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| Name | Bob Newhart |
|---|---|
| Caption | September 1987 |
| Birth name | George Robert Newhart |
| Birth date | September 5, 1929 (age 81) |
| Birth place | Oak Park, Illinois, U.S. |
| Medium | Stand-up, film, television,Books |
| Nationality | American |
| Active | 1958–present |
| Genre | Sketch comedy, Satire |
| Subject | American culture |
| Influences | Jack Benny, Robert Benchley, H. Allen Smith, James Thurber, Max Shulman |
| Influenced | Ellen DeGeneres, Lewis Black, Norm Macdonald, David Steinberg, Ray Romano, Tom Rhodes, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno |
| Spouse | Virginia Quinn (January 1963 - present) (4 children) |
| Notable work | The Button-Down Mind of Bob NewhartMajor Major Major Major in Catch-22Dr. Robert Hartley in The Bob Newhart ShowDick Loudon in Newhart |
| Website | www.bobnewhart.com |
In the mid-1960s, Newhart appeared on The Dean Martin Show 24 times, and The Ed Sullivan Show eight times.
Newhart's wife gave birth to their daughter Jenny late in the year, which caused him to miss several episodes. Newhart finally pulled the plug on his own sitcom in 1978 after six seasons and 142 episodes.
Bob Newhart's friendship with Marcia Wallace began in the early 1960s when she was in college, then several years later, after an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show, the producers hired her as Newhart's TV receptionist. She said in a 2001 interview of A&E; Biography about her best friend's marriage to Ginny, that would last for over 45 years, "So Bob and Ginny got married, and her father was Bill Quinn, and he was a very well-known character actor. And there's a great story, supposedly, Tony Randall was at the wedding --- there were a lot of show folks at the wedding, and he turned to somebody and said 'Oh, look who they got for the father, which I think is adorable." While working on the set, Wallace also said of Newhart's repetitious trademark line and his personal feelings which didn't set neither her nor anybody else off, "He's very low key, and he didn't want to cause trouble. I had a dog that I used to bring to the set by the name of Maggie. And whenever there was a line that Bob didn't like --- he didn't want to complain too much --- so, he'd go over, get down on his hands and knees, and repeat the line to the dog, who invariably yawned; and he'd say, 'See, I told you it's not funny!'" Marcia also said about the show's never being nominated for Emmys, "People think we were nominated for many an Emmy, people presume we won Emmys, all of us, and certainly Bob, and certainly the show. Nope, never!" When Wallace wept so hard about The Bob Newhart Show being over after 140+ episodes, she said, "It was much crying and sobbing. It was so sad. We really did get along. We really had great times together." The last thing Wallace said about her ex-series' lead's attempt for another long-running sitcom of the 1980s was, "But some of the other great comedic talents who had a brilliant show, when they tried to do it twice, it didn't always work. And that's what... but like Bob, as far as I'm concerned, Bob is like the Fred Astaire of comics. He just makes it looks so easy, and he's not as in-your-face as some might be. As so, you just kind of take it for granted, how extraordinarily funny and how he wears well." After cancellation of The Bob Newhart Show, she remains on good terms with Newhart, along with several other co-stars, while having had, yet another successful career in becoming a panelist on celebrity game shows of the late 1970s and 1980s. She was also reunited with Newhart, a couple of times, to reprise her role as Carol Bondurant on Murphy Brown, in 1994 and on an episode of one of Bob's short-lived sitcom, George & Leo, in 1997. Bill's and Julia's (Bob's real-life father-in-law's and mother's) deaths, both in 1994, drew the relationship closer between Newhart and Wallace, as she was passing on her condolences to such a beloved comic, whose father was a character man. Quinn had guest-starred a few times on The Bob Newhart Show, as his father. Just the year after its 35 Year Anniversary Reunion Special, actress Pleshette had died, and both Newhart & Wallace, were each given a eulogy, a piece, to read at her memorial in 2008.
Newhart himself "warmed up" the studio audience with a five-to-eight-minute routine before the filming of every episode.
In 1987, ratings began to drop. Newhart was canceled in 1990 after eight seasons and 182 episodes. The last episode ended with a scene in which Newhart wakes up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette, who had played Emily, his wife from The Bob Newhart Show. He realizes (in a satire of a famous plot element in the TV series Dallas a few years earlier) that the entire eight-year Newhart series had been a single nightmare of Dr. Bob Hartley's, provoked by "eating too much Japanese food before going to bed." Recalling Mary Frann's buxom figure, Bob closes the segment and the series by telling Emily, "You should really wear more sweaters" before the typical closing notes of the old Bob Newhart Show theme played over the fadeout. The twist ending was later chosen by TV Guide as the best finale in television history.
