Name	Babes in Arms
Caption	Theatrical poster
Director	Busby Berkeley
Writer	Jack McGowan Kay Van Riper Annalee Whitmore
Starring	Mickey Rooney Judy Garland
Distributor	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Released	October 13, 1939
Runtime	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Babes in Arms is the 1939 film version of the 1937 Broadway musical of the same name. The film version stars Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes and Betty Jaynes.

Production

The movie was written by Jack McGowan, Kay Van Riper and Annalee Whitmore (uncredited). It was directed by Busby Berkeley and produced by Arthur Freed..

The original Broadway script was revamped to accommodate Hollywood standards. It concerns a group of youngsters trying to put on a show to prove their vaudevillian parents wrong and make it to Broadway.

Most of the Rodgers and Hart songs were cut, except for the title tune, "The Lady Is a Tramp" (used as background music during a dinner scene), and "Where or When". Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown wrote a new song for the film, "Good Morning" (later made famous in Singin' in the Rain). Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg (composer and lyricist for The Wizard of Oz) wrote a new finale, called "God's Country".

Garland and Rooney later sang "I Wish I Were in Love Again" from the Broadway version of the show in the 1948 Rodgers and Hart biopic Words and Music. Garland also sang "Johnny One Note" in the same picture.

The original release of the film included a segment during the finale in which Rooney and Garland lampoon Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt; this was edited from the film during a later reissue and not restored until the 1990s. In 1940, slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges would lampoon the title of the film with Boobs in Arms.

Filming of Babes in Arms began on May 12, 1939, soon after Garland had finished filming The Wizard of Oz, and was completed on July 18, 1939. The film premiered on October 13, 1939.

Reception

It was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Mickey Rooney, who was 19 at the time) and Best Music, Scoring by Roger Edens and Georgie Stoll.

Notes

The parody sequence, "My Day," featuring Mickey Rooney as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Judy Garland as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was removed from the negative after the president's death on April 12, 1945. The routine, for many years thought to be lost, was rediscovered on 16-millimeter film and now can be viewed on Warner Home Video's DVD, "The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection."

Main cast and characters

{| |- ! !! |- | ||Mickey Rooney as Mickey Moran. |- | ||Judy Garland as Patsy Barton |- |}

Other cast members

{| |- |Charles Winninger |as Joe Moran |- |Guy Kibbee |as Judge John Black |- |June Preisser |as Rosalie Essex |- |Grace Hayes |as Florrie Moran |- |Betty Jaynes |as Molly Moran |- |Douglas McPhail |as Don Brice |- |Rand Brooks |as Jeff Steele |- |Leni Lynn |as Dody Martin |- |Cliff Edwards |in a clip from The Hollywood Revue of 1929 of the song Singin' in the Rain |- |Charles King |in a clip from The Broadway Melody |- |Margaret Hamilton |as Martha |- |Lelah Tyler |as Mrs. Brice |}

Worldwide Release Dates

Brazil: June 18, 1940

Italy: October 14, 1941

Japan: May 12, 1951

Guatemala: September 14, 1958

South Africa: June 14, 1963

VHS Release

Babes in Arms was released on VHS tape in 1992.

DVD release

Babes in Arms was released on DVD for the first time as part of Warner Bros. 5-disc DVD set The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection on September 25, 2007. The set contains Babes in Arms, Babes on Broadway, Girl Crazy, and Strike Up the Band, as well as a fifth disc containing bonus features on Rooney and Garland.

See also

List of American films of 1939

References

External links

Category:1939 films Category:1930s musical films Category:MGM films Category:American films Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by Busby Berkeley

Name	Shirley Bassey
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Shirley Veronica Bassey
Born	January 08, 1937 Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales
Instrument	Vocals
Occupation	Singer
Years active	1953–present
Genre	Popular music
Label	Philips, Columbia, United Artists, Decca, Geffen
Url	Official website

Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE (born 8 January 1937 in Cardiff, Wales), is a Welsh singer who found fame in the late 1950s and has continued a successful career since then worldwide. She is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979), and is a UNESCO Artist for Peace.

Birth to 1959

Shirley Bassey was born the last child of Eliza Jane (née Start) and Henry Bassey in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales, of paternal Nigerian and maternal English descent. In 1953, she signed her first professional contract, to sing in a touring variety show Memories of Jolson, a musical based on the life of Al Jolson. She next took up a professional engagement in Hot from Harlem, which ran until 1954. By this time Bassey had become disenchanted with show business, and had become pregnant at 16 with her daughter Sharon, so she went back to waitressing in Cardiff. However, in 1955, a chance recommendation of her to Michael Sullivan, a booking agent, put her firmly on course for her destined career. He saw talent in Bassey, and decided he would make her a star. She toured various theatres until she got an offer of the show that put her firmly on the road to stardom, Al Read's Such Is Life at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End. While she starred in this show, Philips A&R; and record producer Johnny Franz spotted her on television, was impressed, and offered her a recording deal. Bassey recorded her first single, entitled "Burn My Candle (At Both Ends)", and Philips released it in February 1956, when Bassey was just nineteen. Owing to the suggestive lyrics, the BBC banned it, but it sold well nonetheless, backed with her powerful rendition of "Stormy Weather". Further singles followed, and in February 1957, Bassey had her first hit with "Banana Boat Song", which reached #8 in the UK Singles Chart. During that year, she also recorded under the direction of American producer Mitch Miller in New York for the Columbia label, producing the single "If I Had a Needle and Thread" b/w "Tonight My Heart She Is Crying". She then traveled to Las Vegas to make her American stage debut at the El Rancho Vegas. In mid-1958, she recorded two singles that would become classics in the Bassey catalogue. "As I Love You" was released as the B-side of another ballad, "Hands Across the Sea"; it did not sell well at first, but after a chance appearance at the London Palladium things began to pick up. In January 1959, it reached number one and stayed there for four weeks. It thus became the first number one single by a Welsh artist. Bassey also recorded "Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me" at this point, and while "As I Love You" raced up the charts, so too did this record, with both songs being in the top three at the same time. A few months later, Bassey signed to EMI's Columbia label, and the second phase in her recording career had begun.

1960 to 1979

In the early and mid 1960s, Bassey had numerous hits on the UK charts, and five albums in the top 15. Her 1960 recording of "As Long As He Needs Me" from Lionel Bart's Oliver! reached #2, and had a chart run of 30 weeks. In 1962, Bassey's collaboration with Nelson Riddle and his orchestra produced the album Let's Face the Music (#12) and the single "What Now My Love" (#5). Other top ten hits of the period included her second #1, the double A-side "Reach for the Stars"/"Climb Ev'ry Mountain" (1961), "I'll Get By" (also 1961), and a cover version of the Ben E. King hit "I (Who Have Nothing)" in 1963.

In 1965, Bassey enjoyed her first -- and only -- U.S. Top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hit with the title song of the James Bond film, Goldfinger. The single peaked at #8, while the original soundtrack of Goldfinger hit #1 in the U.S. that same year. Also in 1965, she sang the title track for the spoof James Bond film The Liquidator, and had a Top 20 live album recorded during a sell-out run at London's Pigalle.

From 1964 onwards the "Goldfinger" single had a lasting impact on her career: writing for the sleeve notes of Bassey's 25th Anniversary Album, Clayton (1978) notes that: "Acceptance in America was considerably helped by the enormous popularity of (Goldfinger)...But she had actually established herself there as early as 1961, in cabaret in New York. She was also a success in Las Vegas...'I suppose I should feel hurt that I've never been really big in America on record since Goldfinger...But, concertwise, I always sell out.'..." This was reflected in the fact that Bassey had only one solo LP to reach the Top 20 in a US chart (R&B;, Live at Carnegie Hall), and she was technically a "one-hit wonder," making only one appearance in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, "Goldfinger". But in the aftermath of "Goldfinger" her UK sales started to falter as well: only two of her singles would enter the UK top 40 until 1970. She had signed to United Artists, and her first album on that label, 1966's I've Got a Song for You, spent one week on the chart; from there until 1970, only two albums would chart, one of those a compilation. In 1967 came the release of one of her best-known singles "Big Spender", although it charted just outside the UK Top 20. Also in 1968, at the Sanremo Festival in Italy, she performed "La vita", an Italian song by Bruno Canfora and Antonio Amurri, with some lyrics re-written in English by Norman Newell for her performance. Her version of the song with chorus sung in Italian became a Top 40 hit on the Italian chart, and Bassey recorded several songs in Italian, some appearing on a 1968 Italian album titled La vita. (Later, Newell would write English lyrics for the rest of "La vita", and the result was "This Is My Life".) But her UK sales continued to suffer.

Bassey's UK comeback came in 1970, leading to one of the most successful periods of her career. In this year, she returned to the UK with a record breaking run of performances at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Also in that year, she released the album Something, which showcased a new Bassey style, a shift from traditional pop to more contemporary songs and arrangements (the single of the same name was more successful in the UK charts than the original Beatles recording - the only artist to have achieved this), though Bassey would never completely abandon what had been her forte, standards, show tunes, and torch songs. "Something" was also a Top 10 U.S. hit on the Adult Contemporary chart. Other singles of this period included top ten hits "For All We Know" (1971) and "Never Never Never" (1973) – the latter also reaching the Top 10 in the U.S. Adult Contemporary Chart. The success of "Something" (single #4, album #5) spawned a series of successful albums on the UA label, including Something Else (1971), And I Love You So (1972), I Capricorn (1972), Never Never Never (1973), Good, Bad but Beautiful (1975), Life, Love and Feelings (1976), You Take My Heart Away (1977) and Yesterdays (1978). Bernard Ighner wrote and duetted with Bassey for the track "Davy" on the Nobody Does It Like Me album (1974). Additionally, two of Bassey's earlier LPs entered the charts, 1967's And We Were Lovers (re-issued as Big Spender), and 1962's Let's Face the Music (re-issued as What Now My Love). Two compilations, The Shirley Bassey Singles Album (1975) and 25th Anniversary Album (1978) both made the UK top three: The Shirley Bassey Singles Album her highest charting album at No. 2 and earning a gold disc, and 25th Anniversary Album going platinum.

Between 1970 and 1979, Bassey had 18 hit albums in the UK Albums Chart. In 1976 Bassey starred in the six-episode The Shirley Bassey Show, the first of her television programs for the BBC, followed by a second series of six episodes in 1979. The final show of the first series was nominated for the Golden Rose of Montreux in 1977. The series featured guests including Neil Diamond, Michel Legrand, The Three Degrees and Dusty Springfield; filmed in various locations throughout the world as well as in the studio.

In 1978 Bassey pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly "after shouting abuse in the street and pushing a policeman". Also in 1987, Bassey provided vocals for Swiss artists Yello on "The Rhythm Divine", a song co-written by Scottish singer Billy Mackenzie. It was also a top ten hit in Italy. On 7 October 1998 in Egypt, Bassey performed for a benefit at an open air concert close to the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid.

In the 1998 film Little Voice, Bassey was one of three central figures along with Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland, and Bassey's track "Goldfinger" featured in the movie. Jane Horrocks, the lead actress in the film, went on to impersonate Bassey both on record and television, as well as during a UK tour.

In 1998 Bassey was sued by her former personal assistant in a breach of contract case, who also accused Bassey of hitting her and making an ethnic slur. Bassey won the case.

2000 to date

In 2001, Bassey was principal artiste at the Duke of Edinburgh's 80th Birthday celebration. Then, in 2003, Bassey celebrated 50 years in show business, releasing the CD Thank You for the Years, which was another Top 20 album. A gala charity auction of her stage costumes at Christie's, 'Dame Shirley Bassey: 50 Years of Glittering Gowns', raised £250,000 (US$500,000) for the Dame Shirley Bassey Scholarship at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Noah's Ark Children's Hospital Appeal. Bassey topped the bill at the 2005 Royal Variety Performance, introducing her new song "The Living Tree".

Two popular Audiences with Shirley Bassey have aired on British TV, one in 1995 that attracted more than 10 million viewers in the UK, with the most recent in 2006. Bassey returned to perform in five arenas around the UK in June the same year, culminating at Wembley. She also performed a concert in front of 10,000 people at the Bryn Terfel Faenol Festival in North Wales broadcast by BBC Wales.

Marks & Spencer signed her for their Christmas 2006 'James Bond style' TV advertising campaign. Bassey is seen in a glamorous Ice Palace singing a cover version of Pink's song "Get the Party Started", wearing an M&S; gown.

"The Living Tree", written, produced and originally recorded by the group Never the Bride, was released as a single on 23 April 2007, marking Bassey's 50th anniversary in the UK Singles Chart – and the record for the longest span of Top 40 hits in UK chart history. The same year, Bassey performed "Big Spender" with Elton John at his annual White Tie and Tiara Ball to raise money for The Elton John AIDS Foundation. In 2007, Bassey performed in Fashion Rocks in aid of The Prince's Trust at the Royal Albert Hall.

, Debbie Harry, Lady GaGa, Elton John, Bassey and Bruce Springsteen at Carnegie Hall 2010]] She was rushed to hospital in Monaco on 23 May 2008 to have an emergency operation on her stomach after complaining of abdominal pains. She was forced to pull out of the Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute concert because of her illness. A biography, Diamond Diva, was published in 2008. In 2009 her granddaughter appeared on The X Factor.

In 2009 Bassey recorded a new album, The Performance, with James Bond composer David Arnold as co-producer (with Mike Dixon). A number of artists wrote songs expressly for Bassey, including Manic Street Preachers, Gary Barlow, KT Tunstall, Pet Shop Boys, Nick Hodgson of the Kaiser Chiefs, John Barry and Don Black.

Bassey headlined at the BBC Electric Proms on 23 October 2009, in her only full live set of 2009.

In November 2009, she performed several of the new songs from The Performance on various TV shows: The Graham Norton Show, The Paul O'Grady Show and as the guest singer on Strictly Come Dancing.

Bassey performed at the Rainforest Foundation Fund 21st Birthday concert at Carnegie Hall, New York City on 13 May 2010.

Personal life

Bassey's first marriage was to Kenneth Hume (1961–65) and ended in divorce. In September 1965 Bassey announced her intention to re-marry Hume, but less than a year later revealed that this would not take place. Her second husband was Sergio Novak. Bassey and Novak were married from 1968 until they divorced in 1977; Novak served as Bassey's manager throughout this time. Bassey had two daughters, Sharon and Samantha. With Novak she also adopted her grandnephew, Mark. However, in October 2010 it was reported that the investigation came to an end, and concluded that there "is no evidence of any criminal act involved" in Novak's death.

Bassey currently resides in Monte Carlo.

Awards and achievements

In recognition of her career longevity, and admiration from the British Royal Family, Bassey was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) on 31 December 1999 by HM Queen Elizabeth II. She was invited to perform in 2002 at the Party at the Palace, a public celebration of the Queen's Golden Jubilee. She was awarded France's top honour, the Legion d'Honneur, to signify her popularity and importance in the culture of France.

* 1972 – Best Female Singer – TV Times

1973 – Best Female Singer – TV Times

1974 – Best Female Entertainer – American Guild of Variety Artists

1976 – Best Female Singer – Music Week

1976 – 22-day British tour to mark twenty years as a recording artist

1976 – EMI Award for twenty years as a recording artist – UK

1977 – Best British Female Solo Artist in the previous 25 years – BRIT Award

1977 – Golden Rose of Montreux nomination for The Shirley Bassey Show

1991 – Walk of Fame, Star Boulevard – plaque unveiled in Rotterdam

1993 – CBE – Commander of the Order of the British Empire

1995 – Showbusiness Personality of the Year – Variety Club of Great Britain

1997 – Grammy nomination – The Birthday Concert (recorded live at Althorp Park)

1998 – Longest run by a solo artist (ten shows) – Royal Festival Hall, London

1999 – Légion d'Honneur – France

1999 – Madam Tussaud's waxwork unveiled in London (second model in Las Vegas)

2000 – DBE – Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire

2000 – Most Successful British Female Singer – Guinness Book of Records 2003 – Outstanding Contribution to Music – National Music Awards, UK 2003 – Lifetime Achievement Award (inaugural award) – Western Mail Welsh Woman of the Year Awards

2004 – 100 Great Black Britons, Bassey voted into the top ten

2004 – Artist for Peace Award – UNESCO

2005 – Avenue of Stars – plaque unveiled in London

2008 – "Goldfinger" – United Artists single (1964) inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame

Discography

Bibliography

Miss Shirley Bassey - John L. Williams (2010)

Shirley Bassey: Diamond Diva – Peter Hogan (2008)

Cardiff: Rebirth of a Capital (Foreword by Shirley Bassey) – Ungersma, Hurn (2005)

Shirley Bassey: Welsh History Stories – Evans, Stokes, ap Emlyn, ap Emlyn (2003)

Shirley Bassey: An appreciation – Muriel Burgess (1998, reprinted 1999)

My Life on Record and in Concert – Shirley Bassey (Bloomsbury, 1998)

The Trial of Shirley Bassey – A Play in One Act – Alexander Baron (1998)

Shirley Bassey: This Is My Life (Piano/vocal/guitar) – Sheet music book

Shirley Bassey: You're the Voice (Piano/vocal/guitar) – Sheet music book

Guinness Book of British Hit Singles – 14th Edition – ISBN 0-85156-156-X

Guinness Book of British Hit Singles – 16th Edition – ISBN 0-85112-190-X

Guinness Book of British Hit Albums – 7th Edition – ISBN 0-85112-619-7

The Book of Golden Discs – 2nd Edition – ISBN 0-214-20512-6

The Guinness Book Of 500 Number One Hits – ISBN 0-85112-250-7

See also

List of best-selling music artists

References

External links

Dame Shirley Bassey — official website

Shirley Bassey discography at Discogs

The Bassey Blog — fansite

The Songs of Shirley Bassey (archived site) — interviews with Shirley Bassey, plus an extensive discography

The Dame Shirley Bassey Message Board — forum fansite

Bassified.com — extensive CD discography

Shirley Bassey biography on BBC Wales

Category:1937 births Category:1950s singers Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:Black British musicians Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Cardiff Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Welsh female singers Category:Welsh people of Nigerian descent Category:British expatriates in Monaco

Name	Judy Garland
Caption	Garland photographed in 1944
Birth name	Frances Ethel Gumm
Birth date	June 10, 1922
Birth place	Grand Rapids, Minnesota, U.S.
Death date	June 22, 1969
Death place	Chelsea, London, England, UK
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1924–1969 (singer) 1929–1967 (actress)
Spouse	David Rose (1941–1944) Vincente Minnelli (1945–1951) Sid Luft (1952–1965) Mark Herron (1965–1967) Mickey Deans (1969) (Her Death)

Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award, won a Golden Globe Award, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for her work in films, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award.

After appearing in vaudeville with her sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, Garland was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a critically acclaimed Carnegie Hall concert, a well-regarded but short-lived television series and a return to acting beginning with a critically acclaimed performance in A Star Is Born (1954).

Despite her professional triumphs, Garland battled personal problems throughout her life. Insecure about her appearance, her feelings were compounded by film executives who told her she was unattractive and manipulated her on-screen physical appearance. Garland was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She married five times, with her first four marriages ending in divorce. Garland died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 47, leaving children Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft.

In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the ten greatest female stars in the history of American cinema.

Life and career

Childhood and early life

Born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Judy Garland was the youngest child of Francis Avent "Frank" Gumm (March 20, 1886 – November 17, 1935) and Ethel Marion Milne (November 17, 1893 – January 5, 1953). Garland's parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theatre that featured vaudeville acts.

Garland's ancestry on both sides of her family can be traced back to the early colonial days of the United States. Her father was descended from the Marable family of Virginia, and her mother from Patrick Fitzpatrick, who emigrated to America in the 1770s from Smithtown, County Meath, Ireland.

Named after both her parents and baptized at a local Episcopal church, "Baby" (as Frances was called by her parents and sisters) shared her family's flair for song and dance. Baby Gumm's first appearance came at the age of two-and-a-half when she joined her two older sisters, Mary Jane "Suzy/Suzanne" Gumm (1915–64) and Dorothy Virginia "Jimmie" Gumm (1917–77), on the stage of her father's movie theater during a Christmas show and sang a chorus of "Jingle Bells". Accompanied by their mother on piano, The Gumm Sisters performed at their father's theater for the next few years. Following rumors that Frank Gumm had made sexual advances toward male ushers at his theater, the family relocated to Lancaster, California, in June 1926. Frank purchased and operated another theater in Lancaster, and Ethel, acting as their manager, began working to get her daughters into motion pictures.

The Gumm Sisters

In 1928, The Gumm Sisters enrolled in a dance school run by Ethel Meglin, proprietress of the Meglin Kiddies dance troupe. The sisters appeared with the troupe at its annual Christmas show. It was through the Meglin Kiddies that Garland and her sisters made their film debut, in a 1929 short subject called The Big Revue. This was followed by appearances in two Vitaphone shorts the following year, A Holiday in Storyland (featuring Garland's first on-screen solo) and The Wedding of Jack and Jill. They next appeared together in Bubbles. The final on-screen appearance of The Gumm Sisters came in 1935, in another short entitled La Fiesta de Santa Barbara.

In 1934, the sisters, who by then had been touring the vaudeville circuit as "The Gumm Sisters" for many years, performed in Chicago at the Oriental Theater with George Jessel. He encouraged the group to choose a more appealing name after the name "Gumm" was met with laughter from the audience. "The Garland Sisters" was chosen, and Frances changed her name to "Judy" soon after, inspired by a popular Hoagy Carmichael song.

Several stories persist regarding the origin of the name "Garland". One is that it was originated by Jessel after Carole Lombard's character Lily Garland in the film Twentieth Century which was then playing at the Oriental; another is that the trio chose the surname after drama critic Robert Garland. Garland's daughter Lorna Luft stated that her mother selected the name when Jessel announced that the trio of singers "looked prettier than a garland of flowers". Another variation surfaced when Jessel was a guest on Garland's television show in 1963. He claimed that he had sent actress Judith Anderson a telegram containing the word "garland," and it stuck in his mind.

At any rate, by late 1934 the "Gumm Sisters" had changed their name to the "Garland Sisters." The trio was broken up in August 1935, however, when Suzanne Garland flew to Reno, Nevada, and married musician Lee Kahn, a member of the Jimmy Davis orchestra playing at Cal-Neva Lodge, Lake Tahoe.

Signed at MGM

In 1935, Garland was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, supposedly without a screen test, though she had made a test for the studio several months earlier. The studio did not know what to do with Garland, as at age 13 she was older than the traditional child star but too young for adult roles. Garland's physical appearance created a dilemma for MGM. At only , Garland's "cute" or "girl next door" looks did not exemplify the more glamorous persona required of leading ladies of the time. She was self-conscious and anxious about her appearance. "Judy went to school at Metro with Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, real beauties," said Charles Walters, who directed Garland in a number of films. "Judy was the big money-maker at the time, a big success, but she was the ugly duckling ... I think it had a very damaging effect on her emotionally for a long time. I think it lasted forever, really." Her insecurity was exacerbated by the attitude of studio chief Louis B. Mayer, who referred to her as his "little hunchback". During her early years at the studio, she was photographed and dressed in plain garments or frilly juvenile gowns and costumes to match the "girl-next-door" image that was created for her. She was made to wear removable caps on her teeth and rubberized disks to reshape her nose. She performed at various studio functions and was eventually cast opposite Deanna Durbin in the musical short Every Sunday. The film contrasted Garland's contralto vocal range and swing style with Durbin's operatic soprano and served as an extended screen test for the pair, as studio executives were questioning the wisdom of having two girl singers on the roster. Mayer finally decided to keep both girls, but by that time Durbin's option had lapsed and she was signed by Universal Studios.

On November 16, 1935, in the midst of preparing for a radio performance on the Shell Chateau Hour, Garland learned that her father—who had been hospitalized with meningitis—had taken a turn for the worse. Frank Gumm died the following morning, on November 17, leaving Garland devastated. Garland's song for the Shell Chateau Hour was her first professional rendition of "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", a song which would become a standard in many of her concerts.

in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)]] Garland next came to the attention of studio executives by singing a special arrangement of "You Made Me Love You" to Clark Gable at a birthday party held by the studio for the actor; her rendition was so well regarded that Garland performed the song in the all-star extravaganza Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), in which she sang the song to a photograph of Gable.

MGM hit on a winning formula when it paired Garland with Mickey Rooney in a string of "backyard musicals". The duo first appeared together in the 1937 B movie Thoroughbreds Don't Cry. They became a sensation, and teamed up again in Love Finds Andy Hardy. Garland would eventually star with Rooney in nine films.

To keep up with the frantic pace of making one film after another, Garland, Rooney, and other young performers were constantly given amphetamines, as well as barbiturates to take before bed. For Garland, this regular dose of drugs led to addiction and a lifelong struggle, and contributed to her eventual demise. She later resented the hectic schedule and felt that her youth had been stolen from her by MGM. Despite successful film and recording careers, several awards, critical praise, and her ability to fill concert halls worldwide, Garland was plagued throughout her life with self-doubt and required constant reassurance that she was talented and attractive.

The Wizard of Oz

in The Wizard of Oz (1939)]] In 1938, at the age of 16, Garland was cast in the lead role of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), a film based on the children's book by L. Frank Baum. In this film, Garland sang the song for which she would forever be identified, "Over the Rainbow". Although producers Arthur Freed and Mervyn LeRoy had wanted Garland from the start, studio chief Mayer tried first to borrow Shirley Temple from 20th Century Fox. Temple's services were denied and Garland was cast. Garland was initially outfitted in a blonde wig for the part, but Freed and LeRoy decided against it shortly into filming. Her breasts were bound with tape and she was made to wear a special corset to flatten out her curves and make her appear younger; her blue gingham dress was also chosen for its blurring effect on her figure.

Shooting commenced on October 13, 1938, and was completed on March 16, 1939, with a final cost of more than $2 million. From the conclusion of filming, MGM kept Garland busy with promotional tours and the shooting of Babes in Arms. Garland and Mickey Rooney were sent on a cross-country promotional tour, culminating in the August 17 New York City premiere at the Capitol Theater, which included a five-show-a-day appearance schedule for the two stars.

On November 17, 1939, Garland's mother, Ethel, married William P. Gillmore in Yuma, Arizona. It was the fourth anniversary of her first husband's death.

The Wizard of Oz was a tremendous critical success, though its high budget and promotions costs of an estimated $4 million coupled with the lower revenue generated by children's tickets, meant that the film did not make a profit until it was re-released in the 1940s. At the 1940 Academy Awards ceremony, Garland received an Academy Juvenile Award for her performances in 1939, including The Wizard of Oz and Babes in Arms. Following this recognition, Garland became one of MGM's most bankable stars.

Stardom as an adult

In 1940, she starred in three films: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Strike Up the Band, and Little Nellie Kelly. In the latter, Garland played her first adult role, a dual role of both mother and daughter. Little Nellie Kelly was purchased from George M. Cohan as a vehicle for Garland to assess both her audience appeal and her physical appearance. The role was a challenge for her, requiring the use of an accent, her first adult kiss, and the only death scene of her career. The success of these three films, and a further three films in 1941, secured her position at MGM as a major property. (1944)]] During this time Garland experienced her first serious adult romances. The first was with the band leader Artie Shaw. Garland was deeply devoted to Shaw and was devastated in early 1940 when Shaw eloped with Lana Turner. Garland began a relationship with musician David Rose, and, on her 18th birthday, Rose gave her an engagement ring. The studio intervened because Rose was still married at the time to the actress and singer Martha Raye. The couple agreed to wait a year to allow for Rose's divorce from Raye to become final, and were wed on July 27, 1941. She was noticeably thinner in her next film, For Me and My Gal, alongside Gene Kelly in his first screen appearance. Garland was top billed over the credits for the first time, and effectively made the transition from teenage star to adult actress.

At the age of 21, she was given the "glamour treatment" in Presenting Lily Mars, in which she was dressed in "grown-up" gowns. Her lightened hair was also pulled up in a stylish fashion. However, no matter how glamorous or beautiful she appeared on screen or in photographs, she was never confident in her appearance and never escaped the "girl next door" image that had been created for her. Adding to her insecurity was the dissolution of her marriage to David Rose. Garland, who had aborted her pregnancy by Rose in 1942, agreed to a trial separation in January 1943, and they divorced in 1944.

