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Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday in the Gregorian calendar. By January 1 of this year, every state in the entire world had adopted the Gregorian calendar, having abandoned the Julian calendar.

Summary[link]

This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a counter-revolution in Mexico. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, a British high court, ruled that Canadian women are persons in the Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General) case. The 1st Academy Awards for film were held in Los Angeles, while the Museum of Modern Art opened in New York City. The Peruvian Air Force was created.

In Asia, the Republic of China and the Soviet Union engaged in a minor conflict after the Chinese seized full control of the Manchurian Chinese Eastern Railway, which ended with a resumption of joint administration. In the Soviet Union, General Secretary Joseph Stalin expelled Leon Trotsky and adopted a policy of collectivization. The Grand Trunk Express began service in India. In the Middle East, rioting occurred between Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem over access to the Western Wall. Mohammed Nadir Shah became King of Afghanistan. Britain, Australia and New Zealand began a joint Antarctic Research Expedition. The centenary of Western Australia was celebrated.

In international affairs, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a treaty renouncing war as an instrument of national policy, went into effect. In Europe, the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy signed the Lateran Treaty. The Idionymon law was passed in Greece to outlaw political dissent. Spain hosted the Ibero-American Exposition which featured pavilions from Latin American countries. The BBC broadcast a television transmission for the first time (see "1929 in television"). The German airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin flew around the world in 21 days.

Middle East, Asia, and Pacific Isles[link]

On August 16 of this year the 1929 Palestine riots broke out between Palestinians and Jews over control of the Western Wall. The rioting, initiated in part when British police tore down a screen the Jews had constructed in front of the Wall,^[1] continued until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Palestinians were killed.^[2][3] Two of the more famous incidents occurring during these riots were the August 23 and August 24 1929 Hebron massacre, in which 65–68 Jews were killed by Palestinians and the remaining Jews are forced to leave Hebron. The Palestinians had been told that Jews were killing Palestinians. Jews would not return to Hebron until after the Six Day War in 1967.^[4] The other major clash was the 1929 Safed massacre, in which 18–20 Jews were killed by Palestinians in Safed in similar fashion.^[5] Elsewhere in the Middle East, Iraq took a big step toward gaining independence from the British. The Iraqi government had, since the end of World War I and the beginning of the British Mandate in the Middle East, constantly resisted British efforts to control or restrict them. In September, Britain announced that it would support Iraq's inclusion in the League of Nations, this signaled the beginning of the end of their direct control of the region.^[6]

Early in 1929, the Afghan leader King Amanullah lost power through revolution and civil war to Amir Habibullah II. Habibulah's rule, however, only lasted nine months. Nadir Shah replaced him in October, starting a line of monarchs which would last 40 years.^[7] In neighboring India, a general strike in Bombay continued throughout the year despite efforts by the British.^[8] On December 29, the All India Congress in Lahore declared Indian independence from Britain, something it had threatened to do if Britain did not grant India dominion status.^[9] China and Russia engaged in a minor conflict after China seized full control of the Manchurian Chinese Eastern Railway. Russia counterattacked and took the cities of Hailar and Manchouli before issuing an ultimatum demanding joint control of the railway to be reinstated. The Chinese agreed to the terms on November 26. The Japanese would later see this defeat as a sign of Chinese weakness, leading to their taking control of Manchuria.^[10] The Far East began to experience economic problems late in the year as the effects of the Great Depression began to spread. Southeast Asia was especially hard hit as its exports (spice, rubber, and other commodities) were more sensitive to economic problems.^[11] In the Pacific, on December 28 – "Black Saturday" in Samoa – New Zealand colonial police killed 11 unarmed demonstrators, an event which led the Mau movement to demand independence for Samoa.^[12]

Europe[link]

Western[link]

In 1929, the Fascist Party in Italy tightened its control. National education policy took a major step towards being completely taken over by the agenda of indoctrination.^[13] In that year, the Fascist government took control of the authorization of all textbooks, all secondary school teachers were required to take an oath of loyalty to Fascism, and children began to be taught that they owed the same loyalty to Fascism as they did to God.^[13] On February 11, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty, making Vatican City a sovereign state.^[14] On July 25, Pope Pius XI emerged from the Vatican and entered St. Peter's square in a huge procession witnessed by about 250,000 persons, thus ending nearly 60 years of papal self-imprisonment within the Vatican.^[15] Italy used the diplomatic prestige associated with this successful agreement to adopt a more aggressive foreign policy.^[16] Germany experienced a major turning point in this year due to the economic crash. The country had experienced prosperity under the government of the Weimar Republic until foreign investors withdrew their German interests. This began the crumbling of the Republican government in favor of Nazism.^[17] In 1929, the number of unemployed reached three million.^[18] On July 27, the Geneva Convention, held in Switzerland, addressed the treatment of prisoners of war in response to problems encountered during World War I.^[19]

On May 31, the British general election returned a hung parliament yet again, with the Liberals in position to determine who would have power. These elections were known as the "Flapper" elections due to the fact that it was the first British election in which women under 30 could vote.^[20] A week after the vote, on June 7 the Conservatives conceded power rather than ally with the Liberals. Ramsay MacDonald founded a new Labour government the next day.^[21] 1929 is regarded as a turning point by French historians, who point out that it was last year in which prosperity was felt before the effects of the Great Depression. The Third Republic had been in power since before World War I. On July 24 French prime minister Raymond Poincaré resigned for medical reasons; he was succeeded by Aristide Briand. Briand adopted a foreign policy of both peace and defensive fortification. The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, went into effect in this year (it was first signed in Paris in 1928 by most leading world powers).^[22] The French began work on the Maginot line in this year, as a defense against a possible German attack, and on September 5 Briand presented a plan for the United States of Europe.^[23] On October 22 Briand was replaced as Prime Minister by Andre Tardieu.^[24] Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in Spain experienced growing dissatisfaction among students and academics, as well as businessmen who blamed the government for recent economic woes. Many called for a fascist regime, like that in Italy.^[25]

Eastern[link]

In May, Joseph Stalin consolidated his power in the Soviet Union by sending Leon Trotsky into exile. The only country that would grant Trotsky asylum was Turkey, in return for his help in their civil war. He and his family left the USSR aboard ship on February 12.^[26] Stalin then turned on his former political ally, Nikolai Bukharin, who was the last real threat to his power. By the end of the year Bukharin had been defeated. Once Stalin was in power, he turned his former support for Lenin's New Economic Policy into opposition.^[27] In November, Stalin declared that it "The Year of the Great Breakthrough" and stated that the country would focus on industrial programs as well as on collectivizing the grain supply. He hoped to surpass the West not only in agriculture, but in industry.^[28] Millions of Soviet farmers were removed from their private farms, their property was collected, and they were moved to state-owned farms. Stalin also emphasized in 1929 a campaign demonizing Kulaks as a plague on society. Kulak property was taken and they were deported by cattle train to areas of frozen tundra.^[29]

