1.
The Ed Sullivan Show
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The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that ran on CBS from Sunday June 20,1948, to Sunday June 6,1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, in 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the series finished No.31 in TV Guide Magazines 60 Best Series of All Time, the format was essentially the same as vaudeville, and although vaudeville had died a generation earlier, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show. The last original Sullivan show telecast was on March 28,1971, with guests Melanie, Joanna Simon, Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, repeats were scheduled through June 6,1971. While most of the episodes aired live from New York City, the show aired live on occasion from other nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia. For many years, Ed Sullivan was an event each Sunday evening. In those days, we had six acts. Then, each of our acts would do a leisurely ten minutes or so, Now they do two or three minutes. And in those early days I talked too much, I look up at me talking away and I say You fool. But I just keep on talking, Ive learned how to keep my mouth shut. The show enjoyed phenomenal popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s and he was regarded as a kingmaker, and performers considered an appearance on his program as a guarantee of stardom, although this sometimes did not turn out to be the case. The shows iconic status is illustrated by the song Hymn for a Sunday Evening from the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, in the song, a family of viewers expresses their regard for the program in worshipful tones. In September 1965, CBS started televising the program in compatible color, CBS had once backed its own color system, developed by Peter Goldmark, and resisted using RCAs compatible process until 1954. At that time, it built its first New York City color TV studio, Studio 72, in a former RKO movie theater at 2248 Broadway. One Ed Sullivan Show was broadcast on August 22,1954, from the new studio, CBS Studio 72 was demolished in 1986 and replaced by an apartment house. CBS Studio 50 was finally colorized in 1965, the 1965–66 season premiere starred the Beatles in an episode airing on September 12, which was the last episode to air in black and white. In the late 1960s, Sullivan remarked that his program was waning as the decade went on and he realized that to keep viewers, the best and brightest in entertainment had to be seen, or else the viewers were going to keep on changing the channel. Along with declining viewership, Ed Sullivan attracted a higher age for the average viewer as the seasons went on
2.
Harlem
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Harlem is a large neighborhood in the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Since the 1920s, Harlem has been known as a major African-American residential, cultural, originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlems history has been defined by a series of economic boom-and-bust cycles, African-American residents began to arrive by a lot in 1905, with numbers fed by the Great Migration. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem were the focus of the Harlem Renaissance, however, with job losses in the time of the Great Depression and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly. Harlems African-American population peaked in the 1950s, in the second half of the 20th century, Harlem became a major hub of African-American businesses. In 2008, the United States Census found that for the first time since the 1930s, less than half of residents were black, since New York Citys revival in the late 20th century, long-time residents of Harlem have been experiencing the effects of gentrification and new wealth. Harlem is located in Upper Manhattan, often referred to as Uptown by locals. Central Harlem is bounded by Fifth Avenue on the east, Central Park on the south, Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Avenue and Edgecombe Avenue on the west, and the Harlem River on the north. A chain of three large linear parks—Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park and Jackie Robinson Park—are situated on steeply rising banks, on the east, Fifth Avenue and Marcus Garvey Park, also known as Mount Morris Park, separate this area from East Harlem. The bulk of the falls under Manhattan Community Board No.10. In the late 2000s, South Harlem, emerged from area redevelopment, the West Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights comprise part of Manhattan Community Board No.9. The two neighborhoods area is bounded by Cathedral Parkway on the South, 155th Street on the North, nicholas/Bradhurst/Edgecome Avenues on the East, and Riverside Park/the Hudson River on the west. Morningside Heights is located in the southern most section of West Harlem, Manhattanville begins at roughly 123rd Street and extends northward to 135th Street. The northern most section of West Harlem is Hamilton Heights, the New York City Police Department patrols six precincts located within Harlem. The New York City Fire Department operates 9 firehouses in Harlem, as many as several hundred farmed the Harlem flatlands. Between 1637 and 1639, a few settlements were established, during the American Revolution, the British burned Harlem to the ground. It took a time to rebuild, as Harlem grew more slowly than the rest of Manhattan during the late 18th century. After the American Civil War, Harlem experienced an economic boom starting in 1868, the neighborhood continued to serve as a refuge for New Yorkers, but increasingly those coming north were poor and Jewish or Italian
3.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
4.
Ferncliff Cemetery
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Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located at 280 Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian, Ferncliff has three community mausoleums, a crematory, a small chapel, and a main office located in the rear of the main building. Ferncliff Cemetery has three community mausoleums that offer what The New York Times has described as lavish burial spaces, as of 2001, a standard crypt space in the mausoleums was priced at $15,000. The highest-priced spaces were private rooms with bronze gates, crystal chandeliers. The Ferncliff Mausoleum, aka The Cathedral of Memories, is the cemeterys oldest mausoleum and it has classic architecture, but the corridors are dark without glass panes to admit natural light. Ed Sullivan and Joan Crawford are two of the most famous interments in the main mausoleum, the Shrine of Memories is Ferncliffs second mausoleum and was constructed in 1956. Shrine of Memories is a contemporary structure than Ferncliff Mausoleum. It has many panes of glass to admit light. Basil Rathbone is one of the most famous interments in Shrine of Memories, Rosewood is Ferncliffs most recently completed community mausoleum, having been constructed in 1999. The architect of Rosewood was Joseph J. Mangan Aaliyah and her father Michael Haughton have a room in Rosewood. Cab Calloway is interred with his wife Zulme Nuffie, the cemetery is also known for its in-ground burials in sections located in front of the mausoleums. Ferncliff is one of the few cemeteries that does not permit upright headstones in its outdoor plots. All outdoor grave markers are flush with the ground and this feature facilitates maintenance of the cemetery grounds. However, there are several upright headstones that were placed before this policy was instituted, malcolm X and the most famous ground burials, in plot Pinewood B. Petilli Jr, owner of Big Apple Bus Co, david M. Potts, U. S. Congressman, House of Rep. V. Because of local ordinances, no additional crematories can be constructed in Westchester County, people whose remains were cremated at Ferncliff and whose ashes were taken somewhere else include, Alan Freed, radio DJ known as The Father of Rock & Roll. His ashes were moved to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2002 and his ashes were scattered at his Santa Fe, New Mexico, ranch. John Lennon, singer and songwriter Alan Jay Lerner, composer and playwright Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York and his ashes were scattered on his estate. S
5.
Television host
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A presenter is a person who introduces or hosts television programs. Some presenters may double as an actor, model, singer, others may be subject matter experts, such as scientists or politicians, serving as presenters for a programme about their field of expertise. Some are celebrities who have made their name in one area, another example would be American stand-up comedian Joe Rogan, who is a commentator and post-fight interviewer in UFC. The term is used in other countries including Ireland, Australia. In the US, such a person is called a host
6.
Journalist
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A journalist is a person who collects, writes, or distributes news or other current information. A journalists work is called journalism, a journalist can work with general issues or specialize in certain issues. However, most journalists tend to specialize, and by cooperating with other journalists, for example, a sports journalist covers news within the world of sports, but this journalist may be a part of a newspaper that covers many different topics. A reporter is a type of journalist who researches, writes, and reports on information in order to present in sources, conduct interviews, engage in research, and make reports. The information-gathering part of a job is sometimes called reporting. Reporters may split their time working in a newsroom and going out to witness events or interviewing people. Reporters may be assigned a beat or area of coverage. Depending on the context, the term journalist may include various types of editors, editorial writers, columnists, Journalism has developed a variety of ethics and standards. While objectivity and a lack of bias are of concern and importance, more liberal types of journalism, such as advocacy journalism and activism. This has become prevalent with the advent of social media and blogs, as well as other platforms that are used to manipulate or sway social and political opinions. These platforms often project extreme bias, as sources are not always held accountable or considered necessary in order to produce a written, nor did they often directly experience most social problems, or have direct access to expert insights. These limitations were made worse by a media that tended to over-simplify issues and to reinforce stereotypes, partisan viewpoints. As a consequence, Lippmann believed that the public needed journalists like himself who could serve as analysts, guiding “citizens to a deeper understanding of what was really important. ”Journalists sometimes expose themselves to danger. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders publish reports on press freedom, as of November 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 887 journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992 by murder, crossfire or combat, or on dangerous assignment. The ten deadliest countries for journalists since 1992 have been Iraq, Philippines, Russia, Colombia, Mexico, Algeria, Pakistan, India, Somalia, Brazil and Sri Lanka. The Committee to Protect Journalists also reports that as of December 1st 2010,145 journalists were jailed worldwide for journalistic activities. The ten countries with the largest number of currently-imprisoned journalists are Turkey, China, Iran, Eritrea, Burma, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Cuba, Ethiopia, apart from the physical harm, journalists are harmed psychologically. This applies especially to war reporters, but their offices at home often do not know how to deal appropriately with the reporters they expose to danger
7.
Columnist
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A columnist is someone who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs and they take the form of a short essay by a specific writer who offers a personal point of view. In some instances, a column has been written by a composite or a team, appearing under a pseudonym, some columnists appear on a daily or weekly basis and later reprint the same material in book collections. In some cases, such as Winchell and Parsons, their programs were quite similar in format to their newspaper columns. Rona Barrett began as a Hollywood gossip columnist in 1957, duplicating her print tactics on television by the mid-1960s, FPA and McIntyre both collected their columns into a series of books, as did other columnists. McIntyres book, The Big Town, New York Day by Day was a bestseller, fPAs The Melancholy Lute collected selections from three decades of his columns. When Smiths column, The Totem Pole, was syndicated by United Features, he told Time, a typewriter can be a pretty formidable contraption when you sit down in front of it and say, All right, now Im going to be funny. The writing of French humor columnist Alain Rémond has been collected in books, the Miami Herald promoted humor columnist Dave Barry with this description, Dave Barry has been at The Miami Herald since 1983. A Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary, he writes about issues ranging from the economy to exploding toilets. Barry has collected his columns into a series of successful books and he stopped writing his nationally syndicated weekly column in 2005, and The Miami Herald now offers on its website a lengthy selection of past columns by Barry. It has had the advantage of high-powered promotion and it is still riding on the crest of the first big wave its own splash sent out. But Mr. Davis did think that in a decade or two the newspapers might be promoting their columns along with their comic strips, the World had started the ball rolling with billboard advertising of Heywood Brouns It Seems to Me. The McNaught Syndicate was sitting pretty with O. O. McIntyre, Will Rogers, the New York Herald Tribune offered Don Marquis and Franklin P. Adams rhymed satirically in The Conning Tower for the New York World Syndicate. A Line o Type Or Two, Bert Leston Taylors verse column in the Chicago Tribune, was now being done by Richard Henry Little. Other offerings, humorous sketches by Damon Runyon, O. Henry stories, editorials by Arthur Brisbane, Ring Lardner letter, Rippling Rhymes, by Walt Mason, in at least one situation, a column expanded to become an entire successful magazine. When Cyrus Curtis founded the Tribune and Farmer in 1879, it was a weekly with an annual subscription rate of 50 cents. With 25,000 subscribers by the end of its first year, it was such a success that Curtis sold Tribune and Farmer to put his energy into the new publication, which became the Ladies Home Journal. Advice columnist Critic Editorial opinion columnist Gossip columnist Humor columnist Food columnist Food columnists of note National Society of Newspaper Columnists
8.
