Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, female and male impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies. Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque. Called "the heart of American show business," vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades.

Etymology

The origin of the term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the expression ''voix de ville'', or "voice of the city." Another plausible etymology finds origins in the French ''Vau de Vire'', a valley in Normandy noted for its style of satirical songs with topical themes. The term ''vaudeville'', referring specifically to North American variety entertainment, came into common usage after 1871 with the formation of Sargent's Great Vaudeville Company of Louisville, Kentucky. It had little, if anything, to do with the Comédie en vaudeville of the French theatre.

Leavitt's and Sargent's shows differed little from the coarser material presented in earlier itinerant entertainments, although their use of the term to provide a veneer of respectability points to an early effort to cater variety amusements to the growing middle class. Though ''vaudeville'' had been used in the United States as early as the 1830s, most variety theatres adopted the term in the late 1880s and early 1890s for two reasons. First, seeking middle class patrons, they wished to distance themselves from the earlier rowdy, working-class variety halls. Second, the French or pseudo-French term lent an air of sophistication, and perhaps made the institution seem more consistent with the Progressive Era's interests in education and self-betterment. Some, however, preferred the earlier term "variety" to what manager Tony Pastor called its "sissy and Frenchified" successor. Thus, vaudeville was marketed as "variety" well into the twentieth century.

Beginnings

A descendant of variety, (c. 1860s–1881), vaudeville was distinguished from the earlier form by its mixed-gender audience, usually alcohol-free halls, and often slavish devotion to inculcating favor among members of the middle class. The form gradually evolved from the concert saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more genteel form was known as "Polite Vaudeville."

In the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere. In the United States, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing and comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found an increasing number of ways to be entertained. A handful of circuses regularly toured the country; dime museums appealed to the curious; amusement parks, riverboats, and town halls often featured "cleaner" presentations of variety entertainment; and saloons, music halls and burlesque houses catered to those with a taste for the ''risqué''. In the 1840s, minstrel shows, another type of variety performance, and "the first emanation of a pervasive and purely American mass culture," grew to enormous popularity and formed what Nick Tosches called "the heart of 19th-century show business." Medicine shows traveled the countryside offering programs of comedy, music, jugglers and other novelties along with displays of tonics, salves, and miracle elixirs, while "Wild West" shows provided romantic vistas of the disappearing frontier, complete with trick riding, music and drama. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in America's growing urban hubs.

In the early 1880s, impresario Tony Pastor, a circus ringmaster turned theatre manager, capitalized on middle class sensibilities and spending power when he began to feature "polite" variety programs in several of his New York City theatres. The usual date given for the "birth" of vaudeville is October 24, 1881, when Pastor famously staged the first bill of self-proclaimed "clean" vaudeville in New York City. Hoping to draw a potential audience from female and family-based shopping traffic uptown, Pastor barred the sale of liquor in his theatres, eliminated bawdy material from his shows, and offered gifts of coal and hams to attendees. Pastor's experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit.

Popularity

B.F. Keith took the next step, starting in Boston, where he built an empire of theatres and brought vaudeville to the United States and Canada. Later, E.F. Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, managed the chain to its greatest success. Circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudeville's greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the single-theatre booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years.

Albee also gave national prominence to vaudeville's trumpeting "polite" entertainment, a commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men, women and children. Acts that violated this ethos (e.g., those that used words such as "hell") were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the week's remaining performances or were canceled altogether. In spite of such threats, performers routinely flouted this censorship, often to the delight of the very audience members whose sensibilities were supposedly endangered.

By the late 1890s, vaudeville had large circuits, houses (small and large) in almost every sizable location, standardized booking, broad pools of skilled acts, and a loyal national following. One of the biggest circuits was Martin Beck's Orpheum Circuit. It incorporated in 1919 and brought together 45 vaudeville theaters in 36 cities throughout the United States and Canada and a large interest in two vaudeville circuits. Another major circuit was that of Alexander Pantages. At his hey-day Pantages owned more than 30 vaudeville theaters and controlled, through management contracts, perhaps 60 more in both the United States and Canada.

At its height, vaudeville played across multiple strata of economic class and auditorium size. On the vaudeville circuit, it was said that if an act would succeed in Peoria, Illinois, it would work anywhere. The question "Will it play in Peoria?" has now become a metaphor for whether something appeals to the American mainstream public. The three most common levels were the “small time” (lower-paying contracts for more frequent performances in rougher, often converted theatres), the “medium time” (moderate wages for two performances each day in purpose-built theatres), and the “big time” (possible remuneration of several thousand dollars per week in large, urban theatres largely patronized by the middle and upper-middle classes). As performers rose in renown and established regional and national followings, they worked their way into the less arduous working conditions and better pay of the big time. The capitol of the big time was New York City's Palace Theatre (or just “The Palace” in the slang of vaudevillians), built by Martin Beck in 1913 and operated by Keith. Featuring a bill stocked with inventive novelty acts, national celebrities, and acknowledged masters of vaudeville performance (such as comedian and trick roper Will Rogers), the Palace provided what many vaudevillians considered the apotheoses of remarkable careers.

While the neighborhood character of vaudeville attendance had always promoted a tendency to tailor fare to specific audiences, mature vaudeville grew to feature houses and circuits specifically aimed at certain demographic groups. African-American patrons, often segregated into the rear of the second gallery in white-oriented theatres, had their own smaller circuits, as did speakers of Italian and Yiddish. (For a brief discussion of Black vaudeville, see Theater Owners Booking Association.) White-oriented regional circuits, such as New England's "Peanut Circuit", also provided essential training grounds for new artists while allowing established acts to experiment with and polish new material. At its height, vaudeville was rivaled only by churches and public schools among the nation's premiere public gathering places.

Decline

The shift of New York City's Palace Theatre, vaudeville's epicenter, to an exclusively cinema presentation on 16 November 1932 is often considered to have been the death knell of vaudeville. No single event is more reflective of its gradual withering. The line is blurred, however, by the number of vaudeville entrepreneurs who made more or less successful forays into the movie business. For example, Alexander Pantages quickly realized the importance of motion pictures as a form of entertainment. He incorporated them in his shows as early as 1902. Later, he entered into partnership with the motion picture distributor Famous Players, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. There was no abrupt end to vaudeville, though the form was clearly sagging by the late 1920s.

The continued growth of the lower-priced cinema in the early 1910s dealt the heaviest blow to vaudeville. This was similar to the advent of free broadcast television's diminishing the cultural and economic strength of the cinema. Cinema was first regularly commercially presented in the United States in vaudeville halls. The first public showing of movies projected on a screen took place at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in 1896. Lured by greater salaries and less arduous working conditions, many early film and old-time radio performers, such as Al Jolson, W. C. Fields, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, Jimmy Durante, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, Edgar Bergen, Fanny Brice, and Eddie Cantor, used the prominence gained in live variety performance to vault into the new medium of cinema. (In so doing, such performers often exhausted in a few moments of screen time the novelty of an act that might have kept them on tour for several years.) Other performers who entered in vaudeville's later years, including Jack Benny, Kate Smith, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Judy Garland, Rose Marie, Sammy Davis, Jr., Red Skelton, Burns and Allen, and The Three Stooges, used vaudeville only as a launching pad for later careers. They left live performance before achieving the national celebrity of earlier vaudeville stars, and found fame in new venues.

By the late 1920s, almost no vaudeville bill failed to include a healthy selection of cinema. Earlier in the century, many vaudevillians, cognizant of the threat represented by cinema, held out hope that the silent nature of the "flickering shadow sweethearts" would preclude their usurpation of the paramount place in the public's affection. With the introduction of talking pictures in 1926, however, the burgeoning film studios removed what had remained, for many, the chief point in favor of live theatrical performance: spoken dialogue. Historian John Kenrick wrote: "Top vaudeville stars filmed their acts for one-time pay-offs, inadvertently helping to speed the death of vaudeville. After all, when "small time" theatres could offer "big time" performers on screen at a nickel a seat, who could ask audiences to pay higher amounts for less impressive live talent? The newly-formed RKO studios took over the famed Orpheum vaudeville circuit and swiftly turned it into a chain of fulltime movie theaters. The half-century tradition of vaudeville was effectively wiped out within less than four years."

Inevitably, managers further trimmed costs by eliminating the last of the live performances. Vaudeville also suffered due to the rise of broadcast radio following the greater availability of inexpensive receiver sets later in the decade. Even the hardiest within the vaudeville industry realized the form was in decline; the perceptive understood the condition to be terminal. The standardized film distribution and talking pictures of the 1930s confirmed the end of vaudeville. By 1930, the vast majority of formerly live theatres had been wired for sound, and none of the major studios were producing silent pictures. For a time, the most luxurious theatres continued to offer live entertainment, but the majority of theatres were forced by the Great Depression to economize.

