WA2K Radio is now on the air

Glimmers of spring. Cold winds losing their bite under the welcome warmth of the sun. Days growing longer and brighter, filling us with hope and expectations for the months to come. It's like someone left the refridgerator door open, and we inside it are very grateful...

Cyracuz, Welcome back, Norway. That is poetically said, my friend.

Have you any requests?

and, listeners, while we wait for our Cyracuz to think of something, here's our person of the day:


TURIN, Italy (AFP) - Canada's Clara Hughes celebrated her Olympic Games 5000m speedskating gold medal by revealing that she was going to donate every penny she has in her bank account to charity.



Hughes will donate 10,000 dollars to the Right to Play organisation which aims to encourage disadvantaged youngsters to improve themselves through sport.

"This morning, in my room, I watched a documentary and I understood the power of sport has to give joy and hope to the world," said Hughes.

"I said to myself that I have 10,000 dollars in my bank account and I am going to donate it.

"I challenge Canadians to contribute to their means because sport can bring joy and happiness."

Salute to Clara. Her honest gesture is better than the medal she wears.

Good morning!

Got any good tunes about waking up with a kink in your neck?

Going pillow shopping today, I think.

Victor Hugo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Victor-Marie Hugo (February 26, 1802 - May 22, 1885) is recognized as one of the most influential French Romantic writers of the 19th century and is often identified as the greatest French writer. His best-known works are doubtless the novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), poetry was another of his vocations: among many volumes, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Though extremely conservative in his youth, he moved to the political left as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism and of a European Union. His work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time.

Early life and influences


Victor Hugo was the youngest son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo (1773-1828) and Sophie Trébuchet (1772-1821). He was born in 1802 in Besançon (in the region of Franche-Comté) and lived in France for the majority of his life. However, he chose to go into exile during the reign of Napoleon III ?- he lived briefly in Brussels during 1851; in Jersey from 1852 to 1855; and in Guernsey from 1855 to 1870 and again in 1872-1873.

Hugo's early childhood was turbulent. The century prior to his birth saw the overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty in the French Revolution, the rise and fall of the First Republic, and the rise of the First French Empire and dictatorship under Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor two years after Hugo's birth, and the Bourbon Monarchy was restored before his eighteenth birthday. The opposing political and religious views of Hugo's parents reflected the forces that would battle for supremacy in France throughout his life: Hugo's father was a high-ranking officer in Napoleon's army, an atheist republican who considered Napoleon a hero; his mother was a staunch Catholic Royalist who is believed to have taken as her lover General Victor Lahorie, who was executed in 1812 for plotting against Napoleon.

Sophie followed her husband to posts in Italy (where Léopold served as a governor of a province near Naples) and Spain (where he took charge of three Spanish provinces). Weary of the constant moving required by military life, and at odds with her unfaithful husband, Sophie separated permanently from Léopold in 1803 and settled in Paris. Thereafter she dominated Hugo's education and upbringing. As a result, Hugo's early work in poetry and fiction reflect a passionate devotion to both King and Faith. It was only later, during the events leading up to France's 1848 Revolution, that he would begin to rebel against his Catholic Royalist education and instead champion Republicanism and Freethought.



Like many young writers of his generation, Hugo was profoundly influenced by François-René de Chateaubriand, the founder of Romanticism and France's preeminent literary figure duing the early 1800s. In his youth, Hugo resolved to be "Chateaubriand or nothing," and his life would come to parallel that of his predecessor's in many ways. Like Chateaubriand, Hugo would further the cause of Romanticism, become involved in politics as a champion of Republicanism, and be forced into exile due to his political stances.

The precocious passion and eloquence of Hugo's early work brought success and fame at an early age. His first collection of poetry (Nouvelles Odes et Poésies Diverses) was published in 1824, when Hugo was only twenty two years old, and earned him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. Though the poems were admired for their spontaneous fervor and fluency, it was the collection that followed two years later in 1826 (Odes et Ballades) that revealed Hugo to be a great poet, a natural master of lyric and creative song.

Against his mother's wishes, young Victor fell in love and became secretly engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Adèle Foucher (1803-1868). Unusually close to his mother, it was only after her death in 1821 that he felt free to marry Adèle (in 1822). He published his first novel the following year (Han d'Islande, 1823), and his second three years later (Bug-Jargal, 1826). Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five more volumes of poetry (Les Orientales, 1829; Les Feuilles d'automne, 1831; Les Chants du crépuscule, 1835; Les Voix intérieures, 1837; and Les Rayons et les ombres, 1840), cementing his reputation as one of the greatest eligiac and lyric poets of his time.


Theatrical work


Hugo did not achieve such quick success with his works for the stage. In 1827, he published the never-staged verse drama Cromwell, which became more famous for the author's preface than its own worth (the play's unwieldy length was considered "unfit for acting"). In his introduction to the work, Hugo urged his fellow artists to free themselves from the restrictions imposed by the French classical style of theatre, and thus sparked a fierce debate between French Classicism and Romanticism that would rage for many years. Cromwell was followed in 1828 by the disastrous Amy Robsart, an experimental play from his youth based on the Walter Scott novel Kenilworth, which was produced under the name of his brother-in-law Paul Foucher and managed to survive only one performance before a less-than-appreciative audience.

The first play of Hugo's to be accepted for production under his own name was Marion de Lorme. Though initially banned by the censors for its unflattering portrayal of the French monarchy, it was eventually allowed to premiere uncensored in 1829, but without success. However, the play that Hugo produced the following year?-Hernani?-would prove to be one of the most successful and groundbreaking events of nineteenth-century French theatre, the opening night of which became known as the "The Battle of Hernani". Today the work is largely forgotten, except as the basis for the Verdi opera of the same name. However, at the time, performances of the work sparked near-riots between opposing camps of French letters and society: Classicists vs. Romantics, Liberals vs. Conformists, and Republicans vs. Royalists. The play was largely condemned by the press, but played to full houses night after night, and all but crowned Hugo as the preeminent leader of French Romanticism. It also signalled that Hugo's concept of Romanticism was growing increasingly politicized: Hugo believed that just as Liberalism in politics would free the country from the tyranny of monarchy and dictatorship, Romanticism would liberate the arts from the constraints of Classicism.

In 1832 Hugo followed the success of Hernani with Le roi s'amuse (The King Takes His Amusement). The play was promptly banned by the censors after only one performance, due to its overt mockery of the French nobility, but then went on to be very popular in printed form. Incensed by the ban, Hugo wrote his next play, Lucréce Borgia (see: Lucrezia Borgia), in only fourteen days. It subsequently appeared on the stage in 1833, to great success. Mademoiselle George (former mistress of Napoleon) was cast in the main role, and an actress named Juliette Drouet played a subordinate part. However, Drouet would go on to play a major role in Hugo's personal life, becoming his life-long mistress and muse. While Hugo had many romantic escapades throughout his life, Drouet was recognized even by his wife to have a unique relationship with the writer, and was treated almost as family. In Hugo's next play (Marie Tudor, 1833), Drouet played Lady Jane Grey to George's Queen Mary. However, she was not considered adequate to the role, and was replaced by another actress after opening night. It would be her last role on the French stage; thereafter she devoted her life to Hugo. Supported by a small pension, she became his unpaid secretary and travelling companion for the next fifty years.

Hugo's Angelo (play) premiered in 1835, to great success. Soon after, the Duke of New Orleans (brother of King Louis-Philippe, and an admirer of Hugo's work) founded a new theatre to support new plays. Théâtre de la Renaissance opened in November 1838, with the premiere of Ruy Blas. Though considered by many to be Hugo's best drama, at the time it met with only average success. Hugo did not produce another play until 1843. The Burgraves played for only 33 nights, losing audiences to a competing drama, and it would be his last work written for the theatre. Though he would later write the short verse drama Torquemada in 1869, it was not published until a few years before his death in 1882, and was never intended for the stage. However, Hugo's interest in the theatre continued, and in 1864, he published a well-received essay on William Shakespeare, whose style he tried to emulate in his own dramas.


Mature fiction


Victor Hugo's first mature work of fiction appeared in 1829, and reflected the acute social conscience that would infuse his later work. Le Dernier jour d'un condamné (Last Days of a Condemned Man) would have a profound influence on later writers such as Albert Camus, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Claude Gueux, a documentary short story about a real-life murderer who had been executed in France, appeared in 1834, and was later considered by Hugo himself to be a precursor to his great work on social injustice, Les Misérables. But Hugo's first full-length novel would be the enormously successful Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), which was published in 1831 and quickly translated into other languages across Europe. One of the effects of the novel was to shame the City of Paris to undertake a restoration of the much-neglected Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was now attracting thousands of tourists who had read the popular novel. The book also inspired a renewed appreciation for pre-renaissance buildings, which thereafter began to be actively preserved.

Hugo began planning a major novel about social misery and injustice as early as the 1830s, but it would take a full 17 years for his most enduringly popular work, Les Misérables, to be realized and finally published in 1862. The author was acutely aware of the quality of the novel and publication of the work went to the highest bidder. The Belgian publishing house Lacroix and Verboeckhoven undertook a marketing campaign unusual for the time, issuing press releases about the work a full six months before the launch. It also initially published only the first part of the novel ("Fantine"), which was launched simultaneously in major cities. Installments of the book sold out within hours, and had enormous impact on French society. Response ranged from wild enthusiasm to intense condemnation, but the issues highlighted in Les Misérables were soon on the agenda of the French National Assembly. Today the novel is considered a literary masterpiece, adapted for cinema, television and musical stage to an extent equaled by few other works of literature.

Hugo turned away from social/political issues in his next novel, Les Travailleurs de la Mer (Toilers of the Sea), published in 1866. Nonetheless, the book was well received, perhaps due to the previous success of Les Misérables. Dedicated to the channel island of Guernsey where he spent 15 years of exile, Hugo's depiction of Man's battle with the sea and the horrible creatures lurking beneath its depths spawned an unusual fad in Paris: Squids. From squid dishes and exhibitions, to squid hats and parties, Parisiennes became fascinated by these unusual sea creatures, which at the time were still considered by many to be mythical.

Hugo returned to political and social issues in his next novel, L'Homme Qui Rit (The Man Who Laughs), which was published in 1869 and painted a critical picture of the aristocracy. However, the novel was not as successful as his previous efforts, and Hugo himself began to comment on the growing distance between himself and literary contemporaries such as Flaubert and Zola, whose naturalist novels were now exceeding the popularity of his own work. His last novel, Quatrevingt-treize (Ninety-Three), published in 1874, dealt with a subject that Hugo had previously avoided: the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution. Though Hugo's popularity was on the decline at the time of its publication, many now consider Ninety-Three to be a powerful work on par with Hugo's more well known novels.


