Pat Boone
Pat Boone in February 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Charles Eugene Boone
Born	(1934-06-01) June 1, 1934 (age 78) Jacksonville, Florida, United States
Origin	Nashville, Tennessee
Genres	Christian, pop, country, rock and roll, patriotic
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, actor, motivational speaker, spokesman
Instruments	Vocals, banjo, ukulele
Years active	1954–present
Labels	Dot, Republic, Hip-O, The Gold Label, MCA
Associated acts	Debby Boone (daughter)
Website	http://www.patboone.com

Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, actor and writer. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. Among his hit songs were cover versions of black R&B artists' songs (when parts of the country were segregated). He sold over 45 million albums, had 38 Top 40 hits and appeared in more than 12 Hollywood movies. Boone's talent as a singer and actor, combined with his old-fashioned values, contributed to his popularity in the early rock and roll era.

According to Billboard, Boone was the second biggest charting artist of the late 1950s, behind only Elvis Presley but ahead of Ricky Nelson and The Platters, and was ranked at No. 9—behind The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney but ahead of artists such as Aretha Franklin and The Beach Boys—in its listing of the Top 100 Top 40 Artists 1955–1995.^[1] Boone still holds the Billboard record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with one or more songs each week.

At the age of twenty-three, he began hosting a half-hour ABC variety television series, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which aired for 115 episodes (1957–1960). Many musical performers, including Edie Adams, Andy Williams, Pearl Bailey and Johnny Mathis made appearances on the show. His cover versions of rhythm and blues hits had a noticeable effect on the development of the broad popularity of rock and roll. During his tours in the 1950s, Elvis Presley was one of his opening acts.^[2]

As a prolific author, Boone had a No. 1 bestseller in the 1950s (Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Prentice-Hall). In the 1960s, he focused on gospel music and is a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. He continues to perform, and speak as a motivational speaker, a television personality, and a conservative political commentator.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Born Charles Eugene Boone^[3] in Jacksonville, Florida, Boone was reared primarily in Nashville, Tennessee, a place he still visits. His family moved to Nashville from Florida when Boone was two years old. He attended and graduated from David Lipscomb High School in Nashville in 1952. His younger brother, Nick, was also a pop singer in the 1950s, and is now a church music leader.

Boone has claimed to be a direct descendant of the American pioneer Daniel Boone.^[4] He is a cousin of two stars of western television series: the late Richard Boone of CBS's Have Gun, Will Travel and Randy Boone, one of the co-stars of NBC's The Virginian and CBS's Cimarron Strip.

In college, he primarily attended David Lipscomb College, later Lipscomb University, in Nashville. He graduated from Columbia University School of General Studies magna cum laude in 1958^[5] and also attended North Texas State University, now known as the University of North Texas. During his college career, he was a member of Kappa Alpha Order.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

He began recording in 1954 for Republic Records. His 1955 version of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame" was a hit. (Domino complimented Boone's rendition.)^[6] This set the stage for the early part of Boone's career, which focused on covering R&B songs by black artists for a white American market.^[7] Randy Wood, the owner of Dot, had issued an R & B single by the Griffin Brothers in 1951 called "Tra La La-a"—a different song than the later LaVern Baker one—and he was keen to put out another version after the original had failed. This became the B side of the first Boone single "Two Hearts Two Kisses", originally by the Charms – whose "Hearts Of Stone" had been covered by the label's Fontane Sisters. Once the Boone version was in the shops, it spawned more covers by the Crewcuts, Doris Day and Frank Sinatra. In the UK the song was covered by Lita Roza, a band singer with Ted Heath, and her version was in the shops first.^{[citation needed]}

A No. 1 single in 1956 by Boone was not so much a cover as a revival of a then-seven year old song "I Almost Lost My Mind", which had been covered at the time by another black star, Nat King Cole, from the original by Ivory Joe Hunter, who was to benefit from Boone's hit version not only in royalties but in status as he was back in the news.^{[citation needed]}

According to an opinion poll of high school students in 1957, the singer was nearly the "two-to-one favorite over Elvis Presley among boys and preferred almost three-to-one by girls..."^[8]

Boone's well-groomed, clean-cut, boyish image won him a long-term product endorsement contract from General Motors during the late 1950s, lasting through the 1960s. He succeeded Dinah Shore singing the praises of the GM product: "See the USA in your Chevrolet...drive your Chevrolet through the USA, America's the greatest land of all!" GM had also sponsored The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom. In the 1989 documentary Roger & Me, Boone stated that he first was given a Corvette from the Chevrolet product line, but after he and wife started having children, at one child a year, GM supplied him with a station wagon as well. Boone, who has endorsed an indeterminate number of products and services over the course of his career, said that more people identified him with Chevrolet than any other product.^{[citation needed]}

Starting in the late 1950s, Boone and his family were residents of Leonia, New Jersey.^[9]

Many of Boone's hit singles were R&B covers by Black artists. These included: "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino; "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally" by Little Richard;^[6] "At My Front Door (Crazy Little Mama)" by the El Dorados; and the blues ballads "I Almost Lost My Mind" by Ivory Joe Hunter, "I'll be Home" by The Flamingos and "Don't Forbid Me" by Charles Singleton. Boone also wrote the lyrics for the instrumental theme song for the movie Exodus, which lyrics he titled "This Land Is Mine." (Ernest Gold had composed the music.)^[10]

