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Footlight Varieties
''Footlight Varieties'' is the third of four titles in the RKO series of variety films, combining previously filmed shorts with new musical numbers, plus monologues by master of ceremonies Jack Paar. The new footage was directed by Hal Yates and written by Yates and Felix Adler. In addition to Paar, the new footage includes performances by The Sportsmen quartet, Liberace, Jerry Murad's Harmonicats, Red Buttons, Grace Hartman, and flamenco dancer Inesita. The older sequences are taken from a Leon Errol two-reel comedy, a ''Flicker Flashbacks'' silent-movie revival, and a Frankie Carle Frankie Carle (born Francis Nunzio Carlone, March 25, 1903 – March 7, 2001) was an American pianist and bandleader. As a very popular bandleader in the 1940s and 1950s, Carle was nicknamed "The Wizard of the Keyboard". "Sunrise Serenade" was Ca ... musical short. ''Footlight Varieties'' was followed by the fourth and final film in the variety-show series, ''Merry Mirthquakes'', which received ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Yates
Hal Yates (July 26, 1899 – August 1, 1969) was an American screenwriter and film director. He wrote for 96 films between 1924 and 1953. He also directed 88 films between 1926 and 1953. He started his career in entertainment in a vaudeville double-act called 'Yates and Lawley'. Yates first worked at the Hal Roach Studios where he directed a few early Laurel and Hardy comedies (including the lost Hats Off),and later worked at the RKO studios directing short films featuring Edgar Kennedy and Leon Errol. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and died in Los Angeles, California. Selected filmography * '' Hats Off'' (1927) * ''Get 'Em Young'' (1926) * ''The Nickel-Hopper'' (1926) * ''Along Came Auntie'' (1926) * ''Thundering Fleas'' (1926) * ''Wife Tamers'' (1926) * ''Say It with Babies'' (1926) * ''Madame Mystery'' (1926) * ''Wandering Papas'' (1926) * ''What's the World Coming To? ''What's the World Coming To?'' is a 1926 American silent comedy film directed by Richard Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liberace
Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame from the 1950s to 1970s, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world with established concert residencies in Las Vegas and an international touring schedule. He embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off stage. Early life and education Władziu Valentino Liberace (known as "Lee" to his friends and "Walter" to family)Barker, 2009, p. 12. was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, on May 16, 1919. His father, Salvatore ("Sam") Liberace (1885–1977), was an immigrant from Formia in the Lazio region of central Italy. His mother, Frances Zuchowski (1892–1980), was born in Menasha, Wisconsin, of Polish descent. Liberace had an identical twin who died at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1951 Films
The year 1951 in film involved some significant events. Top-grossing films United States The top ten 1951 released films by box office gross in the United States are as follows: International The highest-grossing 1951 films in countries outside of North America. Worldwide gross The following table lists known worldwide gross figures for several high-grossing films that originally released in 1951. Note that this list is incomplete and is therefore not representative of the highest-grossing films worldwide in 1951. This list also includes gross revenue from later re-releases. Events * February 15 – new management takes over at United Artists with Arthur B. Krim, Robert Benjamin and Matty Fox now in charge. * April – French magazine '' Cahiers du cinéma'' is first published. * July 26 – Walt Disney's '' Alice in Wonderland'' premieres; while a disappointment at first and hardly released in theaters, it would later become one of the biggest cult classics in the ani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1951 Musical Films
Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. * January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment. * January 20 – Winter of Terror: Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy. * January 21 – Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea 1951 eruption of Mount Lamington, erupts catastrophically, killing nearly 3,000 people and causing great devastation in Oro Province. * January 25 – Dutch author Anne de Vries releases the first volume of his children's nove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Musical Films
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Black-and-white Films
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RKO Pictures Films