The timber market in Finland began to decline in 1929 due to the Great Depression, as well as the Soviet Union's entrance into the market. Financial and political problems culminated in the birth of the fascist Lapua Movement on November 23 in a demonstration in Lapua. The movement's stated aim was Finnish democracy and anti-communism.^[30] The Finnish legislature received heavy pressure to remove basic rights from Communist groups.^[31] Politics in Lithuania was also very heated, as President Voldemaras was unpopular in some quarters, and survived an assassination attempt in Kaunas.^[32] Later, while attending a meeting of the League of Nations, he was ousted in a coup by President Smetona, who made himself dictator. Upon Voldemaras' removal from office, Geležinis Vilkas went underground and received aid and encouragement in its activities from Germany.^[32] Yugoslavia was renamed the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" as King Alexander sought to unite the Balkans under his rule.^[33] The state's new Monarchy replaced the old parliament, which had been dominated by Serbs.^[34]

North America[link]

In October 1929, the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overturned a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada that women could not be members of the legislature. This case, which came to be known as the Persons Case, had important ramifications not just for women's rights but also because in overturning the case, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council engendered a radical change in the Canadian judicial approach to the Canadian constitution, an approach that has come to be known as the "living tree doctrine". The five women who initiated the case are known in Canada as the Famous Five.^[35] In November, the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake occurred off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean. It registered as a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on Grand Banks, broke 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggered a tsunami that destroyed many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area, killing 28 (as of 1997, Canada's most lethal earthquake).^[36]

The Mexican Cristero War continued in 1929 as clerical forces attempted an assassination of the provisional president in a train bombing in February. The attempt failed. Plutarco Calles, at the center of power for the anti-clerics, continued to gather power in Mexico City. His government was considered an enemy to more conservative Mexicans who held to traditional forms of government and more religious control. Calles founded the National Revolutionary Party early in the year to increase his power; a party which was, ironically, seen by foreigners as fascist and which was in opposition to the Mexican Right. A special election was held in this year, which Jose Vasconselos lost to Ortiz Rubio. By this time, the war had ended.^[37] The last group of rebels was defeated on June 4, and in the same month US Ambassador Dwight Morrow initiated talks between parties. On June 21 an agreement was brokered ending the Cristero War. On June 27, church bells rang and mass was held publicly for the first time in three years. However, the agreement favored the government heavily, as Priests were required to register with the government and religion was banned from schools.^[38]

The major event of the year for the United states was the stock market crash on Wall Street, which was to have international effects. On September 3, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) peaked at 381.17, a height it would not reach again until November 1954. Then, from October 24 – October 29, stock prices suffered three multi-digit percentage drops, wiping out more than $30 billion from the New York Stock Exchange (10 times greater than the annual budget of the federal government).^[39] On December 3 U.S. President Herbert Hoover announced to the U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash were behind the nation, and that the American people had regained faith in the economy.^[40]

Literature, arts, and entertainment[link]

Literature of the time reflected the memories many harbored of the horrors of World War I. A major seller was All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque was a German who had fought in the war at age eighteen and been wounded in the Third Battle of Ypres. He stated that he intended the book to tell the story "of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." Another 1929 book reflecting on World War I was Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, as well as Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves.^[41] In lighter media, a few stars of the comic industry made their debut, including Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, who would appear in over 200 million comic books in 60 languages. Popeye, another comic strip character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, also appeared in this year. Within the film industry on May 16 the 1st Academy Awards were presented at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California, with Wings winning Best Picture. Also in this year Hallelujah! became the first Hollywood film to contain an entirely black cast, and Atlantic, a German film about the Titanic, was the first sound-on-film movie, signaling the beginning of the end for silent films.

The arts were in the midst of the Modernist movement, as Pablo Picasso painted two cubist works, Woman in a Garden and Nude in an Armchair, during this year. The surrealist painters Salvador Dalí and René Magritte completed several works, including The First Days of Spring and The Treachery of Images. On November 7 in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opened to the public. The latest in modern architecture was also represented by the likes of the Barcelona Pavilion in Spain and the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, at its completion the tallest building in the British Empire.

Science and technology[link]

The year saw several advances in technology and exploration. On June 27 the first public demonstration of color TV was held by H. E. Ives and his colleagues at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York. The first images were a bouquet of roses and an American flag. A mechanical system was used to transmit 50-line color television images between New York and Washington. By November, Vladimir Zworykin had taken out the first patent for color television. On November 29, Bernt Balchen, U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd, Captain Ashley McKinley, and Harold June, became the first to fly over the South Pole. Within the year, Britain, Australia and New Zealand began a joint Antarctic Research Expedition, and the German airship Graf Zeppelin began a round-the-world flight (ended August 29). This year Ernst Schwarz describes Bonobo (Pan paniscus) as a different species from chimpanzee (Pan troglodites), both very closely phylogenetically related to human beings.

Events[link]

January[link]

• January 1
  • The U.S. Army Air Corps airplane ? begins a six-day non-stop endurance flight over Southern California using aerial refueling.
  • The British Columbian municipalities of Point Grey and South Vancouver are amalgamated into Vancouver.
• January 6
  • 6 January Dictatorship: King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution.
  • The Albanian missionary sister Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later known as Mother Teresa, arrives in Calcutta from Ireland to begin her work among India's poorest and sickest.
• January 10 – First appearance of Hergé's Belgian comic book hero Tintin as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter..., au pays des Soviets), begins serialization in children's newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième.
• January 15 – Annales d'histoire économique et sociale begins publication in France.
• January 17 – First appearance of comic strip hero Popeye in Thimble Theatre.^[42]
• January 29 – All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues), by Erich Maria Remarque, is published in book form.

February[link]

• February 9 – The Litvinov Protocol is signed in Moscow among the USSR, Poland, Estonia, Romania and Latvia.^[43]
• February 11 – Italy and the Vatican sign the Lateran Treaty.
• February 14 – St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangsters, rivals of Al Capone, are murdered in Chicago.
• February 26 – The Grand Teton National Park is established by Congress.

February 26: Grand Teton National Park.

March[link]

• March 2 – The longest bridge in the world, the San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge, opens.
• March 3 – A revolt by Generals José Gonzalo Escobar and Jesús María Aguirre fails in Mexico.
• March 4 – Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st President of the United States, succeeding Calvin Coolidge. His Vice President, Charles Curtis, became the first person with non-European ancestry to reach such a high office.
• March 28 – Japanese forces withdraw from Shandong province to their garrison in Tsingtao bringing an end to the Jinan Incident.

April[link]

• April 3 – Persia signs the Litvinov Protocol.^[43]

May[link]

• May – The Wickersham Commission begins its investigation of alcohol prohibition in the U.S.
• May 16 – The 1st Academy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California, with Wings winning Best Picture.
• May 31 – The British general election returns a hung parliament yet again; the Liberals will determine who has power.

June[link]

• June 1 – The 1st Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires.
• June 3 – The Treaty of Lima settles a border dispute between Peru and Chile.
• June 7 – The Lateran Treaty, making Vatican City a sovereign state, is ratified.
• June 8 – Ramsay MacDonald founds a new Labour government.
• June 21 – An agreement brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow ends the Cristero War in Mexico.
• June 27 – The first public demonstration of color TV is held, by H. E. Ives and his colleagues at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York. The first images are a bouquet of roses and an American flag. A mechanical system is used to transmit 50-line color television images between New York and Washington.

