1.
Musical theatre
–
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
Musical theatre
–
The Black Crook (1866), which some historians consider the first musical
Musical theatre
–
A Gaiety Girl (1893) was one of the first hit musicals
Musical theatre
–
George Gershwin
Musical theatre
–
Chinese Opera
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
Magic (illusion)
–
The Conjurer, 1475-1480, by
Hieronymus Bosch or his workshop. Notice how the man in the back row steals another man's purse while applying misdirection by looking at the sky. The artist even misdirects us from the thief by drawing us to the magician.
Magic (illusion)
–
An early copy of
The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), one of the earliest books on magic tricks, written by
Reginald Scot
Magic (illusion)
–
Advertisement for
Isaac Fawkes ' show from 1724 in which he boasts of the success of his performances for the King and Prince George
Magic (illusion)
–
Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, pioneer of modern magical entertainment
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
Acrobatics
–
Chinese acrobat in midair after being propelled off a
springboard, China, 1987
Acrobatics
–
A female acrobat depicted on an
Ancient Greek hydria, ca. 340-330 BC.
Acrobatics
Acrobatics
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
Juggling
–
Juggling five balls
Juggling
Juggling
–
A street performer juggling
torches in
Devizes,
Wiltshire
Juggling
–
Juggling four
racquets, Daniel Hochsteiner
5.
Ventriloquism
–
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
Ventriloquism
–
Sadler's Wells Theatre in the early 19th century, at a time when ventriloquist acts were becoming increasingly popular.
Ventriloquism
–
Ventriloquist
The Great Lester with Frank Byron, Jr. on his knee, c. 1904
Ventriloquism
–
Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his best-known sidekick, Charlie McCarthy, in the film
Stage Door Canteen (1943)
Ventriloquism
–
A ventriloquist entertaining children at the
Pueblo, Colorado, Buell Children's Museum
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
Master of Ceremonies
–
Sunny Chan, seen with local TVB artists, in the UK as guests compère for TVB-Europe's Happy Family Gala promo-event
Master of Ceremonies
–
"Master of Ceremonies". from the book Persia by
Frederic Shoberl, 1828
7.
Presenter
–
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
Presenter
–
Journalism
8.
Victorian era
–
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
Victorian era
–
Queen Victoria, after whom the era is named
Victorian era
–
The Louth-London
Royal Mail travelling by train from
Peterborough East, 1845
Victorian era
–
A picture of
Leadenhall Street, London, c. 1837
Victorian era
–
The Poultry Cross,
Salisbury, painted by
Louise Rayner, c. 1870
9.
English language
–
English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language in the world, after Mandarin. It is the most widely learned second language and a language of the United Nations, of the European Union. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch, English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries, English is an Indo-European language, and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Most closely related to English are the Frisian languages, and English, Old Saxon and its descendent Low German languages are also closely related, and sometimes Low German, English, and Frisian are grouped together as the Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic languages. Modern English descends from Middle English, which in turn descends from Old English, particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other English languages, including Scots and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy dialects of Ireland. English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares new language features with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German and these shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor, which linguists call Proto-Germanic. Through Grimms law, the word for foot begins with /f/ in Germanic languages, English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic. The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon, in the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain and the Romans withdrew from Britain. England and English are named after the Angles, Old English was divided into four dialects, the Anglian dialects, Mercian and Northumbrian, and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex. The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the sixth century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms and it included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash ⟨æ⟩
English language
–
The opening to the Old English epic poem
Beowulf,
handwritten in
half-uncial script: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."
English language
–
Countries of the world where English is a majority native language
English language
–
Title page of Geoffrey Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales c.1400
10.
Late night television
–
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
Late night television
–
U.S. TV
dayparting; late night television is in shades of green and labelled "Late Fringe" and "Post Late Fringe".
11.
Late night talk show
–
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
Late night talk show
–
Late-night talk shows often feature guest interviews. Here, U.S. President
Barack Obama is interviewed by
David Letterman.
Late night talk show
–
Andreu Buenafuente
Late night talk show
–
Alan Carr
Late night talk show
–
Stephen Colbert
12.
NBC
–
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
NBC
–
The
Comcast Building in
New York City (or the GE Building, originally the
RCA Building) serves as the headquarters of NBC.
NBC
–
National Broadcasting Company
NBC
–
Radio City West was located at
Sunset Boulevard and
Vine Street in Los Angeles until it was replaced by a bank in the mid-1960s.
NBC
–
Entrance at the GE Building.
13.
Saturday Night Live
–
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
Saturday Night Live
–
The original 1975 cast, from left to right:
Laraine Newman,
John Belushi,
Jane Curtin,
Gilda Radner,
Dan Aykroyd,
Garrett Morris, and
Chevy Chase
Saturday Night Live
–
Creator
Lorne Michaels.
