|
De Passe Entertainment
de Passe Entertainment was an American film and television production company run by entertainment executive Suzanne de Passe. The company was founded by Berry Gordy Jr., in 1968, as Motown Productions, the film and television arm of Gordy's Motown Records label. In 2008, de Passe and Madison Jones started a successor company, de Passe Jones Entertainment. History Motown Productions' original focus was on the production of television specials for its star recording artists. These included '' TCB'' (1968) and ''G.I.T. on Broadway'' (1969), starring Diana Ross & the Supremes with The Temptations, '' The Temptations Show'' (also 1969), ''The Smokey Robinson Show'' (1970), ''Diana!'' (1971) starring Diana Ross, and ''Goin' Back to Indiana'' (also 1971) starring The Jackson 5. When Suzanne de Passe joined Motown in 1968, much of her work involved the production of these television specials. Motown's first television series was '' The Jackson 5ive'' (1971 - 1973), a Saturday morni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Production
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casting, pre-production, shooting, sound recording, post-production, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a film release and an exhibition. Filmmaking occurs in a variety of economic, social, and political contexts around the world. It uses a variety of technologies and cinematic techniques. Although filmmaking originally involved the use of film, most film productions are now digital. Today, filmmaking refers to the process of crafting an audio-visual story commercially for distribution or broadcast. Production stages Film production consists of five major stages: * Development: Ideas for the film are created, rights to existing intellectual properties are purchased, etc., and the screenplay is written. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Supremes
The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful American vocal group, vocal band, with List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones#Most number-one singles, 12 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland. It is said that their breakthrough made it possible for future African American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success. ''Billboard'' ranked the Supremes as the 16th greatest Hot 100 artist of all time. Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson (singer), Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown, the original members, were all from the Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects, Brewster-Douglass public housing proje ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Dee Williams
William December Williams Jr. (born April 6, 1937) is an American actor. He appeared as Lando Calrissian in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, first in the early 1980s for ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) and ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), and thirty-six years later in ''The Rise of Skywalker'' (2019), marking one of the longest intervals between onscreen portrayals of a character by the same actor in American film history. Williams was born in New York City, and raised with his twin sister Loretta in Harlem. In 1945, he made his Broadway theatre debut at age seven in ''The Firebrand of Florence''. He later graduated from The High School of Music & Art, then won a painting scholarship to the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design, where he won a Hallgarten Prize for painting in the mid-1950s. To fund his art supplies he returned to acting, including stage, films, and television. He continued painting; his work has since been shown in galleries and collections worldwide. Williamsâ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biographical Film
A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudrama films and historical drama films in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a single person's life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives. Context Biopic scholars include George F. Custen of the College of Staten Island and Dennis P. Bingham of Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. Custen, in ''Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History'' (1992), regards the genre as having died with the Hollywood studio era, and in particular, Darryl F. Zanuck. On the other hand, Bingham's 2010 study ''Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre'' shows how it perpetuates as a codified genre using many of the same tropes used in the studio era that has followed a simila ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by producer John Hammond, who liked her voice. She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson produced the hit "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. By the late 1940s, however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Sings The Blues (film)
''Lady Sings the Blues'' is a 1972 American biographical drama film directed by Sidney J. Furie about jazz singer Billie Holiday, loosely based on her 1956 autobiography which, in turn, took its title from Holiday's songs. It was produced by Motown Productions for Paramount Pictures. Diana Ross, in her feature film debut, portrayed Holiday, alongside a cast including Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan and Scatman Crothers. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards in 1973, including Best Actress in a Leading Role for Diana Ross. Plot In New York City 1936, Eleanora Fagan, aka Billie Holiday, is arrested on a drug charge. In a flashback to 1928, Billie is working as a housekeeper in a brothel in Baltimore. When she returns to her aunt's house, she is home alone and is raped by a man who followed her home from the brothel. She runs away to her mother Sadie, who sets up a job cleaning for another brothel in the Harlem section of New York. The brothel is run ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rankin/Bass
Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usually done in stop motion animation. Rankin/Bass' stop-motion productions are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called "Animagic". Nearly all of the studio's animation was outsourced to Japanese animation companies such as MOM Production, Mushi Productions and Topcraft. Rankin/Bass was one of the first western studios to outsource their low-budget animated television and film productions to animation studios in foreign countries; the others that already practiced animation outsourcing includes Total Television and King Features Syndicate TV in New York City; and Jay Ward Productions and Hanna-Barbera Productions in Los Angeles, Califo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturday Morning Cartoon
"Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a broad peak from the mid-1960s through the mid-1990s; after that point it declined, in the face of changing cultural norms, increased competition from formats available at all times, and heavier regulations. In the last two decades of the genre's existence, Saturday-morning and Sunday-morning cartoons were primarily created and aired to meet regulations on children's television programming in the United States, or E/I. Minor television networks, in addition to the non-commercial PBS in some markets, continue to air animated programming on Saturday and Sunday while partially meeting those mandates. In the United States, the generally accepted times for these and other children's programs to air on Saturday mornings were from 8:00 a.m. to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jackson 5ive (TV Series)
''The Jackson 5ive'' is a Saturday morning cartoon series that aired on ABC from September 11, 1971 to October 14, 1972. Produced by Rankin/Bass and Motown Productions, it is a fictionalized portrayal of the careers of Motown recording group the Jackson 5. The series was rebroadcast in syndication in 1984–85, during a period when Michael Jackson was riding a major wave of popularity as a solo artist. It also briefly re-aired in 1999 on TV Land as part of their "Super Retrovision Saturdaze" lineup. The series was animated mainly in London at the studios of Halas and Batchelor, and some animation done at Estudios Moro (Barcelona, Spain) and Topcraft (Tokyo, Japan). Overview Due to high demands on the group, the roles of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael were played by voice actors, with records of the group's songs being used for the musical tracks of the show. The group did make some contribution to the cartoon in the form of live photographs of each member morphi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5 (sometimes stylized as the Jackson 5ive, also known as the Jacksons) are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, and for most of their career consisted of brothers Jackie Jackson, Jackie, Tito Jackson, Tito, Jermaine Jackson, Jermaine, Marlon Jackson, Marlon and Michael Jackson, Michael. They were managed by their father Joe Jackson (manager), Joe Jackson. The group were among the first African Americans, African American performers to attain a crossover following. The Jackson 5 performed in talent shows and clubs on the Chitlin' Circuit, then signed with Steeltown Records in 1967 and released two singles. In 1968, they left Steeltown Records and signed with Motown, where they were the first group to debut with four consecutive number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart with the songs "I Want You Back", "ABC (The Jackson 5 song), ABC", " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goin' Back To Indiana
''Goin' Back to Indiana'' is a live/soundtrack album by the Jackson 5 for Motown Records, taken from their September 16, 1971 ABC TV special of the same name. It is the Jackson 5's sixth album overall, and was released on September 29, 1971. The ''Goin' Back to Indiana'' television special featured comedians Bill Cosby and Tommy Smothers, singers Bobby Darin and Diana Ross, football players Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier and Ben Davidson, and basketball stars Bill Russell, Elgin Baylor, and Elvin Hayes. It also featured tracks recorded by the Jackson 5 during their May 29 "homecoming" concert at the Coliseum in Indianapolis, hence the show title. Track listing #"I Want You Back" ( The Corporation) – 4:14 #" Maybe Tomorrow" (The Corporation) – 4:15 #"The Day Basketball Was Saved" (Bill Angelos, Buz Kohan, Dick DeBenedictis) – 7:59 #"Stand!" (Sylvester Stewart) – 4:15 #"I Want to Take You Higher" (Sylvester Stewart) – 2:13 #"Feelin' Alright" (originally by Traffic) (Dave Maso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana Ross
Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in history, with a total of twelve number-one hit singles on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, including "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", and " Love Child". Following departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross embarked on a successful solo career in music, film, television and on stage. Her eponymous debut solo album featured the U.S. number-one hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and music anthem "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". It was followed with her second solo album, '' Everything Is Everything'' (1970), which spawned her first UK number-one single " I'm Still Waiting". She continued her successful solo career by mounting elaborate record-setting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
