name	Garrison Keillor
birth name	Gary Edward Keillor
birth date	August 07, 1942
birth place	Anoka, Minnesota
medium	Radio, Print
nationality	American
active	1969–present
genre	Observational comedy, Satire
subject	American culture (esp. the Midwest); American politics
spouse	Mary Guntzel (1965–1976) Ulla Skaerved (1985–1990) Jenny Lind Nilsson (1995–present)
notable work	Himself, Guy Noir, Lefty, Bob Burger, and Lake Wobegon narrator in ''A Prairie Home Companion''
footnotes	}}

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show ''A Prairie Home Companion'' (also known as ''Garrison Keillor's Radio Show'' on United Kingdom's BBC Radio 4 Extra, as well as on RTÉ in Ireland, Australia's ABC, and Radio New Zealand National in New Zealand).

Personal life

Keillor was born in Anoka, Minnesota, the son of Grace Ruth (née Denham) and John Philip Keillor, who was a carpenter and postal worker. The family belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, a fundamentalist Christian denomination Keillor has since left. He is six feet, three inches (1.9 m) tall and has Scots and Norwegian ancestry. Keillor is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. In 2006 he told ''Christianity Today'' that he was attending the Episcopal church in Saint Paul, after previously attending a Lutheran church in New York. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in English in 1966. While there, he began his broadcasting career on the student-operated radio station known today as Radio K.

Keillor has been married three times:

To Mary Guntzel, from 1965 to 1976. The couple has one son, Jason, born in 1969.

To Ulla Skaerved (a former exchange student from Denmark at Keillor's high school whom he famously re-encountered at a class reunion), from 1985 to 1990.

To violinist Jenny Lind Nilsson (b. 1957), who is from his hometown of Anoka, since 1995. They have one daughter, Maia Grace Keillor, born December 29, 1997.

Between his first and second marriages he was also romantically involved with Margaret Moos, who worked as a producer of ''A Prairie Home Companion''.

The Keillors maintain homes on the Upper West Side of New York City and in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

One of his brothers, the historian Steven Keillor, is also an author.

On September 7, 2009, Keillor was briefly hospitalized after suffering a minor stroke.

Ancestors

In his book ''Homegrown Democrat'' (2004), Keillor mentions some of his noteworthy ancestors, including Joseph Crandall, who was an associate of Roger Williams (who founded the first American Baptist church as well as Rhode Island), and Prudence Crandall, who founded the first African-American women's school in America.

Career

Radio

Garrison Keillor started his professional radio career in November 1969 with Minnesota Educational Radio (MER), now Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and distributing programs under the American Public Media (APM) brand. He hosted ''The Morning Program'' in the weekday drive time slot of 6 to 9 a.m. on KSJR 90.1 FM at St. John's University in Collegeville, which the station called "A Prairie Home Entertainment." The show's eclectic music was a major divergence from the station's usual classical fare. During this time he also began submitting fiction to ''The New Yorker,'' where his first story, "Local Family Keeps Son Happy," appeared on September 19, 1970.

Keillor resigned from ''The Morning Program'' in February 1971 to protest what he considered an attempt to interfere with his musical programming. The show became ''A Prairie Home Companion'' when he returned in October.

Keillor has attributed the idea for the live Saturday night radio program to his 1973 assignment to write about the Grand Ole Opry for ''The New Yorker'', but he had already begun showcasing local musicians on the morning show, despite limited studio space for them, and in August 1973 ''The Minneapolis Tribune'' reported MER's plans for a Saturday night version of ''A Prairie Home Companion'' with live musicians.

''A Prairie Home Companion'' debuted as an old-style variety show before a live audience on July 6, 1974, featuring guest musicians and a cadre cast doing musical numbers and comic skits replete with elaborate live sound effects. The show was punctuated by spoof commercial spots from such fictitious sponsors as Jack's Auto Repair ("All tracks lead to Jack's where the bright shining lights show you the way to complete satisfaction") and Powdermilk Biscuits, which "give shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done." Later imaginary sponsors have included Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery ("If you can't find it at Ralph's, you can probably get along without it"), Bertha's Kitty Boutique, the Ketchup Advisory Board (which touted "the natural mellowing agents of ketchup"), the American Duct Tape Council, and Bebop-A-Reebop Rhubarb Pie ("sweetening the sour taste of failure through the generations"). The show also contains parodic serial melodramas, such as ''The Adventures of Guy Noir, Private Eye'' and ''The Lives of the Cowboys.'' After the show's intermission, Keillor reads clever and often humorous greetings to friends and family at home submitted by members of the theater audience in exchange for an honorarium.

Also in the second half of the show, the broadcasts showcase a weekly monologue by Keillor entitled ''The News from Lake Wobegon.'' The town is based in part on Keillor's own hometown of Anoka, Minnesota, and in part on Freeport and other towns in Stearns County, where he lived in the early 1970s. Lake Wobegon is a quintessential but fictional Minnesotan small town "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." ''A Prairie Home Companion'' ran until 1987, when Keillor decided to end it; he worked on other projects, including another live radio program, "The American Radio Company of the Air"—which had almost the same format as ''A Prairie Home Companion'''s—for several years. In 1993 he began producing ''A Prairie Home Companion'' again, in a format nearly identical to the original's, and has done so since. On ''A Prairie Home Companion,'' Keillor receives no billing or credit (except "written by Sarah Bellum," a joking reference to his own brain); his name is not mentioned unless a guest addresses him by his first name or the initials "G. K.," though some sketches feature Keillor as his alter ego, Carson Wyler.