As a devout Christian, Boone refused songs and movie roles that he felt might compromise his standards—including a role with sex symbol Marilyn Monroe. In his first film, April Love, he refused to give co-star and love interest Shirley Jones an onscreen kiss, because the actress was married in real life.^[11]

He appeared as a regular performer on Arthur Godfrey and his Friends from 1955 through 1957, later hosted his own The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, on Thursday evenings. In the early 1960s, he began writing a series of self-help books for adolescents, including Twixt Twelve and Twenty. The British Invasion ended Boone's career as a hitmaker, though he continued recording throughout the 1960s. In the 1970s, he switched to gospel and country, and he continued performing in other media as well. He is currently working as the disc jockey of a popular oldies radio show and runs his own record company which provides an outlet for new recordings by 1950s greats who can no longer find a place with the major labels.^{[citation needed]}

In 1953, shortly before he turned 19, Boone married Shirley Lee Foley (b. April 24, 1934), daughter of country music great Red Foley and his wife, singer Judy Martin. They had four daughters: Cheryl Lynn, Linda Lee, Deborah Ann (better known as Debby), and Laura Gene. During the late 1950s, he made regular appearances on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee, hosted by his father-in-law. In the 1960s and 1970s the Boone family toured as gospel singers and made gospel albums, such as The Pat Boone Family and The Family Who Prays.^{[citation needed]}

In 1959, Boone's likeness was licensed to DC Comics, first appearing in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #9 (May 1959) before starring in his own series from the publisher which lasted for five issues from September 1959 to May 1960.

In the early 1970s, Boone founded the record label Lion & Lamb Records. It featured artists such as Pat, The Pat Boone Family, Debby Boone, Dan Peek, DeGarmo & Key, and Dogwood.^[12]

In 1978, Boone became the first target in the Federal Trade Commission's crackdown on false claim product endorsements by celebrities. He had appeared with his daughter Debby in a commercial to claim that all four of his daughters had found a preparation named Acne-Statin a "real help" in keeping their skin clear. The FTC filed a complaint against the manufacturer, contending that the product did not really keep skin free of blemishes. Boone eventually signed a consent order in which he promised not only to stop appearing in the ads but to pay about 2.5% of any money that the FTC or the courts might eventually order the manufacturer to refund to consumers. Boone said, through a lawyer, that his daughters actually did use Acne-Statin, and that he was "dismayed to learn that the product's efficacy had not been scientifically established as he believed."^[13]

Later career[link]

In 1997, Boone released In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, a collection of heavy metal covers. To promote the album, he appeared at the American Music Awards in black leather. He was then dismissed from Gospel America, a TV show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. After making a special appearance on TBN with the president of the network, Paul Crouch, and his pastor, Jack Hayford, many fans accepted his explanation of the leather outfit being a "parody of himself". Trinity Broadcasting then reinstated him, and Gospel America was brought back.^[14]

In 2003, the Nashville Gospel Music Association recognized his gospel recording work by inducting him into its Gospel Music Hall of Fame. In September 2006, Boone released Pat Boone R&B Classics – We Are Family, featuring cover versions of 11 R&B hits, including the title track, plus "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag", "Soul Man", "Get Down Tonight", "A Woman Needs Love", and six other classics. In 2007, Boone was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame as well as the Christian Music Hall of Fame.^{[citation needed]}

Boone and his wife, Shirley, live in Beverly Hills, a suburb of Los Angeles. His one-time neighbor was Ozzy Osbourne and his family. A sound-alike of Boone's cover of Osbourne's song "Crazy Train" became the theme song for The Osbournes (Though the original Boone version appears on The Osbournes soundtrack). Osbourne once said that Boone "was the nicest bloke you could ever have as a neighbour and never complained once" about living next door to their less-than-traditional family.^{[citation needed]}

On December 30, 2010, Glenn W. Milligan of Liquid Metal Holdings said the Pat Boone Family Theater would open in May 2011 in the former NASCAR Cafe at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. With 600 seats, the Boone Theater will be smaller than many of the resort's attractions, but Milligan says this may be an advantage. Other performers were to include illusionist Morgan Strebler, the 2011 Merlin Award winner,^[15] though in September 2011 it was announced he would be replaced.^[16] The economic crisis has been one of the reasons for delays, but on May 25, 2011, the theater received the first of several needed permits from the city. The $1 million project was set to be complete in August 2011,^[17] but the opening date was delayed twice.^[18][19] At a news conference on June 2, which included a performance by Strebler, theater officials said Boone would attend the opening and perform 14 times each year. Other entertainment will include gospel music concerts and Christmas shows. The theater will have a Boone museum with the singer's memorabilia.^[20]

Religious background[link]

Pat Boone grew up in the Church of Christ.^[21]

In the 1960s, Boone's marriage nearly came to an end due to his use of alcohol and his preference for attending parties. After having a charismatic encounter, Shirley began to focus more on her religion and would eventually influence Pat and their daughters toward a similar religious focus. At this time, they attended the Inglewood Church of Christ in Inglewood, California.

