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![Foo Fighters - My Hero (live on NBC Studios) [1998]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121224072223im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7WNLDih-Yv4/default.jpg "Foo Fighters performed this song on NBC's")
![Coal Chamber - Fiend (Live At Last Call, NBC Studios - New York, NY, USA [05-21-2002]) HQ](http://web.archive.org./web/20121224072223im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/El0gSrnlJgU/default.jpg "Fiend Live 2002-05-21 Last Call, NBC Studios - New York, NY, USA more info in zulhybootleg.herobo.com Trading Site")
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30 Rockefeller Plaza
The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, USA. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC. At 850 feet (259 m) tall, the 70-story building is the 10th tallest building in New York City and the 33rd tallest in the United States. Some of the building's nicknames include The Slab and 30 Rock. The latter is derived from its address which is at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
The building was completed in 1933 as part of the Rockefeller Center. The noted Art Deco architect Raymond Hood led a team of Rockefeller architects. It was named the RCA Building for its main tenant, the Radio Corporation of America, formed in 1919 by General Electric. It was the first building constructed with the elevators grouped in the central core. During construction, photographer Charles Clyde Ebbets took the famous photograph Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper on the 69th floor. National Broadcasting Company, also owned by General Electric, leased space in the building.
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CNBC
Coordinates: 40°53′55″N 73°56′21″W / 40.89861°N 73.93917°W / 40.89861; -73.93917
CNBC (officially the Consumer News and Business Channel until 1991) is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers around the world. In 2007, the network was ranked as the 19th most valuable cable channel in the U.S., worth roughly $4 billion. It is headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
The CNBC channel had its beginnings around 1980 as the Satellite Program Network (SPN), showing a low-budget mix of old movies, instructional and entertainment programs. The channel later changed its name to Tempo Television. After initially signing a letter of intent to acquire Tempo,NBC eventually opted for a deal to lease the channel's transponder in June 1988. On this platform, and under the guidance of Tom Rogers, the channel was relaunched on April 17, 1989 as the Consumer News and Business Channel. NBC and Cablevision initially operated CNBC as a 50-50 joint venture, choosing to headquarter the channel in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
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GE Building
The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, USA. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC. At 850 feet (259 m) tall, the 70-story building is the 10th tallest building in New York City and the 33rd tallest in the United States. Some of the building's nicknames include The Slab and 30 Rock. The latter is derived from its address which is at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
The building was completed in 1933 as part of the Rockefeller Center. The noted Art Deco architect Raymond Hood led a team of Rockefeller architects. It was named the RCA Building for its main tenant, the Radio Corporation of America, formed in 1919 by General Electric. It was the first building constructed with the elevators grouped in the central core. During construction, photographer Charles Clyde Ebbets took the famous photograph Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper on the 69th floor. National Broadcasting Company, also owned by General Electric, leased space in the building.
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Manhattan
Manhattan (/mænˈhætən/) is the most densely populated and the oldest of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the U.S. state of New York. The borough and county consist of Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island, Wards Island, Governors Island, Liberty Island, part of Ellis Island,Mill Rock, and U Thant Island; as well as Marble Hill, a very small area on the mainland bordering the Bronx. The original city of New York began at the southern end of Manhattan, expanded northward, and then between 1874 and 1898, annexed land from surrounding counties.
The New York County is the most densely populated county in the United States, and one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a 2010 population of 1,585,873 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.5 km2), or 69,464 residents per square mile (26,924/km²), more dense than any individual American city. It is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a 2005 per capita income above $100,000. Manhattan is the third-largest of New York's five boroughs in population, and its smallest borough in land area.
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Microsoft
Coordinates: 47°38′22.55″N 122°7′42.42″W / 47.6395972°N 122.12845°W / 47.6395972; -122.12845
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. Microsoft is one of the largest software corporations in the world.
Microsoft would also come to dominate the office suite market with Microsoft Office. The company has diversified into the video game industry with the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles and the consumer electronics and digital services market MSN, the Zune and the Windows Phone OS. The ensuing rise of stock in the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO) made an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees (Forbes 400 list revealed that in March 2011 both Jon Shipley and Nathan Myhrvold lost their billionaire status). In May 2011, Microsoft Corporation acquired Skype Communications for $8.5 billion.
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NBC Tower
The NBC Tower is an office tower on the Near north side of Chicago, Illinois, United States located at 454 North Columbus Drive (455 North Cityfront Plaza is also used as a vanity address for the building) in downtown Chicago's Magnificent Mile area. Completed in 1989, the 37-story building reaches a height of 627 feet (191 m). NBC's Chicago offices, studios, and owned-and-operated station WMAQ-TV are located here as of 1989. Formerly its former radio sister WMAQ/WSCR was located here. WSNS-TV is also located here.
The design, by Adrian D. Smith of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, is considered one of the finest reproductions of the Art Deco style and similar to the GE Building in New York City. The tower is further enhanced by the use of limestone piers and recessed tinted glass with granite spandrels. The building takes cues from the nearby landmark Tribune Tower with the use of flying buttresses. A 130-foot (40 m) broadcast tower and spire tops the skyscraper. WMAQ/NBC has STL and satellite facilities on the roof and does not actually transmit from the tower, as those facilities are atop Willis Tower. Formerly WMAQ radio/WSCR had its STL and studios here, but now these facilities are at Two Prudential Plaza as of 2006. However, WSCR does continue to transmit atop Willis Tower.
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Silvercup Studios
Silvercup Studios is the largest film and television production facility in New York City. Located in the neighborhood of Long Island City, in the borough of Queens, the studio complex has been operating since 1983 in the former Silvercup Bakery building. It is owned and operated by brothers Alan and Stuart Suna.
During its early years the facility was used mostly for the filming of music videos and commercials, although occasionally scenes for motion pictures were shot there, including Highlander and Garbo Talks. Norman Leigh, well known among New York City filmmakers for his electrical/gaffing work on the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy, oversaw the studio during its first few years.
Over the years, use of the studio's space has shifted toward the production of television series.
Silvercup was the primary shooting facility for ABC's Hope & Faith, FX's Rescue Me, and HBO's Sex and the City and The Sopranos. Other film and television productions that have made use of the studio include:
The building also serves as a location for magazine photo shoots and music video productions. In fall 2007 an American Express TV commercial starring Tina Fey featured shots of the outside and inside of the studio. The facility can be seen from the New York City Subway Queens-bound 7,N & Q Trains just before the Queensboro Plaza stop, and it is also visible from cars filmed crossing over the Queensboro (59th street) bridge to and from Manhattan. It is also the location of part of the final battle in Highlander, with the character "The Kurgan" destroying the iconic sign during the battle.
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Universal CityWalk
Universal CityWalk is the name given to the entertainment and retail districts located adjacent to the theme parks of Universal Parks & Resorts. Originating as an expansion of Universal's first park, Universal Studios Hollywood, CityWalk serves as an entrance plaza from the parking lots to the theme parks. CityWalk can also be found at the Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, Japan.
CityWalk Hollywood and CityWalk Orlando do have some common tenants, but their respective architectural styles are quite different. Where CityWalk Hollywood incorporates a classic modern blend of Hollywood, CityWalk Orlando is almost entirely modern in appearance.
Universal CityWalk Hollywood is a three-block entertainment, dining, shopping promenade. Options include more than 30 places to eat, a 19-screen movie theater featuring IMAX®, seven night spots, indoor skydiving and more than 30 stores.
Opened in May 1993 adjacent to the Cineplex Odeon cinema. A $1 billion, 93,000 sq ft (8,600 m2). expansion opened in 2000.
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Andy Richter
Paul Andrew "Andy" Richter (born October 28, 1966) is an American actor, writer, comedian, and late night talk show announcer. He is best known for his role as the sidekick of Conan O'Brien on each of the host's programs: Late Night and The Tonight Show on NBC, and Conan on TBS. He is also known for his voice work in the Madagascar films and for starring in the sitcoms Quintuplets, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Andy Barker, P.I..
Richter, the third of four children, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His mother, Glenda Swanson (née Palmer), was a kitchen cabinet designer, and his father, Laurence R. Richter, taught Russian at Indiana University for more than 32 years. Richter was raised in Yorkville, Illinois. He is of Swedish and German descent. In high school, he was elected Prom King.
In the late 1980s, Richter attended Columbia College Chicago as a film major. While at Columbia he learned the basics of comedic acting and writing by starring in numerous student films and videos. After leaving Columbia in 1988 Richter worked as a production assistant on commercial shoots in Chicago. In 1989, he began taking classes at Chicago's Improv Olympic. His quick wit and acting skills catapulted him from student to "House Performer" within a year. Richter branched out working with "The Comedy Underground" and the Annoyance Theater.
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Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis (born Arline Francis Kazanjian; October 20, 1907 – May 31, 2001) was an American actress, radio talk show host, and game show panelist. She is known for her long-standing role as a panelist on the television game show What's My Line?, on which she regularly appeared for 25 years, from 1950 through the mid-1970s.
Francis was born on October 20, 1907, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Leah (née Davis) and Aram Kazanjian. Her Armenian father was studying art in Paris at age 16 when he learned that both his parents had died in one of the Hamidian massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in Anatolia between 1894 and 1896. He emigrated to the United States and became a portrait photographer, opening his own studio in Boston in the early 20th century. Later in life, Kazanjian painted canvases of dogwoods, "rabbits in flight," and other nature scenes, selling them at auction in New York.
When Francis was seven years old, her father decided that opportunities were greater in New York and moved the family to a flat in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Francis remained a New Yorker until her son moved her to a San Francisco nursing home in 1995.
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Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (Italian pronunciation: [arˈtuːro toskaˈniːni]; March 25, 1867 – January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory. As music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra he became a household name (especially in the United States) through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire.
Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, and won a scholarship to the local music conservatory, where he studied the cello. He joined the orchestra of an opera company, with which he toured South America in 1886. While presenting Aida in Rio de Janeiro, Leopoldo Miguez, the locally hired conductor, reached the summit of a two-month escalating conflict with the performers due to his rather poor command of the work, to the point that the singers went on strike and forced the company's general manager to seek a substitute conductor. Carlo Superti and Aristide Venturi tried unsuccessfully to finish the work. In desperation, the singers suggested the name of their assistant Chorus Master, who knew the whole opera from memory. Although he had no conducting experience, Toscanini was eventually convinced by the musicians to take up the baton at 9:15 P.M., and led a performance of the two-and-a-half hour opera. The public was taken by surprise, at first by the youth and sheer aplomb of this unknown conductor, then by his solid mastery. The result was astounding acclaim. For the rest of that season Toscanini conducted eighteen operas, all with absolute success. Thus began his career as a conductor, at age 19.
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Bill Cullen
William Lawrence Francis "Bill" Cullen (February 18, 1920 – July 7, 1990) was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades. He was best known for television game shows, having hosted multiple series (including Place the Face, the original The Price Is Right, the syndicated The $25,000 Pyramid, and Blockbusters) and served as a panelist on I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth.
Cullen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the only child of William and Lillian Cullen. He survived a childhood bout with polio that left him with significant physical limitations for the rest of his life (see medical history). He also wore very thick spectacles, which became a trademark.
Cullen's career began in Pittsburgh, where he worked at WWSW radio. He assisted sportscaster Joe Tucker, who called Pittsburgh Steelers games. He was well known for his puckish sense of humor and for playing pranks on his fellow announcers while they were on the air. Cullen decided to try his luck in New York and one of his first jobs was writing for the Easy Aces radio show.
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Bonnie Hammer
Bonnie Hammer is the Chairman of NBCU Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios. In January 2011, Hammer added executive responsibility for E! Entertainment, E! Studios and G4 to her existing oversight of USA, Syfy, Chiller, Cloo, Universal HD and Universal Cable Productions. Bonnie Hammer is infamously known for canceling Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1999. An industry leader in network programming and branding, Hammer was previously President, NBCU Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios. She assumed responsibility for USA Network in May 2004, adding to her role as president of Syfy. In March 2008, she took the reins of the newly created Universal Cable Productions, which generates content across multiple media platforms for USA, Syfy and other networks. At the same time, she assumed leadership of Sleuth (now Cloo), Chiller and Universal HD, which are among cable's most successful digital networks.
Hammer first established herself professionally in New York as a programming executive at Lifetime Television, where she oversaw production of an award-winning series of documentaries.
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Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.
Marsalis was born in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, the son of Dolores (née Ferdinand) and Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr., a pianist and music professor. His brothers Jason Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis III, and Delfeayo Marsalis, and father Ellis are also jazz musicians.
In the summer of 1980, while still a Berklee College of Music student, Marsalis toured Europe playing alto and baritone saxophone in a large ensemble led by drummer Art Blakey. Other big band experience with Lionel Hampton and Clark Terry followed over the next year, and by the end of 1981 Marsalis, on alto saxophone, had joined his brother Wynton in Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Other performances with his brother, including a 1981 Japanese tour with Herbie Hancock, led to the formation of his brother Wynton’s first quintet, where Marsalis shifted his emphasis to soprano and tenor saxophones. He continued to work with Wynton until 1985, a period that also saw the release of his own first recording, Scenes in the City, as well as guest appearances with other artists including Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie.
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Brian L. Roberts
Brian L. Roberts (born June 28, 1959) is Chairman/CEO of Comcast Corporation, an American company providing cable, entertainment, and communications products and services. He is the son of Comcast co-founder Ralph J. Roberts.
Roberts was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Germantown Academy, he earned his B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity.
Comcast has grown into a Fortune 100 company with 24.1 million customers and 100,000 employees. Comcast's content networks and investments include E!, Style Network, the Golf Channel, Versus, G4, PBS Kids Sprout, TV One and four regional Comcast SportsNets. The Company also has a majority ownership in Comcast-Spectator, whose major holdings include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team and two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia. Roberts received $24,683,315 in 2009.
On December 3, 2009, General Electric (GE) and Comcast announced a buyout agreement for NBC Universal. When the sale is completed, Comcast will own 51% of NBC Universal and GE will own 49%. Regulators approved the proposed sale on January 18, 2011. The sale was completed by January 28, 2011. Roberts is part of NBCUniversal's board of directors.
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Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS.
O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and raised in an Irish Catholic family. He served as president of the Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, and was a writer for the sketch comedy series Not Necessarily the News. After writing for several comedy shows in Los Angeles, he joined the writing staff of Saturday Night Live, and later of The Simpsons. He hosted Late Night with Conan O'Brien from 1993 to 2009, followed by seven months hosting The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, the only person to serve as the permanent host for both NBC programs.
O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston) to Thomas O'Brien, a physician, epidemiologist, and professor of medicine at Harvard, and Ruth O'Brien (née Reardon), an attorney and partner at the Boston firm Ropes & Gray. He is the third of six children. O'Brien's family is Irish Catholic and descends from pre-Civil War era immigrants. In a Late Night episode, O'Brien paid a visit to County Kerry, Ireland, where his ancestors originated.
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Doc Severinsen
Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen (born July 7, 1927) is an American pop and jazz trumpeter. He is best known for leading the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Severinsen was born in Arlington, Oregon, the son of Minnie Mae (1897–1998) and Carl Severinsen (1898–1972), a dentist. Nicknamed "Little Doc" after his father, he originally wanted to play the trombone, which he discovered at neighbor Art Fletcher's home, but the senior Severinsen, a gifted amateur violinist, urged him to study that instrument instead. The younger Severinsen insisted on the trombone, but had to settle for the only horn available in Arlington's small music store, a trumpet. A week later, with the help of his father and a manual of instructions, the seven-year-old was good enough to be invited to join the high school band.
At the age of twelve, Severinsen won the Music Educator's National Contest. While still in high school, he was hired to go on the road with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra. However, his stay with the group was cut short by the World War II draft. After serving in the U.S. Army, Severinsen made his broadcasting debut playing live popular music on KODL radio in The Dalles, Oregon.
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Ed McMahon
Edward Leo Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American comedian, game show host and announcer. He is most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carson's sidekick and announcer on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992. He also hosted the original version of the talent show Star Search from 1983 to 1995. He co-hosted TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes with Dick Clark from 1982 to 1998. He also presented sweepstakes for the direct marketing company American Family Publishers (not, as is commonly believed, its main rival Publishers Clearing House).
McMahon annually co-hosted the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. He performed in numerous television commercials, most notably for Budweiser. In the 1970s and 1980s, he anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. McMahon appeared in several films, including The Incident, Fun With Dick and Jane, Full Moon High, and Butterfly, as well as briefly in the film version of Bewitched. According to Entertainment Weekly, McMahon is considered one of the greatest "sidekicks".
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Edd Hall
Edd Hall (born December 7, 1958) is an American celebrity, television personality, and announcer. Most famous for his work on television as Jay Leno's announcer on The Tonight Show from 1992 to 2004, Hall replaced famed Tonight Show announcer Ed McMahon after Johnny Carson's retirement. Hall famously introduced himself by saying "...And me, I'm Edd Hall." In 2004, Hall was replaced on The Tonight Show by John Melendez.
Hall began his career when he was given a job as a radio announcer at the age of 14. He began his television career as a graphics coordinator on Late Night with David Letterman on NBC and performed voice-overs and appeared in sketches over the course of ten years.
Hall occasionally appeared in skits during the opening monologue. These skits often involved slapstick injury to Hall (by using a stunt double, dummy, or film clip), such as vehicles running him over in the studio parking lot. Unlike his predecessors on Tonight (i.e. McMahon with Carson, Hugh Downs with Jack Paar), Hall did not serve as a sidekick for Leno during his tenure on Leno's incarnation of The Tonight Show.
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Gene Rayburn
Gene Rayburn (December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the popular American television game show Match Game for over two decades.
Born Eugene P. Rubessa (
/ruːˈbeɪʃə/) in Christopher, Illinois, he was the only child of Croatian immigrants and graduated from Lindblom Technical High School and later from Knox College. While a student at Lindblom, he was senior class president and acted in the plays Robert of Sicily, and Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch.
Rayburn was married to Helen Ticknor from 1940 until her death in October 1996. They had one child, a daughter, Lynn. After Lynn's birth, Rayburn enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force and served in World War II. Public Service: He became the President of the organization "Patient's for the Preservation of Lens Implantation" in 1975 at the time the US government was attempting to stop intraocular lens (IOL) implantation for the treatment of cataracts. The organization worked closely with the American Intra-Ocular Implant Society (of surgeons) today called the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS). He was pivotal in preventing the government from banning IOLs. Today it the standard of care throughout the world.
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Hugh Downs
Hugh Malcolm Downs (born February 14, 1921) is a long-time American broadcaster, television host, news anchor, TV producer, author, game show host, and music composer; and is perhaps best known for his role as co-host the NBC News program Today from 1962 to 1971, host of the Concentration game show from 1958 to 1969, and anchor of the ABC News magazine 20/20 from 1978 to 1999. In addition, he's served as announcer/sidekick for The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar, host of the PBS talk show Over Easy and co-host of the syndicated talk show Not for Women Only.
Hugh Downs was born on St. Valentine's Day in the year 1921 in Akron, Ohio to Milton Howard and Edith H. Downs. He was educated at Lima Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio; Bluffton College, a Mennonite school in Bluffton, Ohio; and Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, during the period 1938 to 1941. He worked as a radio announcer and program director at WLOK in Lima, Ohio, after his first year of college. In 1940 he moved on to WWJ in Detroit. Downs served briefly in the U.S. Army in 1943 and then joined the NBC radio network at WMAQ as an announcer in Chicago, where he lived until 1954. He married a coworker, Ruth Shaheen in 1944. He also attended Columbia University in New York City during 1955–56.
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Jack Paar
Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 – January 27, 2004) was an author, American radio and television comedian and talk show host, best known for his stint as host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962. Time magazine's obituary noted that: "His fans would remember him as the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: Before Paar and Below Paar."
Paar was born in Canton, Ohio, the son of Howard and Lillian M. Paar. He moved with his family to Jackson, Michigan, 30 miles south of Lansing, as a child. As a child he had a stuttering problem which he conquered. He contracted tuberculosis when he was 14, and left school at 16.
He first worked near home as a radio announcer at WIBM in Jackson and later as a humorous disc jockey at Midwest stations, including WJR in Detroit, WIRE in Indianapolis, WGAR in Cleveland and WBEN in Buffalo. In his book P.S. Jack Paar, he recalled doing utility duty at WGAR in 1938 when Orson Welles broadcast his famous simulated alien invasion, The War of the Worlds over the CBS network (and affiliate WGAR). Attempting to calm possible panicked listeners, Paar announced, "The world is not coming to an end. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?"
wn.com/Jack_Paar -
Jay Leno
James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno /ˈlɛnoʊ/ (born April 28, 1950) is an American stand-up comedian and television host.
From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern Time, UTC-5), also on NBC. After The Jay Leno Show was canceled in January 2010 amid a host controversy, Leno returned to host The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 1, 2010.
James "Jay" Leno was born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1950. His mother, Catherine (née Muir; 1911–1993), a homemaker, was born in Greenock, Scotland, and came to the United States at age 11. Leno's father, Angelo (1910–1994), who worked as an insurance salesman, was born in New York to immigrants from Flumeri, Italy. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, and although his high school guidance counselor recommended that he drop out of school, he later obtained a Bachelor's degree in speech therapy from Emerson College, where he started a comedy club in 1973. Leno's siblings include his late older brother, Patrick, who was a Vietnam veteran and a lawyer.
wn.com/Jay_Leno -
Jeffrey R. Immelt
Jeffrey Robert "Jeff" Immelt (born February 19, 1956) is an American business executive. He is currently the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the U.S.-based conglomerate General Electric. He was selected by GE's Board of Directors in 2000 to replace Jack Welch following his retirement. Previously, Immelt had headed up GE's Medical Systems division (now known as GE Healthcare) as its President and CEO.
Immelt was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Donna Rosemary (née Wallace), a school teacher, and Joseph Francis Immelt, who managed the General Electric Aircraft Engines Division. Immelt attended Finneytown High School; he played football in college and was an offensive tackle. He holds an B.A. in Applied Mathematics from Dartmouth College where he currently serves on the board of trustees and was president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Alpha, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has been with GE since 1982 and is on the board of two non-profit organizations, one of which is the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization which attempts to alleviate problems caused by poverty in New York City.
wn.com/Jeffrey_R._Immelt -
John Melendez
John Edward Melendez (born October 4, 1965), commonly known as "Stuttering John," is an American television writer and former radio personality. Prior to his work on television as a writer and announcer, Melendez was a regular on-air personality on The Howard Stern Show. He became known for asking impertinent questions of celebrities on the red carpet and at press conferences with his stuttering.
Melendez grew up in Massapequa, Long Island and attended Plainedge High School. Melendez began to stutter when he was in the second grade. According to Melendez, his problem came about because of the psychological mistreatment from his father, who also stutters. Both he and his father suffer from a form of obsessive compulsive disorder.
In 1988, Melendez attended New York University's film school, and belonged to a band called "Rock Slide." His college roommate, comedian Mitch Fatel, was on the verge of quitting his internship with The Howard Stern Show, when Melendez asked him for a recommendation for an internship there. The show's producer, Gary Dell'Abate, mentioned Melendez's stuttering to Howard Stern who, without seeing him and even before he was interviewed, told the producer to hire him.
wn.com/John_Melendez -
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host and comedian, known for thirty years as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992). Carson received six Emmy Awards, the Governor Award, and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Johnny Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993.
Although his show was already successful by the end of the 1960s, during the 1970s Carson became an American icon and remained so until his retirement in 1992. He adopted a casual, conversational approach with extensive interaction with guests, an approach pioneered by Arthur Godfrey and previous Tonight Show hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar. Late night hosts David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Fallon have all cited Carson's influence on their late-night talk shows, which resemble his in format and tone.
Carson was born in Corning, Iowa, in the year 1925, to Homer Lloyd "Kit" Carson, a power company manager, and Ruth Hook Carson, who was of Irish descent. He grew up in the nearby towns of Avoca, Clarinda, and Red Oak in southwest Iowa before moving to Norfolk, Nebraska, at the age of eight. At the age of twelve, Carson found a book on magic at a friend's house and immediately purchased a mail-order magician's kit. He debuted as "The Great Carsoni" at fourteen and was paid $3; many other performances at local picnics and country fairs followed.
wn.com/Johnny_Carson -
Keith Sherin
Keith S. Sherin (born November 15, 1958) is currently the Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of General Electric.
Sherin received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame in 1981 and an Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia Business School in 1991. He joined GE after graduating from Notre Dame. He has been CFO since December 1998 and was named Vice Chairman in 2007.
wn.com/Keith_Sherin -
Kevin Eubanks
Kevin Tyrone Eubanks (born November 15, 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American jazz guitarist and composer who was the leader of the Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led The Primetime Band on the short-lived The Jay Leno Show.