''A Prairie Home Companion'' regularly goes on the road and is broadcast live from popular venues around the United States, often featuring local celebrities and skits incorporating local color. Keillor also sometimes gives broadcast performances of a similar nature that do not carry the "Prairie Home Companion" brand, as in his 2008 appearance at the Oregon Bach Festival. In March 2011, Keillor announced that he would be retiring from "A Prairie Home Companion" in 2013.

Keillor is also the host of ''The Writer's Almanac'' which, like ''A Prairie Home Companion,'' is produced and distributed by American Public Media. ''The Writer's Almanac'' is also available online and via daily e-mail installments by subscription.

Writing

Keillor has written numerous magazine and newspaper articles and more than a dozen books for adults as well as children. In addition to writing for ''The New Yorker,'' he has written for ''The Atlantic Monthly'' and ''Salon.com.''

He also authored an advice column at ''Salon.com'' under the name "Mr. Blue." Following a heart operation, he resigned on September 4, 2001, his last column being titled "Every dog has his day":

Illness offers the chance to think long thoughts about the future (praying that we yet have one, dear God), and so I have, and so this is the last column of Mr. Blue, under my authorship, for Salon. Over the years, Mr. Blue's strongest advice has come down on the side of freedom in our personal lives, freedom from crushing obligation and overwork and family expectations and the freedom to walk our own walk and be who we are. And some of the best letters have been addressed to younger readers trapped in jobs like steel suits, advising them to bust loose and go off and have an adventure. Some of the advisees have written back to inform Mr. Blue that the advice was taken and that the adventure changed their lives. This was gratifying.

So now I am simply taking my own advice. Cut back on obligations: Promote a certain elegant looseness in life. Simple as that. Winter and spring, I almost capsized from work, and in the summer I had a week in St. Mary's Hospital to sit and think, and that's the result. Every dog has his day and I've had mine and given whatever advice was mine to give (and a little more). It was exhilarating to get the chance to be useful, which is always an issue for a writer (What good does fiction do?), and Mr. Blue was a way to be useful. Nothing human is beneath a writer's attention; the basic questions about how to attract a lover and what to do with one once you get one and how to deal with disappointment in marriage are the stuff that fiction is made from, so why not try to speak directly? And so I did. And now it's time to move on.

In 2004 Keillor published a collection of political essays, ''Homegrown Democrat,'' and in June 2005 he began a column called "The Old Scout", which ran at Salon.com and in syndicated newspapers. The column went on hiatus in April 2010 "so that he [could] finish a screenplay and start writing a novel".

Keillor wrote the screenplay for the 2006 movie ''A Prairie Home Companion,'' directed by Robert Altman. (Keillor also appears in the movie.)

Bookselling

On November 1, 2006, Keillor opened an independent bookstore in the historic Cathedral Hill area of Saint Paul, Minnesota. "Common Good Books, G. Keillor, Prop." is located at the southwest corner of Selby and N. Western Avenues (in the Blair Arcade Building, Suite 14, in the basement, below Nina's Coffee Cafe). Cathedral Hill is in the Summit-University neighborhood. The bookstore's opening was covered by the ''St. Paul Pioneer Press''.

Awards and other recognition

Keillor received a Medal for Spoken Language from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1990. In 1994, Keillor was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. He received a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1999. "Welcome to Minnesota" markers in interstate rest areas near the state's borders include statements such as "Like its neighbors, the thirty-second state grew as a collection of small farm communities, many settled by immigrants from Scandinavia and Germany. Two of the nation's favorite fictional small towns -- Sinclair Lewis's Gopher Prairie and Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon -- reflect that heritage." In 2007, The Moth, a NYC-based not-for-profit storytelling organization, awarded Garrison Keillor the first ''The Moth Award - Honoring the Art of the Raconteur'' at the annual Moth Ball. In September 2007, Keillor was awarded the 2007 John Steinbeck Award, given to artists who capture "the spirit of Steinbeck's empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of the common man." Keillor received a Grammy Award in 1988 for his recording of ''Lake Wobegon Days''. He has also received two CableACE Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award.

Controversies

In 2005, Keillor's attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter to MNSPeak.com regarding their production of a T-shirt bearing the inscription "A Prairie Ho Companion."

In 2006, after a visit to a United Methodist Church in Highland Park, Texas, Keillor created a local controversy with his remarks about the event, including the rhetorical suggestion of a connection between event participants and supporters of torture and a statement creating an impression of political intimidation: "I walked in, was met by two burly security men ... and within 10 minutes was told by three people that this was the Bushes' church and that it would be better if I didn't talk about politics." The security detail is purportedly routine for the venue, and according to participants, Keillor did not interact with any audience members between his arrival and his lecture. Supposedly, before Keillor's remarks, participants in the event had considered the visit to have been cordial and warm.

In 2007, Keillor wrote a column that in part criticized "stereotypical" gay parents, who he said were "sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers." In response to the strong reactions of many readers, Keillor said

I live in a small world -- the world of entertainment, musicians, writers -- in which gayness is as common as having brown eyes .... And in that small world, we talk openly and we kid each other a lot. But in the larger world, gayness is controversial ... and so gay people feel besieged to some degree and rightly so .... My column spoke as we would speak in my small world, and it was read by people in the larger world and thus the misunderstanding. And for that, I am sorry. Gay people who set out to be parents can be just as good parents as anybody else, and they know that, and so do I.

In 2008, Keillor created a controversy in St. Paul when he filed a lawsuit against his neighbors' plans to build an addition on their home, citing his need for "light and air" and a view of "open space and beyond". Keillor's home is significantly larger than others in his neighborhood and would still be significantly larger than his neighbors' with its planned addition. Keillor came to an undisclosed settlement with his neighbors shortly after the story became public.

