1.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
2.
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
3.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Boys and Girls High School
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Boys and Girls High School, the oldest public high school in Brooklyn, is a comprehensive high school in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, United States. The school is located at 1700 Fulton Street, as of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 643 students and 43.0 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 15.0,1. There were 463 students eligible for free lunch and 15 eligible for reduced-cost lunch, brooklyns first public high school, the Central Grammar School, opened, September 1878 in a rented building on Court & Livingston Streets. The boys remained in the Court Street space, as there were now effectively two schools, in 1891 they were renamed as the Girls High School and the Boys High School. A new building for the boys was begun in 1891, on Marcy Avenue and it opened as Boys High School on November 1,1892. In 1975 the two schools were merged again, and shortly afterwards moved into their present building at Fulton Street. By 1989 some 70 percent of graduates were enrolled in colleges
6.
Lennie Hayton
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Leonard George Lennie Hayton was an American musician, composer, conductor and arranger. Haytons trademark was the wearing of a hat, which he always wore at a rakish angle. Hayton was born in New York City, New York, to a Jewish family, the son of a Manhattan restaurateur, he developed a penchant for the piano when six years old, showing unusual interest in the early classics from the rolls of the family player piano. Although neither of his parents was a musician, both were keen followers of the concert hall. Hayton attended many concerts with them and his parents disliked Jazz and it was not until Hayton was 16 that he really discovered it. He left high school to become pianist with the Broadway Hotel Orchestra of Cass Hagen, whilst with the Paul Whiteman orchestra, he played with musicians such as Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols and Joe Venuti. He also became friendly with Bing Crosby, then a member of The Rhythm Boys, in May 1930, Whiteman had to thin down his orchestra as theatre audiences fell due to the economic problems of the day and because of the impact of radio. Hayton and Eddie Lang were amongst the ten members of the band released, Hayton then joined the Charles Previn Orchestra which had a weekly assignment on radio in the Camel Pleasure Hour. The chance came to re-join Bing Crosby who by late 1931 had enjoyed success on record, radio. Starting in April 1932, Crosby embarked on a tour of Paramount-Publix theatres, at each location, he continued to broadcast his radio show until he reached the West Coast. Lennie Hayton and Eddie Lang provided the support to Crosby on his theatre appearances. In Chicago in May 1932, Hayton led an orchestra for his first recordings with the singer, cabin in the Cotton, Love Me Tonight and Some of These Days were all hits. In September 1932, Crosby again went on tour with Hayton accompanying him on piano. In New York on October 25,1932, Hayton led the orchestra for one of Bing Crosbys most famous recordings, Brother, in January 1933, Hayton became the musical director for the Chesterfield radio series Music That Satisfies which again featured Crosby and ran for 13 weeks. Haytons involvement with Bing Crosby continued and he was musical director for the singers film Going Hollywood which was an MGM production. This was to be the start of a career for Hayton in Hollywood. Up until his retirement from the post in 1953, he racked up four Academy Award nominations, for the Judy Garland musicals The Harvey Girls, Hayton won the Academy Award for music for On the Town with Roger Edens in 1950. Lennie Hayton also arranged the music for Singin in the Rain in 1952, Hayton notched up two more nominations—one in 1968 for the unsuccessful Julie Andrews musical Star. and his last the following year for the Barbra Streisand vehicle Hello, Dolly
7.
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
8.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
9.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
10.
RCA Records
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RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. It is one of SMEs three flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, blues, jazz, the companys name is derived from the initials of the labels former parent company, the Radio Corporation of America. It is the second oldest recording company in US history, after sister label Columbia Records, RCAs Canadian unit is Sonys oldest label in Canada. It was one of only two Canadian record companies to survive the Great Depression, kelly, Enrique Iglesias, Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, Kesha, Miley Cyrus, Giorgio Moroder, Jennifer Hudson, DAngelo, Pink, Tinashe, G-Eazy, Pitbull, Zayn and Wizkid. In 1929, the Radio Corporation of America purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the worlds largest manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records. The company then became RCA Victor but retained use of the Victor Records name on their labels until the beginning of 1946 when the labels were finally switched over to RCA Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World rights to the famous Nipper His Masters Voice trademark, in Shanghai, China, in 1931, RCA Victors British affiliate the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form EMI. This gave RCA head David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board, in September 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first 33⅓ rpm records sold to the public, calling them Program Transcriptions. In the depths of the Great Depression, the format was a commercial failure, during the early part of the depression, RCA made a number of attempts to produce a successful cheap label to compete with the dime store labels. The first was the short-lived Timely Tunes label in 1931 sold at Montgomery Ward, in 1932, Bluebird Records was created as a sub-label of RCA Victor. It was originally an 8-inch record with a blue label. In 1933, RCA reintroduced Bluebird and Electradisk as a standard 10-inch label, another cheap label, Sunrise, was produced. The same musical couplings were issued on all three labels and Bluebird Records still survives eight decades after Electradisk and Sunrise were discontinued, RCA also produced records for Montgomery Ward label during the 1930s. Besides manufacturing records for themselves, RCA Victor operated RCA Custom which was the leading record manufacturer for independent record labels, RCA Custom also pressed record compilations for The Readers Digest Association. RCA sold its interest in EMI in 1935, but EMI continued to distribute RCA recordings in the UK, RCA also manufactured and distributed HMV classical recordings on the RCA and HMV labels in North America. During World War II, ties between RCA and its Japanese affiliate JVC were severed, the Japanese record company is today called Victor Entertainment and is still a JVC subsidiary. From 1942 to 1944, RCA Victor was seriously impacted by the American Federation of Musicians recording ban, virtually all union musicians could not make recordings during that period
11.
United Artists
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United Artists is an American film and television entertainment studio. The studio was bought, sold and restructured over the ensuing century. On December 14 of the year, however, MGM acquired the 48% stake of UAMG it did not own. UA was incorporated as a joint venture on February 5,1919, by Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks, each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work. They were spurred on by established Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening their control over salaries and creative decisions. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before anything was formalized, when he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, is said to have observed, The inmates are taking over the asylum. The four partners, with advice from McAdoo, formed their distribution company and its headquarters was established at 729 Seventh Avenue in New York City. The original terms called for each of the stars to produce five pictures each year, UAs first film was a success. Without selling stock to the public, following the other studios, as a result, production was slow and the company distributed an annual average of five films during its first five years. By 1924 Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis, veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. He had been producing pictures for a decade, and he brought commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, contracts were signed with independent producers, most notably Samuel Goldwyn, and Howard Hughes. In 1933, Schenck organized a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, called Twentieth Century Pictures, Schenck formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name. They began international operations, first in Canada and then in Mexico, by the end of the 1930s, United Artists was represented in over 40 countries. When he was denied a share in 1935, Schenck resigned. He set up 20th Century Pictures merger with Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox, al Lichtman succeeded Schenck as company president. Other independent producers distributed through United Artists in the 1930s including, Walt Disney Productions, Alexander Korda, Hal Roach, David O. Selznick, as the years passed, and the dynamics of the business changed, these producing partners drifted away. Samuel Goldwyn Productions and Disney went to RKO, and Wanger to Universal Pictures, in the late 1930s, UA turned a profit
12.
