|
Leonard Harper (producer)
Leonard Harper (April 9, 1899, Birmingham, Alabama – February 4, 1943, Harlem, New York) was a producer, stager, and choreographer in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s. Harper's works spanned the worlds of vaudeville, cabaret, burlesque and Broadway musical comedy. As a dancer, choreographer and studio owner, he coached many of the country's leading performers, including Ruby Keeler, Fred Astaire and Adele Astaire, and the Marx Brothers. He produced floor shows and theatrical revues both uptown in Harlem and downtown on Broadway's Great White Way. He co-directed and staged the ensemble segments of ''The Exile'' and the short film '' Darktown Revue'' with Oscar Micheaux. Harper staged for Broadway ''Hot Chocolates'' at the Hudson Theatre and was the premiere producer who opened up the Cotton Club. He also produced Lindy Hop revues and an act called Harper's Lindy Hoppers at the Savoy Ballroom, as detailed in his biography '' Rhythm For Sale''. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Choreography (dance)
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who creates choreographies by practising the art of choreography, a process known as choreographing. It most commonly refers to dance choreography. In dance, ''choreography'' may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. Dance choreography is sometimes called ''dance composition''. Aspects of dance choreography include the compositional use of organic unity, rhythmic or non-rhythmic articulation, theme and variation, and repetition. The choreographic process may employ improvisation for the purpose of developing innovative movement ideas. In general, choreography is used to design dances that are intended to be performed as concert dance. The art of choreography involves the specification of human ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hot Chocolates
''Hot Chocolates'' is a musical revue with music by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks and book by Andy Razaf. It was originally titled ''Tan Town Topics'' in hopes it would be picked up by Broadway. Performed at the Hudson Theater in New York City, it was directed by Leonard Harper and ran for 219 performances from June 20, 1929, to December 14, 1929. It is also referred to as ''Connie's Hot Chocolates''. It was staged, directed and produced by Leonard Harper. While the revue featured music and singing, including the subsequent hit " Aint Misbehavin'," it was praised for the cast's dancing, including its male and female chorus lines. Louis Armstrong made his Broadway debut as part of the show's pit band. Cab Calloway later joined the cast as a replacement at Armstrong's recommendation. Calloway later adopted the song " (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue," originally sung by Edith Wilson, for his performances decades later. Cast * Louis Armstrong ''Ensemble'' * Jimmie Bask ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Greer
William Alexander "Sonny" Greer (December 13, c. 1895 – March 23, 1982) was an American jazz drummer and vocalist, best known for his work with Duke Ellington. Biography Greer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, United States, and played with Elmer Snowden's band and the Howard Theatre's orchestra in Washington, D.C., before joining Duke Ellington, whom he met in 1919. He was Ellington's first drummer, playing with his quintet, the Washingtonians, and moved with Ellington into the Cotton Club. As a result of his job as a designer with the Leedy Drum Company of Indiana, Greer was able to build up a huge drum kit worth over a then-considerable $3,000, including chimes, a gong, timpani, and vibes. Greer was a heavy drinker, as well as a pool-hall hustler (when he needed to retrieve his drums from the pawnbroker), and in 1950, Ellington responded to his drinking and occasional unreliability by taking a second drummer, Butch Ballard, with them on a tour of Scandinavia. Thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent Duffy Square, Times Square is a bowtie-shaped space five blocks long between 42nd and 47th Streets. Brightly lit at all hours by numerous digital billboards and advertisements as well as businesses offering 24/7 service, Times Square is sometimes referred to as "the Crossroads of the World", "the Center of the Universe", "the heart of the Great White Way", “the Center of the Entertainment Universe”, and "the heart of the world". One of the world's busiest pedestrian areas, it is also the hub of the Broadway Theater District and a major center of the world's entertainment industry. Times Square is one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, drawing an estimated 50 million visitors annually. Approximately 330,000 people ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Connie's Inn
