Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame comprises more than 2,600 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California. The stars are permanent public monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of musicians, directors, producers and theatrical groups, fictional characters, others; the Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. It is a popular tourist destination, with a reported 10 million visitors in 2003; the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce holds trademark rights to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Walk of Fame runs 1.3 miles east to west on Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue, plus a short segment of Marshfield Way that runs diagonally between Hollywood and La Brea. According to a 2003 report by the market research firm NPO Plog Research, the Walk attracts about 10 million visitors annually—more than Sunset Strip, TCL Chinese Theatre, the Queen Mary, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—and has played an important role in making tourism the largest industry in Los Angeles County.
As of 2018, the Walk of Fame comprises over 2,600 stars, spaced at 6-foot intervals. The monuments are coral-pink terrazzo five-point stars rimmed with brass inlaid into a charcoal-colored terrazzo background. In the upper portion of each star field the name of the honoree is inlaid in brass block letters. Below the inscription, in the lower half of the star field, a round inlaid brass emblem indicates the category of the honoree's contributions; the emblems symbolize five categories within the entertainment industry: Of all the stars on the Walk to date, 47% have been awarded in the motion pictures category, 24% in television, 17% in audio recording, 10% in radio, fewer than 2% in the live performance category. 20 new stars are added to the Walk each year. Special category stars recognize various contributions by corporate entities, service organizations, special honorees, display emblems unique to those honorees. For example, former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley's star displays the Seal of the City of Los Angeles.
The "Friends of the Walk of Fame" monuments are charcoal terrazzo squares rimmed by miniature pink terrazzo stars displaying the five standard category emblems, along with the sponsor's corporate logo, with the sponsor's name and contribution in inlaid brass block lettering. Special stars and Friends monuments are granted by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce or the Hollywood Historic Trust, but are not part of the Walk of Fame proper and are located nearby on private property; the monuments for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon are uniquely shaped: Four identical circular moons, each bearing the names of the three astronauts the date of the first Moon landing, the words "Apollo XI", are set on each of the four corners of the intersection of Hollywood and Vine. The moons are silver and grey terrazzo circles rimmed in brass on a square pink terrazzo background, with the television emblem inlaid at the top of each circle; the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce credits E. M. Stuart, its volunteer president in 1953, with the original idea for creating a Walk of Fame.
Stuart proposed the Walk as a means to "maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world." Harry Sugarman, another Chamber member and president of the Hollywood Improvement Association, receives credit in an independent account. A committee was formed to flesh out the idea, an architectural firm was retained to develop specific proposals. By 1955 the basic concept and general design had been agreed upon, plans were submitted to the Los Angeles City Council. Multiple accounts exist for the origin of the star concept. According to one, the historic Hollywood Hotel—which stood for more than 50 years on Hollywood Boulevard at the site now occupied by the Hollywood and Highland complex and the Dolby Theatre—displayed stars on its dining room ceiling above the tables favored by its most famous celebrity patrons, that may have served as an early inspiration. By another account, the stars were "inspired... by Sugarman's drinks menu, which featured celebrity photos framed in gold stars."In February 1956, a prototype was unveiled featuring a caricature of an example honoree inside a blue star on a brown background.
However, caricatures proved too expensive and difficult to execute in brass with the technology available at the time. By March 1956, the final design and coral-and-charcoal color scheme had been approved, between the spring of 1956 and the fall of 1957, 1,558 honorees were selected by committees representing the four major branches of the entertainment industry at that time: motion pictures, audio recording, radio; the committees met at the Brown Derby restaurant, included such prominent names as Cecil B. DeMille, Samuel Goldwyn, Jesse L. Lasky, Walt Disney, Hal Roach, Mack Sennett, Walter Lantz. A requirem
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, United States. A major West Coast port city, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the San Francisco Bay Area, the eighth most populated city in California, the 45th largest city in the United States. With a population of 425,195 as of 2017, it serves as a trade center for the San Francisco Bay Area. An act to incorporate the city was passed on May 4, 1852, incorporation was approved on March 25, 1854, which made Oakland a city. Oakland is a charter city. Oakland's territory covers what was once a mosaic of California coastal terrace prairie, oak woodland, north coastal scrub, its land served as a rich resource when its hillside oak and redwood timber were logged to build San Francisco. Oakland's fertile flatland soils helped. In the late 1860s, Oakland was selected as the western terminal of the Transcontinental Railroad. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, many San Francisco citizens moved to Oakland, enlarging the city's population, increasing its housing stock and improving its infrastructure.