Political life and exile


After three unsuccessful attempts, Hugo was finally elected to the Académie Francaise in 1841, solidifying his position in the world of French arts and letters. Thereafter he became increasingly involved in French politics as a supporter of the Republic form of government. He was elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 and entered the Higher Chamber as a Pair de France, where he spoke against the death penalty and social injustice, and in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland. He was later elected to the Legislative Assembly and the Constitutional Assembly, following the 1848 Revolution and the formation of the Second Republic.


When Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) seized complete power in 1851, establishing an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor of France. Fearing for his life, he fled to Brussels, then Jersey, and finally settled with his family on the channel island of Guernsey, where he would live in exile until 1870.

While in exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets against Napoleon III, Napoléon le Petit and Histoire d'un crime. The pamphlets were banned in France, but nonetheless had a strong impact there. He also composed some of his best work during his period in Guernsey, including Les Misérables, and three widely praised collections of poetry (Les Châtiments, 1853; Les Contemplations, 1856; and La Légende des siècles, 1859).

Although Napoleon III granted an amnesty to all political exiles in 1859, Hugo declined, as it meant he would have to curtail his criticisms of the government. It was only after the unpopular Napoleon III fell from power and the Third Republic was proclaimed that Hugo finally returned to his homeland in 1870, where he was promptly elected to the National Assembly and the Senate.


Religious views

Hugo's religious views changed radically over the course of his life. In his youth, he identified as a Catholic and professed respect for Church hierarchy and authority. From there he evolved into a non-practicing Catholic, and expressed increasingly violent anti-pope and anti-clerical views. He dabbled in Spiritualism during his exile, and in later years settled into a Rationalist Deism similar to that espoused by Voltaire. When a census-taker asked Hugo in 1872 if he was a Catholic, he replied, "No. A Freethinker."

Hugo never lost his antipathy towards the Catholic Church, due largely to the Church's indifference to the plight of the working class under the oppresion of the monarchy; and perhaps also due to the frequency with which Hugo's work appeared on the Pope's list of "proscribed books" (Hugo counted 740 attacks on the Les Misérables in the Catholic press). On the deaths of his sons Charles and François-Victor, he insisted that they buried without crucifix or priest, and in his will made the same stipulation about his own death and funeral. However, although Hugo believed Catholic dogma to be outdated and dying, he never directly attacked the institution itself. He also remained a deeply religious man who strongly believed in the power and necessity of prayer.

Hugo's Rationalism can be found in poems such as Torquemada (1869, about religious fanaticism), The Pope (1878, violently anti-clerical), Religions and Religion (1880, denying the usefulness of churches) and, published posthumously, The End of Satan and God (1886 and 1891 respectively, in which he represents Christianity as a griffin and Rationalism as an angel).

"Religions pass away, but God remains", Hugo declared. Christianity would eventually disappear, he predicted, but people would still believe in "God, Soul, and Responsibility."

Declining years and death


When Hugo returned to Paris in 1870, the country hailed him as a national hero. He went on to weather, within a brief period, the Siege of Paris, a mild stroke, his daughter Adèle's commitment to an insane asylum, and the death of his two sons. (His other daughter, Léopoldine, had drowned in a boating accident in 1843; his wife Adele passed away in 1868; and his faithful mistress, Juliette Drouet, died in 1883, only two years before his own death.) Despite his personal loss, Hugo remained committed to political change.

Victor Hugo's death on May 22, 1885, at the age of 83, generated intense national mourning. He was not only revered as a towering figure in French literature, but also internationally acknowledged as a statesman who helped to preserve and shape the Third Republic and democracy in France. More than two million people joined his funeral procession in Paris from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon, where he was buried.


Drawings

Many are not aware that Hugo was almost as prolific in the visual arts as he was in literature, producing more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime. (Some reproductions can be viewed on the internet at ArtNet and on the website of artist Misha Bittleston).

Originally pursued as a casual hobby, drawing became more important to Hugo shortly before his exile, when he made the decision to stop writing in order to devote himself to politics. Drawing became his exclusive creative outlet during the period 1848-1851.

Hugo worked only on paper, and on a small scale; usually in dark brown or black pen-and-ink wash, sometimes with touches of white, and rarely with color. The surviving drawings are surprisingly accomplished and "modern" in their style and execution, foreshadowing the experimental techniques of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

He would not hesitate to use his children's stencils, ink blots, puddles and stains, lace impressions, "pliage" or folding (i.e. Rorschach blots), "grattage" or rubbing, often using the charcoal from match sticks or his fingers instead of pen or brush. Sometimes he would even toss in coffee or soot to get the effects he wanted. It is reported that Hugo often drew with his left hand or without looking at the page, or during Spiritualist séances, in order to access his unconscious mind, a concept only later popularized by Sigmund Freud.

Hugo kept his artwork out of the public eye, fearing it would overshadow his literary work. However, he enjoyed sharing his drawings with his family and friends, often in the form of ornately handmade calling cards, many of which were given as gifts to visitors when he was in political exile. Some of his work was shown to, and appreciated by, contemporary artists such as van Gogh and Delacroix; the latter expressed the opinion that if Hugo had decided to become a painter instead of a writer, he would have outshone the artists of their century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo

Buffalo Bill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Buffalo Bill (February 26, 1846 - January 10, 1917) was born William Frederick Cody in the American state of Iowa, near Le Claire. He was one of the most colorful figures of the Old West, and was perhaps a bit misunderstood.


Nickname and work life

He got his nickname for supplying Union Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat. The nickname originally referred to Bill Comstock. Cody won the nickname from him in 1868 in a buffalo killing contest 69 to 48.

He claimed to have worked many jobs, including as a trapper, bullwhacker, "Fifty-Niner" in Colorado, a Pony Express rider in 1860, wagonmaster, stagecoach driver, a Civil War soldier, and even a hotel manager, but it's unclear which claims were factual and which were fabricated for purposes of publicity. He became world famous for his Wild West Show.

Early years

William Frederick Cody was born at his family's farmhouse in Scott County, Iowa on February 26, 1846 to Isaac and Mary Cody. His birth took place the year before Mormon pioneers went west to Utah and two years before gold was discovered in California. When Cody was 7, His older brother, Samuel, was killed by a fall from a horse. His death so affected Mary Cody's health that a change of scene was advised and the family relocated to Kansas, moving into a large log cabin on land that they had staked there.

Cody's father believed that Kansas should be a free state, but many of the other settlers in the area were pro-slavery. While giving an anti-slavery speech at the local trading post, he so inflamed the supporters of slavery in the audience that they formed a mob and one of them stabbed him. Cody helped to drag his father to safety, although he never fully recovered from his injuries. The family was constantly persecuted by the supporters of slavery, forcing Isaac Cody to spend much of his time away from home. His enemies learned of a planned visit to his family and plotted to kill him on the way. Cody, despite his youth and the fact that he was ill, rode 30 miles to warn his father. Cody's father died in 1857 from complications from his stabbing.

After his father's death, the Cody family suffered financial difficulties, and Cody, aged only 11, took a job with freight carrier as a "boy extra," riding up and down the length of a wagon train, delivering messages.

At the age of 14, Cody was struck by gold fever, but on his way to the gold fields, he met an agent for the Pony Express. He signed with them and after building several way stations and corrals was given a job as rider, which he kept until he was called home to his sick mother's bedside.

His mother recovered, and Cody, who wished to enlist as a soldier, but was refused for his age, began working with a United States freight caravan which delivered supplies to Fort Laramie.

Civil War Soldier and US Army Scout

Shortly after the death of his mother in 1863, Cody enlisted in the 7th Kansas Cavalry regiment and fought with them on the Union side for the rest of the Civil War.

From 1868 until 1872 Cody was employed as a scout by the United States Army. Part of this time he spent scouting for Indians, and the remainder was spent gathering and killing buffalo for the them and the Union Pacific Railroad. He received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for "gallantry in action" while serving as a civilian scout for the 3rd Cavalry. This medal was revoked on February 5, 1917, 24 days after his death, because he was a civilian and therefore was ineligible for the award under new guidelines for the award in 1917. The medal was restored to him by the army in 1989.


After being a frontiersman, Buffalo Bill entered show business. He toured the United States starring in plays based loosely on his Western adventures, initially with Texas Jack Omohundro, and for one season with Wild Bill Hickock. His part typically included an 1876 incident at the Warbonnet Creek where he scalped a Cheyenne warrior, purportedly in revenge for the death of George Armstrong Custer.


Wild West Show

It was the age of great showman and traveling entertainers, like the Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Vaudeville circuits. Cody took the lead from fellow showman 'Pawnee Bill' and put together his own traveling show. In 1883 in Omaha, Nebraska Cody founded the "Buffalo Bill Wild West Show," a circus-like attraction that toured annually. In 1887 he performed in London in celebration of the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, and toured Europe in 1889. He set up an exhibition near the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (properly the World's Columbian Exposition), which greatly contributed to his popularity.

As the Wild West Show toured North America over the next twenty years it became a moving extravaganza, including as many as 1200 performers. The show began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included military, Native American and show performers from North and Central America in their best attire. In addition to this there were Turks, Gauchos, Arabs, Mongols and Cossacks, each showing their own distinctive horses and colorful costumes. Visitors to this spectacle could see main events, feats of skill, staged races and sideshows. Many authentic western personalities were part of the show. Bill used real working cowboys and real Indians. His best performers were well know in there own right. People like Annie Oakley and Frank Butler put on shooting expeditions. Sitting Bull and a band of twenty braves appeared in the show. Other well known contemporaries such as 'Calamity' Jane and 'Wild Bill' Hickock toured at one time or another. He would reenact the riding of the Pony Express or Indian attacks on wagon trains or stagecoach robberies. Cody's performance typically ended with a melodramatic reenactment of Custer's Last Stand in which Cody himself portrayed General Custer. Many historians claim that, at the turn of the century in 1900, Buffalo Bill Cody was the most recognizable celebrity on earth.

