1.
Gene Austin
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Gene Austin was an American singer and songwriter, one of the first crooners. His 1920s compositions When My Sugar Walks Down the Street and The Lonesome Road became pop, Austin was born as Lemeul Eugene Lucas in Gainesville, Texas, to Nova Lucas and the former Serena Belle Harrell. He took the name Gene Austin from his stepfather, Jim Austin, Austin grew up in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, located east of Shreveport. In Minden, he learned to play piano and guitar and he ran away from home at 15 and attended a vaudeville act in Houston, Texas, where the audience was allowed to come to the stage and sing. On a dare from his friends, Austin took the stage, the audience response was overwhelming, and the vaudeville company immediately offered him a billed spot on their ticket. Austin joined the U. S. Army at the age of 17 in hopes of being dispatched to Europe to fight in World War I and he was first stationed in New Orleans, where he played the piano at night in the citys notorious vice district. Thereafter, he served in France in World War I, on returning to the United States in 1919, Austin settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where he intended to study dentistry. Soon, however, he was playing piano and singing in local taverns and he started writing songs and formed a vaudeville act with Roy Bergere, with whom he wrote How Come You Do Me Like You Do. The act ended when Bergere married, Austin worked briefly in a club owned by Lou Clayton, who later was a part of the famous vaudeville team Clayton, Jackson and Durante. In the 1940s, Austin and his singers toured the country in a 14-truck caravan with its own power plant and he stopped in Minden, Louisiana, and performed there in a popular tent show on the grounds of the local Coca-Cola plant owned by the Hunter family. In 1925, Austin recorded his popular song When My Sugar Walks Down the Street for the Victor Talking Machine Company in a duet with Aileen Stanley, nathaniel Shilkret, in his autobiography, describes the events leading to the recording. In the next decade with Victor, Austin sold over 80 million records – a total unmatched by a single artist for 40 years, best sellers included The Lonesome Road, Riding Around in the Rain, and Ramona. Such later crooners as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Russ Columbo all credited Austin with creating the genre that began their careers. Gene Austin was an important pioneer crooner whose records in their day enjoyed record sales, the Genial Texan ex-vaudevillian and would-be screen idol, Austin constitutes an underrated landmark in popular music history. He made a number of influential recordings from the mid-1920s including a string of best-sellers. His 1926 Bye Bye Blackbird was in the top twenty records. George A. Whiting and Walter Donaldson’s My Blue Heaven was charted during 1928 for 26 weeks, stayed at #1 for 13 and it was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. Until Bing Crosbys White Christmas replaced it, it was the largest selling record of all time
2.
Atlanta
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Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
3.
WQXI (AM)
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WQXI, Radio Korea, is a radio station licensed to the city of Atlanta broadcasting at a frequency of 790 kHz. The station has a power of 28,000 watts in the daytime, WQXIs signal is non-directional during the daytime, and directional at night. As of 2009, the station broadcast in the IBiquity HD Radio AM hybrid digital mode during daytime hours, WQXI first went on the air in 1948 as an all music station, playing pop standards. Their independent status was unique programming as the stations, WAGA, WSB, WGST. By the 1960s, WQXI was Top 40 with the moniker Quixie in Dixie, among the stations personalities was Dr. Don Rose in the late 1960s, who went on to near legendary status at KFRC in San Francisco. For a time, it was owned by Esquire Inc, in the 1970s, WQXI became an oldies station. By the 1980s, WQXI was simulcasting with its FM sister station, by the early 1990s, WQXI was airing an adult standards format. When Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympic Games, the station simulcast the French radio news channel France Info for several hours a day, during the mid-1990s, WQXI also aired Spanish-language music for several hours a day as La Pantera. The former WQXI-FM became WSTR-FM, and WQXI-TV and finally, WXIA-TV, the station aired a sports radio talk format owned by Lincoln Financial Media. WQXI was the AM radio flagship of the Atlanta Falcons, and until 2013, the station formerly broadcast the syndicated Yahoo. Sports Radio during the overnight hours, for many years, WQXI was hobbled by signal issues. Even with its 28, 000-watt daytime signal, it provides grade B coverage to several of Atlantas outer suburbs. At night, it is almost unlistenable outside of Atlanta itself, to solve this problem, it was simulcast in HD Radio on WSTRs HD2 subchannel. WQXIs audio was also broadcast on Channel 18 of the Georgia Tech Cable Network, on May 20,2014, Lincoln Financial Media dropped WQXIs local programming and became a full-time affiliate of ESPN Radio. The stations Atlanta Falcons broadcasts were not affected by the change, the sale was approved on July 14,2015. On July 1,2015, ESPN Radio announced it would end its programming on WQXI and move it to Dickey Broadcasting-owned rivals WFOM, after that date, WQXI began simulcasting sister WSTR, effectively taking it back to its roots as an all-music station. On September 30,2016, Entercom announced that it had sold WQXI to Kyung Sook Parks Atlanta Radio Korea, the sale was approved by the FCC on November 29. On December 15, WQXI flipped to the Radio Korea format, in 1978, WQXI provided inspiration for WKRP in Cincinnati, a television sitcom about a radio station
4.
St. Louis
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St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area
5.
Missouri
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Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1821. With over six million residents, it is the eighteenth most populous state, the largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. The capitol is in Jefferson City on the Missouri River, the state is the twenty-first most extensive by area and is geographically diverse. The Northern Plains were once covered by glaciers, then tallgrass prairie, in the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Mississippi River forms the border of the state, eventually flowing into the swampy Missouri Bootheel. Humans have inhabited the land now known as Missouri for at least 12,000 years, the Mississippian culture built cities and mounds, before declining in the 1300s. When European explorers arrived in the 1600s they encountered the Osage, the French established Louisiana, a part of New France, and founded Ste. Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764, after a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South, including enslaved African Americans, rushed into the new Missouri Territory, many from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee settled in the Boonslick area of Mid-Missouri. Soon after, heavy German immigration formed the Missouri Rhineland, Missouri played a central role in the westward expansion of the United States, as memorialized by the Gateway Arch. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, as a border state, Missouris role in the American Civil War was complex and there were many conflicts within. After the war, both Greater St. Louis and the Kansas City metropolitan area became centers of industrialization and business, today, the state is divided into 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. Missouris culture blends elements from the Midwestern and Southern United States, the musical styles of ragtime, Kansas City jazz, and St. Louis Blues, developed in Missouri. The well-known Kansas City-style barbecue, and lesser known St. Louis-style barbecue can be found across the state, St. Louis is also a major center of beer brewing, Anheuser-Busch is the largest producer in the world. Missouri wine is produced in the nearby Missouri Rhineland and Ozarks, Missouris alcohol laws are among the most permissive in the United States. Outside of the large cities popular tourist destinations include the Lake of the Ozarks, U. S. President Harry S. Truman is from Missouri. Other well known Missourians include Mark Twain, Walt Disney, Chuck Berry, some of the largest companies based in the state include Express Scripts, Monsanto, Emerson Electric, Edward Jones, and OReilly Auto Parts. Missouri has been called the Mother of the West and the Cave State, however, Missouris most famous nickname is the Show Me State, the state is named for the Missouri River, which was named after the indigenous Missouri Indians, a Siouan-language tribe
6.