It continued to grow in the 20th century with its busy port, a thriving automobile manufacturing industry. The earliest known inhabitants were the Huchiun Indians; the Huchiun belonged to a linguistic grouping called the Ohlone. In Oakland, they were concentrated around Lake Merritt and Temescal Creek, a stream that enters the San Francisco Bay at Emeryville. In 1772, the area that became Oakland was colonized, with the rest of California, by Spanish settlers for the King of Spain. In the early 19th century, the Spanish crown granted the East Bay area to Luis María Peralta for his Rancho San Antonio; the grant was confirmed by the successor Mexican republic upon its independence from Spain. Upon his death in 1842, Peralta divided his land among his four sons. Most of Oakland fell within the shares given to Antonio Vicente; the portion of the parcel, now Oakland was called Encinal—Spanish for "oak grove"—due to the large oak forest that covered the area, which led to the city's name. During the 1850s—just as gold was discovered in California—Oakland started growing and developing because land was becoming too expensive in San Francisco.
The Chinese were struggling financially, as a result of the First Opium War, the Second Opium War, the Taiping Rebellion, so they began migrating to Oakland in an effort to provide for their families in China. However, the Chinese struggled to settle because they were discriminated against by the white community and their living quarters were burned down on several occasions; the majority of the Chinese migrants lived in unhealthy conditions in China and they had diseases, so plague spread into San Francisco though the Chinese were inspected for diseases upon their arrival to San Francisco. In 1851, three men—Horace Carpentier, Edson Adams, Andrew Moon—began developing what is now downtown Oakland. In 1852, the Town of Oakland became incorporated by the state legislature. During this time, Oakland had 75-100 inhabitants, two hotels, a wharf, two warehouses, only cattle trails. Two years on March 25, 1854, Oakland re-incorporated as the City of Oakland, with Horace Carpentier elected the first mayor, though a scandal ended his mayorship in less than a year.
The city and its environs grew with the railroads, becoming a major rail terminal in the late 1860s and 1870s. In 1868, the Central Pacific constructed the Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland Point, the site of today's Port of Oakland. A number of horsecar and cable car lines were constructed in Oakland during the latter half of the 19th century; the first electric streetcar set out from Oakland to Berkeley in 1891, other lines were converted and added over the course of the 1890s. The various streetcar companies operating in Oakland were acquired by Francis "Borax" Smith and consolidated into what became known as the Key System, the predecessor of today's publicly owned AC Transit. Oakland was one of the worst affected cities in California, impacted by the plague epidemic. Quarantine measures were set in place at the Oakland ports requiring the authorities at the port to inspect the arriving vessels for the presence of infected rats. Quarantine authorities at these ports inspected over a thousand vessels per year for plague and yellow fever.
By 1908, over 5,000 people were detained in quarantine. Hunters were sent to poison the affected areas in Oakland and shoot the squirrels, but the eradication work was limited in its range because the State Board of Health and the United States Public Health Service were only allotted about $60,000 a year to eradicate the disease. During this period Oakland did not have sufficient health facilities, so some of the infected patients were treated at home; the State Board of Health along with Oakland advised physicians to promptly report any cases of infected patients. Yet, in 1919 it still resulted in a small epidemic of Pneumonic plague which killed a dozen people in Oakland; this started when a man killed a squirrel. After eating the squirrel, he fell ill four days and another household member contracted the plague; this in turn was passed on either indirectly to about a dozen others. The officials in Oakland acted by issuing death certificates to monitor the spread of plague. At the time of incorporation in 1852, Oaklan
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s from musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, along with country music. While elements of what was to become rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until 1954. According to Greg Kot, "rock and roll" refers to a style of popular music originating in the U. S. in the 1950s prior to its development by the mid-1960s into "the more encompassing international style known as rock music, though the latter continued to be known as rock and roll." For the purpose of differentiation, this article deals with the first definition. In the earliest rock and roll styles, either the piano or saxophone was the lead instrument, but these instruments were replaced or supplemented by guitar in the middle to late 1950s; the beat is a dance rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, always provided by a snare drum.