In the early 1970s, the Boones hosted Bible studies for celebrities such as Doris Day, Glenn Ford, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Priscilla Presley at their Beverly Hills home. The family then began attending The Church On The Way in Van Nuys, California—a Foursquare Gospel congregation led by pastor Jack Hayford.^[14]

Philanthropy[link]

Since 1977, Boone has hosted the annual Pat Boone Golf Tournament in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a celebrity event in May that benefits Bethel Bible Village, a faith-based home for children of families in crisis.^{[citation needed]} He is known to play golf frequently in Branson, Missouri.

According to the Nashville Gospel Music & Entertainment Examiner, Boone partnered with GOD TV in 2010 to provide foundational funding for a community development center in East Africa. The Pat Boone Family Life Center in Loiborsoit, Tanzania provides much needed health services and clean water through a deep water well. GOD TV CEO, Rory Alec said "We are privileged to partner with Pat and Shirley Boone to impact the everyday lives of several thousand Masai people. Pat Boone is just as well known for his artistic talents as his Christian faith and the generosity of the Boone family has inspired us to reach further to help bring about transformation in Africa."^[22]

"Clean water, and with it small medical clinics and even basic primary and secondary schools, are literally life-changing developments, offering healthy lives and unthought-of futures to countless thousands who otherwise would live and die with no chance even to participate in the 21st century," Boone wrote in an article about his trip to Africa, in WorldNetDaily.^[23]

Politics[link]

Boone campaigned for Ronald Reagan to become Governor of California in 1966 and 1970, and actively supported Reagan's bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976. He was a vocal supporter of the Vietnam War. In 2006, Boone wrote an article for WorldNetDaily, in which he argued that Democrats and others who were against the president during the Iraq War could be questioned for their patriotism.^[24] He was interviewed by Neil Cavuto on Fox News, where he expressed his outrage toward opponents of George W. Bush (in particular the Dixie Chicks). He said that their criticisms of the president showed they did not "respect their elders".^[25]

In the 2007 Kentucky gubernatorial election, Boone campaigned for incumbent Republican Ernie Fletcher with a prerecorded automated telephone message stating that the Democratic Party candidate Steve Beshear would support "every homosexual cause." As part of the campaign, Boone asked, "Now do you want a governor who'd like Kentucky to be another San Francisco?"^[26] More recently, he assisted the McCain 2008 presidential campaign by lending his voice to automated campaign phonecalls.

On December 6, 2008 Boone wrote an article for WorldNetDaily wherein he drew analogies between recent gay rights protests and recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. He reminded readers of hostage taking, exploding bombs, systematic murder and chaotic conditions of carnage. In it, he asserted that marriage is a biblically ordained institution, which the government has no part in defining. He then stated that equal rights for women and blacks were not "obtained by threats and violent demonstrations and civil disruption" but rather through due process. He concluded by warning that unless they're checked, the "hedonistic, irresponsible, blindly selfish goals and tactics of homegrown sexual jihadists will escalate into acts vile, violent and destructive".^[27]

On August 29, 2009, Boone wrote an article comparing liberals to cancer, describing them as "black filthy cells".^[28]

In December 2009, Boone agreed to endorse the conservative U.S. congressional candidate John Wayne Tucker (R) for his campaign in Missouri's 3rd Congressional District against incumbent Russ Carnahan (D) for the 2010 mid term elections.^[29]

In 2009, Boone stated his belief that Barack Obama is not eligible to serve as the President of the United States.^[30][31] Boone also has stated that Barack Obama is fluent in Arabic and read the Koran in Arabic as a boy.^[30] He has also stated that President Obama "hasn’t celebrated any Christian holidays in the White House."^[30]

Boone received a lifetime achievement award at the 38th annual Conservative Political Action Conference held in February 2011.^[32]

Basketball interests[link]

Boone was a basketball fan and had ownership interests in two teams. He owned a team in the Hollywood Studio League called the "Cooga Moogas." The Cooga Moogas included Bill Cosby, Rafer Johnson, Gardner McKay, Don Murray, and Denny "Tarzan" Miller.^[33]

With the founding of the American Basketball Association, Boone became the majority owner of the league's team in Oakland, California on February 2, 1967.^[33] The team was first named the Oakland Americans but was later renamed as the Oakland Oaks, the name under which it played from 1967 to 1969.^[33] The Oaks won the 1969 ABA championship.^[34]

Despite the Oaks' success on the court, the team had severe financial problems. By August 1969 the Bank of America was threatening to foreclose on a $1.2 million loan to the Oaks,^[35] and the team was sold to a group of businessmen in Washington, DC, and became the Washington Caps.^[36]

In Terry Pluto's book about the ABA, Loose Balls, Boone recounted his days as an owner and claimed that he had had a chance to buy into the then-expansion Dallas Mavericks of the NBA in 1981, but declined.^{[citation needed]}

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

• 1955 The Pied Piper of Cleveland (documentary)
• 1957 Bernardine
• 1957 April Love
• 1958 Mardi Gras
• 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth
• 1961 All Hands on Deck
• 1962 State Fair
• 1962 The Main Attraction
• 1963 The Horror of It All
• 1963 The Yellow Canary
• 1964 Never Put It in Writing
• 1964 Goodbye Charlie
• 1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told
• 1967 The Perils of Pauline
• 1970 The Cross and the Switchblade
• 1989 Roger & Me (documentary)
• 2000 The Eyes of Tammy Faye (documentary)
• 2008 Hollywood on Fire (documentary)^[37]

Box-office ranking[link]

In his heyday exhibitors listed Boone among the most popular stars in the country:

• 1957 – 3rd^[38]
• 1958 – 11th^[39]
• 1959 – 22nd^[40]

Bibliography[link]

• Twixt Twelve and Twenty: Pat talks to Teenagers (1958) Prentice Hall
• The Solution to Crisis-America (1970) F. H. Revell Co, ISBN 0-8007-8081-7
• A Miracle Saved My Family (1971) Oliphants, ISBN 0-551-00640-4
• The Real Christmas (1972) F. H. Revell Co, ISBN 0-8007-0546-7
• Joy! (1973) Creation House, ISBN 0-88419-060-9
• My Brother's Keeper? (1975) Victory Press, ISBN 0-85476-237-X
• My Faith (1976) C. R. Gibson Co, ISBN 0-8378-1764-1
• To Be or Not to Be an SOB: A Reaffirmation of Business Ethics (1979) Wordware Publishing, Incorporated, ISBN 0-89015-737-5
• The Honeymoon Is Over (1980) Creation House, ISBN 0-88419-130-3
• Marrying for Life: A Handbook of Marriage Skills (1982) HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN 0-86683-674-8
• Pray to Win (1982) Putnam Pub Group, ISBN 0-399-12494-2
• Pat Boone's Favorite Bible Stories (1984) Creation House, ISBN 0-88419-245-8
• Pat Boone's Favorite Bible Stories for the Very Young (1984) Random House of Canada, Limited, ISBN 0-394-85891-3
• A Miracle a Day Keeps the Devil Away (1986) Revell, ISBN 0-8007-0693-5
• New Song (1988) Impact Books, ISBN 0-86608-003-1
• Miracle of Prayer (1989) Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-22131-5
• The Human Touch: The Story of the National Easter Seal (1990) Certification Review, ISBN 0-914373-22-6
• Jesus Is Alive (1990) Thomas Nelson Inc, ISBN 1-55894-219-X
• Double Agent (2002) Publish America, Incorporated, ISBN 1-59129-469-X
• Goodnight, Whatever You Are!: My Journey with Zacherley, the Cool Ghoul (2006) Tradeselect Limited, ISBN 1-933384-03-4
• Pat Boone's America: A Pop Culture Treasury of the Past Fifty Years (2006) B&H Publishing Group, ISBN 0-8054-4376-2
• Culture-Wise Family: Upholding Christian Values in A Mass-Media World (2007) Gospel Light Publications, ISBN 0-8307-4355-3
• The Marriage Game (2007) New Leaf Press, Inc., ISBN 0-89221-114-8
• Questions About God: And the Answers That Could Change Your Life (2008) Lighthouse Publishing, ISBN 1-935079-13-1
• Pat Boone Devotional Book (2009) G. K. Hall, ISBN 0-8161-6630-7

Boone wrote Questions About God with reporter Cord Cooper. He told The 700 Club in 2009, "The big question is there a God? Is God real? How do we know? Is there proof? So this fella, Cord Cooper, and I decided we needed to answer three basic questions in a very simple form, but I think substantively and really bares no rational refutation... We quote Einstein and Stephen Hawking, who is still living, the most brilliant man on the planet. As they say, it’s inconceivable that all this has happened without a plan, without a blueprint, without some designer who created the design. So this book is so simple, yet I think profound truth."^[41] Boone's assertion that Stephen Hawking believes in God, however, is untrue.^[42]

Quotation[link]

NME – December 1956^[43]

NME – June 1960^[44]

References[link]

General references

• University of North Texas Alumni Directory, Pat (Charles E.) Boone, (1994)</ref> OCLC 768191551
• ASCAP Biographical Dictionary, fourth edition, compiled for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, by Jaques Cattell Press, R.R. Bowker (1980) OCLC 7065938 ISBN 0-8352-1283-1 ISBN 9780835212830
• Biographical Dictionary of American Music, edited by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), Parker Publishing Co., West Nyack, NY (1973) OCLC 609781 ISBN 0-13-076331-4 ISBN 9780130763310
• Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, by Randall Herbert Balmer, Baylor University Press (2004) OCLC 191038717 ISBN 1-60258-038-3 ISBN 9781602580381
• The Encyclopedia of Folk, Country & Western Music, second edition, by Irwin Stambler (born 1924) and Grelun S. Landon (1923–2004), St. Martin's Press (1983) OCLC 8430828 ISBN 0-312-24818-0 ISBN 9780312248185
• Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, eighth edition, revised by Nicolas Slonimsky, Macmillan Publishing Co. (1992) OCLC 24246972 ISBN 0-02-872415-1 ISBN 9780028724157
• Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, ninth edition, edited by Laura Kuhn, Schirmer Books (2001) OCLC 44972043 ISBN 0-02-865525-7 ISBN 9780028655253

Inline citations

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pat Boone

• Pat Boone at the Internet Movie Database
• Pat Boone Interview at Archive of American Television
• Pat Boone at AllRovi
• Pat's Gold (Link to Pat Boone's Web Site/Label)
• Brief biography, by Tom Simon, December 25, 2002

Speedy Gonzales (also known as Speedy) is an animated caricature of a mouse in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He is portrayed as "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico" with his major traits being the ability to run extremely fast and speaking with an exaggerated Mexican accent. He usually wears an oversized yellow sombrero, white shirt and trousers, and a red kerchief, similar to that of a reveler in the San Fermin festival. To date there have been 46 cartoons made either starring or featuring this character.