Atlanta, Georgia
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Atlanta is the capital of and the most populous city in the U. S. state of Georgia, with an estimated 2015 population of 463,878. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5,710,795 people, Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County, and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County. In 1837, Atlanta was founded at the intersection of two lines, and the city rose from the ashes of the American Civil War to become a national center of commerce. Atlantas economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors that include logistics, professional and business services, media operations, Atlanta has topographic features that include rolling hills and dense tree coverage. Revitalization of Atlantas neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, has intensified in the 21st century, altering the demographics, politics. Prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, Creek Indians inhabited the area, standing Peachtree, a Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area in 1821. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western, the initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would then be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the zero milepost was driven into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later as Thrasherville after a merchant who built homes. By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor the Governors daughter, later, J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlantica-Pacifica, which was shortened to Atlanta. The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29,1847, by 1860, Atlantas population had grown to 9,554. During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies, in 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, on November 11,1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Armys March to the Sea by ordering Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the citys churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt, due to the citys superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868. In the 1880 Census, Atlanta surpassed Savannah as Georgias largest city, by 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology and the citys black colleges had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, during the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta experienced a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades time, Atlantas population tripled as the city expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs
7.
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Georgia is a state in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1733, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies, named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2,1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19,1861 and it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15,1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, from 2007 to 2008,14 of Georgias counties ranked among the nations 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South, Atlanta is the states capital, its most populous city and has been named a global city. Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, the states northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. Georgias highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level, Georgia is the largest state entirely east of the Mississippi River in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures, the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12,1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II. The Trustees implemented a plan for the colonys settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins Ear, in 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a colony, with a governor appointed by the king. The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the State of Georgias first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24,1778, in 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgias tribes. Despite the Supreme Courts ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that ruled U. S. states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched troops to gather the Cherokee
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Crooner
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Crooner is an American epithet given to male singers of jazz standards, mostly from the Great American Songbook, backed by either a full orchestra, a big band or a piano. Originally it was a term denoting a sentimental singing style made possible by the use of microphones. Some performers, such as Russ Columbo, did not accept the term and this dominant popular vocal style coincided with the advent of radio broadcasting and electrical recording. Before the advent of the microphone, popular singers like Al Jolson had to project to the seats of a theater, as did opera singers. The microphone made possible the more personal style and he could be heard by anyone with a phonograph or a radio. His first film, The Vagabond Lover, was promoted with the line, while his success brought press warnings of the Vallee Peril, this punk from Maine with the dripping voice required mounted police to beat back screaming, swooning females at his vaudeville shows. Even The New York Times predicted that crooning would be just a passing fad, the newspaper printed, They sing like that because they can’t help it. Their style is begging to go out of fashion…, crooners will soon go the way of tandem bicycles, mah jongg and midget golf. Voice range shifted from tenor to baritone, still, a 1931 record by Dick Robinson, Crosby, Columbo & Vallee, called upon men to fight these public enemies brought into homes via radio. There were female crooners, including Annette Hanshaw, Mildred Bailey and their performances had a variety of influences including ballads and swing and was included in popular film soundtracks. The term is used to describe a female singer, although Mildred Baileys pre-swing records as well as Helen Rowland are often considered part of the crooning style. Due to the country songs popularized by Bing Crosby, the style of singing became an enduring part of country music. Bing Crosby achieved a million seller with his 1940 rendition of the song San Antonio Rose, eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves and Ray Price are especially well known for their country crooner standards. Dean Martin is rather famous for the music he recorded in the period when he was working for Reprise Records. Fellow Italian-American crooner Perry Como recorded several albums with country producer Chet Atkins in Nashville, list of crooners Gary Giddins, Bing Crosby, A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years, 1903–1940. Boston, Little, Brown and Co.2001, allison McCracken, Real Men Dont Sing, Crooning in American Culture. Durham, NC, Duke University Press,2015
10.
Radio
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When radio waves strike an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. The information in the waves can be extracted and transformed back into its original form, Radio systems need a transmitter to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it, for example using amplitude modulation or angle modulation. Radio systems also need an antenna to convert electric currents into radio waves, an antenna can be used for both transmitting and receiving. The electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow individual stations to be selected, the electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna. Radio frequencies occupy the range from a 3 kHz to 300 GHz, a radio communication system sends signals by radio. The term radio is derived from the Latin word radius, meaning spoke of a wheel, beam of light, however, this invention would not be widely adopted. The switch to radio in place of wireless took place slowly and unevenly in the English-speaking world, the United States Navy would also play a role. Although its translation of the 1906 Berlin Convention used the terms wireless telegraph and wireless telegram, the term started to become preferred by the general public in the 1920s with the introduction of broadcasting. Radio systems used for communication have the following elements, with more than 100 years of development, each process is implemented by a wide range of methods, specialised for different communications purposes. Each system contains a transmitter, This consists of a source of electrical energy, the transmitter contains a system to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it. This modulation might be as simple as turning the energy on and off, or altering more subtle such as amplitude, frequency, phase. Amplitude modulation of a carrier wave works by varying the strength of the signal in proportion to the information being sent. For example, changes in the strength can be used to reflect the sounds to be reproduced by a speaker. It was the used for the first audio radio transmissions. Frequency modulation varies the frequency of the carrier, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal. FM has the capture effect whereby a receiver only receives the strongest signal, Digital data can be sent by shifting the carriers frequency among a set of discrete values, a technique known as frequency-shift keying. FM is commonly used at Very high frequency radio frequencies for high-fidelity broadcasts of music, analog TV sound is also broadcast using FM. Angle modulation alters the phase of the carrier wave to transmit a signal
11.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership
12.
