1.
Malden, Massachusetts
–
Malden is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2010 United States Census, the population was at 59,450 people, in 2009, Malden was named the Best Place to Raise Your Kids in Massachusetts by Bloomberg Businessweek. Malden, a woodland area north of the Mystic River, was settled by Puritans in 1640 on land purchased in 1629 from the Pennacook tribe. The area was called the Mistick Side and was a part of Charlestown. It was incorporated as a town in 1649. The name Malden was selected by Joseph Hills, a settler and landholder. The city originally included what are now the adjacent cities of Melrose, Malden High School has the second-oldest continuous high school football rivalry in the United States with Medford High School. The first Thanksgiving Day Game dates back to 1889, in 1984, Malden came to national renown as the location of the controversial Fells Acres Day Care Center preschool trial. In 2004, a same-sex Malden couple was the first to marry in Massachusetts at precisely 9,15 AM on May 17,2004 at Cambridge City Hall, Massachusetts was the first state in the United States to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Malden is bordered by Melrose on the north, Stoneham on the northwest, Medford on the west, Everett on the south, Revere on the east, and Saugus on the northeast. Boojum Rock located in the north west corner of Malden inside the Middlesex Fells Reservation is the highest point in Malden with an elevation of approximately 275 feet. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 5.1 square miles. Bordered on the northwest by the cliffs of Middlesex Fells, Malden is drained by the Malden River, as of the 2010 United States Census, there were 59,450 people,25,161 households, and 13,575 families residing in the city. The population density was 11,788.6 people per square mile, there were 23,634 housing units at an average density of 4,657.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 52. 5% White,14. 8% African American,0. 14% Native American,20. 1% Asian,0. 06% Pacific Islander,2. 10% from other races, and 3. 46% were multiracial. 8. 6% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,32. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the family size was 3.13. In the city, the population was out with 19. 9% under the age of 18,8. 5% from 18 to 24,36. 9% from 25 to 44,20. 8% from 45 to 64
2.
Roald Dahl
–
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot. His books have more than 250 million copies worldwide. He rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for children and adults and he became one of the worlds best-selling authors. He has been referred to as one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century and his awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the British Book Awards Childrens Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945 and his books champion the kind-hearted, and feature an underlying warm sentiment. Dahls works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and his adult works include Tales of the Unexpected. Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl, Dahls father had emigrated to the UK from Sarpsborg in Norway, and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s. His mother came over and married his father in 1911, Dahl was named after the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen. His first language was Norwegian, which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild, Dahl and his sisters were raised in the Lutheran faith, and were baptised at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff, where their parents worshipped. In 1920, when Dahl was three years old, his sister, Astri, died from appendicitis. Weeks later, his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57, Dahl first attended the Cathedral School, Llandaff. This was known among the five boys as the Great Mouse Plot of 1924, a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, Dahl would later refer to gobstoppers in his literary creation, Everlasting Gobstopper. Thereafter, he transferred to a school in England, St Peters in Weston-super-Mare. Roalds parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school and, because of a regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel. His time at St Peters was an unpleasant experience for him and he was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed to her his unhappiness. Only after her death in 1967 did he find out that she had saved every single one of his letters, in 2016, to mark the centenary of Dahls birth, his letters to his mother were abridged and broadcast as BBC Radio 4s Book of the Week. Dahl wrote about his time at St Peters in his autobiography Boy, from 1929, he attended Repton School in Derbyshire. There are echoes of these experiences in Dahls writings and his hatred of cruelty
3.