Saturday Night Live
–
Comcast Building (30 Rockefeller Plaza, or "30 Rock") from where the show is broadcast.
Saturday Night Live
–
SNL 's main stage, during rehearsal, 2008
14.
Music hall
–
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
Music hall
–
The Oxford Music Hall, ca. 1875
Music hall
–
The Eagle Tavern in 1830
Music hall
–
The interior of
Wilton's (here, being set for a wedding). The lines of tables give some idea of how early music halls were used as supper clubs.
Music hall
–
Interior of the
Canterbury Hall, opened 1852 in
Lambeth
15.
Vaudeville
–
Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, a typical vaudeville performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a vaudevillian, Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called the heart of American show business, vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades, the origin of this term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the French expression voix de ville. A second speculation is that it comes from the songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin. Some, however, preferred the term variety to what manager Tony Pastor called its sissy. Thus, vaudeville was marketed as variety well into the 20th century, with its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment. The form gradually evolved from the saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as Polite Vaudeville, in the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere, in the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found a number of ways to be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns, a significant influence also came from Dutch minstrels and comedians. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in Americas growing urban hubs, pastors experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit. B. F. Keith took the step, starting in Boston. Later, E. F. Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudevilles greatest economic innovation and the principal source of its industrial strength. They enabled a chain of allied vaudeville houses that remedied the chaos of the booking system by contracting acts for regional and national tours. These could easily be lengthened from a few weeks to two years, Albee also gave national prominence to vaudevilles trumpeting polite entertainment, a commitment to entertainment equally inoffensive to men, women and children. Acts that violated this ethos were admonished and threatened with expulsion from the remaining performances or were canceled altogether
Vaudeville
–
A promotional poster for the Sandow Trocadero Vaudevilles (1894), showing dancers, clowns, trapeze artists and costumed dogs
Vaudeville
–
Typical provincial venue on the circuit: "The Opera" in
Kirksville, Missouri
Vaudeville
–
This 1913 how-to booklet for would-be vaudevillians was recently republished.
Vaudeville
–
As the genre declined, most performers left the theatre; here the kid
hoofer Ray Wollbrinck (cousin of
Louis Wollbrinck), once called "the cleverest buckdancer on the vaudeville stage"; he later became a bandleader and ended his days as a
bank teller.
16.
British television
–
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
British television
–
Crystal Palace transmitter. Constructed in 1956, it is the main transmitter for London.
British television
–
Free
British television
–
Television
aerials used for receiving analogue or digital terrestrial + television. The term aerial is in common use rather than antenna.
British television
–
A pavement dug up revealing the cables underneath. The green box is a common sight in areas with cable coverage, as are manhole covers enscribed with
CATV.
17.
World War II
–
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
World War II
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
–
Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
18.
Entertainments National Service Association
–
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
Entertainments National Service Association
–
An ENSA concert party entertaining troops from the steps of a chateau in Normandy, 26 July 1944
Entertainments National Service Association
–
The founders of the ENSA,
Basil Dean (top) and
Leslie Henson
Entertainments National Service Association
19.
Royal Command Performance
–
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
Royal Command Performance
–
The Gondoliers performed before
Queen Victoria at
Windsor Castle in 1891
Royal Command Performance
–
Command Performance, 1905 at
Windsor Castle:
The Merchant of Venice by
Arthur Bourchier 's company
20.
London Palladium
–
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
London Palladium
–
The London Palladium
21.
Marx Brothers
–
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
Marx Brothers
–
Four of the five Marx Brothers in 1931 (top to bottom:
Chico,
Harpo,
Groucho and
Zeppo)
Marx Brothers
–
The only known photo of the entire Marx family, c. 1915. From left:
Groucho,
Gummo,
Minnie (mother),
Zeppo,
Sam (father),
Chico, and
Harpo.
Marx Brothers
–
Julius Henry Marx (Groucho) on the left and Adolph Marx (Harpo) on the right holding a rat terrier dog, c. 1906
Marx Brothers
–
1911 newspaper advertisement for a Marx Brothers appearance (l–r: Gummo, Groucho, Harpo)
22.
George Burns
–
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
George Burns
–
Burns in 1986
George Burns
–
George Burns,
Gracie Allen and children aboard Matson flagship Lurline, just before they sailed for
Hawaii, 1938
George Burns
–
Crypt of George Burns, in the Freedom Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Glendale.
George Burns
–
The handprints of George Burns in front of
The Great Movie Ride at
Walt Disney World 's
Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.
23.
Gracie Allen
–
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
Gracie Allen
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Publicity still of Allen from the Burns and Allen CBS Radio program
Gracie Allen
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Gracie Allen, George Burns and children aboard
Matson flagship
Lurline just before they sailed for Hawaii, 1938
Gracie Allen
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Gracie Allen How To Become President
Gracie Allen
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Crypt of Gracie Allen, in the Freedom Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Glendale.
24.