Sound recording and reproduction
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Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording, prior to the development of analog recording, there were mechanical systems for reproducing instrumental music, such as wind-up music boxes and later, in the late 19th century, player pianos. Analog sound reproduction is the process, with a bigger loudspeaker diaphragm causing changes to atmospheric pressure to form acoustic sound waves. Digital recording and reproduction converts the sound signal picked up by the microphone to a digital form by the process of digitization. This lets the audio data be stored and transmitted by a variety of media. Whereas successive copies of an analog recording tend to degrade in quality, as noise is added. A digital audio signal must be reconverted to analog form during playback before it is amplified and connected to a loudspeaker to produce sound, long before sound was first recorded on cylinders or records, music was recorded—first by written music notation, then also by mechanical devices. Fowler, this. cylinder with raised pins on the surface remained the device to produce and reproduce music mechanically until the second half of the nineteenth century. The Banu Musa brothers also invented an automatic flute player, which appears to have been the first programmable machine, according to Fowler, the automata were a robot band that performed. more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection. In the 14th century, Flanders introduced a mechanical bell-ringer controlled by a rotating cylinder, similar designs appeared in barrel organs, musical clocks, barrel pianos, and musical boxes. A music box is a musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. They were developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th century, some of the more complex boxes also have a tiny drum and/or bells, in addition to the metal comb. The fairground organ, developed in 1892, used a system of accordion-folded punched cardboard books, the player piano, first demonstrated in 1876, used a punched paper scroll that could store an long piece of music. The most sophisticated of the rolls were hand-played, meaning that the roll represented the actual performance of an individual. This technology to record a live performance onto a piano roll was not developed until 1904, piano rolls were in continuous mass production from 1896 to 2008. A1908 U. S. Supreme Court copyright case noted that, in 1902 alone, the use of piano rolls began to decline in the 1920s although one type is still being made today. The first device that could record actual sounds as they passed through the air was the phonautograph, the earliest known recordings of the human voice are phonautograph recordings, called phonautograms, made in 1857. They consist of sheets of paper with sound-wave-modulated white lines created by a stylus that cut through a coating of soot as the paper was passed under it
13.
J. Russel Robinson
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Joseph Russel Robinson was an American ragtime and dixieland jazz pianist and a composer of jazz, blues, and popular tunes. Robinson, whose name appeared as J. Russel Robinson, was born in Indianapolis and he started publishing ragtime compositions in his teens, his early hits included Sapho Rag and Eccentric. With his drummer brother John he toured the Southern United States in the early 1910s including a stay in New Orleans. He also turned out hundreds of piano recordings for the US Music Company in Chicago. He was known for his blues and jazz influenced playing style. His style has been described as having a swinging, shimmying style with many right hand only blues breaks, in October 1918, he joined W. C. Handys publishing company Pace and Handy, supplying new arrangements and lyrics for popular editions of tunes like The Memphis Blues in the 1920s, Robinson joined the Original Dixieland Jazz Band when pianist Henry Ragas died in the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1919. Also in 1919, he co-wrote the song Though Were Miles and Miles Apart with W. C and he also played piano with various popular and blues singers in phonograph recording sessions, accompanying singers such as Annette Hanshaw, Lucille Hegamin, Marion Harris, and Lizzie Miles. On some of his accompaniments to African American singers the accompaniment was listed on the labels as being by Spencer Williams. Margie has been recorded by Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Benny Goodman, Jim Reeves, Al Jolson, Cab Calloway, Gene Krupa, according to Lewis Porter in John Coltrane, His Life and Music, Margie was also a specialty of John Coltrane. Other Robinson compositions include Jazzola, How Many Times, swing, Mr. Charlie, Sapho Rag, Two Time Dan, St. in 1933, I Got a New Deal in Love, Yeah Man. Pan Yan, Hopeless Blues, Mary Lou, Dynamite Rag, Cornfield Rag, Minstrel Man Rag, Meet Me at No Special Place, Alhambra Syncopated Waltzes, in 1916, he co-wrote the song Ole Miss Rag with W. C. Robinson was a member of the ODJB until it broke up in 1923 and his composition Meet Me in No Special Place was recorded in 1947 by Nat King Cole. Robinson wrote the song for the movie Portrait of Jennie. Movies were also released based on his two compositions Margie and Mary Lou, the Margie television series which ran from 1961 to 1962 used his music as the theme. He composed Rhythm King with Jo Trent, under the pseudonym Joe Hoover, Robinson died of cancer in Palmdale in 1963 after a brief illness, during which he completed two new songs for Mermaid Tavern. List of ragtime composers Biography Free scores by J. Russel Robinson in the Choral Public Domain Library
14.
WSB (AM)
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WSB — branded News 95.5 and AM750, WSB — is a commercial radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia broadcasting a news/talk format. The station transmits with 50,000 watts of power day and night. WSB is a clear-channel Class A station, according to the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement and this enables WSB to be heard across a wide coverage area during nighttime hours, sometimes extending across the East Coast and Midwestern United States. It uses the slogan Atlantas news, weather, traffic, the station is owned by, and is the AM flagship station for Cox Radio. WSB AM is the station to WSBB-FM95.5, WSB-FM, WALR-FM, WSRV FM, and WSB-TV2, all owned by Cox. Although WSB is licensed to use the technology, it is not currently broadcasting in HD Radio, the digital radio system has apparently been turned off due to listener complaints of RF interference. WSB programming has been simulcast on sister station WSBB-FM95.5 since August 2010, the stations studios and offices are located at the WSB Television and Radio Group building on West Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta, which is shared with its television and radio partners. The AM transmitter and radiating tower are located in Tucker, Georgia, the call sign WSB carried an infamous history before it was assigned to a land-based broadcaster in Atlanta. In the early days of radio licensing, ship-to-shore radio operations were included in the call sign assignment system, the first licensee of the call sign WSB was the SS Francis H. Leggett. Because superstitious seafarers objected to being issued a call sign used by a ship that suffered a bad fate. Over time, station management would say the call letters stood for Welcome South, Brother, founded by the Atlanta Journal newspaper, the station signed on the air on March 15,1922, just a few days prior to Constitution-owned WGM AM710. The station was authorized to broadcast weather bulletins at first. WSB smoothed the way for the spread of southern gospel music. Lambdin Kay, the first general manager, called Hornsby 90% of the talent on WSB. In February 1924, Lambdin Kay called Art Gillham The Whispering Pianist while performing on WSB, Gillham returned to WSB in 1937 for regular programs. In 1927, WSB became an NBC Radio Network affiliate, the trademark three-tone NBC chimes were first played in the WSB studios. In 1939, the Journal newspaper and WSB radio station were sold to James Middleton Cox, wright Bryan, a WSB news reporter as well as managing editor of the Atlanta Journal, was also a stringer for NBC during World War II. He was the first war correspondent to broadcast an eyewitness account of the D-Day invasion from London in the hours of June 6,1944
15.
Will Rogers
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William Penn Adair Will Rogers was a stage and motion picture actor, vaudeville performer, American cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator. Known as Oklahomas Favorite Son, Rogers was born to a prominent Cherokee Nation family in Indian Territory and he traveled around the world three times, made 71 movies, and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. By the mid-1930s, the American people adored Rogers and he was the leading political wit of his time, and was the highest paid Hollywood movie star. Rogers died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post, when their airplane crashed in northern Alaska. Rogerss vaudeville rope act led to success in the Ziegfeld Follies and his 1920s syndicated newspaper column and his radio appearances increased his visibility and popularity. Rogers crusaded for aviation expansion, and provided Americans with first-hand accounts of his world travels and his aphorisms, couched in humorous terms, were widely quoted, I am not a member of an organized political party. Another widely quoted Will Rogers comment was I dont make jokes, I just watch the government and report the facts. I am so proud of that, I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved, Rogers was born on the Dog Iron Ranch in Indian Territory, near present-day Oologah, Oklahoma. The house he was born in had been built in 1875 and was known as the White House on the Verdigris River and his parents, Clement Vann Rogers and Mary America Schrimsher, were both of part Cherokee ancestry, making Rogers himself 9/32 Cherokee. Rogers quipped that his ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower and his mother was quarter-Cherokee and a hereditary member of the Paint Clan. She died when Will was 11, and his father remarried less than two years after her death, Rogers was the youngest of eight children. He was named for the Cherokee leader Col. William Penn Adair, only three of his siblings, sisters Sallie Clementine, Maude Ethel, and May, survived into adulthood. His father, Clement, was a leader within Cherokee society, a Cherokee judge, he was a Confederate veteran and served as a delegate to the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention. Rogers County, Oklahoma, is named in honor of Clement Rogers and he served several terms on the Cherokee Senate. Clement Rogers achieved financial success as a rancher and used his influence to help soften the effects of white acculturation on the tribe. Roach presents a sociological-psychological assessment of the relationship between Will and his father during the formative boyhood and teenage years, Clement had high expectations for his son and desired him to be more responsible and business-minded. Will was more easygoing and oriented toward the loving affection offered by his mother, Mary, the personality clash increased after his mothers death, and young Will went from one venture to another with little success. Only after Will won acclaim in vaudeville did the rift begin to heal, will Rogers attended school at the Willow Hassel School at Neosho, Missouri, and Kemper Military School at Boonville, Missouri
16.
Carson Robison
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Carson Jay Robison was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although his impact is generally forgotten today, he played a role in promoting country music in its early years through numerous recordings. He was also known as Charles Robison and sometimes composed under the pseudonym Carlos B, carson Jay Robison was born in Oswego, Kansas. He worked as a singer and whistler at radio station WDAF, in 1924, he moved to New York City and was signed to his first recording contract with the Victor Talking Machine Company. Also that year, Robison started a collaboration with Vernon Dalhart. Through this relationship, Robison realized huge success, mainly as a songwriter but also as a musician, accompanying Dalhart on guitar, harmonica, whistling, and harmony vocals. In one of their first collaborations, Robison accompanied Dalhart on the recording of Wreck of the Old 97 b/w The Prisoners Song. During this period, Robison also became a composer of event songs. Some popular examples of his compositions include The Wreck of the Shenandoah, The Wreck of the Number Nine. In 1928, after Dalhart made a personnel change without consulting Robison, although the breakup did not prove lucrative for either artist, Robison continued to record for decades to come. From 1928 to 1931 he teamed with Frank Luther, recording songs for various labels, in 1932, he started his own band, Carl Robisons Pioneers, and continued touring and recording through the 1930s and 1940s. It was during this period that Robison made some of the earliest tours of a musician in the British Isles, appearing there in 1932,1936. According to Billboard, his 1942 recording of the standard Turkey in the Straw was that years top selling country recording, in the late 1940s and early 1950s he appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. His most famous recording was 1948s Life Gets Tee-Jus Dont It, although he played country music for most of his career, he is also remembered for writing the lyrics for Barnacle Bill the Sailor with music composed by Frank Luther. Also, in 1956, he recorded the novelty rock & roll song Rockin and Rollin With Grandmaw and his first marriage was to Rebecca. Don was raised by his Grandmother due to the death of his mother. Eventually, both father and son settled in Pleasant Valley, NY, don followed his father to this area, as he had moved close to New York City for easy access to better his career. During this time, he caught the eye of a secretary working at the record label he was under contract with
17.
The Eveready Hour
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The Eveready Hour was the first commercially sponsored variety program in the history of broadcasting. It premiered December 4,1923 on WEAF Radio in New York City and it was paid for by the National Carbon Company, which at the time owned Eveready Battery. The host for years was the banjo-playing vocalist Wendell Hall, The Red Headed Music Maker. The program started locally on radio station WEAF in New York City in 1923, the idea for the program came when the National Carbon Companys George Furness tuned in WJZ that summer and heard Edgar White Burrill reading Ida M. Tarbells He Knew Lincoln. When it debuted that December, the media critic Ben Gross called it the most important program in broadcasting, on election night, November 4,1924, the program was hooked-up to 18 stations. Wendell Hall was the host with Will Rogers, Art Gillham, Carson Robison, joseph Knecht led the Waldorf-Astoria Dance Orchestra. The Eveready Hour continued as a featured broadcast on NBC until 1930, inaugurated two years ago, The Eveready Hour was an adventure in broadcasting - an hour of connected entertainment, uninterrupted by the frequent injection of the name of the broadcaster. Guests included Lionel Atwill, Arthur Bugs Baer, Belle Baker, Eddie Cantor, Pablo Casals, Irvin S. Cobb, Richard Dix, Emma Dunn, Lew Fields, directed by Paul Stacey and Douglas Coulter, the show featured an orchestra conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret. In 1924, Charles W. Harrison brought together the Eveready Mixed Quartet, tom Griselle provided the piano accompaniment. Harrison also led a quartet for the radio show. The songwriter Yip Harburg was involved in shows as indicated by existing scripts, The Mayor of Hogans Alley Typed script of one-act musical play, music by Jay Gorney. Hows the Judge Typed script of one-act musical play, music by Jay Gorney, for Dear Old Delta Typed script of one-act musical play, music by Jay Gorney and Henry Souvaine. This remarkably clear recording contains an announcement by a WEAF staff announcer, Paul Dumont. This same recording holds the distinction of being the earliest known aircheck of a dramatic radio broadcast. In other words, it was a recording of a transmission that was not a news event. This rare recording is now archived at the Edison National History Site, thomas Edisons Attic, Blues singer Martha Copeland sings on The Eveready Hour McNamee, Graham. New York, Harper & Brothers Publishers,1926, Art Gillham, the Whispering Pianist A Week in the Life of Radio, December 6-15,1928. Radio schedules including Eveready Hour on December 12
18.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
19.
