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Sandy Frank is an American television producer and international TV program distributor as well as a marketer of TV shows to US networks.

Early life and career[link]

Frank started his career as a sales executive for Paramount Pictures, subsequently moving on to Guild Films, and NBC television. He landed the key position of Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales with the television division of the Wrather Corporation, which produced and distributed the Lassie and Lone Ranger TV programs.^{[citation needed]}

In 1964, he opened his first company, Sandy Frank Program Sales, Inc., and his first distribution successes were You Asked For It and Lassie (which he had acquired the rights for from the Wrather Corp.).^{[citation needed]}

Sandy Frank Entertainment[link]

Frank's Company also sold the original, off-network, half-hour Bill Cosby Show, The Dating Game, The Bobby Vinton Show, Treasure Hunt, and Lee Mendelson's Superstar Specials (Lee Mendelson created and produced the classic Charlie Brown specials).

Sandy Frank later produced and distributed Name That Tune and Battle of the Planets. Frank was also the leading distributor of travel adventure shows including America, High and Wild, Across the Seven Seas, The Traveler, American West, etc.

[edit] Battle of the Planets

Battle of the Planets was an American animated television adaptation of the Japanese anime series Gatchaman. Of the 105 original Gatchaman episodes, 85 were used in the Battle of the Planets adaptation, produced by Sandy Frank Entertainment in 1978. The outer space series was distributed worldwide in over 100 countries as well as stripped on in over 90 stations in US syndication.

[edit] Mystery Science Theater 3000

Frank's company is also well known for its frequent appearances on Mystery Science Theater 3000, where some of the company's dubs of Japanese films were lampooned. They summed their thoughts up of the company in a song entitled "The Sandy Frank Song".^[1]

Recent alliances[link]

In 2011, Frank has formed alliances with a number of companies such as The Asylum in the USA and Sony in the international marketplace. Currently, SFE is marketing DANGEROUS MINDS (hosted by Rudy Giuliani) for Primetime Network, (an anti terror TV series), YOU ASKED FOR IT, for Prime Time Network, and FACE THE MUSIC, which is being re-launched in a new prime time version.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sandy Frank Entertainment
• Sandy Frank at the Internet Movie Database

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William Smith Monroe (September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. He is often referred to as The Father of Bluegrass.^[1]

Early life[link]

Monroe was born on his family's farm near Rosine, Kentucky, the youngest of eight children of James Buchanan "Buck" and Malissa (Vandiver) Monroe. His mother and her brother, Pendleton "Pen" Vandiver, were both musically talented, and Monroe and his family grew up playing and singing at home. Bill was of Scottish heritage. Because his older brothers Birch and Charlie already played the fiddle and guitar, Bill Monroe was resigned to playing the less desirable mandolin. He recalled that his brothers insisted he remove four of the mandolin's eight strings so he would not play too loudly.

Monroe's mother died when he was ten, followed by his father six years later. As his brothers and sisters had moved away, after bouncing among uncles and aunts, Monroe settled in with his disabled uncle Pendleton Vandiver, often accompanying him when Vandiver played the fiddle at dances. This experience inspired one of Monroe's most famous compositions, "Uncle Pen," recorded in 1950, and the 1972 album, "Bill Monroe's Uncle Pen." On that album, Monroe recorded a number of traditional fiddle tunes he had often heard performed by Vandiver. Uncle Pen has been credited with giving Monroe "a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bill's aurally trained memory and a sense of rhythm that seeped into his bones."^[2] Also significant in Monroe's musical life was Arnold Shultz, an influential fiddler and guitarist who introduced Monroe to the blues.^[3][4]

Professional career[link]

In 1929, Monroe moved to Indiana to work at an oil refinery with his brothers Birch, Charlie, and childhood friend and guitarist William "Old Hickory" Hardin. Together with a friend Larry Moore, they formed a musical group, the Monroe Brothers, to play at local dances and house parties. Birch Monroe and Larry Moore soon left the group, and Bill and Charlie carried on as a duo, eventually winning spots performing live on radio stations— first in Indiana and then, sponsored by Texas Crystals, on several radio broadcasts in Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina and North Carolina 1934 to 1936. RCA Victor signed the Monroe Brothers to a recording contract in 1936. They scored an immediate hit single with the gospel song "What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul?" and ultimately recorded 60 tracks for Victor's Bluebird label between 1936 and 1938.

