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Irene Cara
Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress of Black, Puerto Rican and Cuban descent. Cara rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film '' Fame'', and for recording the film's title song " Fame", which reached 1 in several countries. In 1983, Cara co-wrote and sang the song " Flashdance... What a Feeling" (from the film ''Flashdance''), for which she shared an Academy Award for Best Original Song and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1984. Before her success with ''Fame'', Cara portrayed the title character Sparkle Williams in the original 1976 musical drama film ''Sparkle''. Early life Cara was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City, the youngest of five children. Her father, Gaspar Cara, a steel factory worker and retired saxophonist, was Puerto Rican, and her mother, Louise Escalera, a movie theater usher, was Cuban. Cara had two sisters and two broth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Largo, Florida
Largo is the third largest city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, as well as the fourth largest in the Tampa Bay area. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 82,500, up from 69,371 in 2000. Largo was first incorporated in 1905. In 1913, it became the first municipality in Pinellas County to adopt a council-manager government. It switched back and forth from "town" to "city" a few times, and became a city again in 1974. It was an exporter of agricultural products until the 1960s population growth began to transform it into a bedroom community. From 1905 to 2010, Largo grew in area from to about , and in population from about 300 people to more than 70,000. Largo began as a rural farming community and became the third largest city in Florida's most densely populated county. Largo is a sister city to Tosayamada, Kōchi, Japan, and has been named a National Arbor Day Tree City for 32 years in a row. History Beginnings of the area The native inhabitants of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Clark
Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 1989. He also hosted five incarnations of the Pyramid (game show), ''Pyramid'' game show from 1973 to 1988 and ''Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'', which transmitted New Year's Eve celebrations in New York City's Times Square. As host of ''American Bandstand'', Clark introduced rock & roll to many Americans. The show gave many new music artists their first exposure to national audiences, including Ike & Tina Turner, The Miracles, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Simon & Garfunkel, Iggy Pop, Prince (musician), Prince, Talking Heads, and Madonna. Episodes he hosted were among the first in which black people and white people performed on the same stage, and they were among the first in which the live studio audience sat down ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Professional Children's School
Professional Children's School (PCS) is a not-for-profit, college preparatory school geared toward working and aspiring child actors and dancers in grades six through twelve. The school was founded in New York City in 1914 to provide an academic education to young people working on the New York stage, in Vaudeville, or "on the road". PCS was co-founded in 1914 by Jean Greer and Jane Harris Hall when they learned that children who were working in entertainment were not able to attend traditional school. The school's original premises were at The Rehearsal Club on West 45th Street before it moved to 1860 Broadway, near 61st Street on the Upper West Side. Its curriculum and hours have changed over time. Distinguished alumni Dance * Jerry Ames * Jared Angle * Tyler Angle * Alexandra Ansanelli * Merrill Ashley * Debra Austin * Peter Boal * Ruthanna Boris * Ashley Bouder * Leslie Browne * Fernando Bujones * Emily Coates * Daniel Duell * Megan Fairchild * Robert Fairchild * Suzanne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roberta Flack
Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1937) is a retired American singer. She topped the Billboard Magazine, ''Billboard'' charts with the No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Feel Like Makin' Love (Roberta Flack song), Feel Like Makin' Love", "Where Is the Love (Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway song), Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", the latter two duets with Donny Hathaway. Flack is also noted for her influence on the subgenre of contemporary R&B called quiet storm, along with her interpretations of songs by various songwriters, such as Leonard Cohen and members of the Beatles. Flack was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won in 15th Annual Grammy Awards, 1973 and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won in 16th Annual Grammy Awards, 1974. Early life Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, to parents Laro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sammy Davis Jr
Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the Will Mastin Trio, which toured nationally, and his film career began in 1933. After military service, Davis returned to the trio and became an overnight sensation following a nightclub performance at Ciro's (in West Hollywood) after the 1951 Academy Awards. With the trio, he became a recording artist. In 1954, at the age of 29, he lost his left eye in a car accident. Several years later, he converted to Judaism, finding commonalities between the oppression experienced by African-American and Jewish communities.Sammy Davis Jr. Biography Biography.com. Retrieved June 6, 2013.< ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop music, pop, Soul music, soul, Gospel music, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder's use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of Contemporary R&B, R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LP record, LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Visual impairment, Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder. Wonder's single "Fingertips" was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1963, at the age of 13, making him the List o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem. A master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than one thousand compositions; his extensive body of work is the largest recorded personal jazz legacy, and many of his pieces have become standards. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's " Caravan", which brought a Spanish tinge to big band jazz. At the end of the 1930s, Ellington began a nearly thirty-year collaboration with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed multipl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tonight Show
''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 2010–2014), Conan O'Brien (2009–2010), and Jimmy Fallon (2014–present). Besides the main hosts, a number of regular "guest hosts" have been used, notably Ernie Kovacs, who hosted two nights per week during 1956–1957, and a number of guests used by Carson, who curtailed his own hosting duties back to three nights per week by the 1980s. Among Carson's regular guest hosts were Joey Bishop, David Letterman, Joan Rivers, David Brenner, and Jay Leno, although the practice has been mostly abandoned since hosts currently prefer reruns to showcasing potential rivals. Fallon has used guest hosts rarely, co-hosting the May 24, 2021 broadcast with Dave Grohl, Jimmy Kimmel hosting the April 1, 2022 broadcast (with Fallon swapping duties to guest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Carson
John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known as the host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson received six Primetime Emmy Awards, the Television Academy's 1980 Governor's Award and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993.Johnny CarsonEncyclopædia Britannica Online (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 30, 2009. During World War II, Carson served in the Navy. After the war, Carson started a career in radio. He moved from radio to TV and followed Jack Paar as the host of the late night talk show, ''Tonight''. Although his show was already successful by the end of the 1960s, during the 1970s, Carson became an American icon and remained so even after his retirement in 1992. He adopt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Original Amateur Hour
''The Original Amateur Hour'' is an American radio and television program. The show was a continuation of ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour'' which had been a radio staple from 1934 to 1945. Major Edward Bowes, the originator of the program and its master of ceremonies, left the show in 1945 and died the following year. He was ultimately succeeded by Ted Mack, when the show was brought into television in 1948. The show is a progenitor of later, similar programs such as ''Star Search'', ''American Idol'' and '' America's Got Talent''. Format and notable contestants The format was almost always the same. At the beginning of the show, the talent's order of appearance was determined by spinning a wheel. After it was announced how many episodes the current one marked (the final broadcast on CBS being the 1,651st), the wheel was spun. As the wheel spun, the words "Round and round she goes, and where she stops nobody knows" were always intoned. (From the late 1950s forward, the wheel was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playing By Ear
Playing or learning by ear is the ability of a performing musician to reproduce a piece of music they have heard, without having seen it notated in any form of sheet music. It is considered to be a desirable skill among musical performers, especially for those that play in a musical tradition where notating music is not the norm''.'' It is a misconception that musicians who play by ear do not have or do not require musical education, or have no theoretical understanding of the music they are playing. Playing by ear is often also used to refer more generally to making music without using musical notation, perhaps using (elements of) improvisation and instant composition. Blues, pop, jazz, and many forms of non-western music are fundamentally rooted in the concept of playing by ear, where musical compositions are passed down from generation to generation. In this respect, playing by ear can also be seen as a music-specific example of oral tradition. The concept of playing by ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grammy Award For Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The award went to the artist. Singles or tracks only are eligible. The award has had quite a convoluted history: *From 1959 to 1960 there was an award called Best Vocal Performance, Female, which was for work in the pop field *In 1961 the award was separated into Best Vocal Performance Single Record Or Track and Best Vocal Performance Album, Female *From 1962 to 1963 the awards from the previous year were combined into Best Solo Vocal Performance, Female *From 1964 to 1968 the award was called Best Vocal Performance, Female *In 1969, the awards were combined and streamlined as the award for Best Contemporary-Pop Vocal Performance, Female *From 1970 to 1971 the award was known as Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female *From 1972 to 1994 the aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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