Vaudeville
–
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
4.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
–
The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Walter Brennan was the first winner of award for his role in Come. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 72 actors. Brennan has received the most awards in this category with three awards, Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, and Claude Rains were nominated on four occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Mahershala Ali is the most recent winner in category for his role as Juan in Moonlight. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com Complete Downloadable List of Academy Award Nominees
5.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
–
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a 1971 American musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart, and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. It is an adaptation of the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, the film tells the story of Charlie Bucket as he receives a Golden Ticket and visits Willy Wonkas chocolate factory with four other children from around the world. Filming took place in Munich in 1970, and the film was released by Paramount Pictures on June 30,1971, with a budget of just $3 million, the film received generally positive reviews and earned $4 million by the end of its original run. It then made an additional $21 million during its re-release by Warner Bros. under the Family Entertainment banner in 1996, the film became highly popular in part through repeated television airings and home entertainment sales. In 1972, the received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, and Wilder was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. The movie introduced the song The Candy Man, which went on to become a hit when recorded by Sammy Davis Jr. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, until 1977, Paramount distributed the film. From then on, all the rights to the film were handed over to Warner Bros. for home entertainment purposes starting in the 1980s, a group of children go to a candy shop in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Charlie Bucket, whose family is poor, stares through the window as the shop owner sings The Candy Man, walking home, he passes Willy Wonkas chocolate factory. A mysterious tinker recites the first lines of William Allinghams poem The Fairies, and tells Charlie, Nobody ever goes in, Charlie rushes home to his widowed mother and four bedridden grandparents. Wonka disappeared, but three years later began selling candy, the origin of Wonkas labor force is unknown. Wonka announces to the world that he has hidden five Golden Tickets in chocolate Wonka Bars, the finders of these tickets will be given a factory tour and a lifetime supply of chocolate. As each winner is heralded to the world on TV, a man whispers to them, the fifth ticket is supposedly found by a millionaire in Paraguay. Charlie finds money in a gutter, using it to buy a Wonka Bar and he uses the change to buy a Wonka Bar for Joe. The newspapers reveal that the Paraguayan millionaire faked his ticket, when Charlie opens the Wonka Bar, Charlie returns home with his news. Joe is so elated that he finds he can walk, Charlie chooses him as his chaperone, the next day, Wonka greets the ticket winners. Each signs a contract before the tour. The factory includes a river of chocolate, edible mushrooms, lickable wallpaper, Wonkas workers are small men known as Oompa-Loompas
6.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
–
The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. It is a popular tourist destination, with a reported 10 million visitors in 2003, as of 2017, the Walk of Fame comprises over 2,600 stars, spaced at 6-foot intervals. The monuments are coral-pink terrazzo five-point stars rimmed with brass inlaid into a charcoal-colored terrazzo background, in the upper portion of each star field the name of the honoree is inlaid in brass block letters. Below the inscription, in the half of the star field. Approximately 20 new stars are added to the Walk each year, special category stars recognize various contributions by corporate entities, service organizations, and special honorees, and display emblems unique to those honorees. The moons are silver and grey terrazzo circles rimmed in brass on a square pink terrazzo background, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce credits E. M. Stuart, its volunteer president in 1953, with the original idea for creating a Walk of Fame. Stuart reportedly proposed the Walk as a means to maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamor, Harry Sugarman, another Chamber member and president of the Hollywood Improvement Association, receives credit in an independent account. A committee was formed to flesh out the idea, and a firm was retained to develop specific proposals. By 1955 the basic concept and general design had been agreed upon, multiple accounts exist for the origin of the star concept. By another account, the stars were inspired, by Sugarmans drinks menu, which featured celebrity photos framed in gold stars. In February 1956 a prototype was unveiled featuring a caricature of an example honoree inside a star on a brown background. The committees met at the Brown Derby restaurant, and included such prominent names as Cecil B, deMille, Samuel Goldwyn, Jesse L. Lasky, Walt Disney, Hal Roach, Mack Sennett, and Walter Lantz. A requirement stipulated by the audio recording committee specified minimum sales of one million records or 250,000 albums for all music category nominees. The committee soon realized that many important recording artists would be excluded from the Walk by that requirement, as a result, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences was formed for the purpose of creating a separate award system for the music business. The first Grammy Awards were presented in Beverly Hills in 1959, construction of the Walk began in 1958 but two lawsuits delayed completion. The first was filed by local property owners challenging the legality of the $1.25 million tax assessment levied upon them to pay for the Walk, along with new street lighting, in October 1959 the assessment was ruled legal. The second lawsuit, filed by Charles Chaplin, Jr. sought damages for the exclusion of his father, chaplins suit was dismissed in 1960, paving the way for completion of the project. Woodwards name was one of eight drawn at random from the original 1,558, the other seven names were Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, and Ernest Torrence
7.