Classic rock and roll is played with one or two electric guitars, a double bass or string bass or an electric bass guitar, a drum kit. Beyond a musical style and roll, as seen in movies, in fan magazines, on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion and language. In addition and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and white American teenagers enjoyed the music, it went on to spawn various genres without the characteristic backbeat, that are now more called "rock music" or "rock". The term "rock and roll" now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage; the American Heritage Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Encyclopædia Britannica, on the other hand, regards it as the music that originated in the mid-1950s and developed "into the more encompassing international style known as rock music"; the phrase "rocking and rolling" described the movement of a ship on the ocean, but was used by the early twentieth century, both to describe the spiritual fervor of black church rituals and as a sexual analogy.
Various gospel and swing recordings used the phrase before it became used more – but still intermittently – in the 1940s, on recordings and in reviews of what became known as "rhythm and blues" music aimed at a black audience. In 1934, the song "Rock and Roll" by the Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round. In 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term "rock-and-roll" to describe upbeat recordings such as "Rock Me" by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. By 1943, the "Rock and Roll Inn" in South Merchantville, New Jersey, was established as a music venue. In 1951, Ohio, disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it; the origins of rock and roll have been fiercely debated by historians of music. There is general agreement that it arose in the Southern United States – a region that would produce most of the major early rock and roll acts – through the meeting of various influences that embodied a merging of the African musical tradition with European instrumentation.
The migration of many former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such as St. Louis, New York City, Chicago and Buffalo meant that black and white residents were living in close proximity in larger numbers than before, as a result heard each other's music and began to emulate each other's fashions. Radio stations that made white and black forms of music available to both groups, the development and spread of the gramophone record, African-American musical styles such as jazz and swing which were taken up by white musicians, aided this process of "cultural collision"; the immediate roots of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues called "race music", country music of the 1940s and 1950s. Significant influences were jazz, gospel and folk. Commentators differ in their views of which of these forms were most important and the degree to which the new music was a re-branding of African-American rhythm and blues for a white market, or a new hybrid of black and white forms. In the 1930s, swing, both in urban-based dance bands and blues-influenced country swing, were among the first music to present African-American sounds for a predominantly white audience.
One noteworthy example of a jazz song with recognizably rock and roll elements is Big Joe Turner with pianist Pete Johnson's 1939 single Roll'Em Pete, regarded as an important precursor of rock and roll. The 1940s saw the increased use of blaring horns, shouted lyrics and boogie woogie beats in jazz-based music. During and after World War II, with shortages of fuel and limitations on audiences and available personnel, large jazz bands were less economical and tended to be replaced by smaller combos, using guitars and drums. In the same period on the West Coast and in the Midwest, the development of jump blues, with its guitar riffs, prominent beats and shouted lyrics, prefigured many developments. In the documentary film Hail! Hail! Rock'n' Roll, Keith Richards proposes that Chuck Berry developed his brand of rock and roll by transposing the familiar two-note lead line of jump blues piano directly to the electric guitar, creatin
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award, or Grammy, is an award presented by The Recording Academy to recognize achievements in the music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, the presentation of those awards that have a more popular interest; the Grammys are the second of the Big Three major music awards held annually. It shares recognition of the music industry as that of the other performance awards such as the Academy Awards, the Emmy Awards, the Tony Awards, the Game Awards; the first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, to honor and respect the musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. Following the 2011 ceremony, the Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012; the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, honoring the best achievements from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018, were held on February 10, 2019, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Grammys had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s; as the recording executives chosen for the Walk of Fame committee worked at compiling a list of important recording industry people who might qualify for a Walk of Fame star, they realized there were many more people who were leaders in their business who would never earn a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
The music executives decided to rectify this by creating an award given by their industry similar to the Oscars and the Emmys. This was the beginning of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. After it was decided to create such an award, there was still a question of, they settled on using the name of the invention of Emile Berliner, the gramophone, for the awards, which were first given for the year 1958. The first award ceremony was held in two locations on May 4, 1959 - Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills California, Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City, 28 Grammys were awarded; the number of awards given grew and fluctuated over the years with categories added and removed, at one time reaching over 100. The second Grammy Awards held in 1959, was the first ceremony to be televised, but the ceremony was not aired live until the 13th Annual Grammy Awards in 1971; the gold-plated trophies, each depicting a gilded gramophone, are made and assembled by hand by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado.
