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Opportunity Knocks (Canadian Radio Show)
''Opportunity Knocks'' was a talent competition show that aired on CBC Radio from 1947 until 1957. It was created and directed by John Adaskin. The show featured a variety of performers hoping to break into the entertainment industry, including singers, instrumentalists, composers, announcers, and actors. Notable performers brought to notice by the show include Lois Marshall, Jon Vickers, Maureen Forrester, and Robert Goulet. Format The show was broken into three series per season, each running around 10 weeks. Weekly winners were chosen initially by studio audience response and mail-in voting, and later by a panel of judges. Those winners would compete at the end of the series for three Grand Awards, which came with contracts to appear in the 13-week summer series ''Opportunity Winners''. Runners up received cash prizes. Auditions were usually held in the CBC Toronto studios, though Adaskin would also occasionally travel the country to hold out-of-town tryouts. Winners G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Talent Competition
A talent show is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather than contests, but some are actual contests. In the instance of a contest, participants may be motivated to perform for a reward, trophy, or prize of some kind. For example, a high school might not have many students with any interest in performing in front of the student body for the sole purpose of performing alone and may offer different prizes as an incentive for these students to participate in the contest. Media Since the late 1940s, talent shows have become a notable genre of reality television, such as ''Doorway to Fame'' (1947), ''The Original Amateur Hour'' (1948), ''Hollywood Screen Test'' (1948), '' Opportunity Knocks'' (1949), '' Chance of a Lifetime'' (1952), ''NHK Nodo Jiman'' (1953), ''New Faces'' (1963), ''Notun Kuri'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hector Gratton
Joseph Thomas Hector Gratton (13 August 1900 – 16 July 1970) was a Canadian composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, and music educator. As a composer his music is written in an essentially folkloric and popular style which avoids harmonic sophistication. His compositional output includes several orchestral works, chamber works, and works for solo piano. He also wrote 4 ballets and a considerable amount of music for radio programs. In 1937 his symphonic poem ''Légende'' won the Jean Lallemand Prize which led to the work's premiere performance that year by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under conductor Wilfrid Pelletier. The work was repeated by the orchestra in concerts the following year under conductor Sir Ernest MacMillan."Hector Gratton, eminent Canadian composer", ''CRMA'', vol 1, Jan 1943 Life and career Born in Hull, Quebec (now Gatineau, Quebec), Gratton studied music theory and composition with Albertine Morin-Labrecque, Oscar O'Brien, and Alfred Whitehead. He was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Pach
Joseph Pach (born January 8, 1928 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian violinist. Life and career Pach studied the violin with Christoff Dafeff at the Toronto Conservatory of Music from 1933–45, and with Kathleen Parlow at the University of Toronto. In 1947, at the age of 19, Pach made his symphonic debut playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (Op 35 in D-Major) with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has since played and toured with many orchestras including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Halifax Symphony Orchestra, CBC Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, and others. In 1952, Pach was slated to be accompanied by Mario Bernardi for a CBC broadcast. At the last minute Bernardi couldn't make it and the producer asked Pach if he'd mind if a young woman filled in for Bernardi. Pach conceded. In 1954, he married that pianist Arlene Nimmons (Pach), sister of Phil Nimmons, and they began performing as The Duo Pach in 1960. They spent the n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvia Murphy
Sylvia Murphy (September 24, 1931 – February 24, 2021) was a Canadian singer who was popular on radio and television programs on the CBC from 1949 to 1964. Biography She was the oldest child of Celia (née Zoddickson) and John Murphy. Her mother was from a Belarusian Jewish family and her father was of Irish Catholic descent, but both were natives of Liverpool, England. They met in Montreal after both emigrated there separately. Murphy got her start in nightclubs, and then was the featured singer on the radio programs ''Coca-Cola Refreshment Time'' and ''Club O'Connor'' with Billy O'Connor. She moved to television with a break on '' Cross-Canada Hit Parade'' and later became the singer for Jack Kane's Orchestra on the ''Jack Kane Show'', ''Music Makers'' and ''Music '60''. She was also a regular performer on the ''Wayne and Shuster Hour''. She was married to Charles Templeton. Her children include comic-book artist Ty Templeton; internet entrepreneur Brad Templeton; TV host ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Mills (bass)