Western Electric
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Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that served as the primary supplier to AT&T from 1881 to 1996. The company was responsible for technological innovations and seminal developments in industrial management. It also served as the agent for the member companies of the Bell System. In 1856, George Shawk purchased an engineering business in Cleveland. On December 31,1869, he partners with Enos M. Barton and, later the same year. In 1872 Barton, and Gray moved the business to Clinton Street, Chicago, Illinois, in 1875, Gray sold his interests to Western Union, including the caveat that he had filed against Alexander Graham Bells patent application for the telephone. Western Electric was the first company to join in a Japanese joint venture with foreign capital, in 1899, it invested in a 54% share of the Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. Western Electrics representative in Japan was Walter Tenney Carleton, in 1901, Western Electric secretly purchased a controlling interest in a principal competitor, the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company, but was later forced by a lawsuit to sell. On July 24,1915, employees of the Hawthorne Works boarded the SS Eastland in downtown Chicago for a company picnic, the ship rolled over at the dock and over 800 people died. In 1920, Alice Heacock Seidel was the first of Western Electrics female employees to be given permission to stay on after she had married and this set a precedent in the company, which previously had not allowed married women in their employ. Miss Heacock had worked for Western Electric for sixteen years before her marriage, if the women at the top were permitted to remain after marriage then all women would expect the same privilege. How far and how fast the policy was expanded is shown by the fact that a few years later women were given maternity leaves with no loss of time on their service records. In 1925, ITT purchased the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company of Brussels, Belgium, the company manufactured rotary system switching equipment under the Western Electric brand. Early on, Western Electric also managed an electrical equipment distribution business, Bell Telephone Laboratories was half-owned by Western Electric, the other half belonging to AT&T. Western Electric used various logos during its existence, starting in 1914 it used an image of AT&Ts statue Spirit of Communication. In 1915, Western Electric Manufacturing was incorporated in New York, New York, as an owned subsidiary of AT&T, under the name Western Electric Company. AT&T and Bell System companies were rumored to employ small armies of inspectors to check household line voltage levels to determine if non-leased phones were in use by consumers. Western Electric telephones were owned not by end customers but by the local Bell System telephone companies—all of which were subsidiaries of AT&T, each phone was leased from the phone company on a monthly basis by customers who generally paid for their phone as part of the recurring lease fees
20.
Shine On, Harvest Moon
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Shine on, Harvest Moon is a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of Moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era, the song was debuted by Bayes and Norworth in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 to great acclaim. It became a pop standard, and continues to be performed and recorded even in the 21st century, during the vaudeville era, songs were often sold outright, and the purchaser would be credited as the songwriter. John Kenricks Whos Who In Musicals credits the songs actual writers as Edward Madden, however, David Ewens All the Years of American Popular Music credits Dave Stamper, who contributed songs to 21 editions of the Ziegfeld Follies and was Bayes pianist from 1903 to 1908. Vaudeville comic Eddie Cantor also credited Stamper in his 1934 book Ziegfeld - The Great Glorifier, the earliest commercially successful recordings were made in 1909 by Harry Macdonough and Elise Stevenson, Ada Jones and Billy Murray, Frank Stanley and Henry Burr, and Bob Roberts. Note, The months in the chorus have been sung in different orders, the Ada Jones and Billy Murray recording linked on this article has it as April, January, Ju-u-une or July. Flanagan and Allen, Mitch Miller and Leon Redbone used January, February, the song has had a long history with Hollywood movies. In 1932, animation great Dave Fleischer directed a short titled Shine on Harvest Moon, a 1938 Roy Rogers western was named after the song, as was a 1944 biographical film about Bayes and Norworth. The song has featured in dozens of movies, including Along Came Ruth. Laurel and Hardy performed a routine to the song in their 1939 RKO film The Flying Deuces. The song was featured in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Eddy Duchin Story. There was also a popular British 1980s comedy drama called Shine on Harvey Moon, the song was featured in the 2013 video game BioShock Infinite. It was referenced by Don Rickles in the 1971 Friars Club roast of Jerry Lewis when he said, Just hope and pray, and Gidney and Cloyd the moon creatures performed a the first line of the refrain on an episode of Rocky and his Friends in 1959-60. 1992 – Kirsten Cooke and Arthur Bostrom perform it as the characters Michelle Dubois, carmen Silvera as Madame Edith also sings the number during the closing credits of the same episode
21.
Piano
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The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word piano is a form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument. The first fortepianos in the 1700s had a sound and smaller dynamic range. An acoustic piano usually has a wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings. Pressing one or more keys on the keyboard causes a padded hammer to strike the strings. The hammer rebounds from the strings, and the continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air, when the key is released, a damper stops the strings vibration, ending the sound. Notes can be sustained, even when the keys are released by the fingers and thumbs and this means that the piano can play 88 different pitches, going from the deepest bass range to the highest treble. The black keys are for the accidentals, which are needed to play in all twelve keys, more rarely, some pianos have additional keys. Most notes have three strings, except for the bass that graduates from one to two, the strings are sounded when keys are pressed or struck, and silenced by dampers when the hands are lifted from the keyboard. There are two types of piano, the grand piano and the upright piano. The grand piano is used for Classical solos, chamber music and art song and it is used in jazz. The upright piano, which is compact, is the most popular type, as they are a better size for use in private homes for domestic music-making. During the nineteenth century, music publishers produced many works in arrangements for piano, so that music lovers could play. The piano is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, with technological advances, amplified electric pianos, electronic pianos, and digital pianos have also been developed. The electric piano became an instrument in the 1960s and 1970s genres of jazz fusion, funk music. The piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments, pipe organs have been used since Antiquity, and as such, the development of pipe organs enabled instrument builders to learn about creating keyboard mechanisms for sounding pitches
22.
