1.
Musical theatre
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Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement, since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan. Musicals are performed around the world and they may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional theatre productions, musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada, the three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its team, which includes a director. A musicals production is also characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties, lighting. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the production, for example. There is no fixed length for a musical, while it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length, most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. A book musical is usually built four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades, moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters, the material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels, plays, classic legends, historical events or films. On the other hand, many musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver
2.
Magic (illusion)
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Magic is one of the oldest performing arts in the world in which audiences are entertained by staged tricks or illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means. These feats are called magic tricks, effects, or illusions, the term magic etymologically derives from the Greek word mageia. In ancient times, Greeks and Persians had been at war for centuries, ritual acts of Persian priests came to be known as mageia, and then magika—which eventually came to mean any foreign, unorthodox, or illegitimate ritual practice. The first book containing explanations of magic tricks appeared in 1584, during the 17th century, many similar books were published that described magic tricks. Until the 18th century, magic shows were a source of entertainment at fairs. A founding figure of modern entertainment magic was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, John Henry Anderson was pioneering the same transition in London in the 1840s. Towards the end of the 19th century, large magic shows permanently staged at big theatre venues became the norm, as a form of entertainment, magic easily moved from theatrical venues to television magic specials. Performances that modern observers would recognize as conjuring have been practiced throughout history, for many recorded centuries, magicians were associated with the devil and the occult. During the 19th and 20th centuries, many stage magicians even capitalized on this notion in their advertisements. The same level of ingenuity that was used to produce famous ancient deceptions such as the Trojan Horse would also have used for entertainment. They were also used by the practitioners of various religions and cults from ancient times onwards to frighten uneducated people into obedience or turn them into adherents, however, the profession of the illusionist gained strength only in the 18th century, and has enjoyed several popular vogues since. Opinions vary among magicians on how to categorize a given effect, Magicians may pull a rabbit from an empty hat, make something seem to disappear, or transform a red silk handkerchief into a green silk handkerchief. Magicians may also destroy something, like cutting a head off, other illusions include making something appear to defy gravity, making a solid object appear to pass through another object, or appearing to predict the choice of a spectator. Many magical routines use combinations of effects, one of the earliest books on the subject is Gantzionys work of 1489, Natural and Unnatural Magic, which describes and explains old-time tricks. Among the tricks discussed were sleight-of-hand manipulations with rope, paper, at the time, fear and belief in witchcraft was widespread and the book tried to demonstrate that these fears were misplaced. All obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603 and it began to reappear in print in 1651. In the early 18th century, as belief in witchcraft was waning, a notable figure in this transition was the English showman, Isaac Fawkes, who began to promote his act in advertisements from the 1720s – he even claimed to have performed for King George II. He throws up a Pack of Cards, and causes them to be living birds flying about the room and he causes living Beasts, Birds, and other Creatures to appear upon the Table
3.
Acrobatics
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Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the arts, sports events. Although acrobatics is most commonly associated with human performance, it may also apply to other types of performance. Acrobatic traditions are found in cultures, and there is evidence that the earliest such traditions occurred thousands of years ago. For example, Minoan art from c.2000 BC contains depictions of acrobatic feats on the backs of bulls, ancient Greeks and Romans practiced acrobatics, and the noble court displays of the European Middle Ages would often include acrobatic performances that included juggling. In China, acrobatics have been a part of the culture since the Western Han Dynasty, acrobatics were part of village harvest festivals. Acrobatics continues to be an important part of modern Chinese variety art, though the term initially applied to tightrope walking, in the 19th century, a form of performance art including circus acts began to use the term as well. In the late 19th century, tumbling and other acrobatic and gymnastic activities became competitive sport in Europe, acrobatics has often served as a subject for fine art. An aerialist is an acrobat who performs in the air, on a suspended apparatus such as a trapeze, rope, cloud swing, aerial cradle, aerial pole, aerial silk, acrobatic gymnastics Contortion List of acrobatic activities
4.
Juggling
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Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, Juggling can be the manipulation of one object or many objects at the same time, using one or many hands. Jugglers often refer to the objects they juggle as props, the most common props are balls, clubs, or rings. Some jugglers use more dramatic objects such as knives, fire torches or chainsaws, the term juggling can also commonly refer to other prop-based manipulation skills, such as diabolo, devil sticks, poi, cigar boxes, contact juggling, hooping, yo-yo, and hat manipulation. The words juggling and juggler derive from the Middle English jogelen, there is also the Late Latin form joculare of Latin joculari, meaning to jest. In the 21st century, the term juggling usually refers to toss juggling, david Levinson and Karen Christensen describe juggling as the sport of tossing and catching or manipulating objects keeping them in constant motion. Juggling, like music, combines abstract patterns and mind-body coordination in a pleasing way, the earliest record of juggling is suggested in a panel from the 15th Beni Hasan tomb of an unknown Egyptian prince, showing female dancers and acrobats throwing balls. Juggling has been recorded in early cultures including Egyptian, Nabataean, Chinese, Indian, Greek, Roman, Norse, Aztec. Juggling in ancient China was an art performed by some warriors, one such warrior was Xiong Yiliao, whose juggling of nine balls in front of troops on a battlefield reportedly caused the opposing troops to flee without fighting, resulting in a complete victory. In Europe, juggling was an acceptable diversion until the decline of the Roman Empire, Jugglers in this era would only perform in marketplaces, streets, fairs, or drinking houses. They would perform short, humorous and bawdy acts and pass a hat or bag among the audience for tips, some kings and noblemen’s bards, fools, or jesters would have been able to juggle or perform acrobatics, though their main skills would have been oral. In 1768, Philip Astley opened the first modern circus, a few years later, he employed jugglers to perform acts along with the horse and clown acts. Since then, jugglers have been associated with circuses, in the early 19th century, troupes from Asia, such as the famous Indian Jugglers referred to by William Hazlitt, arrived to tour Britain, Europe and parts of America. In the 19th century, variety and music hall theatres became more popular, performers started specializing in juggling, separating it from other kinds of performance such as sword swallowing and magic. The Gentleman Juggler style was established by German jugglers such as Salerno, rubber processing developed, and jugglers started using rubber balls. Previously, juggling balls were made from balls of twine, stuffed leather bags, wooden spheres, solid or inflatable rubber balls meant that bounce juggling was possible. Inflated rubber balls made ball spinning easier and more readily accessible, soon in North America, vaudeville theatres employed jugglers, often hiring European performers. In the early to mid-20th century, variety and vaudeville shows decreased in popularity due to competition from motion picture theatres, radio and television, Music and comedy transferred very easily to radio, but juggling could not
5.
Ventriloquism
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Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person changes his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered dummy. The act of ventriloquism is ventriloquizing, and the ability to do so is called in English the ability to throw ones voice. Originally, ventriloquism was a religious practice, the name comes from the Latin for to speak from the stomach, i. e. venter and loqui. The noises produced by the stomach were thought to be the voices of the unliving, the ventriloquist would then interpret the sounds, as they were thought to be able to speak to the dead, as well as foretell the future. One of the earliest recorded group of prophets to utilise this technique was the Pythia, the priestess at the temple of Apollo in Delphi, who acted as the conduit for the Delphic Oracle. One of the most successful early gastromancers was Eurykles, a prophet at Athens, in the Middle Ages, it was thought to be similar to witchcraft. As Spiritualism led to stage magic and escapology, so became more of a performance art as, starting around the 19th century. Other parts of the world also have a tradition of ventriloquism for ritual or religious purposes, historically there have been adepts of this practice among the Zulu, Inuit, and Māori peoples. The shift from ventriloquism as manifestation of spiritual forces toward ventriloquism as entertainment happened in the century at the travelling funfairs. The earliest example of a ventriloquist dates back to 1753 in England, in 1757, the Austrian Baron de Mengen is known to have implemented a small doll into his performance. However, other performers were beginning to incorporate dolls or puppets into their performance, carries in his pocket, an ill-shaped doll, with a broad face, which he exhibits. As giving utterance to his own childish jargon, and Thomas Garbutt, the entertainment came of age during the era of the music hall in the United Kingdom and vaudeville in the United States. George Sutton began to incorporate a puppet act into his routine at Nottingham in the 1830s, in 1886, he was offered a professional engagement at the Palace Theatre in London and took up his stage career permanently. Fred Russells successful comedy team format was applied by the generation of ventriloquists. Bergen popularised the idea of the comedic ventriloquist, Bergen, together with his favourite figure, Charlie McCarthy, hosted a radio program that was broadcast from 1937 to 1956. It was the #1 program on the nights it aired, another ventriloquist popular in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s was Señor Wences. The art of ventriloquism was popularised by Y. K. Padhye in North India and M. M. Roy in South India, Y. K. Padhyes son Ramdas Padhye borrowed from him and made the art popular amongst the masses through his performance on television. Ramdas Padhyes son Satyajit Padhye is also a ventriloquist, similarly, Indusree a female ventriloquist from Bangalore has contributed a lot to the art
6.
