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Willard Motley
Willard Francis Motley (July 14, 1909 – March 4, 1965) was an American writer. Motley published a column in the African-American oriented ''Chicago Defender'' newspaper under the pen-name Bud Billiken. He also worked as a freelance writer, and later founded and published the ''Hull House Magazine'' and worked in the Federal Writers Project. Motley's first and best known novel was ''Knock on Any Door'', which was made into a movie of the same name (1947). Early life and career Motley was born and grew up in the Englewood neighborhood, South Side, Chicago, in one of the few African-American families residing there. His father was a Pullman porter. Motley graduated from Lewis-Champlain grammar school, and Englewood High School. He is related to the noted artist Archibald Motley, and the two were raised as brothers, although Archibald was in fact Willard's uncle. The family was Catholic. Willard was hired by Robert S. Abbott to write a children's column called "Bud Says" unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6, 1935, by presidential order, as a key part of the Second New Deal. The WPA's first appropriation in 1935 was $4.9 billion (about $15 per person in the U.S., around 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP). Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA supplied paid jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while building up the public infrastructure of the US, such as parks, schools, and roads. Most of the jobs were in construction, building more than 620,000 miles (1,000,000 km) of streets and over 10,000 bridges, in addition to many airports and much housing. The largest single project of the WPA was the Tennessee Valley Authority. At its pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Destination Freedom
''Destination Freedom'' was a weekly radio program produced by WMAQ in Chicago from 1948 to 1950 that presented biographical histories of prominent African-Americans such as George Washington Carver, Satchel Paige, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Lena Horne. (Also see ) The scripts for the shows were written by Richard Durham. Studs Terkel voiced some of the radio characters. Hugh Downs also served as an announcer in both the initial and 1950 series. The show was the brainchild of African-American journalist and author Richard Durham. In cooperation with '' The Chicago Defender'', he began this series over NBC Chicago outlet WMAQ in June 1948, with scripts emphasizing the progress of African-Americans from the days of slavery to the ongoing struggle for racial justice. Airing in Sunday-morning public-service time, the series built a steady audience in the Midwest with inspirational stories of social progress, earning strong support from Civil Rights organizations, and o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Drama
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story: "It is auditory in the physical dimension but equally powerful as a visual force in the psychological dimension." Radio drama includes plays specifically written for radio, docudrama, dramatized works of fiction, as well as plays originally written for the theatre, including musical theatre, and opera. Radio drama achieved widespread popularity within a decade of its initial development in the 1920s. By the 1940s, it was a leading international popular entertainment. With the advent of television in the 1950s radio drama began losing its audience. However, it remains popular in much of the world. Recordings of OTR (old-time radio) survive today in the audio archives of collectors, libraries and museums, as well ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system for producing college-educated teachers. In addition to the main campus in DeKalb, it has satellite centers in Chicago, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon, Illinois. The university is composed of seven degree-granting colleges and has a student body of approximately 16,000 with over 240,000 alumni. NIU is one of only two public universities in Illinois that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the highest levels of all sports, Division I. The university's athletic teams are known as the Huskies and compete in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). History Northern Illinois University was founded as part of the expansion of the normal school program established in 1857 in Normal, Illinois. In 1895, the state legisl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bud Billiken Parade And Picnic
The Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic (also known as The Bud Billiken Day Parade) is an annual parade held since 1929 in Chicago, Illinois. The Bud Billiken Day Parade is the largest African-American parade in the United States of America. Held annually on the city's south side and on the second Saturday in August, The parade route travels on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive through the Bronzeville and Washington Park neighborhoods on the city's south side. At the end of the parade, in the historic Washington public park is a picnic and festival. Robert S. Abbott, the founder and publisher of the ''Chicago Defender,'' created the fictional character of Bud Billiken, which he featured in as youth advice column in his paper. David Kellum, co-founder of the Bud Billiken Club and longtime parade coordinator suggested the parade as a celebration of African-American life. Since its beginning, the parade has featured celebrities, politicians, businessmen, civic organizations and youth. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Literary Encyclopedia
''The Literary Encyclopedia'' is an online reference work first published in October 2000. It was founded as an innovative project designed to bring the benefits of information technology to what at the time was still a largely conservative literary field. From its inception it was developed as a not-for-profit publication aimed to ensure that those who contribute to it are properly rewarded for the time and knowledge they invest - as such, its authors and editors are also shareholders in the Company. ''The Literary Encyclopedia'' offers both freely available content and content and services for subscribers (individual and institutional, consisting mainly of higher education institutions and higher level secondary schools). Articles are solicited by invitation from specialist scholars, then refereed and approved by subject editors, which makes the ''LE'' both authoritative and reliable. It contains general profiles of literary writers, but also of major cultural, historical and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ella Fitzgerald Sings Songs From The Soundtrack Of "Let No Man Write My Epitaph"
''Ella Fitzgerald Sings Songs from the Soundtrack of "Let No Man Write My Epitaph"'' is a 1960 (see 1960 in music) album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by the pianist Paul Smith. '' Let No Man Write My Epitaph'' was a 1960 Hollywood crime drama film featuring Fitzgerald. Until 2014 this album was only available on CD as ''The Intimate Ella'', and is considered one of Ella's greatest recordings. Ella's 1950 Decca album ''Ella Sings Gershwin'', is in a similar vein, with Ella accompanied by the pianist Ellis Larkins. The album hints at a depth of emotional understanding that critics often complained was missing in Ella's reading of jazz lyrics, and once again establishes her as one of the supreme interpreters of the Great American Songbook. Scott Yanow's review of the album (on Allmusic) declared, "Listeners who hinkElla Fitzgerald... had trouble giving the proper emotional intensity to lyrics will be surprised by this sensitive and often haunting set". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career. Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy, until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony. On June 19, 1918, brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and their business partner Joe Brandt founded Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation, which would eventually become Columbia Pictures. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name on January 10, 1924 (operating as Columbia Pictures Corporation until December 23, 1968) went public two years later and eventually began to use the image of Columbia, the female personification of the United States, as its logo. In its early years, Columbia was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. With Capra and others such as the most successful two reel comedy series The Three Stooges, C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Let No Man Write My Epitaph
''Let No Man Write My Epitaph'' is a 1960 American crime drama film about the son of an executed criminal who aspires to escape his impoverished, crime-ridden neighborhood with the help of his mother and a group of concerned neighbors. The film was directed by Philip Leacock, and stars Burl Ives, Shelley Winters, James Darren, Jean Seberg, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ricardo Montalban. The film was based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Willard Motley, and is a sequel to the 1949 film ''Knock on Any Door'', which was itself based on an earlier Motley novel. Plot In 1950, Nick Romano, Jr., whose father was a convicted murderer and died in the electric chair (the story told in ''Knock on Any Door''), lives in a Chicago tenement building with his mother Nellie Romano. Nellie supports herself and Nick by working as a barmaid, saving money in hopes that Nick will one day attend college and be a success in life. As a young boy, Nick befriends several of the neighborhood residents, includ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema. Bogart began acting in Broadway shows, beginning his career in motion pictures with '' Up the River'' (1930) for Fox and appeared in supporting roles for the next decade, regularly portraying gangsters. He was praised for his work as Duke Mantee in ''The Petrified Forest'' (1936), but remained cast secondary to other actors at Warner Bros. who received leading roles. Bogart also received positive reviews for his performance as gangster Hugh "Baby Face" Martin, in '' Dead End'' (1937), directed by William Wyler. His breakthrough from supporting roles to stardom was set in motion with '' High Sierra'' (1941) and catapulted in '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941), co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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