After the Monroe Brothers disbanded in 1938, Bill Monroe formed The Kentuckians in Little Rock, Arkansas, but the group only lasted for three months. Monroe then left Little Rock for Atlanta, Georgia, to form the first edition of the Blue Grass Boys with singer/guitarist Cleo Davis, fiddler Art Wooten, and bassist Amos Garren. Bill had wanted "Old Hickory" to become one of the original members of his "Blue Grass Boys", however William Hardin had to decline. In October 1939, he successfully auditioned for a regular spot on the Grand Ole Opry, impressing Opry founder George D. Hay with his energetic performance of Jimmie Rodgers's "Mule Skinner Blues". Monroe recorded that song, along with seven others, at his first solo recording session for RCA Victor in 1940; by this time, the Blue Grass Boys consisted of singer/guitarist Clyde Moody, fiddler Tommy Magness, and bassist Bill Wesbrooks.^[5]

While the fast tempos and instrumental virtuosity characteristic of bluegrass music are apparent even on these early tracks, Monroe was still experimenting with the sound of his group. He seldom sang lead vocals on his Victor recordings, often preferring to contribute high tenor harmonies as he had in the Monroe Brothers. A 1945 session for Columbia Records featured an accordion, soon dropped from the band. Most importantly, while Monroe added banjo player David "'Stringbean" Akeman to the Blue Grass Boys in 1942, Akeman played the instrument in a relatively primitive style and was rarely featured in instrumental solos. Monroe's pre-1946 recordings represent a transitional style between the string-band tradition from which he came and the musical innovation to follow.

The "Original Bluegrass Band" and Monroe's heyday as a star[link]

A key development occurred in Monroe's music with the addition of North Carolina banjo prodigy Earl Scruggs to the Blue Grass Boys in December 1945. Scruggs played the instrument with a distinctive three-finger picking style that immediately caused a sensation among Opry audiences. Scruggs joined a highly accomplished group that included singer/guitarist Lester Flatt, and would soon include fiddler Chubby Wise, and bassist Howard Watts, who often performed under the name "Cedric Rainwater." In retrospect, this lineup of the Blue Grass Boys has been dubbed the "Original Bluegrass Band," as Monroe's music finally included all the elements that characterize the genre, including breakneck tempos, sophisticated vocal harmony arrangements, and impressive instrumental proficiency demonstrated in solos or "breaks" on the mandolin, banjo, and fiddle. By this point, Monroe had acquired the 1923 Gibson F5 model "Lloyd Loar" mandolin which became his trademark instrument for the remainder of his career.^[6]

The 28 songs recorded by this version of the Blue Grass Boys for Columbia Records in 1946 and 1947 soon became classics of the genre, including "Toy Heart," "Blue Grass Breakdown," "Molly and Tenbrooks", "Wicked Path of Sin," "My Rose of Old Kentucky," "Little Cabin Home on the Hill," and Monroe's most famous song, "Blue Moon of Kentucky". The last-named was recorded by Elvis Presley in 1954, appearing as the B-side of his first single for Sun Records. Monroe gave his blessing to Presley's rock-and-roll cover of the song, originally a slow ballad in waltz time, and in fact re-recorded it himself with a faster arrangement after Presley's version became a hit. Several gospel-themed numbers are credited to the "Blue Grass Quartet," which featured four-part vocal arrangements accompanied solely by mandolin and guitar — Monroe's usual practice when performing "sacred" songs.

Both Flatt and Scruggs left Monroe's band in early 1948, soon forming their own group, the Foggy Mountain Boys, which met with notable commercial success in the 1950s and 1960s with such hits as "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", "Cabin on the Hill," and "The Ballad of Jed Clampett". In 1949, after signing with Decca Records, Monroe quickly regrouped, entering the "golden age" of his career^[7] with what many consider the classic "high lonesome" version of the Blue Grass Boys, featuring the lead vocals and rhythm guitar of Jimmy Martin, the banjo of Rudy Lyle (replacing Don Reno), and fiddlers such as Merle "Red" Taylor, Charlie Cline, Bobby Hicks and Vassar Clements. This band recorded a number of bluegrass classics, including "My Little Georgia Rose," "On and On," "Memories of Mother and Dad," and "Uncle Pen," as well as instrumentals such as "Roanoke", "Big Mon", "Stoney Lonesone", "Get Up John" and the mandolin feature "Raw Hide." Carter Stanley joined the Blue Grass Boys as guitarist for a short time in 1951 during a period when the Stanley Brothers had temporarily disbanded.

