Gordon MacRae
Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor, singer and radio/television host who appeared in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals ''Oklahoma!'' (1955) and ''Carousel'' (1956) and who played the leading man opposite Doris Day in '' On Moonlight Bay'' (1951) and sequel '' By The Light of the Silvery Moon'' (1953). Early life Born in East Orange in Essex County in northeastern New Jersey, United States, to Scottish parents, MacRae graduated in 1940 from Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, and he thereafter served as a navigator in IX Troop Carrier Command in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Before this, he attended Nottingham High School in Syracuse, New York. Gordon was descended from the Clan MacRae. Career Singer MacRae was a baritone. Winning a contest enabled him to sing at the 1939 New York World's Fair with the Harry James and Les Brown orchestras. Broadway He made his Broadway deb ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
East Orange, New Jersey
East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 69,612. The city was List of municipalities in New Jersey, the state's 20th most-populous municipality in 2010, after having been the state's 14th most-populous municipality in 2000.The Counties and Most Populous Cities and Townships in 2010 in New Jersey: 2000 and 2010 New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Accessed November 3, 2019. The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 68,903 in 2021, ranking the city the List of United St ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Clan MacRae
The Clan Macrae is a Highland Scottish clan. The clan has no chief; it is therefore considered an armigerous clan. Surname The surname Macrae (and its variations) is an anglicisation of the patronymic from the Gaelic personal name ''MacRaith''. This personal name means "son of grace". Traditional origins of the clan According to the late 19th-century historian Alexander Mackenzie, and Rev. Alexander Macrae in the early 20th century, the main authority for the early history of Clan Macrae is the late 17th-century manuscript account of the clan written by Rev. John Macrae. Alexander Macrae largely based his history of the clan upon John Macrae's earlier account. According to tradition, the Macraes were originally from Ireland and shared a common ancestry with the Mackenzies and Macleans. The Macraes were said to have originated from Clunes, which is located near the southern shore of the Beauly Firth, and was within the lordship of Lovat. Alexander Macrae stated that these t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Backfire (1950 Film)
''Backfire'' is a 1950 American film noir crime film directed by Vincent Sherman starring Edmond O'Brien, Virginia Mayo, Gordon MacRae, Viveca Lindfors and Dane Clark. The film was written by Larry Marcus, Ben Roberts and Ivan Goff. Goff and Roberts would go on to write ''White Heat'' the following year, a film that also stars O'Brien and Mayo. Although ''Backfire'' was completed in October 1948, it was not released until January 1950. Plot In November 1948, Bob Corey is an American soldier badly wounded at the end of World War II who is undergoing a number of surgical operations on his spine at the Birmingham General Army Hospital in Van Nuys, California. He is tended by a nurse, Julie Benson, and they have fallen in love. Corey's military pal Steve Connolly, arrives to discuss plans for the ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona that they plan to purchase and operate together when Corey is out of the hospital. The two men pool their G.I. benefits (totaling $40,000) to do so. Connolly ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Virginia Mayo
Virginia Mayo (born Virginia Clara Jones; November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005) was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Brothers' biggest box-office money-maker in the late 1940s. She also co-starred in the 1946 Oscar-winning movie ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' and ''White Heat'' (1949). Biography Early life Born in St. Louis, Missouri; Mayo was the daughter of newspaper reporter Luke and his wife, Martha Henrietta (née Rautenstrauch) Jones. Her family had roots back to the earliest days of St Louis, including great-great-great grandfather Captain James Piggott, who founded East St. Louis, Illinois, in 1797. Young Virginia's aunt operated an acting school in the St. Louis area, which Virginia began attending at age six. She also had a series of dancing instructors engaged by her aunt. Vaudeville Following her graduation from Soldan High School in 1937, she landed her first professional acting and dancing jobs a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
The Big Punch (1948 Film)
''The Big Punch'' is an American drama boxing film released in 1948. The film was directed by Sherry Shourds, produced by Saul Elkins and stars Gordon MacRae, Lois Maxwell, Wayne Morris, Mary Stuart and Eddie Dunn. It is considered to be a film noir and was MacRae's film debut after having signed a five-year contract with Warner Bros. Plot New York City boxer Johnny Grant has been ordered by his manager to throw his next match, but Johnny double-crosses him and knocks out his opponent instead. To even the score, the manager kills a police officer and frames Johnny for the murder. Johnny leaves town and hides out with pastor Chris Thorgenson in a small Pennsylvania town. Johnny phones his girlfriend Midge Parker and asks that she hire a private detective to clear his name. Chris helps him secure a bank job, but Johnny is blackmailed into robbing the bank. Johnny refuses and plots to run away, but Chris stops him. A police chief identifies Johnny as the wanted killer. Karen Long ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Anthology Series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different cast in each episode, but several series in the past, such as ''Four Star Playhouse'', employed a permanent troupe of character actors who would appear in a different drama each week. Some anthology series, such as '' Studio One'', began on radio and then expanded to television. Etymology The word comes from Ancient Greek ἀνθολογία (''anthología'', “flower-gathering”), from ἀνθολογέω (''anthologéō'', "I gather flowers"), from ἄνθος (''ánthos'', "flower") + λέγω (''légō'', "I gather, pick up, collect"), coined by Meleager of Gadara circa 60 BCE, originally as Στέφανος (στέφανος (''stéphanos'', "garland")) to describe a collection of poetry, later retitled anthology – see Gr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
