlow. As a child, he moved to Chicago - the city which he considers his home town. He began dancing lessons at 11 and, in 1975, became the first non-European resident to win the All-Ireland World Championship for Irish dance. As a trained boxer he won the Chicago Golden Gloves Championship in 1975. Flatley is also known as being a proficient flautist, having twice won the All-Ireland Competition. His first dance teachers were his mother and his grandmother Hannah Ryan, an Irish horse dancing champion. After graduating from Brother Rice High School, on Chicago's South Side, he opened a dance school.
Career
His first professional break came when he joined The Chieftains for tours in the 1980s. He co-created the initial choreography for Riverdance and, with fellow lead dancer Jean Butler, led the show to great success as the intermission act in the Eurovision Song Contest on April 30, 1994. Flatley and Butler then starred in the full-length show that was developed from the original seven-minute act. After leaving the show due to creative disagreements,[1] Flatley produced, directed, and choreographed his own show, Lord of the Dance. In 1998, Flatley put together a dance production called Feet of Flames, a version of which toured the US in 2000 and 2001.
Flatley's current Irish dance show is Celtic Tiger, which opened in July 2005. The show explores the history of the Irish people and Irish immigration to the US and fuses a wide range of dance styles, including jazz. The show also includes popular elements from his previous shows, such as Flatley's flute solos and the line of dancers in the finale. Flatley released his own autobiographical book titled Lord of the Dance: My Story in March 2006. Regarding his future plans, Flatley was quoted in the Celtic Tiger program book as saying, "I will be a dancer until the day I die."
Awards and recognition
Flatley received the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship in 1988 and was named one of National Geographic Society's Living Treasures in 1991 for mastery of a traditional art form - the youngest person at that time ever to receive this accolade. In May of 1989, Flatley set a Guinness Book world record for tapping speed at 28 taps per second; when this record was broken, he set another record in February of 1998, by achieving 35 foot taps per second.[2] The current record holder is Michael Donnellan, at 40 taps per second.
The dancer also received Guinness Book recognition in both 1999 and 2000 for being the highest paid dancer, earning $1,600,000 per week and for having the highest insurance premium placed on a dancer's legs at $40,000,000.[3]
In September 2000, Flatley was awarded the prestigious 'Coq Flambee' by the Sorbonne, Paris, for his commitment to the furtherance of Franco-Irish 'relations'.[citation needed] In December 2001, Flatley became the first recipient of the Irish Dancing Commission Fellowship award, an honorary degree in Irish dance, and was simultaneously made a Fellow of the American Irish Dance Teachers' Association. Irish America Magazine named Flatley Irish American of the Year in March 2003. On the 3rd June 2007 The Freedom of the City of Cork was conferred on the entertainer at a ceremony in Cork's City Hall. In 2008, he was conferred with the freedom of the borough of Sligo at a ceremony in Sligo City Hall
Personal life
In 1986 Flatley wed Polish make-up artist Beata Dziaba, but was divorced 11 years later. He battled bouts of depression and drinking after the break-up, and admitted, "When I wasn't involved in a show I would sometimes be drunk for two weeks at a time." He then had a series of relationships and in 2002 became engaged to his long-term girlfriend Lisa Murphy but they eventually broke up. [4]
In April 2006, Flatley spoke about his recent discovery of a facial skin cancer.[5] He kept the cancer scare a closely-guarded secret, but said, "I'm completely fine now, thank God."
At the 10th Anniversary of Lord of the Dance in June of 2006, Michael Flatley was accompanied by dancer Niamh O'Brien who dances with Flatley in Celtic Tiger. O'Brien, who is in her 30s, has danced with Flatley in Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, and now Celtic Tiger. The two shortly thereafter announced that they were dating, and married in "a low-key Catholic ceremony " in Fermoy Co. Cork on Saturday October 14th 2006.[6]
On November 15, 2006, Flatley's website reported that he had been admitted to hospital. According to media reports, he was suffering from a serious viral infection.[7][8] All his up-and-coming shows for Celtic Tiger were cancelled. He left hospital three days later.[9]
Michael and Niamh became parents to their first child, a son, Michael St. James Flatley, on Thursday 26th April 2007.[6]
Flatley, who is worth £350 million[10], has homes in Barbados, Chicago, France, Ireland and London.
In the fall of 2007, Flatley and a troupe of male dancers performed on Dancing with the Stars in the USA.
Flatley is expected to be opening a multi-million dollar Las Vegas hotel and casino in the coming years.
Attempted extortion against Flatley
In 2006, a woman named Tyna Marie Robertson, a real estate agent, with whom Flatley had had a short relationship in 2002, claimed Flatley had raped her. After Flatley denied the allegations and refused to pay a settlement ranging in the millions, she brought a $33m claim against him. However, the civil action was dismissed, and Flatley then filed a counter-suit against Robertson and her lawyer D. Dean Mauro, for extortion, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation.
In July 2006 The California Supreme Court held that Mauro had committed extortion, and the lawyer settled by making "a substantial payment." In December 2007 Flatley accepted a settlement of $11m from Robertson after convincing the California Supreme Court the accusations brought against him were false and part of a million-dollar extortion scheme. On the successful outcome of his counter-suit, Flatley commented: "Ms Robertson tried to extort money from me by spreading these lies and the court sent a message that it will not tolerate these types of schemes."[7][11]
References in popular culture
A line from the Irish Eurovision song 2008 by Dustin the Turkey refers to Flatley: "Give us another chance, we're sorry for riverdance, sure Flately he's a yank"
The popular American sitcom Friends also mentions Flatley in a scene where it is revealed that he is a phenomenon that scares the beejeezus out of Chandler. "His legs flail about as if independent from his body!"
Michael Flatley was portrayed in a fight against Bill Gates in an episode of Celebrity Deathmatch.