Blue Note Records
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Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards and it derives its name from the characteristic blue notes of jazz and the blues. Originally dedicated to recording traditional jazz and small group swing, from 1947 the label began to switch its attention to modern jazz, while the original company did not itself record many of the pioneers of bebop, significant exceptions are Thelonious Monk, Fats Navarro and Bud Powell. Historically, Blue Note has principally been associated with the hard bop style of jazz, but also recorded essential albums in the avant-garde and free styles of jazz. Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, Grant Green, Hank Mobley, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, the label is currently owned by the Universal Music Group. Lion first heard jazz as a boy in Berlin. The Blue Note label initially consisted of Lion and Max Margulis, musicians were supplied with alcoholic refreshments, and recorded in the early hours of the morning after their evenings work in clubs and bars had finished. Francis Wolff, a photographer, emigrated to the USA at the end of 1939 and soon joined forces with Lion. In 1941, Lion was drafted into the army for two years, Milt Gabler at the Commodore Music Store offered storage facilities and helped keep the catalog in print, with Wolff working for him. By late 1943, the label was back in recording musicians. Johnson, who was returning to a degree of musical activity after having largely recovered from a stroke suffered in 1940. Towards the end of the war, saxophonist Ike Quebec was among those who recorded for the label, Quebec would act as a talent scout for the label until his death in 1963. Although stylistically belonging to a generation, he could appreciate the new bebop style of jazz. Lion recorded several Monk sessions before he began to release the resulting sides, monks recordings for Blue Note between 1947 and 1952 did not sell well for some years, but have since come to be regarded as the most important of his career. The sessions by Powell are commonly ranked among his best, J. J. Johnson and trumpeter Miles Davis both recorded several sessions for Blue Note between 1952 and 1954, but by then the musicians who had created bebop were starting to explore other styles. The recording of musicians performing in a jazz idiom, such as Sidney Bechet and clarinettist George Lewis. In 1951, Blue Note issued their first vinyl 10 releases, the label was soon recording emerging talent such as Horace Silver and Clifford Brown. Meanwhile, Milt Jackson and the Jazz Messengers recorded for Blue Note, the Milt Jackson Quartet session was a one-off, but Blakeys various groups recorded for the label extensively, if intermittently, for the next decade
13.
Qwest Records
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Qwest Records is the American record label started by Quincy Jones in 1980 as a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records, and owned by Warner Music Group, although Jones was still under contract with A&M Records through 1981, george Bensons 1980 Give Me the Night LP was the first release on Qwest, although it was shared with Warner Bros. Records, where Benson was under contract, One of the first artists to sign with Qwest was Joness goddaughter, Patti Austin. Qwest released Every Home Should Have One in 1981, although it focused on the R&B market, its signings included Frank Sinatra, Tevin Campbell, Radiance, and British post-punk groups New Order and Joy Division. Quincy Jones - NME - May 1990 The label also ventured into hip hop music during the 1990s, Qwest also discovered R&B artist Tamia, who enjoyed a long career. The gospel group the Winans signed with the label in 1985, táta Vega was also signed and released Now I See through Qwest. Robert Stewart, who performed on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wynton Marsalis recording Blood on the Fields, was signed to the label in 1994 and his two albums for Qwest, In the Gutta and The Force, received critical acclaim. Qwest was shut down in 2000, with Warner Bros. Records acquiring the remainder, the roster was either absorbed by Warner Bros. dropped, or left in limbo. In 2006, select titles by Jones were licensed to Universal Music for distribution and re-pressed, in 2010, it was confirmed on Joness web site that Qwest was reactivated and now distributed by Interscope Records
14.
Warner Bros. Records
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Warner Bros. Records was established on March 19,1958, as the recorded-music division of the American film studio Warner Bros. For most of its existence it was one of a group of labels owned and operated by larger parent corporations. The sequence of companies that controlled Warner Bros. and its allied labels evolved through a series of corporate mergers. Over this period, Warner Bros. Records grew from a minor player in the music industry to become one of the top recording labels in the world. In 2003, these assets were divested by their then owner Time Warner. This independent company traded as the Warner Music Group before being bought by Access Industries in 2011, WMG is the smallest of the three major international music conglomerates and the worlds last publicly traded major music company. Cameron Strang serves as CEO of the company, artists currently signed to Warner Bros. At the end of the silent movie period, Warner Bros, pictures decided to expand into publishing and recording so that it could access low-cost music content for its films. This new group controlled valuable copyrights on standards by George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern, the label signed rising radio and recording stars Bing Crosby, Mills Brothers, and Boswell Sisters. In December 1931, Warner Bros. offloaded Brunswick to the American Record Corporation for a fraction of its former value, in a lease arrangement which did not include Brunswicks pressing plants. Warner Bros. sold Brunswick a second time, this time along with the old Brunswick pressing plants Warner owned, to Decca Records in exchange for a financial interest in Decca. The studio stayed out of the business for more than 25 years. Warner Bros. reëntered the record business in 1958 with the establishment of its own recording division, by this time, the established Hollywood studios were reeling from multiple challenges to their former dominance - the most notable being the introduction of television in the late 1940s. Legal changes also had a impact on their business—lawsuits brought by major stars had effectively overthrown the old studio contract system by the late 1940s. Pictures sold off much of its library in 1948 and, beginning in 1949. Semenenko in particular had a professional interest in the entertainment business. With the record business booming - sales had topped US$500 million by 1958 - Semnenko argued that it was foolish for Warner Bros, another impetus for the labels creation was the brief music career of Warner Bros. actor Tab Hunter. In 1958, the studio signed Hunter as its first artist to its newly formed record division, to establish the label, the company hired former Columbia Records president James B
15.
Harry Belafonte
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Harry Belafonte is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and social activist. One of the most successful CARIBBEAN AMERICAN pop stars in history and his breakthrough album Calypso is the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing The Banana Boat Song and he has recorded in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in films, most notably in Otto Premingers hit musical Carmen Jones, Island in the Sun. Belafonte was a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the anti-apartheid movement, since 1987, he has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In recent years, he has been a critic of the policies of both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidential administrations. Harry Belafonte now acts as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues, Belafonte has won three Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academys 6th Annual Governors Awards, in March 2014, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in Boston. His mother was born in Jamaica, the child of a Scottish white mother and his father also was born in Jamaica, the child of a black mother and Dutch Jewish father of Sephardi origins. This is all Harry says about his Jewish grandfather, whom he never met, “a white Dutch Jew who drifted over to the islands after chasing gold and diamonds, from 1932 to 1940, he lived with one of his grandmothers in her native country of Jamaica. When he returned to New York City, he attended George Washington High School after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. In the 1940s, he was working as a assistant in NYC when a tenant gave him, as a gratuity. He fell in love with the art form and also met Sidney Poitier, the financially struggling pair regularly purchased a single seat to local plays, trading places in between acts, after informing the other about the progression of the play. He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue John Murray Andersons Almanac, Belafonte started his career in music as a club singer in New York to pay for his acting classes. The first time he appeared in front of an audience, he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, with guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard. In 1952, he received a contract with RCA Victor and his first widely released single, which went on to become his signature song with audience participation in virtually all his live performances, was Matilda, recorded April 27,1953
16.
Tony Bennett
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Anthony Dominick Benedetto, known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. He is also a painter, having created works under the name Anthony Benedetto that are on permanent public display in several institutions and he is the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York. Born and raised in Astoria to an Italian-American family, Bennett began singing at an early age and he fought in the final stages of World War II as a U. S. Army infantryman in the European Theater. Afterward, he developed his technique, signed with Columbia Records and had his first number-one popular song with Because of You in 1951. Several top hits such as Rags to Riches followed in the early 1950s and he then refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached a peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his song, I Left My Heart in San Francisco. His career and his personal life experienced a downturn during the height of the rock music era. Bennett staged a comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and he has won 19 Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards, and was named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree. He has sold over 50 million records worldwide, Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on August 3,1926, in Astoria, Queens, New York, to grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna Suraci. In 1906, John had emigrated from Podàrgoni, an eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria. Anna had been born in the U. S. shortly after her parents emigrated from the Calabria region in 1899. Other relatives came over as well as part of the migration of Italians to America. Tony grew up with a sister, Mary, and an older brother. With a father who was ailing and unable to work, the children grew up in poverty, John Sr. instilled in his son a love of art and literature and a compassion for human suffering, but died when Tony was 10 years old. The experience of growing up in the Great Depression and a distaste for the effects of the Hoover Administration would make the child a lifelong Democrat. Young Tony grew up listening to Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland, and Bing Crosby as well as artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden. His Uncle Dick was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving him a window into show business
17.