One of Garland's most successful films for MGM was Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), in which she introduced three standards: "The Trolley Song", "The Boy Next Door", and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Vincente Minnelli was assigned to direct this movie, and he requested that make-up artist Dorothy Ponedel be assigned to Garland for the picture. Ponedel refined Garland's appearance in several ways, including extending and reshaping her eyebrows, changing her hairline, modifying her lip line, and removing her nose discs. Garland appreciated the results so much that Ponedel was written into her contract for all her remaining pictures at MGM. During the filming of Meet Me in St. Louis, after some initial conflict between them, Garland and Minnelli entered a relationship together. They were married June 15, 1945, and on March 12, 1946, daughter Liza Minnelli was born.

The Clock (1945) was her first straight dramatic film, opposite Robert Walker. Though the film was critically praised and earned a profit, most movie fans expected her to sing. It would be many years before she acted again in a non-singing dramatic role.

Garland's other famous films of the 1940s include The Harvey Girls (1946), in which she introduced the Academy Award-winning song "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", and The Pirate (1948).'''

Leaving MGM

During filming for The Pirate in April 1947, Garland suffered a nervous breakdown and was placed in a private sanitarium. She was able to complete filming, but in July of that year she undertook her first suicide attempt, making minor cuts to her wrist with a broken glass. During this period, Garland spent two weeks in treatment at the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Mass. Following her work on The Pirate, Garland completed three more films for MGM: Easter Parade (in which she danced with Fred Astaire), In the Good Old Summertime, and her final film with MGM, Summer Stock.

Because of her mental condition, Garland was unable to complete a series of films. During the filming of The Barkleys of Broadway, Garland was taking prescription sleeping medication along with illicitly obtained pills containing morphine. These, in combination with migraine headaches, led Garland to miss several shooting days in a row. After being advised by Garland's doctor that she would only be able to work in four- to five-day increments with extended rest periods between, MGM executive Arthur Freed made the decision to suspend Garland on July 18, 1948. She was replaced by Ginger Rogers.

Garland was cast in the film adaptation of Annie Get Your Gun in the title role of Annie Oakley. She was nervous at the prospect of taking on a role strongly identified with Ethel Merman, anxious about appearing in an unglamorous part after breaking from juvenile parts for several years, and disturbed by her treatment at the hands of director Busby Berkeley. She began arriving late to the set, and sometimes failed to appear. She was suspended from the picture on May 10, 1949, and was replaced by Betty Hutton.

Garland was next cast in the film Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire after June Allyson became pregnant in 1950. She again failed to report to the set on multiple occasions, and the studio suspended her contract on June 17, 1950. She was replaced by Jane Powell. Reputable biographies following Garland's death stated that after this latest dismissal, she slightly grazed her neck with a broken water glass, requiring only a Band-Aid, but at the time, the public was informed that a despondent Garland had slashed her throat. "All I could see ahead was more confusion," Garland later said of this suicide attempt. "I wanted to black out the future as well as the past. I wanted to hurt myself and everyone who had hurt me."

Renewed stardom on the stage

In 1951, Garland divorced Vincente Minnelli. She engaged Sid Luft as her manager the same year. Luft arranged a four-month concert tour of the United Kingdom, where she played to sold-out audiences throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland. The tour included Garland's first appearances at the renowned London Palladium, for a four-week stand in April. Although some in the British press chided her before her opening for being "too plump", she received rave reviews and the ovation was described by the Palladium manager as the loudest he had ever heard.

In October 1951, Garland opened in a vaudeville-style, two-a-day engagement at Broadway's newly refurbished Palace Theatre. Her 19-week engagement exceeded all previous records for the theater, and was described as "one of the greatest personal triumphs in show business history". Garland was honored for her contribution to the revival of vaudeville with a Special Tony Award.

Garland and Luft were married on June 8, 1952, in Hollister, California, and Garland gave birth to the couple's first child, Lorna Luft, on November 21 that year.

Garland's personal and professional achievements during this time were marred by the actions of her mother, Ethel. In May 1952, at the height of Garland's comeback, Ethel was featured in a Los Angeles Mirror story in which she revealed that while Garland was making a small fortune at the Palace, Ethel was working a desk job at Douglas Aircraft Company for $61 a week. Garland and Ethel had been estranged for years, with Garland characterizing her mother as "no good for anything except to create chaos and fear" and accusing her of mismanaging and misappropriating Garland's salary from the earliest days of her career. Garland's sister Virginia denied this, stating "Mama never took a dime from Judy." On January 5, 1953, Ethel was found dead in the Douglas Aircraft parking lot.

A Star Is Born

In 1954, Garland filmed a musical remake of the 1937 film A Star is Born for Warner Bros. Luft and Garland, through their production company Transcona Enterprises, produced the film while Warner Bros. supplied the funds, production facilities, and crew. Directed by George Cukor and co-starring James Mason, it was a large undertaking to which Garland initially fully dedicated herself. As shooting progressed, however, she began making the same pleas of illness which she had so often made during her final films at MGM. Production delays led to cost overruns and angry confrontations with Warner Bros. head Jack Warner. Principal photography wrapped on March 17, 1954. At Luft's suggestion, the "Born in a Trunk" medley was filmed as a showcase for Garland and inserted over director Cukor's objections, who feared the additional length would lead to cuts in other areas. The "Born in a Trunk" sequence was completed on July 29. (1954)]]

Upon its September 29 world premiere, the film was met with tremendous critical and popular acclaim. Before release it was edited at the instruction of Jack Warner; theater operators, concerned that they were losing money because they were only able to run the film for three or four shows per day instead of five or six, pressured the studio to make additional reductions. About 30 minutes of footage was cut, sparking outrage among critics and filmgoers. A Star is Born ended up losing money, and the secure financial position Garland had expected from the profits did not materialize. Transcona made no more films with Warner.

Garland was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and, in the run-up to the 27th Academy Awards, was generally expected to be the winner. She could not attend the ceremony because she had just given birth to her son, Joseph Luft, so a television crew was in Garland's hospital room with cameras and wires to televise Garland's anticipated acceptance speech. The Oscar was won, however, by Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954). The camera crew was packing up before Kelly could even reach the stage. Garland even made jokes about the incident, on her television series, saying "...and nobody said good-bye." Groucho Marx sent Garland a telegram after the awards ceremony, declaring her loss "the biggest robbery since Brinks". To this day, it is still considered to be one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Academy Awards. Garland won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role.

Garland's films after A Star Is Born included Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) (for which she was Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated for Best Supporting Actress), the animated feature Gay Purr-ee (1962), and A Child Is Waiting (1963) with Burt Lancaster. Her final film, I Could Go On Singing (1963), co-starring Dirk Bogarde, mirrored her own life with its story of a world famous singing star. Garland’s last screen performance of a song was the prophetic I Could Go on Singing at the end of the film.

Television, concerts and Carnegie Hall

Beginning in 1955, Garland appeared in a number of television specials. The first, the 1955 debut episode of Ford Star Jubilee, was the first full-scale color broadcast ever on CBS and was a ratings triumph, scoring a 34.8 Nielsen rating. Garland signed a three-year, $300,000 contract with the network. Only one additional special, a live concert edition of General Electric Theater, was broadcast in 1956 before the relationship between the Lufts and CBS broke down in a dispute over the planned format of upcoming specials. In 1956, Garland performed four weeks at the New Frontier Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip for a salary of $55,000 per week, making her the highest-paid entertainer to work in Las Vegas. Despite a brief bout of laryngitis, her performances there were so successful that her run was extended an extra week. Later that year she returned to the Palace Theatre, site of her two-a-day triumph. She opened in September, once again to rave reviews and popular acclaim.

In November 1959 Garland was hospitalized, diagnosed with acute hepatitis. Over the next few weeks several quarts of fluid were drained from her body until, still weak, she was released from the hospital in January 1960. She was told by doctors that she likely had five years or less to live, and that even if she did survive she would be a semi-invalid and would never sing again. She initially felt "greatly relieved" at the diagnosis. "The pressure was off me for the first time in my life."

Her concert appearance at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961, was a considerable highlight, called by many "the greatest night in show business history". The two-record Judy at Carnegie Hall was certified gold, charting for 95 weeks on Billboard, including 13 weeks at number one. The album won four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal of the Year. The album has never been out of print.

In 1961, Garland and CBS settled their contract disputes with the help of her new agent, Freddie Fields, and negotiated a new round of specials. The first, entitled The Judy Garland Show, aired in 1962 and featured guests Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Following this success, CBS made a $24 million offer to Garland for a weekly television series of her own, also to be called The Judy Garland Show, which was deemed at the time in the press to be "the biggest talent deal in TV history". Although Garland had said as early as 1955 that she would never do a weekly television series, in the early 1960s she was in a financially precarious situation. Garland was several hundred thousand dollars in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, having failed to pay taxes in 1951 and 1952, and the financial failure of A Star is Born meant that she received nothing from that investment. A successful run on television was intended to secure Garland's financial future.

Following a third special, Judy Garland and Her Guests Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet, Garland's weekly series debuted September 29, 1963. The Judy Garland Show was critically praised, but for a variety of reasons (including being placed in the time slot opposite Bonanza on NBC) the show lasted only one season and was cancelled in 1964 after 26 episodes. Despite its short run, the series was nominated for four Emmy Awards. The demise of the series was personally and financially devastating for Garland, who never fully recovered from its failure.

Final years

, at their wedding, March 1969, three months before her death]] With the demise of her television series, Garland returned to the stage. Most notably, she performed at the London Palladium with her then 18-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli in November 1964. The concert, which was also filmed for British television network ITV, was one of Garland's final appearances at the venue. She made guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, The Hollywood Palace, and The Merv Griffin Show, guest-hosting an episode of the last one.

Garland sued Sid Luft for divorce in 1963, claiming "cruelty" as the grounds. She also asserted that Luft had repeatedly struck her while he was drinking and that he had attempted to take their children from her by force. She had filed for divorce more than once previously, including as early as 1956.

A 1964 tour of Australia was largely disastrous. Garland's first concert in Sydney, held in the Sydney Stadium because no concert hall could accommodate the crowds who wanted to see her, went well and received positive reviews. Her second performance, in Melbourne, started an hour late. The crowd of 7,000, angered by her tardiness—and believing Garland to be drunk—booed and heckled her, and she fled the stage after just 45 minutes. She later characterized the Melbourne crowd as "brutish". Some of that bad press was deflected by the announcement of a near fatal episode of pleurisy, followed by Garland's fourth marriage to tour promoter Mark Herron. They announced that their marriage had taken place aboard a freighter off the coast of Hong Kong; however, Garland was not legally divorced from Luft at the time the ceremony was performed. Her divorce from Luft became final on May 19, 1965,

In February 1967, Garland had been cast as Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls for 20th Century Fox. The character of Neely O'Hara in the book by Jacqueline Susann was rumored to have been based on Garland. The role of O'Hara in the film was played by Patty Duke. During the filming, Garland missed rehearsals and was fired in April. She was replaced by Susan Hayward. Garland's prerecording of the song "I'll Plant My Own Tree" survived, along with her wardrobe tests.

Returning to the stage, Garland made her last appearances at New York's Palace Theatre in July, a 16-show tour, performing with her children Lorna and Joey Luft. Garland wore a sequined pantsuit on stage for this tour, which was part of the original wardrobe for her character in Valley of the Dolls.

By early 1969, Garland's health had deteriorated. She performed in London at the Talk of the Town nightclub for a five-week run and made her last concert appearance in Copenhagen during March 1969. She married her fifth and final husband, Mickey Deans, at Chelsea Register Office, London, on March 15, 1969, her divorce from Herron having been finalized on February 11 of that year.

Death

On June 22, 1969, Garland was found dead by Deans in the bathroom of their rented Chelsea, London house. The coroner, Gavin Thursdon, stated at the inquest that the cause of death was "an incautious self-overdosage" of barbiturates; her blood contained the equivalent of ten Seconal capsules. Thursdon stressed that the overdose had been unintentional and that there was no evidence to suggest she had committed suicide. Garland's autopsy showed that there was no inflammation of her stomach lining and no drug residue in her stomach, which indicated that the drug had been ingested over a long period of time, rather than in one dose. Her death certificate stated that her death had been "accidental." Even so, a British specialist who had attended Garland said she had been living on borrowed time due to cirrhosis of the liver. Garland had turned 47 just 12 days prior to her death. Her Wizard of Oz co-star Ray Bolger commented at Garland's funeral, "She just plain wore out." An estimated 20,000 people lined up for hours at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel to view her body. James Mason gave a eulogy at the funeral, which was an Episcopalian service led by the Rev. Peter A. Delaney of Marylebone Church, London, who had officiated at Garland's marriage to Deans. Garland was interred in a crypt in the community mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery, in Hartsdale, New York.

Legacy

on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has another for recording at 6764 Hollywood Blvd.]] Judy Garland's legacy as a performer and a personality has endured long after her death. The American Film Institute named Garland eighth among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time. She has been the subject of over two dozen biographies since her death, including the well-received by her daughter, Lorna Luft. Luft's memoir was later adapted into the multiple award-winning television miniseries, , which won Emmy Awards for two actresses portraying Garland (Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis). Garland was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. These include "Over the Rainbow", which was ranked as the number one movie song of all time in the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Songs" list. Four more Garland songs are featured on the list: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (#76), "Get Happy" (#61), "The Trolley Song" (#26), and "The Man That Got Away" (#11). Garland has twice been honored on U.S. postage stamps, in 1989 (as Dorothy) and again in 2006 (as Vicki Lester from A Star Is Born).

Gay icon

Of particular note is Garland's status as a gay icon. She always had a large base of fans in the gay community. Reasons often given for her standing, especially amongst gay men, are admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles mirrored those of gay men in America during the height of her fame and her value as a camp figure. A connection is frequently drawn between the timing of Garland's death and funeral on June 27, 1969, and the Stonewall riots, the flashpoint of the modern Gay Liberation movement, which started in the early hours of June 28. Coincidental or not, the proximity of Garland's death to Stonewall has become a part of LGBT history and lore. When asked about how she felt about being a gay icon, she responded, "I couldn't care less. I sing to people."

Filmography and performances

Discography

Awards

See also

List of Judy Garland biographies

Notes

References

Bianco, David. Gay Essentials: Facts For Your Gay Brain. Alyson Publications. Los Angeles, 1999. ISBN 1-55583-508-2.

Clarke, Gerald (2001). . New York, Random House. ISBN 0-375-50378-1.

DiOrio, Jr., Al. Little Girl Lost: The Life and Hard Times of Judy Garland. Manor Books. New York, 1973.

Duberman, Martin (1993). Stonewall. Penguin Books. ISBN 0525936025.

Edwards, Anne. Judy Garland. Simon & Schuster. New York, 1975. ISBN 0-671-80228-3 (paperback edition).

Finch, Christopher. Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland. Ballantine Books. 1975. ISBN 0-345-25173-3 (paperback edition).

Frank, Gerold. Judy. Harper & Row. New York, 1975. ISBN 0-06-011337-5.

Juneau, James. Judy Garland: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies. Pyramid Publications. 1974, New York. ISBN 0-515-03482-7.

Luft, Lorna. Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir. Simon & Schuster. New York, 1999. ISBN 0-283-06320-3.

Sanders, Coyne Steven. Rainbow's End: The Judy Garland Show. Zebra Books. 1990 ISBN 0-8217-3708-2 (paperback edition).

Seaman, Barbara. Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann. Seven Stories Press. 1996, New York. ISBN 0-9658770-6-X (1996 edition).

Shipman, David. Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend. Hyperion. New York, 1992. ISBN 0-7868-8026-0 (paperback edition).

Steiger, Brad (1969). Judy Garland. New York, Ace Books.

Wayne, Jane Ellen (2003). The Golden Girls of MGM. New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1303-8.

External links

Judy Garland at TV Guide

The Judy Room Celebrating the life and career of Judy Garland

The Judy Garland Birthplace and Museum in Grand Rapids, MN

The Judy Garland Club official international fan club

American Masters special">Judy Garland: By Myself – American Masters special

Judy Garland at The Biography Channel

Category:1922 births Category:1969 deaths Category:People from Grand Rapids, Minnesota Category:American Episcopalians Category:Academy Juvenile Award winners Category:Accidental deaths in England Category:Actors from Minnesota Category:Actors who attempted suicide Category:Alumni of University High School (Los Angeles, California) Category:American actors of English descent Category:American child actors Category:American child singers Category:American contraltos Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American musicians of English descent Category:American radio personalities Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Decca Records artists Category:Drug-related deaths in England Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:Tony Award winners Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Vaudeville performers Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States

Name	Rita Hayworth
Caption	in a colorized publicty shot, 1946
Birth name	Margarita Carmen Cansino
Birth date	October 17, 1918
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Death date	May 14, 1987
Death place	New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, dancer
Years active	1934–1972
Spouse	Edward C. Judson (1937–1942) Orson Welles (1943–1948) Prince Aly Khan (1949–1953) Dick Haymes (1953–1955) James Hill (1958–1961)

Rita Hayworth (October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s not only as one of the era's top stars, but also as a great sex symbol, most notably in Gilda (1946). She appeared in 61 films over 37 years and is listed as one of the American Film Institute's Greatest Stars of All Time.

Early life and career

Born Margarita Carmen Cansino in Brooklyn, New York City, she was the daughter of flamenco dancer Eduardo Cansino, Sr., from Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville), and Ziegfeld girl Volga Hayworth who was of Irish and English descent. She was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her father wanted her to become a dancer while her mother hoped she would become an actress. Her grandfather, Antonio Cansino, was the most renowned exponent in his day of Spain's classical dances; he made the bolero famous. His dancing school in Madrid was world famous. He gave Hayworth her first instruction in dancing.

"I didn't like it very much," revealed Hayworth, "but I didn't have the courage to tell my father, so I began taking the lessons. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, that was my girlhood."

"From the time I was three and a half," Hayworth said, ". . . as soon as I could stand on my own feet, I was given dance lessons." She attended dance classes every day for a few years in a Carnegie Hall complex under the instruction of her uncle Angel Cansino.

By the time Margarita was eight, Cansino had moved his family west to Hollywood, where he established his own dance studio. Famous Hollywood luminaries, including James Cagney and Jean Harlow, received specialized training from Cansino himself.

Rita Hayworth's rise to fame was a silver lining of the Great Depression. The family's investments were wiped out instantly. Musicals were no longer in vogue. Interest in her father's work collapsed as dancing classes were no longer prioritized during difficult economic times. But, when his nephew's dancing partner in a theater play broke a leg, her mother suggested her daughter could replace him: "Margarita can do it!"

Her mother's idea led to her father having an epiphany. He saw his daughter could be his partner in a dancing team called "The Dancing Cansinos". Since Hayworth was not of legal age to work in nightclubs and bars according to California state law, she and her father traveled across the border to the city of Tijuana in Mexico, a popular tourist spot for Los Angeles citizens in the early 1930s. Hayworth performed in such spots as the Foreign Club and the Caliente Club.

It was at the Caliente Club where Hayworth was first discovered by the head of the Fox Film Corporation, Winfield Sheehan. A week later, Hayworth was brought to Hollywood to make a screen test for Fox. Impressed by her screen persona, Sheehan signed Hayworth (who was now being referred to as Rita Cansino) to a short-term six-month contract.

During her time at Fox, Hayworth appeared in five pictures, in which her roles were neither important nor memorable. By the end of her six-month contract, Fox had now merged into 20th Century Fox, with Darryl F. Zanuck serving as the executive producer. Taking little concern for Sheehan's interest in her, Zanuck decided not to renew her contract.

By this time, Hayworth was eighteen years old and she married businessman Edward C. Judson, who was twice her age. Feeling that Hayworth still had screen potential, despite just being dropped by Fox, Judson managed to get her the lead roles in several independent films and finally managed to arrange a screen test for her with Columbia Pictures. Studio head Harry Cohn soon signed her to a long-term contract, slowly casting Hayworth in small roles in Columbia features.

Cohn argued that Hayworth's image was too much of a Mediterranean style, which caused Hayworth to be cast into stereotypical Hispanic roles. She began to undergo a painful electrolysis to broaden her forehead and accentuate her widow's peak. When Hayworth returned to Columbia, she had transformed into a redhead and changed her name to Rita Hayworth (Hayworth from her mother's maiden name).

Becoming a major star

Hayworth had an awkward transition from teen nightclub dancer to major movie star. She was a dancer first and foremost; acting was an afterthought seen as a way to earn a living.

Gossip columnist Louella Parsons did not think Hayworth would be successful. She met Hayworth just when she was starting out, and saw her as a "painfully shy” girl who “couldn’t look strangers in the eye” and whose voice was so low it could hardly be heard.

In 1935, when Hayworth was 17, she was dropped from the movie Ramona and replaced by Loretta Young. "It was the worst disappointment of my life," Hayworth said. She was devastated but did not give up. In 1937, she appeared in five minor Columbia pictures and three minor independent movies. In 1938, Hayworth appeared in five more Columbia B films.

In 1939, Cohn pressured director Howard Hawks to use Hayworth for a small but important role as a man-trap in the aviation drama Only Angels Have Wings, in which she played opposite Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. A large box-office success, fan mail for Hayworth began pouring into Columbia's publicity department and Cohn began to see Hayworth as his first and official new star (the studio had never officially had large stars under contract, except for Jean Arthur, who was trying to break out of her Columbia contract).

Cohn began to build Hayworth up the following year, in features such as Music in My Heart, The Lady in Question, and Angels Over Broadway. He even loaned Hayworth out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to appear in Susan and God, opposite Joan Crawford.

On loan to Warner Brothers, Hayworth appeared as the second female lead in The Strawberry Blonde (1941), opposite James Cagney and Olivia de Havilland. A large box-office success, Hayworth's popularity rose and she immediately became one of Hollywood's hottest properties. So impressed was Warner Brothers that they tried to buy Hayworth's contract from Columbia, but Harry Cohn refused to release her.

Her success in that film led to an even more important supporting role in Blood and Sand (1941), opposite Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell, ironically by Fox, the studio that had dropped her six years before. In one of her most notable screen roles, Hayworth played the first of many screen sirens as the temptress Dona Sol des Muire. This was another box-office smash, Hayworth receiving strong critical acclaim.

Hayworth returned in triumph to Columbia Pictures and was cast in the musical You'll Never Get Rich (1941), opposite Fred Astaire in one of the highest-budgeted films Columbia had ever made. So successful was the picture that the following year, another Astaire-Hayworth picture was released You Were Never Lovelier. In 1942, Hayworth also appeared in two other pictures, Tales of Manhattan and My Gal Sal.

It was during this period that Hayworth posed for a famous pin-up in Life Magazine, which showed her in a negligee perched seductively on her bed. When the U.S. joined World War II in December 1941, Hayworth's image was admired by millions of servicemen, making her one of the top two pin-up girls of the war years, the other being creamy blonde Betty Grable. In 2002, the satin nightgown she wore for the picture sold for $26,888.

Rita Hayworth was called the "Love Goddess." (One biopic and one biography used the moniker in reference to her.) Despite being a sex symbol, due to her Spanish heritage of female decency she showed discretion. "Everybody else does nude scenes," Hayworth said, "but I don't. I never made nude movies. I didn't have to do that. I danced. I was provocative, I guess, in some things. But I was not completely exposed."

The peak years at Columbia

evening dress designed by Howard Greer.]]

For three consecutive years, starting in 1944, Rita Hayworth was named one of the top movie box office attractions in the world. In 1944, she made one of her best-known films, the Technicolor musical Cover Girl (1944), with Gene Kelly. The film established her as Columbia's top star of the 1940s. Although her singing voice was dubbed in her films, Hayworth's exuberant and powerful dancing set her apart from the other top musical stars of the day, as she was equally adept in ballet, tap, ballroom, and Spanish routines. Cohn continued to effectively showcase Hayworth's talents in Technicolor films: Tonight and Every Night (1945), with Lee Bowman, and Down to Earth (1947), with Larry Parks.

Her erotic appeal was most notable in Charles Vidor's black-and-white film noir Gilda (1946), with Glenn Ford, which encountered some difficulty with censors. This role–in which Hayworth in black satin performed a legendary one-glove striptease–made her into a cultural icon as the ultimate femme fatale. Alluding to her bombshell status, in 1946, it was reported that her likeness was placed on the first nuclear bomb to be tested after World War II (at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands) as part of Operation Crossroads. However, recent research suggests all that was on the bomb was the word "GILDA."

Hayworth performed one of her best-remembered dance routines, the samba from Tonight and Every Night (1945), while pregnant with her first child, Rebecca Welles (daughter with Orson Welles). Hayworth was also the first dancer to partner with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly on film–the others being Judy Garland, Cyd Charisse, Vera-Ellen, and Leslie Caron.

Hayworth delivered one of her most acclaimed performances in Welles's The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Its failure at the box office was attributed in part to director/co-star Welles having had Hayworth's famous red locks cut off and the remainder of her hair dyed blonde for her role. This was done without Cohn's knowledge or approval and he was furious over the change. Her next film, The Loves of Carmen (1948), again with Glenn Ford, was the first film co-produced by Columbia and Hayworth's own production company, The Beckworth Corporation (named for her daughter Rebecca); it was Columbia's biggest moneymaker for that year. She received a percentage of the profits from this and all her subsequent films until 1955 when she dissolved Beckworth to pay off debts she owed to Columbia.

Struggles with Columbia

Hayworth had a strained relationship with Columbia Pictures for many years. In 1943, she was suspended without pay for nine weeks because she refused to appear in My Client Curley. (During this period in Hollywood actors did not get to choose their films as they do today; they also had salaries instead of a fixed amount per picture.) In 1945, Hayworth received notice of her suspension by her employers, Columbia Pictures, "on the day she entered the maternity hospital in Hollywood."

In 1947, Rita Hayworth's new contract with Columbia provided a salary of US$250,000 plus 50% of film profits. In 1951 Columbia alleged it had $800,000 invested in properties for her, including the film she walked out on when she left Hollywood and married Aly Khan. She was suspended again for failing to report for work, this time for Affair in Trinidad. In 1952 she refused to report for work because "she objected to the script." In 1955, she sued to get out of a contract with the studio, asking for her $150,000 salary, alleging filming failed to start work when agreed.

"I was in Switzerland when they sent me the script for Affair in Trinidad and I threw it across the room. But I did the picture, and Pal Joey too. I came back to Columbia because I wanted to work and first, see, I had to finish that goddamn contract, which is how Harry Cohn owned me!"

"Harry Cohn thought of me as one of the people he could exploit," alleged Hayworth, "and make a lot of money. And I did make a lot of money for him, but not much for me."

Hayworth was still upset with Columbia and its head Harry Cohn many years after her film career had ended and he was dead. "I used to have to punch a time clock at Columbia," lamented Hayworth. "Every day of my life. That's what it was like. I was under exclusive contract -- like they owned me... He felt that he owned me... I think he had my dressing room bugged... He was very possessive of me as a person -- he didn't want me to go out with anybody, have any friends. No one can live that way. So I fought him ... You want to know what I think of Harry Cohn? He was a monster."

Another source of "gnawing resentment" for Hayworth was her studio's failure to train her to sing or even encourage her to learn how to sing. Although she appeared to sing in many of her films, it was almost always dubbed. The public didn't know this closely guarded secret, and she ended up embarrassed because at USO shows she was constantly asked by the troops to sing.

"I wanted to study singing," Hayworth complained, "but Harry Cohn kept saying, 'Who needs it?' and the studio wouldn't pay for it. They had me so intimidated that I couldn't have done it anyway. They always said, 'Oh, no, we can't let you do it. There's no time for that; it has to be done right now!' I was under contract, and that was it."

Although Cohn had a reputation as a hard taskmaster, he also had legitimate criticisms of Hayworth. He had invested heavily in her before she began a reckless affair with a married man (Aly Khan) even though it could have caused a backlash against her career and Columbia's success. Indeed a British newspaper called for a boycott of Hayworth's films. "Hollywood must be told," said The People, "its already tarnished reputation will sink to rock bottom if it restores this reckless woman to a place among its stars."