Eubanks was born into a musical family. His mother, Vera Eubanks, is a gospel and classical pianist and organist. His uncle, Ray Bryant, was a jazz pianist. His older brother, Robin Eubanks, is a trombonist, and his younger brother Duane Eubanks is a trumpeter. Two cousins are also musicians, the late bassist David Eubanks and the pianist Charles Eubanks. Kevin studied violin and trumpet, before settling on the guitar.
As an elementary school student, Eubanks was trained in violin, trumpet, and piano at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. He later attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and then moved to New York to begin his professional career.
Eubanks is a pescetarian and maintains a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, egg whites, and fish. He is also an avid fan of Philadelphia sports teams. He once lost a bet on the Philadelphia 76ers, and he was forced to eat a corn dog when he lost. In 2007, he was voted PETA's "World's Sexiest Vegetarian Man".
wn.com/Kevin_Eubanks -
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg (born April 13, 1951) is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey and began drumming at an early age. He attended college planning to be a lawyer but got his big break in music in 1974 when he won an audition to become the drummer for Springsteen. His powerful but controlled playing on albums such as Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. stabilized the E Street Band sound and Weinberg became a mainstay of Springsteen's long concert performances. Springsteen dissolved the band in 1989 and Weinberg spent several years considering a law career and trying the business end of the music industry before deciding he wanted to continue with drumming.
In 1993, Weinberg got the role as bandleader of The Max Weinberg 7 for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Weinberg's drums-driven jump blues sound and his role as a comic foil prospered along with the show, giving him a second career. In 1999, Springsteen reformed the E Street Band for a series of tours and albums; Weinberg worked out an arrangement that allowed him to play with both O'Brien and Springsteen. In 2009, Weinberg moved to the short-lived Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien as leader of Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band. After that ended, he formed and toured with a new ensemble, the Max Weinberg Big Band, and in 2010 chose not to follow O'Brien to the new Conan show.
wn.com/Max_Weinberg -
Milton Berle
Milton Berle (born Milton Berlinger, July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American comedian and actor. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during TV's golden age.
Milton Berlinger was born into a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 W. 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. He chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger (1873–1938), was a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah (Sadie) Glantz Berlinger (1877–1954), eventually became stagestruck and changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous.
Berle entered show business at the age of five when he won an amateur talent contest. He appeared as a child actor in silent films, beginning with The Perils of Pauline, filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The director told Berle that he would portray a little boy who would be thrown from a moving train. In Milton Berle: An Autobiography, he explained, "I was scared shitless, even when he went on to tell me that Pauline would save my life. Which is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that."
wn.com/Milton_Berle -
Milton DeLugg
Milton DeLugg (born December 2, 1918; Los Angeles, California) is an American composer and arranger.
A talented accordionist, he appeared in short Soundies musicals and occasional movies (like 1949's Jolson Sings Again). He quickly became a successful arranger and composer. His clients ranged from the American Junior Miss Pageant to Jackie Wilson, and he was a musician on such radio programs as The Abe Burrows Show. One of his best-known tunes is an arrangement of the song "The Happy Wanderer", and his brassy polka "Hoop Dee Doo" became a game-show staple. He is also the composer of "Hooray for Santy Claus", the catchy theme song for the low-budget motion picture Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. He also composed "Roller Coaster" - recorded by Henri Rene Orchestra on RCA Victor. It was used as the closing theme for the popular Goodson-Todman panel show "What's My Line?" from the early 1950s until its cancellation in 1967.
In 1950 and 1951, DeLugg was musical director, bandleader, and accordionist on Broadway Open House an NBC late-night television program which has been considered a forerunner to The Tonight Show. He often played a song he co-wrote, titled, "Orange Colored Sky", which was best remembered as a hit for Nat King Cole. In 1950, DeLugg was also orchestra conductor for the short-lived Abe Burrows' Almanac.
wn.com/Milton_DeLugg -
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. Como was seen weekly on television from 1949 to 1963, then continued hosting the Kraft Music Hall variety program on a monthly basis until 1967. His television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. Also a popular recording artist, Perry Como produced numerous hit records with record sales so high the label literally stopped counting at Como's behest. His combined success on television and popular recordings was not matched by any other artist of the time. Como's appeal spanned generations and he was widely respected for both his professional standards and the conduct in his personal life. In the official RCA Records Billboard magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all." Composer Ervin Drake said of him, "... [o]ccasionally someone like Perry comes along and won't 'go with the flow' and still prevails in spite of all the bankrupt others who surround him and importune him to yield to their values. Only occasionally."
wn.com/Perry_Como -
Rickey Minor
Rickey Minor is a music director, composer and music producer, now best known as musical director and bandleader for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno after Kevin Eubanks left. Minor was born in Monroe, Louisiana to parents Cole and Goldie Minor and was raised in South Central Los Angeles, CA. Much of his musical training was self-taught.
Minor has served as musical director for numerous superstar tours, including: Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, Ray Charles, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé and for television productions, including: the Grammy Awards, the NAACP Image Awards and the Super Bowl. In addition to his work as musical director for American Idol, he served as bandleader on Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics!.
As bandleader, Minor differs from Eubanks in terms of material used. While Eubanks would play original music with the band, Minor on the other hand plays established hits ranging from heavy metal to rap to classic rock to soul.
Minor resides in Southern California with wife, Karen Denise, and son, Sean Anthony. His book, There's No Traffic on the Extra Mile, was released in January 2009.
wn.com/Rickey_Minor -
Robert Greenblatt
Robert Greenblatt (born c. 1960) is an American television executive and currently the chairman of NBC Entertainment.
Greenblatt was raised in Rockford, Illinois, and attended Boylan Catholic High School. He earned a B.F.A. in theatre management from the University of Illinois and an M.A. in arts administration from the University of Wisconsin's Madison School of Business. He also earned an M.F.A. from the USC School of Cinema-Television's Peter Stark Producing Program.
Greenblatt began his television career at the Fox Broadcasting Company where he ran prime-time programming and developed such shows as the original Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place, The X-Files, and Party of Five.
Greenblatt was an award-winning producer of over a dozen series for various networks, including Six Feet Under, along with the 2005 miniseries Elvis and Gregory Nava's American Family for PBS.
From 2003 to 2010, Greenblatt was President of Entertainment for Showtime. He supervised a slate of original programming that dramatically repositioned the pay channel as a leader in the premium cable business. Under his leadership, he developed and supervised award-winning shows like Weeds, Dexter, The Tudors, Nurse Jackie, and United States of Tara.
wn.com/Robert_Greenblatt -
Ronald Meyer
Ron Meyer is an American entertainment executive and former talent agent.
Ron Meyer was born to a Jewish family whose love of film influenced him at an early age. At fifteen Ron dropped out of high school, and at the age of seventeen he joined the United States Marine Corps, which he served in until the age of nineteen. At the age of nineteen he began working for the Paul Kohner Agency in Los Angeles as an agent from 1964 to 1970. Ron then moved on to work from 1970 to 1975 as a talent agent for the William Morris Agency.
At a lunch with some of his friends in 1975, Ron and his buddies came up with the idea of starting an agency to represent talent in the very diverse and ever-thriving area of Los Angeles. They opened up in a rented office with card tables, folding chairs, and their wives serving as the secretaries. This agency, named Creative Artists Agency, is one of the premiere talent representation agencies, and has represented the likes of Martin Scorsese. They later expanded its range of services to include consulting with leading American and international corporations.
wn.com/Ronald_Meyer -
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar (born September 8, 1922) is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known for the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.
Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York, the youngest son of Max Caesar and his wife Ida (née Raphael), Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who ran a restaurant. Caesar would wait on tables and learned to mimic the accents, something he would use throughout his career. He first tried his double-talk with a group of Italians, his head barely reaching above the table. They enjoyed it so much that they sent him over to a group of Poles to repeat it in Polish, and so on with Russians, Hungarians, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Lithuanians and Bulgarians. Despite his apparent fluency in many languages, Caesar can actually speak only English and Yiddish. Sid's older brother David was his comic mentor and "one-man cheering section." They created their earliest family sketches from then current movies like Test Pilot and Wings.
wn.com/Sid_Caesar -
Skitch Henderson
Lyle Russell Cedric “Skitch” Henderson (January 27, 1918 – November 1, 2005) was a pianist, conductor, and composer. His nickname ("Skitch") reportedly derived from his ability to quickly "re-sketch" a song in a different key.
Skitch Henderson was born on a farm near Halstad, Minnesota, to Joseph and Josephine Henderson, both of Norwegian descent. His mother died shortly after his birth, and he was then sent to live with his Aunt Hattie, who raised him. She taught him piano, starting at the age of four. Although he didn't receive formal conservatory education in music, Henderson received classical training under Fritz Reiner, Albert Coates, Arnold Schoenberg, Ernst Toch and Arturo Toscanini, who invited him to conduct the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Henderson would later recount his learning the ropes by playing in taverns with popular singers of the day.
He started his professional career in the 1930s playing piano in the roadhouses of the American Midwest, his major break being as an accompanist on a 1937 MGM promotional tour featuring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Henderson later said that as a member of MGM's music department, he worked with Garland to learn "Over the Rainbow" during rehearsals for The Wizard of Oz and played piano for her first public performance of the song at a local nightclub before the film was finished. However this account is at odds with the memoirs of the tune's composer, Harold Arlen, who said he first performed the song for the 14-year-old Garland.
wn.com/Skitch_Henderson -
Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William "Steve" Allen (December 26, 1921 - October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his television career. He first gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He graduated to become the first host of The Tonight Show, where he was instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. Thereafter, he hosted numerous game and variety shows, including The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, The New Steve Allen Show, and was a regular panel member on CBS' What's My Line?
Allen was a "creditable" pianist, and a prolific composer, having penned over 14,000 songs,[citation needed] one of which was recorded by Perry Como and Margaret Whiting, others by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Les Brown, and Gloria Lynne. Allen won a Grammy award in 1963 for best jazz composition, with his song The Gravy Waltz. His vast number of songs have never been equaled. Allen wrote more than 50 books, has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his honor The Steve Allen Theater.
wn.com/Steve_Allen -
Steve Capus
Steve Capus is the current president of NBC News.
Steve Capus was born in 1963. He graduated from William Tennent High School in Warminster, Pennsylvania and went on to attend Temple University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in 1986. Capus began his journalism career in radio and print, working at several stations and daily newspapers in the Philadelphia area. He worked at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia in 1986, and became an executive producer with KYW-TV in Philadelphia in 1990.
Capus moved to Charlotte, N.C. in 1993, joining the NBC News team as the senior producer of NBC Nightside, an overnight news program.
Capus then continued his career with NBC in Manhattan. During this time, he was the broadcast producer of "NBC News Sunrise" and then the supervising producer for Today. From 1997 to May 2001, Capus was the executive producer of MSNBC’s The News with Brian Williams. He was also the executive producer of numerous NBC News breaking reports and MSNBC special broadcasts. Among them were the 2000 presidential primaries and election, the “Summit in Silicon Valley” with Tom Brokaw and the political series 100 Days, 1000 Voices.
wn.com/Steve_Capus -
Ted Harbert
Edward W. "Ted" Harbert III (born June 15, 1955) is currently Chairman, NBC Broadcasting. Before joining NBCUniversal, he was the president and CEO of the Comcast Entertainment Group.
Harbert was born in New York City, New York, the son of Ted Jr. (a television executive) and Marna Harbert. He graduated from Boston University in 1977. Harbert began his broadcast career working at the Boston University radio station with Howard Stern. Years later, Stern frequently chided Harbert on-air about how Harbert's career was helped through family connections, specifically his father. For several years in the 1990s, Harbert was in charge of programming for ABC. He also worked in the same office building as Jay Leno during the mid-90's.
He held a similar position for E! Entertainment Television and Style Network until mid-October 2006, when he got promoted to the newly created position of CEO at the Comcast Entertainment Group, which added Comcast’s G4 TV to his portfolio.
In his position at ABC, he was a lightning rod for such decisions as the cancellation of My So-Called Life among other critically acclaimed series. In the case of My So-Called Life, he insists, in a September, 2004 Entertainment Weekly article, that he very much wanted to renew it despite its low ratings, but he says that behind the scenes maneuvering by series star Claire Danes made such a decision impossible.
wn.com/Ted_Harbert
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NBC Studio Tours
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:20
- Updated: 02 Dec 2012
NBC Studio Tours at 30 Rockefeller Plaza
http://wn.com/NBC_Studio_Tours
Closing Logos: Peter Engel Productions/NBC Studios/NBC Enterprises (2000/2005)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:11
- Updated: 14 Dec 2012
It's a long story, this one. This comes from the now out-of-print DVD release of the final season of "Saved by the Bell: The New Class" (I give dual-dates for DVD logo combinations in many cases). The logos presented here are common, but it's strange to see them together at the same time (if it ever appears on DVDF again, it'll probably have a different NBC logo tacked on at the end). Not a rarity in the strict sense, but unusual to see all 3 logos in the same place.
http://wn.com/Closing_Logos_Peter_Engel_Productions_NBC_Studios_NBC_Enterprises_2000_2005
It's a long story, this one. This comes from the now out-of-print DVD release of the final season of "Saved by the Bell: The New Class" (I give dual-dates for DVD logo combinations in many cases). The logos presented here are common, but it's strange to see them together at the same time (if it ever appears on DVDF again, it'll probably have a different NBC logo tacked on at the end). Not a rarity in the strict sense, but unusual to see all 3 logos in the same place.
- published: 07 Jun 2010
- views: 32025
- author: JeiceTheWarrior
Sander-Moses Productions, NBC Studios, NBC Enterprises
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:10
- Updated: 13 Jun 2012
Sander-Moses Productions, NBC Studios, and NBC Enterprises.
http://wn.com/Sander-Moses_Productions,_NBC_Studios,_NBC_Enterprises
Sander-Moses Productions, NBC Studios, and NBC Enterprises.
- published: 23 Apr 2011
- views: 15870
- author: Phoebe Terese
A Sneak Preview of the NBC Studio Tour in New York - 11/22/10
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:38
- Updated: 27 Aug 2012
http://wn.com/A_Sneak_Preview_of_the_NBC_Studio_Tour_in_New_York_11_22_10
NBC Studios Logo (2000-2004)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:04
- Updated: 08 Nov 2012
2000-2004 NBC Studios Logo.
http://wn.com/NBC_Studios_Logo_2000-2004
NBC Studio Tour commercial
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:18
- Updated: 09 Sep 2012
The commercial which runs on loop in the NBC gift shop in NY. Filmed by Stimulus Productions and produced by IOD Video
http://wn.com/NBC_Studio_Tour_commercial
The commercial which runs on loop in the NBC gift shop in NY. Filmed by Stimulus Productions and produced by IOD Video
- published: 20 Jan 2008
- views: 5951
- author: StimulusProductions
"Tonight Show" NBC Studios - Burbank, CA in 1999
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:59
- Updated: 31 Jan 2012
In 1972, Johnny Carson moved "The Tonight Show" from the NBC studios in New York, to the NBC facility in Burbank, CA. There it has stayed since, but in 2009, the Tonight Show wil be leaving what it's known as home for 37 years to brand new, state of the art digital facilities in nearby Universal Studios. This video footage of me at the NBC studios in Burbank, CA was taken in January of 1999. Stick around till the end and you'll be treated to a surprise appearance by Fat Al, the former Tonight show sound engineer who, in the 90s, would occasionally show up on camera dressed only in his underwear. Alas, he doesn't do that anymore.
http://wn.com/Tonight_Show_NBC_Studios_Burbank,_CA_in_1999
In 1972, Johnny Carson moved "The Tonight Show" from the NBC studios in New York, to the NBC facility in Burbank, CA. There it has stayed since, but in 2009, the Tonight Show wil be leaving what it's known as home for 37 years to brand new, state of the art digital facilities in nearby Universal Studios. This video footage of me at the NBC studios in Burbank, CA was taken in January of 1999. Stick around till the end and you'll be treated to a surprise appearance by Fat Al, the former Tonight show sound engineer who, in the 90s, would occasionally show up on camera dressed only in his underwear. Alas, he doesn't do that anymore.
- published: 22 Jan 2008
- views: 10501
- author: evancortez2
Foo Fighters - My Hero (live on NBC Studios) [1998]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:35
- Updated: 27 Nov 2012
Foo Fighters performed this song on NBC's "Friday Night" [1998]
http://wn.com/Foo_Fighters_My_Hero_live_on_NBC_Studios_1998_
Foo Fighters performed this song on NBC's "Friday Night" [1998]
- published: 21 May 2008
- views: 156978
- author: estefoochy
Official NBC Studio Tour
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:20
- Updated: 16 Jul 2012
Since 1933, NBC has offered this historic tour that takes you through the halls and into the studios of NBC's New York operations! You will have the opportunity to enter and visit some of our most famous NBC studios like Saturday Night Live, Nightly News with Brian Williams, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, Football Night in America, Dr. Oz and MSNBC. You will visit the NBC/Sharp Globe Theater, Broadcast Operations, the tour Make-up Room, and High Definition mini-control studio. Each guest will have their photo taken at the news desk and two volunteers will be chosen to read the news and give a weather demonstration in front of the weather green screen. Tours last one hour and ten minutes. 212.664.3700 or www.nbcstudiotour.com
http://wn.com/Official_NBC_Studio_Tour
Since 1933, NBC has offered this historic tour that takes you through the halls and into the studios of NBC's New York operations! You will have the opportunity to enter and visit some of our most famous NBC studios like Saturday Night Live, Nightly News with Brian Williams, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, Football Night in America, Dr. Oz and MSNBC. You will visit the NBC/Sharp Globe Theater, Broadcast Operations, the tour Make-up Room, and High Definition mini-control studio. Each guest will have their photo taken at the news desk and two volunteers will be chosen to read the news and give a weather demonstration in front of the weather green screen. Tours last one hour and ten minutes. 212.664.3700 or www.nbcstudiotour.com
- published: 17 Jun 2010
- views: 4608
- author: NBCTour
Elvis Presley That Alright Mama 01 Nbc Studio's 1968
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:31
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
By 1968,Elvis Presley's career appeared to be in irreversible decline, torpedoed by the innumerable inane films he hadmade throughout the previous decade. While Elvis had wiled away the '60s playing characters named Lucky and Spike, artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan had altered the pop musicscene, making Elvis' previous accomplishments appear quaintbut outdated to most young record buyers. Searching for a vehicle to revitalise his career, Elvis and the Colonel decided on a 60-minute television special. The show, quickly dubbed The Comeback Special, accomplished its goal in spades,reestablishing Presley's artistic validity and preparing the public for a string of great singles that arrived early the following year. NBC-TV SPECIAL opens and closes huge, kicking off with Elvis sneering "If you're looking for trouble, you've come to the right place" and ending with one of his most impassioned performances, "If I Can Dream". In between, Presley reunites with original band members Scotty Moore andD.J. Fontana on eight numbers, among them a blistering version of "One Night", and blazes through several production numbers and medleys of his hits. NBC-TV SPECIAL documents a defining moment in Presley's career, and is a must for any fanof the King.
http://wn.com/Elvis_Presley_That_Alright_Mama_01_Nbc_Studio's_1968
By 1968,Elvis Presley's career appeared to be in irreversible decline, torpedoed by the innumerable inane films he hadmade throughout the previous decade. While Elvis had wiled away the '60s playing characters named Lucky and Spike, artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan had altered the pop musicscene, making Elvis' previous accomplishments appear quaintbut outdated to most young record buyers. Searching for a vehicle to revitalise his career, Elvis and the Colonel decided on a 60-minute television special. The show, quickly dubbed The Comeback Special, accomplished its goal in spades,reestablishing Presley's artistic validity and preparing the public for a string of great singles that arrived early the following year. NBC-TV SPECIAL opens and closes huge, kicking off with Elvis sneering "If you're looking for trouble, you've come to the right place" and ending with one of his most impassioned performances, "If I Can Dream". In between, Presley reunites with original band members Scotty Moore andD.J. Fontana on eight numbers, among them a blistering version of "One Night", and blazes through several production numbers and medleys of his hits. NBC-TV SPECIAL documents a defining moment in Presley's career, and is a must for any fanof the King.
- published: 07 Jan 2011
- views: 30098
- author: soul rebel
Coal Chamber - Fiend (Live At Last Call, NBC Studios - New York, NY, USA [05-21-2002]) HQ
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:22
- Updated: 22 Dec 2012
Fiend Live 2002-05-21 Last Call, NBC Studios - New York, NY, USA more info in zulhybootleg.herobo.com Trading Site
http://wn.com/Coal_Chamber_Fiend_Live_At_Last_Call,_NBC_Studios_New_York,_NY,_USA_05-21-2002_HQ
Fiend Live 2002-05-21 Last Call, NBC Studios - New York, NY, USA more info in zulhybootleg.herobo.com Trading Site
- published: 14 Aug 2011
- views: 41658
- author: zulhydeftones
Today Show Unveils Muppet Utility Closet @ NBC Studios, NYC
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:27
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
Known to exist but hidden from the public for many years, finally turned into a permanent attraction on the NBC Tour. Don't remember when this aired - possibly late Fall '10. (Only posted 'cuz I couldn't find this clip on the official site). Very cool tribute to the gang of Muppeteers! Affectionate Anarchy!
http://wn.com/Today_Show_Unveils_Muppet_Utility_Closet_@_NBC_Studios,_NYC
Known to exist but hidden from the public for many years, finally turned into a permanent attraction on the NBC Tour. Don't remember when this aired - possibly late Fall '10. (Only posted 'cuz I couldn't find this clip on the official site). Very cool tribute to the gang of Muppeteers! Affectionate Anarchy!
- published: 24 Jan 2011
- views: 1875
- author: photobro
Top of the Rock - GE Building (Rockefeller) - NBC Studios - New York - August 2009
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:21
- Updated: 30 Sep 2012
August 2009 - Rock Experience - GE Building Rockefeller Center - New York Tourist Attraction. Fast Elevator going up. NBC Studios including the Observation Deck and Welcome to the Rainbow Room Saturday Night Live (SNL) is filmed in this building. At the TOP you have a great view. The elevator takes you up to the 67th floor where you can take more escalators to the top deck. At the top you can see everything from the Empire State building, Chrysler building, Metlife, Central Park, Time Square, and even the Statue of Liberty.
http://wn.com/Top_of_the_Rock_GE_Building_Rockefeller_NBC_Studios_New_York_August_2009
August 2009 - Rock Experience - GE Building Rockefeller Center - New York Tourist Attraction. Fast Elevator going up. NBC Studios including the Observation Deck and Welcome to the Rainbow Room Saturday Night Live (SNL) is filmed in this building. At the TOP you have a great view. The elevator takes you up to the 67th floor where you can take more escalators to the top deck. At the top you can see everything from the Empire State building, Chrysler building, Metlife, Central Park, Time Square, and even the Statue of Liberty.
