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The Ed Wynn Show
''The Ed Wynn Show'' was an American variety show originally broadcast from September 22, 1949 to July 4, 1950, on the CBS Television Network. Comedian and former vaudevillian Ed Wynn was the star of the program's 39 episodes, which were the first shows broadcast live from Hollywood, and transmitted via kinescope to New York. The show included the commercial television debuts of Groucho Marx, Dinah Shore, The Three Stooges, Hattie McDaniel, Buster Keaton, Leon Errol, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Production ''The Ed Wynn Show'' premiered on September 22, 1949 on CBS. The series starred Ed Wynn (1886–1966), a well-established comedian of stage, vaudeville, film and radio. The series consisted of vaudeville-like skits and music performed by the days' popular artists. Speidel wrist watches was the show's original sponsor. Speidel was soon replaced as sponsor by Camel cigarettes. Under the sponsorship of Camel, the series was known as ''The Camel Comedy Caravan''. ''The Ed Wyn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing '' agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit and one of America's greatest comedians. He made 13 feature films as a team with his siblings the Marx Brothers; he was the third-born of the brothers. He also had a successful solo career primarily on radio and television, most notably as the host of the game show ''You Bet Your Life''. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, spectacles, cigar, and a thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows. These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous novelty disguises, known as Groucho glasses: a one-piece mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, a large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and mustache. Early life Julius H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm (April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012) was an American stage, film and television actress. Holm won an Academy Award for her performance in Elia Kazan's ''Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947), and was nominated for her roles in ''Come to the Stable'' (1949) and ''All About Eve'' (1950). She also is known for her performances in ''The Snake Pit'' (1948), ''A Letter to Three Wives'' (1949), and ''High Society'' (1956). She is also known for originating the role of Ado Annie in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''Oklahoma!'' (1943). Early life Born and raised in Manhattan, Holm was an only child. Her mother, Jean Parke, was an American portrait artist and author. Her father, Theodor Holm, was a Norwegian businessman whose company provided marine adjustment services for Lloyd's of London. Because of her parents' occupations, she traveled often during her youth and attended various schools in the Netherlands, France and the United States. She began high school at the University ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eve Arden
Eve Arden (born Eunice Mary Quedens, April 30, 1908 – November 12, 1990) was an American film, radio, stage and television actress. She performed in leading and supporting roles for nearly six decades. Beginning her film career in 1929 and on Broadway in the early 1930s, Arden's first major role was in the RKO Radio Pictures drama ''Stage Door'' (1937) opposite Katharine Hepburn, followed by roles in the comedies ''Having Wonderful Time'' (1938) and the Marx Brothers' ''At the Circus'' (1939). She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Mildred Pierce'' (1945). Somewhat surprisingly for an actress of Arden's refinement and wit, she appeared to good effect in a number of films noir, some exceptionally high-profile, including ''Mildred Pierce'', '' The Unfaithful'' (1947), '' The Arnelo Affair'' (1947), ''Whiplash'' (1948), and ''Anatomy of a Murder'' (1959). Later in her career, Arden moved to television, playing a sardonic but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frances Langford
Julia Frances Newbern-Langford (April 4, 1913 – July 11, 2005) was an American singer and actress who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and made film and television appearances for over two decades. She was known as the "GI Nightingale", an American armed-forces sweetheart, who entertained troops touring often with Bob Hope. Discovery Langford originally trained as an opera singer. While a young girl she required a tonsillectomy that changed her soprano range to a rich contralto. As a result, she was forced to change her vocal approach to a more contemporary big band, popular music style. At age 17, she was singing for local dances. Cigar manufacturer Eli Witt heard her sing at an American Legion party and hired her to sing on a local radio show he sponsored. Radio After a brief stint in the Broadway musical "Here Goes the Bride" in 1931, she moved to Hollywood, appearing on Louella Parsons' radio show ''Hollywood Hotel'' while starting a movie career. Singing f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
Edmund Lincoln Anderson (September 18, 1905 – February 28, 1977) was an American comedian and actor. To a generation of early radio and television comedy he was known as "Rochester". Anderson entered show business as a teenager on the vaudeville circuit. In the early 1930s, he transitioned into films and radio. In 1937, he began his role of Rochester van Jones, usually known simply as "Rochester", the valet of Jack Benny, on his NBC radio show ''The Jack Benny Program''. Anderson became the first African American to have a regular role on a nationwide radio program. When the series moved to CBS television in 1950, Anderson continued in the role until the series ended in 1965. After the series ended, Anderson remained active with guest starring roles on television and voice work in animated series. He was also an avid horse-racing fan who owned several race horses and worked as a horse trainer at the Hollywood Park Racetrack. He was married twice and had four children. He died ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camel (cigarette)
