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Black Capitalism is a movement among African Americans to build wealth through the ownership and development of businesses. It has not been acknowledged as a legitimate "movement" among African Americans, such as Black Nationalism or the civil rights movement as it has no organized body to promote its intent and goals. However, much in these movements were financed by the wealth of African Americans.

Historical roots[link]

Roots of Black Capitalism can be found in the lives of "Free Negroes" during times of the American Enslavement. Many records exist reporting the development of economic wealth by these "Free Negroes".

The earliest recorded words touting the economic upliftment of African Americans by an African American was written by Lewis Woodson under the pen name "Augustine" in the Coloured American newspaper. Woodson helped found Wilberforce University and the first AME Theological seminary, Payne Theological Seminary and was an early teacher and mentor of Martin Delany.

A prominent southern affluent Black was A. G. Gaston who was, at times, instrumental in the civil rights movement. Galston was influenced by Booker T. Washington, who was an early leader at the Tuskegee Institute. Another wealthy African American was Robert Reed Church, who founded the nation's first Black-owned bank, Solvent Savings, in 1906.

There are many historical and current examples of neighborhoods of prominent and affluent Blacks in American history. Some include the historical Highland Beach, Maryland and more recently Mount Airy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Prince George County, Maryland and DeKalb County, Georgia. Mainstream media identifies this with some interest.^[1]

A more focused movement of Black Capitalism can be found in the popular magazine Black Enterprise.

Strands of Black Capitalism[link]

There are two strands of Black Capitalism: the one focuses on success as a group, while the other focuses on success as an individual.

Group success[link]

One strain of Black Capitalism is immersed in the ethic of African Americans building wealth together, as exemplified in the Kwanzaa value of "ujamaa" meaning 'cooperative economics'. A prominent proponent and example of this cooperative economics is Russell Simmons who can be seen advocating the building of not only individual black businesses but communities of black businesses. Simmons has made the comment that Black MBA students and graduates have the notion that they want to own their own businesses, not to simply be employed in someone else's business.

The mentality of group success is highlighted and examined in the book Black Power Inc. by Cora Daniels. In her writings, Ms. Daniels says that the ethic of individual success is exemplified by African-Americans born before and during the civil-rights movement, while proponents of group success are born after the civil rights movement.

A recent effort to standardize black capitalism as a movement was introduced in two books: Black Labor: White Wealth and the more recent book Powernomics by Dr. Claud Anderson. In these two books Dr. Anderson outlines a schema on which black wealth can be coordinated and developed through a nine-issue plan.

Some see this group success strain of Black Capitalism as a form of Social entrepreneurship which aims to build businesses that are oriented around providing services and goods that benefit the community in which they were built. Others see this as an outgrowth of the communal and tribal ethic attributed to traditional African cultures.

Individual success[link]

A parallel, but seemingly opposing, strain of Black Capitalism stems from the American ideal of building individual wealth. Prominent examples of this can be popular figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Robert L. Johnson and so forth. The complaint leveled against the adherents to individual success from advocates of group success is that individually wealth African Americans have made millions of dollars and that in and of itself has made very little contribution to the plight of African Americans in general.

In general, African Americans and the media sometimes point to this phenomenon as "black flight" or "selling out" where affluent blacks move out of predominately black neighborhoods into affluent white neighborhoods. A history of some of this was documented in the book Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class by Otis Graham.

Issues facing Black Capitalism[link]

As distinct from racial integration[link]

The notion of racial integration is such that African Americans should be able to move and operate in a predominately white society safely. This effort at racial integration concerns mostly public spaces and private hiring practices. It is thought that attempts and movements supporting racial integration are efforts to enable blacks to assimilate into white institutions.

Black Capitalism is an effort to position Blacks as the owners of land, the means of production, and businesses that own either or both. The aim of Black Capitalism is to bolster self-reliance, both individually and communally.

Black Anti-Capitalism[link]

There are also two strands of thinking in African America, and specifically Black Nationalism, that is against capitalism as an economic system in all of its forms. One strand is against capitalism on the basis of the historical treatment of Africans and the African Diaspora, i.e. slavery, subjugation, and colonization. Another strand is against capitalism through strict political critiques, i.e. socialist. Many critics of capitalism from within the Black community blend the two positions, however the reasoning behind them are distinct. A prominent Black political critic was C. L. R. James. Two of the most popular black anti-capitalist books are How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney and How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America by Manning Marable. These books give analysis on how capitalism as an economic system has not raised the quality of living for the African Diaspora.

Violence against Black Capitalism[link]

Examples of the explicit and public opposition to African American economic success has diminished since the Civil Rights movement. However, before this period of American transition, there are a few notable violent attacks against prosperous African American communities including the Tulsa Race Riot and the Rosewood massacre.

Economic disparity[link]

Blacks on average have a lower net worth than Whites in America. This is especially pertinent in the creation of new businesses. One of the most common forms of collateral for loans to open businesses is home equity. With the historical and current differences in lending patterns toward blacks and whites, the option of using home equity to borrow against in order to open a business is diminished.

See also[link]

African American portal

• Ebony Experiment

Related magazines and books[link]

• Black Enterprise Magazine
• Black Power Inc.: The New Voice of Success by Cora Daniels
• BlackProsperity:An African American Guide To Building Generational Wealth

References[link]

• Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class by Otis Graham

Lewis Black
Black, December 2007
Birth name	Lewis Niles Black
Born	(1948-08-30) August 30, 1948 (age 63) Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, theatre
Nationality	American
Years active	1981 – present
Genres	Satire, news satire, political satire, observational comedy, black comedy, rant
Subject(s)	American politics, American culture, current events, pop culture
Influences	George Carlin,[1] Lenny Bruce,[1] Richard Pryor,[1] Lily Tomlin, Bill Hicks, Bob Newhart,[1] Shelley Berman[1]
Influenced	Dara Ó Briain[2]
Notable works and roles	Back in Black on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart The Carnegie Hall Performance Lewis Black's Root of All Evil Stark Raving Black
Website	lewisblack.com
Grammy Awards
Best Comedy Album 2007 The Carnegie Hall Performance 2011 Stark Raving Black
American Comedy Awards
Funniest Male Stand-Up Comic 2001

Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena. He hosted the Comedy Central series Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, and makes regular appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart delivering his “Back in Black” commentary segment. When not on the road performing, he resides in Manhattan. He also maintains a residence in Chapel Hill, N.C. He is currently the spokesman for Aruba Tourism, appearing in television ads that aired in late 2009 and 2010. He was voted 51st of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time by Comedy Central in 2004; and was voted 5th in Comedy Central's Stand`Up Showdown in 2008 and 11th in 2010.

