A rhinestone or paste or diamante is a diamond simulant made from rock crystal, glass or acrylic.

Originally, rhinestones were rock crystals gathered from the river Rhine. The availability was greatly increased around 1775 when the Alsatian jeweller Georg Friedrich Strass had the idea to imitate diamonds by coating the lower side of glass with metal powder. Hence, rhinestones are called Strass in many European languages.

Rhinestones may be used as imitations of diamonds, and some manufacturers even manage to reproduce the glistening effect real diamonds have in the sun.

In 1955, the Aurora Borealis or Aqua aura, a thin, vacuum-sputtered metallic coating applied to crystal stones to produce an iridescent effect, was introduced. Aurora Borealis tends to reflect whatever color is worn near it, and it is named after the Aurora Borealis atmospheric phenomenon, also known as the "Northern Lights".

Typically, crystal rhinestones have been used on costumes, apparel and jewelry. Crystal rhinestones are produced mainly in Austria by Swarovski and in the Czech Republic by Preciosa and a few other glassworks in northern Bohemia. In the US, these are sometimes called Austrian Crystal.

The rhinestone-studded Nudie suit was invented by Nudie Cohn in the 1940s, an Americanization of the matador's suit of lights.

Liberal use of rhinestones was associated with country music singers, as well as with singer Elvis Presley and pianist Liberace. The first examples were created by tailor Nudie Cohn. In 1974 David Allan Coe released the album "The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy" and referred to himself as The Rhinestone Cowboy again in the 1977 song "Longhaired Redneck". In 1975 Glen Campbell had a top hit with the song Rhinestone Cowboy, and became known as the "Rhinestone Cowboy". That song served as the basis for the 1984 movie Rhinestone, starring Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton.The animated British band Gorillaz also have a song called "Rhinestone Eyes", which is named after the jewel.

Rhinestone material is often used as an alternative to sequin.

Category:Glass art Category:History of glass Category:Glass applications Category:Jewellery components Category:Diamond simulants

Name	Glen Campbell
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Glen Travis Campbell
Born	April 22, 1936Delight, Arkansas, U.S.
Instrument	Guitar, vocals, banjo, bass
Genre	Country, rock, folk, pop, gospel
Occupation	Musician, songwriter, actor
Years active	1958–present
Label	Capitol, Atlantic, MCA, Liberty, New Haven
Associated acts	Bobby Darin, Rick Nelson,The Champs,Elvis Presley, Dean Martin,The Green River Boys,Frank Sinatra, Phil Spector,The Monkees, The Beach Boys,Bobbie Gentry, Anne MurrayJohn Hartford, Jimmy Webb, Kenny Rogers, Leon Russell, Roy Clark, Linda Ronstadt
Url	www.glencampbellshow.com

Glen Travis Campbell (born April 22, 1936) is a Grammy, Dove Award-winning and Golden Globe nominated American country pop singer, guitarist, television host and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.

During his 50 years in show business, Campbell has released more than 70 albums. He has sold 45 million records and racked up 12 RIAA Gold albums, 4 Platinum albums and 1 Double-Platinum album. Of his 74 trips up the country charts, 27 landed in the Top 10. Campbell's hits include John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind", Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston, Larry Weiss's "Rhinestone Cowboy" and Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights".

Campbell made history by winning four Grammys in both country and pop categories in 1967. For "Gentle on My Mind" he received two awards in country & western, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop. He owns trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA's top honor as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. In 1969 Campbell was hand picked by actor John Wayne to play alongside him in the film True Grit, which gave Campbell a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. Campbell sang the title song which was nominated for an Academy Award.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Biography

1950s–early 1960s: session musician and the Beach Boys

Campbell was one of twelve children born to a sharecropper father with Scottish ancestors right outside the tiny community of Delight in Pike County, Arkansas, in a town called Billstown, then a community of fewer than one hundred residents. He started playing guitar as a youth without learning to read music. He credits his Uncle Boo for teaching him the guitar. Though it is widely reported that Glen is a seventh son of a seventh son, that information is not true. Campbell said that at the age of one and a half he almost drowned but was revived.

By the time he was eighteen, he was touring the South as part of the Western Wranglers. In 1958, he moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician. He was part of the 1959 line-up of the group the Champs, famous for their instrumental "Tequila".

Campbell was in great demand as a session musician in the 1960s. He was part of the famous studio musicians clique known as "the Wrecking Crew", many of whom went from session to session together as the same group. In addition to Campbell, Hal Blaine on drums, Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Leon Russell on piano, Carol Kaye on bass guitar, Al Casey on guitar were part of this elite group of session musicians that defined many pop and rock recordings of the era. They were also heard on Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" recordings in the early 1960s.

He was a touring member of the Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson in 1964 and 1965. He played guitar on the group's Pet Sounds album, among other recordings. On tour, he played bass guitar and sang falsetto harmonies.

He can be seen briefly in the 1965 film Baby the Rain Must Fall, playing guitar in support of Steve McQueen.

Campbell was also the uncredited lead vocalist on "My World Fell Down" by the psychedelic rock act Sagittarius, which became a minor hit in 1967.