Master of ceremonies
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A master of ceremonies, abbreviated M. C. also called compère and announcer, is the official host of a ceremony, a staged event or similar performance. The master of ceremonies sometimes also refers to the officer during an official state function. Today, the term often connotes a master of ceremonies who presents performers, speaks to the audience, entertains people, in addition, the term also exists in various chivalric orders and fraternal orders. The term originated in the Catholic Church, the Master of Ceremonies is an official of the Papal Court responsible for the proper and smooth conduct of the elegant and elaborate rituals involving the Pope and the sacred liturgy. He may also be an involved in the proper conduct of protocols and ceremonials involving the Roman Pontiff, the Papal Court. Examples of official liturgical books prescribing the rules and regulations of liturgical celebrations are Cæremoniale Romanum, the office of the Master of Ceremonies itself is very old. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the most ancient ceremonials and rituals of the Catholic Church are the Ordines Romani, names of Masters of Ceremonies are known since the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. However, copies of books prescribing the forms of rituals, rites and it is reasonable to assume that the ceremonials themselves pre-date Gelasius. However, documentary evidence from the late Roman period is scarce or lost, the ceremonies and practices of the Byzantine emperors are also known to have influenced the papal court. At a large Catholic church or cathedral, the Master of Ceremonies organizes and rehearses the proceedings and he may also have responsibility for the physical security of the place of worship during the liturgy. At major festivities such as Christmas and Easter, when the liturgies are long and complex, the current papal Master of Ceremonies is Monsignor Guido Marini, who succeeded Archbishop Piero Marini. Masters of Ceremonies at weddings and private events also ensure the coordination of their event, became an alternative title for a rapper and for their role within hip hop music and culture. The term is used as a term of distinction, referring to an artist with good performance skills. An MC focuses on skills, lyrical ability, and subject matter, in any comedy show, the compère is the host of the evenings events, but the precise role and responsibilities will vary depending on the country, venue and style of event. The compère will normally do longer bits at the start of the show and after any interval and they may also be required to make announcements, such as birthdays, anniversaries and bar promotions. In some circles the title Master of Ceremonies is also known as Minister of Ceremonies, in the 1940 Disney film, Fantasia, Deems Taylor is the films Master of Ceremonies. Media related to Master of ceremonies at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Presenter
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A presenter host or hostess is a person or organization responsible for the running of a public event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit, in films, a presenter is a usually a well-known executive producer credited with introducing a film or filmmaker to a larger audience. For example, Presented by Cecil B, in the broadcast media, a presenter is the person who hosts, narrates, or otherwise takes the main role in narrating or hosting a radio program or a television program. The phrases television presenter or radio presenter are never used in American English, a person who hosts other kinds of public entertainments may also be called a master of ceremonies. A television presenter is a person who introduces or hosts television programmes, including documentaries, live events. Some presenters may double as an actor, model, singer, comedian, others may be subject matter experts, such as scientists or politicians, serving as presenters for a programme about their field of expertise. Some are celebrities who have made their name in one area, the term is also used in other countries, such as Ireland and Sri Lanka. In the United States, such a person is called a host. The term does not apply to reading the news however and this role is known in American English as an anchor, and in British and Commonwealth English as a newsreader. A quiz show host is also described as a presenter. Broadly speaking, a presenter is the same as a television presenter. Big name presenters in the UK include Terry Wogan and Ken Bruce, Tony Blackburn, Simon Mayo, Steve Wright, Scottie McClue, Mark Radcliffe, Chris Evans, Clint Boon and Greg James. A sports commentator is a type of journalist on radio and/or television who specializes in reporting or commentating on sporting events, sports casting is often done live. A weather presenter is a type of journalist on television who specializes in presenting weather forecasts, in the UK, this includes separate presenters for national and regional/local weather forecasts
8.
Victorian era
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The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victorias reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities, the era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. The end of the saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of political reform, industrial reform. Two especially important figures in period of British history are the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Disraeli, favoured by the queen, was a gregarious Conservative and his rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall legislative development of the era. The population of England and Wales almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, Scotlands population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. However, Irelands population decreased sharply, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. Between 1837 and 1901 about 15 million emigrants departed the UK permanently, in search of a life in the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia. During the early part of the era, politics in the House of Commons involved battles between the two parties, the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives. These parties were led by such prominent statesmen as Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was mainly a time of peace, Britain reached the zenith of its economic, political, diplomatic and cultural power. The era saw the expansion of the second British Empire, Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era as Britains Golden Years. There was prosperity, as the income per person grew by half. There was peace abroad, and social peace at home, opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a movement among the working class in 1848, its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions
9.
Late night television
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Late night television in television broadcast programming is dayparting. It follows prime time and precedes the overnight television programming graveyard slot, the slot generally runs from about 11,30 PM to 2,00 AM local time, with variations according to the time zone. In the United States and Canada the term is synonymous with the talk show. Thus, the late night programming block is considered important in North America. On most major-network stations, a local newscast airs at the beginning of the block. Similarly, Australian television primarily airs American late shows, lower-priority imported series or overflows of sports programming in the night time slot. An example is the childrens channel Nickelodeon, which changes over to Nick at Nite at an hour when most pre-adolescent children go to sleep, Nick at Nite typically airs series programming, such as reruns of sitcoms, that may have coarser language and more adult themes. After 11, Japan airs adult talk or variety shows as well as late night anime, Late-night news Late-night talk show Late night television in the United States List of late-night American network TV programs
10.
Late-night talk show
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A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show popular in the United States, where the format originated. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the news, guest interviews, comedy sketches. The late-night talk show format was popularized, though not invented, typically the shows host conducts interviews from behind a desk, while the guest is seated on a couch. Many late night talk shows feature a band which generally performs cover songs for the studio audience during commercial breaks. Late-night talk shows are a popular format in the United States, Shows that loosely resemble the format air in other countries, but generally air weekly as opposed to the nightly airings of those in the United States. They also generally air in time slots considered to be prime time in the United States and these shows aired once a week in evening time slots that would come to be known as prime time. The first version of The Tonight Show, Tonight Starring Steve Allen, the show created many modern talk show staples included an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation, comedy bits, and musical performances. As a result, unlike Broadway Open House, Tonight proved to be a resounding success, the success of the show led Allen to get another show, entitled The Steve Allen Show, which would compete with The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights. Meanwhile, hosting duties of The Tonight Show were split between Allen and Ernie Kovacs, Kovacs had defected to NBC from his own show on the then-crumbling DuMont Television Network. Both Allen and Kovacs departed from Tonight in 1957 in order to focus on Allens Sunday night show, after the two left, the format changed similar to that of Today and was renamed Tonight. America After Dark and was hosted first by Jack Lescoulie and then by Al Collins while interviews were performed by Hy Gardner, the show was not popular leading to many NBC affiliates dropping the show. The show returned to the format that year and was renamed Tonight Starring Jack Paar. The even greater success of the show during Paars hosting resulted in many NBC affiliates re-airing the show. Paar permanently left the show in 1962, citing the reason that he could not handle the load of The Tonight Show, and he moved to his own weekly prime-time show. After Paars departure, hosting duties were filled by Groucho Marx, Mort Sahl, longtime guest host Johnny Carson took over as host of The Tonight Show in 1962 and the show was renamed The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson streamlined the format of the show, focusing more on entertainment personalities, tweaking the monologue to include more shorter jokes, Ed McMahon served as Carsons announcer while from 1962 to 1966 the band was led by Skitch Henderson, who hired, among others, Doc Severinsen. When Henderson left, Milton DeLugg took over, Severinsen took over in 1967, and served as bandleader with the NBC Orchestra. The show originated from NBC Studios in New York City but, as part of Carsons shifting the show toward a more entertainment-oriented program, moved to Burbank, California in 1972
11.
NBC
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The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
12.
Saturday Night Live
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Saturday Night Live is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11,1975, under the original title NBCs Saturday Night, the shows comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest and features performances by a musical guest, an episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, Live from New York, its Saturday Night. In 1980, Michaels left the series to other opportunities. He was replaced by Jean Doumanian, who was replaced by Ebersol after a season of bad reviews, Ebersol ran the show until 1985, when Michaels returned, Michaels has remained since then. Many of SNLs cast found national stardom while appearing on the show, others associated with the show, such as writers, have gone on to successful careers creating, writing, or starring in TV and film. The show format has developed and recreated in several countries. Successful sketches have seen life outside of the show as feature films, throughout four decades on air, Saturday Night Live has received a number of awards, including 50 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and three Writers Guild of America Awards. In 2000, it was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and it was ranked tenth in TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list, and in 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazines 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME. As of 2012, it has received 156 Emmy nominations, the most received by any TV show, the live aspect of the show has resulted in several controversies and acts of censorship, with mistakes and intentional acts of sabotage by performers as well as guests. From 1965 until September 1975, NBC ran The Best of Carson reruns of The Tonight Show, in 1974, Johnny Carson announced that he wanted the weekend shows pulled and saved so that they could be aired during weeknights, allowing him to take time off. In 1974, NBC president Herbert Schlosser approached his vice president of late night programming, Dick Ebersol, at the suggestion of Paramount Pictures executive Barry Diller, Schlosser and Ebersol then approached Lorne Michaels. Over the next three weeks, Ebersol and Michaels developed the idea for a variety show featuring high-concept comedy sketches, political satire. By 1975 Michaels had assembled a talented cast, including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Michael ODonoghue, Gilda Radner, and George Coe. The show was originally called NBCs Saturday Night, because Saturday Night Live was in use by Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell on the rival network ABC, NBC purchased the rights to the name in 1976 and officially adopted the new title on March 26,1977. In 1975 and 1976, they were the most desirable demographic for television advertisers, NBC executives agreed with Michaels and decided to keep the show on the air despite many angry letters and phone calls that the network received from viewers who were offended by certain sketches. Chevy Chase left the show in November of the season and was replaced a few months later by the then-unknown comic actor Bill Murray. Aykroyd and Belushi left the show in 1979 after the end of season four, in May 1980, Michaels—emotionally and physically exhausted—requested to put the show on hiatus for a year to give him time and energy to pursue other projects
13.