Vic Damone
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Damone was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Rocco and Mamie Farinola, Italian immigrants from Bari, Italy. His father was an electrician and his mother taught piano and his cousin was the actress and singer Doretta Morrow. Inspired by his favorite singer, Frank Sinatra, Damone began taking voice lessons and he sang in the choir at St. Finbars Church in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, for Sunday Mass under organist Anthony Amorello. When his father was injured at work, Damone had to drop out of high school and he worked as an usher and elevator operator in the Paramount Theater in Manhattan. He met Perry Como, while at the Paramount Theater, Damone stopped the elevator between floors, sang for him, and asked his advice if he should continue voice lessons. And referred him to a local bandleader, vito Farinola decided to call himself Vic Damone, using his mothers maiden name. Damone entered the talent search on Arthur Godfreys Talent Scouts and won in April 1947 and this led to his becoming a regular on Godfreys show. He met Milton Berle at the studio and Berle got him work at two night clubs, by mid-1947, Damone had signed a contract with Mercury Records. His first release, I Have But One Heart, reached seven on the Billboard chart. You Do reached the same peak and these were followed by a number of other hits. In 1948, he got his own radio show, Saturday Night Serenade. He was booked into the Mocambo nightclub on the Sunset Strip in 1949, in 1951, Damone appeared in two movies, The Strip and Rich, Young and Pretty. From 1951 to 1953, he served in the United States Army and he served with future Northwest Indiana radio personality Al Evans, and country music star Johnny Cash. After leaving the service, he married the Italian actress Pier Angeli and he also made some guest appearances on Milton Berles television show in 1954. In 1955, Damone had one song on the charts, Por Favor, however, he did have major roles in two movie musicals, Hit the Deck and Kismet. In early 1956, he moved from Mercury to Columbia Records and his six original, long-playing albums on Columbia between 1957 and 1961 were That Towering Feeling, Angela Mia, Closer Than a Kiss, This Game of Love, On the Swingin Side, and Young and Lively. In 1961, he was released by Columbia, moving over to Capitol Records, he filled the gap left by Frank Sinatras leaving to help found Reprise Records. Other original Capitol albums included My Baby Loves to Swing, The Liveliest, Damone did limited acting on television in the early 1960s
18.
Judy Garland
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Judy Garland was an American singer, actress, and vaudevillian. Garland began performing in vaudeville with her two sisters and was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. She made more than two films with MGM, including nine with Mickey Rooney. Garlands most famous role was as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and her other roles at MGM included Meet Me in St. Louis, The Harvey Girls and Easter Parade. After 15 years, she was released from the studio and made record-breaking concert appearances, a recording career. Film appearances became fewer in her years, but included two Academy Award nominated performances in A Star Is Born and Judgment at Nuremberg. Garland received a Golden Globe Award, a Juvenile Academy Award, and a Special Tony Award, deMille Award for lifetime achievement in the film industry. She was the first woman to win a Grammy for Album of the Year for her recording of Judy at Carnegie Hall. In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the 10 greatest female stars of classic American cinema, from an early age Garland struggled in her personal life. The pressures of adolescent stardom sent her to a psychiatrist at age eighteen and her self-image was influenced by film executives who said she was unattractive and manipulated her on-screen physical appearance. She was plagued by instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She married five times, with her first four marriages ending in divorce and she also had a long battle with drugs and alcohol, which ultimately led to her death from a barbiturate overdose at the age of 47. Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10,1922, in Grand Rapids and she was the youngest child of Ethel Marion and Francis Avent Frank Gumm. Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a theater that featured vaudeville acts. She was of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry, named after both of her parents and baptized at a local Episcopal church, baby shared her familys flair for song and dance. The Gumm Sisters performed there for the few years, accompanied by their mother on piano. The family relocated to Lancaster, California, in June 1926, Frank purchased and operated another theater in Lancaster, and Ethel began managing her daughters and working to get them into motion pictures
19.
Duke Ellington
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Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years. Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s onward, in the 1930s, his orchestra toured in Europe. Some of the musicians who were members of Ellingtons orchestra, such as saxophonist Johnny Hodges, are considered to be among the best players in jazz, Ellington melded them into the best-known orchestral unit in the history of jazz. Some members stayed with the orchestra for several decades, a master at writing miniatures for the three-minute 78 rpm recording format, Ellington often composed specifically to feature the style and skills of his individual musicians. Ellington also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, for example Juan Tizols Caravan, and Perdido, after 1941, Ellington collaborated with composer-arranger-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whom he called his writing and arranging companion. With Strayhorn, he composed many extended compositions, or suites, following an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, in July 1956, Ellington and his orchestra enjoyed a major career revival and embarked on world tours. Ellington recorded for most American record companies of his era, performed in films, scoring several. His reputation continued to rise after he died, and he was awarded a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999, Ellington was born on April 29,1899, to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Ellington in Washington, D. C. Daisy primarily played parlor songs and James preferred operatic arias and they lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place, NW, in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D. C. Dukes father was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, on April 15,1879, Daisy Kennedy was born in Washington, D. C. on January 4,1879, the daughter of a former American slave. James Ellington made blueprints for the United States Navy, when Ellington was a child, his family showed racial pride and support in their home, as did many other families. African Americans in D. C. worked to protect their children from the eras Jim Crow laws, at the age of seven, Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscales. Daisy surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners, Ellingtons childhood friends noticed that his casual, offhand manner, his easy grace, and his dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman, and began calling him Duke. Ellington credited his chum Edgar McEntree for the nickname, I think he felt that in order for me to be eligible for his constant companionship, I should have a title. Though Ellington took piano lessons, he was interested in baseball. President Roosevelt would come by on his horse sometimes, and stop and watch us play, Ellington went to Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, D. C. He gained his first job selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games, in the summer of 1914, while working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café, Ellington wrote his first composition, Soda Fountain Rag. He created the piece by ear, as he had not yet learned to read, I would play the Soda Fountain Rag as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango, and fox trot, Ellington recalled
20.
Billy Strayhorn
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His compositions include Take the A Train, Chelsea Bridge, A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing, and Lush Life. Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio and his family soon moved to the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, his mothers family was from Hillsborough, North Carolina, Strayhorn spent many months of his childhood at his grandparents house in Hillsborough. In an interview, Strayhorn said that his grandmother was his influence during the first ten years of his life. He first became interested in music while living with her, playing hymns on her piano, Strayhorn returned to Pittsburgh, and attended Westinghouse High School, later attended by Erroll Garner and Ahmad Jamal. While still in school, he worked odd jobs to earn enough money to buy his first piano. While in high school, he played in the band, and studied under the same teacher, Carl McVicker. By age 19, he was writing for a professional musical, Strayhorn was then introduced to the music of pianists like Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson at age 19. These musicians guided him into the realm of jazz where he remained for the rest of his life and his first jazz exposure was in a combo called the Mad Hatters that played around Pittsburgh. He met Duke Ellington in December 1938, after an Ellington performance in Pittsburgh, here he first told, and then showed, the band leader how he would have arranged one of Dukes own pieces. Ellington was impressed enough to invite other members to hear Strayhorn. At the end of the visit, he arranged for Strayhorn to meet him when the returned to New York. Strayhorn worked for Ellington for the quarter century as an arranger, composer, occasional pianist. As Ellington described him, Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head. Strayhorns relationship with Ellington was always difficult to pin down, Strayhorn was a composer and arranger who seemed to flourish in Dukes shadow. Ellington was arguably a father figure and the band was affectionately protective of the diminutive, mild-mannered, unselfish Strayhorn, nicknamed by the band Strays, Weely, though Duke Ellington took credit for much of Strayhorn’s work, he did not maliciously drown out his partner. Ellington would make jokes onstage like, Strayhorn does a lot of the work, Strayhorn composed the bands best known theme, Take the A Train, and a number of other pieces that became part of the band’s repertoire. Strayhorn also arranged many of Ellingtons band-within-band recordings and provided harmonic clarity, taste, Strayhorn also often sat in on the piano with the Ellington Orchestra, both live and in the studio
21.