Some in the industry blamed cinema's drain of talent from the vaudeville circuits for the medium's demise. Others argued that vaudeville had allowed its performances to become too familiar to its famously loyal, now seemingly fickle audiences.

Though talk of its resurrection was heard throughout the 1930s and after, the demise of the supporting apparatus of the circuits and the inescapably higher cost of live performance made any large-scale renewal of vaudeville unrealistic.

Architecture

The most striking examples of Gilded Age theater architecture were commissioned by the big time vaudeville magnates and stood as monuments of their wealth and ambition. Examples of such architecture are the theaters built by impressario Alexander Pantages. Pantages often used architect B. Marcus Priteca (1881–1971), who in turn regularly worked with muralist Anthony Heinsbergen. Priteca devised an exotic, neo-classical style that his employer called "Pantages Greek".

Though classic vaudeville reached a zenith of capitalization and sophistication in urban areas dominated by national chains and commodious theatres, small-time vaudeville included countless more intimate and locally controlled houses. Small-time houses were often converted saloons, rough-hewn theatres or multi-purpose halls, together catering to a wide range of clientele. Many small towns had purpose-built theatres.

Post-vaudeville

Some of the most prominent vaudevillians continued the migration to cinema, though others found that the gifts that had so delighted live audiences did not translate well into different media. Some performers such as Bert Lahr fashioned careers out of combining live performance, radio and film roles. Many others later appeared in the Catskill resorts that constituted the "Borscht Belt". Many simply retired from performance and entered the workaday world of the middle class, the group that vaudeville, more than anything else, had helped to articulate and entertain.

Yet vaudeville, both in its methods and ruling aesthetic, influenced the succeeding media of film, radio and television. The screwball comedies of the 1930s, those reflections of the brief moment of cinematic equipoise between dialogue and physicality, reflect the more madcap comedic elements of some vaudeville acts (e.g., The Three Keatons). In form, the television variety show owed much to vaudeville. The multi-act format had renewed success in shows such as ''Your Show of Shows'' with Sid Caesar and, ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. Today, performers such as Bill Irwin, a MacArthur Fellow and Tony Award-winning actor, are frequently lauded as being "New Vaudevillians."

References to vaudeville and the use of its distinctive argot continue throughout Western popular culture. Terms such as "a flop" (an act that does badly), for example, have entered the American idiom. Many of the most common performance techniques and "gags" of vaudeville entertainers are still seen on television and on film. Vaudeville, like its dime museum and variety theatre forebears, also continued and solidified a strong American absorption with foreign entertainers.

Archives

The American Vaudeville Museum, the world’s largest collection of vaudeville memorabilia, is located at the University of Arizona.

The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres in Toronto houses the world's largest collection of vaudeville props and scenery.

See also

American burlesque

Blackface

Borscht Belt

Cabaret

Chautauqua

Concert Party (entertainment)

Concert saloon

''For Me and My Gal (film)''

Music hall

Vaudeville Bellydance

Medicine show

Minstrel show

Nightclub

Revue

Tab show

Tom Shows

Variety show

References

External links

Vaudeville Ventriloquists

Virtual Vaudeville

Glossary of Vaudeville Slang

University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – J. Willis Sayre Photographs

University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Prior and Norris Troupe Photographs

University of Washington libraries Digital Collections - 19th Century Actors Photographs

University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections - Keith/Albee Vaudeville Theater Collection

Ruckus! American Entertainments at the Turn of the Twentieth Century From the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University

Hear Gary Stephens on vaudeville, ICA 1988

* Category:American culture Category:Canadian culture Category:Comedy Category:Entertainment in the United States Category:Theatrical genres Category:Variety entertainment Category:French loanwords

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Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
name	Eddie Cantor
birth name	Edward Israel Iskowitz
birth date	January 31, 1892
birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
death date	October 10, 1964
death place	Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
occupation	Actor, comedian, dancer, singer-songwriter
years active	1907–53
spouse	Ida Cantor (1914-62) 5 daughters}}

Eddie Cantor (January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie and early television audiences, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife Ida and five daughters. Some of his hits include "Makin' Whoopee", "Ida", "If You Knew Susie", "Ma! He's Makin' Eyes at Me", "Margie" and "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree?)" He also wrote a few songs, including "Merrily We Roll Along", the ''Merrie Melodies'' Warner Bros. cartoon theme.

His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname, "Banjo Eyes". In 1933, the artist Frederick J. Garner caricatured Cantor with large round eyes resembling the drum-like pot of a banjo. Cantor's eyes became his trademark, often exaggerated in illustrations, and leading to his appearance on Broadway in the musical ''Banjo Eyes'' (1941).

His charity and humanitarian work was extensive, and he is credited with coining the phrase and helping to develop The March of Dimes.

Biography

Cantor was born Edward Israel Iskowitz in New York City, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Meta and Mechel Iskowitz. His mother died in childbirth one year after his birth, and his father died of pneumonia when Eddie was two, leaving him to be raised by his beloved grandmother, Esther Kantrowitz. As a child, he attended Surprise Lake Camp. A misunderstanding when signing her grandson for school gave him her last name of Kantrowitz (shortened by the clerk to Kanter). Esther died on January 29, 1917, two days before he signed a long-term contract with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. to appear in his ''Follies''.

He had adopted the first name "Eddie" when he met his future wife Ida Tobias in 1903, because she felt that "Izzy" wasn't the right name for an actor. Cantor married Ida in 1914. They (famously) had five daughters, Marjorie, Natalie, Edna, Marilyn and Janet, who provided comic fodder for Cantor's longtime running gag, especially on radio, about his five unmarriageable daughters. Several radio historians, including Gerald Nachman (''Raised on Radio''), have said that this gag did not always sit well with the girls.

He was the second president of the Screen Actors Guild, serving from 1933-1935. He invented the title "The March of Dimes" for the donation campaigns of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which was organized to combat polio. It was a play on the ''March of Time'' newsreels popular at the time. He began the first campaign on his own radio show in January 1938, asking people to mail a dime to the nation's most famous assumed polio victim, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other entertainers joined in the appeal via their own shows, and the White House mail room was deluged with 2,680,000 dimes.

Following the death of daughter Marjorie at the age of 44, both Eddie's and Ida's health declined rapidly. Ida died in August 1962 of "cardiac insufficiency". On October 10, 1964 in Beverly Hills, California, Eddie Cantor suffered another heart attack and died, aged 72. He is buried in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery. Cantor was awarded an honorary Academy Award the year of his death, for distinguished service to the film industry.

Stage

Saloon songs to vaudeville

By his early teens Cantor began winning talent contests at local theaters and started appearing on stage. One of his earliest paying jobs was doubling as a waiter and performer, singing for tips at Carey Walsh's Coney Island saloon, where a young Jimmy Durante accompanied him on piano. He made his first public appearance in Vaudeville in 1907 at New York's Clinton Music Hall. In 1912, he was the only performer over the age of 20 to appear in Gus Edwards's ''Kid Kabaret'', where he created his first blackface character, "Jefferson". He later toured with Al Lee as the team "Cantor & Lee". Critical praise from that show got the attention of Broadway's top producer, Florenz Ziegfeld, who gave Cantor a spot in the Ziegfeld rooftop post-show, ''Midnight Frolic'' (1917).

Broadway

A year later, Cantor made his Broadway debut in the ''Ziegfeld Follies of 1917''. He continued in the ''Follies'' until 1927, a period considered the best years of the long-running revue. For several years Cantor co-starred in an act with pioneer African-American comedian Bert Williams, both appearing in blackface; Cantor played Williams's fresh-talking son. Other co-stars with Cantor during his time in the ''Follies'' included Will Rogers, Marilyn Miller, Fanny Brice and W.C. Fields. He moved on to stardom in book musicals, starting with ''Kid Boots'' (1923), ''Whoopee!'' (1928) and ''Banjo Eyes'' (1941).

''Ziegfeld Follies of 1917'' (1917) - revue - performer

''Ziegfeld Follies of 1918'' (1918) - revue - performer, co-composer and co-lyricist for "Broadway's Not a Bad Place After All" with Harry Ruby

''Ziegfeld Follies of 1919'' (1919) - revue - performer, lyricist for "(Oh! She's The) Last Rose of Summer"

''Ziegfeld Follies of 1920'' (1920) - revue - composer for "Green River", composer and lyricist for "Every Blossom I See Reminds Me of You" and "I Found a Baby on My Door Step"

''The Midnight Rounders of 1920'' (1920) - revue - performer

''Broadway Brevities of 1920'' (1920) - revue - performer

''Make It Snappy'' (1922) - revue - performer, co-bookwriter

''Ziegfeld Follies of 1923'' (1923) - revue - sketch-writer

''Kid Boots'' (1923) - musical - actor in the role of "Kid Boots" (the caddie master)

''Ziegfeld Follies of 1927'' (1927) - revue - performer, co-bookwriter

''Whoopee!'' (1928) - musical - actor in the role of "Henry Williams"

''Eddie Cantor at the Palace'' (1931) - solo performance

''Banjo Eyes'' (1941) - musical - actor in the role of "Erwin Trowbridge"

''Nellie Bly'' (1946) - musical - co-producer

Radio and recordings

Radio

Cantor appeared on radio as early as February 3, 1922, as indicated by this news item from Connecticut's ''Bridgeport Telegram'': :Local radio operators listened to one of the finest programs yet produced over the radiophone last night. The program of entertainment which included some of the stars of Broadway musical comedy and vaudeville was broadcast from the Newark, N. J. station WDY and the Pittsburgh station KDKA, both of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. The Newark entertainment started at 7 o'clock: a children's half-hour of music and fairy stories; 7:[35?], Hawaiian airs and violin solo; 8:00, news of the day; and at 8:20 a radio party with nationally known comedians participating; 9:55, Arlington time signals and 10:01, a government weather report. G. E. Nothnagle, who conducts a radiophone station at his home 176 Waldemere Avenue said last night that he was delighted with the program, especially with the numbers sung by Eddie Cantor. The weather conditions are excellent for receiving, he continued, the tone and the quality of the messages was fine.