Camel is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the United States and by Japan Tobacco outside the U.S. Most current Camel cigarettes contain a blend of Turkish tobacco and Virginia tobacco. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the city where R. J. Reynolds was founded, is nicknamed "Camel City" because of the brand's popularity. History In 1913, Richard Joshua "R. J." Reynolds, founder of the company that still bears his name, innovated the packaged cigarette. Prior cigarette smokers had rolled their own, which tended to obscure the potential for a national market for a pre-packaged product. Reynolds worked to develop a more appealing flavor, creating the Camel cigarette, which he so named because it used Turkish tobacco in imitation of then-fashionable Egyptian cigarettes. Reynolds priced them below competitors, and within a year, he had sold 425 million packs. Camel cigarettes were originally blended to have a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speidel
Speidel is a manufacturer of watchbands and related items based in East Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It was originally founded in Germany by Friedrich Speidel in 1867 as a manufacturer of gold and silver chains. The Speidel Chain Company was formed in its modern state in the United States in 1904. It was known for its "Ratchet-buckle" watchbands (introduced in 1920), the "Scissors Action Expansion Band" (introduced in 1936), the ladies' "Mignon" watchbands (introduced in 1939), plus costume jewelry. In the 1930s, Speidel was the first company in the world to introduce ID bracelets. During World War II, the company briefly produced cathode-ray tubes. Speidel experienced a boom in popularity, notably with their invention of the hugely popular expanding strap in the mid-1930s, and in addition to watchbands Speidel produced wristwatches, lighters, writing instruments, small jewelry, and other accessories, before beginning to decline by the end of the century with the st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desi Arnaz
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, and film and television producer. He played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom ''I Love Lucy'', in which he co-starred with his then-wife Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball are credited as the innovators of the Broadcast syndication, syndicated rerun, which they pioneered with the ''I Love Lucy'' series. Arnaz and Lucille Ball co-founded and ran the television production company called Desilu Productions, originally to market ''I Love Lucy'' to television networks. After ''I Love Lucy'' ended, Arnaz went on to produce several other television series, at first with Desilu Productions, and later independently, including ''The Ann Sothern Show'' and ''The Untouchables (1959 TV series), The Untouchables''. He was also the bandleader of his Latin group, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra. He was known for playing conga drums and popularized the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She earned many honors, including the Women in Film Crystal Award, an induction into the Television Hall of Fame, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Ball's career began in 1929 when she landed work as a model. Shortly thereafter, she began her performing career on Broadway using the stage name Diane (or Dianne) Belmont. She later appeared in films in the 1930s and 1940s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures, being cast as a chorus girl or in similar roles, with lead roles in B-pictures and supporting roles in A-pictures. During this time, she met Cuban bandlea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leon Errol
Leon Errol (born Leonce Errol Sims, July 3, 1881 – October 12, 1951) was an Australian-American comedian and actor in the United States, popular in the first half of the 20th century for his appearances in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in films. Early years Born in Sydney to Joseph and Elizabeth Sims. Errol studied medicine at the University of Sydney. When he wrote material for, directed, and acted in the university's annual play, his interests changed to entertaining. Career Errol toured Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain and Ireland in a variety of theatrical settings, including circuses, operettas, and Shakespeare. According to his petition for naturalization (1914), he first came to the United States in 1898, having arrived at the Port of San Francisco. By 1905, in Portland, Oregon, he managed a touring vaudeville company troupe, giving an early boost to the career of a young comedian named Roscoe Arbuckle. In 1908, he made the United States his home. By 1911 Errol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies". In 1996, ''Entertainment Weekly'' recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, and in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. Working with independent producer Joseph M. Schenck and filmmaker Edward F. Cline, Keaton made a series of successful two-reel comedies in the early 1920s, including ''One Week'' (1920), '' The Playhouse'' (1921), '' Cops'' (1922), and ''The Electric House'' (1922). He then moved to feature-leng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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