In 1990 the original Grammy design was revamped, changing the traditional soft lead for a stronger alloy less prone to damage, making the trophy bigger and grander. Billings developed a zinc alloy named grammium, trademarked; the trophies with the recipient's name engraved on them are not available until after the award announcements, so "stunt" trophies are re-used each year for the broadcast. By February 2009, a total of 7,578 Grammy trophies had been awarded; the "General Field" are four awards. Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the production team of a single song if other than the performer. Album of the Year is awarded to the performer and the production team of a full album if other than the performer. Song of the Year is awarded to the writer/composer of a single song. Best New Artist is awarded to a promising breakthrough performer who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording that establishes the public identity of that artist; the only two artists to win all four of these awards are Christopher Cross, who won all four in 1980, Adele, who won the Best New Artist award in 2009 and the other three in 2012 and 2017.
Other awards are given for performance and production in specific genres, as well as for other contributions such as artwork and video. Special awards are given for longer-lasting contributions to the music industry; because of the large number of award categories, the desire to feature several performances by various artists, only the ones with the most popular interest - about 10 to 12, including the four General Field categories and one or two categories in the most popular music genres - are presented directly at the televised award ceremony. The many other Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast'Premiere Ceremony' earlier in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast. On April 6, 2011, The Recording Academy announced a drastic overhaul of many Grammy Award categories for 2012; the number of categories was cut from 109 to 78. The most important change was the elimination of the distinction between male and female soloists and between collaborations and duo/groups in various genre fields.
Several categories for instrumental soloists were discontinued. Recordings in these categories now fall under the general categories for best solo performances. In the rock field, the separate categories for hard rock and metal albums were combined and the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category was eliminated due to a waning number of entries. In R&B, the distinction between best contemporary R&B album and other R&B albums has been eliminated, they now feature in general Best R&B Album category. In rap, the categories for best rap soloist and best rap duo or group have been merged into the new Best Rap Performance category; the most eliminations occurred in the roots category. Up to and including 2011, there were separate categories for various regional American music forms, such as Hawaiian music, Native American music and Zydeco/Cajun music. Due to the low number
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung featuring a single performer, who may be performing alone or supported by an accompanying instrument such as a piano or organ, a continuo group, or the rest of a choir, band, or other ensemble. Performing a solo is "to solo", the performer is known as a soloist; the plural is the anglicised form solos. In some context these are interchangeable, but soli tends to be restricted to classical music, either the solo performers or the solo passages in a single piece. Furthermore, the word soli can be used to refer to a small number of simultaneous parts assigned to single players in an orchestral composition. In the Baroque concerto grosso, the term for such a group of soloists was concertino. An instrumental solo is used in popular music during a break or bridge to add interest and variety to a part of the song without lyrics. In the Baroque and Classical periods, the word solo was equivalent to sonata, could refer either to a piece for one melody instrument with accompaniment, or to a sonata for an unaccompanied melody instrument, such as Johann Sebastian Bach’s sonatas for violin alone.