Early life[link]

Black is the son of Jeannette, a teacher, and Sam Black, an artist and mechanical engineer.^[3] He was born and raised in a middle-class Jewish family in Silver Spring, Maryland,^[4] graduating from Springbrook High School in 1966, summa cum laude.

Black recounts in his book Nothing's Sacred that he scored highly on the math section of his SAT exam and later applied to Yale, Princeton, Brown, Amherst, Williams, and Georgetown. Every college he applied to except Georgetown rejected him, and by that point he had decided he didn't want to go there, so he spent a year at University of Maryland before transferring to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, he studied playwriting and was a brother of Pi Lambda Phi International fraternity and a member of Student Congress.^[5] He earned an MFA degree at the Yale School of Drama in 1977, and was once married for less than a year.^[6]

Black's career began in theater as a playwright. He served as the playwright in residence and associate artistic director of Steve Olsen's West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theatre Bar in Hell's Kitchen in New York City, where he collaborated with composer and lyricist Rusty Magee and artistic director Rand Foerster on hundreds of one-act plays from 1981 to 1989. Also with Rusty Magee, Black wrote the musical The Czar of Rock and Roll, which premiered at Houston's Alley Theatre in 1990.

Black's stand-up comedy began as an opening act for the plays; he was also the master of ceremonies. After a management change at the theater, Black left and began working as a comedian, as well as finding bit parts in television and films.

Comedic style[link]

Black's style of comedy is that of a man who, in dealing with the absurdities of life and contemporary politics, is approaching his personal limits of sanity. Sarcasm, hyperbole, profanity, shouting and trademark angry finger-shaking bring emphasis to his topics of discussion. He once described his humor as "being on the Titanic every single day and being the only person who knows what is going to happen." He claims that he doesn't write his jokes down, he merely starts talking about something that makes him angry until he has to move on before he has a stroke.^{[citation needed]}

Black has described his political affiliation as: "I'm a socialist, so that puts me totally outside any concept...the Canadians get it. But seriously, most people don't get it. The idea of capping people's income just scares people. 'Oh, you're taking money from the rich.' Ooh, what a horrifying thing. These people really need $200 million".^[7]

Black lists his comedic influences as George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Bill Hicks, Bob Newhart and Shelley Berman.^[1]

Career[link]

Comedy Central Presents[link]

In 1998, Black starred in his first comedy special on the series Comedy Central Presents. He starred in two additional episodes of the series in 2000 and 2002. He starred in another special for the network in 2002, titled Taxed Beyond Belief.

Hosting[link]

Since 2003, Black has hosted the World Stupidity Awards ceremony at Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy festival for the three years the awards were presented.

Black hosted the Comedy Central television series The Root of All Evil in 2008. The show pitted two people or pop-culture topics against each other as a panel of comedians argued, in the style of a court trial, which is more evil, e.g., "Paris Hilton vs. Dick Cheney" and "Internet Porn vs. YouTube". After hearing arguments from both sides, Black, acting as judge, made the final decision as to which is more evil.^[8]

Black hosted Comedy Central's Last Laugh '07, which aired on December 2, 2007 along with Dave Attell and D.L. Hughley.

On February 18, 2008, Black hosted History of the Joke with Lewis Black,^[9] a 2-hour comedy-documentary on The History Channel.

At the end of 2009, Black returned to the History Channel to host Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black, in which he discussed the year-end pressures of Thanksgiving, Channukah, Christmas, and New Year's.

Stand-up shows[link]

In 2004, he had an HBO stand-up special titled Black on Broadway.

On April 21, 2006, Black performed at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC for an HBO special, Red, White, and Screwed. It aired on June 10, 2006, and a DVD was released October 3, 2006. When explaining his choice of venue, Black said that "some asshole" was paid to count the number of times the word "fuck" was said from his previous HBO special, Black On Broadway, and that the original location, the Kennedy Center, wanted him to cut back on its use. Black was told the number was 42, when actually it was approximately 78.^{[citation needed]}

On February 11, 2007, Black received a Grammy award for "Best Comedy Album" for his album The Carnegie Hall Performance.^[10]

Comedy Central's "Stand-Up Month" in January 2008 features specials originally presented on HBO by Black, along with programs featuring Dane Cook and Chris Rock.

In January 2008, as part of Comedy Central's "Stand-Up Month", Black's routine finished at #5 on "Stand-Up Showdown 2008", a viewer-based countdown of the top "Comedy Central Presents" routine. Black. also was voted 11th in 2010.

On August 2, 2009, Black filmed two shows at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit, MI. These shows were the basis for a concert film called Stark Raving Black, which appeared in theaters for a limited time in October. It was released on June 15, 2010 .^[11]

Film and television career[link]

Black appeared in episode 25 "Aria" (1991) of Law and Order as porn director Franklin Frome, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Obscene" (2004) as a shock jock, and in The Big Bang Theory episode "The Jiminy Conjecture" (2009) as an entomologist. He also released his autobiography, Nothing's Sacred, in 2005. Since November 9, 2005, Black has been making appearances in small segments on The Weather Channel. In December 2005, he appeared in an animated holiday special The Happy Elf, as the voice of the extremely tightly wound elf, Norbert.

In the film Accepted, a film about high school graduates who create a college when they fail to get accepted into any, he played Dean Ben Lewis of the school "South Harmon Institute of Technology". He also appeared in the 2006 films Man of the Year and Unaccompanied Minors. Black hosted Comedy Central's Last Laugh '06, which aired on December 10, 2006.

