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Larry Steele (producer)
Larry Steele (1913 – 1980) was an American songwriter, composer, and impresario, notable for his all-black variety revue shows. Steele was dubbed the "Black Flo Ziegfeld" for his dazzling productions. He toured with his troupe called ''Smart Affairs'' between from 1947 to 1970. Performers featured in ''Smart Affairs'' included Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Sara Vaughan, and Lou Rawls. As a songwriter, Steele wrote over 200 songs over the course of his career. Life and career Early life Born in 1913, Steele was raised in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a barber and didn't not want him to go into show business. Steele's father and his five sisters wanted Steele to become a lawyer, so he intended to study law at Northwestern University. His plans changed in 1934 when he was offered a job for $3 a night as a singing master of ceremonies and bandleader at Panama Café in the South Side. ''Smart Affairs'' Steele left Chicago in the mid-1940s and helped ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. A songwriter who mainly writes the lyrics for a song is referred to as a lyricist. The pressure from the music industry to produce popular hits means that song writing is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with the task of creating original melodies. Pop songs may be composed by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own music publishers, while others have external publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Club Harlem
Club Harlem was a nightclub at 32 Kentucky Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Founded in 1935 by Leroy "Pop" Williams, it was the city's premier club for black jazz performers. Like its Harlem counterpart, the Cotton Club, many of Club Harlem's guests were white, wealthy and eager to experience a night of African-American entertainment. An elaborate all-black revue called ''Smart Affairs'', produced by Larry Steele and headquartered at the club from 1946 to 1971, featured 40 to 50 acts and was on a par with Broadway productions. Performers at the club included Sammy Davis Jr. (who would also invite the white members of the Rat Pack), Dick Gregory, Dinah Washington, Bootsie Barnes, Gladys Knight, Teddy Pendegrass, Hot Lips Page, and Wild Bill Davis. Drummer Crazy Chris Columbo conducted the club orchestra for 34 years. Club Harlem was outfitted with seven bars, two lounges and a main showroom seating more than 900. A cocktail lounge had room for 400 guests with continuous ent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olga James
Olga James (born February 16, 1929) is an American singer and actress best known for her role in the film ''Carmen Jones'' (1954). Her later acting credits include a role in the Broadway musical ''Mr. Wonderful'' and a reoccurring role on ''The Bill Cosby Show''. James was married to jazz musician Julian "Cannonball" Adderley from 1962 until his death in 1975. Life and career James was born in Washington, D.C. on February 16, 1929. Her father was a saxophonist and her mother was a dancer on the Chitlin Circuit. Her parents separated during her childhood and her mother remarried. James was raised by her grandparents until she was admitted into Juilliard in New York City, then she went to live with her mother in Newark, New Jersey. At Juilliard, James befriended singer Leontyne Price. Although James studied opera, she preferred to sing Mozart art songs, German lieder, and French chansons. Through networking at Juilliard, she was hired for her first professional role in 1952 as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Hibbler
Albert George Hibbler (August 16, 1915 – April 24, 2001) was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of Hibbler's singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best seen as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music. According to one authority, "Hibbler cannot be regarded as a jazz singer but as an exceptionally good interpreter of twentieth-century popular songs who happened to work with some of the best jazz musicians of the time." Early life Hibbler was born in Tyro, Mississippi, United States, and was blind from birth. Some sources give his birth name as Andrew George Hibbler. At the age of 12 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he attended Arkansas School for the Blind, joining the school choir. Later he began working as a blues singer in local bands, failing his first audition for Duke Ellington in 1935. However, after winning an amateur talent contest in Memphis, Te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Lee Simpkins
Arthur Lee "Georgia Boy" Simpkins (1907–1972) was an American singer. Originally from South Carolina, where he became known as the "Black Caruso" in reference to the opera singer Enrico Caruso, Simpkins performed in Augusta, Georgia, with his group Night Hawks. First gaining popularity in Chicago under the moniker "Georgia Boy", Simpkins performed a wide variety of music ranging from classic standards to operatic renditions, being able to perform not only many different genres but in many different languages. In 1936, he recorded "Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing)" with Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra. He sang at the 1964 memorial for Sam Cooke. Simpkins appeared on television regularly as a vocalist and performer, particularly on the series ''You Asked For It''. Although Simpkins made many recordings, he fared better on the performing circuit in areas like Las Vegas and Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lola Falana
Loletha Elayne Falana or Loletha Elaine Falana (born September 11, 1942), better known by her stage name Lola Falana, is an American singer, dancer, and actress. Early life Lola Falana was born in Camden, New Jersey. She was the third of six children born to Bennett, a welder and Cleo Falana, a seamstress (1921–2010). Falana's father, an Afro-Cuban, left his homeland of Cuba to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps, later becoming a welder shortly after meeting Falana's mother, who was African-American. By the age of three, Falana was dancing, and by age five she was singing in the church choir. In 1952, Falana's family, which by this time included two more siblings, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the period she was in junior high school, Falana was already dancing in nightclubs to which she was escorted by her mother. Pursuing a musical career became so important to her that, against her parents' wishes, she dropped out of Germantown High School a few months before grad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peg Leg Bates
Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates (October 11, 1907 – December 6, 1998) was an African-American entertainer from Fountain Inn, South Carolina, United States. Life and career Early life Peg Leg Bates was born Clayton Bates on October 10, 1907 in Fountain Inn, South Carolina, the son of Rufus and Emma W Stewart Bates. His mother was a sharecropper. By the age of five, Bates was dancing on the streets of Fountain Inn for pennies and nickels; he lost a leg at the age of 12 in a cotton gin accident. His uncle, Wit, made his crude first "peg leg" after returning home from World War I and finding his nephew handicapped. Bates subsequently taught himself to tap dance with a wooden peg leg. By the time he was 15, Bates was again adept enough at dancing to enter amateur talent shows, working his way up to employment through the Theater Owners Booking Association, which booked entertainers for African-American theaters in the US. Career At 20, Bates was dancing on Broadway. In the early 1940 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freda Payne
Freda Charcilia Payne (born September 19, 1942Some sources give a birth year of 1945, but this appears to be an error as all sources agree that she is older than her sister Scherrie, born 1944.) is an American singer and actress. Payne is best known for her career in music during the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s. Her most notable record is her 1970 hit single " Band of Gold". Payne was also an actress in musicals and film, as well as the host of a TV talk show. Payne is the older sister of Scherrie Payne, a former singer with the American vocal group the Supremes. Biography Early life and career Payne was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up listening to jazz singers, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. As a teenager, she attended the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts; she soon began singing radio commercial jingles, and took part in (and won many) local TV and radio talent shows. In 1963, she moved to New York City and worked with many entertainers, including Qui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savannah Churchill
Savannah Churchill (born Savannah Valentine Roberts, August 21, 1920 – April 19, 1974) was an American rhythm and blues singer in the 1940s and 1950s. She is best known for her number-one R&B single "I Want To Be Loved (But Only By You)." Life and career Born to Creole parents Emmett Roberts and Hazel Hickman in Colfax, Louisiana, her family moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was three. Growing up, Churchill played violin and sang with the choir at St. Peter Claver Catholic School in Brooklyn. She graduated from Brooklyn's Girls' High School. In the 1930 and 1940 United States Census she and her parents are listed as Negro, as Louisiana Creoles were required to do at the time. Churchill never denied her African American ancestry even as she attained fame, and she appeared in black publications such as ''Jet'' magazine. In 1939, Churchill quit her job as a waitress to pursue a singing career. She began singing at Small's Paradise in Harlem, earning $18 a week. She performe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Daniels
William Boone Daniels (September 12, 1915 – October 7, 1988) was an American singer active in the United States and Europe from the mid-1930s to 1988, notable for his hit recording of "That Old Black Magic" and his pioneering performances on early 1950s television. He was one of the first African-American entertainers to cross over into the mainstream. Daniels was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1977. Life and career Early life Daniels was born in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. where his father was a postmaster and notary. His mother was a schoolteacher and organist. Daniels had a heritage of Portuguese sailor, Native American (Choctaw), African American, and frontiersman Daniel Boone. Early career In 1935, Daniels moved from Jacksonville to New York to attend Columbia University. He planned to become a lawyer, but he was sidetracked during the Depression. His grandmother was a seamstress in Harlem for the ''Ziegfeld Follies'', and she encourag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tivoli Theatre (Chicago)
The Tivoli Theatre was a movie palace at 6323 South Cottage Grove Avenue, at East 63rd Street, in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago's South Side. It was the first of the "big three" movie palaces built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by brothers A. J. Balaban, Barney Balaban and their partner Sam Katz, who were also owners of the Rivera Theater (North Side) and the Central Park Theater (West Side), that opened on 16 February 1921. History The building itself, a French Baroque styled structure, was designed by architects Cornelius Ward Rapp and George W. Leslie Rapp doing business under the auspices of Rapp and Rapp. The building had an intricate design complete with gold leaf and multicolored marble decor. It was outlined with paintings and ornate sculptures. The theater was two stories high with a painted ceiling in the lobby that was meant to resemble the Sainte-Chapelle at Versailles. The theater held 3,520 patrons around one screen, had air conditioning, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Regal Theater (Chicago, Illinois)
Regal Theater was a night club, theater, and music venue, popular among African-Americans. Located in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. The theater was designed by Edward Eichenbaum. and opened in February 1928. Part of the Balaban and Katz chain, the lavishly decorated venue, with plush carpeting and velvet drapes, featured some of the most celebrated African-American entertainers in America. On what for a time was known as the Chitlin' Circuit, the Regal also featured motion pictures and live stage shows. Nat "King" Cole, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Miles Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, and Duke Ellington performed frequently at the theater through the 1920s and 1940s. Other acts to appear at the Regal over the years have included such performers as The Supremes, Wayne Cochran, The Esquires The Temptations, The Four Tops, B.B. King, Herbie Hancock, Della Reese, Stevie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