Music hall
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Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era circa 1850 and lasting until 1960. It involved a mixture of songs, comedy, speciality acts. The term is derived from a type of theatre or venue in which such entertainment took place and these theatres were designed chiefly so people could consume food and alcohol and smoke tobacco in the auditorium while the entertainment took place. This differed somewhat from the type of theatre, which until then seated the audience in stalls with a separate bar-room. By the mid-19th century, the halls cried out for many new, as a result, professional songwriters were enlisted to provide the music for a plethora of star performers, such as Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno, Little Tich, and George Leybourne. Music hall did not adopt its own unique style, the halls had recovered by the start of the First World War and were used to stage charity events in aid of the war effort. Music hall entertainment continued after the war, but became popular due to upcoming Jazz, Swing. Licensing restrictions had also changed, and drinking was banned from the auditorium, a new type of music hall entertainment had arrived, in the form of variety, and many music hall performers failed to make the transition. Deemed old fashioned and with the closure of many halls, music hall entertainment ceased, Music hall in London had its origins in entertainment provided in the new style saloon bars of public houses during the 1830s. These venues replaced earlier semi-rural amusements provided by fairs and suburban pleasure gardens such as Vauxhall Gardens and these latter became subject to urban development and became fewer and less popular. The saloon was a room where for a fee or a greater price at the bar, singing, dancing. The most famous London saloon of the days was the Grecian Saloon, established in 1825, at The Eagle,2 Shepherdess Walk. According to John Hollingshead, proprietor of the Gaiety Theatre, London, this establishment was the father and mother, later known as the Grecian Theatre, it was here that Marie Lloyd made her début at the age of 14 in 1884. It is still famous because of an English nursery rhyme, with the somewhat mysterious lyrics, Up and down the City Road In and out The Eagle Thats the way the money goesPop goes the weasel. Another famous song and supper room of this period was Evans Music-and-Supper Rooms,43 King Street, Covent Garden and this venue was also known as Evans Late Joys – Joy being the name of the previous owner. Other song and supper rooms included the Coal Hole in The Strand, the Cyder Cellars in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, the music hall as we know it developed from such establishments during the 1850s and were built in and on the grounds of public houses. In a theatre, by contrast, the audience was seated in stalls, an exception to this rule was the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton which somehow managed to evade this regulation and served drinks to its customers. Though a theatre rather than a hall, this establishment later hosted music hall variety acts
14.
Vaudeville
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Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, a typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a vaudevillian, Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called the heart of American show business, vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades, the origin of this term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the French expression voix de ville. A second speculation is that it comes from the songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin. Some, however, preferred the term variety to what manager Tony Pastor called its sissy. Thus, vaudeville was marketed as variety well into the 20th century, with its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment. The form gradually evolved from the saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as Polite Vaudeville, in the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere, in the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found a number of ways to be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns, a significant influence also came from Dutch minstrels and comedians. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in Americas growing urban hubs, pastors experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit. B. F. Keith took the step, starting in Boston. Later, E. F. Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudevilles greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years, Albee also gave national prominence to vaudevilles trumpeting polite entertainment, a commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men, women and children. Acts that violated this ethos were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the remaining performances or were canceled altogether
15.
Working men's club
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They also began at this time in Australia, with a small number in Ireland, primarily Dublin. Despite the educational ambitions, most working mens clubs are recreational, a much larger room would be connected, often called the concert or entertainment room with a stage and a layout of tables, stools and backrest sofas. They often provide night time entertainment, mainly on the such as bingo, raffles, live music cabaret and comedy. They are also known for their charitable works, in recent years, declining membership has seen many clubs close down and others struggle to remain open. Some groups try to raise the profile of clubs, pointing to their historical legacies, a working mens club is a non-profit organisation run by members through a committee, usually elected annually. Each club has rules that tend to be vigorously enforced, the committee will discipline members for violations. Despite the name, women are allowed to be members in many clubs, non-members are not allowed entry unless signed in by a member. A dispute at Wakefield City Workingmens Club in 1978 led to a campaign for equal membership rights for women. Sheila Capstick, whose husband was an activist in the NUM, had been a regular player at the club before a ban was instituted on women playing snooker. Her protest A Womans Right to Cues developed into a campaign for equal rights ERICCA – Equal Rights in Clubs Campaign for Action. In April 2007, after the resolution had been consistently rejected over years, most clubs affiliate to the Working Mens Club and Institute Union. The CIU is affiliated to the Committee of Registered Clubs Associations or CORCA, a member of one affiliated club is entitled to use the facilities of other clubs. There are 2,200 affiliated working mens clubs in the UK, the CIU has two purposes, to provide a national voice for clubs, and to provide discounted products and services for clubs. Until 2004, clubs ran a brewery at Dunston, Tyne and Wear, the brewery and brands were sold to Scottish & Newcastle for £16.2 million, although CIU clubs still receive discounted beer. These discounts are passed on to members
16.
Television in the United Kingdom
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Television in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most viewing, there are 27,000 hours of domestic content produced a year at a cost of £2.6 billion. Since 24 October 2012, all broadcasts in the United Kingdom are in a digital format. Digital content is delivered via terrestrial, satellite and cable as well as over IP, set-top boxes are generally used to receive these services, however integrated digital televisions can also be used to receive Freeview or Freesat. Most TVs sold in the UK come with a DVB-T tuner for Freeview – a rare thing in Europe, BT TV and TalkTalk Plus TV, both based on YouView, utilise hybrid boxes which receive Freeview as well as additional subscription services. Households viewing TV from the internet are not tracked by Ofcom, the UKs five most watched channels, BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, are available from all providers. Digital terrestrial television launched in 1998 as a service named ONdigital. Since October 2002, the broadcaster is Freeview, with BT TV providing additional subscription services. In all cases cable TV is a subscription service normally bundled with a phone line, smallworld Cable is available in south-west Scotland and north-west England. Pricing ranges from £10.50 to £80 per month, wightFibre is available in the Isle of Wight. Virgin Media is available to 55% of UK households, pricing ranges from £11 a month to £30.50 a month, with additional fees for premium services such as Sky Sports. Virgin also market V+, a video recorder and high-definition receiver. Virgin Media is the cable provider to supply high-definition television and video on demand. There are three distinctly marketed direct-broadcast satellite services, Sky is a subscription service owned by Sky plc. It is the satellite provider to offer premium channels with the largest total number of channels compared to all other television providers. As of January 2017, subscriptions starts at £22 per month for the basic package, there is an upfront cost of £15 on sign up. Sky TV markets SkyQ Silver & SkyQ boxes as well as SkyQmini boxes, Sky TV also provides video on demand branded as SkyTV On Demand. As of October 2016, Sky UK stopped offering there aging Sky+HD hardware, Freesat from Sky, is a free satellite service owned by Sky plc
17.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
18.
Entertainments National Service Association
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ENSA operated as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes. It was superseded by Combined Services Entertainment which now operates as part of the Services Sound, the first big wartime variety concert organised by ENSA was broadcast by the BBC to the Empire and local networks from RAF Hendon in north London on 17 October 1939. Adelaide Hall, The Western Brothers and Mantovani were amongst those appearing on the bill. A Newsreel of this concert showing Adelaide Hall singing Were Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line accompanied by Mantovani, during 1945, actors Laurence Olivier and Sir Ralph Richardson were created honorary army lieutenants in ENSA. They performed Shakespeares plays for the troops in a tour of Europe. Despite many extremely talented entertainers and movie stars working for ENSA, thus many entertainments were substandard, and the popular translation of the acronym ENSA was Every Night Something Awful. ENSA plays a modest role in the 1944 motion picture, Love Story in which Margaret Lockwood stars as a concert pianist who makes an ENSA tour to North Africa, Chaos Supersedes ENSA, a mini-series, was written and directed by Patrick Garland for Thames Television. The television sitcom It Aint Half Hot Mum concerned the misadventures of a group of soldiers providing entertainment for a barracks in India. These were known as the Concert Party and were not ENSA members per se, ENSA also featured in the television sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, in the episode How I Won the War. The only known ENSA theatre to have survived in its condition is the Garrison Theatre at Hurst Castle in the New Forest National Park. Created by servicemen in 1939, the arch still bears the badge and grenades of the Royal Artillery. Shows are presented from time to time by the Friends of Hurst Castle, in the Are You Being Served. Episode entitled Camping In, Mr. Grainger told a story of being a member of ENSA which Mr. Humphries said stood for Every Night Something awful Appens. In the popular BBC sitcom Dads Army episode Museum Piece, ENSA is revealed to be using the rifles Captain Mainwaring so desperately seeks, in the BBC sitcom Up Pompeii episode Lysistrata the Peace Treaty, The main character Lurcio is conscripted into the army. He is told by Captain Bumptius that he will be assigned to ENSA, Lurcio responds that it is not that bad and starts going over show ideas. Captain Bumptius then tells him it stands for the East Naples Suicide Army, SSVC website Chaos Supersedes ENSA on IMDB
19.
Royal Command Performance
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A Royal Command Performance in the United Kingdom is any performance by actors or musicians that occurs at the direction or request of a reigning monarch. From then on, command performances were staged, often calling upon the leading actors from the London theatres. There were no further performances until they recommenced in 1881. These included plays, revues, comic operas and other musical theatre, King Edward VII called for several performances per year. In 1911 a Great Gala performance was given by the profession at His Majestys Theatre in London in celebration of the coronation of King George V. In 1912, King George V and Queen Mary attended an all-star Royal Command Performance at Londons Palace Theatre in aid of the Variety Artistes Benevolent Fund and this was followed in 1919 by the first to be named the Royal Variety Performance. The reason for the change followed desire from Buckingham Palace that the show should clearly reflect all areas of show business popular amongst the masses of the time. As long as there has been a monarchy, kings and queens have maintained minstrels and jesters to entertain their courts, and these performances could be called command performances. The history of the performance as we recognise it today dates back at least to the time of Queen Elizabeth I. In addition, Elizabeth built her own theatre where she could watch plays performed by her own company of players and this was formed in 1583 by Edmund Tilney, the then Master of the Revels, and was known as Queen Elizabeths Men. The restoration of the following the death of Cromwell also resulted in the restoration of the relationship between the monarch and theatre. At the beginning of Queen Victorias reign in 1837 the command performance was a part of Britain’s theatrical life. The first Royal Command Performance as we know it today is accepted to have been that staged at Windsor Castle on 28 December 1848 by order of Queen Victoria. The play was The Merchant of Venice, and the cast included Mr and Mrs Charles Kean, Mr and Mrs Keeley, Henry Lowe, Leigh Murray, there were no further command performances until they recommenced on 4 October 1881 with a production of Burnands The Colonel. Queen Victoria called for a performance of W. S. Gilberts play Sweethearts on 1 February 1887, starring Mr. The great Shakespearean actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry performed for the Queen in 1889 and 1893, Performances of operas by the Royal Opera Company and the Carl Rosa Opera Company were given on several occasions in the 1890s for Victoria. On 21 July 1896 the first Royal Command Film Performance was held at Marlborough House, the film showed the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra visiting the Cardiff Exhibition. When Birt Acres, the cinematographer, requested permission to show the film to the public the Prince asked to see it himself before agreeing
20.