Voice acting[link]

Black was the voice of "Manobrain" during the third season of the Cartoon Network series "Duck Dodgers". He was the inventor of a diet pill which was stolen while he was in college. He blamed the theft on his college friend Dr. I. Q. High, not realizing that the actual thief was Duck Dodgers. The theft set Manobrain on the path of evil.

Black provided the voice of the Deadly Duplicator in four episodes of the Adult Swim show Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and in the video game based on the show.

Black did the voice-over for an oxpecker named Ted in Cartoon Network series My Gym Partner's a Monkey, appearing in "Hornbill and Ted's Bogus Journey." The character is portrayed in the same fashion as his comedy shows, though without the profanity. In addition, the bird's clothes, looks, and mannerisms match those of Black himself. Black currently voices Mr. E/Ricky Owens in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

Tours[link]

On June 18, 2007 he sat in with Southern rock/Jam band Gov't Mule at the 6th annual Bonnaroo music festival, where he had performed earlier that weekend, for what was to be a quick joke. A member of the audience threw a bottle at Black, which struck him. Black was upset and he encouraged the audience to boo the heckler before leaving the stage in disgust, while shouting obscenities at the heckler. This act was seen in an episode of "Lewis Black's Root of All Evil" titled "YouTube vs. Porn".

On June 29, 2007, Black gave a benefit show at Springbrook High School, his alma mater, in the school's auditorium for 1,100 alumni, faculty, and students. He performed in his usual style, stopping at points to remark how good it felt to use that language on that particular stage. At the end of the show he was given a Springbrook football jersey, and cursed at one teacher for giving him a B and causing him not to graduate first in his class.

In mid December 2007, Black went with Robin Williams, Kid Rock, Lance Armstrong and Rachel Smith, Miss USA 2007, on a USO trip to support the troops in Iraq and Kuwait. They then wrapped it up on Dec 22nd at the U.S Naval Station in Rota, Spain.

Black helped create the annual Carolina Comedy Festival at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.^[12]

In 2008 Black went on tour touting his book Me of Little Faith.^[13] He is also currently doing a stand-up tour called "Let Them Eat Cake".

Beginning in January 2010, Black embarked on a new tour called "In God We Rust".

Legal troubles[link]

In 2000, Black and fellow comedian Jim Norton were arrested for their involvement with "The Naked Teen Voyeur Bus",^[14] a specially designed bus with acrylic glass walls containing numerous 18 and 19 year old topless women. This bus rode around Manhattan while being broadcast on the Opie and Anthony radio show. Unfortunately, radio station management did not inform the O&A show that the bus's route was also the route that President Clinton was taking that same day. Twenty-eight hours after the arrest, Black and Norton were released. Black appeared on The Daily Show the following night where he stated he was exercising his constitutional rights. He then joked that the location of this particular right was unclear, but that it was "between 'all men are created equal' and 'don't shit where you eat.'"^[15] Additionally, at a fundraising event for New York Attorney General candidate Mark Green on June 28, 2006, Black talked about how he was unable to attend a previous fundraising event for Green because the arrest occurred shortly before.

Lewis Black after being released

Published works[link]

• Nothing's Sacred (2005)
• Nothing's Sacred (audio book) (2006)
• Nothing's Sacred (softcover version) (2007)
• Me of Little Faith (2008) (New York: Riverhead Books -- Penguin Group) 240 pages, ISBN 978-1-59449-994-5.
• Me of Little Faith (paperback version with added content) (2009)
• I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas (2010)

Media releases[link]

CDs[link]

• The White Album (2000)
• Revolver (EP) (2002)
• The End of the Universe (2002)
• Rules of Enragement (2003)
• Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues (2005)
• The Carnegie Hall Performance (2006)
• Anticipation (2008)
• Stark Raving Black (2010)
• The Prophet (2011)

DVDs[link]

• Unleashed (compilation of his four Comedy Central specials plus his appearances on The Daily Show: Indecision 2000) (2002)
• Black on Broadway (2003 HBO Special) (2004)
• A Pair of Lewis Black Shorts (Sidesplitters: The Burt & Dick Story and The Gynecologists) (2006)
• Red, White, and Screwed (2006 HBO Special)
• History of the Joke with Lewis Black (2008 History Channel special)
• Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black (2009 History Channel special)
• Stark Raving Black (2010)
• In God We Rust (2012 Epix Special)

Filmography[link]

• Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
• Jacob's Ladder (1990)
• The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (1990–1991) (TV series)
• Law & Order, "Aria" (1991)
• The Hard Way (1991)
• Homicide: Life on the Street, "Deception" (1997)
• Mad About You (Season 6, Episode 7: Played "The Pizza Slice") (1997) (TV series)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, "Obscene" (2004)
• The Happy Elf (2005)
• Accepted (2006)
• Man of the Year (2006)
• Unaccompanied Minors (2006)
• Farce of the Penguins (2007)
• Falling for Grace (2007)
• History of the Joke (2008) (Documentary) History Channel
• Lewis Black's Root of All Evil (2008) (TV series) Comedy Central
• The Big Bang Theory, "The Jiminy Conjecture" (2009) (TV series) CBS
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010) (TV series) Cartoon Network
• The Penguins of Madagascar, "Arch-Enemy" (2011) (TV series) Nickelodeon

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lewis Black

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lewis Black

• Lewis Black's lewisblack.com
• Lewis Black on Twitter
• Lewis Black on MySpace
• Lewis Black at the Internet Movie Database
• Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Lewis Black (TV Interview)
• Lewis Black Interview on NPR's Fresh Air (April 7, 2005)
• Lewis Black Interview on NPR's Talk of the Nation (January 29, 2003)
• Lewis Black Interview with the Village Voice (September 23, 2008)
• Onion A.V. Club Interview
• Lewis Black Interview by Maurie Sherman
• Stand Up! Records
• Lewis Black Interview, Real Detroit Weekly (November 13, 2007)
• "Straight Talk" Interview in Submerge Magazine, (Sept. 2008)
• Lewis Black rants about Michele Bachmann, Farmville, Twitter - Citypages.com 5/4/2011

Michael Moore
Moore in New York to promote his memoir Here Comes Trouble, September 2011
Born	Michael Francis Moore (1954-04-23) April 23, 1954 (age 58) Flint, Michigan, United States[1]
Alma mater	University of Michigan–Flint
Occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter, producer
Years active	1972–present[2]
Religion	Roman Catholic[3]
Spouse	Kathleen Glynn (1991–present)
Website
michaelmoore.com

Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist.^[4] He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time.^[5] His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries.^[5] In September 2008, he released his first free movie on the Internet, Slacker Uprising, which documented his personal quest to encourage more Americans to vote in presidential elections.^[6] He has also written and starred in the TV shows TV Nation and The Awful Truth.