Billie Holiday
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Eleanora Fagan, professionally known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz musician and singer-songwriter with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a influence on jazz music. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and she was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, which made up for her limited range and lack of formal music education. There were other singers with equal talent, but Holiday had a voice that captured the attention of her audience. After a turbulent childhood, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by the producer John Hammond and she signed a recording contract with Brunswick Records in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson yielded the hit What a Little Moonlight Can Do, Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia Records and Decca Records. By the late 1940s, however, she was beset with legal troubles, after a short prison sentence, she performed a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall, but her reputation deteriorated because of her drug and alcohol problems. Her final recordings were met with mixed reaction to her voice but were mild commercial successes. Her final album, Lady in Satin, was released in 1958, Holiday died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1959. A posthumous album, Last Recording, was released following her death, much of Holidays material has been rereleased since her death. She is considered a performer with an ongoing influence on American music. She is the recipient of four Grammy awards, all of them posthumous awards for Best Historical Album, Holiday herself was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973. Lady Sings the Blues, a film about her life, starring Diana Ross, was released in 1972, Eleanora Fagan was born on April 7,1915, in Philadelphia, the daughter of Sarah Julia Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday, an unmarried teenaged couple. Her father did not live with her mother, not long after Eleanora was born, Clarence abandoned his family to pursue a career as a jazz banjo player and guitarist. Sarah moved to Philadelphia at age 19, after she was evicted from her parents home in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, for becoming pregnant. With no support from her parents, she made arrangements with her older, married half-sister, Eva Miller, the child was of African-American ancestry and was also said to have had Irish ancestors through her mothers mixed heritage. Her mother often took what were known as transportation jobs. Holidays autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, first published in 1956, is sketchy on details of her early life, some historians have disputed Holidays paternity, as a copy of her birth certificate in the Baltimore archives lists the father as a man named Frank DeViese
22.
Sammy Davis Jr.
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Samuel George Sammy Davis Jr. was an American entertainer. Primarily a dancer and singer, he was also an actor of stage and screen, comedian, musician, at the age of 3, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father and Will Mastin as the Will Mastin Trio, which toured nationally. After military service, Davis returned to the trio, Davis became an overnight sensation following a nightclub performance at Ciros after the 1951 Academy Awards. With the trio, he became a recording artist, in 1954, he lost his left eye in a car accident, and several years later, he converted to Judaism. Daviss film career began as a child in 1933, in 1960, he appeared in the Rat Pack film Oceans 11. After a starring role on Broadway in 1956s Mr Wonderful, he returned to the stage in 1964s Golden Boy, in 1966 he had his own TV variety show, titled The Sammy Davis Jr. Show. Daviss career slowed in the late 1960s, but he had a hit record with The Candy Man in 1972 and became a star in Las Vegas, earning him the nickname Mister Show Business. Davis was a victim of racism throughout his life, particularly during the pre-Civil Rights era, Davis had a complex relationship with the black community, and drew criticism after publicly supporting President Richard Nixon in 1972. One day on a course with Jack Benny, he was asked what his handicap was. This was to become a comment, recounted in his autobiography. After reuniting with Sinatra and Dean Martin in 1987, Davis toured with them and Liza Minnelli internationally and he died in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, and his estate was the subject of legal battles. Davis was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and he was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1987, and in 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. During his lifetime, Davis stated that his mother was Puerto Rican, as an infant, he was reared by his paternal grandmother. When he was 3 years old, his parents separated and his father, not wanting to lose custody of his son, took him on tour. Davis learned to dance from his father and his uncle Will Mastin, Davis joined the act as a child and they became the Will Mastin Trio. Throughout his career, Davis included the Will Mastin Trio in his billing, Mastin and his father shielded him from racism. Snubs were explained as jealousy, for instance, when Davis served in the United States Army during World War II, however, he was confronted by strong racial prejudice. He later said, Overnight the world looked different and it wasnt one color any more
23.
Barbra Streisand
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Barbara Joan Barbra Streisand is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and filmmaker. She is among a group of entertainers who have been honored with an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Streisand is one of the music artists of all time, with more than 68.5 million albums in the United States. She starred in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl, for which she won the Academy Award, with the release of Yentl in 1983, Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio film. The film won an Oscar for Best Score and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical, Streisand received the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the first woman to win that award. The RIAA and Billboard recognize Streisand as holding the record for the most top 10 albums of any recording artist. According to Billboard, Streisand holds the record for the female with the most number one albums, Billboard also recognizes Streisand as the greatest female of all time on its Billboard 200 chart and one of the greatest artists of all time on its Hot 100 chart. Barbara Joan Streisand was born on April 24,1942, in Brooklyn, New York and her mother had been a soprano singer in her youth and considered a career in music, but later became a school secretary. Her father was a school teacher at the same school. Streisands family was Jewish, her grandparents emigrated from Galicia and her maternal grandparents from the Russian Empire. Her father earned a degree from City College of New York in 1928 and was considered athletic. As a student, he spent his summers outdoors, once working as a lifeguard, hed try anything, his sister Molly said. He married Ida in 1930, two years after graduating, and became a respected educator with a focus on helping underprivileged. In August 1943, a few months after Streisands first birthday, her father died suddenly at age 34 from complications from an epileptic seizure, the family fell into near-poverty, with her mother working as a low-paid bookkeeper. As an adult, Streisand remembered those early years as always feeling like an outcast, explaining and her mother tried to pay their bills but could not give her daughter the attention she craved, When I wanted love from my mother, she gave me food, Streisand says. Streisand recalls that her mother had a voice and sang semi-professionally on occasion. During a visit to the Catskills when Streisand was thirteen, she told Rosie ODonnell, she and that session was the first time Streisand ever asserted herself as an artist, which also became her first moment of inspiration as an artist. She has a brother, Sheldon, and a half-sister
24.
Teddy Wilson
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Theodore Shaw Teddy Wilson was an American jazz pianist. With Goodman, he was one of the first black musicians to appear prominently with white musicians, in addition to his extensive work as a sideman, Wilson also led his own groups and recording sessions from the late 1920s to the 1980s. Wilson was born in Austin, Texas, on November 24,1912 and he studied piano and violin at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. After working in Speed Webbs band, with Louis Armstrong, and also understudying Earl Hines in Hiness Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra, in 1935, he joined the Benny Goodman Trio. The trio performed during the big bands intermissions, by joining the trio, Wilson became one of the first black musicians to perform prominently in a racially integrated group. He recorded fifty hit records with singers such as Lena Horne, Helen Ward and Billie Holiday. Wilson formed his own short-lived big band in 1939, then led a sextet at Café Society from 1940 to 1944, in the 1950s, Wilson taught at the Juilliard School. Wilson can be seen appearing as himself in the 1955 motion picture The Benny Goodman Story and he also worked as music director for the Dick Cavett Show. Wilson lived quietly in suburban Hillsdale, New Jersey and he was married three times, including to the songwriter Irene Kitchings. He performed as a soloist and with pick-up groups until the years of his life, including leading a trio with his sons Theodore Wilson on bass. Wilson died in New Britain, Connecticut, on July 31,1986 and he is buried at Fairview Cemetery in New Britain. In addition to Theodore and Steven, Wilson had three children, William, James and Dune and three grandchildren, James II, Olivia and Liam Wilson
25.