Cantor's appearance with Rudy Vallee on Vallee's ''The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour'' on February 5, 1931 led to a four-week tryout with NBC's ''The Chase and Sanborn Hour''. Replacing Maurice Chevalier, who was returning to Paris, Cantor joined ''Chase and Sanborn'' on September 13, 1931. This hour-long Sunday evening variety series teamed Cantor with announcer Jimmy Wallington and violinist Dave Rubinoff. The show established Cantor as a leading comedian, and his scriptwriter, David Freedman, as “the Captain of Comedy.” Cantor soon became the world's highest-paid radio star. His shows began with a crowd chanting, "We want Can-tor, We want Can-tor," a phrase said to have originated when a vaudeville audience chanted to chase off an opening act on the bill before Cantor. Cantor's theme song was his own lyric to the Leo Robin/Richard Whiting song, "One Hour with You." His radio sidekicks included Bert Gordon, (comic Barney Gorodetsky, aka "The Mad Russian") and Harry Parke (better known as "Parkyakarkus"). Cantor also discovered and helped guide the career of singer Dinah Shore, first featuring her on his radio show in 1940, as well as other performers, including Deanna Durbin, Bobby Breen and Eddie Fisher.

Indicative of his effect on the mass audience, he agreed in November 1934 to introduce a new song by the songwriters J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie that other well-known artists had rejected as being "silly" and "childish." The song, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", immediately had orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music the next day. It sold 400,000 copies by Christmas of that year.

His NBC radio show, ''Time to Smile'', was broadcast from 1940 to 1946, followed by his ''Pabst Blue Ribbon Show'' from 1946 through 1949. He also served as emcee of ''The $64 Question'' during 1949-'50, and hosted a weekly disc jockey program for Philip Morris during the 1952-'53 season. In addition to film and radio, Cantor recorded for Hit of the Week Records, then again for Columbia, for Banner and Decca and various small labels.

His heavy political involvement began early in his career, including his participation in the strike to form Actors Equity in 1919, provoking the anger of father figure and producer, Florenz Ziegfeld. At the 1939 New York World's Fair, Cantor publicly denounced Father Charles Coughlin and was dropped by his sponsor, Camel cigarettes. A year and a half later, it was his friend Jack Benny who was able to get him back on the air.

Recordings

Cantor began making phonograph records in 1917, recording both comedy songs and routines and popular songs of the day, first for Victor, then for Aeoleon-Vocalion, Pathé and Emerson. From 1921 through 1925 he had an exclusive contract with Columbia Records, returning to Victor for the remainder of the decade.

Cantor was one of the era's most successful entertainers, but the 1929 stock market crash took away his multi-millionaire status and left him deeply in debt. However, Cantor's relentless attention to his own earnings in order to avoid the poverty he knew growing up caused him to use his writing talent, quickly building a new bank account with his highly popular, bestselling books of humor and cartoons about his experience, ''Caught Short! A Saga of Wailing Wall Street'' in "1929 A.C. (After Crash)" and "Yoo Hoo Prosperity."

Cantor was also a composer, with his most famous song seldom attributed to him. Along with Charles Tobias and Murray Mencher, Cantor wrote "Merrily We Roll Along," which he recorded in the 1950s, and which was adapted as the themesong for the Merrie Melodies animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1937 and 1964.

Film and television

Cantor also bounced back between movies and on radio. He had previously appeared in a number of short films (recording him performing his Follies songs and comedy routines) and two silent features (''Special Delivery'' and ''Kid Boots'') in the 1920s, and was offered the lead in The Jazz Singer when that was turned down by George Jessel (Cantor also turned it down, so it went to Al Jolson), but he became a leading Hollywood star in 1930 with the film version of ''Whoopee!'' in two-strip Technicolor. Over the next two decades, he continued making films until his last starring role in ''If You Knew Susie'' in 1948.

Filmography

''Widow at the Races'' (1913)

''A Few Moments With Eddie Cantor, Star of "Kid Boots"'' (1923) (DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film short film)

''Kid Boots'' (1926)

''Special Delivery'' (1927)

''A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic'' (1929) (short)

''Glorifying the American Girl'' (1929)

''That Party in Person'' (1928) (short)

''Insurance'' (1930) (short)

''Getting a Ticket'' (1930) (short)

''Whoopee!'' (1930)

''Palmy Days'' (1931)

''Talking Screen Snapshots'' (1932) (short)

''The Kid from Spain'' (1932)

''Roman Scandals'' (1933)

''The Hollywood Gad-About'' (1934) (short)

''Kid Millions'' (1934)

''Strike Me Pink'' (1936)

''Ali Baba Goes to Town'' (1937)

''The March of Time Volume IV, Issue 5'' (1937) (short)

''Forty Little Mothers'' (1940)

''Thank Your Lucky Stars'' (1943)

''Show Business'' (1944) (also producer)

''Hollywood Canteen'' (1944)

''Screen Snapshots: Radio Shows'' (1945) (short)

''American Creed'' (1946) (short)

''Meet Mr. Mischief'' (1947) (short) (appears on poster)

''If You Knew Susie'' (1948)

''Screen Snapshots: Hollywood's Happy Homes'' (1949) (short)

''The Story of Will Rogers'' (1952)

''Screen Snapshots: Memorial to Al Jolson'' (1952) (short)

''The Eddie Cantor Story'' (1953) (cameo)

Television

In the 1950s, he was one of the alternating hosts of the television show ''The Colgate Comedy Hour'', in which he would introduce variety acts and play comic characters like "Maxie the Taxi." However, the show landed Cantor in an unlikely controversy when a young Sammy Davis, Jr. appeared as a guest performer. Cantor embraced Davis and mopped Davis's brow with his handkerchief after his performance. Worried sponsors led NBC to threaten cancellation of the show; Cantor's response was to book Davis for two more weeks.

On May 25, 1944, pioneer television station WPTZ (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia presented a special telecast featuring Eddie Cantor, which was also fed to the NBC television station in New York City, WNBT (now WNBC). Cantor, one of the first major stars to agree to appear on television, was to sing "We're Havin' a Baby, My Baby and Me". Arriving shortly before airtime at the Philadelphia studios, Cantor was reportedly told to cut the song because the NBC New York censors considered some of the lyrics too risqué. Cantor refused, claiming no time to prepare an alternative number. NBC relented, but the sound was cut and the picture blurred on certain lines in the song. This is considered the first instance of television censorship.

Books and merchandising

In addition to ''Caught Short!: A Saga of Wailing Wall Street'', Cantor wrote or co-wrote at least seven other books, including booklets released by the then-fledgling firm of Simon & Schuster, with Cantor’s name on the cover. (Some were "as told to" or written with David Freedman). Customers paid a dollar and received the booklet with a penny embedded in the hardcover. They sold well, and H. L. Mencken asserted that these books did more to pull America out of the Great Depression than all government measures combined.

Bibliography

''My Life Is in Your Hands'' by Eddie Cantor (1928) with David Freedman; Harper & Bros.

''Caught Short!'' by Eddie Cantor (1929) Simon & Schuster

''Between the Acts'' by Eddie Cantor (1930) Simon & Schuster

''Yoo-Hoo, Prosperity!: The Eddie Cantor Five-Year Plan'' by Eddie Cantor (1931) with David Freedman; Simon & Schuster

''The Rise of the Goldbergs'' by Gertrude Berg, Forward by Eddie Cantor (1931) Barse & Co.

''Your Next President!'' by Eddie Cantor (1932) with David Freedman, Illus. by S.L. Hydeman; Ray Long & Richard R. Smith, Inc.

''Eddie Cantor in An Hour with You: A Big Little Book'' (1934) Whitman

''Eddie Cantor Song and Joke Book'' (1934) Illus. by Ben Harris; M. Witmark & Sons

''Ziegfeld: The Great Glorifier'' by Eddie Cantor (1934) with David Freedman; Alfred H. King

''World's Book of Best Jokes'' by Eddie Cantor (1943) World Publishing Co.