History[link]

Speedy debuted in 1953's Cat-Tails for Two, directed by Robert McKimson. This early Speedy was a meaner, skinnier, rattier-looking creation with a sizable gold front tooth. The cartoon featured him outwitting a smart-and-stupid pair of cats, George and Benny (parodies of George and Lenny), aboard a ship. Later on this original version of Speedy is used as an unnamed background character a couple of times. Though he was created by McKimson, the majority of the cartoons with him were directed by Friz Freleng.

It would be two years before Friz Freleng and animator Hawley Pratt redesigned the character into his modern incarnation for the 1955 Freleng short, Speedy Gonzales. The cartoon features Sylvester the Cat menacing a group of rats while guarding a cheese factory at the Mexican border. The rats call in the plucky, excessively energetic Speedy to save them, and amid cries of "¡Ándele! ¡Ándele! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! ¡Epa! ¡Epa! ¡Epa! Yeehaw!" (Spanish for "Go on! Go on! Up! Up!", although "Ándele arriba" may have been intended as meaning "hurry up") courtesy of Mel Blanc, Sylvester soon gets his comeuppance. The cartoon won the 1955 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons).

While Speedy's last name was given as Gonzalez in Cat-Tails (on a printed business card shown in the cartoon), it was spelled with an 's' from Speedy Gonzales onward. Today, the earlier spelling is occasionally used by accident. The correct form in Spanish is González and that is the form in which the last name of Speedy is spelled in Spanish-speaking countries^[1].

Freleng and McKimson soon set Sylvester up as Speedy's regular nemesis in a series of cartoons, much in the same way Chuck Jones had paired Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner in his Road Runner cartoons. Sylvester (often called "El Gringo Pussygato" by Speedy) is constantly outsmarted and outrun by the Mouse, causing the cat to suffer all manner of pain and humiliation from mousetraps to accidentally consuming large amounts of hot sauce. Other cartoons pair the mouse with his cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez, the "slowest Mouse in all Mexico." Slowpoke regularly gets into all sorts of trouble that often require Speedy to save him—but one cat in Mexicali Schmoes says that as if to compensate for his slowness, "he pack a gun!"^[2] In the mid 1960s, Speedy's main nemesis became Daffy Duck.

Censorship[link]

In 1999, the Cartoon Network ceased to air Speedy Gonzales. In an interview with Fox News on March 28, 2002, Cartoon Network spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg commented, "It hasn't been on the air for years because of its ethnic stereotypes." This is widely believed to refer to Speedy's fellow mice, who are all shown as being very slow and lazy, and sometimes even appear intoxicated.^[3]

In Gonzales' Tamales, the town mice instigate a feud between Speedy and Sylvester the Cat because Speedy has been stealing the hearts of all the females. Much of the dialogue between Mexican characters is in English and the small amount of Spanish that peppers the dialogue consists of basic greetings, goodbyes, exclamations, and misplaced references to popular Mexican foods. This criticism prompted Cartoon Network to largely shelve Speedy's films when it gained exclusive rights to broadcast them in 1999. However, fan campaigns to put Speedy back on the air and lobbying by the League of United Latin American Citizens saw the shorts return to air from 2002.^[4] Despite the controversy in the USA, Speedy Gonzales remains a very popular character in Latin America. In Mexico, the Speedy Gonzales show has been on and off part of the regular programing of Televisa's Canal 5 national channel ever since it was created.^{[citation needed]} In 2010, a Looney Tunes New Year's Day marathon the Cartoon Network showed the episode "Mexican Boarders" having both Speedy and Slowpoke.^{[citation needed]}

On the Looney Tunes Golden Collection the Speedy cartoons are prefaced by a disclaimer that states:

The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While the following does not represent the WB view of society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as to claim these prejudices never existed.

Other appearances[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

In 1983, he co-starred in Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island. In 1988, he made a cameo appearance in the ending scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He had one appearance in the Tiny Toons episode segment "The Acme Acres Summer Olympics", as the coach, and serving to be as the mentor of Lightning Rodriguez. In 1996, he made a short appearance in film Space Jam. In 2003, he made a cameo appearance alongside Porky Pig in the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, making fun of his politically incorrect status. At around the same time, he made a non-speaking cameo in an episode of ¡Mucha Lucha! titled "Lucha, Rinse and Repeat". In 2009, he made a cameo appearance on Kid vs. Kat in "The Kat Whisperer".

Volume 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD series, released on November 14, 2006, has an entire disc of Speedy shorts, although some of his other shorts had previously been released on Volumes 1 and 3. Speedy is mentioned in one Duck Dodgers episode, after Cadet sits on Dodgers, prompting him to say, "I knew I should've chosen Speedy Gonzales as a sidekick!"

In May 2011 Speedy Gonzales appears in The Looney Tunes Show episodes "Best Friends", "Monster Talent", "Devil Dog", "That's My Baby", "Sunday Night Slice", "The DMV", "French Fries", "Beauty School", "The Shelf" and "The Muh-Muh-Muh-Murder" voiced by Fred Armisen. He is also in a Zorro parody Merrie Melodies segment called "Queso Bandito", and appeared in his other Merrie Melodies segment called "Pizzarriba", and another Merrie Melodies segment called "Table for One". The Looney Tunes Show features a deeper voiced Speedy Gonzales. He lives with Bugs and Daffy as their "mouse in the wall" and runs a pizza shop. He is shown to act as Daffy's "Jimmeny Cricket", which is a far cry from the antagonistic relationship they had from the old days. The episode "Sunday Night Slice" showed that Bugs bought his favorite restaurant to prevent it from being closed and hired Speedy to help him. When Bugs decides he doesn't want to own a restaurant anymore, he hands ownership of it to Speedy.