Cab Calloway
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Cabell Cab Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States most popular big bands from the start of the 1930s to the late 1940s. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86, Calloway was born in Rochester, New York, on Christmas Day in 1907 to an upper-middle-class family. His mother, Martha Eulalia Reed, was a Morgan State College graduate, teacher and his father, Cabell Calloway, Jr. graduated from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania in 1898, and worked as a lawyer and in real estate. Cab Calloway grew up as an adolescent in a household in West Baltimores Sugar Hill, considered the political, cultural. Early on, his parents recognized their sons talent. He continued to study music and voice throughout his formal schooling, despite his parents and teachers disapproval of jazz, Calloway began frequenting and performing in many of Baltimores nightclubs. As a result, he came into contact with many of the local jazz luminaries of the time and he counted among his early mentors drummer Chick Webb and pianist Johnny Jones. After his graduation from Frederick Douglass High School, Calloway joined his sister, Blanche, in a touring production of the popular Black musical revue. His parents had hopes of their son becoming an attorney following after his father, at the Sunset Café, Cab cut his teeth as an understudy for singer Adelaide Hall. Here he met and performed with Louis Armstrong, who taught him to sing in the scat style and he eventually left school to sing with a band called the Alabamians. In 1930 Calloway took over a brilliant, but failing band called The Missourians, later on, they renamed it Cab Calloway, the Cotton Club in New Yorks Harlem was the premier jazz venue in the country. In 1931 Calloway and his orchestra were hired as a replacement for the Duke Ellington Orchestra while it was touring, Calloway quickly proved so popular that his band became the co-house band with Ellingtons, and his group began touring nationwide when not playing the Cotton Club. Their popularity was enhanced by the twice-weekly live national radio broadcasts on NBC from the Cotton Club. Calloway also appeared on Walter Winchells radio program and with Bing Crosby in his show at New Yorks Paramount Theatre, as a result of these appearances, Calloway, together with Ellington, broke the major broadcast network color barrier. Many of his records were vocal specialties with Calloways vocal taking up the majority of the record, in 1931 Calloway recorded his most famous song, Minnie the Moocher. Through rotoscoping, Calloway performed voiceover for these cartoons, but his dance steps were the basis of the characters movements and he took advantage of this, timing concerts in some communities to coincide with the release of the films in order to make the most of the publicity. As a result of the success of Minnie the Moocher, Calloway became identified with its chorus and he also performed in the 1930s in a series of short films for Paramount
26.
Noble Sissle
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Noble Lee Sissle was an African-American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer, and playwright, best known for the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, and its hit song Im Just Wild About Harry. Sissle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 10,1889 and his mother, Martha Angeline Sissle, was a school teacher and juvenile probation officer. As a youth Sissle sang in choirs and as a soloist with his high schools glee club in Cleveland. Sissle attended De Pauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on scholarship, on October 1,1918, Sissle joined the New York 369th Infantry Regiment at New York City where he helped Lieutenant James Reese Europe form the 369th Regimental Band. Sissle played violin and also served as major for the 369th that, under Europe as bandmaster. He sang several vocals on the last disc recorded by the band that was released in March 1919 and he left the army after the war as a second lieutenant with the 370th Infantry Regiment and joined Europe’s civilian version of the 369th band. Years earlier Sissle had struck up a partnership with Blake after they first met in Baltimore in 1915 and had remained in touch during the war, Sissle is noted for his collaborations with Blake. The pair first performed in vaudeville and later produced the musicals Shuffle Along, Sissle is also, famously, the only African-American artist to appear in the Pathé film archives. Shortly after World War I, Sissle joined forces with Blake to form a music duo. After vaudeville, the pair work on the jazz musical revue Shuffle Along, which incorporated many songs they had written. When it premiered in 1921, Shuffle Along became the first hit musical on Broadway written by, the musicals also introduced hit songs such as Im Just Wild About Harry and Love Will Find a Way. In 1923 Sissle made two films for Lee DeForest in DeForests Phonofilm sound-on-film process and they were Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake featuring Sissle and Blakes song Affectionate Dan, and Sissle and Blake Sing Snappy Songs featuring Sons of Old Black Joe and My Swanee Home. Blake made a film in Phonofilm, playing his composition Fantasy on Swanee River. These three films are preserved in the Maurice Zouary film collection at the Library of Congress, in 1932, Sissle appeared with Nina Mae McKinney, the Nicholas Brothers, and Eubie Blake in Pie, Pie Blackbird, a Vitaphone short released by Warner Brothers. In February 1931, Sissle accompanied Adelaide Hall on piano at the prestigious Palace Theatre in New York during her 1931-32 world tour, in 1954, New York radio station WMGM, which was then owned by Loews Theatre Organization, signed Sissle as a disc jockey. His show featured the music of African-American recording artists, Sissle was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Sissle died in 1975 at the age of 86 in Tampa and his rendition of the song Viper Mad was included in the Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown. African American musical theater Notes Bibliography Reef, Catherine, New York City, New York, Facts on File, Inc
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African Americans
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 73. 2–80. 9% West African, 18–24% European, according to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities, immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, believed to be inferior to white people, they were treated as second-class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic, the settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America were 20 and odd negroes who came to Jamestown, as English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World, the landowner received 50 acres of land from the state for each servant purchased from a ships captain. An indentured servant would work for years without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery, servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom and they raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of slavery when they sentenced John Punch. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would own one of the first black slaves, John Casor
28.
Civil and political rights
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Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure ones ability to participate in the civil and political life of the society, Civil and political rights form the original and main part of international human rights. They comprise the first portion of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the phrase civil rights is a translation of Latin ius civis. Roman citizens could be either free or servile, but they all had rights in law. After the Edict of Milan in 313, these included the freedom of religion. Roman legal doctrine was lost during the Middle Ages, but claims of rights could still be made based on religious doctrine. According to the leaders of Ketts Rebellion, all men may be made free. In the 17th century, English common law judge Sir Edward Coke revived the idea of rights based on citizenship by arguing that Englishmen had historically enjoyed such rights, the Parliament of England adopted the English Bill of Rights in 1689. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, by George Mason and James Madison, was adopted in 1776, the Virginia declaration is the direct ancestor and model for the U. S. Bill of Rights. The removal by legislation of a civil right constitutes a civil disability, in early 19th century Britain, the phrase civil rights most commonly referred to the issue of such legal discrimination against Catholics. In the House of Commons support for civil rights was divided, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 restored their civil rights. In the 1860s, Americans adapted this usage to newly freed blacks, congress enacted civil rights acts in 1866,1871,1875,1957,1960,1964,1968, and 1991. Marshall notes that civil rights were among the first to be recognized and codified, followed later by political rights, in many countries, they are constitutional rights and are included in a bill of rights or similar document. They are also defined in human rights instruments, such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Civil and political rights need not be codified to be protected, although most democracies worldwide do have formal written guarantees of civil, Civil rights are considered to be natural rights. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his A Summary View of the Rights of British America that a free people their rights as derived from the laws of nature, the question of to whom civil and political rights apply is a subject of controversy. According to political scientist Salvador Santino F. Regilme Jr. Custom also plays a role, the United States Declaration of Independence states that people have unalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. It is considered by some that the purpose of government is the protection of life. Ideas of self-ownership and cognitive liberty affirm rights to choose the food one eats, the one takes
29.