Cohn himself expressed his frustration with Hayworth's relationships in an interview with Time magazine. "Hayworth might be worth ten million dollars today easily! She owned 25% of the profits with her own company and had hit after hit and she had to get married and had to get out of the business and took a suspension because she fell in love again! In five years, at two pictures a year, at 25%! Think of what she could have made! But she didn't make pictures! She took two or three suspensions! She got mixed up with different characters! Unpredictable!"

Later career

After her marriage to Aly Khan collapsed in 1951, Hayworth returned to America with great fanfare to star in a string of hit films: Affair in Trinidad (1952) with favorite co-star Glenn Ford, Salome (1953) with Charles Laughton and Stewart Granger, and Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) with José Ferrer and Aldo Ray, for which her performance won critical acclaim. Then she was off the big screen for another four years, due mainly to a tumultuous marriage to singer Dick Haymes.

After making Fire Down Below (1957) with Robert Mitchum and Jack Lemmon, and her last musical Pal Joey (1957) with Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak, Hayworth finally left Columbia. She received good reviews for her acting in such films as Separate Tables (1958) with Burt Lancaster and David Niven, and The Story on Page One (1960) with Anthony Franciosa, and continued working throughout the 1960s. In 1962, her planned Broadway debut in Step on a Crack was cancelled for health reasons.

She continued to act in films until the early 1970s and made a well-publicized 1971 television appearance on The Carol Burnett Show.

Her last film was The Wrath of God (1972).

Physical appearance

]] Rita Hayworth was a top glamour girl in the 1940s. She was a pin-up girl for military servicemen and a beauty icon for women. At 5'6" (168 cm) and 120 lb (55 kgs) she was tall for women of her time and her height was a concern to her movie star dancing partners like Fred Astaire.

Hayworth got her big motion picture break because she was willing to change her hair color whereas another actress was unwilling. She changed her hair color eight times in eight movies.

Although she was never a fashion icon, Hayworth had a unique beauty style. From the time she became a celebrity until she died she had natural long nails. "I take care of my nails myself," she said. "I find my cuticle never tears and my nails don't break if I rub cream into them every night." She was once the cover girl of Nails magazine. In 1940 she started a manicure trend. Hers were longer than previously worn, more oval than pointed, and fully covered with shocking pink polish. (Previously there was no polish covering the lunula or the tip.)

In 1949 Hayworth's lips were voted best in the world by the Artists League of America. She had a modeling contract with Max Factor to promote its Tru-Color lipsticks and Pan-Stik make-up.

Barbara Leaming writes in her biography of Hayworth If This Was Happiness: A Biography of Rita Hayworth (1989), that due to her fondness for alcohol and stressful lifestyle, Hayworth aged before her time. Re-appearing in New York to begin work on her first film in three years in 1956 "despite the artfully applied make-up and shoulder-length red hair, there was no concealing the ravages of drink and stress. Deep lines had crept around her eyes and mouth, and she appeared worn, exhausted — older than her thirty-eight years." Leaming goes on to report that on the filming of Fire Down Below she overheard a remark apparently unintended for her ears that she should hurry up as 'no amount of time was going to make her look any younger.' Additionally, while in San Francisco the following year filming Pal Joey she was signing autographs when one fan blurted out 'She looks so old'. In the first case Hayworth is reported to have cried and in the second, although she blanked it at the time, it was clear that her premature aging was a sensitive subject to her. It was also one which meant she had to be carefully lit in films for the rest of her career.

Unrealized film projects

The following were movies and roles that Hayworth either was considered for, turned down by Hayworth herself, replaced with someone else, or never sufficed, for various reasons.

* A Message To Garcia (1936) Hayworth had a small role as the sister of Barbara Stanwyck but it was deleted before general release.

Ramona (1936) Hayworth made color screen tests for the role but Hayworth was later dropped from Fox and given to Loretta Young.

The Lady Escapes (1937) Also a Fox feature, Hayworth was dropped before appearing in a Spanish language version of this picture.

Holiday (1938) She tested for the role of the sister of Katharine Hepburn but the role was given to Doris Nolan instead.

Convicted Woman (1940) This would have been Hayworth's first feature with Glenn Ford but she was eventually loaned out to appear in MGM's Susan and God.

Boom Town (1940) Hayworth made a screen test for this picture, but the role instead went to MGM contractee Hedy Lamarr.

Tars and Spurs (1946) Hayworth was the first choice for the role but pregnancy forced her to drop out. The role was given to Janet Blair.

Dead Reckoning (1947) Hayworth demanded a complete rewrite for this picture and was replaced by Lizabeth Scott.

In the mid-1940s, Fox considered a musical biography of the Duncan sisters and had planned to pair Hayworth with Betty Grable. But the studio was not able to obtain legal clearance.

In 1947, Columbia cast Hayworth in a Technicolor western called Lona Hanson, which was to pair her with William Holden. It was first postponed and later cancelled.

Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949) Hayworth was placed on suspension and was replaced with Lucille Ball.

Born Yesterday (1950) Although purchased especially for Hayworth, Judy Holliday reprised her stage role and won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

From Here to Eternity (1953) Hayworth demanded a vacation before shooting this picture. Deborah Kerr soon accepted the role.

Human Desire (1954) Hayworth failed to appear for the first scenes, was placed on suspension, and replaced with Gloria Grahame.

Hayworth was given the female lead in a biblical film Joseph and His Brethren. The film was cancelled after Cohn refused to allow ex-husbands Orson Welles and Dick Haymes to appear.

The Barefoot Contessa (1954) Hayworth turned down the role made famous by Ava Gardner. Hayworth felt there were too many similarities in it from her own life.

Hayworth was given the lead in I Want My Mother! but the film was cancelled. Hayworth would have played the mother of a psychopathic killer awaiting execution in San Quentin.

Hayworth was given the lead in the film version There Must Be A Pony but it was later cancelled. She would have played a fading film star in a suicide scandal.

Welcome to Hard Times (1967) Hayworth was supposed to co-star with Glenn Ford but eventually both dropped out.

She was offered one of the female leads in a horror film along with Lana Turner in the late 1960s but turned down the offer.

Tales That Witness Madness (1973) Hayworth worked for four days on this film then quit without explanation and was replaced by Kim Novak.

Hayworth also admitted that she would have liked to play the lead role in Yerma.

Personal life

Naturally shy and reclusive, Hayworth was the antithesis of the characters she played. "I naturally am very shy," she said, "and I suffer from an inferiority complex." She once complained, "Men fell in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me." With typical modesty she later remarked that the only films she could watch without laughing were the dance musicals she made with Fred Astaire. "I guess the only jewels of my life," Hayworth said, "were the pictures I made with Fred Astaire."

She was close to her frequent co-star and next-door neighbor Glenn Ford. In an interview published in the New York Times, Hayworth denied she was involved with Ford. :3) Prince Aly Khan (1949–1953, one daughter: Princess Yasmin Aga Khan); :4) Dick Haymes (1953–1955); and, :5) James Hill (1958–1961).

"Basically, I am a good, gentle person," Hayworth once said, "but I am attracted to mean personalities."

1) Edward Charles Judson

Hayworth was only 18 when, in 1937, she married Edward Judson, a domineering man more than twice her age. They eloped in Las Vegas. He was an oilman turned promoter who had played a major role in launching her acting career. He was a shrewd businessman and became her manager for months before he proposed. "He helped me with my career," Hayworth conceded after they divorced, "and helped himself to my money." She alleged Judson compelled her to transfer considerable property to him and promise to pay him $12,000 under threats that he would do her "great bodily harm." She filed for divorce from him on February 24, 1942 with the complaint of cruelty. She also noted to the press that his work took him to Oklahoma and Texas while she lived and worked in Hollywood. Judson was as old as her father, who was enraged by the marriage, which caused a rift between Hayworth and her parents until the divorce. Judson neglected to inform Hayworth before they married that he had previously been married twice. When she finally walked out on him, she literally had no money. She asked her friend, Hermes Pan, if she could eat at his home, because she didn't have any money to buy food.

2) Orson Welles

Rita Hayworth then rushed into a marriage with Orson Welles on September 7, 1943. None of her colleagues even knew about the planned marriage (before a judge) until she announced it the day before they got married. For the civil ceremony she wore a beige suit, ruffled white blouse, and a veil. A few hours after they got married, they returned to work at the studio. They had a daughter, Rebecca. After marital struggles, and a final attempt at reconciliation, Hayworth said he told her he didn't want to be tied down by marriage.

"During the entire period of our marriage," she declared, "he showed no interest in establishing a home. When I suggested purchasing a home, he told me he didn't want the responsibility. Mr. Welles told me he never should have married in the first place; that it interfered with his freedom in his way of life."

(1945).]]

3) Prince Aly Khan

In 1948 she left her film career to marry Prince Aly Khan, a son of Sultan Mahommed Shah, Aga Khan III, the leader of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam. They were married on May 27, 1949. Her bridal trousseau was Dior's New Look — after seeing her wearing it, every woman began to wear the somewhat-controversial longer hemline. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in writing and directing The Barefoot Contessa (1954), was said to have based his title character, Maria Vargas (played on film by Ava Gardner), on Hayworth's life and her marriage to Aly Khan.

Aly Khan and his family were heavily involved in horse racing, so although Hayworth did not like horses or thoroughbred horse racing, she became a member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Hayworth's filly Double Rose won several races in France and notably finished second in the 1949 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

In 1951, while still married to Hayworth, Khan was spotted dancing with Joan Fontaine in the nightclub where he and his wife met. Hayworth responded by issuing an ultimatum and threatening to divorce him in Reno, Nevada. In early May she moved to Nevada to establish legal residence to qualify for a divorce. She holed up in Lake Tahoe with her daughter despite a threat to kidnap her child. When she filed for divorce from Khan on September 2, 1951, she did so on the grounds of "extreme cruelty, entirely mental in nature."

Hayworth once said she might convert to Islam like her husband. During the custody fight over their daughter Yasmin, Prince Khan said he wanted her raised as a Muslim; whereas Hayworth (who had been raised a Roman Catholic) wanted the child to be a Christian. In fact, Hayworth turned down a $1,000,000 offer if she'd raise Yasmin as a Muslim from age seven and allow her to go to Europe for two or three months each year.

"Nothing will make me give up Yasmin's chance to live here in America among our precious freedoms and habits," declared Hayworth. "While I respect the Muslim faith and all other faiths it is my earnest wish that my daughter be raised as a normal, healthy American girl in the Christian faith. There isn't any amount of money in the entire world for which it is worth sacrificing this child's privilege of living as a normal Christian girl here in the United States. There just isn't anything else in the world that can compare with her sacred chance to do that. And I'm going to give it to Yasmin regardless of what it costs."

The Hayworth-Khan custody battle for little Yasmin was one of the most public custody battles in the history of Hollywood. Hayworth feared that Princess Yasmin would be kidnapped by her father, taken to his foreign country, and she'd never see her daughter again. She didn't trust him. It was a very long and protracted legal process that played out publicly in the news. It included Hayworth and her lawyers doing extreme negotiations, Hayworth dragging her heels about agreeing to let Khan have temporary custody of Yasmin, requiring "insurance" money to discourage him from keeping her, then Hayworth changing her mind at the last minute, etc., and her fourth husband interfering with the entire process.

4) Dick Haymes

When Rita and Dick first met, he was still married and his singing career was waning, but when the Love Goddess showed up at the clubs, he got a larger audience. (Without her, hardly anyone paid attention.) Haymes was desperate for money as two of his former wives were taking legal action against him for unpaid child support. In fact his financial problems were so bad he could not even return to California without being arrested. On July 7, 1954, his ex-wife Nora Haymes got a bench warrant for his arrest, because he owed her $3,800 in alimony. Less than a week prior, his other ex-wife, Joanne Dru, also got a bench warrant because she said he owed $4,800 in support payments for their three children. It was Hayworth who ended up paying most of Haymes's debts.

Haymes was born in Argentina, and didn't have solid proof of American citizenship. The authorities initiated proceedings to have him deported back to Argentina for being an illegal alien not long after he met Hayworth. He hoped, however, she could influence the government and keep him in the United States. Haymes manipulated the situation, exploiting Hayworth for publicity at every opportunity and getting her to throw herself publicly behind his case. When she assumed responsibility for his citizenship, a bond was formed that led to marriage. The two were married on 24 September 1953 at the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, their wedding procession marching through the casino itself.

From the start, their marriage was in trouble with Haymes deeply indebted to the Internal Revenue Service. When Rita took time off from attending his comeback performances in Philadelphia, crowd numbers plummeted and when Haymes's $5000 weekly salary was attached by the IRS to pay a $100,000 bill, he was unable to even pay his pianist. Meanwhile ex-wives continued to hound Haymes for money while Hayworth publicly bemoaned the lack of alimony she was receiving from Aly Khan. At one point, the couple was effectively imprisoned in a hotel room for 24 hours in New York at the Hotel Madison as sheriff's deputies waited outside threatening to arrest the hysterical Haymes for outstanding debts. All of this happened against a backdrop of death threats to Hayworth's children and an ongoing custody battle she was fighting with Khan. During this time, while she was living in a hotel in New York, Hayworth sent the children to live with their nanny in a deprived area of Westchester. There they were found and photographed by a reporter from Confidential magazine. That the photographer had been able to access them easily at the time of death-threats to them was one thing, but the article also depicted them "in a trash littered backyard, playing among an assortment of loaded ash cans." The article caused a national scandal, highly damaging to Hayworth, bringing charges of neglect and bad parenting against her.

Hayworth and Haymes's world descended further into a maze of litigation, injunction and Haymes's verbal and physical violence. After a tumultuous two years together Haymes overstepped the mark when in 1955 he struck her in the face in public at the Coconut Grove night club in Los Angeles. It was the final straw in their relationship. Hayworth packed her bags, walked out, and never returned.

The extreme event leading to Hayworth's separation shook her so badly she had a "severe emotional shock," according to her doctor, who ordered her to remain in bed for several days. Hayworth also found herself very short of money after her marriage to Haymes and having pursued Aly Khan for child support money throughout her marriage to Haymes, she now sued Orson Welles for back payment of child support she claimed had never been paid. As well as being ultimately unsuccessful, this only added to her stressed condition and on the set of Fire Down Below she was seen tearing up her bundle of mail and scattering the scraps in the sea. On being told one of these letters may have contained money she remarked "more trouble than money".

5) James Hill

After Haymes, Hayworth began another relationship with film producer James Hill, whom she went on to marry. By his own account, Hill started with the best intentions but wound up 'as anxious to use her as all the rest.' On February 2, 1958, Hayworth married Hill, who put her in one of her last major films, Separate Tables. On September 1, 1961, Hayworth filed for divorce from Hill, alleging extreme mental cruelty. He later wrote the book Rita Hayworth: A Memoir in which he suggested their marriage collapsed because he wanted Hayworth to continue making movies while she wanted both of them to retire from the Hollywood scene.

Charlton Heston, in his book, In the Arena, sheds some light on Hayworth's brief marriage to Hill. Heston had never met her when he and his wife Lydia joined Hayworth and Hill for dinner in a restaurant in Spain with director George Marshall and Rex Harrison, Hayworth's co-star in The Happy Thieves. Heston, who was in Spain making El Cid, writes on page 253 of his memoir (HarperCollins paperback version) that "it turned into the single most embarrassing evening of my life," describing how Hill heaped "obscene abuse" on Hayworth until she was "reduced to a helpless flood of tears, her face buried in her hands." Heston writes how they all sat stunned, witnesses to a "marital massacre" and though he was "strongly tempted to slug him" (Hill), he instead simply took his wife Lydia home when she stood up, almost in tears herself. Heston ends by writing, "I’m ashamed of walking away from Miss Hayworth’s humiliation. I never saw her again."

Health problems

.]]

Hayworth struggled with alcohol throughout her life. "I remember as a child," said her daughter, Yasmin Aga Khan, "that she had a drinking problem. She had difficulty coping with the ups and downs of the business. . . . As a child, I thought, 'She has a drinking problem and she's an alcoholic.' That was very clear and I thought, 'Well, there's not much I can do. I can just, sort of, stand by and watch.' It's very difficult, seeing your mother, going through her emotional problems and drinking and then behaving in that manner. . . . Her condition became quite bad. It worsened and she did have an alcoholic breakdown and landed in the hospital."

In 1972, Hayworth was 54 and wanted to retire from acting, but she was in need of money and reluctantly signed up for The Wrath of God. The experience, however, exposed her poor health and worsening mental state. She could not remember lines, so they had to film her scenes one line at a time. Extreme memory loss left her very nervous and resistant to doing at least one scene, which was then done by a double.

Even so, the following year Hayworth agreed to do one more movie, Tales That Witness Madness (1973). Her health was even worse by that time, so she abandoned the movie set, and returned to America. She never returned to acting.

In March 1974, both her brothers died within a week of each other, saddening her greatly, and causing her to drink even more heavily than before.

In 1976 at London's Heathrow Airport, Hayworth was removed from a TWA flight during which she had an angry outburst while traveling with her agent. "Miss Hayworth had been drinking when she boarded the plane," revealed a TWA flight attendant, "and had several free drinks during the flight." The event attracted much negative publicity; a disturbing photograph was published in newspapers showing her looking very disheveled, sad, lost, ill, and barely recognizable.

Hayworth's alcoholism confused family, friends, colleagues—and even doctors—who were unable to immediately recognize Alzheimer's disease. "For several years in the 1970s, she had been misdiagnosed as an alcoholic."

"It was the outbursts," said her daughter, "She'd fly into a rage. I can't tell you. I thought it was alcoholism-alcoholic dementia. We all thought that. The papers picked that up, of course. You can't imagine the relief just in getting a diagnosis. We had a name at last, Alzheimer's! Of course, that didn't really come until the last seven or eight years. She wasn't diagnosed as having Alzheimer's until 1980. There were two decades of hell before that."

In July 1981, Hayworth's health had deteriorated to the point where a judge in Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that because she was suffering from senile dementia, and no longer able to care for herself, she should be placed under the care of her daughter, Princess Yasmin Khan of New York City.

She then lived in an apartment at The San Remo on Central Park West next to her daughter, who looked after her during her final years until she died.

Death

Rita Hayworth lapsed into a semicoma in February 1987. She died a few months later on May 14 at age 68 of Alzheimer's disease in her Manhattan apartment.

A funeral service for Hayworth was held on May 19, 1987 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California. Pallbearers included actors Ricardo Montalbán, Glenn Ford, Don Ameche and choreographer Hermes Pan.

She was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California (location: Grotto, Lot 196, Grave 6 (right of main sidewalk, near the curb)). Her headstone includes the inscription: "To yesterday's companionship and tomorrow's reunion."

"Rita Hayworth was one of our country's most beloved stars," said President Ronald Reagan, who had been an actor at the same time as Hayworth and who would himself fall victim to Alzheimer's Disease. "Glamorous and talented, she gave us many wonderful moments on stage and screen and delighted audiences from the time she was a young girl. In her later years, Rita became known for her struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Her courage and candor, and that of her family, were a great public service in bringing worldwide attention to a disease which we all hope will soon be cured. Nancy and I are saddened by Rita's death. She was a friend who we will miss. We extend our deep sympathy to her family."

Awards

Hayworth appeared with John Wayne in Circus World (1964) (U.K. title: Magnificent Showman), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, her only notable-award nod.

In 1977, Hayworth was the recipient of the National Screen Heritage Award.

Despite appearing in 61 films over 37 years, The film I Remember Better When I Paint (2009) features a stirring interview with Hayworth's daughter describing how her mother took up painting while struggling with Alzheimer's and produced beautiful works of art.

Biographical Depictions

Actress Lynda Carter portrayed Hayworth in the television movie . Actress Veronica Watt also portrayed her in the film Hollywoodland.

Filmography

As Rita Cansino

Anna Case in La Fiesta (Short subject, 1926, Unconfirmed)

Cruz Diablo aka The Devil's Cross (Uncredited, 1934)

In Caliente (1935) (scenes deleted)

Under the Pampas Moon (1935)

Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)

Dante's Inferno (1935)

Paddy O'Day (1935)

Human Cargo (1936)

Meet Nero Wolfe (1936)

Rebellion (1936)

The Dancing Pirate (1936)

Old Louisiana (1937)

Hit the Saddle (1937)

Trouble in Texas (1937)

As Rita Hayworth

Criminals of the Air (1937)

Girls Can Play (1937)

The Game That Kills (1937)

Paid to Dance (1937)

The Shadow (1937)

Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938)

Special Inspector (1938)

There's Always a Woman (1938)

Convicted (1938)

Juvenile Court (1938)

The Renegade Ranger (1938)

Homicide Bureau (1939)

The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939)

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Music in My Heart (1940)

Blondie on a Budget (1940)

Susan and God (1940)

The Lady in Question (1940)

Angels Over Broadway (1940)

The Strawberry Blonde (1941)

Affectionately Yours (1941)

Blood and Sand (1941)

You'll Never Get Rich (1941)

My Gal Sal (1942)

Tales of Manhattan (1942)

You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)

Cover Girl (1944)

Tonight and Every Night (1945)

Gilda (1946)

Down to Earth (1947)

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

The Loves of Carmen (1948)

Champagne Safari (1952)

Affair in Trinidad (1952)

Salome (1953)

Miss Sadie Thompson (1953)

Fire Down Below (1957)

Pal Joey (1957)

Separate Tables (1958)

They Came to Cordura (1959)

The Story on Page One (1959)

The Happy Thieves (1962)

Circus World (1964)

The Money Trap (1965)

The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966)

L'Avventuriero (1967)

I Bastardi (1968)

The Naked Zoo (1971)

Road to Salina (1971)

The Wrath of God (1972)

References

Further reading

Kobal, John. Rita Hayworth: The Time, the Place, the Woman (1977). ISBN 0-393-07526-5

McLean, Adrienne L. Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom (2004). ISBN 0-8135-3389-9

Morella, Joe and Epstein, Edward Z. Rita: The Life of Rita Hayworth (1983). ISBN 0-385-29265-1

Peary, Gerald. Rita Hayworth: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies (1976). ISBN 0-515-04116-5

Ringgold, Gene. The Films of Rita Hayworth: The Legend and Career of a Love Goddess (1974). ISBN 0-8065-0439-0

Roberts-Frenzel, Caren. Rita Hayworth: A Photographic Retrospective (2001). ISBN 0-8109-1434-4

External links

Category:1918 births Category:1987 deaths Category:American dancers Category:American film actors Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Spanish descent Category:American racehorse owners and breeders Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease

Category:Hispanic and Latino American people Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Torch singers Category:Vaudeville performers Category:20th-century actors

Name	Richard Rodgers
Background	non_performing_personnel
Birth name	Richard Charles Rodgers
Born	June 28, 1902 New York City, New York, USA
Died	December 30, 1979 New York City, New York, USA
Genre	Musical theatre
Occupation	Composer, songwriter, playwright

Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music down to the present day, and have an enduring broad appeal.

Rodgers is one of only two persons to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony (known collectively as an EGOT), and a Pulitzer Prize (Marvin Hamlisch is the other).

Biography

Early life and education

Born into a prosperous ethnic German Jewish family in Arverne, Queens, New York City, Rodgers was the son of Mamie Levy and Dr. William Abrahams Rodgers, a prominent physician who had changed the family name from Abrahams. Richard began playing the piano at age six. He attended P.S. 10, Townsend Harris Hall and DeWitt Clinton High School. Rodgers spent his early teenage summers in Camp Wigwam (Waterford, Maine) where he composed some of his first songs.

Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Rodgers's later collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II all attended Columbia University. At Columbia, Rodgers joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. In 1921, Rodgers shifted his studies to the Institute of Musical Art (now Juilliard). Rodgers was influenced by composers such as Victor Herbert and Jerome Kern, as well as by the operettas his parents took him to see on Broadway when he was a child.

Career

Rodgers and Hart

in 1936.]] In 1919, Richard met Lorenz Hart, thanks to Phillip Leavitt, a friend of Richard's older brother. Rodgers and Hart struggled for years in the field of musical comedy, writing a number of amateur shows. They made their professional debut with the song "Any Old Place With You", featured in the 1919 Broadway musical comedy A Lonely Romeo. Their first professional production was the 1920 Poor Little Ritz Girl. Their next professional show, The Melody Man, did not premiere until 1924.

When he was just out of college Rodgers worked as musical director for Lew Fields. Amongst the stars he accompanied were Nora Bayes and Fred Allen. Rodgers was considering quitting show business altogether to sell children's underwear, when he and Hart finally broke through in 1925. They wrote the songs for a benefit show presented by the prestigious Theatre Guild, called The Garrick Gaieties, and the critics found the show fresh and delightful. Only meant to run one day, the Guild knew they had a success and allowed it to re-open later. The show's biggest hit — the song that Rodgers believed "made" Rodgers and Hart — was "Manhattan". The two were now a Broadway songwriting force.

Throughout the rest of the decade, the duo wrote several hit shows for both Broadway and London, including Dearest Enemy (1925), The Girl Friend (1926), Peggy-Ann (1926), A Connecticut Yankee (1927), and Present Arms (1928). Their 1920s shows produced standards such as "Here in My Arms", "Mountain Greenery", "Blue Room", "My Heart Stood Still" and "You Took Advantage of Me".

With the Depression in full swing during the first half of the 1930s, the team sought greener pastures in Hollywood. The hardworking Rodgers later regretted these relatively fallow years, but he and Hart did write a number of classic songs and film scores while out west, including Love Me Tonight (1932) (directed by Rouben Mamoulian, who would later direct Rodgers' Oklahoma! on Broadway), which introduced three standards: "Lover", "Mimi", and "Isn't It Romantic?". Rodgers also wrote a melody for which Hart wrote three consecutive lyrics which either were cut, not recorded or not a hit. The fourth lyric resulted in one of their most famous songs, "Blue Moon". Other film work includes the scores to The Phantom President (1932), starring George M. Cohan, Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933), starring Al Jolson, and, in a quick return after having left Hollywood, Mississippi (1935), starring Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields.

In 1935, they returned to Broadway and began writing with a vengeance, resulting in an almost unbroken string of hit shows that ended only with Hart's death in 1943. Among the most notable are Jumbo (1935), On Your Toes (1936, which included the ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", choreographed by George Balanchine), Babes in Arms (1937), I Married an Angel (1938), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), Pal Joey (1940), and their last original work, By Jupiter (1942). Rodgers also contributed to the book on several of these shows.

Many of the songs from these shows are still sung and remembered, including "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", "My Romance", "Little Girl Blue", "I'll Tell the Man in the Street", "There's a Small Hotel", "Where or When", "My Funny Valentine", "The Lady is a Tramp", "Falling in Love with Love", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", and "Wait Till You See Her".

In 1939 he wrote the ballet Ghost Town for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, with choreography by Marc Platoff .

Rodgers and Hammerstein

His partnership with Hart having problems because of the lyricist's unreliability and declining health, Rodgers began working with Oscar Hammerstein II, with whom he had previously written a number of songs (before ever working with Lorenz Hart). Their first musical, the groundbreaking hit, Oklahoma! (1943), marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in American musical theatre history. Their work revolutionized the form. What was once a collection of songs, dances and comic turns held together by a tenuous plot became an integrated masterpiece.

The team went on to create four more hits that are among the most popular of all musicals and were each made into successful films: Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959). Other shows include the minor hit, Flower Drum Song (1958), as well as relative failures Allegro (1947), Me and Juliet (1953) and Pipe Dream (1955). They also wrote the score to the film State Fair (1945) (which was remade in 1962 with Pat Boone), and a special TV musical of Cinderella (1957).

Their collaboration produced many well-known songs, including "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'", "People Will Say We're in Love", "Oklahoma!" (which also became the state Oklahoma's state song), "If I Loved You", "You'll Never Walk Alone", "It Might as Well Be Spring", "Some Enchanted Evening", "Getting to Know You", "My Favorite Things", "The Sound of Music", "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "Do-Re-Mi", and "Edelweiss", Hammerstein's last song.

Much of Rodgers's work with both Hart and Hammerstein was orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett. Rodgers composed twelve themes, which Bennett scored for the 26-episode World War II television documentary Victory at Sea (1952–53). This NBC production pioneered the "compilation documentary"--programming based on pre-existing footage—and was eventually broadcast in dozens of countries. The melody of the popular No Other Love (1953 song) was later taken from the 'Victory at Sea' theme entitled "Beneath the Southern Cross". Rodgers won an Emmy for the theme music for the ABC documentary Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years, scored by Eddie Sauter and Robert Emmett Dolan. He contributed the musical theme for the 1963-64 historical anthology television series The Great Adventure.