- published: 13 Sep 2009
- views: 7863
- author: nyadventure
Jim Henson's Preserved Pipe Vandalism/Decorations of Early Muppets at NBC Studio
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:24
- Updated: 04 Nov 2012
There's a new stop on the NBC studio tour in New York, and it's all about the Muppets' beginnings. On the June 8th edition of the NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams showed Frank Oz something that Oz created years ago while he - and Jim Henson - worked backstage on the Jack Paar show. Oz and Henson spent their downtime in their closet decorating pipes, forming their first visions of what the Muppets would look like. As Oz reflects in this video, the pipes are from a simpler time and what the Muppets are really about: affectionate anarchy. While the pipes are a recent addition to the NBC studios tour in New York, this isn't the first time they've been shown on TV. Jim Henson showed then NBC Nightly News anchor Gene Shalit the Muppet pipes way back in April 1980, after the pipes were exposed during studio construction. Why now add the pipes to the tour? Perhaps because a new Muppets movie is in the works. It is tentatively set to release on Christmas Day 2011. If Walt Disney gives the official green light to the film, Jason Segel will be one of the writers - which only makes sense considering his Muppet opera production in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Even though we'll have to wait for the latest Muppet movie, at least we have the pipes and this cool bit of history in the meantime. Source: entertainment.gather.com
http://wn.com/Jim_Henson's_Preserved_Pipe_Vandalism_Decorations_of_Early_Muppets_at_NBC_Studio
There's a new stop on the NBC studio tour in New York, and it's all about the Muppets' beginnings. On the June 8th edition of the NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams showed Frank Oz something that Oz created years ago while he - and Jim Henson - worked backstage on the Jack Paar show. Oz and Henson spent their downtime in their closet decorating pipes, forming their first visions of what the Muppets would look like. As Oz reflects in this video, the pipes are from a simpler time and what the Muppets are really about: affectionate anarchy. While the pipes are a recent addition to the NBC studios tour in New York, this isn't the first time they've been shown on TV. Jim Henson showed then NBC Nightly News anchor Gene Shalit the Muppet pipes way back in April 1980, after the pipes were exposed during studio construction. Why now add the pipes to the tour? Perhaps because a new Muppets movie is in the works. It is tentatively set to release on Christmas Day 2011. If Walt Disney gives the official green light to the film, Jason Segel will be one of the writers - which only makes sense considering his Muppet opera production in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Even though we'll have to wait for the latest Muppet movie, at least we have the pipes and this cool bit of history in the meantime. Source: entertainment.gather.com
- published: 10 Jun 2010
- views: 4954
- author: cyrex686
NBC Studios 2000-2004 logo
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:04
- Updated: 07 May 2012
http://wn.com/NBC_Studios_2000-2004_logo
Chris Hansen Impersonator Calls REAL Chris Hansen and NBC Studios PART 1 OF 2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:07
- Updated: 14 Dec 2012
A very talented Chris Hansen impersonator calls up NBC Studios and pretends to be Chris Hansen in order to get the REAL Chris Hansen's contact information. They then proceed to call the REAL Chris Hansen at his home. PART 1 OF 2. Part 2 of 2 can be found here: www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Chris_Hansen_Impersonator_Calls_REAL_Chris_Hansen_and_NBC_Studios_PART_1_OF_2
A very talented Chris Hansen impersonator calls up NBC Studios and pretends to be Chris Hansen in order to get the REAL Chris Hansen's contact information. They then proceed to call the REAL Chris Hansen at his home. PART 1 OF 2. Part 2 of 2 can be found here: www.youtube.com
- published: 10 Sep 2009
- views: 16025
- author: darkreign16
Komut Ent./3 Sisters Ent./NBC Studios/Warner Bros. Television (2000/2003)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:10
- Updated: 23 Dec 2012
From an 2000 episode of Will and Grace on Lifetime HD.
http://wn.com/Komut_Ent_3_Sisters_Ent_NBC_Studios_Warner_Bros_Television_2000_2003
From an 2000 episode of Will and Grace on Lifetime HD.
- published: 05 Sep 2012
- views: 5682
- author: GH32143
The Office: Erin on Disposable Cameras
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:23
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
Copyright NBC Studios. Disposable Camera Scene from Counselling s07e02
http://wn.com/The_Office_Erin_on_Disposable_Cameras
Copyright NBC Studios. Disposable Camera Scene from Counselling s07e02
- published: 03 Oct 2010
- views: 194692
- author: yuj1n09
NBC Universal Television Studio Logo (2004)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:03
- Updated: 12 Jul 2012
NBC Universal Television Studio Logo
http://wn.com/NBC_Universal_Television_Studio_Logo_2004
WTVJ NBC Miami Final Broadcasts from Miami Studios 2000
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:21
- Updated: 09 Dec 2012
Courtesy: Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archive Tony Segreto Jennifer Valoppi Jackie Nespral Bob Mayer Alicia Ortega Michael Williams Hank Tester Ike Seamans Andrea Brody
http://wn.com/WTVJ_NBC_Miami_Final_Broadcasts_from_Miami_Studios_2000
Courtesy: Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archive Tony Segreto Jennifer Valoppi Jackie Nespral Bob Mayer Alicia Ortega Michael Williams Hank Tester Ike Seamans Andrea Brody
- published: 06 Sep 2009
- views: 7167
- author: NewmanNewsman
1989 NBC Disney MGM Studios Theme Park Grand Opening Intro
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:23
- Updated: 01 Apr 2012
Intro to the April 30, 1989 Magical World Of Disney special "Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park Grand Opening" from KING Seattle, WA
http://wn.com/1989_NBC_Disney_MGM_Studios_Theme_Park_Grand_Opening_Intro
Intro to the April 30, 1989 Magical World Of Disney special "Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park Grand Opening" from KING Seattle, WA
- published: 19 Apr 2011
- views: 5079
- author: seanmc31076
Elvis Presley Studio Out Take's 18 Nbc Studio's 1968
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:27
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
By 1968,Elvis Presley's career appeared to be in irreversible decline, torpedoed by the innumerable inane films he hadmade throughout the previous decade. While Elvis had wiled away the '60s playing characters named Lucky and Spike, artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan had altered the pop musicscene, making Elvis' previous accomplishments appear quaintbut outdated to most young record buyers. Searching for a vehicle to revitalise his career, Elvis and the Colonel decided on a 60-minute television special. The show, quickly dubbed The Comeback Special, accomplished its goal in spades,reestablishing Presley's artistic validity and preparing the public for a string of great singles that arrived early the following year. NBC-TV SPECIAL opens and closes huge, kicking off with Elvis sneering "If you're looking for trouble, you've come to the right place" and ending with one of his most impassioned performances, "If I Can Dream". In between, Presley reunites with original band members Scotty Moore andD.J. Fontana on eight numbers, among them a blistering version of "One Night", and blazes through several production numbers and medleys of his hits. NBC-TV SPECIAL documents a defining moment in Presley's career, and is a must for any fanof the King.
http://wn.com/Elvis_Presley_Studio_Out_Take's_18_Nbc_Studio's_1968
By 1968,Elvis Presley's career appeared to be in irreversible decline, torpedoed by the innumerable inane films he hadmade throughout the previous decade. While Elvis had wiled away the '60s playing characters named Lucky and Spike, artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan had altered the pop musicscene, making Elvis' previous accomplishments appear quaintbut outdated to most young record buyers. Searching for a vehicle to revitalise his career, Elvis and the Colonel decided on a 60-minute television special. The show, quickly dubbed The Comeback Special, accomplished its goal in spades,reestablishing Presley's artistic validity and preparing the public for a string of great singles that arrived early the following year. NBC-TV SPECIAL opens and closes huge, kicking off with Elvis sneering "If you're looking for trouble, you've come to the right place" and ending with one of his most impassioned performances, "If I Can Dream". In between, Presley reunites with original band members Scotty Moore andD.J. Fontana on eight numbers, among them a blistering version of "One Night", and blazes through several production numbers and medleys of his hits. NBC-TV SPECIAL documents a defining moment in Presley's career, and is a must for any fanof the King.
- published: 07 Jan 2011
- views: 10212
- author: soul rebel
WTVJ NBC Miami First Day at Miramar Studios
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:37
- Updated: 06 Feb 2012
Courtesy: Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archive Tony Segreto Jackie Nespral Jennifer Valoppi Michael Wiliams Roland Steadham
http://wn.com/WTVJ_NBC_Miami_First_Day_at_Miramar_Studios
Courtesy: Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archive Tony Segreto Jackie Nespral Jennifer Valoppi Michael Wiliams Roland Steadham
- published: 06 Sep 2009
- views: 1648
- author: NewmanNewsman
photo: AP / Aijaz Rahi
22 Dec 2012
Tweet. 0 Email. Report. Photo 1 of 18. In 2009, ELLE Magazine named Mrs Assad the most stylish woman in world politics. She is an icon of fashion in her country. Credit. Aimee Kligman. In 2009, ELLE Magazine named Mrs Assad the most stylish woman in world politics. She is an icon of fashion in her country.In 2009, ELLE Magazine named Mrs Assad the most stylish woman in world politics ... Syrians detained by the Assad regime. 13 Photos ... 10 Photos ... ....(size: 6.3Kb)
photo: AP / Virginie Nguyen Huang
23 Dec 2012
Tweet. Moscow, Dec 23 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Chemical weapons in Syria are under the control of the government, which has consolidated them in one or two locations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "As of right now, the (Syrian) government is doing all it can to safeguard those weapons," he said. "We are following all leads concerning chemical weapons," Lavrov said ... "My answer is very simple. Why use us as a postman ... pm/ ... ) .. ). ... . ....(size: 3.2Kb)
photo: AP
23 Dec 2012
North Korea's launching of a rocket into space last week amounted to the test of a ballistic missile capable of carrying a half-ton payload over 10,000km, the South Korean defence ministry says. "Based on our analysis and simulation, the missile is capable of flying more than 10,000km with a warhead of 500-600kg," a defence ministry official told reporters on Sunday ... 415 Source.. Agencies. Share. Send Feedback. Featured on Al Jazeera. Jaws....(size: 18.8Kb)
photo: AP / Altaf Qadri
23 Dec 2012
A commission will be set up to probe the gang-rape and torture of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi and measures to ensure such crimes do not recur while laws will be amended to enhance punishment for rape, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said . He also appealed the thousands of protesters on the capital’s streets, demanding justice for the victim, to withdraw ... “The government is serious on the issue. ... . . ....(size: 2.4Kb)
photo: AP / Eranga Jayawardena
22 Dec 2012
Salman Khan's Dabangg 2 has broken the record for the biggest non-holiday opener ... "Biggest opener [holiday] #EkThaTiger 32.92 cr ... Biggest opener [non-holiday] #RowdyRathore 15.1 cr ... ....(size: 0.9Kb)
noodls
24 Dec 2012
NBC Universal Inc) ... Dan Patrickco-hosted the program from Studio 8G at NBC's 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios and was joined by Football Night in America analysts Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison, and NFL insiders Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com ... ET, NBC Sports Network will air the first program, Costas Uncut ... -NBC SPORTS GROUP- distributed by. This noodl was issued by NBC Universal Inc....(size: 13.0Kb)
Detroit Free Press
24 Dec 2012
The rare public statement by Morell was posted just two days after a bipartisan trio of senior senators -- Diane Feinstein, John McCain and Michigan's Carl Levin -- sent their own letter to Sony Pictures, the studio distributing "Zero Dark Thirty," demanding that there's a disclaimer attached to the film ... NBC's "New Year's Eve with Carson Daly," which will air live 10-11 p.m....(size: 4.9Kb)
Khaleej Times
24 Dec 2012
Tom Cruise’s action thriller “Jack Reacher” debuted in second-place with a modest $15.6 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday ... So Paramount and other studios are counting on strong business for films that started slowly this weekend ... The movie will be profitable for Paramount,” said Don Harris, the studio’s head of distribution....(size: 7.8Kb)
The Examiner
24 Dec 2012
Cycling Studio ... Cycling Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Core Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Cycling Studio ... Cycling Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Yoga/Pilates Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Cycling Studio ... Yoga/Pilates Studio ... Core Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Yoga Pilates Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Cycling Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Yoga/Pilates Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Cycling Studio ... Yoga Pilates Studio ... Zone A/B Studio ... Zone A/B Studio....(size: 3.7Kb)
noodls
24 Dec 2012
COWBOYS-REDSKINS TO BE NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL GAME DEC ... The Week 17 Dallas Cowboys at Washington Redskins game on Sunday, December 30 will be played at 8.20 PM ET on NBC, the Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots game will move to 4.25 PM ET on CBS and the Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings game will move to 4.25 PM ET on FOX, the NFL announced today ... NBC....(size: 6.9Kb)
The Dallas Morning News
24 Dec 2012
The people at NBC are beaming. The folks at Fox are steaming. The Cowboys’ visit to Washington next Sunday will be in prime time on NBC. Kickoff was moved from noon to 7.20 p.m ... Recall that last season, the NFL handed NBC the Cowboys-Giants in Week 17 ... The Cowboys win, and they are in. Lose, and it’s go home ... ....(size: 1.6Kb)
Collider
24 Dec 2012
So today we’ll break down the 2013 releases for Disney, including Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney/Pixar and Marvel Studios ... Iron Man 3 (Marvel Studios) ... Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds ... Iron Man 3 is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures and DMG Entertainment ... The Dark World (Marvel Studios)....(size: 8.6Kb)
Chicago Tribune
24 Dec 2012
In third place, adult comedy "This is 40" pulled in $12 million, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters on Sunday ... Before the weekend, the studio had predicted sales of $12 million to $15 million ... The studio billed the $35 million production from "Bridesmaids" producer Judd Apatow as a "sort-of sequel" to 2007 comedy "Knocked Up." ... studio....(size: 5.1Kb)
Denver Post
24 Dec 2012
The Nuggets will play the Clippers in Los Angeles in the final game of the night ... The set features numerous electronic and architectural gimmicks designed to make studio programming more appealing to viewers ... Meanwhile, the NBC Sports Channel will devote 10 hours of programming about Notre Dame on New Year's Day, reviewing the team's season, including taped replays of the victories over Michigan, Stanford, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest ... ....(size: 5.1Kb)
Yahoo Daily News
24 Dec 2012
(PRWEB) December 23, 2012 iFunia Studio, a professional developer of Mac multimedia software, today has just launched special promotions with discounted Mac bundles for DVD backup, video conversion, YouTube video downloading, music/movie streaming and more for 2012 Christmas movie season ... “We’re especially thrilled with the line-up of apps we’ve put together for these bundles,” said Derek Lee, Product Manager of iFunia Studio....(size: 3.9Kb)
MSNBC
24 Dec 2012
BALTIMORE - Joe Flacco threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns, and the Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants 33-14 Sunday to capture the AFC North title ... ALSO ON THIS STORY. Giants-Ravens statistics ... New York has lost five of seven and was coming off a 34-0 defeat at Atlanta ... All rights reserved ... Football from NBC Sports ... NBC Sports© 2012 NBC Universal ... NBC Sports Feedback ... NBC TV ListingsDayTimeEventLocationTalentSaturday, Dec....(size: 6.0Kb)
The Examiner
24 Dec 2012
Tweet. 0 Email. Report. Photo 1 of 3. Kari Ann Peniche visits the Howard Stern Show studios in 2004. (www.howardstern.com). Kari Ann Peniche visits the Howard Stern Show studios in 2004. (www.howardstern.com)Kari Ann Peniche visits the Howard Stern Show studios in 2004. (www.howardstern.com)Kari Ann Peniche visits the Howard Stern Show studios in 2004. (www.howardstern.com)More >You might also like ... 20 Photos ... ....(size: 4.1Kb)
MSNBC
24 Dec 2012
And Sunday night W.E.R.E radio studios was the site of a spirited debate on the issue of gun control ... Norman in studio ... As the show was wrapping up, the "O" Men's Motorcycle Club gathered outside of W.E.R.E' studio to say a prayer and honor the shooting victims of Connecticut ......(size: 2.0Kb)
NBC Studios was also a previous name for NBC's production division, which is now Universal Television, formerly Universal Media Studios and NBC Universal Television Studio. For the similarly named studios in Burbank, California, see NBC Studios (Burbank). For the studios in Chicago, Illinois, see NBC Tower.
The NBC Studios in New York, New York is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (on 49th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues) in Manhattan, the historic GE Building houses the headquarters of the NBC television network, its parent General Electric, and NBC's flagship station WNBC (Channel 4), as well as cable news channel MSNBC.
When NBC Universal relocated, 24-hour cable news television network MSNBC joined the network in New York on that day as well. The new studios/headquarters for NBC News and MSNBC are located in one area.
The first NBC Radio City Studios began operating in the early 1930s, and tours of the studios began in 1933. NBC offers guided tours of their New York studios at a cost to tourists.[1]
Because of the preponderance of radio studios, that section of the Rockefeller Center complex became known as Radio City (and gave its name to Radio City Music Hall, a gigantic and renowned venue for theatre and films located in Radio City). Even into the present decade, tickets for shows based at 30 Rock bear the legend "Radio City."
Contents |
Shows recorded[link]
Among the shows originating at 30 Rockefeller Plaza:
| Program | Network/Station | Years Taped | Studio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Rock (exterior scenes) | NBC | 2006–present | various |
| Call My Bluff | NBC | 1965 | 6-A |
| The Caroline Rhea Show | Syndication | 2002–2003 | 8-G |
| Concentration | NBC | 1958–1973 | 8-G |
| Countdown with Keith Olbermann | MSNBC | 2007–2011 | 1-A |
| Dateline NBC | NBC | 1992–present | 3-A,1-A |
| The Doctors | NBC | 1963–1982 | 3-B/3-A |
| Dough Re Mi | NBC | 1958–1960 | 6-A |
| Dr. Nancy | MSNBC | 2009–2009 | 3-A |
| The Dr. Oz Show | Syndication | 2009–present | 6-A |
| Early Today | NBC | 1999–present | 3-K |
| The Ed Show | MSNBC | 2009–present | 3-K |
| Football Night in America | NBC | 2006–present | 8-G |
| He Said, She Said | Syndication | 1968 | |
| House Party with Steve Doocy | Syndication | 1990 | 6-A |
| How to Survive a Marriage | NBC | 1974–1975 | 8-G |
| Howdy Doody | NBC | 1947–1960 | 3-K |
| Huntley-Brinkley Report | NBC | 1956–1970 | 6-B,5-HN,8-G |
| Jackpot | NBC | 1974–1975 | 8-G |
| Jeopardy! | NBC | 1964–1975 | 8-G |
| Last Call with Carson Daly | NBC | 2002–2005 | 8-G |
| The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell | MSNBC | 2011–present | 3-K |
| Late Night with Conan O'Brien | NBC | 1993–2009 | 6-A |
| Late Night with David Letterman | NBC | 1982–1993 | 6-A |
| Late Night with Jimmy Fallon | NBC | 2009–present | 6-B |
| Live at Five | WNBC | 1980–2007 | 6-B |
| The Match Game | NBC | 1962–1969 | 8-H |
| Memory Game | NBC | 1971 | 6-A |
| Missing Links | NBC | 1963–1964 | 6-A |
| Morning Joe | MSNBC | 2007–present | 3-A |
| Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan | MSNBC | 2009 | 3-A |
| MSNBC Live | MSNBC | 2007–present | 3-A |
| NBC News at Sunrise | NBC | 1983–1999 | 3-K |
| NBC Nightly News | NBC | 1970–present | 8-G, 3-K, 3-C, 3-B |
| NBC Sports studio shows | NBC | 1947–present | |
| News 4 New York | WNBC | 1941–present | 3-B, 6-B, 7-E, 3-C |
| PDQ (New York shows) | Syndication | 1965–1969 | 8-G |
| Personality | NBC | 1967–1969 | 6-A |
| The Phil Donahue Show | Syndication | 1985–1996 | 8-G |
| Play Your Hunch | NBC | 1959–1963 | 6-B |
| Reach for the Stars | NBC | 1967 | 6-A |
| The Rachel Maddow Show | MSNBC | 2008–present | 3-A |
| Rock Center with Brian Williams | NBC | 2011–present | 3-B |
| The Rosie O'Donnell Show | Syndication | 1996–2002 | 8-G |
| Sale of the Century | NBC, Syndication | 1969–1974 | 8-H |
| Saturday Night Live | NBC | 1975–present | 8-H, Brooklyn-2 |
| Say When!! | NBC | 1961–1965 | 6-A |
| Shoot For the Stars | NBC | 1977 | 6-A |
| Somerset | NBC | 1970–1976 | 6-A |
| Split Personality | NBC | 1959–1960 | 6-A |
| Tic-Tac-Dough | NBC | 1956–1959 | 8-G |
| Today | NBC | 1952–present | 3-K, 8-G, 6-A, 1-A |
| To Tell the Truth | Syndication | 1971–1978; 1980–1981 | 8-G, 8-H, 6-A |
| The Tonight Show (Jack Paar and Johnny Carson) |
NBC | 1957–1972 | 6-B |
| Treasure Hunt | NBC | 1957–1959 | 8-G |
| Twenty One | NBC | 1956–1958 | 8-G |
| Up with Chris Hayes | MSNBC | 2011–present | 3-A |
| Verdict with Dan Abrams | MSNBC | 2007–2008 | 3-A |
| What's My Line? | Syndication | 1971–1975 | 6-A |
| The Who, What, or Where Game | NBC | 1969–1974 | 6-A, 8-H |
| Way Too Early with Willie Geist | MSNBC | 2009–Present | 3A |
| Word for Word | NBC | 1963–1964 | 6-A |
| You're Putting Me On | NBC | 1969 | 6-A |
NBC Studio productions[link]
| Studio | Production | Notes | Floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | The Today Show, Dateline NBC |
The network's daily morning program is produced at a ground-level windowed studio across 49th Street from the GE Building since the mid-1990s, at 10 Rockefeller Plaza; it was previously broadcast from inside the skyscraper. Studio 1A is a multilevel studio currently used for multiple shows including the studio segments of Dateline NBC. Countdown was used 2nd floor of 1A. The studio was also used by WNBC's Live at Five and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. WNBC, which used temporarily in October 1996 due to a fire in 6B,[2] and NBC Nightly News for a short period during decontamination of the broadcast's facilities and offices in October 2001 due to the 2001 anthrax attacks. | Ground floor |
| 2K | MSNBC Secondary HD Control Room | Debuted October 22, 2007, and is the home to MSNBC programs. An MSNBC/NBC News Newsroom connects control room 2K and studio floor 3A. | 2nd floor |
| 3A | MSNBC main studios and headquarters | Debuted October 22, 2007, and is the home to many MSNBC programs including the main news desk where MSNBC Live and other MSNBC programs are shot. An MSNBC/NBC News Newsroom connects Studio 3A and Studio 3C. Former home of NBC Nightly News. | 3rd floor |
| 3B | Rock Center with Brian Williams[3] NBC Nightly News |
Former home of the Huntley-Brinkley Report,[4] The Doctors,[5] the Today Show, Dateline NBC, NBC Nightly News, and coverage of the 2008 presidential election | 3rd floor |
| 3C | WNBC | Formerly home of NBC Nightly News from 1999-October 23, 2011, however the studio's size was decreased significantly during a 2007 renovation. Became the home for News 4 New York on April 21, 2012.[6] | 3rd floor |
| 3H Decommissioned |
Experimental Television[7] | The first studio in the building to be converted for Television production, being converted in 1935 and served as NBC Television's lone studio[8] until the conversion of Studio 8G in 1948. 3H was adjacent to Studio 3C. This studio has been decommissioned since the early 1960s and served as scenery storage[9] for a number of decades. A portion or all of this area is being used to expand Studio 3C for its future use as WNBC's studio. | 3rd floor |
| 3K | Early Today/The Ed Show/The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell | Former home of NBC Nightly News, NBC Sports, The Today Show, and The Howdy Doody Show,[10] green screen room for coverage of 2008 presidential election result program for NBC News/MSNBC.[11] | 3rd floor |
| 5HN Decommissioned |
NBC News Emergency "Flash" Studio | A small studio used for breaking news bulletins during the Huntley-Brinkley Era. Most notably, network coverage regarding the John F. Kennedy assassination originated from this studio. | 5th floor |
| 6A | The Dr. Oz Show | A former home of Twenty One,[12] The Tomorrow Show,[13] Late Night with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and NBC Radio Network programs from 1933 to the 1950s. 6A was the first 30 Rock studio to be converted for high definition television. | 6th floor |
| 6B | Late Night with Jimmy Fallon | Howdy Doody (1947–1960). Also the original home of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar and NBC Nightly News. Former home for the news studio for flagship station WNBC. | 6th floor |
| 6C | NBC Digital Studios | The current home of such web based shows as "The Untitled News Comedy Show", "Starstruck", and "A Big Life with Sissy Biggers". Was previously home to a small set for WNBC as well as WNBC's Master control.[14] | 6th floor |
| 6E | Global Media Insert Studios [2] | Former home of Early Today and MSNBC secondly studio (Ed Show home and Breaking News coverage), called as "Newsnooks". This space was previously a portion of WNBC's Master Control. | 6th floor |
| 7E | New York Nonstop | Home of WNBC's newscasts from 2008 to 2012. This studio is the newest studio in the building, being constructed inside an old conference room. The studio still has the Channel 4 newsroom, but is currently used for New York Nonstop. | 7th floor |
| 8A | (Unknown) | A "Studio 8A" is marked on an official drawing[15] of the 8th floor of the building. Judging by the surrounding area, this studio was likely used for audio recording. It's possible this studio was converted to television studio 8B. | 8th floor |
| 8B | Decision 2010 Coverage | This studio was used for coverage of the 2010 Midterm Elections.[16] | 8th floor |
| 8G | Football Night in America/NBC SportsDesk | A former radio studio converted for Television use in 1948 and went on air April 22 of that year.[7] Former home of The Phil Donahue Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Caroline Rhea Show, and The Jane Pauley Show, as well as the original Jeopardy! from 1964 to 1975. NBC Nightly News used this studio during the 2007 renovations of NBC News headquarters, except on some Sunday evenings where, due to football programming, the news was broadcast from Studio 1A. This studio has also been used for Decision 2008 and Decision 2010 election night coverage. | 8th floor |
| 8H | Saturday Night Live | Former home of Last Call with Carson Daly Former home of Later with Bob Costas Former home of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini Used for offsite coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics Used for the Live Show episode of 30 Rock |
8th floor |
| Exterior | 30 Rock | Exteriors of the building and scenes which are filmed on location are filmed outside GE Building as well as various other locations at Rockefeller Plaza. Interiors are filmed at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens. | Ground |
The building is also the headquarters for Bravo, Chiller, MSNBC, Oxygen, Syfy, Cloo, Universal HD and USA Network. CNBC and CNBC World are headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Other locations[link]
Some other New York originated programs are/were produced elsewhere in New York City, including:
- Colonial Theater, 1887 Broadway at 62nd Street (original version of The Price is Right hosted by Bill Cullen, 1953–1963; Colgate Comedy Hour) Demolished 1977.