Late 1960s

As a solo artist, he had moderate success regionally with his first single, "Turn Around, Look at Me". "Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry" and "Kentucky Means Paradise" (cut with a bluegrass group called the Green River Boys) were similarly popular within only a small section of the country audience.

In 1962, Campbell signed with Capitol Records and released two instrumental albums and a number of vocal albums during his first five years with the label. However, despite releasing singles written by Brian Wilson ("Guess I'm Dumb" in 1965) and Buffy Sainte-Marie the same year ("The Universal Soldier"), Campbell was not achieving major success as a solo artist. It was rumored that Capitol was considering dropping him from the label in 1966, when he was teamed with producer Al DeLory, and together they collaborated on 1967's Dylanesque "Gentle On My Mind", written by John Hartford.

The overnight success of "Gentle On My Mind" proved Campbell was ready to break through to the mainstream. It was followed by the even bigger triumph of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" later in 1967, and "I Wanna Live" and "Wichita Lineman" in 1968. The 1969 song “True Grit”, by composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, and sung by Campbell, who co-starred in the movie, received nominations for both the Academy Award for Best Song and the Golden Globe.

Campbell would win two Grammy Awards, for his performances on "Gentle on My Mind" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix."

His biggest hits in the late 1960s were with evocative songs written by Jimmy Webb: "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman", "Where's The Playground, Susie?" and "Galveston". An album of mainly Webb-penned compositions, , was released in 1974, but it produced no hit single records.

"Wichita Lineman" was selected as one of the greatest songs of the 20th century by Mojo magazine in 1997 and by Blender in 2001.

1970s: The Goodtime Hour, Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights

After he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for television's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour variety show, Campbell hosted his own weekly variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, from January 1969 through June 1972. At the height of his popularity, a 1970 biography by Freda Kramer, The Glen Campbell Story, was published.

With Campbell's session-work connections, he hosted major names in music on his show including: the Beatles (on film), David Gates and Bread, the Monkees, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller and helped launch the careers of Anne Murray, Mel Tillis and Jerry Reed who were regulars on his Goodtime Hour program.

In 1973, banjo player Carl Jackson joined Campbell's band for 12 years and went on to win two Grammy awards.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Campbell released a long series of singles and appeared in the movies True Grit (1969) with John Wayne and Kim Darby and Norwood (1970) with Kim Darby and Joe Namath.

In 1971, Campbell took the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on the road for two nights to the Muny in Forest Park, (the largest and oldest outdoor theatre in America) in St. Louis, Missouri.

After the cancellation of his CBS series in 1972, Campbell remained a regular on network television. He co-starred in a made-for-television movie, Strange Homecoming, with Robert Culp and up-and-coming teen idol, Leif Garrett. He hosted a number of television specials, including 1976's Down Home, Down Under with Olivia Newton-John. He co-hosted the American Music Awards from 1976–78 and headlined the 1979 NBC special, "Glen Campbell: Back To Basics" with guest-stars Seals and Crofts and Brenda Lee. He was a guest on many network talk and variety shows, including: Donny & Marie, the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Cher, the Redd Foxx Comedy Hour, Merv Griffin, the Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack, DINAH!, Evening at Pops with Arthur Fiedler and the Mike Douglas Show. From 1982–83 he hosted a 30-minute syndicated music show on NBC, the Glen Campbell Music Show.

In the mid-1970s, he had more big hits with "Rhinestone Cowboy", "Southern Nights" (both U.S. #1 hits), "Sunflower" (U.S. #39) (written by Neil Diamond), and "Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)." (U.S. #11).

"Rhinestone Cowboy" was Campbell's largest-selling single, initially with over 2 million copies sold in a matter of months. Campbell had heard the songwriter Larry Weiss' version while on tour of Australia in 1974 and felt it was the perfect song for him to record. It was included in the Jaws movie parody song "Mr. Jaws", which also reached the top 10 in 1975. "Rhinestone Cowboy" continues to be used in movie soundtracks and TV shows, including "Desperate Housewives", Daddy Day Care, and High School High. It was the inspiration for the 1984 Dolly Parton/Sylvester Stallone movie Rhinestone.

Campbell made a techno/pop version of the song in 2002 with UK artists Rikki & Daz and went to the top 10 in the UK with the dance version and related music video.

"Southern Nights," by Allen Toussaint, his other #1 pop-rock-country crossover hit, was generated with the help of Jimmy Webb, who turned Campbell onto the song, and Jerry Reed, who inspired the famous guitar lick introduction to the song, which was the most-played jukebox number of 1977.

1980s–2000s: Later career and Country Music Hall of Fame induction

After his #1 crossover chart successes in the mid- to late 1970s, Campbell's career cooled off. He left Capitol Records in 1981 after a reported dispute over the song "Highwayman" written by Jimmy Webb that the label would not release as a single. The song would become a #1 country hit in 1985 when it was performed by The Highwaymen, a quartet of country legends: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.

Campbell made a cameo appearance in the 1980 Clint Eastwood movie Any Which Way You Can, for which he recorded the title song.

Although he would never reach the top 40 pop charts after 1978, Glen Campbell continued to reach the country top 10 throughout the 1980s with songs such as "Faithless Love", "A Lady Like You", "Still Within The Sound of My Voice" and "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" (a duet with Steve Wariner).