Moore criticizes globalization, large corporations, assault weapon ownership, U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton^[7] and George W. Bush, the Iraq War, the American health care system, and capitalism in his written and cinematic works.

Personal life[link]

Moore was born in Flint, Michigan,^[1] and raised in Davison, a suburb of Flint, by parents Veronica (née Wall), a secretary, and Frank Moore, an automotive assembly-line worker.^[8][9][10] At that time, the city of Flint was home to many General Motors factories, where his parents and grandfather worked. His uncle LaVerne was one of the founders of the United Automobile Workers labor union and participated in the Flint Sit-Down Strike.^[11]

Moore was brought up Catholic,^[12] attended parochial St. John's Elementary School for primary school and later attended St. Paul's Seminary in Saginaw, Michigan, for a year.^{[13][8][14][15][16]} He then attended Davison High School, where he was active in both drama and debate,^[17] graduating in 1972. As a member of the Boy Scouts of America, he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.^[8] At the age of 18, he was elected to the Davison school board.^[18]

Since 1990, Moore has been married to producer Kathleen Glynn,^[19] with whom he has a stepdaughter named Natalie. Moore is a Catholic,^[3][20] but has said he disagrees with church teaching on subjects such as abortion^[21] and same-sex marriage.^[22]

Following the Columbine High School massacre, Moore acquired a life membership to the National Rifle Association (NRA). Moore said that he initially intended to become the NRA's president and dismantle it, but he soon dismissed the plan as too difficult.^[23][24] Observers such as Dave Kopel noted that there was no chance of that happening;^[25] authors David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke wrote about how Moore failed to discover that the NRA selects a president not by membership vote but by a vote of the board of directors.^[26]

In 2005 Time magazine named Moore one of the world's 100 most influential people.^[27] Also in 2005, Moore started the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan.

Career[link]

After dropping out of the University of Michigan–Flint following his freshman year (where he wrote for the student newspaper The Michigan Times), Moore worked at the local Buick plant.^[28] At 22 he founded the alternative weekly magazine The Flint Voice, which soon changed its name to The Michigan Voice as it expanded to cover the entire state. In 1986, when Moore became the editor of Mother Jones, a liberal political magazine, he moved to California and The Michigan Voice was shut down.

Moore at the 66th Venice International Film Festival in 2009

After four months at Mother Jones, Moore was fired. Matt Labash of The Weekly Standard reported this was for refusing to print an article by Paul Berman that was critical of the Sandinista human rights record in Nicaragua.^[29] Moore refused to run the article, believing it to be inaccurate. "The article was flatly wrong and the worst kind of patronizing bullshit. You would scarcely know from it that the United States had been at war with Nicaragua for the last five years."^[30] Moore believes that Mother Jones fired him because of the publisher's refusal to allow him to cover a story on the GM plant closings in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. He responded by putting laid-off GM worker Ben Hamper (who was also writing for the same magazine at the time) on the magazine's cover, leading to his termination. Moore sued for wrongful dismissal, and settled out of court for $58,000, providing him with seed money for his first film, Roger & Me.^[31]

Directing/producing[link]

Roger & Me

Moore first became famous for his 1989 film, Roger & Me, a documentary about what happened to Flint, Michigan, after General Motors closed its factories and opened new ones in Mexico, where the workers were paid much less. Since then Moore has been known as a critic of the neoliberal view of globalization. "Roger" is Roger B. Smith, former CEO and president of General Motors. Harlan Jacobson, editor of Film Comment magazine, said that Moore muddled the chronology in Roger & Me to make it seem that events that took place before G.M.’s layoffs were a consequence of them. Critic Roger Ebert defended Moore's handling of the timeline as an artistic and stylistic choice that had less to do with his credibility as a filmmaker and more to do with the flexibility of film as a medium to express a satiric viewpoint.^[32]

Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint

(1992) is a short (23-minute) documentary film that was aired on PBS. It is based on the feature-length film Roger & Me (1989) by Michael Moore. The film's title refers to Rhonda Britton, a Flint, Michigan, resident featured in both the 1989 and 1992 films who sells rabbits as either pets or meat.^[33]

Canadian Bacon

In 1995, Moore released a satirical film, Canadian Bacon, which features a fictional US president (played by Alan Alda) engineering a fake war with Canada in order to boost his popularity. It is noted for containing a number of Canadian and American stereotypes, and for being Moore's only non-documentary film. The film is also one of the last featuring Canadian-born actor John Candy, and also features a number of cameos by other Canadian actors. In the film, several potential enemies for America's next great campaign are discussed by the president and his cabinet. (The scene was strongly influenced by the Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove.) The President comments that declaring war on Canada was as ridiculous as declaring war on international terrorism. His military adviser, played by Rip Torn, quickly rebuffs this idea, saying that no one would care about "... a bunch of guys driving around blowing up rent-a-cars."

The Big One

In 1997, Moore directed The Big One, which documents the tour publicizing his book Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American, in which he criticizes mass layoffs despite record corporate profits. Among others, he targets Nike for outsourcing shoe production to Indonesia.

Bowling for Columbine

Moore's 2002 film, Bowling for Columbine, probes the culture of guns and violence in the United States, taking as a starting point the Columbine High School massacre of 1999. Bowling for Columbine won the Anniversary Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival^[34] and France's César Award as the Best Foreign Film. In the United States, it won the 2002 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. It also enjoyed great commercial and critical success for a film of its type and became, at the time, the highest-grossing mainstream-released documentary (a record now held by Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11).^[5] It was praised by some for illuminating a subject avoided by the mainstream media.

Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11 examines America in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, particularly the record of the Bush administration and alleged links between the families of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden. Fahrenheit was awarded the Palme d'Or,^[35] the top honor at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival; it was the first documentary film to win the prize since 1956. Moore later announced that Fahrenheit 9/11 would not be in consideration for the 2005 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, but instead for the Academy Award for Best Picture. He stated he wanted the movie to be seen by a few million more people via a television broadcast prior to election day. According to Moore, "Academy rules forbid the airing of a documentary on television within nine months of its theatrical release", and since the November 2 election was fewer than nine months after the film's release, it would have been disqualified for the Documentary Oscar.^[36] However, Fahrenheit received no Oscar nomination for Best Picture. The title of the film alludes to the classic book Fahrenheit 451 about a future totalitarian state in which books are banned; according to the book, paper begins to burn at 451 degrees Fahrenheit. The pre-release subtitle of the film confirms the allusion: "The temperature at which freedom burns." At the box office, as of 2010 Fahrenheit 9/11 is the highest-grossing documentary of all time, taking in over US$200 million worldwide, including United States box office revenue of almost US$120 million.^[5] In February 2011, Moore sued producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein for US$2.7 million in unpaid profits from the film, claiming they used "Hollywood accounting tricks" to avoid paying him the money.^[37]

Michael Moore at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival receiving a standing ovation for Sicko

Sicko

Moore directed this film about the American health care system, focusing particularly on the managed-care and pharmaceutical industries. At least four major pharmaceutical companies — Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, and GlaxoSmithKline — ordered their employees not to grant any interviews to Moore.^[38][39][40] According to Moore on a letter at his website, "roads that often surprise us and lead us to new ideas—and challenge us to reconsider the ones we began with have caused some minor delays." The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2007, receiving a lengthy standing ovation, and was released in the U.S. and Canada on June 29, 2007.^[41] The film was the subject of some controversy when it became known that Moore went to Cuba with chronically ill September 11th rescue workers to shoot parts of the film. The United States is looking into whether this violates the trade embargo. The film is currently ranked the fourth highest grossing documentary of all time^[5] and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.^[42]

Captain Mike Across America

Moore takes a look at the politics of college students in what he calls "Bush Administration America" with this film shot during Moore's 60-city college campus tour in the months leading up to the 2004 election.^[43][44] The film was later re-edited by Moore into Slacker Uprising.

Capitalism: A Love Story

On September 23, 2009, Moore released a new movie titled Capitalism: A Love Story, which looks at the late-2000s financial crisis and the U.S. economy during the transition between the incoming Obama Administration and the outgoing Bush Administration. Addressing a press conference at its release, Moore said, "Democracy is not a spectator sport, it's a participatory event. If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy. So Obama will rise or fall based not so much on what he does but on what we do to support him."^[45]

Writing[link]

Moore has written or co-written eight non-fiction books, mostly on similar subject matter to his documentaries. Stupid White Men (2001) is ostensibly a critique of American domestic and foreign policy but, by Moore's own admission, is also "a book of political humor."^[46] Dude, Where's My Country? (2003), is an examination of the Bush family's relationships with Saudi royalty, the Bin Laden family, and the energy industry, and a call-to-action for liberals in the 2004 election. Several of his works have made bestseller lists.

Acting[link]

Moore has dabbled in acting, following a 2000 supporting role in Lucky Numbers as the cousin of Lisa Kudrow's character, who agrees to be part of the scheme concocted by John Travolta's character. He also had a cameo in his Canadian Bacon as an anti-Canada activist. In 2004, he did a cameo, as a news journalist, in The Fever, starring Vanessa Redgrave in the lead.

Television[link]

Between 1994 and 1995, he directed and hosted the BBC television series TV Nation, which followed the format of news magazine shows but covered topics they avoid. The series aired on BBC2 in the UK. The series was also aired in the US on NBC in 1994 for 9 episodes and again for 8 episodes on Fox in 1995.

His other major series was The Awful Truth, which satirized actions by big corporations and politicians. It aired on Channel 4 in the UK, and the Bravo network in the US, in 1999 and 2000. Moore won the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Arts and Entertainment for being the executive producer and host of The Awful Truth, where he was also described as "muckraker, author and documentary filmmaker".

Another 1999 series, Michael Moore Live, was aired in the UK only on Channel 4, though it was broadcast from New York. This show had a similar format to The Awful Truth, but also incorporated phone-ins and a live stunt each week.

Music videos[link]

Moore has directed several music videos, including two for Rage Against the Machine for songs from The Battle of Los Angeles: "Sleep Now in the Fire" and "Testify". He was threatened with arrest during the shooting of "Sleep Now in the Fire", which was filmed on Wall Street; the city of New York had denied the band permission to play there, although the band and Moore had secured a federal permit to perform.^[47]

He also directed the videos for R.E.M. single "All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)" in 2001 and the System of a Down song "Boom!".

Appearances in other documentaries[link]

• Moore appeared in The Drugging of Our Children,^[48] a 2005 documentary about over-prescription of psychiatric medication to children and teenagers, directed by Gary Null a proponent of Alternative Medicine. In the film Moore agrees with Gary Null that Ritalin and other similar drugs are over-prescribed, saying that they are seen as a "pacifier".
• Moore appeared on fellow Flint natives Grand Funk Railroad's edition of Behind The Music.
• Moore appeared as an off-camera interviewer in Blood in the Face, a 1991 documentary about white supremacy groups. At the center of the film is a neo-Nazi gathering in Michigan.^[49]
• Moore appeared in The Yes Men, a 2003 documentary about two men who pose as the World Trade Organization. He appears during a segment concerning working conditions in Mexico and Latin America.
• Moore briefly appears in Alex Jones's documentary Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State. Jones criticises Moore for not going into more depth about the World Trade Center attacks in Fahrenheit 9/11, particularly about NORAD standing down, and for portraying George W. Bush as an unassuming frontman instead of an active conspirator in 9/11. Jones manages to ask Moore why he didn't mention NORAD standing down, and Moore swiftly answers that "it would be un-American".
• Moore was interviewed for the 2004 documentary, The Corporation. One of his highlighted quotes was: "The problem is the profit motive: for corporations, there's no such thing as 'enough'".^[50]
• Moore appeared in the 2006 documentary I'm Going to Tell You a Secret, which chronicles Madonna's 2004 Re-Invention World Tour. Moore attended her show in New York City at Madison Square Garden.