New York Daily News
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The New York Daily News, officially titled Daily News, is an American newspaper based in New York City. It is the fourth-most widely circulated newspaper in the United States. It was founded in 1919, and was the first U. S. daily printed in tabloid format and it is owned by Mortimer Zuckerman, and is headquartered at 4 New York Plaza in Lower Manhattan. The Daily News was founded by Joseph Medill Patterson in 1919, Patterson and his cousin, Robert R. McCormick were co-publishers of the Chicago Tribune and grandsons of Tribune founder Joseph Medill. On his way back, Patterson met with Alfred Harmsworth, who was the Viscount Northcliffe and publisher of the Daily Mirror, impressed with the advantages of a tabloid, Patterson launched the Daily News on June 26,1919. The Daily News was not a success, and by August 1919. Still, New Yorks many subway commuters found the tabloid format easier to handle, by the time of the papers first anniversary in June 1920, circulation was over 100,000 and by 1925, over a million. Circulation reached its peak in 1947, at 2.4 million daily and 4.7 million on Sunday. The Daily News carried the slogan New Yorks Picture Newspaper from 1920 to 1991, for its emphasis on photographs, and a camera has been part of the newspapers logo from day one. The papers later slogan, developed from a 1985 ad campaign, is New Yorks Hometown Newspaper, while another has been The Eyes, the Ears, the Honest Voice of New York. News-gathering operations were, for a time, organized using two-way radios, prominent sports cartoonists have included Bill Gallo, Bruce Stark and Ed Murawinski. Editorial cartoonists have included C. D. Batchelor, editions were published as extras in 1991 during the brief tenure of Robert Maxwell as publisher. In 1982, and again in the early 1990s during a newspaper strike, in the 1982 instance, the parent Tribune offered the tabloid up for sale. In 1991, millionaire Robert Maxwell offered financial assistance to The News to help it stay in business, when Maxwell died shortly thereafter, The News seceded from his publishing empire, which eventually splintered under questions about whether Maxwell had the financial backing to sustain it. After Maxwells death in 1991, the paper was held together in bankruptcy by existing management, led by editor James Willse, mort Zuckerman bought the paper in 1993. From its founding until 1991, the Daily News was owned by the Tribune Company, in 1948 The News established WPIX, whose call letters were based on The News nickname of New Yorks Picture Newspaper, and later bought what became WPIX-FM, which is now known as WFAN-FM. The News also maintains local bureaux in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, at City Hall, within One Police Plaza, in January 2012, former News of the World and New York Post editor Colin Myler was appointed editor-in-chief of the Daily News. Myler was replaced by his deputy Jim Rich in September 2015, ather than portraying New York through the partisan divide between liberals and conservatives, The News has played up the more mythic rift between the city’s fiends and heroes
9.
MTV
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MTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1,1981, the originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as video jockeys. In its early years, MTVs main target demographic was young adults and it has received criticism towards this change of focus, both by certain segments of its audience and musicians. MTVs influence on its audience, including issues involving censorship and social activism, has also been a subject of debate for several years, in recent years, MTV had struggled with the secular decline of music-related cable media. In April 2016, MTV announced it would start to return to its original music roots with the reintroduction of the classic MTV series MTV Unplugged. It was also reported that the series MTV Cribs would be making a return on Snapchat, MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the US and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. As of July 2015, approximately 92,188,000 US households have received MTV, several earlier concepts for music video-based television programming had been around since the early 1960s. The Beatles had used music videos to promote their records starting in the mid-1960s, CBS rejected the idea, but Williams premiered his own musical composition Classical Gas on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he was head writer. The series featured clips from various popular artists, but was canceled by its distributor in 1971. The channel, which featured video disc jockeys, signed a deal with US Cable in 1978 to expand its audience from retail to cable television, the service was no longer active by the time MTV launched in 1981. The QUBE system offered many specialized channels, One of these specialized channels was Sight on Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music-oriented television programs. With the interactive QUBE service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs, the original programming format of MTV was created by media executive Robert W. Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer of MTV Networks. Pittman had test-driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, the inspiration for PopClips came from a similar program on New Zealands TVNZ network named Radio with Pictures, which premiered in 1976. The concept itself had been in the works since 1966, when record companies began supplying the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation with promotional music clips to play on the air at no charge. Few artists made the trip to New Zealand to appear live. A shortened version of the shuttle launch ID ran at the top of hour in various forms. The first music video shown on MTV was The Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star and this was followed by the video for Pat Benatars You Better Run. Sporadically, the screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR, MTVs lower third graphics that appeared near the beginning and end of music videos would eventually use the recognizable Kabel typeface for about 25 years
10.
Bravo (U.S. TV network)
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Bravo is an American basic cable and satellite television network and flagship channel, launched on December 1,1980. It is owned by NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered in the Comcast Building in New York City, as of July 2015, approximately 92,295,000 American households receive Bravo. Bravo originally launched as a premium channel on December 1,1980. In 1981, Bravo was available to 48,000 subscribers throughout the United States, a 1985 profile of Bravo in The New York Times observed that most of its programming consisted of international, classic, and independent film. Celebrities such as E. G. Marshall and Roberta Peters provided opening and closing commentary to the films broadcast on the channel, performing arts programs seen on Bravo included the show Jazz Counterpoint. During the mid-1980s, Bravo converted from a service into a basic cable channel. Bravo signed a deal with Texaco in 1992 and within a month broadcast the first Texaco Showcase production. By the mid-1990s, Bravo began to incorporate more PBS-style underwriting sponsorships, in the Encyclopedia of Television, Megan Mullen perceived certain Bravo programs as considered too risky or eclectic for mainstream channels. Those programs were Karaoke and Cold Lazarus, the serials by British playwright Dennis Potter shown by Bravo in June 1997. In 1999, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired a 20% stake in the channel, NBC bought the network in 2002 for $1.25 billion, it had owned a stake in the channel and its sister networks for several years up to that point. NBCs then-parent company General Electric merged the network and its other broadcast, bravos makeover occurred in 2003 with the reality series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which garnered 3.5 million viewers. Bravo Media released its first ever scripted series Girlfriends Guide to Divorce in the half of 2014. A study released in May 2008 ranked Bravo as the most recognizable brand among gay consumers, bravos age demographic is people 18-54, according to the Cable Television Advertising Bureaus cable television profiles. The. by Bravo marketing tag will also be phased out from general use, Bravo utilizes block programming for both new shows and existing ones such as its Fashion By Bravo block. The channel carried no coverage during the 2008 games, as NBCUniversal had acquired Oxygen, during the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bravo served as the exclusive home of the entire tennis tournament. Bravo began broadcasting in the 1080i high definition format in 2007, the format is available on all major cable and satellite providers. Before Bravo broadcast in HD, the current Universal HD launched as Bravo HD+ and it had a completely different schedule than the main Bravo channel and only aired programs produced in HD. An Australian channel called Arena rebranded its on-air presentation in 2008 to align with Bravo as a result of an agreement with Bravo Media, Arena uses the now-former Bravo slogan Watch What Happens and has access to Bravo-produced programming
11.
The Comedy Channel (United States)
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The Comedy Channel was a television comedy cable channel owned by HBO, a division of Time Warner. It premiered on November 15,1989 at 6 PM ET, in 1991, HBO agreed to merge the channel with Viacoms competing channel, Ha. The new network, CTV, The Comedy Network, premiered on April 1,1991, most of the Comedy Channels original programs were produced in the HBO Downtown Studios on East 23rd Street in Manhattan. Commercial breaks often included Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey, which would later be featured on Saturday Night Live, in the early days, certain hours of the day when clips were shown without host segments were dubbed Short Attention Span Theater. In 1990, hosts under this title, Jon Stewart and Patty Rosborough, were introduced, comedian Marc Maron also hosted the series. The Comedy Channel struggled both commercially and critically, critics derided the hodgepodge of clips from films and stand-up comedy acts that filled the long gaps between original programs. The trademark was licensed to HBO just before the Ha. /Comedy Channel merger after a period of time where Shore sued HBO for trademark infringement on the Comedy Channel name
12.
