The Duke Is Tops
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The Duke Is Tops
''The Duke Is Tops'' is a 1938 American musical film released by Million Dollar Productions and directed by William Nolte. The film was later released in 1943 under the title ''The Bronze Venus''. It features top-billed Lena Horne in her film debut. The film was one of the low-budget musical film " race movies" made in the 1930s and 1940s for the African-American market. The casts and production teams of these films were almost all black, and the music reflected current tastes in jazz and rhythm and blues. The film was scripted, co-directed and featured Ralph Cooper who also acted as the film's production manager. Casting Ralph Cooper planned to star alongside Nina Mae McKinney as the female lead but her delayed return from her appearances in Australia led to the role to be recast. ''The Duke Is Tops'' features the film debut of singer Lena Horne, then aged 20, who had yet to develop the style she would use in her later films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She has a rare major acting ...
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William Nolte
William Lewis Nolte (1889–1965) was a screenwriter and film director in the United States. He directed the musical film ''The Duke Is Tops'' released by Million Dollar Productions. It was re-released in 1943 under the title The ''Bronze Venus''. He is credited as a production manager for the 1942 film ''Thunder River Feud'' and as a line producer on the 1947 film ''Shadow Valley (1947 film), Shadow Valley''. From 1949 until at least 1957 he was an assistant director on several films. He was co-writer for the 1951 television show ''Buckskin Rangers''. Selected filmography *''Romance Revier'' (1934), assistant director *''West on Parade'' (1934), assistant director * ''Gun Play'' (1935) *''Wolf Riders'' (1935), assistant director *''The Duke Is Tops'' (1938), director *''Life Goes On (1938 film), Life Goes On'' (1938), director. Reissued in 1944 as ''His Harlem Wife'' *''Take My Life'' (1942), production manager *''Saddle Mountain Roundup'' (1941), original story *''Square Dance ...
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions, Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur (1959 film), Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified ...
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Cats And The Fiddle
The Cats and the Fiddle was an African American singing group formed in 1937 in Chicago and active until 1951, releasing more than 30 gramophone sides during the period. Their instrumentation included a bass (the "fiddle" of the title), tenor guitar, ukulele and Martin tiple, another ukulele-family instrument.Warner, Jay. ''American Singing Groups: A History From 1940 To Today''. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006; , 9780634099, p. 17 Their signature song "I Miss You So" has been covered by many artists. Members Over the course of years the Cats and the Fiddle experienced a large change over in its members. Below is a list of every person who was a member at some point. * Jimmy Henderson (First Tenor) * Ernie Price (Second Tenor) * Chuck Barksdale ( Bass) * Austin Powell (Lead Singer) * Herbie Mills (Lead Singer) * Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes (First Tenor and guitar) * George Stienbeck ( Bass) * Mifflin "Pee Wee" Branford (First Tenor) * Hank Haslett (Lead Singer) * Emmitt Slay (First T ...
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Willie Covan
William McKinley Covan (March 4, 1898 – May 7, 1989) was an American tap dancer, actor, vaudeville performer best known for being a member of the tap quartet The Four Covans and a choreographer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Willie Covan was born on March 4, 1898 in Atlanta, Georgia. Shortly after, his family moved to Chicago. By 1903, Willie was already tapping to the rhythms of the city. When was six years old, he began a six-year career as a pickaninny in the numerous vaudeville shows around the city. There he watched dancers and began to pick up technique from miming them. By age 12, he was tired of pick tapping and started out to make a name for himself in the vaudeville circuit. Covan got his first big break winning an amateur tap contest around 1910. From that he was taken under the wings of legendary tap dancers "Slow Kid" Thompson, and Leonard Ruffin. In 1927, he formed the tap quartet, The Four Covans. They became an instant sensation in the United States and in Europe. In ...
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Edward Thompson (actor)
Edward Thompson (1898–1960) was an actor in the United States. He appeared in several films with African American casts. He worked on films with his wife Evelyn Preer, Spencer Williams, and other prominent African American actors including in Al Christie productions. He played in various theater productions as an actor, including in a musical dancing role in '' Darktown Follies''. He was born James Edward Thompson. He married fellow actor Evelyn Preer. Her second husband, they were both with the Lafayette Players in Chicago. They married February 4, 1924, in Williamson County, Tennessee, Tennessee (while in Nashville). The couple had a daughter in 1932. Thompson starred in the 1929 Al Christie film ''Oft in the Silly Night'', as Temus Robinson. Filmography * ''The Melancholy Dame'' (1929) as Permanent Williams. * ''Framing of the Shrew'', 1929, as Privacy Robson. *''Brown Gravy'' (1929) *''The Lady Fare'' (1929) *''Oft in the Silly Night'' (1929). as Temus Robinson *'' The Wi ...
