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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] |
Irving Rapper
Irving Rapper (16 January 1898 – 20 December 1999) was a British-born American film director. Biography Born to a British Jews, Jewish family , newspapers.library.in.gov. Accessed 29 March 2022. in London, Rapper emigrated to the United States and became an actor and a stage director on Broadway theatre, Broadway while studying at New York University. In 1936, he went to Hollywood, Los Angele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sol Polito
Sol Polito, A.S.C. (born Salvatore Polito, November 12, 1892 – May 23, 1960) was a Sicilian-American cinematographer. He is best known for his work with directors Michael Curtiz and Mervyn LeRoy at Warner Bros. studios in the 1930s and 1940s. Biography Salvatore Polito was born November 12, 1892 in Palermo, Italy, and immigrated to the United States in 1905."Salvatore Polito". National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; ''Naturalization Records of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Central Division (Los Angeles), 1887–1940; Microfilm Roll: ''93''; Microfilm Serial: ''M1524''. Ancestry.com, ''U.S. Naturalization Records, 1840–1957 atabase online Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2010. Retrieved 2017-03-01. He attended school in New York City and began working in the motion picture industry as a still photographer. After experience as a lab assistant and camera assistant, he was promoted to lighting cameraman i ... [...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] |
Rhapsody In Blue
''Rhapsody in Blue'' is a 1924 musical composition written by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, the work premiered in a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music" on February 12, 1924, in Aeolian Hall, New York City. Whiteman's band performed the rhapsody with Gershwin playing the piano. Whiteman's arranger Ferde Grofé orchestrated the rhapsody several times including the 1924 original scoring, the 1926 pit orchestra scoring, and the 1942 symphonic scoring. The rhapsody is one of Gershwin's most recognizable creations and a key composition that defined the Jazz Age. Gershwin's piece inaugurated a new era in America's musical history, established Gershwin's reputation as an eminent composer, and eventually became one of the most popular of all concert works. The ''American Heritage'' magazine posits that the famous opening clarinet glissando has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. With George, he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", " The Man I Love" and " Someone to Watch Over Me". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera ''Porgy and Bess''. The success the Gershwin brothers had with their collaborative works has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira played. His mastery of songwriting continued after George's early death in 1937. Ira wrote additional hit songs with composers Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Harry Warren and Harold Arlen. His critically acclaimed 1959 book ''Lyrics on Several Occasions'', an amalgam of autobiography and annotated anthology, is an important source for studying t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Rudley
Herbert Rudley (March 22, 1910 – September 9, 2006) was an American character actor who appeared on stage, films and on television. Early life Rudley was born in 1910 in Philadelphia and attended Temple University. He left Temple after winning a scholarship to Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre. Stage Rudley first appeared on stage in 1926 and had his Broadway debut in 1931, appearing in ''Did I Say No''. Other Broadway credits include ''How Long Till Summer'' (1949), ''Sons and Soldiers'' (1942), ''Macbeth'' (1941), ''Eight O'Clock Tuesday'' (1940), ''Another Sun'' (1939), ''The World We Make'' (1939), ''The Eternal Road'' (1936), ''Battle Hymn'' (1935), ''Mother'' (1935), ''The Threepenny Opera'' (1932) and ''We, the People'' (1932). He also appeared in '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois''. Rudley and Keenan Wynn joined forces in the mid-1940s to create Players Production, a small theater venue in Los Angeles with the goal of presenting revivals of plays. Rudley was also a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosemary De Camp
Rosemary Shirley DeCamp (November 14, 1910 – February 20, 2001) was an American radio, film, and television actress. Life and career Early life Rosemary Shirley DeCamp was born in Prescott, Yavapai, Arizona on November 14, 1910 to William Valentine DeCamp and Margaret Elizabeth Hinman. Radio DeCamp first came to fame in November 1937, when she took the role of Judy Price, the secretary/nurse of Dr. Christian in the long-running Dr. Christian radio series. She also played in ''The Career of Alice Blair'', a transcribed syndicated soap opera that ran in 1939–1940. Film and television She made her film debut in ''Cheers for Miss Bishop'' and appeared in many Warner Bros. films, including ''Eyes in the Night'', ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' playing Nellie Cohan opposite James Cagney, ''This Is The Army'' playing the wife of George Murphy and the mother of Ronald Reagan, ''Rhapsody in Blue'', and '' Nora Prentiss''. She played the mother of the character played by Sabu Dastagir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morris Carnovsky
Morris Carnovsky (September 5, 1897 – September 1, 1992) was an American stage and film actor. He was one of the founders of the Group Theatre (1931-1940) in New York City and had a thriving acting career both on Broadway and in films until, in the early 1950s, professional colleagues told the House Un-American Activities Committee that Carnovsky had been a Communist Party member. He was blacklisted and worked less frequently for a few years, but then re-established his acting career, taking on many Shakespearean roles at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and performing the title roles in college campus productions of ''King Lear'' and ''The Merchant of Venice''. Carnovsky's nephew is veteran character actor and longtime "Pathmark Guy" James Karen. Early life Carnovsky was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 5, 1897 to Ike and Jennie Carnovsky, both Russian Jewish immigrants. His father, a grocer, took him to performances of the Yiddish theater. In 1975 he recall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Al Jolson
Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jews, Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer." Jolson was known for his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach" towards performing, as well as for popularizing many of the songs he sang. Jolson has been referred to by modern critics as "the king of blackface performers." Although best remembered today as the star of the first talking picture, ''The Jazz Singer'' (1927), he starred in a series of successful musical films during the 1930s. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was the first star to entertain troops overseas during World War II. After a period of inactivity, his stardom returned with ''The Jolson Story'' (1946), in which Larry Parks played Jolson, with the singer dubbing for Parks. The formula was repeat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, Whiteman produced recordings that were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz". His most popular recordings include "Whispering", "Valencia", "Three O'Clock in the Morning", " In a Little Spanish Town", and "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers". Whiteman led a usually large ensemble and explored many styles of music, such as blending symphonic music and jazz, as in his debut of ''Rhapsody in Blue'' by George Gershwin. Whiteman recorded many jazz and pop standards during his career, including " Wang Wang Blues", "Mississippi Mud", "Rhapsody in Blue", "Wonderful One", " Hot Lips (He's Got Hot Lips When He Plays Jazz)", " Mississippi Suite", " Grand Canyon Suite", and " Trav'lin' Light". He co-wrote the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded in 1923 by four brothers, Harry Warner, Harry, Albert Warner, Albert, Sam Warner, Sam, and Jack L. Warner, Jack Warner, the company established itself as a leader in the American Warner Bros. Pictures, film industry before diversifying into Warner Bros. Animation, animation, Warner Bros. Television Studios, television, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, video games and is one of the Major film studio, "Big Five" major American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The company is known for its film studio division the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, which includes Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, the Warner Animat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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