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My Melancholy Baby
"My Melancholy Baby" is a popular song published in 1912 and first sung publicly by William Frawley. The music was written by Ernie Burnett (1884–1959), the lyrics by George A. Norton. Background Ernie Burnett, who composed the music, was wounded fighting in the First World War, from which he lost his memory and his identity dog tags. While recuperating in hospital, a pianist entertained the patients with popular tunes including "Melancholy Baby". Burnett rose from his sickbed and exclaimed, "That's my song!" He had regained his memory. William Frawley version William Frawley, who played Fred Mertz on ''I Love Lucy'', stated that he was the first person to perform the song publicly, in 1912 in the Mozart Cafe at 1647 Curtis Street in Denver, Colorado. Frawley revealed this during a May 3, 1965, appearance on the TV game show ''I've Got a Secret''. In 1958, Frawley performed the song again on the '' Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'' on the episode "Lucy Goes to Sun Valley". Frawley, as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Austin
Lemeul Eugene Lucas (June 24, 1900 – January 24, 1972), better known by his stage name Gene Austin, was an American singer and songwriter, one of the early "crooners". His recording of " My Blue Heaven" sold over 5 million copies and was for a while the largest selling record of all time. His 1920s compositions "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" and "The Lonesome Road" became pop and jazz standards. Early life Austin was born as Lemeul Eugene Lucas in Gainesville, Texas (north of Dallas), to Nova Lucas (died 1943) and the former Serena Belle Harrell (died 1956). He took the name Gene Austin from his stepfather Jim Austin, a blacksmith. Austin grew up in Minden, Louisiana. In Minden, he learned to play piano and guitar. He ran away from home at 15. He attended a vaudeville act in Houston, Texas, where the audience was allowed to come to the stage and sing. On a dare from his friends, Austin took the stage and sang for the first time since singing as a Southern Baptist choir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbershop Harmony Society
The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop music as an art form. Founded by Owen C. Cash and Rupert I. Hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1938, the organization quickly grew, promoting barbershop harmony among men of all ages. As of 2014, just under 23,000 men in the United States and Canada were members of this organization whose focus is on '' a cappella'' music. The international headquarters was in Kenosha, Wisconsin for fifty years before moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 2007. In June 2018, the society announced it would allow women to join as full members. A parallel women's singing organization, Sweet Adelines International (SAI) was founded in 1945. A second women's barbershop harmony organization, Harmony, Incorporated, broke from SAI in 1959 over an issue of racial exclusion ... [...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] |
Filmsite
Filmsite is a film-review website established in 1996 by senior editor and film critic-historian Tim Dirks, and continues to be managed and edited by him for over two decades. Overview The site contains over 300 detailed reviews of English language films for which Dirks argues "there is reasonable consensus by most film historians, critics and reviewers" regarding their status as revered movies. Criteria for Dirks' selections include a film's technical innovations, recognition from award shows, accessibility to audiences, and influence on its genre. Although the "Greatest Films" lists do not include foreign language films and therefore exclude various widely acclaimed movies, Dirks makes clear that they are intended to be geared toward classical Hollywood cinema of the 20th century, and briefly discusses foreign films in many other areas of the site. In many cases, a review goes through a film scene-by-scene. The site also contains many other lists, and pages offering an introd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priscilla Lane
Priscilla Lane (born Priscilla Mullican, June 12, 1915 – April 4, 1995) was an American actress, and the youngest sibling in the Lane Sisters of singers and actresses. She is best remembered for her roles in the films ''The Roaring Twenties'' (1939) co-starring with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart; ''Saboteur'' (1942), an Alfred Hitchcock film in which she plays the heroine; and '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' (1944), in which she portrays Cary Grant's fiancée and bride. Early years Priscilla Mullican was born on June 12, 1915, in Indianola, Iowa, a small college town south of Des Moines. She was the youngest of five daughters of Dr. Lorenzo Mullican, DDS, and his wife, Cora Bell Hicks. Dr. Mullican had a dental practice in Indianola. The family owned a large house with 22 rooms, some of which they rented to students attending nearby Simpson College. Priscilla and one of her sisters, Rosemary, traveled to Des Moines every weekend to study dancing with Rose Lorenz, a renowned danc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Roaring Twenties
''The Roaring Twenties'' is a 1939 American crime thriller film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, and Gladys George. The film, spanning the periods between 1919 and 1933, was written by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay and Robert Rossen. The film follows three men and their experiences during major events in the 1920s, such as Prohibition era violence, and the 1929 stock market crash. The picture was based on "The World Moves On", a short story by Mark Hellinger, a columnist who had been hired by Jack L. Warner to write screenplays. The movie is hailed as a classic in the gangster movie genre, and considered an homage to the classic gangster movie of the early 1930s. ''The Roaring Twenties'' was the third and last film that Cagney and Bogart made together. The other two were ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938) and ''The Oklahoma Kid'' (1939). Plot Eddie Bartlett, George Hally, and Lloyd Hart meet each other in a foxhole dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teddy Wilson