Voiceover work

Due to his distinctive North Central accent, Keillor is often used as a voiceover actor. Some notable appearances include: Voiceover artist for Honda UK's "the Power of Dreams" campaign. The campaign's most memorable advertisement is the 2003 Honda Accord commercial ''Cog'', which features a Heath Robinson contraption (Rube Goldberg Machine for those in the USA) made entirely of car parts. The commercial ends with Keillor asking, "Isn't it nice when things just work?" Since then, Keillor has voiced the tagline for most if not all Honda UK advertisements, and even sang the voiceover in the 2004 Honda Diesel commercial "Grrr". His most recent ad was a reworking of an existing commercial with digitally added England flags to tie in with the World Cup. Keillor's tagline was "Come on, England, keep the dream alive."

Voice of the Norse god Odin in an episode of the Disney animated series ''Hercules''.

Voice of Walt Whitman and other historical figures in Ken Burns's documentary series ''The Civil War and Baseball.''

Cultural references

His style, particularly his speaking voice, is often the subject of parody. ''The Simpsons'' parodied Keillor in an episode in which Homer is shown watching a Keillor-like monologist on television; Homer hit the set exclaiming "Stupid TV! Be more funny!".

One Boston radio critic likens Keillor and his "down comforter voice" to "a hypnotist intoning, 'You are getting sleepy now'," while noting that Keillor does play to listeners' intelligence. Keillor rarely reads his monologue from a script.

One of the audio bumpers which begins each hour of Dennis Miller's radio talk show features a short clip of Keillor introducing a broadcast of ''APHC'', followed immediately by snoring.

In the bonus DVD material for the album ''Venue Songs'' by band They Might Be Giants, John Hodgman delivers a fictitious newscast in which he explains that "The Artist Formerly Known as Public Radio Host Garrison Keillor" and his "legacy of Midwestern pledge-drive funk" inspired the band's first "venue song."

Pennsylvanian singer-songwriter Tom Flannery wrote a song in 2003 entitled "I Want a Job Like Garrison Keillor's."

Bibliography

Keillor's work in print includes:

Lake Wobegon

''Lake Wobegon Days'' (1985), ISBN 0-14-013161-2; a recorded version of this won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Non-musical Album in 1988

''Leaving Home'' (1987; collection of Lake Wobegon stories), ISBN 0-670-81976-X

''We Are Still Married'' (1989; collection including some Lake Wobegon stories), ISBN 0-670-82647-2

''Wobegon Boy'' (1997), ISBN 0-670-87807-3

''Lake Wobegon Summer 1956'' (2001), ISBN 0-571-21014-7

''In Search of Lake Wobegon'' (Photographs by Richard Olsenius, 2001), ISBN 0-670-03057-6

''Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon '' (2007), ISBN 0-670-06356-8

''Liberty: A Novel of Lake Wobegon '' (2008), ISBN 0-670-01991-7

''Life among the Lutherans'' (2009), ISBN 978-0-8066-7061-4

''Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance'' (2009), ISBN 978-0-670-02109-3

Other

''Happy to Be Here'' (1981), ISBN 0-06-811201-7

''WLT: A Radio Romance'', (1991), ISBN 0-670-81857-7

''A Visit to Mark Twain's House audio (1992), ISBN 0-942110-82-X

''The Book of Guys'' (1993), ISBN 0-670-84943-X

''The Sandy Bottom Orchestra'' (with Jenny Lind Nilsson, 1996), ISBN 0-7868-1250-8

''Me, by Jimmy "Big Boy" Valente'' (1999), ISBN 0-670-88796-X

''Good Poems'' (2002), ISBN 0-670-03126-7

''Love Me'' (2003), ISBN 0-670-03246-8

''Homegrown Democrat'' (2004), ISBN 0-670-03365-0

''Good Poems for Hard Times'' (2005), ISBN 0-670-03436-3

''77 Love Sonnets'' (2009), ISBN 0-14-311527-8

''A Christmas Blizzard'' (2009), ISBN 978-0-670-02136-9

''Good Poems, American Places'' (2011), ISBN 0-670-02254-3

Contributions to ''The New Yorker''

! Title	! Department	! Volume/Part	! Date	! Page(s)	! Subject(s)
Notes and Comment	The Talk of the Town	60/47	7 January 1985	17-18	A friend's visit to San Francisco and Stinson Beach, California.

See also

A Prairie Home Companion

References

Keillor, Garrison. In search of Lake Wobegon. ''National Geographic.'' December 2000.

Lee, Judith Yaross. ''Garrison Keillor: A Voice of America.'' Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991. ISBN 978-0-87805-457-2.

"Lights! Camera! Retake!". ''Telegraph'' (2003). Retrieved 2005-06-07.

External links

A Prairie Home Companion radio website Garrison Keillor's public radio show

A Prairie Home Companion movie website The movie written by Garrison Keillor and directed by Robert Altman

Minnesota Zen Master - a detailed profile of Garrison Keillor, published in ''The Guardian'', March 6, 2004.