And yet, despite all of the recognition and appreciation Cody's show brought for the Western and Native American cultures, Buffalo Bill saw the American West change dramatically during his tumultuous life. Buffalo herds, which had once numbered in the millions, were now threatened with extinction. Railroads crossed the plains, barbed wire and other types of fences now divided the land for farmers and ranchers, and the once-threatening Indian tribes were now almost completely confined to reservations. Wyoming's resources of coal, oil and natural gas were beginning to be exploited towards the end of his life. Even the Shoshone River was dammed for hydroelectric power as well as for irrigation. Builders called it the Buffalo Bill Dam.


Death

Cody died on January 10, 1917. By his own request he was buried on Colorado's Lookout Mountain, west of the city of Denver, located on the edge of the Rocky Mountains and overlooking the Great Plains. Some time before death, Cody converted to Catholicism.


Legacy


Buffalo Bill may have been a rough-hewn outdoorsman, but was also something of a liberal, pushing for the rights of American Indians and women. In addition, despite his history of killing the buffalo, he supported their conservation by speaking out against hide-hunting and pushing for a hunting season.

Buffalo Bill became so well know and his exploits such a part of American culture that his persona has appeared in many literarey works as well as television shows and movies. Westerns were very popular in the 1950's and 60's. Buffalo Bill would make an appearance in most of them. As a charcter, he is in the very popular Broadway musical 'Annie Get Your Gun' which was very successful both with Ethel Merman and most recently with Reba Macentire in the lead role. On television his persona has appeared on shows such as 'Bat Masterson' and even 'Bonanza'. His persona has been protrayed everywhere from an elder statesman to a flamboyant, selfserving exhibitionist. So familiar is he that we accept him whenever he shows up and go 'wow, Buffalo Bill'.

Having been a frontier scout who respected the natives, he once said,

"Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government."

Despite the depiction of Native Americans in his Wild West shows, he was a supporter of their rights. He employed many more natives than just Sitting Bull, feeling his show offered them a better life, calling them "the former foe, present friend, the American."

The city of Cody, Wyoming was founded in 1896 by Cody and some investors, and is named for him. It is the home of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Fifty miles from Yellowstone National Park, it became a tourist magnet with many dignitaries and political leaders coming to hunt.

Buffalo Bill became a hero of the Bills, a Congolese youth subculture of the late 1950s who idolised Western movies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill

William Frawley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Frawley (born February 26, 1887 in Burlington, Iowa - March 3, 1966 in Hollywood, California) began in vaudeville and as a screen actor, with well over a hundred films to his credit, but gained greater fame on the television shows I Love Lucy and My Three Sons.

Possessed of a fine singing voice in his younger days, it was supposedly Frawley, not Al Jolson, who introduced the song "My Mammy" to vaudeville audiences. He was also an early and persistent exponent of the hit song Carolina in the Morning. His film credits include Miracle on 34th Street, in which he portrayed "Charlie", the judge's campaign manager.

On I Love Lucy (1951), Frawley played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo's landlord Fred Mertz. He and Vivian Vance, who played his wife Ethel in the series, despised each other. On one occasion, he derided Vance for trying to tell him how to do a simple soft-shoe number, declaring that "I've been in vaudeville since I was five years old," and would "probably end up teaching old fat-ass (Vance) how to do the ******* thing!" The two co-stars were given the opportunity to move into their own "Fred and Ethel" spin-off once Lucy had run its course in 1959. Despite his animosity towards her, Frawley saw a lucrative opportunity and was quite game, but Ms. Vance nixed the idea, having no interest in ever working with Frawley again.

Frawley next hit it big on My Three Sons in his role as "Bub". He reportedly never felt comfortable with the out-of-sequence filming method used on My Three Sons after doing I Love Lucy in sequence for years. (Most television series are filmed out of sequence, but My Three Sons was unusually so: each season's episodes were arranged so that series star Fred MacMurray could shoot all of his scenes during a single intensive two-week period; Frawley and the other actors worked around the absent MacMurray the rest of the year.)

By almost all accounts, Frawley's off-screen personality was not all that much different from his on-screen one. A notorious misanthrope, with one brief failed marriage behind him and a fondness for the bottle, he lived in the same spare bachelor apartment for most of his years in Hollywood. According to Desi Arnaz's memoir A Book, Frawley eventually lost his driver's license due to drunk driving, and befriended a cabbie who drove him around regularly. When deciding whether to hire Frawley for the role of Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, Arnaz made it clear to him that, if he showed up drunk for work, Arnaz would "work around it" twice, but after that, Frawley would not only be fired from the program but blacklisted throughout the entertainment industry. Frawley, whom no one would hire at that point, readily agreed. He never showed up drunk on the set at all, and, in fact, Arnaz became one of his few close friends.

Poor health forced Frawley's retirement. He was dropped from My Three Sons after the studio could no longer obtain insurance on him. He was angry about being let go, and developed a dislike of actor William Demarest who replaced him, accusing him of stealing his job. (One of his final performances was an October 1965 guest appearance in Ball's subsequent series The Lucy Show.) He collapsed of a heart attack on March 3, 1966, aged seventy-nine, walking along Hollywood Boulevard after seeing a movie. After he died, Arnaz took out a full-page ad in the trade papers, consisting of Frawley's picture, edged in black, and three words: "Buenas noches, amigo!" Vance's reaction was exactly the opposite. She and her second husband were dining out when they heard Frawley had died. Upon receiving the news, Vance reportedly shouted, "Champagne for everybody!"

Frawley is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Frawley

Dub Taylor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Dub Taylor (February 26, 1907 - October 3, 1994) was a prolific American character actor who worked extensively in Westerns.

Taylor was born Walter Clarence Taylor III in Richmond, Virginia in 1907. His name was usually shortened to "W" by his friends, and "Dub" was derived from that.

In 1939, just after he'd debuted in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You, Taylor appeared in The Taming of the West, for which he originated the character of "Cannonball," a role he continued to play for the next ten years, in over fifty films. "Cannonball" was a comic sidekick to "Wild Bill" Saunders, and continued so through a baker's dozen of features - during which Bill Elliott's character became Wild Bill Hickock, and began, with King of Dodge City (1941), a productive relationship with Tex Ritter as his co-hero. That partnership lasted through ten films, but Taylor left after the first one, carrying his "Cannonball" over to a new series with Russell "Lucky" Hayden. ("Wild Bill" brought in Frank Mitchell to play a very different character, also named "Cannonball," in the remainder of his shows with Tex Ritter.) Taylor moved again to a series with Charles Starrett, who eventually became "The Durango Kid," always with his sidekick, "Cannonball." These films had been produced at Columbia - Capra's studio - and had a certain quality of production that was lacking when, in 1947, Taylor brought his "Cannonball" character over to the Monogram lot. There he joined up with Jimmy Wakely for a concluding run of 16 films (in two years). These final episodes may have been unpleasant experiences for Taylor, as he never thereafter wanted to talk about them. After 1949 Taylor turned away from "Cannonball," and went on to a busy and varied career, but for many growing up in this period, this character is the one they call to mind when they remember Dub Taylor.

His acting talents, even during his "Cannonball" period, were not confined to these films. He had bit parts in a number of classic films, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), A Star Is Born (the 1954 version), and Them! (1954), along with dozens of television roles. Taylor seemed to have found his niche in Westerns, however, and appeared in dozens of them over his career. He joined Sam Peckinpah's famous stock company in 1965's Major Dundee as a professional horse thief, and appeared subsequently in that director's The Wild Bunch (1969, as a prohibitionist minister who gets his flock shot up by the Bunch in the film's infamous opening scene), Junior Bonner (1972), The Getaway (1972), and Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid (1973, as an aging, eccentric outlaw friend of Billy's).

Arguably his most memorable role was playing the father of Michael J. Pollard's C.W. Moss in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). He continued a prolific career as a character and bit actor until his death of heart failure in October 1994.

His son, Buck Taylor is also an actor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dub_Taylor

Many thanks to our PD Letty for filling in for me during my absence.

Some birthday remembrances:
February 26:

Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

1916-1987
1920-2004

1932-2003
1928

Jackie Gleason
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jackie Gleason (b. Herbert John Gleason, February 26, 1916 in Brooklyn, New York (in the neighborhood of Bushwick); d. June 24, 1987 in Inverrary, Florida), a rotund comedian and actor, became one of America's most beloved television entertainers in the medium's coming-of-age years.

Nicknamed "The Great One" (to this day, there is debate as to who gave him the nickname; some biographers claim Orson Welles, others claim Gleason hung it upon himself . . . not an impossibility), Gleason is best remembered for his brashly versatile comedy and swift ad-libbing, particularly in that immortal comic portrait of his Chauncey Street neighbourhood in The Honeymooners, as Ralph Kramden.

Gleason repeatedly proved himself to be as fine a dramatic actor as he was a comedian in films like Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), Soldier in the Rain (1963) with Steve McQueen, and his Oscar-nominated performance opposite Paul Newman in The Hustler (1961), but he never fully understood how much his comedy really meant, how utterly singular it was, and how enduring the absolute best of it has proven to be.


The early years

Gleason grew up as an only child, abandoned by his father (probably the reason he never mentioned Ralph Kramden having a father on The Honeymooners) and raised by his loving, but work-worn and troubled mother, who died when he was around 16. Gleason first gained recognition in the Broadway play Follow the Girls. He simultaneously appeared in small parts in such films as Springtime in the Rockies, Orchestra Wives (as a swing band bassist---the band itself was played by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, in Miller's final film project before joining the Army Air Force), and Navy Blues, but he did not make a mark in Hollywood in his early years.

In 1949, he played the role of Chester A. Riley on the short-lived first television version of radio comedy hit The Life of Riley. William Bendix originated the role on radio but was unable to take the television role due to film commitments (including, ironically, a film version of Riley); Gleason's version was favourably reviewed but not high in the ratings. Gleason believed he could do better, and Bendix would revive the show successfully in the early 1950s, but Gleason's nightclub act drew attention from New York City's inner circle---and the small DuMont Television Network.


"And awa-a-ay we go!"

Gleason was hired as the host of DuMont's Cavalcade of Stars and he fashioned a variety hour balanced between glitzy entertainment and his surprising comic versatility. He became one of the few major hits DuMont would enjoy from 1950 to 1952, with some thinking he had a chance to pry the "Mr. Television" title from Milton Berle. With splashy dance numbers framing the show, Gleason began to develop sketch characters that would stay with him for many years, and in 1952 he accepted a big offer to move his extravaganza---renamed The Jackie Gleason Show---to CBS, where he became the nation's number two hit behind another CBS institution, I Love Lucy.