Julia Duffy, who played Stephanie Vanderkellen in almost every season, with the exception of the first one, said, "Well, he always had this hipness from not being him. I mean, during that time, when somewhat are overlooked, some frenzy for NBC's Thursday night shows, we were Letterman's favorite show. Talked about it all the time, Rolling Stone did a huge article on our show, unsolicited article, praising it. Time Magazine did as well, because they loved the timelessness of it, our jokes had absolutely nothing to do with anything current." The last thing Duffy said about the cancellation of Mr. Newhart's 2nd TV series of the decade when she was ready to move onto other projects was, "It was really good for me to see that it got to him, as much as it got to me." After the series' cancellation, Duffy remained friends with Newhart.
Peter Scolari, who played conniving, hyperactive TV producer, Michael Harris, for six of the eight seasons, said of his idol/future TV producer and friend, about looking for another woman who preceded Suzanne Pleshette (who died in 2008, a decade after Frann): "I think Bob was right to find a woman, who was, you know, a completely different kind of woman. I mean, I hate to say it, but demographically, you don't have this. You get the sense that Suzanne Pleshette, you know, had played some poker in her time, maybe knocked back a couple of cigarettes, in her life, and you'd be right to assume that Mary Frann did none of those things. Mary Frann was such a dedicated actor that this one, I don't think she missed a mark or screwed up a line in like 60 or 70 performances of her own, that were flawless." When Newhart's co-star had found out Newhart (himself) was trying to stop smoking was, "And the Pepsi was gone and the cigarettes were finally gone. And he did a great... you know, he would do a five- to eight-minute routine in front of our live audience, every single show night; every Friday night for eight years, he did excerpts and new material. And he did the smoking, and he would start playing the spotlight. The follow spot was on him. 'And I haven't had any of the problems that people usually talk about having with the... with the smoking --- impatience, outbursts of anger, appetite. I haven't really... look, put it on me or get it off me! Just make up your mind!' And he'd freaked out on the follow spot guy. So, he did this for about eight to ten weeks." The last thing Peter also said despite of Mr. Newhart's second show not winning any Emmys, it also gained recognition for the eight seasons that stayed on the air, "I think Julia Duffy and I (at the Emmys), lost Bob and Tom, I think in 8 years, would collectively lost 15 Emmys, lost by 4 cast members, and we just couldn't get arrested, no matter how great a year, we had, it's great to be nominated, to lose again." After the series' cancellation, Scolari is still good friends with Newhart, who also plays golf with him.
In 1995, 64 year old Newhart was approached by the Showtime cable network to do his very first comedy special in his 35 year career. His special Off The Record consisted of him doing material from his first and second albums in front of a live audience in Pasedena, California. In 2003, Newhart guest-starred on three episodes of ER in a rare dramatic role that earned him an Emmy Award nomination, his first in nearly 20 years. In 2005, he began a recurring role in Desperate Housewives as Morty, the on-again/off-again boyfriend of Sophie (Lesley Ann Warren), Susan Mayer's (Teri Hatcher) mother. in 2009, He received another Emmy Award nomination for reprising his role as Judson in ''".
On the 2006 Emmy Awards, hosted by Conan O'Brien, Newhart was placed in an airtight glass prison that contained three hours of air. If the Emmys went over the time of three hours, he would die. This gag was an acknowledgment of the common frustration that award shows usually run on past their allotted time (which is usually three hours). Newhart "survived" his containment to help O'Brien present the Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series (which went to The Office.)
During an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Newhart made a comedic cameo with members of ABC's show Lost lampooning an alternate ending to the series finale.
In 1985, Newhart was rushed to the emergency room, suffering with polycythemia, after years of heavy smoking. He made a recovery, several weeks after, and has since quit smoking.
Category:1929 births Category:American film actors Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:Copywriters Category:Grammy Award winners Category:American actors of German descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Living people Category:Loyola University Chicago alumni Category:American Roman Catholics Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Oak Park, Illinois Category:United States Army soldiers Category:Mark Twain Prize recipients
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Dean Martin |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Dino Paul Crocetti |
| Alias | Dean MartinThe King of CoolDinoDino Martini |
| Born | June 07, 1917 Steubenville, Ohio, United States |
| Died | December 25, 1995Beverly Hills, California, United States |
| Genre | Big band, pop, country |
| Years active | 1939-1995 (His Death) |
| Occupation | Actor, comedian, singer, producer |
| Label | Capitol, Reprise |
At the age of 15, he was a boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crochet". His prizefighting years earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, and many sets of broken knuckles (a result of not being able to afford the tape used to wrap boxers' hands). Of his twelve bouts, he would later say "I won all but eleven." For a time, he roomed with Sonny King, who, like Martin, was just starting in show business and had little money. It is said that Martin and King held bare-knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one of them was knocked out; people paid to watch.