Kingdom of the Frown - A feature article from The Reykjavík Grapevine on Garrison Keillor

At Home With Garrison Keillor: Where All the Rooms Are Above Average New York Times June 1, 2006

Garrison Keillor ''Charlie Rose'' interviews

Garrison Keillor at City Arts & Lecture on Fora.tv

An interview with Garrison Keillor (www.everydayyeah.com)

Garrison Keillor - The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes PBS ''American Masters''

Speech by Keillor at Concordia University February 15, 2011

Category:American advice columnists Category:American Episcopalians Category:American humorists Category:American Public Media Category:American public radio personalities Category:American radio actors Category:American radio personalities Category:American satirists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:National Radio Hall of Fame inductees Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Category:Minnesota Public Radio Category:The New Yorker people Category:The New Yorker staff writers Category:Writers from Minnesota Category:People from Ramsey County, Minnesota Category:People from Saint Paul, Minnesota Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:University of Minnesota alumni Category:1942 births Category:Living people Category:National Humanities Medal recipients

de:Garrison Keillor fr:Garrison Keillor he:גאריסון קיילור no:Garrison Keillor fi:Garrison Keillor

show name	American Masters
format	Documentary
creator	Susan Lacy
country	United States
language	English
executive producer	Susan Lacy (1986-present)
producer	Thirteen/WNET
channel	PBS
first aired
last aired	present
website	http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/
production website	}}

''American Masters'' is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City. The show debuted on PBS in 1986.

Groups or organizations featured include: Actor's Studio, Algonquin Round Table, Group Theatre, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Women of Tin Pan Alley, Negro Ensemble Company, Juilliard School, the Beat Generation, Sun Records, Vaudeville, and Warner Bros. Pictures.

History

''American Masters'', a series "devoted to America's 'greatest native-born and adopted' artists," was originally scheduled to premier in September 1985; for "logistical scheduling reasons" the premiere was delayed until summer 1986, though on October 16, 1985, an ''American Masters'' "special" called ''Aaron Copland: A Self-Portrait'' was aired.

The first of the 15 first-season episodes was ''Private Conversations'', a "cinema-verite documentary by Christian Blackwood done in that trickiest of cinematic forms: a film about a film, in this instance the television version of ''Death of a Salesman'', directed by Volker Schlöndorff". It aired on June 23, 1986, as one of two episodes not specifically commissioned for the show's first season.

Susan Lacy, ''American Masters'' creator and executive producer, selected each subject, matched them to the specific film makers, and oversaw a first-season budget of $8 million. Before creating the series Lacy had been the senior programmer for ''Great Performances'' and one of the "architects" of ''American Playhouse'', having written the original proposal for the latter. At the time of the show's premiere, she was also the East Coast head of the Sundance Institute.

After the show's first two seasons, ''American Masters'' began producing most of its episodes; in those cases, it hires directors, arranges for funding, manages the budget, and supervises the editing; the show reserves the right to make the final cut on every film it produces. The ''American Masters'' production company occasionally plays a more limited role and co-produces some of its episodes, such as the 2005 documentary on Bob Dylan, ''No Direction Home'', and then in 2010 The Doors, ''When You're Strange''.

Profiles

A

Stella Adler

Louisa May Alcott

Louis Armstrong

John James Audubon

Richard Avedon

B

Joan Baez

George Balanchine

James Baldwin

Lucille Ball

Tony Bennett

Leonard Bernstein

Jeff Bridges

James Brown

Carol Burnett

C

John Cage

Alexander Calder

Robert Capa

Truman Capote

The Carter Family

John Cassavetes

Willa Cather

Lon Chaney

Charlie Chaplin

Ray Charles

Julia Child

Harold Clurman

Nat King Cole

Sam Cooke

Aaron Copland

Walter Cronkite

George Cukor

Merce Cunningham

Edward S. Curtis

D

James Dean

Placido Domingo

The Doors (''When You're Strange'')

Bob Dylan (''No Direction Home'')

E

Thomas Eakins

Clint Eastwood

Albert Einstein

Duke Ellington

Ralph Ellison

Ahmet Ertegün

F

Ella Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald

John Ford

Miloš Forman

Aretha Franklin

Buckminster Fuller

G

Judy Garland

Marvin Gaye

Frank Gehry

George Gershwin

Allen Ginsberg

Lillian Gish

Philip Glass

Samuel Goldwyn

Benny Goodman

Glenn Gould

Martha Graham

Cary Grant

D.W. Griffith

Woody Guthrie

H

Merle Haggard

Dashiell Hammett

John H. Hammond

Helen Hayes

Lillian Hellman

Ernest Hemingway

Don Hewitt

Al Hirschfeld

Alfred Hitchcock

David Hockney

Billie Holiday

Lena Horne

Zora Neale Hurston

I

J

Jasper Johns

Philip Johnson

Quincy Jones

K

Danny Kaye

Elia Kazan

Buster Keaton

Garrison Keillor

Gene Kelly

André Kertész

L

Annie Leibovitz

John Lennon

James Levine

Harold Lloyd

Cachao Lopez

Murray Louis

George Lucas

Henry Luce

M

Norman Mailer

Bob Marley

Elaine May

Sanford Meisner

Yehudi Menuhin

Arthur Miller

Joni Mitchell

Marilyn Monroe

Robert Motherwell

Edward R. Murrow

N

Willie Nelson

Bob Newhart

Mike Nichols

Alwin Nikolais

Isamu Noguchi

O

Georgia O'Keeffe

Eugene O'Neill

P

Jack Paar

Charlie Parker

Les Paul

Gregory Peck

Edgar Allan Poe

Sidney Poitier

Cole Porter

Katherine Anne Porter

Q

R

Robert Rauschenberg

Man Ray

Lou Reed

Frederic Remington

Diego Rivera

Paul Robeson

Norman Rockwell

Richard Rodgers

Will Rogers

Arthur Rubinstein

S

Mort Sahl

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Waldo Pressman Salt

Charles M. Schulz

Martin Scorsese

Pete Seeger

David O. Selznick

Maurice Sendak

Rod Serling

Neil Simon

Paul Simon

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Alfred Stieglitz

George Stevens

Preston Sturges

William Styron

T

Paul Taylor

Dalton Trumbo

U

V

Sarah Vaughan

Gore Vidal

W

Andy Warhol

Alice Waters

Muddy Waters

John Wayne

Billy Wilder

Hank Williams

Tennessee Williams

William Wyler

X

Y

Neil Young

Z

Funding

National Endowment for the Humanities (2000–2005)

