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Of Thee I Sing
''Of Thee I Sing'' is a musical with a score by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical lampoons American politics; the story concerns John P. Wintergreen, who runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform. When he falls in love with the sensible Mary Turner instead of Diana Devereaux, the beautiful pageant winner selected for him, he gets into political hot water. The original Broadway production, directed by Kaufman, opened in 1931 and ran for 441 performances, gaining critical and box office success. It has been revived twice on Broadway and in concert stagings in the U.S. and in London. In 1932, ''Of Thee I Sing'' was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Background The Gershwins and George S. Kaufman had collaborated on the satirical 1927 musical '' Strike up the Band,'' which played in Philadelphia. The show concerned a cheese manufacturer who sponsors a war against Switze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004, and previously worked as a civil rights lawyer before entering politics. Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. After graduating from Columbia University in 1983, he worked as a community organizer in Chicago. In 1988, he enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the '' Harvard Law Review''. After graduating, he became a civil rights attorney and an academic, teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Turning to elective politics, he represented the 13th district in the Illinois Senate from 1997 until 2004, when he ran for the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." The court holds the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The court may decide cases having political overtones, but has ruled that it does not have power to decide non-justiciable political questions. Established by Article Three of the United States C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Gaxton
William Gaxton (né Arthur Anthony Gaxiola, December 2, 1893 – February 2, 1963) was an American star of vaudeville, film, and theatre. Gaxton was president of The Lambs Club from 1936 to 1939, 1952 to 1953, and 1957 to 1961. He and Victor Moore became a popular theatre team in the 1930s and 1940s; they also appeared in a film together. Biography Gaxton was born Arthur Anthony Gaxiola. He was of Spanish ancestry and a cousin of actor Leo Carrillo. He attended Boone Military Academy, Lowell High School, Santa Clara College, and the University of California. Gaxton appeared on film and onstage. He debuted on Broadway in the '' Music Box Revue'' on October 23, 1922. On radio Gaxton starred in ''Broadway Showtime'', a 30-minute musical drama that ran on CBS from December 27, 1943 to June 26, 1944. In 1961 and 1962, he and Arthur Treacher starred in Guy Lombardo's production of the musical '' Paradise Island'' at Jones Beach Marine Theater. He died from cancer on February 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Box Theatre
The Music Box Theatre is a Broadway theater at 239 West 45th Street ( George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1921, the Music Box Theatre was designed by C. Howard Crane in a Palladian-inspired style and was constructed for Irving Berlin and Sam H. Harris. It has 1,025 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks. The facade is made of limestone and is symmetrically arranged, with both Palladian and neo-Georgian motifs. At ground level, the eastern portion of the facade contains the theater's entrance, with a marquee over it, while the stage door is to the west. A double-height central colonnade at the second and third floors conceals a fire-escape staircase; it is flanked by windows in the outer bays. The auditorium contains Adam style detailing, a large balcony, and two outwardly curved box seats within ornate archways. The th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Country, 'Tis Of Thee
"America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)" is an American patriotic song, the lyrics of which were written by Samuel Francis Smith. The song served as one of the ''de facto'' national anthems of the United States (along with songs like "Hail, Columbia") before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the official U.S. national anthem in 1931. The melody used is the same as that of the national anthem of the United Kingdom, "God Save the King". History Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics to "America" in 1831 while a student at the Andover Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts. The use of the same melody as the British royal anthem can be described as a contrafactum which reworks this symbol of British monarchy to make a statement about American democracy. Well-known composer Lowell Mason had requested that Smith translate or provide new lyrics for a collection of German songs, among them one written to this melody. Smith gave Mason the lyrics he had written, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pastiche
A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it. The word is a French cognate of the Italian noun , which is a pâté or pie-filling mixed from diverse ingredients. Metaphorically, and describe works that are either composed by several authors, or that incorporate stylistic elements of other artists' work. Pastiche is an example of eclecticism in art. Allusion is not pastiche. A literary allusion may refer to another work, but it does not reiterate it. Moreover, allusion requires the audience to share in the author's cultural knowledge. Both allusion and pastiche are mechanisms of intertextuality. By art Literature In literary usage, the term denotes a literary technique employing a generally light-hearted tongue-in-cheek imitation of another's style; although jocular, it is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilbert And Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''The Mikado'' are among the best known.Davis, Peter G''Smooth Sailing'' ''New York'' magazine, 21 January 2002, accessed 6 November 2007 Gilbert, who wrote the libretti for these operas, created fanciful "topsy-turvy" worlds where each absurdity is taken to its logical conclusion; fairies rub elbows with British lords, flirting is a capital offence, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates emerge as noblemen who have gone astray.Mike Leigh, Leigh, Mike"True anarchists" ''The Guardian'', 4 November 2007, accessed 6 November 2007 Sullivan, six years Gilbert's junior, composed the music, contributing memorable melodies that could convey both humour and pathos. Their operas have enj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An American In Paris