''Hello, Momma'' by George Jessel, Illus. by Carl Rose, Forward by Eddie Cantor (1946) World Publishing Co.

''As I Remember Them'' by Eddie Cantor (1965) Duell, Sloan & Pearce

''Take My Life'' by Eddie Cantor (1957) with Jane Kesner Ardmore; Doubleday

''No Man Stands Alone'' by Barney Ross, Forward by Eddie Cantor (1957) B. Lippincott Co.

''The Way I See It'' by Eddie Cantor (1959) with Phyllis Rosenteur, ed.; Prentice-Hall

''Yoo-Hoo, Prosperity! and Caught Short!'' by Eddie Cantor (1969) Greenwood Press

''The Golden Age of Sound Comedy: Comic Films and Comedians of the Thirties'' by Donald W. McCaffrey (1973) A.S. Barnes

''Radio Comedy'' by Arthur Frank Wertheim (1979) Oxford University Press

''The Vaudevillians: A Dictionary of Vaudeville Performers'' by Anthony Slide (1981) Arlington House

''American Vaudeville as Seen by Its Contemporaries'' (1984) Charles W. Stein, ed., Alfred A. Knopf

''Eddie Cantor: A Life in Show Business'' by Gregory Koseluk (1995) McFarland

''Eddie Cantor: A Bio-Bibliography'' by James Fisher (1997) Greenwood Press

''Banjo Eyes: Eddie Cantor and the Birth of Modern Stardom'' by Herbert G. Goldman (1997) Oxford University Press

''The Great American Broadcast: A Celebration of Radio's Golden Age'' by Leonard Maltin (1997) Dutton

''My Life Is in Your Hands''; and ''Take My Life'' by Eddie Cantor (2000) Cooper Square Press

''Film Clowns of the Depression: Twelve Defining Comic Performances'' by Wes D. Gehring (2007) McFarland

''Eddie Cantor in Laugh Land'' by Harold Sherman (2008) Kessinger Publishing

Cantor's popularity led to merchandising of such products as ''Eddie Cantor's Tell It to the Judge'' game from Parker Brothers. In 1933, a set of 12 Eddie Cantor caricatures by Frederick J. Garner were published by Brown & Bigelow. These advertising cards were purchased in bulk as a direct-mail item by such businesses as auto body shops, funeral directors, dental laboratories and vegetable wholesale dealers. With the full set, companies could mail a single Cantor card each month for a year to their selected special customers as an ongoing promotion.

Cantor was often caricatured on the covers of sheet music and in magazines and newspapers. He was occasionally a character in Warner Bros. animated cartoons, including ''Billboard Frolics'' and ''What's Up Doc?'' Cantor was depicted as a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, one of the very few balloons based on a real person.

Also at the very end of all his shows on The Colgate Comedy Hour he would walk down a spot light lit path saying ( Good Night Mrs Callabash where ever you are .

Tributes

Cantor was profiled on the program ''This Is Your Life'', in which an unsuspecting person (usually a celebrity) would be surprised on live television by host Ralph Edwards, with a half-hour tribute. Cantor was the only subject who was told of the surprise in advance; he was recovering from a heart attack and it was felt that the shock might harm him.

On October 29, 1995, as part of a nationwide celebration of the 75th anniversary of radio, he was posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at Chicago's Museum of Broadcasting Communication.

In 1953 Warner Bros., in an attempt to duplicate the box-office success of ''The Jolson Story'', filmed a big-budget Technicolor feature film, ''The Eddie Cantor Story''. The film found an audience but might have done better with someone else in the leading role. Actor Keefe Brasselle played Cantor as a caricature with high-pressure dialogue and bulging eyes wide open; the fact that Brasselle was considerably taller than Cantor didn't lend realism either. Eddie and Ida Cantor were seen in a brief prologue and epilogue set in a projection room, where they are watching Brasselle in action; at the end of the film Eddie tells Ida, "I never looked better in my life"... and gives the audience a knowing, incredulous look. George Burns, in his memoir ''All My Best Friends'', claimed that Warner Bros. created a miracle producing the movie in that "it made Eddie Cantor's life boring".

Something closer to the ''real'' Eddie Cantor story is his self-produced 1944 feature ''Show Business'', a valentine to vaudeville and show folks that was RKO's top-grossing film that year. Probably the best summary of Cantor's career is in one of the ''Colgate Comedy Hour'' shows. The Colgate hour was a virtual video autobiography, with Cantor recounting his career, singing his familiar hits, and re-creating his singing-waiter days with his old pal Jimmy Durante. This show has been issued on DVD as ''Eddie Cantor in Person''.

As talented as Cantor was, he is an excellent example of the mega star who virtually vanishes with the passing of time. His biographer, Gregory Koseluk, wrote in 1995 that Eddie "is all but forgotten," (from ''Eddie Cantor: A Life in Show Business'' [Introduction]).

Eddie Cantor is a recurring character on HBO's series ''Boardwalk Empire'', where he is played by Stephen DeRosa. He appeared in three episodes of the show's first season.

Sources

Watch

''A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor, Star of "Kid Boots"'' (1923) A six-minute film made in Phonofilm by Lee De Forest featuring Cantor telling monologues and singing two songs.

Listen to

Command Performance 1942-03-01 ep001 - Eddie Cantor

Command Performance 1942-04-01_ep006 Kay Kyser & Eddie Cantor

''The Chase and Sanborn Hour'' with Eddie Cantor (excerpts)

Free OTR: ''The Eddie Cantor Show'' (30 1936-52 episodes)

OTR Network Library: ''The Eddie Cantor Show'' (11 1936-52 episodes)

References

External links

Eddie Cantor official site

Cantor's Sidekick: Bert 'The Mad Russian' Gordon @WFMU

Category:American people of Russian descent Category:1892 births Category:1964 deaths Category:1930s American radio programs Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Blackface minstrel performers Category:American Jews Category:Jewish American musicians Category:Jewish actors Category:American singers Category:Vaudeville performers Category:RCA Victor artists Category:National Radio Hall of Fame inductees Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Jewish comedians Category:Presidents of the Screen Actors Guild

da:Eddie Cantor de:Eddie Cantor es:Eddie Cantor fr:Eddie Cantor it:Eddie Cantor he:אדי קנטור ja:エディ・カンター no:Eddie Cantor pl:Eddie Cantor pt:Eddie Cantor ro:Eddie Cantor ru:Кантор, Эдди simple:Eddie Cantor sh:Eddie Cantor fi:Eddie Cantor sv:Eddie Cantor

Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
Name	MF DOOM
Background	solo_singer
Alias	DOOM, King Geedorah, Metal Face, Metal Fingers, Viktor Vaughn, Zev Love X
Born	January 09, 1971 London, United Kingdom
Born as	Daniel Dumile
Origin	Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
Genre	East Coast hip hop
Instrument	Vocals, sampler, synthesizer, drum machine, Pro Tools
Occupation	Rapper, hip hop producer
Associated acts	Danger Doom, Madlib, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Omer Saar, J Dilla, KMD, Madvillain, MF Grimm, Count Bass D, Talib Kweli, Aesop Rock, Mos Def, RZA
Years active	1988–19931997–present
Label	Elektra (1988–1993)Sub Verse (1997–2003)Fondle 'Em (1997–2001)Metal Face (1997–present) Big Dada (2003–present)Naturesounds (2003–present) Rhymesayers (2003–present)Stones Throw (2004–present)Lex (2005–present)
Website	Official website }}

Daniel Dumile (pronounced ) is a hip hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most notably MF DOOM, where the "MF" stands for Metal Fist, Metal Fingers, or Metal Face. He has appeared in several collaborative projects such as Danger Doom (with Danger Mouse) and Madvillain (with Madlib).

History

Early years with KMD

Dumile was born on January 9, 1971, in London, England, the son of a Trinidadian mother and Zimbabwean father. He then moved with his family to New York and was raised in the city of Long Beach, New York on Long Island.

As Zev Love X, he formed the group KMD in 1988 with his younger brother DJ Subroc and another MC called Rodan. When Rodan left the group, Zev found another MC to replace Rodan named Onyx the Birthstone Kid. A&R; rep Dante Ross learned of KMD through the hip hop group 3rd Bass, and signed the group to Elektra Records.

Dumile and KMD's recorded debut came on 3rd Bass's song "The Gas Face" from ''The Cactus Album'', followed in 1991 with KMD's album ''Mr. Hood'', which became a minor hit through its singles "Peachfuzz", "Who Me?" and heavy video play on cable TV's ''Yo! MTV Raps'' and ''Rap City''.

