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Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906August 14, 1972) was an American concert pianist, composer, conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian and actor. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recordings featuring his piano performances. He was equally famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and later in movies and television, as for his music. Early life Levant was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1906, to Orthodox Jewish parents who had emigrated from Russia. His father, Max, was a watchmaker who wanted his four sons to become either dentists or doctors. His mother Annie was a highly religious woman whose father was a Rabbi who presided over his daughter's wedding to Max Levant. Oscar Levant moved to New York in 1922, following the death of his father. He began studying under Zygmunt Stojowski, a well-established piano pedagogue. In 1925, aged 18, he appeared with Ben Bernie in a short fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhapsody In Blue (film)
''Rhapsody in Blue'' is a 1945 fictionalized screen biography of the American composer and musician George Gershwin (1898–1937), released by Warner Brothers. Production background Starring Robert Alda as Gershwin, the film features a few of Gershwin's acquaintances (including Paul Whiteman, Al Jolson, and Oscar Levant) playing themselves. Alexis Smith and Joan Leslie play fictional women in Gershwin's life, Morris Carnovsky and Rosemary De Camp play Gershwin's parents, and Herbert Rudley portrays Ira Gershwin. Oscar Levant also recorded most of the piano playing in the movie, and also dubbed Alda's piano playing. Both the ''Rhapsody in Blue'' and ''An American in Paris'' are performed nearly completely, with the "Rhapsody in Blue" debut of 1924 orchestrated by Ferde Grofe and conducted, as it was originally, by Whiteman himself. The film introduces two fictional romances into the story, one with a woman named Julie Adams (played by Joan Leslie) and the other a near-romance with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Unimportance Of Being Oscar
''The Unimportance of Being Oscar'' is a 1968 memoir by writer/pianist/radio personality/actor Oscar Levant. The book is known for Oscar's laconic witticisms, such as "everyone in Hollywood is gay, except Gabby Hayes — and that's because he is a transvestite." Levant writes about his family, his mental health issues, his musical career, politics, and more in typically amusing style. The book is full of observations of and encounters with the famous, including George and Ira Gershwin, Benny Goodman, George Bernard Shaw, Virgil Thomson, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, W. S. Gilbert, T.S. Eliot, Moss Hart, Alexander Woolcott, Noël Coward, Somerset Maugham, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Gore Vidal, Christopher Isherwood, Paul Bowles, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and many others. Details * The title of this autobiography is a pun on the title of the Oscar Wilde play ''The Importance of Being Earnest ''The Importance of B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history". Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, sixteen Grammy Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors, Kennedy Center Honor. As a composer he wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and works for the piano. His best-known work is the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical ''West Side Story'', which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (West Side Story (1961 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton Paul "Kip" Fadiman (May 15, 1904 – June 20, 1999) was an American intellectual, author, editor, radio and television personality. He began his work with the radio, and switched to television later in his career. Background Born in Brooklyn, New York, Fadiman was a nephew of the emigree Ukrainian psychologist Boris Sidis and a first cousin of the child prodigy William James Sidis. Fadiman grew up in Brooklyn. His mother worked as a nurse; his father, Isadore, immigrated from Russian empire in 1892 and worked as a druggist.One of "Kip's" older brothers, Edwin, taught him how to read. Edwin later married Celeste Frankel and became the brother-in-law to Margaret Lefranc (Frankel), who was a future recipient of the Governor's Award for Painting. He attended Columbia College at Columbia University. One of his teachers was lifelong friend Mark Van Doren; his undergraduate contemporaries included Jacques Barzun, Mortimer Adler, Lionel Trilling, Herbert Solow, Arthur F. Bur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Kieran
John Francis Kieran (August 2, 1892 – December 10, 1981) was an American author, journalist, amateur naturalist and radio and television personality. Early years A native of The Bronx, Kieran was the son of Dr. James M. Kieran and his wife, Katherine Donahue Kieran. Both of his parents were teachers, and his father was at one time president of Hunter College. He had three sisters and three brothers. Kieran earned a Bachelor of Science degree (''cum laude'') from Fordham University. After graduating, he became a poultry farmer and taught school. Career Kieran began his newspaper career in 1915 as a sportswriter for ''The New York Times''. He continued on the sports beat during his entire career, working for a number of New York City newspapers and becoming one of the country's best known sports columnists. On January 4, 1943, his column moved to the New York Sun. During his 1927–1943 tenure as ''The Times senior sports columnist, he was profiled in the January 9, 1939, issu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franklin Pierce Adams
