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Enrico Banducci
Enrico Banducci (born Harry Charles Banducci; February 17, 1922 – October 9, 2007) was an American impresario. Banducci operated the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, where he launched the careers of The Kingston Trio, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Bill Cosby, Jonathan Winters, and Barbra Streisand, and featured Woody Allen and Dick Cavett before they were well-known, as well as countless folk singers and comedians. The hungry i featured the original brick wall in the stage background, a staple for stand up comedy presentations ever since. Banducci (pronounced Ban-doo-chee) bought the hungry i from its founder, Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, in 1950. Banducci later also started the Clown Alley hamburger stand as well as Enrico's Sidewalk Cafe on Broadway, a restaurant and jazz club that has since gone out of business. Biography Harry Banducci was born in 1922 in Bakersfield, California to Italian Americans Fred and Meda (née Chicca) Banducci. He came to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghirardelli Square
Ghirardelli Square is a landmark public square with shops and restaurants and a 5-star hotel in the Marina area of San Francisco, California. A portion of the area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as Pioneer Woolen Mills and D. Ghirardelli Company. The square once featured over 40 specialty shops and restaurants. Some of the original shops and restaurants still occupy the square. History In 1893, Domenico Ghirardelli purchased the entire city block in order to make it into the headquarters of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the early 1960s, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was bought by the Golden Grain Macaroni Company, which moved the headquarters off-site to San Leandro and put the square up for sale. San Franciscan William M. Roth and his mother, Lurline Matson Roth, bought the land in 1962 to prevent the square from being replaced with an apartment building. The Roths hired landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and the firm Wur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stand-up Comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, observations or a shtick that may incorporate props, music, magic tricks or ventriloquism. It can be performed almost anywhere, including comedy clubs, comedy festivals, bars, nightclubs, colleges or theatres. History Stand-up as a Western art form has its roots in the stump speech of American minstrel shows, which featured an actor in blackface delivering nonsensical monologue to the audience. While the intention of stump speeches was to mock African-Americans, they also occasionally contained political and social satire. The minstrel show would later influence theatrical traditions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as vaudeville and burlesque. The first documented use of "stand-up" as a term was in '' The Stag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and exaggerated, cackling laugh. Diller was one of the first female comics to become a household name in the U.S., credited as an influence by Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, and Ellen DeGeneres, among others.Phyllis Diller Dies; Groundbreaking Comedian Is Dead at 95 ''People'', Stephen M. Silverman, August 20, 2012, retrieved November 4, 2015 She had a large gay following and is considered a gay icon. She was also one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, ''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim. She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, ''Porgy and Bess'' cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was also an actress, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronnie Schell
Ronald Ralph Schell (born December 23, 1931) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He appeared on the May 28, 1959, episode of the TV quiz ''You Bet Your Life'', hosted by Groucho Marx. Schell demonstrated a comic barrage of beatnik jive talk. As a stand-up comedian, he first developed his act at the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco, California. Schell is probably best known for his 1960s television role as Duke Slater in ''Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.'' Early life Schell was born in Richmond, California, on December 23, 1931. Upon graduation from high school, he served four years in the United States Air Force, where he became an airman first class. Career In his role as Duke Slater on ''Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.'', Schell's character was cast for three seasons as a Marine private and best friend of Gomer Pyle. Schell left for a season to star as a disc jockey in his own sitcom, '' Good Morning World''. He then returned to ''Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.'' as a corporal for its fifth and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jackie Vernon (comedian)
Jackie Vernon (born Ralph Verrone; March 29, 1924 – November 10, 1987) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, who was best known for his role as the voice of Frosty the Snowman in the Rankin/Bass Productions Christmas special ''Frosty the Snowman'' and its sequel ''Frosty's Winter Wonderland''. Early life Jackie Vernon was born Ralph Verrone on March 29, 1924, in New York City. After attending and graduating from high school, he attended City College before enlisting and serving in the U.S. Air Force. He began his career in 1955 with performing stand-up comedy in various small nightclubs and hotel lounges around the country from New York, to Chicago, to Miami and Los Angeles. Career Vernon was known for his gentle, low-key delivery and self-deprecating humor. He has been hailed as "The King of Deadpan." His signature opening line was, "To look at me now, it's hard to believe I was once considered a dull guy." Early in the 1950s, according to Dick Brooks, Vernon bounced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irwin Corey
"Professor" Irwin Corey (July 29, 1914 – February 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comic, film actor and activist, often billed as "The World's Foremost Authority". He introduced his unscripted, improvisational style of stand-up comedy at the San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ... club the hungry i. Lenny Bruce described Corey as "one of the most brilliant comedians of all time." Biography Corey was born Irwin Eli Cohen to a Jewish family on , in Brooklyn, New York. Poverty-stricken after his father deserted the family, his mother was forced to place him and his five siblings in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York, where Corey remained until his early teens. He then rode in boxcars out to California, and enrolled himself at Belmont High School (Los ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ira Blue
Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of Native Americans *Individual retirement account, in the US, giving tax benefits *Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a US budget reconciliation bill *Internal Revenue Allotment, a local share of Philippines government revenue Music *Ira (Polish band), a Polish heavy metal band * Ira!, a Brazilian rock band *I.R.A. (band), a Colombian punk band *One part of an Andean wind instrument, the siku Organizations *Indian Reunification Association * Indian Rationalist Association * Indian Rights Association, US, for Native Americans * Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), a Mauritania anti-slavery group * Insurance Regulatory Authority (Kenya), the authority charged with regulation and supervision of Kenya's insurance i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Crane
Les Crane (born Lesley Stein; December 3, 1933 – July 13, 2008) was a radio announcer and television talk show host, a pioneer in interactive broadcasting who also scored a spoken word hit with his 1971 recording of the poem ''Desiderata'', winning a "Best Spoken Word" Grammy. He was the first network television personality to compete with Johnny Carson after Carson became a fixture of late-night television. Biography Early life Born in New York, Crane graduated from Tulane University, where he was an English major. He spent four years in the United States Air Force, as a jet pilot and helicopter flight instructor. Radio He began his radio career in 1958 at KONO in San Antonio and later worked at WPEN (now WKDN) in Philadelphia. In 1961, he became a popular and controversial host for the radio powerhouse KGO in San Francisco. With KGO's strong nighttime 50,000 watt signal reaching as far north as Seattle, and as far south as Los Angeles, he attracted a regional audience ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love letter to San Francisco""The 1996 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Special Awards and Citations. Biography." The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved November 1, 2013.—appeared in the '' San Francisco Chronicle'' for almost sixty years (excepting a relatively brief defection to '' The San Francisco Examine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enrico Caruso
Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. One of the first major singing talents to be commercially recorded, Caruso made 247 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920, which made him an international popular entertainment star. Biography Early life Enrico Caruso came from a poor but not destitute background. Born in Naples in the via Santi Giovanni e Paolo n° 7 on 25 February 1873, he was baptised the next day in the adjacent Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. His parents originally came from Piedimonte d'Alife (now called Piedimonte Matese), in the Province of Caserta in Campania, Southern Italy. Caruso was the third of seven children and one of only three to survive infancy. There is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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