Subroc was struck and killed by a car in 1993 while attempting to cross a Long Island expressway before the release of a second KMD album, titled ''Black Bastards''. The group was subsequently dropped from Elektra Records that same week. Before the release of the album, it was shelved due to controversy over its cover art, which featured a cartoon of a stereotypical pickaninny or sambo character being hanged from the gallows.

With the loss of his brother, Dumile retreated from the hip hop scene from 1994 to 1997. He testifies to disillusionment and depression, living "damn near homeless, walking the streets of Manhattan, sleeping on benches." In the late 1990s, he left New York City and settled in Atlanta. According to interviews with Dumile, he was also "recovering from his wounds" and swearing revenge "against the industry that so badly deformed him." ''Black Bastards'' had become bootlegged at the time, leading to Doom's rise in the underground hip hop scene.

Birth of MF Doom

In 1997, Dumile began freestyling incognito at open-mic events at the Nuyorican Poets Café in Manhattan, obscuring his face by putting a stocking over his head. He meanwhile had taken on a new identity, MF Doom, patterned after and wearing a mask similar to that of Marvel Comics super-villain Doctor Doom, who is depicted rapping on the cover of the 1999 album ''Operation: Doomsday''. He wears this mask while performing and isn't photographed without it, except for very short glimpses in videos such as Viktor Vaughn's "Mr. Clean", "?", and in earlier photos with KMD. MF Doom's mask has undergone at least one design revision since its adoption (it is now an altered version of the mask worn by the character Maximus Decimus Meridius in the film ''Gladiator'').

Early career

Dumile released three singles on "Bobbito" García's Fondle 'Em Records, "Dead Bent", and "Greenbacks" (1997), and "The M.I.C." (1998). In 1999 Fondle 'Em released MF Doom's first full-length LP, ''Operation: Doomsday,'' which included these singles and their b-sides, and additional tracks. Dumile had used the spelling variant "M.F. DOOM" for the singles releases, but thereafter changed this to "MF DOOM".

Among the collaborators on these tracks were fellow members of the Monsta Island Czars collective (The M.I.C.), for which each artist took on the persona of a monster from the Godzilla mythos. Dumile went by the alias "King Ghidorah" (a three-headed golden dragon "space monster"), and some of his appearances on the LP are as, and are credited to this persona, instead of that of MF Doom. Dumile would revisit this character later under various name-spellings.

Guest appearances, production, and instrumental work

In the years intervening before his next full-length solo release, and continually since, Dumile has appeared on several tracks on other artists' LPs and remixes, contributed one-off tracks to compilations, and done various guest production work.

In 2002, he appeared on the Sound-Ink's Colapsus collection,on a very hard to find track titled "Monday Nite at Fluid" featuring Kurious with production by King Honey, who also produced some tracks for Dumile's album ''Vaudeville Villain''. Doom also made an appearance in "November Has Come", a track on Gorillaz's 2005 album ''Demon Days'', which reached #6 on the Billboard 200.

With few exceptions Dumile produces the instrumentation tracks for his solo releases.

Beginning in 2001, under the "Metal Fingers" moniker, Dumile began releasing his ''Special Herbs'' instrumentals series. Many of these beats can be heard as the instrumentation tracks throughout his body of work. A separate website catalogs for which tracks each instrumental has been used.

Ongoing career

In 2003, Dumile released the King Geedorah album ''Take Me to Your Leader''. Geedorah is credited as producer, but only appears as an MC on four tracks. The majority of vocal tracks feature guest MCs, and the album features several instrumental montages of sampled vocals from old movies and TV shows—a technique employed on most of Dumile's albums. Both ''Venomous Villain'' and ''Take Me to Your Leader'' feature appearances by MF Doom.

Also in 2003, Dumile released the LP ''Vaudeville Villain'' under the moniker Viktor Vaughn (another play on Doctor Doom, whose "real name" is ''Victor von'' Doom). In 2004 he released a follow-up LP, ''Venomous Villain'' (also called ''VV2'').

And, in 2004, the second MF Doom album ''MM.. Food'' was released by the Minnesota-based label Rhymesayers Entertainment.

Mainstream recognition

Doom's first commercial breakthrough came in 2004, with the album ''Madvillainy'', created with producer Madlib under the group name Madvillain. Released by Stones Throw Records, the album was a critical and commercial success. MF Doom was seen by mainstream audiences for the first time as Madvillain received publicity and acclaim in publications such as ''Rolling Stone'', ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and ''Spin''. A video for "All Caps" and a four-date U.S. tour followed the release of ''Madvillainy''. Additional videos for "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Accordion", both directed by Andrew Gura, were released on the DVDs ''Stones Throw 101'' and ''Stones Throw 102: In Living the True Gods'', respectively.

Though still an independent artist, MF Doom took a bigger step towards the mainstream in 2005 with ''The Mouse and the Mask'', a collaboration with producer DJ Danger Mouse under the group name Danger Doom. The album, released on October 11, 2005 by Epitaph, was done in collaboration with Cartoon Network's ''Adult Swim'' and featured voice-actors and characters from its programs (mostly Aqua Teen Hunger Force). Danger Doom reached #41 on the Billboard 200. In 2006 Doom hosted the Adult Swim Christmas special and he could be seen in between shows, usually talking about what was up next, and making jokes.

2006–2009

MF Doom produced tracks for both of Ghostface Killah's 2006 albums ''Fishscale'' and ''More Fish'', and the two are currently at work on a collaboration album titled ''Swift & Changeable''. So far only one track has been released from the album, "Angels", which appeared on a ''Nature Sounds'' compilation in late 2006, and later re-released in a different fashion on Doom's 2009 album ''Born Like This''. Doom has also revealed plans for a second Madvillain album with producer Madlib, with one song, "Monkey Suite", first appearing on the Adult Swim/Stones Throw Records album ''Chrome Children'', later it appeared on ''Madvillainy 2 - The Madlib Remix''. Other potential projects mentioned by Doom include new albums from Danger Doom, KMD, as well as further albums under both his Viktor Vaughn and King Geedorah aliases. However, many such Doom projects have been rumored in recent years without materializing.

Despite no new Doom releases in 2006, Kidrobot and Stones Throw released an 8" tall Madvillain toy available to coincide with the release of the ''Chrome Children'' CD/DVD (hosted by Peanut Butter Wolf) which featured a DVD performance of Madvillain and several other Stones Throw artists. Doom also continued to work with ''Adult Swim'' doing voice-over work as Sherman the Giraffe on ''Perfect Hair Forever'', being the voice for ''The Boondocks'' ads and previews and hosting their Christmas Eve 2006 programming.

In late January 2009, Lex records confirmed Doom's new album title to be ''Born Like This'', and that the "MF" would be dropped from his name, now just "DOOM". The album was released worldwide on March 24, 2009. As a teaser, the track "Ballskin" was posted on Doom's Myspace page on January 13, 2009. Snippets of the entire album were made available for streaming on Doom's Myspace on the album's release date. The title for the album was inspired by the poem "Dinosauria, We" by 1970s and 1980s poet Charles Bukowski. Doom samples a performance of the poem by Bukowski on the track "Cellz". Previously, Doom used a Bukowski sample for a vocal interlude on 2004's "All Outta Ale. "Thom Yorke of Radiohead remixed the track "Gazillion Ear" which is available as an iTunes-only bonus track. June 26, 2009 Kurious released ''II'' which featured Doom on the song "Benetton".

Upcoming projects

On May 26, 2010, the second single for the next Madvillain album "Paper Mill" was released through Adult Swim. ''Expektoration'', a live Doom album, was released on September 14, 2010 through Gold Dust Media. In mid 2010, Doom released the mix-tape "DOOM!", a collection of greatest hits, B-sides and rareties, including the theme for the video game ''Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars'' featuring Ghostface Killah, and Biochemical Equation, featuring the RZA.

On July 27, 2011 Doom and Ghostface Killah released the track "Victory Laps" from their long awaited collaboration project ''Swift & Changeable'' on the Nature Sounds label.

DOOM has been chosen by Portishead to perform at the ATP I'll Be Your Mirror festival that they will curate in July 2011 at London's Alexandra Palace.

Live show controversy

Dumile has become infamous for allegedly sending imposters posing as himself to his live shows. Fans attribute this to his supervillain persona. Doom has countered such accusations by claiming that he lost weight and thus looked different.