Activism
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Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, and/or environmental reform or stasis with the desire to make improvements in society. One can also express activism through different forms of art, daily acts of protest such as not buying clothes from a certain clothing company because they exploit workers is another form of activism. One view holds that acknowledging privileges and oppressions on a daily basis ranks as a form of activism, research has begun to explore how activist groups use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action. The Online Etymology Dictionary records the English words activism and activist from 1920, Activists can function in roles as public officials, as in judicial activism. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. introduced the term judicial activism in a January 1946 Fortune magazine article titled The Supreme Court,1947, some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than to persuade governments to change or not to change laws. Other activists try to persuade people to remain the same, in an effort to counter change, the cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically. Activism is not always an action by Activists, every year more than 100 environmental activists are killed, in 2014116 environmental activists were assassinated, in 2015185 activists were killed around this planet. Since the 1990s, the Internet has been a tool used by activists for mobilization and communication of causes, specific platforms like MoveOn. org, founded in 1998, allow individuals to establish petitions and movements for social change. Protesters in Seattle in 1999 used email to organize protests against the WTO Ministerial Conference, throughout the 2000s, protesters continued to use social media platforms to generate interest. The power of Internet Activism came into a lens with the Arab Spring protests. They use different means to political persecution, such as Tor Browser. The activism industry consists of organizations and individuals engaged in activism, Activism is often done full-time, as part of an organizations core business. Many organizations in the industry are either non profit organizations or non-governmental organizations. Most activist organizations do not manufacture goods, the term activism industry has often been used to refer to outsourced fundraising operations. However, activist organizations engage in activities as well. Lobbying, or the influencing of decisions made by government, is another activist tactic, many groups, including law firms, have designated staff assigned specifically for lobbying purposes. In the United States, lobbying is regulated by the federal government, many government systems encourage public support of non-profit organizations by granting various forms of tax relief for donations to charitable organizations. Governments may attempt to deny these benefits to activists by restricting the political activity of tax-exempt organizations, randy Shaw, The Activists Handbook, A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond
30.
Cotton Club
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The club operated most notably during Americas Prohibition Era. Owney Madden, a prominent bootlegger and gangster, took over the club in 1923 after release from Sing Sing, a deal was arranged between the two that allowed Johnson to still be the club’s manager. Madden used the club as an outlet to sell his #1 beer to the prohibition crowd. While the club was closed briefly in 1925 for selling liquor, a man by the name of Herman Stark became the stage manager from then on. Harlem producer Leonard Harper directed the first two of three opening night floor-shows at the new venue, the Cotton Club was a Whites-only venue. The club reproduced the racist imagery of the times, often depicting blacks as savages in exotic jungles or as darkies in the cotton-growing plantation South, the skin color of the male dancers was more varied. Ellington was expected to write music for an audience of whites. The prices for customers were high so the performers had very high salaries, shows at the Cotton Club were musical revues, and several went under the heading of Cotton Club Parade followed by the year. The revues featured dancers, singers, comedians and variety acts and these revues helped launch the careers of many artists including Fletcher Henderson who led the first house band to play there in 1923. It also helped push Duke Ellingtons career, whose orchestra was the band there from December 4,1927. In 1927, the first revue that Duke Ellington took over as house band was called Rhythmania and featured Adelaide Hall and their recording of Creole Love Call became a worldwide hit. Ellington recorded more than 100 compositions during this era, dorothy Dandridge performed there while still one of The Dandridge Sisters, while Coleman Hawkins and Don Redman played there as part of Hendersons band. Tap dancers Bill Bojangles Robinson, Sammy Davis Jr. and the Nicholas Brothers starred there as well, the club also drew from white popular culture of the day. Walter Brooks, who had produced the successful Broadway show Shuffle Along, was the nominal owner, in 1934, Adelaide Hall starred at the Cotton Club in Cotton Club Parade 1934, the biggest grossing show that ever appeared at the club. The show opened on 11 March and ran for eight months, the score was written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler and featured the classic song Ill Wind. During Halls performance of Ill Wind, to add authenticity to the production and it was the first time such equipment had been used on a stage. Featured on the bill was the 16-year-old Lena Horne, the club was closed temporarily in 1936 after the race riot in Harlem the previous year. Photographer Carl Van Vechten vowed to boycott the club for having such racist policies in place, the Cotton Club reopened later that year at Broadway and 48th
31.
Stormy Weather (1943 film)
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Stormy Weather is a 1943 American musical film produced and released by 20th Century Fox. The movie is considered one of the best Hollywood musicals with an African-American cast, Stormy Weather takes its title from the 1933 song of the same title, which is performed near the end of the film. It is based upon the life and times of its star, Robinson plays Bill Williamson, a talented born dancer who returns home in 1918 after fighting in World War I and tries to pursue a career as a performer. Along the way, he approaches a beautiful singer named Selina Rogers, the character of Selina was invented for the film, Robinson did not have such a romance in real life. Dooley Wilson co-stars as Bills perpetually-broke friend, other notable performers in the movie were Cab Calloway and Fats Waller, the Nicholas Brothers dancing duo, comedian F. E. Miller, singer Ada Brown, and Katherine Dunham with her dance troupe. Despite a running time of only 77 minutes, the film features some 20 musical numbers and this was Robinsons final film, Waller died only a few months after its release. Horne also performs in dance numbers with Robinson. The movie was adapted by Frederick J. Jackson, Ted Koehler, kraft from the story by Jerry Horwin and Seymour B. Robinson. It was directed by Andrew L. Stone, in 2001, Stormy Weather was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. It was released on DVD in North America in 2005, the soundtrack has been released on CD by 20th Century Fox references 7822-11007, though Sunbeam Records released the soundtrack on vinyl in 1976. This record included Lena Horne singing Good For Nothin Joe, a song that did not appear in the movie, fred Astaire told the Nicholas Brothers that the Jumping Jive sequence was the greatest movie musical number he had ever seen. The musical numbers in the movie elements of minstrelsy. The performance of a cakewalk for example, features flower headdresses reminiscent of the Little Black Sambo figures used in historical misrepresentations of Black American males, Stormy Weather at the American Film Institute Catalog Stormy Weather at the Internet Movie Database Review of Stormy Weather at TVGuide. com
32.
McCarthyism
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McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. It originated with President Trumans Executive Order 9835 of March 21,1947, McCarthyism soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators, many people suffered loss of employment or destruction of their careers, some even suffered imprisonment. McCarthyism was a social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the source of a great deal of debate. The historical period that came to be known as the McCarthy era began well before Joseph McCarthys own involvement in it, many factors contributed to McCarthyism, some of them extending back to the years of the First Red Scare, inspired by Communisms emergence as a recognized political force. While the United States was engaged in World War II and allied with the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb in 1949, earlier than many analysts had expected. That same year, Mao Zedongs Communist army gained control of mainland China despite heavy American financial support of the opposing Kuomintang, in 1950, the Korean War began, pitting U. S. U. N. and South Korean forces against Communists from North Korea and China. The following year saw several significant developments regarding Soviet Cold War espionage activities. In January 1950, Alger Hiss, a high-level State Department official, was convicted of perjury, in Great Britain, Klaus Fuchs confessed to committing espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union while working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory during the War. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were arrested in 1950 on charges of stealing atomic bomb secrets for the Soviets and were executed in 1953, there were also more subtle forces encouraging the rise of McCarthyism. It had long been a practice of conservative politicians to refer to progressive reforms such as child labor laws. This tendency increased in the 1930s in reaction to the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in general, the vaguely defined danger of Communist influence was a more common theme in the rhetoric of anti-Communist politicians than was espionage or any other specific activity. He produced a piece of paper which he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department and this speech resulted in a flood of press attention to McCarthy and established the path that made him one of the most recognized politicians in the United States. The first recorded use of the term McCarthyism was in a cartoon by Washington Post editorial cartoonist Herbert Block. The cartoon depicted four leading Republicans trying to push an elephant to stand on a platform atop a stack of ten tar buckets. Block later wrote that there was nothing particularly ingenious about the term, if anyone has a prior claim on it, hes welcome to the word and to the junior senator from Wisconsin along with it. I will also throw in a set of dishes and a case of soap
33.
