1.
George Abbott
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George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned nine decades. Abbott was born in Forestville, New York to George Burwell Abbott and he later moved to the town of Salamanca, which twice elected his father mayor. In 1898, his family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he attended Kearney Military Academy, within a few years, his family returned to New York, and he graduated from Hamburg High School in 1907. Four years later, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Rochester, Abbott then went to Harvard University, to take a course in playwriting from George Pierce Baker. Under Bakers tutelage, he wrote The Head of the Family and he then worked for a year as assistant stage manager at the Bijou Theatre in Boston, where his play The Man in the Manhole won a contest. Abbott started acting on Broadway in 1913, debuting in The Misleading Lady, while acting in several plays in New York City, he began to write, his first successful play was The Fall Guy. Abbott acquired a reputation as a show doctor. He frequently was called upon to supervise changes when a show was having difficulties in tryouts or previews prior to its Broadway opening and his first great hit was Broadway, written and directed in partnership with Philip Dunning, whose play Abbott rejiggered. It opened on September 16,1926, at the Broadhurst Theatre, other successes followed, and it was a rare year that did not have an Abbott production on Broadway. He also worked in Hollywood as a writer and director while continuing with his theater work, in 1963, he published his autobiography, Mister Abbott. Abbott was married to Edna Lewis from 1914 to her death in 1930, actress Mary Sinclair was his second wife. Their marriage lasted from 1946 until their 1951 divorce and he had a long romance with actress Maureen Stapleton from 1968 to 1978. She was 43 and he was 81 when they began their affair and his third wife was Joy Valderrama. They were married from 1983 until his death in 1995, Abbott was a vigorous man who remained active past his 100th birthday by golfing and dancing. He died of a stroke on January 31,1995, in Miami Beach, Florida, at the age of 106, he walked down the aisle on opening night of the Damn Yankees revival and received a standing ovation. He was heard saying to his companion, There must be somebody important here.1 In 1965, the building was demolished in 1970. New York Citys George Abbott Way, the section of West 45th Street northwest of Times Square, is named after him. He received New York Citys Handel Medallion in 1976, honorary doctorates from the Universities of Rochester and Miami, and he was also inducted into the Western New York Entertainment Hall of Fame and the American Theatre Hall of Fame
2.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
3.
West End theatre
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West End theatre is a common term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of Theatreland in and near the West End of London. Along with New York Citys Broadway theatre, West End theatre is considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London, in 2013, ticket sales reached a record 14.4 million, making West End the largest English speaking audience in the world. Famous screen actors frequently appear on the London stage, helen Mirren received an award for her performance as the Queen on the West End stage, and then stated, theatre is such an important part of British history and British culture. Theatre in London flourished after the English Reformation, the first permanent public playhouse, known simply as The Theatre, was constructed in 1576 in Shoreditch by James Burbage. It was soon joined by The Curtain, both are known to have been used by William Shakespeares company. In 1599, the timber from The Theatre was moved to Southwark and these theatres were closed in 1642 due to the Puritans who would later influence the interregnum of 1649. After the Restoration, two companies were licensed to perform, the Dukes Company and the Kings Company, performances were held in converted buildings, such as Lisles Tennis Court. The first West End theatre, known as Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, was designed by Thomas Killigrew and built on the site of the present Theatre Royal and it opened on 7 May 1663 and was destroyed by a fire nine years later. It was replaced by a new designed by Christopher Wren and renamed the Theatre Royal. Outside the West End, Sadlers Wells Theatre opened in Islington on 3 June 1683. Taking its name from founder Richard Sadler and monastic springs that were discovered on the property, it operated as a Musick House, with performances of opera, as it was not licensed for plays. In the West End, the Theatre Royal Haymarket opened on 29 December 1720 on a site north of its current location. The Patent theatre companies retained their duopoly on drama well into the 19th century, by the early 19th century, however, music hall entertainments became popular, and presenters found a loophole in the restrictions on non-patent theatres in the genre of melodrama. Melodrama did not break the Patent Acts, as it was accompanied by music, initially, these entertainments were presented in large halls, attached to public houses, but purpose-built theatres began to appear in the East End at Shoreditch and Whitechapel. The West End theatre district became established with the opening of small theatres and halls. South of the River Thames, the Old Vic, Waterloo Road, the next few decades saw the opening of many new theatres in the West End. It abbreviated its name three years later, the theatre building boom continued until about World War I
4.
Damn Yankees (film)
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Damn Yankees is a 1958 musical film made by Warner Bros. A modern version of the Faust story involving the New York Yankees, the film is based on the 1955 Broadway musical of the same name. The film version was directed by George Abbott, as was the stage version. With the exception of Tab Hunter in the role of Joe Hardy, a notable difference between film and stage versions was Gwen Verdons performance of the song A Little Brains. For the film, Verdons suggestive hip movements were considered too risqué for a mainstream American film in 1958, the film was released in the United Kingdom under the title What Lola Wants, to avoid use of the word Damn on posters, hoardings and cinema marquees. It was also possibly because the titles pun, alluding to the American Southerners colloquial term for Northerners would be lost on foreign audiences, Joe Boyd is a middle-aged fan of the unsuccessful Washington Senators baseball team. His obsession with baseball is driving a wedge between him and his wife Meg—a problem shared by other wives of Senators supporters. Meg leads them in lamenting their husbands fixation with the sport, after seeing his team lose yet again, Joe rashly declares that he would sell his soul to the devil to see his team beat the Yankees. No sooner has he spoken than the devil appears before him in the guise of a suave conman, Applegate claims he can go one better—he can restore Joes youth, making him the player who wins them the pennant. This was more than Joe bargained for and he agrees, but persuades Applegate to give him an escape clause. Applegate declares that Joe can back out at any time before the last game of the season—afterwards, Joe bids an emotional farewell to a sleeping Meg, after which Applegate transforms him into a dashing young man, now called Joe Hardy. The next day, the Senators practice is a fiasco and their manager, Ben Van Buren, gives the team a rousing pep talk. Applegate arrives and, introducing himself as a scout, presents his new discovery—Joe Hardy from Hannibal, Joe promptly hits baseball after baseball out of the park in an impromptu batting practice. As he is signed to a Senators contract, female sportswriter Gloria Thorpe plans to quickly get Joe into the public eye, with tremendous home runs and game-saving catches, Joe leads the Senators on a long winning streak into pennant contention and becomes a national hero. Joe misses Meg dreadfully, however, and keeps sneaking back to his old neighborhood for a glimpse of her and she is ordered to make Joe forget his wife. Lola is confident that she can carry out this task, Joe succeeds in getting close to Meg by renting a room in his old house, Meg is unaware of his baseball stardom. Applegate and Lola manage to corner Joe in the teams locker room. But she has her first failure—Joe dearly loves Meg, and does not fall for Lolas tempting ways, by the end of the season, the Senators are on the verge of overtaking the Yankees, so their fans hold a lavish tribute
5.
Musical theatre
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Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement, since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan. Musicals are performed around the world and they may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional theatre productions, musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada, the three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its team, which includes a director. A musicals production is also characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties, lighting. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the production, for example. There is no fixed length for a musical, while it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length, most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. A book musical is usually built four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades, moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters, the material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels, plays, classic legends, historical events or films. On the other hand, many musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver
6.