On CBS, he amplified the glitz with splashier, Busby Berkley-inspired opening numbers by the precision-choreographed June Taylor Dancers, before an opening monologue punctuated by a cigarette in one hand and his incessant sipping from a coffee cup many suspected had something a little stronger inside. Then, he would either shuffle comically toward the wing ("A little travelin' music, Sam!" he'd call to his studio bandleader, Sammy Spear) or thrust his hand toward the wing and hail, "And awa-a-aay we go!"---the phrase became one of his trademarks.

Gleason's comic characters included the understated Poor Soul, played silently (and brilliantly) and capable of coming to grief or to surprised pleasure in the most otherwise mundane scenarios; locquacious Joe the Bartender; Rum Dum; and, the character a biographer cited as Gleason's personal favourite---Reginald Van Gleason III, a top-hatted millionaire with an exaggerated brush mustache and perpetual self-satisfied look, who was never shy about savouring the good life and never very far from liquid refreshment. (Ummmmmmmmmmm, boy! that's good booze!). In television's coming-of-age years, the Gleason array was one of the most versatile that any comic delivered.


Hey, there, Ralphie Boy!

But by far his most popular character with his audience was blustery bus driver Ralph Kramden, who lived with his tart but tenderhearted wife, Alice, in a two-room Brooklyn walkup, one apartment beneath his best friend, sense-challenged sewer worker Ed Norton ("The first time I took the test for the sewer I flunked---I couldn't even float!") and his likewise tart wife, Trixie. Partially inspired by the earlier radio hit The Bickersons and largely drawn from Gleason's harsh Brooklyn childhood ("Every neighbourhood in Brooklyn had its Ralph Kramdens," he said many years later), these sketches became known as "The Honeymooners" (possibly a salute to the subtitle of The Bickersons, The Honeymoon Is Over), and customarily centered around Ralph Kramden's incessant get-rich-quick schemes, the tensions between his ambitiousness and Norton's scatterbrained aid and comfort, and the inevitable clash ("whoa-ho-ho...whoa-ho-ho...bang! zooooom!") when sensible Alice tried to pull his crazy, harebrained head back down from the clouds.

"The Honeymooners" first turned up on Cavalcade of Stars (5 October 1951), with Art Carney as Norton and spirited character actress Pert Kelton as Alice. Kelton had voiced five women on a Milton Berle radio show and memorably appeared as a beautiful and bawdy young stage singer in 1933's The Bowery (1933 film) with Wallace Beery and as Constance Bennett's sassy best friend in Bed of Roses (1933 film) that same year. Critics note that the Honeymooners sketches with Kelton were much darker and fiercer than the subsequent softened and more sentimental version with Audrey Meadows. In the two later versions (first with Audrey Meadows as Alice, followed by Sheila MacRae playing the part in the hourlong musical editions in the 1960s), Gleason's character at the very least had a gorgeous young wife, but in the original incarnation with Kelton we meet Ralph Kramden as an young fat man with a middle-aged wife whose looks had faded, and the intense arguments between the two could be harrowingly realistic. When The Jackie Gleason Show---including "The Honeymooners"---moved to CBS, Kelton wasn't part of the move: her name had turned up in Red Channels, the book that listed and described suspected Communists or Communist sympathisers in television and radio (the first Alice Kramden had been blacklisted!), and Gleason reluctantly let her leave the cast, with a typical cover story for the media that she had "heart trouble." He also turned down a younger, prettier actress sent to audition to replace Kelton, but the actress returned dressed as a frump with little makeup---and this time Gleason relented, particularly when he didn't recognise her at first the second time around, and hired Audrey Meadows as the new Alice. She made the role her own, for all intents and purposes. Finishing the cast with an understated but no less effective role was Joyce Randolph as Trixie (Elaine Stritch had played Trixie as a formidably tall and stunning blonde in the first sketch but was replaced by the infinitely more everyday-seeming Randolph the following week).

"The Honeymooners" sketches were so popular that Gleason decided to gamble on making it a separate series entirely in 1955. Perhaps surprisingly, The Honeymooners as its own situation comedy---the so-called Classic 39 episodes, filmed on a new DuMont process, Electronicam, which let live television be saved on high-quality film---didn't catch on as a ratings hit. It would be years later, in what became near-incessant syndication since, that the Classic 39 would become television icons and seen, rightly, as the cleverly elemental and minimalistically brilliant comedies they are. But the concept was acclaimed enough that animators Hanna-Barbera used "The Honeymooners" as the model for their absurdist masterpiece, The Flintstones---whose blustery quarry worker, Fred Flintstone, was a dead ringer for Ralph Kramden; whose dimwitted buddy, Barney Rubble, was a clone of Ed Norton; and, whose tartly loving wives, Wilma and Betty, were the sororital twins of Alice Kramden and Trixie Norton. About the only real difference between The Flintstones and "The Honeymooners," aside from the Stone Age setting, was the Flintstones and the Rubbles having children, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. At one point, Gleason was going to sue Hanna-Barbera over the obvious plagiarism, but finally decided against bothering.

Today a life-sized statue of Gleason in full uniform as Ralph Kramden stands outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.


Melancholy serenade

Throughout the 1950s and early '60s, Gleason enjoyed a secondary career in recorded music, lending his name to a series of best-selling "mood music" albums for Capitol Records. Like the Beatles and many other songwriters of the following decade, Gleason could not read or write music in a conventional sense; he composed melodies in his head and transposed them with the help of an able staff. (He did likewise with the well-remembered themes of both The Jackie Gleason Show and the Classic 39.) There has been some controversy over the years as to how much credit Gleason should have received for the finished product.

But some of that music endures. "It's Such a Happy Day," which often turned up as a theme behind numerous among Gleason's television sketches, turned up as the music for a jaunty scene involving heart transplant recipient Minnie Driver bicycling around her Chicago neighbourhood in Return to Me.


The American Scene Magazine

Gleason restored his original variety hour---including "The Honeymooners"---in 1956, but within three years Carney had departed and the show had begun to lose its energy. Gleason experimented with a game show, You're in the Picture, which survived its only episode only because of Gleason's hilarious on-the-air apology in the following week's time slot. In 1962, however, he had resurrected his variety show with a little more splashiness (the June Taylor Dancers' routines became more elaborately choreographed and costumed than before) and a new hook---a fictitious magazine through whose format Gleason trotted out his old characters in new scenarios. He also added another catchphrase, "How sweet it is!" (which he first uttered in a 1962 film, Papa's Delicate Condition), rivaling "And awa-a-ay we go!" for its entry into the American vernacular.

Jackie Gleason and His American Scene Magazine was a hit and endured in the format for four seasons---a staple was Joe the Bartender opening his sketch by speaking to the unseen Mr. Dunahy (the viewer) about an article he read in the fictitious magazine, holding a copy across the bar, until the pair were joined by veteran comic and Irish baritone Frank Fontaine as off-centered Crazy Guggenheim, whose cracked banter with Joe inevitably ended with Fontaine displaying his well-trained singing voice. (Fontaine had played the same sort of goofy Brooklynite character, then called "John L. C. Sivoney," on radio's The Jack Benny Program; his wider exposure on Gleason's show resulted in the release of his recordings of 'old standards' on the ABC/Paramount record label.)

Gleason finally abandoned the fictitious magazine and simply re-named his presentation The Jackie Gleason Show. As usual, "The Honeymooners" was a regulation entry, even as the show moved from New York to Miami Beach in 1964, allegedly because Gleason wanted year-round access to the golf course at nearby Inverrary, where he built his final home on one course. But the growing popularity of "The Honeymooners" compelled Gleason to stage periodic, hourlong musical versions of the sketch, sometimes recycling vintages from the 1950s (including a few Classic 39 plots, since the Classic 39 had now begun to attract a new following in syndicated reruns), until by 1968-69 he was doing almost nothing but the hourlong "Honeymooners" musicals. Though received pleasantly, there were those fans---with the Classic 39 to compare---who believed Sheila McRae as the new Alice Kramden and Jane Kean as the new Trixie Norton, as talented as they were, just weren't Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph.

Goodnight, Everybody!

At first, "The Honeymooners" musicals helped push The Jackie Gleason Show back into the top five in the ratings. Millions of Americans whose parents had enjoyed the original 1950s show now got to hear Gleason end each Saturday night---done live---with, "As always, the Miami Beach audience is the greatest audience in the world!" But even that audience began aging and the show aged with it. The ratings began to dip as "The Honeymooners" now completely dominated the show, and Gleason and CBS---which had signed him to a big-money deal in the 1950s that included a payment of $100,000 a year for twenty years, even if the network never put him on the air---disagreed about what the show should be. Gleason had tired of relying on "The Honeymooners" and wanted to give his former variety format one more try; CBS wanted a full season of nothing but "The Honeymooners."

Faced with that plus dipping ratings, Gleason ended the show at last in 1970. In the last original Honeymooners episode aired on CBS, "Operation Protest," Ralph Kramden encounters the youth-protest movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The times were changing, and Gleason's program was showing its age. With the network also cancelling The Ed Sullivan Show and The Red Skelton Show, both of which had become prohibitively expensive to produce, three of the network's longtime legends went off the air at once.


The flip side of the Great One

Gleason had a dramatic side that the comic pathos of the Poor Soul hinted at often enough. He earned acclaim for live television drama performances in The Laugh Maker on CBS' Studio One (where he played a semi-autobiographical role as fictional TV comedian Jerry Giles), and in William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life, also for CBS, as an episode of the legendary anthology Playhouse 90.

But Gleason's greatest dramatic acclaim came for his portrayal of Minnesota Fats in the 1961 Paul Newman movie The Hustler, in which Gleason---who had hustled pool growing up in Brooklyn---made his own shots on the table. He earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for the role. Gleason next garnered spectacular reviews as a boxer's beleaguered manager in the movie version of Rod Serling's classic Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), which also featured Anthony Quinn and a very young Cassius Clay. He topped off a trio of powerhouse dramas as a world-weary Army sergeant, with Steve McQueen supporting him as a Gomer Pyle-like private, in Soldier in the Rain (1962). Tuesday Weld played Gleason's romantic interest.

Gleason wouldn't make that kind of impact on film for over a decade, when he turned up as vulgar sheriff Buford T. Justice in the popular but dubious quality Smokey and the Bandit film series. His career from that point forward would yield either the occasional brilliance (especially, his performance with Sir Laurence Olivier in the cable television special drama, Mr. Halperin and Mr. Johnson) or the hit supporting role that kept him working but wasn't really close to his former brilliance (the Tom Hanks feature, Nothing in Common, featuring Gleason as an infirm, somewhat Archie Bunkeresque character).