Political views[link]

Moore lampoons George W. Bush's reaction to the September 11 attacks notification

Although Moore has been noted for his liberal political activism,^[4] he rejects the label "political activist" saying such a description is redundant as a citizen of a democracy: "I and you and everyone else has to be a political activist. If we're not politically active, it ceases to be a democracy."^[51] According to John Flesher of the Associated Press, Moore is known for his "fiery left-wing populism,"^[52] and publications such as the Socialist Worker Online have hailed him as the "new Tom Paine."^[53]

Moore was a high-profile guest at both the 2004 Democratic National Convention and the 2004 Republican National Convention, chronicling his impressions in USA Today. He was criticized in a speech by Republican Senator John McCain as "a disingenuous film-maker." Moore laughed and waved as Republican attendees jeered, later chanting "four more years." Moore gestured his thumb and finger at the crowd, which translates into "loser."^[54]

During September and October 2004, Moore spoke at universities and colleges in swing states during his "Slacker Uprising Tour". The tour gave away ramen and underwear to students who promised to vote.^[55][56] One stop during the tour was Utah Valley State College. A fight for his right to speak resulted in massive public debates and a media blitz.^[57] The Utah event was chronicled in the documentary film This Divided State.^[58]

Despite having supported Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election, Moore urged Nader not to run in 2004 so as not to split the left vote. On Real Time with Bill Maher, Moore and Maher knelt before Nader to plead with him to stay out of the race.^[59]

Moore drew attention in 2004 when he used the term "deserter" when he introduced Retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark at a Democratic Presidential debate in New Hampshire. Noting that Clark had been a champion debater at West Point, Moore told a laughing crowd, "I know what you're thinking. I want to see that debate" between Clark and [George W.] Bush -- "the general versus the deserter." Moore said he was referring to published reports in several media outlets including The Boston Globe which had reported that "there is strong evidence that Bush performed no military service as required when he moved from Houston to Alabama to work on a U.S. Senate campaign from May to November 1972."^{[60] [61][62]}

On April 21, 2008, Moore endorsed Barack Obama for President, stating that Hillary Clinton's recent actions had been "disgusting."^[63] Moore is an active supporter of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City and spoke with the OWS protesters on September 26, 2011.^[64] On October 29, 2011, he spoke at the Occupy Oakland protest site to express his support. ^[65]

Published work[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Moore, Michael (1996). Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-097733-7. 
• Moore, Michael; Glynn, Kathleen (1998). Adventures In A TV Nation. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-098809-6. 
• Moore, Michael (2002). Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!. New York: Regan Books. ISBN 0-06-039245-2. 
• Moore, Michael (2003). Dude, Where's My Country?. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-53223-1. 
• Moore, Michael (2004). Will They Ever Trust Us Again?. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-7152-1. 
• Moore, Michael (2004). The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-7292-7. 
• Moore, Michael (2008). Mike's Election Guide 2008. New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-54627-5. 
• Moore, Michael (2011). Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life. New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-53224-X. 

Filmography[link]

• Roger & Me (1989)
• Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint (1992) (TV)
• Canadian Bacon (1995)
• The Big One (1997)
• And Justice for All (1998) (TV)
• EDtv (1999) (cameo as himself)
• Lucky Numbers (2000) (as actor)
• Bowling for Columbine (2002)
• Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
• Sicko (2007)
• Captain Mike Across America (2007)
• Slacker Uprising (2008)
• Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Television series[link]

• TV Nation (1994)
• The Awful Truth (1999)
• Michael Moore Live (1999)

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (December 2010)

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Michael Moore

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michael Moore

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Moore

• Michael Moore at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Michael Moore in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• The Populist: Michael Moore Can Make You Cry / New Yorker (16 February 2004)
• America's Teacher by Naomi Klein, The Nation, September 23, 2009
• A 2007 NOW on PBS interview with Michael Moore
• Michael Moore on His Life, His Films and His Activism - video interview by Democracy Now!
• Michael Moore on 2010 Midterm Elections, the Tea Party, and the Future of the Democratic Party
• In Depth interview with Moore, October 2, 2011

A Love
File:A Love.jpg A Love (Sarang) movie poster
Hangul	사랑
RR	Sarang
MR	Sarang
Directed by	Kwak Kyung-taek
Produced by	Jeong Tae-Won Yang Jung-Gyeong
Written by	Kwak Kyung-taek
Starring	Ju Jin-mo Park Si-yeon
Editing by	Park Gwang-Il
Release date(s)	September 19, 2007 (2007-09-19)
Running time	104 min.
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean

A Love (사랑 - Sarang) is a 2007 South Korean film directed by Kwak Kyung-taek. Kwak Kyung-taek's most notable film is Chingoo. A Love stars Ju Jin-mo from 200 Pounds Beauty and Park Si-yeon.

Plot[link]

At age 17, In ho meets a girl as beautiful as a watercolor painting, and promises to protect her after her brother dies. Although he is the best fighter in his school, he dreams of making his mother proud by going to college. It takes him 7 years to confess to the girl of his dreams. He stabs a gangster in the neck for her, although he wanted to live quietly like everyone else. But to keep his promise to protect her, he stabs Chi-kwon, a notorious mobster in Busan. He devotes his life to working for Chairman Yoo. He buries his love for the vanished girl and gets a second chance while working at the docks. He offers his life to the man who first holds out his hand for him. The girl he cannot forget returns as a love he cannot have. She becomes his patron’s woman and beyond reach... But as he decides to be happy for once in life, cruel destiny rattles everything in his life.