Eventually, Martin gave up boxing. He worked as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop where he had started as a stock boy. At the same time, he sang with local bands. Calling himself "Dino Martini" (after the then-famous Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini), he got his first break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested he change his name to Dean Martin.
In October 1941, Martin married Elizabeth Anne McDonald. During their marriage (ended by divorce in 1949), they had four children. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, mostly on looks and personality until he developed his own singing style. Martin famously flopped at the Riobamba, a high class nightclub in New York, when he succeeded Frank Sinatra in 1943, but it was the setting for their meeting.
Martin repeatedly sold 10 percent shares of his earnings for up front cash. He apparently did this so often that he found he had sold over 100 percent of his income. Such was his charm that most of his lenders forgave his debts and remained friends.
Drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II, Martin served a year stationed in Akron, Ohio. He was then reclassified as 4-F (possibly because of a double hernia; Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery Martin needed for this in his autobiography) and was discharged.
By 1946, Martin was doing relatively well, but was still little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with a common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby. He drew audiences to the clubs he played, but he inspired none of the fanatic popularity enjoyed by Sinatra.
Martin and Lewis's official debut together occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24, 1946, and they were not well received. The owner, Skinny D'Amato, warned them that if they did not come up with a better act for their second show later that night, they would be fired. Huddling together in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to "go for broke", to throw out the pre-scripted gags and to improvise. Martin sang and Lewis came out dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of both Martin's performance and the club's sense of decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with breadrolls. They did slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes, and did whatever else popped into their heads at the moment. This time, the audience doubled over in laughter. This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a triumphant run at New York's Copacabana. Patrons were convulsed by the act, which consisted primarily of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, and ultimately the two of them chasing each other around the stage and having as much fun as possible. The secret, both said, is that they essentially ignored the audience and played to one another.
The team made its TV debut on the very first broadcast of CBS-TV network's Toast of the Town Program (later called the Ed Sullivan Show) with Ed Sullivan and Rogers & Hammerstein appearing on this same inaugural telecast of June 20, 1948 (photo archive and IMDB documentation confirmed). A radio series commenced in 1949, the same year Martin and Lewis were signed by Paramount producer Hal B. Wallis as comedy relief for the movie My Friend Irma.
Martin liked California which, because of its earth tremors, had few tall buildings. Suffering as he did from claustrophobia, Martin almost never used elevators, and climbing stairs in Manhattan's skyscrapers was not his idea of fun.
Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated for them one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only a modest $75,000 between them for their films with Wallis, Martin and Lewis were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions. They also had complete control of their club, record, radio and television appearances, and it was through these endeavors that they earned millions of dollars.
Martin and Lewis were the hottest act in America during the early 1950s, but the pace and the pressure took its toll. Most critics underestimated Martin's contribution to the team, as he had the thankless job of the straight man, and his singing had yet to develop into the unique style of his later years. Critics praised Lewis, and while they admitted that Martin was the best partner he could have, most claimed Lewis was the real talent and could succeed with anyone. However, Lewis always praised his partner, and while he appreciated the attention he was getting, he has always said the act would never have worked without Martin. In Dean & Me, he calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. But the harsh comments from the critics, as well as frustration with the formulaic similarity of Martin & Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis stubbornly refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction. He put less enthusiasm into the work, leading to escalating arguments with Lewis. They finally could not work together, especially after Martin told his partner he was "nothing to me but a dollar sign". The act broke up in 1956, 10 years to the day from the first official teaming.
Splitting up their partnership was not easy. It took months for lawyers to work out the details of terminating many of their club bookings, their television contracts, and the dissolution of York Productions. There was intense public pressure for them to stay together.
Lewis had no trouble maintaining his film popularity alone, but Martin, unfairly regarded by much of the public and the motion picture industry as something of a spare tire, found the going hard. His first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), was a box office failure. He was still popular as a singer, but with rock and roll surging to the fore, the era of the pop crooner was waning. It looked like Martin's fate was to be limited to nightclubs and to be remembered as Lewis's former partner.
The CBS film, Martin and Lewis, a made-for-TV movie about the famous comedy duo, starred Jeremy Northam as Martin, and Sean Hayes as Lewis. It depicted the years from 1946-1956.
In 1960, Martin was cast in the motion picture version of the Judy Holliday hit stage play Bells Are Ringing. Martin played a satiric variation of his own womanizing persona as Vegas singer "Dino" in Billy Wilder's comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Kim Novak, and he was not above poking fun at his image in films such as the Matt Helm spy spoofs of the 1960s, in which he was a co-producer.
