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Jack Popplewell
Jack Popplewell (22 March 1909 – 16 November 1996) was an English writer and playwright. Life Popplewell was born and grew up in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. He published his first song in 1940, and his first play, ''Blind Alley'' was staged in London in 1953. ''Blind Alley'' opened to positive reviews, and was later adapted to the cinema in ''Tread Softly Stranger'', released in 1958, and starring Diana Dors and George Baker. Popplewell owned Manor Farm, Churwell, Leeds, where he farmed rhubarb, later moving with his wife, Betty, and two daughters (Juliet and Vanessa) to Vaynol Gate, Morley, West Yorkshire. He died in Bath. Plays Many were premiered in London's West End. * ''Blind Alley''. Premiere at "Q” Theatre, Kew Bridge, London, 1953. Published Samuel French, 1953. * ''Dead on Nine''. West End premiere at Westminster Theatre, 1955, starring Griffith Jones, Hy Hazel and Andrew Cruickshank. Published Samuel French, 1956. * ''The Vanity Case''. Premiere Oldham, Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by population) in England, after London and Birmingham. The city was a small manorial borough in the 13th century and a market town in the 16th century. It expanded by becoming a major production centre, including of carbonated water where it was invented in the 1760s, and trading centre (mainly with wool) for the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a major mill town during the Industrial Revolution. It was also known for its flax industry, iron foundries, engineering and printing, as well as shopping, with several surviving Victorian era arcades, such as Kirkgate Market. City status was awarded in 1893, a populous urban centre formed in the following century which absorbed surrounding villages and overtook the nearby York population. It is locate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Lockwood
Margaret Mary Day Lockwood, CBE (15 September 1916 – 15 July 1990), was an English actress. One of Britain's most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, her film appearances included ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938), ''Night Train to Munich'' (1940), ''The Man in Grey'' (1943), and ''The Wicked Lady'' (1945). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress for the 1955 film ''Cast a Dark Shadow''. She also starred in the television series ''Justice'' (1971–74). Early life Lockwood was born on 15 September 1916 in Karachi, British India, to Henry Francis Lockwood, an English administrator of a railway company, and his third wife, Scottish-born Margaret Eveline Waugh. She returned to England in 1920 with her mother, brother 'Lyn' and half-brother Frank, and a further half-sister 'Fay' joined them the following year, but her father remained in Karachi, visiting them infrequently. She also had another half-brother, John, from her father's first marriage, brought ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Carr (composer)
Michael Carr (born Maurice Alfred Cohen; 11 March 1905 – 16 September 1968) was a British popular music composer and lyricist, best remembered for the song " South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)", written with Jimmy Kennedy for the 1939 film of the same name. Life and career Born in Leeds, the son of cabinet maker and boxer Morris "Cockney" Cohen and Gertrude J. Beresford, Carr was brought up in Dublin, where his father opened a restaurant. In his teens he ran away to sea, and took various jobs in the United States, including cowboy in Montana, pianist in Las Vegas, and newspaper reporter. Under the name of Michael Carr, he played a number of small roles in Hollywood films. He returned to Dublin in 1930, and began writing tunes. A local bandleader suggested that he move to London, and enabled his introduction to lyricist Jimmy Kennedy. In 1934 he settled in London, where he worked for a music company. Initially he wrote cowboy songs such as "Ole Faithful", drawing on his ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli ( , ; 20 March 1890 – 30 November 1957) was an Italian opera singer (lyric tenor). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tenors of his generation. Early life Gigli was born in Recanati, in the Marche, the son of a shoemaker who loved opera. His parents did not, however, view music as a secure career. Benjamino's brother Lorenzo became a well-known painter. Career In 1914, he won first prize in an international singing competition in Parma. His operatic debut came on 15 October 1914, when he played Enzo in Amilcare Ponchielli's '' La Gioconda'' in Rovigo, following which he was in great demand. Gigli made many important debuts in quick succession, and always in ''Mefistofele'': Teatro Massimo in Palermo (31 March 1915), Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (26 December 1915), Teatro Costanzi di Roma (26 December 1916), La Scala, Milan (19 November 1918), Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires (28 June 1919) and finally the Metropolitan Opera, New York City (26 November ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambrose (bandleader)
Benjamin Baruch Ambrose (11 September 1896 – 11 June 1971), known professionally as Ambrose or Bert Ambrose, was an English bandleader and violinist. Ambrose became the leader of a highly acclaimed British dance band, ''Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra'', in the 1930s. Early life Ambrose was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw in 1896, when it was part of Congress Poland within the Russian Empire. After a time the family moved to London. In the 1911 England Census, his father, Lewis, is shown as a "Dealer in rags" (wife, Becky, "Assisting in the business"), and Ambrose as Barnett, a "Violin student musician". He began playing the violin while young, and travelled to New York with his aunt. He began playing professionally, first for Emil Coleman at New York's Reisenweber's restaurant, then in the Palais Royal's big band. After making a success of a stint as bandleader, at the age of 20 he was asked to put together and lead his own fifteen-piece band. After a dispute with his employe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Shelton (singer)