In 1950, Rodgers and Hammerstein received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York."

In 1954, Rodgers conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in excerpts from Victory at Sea, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and the Carousel Waltz for a special LP released by Columbia Records.

Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals earned a total of 35 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards, and two Emmy Awards.

After Hammerstein

After Hammerstein's death in 1960, Rodgers wrote both words and music for his first new Broadway project No Strings (1962, which earned two Tony Awards). The show was a minor hit and featured perhaps his last great song, "The Sweetest Sounds". He went on to work with lyricists Stephen Sondheim (protege of Hammerstein), Sheldon Harnick, and Martin Charnin, with uneven results.

At its 1978 commencement ceremonies, Barnard College awarded Rodgers its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction.

Rodgers died in 1979 at age 77 after surviving cancer of the jaw, a heart attack, and a laryngectomy. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea. In 1990, the 46th Street Theatre was renamed "The Richard Rodgers Theatre" in his memory. In 1999, Rodgers and Hart were each commemorated on United States postage stamps. 2002 was the centennial year of Rodgers's birth, celebrated worldwide with books, retrospectives, performances, new recordings of his music, and a Broadway revival of Oklahoma!. The BBC Proms that year devoted an entire evening to Rodgers' music including a concert performance of Oklahoma!

Several American schools are named after Richard Rodgers.

Alec Wilder wrote the following about Rodgers:

In April 2009, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama met Queen Elizabeth II, for the first time at Buckingham Palace. The Obamas gave the queen a gift of an iPod and a rare songbook signed by Richard Rodgers.

Personal life

In 1930, Rodgers married Dorothy Belle Feiner. Their daughter, Mary, is the composer of Once Upon a Mattress and an author of children's books. The Rodgerses later lost a daughter at birth, but another daughter, Linda, was born in the 1930s. Rodgers' grandson, Adam Guettel, also a musical theatre composer, won Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for The Light in the Piazza in 2005. Peter Melnick, another grandson, is the composer of Adrift In Macao, which debuted at the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2005 and was produced Off Broadway in 2007.

Shows with music by Rodgers

Lyrics by Lorenz Hart

One Minute Please

Fly with Me (1920)

Poor Little Ritz Girl (1920)

The Melody Man (1924)

The Garrick Gaieties (1925–26)

Dearest Enemy (1925)

The Girl Friend (1926)

Peggy-Ann (1926)

Betsy (1926)

A Connecticut Yankee (1927)

She's My Baby (1928)

Present Arms (1928)

Chee-Chee (1928)

Spring Is Here (1929)

Heads Up! (1929)

Ever Green (1930)

Simple Simon (1930)

America's Sweetheart (1931)

Love Me Tonight (1932)

Jumbo (1935)

On Your Toes (1936)

Babes in Arms (1937)

I'd Rather Be Right (1937)

I Married an Angel (1938)

The Boys from Syracuse (1938)

Too Many Girls (1939)

Higher and Higher (1940)

Pal Joey (1940–41)

By Jupiter (1942)

Rodgers & Hart (1975), Rodgers and Hart revue musical

Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Oklahoma! (1943)

Carousel (1945)

State Fair (1945) (film)

Allegro (1947)

South Pacific (1949)

The King and I (1951)

Me and Juliet (1953)

Pipe Dream (1955)

Cinderella (1957)

Flower Drum Song (1958)

The Sound of Music (1959)

A Grand Night for Singing (1993), Rodgers and Hammerstein revue musical

State Fair (1996) (musical)

Other lyricists and solo works

''Victory at Sea (1952) (Robert Russell Bennett)

No Strings (1962) (lyrics by Rodgers)

Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) (Stephen Sondheim)

Two by Two (1970) (Martin Charnin)

Rex (1976) (Sheldon Harnick)

I Remember Mama (1979) (Martin Charnin/Raymond Jessel)

Wider influence

The Internet Movie Database lists 276 film and TV soundtracks using songs by Rodgers, as well as 46 films and TV events that credit him as the composer.

In 1960, the saxophonist John Coltrane recorded a jazz version of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music whose rich modal improvisations proved seminal. The tune became a regular part of his repertoire.

The entry "Blue Moon" discusses in detail the extraordinary origins, subsequent history, and enduring popularity of the song. It is the only hit song by Rodgers not taken from a show or movie. The 1961 doo-wop arrangement by The Marcels so incensed Rodgers that he wanted to litigate. Hammerstein talked him out of it, arguing that the recording would ultimately increase royalties, which turned out to be the case.

The entry "You'll Never Walk Alone" (from Carousel) discusses in detail the many cover versions of this song, and its extraordinary popularity with professional soccer teams and their fans.

Jerry Lewis ends his Labor Day telethon by singing "You'll Never Walk Alone".

"Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma! is sometimes mistaken for a traditional folk song.

"Edelweiss", "Ländler" (Rodgers' adaption of a traditional Austrian folk dance tune), and "Do-Re-Mi", all from The Sound of Music, frequently go unrecognized as Rodgers' tunes.

"Happy Talk" is covered by Daniel Johnston and Jad Fair. Captain Sensible did a jaunty rendition in the 1980s, complete with burlesque organ. The British rapper Dizzee Rascal uses the chorus of this song.

Several professional awards in musical theater are named for Rodgers.

Footnotes

References

Biography from the R&H; Concert Library.

Profile of Rodgers.

Another biography.

A feature on Rodgers and Hammerstein.

External links

The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization

City Journal article on Rodgers

Centennial features on Rodgers

The Richard Rodgers Collection at the Library of Congress

Richard Rodgers Papers in the Billy Rose Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein

TimeLine of Rodgers' Life

Review and analysis of Rodgers' later plays

Category:1902 births Category:1979 deaths Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American musical theatre composers Category:Songwriters from New York Category:Ballet composers Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Handel Medallion recipients Category:Jewish American composers and songwriters Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees

Name	Richard Bernard Skelton
Imagesize	180px
Caption	Red Skelton, 1944
Birth name	Richard Bernard Skelton
Birth date	July 18, 1913
Birth place	Vincennes, Indiana, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Comedian/Painter/Clown
Years active	1937–1981
Death date	September 17, 1997
Death place	Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Other names	The Sentimental Clown
Spouse	Edna Marie Stilwell (1931-1943) Georgia Davis (1945-1971) Lothian Toland (1973-1997)
Emmyawards	Writing in a Comedy Series 1961 The Red Skelton Show
Awards	Hollywood Walk of Fame Hollywood Boulevard

Red Skelton (July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997) was an American comedian who was best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing another career as a painter.

Biography

Early years

Born in Vincennes, Indiana, Richard Skelton was the son of Joseph E. Skelton (1878–1913), who died in 1913 shortly before the birth of his son, and Ida (née Fields) Skelton (1884–1967). In Skelton's lifetime there was some dispute about the year of his birth. Biographer Arthur Marx reported (from second hand information) that Skelton may have been born as early as 1906, and the year 1910 was sometimes cited as the year of his birth. In a People Magazine article in 1979, Skelton admitted that he fudged about his age, and was quoted as saying he was "in his seventies."

Skelton got one of his earliest tastes of show business with the circus as a teenager where he invented the now very popular catch phrase, "Milk, milk, lemonade... Around the corner fudge is made." Which made him vastly popular with the younger generation. Before that, he caught the show business bug at 10 years of age from entertainer Ed Wynn, who spotted him selling newspapers in front of the Pantheon Theatre, in Vincennes. After buying every newspaper Skelton had, Wynn took him backstage and introduced him to members of the show with which he was traveling. By age 15, Skelton had hit the road full-time as an entertainer, working everywhere from medicine shows and vaudeville to burlesque, showboats, minstrel shows and circuses. While performing in Kansas City, in 1930, Skelton met and married his first wife, Edna Stillwell. The couple divorced 13 years later, but Stillwell remained one of his chief writers.

Film

Skelton caught his big break into two media at once: radio and film. In 1938 he made his film debut for RKO Radio Pictures in the supporting role of a camp counselor in Having Wonderful Time. Two short subjects followed for Vitaphone, in 1939: Seeing Red and The Bashful Buckaroo.

Skelton was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to lend comic relief to its Dr. Kildare medical dramas, but soon he was starring in comedy features (as inept radio detective "The Fox") and in Technicolor musicals. When Skelton signed his long-term contract with MGM in 1940, he insisted on a clause that permitted him to work in radio (which he had already done) and on television (which was in its infancy). Studio chief Louis B. Mayer agreed to the terms, only to regret it later when television became a threat to motion pictures.

Radio

After appearances on The Rudy Vallee Show in 1937, Skelton became a regular in 1939's Avalon Time on NBC, sponsored by Avalon Cigarettes. On October 7, 1941, Skelton premiered his own radio show, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, developing a number of recurring characters including punch-drunk boxer "Cauliflower McPugg," inebriated "Willy Lump-Lump" and "'Mean Widdle Kid' Junior," whose favorite phrase ("I dood it!") soon became part of the American lexicon. That, along with "He bwoke my widdle arm!" (or other body part) and "He don't know me vewy well, do he?" all found their way into various Warner Bros. cartoons.

Skelton himself was referenced in a Popeye cartoon in which the title character enters a haunted house and encounters a "red skeleton." The Three Stooges also referenced Skelton in Creeps (1956): Shemp: "Who are you?" Talking Skeleton: "Me? I’m Red." Shemp: "Oh, Red Skeleton."

Other characters included "Con Man San Fernando Red," cross-eyed seagulls "Gertrude and Heathcliffe" and the singing cabdriver "Clem Kadiddlehopper," who was a country bumpkin with a big heart. Clem had a knack for upstaging city slickers, even if he couldn't manipulate his cynical father: "When the stork brought you, Clem, I shoulda shot him on sight!" Skelton would later consider court action against the apparent usurpation of this character by Bill Scott for the voice of Bullwinkle.

The comedian helped sell World War II war bonds on the top-rated show, which featured Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in the supporting cast, plus the Ozzie Nelson Orchestra and announcer Truman Bradley. Harriet Nelson was the show's vocalist.

It was during this period that Red divorced his first wife, Edna, and married his second wife Georgia. According to the director George Sydney, he met Georgia while visiting the set of The Harvey Girls (1945) where Georgia, also nicknamed Red, played one of the "bad" girls working at the Alhambra bar. Red and Georgia's only son, Richard, was born in 1945. Georgia continued in her role as Red's manager until the 1960s.

Skelton was drafted in March 1944, so his popular series was discontinued on June 6. Shipped overseas to serve with an Army entertainment unit as a private, Skelton led an exceptionally hectic military life. In addition to his own duties and responsibilities, he was often summoned to entertain officers late at night. The perpetual motion and lack of rest resulted in a nervous breakdown in Italy. He spent three months in a hospital and was discharged in September 1945. He once joked about his military career, "I was the only celebrity who went in and came out a private."

On December 4, 1945, The Raleigh Cigarette Program resumed with Skelton introducing some new characters, including, "Bolivar Shagnasty" and "J. Newton Numbskull." The name "Bolivar Shagnasty" was later appropriated (in the year 2001) by reconteur [Donald A. Romano] of Newburgh and Albany, NY, for use on a series of Newburgh-based chatboards. Lurene Tuttle and Verna Felton appeared as Junior's mother and grandmother. David Forrester and David Rose led the orchestra, featuring vocalist Anita Ellis. The announcers were Pat McGeehan and Rod O'Connor. The series ended May 20, 1949. That fall, he moved to CBS, where the show ran until May 1953.

Television

In 1951, NBC beckoned Skelton to bring his radio show to television. His characters worked even better on screen than on radio. TV also led to one of his best-remembered characters, "Freddie the Freeloader," a traditional tramp whose appearance suggested the elder brother of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown Emmett Kelly.

Announcer and voice actor Art Gilmore, who voiced numerous movie trailers in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, became the announcer on the show, with David Rose and his orchestra providing the music. A hit instrumental for Rose, called "Holiday for Strings", was used as Skelton's TV theme song.

During the 1951–52 season, Skelton broadcast live from a converted NBC radio studio. When he complained about the pressures of doing a live show, NBC agreed to film his shows in the 1952–53 season at Eagle Lion Studios, next to the Sam Goldwyn Studio, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. Later the show was moved to the new NBC television studios in Burbank.

Declining ratings prompted NBC (and sponsor Procter & Gamble) to cancel his show in the spring of 1953. Beginning with the 1953–54 season, Skelton switched to CBS, where he remained until 1970.

Biographer Arthur Marx documented Skelton's personal problems, including heavy drinking. An appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show began a turnaround for Skelton's television career. He curtailed his drinking and his ratings at CBS began to improve, especially after he began appearing on Tuesday nights for co-sponsors Johnson's Wax and Pet Milk Company.

Many of Skelton's television shows have survived due to kinescopes, films and videotapes and have been featured in recent years on PBS television stations. In addition, a number of excerpts from Skelton's programs have been released in VHS and DVD formats.

Skelton's comedic sketches became legendary. Sometimes during sketches, Skelton would break up or cause his guest stars to laugh, not only on the live telecasts but on taped programs as well. Actress Theona Bryant, a regular to the show remarked, "When you can recite Juliet's Romeo dialogue in southern belle drawl into the laughing face of Red Skeleton, you're ready to be a star." Skelton's weekly signoff—"Good night and may God bless"—became as familiar to television viewers as Edward R. Murrow's "Good night and good luck," or Walter Cronkite's "And that's the way it is."

In the early 1960s, Skelton became the first CBS host to tape his weekly programs in color. He bought an old movie studio on La Brea Avenue (once owned by Charlie Chaplin) and converted it for television productions, as well as forming his own company, Van Bernard Productions, which also was a partner in Irwin Allen's Lost In Space.

He tried to encourage CBS to do other shows in color at the facility, although most were taped in black-and-white at Television City near the Farmers Market in Los Angeles. However, CBS president William S. Paley had generally given up on color television after the network's unsuccessful efforts to receive Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval for CBS' "color wheel" system (developed by inventor Peter Goldmark) in the early 1950s.

Although CBS occasionally would use NBC facilities or its own small color studio for specials, the network avoided color programming—except for telecasts of The Wizard of Oz and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella—until the fall of 1965, when both NBC and ABC began televising most of their programs in RCA's compatible color process. By that time, Skelton had abandoned his own studio and moved to the network's Television City facilities, where he resumed programs until he left the network. In the fall of 1962, CBS expanded his program to a full hour, retitling it The Red Skelton Hour.

At the height of Skelton's popularity, his son was diagnosed with leukemia. In 1957, this was a virtual death sentence for any child. The illness and subsequent death of Richard Skelton at age 9 left his devastated father unable to perform for much of the 1957–58 television season. The show continued with guest hosts that included a young Johnny Carson, who had served as one of Skelton's writers a few years earlier. CBS management was exceptionally understanding of Red's situation, and no talk of cancellation was ever entertained by Paley. Skelton would seemingly turn on CBS and Paley after his show was cancelled by the network in 1970.

Skelton was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989, but as Kadiddlehopper showed, he was more than an interpretive clown. One of his best-known routines was "The Pledge of Allegiance," in which he explained the pledge word by word. That routine was released as a single by Columbia Records after Skelton performed it on his TV series in 1969. Another Skelton staple was a pantomime of the crowd at a small town parade as the American flag passes by. Skelton frequently employed the art of pantomime for his characters, using few props.

In Groucho and Me, Groucho Marx called Skelton "the most unacclaimed clown in show business", and "the logical successor to [Charlie] Chaplin", largely because of his ability to play a multitude of characters with minimal use of props. "With one prop, a soft battered hat," Groucho wrote, describing a performance he had witnessed, "he successfully converted himself into an idiot boy, a peevish old lady, a teetering-tottering drunk, an overstuffed clubwoman, a tramp, and any other character that seemed to suit his fancy. No grotesque make-up, no funny clothes, just Red." He added that Skelton also "plays a dramatic scene about as effectively as any of the dramatic actors."

One of the last known on-camera interviews with Skelton was conducted by Steven F. Zambo. A small portion of this interview can be seen in the 2005 PBS special, The Pioneers of Primetime.

Off the air

Skelton kept his high television ratings up to 1970, but he ran into two problems with CBS. Demographics showed he no longer appealed to younger viewers, and his contracted annual salary raises grew disproportionately thanks to inflation. Since CBS had earlier decided to keep another long-time favorite, Gunsmoke, whose appeal was strictly to older audiences, it's possible that without Skelton's inflationary contract raises he might have been kept on the air a few more years. However, between 1970 and 1971, CBS moved away from its traditional weekly variety shows hosted by veterans Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan, and others whom network programmers thought were alienating younger audiences and resulting in lower ratings (see rural purge for more information on this topic). Remarkably, CBS continued with Carol Burnett's highly popular show until 1978 and aired variety programs hosted by younger entertainers such as Sonny and Cher. Years later, Burnett told reporters that network variety shows had become too expensive to bring back.

Skelton moved to NBC in 1970 for one season, in a half-hour Monday night version of his former show, then ended his long television career after being canceled by that network in 1971.

Skelton was said to be bitter about CBS's cancellation for many years to follow. Ignoring the demographics and salary issues, he bitterly accused CBS of caving in to the anti-establishment, anti-war faction at the height of the Vietnam War, saying his conservative politics and traditional values caused CBS to turn against him. Skelton invited prominent Republicans, including Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen to appear on his program.

When he was presented with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Governor's Award in 1986, Skelton received a standing ovation. "I want to thank you for sitting down," Skelton said when the ovation subsided. "I thought you were pulling a CBS and walking out on me."

Clown and circus art

Skelton returned to live performance after his television days ended, in nightclubs and casinos and resorts, as well as performing such venues as Carnegie Hall. Many of those shows yielded segments that were edited into part of the Funny Faces video series on HBO's Standing Room Only. He also spent more time on his lifetime love of painting, usually of clown images, and his works began to attract prices over US$80,000.

Red married for a third and last time in 1983 to the much younger Lothian Toland. She continues to maintain a website and business selling Skelton memorabilia and art prints.

In Death Valley Junction, California, Skelton found a kindred spirit when he saw the artwork and pantomime performances of Marta Becket. Today, circus performers painted by Marta Becket decorate the Red Skelton Room in the Amargosa Hotel, where Skelton stayed four times in Room 22. The room is dedicated to Skelton, as explained by John Mulvihill in his essay, "Lost Highway Hotel":

Marta Becket is the magic behind the Amargosa Hotel. For the past 32 years, it has provided both a home and a venue for her lifetime ambition: to perform her dance and pantomime works to paying audiences. Since 1968, she's been doing just that, twice a week, audiences or no. The hotel guest’s first encounter with Marta is through her paintings in the lobby and dining area. Once she and her husband had upgraded the structure of the hotel and theatre, she made them unique by painting their walls with shimmering frescoes (not real frescoes but the effect is the same) in a style uniquely hers. Some of the paintings are deceptively three-dimensional, like the guitar leaning against a wall that you don’t realize is a painting until you reach to pick it up. Some are evocative of carnival art from the early part of this century. All are vibrant, whimsical. If you’re lucky, your room will be graced with similar wall paintings. Room 22 is where Red Skelton used to stay. He visited once to catch Marta’s show and, like so many others, fell victim to the Amargosa’s enchantment and returned again and again. He asked Marta to illustrate his room with circus performers and though he died shortly thereafter, she did so anyway. Staying in this room, with acrobats scaling the walls and trapeze artists flying from the ceiling, is a singularly evocative experience, one I wouldn’t trade for a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Writing and music

Near the end of his life, Skelton said his daily routine included writing a short story a day. He collected the best stories in self-published chapbooks. He also composed music which he sold to background music services such as Muzak. Among his more notable compositions was his patriotic, "Red's White and Blue March."

Personal life

Skelton married Edna Marie Stillwell (b.1906 - d.1982), a joke writer, business manager, and former usher at Kansas City's old Pantage Theater, on June 1, 1931. Skelton was one month away from his 18th birthday, and Edna was 16 (or as old as 25 if the birth date given above is correct.). They divorced in 1943. Stillwell remained an advisor on his career after their marriage ended. It was his ex-wife/manager Edna who negotiated a seven-year Hollywood contract for him in 1951, the same year "The Red Skelton Show" premiered on NBC. (left) and Red Skelton (right), ca 1950. ]] On March 9, 1945 he married Georgia Maurine Davis in Beverly Hills, California. They had two children, Richard Jr., and Valentina Marie Skelton (b.1947). Richard Skelton Jr.'s death on May 10, 1958 from leukemia, just 10 days before his 10th birthday, devastated the Skelton household. Family friend Arthur Marx, Groucho's son, whose unauthorized biography of Skelton came out in 1979, wrote, "Red treated his son's room in their Palm Springs house like a little museum. ...He had it cordoned off with a velvet rope so nobody could go in there." Another family friend, actress Arlene Dahl, who co-starred with Skelton in three films, remarked, "The death of his child really did Red in. He idolized that boy."

Richard Jr.'s death profoundly affected Red and Georgia. By 1966, Georgia Skelton wounded herself in an "accidental shooting." And in 1971, Red and Georgia divorced. By Fall 1973, Skelton, now 60, remarried to a secretary 25 years his junior, Lothian Toland (daughter of famed film cinematographer Gregg Toland). They were married on October 19, 1973 in San Francisco, California, and remained married until Red Skelton's death in 1997. On May 10, 1976, ex-wife Georgia committed suicide by gunshot, on the anniversary of her son's death. She was 55. Deeply affected by the loss of his ex-wife, Red abstained from performing for the next decade, finding solace in painting clowns.

Death

Red Skelton died near his Anza, California home, at Eisenhower Medical Center, in Rancho Mirage, California, of pneumonia, on September 17, 1997. He was 84. Skelton was interred in the Skelton Family tomb in The Great Mausoleum's Sanctuary of Benediction, private room, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California. He rests with his beloved son Richard Jr., who died in 1958. Skelton was survived by his widow Lothian Toland-Skelton, and his daughter Valentina Marie Skelton-Alonso (by his second wife Georgia), and granddaughter Sabrina Maureen Alonso.

Fraternity

Red Skelton was a Freemason, a member of Vincennes Lodge No. 1, in Indiana. He also was a member of both the Scottish and York Rite. He was the recipient of the Gold Medal of the General Grand Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, for Distinguished Service in the Arts and Sciences. On September 24, 1969, he received the honorary 33° in the Scottish Rite. Skelton was also a Shriner in Los Angeles, California. In 1961 Skelton was made an honorary brother of the Phi Alpha Tau Fraternity of Emerson College when he was awarded the Joseph E. Connor Award for excellence in the field of communications. He was also an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity.

Legacy

The Red Skelton Bridge spans the Wabash River and provides the highway link between Illinois and Indiana, on U.S. Route 50, near his hometown of Vincennes, Indiana. Immediately after the bridge-dedication ceremony came to a close, Red proclaimed in his normal comical style to the crowd, "Ok, now everybody, off of my bridge!"

At a cost of $16.8 million, Red Skelton Performing Arts Center was built on the Vincennes University campus. It was officially dedicated on Friday, February 24, 2006. The building includes an 850-seat theater, classrooms, rehearsal rooms and dressing rooms. The grand foyer is a gallery for Red Skelton paintings, statues and film posters. In addition to Vincennes University theatrical and musical productions, the theater hosts special events, convocations and conventions. Work is underway on the Red Skelton Gallery and Education Center to house the $3 million collection of Skelton memorabilia donated by Lothian Skelton. As of June 2009, part of the museum including a gift shop is open. In 2007, restoration was planned for the historic Vincennes Pantheon Theatre where Skelton performed during his youth.

In 2002, during the controversy over the phrase "under God," which had been added to U.S. Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, a recording of a monologue Skelton performed on his 1969 television show resurfaced. In the speech, he commented on the meaning of each phrase of the Pledge. At the end, he added: "Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer and that would be eliminated from schools too?" Given that advocates were arguing that the inclusion of "under God" in a pledge recited daily in U.S. public schools violated the First Amendment separation of church and state, Skelton suddenly regained popularity among religious conservatives who wanted the phrase to remain.

Filmography

Features:

Having Wonderful Time (1938)

Flight Command (1940)

The People vs. Dr. Kildare (1941)

Whistling in the Dark (1941)

Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day (1941)

Lady Be Good (1941)

Ship Ahoy (1942)

Maisie Gets Her Man (1942)

Panama Hattie (1942)

Whistling in Dixie (1942)

DuBarry Was a Lady (1943)

Thousands Cheer (1943)

I Dood It (1943)

Whistling in Brooklyn (1943)

Bathing Beauty (1944)

Ziegfeld Follies (1946)

The Show-Off (1946)

Merton of the Movies (1947)

The Fuller Brush Man (1948)

A Southern Yankee (1948)

Neptune's Daughter (1949)

The Yellow Cab Man (1950)

Three Little Words (1950)

Duchess of Idaho (1950)

The Fuller Brush Girl (1950) cameo

Watch the Birdie (1950)

Excuse My Dust (1951)

Texas Carnival (1951)

Lovely to Look At (1952)

The Clown (1953)

Half a Hero (1953)

The Great Diamond Robbery (1954)

Susan Slept Here (1954) cameo

Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) cameo

Public Pigeon No. One (1957)

Ocean's Eleven (1960) cameo

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)

Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976)

Short subjects:

The Broadway Buckaroo (1939)

Seeing Red (1939)

Radio Bugs (1944) (voice)

Weekend in Hollywood (1947)

The Luckiest Guy in the World (1947) (voice)

Some of the Best (1949)

References

External links

Red Skelton official site

Red Skelton biography at Clown Ministry

Red-Eo-Tape (Red Tape) Color Television

Category:1913 births Category:1940s American radio programs Category:1997 deaths Category:American clowns Category:American comedians Category:American composers Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Blackface minstrel performers Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:Burlesque performers Category:California Republicans Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Actors from Indiana Category:Indiana Republicans Category:Infectious disease deaths in California Category:People from Vincennes, Indiana Category:People from Palm Springs, California Category:Vaudeville performers

Ray Heatherton (June 1, 1909—August 15, 1997) was an American singer, Broadway musical theatre performer, and a popular New York television personality in the early days of the medium.

Early career

Ray Heatherton was born in the New York City suburb of Orange, New Jersey (some sources indicate Jersey City) and was first introduced to music upon joining a boys' choir at his church. He sang with the choir until his family moved to another of the city's suburbs, the Long Island village of Floral Park.

During his high school years, he continued to find outlets for his singing talents, performing with bands at various local functions and winning a radio talent contest sponsored by the manufacturer of radio sets, Atwater Kent. His first appearance on Broadway was in The Garrick Gaieties, a revue which opened at the Guild Theatre on June 4, 1930, four days after his 21st birthday. Also in the cast were future comedy veterans Imogene Coca and Sterling Holloway. The show ran for 158 performances, closing on October 8.

Shortly afterward, Ray Heatherton's singing talents came to the attention of the era's best-known radio bandleader-songwriter, Paul Whiteman, whose instantly recognizable moniker (and the title of his 1930 film vehicle) was "King of Jazz". The star broadcaster, known for discovering and showcasing new talent, hired the young man to become a featured vocalist on his 1929–30 CBS radio program The Old Gold Hour. Heatherton continued to sing on the show, while also performing in the musical Midnight Frolics at Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre.

Following his father's death during the difficult years of the Depression, he was temporarily forced to leave the financially-uncertain world of show business to work for the New York Telephone Company. His affection for performing, however, inspired him to continue auditioning for radio assignments and he was, eventually, able to return as a singer on numerous radio musical variety series and also found opportunities to perform in nightclubs and theater. In the late 1930s, he became a bandleader with his own orchestra which made recordings and performed at New York's Biltmore Hotel.

Broadway shows, recordings and pre-World War II television

Heatherton appeared in the musicals Anniversary Waltz, The Desert Song and Babes in Arms, where he became the first vocalist to sing the almost-instant classic "My Funny Valentine", long before Frank Sinatra's hit recording revived it in the 1960s. Also in the cast of Babes were the Nicholas Brothers, future headliners Dan Dailey and Alfred Drake as well as former child star Mitzi Green, with whom Ray performed the "Funny Valentine" number. The show opened at the Shubert Theatre on April 14, 1937, moved to the Majestic Theatre on October 25 and closed on December 18 after a good run of 289 performances.