Theodore Shaw Wilson (November 24, 1912 – July 31, 1986) was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive swing pianist", Wilson had a sophisticated, elegant style. His work was featured on the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. With Goodman, he was one of the first black musicians to appear prominently with white musicians. In addition to his extensive work as a sideman, Wilson also led his own groups and recording sessions from the late 1920s to the 1980s. Biography Wilson was born in Austin, Texas. He studied piano and violin at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. After working in Speed Webb's band, with Louis Armstrong, and also understudying Earl Hines in Hines's Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra, Wilson joined Benny Carter's Chocolate Dandies in 1933. In 1935, he joined the Benny Goodman Trio (which consisted of Goodman, Wilson an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Bowlly
Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1898 – 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African–British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930s in Britain. He recorded more than 1,000 songs. His most popular songs include "Midnight, the Stars and You", " Goodnight, Sweetheart", " Close Your Eyes", "The Very Thought of You", "Guilty", " Heartaches" and "Love Is the Sweetest Thing". He also recorded the only English version of "Dark Eyes" by Adalgiso Ferraris, as "Black Eyes", with the words of Albert Mellor. Early life Al Bowlly was a Mozambican-born South African–British vocalist and jazz guitarist. He was born in 1898 in Lourenço Marques (today Maputo) in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. His father, Alick Pauli was Greek by nationality. By religion he was Greek Orthodox. While Al's mother, born Miriam Ayoub-NeeJame, was Lebanese and Catholic by religion. They met en route to Australia and moved to South Africa. Bowlly was brought up in Johanne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. In 1937, anticipating Nazi Germany, Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca and the link between the U.K. and U.S. Decca labels was broken for several decades. The British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre. Both wings are now part of the Universal Music Group. The U.S. Decca label was the foundation company that evolved into UMG (Universal Music Group). Label name The name dates back to a portable phonograph, gramophone called the "Decca Dulcephone" patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons. The name "Decca" was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jane Froman
Ellen Jane Froman (November 10, 1907 – April 22, 1980) was an American actress and singer. During her thirty-year career, she performed on stage, radio and television despite chronic health problems due to injuries sustained in a 1943 plane crash. Her life story was told in the 1952 film '' With a Song in My Heart''. She was portrayed by Susan Hayward, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Early life and education Ellen Jane Froman was born in University City, Missouri, the daughter of Anna Tillman ( Barcafer) and Elmer Ellsworth Froman. Her childhood and adolescence were spent in the small Missouri town of Clinton. When Froman was about five years old, her father mysteriously disappeared and was never heard from again, although it is known he died in Los Angeles in 1936. Her mother later remarried, to William Hetzler. Froman developed a stutter around this time, which stayed with her all of her life, except when she sang. In 1919, Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Weiskopf
Bob Weiskopf (March 13, 1914 – February 20, 2001) was an American screenwriter and producer for television. He has credits for ''I Love Lucy'' which he and his writing partner Bob Schiller joined in the fifth season. They also wrote for ''The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'', ''The Lucy Show'', '' Maude'', ''All in the Family'' (for which he won a 1978 Emmy for co-writing the episode "Cousin Liz"), '' Archie Bunker's Place'', ''The Red Skelton Show'', the short-lived ''Pete and Gladys'', and '' Sanford'' (the spin-off of ''Sanford and Son''). Life and career Weiskopf, born in Chicago, Illinois, began writing for television in 1950, when he wrote an episode for ''The Colgate Comedy Hour''. Weiskopf first tried comedy writing at the suggestion of friends Norman Panama and Melvin Frank. Panama and Frank lured him to Hollywood in 1940, where he managed to sell some jokes to Bob Hope for his radio program. From there, he later wrote for radio, for Eddie Cantor's ''The Eddie Cantor Show'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Schiller
Robert Achille Schiller (November 8, 1918 – October 10, 2017) was an American screenwriter. He worked extensively with fellow producer/screenwriter Bob Weiskopf on numerous television shows in the United States, including ''I Love Lucy'' (1955–1957) and ''All in the Family'' (1977–1979) on the CBS network. For the latter series, he received an Emmy Award in 1978 as one of the writers of the episode "Cousin Liz." His second wife was American politician, actress and attorney Sabrina Scharf. Life and career Schiller was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Lucille E. (Block) and Roland E. Schiller, a manufacturer. Schiller began writing for television in 1950. He starred on the 1955 CBS sitcom ''Professional Father'' That same year, he wrote for two competing series, NBC's ''The Jimmy Durante Show'' and CBS's ''It's Always Jan.'' During 1954–1955, Schiller was one of the writers for '' That's My Boy'', starring Eddie Mayehoff and Gil Stratton. Schiller's producin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