July[link]

• July 11 – In Russia, a secret decree of the Sovnarkom creates the backbone of the Gulag system.
• July 24
  • French prime minister Raymond Poincaré resigns; he is succeeded by Aristide Briand.
  • The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it was first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928 by most leading world powers).
• July 25 – Pope Pius XI emerges from the Vatican and enters St. Peter's square in a huge procession witnessed by about 250,000 persons, thus ending nearly 60 years of papal self-imprisonment within the Vatican.
• July 27
  • Red Crescent adopted as an additional LORCS emblem.
  • The Geneva Convention addresses the treatment of prisoners of war.

August[link]

• August 16 – The 1929 Palestine riots breaks out between Palestinians and Jews and continues until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Palestinians are killed.
• August 23 and August 24 – The 1929 Hebron massacre, in which 65–68 Jews are killed by Palestinians and the remaining Jews are forced to leave Hebron.
• August 29 – The 1929 Safed massacre, in which 18–20 Jews are killed by Palestinians in Safed.
• August 31 – The Young Plan, which set the total World War I reparations owed by Germany at US$26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 58½ years, is finalized.

September[link]

• September 3 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) peaks at 381.17, a height it would not reach again until November 1954.
• September 5 – Aristide Briand presents his plan for the United States of Europe.
• September 17 – A coup ousts Augustinas Voldemaras in Lithuania; the new president is Antanas Smetona.
• September 30 – Fritz von Opel pilots the first rocket-powered aircraft, the Opel RAK.1, in front of a large crowd in Frankfurt am Main.

October[link]

• October 18 – Women are announced to be persons by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain. Women can be appointed to the Canadian Senate, an achievement by five Canadian women called the Famous Five.
• October 22 – The government of Aristide Briand falls in France.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929, the beginning of the Great Depression

• October 24 – October 29 – Wall Street Crash of 1929: Three multi-digit percentage drops wipe out more than $30 billion from the New York Stock Exchange (10 times greater than the annual budget of the federal government).
• October 25 – Former U.S. Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall is convicted of bribery for his role in the Teapot Dome scandal, becoming the first Presidential cabinet member to go to prison for actions in office.

November[link]

• November – Vladimir Zworykin takes out the first patent for color television.
• November 1
  • An annular solar eclipse is seen on Atlantic Ocean and Africa.
  • Conscription in Australia ends.^[44]
• November 7 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.
• November 18 – 1929 Grand Banks earthquake^[36]
• November 29 – Bernt Balchen, U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd, Captain Ashley McKinley, and Harold June, become the first to fly over the South Pole.

December[link]

• December 28 – "Black Saturday" in Samoa: New Zealand colonial police kill 11 unarmed demonstrators, an event which leads the Mau movement to demand independence for Samoa.^[12]
• December 29 – The All India Congress in Lahore demands Indian independence.

Births[link]

January–April[link]

• January 1
  • Raymond Chow, Hong Kong film producer
  • Joseph Lombardo, American mafioso
  • Haruo Nakajima, Japanese actor
• January 3
  • Sergio Leone, Italian director
  • Ernst Mahle, Brazilian composer
  • Gordon Moore, American computing entrepreneur and benefactor
• January 5 – Wilbert Harrison, American singer
• January 7 – Terry Moore, American actress
• January 8 – Saeed Jaffrey, Indian actor
• January 9 – Brian Friel, Irish dramatist
• January 12 – Alasdair MacIntyre, Scottish-born American philosopher
• January 15 – Martin Luther King Jr., American civil rights leader, Nobel laureate (d. 1968)
• January 17
  • Eilaine Roth, American female professional baseball player (d. 2011)
  • Elaine Roth, American female professional baseball player (d. 2007)
  • Tan Boon Teik, former Attorney-General of Singapore (d. 2012)
• January 20 – Arte Johnson, American actor
• January 23 – John Charles Polanyi, Canadian chemist, Nobel laureate
• January 25 – Benny Golson, American jazz musician
• January 29 – George Ross Anderson, Jr., Anderson, South Carolina
• January 31
  • Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2011)
  • Jean Simmons, English actress (d. 2010)
• February 2 – Věra Chytilová, Czech director
• February 3 – Huntington Hardisty, American admiral (d. 2003)
• February 4 – Jerry Adler, American actor
• February 5 – Luc Ferrari, French Composer (d. 2005)
• February 6 – Sixten Jernberg, Swedish cross-country skier
• February 10 – Hallgeir Brenden, Norwegian cross-country skier (d. 2007)
• February 15
  • Graham Hill, English race car driver (d. 1975)
  • Kauko Armas Nieminen, Finnish physicist
  • James Schlesinger, American politician
• February 17 – Patricia Routledge, English actress
• February 18 – Len Deighton, British author
• February 24 – Zdzislaw Beksinski, Polish surrealist painter (d. 2005)
• March 1 – Georgi Markov, Bulgarian dissident (d. 1978)
• March 8 – Hebe Camargo, Brazilian television presenter, actress and singer
• March 13 – Peter Breck, American actor and former drama teacher
• March 19 – Miquel Martí i Pol, Catalan poet (d. 2003)
• March 23 – Sir Roger Bannister, British athlete
• March 27 – Rita Briggs, American female professional baseball player (d. 1994)
• March 29 – Lennart Meri, former President of Estonia (d. 2006)
• April 1 – Jane Powell, American actress
• April 3 – Poul Schlüter, Danish politician
• April 5 – Ivar Giaever, Norwegian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 10 – Max von Sydow, Swedish actor
• April 14 – Chadli Bendjedid, former President of Algeria
• April 22 – Michael Atiyah, British-Lebanese mathematician

May–August[link]

• May 1 – Ralf Dahrendorf, Anglo-German sociologist (d. 2009)
• May 2 – Édouard Balladur, French Prime Minister
• May 4
  • Audrey Hepburn, British actress (d. 1993)
  • Ronald Golias, Brazilian comedian and actor (d. 2005)
• May 5 – Ilene Woods, American singer and actress (d. 2010)
• May 6 – Paul Lauterbur, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 2007)
• May 8 – Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese singer and actress (The Courtship of Eddie's Father) (d. 2007)
• May 10 – Betty Foss, American female professional baseball player (d. 1998)
• May 11 – Margaret Kerry, American actress
• May 12 – Sam Nujoma, first President of Namibia
• May 20 – Ahmed Hamdi, Egyptian soldier, that fought in Yom Kippur (d. 1973)
• May 21 – Alice Drummond, American actress
• May 26 – Beverly Sills, American soprano (d. 2007)
• June 3 – Werner Arber, Swiss microbiologist, Nobel laureate
• June 6 – Milton Glaser, American graphic designer, illustrator and teacher.
• June 4 – Karolos Papoulias, President of Greece
• June 12 – Anne Frank, German-born diarist and Holocaust victim (d. 1945)
• June 20 – Anne Weale, British writer (d. 2007)
• July 1 – Gerald Edelman, American biologist, Nobel laureate
• July 2 – Imelda Marcos, First Lady of the Philippines
• July 9 – King Hassan II of Morocco (d. 1999)
• July 11 – David Kelly (actor), Irish actor
• July 19 – Alice Pollitt, American female professional baseball player
• July 22 – U. A. Fanthorpe, British poet (d. 2009)
• July 26 – Joseph Jackson, Father of the Jackson Family
• July 28 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American First Lady (d. 1994)
• August 8 – Ronnie Biggs, British robber
• August 24 – Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, Nobel laureate (d. 2004)
• August 27 – Ralph T. Coe, American art historian of Native American art