In 1938 Heatherton recorded two discs of songs for children on the Decca label, and in 1939 twice performed on the then-experimental medium of television, appearing on NBC's New York station W2XBS (now WNBC) in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance (as Frederic) and H.M.S. Pinafore (as Ralph Rackstraw).

Single film appearance and war service in the Marines

As World War II arrived, Ray's career in the entertainment field was interrupted by service in the U.S. Marine Corps. Before leaving, he was able to complete what would become his only film appearance, performing a song and a few lines of dialogue in low-budget studio PRC's musical Follies Girl, released on June 26, 1943.

Early television and The Merry Mailman

Returning from the service, he worked in radio and began his full-time television career as the host, performer and interviewer of Heatherton House, a weekday-morning talk/variety series. Heatherton House was one of the first daytime programs on ABC's newly-opened New York flagship station WJZ (now WABC), Channel 7. The minor local-TV assignment, which was not shown on the fledgling network's other stations, only lasted from April to June 1949.

Heatherton's next TV series, however, was a more successful endeavor. In October 1949, independent station WOR Channel 9, the last of New York's seven VHF TV outlets, signed on the air. Station executives decided that one of the new venture's first showcases should be a quality children's program, and contacted Heatherton to audition as the host of a show that would appeal to the younger TV viewers. The successful audition launched the long-running show that he created and shaped with radio and TV producer-director (and future major film producer) Sandy Howard. The Merry Mailman, based upon a character performed by Heatherton on one of his 1938 children's records, debuted on WOR-TV Monday evening, October 16, 1950.

Every weekday afternoon and evening, as well as on Saturday afternoons, Ray Heatherton and his comedy assistants Chic Darrow, who played "The Topsey-Turvey Auctioneer", and Milt Moss, would entertain and inform their studio audiences and kids at home with games, songs, stories, craftmaking, hobbies, comedy, puppet skits, magic tricks, interviews with guest performers and personalities, and informational segments. As with virtually all children's shows of the 1950s and 60s, the format was structured so that the live segments were interspersed with cartoons—in this case, primarily the theatrical Terrytoons and the first made-for-TV animated series Crusader Rabbit. At the same time, Heatherton hosted other radio and TV series, including a radio edition of The Merry Mailman which was heard on the Mutual Radio Network Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons from 1953 to 1955. Heatherton's gentle personality and pleasant singing voice and endearingly cheerful and reassuring demeanor made him one of the most beloved and recognizable regional personalities.

Career setback and continued work

In late 1955, Ray Heatherton fell victim to one of the excesses of the Cold War era. Along with the guilty, a number of innocent performers were accused of Communist affiliations and lost their careers. Unfounded public accusations of that nature were aimed at Heatherton by an individual from Upstate New York, resulting in the loss of sponsors and bad publicity for the station. WOR executives accepted Heatherton's word that the allegations were false and tried to keep The Merry Mailman on the air as a station-sustained program. It was not enough, however, and The Merry Mailman broadcast its final show on Friday, June 22, 1956.(Info about Mr.Heatherton hosting The WOR TV Ch.9 NYC edition of "The Merry Mailman"can be found in The NYC Kids Shows Round Up section of"TV Party.Com")

Heatherton was able to clear his name of the defamation and went on to host two more programs for WOR-TV: The Ray Heatherton Theater, a combination live-action and film musical anthology series for teens; and The Cartoon Parade, both of which were seen during the remainder of the station's 1956 season. He remained on the air for another year-and-a-half, but no longer had a daily venue—starting Saturday-Sunday, September 8–9, 1956 until Sunday, April 13, 1958, he served as the "sea captain" host-performer on the weekend evening edition of The Popeye Show on another New York independent station, WPIX Channel 11 which, along with another New York independent, WNEW Channel 5 was, during the 1950s and 60s, the station with the greatest number of "kiddie shows" on its broadcast schedule. At this point, he left television for three years and, between 1958 and 1961, drawing on his public recognition and good will he had engendered over the years, was able to launch a new career as head of public relations for Franklin National and European American Banks.

1960s and the return of The Merry Mailman

Heatherton returned to television and radio work three more times during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. On Monday, September 25, 1961, The Merry Mailman once again became a part of the lives of children in the New York City broadcast area. WPIX, Channel 11 broadcast The Merry Mailman's Funhouse weekday afternoons during the noon-12:45 period when many schoolkids came home for lunch. However, the series fell prey to creative disagreements within station management, and The Funhouse went off the air on Friday, May 31, 1963. Following intermittent job opportunities, Heatherton returned to radio in the late 1960s as the host/performer and interviewer of the nationally-syndicated talk/variety program Ray Heatherton's Breakfast Club.

Family, later work, illness, and death

Ray Heatherton married Davenie Ross Watson in 1941 and their 46-year marriage lasted until her death in 1987. Their two children, Dick and Davenie Johanna (Joey), both made their careers in show business—Dick as a performer/director/consultant and Joey as an actress, singer and dancer, who became a major television star in the 1960s.

Ray is also grandfather to Dana Fujiko Heatherton who is 2009-2010 Nisei Week Queen for Los Angeles.

In July 1975, Ray and Joey had a brief moment of network glory with their own CBS-TV variety program, Joey and Dad. Times had changed and variety shows, as well as Joey's once-hot career fell victim to changing tastes, while Ray was seen on TV at the time as the commercial spokesman for Tropicana Orange Juice. However, for four weeks, July 6–27, they were the stars of the Sunday 7:30-8:30 p.m. summer replacement for Cher's variety hour. Comedy performers Pat Paulsen, Henny Youngman and Bob Einstein were supporting regulars and, by summer-show standards, the program received relatively good notices and ratings. In a nostalgic moment on the first show, Ray put on the old Merry Mailman uniform and performed his familiar "I Am the Merry Mailman" theme song.

Heatherton's last regular TV series was another talk/variety show, this time aimed at "mature" adults and senior citizens, A New Day's Dawning. The series was seen locally in New York on New York City Board of Education's TV station WNYE Channel 25 and in national syndication between 1983 and 1985. Dick Heatherton who, from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s was a drive-time DJ on one of New York's top FM stations, WCBS, worked on his father's final TV effort by signing on as the show's producer.

On Thursday night, October 11, 1984, Ray Heatherton appeared for the last time on WOR-TV, Channel 9 during the station's evening-long celebration of its 35th anniversary on the air. Four years later, on Thursday, September 29, 1988, he made his final TV appearance on a very similar program, WPIX-TV, Channel 11's day-long celebration and retrospective of its 40 years on the air, "WPIX at 40". Following this last appearance, Ray Heatherton began showing signs of Alzheimer's disease. His still retained his positions, held since the mid-1980s, on the Boards of Directors of The Long Island Lighting Company, known as LILCO, and The Garden City Hotel, but was no longer serving as of the early 1990s.

In 1993, he was admitted to The Actors' Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, where he spent the last four years of his life. Despite the debilitating effects of the disease he still made appearances and greeted fans at some local functions near the Home. Ray Heatherton died two-and-a-half months after his 88th birthday.

References

Brooks, Tim (1987). The Complete Directory to Prime Time TV Stars 1946—Present. New York:Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-32681-4.

New York Times obituary (August 18, 1997).">Pace, Eric. "Ray Heatherton, 88, TV's 'Merry Mailman'". New York Times obituary (August 18, 1997).

External links

1974 photograph along with an excerpt from the radio Ray Heatherton's Breakfast Club

Photographs of Ray Heatherton in his Merry Mailman uniform; biographical details; history of the show; lyrics to the "I Am the Merry Mailman" song and illustrations of Ray Heatherton collectibles

Excerpt from "The Breakfast Club w/Ray Heatherton" Radio Show WBAU

Category:American television personalities Category:American stage actors Category:Apex Records artists Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Category:People from Nassau County, New York Category:People from Orange, New Jersey Category:1909 births Category:1997 deaths

Name	Mickey Rooney
Imagesize	240px
Caption	Mickey Rooney, and his wife, Jan, at a military concert in Beverly Hills, California in 2000.
Birth name	Joseph Yule, Jr.
Birth date	September 23, 1920
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, Comedian
Years active	1922–present
Spouse	Ava Gardner (1942–1943) Betty Jane Rase (1944–1948) Martha Vickers (1949–1952) Elaine Devry (1952–1958) Carolyn Mitchell (1958–1966) Marge Lane (1966–1967) Carolyn Hockett (1969–1974) Jan Chamberlin (1978–present)
Website	http://www.mickeyrooney.com mickeyrooney.com,

Mickey Rooney (born September 23, 1920) is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. During his career he has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award. Working as a performer since he was a small child, he was a superstar as a teenager for the films in which he played Andy Hardy, and he has had one of the longest careers of any actor.

Early life

Rooney was born Joseph Yule, Jr. in Brooklyn, New York, to a vaudeville family. His father, Joseph Yule, was from Scotland, and his mother, Nellie W. (née Carter;died 1967), was from Kansas City, Missouri. Both of his parents were in vaudeville, and appearing in a Brooklyn production of A Gaiety Girl when Joseph, Jr. was born. He began performing at the age of 17 months as part of his parents' routine, wearing a specially tailored tuxedo.

Career

Mickey McGuire

The Yules separated in 1924 during a slump in vaudeville, and in 1925, Nell Yule moved with her son to Hollywood, where she managed a tourist home. Fontaine Fox had placed a newspaper ad for a dark-haired child to play the role of "Mickey McGuire" in a series of short films. Lacking the money to have her son's hair dyed, Mrs. Yule took her son to the audition after applying burnt cork to his scalp. Joe got the role and became "Mickey" for 78 of the comedies, running from 1927 to 1936, starting with Mickey's Circus, released September 4, 1927. These had been adapted from the Toonerville Trolley comic strip, which contained a character named Mickey McGuire. Joe Yule briefly became "Mickey McGuire" legally in order to trump an attempted copyright lawsuit (as it was his legal name, the movie producers did not owe the comic strip writers royalties).

Rooney later claimed that, during his Mickey McGuire days, he met cartoonist Walt Disney at the Warner Brothers studio, and that Disney was inspired to name Mickey Mouse after him, although Disney always said that he had changed the name from "Mortimer Mouse" to "Mickey Mouse" on the suggestion of his wife.

During an interruption in the series in 1932, Mrs. Yule made plans to take her son on a ten-week vaudeville tour as McGuire, and Fox sued successfully to stop him from using the name. Mrs. Yule suggested the stage name of "Mickey Looney" for her comedian son, which he altered slightly to Rooney, a less frivolous version. and a successful song and dance team. Besides three of the Andy Hardy films, where she portrayed Betsy Booth, a younger girl with a crush on Andy, they appeared together in a string of successful musicals, including the Oscar-nominated Babes in Arms (1939).

Rooney's breakthrough role as a dramatic actor came in 1938's Boys Town opposite Spencer Tracy as Whitey Marsh, which opened shortly before his 18th birthday. Rooney was named the biggest box-office draw in 1939, 1940 and 1941. Unquestionably a well-known entertainer by the early 1940s Rooney, with Garland, was one of many celebrities caricatured in Tex Avery's 1941 Warner Bros. cartoon Hollywood Steps Out. As of 2010, Rooney is the only surviving entertainer depicted in the cartoon.

After the war

In 1944, Rooney entered military service. He served more than 21 months, until shortly after the end of World War II. During and after the war he helped entertain the troops in America and Europe, and spent part of the time as a radio personality on the American Forces Network. After his return to civilian life, his career slumped. He appeared in a number of films, including Words and Music in 1948, which paired him for the last time with Garland on film (he appeared with her on one episode as a guest on her CBS variety series in 1963). He briefly starred in a CBS radio series, Shorty Bell, in the summer of 1948, and reprised his role as "Andy Hardy", with most of the original cast, in a syndicated radio version of The Hardy Family in 1949 and 1950 (repeated on Mutual during 1952). His first television series, The Mickey Rooney Show, also known as Hey Mulligan (which Rooney also produced), appeared on NBC television for 32 episodes from August 1954 through June 1955. In 1951, he directed a feature film for Columbia Pictures, My True Story starring Helen Walker. Rooney also starred as a ragingly egomaniacal television comedian in the live 90-minute television drama The Comedian, in the Playhouse 90 series on the evening of Valentine's Day in 1957, and as himself in a revue called The Musical Revue Of 1959 based on the 1929 movie The Hollywood Revue Of 1929 which was edited into a film in 1960, by British International Pictures. In 1958, Rooney joined Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra in hosting NBC's short-lived Club Oasis comedy and variety show.

In 1960, Rooney directed and starred in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, an ambitious comedy known for its multiple flashbacks and many cameos. In the 1960s, Rooney returned to theatrical entertainment. He still accepted film roles in undistinguished movies, but occasionally would appear in better works, such as Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and The Black Stallion (1979). One of Rooney's more controversial roles came in the highly acclaimed 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's where he played a stereotyped buck-toothed myopic Japanese neighbor (Mr. Yunioshi) of the main character, Holly Golightly. Producer Richard Shepherd apologized for this in the 45th anniversary DVD, though Director Blake Edwards and Rooney himself do not.

On December 31, 1961, he appeared on television's What's My Line and mentioned that he had already started enrolling students in the MRSE (Mickey Rooney School of Entertainment). His school venture never came to fruition, but for several years he was a spokesman/partner in Pennsylvania's Downingtown Inn, a country club and golf resort.

In 1966, while Rooney was working on the film Ambush Bay in the Philippines, his wife Barbara Ann Thomason (aka Tara Thomas, Carolyn Mitchell), a former pin-up model and aspiring actress who had won 17 straight beauty contests in Southern California, was found dead in their bed. Beside her was her lover, Milos Milos, an actor friend of Rooney's. Detectives ruled it murder-suicide, which was committed with Rooney's own gun.

Rooney was awarded an Academy Juvenile Award in 1938, and in 1983 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted him their Academy Honorary Award for his lifetime of achievement.

Television and stage

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Rooney made a successful transition to television and stage work. In 1961, he guest starred in the 13-week James Franciscus adventure-drama television series The Investigators on CBS. In 1963, he even entered The Twilight Zone, giving a one-man performance in the episode "The Last Night of a Jockey". In 1964, he launched another half-hour sitcom, Mickey, on ABC. The story line had "Mickey" operating a resort hotel in southern California. Son Tim Rooney appeared as Rooney's teenaged son on the program, and Emmaline Henry starred as Rooney's wife. It lasted 17 episodes, ending primarily due to the suicide of co-star Sammee Tong in October 1964.

He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for his role in 1981's Bill. Playing opposite Dennis Quaid, Rooney was a mentally challenged man attempting to live on his own after leaving an institution. He reprised his role in 1983's Bill: On His Own, earning an Emmy nomination for the role.

Current work

Rooney appeared in television commercials for Garden State Life Insurance Company in 1999, alongside his wife Jan. In commercials shown in 2007, he can be seen in the background washing imaginary dishes.

Rooney continues to work in film and tours with his wife in a multi-media live stage production called Let's Put On a Show! His first performance of this show after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack was in Bend, Oregon, where he and his wife Jan requested the show begin with the singing of the Star Spangled Banner by Jan off stage with only the American Flag visible on stage . On May 26, 2007, he was grand marshal at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival. Rooney made his British pantomime debut, playing Baron Hardup in Cinderella, at the Sunderland Empire Theatre over the 2007 Christmas period, a role he reprised in 2009 at the Milton Keynes theatre. He appeared on BBC Points West dressed in a pair of shorts and socks.

In 2008, Rooney starred as "Chief", a wise old ranch owner, in the independent family feature film , marking a return to starring in equestrian-themed productions for the first time since the 1990s TV show Adventures of the Black Stallion. Also, although they have acted together many times before, Lost Stallions: The Journey Home is the first film where Rooney and his real-life wife Jan Rooney portray a married couple on screen.

Personal life

Rooney has been married eight times. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was often the subject of comedians' jokes for his alleged inability to stay married, and he joked about it himself ("My marriage contract reads: 'To whom it may concern.'" ) But his current marriage has lasted more than 30 years.

In 1942, he married Hollywood starlet Ava Gardner, but the two were divorced well before she became a star in her own right. While stationed in the military in Alabama in 1944, Rooney met and married local beauty queen Betty Jane Rase. This marriage ended in divorce after he returned from Europe at the end of World War II. His subsequent marriages to Martha Vickers (1949) and Elaine Mahnken (1952) were also short-lived and ended in divorce. In 1958, Rooney married Barbara Ann Thompson, but tragedy struck when she was murdered in 1966. Falling into deep depression, he married Barbara's friend, Marge Lane, who helped him take care of his young children. The marriage lasted only 100 days. He was married to Carolyn Hockett from 1969 to 1974, but financial instability ended the relationship. Finally, in 1978, Rooney married Jan Chamberlin, his eighth wife. , they live in Westlake Village, California. Both are outspoken advocates for veterans and animal rights.

After battling drug addiction and a near bankruptcy caused by gambling and bad investments, Rooney became a born-again Christian in the 1970s, reportedly after an angel appeared to him in a coffee shop.

Rooney's oldest child, Mickey Rooney, Jr., is also a born-again Christian, and has an evangelical ministry in Hemet, California. He and several of Rooney's other eight children have worked at various times in show business. One of them, actor Tim Rooney, died in 2006 at age 59.

On September 21, 2005, just days after the death of Liza Minnelli's ex-stepfather, Sid Luft, where he attended his service, Rooney celebrated his 85th Birthday at the Regent Theater in Arlington, Massachusetts, where his wife appeared with him in a play titled "Let's Put On A Show."

On September 23, 2010, Rooney celebrated his 90th Birthday at Fienstein's and Loews Regency in the Upper East Side of New York City. Among the people who were attending the party were: Donald Trump, Regis Philbin, Nathan Lane, Tony Bennett and his wife Jan, who threw the party for him. He also put on a show with wife Jan.

In December 2010 he was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.

Filmography

Feature films

Short subjects

Television

Rooney has made countless appearances in TV sitcoms and TV movies. He has also lent his voice to many animation films. Only his most important work is listed in this section. {| class="wikitable" ! Year(s) !! Title |- | 1954–1955 | The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey Mulligan |- | 1957 | The Comedian (on Playhouse 90) |- | 1964–1965 | Mickey |- | 1981 | Bill (won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Peabody Award for role of Bill) |- | 1982 | One of the Boys (canceled after 13 episodes) |- | 1983 | (sequel to 1981's "Bill" nominated for Emmy) |- | 1990–1993 | The Adventures of the Black Stallion |}

Marriages

{| class="wikitable" ! Name !! Years !! Children |- | Ava Gardner | 1942–1943 | |- | rowspan=2 | Betty Jane Rase | rowspan=2 | 1944–1949 | Mickey Rooney, Jr. (born July 3, 1945) |- | Tim Rooney (January 4, 1947 — September 23, 2006) |- | Martha Vickers | 1949–1951 | Theodore Michael Rooney (born April 13, 1950) |- | Elaine Devry | 1952–1958 | |- | rowspan="4" | Barbara Ann Thomason (Carolyn Mitchell) | rowspan="4" | 1958–1966 | Kelly Ann Rooney (born September 13, 1959) |- | Kerry Rooney (born December 30, 1960) |- | Michael Joseph Rooney (born April 2, 1962) |- | Kimmy Sue Rooney (born September 13, 1963) |- | Marge Lane | 1966–1967 | |- | rowspan="2" | Carolyn Hockett | rowspan="2" | 1969–1975 | Jimmy Rooney (adopted from Carolyn's previous marriage) (born 1966) |- | Jonelle Rooney (born January 11, 1970) |- | Jan Chamberlin | 1978–present | |}

References

Further reading

Rooney, Mickey (1991). Life Is Too Short. (New York: Random House)

Marx, Arthur (1988/reprint). The Nine Lives Of Mickey Rooney. (New York: Berkley Publishing Group)

External links

mickeyrooney.com, Rooney's official website

Mickey Rooney on the Phil Silvers Show

"Mickey Rooney on America, Christ and Judy Garland: The Hollywood Legend Speaks Out." Montreal Mirror interview 1998

Category:1920 births Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Academy Juvenile Award winners Category:American child actors Category:Converts to Christianity Category:American Christians Category:American dancers Category:American film actors Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American silent film actors Category:American television actors Category:American television directors Category:American television personalities Category:American television producers Category:American singers Category:American stage actors Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe winners Category:California Republicans Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Vaudeville performers

Name	Lorenz Hart
Background	non_performing_personnel
Birth name	Lorenz Milton Hart
Born	May 02, 1895 New York City, New York, USA
Died	November 22, 1943 New York City, New York, USA
Genre	Musical theatre
Occupation	Composer, songwriter, playwright
Years active	1919–1943

Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include, "Blue Moon", "Isn't It Romantic?", "Mountain Greenery", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Manhattan", "Where or When", "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", "Falling in Love with Love", "I'll Tell The Man In The Street" and "My Funny Valentine".

Life and career

Hart was born in Harlem, the older of two sons, to Jewish immigrant parents, Max M. and Frieda (Isenberg) Hart, of eastern Europe and German descent. A business promoter, his father sent Hart and his brother Teddy to private schools. (His brother Teddy Hart also went into theatre and became a musical comedy star. His wife Dorothy Hart wrote a biography of Lorenz Hart.) A friend introduced him to Richard Rodgers, and the two joined forces to write songs for a series of amateur and student productions. With their successes, during the Great Depression Hart was earning $60,000 annually, and he became a magnet for many people. He gave numerous large parties. Beginning in 1938, he traveled more often and suffered from his drinking. He was much affected by his mother's death in late April 1943.

Rodgers and Hart teamed a final time in the fall of 1943 for a revival of A Connecticut Yankee. Hart had taken off the night of the opening and was gone for two days. He was found ill in a hotel room and taken to the hospital, but died in a few days.and his lyrics have often been praised for their wit and technical sophistication. According to Stephen Holder, a writer in The New York Times, "Many of Hart's ballad lyrics conveyed a heart-stopping sadness that reflected his conviction that he was physically too unattractive to be lovable." The New York Times writer also noted that "In his lyrics, as in his life, Hart stands as a compellingly lonely figure. Although he wrote dozens of songs that are playful, funny and filled with clever wordplay, it is the rueful vulnerability beneath their surface that lends them a singular poignancy."

Personal life

For years Hart was a bachelor and lived with his widowed mother. Homosexual, he struggled in a society that discriminated against people of his orientation. He is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens County, New York.

Hart suffered great emotional turmoil and depression throughout his life. His personal problems were often the cause of friction between him and Rodgers; in fact this led to a brief breakup of their partnership in 1943 before his death. Rodgers then started working with Oscar Hammerstein II. Hart's life was heavily edited and romanticized for the 1948 MGM biopic Words and Music.

Selected stage works

1925 The Garrick Gaieties

1927 A Connecticut Yankee, based on the Mark Twain novel

1928 Present Arms

1935 Jumbo

1936 On Your Toes

1937 Babes in Arms

1938 The Boys from Syracuse, based on William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors

1938 I Married an Angel

1938 Too Many Girls

1940 Higher and Higher

1940 Pal Joey, based on John O'Hara's work

1942 By Jupiter

Notable songs

"Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered"

"Blue Moon"

"Dancing on the Ceiling"

"Falling in Love with Love"

"Glad to Be Unhappy"

"Have You Met Miss Jones?"

"He Was Too Good to Me"

"I Could Write a Book"

"I Didn't Know What Time It Was"

"I'll Tell The Man In The Street"

"Isn't It Romantic?"

"It Never Entered My Mind"

"It's Easy to Remember"

"I've Got Five Dollars"

"I Wish I Were in Love Again"

"Johnny One Note"

"The Lady Is a Tramp"

"Little Girl Blue"

"Lover"

"Manhattan"

"The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"

"Mountain Greenery"

"My Funny Valentine"

"My Heart Stood Still"

"My Romance"

"A Ship Without a Sail"

"Sing for Your Supper"

"Spring Is Here"

"Ten Cents a Dance"

"There's a Small Hotel"

"This Can't Be Love"

"To Keep My Love Alive"

"Where or When"

"With a Song in My Heart"

"You Took Advantage of Me"

References

Further reading

Hart, Dorothy. Thou Swell, Thou Witty: The Life and Lyrics of Lorenz Hart, New York: Harper & Row, 1976.

Nolan, Frederick W. Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Marx, Samuel, and Jan Clayton. Rodgers & Hart: Bewitched, Bothered, and Bedeviled: An Anecdotal Account, New York: Putnam, 1976.

Friends of the USC Libraries. The Hart of the Matter: A Celebration of Lorenz Hart, September 30, 1973. [Los Angeles]: Friends of the USC Libraries, University of Southern California, 1973.

External links

That Old Feeling:Heart to Hart- Time Magazine essay

Bio from Songwriters Hall of Fame

Databases for information about and lyrics by Lorenz Hart

Category:1895 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Alcohol-related deaths in New York Category:American musical theatre lyricists Category:Songwriters from New York Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Infectious disease deaths in New York Category:Jewish American composers and songwriters Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:LGBT composers from the United States

Name	Kim Novak
Caption	Novak in 2004
Birth name	Marilyn Pauline Novak
Birth date	February 13, 1933
Birth place	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Years active	1954–1991
Spouse	Richard Johnson (1965–1966) Dr. Robert Malloy (1976–present)

Kim Novak (born February 13, 1933) is an American actress. She is best known for her performance in the classic 1958 film Vertigo. Novak retired from acting in 1991 and has since become an accomplished artist of oil paintings. She currently lives with her veterinarian husband on a ranch in Eagle Point, Oregon, where they raise livestock.

Early life

Kim Novak was born Marilyn Pauline Novak in Chicago, Illinois, to Joseph Novak and Blanche Marie Novak (nee Král). Her parents were second-generation Czech immigrants. Her father was a railroad clerk and former teacher and her mother was also a former teacher.

While attending David Glasgow Farragut High School, she won a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago. After leaving school, she began a career modeling teen fashions for a local department store. She later received a scholarship at a modeling academy and continued to model part-time. She worked as an elevator operator, a sales clerk and a dental assistant.

After a job touring the country as a spokesman for a refrigerator manufacturer, "Miss Deepfreeze," Novak moved to Los Angeles, where she continued to find work as a model.

Career

The 20-year-old actress began with an uncredited role in The French Line (1954). Eventually, she was seen by a Columbia Pictures talent agent and filmed a screen test. Novak was signed to a six-month contract, and the studio changed her first name to Kim. Novak debuted as Lona McLane that same year in Pushover opposite Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey, and played the femme fatale role of Janis in Phffft! opposite Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, and Jack Carson. Novak's reviews were good. People were eager to see the new star, and she received an enormous amount of fan mail. ' in Pal Joey)]] After playing Madge Owens in Picnic (1955) opposite William Holden, Novak won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer and for World Film Favorite. She was also nominated for the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actress. That same year she played Molly in The Man with the Golden Arm with Frank Sinatra. In 1957 she worked with Sinatra again for Pal Joey, which also starred Rita Hayworth, and starred in Jeanne Eagels with Jeff Chandler. She was on the cover of the July 29, 1957, issue of Time Magazine. That same year, she went on strike, protesting her salary of $1,250 per week.

In 1958, Novak starred in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed classic thriller Vertigo, playing the roles of a brunette shopgirl, Judy Barton, and a blonde woman named Madeleine Elster.

Today, the film is considered a masterpiece of romantic suspense, though Novak's performance has received mixed reviews. Critic David Shipman thought it "little more than competent", while David Thomson sees it as "one of the major female performances in the cinema". Hitchcock, rarely one to praise actors, dismissed Novak in a later interview. "You think you're getting a lot," he said of her ability, "but you're not." ]] That same year, she again starred alongside Stewart in Bell, Book and Candle, a comedy tale of modern-day witchcraft that did moderately well at the box office. In 1960, she co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the critically acclaimed Strangers When We Meet also featuring Walter Matthau and Ernie Kovacs. In 1962, Novak produced her own movie, financing her own production company in association with Filmways Productions. Boys' Night Out, in which she starred with James Garner and Tony Randall. It was received mildly well by critics and the public. She was paired with Lemmon for a third and final time that year in a mystery-comedy, The Notorious Landlady.