Hollywood blacklist
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Artists were barred from work on the basis of their alleged membership in or sympathy with the Communist Party USA or refusal to assist investigations into the partys activities. On June 22,1950, a pamphlet entitled Red Channels was published, focused on the field of broadcasting, it identified 151 entertainment industry professionals in the context of Red Fascists and their sympathizers. Soon, most of those named, along with a host of artists, were barred from employment in most of the entertainment field. A number of those blacklisted, however, were barred from work in their professions for years afterward. The Hollywood blacklist was rooted in events of the 1930s and the early 1940s, encompassing the height of the Great Depression, two major film industry strikes during the 1930s increased tensions between the Hollywood producers and the unions, particularly the Screen Writers Guild. The American Communist Party lost substantial support after the Moscow show trials of 1936–38, the U. S. government began turning its attention to the possible links between Hollywood and the party during this period. Under then chairman Martin Dies, Jr. the House Un-American Activities Committee released a report in 1938 claiming that communism was pervasive in Hollywood. Two years later, Dies privately took testimony from a former Communist Party member, John L. Leech, Dies said he would clear all those who cooperated by meeting with him in what he called executive session. Within two weeks of the grand jury leak, all those on the list except for actress Jean Muir had met with the HUAC chairman, Dies cleared everyone except actor Lionel Stander, who was fired by the movie studio, Republic Pictures, where he was contracted. In 1941, producer Walt Disney took out an ad in Variety, according to historians Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund, In actuality, the strike had resulted from Disneys overbearing paternalism, high-handedness, and insensitivity. Inspired by Disney, California State Senator Jack Tenney, chairman of the state legislatures Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, the probe fell flat, and was mocked in several Variety headlines. The subsequent wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union brought the American Communist Party newfound credibility, during the war, membership in the party reached a peak of 50,000. As World War II drew to a close, perceptions changed again, with communism increasingly becoming a focus of American fears and hatred. In 1945, Gerald L. K. Smith, founder of the neofascist America First Party, the greatest hotbed of subversive activities in the United States. Rankin promised, Were on the trail of the tarantula now, reports of Soviet repression in Eastern and Central Europe in the wars aftermath added more fuel to what became known as the Second Red Scare. Its counsel revolved around a list of ideological prohibitions, such as Dont smear the free-enterprise system, on July 29,1946, William R. Wilkerson, publisher and founder of The Hollywood Reporter, published a TradeView column entitled A Vote For Joe Stalin. In August and September 1946, Wilkerson published other columns containing names of numerous purported Communists and they became known as Billys List and Billys Blacklist. It had declared its intention to investigate whether Communist agents and sympathizers had been planting propaganda in U. S. films, the hearings opened with appearances by Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan, then president of the Screen Actors Guild
34.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
35.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
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The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the March on Washington, or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D. C. on Wednesday, August 28,1963. The purpose of the march was to stand up for civil, at the march, Martin Luther King Jr. standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic I Have a Dream speech in which he called for an end to racism. The march was organized by A, philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, who built an alliance of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations that came together under the banner of jobs and freedom. Estimates of the number of participants varied from 200,000 to 300,000, observers estimated that 75–80% of the marchers were black. The march was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history, the march is credited with helping to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and preceded the Selma Voting Rights Movement which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In the early 1960s, a system of discrimination, known as Jim Crow laws, were pervasive in the American South. They also experienced discrimination from businesses and governments, and in places were prevented from voting through intimidation. The impetus for a march on Washington developed over a period of time. Philip Randolph—the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, president of the Negro American Labor Council, and vice president of the AFL-CIO—was a key instigator in 1941. With Bayard Rustin, Randolph called for 100,000 black workers to march on Washington, in protest of discriminatory hiring by U. S. military contractors, faced with a mass march scheduled for July 1,1941, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25. The order established the Committee on Fair Employment Practice and banned discriminatory hiring in the defense industry, Randolph and Rustin continued to organize around the idea of a mass march on Washington. They envisioned several large marches during the 1940s, but all were called off and their Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, held at the Lincoln Memorial on May 17,1957, featured key leaders including Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King Jr. and Roy Wilkins. The 1963 march was an important part of the rapidly expanding Civil Rights Movement,1963 also marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. Members of The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, many whites and blacks also came together in the urgency for change in the nation. Violent confrontations broke out in the South, in Cambridge, Maryland, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Goldsboro, North Carolina, Somerville, Tennessee, Saint Augustine, Florida, most of these incidents involved white people retaliating against nonviolent demonstrators. Many people wanted to march on Washington, but disagreed over how the march should be conducted, some called for a complete shutdown of the city through civil disobedience. Others argued that the movement should remain nationwide in scope, rather than focus its energies on the nations capital, there was a widespread perception that the Kennedy administration had not lived up to its promises in the 1960 election, and King described Kennedys race policy as tokenism. On May 24,1963, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy invited African-American novelist James Baldwin, along with a group of cultural leaders
36.
Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music
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Lena Horne, The Lady and Her Music was a 1981 Broadway musical revue, written for and starring American singer and actress Lena Horne. The musical was produced by Michael Frazier and Fred Walker, the show opened on May 12,1981, and after 333 performances, closed on June 30,1982, Hornes 65th birthday. Horne then toured the show in the U. S. and Canada, Lena Horne, is an American singer and actress. Due to the red scare and her political views, Horne found herself blacklisted. She then returned to her roots as a nightclub performer, in the 1960s Horne took part in the March on Washington, and continued to work as a performer, both in nightclubs as well as television. Horne announced her retirement in March 1980, and performed a farewell tour of the United States that June. The show sought to portray Hornes life, from her beginnings in show business to the present day. Horne performed her song, Stormy Weather twice in the show, the first time more subdued than the second. Horne was accompanied on stage in many of the songs by dancers, the costumes were designed by Giorgio SantAngelo. The Broadway production opened on May 12,1981, after thirteen previews, stephen Holden, reviewing the subsequent album of the show in Rolling Stone, wrote that Horne had turned the conventions of the one-person extravaganza inside out. The show was broadcast on PBS on December 7,1984, at the 1981 Drama Desk Awards, Lena Horne, The Lady and Her Music was nominated for four Drama Desk Awards, winning one. It lost the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical to The Pirates of Penzance, arthur Faria was nominated for the Outstanding Director of a Musical, and Thomas Skelton for Outstanding Lighting Design. Horne won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, in 1981 Horne also won a special Tony Award at the 35th Tony Awards, a special award from the New York Drama Critics Circle, and the City of New Yorks Handel Medallion. At the 24th Grammy Awards, Quincy Jones and Horne won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, the soundtrack of the show was produced by Quincy Jones and released by Jones record label, Qwest Records. At the Grammy Awards of 1982, Quincy Jones and Horne won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, and Horne won the Grammy for Best Vocal Performance, Female. Harris Jack Jeffers J. D. Parran, Jr. Roger Rosenberg Mort Silver Warren Smith Linda Twine Harold Vick Lena Horne, The Lady and Her Music at the Internet Broadway Database
37.
John C. Calhoun
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John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina, and the seventh Vice President of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He is remembered for defending slavery and for advancing the concept of minority rights in politics. He began his career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent of a strong national government. His beliefs and warnings heavily influenced the Souths secession from the Union in 1860–1861, Calhoun began his political career in the House of Representatives. He then served as Secretary of War under President James Monroe, Calhoun was a candidate for the presidency in the 1824 election. After failing to support, he let his name be put forth as a candidate for vice president. The Electoral College elected Calhoun for vice president by an overwhelming majority and he served under John Quincy Adams and continued under Andrew Jackson, who defeated Adams in the election of 1828. During his terms as president, he made a record of 31 tie-breaking votes in Congress. Calhoun had a relationship with Jackson primarily due to the Nullification Crisis. In 1832, with only a few remaining in his second term, he resigned as vice president. He sought the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1844, but lost to surprise nominee James K. Polk, Calhoun served as Secretary of State under John Tyler from 1844 to 1845. As Secretary of State, he supported the annexation of Texas as a means to extend the slave power and he then returned to the Senate, where he opposed the Mexican–American War, the Wilmot Proviso, and the Compromise of 1850 before his death in 1850. Calhoun often served as a virtual party-independent who variously aligned as needed with Democrats, later in life, Calhoun became known as the cast-iron man for his rigid defense of Southern beliefs and practices. His concept of republicanism emphasized approval of slavery and minority rights, as embodied by the Southern states—he owned dozens of slaves in Fort Hill. Calhoun also asserted that slavery, rather than being an evil, was a positive good. To protect minority rights against majority rule, he called for a concurrent majority whereby the minority could sometimes block proposals that it infringed on their liberties. To this end, Calhoun supported states rights and nullification, through which states could declare null, Calhoun was one of the Great Triumvirate or the Immortal Trio of Congressional leaders, along with his Congressional colleagues Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. In 1957, a Senate Committee headed by Senator John F. Kennedy selected Calhoun as one of the five greatest United States Senators of all time
38.