Faust
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Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend. He is a scholar who is successful yet dissatisfied with his life. The Faust legend has been the basis for literary, artistic, cinematic. Faust and the adjective Faustian imply a situation in which an ambitious person surrenders moral integrity in order to achieve power, plays and comic puppet theatre loosely based on this legend were popular throughout Germany in the 16th century, often reducing Faust and Mephistopheles to figures of vulgar fun. The story was popularised in England by Christopher Marlowe, who gave it a classic treatment in his play, in Goethes reworking of the story two hundred years later, Faust becomes a dissatisfied intellectual who yearns for more than earthly meat and drink in his life. Faust is bored and depressed with his life as a scholar, after an attempt to take his own life, he calls on the Devil for further knowledge and magic powers with which to indulge all the pleasure and knowledge of the world. In response, the Devils representative, Mephistopheles, appears, the term usually stipulated in the early tales is 24 years, one year for each of the hours in a day. During the term of the bargain, Faust makes use of Mephistopheles in various ways, realizing this unholy act, she drowns the child, and is held for murder. However, Gretchens innocence saves her in the end, and she enters Heaven after execution, in Goethes rendition, Faust is saved by God via his constant striving—in combination with Gretchens pleadings with God in the form of the Eternal Feminine. However, in the tales, Faust is irrevocably corrupted and believes his sins cannot be forgiven, when the term ends. Many aspects of the life of Simon Magus are echoed in the Faust legend of Christopher Aubin, the tale of Faust bears many similarities to the Theophilus legend recorded in the 13th century, writer Gautier de Coincys Les Miracles de la Sainte Vierge. Here, a saintly figure makes a bargain with the keeper of the world but is rescued from paying his debt to society through the mercy of the Blessed Virgin. A depiction of the scene in which he himself to the Devil appears on the north tympanum of the Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris. Others believe he is based on the figure of Johann Georg Faust, a magician and alchemist probably from Knittlingen, Württemberg, scholars such as Frank Baron and Leo Ruickbie contest many of these previous assumptions. The character in Polish folklore named Pan Twardowski presents similarities with Faust, the Polish story seems to have originated at roughly the same time as its German counterpart, yet It is unclear whether the two tales have a common origin or influenced each other. The historical Johann Georg Faust had studied in Kraków for a time, the first known printed source of the legend of Faust is a small chapbook bearing the title Historia von D. Johann Fausten, published in 1587. The book was re-edited and borrowed from throughout the 16th century, related tales about a pact between man and the Devil include the plays Mariken van Nieumeghen, Cenodoxus and The Countess Cathleen. Staufen, a town in the extreme southwest of Germany, claims to be where Faust died, depictions appear on buildings, etc
7.
New York Yankees
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The Essendon Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League, the sports premier competition. Formed in 1871 as a club and playing as a senior club since 1878. It is historically associated with Essendon, a suburb in the north-west of Melbourne, dyson Heppell is the current team captain. A founding member club of both the Victorian Football Association, in 1877, and the Victorian Football League, in 1896, the club claims to have over at least one million supporters Australia wide. Essendon has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships which, along with Carlton, is the most of any club in the competition, the club was founded by members of the Royal Agricultural Society, the Melbourne Hunt Club and the Victorian Woolbrokers. The Essendon Football Club is thought to have formed in 1872 at a meeting it the home of a well-known brewery family, the McCrackens, whose Ascot Vale property hosted a team of local junior players. Robert McCracken, the owner of several city hotels, was the founder and first president of the Essendon club and his son, Alex, Alex would later become president of the newly formed VFL. Alexs cousin, Collier, who had played with Melbourne, was the teams first captain. The club played its first recorded match against the Carlton second twenty on 7 June 1873, Essendon played 13 matches in its first season, winning seven, with four draws and losing two. The club was one of the junior members of the Victorian Football Association in 1877. During its early years in the Association, Essendon played its matches at Flemington Hill. In 1878, Essendon played in the first match on what would be considered by modern standards to be a field at Flemington Hill. In 1879 Essendon played Melbourne in one of the earliest night matches recorded when the ball was painted white, in 1883 the team played four matches in Adelaide. In 1891 Essendon won their first VFA premiership, which they repeated in 1892,1893 and 1894, one of the clubs greatest players, Albert Thurgood played for the club during this period. Essendon was undefeated in the 1893 season, at the end of the 1896 season Essendon along with seven other clubs formed the Victorian Football League. Essendons first VFL game was in 1897 was against Geelong at Corio Oval in Geelong, Essendon won its first VFL premiership by winning the 1897 VFL finals series. Essendon again won the premiership in 1901, defeating Collingwood in the Grand Final, the club won successive premierships in 1911 and 1912 over Collingwood and South Melbourne respectively. The nickname first appeared in print in the local North Melbourne Advertiser in 1889 and it was known firstly as Essendon Town and, after 1905, as Essendon
8.
Major League Baseball
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Major League Baseball is a professional baseball organization, the oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams now play in the National League and American League, the NL and AL operated as separate legal entities from 1876 and 1901 respectively. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since 1903, the merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in 2000. The organization also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises about 240 teams affiliated with the Major League clubs, with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament. Baseballs first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869,30 years after Abner Doubleday supposedly invented the game of baseball, the first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era, Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression, shortly after the war, baseballs color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson. The 1950s and 1960s were a time of expansion for the AL and NL, then new stadiums, Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s, and media reports began to discuss the use of anabolic steroids among Major League players in the mid-2000s. In 2006, an investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which implicated many players in the use of performance-enhancing substances, today, MLB is composed of thirty teams, twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada. Baseball broadcasts are aired on television, radio, and the Internet throughout North America, MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 73 million spectators in 2015. MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution and this document has undergone several incarnations since 1875, with the most recent revisions being made in 2012. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sports umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years, the weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates. There were several challenges to MLBs primacy in the sport between the 1870s and the Federal League in 1916, the last attempt at a new league was the aborted Continental League in 1960. The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner, Rob Manfred, the chief operating officer is Tony Petitti. There are five other executives, president, chief officer, chief legal officer, chief financial officer. The multimedia branch of MLB, which is based in Manhattan, is MLB Advanced Media and this branch oversees MLB. com and each of the 30 teams websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, MLB Productions is a similarly structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media
9.
The Pajama Game
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The Pajama Game is a musical based on the novel 7½ Cents by Richard Bissell. The book is by George Abbott and Richard Bissell, the music and lyrics are by Richard Adler, the story deals with labor troubles in a pajama factory, where workers demands for a seven-and-a-half cent raise are going unheeded. In the midst of this ordeal, love blossoms between Babe, the grievance committee head, and Sid, the new factory superintendent. The original Broadway production opened on May 13,1954, at the St. James Theatre and it was revived in 1973, and again in 2006 by The Roundabout Theatre Company. The original production, produced by Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince, the 2006 Broadway revival won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The musical is a choice for community and school group productions. The original West End production opened at the London Coliseum on October 13,1955 where it ran for 588 performances, Sid Sorokin, the handsome new factory superintendent who falls in love with Babe, despite their being on opposite sides of the labor dispute central to the plot. Katherine Babe Williams, the leader of the Union Grievance Committee, who falls in love with Sid. Myron Old Man Hasler, Gladys Hotchkiss, Haslers attractive, quick-witted secretary, who dates Hines and is chased by Prez. Vernon Hines, the timekeeper, who thinks Gladys flirts too much and. Prez, the head of the union and a skirt chaser, Mabel, the mother hen of the factory and Sids secretary. Mae, a member of the Grievance Committee, who accepts Prezs advances. Pop, Babes kind and agreeable father, charley, a worker in the factory and the handyman. Joe, a worker and Prezs right-hand man. Brenda, A member of the Grievance Committee, virginia, a factory girl and union activist. Poopsie, a girl and union activist. Gus, an unhappy factory helper who Sid shoves, act I A strike is imminent at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory, where the workers churn out pajamas at a backbreaking pace. In the middle of this, a new superintendent, Sid Sorokin, has come out of town to work in the factory. The union, led by Prez, is seeking a wage raise of seven-and-a-half cents an hour, Sid and Babe are in opposite camps, yet romantic interest is sparked at their first encounter
10.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
11.