- Hudson Theatre, 141 W. 44th Street (Tonight hosted by Steve Allen, 1954–1957).
- Ziegfeld Theatre, 141 W. 54th Street at Sixth Avenue (The Perry Como Show, Concentration primetime 1961)). Demolished 1966.
- 67th Street Studios, 101 W. 67th Street (the Home show with Arlene Francis 1954-1957, Concentration primetime 1958), demolished 1995. The site is now 50-story Millennium Tower apartment building.
- Century Theater, 232 Seventh Avenue at 59th Street (Caesar's Hour with Sid Caesar, 1954–1957).
- Brooklyn Studios* (now JC Studios), 1268 E. 14th Street in Midwood, Brooklyn (many 1950s color "Spectaculars" such as The Esther Williams Aqua Special,Peter Pan; it is also where The Perry Como Show (1960s), Mitch Miller Show (1960s), The Sammy Davis Jr. Show (1960s), Hullabaloo (1965–1966), Kraft Music Hall, The Cosby Show, and Another World were produced. It was the home of CBS's soap opera As the World Turns until the series ceased production in 2010. (The silent film-era Vitagraph Studios was located directly across E. 14th Street. That property is now occupied by the Shulamith School for Girls.)
- International Theater, 5 Columbus Circle (Admiral Broadway Review 1949). Demolished 1954.
- Ambassador Theater, 215 W. 49th Street. Now a theatre presenting Broadway shows.
- Center Theater, 1236 Sixth Avenue at 49th Street (Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle; Your Show of Shows, 1950–1954). Demolished 1954.
- Uptown Studios (now Metropolis Studios), 105 E. 106th Street at Park Avenue.
- NBC Universal Network Organization Center, in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (home of CNBC and CNBC World)
- New Amsterdam Roof Theater, 214 W. 42nd Street.
- WNBC-TV's LX: NY is produced in nearby 75 Rockefeller Plaza.
- *Equipped for color production.
Most of these facilities are no longer used by NBC.
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ NBC Tour: NBC Studio Tour - Official NBC Universal Store
- ^ http://www.wnbc.com/station/1169359/detail.html
- ^ 'Rock Center with Brian Williams' to premiere this season on NBC
- ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44626266#44626266
- ^ Barmash, Jerry (October 19, 2011). "WNBC/Channel 4 Making the Move to Nightly News Studio". FishbowlNY. http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/wnbcchannel-4-making-the-move-to-nightly-news-studio_b44984. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
- ^ "NBC New York debuts new studio, graphics, music". NewscastStudio. April 22, 2012. http://www.newscaststudio.com/blog/2012/04/22/nbc-new-york-debuts-new-studio-graphics-music/. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
- ^ a b http://www.eyesofageneration.com/Archives_NBC_ND8G.php
- ^ http://www.eyesofageneration.com/Archives_NBC_ND8G.php "It is approximately three times as large as 3H, the studio out of which NBC Television has been operating since 1935."
- ^ http://nbcny.filmmakersdestination.com/sites/default/files/3Kdiagram.gif
- ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisdegan/557867573/
- ^ NewscastStudio Blog | Blog Archive | Cracking the case: MSNBC green screen | A blog about television news set design, news music, news graphics package design and television ...
- ^ Interview with Herb Stempel ([1]).
- ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisdegan/515349913/
- ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisdegan/557975983/in/set-72157600550234281
- ^ http://nbcny.filmmakersdestination.com/sites/default/files/8Gdiagram.gif
- ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nbc_news/5141541063/in/set-72157626081757325
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Coordinates: 40°45′32″N 73°58′44″W / 40.759°N 73.979°W / 40.759; -73.979
http://wn.com/NBC_Studios_(New_York)
Related pages:
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
For other uses, see Elvis Presley (disambiguation).
"Elvis" redirects here. For other people with this name, see Elvis (given name).
| Elvis Presley | |
|---|---|
 Publicity photo for Jailhouse Rock (1957) |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Elvis Aaron Presley |
| Born | (1935-01-08)January 8, 1935 Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | August 16, 1977(1977-08-16) (aged 42) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | Rock and roll, pop, rockabilly, country, blues, gospel, R&B |
| Occupations | Musician, actor |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano |
| Years active | 1953–77 |
| Labels | Sun, RCA Victor |
| Associated acts | The Blue Moon Boys, The Jordanaires, The Imperials |
| Website | elvis.com |
Elvis Aaron Presleya (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.
Conscripted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He staged few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, after seven years away from the stage, he returned to live performance in a celebrated comeback television special that led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973 Presley staged the first concert broadcast globally via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii, seen by approximately 1.5 billion viewers. Prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42.
Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. He had a versatile voice and unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including country, pop ballads, gospel, and blues. He is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music.[1][2][3][4] Nominated for 14 competitive Grammys, he won three, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36. He has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.
Life and career[link]
Early years (1935–53)[link]
Childhood in Tupelo[link]
Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to 18-year-old Vernon Elvis and 22-year-old Gladys Love Presley.[5] In the two-room shotgun house built by his father in readiness for the birth, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. As an only child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an unusually tight bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church where he found his initial musical inspiration.[6]
Presley's ancestry was primarily a Western European mix: On his mother's side, he was Scots-Irish, with some French Norman; one of Gladys's great-great-grandmothers was Cherokee.[7]b His father's forebears were of Scottish[8] or German[9] origin. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family. Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evidencing little ambition.[10][11] The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by the landowner. He was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives.[12]
In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his instructors regarded him as "average".[13] He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, saw his first public performance: dressed as a cowboy, the ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth.[14] A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle.[15][16] Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."[17]
Entering a new school, Milam, for sixth grade in September 1946, Presley was regarded as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar in on a daily basis. He played and sang during lunchtime, and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. The family was by then living in a largely African American neighborhood.[18] A devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO, Presley was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, a classmate of Presley's, who often took him in to the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques.[19] When his protégé was 12 years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time, but succeeded in performing the following week.[20]
Teenage life in Memphis[link]
In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Courts.[21] Enrolled at Humes High School, Presley received only a C in music in eighth grade. When his music teacher told him he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar the next day and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me", in an effort to prove otherwise. A classmate later recalled that the teacher "agreed that Elvis was right when he said that she didn't appreciate his kind of singing."[22] He was generally too shy to perform openly, and was occasionally bullied by classmates who viewed him as a "mama's boy".[23] In 1950, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of Jesse Lee Denson, a neighbor two-and-a-half years his senior. They and three other boys—including two future rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose musical collective that played frequently around the Courts.[24] That September, he began ushering at Loew's State Theater.[25] Other jobs followed during his school years: Precision Tool, Loew's again, and MARL Metal Products.[26]
During his junior year, Presley began to stand out more among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew out his sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil and Vaseline. On his own time, he would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's thriving blues scene, and gaze longingly at the wild, flashy clothes in the windows of Lansky Brothers. By his senior year, he was wearing them.[27] Overcoming his reticence about performing outside the Courts, he competed in Humes's Annual "Minstrel" show in April 1953. Singing and playing guitar, he opened with "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer. Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation: "I wasn't popular in school ... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me in this talent show ... when I came onstage I heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause nobody knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became after that."[28]
Presley, who never received formal music training or learned to read music, studied and played by ear. He frequented record stores with jukeboxes and listening booths. He knew all of Hank Snow's songs[29] and he loved records by other country singers such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis, and Bob Wills.[30] The Southern Gospel singer Jake Hess, one of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ballad-singing style.[31][32] He was a regular audience member at the monthly All-Night Singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African American spiritual music.[33] He adored the music of black gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.[30] Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues—of necessity, in the segregated South, only on nights designated for exclusively white audiences.[34] He certainly listened to the regional radio stations that played "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, backbeat-heavy sound of rhythm and blues.[35] Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African American musicians such as Arthur Crudup and Rufus Thomas.[36][37] B.B. King recalled that he knew Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street.[38] By the time he graduated high school in June 1953, Presley had already singled out music as his future.[39][40]
First recordings (1953–55)[link]
Sam Phillips and Sun Records[link]
See also: Elvis Presley's Sun recordings
In August 1953, Presley walked into the offices of Sun Records. He aimed to pay for a few minutes of studio time to record a two-sided acetate disc: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". He would later claim he intended the record as a gift for his mother, or was merely interested in what he "sounded like", though there was a much cheaper, amateur record-making service at a nearby general store. Biographer Peter Guralnick argues that he chose Sun in the hope of being discovered. Asked by receptionist Marion Keisker what kind of singer he was, Presley responded, "I sing all kinds." When she pressed him on whom he sounded like, he repeatedly answered, "I don't sound like nobody." After he recorded, Sun boss Sam Phillips asked Keisker to note down the young man's name, which she did along with her own commentary: "Good ballad singer. Hold."[41] Presley cut a second acetate in January 1954—"I'll Never Stand In Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"—but again nothing came of it.[42]
Not long after, he failed an audition for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows. He explained to his father, "They told me I couldn't sing."[43] Songfellow Jim Hamill later claimed that he was turned down because he did not demonstrate an ear for harmony at the time.[44] In April, Presley began working for the Crown Electric company as a truck driver.[45] His friend Ronnie Smith, after playing a few local gigs with him, suggested he contact Eddie Bond, leader of Smith's professional band, which had an opening for a vocalist. Bond rejected him after a tryout, advising Presley to stick to truck driving "because you're never going to make it as a singer."[46]
Phillips, meanwhile, was always on the lookout for someone who could bring the sound of the black musicians on whom Sun focused to a broader audience. As Keisker reported, "Over and over I remember Sam saying, 'If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.'"[47] In June, he acquired a demo recording of a ballad, "Without You", that he thought might suit the teenaged singer. Presley came by the studio, but was unable to do it justice. Despite this, Phillips asked Presley to sing as many numbers as he knew. He was sufficiently affected by what he heard to invite two local musicians, guitarist Winfield "Scotty" Moore and upright bass player Bill Black, to work something up with Presley for a recording session.[48]
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Presley transformed not only the sound but the emotion of the song, turning what had been written as a "lament for a lost love into a satisfied declaration of independence."[49]
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The session, held the evening of July 5, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to give up and go home, Presley took his guitar and launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right". Moore recalled, "All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them. Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open ... he stuck his head out and said, 'What are you doing?' And we said, 'We don't know.' 'Well, back up,' he said, 'try to find a place to start, and do it again.'" Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been looking for.[50] Three days later, popular Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips played "That's All Right" on his Red, Hot, and Blue show.[51] Listeners began phoning in, eager to find out who the singer was. The interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the last two hours of his show. Interviewing Presley on-air, Phillips asked him what high school he attended in order to clarify his color for the many callers who had assumed he was black.[52] During the next few days the trio recorded a bluegrass number, Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", again in a distinctive style and employing a jury-rigged echo effect that Sam Phillips dubbed "slapback". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.[53]
Early live performances and signing to RCA[link]
The trio played publicly for the first time on July 17 at the Bon Air club—Presley still sporting his child-size guitar.[54] At the end of the month, they appeared at the Overton Park Shell, with Slim Whitman headlining. A combination of his strong response to rhythm and nervousness at playing before a large crowd led Presley to shake his legs as he performed: his wide-cut pants emphasized his movements, causing young women in the audience to start screaming.[55] Moore recalled, "During the instrumental parts he would back off from the mike and be playing and shaking, and the crowd would just go wild".[56] Black, a natural showman, whooped and rode his bass, hitting double licks that Presley would later remember as "really a wild sound, like a jungle drum or something".[56] Soon after, Moore and Black quit their old band to play with Presley regularly, and DJ and promoter Bob Neal became the trio's manager. From August through October, they played frequently at the Eagle's Nest club and returned to Sun Studio for more recording sessions,[57] and Presley quickly grew more confident on stage. According to Moore, "His movement was a natural thing, but he was also very conscious of what got a reaction. He'd do something one time and then he would expand on it real quick."[58] Presley made what would be his only appearance on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry on October 2; after a polite audience response, Opry manager Jim Denny told Phillips that his singer was "not bad" but did not suit the program.[59] Two weeks later, Presley was booked on Louisiana Hayride, the Opry's chief, and more adventurous, rival. The Shreveport-based show was broadcast to 198 radio stations in 28 states. Presley had another attack of nerves during the first set, which drew a muted reaction. A more composed and energetic second set inspired an enthusiastic response.[60] House drummer D.J. Fontana brought a new element, complementing Presley's movements with accented beats that he had mastered playing in strip clubs.[61] Soon after the show, the Hayride engaged Presley for a year's worth of Saturday-night appearances. Trading in his old guitar for $8 (and seeing it promptly dispatched to the garbage), he purchased a Martin instrument for $175, and his trio began playing in new locales including Houston, Texas, and Texarkana, Arkansas.[62]
By early 1955, Presley's regular Hayride appearances, constant touring, and well-received record releases had made him a substantial regional star, from Tennessee to West Texas. In January, Neal signed a formal management contract with Presley and brought the singer to the attention of Colonel Tom Parker, whom he considered the best promoter in the music business. Parker—Dutch-born, though he claimed to be from West Virginia—had acquired an honorary colonel's commission from country singer turned Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis. Having successfully managed top country star Eddy Arnold, he was now working with the new number one country singer, Hank Snow. Parker booked Presley on Snow's February tour.[63][64] When the tour reached Odessa, Texas, a 19-year-old Roy Orbison saw Presley for the first time: "His energy was incredible, his instinct was just amazing. ... I just didn't know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it."[29] Presley made his television debut on March 3 on the KSLA-TV broadcast of Louisiana Hayride. Soon after, he failed an audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on the CBS television network. By August, Sun had released ten sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill"; on the latest recordings, the trio were joined by a drummer. Some of the songs, like "That's All Right", were in what one Memphis journalist described as the "R&B idiom of negro field jazz"; others, like "Blue Moon of Kentucky", were "more in the country field", "but there was a curious blending of the two different musics in both".[65] This blend of styles made it difficult for Presley's music to find radio airplay. According to Neal, many country music disc jockeys would not play it because he sounded too much like a black artist and none of the rhythm and blues stations would touch him because "he sounded too much like a hillbilly."[66] The blend came to be known as rockabilly. At the time, Presley was variously billed as "The King of Western Bop", "The Hillbilly Cat", and "The Memphis Flash".[67]
Presley renewed Neal's management contract in August 1955, simultaneously appointing Parker as his special adviser.[68] The group maintained an extensive touring schedule throughout the second half of the year.[69] Neal recalled, "It was almost frightening, the reaction that came to Elvis from the teenaged boys. So many of them, through some sort of jealousy, would practically hate him. There were occasions in some towns in Texas when we'd have to be sure to have a police guard because somebody'd always try to take a crack at him. They'd get a gang and try to waylay him or something."[70] The trio became a quartet when Hayride drummer Fontana joined as a full member. In mid-October, they played a few shows in support of Bill Haley, whose "Rock Around the Clock" had been a number one hit the previous year. Haley observed that Presley had a natural feel for rhythm, and advised him to sing fewer ballads.[71]
At the Country Disc Jockey Convention in early November, Presley was voted the year's most promising male artist.[72] Several record companies had by now shown interest in signing him. After three major labels made offers of up to $25,000, Parker and Phillips struck a deal with RCA Victor on November 21 to acquire Presley's Sun contract for an unprecedented $40,000.[73]c Presley, at 20, was still a minor, so his father signed the contract.[74] Parker arranged with the owners of Hill and Range Publishing, Jean and Julian Aberbach, to create two entities, Elvis Presley Music and Gladys Music, to handle all of the new material recorded by Presley. Songwriters were obliged to forego one third of their customary royalties in exchange for having him perform their compositions.[75]d By December, RCA had begun to heavily promote its new singer, and before month's end had reissued many of his Sun recordings.[76]
Commercial breakout and controversy (1956–58)[link]
First national TV appearances and debut album[link]
File:Elvispresleydebutalbum.jpeg
The "iconic cover" of Presley's 1956 debut album[77] featuring a photo taken July 31, 1955, in Tampa, Florida[78]
On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings for RCA in Nashville.[79] Extending the singer's by now customary backup of Moore, Black, and Fontana, RCA enlisted pianist Floyd Cramer, guitarist Chet Atkins, and three background singers, including Gordon Stoker of the popular Jordanaires quartet, to fill out the sound.[80] The session produced the moody, unusual "Heartbreak Hotel", released as a single on January 27.[79] Parker finally brought Presley to national television, booking him on CBS's Stage Show for six appearances over two months. The program, produced in New York, was hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. After his first appearance, on January 28, Presley stayed in town to record at RCA's New York studio. The sessions yielded eight songs, including a cover of Carl Perkins' rockabilly anthem "Blue Suede Shoes". In February, Presley's "I Forgot to Remember to Forget", a Sun recording initially released the previous August, reached the top of the Billboard country chart.[81] Neal's contract was terminated and, on March 2, Parker became Presley's manager.[82]
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Presley exhorts guitarist Scotty Moore during his break. "Let's go, cat!" was in the Perkins original. "Aw, walk the dog!" is all Elvis.
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RCA Victor released Presley's self-titled debut album on March 23. Joined by five previously unreleased Sun recordings, its seven recently recorded tracks were of a broad variety. There were two country songs and a bouncy pop tune. The others would centrally define the evolving sound of rock and roll: "Blue Suede Shoes"—"an improvement over Perkins' in almost every way", according to critic Robert Hilburn—and three R&B numbers that had been part of Presley's stage repertoire for some time, covers of Little Richard, Ray Charles, and The Drifters. As described by Hilburn, these "were the most revealing of all. Unlike many white artists ... who watered down the gritty edges of the original R&B versions of songs in the '50s, Presley reshaped them. He not only injected the tunes with his own vocal character but also made guitar, not piano, the lead instrument in all three cases."[83] It became the first rock and roll album to top the Billboard chart, a position it held for 10 weeks.[79] While Presley was not an innovative instrumentalist like Moore or contemporary African American rockers Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, cultural historian Gilbert B. Rodman argues that the album's cover image, "of Elvis having the time of his life on stage with a guitar in his hands played a crucial role in positioning the guitar...as the instrument that best captured the style and spirit of this new music."[84]
[edit] Milton Berle Show and "Hound Dog"
Presley made the first of two appearances on NBC's Milton Berle Show on April 3. His performance, on the deck of the USS Hancock in San Diego, prompted cheers and screams from an audience of sailors and their dates.[85] A few days later, a flight taking Presley and his band to Nashville for a recording session left all three badly shaken when an engine died and the plane almost went down over Arkansas.[86] Twelve weeks after its original release, "Heartbreak Hotel" became Presley's first number one pop hit. In late April, Presley began a two-week residency at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The shows were poorly received by the conservative, middle-aged hotel guests—"like a jug of corn liquor at a champagne party", wrote a critic for Newsweek.[87] Amid his Vegas tenure, Presley, who had serious acting ambitions, signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures.[88] He began a tour of the Midwest in mid-May, taking in 15 cities in as many days.[89] He had attended several shows by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys in Vegas, and was struck by their cover of "Hound Dog", a hit in 1953 for blues singer Big Mama Thornton by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It became the new closing number of his act.[90] After a show in La Crosse, Wisconsin, an urgent message on the letterhead of the local Catholic diocese's newspaper was sent to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. It warned that "Presley is a definite danger to the security of the United States. ... [His] actions and motions were such as to rouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth. ... After the show, more than 1,000 teenagers tried to gang into Presley's room at the auditorium. ... Indications of the harm Presley did just in La Crosse were the two high school girls ... whose abdomen and thigh had Presley's autograph."[91]
The second Milton Berle Show appearance came on June 5 at NBC's Hollywood studio, amid another hectic tour. Berle persuaded the singer to leave his guitar backstage, advising, "Let 'em see you, son."[92] During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an uptempo rendition of "Hound Dog" with a wave of his arm and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with energetic, exaggerated body movements.[92] Presley's gyrations created a storm of controversy.[93] Television critics were outraged: Jack Gould of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability. ... His phrasing, if it can be called that, consists of the stereotyped variations that go with a beginner's aria in a bathtub. ... His one specialty is an accented movement of the body ... primarily identified with the repertoire of the blond bombshells of the burlesque runway."[94] Ben Gross of the New York Daily News opined that popular music "has reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley. ... Elvis, who rotates his pelvis ... gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos".[95] Ed Sullivan, whose own variety show was the nation's most popular, declared him "unfit for family viewing".[96] To Presley's displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to as "Elvis the Pelvis", which he called "one of the most childish expressions I ever heard, comin' from an adult."[97]
[edit] Steve Allen Show and first Sullivan appearance
The Berle shows drew such high ratings that Presley was booked for a July 1 appearance on NBC's Steve Allen Show in New York. Allen, no fan of rock and roll, introduced a "new Elvis" in a white bow tie and black tails. Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a basset hound wearing a top hat and bow tie. As described by television historian Jake Austen, "Allen thought Presley was talentless and absurd... [he] set things up so that Presley would show his contrition".[98] Allen, for his part, later wrote that he found Presley's "strange, gangly, country-boy charisma, his hard-to-define cuteness, and his charming eccentricity intriguing" and simply worked the singer into the customary "comedy fabric" of his program.[99] Presley would refer back to the Allen show as the most ridiculous performance of his career.[100] Later that night, he appeared on Hy Gardner Calling, a popular local TV show. Pressed on whether he had learned anything from the criticism to which he was being subjected, Presley responded, "No, I haven't, I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong. ... I don't see how any type of music would have any bad influence on people when it's only music. ... I mean, how would rock 'n' roll music make anyone rebel against their parents?"[95]
The next day, Presley recorded "Hound Dog", along with "Any Way You Want Me" and "Don't Be Cruel". The Jordanaires sang harmony, as they had on The Steve Allen Show; they would work with Presley through the 1960s. A few days later, the singer made an outdoor concert appearance in Memphis at which he announced, "You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight."[101] In August, a judge in Jacksonville, Florida, ordered Presley to tame his act. Throughout the following performance, he largely kept still, except for wiggling his little finger suggestively in mockery of the order.[102] The single pairing "Don't Be Cruel" with "Hound Dog" ruled the top of the charts for 11 weeks—a mark that would not be surpassed for 36 years.[103] Recording sessions for Presley's second album took place in Hollywood during the first week of September. Leiber and Stoller, the writers of "Hound Dog", contributed "Love Me".[104]
Allen's show with Presley had, for the first time, beaten CBS's Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings. Sullivan, despite his June pronouncement, booked the singer for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000.[105] The first, on September 9, 1956, was seen by approximately 60 million viewers—a record 82.6 percent of the television audience.[106] Actor Charles Laughton hosted the show, filling in while Sullivan recuperated from a car accident.[96] Presley appeared in two segments that night from CBS Television City in Los Angeles. According to Elvis legend, Presley was shot only from the waist up. Watching clips of the Allen and Berle shows with his producer, Sullivan had opined that Presley "got some kind of device hanging down below the crotch of his pants–so when he moves his legs back and forth you can see the outline of his cock. ... I think it's a Coke bottle. ... We just can't have this on a Sunday night. This is a family show!"[107] Sullivan publicly told TV Guide, "As for his gyrations, the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots."[105] In fact, Presley was shown head-to-toe in the first and second shows. Though the camerawork was relatively discreet during his debut, with leg-concealing closeups when he danced, the studio audience reacted in customary style: screaming.[108][109] Presley's performance of his forthcoming single, the ballad "Love Me Tender", prompted a record-shattering million advance orders.[110] More than any other single event, it was this first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that made Presley a national celebrity of barely precedented proportions.[96]
Accompanying Presley's rise to fame, a cultural shift was taking place that he both helped inspire and came to symbolize. Igniting the "biggest pop craze since Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra ... Presley brought rock'n'roll into the mainstream of popular culture", writes historian Marty Jezer. "As Presley set the artistic pace, other artists followed. ... Presley, more than anyone else, gave the young a belief in themselves as a distinct and somehow unified generation—the first in America ever to feel the power of an integrated youth culture."[111]
Crazed crowds and movie debut[link]
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Presley's definition of rock and roll included a sense of humor—here, during his second Sullivan appearance, he introduces one of his signature numbers.
