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Lennie Hayton
Leonard George Hayton (February 14, 1908 – April 24, 1971) was an American musician, composer, conductor and arranger. Hayton's trademark was a captain's hat, which he always wore at a rakish angle. Early life Hayton was born in New York City, New York, to a Jewish family. The son of a Manhattan restaurateur, he developed a penchant for the piano when six years old, showing unusual interest in the early classics from the rolls of the family player piano. Although neither of his parents was a tutored musician, both were keen followers of the concert hall. Hayton attended many concerts with them. His parents disliked "Jazz" and it was not until Hayton was 16 that he really discovered it. He left high school to become pianist with the Broadway Hotel Orchestra of Cass Hagen, a boyhood friend. Career While playing at the Park Central, Hayton was heard by Paul Whiteman and immediately engaged by him in April 1928 as second pianist, playing piano and celeste as well as acting a ... [...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] |
Eddie Lang
Eddie Lang (born Salvatore Massaro, October 25, 1902 – March 26, 1933) was an American musician who is credited as the father of jazz guitar. During the 1920s, he gave the guitar a prominence it previously lacked as a solo instrument, as part of a band or orchestra, and as accompaniment for vocalists. He recorded duets with guitarists Lonnie Johnson and Carl Kress and jazz violinist Joe Venuti, and played rhythm guitar in the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and was the favoured accompanist of Bing Crosby. Biography The son of an Italian-American instrument maker, Lang was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up with violinist Joe Venuti. His first instrument was violin when he was seven. He performed on violin in 1917 and became a member of a trio. In 1920, he dropped the violin for banjo and worked with Charlie Kerr, then Bert Estlow, Vic D'Ippolito, and Billy Lustig's Scranton Siren Orchestra. A few years later, he dropped the banjo for guitar when he became a member ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Pirate (1948 Film)
''The Pirate'' is a 1948 American musical film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. With songs by Cole Porter, it stars Judy Garland and Gene Kelly with costars Walter Slezak, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Owen, The Nicholas Brothers, and George Zucco. Plot Manuela Alva, who lives in the small Caribbean village of Calvados, dreams of being swept away by the legendary Pirate, Mack "the Black" Macoco. However, her aunt and uncle (who have raised her) insist that she marry the town mayor, the rotund and bullying Don Pedro. Shortly before her wedding, Manuela visits a nearby town, Port Sebastian. A traveling circus has arrived, and Serafin, its handsome leader, flirts with all the girls in the song "Niña". When he encounters Manuela, however, he falls in love with her at first sight. He compliments her beauty and begs her not to marry Don Pedro, but, angered, she hurries away. That night, however, she can't sleep, and sneaks out to go see Serafin's show. At the show, Serafin hypnotizes Manu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Harvey Girls
''The Harvey Girls'' is a 1946 Technicolor American musical film produced by Arthur Freed for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is based on the 1942 The Harvey Girls (novel), novel of the same name by Samuel Hopkins Adams, about Fred Harvey (entrepreneur), Fred Harvey's Fred Harvey Company#Harvey Girls, Harvey House waitresses. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland and features John Hodiak, Ray Bolger, and Angela Lansbury, as well as Preston Foster, Virginia O'Brien, Kenny Baker (American performer), Kenny Baker, Marjorie Main and Chill Wills. Future star Cyd Charisse appears in her first speaking role on film. ''The Harvey Girls'' won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", written by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer. Plot In the 1890s, a group of "Harvey Girls" – new waitresses for Fred Harvey (entrepreneur), Fred Harvey's pioneering chain of Fred Harvey Company, Harvey House restaurants – travels on the Atch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). She attained international stardom as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Renowned for her versatility, she received an Academy Juvenile Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Special Tony Award. Garland was the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, which she won for her 1961 live recording titled ''Judy at Carnegie Hall''. Garland began performing as a child with her two older sisters, in a vaudeville group " The Gumm Sisters" and was later signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. She appeared in more than two dozen films for MGM. Garland was a frequent on-screen partner of both Mickey Rooney and Gene Kelly and regularly collaborated w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment industry worldwide. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname, the "Oscar". The statuette, depicting a knight rendered in the Art Deco style, was originally sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley from a design sketch by art director Cedric Gibbons. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Academy Awards cerem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bing Crosby Entertains