Boarding house
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A boarding house is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning and they normally provide room and board, that is, at least some meals as well as accommodation. A lodging house, also known in the United States as a rooming house, lodgers legally only obtain a licence to use their rooms, and not exclusive possession, so the landlord retains the right of access. Formerly boarders would typically share washing, breakfast and dining facilities, in recent years it has become common for room to have its own washing. Such boarding houses were found in English seaside towns and college towns. It was common for there to be one or two elderly long-term residents, Boarders can often arrange to stay bed-and-breakfast, half-board or full-board. Especially for families on holiday with children, boarding was an alternative and certainly much cheaper than staying in all. However some B&B accommodation is available on a long-term basis to UK local authorities who are legally obliged to house persons. Such a boarding-house may well cease to be attractive to short-term lodgers, much old seaside accommodation is so used, since cheap flights have reduced demand for their original seasonal holiday use. Apart from the spread of the concept of the B&B. For example, in Japan, minshuku are an almost exact equivalent although the arrangement would be the equivalent of the English half-board. In Hawaii, where the cost of living is high and incomes barely keep pace, in the Indian subcontinent boarders are also known as paying guests. Paying guests stay in a home and share a room with domestic facilities, rates are nominal and monthly charges are usually inclusive of food, bed, table and a cupboard. The rent can go higher for a room in a locality with facilities like single occupancy, air conditioning. In the United States, zoning was used by neighborhoods to limit boarding houses, sherlock Holmes lived in a boarding house at 221B Baker Street, of which the landlady Mrs. Hudson provided some domestic service. Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote the now classic boarding-house mystery, The Case of Jennie Brice, H. G. Wells satirized boarding houses of the Edwardian era in his novel The Dream. E. Phillips Oppenheim set his novel, The Strange Boarders of Palace Crescent in a London boarding house. Lynne Reid Bankss novel The L-Shaped Room is set in a boarding house
12.
Whatever Lola Wants
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Whatever Lola Wants is a popular song, sometimes rendered as Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets. The music and words were written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross for the 1955 musical play Damn Yankees, the song is sung by Lola, the Devils assistant, a part originated by Gwen Verdon, who reprised the role in the film. The saying was inspired by Lola Montez, an Irish-born Spanish dancer and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, the Lola Car company is reportedly named after this song when company founder Eric Broadley heard the line What Lola wants, Lola gets in 1959. Norman Bailey played the song as a solo on the first live television broadcast of The Lawrence Welk Show on July 2,1955. Chiwetel Ejiofor sang the song for the 2005 film Kinky Boots, the song was also used by Mario Lopez and his partner Karina Smirnoff in Season 3 of Dancing with the Stars. Their tango to it was voted the best celebrity dance ever by the judges of DWTS on their 100th Episode show, several seasons later, Joanna Krupa and her temporary partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy performed an Argentine tango to the song, in Season 9. The song was featured in an episode of Nip/Tuck, the song can also be found in a 2011 Diet Pepsi commercial featuring Sofia Vergara and David Beckham. The song can also be found in a 2014 Magnum Italian commercial, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ice cream brand owned by the British/Dutch Unilever. com Whatever Lola Wants on YouTube
13.
Confidence trick
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A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their confidence, used in the classical sense of trust. Confidence tricks exploit characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naïveté, the perpetrator of a confidence trick is often referred to as a confidence man, con-artist, or a grifter. Samuel Thompson was the confidence man. Thompson was a swindler who asked his victims to express confidence in him by giving him money or their watch rather than gaining their confidence in a more nuanced way. A few people trusted Thompson with their money and watches, Thompson was arrested in July 1849. Reporting about this arrest, Dr. James Houston, a reporter of the New York Herald, although Thompson was an unsuccessful scammer, he gained reputation as a genius operator mostly because Houstons satirical writing wasnt understood. The National Police Gazette coined the term confidence game a few weeks after Houston first used the name, the confidence man. A confidence trick is known as a con game, a con, a scam, a grift, a hustle, a bunko, a swindle, a flimflam. The intended victims are known as marks, suckers, or gulls, when accomplices are employed, they are known as shills. A short con or small con is a fast swindle which takes just minutes and it typically aims to rob the victim of everything in his or her wallet. A long con or big con is a scam that unfolds over several days or weeks and involves a team of swindlers, as well as props, sets, extras, costumes, and scripted lines. It aims to rob the victim of huge sums of money or valuable things, often by getting him or her to empty out banking accounts, in Confessions of a Confidence Man, Edward H. Smith lists the six definite steps or stages of growth of a confidence game. He notes that some steps may be omitted, foundation Work Preparations are made in advance of the game, including the hiring of any assistants required. Build-up The victim is given an opportunity to profit from a scheme, the victims greed is encouraged, such that their rational judgment of the situation might be impaired. Pay-off or Convincer The victim receives a small payout as a demonstration of the schemes effectiveness and this may be a real amount of money, or faked in some way. In a gambling con, the victim is allowed to win small bets. In a stock market con, the victim is given fake dividends, the Hurrah A sudden crisis or change of events forces the victim to act immediately. This is the point at which the con succeeds or fails, the In-and-In A conspirator puts an amount of money into the same scheme as the victim, to add an appearance of legitimacy to the scheme
14.
World Series
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The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in North America, contested since 1903 between the American League champion team and the National League champion team. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a playoff. As the series is played in October, during the season in North America. As of 2016, the World Series has been contested 112 times, with the AL winning 64, the 2016 World Series took place between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. Seven games were played, with the Cubs victorious after game seven, the final score was 8–7, the game went into extra innings after a tied score of 6–6. This was the third World Series won by the Cubs, as well as their first title since 1908, in the National League, the St. As of 2016, no team has won consecutive World Series championships since the New York Yankees in 1998,1999, all championships were awarded to the team with the best record at the end of the season, without a postseason series being played. From 1884 to 1890, the National League and the American Association faced each other in a series of games at the end of the season to determine an overall champion. These series were disorganized in comparison to the modern World Series, the number of games played ranged from as few as three in 1884, to a high of fifteen in 1887. Both the 1885 and 1890 Series ended in ties, each team having won three games with one tie game, the series was promoted and referred to as The Championship of the United States, Worlds Championship Series, or Worlds Series for short. In his book Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded, August 27,1883, Simon Winchester mentions in passing that the World Series was named for the New York World newspaper, but this view is disputed. Until about 1960, some sources treated the 19th-century Series on a basis with the post-19th-century series. After about 1930, however, many authorities list the start of the World Series in 1903, following the collapse of the American Association after the 1891 season, the National League was again the only major league. The league championship was awarded in 1892 by a playoff between half-season champions and this scheme was abandoned after one season. Beginning in 1893—and continuing until divisional play was introduced in 1969—the pennant was awarded to the club in the standings at the end of the season. For four seasons, 1894–1897, the league played the runners-up in the post season championship series called the Temple Cup. A second attempt at this format was the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup series, in 1901, the American League was formed as a second major league. No championship series were played in 1901 or 1902 as the National and these series were arranged by the participating clubs, as the 1880s Worlds Series matches had been
15.
Mitzi Gaynor
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Mitzi Gaynor is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Gaynor was born as Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in Chicago to Pauline Fisher, a dancer, and Henry von Gerber, a violinist, cellist, after her father remarried, she became step-sister to anti-war activist Donald W. Duncan. Her family first moved to Elgin, Illinois, then to Detroit and she trained as a ballerina as a child and began her career as a chorus dancer. At 13, she was singing and dancing with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera company and she lied about her address so she could attend Hollywood High School, and signed a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century-Fox at age 17. She sang, acted, and danced in a number of film musicals, a Fox Studio executive thought that Mitzi Gerber sounded like the name of a delicatessen, and they came up with a name that used the same initials. She married Jack Bean, a talent agent and public relations executive for MCA, in San Francisco, California and they resided on North Arden Drive in Beverly Hills, California. She had just been released from Twentieth Century-Fox with four years left on her contract, after their marriage, Bean quit MCA and started his own real estate business and managed Gaynors career. In 1956, the remake of Anything Goes, co-starring Bing Crosby, Donald OConnor, in 1957, she also appeared in Les Girls, directed by George Cukor, with Gene Kelly and Kay Kendall. Her biggest international fame came from her role as Ensign Nellie Forbush in the film version of Rodgers. For her performance, she was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe Award and she made her last film to date in the early 1960s. One of her last films was the United Kingdom production Surprise Package and her co-stars were Yul Brynner and Noël Coward. The film had a song by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn Following her film work. She often performed songs at Academy Awards ceremonies, at the 1967 Oscar telecast, she sang the theme from the film Georgy Girl. Gaynor later added the number to her concert repertoire, throughout the 1960s and 70s, she starred in nine acclaimed television specials that garnered 16 Emmy nominations. As an interesting footnote, she appeared between two sets by The Beatles when they made their second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show of February 16,1964. She performed for an unprecedented nine-minute segment from the stage of the Deauville Hotel, in Miami Beach and she sang Too Darn Hot and a blues medley. Gaynor recorded two albums for the Verve label, one called Mitzi and the second called Mitzi Gaynor Sings the Lyrics of Ira Gershwin and she is thought to have earned more from the record royalties on the South Pacific soundtrack album than her salary for the movie. She also recorded the song from her film, Happy Anniversary for the Top Rank label
16.
Zizi Jeanmaire
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Zizi Jeanmaire is a French ballet dancer and widow of renowned dancer and choreographer Roland Petit. She became famous in the 1950s after playing the role in the ballet Carmen, produced in London in 1949. Born Renée Marcelle Jeanmaire in Paris, she met her future husband and she joined his company, Petits ballets de Paris in 1949. In 1954, they married, and their successful shows put her on the road to stardom and this led to a brief stint in Hollywood, appearing in the musicals Hans Christian Andersen and Anything Goes. After that, she concentrated on ballet, producing more than 60 shows with Petit, from the 1960s on, she also had a career in music with such hits as Mon truc en plumes. Her notoriety and fame garnered her more attention, even at fashion shows. At one fashion show for Yves Saint Laurent in 1967, Jeanmaire was prominently seated alongside Elsa Martinelli, Françoise Hardy, almost 50 years later, Vogue magazine would look back at Jeanmaire and her peers as representing a guidepost of fashion week celebrity culture. She and Petit had one daughter, Valentine Petit, a dancer, Jeanmaire is mentioned in the lyrics of the song by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Nothing is Sacred, a track on their album, Timeless Flight. Zizi Jeanmaire with Gérard Mannoni, Paris, Assouline,2002,147 pages, ISBN 2-84323-389-5 A Tribute to Gainsbourg, Zizi Jeanmaire interprète French Zizi Jeanmaire at the Internet Movie Database
17.
Gwen Verdon
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Gwyneth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony awards for her musical performances and served as uncredited choreographers assistant. With flaming red hair and a quaver in her voice, Verdon was an acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s. Verdon was born in Culver City, California, the child of Gertrude Lilian and Joseph William Verdon. Her brother was William Farrell Verdon, the Verdon family could be described as showpeople. Her father was an electrician at MGM Studios, and her mother was a former vaudevillian of the Denishawn dance troupe, as well as a dance teacher. As a toddler, she had rickets, which left her legs so badly misshapen she was called Gimpy by other children and spent her years in orthopedic boots. Her mother put the three-year-old in dance classes, further ballet training strengthened her legs and improved her carriage. By the time she was six, she was dancing on stage. She went on to study multiple dance forms, ranging from tap, jazz, ballroom and she even added juggling to her repertoire. At age 11, she appeared as a ballerina in the musical romance film The King Steps Out, directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Grace Moore. She attended Hamilton High School in Los Angeles and studied under famed balletomane Ernest Belcher, while in high school, she was cast in a revival of Show Boat. Verdon shocked her parents and instructors when she abandoned her budding career aged 17 to elope with reporter James Henaghan in 1942, in 1945, she appeared as a dancer in the movie musical The Blonde From Brooklyn. After her divorce, she entrusted her son Jimmy to the care of her parents, early on, Verdon found a job as assistant to choreographer Jack Cole, whose work was respected by both Broadway and Hollywood movie studios. During her five-year employment with Cole, she took roles in movie musicals as a specialty dancer. She also taught dance to stars such as Jane Russell, Fernando Lamas, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Verdon started out on Broadway as a gypsy, going from one chorus line to another. Her breakthrough role came when choreographer Michael Kidd cast her as the second female lead in Cole Porters musical Can-Can. With her role reduced to more than an ensemble part
18.
Bob Fosse
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Robert Louis Bob Fosse was an American dancer, musical theatre choreographer, director, screenwriter, film director and actor. He won eight Tony Awards for choreography, more than anyone else and he was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning for his direction of Cabaret. Fosse was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 23,1927, to a Norwegian American father, Cyril K. Fosse, and Irish-born mother, Sara Alice Fosse, the second youngest of six. He teamed up with Charles Grass, another dancer. They toured theaters throughout the Chicago area, after being recruited, Fosse was placed in the variety show Tough Situation, which toured military and naval bases in the Pacific. Fosse moved to New York City with the ambition of being the new Fred Astaire and his appearance with his first wife and dance partner Mary Ann Niles in Call Me Mister brought him to the attention of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Fosse was signed to a MGM contract in 1953 and his early screen appearances included Give A Girl A Break, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis and Kiss Me Kate, all released in 1953. A short sequence that he choreographed in the latter brought him to the attention of Broadway producers, although Fosses acting career in film was cut short by typecasting, he was reluctant to move from Hollywood to theater. Nevertheless, he made the move, and in 1954, he choreographed his first musical, The Pajama Game and it was while working on the latter show that he first met the rising star whom he was to marry in 1960, Gwen Verdon. Verdon won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in Damn Yankees, in 1957 Fosse choreographed New Girl in Town, also directed by Abbott, and Verdon won her second Leading Actress Tony. That year he also choreographed the film version of Pajama Game starring Doris Day, in 1960, Fosse was, for the first time, both director and choreographer of a musical called simply Redhead. With Redhead, Verdon won her third Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, Verdon starred in Sweet Charity in 1966, with Fosse again the choreographer-director, and she starred in Chicago in 1975, with Fosse as director and choreographer. Fosse performed a song and dance number in Stanley Donens 1974 film version of The Little Prince, according to AllMusic, Bob Fosse stops the show with a slithery dance routine. In 1977, Fosse had a role in the romantic comedy Thieves. Notable distinctions of Fosses style included the use of turned-in knees, the famous Fosse Amoeba, sideways shuffling, rolled shoulders, with Astaire as an influence, he used props such as bowler hats, canes and chairs. His trademark use of hats was influenced by his own self-consciousness, according to Martin Gottfried in his biography of Fosse, His baldness was the reason that he wore hats, and was doubtless why he put hats on his dancers. He used gloves in his performances because he did not like his hands, some of his most popular numbers include Steam Heat and Big Spender. The Rich Mans Frug scene in Sweet Charity is another example of his signature style and his first, Sweet Charity, starring Shirley MacLaine, is an adaptation of the Broadway musical he had directed and choreographed
19.
Richard Rodgers Theatre
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The Richard Rodgers Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 226 West 46th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue, in New York City. The theatre was built by Irwin Chanin in 1925 and was originally called Chanins 46th Street Theatre, Chanin almost immediately leased it to the Shuberts, who bought the building outright in 1931 and renamed it the 46th Street Theatre. In 1945, the theatre was taken over by Robert W. Dowling, in 1960, it was purchased by the producer Lester Osterman. Who sold it to producers Stephen R. Friedman and Irwin Meyer in 1978, in 1981, it was purchased and renovated by the Nederlander Organization, who in 1990 changed the houses name to the Richard Rodgers Theatre in memory of the composer. The theatre currently holds the distinction of having housed the greatest number of Tony Award-winning Best Plays and Best Musicals, the Richard Rodgers Theatre is notable in that it was the first to feature Chanins democratic seating plan. In most earlier Broadway theatres, patrons seated in the cheaper balcony, instead, all patrons entered the new theatre through the same doors, and a series of steps inside the house led to the upper seating areas. Hamilton achieved the box office record for the Richard Rodgers Theatre, the production grossed $3,335,430 for the week ending January 1st,2017 with a top ticket price at $998 and 105. 887% of the theatres gross potential. Broadway Theatre Guide with full details for the Richard Rodgers Theatre The Richard Rodgers at the Internet Broadway Database New York City Landmark Guide
20.
Adelphi Theatre (New York City)
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The Adelphi Theatre, originally named the Craig Theatre, opened on December 24,1928. The Adelphi was located at 152 West 54th Street in Manhattan, the theater was taken over by the Federal Theater Project in 1934 and renamed the Adelphi. The theater was renamed the Radiant Center by The Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians in 1940 and it was then the Yiddish Arts Theater, and renamed the Adelphi Theater on April 20,1944, when it was acquired by the Shuberts. It became a DuMont Television Network studio, known as the Adelphi Tele-Theatre in the 1950s, the Classic 39 episodes of The Honeymooners were filmed in this facility by DuMont using their Electronicam system for broadcast on CBS later during the 1955–56 television season. The theater returned to use in 1957, was renamed the 54th Street Theater in 1958. The building was razed in 1970, after hosting several expensive flops, Hilton New York owned the property immediately west of the hotel and held it for expansion. In 1989 an office tower 1325 Avenue of the Americas was built on the site, the building uses its Hilton Sixth Avenue address although it is closer to Seventh Avenue. The two buildings are connected via a walkway, in popular culture the building is used for the exterior shot of Elaines office in Seinfeld. Revolt of the Beavers On the Town Around the World Street Scene The Honeymooners Damn Yankees Bye Bye Birdie 13 Daughters No Strings What Makes Sammy Run, any Wednesday Wait Until Dark Darling of the Day Musical theater star William Gaxton referred to it as the dump of dumps. It was usually the house that long-running Broadway hits moved to for the weeks or months of their runs. The last musical to play there was the one-performance flop Gantry starring Robert Shaw & Rita Moreno, No Strings and On The Town moved to more centrally located theaters as soon as possible
21.
Ray Walston
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Herman Raymond Ray Walston was an American actor and comedian, best known as the title character on My Favorite Martian. He had such iconic film, television and stage roles as Luther Billis, Mr. Applegate, J. J. Singleton, Mr. Hand, Candy, and Judge Henry Bone. Walston was born Herman Raymond Walston on December 2,1914, in Laurel, Mississippi and he had an older sister, Carrie, and an older brother, Earl. His family moved from Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana around 1925 and he started acting at an early age, beginning his tenure as a spear carrier rounding out productions at many New Orleans theaters. He mostly played small roles with stock companies, where he not only starred in traveling shows and his family moved to Dallas, Texas, where he joined a repertory theater company under Margo Jones in 1938. Walston was popular with Margo Joness team of actors before he traveled to Cleveland, Ohio and he then traveled to New York City, where he made his Broadway debut in a 1945 production of Hamlet. Three years later, Walston became one of the first members admitted to the newly formed Actors Studio. In 1949, he appeared in the short-lived play Mrs. Gibbons Boys, directed by George Abbott, the chemistry between the two was such that they both garnered critical success and won awards for their roles. After a decade in New York theater, he won a Tony Award and he starred as Luther Billis in the 1951 London production of South Pacific. He reprised that role in the 1958 film adaptation and he and Juanita Hall were the only cast members to appear in both the stage and movie versions. Additional Broadway credits included The Front Page, Summer and Smoke, King Richard III, Wish You Were Here, and House of Flowers. In 1957, Actress and Producer Katharine Cornell placed him in a role on Broadway in Robert E. Sherwoods Pulitzer Prize winning play about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the play was adapted for television for a Hallmark Hall of Fame production. Walston had a movie career aside from Damn Yankees. Including such films as Kiss Them for Me, South Pacific, Say One for Me, Tall Story, Portrait in Black, The Apartment, Convicts 4, Wives and Lovers, Kiss Me, Stupid, Caprice, Paint Your Wagon, The Sting, and Silver Streak. He narrated many United States Department of Defense and Atomic Energy Commission films about nuclear experiment and he guest starred on numerous television programs, including The Shirley Temple Show, The Outlaws, The Americans, and a television version of Going My Way. Walston achieved his greatest success as the character on My Favorite Martian from 1963 to 1966. Although the show gained an audience in syndication, My Favorite Martian typecast Walston. From 1980–1992, Walston starred in 14 films, including Galaxy of Terror and Fast Times at Ridgemont High as Mr. Hand
22.