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The audience response at Presley's live shows became increasingly fevered. Moore recalled, "He'd start out, 'You ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog,' and they'd just go to pieces. They'd always react the same way. There'd be a riot every time."[112] At the two concerts he performed in September at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, 50 National Guardsmen were added to the police security to prevent crowd trouble.[113] Elvis, Presley's second album, was released in October and quickly rose to number one. Assessing the musical and cultural impact of Presley's recordings from "That's All Right" through Elvis, rock critic Dave Marsh wrote that "these records, more than any others, contain the seeds of what rock & roll was, has been and most likely what it may foreseeably become."[114]
Presley returned to the Sullivan show at its main studio in New York, hosted this time by its namesake, on October 28. After the performance, crowds in Nashville and St. Louis burned him in effigy.[96] His first motion picture, Love Me Tender, was released on November 21. Though he was not top billed, the film's original title—The Reno Brothers—was changed to capitalize on his latest number one record: "Love Me Tender" had hit the top of the charts earlier that month. To further take advantage of Presley's popularity, four musical numbers were added to what was originally a straight acting role. The movie was panned by the critics but did very well at the box office.[88] Presley would receive top billing on every subsequent film he made.
On December 4, Presley dropped into Sun Records where Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were recording and jammed with them. Though Phillips no longer had the right to release any Presley material, he made sure the session was captured on tape. The results became legendary as the "Million Dollar Quartet" recordings—Johnny Cash was long thought to have played as well, but he was present only briefly at Phillips' instigation for a photo opportunity.[115] The year ended with a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal reporting that Presley merchandise had brought in $22 million on top of his record sales,[116] and Billboard's declaration that he had placed more songs in the top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted.[117] In his first full year on RCA, one of the music industry's largest companies, Presley had accounted for over 50 percent of the label's singles sales.[110]
Leiber and Stoller collaboration and draft notice[link]
Presley made his third and final Ed Sullivan Show appearance on January 6, 1957—on this occasion indeed shot only down to the waist. Some commentators have claimed that Parker orchestrated an appearance of censorship to generate publicity.[109][118] In any event, as critic Greil Marcus describes, Presley "did not tie himself down. Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows, he stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, with all stops out."[96] To close, displaying his range and defying Sullivan's wishes, Presley sang a gentle black spiritual, "Peace in the Valley". At the end of the show, Sullivan declared Presley "a real decent, fine boy".[119] Two days later, the Memphis draft board announced that Presley would be classified 1A and would probably be drafted sometime that year.[120]
Each of the three Presley singles released in the first half of 1957 went to number one: "Too Much", "All Shook Up", and "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear". Already an international star, he was attracting fans even where his music was not officially released. Under the headline "Presley Records a Craze in Soviet", The New York Times reported that pressings of his music on discarded X-ray plates were commanding high prices in Leningrad.[121] Between film shoots and recording sessions, the singer also found time to purchase an 18-room mansion eight miles (13 km) south of downtown Memphis for himself and his parents: Graceland.[122] Loving You—the soundtrack to his second film, released in July—was Presley's third straight number one album. The title track was written by Leiber and Stoller, who were then retained to write four of the six songs recorded at the sessions for Jailhouse Rock, Presley's next movie. The songwriting team effectively produced the Jailhouse sessions and developed a close working relationship with Presley, who came to regard them as his "good-luck charm".[123] The title track was yet another number one hit, as was the Jailhouse Rock EP.
Presley undertook three brief tours during the year, continuing to generate a crazed audience response.[124] A Detroit newspaper suggested that "the trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you're liable to get killed."[125] Villanova students pelted him with eggs in Philadelphia,[125] and in Vancouver, the crowd rioted after the end of the show, destroying the stage.[126] Frank Sinatra, who had famously inspired the swooning of teenaged girls in the 1940s, condemned the new musical phenomenon. In a magazine article, he decried rock and roll as "brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious. ... It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phoney and false. It is sung, played and written, for the most part, by cretinous goons. ... This rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore."[127] Asked for a response, Presley said, "I admire the man. He has a right to say what he wants to say. He is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it. ... This is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago."[128]
Leiber and Stoller were again in the studio for the recording of Elvis' Christmas Album. Toward the end of the session, they wrote a song on the spot at Presley's request: "Santa Claus Is Back In Town", an innuendo-laden blues.[129] The holiday release stretched Presley's string of number one albums to four and would eventually become the best selling Christmas album of all time.[130][131] After the session, Moore and Black—drawing only modest weekly salaries, sharing in none of Presley's massive financial success—resigned. Though they were brought back on a per diem basis a few weeks later, it was clear that they had not been part of Presley's inner circle for some time.[132] On December 20, Presley received his draft notice. He was granted a deferment to finish the forthcoming King Creole, in which $350,000 had already been invested by Paramount and producer Hal Wallis. A couple of weeks into the new year, "Don't", another Leiber and Stoller tune, became Presley's tenth number one seller. It had been only 21 months since "Heartbreak Hotel" had brought him to the top for the first time. Recording sessions for the King Creole soundtrack were held in Hollywood mid-January. Leiber and Stoller provided three songs and were again on hand, but it would be the last time they worked closely with Presley.[133] A studio session on February 1 marked another ending: it was the final occasion on which Black was to perform with Presley. He died in 1965.
Military service and mother's death (1958–60)[link]
On March 24, Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army as a private at Fort Chaffee, near Fort Smith, Arkansas. His arrival was a major media event. Hundreds of people descended on Presley as he stepped from the bus; photographers then accompanied him into the base.[134] Presley announced that he was looking forward to his military stint, saying he did not want to be treated any differently from anyone else: "The Army can do anything it wants with me."[135]
Soon after Presley commenced basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, he received a visit from Eddie Fadal, a businessman he had met on tour. According to Fadal, Presley had become convinced his career was finished—"He firmly believed that."[136] During a two-week leave in early June, Presley cut five sides in Nashville. In early August, his mother was diagnosed with hepatitis and her condition swiftly worsened. Presley, granted emergency leave to visit her, arrived in Memphis on August 12. Two days later, she died of heart failure, aged 46. Presley was devastated;[137] their relationship had remained extremely close—even into his adulthood, they would use baby talk with each other and Presley would address her with pet names.[138]
After training, Presley joined the 3rd Armored Division in Friedberg, Germany, on October 1.[139] Introduced to amphetamines by a sergeant while on maneuvers, he became "practically evangelical about their benefits"—not only for energy, but for "strength" and weight loss, as well—and many of his friends in the outfit joined him in indulging.[140] The Army also introduced Presley to karate, which he studied seriously, later including it in his live performances.[141] Fellow soldiers have attested to Presley's wish to be seen as an able, ordinary soldier, despite his fame, and to his generosity. He donated his Army pay to charity, purchased TV sets for the base, and bought an extra set of fatigues for everyone in his outfit.[142]
While in Friedberg, Presley met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu. They would eventually marry after a seven-and-a-half-year courtship.[143] In her autobiography, Priscilla says that despite his worries that it would ruin his career, Parker convinced Presley that to gain popular respect, he should serve his country as a regular soldier rather than in Special Services, where he would have been able to give some musical performances and remain in touch with the public.[144] Media reports echoed Presley's concerns about his career, but RCA producer Steve Sholes and Freddy Bienstock of Hill and Range had carefully prepared for his two-year hiatus. Armed with a substantial amount of unreleased material, they kept up a regular stream of successful releases.[145] Between his induction and discharge, Presley had ten top 40 hits, including "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck", the best-selling "Hard Headed Woman", and "One Night" in 1958, and "(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I" and the number one "A Big Hunk o' Love" in 1959.[146] RCA also generated four albums compiling old material during this period, most successfully Elvis' Golden Records (1958), which hit number three on the LP chart.[147]
Focus on movies (1960–67)[link]
[edit] Elvis Is Back
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Presley broke new stylistic ground and displayed his vocal range with this number one hit. The quasi-operatic ballad ends with Presley "soaring up to an incredible top G sharp."[148]
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Presley returned to the United States on March 2, 1960, and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant on March 5.[149] The train that carried him from New Jersey to Tennessee was mobbed all the way, and Presley was called upon to appear at scheduled stops to please his fans.[150] On the night of March 20, he entered RCA's Nashville studio to cut tracks for a new album along with a single—"Stuck on You" was rushed into release and swiftly became a number one hit.[151] Another Nashville session two weeks later yielded a pair of his best-selling singles, the ballads "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", along with the rest of Elvis Is Back! The album features several songs described by Greil Marcus as full of Chicago blues "menace, driven by Presley's own super-miked acoustic guitar, brilliant playing by Scotty Moore, and demonic sax work from Boots Randolph. Elvis's singing wasn't sexy, it was pornographic."[152] As a whole, the record "conjured up the vision of a performer who could be all things", in the words of music historian John Robertson: "a flirtatious teenage idol with a heart of gold; a tempestuous, dangerous lover; a gutbucket blues singer; a sophisticated nightclub entertainer; [a] raucous rocker".[153] Released only days after recording was complete, it reached number two on the album chart.
Presley returned to television on May 12 as a guest on The Frank Sinatra Timex Special—ironic for both stars, given Sinatra's not-so-distant excoriation of rock and roll. Also known as Welcome Home Elvis, the show had been taped in late March, the only time all year Presley performed in front of an audience. Parker secured an unheard-of $125,000 fee for eight minutes of singing. The broadcast drew an enormous viewership.[154]
G.I. Blues, the soundtrack to Presley's first film since his return, was a number one album in October. His first LP of sacred material, His Hand in Mine, followed two months later. It reached number 13 on the U.S. pop chart and number 3 in Great Britain, remarkable figures for a gospel album. In February 1961, Presley performed two shows for a benefit event in Memphis, on behalf of 24 local charities. During a luncheon preceding the event, RCA presented him with a plaque certifying worldwide sales of over 75 million records.[155] A 12-hour Nashville session in mid-March yielded nearly all of Presley's next studio album, Something for Everybody.[156] As described by John Robertson, it exemplifies the Nashville sound, the restrained, cosmopolitan style that would define country music in the 1960s. Presaging much of what was to come from Presley himself over the next half-decade, the album is largely "a pleasant, unthreatening pastiche of the music that had once been Elvis's birthright."[157] It would be his sixth number one LP. Another benefit concert, raising money for a Pearl Harbor memorial, was staged on March 25, in Hawaii. It was to be Presley's last public performance for seven years.[158]
Lost in Hollywood[link]
See also: Elvis Presley filmography
Parker had by now pushed Presley into a heavy moviemaking schedule, focused on formulaic, modestly budgeted musical comedies. Presley at first insisted on pursuing more serious roles, but when two films in a more dramatic vein—Flaming Star (1960) and Wild in the Country (1961)—were less commercially successful, he reverted to the formula. Among the 27 movies he made during the 1960s, there were few further exceptions.[159] His films were almost universally panned; one critic dismissed them as a "pantheon of bad taste".[160] Nonetheless, they were virtually all profitable. Hal Wallis, who produced nine of them, declared, "A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood."[161]
Of Presley's films in the 1960s, 15 were accompanied by soundtrack albums and another 5 by soundtrack EPs. The movies' rapid production and release schedules—he frequently starred in three a year—affected his music. According to Jerry Leiber, the soundtrack formula was already evident before Presley left for the Army: "three ballads, one medium-tempo [number], one up-tempo, and one break blues boogie".[162] As the decade wore on, the quality of the soundtrack songs grew "progressively worse".[163] Julie Parrish, who appeared in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), says that he hated many of the songs chosen for his films.[164] The Jordanaires' Gordon Stoker describes how Presley would retreat from the studio microphone: "The material was so bad that he felt like he couldn't sing it."[165] Most of the movie albums featured a song or two from respected writers such as the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. But by and large, according to biographer Jerry Hopkins, the numbers seemed to be "written on order by men who never really understood Elvis or rock and roll."[166] Regardless of the songs' quality, it has been argued that Presley generally sang them well, with commitment.[167] Critic Dave Marsh heard the opposite: "Presley isn't trying, probably the wisest course in the face of material like 'No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car' and 'Rock-a-Hula Baby.'"[114]
In the first half of the decade, three of Presley's soundtrack albums hit number one on the pop charts, and a few of his most popular songs came from his films, such as "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1961) and "Return to Sender" (1962). ("Viva Las Vegas", the title track to the 1964 film, was a minor hit as a B-side, and became truly popular only later.) But, as with artistic merit, the commercial returns steadily diminished. During a five-year span—1964 through 1968—Presley had only one top ten hit: "Crying in the Chapel" (1965), a gospel number recorded back in 1960. As for non-movie albums, between the June 1962 release of Pot Luck and the November 1968 release of the soundtrack to the television special that signaled his comeback, only one LP of new material by Presley was issued: the gospel album How Great Thou Art (1967). It won him his first Grammy Award, for Best Sacred Performance. As Marsh described, Presley was "arguably the greatest white gospel singer of his time [and] really the last rock & roll artist to make gospel as vital a component of his musical personality as his secular songs."[168]
Shortly before Christmas 1966, more than seven years since they first met, Presley proposed to Priscilla Beaulieu. They were married on May 1, 1967, in a brief ceremony in their suite at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas.[169] The flow of formulaic movies and assembly-line soundtracks rolled on. It was not until October 1967, when the Clambake soundtrack LP registered record low sales for a new Presley album, that RCA executives recognized a problem. "By then, of course, the damage had been done", as historians Connie Kirchberg and Marc Hendrickx put it. "Elvis was viewed as a joke by serious music lovers and a has-been to all but his most loyal fans."[170]
Comeback (1968–73)[link]
[edit] Elvis: the '68 Comeback Special
Main article: Elvis (1968 TV program)
File:Elvis Presley 68 Comeback Special.jpg
The '68 Comeback Special produced "one of the most famous images" of Presley.[171] Taken on June 29, 1968, it was adapted for the cover of Rolling Stone in July 1969.[171][172]
Presley's only child, Lisa Marie, was born on February 1, 1968, during a period when he had grown deeply unhappy with his career.[173] Of the eight Presley singles released between January 1967 and May 1968, only two charted in the top 40, and none higher than number 28.[174] His forthcoming soundtrack album, Speedway, would die at number 82 on the Billboard chart. Parker had already shifted his plans to television, where Presley had not appeared since the Sinatra Timex show in 1960. He maneuvered a deal with NBC that committed the network to both finance a theatrical feature and broadcast a Christmas special.[175]
Recorded in late June in Burbank, California, the special, called simply Elvis, aired on December 3, 1968. Later known as the '68 Comeback Special, the show featured lavishly staged studio productions as well as songs performed with a band in front of a small audience—Presley's first live performances since 1961. The live segments saw Presley clad in tight black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style reminiscent of his early rock and roll days. Director and coproducer Steve Binder had worked hard to reassure the nervous singer and to produce a show that was far from the hour of Christmas songs Parker had originally planned.[176] The show, NBC's highest rated that season, captured 42 percent of the total viewing audience.[177] Jon Landau of Eye magazine remarked, "There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home. He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect of rock 'n' roll singers. He moved his body with a lack of pretension and effort that must have made Jim Morrison green with envy."[178] Dave Marsh calls the performance one of "emotional grandeur and historical resonance."[179]
By January 1969, the single "If I Can Dream", written for the special, reached number 12. The soundtrack album broke into the top ten. According to friend Jerry Schilling, the special reminded Presley of what "he had not been able to do for years, being able to choose the people; being able to choose what songs and not being told what had to be on the soundtrack. ... He was out of prison, man."[177] Binder said of Presley's reaction, "I played Elvis the 60-minute show, and he told me in the screening room, 'Steve, it's the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. I give you my word I will never sing a song I don't believe in.'"[177]
[edit] From Elvis In Memphis and the International
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Beginning with his American Sound recordings, soul music became a central element in Presley's fusion of styles. Here, he revels in lyrics full of sexual innuendo.[180]
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Buoyed by the experience of the Comeback Special, Presley engaged in a prolific series of recording sessions at American Sound Studio, which led to the acclaimed From Elvis in Memphis. Released in June 1969, it was his first secular, non-soundtrack album from a dedicated period in the studio in eight years. As described by Dave Marsh, it is "a masterpiece in which Presley immediately catches up with pop music trends that had seemed to pass him by during the movie years. He sings country songs, soul songs and rockers with real conviction, a stunning achievement."[181] The album featured the hit single "In the Ghetto", issued in April, which reached number three on the pop chart—Presley's first non-gospel top ten hit since "Bossa Nova Baby" in 1963. Further hit singles were culled from the American Sound sessions: "Suspicious Minds", "Don't Cry Daddy", and "Kentucky Rain".
Presley was keen to resume regular live performing. Following the success of the Comeback Special, offers came in from around the world. The London Palladium offered Parker $28,000 for a one-week engagement. He responded, "That's fine for me, now how much can you get for Elvis?"[182] In May, the brand new International Hotel in Las Vegas, boasting the largest showroom in the city, announced that it had booked Presley. He was scheduled to perform 57 shows over four weeks beginning July 31. Moore, Fontana, and the Jordanaires declined to participate, afraid of losing the lucrative session work they had in Nashville. Presley assembled new, top-notch accompaniment, led by guitarist James Burton and including two gospel groups, The Imperials and Sweet Inspirations.[183] Nonetheless, he was nervous: his only previous Las Vegas engagement, in 1956, had been dismal. Parker, who intended to make Presley's return the show business event of the year, oversaw a major promotional push. For his part, hotel owner Kirk Kerkorian arranged to send his own plane to New York to fly in rock journalists for the debut performance.[184]
Presley took to the stage without introduction. The audience of 2,200, including many celebrities, gave him a standing ovation before he sang a note and another after his performance. A third followed his encore, "Can't Help Falling in Love" (a song that would be his closing number for much of the 1970s).[185] At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to him as "The King", Presley gestured toward Fats Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll."[186] The next day, Parker's negotiations with the hotel resulted in a five-year contract for Presley to play each February and August, at an annual salary of $1 million.[187] Newsweek commented, "There are several unbelievable things about Elvis, but the most incredible is his staying power in a world where meteoric careers fade like shooting stars."[188] Rolling Stone called Presley "supernatural, his own resurrection."[189] In November, Presley's final non-concert movie, Change of Habit, opened. The double album From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis came out the same month; the first LP consisted of live performances from the International, the second of more cuts from the American Sound sessions. "Suspicious Minds" reached the top of the charts—Presley's first U.S. pop number one in over seven years, and his last.
Cassandra Peterson, later television's Elvira, met Presley during this period in Las Vegas, where she was working as showgirl. She recalls of their encounter, "He was so anti-drug when I met him. I mentioned to him that I smoked marijuana, and he was just appalled. He said, 'Don't ever do that again.'"[190] Presley was not only deeply opposed to recreational drugs, he also rarely drank. Several of his family members had been alcoholics, a fate he intended to avoid.[191]
Back on tour and meeting Nixon[link]
Presley returned to the International early in 1970 for the first of the year's two month-long engagements, performing two shows a night. Recordings from these shows were issued on the album On Stage.[192] In late February, Presley performed six attendance-record–breaking shows at the Houston Astrodome.[193] In April, the single "The Wonder of You" was issued—a number one hit in Great Britain, it topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart, as well. MGM filmed rehearsal and concert footage at the International during August for the documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is. Presley was by now performing in a jumpsuit, which would become a trademark of his live act. During this engagement, he was threatened with murder unless $50,000 was paid. Presley had been the target of many threats since the 1950s, often without his knowledge.[194] The FBI took the threat seriously and security was stepped up for the next two shows. Presley went onstage with a Derringer in his right boot and a .45 pistol in his waistband, but the concerts went off without incident.[195][196]
The album That's the Way It Is, produced to accompany the documentary and featuring both studio and live recordings, marked a stylistic shift. As music historian John Robertson notes, "The authority of Presley's singing helped disguise the fact that the album stepped decisively away from the American-roots inspiration of the Memphis sessions towards a more middle-of-the-road sound. With country put on the back burner, and soul and R&B left in Memphis, what was left was very classy, very clean white pop—perfect for the Las Vegas crowd, but a definite retrograde step for Elvis."[197] After the end of his International engagement on September 7, Presley embarked on a week-long concert tour, largely of the South, his first since 1958. Another week-long tour, of the West Coast, followed in November.[198]
On December 21, 1970, Presley engineered a meeting with President Richard Nixon at the White House, where he expressed his patriotism and his contempt for the hippie drug culture. He asked Nixon for a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, to add to similar items he had begun collecting and to signify official sanction of his patriotic efforts. Nixon, who apparently found the encounter awkward, expressed a belief that Presley could send a positive message to young people and that it was therefore important he "retain his credibility". Presley told Nixon that The Beatles, whose songs he regularly performed in concert during the era,[199] exemplified what he saw as a trend of anti-Americanism and drug abuse in popular culture.[200] (Presley and his friends had had a four-hour get-together with The Beatles five years earlier.) On hearing reports of the meeting, Paul McCartney later said that he "felt a bit betrayed. ... The great joke was that we were taking [illegal] drugs, and look what happened to him", a reference to Presley's death, hastened by prescription drug abuse.[201]
The U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named Presley one of its annual Ten Most Outstanding Young Men of the Nation on January 16, 1971.[202] Not long after, the City of Memphis named the stretch of Highway 51 South on which Graceland is located "Elvis Presley Boulevard". The same year, Presley became the first rock and roll singer to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award (then known as the Bing Crosby Award) by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Grammy Award organization.[203] Three new, non-movie Presley studio albums were released in 1971, as many as had come out over the previous eight years. Best received by critics was Elvis Country, a concept record that focused on genre standards.[204] The biggest seller was Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas, "the truest statement of all", according to Greil Marcus. "In the midst of ten painfully genteel Christmas songs, every one sung with appalling sincerity and humility, one could find Elvis tom-catting his way through six blazing minutes of 'Merry Christmas, Baby,' a raunchy old Charles Brown blues. ... If [Presley's] sin was his lifelessness, it was his sinfulness that brought him to life".[205]
[edit] Marriage breakdown and Aloha from Hawaii
See also: Aloha from Hawaii
MGM again filmed Presley in April 1972, this time for Elvis on Tour, which went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film that year. His gospel album He Touched Me, released that month, would earn him his second Grammy Award, for Best Inspirational Performance. A 14-date tour commenced with an unprecedented four consecutive sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden.[206] The evening concert on July 10 was recorded and issued in LP form a week later. Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden became one of Presley's biggest-selling albums. After the tour, the single "Burning Love" was released—Presley's last top ten hit on the U.S. pop chart. "The most exciting single Elvis has made since 'All Shook Up'", wrote rock critic Robert Christgau. "Who else could make 'It's coming closer, the flames are now licking my body' sound like an assignation with James Brown's backup band?"[207]
File:ElvisPresleyAlohafromHawaii.jpg
Presley in Aloha From Hawaii, broadcast live via satellite on January 14, 1973. The singer himself came up with his famous outfit's eagle motif, as "something that would say 'America' to the world."[208]
Presley and his wife, meanwhile, had become increasingly distant, barely cohabiting. In 1971, an affair he had with Joyce Bova resulted—unbeknownst to him—in her pregnancy and an abortion. He often raised the possibility of her moving in to Graceland, saying that he was likely to leave Priscilla.[209] The Presleys separated on February 23, 1972, after Priscilla disclosed her relationship with Mike Stone, a karate instructor Presley had recommended to her. Priscilla relates that when she told him, Presley "grabbed ... and forcefully made love to" her, declaring, "This is how a real man makes love to his woman."[210] Five months later, Presley's new girlfriend, Linda Thompson, a songwriter and one-time Memphis beauty queen, moved in with him.[211] Presley and his wife filed for divorce on August 18.[212] According to Joe Moscheo of the Imperials, the failure of Presley's marriage "was a blow from which he never recovered."[213]
In January 1973, Presley performed two benefit concerts for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in connection with a groundbreaking TV special, Aloha from Hawaii. The first show served as a practice run and backup should technical problems affect the live broadcast two days later. Aired as scheduled on January 14, Aloha from Hawaii was the first global concert satellite broadcast, reaching approximately 1.5 billion viewers live and on tape delay.[214][215][216] Presley's costume became the most recognized example of the elaborate concert garb with which his latter-day persona became closely associated. As described by Bobbie Ann Mason, "At the end of the show, when he spreads out his American Eagle cape, with the full stretched wings of the eagle studded on the back, he becomes a god figure."[217] The accompanying double album, released in February, went to number one and eventually sold over 5 million copies in the United States.[218] It proved to be Presley's last U.S. number one pop album during his lifetime.