London Palladium
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The London Palladium is a 2, 286-seat Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London, the theatre has also hosted the Royal Variety Performance a record 40 times, most recently in 2014. Walter Gibbons, an early manager, built the Palladium in 1910 to compete with Sir Edward Mosss London Hippodrome. The facade, dates back to the 19th century, formerly it was a temporary wooden building called Corinthian Bazaar, which featured an aviary and aimed to attract customers from the recently closed Pantheon Bazaar on Oxford Street. It then became the National Skating Palace – a skating rink with real ice, however the rink failed and the Palladium was redesigned by Frank Matcham, a famous theatrical architect who also designed the Coliseum, on the site that had previously housed Hengler’s Circus. The building now carries Heritage Foundation commemorative plaques honouring Lew Grade, the theatre retains many of its original features and was Grade II* listed in September 1960. The Palladium had its own telephone system so the occupants of boxes could call one another and it also had a revolving stage. The theatre started out as The Palladium, a venue for variety performances. In 1926, the pantomime starred Lennie Dean as Cinderella, footage of remains to this day. The theatre is especially linked to the Royal Variety Performances, where many were, in 1928, for three months the Palladium also ran as a cinema. Following this Cine-Variety episode the theatre fell dark for a period in the autumn of 1928. From 3 September 1928, the Palladium reopened under the directorship of the impresario/producer George Black as part of the General Theatre Corporation, when Black took control the theatre was close to bankruptcy. Before too long, under Blacks management the Palladium was soon gaining praise again as The Worlds Leading Variety Theatre, in 1935, Black initiated the Crazy Gang revues at the Palladium with Life Begins at Oxford Circus. The revues continued at the Palladium as an event until they transferred to the Victoria Palace theatre in 1940. Black managed the Palladium until his death in 1945, the climax of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller The 39 Steps was filmed at the Palladium. The theatre was hit by an unexploded German parachute mine on 11 May 1941, the device had fallen through the roof, becoming lodged over the stage. A Royal Navy bomb disposal team was sent to deal with it, after the mine was located, the fuze locking ring had to be turned to allow access to the fuze itself. Rather disconcertingly, the fuze began ticking as soon as it was touched and this caused a rapid evacuation of the immediate area, but the mine did not detonate
21.
Marx Brothers
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The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute as among the top 100 comedy films and they are widely considered by critics, scholars, and fans to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century. The brothers were included in AFIs 100 Years.100 Stars list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classic Hollywood cinema, the group are almost universally known today by their stage names, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, and Zeppo Marx. The core of the act was the three brothers, Chico, Harpo, and Groucho. Each developed a highly distinctive stage persona, Harpo and Chico more or less retired after 1949, while Groucho went on to begin a second career in television. The two younger brothers, Gummo and Zeppo, did not develop their characters to the same extent. The two eventually left the act to pursue careers at which they were successful, as well as a large theatrical agency for a time. Gummo was not in any of the movies, Zeppo appeared in the first five films in relatively straight roles, the performing lives of the brothers were brought about by their mother Minnie Marx, who also acted as their manager. The Marx Brothers were five brothers born to U. S. immigrants Miene Minnie Schoenberg, the brothers are best known by their stage names, Another brother, Manfred, the first-born son of Sam and Minnie, was born in 1886 and died in infancy. Family lore told privately of the son, Manny, born in 1886. Even some members of the Marx family wondered if he was pure myth. A death certificate of the Borough of Manhattan reveals that he died, aged seven months, on 17 July 1886, of enterocolitis, with asthenia contributing, i. e. probably a victim of influenza. He is buried at New Yorks Washington Cemetery, beside his grandmother, Fanny Sophie Schönberg, the Marx Brothers also had an older sister, actually a cousin, born in January 1885 who had been adopted by Minnie and Frenchie. Her name was Pauline, or Polly, Groucho talked about her in his 1972 Carnegie Hall concert. Minnie Marx came from a family of performers and her mother was a yodeling harpist and her father a ventriloquist, both were funfair entertainers. Around 1880, the family emigrated to New York City, where Minnie married Sam in 1884, Minnie also acted as the brothers manager, using the name Minnie Palmer so that agents did not realize that she was also their mother. Gummo and Zeppo both became successful businessmen, Gummo gained success through his activities and a raincoat business. The Marx Brothers were born in New York City, the sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and their mother Minnie Schönberg was from Dornum in East Frisia, and their father Simon Marx was a native of Alsace and worked as a tailor
22.
George Burns
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George Burns was an American comedian, actor, singer, and writer. He was one of the few entertainers whose career spanned vaudeville, radio, film. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three-quarters of a century and he and his wife, Gracie Allen, appeared on radio, television, and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen. Burns, who became a centenarian in 1996, continued to work until just weeks before his death of a cardiac arrest at his home in Beverly Hills, Burns was a member of the First Roumanian-American Congregation. His father was a cantor at the local synagogue but usually worked as a coat presser. During the influenza epidemic of 1903, Lippe Birnbaum contracted the flu, Nattie went to work to help support the family, shining shoes, running errands and selling newspapers. In order to try to hide his Jewish heritage, he adopted the name by which he would be known for the rest of his life. He claimed in a few interviews that the idea of the name originated from the fact that two major league players were playing major league baseball at the time. Both men achieved over 2000 major league hits and hold some major league records, Burns also was reported to have taken the name George from his brother Izzy, and the Burns from the Burns Brothers Coal Company. He normally partnered with a girl, sometimes in a dance routine. Though he had an apparent flair for comedy, he never quite clicked with any of his partners, and all of a sudden, he said famously in later years, the audience realized I had a talent. I did have a talent—and I was married to her for 38 years and his first wife was Hannah Siegel, one of his dance partners. The marriage, never consummated, lasted 26 weeks and happened because her family would not let go on tour unless they were married. They divorced at the end of the tour, Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen was an American comedian born into an Irish Catholic show-business family and educated at Star of the Sea Convent School in San Francisco, California, in girlhood. She began in vaudeville around 1909, teamed as an Irish-dance act The Four Colleens with her sisters, Bessie, Hazel, while attending secretarial school in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1923, she met Burns at a vaudeville theater in adjacent Union City. Allen came to call Burns by the nickname Nattie, while he called her Googie, the two immediately launched a new partnership, with Gracie playing the role of the straight man and George delivering the punchlines as the comedian. Burns knew something was wrong when the audience ignored his jokes, Burns cannily flipped the act around, After a Hoboken, New Jersey performance in which they tested the new style for the first time, Burns hunch proved right. Gracie was the better laugh-getter with the logic that formed her responses to Burns prompting comments or questions
23.
Gracie Allen
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Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Gracie Allen was an American comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns, her straight man. For contributions to the industry, Gracie Allen was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6672 Hollywood Boulevard. The team of Burns and Allen was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1988, Allen was born in San Francisco, California, to George Allen and Margaret Theresa Allen, who were both of Irish Catholic extraction. She made her first appearance on stage at age three and was given her first role on the radio by Eddie Cantor and she was educated at the Star of the Sea Convent School and during that time became a talented dancer. She soon began performing Irish folk dances with her three sisters, who were billed as The Four Colleens, in 1909, Allen joined her sister, Bessie, as a vaudeville performer. At a performance in 1922, Allen met George Burns and the two formed a comedy act and they were married on January 7,1926, in Cleveland, Ohio. Allen was born with heterochromia, giving her two different color eyes, one blue and one green, depending on the source, Allen is alleged to have been born on July 26 in 1895,1896,1902 or 1906. All public records held by the City and County of San Francisco were destroyed in the earthquake and great fire of April 1906. Her husband, George Burns, also professed not to know exactly how old she was, though it was presumably he who provided the date July 26,1902 and her crypt marker also shows her year of birth as 1902. The most reliable information comes from the U. S. Census data collected on June 1,1900, the Burns and Allen act began with Allen as the straight man, setting up Burns to deliver the punchlines—and get the laughs. Audiences immediately fell in love with Allens character, who combined the traits of naivete, zaniness, the reformulated team, focusing on Allen, toured the country, eventually headlining in major vaudeville houses. Many of their famous routines were preserved in one- and two-reel short films, including Lambchops, Burns attributed all of the couples early success to Allen, modestly ignoring his own brilliance as a straight man. He summed up their act in a quip, All I had to do was say, Gracie. And she talked for 38 years, and sometimes I didnt even have to remember to say Gracie, hows your brother. In the early 1930s, like many stars of their era, Burns, the show was originally a continuation of their original flirtation act. Burns and Allen frequently used running gags as publicity stunts, during 1932–33, they pulled off one of the most successful in the business, a year-long search for Allens supposedly missing brother. They would make unannounced cameo appearances on shows, asking if anyone had seen Allens brother. Gracie Allens real-life brother was apparently the person who did not find the gag funny
24.