Discography

1991: ''Mr. Hood'' (as Zev Love X with KMD)

1993: ''Black Bastards'' (as Zev Love X with KMD)

1999: ''Operation: Doomsday''

2000: ''MF EP'' (with MF Grimm)

2003: ''Escape from Monsta Island!'' (as King Geedorah with Monsta Island Czars)

2003: ''Take Me to Your Leader'' (as King Geedorah)

2003: ''Vaudeville Villain'' (as Viktor Vaughn)

2004: ''Madvillainy'' (with Madvillain)

2004: ''Venomous Villain'' (as Viktor Vaughn)

2004: ''Mm.. Food''

2005: ''The Mouse and the Mask'' (with DangerDoom)

2006: ''Occult Hymn'' (with DangerDoom)

2009: ''Born Like This'' (as DOOM)

References

External links

Category:1971 births Category:African American rappers Category:American voice actors Category:American people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Category:People from London Category:British people of Zimbabwean descent Category:British people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Category:Rhymesayers Entertainment Category:Rappers from Long Island Category:Members of the Nation of Gods and Earths Category:American hip hop record producers Category:English rappers Category:British rappers Category:British expatriates in the United States Category:Underground rappers Category:Living people Category:Rapping Category:Underground hip hop

da:MF DOOM de:Daniel Dumile es:MF DOOM fr:MF DOOM it:Daniel Dumile nl:Daniel Dumile no:Daniel Dumile pl:Daniel Dumile pt:MF Doom fi:MF Doom sv:Daniel Dumile tr:MF Doom

Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
name	Klaus Nomi
background	solo_singer
birth name	Klaus Sperber
birth date	January 24, 1944
birth place	Immenstadt, Bavaria, Germany
death date	August 06, 1983
death place	New York City, New York, United States
genre	New Wave, synthpop, experimental, dark cabaret, baroque, opera, disco
occupation	Singer-songwriter, actor
years active	1977–1983
label	RCA, Heliocentric
associated acts	David Bowie, Joey Arias, Man Parrish, Kristian Hoffman
website	}}

Klaus Sperber (January 24, 1944 – August 6, 1983), better known as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona.

Nomi was known for his bizarrely visionary theatrical live performances, heavy make-up, unusual costumes, and a highly stylized signature hairdo which flaunted a receding hairline. His songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classical music opera to covers of 1960s pop standards like Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes". He is remembered in the US as one of David Bowie's backup singers for a 1979 performance on ''Saturday Night Live''.

Nomi died in 1983 at the age of 39 as a result of complications from AIDS.

Early life

Klaus Nomi was born Klaus Sperber in Immenstadt, Bavaria, Germany on January 24, 1944. In the 1960s, he worked as an usher at the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin where he sang for the other ushers and maintenance crew on stage in front of the fire curtain after performances. Around that time he also sang opera arias at the Berlin gay discothèque Kleist Casino.

Nomi moved to New York City in 1972. He began his involvement with the art scene based in the East Village. According to a documentary film made by Andrew Horn, Nomi took singing lessons and supported himself working as a pastry chef.

Career

In 1972, Nomi appeared in a satirical camp production of Richard Wagner's ''Das Rheingold'' at Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theater Company as the Rheinmaidens and the Wood Bird.

Nomi came to the attention of New York City's art scene in 1978 with his performance in "New Wave Vaudeville", a four-night event MC'd by artist David McDermott. Dressed in a skin-tight spacesuit with clear plastic cape, Klaus sang the aria ''Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix'' ("My heart opens to your voice") from Camille Saint-Saëns' 1877 opera ''Samson et Dalila''. The performance ended with a chaotic crash of strobe lights, smoke bombs, and loud electronic sound effects as Nomi backed away into the smoke. Joey Arias recalled: "I still get goose pimples when I think about it... It was like he was from a different planet and his parents were calling him home. When the smoke cleared, he was gone." The reaction was so overwhelmingly positive that he was invited to perform at clubs all over New York City.

At the New Wave Vaudeville show Klaus Nomi met Kristian Hoffman, songwriter for the Mumps. Hoffman was a performer and MC in the second incarnation of New Wave Vaudeville and a close friend of Susan Hannaford and Tom Scully, who produced the show, and Ann Magnuson, who directed it.

Anya Phillips, then manager of James Chance in the Contortions, suggested Klaus and Kristian form a band. Hoffman became Klaus' de facto musical director, assembling a band that included Page Wood from another New Wave vaudeville act, Come On, and Joe Katz, who was concurrently in The Student Teachers, the Accidents, and The Mumps.

Hoffman helped Klaus choose his pop covers, including the Lou Christie song "Lightning Strikes." Hoffman wrote several pop songs with which Klaus is closely identified: "The Nomi Song", "Total Eclipse", "After The Fall", and "Simple Man", the title song of Nomi's second RCA French LP.

This configuration of the Klaus Nomi band performed at Manhattan clubs, including several performances at Max's Kansas City, Danceteria and Hurrah.

Disagreements with the management Klaus engaged led to a dissolution of this band, and Klaus continued without them.

In the late 1970s while performing at Club 57, The Mudd Club, The Pyramid Club, and other venues, Nomi assembled a group of up-and-coming models, singers, artists, and musicians to perform live with him, which at times included Joey Arias, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, John Sex and Kenny Scharf. He also appeared on Manhattan Cable's TV Party. David Bowie heard about Nomi's performances in New York and soon met him and Joey Arias at the Mudd Club. Bowie hired them as performers and backup singers for his appearance on ''Saturday Night Live'' which aired on December 15, 1979. The band performed "TVC 15", "The Man Who Sold the World", and "Boys Keep Swinging". During the performance of "TVC 15", Nomi and Arias dragged around a large prop pink poodle with a television screen in its mouth. Nomi was so impressed with the plastic quasi-tuxedo suit that Bowie wore during "The Man Who Sold the World" that he commissioned one to be made for himself. Nomi can be seen wearing the suit on the cover of his self-titled album, as well as during a number of his music videos. Nomi wore his variant of the outfit, in monochromatic black-and-white with spandex and makeup to match, until the last few months of his life. Then, mostly focusing on operatic pieces and increasingly ill with AIDS-related illnesses, including Kaposi's sarcoma, he wore a Baroque era operatic outfit complete with full collar.

Nomi also collaborated with producer Man Parrish. He appeared on Parrish's album ''Hip Hop Bee Bop'' as a backup vocalist on the track "Six Simple Synthesizers."

He played a supporting role as a Nazi official in Anders Grafstrom's 1980 underground film ''The Long Island Four''.

The 1981 rock documentary film, ''Urgh! A Music War'' features Nomi's live performance of ''Total Eclipse.'' His performance of ''Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix'' was used as the music for the closing credits.

666 Fifth Avenue was listed as the contact address in the liner notes of Nomi's 1981 self-titled record.

Illness and death

Nomi died on August 6, 1983 at the Sloan Kettering Hospital Center in New York City, one of the first celebrities to die of complications from AIDS. His ashes were scattered over New York City.

In popular culture

Filmmakers such as Andrew Horn and writers such as Jim Fouratt consider Nomi an important part of the 1980s East Village scene, which was a hotbed of development for punk rock, music, the visual arts, and the avant-garde. Although Nomi's work had not yet met with national commercial success at the time of his death, he garnered a cult following, mainly in New York and in France.

Andrew Horn's 2004 feature documentary about Nomi's life, ''The Nomi Song'', which was released by Palm Pictures, helped spur renewed interest in the singer, including an art exhibit in San Francisco at the New Langton Arts gallery and one in Milan (Italy) at the Res Pira Lab, which subsequently moved to Berlin's Strychnin Gallery, called "Do You Nomi?". New music pieces inspired by Nomi were commissioned by the gallery from a variety of up and coming European musicians, among these the singer who is considered by many Nomi's heir, Ernesto Tomasini.

In 2001 German band Rosenstolz, featuring alternative pop stars Marc Almond and Nina Hagen, covered "Total Eclipse" for a maxi single CD release.

British pop icon Morrissey used the song ''Wayward Sisters'' as an introduction prior to appearing on stage to begin a concert for his Kill Uncle tour. He used the song ''After the Fall'' in the same way during his 2007 American tour. Morrissey included Nomi's song ''Death'' in his compilation of influential songs titled ''Under the Influence'', after selecting it in 1984 as the last track for his appearance on the BBC radio show 'My Top 10'. Morrissey also chose Nomi's version of Schumann's "Der Nussbaum" ("The Walnut Tree") as one his selections on BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" in November 2009.

On television, a fictionalized version of Klaus Nomi appears in a two-part episode of animated comedy/adventure series ''The Venture Bros.''

Nomi's cover of Lesley Gore's 1964 hit "You Don't Own Me" has been featured on the nationally broadcast ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' as the "Gay Update Theme". Nomi does not change the gender of the song, singing, "Don't say I can't play with other boys!"

Nomi's visual aesthetic has been noted as an influence on women's fashion such as Boudicca, Givenchy, and Paco Rabanne, as well as men's fashion designers such as Gareth Pugh and Bruno Pieters for Hugo Boss. Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring 2009 couture was influenced by Nomi and he used Nomi's recording of ''Nomi Song'' in his runway show.

A biographical musical titled ''You Don't Nomi'' is currently developed by French playwright Baptiste Delval and director Nicolas Guilleminot. The title role is assigned to singer Matthieu d'Aurey who will share the stage with actor Denis d'Arcangelo. The play has been presented on June 10, 2011 in Paris during a public reading. The team is currently looking for producers.