National Endowment for the Arts (1983–present)

Rosland P. Walter (1992–present)

The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (2009–present)

American Playhouse (2001–present)

Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1983–present)

Viewers Like You (1983–present)

MasterCard (2000–2007)

Apple Inc. (2000–2008)

American Express (1995)

References

External links

PBS: American Masters

Category:Programs produced by Thirteen/WNET New York Category:Lists of American people Category:PBS network shows Category:American documentary television series Category:1986 television series debuts Category:1980s American television series Category:1990s American television series Category:2000s American television series Category:2010s American television series

fr:American Masters

name	Erma Bombeck
birth name	Erma Fiste
birth date	February 21, 1927
birth place	Bellbrook, Ohio
death date	April 22, 1996
death place	San Francisco, California
occupation	Novelist, columnist
nationality	American
citizenship	United States
period	1965 to 1996
spouse	Bill Bombeck
children	Betsy, Andrew, Matthew
portaldisp	}}

Erma Louise Bombeck (born Erma Fiste; February 21, 1927 – April 22, 1996) was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described suburban home life from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. Bombeck also published 15 books, most of which became best-sellers.

From 1965 to 1996, Erma Bombeck wrote over 4,000 newspaper columns chronicling the ordinary life of a midwestern suburban housewife with broad, and sometimes eloquent humor. By the 1970s, her columns were read, twice weekly, by thirty million readers of the 900 newspapers of the U.S. and Canada.

Early life

Erma Fiste was born in Bellbrook, Ohio. She grew up in a working-class family in Dayton, Ohio. Her father, Cassius Fiste, was the city crane operator; her mother's name was also Erma. Erma lived with her elder paternal half-sister, Thelma.

Erma began elementary school one year earlier than usual for her age, in 1932, and became an excellent student and an avid reader. She particularly enjoyed the popular humor writers of the time. After Erma's father died in 1936, she moved, with her mother, into her grandmother's home. In 1938 her mother remarried, to Albert Harris (a moving van owner). Erma practiced tap dance and singing, and was hired by a local radio for a children's revue for eight years.

Formative years

In 1940, Erma entered Emerson Junior High School, and began writing a humorous column for its newspaper, ''The Owl''. In 1942, Bombeck entered Parker (now Patterson) Vocational High School, where she wrote a serious column, mixing in bits of humor.

In 1942, Erma began to work at the ''Dayton Herald'' as a copygirl, sharing her full-time assignment with a girlfriend. In 1943, for her first journalistic work, Erma interviewed Shirley Temple, who visited Dayton, and the interview became a newspaper feature.

Erma completed high school in 1944. Then, to earn a college scholarship fund, she worked for a year as a typist and stenographer, for the ''Dayton Herald'' and several other companies, and did minor journalistic assignments (obituaries, etc.) for the ''Dayton Herald'' as well.

Using the money she earned, Erma enrolled in Ohio University at Athens in 1946. However, she failed most of her literary assignments and was rejected for the university newspaper. She left after one semester, when her funds ran out.

Erma later enrolled in the Roman Catholic University of Dayton. She lived in her family home and worked at Rike's Store, a department store, where she wrote humorous material for the company newsletter. In addition, she worked two part-time jobs - a termite control accountant at an advertising agency and as a public relations person at the local YMCA. While in college, her English professor, Fr. Tom Price, commented to Erma about her great prospects as a writer, and she began to write for the university publication, ''The Exponent''. Erma graduated in 1949, with a degree in English. She became a life-long active contact for the University — helping financially and participating personally — and became a lifetime trustee of the institution in 1987.

In 1949, Erma also converted to Catholicism, from the United Brethren church, and married Bill Bombeck, a former fellow student of the University of Dayton, who was a veteran of the World War II Korean front. His subsequent profession would be that of educator and school supervisor. Bombeck remained active in the Church the rest of her life.

Housewife column

Early journalism

Erma Bombeck stayed on as a ''Dayton Journal Herald'' reporter, in the women's section, writing both its feature stories and a humorous housekeeping column, "Operation Dustrag." Bombeck also interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt and Mamie Eisenhower.

Housewife (1954–1964)

The Bombecks were told by doctors that having a child was improbable, so they adopted a girl, Betsy, in 1953. Erma decided to become a full-time housewife, and relinquished her career as a journalist. During 1954, Erma nevertheless wrote a series of humorous columns in the ''Dayton Shopping News''.

Despite the former difficult diagnoses, Erma Bombeck gave birth to a son, Andrew, in 1955. The Bombeck family moved to Centerville, Ohio, into a tract housing development, and were neighbors to the young Phil Donahue. Away from her previous journalistic career, Bombeck initiated an intense period of homemaking, which lasted 10 years, and had her second son, Matthew, in 1958.

"At Wit's End" (1965)

In 1964, Erma Bombeck resumed her writing career for the local ''Kettering-Oakwood Times'', with weekly columns which yielded $3 each. She wrote in her small bedroom, over a rustic table of a plank top with two supports of cinder block.

In 1965, the ''Dayton Journal Herald'' requested new humorous columns as well, and Bombeck agreed to write two weekly 450-word columns for $50. After three weeks, the articles went into national syndication through the Newsday Newspaper Syndicate, into 36 major U.S. newspapers, with three weekly columns under the title "At Wit's End".