September–December[link]

• September 4 – Thomas Eagleton, 77, United States Senator for Missouri (1969–1987) (d. 2007)
• September 5 – Bob Newhart, American comedian and actor
• September 10 – Arnold Palmer, American golfer
• September 15 – Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist, Nobel laureate
• September 16 – Maxine Kline, American female professional baseball player
• September 19 – Mel Stewart, African-American actor (d. 2002)
• September 21 – Sandor Kocsis, Hungarian football player (d. 1979)
• September 22 – Hédi Váradi, Hungarian actress (d. 1987)
• September 25 – Barbara Walters, American journalist
• September 28 – Lata Mangeshkar, Indian singer
• October 2 – Moses Gunn, African-American actor (d. 1993)
• October 13 – Walasse Ting, Chinese-American painter (d. 2010)
• October 15 – Antonino Zichichi, Italian physicist
• October 22 – Lev Yashin, Russian footballer (d. 1990)
• October 24 – Clifford Rose, British classical actor
• November 2
  • Richard E. Taylor, Canadian-born physicist, Nobel laureate
  • Rachel Ames, American actress
• November 7 – Eric R. Kandel, Austrian-born neuroscientist, Nobel laureate
• November 9 – Imre Kertesz, Hungarian writer, Nobel laureate
• November 12 – Grace Patricia Kelly, American actress and Princess of Monaco (d. 1982)
• November 13– Fred Phelps, American Pastor (Westboro Baptist Church)
• November 24 – Franciszek Kokot, nephrologist
• November 30 – Dick Clark, American television entertainer (d. 2012)
• December 9 – Bob Hawke, twenty-third Prime Minister of Australia
• December 16 – Nicholas Courtney, British actor (d. 2011)
• December 29 – Susie Garrett, American actress and sister of Marla Gibbs (d. 2002)

Deaths[link]

January–June[link]

• January 5
  • Marc McDermott, Australian-American actor (b. 1881)
  • Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (b. 1856)
• January 13 – Wyatt Earp, American gunfighter (b. 1848)
• January 30 – La Goulue, French dancer (b. 1866)
• February 6 – Maria Christina of Austria, Queen Regent of Spain (b. 1858)
• February 11 – Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein (b. 1840)
• February 12 – Lillie Langtry, British singer and actress (b. 1853)
• February 14 – Thomas Burke, American sprinter (b. 1875)
• February 18 – William Russell, American actor (b. 1884)
• February 24 – Frank Keenan, American actor (b. 1858)
• February 27 – Briton Hadden, co-founder of Time Magazine. (b. 1898)
• March 1 – Royal H. Weller, American politician (b. 1881)
• March 2 – Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, British admiral (b. 1840)
• March 5 – David Dunbar Buick, Scottish-American inventor
• March 12 – Asa Griggs Candler, American businessman and politician (b. 1851)
• March 15 – Pinetop Smith, American blues pianist (b. 1904)
• March 18 – William P. Cronan, Naval Governor of Guam (b. 1879)
• March 20 – Ferdinand Foch, French commander of Allied forces in World War I (b. 1851)
• April 4
  • Karl Benz, German automotive pioneer (b. 1844)
  • William Michael Crose, United States Navy Commander and the seventh Naval Governor of American Samoa (b. 1867)
• April 22 – Henry Lerolle, French painter (b. 1848)
• April 24 – Caroline Rémy, French feminist (b. 1855)
• May 21 – Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
• June 8 – Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (b. 1861)
• June 11 – William Dickson Boyce, American entrepreneur and founder of the Boy Scouts of America (b. 1858)
• June 16 – Bramwell Booth, General of The Salvation Army (b. 1856)
• June 26 – Amandus Adamson, Estonian sculptor (b. 1855)
• June 28 – Edward Carpenter, English poet (b. 1844)

July–December[link]

• July 2 – Gladys Brockwell, American actress (b. 1893)
• July 3 – Dustin Farnum, American actor (b. 1874)
• July 12 – Robert Henri, American painter (b. 1865)
• July 15 – Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian writer (b. 1874)
• August – Mary MacLane, Canadian feminist writer (b. 1881)
• August 3
  • Thorstein Veblen, Norwegian-American economist (b. 1857)
  • Emil Berliner, German-born inventor (b. 1851)
• August 5 – Millicent Fawcett, British suffragist and feminist (b. 1847)
• August 19 – Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario (b. 1872)
• August 26 – Sir Ernest Satow, British diplomat and scholar (b. 1843)
• August 27 – Herman Potočnik Noordung, Slovenian rocket engineer (b. 1892)
• September 2 – Paul Leni, German filmmaker (b. 1885)
• September 12 – Rainis, Latvian poet and playwright (b. 1865)
• September 23 – Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
• September 24 – Mahidol Adulyadej, Thai doctor and father of King Rama IX (b. 1892)
• September 29 – Tanaka Giichi, 26th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1863)
• October 1 – Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor (b. 1861)
• October 3
  • Jeanne Eagels, American actress (b. 1890)
  • Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1878)
• October 28 – Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1849)
• October 29 – Emily Robin, English Madame
• November 6 – Prince Maximilian of Baden, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1867)
• November 17 – Herman Hollerith, American businessman and inventor (b. 1860)
• November 24
  • Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France (b. 1841)
  • Raymond Hitchcock, American actor (b. 1865)
• December 10 – Harry Crosby, American publisher and poet (b. 1898)
• December 20 – Émile Loubet, 8th President of France (b. 1838)
• December 29 – Wilhelm Maybach, German automobile designer (b. 1846)

[edit] Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Prince Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie
• Chemistry – Arthur Harden, Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin
• Physiology or Medicine – Christiaan Eijkman, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins
• Literature – Thomas Mann
• Peace – Frank Billings Kellogg

References[link]

• The 1930s Timeline: 1929 — from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia

Tara Oram
Performing at the 2010 Cavendish Beach Music Festival in Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Background information
Birth name	Tara Oram
Born	(1984-04-28) April 28, 1984 (age 28)
Origin	Hare Bay, NL
Genres	Country
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	2003 - present
Labels	Open Road
Website	www.taraoram.com

Tara Oram (born 28 April 1984 in Hare Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador) is a Canadian country music recording artist and a top six finalist on the fifth season of Canadian Idol in 2007. In March 2009 Oram received an ECMA for Country Recording of the Year Award.

Early life[link]

Oram was born in Hare Bay, Newfoundland but moved frequently during her early years. Oram first moved to the Malton area of Mississauga, Ontario when she was 10 years old, and later to Brampton, where she attended Bramalea Secondary School.