Red Nichols
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Ernest Loring Red Nichols was an American jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader. Nichols was born on May 8,1905 in Ogden, Utah and his father was a college music professor, and Nichols was a child prodigy, because by twelve he was already playing difficult set pieces for his fathers brass band. Young Nichols heard the recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and later those of Bix Beiderbecke. His style became polished, clean and incisive, in the early 1920s, Nichols moved to the Midwest and joined a band called The Syncopating Seven. When that band broke up he joined the Johnny Johnson Orchestra, New York would remain his base for years thereafter. In New York he met and teamed up with trombonist Miff Mole, prior to signing with Brunswick, Nichols and Mole recorded a series of records for Pathé-Perfect under the name The Red Heads. Nichols had good technique, could read music, and easily gained session, in 1926 he and Miff Mole began a prodigious stint of recording with a variety of bands, most of them known as Red Nichols and His Five Pennies. Very few of these groups were actually quintets, the name was simply a pun on Nickel and that was only a number we tied in with my name, Nichols once explained. Wed generally have eight or nine, depending on who was around for the session, Nichols recorded over 100 sides for the Brunswick label under that band name. Some weeks, Nichols and his bands were making 10–12 records a week and his recordings of the late 1920s are regarded as the most progressive jazz of the period in both concept and execution, with wide-ranging harmonies and a balanced ensemble. However, they were small-band Dixieland groups, emphasizing collective improvisation and they were different from Louis Armstrongs Hot Fives of that period. Nichols band started out with Mole on trombone and Jimmy Dorsey on alto sax and clarinet. Other musicians who played for a time in his bands in the decade were Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jack Teagarden, Pee Wee Russell, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang. The Five Pennies version of Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider was a hit record. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. Other labels Nichols recorded for included Edison 1926, Victor 1927,1928,1930,1931, Bluebird 1934,1939, back to Brunswick for a session in 1934, Variety 1937, in the next decade, swing eclipsed the Dixieland Nichols loved to play. He tried to follow the changes, and formed a band of his own. Michael Brooks writes, What went wrong, part of it was too much, too soon
23.
Benny Goodman
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Benjamin David Benny Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as the King of Swing. In the mid-1930s, Goodman led one of the most popular groups in America. Goodmans bands launched the careers of many jazz artists. During an era of segregation, he led one of the first well-known integrated jazz groups. Goodman performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music, Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children of poor Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, David Goodman, came to America in 1892 from Warsaw in partitioned Poland and his mother, Dora, came from Kaunas, Lithuania. His parents met in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Chicago before Benny was born, hundreds of houses are unconnected with the street sewer. Money was a constant problem in the family, Bennys father earned at most $20 per week. On Sundays, his father took the children to free concerts in Douglas Park. The following year Benny joined the club band at Jane Addamss Hull House. By joining the band, he was entitled to two weeks at a summer camp about fifty miles from Chicago. It was the time he was able to get away from the bleak environment of his urban neighborhood. He also received two years of instruction from the classically trained clarinetist Franz Schoepp and his early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists working in Chicago, notably Johnny Dodds, Leon Roppolo and Jimmie Noone. Goodman learned quickly, becoming a player at an early age. Goodman made his debut in 1921 at the Central Park Theater on Chicagos West Side. He entered Harrison High School in Chicago in 1922 and he joined the musicians’ union in 1923 and by the age of 14 was in a band featuring Bix Beiderbecke. Goodman attended Lewis Institute in 1924 as a sophomore, while also playing the clarinet in a dance hall band. When Goodman was 16, he joined one of Chicagos top bands, when he was 17, his father was killed by a passing car after stepping off a streetcar
24.
Miff Mole
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Irving Milfred Mole, better known as Miff Mole was a jazz trombonist and band leader. He is generally considered one of the greatest jazz trombonists and credited with creating the first distinctive, Miff Mole was born in Roosevelt, New York. He studied violin and piano as a child and switched to trombone when he was 15 and his other activities, like those of many jazz musicians at the time, included working for silent film and radio orchestras. In 1926–9 Mole and trumpeter Red Nichols led a band called Miff Mole, Miff Mole and his band the Molers backed Sophie Tucker who was known as The Last Of The Red Hot Mammas and who was one of the most popular singers of the Teens and 1920s. Mole and his band supported her on her 1927 Okeh recordings of After Youve Gone, Fifty Million Frenchmen Cant Be Wrong, I Aint Got Nobody, and One Sweet Letter From You. Miff Mole and his band, which included Eddie Lang, Jimmy Dorsey, Red Nichols and it can not be overstated how influential Moles OKeh records were. 26 of the 28 were instrumental and Mole selected classic Dixieland tunes, clean copies have always been highly prized by collectors. These bands recorded for a variety of different labels such as Perfect, Domino, Pathé, Edison, OKeh and Victor, though the Five Pennies name was only used for their recordings on Brunswick. When Jack Teagarden arrived in New York in 1928, he quickly replaced Mole as the new model for trombonists, with a more legato. Mole, having started working for radio in 1927, changed his focus to working with NBC, in 1938–40 he was a member of Paul Whitemans orchestra, but his style by then had changed under the influence of Teagarden. In 1942–3 Mole played in Benny Goodmans orchestra, and between 1942–7 he led various dixieland bands and he worked in Chicago in 1947–54. Due to bad health, Mole played very sporadically during his last years, Miff Mole died in New York City April 29,1961. A benefit held to raise money for his expenses was scheduled too late. Mole was interred in the Mole family plot in Greenfield Cemetery, Hempstead, Long Island, interred with him are his mother, father and two brothers, Ralph and George. Mole’s solo style with its technique, including octave-leaps, shakes. Among those who emulated Mole’s playing were white trombonists Bill Rank, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey and it may even be said that bop trombonist J. J. Johnson was, consciously or unconsciously, playing to some extent in Mole’s footsteps even though he exhibited a more dazzling slide. In 2005, Miff Moles 1928 recording of Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble with the Little Molers, in 2008, his composition Therell Come a Time, written with Wingy Manone, was on the soundtrack to the Academy Award-nominated movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
25.