In other media[link]

In 1962, pop singer Pat Boone scored a top 10 hit in the United States with the song "Speedy Gonzales" which featured Mel Blanc spouting faux-Mexican phrases as Speedy. It was also sung by Manolo Muñoz and A.B. Quintanilla's Kumbia All Starz, whose music video featured Speedy.

Henry Mancini borrowed the character's name for the title of an instrumental composition, first featured on his 1961 album Mr. Lucky Goes Latin.^{[citation needed]}

In a Family Guy episode, Peter made up his American version of Speedy called Rapid Dave after he decided that immigrants shouldn't be allowed into America.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, Volkswagen licensed Speedy Gonzales for a series of Spanish-language commercials for the Volkswagen Golf, using footage from the cartoon of the same name.^[5]

In October 2010, Speedy Gonzales appeared alongside other Looney Tunes characters in a Virgin Media TV advert. Speedy also serves as current mascot for Virgin Media, a double reference to his own speed and to that of the company's fibre optic broadband.^{[citation needed]}

Speedy briefly appears in a Robot Chicken episode: "Werewolf VS Unicorn" when he penetrates Sylvester's fence.^{[citation needed]}

Speedy Gonzales appeared in the Drawn Together episode The One Wherein There Is a Big Twist, Part II when he was one of the candidates who wanted to be the new housemates.

Film[link]

In February 2010, New Line Cinema and parent company Warner Bros. Pictures announced that they are planning a live-action/CG-animated combo feature film based on the Looney Tunes character.^[6] Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, who adapted the comic Garfield into a similar-style live-action/CG hybrid family film, will pen the script for the coming-of-age story which is set in the present day. The story has Speedy, a young and misunderstood Mexican mouse, finding himself leaving his family to go out in the world and figure out what he's good at. He soon makes friends with a nervous race-car driver. George Lopez will voice the character and produce the film, which will also star Vanessa Hudgens as Speedy Gonzales' owner.

See also[link]

	Animation portal
	United States portal

• List of Speedy Gonzales cartoons
• List of films based on cartoons
• List of Looney Tunes feature-length films

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Nericcio, William Anthony (1996). “Autopsy of a Rat: Odd, Sundry Parables of Freddy Lopez, Speedy Gonzales, and Other Chicano/Latino Marionettes Prancing about Our First World Visual Emporium.” Camera Obscura 37 (January 1996): 189-237.
• Nericcio, William Anthony (2007). Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America. University of Texas Press.
• Schneider, Steve (1990). That's All Folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. Henry Holt & Co.
• Solomon, Charles (1994). The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings. Random House Value Publishing.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Speedy Gonzales

• The Tex(t)-Mex Galleryblog an archive for the second edition of the University of Texas Press (2007) book on stereotypes.

This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (May 2012)

Ritchie Blackmore
With Rainbow in Norway, 1977
Background information
Birth name	Richard Hugh Blackmore
Born	(1945-04-14) 14 April 1945 (age 67) Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
Genres	Hard rock, folk rock, heavy metal, New Age, blues rock, psychedelic rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, bass, cello, keyboards, hurdy gurdy, mandolin, mandola, drums, percussion
Years active	1963–present
Labels	Polydor, BMG, Edel, SPV, Spinefarm
Associated acts	Rainbow, Blackmore's Night, Deep Purple, The Outlaws
Website	blackmoresnight.com
Notable instruments
Ritchie Blackmore Signature Stratocaster Gibson ES-335

Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is a British guitarist and songwriter, who is known as one of the first guitarists to fuse classical music elements with blues rock.^[1] He began his professional career as a studio session musician and was subsequently a member of Deep Purple, after which Blackmore established a successful career fronting his own band Rainbow, and later progressed to the traditional folk rock project Blackmore's Night with his wife.

Early life[link]

Blackmore was born at Allandale Nursing Home, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, South West England, but moved to Heston, Middlesex (now Greater London) at the age of two. Although the surname Blackmore is thought to be of English origin, his father was of Welsh ancestry and his mother of English.^[2] He was 11 when he got his first guitar. His father bought it for him on certain conditions, including learning how to play properly, so he took classical guitar lessons for one year.^[3]

While at school he did well at sports including the javelin. Blackmore left school at age 15 and started work as an apprentice radio mechanic at nearby Heathrow Airport. He was given guitar lessons by Big Jim Sullivan.

Career[link]

1960s[link]

In about 1960 or 1961 he played with minor local bands, including one called the Jaywalkers.^[4] His playing improved and in 1963 he began to work as a session player for Joe Meek's music productions and performed in several bands. He was a member of the instrumental combo, The Outlaws, and backed Heinz (playing on his top ten hit "Just Like Eddie"), and Glenda Collins among others.