Tonight Starring Steve Allen
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Tonight Starring Steve Allen was a talk show hosted by Steve Allen. It was the first version of what became known as The Tonight Show. Tonight was the first late-night talk show, as well as the first late night series of any time to achieve long-term success. Allens run as host of the show lasted for two and a half seasons, beginning in fall 1954 and ending with Allens departure in January 1957, during its run it originated from the Hudson Theatre in New York City. Originally a 40-minute local program airing from 11,20 p. m. to 12 midnight on WNBT New York as The Steve Allen Show, the program was moved to the full NBC network in the Fall of 1954. The first network episode of Tonight aired on September 27,1954, the announcer of the show was Gene Rayburn and the bandleader was Skitch Henderson. The success of the led to Allen receiving a separate weekly prime time show. Allen gave up the Monday and Tuesday shows, with guest hosts taking over for the summer of 1956, beginning that fall, Ernie Kovacs was the regular Monday and Tuesday host for the 1956–1957 season with his own cast and regulars, including his own announcer and bandleader. A kinescope of the very first episode survives and Allens opening monologue has been rebroadcast many times on Tonight Show anniversary specials, in his opening remarks, Allen makes the prescient statement that Tonight. is going to go on forever. With several hosts over the decades, it has done just that, Kovacs, instead of getting the show five nights a week, was let go, and a radical format change was made. America After Dark, was hosted first by Jack Lescoulie and then by Al Jazzbo Collins, with interviews conducted by Hy Gardner and this new version of the show was unsuccessful, resulting in a significant number of NBC affiliates dropping the show. The format returned to a comedy-oriented talk/variety program on July 29,1957, with Jack Paar being brought in to host his own version of The Tonight Show
13.
Cable television
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This contrasts with broadcast television, in which the television signal is transmitted over the air by radio waves and received by a television antenna attached to the television. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephone services, and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables, analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation. A cable channel is a television network available via cable television, alternative terms include non-broadcast channel or programming service, the latter being mainly used in legal contexts. Examples of cable/satellite channels/cable networks available in many countries are HBO, MTV, Cartoon Network, E. Eurosport, the abbreviation CATV is often used for cable television. It originally stood for Community Access Television or Community Antenna Television, in areas where over-the-air TV reception was limited by distance from transmitters or mountainous terrain, large community antennas were constructed, and cable was run from them to individual homes. The origins of cable broadcasting for radio are even older as radio programming was distributed by cable in some European cities as far back as 1924, Cable television has gone through a series of steps of evolution in the United States and Canada. Particularly in Canada, communities with their own signals were fertile cable markets, as viewers wanted to receive American signals. Early systems carried only a maximum of seven channels, using 2,4,5 or 6,7,9,11 and 13, as the equipment was unable to confine the signal discreetly within the assigned channel bandwidth. The reason 4 and 5 along with 6 and 7 could be used together was because of the 4 MHz gap between 4 and 5 and the nearly 90 MHz gap between 6 and 7. Even though eight channels are listed, in systems that maximized 7 channels. As equipment improved, all channels could be utilized, except where a local VHF television station broadcast. Local broadcast channels were not usable for signals deemed to be priority, later, the cable operators began to carry FM radio stations, and encouraged subscribers to connect their FM stereo sets to cable. Before stereo and bilingual TV sound became common, Pay-TV channel sound was added to the FM stereo cable line-ups, about this time, operators expanded beyond the 12-channel dial to use the midband and superband VHF channels adjacent to the high band 7-13 of North American television frequencies. Some operators as in Cornwall, Ontario, used a dual distribution network with Channels 2-13 on each of the two cables, during the 1980s, United States regulations not unlike public, educational, and government access created the beginning of cable-originated live television programming. These stations evolved partially into todays over-the-air digital subchannels, where a main broadcast TV station e. g, many live local programs with local interests were subsequently created all over the United States in most major television markets in the early 1980s. This evolved into todays many cable-only broadcasts of diverse programming, including cable-only produced television movies and miniseries, Cable specialty channels, starting with channels oriented to show movies and large sporting or performance events, diversified further, and narrowcasting became common. By the late 1980s, cable-only signals outnumbered broadcast signals on cable systems, by the mid-1980s in Canada, cable operators were allowed by the regulator to enter into distribution contracts with cable networks on their own. By the 1990s, tiers became common, with customers able to subscribe to different tiers to obtain different selections of additional channels above the basic selection, by subscribing to additional tiers, customers could get specialty channels, movie channels, and foreign channels
14.
TV Guide
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In 1948, he printed New York City area listings magazine The TeleVision Guide. Silent film star Gloria Swanson, who then starred of the variety series The Gloria Swanson Hour. Wagner later began publishing regional editions of The TeleVision Guide for New England, five years later, he sold the editions to Walter Annenberg, who folded it into his publishing and broadcasting company Triangle Publications, but remained as a consultant for the magazine until 1963. The national TV Guides first issue was released on April 3,1953. The inaugural cover featured a photograph of Lucille Balls newborn son Desi Arnaz, Jr. with a photo of Ball placed in the top corner under the issues headline. The magazine was published in digest size, which remained its printed format for 52 years. The launch as a magazine with local listings in April 1953 became an almost instant success, with TV Guide becoming the most read. The initial cost of issue was 15¢ per copy. In addition to subscriptions, TV Guide was sold at the counters of grocery stores nationwide. Until the 1980s, the pieces included in each issue were promoted in a television commercial. Over the decades, the shape of the TV Guide logo has changed to reflect the modernization of the television screen, at first, the logo had various colored backgrounds until the familiar red background became the standard in the 1960s with occasional changes used for special editions. The magazine was first based in an office in downtown Philadelphia, before moving to more spacious national headquarters in Radnor. The color section was sent to regional printers to be wrapped around the local listing sections. It was under Triangles ownership of WFIL-TV that Dick Clark and American Bandstand came to popularity, most listing entries in the log included program genres after the programs title, while its running time was listed in the synopses. Originally, the majority of programs listed in the log each issue featured brief synopses, except for local and national newscasts, in addition, black-and-white ads for programs scheduled to air on broadcast stations – and later, cable channels – during prime time were included within the listings. A regular feature of the section was Close-Up, which provided expanded reviews of select programs airing each day. The advent of television would become hard on TV Guide. Channels that were listed also differed, depending on the edition, as the years went on, more cable channels were added into the listings of each edition
15.
Port Chester, New York
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Port Chester (locally pronounced PORT-chester is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is part of the town of Rye, as of the 2010 census, Port Chester had a population of 28,967. The village name is pronounced with the same syllable stress pattern as that of the county which contains it, i. e. PORT ches-ter, not Port CHES-ter. Port Chester is one of only 12 villages in New York still incorporated under a charter, in 1660, three settlers from Greenwidge, Thomas Studwell, John Coe, and Peter Disbrow, arranged to buy Manursing Island and the land near the Byram River from the Mohegan Indians. The land that they bought is now Port Chester, the village was originally known as Saw Pit for the saw pits which were in use during the time. Logs were cut in holes in the ground for wood to be used for shipbuilding, the name of Sawpit was used for the first time in 1732. The village eventually outgrew this name and became Port Chester by incorporating as a village in 1868, when Port Chester was first incorporated, it was considered a major seaport. In 1665, Sawpit was claimed by both New York and Connecticut, however, the land was given back to the New York Colony by Connecticut in 1683. This struggle over the ownership of Sawpit continued for almost 105 years, in 1788, the Legislature of New York ruled that Sawpit was a part of the town of Rye in New York. Travel was considered dangerous in the years of Sawpit as good roads were hard to find. The Boston Post Road, King Street, and Grace Church streets are some of the migration paths in the Sawpit/Rye settlement. Other roads were dirt, which made transportation via water important. The local waterways, the Byram River and Long Island Sound, were a key part of the growth, early residents took part in boat building, farming, and shell fishing. As of the census of 2010, there were 28,967 people,9,240 households, the population density was 11,722.5 people per square mile. There were 10,046 housing units at a density of 4,185.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 31. 6% White,5. 3% African American,0. 2% Native American,2. 0% Asian,0. 0% Pacific Islander,0. 7% some other race, and 0. 9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 59. 4% of the population,24. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.08 and the family size was 3.54
16.
Walter Winchell
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Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator, famous for attempting to destroy the careers of people both private and public whom he disliked. Winchell was born in New York City, the son of Jennie and Jacob Winchell and he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in Gus Edwardss vaudeville troupe known as Newsboys Sextet. He began his career in journalism by posting notes about his acting troupe on backstage bulletin boards and he joined the Vaudeville News in 1920, then left the paper for the Evening Graphic in 1924, where his column was named Mainly About Mainstreeters. He was hired on June 10,1929 by the New York Daily Mirror where he became the author of the first syndicated gossip column. The column was syndicated by King Features Syndicate and he used connections in the entertainment, social, and governmental realms to expose exciting or embarrassing information about celebrities in those industries. He used this power, trading positive mention in his column for more rumors and he made his radio debut over WABC in New York, a CBS affiliate, on May 12,1930. The show entitled Saks on Broadway was a 15-minute feature that provided news about Broadway. He switched to WJZ and the NBC Blue in 1932 for the Jergens Journal and he fled to California and returned weeks later with a new enthusiasm for law, G-men, Uncle Sam, Old Glory. His coverage of the Lindbergh kidnapping and subsequent trial received national attention, within two years, he befriended J. Edgar Hoover, the No.2 G-man of the repeal era. He was responsible for turning Louis Lepke Buchalter of Murder, Inc. over to Hoover and his newspaper column was syndicated in over 2,000 newspapers worldwide, and he was read by 50 million people a day from the 1920s until the early 1960s. His Sunday night radio broadcast was heard by another 20 million people from 1930 to the late 1950s, in 1948, Winchell had the top-rated radio show when he surpassed Fred Allen and Jack Benny. One example of his profile at his peak was being mentioned in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Harts 1937 song The Lady Is a Tramp, She follows Winchell. Winchell was Jewish and was one of the first commentators in America to attack Adolf Hitler and American pro-fascist and he was a staunch supporter of President Franklin D. K. Smith, whom he denounced as Gerald Lucifer KKKodfish Smith. After World War II, Winchell began to denounce Communism as the threat facing America. During World War II, he attacked the National Maritime Union, in 1948 and 1949, he and influential leftist columnist Drew Pearson inaccurately and maliciously assaulted Secretary of Defense James Forrestal in columns and radio broadcasts. His weekly radio broadcast was simulcast on ABC television until he ended that association because of a dispute with ABC executives in 1955, ABC re-hired him in 1959 to narrate The Untouchables for four seasons. Winchell had angered Paar several years earlier when he refused to retract an item alleging that Paar was having marital difficulties, on subsequent programs, Paar called Winchell a silly old man and cited other examples of his underhanded tactics. No one had previously dared criticize Winchell publicly, but by then his influence had eroded to the point that he could not effectively respond
17.