At a midnight show the same month, four men rushed onto the stage in an apparent attack. Security men leapt to Presley's defense, and the singer's karate instinct took over as he ejected one invader from the stage himself. Following the show, he became obsessed with the idea that the men had been sent by Mike Stone to kill him. Though they were shown to have been only overexuberant fans, he raged, "There's too much pain in me ... Stone [must] die." His outbursts continued with such intensity that a physician was unable to calm him, despite administering large doses of medication. After another two full days of raging, Red West, his friend and bodyguard, felt compelled to get a price for a contract killing and was relieved when Presley decided, "Aw hell, let's just leave it for now. Maybe it's a bit heavy."[219]
Health deterioration and death (1973–77)[link]
Medical crises and last studio sessions[link]
Presley's divorce took effect on October 9, 1973.[220] He was now becoming increasingly unwell. Twice during the year he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. Toward the end of 1973, he was hospitalized, semicomatose from the effects of Demerol addiction. According to his main physician, Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, Presley "felt that by getting [drugs] from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street."[221] Since his comeback, he had staged more live shows with each passing year, and 1973 saw 168 concerts, his busiest schedule ever.[222] Despite his failing health, in 1974 he undertook another intensive touring schedule.[223]
Presley's condition declined precipitously in September. Keyboardist Tony Brown remembers the singer's arrival at a University of Maryland concert: "He fell out of the limousine, to his knees. People jumped to help, and he pushed them away like, 'Don't help me.' He walked on stage and held onto the mike for the first thirty minutes like it was a post. Everybody's looking at each other like, Is the tour gonna happen?"[224] Guitarist John Wilkinson recalled, "He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up. ... It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible. ... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions".[225] Wilkinson recounted that a few nights later in Detroit, "I watched him in his dressing room, just draped over a chair, unable to move. So often I thought, 'Boss, why don't you just cancel this tour and take a year off...?' I mentioned something once in a guarded moment. He patted me on the back and said, 'It'll be all right. Don't you worry about it.'"[225] Presley continued to play to sellout crowds. As cultural critic Marjorie Garber describes, he was now widely seen as a garish pop crooner: "in effect he had become Liberace. Even his fans were now middle-aged matrons and blue-haired grandmothers."[226]
On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley—who had become deeply involved in his son's financial affairs—fired "Memphis Mafia" bodyguards Red West (Presley's friend since the 1950s), Sonny West, and David Hebler, citing the need to "cut back on expenses".[227][228][229] Presley was in Palm Springs at the time, and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face the three himself. Another associate of Presley's, John O'Grady, argued that the bodyguards were dropped because their rough treatment of fans had prompted too many lawsuits.[230] However, Presley's stepbrother David Stanley has claimed that the bodyguards were fired because they were becoming more outspoken about Presley's drug dependency.[231] Presley and Linda Thompson split in November, and he took up with a new girlfriend, Ginger Alden.[232] He proposed to Alden and gave her an engagement ring two months later, though several of his friends later claimed that he had no serious intention of marrying again.[233]
RCA, which had enjoyed a steady stream of product from Presley for over a decade, grew anxious as his interest in spending time in the studio waned. After a December 1973 session that produced 18 songs, enough for almost two albums, he did not enter the studio in 1974.[234] Parker sold RCA on another concert record, Elvis: As Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis.[235] Recorded on March 20, it included a version of "How Great Thou Art" that would win Presley his third and final competitive Grammy Award.[236] (All three of his competitive Grammy wins—out of 14 total nominations—were for gospel recordings.) Presley returned to the studio in Hollywood in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful.[237] In 1976, RCA sent a mobile studio to Graceland that made possible two full-scale recording sessions at Presley's home.[238] Even in that comfortable context, the recording process was now a struggle for him.[239]
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An R&B hit for Roy Hamilton in 1955 and a pop hit for blue-eyed soul singer Timi Yuro in 1961, Presley's deep soul version was picked up by country radio in 1976.[240]
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For all the concerns of his label and manager, in studio sessions between July 1973 and October 1976, Presley recorded virtually the entire contents of six albums. Though he was no longer a major presence on the pop charts, five of those albums entered the top five of the country chart, and three went to number one: Promised Land (1975), From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976), and Moody Blue (1977).[241] The story was similar with his singles—there were no major pop hits, but Presley was a significant force in not just the country market, but on adult contemporary radio as well. Eight studio singles from this period released during his lifetime were top ten hits on one or both charts, four in 1974 alone. "My Boy" was a number one AC hit in 1975, and "Moody Blue" topped the country chart and reached the second spot on the AC in 1976.[242] Perhaps his most critically acclaimed recording of the era came that year, with what Greil Marcus described as his "apocalyptic attack" on the soul classic "Hurt".[243] "If he felt the way he sounded", Dave Marsh wrote of Presley's performance, "the wonder isn't that he had only a year left to live but that he managed to survive that long."[244]
Final year and death[link]
Journalist Tony Scherman writes that by early 1977, "Elvis Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Hugely overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopoeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts."[245] In Alexandria, Louisiana, the singer was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand".[246] Presley failed to appear in Baton Rouge; he was unable to get out of his hotel bed, and the rest of the tour was cancelled.[246] Despite the accelerating deterioration of his health, he stuck to most touring commitments. In Rapid City, South Dakota, "he was so nervous on stage that he could hardly talk", according to Presley historian Samuel Roy, and unable to "perform any significant movement."[247] Guralnick relates that fans "were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past Elvis, whose world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his spiritualism books."[248] A cousin, Billy Smith, recalled how Presley would sit in his room and chat for hours, sometimes recounting favorite Monty Python sketches and his own past escapades, but more often gripped by paranoid obsessions that reminded Smith of Howard Hughes.[249] "Way Down", Presley's last single issued during his lifetime, came out on June 6. His final concert was held in Indianapolis at the Market Square Arena, on June 26.
The book Elvis: What Happened?, cowritten by the three bodyguards fired the previous year, was published on August 1.[250] It was the first exposé to detail Presley's years of drug misuse. He was devastated by the book and tried unsuccessfully to halt its release by offering money to the publishers.[251] By this point, he suffered from multiple ailments: glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon, each aggravated—and possibly caused—by drug abuse.[221]
Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis on the evening of August 16, 1977, to begin another tour. That afternoon, Alden discovered him unresponsive on his bathroom floor. Attempts to revive him failed, and death was officially pronounced at 3:30 pm at Baptist Memorial Hospital.[252]
President Jimmy Carter issued a statement that credited Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture".[253] Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket. One of Presley's cousins, Billy Mann, accepted $18,000 to secretly photograph the corpse; the picture appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer's biggest-selling issue ever.[254] Alden struck a $105,000 deal with the Enquirer for her story, but settled for less when she broke her exclusivity agreement.[255] Presley left her nothing in his will.[256]
Presley's funeral was held at Graceland, on Thursday, August 18. Outside the gates, a car plowed into a group of fans, killing two women and critically injuring a third.[257] Approximately 80,000 people lined the processional route to Forest Hill Cemetery, where Presley was buried next to his mother.[258] Within a few days, "Way Down" topped the country and UK pop charts.[242][259] Following an attempt to steal the singer's body in late August, the remains of both Elvis Presley and his mother were reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden on October 2.[255]
Since 1977[link]
Between 1977 and 1981, six posthumously released singles by Presley were top ten country hits.[242] Graceland was opened to the public in 1982. Attracting over half a million visitors annually, it is the second most-visited home in the United States, after the White House.[260] It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.[261]
Presley has been inducted into four music halls of fame: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1998), the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001), and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (2007). In 1984, he received the W. C. Handy Award from the Blues Foundation and the Academy of Country Music's first Golden Hat Award. In 1987, he received the American Music Awards' Award of Merit.[262]
A Junkie XL remix of Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" (credited as "Elvis Vs JXL") was used in a Nike advertising campaign during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. It topped the charts in over 20 countries, and was included in a compilation of Presley's number one hits, ELV1S, that was also an international success. In 2003, a remix of "Rubberneckin'", a 1969 recording of Presley's, topped the U.S. sales chart, as did a 50th-anniversary re-release of "That's All Right" the following year.[263] The latter was an outright hit in Great Britain, reaching number three on the pop chart.
In 2005, another three reissued singles, "Jailhouse Rock", "One Night"/"I Got Stung", and "It's Now or Never", went to number one in Great Britain. A total of 17 Presley singles were reissued during the year; all made the British top five. For the fifth straight year, Forbes named Presley the top-earning deceased celebrity, with a gross income of $45 million.[264] He placed second in 2006,[265] returned to the top spot the next two years,[266][267] and ranked fourth in 2009.[268] The following year, he was ranked second, with his highest annual income ever—$60 million—spurred by the celebration of his 75th birthday and the launch of Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis show in Las Vegas.[269] In November 2010, Viva Elvis: The Album was released, setting his voice to newly recorded instrumental tracks.[270][271] As of mid-2011, there were an estimated 15,000 licensed Presley products.[272] He was again the second-highest-earning deceased celebrity.[273]
Presley holds the records for most songs charting in Billboard's top 40 and top 100: chart statistician Joel Whitburn calculates the respective totals as 104 and 151;[274] Presley historian Adam Victor gives 114 and 138.[275] Presley's rankings for top ten and number one hits vary depending on how the double-sided "Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles, which precede the inception of Billboard's unified Hot 100 chart, are analyzed.e According to Whitburn's analysis, Presley and Madonna share the record for most top ten hits with 38;[276] per Billboard's current assessment, he ranks second with 36.[277] Whitburn and Billboard concur that The Beatles hold the record for most number one hits with 20 and that Mariah Carey is second with 18. Whitburn has Presley also with 18 and thus tied for second;[276] Billboard has him third with 17.[278] Presley retains the record for cumulative weeks at number one: alone at 80, according to Whitburn and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame;[279][280] tied with Carey at 79, according to Billboard.[281][282] He holds the records for most British number one hits, with 21, and top ten hits, with 76.[283][284]
Musical style[link]
Influences[link]
Presley's earliest musical influence came from gospel. His mother recalled that from the age of two, at the Assembly of God church in Tupelo attended by the family, "he would slide down off my lap, run into the aisle and scramble up to the platform. There he would stand looking at the choir and trying to sing with them."[285] In Memphis, Presley frequently attended all-night gospel singings at the Ellis Auditorium, where groups such as the Statesmen Quartet led the music in a style that, Guralnick suggests, sowed the seeds of Presley's future stage act:
The Statesmen were an electric combination ... featuring some of the most thrillingly emotive singing and daringly unconventional showmanship in the entertainment world ... dressed in suits that might have come out of the window of Lansky's. ... Bass singer Jim Wetherington, known universally as the Big Chief, maintained a steady bottom, ceaselessly jiggling first his left leg, then his right, with the material of the pants leg ballooning out and shimmering. "He went about as far as you could go in gospel music," said Jake Hess. "The women would jump up, just like they do for the pop shows." Preachers frequently objected to the lewd movements ... but audiences reacted with screams and swoons.[286]
As a teenager, Presley's musical interests were wide-ranging, and he was deeply informed about African American musical idioms as well as white ones (see "Teenage life in Memphis"). Though he never had any formal training, he was blessed with a remarkable memory, and his musical knowledge was already considerable by the time he made his first professional recordings in 1954 at the age of 19. When Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met him two years later, they were astonished at his encyclopedic understanding of the blues.[287] At a press conference the following year, he proudly declared, "I know practically every religious song that's ever been written."[126]
Genres[link]
Presley was a central figure in the development of rockabilly, according to music historians. "Rockabilly crystallized into a recognizable style in 1954 with Elvis Presley's first release, on the Sun label", writes Craig Morrison.[288] Paul Friedlander describes the defining elements of rockabilly, which he similarly characterizes as "essentially ... an Elvis Presley construction": "the raw, emotive, and slurred vocal style and emphasis on rhythmic feeling [of] the blues with the string band and strummed rhythm guitar [of] country".[289] In "That's All Right", the Presley trio's first record, Scotty Moore's guitar solo, "a combination of Merle Travis–style country finger-picking, double-stop slides from acoustic boogie, and blues-based bent-note, single-string work, is a microcosm of this fusion."[289]
At RCA, Presley's rock and roll sound grew distinct from rockabilly with group chorus vocals, more heavily amplified electric guitars[290] and a tougher, more intense manner.[291] While he was known for taking songs from various sources and giving them a rockabilly/rock and roll treatment, he also recorded songs in other genres from early in his career, from the pop standard "Blue Moon" at Sun to the country ballad "How's the World Treating You?" on his second LP to the blues of "Santa Claus Is Back In Town". In 1957, his first gospel record was released, the four-song EP Peace in the Valley. Certified as a million seller, it became the top-selling gospel EP in recording history.[292] Presley would record gospel periodically for the rest of his life.
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From How Great Thou Art (1967), a traditional song popular in the black gospel tradition. The arrangement evokes "the percussive style of the 1930s Golden Gate Quartet."[293][294]
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After his return from military service in 1960, Presley continued to perform rock and roll, but the characteristic style was substantially toned down. His first post-Army single, the number one hit "Stuck on You", is typical of this shift. RCA publicity materials referred to its "mild rock beat"; discographer Ernst Jorgensen calls it "upbeat pop".[295] The modern blues/R&B sound captured so successfully on Elvis Is Back! was essentially abandoned for six years until such 1966–67 recordings as "Down in the Alley" and "Hi-Heel Sneakers".[296] The singer's output during most of the 1960s emphasized pop music, often in the form of ballads such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", a number one in 1960. While that was a dramatic number, most of what Presley recorded for his movie soundtracks was in a much lighter vein.[297]
While Presley performed several of his classic ballads for the '68 Comeback Special, the sound of the show was dominated by aggressive rock and roll. He would record few new straight-ahead rock and roll songs thereafter; as he explained, they were "hard to find".[298] A significant exception was "Burning Love", his last major hit on the pop charts. Like his work of the 1950s, Presley's subsequent recordings reworked pop and country songs, but in markedly different permutations. His stylistic range now began to embrace a more contemporary rock sound as well as soul and funk. Much of Elvis In Memphis, as well as "Suspicious Minds", cut at the same sessions, reflected his new rock and soul fusion. In the mid-1970s, many of his singles found a home on country radio, the field where he first became a star.[299]
Vocal style and range[link]
Music critic Henry Pleasants observes that "Elvis Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass ... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion."[300] He identifies Presley as a high baritone, calculating his range as two octaves and a third, "from the baritone low G to the tenor high B, with an upward extension in falsetto to at least a D-flat. Presley's best octave is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down."[300] In Pleasants' view, his voice was "variable and unpredictable" at the bottom, "often brilliant" at the top, with the capacity for "full-voiced high Gs and As that an opera baritone might envy."[300] Scholar Lindsay Waters, who figures Presley's range as two and a quarter octaves, emphasizes that "his voice had an emotional range from tender whispers to sighs down to shouts, grunts, grumbles and sheer gruffness that could move the listener from calmness and surrender, to fear. His voice can not be measured in octaves, but in decibels; even that misses the problem of how to measure delicate whispers that are hardly audible at all."[301] Presley was always "able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers," writes Pleasants, and also demonstrated a remarkable ability to assimilate many other vocal styles.[300]
Questions over cause of death[link]
"Drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. "No one ruled out the possibility of anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills ... to which he was known to have had a mild allergy." A pair of lab reports filed two months later each strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity."[302] Forensic historian and pathologist Michael Baden views the situation as complicated: "Elvis had had an enlarged heart for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."[303]
The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Before the autopsy was complete and toxicology results known, medical examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco declared the cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia, a condition that can be determined only in someone who is still alive.[304] Allegations of a cover-up were widespread.[303] While Presley's main physician, Dr. Nichopoulos, was exonerated of criminal liability for the singer's death, the facts were startling: "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had [prescribed] more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines and narcotics: all in Elvis's name." His license was suspended for three months. It was permanently revoked in the 1990s after the Tennessee Medical Board brought new charges of over-prescription.[221]
In 1994, the Presley autopsy was reopened. Coroner Dr. Joseph Davis declared, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack."[221] Whether or not combined drug intoxication was in fact the cause, there is little doubt that polypharmacy contributed significantly to Presley's premature death.[304]
Racial issues[link]
When Dewey Phillips first aired "That's All Right" on Memphis radio, many listeners who contacted the station by phone and telegram to ask for it again assumed that its singer was black.[52] From the beginning of his national fame, Presley expressed respect for African American performers and their music, and disregard for the norms of segregation and racial prejudice then prevalent in the South. Interviewed in 1956, he recalled how in his childhood he would listen to blues musician Arthur Crudup—the originator of "That's All Right"—"bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw."[36] The Memphis World, an African American newspaper, reported that Presley, "the rock 'n' roll phenomenon", "cracked Memphis's segregation laws" by attending the local amusement park on what was designated as its "colored night".[36] Such statements and actions led Presley to be generally hailed in the black community during the early days of his stardom.[36] By contrast, many white adults, according to Billboard's Arnold Shaw, "did not like him, and condemned him as depraved. Anti-negro prejudice doubtless figured in adult antagonism. Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll', Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex."[305]
Despite the largely positive view of Presley held by African Americans, a rumor spread in mid-1957 that he had at some point announced, "The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes." A journalist with the national African American weekly Jet, Louie Robinson, pursued the story. On the set of Jailhouse Rock, Presley granted him an interview, though he was no longer dealing with the mainstream press. He denied making such a statement or holding in any way to its racist view. Robinson found no evidence that the remark had ever been made, and on the contrary elicited testimony from many individuals indicating that Presley was anything but racist.[36][306] Blues singer Ivory Joe Hunter, who had heard the rumor before he visited Graceland one evening, reported of Presley, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest."[307] Though the rumored remark was wholly discredited at the time, it was still being used against Presley decades later.[308] The identification of Presley with racism—either personally or symbolically—was expressed most famously in the lyrics of the 1989 rap hit "Fight the Power", by Public Enemy: "Elvis was a hero to most / But he never meant shit to me / Straight-up racist that sucker was / Simple and plain".[309]
The persistence of such attitudes was fueled by resentment over the fact that Presley, whose musical and visual performance idiom owed much to African American sources, achieved the cultural acknowledgment and commercial success largely denied his black peers.[306] Into the 21st century, the notion that Presley had "stolen" black music still found adherents.[308][309] Notable among African American entertainers expressly rejecting this view was Jackie Wilson, who argued, "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis."[310] And throughout his career, Presley plainly acknowledged his debt. Addressing his '68 Comeback Special audience, he said, "Rock 'n' roll music is basically gospel or rhythm and blues, or it sprang from that. People have been adding to it, adding instruments to it, experimenting with it, but it all boils down to [that]." Nine years earlier, he had said, "Rock 'n' roll has been around for many years. It used to be called rhythm and blues."[311]
Influence of Colonel Parker and others[link]
Parker and the Aberbachs[link]
Further information: Colonel Tom Parker
Once he became Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker insisted on exceptionally tight control over his client's career. Early on, he and his Hill and Range allies, the brothers Jean and Julian Aberbach, perceived the close relationship that developed between Presley and songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as a serious threat to that control.[312] Parker effectively ended the relationship, deliberately or not, with the new contract he sent Leiber in early 1958. Leiber thought there was a mistake—the sheet of paper was blank except for Parker's signature and a line on which to enter his. "There's no mistake, boy, just sign it and return it", Parker directed. "Don't worry, we'll fill it in later." Leiber declined, and Presley's fruitful collaboration with the writing team was over.[313] Other respected songwriters lost interest in or simply avoided writing for Presley because of the requirement that they surrender a third of their usual royalties.[314]
By 1967, Parker's contracts with Presley gave him 50 percent of most of the singer's earnings from recordings, films, and merchandise.[315] Beginning in February 1972, he took a third of the profit from live appearances;[316] a January 1976 agreement entitled him to half of that as well.[317] Priscilla Presley noted that "Elvis detested the business side of his career. He would sign a contract without even reading it."[318] Presley's friend Marty Lacker regarded Parker as a "hustler and a con artist. He was only interested in 'now money'—get the buck and get gone."[319]
Lacker was instrumental in convincing Presley to record with Memphis producer Chips Moman and his handpicked musicians at American Sound Studio in early 1969. The American Sound sessions represented a significant departure from the control customarily exerted by Hill and Range. Moman still had to deal with the publisher's staff on site, whose song suggestions he regarded as unacceptable. He was on the verge of quitting, until Presley ordered the Hill and Range personnel out of the studio.[320] Although RCA executive Joan Deary was later full of praise for the producer's song choices and the quality of the recordings,[321] Moman, to his fury, received neither credit on the records nor royalties for his work.[322]
Throughout his entire career, Presley performed in only three venues outside the United States—all of them in Canada, during brief tours there in 1957. Rumors that he would play overseas for the first time were fueled in 1974 by a million-dollar bid for an Australian tour. Parker was uncharacteristically reluctant, prompting those close to Presley to speculate about the manager's past and the reasons for his apparent unwillingness to apply for a passport. Parker ultimately squelched any notions Presley had of working abroad, claiming that foreign security was poor and the venues unsuitable for a star of his magnitude.[323]
Parker arguably exercised tightest control over Presley's movie career. In 1957, Robert Mitchum asked Presley to costar with him in Thunder Road, on which Mitchum was writer and producer.[324] According to George Klein, one of his oldest friends, Presley was offered starring roles in West Side Story and Midnight Cowboy.[325] In 1974, Barbra Streisand approached Presley to star with her in the remake of A Star is Born.[326] In each case, any ambitions the singer may have had to play such parts were thwarted by his manager's negotiating demands or flat refusals. In Lacker's description, "The only thing that kept Elvis going after the early years was a new challenge. But Parker kept running everything into the ground."[319] The operative attitude may have been summed up best by the response Leiber and Stoller received when they brought a serious film project for Presley to Parker and the Hill and Range owners for their consideration. In Leiber's telling, Jean Aberbach warned them to never again "try to interfere with the business or artistic workings of the process known as Elvis Presley".[162]
Memphis Mafia[link]
Main article: Memphis Mafia
In the early 1960s, the circle of friends with whom Presley constantly surrounded himself until his death came to be known as the "Memphis Mafia".[327] "Surrounded by the[ir] parasitic presence", as journalist John Harris puts it, "it was no wonder that as he slid into addiction and torpor, no-one raised the alarm: to them, Elvis was the bank, and it had to remain open."[328] Tony Brown, who played piano for Presley regularly in the last two years of the singer's life, observed his rapidly declining health and the urgent need to address it: "But we all knew it was hopeless because Elvis was surrounded by that little circle of people ... all those so-called friends".[329] In the Memphis Mafia's defense, Marty Lacker has said, "[Presley] was his own man. ... If we hadn't been around, he would have been dead a lot earlier."[330]
Larry Geller became Presley's hairdresser in 1964. Unlike others in the Memphis Mafia, he was interested in spiritual questions and recalls how, from their first conversation, Presley revealed his secret thoughts and anxieties: "I mean there has to be a purpose...there's got to be a reason...why I was chosen to be Elvis Presley. ... I swear to God, no one knows how lonely I get. And how empty I really feel."[331] Thereafter, Geller supplied him with books on religion and mysticism, which the singer read voraciously.[332] Presley would be preoccupied by such matters for much of his life, taking trunkloads of books with him on tour.[221]
Sex symbol[link]
Presley's physical attractiveness and sexual appeal were widely acknowledged. "He was once beautiful, astonishingly beautiful", in the words of critic Mark Feeney.[333] Television director Steve Binder, no fan of Presley's music before he oversaw the '68 Comeback Special, reported, "I'm straight as an arrow and I got to tell you, you stop, whether you're male or female, to look at him. He was that good looking. And if you never knew he was a superstar, it wouldn't make any difference; if he'd walked in the room, you'd know somebody special was in your presence."[334] His performance style, as much as his physical beauty, was responsible for Presley's eroticized image. Writing in 1970, critic George Melly described him as "the master of the sexual simile, treating his guitar as both phallus and girl."[335] In his Presley obituary, Lester Bangs credited him as "the man who brought overt blatant vulgar sexual frenzy to the popular arts in America."[336] Ed Sullivan's declaration that he perceived a soda bottle in Presley's trousers was echoed by rumors involving a similarly positioned toilet roll tube or lead bar.[337]
While Presley was marketed as an icon of heterosexuality, some cultural critics have argued that his image was ambiguous. In 1959, Sight and Sound's Peter John Dyer described his onscreen persona as "aggressively bisexual in appeal".[338] Brett Farmer places the "orgasmic gyrations" of the title dance sequence in Jailhouse Rock within a lineage of cinematic musical numbers that offer a "spectacular eroticization, if not homoeroticization, of the male image".[339] In the analysis of Yvonne Tasker, "Elvis was an ambivalent figure who articulated a peculiar feminised, objectifying version of white working-class masculinity as aggressive sexual display."[340]
Reinforcing Presley's image as a sex symbol were the reports of his dalliances with various Hollywood stars and starlets, from Natalie Wood in the 1950s to Connie Stevens and Ann-Margret in the 1960s to Candice Bergen and Cybill Shepherd in the 1970s. June Juanico of Memphis, one of Presley's early girlfriends, later blamed Parker for encouraging him to choose his dating partners with publicity in mind.[190] Presley, however, never grew comfortable with the Hollywood scene, and most of these relationships were insubstantial.[341]
Legacy[link]
Further information: Cultural impact of Elvis Presley; Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley
His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense, and he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness, and good humor of his country.