Blackmore joined the rock group Deep Purple in 1968 after receiving the invitation from organist Jon Lord. Purple's early sound leaned on psychedelia and progressive rock.^[5] From his youth his guitar play was partly inspired by violin. This "Mark One" line-up featuring singer Rod Evans lasted until mid-1969 and produced three studio albums.

1970s[link]

The second line-up's first studio album, In Rock (1970), changed the band's style, turning it in a hard rock direction. This "Mark Two" line-up featuring singer Ian Gillan lasted until mid-1973, produced four studio albums.

The third line-up's new album was entitled Burn (1974), which featured blues singer, David Coverdale. This "Mark Three" line-up lasted until mid-1975 and produced two studio albums. Blackmore publicly disliked the funky soul influences that Coverdale and bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes injected into the band.^[6] Following its conclusion, he abandoned the band to front a new group, Rainbow. During this period, Blackmore lost interest on the guitar in personal life,^[7] so he received cello lessons by Hugh McDowell (ELO).^[8]

Blackmore originally planned to make a solo album, but instead in 1975 formed his own band Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, later shortened to Rainbow. Featuring American vocalist Ronnie James Dio and his blues rock band Elf as studio session musicians, this first line-up never performed live. Rainbow's music was partly inspired by Baroque music since Blackmore started playing cello for songwriting.^[7][9] Blackmore later explained that when I’m playing different musical instrument such as cello, I find that refreshing because it’s a sense of adventure not knowing exactly what chord I’m playing or what key I’m in.^[9] The band's debut album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was released in 1975. Rainbow was originally thought to be a one-off collaboration, but has endured as an ongoing band project with a series of album releases and tours. Blackmore had been impressed by Dio's relatively flexible vocalist-style. Shortly after the first album was recorded, Blackmore recruited new backing musicians to record the second album Rising (1976), and the following live album, On Stage (1977). Rising was originally billed as Blackmore's Rainbow in the US. After the next studio album's release and supporting tour, Ronnie James Dio left Rainbow due to "creative differences" with Blackmore, who disliked Dio's signature 'Dungeons & Dragons' lyric style.

Blackmore continued with Rainbow and the band released a new album entitled Down To Earth (1979), which featured R&B singer Graham Bonnet. The album marked the commercialization of the band's sound, and contained Rainbow's first chart successes, as the single "Since You Been Gone" (a cover of the Russ Ballard penned tune) became a smash hit.^[10] Bonnet left the band after this support tour.

1980s[link]

The next album, Difficult to Cure (1981), introduced American vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. The instrumental title track from this album was an arrangement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with additional music. The album marked the further commercialization of the band's sound with Blackmore once describing at the time liking for the pop rock band, Foreigner.^[11] Hard rock-based fans thought the vocal parts ended up being a bit too melodic than Rainbow's previous releases. The music was consciously radio-targeted, in a more AOR style,^[12] resulting in some degree of alienation with many of their earlier fans.^[13] Rainbow's next studio album was Straight Between the Eyes (1982) and included the hit single "Stone Cold." It would be followed by the album Bent Out of Shape (1983), which featured the single "Street Of Dreams". In 1983 Blackmore was also nominated for a Grammy Award for his work on an instrumental ballard track, "Anybody There".^[14] Rainbow disbanded in 1984. A then-final Rainbow album, Finyl Vinyl, was patched together from live tracks and the "B" sides of various singles.

In 1984, Blackmore joined a reunion of the former Deep Purple "Mark Two" line-up and recorded new material. This reunion line-up lasted until 1989 and produced two studio albums.

1990s[link]

The next line-up recorded one album entitled Slaves & Masters (1990), which featured former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner. The album's style differed from the traditional Purple sound. Subsequently the "Mark Two" line-up reunited for a second time in late 1992 and produced one studio album. During its follow-up promotional tour, Blackmore again quit the band in November 1993.

Blackmore reformed Rainbow with new members in 1994. This Rainbow line-up, featuring Scottish singer Doogie White, lasted until 1997 and produced one album entitled Stranger in Us All in 1995. It was originally intended to be a solo album but due to the record company pressures the record was billed as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow.^[15] Though White was not as distinctive as its previous singers, it had a sound dissimilar to any Rainbow of old.^[12] Released in the post-grunge mid-1990s, a world tour including South America followed.^[14] This is regarded as his last hard rock album. Rainbow was put on hold once again after playing its final concert in 1997.

Over the years Rainbow went through many personnel changes with no two studio albums featuring the same line-up: Blackmore was the sole constant band member.^[10]

In Chicago, 2009.

In 1997 Blackmore, with his girlfriend Candice Night as vocalist, formed the traditional folk rock duo Blackmore's Night. Around the same time as production of Rainbow's final album in 1995, they were already gearing up their debut album Shadow of the Moon (1997).^[16] Though she lacked experience as a lead singer, Blackmore noticed Night's potential and encouraged her to become his creative partner. Blackmore once described at the time their artistic characteristics as "Mike Oldfield plus Enya".^[17] Blackmore mostly utilised acoustic guitar,^[18] to back Night's delicate vocals. They recorded a mixture of original and cover materials. The band's musical style is inspired by his personal favorite Renaissance music and blends with Night's lyrics about medieval themes and fantasy. The second release, entitled Under a Violet Moon (1999) continued in the same folk-rock style, with Night's vocals remaining a prominent feature of the band's style.