When Campbell began having trouble reaching the charts, he began to abuse drugs. At the same time, he was frequently featured in the tabloids, particularly during his affair with Tanya Tucker. By 1989, however, he had quit drugs and was regularly reaching the country Top 10; songs like "She's Gone, Gone, Gone" were extremely popular.

In the 1990s, Campbell had slowed from recording, though he has not quit entirely. In all, over 40 of his albums reached the charts. In 1992, he voiced the character of Chanticleer in the animated film, Rock-A-Doodle. In 1994, his autobiography, Rhinestone Cowboy, was published.

In 1992 he began headlining the 4,000 seat Grand Palace theatre in Branson, Missouri. He would go on to open the 2,000-seat Glen Campbell Goodtime Theatre in the tourist town. Later he would leave his permanent residence in the Branson theatre district and would appear in limited engagements at the Grand Palace and Andy Williams’ Moon River Theatre.

In 1999 Campbell was featured on VH-1's Behind the Music, A&E; Network's Biography in 2001, and on a number of CMT programs. Campbell ranked 29th on CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003.

He is also credited with giving Alan Jackson his first big break. Campbell met Jackson's wife (a flight attendant with Piedmont Airlines) at Atlanta Airport and gave her his publishing manager's business card. Jackson went to work for Campbell's music publishing business in the early 1990s and later had many of his hit songs published in part by Campbell's company, Seventh Son Music. Campbell also served as an inspiration to Keith Urban. Urban cites Campbell as a strong influence on his performing career.

Although for almost a decade Campbell had professed his sobriety to fans at concerts and in his autobiography, in November 2003 he was arrested for drunk driving in an incident that included a charge of battery on a police officer (later dropped). He was sentenced to 10 days in jail and community service, due to a high level of intoxication.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In February 2008, Glen performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in his 'Farewell to Australia' tour. In the lead-up to the tour, Campbell spoke with Country HQ in Dec 2007 in an interview where he not only reflected on his stellar career, but also his plans for the upcoming tour and more details on a proposed CD with songwriter Jimmy Webb.

It was announced in April 2008 that Campbell was returning to his signature label, Capitol, to release his new album, Meet Glen Campbell. The album was released on August 19. With this album he branched off in a different musical direction, covering tracks from artists such as Travis, U2, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Browne and Foo Fighters. It was Campbell's first release on Capitol in over 15 years. Musicians from Cheap Trick and Jellyfish contributed to the album as well. The first single, a cover of Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", was released to radio in July 2008. In March 2010, a farewell album titled "Ghost on the Canvas" was announced.

Personal life

Campbell has been married four times and is the father of eight children, ranging in year of birth from 1956 to 1986 (five sons and three daughters). Shortly after his second wife (Billie Jean Nunley) divorced him in 1975, he had an affair with and later married singer Mac Davis's second wife, Sarah Barg, in 1976. They had one child together (Dillon) and then divorced. In 1980-81 he had a highly publicized relationship with the 21-year-old country star Tanya Tucker. He has been married to Kimberly (Kim) Woolen since 1982. Woolen was a Radio City Music Hall "Rockette" when she and Glen met on a blind date in 1981. A few near-death drug experiences and an ultimatum from Kim led him to give up drugs and alcohol. They have three children together, Cal, Shannon and daughter Ashley who have joined their father on stage since 2010 as part of his touring band. Campbell's eldest daughter, Debby (from his first marriage (1955–1959) to Diane Kirk), has been touring across the world with her father since 1987 and performs many of the duets made famous by Campbell with Bobbie Gentry and Anne Murray.

In November 2003, Campbell was arrested on drunk driving and hit-and-run charges. According to the police report, Campbell drove his BMW into another car at a Phoenix intersection. He left the accident scene but was later arrested at his nearby home. After he was booked into a Maricopa County lockup, Campbell kneed a sergeant in the thigh, for which he was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, a charge that was later dropped. Campbell pleaded guilty in May 2004 to extreme DUI and leaving the scene of an accident and received a 10-day jail sentence.

Campbell is an avid golfer and hosted his namesake Glen Campbell Los Angeles Open Golf Tournament at the Riveria Country Club from 1971-83. He was ranked in the top #15 celebrity golfers list by Golf Digest magazine in 2005.

Discography

Videography

Industry awards

Academy of Country Music

1967 Album of the Year - Gentle on My Mind

1967 Top Male Vocalist

1968 Album of the Year - Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell

1968 Top Male Vocalist

1968 TV Personality of the Year

1971 TV Personality of the Year

1975 Single of the Year - "Rhinestone Cowboy"

1998 Pioneer Award

American Music Awards

1976 Favorite Pop/Rock Single - "Rhinestone Cowboy"

1976 Favorite Country Single - "Rhinestone Cowboy"

1977 Favorite Country Album - Rhinestone Cowboy

Country Music Association

1968 Entertainer of the Year

1968 Male Vocalist of the Year

Country Music Association of Great Britain 1974 Entertainer of the Year

Country Music Hall of Fame

Inducted in 2005

Gospel Music Association (Dove Awards)