The honeymoon wasn't over

After leaving CBS in 1970, Gleason and Carney appeared in several Honeymooners specials on ABC during the 1970s, and a made-for-television movie, Izzy and Moe. In 1985, three decades after the debut of the filmed Honeymooners, Gleason revealed that he had carefully preserved kinescopes of his live 1950s programs with Pert Kelton in a vault for future use. These "Lost Episodes," as they came to be called, first aired on the Showtime cable network in 1986 and later were syndicated to local TV stations. Some of them include what amount to rough drafts of what became better-developed Classic 39 themes, but they proved an invaluable addition to the show's legacy.


And awa-a-ay he went

Nothing in Common proved to be Gleason's final film role. While he made the film, he was already fighting colon and liver cancer. He was hospitalised at one point in 1986-87 but checked himself out and died quietly at his Inverrary, Florida home 24 June 1987. He was 71 years old. In the year of his death, Miami Beach honoured his contributions to the city and its tourism by renaming the Miami Beach Auditorium---where he had performed The Jackie Gleason Show live---the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts.

Gleason had an interest in the paranormal, and evidently believed that UFOs represented an unsolved mystery, claiming to have seen them himself. He appeared on John Nebels radio shows on several occasions to discuss UFOs, where, much like Nebel, he presented himself as a curious skeptic. The tabloid National Enquirer reported that Richard Nixon took Gleason to view the remains of aliens killed in the crash of a flying saucer.


Tributes

On June 30, 1988, the Sunset Park Bus Depot in Brooklyn was renamed the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot in honor of the native Brooklynite. (Ralph Kramden, of course, worked for the fictional Gotham Bus Company.) A statue of Gleason as Ralph in his bus driver's uniform was dedicated in August, 2000 in New York City, by the cable TV channel TV Land. The statue is located at 40th Street and 8th Avenue, at the entrance of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey bus terminal. Another such statue stands at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in North Hollywood, California, showing Gleason in his famous "And awa-a-ay we go!" pose.

Local signs on the Brooklyn Bridge, which indicate to the driver that they are now entering Brooklyn, have the Gleason phrase "How Sweet It Is!" as part of the sign.

A television movie called Gleason was aired by CBS on October 13, 2002, taking a deeper look into Gleason's life; it took liberties with some of the Gleason story but featured his troubled home life (he had children by his first wife; they separated, and Gleason endured a brief second marriage before finding a happy union with his third wife, June Taylor's sister Marilyn), a side of Gleason few really saw. The film also showed backstage scenes from his best-known work. Brad Garrett, from Everybody Loves Raymond, portrayed Gleason (after Mark Addy had to drop out) and Garrett's height (6'9") created some logistical problems on the sets, which had to be specially made so that Garrett did not tower over everyone else.

In 2003, after an absence of more than thirty years, the in-colour, musical versions of "The Honeymooners" from the second Jackie Gleason Show in Miami Beach were returned to television over the Good Life TV cable network. In 2005, a movie version of The Honeymooners appeared in theatres, with a twist--a primarily African-American cast, headed by Cedric the Entertainer. (There had been reports a few years earlier that Roseanne co-star John Goodman would bring The Honeymooners to film and play Ralph). This version, however, bore only a passing resemblance to Gleason's original series and was widely panned by critics, including WNBC-TV's Jeffrey Lyons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Gleason

Tony Randall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Tony Randall (February 26, 1920 - May 17, 2004) was an American actor.



Early life

He was born as Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the only child of Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer, and his wife, Julia Finston.

Show business

He was first attracted to show business when a ballet company played in Tulsa. He attended Northwestern University for a year before traveling to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He studied under Sanford Meisner and choreographer Martha Graham around 1935. Under the name Anthony Randall, he acted in radio soap operas and worked onstage opposite stars Jane Cowl in George Bernard Shaw's Candida and Ethel Barrymore in Emlyn Williams's The Corn Is Green. Tony then served for four years with the United States Army Signal Corps in World War II. Then he worked at the Olney Theatre in Montgomery County, New York before heading back to New York City.


National Actors Theatre

He was the founder of National Actors Theatre in New York City, and also starred in many plays and popular movies, including Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), Pillow Talk (1959), The King of Comedy (1983), and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). Randall also starred in several television shows, including The Odd Couple (playing Felix Unger) and The Tony Randall Show. He also starred in Love, Sidney, the first television show to feature a gay lead character (however, this was never directly referenced in the show).

He was a frequent and popular guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and often spoke of his love of opera, claiming it was due in no small part to the salaciousness of many of the plotlines. He also admitted to (actually bragged about) sneaking tape recorders into operas to make his own private bootleg recordings. He would often chide Johnny Carson for his chain-smoking, and was generally fastidious and fussy, much like his Felix Unger characterization. He seemed to have a wealth of facts and trivia at his disposal, and he told Carson that the secret was simply "to retain everything you were supposed to have learned in elementary school."

In keeping with his penchant for both championing and mocking the culture that he loved, during the Big Band Era revival in the mid-1960s he produced a record album of 1930s songs, Vo Vo De Oh Doe, inspired by (and covering) The New Vaudeville Band's one-hit wonder, "Winchester Cathedral." He mimicked (and somewhat exaggerated) the vibrato style of Carmen Lombardo, and the two of them once sang a duet of Lombardo's signature song "Boo Hoo (You've Got Me Crying for You)" on the Carson show.


Marriages

He was married to Florence Gibbs from 1942 until her death from cancer in 1992 and then, from November 17, 1995 until his death, to Heather Harlan, with whom he had two children, Julia Laurette Randall (b. 1997) and Jefferson Salvini Randall (b. 1998).

Death

Tony Randall died in his sleep of complications from pneumonia at the age of 84, which he contracted following bypass surgery in December 2003.

His final film appearance was in Down with Love starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, an affectionate send-up of the Pillow Talk type of films that helped establish Randall's career.

In 2005, Randall's good friend and Odd Couple co-star Jack Klugman wrote Tony And Me: A Story Of Friendship. In the book, Klugman told many stories about Randall's kindness and generosity and said Randall was the best friend he ever had.


Awards

He was nominated for five Golden Globe awards and two Emmys, winning one Emmy in 1975 for his work in the sitcom The Odd Couple.

Trivia

* Tony Randall endorsed a game, called "Word Quest", in 1984. where the objective was to guess the proper definition of a given word.
* He starred as nearly all of the leading characters in the 1963 film 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. The film received an Oscar for William Tuttle's makeup artistry, but many believe Randall never received proper acknowledgement for his versatile performances in the film.
* Randall, along with John Goodman and Drew Barrymore was one of the first guests on the debut episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien on September 13, 1993. He would also appear in Conan's 5th Anniversary Special with the character PimpBot 5000.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Randall

Betty Hutton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Betty Hutton, (born Elizabeth June Thornburg on February 26, 1921 in Battle Creek, Michigan) is an American actress, musician and comedienne.

Raised by a single mother, Hutton (along with her sister, Marion Hutton) started singing in the family's speakeasy at age 3. Related troubles with the police kept the family on the move; eventually they moved to Detroit. When interviewed much later, as an established star, she commented on a recent Detroit homecoming parade in her honor, "This time the police were in front of us." As a teenager, she sang in several local bands, and at one point visited New York hoping to perform in Broadway, where she was rejected.

A few years later, she was scouted by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez, who gave Hutton her entry into entertainment. In 1939 she appeared in several musical shorts for Warner Bros., and appeared on Broadway in Panama Hattie and Two for the Show, produced by Buddy DeSylva.

When DeSylva became a producer at Paramount Studios, Hutton acquired a starring role in The Fleet's In in 1942. She made 14 films in 11 years during the 1940s and early 1950s, including Annie Get Your Gun, in which she stepped in to replace Judy Garland in the role of Annie Oakley. The film, retooled to fit Hutton, was a smash hit, with the biggest critical praise going to Betty. Like her closest movie musical rival, Garland, Hutton was earning a reputation for being extremely difficult.

In 1942, she signed with Capitol Records, one of the first artists to do so, but was unhappy with their management, and signed with RCA. Her status as a Hollywood star ended during contract disagreements with Paramount.

Hutton worked in radio and toured in nightclubs, then tried her luck on the new fairly new medium of television during the mid-50s. An original musical TV "spectacular," as they were called then, was written and produced for Hutton. The expensive "Satin 'n' Spurs" was an enormous flop with the public and critics. Desilu took a chance on Betty and gave her a sitcom alternately called "Goldie" or "The Betty Hutton Show." It quickly faded. Her last TV outing was a brief guest appearance in the 70s popular detective show Barretta.

In 1967, she was signed for starring roles in two low-budget Paramount westerns, but was fired shortly after the projects began. Afterwards, Hutton had trouble with alcohol and substance abuse, eventually attempting suicide, and had a nervous breakdown. However, after regaining control of her life, she went on to teach acting and do kitchen chores at a church rectory, where she lived as a charity case.

Married four times with three children, Hutton as of 2005 lives in Palm Springs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Hutton

Fats Domino
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (born February 26, 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana), is a classic R&B and rock and roll singer, songwriter and pianist. He was the best-selling African-American singer of the 1950s and early 1960s. Domino is also a pianist with an individualistic bluesy style showing stride and boogie-woogie influences. His congenial personality and rich accent have added to his appeal.

Biography

His career began with "The Fat Man" (1949, Imperial Records), credited by some as being the first rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing wah-wah vocalizing. The record, a reworking of "Junker's Blues" by Champion Jack Dupree, was a massive hit, selling over a million copies and peaking at #2 on the Billboard R&B Charts. To date Domino has sold in excess of 110 million records.

Domino then released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonist Alvin "Red" Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp who was also Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955) which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit #1 with a cover of the song. Domino released an unprecedented series of 35 Top 40 singles, including "Whole Lotta Loving", "Blue Monday", and a funky version of the old ballad "Blueberry Hill".

After he moved to ABC-Paramount in 1963, the bottom fell out of Domino's recording career although he continued as a popular live act. Though he remained active for decades, he only had one more Top 40 hit in 1968, a cover of the Beatles song "Lady Madonna," originally written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney to emulate Domino's style.

In the 1980s, Domino decided he would no longer leave New Orleans, having a comfortable income from royalties and a dislike for touring, and claiming he could not get any food that he liked anyplace else. His induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and an invitation to perform at the White House failed to get Domino to make an exception to this policy. He lives in a mansion in a predominantly working-class Lower 9th Ward neighborhood, where he is a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac. He makes yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other local events, with performances demonstrating his undiminished talents.