David Hume Mills (29 January 1926 – 30 November 2020) was a Canadian bass singer, poet, composer and actor. He had an active international singing career that spanned more than five decades. He has published two books of poetry, ''Isobelle, a Novel in Verse'' (Toronto 1989) and ''The Social Comedy'' (Ottawa 1990). He wrote a one-man show, ''David Mills – His Poetry and Songs'', which premiered in Toronto in 1989 and then toured to numerous Canadian cities in the early 1990s. As a composer he has written a cantata, ''Vision of Peace'' to texts from the Book of Isaiah, and several art songs to the poetry of Pauline Johnson and Robert Browning. As an actor, he has appeared on CBC TV and in films for Circle Films and Atlantis Films among other production companies. Mills was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on 29 January 1926. As a singer Mills had been chiefly active as a recitalist from the 1940s through the 1990s, usually accompanied by his wife, the pianist Marjorie Mutter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Mawson
Howard Allan Mawson (23 May 1920 – 28 March 2004) was a Canadian bass-baritone, particularly known for his performances in the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan. Born in Toronto, he was married to the Canadian mezzo-soprano, Elizabeth Mawson, and performed with her on many occasions. He died in his native city at the age of 83. Life and career Mawson was born in Toronto and studied singing at the Hambourg Conservatory of Music and later at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He was also a graduate of the Ontario College of Art. With his father Frederick Mawson, a Toronto choirmaster, he co-founded the Toronto Light Opera Association, in which he played principal roles.Patience program Toronto Light Opera Association, 25 and 26 March 1947 He also sang with the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corinne Conley
Corinne Alexandra Conley (born May 23, 1929) is an American actress who spent the majority of her career in Canada, notable for having won the Canadian Council of Authors and Artists' Best Actress Award. Conley is known for her voiceover work in various films and television productions and is better recognized for voicing Rudolph's mother and presumably Dolly for Sue in ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' (1964). Conley's acting career has spanned seventy years, receiving several nominations for her work. She has also made prominent and notable appearances in ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'' as Dorothy Gale (1961), '' Days of Our Lives'' as Phyllis Anderson (1973-1982), the ''Goosebumps'' episode "Monster Blood" as Aunt Katherine (1996), ''Quads!'' as Sister Butch (2001-2002), '' A Christmas Horror Story'' as Aunt Edda (2015), and voicing multiple characters in the '' Watch Dogs: Legion'' video game (2020). Acting career For two years, she played the ingenue lead in ''The Common ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Brooks (singer)
Norman Brooks (August 19, 1928 – September 14, 2006) was a Canadian singer, best known for his ability to sound like Al Jolson. He was born Norman Joseph Arie, the son of Lebanese parents, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1928. He played Jolson in the 1956 film, ''The Best Things in Life Are Free''. Brooks performed in nightclubs and on television in the United States and Canada during the 1950s and 1960s. He played himself in the 1960 film ''Ocean's Eleven''. His records "Hello Sunshine" and "You Shouldn't Have Kissed Me The First Time" for the Zodiac Records label were national hits in 1953. His song "A Sky-Blue Shirt and a Rainbow Tie" reached No. 17 in the UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ... in November 1954. Partial discography *1953 – Zodiac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Bell (vocalist)
Donald Munro Bell (born 19 June 1934) is a Canadian bass-baritone and vocal pedagogue. For over four decades he actively performed in concerts and operas internationally. He retired from performance in 1994. As a vocal pedagogue he has researched and published studies on vocal acoustics and laryngeal function. He is the founder of the Vocal Arts Acoustical Research Group at the University of Calgary, where he currently serves on the voice faculty. Life and career Born in South Burnaby, British Columbia, Bell graduated from South Burnaby High School in 1952. He began his voice studies in his youth with conductor and educator Nancy Paisley Benn. While studying with Benn, he made his professional debut in 1948 at the age of 14 as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He was then active as a recitalist and singer on CBC Radio while a high school student. After high school, he continued to perform and study with Benn while working for a Vancouver plywood mill for one year. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