Native Americans in the United States
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In the United States, Native Americans are people descended from the Pre-Columbian indigenous population of the land within the countrys modern boundaries. These peoples were composed of distinct tribes, bands, and ethnic groups. Most Native American groups had historically preserved their histories by oral traditions and artwork, at the time of first contact, the indigenous cultures were quite different from those of the proto-industrial and mostly Christian immigrants. Some of the Northeastern and Southwestern cultures in particular were matrilineal, the majority of Indigenous American tribes maintained their hunting grounds and agricultural lands for use of the entire tribe. Europeans at that time had patriarchal cultures and had developed concepts of property rights with respect to land that were extremely different. Assimilation became a consistent policy through American administrations, during the 19th century, the ideology of manifest destiny became integral to the American nationalist movement. Expansion of European-American populations to the west after the American Revolution resulted in increasing pressure on Native American lands and this resulted in the ethnic cleansing of many tribes, with the brutal, forced marches coming to be known as The Trail of Tears. As American expansion reached into the West, settler and miner migrants came into increasing conflict with the Great Basin, Great Plains and these were complex nomadic cultures based on horse culture and seasonal bison hunting. Over time, the United States forced a series of treaties and land cessions by the tribes, in 1924, Native Americans who were not already U. S. citizens were granted citizenship by Congress. Contemporary Native Americans have a relationship with the United States because they may be members of nations, tribes. The terms used to refer to Native Americans have at times been controversial, by comparison, the indigenous peoples of Canada are generally known as First Nations. It is not definitively known how or when the Native Americans first settled the Americas and these early inhabitants, called Paleoamericans, soon diversified into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. The archaeological periods used are the classifications of archaeological periods and cultures established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips 1958 book Method and they divided the archaeological record in the Americas into five phases, see Archaeology of the Americas. The Clovis culture, a hunting culture, is primarily identified by use of fluted spear points. Artifacts from this culture were first excavated in 1932 near Clovis, the Clovis culture ranged over much of North America and also appeared in South America. The culture is identified by the distinctive Clovis point, a flaked flint spear-point with a notched flute, dating of Clovis materials has been by association with animal bones and by the use of carbon dating methods. Recent reexaminations of Clovis materials using improved carbon-dating methods produced results of 11,050 and 10,800 radiocarbon years B. P, other tribes have stories that recount migrations across long tracts of land and a great river, believed to be the Mississippi River. Genetic and linguistic data connect the people of this continent with ancient northeast Asians
39.
European Americans
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European Americans are Americans with ancestry from Europe. The Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a presence in what is now the United States. Martín de Argüelles born 1566, St. Augustine, Spanish Florida, was the first known person of European descent born in what is now the United States. Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare, born in 1587 on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents. 8% of the total population, European Americans are included in the category of White. White is defined by the United States Census Bureau as a person having origins in any of the peoples of Europe. According to the US Census, European Americans are a subset of White Americans, the term Non-Hispanic White is often used as a proxy for European Americans, although that also includes a small fraction of peoples of Middle Eastern descent. In 1995, as part of a review of the Office of Management,15, a survey was conducted of census recipients to determine their preferred terminology for the racial/ethnic groups defined in the Directive. For the White group, European American came third, preferred by 2. 35% of panel interviewees, the term is used interchangeably with Caucasian American, White American, and Anglo American in many places around the United States. Also, whereas the terms White American and Caucasian American carry somewhat ambiguous definitions, depending on the speaker, European American has a specific definition. According to linguist Janet Bing, the term European American has increased a little in use, the term is used by some to emphasize the European cultural and geographical ancestral origins of Americans, in the same way as is done for African Americans and Asian Americans. A European American awareness is still notable because 90% of the classified as white in the U. S. Census knew their European ancestry. Historically, the concept of an American originated in the United States as a person of European ancestry, thus excluding African Americans, as a linguistic concern, the term is sometimes meant to discourage a dichotomous view of the racial landscape between the white category and everyone else. Margo Adair suggests that the recognition of specific European American ancestries allows certain Americans to become aware that they come from a variety of different cultures, since 1607, some 57 million immigrants have come to the United States from other lands. Approximately 10 million passed through on their way to other place or returned to their original homelands. Prior to 1960, the majority came from Europe or European descent from Canada. In 1960 for example,75. 0% of foreign-born population in the United States came from the region of Europe. Before 1881, the vast majority of immigrants, almost 86% of the total, arrived from northwest Europe, principally Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, the years between 1881 and 1893 the pattern shifted, in the sources of U. S. Between 1894 and 1914, immigrants from southern, central, some people of colonial stock, especially in the Mid-Atlantic states, are also of Dutch, German and Flemish descent
40.
Hill District (Pittsburgh)
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The Hill District is a historic African-American collection of neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning in the leading up to World War I the Hill was the cultural center of African-American life in the city. The Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as of 2010 the area comprises Census Tracts 305,501,506,509,510 and 511. It is bordered by the Downtown on the west, the Strip District next to the Allegheny River and Polish Hill to the north, the Bluff on the southwest, and Oakland on the east and southeast. The census tract/neighborhoods noted in the Hill District are represented on the Pittsburgh City Council by the member for District 6. Part of the Upper Hill is also represented under District 7, the 15219 ZIP code covers all five neighborhoods, and the 15213 ZIP code covers part of Terrace Village and the Upper Hill. Following the rebellion by slaves and gaining of independence of Haiti in 1804, the early residents of the Hill District were middle-class free blacks. In 2004 the Pittsburgh City Council announced commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Haitis independence, beginning in the 1910s, the Hill attracted migrants from elsewhere in the United States and from abroad, creating a vibrant and diverse social landscape. Jazz musicians thrived here and the neighborhood was considered the crossroads of the world and that phrase, attributed to Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay, was popularized by radio DJ Mary Dee, of WHOD Radio, Pittsburghs only black radio station. The district had cultural vibrancy, and numerous entertainment venues and black-owned businesses. Following World War II, the government committed to upgrade housing across the nation. In an article from 1943, George E and he wrote, The Hill District of Pittsburgh is probably one of the most outstanding examples in Pittsburgh of neighborhood deterioration. There are 7,000 separate property owners, more than 10,000 dwelling units, approximately 90 per cent of the buildings in the area are sub-standard and have long outlived their usefulness, and so there would be no social loss if they were all destroyed. Evans represented the majority view of Pittsburgh politicians, including state representative Homer S. Brown, born in West Virginia, Brown was the third African American to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh law school and was active in civic affairs. He established a law practice, became president of the local NAACP chapter, in the 1940s, working with David Lawrence, Richard King Mellon, and other business leaders, Brown drafted legislation that opened the way to urban renewal in the Hill District. During the next decade, he authorized the relocation of 1,500 black families to make way for the Civic Arena and he was elected as Allegheny Countys first African-American judge, sitting in Pittsburgh. In the summer of 1956, some 1,300 structures were razed, displacing about 1,500 families and this cleared the way for the construction of the Civic Arena and adjacent parking, to support downtown events and attract major entertainment. But, the redevelopment severed the Hill District from surrounding neighborhoods, between 1950 and 1990, the Hill lost 71% of its residents and about 400 businesses, leaving the neighborhood hollowed out