2000s-current[link]

In subsequent albums, particularly Fires at Midnight (2001), there was sometimes an increased incorporation of rock guitar into the music, whilst maintaining a folk rock direction. A live album, Past Times with Good Company was released in 2002. After the next studio album's release, a official compilation album Beyond the Sunset: The Romantic Collection was released in 2004, featuring music from the four studio albums. A Christmas-themed holiday album, Winter Carols was released in 2006. Through numerous personnel changes, the backing musicians have totalled about 25 persons.^[19] Blackmore sometimes played drums in recording studio. Possibly to concentrate on album production,^[20] they chose to avoid typically rock concert tour to perform, instead limiting their appearances in small theatre or 12th century castles.^[21][22] During song composition, Blackmore directly writes her vocal melodies.^[9] Night said, "When he sings, he sings only for me, in private".^[23] As a result, his musical approach shifted to vocalist-centered sounds. Their music is generally categorised as belonging to New age music.

Equipment and musical style[link]

During the 1960s, Blackmore played a Gibson ES-335 but switched to a Fender Stratocaster in 1970. Since then, until formed Blackmore's Night in 1997, he used Stratocasters almost exclusively. The middle pickup is screwed down and not used. Blackmore has also occasionally used a Fender Telecaster Thinline during recording sessions.

From 1970 to 1997, Blackmore almost exclusively played a Fender Stratocaster. He is also one of the first rock guitarists to have used a "scalloped" fretboard where the wood is filed and carved out into a shallow "U" shape between the frets.

In his soloing, Blackmore combines blues scales and phrasing with dominant minor scales and ideas from European classical music. While playing he would often put the pick in his mouth, playing with his fingers. He occasionally uses the diatonic scale, with rapidly changing tonality.

In the 1970s, Blackmore used a number of different Stratocasters; his main guitar (until 1978) was a sunburst with a rosewood fingerboard that was scalloped.^[24] Blackmore added a strap lock to the headstock of this guitar as a conversation piece to annoy and confuse people.^[25]

His amplifers were originally 200W Marshall Major stacks which were modified by Marshall with an additional output stage (generated approximately 278W) to make them sound more like Blackmore's favourite Vox AC-30 amp, cranked to full volume. Since 1994, he has used Engl valve amps. One of the reasons he cited was that the Marshall heads did not sound as good as the Engls at low volume.

Effects he used from 1970 to 1997, besides his usual tape echo, included a Hornby Skewes Treble Booster in the early days. Around late-1973, he experimented with an EMS Synthi Hi Fli guitar synthesizer. He sometimes used a wah-wah pedal and a variable control treble-booster for sustain, and Moog Taurus bass pedals were used in solo parts during concerts. He also had a modified Aiwa TP-1011 tape machine built to supply echo and delay effects; the tape deck was also used as a pre-amp.^[24] Other effects that Blackmore used were a Unicord Univibe, a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and an Octave Divider.

In the mid-1980s he experimented with Roland guitar synthesizers. A Roland GR-700 was seen on stage as late as 1995-96, later replaced with the GR-50.

His strings used from 1970 to 1997 were Picato brand (.010, .011, .014, .026, .038, .048).

Blackmore has experimented with many different pickups in his Strats. In the early Rainbow era, they were still stock Fenders, later Dawk installed overwound, dipped, Fender pickups. He has also used Schecter F-500-Ts, Velvet Hammer "Red Rhodes", DiMarzio "HS-2", OBL "Black Label", Bill Lawrence L-450, XL-250 (bridge), L-250 (neck). He used Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Flat SSL-4 for several years and since the late 80s he has used Lace Sensor (Gold) "noiseless" pickups.

Personal life[link]

On 18 May 1964, Blackmore married Margit Volkmar (b. 3 Jan 1945) from Germany.^[26] They lived in Hamburg during the late 1960s,^[27] following divorce in 1969. Their son, Jürgen (b. 1964), played guitar in touring tribute band Over the Rainbow. Blackmore married former German dancer, Bärbel, in September 1969^[28][29] until their divorce in early 1970s. As a result, he is a fluent German speaker.^[27]

For tax reasons, he moved to the U.S.A. in 1974. Initially he lived in Oxnard, California, where he lived with American opera singer Shoshana (real name Judith Feinstein) for one year,^[30] so she provided backing vocals on Rainbow's first album. Shortly after Blackmore met Amy Rothman in 1978,^[31] he moved to Connecticut, New England. He married Rothman on 16 May 1981,^[32] but with Blackmore's reluctance to have a child, they divorced in about 1983. Soon after, a relationship with Tammi Williams followed.^[33] In early 1984 Blackmore met Williams in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she was working as hotel employee. In the same year, he purchased his first car because he finally learned to drive a car at 39 years old.^[34]

Blackmore and then-fashion model Candice Night lived together from 1991. He moved on her native Long Island in 1993.^[35] After being engaged for nearly fifteen years,^[36] the couple finally married on October 2008.^[37] Their daughter, Autumn was born on May 2010.^[38][39] He is non-smoker, plays football once a week,^[20] and always watches German language television on the satellite dish when he stays at his home.^[27] Blackmore has a collection of approximately 2,000 CDs of Renaissance music.^[38]

In popular culture[link]

Blackmore was ranked number 16 on Guitar World's "100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time" in 2004,^[40] and number 50 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2011.^[1]

He is portrayed by Mathew Baynton in the 2009 film Telstar.

Discography[link]

References[link]