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone, and in early 1929 production began under the RKO name (an abbreviation of Radio-Keith-Orpheum). Two years later, another Kennedy holding, the Pathé studio, was folded into the operation. By the mid-1940s, RKO was controlled by investor Floyd Odlum. RKO has long been renowned for its cycle of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Carle
Frankie Carle (born Francis Nunzio Carlone, March 25, 1903 – March 7, 2001) was an American pianist and bandleader. As a very popular bandleader in the 1940s and 1950s, Carle was nicknamed "The Wizard of the Keyboard". "Sunrise Serenade" was Carle's best-known composition, rising to No. 1 in the US in 1938 and selling more than one million copies. Early life Carle was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on March 25, 1903. Born the son of a factory worker who could not afford a piano, he practiced on a dummy keyboard devised by his uncle, pianist Nicholas Colangelo, until he found a broken-down instrument in a dance hall. In 1916, a teenage Carle began working with his uncle's band as well as a number of local bands in the Rhode Island area. To gain further popularity in an America which still held prejudices against many Italian Americans, Carle did what many singers, such as Dean Martin and Jerry Vale, did during this time period; he changed his name from Carlone to Carle. Car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grace Hartman (actress)
Grace Adelaide Hartman (born Grace Barrett, January 7, 1907 – August 8, 1955) was an American stage and musical theatre actress. Biography She was born in San Francisco, California. She was married to actor Paul Hartman from 1923 until they divorced in 1951. She died in Van Nuys, California, in 1955. In 1949, Hartman and her husband co-starred in ''The Hartmans'', a comedy series on NBC-TV. Death She died from cancer on August 8, 1955, aged forty eight. Productions *'' Ballyhoo of 1932'' (September 6, 1932 – November 26, 1932) *''Red, Hot and Blue'' (October 29, 1936 – April 10, 1937) *'' Keep 'em Laughing'' (April 24, 1942 – May 28, 1942) *'' Top-Notchers'' (May 29, 1942 – June 20, 1942) *'' Sketches by Grace Hartman'' (December 11, 1947 – September 4, 1948) *''Angel in the Wings'' (January 22, 1949 – May 7, 1949) *''Tickets, Please!'' (April 27, 1950 – November 25, 1950) Filmography Awards She won a Tony Award for Best L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Buttons
Red Buttons (born Aaron Chwatt; February 5, 1919 – July 13, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role in the 1957 film ''Sayonara''. He was nominated for awards for his acting work in films such as '' They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'', ''Harlow'', and '' Pete's Dragon''. Buttons played the lead role of Private John Steele, the paratrooper hung up on the town steeple clock, in the 1962 international ensemble cast film '' The Longest Day''. Early life Red Buttons was born Aaron Chwatt on February 5, 1919, in Manhattan, New York City, to Jewish immigrants Sophie (née Baker) and Michael Chwatt. At 16 years old, Chwatt got a job as an entertaining bellhop at Ryan's Tavern in City Island, the Bronx, New York City. The combination of his red hair and the large, shiny buttons on the bellhop uniforms inspired orchestra leader Charles "Dinty" Moore to call him "Red Buttons", the name under which he would later perform. La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Murad's Harmonicats
Jerry Murad's Harmonicats were an American harmonica-based group. Background The band was founded in 1947. Originally they were named The Harmonica Madcaps and the group consisted of Jerry Murad ( chromatic lead harmonica), Bob Hadamik (bass harmonica), Pete Pedersen (chromatic harmonica), and Al Fiore, ( chord harmonica). In 1947, the group consisted of Murad, Fiore, Don Les on bass harmonica, and Cappy Lafell on Polyphonia. They eventually (around 1948) became a trio with Murad, Fiore, Les. In 1947, during the record ban, the group recorded the hit song "Peg o' My Heart" for Vitacoustic Records, which spent 21 weeks on the '' Billboard'' magazine chart (peaking at #1) and sold more than 2 million copies the first year. It was the first record in history to use artificial reverb. Pedersen and Gail Wallace remained contributors to the group throughout its existence, working on arrangements and occasionally recording. During 1949 when Don Les' father died, the band called upo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RKO Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone, and in early 1929 production began under the RKO name (an abbreviation of Radio-Keith-Orpheum). Two years later, another Kennedy holding, the Pathé studio, was folded into the operation. By the mid-1940s, RKO was controlled by investor Floyd Odlum. RKO has long been renowned for its cycle of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