W. C. Fields
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William Claude Dukenfield, better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer, Fields comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist, who remained a sympathetic character despite his snarling contempt for dogs and children. His career in business began in vaudeville, where he attained international success as a silent juggler. He gradually incorporated comedy into his act, and was a comedian in the Ziegfeld Follies for several years. He became a star in the Broadway musical comedy Poppy, in which he played a colorful small-time con man and his subsequent stage and film roles were often similar scoundrels, or else henpecked everyman characters. Among his recognizable trademarks were his raspy drawl and grandiloquent vocabulary, the characterization he portrayed in films and on radio was so strong it was generally identified with Fields himself. It was maintained by the publicity departments at Fields studios and was established by Robert Lewis Taylors biography. Beginning in 1973, with the publication of Fields letters, photos, Fields by Himself, it was shown that Fields was married, and financially supported their son and loved his grandchildren. Fields was born William Claude Dukenfield in Darby, Pennsylvania, the oldest child of a working-class family and his father, James Lydon Dukenfield, was from an English family that emigrated to America from Sheffield, England in 1854. James Dukenfield served in Company M of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War and was wounded in 1863, Fields mother, Kate Spangler Felton, was a Protestant of British ancestry. The 1876 Philadelphia City Directory lists James Dukenfield as a clerk, after marrying, he worked as an independent produce merchant and a part-time hotel-keeper. Claude Dukenfield had a relationship with his short-tempered father. He ran away from home repeatedly, beginning at the age of nine and his education was sporadic, and did not progress beyond grade school. At age twelve he worked with his father selling produce from a wagon, in 1893 he worked briefly at the Strawbridge and Clothier department store, and in an oyster house. He had already discovered in himself a facility for juggling, at age 17, he was living with his family and performing a juggling act at church and theater shows. In 1904 Fields father visited him for two months in England while he was performing there in music halls. Fields enabled his father to retire, purchased him a summer home and his family supported his ambitions for the stage and saw him off on the train for his first stage tour. To conceal a stutter, Fields did not speak onstage, in 1900, seeking to distinguish himself from the many tramp acts in vaudeville, he changed his costume and makeup, and began touring as The Eccentric Juggler
25.
Jack Benny
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Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, radio, television and film actor, and violinist. Recognized as a leading American entertainer of the 20th century, Benny portrayed his character as a miser, in character, he would claim to be 39 years of age, regardless of his actual age. Benny was known for comic timing and the ability to cause laughter with a pregnant pause or a single expression and his radio and television programs, popular from the 1930s to the 1970s, were a major influence on the sitcom genre. Benny was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in nearby Waukegan and he was the son of Meyer Kubelsky and Emma Sachs Kubelsky. Meyer was an owner and later a haberdasher who had immigrated to America from Poland. Benny began studying violin, an instrument that became his trademark, at the age of 6 and he loved the instrument, but hated practice. His music teacher was Otto Graham Sr. a neighbor and father of Otto Graham of NFL fame, at 14, Benny was playing in dance bands and his high school orchestra. He was a dreamer and poor at his studies, and was expelled from high school. He did poorly in business school later and at attempts to join his fathers business, at age 17, he began playing the violin in local vaudeville theaters for $7.50 a week. He was joined by Ned Miller, a composer and singer. In 1911, Benny was playing in the theater as the young Marx Brothers. Minnie, their mother, enjoyed Bennys violin playing and invited him to accompany her boys in their act, Bennys parents refused to let their son go on the road at 17, but it was the beginning of his long friendship with the Marx Brothers, especially Zeppo Marx. The next year, Benny formed a musical duo with pianist Cora Folsom Salisbury. This provoked famous violinist Jan Kubelik, who feared that the young vaudevillian with a name would damage his reputation. Under legal pressure, Benjamin Kubelsky agreed to change his name to Ben K. Benny, when Salisbury left the act, Benny found a new pianist, Lyman Woods, and renamed the act From Grand Opera to Ragtime. They worked together for five years and slowly integrated comedy elements into the show and they reached the Palace Theater, the Mecca of Vaudeville, and did not do well. Benny left show business briefly in 1917 to join the United States Navy during World War I, and often entertained the troops with his violin playing. One evening, his performance was booed by the troops, so with prompting from fellow sailor and actor Pat OBrien, he ad-libbed his way out of the jam
26.
Sound film
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A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. The primary steps in the commercialization of sound cinema were taken in the mid- to late 1920s, at first, the sound films which included synchronized dialogue, known as talking pictures, or talkies, were exclusively shorts. The earliest feature-length movies with recorded sound included only music and effects, the first feature film originally presented as a talkie was The Jazz Singer, released in October 1927. A major hit, it was made with Vitaphone, which was at the time the brand of sound-on-disc technology. Sound-on-film, however, would become the standard for talking pictures. By the early 1930s, the talkies were a global phenomenon, in the United States, they helped secure Hollywoods position as one of the worlds most powerful cultural/commercial centers of influence. In Europe, the new development was treated with suspicion by many filmmakers and critics, in Japan, where the popular film tradition integrated silent movie and live vocal performance, talking pictures were slow to take root. In India, sound was the element that led to the rapid expansion of the nations film industry. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the concept of cinema itself. On February 27,1888, a couple of days after photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge gave a lecture not far from the laboratory of Thomas Edison, the two inventors privately met. No agreement was reached, but within a year Edison commissioned the development of the Kinetoscope, essentially a peep-show system, as a visual complement to his cylinder phonograph. The two devices were brought together as the Kinetophone in 1895, but individual, cabinet viewing of motion pictures was soon to be outmoded by successes in film projection and these appear to be the first publicly exhibited films with projection of both image and recorded sound. Phonorama and yet another sound-film system—Théâtroscope—were also presented at the Exposition, three major problems persisted, leading to motion pictures and sound recording largely taking separate paths for a generation. The primary issue was synchronization, pictures and sound were recorded and played back by separate devices, sufficient playback volume was also hard to achieve. Finally, there was the challenge of recording fidelity, cinematic innovators attempted to cope with the fundamental synchronization problem in a variety of ways. In 1902, Léon Gaumont demonstrated his sound-on-disc Chronophone, involving an electrical connection he had recently patented, four years later, Gaumont introduced the Elgéphone, a compressed-air amplification system based on the Auxetophone, developed by British inventors Horace Short and Charles Parsons
27.
Radio
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When radio waves strike an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. The information in the waves can be extracted and transformed back into its original form, Radio systems need a transmitter to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it, for example using amplitude modulation or angle modulation. Radio systems also need an antenna to convert electric currents into radio waves, an antenna can be used for both transmitting and receiving. The electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow individual stations to be selected, the electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna. Radio frequencies occupy the range from a 3 kHz to 300 GHz, a radio communication system sends signals by radio. The term radio is derived from the Latin word radius, meaning spoke of a wheel, beam of light, however, this invention would not be widely adopted. The switch to radio in place of wireless took place slowly and unevenly in the English-speaking world, the United States Navy would also play a role. Although its translation of the 1906 Berlin Convention used the terms wireless telegraph and wireless telegram, the term started to become preferred by the general public in the 1920s with the introduction of broadcasting. Radio systems used for communication have the following elements, with more than 100 years of development, each process is implemented by a wide range of methods, specialised for different communications purposes. Each system contains a transmitter, This consists of a source of electrical energy, the transmitter contains a system to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it. This modulation might be as simple as turning the energy on and off, or altering more subtle such as amplitude, frequency, phase. Amplitude modulation of a carrier wave works by varying the strength of the signal in proportion to the information being sent. For example, changes in the strength can be used to reflect the sounds to be reproduced by a speaker. It was the used for the first audio radio transmissions. Frequency modulation varies the frequency of the carrier, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal. FM has the capture effect whereby a receiver only receives the strongest signal, Digital data can be sent by shifting the carriers frequency among a set of discrete values, a technique known as frequency-shift keying. FM is commonly used at Very high frequency radio frequencies for high-fidelity broadcasts of music, analog TV sound is also broadcast using FM. Angle modulation alters the phase of the carrier wave to transmit a signal
28.
Television
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Television or TV is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images in monochrome, or in color, and in two or three dimensions and sound. The term can refer to a set, a television program. Television is a medium for entertainment, education, news, politics, gossip. Television became available in experimental forms in the late 1920s. After World War II, a form of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses. During the 1950s, television was the medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the US, for many reasons, the storage of television and video programming now occurs on the cloud. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity, another development was the move from standard-definition television to high-definition television, which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. HDTV may be transmitted in various formats, 1080p, 1080i, in 2013, 79% of the worlds households owned a television set. Most TV sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs, major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. In the near future, LEDs are gradually expected to be replaced by OLEDs, also, major manufacturers have announced that they will increasingly produce smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s, Television signals were initially distributed only as terrestrial television using high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the signal to individual television receivers. Alternatively television signals are distributed by cable or optical fiber, satellite systems and. Until the early 2000s, these were transmitted as analog signals, a standard television set is composed of multiple internal electronic circuits, including a tuner for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is correctly called a video monitor rather than a television, the word television comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε, meaning far, and Latin visio, meaning sight. The Anglicised version of the term is first attested in 1907 and it was. formed in English or borrowed from French télévision. In the 19th century and early 20th century, other. proposals for the name of a technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote. The abbreviation TV is from 1948, the use of the term to mean a television set dates from 1941
29.
Mechanical television
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Mechanical-scanning methods were used in the earliest television systems in the 1920s and 1930s. One of the first experimental wireless television transmissions was by John Logie Baird on November 25,1925, by 1928 many radio stations were broadcasting experimental television programs using mechanical systems. However the technology never produced images of sufficient quality to become popular with the public, a mechanical television receiver is also called a televisor in some countries. The invention of the television was the work of people in the 19th century. Facsimile transmission systems for still photographs pioneered methods of mechanical scanning of images in early 19th century, alexander Bain introduced the facsimile machine in 1843 to 1846. Frederick Bakewell demonstrated a working version in 1851. The first practical system, working on telegraph lines, was developed. Willoughby Smith discovered the photoconductivity of the element selenium in 1873, as a 23-year-old German university student, Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow proposed and patented the Nipkow disk in 1884. This was a disk with a spiral pattern of holes in it. Although he never built a model of the system, Nipkows spinning-disk image rasterizer was the key mechanism used in most mechanical scan systems. Constantin Perskyi had coined the word television in a paper read to the International Electricity Congress at the International World Fair in Paris on August 25,1900, perskyis paper reviewed the existing electromechanical technologies, mentioning the work of Nipkow and others. However, it was not until 1907 that developments in amplification tube technology, by Lee de Forest and Arthur Korn among others, the first demonstration of the instantaneous transmission of images was by Georges Rignoux and A. Fournier in Paris in 1909. A matrix of 64 selenium cells, individually wired to a mechanical commutator, in the receiver, a type of Kerr cell modulated the light and a series of variously angled mirrors attached to the edge of a rotating disc scanned the modulated beam onto the display screen. The 8x8 pixel resolution in this demonstration was just sufficient to clearly transmit individual letters of the alphabet. An updated image was transmitted several times each second, moving images were not possible because, in the scanner, the sensitivity was not enough and the selenium cell was very laggy. By the 1920s when amplification made television practical, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird employed the Nipkow disk in his prototype video systems, on March 25,1925, Baird gave the first public demonstration of televised silhouette images in motion, at Selfridges Department Store in London. Since human faces had inadequate contrast to show up on his system, he televised a ventriloquists dummy named Stooky Bill talking and moving. By January 26,1926, he demonstrated the transmission of image of a face in motion by radio and this is widely regarded as first television demonstration
30.