Mr. Broadway (1933 film)
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Mr. Broadway is a 1933 American Pre-Code comedy film written by Abel Green and Ed Sullivan. The film was directed by Johnnie Walker who was also a silent film actor and producer and it was shot in New York City. The plot involves a reporter gathering material for his column. The plot was patterned on a film by columnist Walter Winchell. The Sullivan film primarily serves as a vehicle for him to viewers to various trendy New York nightclubs to watch celebrities. Ulmer, titled Loves Interlude or The Warning Shadow, and begun in 1932 at Peerless Productions, Mr. Broadway at the Internet Movie Database Mr. Broadway at AllMovie
18.
El Morocco
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El Morocco was a 20th-century Manhattan nightclub frequented by the rich and famous from the 1930s until the decline of café society in the late 1950s. It was famous for its blue zebra-stripe motif and its official photographer, after prohibition was repealed, it became one of the most popular establishments in New York City. Its regular clientele consisted of fashionable society, politicians, and entertainers, part of what made the club the place to be was the photographs taken by Jerome Zerbe which were always in the news the next day. Everyone always knew from the background zebra stripes on the banquettes where the celebrities had been, Perona died in 1961, and his son, Edwin took over the proprietorship. Later that year, Edwin Perona sold the club to John Mills and it was then owned by Maurice Uchitel and Sheldon Hazeltine. Before taking over El Morocco, Uchitel owned the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach for several years, in 1981, the Second Avenue wing operated briefly as a steakhouse. In 1992, it operated as a topless bar, in 1997, Desmond Wootton bought the property and opened the Night Owls nightclub. The site is now occupied by the Milan Condominium, setting for the second scene in the 1973 Arthur Laurents film The Way We Were. Katie Morosky spots a nodding-off Hubbell Gardiner at the bar, flashback ensues, fictionalized version of club featuring distinctive zebra striped banquettes featured in Woody Allen movie Cafe Society 2016 Notes Bibliography Beebe, Lucius. John Peronas El Morocco Family Album, ghosts of El Morocco, Laura Shaine Cunningham, The New York Times, September 4,2004 Angelo Zuccotti,89, Artist of the Velvet Rope, Thomas, Robert, Jr
19.
Stork Club
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The Stork Club was a nightclub in Manhattan, New York City, which during its existence from 1929 to 1965 was one of the most prestigious clubs in the world. A symbol of café society, the elite, including movie stars, celebrities, showgirls. The club was established on West 58th Street in 1929 by Sherman Billingsley, after an incident when Billingsley was kidnapped and held for ransom by Mad Dog Coll, a rival of his mobster partners, he became the sole owner of the Stork Club. The club remained at its location until it was raided by Prohibition agents in 1931. After the raid, it moved to East 51st Street, from 1934 until its closure in 1965, it was located at 3 East 53rd Street, just east of Fifth Avenue, when it became world-renowned with its celebrity clientele and luxury. Billingsley was known for his gifts, which brought a steady stream of celebrities to the club. Until World War II, the club consisted of a room and bar with restrooms on upper floors with many mirrors. Billingsley originally built the well-known Cub Room as a place where he could play cards with friends. Described as an oval, the room had wood paneled walls hung with portraits of beautiful women and had no windows. A head waiter known as Saint Peter determined who was allowed entry to the Cub Room, during the years of its operation, the club was visited by many political, social and celebrity figures. It counted among its guests the Kennedy and Roosevelt families, the news of Grace Kellys engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco broke while the couple were visiting the Stork Club. Socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, owner of the Hope Diamond, once lost the gem under a Stork Club table during a visit to the club. Ernest Hemingway was able to cash his $100,000 check for the rights of For Whom the Bell Tolls at the Stork Club to settle his bill. In the 1940s, workers of the Stork Club desired to be represented by a union, and by 1957, however, Billingsley was still unwilling to allow his workers to organize, which led to union supporters picketing in front of the club for many years until its closure. During this time, many of the celebrity and non-celebrity guests stopped visiting the Stork Club. The site is now the location of Paley Park, a small vest-pocket park, the Stork Club was owned and operated by Sherman Billingsley an ex-bootlegger who came to New York from Enid, Oklahoma. The Stork Club first opened in 1929 at 132 West 58th Street, the origin of the name of the club is unknown, Billingsley once remarked, Dont ask me how or why I picked the name, because I just dont remember. New York Citys El Morocco had the sophistication and Toots Shors drew the crowd, but the Stork Club mixed power, money
20.
Silver Theater (radio program)
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For the television series of the same name, see The Silver Theatre. Silver Theater was a dramatic anthology series in the United States. Originating in Hollywood, California, it was carried on CBS, first broadcast October 3,1937, its last broadcast was August 17,1947. Originally, Silver Theater featured movie stars, primarily in original dramas, in a reversal of the customary trend, some original dramas from Silver Theater were purchased for use in movies. In 1947, when the program was broadcast as a replacement series. In 1941, the Summer Silver Theater was a variety program, with Ed Sullivan as host, a guest star featured each week. By its nature, Hollywood Star Playhouse had no regular cast, different movie stars of the era were featured, as indicated in the sampling of episodes and stars listed below. One continuing presence was that of the host, who was referred to as the director on the air, conrad Nagel was the initial host. John Loder replaced him in the early 1940s, announcers over the programs lifetime were John Conte, Dick Joy, Henry Charles, Roger Krupp, Jack Bailey, and Harry Bartell. The sponsor, International Silver Company, launched the program by inviting couples married 25 years or more to the CBS studio for the initial broadcast on October 3,1937, International Silver apparently chose well in selecting Silver Theater as a vehicle for advertising. The companys satisfaction with increased sales was such that CBS ran an advertisement in the March 1,1940. The ad quoted comments from International Silver, After thirteen weeks on CBS, by radio than with the printed page. After three years on CBS, ubstantial increase in sales for every year we have been on the air. As the ad continued, it noted that Silver Theater had become popular over those three years and that as the popularity of the program has increased, sales of 1847 Rogers Bros. have increased. CBS also produced a brochure showing success of the Silver Theatre, International Silver of Canada, counterpart of Silver Theaters sponsor, had its own version of the program on the CBC in 1941. The program bore little resemblance to its American counterpart and lasted for only 10 episodes, loves new sweet song, a story from Silver Theater, was printed in the January 1942 issue of Radio and Television Mirror. Stronger than Steel, a story from Silver Theater, was printed in the December 1941 issue of Radio, Episodes of Silver Theater from Internet Archive Episodes of Silver Theater from Old Time Radio Researchers Group
21.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
22.
Will Bradley
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Wilbur Schwichtenberg was an American trombonist and bandleader who also performed under the name Will Bradley. He was known for swing and sweet music, as well as boogie woogie songs. Born in Newton, New Jersey, Bradley was raised in Washington, Schwichtenberg was one of the premier trombonists on the New York swing scene, and he often participated in jam sessions broadcast on The CBS Saturday Night Swing Club. In 1939 he and drummer Ray McKinley formed a big band, the Bradley band became well known for boogie-woogie, particularly its hit record, Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar with Freddie Slack on piano. Down the Road a Piece was recorded with a trio called the Will Bradley Trio, made up of McKinley, Doc Goldberg. Will Bradley was one of the first band-leaders who appeared in Soundies, bradleys films, made in late 1940, were widely distributed and gave the Bradley band valuable exposure. Drummer Ray McKinley did most of the vocals, in 1942 McKinley left to form his own band and a few months after joined the United States Air Force, where he played in the Glenn Miller Air Force band. Bradley tried to maintain his band, but problems caused by the war forced Bradley to disband, Bradley became a studio musician, and played for many years in the The Tonight Show Band during the Johnny Carson era. He died on July,15,1989, in Flemington, New Jersey, three days after his 77th birthday Bradley was the band-leader for the Summer Silver Theater on CBS in 1941, with Ruth Brown Ruth Brown With Charlie Parker Big Band
23.
Cole Porter
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Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre, after a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics, as well as the music, after a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the hits of his best work of the 1920s and 30s. It won the first Tony Award for Best Musical, Porters other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady, Anything Goes, Can-Can and Silk Stockings. His numerous hit songs include Night and Day, Begin the Beguine, I Get a Kick Out of You, Well, Ive Got You Under My Skin, My Heart Belongs to Daddy and Youre the Top. Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, the surviving child of a wealthy family. His father, Samuel Fenwick Porter, was a druggist by trade and his mother, Kate, was the indulged daughter of James Omar J. O. Cole, the richest man in Indiana, a coal and timber speculator who dominated the family. J. O. Cole built the couple a home on his Peru-area property, after high school, Porter returned to the property only for occasional visits. Porters strong-willed mother doted on him and began his training at an early age. He learned the violin at age six, the piano at eight and she falsified his recorded birth year, changing it from 1891 to 1893 to make him appear more precocious. His father, who was a shy and unassertive man, played a role in Porters upbringing, although as an amateur poet, he may have influenced his sons gifts for rhyme. Porters father also had talent as a vocalist and pianist. J. O. Cole wanted his grandson to become a lawyer, Porter brought an upright piano with him to school and found that music, and his ability to entertain, made it easy for him to make friends. Porter did well in school and rarely came home to visit and he became class valedictorian and was rewarded by his grandfather with a tour of France, Switzerland and Germany. Entering Yale University in 1909, Porter majored in English, minored in music and he was a member of Scroll and Key and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and contributed to campus humor magazine The Yale Record. Porter wrote 300 songs while at Yale, including student songs such as the fight songs Bulldog
24.
