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MCA Inc.
MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film industry, and later expanded into television production. MCA published music, booked acts, ran the MCA Records music label, represented film, television and radio stars, and eventually produced and sold television programs to the three major television networks, especially NBC. MCA was the legal predecessor of Vivendi Universal and thereby NBCUniversal. Its other legal successor is Universal Music Group Holding Corp, a holding company owned by Universal Music Group (which has absorbed PolyGram). History Early years MCA was formed in 1924 by Jules Stein and William R. Goodheart, Jr., as Music Corporation of America, a music booking agency based in Chicago, Illinois. MCA helped pioneer modern practices of touring bands and name acts. Early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nashville
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, located on the Cumberland River. Nashville had a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of United States cities by population, 21st-most populous city in the United States and the fourth-most populous city in Southeastern United States, the Southeast. The city is the center of the Nashville metropolitan area, home to 2.1 million people, and is among the fastest growing cities in the nation. Named for Francis Nash, a general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, the city was founded in 1779 when this territory was still considered part of North Carolina. The city grew quickly due to its strategic location as a port on the Cumberland River and, in the 19th century, a railr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vivendi
Vivendi SE (stylized in all lowercase) is a French investment company headquartered in Paris. It currently wholly-owns Gameloft as well as a number of investments in several companies, primarily involved in content, entertainment, media, and telecommunications. In 2000, Vivendi Universal was created from the merger with Canal+ S.A., Groupe Canal+ and Seagram, Seagram Company Ltd., owner of Universal Pictures. Vivendi sold 80% of Universal to the now-defunct General Electric (GE, owner of NBC) in 2004, forming what is now NBCUniversal. In 2006, it sold off most of the Universal components and its name reverted to Vivendi. GE bought out Vivendi's 20% stake in NBCUniversal during Comcast's Acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast, acquisition of the latter. , Vivendi's chairman Yannick Bolloré is also CEO of Havas, which was spun off from Vivendi in 2000, later became a subsidiary, and was spun off again in 2024. From 2021, Vivendi has spun off its fully-owned assets in order to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. Its name has become synonymous with the Cinema of the United States, U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios such as Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures are located in or near Hollywood. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. The North Hollywood, Los Angeles, northern and East Hollywood, Los Angeles, eastern parts of the neighborhood were Merger (politics), consolidated with the City of Los Angeles in 1910. Soon thereafter, the prominent film industry migrated to the area. History Initial development H. J. Whitley, a real estate developer, arranged to buy the E.C. Hurd ranch. Whitley shared ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NBC Radio
The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it was one of the first two nationwide networks established in the United States. Its major competitors were the CBS Radio, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), founded in 1927, and the Mutual Broadcasting System, founded in 1934. In 1942, NBC was required to divest one of its national networks. As such, it sold NBC Blue, which was soon renamed the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). After this separation, the Red Network continued as the NBC Radio Network. For the first 61 years of its existence, this network was owned by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) with New York City radio station WFAN (AM), WEAF (renamed WNBC in 1946, WRCA in 1954 and again as WNBC in 1960) as its flagship station. Following the emergence of television as the domi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kay Kyser's Kollege Of Musical Knowledge
''Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge'' is an American old-time radio musical quiz program starring Kay Kyser. It was broadcast on Mutual, NBC, and ABC beginning on February 1, 1938, and ending on July 29, 1949. Background In the latter half of the 1930s, leaders of big bands sought ways to differentiate their groups from others who played similar music. Successful variations on the standard format of just playing one song after another could quickly move bands from "being merely late-hour fillers" without sponsors to having sponsored broadcasts in better time slots. Tommy Dorsey began featuring amateur musicians, Benny Goodman moved his trio and quartet into the spotlight, and Kay Kyser added a quiz component. Some of the changes were less innovation than adaptation. An article in the trade publication ''Billboard'' noted that Dorsey's airing of amateurs followed the example of Major Bowes, and Kyser's contest was a variation on the ''Professor Quiz'' program. In Octobe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Werblin