Cast[link]

• Ju Jin-mo - In-ho
• Park Si-yeon - Mi-Ju
• Joo Hyun
• Kim Min-jun

See also[link]

• List of Korean language films
• Korean cinema
• List of Korea-related topics

External links[link]

• Official site (Korean)
• Sa-rang (2007) at the Internet Movie Database
• A Love at HanCinema

v t e Cinema of Korea List of Korean language films · List of pre–1948 films (A–Z) People Actors · Animators · Directors (list) · Producers · Screenwriters · Cinematographers · Editors Topics Animation · Animation studios · Festivals · K-Horror   Cinema of North Korea List of films (A–Z) People Actors · Directors · Producers · Screenwriters Topics Festivals   Cinema of South Korea List of films (A–Z) People Actors (list) · Directors · Producers · Screenwriters · Cinematographers · Editors · Score composers · Critics Topics Chungmuro · Animation · Animation studios · Production companies · Festivals (list) · Awards Box Office 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 1948 · 1949 1950 · 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 · 1969 1970 · 1971 · 1972 · 1973 · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 1980 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 · 1988 · 1989 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 2010 · 2011 Category

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William Patton "Bill" Black, Jr. (September 17, 1926 – October 21, 1965) was an American musician who is noted as one of the pioneers of rockabilly music. Black was the bassist in Elvis Presley's early trio and the leader of Bill Black's Combo.

Early life[link]

Black was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to a motorman for the Memphis Street Railway. He was the oldest of nine children^[1] His father played popular songs on the banjo and fiddle to entertain the family. Black learned to play music at the age of 14 on an instrument made by his father—a cigar box with a board nailed to it and strings attached.^[2] At the age of sixteen, Black was performing "honky-tonk" music on acoustic guitar in local bars.^[2]

During World War II, Black was stationed with the U.S. Army at Fort Lee in Virginia. While in the Army, he met Evelyn, who played guitar as the member of a musical family. They married in 1946 and returned to Memphis. Black worked at the Firestone plant.^[2]

Career[link]

Black began playing the upright bass fiddle. He modeled his "slap bass" technique after one of his idols, Fred Maddox of Maddox Brothers and Rose.^[2] Black also developed a "stage clown" persona in the same way that Maddox entertained audiences. Black performed as an exaggerated hillbilly with blacked-out teeth, straw hat and overalls. According to his son, Black said his goal was always to give his audience "a few moments of entertainment and maybe a little bit of humor that'll tickle 'em for a while."^[2]

In 1952, Black began playing club and radio shows with guitarist Scotty Moore. Along with two other guitarists and a fiddler, they performed country music tunes by Hank Williams and Red Foley in Doug Poindexter's band, the Starlight Wranglers.^[3] Black and Moore also played in a band with Paul Burlison, Johnny Burnette, Dorsey Burnette on steel guitar, and a drummer.^[4]

In 1954, Black and Moore were formed into a trio with Elvis Presley.^[5]

The Blue Moon Boys[link]

In July 1954, Sam Phillips of Sun Records asked Black and Moore to play back-up for the as-yet-unknown Elvis Presley. Black played slap bass with guitarist Scotty Moore, while Elvis Presley played rhythm guitar and sang lead.^[6] Neither musician was overly impressed with Presley, but they agreed a studio session would be useful to explore his potential.^[7]

On July 5, 1954, the trio met at Sun studios to rehearse and record a handful of songs. According to Moore, the first song they recorded was "I Love You Because", but after a few country music songs that weren't impressive they decided to take a break.^[8] During the break, Presley began "acting the fool" with Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right (Mama)", a blues song.^[9] When the other two musicians joined in, Phillips taped the song. The upbeat sound was original.^[10] Black remarked, "Damn. Get that on the radio and they'll run us out of town."^[11]

The group recorded four songs during that session, including bluegrass musician Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", which he had written and recorded as a slow waltz. Sources credit Bill Black with initiating the song, with Presley and Moore joining in. Moore said, "Bill is the one who came up with "Blue Moon of Kentucky."...We're taking a little break and he starts beating on the bass and singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky," mocking Bill Monroe, singing the high falsetto voice. Elvis joins in with him, starts playing and singing along with him..."^[2] They ended up with a fast version of the song in 4/4 time. After an early take, Phillips can be heard on tape saying: "Fine, man. Hell, that's different—that's a pop song now, just about."^[12]

Phillips took several acetates of the session to DJ Dewey Phillips (no relation) of Memphis radio station WHBQ's Red, Hot And Blue show. From August 18 through December 8, "Blue Moon of Kentucky" was consistently higher on the charts, and then both sides began to chart across the South.^[13]

Black and Moore became Presley's back-up group, earning 25% of his takings.^[14] Moore and Black left the Starlight Wranglers after the success of "That's All Right", jealousy within the group forcing them to split.^[15] Their recordings at Sun were released with the credits as "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill". The group was later billed as "Elvis Presley and the Blue Moon Boys".

Over the next 15 months, the trio released five singles, toured across the South, and appeared regularly on the Louisiana Hayride. They had originally auditioned for the Opry in October 1954, but they failed to impress the people in charge, or the audience, and were not invited back.^[16]

In 1955, Black went to RCA along with Presley and Moore when Presley's contract was sold to that company. Except for the RCA reissue of "Mystery Train" and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" ('with Scotty and Bill'), they were no longer credited on record labels.^[17][18]

Black played on early Presley recordings including "Good Rockin' Tonight", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Baby Let's Play House", "Mystery Train", "That's All Right", and "Hound Dog", and eventually became one of the first bass players to use the Fender Precision Bass (bass guitar) in popular music, on "Jailhouse Rock" in the late 1950s.

Black, Moore and drummer D. J. Fontana toured extensively during Presley's early career. Black continued his on-stage "clown" persona and developed comedy routines with Presley. Black's on-stage personality was a sharp contrast to the introverted stage presence of Moore. The balance fit the group's performances.