Discography

|- | width=50% valign=top |

Albums

''Klaus Nomi'' (1981)

''Simple Man'' (1982)

''Encore'' (1983)

''In Concert'' (1986)

''Za Bakdaz'' (2007) – posthumous compilation of an "unfinished opera"

Singles

"You Don't Own Me" / "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" (1981)

"Nomi Song" / "Cold Song" (1982)

"Lightnin' Strikes" / "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" (1982)

"Simple Man" / "Death" (1982)

"Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" / "ICUROK" (1982)

"ICUROK" / "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" (Canadian 12")

"Za Bak Daz" / "Silent Night" (CD single, 1998)

"After the Fall"

| valign=top |

Music videos

"Simple Man" (directed and edited by John Zieman)

"Lightning Strikes"

"Nomi Song"

"After the Fall"

"Falling in Love Again"

"The Cold Song" (from Henry Purcell's 1691 opera ''King Arthur'')

Movie appearances

''Urgh! A Music War'' (1982)

''Long Island Four'' (1979)

''Mr. Mike's Mondo Video'' (1979)

References

External links

Klaus Nomi Keys Of Life

Klaus Nomi Za Bakdaz

Klaus Nomi Home Page

''The Nomi Song'', a documentary feature film devoted to the life of Klaus Nomi

"Lightning Strikes" music video

"Falling in Love Again" music video

"The Cold Song" music video

"Samson and Delilah Aria" music video

"Three Wishes" music video

Category:1944 births Category:1983 deaths Category:AIDS-related deaths in New York Category:Countertenors Category:Dark cabaret musicians Category:German electronic musicians Category:German experimental musicians Category:German male singers Category:German performance artists Category:German singer-songwriters Category:LGBT musicians from Germany Category:New Wave musicians Category:New York City performance art Category:People from Immenstadt Category:Synthpop musicians

cs:Klaus Nomi de:Klaus Nomi el:Κλάους Νόμι es:Klaus Nomi fr:Klaus Nomi it:Klaus Nomi he:קלאוס נומי lt:Klaus Nomi nl:Klaus Nomi ja:クラウス・ノミ no:Klaus Nomi pl:Klaus Nomi pt:Klaus Nomi ru:Номи, Клаус sh:Klaus Nomi fi:Klaus Nomi sv:Klaus Nomi

Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
{{infobox uk place | official name	Dorchester | static_image | static_image_caption |static_image_2 |static_image_2_caption | country England | region South West England | shire_county Dorset | shire_district West Dorset | constituency_westminster West Dorset
population	16,171
population ref	(2001 Census) | population_density | os_grid_reference SY690906 | map_type Dorset | latitude 50.7 | longitude -2.433333 | post_town DORCHESTER | postcode_area DT | postcode_district DT1 | dial_code 01305 | london_distance | website http://www.dorchester-tc.gov.uk }}

Dorchester ( ) is the county town of Dorset, England. An historic market town, Dorchester lies on the banks of the River Frome, in the Frome Valley, just south of the Dorset Downs and north of the South Dorset Ridgeway, that separates the area from Weymouth, south. In 2001, the town had a population of 16,171 and 7,386 dwellings. In 1991 there were 205 shops in the town.

It is noted as being home and inspiration to the author Thomas Hardy, whose novels ''Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' and ''The Mayor of Casterbridge'' were both based on the town.

History

Prehistory and Romano-British

Dorchester's roots stem back to prehistoric times. Settlements were first based around Maiden Castle, a large Iron Age hill fort that was one of the most powerful settlements in pre-Roman Britain, with varying tribes having existed there since 4000 BC. The Durotriges were likely to have been there at the arrival of the Romans in 43 AD.

The Romans defeated the local tribes by 70 AD. After possibly being converted from a garrison to a town, the Romans named the settlement Durnovaria. This was a Brythonic name meaning 'place with fist-sized pebbles' and appears to have taken part of its name from the local Durotriges tribe who inhabited the area. Durnovaria was first recorded in the 4th century Antonine Itinerary and became a market centre for the surrounding countryside, and an important road junction and staging post, and eventually one of the twin capitals of the Celtic Durotriges tribe.

The Romans walled the town and the remains can still be seen today. The walls were largely replaced with walks that form a square inside modern Dorchester. Known as 'The Walks' a small segment of the original Roman wall still exists today near the Top 'o Town roundabout. The town still has some Roman features, including part of the town walls and the foundations of a Roman town house, which are freely accessible near the County Hall. There are many Roman finds in the County Museum. The Romans built an aqueduct to supply the town with water, lengths of the terrace on which it was constructed still remain in parts. Near the town centre is Maumbury Rings, an ancient British henge earthwork converted by the Romans for use as an amphitheatre, and to the north west is Poundbury Hill, another pre-Roman fortification.

Little evidence exists to suggest continued occupation after the withdrawal of the Roman administration from Britain. Historians have suggested that the town became known as Caer Durnac, mistakenly recorded by Nennius as ''Caer Urnac''. The area remained in British hands until the mid-7th century and there was certainly continuity of use of the Roman cemetery at nearby Poundbury. Dorchester has therefore been suggested as the centre of a sub-kingdom of Dumnonia or other regional power base.

Anglo-Saxon

By 864, the area around Durnovaria/Caer Durnac was dominated by the newly established Saxons, who came to refer to themselves as ''Dorsaetas'' ('People of the Dor' - Durnovaria). In their own language, they referred to the town as ''Dornwaraceaster'' or ''Dornwaracester'', combining the original name 'Dor/Dorn' from the Latin and Celtic languages with the word 'cester', which was an Anglo-Saxon word used for 'walled town'. The name would further change to Dorncester/Dornceaster until modern Dorchester emerged some time later. It continued as a thriving commercial and political centre for south Dorset with a textile trading and manufacturing industry continuing until the 17th century.

Early modern history

:''"The town is populous, tho' not large, the streets broad, but the buildings old, and low; however, there is good company and a good deal of it; and a man that coveted a retreat in this world might as agreeably spend his time, and as well in Dorchester, as in any town I know in England".'' -- Daniel Defoe, in his ''A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain'' (1724-1726).

In 1613 and 1725 great fires destroyed large parts of the town, but some of the mediaeval buildings, including Judge Jeffreys' lodgings, and the Tudor almshouse survive in the town centre, amongst the replacement Georgian buildings, many of which are built in Portland limestone.

In the 17th century the town was at the centre of the Puritan emigration to America, and the local rector, John White, organised the settlement of Dorchester, Massachusetts. For his efforts on behalf of Puritan dissenters, White has been called the unheralded founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Some observers have attributed the oversight to the fact that White, unlike John Winthrop, never came to America.)

In 1642, just prior to the English Civil War, Hugh Green, a Catholic chaplain was executed here. After his execution, Puritans played football with his head. The town was heavily defended against the Royalists in the Civil War. In 1651 Prince Charles, the future King Charles II, on his hasty escape to France via Bridport, narrowly escaped capture by hiding in Lee Lane. A plaque erected on the spot in 1991 commemorates the event.

In 1685 the Duke of Monmouth failed in his invasion attempt, the Monmouth Rebellion, and almost 300 of his men were condemned to death or transportation in the "Bloody Assizes", held in the Oak Room of the Antelope Hotel, Dorchester and presided over by Judge Jeffreys.

Modern history

In 1833, the Tolpuddle Martyrs formed the ''Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers''. Trade unions were legal, but due to them swearing an oath of allegiance, they were arrested and tried in the Shire Hall in Dorchester. This building still remains and is preserved as it was at the time. Under the court are the cells where the prisoners were held while waiting for their court appearance. Dorchester Prison was constructed in the town during the 19th century and the prison is still in use today, holding convicted and remanded inmates from the local courts.

Dorchester remained a compact town within the boundaries of the old town walls until the latter part of the 19th century due to the ownership of all land immediately adjacent to the west, south and east by the Duchy of Cornwall. This land composed the Manor of Fordington, and a select few developments had encroached onto it:

The Marabout Barracks, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1794

The Dorchester Union Workhouse, to the north of Damer's Road, in 1835

The Southampton and Dorchester Railway and its station east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1847

The Great Western Railway and its station to the south of Damer's Road, in 1857

The Waterworks, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1854

A new cemetery, to the west of the new railway and east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1856

The Dorset County Constabulary police station in 1860, west of the Southampton railway, east of Weymouth Avenue and north of Maumbury Rings.

This remaining Duchy land was farmed under the open field system until 1874 when the land was enclosed - or consolidated - into three large farms by the landowners and residents. Soon afterwards followed a series of key developments for the town: the enclosing of Poundbury hillfort for public enjoyment in 1876, the 'Fair Field' (new site for the market, off Weymouth Avenue) in 1877, the Recreation Ground (also off Weymouth Avenue) opening in 1880, and the imposing Eldridge Pope Brewery of 1881, adjacent to the railway line to Southampton. Salisbury Field was retained for public use in 1892, with land being purchased in 1895 for the formal Borough Gardens, between West Walks and Cornwall Road. The clock and bandstand were added in 1898.

