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Roger Price (comedy)
Roger Price (March 6, 1918 – October 31, 1990) was an American humorist, author and publisher, who created ''Droodles'' in the 1950s, followed by his collaborations with Leonard B. Stern on the '' Mad Libs'' series. Price and Stern became partners with Larry Sloan in the publishing firm Price Stern Sloan. Biography Price was born in Charleston, West Virginia, and grew up in the mining town of Widen, West Virginia. He graduated from Greenbrier Military School in 1934, then attended the University of Michigan (1934–1936) and the American Academy of Art in Chicago (1936–1938). During the 1940s, he wrote for ''The Bob Hope Show'' and worked with Hope on a newspaper humor column. On Broadway he performed in Arthur Klein's musical revue ''Tickets, Please!'' (1950), and he contributed sketch material to Leonard Sillman's ''New Faces of 1952''. Price hosted the television panel show ''How To'' (1951), and he was a panelist on other game shows of the early 1950s: ''Who's Ther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is the capital and most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 2020 census and an estimated population of 48,018 in 2021. The Charleston metropolitan area as a whole had an estimated 255,020 residents in 2021. Charleston is the center of government, commerce, and industry for Kanawha County, of which it is the county seat. Early industries important to Charleston included salt and the first natural gas well. Later, coal became central to economic prosperity in the city and the surrounding area. Today, trade, utilities, government, medicine, and education play central roles in the city's economy. The first permanent settlement, Fort Morris, was built in fall 1773 by William Morris prior to Lord Dunmore's War, and was used extensively during the American Revolution. The town of Charleston was incorporated by the Virginia House of Delegates in 1794 with the trustees bei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Name's The Same
''The Name's the Same'' is an American game show produced by Goodson- Todman for the ABC television network from December 5, 1951 to August 31, 1954, followed by a run from October 25, 1954 to October 7, 1955. The premise was for contestants to guess the names of persons whose actual name corresponded to a famous person, celebrity, a place, common object or action. It was alternately sponsored by Swanson and Johnson Wax for the majority of its run. It was also sponsored by the Bendix home appliance division of Avco early in its run, and Clorets and Chicken of the Sea tuna midway through its run. The show's second run sponsor, Ralston Purina, also sponsored '' Ethel and Albert'', the program that replaced ''The Name's the Same'' on the ABC schedule. Moderators Robert Q. Lewis was the original host and moderator from December 5, 1951 to August 31, 1954. During three separate personal vacation breaks, in 1953 and 1954, Conrad Nagel, Brian Aherne and Clifton Fadiman substitut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sardi's
Sardi's is a continental restaurant located at 234 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, in the Theater District of Manhattan, New York City. Sardi's opened at its current location on March 5, 1927. It is known for the caricatures of Broadway celebrities on its walls, of which there are over a thousand. Sardi's was founded by Vincent Sardi Sr. and his wife Jenny Pallera, who had previously operated a restaurant nearby between 1921 and 1926. To attract customers, Sardi Sr. hired Russian refugee Alex Gard to draw caricatures in exchange for free food. Even after Gard's death, Sardi's continued to commission caricatures. Following the death of Vincent Sardi Sr. in 1969, Sardi's started to decline in the 1980s, eventually being sold off in 1986. After closing temporarily in 1990, it reopened with new staff. The restaurant is today considered an institution in Broadway theatre. Over the years, the restaurant became known as a pre- and post-theater hangout, as we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's original logo was a pair of mirrored letter Bs back to back, while its current logo is two Bs stacked to form an elaborate gate. The firm's early editors were Stanley Kauffmann and Bernard Shir-Cliff. History Following Fawcett Publications' controversial 1950 introduction of Gold Medal paperback originals rather than reprints, Lion Books, Avon and Ace also decided to publish originals. In 1952, Ian Ballantine, a founder of Bantam Books, announced that he would "offer trade publishers a plan for simultaneous publishing of original titles in two editions, a hardcover 'regular' edition for bookstore sale, and a paper-cover, 'newsstand' size, low-priced edition for mass market sale." When the first Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Help! (magazine)
''Help!'' was an American satire magazine that was published by James Warren from 1960 to 1965. It was Harvey Kurtzman's longest-running magazine project after leaving '' Mad'' and EC Publications, and during its five years of operation it was chronically underfunded, yet innovative. In starting ''Help!'', Kurtzman brought along several artists from his ''Mad'' collaborations, including Will Elder, Jack Davis, John Severin and Al Jaffee. Kurtzman's assistants included Charles Alverson, Terry Gilliam and Gloria Steinem; the last was helpful in gathering the celebrity comedians who appeared on the covers and the fumetti strips the magazine ran along with more traditional comics and text pieces. Among the then little-known performers in the fumetti were John Cleese, Woody Allen and Milt Kamen; better-known performers such as Orson Bean were also known to participate. Some of the fumetti were scripted by Bernard Shir-Cliff. At ''Help!'', Gilliam met Cleese for the first time, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mad (magazine)