History of the Jews in Russia
–
Jews in the Russian Empire have historically constituted a large religious diaspora, the vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest population of Jews in the world. The presence of Jewish people in the European part of Russia can be traced to the 7th–14th centuries CE, in the 11th and 12th centuries, the Jewish population in Kiev, in present-day Ukraine, was restricted to a separate quarter. Evidence of the presence of Jewish people in Muscovite Russia is first documented in the chronicles of 1471, during the reign of Catherine II in the 18th century, Jewish people were restricted to the Pale of Settlement within Russia, the territory where they could live or immigrate to. Beginning in the 1880s, waves of pogroms swept across different regions of the empire for several decades. More than two million Jews fled Russia between 1880 and 1920, mostly to the United States, before 1917 there were 300,000 Zionists in Russia, while the main Jewish socialist organization, the Bund, had 33,000 members. Only 958 Jews had joined the Bolshevik Party before 1917, thousands joined after the Revolution, the chaotic years of World War I, the February and October Revolutions, and the Russian Civil War had created social disruption that led to anti-Semitism. Some 150,000 Jews were killed in the pogroms of 1918–1922,125,000 of them in Ukraine,25,000 in Belarus and these were probably the largest-scale European massacres of Jews to date. The pogroms were perpetrated by anti-communist forces, sometimes, Red Army units engaged in pogroms as well. After a short period of confusion, the Soviets started executing guilty individuals, the Russian Civil War pogroms shocked world Jewry and rallied many Jews to the Red Army and the Soviet regime, and also strengthened the desire for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people. In August 1919 the Soviet government arrested many rabbis, seized Jewish properties, including synagogues, the Jewish section of the Communist Party labeled the use of the Hebrew language reactionary and elitist and the teaching of Hebrew was banned. Zionists were persecuted harshly, with Jewish communists leading the attacks, following the civil war, however, the new Bolshevik governments policies produced a flourishing of secular Jewish culture in Belarus and western Ukraine in the 1920s. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Jews were 1.8 percent of the Soviet population, in 1934 the Soviet state established the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Russian Far East, but the region never came to have a majority Jewish population. Today, the JAO is Russias only autonomous oblast and, aside of Israel, the observance of the Sabbath was banned in 1929, foreshadowing the dissolution of the Communist Partys Yiddish-language Yevsektsia in 1930 and worse repression to come. Numerous Jews were victimized in Stalins purges as counterrevolutionaries and reactionary nationalists, the share of Jews in the Soviet ruling elite declined during the 1930s, but was still more than double their proportion in the general Soviet population. According to Israeli historian Benjamin Pinkus, We can say that the Jews in the Soviet Union took over the privileged position, in the 1930s, many Jews held high rank in the Red Army High Command, Generals Iona Yakir, Yan Gamarnik, Yakov Smushkevich and Grigori Shtern. During World War Two, an estimated 500,000 soldiers in the Red Army were Jewish, about 160,000 were decorated, and more than a hundred achieved the rank of Red Army general. Over 150 were designated Heroes of the Soviet Union, the highest award in the country, more than two million Soviet Jews are believed to have died during the Holocaust in warfare and in Nazi-occupied territories. For many years during this period, Russia had a rate of immigration to Israel than any other country
8.
Tap dance
–
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist, rhythm tap and Broadway tap, Broadway tap focuses on dance, it is widely performed in musical theater. Rhythm tap focuses on musicality, and practitioners consider themselves to be a part of the jazz tradition, the sound is made by shoes that have a metal tap on the heel and toe. There are different brands of shoes which sometimes differ in the way they sound and it preceded what is currently considered to be modern tap, but has since declined in popularity. Tap dance is believed to have begun in the mid-1800s during the rise of minstrel shows, as the minstrel shows began to decline in popularity, tap dance moved to the increasingly popular Vaudeville stage. Due to the rule, which forbade blacks from performing solo. This gave rise to the famous pair Buck and Bubbles, which consisted of John Bubbles Sublett tap dancing, the duo perfected the Class Act, a routine in which the performers wore impeccable tuxedos, which has since become a common theme in tap dance. The move is seen by some as a rebuttal to the minstrel show idea of the tap dancer as a grinning-and-dancing clown. John Bubbles Sublett is also known famously for popularizing rhythm tap which incorporates more percussive heel drops, another notable figure to emerge during this period is Bill Bojangles Robinson who was a protégé of Alice Whitman of The Whitman Sisters around 1904. Well versed in both Buck and Wing dancing and Irish Step dancing, Bill Robinson joined the Vaudeville circuit in 1902, the act quickly became famous, headlining events across the country, and touring England as well. In 1908, however, the two had an altercation, and the partnership was ended, gambling on his popularity, Robinson decided to form a solo act, which was extremely rare for a black man at that time. Despite this, he had success and soon became a world-famous celebrity. He went on to have a role in many films. Shortly thereafter, the Nicholas Brothers came on the scene, during the 1930s tap dance mixed with Lindy Hop. Flying swing outs and flying circles are Lindy Hop moves with tap footwork, in the mid- to late 1950s, the style of entertainment changed. Jazz music and tap dance declined, while rock and roll, what is now called jazz dance evolved out of tap dance, so both dances have many moves in common. But jazz evolved separately from tap dance to become a new form in its own right, well-known dancers during the 1960s and 1970s included Arthur Duncan and Tommy Tune. No Maps on My Taps, the Emmy award winning PBS documentary of 1979, the outstanding success of the animated film, Happy Feet, has further reinforced the popular appeal
9.
Broadway theatre
–
Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
10.
The Cradle Will Rock
–
The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 musical by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles, the musical is a Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed and includes a panoply of societal figures. The piece is almost entirely sung-through, giving it many operatic qualities, the Cradle Will Rock was reprised January–April 1938 as part of the first season of the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory company founded by Welles and Houseman. An abridged version of the production was recorded and released in 1938, act I Moll, a young prostitute, is thrown in jail when she refuses to accept money from a corrupt policeman. She is soon joined by the leaders of the Liberty Committee, gus Polack, a newly elected member of the union, is killed in a car bombing that also kills his wife and Harrys son Stevie. Harry is pressured to keep quiet and subsequently loses his business permit, act II Eventually, all of Steeltowns prominent citizens join the Liberty Committee, including Salvation, Daily, the painter Dauber, and the violinist Yasha. With their support, Mr. Misters rule over the town is seemingly unshakeable, later that night, Larry is arrested and beaten for distributing leaflets. He urges the others to him and rise against Mr. Mister, saying that, in time. A flashback shows Mr. Mister persuading President Prexy of Steeltown University to threaten students with expulsion if they do not join the army. Dr. Specialist, the chairman of the Liberty Committee, is told to cover up the death of a steelworker by writing it off as a drunken accident and he does so even when the workers sister, Ella Hammer, confronts him knowing the truth. Later that evening, Mr. Mister arrives and bails out the committee members and he offers to pay off Foreman, but he refuses. As the committee jeers him, he declares that Mr. Misters power over Steeltown will soon come to an end as the curtain falls. It was the first original cast recording ever made and a version is now available through the Internet Archive. In December 1964 the recording was re-released in a limited-edition LP on the American Legacy Records label, key to casts, Moll/Ella Hammer/Editor Daily/Larry Foreman/Mr. /Green-MP. /Lund. /Baratta. /van Norden. The theatre was padlocked and surrounded by security to prevent anyone from stealing props or costumes, which were U. S. Welles, Houseman and Blitzstein, seeking a way to produce the show, rented the much larger Venice Theatre. The 600 audience members, who had gathered outside the Maxine Elliot Theatre for the preview, travelled 21 blocks north to the Venice Theatre, the sold-out house grew even larger when the shows creators invited people off the street to attend for free. The shows creators thus planned for Blitzstein to perform the musical at the piano
11.