The Railroad Hour
''The Railroad Hour'' was a radio series of musical dramas and comedies broadcast from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. Sponsored by the Association of American Railroads, the series condensed musicals and operettas to shorter lengths, concentrating on those written before 1943. Singer-actor Gordon MacRae starred in scripts by Jean Holloway, Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. Marvin Miller was the announcer. Warren Barker, at the age of 24, was appointed chief arranger for ''The Railroad Hour'', a position he held for six years. The show's musical director was Carmen Dragon. With its theme song, " I've Been Working on the Railroad", the series began on ABC October 4, 1948 as a 45-minute program, advertised as "World's Greatest Musical Comedies." It was reduced to 30 minutes on April 25, 1949, continuing until September 26, 1949. It then moved to NBC for a run from October 3, 1949, until June 21, 1954. On both networks it aired Monday evenings at 8pm (Eastern). Shows and pe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
John Serry Sr
John Serry Sr. (born John Serrapica; January 29, 1915 – September 14, 2003) was an American concert accordionist, arranger, composer, organist, and educator. He performed on the CBS Radio and Television networks and contributed to Voice of America's cultural diplomacy initiatives during the Golden Age of Radio. He also concertized on the accordion as a member of several orchestras and jazz ensembles for nearly forty years between the 1930s and 1960s. Biography Serry's career spanned over seven decades. As a proponent of Latin American music and the free-bass accordion, he performed as the piano accordionist on the radio music program ''Viva América'', which was broadcast live to South America under the United States Department of State's Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs' cultural diplomacy initiative for Voice of America during World War II. Broadcasts of this show have been cited as helping to introduce Latin American music and the Mexican bolero ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Archie Bleyer
Archibald Martin Bleyer (June 12, 1909 – March 20, 1989) was an American song arranger, bandleader, and record company executive. Early life Bleyer was born in the Corona section of the New York City borough of Queens. His father was a well-known trumpet player who had played with the Metropolitan Opera. The younger Bleyer began playing the piano when he was only seven years old. In 1927, he attended Columbia College, intending to become an electrical engineer, but as a sophomore switched to a music major. Without graduating, he left to become an arranger. In the early 1930s, Bleyer wrote a number of songs that were recorded, all 'hot' novelty numbers, including "Mouthful O'Jam", "Business In F" and "Business In Q". In 1934, he began to lead his own band at Earl Carroll's club in Hollywood, California. Bleyer's orchestra recorded for Vocalion Records in 1934 and in 1935 moved to the ARC group of labels (Melotone, Perfect, Romeo, Oriole). One of the vocalists who worked with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Junior Miss
''Junior Miss'' is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories by Sally Benson first published in ''The New Yorker''. Between 1929 and the end of 1941, the prolific Benson published 99 stories in ''The New Yorker'', some under her pseudonym of Esther Evarts. She had a bestseller when Doubleday published her ''Junior Miss'' collection in 1941. Broadway Benson's stories were adapted for theatre by writers Jerome Chodorov and Joseph Fields, by producer Max Gordon (producer), Max Gordon, and by director Moss Hart. The play had a successful run of 710 performances on Broadway from November 18, 1941, to July 24, 1943. Patricia Peardon had the title role of Judy Graves, a teenager who meddles in people's love lives. Film In 1945, a Junior Miss (film), film adaptation of the play by Jerome Chodorov and Joseph Fields starred Peggy Ann Garner as Judy Graves. George Seaton directed. Produced by William Perlberg, the 94-minute feature was released by 20th Century Fox on June 16, 1945. R ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Jo Stafford
Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical training to become an opera singer before following a career in popular music, and by 1955 had achieved more worldwide record sales than any other female artist. Her 1952 song " You Belong to Me" topped the charts in the United States and United Kingdom, becoming the second single to top the UK Singles Chart, and the first by a female artist to do so. Born in remote oil-rich Coalinga, California, near Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, Stafford made her first musical appearance at age 12. While still at high school, she joined her two older sisters to form a vocal trio named the Stafford Sisters, who found moderate success on radio and in film. In 1938, while the sisters were part of the cast of Twentieth Century Fox's production of ''A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Broadway Theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names (12 others used neither), with many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also using the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the thoroughfare is eponymous with the district and its collection of 41 theaters, and it is also closely identified with Times Square, only three of the theaters are located on Broadway itself (namely the Broadwa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |