Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artistes of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation.
A multimedia star, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings and motion picture grosses. His early career coincided with technical recording innovations; this allowed him to develop a laid-back, intimate singing style that influenced many of the popular male singers who followed him, including Perry Como,Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American G.I. morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. Also in 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.
David Bowie ( /ˈboʊ.i/ BOH-ee; born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He is known for his distinctive voice and the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work.
Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in July 1969, when his song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie's impact at that time, as described by biographer David Buckley, "challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day" and "created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture." The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona proved merely one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra, /sɨˈnɑːtrə/, (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and film actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1953 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity.
He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 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 in 1961 (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 Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".
Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926) is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis.
In addition to the duo's popular nightclub work, they starred in a successful series of comedy films for Paramount Pictures. Lewis is also known for his charity fund-raising telethons and position as national chairman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).
Lewis has won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, The Golden Camera, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and The Venice Film Festival, and he has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2005, he received the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors, which is the highest Emmy Award presented. On February 22, 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS (born Leslie Townes Hope; May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an English-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel. Throughout his long career, he was honored for his humanitarian work. In 1996, the U.S. Congress honored Bob Hope by declaring him the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces." Bob Hope appeared in or hosted 199 known USO shows.
Hope was born in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons. His English father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes, was a light opera singer from Barry who later worked as a cleaning woman. She married William Hope in April 1891 and the couple set up home at 12 Greenwood Street in the town, then moved to Whitehall and St George in Bristol, before eventually moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 1908. The family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia, and passed inspection at Ellis Island on March 30, 1908. Hope became a U.S. citizen in 1920 at the age of 17. In a 1942 legal document, Hope's legal name is given as Lester Townes Hope. His name on the Social Security Index is also listed as Lester T. Hope. His name as registered at birth was Leslie Towns [sic] Hope.
I can give you a choice....a choice to choose.
Plot
Josh Holden plays a hit-man, who is hired to off a scientist who is working on a cell regeneration formula. The hit-man (who Holden later named Angus, and made a side story for him) injects the scientist with his own formula, which kills him. However, neither the hit-man or the greedy company that hired him know the full extent of the formula. We're about to see the results.
Plot
A young woman reporter blames the Pittsburgh Pirates' losing streak on the obscenely abusive manager. While she attempts to learn more about him for her column, he begins hearing the voice of an angel promising him help for the team if he will mend his ways. As he does so, an orphan girl who is a Pirates fan and has been praying for the team begins noticing angels on the ballfield. Sure enough, the Pirates start winning, and McGovern tries to turn his life around. But can he keep his temper long enough for the Pirates to win the NL pennant?
Keywords: angel, baseball, catholic-orphanage, catholic-school, convent, convent-school, mother-superior, nun, orphan, priest
The toughest guy you ever met ... until an angel said "Hello!"
Aloysius X. 'Guffy' McGovern: Dogs have fleas, managers have reporters.
Plot
The Disassociated Press wants Bugs Bunny's life story. Got a pencil? "First," says Bugs, "I was born." He quickly learns he is different from the other children: he's a "rabbit in a human world." He grows up to accept repetitive chorus boy jobs in such Broadway revues as "Girl of the Golden Vest," "Wearing of the Grin" and "Rosie's Cheeks." His career hits the skids and he's living on a park bench before he's discovered by that great vaudeville star, Elmer Fudd. Their dual comedy act is a hit, which leads to film roles. Will Bugs Bunny ever have to look back?
Keywords: cartoon-rabbit, celebrity-caricature, hollywood, hungarian-rhapsody-by-liszt, looney-tunes, reference-to-bugs-bunny, reference-to-elmer-fudd, showbiz, surrealism, title-spoken-by-character
Bugs Bunny: [narrating] After much consideration, I finally accepted an important part in the hit show, "Girl of the Golden Vest".::Bugs Bunny, Boys of the Chorus: [dissolve to Bugs and chorus boys entering stage] [singing] Oh, we are the boys of chorus / We hope you like our show / We know you're rooting for us / But now we have to go!::Bugs Bunny: [narrating] Then came, "Wearing of the Grin".::Bugs Bunny, Boys of the Chorus: [dissolve to Bugs and chorus boys entering stage] [singing] Oh, we are the boys of chorus / We hope you like our show / We know you're rooting for us / But now we have to go!::Bugs Bunny: [narrating] Then my big smash, "Rosie's Cheeks".::Bugs Bunny, Boys of the Chorus: [dissolve to Bugs and chorus boys entering stage] [singing] Oh, we are the boys of chorus / We hope you like our show / We know you're rooting for us / But now we have to go!
[first lines]::Bugs Bunny: [answering the phone] Eh, start talking. It's your nickel.
Bugs Bunny: [after reading the script of Life With Father] This'll never be a hit.
Plot
A tour of Ciro's Nightclub packed with caricatures of many top stars, including (in order) 'Cary Grant', 'Greta Garbo' (qv) 'Edward G. Robinson' and 'Ann Sheridan' (qv), 'Johnny Weissmuller' (qv), 'James Cagney' (qv), 'Humphrey Bogart' (qv) and 'George Raft' (qv), 'Harpo Marx' (qv), 'Clark Gable', 'Bing Crosby' (qv), 'Leopold Stokowski' (qv), 'James Stewart (I)' (qv) and 'Dorothy Lamour' (qv), 'Tyrone Power (I)' and 'Sonja Henie' (qv), The Frankenstein Monster, 'Larry Fine (I)' (qv), 'Moe Howard (I)' (qv), 'Curly Howard' (qv), 'Oliver Hardy' (qv), 'Cesar Romero (I)' (qv), 'Mickey Rooney (I)' (qv), 'Judy Garland (I)' and 'Lewis Stone (I)' (qv), 'Kay Kyser' (qv), 'Peter Lorre (I)' (qv), 'Henry Fonda' (qv), 'J. Edgar Hoover' (qv), 'Ned Sparks (I)' (qv), 'Jerry Colonna' (qv), and 'Groucho Marx' (qv); many more just get sight gags, such as 'Claudette Colbert', 'Norma Shearer' (qv), 'William Powell (I)' (qv), 'Don Ameche' (qv), 'Wallace Beery' (qv), 'C. Aubrey Smith' (qv), 'Boris Karloff' (qv), 'Arthur Treacher' (qv), 'Buster Keaton' (qv) and 'Mischa Auer' (qv).
Keywords: celebrity, celebrity-caricature, conga, dancing, fan-dancer, horse, hotfoot, merrie-melodies, nightclub, reference-to-jerry-colonna
J Edgar Hoover: Gee, Gee, Gee, Gee!