1986 Album by a Secular Artist - No More Night

1992 Southern Gospel Recorded Song of the Year - "Where Shadows Never Fall"

2000 Country Album of the Year - A Glen Campbell Christmas

Grammy Awards

1967 Best Country & Western Solo Vocal Performance, Male - "Gentle on My Mind"

1967 Best Country & Western Recording - "Gentle on My Mind"

1967 Best Vocal Performance, Male - "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"

1967 Best Contemporary Male Solo Vocal Performance - "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"

1968 Album of the Year - "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"

2000 Grammy Hall of Fame Award - "Wichita Lineman"

2004 Grammy Hall of Fame Award - "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"

2008 Grammy Hall of Fame Award - "Gentle on My Mind"

Musicians' Hall of Fame

Inducted in 2007 (as a member of The Wrecking Crew)

Q Awards

2008 Q Legend Award

Filmography

References

Allen, Bob. (1998). "Glen Campbell". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 76–77

External links

Official Website

Yahoo Group/Glen Campbell

Glen Campbell podcast on Country HQ

Glen Campbell mugshots at The Smoking Gun

Glen Campbell at NPR Music

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Category:1936 births Category:1950s singers Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Actors from Arkansas Category:American country singers Category:American country guitarists Category:American male singers Category:American session musicians Category:The Beach Boys backing band members Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Fingerstyle guitarists Category:The Forte' Four members Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:The Monkees Category:Musicians from Arkansas Category:People from Pike County, Arkansas Category:People from Branson, Missouri Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:American musicians of Scottish descent Category:American Christians Category:The Wrecking Crew members Category:Starday Records artists Category:Crest Records artists Category:Capitol Records artists

, professionally known as , is a Japanese folk singer.

She began to sing traditional Japanese music when she was four years old. Later, at the age of 15, Rikki was the youngest winner ever to win the "Grand Prix" of the Japanese traditional folk music awards (known as All Japan Minyo awards). She first performed in Tokyo, Japan, at the prestigious Festival Konda Lota in 1992. She released her first single "Maten no Hoshi" (which means "Sky Full of Stars") in December 1993, originally released in the Kyūshū region of Japan. Shortly thereafter, she produced debut album, Kaze no Koe.

Rikki is widely known by gamers as the singer of the Final Fantasy X main theme, "Suteki da ne", released as a single on July 18, 2001. Other songs on the single include the Instrumental version of Suteki Da Ne, "Pure Heart" (a vocal arrangement of Aeris' Theme from Final Fantasy VII), and a new song entitled "Tsukisama" (which means "The Moon"). One reason why Nobuo Uematsu and Kazushige Nojima chose her to perform "Suteki Da Ne" (translated into English as "Isn't It Wonderful?") is that she is very famous in Japan as a traditional folk singer and he believed that her voice is rather nice and gentle and that it has a higher pitch than the voices of mainstream Japanese singers. Rikki was 26 years old at the time of Final Fantasy X's release. Many professional and amateur singers were inspired by her singing voice and ability to make combinations and mixtures of pop and rock music.

In 1998, Rikki was chosen to participate at the opening ceremony of the 1998 Winter Paralympics in Nagano, Japan, sing the Paralympics theme song "Tabidachi no Toki".

In 2001, she produced a picture album alongside Joe Hisaishi for the motion picture Spirited Away (directed by Hayao Miyazaki).

In 2006, Rikki joined the band Sound Horizon for the release of 5th Story CD: Roman She was involved in Sound Horizon's releases until 2008, when she gave birth to twins and returned to Amami Oshima, as she said in her blog. She returned to Sound Horizon in 2009 for their Triumph III live tour. It is unknown whether she will appear on their next album.

Discography

Singles

"Manten no Sora" (1 December 1993)

"Tsubasa o Hiroge" (1 May 1994)

"Suteki da ne" -featured in FINAL FANTASY X-' (18 July 2001) - Re-released by Square Enix on July 22, 2004. It is a song from Final Fantasy X.

"Karatachi Nomichi / Toki" (19 March 2003)

Albums

Mucha Kana (21 May 1993) - Re-released on August 21, 2002

Kaze no Koe (16 December 1993)

Taiyō no Shita de (24 August 1994)

Rikki (16 December 1995)

Miss You Amami (15 November 1998) - Re-released in the UK on 15 June 2004

Kanaria (3 October 2001)

Mitsu (21 August 2002)

Shimauta TRICKLES (25 September 2002)

Musunu Shima He (19 January 2005)

External links

Rikki Official Website

Another biography about Ritsuki Nakano

Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:People from Kagoshima Prefecture Category:Video game musicians Category:Japanese musicians

Name	David Letterman
Caption	Speaking at the opening of the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute (September 2009)
Pseudonym	Earl Hofert
Birth name	David Michael Letterman
Birth date	April 12, 1947
Birth place	Indianapolis, Indiana
Notable work	Host of Late Night with David Letterman (NBC)Host of Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Signature	David Letterman Autograph.svg

}} David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. Only Letterman's friend and mentor Johnny Carson has had a longer late-night hosting career. was a florist; his mother Dorothy Letterman (née Hofert, now Dorothy Mengering), a Presbyterian church secretary of German descent, is an occasional figure on the show, usually at holidays and birthdays. He has an older sister Janice and a younger sister Gretchen.