Connie's Inn was a Harlem, New York City, nightclub established in 1923 by Connie Immerman ''(né'' Conrad Immerman; 1893–1967) in partnership with two of his brothers, George (1884–1944) and Louie Immerman (1882–1955). Having immigrated from Latvia, the Immerman brothers operated a Harlem delicatessen and made their fortune as bootleggers. Their club was located at 2221 Seventh Avenue at 131st Street in a basement from 1923 until 1934. Acts performing there included Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Wilbur Sweatman, Peg Leg Bates, Bricktop and Fletcher Henderson. Like the Cotton Club, Connie's Inn featured African American performers but restricted its audience to whites only. Its steep cover charge of $2.50, its intimate atmosphere, and its ability to hire famous entertainers made the club unique among other New York clubs. Members of the Ziegfeld Follies, heiress Gertrude Vanderbilt, and numerous others poured in from downtown to enjoy the shows at Connie's Inn and were somet ... [...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] |
New York Amsterdam News
The ''Amsterdam News'' (also known as ''New York Amsterdam News'') is a weekly Black-owned newspaper serving New York City. It is one of the oldest newspapers geared toward African Americans in the United States and has published columns by such figures as W. E. B. Du Bois, Roy Wilkins, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and was the first to recognize and publish Malcolm X. Foundation The ''Amsterdam News'' was founded on December 4, 1909, and is headquartered in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan. The newspaper takes its name from its original location one block east of Amsterdam Avenue, at West 65th Street and Broadway. An investment of US$10 in 1909 () turned the ''Amsterdam News'' into one of New York's largest and most influential black-owned-and-operated business institutions, and one of the nation's most prominent ethnic publications. It was later reported that James Henry Anderson published the first copy: "...with a dream in mind, $10 in his pocket, six sheets of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lafayette Theatre (Harlem)
The Lafayette Theatre (1912–1951), known locally as "the House Beautiful", was one of the most famous theaters in Harlem. It was an entertainment venue located at 132nd Street and 7th Avenue in Harlem, New York. The structure was demolished in 2013. Early years The Lafayette Theatre was a 1,500-seat two-story theater built by banker Meyer Jarmulowsky that opened on November, 1912. Located at 132nd Street and 7th Avenue, it was designed in the Renaissance style by architect Victor Hugo Koehler, who also designed the two three-story buildings flanking the theater on the corners of 131st and 132nd Streets."Lafayette Theatre. 2227 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, New York, NY 10027." ''www.cinematreasures.org.'' Retrieved June 19, 2019. In 1913 the Lafayette became the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plantation Days
''Plantation Days'' (1922) was a touring musical revue with Sam Wooding and James P. Johnson as musical directors at different stages of the tour. Produced by Morris "Maury" Greenwald,"Blondie Robinson collection of African-American Minstrel and Vaudeville photographs (MS.2015.018), Biographical/Historical note." Brown University Library. ''Riamco.org''. Retrieved 16 December 2022. the touring show was conceived to capitalize on '''' (1922-23), the successful show staged by |
Osceola Blanks
Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a Scotsman, James McQueen. He was reared by his mother in the Creek (Muscogee) tradition. When he was a child, they migrated to Florida with other Red Stick refugees, led by a relative, Peter McQueen, after their group's defeat in 1814 in the Creek Wars. There they became part of what was known as the Seminole people. In 1836, Osceola led a small group of warriors in the Seminole resistance during the Second Seminole War, when the United States tried to remove the tribe from their lands in Florida to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. He became an adviser to Micanopy, the principal chief of the Seminole from 1825 to 1849. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhythm For Sale
''Rhythm For Sale'' is a 2013 biography of performer, choreographer, and director Leonard Harper. It was written by Grant Harper Reid, Harper's grandson. It was self-published by Reid on CreateSpace. ''Rhythm For Sale'' has a total of 300 pages and the revised edition was published on August 11, 2014. The book chronicles Harper's rise from a child performer to Broadway's top black theater director. In 1921 the Schubert Brothers signed Harper with his partner and future wife Osceola Blanks to be the first Black act to tour the all-white Schubert circuit of theaters. In 1923 Harper showcased his cabaret floorshows and black musical comedies in Harlem's Cotton Club and his mainstay Connie's Inn and the Lafayette Theater. The book details how Harper and black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux created the first all-black talkie motion picture ''The Exile'' in 1931. It covers his appearances at Harlem's Apollo Theater. ''Rhythm For Sale'' explores the decline of Harper's career as his work b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