Bombeck quickly became a popular humorist nationwide. Beginning in 1966, she began doing lectures for a $15,000 fee in the various cities where her columns appeared. In 1967, her newspaper columns were compiled and published by Doubleday, under the title of ''At Wit's End.'' And after a humorous appearance on Arthur Godfrey's radio, she became a regular radio guest on his show.

Diversified production

Success (1970s)

Aaron Priest, a Doubleday representative, became Bombeck's loyal agent. By 1969, 500 U.S. newspapers featured her "At Wit's End" columns, and she was also writing for ''Good Housekeeping Magazine'', ''Reader's Digest'', ''Family Circle'', ''Redbook'', ''McCall's'', and even ''Teen'' magazine. Bombeck and her family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to a lavish hacienda on a hilltop in Paradise Valley.

By 1978, 900 U.S. newspapers were publishing Bombeck's column.

McGraw-Hill (1976)

In 1976, McGraw-Hill published Bombeck's ''The Grass Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank'', which became a best-seller. In 1978, Bombeck arranged both a million-dollar contract for her fifth book, ''If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?'' and a 700-thousand-copy advance for her subsequent book, ''Aunt Erma's Cope Book'' (1979).

Television

At the invitation of television producer Bob Shanks, Bombeck participated in ABC's Good Morning America from 1975 until 1986. She began doing brief commentaries which were recorded at Phoenix, and eventually did both gag segments and important interviews.

For several years, Bombeck was occupied with multiple writing and TV projects. In 1978, she failed with the television pilot of ''The Grass is Always Greener'' on CBS. In 1980, then Bombeck wrote and produced her own show, the also unsuccessful ''Maggie'', for ABC. It aired for just four months (eight episodes) to poor reviews; nevertheless the show meant that Bombeck was becoming quickly overworked, returning from Los Angeles to Phoenix only during weekends. Bombeck was offered a second sitcom attempt but she declined.

The Equal Rights Amendment (1978)

In 1978, Bombeck was involved in the Presidential Advisory Committee for Women, particularly for the final implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment, with the ERA America organization's support. Bombeck was strongly criticized for this by conservative figures, and some U.S. stores reacted by removing her books. In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was proposed by the United States Congress to the states. Congress specified a seven-year period for ratification. Under Article V of the United States Constitution, ratification by at least three-fourths of the states is necessary, but at the end of the seven-year period, only 35 states had ratified, or three less than the required three-fourths. Bombeck expressed dismay over this development.

Great popularity (1980s)

By 1985, Erma Bombeck's three weekly columns were being published by 900 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, and were also being anthologized into a series of best-selling books. She was also making twice-weekly ''Good Morning America'' appearances. Bombeck belonged to the American Academy of Humor Columnists, along with other famous personalities. During the 1980s, Bombeck's annual earnings ranged from $500,000 to $1 million a year.

Death

Erma Bombeck had been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease (a congenital defect) when she was 20 years old, but managed to live most of her life without any problems from it. She had a mastectomy in 1992 after being diagnosed with breast cancer and in 1996, she was brought to a San Francisco hospital for a kidney transplant, which was performed on April 3. However, complications developed and she died on April 22.

Her remains are interred in the Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio, under a large rock from the Phoenix desert.

Books

''At Wit's End'', Doubleday, 1967.

''Just Wait Until You Have Children of Your Own'', Doubleday, 1971. Written with Bil Keane.

''I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression'', Doubleday, 1974.

''The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank'', McGraw-Hill, 1976.

''If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?'', McGraw-Hill, 1978.

''Aunt Erma's Cope Book'', McGraw-Hill, 1979.

''Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession'', 1983.

''Family — The Ties that Bind ... and Gag!'', 1987.

''I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise: Children Surviving Cancer'', 1989. American Cancer Society's Medal of Honor in 1990. (Profits from the publication of this book were donated to a group of health-related organizations.)

''When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home'', 1991.

''A Marriage Made in Heaven ... or Too Tired For an Affair'', 1993

''All I Know About Animal Behavior I learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room'', ISBN 0060177888 HarperCollins 1995

'' Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing From America's Favorite Humorist''

Quotes

"Insanity is hereditary. You can catch it from your kids."

"My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first one being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint."

"There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child."

"If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead."

"Mothers-in-law who wear a black armband to the wedding are expendable."

"The only reason I would take up jogging is so I could hear heavy breathing again."

"Ironed Sheets are a health hazard."

"Laughter rises out of tragedy, when you need it the most, and rewards you for your courage."

"Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely."

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'"

"In general, my children refused to eat anything that hadn't danced on TV."

"When humor goes, there goes civilization."

"Seize the moment. Think of all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart."

"Never loan your car to anyone to whom you've given birth."

"The grass is always greener over the septic tank."

"A child needs your love more when he deserves it least."

"There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt."

"It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else."

"If you can laugh at it, you can live with it."