''Bing Crosby Entertains'' was a weekly radio show which ran for two seasons during 1933-1935, and was to cement Bing Crosby's reputation as a radio star. ''Bing Crosby Entertains'' was Crosby's most important radio series to date, and it enabled him to fully develop as a rounded radio personality instead of a singer who did not speak. Background Bing Crosby’s radio career had taken off with his nightly nation-wide broadcasts from New York in 1931-32 and he moved on to the two nights a week '' Music That Satisfies'' show which ran for 13 weeks early in 1933. The nightly shows required him to do separate shows for the East Coast and for the West Coast because of the time difference. That was avoided for the ''Music That Satisfies'' series as Crosby broadcast at 9:15 p.m. Eastern which meant that it was heard at 6:15 p.m. in California. By this time, Crosby was making three films a year and undertaking stage appearances. A once-a-week radio show which did not have to be repeated fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions, Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur (1959 film), Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Going Hollywood
''Going Hollywood'' is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Marion Davies and Bing Crosby. It was written by Donald Ogden Stewart and based on a story by Frances Marion. ''Going Hollywood'' was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on December 22, 1933. Plot The film tells how an infatuated school-teacher, Sylvia Bruce (Marion Davies), follows Bill Williams (Bing Crosby), a popular crooner, to Hollywood where he is to make a picture. On board the train she obtains a job as maid to Bill's French fiancée and leading lady, Lili Yvonne (Fifi D'Orsay), and meets the film's director, Conroy (Ned Sparks), and promoter, Baker (Stuart Erwin). On arrival in Hollywood she is befriended by Jill (Patsy Kelly) and shares her rooms. At the Independent Art Studio in Hollywood, where the film is being made, Lili's temperament and lack of talent cause Conroy much concern. Eventually, after losing her temper with a woman who asks for her autograph, Lili refuses to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
15 Minutes With Bing Crosby
''15 Minutes with Bing Crosby'' was Bing Crosby's first solo radio series, which ran from September 2, 1931 until October 31 the same year. It was to have a major impact on his career. Background Crosby had appeared on radio on many occasions as a member of The Rhythm Boys trio, first as part of the Paul Whiteman orchestra and later in the nightly broadcasts with Gus Arnheim from the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was at the Cocoanut Grove that Bing's solos made him stand out from the Rhythm Boys and a dispute with the management at the Grove more or less led to the break-up of the trio in May 1931. Bing had already started making records under his own name and then he made several short films for Mack Sennett which were well received. A regular nationwide radio broadcast show was the next logical step in the development of his solo career. Bing and his attorney, Roger Marchetti, traveled from Los Angeles to New York seeking $1,500 a week on sustaining t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" is one of the best-known American songs of the Great Depression. Written by lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Jay Gorney, it was part of the 1932 musical revue ''Americana''; the melody is based on a Russian-Jewish lullaby. The song tells the story of the universal everyman, whose honest work towards achieving the American dream has been foiled by the economic collapse. Unusually for a Broadway song, it was composed largely in a minor key, as befits the subject matter. The song became best known through recordings by Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallée that were released in late 1932. The song received positive reviews and was one of the most popular songs of 1932. As one of the few popular songs during the era to discuss the darker aspects of the collapse, it came to be viewed as an anthem of the Great Depression. Background The Great Depression in the United States, which started with the 1929 Wall Street crash, had a severe impact on the count ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Some Of These Days
"Some of These Days" is a popular song, written and composed by Shelton Brooks, published in 1910, and associated with the performer Sophie Tucker. Background Shelton Brooks and "Some of These Days" was brought to Sophie Tucker's attention in 1910 by her maid, who insisted she meet Brooks and hear the song. Tucker instantly recognized its hit potential, performed and recorded many versions throughout the years, and eventually it became her signature song—including landing movie appearances to perform it. Tucker first recorded the song along with others on wax cylinder format in 1910–11. In 1926, on 78 RPM record format and backed by Ted Lewis and his band, Tucker recorded her classic, million-selling 1926 version, which stayed in the #1 position on the charts for five weeks beginning November 23, 1926, and re-affirmed her lasting association with the song. "Some of These Days" has been recorded by many other artists, including Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, Coco Briaval, E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