Franklin Pierce Adams (November 15, 1881 – March 23, 1960) was an American columnist known as Franklin P. Adams and by his initials F.P.A.. Famed for his wit, he is best known for his newspaper column, "The Conning Tower", and his appearances as a regular panelist on radio's ''Information Please''. A prolific writer of light verse, he was a member of the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s and 1930s. New York newspaper columnist Adams was born Franklin Leopold Adams to German Jewish immigrants Moses and Clara Schlossberg Adams in Chicago on November 15, 1881. He changed his middle name to "Pierce" when he had a bar mitzvah at age 13. Adams graduated from the Armour Scientific Academy (now Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1899, attended the University of Michigan for one year and worked in insurance for three years. Signing on with the ''Chicago Journal'' in 1903, he wrote a sports column and then a humor column, "A Little about Everything." The following year he moved to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Information Please
''Information Please'' is an American radio quiz show, created by Dan Golenpaul, which aired on NBC from May 17, 1938, to April 22, 1951. The title was the contemporary phrase used to request from telephone operators what was then called "information" and later called "directory assistance". The series was moderated by Clifton Fadiman. A panel of experts would attempt to answer questions submitted by listeners. For the first few shows, a listener was paid $2 for a question that was used, and $5 more if the experts could not answer it correctly. When the show got its first sponsor (Canada Dry), the total amounts were increased to $5 and $10 respectively. A complete ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' was later added to the prize for questions that stumped the panel. The amounts rose to $10 and $25 when Lucky Strike took over sponsorship of the program. By 1948, the prizes changed to the following: submitting a question awarded the viewer an ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' world atlas, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The American Way (play)
''The American Way'' is a play by American playwrights George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Production The original Broadway production of ''The American Way'' opened at the Center Theatre on January 21, 1939, in a production produced by Sam H. Harris and Max Gordon. It was directed by Kaufman and designed by Donald Oenslager (sets), Irene Sharaff (costumes), and Hassard Short (lights). Husband and wife actors Fredric March and Florence Eldridge starred as Martin and Irma Gunther. Dick Van Patten had a role as Martin's grandson, Karl, at age 9; David Wayne played an adult version of the same character. This production made Scott McKay's debut in appearing in Broadway plays. ''The American Way'' closed in June 1939, after 164 performances, and reopened July 17, playing for an additional 80 performances before closing permanently on September 23, 1939. Critical response In his review for ''The New York Times'', Brooks Atkinson called ''The American Way'' "a wide, handsome, den ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fabulous Invalid
''The Fabulous Invalid'' is a 1938 stage play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart following the oscillating fortunes of a fictitious Broadway theater, the Alexandria, in the period between 1900 and 1930. The play's title has since entered the vernacular as a synonym for the theater. Production history In 1937, Moss Hart conceived the notion for ''The Fabulous Invalid'' after acquiring hundreds of back issues of ''Theatre'' magazine and immersing himself in the magazine's documentation of a vanished theatrical era. With his frequent collaborator George S. Kaufman, Hart began to develop an historical pageant that traced the evolution of the American theater from the 1700s to the present, potentially starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. (When told of the project, Lunt was reportedly most excited about the prospect of wearing blackface in a section devoted to minstrel shows.) Kaufman and Hart soon scotched the project due to structural issues; upon further research, they also disco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moss Hart
Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director. Early years Hart was born in New York City, the son of Lillian (Solomon) and Barnett Hart, a cigar maker. He had a younger brother, Bernard. He grew up in relative poverty with his English-born Jewish immigrant parents in the Bronx and in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. He was the great-grandson of the Jewish bare-knuckle pugilist Barney Aaron. In his youth, he had a strong relationship with his Aunt Kate, with whom he later was to lose contact due to a falling out between her and his parents, and Kate's weakening mental state. She piqued his interest in the theater, taking him to see performances often. Hart even went so far as to create an "alternate ending" to her life in his book ''Act One (book), Act One''. He writes that she died while he was working on out-of-town tryouts for ''The Beloved Bandit.'' In later life, Kate had become eccentric and then disturbed, vandalism, v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadway (theater)
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names (12 others used neither), with many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also using the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the thoroughfare is eponymous with the district and its collection of 41 theaters, and it is also closely identified with Times Square, only three of the theaters are located on Broadway itself (namely the Broadway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
