Will Rogers' USA
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Will Rogers' USA
''Will Rogers' USA'' is a one-man play about humorist Will Rogers that James Whitmore appeared in for more than 30 years. It was first staged by Frankie Hewitt at the Loretto-Hilton Theater in Webster Groves, Missouri in January 1970Dennis McClellan"James Whitmore dies at 87; veteran award-winning actor brought American icons to the screen" ''Los Angeles Times'', February 7, 2009. and then at Ford's Theatre in September 1970. It was broadcast on television and recorded on record in 1972 and had a limited run on Broadway in May 1974. The Broadway production was produced by George Spota. The play was produced and conceived by George Spota, adapted and directed by Paul Shyre, with research by associate producer Bryan Sterling. Whitmore changed his monologue each time he performed it, using actual quotations from Will Rogers to comment on current events at the time of the performance. Gene McFall was reportedly the first person other than Whitmore to perform in the play in 1982. He was ...
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Will Rogers
William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma), and is known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son". As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled around the world three times, made 71 films (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. By the mid-1930s, Rogers was hugely popular in the United States for his leading political wit and was the highest paid of Hollywood film stars. He died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post when their small airplane crashed in northern Alaska. Rogers began his career as a performer on vaudeville. His rope act led to success in the ''Ziegfeld Follies'', which in turn led to the first of his many movie contracts. His 1920s syndicated newspaper column and his radio appearances increased his visibility and populari ...
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James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore Jr. (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009) was an American actor. He received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award, plus two Academy Award nominations. Biography Early life and military service Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle (née Crane) and James Allen Whitmore Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, for three years, before transferring to the Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, on a football scholarship. He went on to study at Yale University, but he had to quit playing football after severely injuring his knees."James Whitmore dies at 87" by Dennis McLellan. Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2009. After giving up football, he turned to the Yale Dramatic Society and began acting. While at Yale, he was a member of Skull and Bones, and was among the founders of the Yale radio s ...
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Webster Groves, Missouri
Webster Groves is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 22,995 at the 2010 census. The city is home to the main campus of Webster University. Geography Webster Groves is located at (38.587702, −90.354366). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Webster Groves is bounded to the east by Shrewsbury, on the north by Maplewood, Brentwood and Rock Hill, to the west by Glendale, Oakland, and Crestwood, and on the south by Affton and Marlborough. History Webster Groves is approximately west of the St. Louis city limits, and southwest of downtown St. Louis, in an area known to fur trappers and Missouri, Osage and Dakota indigenous people, until 1802, as the Dry Ridge. In the early 19th century, this region, once a part of the Louisiana Territory, was changing from Spanish to French ownership, and a system of land grants was inaugurated to promote immigration. During th ...
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Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and final ...
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Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a theater located in Washington, D.C., which opened in August 1863. The theater is infamous for being the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the theater box where Lincoln and his wife were watching a performance of ''Our American Cousin'', slipped the single-shot, 5.87-inch derringer from his pocket and fired at Lincoln's head. After being shot, the fatally wounded Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died the next morning. The theater was later used as a warehouse and government office building. In 1893, part of its interior flooring collapsed, causing 22 deaths, and needed repairs were made. The building became a museum in 1932, and it was renovated and re-opened as a theater in 1968. A related Center for Education and Leadership museum opened February 12, 2012, next to Petersen House. The Petersen House and the theater are preserved together as Ford's Theat ...
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Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. It is now owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon (company), Amazon. the database contained some million titles (including television episodes) and million person records. Additionally, the site had 83 million registered users. The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017. Features The title and talent ''pages'' of IMDb are accessible to all users, but only registered and logged-in users can submit new material and suggest edits to existing entries. Most of the site's data has been provided by these volunteers. Registered ...
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Internet Broadway Database
The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community. This comprehensive history of Broadway provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre in the 18th century up to today. Details include cast and creative lists for opening night and current day, song lists, awards and other interesting facts about every Broadway production. Other features of IBDB include an extensive archive of photos from past and present Broadway productions, headshots, links to cast recordings on iTunes or Amazon, gross and attendance information. Its mission was to be an interactive, user-friendly, searchable database for League members, journalists, researchers, and Broadway fans. The League recently added Broadway Touring shows t ...
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Paul Shyre
Paul Shyre (8 March 1926–19 November 1989) was an American director and playwright who received a Special Tony Award and won a Regional Emmy Award.Haymer, Johnny (21 November 1989) ''The Washington Post'' page B-7 He is noted for the plays ''Hizzoner'', ''Will Rogers' USA'' and ''The President Is Dead''. Shyre graduated from the University of Florida and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was a professor of theater arts at Cornell University. Shyre adapted to the stage, directed and co-produced the Sean O'Casey novels, ''Pictures in the Hallway'', ''I Knock at the Door'' and ''Drums Under the Windows''. He also wrote and directed ''A Whitman Portrait'' and ''An Unpleasant Evening With H.L. Mencken''. Awards *1957 Drama Desk Award for ''Pictures in the Hallway'' *1957 Obie Award, special citation for bringing O'Casey to Off-Broadway; for his adaptations of ''I Knock at the Door'', ''Pictures in the Hallway'', and ''USA'' *1957 Special Tony Award *1987 New York E ...
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Bryan Sterling
Bryan B. Sterling (Bryan Bruno Sterling, January 27, 1922 – March 13, 2008) was an authority on the life and work of American political commentator, humorist, and entertainer Will Rogers. He scripted and co-produced "Will Rogers' USA," a one-man Broadway play about Rogers starring actor James Whitmore, created a daily syndicated newspaper column that featured timely quotations from Rogers' writings, and authored several definitive biographies of Rogers' life including a detailed examination of his death in the Point Barrow, Alaska, crash of an airplane piloted by famed aviator Wiley Post. Early life Born Bruno Zwerling in Vienna, Austria, in 1922, Sterling and his family fled the ''Anschluss'' (Nazi occupation) in 1938 to Czechoslovakia. Bruno then flew from Prague to England on a student visa. His parents, Hermann and Katherine Zwerling
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Paul Tripp
Paul Tripp (February 20, 1911 – August 29, 2002) was an American children's musician, author, songwriter, and television and film actor. He collaborated with a fellow composer, George Kleinsinger. Tripp was the creator of the 1945 " Tubby the Tuba", a piece of classical music for children that has become his best-known work. He authored several books, including ''Rabbi Santa Claus'' and ''Diary of a Leaf''. Early years Tripp was born in New York City. Tripp attended Brooklyn College and City College of the City University of New York, and he held a master's degree in education. During World War II, he served in the Army Signal Corps. Career Early in his career, he was the host of '' Mr. I. Magination'', which was aired by CBS from 1949 to 1952 featuring him as a train engineer who took children through a tunnel to meet with representatives of different occupations. Tripp later co-hosted ''Birthday House'' with singer-composer Kay Lande, a live (later taped) daily morn ...
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Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded on August 10, 1846, it operates as a trust instrumentality and is not formally a part of any of the three branches of the federal government. The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. It was originally organized as the United States National Museum, but that name ceased to exist administratively in 1967. Called "the nation's attic" for its eclectic holdings of 154 million items, the institution's 19 museums, 21 libraries, nine research centers, and zoo include historical and architectural landmarks, mostly located in the District of Columbia. Additional facilities are located in Maryland, New York, and Virginia. More than 200 institutions and museums in 45 states,States without Smithsonian ...
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