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Gaiety Theatre (New York City)
The Gaiety Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 1547 Broadway in Times Square, Manhattan, New York City from 1909 until 1982, when it was torn down. The office building that housed the theatre, the Gaiety Building, has been called the Black Tin Pan Alley for the number of African-American songwriters who rented office space there. It was designed by Herts & Tallant and owned by George M. Cohan. The theatre introduced revolutionary concepts of a sunken orchestra (the previous configuration had the orchestra on the same level as the seats in front of the stage) and also not having pillars obstructing sight lines for the balcony. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, but the idea of vaudeville's theatre changed radically from its French antecedent. In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian Britain, a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, ventriloquists, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, clowns, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Razaf
Andy Razaf (born Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo; December 16, 1895 – February 3, 1973) was an American poet, composer and lyricist of such well-known songs as " Ain't Misbehavin'" and " Honeysuckle Rose". Biography Razaf was born in Washington, D.C., United States. His birth name was Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo. He was the son of Henri Razafinkarefo, nephew of Queen Ranavalona III of the Imerina kingdom in Madagascar, and Jennie Razafinkarefo (née Waller), the daughter of John L. Waller, the first African American consul to Imerina. The French invasion of Madagascar (1894-95) left his father dead, and forced his pregnant 15-year-old mother to escape to the United States, where he was born in 1895. He was raised in Harlem, Manhattan, and at the age of 16 he quit school and took a job as an elevator operator at a Tin Pan Alley office building. A year later he penned his first song text, embarking on his career as a lyricist. During this time he would spend many ni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will Vodery
Will Vodery (October 8, 1885 – November 18, 1951) was an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and arranger, and one of the few black Americans of his time to make a name for himself as a composer on Broadway, working largely for Florenz Ziegfeld. He had offices at the Gaiety Theatre office building in Times Square.Bloom, Ken''Broadway: An Encyclopedia'' Routledge; 2nd edition (November 11, 2003), . Early life Vodery was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 8, 1885; his mother Sarah J. Vodery was a pianist and his father was a teacher at Lincoln University. From an early age Vodery's family rented rooms to theatrical performers, exposing Will to many talented black performers at the turn of the 20th century, including members of the Williams & Walker Co. He attended the University of Pennsylvania on scholarship, where he studied with Hugh A. Clark.Peterson, Bernard L. "Will Vodery." ''The American Mosaic: The African American Experience''. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bert Williams
Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 – March 4, 1922) was a Bahamian-born American entertainer, one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He is credited as being the first Black man to have the leading role in a film: ''Darktown Jubilee'' in 1914. He was by far the best-selling Black recording artist before 1920. In 1918, the ''New York Dramatic Mirror'' called Williams "one of the great comedians of the world." Williams was a key figure in the development of African-American entertainment. In an age when racial inequality and stereotyping were commonplace, he became the first black person to take a lead role on the Broadway stage, and did much to push back racial barriers during his three-decade-long career. Fellow vaudevillian W. C. Fields, who appeared in productions with Williams, described him as "the funniest man I ever saw—and the saddest man I ever knew." Early life Williams was born i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perry Bradford
Perry Bradford (February 14, 1893, Montgomery, Alabama – April 20, 1970, New York City) was an American composer, songwriter, and vaudeville performer. His most notable songs included "Crazy Blues," "That Thing Called Love," and "You Can't Keep A Good Man Down." He was nicknamed "Mule" because of his stubbornness, and he is credited with finally persuading Okeh Records to work with Mamie Smith leading to her historic blues recording in 1920. Biography Bradford grew up in Atlanta, where his family moved when he was six, and in 1906 started working in minstrel shows. He played in Chicago as a solo pianist as early as 1909 and visited New York City the following year. Through extensive experience with traveling minstrel shows and theatre companies, Bradford obtained exposure to African-American folksongs. Bradford broke down walls of racial prejudice that had kept African-American singers from recording. Prior to Bradford's influence, African-American artists recorded in a styl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarence Williams (musician)