Letterman lived on the north side of Indianapolis (Broad Ripple area), not far from Speedway, IN, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he enjoyed collecting model cars, including racers. In 2000, he told an interviewer for Esquire that, while growing up, he admired his father's ability to tell jokes and be the life of the party. Harry Joseph Letterman survived a heart attack at age 36, when David was a young boy. The fear of losing his father was constantly with Letterman as he grew up. The elder Letterman died of a second heart attack at age 57.

Letterman attended his hometown's Broad Ripple High School at the same time as Marilyn Tucker Quayle (wife of the former Vice President) who lived nearby, and worked as a stock boy at the local Atlas supermarket. According to the Ball State Daily News, he originally had wanted to attend Indiana University, but his grades weren't good enough, so he decided to attend Ball State University, in Muncie, Indiana. He is a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and he graduated from what was then the Department of Radio and Television, in 1969. A self-described average student, Letterman endowed a scholarship for what he called "C students" at Ball State.

Though he registered for the draft and passed his physical after graduating from College, he avoided military service in Vietnam due to receiving a draft lottery number of 352 (out of 365).

Letterman began his broadcasting career as an announcer and newscaster at the college's student-run radio station—WBST—a 10-watt campus station which now is part of Indiana public radio. He was fired for treating classical music with irreverence.

Letterman credits Paul Dixon—host of the Paul Dixon Show, a Cincinnati-based talk show also shown in Indianapolis while Letterman was growing up—for inspiring his choice of career: :"I was just out of college [in 1969], and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And then all the sudden I saw him doing it [on TV]. And I thought: That's really what I want to do!"

Weatherman

Letterman began his career as a radio talk show host on WNTS (AM), and on Indianapolis television station WLWI (now called WTHR) as a local anchor and weatherman. He received some recognition for his unpredictable on-air behavior, which included congratulating a tropical storm for being upgraded to a hurricane and predicting hail stones "the size of canned hams." (To this day he occasionally gives out canned hams on his show). He would also occasionally report the weather and the day's very high and low temps for fictitious cities ("Eight inches of snow in Bingree and surrounding areas."). He also starred in a local kiddie show, made wisecracks as host of a late night TV show called "Freeze-Dried Movies" (he once acted out a scene from "Godzilla" using plastic dinosaurs), and hosted a talk show that aired early on Saturday mornings called "Clover Power," in which he interviewed 4-H members about their projects.

In 1971, Letterman appeared as a pit road reporter for ABC Sports' tape-delayed coverage of the Indianapolis 500.

Move to Los Angeles

In 1975, encouraged by his then-wife Michelle and several of his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers, Letterman moved to Los Angeles, California, with hope of becoming a comedy writer. He started off by writing material for comedian Jimmie Walker. He also began performing stand-up comedy at The Comedy Store, a famed comedy club and proving ground for young comics.

Letterman appeared in the summer of 1977 on the short-lived Starland Vocal Band Show. He has since joked about how fortunate he was that nobody would ever see his performance on the program (due to its low ratings).

Letterman had a stint as a cast member on Mary Tyler Moore's variety show, Mary; a guest appearance on Mork & Mindy (as a parody of EST leader Werner Erhard); and appearances on game shows such as The $20,000 Pyramid, The Gong Show, Password Plus and Liar's Club. He also hosted a 1977 pilot for a game show entitled The Riddlers that was never picked up. His dry, sarcastic humor caught the attention of scouts for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and Letterman was soon a regular guest on the show. Letterman became a favorite of Carson's and was a regular guest host for the show beginning in 1978. Letterman personally credits Carson as the person who influenced his career the most.

NBC

Morning show

On June 23, 1980, Letterman was given his own morning comedy show on NBC, The David Letterman Show. It was originally 90 minutes long, but was shortened to 60 minutes in August. The show was a critical success, winning two Emmy Awards, but was a ratings disappointment and was canceled in October 1980.

Late Night with David Letterman

NBC kept Letterman under contract to try him in a different time slot. Late Night with David Letterman debuted February 1, 1982; the first guest on the first show was Bill Murray. The show ran weeknights at 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time, immediately following The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. It was seen as being edgy and unpredictable, and soon developed a cult following (particularly among college students). Letterman's reputation as an interviewer was borne out in verbal sparring matches with Cher (who even called him an asshole on the show), Shirley MacLaine, Charles Grodin, and Madonna. The show also featured inventive comedy segments and running characters, in a style heavily influenced by the 1950s and '60s programs of Steve Allen. Although Ernie Kovacs is often cited as an influence on the show, Letterman has denied this. In the final months of his first stint as host of The Tonight Show, Leno beat Letterman in the ratings by a 1.3 million viewer margin (5.2 million to 3.9 million), and Nightline and The Late Show were virtually tied. Once O'Brien took over Tonight, however, Letterman closed the gap in the ratings. O'Brien initially drove the median age of Tonight Show viewers from 55 to 45, with most older viewers opting to watch The Late Show instead.