Jean Stapleton
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Jean Stapleton was an American character actress of stage, television, and film. Stapleton is best known for having portrayed Edith Bunker, the long-suffering, yet devoted wife of Archie Bunker, Stapleton was a three-time recipient of the Prime Time Emmy Award for leading actress in a comedy series and won two Golden Globes in the same category during the shows airing. She also made appearances on the All in the Family follow-up series Archie Bunkers Place. Stapleton was born on January 19,1923, in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of Marie A. an opera singer and Joseph E. Murray, a billboard advertising salesman. At age 18, she began her career in 1941 in summer stock theatre, Stapleton was featured on Broadway theatre in several hit musicals, such as Damn Yankees, Funny Girl, Bells Are Ringing and Juno. She guest starred in television series, including the role of Rosa Criley in the 1963 episode The Bride Wore Pink on NBCs medical drama about psychiatry. She recreated her parts in the musicals of Damn Yankees. Kildare, My Three Sons, Car 54, Where Are You, dennis the Menace, and Naked City. On the episode The Hidden Jungle of The Defenders broadcast on December 1,1962, in 1979, Stapleton appeared in the original Canadian production of the musical Somethings Afoot, which was later broadcast on Showtime. At the same time, she played the role in the Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie, Aunt Mary. In 1982, Stapleton portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt in a production of the First Ladys later life. In 1998, and for a few years afterward, Stapleton took her Eleanor characterization to live theaters, Stapletons awards for All in the Family include three Emmys and two Golden Globes. In 1971, she bested both Mary Tyler Moore and Marlo Thomas for the Best Actress in a Comedy award on May 9, which happened to be Mothers Day. She was offered a role in the feature film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory as Mrs. Teevee and she also had a recurring role on televisions Scarecrow and Mrs. King as a British spy. She appeared in the educational series Beakmans World as Beakmans mother, Stapleton co-starred in 1984s feature film The Buddy System with Susan Sarandon and Richard Dreyfuss. She played Ariadne Oliver in the 1986 television adaptation of Dead Mans Folly, however, she declined the opportunity to lead in the television mystery programme Murder, She Wrote, which from 1984 to 1996 instead starred Angela Lansbury. In 1996, Stapleton played opposite John Travolta, portraying the eccentric rooming house owner, Stapleton also appeared in the 1998 feature Youve Got Mail as a close co-worker in whom Meg Ryans character confides. On May 14,2000, in the Mothers Day episode of the TV series Touched by an Angel, in the 1990s, Stapleton played the role of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in a childrens series of the same name based on the books by Betty MacDonald
23.
London Coliseum
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The London Coliseum is a theatre in St. Martins Lane, central London, built as one of Londons largest and most luxurious family variety theatres. Opened on 24 December 1904 as the London Coliseum Theatre of Varieties and their ambition was to build the largest and finest music hall, described as the peoples palace of entertainment of its age. The theatre has 2,359 seats which makes it the largest theatre in London, the Sadlers Wells company changed its name to the English National Opera in 1974 and today it is used primarily for opera as well as being the London home of the English National Ballet. The London Coliseum was built by the theatrical architect Frank Matcham who intended it to be one of Londons largest and most luxurious family variety theatres, construction started in 1903 and it opened on 24 December the following year as the London Coliseum Theatre of Varieties. It is located in St. Martins Lane, London, Matcham built the theatre for the theatrical impresario Sir Oswald Stoll and had the ambition of it being the largest and finest People’s palace of entertainment of the age. Matcham wanted a Theatre of Variety – not a music hall, the resulting programme was a mix of music hall and variety theatre, with one act - a full scale revolving chariot race - requiring the stage to revolve. The theatre’s original slogan was PRO BONO PUBLICO and it was opened in 1904 and the inaugural performance was a variety bill on 24 December that year. Great, semi-circular, blocked architrave proscenium arch with cartouche- trophy keystone, in 1908, the London Coliseum was host to a cricket match between Middlesex and Surrey. In 1911, dramatist W. S. Gilbert produced his last play here, the theatre changed its name from the London Coliseum to the Coliseum Theatre between 1931 and 1968 when a run of 651 performances of the musical comedy White Horse Inn began on 8 April 1931. Additionally, Arthur Lewis notes that, Pantomimes began in 1936 with Cinderella, there then followed a long run of major American hits beginning with Kiss Me, Kate in 1951, Guys And Dolls in 1953, Pajama Game in 1955, and Damn Yankees in 1957. But this exceptional period did at last come to an end in 1957 when the production of The Bells Are Ringing failed to enthrall anyone.8 million in 1992. While its wing space is limited due to the site on which the theatre was built, as Lloyd notes. It has the widest proscenium arch in London and was one of the first to have electric lighting and it was built with a triple revolving stage, although this was rarely used. The Coliseum was designed to seat 2,358 people on four levels, as such it is the largest of all Londons theatres. The theatre retains many of its features and was given a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage in September 1960. Another extensive renovation took place between 2000 and 2004, when the design team included the architects RHWL and Arup as acousticians and building engineers. Periodically, the Coliseum was used to show films and, when the Talkies arrived at the Coliseum in 1933, films were run at the Theatre for a year. The greatest sensation at this time was the showing of King Kong which ran at the Coliseum for months with 10,000 people seeing the film at the Theatre every day
24.
Belita
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Maria Belita Jepson-Turner, known professionally as Belita, was a British Olympic figure skater, dancer and film actress. Born at Nether Wallop, Hampshire, she skated for the United Kingdom in the 1936 Winter Olympics and she had classical Russian ballet training which carried over into her skating, and she was considered far superior to others skating at that time. As a young ballerina she was partner to Anton Dolin, appearing with the Dolin-Markova Ballet and she appeared in films including Never Let Me Go with Clark Gable and The Man on the Eiffel Tower opposite Charles Laughton. For a brief period she was Monogram Pictures highest-paid star and she made several highly profitable productions for Monogram, including Silver Skates, Lady, Lets Dance, and the film noir Suspense. In 1946, Belita married Joel McGinnis, they divorced in 1956 and she remarried, to Irish actor James Berwick, né James Kenny. In 1956, she retired from skating, and three years later gave up show business altogether and she appeared briefly on the ice at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1981 in a short production based on Solitude by Duke Ellington. Belita retired to live in Montpeyroux, Hérault, France, where she died in 2005, aged 82. Silver Skates Lady, Lets Dance Suspense The Gangster The Hunted The Man on the Eiffel Tower Never Let Me Go Invitation to the Dance The Terrace Olympic profile Belita at the Internet Movie Database
25.
Bill Kerr
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William Henry Kerr, credited as Bill Kerr, was a South African-born entertainer, who had a successful career in Britain and Australian as an actor, comedian and vaudevillian. In 1979 Kerr returned to Australia and developed a career as a character actor. Kerr was born William Henry Kerr in Cape Town, South Africa, on 10 June 1922 to an Australian performing arts family, growing up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales and his career in show business began when he was very young. Wilton, his son, recalled, His mum used him instead of using a prop, Kerr began to work in radio for ABC in 1932, and continued performing child parts for about 8 years. His first screen appearance was in Harmony Row, where he gives a feisty performance as a juvenile delinquent alongside the great Australian vaudeville comedian George Wallace. Kerrs first dramatic role on screen was a one in the Cinesound film The Silence of Dean Maitland. Kerr is one of the most important child performers in early Australian film and he saw service in the Australian army during the Second World War, and performed in theatrical shows at home and abroad and toured with his friend, the actor Peter Finch. After the war, Kerr moved to Britain in 1947, during the next few years he was regularly featured in the BBC radio series Variety Bandboxpart of the BBC Light Program. Retaining his accent, a choice for performers moving to Britain at this time. Harry Secombe described Kerr as having a very laconic act on the show, from 1954 to 1959, he had a regular role as an Australian lodger in the BBC radio comedy series Hancocks Half Hour. The series, with comedian Tony Hancock as the lead and also featuring Sid James. Initially sharper than Hancocks characterisation, Kerrs portrayal eventually developed into a more dim-witted character who became the butt of Hancocks jokes, unlike James, Kerr did not feature in the television version of the Hancock series. Later, after Hancock had ended his partnership with Sid James. Kerrs other television appearances in Britain include a Doctor Who serial called The Enemy of the World, with Patrick Troughton, and a long-running part in the early 1960s BBC-TV soap, Compact. Kerr had much success in Britain, playing the Devil disguised as Mr Applegate in the first West End production of Damn Yankees, directed by Bob Fosse. He appeared in a production of the play The Teahouse of the August Moon in 1956. He also worked with Spike Milligan and appeared in Milligan and John Antrobuss stage play The Bed-Sitting Room, a subsequent production opened on 3 May 1967 at the Saville Theatre, and a cast containing an unusually high proportion of Australian actors including Bill Kerr and David Nettheim. In the 1969 London production of Play It Again, Sam at the Globe Theatre, in 1972 he co-starred with Anthony Newley in the Newley/Bricusse musical, The Good Old Bad Old Days, which enjoyed a run lasting 309 performances
26.