Show Boat
–
Show Boat is a 1927 musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love, the musical contributed such classic songs as Ol Man River, Make Believe and Cant Help Lovin Dat Man. The premiere of Show Boat on Broadway was a moment in the history of American musical theatre. According to The Complete Book of Light Opera, Here we come to a new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. The play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play, came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity. The quality of the musical was recognized immediately by the critics, awards for Broadway shows did not exist in 1927 when the original production of the show premiered, nor in 1932, when its first revival was staged. Late 20th-century revivals of Show Boat have won both the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, in a few weeks, she gained what she called a treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true. Jerome Kern was impressed by the novel and, hoping to adapt it as a musical, Woollcott introduced them that evening during the intermission of Kerns latest musical, Criss Cross. Impatient with Kern and Hammerstein and worried about their keeping too serious tone, Ziegfeld decided to open his theatre in February 1927 with Rio Rita, when Rio Rita proved to be a success, Show Boats Broadway opening was delayed until Rita could be moved to another theatre. Note, Although the basic plot of Show Boat has always remained the same, over the years revisions and alterations were made by the creators, and over time by subsequent producers and directors. Some of these revisions were for length and some for convenience, some have been made to reflect contemporary sensitivities toward race, gender and other social issues. Act I In 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the dock in Natchez. The Reconstruction era had ended an earlier, and white-dominated Southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation. The boats owner, Capn Andy Hawks, introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee, Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears revenge, suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie. Capn Andy pretends to the crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed. The troupe exits with the band, and the crowd follows. A handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal, appears on the levee and is taken with eighteen-year-old Magnolia Hawks, an aspiring performer, Magnolia is likewise smitten with Ravenal. She seeks advice from Joe, a dock worker aboard the boat, who has returned from buying flour for his wife Queenie
12.
Milton Berle
–
Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor. As the host of NBCs Texaco Star Theater, he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television during TVs golden age. Milton Berle was born into a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 W. 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan and his given name was Mendel Berlinger. He chose Milton Berle as his name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger, was a paint and varnish salesman and his mother, Sarah Glantz Berlinger, eventually became stagestruck and changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous. Berle entered show business at the age of five when he won a talent contest. He appeared as an actor in silent films, beginning with The Perils of Pauline, filmed in Fort Lee. The director told Berle that he would portray a boy who would be thrown from a moving train. In Milton Berle, An Autobiography, he explained, I was scared shitless, which is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that. By Berles account, he continued to play roles in other films, Bunnys Little Brother, Tess of the Storm Country, Birthright, Loves Penalty, Divorce Coupons. In 1916, Berle enrolled in the Professional Childrens School, around 1920, at age 12, Berle made his stage debut in a revival of the musical comedy Florodora in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which later moved to Broadway. By the time he was 16, he was working as a Master of Ceremonies in Vaudeville, by the early 1930s he was a successful stand-up comedian, patterning himself after one of Vaudevilles top comics, Ted Healy. In 1933, he was hired by producer Jack White to star in the theatrical featurette Poppin the Cork, Berle also co-wrote the score for this film, which was released by Educational Pictures. Berle continued to dabble in songwriting, with Ben Oakland and Milton Drake, Berle wrote the title song for the RKO Radio Pictures release Lil Abner, an adaptation of Al Capps comic strip, featuring Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat. Berle wrote a Spike Jones B-side, Leave the Dishes in the Sink, in 1939, he was the host of Stop Me If Youve Heard This One with panelists spontaneously finishing jokes sent in by listeners. In the late 1940s, he canceled well-paying nightclub appearances to expand his radio career, three Ring Time, a comedy-variety show sponsored by Ballantine Ale, was followed by a 1943 program sponsored by Campbells Soups. The audience participation show Let Yourself Go could best be described as radio with studio audience members acting out long suppressed urges—often directed at host Berle