Presley's rise to national attention in 1956 transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture.[4] As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude.[342] With its racially mixed origins—repeatedly affirmed by Presley—rock and roll's occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture.[343] In this regard, Little Richard said of Presley, "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."[344] Al Green agreed: "He broke the ice for all of us."[345] Presley also heralded the vastly expanded reach of celebrity in the era of mass communication: at the age of 21, within a year of his first appearance on American network television, he was one of the most famous people in the world.[346]
Presley's name, image, and voice are instantly recognizable around the globe.[347] He has inspired a legion of impersonators.[348] In polls and surveys, he is recognized as one of the most important popular music artists and influential Americans.f "Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century", said composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. "He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything—music, language, clothes. It's a whole new social revolution—the sixties came from it."[349] Bob Dylan described the sensation of first hearing Presley as "like busting out of jail".[345]
A New York Times editorial on the 25th anniversary of Presley's death observed, "All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force. ... Elvis's breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely."[350] Not only Presley's achievements, but his failings as well, are seen by some cultural observers as adding to the power of his legacy, as in this description by Greil Marcus:
Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons. ... The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues. ... Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American.[351]
Discography[link]
Main articles: Elvis Presley albums discography and Elvis Presley singles discography
A vast number of recordings have been issued under Presley's name. The total number of his original master recordings has been variously calculated as 665[275] and 711.[333] His career began and he was most successful during an era when singles were the primary commercial medium for pop music. In the case of his albums, the distinction between "official" studio records and other forms is often blurred. For most of the 1960s, his recording career focused on soundtrack albums. In the 1970s, his most heavily promoted and best-selling LP releases tended to be concert albums. This summary discography lists only the albums and singles that reached the top of one or more of the following charts: the main U.S. Billboard pop chart; the Billboard country chart, the genre chart with which he was most identified (there was no country album chart before 1964); and the official British pop chart.g In the United States, Presley also had five or six number one R&B singles and seven number one adult contemporary singles;h in 1964, his "Blue Christmas" topped the Christmas singles chart during a period when Billboard did not rank holiday singles in its primary pop chart.[241][352] He also had number one hits in many countries beside the United States and United Kingdom.
Number one albums[link]
| Year | Album | Type | Chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US[353] | US Country[354] | UK[259][355] | |||
| 1956 | Elvis Presley | studio/comp. | 1 | n.a. | 1 |
| Elvis | studio | 1 | n.a. | 3 | |
| 1957 | Loving You | sound./studio | 1 | n.a. | 1 |
| Elvis' Christmas Album | studio | 1 | n.a. | 2 | |
| 1960 | Elvis Is Back! | studio | 2 | n.a. | 1 |
| G.I. Blues | soundtrack | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
| 1961 | Something for Everybody | studio | 1 | n.a. | 2 |
| Blue Hawaii | soundtrack | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
| 1962 | Pot Luck | studio | 4 | n.a. | 1 |
| 1964 | Roustabout | soundtrack | 1 | — | 12 |
| 1969 | From Elvis in Memphis | studio | 13 | 2 | 1 |
| 1973 | Aloha from Hawaii: Via Satellite | live | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| 1974 | Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 1 | compilation | 43 | 1 | 20 |
| 1975 | Promised Land | studio | 47 | 1 | 21 |
| 1976 | From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee | studio | 41 | 1 | 29 |
| 1977 | Elvis' 40 Greatest | compilation | — | — | 1 |
| Moody Blue | studio/live | 3 | 1 | 3 | |
| Elvis in Concert | live | 5 | 1 | 13 | |
| 2002 | ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits | compilation | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2007 | Elvis the King | compilation | — | — | 1 |
Number one singles[link]
Filmography[link]
Main article: Elvis Presley filmography
See also[link]
 |
Book: Elvis Presley |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
- Elvis Presley Enterprises
- Honorific nicknames in popular music
- List of artists by total number of UK number one singles
- List of best-selling music artists
- Personal relationships of Elvis Presley
Notes[link]
- ^ Note a: Although some pronounce his surname "PREZ-lee", Presley himself used the pronunciation of the American South, "PRESS-lee", as did his family and those who worked with him.[357] The correct spelling of his middle name has long been a matter of debate. The physician who delivered him wrote "Elvis Aaron Presley" in his ledger.[358] The state-issued birth certificate reads "Elvis Aron Presley". The name was chosen after the Presleys' friend and fellow congregation member Aaron Kennedy, though a single-A spelling was probably intended by Presley's parents in order to parallel the middle name of Presley's stillborn brother, Jesse Garon.[138] It reads Aron on most official documents produced during his lifetime, including his high school diploma, RCA record contract, and marriage license, and this was generally taken to be the proper spelling.[359] In 1966, Presley expressed the desire to his father that the more traditional biblical rendering, Aaron, be used henceforth, "especially on legal documents."[358] Five years later, the Jaycees citation honoring him as one of the country's Outstanding Young Men used Aaron. Late in his life, he sought to officially change the spelling to Aaron and discovered that state records already listed it that way. Knowing his wishes for his middle name, Aaron is the spelling his father chose for Presley's tombstone, and it is the spelling his estate has designated as official.[359]
- ^ Note b: According to a third cousin of Presley's, one of Gladys's great-grandmothers was Jewish.[360] There is no evidence that Presley or his mother shared this belief in a Jewish heritage. Syndicated columnist Nate Bloom has challenged the cousin's account, which he calls a "tall tale".[361]
- ^ Note c: Of the $40,000, $5,000 covered back royalties owed by Sun.[73]
- ^ Note d: In 1956–57, Presley was also credited as a cowriter on several songs where he had no hand in the writing process: "Heartbreak Hotel"; "Don't Be Cruel"; all four songs from his first film, including the title track, "Love Me Tender"; "Paralyzed"; and "All Shook Up".[362] He received credit on two other songs to which he did contribute: he provided the title for "That's Someone You Never Forget" (1961), written by his friend Red West; Presley and West collaborated with another friend, guitarist Charlie Hodge, on "You'll Be Gone" (1962).[363]
- ^ Note e: Whitburn follows actual Billboard history in considering the four songs on the "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles as distinct. He tallies each side of the former single as a number one (Billboard's sales chart had "Don't Be Cruel" at number one for five weeks, then "Hound Dog" for six) and reckons "I Beg of You" as a top ten, as it reached number eight on the old Top 100 chart. Billboard now considers both singles as unified items, ignoring the historical sales split of the former and its old Top 100 chart entirely. Whitburn thus analyzes the four songs as yielding three number ones and a total of four top tens. Billboard now states that they yielded just two number ones and a total of two top tens, voiding the separate chart appearances of "Hound Dog" and "I Beg of You".
- ^ Note f: VH1 ranked Presley #8 among the "100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll" in 1998.[364] The BBC ranked him as the #2 "Voice of the Century" in 2001.[365] Rolling Stone placed him #3 in its list of "The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004.[366] CMT ranked him #15 among the "40 Greatest Men in Country Music" in 2005.[367] The Discovery Channel placed him #8 on its "Greatest American" list in 2005.[368] Variety put him in the top ten of its "100 Icons of the Century" in 2005.[369] The Atlantic Monthly ranked him #66 among the "100 Most Influential Figures in American History" in 2006.[370]
- ^ Note g: (1) The year given is the year the record first reached number one, rather than its original year of release. For instance, in 1974, Elvis' 40 Greatest, a compilation on the budget Arcade label, was the fourth highest selling album of the year in the United Kingdom; at the time, the main British chart did not rank such compilations, relegating them to a chart for midpriced and TV-advertised albums, which Elvis' 40 Greatest topped for 15 weeks.[371] The policy was altered in 1975, allowing the album to hit number one on the main chart in 1977, following Presley's death.[372] (2) Before late 1958, rather than unified pop and country singles charts, Billboard had as many as four charts for each, separately ranking records according to sales, jukebox play, jockey spins (i.e., airplay), and, in the case of pop, a general Top 100. Billboard now regards the sales charts as definitive for the period. Widely cited chart statistician Joel Whitburn accords historical releases the highest ranking they achieved among the separate charts. Presley discographer Ernst Jorgensen refers only to the Top 100 chart for pop hits. All of the 1956–58 songs listed here as number one U.S. pop hits reached the top of both the sales and, with three exceptions, the Top 100 charts: "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" (three), "Hound Dog" (two, behind its flip side, "Don't Be Cruel"), and "Hard Headed Woman" (two). (3) Several Presley singles reached number one in the United Kingdom as double A-sides; in the United States, the respective sides of those singles were ranked separately by Billboard.
- ^ Note h: Whitburn calculates a total of six number one R&B singles, including "Don't Be Cruel", released as a double A-side with "Hound Dog";[352] Billboard's Keith Caulfield excludes "Don't Be Cruel".[241]
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- ^ Rodman 1996, pp. 58–59.
- ^ Garber 1997, p. 366.
- ^ Dyer 1959–60, p. 30.
- ^ Farmer 2000, p. 86.
- ^ Tasker 2007, p. 208.
- ^ Kirchberg & Hendrickx 1999, p. 109.
- ^ Sadie 1994, p. 638.
- ^ Bertrand 2000, p. 94.
- ^ Rodman 1996, p. 193.
- ^ a b Victor 2008, p. 356.
- ^ Arnett 2006, p. 400.
- ^ Doss 1999, p. 2.
- ^ Lott 1997, p. 192.
- ^ Keogh 2004, p. 2.
- ^ The New York Times 2002.
- ^ Marcus 1982, pp. 141–42.
- ^ a b Whitburn 2004, pp. 500–1.
- ^ Whitburn 2007.
- ^ Whitburn 2008.
- ^ a b everyHit.com 2009.
- ^ Whitburn 2006, pp. 271–73.
- ^ Elster 2006, p. 391.
- ^ a b Nash 2005, p. 11.
- ^ a b Adelman 2002, pp. 13–15.
- ^ Dundy 2004, p. 21.
- ^ Bloom 2010.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 35, 51, 57, 61, 75.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 157–58, 166, 168.
- ^ VH1 1998.
- ^ BBC News 2001.
- ^ Rolling Stone 2004.
- ^ CMT 2005.
- ^ Discovery Channel 2005.
- ^ Variety.com 2005.
- ^ The Atlantic Monthly 2006.
- ^ Mawer 2007a.
- ^ Mawer 2007b.
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Further reading[link]
- Allen, Lew (2007). Elvis and the Birth of Rock. Genesis. ISBN 1-905662-00-9.
- Ann-Margret and Todd Gold (1994). Ann-Margret: My Story. G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-13891-9.
- Cantor, Louis (2005). Dewey and Elvis: The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02981-X.
- Dickerson, James L. (2001). Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager. Cooper Square Press. ISBN 0-8154-1267-3.
- Finstad, Suzanne (1997). Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-70585-0.
- Goldman, Albert (1981). Elvis. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-023657-7.
- Goldman, Albert (1990). Elvis: The Last 24 Hours. St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-92541-7.
- Klein, George (2010). Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-307-45274-0
- Marcus, Greil (1999). Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-19422-5.
- Marcus, Greil (2000). Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternative. Picador. ISBN 0-571-20676-X.
- Nash, Alanna (2010). Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him. It Books. ISBN 0-06-169984-5.
- West, Red, Sonny West, and Dave Hebler (as told to Steve Dunleavy) (1977). Elvis: What Happened? Bantam Books. ISBN 0-345-27215-3.
External links[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elvis Presley |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Elvis Presley |
- Elvis Presley at the Internet Movie Database
- Elvis Presley at AllRovi
- Elvis Presley discography at Discogs
- Elvis Presley Enterprises official site of the Elvis Presley brand
- Elvis The Music official record label site
- Elvis Presley Interviews on officially sanctioned Elvis Australia site
- Elvis Presley at the Open Directory Project
- Elvis Presley Ancestry at Genealogy.com
- Elvis Presley 1955 interview material on Pop Chronicles
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Presley, Elvis Aaron |
| Alternative names | Presley, Elvis Aaron |
| Short description | American singer, song producer and actor; "The King of Rock'n'Roll" |
| Date of birth | (1935-01-08)January 8, 1935 |
| Place of birth | Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Date of death | August 16, 1977(1977-08-16) |
| Place of death | Memphis, Tennessee, USA |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
For the company founded by Henson, see The Jim Henson Company. For individuals named James Hanson, see James Hanson (disambiguation).
| Jim Henson | |
|---|---|
_headshot.jpg) Henson at the 1989 Emmy Awards |
|
| Born | James Maury Henson (1936-09-24)September 24, 1936 Greenville, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | May 16, 1990(1990-05-16) (aged 53) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Organ failure |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Northwestern High School |
| Alma mater | University of Maryland, College Park |
| Occupation | Puppeteer Film director Television producer |
| Years active | 1954–90 |
| Known for | Creator of The Muppets |
| Home town | Leland, Mississippi |
| Board member of | Jim Henson Foundation The Jim Henson Company Jim Henson's Creature Shop |
| Spouse | Jane Nebel (1959–86; separated) |
| Children | Lisa Henson Cheryl Henson Brian Henson John Henson Heather Henson |
| Parents | Paul Ransom Henson Betty Marcella (née Brown) |
| Awards | Courage Conscience Award Disney Legend Award Emmy Award |
James Maury "Jim" Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for projects like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. He was also an Oscar-nominated film director, Emmy Award-winning television producer, and the founder of The Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He died on May 16, 1990 of organ failure resulting from a Group A streptococcal infection caused by Streptococcus pyogenes.
Henson, who was born in Greenville, Mississippi and educated at University of Maryland, College Park, is one of the most widely known puppeteers ever.[1] He created Sam and Friends as a freshman in College Park. After suffering struggles with programs that he created, he eventually was selected to participate in Sesame Street. During this time, he also contributed to Saturday Night Live. The success of Sesame Street spawned The Muppet Show, which featured Muppets created by Henson. He also co-created with Michael Jacobs the television show Dinosaurs during his final years. On June 16, 2011, he posthumously received the Disney Legends Award.
Contents |
Early life[link]
Jim Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi, the younger of two boys. His parents were Betty Marcella (née Brown) and Paul Ransom Henson, an agronomist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.[2] He was raised as a Christian Scientist and spent his early childhood in Leland, Mississippi, moving with his family to Hyattsville, Maryland, near Washington, DC, in the late 1940s.[3] He later remembered the arrival of the family's first television as "the biggest event of his adolescence,"[4] having been heavily influenced by radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the early television puppets of Burr Tillstrom (on Kukla, Fran, and Ollie) and Bil and Cora Baird.[4]
In 1954 while attending Northwestern High School, he began working for WTOP-TV, creating puppets for a Saturday morning children's show called The Junior Morning Show. After graduating from high school, Henson enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park, as a studio arts major, thinking he might become a commercial artist.[5] A puppetry class offered in the applied arts department introduced him to the craft and textiles courses in the College of Home Economics, and he graduated in 1960 with a B.S. in home economics. As a freshman, he had been asked to create Sam and Friends, a five-minute puppet show for WRC-TV. The characters on Sam and Friends were forerunners of Muppets, and the show included a prototype of Henson's most famous character: Kermit the Frog.[6]Henson would remain at WRC for seven years from 1954 to 1961. "Among the first of his assignments at WRC was Afternoon, a magazine show aimed at housewives. This marked his first collaboration with Jane Nebel—the woman who later became his wife"[7]
In the show he began experimenting with techniques that would change the way puppetry had been used on television, including using the frame defined by the camera shot to allow the puppeteer to work from off-camera. Believing that television puppets needed to have "life and sensitivity,"[8] Henson began making characters from flexible, fabric-covered foam rubber, allowing them to express a wider array of emotions at a time when many puppets were made of carved wood.[2] A marionette's arms are manipulated by strings, but Henson used rods to move his Muppets' arms, allowing greater control of expression. Additionally, Henson wanted the Muppet characters to "speak" more creatively than was possible for previous puppets—which had seemed to have random mouth movements—so he used precise mouth movements to match the dialogue.
When Henson began work on Sam and Friends, he asked fellow University of Maryland freshman Jane Nebel to assist him. The show was a financial success, but after graduating from college, Jim began to have doubts about going into a career as a puppeteer. He wandered off to Europe for several months, where he was inspired by European puppeteers who look on their work as an art form.[9] Upon Henson's return to the United States, he and Jane began dating. They were married in 1959 and had five children, Lisa (b. 1960), Cheryl (b. 1961), Brian (b. 1962), John (b. 1965), and Heather (b. 1970).
Projects in the 1960s[link]
Despite the success of Sam and Friends, which ran for six years, Henson spent much of the next two decades working in commercials, talk shows, and children's projects before being able to realize his dream of the Muppets as "entertainment for everybody".[4] The popularity of his work on Sam and Friends in the late fifties led to a series of guest appearances on network talk and variety shows. Henson himself appeared as a guest on many shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show (although on his appearance on the Sept. 11, 1966 episode of the show—released to DVD on 2011 as part of a collection of episodes featuring the Rolling Stones—Sullivan mis-introduces Henson as "Jim Newsom and his Puppets"). This greatly increased exposure led to hundreds of commercial appearances by Henson characters throughout the sixties.
Among the most popular of Henson's commercials was a series for the local Wilkins Coffee company in Washington, D.C.,[10] in which his Muppets were able to get away with a greater level of slapstick violence than might have been acceptable with human actors and would later find its way into many acts on The Muppet Show. In the first Wilkins ad, a Muppet named Wilkins is poised behind a cannon seen in profile. Another Muppet named Wontkins (with Rowlf's voice) is in front of its barrel. Wilkins asks, "What do you think of Wilkins Coffee?" and Wontkins responds gruffly, "Never tasted it!" Wilkins fires the cannon and blows Wontkins away, then turns the cannon directly toward the viewer and ends the ad with, "Now, what do you think of Wilkins?" Henson later explained, "Till then, [advertising] agencies believed that the hard sell was the only way to get their message over on television. We took a very different approach. We tried to sell things by making people laugh."[11] The first seven-second commercial for Wilkins was an immediate hit and was syndicated and re-shot by Henson for local coffee companies across the United States;[10] he ultimately produced more than 300 coffee ads.[11] The same setup was used to pitch Kraml Milk in the Chicago, Il., area and Red Diamond coffee.
In 1963 Henson and his wife moved to New York City, where the newly formed Muppets, Inc., would reside for some time. Jane quit muppeteering to raise their children. Henson hired writer Jerry Juhl in 1961 and puppeteer Frank Oz in 1963 to replace her.[12] Henson later credited both writers with developing much of the humor and character of his Muppets.[13] Henson and Oz developed a close friendship and a performing partnership that lasted 27 years; their teamwork is particularly evident in their portrayals of the characters of Bert and Ernie and Kermit and Fozzie Bear.[14]
Henson's sixties' talk show appearances culminated when he devised Rowlf, a piano-playing anthropomorphic dog. Rowlf became the first Muppet to make regular appearances on a network show, The Jimmy Dean Show. Henson was so grateful for this break that he offered Jimmy Dean a 40% interest in his production company, but Dean declined stating that Henson deserved all the rewards for his own work, a decision of conscience Dean never regretted.[15] From 1963 to 1966, Henson began exploring film-making and produced a series of experimental films.[16] His nine-minute Time Piece was nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for an Oscar for Short Film in 1966. The year 1969 saw the production of the NBC-TV movie The Cube—another Henson-produced experimental film.
Also around this time, the first drafts of a live-action experimental film script were written with Jerry Juhl, which would eventually become Henson's last unproduced full-length screenplay, Tale of Sand. The script remained in the Henson Company archives until the screenplay was adapted in the 2012 graphic novel, Jim Henson's Tale of Sand.
[edit] Sesame Street
Main article: Sesame Street
In 1969, Joan Ganz Cooney and the team at the Children's Television Workshop asked Henson to work on Sesame Street, a visionary children's program for public television. Part of the show was set aside for a series of funny, colorful puppet characters living on the titular street. These included Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster and Big Bird. Henson performed the characters of Ernie, game-show host Guy Smiley, and Kermit, who appeared as a roving television news reporter. It was around this time that a frill was added around Kermit's neck to make him more frog-like. The collar was functional as well: it covered the joint where the Muppet's neck and body met.
At first Henson's Muppets appeared separately from the realistic segments on the Street, but after a poor test-screening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the show was revamped to integrate the two, placing much greater emphasis on Henson's work. Though Henson would often downplay his role in Sesame Street's success, Cooney frequently praised Jim's work and, in 1990, the Public Broadcasting Service called him "the spark that ignited our fledgling broadcast service."[4] The success of Sesame Street also allowed Henson to stop producing commercials. He later remembered that "it was a pleasure to get out of that world".[10]
In addition to creating and performing Muppet characters, Henson was involved in producing various film and animation insets during the first two seasons. During the first, Henson produced a series of counting films for the numbers 1 through 10, which always ended with a baker (voiced by Henson) falling down the stairs while carrying the featured number of desserts. For seasons two to seven, Henson worked on a variety of inserts for the numbers 2 through 12, in a number of different styles—including film ("Dollhouse", "Number Three Ball Film"), stop-motion ("King of Eight", "Queen of Six"), cut-out animation ("Eleven Cheer"), and computer animation ("Nobody Counts To 10").
Concurrently with the first years of Sesame Street, Henson directed Tales from Muppetland, a short series of TV movie specials—in the form of comedic tellings of classic fairy tales—aimed at a young audience and hosted by Kermit the Frog. The series included Hey, Cinderella!, The Frog Prince, and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen.
Expansion of audience[link]
Concerned that the company was becoming typecast as a purveyor of solely children's entertainment, Henson, Frank Oz, and his team targeted an adult audience with a series of sketches on the first season of the groundbreaking comedy series Saturday Night Live (SNL). Eleven "Dregs and Vestiges" sketches, set mostly in the Land of Gorch, aired between October 1975 and January 1976, with four additional appearances in March, April, May, and September. Henson recalled that "I saw what [creator Lorne Michaels] was going for and I really liked it and wanted to be a part of it, but somehow what we were trying to do and what his writers could write for it never gelled."[10] The SNL writers never got comfortable writing for the characters, and frequently disparaged Henson's creations; one, Michael O'Donoghue, memorably quipped, "I won't write for felt."[17]
Around the time of Henson's characters' final appearances on SNL, he began developing two projects featuring the Muppets: a Broadway show and a weekly television series.[10] In 1976 the series was initially rejected by the American networks who believed that Muppets would appeal to only a child audience. Henson was finally able to convince British impresario Lew Grade to finance the show, which would be shot in the United Kingdom and syndicated worldwide.[9] That same year, he abandoned work on his Broadway show and moved his creative team to England, where The Muppet Show began filming. The Muppet Show featured Kermit as host, and a variety of other memorable characters, notably Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great, and Fozzie Bear. Kermit's role on The Muppet Show was often compared by his co-workers to Henson's role in Muppet Productions: a shy, gentle boss with "a whim of steel"[14] who "[ran] things as firmly as it is possible to run an explosion in a mattress factory."[18] Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, remembered that Henson "would never say he didn't like something. He would just go 'Hmm.' That was famous. And if he liked it, he would say, 'Lovely!' "[3]Henson himself recognized Kermit as an alter-ego, though he thought that Kermit was bolder than his creator; he once said of Kermit, "He can say things I hold back."[19]
Jim Henson was the performer for several well known characters, including Kermit the Frog, Rowlf the Dog, Dr. Teeth, the Swedish Chef, Waldorf, Link Hogthrob, and the Muppet Newsman.
Transition to the big screen[link]
Three years after the start of The Muppet Show, the Muppets appeared in their first theatrical feature film, 1979's The Muppet Movie. The film was both a critical and financial success;[20] it made US$65.2 million domestically and (at the time) was the 61st highest-grossing film ever made.[21]
A song from the film, "The Rainbow Connection", sung by Henson as Kermit, hit No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1981, a Henson-directed sequel, The Great Muppet Caper, followed, and Henson decided to end the still-popular Muppet Show to concentrate on making films.[2] From time to time, the Muppet characters continued to appear in made-for-TV-movies and television specials.