Ivor Emmanuel
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Ivor Lewis Emmanuel was a Welsh musical theatre and television singer and actor. After losing his parents at an age, Emmanuel began working as a coal miner. He developed a keen interest in music and singing, however, at the age of 20, he had his first professional theatre job in the musical Oklahoma. He served as a chorister for the DOyly Carte Opera Company in 1950–1951 but soon went on to small roles in the West End productions of South Pacific, The King and I and Plain. His first leading role was Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees, followed by a tour as Woody Mahoney in Finians Rainbow, in 1966, he appeared on Broadway in A Time for Singing and then in the West End in 110 in the Shade. He continued to play in summer seasons of theatre and in cabaret and variety into the 1980s. During the late 1950s, he participated in the Welsh language singing television programme Dewch i Mewn, in 1960, he performed in the first televised edition of the Royal Variety Performance. He continued to perform on TV through the 1970s and he also performed in concerts and is heard on cast recordings of Show Boat, Kiss Me, Kate, The King and I and A Time for Singing. He is also featured on the box set, The Greatest Musicals of the 20th Century, on the 1966 RCA Victrola recording of The Pirates of Penzance, and in a solo album, The Best of Ivor Emmanuel. Emmanuel was born in Margam, near Port Talbot, Wales and he was 14 years old when his father, mother, sister and grandfather were killed by a stray bomb that hit their village during World War II. A2001 documentary programme about the incident was made by S4C and his aunt Flossie took him in, and he began working in the coal mine like his father and grandfather before him. Emmanuel developed a keen interest in music and singing and was a member of Pontrhydyfen Operatic Society and he used to carry a wind-up gramophone up nearby mountains to listen to recordings of Enrico Caruso. At the age of 20, Emmanuel unsuccessfully auditioned for The DOyly Carte Opera Company. He took solace by drinking with an old friend Richard Burton, who was performing in The Ladys Not for Burning at the time in London, and telling him how desperate he was to break into show business. Two weeks later a telegram arrived from Burton telling him to be at the Theatre Royal and he was cast in the musical Oklahoma. Emmanuel was eventually hired by the DOyly Carte Opera Company as a chorister in March 1950 and he was assigned the small role of Associate in Trial by Jury and shared the larger one of Luiz in The Gondoliers. He and Beazleigh had two children, a girl Sian and a boy Simon, emmanuels masculine looks and ringing baritone voice suited him for musicals, and he soon took principal roles in the West End. At the Drury Lane, he played Sgt, kenneth Johnson in the hit production of South Pacific, then played small roles in two more long-running shows, The King and I and Plain and Fancy
27.
Vincent Price
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Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and performances in horror films. His career spanned other genres, including film noir, drama, mystery, thriller and he appeared on stage, television, radio, and more than one hundred films. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures, and one for television, born and raised in the Saint Louis, Missouri area, he has a star on the Saint Louis Walk of Fame. Price was an art collector and consultant, with a degree in art history and he lectured and wrote books on the subject. He was the founder of the Vincent Price Art Museum in California and he was also a noted gourmet cook. Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of the four children of Vincent Leonard Price, Sr. president of the National Candy Company and his grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented Dr. Prices Baking Powder, the first cream of tartar-based baking powder, Price was of English descent and was a descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child born in Colonial Massachusetts, being born on the Mayflower while it was in the harbor of Massachusetts. Price had some Welsh ancestry as well, Price attended St. Louis Country Day School. In 1933, he graduated with a degree in art history from Yale University, after teaching for a year, he entered the University of London, intending to study for a masters degree in fine arts. Instead, he was drawn to the theater, first appearing on stage professionally in 1934 and his acting career began in London in 1935, performing with Orson Welless Mercury Theatre. In 1936, Price appeared as Prince Albert in the American production of Laurence Housmans play, Victoria Regina, Price started out in films as a character actor. He made his debut in 1938 with Service de Luxe and established himself in the film Laura, opposite Gene Tierney. His first venture into the genre, for which he became famous, was in the 1939 Boris Karloff film Tower of London. The following year Price portrayed the character in The Invisible Man Returns. In 1946, Price reunited with Tierney in two films, Dragonwyck and Leave Her to Heaven. There were also many villainous roles in film noir thrillers like The Web, The Long Night, Rogues Regiment and The Bribe, with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and his first starring role was as conman James Addison Reavis in the 1950 biopic The Baron of Arizona. He also did a comedic turn as the tycoon Burnbridge Waters, co-starring with Ronald Colman in Champagne for Caesar and he was active in radio, portraying the Robin Hood-inspired crime-fighter Simon Templar in The Saint, which ran from 1947-51. In the 1950s, Price moved into films, with a role in House of Wax
28.
Van Johnson
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Charles Van Dell Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during and after World War II. Johnson made occasional World War II movies through the end of the 1960s, at the time of his death in December 2008, he was one of the last surviving matinee idols of Hollywoods golden age. Charles Van Dell Johnson was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the child of Loretta, a housewife, and Charles E. Johnson. His father was born in Sweden and came to the United States as a young child and his mother, an alcoholic, left the family when her son was a child, Johnsons relationship with his father was chilly. Johnson performed at clubs in Newport while in high school. He moved to New York City after graduating high school in 1935 and joined an off-Broadway revue. After touring New England in a troupe as a substitute dancer. Johnson returned to the chorus after that, and worked in summer resorts near New York City, in 1939, director and playwright George Abbott cast him in Rodgers and Harts Too Many Girls in the role of a college boy and as understudy for all three male leads. After an uncredited role in the adaptation of Too Many Girls, Abbott hired him as a chorus boy. Johnson was about to back to New York when Lucille Ball took him to Chasens Restaurant, where she introduced him to MGM casting director Billy Grady. This led to tests by Hollywood studios. His test at Columbia Pictures was unsuccessful, but Warner Brothers put him on contract at $300 a week and his all-American good looks and easy demeanor were ill-suited to the gritty movies Warner made at the time, and the studio dropped him at the expiration of his six-month contract. Shortly before leaving Warner, he was cast as a cub reporter opposite Faye Emerson in the 1942 film Murder in the Big House and his eyebrows and hair were dyed black for the role. As with other players at MGM, Johnson was provided with classes in acting, speech. Johnson subsequently appeared in Pilot No.5 and in William Saroyans The Human Comedy, which was produced in 1943, and in the role in Two Girls. Johnsons big break was in A Guy Named Joe, starring Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne, when the crash happened, Johnsons scalp was nearly sheared off. The closest rescue units responded, but because the accident happened just over the county line. Johnson had to slap his scalp into place and literally crawl nearly 50 yards to get to the workers for aid
29.