On January 16, 1953 Monroe was critically injured in a two-car wreck. He and "Bluegrass Boys" bass player, Bessie Lee Mauldin, were returning home from a fox hunt north of Nashville. On highway 31-W, near White House, their car was struck by a drunken driver. Monroe, who had suffered injuries to his back, left arm and nose, was rushed to General Hospital in Nashville. It took him almost four months to recover and resume touring. In the meantime Charlie Cline and Jimmy Martin kept the band together.^[8]

By the late 1950s, however, Monroe's commercial fortunes had begun to slip. The rise of rock-and-roll and the development of the "Nashville sound" in mainstream country music both represented threats to the viability of bluegrass. While still a mainstay on the Grand Ole Opry, Monroe found diminishing success on the singles charts, and struggled to keep his band together in the face of declining demand for live performances.

The folk revival[link]

Monroe's fortunes began to improve during the "folk revival" of the early 1960s. Many college students and other young people were beginning to discover Monroe, associating his style more with traditional folk music than with the country-and-western genre with which it had previously been identified. The word "bluegrass" first appeared around this time to describe the sound of Monroe and similar artists such as Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, Reno and Smiley, Jim and Jesse, and the Osborne Brothers. While Flatt and Scruggs immediately recognized the potential for a lucrative new audience in cities and on college campuses in the North, Monroe was slower to respond. Under the influence of Ralph Rinzler, a young musician and folklorist from New Jersey who briefly became Monroe's manager in 1963, Monroe gradually expanded his geographic reach beyond the traditional southern country music circuit. Rinzler was also responsible for a lengthy profile and interview in the influential folk music magazine Sing Out! that first publicly referred to Monroe as the "father" of bluegrass. Accordingly, at the first bluegrass festival organized by Carlton Haney at Roanoke, Virginia in 1965, Bill Monroe was the central figure.

The growing national popularity of Monroe's music during the 1960s was also apparent in the increasingly diverse background of musicians recruited into his band. Non-southerners who served as Blue Grass Boys during this period included banjo player Bill Keith and singer/guitarist Peter Rowan from Massachusetts, fiddler Gene Lowinger from New York, banjo player Lamar Grier from Maryland, banjo player Steve Arkin from New York, and singer/guitarist Roland White and fiddler Richard Greene from California.

Later years[link]

Even after the folk revival faded in the mid-1960s, it left a loyal audience for bluegrass music. Bluegrass festivals became common, with fans often traveling long distances to see a number of different acts over several days of performances.

In 1967 Monroe himself founded an annual bluegrass festival at Bean Blossom in southern Indiana, a park he had purchased in 1951, which routinely attracted a crowd of thousands; a double LP from the festival featuring Monroe, Jimmy Martin, Lester Flatt, and Jim and Jesse was released in 1973. The annual Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival is now the world's oldest continuously running annual bluegrass festival.^[9]

Monroe's compositions during his later period were largely instrumentals, including "Jerusalem Ridge", "Old Dangerfield"(stylized as Old Daingerfield), and "My Last Days on Earth"; he settled into a new role as a musical patriarch who continued to influence younger generations of musicians. Monroe recorded two albums of duets in the 1980s; the first featured collaborations with country stars such as Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, and the Oak Ridge Boys, while the second paired him with other prominent bluegrass musicians. A 1989 live album celebrated his 50th year on the Grand Ole Opry. Monroe also kept a hectic touring schedule. On April 7, 1990, Monroe performed for Farm Aid IV in Indianapolis, Indiana along with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and with many other artists.

Death[link]

Monroe suffered a stroke in April 1996, effectively ending his touring and playing career. He died on September 9, 1996, only four days before his 85th birthday.