As a singer, Martin copied the styles of Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), Bing Crosby, and Perry Como until he developed his own and could hold his own in duets with Sinatra and Crosby. Like Sinatra, he could not read music, but he recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs. His signature tune, "Everybody Loves Somebody", knocked The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" out of the number-one spot in the United States in 1964. This was followed by the similarly-styled "The Door is Still Open to My Heart", which reached number six later that year. Elvis Presley was said to have been influenced by Martin, and patterned "Love Me Tender" after his style. Martin, like Elvis, was influenced by country music. By 1965, some of Martin's albums, such as Dean "Tex" Martin, The Hit Sound Of Dean Martin, Welcome To My World and Gentle On My Mind were composed of country and western songs made famous by artists like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Buck Owens. Martin hosted country performers on his TV show and was named "Man Of the Year" by the Country Music Association in 1966. "Ain't That a Kick in the Head", a song Martin performed in Ocean's Eleven that never became a hit at the time, has enjoyed a spectacular revival in the media and pop culture (which can be traced to its usage in 1993's A Bronx Tale and 1997's Fools Rush In).
For three decades, Martin was among the most popular acts in Las Vegas. Martin sang and was one of the smoothest comics in the business, benefiting from the decade of raucous comedy with Lewis. Martin's daughter, Gail, also sang in Vegas and on his TV show, co-hosting his summer replacement series on NBC. Though often thought of as a ladies' man, Martin spent a lot of time with his family; as second wife Jeanne put it, prior to the couple's divorce, "He was home every night for dinner."
The Martin-Sinatra-Davis-Lawford-Bishop group referred to themselves as "The Summit" or "The Clan" and never as "The Rat Pack", although this has remained their identity in the popular imagination. The men made films together, formed an important part of the Hollywood social scene in those years, and were politically influential (through Lawford's marriage to Patricia Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy).
The Rat Pack were legendary for their Las Vegas performances. For example, the marquee at the Sands Hotel might read DEAN MARTIN---MAYBE FRANK---MAYBE SAMMY. Las Vegas rooms were at a premium when the Rat Pack would appear, with many visitors sleeping in hotel lobbies or cars to get a chance to see the three men together. Their act (always in tuxedo) consisted of each singing individual numbers, duets and trios, along with much seemingly improvised slapstick and chatter. In the socially-charged 1960s, their jokes revolved around adult themes, such as Sinatra's infamous womanizing and Martin's legendary drinking, as well as many at the expense of Davis's race and religion. Davis famously practiced Judaism and used Yiddish phrases onstage, eliciting much merriment from both his stage-mates and his audiences. It was all good-natured male bonding, never vicious, rarely foul-mouthed, and the three had great respect for each other. The Rat Pack was largely responsible for the integration of Las Vegas. Sinatra and Martin steadfastly refused to appear anywhere that barred Davis, forcing the casinos to open their doors to African-American entertainers and patrons, and to drop restrictive covenants against Jews.
Posthumously, the Rat Pack has experienced a popular revival, inspiring the George Clooney/Brad Pitt "Ocean's" trilogy. An HBO film, The Rat Pack, starred Joe Mantegna as Martin, Ray Liotta as Sinatra and Don Cheadle as Davis. It depicted their contribution to JFK's election in 1960.
The TV show was a success. Martin prided himself on memorizing whole scripts – not merely his own lines. He disliked rehearsing because he firmly believed his best performances were his first. The show's loose format prompted quick-witted improvisation from Martin and the cast. On occasion, he made remarks in Italian, some mild obscenities that brought angry mail from offended, Italian-speaking viewers. This prompted a battle between Martin and NBC censors, who insisted on more scrutiny of the show's content. The show was often in the Top Ten. Martin, deeply appreciative of the efforts of the show's producer, his friend Greg Garrison, later made a handshake deal giving Garrison, a pioneer TV producer in the 1950s, 50% ownership of the show. However, the validity of that ownership is currently the subject of a lawsuit brought by NBC Universal.
Despite Martin's reputation as a heavy drinker — a reputation perpetuated via his vanity license plates reading 'DRUNKY' — he was remarkably self-disciplined. He was often the first to call it a night, and when not on tour or on a film location liked to go home to see his wife and children. Phyllis Diller recently confirmed that Martin was indeed drinking alcohol onstage and not apple juice. She also commented that he while not being drunk was not really sober either but had very strict rules when it came to performances. He borrowed the lovable-drunk shtick from Joe E. Lewis, but his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers in Some Came Running and Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo led to unsubstantiated claims of alcoholism. More often than not, Martin's idea of a good time was playing golf or watching TV, particularly westerns – not staying with Rat Pack friends Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. into the early hours of the morning.