Career[link]

Aged 16 Oram was signed to indie label Wellcraft Music Group and released her first country music single called, "More Than I Dreamed" which was her first top 50 hit. She later toured with a local agency called Performerz, which allowed her to sing in theatres, malls and festivals throughout Ontario. When 19 Oram joined her first real band, Big Catch. The band played the bar/club circuit and corporate events around Ontario for the better part of four years, performing a mix of country, top 40, rock, R’n B and retro. In 2007, Oram auditioned for the hit show Canadian Idol, earning a 6th place finish on the hit reality show.^[1] The next year, Oram signed her first major record deal with Open Road/Universal Music Canada and also appeared on reality TV series called, "The Tara Diaries" on CMT.^[2] CMT filmed a Christmas special she hosted, "The Night Before Christmas".^[3] In October 2008, Oram's first show as a signed artist was opening for her Idol, Marty Stuart in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In 2009, CMT and YTV Oram appeared a celebrity judge on the TV series, "Karaoke Star Junior".^[4]

On July 10, 2010, Oram was the opening act for Taylor Swift and performed at the second annual Cavendish Beach Music Festival in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, singing to a crowd of more than 35,000 people.^[5]

Awards/Nominations[link]

Oram received nominations for the 2009 East Coast Music Awards in the categories Female Solo Recording of the Year and Video of the Year, and won in the Country Recording of the Year award.^[6] She also received a CRMA (Canadian Radio Music Award) nomination as Best New Group/Solo Artist. On February 2, 2009 Oram was nominated for a Juno Award in the Country Recording of the Year category. Oram won the 2009 CCMA Rising Star award. She was also nominated for Rising Star, Female Artist of the Year and Video of the Year.^[7]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

Music videos[link]

See also[link]

• Canadian Idol
• Season 5 Recap of Canadian Idol

References[link]

1. ^ "Oram booted from 'Canadian Idol'". Canoe. August 14, 2007. http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/TV_Shows/C/Canadian_Idol/2007/08/14/4418454-sun.html. Retrieved 23 May 2011. 
2. ^ "Shows : The Tara Diaries". CMT. 2011 [last update]. http://www.cmt.ca/Shows/thetaradiaries. Retrieved 23 May 2011. 
3. ^ "Newfoundland Native Tara Oram Holds Benefit For Communities Affected by Hurricane Igor". Open Road Recordings. http://www.openroadrecordings.com/2010/10/newfoundland-native-tara-oram-holds-benefit-for-communities-affected-by/. Retrieved 23 May 2011. 
4. ^ "Tara Oram Loves Canada's Karaoke Kids". cmt.ca. January 31, 2009. http://www.cmt.ca/news/NewsItem.aspx?news_id=7974. Retrieved 23 May 2011. 
5. ^ http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/Living/Commuting/2010-07-07/article-1522252/Fans-line-up-for-world-class-talent-in-Cavendish/1
6. ^ "Hey Rosetta! triumphant at East Coast Music Awards". CBC. March 1, 2009. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/03/01/ecma-awards-gala.html. Retrieved 23 May 2011. 
7. ^ "CMT Congratulates The 2009 Canadian Country Music Awards Nomenees". channelcanada.com. July 29, 2009. http://www.channelcanada.com/Article3247.html. Retrieved 23 May 2011. 

External links[link]

• Official website
• Tara Oram on Facebook
• Tara Oram's channel on YouTube
• Tara Oram on Myspace
• Tara Oram's Management Company

Duke Ellington
Frankfurt am Main, February 6, 1965
Background information
Birth name	Edward Kennedy Ellington
Born	(1899-04-29)April 29, 1899 Washington D.C., United States
Died	May 24, 1974(1974-05-24) (aged 75) New York City, United States
Genres	Orchestral jazz, swing, big band
Occupations	Bandleader, pianist, composer
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1914–1974
Website	www.dukeellington.com

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974)^[1] was an American composer, pianist, and big-band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions. In the opinion of Bob Blumenthal of The Boston Globe "In the century since his birth, there has been no greater composer, American or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington."^[2] A major figure in the history of jazz, Ellington's music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. His career spanned more than 50 years and included leading his orchestra, composing an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies, composing stage musicals, and world tours. Several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional genres of music. His reputation increased after his death and the Pulitzer Prize Board bestowed on him a special posthumous honor in 1999.^[3]

Ellington called his music "American Music" rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category."^[4] These included many of the musicians who were members of his orchestra, some of whom are considered among the best in jazz in their own right, but it was Ellington who melded them into one of the most well-known jazz orchestral units in the history of jazz. He often composed specifically for the style and skills of these individuals, such as "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Concerto for Cootie" for Cootie Williams, which later became "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me" with Bob Russell's lyrics, and "The Mooche" for Tricky Sam Nanton and Bubber Miley. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan" and "Perdido" which brought the "Spanish Tinge" to big-band jazz. Several members of the orchestra remained there for several decades. After 1941, he frequently collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his "writing and arranging companion."^[5] Ellington recorded for many American record companies, and appeared in several films.

Ellington led his band from 1923 until his death in 1974. His son Mercer Ellington, who had already been handling all administrative aspects of his father's business for several decades, led the band until his own death in 1996. At that point, the original band dissolved. Paul Ellington, Mercer's youngest son and executor of the Duke Ellington estate,^[6] kept the Duke Ellington Orchestra going from Mercer's death onwards.^[7]

Early life[link]

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. Daisy and J.E. were both pianists. Daisy primarily played parlor songs and J.E. prefered operatic airs. They lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place (now Ward Place), NW in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D.C.^[8] His father, James Edward Ellington, was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina on April 15, 1879 and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1886 with his parents.^[9] Daisy Kennedy was born in Washington, D.C. on January 4, 1879, and was the daughter of a former American slave.^[8][10] James Ellington made blueprints for the United States Navy.

At the age of seven Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscales. Daisy surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners and teach him to live elegantly. Ellington’s childhood friends noticed that "his casual, offhand manner, his easy grace, and his dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman",^[11] and began calling him Duke. Ellington credited his "chum" Edgar McEntree for the nickname. "I think he felt that in order for me to be eligible for his constant companionship, I should have a title. So he called me Duke."^[12]

Though Ellington took piano lessons, he was more interested in baseball. "President Roosevelt (Teddy) would come by on his horse sometimes, and stop and watch us play," he recalled.^[13] Ellington went to Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, D.C. He got his first job selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games.

In the summer of 1914, while working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Cafe, he wrote his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag" (also known as the "Poodle Dog Rag"). Ellington created "Soda Fountain Rag" by ear, because he had not yet learned to read and write music. "I would play the 'Soda Fountain Rag' as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango, and fox trot," Ellington recalled. "Listeners never knew it was the same piece. I was established as having my own repertoire."^[14] In his autobiography, Music is my Mistress (1973), Ellington said he missed more lessons than he attended, feeling at the time that playing the piano was not his talent. Ellington started sneaking into Frank Holiday's Poolroom at the age of fourteen. Hearing the poolroom pianists play ignited Ellington's love for the instrument and he began to take his piano studies seriously. Among the many piano players he listened to were Doc Perry, Lester Dishman, Louis Brown, Turner Layton, Gertie Wells, Clarence Bowser, Sticky Mack, Blind Johnny, Cliff Jackson, Claude Hopkins, Phil Wurd, Caroline Thornton, Luckey Roberts, Eubie Blake, Joe Rochester, and Harvey Brooks.^[15]

Ellington began listening to, watching, and imitating ragtime pianists, not only in Washington, D.C., but in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, where he vacationed with his mother during the summer months.^[14] Dunbar High School music teacher Henry Lee Grant gave him private lessons in harmony. With the additional guidance of Washington pianist and band leader Oliver "Doc" Perry, Ellington learned to read sheet music, project a professional style, and improve his technique. Ellington was also inspired by his first encounters with stride pianists James P. Johnson and Luckey Roberts. Later in New York he took advice from Will Marion Cook, Fats Waller, and Sidney Bechet. Ellington started to play gigs in cafés and clubs in and around Washington, D.C. and his attachment grew to be so strong that he turned down an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1916. Three months before graduating he dropped out of Armstrong Manual Training School, where he was studying commercial art.^[16]