References

Erma in Bomburbia. Time Magazine cover story. (1984)

Full Biography of Dayton University

Encarta Encyclopedia (Archived 2009-10-31)

External links

Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop

Erma Bombeck Online Museum

Erma Bombeck Writing Competition

Category:1927 births Category:1996 deaths Category:American columnists Category:American humorists Category:Writers from Ohio Category:People from Dayton, Ohio Category:University of Dayton alumni Category:Burials at Woodland Cemetery, Dayton Category:Deaths from surgical complications Category:People from Phoenix, Arizona

cs:Erma Bombeck de:Erma Bombeck pt:Erma Bombeck tl:Erma Bombeck

Name	Ernie Manouse
Birth date	September 01, 1969
Residence	Houston, TX
Nationality	American
Known for	InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse
Employer	HoustonPBS
Occupation	Television Host
Website	ernieontv.com }}

Ernie Manouse (born September 1, 1969 in Binghamton, New York) is an American television host, radio personality, writer and producer. He currently hosts the interview show InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse, produced by HoustonPBS. His work with HoustonPBS has met critical acclaim in the southern United States, earning him numerous KATIE awards and regional Emmy Awards

Early life

Manouse was born Ernest David Manouse in Binghamton, New York. He is of Greek descent. He attended Loyola University Chicago and studied to be a music video director. While in college, he guest-hosted Outlook, a Chicago-based radio show, with a classmate. Their radio presentation received such a positive reaction that Outlook hired them permanently.

Career

Manouse began his career in television with NBC Network News, then moved into radio withWLS and WLUW in Chicago, and then back to TV at HoustonPBS. Ernie has since worked his way through many aspects of talk shows – from producing sex therapy call-in radio shows ''Sex Talk'' and ''The Phyllis Levy Show'' to hosting his own brand of chat and magazine programs. He can also be seen on PBS Stations across the country hosting numerous pledge and entertainment specials, including three of public television’s most successful pledge events with financial guru Suze Orman.

In 1996, Ernie moved to Houston, Texas and spent six years hosting and producing the daily magazine program ''WeekNight Edition'' which evolved into ''WeekDAY'' and became Houston’s most celebrated local television program, earning multiple Emmy and Houston Press Club awards. Manouse shared with Matthew Brawley the 2006 Katie Award for "Outstanding Interview/Talk Show" for the Southern region. In October 2002, Manouse helped to create and produce the local prime time magazine show The Connection, which he hosted for two years. In 2004, Manouse launched the syndicated series InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse. This award winning series is distributed nationally to PBS stations across the country, and airs in more than 100 cities in the U.S. and the Virgin Islands. The show features Manouse in unedited, one-on-one interviews with noted personalities such as Patti LuPone and Jamie Foxx. Manouse thoroughly researches his guests before interviewing them, and arranges an informal setting to encourage spontaneous discussion. Another area of broadcasting that Manouse has explored is late night talk, and on February 9, 2005, Manouse launched The After Party, combining arts coverage and light-hearted interviews reminiscent of Johnny Carson and Jack Parr. The show received positive reviews from both critics and audiences alike, garnering the coveted Emmy nomination for "Best Entertainment/Variety program" in its first season. The program ended its run on November 15, 2006 after over 50 episodes.

In 2006, Manouse produced and anchored A Conversation on RACE for HoustonPBS. He also produced the political Red, White & Blue and moderated the 2002 Houston Mayoral Debates, the 2008 Texas Supreme Court Judicial Debate, and the 2008 Texas US Senate Debate. In 2009, Manouse became the anchor and producer of Houston 8, a weekly current events discussion series. He also hosted the 2009 HoustonPBS Spelling Bee, the largest regional qualifying spelling bee for the national Scripps Spelling Bee.

After seven nominations for the Lone Star (Texas) regional chapter of the Emmy Awards, Manouse won three Emmys in 2009. He won for Best Information Series and Best On-Air Talent. He also won an Emmy for his work on the Houston Spelling Bee in the category of Best Event Coverage. Manouse is also a voice actor. He has done the English voiceovers for over a dozen Japanese anime videos produced by ADV Films including ''Gilgamesh'', ''Le Chevalier D'Eon'' and Cromartie High School.

Community involvement

Manouse is an active member of the Houston LGBT community. Manouse has hosted community events such as the U.S. Military Ball, and The Cattle Baron’s Ball. He serves on the advisory board of both Stages Repertory Theatre and Dominic Walsh Dance Theater. He served as Vice President of Public Affiars for the Greater Houston United Services Organization (USO). He was also vice president of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

References

External links

USO Houston

InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse

Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

Ernie Manouse's website

Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:LGBT television personalities Category:Loyola University Chicago alumni Category:LGBT people from the United States Category:American people of Greek descent Category:American television talk show hosts Category:People from Binghamton, New York

birthname	Gloria Jean Schoonover
birth date	April 14, 1926
birth place	Buffalo, New York, U.S.
yearsactive	1939–1962
occupation	Actress, singer
spouse	(divorced)
website	}}

Gloria Jean (born April 14, 1926) is an American singer and actress who starred or co-starred in 26 feature films between 1939 and 1959. She also made radio, television, stage, and nightclub appearances.

Career

Gloria Jean was born Gloria Jean Schoonover in Buffalo, New York. Her family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where she sang on radio with Paul Whiteman's band. She was being trained as a coloratura soprano, when her voice teacher, Leah Russel, took her to an audition held by Universal Pictures movie producer Joe Pasternak in 1938. Pasternak had guided Deanna Durbin to stardom, and with Durbin now advancing to ingenue roles, Pasternak wanted a younger singer to make the same kind of musicals. Up against hundreds of other girls, Gloria won the audition.

Under contract to Universal, she was given the leading role in the 1939 feature ''The Under-Pup'', and became instantly popular with moviegoers. Universal's publicity department initially claimed the singer was 11 years old instead of 13; her actual age was not well known until recently.

For her next two vehicles, she co-starred with Bing Crosby in ''If I Had My Way'' and starred in the well-received ''A Little Bit of Heaven'' (which reunited her with many from the ''Under-Pup'' cast). Her best-known picture is her fourth, ''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'', in which she co-starred with W. C. Fields.