In addition to his own puppetry projects, Henson also aided others in their work. In 1979, he was asked by the producers of the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back to aid make-up artist Stuart Freeborn in the creation and articulation of enigmatic Jedi Master Yoda. Henson suggested to Star Wars creator George Lucas that he use Frank Oz as the puppeteer and voice of Yoda. Oz voiced Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back and each of the four subsequent Star Wars films, and the naturalistic, lifelike Yoda became one of the most popular characters of the Star Wars franchise. Lucas even lobbied unsuccessfully to have Oz nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.[22]
In 1982, Henson founded the Jim Henson Foundation to promote and develop the art of puppetry in the United States. Around that time, he also began creating darker and more realistic fantasy films that did not feature the Muppets and displayed "a growing, brooding interest in mortality."[14] With 1982's The Dark Crystal, which he co-directed with Frank Oz and also co-wrote, Henson said he was "trying to go toward a sense of realism—toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive [where] it's not so much a symbol of the thing, but you're trying to [present] the thing itself."[10] To provide a visual style distinct from the Muppets, the puppets in The Dark Crystal were based on conceptual artwork by Brian Froud.
The Dark Crystal was a financial and critical success, and, a year later, the Muppet-starring The Muppets Take Manhattan (directed by Frank Oz) did fair box-office business, grossing $25.5 million domestically and ranking as one of the top 40 films of 1984.[23] However, 1986's Labyrinth, a Crystal-like fantasy that Henson directed by himself, was considered (in part due to its cost) a commercial disappointment. Despite some positive reviews (The New York Times called it "a fabulous film"),[24] the commercial failure of Labyrinth demoralized Henson to the point that son Brian Henson remembered the time of its release as being "the closest I've seen him to turning in on himself and getting quite depressed."[14] The film later became a cult classic.[25] Henson and his wife also separated the same year, although they remained close for the rest of his life.[3] Jane later said that Jim was so involved with his work that he had very little time to spend with her or their children.[3] All five of his children began working with Muppets at an early age, partly because, as Cheryl Henson remembered, "one of the best ways of being around him was to work with him".[8]
Later career[link]
File:Jim Henson and Ninja Turtles 1990.jpeg
Henson on the set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990).
Though he was still engaged in creating children's television, such as the successful eighties shows Fraggle Rock and the animated Muppet Babies, Henson continued to explore darker, mature themes with the folk tale and mythology-oriented show The Storyteller (1988). The Storyteller won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program. The next year, Henson returned to television with The Jim Henson Hour, which mixed lighthearted Muppet fare with riskier material. The show was critically well received and won Henson another Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Variety or Music Program, but was canceled after 13 episodes due to low ratings. Henson blamed its failure on NBC's constant rescheduling.[26]
In late 1989, Henson entered into negotiations to sell his company to The Walt Disney Company for almost $150 million, hoping that, with Disney handling business matters, he would "be able to spend a lot more of my time on the creative side of things."[26] By 1990, he had completed production on a television special, The Muppets at Walt Disney World, and a Disney World (Later Disney California Adventure Park as well) attraction, Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D, and was developing film ideas and a television series titled Muppet High.[3]
[edit] Natural History Project and Dinosaurs
In the late 1980s, Henson worked with illustrator/designer William Stout on a feature film starring animatronic dinosaurs with the working title of The Natural History Project. In 1991, news stories written around the premiere of The Jim Henson Company-produced Dinosaurs sitcom highlighted the show's connection to Henson. "Jim Henson dreamed up the show's basic concept about three years ago," said a New York Times article in April 1991. "'He wanted it to be a sitcom with a pretty standard structure, with the biggest differences being that it's a family of dinosaurs and their society has this strange toxic life style,' said [his son] Brian Henson. But until The Simpsons took off, said Alex Rockwell, a vice president of the Henson organization, 'people thought it was a crazy idea.'"[27] A New Yorker article said that Henson continued to work on a dinosaur project (presumably the Dinosaurs concept) until the "last months of his life."[28]
Illness and death[link]
During production of his later projects, Henson began to experience flu-like symptoms.[3] On May 4, 1990, Henson made an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show, one of his last television appearances. At the time, he mentioned to his publicist that he was tired and had a sore throat, but felt that it would go away.[3]
On May 12, 1990, Henson traveled to Ahoskie, North Carolina, with his daughter Cheryl to visit his father and stepmother. The next day, feeling tired and ill, he consulted a physician in North Carolina, who could find no evidence of pneumonia by physical examination and prescribed no treatment except aspirin.[29] Henson returned to New York on an earlier flight and cancelled a Muppet recording session scheduled for May 14.[3]
Henson's wife Jane, from whom he was separated, came to visit and sat with him talking throughout the evening. At 2 am on May 15, Henson was having trouble breathing and began coughing up blood. He suggested to his wife that he might be dying, but did not want to bother going to the hospital which would have gone against his religion. She later told People Magazine that it was likely due to his desire not to be a bother to people.[3]
Two hours later, Henson finally agreed to go to New York Hospital. By the time he was admitted at 4:58 am, he could no longer breathe on his own and had abscesses in his lungs. He was placed on a mechanical ventilator to help him breathe, but his condition deteriorated rapidly into septic shock, despite aggressive treatment with multiple antibiotics. After two cardiac arrests over 20 hours after he was admitted, Jim Henson died on the morning of May 16, 1990, at the age of 53.
The official cause of death was first reported as Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterial infection.[4] Bacterial pneumonia is usually caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, an alpha-hemolytic species of Streptococcus. Henson's cause of death, however, was organ failure resulting from Streptococcus pyogenes, a severe Group A streptococcal infection.[30] S. pyogenes is the bacterial species that causes strep throat, scarlet fever, and rheumatic fever. It can also cause other infections.
On May 21, a public memorial service was held in New York City at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Another one was held on July 2 at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. As per Henson's wishes, no one in attendance wore black, and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band finished the service by performing "When the Saints Go Marching In". Harry Belafonte sang "Turn the World Around," a song he had debuted on The Muppet Show, as each member of the congregation waved, with a puppeteer's rod, an individual, brightly colored foam butterfly.[31][32] Later, Big Bird (performed by Caroll Spinney) walked out onto the stage and sang Kermit the Frog's signature song, "Bein' Green".[33] Henson was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery. His ashes were scattered in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at his ranch.[34]
In the final minutes of the two-and-a-half hour service, six of the core Muppet performers sang, in their characters' voices, a medley of Jim Henson's favorite songs, culminating in a performance of "Just One Person" that began with Richard Hunt singing alone, as Scooter.[35] "As each verse progressed," Henson employee Chris Barry recalled, "each Muppeteer joined in with their own Muppets until the stage was filled with all the Muppet performers and their beloved characters."[33] The funeral was later described by LIFE as "an epic and almost unbearably moving event." The image of a growing number of performers singing "Just One Person" was recreated for the 1990 television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson and inspired screenwriter Richard Curtis, who attended the London service, to write the growing-orchestra wedding scene of his 2003 film Love Actually.[36]
Henson's sudden death resulted in an outpouring of public and professional affection. There have since been numerous tributes and dedications in his memory. Henson’s companies, which are now run by his children, continue to produce films and television shows.
Legacy[link]
The Jim Henson Company and the Jim Henson Foundation continued after his death, producing new series and specials. Jim Henson's Creature Shop, founded by Henson, also continues to build creatures for a large number of other films and series (e.g. the science-fiction production Farscape, the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the movie MirrorMask) and is considered one of the most advanced and well respected creators of film creatures. His son Brian and daughter Lisa are currently the co-chairs and co-CEOs of the company; his daughter Cheryl is the president of the foundation. Steve Whitmire, a veteran member of the Muppet puppeteering crew, has assumed the roles of Kermit the Frog and Ernie, the most famous characters formerly played by Jim Henson.[37]
On February 17, 2004, it was announced that the Muppets (excluding the Sesame Street characters, which are separately owned by Sesame Workshop) and the Bear in the Big Blue House properties had been sold by Henson's heirs to The Walt Disney Company. However, as a result, Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop), also lost the rights to Kermit the Frog, and he could no longer appear on any new material on Sesame Street, although Kermit did later appear on the premiere of the show's 40th season on November 10, 2009.
One of Henson's last projects is a show attraction in Walt Disney World and Disneyland featuring the Muppets, called Muppet*Vision 3D, which opened in 1991, shortly after his death.
The Jim Henson Company retains the Creature Shop, as well as the rest of its film and television library including Fraggle Rock, Farscape, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth.[38]
In 2010 it was announced that the first major biography of Henson, sanctioned by the family and the Jim Henson Legacy, was under way.[39]
Tributes[link]
File:Mickeykermit.jpg
Disney artists Joe Lanzisero and Tim Kirk drew this tribute of Mickey Mouse consoling Kermit the Frog, which appeared in the Summer 1990 issue of WD Eye, Walt Disney Imagineering’s employee magazine.
- Henson is honored both as himself and as Kermit the Frog on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Only two other people have received this honor: Mel Blanc, the voice actor of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck; and Walt Disney, the voice actor of Mickey Mouse.
- The theater at his alma mater, Northwestern High School, in Hyattsville, MD, is named in his honor.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and The Muppet Christmas Carol are both dedicated to him.
- Stephen Lynch produced a song titled "Jim Henson's Dead", in which he pays homage to many of the characters from The Muppet Show and Sesame Street.
- Henson featured in The American Adventure in Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort.
- Philip Roth often quotes Jim Henson in his Sabbath's Theater as the "great regret" for Mickey Sabbath.
- The Jim Henson Museum, located in his hometown of Leland, Mississippi, features an assortment of original Muppet characters, official certificates from the Mississippi Legislature honoring Henson and his characters, and a statue of Kermit in the middle of the stream behind the museum.
- The 1990 television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson allowed the Muppets themselves to pay tribute to Henson. The special featured interviews with Steven Spielberg and others.
- Celtic singer, musician, and songwriter Heather Alexander wrote a song titled "Storyteller" in 1990 as a tribute to Jim Henson which harkens to his "Storyteller" series as well as his role as a modern storyteller.
- Tom Smith's Henson tribute song, "A Boy and His Frog", won the Pegasus Award for Best Folk Song in 1991.
- Henson was featured in Boyz II Men's 1991 video, "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday".
- Episode 2880 of Sesame Street (which aired on November 15, 1991) was dedicated in his memory, with a memorial card following the closing credits.
- The classes of 1994, 1998, and 1999 at the University of Maryland, College Park, Henson's alma mater, commissioned a life-size statue of Henson and Kermit the Frog, which was dedicated on September 24, 2003, Henson's 67th birthday. The statue cost $217,000, and is displayed outside Maryland's student union.[40] In 2006, Maryland introduced 50 statues of their school mascot, Testudo the Terrapin, with various designs chosen by different sponsoring groups. Among them was Kertle, a statue by Washington DC artist Elizabeth Baldwin designed to look like Kermit the Frog.
- On the evening of October 25, 2000, Comedy Central had a banner sign that said: Jim Henson [1936–1990].
- In 2003, Jim Henson was honored at the annual Norsk Høstfest in Minot, North Dakota.[41]
- Oury Atlan, Thibaut Berland, and Damien Ferri wrote, directed, and animated a 3D tribute to Henson entitled Over Time that was shown as part of the 2005 Electronic Theater at SIGGRAPH.
- The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia, has acquired more than 700 puppets created by Henson and his studio, including some of the earliest Muppets. Many of these are displayed in the museum exhibit Jim Henson: Puppeteer. In September 2008, the Center opened Jim Henson: Wonders From His Workshop, highlighting creations from Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, and other later works.
- On September 24, 2011, Henson's hometown of Leland renamed one of their bridges "The Rainbow Connection" to honor Henson and his work.[42] He was also honored with a Google doodle on his 75th birthday; the Google logo had six Muppets that were clickable using the “hand” buttons.[43]
References[link]
- ^ "HowStuffWorks.com". Videos.howstuffworks.com. December 18, 2007. http://videos.howstuffworks.com/howstuffworks/487-how-puppets-work-jim-hensons-legacy-video.htm. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
- ^ a b c Padgett, John B.. "Jim Henson". The Mississippi Writers Page. University of Mississippi Department of English. February 17, 1999. http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/henson_jim/index.html. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Schindehette, Susan; J.D. Podolsky (June 18, 1990). "Legacy of a Gentle Genius" (reprint). People (Time): pp. 88–96. http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/tributes/henson/hensonarticle5.shtml. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e Blau, Eleanor (May 17, 1990). "Jim Henson, Puppeteer, Dies; The Muppets’ Creator Was 53". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5DF163BF934A25756C0A966958260. Retrieved May 1, 2007.
- ^ Finch (1993). p. 9.
- ^ Finch (1993). p. 102.
- ^ Finch, Jim Henson – The Works (1993). p. 15.
- ^ a b Collins, James (June 8, 1998). "Time 100: Jim Henson". TIME. Archived from the original on April 28, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070428125811/http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/henson.html. Retrieved May 1, 2007.
- ^ a b "The Man Behind the Frog". TIME. December 25, 1978. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,948401,00.html. Retrieved May 1, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f Harris, Judy (September 21, 1998). "Muppet Master: An Interview with Jim Henson". Muppet Central. http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/interviews/jim1.shtml. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
- ^ a b Finch (1993). p. 22.
- ^ Plume, Kenneth. "Interview with Frank Oz". IGN FilmForce. IGN, February 10, 2000. http://movies.ign.com/articles/035/035842p1.html. Retrieved May 6, 2007.
- ^ Freeman, Don (1979). "Muppets On His Hands". The Saturday Evening Post 251.8. pp. 50–53, 126.
- ^ a b c d Harrigan, Stephen (July 1990). "It’s Not Easy Being Blue" (reprint). LIFE. http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/tributes/henson/hensonarticle6.shtml. Retrieved May 6, 2007.
- ^ "A Hell Of A Man Himself". The Bluegrass Special.com. http://thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2010/july10/jimmy-dean-news-notes.php. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
- ^ "Jim Henson’s Experimental Period". zenbullets.com. http://zenbullets.com/blog/?p=110. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
- ^ Shales, Tom; Miller, James Andrew (2002). Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 79–80. ISBN 0-316-78146-0.
- ^ Skow, John (December 25, 1978). "Those Marvelous Muppets". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,948400,00.html. Retrieved May 1, 2007.
- ^ Seligmann, J.; Leonard, E. (May 28, 1990). "Jim Henson: 1936–1990". Newsweek.
- ^ Finch (1993). p. 128.
- ^ "The Muppet Movie", Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 11, 2007.
- ^ Finch (1993). p. 176.
- ^ "1984 Yearly Box Office Results", Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 11, 2007.
- ^ Darnton, Nina (June 27, 1986). "Jim Henson's "Labyrinth"". The New York Times. http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?res=9A0DE5DC1139F934A15755C0A960948260. Retrieved May 6, 2007. [dead link]
- ^ Sparrow, A.E.. "Return to Labyrinth Vol. 1 Review". IGN.com. http://comics.ign.com/articles/732/732053p1.html. September 11, 2006. Retrieved July 10, 2007.
- ^ a b "Dialogue on Film: Jim Henson". American Film (American Film Institute): pp. 18–21. November 1989.
- ^ Kahn, Eve M. "All in the Modern Stone Age Family", The New York Times (Apr. 14, 1991). Accessed Feb 20, 2009.
- ^ Owen, David. "Looking Out for Kermit", The New Yorker (Aug. 16, 1993.)
- ^ Angier, Natalie (May 17, 1990). "An Aggressive Infection, Abrupt and Overwhelming". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CEFD6113BF934A25756C0A966958260. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ Altman, Lawrence (May 29, 1990). "The Doctor's World; Henson Death Shows Danger of Pneumonia". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D6133BF93AA15756C0A966958260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ Blau, Eleanor (May 22, 1990). "Henson Is Remembered as a Man With Artistry, Humanity and Fun". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DF143CF931A15756C0A966958260. Retrieved May 14, 2007.
- ^ Jim Henson Memorial 'Turn The World Around' Sung by Harry Belafonte. May 22, 1990. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Em3vVwsm0. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
- ^ a b Barry, Chris. "Saying "Goodbye" to Jim". JimHillMedia.com. http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/chris_barry/archive/2005/09/08/1722.aspx. September 8, 2005. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ "Findagrave.com". Findagrave.com. January 1, 2001. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2210&FLid=16911114&FLgrid=2210&. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
- ^ NPR Fresh Air
- ^ Curtis, Richard (screenwriter). Love Actually audio commentary (DVD). April 24, 2004.
- ^ Plume, Kenneth (July 19, 1999). "Ratting Out: An Interview with Muppeteer Steve Whitmire". Muppet Central. http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/interviews/whitmire3.shtml. Retrieved July 11, 2007.
- ^ Meier, Barry (February 18, 2004). "Kermit and Miss Piggy Join Stable of Walt Disney Stars". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905EFDE123DF93BA25751C0A9629C8B63. Retrieved April 8, 2008.
- ^ "Jim Henson Biography Acquired by Ballantine". http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/jim-henson-biography-acquired-by-ballantine_b12261.
- ^ "Jim Henson Statue & Memorial FAQ". UMD Newsdesk. University of Maryland. July 28, 2004. http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/images/Henson/Articles/FAQ.html. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ "''Jim Henson.10/8/2003'' (Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame)". Hostfest.com. October 8, 2003. http://hostfest.com/halloffame/view.asp?ID=107. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
- ^ Victoria Advocate, BC/Louisiana/Mississippi Digest, 6/27/11[dead link]
- ^ Cavna, Michael. "JIM HENSON’s MUPPETS: New Google Doodle celebrates late creator’s 75th birthday". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/jim-hensons-muppets-new-google-doodle-celebrates-late-creators-75th-birthday/2011/09/23/gIQAefxbrK_blog.html. Retrieved September 24, 2011.
Further reading[link]
- Finch, Christopher (1981). Of Muppets and Men: The Making of The Muppet Show. New York: Muppet Press/Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-52085-8.
- Finch, Christopher (1993). Jim Henson: The Works—The Art, the Magic, the Imagination. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-41203-4.
External links[link]
This audio file was created from a revision of the "Jim Henson" article dated 2008-01-17, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
Media related to Jim Henson at Wikimedia Commons
- The Jim Henson Legacy
- Jim Henson at the Internet Movie Database
- Art Directors Club biography and portrait
- Jim Henson at Find A Grave
- Jim Henson on Muppet Wiki, an external wiki
- The Jim Henson Works at the University of Maryland: 70+ digital videos available to students, scholars and visitors at the University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
- Early Jim Henson films in the AT&T Archives: "Robot" and "Charlie Magnetico," two films that Henson created for the Bell Data Communications Seminar in the early 1960s
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Henson, James Maury |
| Alternative names | Henson, Jim |
| Short description | American puppeteer |
| Date of birth | September 24, 1936 |
| Place of birth | Greenville, Mississippi, United States |
| Date of death | May 16, 1990 |
| Place of death | New York City, New York, United States |
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http://ru.wn.com/Хенсон, Джим
http://nl.wn.com/Jim Henson
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Henson
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is about the Dateline NBC correspondent. For the NFL punter, see Chris Hanson.
| Chris Hansen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Christopher Edward Hansen (1959-03-26) March 26, 1959 (age 53) Lansing, Michigan, U.S. |
| Occupation | Television personality News reporter |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Spouse | Mary Joan Hansen |
Christopher Edward "Chris" Hansen (born March 26, 1959) is an American television journalist. He is known for his work on Dateline NBC, in particular the former segment To Catch a Predator, which revolved around catching potential Internet sex predators using a sting operation.
Contents |
Career[link]
He went to Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills Michigan [1] [2]. Hansen became a reporter for Lansing NBC affiliate WILX in 1981 during his senior year at Michigan State University.[3][4] He then reported for WFLA in Tampa, various radio stations and newspapers in Michigan, WXYZ in Detroit, and WDIV as an investigative reporter and anchor from 1988.[3] In May 1993, Hansen joined NBC News as a correspondent for the newsmagazine Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric.[3]
[edit] Dateline NBC
Hansen's notable work for Dateline includes coverage of the Columbine massacre, the Oklahoma City terrorist attack, the Unabomber and the TWA Flight 800 disaster; as well as investigative reports on Indian child slave labor and on counterfeit prescription drug sales in China. Hansen was responsible for most of Dateline's coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as stories on terrorist groups and the operations of Al-Qaeda. He exposed how a group linked to Osama Bin Laden had tried to buy missiles and nuclear weapons components, and he also worked on an exclusive report detailing an attempted 1994 terrorist attack in France. His series on the lack of security at airports resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration opening an investigation and ultimately revising its policies.[3]
[edit] To Catch a Predator
Main article: To Catch a Predator
In conjunction with the website Perverted-Justice, Hansen hosted a series of Dateline NBC reports under the title To Catch a Predator. Volunteers from Perverted-Justice impersonated minors (the age range chosen for the show was 12-15)[5] in chat rooms online and agreed to meet with adults for sex.[6][7] The meeting places were "sting houses", where camera crews from NBC, and in later episodes local police, awaited the potential sexual predator.[8]
Capitalizing on the success of Hansen and his Predator investigations, Dateline NBC created three Tuesday night spin-offs of its original concept; Hansen hosted To Catch a Con Man and To Catch an I.D. Thief.[3] In March 2007, Hansen's book, To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids from Online Enemies Already in Your Home, was released in the American market.
Appearances[link]
Hansen has appeared on such television programs as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Adam Carolla Show, Today, Scarborough Country, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Rise Guys Morning Show, The Don and Mike Show, The Opie and Anthony Radio Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Glenn Beck Program, and Diggnation.
On January 9, 2007, Hansen appeared on the BET news series, American Gangster. The special, which was hosted by actor Ving Rhames, focused on Detroit drug lords, the Chambers Brothers gang. Hansen gave insight into the lives of the brothers based on the reporting he had done on them in the 1980s and 1990s as a reporter for ABC affiliate WXYZ (Channel 7) and NBC affiliate WDIV (Channel 4). On January 13, 2008 he attended the NBC Golden Globes Winners Special which was poorly attended by the nominees due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.[9]
Awards[link]
Hansen has received seven Emmy Awards, four Edward Murrow awards, three Clarion awards, the Overseas Press club award, an IRE, the National Press Club award, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Award; as well as awards for excellence from the Associated Press and United Press International.[citation needed]
Personal life[link]
Hansen was born in Lansing, Michigan but grew up in northern Detroit suburbs of West Bloomfield and Birmingham. In an interview with the Lansing City Pulse, Hansen said that watching the FBI and police investigate the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa when he was fourteen inspired him to want to become a journalist.[4] He graduated from Michigan State University College of Communication Arts and Sciences in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in telecommunications.[3][4]
He is married to Mary Joan Hansen; the couple has two sons. The family resides in Connecticut.[3]
References[link]
- ^ http://www.nndb.com/people/636/000129249/
- ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36665950/ns/dateline_nbc-the_hansen_files_with_chris_hansen/t/america-now-city-heartbreak-hope/#.T6OzSI4VwUs
- ^ a b c d e f g "Chris Hansen: Correspondent, "Dateline NBC"". NBC News. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3949042/ns/dateline_nbc. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
- ^ a b c McNamara, Neal (April 15, 2009). "News maker Chris Hansen". Lansing City Pulse. http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-2879-news-maker-chris-hansen.html. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
- ^ Though it should be noted that some USA states, although not all, have an age of consent of 17-18.
- ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14824427/#.TmVK7uZR4b0
- ^ Hansen, Chris. "Prominent men caught in Petaluma sting". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15130487/ns/dateline_nbc/t/prominent-men-caught-petaluma-sting/#.Tmeiw2NHsp4. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
- ^ Salkin, Allen (December 13, 2006). "Web Site Hunts Pedophiles, and TV Goes Along". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/technology/13justice.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
- ^ Willow, Molly. (January 14, 2008) The Columbus Dispatch Recitation of honorees so lame it hurt, Section: Features - Life & Arts; Page 1D
Further reading[link]
- Hansen, C. (2007) To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids From Online Enemies Already in your Home, New York City: Dutton
External links[link]
- Hansen's "Predator" blog
- Hansen's "ID Thief" blog
- Hansen's "Con Man" blog
- The Hansen Files website
- Hansen's Twitter Account
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Hansen, Chris |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | March 26, 1959 |
| Place of birth | Lansing, Michigan, U.S. |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Chris_Hansen
Related pages:
http://nl.wn.com/Chris Hansen
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hansen
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
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