According to Black's son Louis, Moore said, "Elvis used to just stand up there and not move, and Bill would jump around on the bass. Your daddy would come down through there and get everybody to laughing and loosen them up."^[2] Fontana called Black the mainstay of the band in the early days. "He was a comedian who could warm up a crowd. That was necessary for us because we played for a lot of country crowds that weren't used to people jumping up and down on stage."^[19]

Although both the crowd and Presley enjoyed Black's clowning, Presley's manager Colonel Parker declared that there be no more showing up Elvis. Gordon Stoker told Black, "Hey, man, you've got to cut this out. You're not the star. Elvis is the star."^[2] Black and Moore left Presley on September 21, 1957. Although Black continued to record with Presley until 1958, he and Moore discontinued the band because of poor wages.^[2]

Bill Black's Combo[link]

In 1959 Black joined a group of musicians which became Bill Black's Combo. The lineup was Black (bass), Joe Lewis Hall (piano), Reggie Young (guitar), Martin Wills (saxophone), and Jerry Arnold (drums). There were several personnel changes. While Young was in the army, his position was filled by Hank Hankins, Chips Moman and Tommy Cogbill. Ace Cannon replaced Wills on sax. Carl McVoy replaced Hall in the studio, while Bobby Emmons replaced him on tour.

The band released blues instrumental Smokie for Hi Records in December 1959.^[20] Smokie, Part 2 became a #17 pop hit, and made number one on the "black" music charts.^[2] The song made the Top 20 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. A follow-up release, White Silver Sands (Hi 2021), was a Top 10 hit (#9) and, like its predecessor, topped the R&B charts for four weeks.^[2][20]

Eight of the recordings by Bill Black's Combo placed in the Top 40 between 1959 and 1962. These were "White Silver Sands" (U.S. #9), "Josephine" (U.S. #18), "Don't Be Cruel" (U.S. #11), "Blue Tango" (U.S. #16), and "Hearts of Stone" (U.S. #20). Advertised as "Terrific for Dancing" their Saxy Jazz spent a record whole year in the top 100.^[2][21][22]

The Combo appeared in the 1961 film The Teenage Millionaire^[23] and on The Ed Sullivan Show, where they performed a medley of "Don't Be Cruel," "Cherry Pink," and "Hearts of Stone", and were voted Billboard's number one instrumental group of 1961.^[2]

Albums with themes included Bill Black's Combo Plays Tunes by Chuck Berry, Bill Black's Combo Goes Big Band, Bill Black's Combo Goes West, and Bill Black's Combo Plays the Blues. The Combo's sound of danceable blues became a popular accompaniment for striptease dancers. Another unique characteristics of the Combo was Reggie Young thwacking on the guitar with a pencil.^[2]

Lyn Lou Studio[link]

In 1962, Bill Black opened a recording studio called "Lyn Lou Studio" (named for his son and daughter)^[24] on Chelsa Street in Memphis, Tennessee, with Larry Rogers (Studio 19, Nashville) as his engineer and producer. Johnny Black, Bill's brother and also upright bass player, who knew Elvis at Lauderdale Courts before Bill, recalls visiting Bill at the studio and reported that Bill would be totally absorbed mixing and playing back tracks.^[25] The studio featured a 1958 Ampex 351 mono tape recorder retired from Sun Studios in 1960, basically just like the one Bill recorded on with Elvis in 1954. Sam Phillips replaced the 2 original Ampex 350's with 2 new Ampex 351's in 1958.^[26] Bob Tucker and Larry Rogers purchased Lyn Lou Studios after Bill Black's death in 1965. The studio recorded many Bill Black Combo albums (now billed as "The Best Honky Tonk Band in America" as well as "The band who opened for the Beatles"), and produced number-one country hits for Charly McClain, T.G. Shepard, Billy Swan and others. The house band for these sessions was the Shylo Band, featuring guitarist/songwriter Ronnie Scaife, nephew of Cecil Scaife, famed Sun Studio engineer.

Early in 1963, Black sent from two to five different versions of the Combo to different regions of the country at the same time, while staying off the road himself, wanting to concentrate on his business, family and his health.^[2]

Ill health and death[link]

In 1963, Bob Tucker joined the Bill Black Combo as a road manager and guitar/bass player.

Black himself had been ill for the past year and a half and unable to travel. Nonetheless, he insisted that the band continue without him. The Bill Black Combo created musical history in 1964 when they became the opening act for the Beatles (at their request) on their historical 13-city tour of America after their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Black himself was not well enough to make the tour.^[2][27]

After two operations and lengthy hospital stays, Black died of a brain tumor on October 21, 1965, at the age of thirty-nine. Black died during his third operation that doctors had hoped would eradicate the tumor once and for all. Black was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. Presley received criticism for not attending his funeral; however, he believed that his presence would turn the funeral into a media frenzy. He decided instead to visit the family privately after the service to express his condolences. According to Louis Black, Presley said, "If there's anything that y'all need, you just let me know and it's yours."^[2]

Black's widow sold Bob Tucker and Larry Rogers both the right to use the name Bill Black's Combo. The band changed to country when it joined Columbia Records, and won Billboard's Country Instrumental Group of the Year award in 1976.^[2]

Legacy[link]

Bill Black's Combo cut more than 20 albums, toured the United States and Europe and won awards as the best instrumental group in America in 1966 and 1967. Bob Tucker worked for the University of Memphis as Professor of Music Business as well as being leader of the Best Honky Tonk Band in America.

Black's stand-up bass is today owned by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who received the instrument as a birthday present from his late wife Linda McCartney in the late 1970s. The bass can be seen in the video clip to McCartney's song "Baby's Request". In the documentary film The World Tonight, McCartney can be seen playing the bass and singing his version of "Heartbreak Hotel". In 1995, he played it on "Real Love", the last "new" Beatles record (one of two in which McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr overdubbed a full arrangement onto a John Lennon home recording from the late 1970s). In 2005, Clay Steakley portrayed Black in the Elvis Presley biopic miniseries Elvis.

On April 4, 2009, Bill Black was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

See also[link]

• List of bass guitarists
• List of Precision Bass players
• List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart
• List of notable brain tumor patients

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rockabilly Hall of Fame
• MSN Entertainment
• AllMusic Guide
• Blackie - Bill Black & Elvis