Awards and legacy[link]

Bill Monroe was made an honorary Kentucky colonel in 1966.^[8] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as an "early influence") in 1997. Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, Hank Williams Sr., and Johnny Cash are the only other performers honored in all three. As the "father of bluegrass," he was also an inaugural inductee into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1991. In 1993, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1995. His well-known song "Blue Moon of Kentucky" has been covered not only by bluegrass but also rock and country artists, most notably Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney, and Patsy Cline. In 2003, CMT had Bill Monroe ranked #16 on CMT 40 Greatest Men of Country Music. Artists that claimed to be influenced by or to be playing the bluegrass genre were often bullied by Bill Monroe. He always considered himself the father and caretaker of bluegrass. He would often say of new bands that did not perform to his standards, "That ain't no part of nothin'." Even those who question the scope of bluegrass refer to Monroe as a "musical giant" and recognize that "there would be no bluegrass without Bill Monroe."^[10]

Artists influenced by Monroe[link]

More than 150 musicians played in the Blue Grass Boys over the nearly 60 years of Monroe's performing career. Monroe tended to recruit promising young musicians who served an apprenticeship with him before becoming accomplished artists in their own right. Some of Monroe's band members who went on to greater prominence include singer/guitarists Clyde Moody, Lester Flatt, Jack Cook, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Martin, Carter Stanley, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Roland White, Roland Dunn and Doug Green; banjo players Earl Scruggs, Don Reno, Sonny Osborne, and Bill Keith; and fiddlers Tommy Magness, Chubby Wise, Vassar Clements, Byron Berline, Kenny Baker, Bobby Hicks, Gordon Terry, and Glen Duncan. Monroe also regularly performed with flat-picking guitar virtuoso Doc Watson.

Modern bluegrass singer and mandolin player Ricky Skaggs was influenced by Monroe. Skaggs was only six years old when he first got to perform on stage with Monroe and his band. He stated, "I think Bill Monroe's importance to American music is as important as someone like Robert Johnson was to blues, or Louis Armstrong. He was so influential: I think he's probably the only musician that had a whole style of music named after his band".^[11]

Pseudonyms used by Monroe as a composer[link]

Joe Ahr; Rupert Jones; Wilbur Jones; Albert Price; James B. Smith; James W. Smith

Discography[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Rumble, John (1998). "Bill Monroe". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 350–2.
• Smith, Richard D. (2000). Can't You Hear Me Callin': The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-80381-2.
• Rosenberg, Neil V., and Charles K. Wolfe (2007). The Music of Bill Monroe. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-03121-0.

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Bill Monroe at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Country Music Hall of Fame profile
• International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor profile
• Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame profile
• Recording of "Wayfaring Stranger" from the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (available for public use from the State Archives of Florida)
• "Bill Monroe". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2508. Retrieved August 11, 2010. 
• Bill Monroe: Father of Bluegrass Music (documentary video)

v t e Bluegrass music Typical instruments Acoustic guitar · Banjo · Dobro · Fiddle · Mandolin · Upright bass Stylistic origins Blues · Country music · Folk music · Old-time music Sub- and fusion genres Traditional bluegrass · Progressive bluegrass · Bluegrass gospel · Czech bluegrass Notable festivals Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Festival · California Bluegrass Association Father's Day Bluegrass Festival · Delfest · Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival · High Sierra Music Festival · Kentucky Festival of the Bluegrass · Merlefest · San Francisco Bluegrass & Old Time Festival · South Carolina State Bluegrass Festival · River City Bluegrass Festival · Rockygrass · Telluride Bluegrass Festival · Wintergrass Other International Bluegrass Music Museum · International Bluegrass Music Association · International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame · Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America · Bluegrass Unlimited Category · Portal

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Hugh Alexander “Sandy” MacIntyre (born April 17, 1935) is one of the most respected^{[citation needed]} artists in the tradition of Cape Breton fiddle music.