From 1917 through 1919, Ellington launched his musical career, painting commercial signs by day and playing piano by night. Through his day job, Duke's entrepreneurial side came out: when a customer would ask him to make a sign for a dance or party, he would ask them if they had musical entertainment; if not, Ellington would ask if he could play for them. He also had a messenger job with the U.S. Navy and State Departments. Ellington moved out of his parents' home and bought his own as he became a successful pianist. At first, he played in other ensembles, and in late 1917 formed his first group, "The Duke’s Serenaders" ("Colored Syncopators", his telephone directory advertising proclaimed).^[16] He was not only a member, but also the booking agent. His first play date was at the True Reformer's Hall, where he took home 75 cents.^[17]

Ellington played throughout the Washington, D.C. area and into Virginia for private society balls and embassy parties. The band included Otto Hardwick, who switched from bass to saxophone; Arthur Whetsol on trumpet; Elmer Snowden on banjo; and Sonny Greer on drums. The band thrived, performing for both African-American and white audiences, a rarity during the racially divided times.^[18]

Music career[link]

Early career[link]

When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, Ellington made the fateful decision to leave behind his successful career in Washington, D.C., and move to Harlem, becoming one of the figures of the Harlem Renaissance. New dance crazes like the Charleston emerged in Harlem, as well as African-American musical theater, including Eubie Blake's Shuffle Along. After the young musicians left the Sweatman Orchestra to strike out on their own, they found an emerging jazz scene that was highly competitive and hard to crack. They hustled pool by day and played whatever gigs they could find. The young band met Willie "The Lion" Smith who introduced them to the scene and gave them some money. They played at rent-house parties for income. After a few months the young musicians returned to Washington, D.C., feeling discouraged.

In June 1923 a gig in Atlantic City, New Jersey, led to a play date at the prestigious Exclusive Club in Harlem. This was followed in September 1923 by a move to the Hollywood Club – 49th and Broadway – and a four-year engagement, which gave Ellington a solid artistic base. He was known to play the bugle at the end of each performance. The group was called Elmer Snowden and his Black Sox Orchestra and had seven members, including James "Bubber" Miley. They renamed themselves "The Washingtonians". Snowden left the group in early 1924 and Ellington took over as bandleader. After a fire the club was re-opened as the Club Kentucky (often referred to as the "Kentucky Club"), an engagement which set the stage for the biggest opportunities in Ellington's life.

Ellington made eight records in 1924, receiving composing credit on three including Choo Choo.^[19] In 1925 Ellington contributed four songs to Chocolate Kiddies, an all-African-American revue which introduced European audiences to African-American styles and performers. "Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra" grew to a ten-piece organization; they developed their own sound by displaying the non-traditional expression of Ellington’s arrangements, the street rhythms of Harlem, and the exotic-sounding trombone growls and wah-wahs, high-squealing trumpets, and sultry saxophone blues licks of the band members. For a short time soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet played with the group, imparting his propulsive swing and superior musicianship to the young band members. In 1927 King Oliver turned down a regular booking for his group as the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club; the offer passed to Ellington. With a weekly radio broadcast and famous white clientele nightly pouring in to see them.

Ellington was joined in New York City by his wife, Edna Thompson, and son Mercer in the late twenties, but the couple soon permanently separated.^[20] According to her obituary in Jet magazine, she was "[h]omesick for Washington" and returned (she died in 1967).^[21]

Although trumpeter Bubber Miley was a member of the orchestra for only a short period, he had a major influence on Ellington's sound.^[22] An early exponent of growl trumpet, his style changed the "sweet" dance band sound of the group to one that was hotter, which contemporaries termed "jungle" style. He also composed most of "Black and Tan Fantasy" and "Creole Love Call". An alcoholic, Miley had to leave the band before they gained wider fame. He died in 1932 at the age of 29. He was an important influence on Cootie Williams, who replaced him.

In 1927 Ellington made a career-advancing agreement with agent-publisher Irving Mills, giving Mills a 45% interest in Ellington's future.^[23] Mills had an eye for new talent and early on published compositions by Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields, and Harold Arlen. During the 1930s Ellington's popularity continued to increase – largely as a result of the promotional skills of Mills – who got more than his fair share of co-composer credits. From the beginning of their relationship, Mills arranged recording sessions on nearly every label including Brunswick, Victor, Columbia, OKeh, Perfect, Pathe, the ARC/Plaza group of labels (Cameo, Romeo, Lincoln, Oriole, Domino, Jewel, Banner), Hit of the Week, and Columbia's cheaper labels (Harmony, Diva, Velvet Tone, Clarion) labels which gave Ellington popular recognition, as well giving Ellington's fans the opportunity of hearing multiple versions of the same song. Ellington ended his association with Mills in 1937, although he continued to record under Mills' banner through to 1940.

At the Cotton Club, Ellington's group performed all the music for the revues, which mixed comedy, dance numbers, vaudeville, burlesque, music, and illegal alcohol. The musical numbers were composed by Jimmy McHugh and the lyrics by Dorothy Fields (later Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler), with some Ellington originals mixed in. Weekly radio broadcasts from the club gave Ellington national exposure. In 1929 Ellington appeared in his first movie, a nineteen-minute all-African-American RKO short, Black and Tan, in which he played the hero "Duke". In the same year, the Cotton Club Orchestra appeared on stage for several months in Florenz Ziegfeld's Show Girl, along with vaudeville stars Jimmy Durante, Eddie Foy, Jr., Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, and with music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Gus Kahn. That feverish period also included numerous recordings, under the pseudonyms "Whoopee Makers", "The Jungle Band", "Harlem Footwarmers", and the "Ten Black Berries". In 1930 Ellington and his Orchestra connected with a whole different audience in a concert with Maurice Chevalier and they also performed at the Roseland Ballroom, "America's foremost ballroom". Noted composer Percy Grainger was also an early admirer and supporter. He wrote "The three greatest composers who ever lived are Bach, Delius and Duke Ellington. Unfortunately Bach is dead, Delius is very ill but we are happy to have with us today The Duke".^[24]

In 1929, when Ellington conducted the orchestra for Show Girl, he met Will Vodery, Ziegfeld’s musical supervisor. In his 1946 biography, Duke Ellington, Barry Ulanov wrote:

From Vodery, as he (Ellington) says himself, he drew his chromatic convictions, his uses of the tones ordinarily extraneous to the diatonic scale, with the consequent alteration of the harmonic character of his music, its broadening, The deepening of his resources. It has become customary to ascribe the classical influences upon Duke – Delius, Debussy and Ravel – to direct contact with their music. Actually his serious appreciation of those and other modern composers, came after his meeting with Vodery.^[25]

As the Depression worsened, the recording industry was in crisis, dropping over 90% of its artists by 1933.^[26] Ellington and his orchestra survived the hard times by taking to the road in a series of tours. Radio exposure also helped maintain popularity. Ivie Anderson was hired as their featured vocalist. Sonny Greer had been providing occasional vocals and continued to do in a cross-talk feature with Anderson. Ellington, however, later had many different vocalists, including Herb Jeffries (until 1943) and Al Hibbler (who replaced Jeffries in 1943 and continued until 1951).

