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Frank Nelson (actor)
Frank Brandon Nelson (May 6, 1911 – September 12, 1986) was an American comedic actor best known for playing put-upon foils on radio and television, and especially for his "EEE-Yeeeeeeeeesssss?" catchphrase. He made numerous guest appearances on television shows, including ''The Jack Benny Program'', ''I Love Lucy'', ''The Real McCoys'', ''The Addams Family'', '' Alice'', and '' Sanford and Son''. He also provided voices for animated series such as ''The Flintstones'', ''Mister Magoo'', ''The Jetsons'', ''Dinky Dog'', and '' The Snorks''. Career Radio Nelson began his entertainment career in radio, and later moved into television and movies. In 1926, at age 15, Nelson played the role of a 30-year-old man in a series broadcast from KOA in Denver, Colorado. In 1929, Nelson moved to Hollywood, California, and worked in local dramatic broadcasts, usually playing the leading man. The first sponsored program in which he appeared that reached a national market was ''Flywheel ...
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The Jack Benny Program
''The Jack Benny Program'', starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th century American comedy. He played one role throughout his radio and television careers, a caricature of himself as a minimally talented musician and penny pincher who was the butt of all the jokes. Producer Hilliard Marks was the brother of Benny's wife Mary Livingstone. Format On both television and radio, ''The Jack Benny Program'' used a loose show-within-a-show format, wherein the main characters were playing versions of themselves. The show often broke the fourth wall, with the characters interacting with the audience and commenting on the program and its advertisements. In his first years on radio (c. 1932–1935), Jack Benny followed the format of many other radio comedians, standing at the microphone, telling jokes and stories, and introducing band numbers. As the characters of Jack and his cast became ...
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Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and final ...
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Drew Pearson (journalist)
Andrew Russell Pearson (December 13, 1897 – September 1, 1969) was one of the best-known American columnists of his day, noted for his syndicated newspaper column "Washington Merry-Go-Round". He also had a program on NBC Radio titled ''Drew Pearson Comments''. He was known for his fearless approach even towards high level politicians, such as Senators, Cabinet members, generals and Presidents of the USA. Early life and career Pearson was born in Evanston, Illinois, to Quaker parents Paul Martin Pearson, an English professor at Northwestern University, and Edna Rachel Wolfe Pearson. When Pearson was 6 years old, his father joined the faculty of Swarthmore College as professor of public speaking, and the family moved to Pennsylvania, joining the Society of Friends, with which the college was then affiliated. After being educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Pearson attended Swarthmore from 1915 until 1919, where he edited its student newspaper, ''The Phoenix''. From 1919 to 1921, ...
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Don Wilson (announcer)
Don Wilson (September 1, 1900 – April 25, 1982) was an American announcer and actor in radio programming, radio and television, with a Falstaffian vocal presence, remembered best as the rotund announcer and comic foil to the star of ''The Jack Benny Program''. Early life Wilson played football for the University of Colorado in the 1920s. For his size he was an excellent sportsman, and was an excellent amateur golfer, teaming up with fellow NBC announcer Bud Stevens to win many matches in Southern California. Wilson began his radio career as a singer over Denver radio station KFEL in 1923."Don Wilson Beaming Over Desert TV", ''Los Angeles Times'', April 3, 1975. By 1929, he was working at KFI, and shortly afterwards for Don Lee (broadcaster), Don Lee at KHJ, in Los Angeles. In a 1978 appearance on ''The Tomorrow Show, Tomorrow with Tom Snyder'', Wilson claimed he was fired from KHJ because he had bought a Packard from Earle C. Anthony, the business arch-rival of Cadillac de ...
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YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the List of most visited websites, second most visited website, after Google Search. YouTube has more than 2.5 billion monthly users who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day. , videos were being uploaded at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute. In October 2006, YouTube was bought by Google for $1.65 billion. Google's ownership of YouTube expanded the site's business model, expanding from generating revenue from advertisements alone, to offering paid content such as movies and exclusive content produced by YouTube. It also offers YouTube Premium, a paid subscription option for watching content without ads. YouTube also approved creators to participate in Google's Google AdSens ...