Letterman's shows have garnered both critical and industry praise, receiving 67 Emmy Award nominations, winning twelve times in his first 20 years in late night television. From 1993–2009, Letterman ranked higher than Leno in the annual Harris Poll of Nation's Favorite TV Personality twelve times. Leno was higher than Letterman on that poll three times during the same period, in 1998, 2007, and 2008.

Hosting the Academy Awards

On March 27, 1995, Letterman acted as the host for the 67th Academy Awards ceremony. Critics blasted Letterman for what they deemed a poor hosting of the Oscars, noting that his irreverent style undermined the traditional importance and glamor of the event. In a joke about their unusual names (inspired by a similar joke by Woody Allen), he started off by introducing Uma Thurman to Oprah Winfrey, and then the both of them to Keanu Reeves: "Uma...Oprah! Oprah...Uma! Oprah, Uma...Keanu!" This and many of his other jokes fell flat. Although Letterman attracted the highest ratings to the annual telecast since 1983, many felt that the bad publicity garnered by Letterman's hosting caused a decline in the Late Show's ratings.

Letterman recycled the apparent debacle into a long-running gag. On his first show after the Oscars, he joked, "Looking back, I had no idea that thing was being televised." He lampooned his stint in the following year, during Billy Crystal's opening Oscar skit, which also parodied the plane-crashing scenes from that year's chief nominated film, The English Patient.

For years afterward, Letterman recounted his horrible hosting at the Oscars, although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences still holds Letterman in high regard and it has been rumored they have asked him to host the Oscars again. On September 7, 2010, he made an appearance on the premier of the 14th season of The View, and confirmed the rumors.

Heart surgery hiatus

On January 14, 2000, a routine check-up revealed that an artery in Letterman's heart was severely constricted. He was rushed to emergency surgery for a quintuple bypass.

During the initial weeks of his recovery, reruns of the Late Show were shown and introduced by friends of Letterman including Drew Barrymore, including Dr. O. Wayne Isom and physician Louis Aronne, who frequently appears on the show. In a show of emotion, Letterman was nearly in tears as he thanked the health care team with the words "These are the people who saved my life!" The episode earned an Emmy nomination. For a number of episodes, Letterman continued to crack jokes about his bypass, including saying, "Bypass surgery: it's when doctors surgically create new blood flow to your heart. A bypass is what happened to me when I didn't get The Tonight Show! It's a whole different thing." In a later running gag he lobbied his home state of Indiana to rename the freeway circling Indianapolis (I-465) "The David Letterman Bypass." He also featured a montage of faux news coverage of his bypass surgery, which included a clip of Dave's heart for sale on the Home Shopping Network. Letterman became friends with his doctors and nurses. In 2008, a Rolling Stone interview stated "he hosted a doctor and nurse who'd helped perform the emergency quintuple-bypass heart surgery that saved his life in 2000. 'These are people who were complete strangers when they opened my chest,' he says. 'And now, eight years later, they're among my best friends.' "

Additionally, Letterman invited the band Foo Fighters to play "Everlong", introducing them as "my favorite band, playing my favorite song." During a later Foo Fighters appearance, Letterman said that Foo Fighters had been in the middle of a South American tour which they canceled to come play on his comeback episode.

Letterman again handed over the reins of the show to several guest hosts (including Bill Cosby, Brad Garrett, Elvis Costello, John McEnroe, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Bonnie Hunt, Luke Wilson and bandleader Paul Shaffer) in February 2003, when he was diagnosed with a severe case of shingles. Later that year, Letterman made regular use of guest hosts—including Tom Arnold and Kelsey Grammer—for new shows broadcast on Fridays. In March 2007, Adam Sandler—who had been scheduled to be the lead guest—served as a guest host while Letterman was ill with a stomach virus.

Re-signing with CBS

In March 2002, as Letterman's contract with CBS neared expiration, ABC offered him the time slot for long-running news program Nightline with Ted Koppel. Letterman was interested as he believed he could never match Leno's ratings at CBS due to weaker lead-ins from the network's late local news programs, but was reluctant to replace Koppel. Letterman addressed his decision to re-sign on the air, stating that he was content at CBS and that he had great respect for Koppel.

On December 4, 2006, CBS revealed that David Letterman signed a new contract to host The Late Show with David Letterman through the fall of 2010. "I'm thrilled to be continuing on at CBS," said Letterman. "At my age you really don't want to have to learn a new commute." Letterman further joked about the subject by pulling up his right pants leg, revealing a tattoo, presumably temporary, of the ABC logo.

"Thirteen years ago, David Letterman put CBS late night on the map and in the process became one of the defining icons of our network," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation. "His presence on our air is an ongoing source of pride, and the creativity and imagination that the Late Show puts forth every night is an ongoing display of the highest quality entertainment. We are truly honored that one of the most revered and talented entertainers of our time will continue to call CBS 'home.'"

According to a 2007 article in Forbes magazine, Letterman earned $40 million a year. A 2009 article in The New York Times, however, said his salary was estimated at $32 million per year.