Ellington led the orchestra by conducting from the keyboard using piano cues and visual gestures; very rarely did he conduct using a baton. As a bandleader Ellington was not a strict disciplinarian; he maintained control of his orchestra with a crafty combination of charm, humor, flattery, and astute psychology. A complex, private person, he revealed his feelings to only his closest intimates and effectively used his public persona to deflect attention away from himself.

While the band's United States audience remained mainly African-American in this period, the Cotton Club had a near-exclusive white clientele and the Ellington orchestra had a huge following overseas, exemplified by the success of their trip to England in 1933 and their 1934 visit to the European mainland. The English visit saw Ellington win praise from members of the "serious" music community, including composer Constant Lambert, which gave a boost to Ellington's aspiration to compose longer works. For agent Mills it was a publicity triumph, as Ellington was now internationally known. On the band's tour through the segregated South in 1934, they avoided some of the traveling difficulties of African-Americans by touring in private railcars. These provided easy accommodations, dining, and storage for equipment while avoiding the indignities of segregated facilities.

The death of Ellington's mother in 1935 led to a temporary hiatus in his career. Competition was also intensifying, as African-American and white swing bands began to receive popular attention, including those of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Carter, Earl Hines, Chick Webb, and Count Basie. Swing dancing became a youth phenomenon, particularly with white college audiences, and "danceability" drove record sales and bookings. Jukeboxes proliferated nationwide, spreading the gospel of "swing". Ellington's band could certainly swing, but their strengths were mood and nuance, and richness of composition; hence his statement "jazz is music; swing is business".^[27] Ellington countered with two developments. He made recordings of smaller groups (sextets, octets, and nonets) drawn from his then-15-man orchestra and he composed pieces intended to feature specific instrumentalist, as with "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, "Yearning for Love" for Lawrence Brown, "Trumpet in Spades" for Rex Stewart, "Echoes of Harlem" for Cootie Williams and "Clarinet Lament" for Barney Bigard.

In 1937 Ellington returned to the Cotton Club which had relocated to the mid-town theater district. In the summer of that year, his father died, and due to many expenses, Ellington's finances were tight. Things improved in 1938 and he met and moved in with Cotton Club employee Beatrice "Evie" Ellis. After splitting with agent Irving Mills, he signed on with the William Morris Agency. The 1930s ended with a very successful European tour just as World War II loomed.

Ellington delivered some huge hits during the 1930s, which greatly helped to build his overall reputation. Some of them include: "Mood Indigo" (1930), "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1932), "Sophisticated Lady" (1933), "Solitude" (1934), "In a Sentimental Mood" (1935), "Caravan" (1937), "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" (1938). "Take the "A" Train" which hit big in 1941, was written by Billy Strayhorn.

Strayhorn, originally hired as a lyricist, began his association with Ellington in 1939.^[28] Nicknamed "Swee' Pea" for his mild manner, Strayhorn soon became a vital member of the Ellington Organization. Ellington showed great fondness for Strayhorn and never failed to speak glowingly of the man and their collaborative working relationship, "my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine".^[29] Strayhorn, with his training in classical music, not only contributed his original lyrics and music, but also arranged and polished many of Ellington's works, becoming a second Ellington or "Duke's doppelganger". It was not uncommon for Strayhorn to fill in for Duke, whether in conducting or rehearsing the band, playing the piano, on stage, and in the recording studio.^[30]

Duke in the 1940s[link]

Duke Ellington at the Hurricane Club in New York, May 1943

The band reached a creative peak in the early 1940s, when Ellington and a small hand-picked group of his composers and arrangers wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices who displayed tremendous creativity.^[31]

Some of the musicians created a sensation in their own right. The short-lived Jimmy Blanton transformed the use of double bass in jazz, allowing it to function as a solo rather than a rhythm instrument alone. Ben Webster, the Orchestra's first regular tenor saxophonist, started a rivalry with Johnny Hodges as the Orchestra's foremost voice in the sax section. Ray Nance joined, replacing Cootie Williams (who had "defected", contemporary wags claimed, to Benny Goodman). Nance, however, added violin to the instrumental colors Ellington had at his disposal.

Three-minute masterpieces flowed from the minds of Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Ellington's son Mercer Ellington, Mary Lou Williams and members of the Orchestra. "Cotton Tail", "Main Stem", "Harlem Airshaft", "Sidewalks of New York (East Side, West Side)", "Jack the bear", and dozens of others date from this period.

Privately made recordings of Nance's first concert date, at Fargo, North Dakota, on November 7, 1940 by Jack Towers and Dick Burris, are probably the most effective display of the band during this period. These recordings, later released as Duke Ellington at Fargo, 1940 Live, are among the first of innumerable live performances which survive, made by enthusiasts or broadcasters, significantly expanding the Ellington discography.

Ellington's long-term aim became to extend the jazz form from the three-minute limit of the 78 rpm record side, of which he was an acknowledged master.^[32] He had composed and recorded Creole Rhapsody as early as 1931 (issued as both sides of a 12" record for Victor and both sides of a 10" record for Brunswick), and his tribute to his mother, "Reminiscing in Tempo," had filled four 10" record sides in 1935; however, it was not until the 1940s that this became a regular feature of Ellington's work.

In this, he was helped by Strayhorn, who had enjoyed a more thorough training in the forms associated with classical music than Ellington. The first of these, "Black, Brown, and Beige" (1943), was dedicated to telling the story of African-Americans, and the place of slavery and the church in their history. Ellington debuted Black, Brown and Beige in Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, beginning a series of concerts there suited to displaying Ellington's longer works. While some jazz musicians had played at Carnegie Hall before, few had performed anything as elaborate as Ellington’s work.

Unfortunately, starting a regular pattern, Ellington's longer works were generally not well-received. Jump for Joy, a full-length musical based on themes of African-American identity, debuted on July 10, 1941 at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. Although it had the support of the Hollywood establishment, and received mostly positive reviews, its socio-political outlook provoked a negative reaction among some members of the public. It ran for 122 performances until September 29, 1941, with a brief revival in November of that year. Its subject matter did not make it appealing to Broadway, despite Ellington's plans to take it there.^[33]

The settlement of the first recording ban of 1942–43 had a serious effect on all the big bands because of the increase in royalty payments to musicians which resulted from it. The financial viability of Ellington's Orchestra came under threat, though Ellington's income as a songwriter ultimately subsidized it. Ellington always spent lavishly and although he drew a respectable income from the Orchestra's operations, the band's income often just covered expenses.^[34]

The music industry's focus shifted away from the big bands to the work of solo vocalists such as the young Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and mainstream groups like The Andrews Sisters as World War II drew to a close. The Kay Davis wordless vocal feature "Transblucency" (1946) was not going to have a similar reach. By the mid 1940s, jazz artists were changing their approach. The new form of jazz, Bebop was an early hit with club owners of smaller venues who could draw the jazz form's growing audiences in New York City at a fraction of the cost of hiring a big band. Newer, smaller bands and splinter forms of music increasingly put pressure on the larger clubs who now had to pay higher wages to maintain their big bands. Bebop was the preferred form for younger talent based in New York, such as Charlie Parker or Thelonious Monk who both rarely embraced the Big Band idiom. By 1950, another emerging musical trend, the African-American popular music style known as Rhythm and Blues driven by musicians like Fats Domino was drawing young audiences away.