Jimmy Dorsey
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James Jimmy Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards Im Glad There Is You and Its The Dreamer In Me. His other major recordings were Tailspin, John Silver, So Many Times, Amapola, Brazil, Pennies from Heaven with Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and Frances Langford, Grand Central Getaway, and So Rare. Jimmy Dorsey was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of a miner turned music teacher. He played trumpet in his youth, appearing on stage with J. Carson McGees King Trumpeters in 1913 and he switched to alto saxophone in 1915, and then learned to double on clarinet. Jimmy Dorsey played on a clarinet outfitted with the Albert system of fingering, as opposed to the more common Boehm system used by most of his contemporaries including Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. With his brother Tommy playing trombone, he formed Dorsey’s Novelty Six, in 1924 he joined the California Ramblers. He did much freelance radio and recording throughout the 1920s. In 1924 he married Jane Porter, the brothers also appeared as session musicians on many jazz recordings. He joined Ted Lewiss band in 1930, with whom he toured Europe, after returning to the United States, he worked briefly with Rudy Vallee and several other bandleaders, in addition to the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra with Tommy. Tommy left the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra to form his own band in 1935 after a dispute with Jimmy. In 1939 Jimmy hired Helen OConnell as his female singer and she and Eberly possessed a boy and girl next door charm and their pairing produced several of the bands biggest hits. Many of the Eberly-OConnell recordings were arranged in an unusual 3-section a-b-c format, the three-part format was reportedly developed at the insistence of a record producer who wanted to feature both singers and the full band in a single 3-minute 78 rpm recording. Jimmy continued leading his own band until the early 1950s, in 1949 he and Jane Porter were divorced. In 1953 he joined Tommys Orchestra, renamed Tommy Dorsey and his Orch, on December 26,1953, the brothers and their orchestra appeared on Jackie Gleasons CBS television program. The success of that television appearance led Gleason to produce a variety program, Stage Show. Elvis Presley appeared on several of the telecasts and these were Presleys first appearances on national TV. Jimmy took over leadership of the orchestra after Tommys death, Jimmy survived his brother by only a few months and died of throat cancer, aged 53, in New York City
26.
Jack Little (songwriter)
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Jack Little, sometimes credited Little Jack Little, was a British-born American composer, singer, pianist, actor, and songwriter whose songs were featured in several movies. He is not to be confused with the comedian also known as Little Jack Little. Little was born in the Silvertown section of London, but moved to the United States when he was 9 years old, growing up in Waterloo and he was educated in pre-med classes at the University of Iowa, where he played in and organized the university band. Early in his career, Little worked at stations, including WSAI and WLW. He had a 15-minute daily program on NBC radio in the early 1930s, Little toured the country with an orchestra, appearing in hotels, night clubs, and on radio. In one such touring appearance on radio, at WOC in Davenport, Iowa, when he remained on the air three hours and sixteen minutes. Sang fifty-one songs in answer to thousands of requests and he collaborated musically with Tommie Malie, Dick Finch, John Siras, and Joe Young. From 1933-37, he recorded prolifically, starting on Bluebird, Columbia and he often worked with musical director Mitchell Ayres. His compositions include Jealous, I Promise You, A Shanty in Old Shanty Town, Little has a star at 6618 Hollywood Boulevard in the Radio section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was dedicated February 8,1960 and he was married to Thea Hellman, who died in 1940, they had two children. Little died April 9,1956, at his home in Hollywood, Jack Little at the Internet Movie Database Little Jack Little on YouTube
27.
Cliff Edwards
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He had a number-one hit with Singin In The Rain in 1929. He also did voices for animated cartoons later in his career, Edwards was born in Hannibal, Missouri. He left school at age 14 and soon moved to St. Louis, Missouri and Saint Charles, Missouri, as many places had pianos in bad shape or none at all, Edwards taught himself to play ukulele to serve as his own accompanist. He was nicknamed Ukulele Ike by an owner who could never remember his name. He got his first break in 1918 at the Arsonia Cafe in Chicago, Illinois, Edwards and Carleton made it a hit on the vaudeville circuit. Vaudeville headliner Joe Frisco hired Edwards as part of his act, which was featured at the Palace in New York City, the most prestigious vaudeville theater, Edwards made his first phonograph records in 1919. He recorded early examples of jazz scat singing in 1922, the following year he signed a contract with Pathé Records. He became one of the most popular singers of that decade and he recorded many of the pop and novelty hits of the day, including California, Here I Come, Hard Hearted Hannah, Yes Sir, Thats My Baby, and Ill See You In My Dreams. In 1924, Edwards performed as the headliner at the Palace, also in that year, he was featured in George Gershwin and Ira Gershwins first Broadway musical Lady Be Good, alongside Fred and Adele Astaire. As a recording artist, his hits included Paddlin’ Madeleine Home, I Cant Give You Anything but Love, and the classic Singin In The Rain, which he introduced. Edwardss own compositions included Losing You, Youre So Cute, Little Somebody Of Mine and he also recorded a few off-color novelty songs for under-the-counter sales, including Im A Bear In A Ladys Boudoir and Give It To Mary With Love. Edwards, more than any other performer, was responsible for the popularity of the ukulele. Millions of ukuleles were sold during the decade, and Tin Pan Alley publishers added ukulele chords to standard sheet music, Edwards always played American Martin ukuleles favoring the small soprano model in his early career. In his later years, he moved to the sweeter, large tenor ukulele more suitable for crooning, Edwards continued to record until shortly before his 1971 death. His last record album, Ukulele Ike, was released posthumously on the independent Glendale label and he reprised many of his 1920s hits, but his failing health was evident in the recordings. In 1929, Cliff Edwards was playing at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, California and his film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired Edwards to appear in early sound movies. He appeared in a total of 33 films for MGM through 1933 and he had a small role as Mike, playing a ukulele very briefly at the beginning of the 1931 movie Laughing Sinners, starring Joan Crawford. Edwards was very friendly with MGMs comedy star Buster Keaton, who featured Edwards in three of his films, Keaton, himself a former vaudevillian, enjoyed singing and would harmonize with Edwards between takes
28.