Jones Beach Theater
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Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater is an outdoor amphitheatre at Jones Beach State Park in Wantagh, New York. It is one of two outdoor arenas in the New York metropolitan area, along with PNC Bank Arts Center. The theater was designed to specifications provided by Robert Moses, who created Jones Beach State Park, opened in 1952 as the Jones Beach Marine Theater, the venue originally had 8,200 seats and hosted musicals. Moses had several boxes designated for his own use, and Moses friend Guy Lombardo performed often in the early years, Lombardos final show was the 1977 production of Finians Rainbow, with Christopher Hewett in the title role. After Lombardos death in 1977, the series resumed in 1978 with Annie Get Your Gun, beginning in the 1980s, the primary focus of the venue would change to concerts. In 1991 and 1992, under contract from concert promoter Ron Delsner, the capacity was expanded again in 1998 to hold 15,000 seats. The theaters original design featured a moat, the stage was situated on Zachs Bay and was separated from the beach. Performers were brought to the stage by boat, and some scenes had floating scenery, the Guy Lombardo Orchestra would pass through the moat on a yacht during the intermissions and play tunes while floating in front of the audience. The moat was covered or filled in during the first renovation, as noted, the Jones Beach Marine Theatre staged musicals from 1952-1981. 1967-Arabian Nights 1968-South Pacific 1969-South Pacific 1970-The Sound of Music 1971-The Sound of Music 1972-The King And I 1973-Carousel 1974-Fiddler on the Roof 1975-Oklahoma, 1976-Showboat 1977-Finians Rainbow 1978-Annie Get Your Gun 1979-The Music Man 1980-The Sound of Music 1981-Damn Yankees List verified by the Jones Beach Lifeguard Corps. In 2002, the company of clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger purchased the rights to the venue. The venue used to have a strict no-alcohol policy except in designated VIP boxes located behind the orchestra, separate additional tickets are required to enter the popular VIP tent area. Starting in 2014, alcohol was available for sale to the public during certain shows and. In 2009, Jones Beach introduced The Bay Stage, which has a general capacity of 5,000. The performances are staged behind the concessions on the theater property, the theater property is located a short distance from the VIP area but The Bay Stage events cannot be viewed or heard from the VIP area. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy did major damage to the theater, various structures were destroyed and much of the lower part of the arena was flooded, including the lower section of seats which were flooded more than half way up. The venue reopened on May 31,2013, after a $20 million rehabilitation project, starting January 2017, Jones Beach Theater will undergo a million dollar renovation plan, including energy efficient LED lighting, more cafes, larger concourses for less crowding and more. The three-year deal includes an option for two additional years, among the most frequent performers at Jones Beach Theater are Jimmy Buffett, who has played the venue 29 times, and Aerosmith, who have played the venue 20 times
30.
Wantagh, New York
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Wantagh is a hamlet and census-designated place in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County on Long Island, New York, United States. The population of Wantagh was 18,871 at the time of the 2010 census, Wantagh is known as The Gateway to Jones Beach. The Wantagh area was inhabited by the Merokee tribe of the Metoac Indians prior to the first wave of European settlement in the mid-17th century, the Merokee were part of the greater Montauk tribe that loosely ruled Long Islands Native Americans. Wantagh was the sachem of the Merokee tribe in 1647, and was later the grand sachem of the Montauk tribe from 1651-1658, the Dutch settlers came east from their New Amsterdam colony, and English settlers came south from Connecticut and Massachusetts settlements. When the English and Dutch settled their claims to Long Island in the 1650 treaty conducted in Hartford. Long Island then was ceded to the Duke of York in 1663-64, the Treaty of Westminster in 1674 settled the land claims once and for all, incorporating Long Island into the now-British colony of New York. Wantagh was originally known as Jerusalem, although some accounts do refer to the area as Wantagh. The original post office was built in 1837, for Jerusalem, the towns first school was established in 1790. At some time around the 1880s, Jerusalem was renamed Ridgewood, later, Ridgewood was renamed Wantagh to avoid confusion with another town in New York State with the same name. George Washington rode through Jerusalem on April 21,1790, as part of his 5-day tour of Long Island and he then went on to head east, then circle back west on the north shore. During the Revolutionary War, British ships traveled up Jones inlet, the oldest original settlers of the Wantagh/Jerusalem area were the Jackson and Seaman families, and their marks are still visible today. For example, the Cherrywood shopping center was the site of prominent settler Capt, John Seamans estate, which was named Cherrywood. Wantagh is home to a number of New York State Historical Markers, including, Cherrywood, the oldest cemetery in Wantagh is the Jackson Cemetery, located just north of the St. Frances de Chantal Roman Catholic Church on Wantagh Avenue. The Rierson burial plot was located in what has been redeveloped into Bunker Avenue and this cemetery includes members of the Rierson family who were Loyalists during the Revolutionary War. The Jerusalem Society of Friends Cemetery is located behind the current Christian Tabernacle Church, the Society of Friends were Quakers who maintained meeting houses in Jericho, Bethpage, and Hempstead, and met in then-Jerusalem as early as 1697. John Seaman allowed the Society to conduct meetings on his land in 1699, the St. John of Jerusalem Cemetery served the German Methodists, who moved to Jerusalem from New York City around 1850 to farm. The cemetery can be found west of Wantagh Avenue a few hundred yards north of North Jerusalem Road, the congregation began to meet in 1854 and held services entirely in German. The cemetery was constructed in 1862 and was intended only for use by congregation members, later generations of congregants grew weary of the services in German, and numbers dwindled until the last German service was held in 1911
31.
New York Jets
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The New York Jets are a professional American football team located in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues American Football Conference East division. The team is headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, in a unique arrangement for the league, the Jets share MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey with the New York Giants. The franchise is legally and corporately registered as New York Jets, the team was founded in 1959 as the Titans of New York, an original member of the American Football League, later, the franchise joined the NFL in the AFL–NFL merger in 1970. The team began to play in 1960 at the Polo Grounds, under new ownership, the current name was adopted in 1963 and the franchise moved to Shea Stadium in 1964 and then to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in 1984. Since 1968, the Jets have appeared in the playoffs 13 times, however, the Jets have never returned to the Super Bowl, making them one of three NFL teams to win their lone Super Bowl appearance, along with the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The teams training facility, Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, which opened in 2008, is located in Florham Park, the first organizational meeting of the American Football League took place on August 14,1959. Wismer was granted the franchise later dubbed the Titans of New York as Wismer explained. He secured the Titans home field at the decrepit Polo Grounds, by 1962, the debt continued to mount for Wismer, forcing the AFL to assume the costs of the team until seasons end. A five-man syndicate, headed by Sonny Werblin, saved the team from certain bankruptcy, Werblin renamed the team the New York Jets since the team would play in Shea Stadium near LaGuardia Airport. The new name was intended to reflect the approach of his team. The Jets owners hired Weeb Ewbank as the manager and head coach. The early 1990s saw New York struggling, after firing coach Bruce Coslet, owner Leon Hess hired Pete Carroll who struggled to a 6–10 record and was promptly fired at the end of the season. Thereafter, Rich Kotite was selected to lead the team to victory, Kotite stepped down at the end of his second season forcing the Jets to search for a new head coach. Hess lured then-disgruntled New England Patriots head coach Bill Parcells to New York in 1997, Parcells led the team back to relevance and coached them to the AFC Championship Game in 1998. Hess died in 1999 while the team, plagued by injuries, produced an eight win record, the franchise obtained a new owner in Woody Johnson in 2000. Additionally, through the 2000s the Jets visited the five times. Rex Ryan was hired in January 2009, Ryan led the team to back-to-back AFC Championship appearances during his first two years but the team never made the playoffs again during his tenure