Ellington poses with his piano at the KFG Radio Studio November 3, 1954.

Ellington continued on his own course through these tectonic shifts in the music business. He did not wholly resist trends while trying to turn out major works. He still performed major extended compositions such as Harlem (1950), whose score he presented to music-loving President Harry Truman. In 1951, Ellington suffered a major loss of personnel, with Sonny Greer, Lawrence Brown, and most significantly Johnny Hodges, leaving to pursue other ventures. Lacking overseas opportunities and motion picture appearances, Ellington's Orchestra survived on "one-nighters" and whatever else came their way.

Ellington's hope that television would provide a significant new outlet for his type of jazz was not fulfilled. Tastes and trends had moved on without him. The introduction of the 33 1/3 rpm LP record and hi-fi phonograph, though, did give new life to many of his older compositions. However by 1955, after three years of recording for Capitol, Ellington no longer had a regular recording affiliation.

Career revival[link]

Ellington's appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956 returned him to wider prominence and exposed him to new audiences. The feature "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", with saxophonist Paul Gonsalves's six-minute saxophone solo, had been in the band's book since 1937, but on this occasion nearly created a riot. The revived attention should not have surprised anyone – Hodges had returned to the fold the previous year, and Ellington's collaboration with Strayhorn had been renewed around the same time, under terms more amenable to the younger man. Such Sweet Thunder (1957), based on Shakespeare's plays and characters, and The Queen's Suite, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II, were products of the renewed impetus which the Newport appearance helped to create.

A new record contract with Columbia produced Ellington's best-selling LP Ellington at Newport and yielded six years of recording stability under producer Irving Townsend, who coaxed both commercial and artistic productions from Ellington.^[35] In 1957, CBS (Columbia's parent corporation) aired a live television production of A Drum Is a Woman, an allegorical suite which received mixed reviews. Festival appearances at the new Monterey Jazz Festival and elsewhere provided venues for live exposure, and a European tour in 1958 was well received.

Ellington in 1973

While his music had been featured on screen for years, and sometimes the whole orchestra in film shorts, Ellington (with Strayhorn) now began to work directly on music for movies, contributing scores for Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Paris Blues (1961). Ellington and Strayhorn, always looking for new musical territory, produced suites for John Steinbeck's novel Sweet Thursday, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt. The late 1950s also saw Ella Fitzgerald record her Duke Ellington Songbook with Ellington and his orchestra—a recognition that Ellington's songs had now become part of the cultural canon known as the 'Great American Songbook'.

Detroit Free Press music critic Mark Stryker concludes that the work of Billy Strayhorn and Ellington in Anatomy of a Murder, the trial court drama film directed by Otto Preminger in 1959, is "indispensable, [although] . . . too sketchy to rank in the top echelon among Ellington-Strayhorn masterpiece suites like Such Sweet Thunder and The Far East Suite, but its most inspired moments are their equal."^[36] Film historians have recognized the soundtrack "as a landmark – the first significant Hollywood film music by African Americans comprising non-diegetic music, that is, music whose source is not visible or implied by action in the film, like an on-screen band." The score avoided the cultural stereotypes which previously characterized jazz scores and rejected a strict adherence to visuals in ways that presaged the New Wave cinema of the ’60s".^[37]

In the early 1960s, Ellington embraced recording with artists who had been rivals of the past, or who had been young artists from a later generation. The Ellington and Count Basie orchestras recorded together. During a period when he was between recording contracts he made records with Louis Armstrong (Roulette), Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane (both for Impulse) and participated in a session with Charles Mingus and Max Roach which produced the Money Jungle (United Artists) album. He signed to Frank Sinatra's new Reprise label, but the association with the label was short-lived.

Musicians who had previously worked with Ellington returned to the Orchestra as members: Lawrence Brown in 1960 and Cootie Williams in 1962.

"The writing and playing of music is a matter of intent.... You can't just throw a paint brush against the wall and call whatever happens art. My music fits the tonal personality of the player. I think too strongly in terms of altering my music to fit the performer to be impressed by accidental music. You can't take doodling seriously."^[14]

He formed new working relationships with artists from around the world, including the Swedish vocalist Alice Babs, and South African musicians Dollar Brand and Sathima Bea Benjamin (A Morning in Paris, 1963/1997). He was now performing all over the world; a significant part of each year was spent on overseas tours.

Ellington receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Nixon, 1969.

Last years[link]

Ellington was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1965, but was turned down.^[38] His reaction at 67 years old: "Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young."^[39] In September of the same year, the first of his Sacred Concerts was given its premiere. It was an attempt to fuse Christian liturgy with jazz, and even though it received mixed reviews, Ellington was proud of the composition and performed it dozens of times. This concert was followed by two others of the same type in 1968 and 1973, known as the Second and Third Sacred Concerts. This caused controversy in what was already a tumultuous time in the United States. Many saw the Sacred Music suites as an attempt to reinforce commercial support for organized religion, though Ellington simply said it was, "the most important thing I've done."^[40] The Steinway piano upon which the Sacred Concerts were composed is part of the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Like Haydn and Mozart, Ellington conducted his orchestra from the piano – he always played the keyboard parts when the Sacred Concerts were performed.^[41]

Ellington continued to make vital and innovative recordings, including The Far East Suite (1966), the New Orleans Suite (1970), and The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse (1971), much of it inspired by his world tours. It was during this time that Ellington recorded his only album with Frank Sinatra, entitled Francis A. & Edward K. (1967).

Ellington was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966. He was later awarded several other prizes, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, an Honorary PhD from the Berklee College of Music in 1971, and the Legion of Honor by France in 1973, the highest civilian honors in each country.^[3]

Work in films and the theater[link]

Jimmy Stewart and Ellington in Anatomy of a Murder.

Ellington's film work began in 1929 with the short film Black and Tan.^[42] Symphony in Black (1935) featured his extended piece 'A Rhapsody of Negro Life'. It introduced Billie Holiday, and won an Academy Award as the best musical short subject. He also appeared in the Amos 'n' Andy film Check and Double Check (1930). Ellington and his Orchestra continued to appear in films through the 1930s and 1940s, both in short films and in features such as Murder at the Vanities and Belle of the Nineties (1934), and Cabin in the Sky (1943). In the late 1950s, his work in films took the shape of scoring for soundtracks, notably Anatomy of a Murder (1959), with James Stewart, in which he appeared fronting a roadhouse combo, and Paris Blues (1961), which featured Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as jazz musicians.

He wrote an original score for director Michael Langham's production of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada which opened on July 29, 1963. Langham has used it for several subsequent productions, most recently in an adaptation by Stanley Silverman which expands the score with some of Ellington's best-known works.

Ellington composed the score for the musical Jump For Joy, which was performed in Los Angeles during 1941. Ellington's sole book musical, Beggar's Holiday, was staged on Broadway in 1946. Sophisticated Ladies, an award-winning 1981 musical revue, incorporated many tunes from his repertoire.

Personal life[link]