Meanwhile, land had begun to be developed for housing outside the walls. This included the Cornwall Estate, between the Borough Gardens and the Great Western Railway, from 1876 and the Prince of Wales Estate, centred on Prince of Wales Road, from 1880. Land for the Victoria Park Estate was bought in 1896 and building began in 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. The lime trees in Queen's Avenue were planted in February 1897.

Recent developments

Poundbury is the well-known western extension of the town, constructed on Duchy of Cornwall land (owned by Charles, Prince of Wales) according to urban village principles since 1993. Being developed over 25 years, it will eventually be composed of four phases with a total of 2,500 dwellings and a population of about 6,000. Since 2008, Poundbury is now home to Dorset Fire and Rescue Service headquarters and Dorchester fire station. Prince Charles designed the estate (as well as the local Tesco supermarket) and makes several visits throughout the year.

Dorchester became Dorset's first Official Transition Initiative in 2008 as part of the Transition Towns concept. Transition Town Dorchester is a Dorchester community response to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change.

The town's Woolworths shop closed in January 2009 after the high-street retail chain entered administration. The store manager, however, secured investment to re-open the store in March 2009, under the name Wellworths. In May 2009, a skatepark was opened in Dorchester after 12 years of planning and construction.

Future developments

In November 2007, West Dorset District Council granted detailed planning permission for the redevelopment of the old Eldridge Pope brewery (that ceased production in 2003) that will include 30 buildings, c.650 new flats, 22 new houses, new restaurants, bars, 42 shops, an Odeon cinema, arts centre, theatre, two hotels and a replacement solar-powered railway station (the first in the country) at Dorchester South. It will be called Brewery Square.

A new four-star, 48-bed, Conran designed hotel, will be created from the conversion of the listed Brewhouse, originally designed by Crickmay & Sons. G.R. Crickmay (1830–1907) of Weymouth was the architect who employed Thomas Hardy until 1872, when he became a full time writer. The architects are CZWG for most of the new buildings and Conran & Partners for all the conversion buildings and two new buildings. It is one of the largest regeneration projects in the South West, with over of development on the site situated between the main shopping area on South Street, the historic market site and Dorchester South railway station.

The Maltings, one of the original 1880s listed buildings, is, subject to funding, to become a new arts centre for Dorchester. It would replace the existing and cramped premises on School Lane. Oliver Letwin MP, initiated the demolition of the 20th century industrial buildings in early-2006. Construction work on Phase 1, the conversion of the Italianate 1880s Eldridge Pope Offices, started on site in August 2007 and was completed in August 2008. The Sales & Marketing Suite for the development opened in August 2008 and in early September was hailed in the Dorset Echo as the fastest selling new homes development in the country. In June 2007 the Environment Agency granted a license to enable enough water for the scheme to be abstracted so that all the buildings will self sufficient in water from its own well; the same one used by the brewery since 1880.

West Dorset District Council approved planning permission for a £60m regeneration of the Charles Street Car Park site in the town centre. The new development will include new shops and housing, hotel, new library and adult education, and controversially, a new £10m office for West Dorset District Council. The old headquarters, Stratton House and the old Crown Court will be sold to a hotel chain and the national trust respectively.

Government

Dorchester is represented by three tiers of government. Dorchester town council, West Dorset District Council and Dorset County Council, all of whom are based within the town. The Member of Parliament for West Dorset is Oliver Letwin.

The town's coat of arms depicts the old castle that used to stand where the prison now does. The royal purple background signifies Dorchester's status as part of the private estates of the king since before Domesday. The shield within the castle depicts lions, copied from the shields of Dorset men who fought at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415, and fleur-de-lys. The fleur-de-lys on the shield are scattered (or "semée") rather than the more traditional triangular arrangement. Doing so, shows that the town had the right to bear the arms of France before 1405, when they were altered by King Henry VI. Dorchester's seal is the only one in the UK to use the fleur-de-lys in this way. The inscription 'Sigillum Bailivorum Dorcestre' means 'The Seal of the Bailiffs of Dorchester'.

Transport

The town has two railway stations. Dorchester South railway station on the South Western Main Line to Bournemouth, Southampton and London is operated by South West Trains. Dorchester West railway station on the Heart of Wessex Line is operated by First Great Western and serves Yeovil, Bath and Bristol The building at Dorchester West railway station is the original building designed and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As part of the regeneration project taking place at the Brewery Site in the town centre, Dorchester South railway station will become the first solar powered railway station in the UK.

A bypass road was completed in 1988 by construction company Mowlem to the south and west of the town, diverting through traffic using the A35 and A37 from the town.

Education

Dorchester has one private school, several first schools, two middle schools and one upper school. The upper school, The Thomas Hardye School, can trace its origins back to 1569, when it was founded by a merchant of that name, not the writer Thomas Hardy as commonly believed.

Kingston Maurward College is a land-based studies college based on the outskirts of the town.

Culture

Local author and poet Thomas Hardy based the fictional town of Casterbridge on Dorchester. Hardy's childhood home is to the east of the town, and his house in town, Max Gate, is owned by the National Trust and open to the public. William Barnes, the local dialect poet, was Rector of Winterborne Came, a small hamlet near Dorchester, for 24 years until his death in 1886, and ran a school in the town. Statues of both men stand in the town centre; Barnes is outside St Peter's Church and Hardy's beside the Top o' Town crossroads. Cecil Day Lewis is buried in Stinsford, one mile (1.6 km) from Dorchester. Hardy is buried in London, but his heart was removed and buried in Stinsford.

On the hills to the south west of the town, stands Hardy's Monument, a memorial to the other local Thomas Hardy, Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, who served with Lord Nelson, which overlooks the town with views of Weymouth, the Isle of Portland and Chesil Beach. Tom Roberts, Australian painter, was born in Dorchester in 1856.

Dorchester Arts, a regularly funded arts organisation based in a former school building runs a seasonal programme of music, dance and theatre events in the town as well as a range of participatory arts projects for socially excluded groups and the biannual Dorchester Festival. In 2011, Dorchester Arts became an Arts Council 'National Portfolio organisation' with enhanced funding until 2015.

Museums in Dorchester inclue the Roman Town House, The Dinosaur Museum, the Terracotta Warriors Museum, the Dorset Teddy Bear Museum, The Keep Military Museum, Dorset County Museum and the Tutankhamun Exhibition. All of these museums took part in the "Museums at Night" event in May 2011 where museums across the UK opened after hours.

On 15 December 2004, Dorchester was granted Fairtrade Town status.

Twinned towns

Dorchester is twinned with Bayeux in France since 1959, Lübbecke in Germany since 1973, and Holbæk in Denmark since 1992.

Notable people

Paul Hillier, classical siger and composer was born in Dorchester. He attended the Thomas Hardye School.

Sport

Dorchester is represented by many sports teams, the most prominent of whom are Dorchester Town F.C., a football team currently playing in the Conference South.

Harry Redknapp and former England players Graham Roberts and Martin Chivers represented 'The Magpies' during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The club have historically been based along Weymouth Avenue in the south of the town. Having previously played at the old Avenue Ground since their inception, the club moved to a new purpose built 5,000 capacity Avenue Stadium in the early 1990's - designed and owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The site of the old Avenue ground is now home to Dorchester Cricket Club.

Dorchester RFC are an amateur rugby union team who currently play in the Southern Counties South league.

Dorchester CC, are a cricket club, who play in the Dorset Premier League, being last crowned champions in 2009.

Aaron Cook, a taekwondo athlete who competed in the 2008 Olympic Games finishing in fifth place, was born in Dorchester.

References

Bibliography

Bingham, A. (1987) '' Dorset : Ordnance Survey landranger guidebook '', Norwich: Jarrold, ISBN 0-319-00187-3

Chandler, J. H. (1990) '' Wessex images'', Gloucester: Alan Sutton and Wiltshire County Council Library & Museum Service, ISBN 0-86299-739-9

Draper, J. (1992) ''Dorchester : An illustrated history'' Wimborne: Dovecote Press, ISBN 1-874336-04-0

Morris, J. and Draper, J. (1995) "The 'Enclosure' of Foridngton Fields and the Development of Dorchester, 1874–1903", ''Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society proceedings'', v. 117, p. 5–14, ISSN 0070-7112

Pitt-Rivers, M. (1966) ''Dorset'', A Shell guide, New ed., London: Faber, ISBN 0-5710-6714-X

Taylor, C. (1970) ''Dorset'', Making of the English landscape, London: Hodder & Stoughton, p. 197–201, ISBN 0-340-10962-9

Waymark, J, (1997) "The Duchy of Cornwall and the Expansion of Dorchester, c. 1900–1997", ''Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society proceedings'', v. 119, p. 19–32, ISSN 0070-7112

External links

Census data

Category:Market towns in Dorset Category:County towns in England Category:70 establishments Category:Towns in Dorset

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