Golden Age of Television
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The first Golden Age of Television in the United States began in 1947 and lasted until 1960. The early days of television was a time when many hour-long anthology drama series received critical acclaim, examples include Kraft Television Theatre, The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, Television Playhouse, The Philco Television Playhouse, Westinghouse Studio One, and Your Show Time. As filmed series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone began to dominate during the mid-1950s and early 1960s, the first screen adaptation of a James Bond story was a teleplay that aired in 1954. Critics and viewers looked forward to new teleplays by Paddy Chayefsky, Horton Foote, Tad Mosel, Reginald Rose, Rod Serling, William Templeton, Gore Vidal and others. Most of these programs were produced as installments of live dramatic anthologies, such as The Philco Television Playhouse, Kraft Television Theatre and Playhouse 90. Live, abridged versions of plays like Cyrano de Bergerac, with members of the cast of the 1946 Broadway revival recreating their roles were regularly shown during this period, early television broadcasts were limited to live or filmed productions. Broadcasting news, sports and other events was something of a technical challenge in the early days of television. A live, 90-minute drama might require a dozen sets and at least that many cameras, major set and other changes had to occur during commercials, and there were no second takes. The cast and crew operated with the awareness of as many as 10 million people watching, the Bell Telephone Hour, an NBC radio program, began its TV run featuring both classical and Broadway performers. All of these were broadcast on NBC, CBS and ABC, commercial networks now concentrate on more popular items. The networks then had their own art critics, notably Aline Saarinen and Brian ODoherty and this high culture approach to television could be interpreted as a product of its time. The blame lies in the management of NBC, CBS and ABC, management doesnt give the people what they deserve. I dont see any hope in the system as it is, many programs of this era evolved from successful radio shows that brought polished concepts, casts and writing staffs to TV. This is one reason that quality was so high during this period. Even an original show like I Love Lucy drew heavily from radio, others, such as Father Knows Best and Fibber McGee and Molly, attempted to flash-cut from radio to television, to varying degrees of success. Canadas Golden Age of Television timeline is similar to the USs. CBC Television, the official national broadcaster, launched in 1952, and CTV Television Network. Nigeria has the earliest television industry on the African continent and one of the earliest in the world, the Western Nigeria Television Service, Nigerias and Africas first television station, began operation in the then Western Region in October 1959
31.
The Ed Sullivan Show
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The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that ran on CBS from Sunday June 20,1948, to Sunday June 6,1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, in 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the series finished No.31 in TV Guide Magazines 60 Best Series of All Time, the format was essentially the same as vaudeville, and although vaudeville had died a generation earlier, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show. The last original Sullivan show telecast was on March 28,1971, with guests Melanie, Joanna Simon, Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, repeats were scheduled through June 6,1971. While most of the episodes aired live from New York City, the show aired live on occasion from other nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia. For many years, Ed Sullivan was an event each Sunday evening. In those days, we had six acts. Then, each of our acts would do a leisurely ten minutes or so, Now they do two or three minutes. And in those early days I talked too much, I look up at me talking away and I say You fool. But I just keep on talking, Ive learned how to keep my mouth shut. The show enjoyed phenomenal popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s and he was regarded as a kingmaker, and performers considered an appearance on his program as a guarantee of stardom, although this sometimes did not turn out to be the case. The shows iconic status is illustrated by the song Hymn for a Sunday Evening from the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, in the song, a family of viewers expresses their regard for the program in worshipful tones. In September 1965, CBS started televising the program in compatible color, CBS had once backed its own color system, developed by Peter Goldmark, and resisted using RCAs compatible process until 1954. At that time, it built its first New York City color TV studio, Studio 72, in a former RKO movie theater at 2248 Broadway. One Ed Sullivan Show was broadcast on August 22,1954, from the new studio, CBS Studio 72 was demolished in 1986 and replaced by an apartment house. CBS Studio 50 was finally colorized in 1965, the 1965–66 season premiere starred the Beatles in an episode airing on September 12, which was the last episode to air in black and white. In the late 1960s, Sullivan remarked that his program was waning as the decade went on and he realized that to keep viewers, the best and brightest in entertainment had to be seen, or else the viewers were going to keep on changing the channel. Along with declining viewership, Ed Sullivan attracted a higher age for the average viewer as the seasons went on
32.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
33.
Ed Sullivan
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He is principally remembered as the creator and host of the television variety program The Toast of the Town, later popularly—and, eventually, officially—renamed The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadcast for 23 years from 1948 to 1971, it set a record as the variety show in US broadcast history. It was, by almost any measure, the last great TV show and its one of our fondest, dearest pop culture memories. Sullivan was a pioneer at many levels during televisions infancy. As TV critic David Bianculli wrote, Before MTV, Sullivan presented rock acts, before Bravo, he presented jazz and classical music and theater. Before the Comedy Channel, even there was the Tonight Show. Before there were 500 channels, before there was cable, Ed Sullivan was where the choice was, from the start, he was indeed the Toast of the Town. In 1996, Sullivan was ranked number 50 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. Sullivan was born in Harlem, New York City, the son of Elizabeth F. and Peter Arthur Sullivan, a customs house employee, the entire family loved music, and someone was always playing the piano or singing. A phonograph was a possession, the family loved playing all types of records on it. Sullivan was an athlete in high school, earning 12 athletic letters at Port Chester High School. He played halfback in football, he was a guard in basketball, with the baseball team, Ed was catcher and team captain, and he led the team to several championships. Baseball made an impression on him that would affect his career as well as the culture of America, Sullivan noted that in high school sports integration was taken for granted, When we went up into Connecticut, we ran into clubs that had Negro players. In those days this was accepted as commonplace, and so and it was just as simple as that. His first job was for the The Port Chester Daily Item—for which he had written sports news while in high school, in 1919 he joined The Hartford Post. The newspaper folded in his first week there, but he landed another job on The New York Evening Mail as a sports reporter, finally, in 1927, Mr. Sullivan joined The Evening Graphic as first sports writer and then sports editor. In 1929, when Walter Winchell moved to The Daily Mirror and his theatre column was later carried in the New York Daily News. His column, Little Old New York, concentrated on Broadway shows and gossip, as Winchells had, Sullivan continued writing for The News throughout his broadcasting career, and his popularity long outlived Winchells
34.
Elvis Presley
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Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is referred to as the King of Rock and Roll. Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis and his music career began there in 1954, when he recorded a song with producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was a popularizer of rockabilly. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, Presleys first RCA single, Heartbreak Hotel, was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. He was regarded as the figure of rock and roll after a series of successful network television appearances. In November 1956, Presley made his debut in Love Me Tender. In 1958, he was drafted into military service, in 1973, Presley featured in the first globally broadcast concert via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii. Several years of drug abuse severely damaged his health. Presley is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century and he won three Grammys, also receiving the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Presley was born on January 8,1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love and Vernon Elvis Presley, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered stillborn 35 minutes before his own birth. Thus, as a child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an especially close bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God, where he found his musical inspiration. Although he was in conflict with the Pentecostal church in his later years, rev. Rex Humbard officiated at his funeral, as Presley had been an admirer of Humbards ministry. Presleys ancestry was primarily a Western European mix, including Scots-Irish, Scottish, German, gladyss great-great-grandmother, Morning Dove White, was possibly a Cherokee Native American. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family, Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evincing little ambition. The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance, the Presleys survived the F5 tornado in the 1936 Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of kiting a check written by the landowner, Orville S. Bean and he was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives
35.
The Beatles
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The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them. They acquired the nickname the Fab Four as Beatlemania grew in Britain the next year, from 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road, after their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers of varying lengths. McCartney and Starr, the members, remain musically active. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in November 2001. The Beatles are the band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act, according to the RIAA, the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazines list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, as of 2016 and they have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and they were also collectively included in Time magazines compilation of the twentieth centurys 100 most influential people. In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a group with several friends from Quarry Bank school. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that a local group was already using the other name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after he, in February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the band. The fourteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, after a month of Harrisons persistence, they enlisted him as their lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennons Quarry Bank friends had left the group, the three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They used the name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer. By early July, they had changed their name to the Silver Beatles, allan Williams, the Beatles unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg, but lacking a full-time drummer they auditioned and hired Pete Best in mid-August 1960
36.