Ed Sullivan Theater
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The Ed Sullivan Theater, located at 1697–1699 Broadway between West 53rd and West 54th, in the Theater District in Manhattan, is a venerable radio and television studio in New York City. The theater has been used as a venue for live and taped CBS broadcasts since 1936 and it is historically known as the home of The Ed Sullivan Show and the site of The Beatles US debut performance. It has also housed David Lettermans tenure of CBS Late Show from 1993 to 2015, the theatre currently houses The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the second incarnation of the Late Show franchise. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the interior has been designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the 13-story, brown brick and terra cotta office building with a ground-floor theater was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp. It was built by Arthur Hammerstein between 1925 and 1927, and was named Hammersteins Theatre after his father, Oscar Hammerstein I, the original neo-Gothic interior contained pointed-arch stained-glass windows with scenes from the elder Hammersteins operas. Its first production was the three-hour musical Golden Dawn, the male lead of which was Cary Grant, then still using his birth name. Arthur Hammerstein went bankrupt in 1931, and lost ownership of the building and it later went by the name Manhattan Theatre, Billy Roses Music Hall, and the Manhattan once again. In the 1930s, it became a nightclub, after CBS obtained a long-term lease on the property, the radio network began broadcasting from there in 1936, moving in broadcast facilities it had leased at NBC Studios in Radio City. The debut broadcast was the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, the theater had various names during the networks tenancy, including Radio Theater #3 and the CBS Radio Playhouse. It was converted for television in 1950, when it became CBS-TV Studio 50, in the early and mid-Fifties, the theater played host to many of the live telecasts of The Jackie Gleason Show. The theater was renamed for Sullivan at the end of his 20th Anniversary Celebration telecast on December 10,1967. In the 1960s, Studio 50 was one of CBS busiest stages, not only for Sullivans program but also for The Merv Griffin Show, as well as several game shows. In 1965, Studio 50 was converted to color, and the first color episode of The Ed Sullivan Show originated from the theater on October 31,1965, the first episode of regular color telecasts of Whats My Line. was broadcast live on September 11,1966. Line and Truth remained at Studio 50 even after they moved from CBS to first-run syndication in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Ed Sullivan Theater was also the first home for The $10,000 Pyramid, with its huge end-game board set at the rear of the stage, in 1973. Other short-lived game shows produced at the Ed included Musical Chairs with singer Adam Wade, Shoot For The Stars with Geoff Edwards, the CBS lease on the building expired in 1981 and it became a Reeves Entertainment teletape facility. As such it hosted the sitcom Kate & Allie, which ran from 1984 to 1989, in 1990, David Niles/1125 Productions signed onto the lease, with the theater to house his HDTV studio and new Broadway show Dreamtime. On October 17,1992, an NBC special celebrating Phil Donahues 25 years on television taped in the theater, the following month, NBC News used the theater for its November 1992 election night coverage
25.
Late Show with David Letterman
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Late Show with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the Late Show franchise. The show debuted on August 30,1993, and was produced by Lettermans production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated, the shows music director and leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, was Paul Shaffer. The head writer was Matt Roberts and the announcer was Alan Kalter, of the major U. S. late-night programs, Late Show ranked second in cumulative average viewers over time and third in number of episodes over time. In most U. S. markets the show aired from 11,35 p. m. to 12,37 a. m. Eastern and Pacific Time, and recorded Monday through Wednesdays at 4,30 p. m. the second Thursday episode usually aired on Friday of that week. In 2002, Late Show with David Letterman was ranked No.7 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. As host of both Late Night and Late Show for more than 30 years, Letterman surpassed Johnny Carson as the longest running talk show host in 2013. That same year, Late Night and Late Show were ranked at #41 on TV Guides 60 Best Series of All Time, in 2014, Letterman announced his retirement and the final episode of Late Show aired on May 20,2015. The show was succeeded by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, hosted by Stephen Colbert. For most of the 20 years preceding Late Show, CBSs late night fare consisted of movies, reruns and specialty programming packaged under the title CBS Late Night and broadcast to middling ratings. When David Letterman became available following a conflict with NBC, CBS was eager to lure him and offered him a three-year, $14 million per year contract, according to their agreement, the show would spend a month in Hollywood at least once a year. CBS purchased the Ed Sullivan Theater for $4 million, spending several million to renovate it, the renovation was supervised by architect James Polshek. CBS total cost for acquiring the show including renovations, negotiation rights paid to NBC, signing Letterman, announcer Bill Wendell, Shaffer, the writers and the band was over $140 million. A significant issue regarding Lettermans move to CBS was the ownership of long-running comedy bits used on Late Night, NBC claimed that much of what he did on Late Night was intellectual property of the network. Ultimately a compromise was reached in key areas, NBC gave Letterman the choice of at least two options to name his new show, Late Show with David Letterman or Nightly with David Letterman. On this matter CBS executives stepped in, rejecting Nightly in part because of confusion with Nightline on ABC. Thus, Late Show with David Letterman quickly became the official title, after Letterman was introduced on Late Shows very first episode, NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw accompanied him on stage and wished him reasonably well. As part of an act, Brokaw then proceeded to retrieve a pair of cue cards while stating that These last two jokes are the intellectual property of NBC
26.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is an American late-night talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8,2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Television Studios, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is the iteration of CBSs Late Show franchise. Stay Human, led by bandleader Jon Batiste, serves as the house band. Prior to Colberts assumption of hosting duties, David Letterman had been host of Late Show for 22 years, CBS had not had a regular late-night talk show for most of its existence prior to that point, with only one attempt between 1972 and Lettermans arrival. According to TV by the Numbers, in February 2013, the ratings for Lettermans Late Show averaged about 3.1 million per show for the 2012–13 season to date. A year later, average viewership was down to 2.8 million, in addition, Colberts previous program did well among college students and young men 18-34, which are prime target audiences for late-night comedy programming. On April 3,2014, Letterman announced his retirement, with his episode as host of Late Show scheduled for May 20,2015. On April 10,2014, CBS announced Stephen Colbert as Lettermans successor, in contrast with Colberts previous program The Colbert Report, in which he played a fictionalized version of himself, Colbert hosts the show as himself. This came after the announcement the character would not be used after the end of The Colbert Report, the final episode of the Report aired on December 18,2014. On July 23,2014, CBS announced that Late Show would continue to be produced at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York when Colbert takes over. Jonathan Batiste was announced as the bandleader on June 4,2015, throughout the remainder of the summer, videos would continue to be released through the shows official YouTube channel and mobile app. On July 1,2015, Colbert hosted an edition of a public access program in Monroe, Michigan. Colbert has been given control of the show, with little interference from CBS management in regard to format. Colbert no longer uses the character he had portrayed on The Colbert Report, the 1993 restoration project for Letterman was only done on a few months notice after the theater was repurchased in February 1993 by CBS. The Hollywood Reporter believed that Lichts experience in news programming would be leveraged to complement Colberts strengths in topical, during the opening sequence in a voice-over, Jen Spyra, announces the nights guests. Along with scenes of New York City at night including Yankee Stadium, Times Square and this structure is similar to the openings of other late-night shows such as The Tonight Show or Late Night. Similar to The Colbert Report, graphics that resemble the American Flag have also been added, the open is followed by an extended fake news style desk sequence with a run-through of recent headlines, in a manner reminiscent of television newscasts and that of The Colbert Report. Also, the show follows the basic format as other late-night talk shows including the use of sketch comedy, guest interviews
27.
Easter Island
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Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle. Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, in 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park. However, human activity, the introduction of the Polynesian rat, by the time of European arrival in 1722, the islands population had dropped to 2, 000–3,000 from an estimated high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier. European diseases and Peruvian slave raiding in the 1860s further reduced the Rapa Nui population, Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Easter Island is a territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888. Administratively, it belongs to the Valparaíso Region, and, more specifically, according to the 2012 Chilean census, the island has about 5,800 residents, of whom some 60 percent are descendants of the aboriginal Rapa Nui. Easter Island is considered part of Insular Chile, the islands official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means Easter Island. However, Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl argued that Rapa was the name of Easter Island. William Churchill inquired about the phrase and was told there were three te pito o te henua, these being the three capes of the island. The phrase appears to have used in the same sense as the designation of Lands End at the tip of Cornwall. He was unable to elicit a Polynesian name for the island itself, according to Barthel, oral tradition has it that the island was first named Te pito o te kainga a Hau Maka The little piece of land of Hau Maka. However, there are two words pronounced pito in Rapa Nui, one meaning end and one navel, and the phrase can also mean the Navel of the World. This was apparently its actual meaning, French ethnologist Alphonse Pinart gave it the actual translation the Navel of the World, another name, Mata ki te rangi, means Eyes looking to the sky. Islanders are referred to in Spanish as pascuense, however it is common to refer to members of the community as Rapa Nui. Estimated dates of initial settlement of Easter Island have ranged from 300 to 1200, rectifications in radiocarbon dating have changed almost all of the previously posited early settlement dates in Polynesia. Rapa Nui is now considered to have settled in the narrower range of 700 to 1100 CE. Significant ecological impacts and major cultural investments in monumental architecture and statuary thus began soon after initial settlement, according to oral tradition, the first settlement was at Anakena. The island was most likely populated by Polynesians who navigated in canoes or catamarans from the Gambier Islands or the Marquesas Islands,3,200 km away
28.