W. C. Fields
–
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
W. C. Fields
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W. C. Fields, 1938
W. C. Fields
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W.C. Fields
W. C. Fields
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Niche of W. C. Fields in the Columbarium of Nativity in the Great Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Glendale.
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
Jack Benny
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Jack Benny in 1964, age 70
Jack Benny
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Jack Benny as part of the Waukegan High School band, 1909
Jack Benny
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Benny and daughter Joan in 1940
Jack Benny
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Benny in 1933, newly arrived at NBC and the host of The Chevrolet Program
26.
Talkies
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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
Talkies
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1908 poster advertising
Gaumontu 's sound films. The
Chronomégaphone, designed for large halls, employed compressed air to amplify the recorded sound.
Talkies
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Image from the
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894 or 1895), produced by
W.K.L. Dickson as a test of the early version of the
Edison Kinetophone, combining the
Kinetoscope and
phonograph.
Talkies
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Poster featuring
Sarah Bernhardt and giving the names of eighteen other "famous artists" shown in "living visions" at the
1900 Paris Exposition using the Gratioulet-Lioret system.
Talkies
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Newspaper ad for a 1925 presentation of
De Forest Phonofilms shorts, touting their technological distinction: no phonograph.
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
Radio
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The
Alexandra Palace radio transmitter mast
Radio
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Classic radio
receiver dial
Radio
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Rooftop
television antennas.
Yagi-Uda antennas like these six are widely used at
VHF and
UHF frequencies.
Radio
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Bakelite radio at the Bakelite Museum, Orchard Mill, Williton, Somerset, UK.
28.
Television
–
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
Television
–
Flat-screen televisions for sale at a consumer electronics store
Television
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The first known photograph of a moving image produced by Baird's "televisor", circa 1926 (The subject is Baird's business partner Oliver Hutchinson)
Television
–
Vladimir Zworykin demonstrates electronic television (1929)
Television
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Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939
29.
The Beatles
–
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
The Beatles
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The "Fab Four" Beatles lineup in 1964 Top: Lennon, McCartney Bottom: Harrison, Starr
The Beatles
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Abbey Road Studios main entrance
The Beatles
–
McCartney, Harrison, Swedish pop singer
Lill-Babs and Lennon on the set of the Swedish television show Drop-In, 30 October 1963
The Beatles
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The Beatles arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7 February 1964
30.
Perry Como
–
Pierino Ronald Perry Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years after signing with the label in 1943, Mr. C. as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for RCA and pioneered a musical variety television show. Como was seen weekly on television from 1949 to 1963, then continued hosting the Kraft Music Hall variety program monthly until 1967 and his television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. Also a popular recording artist, Perry Como released numerous hit records from the 1940s through the 1970s, Comos appeal spanned generations and he was universally respected for both his professional standards and the conduct in his personal life. Como was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and he was the seventh of ten children and the first American-born child of Pietro Como and Lucia Travaglini, who both emigrated to the US in 1910 from the Abruzzese town of Palena, Italy. He did not begin speaking English until he entered school, since the Comos spoke Italian at home. The family had a second-hand organ his father had bought for $3, as soon as Como was able to toddle, he would head to the instrument, pump the bellows, and play music he had heard by ear. Pietro, a hand and an amateur baritone, had all his children attend music lessons even if he could barely afford them. He showed more talent in his teenage years as a trombone player in the towns brass band, playing guitar, singing at weddings. Como was a member of the Canonsburg Italian Band along with the father of singer Bobby Vinton, bandleader Stan Vinton, young Como started helping his family at age 10, working before and after school in Steve Fragapanes barber shop for 50¢ a week. By age 13, he had graduated to having his own chair in the Fragapane barber shop and it was also around this time that young Como lost his weeks wages in a dice game. Filled with shame, he locked himself in his room and did not come out until hunger got the better of him and he managed to tell his father what had happened to the money his family depended on. His father told him he was entitled to make a mistake, when Perry was 14, his father became unable to work because of a severe heart condition. Como and his brothers became the support of the household, despite his musical ability, Comos primary ambition was to become the best barber in Canonsburg. Practicing on his father, young Como mastered the skills well enough to have his own shop at age 14. One of Comos regular customers at the shop owned a Greek coffee house that included a barber shop area. Como had so much work after moving to the coffee house and his customers worked mainly at the nearby steel mills. They were well-paid, did not mind spending money on themselves, Perry did especially well when one of his customers would marry
Perry Como
–
Perry Como on the Perry Como Show set, 1956
Perry Como
–
The Comos at home c. 1955. On the sofa are his older son Ronnie and wife Roselle. In the chair with her doll is his daughter, Terri, and reading on the floor are son David and his Dad.
Perry Como
–
Como in 1939, when he was with the Ted Weems Orchestra.
Perry Como
–
Arriving in Chicago for performances in 1947, Como is met by his young fans, who get a trim along with a song.