Texaco Star Theatre
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Texaco Star Theatre is an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, the classic 1940–44 version of the program, hosted by radios Fred Allen, was followed by a radio series on ABC in the spring of 1948. When Texaco first took it to television on NBC on June 8,1948, the roots of Texaco Star Theatre were in a 1930s radio hit, Ed Wynn, the Fire Chief, featuring the manic Perfect Fool in a half-hour of vaudevillian routines interspersed with music. Wynns ratings began to slide and the comedian lapsed amidst personal and professional crises, Texaco sponsored The Jumbo Fire Chief Program in 1935–36 and The Fire Chief Concert in 1936. Comedian Eddie Cantor was the star of a show called Texaco Town from 1936 to 1938, the shows cast featured young singers Bobby Breen and Deanna Durbin, announcer Jimmy Wallington, who read the commercials for Fire Chief gasoline, Harry Park, and bandleader Jacques Renard. The show was a combination of comedy and music, Cantor frequently sang a tune about the mayor of Texaco Town. The first Texaco Star Theatre was on October 5,1938, the show began as a variety show with dramatizations and songs by guest stars. In 1940, the became a star vehicle for, with the show re-titled Texaco Star Theatre with Fred Allen. It was during the half-hour version of the show that the more cerebral Allen premiered the continuing comic sketch for which many remember him best and they customarily continued the introduction, as the opening music continued, by referring to Texaco Star Theatre. Allen was forced to leave the show in 1944 due to hypertension, he returned with a different sponsor on NBC, while staying with, Texaco Star Theaters next hosts included James Melton, Tony Martin, Gordon MacRae, Jack Carter, and Milton Berle. On television, continuing a long established in radio, Texaco included its brand name in the show title. Our show is very powerful Well wow you with an hour full Of howls from a full of stars. Were the merry Texaco men Tonight we may be showmen Tomorrow well be servicing your cars. And now, ladies, every Saturday on radio, the Metropolitan Opera, presented by your Texaco dealer. Closing Announce The best friend your car has ever had, comedian Jack Carter was host for August. Berle was named the permanent host that fall and he was a smash once the new full season began, Texaco Star Theater hitting ratings as high as 80 and owning Tuesday night for NBC from 8–9 p. m. ET. Texaco Star Theater was also the highest rated show of the 1950–1951 television season. Uncle Miltie was far from alone in keeping the show alive and his support players included Fatso Marco, Ruth Gilbert as Max, Miltons love-starved secretary, Bobby Sherwood, Arnold Stang, Jack Collins, and Milton Frome. The shows music was provided by Alan Roth and Victor Young, as phenomenally popular as Texaco Star Theater was, it was hardly an undisturbed appeal
37.
The Jackie Gleason Show
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The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970, in various forms. Gleasons first variety series was aired on the DuMont Television Network under the title Cavalcade of Stars which first aired June 4,1949, the shows first host was Jack Carter, who was followed by Jerry Lester. The show was broadcast live in front of a theater audience, Gleasons guests included New York-based performers of stage and screen, including Bert Wheeler, Smith and Dale, Patricia Morison and Vivian Blaine. Production values were modest, owing to DuMonts humble facilities and a thrifty sponsor, in 1952, CBS president William S. Paley offered Gleason a considerably higher salary. The series was retitled The Jackie Gleason Show and premiered on CBS Television on September 20,1952, Paley used the shows position on CBS to showcase artists like Frankie Laine, Frankie Avalon, Doris Day and teenage guitar prodigy Zane Ashton. A cameo appearance by CBS own orchestral accordionist John Serry Sr. was also arranged in 1953, at least 14 Gleason episodes survive at the Paley Center for Media. In his book The Forgotten Network, author David Weinstein mentions an unusual aspect of the DuMont network and he notes that while Drug Store Productions was technically the sponsor, they in turn sold the commercial air time to various companies and products. Weinstein notes this as an example of U. S. network television moving away from the single-sponsor system typical of the early 1950s. He quotes former DuMont executive Ted Bergmann describing the DuMont version as featuring six commercial breaks during the hour, the show typically opened with a monologue from Gleason, followed by sketch comedy involving Gleason and a number of regular performers and a musical interlude featuring the June Taylor Dancers. Stanley R. Sogg, late-night movie pitchman for Mother Fletchers products The series was a big hit for CBS, finishing at #8 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1953–1954 season and #2 in 1954–1955. The series won Emmys for Meadows as best supporting actress in 1955, Carney as best supporting actor in 1954 and 1955, and Taylor for choreography in 1955. These were so popular that in 1955 Gleason suspended the variety format and filmed The Honeymooners as a regular sitcom, co-starring Carney, Audrey Meadows. Finishing 19th in the ratings, these 39 episodes were subsequently rerun constantly in syndication, often five nights a week and they are probably the most familiar body of work from 1950s television with the exception of I Love Lucy starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The shows original variety format and title returned in September 1956, then, in October 1958, Gleason debuted a half-hour version of The Jackie Gleason Show, with Buddy Hackett as a sidekick, but it was short-lived, cancelled in January 1959. In 1962, Gleason returned to the variety format with his American Scene Magazine. The official title of the show was, again, The Jackie Gleason Show, American Scene was initially taped in New York City, after two seasons, production moved to Miami Beach, on Jackies insistence. Gleason would begin his monologue each week and be surprised by the flamboyant jackets worn by bandleader Sammy Spear, Ralph Kramden, Reggie Van Gleason, the Poor Soul, and the rest of Gleasons comic characters were regular attractions. June Taylors chorus girl routines revived for the television generation the aerial pattern kaleidoscope formations made famous on film by Busby Berkeley, during this time, Gleasons show finished #17 for the 1962–1963 season, #15 for 1963–1964, #21 in 1964–1965 and #24 in 1965–1966
38.
The Garry Moore Show
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The Garry Moore Show is the name for several separate American variety series on the CBS television network in the 1950s and 1960s. The Garry Moore Show garnered a number of Emmy nominations and wins, the show originally started as a radio program, CBS eventually awarded Garry his own early evening television show in its place. Garrys radio partner since 1940, Durward Kirby, made the move to TV with him, the first incarnation of the show began in June 1950 as a Monday-through-Friday 30-minute evening series. It was also simulcast on radio, the show changed to a once-weekly one-hour format by August. In the fall of 1950 CBS rescheduled the show each weekday in the afternoon, the series featured a relaxed and flexible combination of comedy skits, monologues, singing, and interaction with the studio audience. The show became an important commercial success for CBS, in 1958, Moore ended the previous show because of his demanding work schedule, but he returned in the fall with a weekly hour-long evening series, with the same title and similar format. Allen Funts Candid Camera segments became a feature of this series. In 1959 Moore produced two LP records on the Warner Brothers label, That Wonderful Year,1930 and That Wonderful Year,1940. The cast of the version included Marion Lorne, and rising star Carol Burnett. In addition to the performances of the cast and guests, vocal performers included the George Becker Singers, bob Banner was the Executive Producer, Joe Hamilton was series Producer, and Irwin Kostal was the orchestra leader. In the summer of 1960, the series was replaced for nine weeks by the Patrick ONeal medical/police drama Diagnosis, Unknown. The Garry Moore Show was removed from the CBS line-up in 1964, Moore returned with yet another version of the show in the fall of 1966. Due to very tough competition from Bonanza on NBC, the show was canceled after four months. It was replaced on the CBS schedule by The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, as of 2012, at least four episodes of the second version of the show are available on DVD. - The Garry Moore Show Presents, A Carol Burnett Christmas features the Christmas episodes from 1959,1960 and 1961, guests included Mahalia Jackson and Henry Morgan, Jonathan Winters and Louise OBrien, and Julie Andrews and Gwen Verdon. The 1961 show includes Julies earliest televised recording of My Favorite Things, - The Carol Burnett Show, Carols Favorites includes as a bonus feature the March 6,1962 episode where Burnett, playing Supergirl, delivers her first televised Tarzan yell. Museum of Broadcast Communications page for Garry Moore The Garry Moore Show at the Internet Movie Database Summary web site for the 1958–64 and 1966–67 versions of The Garry Moore Show
39.
The Colgate Comedy Hour
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The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show featured many notable comedians and entertainers of the era as guest stars, the program evolved from NBCs first TV variety showcase, Four Star Revue, sponsored by Motorola. The running gag sketches were dropped in favor of performing acts. The weekly show was proposed to be hosted by four comedians in a rotation to provide competition for Ed Sullivans Toast of the Town on CBS. The first episode, starring Hans Conried, Rosemary DeCamp and Dick Foran, was written and produced by the then 22-year-old Peggy Webber, who appeared in over 100 episodes of Dragnet with Jack Webb. In his autobiography, Jerry Lewis wrote that the show premiered Sunday, September 17,1950, in fact, Eddie Cantor hosted the first Colgate Hour on September 10,1950. During the 1950-51 season, AT&T put into service a coast-to-coast coaxial/microwave interconnection service which allowed live telecasts from across the nation. Three production units were set up, one in New York, one in Chicago. Martin & Lewis and Abbott & Costello anchored the West Coast, broadcasting from the El Capitan theater in Hollywood, during the 1952-53 season, Cantor suffered a heart attack immediately after a Colgate Comedy Hour broadcast in September. Although he quickly recovered and returned in January 1953, he was reluctant to move with the show, by the fourth season, the sponsor was providing $6 million, but the performers were finding difficulty in offering fresh material. Cantor had become too ill to continue in the role. His final Colgate appearance was in May 1954, vic Schoen was hired as the musical director in 1954. In 1954, Tony Martinez, later cast as the farmhand on The Real McCoys, hal March and Tom DAndrea appeared on The Colgate Comedy Hour in what subsequently became in the summer of 1955 the 11-episode NBC live military comedy series, The Soldiers. DAndrea took leave from his role as Jim Gillis in William Bendixs The Life of Riley for The Soldiers, in June 1955, the show changed its name to the Colgate Variety Hour to reflect a move away from pure comedy. The show was performing on the road as well, unlike other seasons where the shows were transmitted from New York or Los Angeles at 8 p. m. Gordon MacRae often served as host during this period. However, ratings continued to slide while The Ed Sullivan Show got stronger, the final show, emceed by the series last continuing host Robert Paige, aired as a Christmas special on December 25,1955, with Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians choral ensemble. The Colgate Comedy Hour was replaced the season with the NBC Comedy Hour. After Durocher, the regular hosts changed, and after 18 broadcasts, regular supporting casts always co-starred in each of the episodes
40.