In June 2009, Letterman and CBS reached agreement to extend his contract to host The Late Show until August 2012. His previous contract had been set to expire in 2010. thus allowing his show to come back on air on January 2, 2008. On his first episode since being off air, he surprised the viewing audience with his newly grown beard, which signified solidarity with the strike. His beard was shaved off during the show on January 7, 2008.

Letterman and Carson

NBC's decision to select Jay Leno and not Letterman to succeed Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show was an embarrassment to Carson, who had all but promised the succession to Letterman. Letterman maintained a close relationship with Carson through his break with NBC. Three years after he left for CBS, HBO produced a made-for-television movie called The Late Shift, based on a book by New York Times reporter Bill Carter, chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for the coveted Tonight Show hosting spot. Letterman would mock the film for months afterward, specifically on how the actor playing him, John Michael Higgins, did not resemble him in the least. ("They took a guy who looked nothing like me and with make-up and special camera angles, turned him into a guy who looked nothing like me, with red hair.")

Carson later made a few cameo appearances as a guest on Letterman's show. Carson's final television appearance came May 13, 1994 on a Late Show episode taped in Los Angeles, when he made a surprise appearance during a 'Top 10 list' segment. The audience went wild as Letterman stood up and proudly invited Carson to sit at his desk. The applause was so protracted that Carson was unable to say anything, and he finally returned backstage as the applause continued (it was later explained that Carson had laryngitis, though Carson can be heard talking to Letterman during his appearance).

In early 2005, it was revealed that Carson still kept up with current events and late-night TV right up to his death that year, and that he occasionally sent jokes to Letterman, who used these jokes in his monologue; according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally (a onetime producer for both men), Carson got "a big kick out of it." Letterman would do a characteristic Johnny Carson golf swing after delivering one of Carson's jokes. In a tribute to Carson, all of the opening monologue jokes during the first show following Carson's death were written by Carson.

Lassally also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor." Letterman also frequently employs some of Carson's trademark bits on his show, including "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Paul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band" and the "Week in Review."

Letterman and Oprah Winfrey

On September 10, 2007, Letterman made his first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He shared pictures of his son and live-in girlfriend. The so-called feud between Letterman and Winfrey apparently ended in 2005 when Winfrey appeared on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman on December 2, in an event Letterman jokingly referred to as "the Super Bowl of Love". Oprah had previously appeared on Letterman's show when he was hosting NBC's Late Night on May 2, 1989.

Winfrey and Letterman also appeared together in a Late Show promo that aired during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLI in February 2007, with the two sitting next to each other on the couch watching the game. Since the game was played between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, the Indianapolis-born Letterman wears a Peyton Manning jersey, while Winfrey—who tapes her show in Chicago—is in a Brian Urlacher jersey. Three years later, during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLIV, the two appeared again, this time with Winfrey sitting on a couch between Letterman and Jay Leno. The appearance was Letterman's idea: Leno flew to New York City in an NBC corporate jet, sneaking into the Ed Sullivan Theater during the Late Show's February 4 taping wearing a disguise, meeting Winfrey and Letterman at a living room set created in the theater's balcony where they taped their promo.

Other projects

Worldwide Pants

Letterman started his own production company—Worldwide Pants Incorporated—which produced his show and several others, including Everybody Loves Raymond , The Late Late Show, and several critically-acclaimed, but short-lived television series for Bonnie Hunt. Worldwide Pants also produced the dramedy program Ed, which aired on NBC from 2000–2004. It was Letterman's first association with NBC since he left the network in 1993. During Ed's run, the star, Tom Cavanagh, appeared as a guest on The Late Show several times.

In 2005, Worldwide Pants produced its first feature film, Strangers with Candy, which was a prequel to the Comedy Central TV series of the same title. In 2007, Worldwide Pants produced the ABC comedy series, Knights of Prosperity.

Worldwide Pants made significant news in December 2007 when it was announced that Letterman's company had independently negotiated its own contract with the Writers Guild of America, East, thus allowing Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and their writers to return to work, while the union continued its strike against production companies, networks and studios who had not reached an agreement.

Rahal Letterman Racing

Rahal Letterman Racing (RLR) is an auto racing team that currently races in the American Le Mans Series, and part-time in the Indy Racing League. It is co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and Letterman himself, and is based in Hilliard, Ohio. The team won the 2004 Indianapolis 500 with driver Buddy Rice. Letterman was a pit reporter for ABC in the 1971 Indianapolis 500. The $21 million, David Letterman Communication and Media Building opened for the 2007 Fall semester. It features state-of-the-art recording equipment and facilities. Thousands of Ball State students, faculty, and local residents welcomed Letterman back to Indiana. Letterman's emotional speech touched on his struggles as a college student and his late father, and also included the "top ten good things about having your name on a building."

Letterman received the honor for his dedication to the university throughout his career as a comedian. Letterman finished with, "If reasonable people can put my name on a $21 million building, anything is possible."

Letterman also received a Sagamore of the Wabash from Governor Mitch Daniels.

Record company

In late April 2010, several music industry websites reported that David Letterman started a record label named Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music and signed his first artist, Runner Runner. Lucy Walsh announced on her myspace page that she has been signed by David Letterman and Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music and is working on her album.