Anne Shelton (born Patricia Jacqueline Sibley, 10 November 1923 – 31 July 1994) was a popular English vocalist, who is remembered for providing inspirational songs for soldiers both on radio broadcasts, and in person, at British military bases during the Second World War. During the 1950s and 60s, Shelton had some success on the UK Singles Chart, topping it in 1956 with " Lay Down Your Arms". Early life Shelton was born on 10 November 1923 in Dulwich, South London. Singing career In May 1940 at age 16, she appeared on the BBC talent radio show "Monday Night at Eight" and sang 'Let the Curtain Come Down'. The dance-band leader Bert Ambrose heard her performance, and signed her to sing with his prestigious and popular 'Ambrose Orchestra'. She made her first broadcast with Ambrose in June 1940 and she soon made her first solo record for Rex Records "I Can't Love You Any More" backed with "Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread)". In January 1941 she commenced weekly radio b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geraldo (bandleader)
Gerald Walcan Bright (10 August 1904 – 4 May 1974), better known as Geraldo, was an English bandleader. He adopted the name "Geraldo" in 1930, and became one of the most popular British dance band leaders of the 1930s with his "sweet music" and his "Gaucho Tango Orchestra". During the 1940s, he modernised his style and continued to enjoy great success. Biography Bright was born in London, where he played piano and organ and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He started his career as a pianist playing for silent films. Geraldo became a major figure on the British entertainment scene for four decades, having fronted just about every kind of ensemble and influenced the successful careers of numerous top singers. For his broadcasts he varied the style of his orchestra quite considerably, and a particular series ''Tip Top Tunes'' (employing a full string section alongside the usual dance band) enjoyed great popularity. Several commercial recordings were made, spotlighting the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs. His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed, such as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Dick Haymes, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon. ''Yank'' magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. In 1948, ''Music Digest'' estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was an English actress, singer, comedian and star of cinema and music hall who was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the highest paid film star in the world in 1937. She was known affectionately as ''Our Gracie'' and ''the Lancashire Lass'' and for never losing her strong, native Lancashire accent. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and an Officer of the Venerable Order of St John (OStJ) in 1938, and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1979. Life and work Early life Fields was born Grace Stansfield, a daughter of Frederick Stansfield (1874–1956) and his wife Sarah Jane 'Jenny' Stansfield née Bamford (1879–1953), over a fish and chip shop owned by her grandmother, Sarah Bamford, in Molesworth Street, Rochdale, Lancashire. Her great-grandfather, William Stansfield (b.1805), of Hebden Bridge, Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (; 20 March 191718 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is honorifically known as the " Forces' Sweetheart", having given outdoor concerts for the troops in Egypt, India and Burma during the war as part of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). The songs most associated with her include "We'll Meet Again", " (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover", "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "There'll Always Be an England". She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the United Kingdom and the United States, and recording such hits as "Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart" and her UK number-one single "My Son, My Son". Her last single, "I Love This Land", was released to mark the end of the Falklands War. In 2009, at the age of 92, she became the oldest living artist to top the UK Albums Chart with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irene Handl
Irene Handl (27 December 1901 – 29 November 1987) was a British author and character actress who appeared in more than 100 British films. Life Irene Handl was born in Maida Vale, London, the younger of two daughters of an Austria-born father -- who came to England via Switzerland and started as a bank clerk working his way up into the stock exchange as a stockbroker, then became a private banker -- Friedrich (later Frederick) Handl (1874–1961), who became a naturalised British subject. Her German mother, Marie ( Schiepp or Schuepp; 1875–before 1924), was also a naturalised British subject. Theirs was a comfortable middle-class life, with a German cook and housekeeper living in the family home. From 1907 to 1915, Irene attended the Paddington and Maida Vale High School. In the 1920s, Handl travelled several times to New York with her father, with the ship's log listing her on each occasion as having no occupation and residing in the family home. Handl studied at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Farr
Derrick Capel Farr (7 February 191221 March 1986) was an English actor who appeared regularly in British films and television from 1938 until his death in 1986. His more famous roles include Group Captain John Whitworth in '' The Dam Busters''. Career After working as a schoolteacher, he took to the stage in 1937, and in 1938 got his first film role. He served in the Second World War, and after the war resumed his acting career, mainly in character parts. He did, however, continue to appear as male leads and second male leads (with above-the-title billing) in a number of films in the late 1940s and 1950s, including ''Noose'' (1948), ''Murder Without Crime'' (1950) and ''Young Wives' Tale'' (1951). In the early 1980s he played 16 roles in ''The War of the Roses'' cycle in the ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' series. Personal life His second marriage was in 1947 to actress Muriel Pavlow whom he met in 1941 while filming ''Quiet Wedding'', and again on the set of ''The Shop at S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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