''Mad'' (stylized as ''MAD'') is an American humor magazine first published in 1952. It was founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines, launched as a comic book series before it became a magazine. It was widely imitated and influential, affecting satirical media, as well as the cultural landscape of the 20th century, with editor Al Feldstein increasing readership to more than two million during its 1973–74 circulation peak. The magazine, which was the last surviving title from the EC Comics line, publishes satire on all aspects of life and popular culture, politics, entertainment, and public figures. Its format included TV and movie parodies, and satire articles about everyday occurrences that are changed to seem humorous. ''Mad''s mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, was often on the cover, with his face replacing that of a celebrity or character who was being lampooned. From 1952 to 2018, ''Mad'' published 550 regular magazine issues, as well as scores of reprin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book '' Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ''Little Annie Fanny'' strips in ''Playboy'' from 1962 until 1988. His work is noted for its satire and parody of popular culture, social critique, and attention to detail. Kurtzman's working method has been likened to that of an auteur, and he expected those who illustrated his stories to follow his layouts strictly. Kurtzman began to work on the New Trend line of comic books at EC Comics in 1950. He wrote and edited the '' Two-Fisted Tales'' and '' Frontline Combat'' war comic books, where he also drew many of the carefully researched stories, before he created his most-remembered comic book, ''Mad'', in 1952. Kurtzman scripted the stories and had them drawn by top EC cartoonists, most frequently Will Elder, Wally Wood, and Jack Davis; the ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch
''Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch'' is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in May 1982 and digitally remastered in 1991. It features five tracks composed by Zappa, and one song, "Valley Girl", co-written with his daughter, Moon Zappa, then a teen, who provided the spoken monologue mocking Valley girls, including phrases like "Gag me with a spoon!". The album's first half consists of studio recordings, while the second half consists of live recordings. Production Side one was recorded at Zappa's Utility Muffin Research Kitchen studio at his home in Los Angeles; while side two consisted of live performances from Zappa's fall 1981 U.S. tour with studio overdubs. The live material was originally intended for a double album tentatively titled either ''Chalk Pie'' or ''Crush All Boxes II'', which was scrapped after Zappa's record distributor requested a single album instead. The cover art for the album (from which it gets its name) shows the classic Dro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and '' musique concrète'' works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation. As a self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical modernism, African-American rhythm and blues, and doo-wop musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. During the early years of television comedy from 1950 to 1957, he acted on and contributed sketch material for '' Your Show of Shows'' and ''Caesar's Hour'', starring Sid Caesar, writing alongside Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Woody Allen. Reiner teamed up with Brooks and together they released several iconic comedy albums beginning with '' 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks'' (1960). Reiner was best known as the creator and producer of, and a writer and actor on, ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' which ran from 1961 to 1966.Van Dyke, Dick (2012), ''My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business: A Memoir'', Three Rivers Press ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denise Lor
Denise Lor (born Denise Jeanne Briault; May 3, 1929 – September 27, 2015) was an American popular singer and actress. She was a featured artist on ''The Garry Moore Show''. In 1951, she appeared in the short-lived variety show '' Seven at Eleven''. Early years Of French parentage and born in Los Angeles, Lor moved with her mother to Jackson Heights, Queens, New York at the age of 5, following her father's death. She graduated from Newtown High School and took art courses at night at Cooper Union, intent on becoming a commercial artist, while waitressing during the day at a Schrafft's restaurant. She also had a love for singing, saving up money to do it professionally. She believed her chance to sing in Sonja Henie's New York ice show at the Center Theatre to be her big break. She also decided to use her mother's maiden name, Lor, as her stage name. Television In addition to her work on ''The Garry Moore Show'', Lor was a regular on ''The Big Payoff'' and ''Droodles''.Terra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marc Connelly
Marcus Cook Connelly (December 13, 1890 – December 21, 1980) was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. Biography Connelly was born to actor and hotelier Patrick Joseph Connelly and actress Mabel Fowler Cook in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. His father died in 1902. Connelly attended Trinity Hall boarding school in Washington, Pennsylvania, after which he began collecting money for ads in ''The Pittsburgh Press'' to help to support his mother. He began writing plays at the age of five. His initial newspaper job led to Connelly's working as an Associated Press cub reporter, after which he became a junior reporter for ''The Pittsburgh Gazette Times''. Eventually he began writing a humor column for that newspaper. He also became a journalist for the ''Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph'' until he moved to New York City. In 1919 he joined the Algonquin Round Table. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
