Monica Lewis
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Monica Lewis
Monica Lewis (born May Lewis; May 5, 1922 – June 12, 2015) was an American jazz singer and film actress. Lewis was the longtime voice of Chiquita Banana in that company's animated ad campaign, beginning in 1947. Biography Early life Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States on May 22, 1922, the youngest of three children. Her father, Leon, was a pianist, musical director for CBS, and composer while her mother, Jessica, was a singer with the Chicago Opera Company, with Lewis studying voice with her mother. When Lewis was 11, she and her family moved to New York City due to The Great Depression. Career Lewis began singing on radio after a successful audition with WMCA in New York City led to her own program. While studying at Hunter College at the age of seventeen, she started working as a singer for a radio show called ''Gloom Dodgers'' in order to support her family. Shortly after working for ''Gloom Dodgers'', Lewis had a radio show titled ''Monica Makes Music''. Sh ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ...
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The Chesterfield Supper Club
''The Chesterfield Supper Club'' is an NBC Radio musical variety program (1944–1950), which was also telecast by NBC Television (1948–1950). Radio ''The Chesterfield Supper Club'' began on December 11, 1944, as a 15-minute radio program, airing at 7 pm weeknights on the NBC Radio Network. This musical variety show was sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes and featured live musical performances. Perry Como initially hosted ''The Chesterfield Supper Club'' five nights a week. Initially, Como's female singer was Mary Ashworth. The idea for the radio show originated with Doug Storer, who was then an advertising executive with the Blackman Company. Storer had heard Perry Como on his non-sponsored CBS radio program and believed he would do well in a radio show of the type he was proposing. Storer recorded a demo of the radio show with Como as its host and Mitchell Ayres and his Orchestra providing the music. He took the recording to the advertising agency that handled the ...
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Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955. EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012, and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, California. Both the label itself and its famous building are sometimes referred to as "The House That Nat Built." This refers to one of Capitol's most famous artists, Nat King Cole. Capitol is also well known as the U.S. record label of the Beatles, especially during the years of Beatlemania in America from 1964 ...
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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 ...
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MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the 1970s. The company also released soundtrack albums of the music for some of their non-musical films as well, and on rare occasions, cast albums of off-Broadway musicals such as ''The Fantasticks'' and the 1954 revival of ''The Threepenny Opera''. In one instance, MGM Records released the highly successful soundtrack album of a film made by another studio, Columbia Pictures's ''Born Free'' (1966). Background There was also a short-lived Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Records of 1928, which produced recordings of music featured in MGM movies, not sold to the general public but made to be played in movie theater lobbies. These Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer records were manufactured under contract with the studio by Columbia Records. History Soundtrack albu ...
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Signature Records
Signature Records was a jazz record company and label founded in 1939 by Bob Thiele when he was 17 years old. Its roster included Coleman Hawkins, Earl Hines, Erroll Garner, and Lester Young. At age 14, Thiele was a disc jockey for his own jazz radio show, edited his own jazz magazine, and played clarinet with bands in New York City. He started Signature at age 17. Thiele was head producer and president of the label. Its musical director was orchestra leader Ray Bloch. Some sources recite that Signature closed in 1948. However, other sources indicate that the label continued to release records into the 50s, but that by the late 50s it was moribund. Having freelanced and produced for Decca Records and its Coral and Brunswick labels, and served as vice president for A&R for Dot Records, Thiele announced in May 1959 that he was reactivating the Signature label. The venture appears to have been in partnership with Steve Allen, one of the co-owners of Hanover Records, who brought t ...
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Beat The Band
''Beat the Band'' is a musical quiz show heard on NBC radio from 1940 to 1944 in two distinctly different series. The program popularized the show business catch phrase, "Give me a little traveling music", often uttered on TV a decade later by Jackie Gleason. 1940–1941 In the first series, broadcast on Sundays at 6:30 p.m. from Chicago, emcee Garry Moore read music-related questions submitted by listeners to band members in the 14-piece Ted Weems Orchestra. Originally sponsored by the General Mills cereal Kix, listeners whose questions were used on the air received $10; those who stumped the band received $20 and a case of Kix. Questions were often posed in the form of puns or riddles. such as, "Suppose a small fur-bearing animal gets so angry he explodes. What song title is suggested?" The answer from comedian-violinist Red Ingle, "Pop Goes the Weasel." Band members who answered questions incorrectly had to toss a fifty-cent piece on the bass drum. The musician with t ...
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Hotel Astor (New York City)
Hotel Astor was a hotel on Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Built in 1905 and expanded in 1909–1910 for the Astor family, the hotel occupied a site bounded by Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, Shubert Alley, and 44th and 45th Streets. Architects Clinton & Russell designed the hotel as a 11-story Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts edifice with a mansard roof. It contained 1,000 guest rooms, with two more levels underground for its extensive "backstage" functions, such as the wine cellar. The hotel was developed as a successor to the Waldorf–Astoria (1893–1929), Waldorf-Astoria. Hotel Astor's success triggered the construction of the nearby Knickerbocker Hotel (New York), Knickerbocker Hotel by other members of the Astor family two years later. The building was razed in 1967 to make way for the high-rise office tower One Astor Plaza. Construction With its elaborately decorated public rooms and its roof garden, the Hotel Astor was percei ...
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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 ...
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Dave Barbour
David Michael Barbour (May 28, 1912 – December 11, 1965) was an American jazz guitarist. He was married to singer Peggy Lee and was her co-writer, accompanist, and bandleader. Biography Barbour was born in Long Island, New York, United States. When Barbour was twelve, he played banjo at Carnegie Hall. He started his career as a banjoist with Adrian Rollini in 1933 and then Wingy Manone in 1934. He switched to guitar in the middle of the decade and played with Red Norvo from 1935 to 1936. He found much work as a studio musician and in ensembles with Teddy Wilson and Billie Holiday (1937), Artie Shaw (1939), Lennie Hayton, Charlie Barnet (1945), Raymond Scott, Glenn Miller, Lou Holden, and Woody Herman (1949). He also recorded with André Previn in 1945. While a member of Benny Goodman's orchestra in 1942, Barbour fell in love with lead singer Peggy Lee. They got married and moved to Los Angeles, but they divorced in 1951. Lee married three more times. He then married Marian ...
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Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, Lee created a sophisticated persona, writing music for films, acting, and recording conceptual record albums combining poetry and music. Called the "Queen of American pop music," Lee recorded over 1,100 masters and composed over 270 songs. Early life Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, United States, on May 26, 1920, the seventh of the eight children of Selma Emele (née Anderson) Egstrom and Marvin Olaf Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad. Her family were Lutherans. Her father was Swedish-American and her mother was Norwegian-American. After her mother died when Lee was four, her father married Minnie Schaumberg Wiese. Lee an ...
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Benny Goodman
Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 16, 1938, is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music." Goodman's bands started the careers of many jazz musicians. During an era of racial segregation, he led one of the first integrated jazz groups, his quartet and quintet. He performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music. Early years Goodman was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, David Goodman (1873–1926), came to the United States in 1892 from Warsaw in partitioned Poland and became a tailor. His mother, ...
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