Carmen Miranda
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Carmen Miranda, GCIH • OMC was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress, and film star who was popular from the 1930s to the 1950s. Nicknamed The Brazilian Bombshell, Carmen Miranda is noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in her American films, as a young woman, Miranda worked in a boutique designing hats before ultimately recording her first album with composer Josué de Barros in 1929. Throughout the 1930s, Miranda performed on Brazilian radio stations and appeared in five Brazilian sound films known as chanchadas, which celebrated Brazilian music, dance, and carnival culture. In 1939, Lee Shubert, a Broadway businessman, offered Carmen Miranda an eight-week contract to perform in The Streets of Paris on Broadway after seeing her at Cassino da Urca, in Rio de Janeiro. In 1940, she made her first Hollywood film, Down Argentine Way, with Don Ameche and Betty Grable, her exotic clothing and Latin accent became her trademark. In the same year, she was voted the third most popular personality in the United States and was invited to sing and dance for President Franklin Roosevelt, along with her group, Bando da Lua. In 1943, Miranda starred in Busby Berkleys The Gangs All Here, by 1945, she was the highest paid woman in the United States. Miranda made a total of fourteen Hollywood films between 1940 and 1953, though hailed as a talented performer, her popularity waned by the end of World War II. She later grew to resent the stereotypical Brazilian Bombshell image she cultivated and attempted to free of it with limited success. Carmen Miranda was the first Latin American star to be invited to imprint her hands and feet in the courtyard of Graumans Chinese Theatre and she became the first South American to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is considered the precursor of Brazils Tropicalismo cultural movement of the 1960s, a museum was later constructed in Rio de Janeiro in her honor, and in 1995 she was the subject of the acclaimed documentary Carmen Miranda, Bananas is My Business. Carmen Miranda was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha in Várzea da Ovelha e Aliviada and she was the second daughter of José Maria Pinto da Cunha and Maria Emília Miranda. In 1909 when she was ten months old, her father emigrated alone to Brazil and settled in Rio de Janeiro and her mother followed in 1910 with their daughters Olinda and Maria do Carmo. Maria do Carmo, later Carmen, never returned to Portugal, in Brazil, her parents had four more children, Amaro, Cecília, Aurora and Óscar. She was christened Carmen by her father because of his love for the opera comique and this passion for opera influenced his children, and Mirandas love for singing and dancing at an early age. She went to school at the Convent of Saint Therese of Lisieux and her father did not approve of her plans to enter show business. However, her mother supported her and was beaten when her husband discovered Miranda had auditioned for a radio show and she had previously sung at parties and festivals in Rio. Her older sister Olinda contracted tuberculosis and was sent to Portugal for treatment, Miranda went to work in a tie shop at age 14 to help pay her sisters medical bills
29.
Fred Allen
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Roosevelt and novelists William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and Herman Wouk. Allen was honored with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for contributions to television, John Florence Sullivan was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Irish Catholic parents. Allen barely knew his mother, Cecilia Herlihy Sullivan, who died of pneumonia when he was not quite three years old and his father was so shattered by his mothers death that, according to Allen, he drank more heavily. Eventually, Allens father remarried and offered his sons the choice between coming with him and his new wife or staying with Aunt Lizzie, Allens younger brother chose to go with their father, but Allen decided to stay with his aunt. I never regretted it, he wrote, Allen took piano lessons as a boy, his father having brought an Emerson upright along when they moved in with his aunt. He learned exactly two songs – Hiawatha and Pitter, Patter, Little Raindrops – and would be asked to play half or all my repertoire when visitors came to the house. He also worked at the Boston Public Library, where he discovered a book about the origin, enduring various upheavals at home, Allen also took up juggling while learning as much as possible about comedy. Some library co-workers planned to put on a show and asked him to do a bit of juggling and some of his comedy. When a girl in the crowd told him, Youre crazy to keep working here at the library, you ought to go on stage, in 1914 at the age of 20 he took a job with a local piano company, in addition to his library work. Eventually he became Freddy James, often billing himself as the worlds worst juggler, Allen refined the mix of his deliberately clumsy juggling and the standard jokes and one-liners, directing much of the humor at his own poor juggling abilities. During a ten-year world tour, his vaudeville act evolved towards more monologue comedy, the Allen came from Edgar Allen, a booker for the Fox theaters. In 1922, Allen commissioned comic-strip artist Martin Branner to cover a theater curtain with a mural painting depicting a cemetery with a punchline on each gravestone. This was the Old Joke Cemetery, where overworked gags go to die, in Allens act, the audiences would see the curtain before Allen made his entrance. Audiences typically would be laughing at the curtain before Allen even appeared, Robert Taylors biography of Allen includes an impressive full-length photo of Branners curtain painting, and many of the punchlines are clearly legible in the photo. Allen used a variety of gimmicks in his act, from a ventriloquist dummy to juggling to singing, but the focus was always on his comedy. One recurring bit was to read a letter from home with material such as the following, The man next door has bought pigs. Your father had a fight with him about it. It didnt bother your father, he is deaf in that ear
30.
Alan King (comedian)
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Alan King was an American actor and comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. King became well known as a Jewish comedian and satirist and he was also a serious actor who appeared in a number of movies and television shows. King wrote several books, produced films, and appeared in plays, in later years, he helped many philanthropic causes. The youngest of 8 children, King was born in New York City, New York, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants Minnie and Bernard Kniberg and he spent his first years on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Later, Kings family moved to Brooklyn, King used humor to survive in the tough neighborhoods. As a child, King performed impersonations on street corners for pennies, when he was fourteen, King performed Brother, Can You Spare A Dime on the radio program Major Bowes Amateur Hour. He lost first prize, but was invited to join a nationwide tour, at fifteen, King dropped out of high school to perform comedy at the Hotel Gradus in the Catskill Mountains. He later worked in Canada in a house while also fighting as a professional boxer. He won twenty straight fights before losing, nursing a broken nose, King decided to quit boxing and focus on his comedy career. King began working as a doorman at the popular nightclub Leon and Eddies while performing comedy under the last name of the boxer who beat him, King began his comedy career with one-liner routines and other material concerning mothers-in-law and Jews. His style of comedy changed when he saw Danny Thomas performing in the early 1950s, King realized that Thomas was talking to his audience, not at them, and was getting a better response. King changed his own style from one-liners to a conversational style that used everyday life for humor. His comedy inspired other such as Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Billy Crystal, Robert Klein. King married Jeanette Sprung in 1947 and they had three children, Andrew, Robert, and Elainie Ray. His wife persuaded him to move to Forest Hills, Queens for their children, and later, to Great Neck, Long Island, there, he developed comedy revolving around life in suburbia. With America moving to suburbs, Kings humor took off and he began opening for celebrities including Judy Garland, Patti Page, Nat King Cole, Billy Eckstine, Lena Horne and Tony Martin. When Martin was cast in the movie Hit the Deck, he suggested King for a part, King played small roles in movies in the 1950s, but disliked playing stereotypical roles that he described as always the sergeant from Brooklyn named Kowalski. King eventually expanded his range and made a name for himself in a variety of films
31.
Vaudeville
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Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, a typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a vaudevillian, Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called the heart of American show business, vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades, the origin of this term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the French expression voix de ville. A second speculation is that it comes from the songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin. Some, however, preferred the term variety to what manager Tony Pastor called its sissy. Thus, vaudeville was marketed as variety well into the 20th century, with its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment. The form gradually evolved from the saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as Polite Vaudeville, in the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere, in the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found a number of ways to be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns, a significant influence also came from Dutch minstrels and comedians. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in Americas growing urban hubs, pastors experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit. B. F. Keith took the step, starting in Boston. Later, E. F. Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudevilles greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years, Albee also gave national prominence to vaudevilles trumpeting polite entertainment, a commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men, women and children. Acts that violated this ethos were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the remaining performances or were canceled altogether
32.
Topo Gigio
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Topo Gigio was the lead character of a childrens puppet show on Italian and Spanish television in the early 1960s. The character, created in 1958 by artist Maria Perego, debuted on Italian television in 1959 and has been voiced by actor Giuseppe Peppino Mazzullo. The Italian nickname Gigi is a derivative of Luigi, so Topo Gigio could be translated as Louie Mouse, in 1963, the characters popularity spread to the world after being featured on The Ed Sullivan Show in the US. Today, Topo Gigio still has a cohort of faithful fans and he performs regularly at Zecchino dOro festival and other programs created by Antoniano and RAI. In 1965, a motion picture The Magic World of Topo Gigio was released internationally. The puppet made several appearances on UK TV on ITVs Sunday Night at the London Palladium in the 1960s, Topo Gigio was created in 1958, by the artist Madame Maria Perego, and starred in a childrens television show in Italy, in the early 1960s. He remains a fixture of Italian pop culture and still performs regularly at festivals in Italy and he was immensely popular in his home country and became a worldwide sensation after his recurring appearance, beginning in 1963, on The Ed Sullivan Show, in the United States. Created by a troupe of Italian puppeteers, it took four people to bring the 10-inch-tall character to life, each puppeteer operated a different part of Gigios foam rubber body by using several wooden dowel rods. In more than fifty appearances on the show, the mouse would appear on stage and greet Sullivan with, Hello, Gigio would occasionally talk about his girlfriend, Rosie. Gigio ended his weekly visits by crooning to the host, Eddie, Topo Gigio closed Sullivans final show in 1971. During the first half of the 1960s, Topo Gigio also appeared in a TV music show presented by the British singer Chris Howland, also in the early 1960s, in Austria, Mike Molto had a special small show to help the advertising industry. In Spanish America, Topo Gigio became a hit in 1968, widely remembered even now, featuring Braulio Castillo, Raúl Astor. The show was produced in Peru and then in Mexico, the character still appears in Italian and Spanish speaking territories. The character was introduced in Japan, South America. Topo Gigio, a Japanese animated television series produced by Nippon Animation and he is the spokes-mouse for the United Nations. Topo Gigio has been the mascot of the Uruguayan club Huracán Buceo since 1968. In the syndicated comic strip 9 Chickweed Lane, on July 16,2008, another mention occurs in the film The Santa Clause. When Scott Calvin is giving alternative names for Santa Claus to the officer in the interrogation scene
33.