Your Show of Shows
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Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that was broadcast weekly in the United States on NBC from February 25,1950, through June 5,1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Bill Hayes, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio, josé Ferrer made several guest appearances on the series. In 2002, Your Show of Shows was ranked #30 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, in 2013, it was ranked #37 on TV Guides 60 Best Series of All Time. The 90-minute live series was produced by Sylvester Pat Weaver and directed by Max Liebman, Caesar, Coca, and Liebman had worked on Admiral Broadway Revue from January to June 1949. The Chicago portion was dropped at the end of the 1950-51 season, as author Ted Sennett described, stars Caesar, Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris. appeared in a series of superbly written sketches that poked fun at human foibles and pretensions. Alone onstage, Imogene Coca would make us laugh at a passion-ridden torch singer, or a daffy ballerina, or a sweet, wistful tramp. Together, Caesar and Coca would take us through the hilarious marital tribulations of Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper, Coca recalled, There was a special chemistry to Your Show of Shows, I think, because Max wasnt afraid to throw out material at the last minute. And I think when you do live television — well, we stopped for nothing and we had no cue cards, no TelePrompTers, and no ad-libbing on the air, because Max would have died if anybody had ad-libbed. It would have been utter disgrace, and you would have been drummed out of the corps. Nobody ever forgot a line, and that was the part of it. A common misconception is that Larry Gelbart wrote for Your Show of Shows, in fact, he wrote for its program, Caesars Hour. Likewise, Woody Allen did not write for Your Show of Shows, Carl Reiner has stated that the time he spent on Your Show of Shows was the inspiration for The Dick Van Dyke Show. Your Show of Shows also inspired the 1982 movie My Favorite Year, produced by Mel Brooks, by the 1953-1954 season, even though the ratings had slipped a little, Your Show of Shows remained extremely popular with viewers. However, in the spring of 1954, it was decided to break up the team of Caesar and Coca and, beginning in the fall of 1954. As a result, Your Show Of Shows ended its run on June 5,1954. In 1976, this was followed by a syndicated series. The Paley Center for Media in Manhattan and Beverly Hills, California holds an almost complete set of the series, and a set of master tapes of the 1976 syndicated series. In 2000, a cache of original scripts from the show were found in a closet of producer Max Liebman, the find made the front page of The New York Times
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The Red Skelton Show
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The Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for two decades, from 1951 to 1971. It was second to Gunsmoke and third to The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings during that time, the host of the show, Richard Bernard Red Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as well. Although his television series is associated with CBS, where it appeared for more than fifteen years, it actually began. During its run, the program received three Emmy Awards, for Skelton as best comedian and the program as best comedy show during its season. In 1959 Skelton also received a Golden Globe for Best TV Show, Red Skeltons network television program began at the start of the 1951 fall season on NBC. The MGM agreement with Skelton for television performances did not allow him to go on the air before September 30,1951. The program was produced at Desilu Productions and CBS Television City in Hollywood, in 1960, Skelton purchased the Chaplin studios, with plans to continue using the facility for his television show and for making films. It was the most colorcast of the few programs CBS aired in color during this period, by 1960, CBS no longer manufactured television sets and pulled the plug on colorcasts. Skelton was infatuated with his appearance on television, and he cajoled CBS to colorcast the program. Although visionary, the venture in color was premature and when it failed, from 1956 to 1962, Sherwood Schwartz was head writer of Skeltons show, for which Schwartz won an Emmy Award in 1961. In September 1962, the program was expanded to a full hour. The format of the program itself during this period was quite simple, the monologue often lapsed into character humor, including Gertrude and Heathcliff, the Two Seagulls, which he performed by crossing his eyes and sticking his thumbs into his armpits for wings. This was followed by a performance, often a singer. Musical accompaniment was provided by the shows orchestra and led by its well-known bandleader. He was also the composer of the shows signature tune. The guest then appeared with Skelton in a comedy sketch, among the notable guest stars on the program were western film stars Amanda Blake and Roscoe Ates, who played a sheriff in the 1961 episode Candid Clem. John Wayne, Jack Benny, Phyllis Diller, George Raft, Martha Raye, in 1965 Diana Ross & the Supremes were musical guests on the show and that same year The Rolling Stones made their American television debut on the Skelton show. Popular television actress Phyllis Avery appeared twice in Clems Watermelons and Nothing But the Tooth, billy Gray, who played Bud Anderson Jr. on Father Knows Best guest starred after the former show ended its six-year run
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The Lawrence Welk Show
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The Lawrence Welk Show is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years, from 1951 to 1955, then nationally for another 27 years on ABC from 1955 to 1971 and these airings incorporate an original program—usually, a color broadcast from 1965 through 1982—in its entirety. In place of the commercials, newer performance and interview clips from the original stars and/or a family member of the performers are included, these clips are occasionally updated. On May 11,1951, The Lawrence Welk Show began as a program on KTLA in Los Angeles, the flagship station of the Paramount Television Network. The original show was broadcast from the since-demolished Aragon Ballroom at Venice Beach, for 23 of its 27 years on the air, the show would originate there. The only seasons not produced there were 1965–66, 1976–77 at the Hollywood Palace, once a couple of studios at the ABC Prospect and Talmadge facilities had been converted to color in 1966, the show moved back there. The show aired on ABC until 1971, when the show was cancelled by the head of programming there, Welk formed his own production company and continued airing the show, on local stations and, often from 7 to 8 P. M. Eastern time on Saturdays over some of the ABC affiliates on which he had previously appeared, the syndicated version of the program aired from 1971 to 1982. When the show debuted nationwide, The Lawrence Welk Show was billed as the Dodge Dancing Party in 1955 and 1956, during 1956–59, Lawrence Welk was broadcast two nights per week. The second shows title was Lawrence Welk Presents Top Tunes and New Talent and then Lawrence Welks Plymouth Show, the Plymouth show was the first American television program to air in stereophonic sound. Starting with the 1959–60 season the two shows were merged into The Lawrence Welk Show, reverting to monophonic broadcasts, the name stuck, and it became the most popular variety show ever. While the show was highly rated and continued to more audiences. Over the course of the early 1970s, several variety shows were pulled from network schedules in a move known colloquially as the rural purge. In response to ABCs move, Welk started his own production company, some independent stations put it in its old Saturday timeslot, and in many cases, it drew higher ratings than the network shows scheduled at that time. Welks program was among a group of syndicated programs, others including Hee Haw and Soul Train. Welk retired in 1982, at the time of his retirement, he was 79 years old, in 1985, The Lawrence Welk Christmas Reunion was produced. It was the last show in which Welk appeared with the musical family, the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority acquired the broadcast rights to the series in 1986. In order to introduce the show to a new generation, they produced a film, Lawrence Welk, Televisions Music Man
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George Gobel
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George Leslie Gobel was an American comedian and actor. He was best known as the star of his own weekly NBC television show, The George Gobel Show and his mother, Lillian Goebel, was born in Illinois to immigrant parents from Scotland. Gobel graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago in 1937, Gobel initially pursued an entertainment career as a country music singer, appearing on the National Barn Dance on WLS radio, and later on KMOX in St. Louis. In a 1969 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Gobel joked about his stateside service, after his discharge at the end of the war, he switched from singing to comedy. Gobel began a show on NBC in 1954. It showcased his quiet, homespun style of humor, an alternative to what audiences had seen on Milton Berles shows. A huge success, the series made the crew-cut Gobel one of the biggest comedy stars of the 1950s. The weekly show featured vocalist Peggy King and actor Jeff Donnell, as well as numerous guest artists, including such stars as Jimmy Stewart, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, in 1955, Gobel won an Emmy Award for most outstanding new personality. On October 24,1954, Gobel hosted Lights Diamond Jubilee, Gobel and his business manager David P. OMalley formed a production company, Gomalco, a composite of their last names Gobel and OMalley. This company also produced the first four years of the 1957-63 television series Leave It to Beaver, the centerpiece of Gobels comedy show was his monologue about his supposed past situations and experiences, with stories and sketches allegedly about his real-life wife, Alice. Gobels hesitant, almost shy delivery and penchant for tangled digressions were the sources of comedy. His monologues popularized several catchphrases, notably Well, Ill be a dirty bird, You dont hardly get those any more, Gobels show used some of televisions top writers of the era, Hal Kanter, Jack Brooks and Norman Lear. Peggy King was a regular on the series as a vocalist, Gobel labeled himself Lonesome George, and the nickname stuck for the rest of his career. He had a version of the Gibson L-5 archtop guitar constructed featuring diminished dimensions of neck scale and body depth. Several dozen of this L-5CT or George Gobel model were produced in the late 1950s, in 1957, three U. S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers made the first nonstop round-the-world flight by turbojet aircraft. One of the bombers was called Lonesome George, the crew later appeared on Gobels primetime television show and recounted the mission, which took them 45 hours and 19 minutes. Lonesome George, the non-breeding Galapagos tortoise that was the last of its subspecies, from 1958 to 1961, Gobel appeared in Las Vegas at the El Rancho Vegas and in Reno at the Mapes Hotel. In 1961, Gobel starred in a Broadway musical called Let It Ride, score by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
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The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
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The Dinah Shore Chevy Show is an American variety series hosted by Dinah Shore, and broadcast on NBC from October 1956 to May 1963. The program began as a series of nine monthly specials substituting in the time slot of the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports. NBC first tested the singing star in a long format with two prime time specials early in 1956. The first Chevy Show episode aired on October 5,1956, by this time, Shore was already a veteran television performer, having hosted five seasons of the 15-minute-long Dinah Shore Show, also sustained by Chevrolet. It was in its final season when The Dinah Shore Chevy Show was launched, the series featured celebrity guests from the worlds of music, theater, sports, and movies. During the fourth season, Carl Reiner was one of the writers and sometimes appeared on-camera as well. Into that time slot for the 1961-62 season, in her final season, from October 14,1962, to May 12,1963, she appeared on Sunday nights at 10 p. m. following Bonanza. After 12 years with NBC, Dinah signed with ABC-TV in the fall of 1964 hosting four hour long specials sponsored by Purex. In 1970 Dinah Shore returned as a staple of American television in various talk shows for NBC. The show won four Emmy Awards during its run, beginning in 2011 black-and-white kinescope episodes of the series have aired on the Jewish Life Television network