When Hurricane Katrina was approaching New Orleans in August 2005, Domino chose to stay at home with his family, due to his wife's poor health. His house, located in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward, was in an area that was heavily flooded. He was thought to be dead, with someone spray-painting a message on his home, "RIP Fats. You will be missed," which was shown in news photos. On September 1, Domino's agent Al Embry announced that he had not heard from the musician since before the hurricane had struck. But later that day, CNN reported that Domino was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. His daughter, gospel singer Karen Domino White, identified him from a photo shown on CNN. The Domino family was then taken to a Baton Rouge shelter, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team. He let the Dominos stay in his apartment. The Washington Post reported that on Friday, September 2, the Dominos had left Russell's apartment, and he returned to his home on Saturday, October 15. Apparently his house was looted in his absence: of his 21 gold records, only three were still there. By January 2006, work to gut and repair Domino's Lower 9th Ward home and office had begun.

Domino was the first artist to be announced as scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival.


Business

His career has been produced and managed since the 1980s by multimedia entertainment purveyor and music producer Robert G. Vernon. During Vernon's tenure, Domino's earnings have increased 500%.

Since 1995, Vernon and Domino have been partners (with many other companies, such as Dick Clark Productions) in the Bobkat Music Trust. Bobkat Music is an entertainment group that manages the careers (some posthumous) of Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Paul Shaffer (keyboardist), Jerry Lee Lewis, Randy Pringle (writer), and others. Bobkat Music is the official holder of rights (of record) to "Fats Domino and Friends" (most watched special in Cinemax history, winner of the ACE Award for "Cinemax Sessions"), not to mention the award-winning Fats Domino TV commercial for Popeye's Chicken, and is headquartered in the San Francisco East Bay area.


Trivia

The singer Chubby Checker's stage name was a play on the sartorial style and physique of Fats Domino. Another play is the name of the gospel music group Fetz Domino, which means in mixed German and Latin "Groove for the Lord". Domino was so well known in the 1950s-60s that the American humor magazine Mad ran a cartoon spread that included fictitious artists with similar name variations, such as "Pudgy Parcheesi".

In the popular 1970s sitcom "Happy Days", set in the 1950s, lead character Richie Cunningham, played by Ron Howard, would often sing "I found my thrill..." (the first line of Domino's "Blueberry Hill") in reference to pretty girls he dated or wanted to date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fats_Domino


My Blue Heaven :: Fats Domino

Day is ending
Birds are wending
Back to the shelter of
Each little nest they love

Nightshades falling
Lovebirds calling
What makes the world go round?
Nothing but love

When Whip-poor-wills call
And ev'ning is nigh
I hurry to
My blue heaven

I turn to the right
A little white light
Will lead you to
My blue heaven

You'll see a smiling face,
A fireplace,
A cozy room
A little nest
That's nestled where
The roses bloom

Just Mollie and me
And baby makes three;
We're happy in
My blue heaven

doo doo doo doo doo
da da da da da

You'll see a smiling face
A fireplace,
A cozy room
A little nest that's nestled where the roses bloom

Just Mollie and me
And baby makes three;
We're happy in
My blue heaven

We're happy in my blue heaven

Johnny Cash
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born: February 26, 1932
Kingsland, Arkansas
Died: September 12, 2003
Nashville, Tennessee


John Ray Cash (February 26, 1932 - September 12, 2003) was a vastly influential American country music singer, guitarist and songwriter.

Cash was known for his deep, distinctive voice, the boom chicka boom sound of his Tennessee Three backing band, and his dark clothing and demeanor, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black." He started all his concerts with the simple introduction: "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."

Fueled by his own rocky personal life and spiritual path, much of Cash's music, especially that of his later career, echoed themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption. Hits include "I Walk the Line", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Ring of Fire", "Man In Black" and "Hurt". He also recorded several humorous songs, such as "One Piece At A Time", "The One on the Right is on the Left" and "A Boy Named Sue".

In a career that spanned almost five decades, Cash was the personification of country music to many people around the world, despite his distaste for the Nashville mainstream. Yet, like Ray Charles, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley, Cash is a musician who transcends genre. He recorded songs that could be considered rock and roll, blues, rockabilly, folk and gospel, and exerted an influence on each of those genres. Cash is one of ten performers to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame (Cash, Chet Atkins, Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Hank Williams, Don and Phil Everly, Sam Phillips, Jimmie Rodgers, Floyd Cramer), and he shares the honor with Hank Williams Sr. of being a full member of the three major music halls of fame: the aforementioned Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame as well as the Songwriters Hall of Fame. His pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.


Biography


Early life

"The Man in Black" was born J.R. Cash in Kingsland, Arkansas, but then raised in Dyess, Arkansas. By age five he was working in the cotton fields, singing along with his family as they worked. The family farm was flooded on at least one occasion, which later inspired him to write the song "Five Feet High And Rising".

Cash was told he was one-quarter Cherokee but in depth research revealed he was not. His Native American compassion later showed out in several of his songs, like "Trail of Tears", "Ballad of Ira Hayes" and his album "Bitter Tears".

Cash was very close to his older brother Jack. In 1944, Jack was pulled into a whirling table saw in the mill where he worked, and almost cut in two. He suffered for over a week before he died. There was some talk that Jack's death might not have been accidental; a local bully was seen running from the shop shortly before Jack was found. Cash often spoke of the horrible guilt he felt over this incident, because he had gone out fishing that day. On his deathbed, Jack said he had had visions of Heaven and angels before he died. Almost sixty years later, Cash spoke of looking forward to meeting his brother in Heaven.

Cash's early memories were dominated by gospel music and radio. He began playing guitar and writing songs as a young boy, and in high school sang on a local radio station. He was dubbed "John" upon enlisting as a radio operator in the United States Air Force, which refused to accept initials as his name. Thereafter, he was known as Johnny and sometimes as John R. While an airman in West Germany, Cash wrote one of his most famous songs, "Folsom Prison Blues," after seeing the B-movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.


Early career

After his term of service ended, Cash married Vivian Liberto in 1954 and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he sold appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. At night, he played with Luther Perkins the guitarist and Marshall Grant the bass player (together known as the Tennessee Two). Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to garner a recording contract. Sun producer Cowboy Jack Clement met with the young singer first, and suggested that Cash return to meet producer Sam Phillips. After auditioning for Phillips, singing mainly gospel tunes, Phillips told him to "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell." Cash eventually won over Phillips and Clement with new songs delivered in his early frenetic style. His first recordings at Sun, "Hey Porter" and "Cry Cry Cry", were released in 1955 and met with reasonable success on the country hit parade.

Cash's next record, Folsom Prison Blues, made the country Top 5, and "I Walk the Line" was No. 1 on the country charts, making it into the pop charts Top 20. In 1957, Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album. Although he was Sun's most consistently best-selling and prolific artist at that time, Cash felt constrained by his contract with the small label. Elvis Presley had already left the label, and Phillips was focusing most of his attention and promotion on Jerry Lee Lewis. The following year, Cash left Sun to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" would become one of his biggest hits.

In 1955, Cash's daughter, Rosanne, was born. Although he would have three more daughters (Kathleen in 1956, Cindy in 1959 and Tara in 1961) with his wife, their relationship began to sour, as he was constantly touring. It was during one of these tours that he met June Carter. Cash proposed onstage to Carter at a concert at the London Gardens in London, Ontario on February 22, 1968; the couple married a week later in Franklin, Kentucky. By June's account, in the liner notes to the compilation album Love (2000), the song "I Still Miss Someone" was written about her.


Drug addiction

As his career was taking off in the early 60s, Cash began drinking heavily and became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates. Friends joked about his "nervousness" and erratic behavior, many ignoring the signs of his worsening drug addiction. For a brief time, Cash shared an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings, who was also heavily addicted to amphetamines. Although in many ways spiraling out of control, his frenetic creativity was still delivering hits. His song "Ring of Fire" was a major crossover hit, reaching No. 1 on the country charts and entering the Top 20 on the pop charts. The song was co-written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore and originally performed by Carter's sister, but the signature mariachi-style horn arrangement was conceived by Cash, who claimed to have heard it in a dream. The song, written about Cash, describes the personal hell Carter went through as she wrestled with her forbidden love for Cash (they were both married to other people at the time) and as she dealt with Cash's personal "ring of fire" (drug dependency and alcoholism.)

Although he carefully cultivated a romantic outlaw image, many fans are surprised to learn that he never served a prison sentence, although he landed in jail seven times for misdemeanors, each stay lasting a single night. His most serious run-in with the law occurred while on tour in 1965, when he was arrested by the narcotics squad in El Paso, Texas. Although the officers suspected that he was smuggling heroin from Mexico, he was actually smuggling illegal amphetamines inside his guitar case. He received a suspended sentence. He was arrested the following year in Starkville, Mississippi, for trespassing late at night onto private property to pick flowers. (This incident gave the spark for the song "Starkville City Jail".) More notably, he voluntarily entered several prisons to perform a series of concerts for convicts, for whom he felt great compassion.

The mid-60s saw Cash release a number of concept albums, including Ballads Of The True West (1965), an experimental double record mixing authentic frontier songs with Cash's spoken narration; and Bitter Tears (1964), with songs highlighting the plight of the American Indians. His drug addiction was at its worst at this point, however, and his destructive behavior led to a divorce from Vivian and canceled performances.

He and Carter were married soon after. The love ballad "Flesh and Blood" is one of the first of many songs Cash would write about his second wife.


Over the next two years, he recorded and released two massively successful live albums, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) and Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969). The Folsom Prison record was charged by a blistering rendition of his classic "Folsom Prison Blues," while the San Quentin record included the crossover hit single "A Boy Named Sue", a Shel Silverstein-penned song that reached No. 1 on the country charts and No. 2 on the US Top Ten pop charts. Shortly after his historic concert at Madison Square Garden in the waning days of the 1960s, his son John Carter Cash was born.


After he quit using drugs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cash rediscovered his Christian faith, taking an "altar call" in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area. Cash chose this church over many other larger, celebrity churches, in the Nashville area because he said he was just another man there, and not a celebrity. He could worship with other people and not be anything more than a common man.