John Byner
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John Byner is an American actor, comedian, and impressionist who has had a lengthy television and movie career. His voice work includes the cartoon series The Ant and the Aardvark, in which the characters are voiced by Byners impressions of Dean Martin and Jackie Mason. Byner was born John Biener in New York City, the son of Christina, a hospital attendant, and Michael Biener. On The Ed Sullivan Show, where he made his first early TV appearances, he mimicked Ed Sullivan as well as anyone, including the master Sullivan impersonator and his other impressions included John Wayne and he sings as Dean Martin and Johnny Mathis. His ability to mimic Toastmaster General George Jessel came in handy during his appearances on programs such as celebrity roasts. On a 1967 episode of Get Smart, he played a KAOS agent who made a call to the Chief of CONTROL. Johnson, and told the Chief he was fired and replaced with agent Maxwell Smart, Smart, the Chief and Agent 99 foiled this plot to undermine CONTROL, and Byners character was arrested. In 1970, he hosted 22 episodes of a syndicated half-hour musical variety series called Something Else and he then hosted his own show in 1972 called the John Byner Comedy Hour, where the character Super Dave was first introduced. Also that year, he had an appearance in Barbra Streisands Whats Up. In the mid-1970s, he guest starred in two episodes of The Odd Couple one titled, The New Car, which aired on October 19,1973. In it, he plays an abrasive parking garage owner who has an encounter with Felix. He had a role in the situation comedy The Practice during its first season in the spring of 1976. In the late 1970s, he had a role as Detective Donahue on the TV series Soap. He was cast in Happy Days as Mork from Ork, but found the role ridiculous, robin Williams was called in at the last minute, and this proved to be a career-making part for the comedian. In the 1970s Byner appeared several times on The Carol Burnett Show and he also appeared several times on David Letterman. In the 1980s, he hosted Bizarre, which re-introduced many people to hapless daredevil Super Dave Osborne played by Bob Einstein, in 1983 he had a role as Doc, who was Burt Reynolds longtime childhood friend in the movie Stroker Ace. In 1985, Disneys animated feature The Black Cauldron was released, featuring Byner voicing the characters Gurgi and he was a regular celebrity guest on Hollywood Squares during the John Davidson years and later hosted the 1988-89 syndicated game show Relatively Speaking. He appeared in an episode of Friday the 13th, The Series as a washed-up ventriloquist, a Wish for Wings That Work animated special, voice of Bill the Cat The Simpsons as Zorro he was in The Poke of Zorro
34.
Frank Gorshin
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Frank John Gorshin, Jr. was an American character actor, impressionist, and comedian. He was perhaps best known as an impressionist, with many guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and his most famous acting role was as The Riddler on the live-action television series Batman. Gorshin was born on April 5,1933, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Catholic parents Frances, a seamstress and his father, Frank Sr. was a second-generation Slovenian-American whose parents emigrated to America from Slovenia. His mother, Frances or Fanny, née Prešeren, came to the United States as a girl from Regrča Vas, near Novo Mesto. Both of his parents were active in Pittsburghs Slovenian community and they sang in the Slovenian Singing Society Prešeren, named after the great Slovenian poet France Prešeren. In an interview, Frances said that her son, being the product of a Slovenian home, at the age of 15, he took a part-time job as a cinema usher at the Sheridan Square Theatre. He memorized the mannerisms of the stars he saw and created an impressionist act. His parents insisted that he take the engagement, even though his 15-year-old brother had been hit by a car, after graduation from Peabody High School, Gorshin attended the Carnegie Tech School of Drama in Pittsburgh. When not studying, he worked in local plays and nightclubs, in 1953, Gorshin was drafted into the United States Army and posted to Germany. He served for a year and a half as an attached to Special Services. While in the Army, Gorshin met Maurice Bergman, who introduced him to Hollywood agent Paul Kohner. Gorshins Army service record was destroyed in the U. S. National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973. When Gorshin left the Army, he returned to public performance, in 1959, he was cast in three episodes as Seaman Pulaski on Jackie Coopers CBS military sitcom/drama, Hennesey. Thereafter, Gorshin played roles in ABCs crime drama The Untouchables and he guest-starred twelve times on CBSs The Ed Sullivan Show, the first having been on February 9,1964, the same night that The Beatles and Davy Jones debuted. In 1965 Gorshin had a guest star role in the running series COMBAT. in which he played Pvt. Gorshin was an act at nightclubs, notably those of Las Vegas. He was also the first impressionist headliner at the Empire Room of New Yorks Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, among his most popular impressions were of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, as well as Marlon Brando. Gorshins slender athletic build, wide mouth, and pale eyes under strong brows were ideal characteristics for screen henchmen, in 1957, he fell asleep at the wheel of his car after driving from Pittsburgh for thirty-nine hours without sleep and subsequently, the vehicle crashed
35.
Rich Little
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Richard Caruthers Rich Little is a Canadian-American impressionist and voice actor, nicknamed The Man of a Thousand Voices by voice actor Mel Blanc. Little was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the middle of three sons of Lawrence Peniston Little, a doctor, and Elizabeth Maud and they were performing professionally in night clubs by age 17. Little was an usher at the Elgin Movie Theatre in Ottawa and he started his amateur acting career at Ottawas Little Theatre, winning his first acting award at the Eastern Ontario Drama Festival in Deep River, Ontario. He went on to become a disc jockey, frequently incorporating impersonations into his show. On the strength of his work and recordings, Little was asked to audition by Mel Tormé. The audition won him the job, and in 1964 Little made his American television debut on CBSs The Judy Garland Show, in 1965, Little provided the voice for the Pink Panther in two experimental cartoons, Sink Pink and Pink Ice. In 1966 and 1967, Little appeared in ABC-TVs Judy Carne sitcom Love on a Rooftop as the Willises eccentric neighbor and he appeared on That Girl in 1967 as a writer who impressed Marlo Thomas character with his impersonations. He also made two appearances as accident-prone Brother Paul Leonardi on The Flying Nun in 1968, it marked one of his few appearances as a character actor rather than an impressionist. In 1969 he appeared in an episode of Petticoat Junction as newly engaged fiance to Billie Jo in Billie Jo, Little was a frequent guest on variety and talk shows. With Johnny Carson he captured The Tonight Show hosts voice and many onstage mannerisms, one of his best-known impressions is of U. S. President Richard Nixon During the 1970s, Little made many television appearances portraying Nixon. He was a regular guest on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts in the 1970s, Little was also a semi-regular on the Emmy-winning ABC-TV variety series The Julie Andrews Hour in 1972–73. He was named Comedy Star of the Year by the American Guild of Variety Artists in 1974, Littles best-known continuing TV series was The Kopycats, hour-long segments of The ABC Comedy Hour, first broadcast in 1972. Taped in England, these comedy-variety shows consisted entirely of celebrity impersonations, with the actors in full costume, the cast included Little, Frank Gorshin, Marilyn Michaels, George Kirby, British comedian Joe Baker, Fred Travalena, Charlie Callas and Peter Goodwright. The Rich Little Show and The New You Asked for It were attempts to present Little in his own person, Little also appeared on a second season episode of The Muppet Show. In 1981 Little appeared in a comedy LP called The First Family Rides Again, which was the fourth and final First Family comedy LPs originally created by Bob Booker and Earle Doud. Little starred along with Melanie Chartoff, Michael Richards, Shelly Black, Jenilee Harrison, Earle Doud, Little has starred in various HBO specials including the 1978 one-man show, Rich Littles Christmas Carol, in which Little portrayed famous comedians in established roles. He has also appeared in movies and released nine albums. Littles talent for impersonation has been used in movies, when an actors dialogue was impaired by poor health
36.
Johnny Carson
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John William Johnny Carson was an American talk show host and comedian, best known for his 30 years as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson received six Emmy Awards, the Television Academys 1980 Governors Award, and he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993, although his show was already successful by the end of the 1960s, during the 1970s Carson became an American icon and remained so even after his retirement in 1992. He adopted a casual, conversational approach with extensive interaction with guests, former late-night host and friend David Letterman cited Carsons influence. John William Carson was born on October 23,1925, in Corning, Iowa, to Homer Lloyd Kit Carson, a company manager, and Ruth Carson. He grew up in the towns of Avoca, Clarinda. There, Carson grew up and began developing his talent for entertaining, at the age of 12, Carson found a book on magic at a friends house and immediately purchased a mail-order magicians kit. After the purchase of the kit, Carson practiced his entertainment skills on family members with card tricks and he was known for following his family members around saying, Pick a card, any card. Carsons mother sewed him a cape, and his first performance was staged in front of the local Kiwanis Club and he debuted as The Great Carsoni at age 14 and was paid $3 a show. Soon, many performances at local picnics and country fairs followed. After graduating from school, Carson had his first encounter with Hollywood. He hitchhiked to Hollywood, where he was arrested and fined $50 for impersonating a midshipman, Johnny embarked on an adventure, one so laden with implications about his future, that some have wondered if the escapade might not actually be a legend. Carson joined the United States Navy on June 8,1943, commissioned an ensign late in the war, Carson was assigned to the USS Pennsylvania in the Pacific. While in the Navy, Carson posted a 10–0 amateur boxing record and he was en route to the combat zone aboard a troop ship when the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war. Carson served as a officer in charge of decoding encrypted messages. He said that the point of his military career was performing a magic trick for United States Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal. In a conversation with Forrestal, the Secretary asked Carson if he planned to stay in the navy after the war, in response, Carson said no and told him he wanted to be a magician. Forrestal asked him to perform, and Carson responded with a card trick, Carson made the discovery that he could entertain and amuse someone as cranky and sophisticated as Forrestal
37.
Joan Rivers
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Rivers came to prominence in 1965 as a guest on The Tonight Show. Hosted by her mentor, Johnny Carson, the show established Rivers comedic style, in 1986, with her own rival program, The Late Show with Joan Rivers, Rivers became the first woman to host a late night network television talk show. She subsequently hosted The Joan Rivers Show, winning a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host and she was the subject of the documentary Joan Rivers, A Piece of Work. In addition to marketing a line of jewelry and apparel on the QVC shopping channel, Rivers authored 12 best-selling books, in 2015, Rivers posthumously received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for her book, Diary of a Mad Diva. In 1968, The New York Times television critic Jack Gould called Rivers quite possibly the most intuitively funny woman alive, in 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked her sixth on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky on June 8,1933, in Brooklyn, New York, Molinsky, who graduated from Long Island College of Medicine. Her elder sister, Barbara Waxler, died on June 3,2013 at the age of 82, within 2 years, she performed in the School Cavalcades, and in 1949, aged 16, she was vice president of the Dramatic Club. Although her principal interests are acting and lindying, her record on the art staff of the Adelphian and she graduated from the Adelphi Academy of Brooklyn, in 1950, at almost 17. Her family later moved to Larchmont, during this period, agent Tony Rivers advised her to change her name, so she chose Joan Rivers as her stage name. During the late 1950s, Rivers appeared in a play, Driftwood. The play ran for six weeks, by 1965, Rivers had a stint on Candid Camera as a gag writer and participant, she was the bait to lure people into ridiculous situations for the show. She also made her first appearance on The Tonight Show with new host Johnny Carson, on February 17,1965, during the same decade, Rivers made other appearances on The Tonight Show as well as The Ed Sullivan Show, while hosting the first of several talk shows. She wrote material for the puppet Topo Gigio and she had a brief role in The Swimmer, starring Burt Lancaster. A year later, she had a syndicated daytime talk show, That Show with Joan Rivers. In the middle of the 1960s, she released at least two albums, The Next to Last Joan Rivers Album and Rivers Presents Mr. Phyllis & Other Funny Stories. By the 1970s, Rivers was appearing on television comedy and variety shows, including The Carol Burnett Show. From 1972 to 1976, she narrated The Adventures of Letterman, in 1973, Rivers wrote the TV movie The Girl Most Likely to. A black comedy starring Stockard Channing, in 1978, Rivers wrote and directed the film Rabbit Test, starring her friend Billy Crystal
38.
