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Mabel Ridley
Mabel Ridley (January 1894 – April 18, 1938) was an American mezzo-soprano singer who appeared in Broadway theatre and revues in the 1920s and 1930s. Early life Mabel Ridley was born in Augusta, Georgia, to Charles and Katherine Ridley in January 1894. Her family were African-American Catholics who had been in the area for several generations. Back in 1843, on the occasion of their marriage, Mabel Ridley's grandparents Ulysses Ridley and Antoinette (Dugas) Ridley had been recorded as free people of color. Ridley had two sisters, Julia and Antoinette. Ridley later said that her first language was Gullah and her second English. It appears that Ridley may have been married to a man surnamed Edwards. Career as performer Mabel Ridley was educated at Augusta's Haines Institute, which was founded by African-American educator Lucy Craft Laney. The school nurtured her musical abilities, and after she left she moved to New York. Early on, Ridley appeared in several productions by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georgia's Georgia (U.S. state)#Major cities (2017), third-largest city after Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia, Columbus, Augusta is located in the Fall Line section of the state. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Augusta–Richmond County had a 2020 population of 202,081, not counting the unconsolidated cities of Blythe, Georgia, Blythe and Hephzibah, Georgia, Hephzibah. It is the List of United States cities by population, 116th largest city in the United States. The process of consolidation between the City of Augusta and Richmond County, Georgia, Richmond County began with a 1995 referendum in the two jurisdictions. The merger was completed on July 1, 1996. Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta metropolitan area. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1938 Deaths
Events January * January 1 ** The new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the authoritarian regime. ** State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France ( SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Safinaz Zulficar, who becomes Queen Farida, in Cairo. * January 27 – The Honeymoon Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York, collapses as a result of an ice jam. February * February 4 ** Adolf Hitler abolishes the War Ministry and creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military. In addition, he dismisses political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philosophy or policies. General Werner von Fritsch is forced to resign as Commander of Chief of the German Army following accusations of homosexuality, and replaced by General Walther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1894 Births
Events January–March * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States. * January 9 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard, in Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by Native Americans, and was firs .... * February 12 ** French anarchist Émile Henry (anarchist), Émile Henry sets off a bomb in a Paris café, killing one person and wounding twenty. ** The barque ''Elisabeth Rickmers'' of Bremerhaven is wrecked at Haurvig, Denmark, but all crew and passengers are saved. * February 15 ** In Korea, peasant unrest erupts in the Donghak Peasant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Negro Actors Guild Of America
Negro Actors Guild of America (NAG) was formed in 1936 and began operation in 1937 to create better opportunities for black actors during a period in America where the country was at a crossroads regarding how its citizens of color would be depicted in film, television and the stage. Formed in New York City, during the Great Depression and the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the NAG sought to give financial aid to Black performers. The NAG also stressed in its formal articles within the Certificate of Incorporation the need for more realistic roles for people of color, helped foster the skills of African American actors, and worked to generate more acting opportunities for the black community in the industry. The founding members of NAG were Fredi Washington, W. C. Handy, Paul Robeson, and Ethel Waters. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was named honorary president. Noble Sissle was the first elected president, 1937–1957; followed by Leigh Whipper, 1957–1960; Frederick O'Neal, 1960 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porgy And Bess
''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel of the same name. ''Porgy and Bess'' was first performed in Boston on September 30, 1935, before it moved to Broadway in New York City. It featured a cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. A 1976 Houston Grand Opera production gained it a renewed popularity after languishing in the doldrums of the 1960s and early 1970s, and it is now one of the best known and most frequently performed operas. The libretto of ''Porgy and Bess'' tells the story of Porgy, a disabled black street beggar living in the slums of Charleston. It deals with his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and Sportin' Life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924) and ''An American in Paris'' (1928), the songs " Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera ''Porgy and Bess'' (1935), which included the hit " Summertime". Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation" or the " dandified coon". By the middle of the century, blackface minstrel shows had become a distinctive American artform, translating formal works such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. Early in the 20th century, blackface branched off from the minstrel show and became a form in its own right. In the United States, blackface declined in popularity beginning in the 1940s and into the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s,Clark, Alexis.How the History of Blackface Is Rooted in Racism. ''History''. A&E Television Networks, LLC. 2019. and was generally considered highly offensive, disrespectful, and racist by the turn of the 21st century, though the practice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore (born Ethel Mae Blythe; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Barrymore was a stage, screen and radio actress whose career spanned six decades, and was regarded as "The First Lady of the American Theatre". She received four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, winning for '' None but the Lonely Heart'' (1944). Early life Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore (whose real name was Herbert Blythe) and Georgiana Drew. She was named for her father's favorite character—Ethel in William Makepeace Thackeray's ''The Newcomes.'' She was the sister of actors John and Lionel Barrymore, the aunt of actor John Drew Barrymore and grand-aunt of actress Drew Barrymore. She was also a granddaughter of actress and theater-manager Louisa Lane Drew (Mrs. John Drew), and niece of Broadway matinée idol John Drew Jr and ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Peterkin
Julia Peterkin (October 31, 1880 – August 10, 1961) was an American author from South Carolina. In 1929 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Novel/Literature for her novel ''Scarlet Sister Mary.'' She wrote several novels about the plantation South, especially the Gullah people of the Lowcountry. She was one of the few white authors who wrote about the African-American experience. Life and career Julia Mood was born in Laurens County, South Carolina. Her father was a physician, and she was the third of his four children. Her mother died soon after her birth, and her father later married Janie Brogdon. Janie was the mother of Henry Ashleigh Mood, Julia's half-brother and her father's fourth child. He became a doctor. In 1896, at age 16, Julia Mood graduated from Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina; she earned her master's degree there a year later. She taught at the public school in Fort Motte, South Carolina for a few years, then married William George Peterkin in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scarlet Sister Mary
''Scarlet Sister Mary'' is a 1928 novel by Julia Peterkin. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1929. The book was called obscene and banned at the public library in Gaffney, South Carolina. ''The Gaffney Ledger'' newspaper, however, serially published the complete book. Dr. Richard S. Burton, the chairperson of Pulitzer's fiction-literature jury, recommended that the first prize go to the novel ''Victim and Victor'' by John Rathbone Oliver. His nomination was superseded by the School of Journalism's choice of Peterkin's book. Evidently in protest, Burton resigned from the jury. Ethel Barrymore had the dramatic rights to the novel, and in 1930 starred on Broadway in a blackface performance, whose cast included Estelle Winwood, Ted de Corsia, Marjorie Main and Barrymore's teenaged daughter, Ethel Barrymore Colt, in her stage debut. Synopsis ''Scarlet Sister Mary'' is set among the Gullah The Gullah () are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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