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Jack Benny
Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with a highly popular comedic career in radio, television, and film. He was known for his comic timing and the ability to cause laughter with a long pause or a single expression, such as his signature exasperated summation "''Well!''" His radio and television programs, popular from 1932 until his death in 1974, were a major influence on the sitcom genre. Benny portrayed himself as a miser who obliviously played his violin badly and claimed perpetually to be 39 years of age. Early life Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in Chicago, Illinois, on February 14, 1894, and grew up in nearby Waukegan. He was the son of Jewish immigrants Meyer Kubelsky (1864–1946) and Emma Sachs Kubelsky (1869–1917), sometimes called "Naomi". Meyer was a saloon ow ...
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Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint with editorial independence. It is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.Random House, Inc. Datamonitor Company Profiles Authority: Retrieved 6/20/2007, from EBSCO Host Business Source Premier database. Dan Frank was Editorial Director from 1996 until his death in May 2021. Lisa Lucas joined the imprint in 2020 as Senior Vice President and Publisher. Overview Bertelsmann, the German company that also owns Bantam Books, Doubleday Publishing, and Dell Publishing, acquired Random House in 1998, along with its imprints Pantheon Books, Modern Library, Times Books, Everyman's Library, Vintage Books, Crown Publishing Group, Schocken Books, Ballantine Books, Del Rey Books, and Fawcett Publications,Miller, M. C. (March 26, 1998)"And then there were seven" Opinion, ''The New York Times'', p. A.27. making Bertelsmann the largest publisher of American books. In addition to classics, international fiction, and trade paperback ...
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Arthur Sheekman
Arthur Sheekman (February 5, 1901 – January 12, 1978) was an American theater and movie critic, columnist, playwright, and editor—but best known for his writing for the screen. His specialty was light comedy. Groucho Marx called him "The Fastest Wit in the West." Early life (1901–1926) Arthur Sheekman was born February 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, Nettie Green Sheekman and Charles Grover Sheekman, were Jewish immigrants from Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Sheekman was the middle child of three, coming between Edith (who became a teacher) and Harvey (an engineer). In Sheekman's early years, the family lived in St. Paul, Minnesota, where their father owned a bar. As Charlie Sheekman wasn't much of a provider, the children had to scramble to help support their family. Sheekman got his first job at twelve, working after school and on weekends at the St. Paul Public Library stacking books. He worked at the library until he got a job as a cub reporter on the ''St. Paul Da ...
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Nat Perrin
Nat Perrin (March 15, 1905 – May 9, 1998) was an American comedy film, television, and radio screenwriter, producer, and director, who contributed gags and storylines to several Marx Brothers films and co-wrote the script for the film '' Hellzapoppin''' (1941) adapted from the stage musical. He is credited with writing the screenplay or story outline for over 25 films, including ''The Big Store'' (1941), '' The Great Morgan'' (1945), and ''Song of the Thin Man'' (1947), as well as several television series. Biography Perrin was a registered attorney who never practiced; he instead worked in the publicity department for Warner Bros. in 1930. He often told the story of how he made his way into Groucho Marx's dressing room in 1931 with a forged letter of introduction from Moss Hart. Groucho was impressed with Perrin, and arranged for him to be hired by Paramount Pictures for the film '' Monkey Business'' (1931). The two went on to become lifelong friends. In the late 1930s, P ...
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Chico Marx
Leonard Joseph "Chico" Marx (; March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was an American comedian, actor and pianist. He was the oldest brother in the Marx Brothers comedy troupe, alongside his brothers Adolph ("Harpo"), Julius ("Groucho"), Milton ("Gummo") and Herbert ("Zeppo"). His persona in the act was that of a charming, uneducated but crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat. On screen, Chico is often in alliance with Harpo, usually as partners in crime, and is also frequently seen trying to con or outfox Groucho. Leonard was the oldest of the Marx Brothers to live past early childhood (first-born was his older brother Manfred Marx who had died in infancy). In addition to his work as a performer, he played an important role in the management and development of the act in its early years. Early years Chico (pronounced as Chicko) was born in Manhattan, New York City, on March 22, 1887.During hi ...
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Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit and one of America's greatest comedians. He made 13 feature films as a team with his siblings the Marx Brothers; he was the third-born of the brothers. He also had a successful solo career primarily on radio and television, most notably as the host of the game show ''You Bet Your Life''. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, spectacles, cigar, and a thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows. These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous novelty disguises, known as Groucho glasses: a one-piece mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, a large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and mustache. Early life Julius H ...
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Situation Comedy
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather t ...
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