David Abraham "Sonny" Werblin (March 17, 1910 – November 21, 1991) was a prominent entertainment industry executive and sports impresario who was an owner of the New York Jets and served as chairman of Madison Square Garden, and who built and managed the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Werblin was born in Brooklyn, New York. A graduate of Rutgers University, he went to work for Music Corporation of America (MCA) in 1932 and was so successful that in 1951 he was made president of MCA's television division. At MCA, Werblin made a considerable name at identifying and managing talent. His managed list of major stars were a who's-who in not only music, but also movies and television. During the 1950s and 1960s, Werblin led a production team that developed television shows for all three major networks, an offshoot of his ability to manage the stars that were featured in them. The list of top-rated television shows MCA developed under Werblin, again, is lengthy. His power as a "star-h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lew Wasserman
Lewis Robert Wasserman (March 22, 1913 – June 3, 2002) was an American businessman and talent agent, described as "the last of the legendary movie moguls" and "arguably the most powerful and influential Hollywood titan in the four decades after World War II". His career spanned nearly eight decades from the 1920s to the 2000s; he started working as a cinema usher before dropping out of high school, rose to become the president of MCA Inc. and led its takeover of Universal Pictures, during which time Wasserman "brought about changes in virtually every aspect of show business". In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. Several years later, he spoke of his ongoing work at Universal to '' Variety'', saying, "I am under contract here for the rest of my life, and I don't think they would throw me out of my office—my name is on the building." Career Early life Wasserman was born to a Jewish family in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Isaac Wass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel Capone ( ; ; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American organized crime, gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he was imprisoned at the age of 33. Capone was born in New York City in 1899 to Italian Americans, Italian immigrants. He joined the Five Points Gang as a teenager and became a bouncer in organized crime premises such as brothels. In his early twenties, Capone moved to Chicago and became a bodyguard of Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate that rum-running, illegally supplied alcohol—the forerunner of the Outfit—and was politically protected through the Unione Siciliana. A conflict with the North Side Gang was instrumental in Capone's rise and fall. Torrio went into retirement after North Side gunmen almost killed him, handing c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speakeasy
A speakeasy, also called a beer flat or blind pig or blind tiger, was an illicit establishment that sold alcoholic beverages. The term may also refer to a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. In the United States, speakeasy bars date back to at least the 1880s, but came into prominence in the United States during the Prohibition era (1920–1933, longer in some states). During that time, the sale, manufacture, and transportation ( bootlegging) of alcoholic beverages was illegal throughout the United States, due to the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Speakeasies largely disappeared after Prohibition ended in 1933. The speakeasy-style trend began in 2000 with the opening of the bar Milk & Honey. Etymology The phrase "speak softly shop", meaning a "smuggler's house", appeared in a British slang dictionary published in 1823. The similar phrase "speak easy shop", denoting a place where unlicensed liquor sales were made, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe ( Lemott, later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American blues and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential characteristics when notated. His composition " Jelly Roll Blues", published in 1915, was one of the first published jazz compositions. He also claimed to have invented the genre. Morton also wrote " King Porter Stomp", " Wolverine Blues", " Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say", the last being a tribute to New Orleans musicians from the turn of the 20th century. Morton's claim to have invented jazz in 1902 was criticized. Music critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Jelly Roll Morton did himself a lot of harm posthumously by exaggerating his worth ... Morton's accomplishments as an early innovator are so vast that he did not really n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Oliver
Joseph Nathan "King" Oliver (December 19, 1881 – April 10, 1938) was an American jazz cornet player and bandleader. He was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of mutes in jazz. Also a notable composer, he wrote many tunes still played today, including " Dippermouth Blues", "Sweet Like This", "Canal Street Blues", and " Doctor Jazz". He was the mentor and teacher of Louis Armstrong. His influence was such that Armstrong claimed, "if it had not been for Joe Oliver, jazz would not be what it is today." Biography Life Joseph Nathan Oliver was born in Aben, Louisiana, near Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish, to Nathan Oliver and Virginia "Jinnie" Jones. He claimed 1881 as his year of birth in his draft registration in September 1918 (two months before the end of World War I) but that year is open to debate, with some census records and other sources suggesting 1884 or 1885 as his true year of birth. He moved to New Orleans in his youth. He firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