Appearances in other media

Letterman appeared in issue 239 of the Marvel comic book The Avengers, in which the title characters are guests on Late Night. A parody of Letterman, called "David Endocrine", is gassed to death along with his bandleader named "Paul" and their audience in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

Letterman provided vocals for the Warren Zevon song "Hit Somebody" from My Ride's Here, and provided the voice for Butt-head's father in the 1996 animated film, Beavis and Butt-head Do America. He also had a cameo in the feature film Cabin Boy, with Chris Elliott, who worked as a writer on Letterman's show. In this and other appearances, Letterman is listed in the credits as "Earl Hofert", the name of Letterman's maternal grandfather. He also appeared as himself in the Howard Stern biopic Private Parts as well as the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, in a few episodes of Garry Shandling's 1990s TV series The Larry Sanders Show and in "The Abstinence", a 1996 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. Letterman also appeared in the pilot episode of the short-lived 1986 series "Coach Toast".

Personal life

Marriages and long-term relationships

In 1969, Letterman married Michelle Cook; the marriage ended by divorce in 1977. He also had a long-term relationship with former head writer and producer on Late Night, Merrill Markoe. In fact, Markoe was the mind behind several Late Night staples, such as "Stupid Pet/Human Tricks".

Letterman has a son, Harry Joseph Letterman (born in 2003), with Regina Lasko. Harry is named after Letterman's father. In 2005, police discovered a plot to kidnap Harry Letterman and ransom him for $5 million. Kelly Frank, a house painter who had worked for Letterman, was charged in the conspiracy.

Letterman and Lasko, who had been together since 1986, wed during a quiet courthouse civil ceremony in Choteau, Montana, on March 19, 2009. Letterman announced the marriage during the taping of his March 23 show, shortly after congratulating Bruce Willis for getting married the previous week. Letterman told the audience he nearly missed the ceremony because his truck became stuck in mud two miles from their house. The family resides in North Salem, New York, on a estate.

Stalking incidents

Beginning in May 1988, Letterman was stalked by Margaret Mary Ray, a woman suffering from schizophrenia. Letterman occasionally referenced her in his show, although not by name. She committed suicide in 1998. Letterman publicly expressed sympathy upon her death.

Extortion attempt and revelation of affairs

On his October 1, 2009 show, Letterman announced that he had been the victim of an extortion attempt by someone threatening to reveal that he had had sex with several of his female employees. He confirmed the relationships.

Letterman stated that three weeks earlier (on September 9, 2009) someone had left a package in his car with material he said he would write into a screenplay and a book if Letterman did not pay him $2 million. Letterman said that he contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's office, ultimately cooperating with them to conduct a sting operation involving giving the man a phony check. The extortionist, Robert J. "Joe" Halderman, a producer of the CBS true crime journalism series 48 Hours, was subsequently arrested after trying to deposit the check. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury and pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted grand larceny on October 2, 2009. Birkitt had until recently lived with Halderman, who is alleged to have copied Birkitt's personal diary and to have used it, along with private emails, in the blackmail package.

On October 3, 2009, a former CBS employee, Holly Hester, announced that she and Letterman had engaged in a year-long "secret" affair in the early 1990s while she was his intern and a student at New York University.

In the days following the initial announcement of the affairs and the arrest, several prominent women, including Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of NBC's Today Show, and NBC news anchor Ann Curry questioned whether Letterman's affairs with subordinates created an unfair working environment. A spokesman for Worldwide Pants said that the company's sexual harassment policy did not prohibit sexual relationships between managers and employees. According to business news reporter Eve Tahmincioglu, "CBS suppliers are supposed to follow the company's business conduct policies" and the CBS 2008 Business Conduct Statement states that "If a consenting romantic or sexual relationship between a supervisor and a direct or indirect subordinate should develop, CBS requires the supervisor to disclose this information to his or her Company's Human Resources Department..."

On October 5, 2009, Letterman devoted a segment of his show to a public apology to his wife and staff. Three days later, Worldwide Pants announced that Birkitt had been placed on a "paid leave of absence" from the Late Show. On October 15, CBS News announced that the company's Chief Investigative Correspondent, Armen Keteyian, had been assigned to conduct an "in-depth investigation" into Halderman's blackmail of Letterman.

On March 9, 2010, Halderman pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny and served a 6-month jail sentence, followed by probation and community service.

Awards

In his capacities as either a writer, producer, performer, or as part of a writing team, David Letterman is among the most nominated people in Emmy Award history with 52 nominations, winning two Daytime Emmys and five Primetime Emmys since 1981. His nomination record is second only to producer Jac Venza, who holds the record for the most Emmy nominations for an individual (57). Letterman has been nominated every year since 1984, when he first appeared on late night television as the host of Late Night with David Letterman. Additionally, he has won four American Comedy Awards.

References

External links

David Letterman's Feb. 24, 1978 appearance on 90 Minutes Live

Official Late Show biography

1999 article on Letterman from Salon.com

Tape of Letterman announcing affairs/extortion attempt on Late Show

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:American people of German descent Category:American television talk show hosts Category:Ball State University alumni Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Indianapolis, Indiana television anchors Category:Indy Racing League owners Category:People from Indianapolis, Indiana Category:Weather presenters