Personal life[link]

Sandy was born into a family of musicians in the city (then town) of Inverness on April 17, 1935. His father Ronald and mother Cassie were both Scottish fiddlers. Cassie had long been considered one of the liveliest square dance fiddlers in the county. Sandy was one of fourteen children, most of whom played musical instruments. He started playing the pump organ at age 8 or 9 chording for family members and visiting fiddlers. At about age 16 he took up the fiddle, learning by ear. He also learned the guitar and in high school he was a drummer in the Inverness Pipe Band. Sandy married the former Lucy LeBlanc of Margaree Forks, Inverness County. They have two children, Brian, a guitarist, and Stephen, a bodhran player. Sandy moved to Toronto and took the music with him. He is personally responsible for creating a Cape Breton scene there. He linked up with other exiled Cape Bretoners to bring musicians to Toronto for Cape Breton style dances and to keep the music alive. Some of his guest appearances included the Mariposa Folk Festival at Toronto in 1971 and 1972 where he represented Cape Breton fiddlers. He performed at, and managed, the Scottish Talent Club in Toronto for approximately eight years. He has traveled extensively in Canada and the United States, and has made trips to Scotland as well as the Shetland and Orkney Islands doing fiddle workshops and concerts. He appeared for five years on the CBC National TV show “Ceilidh” from Halifax with other artists such as Winnie Chafe, Buddy MacMaster, John Campbell, Cameron Chisholm, and Doug MacPhee. Sandy was a member of the Cape Breton Symphony Fiddlers for many years, and performed on the John Allan Cameron CTV show with symphony director Bobby Brown, Buddy MacMaster, John Donald Cameron and Wilfred Gillis. Sandy made two trips to the Northwest Territories, where he taught fiddle and step dancing to many Native American and Inuit children under the auspices of the “Strings Across The Sky” [1] program arranged by Toronto Symphony violinist Andrea Hansen. Sandy was asked by the Hon. Alan J. MacEachern to perform at a fund-raising dinner in Ottawa to assist in the restoration of Balnain House in Inverness, Scotland, the Home of Highland Music. Sandy was proud to be part of this project which raised thousands of dollars and was a major part of the restoration fund. One of the rooms in that house was named the Canada Room, and Sandy held workshops in that room during a tour of Scotland in 1995. Sandy has been an instructor at the Cape Breton Fiddling School at the Gaelic College in St. Ann’s Bay for many years and successfully expanded the interest in that program to students from around the world. Sandy’s efforts in raising funds for the College through benefit concerts and his assistance to so many students was recognized by the Board of Governors of the College in 1995. Sandy was a feature artist on “Bridging Canada”, a simultaneous series of concerts held in October, 1996 on famous bridges from Vancouver to Montreal to foster and celebrate Canadian unity. Sandy performed on the famous Bloor Viaduct in Toronto. Sandy was one of the feature artists in the Mirvish production of “Needfire”, a celtic musical, from 1998 – 2000 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre and the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. He displayed the unique and traditional style of Cape Breton fiddling during numerous stage appearances throughout the show. Sandy has been a feature performer for many years at the Celtic Colours International Festival[2] in Cape Breton. In 2009, the festival paid tribute to Sandy, to thank him for all he has done to preserve the music. His Toronto family band Steeped in Tradition[3], joined him for this concert in the beautiful St. Matthew's Church in his beloved Inverness. At Sandy's request, he was joined by some of his "teacher's pets", former students Jeff Gosse, Colin Grant[4], Kimberley Fraser[5] and Dawn & Margie Beaton[6]. Sandy is an inspiring teacher, and his students sing his praises and credit him with their success.

Career[link]

Sandy worked as a manager at Air Canada until he retired after twenty-five years in 1983. He sold real estate in Scarborough until 1995. He continues to run fiddle classes in Toronto and teaches Cape Breton step dancing. He is a prolific composer with over a hundred tunes to his credit, many in active circulation among Cape Breton players.

Recordings[link]

• Let’s Have a Ceilidh with Sandy MacIntyre
• Cape Breton....My Land In Music
• Island Treasure Vol. 1
• Cape Breton Fiddle Music: Steeped In Tradition
• Steeped and Served: The Sandy MacIntyre Collection (2 CD Compilation)

Honours[link]

A number of fiddlers have composed tunes in Sandy’s honour: Sandy MacIntyre's Trip to Boston (composed by John Campbell); Sandy MacIntyre’s (composed by Brenda Stubbert); Sandy MacIntyre’s March (composed by Donald Angus Beaton).

References[link]

Notes

• Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts
• Sandy MacIntyre Official website
• Sandy MacIntyre - Biography
• Back To The Sugarcamp
• The Cape Breton Fiddler by Allister MacGillivary, pages 126, 127.
• Celtic Colours International Festival