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Neva Peoples
Neva Mary Peoples was a singer and dancer who appeared in several films in the United States. She performed as a singer, dancer, and chorus girl. Peoples was from San Francisco. A 1936 news clipping refers to her as the "colored blues singer and dancer from Frank Sebastian's Cotton Club in Hollywood." Her film debut was in the 1938 melodrama ''Gang Smashers'' singing "That's What You Get in Harlem". She played Ella in ''The Duke is Tops'' (1938). She was in a cabaret scene in the 1939 movie, ''One Dark Night''. A 1942 photograph captured her and fellow performers in zoot suit costumes for the Republic Studio film, ''Hit Parade of 1943''. She married Phil Moore in 1937 and had a son, George Phillip Moore III, in 1939. Moore's orchestra backed one of her performances. Filmography *''Gang Smashers'' (1938) *''The Duke is Tops'' (1938) as Ella *''Hit Parade of 1943'' *''Mantan Messes Up Mantan Messes Up is a film produced in 1946 in the United States. It stars Mantan Moreland. Sam ...
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Monte Hawley
Monte Hawley (? - November 30, 1950) was an American actor from Chicago, Illinois. Biography He began his entertainment career as one of the original Lafayette Players. He studied under Richard B. Harrison and, after moving to New York City, acted in works on Broadway. He then moved to Hollywood and appeared in movies, including Oscar Micheaux's first film production. He was an actor in, and stage manager for, the original traveling production of the play '' Anna Lucasta''. According to the ''Philadelphia Tribune'', Hawley was considered one of the most prominent Black "stage and screen actors". He was in several theatrical productions on Broadway. Hawley died on November 30, 1950, in New York City. Filmography *''A Son of Satan'' (1924) *'' Life Goes On'', as District Attorney *''The Duke Is Tops'' (1938), as George Marshall *'' Double Deal'' (1939), as Jim McCoy *''Reform School'' (1939), as Jackson *''Four Shall Die'' (1940), as Dr. Hugh Leonard (credited as Monty Hawley ...
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Laurence Criner
Laurence Criner (19 July 1898 - 8 March 1965) born John Laurence Criner, occasionally credited as J. Lawrence Criner, was an actor in the United States. An African-American, he had numerous film roles including as the male lead and star. He was a member of the Lafayette Players and worked at Norman Studios in Jacksonville, Florida where he starred in two of their race films. He later worked at African American studio Million Dollar Productionshttp://normanstudios.org/films-stars/norman-players/laurence-criner/ The Smithsonian Institution has a lobby card for ''The Flying Ace''. The Library of Congress has a movie poster of '' Life Goes On'' that features an insetimage of Criner. The National Museum of African American History has a herald for ''Flying Ace''. Theater *''Meek Mose'' (1928), credited as J. Lawrence Criner Filmography *''The Flying Ace'' (1926) as Capt. Blly Stokes *'' The Millionaire (1927 film)'' *''Black Gold (1928 film)'' *''Black Moon'' (1934), as high pri ...
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Elixir
ELIXIR (the European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information) is an initiative that will allow life science laboratories across Europe to share and store their research data as part of an organised network. Its goal is to bring together Europe’s research organisations and data centres to help coordinate the collection, quality control and storage of large amounts of biological data produced by life science experiments. ELIXIR aims to ensure that biological data is integrated into a federated system easily accessible by the scientific community. Mission ELIXIR's mission is to build a sustainable European infrastructure for biological information, supporting life science research and its translation to medicine and the environment, the bio-industries and society. The results from biological experiments produce vast amounts of results that are stored as data using computer software. European countries have invested heavily in research that produces, analyses and ...
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Medicine Show
Medicine shows were touring acts (traveling by truck, horse, or wagon teams) that peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines and other products between various entertainments. They developed from European Charlatan, mountebank shows and were common in the United States in the nineteenth century, especially in the American Old West, Old West (though some continued until World War II). They usually promoted "miracle elixirs" (sometimes referred to as snake oil), which, it was claimed, had the ability to cure disease, smooth wrinkles, remove stains, prolong life or cure any number of common ailments. Most shows had their own patent medicine (these medicines were for the most part unpatented but took the name to sound official). Entertainments often included a freak show, a flea circus, musical ensemble, musical acts, magic (illusion), magic tricks, jokes, or storytelling. Each show was run by a man posing as a doctor who drew the crowd with a monologue. The entertainers, such as acrobats, ...
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New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ...
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Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on March 3, 1923, and for many years it was run by its influential co-founder, Henry Luce. A European edition (''Time Europe'', formerly known as ''Time Atlantic'') is published in London and also covers the Middle East, Africa, and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (''Time Asia'') is based in Hong Kong. The South Pacific edition, which covers Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney. Since 2018, ''Time'' has been published by Time USA, LLC, owned by Marc Benioff, who acquired it from Meredith Corporation. History ''Time'' has been based in New York City since its first issue published on March 3, 1923, by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce. It was the first weekly news magazine in the United States. The two ...
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