Martin starred in and co-produced a series of four Matt Helm superspy comedy adventures. A fifth, The Ravagers, was planned starring Sharon Tate and Martin in a dual role, one as a serial killer, but due to the murder of Tate and the decline of the spy genre the film was never made.
By the early 1970s, The Dean Martin Show was still earning solid ratings, and although he was no longer a Top 40 hitmaker, his record albums continued to sell steadily. His name on a marquee could guarantee casinos and nightclubs a standing-room-only crowd. He found a way to make his passion for golf profitable by offering his own signature line of golf balls. Shrewd investments had greatly increased Martin's personal wealth; at the time of his death, Martin was reportedly the single largest minority shareholder of RCA stock. Martin even managed to cure himself of his claustrophobia by reportedly locking himself in the elevator of a tall building and riding up and down for hours until he was no longer panic-stricken.
Martin retreated from show business. The final (1973–74) season of his variety show would be retooled into one of celebrity roasts, requiring less of Martin's involvement. After the show's cancellation, NBC continued to air the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast format in a series of TV specials through 1984. In those 11 years, Martin and his panel of pals successfully ridiculed and made fun of these legendary stars in this order: Ronald Reagan, Hugh Hefner, Ed McMahon, William Conrad, Kirk Douglas, Bette Davis, Barry Goldwater, Johnny Carson, Wilt Chamberlain, Hubert Humphrey, Carroll O'Connor, Monty Hall, Jack Klugman & Tony Randall, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Leo Durocher, Truman Capote, Don Rickles, Ralph Nader, Jack Benny, Redd Foxx, Bobby Riggs, George Washington, Dan Rowan & Dick Martin, Hank Aaron, Joe Namath, Bob Hope, Telly Savalas, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Sammy Davis Jr, Michael Landon, Evel Knievel, Valerie Harper, Muhammad Ali, Dean Martin, Dennis Weaver, Joe Garagiola, Danny Thomas, Angie Dickinson, Gabe Kaplan, Ted Knight, Peter Marshall, Dan Haggerty, Frank Sinatra, Jack Klugman, Jimmy Stewart, George Burns, Betty White, Suzanne Somers, Joan Collins, and Mr T. For nearly a decade, Martin had recorded as many as four albums a year for Reprise Records. That stopped in November 1974, when Martin recorded his final Reprise album - Once In A While, released in 1978. His last recording sessions were for Warner Brothers Records. An album titled The Nashville Sessions was released in 1983, from which he had a hit with "(I Think That I Just Wrote) My First Country Song", which was recorded with Conway Twitty and made a respectable showing on the country charts. A followup single "L.A. Is My Home" / "Drinking Champagne" came in 1985. The 1975 film Mr. Ricco marked Martin's final starring role, and Martin limited his live performances to Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
Martin seemed to suffer a mid-life crisis. In 1972, he filed for divorce from his second wife, Jeanne. A week later, his business partnership with the Riviera was dissolved amid reports of the casino's refusal to agree to Martin's request to perform only once a night. He was quickly snapped up by the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and signed a three-picture deal with MGM Studios. Less than a month after his second marriage had been legally dissolved, Martin married 26-year-old Catherine Hawn on April 25, 1973. Hawn had been the receptionist at the chic Gene Shacrove hair salon in Beverly Hills. They divorced November 10, 1976. He was also briefly engaged to Gail Renshaw, Miss World-U.S.A. 1969.
Eventually, Martin reconciled with Jeanne, though they never remarried. He also made a public reconciliation with Jerry Lewis on Lewis' Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon in 1976. Frank Sinatra shocked Lewis and the world by bringing Martin out on stage. As Martin and Lewis embraced, the audience erupted in cheers and the phone banks lit up, resulting in one of the telethon's most profitable years. Lewis reported the event was one of the three most memorable of his life. Lewis brought down the house when he quipped, "So, you working?" Martin, playing drunk, replied that he was "at the Meggum" – this reference to the MGM Grand Hotel convulsed Lewis . This, along with the death of Martin's son Dean Paul Martin a few years later, helped to bring the two men together. They maintained a quiet friendship but only performed together again once, in 1989, on Martin's 72nd birthday.
Martin returned to films briefly with appearances in the two star-laden yet critically panned Cannonball Run movies,. He also had a minor hit single with "Since I Met You Baby" and made his first music video, which appeared on MTV. The video was created by Martin's youngest son, Ricci.
On December 8, 1989, Martin attended Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th Anniversary Special.