In 1964 she played the vulgar waitress Mildred Rogers in a remake of W. Somerset Maugham's drama Of Human Bondage opposite Laurence Harvey, and starred as barmaid Polly, "The Pistol" in Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid with Ray Walston and Dean Martin. After playing the title role in The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) with Richard Johnson, Novak took a break from Hollywood acting. She continued to act, although infrequently, taking fewer roles as she began to prefer personal activities over acting

Her comeback came in a dual role as a young actress, Elsa Brinkmann, and an early-day movie goddess who was murdered, Lylah Clare, in producer-director Robert Aldrich's The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) with Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine for MGM. The movie did not do well. After playing a forger, Sister Lyda Kebanov, in The Great Bank Robbery (1969) opposite Zero Mostel, Clint Walker, and Claude Akins, she stayed away from the screen for another four years. She then played the role of Auriol Pageant in the horror anthology film Tales That Witness Madness (1973) opposite Joan Collins. She starred as veteran showgirl Gloria Joyce in the made-for-TV movie The Third Girl From the Left (1973), and played Eva in Satan's Triangle (1975). She was featured in the 1977 western The White Buffalo with Charles Bronson, and in 1979 she played Helga in Just a Gigolo co-starring David Bowie.

In 1980, Novak played Lola Brewster in the mystery/thriller The Mirror Crack'd, based on the story by Agatha Christie and co-starring Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. She and Taylor portrayed rival actresses. She made occasional television appearances over the years. She co-starred with James Coburn in the TV-movie Malibu (1983) and played Rosa in a revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985) opposite Melanie Griffith. From 1986 to 1987, the actress was a cast member of the television series Falcon Crest during its fourth season, playing the mysterious character Kit Marlowe (the stage name rejected at the start of her career). She co-starred with Ben Kingsley in the 1990 film The Children.

Her most recent appearance on the big screen to date came as a terminally ill writer with a mysterious past in the thriller Liebestraum (1991), opposite Kevin Anderson and Bill Pullman. However, owing to battles with the director over how to play the role, her scenes were cut. Novak later admitted in a 2004 interview that the film was a mistake. She said

"I got so burned out on that picture that I wanted to leave the business, but then if you wait long enough you think, 'Oh, I miss certain things.' The making of a movie is wonderful. What's difficult is afterward when you have to go around and try to sell it. The actual filming, when you have a good script—which isn't often—nothing beats it."

. In an interview with Stephen Rebello in the July 2005 issue of Movieline's Hollywood Life, Novak admitted that she had been "unprofessional" in her conduct with the film's director, Mike Figgis.

Novak has not ruled out further acting. In an interview in 2007, she said that she would consider returning to the screen "if the right thing came along."

Novak appeared for a question-and-answer session about her career on July 30, 2010, at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, where the American Cinematheque hosted a tribute to her coinciding with the August 3 DVD release of "The Kim Novak Collection."

Honors

For her contribution to motion pictures, Novak was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6332 Hollywood Boulevard.

In 1995, Novak was ranked 92nd by Empire Magazine on a list of the 100 sexiest stars in film history. In 1955, she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer-Female. In 1957, she won another Golden Globe–for World Favorite female actress. In 1997, Kim won an Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2002 a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Novak by Eastman Kodak.

In 2005, British fashion designer Alexander McQueen named his first It bag the Novak.

Personal life

Novak has been married to veterinarian Dr. Robert Malloy (born 1940) since March 12, 1976. The couple resides on a ranch where they raise horses and llamas. Novak has two stepchildren.

Novak was previously married to English actor Richard Johnson from March 15, 1965, to April 23, 1966. The two have remained friends. Novak also dated Sammy Davis, Jr., in the late 1950s and actor Michael Brandon in the 1970s. She was engaged to director Richard Quine in the early 1960s.

On July 24, 2000, her home in Eagle Point, Oregon, was partially destroyed by fire. Novak lost scripts, several paintings, and a computer containing the only draft of her unfinished autobiography.

In 2006, Novak was injured in a horseback riding accident. She suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs, and nerve damage but made a full recovery within a year.

In October 2010, it was reported that Novak had been diagnosed with breast cancer according to her manager, Sue Cameron. Cameron also noted that Novak is "undergoing treatment" and that "her doctors say she is in fantastic physical shape and should recover very well."

Filmography

{|Class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Movie Title ! Role ! Director |- | rowspan="3"|1954 | The French Line | Model (uncredited) | Lloyd Bacon |- | Pushover | Lona McLane | Richard Quine |- | Phffft! | Janis | Mark Robson |- | rowspan="4"|1955 | Son of Sinbad | Harem Girl (uncredited) | Ted Tetzlaff |- | 5 Against the House | Kaye Greylek | Phil Karlson |- | Picnic | Marjorie 'Madge' Owens | Joshua Logan |- | The Man with the Golden Arm | Molly | Otto Preminger |- | 1956 | The Eddy Duchin Story | Marjorie Oelrichs Duchin | George Sidney |- | rowspan="2"|1957 | Jeanne Eagels | Jeanne Eagels | George Sidney |- | Pal Joey | Linda English | George Sidney |- | rowspan="2"|1958 | Vertigo | Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton | Alfred Hitchcock |- | Bell, Book and Candle | Gillian 'Gil' Holroyd | Richard Quine |- | 1959 | Middle of the Night | Betty Preisser | Delbert Mann |- | rowspan="2"|1960 | Strangers When We Meet | Margaret 'Maggie' Gault | Richard Quine |- | Pepe | Herself (cameo appearance) | George Sidney |- | rowspan="2"|1962 | The Notorious Landlady | Mrs. Carlyle 'Carly' Hardwicke | Richard Quine |- | Boys' Night Out | Cathy | Michael Gordon |- | rowspan="2"|1964 | Of Human Bondage | Mildred Rogers | Ken Hughes |- | Kiss Me, Stupid | Polly, "The Pistol" | Billy Wilder |- | 1965 | The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders | Moll Flanders | Terence Young |- | 1968 | The Legend of Lylah Clare | Lylah Clare/Elsa Brinkmann/Elsa Champbell | Robert Aldrich |- | 1969 | The Great Bank Robbery | Sister Lyda Kebanov (forger) | Hy Averback |- | rowspan="2"|1973 | Tales That Witness Madness | Auriol (segment 4 'Luau') | Freddie Francis |- | The Third Girl From the Left | Gloria Joyce | Peter Medak |- | 1975 | Satan's Triangle | Eva | Sutton Roley |- | 1977 | The White Buffalo | Mrs. Poker Jenny Schermerhorn | J. Lee Thompson |- | 1979 | Just a Gigolo | Helga von Kaiserling | David Hemmings |- | 1980 | The Mirror Crack'd | Lola Brewster | Guy Hamilton |- | 1983 | Malibu | Billie Farnsworth | E.W. Swackhamer |- | 1990 | The Children | Rose Sellars | Tony Palmer |- | 1991 | Liebestraum | Lillian Anderson Munnsen | Mike Figgis |-

References

Further reading

External links

Photographs and literature

Category:1933 births Category:Living people Category:American painters Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American people of Czech descent Category:Actors from Chicago, Illinois Category:Actors from Illinois Category:Cancer patients Category:People from Eagle Point, Oregon Category:People from Jackson County, Oregon

Name	Lady Gaga
Img alt	Portrait of a young, pale-skinned Caucasian female with blond hair
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
Born	March 28, 1986 New York City, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, piano, synthesizer, keytar
Genre	Pop, dance
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, performance artist, record producer, dancer, businesswoman
Years active	2005–present
Label	Def Jam, Cherrytree, Streamline, Kon Live, Interscope
Url

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American pop singer-songwriter. She began performing in the rock music scene of New York City's Lower East Side in 2003 and enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She soon signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. During her early time at Interscope, she worked as a songwriter for fellow label artists and captured the attention of Akon, who recognized her vocal abilities, and signed her to his own label, Kon Live Distribution.

Gaga came to prominence following the release of her debut studio album The Fame (2008), which was a commercial success and achieved international popularity with the singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album reached number one on the record charts of six countries, accomplished positions within the top-ten worldwide, and topped the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart while simultaneously peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. Achieving similar worldwide success, the follow-up EP The Fame Monster (2009), produced a further two global chart-topping singles "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" and allowed her to embark on a second global headlining concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just months after having finished her first, The Fame Ball Tour. Her second studio album, Born This Way, is scheduled for release in 2011.

Inspired by glam rock artists like David Bowie and Queen, as well as pop singers such as Madonna and Michael Jackson, Gaga is well-recognized for her outré sense of style as a recording artist, in fashion, in performance and in her music videos. Her contributions to the music industry have garnered her numerous achievements including two Grammy Awards, amongst twelve nominations; two Guinness World Records; and the estimated sale of fifteen million albums and fifty-one million singles worldwide. Billboard named her as the Artist of the Year in 2010 and ranked her as the 73rd Artist of the 2000s decade. Gaga has been included in Time magazine's annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world as well as Forbes' list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential celebrities in the world. Forbes also placed her at number seven on their annual list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

Life and career

1986–2004: Early life

Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in New York City on March 28, 1986, the eldest child of Joseph Germanotta, an internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia (née Bissett). She learned to play piano from the age of four, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mike nights by age 14. Gaga was raised a Roman Catholic. At the age of 11, Gaga attended Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school on Manhattan's Upper East Side, but has stressed that she does not come from a wealthy background, saying that her parents "both came from lower-class families, so we've worked for everything – my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father."

An avid thespian in high school musicals, Gaga portrayed lead roles as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She described her academic life in high school as "very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined" but also "a bit insecure" as she told in an interview, "I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak." Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in school. "She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1," recalled a former high school classmate. Referring to her "expressive, free spirit", Gaga told Elle magazine "I'm left-handed!"

At age 17, Gaga gained early admission to the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and lived in a NYU dorm on 11th Street. There she studied music and improved her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, social issues and politics. Gaga felt that she was more creative than some of her classmates. "Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself," she said. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she withdrew from the school to focus on her musical career. Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll for Tisch if she was unsuccessful. "I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen," she said. Shortly after, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed. The first song she produced with RedOne was "Boys Boys Boys", She also started the Stefani Germanotta Band with some friends from NYU. They recorded an extended play of their ballads at a studio underneath a liquor store in New Jersey, becoming a local fixture at the downtown Lower East Side club scene. Music producer Rob Fusari, who helped her write some of her earlier songs, compared some of her vocal harmonies to that of Freddie Mercury. He explained,

She was known thereafter as Lady Gaga. The pair began playing gigs at downtown club venues like the Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall, with their live performance art piece known as "Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue." Billed as "The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow", their act was a low-fi tribute to 1970s variety acts. In August 2007, Gaga and Starlight were invited to play at the American Lollapalooza music festival. The show was critically acclaimed, and their performance received positive reviews.

Fusari sent the songs he produced with Gaga to his friend, producer and record executive Vincent Herbert. Herbert was quick to sign her to his label Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records, upon its establishment in 2007. She credited Herbert as the man who discovered her, adding "I really feel like we made pop history, and we're gonna keep going." While Gaga was writing at Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio. He then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M; Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live Distribution Gaga continued her collaboration with RedOne in the recording studio for a week on her debut album The album peaked at number one in United Kingdom, Canada, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Ireland, and the top-five in Australia, the United States and fifteen other countries. Worldwide, The Fame has sold over fourteen million copies. Its lead single "Just Dance" topped the charts in six countries – Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States – and later received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording. The following single "Poker Face" was an even greater success, reaching number-one in almost all major music markets in the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States. It won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards, over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The Fame was nominated for Album of the Year; it won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Although her first concert tour happened as an opening act for fellow Interscope pop group, the reformed New Kids on the Block, she ultimately headlined her own worldwide concert tour, The Fame Ball Tour, which was critically appreciated and began in March 2009; culminating in September of that year. The cover of the annual "Hot 100" issue of Rolling Stone in May 2009 featured a semi-nude Gaga wearing only strategically placed plastic bubbles. She was nominated for a total of nine awards at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, winning the award for Best New Artist, while her single "Paparazzi" won two awards for Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. In October, Gaga received Billboard magazine's Rising Star of 2009 award. She attended the Human Rights Campaign's "National Dinner" the same month, before marching in the National Equality March for the equal protection of LGBT people in all matters governed by US civil law in Washington, D.C.

|alt= Profile of a young blond woman. Her hair falls in waves up to her shoulders. She wears a purple leotard with visible sequins attached. Ample bosom, arm and leg are visible.]] Written over the course of 2008–09, The Fame Monster, a collection of eight songs, was released in November 2009. Each song, dealing with the darker side of fame from personal experience while she travelled the world, is expressed through a monster metaphor. Its first single "Bad Romance" topped the charts in eighteen countries, while reaching the top-two in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. In the US, Gaga became the first artist in digital history to have three singles (along with "Just Dance" and "Poker Face") to pass the four million mark in digital sales. The song received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance while its accompanying music video was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video. The album's second single "Telephone", which features singer Beyoncé, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and became Gaga's fourth UK number-one single while its accompanying music video, although controversial, was met mostly positive reception from contemporary critics: praising her for "the musicality and showmanship of Michael Jackson and the powerful sexuality and provocative instincts of Madonna." Her following single "Alejandro" paired Gaga with fashion photographer Steven Klein for a music video similarly as controversial – critics complimented its idea and dark nature, but the Catholic League attacked Gaga for her use of blasphemy. Despite the controversy surrounding her music videos, they have made Gaga one of the first artists to gain over one billion viral views on video-sharing website YouTube. Musically, The Fame Monster has also received abundant success. Equating to the amount of Grammy nominations her debut received, The Fame Monster garnered a total of six – among them Best Pop Vocal Album and her second-consecutive nomination for Album of the Year. The success of the album allowed Gaga to embark on her second headlining worldwide concert tour, The Monster Ball Tour, just weeks after the release of The Fame Monster and months after having finished her first. Upon finishing in May 2011, the critically acclaimed and commercially accomplished concert tour will have ran for over one and a half years. Additionally, Gaga has performed other songs from the album at international events like the 2009 Royal Variety Performance where she sang "Speechless", a power ballad, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II; the 52nd Grammy Awards where her opening performance consisted of the song "Poker Face" and a piano duet of "Speechless" in a medley of "Your Song" with Elton John; and the 2010 BRIT Awards where a performance of an acoustic rendition of "Telephone" followed by "Dance in the Dark" dedicated to the late fashion designer and close friend, Alexander McQueen, supplemented her hat-trick win at the awards ceremony.

Barbara Walters chose Gaga as one the "10 Most Fascinating People of 2009" for her annual ABC News special. When interviewed by the journalist, Gaga dismissed the claim that she is intersex as an urban legend. Responding to a question on this issue, she stated, "At first it was very strange and everyone sorta said, 'That's really quite a story!' But in a sense, I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny." Excited about bringing back Polaroid and "combining it with the digital era", Gaga was named Chief Creative Officer for a line of imaging products for the international optic company in January 2010 with the intent of creating fashion, technology and photography products. Her production team, Mermaid Music LLC, was sued in March by Rob Fusari; claiming that he was entitled to a 20% share of its earnings. Gaga's lawyer, Charles Ortner, described the agreement with Fusari as "unlawful" and declined to comment, however, five months later, the New York Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit. In April, Gaga was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the year. While giving an interview to The Times, Gaga hinted at having Systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly referred to as lupus, which is a connective tissue disease. She later confirmed with Larry King that she does not have lupus but "the results were borderline positive".

2010–present: Born This Way

Gaga's second studio album and third major release Born This Way, whose title was announced during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, will be released on May 23, 2011. Its arrival will follow the release of its lead single on February 13, 2011. These dates were tweeted by Gaga at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day, 2011. Described as "a marriage of electronic music with major [...] metal or rock 'n' roll, pop, anthemic style melodies with really sledge-hammering dance beats", Born This Way will be Gaga's third release in three years. She stated, "It came so quickly. I've been working on [the album] for months, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now. Some artists take years. I don't. I write music every day." With two tracks already confirmed by Gaga – one she has been performing during The Monster Ball Tour, she has referred to the album as "the greatest" of the decade about "what keeps us up at night and what makes us afraid." Likening Born This Way to "bad kids going to church" that are "having fun on a high level", Gaga characterized her new music as "something so much deeper than a wig or lipstick or a fucking meat dress" and upon hearing it, Akon remarked that she will take music to the "next level."

Lending her vocal talent elsewhere, Gaga also paired with Elton John to record an original duet for the soundtrack to the forthcoming animated Disney feature film Gnomeo and Juliet. The song, titled "Hello, Hello", is scheduled for release in February 2011.

Musical style and influences

Gaga has been influenced by glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Queen, as well as pop music artists such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. The Queen song "Radio Ga Ga" inspired her stage name, "Lady Gaga". She commented: "I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called 'Radio Gaga'. That's why I love the name [...] Freddie was unique – one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music."

Gaga's vocals have drawn frequent comparison to those of Madonna and Gwen Stefani, while the structure of her music is said to echo classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop. While reviewing her debut album The Fame, The Sunday Times asserted "in combining music, fashion, art and technology, Lady GaGa evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa 'Hollaback Girl', Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now." Similarly, The Boston Globe critic Sarah Rodman commented that she draws "obvious inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani... in [her] girlish but sturdy pipes and bubbly beats." Though her lyrics are said to lack intellectual stimulation, "[she] does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless pace." Music critic Simon Reynolds wrote that "Everything about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn't particularly 1980s, just ruthlessly catchy naughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded with R&B;-ish beats.

Gaga has identified fashion as a major influence. Her love of fashion came from her mother, who she stated was "always very well kept and beautiful." Entertainment Weekly put her outfits on its end of the decade "best-of" list, saying, "Whether it's a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga's outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream."

Critical reception of Gaga's music, fashion sense and persona are mixed. Her status as a role model, trailblazer and fashion icon is by turns affirmed and denied. Gaga's albums have received mostly positive reviews, Her role as a self-esteem booster for her fans is also lauded, as is her role in breathing life into the fashion industry. Her performances are described as "highly entertaining and innovative"; in particular, the blood-spurting performance of "Paparazzi" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards was described as "eye-popping" by MTV. She continued the "blood soaked" theme in The Monster Ball Tour, in which she wore a revealing leather corset and is "attacked" by a performer dressed in black who gnaws on her throat, causing "blood" to spurt down her chest, after which she lies "dying" in a pool of blood. Her performances of that scene in Manchester, England triggered protests from family groups and fans in the aftermath of a local tragedy, in which a taxi driver had murdered 12 people. "What happened in Bradford is very fresh in people's minds and given all the violence which happened in Cumbria just hours earlier, it was insensitive," said Lynn Costello of Mothers Against Violence. Chris Rock later defended her flamboyant, provocative behavior. "Well, she's Lady Gaga," he said. "She's not 'Lady Behave Yourself.' Do you want great behavior from a person named Gaga? Is this what you were expecting?" She later returned to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards wearing a dress which was supplemented by boots, a purse and a hat—each fabricated from the flesh of a dead animal. The dress, named Time magazine's Fashion Statement of 2010 and more widely known as the "meat dress", was made by Argentinian designer Franc Fernandez and received divided opinions—evoking the attention of worldwide media but invoking the fury of animal rights organization PETA. Gaga, however, later denied any intention of causing disrespect to any person or organization and wished for the dress to be interpreted as a statement of human rights with focus upon those in the LGBT community.

Gaga's treatment of her fans as "Little Monsters" has inspired criticism, due to the highly commercial nature of her music and image. Camille Paglia wrote a cover story "Lady Gaga and the death of sex" on September 12, 2010, in The Sunday Times in which she asserts that Gaga "is more an identity thief than an erotic taboo breaker, a mainstream manufactured product who claims to be singing for the freaks, the rebellious and the dispossessed when she is none of those."

Public image

Contrary to her outré style, the New York Post described her early look as like "a refugee from Jersey Shore" with "big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes." She has another six known tattoos, among them a peace symbol, which was inspired by John Lennon whom she stated was her hero, Towards the end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashions of Gaga and fellow recording artist Christina Aguilera that noted similarities in their styling, hair, and make-up. Comparisons continued into 2010 when Aguilera released the music video of her single "Not Myself Tonight". Critics noted similarities between the song and its accompanying music video with Gaga's video for "Bad Romance". There have also been similar comparisons made between Gaga's style and that of fashion icon Dale Bozzio from the band Missing Persons. Some have considered their respective images to be strikingly parallel although fans of Missing Persons note that Bozzio had pioneered the look more than thirty years earlier.

Gaga's influence on modern culture and society has provoked the University of South Carolina into offering a full-time course titled "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame" in the objective of unravelling "the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga with respect to her music, videos, fashion, and other artistic endeavors".

Philanthropy

Besides her career in music, Gaga has enhanced her repertoire as a philanthropist who has contributed to various charities and humanitarianism works.

Although declining an invitation to record a benefit song, Gaga held a concert of The Monster Ball Tour following the 2010 Haiti earthquake and dedicated it to the country’s reconstruction relief fund. This concert, held at the Radio City Music Hall, New York, on January 24, 2010, donated any received revenue to the relief fund while, in addition, all profits from sales of products on Gaga’s official online store on that same day were donated. Gaga announced that an estimated total of $500,000 was collected for the fund.

Gaga also contributes in the fight against HIV and AIDS with the focus upon educating young women about the risks of the disease. In collaboration with Cyndi Lauper, Gaga joined forces with MAC Cosmetics to launch a line of lipstick under their supplementary cosmetic line, Viva Glam. Titled Viva Glam Gaga and Viva Glam Cyndi for each contributor respectively, all net proceeds of the lipstick line were donated to the cosmetic company’s campaign to prevent HIV and AIDS worldwide. In a press release, Gaga declared, "I don't want Viva Glam to be just a lipstick you buy to help a cause. I want it to be a reminder when you go out at night to put a condom in your purse right next to your lipstick."

, October 11, 2009|alt=A blond woman speaking on a kiosk. She wears a white shirt and black glasses. Behind her, the balcony of a building is visible.]] Gaga attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered to be a rising gay icon. Early in her career she had difficulty getting radio airplay, and stated, "The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fanbase." She thanked FlyLife, a Manhattan-based LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in the liner notes of The Fame, saying, "I love you so much. You were the first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this incredible team." One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network Logo, where she sang her song "Just Dance". In June of the same year, she performed the song again at the San Francisco Pride event.

After The Fame was released, she revealed that the song "Poker Face" was about her bisexuality. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke about how her boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying "The fact that I'm into women, they're all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They're like, 'I don't need to have a threesome. I'm happy with just you'." She proclaimed that the October 11, 2009, National Equality March rally on the national mall was "the single most important event of her career." As she exited, she left with an exultant "Bless God and bless the gays," At the rally, she performed a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" declaring that "I'm not going to [play] one of my songs tonight because tonight is not about me, it's about you." She changed the original lyrics of the song to reflect the death of Matthew Shepard, a college student murdered because of his sexuality. In September 2010, she spoke at a rally in favor of repealing the US military's Don't ask, don't tell policy, which prohibits lesbian, gay and bisexual people from serving openly, and released an online video urging her fans to contact their Senators in an effort to get the policy overturned. Editors of The Advocate commented that she had become the "fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians that future president Barack Obama had promised to be during his campaign.

Discography

The Fame (2008)

The Fame Monster (2009)

Born This Way (2011)

Tours

The Fame Ball Tour (2009)

The Monster Ball Tour (2009–11)

Awards and nominations

See also

Honorific nicknames in popular music

List of best-selling music artists

References

Further reading

External links

Year in Gaga: A Provocative 2010 — slideshow by Life magazine

Category:1986 births Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American dance musicians Category:American electronic musicians Category:American female pop singers Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Bisexual musicians Category:BRIT Award winners Category:English-language singers Category:Feminist artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Interscope Records artists Category:Keytarists Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States Category:Living people Category:New York University alumni Category:Singers from New York Category:Sony/ATV Music Publishing artists Category:Wonky Pop acts

Name	Frank Sinatra
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Francis Albert Sinatra
Alias	Ol' Blue Eyes The Chairman of the Board
Death date	May 14, 1998
Death place	Los Angeles, California, United States
Death cause	Heart attack
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	Traditional pop, jazz, swing, big band, vocal
Occupation	Singer,
Years active	1935–1995
Label	Columbia, Capitol, Reprise
Associated acts	Rat Pack, Bing Crosby, Nancy Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Dean Martin
Url
Spouse	Nancy Barbato (1939-1951) Ava Gardner (1951–57) Mia Farrow (1966-1968) Barbara Marx (1976-1998)

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor.

Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (for his performance in From Here to Eternity).

He signed with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records (finding success with albums such as Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special , and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".

With sales of his music dwindling and after appearing in several poorly received films, Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971. Two years later, however, he came out of retirement and in 1973 recorded several albums, scoring a Top 40 hit with "(Theme From) New York, New York" in 1980. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally, until a short time before his death in 1998.

Sinatra also forged a successful career as a film actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, and critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Early life

Born in December 1915, Sinatra was the only child of Italian immigrants Natalie Della Garaventa and Antonino Martino Sinatra. Sinatra was raised Catholic. He left high school without graduating, having attended only 47 days before being expelled because of his rowdy conduct. His mother, known as Dolly, was influential in the neighborhood and in local Democratic Party circles, but also ran an illegal abortion business from her home; she was arrested several times and convicted twice for this offense. Sinatra was arrested for carrying on with a married woman, a criminal offense at the time. Sinatra's father, often referred to as Tony, served with the Hoboken Fire Department as a Fire Captain. During the tough years of the 1930s, when the Great Depression hit North America, Dolly nevertheless provided ready pocket money to their son for outings with friends and fancy clothes. Sinatra then worked for some time as a delivery boy at the Jersey Observer newspaper, and as a riveter at the Tietjan and Lang shipyard. Sinatra began singing for tips at the age of eight, standing on top of the bar at a local nightclub in Hoboken. He began singing professionally as a teenager in the 1930s.

1935–40: Start of career, work with James and Dorsey

Sinatra got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group, The Three Flashes, to let him join. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four,

On March 18, 1939, Sinatra made a demo recording of a song called "Our Love", with the Frank Mane band. The record has "Frank Sinatra" signed on the front. The bandleader kept the original record in a safe for nearly 60 years. In June, Harry James hired Sinatra on a one year contract of $75 a week. It was with the James band that Sinatra released his first commercial record "From the Bottom of My Heart" in July, 1939 - US Brunswick #8443 and UK Columbia #DB2150.

Fewer than 8,000 copies of "From the Bottom of My Heart" (Brunswick #8443) were sold, making the record a very rare find that is sought after by record collectors worldwide. Sinatra released ten commercial tracks with James through 1939, including "All or Nothing At All" which had weak sales on its initial release but then sold millions of copies when re-released by Columbia at the height of Sinatra's popularity a few years later.

In November 1939, in a meeting at the Palmer House in Chicago, Sinatra was asked by bandleader Tommy Dorsey to join his band as a replacement for Jack Leonard, who had recently left to launch a solo career. This meeting was a turning point in Sinatra's career, since by signing with Dorsey's band, one of the hottest bands at the time, he got greatly increased visibility with the American public. Though Sinatra was still under contract with James, James recognized the opportunity Dorsey offered and graciously released Sinatra from his contract. Sinatra recognized his debt to James throughout his life and upon hearing of James's death in 1983, stated: "he [James] is the one that made it all possible."

On January 26, 1940, Sinatra made his first public appearance with the Dorsey band at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, Illinois. In his first year with Dorsey, Sinatra released more than forty songs, with "I'll Never Smile Again" topping the charts for twelve weeks beginning in mid-July.

Sinatra's relationship with Tommy Dorsey was troubled, because of their contract, which awarded Dorsey ⅓ of Sinatra's lifetime earnings in the entertainment industry. In January 1942, Sinatra recorded his first solo sessions without the Dorsey band (but with Dorsey's arranger Axel Stordahl and with Dorsey's approval). These sessions were released commercially on the Bluebird label. Sinatra left the Dorsey band late in 1942 in an incident that started rumors of Sinatra's involvement with the Mafia. A story appeared in the Hearst newspapers that mobster Sam Giancana coerced Dorsey to let Sinatra out of his contract for a few thousand dollars. This story was famously fictionalized in the movie The Godfather. According to Nancy Sinatra's biography, the Hearst rumors were started because of Frank's Democratic politics. In fact, the contract was bought out by MCA founder Jules Stein for $75,000.