"The Man in Black"


From 1969 to 1971, Cash starred in his own television show on the ABC network. The singing group The Statler Brothers got their start on the show, opening up for him in every episode. Notable rock artists appeared on his show, including Neil Young, The Monkees and Bob Dylan. Cash had been an early supporter of Dylan even before they had met, but they became friends while they were neighbors in late 1960s in Woodstock, New York. Cash was enthusiastic about reintroducing the reclusive Dylan to his audience. In addition to the appearance on his TV show, Cash sang a duet with Dylan on his country album Nashville Skyline, and also wrote the album's Grammy-winning liner notes. Another artist who received a major career boost from The Johnny Cash Show was songwriter Kris Kristofferson. During a live performance of Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down," Cash made headlines when he refused to change the lyrics to suit network executives, singing the song with its controversial references to marijuana intact: "On the Sunday morning sidewalks / Wishin', Lord, that I was stoned."

Immensely popular, and an imposingly tall figure, by the early 1970s he had crystallized his public image as "The Man in Black." He regularly performed dressed all in black, wearing a long black knee-length coat. This outfit stood in stark contrast to the costumes worn by most of the major country acts in his day: rhinestone Nudie suits and cowboy boots. In 1971, Cash wrote the song "Man in Black" to help explain his dress code: "I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, / Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, / I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, / But is there because he's a victim of the times."

In the mid-'70s, Cash's popularity and hit songs began to decline, but his autobiography, titled Man in Black, was published in 1975 and sold 1.3 million copies. (A second, Cash: The Autobiography, appeared in 1998). His friendship with Billy Graham led to the production of a movie about the life of Jesus, The Gospel Road, which Cash co-wrote and narrated. The decade saw his religious conviction deepening, and in addition to his regular touring schedule, he made many public appearances in an evangelical capacity. He also continued to appear on television, hosting an annual Christmas special on CBS throughout the 1970s. Later television appearances included a role in an episode of Columbo, as well as a recurring role on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. He did a voice cameo on The Simpsons in the show's eighth season, playing the voice of a coyote that guides Homer on a spiritual quest (in episode 3F24). He also appeared with his wife on an episode of Little House on the Prairie entitled "The Collection" and gave a stirring performance as John Brown in the 1980s Civil War television mini-series North and South.

Highwaymen

In 1980, Cash became the Country Music Hall of Fame's youngest living inductee at age 48, but during the 1980s his records failed to make a major impact on the country charts, though he continued to tour successfully. In the mid-1980s he recorded and toured with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen, making two hit albums.

During this period, Cash appeared as an actor in a number of television films. In 1981, he starred in The Pride Of Jesse Hallam. Cash won fine reviews for his work in this film that called attention to adult illiteracy. In 1983, Cash also appeared as a heroic sheriff in Murder In Coweta County, which co-starred Andy Griffith as his nemesis. This film was based on a real life Georgia murder case; Cash had tried for years to make the film, which would win him acclaim.

Cash relapsed into addiction after a serious stomach injury in 1983 (sustained in a fight with an ostrich at his exotic animal park) led him to abuse painkillers. [1] During his recovery at the Betty Ford Clinic in 1986, he met and befriended Ozzy Osbourne, one of his son's favorite singers. At another hospital visit in 1988, this time to watch over Waylon Jennings (who was recovering from a heart attack), Jennings suggested that Cash have himself checked into the hospital for his own heart condition. Doctors recommended preventive heart surgery, and Cash underwent double bypass surgery in the same hospital. Both recovered, although Cash refused to use any prescription painkillers, fearing a relapse into dependency. Cash later claimed that during his operation, he had what is called a "near death experience." He said he had visions of Heaven that were so beautiful that he was angry when he woke up alive.

As his relationship with record companies and the Nashville establishment soured, he occasionally lapsed into self-parody, notably on "Chicken In Black." After Columbia Records dropped Cash from his recording contract, he had a short and unsuccessful stint with Mercury Records.

In 1986, Cash published his only novel, Man in White, a book about Saul and his conversion to become the Apostle Paul. That same year, Cash returned to Sun Studios in Memphis to team up with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins to create the album, Class of '55. This was not the first time he had teamed up with Lewis and Perkins at Sun Studios. On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley dropped in on Phillips to pay a social visit while Perkins was in the studio cutting new tracks with Lewis backing him on piano. The three started an impromptu jam session and Phillips left the tapes running. He later telephoned Cash and brought him in to join the others. These recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, survived and have been released on CD under the title Million Dollar Quartet. Tracks also include Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," Pat Boone's "Don't Forbid Me" and Elvis doing an impersonation of Jackie Wilson (who was then with Billy Ward and the Dominoes) singing "Don't Be Cruel."


American Recordings

His career was rejuvenated in the 1990s. In 1993, he sang the vocal on U2's "The Wanderer" for their album Zooropa. Although he was no longer sought after by major labels, Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and hard rock than for country music. Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded the album American Recordings (1994) in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. The video for the first single, the traditional song "Delia's Gone," was put into rotation on MTV, including a spot on Beavis and Butt-head. The album was hailed by critics and many declared it to be Cash's finest album since the late 1960s, while his versions of songs by more modern artists such as heavy metal band Danzig and Tom Waits helped to bring him a new audience. American Recordings received a Grammy for Contemporary Folk Album of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards. Cash wrote that his reception at the 1994 Glastonbury Festival was one of the highlights of his career. This was the beginning of a decade of music industry accolades and surprising commercial success. In addition to this, Cash and his wife appeared on a number of episodes of the popular television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman starring Jane Seymour. The actress thought so highly of Cash that she later named one of her twin sons after him.

For his second album with Rubin, 1996's Unchained, Cash enlisted the accompaniment of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. In addition to many of Cash's own compositions, Unchained contained songs by Soundgarden ("Rusty Cage") and Beck ("Rowboat"), as well as a guest appearance from Flea, bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The album also included a cover of a classic 1962 Hank Snow song called "I've Been Everywhere." Despite being virtually ignored by country music radio and the Nashville establishment, Unchained received a Grammy for Best Country Album. Cash and Rubin bought a full-page ad in Billboard magazine sarcastically thanking the country music industry for its continued support, accompanied by a picture of Cash displaying his middle finger.


Sickness and death

In 1997 Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome, a diagnosis that was later altered to autonomic neuropathy associated with diabetes. His illness forced Cash to curtail his touring. He was hospitalized in 1998 with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs. The album American III: Solitary Man (2000) contained Cash's response to his illness, typified by a version of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down," as well as a powerful reading of U2's "One." American III: Solitary Man, just like Cash's two previous albums produced by Rick Rubin, was a Grammy winner, taking home the award for the Best Country Male Vocal Performance for Cash's version of the Neil Diamond classic "Solitary Man."

Cash released American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002), consisting partly of original material and partly of covers. The video for "Hurt", a song written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, was nominated in seven categories at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards and won the award for Best Cinematography. In February 2003, mere days before his 71st birthday, Cash won another Grammy for Best Country Male Vocal Performance for "Give My Love To Rose," a song Cash had originally recorded in the late 1950s. The music video for "Hurt," hailed by critics and fans alike as the most personal and moving music video in history, also won a Grammy for Best Short Form Video at the 2004 Grammy Awards.

June Carter Cash died of complications following heart valve replacement surgery on May 15, 2003 at the age of 73. Johnny was ready to give up his music, but June had told him to keep working, so he continued to record, and even performed a couple of surprise shows at the Carter Family Fold outside Bristol, Virginia. (The July 5, 2003 concert was his final public appearance.) Before singing "Ring of Fire" to the crowd of onlookers, Cash read a statement about June that he had written shortly before taking the stage. He spoke of how June's spirit was watching over him and how she had come to visit him before going on stage. He barely made it through the song. Despite his health issues, he talked of looking forward to the day when he could walk again and toss his wheelchair into the lake near his home.

Less than four months after his wife's death, Johnny Cash died at the age of 71 due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory failure, while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He was interred next to his wife in Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. In June 2005 Johnny's home on Caudill Dr in Hendersonville went up for sale by the Cash estate. The house was Sold to BeeGee Barry Gibb for $2.5 million. The listing agent was Cash's younger brother Tommy.

Legacy

From his early days as a pioneer of rockabilly and rock and roll in the 1950s, to his decades as an international representative of country music, to his resurgence to fame as both a living legend and an alternative country icon in the 1990s, Cash has influenced countless artists and left a body of work matched only by the greatest artists of his time. Upon his death, Cash was revered and eulogized by many of the greatest popular musicians of our day, whose comments on the man and his work reflect something of the esteem in which he was held:


* "Every man knows he is, basically, a complete sissy compared to Johnny Cash." ?- Bono
* "In plain terms, Johnny was and is the North Star; you could guide your ship by him ?- the greatest of the greats then and now." ?- Bob Dylan
* "Abraham Lincoln with a wild side." ?- Kris Kristofferson
* "Johnny Cash transcends all musical boundaries, and is one of the original outlaws." ?- Willie Nelson
* "[Cash] took the social consciousness of folk music, the gravity and humor of country music and the rebellion of rock 'n' roll, and told all us young guys that not only was it all right to tear up those lines and boundaries, but it was important." ?- Bruce Springsteen

But he was also valued outside his genre. According to the (extensive) linernotes for Unearthed:

Cash, to his amusement (and, you suspect, delight) had been declared "The Godfather of Gangsta Rap". Bob Johnston, Johnny's old friend and legendary producer who also came by to visit, recalls "one of the rap guys telling me, 'You're talking about us being bad? I grew up on Johnny Cash singing 'I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die!'"

Cash nurtured and defended artists on the fringes of what was acceptable in country music, even while serving as the country music establishment's most visible symbol. At an all-star concert in 2002, a diverse group of artists paid him tribute, including Bob Dylan, Chris Isaak, Wyclef Jean, Norah Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and U2. Two tribute albums were released shortly before his death; Kindred Spirits contains works from established artists, while Dressed In Black contains works from many lesser-known artists.

Though he wrote over a thousand songs and released dozens of albums, his creative output was not entirely silenced by his death. A box set, titled Unearthed, was issued posthumously. It included four CDs of unreleased material recorded with Rubin, as well as a "Best of Cash on American" retrospective CD.

In recognition of his lifelong support of SOS Children's Villages, his family invited friends and fans to donate to that charity in his memory. He had a personal link with the SOS village in Ammersee in Diessen, Germany, near where he was stationed as a GI, and also with the SOS village in Barrett Town, by Montego Bay near his holiday home in Jamaica. The Johnny Cash Memorial Fund was founded and contributions can be made here.