Martin, a life-long smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center on 16 September 1993. He died of acute respiratory failure resulting from emphysema at his Beverly Hills home on Christmas morning 1995, at the age of 78. The lights of the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor.
An annual "Dean Martin Festival" celebration is held in Steubenville. Impersonators, friends and family of Martin, and various entertainers, many of Italian ancestry, appear.
In 2005, Las Vegas renamed Industrial Road as Dean Martin Drive. A similarly named street was dedicated in 2008 in Rancho Mirage, California.
Martin's family was presented a gold record in 2004 for Dino: The Essential Dean Martin, his fastest-selling album ever, which also hit the iTunes Top 10. For the week ending December 23, 2006, the Dean Martin and Martina McBride duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" reached #7 on the R&R; AC chart. It also went to #36 on the R&R; Country chart - the last time Martin had a song this high in the charts was in 1965, with the song "I Will", which reached #10 on the Pop chart.
An album of duets, Forever Cool, was released by Capitol/EMI in 2007. It features Martin's voice with Kevin Spacey, Shelby Lynne, Joss Stone, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Robbie Williams, McBride and others.
His footprints were immortalized at Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1964. Martin has not one but three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: One at 6519 Hollywood Blvd. (for movies), one at 1817 Vine (for recordings) and one at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard (for television).
In February 2009, Martin was honored with a posthumous Grammy award for Lifetime Achievement. Four of his surviving children, Gail, Deana, Ricci and Gina, were on hand to accept on his behalf. In 2009, Martin was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
Martin's second wife was Jeanne Biegger. A stunning blonde, Jeanne could sometimes be spotted in Martin's audience while he was still married to Betty. Their marriage lasted twenty-four years (1949–1973) and produced three children. Their children were Dean Paul (November 17, 1951 - March 21, 1987; plane crash), Ricci James (born September 20, 1953) and Gina Caroline (born December 20, 1956).
Martin's third marriage, to Catherine Hawn, lasted three years. One of Martin's managers had spotted her at the reception desk of a hair salon on Rodeo Drive, then arranged a meeting. Martin adopted Hawn's daughter, Sasha, but their marriage also failed. Martin initiated divorce proceedings. Martin's uncle was Leonard Barr, who appeared in several of his shows.
Category:1917 births Category:1995 deaths Category:Actors from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:American comedians Category:American crooners Category:American film actors Category:American male singers Category:Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Deaths from emphysema Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:Deaths from respiratory failure Category:American jazz musicians of Italian descent Category:American jazz musicians of Sicilian descent Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:American baritones Category:Actors from Ohio Category:Musicians from Ohio Category:People from Steubenville, Ohio Category:Ohio Republicans Category:Republicans (United States) Category:California Republicans Category:Musicians from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:Traditional pop music singers
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| Name | Jay Deushe |
|---|---|
| Caption | Rickles on stage at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City on January 12, 2008 |
| Name | Don Rickles |
| Birth name | Donald Jay Rickles |
| Birth date | May 08, 1926 |
| Birth place | Queens, New York, United States |
| Medium | Stand-up, television, film |
| Nationality | American |
| Active | 1948–present |
| Genre | Improvisational comedy, observational comedy, musical comedy, insult comedy | |
| Subject | American culture, race relations, self-deprecation, marriage, everyday life, Jewish humor, pop culture |
| Influences | Milton Berle |
| Influenced | Jay Leno,David Letterman,Howard Stern,Russell Peters, Dave Attell, Lisa Lampanelli |
| Spouse | Barbara Sklar (1965–present) |
| Notable work | Hello Dummy!Q M 1/C Ruby in Run Silent, Run DeepSgt. Crapgame in Kelly's HeroesBilly Sherbert in CasinoMr. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise}} |
Donald Jay "Don" Rickles (born May 8, 1926) (then in the Russian Empire), and Etta (Feldman) Rickles, born in New York to immigrant parents from the Austrian Empire. His family was Jewish and spoke Yiddish at home. Rickles grew up in the Jackson Heights area.
After graduating from Newtown High School, Rickles enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served during World War II on the USS Cyrene as a seaman first class. He was honorably discharged in 1946. Two years later, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and then played bit parts on television. Frustrated by a lack of acting work, Rickles began doing stand-up comedy. He became known as an insult comedian by responding to his hecklers. The audience enjoyed these insults more than his prepared material, and he incorporated them into his act. When he began his career in the early 1950s (as he said on April 15, 2009 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno), he started calling ill-mannered members of the audience a Hockey Puck. His style was similar to an older insult comic, Nickname "Mr. Warmth" Jack E. Leonard, though Rickles denies that Leonard influenced his style.