Whispering Jack Smith
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Jack Smith was known as Whispering Jack Smith and was a popular baritone singer in the 1920s and 1930s who made a brief come-back in the late 1940s. He was a radio and recording artist who occasionally appeared in films. Smith was born Jacob Schmidt, the youngest son of Charles Henry Schmidt, on his WW1 Draft Registration Card he gave his name as Jacob J Schmidt, his date of birth as 30 May 1896 and his age as 21 years. He was a Theatrical singer employed by McLaughlin Agency, Pgh, Pa and his mother was his only dependent. The Registrar recorded him as Tall of Medium with Blue and Brown and he signed the Card Jack Schmidt. Smith began his career in 1915, when he sang with a quartet at a theater in the Bronx. After service in World War I, he got a job in 1918 as a song plugger for the Irving Berlin Music Publishing Company and he was a pianist at a radio station when he got his singing break substituting for a singer who failed to show up. Smith was exclusively on the radio, but beginning in 1925 and he also started performing on-stage on the vaudeville circuit. Smith returned to New York and eventually went to work for NBC Radio and he died after suffering a heart attack at the age of 51 and is buried next to his mother Anna Schmidt at St. Raymonds Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City. He was survived by his wife, Marie, a book entitled Whispering Jack & Peggy O was released by Tate Publishing in February 2014. The book has been classified as a Biography/Autobiography, the timeline of the narrative is from just before the end of World War I until Smiths death. The book consists of 488 pages and includes pictures from Smiths home movies, smith’s disarmingly intimate, polite, and velvety smooth delivery … distinguished him from everyone else. One reviewer in describing his whispering style said that His art was the epitome of understatement and his performances can be found on a number of compilations of recordings from the 1920s and 1930s. In 1995 Pavilion Records released a retrospective CD entitled Whispering Jack Smith, in 2000, ASV released the album Me and My Shadow a compilation of his later songs, taking its title from his 1927 hit song Me and My Shadow. Internet Archive Search, Whispering Jack Smith - archive. org, Whispering Jack Smith at the Internet Movie Database Listen to Me and My Shadow from Internet Archives Watch Whispering Jack Smith sing Happy Days – From 1929 on YouTube
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Gennett Records
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Gennett was an American record company and label in Richmond, Indiana, which flourished in the 1920s. Gennett produced some of the earliest recordings of Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke and its roster also included Jelly Roll Morton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Gene Autry. Gennett Records was founded in Richmond, Indiana, by the Starr Piano Company and it released its first records in October 1917. The company took its name from its top managers, Harry, Fred, earlier, the company had produced recordings under the Starr Records label. Gennett set up recording studios in New York City and later, in 1921, the sides recorded in New York are generally of about typical audio fidelity for a minor label of the time, and some masters were leased from other New York area firms. Many early religious recordings were made by Homer Rodeheaver, early shape note singers and others, Gennett issued a few early electrically recorded masters recorded in the Autograph studios of Chicago in 1925. These recordings were crude, and like many other Autograph issues are easily mistaken for acoustic masters by the casual listener. Gennett began serious electrical recording in March 1926, using a process licensed from General Electric, at this time the company also introduced an improved record biscuit which was adequate to the demands imposed by the electric recording process. The improved records were identified by a newly designed black label touting the New Electrobeam process, from 1925 to 1934, Gennett released recordings by hundreds of old-time music artists, precursors to country music, including such artists as Doc Roberts and Gene Autry. By the late 1920s, Gennett was pressing records for more than 25 labels worldwide, in 1926, Fred Gennett created Champion Records as a budget label for tunes previously released on Gennett. The Gennett Company was hit severely by the Great Depression in 1930 and it cut back on record recording and production until it was halted altogether in 1934. At this time the only product Gennett Records produced under its own name was a series of recorded sound effects for use by radio stations, in 1935 the Starr Piano Company sold some Gennett masters, and the Gennett and Champion trademarks to Decca Records. Kapp also attempted to revive the Gennett and Champion labels between 1935 and 1937 as specialists in bargain pressings of race and old-time music with but little success. The Starr record plant soldiered on under the supervision of Harry Gennett through the remainder of the decade by offering contract pressing services. For a time the Starr Piano Company was the manufacturer of Decca records. In the years remaining before World War II, Gennett did contract pressing for a number of New York-based jazz and folk music labels, including Joe Davis, Keynote and Asch. With the coming of the Second World War, the War Production Board in March 1942 declared shellac a rationed commodity, newly organized record labels were forced to purchase their shellac allocations from existing companies. Joe Davis purchased the Gennett shellac allocation, some of which he used for his own labels, brunswick Records acquired the old Gennett pressing plant for Decca
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Find a Grave
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Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry. com, the worlds largest for-profit genealogy company, the site was created in 1995 by Salt Lake City resident Jim Tipton to support his hobby of visiting the burial sites of celebrities. He later added an online forum, Find a Grave was launched as a commercial entity in 1998, first as a trade name and then incorporated in 2000. The site later expanded to include graves of non-celebrities, in order to allow visitors to pay respect to their deceased relatives or friends. In 2013, Tipton sold Find a Grave to Ancestry. com, burial information is a wonderful source for people researching their family history. In a September 30,2013, press release, Ancestry, as of March 2017, Find a Grave contained over 159 million burial records and 75 million photos. The website contains listings of cemeteries and graves from around the world, american cemeteries are organized by state and county, and many cemetery records contain Google Maps and photographs of the cemeteries and gravesites. Individual grave records may contain dates and places of birth and death, biographical information, cemetery and plot information, photographs, Interment listings are added by individuals, genealogical societies, and other institutions such as the International Wargraves Photography Project. Contributors must register as members to submit listings, called memorials, the submitter becomes the manager of the listing but may transfer management. Only the current manager of a listing may edit it, although any member may use the features to send correction requests to the listings manager. Managers may add links to other listings of deceased spouses, parents, members may post requests for photos of a specific grave, these requests will be automatically sent to other members who have registered their location as being near that grave. Find a Grave also maintains lists of memorials of famous persons by their claim to fame, such as Medal of Honor recipients, religious figures, Find a Grave exercises editorial control over these listings. Canadian Headstones Interment. net National Cemetery Administrations Nationwide Gravesite Locator Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness Tombstone tourist Colker, web site answers grave concerns about stars. Web site attracts millions of grave-seekers, Find VIPs who R. I. P. through online cemetery. Genealogy, Find a Grave tremendous on many different levels, terre Haute, Indiana, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. Archived from the original on May 14,2011, tip, Find a Grave has info youre dying to know. Tracking Down Relatives, Visiting Graves Virtually, media related to Images from Find A Grave at Wikimedia Commons Official website
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IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
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Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