Clarence Williams (October 6, 1898 or October 8, 1893 – November 6, 1965) was an American jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, theatrical producer, and publisher. Biography Williams was born in Plaquemine, Louisiana, to Dennis, a bassist, and Sally Williams, and ran away from home at age 12 to join Billy Kersands' Traveling Minstrel Show, then moved to New Orleans. At first, Williams worked shining shoes and doing odd jobs, but soon became known as a singer and master of ceremonies. By the early 1910s, he was a well-regarded local entertainer also playing piano, and was composing new tunes by 1913. Williams was a good businessman and worked arranging and managing entertainment at the local African American vaudeville theater as well as at various saloons and dance halls around Rampart Street, and at clubs and houses in Storyville. Williams started a music publishing business with violinist/bandleader Armand J. Piron in 1915, which by the 1920s was the leading African-A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Pace
Harry Herbert Pace (January 6, 1884 – July 19, 1943) was an American music publisher and insurance executive. He was the founder of Black Swan Records, the first record label owned by an African American with wide distribution capabilities. Early life Harry Pace was born in Covington, Georgia. According to a 1917 biography Pace's "Grandfather was brought from Virginia to Georgia during the days of slavery, but was manumitted by his master, to whom he was related." There is little known about his parents. He finished elementary school at the age of twelve. Career Pace enrolled at Atlanta University and found work as a printer's devil to pay his way through school. However, after learning that white employees were earning more than black employees, Pace left the job and began working odd jobs on campus instead. It was at Atlanta University that Pace met W. E. B. Du Bois, who was one of his teachers. Pace graduated valedictorian of his class in 1903. He was 19 years old. Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It was built in 1931 as the Alan E. Lefcourt Building, after the son of its builder Abraham E. Lefcourt, and designed by Victor Bark Jr. Gray, Christopher"Streetscapes: The Brill Building: Built With a Broken Heart" ''The New York Times'', December 30, 2009. The building is 11 stories high and has approximately of rentable area. The Brill Building is famous for housing music industry offices and studios where some of the most popular American songs were written. It is considered to have been the center of the American music industry that dominated the pop charts in the early 1960s. The "Brill" name comes from a haberdasher who operated a store at street level and subsequently bought the building. The Brill Building was purchased by 1619 Broadway Realty LLC in Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Marriott Marquis Hotel
The New York Marriott Marquis is a Marriott hotel on Times Square, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Designed by architect John C. Portman Jr., the hotel is at 1535 Broadway, between 45th and 46th Streets. With 1,966 rooms and of meeting space, it is one of the largest hotels in the city. The hotel has two wings, one on 45th Street and one on 46th Street, connected by a podium at ground level. The first two stories contain retail space, while the Marquis Theatre was built within the building's third floor. The hotel's atrium lobby is at the eighth floor and also includes meeting space and restaurants. Thirty-six stories of guestrooms rise above the lobby, overlooking it. The top three stories contain the View, one of New York City's highest restaurants. An architectural feature of the hotel is its concrete elevator core, which consists of a minaret-shaped structure with twelve glass elevator cabs on the exterior. Real estate agent Peter Sharp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch)
Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrelated pale lager beer, originating in České Budějovice, Czech Republic (in German, ) produced by the Budějovický Budvar brewery. There have been multiple trademark disputes between the two companies. Usually, either Anheuser-Busch or Budějovický Budvar are granted the exclusive use of the ''Budweiser'' name in a given market. Anheuser-Busch commonly uses the ''Bud'' brand for its beer when ''Budweiser'' is not available. The AB lager is available in over 80 countries, though not under the Budweiser name in places where Anheuser-Busch does not own the trademark. AB Budweiser is a filtered beer, available on draft and in bottles and cans, made with up to 30% rice in addition to hops and barley malt.Protz, R., ''The Complete Guide to W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astor Theatre (New York)
The Astor Theatre was located at 1537 Broadway, at West 45th Street in Times Square in New York City. It opened September 21, 1906, with Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and continued to operate as a Broadway theatre until 1925. From 1925 until it closed in 1972, it was a first-run movie theater. History The Astor was first managed by Lincoln A. Wagenhals and Collin Kemper, then by George M. Cohan and Sam Harris, and later by the Shubert Organization. The theater was designed by architect George W. Keister. Among the plays that debuted at the Astor were Cohan's '' Seven Keys to Baldpate'' (1913) and '' Why Marry?'' (1917) by Jesse Lynch Williams, the first winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 1925, Loew's Theatres bought the Astor and converted it into a movie house in order to have a Times Square " road show" showcase for first-run films from the MGM film studio. ''The Big Parade'' (1925) was the first film shown at the Astor where it ran for a continuous 9 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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