Rickles earned the nicknames "The Merchant of Venom" and "Mr. Warmth" for his insult comedy, in which he pokes fun at people of all ethnicities and walks of life. When he is introduced to an audience or on a television talk show, Spanish matador music, "La Virgen de la Macarena", will usually be played, subtly foreshadowing that someone is about to be metaphorically gored. Rickles has said, "I always pictured myself facing the audience as the matador." The same year he starred in his own variety show on ABC, The Don Rickles Show, with comedy writer Pat McCormick as his sidekick. The show lasted one season. During the 1960s, Rickles made guest appearances on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters, Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, The Andy Griffith Show and I Dream of Jeannie.
In 1976, he starred in the sitcom C.P.O. Sharkey, which lasted two seasons. The show is primarily remembered for the cigarette box incident when Johnny Carson visited during an episode's taping because he was "incensed" that Rickles broke his cigarette box while Bob Newhart was guest-hosting. The incident was often replayed in Tonight Show retrospectives and was considered a highlight of the 1970s era of the show.
Rickles occasionally appeared as a panelist on Hollywood Squares:
Q. You go down to a brook and you catch a frog. Then you rub it on your face! Just what is that supposed to do? Rickles: That's supposed to put you in the state hospital!
He was depicted in comic book form by Jack Kirby during his work on the Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen series.
In 1985, when Frank Sinatra was asked to perform at Ronald Reagan's Second Inaugural Ball, he stipulated he would not perform unless Rickles was allowed to perform with him. Rickles considers this performance the highlight of his career. He has no plans to retire as he recently said in an interview: "I'm in good health. I'm working better than I ever have. The audiences are great. Why should I retire? I'm like a fighter. The bell rings and you come out and fight. My energy comes alive. And I still enjoy it."
In February 2007, Rickles made a cameo appearance as himself in a strange, recurring dream sequence that was woven through an episode titled "Sub Conscious" of the CBS dramatic series, The Unit.
Rickles' memoir, titled Rickles' Book, was released on May 8, 2007 by Simon & Schuster. , a documentary about Rickles directed by John Landis, made its debut on HBO on December 2, 2007. Rickles himself won a Primetime Emmy for this documentary in 2008.
Rickles reprised the role of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story Midway Mania! attraction at Disney's California Adventure and Disney's Hollywood Studios. He voiced the character again in Toy Story 3.
In 2010, he appeared in a commercial during Super Bowl XLIV as a talking rose.
On June 27, 2010, he appeared on the 37th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards on CBS TV.
Rickles is a life-long Democrat. However, he performed at the inaugurations of Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush with his friend Frank Sinatra.
Rickles considers comedian Bob Newhart to be his best friend. Rickles, Newhart, and their wives often vacation together. Rickles and Newhart appeared together on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on January 24, 2005, the Monday following Johnny Carson's death, reminiscing about their many guest appearances on Carson's show, including footage of the infamous "cigarette box incident".
In early 2009, Rickles met Kathy Griffin's mother, Maggie, to fulfill one item on Maggie's "bucket list". The episode aired on July 6, 2009.
When asked by an interviewer if he ever worried that his insult comedy might ever become too offensive, Rickles replied, "You know, every night when I go out on stage to do my comedy routines, there's always one nagging fear in the back of my mind. I'm always afraid that somewhere out there, there is one person in the audience that I'm NOT going to offend!"
Rickles is known for saying the word "anyway" following most of his comedic insults. He has demonstrated this through many performances over the years on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and the Late Show with David Letterman.
Category:1926 births Category:Living people Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American stand-up comedians Category:Jewish comedians Category:People from Jackson Heights, Queens Category:Actors from New York Category:United States Navy sailors
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| Name | Herman Hollerith |
|---|---|
| Birth date | February 29, 1860 |
| Birth place | Buffalo, New York |
| Death date | November 17, 1929 |
| Death place | Washington, D.C. |
| Occupation | Statistician, inventor, businessman |
| Awards | Elliott Cresson Medal (1890) |
| Death cause | | resting_place = Oak Hill Cemetery | resting_place_coordinates = | residence = | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = mechanical tabulation of punched card data |
| Education | City College of New York (1875)Columbia University School of Mines (1879) | employer = | title = | salary = | networth = | height = | weight = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | religion = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} |
Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was an American statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data. He was the founder of one of the companies that later merged and became IBM.
The herein-described method of compiling statistics, which consists in recording separate statistical items pertaining to the individual by holes or combinations of holes punched in sheets of electrically non-conducting material, and bearing a specific relation to each other and to a standard, and then counting or tallying such statistical items separately or in combination by means of mechanical counters operated by electro-magnets the circuits through which are controlled by the perforated sheets, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
Hollerith had left teaching and begun working for the United States Census Office in the year he filed his first patent application. Titled "Art of Compiling Statistics", it was filed on September 23, 1884; U.S. Patent 395,782 was granted on January 8, 1889.