His appeal to bobby soxers, as teenage girls of that time were called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had been recorded mainly for adults up to that time.

On December 31, 1942, Sinatra opened at the Paramount Theater in New York.

during World War II.]]

During the musicians' strike of 1942–44, Columbia re-released Harry James and Sinatra's version of "All or Nothing at All" (music by Arthur Altman and lyrics by Jack Lawrence), recorded in August 1939 and released before Sinatra had made a name for himself. The original release didn’t even mention the vocalist's name. When the recording was re–released in 1943 with Sinatra's name prominently displayed, the record was on the best–selling list for 18 weeks and reached number 2 on June 2, 1943.

Sinatra signed with Columbia on June 1, 1943 as a solo artist, and he initially had great success, particularly during the 1942-43 musicians' strike. And while no new records had been issued during the strike, he had been performing on the radio (on Your Hit Parade), and on stage. Columbia wanted to get new recordings of their growing star as fast as possible, so Sinatra convinced them to hire Alec Wilder as arranger and conductor for several sessions with a vocal group called the Bobby Tucker Singers. These first sessions were on June 7, June 22, August 5, and November 10, 1943. Of the nine songs recorded during these sessions, seven charted on the best–selling list.

Sinatra did not serve in the military during World War II. On December 11, 1943, he was classified 4-F ("Registrant not acceptable for military service") for a perforated eardrum by his draft board. Additionally, an FBI report on Sinatra, released in 1998, showed that the doctors had also written that he was a "neurotic" and "not acceptable material from a psychiatric standpoint." This was omitted from his record to avoid "undue unpleasantness for both the selectee and the induction service." Active-duty servicemen, like journalist William Manchester, said of Sinatra, "I think Frank Sinatra was the most hated man of World War II, much more than Hitler", because Sinatra was back home making all of that money and being shown in photographs surrounded by beautiful women. His deferment would resurface throughout his life and cause him grief when he had to defend himself. There were accusations, including some from noted columnist Walter Winchell, that Sinatra paid $40,000 to avoid the service — but the FBI found no evidence of this.

When Sinatra returned to the Paramount Theater in October 1944, 35,000 fans caused a near riot outside the venue because they were not allowed in.

In 1945, Sinatra co-starred with Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh. That same year, he was loaned out to RKO to star in a short film titled The House I Live In. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, this film on tolerance and racial equality earned a special Academy Award shared among Sinatra and those who brought the film to the screen, along with a special Golden Globe for "Promoting Good Will." 1946 saw the release of his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, and the debut of his own weekly radio show.

By the end of 1948, Sinatra felt that his career was stalling, something that was confirmed when he slipped to No. 4 on Down Beat's annual poll of most popular singers (behind Billy Eckstine, Frankie Laine, and Bing Crosby).

The year 1949 saw an upswing, as Frank co-starred with Gene Kelly in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. It was well received critically and became a major commercial success. That same year, Sinatra teamed up with Kelly for a third time in On the Town.

1950–60: Rebirth of career, Capitol concept albums

After two years' absence, Sinatra returned to the concert stage on January 12, 1950, in Hartford, Connecticut. His voice suffered and he experienced hemorrhaging of his vocal cords on stage at the Copacabana on April 26, 1950.

Also in 1953, Sinatra starred in the NBC radio program Rocky Fortune. His character, Rocko Fortunato (aka Rocky Fortune) was a temp worker for the Gridley Employment Agency who stumbled into crime-solving by way of the odd jobs to which he was dispatched. The series aired on NBC radio Tuesday nights from October 1953 to March 1954, following the network's crime drama hit Dragnet. During the final months of the show, just before the 1954 Oscars, it became a running gag that Sinatra would manage to work the phrase "from here to eternity" into each episode, a reference to his Oscar-nominated performance.

In 1953, Sinatra signed with Capitol Records, where he worked with many of the finest musical arrangers of the era, most notably Nelson Riddle,

1960–70: Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Reprise records, Basie, Jobim, "My Way"

Sinatra started the 1960s as he ended the 1950s. His first album of the decade, Nice 'n' Easy, topped Billboard's chart and won critical plaudits. Sinatra grew discontented at Capitol and decided to form his own label, Reprise Records. His first album on the label, Ring-A-Ding-Ding (1961), was a major success, peaking at #4 on Billboard and #8 in the UK.

His fourth and final Timex TV special was broadcast in March, 1960, and earned massive viewing figures. Titled It's Nice to Go Travelling, the show is more commonly known as . Elvis Presley's appearance after his army discharge was somewhat ironic; Sinatra had been scathing about him in the mid fifties, saying: "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people." Presley had responded: "... [Sinatra] is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it... [rock and roll] is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago." Later, in efforts to maintain his commercial viability, Sinatra recorded Presley's hit "Love Me Tender" as well as works by Paul Simon ("Mrs. Robinson"), The Beatles ("Something", "Yesterday"), and Joni Mitchell ("Both Sides Now").

Following on the heels of the film Can Can was Ocean's 11, the movie that became the definitive on-screen outing for "The Rat Pack".

From his youth, Sinatra displayed sympathy for African Americans and worked both publicly and privately all his life to help them win equal rights. He played a major role in the desegregation of Nevada hotels and casinos in the 1960s. On January 27, 1961, Sinatra played a benefit show at Carnegie Hall for Martin Luther King, Jr. and led his fellow Rat Pack members and Reprise label mates in boycotting hotels and casinos that refused entry to black patrons and performers. He often spoke from the stage on desegregation and repeatedly played benefits on behalf of Dr. King and his movement. According to his son, Frank Sinatra, Jr., King sat weeping in the audience at a concert in 1963 as Sinatra sang Ol' Man River, a song from the musical Show Boat that is sung by an African-American stevedore.

On September 11 and 12, 1961, Sinatra recorded his final songs for Capitol.

In 1962, he starred with Janet Leigh and Laurence Harvey in the political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate, playing Bennett Marco. That same year, Sinatra and Count Basie collaborated for the album Sinatra-Basie. This popular and successful release prompted them to rejoin two years later for the follow-up It Might as Well Be Swing, which was arranged by Quincy Jones. One of Sinatra's more ambitious albums from the mid-1960s, The Concert Sinatra, was recorded with a 73-piece symphony orchestra on 35mm tape.

Sinatra's first live album, Sinatra at the Sands, was recorded during January and February 1966 at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

In June, 1965, Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin played live in Saint Louis to benefit Dismas House. The concert was broadcast live via satellite to numerous movie theaters across America. Released in August, 1965, was the Grammy Award–winning album of the year, September of My Years, with a career anthology, A Man and His Music, following in November, itself winning Album of the Year at the Grammys in 1966. The TV special, Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, garnered both an Emmy award and a Peabody Award.

In the spring, That's Life appeared, with both the single and album becoming Top Ten hits in the US on Billboard's pop charts. Strangers in the Night went on to top the Billboard and UK pop singles charts, winning the award for Record of the Year at the Grammys. The album of the same name also topped the Billboard chart and reached number 4 in the UK.

Sinatra started 1967 with a series of important recording sessions with Antônio Carlos Jobim. Later in the year, a duet with daughter Nancy, "Somethin' Stupid", topped the Billboard pop and UK singles charts. In December, Sinatra collaborated with Duke Ellington on the album Francis A. & Edward K..

During the late 1960s, press agent Lee Solters would invite columnists and their spouses into Sinatra's dressing room just before he was about to go on stage. The New Yorker recounted that "the first columnist they tried this on was Larry Fields of the Philadelphia Daily News, whose wife fainted when Sinatra kissed her cheek. 'Take care of it, Lee,' Sinatra said, and he was off." The professional relationship Sinatra shared with Solters focused on projects on the west coast while those focused on the east coast were handled by Solters' partner, Sheldon Roskin of Solters/Roskin/Friedman, a well-known firm at the time.

Back on the small-screen, Sinatra once again worked with Jobim and Ella Fitzgerald on the TV special, A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim.

Watertown (1970) was one of Sinatra's most acclaimed concept albums but was all but ignored by the public. Selling a mere 30,000 copies and reaching a peak chart position of 101, its failure put an end to plans for a television special based on the album.

With Sinatra in mind, singer-songwriter Paul Anka wrote the song "My Way", inspired from the French "Comme d'habitude" ("As Usual"), composed by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. (The song had been previously commissioned to David Bowie, whose lyrics did not please the involved agents.) "My Way" would, ironically, become more closely identified with him than any other song over his seven decades as a singer even though he reputedly did not care for it.

1970–80: Retirement and comeback

On June 13, 1971 — at a concert in Hollywood to raise money for the Motion Picture and TV Relief Fund — at the age of 55, Sinatra announced that he was retiring, bringing to an end his 36-year career in show business.

In 1973, Sinatra came out of retirement with a television special and album, both entitled Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back. The album, arranged by Gordon Jenkins and Don Costa, was a great success, reaching number 13 on Billboard and number 12 in the UK. The TV special was highlighted by a dramatic reading of "Send in the Clowns" and a song and dance sequence with former co-star Gene Kelly.

In January, 1974, Sinatra returned to Las Vegas, performing at Caesars Palace despite vowing in 1970 never to play there again after the manager of the resort, Sanford Waterman, pulled a gun on him during a heated argument. With Waterman recently shot, the door was open for Sinatra to return.

In Australia, he caused an uproar by describing journalists there — who were aggressively pursuing his every move and pushing for a press conference — as "fags", "pimps", and "whores." Australian unions representing transport workers, waiters, and journalists went on strike, demanding that Sinatra apologize for his remarks. Sinatra instead insisted that the journalists apologize for "fifteen years of abuse I have taken from the world press."

Also in 1981, Sinatra was embroiled in controversy when he worked a ten-day engagement for $2 million in Sun City, South Africa, breaking a cultural boycott against Apartheid South Africa. See Artists United Against Apartheid

He was selected as one of the five recipients of the 1983 Kennedy Center Honors, alongside Katharine Dunham, James Stewart, Elia Kazan, and Virgil Thomson. Quoting Henry James in honoring his old friend, President Ronald Reagan said that "art was the shadow of humanity" and that Sinatra had "spent his life casting a magnificent and powerful shadow."

In 1984, Sinatra worked with Quincy Jones for the first time in nearly two decades on the album, L.A. Is My Lady, which was well received critically. The album was a substitute for another Jones project, an album of duets with Lena Horne, which had to be abandoned. (Horne developed vocal problems and Sinatra, committed to other engagements, could not wait to record.)

1990s: Duets, final performances

In 1990, Sinatra celebrated his 75th birthday with a national tour, and was awarded the second "Ella Award" by the Los Angeles–based Society of Singers. At the award ceremony, he performed for the final time with Ella Fitzgerald.

In December, as part of Sinatra's birthday celebrations, Patrick Pasculli, the Mayor of Hoboken, made a proclamation in his honor, declaring that "no other vocalist in history has sung, swung, crooned, and serenaded into the hearts of the young and old ... as this consummate artist from Hoboken." The same month Sinatra gave the first show of his Diamond Jubilee Tour at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

In 1993 Sinatra made a surprise return to Capitol and the recording studio for Duets, which was released in November.

The other artists who added their vocals to the album worked for free, and a follow-up album (Duets II) was released in 1994 that reached #9 on the Billboard charts.

Still touring despite various health problems, Sinatra remained a top concert attraction on a global scale during the first half of the 1990s. At times during concerts his memory failed him and a fall onstage in Richmond, Virginia, in March, 1994, signaled further problems.

Sinatra's final public concerts were held in Japan's Fukuoka Dome in December, 1994. The following year, on February 25, 1995, at a private party for 1200 select guests on the closing night of the Frank Sinatra Desert Classic golf tournament, Sinatra sang before a live audience for the very last time. Esquire reported of the show that Sinatra was "clear, tough, on the money" and "in absolute control." His closing song was "The Best is Yet to Come".

Sinatra was awarded the Legend Award at the 1994 Grammy Awards, where he was introduced by Bono, who said of him, "Frank's the chairman of the bad attitude.... Rock 'n roll plays at being tough, but this guy is the boss--the chairman of boss.... I'm not going to mess with him, are you?" Sinatra called it "the best welcome...I ever had." But his acceptance speech ran too long and was abruptly cut off, leaving him looking confused and talking into a dead microphone.

In 1995, to mark Sinatra's 80th birthday, the Empire State Building glowed blue. A star-studded birthday tribute, Sinatra: 80 Years My Way, was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was Sinatra's last televised appearance.

In recognition of his many years of association with Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.

Personal life

Sinatra had three children, Nancy, Frank Jr., and Tina, all with his first wife, Nancy Barbato (married 1939-1951). He was married three more times, to actresses Ava Gardner (1951–1957) and Mia Farrow (1966–1968) and finally to Barbara Marx (married 1976), to whom he was still married at his death.

Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of depression. He acknowledged this, telling an interviewer in the 1950s: "Being an 18-karat manic-depressive, and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation." In her memoirs My Father's Daughter, his daughter Tina wrote about the "eighteen-karat" remark: "As flippant as Dad could be about his mental state, I believe that a Zoloft a day might have kept his demons away. But that kind of medicine was decades off."

Death

Sinatra began to show signs of senility in his last years and after a heart attack in February 1997, he made no further public appearances. After suffering a further heart attack,The official cause of death was listed as complications from senility, heart and kidney disease, and bladder cancer. His death was confirmed by the Sinatra family on their website with a statement accompanied by a recording of the singer's version of "Softly As I Leave You." The next night the lights on the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed for 10 minutes in his honor. President Bill Clinton, as an amateur saxophonist and musician, led the world's tributes to Sinatra, saying that after meeting and getting to know the singer as President, he had "come to appreciate on a personal level what millions of people had appreciated from afar." Elton John stated that Sinatra, "was simply the best - no one else even comes close." Tony Curtis,

Discography

Awards and recognitions

.]]

Legacy

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 42-cent postage stamp in honor of Sinatra on May 13, 2008. The design of the stamp was unveiled Wednesday, December 12, 2007 — on the anniversary of what would have been his 92nd birthday — in Beverly Hills, California, with Sinatra family members on hand. The Hoboken Post Office was renamed in his honor in 2002.

To commemorate the anniversary of Sinatra's death, Patsy's Restaurant in New York City, which Sinatra frequented, exhibited in May 2009 fifteen previously unseen photographs of Sinatra taken by Bobby Bank. The photos are of his recording "Everybody Ought to Be in Love" at a nearby recording studio. Memorabilia in the restaurant includes his Oscar for "From Here to Eternity", his Emmy for "", his Grammy for "Strangers in the Night", photographs and a gold album he received for "Classic Sinatra".

There is a residence hall at Montclair State University named for him in recognition of his status as an iconic New Jersey native.

The Frank Sinatra International Student Center at Israel's Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus campus, was dedicated in 1978 in recognition of Sinatra's charitable and advocacy activities on behalf of the State of Israel.

Film portrayals

Main article: Sinatra (TV miniseries)

* In 1992, CBS aired a TV mini-series about the entertainer's life called Sinatra, directed by James Steven Sadwith and starred Philip Casnoff as Sinatra. Opening with his childhood in Hoboken, New Jersey, the film follows Sinatra's rise to the top in the 1940s, through the dark days of the early 1950s and his triumphant re-emergence in the mid-1950s, to his status as pop culture icon in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In between, the film hits all of the main events, including his three marriages, his connections with the Mafia and his notorious friendship with the Rat Pack. Tina Sinatra was executive producer. Casnoff received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.

* In 1998, Ray Liotta portrayed Sinatra in the HBO movie The Rat Pack, alongside Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin and Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr. It depicted their contribution to John F. Kennedy's election as U.S. president in 1960.

In 2003, Sinatra was portrayed by James Russo in "Stealing Sinatra", which revolved around the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. in 1963

Also in 2003, he was portrayed by Dennis Hopper in "The Night we Called it a Day", based upon events that occurred during a tour of Australia where Frank had called a member of the news media a "two-bit hooker" and all the unions in the country came crashing down on him.

* Sinatra was also portrayed by Sebastian Anzaldo in the film Tears of a King, who also impersonated Sinatra in a TV episode of The Next Best Thing.

* Brett Ratner is currently developing a film adaptation of George Jacobs' memoir Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra. Jacobs, who was Sinatra's valet, will be portrayed by Chris Tucker.

Alleged organized crime links

Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with organized crime, including figures such as Carlo Gambino, Lucky Luciano, The FBI kept Sinatra under surveillance for almost five decades beginning in the 1940s. The documents include accounts of Sinatra as the target of death threats and extortion schemes. They also portray rampant paranoia and strange obsessions at the FBI and reveal nearly every celebrated Sinatra foible and peccadillo.

For a year Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged Communist affiliations, but found no evidence. The files include his rendezvous with prostitutes, and his extramarital affair with Ava Gardner, which preceded their marriage. Celebrities mentioned in the files are Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, Peter Lawford, and Giancana's girlfriend, singer Phyllis McGuire.

The FBI's secret dossier on Sinatra was released in 1998 in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Political views

Sinatra held differing political views throughout his life.

Sinatra's parents had immigrated to the United States in 1895 and 1897 respectively. His mother, Dolly Sinatra (1896–1977), was a Democratic Party ward boss.

in 1960, was an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party until 1968.]]

Sinatra remained a supporter of the Democratic Party until the early 1970's when he switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.

Political activities 1944-1968

In 1944 after sending a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sinatra was invited to meet Roosevelt at the White House, where he agreed to become part of the Democratic party's voter registration drives.

He donated $5,000 to the Democrats for the 1944 presidential election, and by the end of the campaign was appearing at two or three political events every day.

After World War II, Sinatra's politics grew steadily more left wing, and he became more publicly associated with the Popular Front. He started reading liberal literature, and supported many organizations that were later identified as front organizations of the Communist party by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, though Sinatra was never brought before the Committee.

Sinatra spoke at a number of New Jersey high schools in 1945, where students had gone on strike in opposition to racial integration. Later that year Sinatra would appear in The House I Live In, a short film that stood against racism. The film was scripted by Albert Maltz, with the title song written by Earl Robinson and Abel Meeropol (under the pseudonym of Lewis Allen).

In 1948, Sinatra actively campaigned for President Harry S. Truman. In 1952 and 1956, he also campaigned for Adlai Stevenson. a rival singer and a Republican, for Kennedy's visit to Palm Springs in 1962. Kennedy had planned to stay at Sinatra's home over the Easter holiday weekend, but decided against doing so, because of problems with Sinatra's alleged connections to organized crime, President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was intensifying his own investigations into organized crime figures at the time, such as Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, who had earlier stayed at Sinatra's home.

Despite his break with Kennedy, however, he still mourned over Kennedy after he learned he was assassinated.

During Nixon's Presidency, Sinatra visited the White House on several occasions.

by President Ronald Reagan.]]

In the 1980 presidential election, Sinatra supported Ronald Reagan, and donated $4 million to Reagan's campaign. Sinatra said he supported Reagan as he was "the proper man to be the President of the United States... it's so screwed up now, we need someone to straighten it out." Reagan's victory gave Sinatra his closest relationship with the White House since the early 1960s. as he had done for Kennedy 20 years previously.

In 1984 Sinatra returned to his birthplace in Hoboken, bringing with him President Reagan, who was in the midst of campaigning for the 1984 presidential election. Reagan had made Sinatra a fund-raising ambassador as part of the Republicans' 'Victory 84'' get-the-vote-out-drive.

President Clinton never met Sinatra before taking office. They had dinner after Clinton's inauguration. Clinton later said that he was glad "to appreciate on a personal level what hundreds of millions of people around the world, including me, appreciated from afar."

See also

Rat Pack

Sinatra Doctrine

1920 US Census with Sinatras

1930 US Census with Sinatras

List of jazz musicians

Best selling music artists

Frank Sinatra discography

Frank Sinatra filmography

The Frank Sinatra Show (CBS)

The Frank Sinatra Show (ABC)

Anthony Martin Sinatra

Further reading

Biographies

Freedland, Michael. (2000) All the Way: A Biography of Frank Sinatra. St Martins Press. ISBN 0-7528-1662-4

Grudens, Richard (2010) Sinatra Singing. Celebrity Profiles Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9763877-8-7

Havers, Richard. (2004) Sinatra. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1-4053-1461-3

Kaplan, James. (2010) Frank: The Voice. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385518048

Kelley, Kitty. (1986) His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra. Bantam Press. ISBN 0-553-26515-6

Lahr, John. (1987) Sinatra. Random House. ISBN 0-7538-0842-0

Munn, Michael. (2002) Sinatra: The Untold Story. Robson Books Ltd. ISBN 1-86105-537-4

Rockwell, John. (1984) Sinatra: An American Classic. Rolling Stone. ISBN 0-394-53977-X

Rojek, Chris. (2004) Frank Sinatra. Polity. ISBN 0-7456-3090-1

Santopietro, Tom. (2008) Sinatra In Hollywood. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0-312-36226-3

Summers, Antony and Swan, Robbyn. (2005) Sinatra: The Life. Doubleday. ISBN 0-552-15331-1

Taraborrelli, J. Randall. (1998) Sinatra: The Man Behind the Myth. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-84018-119-2

Wilson, Earl. (1976) Sinatra.

Memoirs

Ash, Vic. (2006) I Blew it My Way: Bebop, Big Bands and Sinatra. Northway Publications. ISBN 0-9550908-2-2

Jacobs, George and Stadiem, William. (2003) Mr. S.: The Last Word on Frank Sinatra. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-330-41229-9

Falcone, Vincent. (2005) Frankly - Just Between Us: My Life Conducting Frank Sinatra's Music Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-0634094989

Criticism

Fuchs, J. & Prigozy, R., ed. (2007) Frank Sinatra: The Man, the Music, the Legend. The Boydell Press. ISBN 1-58046-251-0

Granata, Charles L. (1999) Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-55652-509-4

Hamill, Pete. (2003) Why Sinatra Matters. Back Bay Books. ISBN 0-316-73886-7

Mustazza, Leonard, ed. (1998) Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture. Praeger. ISBN 0-275-96495-7

Petkov, Steven and Mustazza, Leonard, ed. (1997) The Frank Sinatra Reader. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511389-6

Pugliese, S., ed. (2004) Frank Sinatra: "History, Identity, and Italian American Culture ". Palgrave. ISBN 1-4039-6655-9

Smith, Martin. (2005) When Ol' Blue Eyes Was a Red. Redwords. ISBN 1-905192-02-9

Zehme, Bill. (1997) The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-093175-2

Jazz Times Magazine, May 1998">"Frank Sinatra — Through the Lens of Jazz", Jazz Times Magazine, May 1998

Friedwald, Will. (1999) Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer's Art. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-684-19368-X

Granata, Charles L. (1999) Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1-55652-509-5

McNally, Karen. (2008) When Frankie Went to Hollywood: Frank Sinatra and American Male Identity University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-03334-5

Sinatra family publications

Pignone, Charles, with foreword by Sinatra, Frank Jr. and Jones, Quincy. (2004) The Sinatra Treasures. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-85227-184-1

Pignone, Charles, with foreword by Sinatra, Amanda. (2007) Frank Sinatra: The Family Album Little Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-00349-2

Sinatra, Julie. (2007) Under My Skin: My Father, Frank Sinatra The Man Behind the Mystique iuniverse.com, ISBN 0-595-43478-9

Sinatra, Nancy. (1986) Frank Sinatra, My Father. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-23356-9

Sinatra, Nancy. (1998) Frank Sinatra 1915-1998: An American Legend. Readers Digest. ISBN 0-7621-0134-2

Sinatra, Tina. (2000) My Father's Daughter. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-87076-2

Cultural criticism

Gigliotti, Gilbert L. A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit. Greewood, 2002.

Hamill, Pete. Why Sinatra Matters. Back Bay Books, 2003.

Mustazza, Leonard, ed. Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture. Praeger, 1998.

Petkov, Steven and Mustazza, Leonard, ed. The Frank Sinatra Reader. Oxford University Press, 1997.

Pugliese, S., ed. Frank Sinatra: "History, Identity, and Italian American Culture ". Palgrave, 2004.

Smith, Martin. When Ol' Blue Eyes was a red. Redwords, 2005.

Zehme, Bill. The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'. Harper Collins, 1997.

Other

Gigliotti, Gilbert L., ed. (2008) Sinatra: But Buddy I'm a Kind of Poem. Entasis Press ISBN 978-0-9800999-0-4

Havers, Richard. (2004) Sinatra. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1-4053-1461-3

Ingham, Chris. (2005) The Rough Guide to Frank Sinatra. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-84353-414-2

Knight, Timothy. (2010) Sinatra - Hollywood His Way. Running Press. ISBN 9780762437436

Lloyd, David. (2003) The Gospel According to Frank. New American Press. ISBN 1-930907-19-2

O'Neill, Terry, ed. Morgan, Robert. (2007) Sinatra: Frank and Friendly. Evans Mitchell Books. ISBN 1-901268-32-2

The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, Rolling Stone Press, 1983.

Tom and Phil Kuntz. (2000) The Sinatra Files: The Secret FBI Dossier. Three Rivers Press ISBN 0-8129-3276-5

Giordmaina, Diane [McCue]. (2009) "Sinatra and The Moll". iUniverse. ISBN 978-0-595-53234-6

References

External links

Watch

The House I Live In (1945)

The Frank Sinatra Show (1950-1952)

Listen

Category:1915 births Category:1998 deaths Category:1930s singers Category:1940s singers Category:1950s singers Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:20th-century actors Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:American actors of Italian descent Category:American crooners Category:American film actors Category:American jazz musicians of Sicilian descent Category:American jazz singers Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American pop singers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Burials at Desert Memorial Park Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:California Republicans Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:New Jersey Democrats Category:People from Hoboken, New Jersey Category:People with bipolar disorder Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Qwest Records artists Category:Reprise Records artists Category:Swing singers Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers

Name	Donna Loren
Caption	Donna Loren performing the song "Goldfinger" on Shindig (1965)
Birth name	Donna Zukor
Birth date	March 07, 1947
Birth place	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation	Singer, Actress, Entertainer
Years active	1955–present
Website	http://www.donnaloren.net/

Donna Loren (born March 7, 1947) is a singer and actress. A very prolific performer in the 1960s, she was the Dr Pepper spokesperson from 1963–1968, prolific vocalist on ABC-TV’s Shindig, and a cast member of the American International Pictures Beach Party movie series. Loren regularly performed live, and appeared on numerous variety and musical shows. She guest starred on episodic television series including Dr. Kildare, Batman, and The Monkees. In 1968, she retired to marry and raise a family. She recorded again in the 1980s and ran her own fashion business ADASA Hawaii throughout the 1990-2000s. In 2009, Loren returned to performing, and her most recent releases include the album Love It Away (2010).

Early Years

Loren was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her mother Ruth and her adopted father Morris (Morey) Zukovsky are deceased. Loren performed in amateur talent shows from the early age of six and, in 1955, sang on a radio commercial for Meadowgold Icecream appearing with Dick Beals, who was famous for playing the character of Speedy Alka Seltzer. In the same year, she was a frequent performer on the music radio series Sqeakin’ Deacon with James Burton (who she would work with many times throughout her career). By 1956, she was performing with The Moppets Group and also recorded a single “I Think It’s Almost Christmas Time” (Fable)”. On her tenth birthday, Loren appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club on the Friday “Talent Round-Up Day”, performing the songs “I Didn’t Know the Gun was Loaded” and “Pennies from Heaven”. National exposure via radio, print, television and personal singing appearances followed.

One of her first appearances for the company was co-hosting with Dick Clark an ABC television one-hour special, the Dr Pepper-sponsored Celebrity Party, which included performances and/or appearances by (Beach Party alumni) Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, John Ashley, Deborah Walley, and Dick Dale, as well as Nick Adams, The Beach Boys, Bobby Pickett, Johnny Crawford, James Darren, The Challengers (with whom Loren performed “Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey”), Dick and Dee Dee, Duane Eddy, Shelley Fabares, Connie Francis, Jill Gibson, George Hamilton, Bobby Hatfield, Jan & Dean, Jack Jones, Trini Lopez, Johnny Mathis, Bill Medley, Wayne Newton, Nino Tempo & April Stevens, Paul Petersen, Tommy Sands, Nancy Sinatra, James Stacy, Connie Stevens, Bobby Vinton, and Miss Teen America (which was also hosted by Dr Pepper).