I Wanna Hold Your Hand (film)
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I Wanna Hold Your Hand is a 1978 American comedy film directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis, which takes its name from the 1963 song I Want to Hold Your Hand by the Beatles. It was produced and co-written by Bob Gale, the film is about Beatlemania and is a fictionalized account of the day of the Beatles first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was released in 1978 by Universal Pictures, the film is the feature film directorial debut of Robert Zemeckis and also the first film that Steven Spielberg executive produced. Despite positive previews and critical response, the film was not a success and was considered a flop. Zemeckis later said, One of the memories in my life is going to the preview. I didnt know what to expect the audience just went wild, then we learned a really sad lesson. just because a movie worked with a preview audience didnt mean anyone wanted to go see it. Susan Kendall Newman, who played Janis Goldman, is Paul Newmans daughter, Ed Sullivan prepares the ushers for the Beatles performance on his show. In Maplewood, New Jersey, Rosie and Pam visit the record shop, Janis, the owner’s daughter, hates the Beatles and prefers folk music. Grace wants to rent a limo, so they can pull up to the Beatles hotel, the girls recruit shy Larry DuBois, the local undertaker’s son, as he has access to limos. They leave for New York City and on the way pick up Tony--a brash, after driving all night, they arrive in New York early on the morning of February 9,1964. When they pull up at the hotel, Grace, Rosie and Pam sneak in, while Larry pulls the limo with Tony, once inside, Grace and Rosie sneak into a service elevator, while Pam is left in the basement in a storage closet. Pam sees them leave the hotel as they go to rehearse, meanwhile, Grace gets off on the 11th floor. Rosie rides up to the 12th, where the Beatles’ room is located and she is caught, escapes and meets Richard Klaus, a fellow Beatles fan who is hiding out in a room in the hotel. Pam hides in a cart and is taken to the Beatles’ room. Grace is caught too, so she goes to the CBS studio, Richard and Rosie are tossed from the hotel. Janis meet Peter, a kid whose dad will give him three tickets to The Ed Sullivan Show if he will get his Beatles style hair cut into a crew cut and she recruits Tony to steal the dad’s wallet and get the tickets. Larry asks Grace to the Valentine’s Day dance at school, Grace decides to take the place of a prostitute who has an encounter at the hotel to get the 50 dollars she needs. Rosie knows the question on the call in to win tickets, so she uses the room key she still has, goes to the room, calls in
39.
The Buddy Holly Story
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The Buddy Holly Story is a 1978 biographical film which tells the life story of rock musician Buddy Holly. It features an Academy Award-winning musical score, adapted by Joe Renzetti, the film also stars Don Stroud, Charles Martin Smith, Conrad Janis, William Jordan, and Maria Richwine, who played Maria Elena Holly. It was adapted by Robert Gittler from Buddy Holly, His Life and Music, the biography of Holly by John Goldrosen, and was directed by Steve Rash. Eventually, he finds a more flexible producer, Ross Turner, who, after listening to their audition, very reluctantly allows Buddy, turners secretary, Maria Elena Santiago, quickly catches Buddys eye. Their budding romance nearly ends before it can begin because her aunt initially refuses to let her date him, on their very first date, Maria accepts his marriage proposal and they are soon wed. A humorous episode results from a misunderstanding at a New York booking, sol Gittler signs up the Crickets sight-unseen for the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, assuming from their music that theyre a black band. When three white Texans show up instead, he is stunned, ) After an uncomfortable start, Buddys songs soon win over the audience and the Crickets are a tremendous hit. After two years of success, Ray Bob and Jesse decide to break up the band and they feel overshadowed by Buddy and do not want to relocate to New York City, which Buddy believes is necessary to stay on top. Initially, he is saddened by their departure, but he soldiers on, Maria announces that she is pregnant and Buddy is delighted. On February 2,1959, preparing for a concert at Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly decides to charter a plane to fly to Moorhead. The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens join him on the flight, meanwhile, the Crickets, feeling nostalgic, appear unexpectedly at Marias door, expressing their desire to reunite the band. They plan to surprise Buddy at his next tour stop, after playing his final song, Not Fade Away, Holly bids the crowd farewell with, Thank you Clear Lake. A caption then reveals that Holly, Valens, and the Bopper died in a crash that night. The actors did their own singing and played their own instruments, Busey, in particular, was admired by critics for recording the soundtrack music live and for losing a considerable amount of weight in order to portray the skinny Holly. According to Buseys biography, he lost 32 pounds to more like Holly. The film was cancelled by 20th Century Fox due to pressure from Fred Bauer and his company, the screenplay of Three-Sided Coin revealed many personal details about Holly, and Busey picked up more during off-set conversations with Allison. While the story follows Buddy Holly from age 19 to 22, Charles Martin Smith auditioned for the role of Buddy, but since Busey already had been cast, the producers cast Martin to play Ray Bob Simmons because they liked his audition. Simmons and Jesse Charles were character names used in place of Joe B, the film received many positive reviews from critics and fans alike
40.
The Doors (film)
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The Doors is a 1991 American biographical film about the 1960–70s rock band of the same name which emphasizes the life of its lead singer, Jim Morrison. It was directed by Oliver Stone, and stars Val Kilmer as Morrison, the film features Kyle MacLachlan as Ray Manzarek, Frank Whaley as Robby Krieger, Kevin Dillon as John Densmore, and Kathleen Quinlan as Patricia Kennealy. The film portrays Morrison as the icon of 1960s rock and roll, counterculture. The film was not well received by his mates, close friends. In 1965, Jim arrives in California and is assimilated into the Venice Beach culture, Jim convinces his bandmates to travel to Death Valley and experience the effects of psychedelic drugs. Returning to Los Angeles, they play several shows at the famous nightclub Whisky a Go Go, Jims onstage antics and occasionally improvised lyrics raise the ire of club owners, however, the bands popularity continues to expand. As the Doors become hugely successful, Jim becomes increasingly infatuated with his own image as The Lizard King and degenerates into alcoholism, Jim meets Patricia Kennealy, a rock journalist involved in witchcraft, and participates with her in mystical ceremonies. He joins her in a handfasting ceremony, an elder spirit watches these events. The rest of the band grows weary of Jims missed recording sessions, Jim arrives late to a Miami, Florida concert, becoming increasingly confrontational towards the audience and allegedly exposing himself onstage. The incident is a low point for the band, resulting in charges against Jim, cancellations of shows, breakdowns in Jims personal relationships. In 1970 after a trial, Jim is found guilty of indecent exposure and ordered to serve time in prison. Patricia tells Jim that she is pregnant with his child but Jim convinces her to have an abortion. Jim visits his fellow Doors members one final time, attending a party thrown by Ray where he wishes the band luck in their future endeavors, as Jim plays in the front garden with the children, he sees that one of the children is his childhood self. Jim comments This is the strangest life Ive ever known, in 1971, Pam finds Jim dead in a bathtub in Paris, France, at the age of 27. The final scenes of the film before the roll are of Jims gravesite in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris while A Feast of Friends plays in the background. Just before the credits, the whites out and text appears saying Jim Morrison is said to have died of heart failure. Pam joined him three years later, during the credits, the band is shown recording the song L. A. Woman in the studio. In 1985, Columbia Pictures acquired the rights from the Doors, producer Sasha Harari wanted filmmaker Oliver Stone to write the screenplay but never heard back from his agent
41.
Mr. Saturday Night
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Mr. Saturday Night is a 1992 comedy-drama film that marks the directorial debut of its star, Billy Crystal. It focuses on the rise and fall of Buddy Young Jr. a stand-up comedian, Crystal produced and co-wrote the screenplay with the writing duo Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz. It was filmed from November 1991 to March 1992 and released on September 23,1992, co-star David Paymer received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The opening title sequence was designed by Elaine and Saul Bass, the film is based on the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update sketch where Billy Crystal plays Buddy Young Jr. reviewing a restaurant he went to. Through a series of flashbacks, the brothers are seen during childhood entertaining their family in the living room, the older Buddy continues his career as a comic in the Catskills, where he meets his future wife, Elaine. Buddys fame grows, as does his ego and he hits the big time with his own Saturday night television show. But despite the warnings of his brother, Buddy uses offensive material on the air, costing him his show, as an older man, long past his prime, Buddy is estranged from Stan as well as from his daughter, Susan. A chance at redemption comes when an agent named Annie Wells finds him work. Buddy nevertheless gives into his own nature, continuing to take its toll on the comics relationships with his family. Billy Crystal as Buddy Young, Jr, the film was a box office bomb in the United states, only recovering half of its budget. According to boxofficemojo. com it grossed less than $14 million, Paymer was nominated in 1992 for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. At the Golden Globe Awards, Paymer was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, during the Academy Awards the next year, Crystal hosted. When announcing the nominees for Best Film of 1992 during the opening, Crystal added his movie to the list, immediately afterwards adding the line, comedians Jerry Lewis, Carl Ballantine, Slappy White, and Jackie Gayle appear in the New York Friars Club scene. The film was released twice on DVD, the first time on December 8,1998 by PolyGram Video, and again on June 4,2002 by MGM Home Entertainment. List of American films of 1992 The Comic Mr. Saturday Night at the Internet Movie Database Mr. Saturday Night at Rotten Tomatoes Mr. Saturday Night at Box Office Mojo