With Deanna Durbin forging ahead in dramatic roles, Universal recognized the need for musical entertainment during wartime, and Gloria Jean appeared in a series of musicals during those years. She became one of Universal's most prolific performers; during the war years she made 14 feature films. Most were "hepcat" musicals, which were geared to the teenage crowd of that day, and Universal often used them to introduce new talent, including Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan, Mel Tormé, and Marshall Thompson. Her dramatic tour de force, as a blind girl being menaced by an escaped killer, was filmed as one of four vignettes for Julien Duvivier's ''Flesh and Fantasy''. Jean's performance was the best-received of the four. However, Universal removed the half-hour sequence and shelved it until 1944, when it was expanded into a feature-length melodrama, ''Destiny''. She co-starred with Olsen and Johnson in the big-budget ''Ghost Catchers'', and in her last two Universal features, released in 1945, she was teamed with singer-actor Kirby Grant.

When Gloria's Universal contract lapsed, she was convinced by her agent to not renew it, but instead to make personal appearances across America. The successful tour prompted a new tour of Europe. In England, her rendition of "The Lord's Prayer" (and the lyric "forgive us our debts") was taken by some critics as a pointed comment about America's lend-lease policy. Thus the European tour ended abruptly and Gloria returned to Hollywood.

She resumed her movie career as a freelance performer in United Artists, Columbia Pictures, and Allied Artists productions, the best-known being ''Copacabana'' with Groucho Marx. Some theatre and television work followed in the 1950s and 1960s; the forgettable 1955 movie ''Air Strike'' and the lightweight comedy ''The Madcaps'' (filmed in 1959, re-released 1964) survive. Her final movie was with Jerry Lewis in ''The Ladies Man'', but her scenes were cut from the final print, and she is barely noticeable among the extras. She retired from show business in 1963 and began a 30-year career with Redken Laboratories, a national cosmetics firm, where she worked until her retirement in 1993.

Personal life

After retiring, Gloria lived in California with her sister, Bonnie. When Bonnie died in 2007, she moved to Hawaii to live with her son and his family.

Gloria Jean's films are beginning to receive new exposure: ''If I Had My Way'' has been restored to its original length and issued on DVD, followed by the DVD release of ''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break''. (Latter-day documentaries about Fields include recent clips of Gloria Jean, reminiscing about working with him.) Universal Pictures has also struck new 35mm prints of ''Mister Big'' and ''Get Hep to Love'' for theatrical use. Her 1947 film ''Copacabana'' is widely available on home video.

Her authorized biography, ''Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven'', was published in 2005. A tribute website, GloriaJeanSings.com, followed, again with authorization.

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1939 || ''The Under-Pup'' || Pip-Emma Binns || first Universal picture |- |rowspan="2"|1940 || ''If I Had My Way'' || Patricia Johnson || |- | ''A Little Bit of Heaven'' || Midge Loring || |- |rowspan="2"|1941 || ''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'' || W. C. Fields's niece, Gloria Jean || |- | ''Jingle Belles'' || song specialties || (short subject) (reissued as ''Winter Serenade'') |- |rowspan="3"|1942 || ''What's Cookin'?'' || Sue Courtney || |- | ''Get Hep to Love'' || Doris Stanley || |- | ''When Johnny Comes Marching Home'' || Marilyn Benton || |- |rowspan="3"| 1943 || ''It Comes Up Love'' || Victoria Peabody || |- | ''Mister Big'' || Patricia Davis || |- | ''Moonlight in Vermont'' || Gwen Harding || |- |rowspan="4"| 1944 || ''Ghost Catchers'' || Melinda Marshall || |- | ''Pardon My Rhythm'' || Jinx Page || |- | ''Reckless Age'' || Linda Wadsworth || |- | ''Destiny'' || Jane Broderick || includes deleted sequence from ''Flesh and Fantasy'' |- |rowspan="3"| 1945 || ''I'll Remember April'' || April Garfield || |- | ''Easy to Look At'' || Judy Dawson || last Universal picture |- | ''River Gang'' || Wendy || filmed earlier by Universal; release delayed |- | 1947 || ''Copacabana'' || Anne Stuart || United Artists |- |rowspan="3"| 1948 || ''I Surrender Dear'' || Patty Nelson, aka Patty Hart || Columbia |- | ''Manhattan Angel'' || Gloria Cole || Columbia |- | ''An Old-Fashioned Girl'' || Polly Milton || Eagle-Lion |- | 1949 || ''There's a Girl in My Heart'' || Ruth Kroner || Allied Artists |- | 1953 || ''Wonder Valley'' || || independent; no known usable prints exist |-. | 1955 || ''Air Strike'' || Marg Huggins || Lippert |- | 1959 || ''Laffing Time'' (reissued as ''The Madcaps'')|| Sally Suffer || independent |- | 1961 || ''The Ladies' Man'' || Girl in boarding house || Paramount |}

Sources

External links

Gloria Jean Sings: tribute website with clips

''Gloria Jean: The Hollywood Years'', a montage of her 20 years in movies

Gloria Jean reminisces about ''The Under-Pup''

Gloria Jean introduces trailer for ''Destiny''

Gloria Jean introduces ''Mister Big''

A clip from ''If I Had My Way''

Another clip from ''If I Had My Way''

A clip from ''A Little Bit of Heaven''

Gloria Jean sings "Voices of Spring" in ''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break''

A clip from ''What's Cookin'?''

A clip from ''It Comes Up Love''

A clip from ''Copacabana''

Category:Actors from New York Category:Actors from Pennsylvania Category:American child actors Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:People from Buffalo, New York Category:People from Scranton, Pennsylvania Category:1926 births Category:Living people