Walk the Line, an Academy Award-nominated and widely acclaimed biopic about Johnny Cash's life starring Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, was released in the U.S. on November 18, 2005 to considerable commercial success and massive critical acclaim. In addition to its Oscar nominations, both Phoenix and Witherspoon have won various awards for their roles, including the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, respectively. They both performed their own vocals in the film.


Trivia

* In January 2006, singer-songwriter Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees purchased the 13,880-square-foot home on Old Hickory Lake in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tenn., where Johnny and June Carter Cash lived for 35 years. The house was sold "as is" with seven pieces of antique furniture, including the couple's bed. Built in 1968, the house includes seven bedrooms, five full baths and an outdoor swimming pool.
* Cash's apocalyptic song "The Man Comes Around" was used to great effect as the intro track to the 2004 horror remake Dawn of the Dead.
* He guest-starred in an episode of Columbo in 1974, called "Swan Song," playing singer and killer Tommy Brown.
* As of the late 1980s, Cash's total number of albums sold was an estimated 50,000,000. A more updated and accurate estimate is not available, but due to the resurgence of his career in the 1990s with Rick Rubin, and the success of Walk the Line, the total is probably much higher.
* Cash appeared in a Simpsons episode (#162, El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer The Mysterious Voyage of Homer as a desert coyote advising Homer to find his soulmate.
* Given name: J.R. Cash is the name on Johnny's birth certificate. Johnny's parents could agree only on initials for their third son.
* Name in Air Force: John R. Cash
* Name given by first wife Vivian: Johnny
* Birth date: February 26, 1932
* Birthplace: Kingsland, Arkansas. There is a statue of Cash in a park.
* Height: 6 feet 2 inches
* Spouse: June Carter, married March 1, 1968.
* Children: daughters Rosanne Cash, Kathy Cash-Tittle, Cindy Cash and Tara Cash Schwoebel; son John Carter Cash; 2 stepdaughters, Carlene and Rosey Carter.
* Education: Dyess High School, Dyess, Arkansas.
* Military: Air Force 1950-1954, stationed in Germany, discharged with rank of staff sergeant.
* Previous jobs: Sold appliances door-to-door in Memphis, Tennessee; worked at a GM assembly plant in Pontiac, Michigan and an Arkansas oleomargarine plant.
* First musical performance: in a talent show at age 17, won $5.
* First guitar: bought in Germany, paid $5.
* First royalty check: $2.41
* Early bands: The Tennessee Two and then The Tennessee Three.
* Influences: Hank Snow, Cowboy Copas, Gene Autry, Ernest Tubb.
* Only star, living or dead, inducted into all three halls of fame: Country Music Hall of Fame (1980), Songwriters Hall of Fame (1989), and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992).
* Autobiography: Man in Black Cash
* Hobbies: fishing, photography, coin collecting, reading, walking in the woods.
* Charities and concerns: prisoners' rights; Native American rights, Nashville Symphony; burn research center at Vanderbilt University Hospital; American Cancer Society; Vietnam veterans
* In a poll by its readers, Blender Magazine named Cash the "#1 Most Awesomely Dead Rock Star" (February 2006)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash


A Boy Named Sue :: JOHNNY CASH

My daddy left home when I was three
And he didn't leave much to ma and me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don't blame him cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me "Sue."

Well, he must o' thought that is quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk,
It seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I'd get red
And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head,
I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named "Sue."

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,
My fist got hard and my wits got keen,
I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame.
But I made a vow to the moon and stars
That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars
And kill that man who gave me that awful name.

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town and my throat was dry,
I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew.
At an old saloon on a street of mud,
There at a table, dealing stud,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me "Sue."

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had,
And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
He was big and bent and gray and old,
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold
And I said: "My name is 'Sue!' How do you do!
Now your gonna die!!"

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down, but to my surprise,
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.

I tell ya, I've fought tougher men
But I really can't remember when,
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss,
He went for his gun and I pulled mine first,
He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile.

And he said: "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's the name that helped to make you strong."

He said: "Now you just fought one hell of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do.
But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you "Sue.'"

I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son,
And I came away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, now and then,
Every time I try and every time I win,
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!

From the album " A boy named Goo"

Name
The Goo Goo Dolls

And even though the moment passed me by
I still can't turn away
I saw the dreams you never thought you'd lose
tossed along the way
Letters that you never meant to send
lost or thrown away

And now the grown up orphans
I never knew their names
Don't belong to no one
that's a shame
You could hide beside me, maybe for a while
and I won't tell no one your name
I won't tell them your name

Scars are souvenirs you never lose
The past is never far
And did you lose yourself somewhere out there?
Did you get to be a star?
Don't it make you sad to know that life
is more than who we are?

You grew up way too fast
Now there's nothing to believe
and reruns, all, become our history
A tired song keeps playing
on a tired radio
And I won't tell no one your name

I won't tell them your name
I won't tell them your name
I won't tell them your name

I think about you all the time
but I don't need to sing
It's lonely where you are
Come back down
and I won't tell them your name

Michael Bolton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Michael Bolton (born February 26, 1954 is an American Pop, Rock and Adult contemporary singer-songwriter known for his soft rock ballads and gravelly singing voice.

His achievements include 7 top ten albums and 2 number one singles on the Billboard charts, as well as awards from both the American Music Awards and Grammys.


Background

Bolton was born in 1953 Michael Bolotin to a Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut. Bolton found his biggest success in his mid-thirties and early forties as a solo vocalist in the adult contemporary/easy listening genre. Unbeknownst to many, however, Bolton received his first record label contract at the age of 15 and got his first national exposure in the late seventies with a hard rock band called Blackjack, which also featured one-time Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick, in which he was known by his birth name. The band once toured with heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. He began recording as Michael Bolton in 1983, after gaining his first major hit as a songwriter, cowriting "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" for Laura Branigan, previously best-known for singing the disco-pop classic "Gloria". Narrowly missing the pop top 10, Branigan took the song to number one on the Adult Contemporary charts for three weeks. The two sought to work with each other again, and their next of several associations was when Bolton cowrote "I Found Someone" for Branigan in 1985. Her version was only a minor hit, but two years later, Cher resurrected the song, and with it her own singing career. Bolton cowrote several other songs for both singers.

Ironically, one of the prolific songwriter's first major successes as a singer was with his interpretation of someone else's composition, the Otis Redding classic, "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay." Always interested in soul and Motown classics, that song's success encouraged him to tackle the standard "Georgia On My Mind," with which he had another hit. Most of Bolton's recordings are original material, however, and he has also written songs for such disparate artists as Barbra Streisand, KISS, Kenny Rogers, Kenny G, Peabo Bryson and Patti Labelle. Bolton's early songwriting collaborators included Doug James and Mark Mangold, and as his fame grew he began to cowrite with higher-profile writers such as BabyFace, Diane Warren, and Bob Dylan. As a singer, he has performed with Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Renee Fleming, Patti Labelle, Ray Charles, Percy Sledge, Wynonna Judd, and BB King.

Bolton is the father of three daughters born in the mid-1970s. Their names are Isa, Holly and Taryn.

In 1993, he established the Michael Bolton Foundation (now the Michael Bolton Charities, Inc.) to assist women and children at risk from the effects of poverty and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. The foundation has provided over $3.7 million in funding to local and national charities.

Bolton also serves as the honorary chairman of Prevent Child Abuse America, the national chairman for This Close for Cancer Research, and a board member for the National Mentoring Partnership and the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital.

In March, 2003, Bolton joined with Lifetime Television, Verizon Wireless, and many others to lobby on behalf of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, urging legislation to provide more assistance for victims of domestic violence, such as affordable housing options.

Bolton has received the Lewis Hine Award from the National Child Labor Committee, the Martin Luther King Award from the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce also recognized Bolton with a star on the "Walk of Fame" for his musical and charitable contributions.

Trivia

A character played by David Herman in the 1999 film Office Space was named Michael Bolton, as a playful jab by the scriptwriters at Bolton the singer. In the film, the character is often the subject of questions such as "are you related to that singer guy?"

Was sued by Ronald Isley of the Isley brothers for the fact that Bolton's song 'Love is a Wonderful Thing' sounded similar to a song the Isleys composed with the same title.

Michael Bolton was an extra in the movie "Dune" (1984). Look for him as a drummer as the fight between Paul & Feyd Rautha begins at the end of the extended version of the DVD. Same hair, same jaw.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bolton


(Sittin' On) The Dock Of the Bay :: Michael Bolton

Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' comes
Watchin' the ships roll in
Then I watch 'em roll away again
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide, roll away
Sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

Left my home in Georgia
Headed for the Frisco Bay
I had nothin' to live for
Looks like nothin's gonna come my way
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away
Sittin' on the dock of the bay, wastin' time

Looks like nothin's gonna change
Everything, everything remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll just remain the same

I'm sittin' here restin' my bones
Two thousand miles, I roam
Just to make this dock my home
I'm just gonna sit, on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away
Sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time

Four married guys go fishing. After an hour, the following conversation took place:
First guy: "You have no idea what I had to do to be able to come out fishing this weekend.
I had to promise my wife that I will paint every room in the house next weekend."
Second guy: "That is nothing, I had to promise my wife that I will build her a new
deck for the pool."
Third guy: "Man, you both have it easy! I had to promise my wife that I will remodel
the kitchen for her."
They continue to fish when they realized that the fourth guy has not said a word.
So they asked him: You haven't said anything about what you had to do to be able to
come fishing this weekend. What's the deal?"
Fourth guy: "I just set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. When it went off, I shut off my alarm,
gave the wife a nudge and said, "Fishing or Sex?" and she said, "Wear a sweater."

Reyn, I should have changed that song to Ain't Love a Crick in the Neck. <smile>

Oh, my Gawd, our Raggedy is back, folks. HOORAH.

Dear Bob, I have to do stuff now, but I shall return to acknowledge your wonderful bio's. I must shop and I AM going to wear a sweater.

This is cyber space, WA2K radio.

Came back with a new pillow. Hope it's a good one. It looks like this:

Guess what I had for lunch, Bill Cody. Buffalo wings and they were HOT!

shari, A boy named Goo? Love that, gal, and thanks.

I think most of us know all of the hawkman's famous folks, but I, for one, had no idea the Mr. Bolton did Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay. Love that song.

Raggedy, dear, I could never take your place, honey. I don't know HOW to do that collage bit. It's just so good to see you back, PA.

Back later folks, with a song.