Category:Solo music Cadenza Concerto Drum solo Guitar solo Piano solo Tutti Virtuoso
June Pointer
June Antoinette Pointer was an American Pop/R&B singer, best known as the youngest and one of the founding members of Grammy Award–winning vocal group The Pointer Sisters. Born the youngest of six children to minister parents Reverend Elton and Sarah Pointer, Pointer shared a love of singing with her sisters. In 1969, she and sister Bonnie founded The Pointers - A Pair; the duo sang at numerous clubs became a trio that year when sister Anita quit her job as a secretary to join them. The group changed its name to The Pointer Sisters; the trio signed a record deal with Atlantic Records and released a few singles, none of which made a substantial impact on the music charts. In 1972, sister Ruth joined the group; the sisters signed with Blue Thumb Records, their career began to take off. Releasing their self-titled debut album in 1973, the Pointer Sisters found immediate fame with hits such as "Yes We Can Can" and "Wang Dang Doodle." Subsequent albums boasted top-charting songs such as "Fairytale," "How Long" and "You Gotta Believe."
Pointer left the group in 1976 due to personal problems. Upon Pointer's return, the remaining sisters found huge success, reaching the Top 10 in early 1979 with a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Fire". In 1983, the group released what would be their biggest album to Break Out, it included the Top 10 hits "Automatic". Subsequent albums spawned hits such as "Dare Me," "Freedom" and "Goldmine." Pointer ventured into a solo career while staying with the Pointer Sisters. Pointer performed the song "Little Boy Sweet" for the 1983 film National Lampoon's Vacation. In 1987, she scored a top 5 pop single with Bruce Willis with a cover of the Staples Singers' "Respect Yourself." She gained notoriety for posing for Playboy magazine in 1985. In September 1994, the Pointer Sisters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Pointer was married to William Oliver Whitmore II for thirteen years, she had no children. She was addicted to cocaine for much of her career, she was ousted from the Pointer Sisters in 2004.
Ruth's daughter filled in for Pointer during stage performances as the Pointers Sisters waited for her to become drug-free. On April 22, 2004, Pointer was charged with felony cocaine possession and misdemeanor possession of a smoking device, she was ordered to a rehabilitation facility. On February 27, 2006, Pointer suffered a stroke. While hospitalized, she was diagnosed with cancer, which had metastasized in her breast, colon and bones, she died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California on April 11, 2006, at the age of 52. A family statement said Pointer died "in the arms of her sisters Ruth and Anita and her brothers Aaron and Fritz by her side. Although her sister Bonnie was unable to be present, she was with her in spirit." Baby Sister "Ready for Some Action" #28 R&B "I Will Understand" "To You, My Love" "New Love, True Love" "I'm Ready for Love" "You Can Do It" "Always" "My Blues Have Gone" "Don't Mess With Bill" Pointer recorded a duet with Dionne Warwick, "Heartbreak Of Love," for Dionne's 1987 album, Reservations for Two.
Their duet appeared on the B-side of Warwick's 1989 single "Take Good Care Of You and Me". June Pointer "Tight on Time" #70 R&B "Parlez Moi D'Amour" "Why Can't We Be Together" duet with Phil Perry "How Long" "Put Your Dreams Where Your Heart Is" "Keeper of the Flame" "Love Calling" "Fool for Love" "Live With Me" "Love on the Line" June Pointer on IMDb June Pointer profile Pointer Sisters discography June Pointer at Find a Grave
The Pointer Sisters (album)
The Pointer Sisters is the self-titled debut by the Pointer Sisters, released in 1973 on the Blue Thumb label. The album yielded the hits "Yes We Can Can" and "Wang Dang Doodle" and became a success based on word of mouth after heralded performances at The Troubadour in Los Angeles and the Helen Reddy Show; the album peaked at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and reached number three on the R&B albums chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in February 1974. The album was issued on CD in 2001 by MCA Records. Anita Pointer, Ruth Pointer, Bonnie Pointer, June Pointer – vocals Gaylord Birch – drums Tom Salisbury – piano Ron McClure – acoustic bass, electric bass Willie Fulton – electric guitar Ed Marshall – drums on "Cloudburst" and "Jada" Rod Ellicott – bass on "River Boulevard" Norman Landsberg – piano on "Old Songs" The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils – backing band on "Wang Dang Doodle" David Rubinson & Friends, Inc. – producer, mix-down engineer Norman Landsberg – associate producer Fred Catero, Jeremy Zatkin – recording engineers, mix-down engineers George Horne – mastering engineer H. B. Greene – portraiture, design The Pointer Sisters at Discogs