Loren made hundreds of public and performing appearances for the company; these appearances, along with many more performances in her capacity as a singer and actress proved she was the consummate entertainer. Loren appeared at the 1964 New York World's Fair, with Dick Clark and Loren as “host and hostess” for winners of a large Dr Pepper promotion. The first prize was three days at the Fair, including a picnic for the winner and up to 50 friends, accommodation, spending money, and a 1964 Comet Caliente. In the same year, Loren was part of Clark’s Caravan of Stars 22-city Summer tour, whose line-up during the tour included Lou Christie, Mike Clifford, The Crystals, Dean & Jean, The Dixie Cups, The Drifters, Fabian, Bobby Freeman, The Hondells, Brian Hyland, The Jelly Beans, The Kasuals, Major Lance, George McCannon III, Gene Pitney, The Premieres, The Reflections, The Rip Chords, Round Robin, The Searchers, Dee Dee Sharp, The Shirelles, The Supremes, Johnny Tillotson, and The Velvelettes. Among her other appearances were the Teen Fair of Texas, which was held at the Joe Freeman Coliseum in June, 1964 both appearing at the Dr Pepper Booth and in a series of day and evening stage shows; the opening day party for Academy of Electro Systems on July 12, 1964 in Houston, Texas,; and the opening of the Ruston Bottling Plant in October, 1964.

In July, 1966 Loren’s filming of Dr Pepper print and television ads in Galveston made the front page of The Galveston News. She was joined by Dick Clark, who was there to also film for Where the Action Is. One of her last appearances for Dr Pepper was on September 14, 1968, at an Open House for the new Mid-Continent Bottlers, Inc. plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she performed and appeared at an autograph party. A full page advertisement/congratulations to the Bottlers from Dr Pepper featured Loren with the note “Petite and lovely Donna Loren, nationally famous radio television and recording star, will entertain you with an exciting show”.

Away from Dr Pepper, Loren was a regular performer at concerts and shows during much of the decade throughout the country. These included at the teenage nightclub The Million Cellars (with Glen Campbell also on the bill) and performances at the Pasadena Teen Dances, and concerts and shows with other performers such as Bobby Sherman at Rock ‘N Roll City. Other performances were at Indiana University’s ‘Little 500’ race weekend in May, 1965; the line-up also included Bob Hope and The Kingsmen. On April 7, 1967 Loren performed at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club’s “Headliner of the Year” awards, where Ronald Reagan was recognised “as the state’s outstanding newsmaker for 1966”, and on May 13, 1967 Loren crowned “Teen Safety Queen” at the Municipal Auditorium in Dodge City.

Challenge Records

In the same year that she began with Dr Pepper, Loren signed with Challenge. She release six records there – regarded as some of her best early showcases and of the then fifteen year old’s already well-developed and mature vocal depth – including “I'm in Love with the Ticket Taker at the Bijou Movie” (B Side: “I'm Gonna Be Alright”, subsequently re-released in 1963 as an A Side, with “Johnny’s Got Something”) (1962), “On the Good Ship Lollipop” (B Side: “If You Love Me (Really Love Me)”), and “(Remember Me) I’m the One Who Loves You” (B side: “Dream World”) (1963). Loren said of her early recording, “Somehow I had a knowledge in me that came through my voice and therefore more mature songs were chosen and adapted for recording”. The debut was heavily promoted by the company. In the same newspaper, for example, advertisements for a “Muscle Beach Party” organized by Dr Pepper Bottling Co. of Galveston and held at the State Theatre appeared, where patrons would screen the film and receive Dr Pepper, “a gesture on the part of the firm to have the public see Donna Loren, Dr Pepper’s new singing star”. The release of the single “Muscle Bustle”, written by Brian Wilson, Gary Usher, and Roger Christian would be Loren’s final recording for Challenge (B Side: “How Can I Face the World”).

Loren would then appear in Bikini Beach (singing “Love’s a Secret Weapon”), and Pajama Party (“Among the Young”). She appeared in her most well-remembered role in the series in the fifth film Beach Blanket Bingo in 1965, performing “It Only Hurts When I Cry”, which some regard as her “signature tune”. which were produced by Axelrod and arranged and conducted by Barnum, “So, Do The Zonk” (B Side: “New Love” from her LP) (1965), “Call Me” (B Side: “Smokey Joe’s”), (1965), and “I Believe” (1965; regularly performed in her Dr Pepper appearances).

In late 1964, the Hollywood Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Guild named Loren one of its Deb Stars, an annual award given to up-and-coming performers, who were “the likeliest candidates for motion picture and television stardom in the coming years”. Other “most likely star candidates of 1965” were Janet Landgard, Margaret Mason, Tracy McHale, Mary Ann Mobley, Barbara Parkins, Laurie Sibbald, Wendy Stuart, Beverly Washburn, and Raquel Welch. Loren was also nominated for a 1965 Photoplay Gold Medal Award for “Most Promising New Star (Female)”.

Shindig

Loren was the featured female vocalist on Shindig, which premiered on September 16, 1964. The series has been described as “different from previous U.S. rock 'n' roll programs. It featured non-stop music that, in most cases, was only interrupted by the commercial breaks”, and “most of the top American and British rock/pop acts of the mid-1960s appeared on Shindig!”. Other performers included Glen Campbell, Tina Turner, and James Burton. Loren has referred to her enjoyment of the series, telling Adam Gerace “The microphone that I used was the greatest. I loved the sounds that came out”. Loren was able to perform a wide range of material both in solos and work with other performers. These included (many are on You Tube) "Wishin’ and Hopin’" (her first song on the series), "Shakin’ All Over", "Goldfinger", "Ain’t That Loving, You, Baby", "Too Many Fish in the Sea", "Boys", "I am Ready", "Rock Me in the Cradle", "Cycle Set", "African Waltz", "It’s Alright", "The Boy from New York City", "The Way of Love", "Down the Line", "That’s What Love", "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", "With the Wind & the Rain in Your Hair", and "Personality". Loren sang on 26 shows, and was a well-known member of the cast. She also appeared in the live theatre show “Shindig ‘65”.

Other television and acting

In 1966, Loren became a co-star with Bobby Rydell on The Milton Berle Show, a variety series hosted by Berle and co-starring Irving Benson. The signing of Loren and Rydell was widely reported at the time. The series was subsequently aired for a short 13 weeks.

Loren guest starred on a seven-part Dr. Kildare in 1965 as Anna Perrona, a young woman in need of dialysis treatment. In 1966, she played Susie in two episodes of Batman (“The Joker Goes to School”, “He Meets His Match, the Grisly Ghoul”), for which she is well remembered. In a guide to the week’s television, her character was described as “Aiding The Joker is Donna Loren, a frisky cheerleader”. Loren’s kiss with Batman co-star Burt Ward (Robin) was reportedly accompanied by “a flood of mail”. Loren also guest starred on The Monkees (episode: “Everywhere a Sheik, Sheik”, 1967) as Princess Colette, who Davy is set to marry; and on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1968) as Anna Kovach, who hides a romance from her family. She also appeared on The Mothers-In-Law in 1968.

Loren made hundreds of appearances on numerous variety, music and game shows. Many of these were multiple appearances and included American Bandstand, The Lloyd Thaxton Show, The Regis Philbin Show, What’s This Song, The Red Skelton Show (singing “Johnny One Note” and “The Way of Love”), Hollywood A Go-Go, Top 40!, 9th Street West, Groovy, Boss City, Where the Action Is, Nightlife, Celebrity Game, The Dating Game, The Joey Bishop Show, The Steve Allen Show, The Pat Boone Show (including an episode co-hosted by Milton Berle), The Woody Woodbury Show, and week-long stints on The Hollywood Squares. She also appeared on New Talent in Young America in January 1965, a special where “Youthful artists making great strides in the field of music are showcased in this hour-long Special”.

On March 11, 1968, “Two for Penny” aired on The Danny Thomas Hour. The series was “an all-purpose hour hosted by Danny Thomas. Presentations included musical programs, comedy and variety hours, and filmed dramas”. Loren starred as Greek-American Penny Kanopolis, whose brothers (Michael Constantine and Lou Antonio) try to organise a courtship and marriage to Yani (Gregory Razaki), even though she is already dating another boy, the non-Greek David (Bill Bixby). Danny Thomas played the family priest. This was a pilot for Loren’s own series, produced by Thomas and Aaron Spelling and was aired on NBC as a one-hour special.

Reprise

From 1967-1968, Loren recorded with Reprise, releasing “Let’s Pretend” (B Side: “Once Before I Die”) again produced by Jimmy Bowen, and arranged by Don Peake, and “As Long as I’m Holding You” (B Side: “It’s Such a Shame”), produced by Mike Post. The recordings have been called “exceptional” showcases for Loren. exercise workouts, makeup, and dental care. In 1963 she was chosen by Simplicity Pattern Company to appear in a national advertisement campaign “If I Can Sew, You Can Sew”, appearing in print and commercials. Loren was contractually signed because she made much of the wardrobe she appeared in during television and live performances. In the same year, Loren recorded “Wishin’ and Hopin’” in Nashville with her long time producer Jimmy Bowen with David Hungate from Toto (B Side: “Somewhere Down the Road”; Warner Bros). In introducing Loren to much applause, Griffin acknowledged Loren’s return with the new single “after a long hiatus”. In the same year, Loren produced a live concert in Sedona, Arizona she called “Star Series” based on the American Composer of the Year. She hired Henry Mancini, 1983 Composer of the Year, and the Flagstaff Symphony, and in her introduction she sang “Always” by Irving Berlin. Moving to Hawaii, Loren decided to turn her design and fashion interest into a business (Loren had designed and made clothes since her teenage years and continued to do so after she retired). After premiering a couture collection in 1998 and being chosen by Honolulu Magazine as one of Hawaii’s best new designers, she and Cargman launched ADASA Hawaii, which included a boutique in Waimea and three boutiques on Oahu. Loren’s first release in August, 2009 was a remake of “It Only Hurts When I Cry”, which she produced and arranged, releasing it both as a music video on YouTube and as a single to download. Drew Saber played guitar on the track and appears in the music video. Maurice Gainen engineered the song, and would also engineer Loren’s album Love It Away.

Magic

In the same month as the release of the single, Loren’s Magic: The 80’s Collection was released, both as a download and later as an enhanced CD. This was a collection of songs Loren recorded at Amigo Studios during the early 1980s, with musicians such as John Thomas and James Burton.

Magic: The 80's Collection (2009; Swinging Sixties Productions) Album produced by Donna Loren.

Love It Away was “Pick of the Week” (review posted June 8, 2010) on MuzikReviews.com. The album received four-stars. Loren’s original pieces and her interpretation of songs such as “Old Man” were particularly praised, and the review drew attention to Loren’s vocal (“The main instrument is her voice”) and the production:

"I think one of the reasons for the success of this recording besides Donna’s flat out stunning vocal performance, is the production being kept to a minimum and the instrumentation generally focuses on the keyboards highlighting the sweet sensual vocals of Ms. Loren."

The autobiographical nature of the material was also discussed, “The importance of this release can be found beyond the music, it is a personal statement from the artist and her heartfelt interpretation of her feelings relating to her own life”.

"Love It Away (Remix)"

The first single off of the album was a remix of “Love It Away”, which is also included on the CD as the final track and was released as a single to download. As of June, 2010 the single was charting on a Top 40 Adult Contemporary radio play chart.

Music videos

Loren released several music videos in conjunction with Love It Away on YouTube. “Shakin’ All Over” was released as two videos in March and May, 2010 and both include footage from her original performance of the song on Shindig. “Love It Away” was released in March, 2010 and "Last Night I Had a Dream" and "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" in July, 2010.

Beach Party Movie Medley

In May, 2010, Loren released a medley of her Beach Party songs “Beach Blanket Bingo”, “Muscle Bustle”, “Love’s a Secret Weapon”, “It Only Hurts When I Cry”, and “Among the Young”. A video of the recording session at Lava Tracks Studios was also released on YouTube. Loren recorded new versions of “Beach Blanket Bingo” and “Muscle Bustle”, as singles to download. Loren again worked with Charles Michael Brotman on this project.

"Eloquent" (Single)

In July, 2010, Loren released the dance-electronic "Eloquent" as a single to download.

"Merry Christmas Baby" and Donna Does Elvis in Hawaii

On November 1, 2010 the single "Merry Christmas Baby" was officially released for download (having been pre-released in the Donna Loren Store on her website a few days before the official release). Written by Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore and first recorded by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers in 1947, the R&B; standard had been covered by Chuck Berry, Charles Brown, Etta James, Otis Redding and, more recently, Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, and Sheryl Crow. The song was recorded by Elvis Presley for his album Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas (1971). The release is Loren’s first Christmas song to be recorded for an album, although she performed "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" on Shindig in 1964.

The song was followed by the release of Donna Does Elvis in Hawaii on November 15, 2010, an EP of her renditions of four Presley songs. In addition to "Merry Christmas Baby", Loren recorded “Loving You”, "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear", and "One Night". "Loving You" and "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" were both recorded in 2010, with a sample of "Loving You" appearing on Loren’s blog two months prior to the release. "One Night" was recorded in the 1980s at Amigo Studios and, like many of the songs on her 2009 album Magic from these recording sessions, had not been previously released. The EP was produced by Loren, and she again worked with Maurice Gainen and Charles Michael Brotman and musician Jamieson Trotter, as well as new collaborators Sonny Lim and Wailau Ryder.

The EP makes use of a number of themes related to Loren, Elvis Presley, Hawaii, and Hollywood.

The song "Loving You" was recorded at Lava Tracks Studio and represented Loren’s moving from "my beloved Hawaii" to California. The selection of other Presley songs further fits the concept nature of the EP for, as Loren acknowledged, "Elvis and Hawaii go hand-in-hand".

She hosted a “Beach Party Movie Marathon” (Muscle Beach Party and Beach Blanket Bingo were shown) presented by American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood on February 11, 2010, debuting the medley of her Beach Party songs. She would sing the medley and “Love It Away” for a Thrillville’s “Valentine’s Beach Party” at The Balboa Theatre, San Francisco on February 14, 2010, which screened Beach Blanket Bingo, and performed again at “Movie Night at the Blue Dragon” at the Blue Dragon Coastal Cuisine and Musiquarium in Kawaihae, Hawaii on April 28, 2010.

Liz Smith included a feature on Loren in her column on March 17, 2010. On June 25, 2010, Loren was interviewed on the nationally syndicated radio show Little Steven’s Underground Garage, hosted by Steven Van Zandt.

Loren performed and met fans at the three-day Rock Con Festival, held July 30-August 1, 2010 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Among the over 100 other artists and guests appearing were Billy Hinsche, Al Jardine, Paul Petersen, Hilton Valentine, Mary Wilson, and members of the girl-groups The Angels and The Delicates.

Other releases and media

Loren has been featured on a number of compilations, including one of all her songs from Capitol, The Very Best of Donna Loren Featuring Beach Blanket Bingo, a product of EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets and distributed by Collectables Records.

{| class="wikitable" |- ! Album !! Songs |- | The Very Best of Donna Loren Featuring Beach Blanket Bingo (Collectables Records, 2000) || All songs from Beach Blanket Bingo LP, and all of Loren’s Capitol songs. |- | Girl Group Gems - Soul to Surf (Red Bird Entertainment, 2002) || "Dream World", "Muscle Bustle" |- | Girls Go Zonk – US Dream Babes (RPM, 2004) || “So, Do The Zonk” |- | The Girls of Hideaway Heaven (Rare Rockin’ Records, 2004) || “Hands Off” |- | Sex and the ‘60s (Varèse Sarabande, 2006) || “Love’s a Secret Weapon” |- | Summer Beach Party: Songs from the Classic Beach Movies of the ‘60s (Varèse Sarabande, 2006) || “Love’s a Secret Weapon”, “Muscle Bustle”, “It Only Hurts When I Cry” [movie version] |}

Loren has also been interviewed and profiled in a number of books, including It’s Party Time by Stephen J. McParland (John Blair, 1992), Swingin’ Chicks of the Sixties by Chris Strodder (Cedco, 2000), Drive-In Dream Girls by Tom Lisanti (McFarland & Company, 2003), The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool, also by Strodder (Santa Monica Press, 2007), and Whatever Became of...? by Richard Lamparski. Loren was interviewed for the television documentary Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The Early Years (1955–1970) (2000), and was also profiled and interviewed for a segment on the television series Hawaiian Moving Company (2002).

Current Projects

Loren is currently writing her autobiography and working on new songwriting and recording projects.

References

External links

Donna Loren Official Website

Donna Loren on Facebook

Donna Loren on MySpace Music

Donna Loren on Twitter

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:American actors Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:American singers

Name	Chaka Khan
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Yvette Marie Stevens
Alias	Chaka Adunne Aduffe Hodarhi Karifi Khan
Born	March 23, 1953
Origin	North Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genre	R&B;, jazz, funk, soul, disco, adult contemporary
Voice type	Contralto
Occupation	Singer, songwriter
Years active	1964–present
Label	ABC (1972–1978) Warner Bros. (1978–1998) MCA (1979-1982) NPG Records (1998-2001) Burgundy (2005-present)
Associated acts	Rufus, Prince
Url	ChakaKhan.com

Chaka Khan (born Yvette Marie Stevens; March 23, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the seventies as the front woman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career. Her signature hits, both with Rufus and solo, include "Tell Me Something Good", "Sweet Thing", "Ain't Nobody", "I'm Every Woman", "I Feel for You" and "Through the Fire".

Biography

Early life: 1953-1972

Khan was born Yvette Marie Stevens in 1953 in North Chicago, Illinois. Raised in Chicago's rough Southside projects, Khan, who is of African American ancestry, was the eldest of five children to Charles Stevens and Sandra Coleman. Her sister Yvonne Stevens later became a successful musician in her own right under the name Taka Boom. Her only brother Mark Stevens, who formed the funk group Aurra, also became a successful musician. She has two other sisters, Kathleen Burrell and Tammy McCrary, who is her current manager. Unlike her musical contemporaries, Khan was raised as Roman Catholic. Khan attributed her love of music to her grandmother, who introduced her to jazz music as a child. Khan became a fan of R&B; music as a preteen and at eleven formed her first all-female singing group the Crystalettes, which also included her sister Taka. In the late 1960s, Khan and her sister formed the vocal group Shades of Black and joined the Black Panther Party after befriending fellow member, activist and Chicago native Fred Hampton in 1967. Khan often was seen around a handgun while a member of the Panthers. While a member, she was given a name change to Chaka Adunne Aduffe Hodarhi Karifi by an African shaman. In 1969, she left the Panthers, dropped out of high school, having attended Calumet High School, and married Indian bassist Hassan Khan in 1970; Khan later said she married Hassan to sign a recording contract. After this marriage ended, Khan kept her ex-husband's surname as a stage name. Khan briefly sung lead for her ex's band Lyfe, before she replaced the late Baby Huey as a member of the rock-soul group, the Babysitters, before the group disbanded in 1971. Khan then was contacted by friend Paulette McWilliams to replace her in the rock/soul ensemble Ask Rufus, a group formed by The American Breed members Kevin Murphy and Al Ciner. Alongside Andre Fischer, whom she met while performing in Chicago, and Ron Stockert, they would join the group in 1972 and the band shortened its name to simply Rufus. The band relocated to Los Angeles and soon got a deal with ABC. Khan was nineteen at the time of the band's signing to the label.

Early career and success: 1973-1978

In 1973, Rufus released their self-titled debut album. Despite their fiery rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Maybe Your Baby" from Wonder's acclaimed Talking Book and the modest success of the Khan-led ballad "Whoever's Thrilling You (Is Killing Me)", the album failed to garner attention. That changed when Wonder himself collaborated with the group on a song he had written for Khan. That song, "Tell Me Something Good", became the group's breakthrough hit, reaching number-three on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974 later winning the group their first Grammy Award. The single's success and the subsequent follow-up, "You Got the Love", which peaked at number-eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 helped their second parent album, Rags to Rufus, go platinum selling over a million copies. Between 1974 and 1979, Rufus would release six platinum-selling albums including Rufusized, Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan, Ask Rufus, Street Player and Masterjam. Hits the group would score during this time included "Once You Get Started", "Sweet Thing", "Hollywood", "At Midnight (My Love Will Lift You Up)" and "Do You Love What You Feel".

The band gained a reputation as a live performing act with Khan becoming the star attraction, thanks to her powerful vocals and stage attire, which sometimes included Native American garb and showing her midriff. Most of the band's material was written and produced by the band itself with few exceptions. Khan has also been noted for being an instrumentalist playing drums and bass, she also provided percussion during her tenure with Rufus. Most of Khan's compositions were often collaborations with guitarist Tony Maiden. Relations between Khan and the group, particularly between Khan and group member Andre Fischer, became stormy. Several group members left with nearly every release. While Khan remained a member of the group, she signed a solo contract with Warner Bros in 1978. While Khan was busy at work on solo material, Rufus released three albums without Khan's participation including 1979's Numbers, 1980's Party 'Til You're Broke and 1983's Seal in Red.

Early solo career and final years with Rufus: 1978-1983

In 1978, Warner Bros. Records released Khan's solo debut album, which featured the crossover disco hit, "I'm Every Woman", written for her by songwriters Ashford & Simpson. The success of the single helped the album go platinum, selling over a million copies. Khan also was a featured performer on Quincy Jones' hit, "Stuff Like That", also released in 1978.

In 1979, Khan reunited with Rufus to collaborate on the Jones-produced Masterjam, which featured their hit, "Do You Love What You Feel", which Khan sung with Tony Maiden. Despite her sometimes-acrimonious relationship with some of the group's band mates, Khan and Maiden have maintained a friendship over the years. In 1980, while Rufus released their second non-Khan release, Party 'Til You're Broke, Khan released her second solo album, Naughty, which featured Khan on the cover with her six-year-old daughter Milini. The album yielded the minor disco hit "Clouds" and went gold. Khan released two albums in 1981, the Rufus release, Camouflage and the solo album, What Cha' Gonna Do for Me. In 1982, Khan issued two more solo albums, the jazz-oriented Echoes of an Era and a more funk/pop-oriented self-titled album. The latter album's track, the jazz-inflected "Bebop Medley", won Khan a Grammy and earned praise from Betty Carter who loved Khan's vocal scatting in the song.

In 1983, following the release of Rufus' final studio album, Seal in Red, which did not feature Khan, the singer returned with Rufus on a live album, Stompin' at the Savoy - Live, which featured the studio single, "Ain't Nobody", which became the group's final charting success reaching number twenty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number-one on the Hot R&B; chart, while also reaching the top ten in the United Kingdom. Following this release, Rufus separated for good.

Solo success: 1984-1996

In 1984, Khan released her sixth studio album, I Feel for You, which featured the title track. The title track, originally written and recorded by Prince for his eponymous follow-up to his debut album in 1979, had been previously recorded by The Pointer Sisters and Mary Wells. Khan's version, which featured Stevie Wonder and rapper Melle Mel, reached number-two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number-one in the United Kingdom. Other singles from the album included "This is my Night" and "Through the Fire" and all three singles helped the album to go platinum. Khan followed that success with albums such as 1986's Destiny and 1988's CK. Khan was the featured performer on Steve Winwood's number-one hit, "Higher Love", in 1986. Khan found more success in the UK in the late 1980s as a remix album, Life is a Dance - The Remix Project, reached the top ten on the UK albums chart. Khan reacted to the success by performing in the United Kingdom, where she maintained a strong fan base.

In 1990, she was a featured performer on another major hit when she collaborated with Ray Charles and Quincy Jones on a new jack swing cover of The Brothers Johnson's "I'll Be Good to You", which was featured on Jones' Back on the Block. The song reached number-eighteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and number-one on the Hot R&B; chart, later winning Charles and Khan a Grammy for Best R&B; Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group. Khan returned with her first studio album in four years in 1992 with the release of The Woman I Am, which went gold thanks to the R&B; success of the songs "Love You All My Lifetime" and "You Can Make the Story Right". Khan also contributed to soundtracks and worked on a follow-up to The Woman I Am which she titled Dare You to Love Me, which was eventually shelved. In 1995, she and rapper Guru had a hit with the duet "Watch What You Say", in the UK. That same year, she provided a contemporary R&B; cover of the classic standard, "My Funny Valentine", for the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. In 1996, following the release of her greatest-hits album, , Khan abruptly left Warner Bros. after stating the label had neglected her and failed to release Dare You to Love Me.

Later career and current work: 1998-present

In 1998, Khan signed a contract with Prince's NPG Records label and issued Come 2 My House, followed by the single "Don't Talk 2 Strangers", a cover of a 1996 Prince song. Khan later went on a tour with Prince as a co-headlining act. In 2000, Khan departed from NPG and in 2004 released her first jazz covers album in twenty-two years with 2004's ClassiKhan. Three years later, after signing with Burgundy Records, Khan released what many critics called a "comeback album" with Funk This, produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

The album featured the hit, "Angel", and the Mary J. Blige duet, "Disrespectful". The latter track went to number one on the U.S. dance singles chart, winning the singers a Grammy Award, while Funk This also won a Grammy for Best R&B; Album. The album was notable for Khan's covers of Dee Dee Warwick's "Foolish Fool" and Prince's "Sign O' the Times". In 2008, Khan participated in the Broadway adaptation of The Color Purple playing Ms. Sofia to Fantasia Barrino's Celie.

In 2009, Khan hit the road with singers Anastacia and Lulu for Here Come the Girls. In 2010, Khan contributed to vocals for Beverley Knight's "Soul Survivor", collaborated with Clay Aiken on a song for the kids show Phineas and Ferb, and performed two songs with Japanese singer Ai on Ai's latest album "The Last Ai". Khan continues to perform to packed audiences both in her native United States and overseas.

Personal life

Khan has been married three times and has two children. Khan married her first husband, Hassan Khan, in 1970. They divorced in 1971. The birth of Khan's daughter Milini was the result of a relationship between Khan and a man named Rahsaan Morris. In 1976, Khan married Richard Holland. Their marriage produced a son, Damien, who was born three years later. In 1980, the couple divorced. In 2001, Khan married a third time to Doug Rasheed, which ended in divorce three years later. Khan is also the grandmother of two. In 2006 Khan's son Damien Holland was accused of murder after 17-year-old Christopher Bailey was shot to death. Khan testified on her son's behalf defending her son's innocence. Holland was found not guilty and confirmed Holland's defense that the shooting was an accident.

Khan has struggled with drug abuse, alcoholism and weight over the years. She had addictions to heroin and cocaine, which she kicked in the early nineties. After an on-again and off-again bouts with alcoholism, in 2005, Khan declared herself sober. Though she sang at both the 2000 Democratic and Republican conventions, Khan says that she is more of a "Democratic-minded person". In 1990, Khan immigrated to the United Kingdom where she had a steady relationship. She splits her time between Los Angeles, Germany and London but has been living mainly in London since 2006.

In a 2008 interview Khan said that she, unlike other artists, feels very optimistic about the current changes in the recording industry, including music downloading. "I'm glad things are shifting and artists – not labels – are having more control over their art. My previous big record company (Warner Music) has vaults of my recordings that haven't seen the light of day that people need to hear. This includes Robert Palmer's original recording of "Addicted to Love" – which they took my vocals off of! We are working on getting it (and other tracks) all back now."

Discography

References

External links

Chaka Khan official website

Chaka Khan Foundation

Chaka Khan at Wenig-Lamonica Associates

Category:1953 births Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:African American female singers Category:African American female singer-songwriters Category:African American singers Category:American contraltos Category:American dance musicians Category:American immigrants to the United Kingdom Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American expatriates in Germany Category:British people of Native American descent Category:English people of African-American descent Category:American female singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters Category:American soul singers Category:American people of Native American descent Category:American funk singers Category:American jazz singers Category:Black Panther Party members Category:Women in jazz Category:Berklee College of Music alumni Category:Native American musicians Category:Native American singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Lake County, Illinois Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:Illinois Democrats