Hollerith built machines under contract for the Census Office, which used them to tabulate the 1890 census in only one year. The 1880 census had taken eight years. Hollerith then started his own business in 1896, founding the Tabulating Machine Company. Most of the major census bureaus around the world leased his equipment and purchased his cards, as did major insurance companies. To make his system work, he invented the first automatic card-feed mechanism and the first key punch (that is, a punch operated by a keyboard); a skilled operator could punch 200–300 cards per hour. He also invented a tabulator. The 1890 Tabulator was hardwired to operate only on 1890 Census cards. A control panel in his 1906 Type I Tabulator allowed it to do different jobs without being rebuilt (the first step towards programming). These inventions were among the foundations of the modern information processing industry.
In 1911 four corporations, including Hollerith's firm, merged to form the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR). Under the presidency of Thomas J. Watson, it was renamed International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924.
Category:American statisticians Category:American inventors Category:Computer pioneers Category:German inventors Category:American people of German descent Category:1860 births Category:1929 deaths Category:National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Buffalo, New York Category:City College of New York alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Columbia Engineering alumni
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| Name | Eydie Gormé |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Edith Gormezano |
| Born | August 16, 1931 |
| Origin | The Bronx, New York, United States |
| Genre | Latin pop, big band, swing, traditional pop music |
| Occupation | Singer, chanteuse |
| Years active | 1950–present |
| Url | http://www.steveandeydie.com/}} |
Eydie Gormé (also spelled as Eydie Gorme; born August 16, 1931) is an American singer and chanteuse, specializing, with her husband, Steve Lawrence, in traditional pop music, in the form of ballads and breezy swing. She has earned numerous awards, including the Grammy and the Emmy. The couple are still active professionally (as of 2009).
She made her recording debut in 1950 with the Tommy Tucker Orchestra and Don Brown. She made a second recording which featured Dick Noel. MGM issued these two recordings on 78rpm vinyl.
:Cherry Stones Original Issue: On 78 rpm vinyl only on MGM 10767
She gained crossover success in the Latin music market through a series of albums she made in Spanish with the famed Trio Los Panchos. In 1964, the two acts joined forces for a collection of Spanish-language standards called Amor. "Sabor a Mí" became closely identified with Gormé and emerged as one of her signature tunes. The disc was later reissued as "Canta en Español". In 1965, a sequel appeared called More Amor (later reissued as "Cuatro Vidas"). Her last album with Los Panchos was a 1966 Christmas collection, "Navidad Means Christmas", later reissued as "Blanca Navidad". Gormé also recorded other Spanish albums in her career, including the Grammy-nominated La Gormé (1976), a contemporary outing. The 1977 release Muy Amigos/Close Friends, a duet collection with Puerto Rican singer Danny Rivera, also received a Grammy nomination.
As a duo with her husband, the act was billed as Steve and Eydie. In 1960, Steve and Eydie were awarded the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group for the album, "We Got Us". Their biggest hit single as a duo, "I Want to Stay Here", was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and reached No. 28 in 1963. Under the pseudonym Parker and Penny, Lawrence and Gormé achieved their last chart single (No. 46 on the Adult Contemporary chart) with a cover of the 1979 Eurovision song contest winner, "Hallelujah". The song most closely identified with the duo, the Steve Allen composition "This Could Be the Start of Something", never reached the charts, though it remains a staple in their live act.
Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence have appeared on TV, including The Carol Burnett Show and The Nanny. She and Lawrence appeared together on Broadway in the short-lived musical, Golden Rainbow. Since the 1970s, the couple has focused strictly on the American pop repertoire, recording several albums themed around individual American pop composers. As the 21st Century arrived, the couple announced their plans to cut back on their touring, launching a "One More For The Road" tour in 2002. In 2006, Gormé became a blogger, posting occasional messages on her official website.
In November 2009 Steve Lawrence embarked on a musical tour without Eydie, who stayed home for health reasons.
Gormé and Lawrence were in Atlanta, Georgia at the time of his death, having performed at the Fox Theater the night before. Upon learning of the tragedy, Frank Sinatra, a friend, sent his private plane to pick up the couple so that they could fly to New York to meet their other son, David, who was attending school at the time. Following their son's death, the couple took a year off before touring again.
Category:1931 births Category:Living people Category:American female singers Category:American Jews Category:American pop singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Jewish singers Category:People from the Bronx Category:Sephardi Jews Category:Spanish-language singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Torch singers
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