''An American in Paris'' is a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and energy of the French capital during the '. Gershwin scored the piece for the standard instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones, and automobile horns. He brought back four Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, which took place on December 13, 1928, in Carnegie Hall, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic. It was Damrosch who had commissioned Gershwin to write his Concerto in F following the earlier success of ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924). He completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the work's premiere. He collaborated on the original program notes with critic and composer Deems Taylor. Background Although the story is likely apocryphal, Gershwin is said to have been attra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvard University Band
The Harvard University Band (HUB) is the official student band of Harvard University. The Harvard Wind Ensemble, the Harvard Summer Pops Band, and the Harvard Jazz Bands also fall under the umbrella organization of HUB. Currently, the band plays for all football games (both home and away) as well as home men's and women's ice hockey games. Occasionally it plays at men's and women's basketball games. The uniform for both football games and other formal appearances consists of a crimson wool HUB blazer worn over a white shirt with a black HUB logo tie, black pants (since 1961), and black shoes. In the early days of the Band, white sailor hats and khaki pants were worn. For hockey games, the band wears (over casual clothes) a custom Harvard Band hockey jersey, modeled after the home jerseys for men's hockey, which features images of Bertha (the huge bass drum) on the sleeves. Band alumni, known as ''crusties'', maintain strong ties to the HUB, sometimes continuing to act as regular mem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here
Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here is an American popular song first published in 1917. The lyrics, written by D. A. Esrom (pseudonym of Theodora Morse) to a tune composed by Arthur Sullivan for the 1879 comic opera ''The Pirates of Penzance'', are: The melody was originally part of "With Cat-Like Tread" in Act II of ''Pirates'' and echoes the Anvil Chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Il Trovatore''; W. S. Gilbert’s original lyrics set by Sullivan to the tune are: It appears that the lyric "Hail, hail, the gang's all here" had unofficially been added to Sullivan's melody many years before 1917. It was referenced in American newspapers as a familiar song as early as 1898, sung at political and other gatherings. A ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' news item from April 1, 1898, for example, stated that during a raucous meeting, members of the Philadelphia Common Council loudly sang, "Hail, hail, the gang's all here, what the h--- do we care! What the h--- do we care!" Likewise, a Dela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stars And Stripes Forever
"The Stars and Stripes Forever" is a patriotic American march written and composed by John Philip Sousa in 1896. By a 1987 act of the U.S. Congress, it is the official National March of the United States of America. History In his 1928 autobiography, ''Marching Along'', Sousa wrote that he composed the march on Christmas Day, 1896. He was on board an ocean liner on his way home from a vacation with his wife in Europe and had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, the manager of the Sousa Band. He composed the march in his head and committed the notes to paper on arrival in the United States. It was first performed at Willow Grove Park, just outside Philadelphia, on May 14, 1897, and was immediately greeted with enthusiasm. Following an Act of Congress in 1987, it was officially adopted as the national march of the United States of America. Historically, in show business and particularly in theater and the circus, this piece is called "the Disaster March". In the ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Who Cares? (Gershwin Song)
"Who Cares?" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, written for their 1931 musical ''Of Thee I Sing''. It was introduced by William Gaxton and Lois Moran in the original Broadway production. Notable recordings *Fred Astaire with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra - recorded May 9, 1940 for Columbia Records, catalog No. 35517. *Kate Smith - for her album ''Kate Smith'' (1954). *Anita O'Day - ''This Is Anita'' (1955) *Sammy Davis Jr. and Carmen McRae - '' Boy Meets Girl'' (1957) *Ella Fitzgerald - ''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook'' (1959) and the 1983 Pablo release '' Nice Work if You Can Get It'' *Cannonball Adderley - '' Know What I Mean?'' (1961) *Judy Garland - ''Judy at Carnegie Hall'' (1961) Judy Garland - '' That’s Entertainment'' (1960) The Judy Garland Show (1963) *Michael Feinstein - '' Nice Work If You Can Get It: Songs by the Gershwins'' (1996) *Dick Haymes - ''For You, for Me, Forevermore'' (1978). *Tony Bennett - ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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